Overheard Overhead

Consider the possibilities. If we were using spy satellites that can see inside buildings, as the administration proposes, we could already know what happened between Senator Craig and that undercover policeman in the airport restroom.

Putting aside the question of whether we really want to  see that, we might ask should we. Put a better way, do we want our government to be able to spy on its own countrymen and -women, with ultra-sensitive satellites overhead cameras watching our every move? 

That capability is what we’re talking about. The national security people will tell us they have no intention of intruding on our privacy unless we are dangerous terrorists, in effect saying “Trust us.”

Well, if you trust these people you’re a damned fool. These are the same guys who abuse the so-called National Security Letters. You’ll recall that NSLs demand private records of our telephone calls and Internet use and don’t even allow the telecommunications people to tell anyone they received one.

Just yesterday, a federal judge restricted their use, finally. He called them a First Amendment violation (duuuhhhh),  “the legislative equivalent of breaking and entering … the hijacking of constitutional values.”

There he’s referring to the fact that the bozos in the House of Representatives and Senate actually passed so-called Patriot Acts that allowed these police-state impositions.

Well, even Congress seems to be catching on this time. House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) has sent his own letter asking for a delay. Before we start shooting high-resolution photos of our own citizens, he’s asking, shouldn’t we know if it’s legal?

Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) points out that this is the very same gang that conducted electronic domestic surveillance for years, and found it too bothersome to seek the warrants that are a cherished protection in the United States against illegal searches.

“Since we’ve been rolled,” she said, “I don’t intend to get rolled again.”

Well, Democrats talk a good game, but as we are witnessing with the Iraq war, they get rolled all the time.

So let’s get used to it, folks. The satellites will be looking into our homes. Hopefully they can see better inside buildings and bunkers in the U.S. than they do in, say, Pakistan. Osama Bin Laden has been able to avoid their detection. Come to think of it, maybe there’s nothing to worry about.

And perhaps it’s not such a bad thing. As they check inside our four walls, maybe they could do termite inspections. Would someone please call Tom DeLay?