Austin's Dome

I have been thinking of William Zantzinger all day. Zantzinger's story is documented by Bob Dylan's "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll." He was a rich Baltimore socialite who was arrested and convicted for the killing of Hattie Carroll in 1963 and was then sentenced for six months in jail when the charge got knocked down to asault. I've been thinking about him because the US probably is going to get "Zanzingered" from this NSA spying scandal.


There is no doubt now that the NSA warrant-less spying broke the law. Some legal analysts said this right after the President admitted that he had authorized the program, and the constitutional defense that the Administration has come up for it is so riddled with holes and inconsistencies that the White House caved in on the central point of it when it started to brief all the members of the Intelligence Committee on it. The debate had reached the point of past argument when Senator Arlen Specter told Attorney General Gonzales that his interpretation of FISA "defies logic and plain English" at the Judicial Committee hearing.


So now that we have a President that has over-stepped his constitutional duty, what we are we going to do about it? Defy logic, of course. After getting the Administration to back down on the constitutional argument, Specter is now going to write an amendment to get the NSA spying program legally checked out by the FISA court and "If they say it is unconstitutional, then there ought to be a modification of it so that what the administration is doing is constitutional."


So, the Senator is proposing that we simply supply the legislation to make an act breaking the constitution into one that doesn't. I thought that the lawyers who could manipulate and twist law like this were all Democrats in the mold of John Edwards. Well, at least that was what the Bush campaign in 2004 was telling the nation.


It's is a good thing that the Administration finally got the idea that they have to work with Congress on the NSA spying program. It means we aren't going to have a constitutional crisis on our hands. But, it doesn't end the question of what exactly is going on in this secret of all secret spying. The head of NSA, General Hayden, thinks that all he needs is reasonable suspicion to spy on someone and as any 8th grade civics student can tell you the 4th Amendment says that he needs probably cause.


I wish Senator Specter would at least check out what is what with the General before he decides he has to change the 4th amendment. I can only let Bob Dylan sing out the rest of what I think for me:


In the courtroom of honor the judge pounds his gavel
To show that all's equal and that the courts are on the level
And that the strings in the books ain't pulled and persuaded
And that even the noble get properly handled
Once the cops have chased after and caught'em
And that the ladder of law has no top and no bottom


I haven't gotten my rag out yet, but I certainly am going to search through my chest drawers to find one.