1984
How much do you value your privacy? How much privacy can we expect to have in the modern age of GPS enabled smartphones, WiFi, and search engine companies like Google releasing ISP records to the government on a regular basis?
These unsettling questions come to mind as I watch our military and intelligence community prove just how un-intelligent they can be regarding their own privacy and the government’s want for ever more information about our personal lives. The implications are staggering.
Here’s a great question found in a telling article @ Schneier on Security – E-Mail Security in the Wake of Petraeus – H/T Doug Ross
“If the director of central intelligence isn’t able to successfully keep his emails private, what chance do I have?” said Kurt Opsahl, a senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital-liberties advocacy group.
Be sure to read the whole thing.
Meanwhile, as if they don’t have enough power to spy on the public, Senator Reid and the Democrat controlled Senate have flipped a privacy bill into a spy-on-the-public bill.
A Senate proposal touted as protecting Americans’ e-mail privacy has been quietly rewritten, giving government agencies more surveillance power than they possess under current law.
Leahy’s rewritten bill would allow more than 22 agencies — including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Communications Commission — to access Americans’ e-mail, Google Docs files, Facebook wall posts, and Twitter direct messages without a search warrant. It also would give the FBI and Homeland Security more authority, in some circumstances, to gain full access to Internet accounts without notifying either the owner or a judge.
It’s an abrupt departure from Leahy’s earlier approach, which required police to obtain a search warrant backed by probable cause before they could read the contents of e-mail or other communications.
From Senate Bill Allows Feds to Read Your Email – Gateway Pundit
This is, of course, an example of the government going too far for security. And you know the old saying so often attributed to Ben Franklin, “Those who would trade in their freedom for their protection deserve neither.”
Also, I can’t stress more, here, that is the Democrats doing this. This is not a GOP effort.
FreedomWorks has an action item on this:
From Bait and Switch: Law Goes From Protecting Your Email to Allowing Gov’t Into Your Email – Warner Todd Huston @ Wizbang who also has a very good video of Judge Andrew Napolitano addressing this issue and others.
Again, please take the time to RTWT.
Buckle up, freedom loving patriots, we’re in for a bumpy ride.
… I jotted down as possibilities for posts one morning this week while listening to the radio. Yea, amazing how much the government throws at us, all at once. It’s quite literally impossible for one person to keep up. I didn’t get around to any of them due to a heavy workload, but that doesn’t mean the issues aren’t worthy of your attention or scrutiney.
NATION:
Isn’t it time we ceased all government funding of “art?”
Wikileaks – I call this a major distraction. I know, its big, but think of this, if they are using the latest leak as a distraction, something this huge, just what do they want to distract us from?
No one person has done more to jeopardize American lives and make the American people unsafe than President Obama. ~ Pamela Geller
Child Nutrition Bill – supposedly defeated, I won’t believe it til I see the bloody stake. It lives! Adrienne has the humor.
Food Bill S510 – Are you ready for the FDA in your backyard garden? Big Brother’s itching to put his green thumb on your neck.
Gulf drilling ban extended to 7 years while foreign nations drill in same waters – further proof of Obama’s hatred for business and red states.
Abortion on military bases – Is that really necessary?
DREAM ACT – I’m still for deporting all illegal immigrants and securing the border. However, here’s another sober take on the issue.
TEXAS:
New “Buzzed Driving” Bill, lowers the legal limit of alcohol to .05%. – Why not just close every beer joint, pub and bar and bring back prohibition? Which is what this bill would effectively do. These girls are definitely against it.
Houston – Cameras cameras cameras. First the Red Light Cameras and Houston City Hall’s refusal to honor the will of the people, now the city is set to install police surveillance cameras all over the city. Can you scream Big Brother loud or often enough?