The Fear of Fear Itself
It was appalling to watch over the last few days as Congress - now led by Democrats - caved in to yet another unnecessary and dangerous expansion of President Bush’s powers, this time to spy on Americans in violation of basic constitutional rights. Many of the 16 Democrats in the Senate and 41 in the House who voted for the bill said that they had acted in the name of national security, but the only security at play was their job security.
There was plenty of bad behavior. Republicans marched in mindless lockstep with the president. There was double-dealing by the White House. The director of national intelligence, Mike McConnell, crossed the line from being a steward of this nation’s security to acting as a White House political operative.
But mostly, the spectacle left us wondering what the Democrats - especially their feckless Senate leaders - plan to do with their majority in Congress if they are too scared of Republican campaign ads to use it to protect the Constitution and restrain an out-of-control president.
The votes in the House and Senate were supposed to fix a genuine glitch in the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which requires the government to obtain a warrant before eavesdropping on electronic communications that involve someone in the United States. The court charged with enforcing that law said the government must also seek a warrant if the people are outside the country, but their communications are routed through data exchanges here - a technological problem that did not exist in 1978.
Instead of just fixing that glitch, the White House and its allies on Capitol Hill railroaded Congress into voting a vast expansion of the president’s powers. They gave the director of national intelligence and the attorney general authority to intercept - without warrant, court supervision or accountability - any telephone call or e-mail message that moves in, out of or through the United States as long as there is a “reasonable belief” that one party is not in the United States. The new law all but eviscerates the 1978 law. The only small saving grace is that the new statute expires in six months.
The House handled this mess somewhat better than the Senate, moving to the floor a far more sensible bill. Mr. McConnell certified that the House bill would address the problem raised by the court. That is, until the White House made clear that it wanted to use the court’s ruling to grab a lot more power. Mr. McConnell then reversed his position and demanded that Congress pass the far more expansive bill.
In the Senate, the team of Harry Reid, the majority leader, gave up fast, agreeing to a deal that doomed any good bill. The senators then hurriedly approved the White House bill, dumped it on the House and skulked off on vacation. Representative Rahm Emanuel, the fourth-ranking member of the Democratic House leadership, said yesterday that his party would not wait for the new eavesdropping authority to expire, and would have a new, measured bill on the floor by October. We look forward to reading it.
But the problem with Congress last week was that Democrats were afraid to explain to Americans why the White House bill was so bad and so unnecessary - despite what the White House was claiming. There are good answers, if Democrats are willing to address voters as adults. To start, they should explain that - even if it were a good idea, and it’s not - the government does not have the capability to sort through billions of bits of electronic communication. And the larger question: why, six years after 9/11, is this sort of fishing expedition the supposed first line of defense in the war on terrorism?
While serving little purpose, the new law has real dangers. It would allow the government to intercept, without a warrant, every communication into or out of any country, including the United States. Instead of explaining all this to American voters - the minimal benefits and the enormous risks - the Democrats have allowed Mr. Bush and his fear-mongering to dominate all discussions on terrorism and national security.
Mr. Bush claims that he has kept America safe since 9/11. But that claim ignores the country’s very real and present vulnerabilities. Six years after the 9/11 attacks the administration has still failed to secure American ports, railroads and airports from terrorist attack, and has put the profits of the chemical and nuclear-power industries ahead of safeguarding their plants.
Mr. Bush also worries Democratic strategists by talking about “staying on the offensive” against terrorism, but it was his decision to invade Iraq that diverted resources from the real offensive, the one against Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Mr. Bush’s incessant fear-mongering - and the Democrats’ refusal to challenge him - has had one notable success. The only issue on which Americans say that they trust Republicans more than Democrats is terrorism. At least those Americans are afraid of terrorists. The Democrats who voted for this bill, and others like it over the last few years, show only fear of Republicans.
The Democratic majority has made strides on other issues like children’s health insurance against White House opposition. As important as these measures are, they do not excuse the Democrats from remedying the damage Mr. Bush has done to civil liberties and the Bill of Rights. That is their most important duty.
© 2007 The New York Times
Time to check out public key encryption software if you value privacy in your email communications. See:
http://gnupg.org
You may also want to give up using
Microsoft operating systems, and switch to open source OS’s like Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, or NetBSD.
These freshmen senators crossed the Isle to vote with the Republicans to give George Bush a “Get out of jail free”/”Spy on anyone you want” card:
http://mccaskill.senate.gov/contact.cfm
http://webb.senate.gov/contact/
Reading the NYT deplore “the fear of fear itself” is a little like listening to WC Fields give a temperance lecture. (Or watching J-Lo do a video on the importance of committment in marriage).
Given the NYT’s enabling of the likes of Michael Gordon,Judith Miller and (oh be still my pounding heart!)Thomas (why do they hate us?)Friedman’s bloviations who are they to criticize congress or anyone for being “fearful of fear”?
I loathe the NYT more than congress any day.
Though they’re right on this editorial, the hypocrisy of the NYT daring to criticize ANYONE for cowardly failure to stand up to Bush’s fear-mongering — this is simply too rich. The posture of the NYT towards Bush has been just the same as that of the Democrats, since even before Bush stole the 2000 election.
Both the media (with the NYT in the lead) and the Democrats have been vital pillars of the rightwing’s assault on the Constitution. Here we have a case of one pillar accurately accusing the other of doing just what both of them have been doing for years.
Poet–Even so, the NYT on this issue and others has attempted to redeem themselves–and even went as far to offer up a mea culpa for their part in the lead up to the invasion.
Congress, however, can’t sink much lower.
Everyday these guys in the administration remind me more and more of the brown shirted Nazis of 1930s Germany. They just keep pushing for more and more power even when they are caught over and over lying and cheating in anyway that they possibly can.
This group is worse than I ever thought anyone could be. We need to get them out of office BEFORE January 2009. Like the Senators not willing to wait for more lies from Iraq in September, we must act long before the next election.
“Reading the NYT deplore “the fear of fear itself” is a little like listening to WC Fields give a temperance lecture. . .
Given the NYT’s enabling of the likes of Michael Gordon,Judith Miller and (oh be still my pounding heart!)Thomas (why do they hate us?)Friedman’s bloviations who are they to criticize congress or anyone for being “fearful of fear”?”
Poet speaks the truth. The NYTimes did a little tap dance to lure us into believing that we trust the Republicans more than we do the Democrats against terrorists. Hog Pucky!
Leading the reader down a rose smelling path toward the quicksand at the end is an old ploy used by so-called journalists who know on which side their bread is buttered.
Both corporate parties are a bunch of jackals. As long as we continue to support Democrats we will never win progress–only reap more of the same.
I agree with Nickhart.
For some reason we continue to view Dems and Reps as different. They are all the same Skulls, Masons, and Ivy League demons. They trick us every 4 years. We sit around and say why don’t Dems do this or why do Reps do that.
THEY ALL HAVE THE SAME AGENDA. “NWO” New world order. Every move, every bill, every law. It has been going on since the before the founding of this nation (NOT OUR NATION).
We have read about it, we have seen the way the wealth gap is increasing. They control us with fear. Separate us with Fear. Trick us with Lies. Steal from us with whole lies wrapped in Half Truths.
Why can’t we see past it? Because of the fear!
The fear that if you tell you neighbor what you really think is going on. You become a Bleeding heart liberal conspiracy theorist.
And liberals think everyone who drives a truck and has a flag in the window, is a pig headed red neck Repub.
Why do you keep letting them polarize us and continue to make us think these are our only options?
We can’t stand up and fight for what’s right, because we keep fighting each other on things that make no sense at all.
Who cares if two men or two women get married? That’s not going to affect anyone in any way at all.
Abortion? Pro life or Pro Choice? They are NOT THE SAME THING. Most people are both. NO one is saying lets go kill the babies. We just don’t think some person in Iowa should be able to tell some women in Indiana what she can and can not do with her own body. You can’t be pro-life and pro war at the same time. You can’t be pro life but cut Social Funding. You can’t be pro-life but shop at Wal-mart. You can’t drive a SUV and be pro-life.
Stop letting them use “Language” to control us. Support our troops means using them to patrol our borders and protect our shores not invade those of another.
Support our Troops means pay them fair, and let them be with the families for a fair amount of time. Support is bringing them home instead of leaving them to die.
This all makes me sick every day. Every day in the news people are pissed about Barry bonds who MIGHT have used drugs to enhance his abilities. Well that’s great. That’s wonderful that you care so much about drugs and the well being of the game of baseball.
But what about drugs in food and the well being of your kids! What about fake cure drugs and the well being of your body?
I really feel that it’s pointless. This will be another nation in history that failed. And somewhere down the road our kids’ kids will fight the great revolution and restore things to the way it should be.
To bad millions around the world will die first. And the planet won’t be much of a place to live on or have been worth the trouble of saving.
~Future~
Just for the record: screw you NYT.
Yeah Indeed I agree, Frank1569.
NYT could give a rats arse about any of us. If they did they would report the things that no one wants to hear. And they would also report the things that the Nation needs to hear.
But no way thats going to happen.
Funny how they forgot to mention TERRORISM in the wiretapping bill.
This gives the Bushistas permission to wiretap anyone, FOR ANY REASON. They dont even need to suspect a crime has been committed.
this is just wiretapping for wiretappings sakes
Funny how they forgot to mention TERRORISM in the wiretapping bill.
This gives the Bushistas permission to wiretap anyone, FOR ANY REASON. They dont even need to suspect a crime has been committed.
this is just wiretapping for wiretappings sakes
They can claim that Prelosi’s confidential political tactics email to Harry Reid was routed through a foreign server.
Of course, all they would get is Harry and Nancy discussing how to further sell out the country to Herr Bush
Has anyone used an offshore call center or surfed the BBC.co.uk? Tag, your it.
I know we are all angry at the Dems (and rightly so) but let’s take just a moment to look at how this FISA bill is being framed in the media. The headlines are all about the Dems caving, or surrendering to the White House. Why aren’t the headlines:
Bush administration breaks fourth amendment to the Constitution that they have all sworn to uphold.
or
Criminal administration trashes Constitution with help of Republicans in Congress. Dems try bravely to stop them.
Do you see how the Republicans are getting a free pass in all this? No one is holding them responsible for their actions, only the Dems. It is as if we all know that Republicans are criminals, but we expect better of the Dems. But 1/2 the country doesn’t know better–they have to be told explicitly what their Congress critters just did to them.
Just saying.
Ducklady:
A small correction: no one, including the Dems, is holding the Republicans responsible. The two mainstream parties are very much hand in hand.
Perhaps 97-0 will also ring a bell.
Uncanny parallel to the rise of Hitler some say.
Time to start forming an underground??? WOW!
It’s amazing where the conscience of the people is at this time … maybe the NRA has been right all along …perhaps we should all arm ourselves
Every time I pass a sign on the road that says state police…I read it as POLICE STATE
Are we approaching some kind of tipping point in terms of what the collective conscience may be thinking.
I wish I knew the data mining code words that caused the government to follow your calls. We could spread them around and freak out the system used.
Lets see; Democratic contribution, Screw Bu$h…..
I.m afraid, I’m very afraid!
Yes, the new york times should be burnt to the ground for all the far-right propagandizing they’ve done. So should the nra…
The Author writes: “But mostly, the spectacle left us wondering what the Democrats - especially their feckless Senate leaders - plan to do with their majority in Congress if they are too scared of Republican campaign ads”
I have to strongly disagree, this has been the official Dem talking point designed to make voters feel better about their leaders colusion with Republicans.
Face it everyone, Dems bread is buttered on the same side as Republicans there is no difference between the two.
To shakker, the code words are Bush. If you use it in any why your it! If you spell you name funny like Smit instead of Smith, your tagged. I have a neighbor who’s name is spelled funny and they are tagged, on the NO FLY List and all, they have nothing but problems. A police state is closer then you think, and has started already for some. Be very careful or clean. And these people are older and as white as any snow mound you can find.
I live in New York City, and I never buy the NYT, for news I turned to Public Access’s broadcast of “Democracy Now” and make daily visits to CommonDreams.org
Poet:
“I loathe the NYT more than congress any day.” Loathe be paid for, we all be rich by now. The good news is that NYT has very sensitive nose to detect where winds are blowing from. So, I presume, NYT is preparing to join the crowd and claim it has always been ahead. Those 40 Democratic sleaze balls may lose their nuts soon.
Conservatives are reactionaries led by fear.
Common Dreams fills the need for news hole in my psyche.
WP and NYT, Cnn and MSNBC—they all blat the same news, from the same viewpoint 24/7. Were it not for TiVo I’d have sold the tv long ago and gone with the net. Even NPR is kowtowing to the political pressure and the news from there is party line as well.
Twice I have lain in the cold sand at Ocean Beach to spell out IMPEACHsince the new Congress took over. To what end I ask myself now.
Future.me and many of you here are exactly right about the most important deception–the very biggest Big Lie–that’s at work here: the divisions that are cultivated between us.
It wouldn’t matter that elections can be rigged (since the “choice” between the two wings of the corporate-controlled party is meaningless anyway) or that the fourth estate is unable to perform its sole function (since consolidation of media ownership precludes any possibility of independent journalism) if we weren’t so easily put into “opposing” camps by the current and quite transparently phony Left/Right paradigm.
The truth is that we all want the same things: peace, social justice, environmental stability, universal healthcare, etc, etc. In poll after poll, overwhelming majorities (75% or more) agree on these fundamental issues. The NYT might not print these poll results, but you can find them.
Here’s the real kicker: even when this startling unity is acknowledged, the “experts” tell us that it’s too bad because there’s just not enough money to finance such things.
Lies, lies, lies, yea-ah.
What some of you might not know is that the whole swindle is based on the zero-sum game of scarcity economics. Every economy that’s ever existed has been based on economies of scarcity–capitalism, to be sure, but socialism as well.
What Bucky Fuller tried to explain before he found a better gig was that we could build economies of abundance…right here and now, for less money than the current wasteful, reckless, disparity & manipulation prone system that we’ve been tricked into accepting as “natural” ever since the dawn of agriculture.
Did you guys know that we can build houses, schools & factories that:
* produce more energy & water than they consume?
* are part of the earth’s ecosystems, not a blight upon them?
* cost less to build than the cost of dismantling the toxic boxes in which we’re currently warehoused?
That’s right–we could rebuild man’s habitat, our entire relationship with the planet and each other, and in the process achieve the one thing we’ve never, ever had–autonomy. Decentralized, untethered energy production, no reliance on any grid…real freedom.
What’s more, most of us don’t know this “secret” yet, but the Owners do.
Look up “economies of abundance” and break the illusion. Then tell your neighbor about it. We don’t need to fight them (this would only strengthen their position anyway)–we need to obsolete them. And we can.
Remember, empathy is the only weapon that’s stronger than fear.
iridescent cuttlefish August 11th, 2007 1:54 am:
You are brilliant! A fish after my own heart! I’ll check out “economies of abundance”. I was very impressed by the underlying concepts in a book I read in the 80’s called “Small is Beautiful” about small, decentralized, local ecomonies of scale. I’m working on getting my family off the grid and going solar, ampong other green and self-sufficient strategies. I only wish the cutting edge solar technology developed for the U.S. military and funded by US taxpayers, was available to us, right now. But, alas, it is not. Another day, another outrage!
For more info on this, see the article “Solar-Powered Superpower”. p.7 in the mag “Jaded”, Final issue Spring 2007. Or, visit the website at www.jadedmag.org. However, I will go with the best, affordable commercially available system I can find. Ya gotta start somewhere and solar technology will only improve in efficiency and decrease in cost if there is a growing market for it.
And, yes, empathy, and I would add, love, are the only “weapons” that are stronger than fear. We really need to change the ‘war’ paradigm. Ever notice how everything, every policy or program is a “war” on something?? The war on poverty, the war on drugs, the war on terror, etc. It’s as if that’s the only way we can think about, talk about or deal with just about any problem we are confronted with in Amerika today.
Given this sad state of affairs, is it really any wonder that war is our first resort, instead of our last resort, whenever our nation is confronted with difficult and threatening situations in the world? Our profound ignorance and lack of understanding of most of the rest of the world outside of America is surely a huge factor in why we react so impulsively with aggression out of fear and ignorance of the unknown. In this state of mind, many of us are easily convinced of just about anything and stampeded into irrational and counter-productive behavior. Instead of informing the public, seeking the truth and encouraging a robust debate of the complex and vitally important issues of the day, our withered and debauched “Forth Estate” floods us with party-line propaganda 24/7. Is it any wonder?
I’d like to share a quote from Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the Soviet dissident and defector, scientist, writer and survivor of many years in the Gulag Archipeligo, that I believe we would be very wise to head: “Don’t believe them. Don’t fear them. Don’t ask anything from them.” There is more than one way to skin a fascist.
Power to the People (literally) and to the fishes, too!
the Tao is falling! the Tao is falling!