I just read an article that said 20% of Americans think their calls have been monitored by the government. Who the hell are these cocky bastards? I wish somebody would listen to me. I post to my blog on a semi-regular basis and I'm pretty sure I have a readership of about six. And I'm counting myself. Hell, I'd be happy to post transcripts of all my telephone calls if I thought anybody'd be interested. Sample call:
KELLY: Hello?
RACHELLE: I'm on my way home. What's for dinner?
KELLY: Ummmm, meatloaf? We're out of beer.
RACHELLE: We've got wine.
KELLY: Cool. See you in a few minutes.
RACHELLE: 'Bye.
I've got more if Bush, Dick & Co. would be interested.
I'm absolutely NO fan of the current administration or their quasi-legal wiretapping program, but I don't believe most Americans have been intentionally singled out. There are roughly 300 million Americans, about 210 million over the age of 18 (I'm pulling out the youngsters because, based on what I heard at the mall last week, government interpreters wouldn't have the slightest idea what those dumb-asses were talking about). Figure 20% of the remaining people and you've still got 42 million people to monitor. Screw that. Even with smart NSA sniffers, somebody's got to go back in and listen to that crap. I would last about a week before I wigged out and climbed a clock tower.
That said, I wouldn't be at all surprised to find that certain high-profile individuals with no ties to al Qaeda have had their calls, mail, e-mail, etc., intercepted. That's the whole idea behind a "slippery slope". Almost everybody would say that they are cool with listening in to "terrorists", but how far does that go? Is the ACLU a terrrorist organization? Bill O'Reilly seems to think so. People who aren't in lock-step with W. and his cronies are apparently not patriots and are just waiting to be invaded by the Commies/Islamo-facists/Mexicans (take your pick; I was channel-surfing on the way home from work and heard about the dangers of all three groups). Should their phone calls and mail be fair game? Maybe. Anyhoo, I'm pretty sure some of the people who are defending this program the most would be screaming the loudest if there were a Democrat in the White House. But it's possible I'm just cynical.
Enough of my ranting for now. Think I used enough key-words in this post to trip the NSA sniffers? I hope so. I'd hate to be part of the 80% of American losers who are not having their conversations monitored.
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Ha! Ha, I say! I'm sure I've been singled out - I bitch about taxes on the phone all the time. Seriously - it's a very messed up, no-longer-the-America-I-grew-up-believing-in kinda place when - this actually happened - I gripe to my husband about foolish government bailouts, say "I hate our government" and then get a chill down my spine realizing that I've just said something that could put me on a monitoring list.
No, the government isn't paying an agent to sit there and listen to my calls just in case I say something dangerous - but their computers are filtering the data packets for certain signatures. Is "I hate America" one of their signatures? I don't know. I shouldn't have to care. Thanks to W, I do.
And the idea of Hillary pulling the puppet strings on a modern American gestapo is somehow even more chilling.
I'd hate to be part of the 80% of losers who thought this was okay, because it would "make us safe." The terrorists have already won - they killed America when they gave our Gov't an excuse to trample the civil rights and other freedoms that made America, America - and we let them. America didn't even get a funeral.
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