Standard Mischief

Hey, anyone remember when this was run up the flagpole?

I could never decide if the design on this logo was just because some government maggot overdosed on comic books and cheesy pulp fiction, or that it was a calculated move to tweak the conspiracy wackjob nutzies into gushing forth all sorts of nonsense, such that Joe Sixpack and Jane Whinebox would just tune them out.

Anyway, to me you’ve got the all-seeing-eye (also seen on the back of them Federal Reserve Notes) there gazing over the globe. Damn Masons, conspiring to rule the world! And what does that latin crap around the pyramid on the $1 bill translate to again? “Bringing Forth a New Weird Odor”, right? Damn, they hide their treachery in plain sight, don’t they!

All kidding aside, the new government agency with the Iran-Contra felon (technically reversed) in charge didn’t go over too well did it? So they abandoned the dream, right? Or did they just change the name, fund it from the black budget, and continue on as usual?

(Here I am, stealing comments from another blog again.)
persimmon, over at SayUncle:

Those arguing that this sort of surveillance is legal are operating on the assumption that they know what is being done and how it works. How do they know all this? Because they trust what the people doing the spying say they are doing. That?s foolish, especially since there has been no judicial oversight and the official story keeps sloughing off layers as we learn more about what is really going on. No one will actually know enough to judge whether this stuff is legal until there has been an investigation and we either have reason to believe the spies? version of the story or not.

So is that cherry coke and moon pie that you bought with your credit (no signature needed if it’s under $25) card going into the very same database that has your entire online search history and the records of everybody you called on the phone since 9/11? Who knows?

From Wikipedia:

Extensive criticism of the IAO in the traditional media and on the Internet has come from both the left and the right — from civil libertarians and libertarians — who believe that massive information aggregation and analysis technologies lead to a form of dataveillance that can threaten individual liberties. To some, these developments are seen as another step down the slippery slope to a totalitarian state. Others believe that development of these technologies is inevitable and that designing systems and policies to control their use is a more effective strategy than simple opposition that has resulted in research and development projects migrating into classified programs.

Remember, with those National Security Letters that have been reinstated with the reenactment of the Perpetual Patriot Act, when they get served, they have to give up whatever requested data is asked on their customers. Can they afford to litigate your privacy? Will they even care?

Thankfully there seems to be a way to appeal those National Security Letters. So is there any chance we’ll get some judicial oversight on whether or not that part of the Perpetual Patriot Act is even Constitution? And how ya feeling about the supremes nowadays anyway?

Well, I for one am hoping that friends of mine that I’ve never met, but I converse with on a private mailing list don’t decide to buy fertilizer on the same day I buy diesel fuel while a third stocks up on strike anywhere matches, when a fourth decides to buy an airbag (with igniter) from an auto recycling yard. ‘Cuz the last thing I need right now is a 3am ninja dynamic entry in the war against terror.

Check out stuff at the Total Information Awareness Gift Shop!

Remember my little googlebombing experiment in this article? Well I missed the actual Google shuffle, but it seems that, as of today, my one link has bumped Pawpaw from #289 to #3 for the Google search: ?hog lard?. w00t.

Deltablues.net seems to have dropped from #13 to #40 though. Not sure what’s up with that.

OK. I’ll admit it, I got terribly upset by the recent disclosures that my government has been collecting the details of nearly everyone’s phone calls (who called whom, time, date, duration), and have used that data to create a gigantic database that they have been mining for data.

Hopefully this is a more levelheaded rant.

Acidus quotes the phone companies

I have Acidus to thank for pointing me to this USA-Today article that has the statements from the phone companies. Brownshirts AT&T, Bellsouth, and Verizon:

AT&T: “We do not comment on matters of national security, except to say that we only assist law enforcement and government agencies charged with protecting national security in strict accordance with the law.”

BellSouth: “BellSouth does not provide any confidential customer information to the NSA or any governmental agency without proper legal authority.”

Verizon: “We do not comment on national security matters, we act in full compliance with the law and we are committed to safeguarding our customers’ privacy.”

Qwest was a different case. Before they were going to spill their guts, they wanted an opinion from the FISA court. (FISA stands for “Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act”, it was a law passed to keep a realistic limit of the powers of the spooks to spy on citizens. EFF has more details on FISA. )

According to sources familiar with the events, Qwest’s CEO at the time, Joe Nacchio, was deeply troubled by the NSA’s assertion that Qwest didn’t need a court order – or approval under FISA – to proceed. Adding to the tension, Qwest was unclear about who, exactly, would have access to its customers’ information and how that information might be used.

…

Qwest’s lawyers asked NSA to take its proposal to the FISA court. According to the sources, the agency refused.
The NSA’s explanation did little to satisfy Qwest’s lawyers. “They told (Qwest) they didn’t want to do that because FISA might not agree with them,”

So, those of you who are saying, “hey, you may not like it, but it’s legal”, please note this: When the Secret Police aren’t 100% sure that they can get a warrant from the Secret (unaccountable to anyone) Court, odds are there’s something shady going on.

For similar reasons, this person said, NSA rejected Qwest’s suggestion of getting a letter of authorization from the U.S. attorney general’s office. A second person confirmed this version of events.

Yup, according to USA-Today, Quest would have even been happy with a letter from the AG, but the NSA folks said “nope”.

The Anarchangel weighs in

I was still seeing through that Red Curtain of Blood when I responded to Chris. I though he was another GOP apologist. He starts off saying that the “brouhaha” is “patently silly”, and goes on to explain how this is not wiretapping (Duh).

I must have skimmed over this part:

Again, I’m a Libertarian, these issues get kind of thorny with me. Do I WANT the government to do this? No I don’t; however we have constructed a government that CAN do this, both legally, and technically. I disagree with it, I’d like the laws changed; I’d even like to see a constitutional guarantee to certain privacy beyond that which I outline here; but it simply doesn’t exist now (nor likely ever will).

Anyway, he does bring up several good points. He notes a number of laws and court cases, but does not clearly document them so I can reference them properly. He also explains a bit about 3rd party information and how it has always been resold. I’ve never been comfortable with this myself, in fact I do have a prepaid cellphone, and I do subscribe to magazines under an assumed name, just to see who they sell my information to.

(more below the fold)
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I found a short video worth downloading. High energy string band, traditional heirloom song, harmonica, small venue, what more could you want?

Deep link here. (6.3 MB, Quicktime, it asks for “WindowsMedia Player 9.1 or higher”)

Band homepage here.

I really don’t have time to blog about this, but I wanted to get something up. Please don’t use me as a source until I get a chance to check facts, but from what I’ve caught on the radio and by skimming, it seems that the Bush administration in cooperation with major telecommunication companies have conspired to collect massive amounts of data on who calls whom, within the domestic United States no less, and then the Executive branch has been mining that data without a warrant.

If there’s a bright spot in all this, unless he was misquoted, it seems that the President uttered a sound bite proclaiming that he knows all about this little project, it has his approval, and he thinks it’s all Constitutional.

Uh yea, right. Please to be reading the supreme law of the land again, especially Amendment number Four (and if you don’t have a copy, Wikipedia is your friend).

So, looking at my blood pressure, it seems to be a quarter to Claire time. I don’t think this clock is going to be rolling backwards unless I’m substantially misunderstanding this, or Congress gets going promptly on those impeachment proceedings.

If the only way to keep our country safe from terror is to go “fast and loose” with the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, I say bring it on. I’d rather fight ‘em right here, dealing with semtex on the subway, or the threat of a gas attack. Because going “fast and loose” is the same as voiding the mother documents of this country until the perpetual emergency ends.

And make no mistake, it IS perpetual, or did someone declare the War on (some) Drugs over? What about the War on Poverty?

Oh heavens, no! I’d much rather be enslaved by people who spell their name with an R than people who spell their name with a D. Makes all the difference in the world! -Claire Wolfe (Land-Mine Legislation)

Update 12may06: Worth reading from the WaPo: Data on Phone Calls Monitored.