We Have Become a Nation of Suckers

Dear President sucks on a joint.

And the biggest suckers are the supporters and proponents of the massive deficit spending and debt skyrocketing regime of Dear President. Now the price of keeping the government going is to cave to Dear President's rants and ravings by dropping the sequester and accelerating the trajectory of growing debt. Unbelievable.

The depths to which this man has descended to are particularly obvious to many who have been around for decades and can judge the deviousness of the person and his regime against that backdrop. Take what Len Downie, a 44-year veteran of the far right wing publication, The Washington Post, has to say.  It's Nixonian.

Leonard Downie Jr., a former executive editor of The Washington Post, wrote the 30-page analysis entitled "The Obama Administration and the Press." The report notes President Barack Obama came into office pledging an open, transparent government after criticizing the Bush administration's secrecy, "but he has fallen short of his promise." 

"In the Obama administration's Washington, government officials are increasingly afraid to talk to the press," wrote Downie, now a journalism professor at Arizona State University. "The administration's war on leaks and other efforts to control information are the most aggressive I've seen since the Nixon administration, when I was one of the editors involved in The Washington Post's investigation of Watergate."

In the Nixon era it was the man and his tactics that caused a Constitutional crisis. Modern era unblinking sentiment blames political opponents when Dear President's lies and false claims don't bear out and Constitutional stalemate results. Style counts and truth is the victim.

In Dear President's administration, questioning, probing and opposite points of view (i.e., true diversity) are not permitted. Take for example Interior Secretary Sally Jewell. In a remarkably prescient statement, considering her use of Gestapo like tactics to shutter National Park Service lands, easements, through routes, scenic views and private facilities during the appropriations lapse, Jewel said "I hope there are no climate change deniers in the Department of Interior." No disagreement? There is plenty of reason to question, even reject the single variable, manufactured data, straight line extrapolation "findings" of global warming proponents, just as there was to question the global cooling proponents who emerged during the 1970's. But not in Dear President's control freak mind meld administration. Workers of the world unite; you must obey.

Intimidation and control are the rules,

"There's no question that sources are looking over their shoulders," Michael Oreskes, the AP's senior managing editor, told Downie. "Sources are more jittery and more standoffish, not just in national security reporting. A lot of skittishness is at the more routine level. The Obama administration has been extremely controlling and extremely resistant to journalistic intervention."

To bypass journalists, the White House developed its own network of websites, social media and even created an online newscast to dispense favorable information and images. In some cases, the White House produces videos of the president's meetings with major figures that were never listed on his public schedule. Instead, they were kept secret — a departure from past administrations, the report noted.

Frank Sesno, a former CNN Washington bureau chief who is now director of George Washington University's School of Media and Public Affairs, told Downie the combined efforts of the Obama administration are "squeezing the flow of information."

"Open dialogue with the public without filters is good, but if used for propaganda and to avoid contact with journalists, it's a slippery slope," Sesno said.

Sesno is someone else who has been around for a very long time. Yes, people, go with Dear President and keep that government going that you are unable and unwilling to pay for. See how this works out. As I've said, "Suckers!"