Solonor's Inkwell

(Sorry for the title ripoff, Robyn. Couldn’t resist.)

Tell me. Does this not sound like a valid question:

“If you have to work so damned hard to get around someone’s call blocking/spam filters/restraining order, what the HELL makes you think they’re gonna buy your damned timeshare/viagra/crap?”

And yet, yesterday, idiot telemarketers got together to sue the FTC over its proposed Do-Not-Call List. They say it is a freedom of speech issue. I know. Stop laughing. They’re serious.

“The FTC is singling out this form of advertising now, what will be next?” said DMA President Robert Weintzen in a prepared statement.

Unprecedented popular adoration for a government agency would be my guess, Bob.

[ via Sgt. Grump, who’s backlog of cool things for me to link is longer than a telemarketer’s call list ]

It’s hard to argue with the need for a coordination of intelligence agency information after the disastrously poor communication between the CIA, FBI and police agencies prior to September 11. My first reaction to the Terrorist Threat Information Center announced during the State of the Union address was “about frickin’ time!” Here it is 16 months later, and you’re just now figuring out they need to talk to each other?

My second thought, however, was a little more cautious. It went in my ears as “the War on Terrorism”. It rattled around my brain as “a proposal to gather as much information as we can into one, big spying database, headed by the director of the CIA. And, no, we won’t tell you how it’s gonna work.”

In the end, I think it’s probably a good thing to get those lines of communication open between the the people keeping an eye the terrorists abroad and the terrorists at home. But let’s just make sure we keep our eyes on those people. Just in case.

[ via the Salt Lake Tribune; also seen at The Liberty Dogs ]