When I first read the report this AM about USA Today’s “expose” via yet another “unidentified” source of another NSA program involving telecommunications, my first reaction was the collegiate-indoctrinated one of “uh-oh, here go our rights”, which quickly succumbed to the rational acknowledgment that “alright, the NSA is doing its job of keeping us safe from the terrorists!”

Our esteemed leaders in the House and the Senate, on both sides of the isle, are going apoplectic on this one and Bush will address the program today. [Update: Bush would neither confirm or deny that this program exists] AT&T, Bell South and Verizon are the companies that provided the information (phone numbers called or having received calls, not the actual information in the calls!), while Qwest refused to participate, citing privacy and legal concerns, (my bet is that they were afraid of being sued, especially during their financial dark days.) Anyway, remind me never to support Qwest in anything!

So, what’s the big deal? Unless you are violating the RICO act, are a drug dealer, a child pornographer, or a serial philanderer, a money launderer, or — A TERRORIST! — again, what’s the problem?

Well, for several generations raised on viral-conspiracy theories, with little or no sense of the difference between, or any belief in, good and evil — whole categories of folks whose moral compasses are either broken or missing altogether — being “spied on” by their own government is the most heinous crime that they can imagine. Although they can contemplate the motivations and get inside the heads of the perpetrators of crimes like this, they also can dismiss the possibility of that being an act of evil — but by God, keep track of someone’s phone call records, (which the phone companies legally do anyway), and you are the most reprehensible evil piece of crap on the planet and should go straight to hell — or be impeached! (I didn’t say that those folks are rational or even stable, now did I? More on that in a sec.)

First, here is the reaction of Michelle Malkin:

I will be sure to continue to do business with Verizon, in support of its willingness to cooperate with the government to prevent another September 11.

With which I strongly agree. Breaking news this, so not a lot to find just yet on the center-right, but if the Daily Kos is any barometer, the Left has its panties wadded up real tight! Here are some comments to the main Kos post:

Is it now? Is this the moment…..

….that we can finally say our beautiful experiment in democracy and freedom have failed, and we live under a fascist system which has totally spat upon our constitutional rights?

I’m thinking it’s just about now.

I have this clenching feeling in my gut that’s part terror, part anger, part sad acknowledgment that Bush will probably get by with this again.

Tens of millions of Americans spied on.

Any Democrat, elected to office or not, that does not, right now, today, stand up and call for Bush’s impeachment, is a g*ddamned fellow traveler with these brownshirts and can get the hell out of my party.

“Words are, of course, the most potent drug used by mankind.” Rudyard Kipling.

by Kimberly Stone on Thu May 11, 2006 at 07:36:28 AM PDT

This is the business opportunity of a

lifetime! Start your own phone company TODAY! Slogan?

“We don’t share your records with the NSA.”

I’d sign up right now? Howsabout ya’ll?

Oh, and at this moment I am waiting for a callback from my phone provider. I have gone through several layers of the company, asking is they are cooperating with the NSA and providing telephone records. Just a nice, polite, friendly call. Everyone else is doing the same, right?

Today’s nuclear contamination news.

by means are the ends on Thu May 11, 2006 at 08:31:59 AM PDT

The Spin

Faux News just ran a spot with Newt Gingrich.

The party line of the day is that this is a program to fight terrorists, and (of course) anyone who opposes it doesn’t want to fight terrorists, and should accept the consequences of not fighting those gosh-darned terrorists.

by PsychicToaster on Thu May 11, 2006 at 08:04:48 AM PDT

Making sh*t up? Where have you been?

You are correct that the article does not talk about transcripts. I was commenting on the totality of all the spying that we must suffer from this administration.

One thing we do know is that this administration is listening to, recording, and data mining the calls of American citizens. Bush admitted it and told us to like it. But he swears it’s only international calls.

And now we have evidence of a broad-based call tracking program.

I believe it is a mistake to assume that the Bush cabal is exercising personal restraint out of respect for the constitution and the rights of the citizenry and not listening to domestic calls is in the face of all this evidence.

“In a time of universal deceit – telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” – George Orwell

by Five of Diamonds on Thu May 11, 2006 at 07:19:01 AM PDT

Get the picture? Same ol’ same ol’ from these guys. My question to them remains — What do you have to hide? Shoot, my phone calls would put everyone to sleep! (db)

Technorati Tags: NSA, Phone Call Data Mining, AT&T, Verizon, Bell South, Qwest

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 11th, 2006 at 9:29 am and is filed under Fever Swamp Madness, Media Doin' It Wrong. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.  |   Print This Post  |   Email This Post

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