Actually, I'm talking about the disruption of checks and balances, which, if you think about it, is why the US is in Iraq today. That is: the war isn't so much a distraction as it is a side-effect of a much larger issue: the executive believes that the ends justify the means, and they've taken large steps to ensure it.
I think that's the point I was trying to make about this Feingold/Kennedy letter. They've given up asking for Gonzoles' head (he'd be long gone in a Nixon administration; today he just says "no" ... that's what passes for 'oversight' these days?) and are just asking for things they shouldn't have to ask for.
This expansion of power in the executive is to be feared by everyone; there isn't a person on this list (or in this country) who isn't directly affected by it.
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But back to the end (a few years ago) of the 4th Amendment ...
Dwayne writes:
> Imagine a massively parallel data storage network, not
> like Google's, dedicated to logging electronically
> traceable actions -- phone calls, emails, credit and
> debit card transactions, flights, etc.
And maybe it gets used to keep you out of Canada sometime.
http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2001/2001-April/007586.html
Or off a plane.
Wojtek says: "All that information requires human processing and action" ... yes, just like the gnomes we hire (offshore, 'natch!) to scribe up all these copies of all this email that you get delivered each day. Wake up, this stuff is automated.
/jordan