Here Comes The Results

I've been long been saying that the Bush/Clinton/Bushlite actions over the last twenty years of crippling our national research efforts would come back to haunt us.

Now we have this little jewel of admission and mis-direction reported by Newsweek:

Aug. 6, 2007 issue - Six years after 9/11 , U.S. intel officials are complaining about the emergence of a major "gap" in their ability to secretly eavesdrop on suspected terrorist plotters.

The intel gap results partly from rapid changes in the technology carrying much of the world's message traffic (principally telephone calls and e-mails). The National Security Agency is falling so far behind in upgrading its infrastructure to cope with the digital age that the agency has had problems with its electricity supply, forcing some offices to temporarily shut down. The gap is also partly a result of administration fumbling over legal authorization for eavesdropping by U.S. agencies.

"... partly from rapid changes in the technology". That's partially correct. Rapid advances in technology by other nations is far more correct. "problems with its electricity supply...". What nonsense. Somebody overloads a wall socket and bang! A great excuse for their incompetence.

I imagine that most folks who consider the money spent by the federal government for research was just a big waste never considered just how we were using the results of that research.

Well, now that Bush/Clinton/Bushlite have pretty well completely managed to shut down and/or transfer the great majority of our research efforts to overseas facilities and nations, one of the unanticipated consequences is that our ability to use the latest and greatest to keep tabs on our enemies no longer exists.

You can bet your last dollar that the opposition is taking the greatest advantage of America's loss in the technological fields we once enjoyed. As a result, our spy networks and people are headed for the trash heap of obsolescence.