WaPo Misread Powerpoint- Story on Feds tapping directly into internet companies was wrong & rushed

[thucythucy]

151. "If you really are a suspect

then they can get the information."

I think the whole point of meta-data analysis is to identify suspects to begin with, and then seek further warrants for increased scrutiny. If, for instance, a particular person makes calls to a certain number in Yemen, let's say, then that person gets tagged by the meta-analysis program, and the analyists take a closer look. At least that's my impression of how it's supposed to work.

And while it may or may not make Democrats look worse, it's certainly being used against President Obama by the left and the right, re: the New York Times for instance saying he'd lost all credibility, etc. I can certainly see the Teabagger ads that will come out of this in 2014, ads that will say Obama is Hitler 2.0, and we need Republicans in Congress to "check" his "grab for power." A strategy progressives are playing right into, with all this immediate and frantic commentary over a story that is still developing and may yet turn out to be dramatically overblown.

The story is also sucking all the oxygen away from other issues that will have an actual, as opposed to theoretical, impact on the lives of millions of Americans, for instance the effort in the House to cut Food Stamps, which will literally take the food out of the mouths of the poorest and most vulnerable in our nation, particularly children. Meanwhile, the governor of Florida vetoes the state version of the Dream Act, the governor and GOP legislature in Wisconsin shut down the investigative journalism project at the University of Wisconsin, and nary a peep from progressives too busy being outraged at stuff we know (or should have known) has been happening for at least the last twelve years.

Personally, I'd like to see the Patriot Act repealed. I'd like there to be a top to bottom review of our need for all this augmented "security"--and perhaps the one good thing to come out of this story will be just this sort of discussion. But I'm not holding my breath. Republicans love the national security state, and despite using this to bash Obama will not lift a finger to change it. And no Democratic administration wants to face the charge, if there is another attack on the scale of 9-11 or even close, that it somehow enabled the attack to happen by cutting back on the NSA. Shit, look at all the flak Obama took over the Boston bombing, with the GOP calling for investigations into why the bombers weren't apprehended before their attack. Think of what the response would be if, instead of four deaths, there were four hundred or four thousand. Democrats would be stuck with the "soft on terrorism" label from now until 2050. It's "soft on communism" all over again--which at least in part cost Democrats the presidency in 1952, 1956, 1972, 1980, 1984, and 1988--a string of defeats from the beginning of the Cold War right up until the collapse of the Soviet Union.

So like I say, I'm going to wait and see how this all develops.

The next few weeks should be very interesting.