“No, we don’t want e-mail content (yet), just the ability to get a list of everyone that anyone sent an e-mail to, or anyone who sent an e-mail to a particular person. For the last two years. Oh, yeah, and searches. Anyone who searched for a particular something, or everything that a particular person searched for. For the last two years. Well, two years for now — we’ll probably continue to extend that, just like copyright protection.
“Oh, and don’t worry, we’ll still be required (maybe) to get a subpoena (unless we don’t think we need one or are operating under a PATRIOT Act top secret can’t-tell-anyone search) before we can get that information. And we’d never use it for poltical or personal gain. We only want it so we can target child pornographers! And terrorists! And … um … anyone else that people are really scared of and don’t mind if their own privacy is trampled on as long as those Evil-Doers (whomever we decide to say they are) get theirs.
“Really. Trust us. We’re your government.”
(via Ted)
UPDATE: Of course, some folks want a lot more than just your search records.
***Dave, if you want to *really* have something to turn your hair white, then http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/05/15/1334249 is just the thing. This may go beyond just grabbing stuff into collating stuff …
I’ll be honest and say that the article you point to, Marn, seems … about as credible as The DaVinci Code. But perhaps I am just deluding myself.
As a regular reader of Greg Palast, and he is usually right on the money on connecting the dots.
But, Would the GOP use info collected by the NSA to drop people off the Voter rolls? Why wouldn’t they?
geez, had a lot of thoughts but afraid to type them in!
‘The next day Palpatine called for a special session of the Galactic Senate. Despite his disfigurement, he appeared before the assembled politicians of the Republic, and gave a stirring speech of how he narrowly escaped a treacherous Jedi rebellion. He assured the people of the Republic that his resolve had not faltered. He had routed out the treachery that had entangled the Republic in the Clone Wars. He would clense the corruption from the bloated bureaucracy that strangled the august government and reform it, as a new, more powerful, more secure institution.’
I found the Palast interview transcript to be nearly a tin-foil-hat collection of conspiracy theories (it’s all about the voter rolls and the NSA and Iraq and oil and Venezuela and the 2000 election and the neo-cons but not the neo-cons’ plan and dumpsters of ballots and the Saudis and James Baker and …). I simply don’t believe that the [fill in the real Cabal In Power here] are smart or powerful enough to maintain that grand a conspiracy. The umpteen dozen horrible gaffes and hands in the cookie jar to date demonstrate that to me.
That said, yes, the NSA spying program and the increased assaults on privacy in the name of national security and other noble causes remains worrisome. And I can envision doomsday scenarios like the rise of the Empire (hey, maybe the cabal made sure the first trilogy was awful and critically panned so that nobody would pay attention to their similar plan!), but I don’t think we are there yet. I worry, at this point, a lot more about petty abuses and the potential for individual civil right infringement than in a grand scheme to take over the world.
For all that, I suppose I’ll be there in the camps right next to you guys … unless Marn can hide me under her bed. I like hostas …