The Third Estate Sunday Review focuses on politics and culture. We're an online magazine. We don't play nice and we don't kiss butt. In the words of Tuesday Weld: "I do not ever want to be a huge star. Do you think I want a success? I refused "Bonnie and Clyde" because I was nursing at the time but also because deep down I knew that it was going to be a huge success. The same was true of "Bob and Carol and Fred and Sue" or whatever it was called. It reeked of success."
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Beyond Gall & Evil
Did you catch Tracy Russo's post last week? It opened:
As President Barack Obama has stated, “Openness will strengthen our democracy, and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government.” This week, we celebrate Sunshine Week — an appropriate time to discuss the importance of open government and freedom of information, and to take stock of how far we have come, and think about what more can be done.
It was so 'important,' it was posted at the White House website as well as at the Justice Department's website.
It wasn't 'important' to the administration at all. Just more pretty words.
If you doubt that, while they were stressing the importance of "openness," a federal court judge was making it clear that they needed to lose the hyper-secrecy regarding the drones.
“It is neither logical nor plausible for the CIA to maintain that it would reveal anything not already in the public domain to say the Agency at least has an intelligence interest in such strikes,” said Chief Judge Merrick Garland. “The defendant is, after all, the Central Intelligence Agency.”
It takes a lot of gall to hide reality from the American people and the courts. It takes something even greater than gall to do so while you're having your flunkies praise you publicly for your commitment to "openess."
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Illustration is Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "Flatter Than A Ken Doll." Judge's quote from David G. Savage's "Federal court rejects CIA's denial of drone strikes as 'fiction'" (Los Angeles Times).