1. Durbin. From Democracy Now! --
Don't like Locke, Rousseau, or anyone else whose argued for this emergency prerogative? How about Thoreau, then? Civil disobedience? There are higher causes than bureaucratic rules, such as saving the country (ours and theirs) from an awful war. Not even unconstitutional in this case -- just requires the constitution to protect the Constitution. "Yeah, I'm breaking my statutory silence. Throw me out of the Senate; revoke my clearances. The news is out: this administration is lying us into war." How hard is that?
Vote this jellyfish out next time 'round, people of Illinois. Another loser Democrat. Which also, by the way, means that a lot of other Democrats knew -- as in factually knew -- the Iraq war was a total load of horseshit: Hillary, Kerry, Dodd, Biden, Edwards, et al. Losers, all. Fuck their lame apologies (if even those are forthcoming): they are disqualified for the presidency. But we can't possibly support Kucinich! The hair, as Vidal said, is deplorable. Ergo, no.
2. Tenet
Another example of a total careerist who could have saved possibly a million lives were he to risk not being invited to cocktail parties. He could have resigned and blown the whistle on these criminals. Just resigning would have been enough -- that would have spoken volumes.
To both of these cowards, I'd ask the following. If you didn't have the courage to stop this war honestly and openly, why didn't you do what every single person in DC does on issues of far less importance: leak!
Tenet needs to be on the list of people to be indicted. To say nothing of the torture program.
Bottom line: These people are indicative of the systemic corruption in our government. It would be comforting to dismiss them merely as cowardly "bad apples." The barrel causes the rot.
Sen. Durbin: I Knew the Public Was Being Mislead [sic] into the Iraq WarHuh? Dick Durbin, meet John Locke. Ever heard of "Lockean prerogative"? Nah, didn't think so. Try reading Schlesinger's The Imperial Presidency (pp. 321-22). It applies to the executive usually, but can be extended to any governmental employee, such as, say, Daniel Ellsberg. It's a matter of honesty and common sense: you go public and break the law, even the Constitution, to save the country from grave harm. Then you take the consequences. This prerogative is constantly invoked to start wars; how about to prevent a war? I'd like to see that.
In Washington, the second highest ranking Democrat in the Senate, Majority whip Richard Durbin of Illinois, has admitted that he knew in 2003 that the American public was being misled into the Iraq war but remained silent. Durbin said last week "I was angry about it. [But] frankly, I couldn't do much about it because, in the intelligence committee, we are sworn to secrecy." Durbin went on to say "We can't walk outside the door and say the statement made yesterday by the White House is in direct contradiction to classified information that is being given to this Congress."
Don't like Locke, Rousseau, or anyone else whose argued for this emergency prerogative? How about Thoreau, then? Civil disobedience? There are higher causes than bureaucratic rules, such as saving the country (ours and theirs) from an awful war. Not even unconstitutional in this case -- just requires the constitution to protect the Constitution. "Yeah, I'm breaking my statutory silence. Throw me out of the Senate; revoke my clearances. The news is out: this administration is lying us into war." How hard is that?
Vote this jellyfish out next time 'round, people of Illinois. Another loser Democrat. Which also, by the way, means that a lot of other Democrats knew -- as in factually knew -- the Iraq war was a total load of horseshit: Hillary, Kerry, Dodd, Biden, Edwards, et al. Losers, all. Fuck their lame apologies (if even those are forthcoming): they are disqualified for the presidency. But we can't possibly support Kucinich! The hair, as Vidal said, is deplorable. Ergo, no.
2. Tenet
Another example of a total careerist who could have saved possibly a million lives were he to risk not being invited to cocktail parties. He could have resigned and blown the whistle on these criminals. Just resigning would have been enough -- that would have spoken volumes.
To both of these cowards, I'd ask the following. If you didn't have the courage to stop this war honestly and openly, why didn't you do what every single person in DC does on issues of far less importance: leak!
Tenet needs to be on the list of people to be indicted. To say nothing of the torture program.
Bottom line: These people are indicative of the systemic corruption in our government. It would be comforting to dismiss them merely as cowardly "bad apples." The barrel causes the rot.