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EFF Documentation Victory in Telco Spying Case
Krishna Dagli sent on a link to Ars Technica's coverage of an EFF victory in a court case related to the NSA/Telco spying scandal. "Judge Vaughn Walker ruled today that AT&T, Verizon, Cingular (now part of AT&T), Sprint, and BellSouth (also part of AT&T now) must all maintain any data or papers related to the NSA spying case that Walker is overseeing in California. The EFF had requested the ruling out of concern that documents would be destroyed as part of routine data deletion practices before the case could even progress to discovery."
Granted, the EFF is a group of lawyers, but they are lawyers working for a better Internet. Sometimes they make me just want to cry. Hopefully this is just the beginning. The NSA has gone way beyond breaking the law. The ease at which they put people under surveilance and on watchlists flies in the face of the constitutional ban on unreasonable searches and bills of attainder. This is great news.
I got a catholic block.
From yesterday:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/07/AR2007110700006.html?sub=AR
Convenient (for telcos) how they're required by law to retain personal data on people which they exploit for profit, but routinely delete evidence of telco crimes.
"These days it's all secrecy, and no privacy." - The Rolling Stones, "Fingerprint File"
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make install -not war
Last time I checked
You checked? I call bullshit.
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
Here's a longer NPR part than the article
This whole thing just reeks of sketchiness. If congress wanted to show some actually fortitude, they should knock the immunity out, even if there is a veto by the President.
import system.cool.Sig;
Judges generally grant motions related to discovery to be on the safe side, to limit chances of appeal later. Only the most unreasonable discovery requests are likely to be refused.
The EFF have to find something in that discovery to win their action, and that is the uphill battle....
Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
Karma: Chameleon
Given that Iraq has at least 100,000 deaths (that's according to the U.S. Army, other sources estimate 250,000 and more) due to homicide and war since 2003, that's four years and on average 25,000 each year. The death poll of Saddam Hussein's rule is put at 300,000 for the whole of more than 30 years, which results in 10,000 per year. Basicly the death rate has more than doubled since the starting of the Iraq war.
Because this conflict was not to secure America, but to enrich the already-rich Americans with connections to politics.
I don't think it was started with this in mind, although those people did profiteer off of the war.
I believe this was a president, full of hubris, who thought that he could force democracy upon Iraq, and then use that as leverage to "solve" the middle east problem. He viewed himself as some great savior who would liberate them from dictators and be a celebrated hero (there is an interview of him stating this somewhere out there).
This war in Iraq was started for vanity, not profits.
Remember, You are unique...just like everyone else.
And of those deaths, the vast majority, in excess of 90%, were caused by...
wait for it....
OTHER IRAQIS!!! Not US servicemen.
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
Wow, an insightful comment connected to Iraq. I was about to propose some sort of neo-Godwin's Rule pertaining to Iraq too.
I think you absolutely right, the war is proof of the old adage about what the path to hell is paved with.
I've noticed that most of the anti-war crowd like to turn the world into some episode of Captain Planet, or any other cartoon, with definite villains out there doing conscious evil. I can see them picturing Dick Cheney wearing a metal gauntlet, petting his cat, saying "Next time inspector Liberty, next time", and flying away in the White House. I guess it is an easier world view, than having to contemplate that our leaders are just overly idealistic men, no different than us in their foibles, and just as prone to hubris as the next.
Iraq is a complex beast, and not prone to simple logic or characterizations (as are most things).
A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government. -edward abbey