« Five Days That Shaped a Presidency | Main | Shelter from the Storm »

October 06, 2016

Comments

while i don't think Clinton is going to be a civil liberties champion, can you imagine the kinds of shenanigans the spooks would get into with an authoritarian dummy like Trump in charge?

/shudder

100% agree, cleek.

But one point I'd like to make, regarding the "state secrets privilege" (SSP).

It's not in the Constitution. It's not in federal law. It's completely a creation of activist judges.

And, in those few cases where the SSP was used, but the 'secret' was later revealed (including the very first case, that caused the creation of the SSP), it has ALWAYS turned out that the 'secret' was bogus, and it was a matter of butt-covering and avoiding embarrassment.

Given that clear record, the appropriate response to a party trying to invoke the SSP is that they automatically lose their case, with some bonus free kicks in the 'nads from the opposing side.

Given that clear record, the appropriate response to a party trying to invoke the SSP is that they automatically lose their case, with some bonus free kicks in the 'nads from the opposing side.

The first part was my potential solution, but I like the free 'nads kicks too.

I do wonder at one point the NSA is just going to turn on everyone's phone/laptop camera/microphone all the time and record everything "just in case."

i just assume it's always on.

keeps me from singing in the car and looking like a jerk.

I'm going to start carrying it around in a lead box like it's kryptonite.

If the NSA provided "data-recovery services", then perhaps we should let them survive. Sadly, no.

A 'signature' is a pattern unique to whatever it is you are looking for. Take virus detection, every virus has its own pattern of bits and anti-virus programs have a database of these patterns when they see that signature they alert.

The Times picks up on the "who does these Booz Allen guys work for anyway" thread and runs with it.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/10/07/us/booz-allen-hamilton-nsa.html

On torture:

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/10/09/world/cia-torture-guantanamo-bay.html

The comments to this entry are closed.