A Freethinker's Paradise

AT and T steals your data

And there's not a damn thing you can do about it.  Welcome to what happens when a special few people are scared:

 

AT&T has issued an updated privacy policy that takes effect Friday. The changes are significant because they appear to give the telecom giant more latitude when it comes to sharing customers' personal data with government officials.

The new policy says that AT&T -- not customers -- owns customers' confidential info and can use it "to protect its legitimate business interests, safeguard others, or respond to legal process."

The policy also indicates that AT&T will track the viewing habits of customers of its new video service -- something that cable and satellite providers are prohibited from doing.

Moreover, AT&T (formerly known as SBC) is requiring customers to agree to its updated privacy policy as a condition for service -- a new move that legal experts say will reduce customers' recourse for any future data sharing with government authorities or others.

Of course, Americans will take it in the ass and ask for more.

The downfall of the US Empire

I think its going to come fairly soon, followed by most of the world's 'societies.'

I see all the bullshit from people on both sides of the aisle, and I despair.  I really do. 

Karl Rove isn't going to be prosecuted, although Fitzgerald hasnt confirmed that.  So I don't know. 

Anything going on in your neck of woods that is interesting?

Why bother with laws?

I really wonder why we have laws at this point:

A bill proposed yesterday by Arlen Specter to resolve the NSA scandal -- literally his fifth or sixth proposed bill on this subject in the last few months -- would drag the Congress to a new low of debasement. According to The Washington Post, Specter has introduced a bill "that would give President Bush the option of seeking a warrant from a special court for an electronic surveillance program such as the one being conducted by the National Security Agency." This proposal is the very opposite of everything Specter has saying for the last several months:

Specter's approach modifies his earlier position that the NSA eavesdropping program, which targets international telephone calls and e-mails in which one party is suspected of links to terrorists, must be subject to supervision by the secret court set up under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

A law which makes it "an option" -- rather than a requirement -- for the Government to obtain a warrant before eavesdropping is about as meaningless of a law as can be imagined.

But that complete change of heart by Specter is not even nearly the most corrupt part of his proposed bill. For pure corruption and constitutional abdication, nothing could match this:

Another part of the Specter bill would grant blanket amnesty to anyone who authorized warrantless surveillance under presidential authority, a provision that seems to ensure that no one would be held criminally liable if the current program is found illegal under present law.

Way to go, Arlen.  What a perfectly Vichy Congress we have.  I'm more and more convinced some sort of great shift will have to occur if anything is to head the right way again.

Coulter and Voter Fraud

Oops:

Republican extremist/hate-monger, Ann Coulter may be on the verge of being tossed from the Voter Rolls in Palm Beach County, Florida.

The Brad Blog has also obtained exclusive official documents from the chain of events which has helped bring the GOP darling to a new place in her career: She has fallen completely silent.

Coulter, who appears to have committed a third-degree felony by knowingly giving an incorrect address on her voter registration form in Palm Beach, Florida, and then knowingly voting at the incorrect polling place last March, could face up to $5,000 in fines and five years in prison if convicted.

In April, the Brad Blog posted Coulter's fraudulent Voter Registration form in full. Today, we have more official and exclusive documents from the incident.

If she's completely silent on the matter, we all know she's in hot water.  Although since she's a Republican hack, we all know she just might skate on it.