Thursday, December 9, 2010

Two for One today Since I have been working

There has been a lot of talk recently about Wikileaks and its founder Julian Assange.  Even on this blog, I have discussed recent revelations about the situation between China and North Korea that came through as a result of the recently published cables.  Let us just say that this has caused a bit of a stir. This is no doubt Mr. Assange’s intention.  I, for the most part, am wary of people trying to make a hero of this man.
Make no mistake; this is a man whose primary motivation for doing what he is doing is to weaken the ability of the United States government to engage in diplomacy abroad and to defend itself.  In his own writing he has stated that that, not creating a more open or transparent society, is his primary intention.  He has shown blatant disregard for whoever might get hurt as a result of these actions, dismissing it as “collateral damage” and these people are not just American military and intelligence personal. These are foreign operatives working in support of US operation, dissidents of regimes such as Iran, North Korea, Cuba, etc. and their families. Such information may also, in the wrong hands make us more venerable to terrorist attacks. One recently leaked document showed up to seven places outside the US that are vital to American interests. One could almost see him circling them with a red marker and saying “Attack here.”

On another note, President Obama recently reached a deal with the Republicans in the House of Representatives regarding an extension of unemployment benefits to millions of American still looking for work. You would think that the Democrats would be happy about this but they are not. Instead they are fuming with rage over the very idea and why is that? Because in order to achieve this, he had to agree to extend the Bush Tax cuts.
“O My God, a lawmaker compromised, how terrible” I am sorry people but this is still a representative democracy and we still need a functional government the supports all of its people not just the ones that vote a particular way. That fact the many self styled “progressives” were willing to put the ability of millions of people to support themselves why they looked for working in limbo, just so they could score some partisan trophy disturbs me. Our government was set up by the Founding Fathers to make it so that our leaders would have to compromise to accomplish anything because they wanted to mitigate the influence of ideologues and demagogues. It seems as though politics has become less about governing the country than it is about winning. Those on the other side of the aisle are no longer fellow citizens with a different point of view, but the enemy. The sad thing is that history has shown that when politics becomes warfare, democracy becomes impossible.

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