If this effort by the government ends up as they typically do, we will be up to our ears in leakers.

At the same time I am sorry that tens of thousands more ordinary people are not politically active (for a number of good reasons) I am very glad they are NOT out in the streets with guns. (Of course that’s not the only alternative—but it is the more or less automatic historical knee-jerk response.)
  We are trying to “cross over” to get to the other side of “kill”—which has been a more or less common verb throughout U.S.  history, all things considered.
  We have hints from nonviolent leaders from the past
to point in the general direction of .... ?  But right now we are working to overcome our fears, to think of new, engaging, humane, practical ways to move into the halls of power, to imagine a abetter way and to avoid being crushed by “business as usual” with its monstrous machinery of sterile and blind power. Give us this day .....

gerard;

What you have said makes perfect sense in a alternate reality where the problem is the “government” and not the people themselves.

Our Achilles Heel seems to be us! The 1% could not “run rough shot” over us without the constant assistance of 20% to 40% of our own.

One of the greatest dangers to what is left of this republic is the homogenization of the flow of information:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/11/22/1038964/-Homogenization?via=blog_744899

Just as 98% of the Corporate media (that includes cable) are “synchronized” and deliver their information in unison, the net thanks to large corporate monopolies (Google, Comcast) are mimicking the big guys.

vector:  Interesting idea:  “... until the left can find a way to translate ....”  Yes!  But I balk at the immediate and habituated tendency to translate “raw” political power as “force”.
  I think that’s exactly where the entire world stands, more or less, and why, though new methods are being tried, nothing has yet become clearly understood, and adequate, understood or “successful.”
  I had hoped when WikiLeaks released the cables, the U.S. government (coming out of a relatively “advanced” culture) would react by appreciating the new (internet) capabilities and using the releases to self-correct.
  Instead, the government so far has only followed the old “force” game, reacting by attempting to shut down information and proceed according to methods which the Internet essentially makes redundant and inadequate to the need.(It is tragic to see that so far the internet is being used to control people, and not to free them.)
  Punishing Manning and Assange (or others) will only delay the increasing necessity for change in information sharing worldwide which internet access enables. At the same time trying to “control” the internet to conform with nationalistic ambitions will retard the possible development of forms of democracy, adapting to various cultures gradually and peaceably by choice.
  I am amazed at the government’s lack of vision. and I fear that our leading the world toward a more inteligent future is almost out of the question, unless viewpoints in Washington change more rapidly.
We need the kind of intelligence that realizes the direction in which technology is moving, which is toward a more human humanity.

“Scooter Libby vs. Bradley Manning”

What this means to me is the “right” can protect their people and the “left” can not!

Obama like every other politician respects and fears power. When AIPAC, or Wall Street calls politicians trip over one another to get to the phone first! When the left seeks their attention, they don’t even pick up. Until the left can find a way to translate all the “marching” and carrying cleaver signs into raw political power we are just “barking at the moon!”

For a revealing comparison between the treatment of Bradley Manning in contrast to Scooter Libbey (by Saul Landau) see Counterpunch.org. current issue (Mar 10-11) entitled “Scooter Libby vs. Bradley Manning”

Every presidential election year I re-read 2 books. First, fear and loathing on the campaign trail. It shows that the names of the players may change, but the game stays the same. And of course, 1984. for the very same reasons.

War is peace
Freedom is slavery

The only difference is that this stuff used to be done in smoke filled rooms. Now it is arrogantly done in plain site, with the oligharchs and plutocrats middle fingers fully extended.

More of Obamafraud’s “Mendacity of Hope”.

Is this what he meant by ‘change you can believe in’?

Troublesomely vague, apparently self-protective nuances in the Justice Department’s statement that are of enormous importance in the Wikileaks trials:
  “It is the justice department’s policy that the prosecutorial power of the government should NOT be
used in such a way that it impairs a reporter’s responsibility to cover AS BROADLY AS POSSIBLE con-
troversial PUBLIC ISSUES.” 
  The government is going to have to prove that BOTH ITS OWN EXCESSIVE SECRECY (over-classification compounded by loose availability standards) and THE PROSECUTION itself DO NOT IMPAIR a reporter’s RESPONSIBILITY to cover AS BROADLY AS POSSIBLE controversial public issues.

 

“During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act”

George Orwell