Have you ever watched a worm turn? It’s fascinating. The contortions, the twisting and wriggling, the chance to see an animal uncomfortable in its position and circumstances of the moment causes it to move in a manner only describable as non-linear chaos. Such is the case with Senator Diane Feinstein.

After saying it’s okay to collect and air others’ dirty laundry, we find Feinstein’s undies hanging in the breeze; displaying a set of skid-marks apparent to all. She feels abused. It’s difficult to understand the problem. She’s the Chair(wo)man of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Her displeasure caused a rupture of the Nitrous Oxide balloon everybody’s so happily inhaled from because we’re afraid all average citizens are Al Qaeda operatives and harvesting these people’s communication records will stop the evil doers’ evil doing. Feinstein accused the agency of breaking laws and breaching constitutional principles because the CIA wanted to torpedo the Senate’s investigation into water-boarding and such advanced interrogation techniques.

Feinstein (D-Calif.) proclaimed the CIA covertly ­removed documents, searched and removed data from the committee’s computers. She also accuses the CIA of trying to intimidate her investigators. CIA Director John Brennan disputed all of this shortly after her appearance on the Senate floor. Feinstein is obviously so oblique she could’ve never envisioned the “all-seeing eye” of the intelligence community would expose her to the same scrutiny as any lesser being such as an average citizen. OH! The horror!

It’s got to be recognized we have a problem in our intelligence community in spite of that idiot in the White House declaring Al Qaeda is decimated by drone strikes. He believes droning on interminably concerning his equality in service to the top 10 prior presidents will make our safety a foregone conclusion.

The Patriot Act was a mistake enacted out of fear and maintained because it creates another layer of covert oversight the maintenance of which is controlled by people we pay to lie to everybody on the planet. So why is it so damned difficult for anybody to understand Brennan and Clapper are only doing their jobs and are lying to us as well? Lying is what spies do. Politicians should be very comfortable with spies because politicians lie too. (So by extrapolation, does that make spies politicians and vice versa? Kinda, sorta makes you wonder doesn’t it ;>)

Our Ministry of Knee Jerking and Reactionary Dissolution of Constitutional Protections (aka Congress) jumped on the runaway bandwagon after 9/11 and enacted legislation allowing intelligence gathering with NO holds barred. Anybody and everybody fell beneath the sway of this act. Unfortunately the Congress, in their efforts to look controlled and measured in their response to terrorism failed to opt themselves OUT of the control loop. Now they’re dyspeptic because they too are capable of having their privacy invaded and their information stored for decades without their permission.

Somehow that seems to chap the good Ms. Feinstein. We know she considers herself to be the scion of Progressive politics and policy. We know she’s a wealthy person looking down her nose at those she thinks she reigns over (that would be us mere mortals) and we know she thinks she’s above it all. So to see her discomfited and distressed because HER Fourth Amendment Rights were set aside by a group of people she thought she had control over is really quite ironic if not outright hypocritical.

This hypocrisy is recognizable because this pound-puppy once thinking herself a watchdog has been really stupid in refusing to recognize an uncontrolled and unrestrained intelligence community can lead to abuses. Does anybody remember a guy named J. Edgar Hoover and his use of extortion based on surveillance files he compiled against his paranoia-developed enemies list? After 9/11, surveillance on the activities of U.S. citizens, as well as allied and antagonist leaders swelled to meet the challenge of perceived 21st-century threats. They accomplished this with new technologies collecting and analyzing our digital trails.

So, Feinstein’s feeling are hurt because she didn’t think she should have her records scrutinized and her motives questioned. Ain’t life a Bi#ch?

It appears no greater than the Chair of this committee.

Thanks for listening.