U.S. Lawmakers to Examine NSA Database of Phone Calls

Is anyone surprised by this?

”...the government secretly collected records of ordinary Americans’ phone calls to build a database of every call made within the country”

Data mining, misused, exceeds the danger presented by pervasive wiretapping. With wiretapping and eavesdropping, you at least have to say something stupid. In the data mine, you are who you call and who calls you, regardless of what was said. McCarthyist tactics did not die with Joe McCarthy. You are guilty by association.

Has a friend of yours dialed a wrong number, ringing through to the local radical muslim cleric, right before calling you? Tough luck for you. You are guilty by association. Have fun in Gitmo, bitch. You got the government you deserved.

How about the laws yet to be put in place? Once we win the wars on drugs and terror, someone else will need to step in and start taking the rap. Context is irrelevant, behavior is irrelevant, actions are irrelevant. Data mining combined with the right’s tendency to turn their morals into your laws will bite you in the end. Have you called an “anonymous” hotline for a health or drug problem? That’s in your permanent record now.

When the knock comes at the door, you earned whatever you get that day, if you fail to speak up now. Every step towards fascism is paved by the false patriotism of hypocrites who fail to say “no” in the face of the beast. You’re either with George or against him. There can be no middle ground.

(via the WSJ.)