If we EVER start to find out how much we are being watched, it is going to make Winston Smith of George Orwell/1984 look like a rugged individualist. Well . . maybe a bit of a literary stretch, but you get my point.

looseheadprop @ 160

wdcsmp @ 32

Iran Contra criminal/pardonee Adm. John Poindexter was put in charge of TIA in ‘02. Congress defunded and outlawed in ‘03. Bush, et al. went ahead and did it anyway, getting clever by half and calling it something diffetent. Rockefeller horrified to be told they were violating Congress. Comey likewise refused to play along, leading hospital room showdown w/ Gonzales 3/10/04.

They did it anyway. Exactly what Congress passed a law saying they couldn’t do. Funded it from other sources. 21st century Iran Contra.

There;s more than that. There is more than one data mining operation. There is also the program inside the FBI.

Additionally, they are doing these stupid “Beautiful Mind” kind spiderweb things. Remeber the movie? When he would have all these clippings pushpinned on a bulletin board with sting running from one to another to show some supposed connection?

They do that. The computer program that searches the signals intelligence (your phone calls and e-mail and other internet usage) uses a filter not unlike the kind that stick some comments into moderation here at the lake.

So, let’s say one motnh enough of your phone calls/emails get put into “mederation” by the computer to go over a pre-set statistical probabilty value.

Whoomph! You are now intersting to the program, so they start data mining your phone records, your finaicial information, etc. (credit card bills and ATMS are THE BEST for tracking movement)

They also do the spider web thingy. They start data mining the people you have had contact with or who have had contact with phone numbers and locations associated with you.

In the biz, it’s called an “associated name search”. There are actuall commercially avaible data bases for doing these, private eyes and lawyers use them al the time. You just have to subscribe to them.

So, you have the Poindexter illegal data mining at DOD –PLUS you have the FBI illegal dat mining.

Now, DOJ rules used to prohibit FBI from using these services except with a warrant–for which they need the help of an AUSA (or in some specific cases, and administrative subpeona from FBI), or a GJ subpeona –for which you need both an AUSA and a GJ.

Part of the freak out over the Patriot Act National Security letter violations (and why Mueller is still soiling his undies) is that FBI agents were using NSLs for non-national security cases. It’s like all the old rules went out the window.

part of this is b/c FBI got the bright idea to subscribe to these services instead of having the services turn over the info in response to the subpeona like in the old days.

Knowing that credit reports, and biank info etc. was just sitting there on their new shiny computer sytem waiting for them to peek, was like Eve with the apple from the Tree of Knowledge–irresistable.

So, agents started peeking and if they found something good trying to create a paper trail to justify it so they would not have to deal with the fruit of the poisonous tree problem.

So, FBI has it’s own illegal data mining issue too.

Which is why Gonzo is now throwing up all this sand in COngress eyes (I cannot believe I am recycling Pat’s hokey metaphor–oh, the shame of it) about there being multiple programs.

There are. You got the DOD/NSA prgrams, plus the FBI program. And I think there may be one more over at Homeland Security. And I still want to know what Chertoff is doing with all those “detention facilites” he built.
I was cruising through a list of DOJ contracting memeos before (yes, my life is THAT boring) and I saw two that dealt with DOJ recently aquiring the abilty to contract for extra prison and detetnion facilites.

Why do we suddenly need all these privately run prisons? Crime statistics are going down as the baby boomers age out.

Send in or call in your guestions

drshow@wamu.org
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Funny how the neo-cons, theocons, and oilcons stir it up in the middle east and then sale arms to all sides. Those silly Defense contractors.

I REALLY think we need to start calling these programs what they are’

they are programs that are designed to steal

they steal our information, they steal our corporate secrets, trade secrets that we’ve aquired through the investment of our time, they steal our contacts, our sources

these programs give the listeners heads up on where we buy our product, what we will pay, what we can bid

the programs steal our methods for manufacture

that’s just the tip

the programs also serve as blackmail against political oponents

for instance, someone like me might ask;

HOW THE HELL CAN NANCY PELOSI STILL KEEP IMPEACHMENT OFF THE TABLE?

and the answer MIGHT be, the president has stolen information about her that she cannot allow made public

now, that’s entirely speculation but the point is made

THAT is why there needs to be a warrant

all the president has to do is show that he is not stealing and a warrant is granted

yet he refuses to demonstrate he is not stealing

now, THAT is the metric we need to use in conversation

I have to agree, it is stealing from us, our family, friends, neighbors, employers, and Politicians that represent us, etc… and the public understands what stealing is. When things are simplified people can understand them. Write and speak so a 5th grader can understand without being long winded & losing their interest.

Politics has it’s own language and most people don’t want to run to a dictionary to be able to understand what some one like Biden or Kerry are saying. I know people who don’t know what a liberal is, but they know what conservative means.

Stealing & lieing, call it what it is.

The current crop of “culture of corruption” Republicans in the White House have their own present-day “slush fund(s).”

The U.S. intelligence “black budget” slush fund is just one of these. Billions of dollars are allocated each year for “black budget” intelligence operations, with only a handful of our representatives in Congress knowing just a little bit about what our taxpayer money is being spent on.

The perfect Republican “slush fund.” Restricted access and limited legal oversight by our representatives, our FISA court, our Department of Justice. Little if no accountability is possible when everything is hidden behind a wall of secrecy.

This “slush fund” is that from which taxpayer money is coming that the Bush/Cheney administration is doling out to private crony-Republican data-mining firms, which are collecting massive amounts of data on U.S. taxpayers.

Out of this “black budget” slush fund controlled by the neo-con Republicans in the White House also came the money to pay for the extraordinary rendition of detainees to “black budget” CIA prisons overseas.

And who knows what else in the way of criminal and unethical activities this “black budget” slush fund has paid for over the past seven years.

No doubt Dick Cheney’s intelligence “chop shop,” which was created to “fix the intelligence” around the Bush/Cheney/PNAC policy of regime change in Iraq, was funded by this “black budget” slush fund, with Dick Cheney spreading untold millions (if not billions) of dollars around to crony-Republican pals…and with no one in our Congress having a clue what Cheney’s been doing…because it’s all a secret…and essential to national security…as well as establishing a permanent Republican majority. At least this is what the “culture of corruption” Republicans in the White House would claim, if and when all this comes out.

ideosynchratic (sp?) means one of a kind
ideopathic means unknown origin.

assume he gets to take a mulligan…

GSD @ 103

Chief Justice Roberts is taken to hospital after a fall at his home in Maine.

-GSD

Wishing, of course, only the best for the Chief Justice. Was the unfortunate incident caused by a Segway? A pretzel?

Or, maybe a runaway golf cart, being run by an irate man who just heard Roberts kinda thought Executive Privilege isn’t very expansive?

Maybe Roberts had a sudden unblockage of an artery and will be sane from now on—that would be a bitter pill for goopers to swallow.

Hilarious!

burnspbesq @ 97

Chief Justice Roberts earns a salary of approximately $210,000 per year, which is approximately equal to the compensation of a fourth-year associate at a national law firm.

If he owns a summer home, its highly likely that he bought it while he was a partner at Hogan & Hartson.

I often hear the argument that government officials sacrifice financially by serving in government. I think this is generally untrue. What more often happens is that they cycle back and forth between private business where they make really big salaries and government where they develop the resumes to demand even bigger salaries the next time they cycle to the private side. This is especially noticeable in the defense industry-Pentagon relationship where ex-government someday government officials again use their contacts to current government officials to swing contracts their way while the current government officials establish the contacts they develop to land high paying jobs in those same companies when it is their turn to cycle into private business.

In Roberts case, it is, of course, not just about the money but the power and prestige. Still the same circle between government and private law firms benefitted him as well.

As one who has been there and done that, and left a Government job that I loved for purely economic reasons, all I will say is “YOU try raising a family in a high cost of living area on a GS-14 salary before you tell me there is no sacrifice involved.”