New Left Forum-Whistleblowers (also Bradley Manning)

[No Elephants]

Each part is about 25 or 30 minute long. I recommend all of it. However, if you won't or can't watch all of it, at least watch Part 2, Thomas Drake because he could be you.


Part 1-Attorney Jesselyn Radatz tells her story--hounded for ten years for telling that Lindh had a lawyer, including an attempt to sully her record with the bar, now defends whistleblowers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDM3MqHln8U (This video is actually of all 3 speakers. I did not find one of Radatz alone quickly enough to suit me.



Part 2-Thomas Drake's horrifying tale of being hounded by NSA (starts low--I've never appreciated the Socratic Method--but turns into a spy thriller (not the fun kind).

Ending: Europeans tell Drake:

"We know that we live in a post-fascist society, but Americans live in a pre-fascist society and don't even know it."

First hand horror story that answers the question, "Why worry if you are not doing anything wrong?"

Also puts to rest "lesser of evils" (also not the fun kind)

If you are interested in more, you will find many other videosof Drake online, being interviewed.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5m_GvpuVxV8



Part 3-Kevin Gosztola speaks, from his depth of knowledge on the subject, on the Bradley Manning matter, supposedly the most important military trial in 100 years


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7jkgsHIm3Q



Memory Lane:


In 2008, Obama promised (if elected) to run the most transparent administration ever.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2008/11/the_tmi_presidency.html

"Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this Presidency." Obama 2009

We have put in place the toughest transparency laws and toughest ethics rules in history. Obama 2010

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXWTdTnhebs

"Amusingly" enough, the video opens with Obama bragging that this is the first administration ever where the public may know who visits the White House. About a year earlier, however, soon after the Obamas had moved into the WH the Obama White House denied an FOIA request for the visitor logs and the ACLU sued. The White House first blamed the Secret Service, then visitors of the Obama kids and Michelle's mom. Meanwhile, the WH took to meeting with the healt insurers, drug companies, etc. at nearby coffee shops. And that my friends is why you may now know who visits the WH. The stuff they don't want you to know about is no longer taking place there.

Oddly enough, though, the most transparent WH ever stopped the practice of disclosing which wines are served at state dinners. Very sound national security reasons there too. Or did the Secret Service insist? We have not heard the reasons yet.

[truedelphi]

1. Hi there No Elephants.

A google search got me here.

I knew that the Old DU had our old posts - didn't know it was still up and running.

I'll be watching the vids you posted and then back here later.

[No Elephants]

2. Hi, True Delphi,

Nice to see you.

I didn't realize it was so hard to get here. I saved DU2 to favorites long ago and I've just been clicking on that.

We're down to a handful of occasional posters and some lurkers.

I used to post new threads every day, until someone deleted about three months of our posts. That discouraged me from daily posting.

But, yes, all the other posts are still here and still searchable.

[Enthusiast]

3. Hi truedelphi and No Elephants. DU2 is full of malcontents

and trouble makers. I'm only saying.

[No Elephants]

4. Hey! Who you calling malcontent and troublemaker?

[No Elephants]

5. Today's word, brought to you by the F words.

Definition of FASCISM
1
often capitalized : a political philosophy, movement, or regime (as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition
2
: a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control <early instances of army fascism and brutality — J. W. Aldridge>
— fas·cist noun or adjective often capitalized
— fas·cis·tic adjective often capitalized
— fas·cis·ti·cal·ly adverb often capitalize

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fascism



The occupant of an imperial Presidency may or may not qualifiy as "strong autocratic or dictatorial control," but I think we need a new word.

Because, whether or not we have a dictator like leader, 911 (maybe with some help from Lee Atwater and the DLC) brought us a peculiar nation uber alles mentality, yet we are not nazis, either. The nation--whatever that means--has been put not only above individuals, but also above all the people. Despite all the polling that is done, for whatever reason, no one seems to care what most Americans want, let alone what any individual wants.

[Enthusiast]

6. My conclusion exactly.

"Despite all the polling that is done, for whatever reason, no one seems to care what most Americans want, let alone what any individual wants."

Now that the internet is widespread, citizens finally have an efficient mechanism for telling the legislators and executive branch what we want.

There can be no mistake, they know exactly what we want. They simply continue on as if they don't know or behave as if we are too dumb to know what is good for us. Either way, it is breach of trust, a betrayal and bordering on an act of treason.

A good example is the trans-Pacific trade deal. No one wants it except the corporate elite. And they do not want it for a good reason or to help the working class. But the President wants "fast track" authority to get it done. This is a clear betrayal. There is simply no justification for it. Any claim that it will help the American worker is a clear lie there for all to see.

DU3 should be on Obama's butt over the trade deal as much as they are the NSA thing. The only possible way to make the Administration responsive is through criticism, not through pampering and defending.

I'm already on the "list" of undesirables so I might say anything. Watch out!

[No Elephants]

7. They always knew what we want. It's not rocket surgery or brain science.

1. We want the Constitution.

Too many of our sons and daughters have died and too much of our tax dollars have been spent, supposedly to ensure it for us, for government to take it away from us at will or by executive order or by statute or by abdication of the duty of judicial review. If government wants to remove something from the Constitution, government needs to follow the amendment process outlined in that document.

http://www.usconstitution.net/constam.html


2. We want jobs.

3. We want a work week that won't kill us thirty years before our time--plus a reasonable number of days off for the same reason.

Luckily for employers, we ask for a lot less in that respect than people in other parts of the world and also luckily for them, giving us those things results in a more productive and cost efficient work force than trying to work us into an early grave.

4. Like folks in Bangladesh, we don't want deadly workplaces. Been there, done that in places like the Triange Shirtwaist Factory.

5. We want the basics--basic food, basic shelter and necessary medical care--to be reasonably affordable throughout our lives.

Conversely, we don't want the most expensive health care in the world for the worst outcomes among the world's wealthier nations.

http://www.naturalnews.com/038676_USA_health_outcomes_worst.html

6. We want the ability to send our kids to college, if they are accepted, without having to re-mortgage or even sell our homes, or mortgaging the rest of ther lives. You know, like Massachusetts had under King George.

7. We want politicians and bureaucrats to be at least as thoughtful and careful about spending the money for which we work hard as we have to be when we spend it ourselves. In fact, more so.

8. And, while they're about giving us what we want, we'd really rather not send our sons and daughters to die or be disabled for reasons no one can figure out, even 50 to 100 years later.


If you can arrange to give that package to Americans and you could easily be President for life, even if you never bought a single TV ad when running for reelection. Just ask FDR. (Yes, it would require a Constitutional amendment now, but you'd easily get that too.)

That's what we want. They know it. They've always known it. It's not rocket surgery.

But, they want something else, so tough for us.

[Enthusiast]

8. These "think tanks" have determined

that we must be hungry if we are to work hard. You know, otherwise we will have it too easy and become lazy. We just have it too easy. Well, that appears to be the prevailing sentiment of the ruling elite, anyway.