Michael Ventura: "an unprecedented Constitutional shitstorm"
From Letters At 3 A.M.:
"Shitstorm" isn't a polite or journalistic usage, but an apt equivalent doesn't come to mind, so: In April, when I began the "Arbitrary Nation" series about our battered Constitution, I had no idea we were in for an unprecedented Constitutional shitstorm.
What follows isn't all of it, but it's all that fits. (Quotes and headlines are from The New York Times unless otherwise noted.)
*April 2: "Supreme Court Ruling Allows Strip-Searches for Any Arrest." The court gave police the power to humiliate anyone arrested for anything.
*April 13: "[T]hree Republican commissioners on the six-seat [Federal Election Commission] have stymied efforts to write regulations and enforce them. ... Campaign operatives flout the law, knowing the commission is toothless." Open season for election chicanery.
*May 13: "Federal investigators secretly seized two months of phone records for reporters and editors of The Associated Press."
*May 14: Attorney General Eric H. Holder "[described] the article by The A.P. that prompted a criminal investigation as among 'the top two or three most serious leaks that I've ever seen.'" The Obama administration seems to say pretty much the same thing about every leak. This particular leak refuted White House claims concerning al Qaeda plots. The Justice Department "dragnet covered work, home and cellphone records used by almost 100 people at one of the oldest and most reputable news organizations."
*May 18: Fifty years ago, in Brady v. Maryland, "the Supreme Court ... required prosecutors to disclose to criminal defendants any exculpatory evidence they asked for that was likely to affect a conviction or sentence. ... But, in fact, this principle ... has been severely weakened by a near complete lack of punishment for prosecutors who flout the rule."
*May 20: "In another case of the Obama administration investigating [leaks], the government is prosecuting a State Department expert on North Korea in a probe that appears to step into uncharted territory – by declaring that a journalist is committing a crime in disclosing leaked information. ... 'We are outraged to learn today that James Rosen was named a criminal co-conspirator for simply doing his job as a reporter,' said Michael Clemente, Fox's executive vice president for news. 'In fact, it is downright chilling. We will unequivocally defend his right to operate as a member of what up until now has always been a free press" (Associated Press).
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So much more -- alas -- at the link:
http://www.austinchronicle.com/columns/2013-08-23/letters-at-3am-just-since-april/