Blue Notes from a Red Zone

Picking Up Speed on the Slippery Slope

I read a lot of political blogs, so I have never felt compelled to offer my thoughts on a number of hot topics. I know that anyone who wants to see what the reaction is to this, that or the other political outrage can find many sources elsewhere.

However, I have been stunned at the absolute silence on the subject of General Hayden's confirmation as head of the CIA, by a vote of some impossible number like 75-15. This is the very person who has overseen the NSA's lurch into warrantless surveillance despite the many easy routes for gaining warrants up to 72 hours after the wiretapping has begun; the stockpiling of data taken from billions of domestic phone calls; the person who, when asked about the 4th amendment, denied that half of it exists.

Let's couple this with the fact that this is a military man heading a civilian agency, in a country that has already gone wildly militaristic, and the picture that then emerges is hardly comforting. How are we so blase?

There is a lot of talk about freedom and liberty in my part of the country. However, the definitions attached to these terms are not those that I am familiar with. Apparently freedom means the ability to impose our military might across the globe. It does not mean reading, understanding or upholding the Bill of Rights.

Apparently there seems to be a general consensus here that the executive branch is the embodiment of our country, and the stronger the executive, the stronger the country. Additional confusion arises from our definition of strength as being he who can swagger and boast and trample over others the best. It is best if the persons being trampled are from other countries and cultures, but if a few million people in our own country get trampled also, well, that's the price we pay for freedom. And after all, if those people who are objecting didn't have anything to hide, why should they mind the government's prying?

Obviously, I find a few flaws in this reasoning. Strength is not measured by notches on your belt, but on intelligence, understanding, and the ability to collaborate with others for solutions that provide the greatest benefit to the maximum number of people. Freedom is defined by respect for individual liberties. None of us are any freer than the most vulnerable of our neighbors. If one person can be violated without repercussion or consequence, who is there to stop the next person, perhaps marginally less vulnerable, from the same kind of attack?

Which brings me back to the concept of placing a military man who apparently has never read the Bill of Rights in charge of governmental espionage. The Constitution and laws of our country are trifles to this man, easily swatted away. Congress seems to have no desire to correct this opinion. Thus, Congress continues to follow a pattern of conceding power to the executive whenever the executive chooses to make a power grab. Why Congress still supports a power-mad president, when over 70% of the country gave it up a long time ago, is something that no amount of political reading and research on both sides of the aisle will clarify for me.

Still, there are courts. Theoretically, we have one check left in our system of checks and balances, if the executive appointments to the federal courts have left anyone with a backbone in office. We know Mr. Alito believes in a dictatorial executive, but perhaps Mr. Roberts may yet come to shiver at the idea of an all-powerful unitary executive. In Marbury vs. Madison, the single greatest precedent defining the role of the courts, our first chief justice, John Marshall, ruled that the court was the final arbiter of the law, no matter what the president might think (thus nullifying 750 signing statements issued by our current president). Also, it was held that Congress may not cede its Constitutional powers to the president, nor may either the president or Congress abrogate rights and powers that belong to the people, as enumerated in the Constitution and its amendments.

It is a scary world indeed when our hope for halting the increasingly rapid encroachment of the government into our civil liberties rests with persons such as Justices Scalia, Thomas, Roberts and Alito (it is nightmarish just to write those words), but the world can work in mysterious ways. Let's hope at least one of these less-than-distinguished gentleman finds his way back to the Bill of Rights, and halts our rapid descent down the rabbithole.

posted by Lenore Wilson @ 9:28 PM