Now With More Spies!

Today, it was announced that the United States is creating a new Intelligence (ha!) branch called the National Clandestine Service.

Oooh, yay, we get more spies! As if we don't have enough spies? Seriously! We have the CIA, the FBI's NSS, the DIA, the NSA, the CSS, the NRO and God knows what other acronyms!

(The acronyms are, just in case you want to look them up, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation's National Security Service, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, the Central Security Service, the National Reconnaissance Office, and so on and so forth.)

The US employs thousands of people and pays millions of dollars a year ...hell, probably billions... to find out other people's business. So we need another branch? How about reorganizing our current branches instead of layering on more bureaucracy to an already apparently inefficient and ineffective system?

Not to mention, do we really NEED that many people? Root through all those agencies long enough, they could probably tell you want I have for breakfast. Who the hell cares what I had for breakfast? I don't even care anymore. How about worrying about the real enemies instead of being Big Brother? Hmm? Too many details and you lose the big picture sometimes! (And this should probably go in a separate rant... Yeah, let's save that one for tomorrow. Back to the new branch.)

So just back in June, Dubya created the National Security Service. He also created the Department of Homeland Security, which seems to dabble in spying from time to time (On people that live here...). Apparently, those aren't enough. We need ANOTHER one.

And the best part... The director of this new service? Shhh! It's a secret!
That's right... The director's identity is secret! Woo! Yay, spying!

*Sigh* Now look. I'm not so naive to say the United States should do away with it's intelligence gathering entities... It's an ugly world and we have a great big bullseye painted on us. I'm just saying that we do too much, with too little focus, and do it too inefficiently. It's another example of the system becoming more important than the reason the system was created. It will end up doing less, costing more, and providing more avenues for people who shouldn't be in there to become members of our intelligence community. Furthermore, keeping the whole organization a secret prevents pretty much any oversight and will in turn lead to greater corruption. That's all I'm saying.

Okay, I said my piece. Rock on.

(And by the way, my breakfast was Honey Bunches of Oats. The kind with the dried peaches.)