http://donklephant.com/2007/08/06/warrantless-wiretapping-now-legal/

Thought I'd post it on here and see what type of response I'd get. Thoughts?

If you feel any urges to throw out your arm and straighten your hand, feel free, I don't mind. I just bought me a ticket outta this joint...

Who are these people eavesdropping on your phone and email? They are the faceless dark men in dark suits who have nothing but evil intentions....right? And there's absolutely nothing that stands in their way. There are no laws governing their behavior, no laws controlling how they conduct their business...right?

The truth is....

These listeners are Americans, they are normal guys and gals. They live right down the street from you. They shop at the same stores. And there's nothing evil, dark or omnipotent about them.

Here's a quote from the comments on this article--

quote:

Jim S Says:
August 7th, 2007 at 7:29 pm

We are being asked to trust that this power will never be abused. I will barely believe that
someone deserves that trust if they want to add a condition to the law that states that abusing that power is a felony with a life sentence and no possibility of parole as the punishment for everyone involved in the abuse and any conspiracy to commit the abuse.

Well, it's not a life sentence, but it is a felony, and depending on the offense, some serious jail time. There are several layers of protection for the personal information of any US person and enough regs controlling both collection and retention of this information that every leadership echelon is almost paranoid about violating a US person's rights and will conduct an investigation at the very smallest of suspicions of abuse. Trust me, I've been investigated several times. I was cleared each time because I did nothing wrong, but it was just the POSSIBILITY that I MAY have strayed outside the lines that triggers an investigation.

For these reasons, I have no issues with the laws.

Admittedly, my initial reaction on hearing about the bill was the same as Ronnec's. But then I started thinking about who was enforcing it, and who the law was specifically targeted at (explicitly stated in the law: in order for this law to be used, the subject of surveillance *must* live outside of the US.). That's when my paranoia alert system finally shut off, and I came to the same realizations that Patoloco did. It's also comforting that this particular law will also last for only 6 months.

Paranoia runs deep..

I mean, c'mon.. when the border betwen Canada and the US is billed as " The Longest Undefended Border in the World " but has cops, customs officers and national guard soldiers stomping about all carrying guns and bigger guns

when anyone can surf the weeb from home , zero in on Google earth and drool over the 16 year old chickie two yards down sunbathing by the inground pool

when cops don't even have to see you speeding to give you a ticket 'cause you've been photographed speeding by a ' hidden' camera

having something like this on the books is hardly adding anything to the ' invasion of privacy ' fallacy..

from the moment you leave your house you're ' under surveillance [ and even then, while secure in your own domocile you're being ' probed' by digital TV boxes that record what and when you watch, phones tell who you've called/ are called by ] and don't get me started on what oversight companies have over what you do at your desk on your 'puter [ keystroke counters, blockers, taggers, filters.. ]

bottom line... ain't no privacy and there hasn't been since Washington was a President, not a city.

1. Ah, these people are americans and shop at stores like me, that makes me feel SOOO much better, I mean, so did Tim Mcveigh, the columbine kids, and the BTK killer, but whatever.
2. As for being so careful about worrying about our privacy, but I'm sorry, I call bullshit, the very ability to do this is unconstitutional, even if it were as restrained as you say.
3. But also, I will not compare this to the nazi's, as tempting as it may be to do so as the nazi's were several magnitudes worse than our current administration.
4. It resembles moresoe the nicer dictators like Castro and Franco.