Investigation into NSA spying continues

Something that's been on my mind since this Bush shit got started: I usually call it a "take the wind out of your sails" argument or press story, but it's better described as the mechanics or psychology behind the creepy perception that the Bush administration can, and will always, get away with anything, no matter how heinous, and that there is no hope of stopping it. I'll use Glenn Greenwald's words from his recent blog post from his excellent blog, Unclaimed Territory:

Dick Cheney lobbied so hard to prevent the Intelligence Committee from investigating precisely because they want to create the appearance that this [warrentless NSA spying] scandal is dying.

And again, from the front of the article:

There are lots of people who appear to be morbidly depressed -- to the point of conceding defeat -- as a result of yesterday’s unilateral obstruction by the incomparable White House shill Sen. Pat Roberts of the long-planned and long-promised investigation into the operational aspects of the NSA program by the Senate Intelligence Committee. That defeatist reaction and the borderline-self-pitying sentiments which accompany it are, for literally countless reasons, completely unwarranted.

Hey presto, it seemed like that was the end of that, huh? Well it's not. 2 other congressional committees are investigating the NSA spying scandal. A federeal court has ordered the release of NSA documents related to the spying. And the more BushCo tries to cover it up, the more suspcisious the public becomes.

The astute Greenwald goes on to point out that it took a few years for the Watergate scandal to end up in Nixon's resignation, and that Nixon was a very popular president when the scandal broke. Bush, of course, is massively unpopular, a fact which Greenwald acknowledges, but which does not get acknowledged enough. In the press, it usually seems to boil down to phrases like, "critics say..."

Greenwald goes on to point out that, hey of course they are going to do everything they can to cover up what they've done, but that they are basically running scared shitless. Another area I agree with Greenwald on, and which does not seem to make it to the press.

It's strange there seems to be this perception that there is no hope for getting Bush and his crooked associates out of office, and undoing the damage they've done to the democracy, the constitution, the judiciary, social policy, the environment, national defense, global stability, foreign relations, the economy, labor laws, separation of church and state, etc. But it's not so. I usually argue with the defeated or those trying so hard to convince me that a neocon society is inevitable that:

You can't say what is going to happen
It is up to us to stop them
Sooner or later they are going to shoot themselves in the foot or step on their dick
It looks like they are always going to win cuz that's what they want you think and the press is usually but not always very obedient

Our man Glenn Greewald the blogger includes in the post I mention above a long quote detailing the downfall of Nixon through the Watergate scandal. I was going to just rent "Clerks" tonight but I think I'm going to pick up "All the Presidents Men" too.