We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Monday, September 15, 2014

New sparks fly between CIA, Senate Intelligence Committee

Click here to access article by Ali Watkins from McClatchy news service.

We first learned about CIA surveillance of Senate members in the mainstream media from Sen. Diane Feinstein (California) who is chairman of a committee (Senate Select Committee on Intelligence) that supposedly supervises on behalf of American people what our intelligence services are doing. It seems that some members of Congress became seriously concerned about government spying on citizens only when they were spied on. 

In this piece (the conservative Washington Times provides even more strident coverage of this incident) we learn about a closed door hearing in which this Senate committee exercised their official mandate by questioning John Brennan, the Director of the CIA. From comments following the hearing, it appears that Brennan essentially told them to "stuff it". If some Senate members didn't know before who really runs this country, they know it now. Some will grumble and complain, but they'll soon cooperate or else they will lose their jobs. Others will grumble and threaten the CIA to the national audience in order to maintain the myths about the rule of law and representative government.
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