Can you hear me now?

posted by The Vidiot @ 10:09 AM Permalink

We (meaning those of us who pay attention) were already pissed off about the whole NSA spying on Americans thing. However, their argument that they were only spying on international calls sort of held a little water and quelled some of the more shaky fence sitters. WELL, the latest news about the major cell phone carriers handing over data on a silver platter has finally managed to have some effect on the electorate. Bush's numbers have dipped into the 20s. Well THAT only took FOREVERRrrrrr. Jeesh.

And the administration's argument that they did nothing wrong? (Oh, this is a good one.) They said,... oh hell. You have to read it for yourself.

Excerpt: One government lawyer who has participated in negotiations with telecommunications providers said the Bush administration has argued that a company can turn over its entire database of customer records -- and even the stored content of calls and e-mails -- because customers "have consented to that" when they establish accounts. The fine print of many telephone and Internet service contracts includes catchall provisions, the lawyer said, authorizing the company to disclose such records to protect public safety or national security, or in compliance with a lawful government request.

Yeah. We agreed to it. Sure. Like we all read the fine print of any of those things. Honestly. I've heard actual CONTRACT LAWYERS say they've tried to read the small print and couldn't get through it. SURRENDER ME NOW!

The only telecom with the cojones to not hand over the info was Qwest (you can thank them here) And basically, Qwest said "Oh yeah? Well, show me a FISA subpoena and we'll comply" and the Government was all "Well, we're trying not to do that." Durrrr.

Excerpt: This theme emerges again and again. We continuously hear that the Bush administration has legal authority to do anything the President orders. Claims that he is acting illegally are just frivolous and the by-product of Bush hatred. And yet, as I detailed here, each and every time the administration has the opportunity to obtain an adjudication of the legality of its conduct from a federal court (which, unbeknownst to the administration, is the branch of our government which has the authority and responsibility to interpret and apply the law), it does everything possible to avoid that adjudication.

So, I read a great idea (and I can't remember where I read it) but here goes:

We should all dial one wrong phone number on our cell phone every day. Talk to the person on the other end a bit and apologize profusely for disturbing them, but make that one wrong call to a different number every day. That way, when they're trolling, they'll have all these random, non-connected pieces of data.

Wish I'd thought of that.