How Close We Came To Losing Our Privacy

Mike Papantonio talks with Jon Mills about how dangerous the Bush regime was:

Brownback Outraged By Chinese Domestic Spying; Here At Home, Eh, Not So Much

Senator Sam Brownback was livid about the Chinese government's plans to spy on people at Beijing hotels during the Olympics. I have to agree with him, spying on people (specifically here their internet use) is terrible and should be stopped. The freer information is, the better. Though I have to wonder where his soapbox on this was when FISA was being voted on. Since the Republicans voted in lockstep to let the President spy on Americans, his name is in there to allow for the same thing right here at home. So what's going on here?

From ThinkProgress:

This morning on CNN, asked by host John Roberts if China’s action amounts to “spying,” Brownback continued his outrage:

BROWNBACK: This is the public security bureau in China requiring the installation of hardware that they can listen to anybody and everybody’s and their communications and their recordings that are sent over the internet in a real-time purpose or over long-term. That’s spying, John. […] Your internet communications can all be monitored in a real time basis by the public security bureau of the Chinese government. I think they’re clearly intent upon spying. they’re going to be spying.

Brownback also recently voted for the FISA reform legislation which gave the government greater powers “to tap directly into the U.S. telecommunications systems in order to monitor international emails and telephone calls with no individual warrant required.”

When asked about the difference between the Chinese and American spying practices, Brownback said, “We don’t put the hardware and software on hotels.” He added that the Chinese program can be used “on journalists,” “on athletes,” “on their families,” “democracy advocates,” and “human rights advocates ” — seemingly oblivious that all these groups could be spied on here as well. (HT: Atrios)

So is he dumb or just outright lying to all of us? Although Sam made some comments to the contrary of what George W. wanted to hear from his brethren in Congress, he still voted for FISA and is for what companies like AT&T and Verizon want to hear. Giving them more power and free reign is the wrong recipe for all of us, especially now that they know they can get away with helping an executive break the law as long as it's for "national security."

Scanning Your Body At An Airport Near You

Airport security in America is an interesting topic to be sure. Some don't mind being scanned, searched, poked and prodded. If they think it keeps them safe then more power to the ill-trained men and women with shirts that have "TSA" embroidered on them. Taking your shoes off is standard here, but laughed at in most of the world's airports. The thing is, most people just don't know if the TSA is doing a good job or merely acting like it. Well now they get a new piece of equipment to play with.

From USA Today:

BALTIMORE — Body-scanning machines that show images of people underneath their clothing are being installed in 10 of the nation's busiest airports in one of the biggest public uses of security devices that reveal intimate body parts.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) recently started using body scans on randomly chosen passengers in Los Angeles, Baltimore, Denver, Albuquerque and at New York's Kennedy airport.

Airports in Dallas, Detroit, Las Vegas and Miami will be added this month. Reagan National Airport in Washington starts using a body scanner today. A total of 38 machines will be in use within weeks.

"It's the wave of the future," said James Schear, the TSA security director at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, where two body scanners are in use at one checkpoint.

Schear said the scanners could eventually replace metal detectors at the nation's 2,000 airport checkpoints and the pat-downs done on passengers who need extra screening. "We're just scratching the surface of what we can do with whole-body imaging," Schear said.

Security people love this because they can look more intimately at passengers and call it "more advanced." The reality is that the machines can be fooled by someone that would want to do harm, while for the most part all it does is strip (no pun intended) innocent people of their privacy, allowing TSA personnel (some of whom have questionable personal backgrounds) to see private parts of people (albeit in black and white imaging). Their spokesman says its no big deal and people don't mind, but that is to be expected from a biased source.

The Unspoken Part Of Congestion Pricing

Robert Perry of the NYCLU points out a very important issue that the media fails to talk about in the midst of all the congestion pricing hoopla. Sure the money is important, but so is your right to privacy.

So Now Cheney Cares About Privacy?

Isn't amazing how the powerful (or authoritarians) in our society always want to take away the rights of citizens in a broad fashion but when the tables are turned they sing another tune? That is exactly what Dick Cheney is doing for two aides that gave conflicting testimony about an incident where an American citizen named Steven Howards told Dick face to face that he is a "dick." He really just just told him that his policies in Iraq were terrible and nothing happened besides that and a handshake. Now one of the accounts said that Howards hit Cheney on the shoulder and the case has ended up in civil court.

From The Denver Post:

In a motion filed Saturday, Cheney's office contended that the videotapes could be used to invade the privacy and embarrass two aides called to testify about the encounter in a civil lawsuit.

The motion for a protective order expressed particular concern that both aides' faces could wind up on YouTube.com.

"As courts have recognized, using digital technology, a video recording can easily be 'cut and spliced,' so as to embarrass and even humiliate a witness," Cheney's lawyers wrote in a U.S. District Court filing.

"That much can readily be seen from a visit to YouTube. . . . A simple query using the search term 'deposition' yields over 400 video clips, in which many of the deponents are made to look boorish, mendacious, or unintelligent."

The plaintiff, Steven Howards of Golden, is suing Secret Service agents who arrested him after he approached Cheney at a Beaver Creek mall in 2006 and told the vice president his policies in Iraq were "disgusting."

Eagle County prosecutors dismissed a criminal charge of harassment filed against Howards.

In the lawsuit, Cheney aide Charles Durkin and White House photographer David Bohrer gave conflicting accounts of the encounter.

Durkin, who no longer works for Cheney, said Howards walked up to the vice president in "a determined fashion," and "you know, just places his hand on the vice president's arm and shook his hand and made a statement regarding Iraq policy and departed."

He described Cheney's reaction as "very calm. He just shook his hand and said OK, and that's — that's his — sort of kept on going."

Bohrer said Howards "came up and slapped the back of the vice president in the upper shoulder area." Cheney "was startled," he said.

Of course Bohrer, as the former photographer didn't take any pictures of the account. Surprise, surprise. Now he doesn't want the public to see this work out and possibly embarrass the Secret Service and ultimately Dick Cheney. Aww poor Dick, can't anybody cut this guy some slack? Why should the man that was arrested for no good reason get the benefit of the doubt? It isn't like this is a country where the leaders are supposed to be held to the same standards as any ordinary citizen, right?

Oh wait a sec.....