"According to several former U.S. government officials with extensive knowledge of intelligence operations, Main Core in its current incarnation apparently contains a vast amount of personal data on Americans, including NSA intercepts of bank and credit card transactions and the results of surveillance efforts by the FBI, the CIA and other agencies. One former intelligence official described Main Core as "an emergency internal security database system" designed for use by the military in the event of a national catastrophe, a suspension of the Constitution or the imposition of martial law. Its name, he says, is derived from the fact that it contains "copies of the 'main core' or essence of each item of intelligence information on Americans produced by the FBI and the other agencies of the U.S. intelligence community." "

I mean, sure, the horse race is totally fascinating, but so are bi-partisan programs like "Main Core."
[ ] Very tepidly voting for Obama [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.

is fertile ground for real investigative journalism and social science research... and for PB2.0 as well. I think this is a central (as in disturbing) aspect of contemporary societies.

And let's not forget that this is a prolific public/private partnership from which there is basically no escape.

Turns out Big Brother is REALLY watching us.

From the article:

Through a former senior Justice Department official with more than 25 years of government experience, Salon has learned of a high-level former national security official who reportedly has firsthand knowledge of the U.S. government's use of Main Core. The official worked as a senior intelligence analyst for a large domestic law enforcement agency inside the Bush White House. He would not agree to an interview. But according to the former Justice Department official, the former intelligence analyst told her that while stationed at the White House after the 9/11 attacks, one day he accidentally walked into a restricted room and came across a computer system that was logged on to what he recognized to be the Main Core database. When she mentioned the specific name of the top-secret system during their conversation, she recalled, "he turned white as a sheet."

With a breadcrumb trail like that, I'd say the official is willing to testify....

[ ] Very tepidly voting for Obama [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.

which we discussed recently here* is the subject of this NYT article, Griping Online? Comcast Hears You and Talks Back, today. Here's the apparently obligatory anecdotal opening:

Brandon Dilbeck, 20, a student at the University of Washington, was complaining recently on his blog, Brandon Notices, about Comcast’s practice of posting ads in its on-screen programming guide.
He assumed he was writing for his own benefit. “It feels like nobody ever really reads my blog,” he said. “Nobody has left a comment in months.”

Shortly afterward, he received an e-mail message from Comcast, thanking him for the feedback and adding that it was working on a new interactive guide that might “illuminate the issues that you are currently experiencing.”

Mr. Dilbeck found it all a bit creepy. “The rest of his e-mail may as well have read, ‘Big Brother is watching you,’ ” he said.

Trying to engage college students in critical thought about things like Main Core, I've encountered a deep indifference in most of them (unlike Brandon) that frightens me. Not all, but most seem simultaneously blithe and hopeless/helpless. Pleased about the conveniences and apathetic about the loss of privacy. (Ok, ok, I know that it's rather silly to blog about something and expect your post to be "private". But the "creepy" effect comes, to my mind, from knowing that your writings, intended for a small audience of human beings, were hoovered up by an automated search agent created at the will of a gigantic corporation.)

* I was going to put this in a comment where we were just talking about surveillance, but I couldn't remember the original post, and couldn't figure out how to find it other than to try Frenchdoc's blog, fruitlessly. How do you work this correntewire thingie, again?

Or you could ask someone.

We should probably try to link to our old posts more and to each other. See Vast Left for someone who does a great job with that. Also, the trusty Lambert.

Big Brother IS my friend already. Don't you ever get called about your credit card use?

eek!

designed for use by the military in the event of a national catastrophe, a suspension of the Constitution or the imposition of martial law

Concentration moon
Over the camp in the valley
Concentration moon
Wish I was back in the alley
With all of my friends still running free
Hair growing out every hole in me....

--Frank Zappa

Sorry to distract, but I've seen "The Village" mentioned on here, quite a bit, but don't know the what it means as this blog uses it. Can someone fill me in? Is it a name for the MSM?

I am curious what you make of things like Comey and Ashcroft, of all people, resisting Gonzalez on this. I realize that we don't have enough details to know just how agregious their use of this was.