almost good enough for the Onion

[topaz]

Bush Says U.S. Spying Is Not Widespread

I would have preferred "Bush Agrees Most U.S. Citizens Probably Not Terrorists," but that's just me.

Comments

[jacflash.livejournal.com]

I would have preferred "Bush Apologizes, Resigns," but that's just me. :-)

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

More rewarding, but so much less opportunity for comedy!

[lhn.livejournal.com]

You'd prefer President Cheney?

[jacflash.livejournal.com]

Actually, at this point, I would. If nothing else, Cheney is more intelligent (or at least wiser) and has fewer blind spots.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Bush is a moron. Cheney is evil. But on the plus side, being president might kill Cheney.

[lhn.livejournal.com]

Of course then you get Dennis Hastert. (Or whoever Cheney makes his VP.)

Quick quiz: looking at the list (http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0101032.html), where would people choose to stop? (Leaving out the easy but boring answer of running out the entire cabinet.)

[keyne.livejournal.com]

Rice, no question.

Unfortunately, she's the only one on the entire list I'd trust in the office.

[lilbjorn.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Put the bastard where we can keep an eye on him.

[blk]

Nice smooch.

[innerdoggie.livejournal.com]

I'm reminded of my dad sometimes not using the phone for business during the Nixon administration and talking to people away from his office. He suspected wiretaps at the time. I should ask him if he ever found any.

Still, I wonder what the data mining patterns are that they are looking for, and whether they are useful, especially when we don't have enough spies or analysts who know languages like Arabic and Urdu.

[lilbjorn.livejournal.com]

Once during the Reagan administration our phone went dead, so we called out the phone company. They diagnosed the problem as our wiretap having fallen off. The lineman then volunteered the information that there was no warrant for that tap and the phone company had not installed it (which they would do if there were a warrant).

[innerdoggie.livejournal.com]

Wow! What did y'all do?

[lilbjorn.livejournal.com]

We openly disagreed with a Republican administration. That's really all it takes.

[innerdoggie.livejournal.com]

No, I meant "what did you guys do after you discovered the wiretap?", not "why were you being spied upon?"

[khedron.livejournal.com]

I read that there article, and it doesn't actually say anywhere that Bush agrees most U.S. citizeens probably aren't terrorists. Doesn't even imply it, really. Y'know?

[lilbjorn.livejournal.com]

Bush Says U.S. Spying Is Not Widespread

Nah, a few million phones and a few billion conversations is not really what you'd call widespread.