General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: President Obama Indicts Sixth Whistleblower Under the Espionage Act [View all]freshwest
(53,661 posts)Doing a Scooter Libby, whom Bush got off the hook as it served his intentions to out an CIA agent during the Bush administration, since her husband was arguing against the yellow cake canard to start the Iraq War.
CIA agents and civil servants are not above doing things for partisan politics.
The Republicans don't hold what Scooter did against them, nor anything else that Bush did. All the refuse he left that the Obama administration has been cleaning up, has magically left his balance sheet and transferred to the Democrats. There is a convenient memory lapse with conspiracy theorists who forget the GOP media and their followers of the firestorm about Gitmo, which Obama tried to close. They're complaining about these prosecutions, too:
http://lonelyconservative.com/2011/05/republicans-call-on-obama-admin-to-halt-investigation-of-cia-operatives/
There has never been so embattled a president since FDR, not even Carter or JFK faced this amount of opposition. And for the exact same reasons. FDR failed at many things in his first two terms, but all that is remembered are his successes, which only occurred after battles with the Supreme Court and all other forces the business class threw at him, including a coup by Prescott Bush and pals.
And FDR did not have a public as dumbed down and divided as Americans are now, watching the media spin machine that has with Koch brothers money from CT to mainstream, and the spawn of the rest of FDR's enemies, playing both sides against him. Back then one could speak of anything about public works or working together (socialism) and not get run out of town to the curses of the ignorant poor white voter, like in 2010.
As far as the spawn of Prescott, Bush, Sr., CIA director and friend to Nixon and Reagan, Republicans don't care, they didn't care when he did it, and they don't care now. Nothing he did, including TARP, the invasion of Iraq under false pretenses, water boarding and stealing billions, do they hold against them. And the aftermath of all of that is what we're living with now.
That's not in the news, yet what the GOP doesn't want to happen is in the news. Something is rotten.
Now that this man's actions have come under fire for law enforcement under the Obama administration for committing a Scooter Libby, some find fault with Obama. Complaints of partisanship are frequently used by the GOP, which is the most partisan group there is, whereas if a Democrat trys to work work with the GOP which doesn't play fair, they're bad, also. Can't win.
I want protections for those who are whistle blowing, always have. The merits of what this man did, are not being argued here, whether he outed someone in the sacred class of 'intelligence operatives' of which he a part of, but only that the Obama administration is following the law. He didn't write this law, and the DOJ is enforcing it.
The Holder DOJ, which people love to accuse of doing nothing, but has quietly been trying to rein much the Republicans have done, is accused of prosecuting the wrong things. The same people who whined about Bush not policing his own administration did so to a deaf audience, but now find it special that Obama is following the laws that Bush refused to follow. The DOJ is not just going after people that make the government look bad, as is being claimed here.
Protections for whistle blowers was eliminated during the Bush administration and I saw that happening up close and personal and people's lives being hurt. Those laws have eviscerated the standards, and Obama had nothing to do with doing it. Part of following the law involves arresting those who break it.
This suddenly heroic figure got in trouble for something he'd done during the Bush administration. People who fancy themselves born-again freedom fighters against the Obama administration won't address the fact that indictments are being handed down on the fallout of that mess on a daily basis.
http://www.justice.gov/
This man just got the sympathy of a group because he outed what Bush did. Not when it would have stopped anything. No, he held on that, and likely other things to keep his job.
I've known heroes in my life who have been savaged from doing government and corporate whistle blowing because they wanted to save lives. They didn't hold onto information until it was dead, dried up and useless like this guy, who held onto it for almost a decade. When Bush changed the laws, states rewrote their laws to match them and whistle blowers didn't win in court.
Truth will get out, justice will happen. We have a government that is involved in thousands of things that I despise and loathe. Whether it will ever go back to the Carter administration or Kennedy administration level of openness, which was alway tainted by the MIC, I can't say.
The idea that this guy is somehow special, smacks of idolatry. It reminds me of Oliver North who has been applauded for obstructing and lying to the Congress trying to get to the truth of Iran Contra. The folks who are willing to worship this man, accuse those who won't join in, of not believing in truth or justice. They say they are Democrats, when the GOP did the same.
It's very popular to attack this President on anything and everything, including things he didn't do. It's running with the pack of dogs set loose by media on any given day, both mainstream and conspiracy, but the effect is the same on those trying to get anything done, demoralization and moving to the right.
Anyone who is disturbed by modern governance is not happy at what the title charges, not because it's about Obama, is in their right mind to my point of view. This is not about one man who holds the office of POTUS, but a machine in place since WW2.
Some of us encouraged at the things Obama has done that are saving lives, have noticed that those who are running with that pack, never, ever find that Obama has done anything progressive because they are incapable of rejoicing at the smallest thing.
It would force them to leave their cynicism and media induced righteousness behind and dip into the chaos that we are facing. After a while, it becomes obvious that those who are sitting in judgment of those trying to get a messy job done, are not getting anything done, either, and I can't help but wonder why.
I won't bother to reason with anyone who's on a roll and I won't stand in the way. Carry on. n/t