Public Citizen

, and curiously error-prone, heroes of our intelligence community act like that they might just not have enough to do.

Seems the National Security Agency was unhappy about a design that used its official seal with the words "Spying on you since 1952." And then there's the design boasting that the agency is "The only part of government that actually listens." The seal is altered a little - the official one doesn't say "PEEPING WHILE YOU'RE SLEEPING." So the agency notified Zazzle.com, which produced the items for McCall, that it was illegal to use the NSA name or seal that way. The folks at the Department of Homeland Security weighed in a couple of months later with a letter objecting to a design with a version of the seal and the words "Department of Homeland Stupidity." DHS alluded to potential criminal violations.

Oh, come on.

And back off they did Tuesday, in a settlement filed in federal court in Maryland, with both agencies agreeing to withdraw their letters. "NSA and DHS both recognized that they'd messed up and they've done the right thing and recognized the use of their name and seal are protected for purposes of commentary," or, in this case, parody, said Public Citizen lawyer Paul Levy.

Democracy triumphant!

Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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