The Lives of Others -- a must-see this holiday season

The Washington Post reported details yesterday about the Bush administration's massive domestic telephone/internet/email monitoring project. The surveillance is being carried out by the National Security Administration (NSA).

The report was based on the Congressional testimony of a phone company whistleblower, recently retired, who had seen a diagram showing how data was being routed to a "secret room" in an AT&T building in San Francisco:

"That was my 'aha!' moment," he said. "They're sending the entire Internet to the secret room." The diagram showed splitters, glass prisms that split signals from each network into two identical copies. One fed into the secret room, the other proceeded to its destination, he said.

"This splitter was sweeping up everything, vacuum-cleaner-style," he said. "The NSA is getting everything. These are major pipes that carry not just AT&T's customers but everybody's."

After reading that story, you might consider renting this movie over the holiday season. It should help get you in the mood for next year's election campaigns: