of course, it's not just about a functioning political press, although that is a large piece of it... it's also about the docile, stuff- and entertainment-addicted, willfully self-deluded citizenry... it's not like the reality of bushco is completely hidden and impossible to dig out... the american people have been all to compliant in the ceaseless campaign of the elites to abdicate thinking for themselves and thus arming themselves with the information necessary to function as effective monitors of their own elected government...

http://takeitpersonally.blogspot.com/

It was one thing when the stars were being handed out at all. But now they're being hand out for "balance" as far as I can tell. Folks who read Glenn don't need stars on their papers. We can figure out for ourselves which arguments are well made. And we all benefit from the general discussion.

In the early part of 2004, the Department of Justice was engaged -- the Office of Legal Counsel, under my supervision -- in a reevaluation both factually and legally of a particular classified program. And it was a program that was renewed on a regular basis, and required signature by the attorney general certifying to its legality.

So, this particular program had been certified on a regular basis until March 11. Something about the program must have changed, so that the AG couldn't cerify it anymore.

I actually joined Digg (I'm not much of a joiner) just so I could tag this article.

For anyone who missed it, Scientician's comment bears repeating:

Digg drama...

Some right wingers are systematically trying to bury the digg version of this article.

Also, all our supporting comments.

Please do register with Digg and digg articles like these.

The hospital incident really needs to permeate more minds, because it is a highly representative incident of just how low they will go.

The thing with Digg, kind of like daily Kos is that there is a point of critical mass. 20-30 diggs is meaningless, hit 40 to 50 and suddenly the article gets "made popular" and is opened up to many many more readers.

So a small cadre of dedicated suppressors can keep this thing down.

I only hype Digg at times when I think Glenn has hit one out of the park, and this is one such time. We the little people can do our very small part to help end this travesty of an administration and here is something easy you can do to help.

Go. Now.

I think the reason this scandal has not grabbed the public more than it has is because of the number of other scandals competing for public attention. The War in Iraq, the GWOT, the Abu Graib and Guantanamo prison scandals, the USA firings, the election frauds beginning in 2000, are all too much for the public to handle. Breaches of the law and fundamental rights like the government spying on its own citizens and suspending habeas corpus, are abstractions for most of the public. Without a vigilent press to explain to people what they mean and their context, the ability of people to focus on what for them are speculative threats (only because they are secret) quickly wanes. Plus, these other scandals have essentially raised the threshhold of pain people are willing to see inflicted on their fellow human beings. Things just don't "shock the conscience" like they used to because the public conscience has become numbed by fear and propaganda. And what we don't know can't hurt, right?

People are inclined to assume that even Bush would not try to spy on "them" for purposes of blackmail or other nefarious reasons. Professional sophists like John Woo can sell the idea that the President can spy without a warrant or suspend habeas corpus regardless of what Congress says because he's looking out for "us." Bush as a regular guy you can have a beer with, see, so he wouldn't do anything to harm "us."

After Reagan and George HW Bush and their gang got away with Iran-Contra I have little hope Bush and the rest of his gang will ever be brought to justice for these crimes. I hope I'm wrong.

But the fact is that there were strong protections in there, this program has saved lives and it's vital for national security and furthermore has been reformed in a bipartisan way.

Strong protections: How do we know?

Has saved lives: Then why DON'T we know?

reformed in a bipartisan way: Until they announced several weeks ago that they were going ignore that particular compromise.

Again based on available information one of two things is true.

The program has not saved lives. Therefore only the lame prosecutions we are aware of have come from the program

or

the program has saved lives. Therefore anyone caught up in the program has been dealt with extrajudicially utilizing CIA black-ops, rendition and all of the rest that that entails.

So either Tony Snow is a liar or the American Gestapo is alive and well.

There are places at Salon where the stars really do serve a purpose, but GG's blog is not one of them. There are too many regulars here with ongoing story lines, and a misplaced star throws things out of whack.

Especially when an editor, who may or may not read GG very often, does not recognize a well-known troll. Salon editors should not be in the business of granting stars to trolls. Period. That's even worse than merely feeding them.

Having to read the entire thread, or pay the consequences by revealing one's ignorance of other posts, is part of the price of being a regular reader. The red stars that separate wheat from chaff elsewhere cannot do the same here, unless you can come up with a way of flagging trolls, so we can avoid them more easily.

Thanks!

I also appreciated your earlier point that they were probably spying on and blackmailing republicans too.

After all, they have proved willing to abuse DoJ to tarnish and defeat Democrats, it makes perfect sense they'd use it to keep Republicans in line, and helps to explain their unseemly lemming like lockstep march with the Administration off the cliffs of electoral oblivion.

That, and their high-RWA personalities, but if that was the only factor you'd expect a few dissenters among their ranks.

This is probably the lesson Republicans learned from Watergate: If you're going to ratfuck, ratfuck your friends just as much as your enemies. Nixon could have stayed president if he could have kept 34 Republican senators on board.