An interesting story in the Times today:
Broad new surveillance powers approved by Congress this month could allow the Bush administration to conduct spy operations that go well beyond wiretapping to include — without court approval — certain types of physical searches [cavity? DNA?] of American citizens and the collection of their business records, Democratic Congressional officials and other experts said [having actually read the law, finally].
Harry, Nancy: Nice work all around. But I’m sure that no significant damage to our liberties can possibly be done in the six months until the law is sunsetted, even with a massive datamining operation, the cooperation of the telcos and gawd knows who else, and a mandate to store such captured data forever (see, e.g. this post at “shall retain.” “Shall” means “not optional.”)
Administration officials acknowledged they had heard such concerns from Democrats in Congress recently [bogus “balancing” Republican reassurances deleted in the interests of cranial integrity]…
“Recently?” But not when the law was passed?** Hmmm…. Why would that be, do you think?
Could it be because the Dems got massive pushback from their Constitution- and liberty-loving base?***
And rightly so.
The dispute illustrates how Democrats, in a frenetic, end-of-session scramble, passed legislation they may not have fully understood and may have given the administration more surveillance powers than it sought.
“Legislation they may not have fully understood…”
The mind reels. Or, at least, it should reel. (Then again, I suppose the alternative is that they did understand the legislation. Which’d you rather?)
Again, Harry, Nancy: Nice work. I knew you could do it. MR SUBLIMINAL Did you like the lederhosen Bush made you? He lined them with silk so they wouldn’t chafe… I’m proud of you.
It also offers a case study in how changing a few words in a complex piece of legislation has the potential to fundamentally alter the basic meaning of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a landmark national security law. Two weeks after the legislation was signed into law, there is still heated debate over how much power Congress gave to the president.
Well, the law did take the power to determine what surveillance was legal out of the hands of the courts, and give it to Alberto Gonzales, but that doesn’t really mean Bush has any more actual power. He’s been breaking the law for years, under The Theory Of We Get To Do Whatever The Fuck
We Want, so what does another law matter? Anyhow, what could go wrong?
It is possible that some of the changes were the unintended [Oh? By whom?] consequences of the rushed legislative process just before this month’s Congressional recess, rather than a purposeful effort by the administration to enhance its ability to spy on Americans.
Sure, it’s “possible.” And monkeys might fly out of my butt.
But not to worry! The Democrats are going to go after the horse, get it back in the barn, and this time, they’re going to lock the door, and not let the horse out again. Really:
“We did not cover ourselves in glory,” said one Democratic aide, referring to how the bill was compiled.
In fact, they’re even going so far as to expres their concerns to the criminal Bush regime privately:
These new powers are considered overly broad and troubling by some Congressional Democrats who raised their concerns with administration officials in private meetings this week.
See? Nothing to worry about. “Troubled” Democrats are raising “concerns.” Man, that’s all I need to know. (I do wonder what they actually said, though.)
Democratic leaders have said they plan to push for a revision of the legislation as soon as September. “It was a legislative over-reach, limited in time,” said one Congressional Democratic aide. “But Democrats feel like they can regroup.”
Well, that’s alright then. And I’m glad, glad, glad, proud, proud, proud, that the Dems are finally waking up to the fact that they just might have a little problem on their hands, now that they’ve actually read the bill that they passed. At midnight. Before flitting back to their districts:
Whether intentional or not, the end result — according to top Democratic aides and other experts on national security law — is that the legislation may grant the government the right to collect a vast array of information on American citizens inside the United States without warrants, as long as the administration asserts that the spying concerns the monitoring of a person believed to be overseas.
Tightly crafted legislation, what?
And now, the quote of the day. From an unnamed administration official:
“I don’t think it’s a fair reading,” the official said. “The intent here was pure: if you’re targeting [as defined by Albert Gonzales] someone [as defined by Albert Gonzales] outside the country [as defined by Albert Gonzales], the fact that you’re doing the collection inside the country [as defined by Albert Gonzales], that shouldn’t matter [to Albert Gonzales].”
But you know what? It’s the all-too-familiar picture of the Democrats bringing a knife to a gunfight***. Because the criminal Bush regime is going to exercise its right, under The Theory Of We Get To Do Whatever The Fuck We Want, to go ahead and do whatever the fuck they want:
Yet [No. “And”] Bush administration officials have already signaled that, in their view, the president retains his constitutional authority to do whatever it takes to protect the country [as He defines that], regardless of any action Congress takes [i.e., without being bound by the rule of law]. At a tense meeting last week with lawyers from a range of private groups active in the wiretapping issue, senior Justice
Even Reagan Republicans think Bush this latest Bush power grab is too much:
At the meeting, Bruce Fein, a Justice Department lawyer in the Reagan administration, along with other critics of the legislation, pressed Justice Department officials repeatedly for an assurance that the administration considered itself bound by the restrictions imposed by Congress. The Justice Department, led by Ken Wainstein, the assistant attorney general for national security, refused to do so, according to three participants in the meeting. That stance angered Mr. Fein and others.
Sweet Jesus, is a Republican from the Reagan Justice Department the only guy who’s willing to be quoted by name for the record on this? What’s WRONG with these people?
It sent the message, Mr. Fein said in an interview, that the new legislation, though it is already broadly worded, “is just advisory. The president can still do whatever he wants to do. They have not changed their position that the president’s Article II powers trump any ability by Congress to regulate the collection of foreign intelligence.”
And indeed, the regime won’t commmit to obey the law at all. Check out this non-answer answer:
Asked whether the administration considered the new legislation legally binding, Ms. Vines, the national intelligence office spokeswoman, said: “We’re going to follow the law and carry it out as it’s been passed.”
Well, sure. Because under The Theory Of We Get To Do Whatever The Fuck We Want, they can decide to obey the law this week, and then change their minds tomorrow?
Please, could we just go straight to the police state and the camps? The suspense is killing me, and somehow, I don’t think the Democrats “raising concerns” in “private” meetings, as if it were business as usual, is going to accomplish very much.
At the very least, could we have some sort of spoken statement from Harry and/or Nancy, as opposed to a letter? And how about the presidential candidates?
John? Here’s your opportunity to get precise on what the restoration of the Constitution means in practice.
Barack?
Hillary?
Anyone?
Any leadership on this issue at all?
Any Democrats with stones?
NOTE ** I grant you, it’s hard to raise concerns at midnight, when the law actually was passed.
NOTE *** This would be a “voice” strategy, as opposed to an “exit” or “loyalty” strategy (see here). Personally, I think it’s pretty simple: Slap the Dems silly when they Fuck up. What this story shows is that—besides money, which none of have—that’s the only way to get their attention and have even a hope of forcing some change.
There’s also the marching on DC aspect, but if I went to DC on or around the 15th, I’d focus on restoring the Constitution, not on the war.
NOTE *** Check out Bush’s personal congratulations to Diane Feinstein and Kit Bond for their Bipartisan work on this bill. Kudos all round. Did they read it, do you think? Or is Bush just fucking with us? Here’s the next item on the agenda, too:
When Congress returns in September the Intelligence committees and leaders in both parties will need to complete work on the comprehensive reforms requested by Director McConnell, including the important issue of providing meaningful liability protection to those who are alleged to have assisted our Nation following the attacks of September 11, 2001.
Has that word, “alleged,” caused anybody else’s head to explode?
NOTE While we’re soiling our hands at the White House site, here’s the oxymoranic Fact Sheet on the Orwellianly named “Protect America Act.” They keep underlining foreign, so, on the principle that “in the language of Orthanc help means ruin, and saving means slaying,” I assume that’s the most obvious lie. Anyhow, under The Theory Of We Get To Do Whatever The Fuck We Want, they will, indeed, do whatever the fuck they want, so what do their “facts” matter?
Front page
go-getters at work
Harry and Nancy, relaxing around the tailgate in the circular driveway. Eating donuts and drinking coffee, wearing their strapping new emowering tool belts, and admiring their shiny new hammers; discuss renovation plans for the new wishing well behind the old tool shed located somewhere in the public imagination. It’s just another lazy mid summer morning on the job on Camp Capitol Hill. Meanwhile, the Bush Boys continue installing listening devices in the bedroom walls of every cabin on the Constitutional blueprint.
Tap tap tap. Hard work! Doin hard work. (should be doin hard time, but no, still doin’ hard work)
Meanwhile….back in the driveway:
Thats a nice new company truck ya got there Harry. Thanks a heapin’ Nancy. Thats a nice new ladder ya got there too. Have ya ever thought of climbing to the top of it? Oh, Harry. Heh heh. Harry, is that a brand new attractive magnetic blue company door sticker on your brand new blue company truck or what! More donuts! Oh look,….. its “bringiton” with more coffee and donuts! Bring it on “bringiton”! Clap, clap clap. Three cheers for donuts and coffee and shiny new hammers!
Say, what’s that tapping sound? (Tap, tap, tap) Plumbers? Oh, nevermind the woodpeckers! Ha hah! Yes, indeedy. No, problemo. Oh look, It’s just that little smiley Mexican looking fella with the bag of drill bits and a roll of subpoenas trailing off his boot on his way to the big white house. Mornin’ Alberto! Nice day for a nap in a hammock ain’t it? Say, who’s got vacation time coming up?
Donut, Nancy? Thanks, Harry, don’t mind if I do. Ain’t it great to be in charge!
(Tap tap tap tap tap tap……)
[please speak directly into the zookini. and thank you for being a passive consumer.]
*
Heh, Farmer, good one
Nicely done. I’ll be passing that along to H&N, they should see how they’re perceived by the people whose support they should be cultivating. May make a small adjustment, Really, coffee and donuts? I would never. Fresh fruit and vegetable crudités, organic CranBran muffins and lattes, we are West Coast libruls and we do have our standards.
Seriously, I will pass your piece on, sometimes humor however sardonic penetrates in ways that other approaches do not. The whole thing is a pisser, no argument about that. Anger is the enemy of reason. Rage is the emotion that destroys the self. Must remain calm. Revenge is a dish best served cold. The whole thing is still a pisser.
My neighbor and forecaster (not a futurist, he says) Paul Saffo has offered that the spires of the future are not built upon the foundations of the past but rather upon their rubble. To move forward we must destroy (metaphorically speaking, most of the time) what we now most esteem. The great economic equalization of American society through the New Deal required the Great Depression as a precursor. The great expansion of cultural equality of the 1960’s required the destructiveness of World War II. The horror of Republican Corporatists, George W. Bush and the Iraq War may be what is needed for the next great push forward for American and Western Civilization, indeed for the world as a whole. One can only hope that it is enough, and that still more of an impetus is not needed.
More from Paul Saffo, observations to ponder:
Another futurist from out my way is Jaron Lanier, who worries about systems. He has written about our obsession with standards, patterns of behavior that apply equally to our fixation on things like a Constitution and a body of constructed laws. Jaron has developed a still-evolving, somewhat nebulous intellectual construct he calls “karma-vertigo.” He says that we are all preoccupied with trying to get standards established, generally in the short term a good thing. What is difficult to realize is that once standards are established they stay around for vastly longer than we would wish and are used for purposes we never intended.
The current perversion of our Constitution is a natural progression – that is not to say that it is desirable, or to excuse it, but only to say that it is inevitable and must be dealt with in that context. If we knew in advance how perverted our original intentions would become, we would be paralyzed with vertigo and do nothing at all. It is precisely our ignorance of the future that allows us to proceed into it.
My friend the psychologist Paul Friday likes to point out that the future is never as bad or as glorious as we anticipate. This is also true.
I don’t mean to disparage anyone’s angst about the present, not at all, I too am anxious, bad things are happening and they are very real and very much a cause for concern, and we do need to get it straightened around so we can position ourselves for the far greater challenges ahead. One way or another, we will do so. However disturbing the present attempted authoritarianism of George Bush may seem, as a cultural challenge it is readilly survivable compared to the magnitude of societal transformation awaiting us in the next few decades alone. Global climate change, education or the lack thereof and its applicability to needed skill sets, famine, draught and disease; all of these will make discussion of satellite images and email wiretaps seem like quaint coffee table conversation, and sooner than we will be prepared for. Still, we will muddle througn as humans do.
Other interesting reading for those inclined to do so, lessons from the past that can help to put the present and imminent future into context:
Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles MacKay. “Men, it has been well said, go mad in crowds and only come to their senses slowly and one by one.”
The True Believer: Thoughts On The Nature Of Mass Movements by Eric Hoffer.
Rage? Tsk!
Because if I don’t keep smiling, I’ll never make it past passport control, eh? In fact, I’ve been keeping a list of things I am not angry about. It recently caught some winger troll action—Sarah happily eviscerated him—and so I may have to revise it…
We. Are. Going. To. Die. We must restore hope in the world. We must bring forth a new way of living that can sustain the world. Or else it is not just us who will die but everyone. What have we got to lose? Go forth and Fight!—Xan
it's really hard not to love all of you
so i guess i just will. you too, farmer.
excellent commentary. i’m sorry that i’m just getting around to catching up on the weekend’s news and analysis. the newphew is exhausting like that, but what can i do? ;-)
I'll give ya a "good one" - bringiton
Nicely done. I’ll be passing that along to H&N, they should see how they’re perceived by the people whose support they should be cultivating. May make a small adjustment, Really, coffee and donuts? I would never. Fresh fruit and vegetable crudités, organic CranBran muffins and lattes, we are West Coast libruls and we do have our standards.
You tell em “bringiton”. You tell them this ain’t about cultivating support anymore either. If they want to be fawned over like showgirls tell em to find work in a Las Vegas chorus line.
They already got the support they asked for; thats why they are standing in the driveway in charge of project oversight now. Thats why more of them were elected to Congress than Republicans. Thats why they were hired to do the job that wasn’t being done when the Republicans were standing around in the driveway scratching their asses and slapping the Bush Boys on the back. H&N was hired to put a crew to work and put an end to the ass scratching and back slapping and the kind of dangerous faulty renovation and deconstruction of democracy’s house that is still taking place today. Still taking place while H&N and company stand around in the fucking driveway eating cranbran muffins and sipping lattes!
Yoooo-hoooo, “the crazies” are demolishing the wall between church and state and installing futuristic peepholes under every doorknob and turning the great big brass kitchen of justice into a fucking rodent infested greasefire caboose and constitutional butcher shop… and the people hired to stop it are standing around fingering their fucking fruity morning crudites.
Seriously, I will pass your piece on, sometimes humor however sardonic penetrates in ways that other approaches do not. The whole thing is a pisser, no argument about that. Anger is the enemy of reason. Rage is the emotion that destroys the self. Must remain calm. Revenge is a dish best served cold. The whole thing is still a pisser.
By all means, you pass it on. I’m counting on you. Generally, I’ll bypass your nifty little generalizations here (pissers they may be). However, I’d like to add: anger is an enemy of reason when there is no reason to be angry. Anger, when deployed in the defense of reason, for good and just reason, can be a reasonable motivating impetus (if you will allow me to borrow you apparent unemployed impetus for the time being). Fury, on the other hand, might better be the word you are looking for above. Fury is a monster. Fury eats reason for breakfast… and then shits it out on the driveway… where it stews in an angry pile of stinking wasted reason in the hot sun.
Then we have: “Revenge is a dish best served cold”: Oh, yeah? Really? Why? There are a lot of excellent recipes for revenge afterall. But If you say so… I’m not familiar with too many great teevee sci-fi pop-culture revelations… however, this particular ditty (“Revenge is a dish best served cold”) always stuck me as being a little like saying that cold blooded murder is preferrable to a hot blooded passion play. For what it’s worth, if ya want my opinion, revenge is best served as hot melted chocolate over vanilla ice cream. I’ll leave you to debate the merits of retaliatory sundaes and other furious shit with your friends from the futurist diner. Moving along….
My neighbor and forecaster (not a futurist, he says) Paul Saffo has offered that the spires of the future are not built upon the foundations of the past but rather upon their rubble. To move forward we must destroy (metaphorically speaking, most of the time) what we now most esteem. The great economic equalization of American society through the New Deal required the Great Depression as a precursor. The great expansion of cultural equality of the 1960’s required the destructiveness of World War II. The horror of Republican Corporatists, George W. Bush and the Iraq War may be what is needed for the next great push forward for American and Western Civilization, indeed for the world as a whole. One can only hope that it is enough, and that still more of an impetus is not needed.
Well you can tell your neighbor and forecaster friend that the Bushies have beat ya too it. Because they are erecting the spires of the future upon the rubble of a charred past while Harry and Nancy enjoy veggie crudites and cranberry muffins and other petit dejeuner fare in the “turnaround” (in case you have turnarounds in California as opposed to lowly weed strangled driveways) - the rubble of the unitary exectutive theory buried in the rubble of Carl Schmidt’s Dual State and the rubble of Franco’s political theocracy and the rubble of the Argentine Junta’s disappeared and the rubble of Pinochet’s so called economic miracle. So much rubble, so many old foundations to restore, so many neo-spires to build upon that old rubble.
Please spare me any more testaments from the Moses known as Paul Saffo and Jaron Lanier. Ok? Nuttin’ personal but… well, but truly…. there ain’t enough latte in California to keep me gulping this kind of warm milky babble. Nevertheless: You write that Lanier says:
Yeah?… No shit. Isn’t that, simply put, the foundation of the basic point guys like Strether are trying to make with respect to the Dem leadership’s negligence with respect to the latest FISA legislation. Vigilantibus non dormientibus æquitas subvenit (Equity aids the vigilant, not the negligent).
So, please carry that Lanier crudite you have served up to Harry and Nancy while you are delivering my previous pisser and the usual cran bran muffins and and the lattes and so on. What we are getting at here are precedents, maybe laches, and estopples, and such, oh my, as opposed to “standards”. Ya know, precedents, with all the weight and legal precedence such standards carry… into the future. Legal precedents that once established stay around for vastly longer than we would wish and are used for purposes we never IMAGINED! Know what I mean “bringiton”? You should.
The current perversion of our Constitution is a natural progression – that is not to say that it is desirable, or to excuse it, but only to say that it is inevitable and must be dealt with in that context. If we knew in advance how perverted our original intentions would become, we would be paralyzed with vertigo and do nothing at all. It is precisely our ignorance of the future that allows us to proceed into it.
Fine, I’m gonna deal with “the current perversion of our Constitution” in a natural progressive way…. and I’ll point out that while too many were frozen with vertigo paralysis and/or doing nothing at all aside from pondering the inevitable…. (thanks Harry and Nancy!) others were busy dealing with it the best they could (even if that meant getting reasonably angry about it). That is why, “bringiton”, a lot of people would like Harry and Nancy to snap the fuck out of their dizzy paralyized state. What’s in those CranBrans you’re feeding them in the driveway (sorry, the “turnaround”) anyway!? Huh?
H&N Remodeling have been given new tools “bringiton”. All they need to do now is demonstrate that they know how to use those tools. Use the tools you have been given! They are wearing nice new freshly oiled steel toed work boots and sporting shiny new hammers and tape measures and strong new fiberglass ladders which they have lashed to the spiffy new ladder racks adorning their feet of newly painted Dem Powered pickup trucks (with the magnetic H&N company brand on the driverside door).
H&N have the tools (they assured us that they actually knew how to use those tools that we supplied them with when bidding the job). They have been hired to do a job. Let’s see them do it. It’s time that Harry and Nancy and crew got off their muffins and went to work. We didn’t hire them to hold a gawd damned garden party in the driveway! (I mean turnaround).
My friend the psychologist Paul Friday likes to point out that the future is never as bad or as glorious as we anticipate. This is also true. […] I don’t mean to disparage anyone’s angst about the present, not at all, I too am anxious, bad things are happening and they are very real and very much a cause for concern, and we do need to get it straightened around so we can position ourselves for the far greater challenges ahead. One way or another, we will do so. However disturbing the present attempted authoritarianism of George Bush may seem, as a cultural challenge it is readilly survivable compared to the magnitude of societal transformation awaiting us in the next few decades alone. Global climate change, education or the lack thereof and its applicability to needed skill sets, famine, draught and disease; all of these will make discussion of satellite images and email wiretaps seem like quaint coffee table conversation, and sooner than we will be prepared for. Still, we will muddle througn as humans do.
Oh… give it the fuck up will you “bringiton”. Jeezis… you have to be one of the most tiresome, condescending, pedantic windbag assholes I have ever encountered in a blog. What is this prattle of yours above all about exactly? …one of those: authoritarianism is like managing hair loss - the real problem is making the trains run on time? One of those arguments? What the fuck. Do me a favor, save the Jeanne Kirkpatrick shoftshoe routine for another garden party. You will get no coffee and donut from me bundleboy. You get to work… learn how to swing a hammer or get the fuck off this jobsite. We’re trying to restore a 300 year old democracy here - not build a fucking hot-tub for futuristic screwing parties! If Harry and Nancy don’t want to get dirty and want instead to stand around in the driveway leaning against their shiny new tool box, well, good for them. They’ll be standing around wondering why they are out of a job pretty soon too. Now put your fucking tool belt on “bringiton” and at least pretend you know how to use some of the tools in it. If I see you hanging around the driveway sipping latte and eating fruity tea cakes again I’ll kick your ass. Then you can go tell Nancy you got your ass kicked up and down the driveway by a pisser.
*
Anger is an enemy of reason when there is no reason to be angry
Bingo.
Hey, Saffo and Lanier must be doing pretty well. Maybe they can throw me $10 a month for the server costs. That would come to, oh, two lattes. If they get the close-to-canoe kind at Starbucks, anyhow.
And we throw the labor in for free.
Just sayin.’
We. Are. Going. To. Die. We must restore hope in the world. We must bring forth a new way of living that can sustain the world. Or else it is not just us who will die but everyone. What have we got to lose? Go forth and Fight!—Xan