Big Brother is listening, increasingly. Government-authorized wiretaps jumped 19 percent in 2004. Federal judges approved 730 monitoring devices, while state judges approved 980 of them. The 1,710 wiretaps don't even include wiretap warrants issued for terror-related investigations, which slightly outnumber the wiretap warrants issued for traditional criminal cases. Most of the government's eavesdropping focused on wireless items, such as cell phones, pagers, and Blackberries. This surely is a hint for some enterprising person to invent a new word to replace wiretap.

two words: FOURTH AMENDMENT!

The new word is "airtap."

Don't worry, just like New Deal government, it's only ok if we have the Neocons in power - they can "manage it better."

-WW