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Data collection sounds innocuous, but it can be the tool for a police state and tyranny.

No doubt.

But compare the data that we believe NSA is collecting. In the case of the phone companies I'm betting that data is:

Calling phone number
Receiving phone number
Call duration
Call date and time

We have been told today by several of the talking heads that the phone data does not include names. Is that true? Who knows for sure but that comment was made more than once.

Now compare that to what the IRS knows about you and your personal life. There is, in fact no comparison. The IRS and the IRS-Obamacare Branch will know more about you than your mother. We gave up the right to privacy over 100 years ago. NSA is a nit compared to the IRS.

We are taking our eyes off the ball and that was the probably the plan. Note that we aren't talking much about the real Obama Scandals this week and we are seeing Obama defended by leading Republicans some of whom can in no way be classified as RINOs.

I'd rather be talking about the IRS abuses myself.

I continue to preach caution.

We really don't know what NSA is collecting. As far as the calls are concerned, here is one view:

But Stephen B. Wicker, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Cornell University, said the practical distinction between the metadata of calls and their content is rapidly disappearing because of technological advances, such as GPS features in mobile phones.

“There is a blurring of the line between content and context,” said Mr. Wicker, whose research focuses on privacy issues in wireless information networks.

Using analytical software, the NSA could use mobile phones’ metadata over time to paint a picture of where their users went, who they talked to and what their habits were, Mr. Wicker said.

There are also reports that Internet data, credit card info, and other personal information are being collected. SCOTUS has just ruled the police can collect your DNA and put that in a national data base. Obamacare will soon be collecting our medical information.

We gave up the right to privacy over 100 years ago. NSA is a nit compared to the IRS.

I certainly did not vote to give up my right to privacy. The big difference between now and 100 years ago is technology. We now have the capability to capture and use such data using supercomputers. And there are much more data available today. Brave New World and 1984 are fast becoming a reality with cameras everywhere and facial recognition technology a reality along with the ubiquitous smart phone with all of its capabilities.

The technology has outpaced our ability to control it. We need to rethink public policy or we will wind up eventually living in a police state. No government can be trusted with that capability.

All of these scandals have a central thread, i.e., intrusive, lying government that has lost the trust of the people. Career government employees are taking sides with the Administration whether it is the State Department's cover-up with its ARB report or "rogue" IRS employees attacking the political opposition or the DOJ going after reporters or NSA collecting secretly data from the private sector. Whistle blowers are few and far between. Career government employees are willing accomplices. The courts have just become rubber stamps for the government's overreach.

IRS collects the data along with many other federal agencies. It appears that the full weight of the government can be brought to bear on a citizen simultaneously by a number of federal agencies. Consider the case of Katherine Englebrecht of True to Vote. She was attacked by the IRS, EPA, FBI, and ATF personally and against her business. Someone or some mechanism exists to orchestrate these efforts.

The IRS is just the tip of the iceberg. We have a government that has run amok trampling our individual liberties and establishing and expanding fearsome technological systems that present a great danger to this nation. Let's see the forest for the trees. This is much bigger than the IRS.