Big Brother is Watching You

[O Really]

:?: :?: :?:

The gun control argument, one you've made many, many times, is that we should place reasonable limitations on the weaponry and the possession of them. Why not the same thing for government power and tools? In the current tangent we're discussing warrants for Stingray use, not un-inventing Stingray. Isn't that better than LEOs claiming authorization because "some watery tart threw a sword" at them?

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Thanks for the tip.
Yes, your logic is impeccable. And in concept, placing "reasonable limitations...[on] government power and tools" is a good thing. Of course the devilish details are in what are "reasonable limitations." With regard to process and equipment used to chase bad guys, it seems a lot of people think they can disclose everything to the "good guys" and the "bad guys" won't hear about it. I've got no problem with requiring warrants for Stingray tracking, but I'd expect even with that to hear complaints about "rubber stamping" "secret courts" yada. And if the feds have to get a warrant, the Barneys certainly should have to. And not from the judge they play golf with.

[Vrede too]

My reading of the article is that this is about routine federal operations and regular courts. I'm pretty sure that the rubber stamping secret FISA court will continue to allow the spooks to do whatever they want in more unique situations.

[Vrede too]

Subject: Response from Senator Tillis
From: "From the Office of Senator Thom Tillis" <donotreply@tillis.senate.gov>
Date: Mon, September 21, 2015 3:46 pm

Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts regarding S. 356, the Email Communications Privacy Act Amendments Act. I appreciate hearing from you and welcome the opportunity to respond.

As you are aware, Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) introduced S. 356. If enacted, the bill would require the government to obtain a warrant before forcing an Internet or wireless communication service provider to disclose a customer's electronic communications.

I support the intent behind the bill, which is to protect U.S. citizens' Fourth Amendment right to privacy. In fact, on September 16, 2015, the Judiciary Committee held a hearing on this issue where I had an opportunity to further examine the merits of this legislation. When considering S. 356, it will be my goal to balance consumer privacy and the legitimate needs of law enforcement....

Sincerely,
Thom Tillis
U.S. Senator (R-NC)

Fwiw, it's co-sponsored by Patrick Leahy (D-VT).

SUMMARY OF THE ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS PRIVACY ACT AMENDMENTS ACT OF 2015

[O Really]

I'd be happier if the prohibition of disclosure applied to anybody, not just "the government." Set up "HIPAA" type data protections. I know, Fourth Amendment is a government issue, but the title of the law and amendments implies more and should include more.

[Vrede too]

There won't be any GOP sponsors or agreeable notes from Tillis with your expansive idea.

[O Really]

There won't be any GOP sponsors or agreeable notes from Tillis with your expansive idea.

Yeah, I know. Biting the hand that feeds you, and all that.

[Vrede too]

... Biting the hand that feeds you ...

Not many Dems on board, either.

[O Really]

... Biting the hand that feeds you ...

Not many Dems on board, either.

Dems get hungry, too.

[Vrede too]

Interesting history:

George W. Bush Made Retroactive N.S.A. ‘Fix’ After Hospital Room Showdown

We'll see what 2025 articles say about then and now . . . if they're allowed to be written.

[rstrong]

Yoo, Gonzalez and Rumsfeld. The same three who told the chimp that torture was OK so long as he ordered it, and wrote legal opinions to "prove" it, did the same for mass domestic surveillance. No surprise there.

When you consider that Bush II, Cheney, Rove, Yoo, Gonzalez, Rumsfeld, and their cronies are the Republican old guard, Cruz, Palin, Santorum, Walker, Huckabee, Fiorina, Carson and Trump suddenly look like a major improvement.

[O Really]

When you consider that Bush II, Cheney, Rove, Yoo, Gonzalez, Rumsfeld, and their cronies are the Republican old guard, Cruz, Palin, Santorum, Walker, Huckabee, Fiorina, Carson and Trump suddenly look like a major improvement.

I dunno, man. You don't have to defend that crew to understand the environment they were in, what with still thinking they were saving the free world and all. And although each of them was/is evil in their own way, I don't think they come close to matching the sheer craziness of the "major improvement" group.

[Vrede too]

Both intent and ability matter. Sometimes, it's better not to seem crazy.

[O Really]

Well, there's that. But I guess what I'm thinking is that while I disagree with much of what Bush did beginning with the invasion of Iraq, and I recognize that he made a mess of most everything else he touched, and he hung with really evil Vice Presidents and his friends, that I could (for sport, not for real) defend a lot of those decisions. As an analogy, pretty much everybody thinks Pickett's charge at Gettysburg was an even worse call than taking on Crazy Horse at Little Bighorn or not giving the ball to Beast Mode, and the result would appear to support that. Pickett's men got slaughtered and the rebels were routed. But "Mrs. O Really" and I took a horseback tour of Gettysburg battlefield and got a guide who showed a different perspective. She took us to the place where Lee's headquarters had been, and where the right and left flanks of the rebels were. She explained what had occurred the previous two days, and where Lee thought the Union forces were, and what they had. Then she pointed to the area past the tip of a barn where the Union actually was and asked - "if you had the information Lee had, and you look out over that hill, does it look all that unreasonable to send a strong 12,000 up the middle?" Out of our group, nobody wanted to admit that yes, it could have been a reasonable alternative in that context, because we all knew how it really ended. But truth is, Pickett's Charge could have been justified at the time.

Contrast that or even Bush's Excellent Iraq Adventure to the craziness of (a) rounding up 11 million immigrants and shipping them off back behind the wall that Mexico will build - in 18 months; (b) pushing opposition to marriage equality as a major issue to include impeaching the Supreme Court; (c) eliminate the IRS, the DOE, and EPA; (d) Gut the NLRB, repeal worker protection laws and minimum wages... yada etc.

[rstrong]

But truth is, Pickett's Charge could have been justified at the time.

Well, sure. But less justified would be General Lee wandering in after Pickett's Charge was repulsed and declaring "heck of a job, Picketty!"

In Pickett, General Lee had chosen a career United States Army officer. Bush II would have chosen an unqualified political toady (Brownie).

Contrast that or even Bush's Excellent Iraq Adventure to the craziness of...

...turning the US into a torture state and approving mass internal surveillance - both very highly illegal - when neither step was needed against the recently defeated Soviet empire...

...and then lying to the country to send it to war against a different country...

...and firing staff members who said that it might cost a just tiny bit more than the too-low-by-two-orders-of-magnitude estimate they gave the country...

...while not claiming that the invasion would pay for itself...

...and while insisting that the US would be in Iraq for "weeks rather than months"...

[O Really]

...while not claiming that the invasion would pay for itself...

...and while insisting that the US would be in Iraq for "weeks rather than months"...

OK, you got me on the last two...as well as promising the Iraqi's would welcome US forces with flower parades.

[Vrede too]

Karma Police: From Facebook to porn, GCHQ surveillance tool tracked browsing history of every web user

A mass surveillance operation undertaken by a UK intelligence agency that recorded the web browsing habits of "every visible user on the internet" has been disclosed . According to documents obtained by National Security Agency (NSA) whistle-blower Edward Snowden, the Karma Police operation saw Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) store up to 100 billion metadata records on people's internet habits – tracking everything from porn sites visited, to mobile phone locations....

[rstrong]

That's harder to implement on the Canadian internet...

[bannination]

Edward Snowden: Smartphones can be hacked into with just one text message and then used to spy on their owners

[Vrede too]

Why Are FBI Agents Trammeling the Rights of Antiwar Activists?

... Despite the FBI’s collection of over a hundred hours of recordings and its multiyear penetration of the two extreme leftist organizations, to date none of the activists have been charged with any crime.

It’s certainly not the first time the FBI has engaged in the harassment of political dissidents. Indeed, the FBI’s surveillance of antiwar activists dates back to at least World War I, to include surveillance of Nobel Peace Prize winner Jane Addams. The bureau has been an equal opportunity abuser of the rights of antiwar activists, whether on the left (like Addams and the FRSO) or on the libertarian side of the spectrum.

These incidents, while separated in time by nearly 100 years, also share another feature. No FBI agent or manager has ever been fired or prosecuted for violating the constitutional rights of those individuals or groups wrongly surveilled, harassed or charged.

Just four days prior to the FBI raids against the Anti-War Committee and the FRSO, the Department of Justice Inspector General [IG] released the results of an investigation into post-9/11 surveillance of peace groups and other domestic dissidents up through 2006.

As Andrew Cohen wrote in The Atlantic at the time, the IG investigation found that the bureau “engaged in tactics and strategies toward those groups and their members that were inappropriate, misleading and in some cases counterproductive. Moreover, the OIG accused FBI witnesses of continuing to the present day to thwart a full and complete investigation into the matter by offering ‘incomplete and inconsistent accounts of events.’”

A similar oversight investigation of the FBI’s raids against the Anti-War Committee and the FRSO—whether done by the IG or Congress—is long overdue. So is real accountability for government agencies whose employees flagrantly and repeatedly violate the rights of the citizens who pay their salaries.

[Seth Milner]

How many of you that live in SC have Uverse internet? Have you experienced any outages or weirdness? I have landline-type internet phone and internet; a couple of days ago, everything began acting peculiar. First my phone quit, then began working again with no visit by a technician, or an explanation by AT&T. They did call to see if my phone was working, but then cut the conversation short and hung up when I began asking questions. My internet went down, back up, and down again when I was attempting to place an online order. I had figured shipping rates on my purchase when the outage hit, and when it came back on within 30 seconds, I got a pop-up stating my shipping rates would be higher than I entered because I stated I was in SC instead of Kansas City. Finally, both went out totally for about an hour. When everything came back on, I got a recorded call from AT&T stating a fiber optic cable had been cut. All's well except this: When I visit a retailing-type website, it's tracking (which I supposedly have turned off) says I'm in K.C., Texas, Charleston, or Ft. Lauderdale. How can big brother be watching me with this scrambled mess-up?