I know, those stupid clients are really annoying :)

You write: But don’t forget, the current situation is that mistaken intercepts are supposed to be destroyed UNLESS they contain evidence of a crime.

First of all, what constitutes “evidence of a crime” in this instance? Is it “a crime”, a “misdemeanor or a felony”? I don’t trust some NSA person or a Bush admin. person to just make such a determination whether it falls under National Security or not.

Second, isn’t the issue that (if I have read my Glenn Greenwald correctly) that the FISA Court provides some oversight into any of these wiretapping activities? If I am not mistaken various accounting firms are outsourcing tax preparation to India as well. Given the investigations into financial transaction by suspected terrorists by the Dept. of Justice (see Suskind’s new book for a discussion on this), who says that the NSA isn’t listening into these conversations or tapping into these transmissions to pick up filings of Charitable Organizations (Form 990 or 990-EZ)

I know the possibilities are endless here; it’s enough to get the tinfoil hat ready.

Slightly OT, I brought the Digby post in regard to Condoliar Rice’s “birth pangs” statement to my (conservative/Bush admin. admiring) boss yesterday who stated that I should get my tinfoil hat ready. (It made me think of this after I typed the earlier paragraph.)

Judge Walker in SF didn’t dismiss on state secrets.

Note that the Electronic Frontier Foundation is a non-profit with under 30 employees. Few articles mention that they’re a non-profit, and so readers might not know they’re a group that needs support. They’re fighting surveillance (and fighting disenfranchisement, etc) on a budget that’s smaller than many single political campaigns.

(I am an EFF supporter, and in the past week it looks like they haven’t gotten a civil liberties bloggers shout-out for the 7 months of work they did to get Judge Walker’s ruling. I’d like to give the EFF credit for a fight well-fought. I’d really like to see them get support for the fights ahead.)

oops, my bad. That’s what I get for rushing through the threads.

Second-Anne I never saw myself as a children’s book person, but maybe I should be doing a better job of photographing the relevant period of time, just in case.

Maybe littleprop will write such a book. She wrote her first “chapter” book maunscript when she ws 10. her idea of a fun rainy weekend is to churn out short stories. maybe she will want to do the “Adventures of Baby Mittens”

Too much of my own EPU. Now to new thread…

I think your next book project should be about Baby Mittens – she has such a great personality that would lend itself to a great series of books – kind of like the Carl (Rottweiler) books, if you’re familiar with those.

And count me in if your idea takes root for organized constituent single issue action ala the Connecticut example in northern California.

man-on-dog
we’re all agog
especially Rick
Santorum, that dick.