I have no idea if the NSA is 'data-mining' Google's search data-base.

Or if they've been given a back-door to Microsoft's OS' reporting.

Or how they're accessing any of the large number of other means of click-tracking.

But given that the Bush administration has illegally instructed the NSA to compromise telco's switch traffic data, we should assume the worst.

(geez you blink and... update: the Boston Globe reports that the NSA has been warrantlessly monitoring ALL Americans' international interactivity since 9/11)...

These sorts of tracking expeditions won't work -- too much noise, too many false positives, too few analysts (remember Total Information Awareness?).

This isn't a question of serving up an ad that's approximately relevant to someone's specific search query -- or serving up content that relates to the content you're reading on a web page. Deriving intent from second- or third-order use patterns when the action taken based on the derivation could be to throw someone into the Gulag.... shudder ....

Imagine this. You enter a keyword search terms that are 'flagged' by the NSA, then curiously click through to a site in Arabic which has also been 'tagged' as 'terrorist-related' by the NSA (you can't even read it, of course, but what do they know). Now you're a two-fer ... you've taken two actions which triggers the NSA's algorithm to classify you as a high risk individual.

Now you call your friend who happens to be in western Pakistan dealing with his outsourced fleece manufacturing agent there (his largest customer is Wal-Mart, btw, which is why he has to outsource to Pakistan).

Oh, and you travel internationally frequently on business.

And you happen to have a made a few tough anti-Rove/Abramoff/DeLay/Cheney blog posts from time to time.

Bingo -- fifth 'tag' for the NSA algorithm. You're now well beyond 'suspect' to 'target' in their system...

Now what? Everything the NSA has done is warrantless and therefore illegal, so none of this can be evidence in any traditional (or likely even military) court in the U.S. They can't use it to get a traditional warrant to investigate further. But the data mine has spit you out as a threat.....

Rendition and interrogation?

But that's expensive, and subject to tracking. Oh, and illegal.

So why not just go all the way to the final solution? Once the first illegal step has been taken, this is never going to be dealt with within the system anyhow....

Sounds ridiculous, right?

But would you have guessed when Bush was initially appointed that within two years he would have the NSA compromise our biggest telcos (ISPs??) global traffic data?

All of which is to demonstrate why we have a system of checks and balances; three equal branches of government; structured oversight; laws and a Constitution.

And why violations of these are so very un-American...

Second call on Salazar to have a conscience-filled Christmas; he needs to filibuster Scalito until the full extent of Bush' violation of the law and Constitution to spy on Americans has been revealed.

Particularly since that nominee has previously written to support illegal Presidential wiretapping...

...and lying about it repeatedly to the American public ....

an impeachable offense?

Just because we're a one-party country?

I've heard calm analysts argue that just because the GOP spent $75 million of your money chasing Clinton into a corner over Lewinsky as a basis for impeachment ... means that we should be even more careful about the next impeachment.

I'm fine with that.

But why isn't breaking the law repeatedly, consciously, and intentionally -- and lying to the public about it repeatedly, etc ... in order to spy on U.S. citizens without a warrant...

A high crime? And a misdemeanor?

Oh, and it's all made us much less safe...

Think Salazar will establish his All-Star claim to fame by filibustering Scalito until a special prosecutor is appointed to look into Bush' domestic spying program?

Here's wishing Ken a very conscience-filled Christmas.

... someone to watch over you...

Sigint profis agree;

...must...read...book...now...

Oh, and here's what conservatarians are saying about this:

So, stand up for your rights...

... when those five year-old notions of how the government could use embedded spyware to track Americans...

..turn out to be too true...

This fits with Rockefeller's hand-written letter, comparing Cheney's new adventures to the discredited and subsequently abandoned TIA data mining and surveillance project.

Those projects all have error rates which overwhelm any value. Even if they were legal.

This pattern power abuse is a sign not only of an imperial administration;

.... but also of an ignorant and incompetent executive, taking whatever he's told might work on faith in part because he never learned to think or lead critically...

Don't know about you, but I draw a very bright line -- Presidents do not willfully and repeatedly break the law, and America does not spy on its citizens.

Oh, and early returns suggest Bush' Iraq adventure is ushering in Iran's twin...