TBGO: Dept of Gross Offenses

Woody admires Rep. Grayson. The man knows his schtick, and he's good at it. Gotta way with a quip. Gotta admire that. Zingers.

Moi? (In the LONGEST sentence you are likely to read today):

As "grossly" as I am offended by the Gummint acting as though it MUST sureveil me and all my fellow citizens to preserve our security, it offends me even MORE that the surveillance, analysis and dissemination of the information thereby gathered is being done by private "contractors" who owe not even a scintilla of nominal, perfunctory allegiance to the People they are allegedly "serving," but instead who are doing it as well-paid flunkies to enrich the former military Brass (not all of whom are USers) who retired with bloated pensions and set up these cash cows on the bases of their familiarity--even intimacy--with the nearly autonomous system itself and their former positions in it.

"Security clearances"? Apparently about a dime a dozen...

That fucking offends the living FUCK out of me.

But we've known about that for almost a fucking DECADE now.  Remember Mark Klein and Room 641A, in the AT&T building in San Francisco in 2005-o6?

So why only NOW is the outrage so furious? What's changed?

Some things HAVEN'T changed.

Grayson's fault izzat he STILL ignores the private MONEY slime trail all throughout the Gummint.

Yer not s[pozed to talk about that.

It's okay for gummint folks to talk about money in politics as long as it is restricted to influencing the franchise, and the electoral process. That's an acceptable part of the discourse.

BUT: It is STILL forbidden to openly discuss how much money (YOUR tax money) the State expends on the private projects it sponsors and the connections, relationships and dependencies it thereby fosters.

Booz-Allen (one of 2,000 private firms included in the official "US Intelligence Community") grossed around 6 BILLION dollars last year, 95% from Gummint surveillance contracts. Booz-Allen is owned in large part by the Carlyle Group. You may have heard that name, the Carlyle Group, before:  in association with the Bush family, which owns a biggish chunk of the action there. And they're just one among 2000?

Feelin' any safer? Yeah, me, too...