ACLU FIles Lawsuit over NSA Phone Surveillance

[whell]

Originally Posted by Dondilion

The ACLU is just going through the formalties.

Anyone with basic sense knows that this as been going on for years and there is no practical way this can be prevented. Intelligence has to be gathered one way or another, and intelligence systems transcend governments.

Um...I don't think that you take legal action against the Federal Government as a "formality".

[whell]

Originally Posted by Oerets

The thing is even if we knew the phone companies were complying in the terms. What real choice do we have, have a phone, internet or not! No opt out button ......

I'm afraid the current three branches, no four of government are all for it and will allow it to continue.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_..._of_government

Barney

The choice we have is to hold our government accountable to the constitution: something that many folks don't believe that they have the power to do anymore. The NSA listening program started as an effort to track overseas calls inbound to the US, if memory serves. It has morphed into something odious.

I'm all for fighting terror. I'm not at all convinced that the war on terror needs to be fought at the expense of our civil rights. I don't think the government gets to vacuum up records of everyone's foreign AND DOMESTIC phone calls, store them in a database, and God knows what else. The opportunity for mischief-making here is truly boundless, and that appears to be what the ACLU is pushing back about.

[Dondilion]

Originally Posted by whell

Um...I don't think that you take legal action against the Federal Government as a "formality".

ACLU is doing what it is expected to do since the spy subject is in the news.


The entire matter is just noise: The intelligence community will get whatever it wants.
Anyone expecting privacy in this "WORLD WIDE WEB" is naive.

[barbara]

Originally Posted by Dondilion

ACLU is doing what it is expected to do since the spy subject is in the news.


The entire matter is just noise: The intelligence community will get whatever it wants.
Anyone expecting privacy in this "WORLD WIDE WEB" is stupid.

Fixed that for you....

[bobabode]

Whellie is a card carrying member of the ACLU? Strange bedfellows indeed!

[barbara]

The debate on this issue is amusing.
The same conservatives that are crying foul now are the very ones that supported Bush's illegal wiretapping fiasco.

😜

[finnbow]

Originally Posted by barbara

The debate on this issue is amusing.
The same conservatives that are crying foul now are the very ones that supported Bush's illegal wiretapping fiasco.

😜

Similarly, some Dem's that criticized Dubya are circling the wagons for Obama. In either instance, we're working with incomplete information (and the government want it to stay that way).

[barbara]

Originally Posted by finnbow

Similarly, some Dem's that criticized Dubya are circling the wagons for Obama. In either instance, we're working with incomplete information (and the government want it to stay that way).

Yes, of course. Both sides of the aisle are very familiar with hypocrisy.

[BlueStreak]

Once again, the public is made aware of what it's government is up to and.......................

Meh. Pass the popcorn.

Dave

[merrylander]

Originally Posted by whell

I don't think the government gets to vacuum up records of everyone's foreign AND DOMESTIC phone calls, store them in a database, and God knows what else. The opportunity for mischief-making here is truly boundless, and that appears to be what the ACLU is pushing back about.

Care to take a guess at the size of such a database? Because in my experience there is not a storage media big enough.