"The judge spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue."
The government is tracking people's movements via their GPS-capable cell phones. No warrant. No probable cause. Just a federal agent's strongly-worded belief that they want to know where you are at all times.
I'm going to type in bold now, because this most understated, alarming throwaway line I've ever read.
The judge spoke on condition of anonymity.
Anonymity is for people who fear punishment for speaking up. Never, under any circumstances whatsoever, should any American judge, anywhere, ever, be speaking on condition of anonymity!!!!! Not even for a ticking nuclear time bomb.
This is how far our country has fallen.
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Who can we turn to? Even sympathetic judges must remain anonymous.
November 23, 2007 12:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
probably nobody. the next generation of cars will probably have GPS in them. for all I know, rental cars are secretly fitted with GPS so cars can be tracked.
To boldly go...
November 23, 2007 1:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
I too assume the cars will soon be equipped, as cell phones are now, so we can be tracked ....
Not just singly. But who gets together. And where. By cell or by car.
Scary.
November 23, 2007 2:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
I didn't think about that angle but yeah! cellphone ID's can be grouped together and even associated with car trips, etc...
I've heard that radio stations broadcast something you can't hear but arbitron, or somebody, has a device which can. that's how they get accurate listener statistics w/o hand written journals, i.e. they just wear a device that listens for radio station ID's and records them. that way, as someone is walking around, even if the person doesn't know what station their listening to-- at the mall or at work, the device does.
so maybe air america and rush listeners can be ID'd through a cellphone if the cellphone hears those ID's which you can't hear.
when I went out to aulaf (sp?) airforce base in nebraska, I learned that the government has robots that read our postings and, for example, counts how many times the word Bush comes up after he gives a speech, etc... or computes an "anger score" by seeing how many angry words surround the word bush. I was told "that's modern polling." i.e. the can statistically gauge reaction by taking a statistical sample of communication.
all this wire tap bickering is kind of dump since the systems in place are way beyond what anyone could imagine...
i.e. if you bring your cellphone to church, they can figure out who goes to early church and who goes to late church and whoever who is knows more than the church would!
To boldly go...
November 23, 2007 4:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is even more disconcerting to me because I have such mixed feelings about the cell phone tracking thing. I would never routinely do it to my child. But I would want the police to do whatever they could find my kid, if missing under suspicious circumstances.
I have a problem with the seeming lack of standards for any "untrained" magistrates issuing flimsy warrants. And I have a big problem with what are seeming to resemble the FBI "national security letters," in the news a few months ago.
It all runs together for me in a morass of Orwellian Fourth Amendment abuses.
Anonymous, indeed! Good post.
South by Southwest
November 25, 2007 4:11 AM | Reply | Permalink