February 12, 2008
Telecom Immunity
The US is getting incredibly screwed up. Even moreso than usual. Today, the senate passed Telecom Immunity legislation. What this says, in essence, is that AT&T and friends, who knew that they were wiretapping lines illegally for the NSA, are not liable for their behavior. As a take on AT&T's "___________ delivered" series of advertisements, I decided to beat their press to the punch with a logo of my own.
|
| Click for full size |
Be sure to call your representative and let them know how lame this is. Either the government or the corporation is responsible for violating the rights of its citizens, so either the NSA or the telecoms should pay (preferably both, but that's wishful thinking). Technically, there's nothing with asking a telecom to tap someone's phone, but the telecom shouldn't do it unless you provide a warrant (otherwise it's violating your 4th amendment rights and all that jazz), so putting the NSA on the hook really isn't going to happen.
You'd be right, assuming they ever took the suspect in question to trial. We've already seen how well that's panning out, with folks being held for six years without so much as a legal charge against them. What do we do about the Khaled El-Masris of the government investigation world?
Besides, wouldn't it be rather easy to get a warrant to tap the line if you've already tapped the line and gathered probable cause? I think so. You may tap a person's line, find out that they're planning to do something illegal at 4pm, and 'happen to be there' to observe it. Then you go to a judge and say that you've observed this behavior and that you'd like to tap the line due to suspicious activity. You'd have a warrant to continue tapping, and would be free to use evidence gathered in subsequent telephone conversations.
This kind of behavior is simply ripe for abuse, and it is what the fourth amendment is supposed to protect us from. I guess we can ignore the, "no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause" part of the constitution...
Posted by: Reid on February 13, 2008 06:28 AMPost a comment
Further back...
ArchivesFriends and Family
Search
Previous Trips...
-
Hiking Mount Whitney, 2007 
Spring Break in West Virginia, 2005
New Year's in Paris, 2003-2004
Coming to America, 2003
Protesting in Berlin, 2003
Prague Bier-Tour, 2002
Dresden, 2002
Recent Reading
![]()
The Curve of Binding Energy
John McPhee follows famous physicist Ted Taylor in this piece that was -- and probably still -- ahead of its time.
Originally published in 1973, McPhee outlined the coming security and environmental issues surrounding the plutonium enrichment processes. For the most part, though, McPhee invites the reader to draw his or her own conclusions, although he does point out the ease with which any number of people could obtain the material (though not necessarily the manufacturing prowess) to make an atomic weapon.
The question still sits in my mind after reading -- are we being too paranoid, or not paranoid enough?
Rated 
by reid
on October 01, 2007
by reid
on October 01, 2007
![]()
Zodiac
Zodiac touts itself as an 'eco-thriller,' and it is just that. Told from the first-person perspective of ST (or Sangamon Taylor), the book recounts a roughly six-month period of his life busting big corporations for violating environmental laws.
Not the tree-hugging political activist type, ST is equipped with chem labs, scuba divers, maps, and an organization (GEE International, the Group of Environmental Extremists) that masterfully brings the press into the fold to scare the public with the very real dangers posed by illegal dumping. It's sort of a Sierra Club member's wet dream -- a band of ecowarriors that actually get things done.
ST finds something odd happening in Boston Harbor during his tale: a new form of pollution that could poison everyone on the planet in a matter of weeks. His quest to uncover exactly who and what is causing the latest spike in toxins goes all the way up to the President of the United States, and could end up costing him his own life.
While a neat and fast-paced tale, the novel drags on a bit toward the end, begging disbelief from even the most forgiving sci-fi folk. While not as good as his latest offerings, it's still a great read for those that enjoy a good Stephenson novel (or even those who don't).
Rated 
by reid
on July 17, 2005
by reid
on July 17, 2005
![]()
Cat's Cradle
A few years ago, I attempted to woo an online datee, and she immediately criticized me for my politics. I protested the war on Iraq, which was "a shame." She defended her position of complete noninvolvement by standing behind Vonnegut.
It may seem odd to open a review that way. My assumption is now not that she was an idiot, but that she had only read Cat's Cradle, and only with a rather odd viewpoint.
Cat's Cradle looks at a cold-war world where the personifications of religious, political, and scientific single-mindedness collide to destroy the world.
Vonnegut tells a masterful tale, but it makes me wonder what one person's indifference would do to prevent us from all dying? So for now I will continue to unblindly stop unjust wars, even while I'm only reading.
Rated by reid
on July 17, 2005
by reid
on July 17, 2005
The Devil's advocate would mention, though, that the 4th Amendment issues are complex. Even if information is obtained without a warrant, a court will ultimately need to admit the evidence for it to be of any use to the government. The bounty from a directionless fishing expedition is likely still going to be suppressed. Info that will be admissable is more than likely of a the sort that would've been collected with a valid warrant had one been requested. So this isn't so much a loss of privacy as it is a reduction in federal agent paper work.
Even if you disagree with that, there's no reason to hold a phone company liable for cooperating with law enforcement. An illegal police action should rest on the state.
Posted by: Bross on February 13, 2008 05:58 AM