fitz!?

Class action lawsuits will be filed by next week at the latest. I think they finally did something that pisses everybody off, even the slow ones.

Could this be a breach of contract? I don’t want to go dig up my contract, but I guess I should. If it were we could get out of our plans without penalty.

He’s a real sniffer…

Having recently signed up my cingular Treo 650 with a contract, my transition cost out of AT&T is high. :-

Class action against the phone companies? Or class action against our NSA??

Did Sprint resist the Feds? I thought that only Qwest did. Or was Sprint not asked?

clb72 read my mind. I just re-upped for two more years with Verizon. IF it is a breach of contract, and it sure seems like it should be, then wouldn’t it be nice to stick it to them and keep the new Razor, as well? Any lawyers out there?

So just suppose, for argument sake, that I want to catch my cheating spouse so I can get a good divorce settlement and take away the kids. Since they are giving this info to the govenment, can I get it too and check my hubby’s calls for calls to his mistress? If it’s available to them it should be available to me. I’m his wife, after all. Why should I need a warrant if they don’t? If I want to see who my neighbors are calling, can I see that too? Where does this end?

I’m not certain, but Qwest sold its cellular phone service to Sprint a while back — so there won’t be a difference if traffic is sniffed en route, on Sprint’s lines…. ah:

http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_3779550

He said Qwest appeared overvalued considering its wireless business isn’t making a significant profit, unlike its peers. Qwest resells wireless service from Sprint Nextel Corp.

A class action for BILLIONS would be about the sweetest thing I could think of. Myself, I look forward to my $1,000.

Begala-come-lately, phooey. I opined that right here at FDL at 8:49 PDT this morning.

Go me

;>)

The Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a class action against AT&T in January in federal court in San Francisco. I was so p-o’ed today I sent them a donation- they have cool t-shirts and hats too. Check it out:

http://www.eff.org/

The United States has moved to intervene and dismiss the case, asserting the “military and state secrets privilege.” Shameful.

KO mentions Goldstein. We have to add 1984 to the book Salon. How long since many FDLers have read it? We are now living it!

I

Oops, silly blog software, that wasn’t meant to be an HTML tag.

What I tried to say was “I /

I knew I put up with the terrible Qwest customer service for 22 years for a reason

(heart) my BlackBerry.

LOL

RevDeb @ 14:

Add to the list Brave New World by Huxley, The Tomorrow File by Lawrence Sanders, and The Shockwave Rider by John Brunner.

All elements of the present reality, as well.

We’re not mining or trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans.

uh, media, when fredo makes this claim, keep in mind there are 300+ million americans in this country. so while ‘millions of innocent americans’ may not be victim to surveillance, millions more most certainly are under surveillance.

i’m thinking of going with carrier pigeons — fortunately, i live in brooklyn so it ought to be a fairly easy transition …

RevDeb @14

Last week I looked at my local library for 1984 and all their copies(5) were checked out. I figured it was aout time to read it again, apparently others do too.

Blackberry claims its transmisions are triply encoded - what makes you assume the NSA can’t crack it? Blackberry cleverly uses old-fashioned pager technology - what makes you think all ‘pages’ aren’t recorded by NSA? Blackberry is another Email device - what makes you think Email is off-limits to NSA ?

And Digital Fortress and everyone run out and rent Minority Report for some reality teevee.

bkny,
until the bird flu gets them—or a hawk.

Am I being alarmist?

http://www.ibmandtheholocaust.com

IBM and the Holocaust is the stunning story of IBM’s strategic alliance with Nazi Germany — beginning in 1933 in the first weeks that Hitler came to power and continuing well into World War II. As the Third Reich embarked upon its plan of conquest and genocide, IBM and its subsidiaries helped create enabling technologies, step-by-step, from the identification and cataloging programs of the 1930s to the selections of the 1940s.
Only after Jews were identified — a massive and complex task that Hitler wanted done immediately — could they be targeted for efficient asset confiscation, ghettoization, deportation, enslaved labor, and, ultimately, annihilation. It was a cross-tabulation and organizational challenge so monumental, it called for a computer. Of course, in the 1930s no computer existed.

But IBM’s Hollerith punch card technology did exist. Aided by the company’s custom-designed and constantly updated Hollerith systems, Hitler was able to automate his persecution of the Jews. Historians have always been amazed at the speed and accuracy with which the Nazis were able to identify and locate European Jewry. Until now, the pieces of this puzzle have never been fully assembled. The fact is, IBM technology was used to organize nearly everything in Germany and then Nazi Europe, from the identification of the Jews in censuses, registrations, and ancestral tracing programs to the running of railroads and organizing of concentration camp slave labor.

IBM and its German subsidiary custom-designed complex solutions, one by one, anticipating the Reich’s needs. They did not merely sell the machines and walk away. Instead, IBM leased these machines for high fees and became the sole source of the billions of punch cards Hitler needed.

IBM and the Holocaust takes you through the carefully crafted corporate collusion with the Third Reich, as well as the structured deniability of oral agreements, undated letters, and the Geneva intermediaries — all undertaken as the newspapers blazed with accounts of persecution and destruction.

Just as compelling is the human drama of one of our century’s greatest minds, IBM founder Thomas Watson, who cooperated with the Nazis for the sake of profit.

Only with IBM’s technologic assistance was Hitler able to achieve the staggering numbers of the Holocaust. Edwin Black has now uncovered one of the last great mysteries of Germany’s war against the Jews — how did Hitler get the names?

O/T maybe, or maybe not (I haven’t figured out the rules here and am confused about being EPU’d. Whazzat?).

Lawyers: please comment on John Yoo, erm, Professor John Yoo, who purports to have been the architect/fabricator of the Unitary Executive notion. I’ve heard him on NPR and he hit me as truly creepy. He seems to be the evil genius behind all the Ashcroft/Gonzalez/Bybee outrageousness.

why couldn’t the telcos be like google? google stood up to bushco.

also … as a former SEC lawyer pointed out … they should have notified their shareholders due to the fiduciary risk of this program … let’s do a little looking on which institutional investors hold these guys and put a little pressure on

Elliot Spitzer - wanna have some fun?

Jonathan Turley coming up right now on Countdown…

clb72

I read that book when it came out and it was chilling. I haven’t been able to think of IBM the same way since. Fascism, we are here.

Actually, it says that any person damaged will receive “no less than” $1,000.

Turley nails it yet again.

Turley says he hopes the phone companies are sued!

These companies aren’t stupid. I’ll bet if you check your contracts and read the fine print, you’ll see a clause in it wrt government and national security. You can bet they had their lawyers all over this shi_ before they turned over the records.

Hypatia @ 5:16 pm (#26) - If John Yoo was protrayed in a 1930s movie, Peter Lorre would play him. Creepy doesn’t even begin to describe him.

Oh, sorry, you were looking for a legal opinion.

revdeb — good point, lol.

re the video of fredo today — man, i would love to have someone analyze it in terms of his body language. notice how his eyes shift back and forth, and at certain points when he is most certainly lying, he furiously blinks. it’s the most shifty performance i’ve seen yet from him.

I used to have an AT&T phone. But every time I used it, the line would click out (just like call-waiting, which I do NOT have). Whoever I was speaking with would invariably ask me to repeat myself, since the line had gone “dead” for 2 seconds.

After 9/11 I just assumed we were all wiretapped. And they called me paranoid.

Let’s see. $1000. for my phone, $100. gift card for my gas rip off….what’s the going price for stealing my vote?

Probably someone mentioned this already, but this sure smells like a quid pro quo with the end of net neutrality being the quid.
It doesn’t make any sense that the phone companies would violate their privacy agreements with customers under NO legal obligation at all.
I know they’re evil, but they’re not stupid.
They got something for turning over the records, and what they got was a promise to control the internet. Anyone know if QWest has been shafted in the legislation to end net neutrality?

ccmask - CNN had someone reading the language in the contracts - it specifies warrants and subpoenas or illegal use of telecom networks - looks like they did not cover themselves

bkny @ 5:13 pm (#20) - Maybe Bush believes in original sin? That way, there’d be no innocent American citizens.

200,000,000 American members of al-Qaeda?

Sigh…there’s just really no justice.

One of my relatives died last year, and I’m handling the estate, which my brother and I and my aunt are sharing equally. We’re just about at the end of things - just waiting for the stupid NJ tax waivers so I can wrap things up. The three stocks in the brokerage account? AT & T, BellSouth and Verizon. AT & T and BellSouth are merging later this summer, and that will mean the end of BellSouth and 1.325 shares of AT & T issued for every share of Bell South. It was going to mean a nice chunk of stock, even split three ways.

I can’t imagine the stock will do anything but go down, down, down. This inheritance has carried us through an extended unemployment of my husband’s, and I was looking at the stock as something I could just put away and let grow. Owning it now will feel like participating in the crime, but dumping it may be a really bad financial move.

I’m angrier than is probably healthy at the breach of trust - again - on the part of my government and the phone companies, and pissed off that what I had hoped would be a small nest egg is more like a rotten egg.

Can’t help thinking about phone company retirees, who may hold large chunks of these stocks, who may suffer a lot more than I will. What I am getting is something I didn’t have before, so I’ll survive no matter what.

There really is no punishment that could make up for the betrayal of the American people that just gets bigger and more serious every day.

Hi, folkses, what a lousy day, huh? I have felt the hair standing up on the back of my neck all day. I have cingular and will look into TMobile which I understand has better reception. Just signed my son up for his first phone with Verizon, not sure I can handle both opt-out fees, we’ll see, maybe after the trip out west.

I don’t believe one thing this administration says about anything and I believe they are capable of anything at all. I think we will find that e-mail has been collected. I also think they will probably try to use the phone lists to identify illegals. I am deeply sorry to say I do not expect this congress to do anything like a real investigation and only legal action or removal for incompetence will stop these utter lunatics.

I expect to learn that after Tom DeLay resigns he will confirm that he has taken a job with some huge right wing christian org to push the racist, homophobic base into action. By then, it will be the below 30%. He will also continue to have influence on his buddies and will certainly be involved in conference calls to the Senate, that is, if he doesn’t go to jail.

For cell phone coverage I have t-mobile. But what about home phone and dsl in nyc (brooklyn) - anyone have any ideas? Do I have to do cable and vonage?

Called Markey’s office today I was so pissed off about this. Thanked the aide for his work on Net Neutrality and complained about this. I said that they had to be related—quid pro-quo. The telcos give W what he wants and the repugs give them what they want. I don’t think the person in the congressional office quite put them together. How could they not be????

Just thinkin’

I re-upped my EFF membership early today in thanks. I’m still breathless with rage. Yes, even though we basically knew six months ago that this was happening.

And since I’m lacking a congressional rep at this point, I directed my letter on the subject to Nancy Pelosi. *g*

Why is your name absent from the amicus brief to the court challenge of warrentless wiretapping, filed yesterday by the ACLU? You are the Minority Leader. You should be first among the elected representatives joining the brief in defense of our rights.

#13
Exactly. But why is this only getting mentioned in comments?

The EFF has been on this case for months, and fighting these fights for years.

The USAToday story, and, unfortunately, many posts writing about it, give too little attention to the EFF’s work and its core work leading to this story. Jeralyn at talkleft makes the connections.

Because I know people at the EFF, and I know how much they get done with relatively few resources (i.e. money) as a non-profit, I’m commenting that people should check out the EFF’s work.

Articles ought not to say NSA-cooperating phone companies ought to be sued without mentioning that AT&T is being sued. The EFF has been doing good work on this, and should get credit (and donations!) for their fight. To have been fighting this for months takes money.

Just covering civil-rights and blogs alone, the EFF’s fights include:
the Right to Blog Anonymously
the Right to Keep Sources Confidential
the Right to Make Fair Use of Intellectual Property
the Right to Allow Readers’ Comments Without Fear
the Right to Protect Your Server from Government Seizure
the Right to Freely Blog about Elections
the Right to Blog about Your Workplace and
the Right to Access as Media

Because I’m feeling cynical, I’ll say there is likely to be an economic rather than ethical reason Qwest didn’t turn over records. No doubt they didn’t get the same quid pro quo arrangement (the terms weren’t as lucrative).

& btw - we don’t know if the cable companies are clean or not - just because no one has ratted them out yet. And from what I know of them, I wouldn’t expect them to stand up to the NSA.

And I wonder how much of this “net neutrality” idea is a sort of quid pro quo for wiretapping. You watch our back and we’ll watch yours. wink, wink.

suin: Thanks for the correction. I guess its all about keeping the shareholders happy. I, for one, am changing my phone number in the morning. lol

This all has to do with voting, doesn’t it?

This just came to me…. maybe the people responsible for these leaks aren’t just disgruntled ATT employees — they could be coming from Qwest’s present and former employees.

Think about it. For a present employee, the stock dips ATT, Verizon and SBC will suffer due to this illegal monitoring of traffic will move their stock prices down to Qwest’s level, which ain’t high, to begin with. Qwest begins to look good, to investors and in the court of public opinion. Notebaert (the present CEO) noted that talks between Qwest and the NSA ended this year — which means they can rule out any lucrative goverment bribes to do NSA’s bidding — what do they have to lose, by leaking these arrangement with other companies, which they’d have to know about, in order to negotiate a contract?

As for former staff, a few have incentive to make the sibilings of the Justice Dept. look bad:

Joe Nacchio’s been saying that he was anticipating a stock price increase, due to government contracts coming in:

http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_3282115

“Nacchio’s defense also will argue that he believed Qwest’s future was bright when he sold his stock. According to The Wall Street Journal, Nacchio’s lawyers may argue that Nacchio believed Qwest was in line to receive lucrative contracts from the federal government - secret, national security contracts that only people near his level would know about.

“It’s the Alice in Wonderland defense,” said Anthony Accetta, a Denver fraud investigator who served as Colorado’s first assistant attorney general in Colorado in the ’70s. “He’s using inside information to justify using inside information?”

It does smack of a certain bravado - the kind for which Nacchio is renowned. Count on Nacchio to stick to the same story he’s been telling for years.

“At any time I sold Qwest stock, I believed that the company’s financial statements represented a full and accurate picture of its financial condition,” Nacchio told a congressional panel in 2002. “I regret that I was unable to complete the job of building Qwest into the global telecommunications leader we had envisioned, and I am truly sorry for any losses suffered by Qwest shareholders and for the thousands of Qwest employees who lost their jobs.”

Anschutz is a rock-ribbed conservative, and a believer of patriotic propaganda. If these leaks happened under his watch, they happened with his consent — which makes him more crafty and dangerous than his Kermit the Frog-billboard foundation images depict.

quireky @ 5:24 pm (#37) - The way they do wiretapping nowadays, you’d never be able to tell. Voice communications are converted to digital, and then transmitted like other data (albeit at a higher priority) over the same data pipes that carry Internet traffic. If they want to tap your phone, they can just make another copy of the data.

On the radio today, a reporter said that Qwest didn’t participate because they had questions about the legal aspect of it. Nothing more specific.

SBC was just recently bought out by AT&T… my other option is getting my landline phone via the cable company…

unfortunately, stuck with Verizon until July for my cell…

ccmask - the shareholders are pissed - bazillion dollar class action suits do not make markets happy … there are a few ceo’s sweating tonight

There will be no accountability for any of this until the Bushites are shut down. As it stands they figure (and they might be right) that they can drag the accountability moment out long enough to ensure SCOTUS lets them off…

BTW, Jane and Christy are the best! FDL!!!

I remember loathing Jonathan Turley during the Clinton impeachment. But he has been great on this issue. He’s virtually called for the impeachment of Bush over the illegal wiretapping.

Jerry Lewis (R-bastid) being investigated now, from Olberman.

Hypatia says:
May 11th, 2006 at 5:16 pm

John Yoo may have assisted in implementing an idea that had been on Dick Cheney’s mind for many years, according to what I have read on other FDL threads. How many other people can you think of who are complicit in attempting to establish an authoritarian government in this country?

Switching from Verizon to Sprint end of the month! I would be surprised if NSA didn’t RECORD every phone conversation and every URL visited.

Hey Mr Genius President-

If we can all figure out(in a day) How to change to Qwest and Sprint, how long will it take the bad guys to switch.

OT but good news:

We’ve just announced officially that Barbara Boxerand Nancy Pelosi will be speaking at Yearly Kos:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/5/11/202050/962

I live in Jerry Lewis’s district, and I heartily look forward to some new blood in/on that seat…

zennurse says:
May 11th, 2006 at 5:32 pm

Wouldn’t it be nice to see Qwest’s line of reasoning disseminated?

zennurse/55 - “they had questions about the legal aspect of it” = “they didn’t show us the money”

ReneND #63:
In their eyes, WE are the bad guys.

Slightly OT, June Vanity Fair has a profile of Cheney, comparing his earlier self to his current Valdemort persona. There’s a picture of him that almost looks..well…gentle. It’s disconcerting. But overall, I found that I knew all the facts, and what I didn’t know, he wouldn’t answer for the reporter. He is one very scary guy, according to a number of current and former colleagues. Worth the read, skip nicole richie.

http://tinyurl.com/a6erq

Help Impeach Today

Now… People think this is a waste of time because even the Dems said that they were not going to impeach (yeah right)…

Keep the pressure on Congress… Talking about impeachment wakes people up… They question, it’s a strong motivator to get people thinking. It also lets Congress know how intense the dissapproval is for this President… They seem to be a little slow on the uptake. So please:

1) Sign petitions if you have not done so
2) Send a letter to Congress (both Senators & House rep)
3) Send a copy to the media
4) Enlist friends and family to help, ask them to chip in time
5) Spread the link around, email it (with a request to forward) post it on a blog, or in the comments of a news story.

Help out!!!

Thanks :)

Treo 650 users are happier with their Treo than Blackberry users are with their Blackberrys. (No cite, I read that on teh Intarweb.)

Treo rocks, Blackberry sucks.

Sprint Treo can get you a reasonably priced all the data you can eat plan for much much less than AT&T wants.

I am grandfathered in at $15 per month for all the data I can eat. I eat a lot. I think it’s now $25 - $29 each month. I think AT&T wants something like $50 - $80.

Don’t be a sux0R, get a Tr30!

Skype babies Skype !!!
-can be free, or real real cheap, but be aware all of their switches are in Europe so you’ll save $$$ , thumb your nose at the domestic collaborators, but still subject to NSA monitors

$1000 fine is per violation, not per person

Traders/Market Types -
and I’m thinking even the threat of large scale class action and shareholder suits will drive the share price down ???

Didn’t want to say the “T” word on the internets. ha

Stephen, maybe it will “leak” out?

The idea that the information came from there is very interesting.

Oooh, Boxer and Pelosi, very interesting, siun, wonder where we’ll be then?

Maybe I need to get out more, but was this story leaked today to pre-empt an indictment tomorrow?

Did anybody else see this in the Washington Post this morning? “Jeb Would Make a ‘Great President,’ Bush Says” I thought my head was going to explode. Like any Bush has a chance after this one.
Sorry if this should go into a different thread

By way of Raw Story:

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Japan/HE12Dh01.html

SPEAKING FREELY
The return of ‘thought crimes’ in Japan
By Scott North

Speaking Freely is an Asia Times Online feature that allows guest writers to have their say. Please click here if you are interested in contributing.

Japan’s government is pushing for the passage of an anti-conspiracy law with potentially far-reaching consequences. Called the Kyoubouzai Hoan (conspiracy or collusion law), the legislation appears headed for passage in the diet (parliament) as soon as next week. In its present form, it could result in Japanese citizens being detained or punished for merely agreeing with one another.

In combination with another statute that permits detention without charge, the new law could have a chilling effect on civil liberties, including freedoms of speech and assembly and the right to organize.

(snip)

Gang, I think Think Progress is wrong on the possible damages AT&T and pals might be liable for — I just read the penalties section of the Stored Communications Act, and it reads to me a hell of a lot like they’re not talking a penalty of $1000 per person aggrieved, they’re talking a penalty of $1000 per violation.
But I’m not a lawyer. Could somebody who is check? Link is here.

Jeb would make a great president!

Of Iraq.

“Skype babies Skype !!!
-can be free, or real real cheap, but be aware all of their switches are in Europe so you’ll save $$$ , thumb your nose at the domestic collaborators, but still subject to NSA monitors”

I use it everyday. Texas to New York, FREE!

I heard Durbin today in the Judiciary committee, reminding them that Gonzales had told them the scope of the NSA program was limited and narrow, and bemoaned the fact that since the committee hadn’t sworn him, he was not under oath. Durbin wants Gonzales back, and sworn this time. Don’t know why he thinks he would get any more answers than he has, since these people show no interest in answering to anyone.

The Republicans I heard just do not get it. “We’re in a war!” “We can’t tell the terrorists what we’re doing!” “They’re not listening, they’re just collecting the numbers!”

Well, guess what, asshats - at some point they have to identify who the numbers belong to, and so far, no one has satisfied me that they are doing even that much legally.

Can’t wait til these ninnies get an earful from their constituents, and if Bush’s ratings aren’t at 28% by Monday, I will eat a bug.

zennurse says:
May 11th, 2006 at 5:40 pm

I think we and/or others discussed this many threads ago: how have his cardiac problems affected his present outlook on life and his personality?

forgot the link !

Think our regular Cozumel uses it, can probably tell ya more

SKYPE

BellSouth is denying having done anything illegal, and they swear they have not disclosed any ‘confidential information’ to the NSA. The CSR I spoke to did not know if my calling records were included under the ‘confidential information’ umbrella or not. It sounded like a careful parsing of words, i.e., “Wilson’s wife” instead of “Valerie Plame”.

Bastards.

SKYPE…

http://www.skype.com/download/

The Administration is in clear violation of at least one and perhaps two laws. Here’s my analysis of the NSA fiasco.

I have a Blackberry, but the service is through Verizon. So, like, they have access to confidential corporate communications? Methinks the corporati ought to be up in arms on this issue, yes?

cbl says:
May 11th, 2006 at 5:41 pm

$1000 fine is per violation, not per person.

“If the phone company acted with a “knowing or intentional state of mind,†then the customer wins actual harm, attorney’s fees, and “in no case shall a person entitled to recover receive less than the sum of $1,000.â€

Splitting hairs a bit, each person who shows damage shows, and constitutes, a separate violation. i.e. ten people damaged = ten violations. Also, when statutes are written with damages stated as bare minimums, and with an award of attorney fees, it’s a very good indication that this sort of thing is taken very seriously.

Qwest is $6.51 a share. Probably a very good buy right now. I talked my brother into buying some in 2001. It was expensive and he lost his a$$. I wonder if he still has it? I emailed him–we’ll see.

Listen Jane,before this is all over we’ll
be blogging by carrier pidgeon!

Mash says:
May 11th, 2006 at 5:49 pm

Have you looked at the Telephone Consumer Protection Act to see whether any of its provisions apply? Someone mentioned 47 USC 222 on another thread.

ccmask– I wouldn’t wish that on the already suffering people in Iraq or anywhere else. I don’t think the ‘democracy’ there could handle another of our home grown despots.

cbl,

My business partner and I first used Skye when he went to Taiwan about a month ago, FREE! We’re still using it because the sound is “in the same room quality”.

I’m also under contract to Cingular - have to doublecheck how much they’ll ding me for early termination. Do we actually know, though, that these other companies are not also providing data? Just because the revelations have focused on the big 3 doesn’t mean they’re the only ones . . .

I was just reading Skype’s security evaluation, and one of the best selling points for me is that it is encrypted end-to-end.

PDF warning:
http://www.skype.com/security/.....uation.pdf

My dad used to raise pidgeons in Brooklyn when he was a boy. I took my mom to New York for a shopping trip last week and she told me the story. Him and his friends trained them to deliver messages back and forth. I remember growing up, when he’d get mad (there were six of us kids), he’d mutter under his breath “I should’ve kept raising the pidgeons….

“I was just reading Skype’s security evaluation, and one of the best selling points for me is that it is encrypted end-to-end.”

Guess what entity is the world’s leader in breaking encryption? I won’t divulge the name, just the initials: N.S.A.

Would the state PUCs possibly be a point of pressure against the telecoms? It would seem that the states would have some sort of privacy requirement in their regulation of the phone company. You might get a little more aggressiveness in investigating this from, say, an Eliot Spitzer than an Abu Gonzales.

However, doesn’t the discovery process–with classified information involved–pose a huge hurdle in going after the telecoms? I thought EFF recently lost an important motion on just this issue in their class action suit.

91 Stephen Parrish, CPA says:

Have you looked at the Telephone Consumer Protection Act to see whether any of its provisions apply? Someone mentioned 47 USC 222 on another thread.

I think that applies only to records going to third parties other than the government…I’ll double check.

Skype is relatively new and small. 3,500,000 users on line (right now!) world wide.

The fines people are talking about, I don’t believe, apply when the data is given to the government.

What do you get when you elect a Republican as Governor?

Criminals, Corruption and Coverups!

What do you get when you elect a Republican to Congress?

Criminals, Corruption and Coverups!

What do you get when you elect a Republican as President?

Criminals, Corruption and Coverups!

Are you beginning to see a pattern here?

Fitz ‘em all!

Spread the word!

Criminals, Corruption and Coverups!

From Verizon’s web site:

What does it mean to me for Verizon to be a licensee of the TRUSTe Privacy Program?
The TRUSTe seal confirms that Verizon is a licensee of the TRUSTe Privacy Program. Verizon wants you to feel confident about your privacy when using verizon.com, so we have TRUSTe review this site for compliance with their guidelines. TRUSTe is an independent, non-profit organization whose mission is to build users’ trust and confidence in the Internet by promoting the use of fair information practices. Contact us if you have questions or concerns regarding this statement. If your inquiry has not been satisfactorily addressed, you should then contact TRUSTe who will serve as a liaison to resolve your concerns.

New thread– GJ in tomorrow!!!

new thread - new tomorrow !

For those thinking of switching check out Working Assets.

http://www.workingassetswireless.com/

I believe they use the Sprint Network and they are honestly a decent “socially responsible” company.

Rus

John Yoo is certainly creepy, but he is just the consigliere. These are Dick Cheney’s plans and purposes pure and simple. Here he was on Sept. 16, 2001 (Thanks to Froomkin, among others)

We also have to work, though, sort of the dark side, if you will. We’ve got to spend time in the shadows in the intelligence world. A lot of what needs to be done here will have to be done quietly, without any discussion, using sources and methods that are available to our intelligence agencies, if we’re going to be successful. That’s the world these folks operate in, and so it’s going to be vital for us to use any means at our disposal, basically, to achieve our objective.

Thats what he thinks, along with the idea that the powers of the president were excessively hindered by post-watergate legislation. He’s wrong, of course, as is Yoo, but that’s what they think. I imagine that Yoo could argue the other side quite convincingly, however I can’t really picture Big Dick standing up for the little guys civil rights.
peace,
jim

#56 — actually, SBC acquired AT&T, but kept the old name everyone would recognize.

It’s interesting, isn’t it, that most of Qwest’s customers whose rights weren’t trampled on are in wildy red states?

detailed info on QWEST at link below -

along with possible quid pro quo, these collaborators were compensated upfront, continue to receive compensation, AND when QWEST balked, it was implied they would lose future contract opportunities
ObsidianWings

Scarborough is telling us to be very afraid!! He is saying the CEO’s should all be fired.

It breaks FCC laws, big brother listening…Joe is pissed!! Yahoo!!

My T-Mobile cellular rep, obviously reading from a script, claimed only land-line companies were cooperating, and that T-Mobile was not. That’s an interesting claim about land-line companies. I wonder why.

T-Mobile claims they would only give out info for a court order or subpoena, and it looks like I’m clean: neither were received for my account! :)

I’m anxious to find out how the this latest Big Brother adventure plays in the polls, because if the real truth about this is not reaching the public, we’re in deep trouble.

And the administration sure has had its most evil enablers out there lying and spinning for them all day long, pulling out all the stops - most especially, Pat Roberts, who has more blood on his hands than just about anybody in Congress.

Here’s a part of the transcript from Lou Dobbs - Roberts hits every buzzword:

ROBERTS: We’ve been out to the NSA. We’ve talked to the people out there who I regard as true patriots who are working 24-7 to detect and deter terrorist attacks that are being plotted right now, even as we speak. And I’m a little incredulous here when — we’re at war with al Qaeda. They’re planning attacks against the United States. We have a program, a highly minimized military capacity to detect and deter and stop these attacks.

We’ve stopped several attacks so it’s been successful. Basically I think what the president said is exactly right. We are not eavesdropping on any American unless you have a court order and there is certainly due cause for that. And we’re certainly not doing anything in terms of data mining or anything like that. All we have is a program that really starts to give our intelligence community exactly what the 9/11 said, act with speed, act with haste, act with agility, act with hot pursuit and that’s what we’re doing.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRA.....dt.01.html

I’m not very well-off financially but at least, I always thought, I’m free in a great country. Now I find I’m spied on in a country that uses torture….I don’t know what to think anymore. Actually I know exactly what I think: I want a huge amount of money. It won’t compensate me for loss of privacy, but what the hell. And I want that cretin in the White House removed.

(Another book you all might like for the book club is Jennifer Government. I liked it, it’s not universally liked, though.)

#102 Mad Dogs:
“Criminals, Corruption and Coverups!”
by
Liars and Bribers and Squares, Oh My!

Meanwhile, on the international front, John Boehner told us today that there is a lot of good news coming out of Iraq. Baghdad is really the only problem area, and all the kids are enjoying school. Smile everybody, it’s tax-cuttin’ time!!

Mash @ 101

per the think progress link -(emphasis mine)

1. It violates the Stored Communications Act. The Stored Communications Act, Section 2703(c), provides exactly five exceptions that would permit a phone company to disclose to the government the list of calls to or from a subscriber: (i) a warrant; (ii) a court order; (iii) the customer’s consent; (iv) for telemarketing enforcement; or (v) by “administrative subpoena.†The first four clearly don’t apply. As for administrative subpoenas, where a government agency asks for records without court approval, there is a simple answer – the NSA has no administrative subpoena authority, and it is the NSA that reportedly got the phone records.

btw, IANAL, but “(iv) for telemarketing enforcement” refers to the national no calls list - which means there’ been recent amendment activity to the law - right ?