Big Brother Only Wants What's Best for You

My brother was in town for the day, so I spent much more of my time out and about and much less sitting in front of my blog and mulling over what to post. But I will share a point made by ReddHedd at firedoglake earlier this week. In all the fuss over the Prez's surveillance outside of the FISA court, it would be easy to assume that the spying might target other people but not ourselves. At this point, at least as far as the administration is admitting, the surveillance only covers calls coming into or out of the country. Most Americans don't make or receive international calls. Or do they? It's no secret that businesses have been outsourcing their call centers to India or other countries. Has your credit card company given you any "courtesy calls" lately? Have you talked with your cell phone provider recently? If you've needed any technical assistance for your computer or other electronics, without realizing or even intending it, you may well have called overseas. And if you have, the government is paying attention. In the comments to that firedoglake post, a reader pointed out that Blackberry routes its communications through Canada. Does that mean if you have a Blackberry, any e-mail you've sent or received on it--even if it's just to your home or office computer--is international? Does it fall under the spying program? As that program is currently (and vaguely) defined, yes it does. The non-FISA surveillance may be closer to each of this than we've realized.