"Would the cash-strapped U.S. government take the time to peer into tens of millions of houses, poring over every mundane detail of life in middle America as they vegetate in front of their TVs seven hours a day?"

Yes. If you're not paranoid, you're not paying attention. Well, Shrubya and his cronies would, anyhow.

I don't get that last part. Who thinks the government WOULDN'T take an opportunity to get live video and audio inside millions of homes. The NSA is already wiretaping all data lines. Even a turned-off cellphone can be used to listen to whats going on (take out the battery). I guess the author never heard of Total Information Awareness.

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Whistleblower_Bushs_NSA_targeted_reporters_0121.html

Wouldn't it be easier, and far more effective, (and profitable) for Big Brother to start a publicly traded internet search/service company with a funny name and an ironic logo like "Dont be evil?"

They'd know what every individuals interest is through searches. They'd know what their thoughts are through email. They'd know who they associate with through contacts. And they'd have tons of revenue to support high resolution imaging of the globe.

Oh, and Steve Jobs hid a camera in plain sight on every Imac and MacBook in recent history. So there. :)

If anyone thinks the government would do this, you're an idiot and have never obviously worked for the government.

There is no way on earth the gov't would have the resources to have someone listen in on Joe and Jill Schmoe who might be doing nothing but smoking pot...not a federal offense. The gov't doesn't even have enough resources to put eyes and ears on all of the people w/ suspected links to terrorism.

Think about it.

@johnclark, I'm not saying they ARE doing it. I'm saying if they could, they would.

Right now its public knowledge that ALL data communications in the US internet/phones/email/etc and even financial transactions are being wiretapped. And if you clicked the rawstory link I posted you'd see they already are using this power to spy on NEWS organizations.

Now, they don't have someone listing to every little tidbit, but they can easily pick and choose who to listen to. Now if you're a journalist, or whistleblower, or investigator, or someone who got someone's attention, something like this would be GOLD.

What kind of idiot would put the camera behind a non see through piece of plastic it wasnt even a good hoax. And I do work for the government and we can't even keep our data network up and running with anykind of decent speed. I bring my laptop home and check my email because my home connection is 20 times faster than the work network. There is no way the government could pull this off. Besides the folks that need DTV converters are probably not the type the feds would be looking for anyhow. You now how long it would take to research a terrorist type hit with dialup. Come on folks don't be so damn dumb. What ever happened to common sense?

Scott...The guy in the article accusing Bush of spying on NSA is not credible. He was cornered by a reporter that questioned his assertions and asked for proof (unlike Olberman) and he waffled around and got all self righteous, so Tice is nothing more than a lying looser atempting to cash in on Bush derangement syndrome.

@scott, you really believe that this punk Russel Tice is a truthful whistleblower....Then why did'nt he come out before Bush left office. Brave soul indeed. Not only that but he mentions using metadata to catalog calls...So what, that doesn't mean they listened in on the conversation of those calls. They simply have the destination number. Time. Date. Duration. We that use the snail mail system give alot more data on the outside of an envelope. People like you need to be sedated from causing false panic (or in the case of the Bush Deranged false hope) that some grand scheme of the NSA keeping tabs on citizens is underfoot. This is why Obama signed the same bill as Bush, because there is no illegal wiretapping of citizens in the US.

BTW this was a fun hoax to uncover. I knew it would draw all the Bush/Cheney deranged and Foilheads out in the light.

I agree with John, NSAist and Iso....You people waiting for Bush to get a Mussolini style justice need to grow up and get a life. Not every government agency is corrupt. Unfortunately little pranks like this make the paranoid freak out even more.

I have to agree with JohnClark. I have worked for the government and while I am suspicious I don't let my suspicions get out of hand like some of the other posters on this board. Right now an IRS agent could come to all of our doors and demand an audit on the basis that we MIGHT have commited tax fraud, and here we sit allowing a few to scare us with NSA stories and a supposedly credible whistleblower. God, this is shoud be the Histrionics channel instead of SciFi.

I so want the government to do this for real, just so that some poor CIA schmuck has to sit in his cubicle staring at endless hours of footage of my empty sofa!

Erm, no, they don't. It's a hoax, honestly. If you want, take apart your own converter box. Besides, not everyone will get one since so many other people have had converters and digital tv since time immemorial anyway. It won't make complete sense.

I think they were just over a month early

So you all really think that the government has all those supercomputers just to run nuclear scenarios over and over again.... right. current software can easily write out speech and look for key words for illegal activities. a nation wide wire tapping would be easy.

if you know anything about digital signal processing you would know that with an all digital tv grid some pretty amazing things could be done with software to monitor people.. with or without a mic or camera installed.. especially if you have an LCD display.. (basically what could be used as a huge passive array)