Below here you’ll find that I have compiled all your music emails from last week’s first-ever IDE weekend challenge… wow… very cool… and smart! But first I need to note that now that things have cooled down in the Eliot Spitzer flap let me offer just a brief thought on one aspect of the story that has totally gone under-reported.

It’s more proof that national media outlets are nothing more than a house organ for Washington (who’s ever on top there) – much in the same way China’s newspapers operate as a vast propaganda machine for Beijing.

Ask yourself, how was Spitzer caught arranging to meet a prostitute and what allowed the government to wire tap him?

What empowered the U.S. government to track his initial personal financial transactions, then match those transactions up with an ongoing investigation into a high-priced call-girl ring… a ring by the way, that at $1,500 to $4,500 an hour for a girl – most Americans could not rationally afford.

I bet most of you answered “it was the Patriot Act,”… and yep, you’re right.

The Patriot Act, which gave the feds the power to snoop on Spitzer, was the one that was supposed to be used only to track financial transactions in order to uncover terrorist activities… not the innocent or not so innocent transactions of Americans.

In Spitzer’s case, The Patriot Act was used to follow the money of a private citizen with no ties to terror… unless you consider the terror U.S. Republicans felt over the prospect of a Spitzer presidential run down the road.

The Act, eventually allowed the feds to wiretap Spitzer, though by that point the government knew he was not a terrorist, or even a drug dealer. In fact, they were on his trail before they found the call girl just because of the way he transferred money between two of his accounts.

No wonder no charges were brought against Spitzer. Because the charging document would have had to outline how the feds came up with Spitzer’s personal transactions.

While this might scare the heck out of you, it’s no big deal for me. Since the very early morning of Jan. 16, 1991, the U.S. government has made me one of its most scrutinized Americans.

For the past 17 years I have harbored no expectations of privacy. None!

And, that’s not because I was an early into China… or that China has thousands of spies in the U.S.

Nope, every phone call I’ve made since 1991 (and email since 1995), has been scrutinized for a simple reason…

Amid what was supposed to be a total communications blackout, I may have been the only American who was able to get a phone call through to the Al Rashid Hotel in downtown Baghdad on that winter’s morning.

The feds still want to know how I did it.

It was 5 a.m. here and about 12 noon, on Jan 16, Iraq time… some 14 and half hours before Gulf War I began.

I was trying to call my pal, CNN reporter, John Holliman. When I got through, the hotel desk put me tight through to a hotel room… to the shock of John, Bernie Shaw and Peter Arnett.

We had a good long chat.

Of course, then John did me no favors.

He gave me a phone number for a woman in Zebulon, NC. Then he told me to tell her that, “The picture of Dorian Grey got here just fine.” He also had me call the CNN newsroom in Atlanta with some messages.

By the way, John said Dorian Grey was his new puppy. The woman I was to call was its breeder.

That cryptic line meant the NSA could double down on me for the rest of my life.

This is germane to current times, But only because I have a bunch of friends and associates who are going to China during the next couple months.

Given the current political climate, and with the Olympics looming, my advice to them is that more than ever do not have the slightest expectations of privacy over there… as if you ever could… but it will be a bit worse this year.

So, have a good time, but if you don’t want it on tape, don’t do it.

And, have a great weekend… we’re flirting with spring here in Massachusetts, so the rest of you must be in weather heaven.

By the way, check out my Verge Asia blog each day at http://vergeasia.blogspot.com

And hey, check out this ad right below… you thought I was just a pretty face.

Respectfully,

Andy Carpenter

P.S. To let me know what you thought of today’s article, send an e-mail to: feedback@investorsdailyedge.com.