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It Is Treason To Call Wikileaks Treason by John Jay Myers
Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press. Now get over it.
You might believe some speech gives away national secrets, for instance how we prop up puppet dictators in foreign countries, or how we have been training troops who are now turning against us in droves, or how we are supplying billions of dollars to countries who supply those who want to attack us, or how we back companies that supply men with young boys for sex slaves in Afghanistan, or how the leaders of the countries we manipulate are now scared that we aren’t bombing Iran. Surely no one should become privy to this.
Or should they? I am shocked to realize that the American people don’t stand up and say, “Why are we putting in these puppet dictators? Why are we arming and training troops to fight us? Why are we giving billions to those who want to do us harm? Why are we pimping young boys? Why would we want to bomb Iran in the name of Saudi Arabia?”
It seems to me we have an ostrich mentality in America. Americans can choose to have information, or they can go lock step with their favorite news channel and fight for the right to keep their heads buried in the sand.
They say knowledge is power. Would we rather cede that power to the same government officials 87% of us are completely dissatisfied with? Do you really believe that in matters of foreign policy this corrupt group of ninnies somehow becomes more competent? Is it possible that their secret actions actually put our nation, the American people, and our military personnel in more danger?
We have to make a choice, do we want to know these things that could save countless lives and restore America as the shining light on the hill, or should we sacrifice our greatness for what may harm a few? Would our leaders put those few in harm’s way in the first place if government actions were truly public?
It’s pretty odd that a foreigner who exposes unconstitutional secrets that enable a dangerous foreign policy of belligerence should be accused of treason and condemned for risking the safety of our nation. Instead, Wikileaks actually needs to become a permanent policy for American government. I think all government correspondence that does not involve missile codes or troop locations should be public, and any government correspondence that isn’t made public should be labeled as treason.
We should just make all government wires transparent, starting now. Tell all federal employees, “Oh by the way, all of your correspondence is public. Any correspondence you engage in that is ‘government business’ not made public will be labeled as treason.” Freedom of information and government transparency make us safer by keeping government officials accountable to the American people and to the Constitution they swore to defend and uphold. Wikileaks would be the full body scanner for the United States government.
Were you aware that Iran was offering to help in the stabilization of Iraq and the war on terror if we would remove their name as a sponsor of terror? I was not, but thanks to Wikileaks I am.
Maybe we would consider diplomatic above board solutions rather than espionage and corporate sabotage. Maybe we would stop doing backroom deals with mega corporations like Halliburton, Lockheed Martin, and BP. Maybe we should start dealing with other countries and their people, and let those people stand up for their own freedom instead of being inspired to hate us by our foreign policy of corporatism.
I imagine there is quite a bit of “small stuff” in the 248,000 yet to be released documents that the media has not sifted through to protect the innocent, which I might add is a procedure that has happened to all 1200 of the pages released so far.
But I don’t sweat the “small stuff.” What concerns mean is the big stuff, the obvious information that reveals our government is lying in regards to how our trillion-dollar foreign policy is working out. They are lying to us in regards to the actions we are taking in other countries and even lying to us in regards to whether we are violating the Constitution.
If the government is involved with illegal activities then they need to be exposed no matter the cost. Wrong is wrong, and the safety of the people is no excuse for hiding illegal secrets that threaten the safety of the people. The more these acts are disclosed, the less likely they will occur in future, and the safer we will be.
The most disturbing factor about Wikileaks is the nature of the attacks from the political class and the media. It should be startling to all of us the lengths those who are supposed to protect us will go in order to maintain a web of lies. Those lies allow government to exercise powers it does not have. We must never forget that an unchecked government is the greatest threat to our freedom, and a government immune to scrutiny will inevitably escape its constitutional bindings.
It could be that the most enlightening thing about Wikileaks is just how anti-Constitution our leaders have become.
John Jay Myers is a small business owner from Dallas Texas, Vice-Chair of the Dallas County Libertarian Party, and member of the Executive Committee for the Libertarian Party of Texas.
I would love to see Karen Kwiatkowski run for president. Does anyone know if she has any leanings in that direction?
I think Mr. Myers would make a fine presidential candidate, also, but I haven’t heard that he’s interested in running, at least not yet.
It’s good to see John Jay Meyers trying to break into the media market as an LP commentator. Let’s hope he makes it.
The LP needs to reach out with at least four different markets in mind, which means four different spokespersons:
* to the right, and Root is way out there already.
* to the left
* to the moderate middle. The kind of approach that Robert Capozzi seems to favor. This may be where we can gain the most new Libertarians.
* to the hard hitting, principled middle of the LP. This is where I would like the LP to be.
We have to reach out to all Americans who are in the big-tent libertarian leaning quadrant, and accept them into our party, so reaching out in a moderate way to left, right and middle of the road voters is essential. Then, we need to present the principled and more radical view, to show the full range of libertarian thought and help everyone move toward the libertarian middle. Of course everyone has different ideas of just what this ideal libertarian vision is, so having more and more LP spokespersons is better.
I’m not familiar enough with John Jay Meyers yet to know where he fits.
We should not try to silence Root, nor attack him. We just need to get more spokespersons out there to balance the message and increase the volume. In fact, having different viewpoints that are all within the big tent L quadrant could help gain exposure for all and increase our total message volume, so we can fill up our big tent.
John Jay Myers lacks the media attention given a Ron Paul or Karen Kwiatkowski, but otherwise Myers seems like he’d make an excellent candidate.
Myers has shown a willingness to speak hard libertarian truths, irrespective of how neocon talk radio might feel about it.
I think Myers should consider running for the LP presidential nomination, and Libertarians should consider his candidacy.
John Jay Myers hits the nail on the head here.
Maybe he should run for President.
I forgot to say in yesterday’s comment, good to see US Libertarians addressing this issue.
tms23, yes, phobes, philes, and maniacs all seem to miss the essential center, and thereby the heart of the matter. Root is doing his best to advance liberty as best he can. Sometimes, he appears to self promote in ways that can be off putting for some, especially those who don’t appreciate his brand of L-ism.
Your campaign against Root might seem to you to be righteous, but it may seem more like Rootophobia to others. That you changed the subject of this thread to Root might give others that impression.
@ 20
I’d thought of Rootaphile.
But no. Be Rational was referring to psychological disorders.
That would be Rootamania.
I suppose one symptom of Rootamania is that its sufferers imagine themselves to be merely Rootaphiles.
Indeed, a very nice article.
#15 , lol
tms, yes, Rootophile.
@ 15
Is there a contravening psychological disorder — Rootamania? — wherein people exhibit an inordinate adoration of Wayne Allyn Root, to a degree that almost equals Root’s own self-love?
@15….rofl
Make that Alec Baldwin, world’s greatest actor, president of the Film Actor’s Guild.
br, as a Giants fan, I blame Root for DeSean Jackson’s punt return yesterday, too! Root had to be calling the shots on that one.
There are reports that Root was in Belarus in recent weeks, manipulating the electorate there.
Someone, somewhere has pics of Root sitting with Kim Jung Il. A third man, reportedly Alex Baldwin, was also there. NK sabre rattling then backing down…all Root, all the time! 😉
“Rootophobia” … a psychological disorder in which the patient becomes obsessed with the importance and power of a relatively unknown individual named Wayne Root who was the Libertarian Party candidate for Vice President in 2008.
The obsession causes the patient to manifest a distorted view of reality. The patient will take every opportunity to attack Wayne Root out of fear that the general public will be influenced by Wayne Root into a misunderstanding of the personal libertarian dogma that the patient has deluded himself into believing is a form of universal truth.
In reality, the number of people influenced by Wayne Root appears to be close to zero. The only measurable group affected by Mr. Root seems to be a tiny handful who have become Rootaphobic.
Rootaphobia appears to strike primarily an isolated group of Americans who spend a large amount of time in on-line discussion forums.
The cure seems to be to take a month-long vacation away from watching or reading political news, blogs or internet stories, to pass this vacation in the company of any of the 99.99% of Americans who have never heard of Wayne Root, and to refrain from discussing or even thinking about Wayne Root. The patient should watch the sun rise and set while sitting on a warm beach and ponder the size of the Earth and the Universe.
The final stage in the treatment is to bring the patient to understand that Wayne Root is like a grain of sand on another beach far away from this one and just like that grain of sand, he has no power over the patient’s life.
tms13: …I think that any Libertarian issue can be tied to Root’s position or action or inaction on it.
me: Yes, I s’pose so. It appears you make a habit of it!
POI–Who aside from Aaron Starr makes this claim about Root’s “de facto” status? Personally, I find it overstated, moderately arrogant, and counter-productive to any ambitions Root may have. I’d suggest Starr and any others lose that rhetoric.
Capozzi, since Root’s supporters claim that Root is the “de facto face of the LP,” and Root stated in 2008 that he wants to be the LP’s “leader,” and he continues to seek the LP’s top leadership spots (presidential nomination, chair), I think that any Libertarian issue can be tied to Root’s position or action or inaction on it.
If Root were to stop selling himself in the media as the LP’s de facto leader, then of course it would be overkill to talk so much about Root.
But more importantly, are my Root points valid or off base?
If my points are weak, off base, or groundless, then Root can only benefit from my posts.
I’m content to let readers decide for themselves. Some will think my points valid, others will think not.
Very good article.
Here is another one we were also sent. I am still on break from posting new IPR threads and reading comments, but I passed it along to the other IPR writers…
****.
Again, Sipos is right about Root & wrong about Ron
Paul.
Counterrevolutionaries are agaist the reactionary government as much as progressives and libertarias.
tms7, OK. But I guess you missed my point…sorry I wasn’t clear. This was a column about WikiLeaks by Myers. Root had nothing to do with the subject, yet you seem to be — for lack of a better word — obsessed with WAR.
I guess if he were tantamount to the L anti-Christ, perhaps with a “666” tattooed under his hair, I guess I could understand your Rootophobia.
Short of that, turning every subject to its Root implications seems a bit off to me.
Agreed,Sipos can find a Root angle just about anywhere at any time.
Not that I’m complaining, but how come that isok,but I can’t do the same about ****?
This just shows the contradictions & absurdity of the IPR special threads policy.
Eliminate this policy,IPR. These issuesresolve themselves over time. The paid petitioners, Chelene,USParliamet, ****, etc have allchanged & moderated.CatholicTrotskyisthas changed comment patterns. I had nothijacked a thread in quite sometime etc.
Get with the program. Talk free speach, do free speech.
Capozzi: “tms, you are consistent. … I’m surely not as skilled a prognosticator as you are, but this time, my Sipos-ofile skills proved sound.”
Once you realize that Root’s statements are motivated by how it will appeal to his current customer base (usually the neocon media, unless he’s currently running for an LP office), you’ll find him as easy to predict as me.
Don’t let Root’s flip flops baffle you. Ignore what he may have said in the past. Instead, use “how will this now affect Root’s career” as a compass, and you’ll be predicting Root too!
@5
A “wedge” is something that divides people. For example, we can “drive a wedge” into a log to split the log.
Instead, what we want to do is “forge links” with sympathetic groups.
But, understanding your point, this is a good opportunity to reach out to another group of American voters and forge links with libertarian leaning Americans who value the services of Wikileaks and other whistleblower and free speech groups.
I believe it would be more effective to lead in using wikileaks to drive the wedge between libertarian-leaning Americans of whatever other inclination. If Mr. Root can drive a wedge between the libertarian tea partiers and Republican authoritarians like Sarah Palin, who did not quite call for Assange’s assassination, good for him. I believe there also a fertile field in the antiwar movement — where we have a great advantage over other parties — and among progressive Democrats.
tms, you are consistent. When I saw you’d commented on this, I said to myself, “I bet Sipos will somehow work in a Root angle.”
I’m surely not as skilled a prognosticator as you are, but this time, my Sipos-ofile skills proved sound.
This is a great piece.
Ron Paul has also boldly defended Wikileaks.
But shouldn’t “de facto face of the Libertarian Party Wayne Allyn Root” be leading the charge?
wow
This is a nice piece. Will it be published anywhere besides IPR?