On Deep Throat

Thursday, June 2 2005

So, "Deep Throat" was Mark Felt. That's sorta disappointing to me. When I watched a program about Watergate, several people claimed that the evidence pointed his way. Protecting the FBI's power was his principle motive. He didn't object to Nixon's illegal activities but only that they weren't all run through the FBI. I guess I'll have to forgive his motives since the result brought down the most criminal President in the public record.

I took several courses on civics and one focused on how governmental agencies have been used to subvert our civil rights. In that course, I learned that Nixon became something dangerously close to a dictator. Morton Halperin wrote a book that formed the basis for what I remember of the class. If you do not wish to believe me, read his book. Read it anyway. I've forgotten most of the details.

During Nixon's Administration, the FBI and the CIA were used to spy on American citizens who had broken no laws. I'm not talking about the Weathermen here. Mail sent from one citizen in the country to another was read by the FBI. Mail sent out of the country (and coming in) was read by the CIA. Organizations were forced to hand over their mailing lists without any evidence of a crime. Perfectly legal meetings were infiltrated by the FBI.

Since the Patriot Act comes dangerously close to authorizing these actions, I'm going to have to stress what is wrong with them. The technical term for the problem is the "chilling effect." If you believe that someone might be reading your mail, you screen what you write. If someone is writing down the names of your associates, you're going to be careful who your friends are. If you read books about sadomasochism and dominance, you might not want all your friends to know.

The chilling effect is not restricted to government. If I repeated things that Dave Stabosz told me in confidence or wrote about them here, he'd stop telling me those things. (I chose Dave because of how normal he is. I don't really have things to not tell you about him.) Because of the chilling effect on our liberty, we need to keep the right to have secrets. That includes being an anonymous source like "Deep Throat."

Anonymous sources can be abused like they were in the Valerie Plame affair but they can also be the only check on secret government power. I laugh off people who claim there are aliens in Area 51 and/or UN controlled black helicopters. No one could be able to keep that much of a secret forever with all the crazies out there looking for them. If they didn't have the right to publish their crazy ideas, we might have to worry.

"Deep Throat" was an icon for our parents' generation. When Nixon decided to fix an election he had no chance of losing, someone spoke up. Since then, foolish editors have attached a -gate suffix to every minor scandal that came up. This has had a soporific effect on us all. It has caused people to do foolish things like equating Bill Clinton's smart ass, overly specific answer with Reagan/Bush selling arms to our enemies in Iran and giving the proceeds to the Contras. One of these actions may have crossed the line in a silly matter and the other involved the White House coming awfully close to treason. I'm not so sure that it crosses that line but arms sales do sound like aid and comfort to an enemy. The editors gave us the headlines: "Iran/Contra-gate" and "Monica-gate." That sounds awfully close to making them equal.

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Josh Marshall over at Talking Points Memo quotes Peggy Noonan and Henry Kissinger reacting to Mark Felt. At the time, serious elected Republicans understood that what Nixon did was wrong and were going to impeach him. These days, all your Republican spokepeople can do is deny what happened and blame others. Noonan's diatribe is particularly ripe and dishonest. We can argue about the reasons for fighting in Vietnam all day but the Vietnamese army took care of Pol Pot's regime in the end. Marshall also agrees with me that anonymous sources are crucial.

Kevin Drum, of Political Animal doesn't seem to have anything to say about Mark Felt. He does have something to say about something more important. Oil prices are likely to continue going up for the rest of our lifetimes. We have either reached peak pumping capacity worldwide or we are getting very close. With the startup delays, costs and uncertainties of new "exploration" (drilling), conservation is about our only hope. Conservation combined with innovation can help us save ourselves but it has to be serious on both counts.

Don't tell me about hydrogen cars because they require electricity provided by oil or coal in most cases. I am talking about something revolutionary like what we find in "Star Trek." Until the extremely tiny amount of research into things like zero point energy and matter/anti-matter bears fruit, we need solar panels and small cars.

Don't forget to read what John Edwards has contributed to Josh Marshall's new site. His contributions may only be up for one day but I hope there will be archives. Edwards has written intelligent posts on the minimum wage, Russia and how poor people pay more for so many things. One of the best things my parents have done for me is sign for things with me. The difference in our credit ratings would have increased our monthly car payments by 25%. Edwards is a smart guy who would have made a great President. He's still doing what he can to help.