[coconutt2000]

When the NSA hires 1 million people to actually shift through each phone call 1 by 1, I'll get riled... As it is, computer programs that shift through data, looking for connections to terrorists don't worry me.

The only reason the government would want people to look at every single record is to be nosy. But using machines to filter, sieve, and analyze the same data is merely efficient use of resources. And machines don't get sidetracked, don't care if the call from your cell phone was to a mistress and not your wife, and it doesn't sound as if the information being tracked, gathered, and analyzed is particularly violating, and is certainly not violating if it is only a machine shifting through it and dismissing it unless it meets some kind of "profile" that gets if flagged.

[philman_36]

Echelon, part deux.

[Nekman]

AHHH....Yes.....The good old Main Stream Media.....where everything old is new again!!!!

[ethics]

What is wrong with connecting the dots?

If Bush didn't do this and we were attacked again, Bush would be accused of not putting forth the effort to connect the dots and find out about future attackes.

[HisKingdomWillAbolishSinDeath]

This is such a non-story.

[COBOL2Java]

Interesting observation from Fred Grandy on WMAL this morning. He said that in light of the recent poll which shows that the majority of Americans are not bothered by these programs (given the realities of 9/11), then it shows that the Democrats, who think they are in the mainstream, are quite the opposite.