News Hounds
Wednesday, November 22, 2006

On yesterday morning's FOX & Friends Steve Doocy, Gretchen Carlson and Brian Kilmeade announced that a Global Hawk Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) had flown across the United States. "It's the first time anywhere in the United States that one of these big things has flown on an official air combat command mission," Steve Doocy noted. Brian Kilmeade followed up: "Well, you know what? I love it. They gotta be listening in, listening to the right people. If they're listening in at my house, they're gonna be bored to tears." Doocy jumped in to say that he "wasn't sure" that the drone could listen in, but "they can certainly see what's going on in your back yard. ... I don't think you have anything to worry about as long as you're not doing anything against the law."

Gretchen Carlson expressed skepticism about those people who are worried about invasion of privacy, saying "You know, I don't completely understand this whole controversy when people get all up in arms over the fact that someone may be watching. I mean, for goodness sake, we don't know who's even listening to our phone calls. I know, I know that's a big deal and all that but - aren't you busy in your life and you're worrying about other things goin' on with your family and stuff like that, not worrying about who might be watching you and listening to you with a drone. I don't know. It doesn't bother me."

COMMENT

Well the airheads on FOX & Friends might not be worried, but the whole idea of some military spy drone silently cruising above my neighborhood on an "air combat mission" scares the dickens out of me.

According to the Wikipedia link cited above, at the very least these drones have a less than stellar safety record, having crashed several times. They are also equipped with an array of electronic gadgets that sounds like alphabet soup, the purpose of which is military surveillance.

First we had the NSA wire-tapping program and now this, a robot ship equipped with sophisticated snooping capabilities gliding overhead taking pictures of people in their hot tubs, at their BBQs, walking their dogs, etc. Since the drone is equipped with the latest in GPS, it's not inconceivable that it could be set up to monitor cell phone calls as well.

Big Brother is alive and well and, if the Bush administration has anything to say about it, coming to your neighborhood really soon ...