Carnival of Insanities Recommended: American Thinker

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The Washington Post reports today that the White House is focusing its attention on media leaks:
The Bush administration, seeking to limit leaks of classified information, has launched initiatives targeting journalists and their possible government s…

The recent media flap, if nothing else, has demonstrated that the media must be accountable for veracity, and that proposals for a “shield” law are inviting irresponsible and wilfully false journalism.

… Oh, my, my! All anyone did was break a few laws and pass a few Top Secret defense secrets on to our nation’s enemies, and now they might (gasp!) end up in jail! Well cry me a frickin’ river! ……

“The Justice Department also argued in a court filing last month that reporters can be prosecuted under the 1917 Espionage Act for receiving and publishing classified information.”

I read that this 1917 law was updated in the 1950s but has never been applied to a reporter.

This was news to me. I always thought that only the leaker could be prosecuted.

Did you know you elected the Washington Post and the New York Times to manage our national security?

I do not jest. . . ….

“We do not want to inadvertently threaten human life or legitimately harm national security in our reporting,” he said. “But it’s important . . . in our constitutional system that these final decisions be made by newspaper editors and not the government.”

I bolded this because it should be emphasized beyond a “blockquote”. This is what I began referring to during the 2004 presidential campaign as a “Kerryesque” statement. “We don’t want to (fil in the blank) – BUT…………..” . The Left has turned this sort of rationalization into an artform.

During the over 2 decades I spent in signals intelligence, I never even discussed my work with my wife, much less a reporter. You’re right, however, that it’s about money in the case of the press and about political power in the case of people like Senator Rockefeller, neither of which seems to have even the slightest notion of the stakes involved.

Ever since the press wrote, “Caesar to appear at the Senate on the 15th,” leaks have been a part of the news. Many times they are innocuous. Often they are on purpose — the infamous trial balloon. We have come to expect them and are seldom surp…

Anywyas. . . . . My problem with your post? The Administration HAS cleaned house, based on media, and congressional demands. . . .and with the Brown situation? I think the Pres has EVERY right, to chose who he pleases, and the CONGRESS and the PRESS has proven themselves completely incompetant.

I just can’t believe the dumb statements he keeps making, but this one is incredible.The Plame investigation. An investigation in which the President ordered everyone on staff to cooperate with like no other Admin in recent history, which included waiving any right to confidentiality to reporters.

Apparently Rockefeller doesn’t realize he set his own bar too high. So we can all be sure when the investigators come a knocking Mr. Rockefeller will cooperate to the fullest and request his staff to do to, right?

HT Strata-Sphere

Strata-Sphere has an extensive commentary of these “leaks” in time of war.

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Administration Is Cleaning House

The purge of partisan leakers who expose national security programs m……