Where we're at

I'll be the first to admit that the ins and outs of spying on Americans is not my forte (not that much else I write about, other than living a middle class existence, really is) but with the amount of Liberal anguish this week over the NSA spying and PRISM revelations, I have a few observations.  Note that in no way am I defending what was done--just pointing out a few things that seemed kind of odd:

• There sure was a lot of  "Can you believe they did this?" that really should have been, "See? I told you so!"  Once the Patriot Act passed, and with each subsequent reauthorization, this kind of spying on Americans was not a matter of if, but of when.
• A lot of people sounded as goofy as Tea Party paranoids in going on about how much we should be worried about the government spying on us.  There's some serious ego out there--I mean, my guess is about 99% of Americans have absolutely nothing going on in their lives that the government gives two shits about.  I mean about 90% of internet content makes NCIS look like fucking Shakespeare, and judging from the inanity I've heard in people carrying on cellphone conversations as if the rest of humanity doesn't exist, the government would need enough No-Doz to fill Lake Superior just to stay awake.  Doesn't make the spying on the 1% who may have something going on in their lives that the government cares about right, just means a lot of people really lack perspective.
• The funniest one I read was this one (which even goofier, Digby actually bought into) by one James Fallows, who because he's watched 24 (among others), presumes to tell us that the rationale behind the spying, ferreting out terrorists, actually is false, because terrorists are such criminal masterminds that they won't fall into the government's trap.  Like the Shoe Bomber setting fire to his heel, the Underwear Bomber setting fire to his dong, and the Boston Marathon bombers who managed to get caught in all of three days.  This is not even mentioning that for all their planning, the 9/11 terrorists missed half their targets.  La Cosa Nostra  they ain't.  Can't even begin--even with his disclaimer--to understand the whole TV show rigamarole.  Man, I watched 24 religiously from its first episode to its last, but I never once believed it bore any more resemblance to reality than your average episode of The fucking Flintstones.
• The piece that scared me the most was this one on Think Progress (which after this The Nation piece on corporate sponsorship of their think tank, the Center for American Progress, may not be so surprising) in which corporate spying was basically played down and government spying was treated as if it were the Bubonic Plague.  Swear to God, it could have been written by Louis Gohmert.  I fear corporate spying exponentially more than than the government--American corporations are only interested in my overpaying for their services, and paying me as little as they can for mine.  At least the government gives a fuck if I live or die--it might be tremendously inept, but it does have my best interests at heart.
• I think sometimes we forget the responsibility that rests on the shoulders of the President.  I have three kids, and if I knew someone wanted to harm them, I'd do whatever it takes to keep them safe--and sleep like a fucking baby at night.  President Obama is responsible for the safety of over 300 million Americans.  I'm not saying that this makes any of this week's revelations about spying on Americans right, just that I can understand his wanting to leave no stone unturned.

In the end, I think what bothers me the most about all of this is that last week the Internation Human Rights Clinic of NYU Law School released a study that showed that 50 million Americans, 17 million of them children, did not have adequate food, and it didn't receive a tenth of the blog space, article space, or TV time as did the spying on Americans.  We're talking an essential necessity of living--eating.

I don't know if we Liberals have become numb to it, feel helpless in the face of it, or are just too interested in showing how intelligent we are, but frankly, it bothers me a whole hell of a lot more knowing that one in six Americans is going hungry than it does that the NSA knows we went to Taco Bell last night and then came home and watched reruns of The Big Bang Theory on TNT.

Peace,
emaycee