Except when it's not.
Barack Obama "promised" the "most transparent administration in history." In addition to opposing Audit the Fed in 2010, and claiming "states secrets" privilege against Anwar al-Awlaki's father when he tried to appeal his sons inclusion on the President's "hit list," this latest one is a doosie...
Take a second to watch the video below as ABC's Jake Tapper grills Press Secretary Jay Carney on what evidence the administration had against Awlaki and whether the administration had plans to release any of that evidence. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6bgwZGZiIo
That mentality — he’s a Terrorist because my Government said he’s one and I therefore don’t need evidence or trials to subject that evidence to scrutiny — also happens to be the purest definition of an authoritarian mentality, the exact opposite of the dynamic that was supposed drive how the country functioned (Thomas Jefferson: “In questions of power, let no more be heard of confidence in men, but bind him down from mischief with the chains of the Constitution“). I trust My President and don’t need to see evidence or have due process is the slavish mentality against which Jefferson warned; it’s also one of the most pervasive ones in much of the American citizenry, which explains a lot.
Additionally, Washington Post writes about a secret Justice Department memo used to internally justify the targeted assassination of a US Citizen, but that they have refused to release to the public! While it's nice to know the administration has soothed their own conscience to allow themselves to sleep at night, something of this importance is only a matter of national security insofar as it shreds the rule of law this nation was founded upon!
The fault for these sorts of government action don't lie entirely with government officials. Plenty of blame lies with ordinary Americans who have grown complacent, and desire too much from and place too much trust, in government.
Jacob Hornberger, President of Future of Freedom Foundation wrote in a post "We Were Warned" that our current foreign policy, including knowing that Americans can be put on hit lists, is causing America to lose the principles that made this country great.
Madison pointed out that of all the enemies to liberty, war is the biggest because it encompasses the germ of every threat to the liberty and well-being of the citizenry. Not only are civil liberties damaged or destroyed, but also economic well-being owing to out-of-control spending, debt, and inflation that inevitably comes with war.
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