What did Kerr just say?

"Privacy no longer can mean anonymity", says Donald Kerr, the principal deputy director of national intelligence.

Is he trying to say: "Look, you can forget about it if you think you can give an anonymous tip to a U.S. law enforcement agency, a reporter, or to a special prosecutor."?

Wonder what kind of effect that will have on investigations, particularly the ones that might have been started by a whistle-blower before they were informed that the idea of anonymity is passe by the very government they were considering taking to task for violating the law?

Think that was the whole idea behind such a public announcement? It surely couldn't have been to ENCOURAGE "anonymous tips" about criminal activity.

Not to worry - you catch Uncle Sam breaking yet another law, cruise around and find an anonymous internet cafe where you can create an e-mail account somewhere and the go ahead and send an email off to your favorite reporter or special prosecutor. Just look for surveillance cameras first.

Oh, and as to:

Kerr said at an October intelligence conference in San Antonio that he finds concerns that the government may be listening in odd when people are "perfectly willing for a green-card holder at an (Internet service provider) who may or may have not have been an illegal entrant to the United States to handle their data."

That's hokie. Nobody gave us a choice. That is Big Business doing that hiring, which as anybody who has been paying attention knows is the same thing as the Federal government under this Administration.

Shoot, those boyz don't even wait for a subpeona before dumping your data in Uncle Sam's lap.

Ahhhhh, yes. Another exercise in tortured logic by the same folks who brought us the forget about substance abusing George W's past slogans, and redefining torture, and why we really had to go to war in Iraq, and moving the goalposts of victory -- now comes the framing of the argument about what is privacy and why we really don't need it anymore.

It's sooooo arcane, afterall. And such a bothersome trifle in the war on terrorism.

I mean, it only protects someone who disagrees with the powers that be, right? What good is that?

Let the brainwashing begin!

Goodbye to privacy?? more like Goodbye to the Constitution and hello fascist police state . . .

Well, Ben Franklin did warns us; James Madison did urge us to be ever vigilant; we just failed to heed their words. That it is on our watch that the end of the American Republic came, I still find hard to believe.

The road to hell... and forget good intentions!

All we have to distinguish ourselves as a nation is the U.S. Constitution. If we let - allow, permit, tolerate, approve of - public officials who seek to weaken this document, we deserve what we get.

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"Lawmakers hastily changed the 1978 law last summer to allow the government to eavesdrop inside the United States without court permission, so long as one end of the conversation was reasonably believed to be located outside the U.S."

And if you don't receive a call from outside the US, they will conveniently arrange for that to happen. C'mon, people, they can and would do that.

"it should mean that government and businesses properly safeguards people's private communications and financial information."

Only a total idiot would place any trust in business and the government to safeguard their privacy. Is there a difference between the two entities. Isnt it the government that wants retroactive immunity for the telecom companies. I would believe Bin LaDen before I trust the government or corporations.

Apathy in this country? They count on it!

This is fucking bullshit! I can't believe the people of this country are going to stand silently and let these fuckers take all of our rights and most importantly Habeus Corpus and flush them down the toilet. The terrorists have won. Thanks Rove, you fucker!

Well yeah these guys have to pretend they're actually doing something...what better way than to spy on hundreds if not thousands of obviously innocent people. These guys have to cover their asses somehow, after all they aren't finding any real terrorists, and I'll guarantee any terrorists that are in the country are begging for them to spy on everybody...what is a better cover than that.

Like hell we'll say goodbye to privacy. They don't tell us what to do . . . we tell them. Keep screaming and protesting folks. Keep writing letter, emails, etc. I may be frustrated as hell with the morons that are our "leaders" but I'll never give up yelling at them til they change or we change them.

First, the hackers have everything covered so well, in terms of getting EVERYTHING you"ve got, they make the federal government look like pikers. In fact, the hackers provide the gov"t. with their tools.

Second, the legislation and court authority is so handled, and thorough " THEY could get BUSH if it came to that " it makes these accusations of unchecked government invasion of everyone"s privacy look like the joke they are.

This is pure partisan politics, unadulterated Bush Derangement Syndrome on steroids-on LSD-on crack, and the Dems in the house and senate know it. THAT"S why they"re pulling back. There is not now, nor has there ever been, a case of neo-cons violating privacy in unconstitutional ways. Those were lies, dear dummies, intended to demonize Bush and the Republicans and gain votes for the Democrat party. Just like Bush-lied-for-oil-in-Iraq, or whatever your name for it is, and Bush outed Valerie Plame, and on and on.

That"s the thing about moral equivocators, such as are liberals and Leftists and Democrats " they"ll say anything to get what they want; allow sheltered, naïve dupes like you all to believe it, and then they crawl silently away when it all falls down. The way little Chucky Schumer and the rest are doing now, and letting you twits twist in the wind. Whining and crying. Sniveling.

Put down your hammers and sickles, stop fantasizing about Europe-the-savior-of-America, and grow the hell up!

First, the hackers have everything covered so well, in terms of getting EVERYTHING you"ve got, they make the federal government look like pikers. In fact, the hackers provide the gov"t. with their tools.

Second, the legislation and court authority is so handled, and thorough " THEY could get BUSH if it came to that " it makes these accusations of unchecked government invasion of everyone"s privacy look like the joke they are.

This is pure partisan politics, unadulterated Bush Derangement Syndrome on steroids-on LSD-on crack, and the Dems in the house and senate know it. THAT"S why they"re pulling back. There is not now, nor has there ever been, a case of neo-cons violating privacy in unconstitutional ways. Those were lies, dear dummies, intended to demonize Bush and the Republicans and gain votes for the Democrat party. Just like Bush-lied-for-oil-in-Iraq, or whatever your name for it is, and Bush outed Valerie Plame, and on and on.

That"s the thing about moral equivocators, such as are liberals and Leftists and Democrats " they"ll say anything to get what they want; allow sheltered, naïve dupes like you all to believe it, and then they crawl silently away when it all falls down. The way little Chucky Schumer and the rest are doing now, and letting you twits twist in the wind. Whining and crying. Sniveling.

Put down your hammers and sickles, stop fantasizing about Europe-the-savior-of-America, and grow the hell up!

Mr. Kerr will be out of a job in the Paul Administration.

Data Mining is the way our Republican criminals like mr. Cheney are able to set the agenda for how we Americans live. They can tell first-hand how and what people are thinking and saying. This kind of knowledge is a power-house Republicans like Rove and the Corporate Media can sustain their fascist hold on our Constitution.