We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
It seems the quntessence of John's article is a point made by civil liberties lawyer Harvey Silvergate. to quote:
In "The Gray Lady in shadow," civil liberties lawyer Harvey Silvergate counts five Pentagon Papers justices in accord with the basic proposition that, while prior restraint is essentially prohibited, post-publication criminal responsibility is not.
There it is, the old saw that you can do anything once. So the Times published the Pentagon Papers, and to this day continue to publish intelligence that they know will hurt the US. Yet they do it. Why? Because they are not being prosecuted. You cannot restrain bad behavior if you do nothing to the miscreant.
....while prior restraint is essentially prohibited, post-publication criminal responsibility is not.
.....while prior restraint is essentially prohibited, post-publication criminal responsibility is not.
Well ther is far too little, if any post-publication criminal prosecution.
I have personally been involved in seeing first hand the workings of the NYT and the LA Times in national security matters. During Project Jennifer, the CIA's attempt to raise a Soviet Golf class submarine from the ocean depths, both of these newspapers received over the transom the details of the operation. We were then at the most critical phase, the actual recovery when, against our entreaties not to publish, the LA Times went ahead. Eight years of work and billions in taxpayer dollars went out the window. The LA Times walked.
It is a failure of our government not to prosecute and jail people for these acts, which amount to the layman as espionage.
It would not break the foundations of our country if we occasionally put before a firing squad a few fourth estate collaborators who work on the principle that you can do anything once and get away with it. The laws John at Powerline are clear. What is not clear is why we don't enforce them.
This unfortunately comes back to the proposition that we have become a soft and decadent society, unwilling to endure any hardships beyond that of trying to locate the channel changer.
It always falls to the individual citizen to protect THEIR rights.