Lapdogs of Democracy - The Next Generation
By Steve Hynd Wednesday Feb 11, 2009 5:00pm
Thank you, Glenn Greenwald, for taking Marc Ambinder out to the woodshed in respect of his shameless stenography, and granting of anonymity, on the Obama administration's weak excuses as they try to justify perpetuating their continuance of Bush's blanket state secret defense.
As Glenn, a lawyer, points out to ( self-confessed Halperin-wannabe) Ambinder:
If, as Obama's Atlantic spokesman claims ... the Obama DOJ needed more time to review what they wanted to do -- then the solution is easy and obvious: you ask the court for more time. You don't march into court and explicitly advocate a Bush weapon that you've spent the last several years excoriating as a dangerous abuse of power.
...the alternative to Bush's lawsuit-killing use of the privilege is not to waive the privilege entirely. Everyone -- including the ACLU -- acknowledges that the Government should have the right to assert the State Secrets privilege on a document-by-document basis. The controversy was and is only about one thing: the use of the privilege to compel the dismissal of entire lawsuits in advance -- in other words, to convert the State Secrets privilege from what it always was (a focused evidentiary privilege) to what it was never intended to be (full-scale immunity for government lawbreakers from all judicial accountability).
...Obama has banned rendition to countries (such as Egypt and Jordan) where torture is likely. If there are still specific rendition agreements that the Obama DOJ thinks are secret and need to be protected, then they can and should assert the privilege as to those documents. That has nothing to do with demanding that the entire lawsuit be dismissed in advance.
As Wizner told me this morning, there is no reason why the ACLU would even need those supposedly secret documents to make their case. Whether the U.S. has rendition agreements with Jordan or Morocco, or what the content of those agreements are, is irrelevant. Besides, other countries -- such as Sweden, which already investigated these claims and fully disclosed their involvement in the CIA's rendition program when awarding the victims compensation -- have already made certain that many of these facts are disclosed.
Them's the facts, unspinnable.
But unfortunately Ambinder is only one among several who seem to be vying to become the next generation of stenographers with access, and thus secure their places among the journalistic elite alongside Thomas Ricks, David Sanger, George Will and Mark Halperin. They know from those previous alumni's examples that the only way to get seriously good insider access is to faithfully copy down and report the news in exactly the way unofficially officials ask them to - no attribution required. They've been called "lapdogs" of democracy rather than the watchdogs they should be, and they are a bipartisan breed.
Crossposted from Newshoggers
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which is essentially Fascism.
It is not going to change until it collapses which seems to be happening before our very eyes. Although it may recover.
The lapdogs of democracy know how the system works and they are happy in their knowledge.
I know something of how the system works and I think it is corrupt.
Please define the difference between a "lapdog of democracy" and a
lapdog of anyother form of government, since you "know something of how the system works."
...if he intends to let these scumbags walk, his "brand" is gonna go out of business real quick -not just here in america, but around the world.
... he WILL be an accessory after the fact.
on who you mean by 'scumbags'.
does that help?
it doesn't.
It was a specific question to your statement:
I ask it again, who are the 'scumbags'…
Do you mean the five people with the allegations of torture, the five 'victims' of Bushco, and now Obamaco.
Do you mean Bush's extremely broad use of the states' secrets claims to preemptively dismiss lawsuits now being repeated by Obama, and more precisely the DOJ operatives?
Or do you mean the press lackeys that apologize for Bush's Neo Fascism and now Obama's reiteration?
What precisely do you mean.
... i will officially begin efforts to impeach obama.
this is THAT big of a deal.
... you should know i officially renounced my affiliation with the democratic party last fall. i'm bull moose party 'til death.
to be perfectly honest i find the very idea of political parties pretty repugnant -a view shared by many of our founding fathers.
...t.r's bull moose party was the last political party in america that gave a $#!+ about american sovereignty.
after 1912, you got sold out by democrat woodrow wilson.
T Roosevelt was in the GOP from 1897 to 1912 and in the Progressive party from 1912 to 1916. Also known as the Bull Moose Party. He split the party when he lost the nomination to Taft.
... or i should say it left him.
he didn't split the party; the party split itself.
(and i promise i'll get back on-topic).
there is a damn good reason woodrow wilson is the big ugly face you see on the now out-of-circulation $100,000 dollar bill.
THINK ABOUT IT.
http://www.roumazeilles.net/news/fr/wordpress...
froggy damit i cant let you alone for one hour before your drawing flies!
i can't just sit quietly. i'm not an idealogue; i'm not gonna eat a platter of steaming $#!+ from ANYBODY.
good on yah mate!
... there are only 2 people in america i'm afraid of.
karl rove because he's about 5 times as smart as me, and john negroponte because he's about 15 times as smart as me.
...can kiss my @$$.
i will beat you at chess, checkers, risk, stratego or connect 4.
Am I the only one reminded of the Simpson's episode where Homer joins a sub crew and f's everything up, but then proclaims it's his first day and everyone just laughs and ignores the problem.
I visualize the press conference with the chairs filled with dogs: mostly "yappers" such as poodles, wiener-dogs, chihuahuas, and so on. Helen Thomas...a doberman?
HuffPo asking a serious question, WaPo ! asking frivolous.
Politician and gov officials who let US prisoners be tortured with scalpels on their genitals (and worse) is beyond the pale.
We have 3rd Reich style monsters in our midst, they wear expensive suits and smile on TV, but they still are fiends.
and the point of torture is always two-fold.
it's not just to coerce a bull$#!+ confession -it's to keep the poor, huddled masses of the torturers' home nation SCARED OUT OF THEIR WITS.
... now, immunity for torture. And we can't tell you why because it's secret.
First is the modern journalist as stenographer, which is a betrayal of journalistic standards and renders the media useless as participants in governmental accountability.
However, worse in this case is the Obama administration itself. Or more accurately Obama himself. This must be a non-negotiable issue. Obama's hypocrisy is sickening and all of his rhetoric is meaningless until and unless he disavows categorically the deplorable and unsupportable Bush-Cheney position on state secrets.
If Obama continues to cling to such unconstitutional and illegal policies rather than repair the damage wrought by Bush-Cheney he will set it in concrete.
Personally, I find this issue definitive. I won't support Obama on anything unless he comes out foursquare against the blanket state secret policy.
If Obama allows the usual suspects to direct him in business as usual, then its not looking good.
The American public voted for change, not more of.
The legal charity, Reprieve, that represents Binyam Mohamed sent Obama evidence of torture but parts were blanked out. U.S. officials may have censored the evidence before he saw it. If he even saw the letter. That story is in the Guardian today and posted as a diary by Valtin on Daily Kos.
If this is true it could be a big story.
Breaking: Pentagon Hiding Torture Evidence from Obama.
Here's the Kos diary.
And here's The Guardian story.
they are hiding anything from him? Just because THAT version is blacked out, does not mean he hasn't seen the full version.
There you go again!
Is right. WTF are you talking about? Read the g-damn post. Don't like anyone questioning Obama, don't read any of the posts that do. Sounds simple enough to me. Do you rag out all the C&L contributors for all their hard work posting? Jeebus if you are so emancipated with anything truly negative on Obama, you must just despise regulars like Cernig, Dave, John Amato, Heather, etc, etc, etc.
isn't it? If they are hiding something from him it borders on treason, if he has seen it, well.........
This is becoming more and more sickening each day. Whatever the truth is, it is disgraceful and I feel betrayed.
we need more people in u.s. intelligence to give their higher ups the old gust avrakotos treatment.
(if you've never seen "charlie wilson's war", go check it out immediately and watch philip seymour hoffman's first scene -you will quite nearly die laughing.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GOe5SUlPPY
Obama is only protecting Bush's secrets, because he is a nice guy; and he doesn't want the American people to find out what a truly evil, sick, twisted bastard Bush really is.
And Geithner is giving the banking theives on Wall Street evrything they want, because he knows things the rest of us aren't privy too. Like the fact that these same bankers are the only ones who know how to run financial institutions.
Silly us, stupid filthy unwashed masses. We thought they were just a bunch of stupid criminals. Thank god the republicans are gone!
...call 'em BANKSTERS.
I thought he could be trusted. Silly me.
He joins Bob Woodward in the ever increasing number of 'journalists' who I once respected. I wonder who paid him off.
...but the problem in the beltway is that they all screw the same call girls and call the same coke dealers...
Sure seems that way, doesn't it.
... except for patrick leahy, dick durbin and russ feingold.
His "Truth" Commission sounds a lot like immunity for torturers to me. I seem to remember his being quite helpful to the telecoms when they wanted immunity as well.
Rumsfeld is his friend and he and his wife go out to dinner together.
Damn. I read this today, can't remember where. If I come across the source, I will post it.
And I agree, a Truth Commission sounds like immunity.
It was here today on Video Cafe - Jonathan Turley vs Pat Leahy on the Truth Commission.
7th post by Terrible.
But I really wish T could find that letter.
and I felt sick when I read it. I once had a lot of faith in Mr Leahy.
I am so tired of being disappointed by these people. It is really very depressing.
... to keep him from wondering who sent him the tainted letter.
...dennis rader, the "btk" killer in wichita, kansas, was a city official and a church "leader".
Is that bloggers like Cernig are demonstrating a tendency to react as viscerally to any action (be it official or journalistic) that does not side with their point of view as the reactionaries in the Bush administration who engaged in the actions they decry.
I am not go to defend the actions taken by the Obama administration
nor the accuracy of those who are writing about it. However, it appears to me that the language being employed in attacking them is
excessive to the point of calling into question whether reason can ever be expected on a topic so invested with emotion.
The French Foreign Legion was made up of men that rather then going to prison agreed to enlist in its army. They were then shipped to the colonies to protect French possessions. Most of them never returned to France. They started a new life and raised families. Some died in battle. Very few returned to a life of crime. They were high spirited men that chose freedom rather than the security of a French prison.
There are over 2 million inmates in the prison system, many would be happy to serve our country. Training inmates to fight in Afghanistan would be in the national interest. It would also give them a chance to clear their name. But it should only be done on a volunteer basis. Lets give them the rifles and ammo. They will quickly destroy the terrorists and keep America Free.
heh heh thats a good one empty our prisons sick them on the afgans, if they arent allready killers make killers out of them keep america free , yes lets turn them afgan landing barges back! kelleys heros!
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