Just some general observations - brought on by something Ed Schultz said today and other things...

[NRaleighLiberal]

I was out doing some driving around and shopping and had big Ed on - and he kind of floored me. He was wondering what his listening audience thought about the whole NSA thing - the findings, the recent judges' ruling - and then related that he knew his audience wasn't going to like it, but this is a different time and a new world. He said that "they've kept us safe from another "big one" so far, so it must be working. And he said that the price to pay for our safety is to realize that nothing is really private any more".

And that kind of floored me a bit on a visceral level. Boston certainly happened - granted, it wasn't 911-esque, but it was bad enough. 911 happened (the NSA has been around for much longer than that event, right?). And Anthrax. And...and...it made me think that some people feel if we pull out all stops - give up all of our privacy freedoms - we can prevent disasters from happening. That to me is ridiculous - life is full of risk, and if we keep taking away that which makes life worth living, what kind of life will it end up being?

So there is that...and related are the many posts I've read here (some great ones), news items - Big Ed's discussion with Dorgan - talking about the ever widening gap between have way too much and have not nearly enough. And they got into the current budget deal - the complete refusal to find new revenue - how corporations making scads of money have loopholes large enough to drive Brinks trucks loaded with all of their excesses through.....

And it just is allowed to happen. It's like the lies that led to the invasion of Iraq and all of the other things the Bushco crowd did - it came to me that things just will not improve, because we all get worn down. Misinformation, lies, apathy....

So it all made me feel really frustrated, and made me feel like the vast majority of us in the US are suckers. Few - very few - actually even know or care we exist, never mind are concerned that we have enough to live.

Something has to change.....and I have no idea how it will come about.

[Warpy]

1. The problems with casting as wide a net as the NSA has

are first that it's illegal for any law enforcement agency to go on a fishing expedition without specific warrants against specific individuals or groups and second that collecting this much data makes it impossible to analyze it all and find that needle in the haystack.

It's illegal and it doesn't work, two stellar reasons to clip the NSA's wings. They should have been defunded in the 80s since their whole mission had been to listen to the USSR. Even at that, they failed. They were caught utterly flatfooted when the USSR collapsed, as was the CIA.

You'd think they'd have noticed the buildup to that, at least.

[bullwinkle428]

2. Sure sounds like Ed supported the ramping-up in spying efforts post-9/11

throughout the remaining 7 years of the Bush administration, if he's going to use that as his reference point.

[Iggo]

3. The NSA keeps us safe...

...except when it doesn't.

[Squinch]

4. And at the expense of what defines "us."

[RC]

5. His Republican roots are showing, plus

he wants to keep his job.