Here’s what it promises on the Obama 2008 campaign site:

Protect Whistleblowers: Often the best source of information about waste, fraud, and abuse in government is an existing government employee committed to public integrity and willing to speak out. Such acts of courage and patriotism, which can sometimes save lives and often save taxpayer dollars, should be encouraged rather than stifled. We need to empower federal employees as watchdogs of wrongdoing and partners in performance. Barack Obama will strengthen whistleblower laws to protect federal workers who expose waste, fraud, and abuse of authority in government. Obama will ensure that federal agencies expedite the process for reviewing whistleblower claims and whistleblowers have full access to courts and due process.

Tell it to the whistleblowers! This administration has used the Espionage Act of 1917 to prosecute whistleblowers more times than all previous administrations combined.

What appears to be true is that the whistleblowers are underestimating just how far astray things have gone. Here’s a story about how six agents showed up this week at a household because of various google searches performed by different members of the family:

What happened was this: At about 9:00 am, my husband, who happened to be home yesterday, was sitting in the living room with our two dogs when he heard a couple of cars pull up outside. He looked out the window and saw three black SUVs in front of our house; two at the curb in front and one pulled up behind my husband’s Jeep in the driveway, as if to block him from leaving.

Six gentleman in casual clothes emerged from the vehicles and spread out as they walked toward the house, two toward the backyard on one side, two on the other side, two toward the front door.

A million things went through my husband’s head. None of which were right. He walked outside and the men greeted him by flashing badges. He could see they all had guns holstered in their waistbands.

After things had calmed down, the husband of the household was told this:

They mentioned that they do this about 100 times a week. And that 99 of those visits turn out to be nothing.

What has happened to the “land of the free”???

And prior to Russia granting temporary asylum to whistleblower Edward Snowden, US Attorney General Eric Holder felt the need to publicly assure Russia that the US would not torture or kill Snowden. How far the US government has descended that it has to assure others that it won’t torture and kill a person!

And I surely don’t mean the above as disparaging comments on only one of two big businesses that masquerade as political parties in the US. The following is from a Washington Post article that includes an ibecilic reaction from John McCain on Russia granting asylum to Snowden:

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) called Russia’s action “a disgrace and a deliberate effort to embarrass the United States,” as well as “a slap in the face of all Americans…”

McCain called for additional U.S. legislation targeting Russian human rights violators, a renewed push to complete missile defense programs in Europe and “another round of NATO expansion, including the Republic of Georgia.” He said the United States should also challenge Russian crackdowns on dissidents and speak out for those who are demanding “greater freedom, accountability and rule of law in Russia.”

So McCain wants prosecution of a US dissident who is calling for more accountability from the US government, but pretends to defend Russian dissidents who are calling for more accountability from the Russian government. And being John McCain, of course he advises that the appropriate response to a diplomatic legal disagreement is an increase in warmongering.

And speaking of the ramping up of war, one has to wonder what the warmongers have planned for this weekend.

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Note:  I just noticed that the latest version of the Washington Post article has been edited to remove McCain’s contradictory stance on dissidents. Gee, I wonder why.