[ale] totally OT: hobbies

[Sean Kilpatrick]

With all due respect, Ron and I have VERY different understandings of "due 
process."

The FISA Court is a Star Chamber.  Due Process doesn't exist there.

The Fourth amendment reads this way:  
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.


That is, the security guard at a courthouse may peer inside the lawyer's 
briefcase to look for a firearm or contraband but may NOT confiscate or copy 
the papers therein.  In a similar manner, the government needs a warrant 
to inspect the contents of your personal "snail" mail.

I believe, very strongly, that your laptop and/or your "smart" phone are 
the modern equivalent of a briefcase. They certainly meet the modern 
definition of "effects."

We now know what many have surmised for a decade or more: The NSA is 
analyzing the metadata of nearly all of our electronic communications (of 
all kinds) without a warrant and is storing the contents of those 
communications for search at a later time if the situation seems to 
suggest that relevant data might be present.  And the warrant for that 
search is signed by the FISA Court in its Star Chamber.

The result is simple:  your persons, houses, papers, and effects may and 
can be searched without a warrant issued by a court whose records are open 
to the public.

Due Process has been tossed out the window.

Sean

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On Tuesday, July 09, 2013 12:32:06 pm Ron Frazier (ALE) wrote:
> Yes, but, as far as I know, not being in the spook community, they're
> not just vacuuming up every byte from every public server on the
> planet.  That would be prohibitively expensive and inefficient even
> for the government.  As I understand it, they've placed taps at key
> intersections of the data flow of the internet, like gmail, verizon,
> at&t, comcast, etc.  That way, they get 90% of the info they're
> interested in for 1/100 of the trouble and money.
> 
> So, since this message went through gmail, it probably already resides
> on an NSA hard drive.  And, with all those juicy words, it may have
> been "flagged" for further attention.  To each his own, but, I'm not
> sure poking the sleeping dragon is the best idea.  They really do have
> a critical mission to search for terrorists, with due process.  I
> appreciate that they're doing that.  But, not only that, I remember
> receiving an official letter from the FCC once that I wasn't
> expecting.  It was actually just a routine notice regarding my ham
> radio license.  But, just getting it was unnerving.  In general, the
> less communications I get from the govt., the better.
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> Ron
> 
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