I've always been fascinated by what type of "top secret" information is communicated to an incoming president in their first few days in office.
Beside confirmation that the aliens in Area 51 obviously crave strawberry ice cream, duh, everybody knows that, what other mind blowing information might come their way that cause them to take a deep breath and say out loud "Oh, Shit", or maybe even "OH, FUCKING SHIT".
My guess would be that more than a good bit of information would have to do with the bad guys that we've been all been obsessing about since 9/11.
It would be impossible for a civilian to quantify what percentage of information about these type of actors becomes known to a president that represents his "incremental" knowledge over and above what you and I may come to know from reading the Guardian and watching the Bourne Ultimatum 20 times.
That's because obviously, this stuff is top secret and they are not going to "willingly" tell us.
Suffice it to say, regardless of "how much" of it there is, some of it would probably knock your socks off and then some.
You're also told that we've got a lot of really cool tools to track these guys, but, uh, some of these tools "may" rub up against the fourth amendment in a way that makes Glenn Greenwald and a bunch of ACLU lawyers set their hair on fire and run around like lunatics, yelling about how our our constitutional rights are being taken away and this is worse than Russia under Stalin.
I love those guys, one and all, and I honestly hope they continue yelling as loudly as they can. We need people like them, if nothing else to try and balance out the insanity of the right wing and to at least let the gov't know that we are paying attention, for whatever that's worth. In reality, probably not much.
However, I think we have to come to terms with the fact that the Constitution of the United States has become more of a notional or aspirational document than a "concrete" one by the year 2013.
Yes, when it's in our best interest to beat our chest about this or that amendment, we like to pretend that it's sacrosanct. But when we disagree with it, or it doesn't fit the realities of the moment, we scheme to find ways to massage it, or strike an uneasy bargain with it for what we believe to be the greater good.
Many people call this a "slippery slope". So be it.
Can this uneasy "bargain" that President Obama has struck potentially prevent another 9/11, or maybe even worse?
Obviously, he thinks so.
At some point, you have to just trust that the guy is doing the right thing for the right reasons.
I do have faith that he's looked at all sides of this issue, and has come up with his best solution.
As an agnostic, I do find it somewhat ironic to have "faith" in something, but I'd much rather put "faith" in a person than in something imagined.
At least that's something to go on, and that something is all we have to hang onto right now.
Unless you want to go light your hair on fire, which of course you are always welcome to do.
I'm pretty sure nobody's going to stop you. Not just yet, anyway.