More Cell Phone Surveillance Coming

“We are living in a time when unfortunately our public safety rquires [sic] small gives by everyone,” Verizon spokesman Jeffrey Nelson said.  GASP!  I didn't like Verizon but now I HATE them.  “They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."  This quotation, slightly altered, is inscribed on a plaque in the stairwell of the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty.

"A handful of states... require registration to purchase a prepaid cell phone."  That's a handful too many in my opinion.

"Prepaid phones can be a lifeline for people with limited incomes or poor credit..." and "civil liberties groups have raised privacy concerns and some terror experts say it won't deter bad behavior."  Oh, AND... "Jack Cloonan, a former FBI special agent and counterterrorism specialist, said the legislation would not prevent terror plotters from getting access to the communication tools they need."

Nevertheless, "New York Sen. Chuck Schumer and Texas Sen. John Cornyn have introduced legislation requiring consumers to produce identification before buying [prepaid cell]  phones."  That will COST money to enforce you 2 jackasses!  Are you just incapable of understanding that you and your cronies have already BANKRUPTED this country.  STOP SPENDING MONEY!!!

OK, so it has nothing to do with terrorism, just another way to violate/vitiate our privacy and rights.  Got it.  And it will require money to pay for enforcement.  Would someone in DC grow a brain. PLEASE!!!

“If law enforcement has a legitimate need to surveil, let them surveil,” Schumer told The Associated Press, adding, “you can make sure privacy is protected.”  Shumer are you really so stupid that you believe that?  Come on out in the real world where the government is already crawling up our butts with a microscope even when it's prohibited.

The bottom line is the terrorists, whether they're the Pakistani Taliban or whether they're closely aligned with al-Qaida, use technology to their advantage,” Cloonan said. “They try to stay ahead of us and we're always playing catch up.

With the new health care bill having already passed, mandating we all have insurance (that means insurance ID cards) and with it a crime not to have said insurance (produce your papers please), I don't know why I'm still deluding myself into thinking I can hold onto even a tiny illusion of privacy BUT I AM.

I wonder how they intend to keep people from buying prepaid satellite phones from abroad.  I hear the price on those has been coming down steadily and there are NO dead zones.  I suppose I better go ahead and google those phones while I still can.  Despite all the invasions or OUR rights and privacy, it seems one can still ship things worldwide without anyone so much as peeking into cargo containers 99% of the time!

I'm almost surprised they haven't gotten around to mandating microchips for newborns!  ALMOST surprised.  I'm sure the dogs and cats being microchipped are giving them plenty of data to work with and, as soon as they've got that and can add GPS, we'll be hearing them propose those chips for us humans!  No doubt they'll be able to scan those chips from a distance just as they can now do with the ones in license plates.  The Australian Outback is looking better with every passing day...

PS: Yes, I know that Franklin probably didn't say the "essential liberties" phrase but he did publish it and Jefferson (amongst many, many others) like it enough to use so...

Addenda: ACLU suing the feds even before this.  According to the complaint, the 2008 law gave the government "virtually limitless power to collect Americans' international e-mails and telephone calls en masse, without a warrant, without suspicion of any kind, and with only very limited judicial oversight." 

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