Unlimited budget, no oversight, surprised?

the NSA is doing what you paid them to do

I am a big believer in the rule of law. It is the transparent rule of law, not the rule of the capricious will of the leader of the day which, to a large part, has made the “west” the great place to live that it is today. Democracy is important too, but elections alone are made into stage shows in the absence of strong election laws and an accompanying independent judiciary to settle disputes.

That said, the rule of law is not without it’s weaknesses. If law is the source code for western society then people are the platform upon which that code runs, and people vary greatly in their ability and willingness to follow, not just the letter of the law, but the spirit.

The rule of money is probably the biggest single threat to the rule of law. With money you can convince people to do just about anything. Yes there are always individuals who will stand up and do what is right, who will adhere to the spirit of the law (*paging Mr. Snowden*), but people in plural will invariably be moved more by money than by law.

When the money is coming from the government, people will be doubly blind, and assume, because it’s easier to assume, that what they are doing is lawful, and it likely is, at least technically.

America however, more than most places, was born from passionate argument over what was _right_, not technically legal.

The NSA, and it’s $1 Billion a year on “Cryptanalysis and exploitation services” alone and $52 Billion a year on projects that have zero public exposure unless one person out of the thousands leaks some documents, makes it easy to see how the rule of law is compromised. When it comes to government, you get what you pay for, and if you pay for secret police you get secret police.

So, Americans, my friends, neighbours and family*, all I ask is that you look closely at how your government is spending your money and insist that it spends it in line with your ideals. Everybody needs to spend money on defence and intelligence, but seriously, look at what you’re doing. It’s crazy-go-nuts for a society that believes as strongly as you do in freedom and liberty to spend so much money on compromising the freedom and liberty of everybody just to maybe catch a few terrorists.

It shouldn't take a Mr. Snowden to release the fricken budget for a government department. This information, how your government spends your money, should be free and open to all citizens no matter what. Sure it will make the work of defence and intelligence harder, but it’s a necessary precondition to keeping the rule of law safe from the rule of money.

* I am a Canadian with American family and roots which go back to the early French and American colonies in North America