To be a member of the irrational Left. Because if being so means I am outraged about the Gestapo tactics, (yea I did go there) of our government, then call me what ever kind of BAT you want to.

From Pensito, and please read the whole thing.

On the same day that we learn that President Bush's National Security Administration (NSA) has engaged all the major U.S. telecoms except one - Qwest - in data mining of millions of phone records for U.S. citizens, we also learn that the administration has closed down an investigation into the NSA by refusing to give investigators the required clearances:

"We have been unable to make any meaningful progress in our investigation because OPR has been denied security clearances for access to information about the NSA program," OPR counsel H. Marshall Jarrett wrote to Hinchey. Hinchey's office shared the letter with The Associated Press.

And then we have the NOTHING NEW HERE, NOTHING TO FEAR Brigade, kicking in.

According to what is being reported by the USA Today, the NSA has a database of phone calls made by Americans. The NSA states explicitly that they do not record the content of the calls, so what's left for the database is the "on the envelope" information. Information that has long been used by law enforcement without the need of a warrant.

Plus, whoever thought they could trust their phone company and/or their cell phone company to keep this sort of information private? They already sell this sort of information to telemarketers. Why not the nation's top anti-terror intelligence-gathering organization?

There is nothing new here, nor am I especially worried about this sort of thing. It has been going on almost since the invention of the telephone. The only thing that makes it "news" right now is the fact that it can be crafted by the left/media into a political weapon at an opportune moment.

Are there REALLY Americans so LAME or so commited to their failed political choices, that they are willing to accept ANYTHING? I mean this case is so beyond the pale, that it is ridiculous...

But it's okay, because Bush says it's okay:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Congressional Republicans and Democrats demanded answers from the Bush administration Thursday about a government spy agency secretly collecting records of ordinary Americans' phone calls to build a database of every call made within the country.

Facing intense criticism from Congress, President Bush did not confirm the work of the National Security Agency but sought to assure Americans that their privacy is being "fiercely protected."

"We are not mining or trolling through the personal lives of innocent Americans," Bush said before leaving for a commencement address at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College in Biloxi.

Well I think Jack Cafferty speaks for a lot of us when he says:

Cafferty: We all hope nothing happens to Arlen Specter, the Republican head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, cause he might be all that stands between us and a full blown dictatorship in this country. He's vowed to question these phone company executives about volunteering to provide the government with my telephone records, and yours, and tens of millions of other Americans.

Shortly after 9/11, AT7T, Verizon, and BellSouth began providing the super-secret NSA with information on phone calls of millions of our citizens, all part of the War on Terror, President Bush says. Why don't you go find Osama bin Laden, and seal the country's borders, and start inspecting the containers that come into our ports?

The President rushed out this morning in the wake of this front page story in USA Today and declared the government is doing nothing wrong, and all this is just fine. Is it? Is it legal? Then why did the Justice Department suddenly drop its investigation of the warrantless spying on citizens because the NSA said Justice Department lawyers didn't have the necessary security clearance to do the investigation. Read that sentence again. A secret government agency has told our Justice Department that it's not allowed to investigate it. And the Justice Department just says ok and drops the whole thing. We're in some serious trouble, boys and girls"

Yeah we are, and we have been for a long time. And I have to believe, if not for the rancid egg dripping off their faces, a lot of conservative commentators would be speaking up about this as well. But they banked it all on Bush, and now... No matter how incredible the story, no matter how telling the crime, they simply ignore it, justify it, or spin it. It is sickening...

Oh and I am sure it's okay for the administration to data mine our phone calling patterns now. Future Supreme Court Justice Michelle says the NSA is, "Just doing their job."

Well let me point out something to Michelle, Assrocket and all the other high priest of the Bush Cult. They may just be doing their job, as it is defined by the current group of fascist that running our country, but the time is coming near, and barring declaring martial law and suspending the constitution, which I have no doubt you will also justify... The Republicans are about to be swept out of office, and then the real fun begins...

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