Sorry for the double post: I went off to do something else while the first was posting, and didn't see the reply when I got back, just a message to respond—so I did again.
S.

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Action you could take. I suggest you contact your State Government Representatives and demand:
Honorable Representative;
I demand you immediately begin writing statues and policy to control the FUSION mechanism affecting this state.
Whereas FUSION centers have been collecting vast amounts of personal information,
And whereas much of this information is proven to be false and error prone,
And whereas this information can cause gross damage to individuals liberty and livelihood,
Be it resolved that the State develop statues and policy limiting how this information is used and protecting this information from disclosure.
Be it resolved that individuals may view and contest their individual information.
Be it further resolved that information gained without due process be deleted from all records and data bases.
drafted by Bruce Eggum

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I'm not sure about that, but Rachel Maddow interviewed Sen. Dorgan/Durdon (sp?) from North Dakota on Wednesday, and in 1999 he predicted the fiscal meltdown exactly, complete with "massive taxpayer bailouts", in 10 years, i.e., right now! He noted at that time that 2010 would be very different from 1999, and that we would regret repealing Glass-X Act that was enacted after the Great Depression. The only one to suggest we learn from history! The Gramm (yes, Phil)-X-X Act passed with only 8 votes against. Dorgan (sp?) being the only one of the 8 remaining in the Senate today. He's calling for investigation and prosecution.

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Thanks for all the work on this! Bruce!

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"Aren't radio communications public by nature? ...

if they could get a wiretap warrant for a specific telephone in that case, why not in others? ...

If probable cause is weakened, then I don't see how you can consider U.S. citizens protected;

if they are talking to a foreigner, then, as I understand it, they can be tapped.... "

Unless encrypted, radio messages are indeed easier to tap than messages transmitted over copper or glass, but that's not the same as being legally "public". Just as with email messages that are sent in the clear, the mere accessibility doesn't eliminate the expectation of privacy nor the right to it.

The main problem with getting a warrant for a throw away phone is knowing the number of the phone. That generally requires a previous round of surveillance, and so on. It is far more practical for warrants to have to specify the people involved than the facility. People have rights, not facilities.

The weakening of probable cause did weaken protection. I am not comfortable with that. But other aspects of the law made important improvements in protection. Getting it right is thus fixing the problems that still exist, not repealing the fixes to old problem along with the newly introduced problems.

The new FISA addresses US persons talking to foreigners. If US persons are known to be involved, then FISA warrants must be used. They didn't always have to be in the old law. Also, the agencies are specifically forbidden to intentionally target US persons by pretending to target foreigners. This is now a crime. Finally, they are required to minimize the number of US persons that are swept in, and to review both the procedures for avoiding that and the statistics on its occurrence. Ordinary warrants from non-FISA courts can also uncover people not mentioned in the warrants. No minimization procedures are required there, to my knowledge.

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I've uploaded draft copies of the above to both getfisaright.wordpress.com and bloggers.change.org/ideas_patriotact.

Once Jon has had a chance to check them out, I will publish both of these tomorrow (Wed, March 4).

I will also check here before I hit the "publish" button.

Last call for thoughts and criticisms.

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"Good suggestions, thanks!

Does anybody know the proper etiquette for addressing a Senator?"

http://tinyurl.com/qva

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