Big Brother is Listening...

--- THIS BLOG HAS BEEN ABANDONED. OUR NEW HOME IS: THE WEASEL SOAP BOX ---

'Big Brother' is a concept that was introduced in George Orwell's novel, 1984, that embodied the concept of a police state, in which no activity would go unnoticed because the state, or, big brother was always watching.

The concept has been applied recently to a number of activities that have been conducted by the current American Administration, under the watch of President Bush, who has admitted to "wiretapping", essentially violating the inalienable privacy rights of all American citizens.

Under the guise of protecting America in the post-9/11 era, in which the norm is to instil a culture of paranoia through the careful release of bin Laden tapes, and terror level warnings, with the liberal assistance of the misnamed and controversial 'Patriot Act', the administration has come to embrace the role of 'big brother'.

Many previously cherished rights have been eroded, or modified to suit the needs of an anti-libertarian administration that feels no moral remorse for its un-American-like actions.

Want to borrow a book from the local library? You can bet on the FBI or CIA knowing about it, since they could find out about this under the Patriot Act.

Want to get married? Better ensure that you conform to the level of impeccable moral standards of the religious right and ensure that your sexuality is nothing but pure and reflective of the Bible. If you're homosexual, you have no right to get married because in the eyes of God, you're a bloody sinner and there is only one place for you; a seat reserved for you and your fuck buddy in Cocytus, the ninth level of hell.

Believe in progressive environmental alternatives? Forget it, it's un-American and by not driving an SUV, you're supporting the terrorists. Buy homemade, not foreign! (well, this wasn't a right; just a bit of an attitude issue)...

It's not ok to insult Mr President, unless you're a Republican and now it's trendy because the newest election term is upcoming and the president's approval ratings are lower than Paris Hilton's neckline...

Oh, phooey, it seems we've gone off on a tangent, when we've been meaning to write about the latest trend of spying on Americans by listening to their phone conversations.

Yes, indeed Big Brother is listening. You may better know him as the CIA.

US spy agency 'monitoring calls'

The country's three biggest phone companies have been handing over call records to the National Security Agency (NSA) since 2001, [USA Today] says.

And these companies would be: AT&T, Verizon and Bell South.

And like pious corporations, they've vehemently declared that they've never engaged in such controversial activities.

Right. Whatever. You. Say.

"Our intelligence activities strictly target al-Qaeda and their known affiliates," [President Bush] said in a brief White House statement after the newspaper report appeared.

"The privacy of ordinary Americans is fiercely protected," he said, adding: "We are not mining or trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans."

Have we so quickly forgotten about the American Taliban? The all-American white boy, who converted to Islam and had joined up with the renegade rank and file of the al-Qaeda network. Obviously... after all, anyone can be a terrorist and you don't have to be Middle Eastern or Arab. The only prerequisite: being a lunatic.

Further, if they were so concerned, they'd be more privacy orientated, and the Patriot Act wouldn't exist, not even in a mild form.

US senators reacted quickly to the allegation, saying they would order the phone companies to testify about it.

Senator Patrick Leahy, the senior Democrat on the Senate judiciary committee, reacted with anger to the report, brandishing the newspaper in committee meeting.

"We need to know what our government is doing to spy upon Americans," he said.

But Republican senators suggested Mr Leahy was over-reacting.

They pointed out that the story did not allege wiretapping, only the creation of a database in order to analyse calling patterns.
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The communications act of 1934 bars companies from releasing information about callers...

Here we go again; déja vu all over.

Democrats jump onto the bandwagon and say one thing, while the Republicans sink themselves on a ship to nowhere.

And are you honestly going to trust a government that has previously admitted to such endeavours?

The patriotic thing to do is to be sceptical and question the government. The government is there to serve the people and to help establish social order in order to create and maintain a republic wherein the people have the greatest voice, and not a obstreperous minority that seeks to override the rights of many simply because they are in contradiction with the minority's moral values.

An interesting comment from a previous blog entry seems to have some relevance to this enty. It seems that he wrote this without realising what today's rant was on...

"When the government and military can be thwarted by a single man - A HOBBYIST - on the other side of the planet, how can they fool anyone into thinking that their fascist republic keeps them safe with wiretaps and spies? The people really do have the power." ~ Brian Damage, Demodulated