Phrase of the Day: “Immaculate Collection”

With near unanimity, the public has voted in favor of the following program:

(1)  Have our cake.

(2)  Eat it, too.

Today, the DNI made an uncharacteristically snarky comment;  as connoisseurs of snarky comments, we offer it to the discerning palate:

Clapper concluded with a sardonic account of his job as captain of a leaky intelligence vessel, buffeted by what he called a “perfect storm.” He said the agencies under his command, including the National Security Agency, had to “throttle back” on some intelligence collection “because we need to recover foreign intelligence partnerships and commercial partnerships.”

“We are accepting more risk in this country because of that,” Clapper warned. He offered a caustic mission statement, which he repeated publicly Thursday: “We are supposed to keep the country safe, predict anticipatory intelligence, with no risk, and no embarrassment if revealed, and without a scintilla of jeopardy to privacy of any domestic person or foreign person. We call that ‘immaculate collection.’ ”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/david-ignatius-we-underestimated-the-islamic-state-james-clapper-says/2014/09/18/f0f17072-3f6f-11e4-9587-5dafd96295f0_story.html

Officiant:  All in favor of “Immaculate Collection”, say “Aye”:

℟ :  AYE !!!!!!!!!!!!

Officiant:   All who actually understand the issues at stake, say “Yea".

℟:  [silence in the room].

The Ayes have it.

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