They're recording all my calls. I know it's true.

[MineralMan]

They're even calling me to record calls. Recently, I keep getting calls where the phone rings. I pick it up and say "Hello." There's total silence, and then there's a click and dead air on the phone. I just know it's the spooks setting up my phone for tapping, you know. What else could it possibly be?

It's different from those calls where you answer and there's this long delay, then a click and a woman's voice saying, "This is your second and final call to lower your credit card rates." I know the difference. I do.

The spooks are everywhere. They want to hear me call the local Chinese restaurant to order my pork lo mein and General Tso's Chicken. The woman who answers the phone doesn't even speak English very well. I think the restaurant has outsourced its order taking to China.

Beware of your telephone, folks. It's a nefarious intelligence collection device. Here's what to do:

If you get one of those calls where there's nobody on the line, it's not a robo call that doesn't get picked up. No, it's a super secret phone tapping thingie that will make your phone a microphone so they can record your conversation about which bills to pay this week. I know it must be true. I advise calling 911 immediately and reporting this intrusion on your privacy.

[louis-t]

1. If they actually did this, there would be 0

unemployment.

[MineralMan]

2. Well, that would be a good thing, right?

I want a $120,000/year job listening to people's phone calls. Yeah, that's the ticket.

[bunnies]

3. Me too!

beats listening to my downstairs neighbors fight all the time.

[MineralMan]

4. Well, it sure beats the 10 cents I get paid

per DU post.

[bunnies]

5. Ten Cents?!

Damn. Im asking for a raise.

[MineralMan]

6. Well, I get paid more, because I write really long posts.

I type fast. Some skills really pay off, you know.

Note: Six months from now, someone will link to these posts to "prove" that I'm a paid poster. They'll leave off the

[bunnies]

10. Youve got a point there.

& Im still working on memorizing all the talking points so... Heh. Your little laughing smilies aren't fooling anyone. They're watching you. Ive said enough.

[think]

7. They'd never snoop into anyone's email either. Especially a US presidents now would they?

Bold added for emphasis:

NSA Secret Database Ensnared President Clinton’s Private E-mail
By Kim Zetter
06.17.09 3:17 PM

A secret NSA surveillance database containing millions of intercepted foreign and domestic e-mails includes the personal correspondence of former President Bill Clinton, according to the New York Times.

An NSA intelligence analyst was apparently investigated after accessing Clinton’s personal correspondence in the database, the paper reports, though it didn’t say how many of Clinton’s e-mails were captured or when the interception occurred.

~Snip~

The NSA has claimed that the over-collection was inadvertent and corrected it each time the problem was discovered. But Rep. Rush Holt (D-New Jersey), chairman of the House Select Intelligence Oversight Panel, disputed this. “Some actions are so flagrant that they can’t be accidental,” he told the Times.

Holt and other congressional reps have been holding closed-door meetings on the issue. Holt’s office said there are no current plans to hold a hearing on the matter, but the investigation is on-going.

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/06/pinwale/

"Whoops! How'd Bill's email get in our terra net? Oh that's right he's one of them pervs that had sexual relations. Better keep them emails in the system for awhile. Because if that ain't terra ism I don't know what is...."

[MineralMan]

8. Oh, they're watching my email, too. There's no doubt about it.

I keep getting messages from the email daemon, telling me my email couldn't be delivered. It's been intercepted by Matt Daemon, see. He secretly works for the NSA, where he is paid millions to steal my email.

That's 100% true, by the way!

[tridim]

16. Matt Daemon...

[tkmorris]

9. The things you mock say a lot about you.

It would be just as easy to satirize those who have no objection to the NSA's activities. Also, just as pointless.

There are legitimate points of view held by people on all sides of this issue. An open, honest, and objective discussion would be helpful here. It's a damned shame you aren't interested in having one.

[MineralMan]

12. If you look, you'll find several serious OPs on this issue

by me. You'll also find some humorous ones. The question is whether you can tell them apart, really.

[tkmorris]

18. Sorry, not biting

If you want to have a serious discussion with someone, you don't make fun of them. It kind of gets in the way.

I have no doubt you have made several dozen posts on this topic that you believe are serious. I also have no doubt that those posts did no more to encourage a healthy exchange of ideas than this one has. Lecturing people in a serious tone is not terribly helpful after all.

Do carry on though.

[MineralMan]

23. Thanks for your permission.

I was hoping to get that.

[npk]

11. We get it MineralMan. You think anybody the least bit concerned about what the NSA...

is doing, what they are collecting, and how they are collecting it, is a rube or worse a naive conspiracy loons.

Of course the government is all too happy when people turn a potential source of oppression or tyranny into a joke. Just like the President we can all laugh this off. Make a joke about collecting phone calls and then tell us with a straight face that you care about freedom. That was such a lie when the first President told us, it really is naive to believe it when this President says it.

What's funny to me, but apparently very few others, is that the same people who were praising what Bradley Manning did, and were up in arms to learn that the government may have concealed and down right fabricated evidence in a deadly military operation in Iraq, are the same ones that have no problem with any potential abuse in the NSA Prism program and want to laugh it off like it's no big deal. Of course that was Bush, and this is Obama.

[MineralMan]

13. No, you don't get it at all. Truly you don't.

If you had read any of my serious posts on this issue, you'd know that I am, indeed concerned about all of this. I'm also concerned that many people have no real idea what is and is not being done, nor what the basis for it is, nor the history of it.

Do I post satirical posts? I do. Do you understand the reason for the satire? I doubt it.

[npk]

22. My apologies then MineralMan. n/t

[marions ghost]

19. +1

That's the impression I get.

MineralMan, I agree with npk Joking insults people who take it as a serious matter.

Ha









Ha

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

14. Oh, it's OK. They only want to know who you talk to, how often, how long.

Then if you're talking to the "wrong" people they'll have a nice chat with you.

[MineralMan]

15. Really. Who do you know that they have chatted with

in that regard? I certainly know of nobody.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

17. Which then begs the point of why it's being done at all.

[MineralMan]

20. You know, I can explain that, and I will:

They get those phone logs and keep them. When something turns up regarding terrorism or something else that falls under their purview and reveals a phone number that has been used to communicate, they check that phone number against those logs and make a list of all connections to that phone number, especially foreign connections.

Then, they go back to the FISA court and get a warrant or order that lets them investigate further and monitor those foreign phone numbers that connected to that phone that was used to communicate among the people involved. After they get the warrant, they may tap those phone numbers to see if any of the communications have to do with future plans to commit acts of terrorism. If they do, then they try to keep those plans from happening and deal with those making the plans.

And that's how it works. That's all been explained publicly. It makes a lot of sense, doesn't it. If they didn't have the old logs, they wouldn't be able to check and see who called that phone number they discovered. That's what meta-data is good for.

[cali]

21. ooh, why not post some more silly shit?

when is your next brilliant op?

[rug]

24. Swithch from Magic Jack then.