For a federal government riddled with scandals this news may not seem so important but it is indicative of the logic of government. The numerous documents which have been leaked all over the Internet regarding PRISM and countless other government spying programs are off-limits to Senate staffers. They have been asked by the Senate Security Office not to download documents which are potentially classified – even though everyone on the planet likely has.

The logic here is baffling… They say that people inside the beltway live on a different planet – I’m wondering if this planet allows people to think through the logic of their decisions.

As Kashmir Hill at Forbes reports, this sort of request puts employees in an uncomfortable position of either keeping up with current news or following orders.

To many of my readers, this sort of twisted logic can explain a heck of a lot of other government policies that make similar amounts of sense.

One last point – technically the documents are still mostly classified – my assertion in the headline that they are “unclassified” applies to how any logical person would approach these widely-available and publicized documents.