It gives controversial new powers to the Justice Department in terms of domestic and international surveillance of American citizens and others within its jurisdiction. According to its sponsors, the Act was needed to address a situation that had not existed before - the presence of terrorists within national borders - and the need to apprehend and prosecute them, hopefully before rather than after they acted.

Opponents of the Act, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union, say that the Act has undone previous checks on civil liberty abuses of the past and unnecessarily endangers privacy and discourages free speech.

A Nation Divided Cannot Stand...against Tyranny.

copyright © 2008 Betsy L. Angert.  BeThink.org

We met in December.  The year was 2007.  He was a friend of my cousin's.  The two were best of buds; they still are.  Cousin Paul has known James for decades.  Jim moved to my hometown only months earlier.  He felt alone.  James longed for a friend, locally.  Paul introduced us on the Internet.  After my relative played the mediator, the man in the middle, the means for a message, he asked if he might share our electronic mail addresses.  James and I each consented, and from then on, we exchanged epistles directly.  

In letters, we liked each other.  Admittedly, for us, the electronic medium was limited.  We decided to share a drink together; although I let him know, I only imbibe water.  James said that was not a problem.  We arranged to get together at Starbucks.  The coffee shop was near to his home and mine.  Neither of us wished to share where we lived exactly.  We were hesitant, cautious, or just not willing to chance the unknown.

It appears that the FBI is using a broad stroke wiretapping technique that allows agents to investigate and assemble the activities of thousands of Internet users at one time. This is called  full-pipe surveillance that allows them to gather massive amounts of data flowing through an ISP’s servers. Carnivore did not perform full-pipe surveillance.

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(x-posted from TexasKAOS, where we're taking Texas back!)

CNet is reporting that some disturbing information about the NSA's data collection techniques was revealed at last Friday's "Search & Seizure in the Digital Age" symposium at Stanford.

Paul Ohm, a former employee of the Justice Department who worked in their Computer Crime and Intellectual Property division, explained how data-gathering has changed since the federal government abandoned it's Carnivore program a few years ago.  While Carnivore was set up to only collect data which matched certain filters, the full pipe technique (aka "the vacuum cleaner method") is highly invasive and puts our privacy rights at risk:

"What they're doing is even worse than Carnivore," said Kevin Bankston, a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation who attended the Stanford event. "What they're doing is intercepting everyone and then choosing their targets."

Democrats are always under attack for being "weak" on "national security." The premise is that we can't fight the "war on terror" as well as the Republicans. But Republicans are silent about the real war, the war for Democracy. That's because they are the mouthpiece for neo-conservatives. And, it is the neocons that are waging war on democracy. They are well on their way to winning it.

That's why we need to reaffirm our democratic principles and institutions and fight our own war, the War for Democracy.

Secrets are important!

Although Bush and team claim the NSA program is vital to the US security interests, one could postulate that AlQueda or chinese/russian/indian spys or anyone with half a wit, probably understands what Carnivore is capable of monitoring and what it isn't.

Now, the FEDs want to prosecute, the New York Times for revealing the exists of a pseudo legal domestic spying program.

My lovely blue-eyed daughter, so full of promise and energy, told me last night that she thinks she might be vegetarian. She carefully explained to me that some children have brown hair, and some have black hair, and some are vegetarian. Then she asked if she could go watch "Dragon Tales".

I could only stand there, numb, staring at the pound of pork cutlets I'd just unwrapped.

From ThinkProgress:

Prominent right-wing bloggers - including Michelle Malkin, the Corner, Wizbang and Free Republic -- are pushing the argument that President Bush's warrantless domestic spying program isn't news because the Clinton administration did the same thing.

Continued beyond the fold...