I wonder how many have actually read the fourth amendment in the Constitution. If you haven’t had the chance, here’s what it says,

“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.”

Wow, that’s a pretty bold and clear cut statement to make. It’s funny though, how the Constitution has become more of a piece of history, than an actual body of law for which to govern ourselves by. You need not look any farther, than this article by Wired.com.

AT&T, Verizon, MCI, Sprint, and various other telecommunication companies are all on trial for violating wiretapping laws, and the amendment of the Constitution I just mentioned. The carriers had cooperated with the Bush administration, in providing American’s private communications to the NSA. All of which were transacted without a single warrant, and more than likely any probable cause.

Back in July, yet another domestic spy bill was passed. In it the bill, it supported the killing of the lawsuits and granted amnesty to the telecom companies. The civil liberties groups, and class-action lawyers were already facing an uphill battle before. Now that the July bill was passed, they now have to go before a federal judge just to have that overturned. Then they can begin their actual case against the telecom companies. If you think our president-elect will be any help in this regard, think again. Obama voted to pass the July domestic spy bill. Supporting this bill is a far cry from his remarks about net neutrality and personal freedoms.

President Bush has publicly defended the telecoms, and urged the judge presiding on the case to defend their amnesty. The Congress has gotten in on the action as well, sending this statement,

“Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, Amendments Act of 2008, represents the considered judgment of our nation’s political branches that, in the unique historical circumstances following the 9/11 attacks, telecommunications companies should not bear the burden of defending against claims that those companies assisted the government in its efforts to detect and prevent further terrorist attacks.”

What really leaves me scratching my head, is how the amnesty is granted to the telecoms even if the informations wasn’t court ordered, or mandated. So, the telecoms willingly provided the information even when they weren’t bound by law to do so. Therefore, we as a people have a right to make a claim that what we thought they did was wrong. Apparently, the government sees it it a bit differently. Now, if the telecoms had a court order to give up the information then this would be a different story.

All of this trails back to 9/11. In a time of fear, chaos, and sadness we let those feelings circumvent our feelings about freedom, and controls the government should have. If terrorism’s priority is to instill fear into people, and let that fear control their lives it really looks like what they did worked.

I like to think back to an old adage by the great thinker Benjamin Franklin,

“Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

I’d like to think that we could all learn something from that quote. Primarily the government, and the telecoms giving up our private information.

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Well, the Senate has proven atleast once that it can get over itself to pass useful litigation. It’s staggering to see how many bills or proposals are axed because of disagreement on the Senate floor. With so many interest groups, pushing and pulling different senators, it’s amazing that anything is able to get passed.

The solar tax credit was expiring at the end of they year, and for awhile it was looking like it wasn’t going to be renewed. The old tax credit gave residential solar users a cap of $2,000 for tax breaks; while commercial endeavours saw no cap but were compensated back for a percentage of their expenses. With the new tax credit, residential projects no longer have a cap.

The biggest miracle about the renewal, is the compromise that the Senate came to. Republicans and Democrats were at a stalemate, because Democrats wanted to take some of the tax credits given to oil companies to finance the Solar tax credits. Of course the Republicans weren’t willing to budge, so the renewal was sitting there waiting for something to happen. A compromise (HALLELUEJAH) was found; the Democrats will support the proposal for off-shore drilling, if the Republicans allow the renewal of the Solar Tax credit. Hmm, so we’ll help elliviate some of our dependance on crude oil from other countries, while at the same time help finance other alternative means of power? It sounds so much like common sense that I’m surprised it actually happened.

(via: Cnet)

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Following 9/11, the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) was called upon by the 9/11 Commission to create a database housing different names associated with international terrorism. Since its conception the database has grown, and as of January 2008 there are over 500,000 names in the database. With 400,000 aliases as well. Interestingly enough, around 5% of the listings consist of US citizens.

When comprising a database this large there’s undoubtedly going to be some problems with it. These problems have been voiced by Rep. Brad Miller (D-NC), on behalf of the Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee of the House Science and Technology Committee (that is one long name for a committee). If you wish to view the full letter, click here. The letter is addressed to Edward Maguire, Inspector General of the Director of National Intelligence. Rep. Miller’s problems “seem” valid enough. He states that the database doesn’t provide text based searches much like Google does with their engine. Instead the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment (TIDE) must be utilized with a complex SQL programming language. Therefore, if someone in the FBI is looking for information on a potential terrorist, they must type in a complex sentence instead of a name. The database is continually being updated by the CIA, NSA, the FBI, and other law enforcement organizations. Which is a concern to Rep. Miller because of long term quality control. He makes reference to an incident when the system crashed while trying to be used by the FBI Terrorist Screening Center.
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