This Is the Edge

This morning NPR was deconstructing parts of the same speech I looked at the other day. Of course they were much more circumspect about it, but they did say that there was a lot of hedging about what is true, especially when contrasting who said what they knew when and how. I'm guessing there's going to be a lot more in the news about the NIE on Iraq, another released intelligence review, and the president's statement that Congress had access to the same information he did. So what? I'm not saying I was the first to suggest these things- but hey I did mention them before NPR so there's something to my being a little bit ahead of the larger pop culture curve. Like being Latino- I was doing that way before it was cool.

I also got a ton of those "you have been logged on illegal websites..." emails a couple of days before anyone was talking about them. I'm so cutting edge. I didn't figure it was real so deleted it, and in the off chance that it was- I'm sure the CIA would know how to get in touch with me again. But then I started getting more and more.

It made me wonder how lame you have to be to open an attachment that comes from someone you don't know. If you haven't seen it already, this is how sophisticated the doorway is:

Dear Sir/Madam,

we have logged your IP-address on more than 30 illegal Websites.

Important:
Please answer our questions!
The list of questions are attached.


Yours faithfully,
Steven Allison



++++ Central Intelligence Agency -CIA-
++++ Office of Public Affairs
++++ Washington, D.C. 20505

++++ phone: (703) 482-0623

Really- that's how the CIA would conduct its investigations? Okay- I guess I should open the attachment- What, what happened?

Where do you even begin with how horribly stupid the set up is? I got a ton more in the following days with different headings- some from the FBI, aol, yahoo, schools, and administrators. This means people I know, or at least people with my address were opening the attachments.

So this is how we think the CIA works. It kind of explains a lot.


These Songs Are Cool- Get on the Wagon While You can
Hurricane- Bob Dylan
Riot- Miles Davis
World's A Mess- X