Better buy a few quick, before they sell out.

with all the cheap labor in Asia and Mexico, they'll be cranking up production on those brown shirts soon enough. They'll be affordable and plentiful.

Seriously, though... my God this is SO outrageous!

Back in 1974 David Bowie imagined a world where people would beg for Big Brother.

This comment was posted on the piece concerning the new poll numbers indicating a 51% disapproval of collecting information on American's phone calls:

"You people who are hyper ventilating over this exagerate you importance.

If you are not conspiring against your country, what are you hiding ?"

I think the Diamond Dogs are sniffing around.

i guess now there will be a big run on flowerpots and all reporters will have to rent apartments with balconies.

When has the Bush Administration kept quiet about its disdain for the Constitution? About its intolerance of protesters? Disrespect for human rights? Eagerness to silence dissenters? Arrogance in the face of the illegal activities it carries out? Why is anyone surprised by this? There are two more long years left, and it's only going to get worse I'm afraid as the rats feel more and more cornered. I would suggest that the revolution go underground. Er, metaphorically speaking of course.

I wonder if Rove Inc. is also tracking the calls of members of Congress. This sounds an awful lot like the J. Edgar Hoover routine. Just who is McCain talking to? Who calls your Secretary of Defense? Hillary might be cautious but Bill could be making the contacts. To whom did Ted Kennedy talk the night of Patrick's accident? What does Specter's wife do when Arlen is away? The possibilities are endless. Lots of people could suddenly discover that they are on the sinking ship with Bush and find it in their interest to help bail.

Reporters aren't the only people who should be concerned. As a lawyer, I have to maintain strict client confidentiality. This goes beyond the substance of attorney-client discussions: often the very existence of the attorney-client relationship is, in itself, a matter the client wishes to keep confidential. That means confidentiality is violated when the phone numbers are disclosed to the NSA -- not, as NSA argues, when the NSA "listens in" on the call. The NSA's actions place the attorney-client relationship at risk, no less than if they staked out my office and took down the license plates of every person who visited the office, just to "build a database". I would imagine doctors have the same concerns.

The Bush administration considers any threat to it's secrecy, even uncovering illegal activity, as a threat to national security. They can't distinguish between what's good for them politically from what is good for the nation.

It is really no surprise that they are using their NSA database to figure out who talked to reporters. I wonder if they consider strictly political threats to their power, like a Democratic congress and President as another threat to national security.

They don't even need to enter Democratic HQ to wiretap it these days now do they?

That's exactly ow they rationalize their illegal actions during the 2000 and 2004 elections. It the president does it, it's not illegal, right?

Not to worry, the White House and the religious right has their supply reserved. And they are selling what they say is democracy, what a farce!

I don't know if our country has a chance. I remember how offended most reporters were about Judith Miller being jailed for not revealing a source. Confidentiality is everything, right? This becomes a moot point when the president can sign a letter and find out who that reporter talked to and when, without anybody ever finding out that the information has been passed over. The FBI now has supercomputers to process terabytes of information and the phone companies have (and are willing to provide) the information. I've never worried about my privacy in the information age. I figured that there was too much information to sort through, and nobody would be interested in it anyway. But now I'm beginning to wonder. Where is this going to stop?

The KGB only dreamed of having the technology to do this. They had to depend on "sources" to get the information. What amateurs.

It's never going to stop.

Ten or twenty years ago if a person said that the Federal Government was creating a file folder on each and every American citizen, he would have been laughed at and called a nut-case.

Now it's happening and it is real.

Still feel like laughing?

How J. Edgar Hoover would have loved the latest technology! His investigations of American citizens were small-time stuff compared to what's happening today.

For people who don't understand why the NSA database is such an issue, this presents a classic example. Its now suggested that the government is tracking the calls of reporters in order to identify confidential sources in leak investigations. No matter how you define the terms, that use does NOT fall under 'detecting patterns of behaviour among terrorists' nor does it meet the standard that the administration is no 'trolling through the personal lives ... of Americans.'

This report may be totally unfounded. In a system where the proper checks and balances were in place, it would be easy to determine if these reporters claims are true or not. But in the current situation, its nearly impossible for the administration to point to any concrete proof that these things aren't happening. Essentially, the only answer to critics who say that the program isn't being used for political purposes, or for purposes other than the narrowly defined war on terror, is for the administration to say "We aren't ... trust us." Problem is, trust isn't what governments are built on ... they are built in verifiability.

Ronald Reagan once said "Trust ... but verify." Of course, he was talking about Soviet Arms reductions, but it applies just as well here. I'm happy to trust, but I also need to verify. If its good enough for Ronnie, surely its good enough for us today.