This week, Senators Joe Lieberman and Dianne Feinstein engaged in acts of serious aggression against their own constituents, and the American people in general. They both invoked the 1917 Espionage Act and urged its use in going after Julian Assange. For good measure, Lieberman extended his invocation of the Espionage Act to include a call to use it to investigate the New York Times, which published WikiLeaks’ diplomatic cables. Reports yesterday suggest that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder may seek to invoke the Espionage Act against Assange.
Wolf follows this opening paragraph with a brief history of the Espionage Act and its victims, and goes on to explain why the invocation of the Act and the more general tendency to equate criticism of the government with “treason” is a threat to a free society. The fact that she even feels compelled to explain something so obvious is really all the commentary that’s needed, and wouldn’t really be worth commenting on, except to agree, if it weren’t for the nice little turning of the tables at the end, where she describes the Senators’ invocation of the Espionage Act as “traitorous.”
Exactly. As long as we’re still paying lip service to that quaint notion of a government “of the people, by the people,” etc., let’s call Lieberman and Feinstein’s actions what they are—treason against the citizens of the United States. I think both should be put on trial and, if convicted, sentenced to ten years at Gitmo, and forbidden from ever holding public office again. Also, in Lieberman’s case, since he’s such an odious little turd bucket, I think a bit of corporal punishment might be in order as well. I propose a good beating, with a large rubber dildo, on national TV.
Pissing in the wind 