Donuts And Politics

If you were under the illusion that the Bush administration was trying to protect your privacy rights, guess again. And come out from the cave you’ve been living in. We’re not just talking about warrantless wiretapping now, but a much greater amount of information:

(From the Wall Street Journal) Two former officials familiar with the data-sifting efforts said they work by starting with some sort of lead, like a phone number or Internet address. In partnership with the FBI, the systems then can track all domestic and foreign transactions of people associated with that item — and then the people who associated with them, and so on, casting a gradually wider net. An intelligence official described more of a rapid-response effect: If a person suspected of terrorist connections is believed to be in a U.S. city — for instance, Detroit, a community with a high concentration of Muslim Americans — the government’s spy systems may be directed to collect and analyze all electronic communications into and out of the city.The haul can include records of phone calls, email headers and destinations, data on financial transactions and records of Internet browsing. The system also would collect information about other people, including those in the U.S., who communicated with people in Detroit….

Seriously, this is way out of hand. We have the Fourth Amendment for a reason, if I may quote it here “ The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

I’m not sure what authority the Bush administration claims to be able to do this widespread, Soviet-style information gathering. Let’s ask the Deputy Director of National Intelligence, shall we:

(WSJ) Since many people routinely post details of their lives on social-networking sites such as MySpace, he said, their identity shouldn’t need the same protection as in the past. Instead, only their “essential privacy,” or “what they would wish to protect about their lives and affairs,” should be veiled, he said, without providing examples.

Ah, I see, so due to the advent of MySpace and probably Facebook too (hey, I’m on that!), and perhaps personal web pages and maybe email, the government just decides its ok to gather citizen’s personal information, phone calls, emails, etc…..How long again until Bush leaves office? Oh, 316 days.

Please, leave some thoughts about this article, I’m interested in others’ opinions on this.

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