But, I believe this could happen. We do have to worry about whistle-blowers facing payback for singing for the Inquisition drawn up by the Republicans and the NRA.
However, we need to remember Jay Dobyns. He is the example of one of these ATF Agents provided to us by Katie Pavlich. Jay, as you may recall, is the kind of guy who can be told at gunpoint to drive a car away and will remove the keys from the ignition, drop them to the floor, and get shot through the lung for his trouble.
In other words, if Agents are cut from the same cloth as Jay, do we really believe they'd be scared to blow the whistle? Especially if these were rough and tumble old guards such as Jay described for us in the introduction who didn't much cotton to the new fancy-pants educated thinking bureaucrats. This would have been a good time to stick it to the man in the suit with a little bit of protection from the law. The Whistleblower Act and the No Fear Act and the public notoriety of this Inquisition would have made it difficult for the Obama Administration to punish or allow to be punished people who wished to testify. Any attempt to do so would have.. or at least could have.. been painted by the Republicans to convict the Administration in the Court of Public Opinion.
When you are in an election year, that's really the court that matters most. It isn't like the Republicans were really worried about lost guns. Their own holy Commander In Chief had sat in office while Operation Wide Receiver lost weapons. No one was too terribly worried then. These "leaders" are also the same ones who sign us up to simultaneously fight two wars.. sending our boys and girls over into harms way.. and then don't vote to provide them the support back home which was promised our soldiers.
Admitting that being two-faced is entirely possible given this bunch of weasels, I rather also suspect the entire investigation was nothing but a political witch hunt. I've said this before. So, if you had people who wanted to testify and their testimony would help you put the thumbscrews to the Administration and you happen to be the party in bed with big money and special interests. Well, heck, just offer them a different job and buy the testimony you need.
Not like they have ethical problems with doing such things.
Going back to the title of the Chapter and what I expect it might have meant to people who had been willing to plop down a bit of money to buy a book to serve as their rationalization of existing beliefs; I do rather believe this could be some effort at payback by the Republicans. Payback for the investigations like Watergate and Iran Contra which were examples of bad stuff they actually did. Payback also for thwarting their investigations like Whitewater or Clinton's Sex with Monica. They try so hard... and they still can't really pay those Democrats back.
Unfortunately, they turned out to be completely wrong. No really. Historically speaking their investigation of Operation Fast and Furious accomplished absolutely smurfing nothing of lasting importance. There was no evidence of intentionally walking guns and Eric Holder is free and at large pursuing his political carer with a complete exoneration of charges.
So, if our investigation doesn't pan out. We could admit we were wrong. Nah, we aren't really good about that. Kind of like when Mitt Romney lost the election to Obama and the Republicans could face reality. It wasn't that their policies and goals are not connecting with the American public. Just like those Polls which had shown Obama in the lead were fixed.. even -- though -- they -- showed -- exactly -- how -- things worked out come election time.
No, Obama cheated. The election was stolen by those darn minorities who think they should have .. I don't know.. opportunities or something radical.
And the investigation into Fast and Furious fails.. oh, because people who wanted to testify were afraid of being punished for blowing the whistle on their bosses. Except guys who get shot at while fighting drug cartels and keep mouthing off to their bosses while they need protection from revenge attacks by biker gangs still can't bear to remain quiet. Yeah, that makes sense. Excepting for Jay Dobyns, the rest of the entire ATF Agents just don't have the balls to speak their mind. That's why the investigation failed.
Now, I had a conversation like this with my daughter. "Sweetie, I'm not going to say you are lying. I wasn't there, I didn't see, I can't know. What I am telling you is that the story you are telling me does not make sense."
Let's start with the fact that the Whistleblower Protection Act of 2012 took 13 years to pass. It was opposed by managers at all levels of government. "WPEA passed unanimously, because no politician in a free society can openly oppose freedom of speech."[1] (Note: openly.)
"The WPEA nearly passed at the end of the last four Congressional sessions, only to be killed by backroom deals during the final hours of negotiation. In one startling example, during the waning days of the last Congress (December 2010), the WPEA – after passing both the Senate and House by unanimous consent in some form – was killed by an anonymous Senator's "secret hold" in the last hours of the session." ~~ Whistleblower.org [2]
"Crucial support came from President Obama, who was committed from day one of his term to signing this bill into law." ~~ Tom Devine [2]The Obama Administration signed this Act and the passage of that Act is a feather in their cap. The idea of both campaigning for Whistleblower protection and simultaneously trying to oppress Whistleblowers seems a bit of a stretch. Part of the raison d'être of the Democratic party lies in standing up for the little people against special interests and corporations. To do that, someone has to be the whistleblower. Therefore, the Democrats need to secure protection for those who have the information they need to uncover corruption. Democrats champion protections for whistleblowers.
"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence" ~~ Carl Sagan
It would be more of an extraordinary claim to posit that a member of the Democrat Party used a secret hold to kill this bill in 2010. A less extraordinary claim would be to suppose it likely that a Republican Senator was guilty of this. There's no proof, of course. That is the whole reason for an anonymous means of killing a bill.
Given the Democratic Party's desire to protect Whistleblowers and Katie Pavlich's already established questionable reporting ethics; I feel more than slightly confident that she has seriously overstated the case for sanctions against Whistle-blowers. I suspect this Chapter inflating perceptions of payback dealt to those who chose to speak up is nothing more and nothing less than excuse making on the part of Conservatives.
...
Stepping back from this particular episode, I do support Whistleblower protection. I would want people to come forward with evidence of corruption even if it hurt my political hopes for the country. (My hopes being equality and opportunity for all Americans, which seems benign enough. I don't support Socialism of Wealth Redistribution. However, I do think those who can afford to pay more ... should. "The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the support of the government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities..." ~~ Adam Smith[3], called the Father of Modern Economics)
Yes, I truly believe it would have been disastrous to hand the Keys to the Kingdom to someone like Venture Capitalist Mitt Romney. Despite this, the Truth must win out even if it causes temporary setbacks. In this particular instance, the investigation of Fast and Furious seems to have been a political attack on the Obama Administration. The worst and politically least savvy thing they could have done in response would be to get caught suppressing the truth or oppressing those who tried to tell it. Yes, I do expect that higherups would have a bad attitude towards what they would see as disloyal employees. I would want the Whistleblowers, however, seen as being loyal to the rest of America. I do want to extend protections to them.
No comments:
Post a Comment