I can't say as I have a strong opinion one way or the other with the whole monitoring phone calls thing. Mostly because I can't say as I am really all that surprised or shocked. Nothing short of a conservative army going door to door and stringing up every Arab they find for being a terrorist (and maybe throwing in the queers for good measure) would really surprise me; and that surprise would consist entirely of me arching an eyebrow, uttering a noncommittal "Huh" and going back to drinking my beer.
At any rate, I don't know if this is true or not (or even if it applies to the whole NSA discussion) but I had been noticing lately that my cell phone service seems to experience brief clicks (half a sec or so tops) that interrupt service. I called and asked them what the deal was and was told that conversations can be monitored if certain "key words" are used repeatedly and that the clicks were likely a result of intitiating or terminating of the monitoring process. Now, I don't know which "key words" that I use on a regular basis while using my cell phone (the only people I talk to regularly are my family members) would instigate such things or who exactly is doing the monitoring, but this seems shady to me. Looking back, nearest I can tell is that the "key word" bank must consist of such suspicious words as "fishing", "school" or "treatment" since conversations with my dad, bro, sis or mom revolve around those topics. And now, just to get the blog monitored:
Instead of going to school, I am going fishing as treatment for my boredom.
