pass the crack pipe senator frist

REUTERS/Rebecca Cook

Has the NSA data mining program helped catch any significant terrorists?
Bill Frist on CNN's Late Edition (via Liberal Oasis)

On CNN’s Late Edition, Wolf Blitzer put the question to National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley.

Hadley smoothly sidestepped the question the way he had all day when specific questions about the program came up: “I cannot confirm or deny the claims in the USA Today story.”

However, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is not very smooth.

After Blitzer read an USA Today excerpt describing the program, they had the following exchange:

BLITZER: Are you comfortable with this program?

FRIST: Absolutely. Absolutely. I am one of the people who are briefed --

BLITZER: You've known about this for years.

FRIST: I've known about the program. I am absolutely convinced that you, your family, our families are safer because of this particular program.

I absolutely know that it is legal.

The program itself is anonymous, in the sense that identifiers, in terms of protecting your privacy, are stripped off.

And, as you know, the program is voluntary, the participants in that program...

...the only way to connect [the] dots is to use 21st-century technology that protects your privacy, and that's exactly what this does.

Voluntary??? Anonymous??? WTF?