That’s one lesson to be learned from the news that a contractor’s employees were snopping around in Barack Obama’s passport files (and also Clinton’s and McCain’s): The more information government gathers on us, the more potential it gives nosey parkers to snoop around, not as part of some conspiracy but just because they’re curious.

Even if it turns out the passport prying were part of some big scheme, my point doesn’t change, because lots of other cases back it up: A percentage of IRS agents, cops and others with investigative powers have proven willing to use them to satisfy personal curiosity, even though their use of files is illegal.

Anyone really think the NSA, the FBI or any other federal agency is different? That people don’t yield to the urge to dig up dirt on their neighbor, their ex-wife’s boyfriend, their ex-wife? And the less supervision and oversight they have, the more it will happen.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 25th, 2008 at 9:39 am and is filed under Injustice, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.