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Submission + - Congress Didn't Notice the FBI Creating a 'Small Air Force' for Surveillance (theatlantic.com)

Submitted by Errorcod3
Errorcod3 writes: Last week, Americans learned that even as the NSA collected information on their telephone and Internet behavior, the FBI was using fictitious companies to secretly operate what the AP called “a small air force with scores of low-flying planes across the country carrying video and, at times, cell phone surveillance technology.”

The news organization reported that surveillance flights may be more than a decade old, and identified “more than 100 flights since late April orbiting both major cities and rural areas.”

The merits of this program will now be debated.

What’s already clear, however, is the anti-democratic nature of keeping it hidden all these years. The U.S. is supposed to be governed by the people. Whether Americans want a federal law-enforcement agency using planes to conduct surveillance on vast swaths of the country is a question properly aired and debated.

It is for Americans to choose.

Instead, an executive branch that has grown alarmingly powerful since the September 11 terrorist attacks, or perhaps even before, imposed its preferred policy in secret. The vast majority of Americans were completely unaware of its choice.

Comment Re:Any bets on how long before the plug is pulled? (Score 1) 142

Nobody is perfect, nobody will have their eyes on the road 100% of the time while driving... but they should be trying to! . That is how you do your best at something, you try to do it correctly, to minimize your mistakes.

Utter bullshit.

Plan for drivers to be distracted, because they will be. Never, ever, ever expect anyone to be trying to look at the road 100% of the time, because we absolutely know this will never be the case.

Your position is equivalent to making an abstinence argument against birth control - and you're trying to push that on others. It is absurd and harmful.

Comment Re:Any bets on how long before the plug is pulled? (Score 1) 142

Did I leave you with the impression that my post was anything other than rhetorical?

Also, you left out sneezing. Where's your advocacy for a ban on sneezing?

Point is simple, but I'll spell it out for you - no one (and no I don't believe your claims) is capable of never taking their eyes off the road.

But even if that were a possibility, and it absolutely is not, it is already totally and completely fine that we take our eyes off the road. The government posts billboards themselves, do they not?

Again, rhetorical. You're clearly full of crap, so no need to bother responding.

Comment Re:Any bets on how long before the plug is pulled? (Score 1) 142

You keep posting this link. Have you actually read it?

I just checked every state on the site and exactly three things are normally illegal:

1) Minors using it (as if minors can afford it in the first place...)
2) Watching TV on it (not a feature)
3) Using it with your hands, specifically typing on it (the opposite of what it does)

Of the 51 places on your link, ONLY FIFTEEN deviate from this, and typically only because their laws don't go down to the 'type on it' level. If we had the full statutes, instead of the summaries we'd know even more.

Here's the breakdown by state, in terms of 'is this a risk in my state':

Alabama, no
Alaska, no
Arizona, no
Arkansas, no
California, yes/probably
Colorado, no
Connecticut, no
Delaware, no
District of Columbia, no
Florida, no
Georgia, yes/probably
Hawaii, no
Idaho, no
Illinois, yes/probably
Indiana, yes/probably
Iowa, yes/probably
Kansas, yes/probably
Kentucky, yes/probably
Louisiana, yes/probably
Maine, yes/probably
Maryland, yes/probably
Massachusetts, no
Michigan, no
Minnesota, no
Mississippi, no
Missouri, no
Montana, no
Nebraska, no
Nevada, no
New Hampshire, no
New Jersey, no
New Mexico, no
New York, no
North Carolina, yes/probably
North Dakota, yes/probably
Ohio, no
Oklahoma, no
Oregon, no
Pennsylvania, no
Rhode Island, yes/probably
South Carolina, no
South Dakota, no
Tennessee, no
Texas, no
Utah, no
Vermont, no
Virginia, no
Washington, no
West Virginia, no
Wisconsin, yes/probably
Wyoming, yes/probably

Comment Re:Case closed (Score 1) 127

by BobMcD (#47608963) Attached to: Senior RIKEN Scientist Involved In Stem Cell Scandal Commits Suicide

When you have billions of dollars on the line, I don't see why anyone would be surprised that there might be people willing to do some very nasty things, up to and including murder. People will kill over a pair of sneakers, I'm pretty sure they'd kill over billions.

I assume the people who deny this fall into three groups:

1) The naive/stupid/hopelessly optimistic
2) Those too afraid to imagine a world where this is a possibility
3) Those who'd rather not awaken groups 1 and 2

Again, in this particular case I have no information to add. Only vague questions. But there probably should be questions due, if not for the general loss of human life, to the billions at stake.

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