MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE
by Michael Wolraich
Order today at Barnes & Noble / Amazon / Books-A-Million / Bookshop
MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE by Michael Wolraich Order today at Barnes & Noble / Amazon / Books-A-Million / Bookshop |
The Editorial Board, New York Times, Jan. 7/8, 2013
When President Obama took office in 2009, he promised an “unprecedented level of openness in government.” In a memo issued the day after his inauguration, he wrote, “The government should not keep information confidential merely because public officials might be embarrassed by disclosure, because errors and failures might be revealed, or because of speculative or abstract fears.”
In the latest reminder that the Obama administration has failed to live up to that promise, the Justice Department last week won its fight to keep secret a memo that outlines the supposed legal authority for the Federal Bureau of Investigation to collect Americans’ telephone and financial records without a subpoena or court order [....]
Comments
from:
Bipartisan Critic Turns His Gaze Toward Obama
In His New Memoir, Robert M. Gates, the Former Defense Secretary, Offers a Critique of the President
By Thom Shanker, New York Times, Jan. 7/8, 2014
by artappraiser on Wed, 01/08/2014 - 7:12pm
I have two different reactions to the two types of issues discussed here:
• "Secret law"...bad.
• Leaking information on covert action intended to sabotage Iran's suspected effort to develop nuclear weapons...also bad.
In Shanker's piece, Gates doesn't seem all that critical of Obama.
by Peter Schwartz on Wed, 01/08/2014 - 10:50pm
The only reason I chose to post that point from Gates' book here is that it struck me how a punish-leakers Obama was already apparent in the first month of his presidency. And that bad blood with the NYTimes on "transparency" and security may go back a very long time.
Actually, if one tends to believe so far that Gates book gives Obama a relatively fair shake that is overall positive in the end,* then that point is all the more glaring in the context of promising a very open and transparent government in his campaign. That he would be chomping at the bit to prosecute NYTimes & sources right off the bat to make an example. Suggests to me that a lot of actions and attitudes that Eric Holder is blamed for may actually be sourced further up the chain.
*And so far I do, tending to trust Shanker over Woodward to sum it up accurately.
by artappraiser on Wed, 01/08/2014 - 11:29pm
P.S. If the Assange/Manning/Snowden/Greenwald et. al. contingent doesn't take major note of this Gates anecdote, I'll be real surprised.
by artappraiser on Wed, 01/08/2014 - 11:40pm