I and others believe there is yet another big fat shoe to drop, that the NSA has been recording and saving all our phone calls in their Utah data warehouses, so that if and when the FBI might want to listen to them later (with a FISA warrant) they can do so.
Obama didn't say anything that would contradict this theory. He said "Don't worry, no one is listening to your phone calls." But nobody needs to listen. It's all done automatically by computer.
And that's the key to their legal justification. The government believes your 4th amendment rights haven't been violated unless and until a human being actually listens to your conversations - which would be done later with a warrant (as Obama said today). Until then, no warrant is necessary for the NSA to record everything you say on the phone.
That is huge: The idea that FBI can "wiretap" your PAST conversations, even from years back, whenever they feel like it, provided they secure a warrant from the FISA court which is granted in 99.99% of cases.
Couple this with broad, direct, and continuing access to the metadata, allowing them to go on data mining witch hunts to precisely identify the conversations and people they want to listen to...and "Orwellian" is an understatement.
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I and others believe there is yet another big fat shoe to drop, that the NSA has been recording and saving all our phone calls in their Utah data warehouses, so that if and when the FBI might want to listen to them later (with a FISA warrant) they can do so.
Obama didn't say anything that would contradict this theory. He said "Don't worry, no one is listening to your phone calls." But nobody needs to listen. It's all done automatically by computer.
And that's the key to their legal justification. The government believes your 4th amendment rights haven't been violated unless and until a human being actually listens to your conversations - which would be done later with a warrant (as Obama said today). Until then, no warrant is necessary for the NSA to record everything you say on the phone.
That is huge: The idea that FBI can "wiretap" your PAST conversations, even from years back, whenever they feel like it, provided they secure a warrant from the FISA court which is granted in 99.99% of cases.
Couple this with broad, direct, and continuing access to the metadata, allowing them to go on data mining witch hunts to precisely identify the conversations and people they want to listen to...and "Orwellian" is an understatement.
What does McCain know about war? He crashed five planes, then sat out the rest of the Vietnam War in a prison cell.
When Santorum says "snob", he means "uppity".