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thanks for no. 11 and 12....they were most helpful, folks.
at some levels, this is not surprising, given the legal philosophy that the administration appears to endorse.
but, like everyone else, what i am stuck on is: what exactly the fuck was/is happening in the context of this surveillance program?
apart from that, the situation as we now know it is clear enough so long as i stay within the general parameters of the surveillance narrative.
gonzales really has no choice at this point but to resign it seems to me.
he appears to have committed perjury.
sorting still, so please indulge a couple confusions/questions:
no. 1:
host: given that you have been tracking this more closely than i have been able to---the linkages between the abramoff scandal and this one? could you lay out how you see them as interlocking or reference older materials that you have put up that might clarify this please?
this may be more an aide-de-mémoire than anything else...but i'd appreciate it (now that i have more time than i have over the past couple months, i'd like to get back up to speed on this)
confusion/question no. 2:
is there anything beyond symmetry that would lead one to think that the same kind of blurring of boundaries between partisan political actions and abuse of power that is obvious in the firings of the various prosecutors carries over into the black hole at the center of this matter?
there are obvious overlaps of players.
there are obvious consistencies of actions.
but these have the status of symmetries so far as i can tell.
what all this looks like is really problematic: an attempt on the part of the administration to fundamentally alter the system of governance to the advantage of what amounts of a quasi-dictatorial executive branch made possible (a) by the figleaf of this idiotic "war on terror" and (b) by the republican controlled congress which seems to have conducted itself in a manner that is really insupportable.
the other piece that is missing--though i suspect i might be able to fill in ths blank logically--but to avoid that temptation for the moment--is the goal.
what is being presented here via the press accounts is largely pitched as ad hoc creeping of institutional advantage by the executive, enabled by the above. but if i understand this correctly, it seems that it could be also understood as aspects of a concerted project. again, i think i have an idea of what it might be--but how would you characterize it?
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
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