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 Rogues Gone WildPosted on Feb 18, 2010By David Sirota “I am in control here in the White House.” —Secretary of State Alexander Haig, 1981 Ah, the good old days when even a big shot like Gen. Al Haig could get in trouble for such mavericky declarations that defy basic constitutional precedents. In the 21st century, that’s ancient history. We’ve so idealized cowboy-style rebellion in matters of war and law enforcement that “going Haig” is today honored as “going rogue.” Defiance, irreverence, contempt—these are the moment’s most venerated postures, no matter how destructive or lawless. The Bush administration’s illegal wiretapping and torture sessions were the most obvious examples of the rogue sensibility on steroids. But then came McCain-Palin, a presidential ticket predicated almost singularly on the rogue brand. And now, even in the Obama era, that brand pervades. It began re-emerging in September with Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s Afghan escalation plan. McChrystal didn’t just ask President Barack Obama for more troops—protocol-wise, that would have been completely appropriate. No, McChrystal went rogue, pre-emptively leaking his request to the media, then delivering a public address telling Obama to immediately follow his orders. Advertisement Of course, while McChrystal’s insubordination was extra-constitutional in spirit, he at least made the effort to obtain the commander in chief’s rubber-stamp approval. The same cannot be said for the rogues inside Obama’s Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). Recall that one year ago, Obama instructed the DEA to follow his campaign pledge and respect local statutes legalizing medicinal marijuana. When the DEA kept raiding pot dispensaries in states that had passed such laws, Attorney General Eric Holder reiterated the cease-and-desist decree, stating, “What [Obama] said during the campaign is now American policy.” As even more raids nonetheless continued, the Justice Department then issued an explicit memo ordering federal agents to refrain from prosecuting those who are in “compliance with existing state laws providing for the medical use of marijuana.” And yet the DEA has recently intensified its crackdown. Here in Colorado—where voters enshrined medical marijuana’s legality in our state constitution—the feds not only raided two dispensaries, but did so in a way that deliberately humiliated their superiors. In January, the DEA stormed a company that performs cannabis quality tests. The firm’s alleged infraction? Following protocol and formally applying for a federal equipment license. DEA rogues responded to the request not with thanks or—heaven forbid—approval, but instead with the gestapo. This was topped last week when DEA agents arrested a medical marijuana grower who dared discuss his business with a local news outlet. Sensing a PR opportunity, DEA agent Jeffrey Sweetin used the spectacle to insist that he will not listen to stand-down directives from his bosses. “The time is coming when we go into a dispensary, we find out what their profit is, we seize the building and we arrest everybody,” Sweetin menacingly intoned. Once again, a rogue going wild and, once again, tacit acceptance. Rather than personnel changes reining in the out-of-control agency, the president has nominated the acting Bush-appointed DEA administrator, Michele Leonhart, to a full term. The message, then, should be clear: If you’re looking for who is “in control” of our military and police forces, don’t look to the established chain of command and don’t look to constitutional provisions that mandate civilian authority over the government bayonet. Look to the most reckless rogues—it’s a good bet they’re the ones running the show. David Sirota is the author of the best-selling books “Hostile Takeover” and “The Uprising.” He hosts the morning show on AM760 in Colorado and blogs at OpenLeft.com. E-mail him at ds@davidsirota.com. © 2010 Creators.com  TAGS:
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By Va-ian, February 21, 2010 at 8:15 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
I agree with SoTexan, the battle/struggle/fight is being won by the reactionaries and fascists because the left is, well, too nice. I love nuance, I loved debate and discussion, but while we are sitting around talking and hanging out “they” are taking over. I include Clintonians and mainline Democrats in this. I sometimes wonder if genuine progressives are a very small minority in this country. The Starbucks 30s-40s crowd is useless, they think that diversity is having friends with different last names and putting a peace frog on the old SUV. These are the folks who are genuinely confused about anger at Obama- he wants to do what’s right, but those nasty rednecks won’t let him. And isn’t our job done, I mean after all he isn’t white and his name ends in a vowel. And don’t even get me started on the little authority-loving gen Yers. I honestly feel like this country looks more and more like Weimer Germany- discredited left, militaristic goose-steppers complaining about how they were stabbed in the back in the last war or this war, invisible enemy that can appear in our midst- but is just foreign enough to serve as a good Other, bad economy, and angry salt-of-the-earth-types who are convinced that gay marriage is the reason why their kid is strung out on crank. As Sibel Edmonds asked, we all know what’s wrong, we talk, and talk, and blog, and blog, but what is the solution? Furthermore, (I ask) how do we combat the reactionaries and remain nice, inclusive folks? I don’t want to become that which we despise, but work within the system? Come on, the system is busted, kaput. And we aren’t desperate enough for a Gandhi yet, and I am afraid that while progressives learned much from Gandhi, the militarists and imperialists were also learning how to defuse such a situation.
Report thisBy liecatcher, February 21, 2010 at 7:45 pm Link to this comment
Rogues Gone Wild Posted on Feb 18, 2010
By David Sirota
When DAVID SIROTA says:
“The message, then, should be clear: If you’re
looking for who is “in control” of our military
and police forces, don’t look to the established
chain of command and don’t look to
constitutional provisions that mandate civilian
authority over the government bayonet.
Look to the most reckless rogues—it’s a good bet
they’re the ones running the show.” ,
He gives new meaning to the concepts of “red
herrings” & fecal
vomiting. And, puts big smiles on the faces of cabal
members
who not only control America, but the World, i.e.,the
MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE.
I just rewatched Michael Moore’s documentary:
Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) and nothing has changed.
The MILITARY INDUSTRIAL CONSPIRACY continues to
sacrifice the lives of we the people in
perpetual wars & has no trouble getting enlistees
since our jobs have been outsourced.
Government Sachs continues Wall Street’s plunder with
“rogue” Ben Bernanke blatantly
stealing $TRILLIONS, & with arrogance, impunity, &
zero accountability, sent it to the cabal
in Europe, pushing we the people ever deeper into a
debtor’s abyss, from which we have to
borrow even more money just to pay the interest on
ever increasing & unpayable debt.
Rogues indeed ,a camarilla of unscrupulous fascist
knaves & scoundrels. It’s no wonder the
current W.H. occupant is called Bush3.
And finally, looking for the most reckless rogues is
not only a sucker’s bet, but classic
misdirection, misinformation, & disinformation
Report thispropaganda.
By Magginkat, February 21, 2010 at 11:02 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
The comments on this article have taken more twists & turns than a drunk behind the wheels of a midget’s go-cart.
The idiots who supposedly run the federal government are missing the chance of a life time. Why not legalize pot, charge huge taxes on it similar to those on cigarettes & alcohol & get this country out of debt? I don’t smoke anything & imagine that pot smells just as bad as a dirty ash tray but according to what I have read this stuff is no worse than alcohol. Some people say it’s safer than alcohol because it’s not addictive.
If it was legalized this country could also get back to raising industrial grade hemp to make clothing & hundreds of other items. Both types would produce jobs for the unemployed as long as our stupid government does not allow those jobs to be shipped out of the country as they have been doing in recent years.
Regarding the laws that are supposed to govern medical marajuana, the federal laws should trump the state laws in this case. The officials who continue to defy the federal laws should be arrested & prosecuted…....plain and simple.
Report thisBy MeHere, February 21, 2010 at 10:27 am Link to this comment
Thanks, David Sirota, for the many important articles you write.
John McD: Very well summarized!
Rogue agencies are being run like independent nations, or maybe more like corporations? It’s important to keep track of this issue.
Report thisBy jean gerard, February 20, 2010 at 3:02 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
SoTexGuy said: “Progressives lack a defining cause and our power is largely
wasted on feel-good issues that don’t really rally us or the undecided masses.”
Worth thinking about.
The reason people are progressives is that they tend not to draw rigid lines and
divide this from that, but are more inclusive and tolerant and interested in
shades of meaning. They tend to be less quick on the trigger and wait longer
before firing their guns, metaphorically speaking. It’s their nature.
Issues they sponsor I wouldn’t call “feel-good” so much as “broader, more
inclusive, more generous.
The main reason they “don’t really rally us or undecided voters is that most
many—probably most—people are more simple-minded and go for the
absolutes, the certainties, the traditional “goods” over the traditional “bads.”
Most people prefer to do what they are told by anybody they believe in, who
wants to keep things the way they are because change involves risk.
This division may be inevitable and progressives may always be those who
Report thiswork against the drag of conservatism hanging onto yesterday one way or
another. They may always be harder to unite because their thinking is more
inclusive by nature. For the same reasons of complexity is it probably harder
to get them to unite around a common goal.
By SoTexGuy, February 20, 2010 at 1:14 pm Link to this comment
Ha! Well first off I acknowledge that Texas is rightly not considered a hot bed of Progressive thinking..or even much thinking at all.. Look at our Governor suing the EPA for trying to give us clean air plus all the Creationists he appointed trying to re-write modern science in our kids textbooks. And no one is complaining!
So I accept that my on-line name may draw some sharp looks and remarks! But the idea that I’m any kind of neo-con right wing-nut is so wrong it’s funny. Actually the SO means South.
But I am a native, multi-generational TEXAN! It’s not as much of a recommendation as it one time may have been, for sure.
I consider myself progressive (maybe not enough so for some).. If I’m bored with the movement as it is today it is that I don’t see any progress.. Legalized or medical marijuana is your bag? good for you.. Want to see more gays in public office or married at your county courthouse.. go for it.
But where’s the beef? Progressives, perhaps because of their euphoria of having elected Obama (me too!) have laid down while the torture issue gets buried, the Imperial Presidency grows, Justice is surely not in the Progressive loop and so much more.
The issues I brought up (and to some at least did not give adequate reverence) would be the fruits of a just society.. they are not, in my opinion, things to get out into the streets over.. Progressives, it seems to me, lack a defining cause and our power is largely wasting in pursuit of feel-good issues that don’t rally us or the undecided masses to the real job at hand. Major reform.
That’s about all I can say about all that.. and I appreciate that the personal attacks I got were probably only a fraction of what I could have seen if I had jumped in on a Monday!
Adios!
Report thisBy Lauren Unruh, February 20, 2010 at 8:46 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
To answer Sooo Texas,
What do you want?
We are a group of people. Those two issues are organizing ones but we have a
whole slate, from ecology to equality. If it is good for the people or planet, and
the status quo guys are against it, than it is on our plate.
I think you just want something new to make fun of or to complain about. You are
bored. I will tell you what, how about nuclear waste, especially used in munitions.
How would you like to take that on?
Here are some pictures of what it does to babies,
http://www.aztlan.net/du_deformed_iraqi_babies.htm
This stuff is blowing in the wind and leaking from reactors, so pictures like that
Report thiswill be coming to a hospital near you. Our soldiers are also bringing it home in
their bodies. Lets talk about it.
By JohnMcD, February 20, 2010 at 8:22 am Link to this comment
Its been almost 100 years since we set the Federal Reserve up as the example of what all government departments wish they could be: secretive, self-interested, unelected, and unaccountable. I guess we really like this model of government, because it seems to be spreading to every branch and office.
Report thisBy Purple Girl, February 20, 2010 at 5:01 am Link to this comment
You mean the Military and it’s subsidiaries act in their own interests, often through covert methods?
Report thisThat they ‘blaze their own trail’ when it comes to Economic, Defense and Allegience?
Sounds like our current ‘Free’ Market as well, esp our Financial sector.
Two peas in a pod. Two organizations which could have a mutally beneficial relationship.
Hmmm what would you can that…. Military Industrial Complex?
This is not an evolving Mindset in average Americans, It’s an engineered response.
Both Fear and War are profittable, but treasonous and a crime against Humanity.
If the MIC is “Rouge” as like an ignorant or impetuous Mustang- then it’s time to throw a saddle, bridle and bit and “break’ these dumbasses.But If they’re Feral- then it’s time to put the SOB’s out of Our misery.
By BarbieQue, February 20, 2010 at 12:25 am Link to this comment
Those who listened closely to Holders statement about ending the raids heard this part very clearly:
“The policy is to go after those people who violate both federal and state law,” Holder said Wednesday at the Justice Department. But he was quick to add that the feds will go after anyone who tries to “use medical marijuana as a shield” for dope dealing.
http://www.novembercoalition.org/stayinfo/breaking09/No_More_DEA_Busts.html
First of all, Chris Bartkowicz apparently (i didn’t see it) went on Denver tv and bragged about how he was going to make b/w $100-400,000 this year out of his basement. In the uncertain climate that exists in CO right now regarding medical marijuana, does anyone think this is a good idea? I’ll bet Chris doesn’t now.
Second of all, the CO Med Marijuana law allows 6 plants per patient.
Barkowicz had 12 “recommendations” so he would have been legally allowed 12+1(himself) =78 total plants.
Reports state he had 224 plants when the uninvited guests showed up.
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_14410914
Lastly, now the hapless gardener has found himself with Federal charges, which mean he most likely won’t be able to even mention medical marijuana in court. And chances are he’ll get the 5yr mandatory minimum for 100+ plants. Along with the felony record that will follow him forever.
So, this train wreck likely not only could have been avoided in the first place if Chris didn’t start braying like a donkey, and secondly, people need to listen closely to our overlords. Sometimes they don’t waste words. Many people didn’t hear that part about fed and state laws. They might want to pay attention now.
Oh and one more thing: Obama “changes his mind” regularly. So that might be something to remember as well.
Report thisBy NorCalNative, February 19, 2010 at 4:59 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Given the topic of this article, I’m surprised Mr. Sirota didn’t mention House Bill 3939, “The Truth in Trials Act.”
Under this legislation the federal legal code would be amended. It spells out specifically what DEA or federal law enforcement can and cannot do.
Basically, if a patient or medical marijuana dispensary is in compliance with state guidelines they will be given legal protection from DEA and federal law enforcement.
Report thisBy Killer Bud, February 19, 2010 at 3:14 pm Link to this comment
If “cops don’t make laws, they just enforce them”, why are police opposing marijuana legalization?
February 12th, 2010 By: Russ Belville, NORML Outreach Coordinator
I do not understand why the Feds are not more focused on what is happening in Juarez. The Mexican Pesident, Felipe Calderon is grasping for solutions to stabilize the area and get some sort of control.
Report thisDrug Lords killing one another daily and indescriminately open on the streets, vying for control to access into our country. It is so violent there that I am suprised that illegal aliens have not been given refugee status.
I think the United States is doing a disservice to our neighbors south of the border by suckling the pharmacists teat at the expense of human lives.
Mexico’s solution is the United States admitting it lost the war on drugs and making marijuana legal. Once that happens drug lords will no longer find it profitable to kill people in the name of accessing the United States to sell their drugs.
I am tired of hearing how drug lords are sending killers into hospitals to finish people off, and doctors and nurses being threatened of death if they help someone shot in a gang fight. Im tired of hearing about truckloads of people being decapitated in the name of supply and demand.
I have had Juarez on my Google news for years, and day after day the killings never stop. Yet some Feds got a bug up their ass and want to harrass citizens who are legally entitled to do what they are doing, while at the same time acting like the big elephant in the room isn’t there.
The United states is commiting a crime against the people of Mexico, by ignoring what is going on there and not realizing the only way to help them is to legalize marijuana. Otherwise the killing will continue and Mexico is going to keep suffering.
It has gone from a drug issue, to a humanitarian issue on many boundaries.
By Historian4U2, February 19, 2010 at 2:56 pm Link to this comment
Folks what we see here by All examples including the
Report thisstate party crash is the Shadow Governments operatives Reminding Obama that like JFK, he can be “touched” if he doesn’t cowtow the line as directed by the Mob Cabal that is the International Bankers. Their spokesmen are the Zionist handlers stragetically placed in his admin. like D. Axelrod, R. Emmanuele who we notice direct policy decisions both with and without his direction. It’s henchmen are the CIA who reports to no one in our Gov. and frequently execute the commands of their top Brass disstabilizing Govs.(Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq) and again IRAN, Fueling perpetual War, human trafficing, Institutionalized Slavery(Capitalism) and Nation distruction and building at the expense of the working classes thru taxes, collapsing economies and bailouts to the very institutions they command and direct (Wall Street, Federal Reserve), they propagate the disasters that empower their agendas (PNAC,Globalism)as well as the covert organizations (Mossad, CIA)that carryout their objectives (911, Drone program, False Flag ops)all of which assist in the advancement of their agenda (World domination). World History has provided the proof and the sheppal (ignorant public)serve only as
cannon fodder to their powerful minnions strategically placed in ours and every nation on earth.
By TAO Walker, February 19, 2010 at 2:03 pm Link to this comment
Us surviving free wild Indians long ago saw enough of this kind of shit to know it would inevitably pile-up to exactly the suffocating depths where it is today….hell, the tormentors tested most of it out on us first, here on Turtle Island anyhow. We have still, though, the great good luck to be organically grounded together in the Living Arrangement of our Mother Earth. The domesticated peoples, in stark CONtrast, ‘enjoy’ en masse the terrible misfortune of being “individual”-ized CONsumer-units in the ‘operating system’ (its eCONomy) of the “civilization” CONtraption (or, conTRAPtion) we call ‘the virtual world-o’-hurt.’
The true faces of your actual rulers, tame Sisters and Brothers, are no uglier today than they’ve ever been. You all are just getting to see them, in all their ruthless cruelty, unmasked….finally. It’s all just part of the terminal phase in the ten-thousand-year “HOPE!”-a-dope program to turn people into ‘god’ fodder.
“Even as you do unto these the least among you, so shall it be done unto your own selfs.” Remember?
HokaHey!
Report thisBy politicky, February 19, 2010 at 11:38 am Link to this comment
“Look to the most reckless rogues—it’s a good bet they’re the ones running the show.”
I want to know who tells the rogues what to do. The most powerful people on the plaent are rarely known to us mere mortals, lol.
Report thisBy Mundt, February 19, 2010 at 11:15 am Link to this comment
Yeah, all this oppression & repression going on under “hopey/changey” Obama. Who woulda thunk?
Report thisBy Archie1954, February 19, 2010 at 11:03 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
The president is losing his authority and that sets a dangerous precedent. Everyone of those DEA agents should be dismissed immediately for insubordination. If Reagan could fire all the flight controllers, the current president can insure his policies are carried out in like manner. This president is definitely one of my favourite people and I don’t want his adminstration to be a failure.
Report thisBy SoTexGuy, February 19, 2010 at 10:57 am Link to this comment
Like I said.. SACRED issues.
Enjoy the show.
Adios!
Report thisBy jj, February 19, 2010 at 10:52 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Geez. Once again it’s Bush’s fault? Or Haig’s? Ugh.
WHEN is this guy going to own his own presidency?
Obama sets the policies, it’s irrespective of what
Haig said or Bush did. I suppose it’s Bush’s fault
that Obama claims to support nuclear power, even
promises billions of our tax dollars, but closes
Yucca Mountain so there is no permanent storage of
nuclear waste available?
Or how about the Democratic Senator from, I believe
it was W. Va., who said that although Obama SAID he
supports clean coal, nobody in that state had seen
actions that prove it?
I’m sorry, but Obama is all talk and no action. Or
Report thiseven OPPOSITE actions! He’s also, on occasion, an
outright liar. Although it’s par for the course for
politicians, I thought he was supposed to be
different. Now it appears the only change was the
drapes in the Lincoln bedroom.
By Samson, February 19, 2010 at 10:49 am Link to this comment
I wonder why SoTexGuy deliberately mis-states the issue?
The argument is not about ‘legalized marijuana’. So, why is he talking about this? The issue is medical use of marijuana. Why is he mis-stating this? Apparently so he can push his pro-right-wing and obviously also homophobic political views?
This issue is about people who are sick and trying to deal with symptoms like pain and nausea for which marijuana is a very effective treatment. Of course, since its a treatment that grows naturally, the big pharma companies and their paid politicians hate the idea.
Of course, he also manages to smear the idea of legalization of marijuana by making it sound like a crack-pot minority view that should of course be opposed by Democrats in favor of his right-wing anti-freedom views.
But, Denver has had three referendums on the issue. The idea of complete legalization of pot has won in the city of Denver each time, with the margins increasing from 53 to 54 to 57 percent of the voters in each election.
So, our rightwinger from Texas thinks that this should be yet another issue where the Democrats ignore what their base and what the citizens as a hole are saying. Add this next to stopping the wars, opposing wall street bailouts, and national single payer health care which all have majorities of the American people supporting these positions, but which we are constantly told by the right wing that the people of this country can not have.
Of course, the real message is that you can’t have democracy in America. You only get the trappings of democracy, but when the people support something that the powerful elites don’t want, suddenly we are told that these are crack-pot views that just can’t be allowed to occur.
That’s the point Sirota was making in his round-about and unclear fashion. Who’s in charge of this country?
If the answer is not ‘the people’, then this is not a democracy.
Report thisBy SoTexGuy, February 19, 2010 at 7:25 am Link to this comment
PROGRESSSIVE-LITE
Has the Progressive agenda been distilled to just a couple of touchy-feely issues?
Sirota is a smart guy and a powerful and talented communicator.. and this commentary comes in with a bang! .. but leaves limp.
Haig? McChrystal? Co-opting the Executive branch?! This is BIG stuff.. but wait, the author is really sending up smoke signals over marijuana users being persecuted.
Robinson just pulled the other (only remaining?) Progressive card in a recent article.. CHENEY ADMITS TORTURE! .. OMG! at last we’re going after that international gangster and La Familia Bush.. right?
Well, no.. That was an intro to yet another plea to end all the troubles in the world (and occupy the minds of Progressives) by fighting on for the rights of homosexuals.
Ok, these are important issues. But legalized marijuana (and who knows what else) and gay rights have become to the Progressive movement something akin to what God, Guns and Terror are for many on the other side of the political spectrum. Sacred (and polarizing) issues with little appeal to a large segment of the electorate.
It’s not yet entirely clear to me that Obama has abandoned those who elected him.. but this kind of ‘watch the rabbit’ journalism by major Progressive spokespeople bodes ill.
With all that in mind I think it very likely McChrystal didn’t preempt the President on troop levels in Afghanistan.. He was floating the trial balloon for the Administration.. Getting out in front of opinion and giving Obama an out. So he has taken some fire for standing up in front. That’s his job after all.
Adios!
Report thisBy ed, February 19, 2010 at 6:43 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
The agents involved in these unlawful raid should be summarily fired then arrested and thrown in prison. Free country indeed!
Report thisBy KISS, February 19, 2010 at 6:23 am Link to this comment
I’m surprised you did not mention the government’s mandate from Bush and held in abeyance by Obama, that you must have your driver’s license, with all your information, to serve as gestapo type papers from WW2 vintage.
Report thisAnd than there is a little thing as the Glass-Steagal regulation that Obama knows nothing about, and the banksters chalk up another win.
Cheny is right this crooked Bozo is a one term president.
Oh by the way David, did you notice that the King of thieves, Obama failed to mention to the crowd of 2000 yesterday, there were no prison encampments for protesters, like when he was campaigning in 2009?