Retroactive Immunity for Illegal Surveillance (Obama Edition

[bogus info]

Retroactive Immunity for Illegal Surveillance (Obama Edition)
By Spencer Ackerman 1/22/10 3:03 PM
In a move straight out of the Bush administration’s Office of Legal Counsel, a secret decision made by the Obama administration’s OLC provided retroactive legal justification for the FBI and telecommunications companies to improperly collect the phone records of American citizens. We would have no idea that the OLC issued any such retroactive blessing had not the Justice Department’s inspector general released a report this week blowing the whistle on it.

Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Dick Durban (D-Ill.) and Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.) wrote a letter today — which you can read in full after the jump — calling on Attorney General Eric Holder to “immediately” give Congress a copy of OLC’s retroactive immunization.

more here: http://washingtonindependent.com/74588/ ... ma-edition


http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/0 ... ping-laws/
Threat Level Privacy, Crime and Security Online FBI, Telecoms Teamed to Breach Wiretap Laws
By Ryan Singel January 21, 2010 | 2:29 pm

[Reality Check]

Disappointing but remember there are still a lot of neocons embedded in Justice. It takes a while to get the house clean.

[Highlands]

This is for my American Government course, and I would like to get the opinions of my esteemed PJ comrades.

Watch the video, "Right to privacy", In this video the late Tim Russert conducts an interview with a Harvard professor discussing the right to privacy in modern times.

Tim Russert: The Right to Privacy (1 minute, 53 seconds)

After watching the video, do you think the Constitution should be amended to specifically spell out a right to privacy? If so, what would it look like; If not, why not?

I appreciate any comments you may have.

Edit: LOL, I forgot to include my own opinion.

Benjamin Franklin once said that, "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

I do think that there should be an amendment to specifically spell out privacy rights. I am not sure, however, that given our current political situation, a Constitutional Convention (a real one ) would be feasible or fruitful. I believe that the Patriot Act violates the 4th amendment and I have absolutely no idea how Congress got around this.

I find it sickening that the NSA spies on Americans. Hi NSA!