Do you feel safe NOW? (The FBI didn't pay their phone bill...oops)

Look at this Associated Press headline: FBI wiretaps dropped due to unpaid bills.

Some telephone companies have cut off FBI wiretaps because the FBI can't seem to pay their phone bill on time.

This includes some wiretaps under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA...you've probably heard that acronym when discussing wiretaps before...you know, like "illegal wiretaps" that didn't go through "FISA"....that kind of stuff).

The FISA wiretaps are used for suspected spies and terrorists.

Let this be a lesson to our government: You can't have wiretaps, legal or otherwise, if you don't pay your phone bill.

Also.... the FBI went all Enron-style, blaming "faulty bookkeeping" for some of the mistakes, including one involving a former agent who managed to steal $25,000 for her own, personal use. That agent pleaded guilty in June 2006 - which kind of means the problem was known, at minimum, a year and a half ago.

This has been another episode of "Our Tax Dollars at Work."