This is really not that complex, and it has less to do with 'big money' in politics than old-fashioned hard politicking.
Back in the 70's conservatives started doing the hard work of becoming a political power: running for office, dog catcher, school board, city council, on to state legislators and up. They build a powerful coalition based on getting their own out to vote when it mattered.
Meanwhile the center-left were not "members of any organized political party, they were Democrats", to quote a famous populist Democrat.
You have to start at the grass roots, and run people in every election for every office. This should be the goal of any progressive political group: "Every office, Every election." They will lose. A LOT. Over and over again. But people will start winning, and more to the point, people will hear those opposing views, and if they resonate as much as opinion polls do, they will start winning elections.
It's a long, hard slog, but imagine what we could do with state houses full of people like Elizabeth Warren. Our side hasn't really had to do this since the turn of the last century, but this is what's needed.
CONTRACTORINT...What the hordes of non-NSA analysts...(like Edward Snowden) have done with their unprecedented access to American communications.
Gee, wonder if Booz, Allen's wondrous success in attracting government contracts is attributable to more than their cozy relationships with the Washington elites.
Minor nit: prohibiting government employees from reading erstwhile classified information is hardly the same as the Pentagon Papers case. That the Wikileaks cables were published does not affect their classification status, legally, and it's perfectly acceptable to prohibit Government employees from accessing information above their classification grade.
It's absurd, true, but not an assault on the First Amendment.
The Administration is NOT prosecuting the Times for printing the Wikileaks cables.
And still no one is seriously bringing up the issue of why on earth some contractor, after a few months on the job, was allowed access to all of these systems. It implies there are thousands and thousands of private contractors with such access...and surely some number of them are willing to use their access for nefarious means, from garden variety extortion to insider trading, on up to private or state-sponsored espionage; because, frankly, the average American is far more likely to be harmed by those activities than the NSA spying on us.
Come now, this is just a civil action between persons.
And as we all know, all persons are equal; it's just that some are more equal than others.
What's even worse, is that the Judge seems unaware that even foreigners have First Amendment rights in the United States, where this trial and the records in question reside.
But, of course, since we're not really a constitutional republic any more, but a corporate oligarchy with a thin veneer of democracy-like features, we can only hope that some other person equal to Chevron takes an interest in this case, if only so that all the rest of us mere fleshbag persons can ride along on their more equal corporate coattails.
This is really not that complex, and it has less to do with 'big money' in politics than old-fashioned hard politicking.
Back in the 70's conservatives started doing the hard work of becoming a political power: running for office, dog catcher, school board, city council, on to state legislators and up. They build a powerful coalition based on getting their own out to vote when it mattered.
Meanwhile the center-left were not "members of any organized political party, they were Democrats", to quote a famous populist Democrat.
You have to start at the grass roots, and run people in every election for every office. This should be the goal of any progressive political group: "Every office, Every election." They will lose. A LOT. Over and over again. But people will start winning, and more to the point, people will hear those opposing views, and if they resonate as much as opinion polls do, they will start winning elections.
It's a long, hard slog, but imagine what we could do with state houses full of people like Elizabeth Warren. Our side hasn't really had to do this since the turn of the last century, but this is what's needed.
They're also deeply involved in the charter school movement here in the US. link to washingtonpost.com
$9 million dollars? This represents, what, a weeks profits? This is 'cost of doing business' penalties not 'don't do this anymore' penalties.
Also not mentioned here:
CONTRACTORINT...What the hordes of non-NSA analysts...(like Edward Snowden) have done with their unprecedented access to American communications.
Gee, wonder if Booz, Allen's wondrous success in attracting government contracts is attributable to more than their cozy relationships with the Washington elites.
Minor nit: prohibiting government employees from reading erstwhile classified information is hardly the same as the Pentagon Papers case. That the Wikileaks cables were published does not affect their classification status, legally, and it's perfectly acceptable to prohibit Government employees from accessing information above their classification grade.
It's absurd, true, but not an assault on the First Amendment.
The Administration is NOT prosecuting the Times for printing the Wikileaks cables.
And still no one is seriously bringing up the issue of why on earth some contractor, after a few months on the job, was allowed access to all of these systems. It implies there are thousands and thousands of private contractors with such access...and surely some number of them are willing to use their access for nefarious means, from garden variety extortion to insider trading, on up to private or state-sponsored espionage; because, frankly, the average American is far more likely to be harmed by those activities than the NSA spying on us.
Come now, this is just a civil action between persons.
And as we all know, all persons are equal; it's just that some are more equal than others.
What's even worse, is that the Judge seems unaware that even foreigners have First Amendment rights in the United States, where this trial and the records in question reside.
But, of course, since we're not really a constitutional republic any more, but a corporate oligarchy with a thin veneer of democracy-like features, we can only hope that some other person equal to Chevron takes an interest in this case, if only so that all the rest of us mere fleshbag persons can ride along on their more equal corporate coattails.