calvoiper
join:2003-03-31
Belvedere Tiburon, CA
| Re: great Amen to placing the focus on "unreasonable".
As for rights, I'd appreciate having my right not to be harassed by dirtbags restored--along with my right not to have my property stolen or vandalized. However, the endless babble of coddling criminals in the name of "rights" has created the "right" to punish success and the "right" to see one's own failures rewarded by various government handouts and excuse-generating bureaucracies.
As for "reasonable", the use of pen registers to record called numbers does not require a warrant, and hasn't in the past. It is legally similar to recording the license numbers of all cars traversing a certain bridge or intersection--it's merely an observation of traffic, not an examination of content. Likewise, the "message unit detail" or "MUDs" reporting calls in and out are often acquired by law enforcement without a warrant.
I now believe that America's lefties aren't upset about the various surveillance operations since 9/11 because they are worried about liberties, but that they are instead upset that the current administration is indeed doing something to thwart terrorist activity (unlike the last administration, which concentrated on building walls between the FBI and the CIA and figuring out reasons to turn down Sudan's offer to surrender OBL.)
Only a hypocritical looney can say that America's ability to secretly track international money transactions and to thereby track terrorist funding is a bad thing and that disclosing it was a good thing. This was a real secret worth protecting. And BTW, the employment status of a domestic CIA analyst already known to most of the Washington press corps is not worth protecting--though the identity really worth knowing might well be the surgeon who provided her latest face lift. She does look so much better than those old photos in the car and the restaurant, don't you think?
calvoiper
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