The Reaction: On FISA Favorites -- 2nd installment

By Carol Gee

For everyone who is a Democrat, a civil libertarian, a national security buff or a voter, this morning's Glenn Greenwald column is a must read. Does this take everyone into account? I mean to do just that. The article in Salon.com is headlined "John King with Mike McConnell: rare journalistic honesty." What this talented writer does is expose a number of unsettling realities. 1) Most members of the mainstream media are not sufficiently prepared to report on the FISA controversy between the current administration and Congress. 2) DNI Admiral Mike McConnell is not apolitical and he has a major conflict of interest as a government official demanding retroactive immunity for the nation's telecommunication companies who have assisted the government to spy on its citizens. To quote (includes Glenn's links):

Since John King knows nothing about the FISA and telecom immunity debate, how could he possibly know that McConnell conducts himself apolitically? He can't. But that's the Beltway cliche -- what Beltway journalists chatter to one another about the stern and Serious Admiral -- and so King, having heard this, just chirps it out as though it's true and vouches for McConnell's unquestionable integrity. The reality about McConnell is the exact opposite. He has proven himself to be one of the most politicized and fact-free officials in the entire administration.

. . . Most significantly of all, McConnell is burdened by one of the most glaring conflicts of interest that we've seen in any significant political debate over the last seven years. His career before becoming DNI was devoted to the very private telecom sector on whose behalf he's now demanding immunity. When he claims that the Fate of the Nation rests on granting retroactive immunity to the telecom industry, he's advocating for his long-time partners, colleagues, and business associates. In the job he held prior to becoming DNI -- director of defense programs at Booz Allen -- he was directly involved with the very people, and possibly the very programs, for which he is now demanding amnesty:

What we have in the current Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act-FISA controversy is just crazy-making. It is a Catch 22. It is a no-win situation. Answers.com explains, for those who have forgotten the origin of this important concept. Computer Encyclopedia: Catch-22

A paradoxical situation that has no happy ending. A popular movie with Alan Arkin in 1970, Catch-22 came from Joseph Heller's 1961 comical, yet gruesome, best-selling book about pilots in a fictitious World War II setting. The paradox was that no sane pilot would be crazy enough to want to continue flying dangerous missions. The only way a pilot would be grounded is if he were truly crazy, but if he asked to be grounded, he was then considered sane and would not be grounded.

I am a liberal {inserted disclaimer here}. Therefore I may have a mental disorder, according to the Astute Blogger. The blogger posts about Clinical Psychiatrist, Dr. Lyle Rossiter's new book,"The Liberal Mind: The Psychological Causes of Political Madness." Quoting from the post about the book that asserts that modern liberalism is a mental disorder:

"Based on strikingly irrational beliefs and emotions, modern liberals relentlessly undermine the most important principles on which our freedoms were founded... Like spoiled, angry children, they rebel against the normal responsibilities of adulthood and demand that a parental government meet their needs from cradle to grave." . . . Dr. Rossiter says the liberal agenda preys on weakness and feelings of inferiority in the population by:

* creating and reinforcing perceptions of victimization;
* satisfying infantile claims to entitlement, indulgence and compensation;
* augmenting primitive feelings of envy;
* rejecting the sovereignty of the individual, subordinating him to the will of the government.

"The roots of liberalism – and its associated madness – can be clearly identified by understanding how children develop from infancy to adulthood and how distorted development produces the irrational beliefs of the liberal mind," he says. "When the modern liberal mind whines about imaginary victims, rages against imaginary villains and seeks above all else to run the lives of persons competent to run their own lives, the neurosis of the liberal mind becomes painfully obvious."

No wonder we are crazy. Every day's news presents us with head-spinning new stories on fear-mongering, screw-ups at the FBI, Republican duplicity and outright lies from administration officials:

GOP Politics in a nutshell - (includes the scare ad from 24) Glenn Greenwald at Salon.com. 2/11/08

ISP turns over hundreds of email accounts to FBI from ZD Net, 2/18/08

Republican No Shows on FISA Negotiation Empty Wheel 2/21/08

Republicans Block FISA Talks Electronic Frontiers Foundation 2/22/08

Intelligence is being missed say Administration officials. CNN Wire 2/22/08

You can't be serious -- Jane Hamsher began her "On My TeeVee" post with this keen piece of writing yesterday - 2/24/08:

If there's an Oscar given out for Worst Comb-over Of the Modern Era, it goes to Mike McConnell, whose need to give Enron Ed's telecom clients immunity has been responsible for for a "national security" argument that's about as persuasive as the sweep of his locks. This morning on Late Edition he said the telecoms all turned into reluctant virgins last week after the PAA expired, and he needed the power to "compel" them to cooperate with domestic spying. Yeah, it's called a warrant.

Useful background reading --