Clearly people can become paranoid, and they can believe the government's police powers are much greater than they are. That's doubltess already happened to these people. [1] And to these [2].

However, you don't see such hostile, self-referential OODA loops much. However, you do have a firm trust that the government is doign all it can against foreign enemies. Domestic NSA wire-tapping was briefly mentioned in the movie, “Enemy of the State.” [3] In our world, Predator/Eschalon has been widely known in the IT community for years. [4]

Regardless, if one joins the paranoid, then the formal process of warrents doesn't help much. After all — perhaps the Judges are in cahoots with the administration? (See the RX Cringley article for a serious exploration of this). And remember the Google case — the DOJ did real harm to Google (effected an 8% slide) without a warrent, merely by leaking Google's noncompliance with its whims.

People want to live, and they don't want their actions used against them. NSA wiretaps help achieve both these goals, because by their very nature intelligence espionage is not policework. But the strong-arming of Google fails this test, because DOJ by its very nature is policework.

Mark,

The reason for GOP cultural disconnect has changed dramatically in the last 15 years. It used to be a WASPish power base. It is now the Familial/4th Generation [5] support of the Christian Right. I'll try to tie this into my comments on liberal education [6] [7] later today.

While I'm typically of Ashcroft — his espionage on a Lousiana bordello was an “insane shift of priorities” — I'm sympathetic to him on the statues. My hometown of Sioux Falls famously has one of the truest reproductions of the Statue of David in the world. And it's caused problems ever since the city acquired it. It doesn't fit the traditional art of the settlers, it does't fit traditional Sioux aesthetics, it doesn't fit naturalism in our state (the climate and flora of South Dakot would discourage nudity), it doesn't fiti the local understanding of King David, it doesn't fit the city's culture. Yet attempts to rationalize the statue, or reduce its friction to the population, are criticized as anti-art. [8]

If the Attorney General wants to dress a nude statue that appears with him in press statements, that's a qualitative decision he can best make. But just dont let the AG cover blog playmate kajirae.

[1] http://www.prisonplanet.com/
[2] http://democrats.com/
[3] http://www.greencine.com/webCatalog?id=7223
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eschelon
[5] http://www.tdaxp.com/archive/2005/05/17/pmp_4gp_fusion_the_christian_right.html
[6] http://zenpundit.blogspot.com/2006/01/counterinsurgency-is-doable-series-4gw.html#113777929004865553
[7] http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/johnrobb/2006/01/validity_of_4gw.html#comment-13053324
[8] http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/199910/22_hetlandc_statues-m/

Our elites are disconnected from the core constitutional values of American society. This includes the Bush administration though obviously in a different way than the anti-war left politicians like Kennedy and Pelosi. Here, in the midst of a war with fanatics who boast about their desire to incinerate or poison 50,000 Americans, the scarce resources of the DOJ are put in service of the Elmer Gantry set who are overwrought that adults – and the behavior of adults is what is being targeted here – might use the internet to look at a nice pair of tits. Really, who gives a flying f***k ? All things considered, how could this possibly be important ?

It is an insane shift of priorities away from national security to pursue the obsessions of a small but loud faction of authoritarian activists who found antique neoclassical bronze nude statuary at DOJ so dangerously arousing that they had to be covered with a canvas curtain.

I think that suspicion of government excess is not restricted to southwest Missouri and in fact does not require radical paranoids to have its effect. What many do not understand about the current subject is *why* the FISA court had to be by-passed: we may not be paranoid enough to suspect every legislator, executive, and judge of overstepping Constitutional authority, but we want Bush to “Show Me” why all but the executive should have been by-passed in the effort to spy on Americans. In fact, it would appear the GWB is the one who is paranoid of judges and legislators. (The fact that these “Americans” are only those suspected of ties to terrorism helps the president, but the gnawing reality that we'll just have to take GWB's word for this is troubling. And, as you pointed out, the DOJ's recent efforts lend credence to the charge that the present administration is limiting its spying to those suspected terrorists…)

I grant the point on architecture. However, I feel about Ashcroft and the statue the same way I feel about Clinton coming to work in casual dress. They should work in an environment that bests suites them, if they can do the job.

Curtis,

I'm not sure what electoral sympathy for a widow proves, except that such sympathy combined with extended deadlines for heavily democratic precints can form a narrow majority.

You are right that DOJ is handling the Google case badly, but people recognize the difference between police work and national security. National security increases their security, while police work often decreases it. As long as the DOJ doesn't do something absolutely idiotic, such as warrantless wiretaps for IRS investigations, the distinction will remain safe.

Indeed, it's been the great hope of Democrats (such as former Senator Tom Daschle and former Senator Max Cleland) that Americans will lose the distinction between security and domestic politics. Such wishes have been in vain.

Appeals for the President to “show” his justification in any detailed sense is unreasonable — as Cringley wrote, “Even if the proper research is conducted and answers obtained, they won't be shared with you or me.” Alternatively, if you want general explanations, the President have provided them. Alternatively, check out Barnett's

Certainly the GWOT Joint Congressional Resolution, the past few decades of wiretaps, etc, create an interesting quilt of precedents on which one can quibble with legalisms. The refrain of “overstepping Constitutional authority” sounds like the “legalistic anti-Bushism wrapped up in a Constitution dress” I mentioned. If the largest opposition party wishes to implode by ignoring the war and instead concentrate on peace-time processes, too bad. A healthy, constructive opposition party would have been a good thing.

Certainly the PrisonPlanet website is what's considered “paranoid” in normal conversation. Democrats . com is probably closer to “fellow traveler” (as are elements of the Kos readership [2], for that matter). I don't see how accusing Bush of paranoia is constructive. War-focused, perhaps…

[1] http://www.thomaspmbarnett.com/weblog/archives2/002780.html
[2] http://www.dailykos.com/poll/1137742415_nANToluZ