Taking a vacuum cleaner to our rights

You know what? The ACLU can speak for me. This dead-on quote comes from today's Washington Post article where John Negroponte gets caught denying the domestic spying just days before the new "biggest database ever" NSA story hit the streets.

Caroline Fredrickson, Washington legislative director for the American Civil Liberties Union, said the administration has purposely misled Congress and the public about the scope and character of the NSA's domestic intelligence activities. She pointed to comments in January by Air Force Gen. Michael V. Hayden, Bush's nominee for CIA director, who said the NSA program "is not a driftnet" over U.S. communities.

"Clearly they actually were using a net; a vacuum cleaner might be a better way to put it," Fredrickson said yesterday. "I think it is misleading what they've said, even if you might not characterize it as lying in every instance. There are far too many times where they basically play it way too cute . . . and it just makes you wonder what else is out there."

They are playing it cute. They are laughing at our naivety. They are patting themselves on the back for their cleverness in circumventing the law. These guys are playing a game with our liberties and they are having a ball doing it.

Question more.