Liberty and FISA Amendments Act of 2008
Jul 10 at 1:01pm by Jagwire X
Bill of Rights
The FISA Amendments Act of 2008 is a particularly pernicious piece of legislation. It denigrates our liberty and removes our guaranteed rights.
I’d like to share with a few pertinent quotes:
They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
—Benjamin Franklin
Suspicion is a virtue as long as its object is the public good, and as long as it stays within proper bounds. … Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that precious jewel.
—Patrick Henry
I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty, than those attending too small a degree of it.
—Thomas Jefferson
Government is not reason, it is not eloquence — it is force! Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.
—George Washington
If God is truly just, I tremble for the fate of my country
—Gibson Haynes
Take a moment and contemplate those quotes.
Now consider this:
The FISA Amendments Act of 2008 has the following effects:
- The provisions of the bill granting immunity to the complicit telecoms create a roadblock for a number of lawsuits intended to expose and thwart the alleged abuses of power and illegal activities of the federal government since and before the September 11th attacks.
- The bill expands the power of the federal government in conducting warrantless surveillance and strips the requirements for judicial oversight, effectively enabling unlimited government surveillance of any citizen of the United States for any reason.
- Allows the government to conduct unapproved warrantless surveillance of any person for up to one week (168 hours) without any judicial oversight.
The Bill of Rights guarantees in the Fourth Amendment Protection from unreasonable search and seizure.
The FISA Amendments Act of 2008 effectively negates the Fourth Amendment. That being:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Our liberty is being taken away from us one amendment at a time. Why are you being so complacent? Why are you not up in arms over this? The founders of this great country would shake their heads in shame at our government’s behavior and ours.
Call your congressmen and senators and urge them to repeal the FISA Amendments Act of 2008. It’s unconstitutional and illegal. One more quote from one of the founding fathers, in case you still don’t get it.
The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty.
—Thomas Jefferson
Further reading:
- Senate Accepts Retroactive Immunity for Telecoms
- FISA Amendments Act of 2008 - WikiPedia Article
- H.R. 3773: FISA Amendments Act of 2008 - Full Text
- The new FISA compromise: it’s worse than you think - Ars Technica
US to implement insecure RFID in passports beginning in August (2006)
Jul 13 at 9:09am by Jagwire X
RFID Tag
An mainstream press article about RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) in passports and how insecure they are.
“Imagine being overseas and your identity being available for the taking - your nationality, your name, your passport number. Everything. That’s the fear of privacy and security specialists now that the State Department plans to issue “e-Passports” to American travelers beginning in late August.”
US to implement insecure RFID in passports beginning in August
Bruce Sterling’s SXSW keynote
Mar 17 at 3:03pm by Jagwire X
Bruce Sterling
You can listen to Bruce Sterling’s SXSW Keynote here. As usual Bruce gives the audience a number of interesting bits about emerging technologies but mostly he speaks about the future we are creating and what we ought to do about it. He goes on to say that the real challenge to the future is that the worst people in the world are running things and that the United States government is for all intents and purposes a new Soviet Union (inflexible and corrupt, generally looked at as illegitimate by the rest of the world, not mention a lot of many Americans as well.) And in much of the world things are very bad indeed.
“When you actually ignore reality for years on end, the payback is a bitch brother! … We’re seeing just frantic collisions of fundamentalist delusion with objective reality… We’re on a kind of slider bar between the unthinkable and the unimaginable now, between the grim meathook future and the bright green future. There are ways out of this situation; there are actual ways to move the slider bar from one side to the other, except that we haven’t invented the words for them yet.”
He goes on to say that if you look honestly at the world, you will see a new story emerging. One with smart and dedicated people locked in a great struggle to guide us towards a better future using every tool in their power. “That’s a big story!” And then he reminds those who are part of that story of the motto of the old Soviet-era Eastern European dissidents: “Make no decision out of fear.”
Election Postponement: Republic or Fascism?
Jul 15 at 9:09am by Jagwire X
What is Fascism
When I first heard about this I thought it must be joke. I thought surely this is a mistake, some foolish rumor that made it into the news. But on closer inspection I see that no - the idea is indeed being bandied about like it is something that happens every so often.
Ostensibly this is part of the whole idea of “guaranteeing” secure elections in the event of a terrorist act. It’’s bullshit.
DeForest B. Soaries Jr., chairman of the newly created U.S. Election Assistance Commission, wants Ridge to ask Congress to pass legislation giving the government power to cancel or reschedule a federal election. Seems rather counter to the ideals this country was founded on.
Currently, no federal agency has the power to cancel or reschedule a national vote. There is a reason for this, elections are about the people’s right to choose who their leaders are, not of the leaders to tell us when we can choose, or even worse who we can choose. There is no historical or constitution precedent for this. Read the rest of this entry »
Louis Brandeis Statement Regarding Wealth and Democracy
Mar 24 at 5:05pm by Jagwire X
Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis
“We can have a democratic society or we can have great concentrated wealth in the hands of a few. We cannot have both.” -Louis Brandeis, U. S. Supreme Court Justice, 1916-1939
“Great concentrated wealth in the hands of a few.” We have that now here in America. A plutocracy disguised as a republic disguised as a democracy. Only they don’t have enough wealth.
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