- because administrations aren't forever.

- because laws aren't universal.

- because the most perfect digital surveillance serves the most imperfect analog humans.

- because what you're doing here and now should never become a weapon against you there and then.

IT'S THIS FUCKING SIMPLE

There was a time when purchasing alcohol was illegal. Drinking it wasn't; unless you were black, of course. Back then we had The Black Chamber and it sure wasn't an NSA but if we had the NSA back then, you can be damn skippy it would have been used against blacks, the same way the DEA is using NSA wiretaps.

So let's suppose my friend Ekaterina, who is a naturopathic doctor in Washington State, knuckled under to demands of her boss to prescribe marijuana in 2010. It's legal now in Washington - no prescription necessary. But do you think the DEA was using NSA wiretaps to monitor people prescribing marijuana in Washington just in case that shit became handy at some point in the future? You're naive if you think otherwise.

Now let's suppose the US and Russia get into a pissing match over, say, anything. Oksana's mother, who lives with her, heads back to St. Petersburg to see family. Only now when she comes home, she's stopped at the gate because according to the DEA, her mother is a known drug trafficker. The TSA strip searches Oksana's mom, all 70 years old of her, then bounces her back to Russia. Oksana is doing what her boss says and isn't in any violation of state law - but the grist mill between state and federal statutes just chewed up her family.

Now let's say my buddy Assam, who is a Ph.D candidate at Georgetown in Islamic History, answers a question of mine about beheading via email. He doesn't endorse it, but he does say "The Koran is unequivocal about the punishment of infidels, as indicated by Surat 47.4." Thanks to Semantic Forest, the words "beheading" "punishment" "infidels" and "Koran" rocket up in A-space to the counterterrorism branch of the CIA, who run Assam's records and discover he's a Moroccan national. Yeah, he's lived in the US for 15 years but doesn't that just make him worse? So now he's investigated by the FBI. Maybe they even set him up for a sting because the FBI really does suck this hard at this. In the meantime, they discover his wife is an Iranian and they're already on the terror watch list. So they sweep her up. They'd leave her two kids with her parents but OH SHIT THEY'RE IRANIANS TOO and despite the fact that they've been practicing medicine in Stockton CA for 30 years, they get vanned, too.

All because I asked HIM a question over email.

* * *

Couldn't happen here, right? Couldn't happen now? Wait for the wind to shift. I had a Pakistani friend who had to stop running at lunch in 2003 because the longshoremen would line up to spit on him as he went by. Why? "He looked Iraqi."

Privacy is tantamount because no matter how warm'n'fuzzy you feel about the Obama administration, its needs are served by committed, hard-core Republican Conservative twats who have been stepping on civil liberties their entire careers. Worse, you're either dealing with the lifers who are too stupid or lackluster to bounce out to SAIC, KBR or any of the other Alphabet Soups that do the heavy lifting, or you're dealing with the Alphabet Soup full of talented, shiftless kids looking for a reason to do something else.

Edward Snowden bounced because he thought the violation of civil liberties was too much. he went to the Guardian. Christopher Boyce bounced because he didn't like the idea of us influencing elections in Australia to end up with a CIA-friendly government. He went to the Soviets by way of a drug-dealer childhood friend who wandered down with him to Mexico City.

This shit is too important to trust to the judgement of bureaucrats. If a vacuuming of data can destroy my life, that vacuuming of data will be performed in accordance with the laws of the United States, including the Fourth Fucking Amendment.

"If you've done nothing wrong, you've nothing to worry about." Tell that to the Protestants under Bloody Mary. Or the Catholics under Henry VIII. Or the blacks under Hoover, or my buddy Assam and his wife, who already can't fly anywhere, under this lovely, progressive, Democratic administration run by a scholarly black man.

You should care because if you're on the ins this time, you'll be on the outs next time. Honesty has fuckall to do with it.