[thechat] Re: war phase 2

[Dave Fitch]

Ben Henick <persist1 at io.com> said:

>If the Gubmint f---s up, they will be found out..

Hah. Given that the current US administration has attempted 
[seemingly rather successfully too] to eviscerate the Freedom of 
Information Act, given that it has classified a wide range of 
presidential documents that would formerly have been publicly 
released to seemingly ensure that it will be almost impossible to do 
detailed analyses of *all* of the post-Carter presidencies, given 
that there are still questions about what happened in Iran-Contra and 
what many senior officials knew/did, do you really think they'll be 
found out?? How much investigative reporting gets done in the US 
these days?? Can you really see Fox News digging away??

[Ok, the fact that I live in Britain and our government is not only 
exceptionally secretive but good at getting away with it does twist 
my opinion a tad, but still... :-)]

>In the United States the "consent of the governed" is very real, and 
>it is not guaranteed.

Er, yeah. Go read 'Why Americans Don't Vote'.
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0807004499/qid=1006899999/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_6_1/107-5535979-0850101>

The reality is that the "consent" is that of very particular sections 
of the US population, as there are structural forces which severely 
limit the supposedly universal franchise. And we won't even mention 
Florida :-)
Dave
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Dave Fitch, lists at dere-street.com  <http://www.dere-street.com/>
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