Similar to counterparts in Afghanistan, the craft will deploy from rural South Dakota and reach a maximum altitude of 65,000 feet. From there, they will drift across unspecified regions of Minnesota, Iowa, Central Illinois, Missouri and Wisconsin. The balloons program, first reported by The Guardian, will likely outfit surveillance balloons with high-powered radar systems.
Surveillance
Encryption, FBI, Federal Government, Liberty, Privacy, Private Property, Surveillance, Technology
Precedent
At least with our homes we have some reasonable ways to know whether or not a government agent has entered it. With our technology, however, they could enter our computers, phones, tablets, etc., take whatever they want, and we would never know unless they decided to tell us. And there have been too many instances of that happening for the American people to feel comfortable giving the government even more tools to access our technology.
Perhaps if the government had behaved more responsibly with our civil liberties to date, this wouldn’t be much of an issue.
Via Obama Makes Case for Government Access to Private Property @ Boots & Sabers.
Federal Government, Liberty, Patriot Act, Privacy, Surveillance
The extent of their work
“How much phone metadata does the government (and soon the phone companies) actually collect?… What other kinds of data does the government gather in bulk?… What are the costs of collecting all this data?…” Via “Three Big Questions About the N.S.A.’s Patriot Act Powers.” @ Althouse.
Gov. Walker, Law, Liberty, Patriot Act, Presidential race 2016, Privacy, Surveillance
Salesman of the Surveillance State
Federal Government, Law, Liberty, Surveillance
Lawyer Doubts Sensenbrenner Knew About Patriot Act Abuses
Blogs, Open Government, Press, Surveillance
Peak Investigative Activism?
Via “For about a year, the global enterprise you might call Glenn Greenwald, Inc. has been taking off like a red-hot app” @ Althouse.
Federal Government, Liberty, Surveillance
John Kerry talks tough
The Secretary of State did not hold back. Snowden is a traitor and a bum. He was probably a mean and nasty bully as a child. Anything else Mr. Secretary? While most people have mixed feelings about Snowden’decision to unmask the outrageous conduct of NSA and CIA,there is no hesitation in the White House–Obama should…
Health, Surveillance
Watching
Federal Government, Liberty, Surveillance
PR
….Frankly, it’s time for the president to face the music on this issue. Dancing around it is awkward, it is insulting, and it is even dangerous. Here’s footage of that walk. Apparently any footage of people confronting him will not be seen by you and I. If I had my chance to say something face…
Federal Government, Liberty, Surveillance
The NSA gets what it wants
….Justin Amash, who had originally co-sponsored the act, voted against it. Why? “This morning’s bill maintains and codifies a large-scale, unconstitutional domestic spying program,” Amash wrote on his Facebook page. “It claims to end ‘bulk collection’ of Americans’ data only in a very technical sense: The bill prohibits the government from, for example, ordering a…
Legislation, Liberty, Surveillance
Legislature sends drone-restriction bill to Gov. Walker
Business, Federal Government, Surveillance
Documents Show Surveillance State Links between DHS, CIA, and Booz Allen
Law, Liberty, Surveillance
Sensenbrenner joins the ACLU…at least for a lawsuit
U.S. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) has filed a friend of the court brief in support of an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit against the Obama administration. The brief argues that the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of phone records violates the Patriot Act. Via Sensenbrenner joins with ACLU on NSA phone lawsuit @ JS All…
Law, Liberty, Surveillance
America used to have a Sixth Amendment
… to be confronted with the witnesses against him ; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor,… Via The Sixth Amendment: A Casualty of NSA/DEA Statism @ Dad29.
Federal Government, New Media, Surveillance
Drudge runs ‘The top 12 “Big Sis” banners
Sec. Napolitano may be leaving Homeland Security, but she’ll not be forgotten. [It’s hard to argue with Althouse’s pick for the best of Drudge’s banners-ed.] Via The top 12 “Big Sis” banners from Drudge @ Althouse.
Federal Government, Liberty, Pres. Obama, Surveillance
NSA domestic surveillance draws Jagger’s ire at Verizon Center concert
“I don’t think President Obama is here tonight… But I’m sure he’s listening in.” Via Mick Jagger Disses Obama @ FREEDOM EDEN.
Ecology, Environment, Nature, Surveillance
Water’s as important as it is ubiquitous
What, though, worries the National Security Agency so much about ordinary environmentalists? Via The water-drinker’s bible: our arid outlook or why the NSA wants to track environmentalists @ Wisconsin Happy Farm.
Federal Government, Liberty, Surveillance
Edward Snowden as an American hero
Praise for a top-three whistleblower. Via I think that Snowden is a hero, in spite of media derision @ Blogging Blue.
Federal Government, Law, Surveillance
Congressman Sensenbrenner may tout his authorship of the Patriot Act
Conservative National Review, however, deprecates his self-professed role. Via Conservative National Review hits conservative Jim Sensenbrenner on Patriot Act By Tom Kertscher of the Journal Sentinel @ JS All Politics Blog.
Federal Government, Law, Liberty, Surveillance
Congressman Sensenbrenner senses… lawsuits
I don’t think that the (Obama) administration was concerned about” litigation over privacy violations, Sensenbrenner said. “They ought to be now, because I see the lawsuits coming. Via Sensenbrenner sees lawsuits stemming from surveillance @ JS All Politics Blog.
Law, Liberty, Surveillance
Americans can’t evaluate surreptitious surveillance programs…
Federal Government, Military, Surveillance
Edward Snowden leaked some of the NSA’s most precious secrets
Meanwhile, defenders of the Obama Administration were hard to find. Via Daniel Ellsberg says “there has not been in American history a more important leak than Edward Snowden’s release of NSA material…” @ Althouse.