Yesterday, the government defended the NSA's domestic spying program in federal court (see here for details). I leave it to the reader to decide whether the following quote by Anthony Cappolino--defender of the Bushie thinkpol--is an example of Newspeak vocabularies A, B, or C:
[T]he evidence we need to demonstrate to you that it is lawful cannot be disclosed without that process itself causing grave harm to United States national security.
Ironically, this quote comes from the same person who also stated that the ACLU's case--in order for it to have standing--must rely on "robust factual record" and not mere "scant public record." The only hitch is that the salient facts are classified of course! Maybe I am just oldthink, but this makes me unbellyfeel. In any event, this entire issue leaves me feeling like Orwell's Winston Smith (1984)--who nicely captures my own sentiments with the following:
There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You had to live--did live, from habit that became instinct--in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and except in darkness, every moment scrutinized.
From telescreens to computers, from the Ministry of Truth to the NSA, from Big Brother to the Bushies, from Oceania to America...when and where will this doubleplusungood madness end?
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