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amulI've been spending most of the day reading up on the wiretapping thing. As near as I can tell, and this is after about five solid hours of reading news articles and interviews, the argument goes something like this:
The Law: You cannot wiretap a US citizen without a written court order.
Nixon: Well, that's only for the FBI. I hereby empower a new branch of government to do the exact same thing as the old branches, but without all those messy legal complications.
The Law: Nice try, but you still can't tap a citizen's phone without an expressly written warrant stating who, why, when, and for how long.
Reagan: Well, what if I try to buy you off?
The Law: Then I'm just going to have to nominate a subcommittee to watch both of us and make sure we don't become corrupt.
Clinton: But it'd be really nice if we could.
The Law: See, there's this little thing called "due process." We kind of founded an entire country based on the fact that we didn't have it before.
George W: Fuck that noise. I'm just going to write a law that says I can.
The Law: You can't do that. You're not the Legislative Branch.
George W: ....and then I'm going to create another FBI-like group to watch over the FBI and the NSA and do all the things that my shiny new law lets them do.
The Law: No, you don't understand. You can't do that. That's an impeachable offense. It says so, right here.
George W: Nonsense, you get impeached for blowjobs, not crimes against the country. Hey, guys, look! I made a law!
Telecoms: Ooooooh. Pretty.
Pardon me if that version seems a little biased to you.
The Law: You cannot wiretap a US citizen without a written court order.
Nixon: Well, that's only for the FBI. I hereby empower a new branch of government to do the exact same thing as the old branches, but without all those messy legal complications.
The Law: Nice try, but you still can't tap a citizen's phone without an expressly written warrant stating who, why, when, and for how long.
Reagan: Well, what if I try to buy you off?
The Law: Then I'm just going to have to nominate a subcommittee to watch both of us and make sure we don't become corrupt.
Clinton: But it'd be really nice if we could.
The Law: See, there's this little thing called "due process." We kind of founded an entire country based on the fact that we didn't have it before.
George W: Fuck that noise. I'm just going to write a law that says I can.
The Law: You can't do that. You're not the Legislative Branch.
George W: ....and then I'm going to create another FBI-like group to watch over the FBI and the NSA and do all the things that my shiny new law lets them do.
The Law: No, you don't understand. You can't do that. That's an impeachable offense. It says so, right here.
George W: Nonsense, you get impeached for blowjobs, not crimes against the country. Hey, guys, look! I made a law!
Telecoms: Ooooooh. Pretty.
Pardon me if that version seems a little biased to you.
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no subject
Date: 16 Feb 2006 20:00 (UTC)In the 70s, citizens got their news and organized through three venues: Television, news radio, and newspapers. The newspapers were in collusion with the radio, and the TV reporters were friends with both of the other sets. What's more, their was a spirit of investigative journalism. Problems were reported and discussed.
By contrast, most people these days get their news from either lobbyist organizations masquerading as news programs, or blogs. We're too decentralized. Efforts to create National No Buy days, the most effective demonstration of consumer power, is hampered by the fact that we can't reach all of America.
I have a hard time imagining an era when the majority of our leaders were legitimately concerned more with good governance than their own fortunes, but the history books insist is was so.
Jon Stewart said something that really hit home for me, in that Daily Show bit that's going around. Alexander Hamiliton once challenged a man to a duel over matters of honor and governance. By contrast, our leaders accidentally shoot each other while hunting quailtards & hanging out with lobbyists.
As for the rest of your comment, it's no good setting up a soapbox on my LJ. I doubt there's anyone here who doesn't already agree with you.
no subject
Date: 20 Feb 2006 11:17 (UTC)