Misapplied Mushroom Metaphor (or another fine example of why conservatives are in favor of smaller government)

“…America must not ignore the threat gathering against us.  Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof – the smoking gun – that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.”  Excerpted from President Bush’s infamous Cincinnati speech in October of 2002.  This was the scare the shit-out-of-public line that pointed toward the invasion of Iraq and backstopped the Administration’s logic behind homeland security.  The imagery of a mushroom cloud is quite dramatic, to say the least.

 Today, many of us learn that a far more appropriate use of the word mushroom would be to reflect back upon that same Bush Administration – and it’s congressional allies – as inflicting the federal government with a tragically wasteful infestation of bureaucratic fungus. According to a must see report by WAPO’s Bill Arkin and Dana Priest, “Top Secret America” there are over a thousand government agencies engaged in counter-terrorism work. Duplication and redundancy absolutely run amok.  How any single human ‘director’ might possibly make sense of such an unwieldy network is mind-boggling. And it get’s predictably worst:  there are also over a thousand private firms similarly contracted out to perform essentially the same task.  All of this is in the name of keeping America safe. 

Interactive map, here.  

CBS interview, here.

Comments

[pablo]

Rob:
I am happy you raised this issue here and which was also covered on Democracy Now.
I am concerned by the mushrooming of private firms which essentially data-mine every electronic transaction by every person and then supply it to law enforcement under the third party exception of the forth amendment.
In bygone times the cost of investigating innocents was prohibitive and the gov't had to choose its targets generally on political grounds... now everything on everybody is collected... remember 4th amendment protections go to the issue of admissibility in court and not to the issue of intelligence for law enforcement.
You'd be shocked as to what is already collected. The anonymity of millions of files is broached once a policy decision is reached on just who becomes a person of interest.
One the state leans on you, innocent or not, the results are always devestating. The Patriot Act has had the effect of collecting and collating all data on everyone.
Interesting enough in terms or maintaining a reasonable expectation of privacy much of the developing world affords more.

[discount coach]

To get ahead, you'll have to work long hours and take short vacations. I think This sentence is very reasonable.