Domestic spying far outpaces terrorism prosecutions

how much more has to happen before we realize we've lost our rights?

Is it just me or does Uncle Sam look like Bush in this picture?

And yet they continue to get away with it...

The morning of 9-11, within an hour of watching with friends the strike of the first airliner, I predicted this would happen, and said so later on my website. When I remarked as my friends and I watched at the Bioya Coffee Bar in Corpus Christi, that "the dog didn't bark," I lost a couple of friends, matter of fact; and during the heated discussion of my "traitorous" remarks that followed, I said that citizens of this country were about to lose what was left of their constitutional rights - the right of privacy first. The guy who called me a traitor won't meet my gaze anymore, and none of the folks at the Bioya that morning ever mentions the WTC attack while I'm around. You see, I know the U.S. Government as only one who "bugged" federal offices for years - as I did - can. They were doing it to me without warrant, why shouldn't I do the same? I learned enough to make a U.S. District Court rule in 1987 that records having to do with me were exempt under FOI, and that to five me the records "would irreparably damage the tax collection system of the U.S." It was the first - and only - time in U.S. History, that IRS and Income taxation were raised to the level of national security. We've lost our democracy. We invade other nations on mere pretense made of lies. We torture people. Why would we have any compunction about violating our own constitution?

Wait, you mean they are listening in on conversations but NOT arresting people that aren't guilty of collaborating with terrorists? OH THE HORROR, damn them for not arresting people without probable cause. I swear you people will perpetually cry about ANYTHING, give it a rest. Let them weed out the trouble makers and move on. This is very much like racism, it's only an issue because morons insist on beating a dead horse.

this, along with the virtual removal of due process, is fucked.

We're not getting angry enough to call a halt to this.
Why is that?

They're angry all right but I'm betting there is a different reason why they won't call a halt to it.

It's because they've collected evidence of all the skeletons in the closet with the wiretaps and are using it to blackmail everyone that could pose a threat to them.

Why else is no one able to stand up to the blatant lies or prosecute them for it?

I wonder if they can check my Myspace comments.

I don't know how many of you commentors read the article but I did, and if you did read it then I'm sure you caught this part,

"The fact that the prosecutions are down doesn't mean that the utility of these investigations is down. It suggests that these investigations may be leading to other forms of prevention and protection," said Thomas Newcomb

OTHER FORMS OF PREVENTION, if that doesn't sound insidious to you... but this line at the end of the story totally comforts me,

"A lot more information is going to pass through government hands, and most of that is going to be about people who turn out to be innocent or irrelevant," Michael Woods

At least I know that I, and my "privacy" is irrelevant to the government.

This is a complete infringement of a citizen's fundamental rights. Wouldn't we be a happier and econiomically stable nation if a fraction of the trillions of dollars spent on "fighting terrorism" were spent to save the millions from foreclosures!

Better stil, what if that money was equally divided amongst all the US citizen's? We would be one rich population instead of the insult to injury check we got for a princely sum of $1,200.

Not only is there decreasing results for said "terrorism" but there is no "terrorism" other than what has been fabricated by the Busheney coalition - to speak of.

They have no business in our business.

If they are listening, there is probably more than enough evidence to incriminate me for treason or conspiracy to commit treason. Or some bullshit like that.

I WANT them to take me to court! I'd make this such a huge political spectacle that the rest of the nation would have to take notice.

But before that happens, I would like to put an end to this crap. GIVE ME BACK MY RIGHT TO PRIVACY NOW!!!

Who's with me?!

Well, if we each post something 'radical' then how will they know who to focus on? Oh dear, does that make me non-patriotic?

Big brother is watching you!!!! Orwell's predictions just keep on becoming more and more true.

I wrote about this earlier last year. In the words of The Clash "Complete Control." Although we live in this "democracy" or "republic," no one is really represented, The People's word is just a few folks, C.E.O's and Politicians. With acts like the F.I.S.A, we as people are stripped from one of our basic rights, The Fourth Amendment, which is supposed to prohibit illegal search and seizure. Looking back in history, the beginning of any dictatorship has started slowly: first, placing fear into the eyes of its citizens, second, taking procedures to "protect" its citizens, then finally transfer the power from the People to a few, then to one. Let's see how the future plays out for the stars and stripes.

clayjj05 - just because we can post our dumb little opinions all over the internet doesn't make it alright for this corrupt administration to violate the countries Constitution - UNCONSTITUTIONALLY.

Remember - wiser men than this administration wrote one of the world's greatest documents in the history of humankind. What does that mean to you?

I personally don't care about wire-tapping as long as they legalize a handful of drugs, sports betting, and terrorism jokes.

For "Liberal Extinction": "anything" in my case was twenty-three years of relentless harassment, total financial ruin (prevented from return to business or gainful employment by things like threatening phone calls from IRS, the FBI, and more, I was forced to live in the wild and off the countryside), break up of not one, but two, marriages (the government colluded with one wife to commit perjury [she got caught], and threatened the other with jail should she refuse to lie [she lied, also got caught]), and having my youngest son driven to three attempts at suicide. There was much, much more, including three bullet wounds, being run down while walking or riding my bike six times by motor vehicles. All of this was made possible and co-ordinated by illegal surveillance including phone taps and "bugs" installed in my home and offices. When the come for you, pal, I'll bet you won't be so glib, chipper, and sycophantly patriotic. I'll be, too, that you don't "get over it" so easily as you write.

And for clayjj05, this quote from my website www.judoknighterrant.com - the Mongoose Trick Opinion Page: 'Americans are (every day) being swindled, beaten, and murdered by their government because they are too stupid, and too cowardly to make it stop. I am reminded of a couple of apropos quotes, one from a man named Martin Niemöller, the other Sir Winston Churchill (if you are the typical Kellie Pickler American, look him up). Niemöller, a pastor in Nazi Germany, said, 'In Germany, they came first for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist; and then they came for the trade unionists, I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist; and then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew; and then . . . they came for me . . . and by that time there was no one left to speak up.'

"And Sir Winston said, 'If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed, if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a small chance of survival. There may even be a worse case: you may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as a slave.'"

Its obvious they are. Even with the technology these days you can still hear clicks and humms that wern't there when I was a kid. I mean come on.

While the issue is fun and dandy here is what it boils down to. If used primarily for the purpose of discovering and preventing terrorists acts, then the domestic spying without a warrant is not such a terrible thing. Unfortunately it has more commonly been used (primarily by conservatives) to dig up dirt to use against political competition. Sure, we learned that a few politicians were seeing whores or some such things. But I have to ask, how in the blue fuck does that relate to preventing terrorist activities? If it relates to saving lives by intercepting a terrorist attack then fine, but if you go looking for terrorist and don't find any then any information that you would have otherwise needed a warrant to obtain should not be kept and/or admissible.