I went to the Boston Public Library yesterday [9/16/08] to see a panel discussion on the media and civil rights, an event of the MA ACLU. The panel discussion was a little too general for my taste and the q and a afterwards was a little raucous and diffuse but it was an interesting evening.
Later that night, I happened to catch The Tonight Show and Jay Leno interviewing Shia LeBoeuf about his new movie, "Eagle Eye." It was all about the Fourth Amendment but nobody on stage seemed to recognize it. I guess the Constitution doesn't play on The Tonight Show.
Shia LeBoeuf: I remember we had an FBI consultant on the picture telling me that they can use your ADT security box microphone to get your stuff that is going on in your house. Or OnStar, they can shut your car down. And he told me that one in five phone calls that you make are recorded and logged and I laughed at him. And then he played back a phone conversation I had two years prior to joining the picture, the FBI consultant...
Leno: They had a record of you from..
Shia: Two years prior to me joining the picture...
Leno: That seems creepy.
Shia: Extremely creepy.
What yanked my head around was how clueless Leno and LeBoeuf seemed to be at the fact that their rights had been completely and thoroughly violated. Every fifth phone call is recorded and logged? Is that freedom? Is that the "American Way"? I don't think so. The fact that Leno, LeBoeuf, and the audience didn't even recognize their rights are gone is telling. We only feel the chains when we stretch against them, exercising what's left of our freedom. It seems too few can feel even that.
The Constitution gets good play on The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. Maybe it should try to get booked on Letterman.
In other civil liberties news, I see that Puerto Rico has adopted the Real ID standards most of the 50 states have rejected.
Now might be a good time to see how long your own chains are. Me? I've been answering my phone, "NSA is listening, so am I" for at least a couple of years now.
Note: I made the transcript myself from the video available online. Any mistakes are my own.