On March 10, 2008 the Wall Street Journal had a long piece here.  detailing the growth of the National Security Agency's capacity to sweep up electronic data on people in the USA without a warrant in.order to search for suspicious patterns.  About five years ago Congress shut down the FBI's Carnivore "black program" for intelligence-gathering.  But the data-sifting operation didn't vanish.  The National Security Agency, which once could do only foreign surveillance, built the system instead.

I couldn't help myself, folks - enjoy!

Madman Martin Wilcox Wu
Professed alternative points of view.
"He must be mad," the leader said.
(He knows that he could wake up dead.)

But Martin told his friends about
All his fears, and all his doubt.
The leader's words came swift but few:
Call him madman; that's what we'll do.

I guess we have something in common: This is my first diary too. I'd like to say I wish your first posting hadn't drawn a reaction with such intense disapproval. You know, we Kossacks are one of the world's toughest audiences. We want - and generally expect - diaries with lots of substance, on issues that mean a lot to us.You talked about being 19 and wanting to connect with someone about 20 years of age. That's a downright important issue for one of your age. Unfortunately, your private life is just not that big a thing to most of us. (I myself just celebrated my 60th birthday, so that age was a long way back for me!) I just saw a 16 year-old have her first posting received here with a great deal of enthusiasm and praise. But she addressed issues the Kos community commonly holds quite important, and she showed deep understanding in her very perceptive reflections.