Big Numbers
30,000–that’s the population of a large town or a small city. It’s the number of seats in one of the smaller major league baseball fields. It’s the size of a US Army Corps.
Wired also reports that it’s also the number of “national security letters” issued by the FBI on a yearly basis. These letters allow access to your Internet use, telephone, email and financial records, all without judicial review. (Not that I trust the judicial system, but any sort of oversight would make me a little more comfortable.)
30,000 is 100 times the historical average of these letters, which first came into use with the passage of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act in 1986.
Good thing we have this right to privacy thing.
November 8th, 2005 at 10:19 am
I was going to post something but Gunner said it much better than I did.
http://noquarters.blogspot.com/2005_11_01_noquarters_archive.html#113137051445545300
“I’m going to say it simply and openly. Bullshit on their comments. They give a rat’s ass about our rights. What they are doing is noticing that the wind is blowing against the patriot act. As politicians are known for one things and that is getting on the latest bandwagon, these are performing the ancient act of following the polls.”
Well said Gunner. Go read the whole thing.
Heck I’ll add my two cents.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/P/PATRIOT_ACT_RECORDS?SITE=MIDTF&SECTION=HOME
“Sens. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Tom Coburn, R-Okla., both members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the expanded use of security letters was a “clear concern” and that information gathered on citizens should be destroyed if it does not lead to a criminal charge.”
Yep, that a congress-critter first instinct, shred it! If it does not lead to a criminal charge the overlords ought to politely tell the serf that “Your government has been spying on you but we think your are OK, well at least for now.”
November 8th, 2005 at 1:26 pm
Having a right to privacy and having office holders who respect it are different things. There are already Constitutional grounds for challenging many PATRIOT Act provisions. Now we just need someone with standing and the financial resources to make such challenges. The courts can’t just strike down a law because they want to. Someone has to bring a case before them. Most likely, it will be the ACLU that brings such challenges, at which point they will be eviscerated by pigs like Bill O’Reilly for taking the side of criminals and terrorists.
November 8th, 2005 at 4:22 pm
persimmon Says: Having a right to privacy and having office holders who respect it are different things. There are already Constitutional grounds for challenging many PATRIOT Act provisions. Now we just need someone with standing and the financial resources to make such challenges.
See the problem here is if you have standing and you don’t know it, the very fact that you have standing is classified.
If you DO know you have standing, your already in jail and your bank account has already likely been frozen by the Fed-Goons.
Have you tried to open a bank account since 9-11? Have you seen the new “patriot” act statement? Yes, now your bank is required to spy on you on the federal governments behalf even more than before.