Wanna know what I just found out?

[OilemFirchen]

The feds have access to every single American citizen's social security number.

Do you have any idea what they can do with that information?

Apparently this has been going on since like the '30s or something.

[marions ghost]

1. Oh stop

If you're gonna put out garbage, be a little more creative?

[OilemFirchen]

5. You can't see the pirouette.

Not my problem.

[marions ghost]

10. I see your pirouette

& it's so lame...

[Tx4obama]

2. Touche` :)

[Malik Agar]

3. 0/10

[KentuckyWoman]

4. That made me laugh

We've got more than a few tea party goofballs around town. I am going to whip that little bit of stupidity out on them and then sit back and enjoy the comedy.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

13. While you are at it tell them the government has a record of every homeowner....

In fact, every inch of land has been cataloged.

The government also has the nerve to impose what can go where. Then tell them what government "zone" you are in.

[KentuckyWoman]

19. E911

They know where you live.

Tried that one already at Ace Hardware and got whole week of entertainment.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

20. Some of these idjits would buy house numbers to confuse the cops.

[Lint Head]

6. OMG!! Noooooooooooo!!!

[think]

7. And here I thought you learned that the Fisa court ruled that the NSA has already violated the law..

But I can understand why you might not be aware of this since FISA court ruling has been classified by the DOJ. That's right. A secret court's ruling on the constitutionality of the NSA's actions has been rendered TOP SECRET.

Please note the bold emphasis on the two statements a US Senator got approval to make in regards to this court ruling. That's right a US Senator had to get clearance to make statements on a classified court ruling that stated the NSA was breaking the law:

Justice Department Fights Release of Secret Court Opinion Finding Unconstitutional Surveillance

Government lawyers are trying to keep buried a classified court finding that a domestic spying program went too far.
—By David Corn
| Fri Jun. 7, 2013 12:22 PM PDT

~Snip~

This important case—all the more relevant in the wake of this week's disclosures—was triggered after Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a member of the Senate intelligence committee, started crying foul in 2011 about US government snooping. As a member of the intelligence committee, he had learned about domestic surveillance activity affecting American citizens that he believed was improper. He and Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.), another intelligence committee member, raised only vague warnings about this data collection, because they could not reveal the details of the classified program that concerned them. But in July 2012, Wyden was able to get the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to declassify two statements that he wanted to issue publicly. They were:

* On at least one occasion the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court held that some collection carried out pursuant to the Section 702 minimization procedures used by the government was unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment.

* I believe that the government's implementation of Section 702 of FISA [the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] has sometimes circumvented the spirit of the law, and on at least one occasion the FISA Court has reached this same conclusion.

For those who follow the secret and often complex world of high-tech government spying, this was an aha moment. The FISA court Wyden referred to oversees the surveillance programs run by the government, authorizing requests for various surveillance activities related to national security, and it does this behind a thick cloak of secrecy. Wyden's statements led to an obvious conclusion: He had seen a secret FISA court opinion that ruled that one surveillance program was unconstitutional and violated the spirit of the law. But, yet again, Wyden could not publicly identify this program....

Full article:
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/06/justice-department-electronic-frontier-foundation-fisa-court-opinion

[Historic NY]

8. Snort...

[freshwest]

9. Mark of the Beast is what they called it when I was growing up. Yup. There ya go.

[Lady Freedom Returns]

11. Good Point!

K and R!

[JDPriestly]

12. The Social Security numbers are protected by laws that prohibit

the government from using them for most purposes.

[Hekate]

16. When I purchased my latest airline ticket I was told I had to provide my SSN...

... due to TSA regulations.

I resist giving my SSN to department stores that want to "verify" my identity, but I have to give it to my health care providers. Signing up for continuing education courses requires my SSN, but in the past I used to change a few digits on it and my birthdate for privacy purposes, though now I probably wouldn't be allowed to do that. This much has been going on for quite awhile.

[JDPriestly]

17. Actually, you are right. I could be wrong.

I was just saying that I think a lot of DUers are going through the first of the five stages of grief which are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and then acceptance.

I think that those who are defending Obama the most loudly are just denying the reality about this program.

I may be wrong, but it is quite possible that in the next few days, some of their denial and disbelief will be swept away by new and very troubling facts.

[Hekate]

18. Possibly...

... or possibly this is yet another GOP/Media hysteria-tornado. Given their track record, I will await further developments.

Total Information Awareness has gotten out of hand, but the GOPers are in love with it -- unless, of course, it should fall into the wrong hands, meaning Democrats. I think the GOP wants to preserve the USA PATRIOT ACT and its spawn for use by the next Republican administration.

At least Obama follows the law, as crappy as that law may be. He even recently told Congress that we should not be on a war footing forever, and that presidential power needed to be scaled back. Only Congress can do that, am I right? But I don't think it's going to happen unless we get a better Congress in 2014.

For this and other reasons I am not participating in the current hate-fest against Obama. The spy apparatus has grown so enormous that to a certain extent they may now be operating semi-autonomously. Some urgent issues have been raised, but how is this situation the current president's fault, and how is he supposed to single-handedly rein all the agencies in?

[JDPriestly]

23. I agree with this.

The spy apparatus has grown so enormous that to a certain extent they may now be operating semi-autonomously.

[OilemFirchen]

21. So is the metadata being collected by the NSA.

Likewise, every bit of information on your 1040 including, but not limited to, your name, your address, your employer, your income, your Sub-S name address and income, et al ad infinitum.

Been going on since before I was born, and I ain't a piker.

Where is the outrage?

[JI7]

14. we should have gone into hiding during the census also

[OKNancy]

15. ever checked out zillow dot com?

or any of the other sites that list homes. You can find out how much your friends and neighbors paid for their home.

Oh and of course there are online court records. Got a divorce? a bankruptcy?... it's all there.

We may not like it, but it is a fact of life in this age.

[OilemFirchen]

22. I can enter a name into my county prosecutor's website,

and see every criminal and civil action against that person going back who knows how far. All pertinent court records. All correspondence. I don't actually like it, but what's a poor Authoritarian Stasi Fascist wannabe like me gonna do about it?