Was Ma Bell Playing Big Brother?

(CBS)  The Skinny is Keach Hagey's take on the top news of the day and the best of the Internet.

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A secret room packed with data-mining equipment. A "special job" commissioned by the government's spy agency. A technician who claims to have seen it all and whose bosses now deny there was anything to see.

The Washington Post's story on lawsuits challenging the National Security Agency's Terrorist Surveillance Program has all the hallmarks of a summer blockbuster movie set in a dystopian future.

But the really scary part is that the operations described in the lawsuits –- particularly the class action suit led by the privacy group the Electronic Frontier Foundation alleging that AT&T collaborated with the NSA to operate an illegal "dragnet" tracking the communication of millions of Americans -- have been going on without judicial oversight from 2001 through January of this year.

A panel of judges will rule tomorrow on whether the suits can go forward, but already the mere of court records has been eye-opening.

"So far, evidence in the case suggests a massive effort by the NSA to tap into the backbone of the Internet to retrieve millions of e-mails and other communications, which the government could sift and analyze for suspicious patterns or other signs of terrorist activity," the Post reports.

Naturally, both AT&T and the federal government are denying the existence of the Mission Impossible-style data-mining room. AT&T describes the employee who claims to have seen it as "a line technician who ... never had access to the 'secret room' he purports to describe." Anybody who's ever killed two air-conditioned hours in a movie theater knows that's just what the evil villains always say.

The outcome of the judges' decision "could determine whether the courts will ever rule on the legality of surveillance conducted by the NSA without judicial oversight between 2001 and January 2007."

But don't get excited. It's not like it will make the government stop reading your e-mail.

Gonzales' Power Grows

The Los Angeles Times reports that Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales may soon get new powers to kill death row inmates faster.

The Justice Department is putting the final touches on regulations, slipped into last year's Patriot Act reauthorization, that would allow Gonzales to "fast track" procedures that could shave years off the time that a death row inmate has to appeal to the federal courts after conviction in a state court.

The timing on this one is rather breathtaking. On one hand, you've got a bunch of states that have recently issued moratoriums on the death penalty because a series of botched executions have turned people's stomachs enough to call lethal injection procedures into question. And then, on the other, you have Gonzales' testimony before Congress on the politically-motivated firing of U.S. attorneys, which led to howls for his resignation.

Add the additional concern that, as the Times puts it, "there is a major conflict of interest for the nation's top law enforcement officer to judge the qualifications of lawyers defending people whom government officials are seeking to put to death," and you've got a potentially disastrous cocktail.

But when has distaste for cruel and unusual punishment, bad judgment or conflict of interest ever stopped Alberto Gonzales?

Is Elvis Leaving Building?

Elvis' corpse turns 30 this week, and to celebrate USA Today takes a look at his current imprint on digital culture. The results are a little bit, well, sad. For one thing, the anniversary "has not produced the avalanche of album reissues and book tributes of past milestones." And for another, the King lost his crown of topping Forbes magazine's list of top-earning dead celebrities last year to Kurt Cobain —- whose corpse doesn't even have a head!

But as we all know, nobody makes a comeback like the King. As evidence that one might be in the offing, the paper notes that a recent Viagra ad is set to the tune of "Viva Las Vegas." As author Alanna Nash, author of "Elvis and the Memphis Mafia" puts it, "This is just the calm before the second coming."


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[undermyboot]

"Freedom? What''s that?", asks your 8 year-old great granddaughter. "Shhhhh", your grandson says as he glances around. "Never say that word again, honey. They are always listening". He quietly walks out of her bedroom. The government computer records "possible future subversive" in your granddaughter''s file.

"If ye love security greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen." -- Samuel Adams

[j_flood]

"Elvis' corpse is 30" - what a crude description. I'm not an Elvis fan but what was point of making this crude reference. Keach Hagey is a journalist or a smart a** - I wonder if after Hagey's death he'll be referred to as a corpse? Save the remarks and write in a respectful tone.

[tcoleman12]

Yeah, Matter...They deny UFOs also. Do they really exist as well? Have you had your anal probe lately?

[lastdance2]

Off Topic .....

Topic :
Self-Described Pedophile Arrested In L.A.
____

Research :
The Franklin Cover-up
copy and paste (Google)

Get Tuned In ! ! !

Lastdance

[oakishpines]

most folk most time
dance get well feed world songs
rallied round the sick beds drifting along
tens millions spore bloom weed dragon
trail fickle first aid lunch farm
cottage studio trails
(some folk some time
dance get sick tax world songs)

most invest their funds in non charity
and their votes in taxation at gunpoint
(that was a joke, who needs funds or votes)

to float above the poverty line here,
one needs around 60 dollars per work day
or one dollar from each of 60 people

for all to float above the poverty line,
each in an average county of 90,000
must pay out 60 dollars per day
(and take in 60 dollars per day)

(the global poverty line is like $2,
businesses that exploit both markets
are sucking the 2 and 60 dollar lines
more close together, optimistically)

if, in a county, theres, very roughly,
300 trail groups of 16+ acres each,
and 300 folk each; and, in the world,
theres, very roughly, 90,000 countys
of 90,000 folk each:

then there's about 2500 square feet per folkone

(actually, there's just over 4 acres per huvan,
but much of it is relatively uninhabitable,
much of the rest will likely be 'busy blooming'
because the trails like to move,
and the population doubles rather rapidly,
and we will be below 2 acres per huvan,
then one acre, and so on: so 16 acres is
just an estimate of a pleasant amount
of currently required space)

[harp1963]

Dear America,

We're being taken from within in the name of safety and security by the guys standing in front of the American flag singing "God Bless America" the loudest. Wake Up!


NEVER VOTE REPUBLICAN AGAIN!

[matter77]

"Naturally, both AT&T and the federal government are denying the existence of the Mission Impossible-style data-mining room." And of course, if they deny it then it must REALLY be true. In fact, that's the way this conspiracy garbage works - if the authorities deny it, then it MUST be true. This type of wacko writing demonstrates how mental derangement is rapidly becoming the single most debilitating disease in America.

[oakishpines]

the u.s. has gone from investing funds in non-charity u.s. english capitalists and votes in taxation at gunpoint u.s. english capitalists

to investing funds in non-charity chinese and indian english capitalitsts and votes in taxation at gunpoint chinese and indian english capitalists


it isn't that it takes more than 140 million folk to feed the world, it's just that asias throws away more than 140 million people each day: that was a joke, i think


remember to thank congress and the networks each day: dressed men were born to be chased and spanked by naked girls!

' they just kids, it ain't like we'z assault'n any officers '


'daring shocking aweing raping starving mid east and u.s. babies is cool, but daring shocking aweing raping starving chinese and indian babies is criminal'


'just stay out of my county: it's not get well feed world, it's get sick tax world, and not the kind with open borders'