Do You Remember…

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…when “government gathering information about Americans” was an existential threat to democracy?

Nine years after the terrorist attacks of 2001, the United States is assembling a vast domestic intelligence apparatus to collect information about Americans, using the FBI, local police, state homeland security offices and military criminal investigators.

The system, by far the largest and most technologically sophisticated in the nation’s history, collects, stores and analyzes information about thousands of U.S. citizens and residents, many of whom have not been accused of any wrongdoing.

The government’s goal is to have every state and local law enforcement agency in the country feed information to Washington to buttress the work of the FBI, which is in charge of terrorism investigations in the United States.

Either do the Democrats.

Look for an avalance of “paranoid wingnut” stories coming soon to a major media near you.

26 thoughts on “Do You Remember…”

  1. Ya’ know, for a liberterian, you’d think you’d get that the government is only entitled to information it has a lawful purpose to have. The government doesn’t get to know where you went on vacation, what you ate, or how many boxes of Cherios you bought last year. It doesn’t get to know unless you are the target of an investigation it has been given the right to survail OR you agree to provide the information OR (as I understand) it is anonymously stored as part of some sort of study. I don’t blame Bush for this, we do lots of things when we’re scared, and thank you very much for needlessly maligning the media (to which you belong unless 1280 isn’t “major” any longer), but seriously – this is simply something the government isn’t supposed to do. Am I shocked, no, should it stop, yes. Your life is your own, the government has no lawful purpose for this data, much like the monitoring of phone calls not legal under FISA (so they changed the law).

  2. Thank goodness Chimpy Bush isn’t president any more. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

  5. To be fair–as incoherent, rambling and slightly schizophrenic as it was–that was one of Penigma’s shortest comments ever written.

  6. I have no problem with this. Too much of our anti-terrorism efforts are focused on objects (such as water bottles or cameras) instead of finding the bad guys and getting to them before they get to the action stage.

  8. Yoss, Chuck and Terry have commented on an extremist web sight. That puts all three on the Level Four Watchlist. We have your IP addresses. The FCC will be coordinating.

  9. Pen,

    Ya’ know, for a liberterian, you’d think you’d get that the government is only entitled to information it has a lawful purpose to have. The government doesn’t get to know where you went on vacation, what you ate, or how many boxes of Cherios you bought last year.

    Odd that you’d put it in those terms, Pen, since I’m saying exactly the same thing. Being an actual libertarian (rather than the eight-year-blooming variety we had during the Bush years), that’s precisely my point.

  10. I don’t blame Bush for this, we do lots of things when we’re scared,

    Well, yes – we do. I’m just interested in how many eight-year-blooming “libertarians” have backed off their privacy absolutism since January of 2009.

  11. and thank you very much for needlessly maligning the media (to which you belong unless 1280 isn’t “major” any longer),

    Conservative talk radio is a medium, certainly.

    But “The Media” in common usage refers to the “elite” mainstream media; the Big Three, the NYTimes/LATimes/ChiTrib.

    And it’s kinda funny how “the media” changed their points of view over the years. From 1993 to 2000, privacy rights activists – especially those of us who campaigned against Clinton’s 1994 Crime Bill and 1996 Counterterrorim Act – were portrayed as a bunch of feverish conspiracy whackoes in the mainstream media. Then, as if a switch turned on – as in, the moment John Ashcroft was sworn in – privacy activists (at least, the right ones, the liberal ones) got a very, very sympathetic treatment.

    Now, with Obama and Napolitano in charge, I can see things turning again.

    So yes, I malign the media, and there’s nothing “needless” about it!

  12. but seriously – this is simply something the government isn’t supposed to do. Am I shocked, no, should it stop, yes. Your life is your own, the government has no lawful purpose for this data, much like the monitoring of phone calls not legal under FISA (so they changed the law).

    And finally, agreement.

  13. Now, with Obama and Napolitano in charge, I can see things turning again.
    If it wasn’t for double standards….

  14. “I don’t blame Bush for this, we do lots of things when we’re scared, “ – Peevee

    Wow.

    “Nine years after the terrorist attacks of 2001, the United States is assembling a vast domestic intelligence apparatus to collect information about Americans,…”

  15. Either teh Peevee’s ID has been stolen, or he’s fresh from rehab because he’s right.

    You folks have absolutely no idea how much information is being collected on you every day. I don’t know the full story, but, due to circumstances, I can guarantee you that I’m more informed than most, and it bothers the shit out of me.

    The general denial goes somehing like “if you’re not doing dirt, you have nothing to worry about”. Well that looks great monogrammed on your hankies, I’m sure, but the fact is that the local Sherrif’s office is in possession of technology that enables them to dig for dirt you might not even know you’re committing, or to twist things to fit a story they want to pin your ears back with.

  18. Terry says: This is what happens when you are at war with an Entirely Random Group of People.

    To which I respond; I’d rather live a life shortened by some buggering Muslim than live a long life that is measured and weighed, checked and cross checked, scrutinized ans studied by some pencil necked law-dog looking for fresh material to wank himself to a climax by every day.

    Some leftist kook said it best a couple of years ago:

    “Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”

  19. Swiftee just got bumped from Level Three Watchlist to Level Two. Quoting a Founding Father is totally incriminating.

  21. John Quincy Adams on Islam:

    The precept of the koran is, perpetual war against all who deny, that Mahomet is the prophet of God. The vanquished may purchase their lives, by the payment of tribute; the victorious may be appeased by a false and delusive promise of peace; and the faithful follower of the prophet, may submit to the imperious necessities of defeat: but the command to propagate the Moslem creed by the sword is always obligatory, when it can be made effective. The commands of the prophet may be performed alike, by fraud, or by force.

    200 years and Islam has not changed.
    That’ll hang a “hate site” tag on your blog, Mitch.

  22. Terry just got bumped from Level Four Watchlist to Level Two. Quoting a Founding Father’s offspring is totally incriminating.
    Four to Two in one day! If DHS tracks email between Swiftee and Terry expect FBI investigations to intensify.

  23. Terry; FYI.

    That tingling sensation you feel on your legs isn’t reverberations of The One’s presence in the White House, it’s officer friendly in your shorts; just crossing his “t”‘s and dotting his “I”‘s.

    BTW: Kerm just got bumped to Level Three from Level four. Alerting people of their levels is totally incriminating.

    Three updated profiles in a day! SITD is no doubt tripling it’s readership today…pity those hits won’t show up on any data collecting app Mitch has access to. Heh.

  24. Here’s a story on an MSM interview with AG Eric Holder:
    http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/attorney-general-eric-holders-blunt-warning-terror-attacks/story?id=12444727&tqkw=&tqshow=GMA&page=1

    According to the story the Big Threat is from Americans. What kind of Americans? “Radicals”, “extremists”, and “converts”. These mysterious Americans — nothing else is known about them, not even their religion or if they are native or naturalized citizens — are being turned into terrorists by clerics who also have no religion. They can’t even be identified by a common sex or age.
    No wonder TSA has to grope average citizens before they board a plane. There is absolutely no way to distinguish these terrorists from the general population.

  26. Terry and I both linked to the same Eric Holder story in the same thread. The FCC can’t act fast enough to quash this civil disobedience. The Internet is dangerous.

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