Checks and Bullshit

I'm not a political alarmist. I listen to my fair share of Air America, and while I enjoy listening to thoughtful people who come closer to my personal sensibility, so much of the liberal handwringing is ineffectual and often beside the point. Finding out how much congress and the American people were misled before the war in Iraq is irrelevant now. If it wasn't deliberate malfeasence on the part of the administration, then it was incompetence; pick one, they're equally troubling, and neither of them will help us solve our current situation.

Yet, Randi Rhodes and those like her on progressive radio will not let the past go (much like Right Wing radio returns to Bill's BJ whenever they're backed into a cornere). Liberals continue to pummel the dead horse of Bush's questionable election wins. They dwell on all of the administration's past mistakes without offering any solutions to our current quandries. We need visionaries right now. Not sour grapes.

And this week has revealed how dire that need is. Like I said, I'm not a political alarmist, but a number of stories broke in rapid succession this week (many hidden on the back pages) that intensified my malaise towards the next three years of W's rule. There's a sense of helplessness right now for many Americans. We're trapped in Iraq, at the will of the administration's obstinate rhetoric. Meanwhile, they continue to bend and break laws behind the immunity of power and secrecy, all in the the name of homeland security.

First this week comes news that officials at the Pentagon were secretly surveilling groups adversarial to the administration. Some of these groups, including an anti-war group gathering at the Quaker Meeting House in Lake Worth, FL to protest military recruitment in high schools, were small neighborhood activist groups who were being observed under the pretense of home security. Another group, the (no shit) Raging Grannies, were also under surveillance. Well, I guess if they can't tell that Granny doesn't have a bomb in her shoes at the airport, why should the Pentagon be any different?

This week also showed that even when congress posts a win for personal freedoms, killing an extension to the Patriot Act, it is clear that the administration will continue to act as it sees fit from outside the purview of congressional approval. The New York Times broke a story that Bush authorized the NSA to spy on hundreds of Americans within the United States. Because of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act passed in 1978, domestic spying is unlawful without a warrant. What Bush did was essentially eliminate the need to obtain a warrant. This by itself wouldn't alarm me. As Bush stated, these wiretaps were mainly to observe people with ties to Al Qaeda, and I'd gladly give him the benefit of the doubt here. But paired with the Pentagon's secret database on anti-war groups, these stories reveal both the ability to circumvent the law and a desire to keep tabs on those who oppose this administration. As if that weren't enough, Bush then conducted a live radio address in which he praised the program, vowed to continue it, and then criticized the New York Times for divulging the existence of the program.

This response from the President is staggering. Not only does he admit to stepping around the law, but he also promises the practice will continue. Then the cherry on the sundae, the criticism of the press. I know the Bush administration is allergic to accountability, but they're not even being coy about it anymore. Of course, the free press is only free so much as it makes the case for Bush's myopic agenda (see the propaganda machine currently uncovered in Iraq). I guess covering your true nature for so long has to be hard (it's why I quit my bartending job), and the wolf is clearly starting to itch inside the sheep's clothing.

Three more years of the wolf. Three more years.