The Sunshine Empire

One thing that was of particular concern during the Bush Administration was the blatant and gross violations of the law that occurred with regard to warrentless wiretapping. One of the things that candidate Obama insisted was that we did not have to abandon our values to fight terrorism. The implicit message was that the rule of law would prevail. But guess what every peoples, the Obama administration has if anything raised the bar. Reading Glen Greenwald’s column in Salon.com he lays bare the even more audacious claim by the Obama Department of Justice that the United States can never be sued for any kind of domestic spying no matter the law that is broken unless the government makes the information public on purpose. Campaign promises often encounter the realities of office once a new administration takes command, but this is one campaign promise rollback that I cannot stand by. Someone yesterday in regards to this referred to the President as “Barack W. Obama,” and it’s appropriate. I can see giving a waiver to a lobbyist or two due to the political practicalities of running the bureaucracy, but to say that the government has all encompassing immunity because it says so is un-American to the core. Politics is one this but this is a matter of bedrock American values.