One might say the U.S. Government is out of control. Not, however, in the manner described by the Tea Party crackpots and those goofballs who point to the president and scream "Obamunist"!
Mr. Greenwald, in an article at Salon.com, references a Washington Post investigative series by Dana Priest and William Arkin which describes "the sprawling, unaccountable, inexorably growing secret U.S. Government," which Priest and Arkin dub "Top Secret America."
Greenwald called attention to our secretive government about a week ago "when writing about the Obama administration's escalating war on whistle blowers:
"'Most of what the U.S. Government does of any significance -- literally -- occurs behind a vast wall of secrecy, completely unknown to the citizenry....Secrecy is the religion of the political class, and the prime enabler of its corruption. That's why whistle blowers are among the most hated heretics. They're one of the very few classes of people able to shed a small amount of light on what actually takes place.'"
In his Salon article, Greenwald quotes the first sentence in the WaPo series:
"The top-secret world the government created in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has become so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work."
What we have here is "an alternative geography of the United States, a Top Secret America hidden from public view and lacking in thorough oversight."
Thus, says Greenwald, "We chirp endlessly about the Congress, the White House, the Supreme Court, the Democrats and Republicans, but this is the Real U.S. Government: functioning in total darkness, beyond elections and parties, so secret, vast and powerful that it evades the control or knowledge of any one person or even any organization."
Greenwald further comments on one of my major concerns -- that government is increasingly owned by the private corporatists and operated for the sake of those corporatists with little or no concern for "we the people." Speaking of the "secret world" that is our government, Greenwald says, "This world is so vast, secretive and well-funded that it's very difficult to imagine how it could ever be brought under control. That's particularly true given its inextricable intertwining with the private sector: the billions upon billions of dollars funneled from the Government to its private-sector 'partners' .... "
How this works out in practice becomes painfully obvious when Roger Altman, investment banker, insists the only way to bring Obama and the business community together is "if the political class is willing to 'fix Social Security' -- i.e., to slash Americans' retirement security."
Greenwald quotes George Carlin: "And now, they're coming for your Social Security money - they want your fucking retirement money - they want it back - so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street. And you know something? They'll get it. They'll get it all from you sooner or later. Because they own this fucking place. It's a Big Club: and you're not in it."
At this point I have not seen the Priest and Arkin series. Only the first installment has been run. But I intend to do so, especially after reading Greenwald's article.
And, as Greenwald points out, it really isn't important if Sarah Palin can't spell or read or write. Unfortunately, however, our media will obsess about the tweets from the twit from Alaska, while ignoring the real story which is in process of being written behind our backs by those in the Big Club in Washington!
Please read Greenwald's entire article here.
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