A Republic--If We Can Keep It. Happy Fourth of July

The Honorable Vaughan R. Walker:

Judge Rejects Bush’s View on Wiretaps: A federal judge in California said Wednesday that the wiretapping law established by Congress was the “exclusive” means for the president to eavesdrop on Americans, and he rejected the government’s claim that the president’s constitutional authority as commander in chief trumped that law....

The Justice Department... citing the president’s constitutional power as commander in chief to order wiretaps without a warrant from a court under the agency’s program. But Judge Walker, who was appointed to the bench by former President George Bush, rejected those central claims.... He said the rules for surveillance were clearly established by Congress in 1978 under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which requires the government to get a warrant from a secret court.

“Congress appears clearly to have intended to — and did — establish the exclusive means for foreign intelligence activities to be conducted,” the judge wrote. “Whatever power the executive may otherwise have had in this regard, FISA limits the power of the executive branch to conduct such activities and it limits the executive branch’s authority to assert the state secrets privilege in response to challenges to the legality of its foreign intelligence surveillance activities”...

Comments

[Matt]

If Congress holds our protection against illegal search then we are f*ked.

[albatross]

I guess the question I have here is, what's the consequence. The administration knowingly violated the written law, and got caught. Now, if I violate the law and get caught, say the cops catch me selling crack in a park some Saturday night, I know what happens: I go to jail. What's the consequence for the president, the attorney general, various people at the NSA, etc., knowingly violating the written law?

There's a clear answer available, one which upholds the rule of law: the people who knew or should have known they were violating the written law face the penalties written in the laws--they get indicted, plead, and maybe stand trial. But of course, that's the way things would work in a country where the powerful were subject to the same laws as ordinary people. In this country, I suppose the penalty will be that they will try again in some other way, hoping vaguely not to get caught because it makes such an annoying fuss.

[Matt]

Good luck folks. The shining city of light on the hill is still a metaphor for more than Americans alone, but the shine needs to be nurtured in your neck of the woods. By all three branches. And a turnout in the General Election, surely to dog.

I would be interested in the response to Matt (no relation) above; on reflection that those who wish to uphold the law, and speak out about its abuses, are widely abused and suffer retaliation if they try to do the right thing (Washington Post today reports backlog of 900 cases of whistleblowers reporting malfeasance and/or misuse of public funds). I note that the most recent public posting of www.iamb.org on spending in Iraq suggest the same problems have been present for years and billions are unaccounted for. Further, as the Wall St Journal has copiously pointed out, the international agencies normally renowned for trustee roles have been blowing money too - see March 11 WSJ editorial on World Bank in India.

So what's the answer? Huff and puff and outrage doesn't seem to achieve much. How about the readership come up with practical and actionable governance, audit, and oversight ideas?

[MattY]

I can be MattY.

What happened to the Fourth Amendment which makes warrants and probable cause a requirement, enforced by the courts, not congress?

[bigTom]

OT, but maybe Brad should think about a possible future post. Any opinions on the IMF audit of the American financial system? If he wants to delete the post, after reading the question, I won't be upset.

[Neil B.]

Since it's the 4oJ, I pasted my comments today from Cosmic Variance (also to Pharyngula.) The comment was about Democracy in general, not a specific issue. As for wiretapping, it seems reasonable to me that the USC protects domestic communications. However, anything (whether objects, persons, or "data") that crosses our borders is pretty much fair game to be monitored/controlled/stopped per our national interests. (That doesn't justify not telling us it's being done in general.)

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It is interesting and ironic that despite the interest of “neocons” in “spreading democracy,” the hard-core libertarian/conservative/Objectivist types deride democracy as “mob rule.” The Ayn-al retentive Neal Boortz and the like minded say, (now often not directly acknowledging her as inspiration), that “Democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what’s for dinner.” They also like to say, “The USA is a Republic, not a Democracy.” The latter statement is false because “democracy” is not defined as “direct democracy” which is un-filtered by constitutions, legislatures etc., or both. Well, part of the reason we need a democracy is exactly about what the mob-rule haters reference: because of the power of property owners (and where does the “original justification” of that come from, and why not limited like that of government?), we need democracy so two sheep and a wolf can keep the wolf from eating the sheep on his own.

Yes, we are a Republic, and a Democracy too - a “representative democracy” which is a sub-class, not like “infrared.” (Conservatives often have trouble with combined categories, multiple causation etc. That is from my experience, not a “prejudice.”) I think the main appeal of the Republic over Democracy meme is the boost it gives the favored Party.

In any case, consider the irony of the Bush Admin/neocons wanting to spread democracy in the Middle East (really the near East) but being served results such as Hamas winning in Palestinian areas, Shiite religious parties in Iraq (now social freedoms are less than under Saddam, bad as he was.) Worse, Coalition forces are stretched so thin from Iraq that we can’t keep the lid down in Afghanistan, and are thus less safe in the long term.

[TigerPaw]

I think democracy got redefined at a secret meeting several years back - now it means "whatever those with money decide".

We're all just a bit surprised because we didn't know.

Oh and if you're not sure who the wolves and the sheep are, then you're one of the sheep.

[Anon]

You can't keep it. The last major challenge was Richard Nixon, and you managed to partially heal the damage his administration caused. But some of the rot remained (Cheney, Rumsfeld, whoever else), and it came back, stronger than before. And this time the tree was weaker than before. The rot went deeper this time, and the tree is not healing itself this time.

At this point all you have is a slow death spiral. No healing is occurring; the "healing" candidate for President is a full supporter of most of the rot, and the "non-healing" candidate is a full supporter of ALL of it. So it's not even going to be two steps toward oblivion, one step back; it's just going to be two steps forward, and two steps forward, and two steps forward, and AAAAAAAAAAIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE, no more republic.

Where the abyss is exactly, I don't know. But you're headed for it, make no mistake. The United States of America will not exist in 2100. You will have had a good run.

[theeconomicfractalist]

Republics arise and decay. Their fortunes are tied to the ongoing macroeconomic system of growth and decay of assets, asset valuation, money, and debt. The macroeconomic system as defined by the ongoing valuations of readily identifiable assets is a nonlinear system. Saturation macroeconomics suggests this nonlinear system has both feedback limits and has a rather precise fractal rhythm of growth and decay.

Saturday, July 5, 2008
150 Year Second Fractal Nonlinearity and The Lammert Macroeconomic Fractal Series: x/2.5x/2x/1.5x

The Wilshire closed at 12815.47 on 3 July 2008, near its 22 month lows. Composite equity valuation decay will follow a quantum fractal decay pattern. What is that fractal pattern? Will the current fractal decay pattern time frame and final low be mathmatically consistent with the larger growth and decay pattern starting in October 2002? Will the US 150 year composite equity second fractal's terminal nonlinear area be incorporated within a larger nearly perfect quantum fractal pattern whose evolution and valuation saturation limits intuitively is casually determined by systemic unpayable massive debt? This historical debt evolved by unregulated credit expansion, financial engineering, and uncompetitive interest rates and taxed savings accounts and has resulted in oversupply, over ownership, over valuation, and gross and growing dysequilibrium between the jobs and wages needed in the real economy and the ongoing capacity to service the excessive amount of facilitated debt. The global macroeconomy composite equity valuation well represented by the Wilshire is now evolving under such apparent and growing dysequilibrium conditions and is within the terminal devaluation area were debt and entitlements wlll undergo synchronized default. The October 2002 x/2.5x/2x/1.5x ideal quantum fractal progressio is a 11/27/22/13 of 17-18 month evolution and a 46/115/92/ 51 of 69 week evolution. The 92nd week of the third fractal contained the 19 July 2007 high and a reflexive 20/50/40 day fractal yielded the predicted 11 October 2007 interday nominal all time Wilshire high. Is first decay base 13 weeks vice 23 weeks? This fractal decay base would generate a decay sequence of 13/32-33/32-33 weeks vice the 23/48/48-50 week sequence...In this mathematical construct the second decay fractal could be composed of a 24 week and a 9 week fractal with a low at the end of the 9 week fractal substantially higher than expected because of massive and historical federal reserve intervention with total rate cuts of over 2 percent for the January -March 08 time period with contemporary financial guarantees involving the collapse of the fifth largest US investment agency. This short 9 week fractal serves as a potential smaller interpolated base fractal for a final 9/17-18/17-18 week decay fractal series. The week of 7-11 July 08 will likely have a substantial nonlinear movement with the Wilshire on 4 July 08 at the 77th day of a 38-39/77 of 78 days x/2x-2.5x series. The 38-39 day first fractal base starts on 22-23 January 08 and ends on 17 March 08 and composes the short 9 week base. The 2x end of second fractal at day 77 of 78 is near the low valuation level of the first fractal with decay nonlinearity expected between 2x and 2.5x or between day 78 and day 95. With the deteriorating second fractal valuation level, nonlinearity is expected in the early range of the 78 to 95 day 2x to 2.5x time window..
17-18 additional weeks of a third decay fractal 9/17-18/17-18 weeks would take the decay pattern to a low consistent with the terminal portion of the larger 46/115/92/51 of 69 week fractal progression starting in October 2002 and provide strong support of an operative self limiting mathematical quantum formula defining the limits and governing the complex macroeconomic system. The valuation devolution within the final third fractal of 17-18 weeks would reflect a necessary massive repudiation of debt and entitlement payments in the global debt expansion system which has fostered asset oversupply and overvaluation and has caused a facade of GDP growth. GM is likely to go the way of New Century and Delta during this next 18 week time period, with a final fractal pattern of 34/69/34 weeks, a fractal pattern elegantly similar to the pattern composing its first 34 week fractal a 9/18/9 week pattern. Fractally interesting, gold as a marker for commodity speculation has a potential 11/28/10 pf 28 week decay fractal which would match the expected composite equity low. On a daily basis as of 4 July gold and gold stocks are following a final 9/23/16 of potentially 18 day growth fractal. How low denominated in US dollars will the old yellow relic fall in the next 18 weeks supported by a plummeting number of surviving dollars? The devolution of equity and commodity valuations within the 18 weeks will likely be the greatest percentage drop the world has ever experienced.

[erewhon]

This is a sobering line of thought. When the executive branch breaks the law, what happens? The outrageous behavior of the DOJ in making sure that only conservatives were hired as lawyers seems almost as bad to me as the criminal invasion of Iraq which has killed hundreds of thousands of people, maybe more. Yet Nancy B. Lousy said a long time ago that “impeachment is off the table”. Will further Presidents extend the Bush/Cheney usurpations?

Does anyone think that Congress can oversee intelligence and military activities? They don’t have access to people in the field and they are easily bypassed or ignored in times of “emergency”. Of course “the war on terror” is a permanent emergency and excuse for evading supervision. Our country is more unequal than it has been since the 1920s and the ruling class has less interest in building a strong middle class. At some point the people will rise up and overthrow the current system, but I don’t know when. There's no way to make constructive change within the current system

[Matt]

Hey Erewhon, when I was a bit younger, I read a book written for 12yo reading age called The War Against Chaos; don't bother googling it because you'll get all manner of weirdness, maybe bookfind.com would work better, and which of course at that level might be appropriate for certain senior officials. But the central contention was that the state would create a permanent and undefined, maybe undefinable, but vast and threatening enemy to afford it maximum latitude to enforce a regime of control, surveillance and impunity. Couldn't happen here, natch. But this was back in '82 or so. Maybe it was the zeitgeist, because at a similar time, Smith's Dream, later filmed as the frankly remarkable Sleeping Dogs, was being widely touted as a cautionary tale. Ok, so they're from half a world away, and the republic is different. If you've seen "Brazil" by Terry Gilliam, that's a good film about the universal threat, set in a mythical early computer age future, like a 1940s hallucination. (Actually from the earlier point, New Zealand seems to lack a constitution, if you can figure that- I haven't seen one on any site). But in a way the overall point is no less valid for it. There's a store in DC called Design Within Reach, where mostly unattainable home stuff is flogged for retail minus 10. Sleeping Dogs is more like fascism within reach, so what's your price to fend it off? What's anyone's price, and have we seen examples already?