corrente

But silly me! I was just wrong:

The National Security Agency, which eavesdrops on electronic communications around the world, receives thousands of requests each year from U.S. government officials seeking the names of Americans who show up in intercepted calls or e-mails — and complies in the vast majority of cases without challenging the basis for the requests, current and former intelligence officials said.
(via AP)

Look, let's be reasonable here.

I'm 100% certain that there are no, repeat no, "overzealous volunteers" in the Partei apparatus cross-checking voting rolls, MeetUp listings, list traffic, and the blogosphere and cross-correlating those names to emails and telephone conversations. Or cross-correlating those results to airline reservations. Let alone those new RFID chips on passports.

I mean, that would imply that the Republicans had completely politicized the national intelligence apparatus, and in a democracy that just can't happen.

And besides, as John Bolton, who commmissioned a few of these intercepts himself, remarked: "It's important to find out who is saying what to whom."

And there are safeguards! Let's listen to the NSA, since they're the experts:

An official familiar with the NSA's role defended its procedures, saying the agency is committed to protecting Americans' privacy and that it does not reveal names unless doing so is necessary "to understand the foreign intelligence information [contained in an intercept] or to assess its significance."

There. See? All they want to do is assess the significance, and these guys are the none other than the master assessors, the wizards, the No Shit Sherlocks of The Assessment Universe.

So what's the big deal, here? Those who have nothing to hide have nothing to fear!

And please refer all comments using the phrase "tinfoil hat" to The Department of No! They Would Never Do That!

And plus, we all speak and write in English, so its easier for them.