Autonomous Oblast

Commentary by Tim Jones @www.eff.org

Friday evening, in a motion to dismiss Jewel v. NSA, EFF’s litigation against the National Security Agency for the warrantless wiretapping of countless Americans, the Obama Administration’s made two deeply troubling arguments.

First, they argued, exactly as the Bush Administration did on countless occasions, that the state secrets privilege requires the court to dismiss the issue out of hand. They argue that simply allowing the case to continue “would cause exceptionally grave harm to national security.” As in the past, this is a blatant ploy to dismiss the litigation without allowing the courts to consider the evidence….

davecurry:

“Which candidate is the elitist one again?”

(from http://www.dailykos.com/)

Deepok Chopra writes an insightful piece on the Palin effect.

“She is the reverse of Barack Obama, in essence his shadow, deriding his idealism and exhorting people to obey their worst impulses”

“Look at what she stands for:

—Small town values — a denial of America’s global role, a return to petty, small-minded parochialism.

—Ignorance of world affairs — a repudiation of the need to repair America’s image abroad.

—Family values — a code for walling out anybody who makes a claim for social justice. Such strangers, being outside the family, don’t need to be heeded.

—Rigid stands on guns and abortion — a scornful repudiation that these issues can be negotiated with those who disagree.

—Patriotism — the usual fallback in a failed war.

—“Reform” — an italicized term, since in addition to cleaning out corruption and excessive spending, one also throws out anyone who doesn’t fit your ideology.

Palin reinforces the overall message of the reactionary right, which has been in play since 1980, that social justice is liberal-radical, that minorities and immigrants, being different from “us” pure American types, can be ignored, that progressivism takes too much effort and globalism is a foreign threat.”

You may not find Deepok Chopra your cup of tea, but hi insights are valuable in this situation.

09/11/08 Obama and The Palin Effect
09/16/08 Obama and The Palin Effect (part2)