Well this just blew me away:
WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security will proceed with the first phase of a controversial satellite-surveillance program, even though an independent review found the department hasn’t yet ensured the program will comply with privacy laws.
Congress provided partial funding for the program in a little-debated $634 billion spending measure that will fund the government until early March. For the past year, the Bush administration had been fighting Democratic lawmakers over the spy program, known as the National Applications Office.
The program is designed to provide federal, state and local officials with extensive access to spy-satellite imagery — but no eavesdropping — to assist with emergency response and other domestic-security needs, such as identifying where ports or border areas are vulnerable to terrorism.
Since the department proposed the program a year ago, several Democratic lawmakers have said that turning the spy lens on America could violate Americans’ privacy and civil liberties unless adequate safeguards were required.
A new 60-page Government Accountability Office report said the department “lacks assurance that NAO operations will comply with applicable laws and privacy and civil liberties standards,” according to a person familiar with the document. The report, which is unclassified but considered sensitive, hasn’t been publicly released, but was described and quoted by several people who have read it.
The report cites gaps in privacy safeguards. The department, it found, lacks controls to prevent improper use of domestic-intelligence data by other agencies and provided insufficient assurance that requests for classified information will be fully reviewed to ensure it can be legally provided.
So let me get this straight, American public/mainstream media: $634 billion spent on a satellite-based spying program that arguably compromises the civil liberties of up to and including everybody in this country = barely a blip on the radar. $700 billion spent to keep the economy alive and keep the country from turning into a flaming wreck on the side of the road is OH MY GOD WE’RE ALL FUCKED? Oh and by the way the $700 billion will mostly be seen again as the economy improves and the investments pay themselves off, whereas the $634 billion is just going to remain a huge hunk of metal in the sky that invades our privacy until it crashes and burns in the atmosphere on re-entry.
Billions for defense contractors = good. Billions to stave off depression = bad. Jesus christ.
. All I’ve ever seen in my adult life is the bitter divisions in our country, exploited on both sides but by far more explicitly by the right. I didn’t think we’d heal THIS quickly. I didn’t think that the Limbaughs and Hannitys would fade so quickly to the margins, but they have. They are a non-issue now. I’m really proud of this country. I hope that feeling will continue throughout the next four years.
