STEVE PIECZENIK TALKS

“Slappy Pappy”,  Your Blogger,  Thanks all Concerned for Maintaining the Legal Integrity of First Amendment!

Kudos to ACLU,  Donald B. Verrilli Jr,  The United State Solicitor General and The Supreme Court!!

We have just come through some turbulent times with the unnecessary but vital confrontations of ideological differences in our esteemed,  or perhaps,  not so esteemed,  legislative  body.

 The result of this imbroglio is still uncertain.    But by nature and profession,   I live in the world of doubt,  fear,  and inexactitude.   That of course,  is not everyone’s cup of tea.    And I respect that!

 

FYI,   I am now known by my close friends and enemies as ‘Slappy Pappy’ for the incessant but hopefully constructive ‘bitch slaps’ that I have directed over thirty years against all types of perceived or real government injustices.   (I think its a compliment?)   After all my slappin' over the recent political antics,   I am exceedingly happy over a little noticed accomplishment that blossomed within the dark penumbra of the shutdown.

  In a NY Times article on Thursday,  October 17, 2013,  entitled U.S. Legal Shift May Open Door For Challenge to Secret Wiretaps by Charles Savage (posted yesterday),   a Department of Justice U.S Solicitor General,   Donald B. Verrilli Jr. is  “setting up a potential  Supreme Court TEST [my emphasis] if whether it is CONSTITUTIONAL [my emphasis] by notifying a criminal defendant---for the first time—that EVIDENCE AGAINST HIM DERIVED FROM THE EAVESDROPPING is LEGAL [my emphasis and addition].

In other words,  what we have here folks,  is the USG responding accordingly  to  a culmination of  events both contrived and organic including:

- the cataclysmic  “Snowden Affair”:  

- the illegal WARRANTLESS SURVEILLANCE,  initiated by Senator Diane Feinstein [D-Calf];  

- the pro-active,  ever vigilant ACLU protection of our individual rights; 

- and  finally,  the imperative of the Department of Justice to test the legal validity of the laws of the land in the Supreme Court.

As far as I am concerned,   this is the way  REAL DEMOCRACY works.    Btw folks,   despite the hysteria of our extreme ideologues on all sides of the political spectra--- DEMOCRACY IS WORKING !!!

Let me share some of my personal experience over thirty years  in order to illustrate what I mean when I say ‘American Democracy’ is well and alive-  even today.    I have not been shy, in any way,   to ‘bitch slap’ our American presidents;  legislators;  Sec States;  Sec Defs;  US military; the CIA;  DIA;  FBI;  NSA; DOJ;  Secret Service; FEMA;  or any other acronym in the federal,  state or local  government.   When I saw a ‘false flag’ or a ‘stand down’,   I happily used my blog and radio presence to share my views.    But,  under NO CIRCUMSTANCES, was I EVER WARNED,  CENSORED OR THREATENED by my ‘vitriolic verbal attacks’.

I had even been asked politely by several different organizations was it okay for them to monitor my statements both on the blog and on the radio,  and I happily agreed.

 These different groups,  many whom I did not know personally or professionally,   had as much right to hear what I had to say or write as I had the right to state or write my personal positions.   Over the past three decades since 9/11,    I have never received a threat nor a warning to cease or desist in any way.

Many of you,  my dear readers and listeners,  have been very much concerned about my personal safety.    And I can’t thank you all enough for your gracious  out pouring.   But  as I have often tried to explain to my audience both here and abroad,   my liberties are not a foregone conclusion or even a presumed entitlement on my part.    My fight for free speech and a transparent democracy is part of a long standing tradition on my part and on the part of all the great US Presidents whom I had served or better said allowed me the privilege to serve my country in an official capacity while at the same time disagreeing with them in my own personal way.

Let me be more specific:

I was interrogated both in the Soviet Union and in the Middle East by ‘authoritarian regimes’ :

Why do I work for the American government ? 

Why am I willing to sacrifice my life countless number of times? 

I responded this way:

I explained to my interrogators that only in America,  could I serve Presidents Nixon,  Ford,  Carter,  Reagan and Bush Sr during the day and protest against certain parts of their agenda at night in full sight of the FBI,  Secret Service,  CIA, and many of my dear colleagues.     I explained that in America  even in the Intelligence community we all had our own particular differences but collectively we could and did work together to insure that peace,  prosperity and our form of democracy could survive ‘suppression’,  ‘tyranny’ and ‘internal subversion’.

Clearly my interrogators were completely baffled!

I explained to the KGB/GRU that although we loved to make childish play parks like the Walt DisneyWorld,   those same people were able to create ICBMs that could be quite devastating.   In the Middle East-  I explained that in American Society,  Christians,  Jews,  Muslims,  Zoroastrians,  Suffis and all other religious groups worked together because we did not care about someone’s religion.    We only cared about their civil duties and their contribution to our American society. 

Simple concept yet extremely difficult to explain.

Numerous times in several different parts of the world where authoritarian rule prevailed,   I was asked ‘don’t you resent your muddling,  inefficient democracy’?   When our ‘authoritarian society’ was far more efficient?

My response was simple but disturbing to those I was answering.    I told my interrogators –this time in Asia,  the following:

Our founding fathers had purposefully created an INEFFICIENT GOVERNMENT.    I added that our founding fathers deliberately DIFFUSED POWER among local,  state, and federal government agencies so that no one person,  not even the President,   could be that powerful in order to deny the American citizens of their rightful privileges and democratic freedoms.   I went on to explain that even the legislative branches were created to accomplish very little and what little it could do,  had to be done slowly.

All the interrogators in all the authoritarian countries in which I had been questioned were  completely bemused,   if not annoyed,  by my explanations.   To make matters somewhat simpler- and to add more salt to their frustrations,   I added that our founding fathers did not trust man’s nature.   They felt we were ‘self-serving’ and ‘corrupt’.    Therefore,  they decided it to pit one self-serving politician against another in order to thwart any design for accretion of power.     In effect,   GRIDLOCK was the best offense against Lord Acton’s Law:   “Power corrupts.   Absolute power corrupts ABSOLUTELY!!!”

  Continue! to comment on my blogs,  FB posts and others that you think are worth sharing.  You are NOT powerless!  On the contrary:  disseminate your opinions and protests-- because the Digital Information Age,   is the great equalizer for a democratic process.    Take advantage of the internet and continue to protest and agitate CONSTRUCTIVELY.     And don’t be afraid of INFRINGEMENT OF THE FIRST AMENDMENT. 

Rest assured that your private internet providers know much more about you than the NSA or the FEDS who don’t try to sell you merchandise—

They,  the USG,  just try to sell you a NARRATIVE –which can be FALSE or TRUE!!

How you accept that narrative completely depends upon you!
  Slappy Pappy  orders you  to continue to do your vigilant homework ---24/7!!