Don't Call Us, We'll Call You

(no, ...wait, that's not good either)

Jeff here. Wow. I was just reading the text of President Bush's speech yesterday.

"Director, thank you for joining me. Good morning. At this moment, somewhere in the world, terrorists are planning new attacks on our country."
Soak that statement up for a while. Bush continues...
"Their goal is to bring destruction to our shores that will make September the 11th pale by comparison. To carry out their plans, they must communicate with each other, they must recruit operatives, and they must share information. The lives of countless Americans depend on our ability to monitor these communications. Our intelligence professionals must be able to find out who the terrorists are talking to, what they are saying, and what they're planning."

Bush is pleading for 11th hour approval of the FISA bill. The bill allows listening and tracking of Americans calling Americans.
I realize Bush has become even less popular since we left nearly 2 years ago. But then I read Congress agrees with him. The bill will pass.

Judging by a lack of riots in the streets, I'm thinking there isn't any news coverage about this back home. Where there may be news coverage, it's only focused on legal immunity granted to telephone companies... [is that really a surprise?] Still, the bill will pass.

Here, my coworkers joke at how ironic it is ...how the US has today become what the Soviet Union was when they were children. Then, it was the KGB; today it's NSA & AT&T.
How does it happen?
I studied a lot of Soviet history in college. I remember reading the speeches from Kruschev and Brezhnev. If I substitute the word "capitalists" for "terrorists", I just gush with nostalgia. :)

Oh well. Just an observation. Meanwhile, if you do call, don't tell us anything too private. But we figure, if you have nothing to hide, it's all for the greater good, right?
Right, Comrade?