Sorry, but I feel a real need to mention this yet again. Why are we allowing Congress NOT to repeal that Use of Force Authorization many Dems were conned into voting for that allowed Bush to invade Iraq? That resolution is the genesis of many of the horrible abuses of executive power that we are all upset about now. The same ones Obama is defending from the Bush era. I don't understand why there hasn't been more of an organized movement to force Congress to repeal that Resolution. And not sure why Congress wouldn't want to do this if they felt they were a real third branch of government and not just an appendage of the White House.

If Congress doesn't want to repeal this authorization, I sure would like to know why and what's stopping them. Is it because Obama wants to keep this in place so he doesn't have to give up any of Bush's powers?

Towards the end of your analysis you touch briefly on, what to me has always been a central possibility, the topic of how the information was being used. “But what has always been uninvestigated is whether these surveillance powers were systematically abused for purely political ends.”

Given that the “opposition” party so completely disregarded, at the time and continues to disregard, the mounting evidence of criminal wrong-doing, one has to consider what the motivation would be. There is a theorem that postulates that the simplest solution is usually the correct solution (I forget what it’s called), but in this case, the simplest solution requires a bit of tin foil hattery. Let’s face it, politicians aren’t really thinking about a “ruling class” or anyone else for that matter. They think about themselves first and foremost.

I know it probably sounds a little crazy, but you hint at it here. How possible is it that Dick Cheney has secreted away (in his man-sized safe) dossier’s on some important legislators. We already know that at least one member of Congress had her communications monitored, and when it was politically expedient, the contents were leaked. This was a fairly minor case, but I wonder if it might not have been the proverbial “shot across the bow” to remind these politicians who held the aces? (Dick playing to Jack to remind everyone he holds Aces and Wild Cards.)

Again, I realize I could easily sound like a conspiracy nut-case, but is it really that far-fetched given what we know? Politicians act in their own self-interests and to protect themselves. We know that the communications of members of Congress were monitored, and we know at least a little embarrassing information was collected. It’s not a terribly far reach to arrive at a fairly simple explanation for the Democrats’ refusal to be clamoring for investigations.

Extending my earlier letter (http://letters.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/07/11/nsa/permalink/724eb6b962d0c208c19d2c09db1495fa.html: "The Big Man Upstairs says, whatever we do is legal because we're destined to rule the world"), I'll point out three things.

A) I notice several writers pointing to power of myth to jack nations and voting blocs. Word to you all!

B) My reply, to John Pilger's article "Mourn on the 4th of July" now appears in the article's comments section on The New Statesman http://www.newstatesman.com/north-america/2009/07/pilger-obama-america-world, and is posted below for your convenience.

C) I also notice several recent articles pertaining to this, my favorite subject: the power of myth to shape the cosmos in which we are presently enacting this wholly absurd theater of life.

Ancient Israeli Myths Deter Peace, by Robert Parry

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2009/070809.html

The Bible's Odd Idea of Marriage, by the Rev. Howard Bess

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2009/070209a.html

The Myth of How the Media Destroyed Sarah Palin, by Greg Mitchell

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-mitchell/the-myth-of-how-the-media_b_226136.html

Was the Credit Crunch a Myth Used to Sell a Trillion Dollar Scam?, by Joshua Holland

http://www.alternet.org/workplace/115768/was_the_%27credit_crunch%27_a_myth_used_to_sell_a_trillion-dollar_scam/

My reply to Pilger follows.

knowbuddhau

11 July 2009 at 17:04

O brother, my Brother! What a great treatment of a method of managing electorates I've been calling *myth-jacking.*

Myth is not synonymous with lie; a myth is a metaphorical image of the composition and functioning of the cosmos. The power of myth is to shape the world in which we are enacting this wholly absurd theater of life.

Remember Rummy's myth-jacking memos?

"This mixing of Crusades-like messaging with war imagery, which until now has not been revealed, had become routine. "

http://men.style.com/gq/features/landing?&id=content_9217

National myths deliver us as a people into our Promised or Waste Land, exactly as we load them with our intentions: passengers into life boats, or kittens into burlap sacks?

Our myths, our shared narratives, are as indispensable as a mother's womb.

Benign or malign, either way we get taken for a ride. As Americans, we need to direct our own passage, but we aren't educated and socialized to be self-sovereign citizens.

Instead, we're taught to be loyal subjects, fans, of a political master of a mechanical universe; to shut up and do as we're told; to demonstrate our loyalty by our fervor when presented with patriotic symbols.

We're trained, like pigeons in Skinner boxes, to go kill or die at the whim of an imperious president "for god, king, and country," just like the good old days.

For example: We were jacked to war by myths of Iraqi WMDs. The myths themselves were the WMDs.

In this way, the power of myth is being used to power weapons-grade domestic propaganda.

Our myth says: God loves us the most, that's why we're destined to rule the earth forever, amen. God bless America! (God damn the rest of you.)

Since we're doing the work of the Big Guy Upstairs, says the myth, we can do no wrong; likewise, anyone who opposes us also opposes God, making them 'evil-doers' of whom we are duty bound to rid the world.

Factual arguments, however well phrased, often fail to move electorates, but the power of myth never fails http://www.newstatesman.com/north-america/2009/07/pilger-obama-america-world