Good LA Times piece today about the purported "Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board", mandated by the 9-11 Commission, which "was created by the intelligence overhaul that President Bush signed into law in December 2004."

As structured now, this panel would "protect" American civil liberties the way guards at stockyards protect the cattle, as the dumb creatures make their way into the machinery which will slaughter and dismember them.

It has never met. Read this and you will be glad. See who the "members" are (or are supposed to be) (not that they've been formally installed or anything) and you will be triply glad, as they are Bush synchopants one and all (well, one possible exception, and even he appears to be "qualified" by the fact that he went to college with Bushboy.)

In fact this is a texbook case of how "the political genius" currently running our government has gotten away with their shit for so long:

(1) Resist all investigation, or indeed even questioning, as hard and as long as possible.

(2) When forced to investigate, do your best to stack the deck with interested parties--interested in whitewashing, that is, not truth.

(3) When a layer of whitewash is insufficient and more oversight is demanded, make a big lather of fuss about how you were in favor of this idea all along, as you meanwhile shuffle the deck again until you get to select the overseers. Rinse. Repeat.

Better that this board should never be funded. What the fuck do we need a "Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board" for anyway? We have one already: it's called the Constitution. Although it's gonna need some lather, rinse and repeat itself to get rid of the layers of shit piled on it over the last few years.

Addendum: I should read all the way to the bottom before posting on stories. Way, way down at the bottom of page 2 we find....

[Two of the proposed panelists] were officially nominated in September, when the Senate Judiciary Committee was busy with a Supreme Court nomination. The panel held a confirmation hearing in November, but only two of the 18 members showed up.

The committee finally approved Dinkins and Raul on Thursday without discussion. Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) said his panel moved as quickly as possible considering its other duties, such as Supreme Court nominations, and considering the time the White House took in sending the nominations to the panel.

The top Judiciary Committee Democrat, Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, said in an interview: "They seem to be good people. They have done good things in their lives. But they certainly don't bring any special expertise to what I consider to be an extremely challenging position."

But Durbin said he believed the board could still be a valuable addition to the debate over security and liberty as concern over the growing power of government after Sept. 11 cuts across ideological lines.

Dick, Dick, Dick, you dick, cut this the fuck out. You are doing the Bipartisan Shuffle here, thinking that your, and the American people's, best bet is to work with the hand you're dealt, reach across the aisle, blah blah blah.

You are being played for a fool. You persist in thinking that We Are All Honorable Men here and that you can Work Together to make this monstrosity operate in the public good. They are not, you cannot, and it won't. Just stop it.