The ‘Cat’ Signal
At some point, depending on the time zone of the Internet Defense League, the banner will appear on the this site and stay up for the next 24 hours.
This is part of a protest over the loss of privacy caused by the blatant flaunting of Fourth Amendment rights by the current and previous administrations with the acquiescence of Congress, and the courts.
As Americans celebrate the Fourth of July they should keep in mind that the Declaration of Independence was signed by men who were well aware that their signatures would be considered acts of treason, and subject them to a death sentence. They consciously chose freedom over safety.
If you read The Bill of Rights you will see:
Amendment IV
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
That wording and meaning can only be changed by amending the Constitution. All laws must conform to it unless it is amended. The supporters of the unConstitutional surveillance will claim that ‘the Constitution isn’t a suicide pact’. They are correct, it isn’t. It is the law of land that provides the structure and ideals that make the United States possible. If you ignore it, you may have something left, but it won’t be the United States of America.
6 comments
To my way of thinking, we lost this one decades ago, when Americans signed off on the Drug War, aka Prohibition redux.
Yep, the War on Drugs™ was the obvious genesis for the attitude on display by the government, i.e. the perceived ends justify any means.
I did as many of those things as I was reasonably able to. I’m afraid that I, like PJ above, believe that we (US citizens living domestically, to be specific) have lost this one, no matter what we do, and no matter how many fine speeches President O and others made today. A secretly monitored society is NOT a free society… period. We don’t have to start over, but I anticipate a need for some civil disobedience to regain some of our privacy.
If they leave my hands free as they cart me away, I’ll unsnap my leg, lift it and brandish it for the cameras…
I’m starting with my e-mail signature and switching this place to SSL. It doesn’t do a lot, but it puts them on notice that we know what they are up to, and don’t like it.
If they were doing anything useful, like actually enforcing the ‘Do Not Call’ list, I might not be so pissed off, but they aren’t doing anything useful with this data, they are simply hoarding it. There plan is a sign of mental illness, not intelligence gathering. Every once in a while my Mother has a show on that features an intervention with people who hoard stuff. It’s stuff they don’t need, and don’t use, but they keep collecting it to the point that their lives are seriously impacted. That’s what NSA et al. are engaged in, not doing anything useful.
Painfully ironic to compare “No Fly” lists to the “Do Not Call” list. With the latter of course, it seems that no matter how many times your name gets on it, nothing happens. On even days I’m wistful for the budding consumer movement of the 70’s. On the odd days, I wonder if that wasn’t just part of the plan to convert us from citizens to “consumers”. Who was it said that it’s hard to be cynical enough to keep up with the daily news?
All the Do Not Call list did was to put the privacy policy of everyone you deal with into even smaller type so you don’t know that you are agreeing to let banks et al. sell your information to other companies, so the other companies can legally harass you.
The so-called ‘Terrorist’ lists are so bloated and worthless as to be a net negative. Tamerlan Tsarnaev was on the list, but no one knew it. He wasn’t prevented from flying, and no one was even interested in what he was up to. The Boston Police were too interested in the Occupy movement to pay any attention to people on the list.