"Here's what now should be taken as an operating procedure in any discussion of the NSA..."

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109. You want to be right. I get it, but the link below...

About the series, explains when each of the articles came out (look in the lower right hand corner).

http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/articles/editors-note/

The last article in the series was about 3 years ago.

The runaway growth of the secret government is something that I'm aware of and I'm probably in agreement with what's seems to be the majority opinion around here: the president isn't doing enough.

That's a criticism that I see frequently, and can even agree with. However, I never made the claim that the NSA is shrinking - therefore there is no reason for me to provide proof. What I'm doing is calling bullshit on someone else's claim. That puts the burden of proof where it belongs - in the lap of the person making, what appears to me to be, a false claim.

You're right, I didn't read the entire article, I read enough of it to recognize that it was critical of the growth in the secret government since 9/11. I read enough of it to see when it was written - which was enough to point out that it did nothing to refute my original 'bullshit' call.

The government is like a giant ship that doesn't turn on a dime and the president has been faced with the worst economic meltdown since the Great Depression. I would not expect him to stop huge construction projects nor would I expect him to cut federal spending on projects that took years of planning without the ability to spend that money on something else.

When all of these secret government buildings are constructed, they can be repurposed. Are you suggesting the president just sign an executive order bringing construction to a halt on all buildings that are involved in the secret government?

I'd rather they just go ahead and finish the buildings - keep the people working. I would prefer the money be allocated to something else, but I think it would be a mistake to halt any kind of construction while the economy is trying to recover. You did notice that - didn't you? It was an article mostly about a lot of spending on construction projects.

How do you think the presidents approval would hold up if he cancelled a couple of $billion in building projects?