THANKS, EDWARD SNOWDEN!!!

The world learned recently that our National Security Agency (NSA) has been eavesdropping on your and my medical records, our bank accounts, and all sorts of mundane credit card and e-mails.

NSA had previously denied this…but the evidence from leaked NSA records, made public by Edward Snowden, and published in several papers seems pretty conclusive…that and the lack of denials by NSA or any responsible government official.

Are you a terrorist? I thought not. Nor am I. Nor are 250 million other Americans. So why would NSA spend billions (with a B) to check into our accounts? Because some mid-level NSA employee convinced higher-ups that some terrorist in Yemen, or Wurziristan had a medical condition and a cash flow problem  that would help us track him…so to find that one SOB NSA set out to crack ALL the world’s medical and banking records..all.

That’s the way the “intelligence community” thinks.  Never mind your right to privacy; never mind our civil rights, never mind the rule of law, never mind it would take (and did apparently)  billions and billions of dollars to accomplish this..what’s mere money when we might…might…find a nascent Osama bin Laden out there.

Nothing apparently, and “so let it be done.”

The NSA is supposed, under our law, to report major activities like these to various committees of the Congress. To judge from the reaction, either it didn’t, or the committees didn’t think through this idiotic scheme and rein NSA in..which is what “oversight” means. Once again those elected officials who were supposed to work on our behalf failed.

And the NSA’s activities mean that no encryption system is safe..which puts every medical and banking activity at risk..all paid for with our money.

Think about what those billions could have paid for. Have you a road project in mind? A school needing aid? A water system that needs upgrading?

Snowden may well have broken the law, that’s yet to be determined. But there can be no doubt that his latest revelations have done a great public service...and put us all on notice that Big Brother’s name is the U.S. government.

I'm just sayin'...