Monday, November 12, 2007

That pesky constitution again

The Constitution of the United States. If we the people only understood that the Government has a job to do, and would stop complaining about that 200 year old piece of paper written by a bunch of dead guys, our leaders could get something done.

Congress is debating a bill that would shield businesses from lawsuits that were filed because they allowed government officials to snoop into our emails and telephone calls without a warrant. One official said:

"It is time that people in the United States changed their definition of privacy.

Privacy no longer can mean anonymity, says Donald Kerr, the principal deputy director of national intelligence. Instead, it should mean that government and businesses properly safeguard people's private communications and financial information."
Notice that I said without a warrant. That is right, the government is fighting for the power to snoop into your personal information and conduct warrantless searches into your personal effects. All in the name of fighting terrorism.

He goes on to say:

Millions of people in this country — particularly young people — already have surrendered anonymity to social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook, and to Internet commerce. These sites reveal to the public, government and corporations what was once closely guarded information, like personal statistics and credit card numbers.
So, in other words, since I choose to blog, I have given up my right to be free from searches and seizures. Government assholes like this guy are free to peer into my private life whenever they choose?

Warrantless searches of your home are not far away, under this guy's thinking. After all, I once had a party at my house, where I invited people into my home. Why not let the FBI in as well?

1 comment:

Melissa said...

Good post.

Ugh. When did it get this bad????

I can't decide if Americans are just so trusting in our government that they don't realize how atrociously their privacy is being stolen away from them or if maybe they are just too lazy and complacent to care.