More Power than Law

First comes word that the spy web is forever deepening.

Now we are looking at the military -- yes, the military -- peeking at our personal financial records, as reported by the Washington Post, Officials: Pentagon Probed Finances. This was confirmed today by VP Cheney, who says, "so what?" See Cheney Confirms New 'NYT' Report on Domestic Spying. See also, Crooks & Liars (with video).

And even if you are somehow found "innocent" of whatever sweep might have caught you, the records will remain part of a governmental database. See Hullabaloo, Open Your Wallet And Show Us What You've Got.

So, as Pennsylvania Progressive put it, Pentagon Spying On American Citizens:

Is it enough that the government can enter your home and search it without your knowledge with no finding of probable cause to a judge (USA Patriot Act), wiretap your telephone and email communications through the NSA, examine your foreign financial transactions, declare you an "enemy combatant" and detain your forever without legal counsel or trial (Military Commissions Act)? Now the Department of Defense has been investigating Americans through an office established by former Secretary Donald Rumsfled called the Counterintelligence Field Activity Agency (CIFA).

Scary stuff, for sure. What's worse it the thought raised by Dahlia Lithwick in an op-ed in today's Washington Post, The Imperial Presidency. As Glenn Greewald summarizes the opinion piece in The collapse of the Bush presidency poses risks:

In a characteristically perceptive Op-Ed in this morning's Washington Post, Dahlia Lithwick makes the point that Bush's extremist actions -- such as Jose Padilla's detention, the Guantanamo abuses, and omnipotence-declaring signing statements -- have no real objective except one: "The object is a larger one: expanding executive power, for its own sake."

Lithwick delves further, noting the obsession of the Administration:

Last spring, the New Yorker's Jane Mayer profiled David Addington, Cheney's chief of staff and legal adviser. Addington's worldview in brief: a single-minded devotion to something called the New Paradigm, a constitutional theory of virtually limitless executive power, wherein "the President, as Commander-in-Chief, has the authority to disregard virtually all previously known legal boundaries, if national security demands it," Mayer describes.

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This newfound authority -- to maintain a disastrous Guantanamo Bay, to stage rights-free tribunals and to hold detainees forever -- is the kind of power that Richard M. Nixon could have only dreamed about, and cannot be let go. (Emphasis added)

Noting that after 9/11, Congress pretty much deferred to the Administration and its requests for legal authority for "security" reasons, Greenwald ponders why Bush would need to go further. He continues with this thread, carrying it to its conclusion:

The reason Bush violated the law when eavesdropping is the same reason Lithwick cites to explain his other lawless and extremist measures -- because he wanted purposely not to comply with the law in order to establish the general "principle" that he was not bound by the law, to show that he has the power to break the law, that he is more powerful than the law. This is a President and an administration that are obsessed first and foremost with their own power and with constant demonstrations of their own strength. Conversely, what they fear and hate the most is their own weakness and submission to limitations.

For that reason, the weaker and more besieged the administration feels, the more compelled they will feel to make a showing of their power. Lashing out in response to feelings of weakness is a temptation most human beings have, but it is more than a mere temptation for George Bush. It is one of the predominant dynamics that drives his behavior.

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Bush officials and their followers talk incessantly about things like power, weakness, domination, humiliation. Their objectives -- both foreign and domestic -- are always to show their enemies that they are stronger and more powerful and the enemies are weaker and thus must submit ("shock and awe"). It is a twisted world view but it dominates their thinking (and that is how our country has been governed for the last six years, which is what accounts for our current predicament). As John Dean demonstrated, a perception of one's weakness and the resulting fears it inspires are almost always what drive people to seek out empowering authoritarian movements and the group-based comforts of moral certitude.

The most dangerous George Bush is one who feels weak, powerless and under attack. Those perceptions are intolerable for him and I doubt there are many limits, if there are any, on what he would be willing to do in order to restore a feeling of power and to rid himself of the sensations of his own weakness and defeat.

Sad to say, I believe this is true. In other words, we are subject to the whims (and fears) of an insecure, petty dictator, who thinks he's king. A dangerous king who would rather take us to a catastrophic war than face his own mistakes and incompetencies.

Tags: Bush, Civil Liberties, Commentary, Politics, Law