The Silence Of The Sheeple

As a new week begins, there is both a new debate on American involvement in Syria, and the debate that remains to be truly addressed, over security and privacy. Today, we'll try to finish what we started a week and a half ago, since - unlike Congress - we don't like to fall asleep on the job.

Over the weekend, more muddled information from Barton Gellman in the Washington Post, and Glenn Greenwald in the Guardian were released about the NSA's spying programs.

While the new info is interesting, much of the mainstream media is still avoiding addressing the truly important debate, of security versus privacy. What's more, Congress - the ones who are truly responsible for making this NSA mess such a disaster - appear to have been sleeping while the wolves of the military/industrial/spying class fleeced the sheeple of America.

Adam Serwer noted back in 2012 that members of Congress who reauthorized these programs didn't even understand what they did. That obviously didn't keep someone like Republican Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner from feigning shock over the NSA's programs last Friday, as Serwer also reported. We say "feigning" because if Sensenbrenner had actually attended the meetings he was supposed to, he'd already have been well-versed in what the NSA was doing.

It's a good thing a handful of writers and journalists - like Serwer and the Washington Post's Greg Sargent - have thankfully stayed focused on the real debate over privacy and security that President Obama recently said he welcomed.

Sargent, in fact, engaged in a serious Twitter conversation with our own staffer Shawn Peirce on Friday, after Greg spoke with the ACLU's legislative counsel, Michelle Richardson. As Greg noted, Richardson claims that the Obama administration could declassify enough information about the NSA programs so that Congress and the American people could have that debate over privacy and security.

The problem, as both Greg and Shawn noted in their discussion on Friday, is that if President Obama or members of his administration declassified the NSA material without any action from Congress, with the adversarial addiction of the mainstream media, it would almost certainly lead to further partisan political attacks that would likely bring America no closer to solving the problem.

As Sargent said in that discussion on Friday, "…obviously the best way for this to happen is for Congress to compel it". That would mean our Congressmembers would have to wake from their legislative slumber, so they might actually protect the American people. Frankly, we're not sure some of them are willing to wake up.

There are a few in Congress who aren't completely asleep, as Greg noted last week, like Sen. Jeff Merkley, a progressive Democrat, and Sen. Mike Lee, a Tea Party Republican. Still - Congress can't do this alone.

To truly neuter the NSA's wolfish habits will require a full court press from both the Congress and the Obama Administration, working together, with an assist from the judicial branch.

Of course, to get the debate to generate a policy change will also require the American people to refuse to remain quiet on this issue. In that respect at least, both Gellman and Greenwald are keeping parts of this debate at the top of the minds of the mainstream American media, and therefore, the American people. That may not seem like much, but it's better than the willfully ignorant silence on this issue that Americans have been sounding since 2001.

Something To Count On

Once again, the weekend is almost here, and as some of our staff members have already hit the road, those who remain should be zipping around, trying to get things done - not paging through the latest work of folks like Sergio Aragonés and Tom Richmond in Mad magazine's new "Superman" issue, or watching the season finale of "Game of Thrones."

We're not worried though, as we have the utmost confidence that our staff members will get today's edition compiled, published, and out the door in good time because they're professionals - and also because they're not members of Congress.

Indeed, another poll from Gallup focusing on Congress came out Thursday afternoon, and it was similar to the PPP poll we featured back in January of this year. The January poll focused on Congress' approval rating, which - as far we know - still remains lower than root canals, traffic jams, or even cockroaches.

This week's poll was slightly different though, focusing on the level of confidence Americans have in their Congress. After looking at the poll results from Gallup, it should surprise absolutely no one that the top reason Americans are fed up with Congress is gridlock. As Josh Barro of Business Insider noted on Twitter, "Who the hell are these 30 million Americans who still have confidence in Congress?" The only positive thing we can say about Congress right now is that they're consistently bad - four years at the bottom of the list! Looks like we may have finally found the one thing everyone in Congress is good at.

In all seriousness, we can understand why Americans both don't like and don't feel they can count on their Congress to get anything meaningful done right now.

Six months after the Newtown massacre, no new federal gun safety laws are anywhere near passage. Seven months after Republicans got stomped at the polls -- in part for treating women and minorities like second-class citizens -- Congressional Republicans seem to have re-opened their war against women, and are continuing their longstanding fight against immigrants. As Steve Benen noted, it looks like that GOP rebranding project has failed spectacularly.

Instead of continuing to drag you down, however, since it's Friday we'll give you the good news: Some members of Congress are continuing to try to get important legislation passed, on issues like gun safety, workplace equality, and immigration reform. Some politicians are also still working on implementing laws Congress has already passed, like the Affordable Care Act.

The even better news is that it appears Congress might actually get a few more things done later this year. After all, we haven't even reached the MLB All-Star Break - though Congress did have its annual Congressional Baseball Game last night. As the best former sportswriter on Capitol Hill - Roll Call's Meredith Shiner - wrote about the contest, the Democrats "dominated the game," blanking the Republicans 22-0.

There are always reasons you could look at the world negatively: For example, the EF 0 tornado that hit the northwest suburbs of DC yesterday, the new committment to support the rebels in the ongoing civil war in Syria, and the continuing controversy over the NSA's spying programs are just a few examples.

What keeps us focused on the positive, however, is that we have the confidence that comes from having great and trustworthy friends, family, and coworkers - and we realize that's more than many people have.

As the old advice says, count your blessings not your curses.

We think that's some great advice for all of us this weekend.

Sane America, Stupid America

While the U.S. economy continues to improve, Americans today still keep finding more and more ways to pit ourselves against one another, while failing to address the truly important issues. We're not even talking about the blue/red political divide, or the urban/rural divide.

There's also the idiotic traitor or hero divide surrounding NSA leaker Edward Snowden. The writer Glenn Greenwald and GOP Rep. Peter King did a marvelous job on Wednesday exposing the ability to have an amateur pissing match over that issue, while both men mostly avoided the real security versus liberty debate.

The immigration battles going on in Washington, DC are another perfect example of Americans taking sides, while not really fixing the problem.

Of course, there's also the Blackhawks/Bruins divide or the Heat/Spurs divide, if sports is more your thing - though there's also a nasty division going on right now between funding for sports and funding for education in America.

You may have recently missed the story about the city of Chicago making massive cuts to their school system, and closing fifty public schools - all while investing $100 million as part of a new sports arena for DePaul University. In truth, we can't see how Chicago's Mayor Rahm Immanuel can legitimately call himself decent, let alone call himself a member of the Democratic Party, when he's gutting education like that.

It shouldn't be entirely surprising, though. A chart posted to Deadspin.com in May noted that in every state in America, the highest paid public employee is either a football coach, a basketball coach, or an executive member of a state college - a department chair, dean, or college president.

As our staff members are all fans of Husker sports, you can probably understand why our antennae perked up when we saw a writeup by Brian Rosenthal in the Lincoln Journal Star, about the newest member of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Husker men's basketball coaching staff, Kenya Hunter.

Hunter - who looks to be a great addition to Husker basketball - will be the highest paid assistant coach on the Nebraska men's basketball staff. Hunter joins Nebraska from Georgetown, a school known for both solid education and a strong basketball tradition - so we hope the investment the university is putting into him shows on both the new scoreboard at the Pinnacle Bank Arena, and in the grades of the student athletes on the team.

Admittedly, it was likely easier for the University of Nebraska to make the decision to pay its coaches well this year.

For the University of Nebraska, the economic picture has been like it is for much of the rest of the country - steadily improving to the point where Governor Heineman agreed with University Regents to allow for a one year tuition freeze for in-state students - the first tuition freeze in twenty-two years. Nebraska's state university system is also adding professors and forging ahead on projects like a new NU College of Nursing.

It's easy to seem sane when the money is rolling in, and the economy is improving.

When things eventually turn downward again, though, the question will likely remain unanswered: Where do our priorities really lie, as taxpayers? The time to ask and answer these questions is now.