Houston   President Obama is having to shovel behind the National Security Agency (NSA) way too much for anyone to feel that they are in check.   The latest hullabaloo is not Brazil this time, but our old buddies in France and Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, who we have been counting on to keep Europe solvent and together while we wage war around the world.   Frankly, it’s hard to imagine that her cell phone call ever have anything much to do with US national security, but what do I know?

Poor President Obama is left with promising that it’s not happening now and won’t happen in the future.   Seems the “everyone does it” defense is not working with our pals?   Germany and France are talking to the United Nations about whether they can rein us in.  That’s a little embarrassing, if you ask me?

Then you have Dallas-based Lavabit.   I’m having trouble remembering if the ACLU ever steps up for the privacy of rights of businesses rather than individuals, but a piece in The Guardian detailed the ACLU’s filing of an amicus, friend of the court, brief for Lavabit and its proprietor, Ladar Levison.   Levison, as it has been widely reported, closed down Lavabit rather than cough up the encryption codes for 40,000 users who had been promised secure email abilities.   And, amazingly this was after he had received a court order and had offered to give them the email for Edward Snowden, the NSA leaker they were looking for?  Wow, that is some high and wide overreaching.   Now he’s facing a contempt order, huge legal bills, and of course a loss of his job since he closed it all down.   The ACLU takes the position this was “overreaching.”  Well, yeah!

As the leaks continue to dribble out about this rouge agency, you get a bad feeling that we’ve got a long to fall before we hit bottom!