In a sane society, an individual who exposes fraud and illegality within a government agency would be made a hero. Perhaps a parade would be thrown or a film penned by Aaron Sorkin chronicling the whistleblower's courageous endeavors would win an Oscar.
We of course do not live in such a world. We reside in the upside down world of Bush-Obama continuity where the exposure of illegal spy programs result in immunity for the masterminds and their telecommunications accomplices. Prosecutions are reserved for the pesky whistleblowers.
Jane Mayer's piece for The New Yorker on Thomas Drake, former National Security Agency analyst being prosecuted by the Obama Department of Justice for leaking classified information about the N.S.A. to the Baltimore Sun, shows the Obama administration's attack on whistleblowers to be unprecedented.
TEXT
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Sunday, April 17, 2011
cluster bombs
Yesterday CNN reported that Libya's using cluster bombs on civilians even though many nations have outlawed the weapon. What the network didn't point out is that the U.S. uses these very same weapons in Afghanistan, but that would probably just confuse the propaganda machine.
TEXT
Gaddafi's use of cluster bombs is inhumane. In the hands of the U.S. the bombs are "legitimate weapons that provide a vital military capability."
TEXT
TEXT
Gaddafi's use of cluster bombs is inhumane. In the hands of the U.S. the bombs are "legitimate weapons that provide a vital military capability."
TEXT
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Obama's base
Last week Obama coincided his re-election campaign kick-off with the announcement that 9-11 suspect Khalid Sheikh Mohammed would not be tried in a U.S. court after all. Instead he's set to be tried in a Bush style military court at Guantanamo. Obama's choice to make both announcements on the same day has highlighted the Democratic Party's strategy of betraying its base to score political points, knowing that the progressive voter will support them no matter what. Glenn Greenwald has a post regarding this unhealthy relationship between Obama and his base in which he points out how effectively the Democrats have utilized fear of the GOP and the Tea Party to achieve unconditional loyalty from its grassroots supporters.
TEXT
Progressives have an addiction to partisan politics that is deep seated and hard to kick. It is an addiction visible even in some of the most hard hitting criticism leveled at Obama from the left. Over and over again I read passionate tirades lambasting Obama's continued assault on constitutional liberties and his policy of endless warfare only to be completely negated by concluding with a pledge to vote for the lesser evil anyway. The message to Obama becomes clear: no need to take the left's outrage seriously because they have no where else to go. Meanwhile, Obama moves further and further to the right.
This brings me to the almost universal misreading of the election of 2000. After being shunned from the corporate run presidential debates and mainstream media, Ralph Nader was able to receive 6% of the vote, a victory that should have built upon in 2004. What better way to push the Democrats to the left than to force them to actually work for progressive voters' support? Instead the left largely swallowed the line from the Democratic operatives and professional gas bags like Eric Alterman that voting for a third party opposition is the equivalent to voting for Bush.
Here we are in 2011 and Nader is still regarded as a pariah by liberals blaming him for Bush's "win." Nevertheless, in many ways the former community organizer from Chicago is showing us what Bush's third term might have looked like.
TEXT
Progressives have an addiction to partisan politics that is deep seated and hard to kick. It is an addiction visible even in some of the most hard hitting criticism leveled at Obama from the left. Over and over again I read passionate tirades lambasting Obama's continued assault on constitutional liberties and his policy of endless warfare only to be completely negated by concluding with a pledge to vote for the lesser evil anyway. The message to Obama becomes clear: no need to take the left's outrage seriously because they have no where else to go. Meanwhile, Obama moves further and further to the right.
This brings me to the almost universal misreading of the election of 2000. After being shunned from the corporate run presidential debates and mainstream media, Ralph Nader was able to receive 6% of the vote, a victory that should have built upon in 2004. What better way to push the Democrats to the left than to force them to actually work for progressive voters' support? Instead the left largely swallowed the line from the Democratic operatives and professional gas bags like Eric Alterman that voting for a third party opposition is the equivalent to voting for Bush.
Here we are in 2011 and Nader is still regarded as a pariah by liberals blaming him for Bush's "win." Nevertheless, in many ways the former community organizer from Chicago is showing us what Bush's third term might have looked like.
Cornel West on Obama
Over the weekend Cornel West referred to Obama as "another black mascot" of "Wall Street oligarchs." Well put.
TEXT
TEXT
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
