"I love Wikileaks for restoring distrust in our most important institutions"

http://www.slate.com/id/2276312/
This article was written in response to the recent WikiLeaks controversy regarding disclosure of previously classified government quasi-spy actions. Although the government pegs the leaks as an "attack" on America by founder Julian Assange. Shafer takes this opportunity to partially commend WikiLeaks for their continuation of unearthing indiscretions of the U.S. government.

• "Charles Rangel's financial dealings, the subprime crash, the Valerie Plame affair, Jack Abramoff and Randy Cunningham's crimes, Bernie Kerik's indiscretions, water-boarding, Ted Stevens' convictions, the presidential pardon of Marc Rich, the guilty pleas of Webster Hubbell, the Monica Lewinsky thing, the Iran-contra scandal, the Iran-contra pardons, the savings-and-loan fiasco, BCCI, and so on—we're hammered by how completely base and corrupt our government really is"
• "The recent WikiLeaks release, for example,shows the low regard U.S. secretaries of state hold for international treaties that bar spying at the United Nations."
• "systematically and serially violated those treaties to gain an incremental upper hand. And they did it in writing!"

Most effective was Shafer's short use of imagery to describe the true underworkings of U.S. intelligence and covert international affairs.    "Is it because when scandal rips up the turf, revealing the vile creepy-crawlies thrashing and scurrying about, we're glad when authority intervenes to quickly tamp the grass back down and re-establish our pastoral innocence..." This imagery serves to explain typical response to the public in the aftermath of scandal. We would rather not look at these "creepy-crawlies" so we cover them back up to retain our normal innocent bliss.