Quote of the Day: Ellsberg on Obama

Daniel Ellsberg, the legendary Vietnam era whistleblower, is now 79 and has a few choice words for Mr. Obama.  In the English edition of Der Speigel, Mr. Ellsberg says Mr. Obama,when it comes to "civil liberties, violations of the constitution and the wars in the Middle East" is nothing less than Dubya's third term.  He further elaborates:

He's a good politician. He said what he needed to say to get elected, and now he's just taking advantage of the office. Like any administration before, his administration caters to the profits of big corporations like BP and Goldman Sachs... His early campaign contributions, the big corporate contributions, came from Wall Street. They got their money's worth.

To those who are unfamilar with "The Pentagon Papers", here is a quick recap.  In 1971 Ellsberg, a former US military analyst, triggered a national crisis by releasing to the New York Times and other newspapers, what has now become known as the "Pentagon Papers."  The 7,000 page classified Pentagon document, commissioned by then-Defense Secretary Robert McNamara,  revealed that the US government knew the Vietnam War was ultimately unwinnable. The Nixon White House fought the publication of the documents to the Supreme Court and when that proved unsuccessful, proceeded to smear and persecute Ellsberg.