Hip Suburban White Guy

BUSH, THE NSA AND YOU

Americans are idiots. They watch too much TV...too much "Law and Order, Alphabet Soup" (BTW, gettin' me a 52" DLP HD Toshiba pretty soon!! Full Surround Sound with a sub-woofer and everything!! Yippee!! But I digress...).

Americans are the most gullible, hypocritical people on the planet!

Here is what the average American thinks is going on with the "Terrorist Survielance Program" (i.e. spying on Americans).

Osama picks up the phone and calls an operative in America. An alarm goes off at the NSA! Some patriotic, clean-cut, CSI-type agent sitting at a desk that looks like a station on the Starship Enterprise (or his local "Triple Action Weather" desk) says "We've got movement!", puts on a headset and listens to the call, carefully noting any threats to America and alerting the President, who immediately mobilizes forces to protect Americans.

BULL SHIT!! That never, ever happens! The NSA doesn't work that way!

Here is what REALLY happens.

The NSA monitors ALL electronic communications EVERYWHERE in the world, ALL THE TIME! Everything! Phone calls, emails, web pages, blogs, EVERYTHING! They intercept it with satellites and they have rooms full of supercomputers that analyze all of this traffic looking for key words and phrases. Like HIJACK or BOMB or NEW YORK.

So if you make a phone call and talk to someone (here or overseas...doesn't matter. England or Syria, doesn't matter) and you say "Hi Jack! Did you see the Today Show broadcasting from New York this morning? Katie Couric is da BOMB!" You just set off 3 alarms at the NSA.

They will then analyze your call, investigate both parties to see if there is anything "suspicious" in your background. They'll look at your credit report. They'll look at your employment history. They'll look at your criminal record. They'll look at your utility bills. They will look at your Pay Per View history from your cable company. They'll look at which porn sites you visited on your computer. They'll look at who you emailed and when and they will investigate THOSE people. They will look at any publically available information (and there is a LOT! More and more everyday! More than you ever DREAMED possible!) for "patterns". Patterns that THEY think might be suspicious or subversive. It's called "Data Mining".

All, without a warrant. No judge. No oversight. No "Reasonable Cause". Nothing.

This is what Bush means when he says he doesn't want to let "The Enemy" know what we are doing. He wants "The Enemy" to think we know who they are and we are WATCHING THEM. We don't. We truly don't.

What he's doing (and doesn't want "The Enemy" to know) is that it's a crap-shoot. He's watching everyone, all of the time, in the hopes of MAYBE stumbling across a possible "Evil-Doer". In the process, he is gathering A LOT of information on innocent Americans going about their normal, porn-filled, pot-smoking, whiskey-drinking, un-capitalistic ways.

This is the GOD'S HONEST TRUTH! If Osama himself picked up a pay phone in Pakistan, called someone in the US and said "Had a wonderful time in Rome. Looking forward to coming back home to Lathrop and milking the cows.", he could be setting up the next attack in code and the NSA would NEVER FIND IT.

This is EXACTLY why the FISA act of 1978 was put in place. And it is EXACTLY why this administration decided to just IGNORE that act.

But, what can you expect? A citizenry who believes that "Intelligent Design" is on an equal footing with Evoloution; a citizenry who believes that barely squeaking through a Supreme Court decision on an election constitutes a "mandate"; a citizenry who believes that anything a President does MUST be legal because, ya know, he's the President!

God help us! We have gone from being a Beacon Of Hope (most of the last 200 years) to being The Laughing Stock Of The World (the first Dubya administration) to being The Most Hated Nation On Earth (the second Dubya administration).

I don't know how the Right Wing sleeps at night. I truly don't.