February 07, 2006

• Wanna see Bush stone-cold, in-your-face, lie like a cheap rug? " Secondly, there are such things as roving wiretaps. Now, by the way, any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires -- a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so. It's important for our fellow citizens to understand, when you think Patriot Act, constitutional guarantees are in place when it comes to doing what is necessary to protect our homeland, because we value the Constitution." Okay that was two years after they started wiretapping without warrants. See, when you say the opposite of what you know to be true, usually that's called "a lie". For the record, Al-Gonzo took "great exception" to the insinuation that Bush was lying there. He was under oath, so you know - Oh Wait! No he wasn't. Good thing these hearings aren't about The Constitution of the United States or the rights of free Americans. Is it so hard to get a warrant?
• I like that the Republicans refused to allow him to be placed under oath. I want mock them for that, but I didn't know if the Democrats had routinely done that, too.
• I think there are really 2 posts here put together as one, and perhaps neither will get the right kind of discussion the topics deserve without significant cross-contamination.
• It blows my mind that, apparently, if it is said to be true by the right people, it must be. When did people stop thinking for themselves?
• Again, I'll state the obvious: All the weird, immoral, corrupt stuff that has been happening in the past 4 years would have made me laugh in teh face of any tinfolier that had said it. Heck, I *did* mock them. S.H.I.T.
• Good point chimaera - there's already a couple of threads on the wiretapping thing, and I'm not trying to end the updates to those (or specifically the COINTEL one) but the article on the Halliburton detention centers "for Immigrants" just crossed the line from standard corrupt criminal plutocracy into "spooky". That is, if they're gonna just break whatever laws they want because they can (We're at war . . with an unidentified, non-state specific enemy . . helloo?), why not just lock up the vegans and Catholic workers and . . Immigrants . . and whomever? Don't have to charge 'em with nothin' - we're at war - so why not? What, you're gonna protest or something? OOoo the voters are mad! Oooo we're so scared they're gonna vote or raise a fuss! The Rush Limbaugh / Diebold / Cowed Press trifecta is a bodacious bitch of a juggernaut, innit?
• We're at war . . with an unidentified, non-state specific enemy . . helloo? I know the 1984 references are getting way tired by now, but isn't this pretty much EXACTLY what was going on in Orwell's book? Okay, so it was states or nation-states or continents--but it was a non-specific, never-ending war that kept things going... This is the future--a boot stamping on a face, again and again and again.
• the 1984 references Maybe they're just cranking up because ShrubCo is goin' full-on-Nixon! Crookin' it ol' skool yeah!?
• The problem with the never-ending war is that, for better or worse, never-ending war is exactly what the public wants. The "war on terror" is just another incarnation of "the war on drugs" and "the war on poverty," and Orwell was exactly right -- those in power just need to rile the indignation and patriotism of the proles often enough to keep the machine running. Dismantling entire bureaucracies and reinstating them years later makes for inefficiencies that perpetual activity can overcome. Think of the children, folks! Pot will ruin their lives and turn them into smack junkies and Osama wants to put all your daughters into burqas and your sons into explosive vests. Sometimes (only sometimes) I can REALLY see what Pat Buchanan's always on about with his isolationism.
• Yeah I hear that - but then there's something about a "bottle" and a "genie" of some sort - I forget, but wouldn't it be interesting to see a different right-wing corrupt administration launch the War on Drugs in the time of todays Internets?
• *gently strums 'ye 'ol Skull 'n Bones anthem on a fragile 'lil yuke while toking up some soma
• Okay that was two years after they started wiretapping without warrants. See, when you say the opposite of what you know to be true, usually that's called "a lie". Ah, but these fellers have perfected the technique of saying these things so often and so loudly that even when people know them to be untrue they can't get them out of their heads. It's like the time-honored defense attorney tactic of saying something inadmissible in front of the jury, knowing that even if it's struck from the record and everyone ordered to ignore it, it'll still be there somewhere in their minds.
• Monkeyfilter: Crookin' it ol' skool yeah!?
• When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so. So, they talked about getting a court order. Where's the lie? HAHAHAHAHA
• zing!
• Deja vu all over again In another document, Jack Marsh, a White House adviser, outlined options for Ford over the wiretap legislation. Marsh alerted Ford to objections by Bush as CIA director and by Rumsfeld, Henry Kissinger and Brent Scowcroft over the scope of a provision to require judicial oversight of wiretaps. At the time, Rumsfeld was defense secretary, Kissinger was secretary of state and Scowcroft was the White House national security adviser. Some experts weren't surprised the cast of characters in this national debate remained largely unchanged over 30 years. "People don't change their stripes," said Kenneth C. Bass a former senior Justice Department lawyer who oversaw such wiretap requests during the Carter administration.
• You Americans are never going to win The War On Terrorism until you get rid of that albatross around your necks you call a Constitution.
• That's all very disconcerting and I will write to my... hey! Superowl! Steelers!
• Insight Mag, [Disclaimer] which is a part of the Moonie Times family, reports: Congressional sources said Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove has threatened to blacklist any Republican who votes against the president. The sources said the blacklist would mean a halt in any White House political or financial support of senators running for re-election in November. "It's hardball all the way," a senior GOP congressional aide said. The sources said the administration has been alarmed over the damage that could result from the Senate hearings, which began on Monday, Feb. 6. They said the defection of even a handful of Republican committee members could result in a determination that the president violated the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Such a determination could lead to impeachment proceedings.
• Well, that does it. All my terrorist phone calls and emails are going to be encrypted with one-time pads!
• The sources said the administration has been alarmed over the damage that could result from the Senate hearings, which began on Monday, Feb. 6. They said the defection of even a handful of Republican committee members could result in a determination that the president violated the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Such a determination could lead to impeachment proceedings. Well, NOW you're just being a cock tease. Don't stop...please...don't stUNGH...
• Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Monday: "President Washington, President Lincoln, President Wilson, President Roosevelt have all authorized electronic surveillance on a far broader scale." Huh.
• JIM LEHRER: Is the president willing to work with Congress to settle some of the legal disputes about the NSA surveillance program? VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY: We believe, Jim, that we have all the legal authority we need. Translation: Mr. VeeP, why not just ask Congress for more authority? "Jim, Congress can suck it. All Hail DubyaCo!"
• Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Monday: "President Washington, President Lincoln, President Wilson, President Roosevelt have all authorized electronic surveillance on a far broader scale." Pete, what do you think that damn kite with a key on the string was all about? Old Franklin has a lot to answer for in terms of electronic surveillance!
• President Franklin absolutely authorized unlimited electronic surveillance - in fact, it was key to his administration's handling of the peasant uprisings of 1793. Also, there is no global warming, and the economy is going gangbusters!
• Reading the Handwriting on the Wiretap?
• The innocent have nothing to hide
• Spying, Blackmail, and the Path of Violence and Coercion
• The NSA fight begins - strategies for moving forward
• in tha hizzy!
• What they've learned
• Guess I'll start answering the phone with a big ol' "Yello!". I suggest you all do the same.
• CS Monitor reports The US government is developing a massive computer system that can collect huge amounts of data and, by linking far-flung information from blogs and e-mail to government records and intelligence reports, search for patterns of terrorist activity. The system - parts of which are operational, parts of which are still under development - is already credited with helping to foil some plots. It is the federal government's latest attempt to use broad data-collection and powerful analysis in the fight against terrorism. But by delving deeply into the digital minutiae of American life, the program is also raising concerns that the government is intruding too deeply into citizens' privacy. Remember how Total Information Awhoreness got canceled after massive public outcry? No you don't. *flash*
• Monkeyfilter: The innocent have nothing to hide
• Of Pen Registers and the Patriot Act
• *Gasp* Al-Gonzo, The Torture Guy, Lied Under Oath! Oh - oh wait, no he wasn't under oath. Silly me. Lied, though.
• The NSA scandal now clearly includes interception of domestic communications, perjury and presidential lying
• Pay too much and you could raise the alarm WTF?!
• 9-11.
• ON NASA SPYING: A LETTER TO CONGRESS by 14 "scholars of constitutional law and former government officials", from the New York Review of Books.
• Republicans have allowed the POTUS to be above the law. Please return to consuming. Nice letter, though.
• Passports with RFID chips begin. You may voluntarily surrender to one of our new Cheneyburton detention centers, or you may be tortured first. It's your choice in the land of the free! Buy now! 9-11.
• *rethinks decision to not become a Canadian citizen*
• Sorry -- "not to become". sorry, sorry
• get yer maple leaf tatt while u can . . .
• ACLU Releases First Concrete Evidence of FBI Spying Based Solely on Groups’ Anti-War Views
• You know, if martians landed tomorrow in the middle of disneyland, and out of their ship Jesus also comes out and starts giving out free candy and lattes, I wouldn't even blink. Reality has become just way too surreal.
• Ha! Everyone knows the Martians were bought out by Halliburton years ago.
• Google turns over search records You are so busted, dude.
• Handing out flyers, eh? Gitmo for you, quisling!
• Wash. Post falsely reported that Americans approve of Bush's "wiretapping tactics"
• Yeah I heard that on O'Reilly's show. Hannity is covering it now and Rush practically flogged it the whole four hours today! heheh. Nah, those guys are all still lying douchebag fuckheads. H-dogg, you ever consider using your talents over on the DNC boards? I'd like to think you could open a few eyes over there.
• "Talents"? More like OCD.
• Nah, I never found those boards very enticing. No bananas.
• The whole thing about paying too much on your credit card and Homeland Security has to be notified is B.S. I work for a bank that issues credit cards, and I work in the department that issues them. We have no such restriction. The whole bank has to be trained yearly on what we have to do to comply with all new/old regulations, including the Patriot Act. There are things we have to do, like report cash transactions of over $10,000. We have to compare every new customer to a list of foreign entities the US government forbids us to do business with, and compare every existing customer every time the list* is updated. We have to report laundering and transaction "layering" to finCEN. We do not have to report every large credit card payment. If J.C. Penney is reporting large non-cash credit card payments to Homeland Security, they are doing it completely of their own volition. And if they consider $6,000 to be a large payment, they're hurting way more than I thought. *.pdf file, but an extremely fun read
• Still though, you could shake things up maybe. Heck, you could sleepwalk through them and shake them up. Consider it a public service. The following is a public service announcement from H-dogg, beeyotches . . . *beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee*
• The White House says spying on terror suspects without court approval is ok. What about physical searches?
• He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures. He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power. He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation: For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury: For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences: He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
• "A Pentagon intelligence agency that kept files on U.S. anti-war activists hired one of the contractors who bribed former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-Calif., to help it collect data on houses of worship, schools, power plants and other locations in the United States."
• Judge orders Gmail disclosure What: In a lawsuit brought by the Federal Trade Commission, a subpoena is sent to Google for the complete contents of a Gmail account, including deleted e-mail messages. This is unrelated to the Department of Justice's own subpoena to Google for search terms and excerpts from its search database.
• The Other Domestic Spying
• And from your local Department of Defense, "We need to go from this concept of need-to-know to need-to-share," he said. "That's a significant paradigm shift." Also The Army notes The idea of persistent surveillance as a transformational capability has circulated within the national intelligence community and the Department of Defense (DOD) for at least 3 years.1 Persistent surveillance, also known as persistent intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR); persistent stare; and pervasive knowledge of the adversary, is an often-used term to describe the need for and application of future ISR capabilities to qualitatively transform intelligence support to operational and tactical commands.2 But, that's just for wartime. Um.
• Isn't it always wartime somewhere?
• The Founders Never Imagined a Bush Administration "George W. Bush and his most trusted advisers, Richard B. Cheney and Donald H. Rumsfeld, entered office determined to restore the authority of the presidency. Five years and many decisions later, they've pushed the expansion of presidential power so far that we now confront a constitutional crisis." (From George Mason University's History News Network) Basically the articles of war don't apply to war on concepts. Like Terrorism.
• George Mason! Woo hoo! Final Four, baby! Woo hoo! You want history? This team of scrappy young men is gonna make history, baby!
• Stay on target! /Porkins
• Censure Hearing Set for Friday
• Tentative Witness List Hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on "An Examination of the Call to Censure the President" Friday, March 31, 2006 9:30 a.m., Dirksen Senate Office Building Room 226 PANEL I Robert F. Turner Associate Director Center for National Security Law University of Virginia Charlottesville, VA Bruce Fein Partner, Fein & Fein Washington, D.C. Lee Casey Partner, Baker & Hostetler Washington, D.C. John Dean White House Counsel to President Richard Nixon Author, Worse than Watergate John Schmidt Partner, Mayer Brown Rowe Maw LLP Chicago, Illinois By order of the Chairman
• Apparently this was the first time Dean has testified before Congress since 1974, the year Nixon resigned.
• Aak, meant to put that here. Move along.
• Where are the droids we're looking for?
• Here.
• Oh, uh, possibly NSFW.
• possibly, yes. eeexcellent
• The President's "good faith" defense
• GAO Report: Feds Not Protecting Our Privacy Rights.
• Gonzales Suggests Legal Basis for Domestic Eavesdropping
• Yeah I heard an audio clip today where he was asked if the warrantless wiretapping targeted "ordinary Americans calling other Americans" and he said he couldn't say that it didn't. Al-Gonzo. The Torture Guy. Ferret face.
• EFF: AT&T forwards all Internet traffic into NSA
• Well fuck. "'The evidence that we are filing supports our claim that AT&T is diverting Internet traffic into the hands of the NSA wholesale, in violation of federal wiretapping laws and the Fourth Amendment,' said EFF Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston. 'More than just threatening individuals' privacy, AT&T's apparent choice to give the government secret, direct access to millions of ordinary Americans' Internet communications is a threat to the Constitution itself. We are asking the Court to put a stop to it now,' said Bankston. EFF's evidence regarding AT&T's dragnet surveillance of its networks includes a declaration by Mark Klein, a retired AT&T telecommunications technician, and several internal AT&T documents. This evidence was bolstered and explained by the expert opinion of J. Scott Marcus, who served as Senior Technical Advisor for Internet Technology to the Federal Communications Commission from July 2001 until July 2005. The internal AT&T documents and portions of the supporting declarations have been submitted to the Court under a tentative seal, a procedure that allows AT&T five court days to explain to the Court why the information should be kept from the public. 'The public deserves to know about AT&T's illegal program,' said EFF Legal Director Cindy Cohn. 'In an abundance of caution, we are providing AT&T with an opportunity to explain itself before this material goes on the public docket, but we believe that justice will ultimately require full disclosure.' The NSA program came to light in December, when the New York Times reported that the President had authorized the agency to intercept telephone and Internet communications inside the United States without the authorization of any court."
• Tell 'em to cut it out.
• Flood 'em. If you all threaten their precious bloody president, they won't be able to get you all. Hahahaha Fuck the Feds!
• Maybe I could get a job there? I mean, sort and filter all kinds of net condutis all day? I do it al least 2 hours daily and ain't getting paid for it!
• AT&T Seeks to Hide Spy Docs
• Dangit! I'll get you one day Red H-dogg! You can't scoop forever!! *goes down with Linkwith Camel*
• "Privacy is the disease"
• America’s Secret Police?
• MSFT, YHOO to build data centers near NSA's in WA?
• Yay. Everyone over to packet radio, stat!
• CIA mines 'rich' content from blogs
• The Pentagon's New Spies: The military has built a vast domestic-intelligence network to fight terrorism -- but it's using it to track students, grandmothers and others protesting the war
• Feds Drop Bomb on EFF Lawsuit
• U.S. Steps Into Wiretap Suit Against AT&T
• A Chilling FBI Fishing Expedition
• Domestic Spying At All Time High
• Spies Among Us: Despite a troubled history, police across the nation are keeping tabs on ordinary Americans
• Oh sure and now I suppose you want to regulate what the police can do! First the president and now the police - honestly, can't you just leave absolute power unchecked for once and for all?! I mean, what would Richard Henry Lee think?!
• Jibber jabber!
• I'm starting to look forward to these midterm elections.
• Good People
• Ex-NSA Chief Assails Bush Taps
• NSA has massive database of Americans' phone calls
• a giant database of every call ever made eh? *knock* *knock* Five minutes Mr. Neo! Five minutes!
• The government has abruptly ended an inquiry into the warrantless eavesdropping program because the National Security Agency refused to grant Justice Department lawyers security clearance.
• And POTUS responds... So far, we've been very successful in preventing another attack on our soil. Good lord Mabel, there could be ANOTHER attack! I say let 'em listen to every phone call... weed out them dirty terrorists!
• ACLU Gains Support of Lawmakers in Court Fight Against Illegal Spying
• NSA Whistleblower To Expose More Unlawful Activity: ‘People…Are Going To Be Shocked’
• Polling hysteria and the NSA program
• while hinting that it might have involved the illegal use of space-based satellites Satellites. I'm sure it involves lasers, too. Maybe this will finally cause a reaction outside of the already outraged segment of the population..? *takes seat beside Estragon, whistles*
• 64% my ass. The real problem, as we all well know, is teh ghey!
• DOJ Moves to Dismiss AT&T Class Action under Cover of Night
• An intelligence expert predicts we'll soon learn that cellphone and Internet companies also cooperated with the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on us.
• *takes picture of screen* *writes down "h-o-m-u-n-c-u-l-u-s" in notebook*
• "We do not listen to domestic phone calls without court approval," Bush said in an East Room news conference So I certainly hope that clears up all this nonsense about the matter. Now off with the lot of you! Go on! Urchins!
• Bush stomps on Fourth Amendment
• *grumbles at the boston.com registration page*
• The Ultimate Net Monitoring Tool
• Yipe
• To Rubber Stamp Is to Weaken Democracy
• New Presidential Memorandum Permits Intelligence Director To Authorize Telcos To Lie Without Violating Securities Law
• It just keeps gettin' better.
• By "a company" I suppose they mean "Haliburton..."
• Homunc: Our wonderful lyin' prez. Just passin' on the old Bushethical political tradition.
• Malcompetence at it's finest.
• Dear NSA
• Studs Terkel sues over phone records
• The Bush administration has urged a judge to dismiss a similar case, saying it threatens to divulge state secrets and jeopardize national security. Also the fnords won't like it either as well.
• German High Court Limits Data-Mining
• Constitutional Disconnect

• According to the NYTimes (and previously USAToday and CNet’s reporting), the Attorney General has been meeting with representatives of the major internet provider companies to persuade them to keep records of all usage by their members so that law enforcement will be able to comb through those records at a later time. ... This all comes down to a matter of trust and, the bottom line for me and I suspect for a lot of you as well: I don’t trust the Bush Administration to do the right thing with this much power over this kind of information. Law enforcement measures must be tempered, always, with the concern for justice, fairness and individual rights. The Bush Administration has shown over and over again that it does not deserve that trust.

• Absolutely, homunculus. I don't trust anyone with this level of information, not Clinton, not Jimmy Carter, not Bush Sr., not anybody. Certainly not the criminal who's in there now.
• State Secrets Defense Shields Administration From Accountability
• Remedial NSA eavesdropping course
• Gutless Republican worms
• NSA Wiretap Reveals Subject May Be Paying Too Much For Long-Distance
• NSA Warrantless Surveillance Case in Court Today
• AT&T: Wired News Is a 'Scofflaw'
• Ah, yes. If your illegal activities are "trade secrets", then it's ok to cover them up!
• *knocks out Lara with chloroform, carries her off* --trade secret! Move along! Nothing to see!
• US data mining program expands: Credit card bills, travel records, car rentals back; Privacy protection out.
• Is the NSA spying on U.S. Internet traffic? Salon exclusive: Two former AT&T employees say the telecom giant has maintained a secret, highly secure room in St. Louis since 2002. Intelligence experts say it bears the earmarks of a National Security Agency operation
• Oh sure and next you're going to say IBM was complicit with the Nazis or something.
• Judge Questions "State Secrets" Claim in AT&T Spy Case
• This could get very interesting, then.
• Your interest in this subject has been recorded for futher analysis. Thank you for your input, citizen.
• Eek-straw! Eek-straw! Read all aboot it! And shiver all our timbers into smithereens.
• *beep* Thank you for contacting The Internet. Your query is very important to us. To be found guilty of a social disease, press one! To be found guilty of a thoughtcrime, press two! To be investigated for alleged activities, press three! To waive all remaining constitutional rights, or to speak to a crime analysis representative, press zero - or stay on the line. "Skyyyyyrockets in flight! . . Afternoon deliiiight! AaaaaaaaAAAAfternoon delight! . . ."
• AT&T rewrites rules: Your data isn't yours
• Data Dada Data Dada ...
• You know what? I chose SBC specifically because it was not AT&T. (AT&T hounded me for months over switching my service, and I have a personal grudge against them. Prior to that, they kept switching me back to their service from SBC because some stupid woman thought that my phone number was hers and kept changing my phone service without my permission.) Now that AT&T bought SBC, I've been tempted to turn off my service. I'm calling and cancelling my service tomorrow. AT&T won't get one more penny of my money. Jerks.
• Template for News Stories on Government Data Gathering
• Bank Data Secretly Reviewed by U.S. to Fight Terror
• Watergate Echoes in NSA Courtroom
• Shit, man. If they keep violating our rights to protect our country, there won't be much of a country worth protecting.
• Gov't Break a Law? Change It
• 'Big Brother' Bush and connecting the data dots: The Total Information Awareness program was killed in 2003, but its spawn present bigger threats to privacy.
• Did Gonzales lie to Congress?
• Spy Agency Sought U.S. Call Records Before 9/11, Lawyers Say
• Supreme Court’s ruling in Hamdan means warrantless eavesdropping is clearly illegal
• What else don't we know about? Hoekstra: Bush Hiding More Unchecked Spy Programs
• Well, I basically like him as a teacher. I mean, his lectures are interesting, he has a good sense of humor, and he doesn't go on and on and get boring. But MAN, those reading assignments! Too much! He's always after us to read EVERYTHING.... ...and what's with his NAME, I mean, what is that? A gay cloud? WhatEVER...
• He's always after us to read EVERYTHING... Oh relax. You think I read all this shit?
• I read everything monkey related.
• Hey, I prefer my news prechewed by Monkeys.
• FBI plans new net-wiretapping push
• Y'know if he did this on the democratic party boards we'd see more uncomfortable shifting up front. Which is proof that he's an undercover operative for the Monkey Liberation Front of Judea. That's right. He's a MoLF. MoLFJ. (it's a silent "J")
• S.F. Evaluating Its Ties to AT&T
• 
• I thought we were the Monkey Liberation Judean Party!
• "Over the span of several decades, AT&T and the city of San Francisco have enjoyed a strong partnership," Coe said in an e-mail message. "We value this relationship and we look forward to conducting full cavity searches of San Francisco residents as we please. I'm talking Roto-Rooter, as in, not stopping until we reach the back of their teeth."
• Is Bush Pulling a Fast One on NSA Warrantless Surveillance?
• For those of you old enough to remember Ma Bell a very funny movie on this very subject is The President's Analyst. It has a truly classic closing scene, plus it's a damn funny movie.
• The White House said today it would consider allowing the FISA court to review its warrantless electronic monitoring program. The devil is in the details: Wouldn't . . a FISA review . . make it . . warranted? Isn't that cheating and patently stupid?
• Act NOW to keep NSA cases in public court
• Sen. Specter's bill on NSA surveillance is a capitulation to administration claims of executive power.
• Feingold: The Administration's Defense for Illegal Wiretapping is Just Plain Gone
• The Administration tried to use the AUMF argument in the Hamdan case too - claiming that it authorized military commissions for detainees. But the Court flatly rejected that idea, just as it rejected the idea that the President's inherent authority as Commander-in-Chief trumps the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The bottom line is that the Court was not buying the extreme theories of executive power put forward by the Administration in the military commissions case, and there is no reason to think it that it would buy those same theories when they are used to justify the illegal wiretapping program. Y'know what would be cool? Is if that smirking war-mongering fsck got impeached.
• Alberto Gonzales admits that it was George Bush himself who gave the order to kill the internal DoJ probe into the NSA domestic spying.
• Finally, the smoking gun that will bring this screeching, hurtling, blatantly corrupt and arrogant administration to heel. h-dogg for POTUS!
• No, it won't. Bush totally believes that his actions were within the justifiable range of presidential actions. In theory it's possible that Congress could impeach him, but the only way that would happen is if the Democrats take win enough seats which, due to gerrymandering, ain't gonna happen.
• Does Gonzalez own a vacation cabin in Colorado..?
• h-dogg for POTUS! My first act will be to create an official Office of Corruption to accept and process bribes. Why screw around?
• Judge rebuffs government on NSA spying
• But no case dismissed because its “very subject matter” was a state secret involved ongoing, widespread violations of individual constitutional rights, as plaintiffs allege here. Indeed, most cases in which the “very subject matter” was a state secret involved classified details about either a highly technical invention or a covert espionage relationship. So continued monitoring of citizens is not itself a "state secret", therefore no dismissal. PvvNa63!
• The NSA and the Bells
• Judge dismisses phone records lawsuit (Not this one.)
• Ex-NSA Officer Subpoenaed in Leaks Case
• Specter Rushing Thursday Vote on Surveillance Bill
• White House Proposal Would Expand Authority of Military Courts
• A draft Bush administration plan for special military courts seeks to expand the reach and authority of such "commissions" to include trials, for the first time, of people who are not members of al-Qaeda or the Taliban and are not directly involved in acts of international terrorism, according to officials familiar with the proposal. Soo . . anybody?
• At the risk of being condemned for posting in an older thread, or just for breathing, what exactly is your question? Are you looking for Bush supporters to dialog with? Or anti-Bush peoples to commenserate with?
• OH fuck.
• The military's top uniformed lawyers, appearing at a Senate hearing Wednesday, criticized key provisions of a proposed new U.S. plan for special military courts, affirming that they do not see eye to eye with the senior Bush administration officials who developed the plan and presented it to them last week. The lawyers' rare, open disagreement with civilian officials at the Pentagon, the Justice Department and the White House came during discussions of proposed new rules for the use of evidence derived from hearsay or coercion and the possible exclusion of defendants from the trials in some circumstances. Another blow to the Bush administration. Right? But then I read this.
• Did that trycicle dude change that to "commensurate" again?
• Berek, it's just an update to old threads, with links to news reports. One of the really nice things about MoFi is that we can do that. The effect is to give us a history of events, even though it might be slanted to the liberal side in reporting. Homunculus has been the leader in this, and an inspiration to many of us. So, try reading the whole thread, and if you run across any other updates from reasonable sources, add them. It doesn't require comment from the poster, though it will sometimes spark it from those who didn't post the new link. If there's an issue you'd like to follow, I suggest you bookmark the original thread that addressed it and add links to other sources as they come along.
• And while you;re at it, read the entire Daisy_May! thread in one night. Your outlook on life will never be the same again.
• Daisy_May should be required reading for all new sign-ups.
• Homunculus has been the leader in this, and an inspiration to many of us. I thought I was just compulsive. *blushes*
• Compulsion can be very inspiring. *dusts fan blades, vacuums cat*
• *checks fifty-nine times that the oven is off*
• Don't forget the burners.
• And lock the back door.
• An item of recurring amazement to the studious MoFiphile is the sheer persistence and unfailing memory displayed by homunculus. While anyone can be an avid reader, H displays the uncanny ability to append the best morsels of the day's news to just the right dusty old thread, and in so doing offers a fresh bit of intelligence or opinion to an otherwise stale thread. He is my reading adjunct, and internet hero.
• Know I would get so depressed doing what homunculus so effortlessly and ably does, I'd go for a long walk in the Bay of Fundy and not come back till after the lobsters ate me. /seriously
• Till yellow or red lobsters ate you?
• Likely I'd be the last one could answer your question given the aforementioned hypothesis, ye know, Berek. what dead folk see lies well beyond me as of this date and time, anyway
• AT&T spying lawsuit delayed
• Dishonesty by the right on terrorists and eavesdropping
• Eavesdropping and the Election: An Answer on the Question of Timing
• Legal surveillance, not illegal eavesdropping, stopped the U.K. terrorist attacks
• Hey homunculus, take a break, okay? I'm trying to watch Fear Factor. The chicks on this show have total washboard abs.
• The sad part is that somewhere in the US there is a database with your name, ip address, home address and ss number on it and the phrase "likes washboard abs".
• I have long thought that homunculus does all my homework for me. I am somewhat indebted to him/her for my bigg(ish) brain. I want to know.......where does (s)he find the time???
• Linear time is an illusion, man. That's the secret THEY are trying to protect! Wake up!
• He's just a bigger, more prolific part of Trycicle's illusion. Goat on a pole, dude. Goat on a pole.
• Judge: Wiretap Program Unconstitutional
• "the president of the United States ... has undisputedly violated the Fourth (Amendment of the United States Constitution) in failing to procure judicial orders." Wow! But will any of this stick? I'm waiting for a grand media ploy to distract the masses within the next day or so.
• Ooops, meant to provide a link. [.pdf] The President of the United States, a creature of the same Constitution which gave us these Amendments, has undisputedly violated the Fourth in failing to procure judicial orders as required by FISA, and accordingly has violated the First Amendment Rights of these Plaintiffs as well.
• Analysis from Glenn Greenwald.
• homunculus: that analysis had me on the edge of tears. A bit more hope is startling. On the other hand, should we expect Bush to ignore this the same way he has legislative bills which he's signed, but declared that he was going to ignore?
• Cafferty on the NSA Ruling: Bush is breaking the Law! Jonathon Turley Discusses Today’s Ruling
• should we expect Bush to ignore this the same way he has legislative bills which he's signed That's what I expect him to do.
• Now watch this drive.
• That's what I expect him to do. I also expect the US media and populace, in general, to do so as well. Take a look at today's CNN headlines (not that I would recommend anyone to rely on CNN for accurate news); the so-called headlines are of a tabloid nature. Why is American Idol so important? Do I care that a Sixth Sense star may do jail time? They don't even touch this ruling. As far as I'm concerned, Bush has a free-for-all pass. Every day, I lose more and more faith in my country. I don't look up to it anymore - I'm ashamed of it.
• I would say that those who herald this decision simply do not understand the nature of the world in which we live. Gee, thanks cluing me in George! Doh!
• ACLU vs. NSA: Don't pop the cork on the champagne yet
• Two Strange Deaths in European Wiretapping Scandal
• Swiftboating the Fourth Amendment in the Name of the War On Terrorism
• The Bloggerati response to Judge Taylor's ruling in the NSA Case
• "If this program is unlawful, federal law expressly makes the ordering of surveillance under the program a federal felony. That would mean that the president could be guilty of no fewer than 30 felonies in office."
• Cell phones won't keep your secrets Okay, it's not necessarily BushCo, but word to the wise eh.
• Financial aid records of college students examined in terrorist search
• The bill proposes a monitoring centre, apparently with Chinese technology, that would eavesdrop on telephone, internet and other communications. The government says the bill is similar to anti-terror laws elsewhere to protect people from organised crime. Zimbabwe decides privacy is not worth anything. BushCo to US: Great!
• The NSA and the McGowan case (crossposted for reference.)
• The Further Dangers of Secrecy: A Federal District Court Interprets the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to Allow Spying on Those Who Are Neither Spies Nor Terrorists
• Republican Rift Over Wiretapping Widens
• I don't buy that last one. Newt's legacy is nothing if not blind fealty. Silence!!
• Routine credit check uncovers “Son of Saddam Hussein” in Arcata
• “I am so tired of constantly having a sense that we are not good enough to co-exist with others on this Earth; that everything is extra hard and an extra struggle for us and I am guilty of letting some fear dictate to me when I wake up in the wee morning hours reflecting on the hate in peoples eyes and fear they will target our family,” said Hassan’s wife. Wow that's . . . y'know.
• Another major NSA legal defeat for the Bush administration
• Hidden Depths to U.S. Monitoring
• Here comes the Specter bill.
• Digital Rights Ireland challenges EU mass surveillance law
• Sen. Reid: The Specter bill will NOT be enacted. Period.
• Bush: The Illegal Eavesdropping Program
• All the reasons to hate Bush's wiretapping bill.
• Gonzales wants Internet records saved
• Oy vey.
• Everyone is guilty until proven innocent!
• This entire thread makes me want to run through the streets screaming, "Freedom! Let the bells of freedom peal throughout the lands!"
• Inside the Feds' Secret Wiretapping Rooms
• Arlen Specter Introduces Bill To Let President Do Whatever the Fuck He Wants A Grateful President Bush Lets Out Huge Fart, Makes Goofy Face (Okay that's not the actual title) A bill now pending in the Senate would make the Bush administration's enemy wiretapping program more practical and flexible, removing all doubt about its legality. . . . The group quotes Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) as saying that Specter's bill would "immunize officials who have violated federal law by authorizing such illegal activities." . . .Specter's bill, passed last week by the Judiciary Committee, could come up for a vote in the full Senate this week. Strangely, there was no major media coverage of this.
• "For the last two months, constituents' phone calls and letters have helped hold back dangerous legislation related to the NSA spying program. But in the last week before the pre-election recess, the White House and several Congressional leaders are trying to sneak these bills through and effect the single greatest expansion of government surveillance ever. Take action now to stop the illegal surveillance, before it's too late."
• If I had any expectation that the congresspersons actually read these bills I'd feel better.
• Countdown to more warrantless spying?
• If congress can pass a bill that says certain people cannot be prosecuted for doing illegal things like spy on citizens and torture people, can a later congress pass a separate bill that takes it back and says they can be prosecuted?
• No, because this congress called "grease".
• The intelligence report cites "leftist" groups as a terror threat
• McVeigh registered as a Republican in New York Leftists, hmm?
• Judge Taylor defies the Leader again
• Thanks for the link homunculus. One positive piece of news on this bleak day.
• Court allows government to keep surveillance for now
• Kellogg Brown & Root, a Halliburton subsidiary, is constructing a huge facility at an undisclosed location to hold tens of thousands of Bush's "unlawful enemy combatants." Americans are certain to be among them.
• Documents Shed New Light on Pentagon Surveillance of Peace Activists
• As I know this happened to me in the past, it's comforting to know nothing has changed - yet, only gotten worse. One document, which is labeled "potential terrorist activity," lists events such as a "Stop the War NOW!" rally in Akron, Ohio on March 19, 2005. The source noted that the rally "will have a March and Reading of Names of War Dead" and that marchers would pass a military recruitment station and the local FBI office along the way.
• Everyone should give 20 bucks to the ACLU. Really.
• FBI director wants ISPs to track users
• My New Total Information Awareness Technique Will Be Totally Unstoppable
• But check this out! The problem with the old method of data mining, according to Tangram's caretakers, is that they used a "guilt-by-association" model -- that is, it found terror suspects by seeing who was linked to known or suspected terrorists. Tangram tosses that outmoded concept. It can find terrorists even among innocent people with no ties to suspected terrorists! What you looking at, terrorist sheep pimp?
• Warrantless Wiretaps are WORTHLESS
• The NSA song (Flash).
• Spy planes, clothes scanners and secret cameras: Britain's surveillance future
• Two major NSA surveillance apologists pay the price at the polls
• Warrantless searches could end bipartisan pleasantries
• Will the lame-duck Congress grant immunity for the NSA program?
• Attorneys for telecommunications companies from around the nation converge to answer 48 separate lawsuits charging collusion with illegal government surveillance.
• One Last Legislative Push to Legalize Warrantless Surveillance
• DoJ Quashes Wiretapping Inquiries
• Just fucking pathetic.
• Lack of Progress Seen in Shutting Down Bush's Warantless Wiretapping Program
• Lost In Translation
• DoJ Suddenly Decides to Investigate Domestic Spying
• American Authorities Secretly Give International Travellers Terrorist "Risk" Score
• Court Says FBI Can Use Your Cell Phone To Spy... On You
• The FBI can listen to everything you say, even when the cell phone is turned off. A recent court ruling in a case against the Genovese crime family revealed that the FBI has the ability from a remote location to activate a cell phone and turn its microphone into a listening device that transmits to an FBI listening post, a method known as a "roving bug." Experts say the only way to defeat it is to remove the cell phone battery. Fuckin' A. They'll never get me Lucky Charms tho.
• Bush 'Privacy Board' Just a Gag
• Showdown looms in debate over domestic spying
• No Decision in Media, AT&T Clash
• You’ve got mail — which Bush thinks he can read
• Just because the signing statement undermines the law it's signing, doesn't mean . . that . . . . He's the Decider!
• Why don't they just issue one big blanket signing statement, reading "we can do whatever we like, whenever we like", and just be done with it? All these niggling little stories are distracting me from Skating With Celebrities and Criss Angel Mindfreak.
• The spy who came in from the boardroom: Why John Michael McConnell, a top executive at a private defense contractor, should not be allowed to run our nation's intelligence agencies.
• "The rift over increased domestic surveillance was the real reason Negroponte was forced out."
• Secure Beneath the Watchful Eyes
• Libraries are dangerous places
• Military Expands Domestic Surveillance
• The Pentagon's Secret Database on Peaceful Protest
• Alberto Gonzales Should Be Impeached
• Gonzales: NSA Wiretapping Now Subject to Court Approval
• Reports of the NSA Program's Death: Greatly Exaggerated?
• AT&T Ducks Accountability
• Stories from the History of U.S. Government Surveillance
• Rockefeller on Bush’s NSA Shift: ‘Unacceptable,’ ‘I Can’t Trust What They’re Doing’
• Update on the Sixth Circuit Litigation Challenging the NSA's Terrorist Surveillance Program
• QUESTION: In that same vein, the White House reversed course and said it was going to submit its program to court review. Yet, as chairman of the committee they so far, I believe, have refused to show you the details of that agreement. Do you think they’re trying to hide something? ROCKEFELLER: Yes, I do. Never doubt my answer to a question like that when it comes to the White House and sharing intelligence. Allowing the Intelligence Committees to do their lawful work. Without oversight, governments run amuck. They can’t help it.
• Why Congress Needs to Probe the NSA Domestic Surveillance Program: The Bush Administration's Promise to Secure Prior Warrants Is a Positive Step, But Oversight is Required
• H-Doggy-Dogg: That Tracked in America link should be an FPP. Get on it.
• h-dogg is pretty much one of the heartbeats of this site.
• Get on it. posted by HawthorneWingo Hey, you're not the Decider, you can't tell me what to do! You do it!
• We report, you decide. Get on it, somebody or other. /can't decide in the absence of Decider
• The FBI appears to have adopted an invasive Internet surveillance technique that collects far more data on innocent Americans than previously has been disclosed.
• Wolof, can't you just wave your magic arse at MoFi and make the post appear? You have the power!
• Yeah, Wolof, get on that.
• Yeah, Wolof, get on that.
• Oh, Jesus freaking Christmas.
• Already?? *checks calendar*
• Only 329 days to go. Or so.
• Sowing the Seeds of Surveillance
• Government Seeks To Halt Telecom Spying Suits
• Is Wolof finished with that yet? I'm gettin' tired of wearing this tin-foil hat. It does nothing to keep the reality out
• No More Porn for You
• "Illusions of Security: Global Surveillance and Democracy in the Post-9/11 World"
• DHS Already Mining Private Data from Citizens?
• Britain to Fingerprint Children 11 and Older

• It could be a scene from Kafka or Brazil. Imagine a government agency, in a bureaucratic foul-up, accidentally gives you a copy of a document marked "top secret." And it contains a log of some of your private phone calls. You read it and ponder it and wonder what it all means. Then, two months later, the FBI shows up at your door, demands the document back and orders you to forget you ever saw it.

• Whistle-blower Had to Fight NSA, LA Times to Tell Story
• How to use Google Maps to see the sunglasses on a person from space wow.
• Total Information Awareness Returns Do not adjust your set.
• Audit: FBI snooping did not follow rules In 2004 and 2005, more than half of the targets of the national security letters were U.S. citizens.
• FISA also requires that the target of the surveillance be "a foreign power or an agent of a foreign power" and that "the purpose of the surveillance is to obtain foreign intelligence information" and nothing more. Oops.
• Big Brother State
• Spying Too Secret For Your Court: AT&T, Gov Tell Ninth
• Gonzales Knew Probe Would Target Him, Helped Kill It, Report Says
• The denial of security clearances by the attorney general and the president in order to block an investigation by OPR was the first ever such denial
• Attorney General Alberto Gonzales helped shut down an internal investigation into the Administration's warrantless wiretapping program after he learned that probe might look into his actions when he served in the White House, according to an explosive story from National Journal's Murray Waas that calls into question whether President Bush or Gonzales killed the probe for purely political reasons. Niiiiiiiice. The ghost of Tricky Dick is looming.
• The significance of the FBI's law-breaking
• FBI Confirms Contracts with AT&T, Verizon and MCI
• FBI Response To Subpoena Rule Breaking? Remove Rules
• Coleen Rowley: When Will We Ever Learn? The Green Light Always Goes Out.
• FBI Monitoring 1,000 People a Day on Watch List
• Washington state creates an RFID driver's license which could serve as a passport alternative. *beep*
• (Crossposted with "Bikes Against Bush" thread) City Police Spied Broadly Before G.O.P. Convention From Albuquerque to Montreal, San Francisco to Miami, undercover New York police officers attended meetings of political groups, posing as sympathizers or fellow activists, the records show. They made friends, shared meals, swapped e-mail messages and then filed daily reports with the department’s Intelligence Division. Other investigators mined Internet sites and chat rooms.
• George Orwell, Big Brother is watching your house
• The graphic alone was worth it!
• Fortunately the Internets are watching the cameras. Which in turn are being watched by the Meganets. Who are watched by the Ultranets. . . . I've said enough.
• Spy Chief Seeks to Expand Power
• Professor: Bashing Bush Got Me on Watch List; Suggests NSA Might Have Taken Him Off
• Schoolchildren to be fingerprinted The rest of you queue up.
• Roundup of No-Fly lists and other watchlists
• Intelligence Chiefs Want to Free Spying Telcos
• Our benevolent surveillance state: Both the scope and the number of databases maintained by the federal government on American citizens continue to grow
• SEC. 408. LIABILITY DEFENSE. (a) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other law, and in addition to the immunities, privileges, and defenses provided by any other source of law, no action shall lie or be maintained in any court, and no penalty, sanction, or other form of remedy or relief shall be imposed by any court or any other body, against any person for the alleged provision to an element of the intelligence community of any information (including records or other information pertaining to a customer), facilities, or any other form of assistance, during the period of time beginning on September 11, 2001, and ending on the date that is the effective date of this Act, in connection with any alleged classified communications intelligence activity that the Attorney General or a designee of the Attorney General certifies, in a manner consistent with the protection of State secrets, is, was, would be, or would have been intended to protect the United States from a terrorist attack. This section shall apply to all actions, claims, or proceedings pending on or after the effective date of this Act. Nice. They already got one for the torturers. One more for pedophile priests and its pretty well sewn up! Mission Accomplished! Heckuva job, Bushie.
• Spying on Americans: Suddenly, Mr. Bush is in a hurry.
• House Affirms No Domestic Eavesdropping Without Warrant
• Reminder: Monday is Wiretap the Internet Day
• I'll BAKE A CAKE?
• Make it choclate!
• Military puts YouTube, MySpace, other sites off limits Not sure if this is the thread, but I didn't want to start a new one. Am I the only one who thinks the main reason behind this is to stop soldiers posting the frontline videos and pictures they've been posting?
• Nope, that was my first thought, too.
• Where's the cake?
• Government confiscated it.
• PBS's "Frontline: Spying on the Home Front"
• Government confiscated it. posted by Lara at 09:59PM UTC on May 14, 200 You just violated your Patriot Act gag order. Make more cake or I'll snich. That'll teach you to try to eat me.
• Gonzales vs. Ashcroft on wiretapping.
• Weird. To think John Ashcroft did the right thing at some point.
• Comey's testimony raises new and vital questions about the NSA scandal
• Comey and the Phone Companies' Role in the NSA Program
• An FBI Target Puts His Whole Life Online
• Well, that's one way to do it.
• House Intelligence Committee to Probe Telcos Involvement in Domestic Spying
• Man, I bet Al-Gonzo is gonna totally, like, tell the truth this time. So, obviously, there's no need to put him under oath. Just like last time, right Ol' Senator Specter, ol' buddy?
• Everyone time I see the name Specter, I flash to this guy running around in a sheet with a gavel. Forget the oath, I'll be impressed if he can remember what he had for breakfast. Seriously, does it bother anyone else that the AG spends all his time black out drunk? Just because it's how everyone else deals with the administration...
• NSA surveillance program may have skirted 1991 law on congressional notification, say Democrats
• Official: Cheney Urged Wiretaps
• *yawn Why does the news bother reporting this shit? Why bother posting it? We ALL KNOW Cheney and Bush are lying, conniving, war-mongering bastards, and NOT A DAMN THING IS GOING TO BE DONE ABOUT IT. Move on to a post about motorized couches or something. *opens new bottle of booze for inner cynic
• Why bother posting it? Well, I tried posting in another thread, and all I got were SNAKE FANGS IN MY PENIS. Word to the wise: snake venom in your urethra burns worse than the clap. It's just not worth it.
• Justice Lawyer Refuses to Give Congress Legal Opinions on NSA Surveillance Program
• AT&T 'Spy Room' Documents Released, Confirm Wired News' Earlier Publication
• Secret Spying on Americans: The Top Unanswered Questions
• The CIA's Family Jewels: Agency Violated Charter for 25 Years,Wiretapped Journalists and Dissidents
• iPhone Lemmings Line Up For NSA Surveillance
• Appeals Court Tosses Anti-NSA Spying Suit ACLU Slams Appeals Court Decision in NSA Surveillance Case
• Almost a slam dunk, baby! From the lone dissenter: The closest question in this case, in my opinion, is whether the plaintiffs have the standing to sue. Once past that hurdle, however, the rest gets progressively easier. I.e., yeah, the NSA program was illegal, but too bad you can't do squat about it! Pfffbbbt!
• NSA Wiretap Issue Isn't Dead Yet
• Glenn Greenwald's take on the NSA ruling.
• *astonished at self for picking out the same quote that Glenn did, and a day earlier here on MoFi* Apparently I had too much time on my hands to read the entire 65-page opinion...
• FBI's Secret Spyware Tracks Down Teen Who Made Bomb Threat
• Don't ya hate it when the ends appear to justify the means?
• MethCheck notifies detectives via e-mail when a customer has exceeded the purchase limit of cold medicines containing pseudoephedrine. An updated version of MethCheck eventually will enable law enforcement to track purchases by neighborhood or street... MethCheck will be used at some 7,000 pharmacies in 43 states by next year
• FBI Unit That Lied To Get Phone Records Now Wants $5 Million To Pay Snooping Telecoms
• The Justice Department's "historic" new oversight of the FBI is none of those things.
• Prepare for more domestic spying.
• Gonzales Contradicts Prior Statements, Confirms Existence Of Other Spying Programs And why is he still here? Someone refresh my memory. Liar is not strong enough of a word...
• What were the pre-2005 "other intelligence activities"?
• ACLU Slams FBI Plan to Pay Telecoms to Store Phone Records Judge Allows State Anti-Spying Lawsuits Against Telecoms to Continue
• Analysis: Gonzales Testimony Part of Broader Effort to Conceal Surveillance Program
• NSA Spying Bill Headed for Vote This Week!
• Democrats Halt Move to Revamp Spying Laws
• NSA Spying Part of Broader Effort
• Government Presses to Turn Internet into Giant Spy Machine; AP Reports Citizen's Rights Being Protected
• Court Ruling that NSA Wiretapping is Illegal Drives Emergency Push for New Spy Powers, MSNBC Reports
• What's Going On with the FISA Fix?
• The Party of Fear, the Party Without A Spine, and the National Surveillance State
• Thanks again for all the good links, H Dawg.
• Helpful FISA Posts
• Analysis: New Law Gives Government Six Months to Turn Internet and Phone Systems into Permanent Spying Architecture
• When Does the Sun Set on Warrantless Surveillance?
• Editorials On FISA: ‘Unnecessary And Dangerous Expansion of President Bush’s Powers’
• Security-Theater Cameras Coming to New York
• Administration Response to Spy Bill Critics Shows Why the "Surveillance Gap" Should Never Have Been Filled
• ACLU Asks Secret Intelligence Court to Release Orders That Led to "Emergency" Wiretapping Legislation
• The Protect Alberto Gonzales Act of 2007
• Jeez, my Congressman voted against it. To whom should my angry letter go?
• A Gateway for Hackers: The Security Threat in the New Wiretapping Law
• Zimbabwe President Signs Eavesdropping Bill
• Gitmo Lawyers File Constitutional Challenge Of Recently-Passed FISA Bill
• China Enacting a High-Tech Plan to Track People
• How the Fight for Vast New Spying Powers Was Won
• Secret Spying Showdown Hits Federal Appeals Court Wednesday
• DHS to Get Access to Spy Satellite Intel
• I just had a flashback to the Mad mags Spy vs. Spy cartoons. Go figger. They were amusing. This is not.
• Analysis: Some Secret Documents Are Too Secret Even for Critical Judges
• FBI Office Under Investigation Involved in Secret Spying Controversy
• More Duplicity in the FISA Stampede
• Happy Warrantless Surveillance Subpoena Day!
• California Police Camera Surveillance Increasing On the Ineffectiveness of Security Cameras
• DOD 'Talon' Database Declawed
• DHS Data Mining Program Suspended After Evading Privacy Review, Audit Finds
• DNI McConnell: ‘Americans Are Going To Die’ If We Keep Talking About Wiretapping
• Spy Chief Torpedos Government's Lawyering in Spy Cases Oops.
• What’s the Game Plan, Charlie Brown?
• Point, Click ... Eavesdrop: How the FBI Wiretap Net Operates
• FBI Spy Docs Show G-Men Don't Understand Security, Professor Says
• Warrantless surveillance and the new Coretta Scott King disclosures
• Lawmakers Challenge Plan to Expand Spying: Concerns Focus on Domestic Use of Satellite Technology and How U.S. Will Protect Civil Liberties
• F.B.I. Data Mining Reached Beyond Initial Targets
• Rogue FBI Letters Hint at Phone Companies' Own Data Mining Programs
• Britain Big Brother Spots Energy Wasters (and Wants Your DNA, Too)
• NSF's Dark Web project will "snag extremists and terrorists online"
• Republicans pushed 'bogus' terror threat to expand FISA, lawmaker says
• Surveillance Society Clock
• McConnell: That's Right, Openness Kills Americans
• “If you’re going to do cybersecurity, you have to spy on Americans to secure Americans,” said a former government official familiar with NSA operations. “It would be a very major step.”
• "Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"
• Former Clinton officials lobby for amnesty for FISA lawbreaking
• No Dragnet, No Billions in Fines: Why Do Nation's Spying Telcos Need Immunity From Congress?
• Bush Used Bogus Terror Threat To Scare Votes For FISA Bill
• Spies Prep Reporters on Protecting Secrets
• New AT&T terms of service: We'll cut off your Internet connection for criticizing us
• Former DOJ Lawyer Couldn't Find Way to Legalize Bush Spying Program
• Dems Ask Telcos Spying Questions
• Dems Postpone Rollout Of Controversial Wiretapping Bill
• Sniping Security Cameras
• Dems To Propose Permanent Expanded Spy Powers, But With Audits
• Dammit, Homie, don't you have any GOOD news? (Bush shoots self or something similar?)
• What FISA capitulations are Democrats planning next?
• NSA's Lucky Break: How the U.S. Became Switchboard to the World
• NSA's Lucky Break: How the U.S. Became Switchboard to the World
• Wha?
• "There are about three or four buildings you need to tap," Beckert says. "In L.A. there is 1 Wilshire; in New York, 60 Hudson, and in Miami, the NAP of the Americas." Having personally witnessed the innards of 60 Hudson, and one other "key" building in Manhattan, I can attest to this statement. In all honesty, I have long thought that such "key" buildings would be prime targets for something that I'm not going to mention. But there they sit, completely innocuous to the unknowing public... the potential for abuse by a government entity is real and quite frightening. Not only that, but these massive network hubs are eerie places - - - a fortresses of maze-like rooms that are devoid of human life, only to be occupied by miles upon miles of fiber optics, routers, racks, and halon gas canisters. It was quite awe-inspiring to realize that billions of data packets were whooshing too-and-fro in all directions - - major networks/backbones meeting in a single, relatively miniscule, spot. Human life is second to the network infrastructure.
• >Human life is second to the network infrastructure. *adds sugarmilktea to list of 404*
• The National Security Agency and other government agencies retaliated against Qwest because the Denver telco refused to go along with a phone spying program, documents released Wednesday suggest.
• *adds sugarmilktea to list of 404* So, do we have our own page??
• Congress should not assist in a cover-up of NSA spying
• NSA Domestic Surveillance Began 7 Months Before 9/11, Convicted Qwest CEO Claims Qwest CEO Not Alone in Alleging NSA Started Domestic Phone Record Program 7 Months Before 9/11
• Hundreds of New Documents Reveal Expanded Military Role in Domestic Surveillance
• FISA Update
• Verizon Turned Over Customer Records Without Court Order
• AT&T, other telecoms, buy victory in lawsuits Sounds like the clock needs to be moved up.
• Let's just describe very factually and dispassionately what has happened here. Congress -- led by Senators, such as Jay Rockefeller, who have received huge payments from the telecom industry, and by privatized intelligence pioneer Mike McConnell, former Chairman of the secretive intelligence industry association that has been demanding telecom amnesty -- is going to intervene directly in the pending lawsuits against AT&T and other telecoms and declare them the winners on the ground that they did nothing wrong. Hey, at least the SCOTUS didn't have to do it. Again. I mean, that's how government is supposed to work, right? Lawmakers accept monies on behalf of wealthy private interests and then promote legislation drafted by those interests. Eeeverything's fine.
• Dodd says he is prepared to Filibuster the FISA/Telecom immunity bill
• Go Dodd! Running for POTUS eh? . . . mmGO Onnnn . .
• Democratic Lawmaker Pushing Immunity Is Newly Flush With Telco Cash
• Why, Even If You Have Nothing To Hide, Government Surveillance Threatens Your Freedom: The Case Against Expanding Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Powers
• AT&T Explains Guilt by Association
• ‘When the President Does it, That Means That it is Not Illegal’
• ‘When president Bush does it, that means it must be illegal’. There, fixed that for you.
• No email privacy rights under Constitution, US gov claims
• Color Of Law: FISA Review, Part I Color Of Law: FISA Review, Part II
• AT&T Whistleblower: Telecom Immunity Is A Cover-Up
• US intelligence honcho channels Orwell, redefines privacy
• The Cafferty File: Redefining Privacy
• Wiretapping Probe, Shut Down by Bush, Reopens
• Analysis: Renewed Wiretapping Probe Hints at Backroom Deal on Telco Immunity
• Important day for FISA and amnesty
• I think I'm gay for Jack Cafferty.
• Court rejects challenge to wiretap program: The Bush administration's warrantless spy effort is protected by the 'state secrets' privilege, federal judges rule.
• "We are all suspects now."
• Time's Columnist Joe Klein Butchers Wiretapping Debate
• Cellphone Tracking Powers on Request: Secret Warrants Granted Without Probable Cause
• DHS to firefighters: snoop on emergency victims for evidence of terrorism
• Surveillance Doesn't Mean What You Think It Means
• Activists see Senate Dems backing down to Bush, ready to give immunity to phone companies
• The Lawless Surveillance State
• Myths and Reality Regarding Immunity
• Dodd filibuster threat causes Reid to withdraw FISA bill
• FBI Prepares Vast Database Of Biometrics
• Leading surveillance societies in the EU and the World 2007
• Chris Dodd Vows to Keep On Fighting Bush's FISA Bill
• Chris Dodd. Now that guy would make a good president.
• Obama: No warrantless wiretaps if you elect me
• I scored Chris Dodd on one of those "Who should you be voting for President?" quiz thingies. I'd never heard of him before, but after reading around a bit it seems a shame he's dropped out of the race already. Not that he was ever going to win anyway. Sigh.
• FBI Wiretap Cut Off After Feds Fail To Pay Telecom Spying Bills
• Dodd, Blogosphere Wins On Retroactive Telecom Immunity
• US drafting plan to allow government access to any email or Web search
• Holey Croley. If the NSA is maintaining a database of the silliest people in America, I'll be Public Enema #1.
• FBI wants instant access to British identity data
• The US-initiated programme, "Server in the Sky"... Someone's been watching too many Schwartzenegger movies.
• FISA Debate - Clinton And Obama Are No Shows
• Spying Showdown Pushed to Hours Before State of Union Address; No Civil Lib Amendments Allowed
• Stop The Spying!
• Collateral Damage: Surveillance Aimed at Terrorists Can Easily Go Awry
• FISA: It’s A Sunday FAX-a-thon For The Rule Of Law
• What's at stake today in the Senate's FISA filibuster vote
• Dems Defeat Republican Fast Tracking of Spying and Telco Immunity Bill What's Next
• Abracadabra! Bush Makes Privacy Board Vanish
• Bush Administration Plans To Install Black Box Sensors On Private-Sector Computer Networks
• Is Retroactive Telecom Immunity Unconsitutional?
• Is Retroactive Telecom Immunity Unconsitutional?
• Well?! Is it?!?!
• The WSJ editorial page lies about our surveillance laws
• Senate Keeps Telecom Spying Immunity
• Amnesty Day for Bush and lawbreaking telecoms: The Senate's actions today in permanently protecting Bush officials from clear lawbreaking illustrate how far we've tumbled from the Church Committee of the post-Watergate era.
• Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck! I helped get some of these weasley, turncoat dems elected. I am ashamed, appalled, angry $%^&*#@
• Remember this when the next round of Nader-bashing starts up.
• I helped get some of these weasley, turncoat dems elected. Tell me about it. I just let mine know they've lost my support.
• GOD DAMMIT A total of 18 Democrats joined all Republicans in voting for immunity: Bayh, Inouye, Johnson, Landrieu, McCaskill, Ben Nelson, Bill Nelson, Stabenow, Feinstein, Kohl, Pryor, Rockefeller, Salazar, Carper, Mikulski, Conrad, Webb, and Lincoln. Obama voted against immunity, and Hillary Clinton was the only Senator not voting.
• Hillary Clinton was the only Senator not voting. Plausible deniability.
• Wonder if she'll give up on her criticisms of Obama's voting record now.
• Why? Since her vote 'wouldn't have mattered', he was just showboating...
• Say, isn't she running for some sort of "leadership" position? Seems as if she doesn't actually understand the concept. I left her camp along time ago, but if I hadn't, today's "vote" would have been the clincher.
• Bush: Dem Effort to Extend Surveillance Law That Must Not Lapse Is Unacceptable
• Damn, I wish I'd read that before eating lunch. Feeling decidedly queasy now.
• "There is a very real and perverse possibility that the NFL will face tougher sanctions for spying on practice squads and covering it up than the telecoms and this President will face for spying on the citizenry and lying about it."
• House Rejects Spy Bill Extension, Setting Stage for Adoption of Telco Amnesty and Wider Spy Powers The ACLU Calls on Congress to Let Spying Law Expire
• House Democrats Stand Up To Bush, Refuse to Rubber Stamp Domestic Spying
• Jihadis throw a wild bash over the Protect America Act
• Countdown Special Comment on FISA: President Bush Is A Liar And A Fascist
• The Spies Who Love You!
• Analysts say FISA will suffice
• Are we dead yet?
• SCOTUS Rejects Warrantless Wiretapping Challenge Case
• Keith Olbermann talks to Constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley about the Supreme Court’s decision to not hear the ACLU vs. NSA case on warrantless wiretapping.
• GOP’s FISA Thriller: 3, .. 2, .. 1 .. We’re All Going to Die! Dems’ FISA Thriller: 3, .. 2, .. 1 .. The Constitution Is Saved!
• Secret Spy Ruling Contaminates Debate
• The most spied upon people in Europe
• The White House has problem ridden email software? I get the feeling that they thought they were avoiding problems by trashing anything they don't want the world out here to see. I find it hard to give them the benefit of the doubt.
• Billboard Liberation Front vs. ATT + NSA
• U.S. Terror Watch List Surpasses 900,000 Names, ACLU Estimates
• Bush: Americans ‘Ought To Say Thank You’ To Telecoms For ‘Performing A Patriotic Service’
• George W. Bush, Stereotypical Jewish Mother "You're velcome."
• Remixing the London police's anti-photographer terrror posters
• Whistle-Blower: Feds Have a High-Speed Backdoor Into Wireless Carrier
• The Myth of the 'Transparent Society'
• The banality of the surveillance state
• The Colbert Report: AT & Treason
• NSA's Domestic Spying Grows As Agency Sweeps Up Data
• House Surveillance Bill Contains Provision to Aid Telecom Suits
• Hoover-Era Spying on Father Motivated Anti-Wiretapping Plaintiff
• House Democrats: Classified Documents Show Telcos Don't Deserve Amnesty Congress Holds Rare, Secret Spying Session Thursday
• House Passes Spy Bill, Rejects Telcom Amnesty Despite Veto Threat
• Put young children on DNA list, urge police
• Salmon and lox adorn many appetizers; nevertheless, don't eat roe.
• See here. *patches teh leaky interweb pipe*
• Qwest CEO Gets New Trial, But Not For Pre-9/11 Domestic Spying Claims
• Help Name the Homeland Security Privacy Pig
• One Raid at a Time: How Immigrant Crackdowns Build the National Security State
• Color-Coded Threat Level System In New Colors for Spring!
• Debate and Protest at Spy Program’s Inception
• Hackers Publish German Minister's Fingerprint
• Eric Lichtblau on Exposing the NSA’s Warrantless Wiretapping Program and How the White House Pressured the New York Times to Kill the Story
• FBI wiretaps of MLK "a wonderful resource".
• Hoover's contempt for King's private behavior... HA HA HA ha ha ha ha ha aaahahaha!! *wipes eyes* J. Edgar, you are soooo funny. What a dick!
• Fusion Centers Analyzing Reams of Americans' Personal Infromation
• The Ineffectiveness of Security Cameras
• Cops and Former Secret Service Agents Ran Black Ops on Green Groups. Meet the private security firm that spied on Greenpeace and other environmental outfits for corporate clients. A tale of intrigue, infiltration, and dumpster-diving.
• The Government Is Trying to Wrap Its Mind Around Yours
• Banksy pulls off daring CCTV protest in London
• Lawmakers Proposing Millions for Elementary School Surveillance Cams
• Talks Start Again on Surveillance Bill
• Cheney Falsely Claims The House ‘Allowed’ FISA To ‘Expire’
• Wacky Canadians Still Believe in Privacy
• State Secrets: A government misstep in a wiretapping case.
• Post Carrier Accused of Warning Customer About 'Mail Cover' Surveillance
• CCTVs don't solve crime in UK; Scotland Yard's answer: more CCTVs!
• China's All-Seeing Eye: With the help of U.S. defense contractors, China is building the prototype for a high-tech police state. It is ready for export.
• Taking your laptop into the US? Be sure to hide all your data first
• Boehner Wants Protection From Illegal Wiretapping - But Only For Himself (It's pronounced B-A-Yner, btw.)
• McCain: Stop! I'm for Amnesty for Lawbreaking Telecoms
• McCain: I'd Spy on Americans Secretly, Too
• FISA Update: Smell A Rat? Another Sellout Attempt May Be In The Work
• FISA Cave-In Imminent
• Data Retention Effectively Changes the Behavior of Citizens in Germany
• Surveillance: You can know too much. Britain has never collected more data on her citizens. But what use is all that information if we can't process it fast enough?
• Message To The Federal Government: No, You Can’t Search My Laptop!
• AT&T Whistleblower: Spy Bill Creates 'Infrastructure for a Police State'
• AT&T billing site makes jokes about company's participation in warrantless wiretapping? I've yet to meet a bully who didn't gloat.
• Blue America Launches Whip Count Call Tool On FISA
• Analysis: NSA Spying Judge Defends Rule of Law, Congress Set to Strip His Power
• The political establishment and telecom immunity -- why it matters
• Daniel Ellsberg on warrantless wiretapping bill
• Senate Approves Telecom Amnesty, Expands Domestic Spying Powers
• Countdown: Russ Feingold Talks About FISA, A Sad Moment For Our Country
• "Terrorist" Watch List Hits One Million Names
• Exposing Bush's historic abuse of power: Salon has uncovered new evidence of post-9/11 spying on Americans. Obtained documents point to a potential investigation of the White House that could rival Watergate.
• Anti-surveillance device.
• NYC Panopticon Plans Take Shape
• 4 Scary Toys in Big Brother’s Toolbox
• EFF and Feds Battle Over Dormant Spy Lawsuit as Immunity Battle Awaits
• Internet Eavesdropping: A Brave New World of Wiretapping. As telephone conversations have moved to the Internet, so have those who want to listen in. But the technology needed to do so would entail a dangerous expansion of the government's surveillance powers.
• Appeals Court Punts on AT&T Spying Case Appeal
• Widespread cell phone location snooping by NSA?
• More evidence of Bush's spying: Why the White House can no longer hide the truth about its warrantless surveillance of Americans.
• New FBI Rules Make It Easier to Spy on Innocent Americans
• Britain will make foreigners carry RFID identity cards and will put us in a huge, Orwellian database: the rest of Britain will be next
• Feingold Fights Search And Seizure Of Our Laptops
• New surveillance program will turn military satellites on US
• Government report: Data mining doesn't work well
• Inside Account of U.S. Eavesdropping on Americans: U.S. Officers' "Phone Sex" Intercepted; Senate Demanding Answers
• British Government unveils 'Big Brother' plan to log calls and emails of EVERY person in Britain Life imitates art.
• Top NSA Scribe Takes Us Inside The Shadow Factory
• EFF Challenges Constitutionality of Telecom Immunity in Federal Court
• Bush Spy Revelations Anticipated When Obama Is Sworn In
• I'm still wondering if the "Bush pardons everyone but himself - Bush resigns - President Cheney pardons Bush" scenario will actually play out.
• I still have to see Obama go after Bush et al. I think a lot of things are going to change once he gets in the big chair. "Well, let's just have a look at this, first -- no need to rush things..." There's a certain comraderie between presidents, and a reluctance to go against one of their own, lest it happen to them (the notable exception being Carter, but none of the rest are half the man Carter is, IMHO). We'll see. I have the feeling that the next four years are just going to be a big ol' case of "Plus ca change..."
• Trouble is, what can he do to reverse all this shit that's gone down? We're steamrolling into a major depression, and we'll probably need another Emergency Relief Appropriation Act to save the little guy. You know how popular THAT will be with Republicans and BigBiz! The full effects won't be felt on Bush's (culprit) watch, but on Obama's. So all crapfest will fall on him as the 'godless Muslem black president that got us into this mess.' I like the guy, and it will be wonderful to have someone intelligent in the WH instead of Chimpy McFuckUp, but I'm just afeared for the country. I don't think we've seen the worst of it.
• Eyes On The Spies: What Obama Can Do About Illegal Surveillance
• Whistleblower: U.S. Snooped on Tony Blair, Iraqi President
• New UK smart CCTV cameras detect ‘precrimes’
• Spied-On Lawyers Get Second Chance in NSA Lawsuit?
• European court rules DNA database breaches human rights
• NSA Spying: Are We About to Get a Peek Behind the Door?
• Cheney says top congressional Democrats complicit in spying
• CHENEY is discussing wrongdoing? *faints*
• CHENEY is discussing wrongdoing? *faints*
• Whoa, she fainted twice! Someone get some smelling salts.
• Big Brother CCTV to spy on pupils aged four - complete with CPS evidence kit
• Ha! A DailyFail article about how bad it is to use cameras to spy on people and in the right margin a selection of paparazzi pics of celebs on the beach. Hmmm...
• Hmmm? The paparazzi may be scumbags, but celebrities do volunteer to be in the spotlight. Spying on kids in school is a different matter entirely. The UK is really working hard to lay the groundwork for a complete surveillance society. Creepy.
• Meanwhile, back in the US: Judge: 'Sufficient Facts' Exist That U.S. Spied on Islamic Charity Lawyers
• A rare peek at Homeland Security's files on travelers
• The DOJ pursues the "real criminal" in the NSA spying scandal
• You Are Being Watched
• Obama to Defend Telco Spy Immunity
• In Final Legal Act, Bush Appeals Spy Ruling
• Russell Tice, former NSA analyst, discloses NSA surveillance procedures
• Russell Tice Confirms Everything We’ve Surmised About Bush’s Illegal Wiretap Program
• Obama Sides With Bush in Spy Case
• Bush's wiretap program exceeded the limits of legality? Well, bless my soul!
• House Approves Whitelist of People Who Aren't Terrorists
• Lords: rise of CCTV is threat to freedom
• Obama Intel Chief Wants National ID System
• British passengers on ferries to the Isle of Wight and Scottish islands such as Mull and Skye will soon have to carry identity papers to comply with new police anti-terror powers.
• London cops reach new heights of anti-terror poster stupidity Remixes of the paranoid London police "anti-terror"/suspect your neighbours posters
• New and worse secrecy and immunity claims from the Obama DOJ "Sovereign immunity"? WTF?
• Pupils walk out of lessons in protest against Big Brother cameras
• The Obama administration will largely preserve Bush-era procedures allowing the government to search -- without suspicion of wrongdoing -- the contents of a traveler's laptop computer, cellphone or other electronic device, although officials said new policies would expand oversight of such inspections.
• Bill would give president emergency control of Internet
• Well, ain't this grand. Where's this coming from? Sorry, this will not end well. "[I]...wonder why a government that receives failing marks on cybersecurity should be trusted to instruct the private sector what to do." Why is it that government feels it needs to restrict the knowledge of its citizens? What happened to oversight?
• NSA's power- and money-sucking datacenter buildout continues: New budget docs reveal that the NSA is building a large new datacenter in Utah so that it can inhale more of your e-mail traffic. No word yet on how much it will pay for the large lidless eye wreathed in flame that will tower over the new facility.
• How to Deny Service to a Federal Wiretap
• Well, at least all of our comments here on MoFi remain off the record, previleged communications. Or do we have to make seven comments per second? or just type really small?
• *looks around shiftily* shhhhh! Don't tell. Some of us terreorists use code names. *prepares to infiltrate the BlueFilter*
• Judge Tosses NSA Spy Cases EFF Plans Appeal of Jewel v. NSA Warrantless Wiretapping Case
• Thank fuck for homunculus.
• UK police to deploy military UAV drones, snoop more effectively
• LAPD freaks out America with new Orwellian ad
• You Are Being Monitored By the Government you.
• Courts, Congress Shun Addressing Legality of Warrantless Eavesdropping
• Time to revive sealing wax stamped messages for passenger :> pigeon deliveries?
• Maybe. That tin can to tin can thing via the string didn't work. I notice somebody tied a knot in mine. I'd say that's direct evidence of string-tapping, wouldn't you? Oh, and just remember, your wax seals can be lifted with a hot knife and reset Don't ask me how I know that. *clasps hands behind back, rocks on heels, whistles, looks around*
• Mike McConnell, the WashPost & the dangers of sleazy corporatism
• That was scary - I just watched the British mini-series Occupation, which despite having a devastating personal plotline, touches on the "legal" corruption perpetrated by private contractors. Recommended viewing if you can find it.
• Federal Judge Finds N.S.A. Wiretaps Were Illegal
• More from Glenn Greenwald: The criminal NSA eavesdropping program
• Former N.S.A. Official Is Indicted in Leak Case
• The Obama DOJ's warrantless demands for e-mails
• Why? Exactly who benefits from this? WTF is going on?
• What the whistleblower prosecution says about the Obama DOJ
• New UK govt to curb CCTV, scrap ID cards, help open source
• Excellent.
• Does Surveillance Make Us Morally Better?
• This privacy versus forced publicity conundrum is an interesting question. We like whistle blowers against government and corporate evildoing because governments and institutions have an out sized share of power over us, but we may not want to extend the same scrutiny to individuals because again the balance of power is too much against them already. Power may corrupt, but massive power corrupts massively!
• MonkeyFilter: Massive power corrupts massively!
• Spy Files: Illegal Domestic Spying ACLU launches "Spyfiles" to track domestic surveillance Policing Free Speech: Police Surveillance and Obstruction of First Amendment‐Protected Activity (PDF)
• Guess now that the Cold War is long over spies don't have much to do. Have we gotten to the part yet where you're supposed to inform on your neighbor and then they come in the night to take him away?
• Perfect Citizen: secret NSA surveillance program revealed by WSJ
• Funny that our population feels comfortable with allowing NSA and the rest have all the latitude in the world with personal information and no accountability, but they were having crappin' fits over the idea that teh gummint might know if they had hemorrhoids or heart problems.
• I don't understand why they would need a special sensor installed to tell if infrastructure is being hacked, unless it's also a shut off fail-safe switch. Does anyone here know? I mean after the firewalls are breached isn't the attack pretty obvious? Don't things just start spinning out of control, or at least losing efficiency pretty fast? Just wondering... By the way, the same link up above had this other link on who watches the watcher.
• Top Secret America: A hidden world, growing beyond control
• The Real U.S. Government
• Does anyone here have Q Clearance? Or would membership in MoFi also count against that?
• Piffle, I have an Rheusus Clearance, which is one letter higher than the Q. Homunculus, it's not like we can do anything about it. We're fucked. Be careful you don't get a knock on the door late at night.
• Why has the Post series created so little reaction?
• Yup, that's the way it is here in middle America. Apathy ever'where ya' look. *spits*
• European police to spy on Britons: Now ministers hand over Big Brother powers to foreign officers
• The sure solution to the problem raised by that Post series is, of course, total and complete economic collapse. Then will we see change we can believe in. The Obama administration's acceleration of the Bush administration's support of recalcitrant military-industrial power is only matched by the failure of the Republicans to come up with any leadership against the same abuses of power and public rape.
• FBI Releases 423-Page File On Author Howard Zinn
• "... his participation was motivated by his belief that in this country people had the right to believe, think and act according to their own ideals." Obviously a dangerous commie, probably allied with the terriorists!
• FBI access to e-mail, Web data raises privacy fear
• ‘John Doe’ Who Fought FBI Spying Freed From Gag Order After 6 Years
• U.S. schools: grooming students for a surveillance state
• Want To Know If The FBI Is Tracking You? Look For One Of These
• Parking your car in the garage will keep you from picking up the 'hitchhiker'--excuse me while I LOL. Face it, if teh gubberment wants to spy on you, they certainly are not going to stop at breaking and entering. What, that's illegal you say? Excuse me while I LOL.
• Caught Spying on Student, FBI Demands GPS Tracker Back
• And, again, here's the result of the law suit against the school district that spyed on students with webcams.
• Federal court blocks Obama Administration attempt to spy on cell phones without a warrant
• Darrell Issa Wants To Know Who Wants To Know About The Government
• No surprise. The head of the Republicans' House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is the single most corrupt rat bastard in the Federal Government today (and that's quite an accomplishment). He first won election to the congress because the Ayn Rand fanboys in his district were impressed how he got away with burning down his business for the insurance money.
• Is this some sort of McCarthy reincarnation? (Knowing little about the scandalous side of US politics)
• Hope for not. He looks like the villain last night in a show on NBC called Zachary, episode Chuck Versus Push Mix, and yet I am conflicted. The villain was evil, the show not so great... Yet the villain also, beside being evil, resembled a little bit one of my favorite actors, I thought. That would be Ben Gazzara... He played that guy that lived a day at a time, always running because he knew he only had a year to live... What was the show called? Oh, yes: Run for Your Life! Not that I want to trivialize government intrusion into requests for information. This is not an exchange here - you ask for this, then give up this in return... No! This is the Freedom of Information Act being questioned. Good post!
• I like the irony here. The list of who requested what government information is itself government information, and so anyone (Issa included) could request that list through an FOI request. However, I suppose there is some limit on personal details being revealed... the agencies could yield the list of FOI enquiries and speed of response without naming the individuals who requested the data. Then Mr. Issa can continue with his "good work".
• I hate to be all like, you know, that Other Filter, but do you know who else did "good work"? American Abwehr--has a nice ring to it.
• Don't be talkin' all foreign, Horse, if ya starts to talkin' foreign then the tourists win.
• Do you doubt me? Come in to this small room with the bright overhead light. Sit down. I have some friendly questions to ask you!
• Where I live (in close proximity to Hearst Castle, Pismo Beach and the World's First Motel) the tourists ALWAYS win. And the diagnosis of the rash on my left foot was covered under the Freedom of Inflammation Act.
• Your left foot you say? That sounds sinister.
• Bradley Manning, Barack Obama and the National Surveillance State
• For Anarchist, Details of Life as F.B.I. Target
• 2 senators sound alarm over Patriot Act: Two members of the intelligence panel say surveillance is more intrusive than Americans realize, but they can't disclose what they know because it is classified by the Obama administration.
• Word to the Senate: Thanks guys. You voted for it.
• Senate Panel Keeps ‘Secret Patriot Act’ Under Wraps
• This Week: Appeals Court to Weigh NSA Dragnet Surveillance
• The decade's biggest scam: The terrorist threat continues to be exaggerated to spawn a massive and costly Security State
• I have this magic stick that keeps away terrorists - you know, those evil invisible armies we fear so much. It might look like an ordinary stick, but because you pay me $9,999,999.99 for this Magic Stick, know know it must be working. Deal?
• FBI's 'Stingray' Cellphone Tracker Stirs a Fight Over Search Warrants, Fourth Amendment
• Homeland Security moves forward with 'pre-crime' detection
• DOJ Urges Supreme Court to Halt Warrantless Eavesdropping Challenge
• High Court to Hear Warrantless Eavesdropping Challenge
• Dept. of Homeland Security Forced to Release List of Keywords Used to Monitor Social Networking Sites
• 30,000 secret surveillance orders approved each year, judge estimates: If the government spies on you but brings no charges, you'll never know.
• Pretty boring job doing surveillance on the average Joe, if you ask me.
• UK Mass Surveillance Bill: The Return of a Bad Idea
• Appeals Court OKs Warrantless Wiretapping
• Judge Throws Out Wiretapping Case
• As he well should have.
• Did Bush’s Broadband Deregulation Upend His Own NSA Wiretapping?
• NSA Put A Premium On Collecting Info, But Not Making Sense Of It
• Google engineer finds British spyware on PCs and smartphones: FinSpy turning up in dictatorships across the world
• Democrats Retreat on Civil Liberties in 2012 Platform
• Jimmy Wales, Tim Berners-Lee slam UK's internet snooping plans
• FBI’s Sinister New $1 Billion Project Will Track Everyone By Their Face
• *sighs* Just put the chip in my ass already.
• It goes in your ass? Hotdamn, if someone had just said so, I'd have submitted years ago.
• Cops might finally need a warrant to read your Gmail: Major surveillance law change arrives in the Senate—and it might well pass.
• Members of Congress Who Reauthorized Warrantless Wiretapping Bill Don't Understand What It Does
• Ah, our illustruss mengers of Congrass don't understand a whole metric butt-ton of things.
• Watch Your Tongue: Law Enforcement Speech Recognition System Stores Millions of Voices
• The Government Secretly Spied On You? Prove It! The feds' defense in a landmark Supreme Court case is a catch-22.
• Student Suspended for Refusing to Wear a School-Issued RFID Tracker
• Saudi Arabia implements electronic tracking system for women
• The FBI Is Collecting Everybody’s Emails, Former NSA Official Warns
• Attorney General Secretly Granted Gov. Ability to Develop and Store Dossiers on Innocent Americans
• Supreme Court Thwarts Challenge to Warrantless Surveillance
• Ragtime: Code name of NSA’s Secret Domestic Intelligence Program Revealed in New Book
• DOJ Helped AT&T, Others Avoid Wiretap Act, Promised Not To Charge Them If They Helped Spy On People
• Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind revelations of NSA surveillance. The 29-year-old source behind the biggest intelligence leak in US history explains his motives, his uncertain future and why he never intended on hiding in the shadows
• Final nail in coffin of US independent journalism set to be driven home.