Democratic Dittoheads

PUMA (Party Unity My Ass) scream the commenters across the blogs of those who dare criticize the leader.

The issue is Obama's decision to bar release of torture photos, and you are a PUMA if you criticize Barack Obama. The Party merits your unwavering support.

Some of the shall we say less-than-sophisticated Democrats get right in line behind the leader, a la the most unthinking of the Republican mob.

Gleen Greenwald notes today:

Apparently, the proper reaction to heinous acts by our political leaders is not to hold them accountable but, instead, to hide evidence of what they did. That's the warped mentality Obama is endorsing today, and has been endorsing since January 20.

Raul Hilberg and Norman Cohn, were they alive today, would look on in disgust at this mob of the unthinking.

I thought the dittoheads were limited to their side.

Obama's Assualt - A Sister Secrecy Moment

Update: Greenwald on Obama's latest effort to conceal evidence of Bush era crimes. Dittoheads beware, Greeenwald links to John Aravosis (Obama's logic was "a bit Bushian") Steve Hynd ("Obama Trades Our Principles For Cheneyism") TPM ("Obama falls back on Bushisms") Dan Froomkin ("Obama Joins the Cover-Up"). And as Greenwald points out, "Obama now has new cheer-leaders: Bill Kristol, Michael Goldfarb and Max Boot," and come MyDD commenters below.

This is a trust-breaking moment, President Obama, and you really blew it.

It's not a mistake. It's an assault against this democracy.

That would be President Obama's decision to to block release of detainee photos of torture out of a concern that the photos would “further inflame anti-American opinion.”

What is this, a Sister Secrecy moment? Are you trying to prove to America that you're really not an open government, transparency-loving, honest, straight-shooting democrat?

Obama's argument is:

We cannot practice democracy at home by ensuring that the American people have access to IMAGES of facts already known, because we're afraid that sympathizers of torture victims will seek revenge.

If Obama is worried about the troops, get them the hell of out of these two wars in Asia already. Release the photos and then condemn them in the strongest possible terms, singling out the Neocon idiots on whose watch these obscenities happened and who ordered torture to begin with, instead of refusing to investigate and prosecute these war criminals.

From the Times:

The A.C.L.U. sharply criticized the president’s decision. In a statement, its executive director, Anthony D. Romero said:

'The Obama administration’s adoption of the stonewalling tactics and opaque policies of the Bush administration flies in the face of the president’s stated desire to restore the rule of law, to revive our moral standing in the world and to lead a transparent government. This decision is particularly disturbing given the Justice Department’s failure to initiate a criminal investigation of torture crimes under the Bush administration.

'It is true that these photos would be disturbing; the day we are no longer disturbed by such repugnant acts would be a sad one. In America, every fact and document gets known – whether now or years from now. And when these photos do see the light of day, the outrage will focus not only on the commission of torture by the Bush administration but on the Obama administration’s complicity in covering them up. Any outrage related to these photos should be due not to their release but to the very crimes depicted in them. Only by looking squarely in the mirror, acknowledging the crimes of the past and achieving accountability can we move forward and ensure that these atrocities are not repeated.'

Already, the Democratic equivalents of dittoheads are lining up behind the leader. Pathetic.

Russ Feingold: Government in Secret

Thank you Russ Feingold.

See Russ Feingold: Government in Secret in the LA Times via Common Dreams:

... It’s a given in our democracy that laws should be a matter of public record. But the law in this country includes not just statutes and regulations, which the public can readily access. It also includes binding legal interpretations made by courts and the executive branch. These interpretations are increasingly being withheld from the public and Congress. ...

In a serious presidential campaign, the Bush administration's performance on the issue of secrecy in a democratic society would be debated endlessly by the major candidates. How about you, Sen. McCain: What's your opinion on the Bush administration's commitment to secrecy?

I don't believe we will get this discussion in the campaign from George Stephanopoulos, Charles Gibson and Wolf Blitzer.

Open Our Government

Our government wants to know a lot about us, but almost nothing about them. It should be the other way around.

OpenTheGovernment.org concludes:

The current administration has exercised an unprecedented level not only of restriction of access to information about federal government's policies and decisions, but also of suppression of discussion of those policies, their underpinnings, and their implications. It has also increasingly refused to be held accountable to the public through the oversight responsibilities of Congress. These practices inhibit democracy and our representative government; neither the public nor Congress can make informed decisions in these circumstances. Our open society is undermined and made insecure.

And Ruth Rosen reports on The Secret White House. This regime does not see itself as accountable to the public, and deserves to be treated as such. Face it, we live in a society high-jacked by an authoritarian bunch of repulsive renegades, at least if one believes in a Jeffersonian conception of government.
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