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

[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?"