Transparency in Govt is all that will save America...

[indigobusiness]

No more hiding beneath the cloak of "National Security" every time some embarrassment threatens to see the light of day...

No more 'Black Budgets'...

No more 'Freedom of Information' documents with all the salient info
expunged or blacked out...

For America to be truly a beacon of freedom, it must walk the talk.


I just pray it's not too late.

--------
http://sludgereport.blogspot.com/

[indigobusiness]

1. on edit--- Wouldn't a true love of freedom imply a love of openness?

We are becoming what we fear.

http://sludgereport.blogspot.com/

[No Mandate Here.]

2. This would mean... No More *

Won't it be grand?

[indigobusiness]

9. yes...indeed! n/t

http://sludgereport.blogspot.com/

[GreenPartyVoter]

3. I'm all for it, but you know lots of people will be against it.

[indigobusiness]

4. America has gone from a nation of idealist, to a nation of cynics

and bean counters.

All that is needed is a majority.

http://sludgereport.blogspot.com/


on edit
\
He who fights against monsters should see to it that he does not become a monster in the process. And when you stare persistently into an abyss, the abyss also stares into you.
- Friedrich Nietzsche

[GreenPartyVoter]

5. Best way to determine a majority is through ranked voting.

http://www.geocities.com/greenpartyvoter/

[Veggie Meathead]

6. We must first of all outlaw the principle of deniability for the

President on down.Every public office holder should be held completely accountable for all his actions and those of his subordinates.He should not be allowed to plead ignorance.

No arbitrary classification of information should be permitted.
All meetings of Senate and House committees should be open to the public.

These should be the minimum first steps.

[indigobusiness]

7. "Plausible deniability" swept into America on the wings of Nixon...

and ushered in the horsemen of its demise.


http://sludgereport.blogspot.com/

[ElsewheresDaughter]

8. absolutely correct!!!!!

[NashVegas]

10. Well Then I Guess We Need to Re-Elect Bush

Cause I can't think of any administration of the last 40 years that's been nearly as transparent as Shrub's.

[indigobusiness]

11. Vacant isn't the same thing.

Nor is vacuous.

http://sludgereport.blogspot.com/

[IrateCitizen]

12. Are you aware at all of what this would entail?

Chalmers Johnson agrees with your assessment, BTW -- he presents it as the last remaining hope for the preservation of the American Republic.

Basically, it would require the people of the nation to rise up, evict every sitting member of Congress, and dismantle the entire military-industrial-Congressional complex brick by brick. Anything short of that would be useless half-measures, only staving off the inevitable disintegration of what remains of the old Republic for a short time.

I know that many people here would be up for something like this. But would the "average American" out there really be up for it? I'm not exactly hopeful.

[indigobusiness]

13. All it would actually take, is a change of direction....

...we would get there, eventually.


http://sludgereport.blogspot.com/

[IrateCitizen]

14. OK, you go on believing that if it makes you feel better

But when it comes to ending secrecy and instituting transparency, it is not something that can be done in measures. So long as secrecy remains, it naturally will seek to perpetuate itself. So long as shadow remains, government will always try to operate within it, out of the light of day.

You're not talking about a simple change of direction. You're talking about a significant overhaul of existing institutions that have come to infiltrate almost every hall of our current system of governance.

[indigobusiness]

15. Don't patronize me...

What I'm talking about is waking up to the cancer at the heart of our govt, similar to what John Dean warned us about.

What I'm talking about is genuine integrity...not only in govt but in the citizenry.

We bought into the me generation folly the of the Reagan era, and it led us here.

If we don't mature and see that it is our own best interest to be ethical and honorable and take back the reins of govt from the monster that Ike warned us about, we are dead...as a people, and as a nation.

Cynicism like yours will ensure it.

--------------

http://sludgereport.blogspot.com/

[IrateCitizen]

18. Please show me where I expressed cynicism WRT this

I'm simply trying to point out the magnitude of the problem. If you doubt what I'm saying, I suggest that you take a look at Chalmers Johnson's book, The Sorrows of Empire. It's pretty much the conclusion at which he arrives.

The source of most of the secrecy within our government is the growth of the military-industrial-Congressional complex over the past 50 years. The warnings of Eisenhower's farewell address have proven to be even more real than perhaps Ike could have imagined. Transparency and accountability within government will not be restored until this behemoth is brought completely to heel. Since Congress is a large part of it, on both sides of the aisle, things won't truly change until the supporters of it within Congress (meaning pretty much ALL of Congress) are booted out into the street and the game of one hand washing the other is ended.

[indigobusiness]

19. You implied that it would involve such a drastic retooling

that it wasn't a practical possibility.

If the tools of govt weren't abused, they might not even require retooling...simply a different mindset.

[bobthedrummer]

16. National security has failed due to corruption and the criminals/traitors

it has shielded until today-Nazis, organized crime, racists, cultists the worst social networks imaginable--that's part of the national security community of the US.

[tom_paine]

17. Not sure anything can save America at this moment

Anerika may well be here to stay.

Though I am working my ass off to prove myself wrong.

[indigobusiness]

20. I fear you aren't wrong.

But I ain't dead, yet.


http://sludgereport.blogspot.com/

[tom_paine]

21. Nor I.

When Crunch Time comes, I'll be standing right beside you, maybe literally.

[indigobusiness]

22. That's good to know...

it seems crunchier by the minute.



http://sludgereport.blogspot.com/