MSNBC has military apologist to defuse "Data Mining" fears

[Armstead]

Col. Jack Jacobs, one of those retire military analysts was just on to discuss the new NYT story about widesprad data mining by the govt.

The real problem he says, is that the adfministration has not done a good enough job of convincing the nation we are at war.

It's tough, he says. If we really want to be effective in the WOT, those crappy laws that get in the way would have to be changed. Because of that quaint thing called "democracy" it would be very difficult to do what we really need to do to fight terrorism. Thus, our hands will be tied unless the American people wake up and decide that silly notions like civil liberties are mere anachronisms.

(I have exagerated the above paraphrase, but that's the jist of it.)

Col. Jacobs is entitled to his opinions. But it's a classic example of the news networks putting people like him on as "expert analysts" who are supposed to set us mere mortals straight.