Tens of Millions

That's how many phone records the government has gone through, using "data mining" techniques, in the War on Terra^tm. There's a chance yours are in there. Chances are even better that those of us out here in Left Blogistan who have been, shall we say, less reticent in our criticism of One Party Rule are also in there.

Tens of millions of telephone records. Are all of those people in telephone contact with Al Qaeda? Probably not, since the data mining was intended to seek out patterns of suspected "terrorist activity". Whatever the fuck that is supposed to mean. When I go out this Saturday to wave Stop the War signs on my local freeway overpass, that can be considered by the jackbooted thugs in the BFEE Police State to be potential "terrorist activity". Remember, if you're not with us, you are with the terrorists.

"No laws were broken," Baby Doc had the audacity to say today in a hastily-convened appearance after the USA Today story broke yesterday. He denied that his maladminstration is "trolling through the personal lives of Americans".

Liar.

Only out-of-country calls are alleged by the government to have been analyzed. Bullshit. Even if that were true -- which I seriously doubt -- the NSA sill has a huge database of domestic calls in their possession, and if the data exists, it will be analyzed. I work in a statistical research unit, and I know what the siren song of raw data can do to a hotshot analyst; there's no way that the data won't be analyzed.

The major telephone service providers -- Verizon, Bell South and ATT -- were happy to provide NSA with their records. I'm happy to say, however, that Qwest, standing almost alone, told the government to pound sand. Not that it does me any good; they are my phone service provider, but I have Verizon mobile and that's where I make all my long-distance calls.

And finally, let's not forget that this happened at NSA under the watch of General Mikey, and this is reason enough to stop his nomination as head of the CIA. But I'm not holding my breath for that to happen.