I wonder if individual US states spy on each other, you know like Hawaii wire-taps Alaska

Surely, there would be some state-level self-interest in such an operation?
Yes I agree America is too often the convenient punchbag. For me, it's
really tiresome, as 'The devil they love to hate'. I've lived in suburban USA, with the cliched gun-nut opposite, the Costa Rican lawn-dog up the street, the Afr-Am adulterer next door but one, and the VNVet with their 10 year old daughter, 'Crystal', going to spelling bees and ice-skating comps 3* a week. They were our immediate neighbours. Oh, and the coke-head banker upstairs. I've seen many facets of 'the dream' first hand, and in general I think it a thing of beauty.
The media (at least in Europe), in aggregate, is left-wing. You thought Wall Street was PC these days? Try speaking to an employee of the BBC! I'm am being serious and honest in saying that from those I've known who have worked there, you cannot work there, and be known as a Tory party supporter (i.e. to the right of centre). If there is a political equivalent of 'institutional racism' the BBC is it's very pinnacle and so defines it (ironic given their founding charter requires complete beyond-question impartiality). In the UK I don't watch the BBC news* (lol, in the same way that when in NYC I don't read the NY Times, or watch CNN, for world news), I watch ITV, it's far less biased. Sky is arguably to the 'right', I don't know, so ITV is the middle ground, and let's me make up my own mind on events.
Let's face it, the French still have a big fat bug up their ar$e about being liberated by the US in WW2. Since Marie-Antoinette, Versailles and 'let them eat cake' France has been socialist. The national motto Liberté, égalité, fraternité = Liberty, equality, fraternity. That's how deep it now is in their genes. They are never, ever, going to at a national level get over 'that WW2 thing'.
I like your 'only Apple/China' analogy, I get your point, and think it a good and useful observation.
'Not that those western European countries likely don't have the same thing going on, but we don't hear about it. Why? No one cares.'
LOL ... don't you mean 90% of the US population don't know where/what Europe is?
p.s. Is there some vast gulf between the average citizen and the state? '''95% of the country''' have not heard of FraKorVieKuwIraqistan, and yet at a state level direct physical intervention is mandated... and it's not even like they're colonies.
[random thoughts, just musing aloud, no offence intended to anyone, and I'd be very happy to ... 'learn and grow' from alternative opinions... bald jingoism and JPEGS of eagles excluded hehe].
* people should note that the domestic BBC output, it completely different from that available from outside the UK, i.e. the BBC World Service, BBC World etc.
and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_ ... rican_bias