Richard Jernigan -> RE: TV (Aug. 3 2013 16:36:16)
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I just finished Robert Caro's "The Path to Power", the first of his multi-volume biography of Lyndon Johnson. I was fascinated. I'm a native Texan, exposed to Texas politics over a fair period of time. My father was one of a group of young men who rebelled effectively against the corrupt bosses of a south Texas county. Tales of corruption and murder were a staple of my childhood. I thought that everyone kept a pistol on the seat beside them when they travelled by car. In later years, Johnson's uncle, Huffman Baines was a good friend of my father. Mr. Baines owned a small rural telephone company that was a great benefit to the impoverished farmers and ranchers of central Texas. He was the soul of rectitude and integrity. He made no secret of his low opinion of Johnson. But the details of the width and depth of Johnson's hypocrisy, detailed in Caro's extensively researched and lively book, were simply breathtaking to me. Johnson posed as a liberal New Dealer, a staunch advocate of Franklin Roosevelt's social programs. At the same time he secretly allied himself with the San Antonio machine, Texas independent oil men and Herman Brown of Brown and Root, eventually a mega-contractor of government projects. All these people hated Roosevelt and worked against him at every opportunity. But they were a huge source of political funds, and Johnson was bent on the acquisition of power from childhood. Despite all this, Johnson was the most effective leader in civil rights legislation since Lincoln. People I have met who knew him described him as a "complex individual". The roots of cynicism and hypocrisy run deep in American politics. Usually they are not exposed until the major actors are dead, and their accomplices are willing to talk. For several years I worked as a contractor for the National Security Agency. At the time it would have been a felony to say so. As far as I know, the Agency did not spy on Americans at the time. My job was to be part of a panel which evaluated and directed technical intelligence collection on Soviet missile defenses. That was more than 20 years ago. Here's how I imagine the current disastrous situation evolved, given my knowledge of the Agency's culture. After 9/11 the intelligence business in the USA was thoroughly shaken up. They were ashamed to have failed to thwart the disaster. The barriers between foreign and domestic intelligence were lowered, or even removed. As the internet and other communication technology evolved, the Agency kept up. They have always had a core of technical virtuosity. The secret FISA court expanded the ambit of the Patriot Act well beyond the intentions of its authors. The Agency felt it had to exert every effort to protect the USA against another catastrophic terrorist act. If the current leadership of the Agency reflect the ingrained culture of 20 years ago, they don't act from nefarious motives. They do the best they can on the job they believe they have been assigned. Unfortunately, the result is a dangerous monstrosity, clearly violating the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution, and a staggeringly efficient means of oppression just waiting to fall into the wrong hands--if it hasn't already done so. It was Churchill who said, "The terrible thing about war is that it brings out not only the worst in people, but the best as well." RNJ
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