Aaron Swartz committed suicide after being hounded by the DoJ for a victimless crime.
There are plenty of memorial diaries, but I'd like to focus on a fact-based look at the DoJ and its priorities. We need to take a good hard look at the facts:
Fact: The department of Justice is run by Holder and Obama
Fact: The DoJ is the most powerful govt agency after the Pentagon
Fact: The DoJ is the most "executive" of branches and therefore given the most latitude to express the direction of the executive branch without too much interference from Congress.
Fact: Aaron Swarz is dead, Kiriakoy is in jail, Manning was tortured and Assange is being extradited.
Fact: Blankfein, Pandit, Mozilo and Geithner are doing lecture tours
Fact: Libby, Addington, Yoo, Gonzales and Cheney are doing book signings
Fact: Obama has every power to change all of the above and chooses not to.
These facts are incredibly uncomfortable for me, but I have to face reality.
Come on, "reality based community". Are we going to face the facts that the DoJ is the one of the most dissapointing aspects of Obama's presidency?
I voted for him twice, he's better than the alternative, but today I am SICK.
Obama tells Holder who tells the USAA's what to go after. They have decided to go after pot, poker, occupy, whistleblowers and juvenile hackers. They have decided to completely ignore banksters, torturers, war criminals, corrupt officials and abusive cops.
That is OUR DoJ that is doing these things under the direction of OUR president.
Fuck this shit.
We need to push Obama to take executive action to re-align the priorities of the DoJ. It is the one aspect of government he controls with almost no obstruction.
The fact that the "other side" is unimaginably worse is no excuse not to be appalled at the current priorities of the DoJ as expressed clearly in their prosecutorial discretion.
I'd love to hear any ideas on how to pressure Obama and the democratic party to address issues of Justice and the rule of law. We must address the fact that fewer and fewer of us believes the "rule of law" anymore and how toxic that disilusionment will be for our future.
It's bad enough the torturers and banksters walk free among us. But they are also hounding the powerless, the activists and the protesters.
I want to do more than sign a petition. Ideas?