Catch-22

You know, that might be the answer --
to act boastfully about something we ought to be ashamed of.
That's a trick that never seems to fail
--Catch-22, Joseph Heller

There is no such condition as 'schizophrenia,'
but the label is a social fact and the social fact a political event
--R.D. Laing
_____________

Like Lithuania, Ranger moves for a name change for the U.S. -- something like the U.S.S.A [United Secret States of America];the 4-letter acronym would also symbolize our kinship in the secrecy realm with the U.S.S.R. of yore.

The Supreme Court recently declined a challenge to the Bush administration's warrantless domestic wiretapping program because the plaintiffs could not prove they had been spied upon.

The ACLU brought the suit on behalf of a group of lawyers, writers and political organizations, which said the eavesdropping interfered with communication with clients and overseas contacts.

"But Bush's lawyers successfully invoked two legal doctrines making it difficult to challenge the government's anti-terrorism policies.

"First, they said, challengers must show that they had their phone calls or e-mails intercepted. Otherwise, they have no 'standing' to sue because they have no injury to complain of. Second, the government said, the entire program was secret, and under the 'state secrets privilege,' plaintiffs cannot obtain information on whether they were targeted for surveillance. When combined, the two doctrines make it almost impossible for most challengers to win a hearing in court.

"'They say you need certain information to proceed. And that is exactly the information the government won't give you,' said Jameel Jaffer, director of the ACLU's National Security Program (Supreme Court Dismisses Challenge to Bush's Wiretapping Policy.)"

In rejecting the suit, the Supreme Court is saying secrecy and spying trump the Bill of Rights and the legal process. If you think about it -- something not recommended in this Brave New World if you wish to preserve your sanity -- their stance is to construct of you a paranoid schizophrenic. However, because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you; they may be out to get you, you just can't prove it.

The Phony War on Terror (PWOT©) is being fought versus the corpus juris which used to protect the rights of the U.S. citizenry.

One Nation, Under Surveillance

All those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democratic
nation ought to know that war is the surest and shortest
means to accomplish it
--Alexis de Tocqueville

I always feel that somebody's watchin' me
And I have no privacy
--Somebody's Watching Me, Rockwell

That's o.k., I wasn't using my civil liberties anyway
--bumper sticker
________________

The philosopher Baruch Spinoza wrote in his Tractatus Politicus (1677),

It has been the one song of those who thirst after absolute power that the interest of the state requires that its affairs should be conducted in secret. . . But the more such arguments disguise themselves under the mask of public welfare, the more oppressive is the slavery to which they will lead. . . .Better that right counsels be known to enemies than that the evil secrets of tyrants should be concealed from the citizens. They who can treat secretly of the affairs of a nation have it absolutely under their authority; and as they plot against the enemy in time of war, so do they against the citizens in time of peace.

So it is in our newly-minted democracy designed to protect you from yourself that detainees are warehoused in secret prisons and tried in secret courts, and everything relating to national security is deemed a secret (to protect you from those secrets, which you now, thankfully, are not even aware.) Freedom = ignorance of issues; wasn't that one of FDR's Four?

The National Security Agency may tap into our conversations without warrants, but we are denied access to their budgets. The intelligence agencies have huge secret budgets the U.S. citizens aren't even allowed to know about.

Good relationships require transparency and accountability. The plutocracy of the new imperial America doesn't desire a relationship with its paeans. Many citizens are feeling increasingly alienated from their government. I guess secret work demands secret budgets.