The Obama Administration Violates the First Amendment

In an earlier post, I related the story of Frontline's piece, "The United States of Secrets"... truly a MUST-SEE film for anyone who loves Liberty.  This past Sunday, 60 Minutes essentially re-told a portion of that same piece in a story entitled, "The War on Leaks".  It involves the current case of the NYT reporter, James Risen... a genuine American hero.  Risen, as well as Tom Drake and others (independently), revealed the illegal and unconstitutional spying-on-Americans scheme of the NSA.  In both films, Bush-Obama-Hayden are revealed as the propagandists, deceivers, and violators of the First Amendment that rival anyone in recent memory.  [Hayden is the guy who, at the behest of Dick Cheney, came up with a plan to spy on Americans that exceeded the Executive's authority.  They knew it was illegal, but didn't care.]

Relative to all this, here's how the highest levels of an Outlaw Fed Gov't operate:  they concoct and execute a completely unconstitutional, secret plan to spy---without proper warrants---on citizens of their own country, and then, when the scheme is exposed, they criminalize & prosecute the whistleblowers.  They make it illegal to expose the illegality of the Govt's actions.  Perfect...for them.  On top of that, We the People have to endure the wishy-washy, sleazy, weak-minded propaganda "justifying" it all... put out by the puppets of the Oligarchy.  Michael Hayden, former Head Honcho of the CIA & the NSA, is the worst example.  On second thought, Barack Obama may be the worst example... he has pursued and prosecuted more whistleblowers than all other Presidents combined.  That's according to 60 Minutes.  This is the guy who said he would protect whistleblowers.  [When Obama starts talking, about 50% of the time he's lying... and if you look carefully, you can see it in his eyes.]  Dubya Bush started the case involving James Risen, and Obama is pursuing it vigorously.  The propaganda from both Bush & Obama surpasses that even of Richard Nixon or Bill Clinton.

A Free Press is (or should be) inviolate in this country.  It really is our primary protection from corruption in government and loss of freedom.  Unfortunately, our present Fed Executive---like the one immediately before him---is waging an unprecedented war on journalism.  The case against James Risen is a prime example of that, as was the pursuance of Tom Drake.

I suspect that some people , perhaps many, feel there's nothing we can do about any of this.  That's simply not true.  It's not a question of "can we", it's one of "will we".  Though we live in a soft Fascist State, we still have considerable freedoms; plus, even in a dictatorship, public opinion matters.

The solution will not be found in "voting".  It should be obvious by now that these politicians essentially are all the same; they are selected, groomed, and financed by the Oligarchy.  Obama is a prime example.  [The very, very few who aren't puppets quickly are demonized and/or marginalized and/or eliminated by the Political Machine & the Corporate Media.]  No, "voting" is not the answer; it might be someday, but not now.  Ballot-access laws (among others) will have to be changed first... an almost impossible task.  Peaceful, nonviolent expression and/or protest and/or boycott is the way to have an impact.

As Henry David Thoreau wrote, "Let your life be a counter-friction to the Machine.".  That can be done in many ways, not just by marching in the streets.  It can be done individually or in groups organized around just causes... or both.  It can be done by speaking up (and out) in encounters with Institutionalists, in conversations with anyone, in Art (including Street Art), in music, in boycotts, in writing... in all kinds of peaceful actions.  Use your imagination.  When the Pulse of the People is overwhelming enough, even Oligarchs pay attention.

Not just my opinion.  Be Well

Good News and Bad News

1.  After three years in prison and being beaten, tortured & initially held incommunicado for a month, earlier this year a Yemeni journalist by the name of Shaye finally was released.  It wouldn't surprise me if you've never heard of him; the Corporate Media here pretty much ignored the story.  Jeremy Scahill, a journalist for The Nation, covered the story in depth.  Shaye is the journalist who broke the story of the U.S. cruise missile attack in Yemen (a few years ago) that killed a couple dozen civilians.  Whether or not any of them were members of Al Qaeda is hotly contested.  Shaye was set to be pardoned in 2011, but Obama's intervention apparently put a stop to that.  The dictator of Yemen (one of our several Death-Squad-type allies), ever mindful of how to get more U.S. aid, caved in to Obama's "concern".  The journalist, Shaye, had been convicted of abetting terrorism, or some such similar fantasy...according to a number of non-corporate media.

2.  Jeremy Scahill's movie, Dirty Wars, has been short-listed for a possible Oscar nomination in the documentary film category.  [Scahill is the guy who, awhile back, exposed the gross misdeeds of the private security company Blackwater in Iraq.  The company has since changed their name.]  The film, which is superb, details the largely unknown operations of JSOC, the U.S. military's Joint Special Operations Command--- assassinations of SUSPECTS, unreported attacks on various groups, etc.  Whistle blowers are key to the content of the movie.  The piece is on Netflix, and probably can be found elsewhere online.

3.  The Corporate Media mostly missed or ignored this story yesterday.  In about 100 cities here in the USA, fast-food workers protested wages less than $8/hour by walking out and marching.  About half of all such workers also are on public assistance because of their low wages. This while the executives of such companies are subsidized by the U.S. taxpayer---companies get to deduct (on their taxes) "performance-based" bonuses paid to executives.  My guess: some lobbyist wrote that amendment to a legislative bill. Then it was passed by Congress and signed into law by the President.  Both FDR and Mussolini would have called that Fascism---the power of the State married to the power of BIG Business.

4.  In his second term as President, Obama continues his Justice Department's apparent policy of "too big to jail" relative to speculative banking fraud.  J.P. Morgan Chase recently was fined $13 BILLION dollars for NYSE violations, that is, misleading investors...purposely.  [With a fine that large, it makes one wonder what their annual net profit amounts to, given that they're still in business.]  Criminal investigations are "ongoing", but my best guess, don't hold your breath.  Not a single high-level mega bank executive has been criminally charged yet.

5.  Also in his second term as President, Obama continues his completely unconstitutional program of assassination of terrorist SUSPECTS.  Legally, only Congress can issue "Letters of Marque and Reprisal".  It's called Checks & Balances in our system of government.  Even as Commander-in-Chief, any President is limited by the Constitution...and again, no law supercedes the U.S. Constitution, not even the War Powers Act.  He's not a King, and never should be treated as one.

6.  In what seems to be an attempt to mollify the restless masses, just recently President Obama publicly expressed concern over "income inequality" in our land.  It sounds good, but I agree with John Pilger who said this, "Brand Obama...and it's all fake."... and this, "Don't listen to what he says.  Watch what he does.".

7.  As expressed by Jeremy Scahill, there is an ongoing, escalating war on journalism worldwide, that is, on non-corporate journalism.  [ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, and even The News Hour on PBS mostly are safe from attack.]  Number 1. above is but one example.  In this country, the attacks usually are manifested as accusations of compromising "national security".  The National Security State appears to trump the First Amendment.  Even without that, the news is managed almost completely by the Corporate Media.  Whistle blowers usually are portrayed as somehow violating the "American Way", or worse, "National Security"...never mind that in most of those instances the Gov't is violating the U.S. Constitution, or mega companies are violating not only U.S. Law, but common decency as well.
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For the best possible newscast in the USA, I heartily recommend Democracy Now, the War and Peace Report, with Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzales.  They do not shrink from covering controversial subjects, and they do so in a manner not influenced by mega corporations.

Just my opinion.