On The Media is produced by:
Last week, the Obama Administration invoked the state secrets privilege for the third time in as many months when arguing that Jewel v. NSA should be dismissed. How does this square with his much-touted promise of openness and transparency? We asked Marc Ambinder, associate editor of the Atlantic and chief political consultant to CBS.
Kudos to Bob and OTM for being (gulp) fair and balanced for following up on the NSA wiretapping continuing on under the new administration. Good story.
Some are saying that the new administration is really going further than Bush:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jSUHVUgJFc
I wonder if it is possible that the reason for having and invoking the state secrets privilege is that there really are...wait for it...state secrets involved? Having said that, I do agree there has to be some mechanism (something similar to the FISA court?) that can determine if the claim has any validity whatsoever.
Mr. Rowe, I never doubted that OTM would be just as rough on the Obama Administration as Bush's on the same issues upon which it has hammered for years now. It's the issues, man, not the personalities!
Meanwhile, I am reminded of the friendly argument I had with my siblings Friday evening about why I did not meet in confrontation with my eldest brother and his "tanks" across New Haven's Green on May Day 1970. I had intelligence, as it were; there was violence planned and I chose not to allow it to be inflamed by sibling rivalry.
Years later, their were trials involving the illegal wiretaps that helped authorities subvert the protestors - maybe domestic terrorist Bill Ayers, even. Frankly, in hindsight, I'm not at all certain that it was such a wrongheaded policy. I'd prefer that those who do the surveillance not cherry-pick silly, embarrassing stuff such as Martin Luther King, Jr.'s love life with which to titillate themselves and harass him, but for legitimate public safety, I'm just too pragmatic to object. Yet, I'm still a radical.
Also, courts are notoriously uneven in their judgments, to which the public has rightly long objected. This sort of work demands the protections imbued in a Commander-in-Chief. These are the judgments for which we elect them.
Spell check be damned! "their" = there
**How does this square with his much-touted promise of openness and transparency? **
Maybe the Bush administration wasn't so bad after all?
Either that or Obama's campain was all lies?
Hello!
For all of these cute and pretty ones who drank hopium when Obama was elected, "What were you thinking?"
As person from Obama's neck of the woods, all I can say is that he's a product of Chicago political machine. Theoretically you can remain a virgin while growing up in the whorehouse but it only happens in a novel...........
For the ones who are now kicking themselves I recommend Chicago Tribune's John Kass' column about Illinois politics so you can understand all of these milionaires from Obama's entourage (say hello to big bucks Ray LaHood). I better hury up and run to get my chia pet Obama at Walgreens. CIAO
d.monroe
Not enough bloviating from Bob on this one, I almost can't tell what his opinion is.
Please keep your comments relevant to this entry. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments. All comments on On the Media are moderated. On the Media reserves the right to edit any comments posted on this site. Please read the onthemedia.org Comment Guidelines before posting.
Back to Episode
