Help an old woman out here Re: NSA & our phone calls?

Lots of silly questions rattling around in my wee little Luddite brain.

So, did they use our tax money to pay the phone companies for lists of all the calls we made? Boy, bet that came to a chunk of change. No wonder most of the phone company lawyers found nothing to worry about in regard to the legality of such wholesale intrusion (sans warrants) on the privacy of tens of millions of Americans. Must’ve been some big-ass checks handed out for that data.

Tens of millions calls or people? Whew dawgie! Either way, it is a lot of us. How many of us voted DEM in 2000 and 2004? How many of us have written LTTE and emails to our congressmen? They bought phone records for tens of millions of us?

Surely they wouldn’t just sit down and read lists of all the calls all of us made, cross-referencing and looking for patterns. They have huge computers for that, don’t they? So maybe no real, actual humans peer at whom I call? The real people just get a heads up if the computer notices me calling the number of a known terrorist, right?

But, say I apply for a job with some government agency and they wanted to know a lot more about me than what they can legally ask on an application. Could they punch my name or phone number into their big computer and have it spit out information about all my calls? Or, say I was a member of Congress (or other governmental body) and somewhat independent minded, would they print out a list of all the people I called and share it with my spouse, banker, or the press? Even private calls I might wanna keep to myself? Would I vote the way they wanted to spare myself the hassles and financial hit of a divorce if I had a special friend on the side? What would I do to keep everything in my life out of the press?

Would they give data to any big corporation/contributor which might want know more about me than they could legally ask on an application for a job, or credit? Would the NSA just give out that info or would they charge for it, since they have other things they could do with a little mad-money Congress didn’t appropriate to them. Then they could do stuff Congress wouldn’t even know about with that extra cash.

Weren’t there some other fund raising activities done by secret agencies and groups before? Iran/Contra keeps ringing in my head. Didn’t some guys go to jail for that? Aren’t some of the same chaps now involved with the bush/Cheney administration? Gee, do illegal stuff on the sly to raise money so you can do some other illegal stuff on the sly… Yep, it has been done. And some of the same faces are in D.C. again. Who knew crime could be such a wise career move?

Data on the calls of tens of millions of us… gee, wonder what that cost. Anybody ever buy someone’s phone records? What was the going rate? Maybe the NSA got a discount for buying bulk.

Did the NSA pay a third party to get the records of all those calls for them? In that case, did the third party do it gratis, for love of country, fightn' terra and all? Or did a possible third party get a taxpayer-funded commission? If so, how much? Oh, right, with the NSA, we’ll never know. If there was a third party involved with procuring the information, just who sits on their board and did they keep copies of our files for themselves?

Who at the phone companies gets all that taxpayer money the NSA used to purchase the data? Did rank and file worker bees get raises? Did small investors, trying to build nest eggs for retirement, get the money as dividends? Bet the CEO and a bevy of favorites got a chunk o’ change outta the deal.

If I took a peek at phone companies’ quarterly statements, would the money show up as profit? Would that give me the impression that phones company stocks were a good investment? Would that be sorta, you know, misleading to me as a potential investor? How were profits prior to the big NSA purchases? How were their stocks doing before? Did phone companies need a bit of propping up? Bet they are real cooperative with such a good customer as the NSA now. What else might they do for unaccountable and unrestrained spooks with deep pockets?

At a time when our deficit is getting so monstrous, just what did this little violation of the 4th Amendment cost the US Treasury? Oh, right, NSA. We’ll never know. And hasn’t the repressive government of The People’s Republic of China been buying a lot of our debt? So, they would be some of the parties actually writing the checks to fund things our Congress decided to appropriate monies for when the Treasury is busted on any given day? So, when you chase it all down, is the violation of our rights by unaccountable agencies partly funded by foreign governments, which violate the human rights of their own people?

Let me put it to the freepers who don’t seem bothered by being spied on: You guys OK with the commies funding some of the shit that is going down around here? Just curious, cuz every time I criticize the pResident, some of you clowns call me a ‘commie’ like you think ‘commies’ are a bad thing. But you are OK with the real commies writing checks to buy stock in America so Congress and rogue agencies can spend more than the nation makes? It's OK for 'the reds' to bankroll violating our Bill of Rights?

Two more silly questions:
If bird flu hits us hard, will they go after our carrier pigeons next?
Anybody wanna buy some string and some tin cans?


on edit: typo

a hell of a lot of pockets got lined in this slimy little maneuver...

(nom)

Your meth-head son who's still living in the storm cellar uses your phone to call his manufacturer.

How long until They come knocking on YOUR door?

as it runs a red light. You get the ticket no matter who was driving at the time!

Parents: do you know who your kids are calling?

And aren't there devices which let people tap into and use your phone number for their own calls? Gee, if they do that, it means they are already committing crimes. Who knows what they are up to that they don't want cops tracing back the their own phone numbers...

They started this but caught so much flack they "said" they discontinued it. Now they are saying it is just fine and dandy and all America approves of it.

change the name and change the subject. Got it! Thanks for pointing that out. ;)

that a minority contractor was denied a contract because he said he didn't like Bush, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if the 'pukes had checked on everyone to make sure libs don't get anything from the government.

for thinking 'in America we have freedom of speech'?

Santa Claus is a pleasant childhood illusion. The REAL Naughty/Nice list is being kept by less saintly people. And it matters more than just filled stockings or new bikes.

Are any of the charges/taxes on our bills going to "pay" for this eavesdropping?
Up2Late was working on this angle yesterday:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1161279&mesg_id=1161279

So many puzzles... such a secret agency.

:kick: