Please help. I'm too shocked to think.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

Who approved/approves the monstrously huge amount of money that evidently went into this Bushite NSA program listening to every household in America?

Was it Congress? If so, WHO in Congress approved this? How much MONEY went into this? How were the records obtained from Verizon, etc.? Subpoena? What?

Please someone explain. I'm beyond shocked.

[Rainscents]

1. Have you seen your telephone bill?

FCC is charging us extra $1.50 per month since 2001!

We are fucking paying for them to spy on us!!! Can you believe this shit???

[Sarah Ibarruri]

3. OH MY GOD. You're kidding me. WE are paying to be wiretapped??

This is so sick. Who in Congress approved this?

[Rainscents]

6. I have no idea who the fuck approved this...

these people are one sick people!!!

[Hubert Flottz]

20. Colon Bowel's kid!

Was running the FCC until his daddy crossed Bush!

[MadMaddie]

2. No oversight.....over anything leads to frivilous spending ......

I call it theft....

[savemefromdumbya]

4. Only Bush approved it

Bush is God, God is Bush

[mrcheerful]

5. Congress only approves of the money NSA gets, what they do with that money

is left up to those in charge of NSA and congress is not a part of those decision.

[midnight]

7. signing away in secret for whatever he wants.

Isn't this what the patriot act allowed. So who ever supported the patriot act allowed this nonsense to happen.

[rucky]

14. YES! n/t

[TheWraith]

8. Answers

As for the money, it probably came out of the general NSA funding. They don't usually need to account to Congress for everything they spend, or even most of it.

They obtained the records by asking for them, no subpoena needed. They just asked and Verizon, BellSouth, and AT&T turned them over. When Quest actually asked for them to get a subpoena if this was legal, the NSA refused.

[Ladyhawk]

10. So, do we send fuck-you letters to our phone companies? n/t

[me b zola]

18. No, you join a class-action law suit.

Well, I guess you could ALSO send a big F-you letter to your phone company.

[jarnocan]

9. funding?

Homeland security funding I guess- heck they used it to pay for the limos to Hooker-gate, our security is worth any cost (as long as it is profitable for the RIGHT folks)
Choicepoint's stock doing well?

[Sarah Ibarruri]

13. Homeland security paid for the hookers in the Hookergate scandal? nt

[jarnocan]

17. I said the limos,, but actually

the hookers were provided by the defens contractors I think.
But really WE have paid for their fun and games- they are banging hookers, partying and making money at the expense of US and our soldiers.
We are definately paying for ALL this BU**SH**!

http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemID=20768 article and actions link

[Dunvegan]

11. The NSA took OUR tax money to pay the Telecoms, to whom we pay for service

Yes. The Bush Administration took our money and used it to spy on us.

We may have even paid twice.

99% of Congress NEVER saw this...they didn't approve of it.

The only people in congress that saw it, have taken oaths to be on the security committees, and those committees that got just a hint of what was happening. It would have been considered treason for them to speak.

But notice: The word DID finally get out. People who knew must have wanted us to know.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

12. People who knew in Congress should have either said something or....

should have resigned due to the illegality of what this dictator criminal was doing to our country! What on earth is going on in this country? This is unbelievable!

[Dunvegan]

15. Well they take a real binding oath of secrecy...

...they can either resign, and lose all further knowledge in protest...or keep going.

But it is legally treason for them to speak about what they are told, it's top secret classification data.

I can't say they should have committed treason...but the good news is that somewhere a number of very courageous people DO know, and they've found a way to leak this news to us.

[sandnsea]

22. They don't know

Intelligence agencies don't report what they do with their money. Remember that whole thing about Kerry proposing cuts to intelligence during the campaign?? That's because back in '94 they found that the CIA had a huge slush fund. I don't remember if it was millions or billions. Anyway, Congress cut their budget the same amount as the slush fund. At the time, Kerry, and others, wanted to add some kind of congressional oversight to make sure intelligence agencies were spending money in the best possible way. That was a result of discovering how little we really had known about the Soviet Union, along with the rest of his international crime and foreign policy work. But of course, it didn't get done because Republicans are so good at spinning the wobbly Democrat line. Congress probably didn't know much about what the NSA was doing at all, and anything the key people knew they couldn't tell anyway because they're sworn to secrecy. That's why Senator Rockefeller had to write a letter by hand and place it in safekeeping, it was the only way he could leave any sort of record of his objection to the program.

[Oilwellian]

16. Who approved?

The American people approved by allowing our govt to sink billions of dollars into "national security programs" that are so secret, we haven't a clue how they're spending the money. There is NO oversight with these types of military contracts hence you have corruption such as we're seeing in the Cunningham/Abramoff scandals. The NSA is another dark hole where Congress budgets billions, performs NO oversight because it's just so top secret, but it's for your own good, and the corruption is rampant. This is where Poppy stole billions from our treasury during his criminal administration, and now we see his son and same goddamned cronies plundering again. It's a shithole racket that needs to stop, for our own national security's sake.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

19. The congress is too timid, and corrupt, to demand accountability.

If they were actually doing their jobs they would refuse to fund the intelligence/defense agencies until full accountability was provided.

But, that can go on the "fat chance" shelf. They have to get their payoffs from the defense industry and don't want to be seen as "weak on defense" by doing what they're supposed to be doing.

[AuntPatsy]

21. Suffice it to say that I quit them some time ago when they

could not explain why I was recieving and being made to pay two bills a month, kid you not.