Because I like beating dead horses:

What’s at stake? Over the years, Google has collected a staggering amount of data, and the company cheerfully admits that in nine years of operation, it has never knowingly erased a single search query. It’s the biggest data pack rat west of the nsa, and for good reason: 99 percent of its revenue comes from selling ads that are specifically targeted to a user’s interests. “Google’s entire value proposition is to figure out what people want,” says Eric Goldman, a professor at Silicon Valley’s Santa Clara School of Law and director of the High Tech Law Institute. “But to read our minds, they need to know a lot about us.” Read more…

Way, way back in February we said that the only way the numbers made sense was if Bush's illegal warrantless domestic surveillance was all about ratfucking.

Well, it is. Via Josh, this from McClatchy:

In a policy reversal, President Bush has agreed to sign legislation allowing a secret federal court to assess the constitutionality of his warrantless domestic eavesdropping program, a senior Republican senator announced Thursday.

By having the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court conduct the review instead of a regular federal court, the Bush administration would ensure the secrecy of details of the highly classified program. The administration has argued that making details of the program public would compromise national security.

McClatchy's (non-Beltway) continues in paragraph three:

However, such details could include politically explosive disclosures that the government has kept tabs on people it shouldn't have been monitoring.

Hmmm... Oddly, or not, AP's coverage doesn't mention any of this.) Does that sound like ratfucking to you? Read more…