Political Bloviation

Unpaid bills lead phone companies to hang up on FBI wiretaps
I know this is an old story, but as Nelson would say…
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Leading surveillance societies in the EU and the World 2007
The US (not surprisingly)  receives the worst rating. We’re right up there with Russia and China.

Way to go Chris!!
Dodd’s Filibuster Threat Stalls Wiretap Bill - Politics on The Huffington Post
Senator Chris Dodd won a temporary victory today after his threats of a filibuster forced Democratic leadership to push back consideration of a measure that would grant immunity to telecom companies that were complicit in warrantless surveillance.

In two recent post Glenn nails it. The first What “winning” in Iraq looks like hits on what’s happened in Basra since the British abandoned it:
The article details that Shiite militias — which British troops “unintentionally” armed for years by failing to realize that the “security forces” had no allegiance to the central government [...]

Apparently all are “quaint” notions. Has widely reported all over the place:
Wider Spying Fuels Aid Plan for Telecom Industry - New York Times
But the battle is really about something much bigger. At stake is the federal government’s extensive but uneasy partnership with industry to conduct a wide range of secret surveillance operations in fighting terrorism [...]

Intelligence deputy to America: Rethink privacy - CNN.com
Anyone who would trust the government on this is a deluded fool

Slashdot | Telecom Companies Seek Retroactive Immunity
You would think that law and order fetishists in the modern wingnut movement would vehemently oppose and type of amnesty for law breakers, but somehow I doubt it.

More important than the wild claim that eliminating piracy would somehow put money into farmer’s packets are the unintended consequences of putting the FCC in charge of policing the internet:
NBC: Peer-to-peer costs corn farmers money
But the bigger issue here is that NBC wants the FCC to require ISPs to filter content. How this would work, [...]

The defendants can’t sue because they can’t prove they were injured. They can’t prove they were injured because the government’s illegal activity is a state secret. Welcome to the wonderful world of Kafka. Glenn says it better:
Glenn Greenwald - Salon
This is one of those types of legal outcomes which — understandably so — can drive [...]

Failures at FBI Acknowledged - washingtonpost.com
Seem to me to be the natural result of allowing a bureaucracy unfettered access to personal information. Basically Meuller had little reason to monitor what was happening after being handed cart blanche by Congress. Many other parts of the so-called “Patriot Act” are equally woeful. The goal of opening up [...]

Bush won’t reauthorize eavesdropping program - Yahoo! News
Wasn’t this the program that the White House insisted was absolutely necessary to the safety of the American people? Or perhaps the Prez wants to cover himself for violating the law or better cover to continue violating the law? I guess Bush and Gonzales were for unfettered wiretapping [...]

The rubber stamp, bend over congress is at it again.
Senate panel approves Bush-backed spying bill - Yahoo! News
The bill is not a compromise by any reasonable definition of the word. I legalizes and indemnifies the President’s clearly illegal and unconstitutional wiretapping activities. Further government intrusion into civil liberties and expansion of executive powers to “protect” [...]

Federal Judge Orders Halt to Warrantless Wiretapping - New York Times
In a disgusting fit of common sense in support of the US Constitution a terrorist loving, commie anti-christ judge on the ACLU v NSA case ruled:
U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor in Detroit became the first judge to strike down the National Security Agency’s [...]

Bush Thwarted Probe Into NSA Wiretapping
President Bush effectively blocked a Justice Department investigation of the National Security Agency’s warrant-less surveillance program, refusing to give security clearances to attorneys who were attempting to conduct the probe, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales said yesterday.
Bush’s decision represents an unusually direct and unprecedented White House intervention into an investigation [...]

broadband » News » FBI: A Backdoor in Every Router - Bending CALEA to their will
Big Brother is watching your packets. Anyone else notice how the concept of privacy is rapidly becoming quaint?

Verizon Denies Turning Over Local Phone Data - New York Times
They leave open the possibility that the recently aquired MCI long distance operation be providing access to call logs to the NSA.

I was just watching Sen. Bill Frist on Sunday Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer. When Sen Frist was asked if the collection of American’s telephone records had thwarted a single terrorist plot he refused to answer. Blitzer followed up by asking for an answer without specifics, all Frist could do was continue to mumble about [...]

Scarborough-Country-BigBrother.mov (video/quicktime Object)
I find myself in a near state of shock, I actually agree with Joe Scarborough on the issue of NSA data mining of phone records. Crooks and Liars has the clip.

Bush Is Pressed Over New Report on Surveillance - New York Times
Some Republicans, including Representative Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, defended the N.S.A.’s activities and denounced the disclosure. Mr. Hoekstra said the report “threatens to undermine our nation’s safety.”
“Rather than allow our intelligence professionals to maintain a laser focus on [...]

Add massive data mining operations to the laundry list of transgressions by the Bush administration:
Yahoo News gives us the President’s reaction to a USA Today story - NSA has massive database of Americans’ phone calls
Text: Bush’s Comments on NSA Activities - Yahoo! News
Today there are new claims about other ways we are tracking down al-Qaida [...]