Today, the Obama truth is revealed. Change has come in the form of familiarity. Some American's are embarrassed. Others embrace what, when presented by the previous Administration, they rejected. Apathy helps most Americans to avoid a sense of shame. It was announced; Obama defends Bush-era secrets. This Administration has gone further to establish government sovereignty. As a nation, the Obama White House tells citizens, our country will be better protected if details about the surveillance program are considered "Top Secret - Sensitive Compartmented Information."
Another diary I was going to post tomorrow gets pre-empted.
But in light of some of the other diaries I've posted today, and the partisan breakdown behind this poll, I've decided to reconsider.
First, we can see from the above that there's a landslide majority in favor of investigations, just as David said. In fact, USA Today's story ran under the headling, "Poll: Most want inquiry into anti-terror tactics", while, ironically, Gallup's own reporting on its website ran under the highly deceptive headline, "No Mandate for Criminal Probes of Bush Administration". Of course, under Republican rules this definitely is a mandate, since those calling for criminal prosecution constitute "a majority of the majority." It's also something that's not really up for debate, at least in the case of torture. Under international law, and the treaties we're a party to, prosecution is mandatory.
Partisan breakdown and further ruminations on the flip.
Those who are coming to this story today have jumped into the middle of quite a tale. I put myself in a tough position last time by promising to link a British "garden of lust", Benjamin Franklin, and 18th Century bloggers into a narrative that concludes with the nascent United States of America and its shiny new Fourth Amendment.
So far, amazingly enough, I'm pulling it off.
If you need to catch up, here's what's been going on:
When last we met...it was in a world of scandal and intrigue; with King George III and the Earl of Bute (and of course, their assorted minions) very upset with John Entick, author, and John Wilkes, author and world-class raconteur (and drinking buddy to Franklin), because they had the temerity to...well, blog.
The Earl of Bute had taken so much abuse from the Johns that he had been forced to resign from his position as Prime Minister...leaving the minions under his control, many said, only now from behind the scenes.
Something needed to be done...and when you have minions, you put them to use.
STATE BLOGS
On Friday, David posted the following chart, from a just-released 