YIIIIKES

As if we needed another reason to be paranoid:

"A former senior C.I.A. official says that officials in the Bush White House sought damaging personal information on a prominent American critic of the Iraq war in order to discredit him.

"Glenn L. Carle, a former Central Intelligence Agency officer who was a top counterterrorism official during the administration of President George W. Bush, said the White House at least twice asked intelligence officials to gather sensitive information on Juan Cole, a University of Michigan professor who writes an influential blog that criticized the war.

"In an interview, Mr. Carle said his supervisor at the National Intelligence Council told him in 2005 that White House officials wanted “to get” Professor Cole, and made clear that he wanted Mr. Carle to collect information about him, an effort Mr. Carle rebuffed. Months later, Mr. Carle said, he confronted a C.I.A. official after learning of another attempt to collect information about Professor Cole. Mr. Carle said he contended at the time that such actions would have been unlawful."

(via NYT)

This is particularly scary since I also write critical things about the administration on a VERY influential blog. Jk, lol. But seriously, as we get further away from the Bush Administration (in time, not policy) it just keeps looking worse, as is to be expected. The sheer number of our most important laws and checks that were blatantly disregarded is utterly massive, and the fact that none of them are being prosecuted or even given much attention in mainstream venues should answer any lingering questions over whether the rule of law is anything but empty rhetoric. When they are brought to light, it is in lightly worded pieces like this one, constructed in a way that leaves you inclined to shake you head and hiss a couple of tsks before taking another bite of your doughnut and throwing the paper away when you go back to work. No one cares anymore. The very concept of the rule of law is now an antiquated relic of a bygone era, deemed not fit for the "challenges of the 21st century." But, you know, the Bible is still a reliable moral compass.

In other news that I was just alerted to, the War on Drugs turns 40 this year! That's pretty old! It should get cancer or something!