I don’t know which is worse—the fact that after Spetember 11, our government has been reviewing our phone call histories, the fact that the three big telco vendors sold our records to the government (no big surprise there), or the fact that half the country doesn’t seem to give a shit. One of the key reasons I’m socially Democratic is because I am a firm believer in my civil liberties (those I still have left, that is.)
It’s not so much that the government is looking at who is calling who (when one caller is in a foreign country, from what they claim). It’s that this administration does everything under the nebulous veil of “National Security”, without consulting my representatives in Congress, something that is, um, AGAINST THE LAW. Or, at least, that’s what Mr Fahey taught me in public high school seventeen years ago.
And I heard (in passing) poll stats last night that 63% of Americans SUPPORT this?? We social Democrats are a shrinking minority of common sense. Interesting that Qwest said no.
NPR featured what seemd like a solid analysis of exactly what data was collected and how it’s historically been utilized. If the NPR report was accurate (and I suspect it probably was), I think I’m actually OK with the way the data will be used.
My big issue is the same as yours: they didn’t run it by Congress first.