Intelligent Sheep Defending the Obama Administration’s Unconstitutional Seizure  — of apparently Everybody’s Telephone Metadata — Deliberately Miss the Point about Valid Constitutional Concerns

© 2013 Peter Free

 

10 June 2013

 

 

Fraidy cats mollycoddle the Government that is whittling the Constitution away

 

As an attorney accustomed to thinking in precise legal terms — and as someone equally accustomed to the practicalities that surround effective law enforcement — I have been increasingly irritated by the superficial thinking that so many prominent people have brought to the National Security Agency’s overstepping of the Constitutional limits set by the Fourth Amendment.

 

 

A representative trio of situational nitwits

 

Richard Haass, Mika Brzezinski, and Bill Maher all dismissed constitutional concerns — regarding the National Security Administration’s telephone snooping — as revealed by Edward Snowden and Glenn Greenwald.

 

The Haass-Brzezinski-Maher clan and their fellow travelers illustrate what happens when sheep substitute slightly enhanced physical security against terrorists in place of Freedom.

 

If we were to exhibit the same levels of cowardice in regard to the downsides of alcohol and automobile driving, we would be doing neither.

 

Of this trio, Richard Haass — a deservedly prominent foreign relations and national security specialist — especially demonstrated a high level of mind-boggling nitwitism in his unqualified support of NSA snooping.

 

If ever you want an example of someone acting like an analytically thoughtless fool, watch Mr. Haas’ blanket dismissal of Glenn Greenwald’s Fourth Amendment concerns, during today’s episode of Morning Joe:

 

Brett LoGiurato, Glenn Greenwald Gets 'Testy' With 'Morning Joe's' Mika Brzezinski, Business Insider (10 June 2013) (with an embedded Morning Joe video clip) (the Richard Haas portion starts at 11:10 minutes into the segment)

 

The otherwise respect-worthy Mr. Haas dismisses all constitutional implications by saying that the only law-breaker here is Edward Snowden, whose revelations about government snooping endangered national security.

 

And he promises that other people’s concerns about the Fourth Amendment will evaporate during the next terrorist attack.

 

Mika Brzezinski, too — known for her charm and organizational competence, but not so much for her subtlety of thought (in marked contrast to her father, former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski)— also seemed to have trouble grasping the fact that a statute and constitutionality are not necessarily synonymous.

 

An experienced constitutional lawyer watching her, during the segment, would suspect that the overwhelming majority of Americans do not a clue as to why the Constitution even exists.

 

In this illustrative regard, the foul-mouthed and often equally obtuse comedian, Bill Maher, said Friday night — 07 June 2013, on Real Time with Bill Maher — that he was not concerned about NSA snooping under the Obama Administration, because he trusted the President.

 

But he volunteered, in the same breath, that he would be concerned under a would-be President Ted Cruz — whom some people will recognize as the deliberately firebrand Senator from Texas, who exhibits most of the dangerous lunatic characteristics of his senatorial predecessor, Joe McCarthy.

 

Which, of course, is exactly why the Constitution draws limits on what anyone can do in Government’s name.  Regardless of political party and the level of personal trust.

 

 

The moral? — When you miss the legal issue, you miss the danger

 

Tigers’ colors and stripes conceal them in the bush, while they wait to pounce on their quarry.

 

So, too, does mandatory secrecy regarding Big Government overstepping.

 

Too many Americans assume that what they do not know will not hurt them.  And too many trust that power does not corrupt.

 

History repeatedly proves them fools.  But those who cannot learn, don’t.  Which appears to include most of us.  Even the supposedly intelligent.