We have been discussing the collapse of the American civil liberties movement and the attacks on the free press and privacy under the Obama Administration. As discussed in prior columns, we continue to refer to the United States as the “land of the free” despite a comprehensive reduction of civil liberties and due process in this country. The Snowden affair has put that record in sharp relief as the White House and Congress has joined together in barring the prosecution of perjury by high ranking officials and pursuing Snowden with close to unhinged rage. As previously discussed, our governing class has created a new American Animal farm. Long ago, American politicians adopted a type of dismissive paternalism toward the public as shepherds to so many sheep. Then one sheep goes and spooks the flock. The response has been bipartisan rage that has included demands to cut off aid to entire nations if they grant sanctuary to this whistleblower and even boycott the Olympics. The shepherds want Snowden made into mutton for stampeding the flock and no measure appears too extreme. Now Jimmy Carter has entered the fray and said what many citizens are saying in denouncing our duopoly. Carter told Spiegel “America has no functioning democracy.” Of course, you have to live in Germany to read such views.
Carter has rightfully pointed to the dramatic reduction of the United States as a moral authority in the world after Bush and Obama. He clearly views Edward Snowden as a whistleblower. Yet, the media has yielded to the demand of the White House that Snowden not be called a whistleblower. This is follows media allies who have attacked Snowden and even mocked his concern about coming back home. As for the refusal to call him a whistleblower, it seems part of the full court press to demonize Snowden or prevent favorable references to him. [It brings to mind the successful effort to convince media to call waterboarding “enhanced interrogation” in the media rather than “torture” as it has long been defined by courts] Snowden is a whistleblower in my mind. It is true that the Administration can argue that these programs were lawful to the Supreme Court’s precedent stripping pen registers of full constitutional protection in Smith v. Maryland, 442 U.S. 735 (1979). Many of us disagree with that ruling, but this is a new application of the precedent. While the government has long sought the information for individuals, the Administration is essentially issuing a national security letter against the entire population. Moreover, it does appear that violations have occurred in these programs.
Putting aside the legality issue, whistleblowers are defined more probably by public interest organizations. For example, The Government Accountability Project, a leading nonprofit handling whistleblowers, defines the term as “an employee who discloses information that s/he reasonably believes is evidence of illegality, gross waste or fraud, mismanagement, abuse of power, general wrongdoing, or a substantial and specific danger to public health and safety. Typically, whistleblowers speak out to parties that can influence and rectify the situation. These parties include the media, organizational managers, hotlines, or Congressional members/staff, to name a few.”
Snowden clearly fits that more common definition of whistleblower, even if the government contests the application of statutory protections. Many can legitimately question Snowden’s chosen means for objecting to this program. However, the hostile and dismissive treatment by the establishment reflects an obvious fear of the implications of this scandal. We saw the same full court press in defining Julien Assange in a way that avoids calling him a journalist or a whistleblower. He is just an Assange.
Carter’s voice at this moment is incredibly important. Most media has ignored such criticism of Obama and his authoritarian powers. Even the story on Carter has been given limited attention and only because smaller blogs have continued to spread the word. We are living in the greatest crisis of civil liberties in our history and the public is facing a unified front of all three branches against efforts to deal with erosion of the rights of citizens in this country. The question is whether the public will finally awaken to this peril. Carter’s courageous voice could not have been heard at a more critical time for this nation.
This blog topic, and my comment reminds me of this song.
Mike Spindell comments,
“The issue of what is happening to our country is far too urgent to argue it in terms of individual political memes, like Left and Right, but then again those memes are the fodder for the propaganda that has allowed this state of affairs to come about.”
The Created Divide, I suggest two, there are many more.
Wikipedia
The Court issued its decision on January 22, 1973, with a 7-to-2 majority vote in favor of Roe. Burger and Douglas’ concurring opinions and White’s dissenting opinion were issued along with the Court’s opinion in Doe v. Bolton (announced on the same day as Roe v. Wade). The Court deemed abortion a fundamental right under the United States Constitution, thereby subjecting all laws attempting to restrict it to the standard of strict scrutiny.[22]
I was born in 1954, first voted in 1972. ….. McGovern leaned towards legalizing marijuana ….he got my vote! :o). I am much more politically sophisticated and mature now…(sort of).
…2012 Marijuana is still illegal, abortion is still on the front burner and boiling over.
Forty years these issues have not been settled. Ten presidential election cycles lines have been drawn, ears have been closed, divisions have been encouraged.
The marijuana issue is huge, if you have a felony conviction for possession of a road side ubiquitous weed, If you or a loved one could be relieved of a medical difficulty by its usage, And yes the issue is huge if as an adult you may wish to participate in experiencing its relaxing effects on a warm summer evening, but the neighbor smells its odor and calls the police to your home. Some of the stories on this blog relate the tremendous difficulties that may entail.
The abortion issue has permanently divided and created feral enemies out of maybe 20% (?) of the electorate. The zealous pro life advocates are unreachable to political philosophies or choices without conforming to their single issue demand. Any politician that favors a womens right to choose has no chance of support from a substantial % of the electorate.
FORTY YEARS these two divisive hot potato button pushing debates have polarized the country. … The Divided States of America.
Forty years these issues have been manipulated, groomed, propagandized, and put on steroids, by differing political ideologues to divide and conquer.
The ideologues have done well (for themselves). They have done damage to our Democratic Republic. …. We will destroy our government in order to save it.
The Oligarchy loves a divided electorate. Look, Look!! over there SQUIRREL SQUIRREL ! .The Oligarchs creates the Ruses that distract and Confuses the Rubes. The Oligarchs fiddle and dance, and take money from our pants.
“The Oligarchy loves a divided electorate. Look, Look!! over there SQUIRREL SQUIRREL ! .The Oligarchs creates the Ruses that distract and Confuses the Rubes. The Oligarchs fiddle and dance, and take money from our pants.”
DavidBF,
Bob Dylan sung it so well so many years ago:
Anonymous: Too many people define freedom as the ability to sit down and watch “Dancing With the Stars”, and are content to leave it at that.
” Damn Gene and his peerless memory, which makes me feel illiterate”
~+~
I guess I must be the illiterate one. When I read “peerless” I could only think of handcuffs
Peerless hingecuffs,
Peerless hingecuffs?
Darren,
Expressed like a true retired LEO, or “Peerless Fosdick”. I first encountered the word as a boy reading about Chicago Cubs first baseman Frank Chance, who was known as “The Peerless Leader”.
Infowars has more actual facts that the mainstream media will never have the balls to report.
The fact is there are crackpots on EVERY news site. Huffington is filled with mindless Obama drones.
To be frank, Id rather deal with conspiracy nuts than blind zealots any day.
Jimmy Carter was the last president who was unafraid to speak the truth to the American people, and he was pilloried for it. He recognized that the greatest source of our influence in the world was the almost universal perception that the United States lived by its ideals. And he understands that our response to the events of 9/11 has been the abandonment of moral leadership. My support for Pres. Obama was predicated primarily upon my perhaps naïve belief that he was committed to the restoration of that leadership, and I have been bitterly disappointed for reasons which I’m sure readers of this blog have wearied of reading.
Gene H. raised the issue of the need for a third party a couple of years ago. Despite the fact that my brain tells me that that sort of undertaking would be quixotic, I nevertheless find myself thinking about it more and more frequently. .
davidbluefish, I read this morning that an ex-CIA station chief had been taken into custody in Panama. Maddow had a segment on it tonight. The station chief was stationed in Italy and he and his confederates were responsible for the kidnapping of 23 people in Italy for rendition to black-sites. Italy didn’t like that and tried him in absentia, found him guilty and sentenced him to jail. The CIA guy was though, long gone.
Now Italy has requested extradition of the felon back to Italy and INTERPOL has issued a warrant for him. Italy doesn’t have an extradition treaty with Panama which further complicates things.
When I heard the story the first thing I thought of was that regarding Morales, there’s more than one way to skin a cat for the insult.
My disgust for the treatment of Bolivia’s President does not abate. I can not think of a more extraordinary act, or degrading signal to send, to a previously colonized continent or any non-European country.
Mike S: “How nice for me to feel that weaving an author’s works into a long narrative mentally, but losing the ability to particularize the specific book, is not merely a defect of my mind.”
————-
🙂
It may actually be but at least we are in it together. We should look upon it as an evolved, macro-based form of literary appreciation. Yeah, that’s the ticket!
LK,
Works for me, now if only I could remember my cell phone number when the customer service rep asks.
Gene,
Yes, I take great umbrage at your peerless memory. Your memory should peer occasionally, like the rest of us.
Whoops typo there meant country.
I really hate to say it after serving in the navy for 7 years as an AT ( Avionics Technician), that there is no hope anymore to change things. nothing is changing for the better even though people are waking up. Corporations the police and the government are tightening the net around the regular joe. The only way to truly leave this is to go to another contry and give up your citizenship.
Mike,
“Damn Gene and his peerless memory, which makes me feel illiterate. It’s guys like him, Mark and Bob esq., whose intellectual acumen evokes a kind of self effacing awe in the rest of us, who “merely” synthecize great ideas into our own personal narratives.”
If it’s any consolation, in some people it only evokes anger, resentment and frustration. 😀
I wonder how HUGE the bounty reward was, for the country that took Snowden into custody.? Seems the USA is a lot closer to Imperialism.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/07/17/314215/italy-portugal-apologize-to-bolivia/
The aircraft carrying Morales had been in the air for over three hours after departing from Moscow on July 3, when France, Spain, Portugal and some other European governments declared the closure of their airspace to it.
The Latin American leaders further expressed outrage over the incident, dismissing it as a violation of national sovereignty and a slap in the face to a region that has suffered through humiliations imposed by Europe and numerous US-backed military coups.
Describing the forced-landing in Vienna of the presidential aircraft as “a serious incident,” the 120-member movement expressed outrage over “endangering the life of the president of a developing country and his entourage despite the fact that government leaders and the aircraft carrying them are under immunity based on international laws.”
Michael B,
Discussions here are at times messy because so many of us here take the original proposition and run with it bssed on our own perceptions. I agree though that the basic issue is the idea of whether the US still functions as a representative republic, much less a democracy. My own view is that it no longer is a functioning republic. I see it as a feudalistic oligarchy, where some freedom remains for us masses, simply because the oligarchs are too self centered to cooperate. My fear is that a strong leader will arise who is so sociopathically remote, like Hitler, or Stalin and the ballgame will be over, so to speak. A great movie meditation on this was in Visconti’s “The Damned”, from the 60’s. It showed a powerful industrial dynasty in pre WWII Germany who backed Hitler, thinking they could control him, only to be destroyed by the NAZI’s they helped put in power.
The issue of what is happening to our country is far too urgent to argue it in terms of individual political memes, like Left and Right, but then again those memes are the fodder for the propaganda that has allowed this state of affairs to come about.
wow dood, all ya gotta do is google billy-bobb gates–watch some of his speeches, interviews, &c on youTube, and the great socialist hisself will inform you he wants to reduce the worlds population.
Didnt Carter also praise Hugo Chavez?
“President Chavez will be remembered for his bold assertion of autonomy and independence for Latin American governments and for his formidable communication skills and personal connection with supporters in his country and abroad to whom he gave hope and empowerment.”
And you’re saying what, about that? It’s a totally true statement re President Chavez, who was likely assassinated by U.S. interests becuz he, like several other nations we either have destroyed, or are in the process of, stated he was going to use another currency for all future petroleum dealings, rather than the bloated, corrupt, inflated, interest laden American dollar. Our empire building bumblers in Malfunction Junction (aka WashDC) and their bankster handlers and thugs, cant allow that to happen.
Carter is a brilliant human…… I’m pleased he is doing the right think…..
Now, if we could just get rid of the new police devices that read and logs all vehicle license plates….. Hmmmm…. I wonder what level of privacy we have left…..
What a mess of a conversation. Well, some say democracy is messy. If this comment section is any example I’d have to say “democracy” is alive and well in America…Not necessarily good thinking nor some sense of being able to carry a point for more than a post or two. But, for all that, we certainly have “free speech”.
Abandoning this thread as lost….
Gene, I don’t recall reading Shockwave Rider but I may have. I would become interested in an author and go out, buy all their books and do a marathon read. I recall something like that with Brunner but I admit it’s a great way to OD and end up not remembering much about what I had read. It would be like watching a landscape unfolding; the major topography of a point of view and aggregate philosophy was there but I don’t remember any of the particular features. LOL, I get several chapters into books and realize I’ve already read them regularly. I think I’m doomed to just keep rereading the books I’ve previously read until I die. (Insert ‘easter egg joke/senility’ here.) I will check our vast and grimy with dust library and see If I’ve got it or just request it from the local library. Thank’s for the recommendation.
LK,
How nice for me to feel that weaving an author’s works into a long narrative mentally, but losing the ability to particularize the specific book, is not merely a defect of my mind. I have done the same as you for most of my life, including unknowingly buying and re-reading books I’ve read. I know that I’ve read both Stand on Zanzibar and Shockwave rider, but it’s only Brunner’s perspective and the accuracy of the future he predicted that stays with me. I think it’s time to re-read it again. Damn Gene and his peerless memory, which makes me feel illiterate. It’s guys like him, Mark and Bob esq., whose intellectual acumen evokes a kind of self effacing awe in the rest of us, who “merely” synthecize great ideas into our own personal narratives. 🙂
Woosty=^..^ “They are no longer Shepherds (if they ever were,,,,), they are wolves.”
——
My first impulse was a generalized snark (not to you) ‘they’ve always been wolves’ but I can’t say that’s correct for the past. There were people that I didn’t particularly ‘like’ but I didn’t attribute that dislike, which was basically a disagreement over policy, to them being morally corrupt or knowingly attempting to destroy the Constitution. I don’t ever recall feeling that way about virtually all of the elected representatives at the national level and in most states. Now I think of virtually all (I could fill a handful with those I think of as exempt) of them as enemies of democracy. I didn’t change that much but Washington and many states did.