You commit three felonies a day
n a book called Three Felonies A Day, Boston civil rights lawyer Harvey Silverglate says that everyone in the US commits felonies everyday and if the government takes a dislike to you for any reason, they'll dig in and find a felony you're guilty of.
The average professional in this country wakes up in the morning, goes to work, comes home, eats dinner, and then goes to sleep, unaware that he or she has likely committed several federal crimes that day. Why? The answer lies in the very nature of modern federal criminal laws, which have exploded in number but also become impossibly broad and vague. In Three Felonies a Day, Harvey A. Silverglate reveals how federal criminal laws have become dangerously disconnected from the English common law tradition and how prosecutors can pin arguable federal crimes on any one of us, for even the most seemingly innocuous behavior. The volume of federal crimes in recent decades has increased well beyond the statute books and into the morass of the Code of Federal Regulations, handing federal prosecutors an additional trove of vague and exceedingly complex and technical prohibitions to stick on their hapless targets. The dangers spelled out in Three Felonies a Day do not apply solely to "white collar criminals," state and local politicians, and professionals. No social class or profession is safe from this troubling form of social control by the executive branch, and nothing less than the integrity of our constitutional democracy hangs in the balance.
In response to a question about what happens to big company CEOs who refuse to go along with government surveillance requests, John Gilmore offers a case study in what Silverglate is talking about.
We know what happened in the case of QWest before 9/11. They contacted the CEO/Chairman asking to wiretap all the customers. After he consulted with Legal, he refused. As a result, NSA canceled a bunch of unrelated billion dollar contracts that QWest was the top bidder for. And then the DoJ targeted him and prosecuted him and put him in prison for insider trading -- on the theory that he knew of anticipated income from secret programs that QWest was planning for the government, while the public didn't because it was classified and he couldn't legally tell them, and then he bought or sold QWest stock knowing those things.
This CEO's name is Joseph P. Nacchio and TODAY he's still serving a trumped-up 6-year federal prison sentence today for quietly refusing an NSA demand to massively wiretap his customers.
You combine this with the uber-surveillance allegedly being undertaken by the NSA and other governmental agencies and you've got a system for more or less automatically accusing any US citizen of a felony. Free society, LOL ROFLcopter
http://kottke.org/13/06/you-commit-three-felonies-a-day
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... one time I had 3 overdue library books (had checked out for the kids.) Police came to my door to remind me to get them in. I stuck out my wrists and told them they could take me in for overdue library books. They talked me down, I took them in next day and paid the fine, and picked up some more library books.
Another time, we lived in an apartment complex which rented to allot of college kids. The ones upstairs had loud parties all the time. And a weight room right over my bedroom. I never ever called them in. So, one night, my son was practicing his tuba around 11PM, as he had an audition next day for All-State concert band. The brats upstairs called the police on me. At the door, I explained to the officer why son was practicing and told them I was shocked that I had been called in, as the kids upstairs were regular partiers. He informed me of the 10PM curfew noise ordinance. Again, I stuck my wrists out and told them I was willing to be arrested for my son practicing his tuba at 11PM. They wouldn't take me. DAMN!
You may think I'm crazy, but I actually WANTED to be arrested those two times. Seemed like they were trying to turn everyone into criminals, anyway. I thought those two things would look good on my arrest record.
But seriously, we're all criminals now. 
Sounds like a load of libertarian horseshit. The CEO of Qwest Communications is in federal prison because he is a greedy, fucking thief, not because of the NSA. Gimme a fucking break. If that's the kind of shithead you want to throw in with, good luck to you. Sucker born every minute, I guess.
Slow days... takes till lunch time.
... I'll get the book and maybe, just maybe I'll read it! 
I'm a bibliophile. (Or bibliophobe.)
is as likely as a CEO needing a public defender.
A civil rights attorney who is worried about the rights of CEO's to steal from the stockholders is the kind of civil rights attorney everyone should listen to. Insider trading is why we have to keep building prisons. 
politicians do not keep enemies' lists, and wherein big brother would never crucify a person for expressing constitutionally-protected speech, and in particular such speech expressing an anti-war or anti-Wall Street/laizze-faire capitalism sentiment. We are so lucky to be so blessed. 
