Nice words from Barak Obama under the heading “Protect Whistleblowers” when he was running for office. Protecting whistleblowers, these men and women who carry out these “acts of courage and patriotism” seems though to have gone down the same road as the Public Option, the ending of the US’s predatory wars, the Employee Free Choice Act, (EFCA) the ridding of Washington of bribers (lobbyists) and much, much more.
Last April, the Obama administration re-issued a subpoena that the Bush administration served on the New York Times seeking access to a source for a story published in a book by James Risen on a messed up CIA effort to “infiltrate Iran’s nuclear program”.
Glen Greenwald, writing in Salon.com says the Obama administration has “dramatically” expanded the war on whistleblowers. Not simply by re-opening the case against Risen but, as we have seen, aggressively pursuing the most successful whistleblowing site, Wikileaks. Anyone associated with the site, including a member of Iceland’s government has been pursued with vigor with the DOJ serving subpoena's to gain access to Twitter accounts of people associated with Wikileaks, even those who have left the organization. US politicians have called for the group's co-founder, Julian Assange to be executed or assassinated, a US "Fatwah". There's no doubt the US covert killing machine would have assassinated Assange by now had it been possible. And it can't be ruled out that it might still do so.
Bradley Manning the heroic young American soldier accused by the Obama administration of releasing thousands of government cables to Wikileaks, cables that have exposed the lies, corruption and dirty dealings of the US and other governments around the world, including the murder of civilians and other atrocities by the US military, has been charged with “aiding the enemy”; a charge that carries the death penalty. Manning is being held in solitary confinement in conditions many have described as inhuman. If Manning did download the cables Americans owe him thanks for telling us the truth about things our government does around the world that create hatred and anger towards us strengthening terrorist groups and endangering American lives.
The Obama justice dept clearly never read Obama’s praise of whistleblowers when he was seeking votes from an electorate weary of an invasive and violent Bush regime. It appears that Manning is not a patriot but a traitor. How things change when the votes are counted. "The Obama administration is proving more aggressive than the Bush administration in seeking to punish unauthorized leaks." Greenwald quotes the NYT as saying last year.
The tendency is for people to blame this sort of treachery and dishonesty on character flaws, “All politicians are liars” is perhaps more common here in the US than in any other so-called democracy. Some will say it's Democrats, the racists will raise their reasons. But it is not character flaw that leads to these situations. Obama is a leading figure in a major capitalist party. It is one of the two capitalist parties in the US, or more accurately, one wing of one party, the Republicans being the other. A political party does not exist in a vacuum, it represents the interests of a class, in these examples, the capitalist class.
The goal of the capitalist class is to ensure its rule is maintained and its ability to plunder the wealth of society, keep the profits coming in and accumulate capital at the expense of the working class, here or in Iraq, carries on with as little interruption as possible. The politicians cannot say this, so they lie, manipulate, use their media and the resources that they control to convince us of it. When the reality doesn’t match the rhetoric, they continue the process to justify their betrayal: “Hard economic times”, “terrorism” “communists” etc. The need to compete, to lower our standards, to “share the sacrifice”. We have heard it all. If we don't look at it from a political point of view we might simply think its just that they are all liars
But as the crisis of the capitalist system becomes more acute and the class struggle comes more in to the open, it is harder for them to play this game, they are forced out in to the open more as is happening now. Here in California, Democratic Governor and other Democrats are in the process of joining as completely equal partners with Republicans in savaging the lifelines of the poor and less fortunate among us (as well as public services and workers). Brown’s budget is applauded by the mother of all gangs--- the Chamber of Commerce, and Brown says yesterday, “I welcome the forthright and positive messages of the California Chamber of Commerce”. “It is apparent that momentum is now building for a bipartisan budget solution that includes spending cuts and a temporary extension of current taxes”. * There’s one of those lies there, “temporary extension”, and from a politician that Union leaders backed. The head of the California Labor Federation even applauded his budget as “fair and balanced” as did others. You see, it's not only capitalist politicians that take us as fools.
The political and social upheaval that is occurring throughout the world is the result of the economic crisis that emerged with a vengeance in 2007. Consciousness lags behind events we have said many times on this blog. And consciousness was not that far behind events this time.
The bosses are serious. The attacks on Union rights, public services, conditions that took generations to win, are the culmination of a long drawn out offensive against US workers and the middle class. The Democrats have been further exposed; class polarization is more acute. And the US working class is beginning to shake itself out of its slumber and play a more prominent role in the months and years ahead.
* Dems OK Big Cuts To California's Safety Net
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