Why ex-KGB Officer Vladimir Putin Is Laughing

Of course, you recall how last week Champion of Democracy and Peace Dick "I Shot the Motherfucker in the Face" Cheney lectured the Russians about using threats against their neighbors in what may have been the gold standard of irony. Well, it just gets better and better.

You see, back during the Cold War, old Olaf was, well, a cold warrior involved in intelligence gathering. There was a joke in fashion about the level of surveillance on the eastern side of the Berlin wall that went like this: What's the Soviet recipe for concrete? One-third sand, one-third cement, and one-third microphones. Post-Cold-War documents released by former Stasi (state security apparatus) in East Germany and other former communist-rule states revealed just how extensive the network of bugs and informers was, and it met even the most paranoid standard for intrusive government snooping.

Now we get this in today's USA Today:

The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA TODAY.

The NSA program reaches into homes and businesses across the nation by amassing information about the calls of ordinary Americans — most of whom aren't suspected of any crime. This program does not involve the NSA listening to or recording conversations. But the spy agency is using the data to analyze calling patterns in an effort to detect terrorist activity, sources said in separate interviews.

I guess we've in essence adopted the Soviet recipe.

Let's not forget, by the way, that when the fact of NSA spying on citizens came out a while ago, King Chimpie said it only occurred when one end of the calls was overseasm, which--surprise! surprise!--turns out to be another bald-faced lie.

Keep in mind that Clinton (and I was no fan of his, either) was impeached for his lie about receiving a little oral gratification from the zaftig Ms. Lewinsky. So how are the Senate and Congressional investigations going into the many, many lies and failures of this administration? Answer: there aren't any. Not only that, not one single liar or incompetent has been fired for the Iraq disaster.

Let me refer you to an opinion far more strident than my own about what should be done at this point. A sample:

George W. Bush lied when he said NSA's spying wasn't a domestic program. It is exactly a domestic spy program and what's more AT&T, BellSouth, and Verizon have been assisting the Bush government in creating what is being described as, "[T]he largest database ever assembled in the world," and the goal is "to create a database of every call ever made" within America's borders.

This is by definition, TYRANNY. Therefore, the Congress of the United States of America -- especially Republicans within the Legislative Branch -- has but one choice: Impeach George Walker Bush IMMEDIATELY.

In a nice homage to the Declaration of Independence, the author of this peace, A. Alexander, shows us what our RESPONSIBILITIES are as citizens...if we truly care about asserting our rights, that is. Otherwise, we can be like the poor folks I witnessed in East Berlin in the 1970s--angry, fearful, impotent, and utterly subservient to their paranoia.

The choice is clear. The time is now. What more will it take? Or will the USA fill up the vacuum of tyranny left by the collapse of the Soviet Union? Putin must be really cracking up--the fall of Communism brings on the fall of the US.

I guess it's pretty funny if you're a Russian.