The U.S. National Security State

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Make sure to read this -- all of it: "A hidden world, growing beyond control," by Dana Priest and William M. Arkin of The Washington Post, a terrifying exposé of the post-9/11 national-security state:

The top-secret world the government created in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has become so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work.

Glenn Greenwald is right (and read his post, too):

We chirp endlessly about the Congress, the White House, the Supreme Court, the Democrats and Republicans, but this is the Real U.S. Government:  functioning in total darkness, beyond elections and parties, so secret, vast and powerful that it evades the control or knowledge of any one person or even any organization.

The Founders, I suspect, would not be amused.