Am I the only one who sees the irony in recent congressional protestations of corporate America’s unseemly intimacy with Chinese government’s attempts to control their citizens? Here is yesterday’s headline from CNN:

Yahoo accused of misleading Congress about Chinese journalist

…”We have now learned there is much more to the story than Yahoo let on, and a Chinese government document that Yahoo had in their possession at the time of the hearing left little doubt of the government’s intentions,” said Republican Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey. “U.S. companies must hold the line and not work hand in glove with the secret police.”
Yahoo accused of misleading Congress about Chinese journalist – CNN.com

Interestingly enough, this is the same congress which has permitted the Bush administration to pursue a patently unconstitutional program of illegal spying and evesdropping, with the assistance of corporate America, as illustrated in this story, also from yesterday’s CNN headlines:

Verizon offers details on records releases

Verizon Communications says it has provided federal, state and local law enforcement agencies tens of thousands of communication and business records relating to customers based on emergency requests without a court order or administrative subpoena.

In an October 12 letter to members of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, a senior Verizon official says that from 2005 through this September there were 63,700 such requests, and of those, 720 came from federal authorities.
Verizon offers details on records releases – CNN.com

So it’s bad when they do it, and it’s good when we do it. Okay, got it.