So, about the latest Bush-related uproar: is it really shocking that an American President has ordered spy services to actually spy? While it’s always worrisome, it’s not unique; it would also have been pretty surprising if he hadn’t taken some drastic steps following 9/11. As Jon Schmidt, former Associate Attorney General under Clinton, has written:
President Bush’s post- Sept. 11, 2001, authorization to the National Security Agency to carry out electronic surveillance into private phone calls and e-mails is consistent with court decisions and with the positions of the Justice Department under prior presidents.
In the Supreme Court’s 1972 Keith decision holding that the president does not have inherent authority to order wiretapping without warrants to combat domestic threats, the court said explicitly that it was not questioning the president’s authority to take such action in response to threats from abroad.
[...]
Every president since FISA’s passage has asserted that he retained inherent power to go beyond the act’s terms. Under President Clinton, deputy Atty. Gen. Jamie Gorelick testified that “the Department of Justice believes, and the case law supports, that the president has inherent authority to conduct warrantless physical searches for foreign intelligence purposes.”
You can argue that this isn’t right or that these powers need to be curbed; what you can’t argue is that there is anything unique in Bush’s actions or his reasonable expectation that he was acting within the bounds of the law.
Queensryche’s Operation: Mindcrime 2 disturbs me. Not only has the Ryche failed to make a good album in years, but this might make my memories of Mindcrime and the Livecrime concert something a little sad (depending on just how much of a tragedy Mindcrime 2 turns out to be). Now comes perhaps the worst news of all: the has-been guest spot. Dio will be making a guest appearance.
I find myself wishing that Queensryche had quit making music long before they had lost all musical relevance.
Earlier this week there was quite a tumult over Time’s Threesome of the Year: Bono, Bill Gates, and Melinda Gates. A few thoughts:
There are worse choices by far.
Sure, there were better choices--or, at least, other choices equally deserving. But when you have to make a public choice, you’re guaranteed to make someone cranky.
What? This was really worth getting upset over? Sorry, but I really don’t see it.
Madrugada, Midnight Choir, and Matisyahu are the musicians of the season for me. A moody Norwegian rock band, a moody Norwegian alt.country band, and a Hasidic Jewish reggae artist. It’s a strange and beautiful world.
When it comes to Intelligent Design, I don’t want it taught in school science classes. For it to be science, it has to be provable--and no one has yet devised a plan to test for the existence of an intelligent designer. Until there is a way to start a testing process, ID can’t really rise to the level of a scientific theory--it’s just a hunch (and a religious-based hunch at that) and it doesn’t belong being taught to kids in public schools.
I believe in an intelligent designer (I call that being God and He has a distinct post-modern Baptist feel about Him) in a religious sense, but I have yet to be convinced of Intelligent Design in a scientific sense. Most of the most compelling thoughts on the ID side is really just poking at evolution and finding weak spots.
But, hey, what do I know? I’m not a scientist and the outcome of the debate doesn’t actually change my faith; it just changes the way that faith operates in the universe around me.
This commentary makes me want to see Brokeback Mountain even more. While I won’t fall into the trap of labeling actors “brave” for taking roles that are almost guaranteed to have critics mouthing “Oscar”, I will say that there are a lot of extremely talented people involved in the movie. That doesn’t mean it will be good, I know, but it does give the movie a good head start. So, when does it go into wide release?
This Christmas season--busy with freelance work, work-related work, family and friends, and the still-unsolved shopping/wrapping/shipping problem that means some people on my list will be getting friendly post-Christmas Christmas presents--hasn’t left me much time to think. But if I had time, this is the stuff I would be thinking about.
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