The Eavesdropping Freak in the White House

What would have been hyped up as a manifestation of pure evil and driven European demonstrators into the streets had George W. Bush done it just gets a bored shrug when it’s done by Saint Barack Obama. The savior of the United States government has been stumbling from one spying scandal to the next for weeks now. But that doesn’t seem to bother his supporters because surely he means well, doesn’t he?

The U.S. Department of Justice eavesdropped on over 100 employees of the Associated Press news agency. But never mind that: The U.S. government was only trying to track down an intelligence leak. But Obama’s excuses were less convincing as to why the IRS put his tea party opponents through the wringer. So Obama fired the acting IRS director. Agents also secretly spied on TV journalist James Rosen, but so what? The guy worked for right-wing Fox News and besides, they were still going after the source of those Department of State leaks. Clearly, the focus is always on public safety.

That’s the reason the National Security Agency has to diligently snoop in other people’s emails worldwide. If he had to, Obama could probably convince the sun to set on command — or at least, he thinks he could. That’s why the good shepherd — who just a couple of years ago was a staunch defender of government transparency — came up with the killer argument as to why the NSA was monitoring the global Internet and, like a bunch of crazed gigantic squirrels, was hording away 1.7 million email communications every day: It helped in the war on terror. Oh, that’s O.K. then!

In order to better shore up the defensive lines, Obama’s people fed The New York Times and other outlets success stories from the war on terror: The only thing that prevented attacks on the George Washington Bridge, the Federal Reserve, the Capitol and U.S. troops were the excavations carried out in the informational junk pile. That’s an important point, but the question still remains as to how individual security is enhanced by government snooping. The Master had an answer for that one, too: It’s impossible to have 100 percent security and 100 percent privacy with zero percent inconvenience. Finding an acceptable balance was necessary. Exactly! The United States has lost its balance under Obama’s leadership.

The silver-tongued Obama neglected to mention that all the data collection often fails to help at all in the battle with terrorists. Society must nevertheless pay a high and ever-increasing price for it. One of the West’s showcase democracies is engaged in building infrastructure for a highly conspiratorial and opaque surveillance state where the only thing preventing misuse is governmental good will. That’s not only insufficient, that’s dangerous.

But never mind: When Obama does his feel-good gig at the Brandenburg Gate on June 19, the crowds will cheer him anyway. He makes such pretty speeches.