« Video of Jesse MacBeth in Court | Main | Gentle Mischief »

*** Let's get some homework out of the way: I promised a series of posts about the NSA data mining program ... and I lied. But this deception wasn't born of malice, rather incorrigible laziness of both the intellectual and physical varieties - my typing fingers hurt something fierce, and it's well known that the act of poring through legal statutes eats little pieces of one's soul.

That said, I owe dorkafork his due, as the lil' scamp's post on the legal angle holds up in the face of all that I've read. Summarizing telephone record data mining: not afoul of the Fourth Amendment, may or may not snub FISA (opinions vary) and looks likely to violate the letter of several other statutes, including the Pen Register statute dorkafork mentioned, though perhaps not the intent - if identities are never attached to the numbers. All of these statutes can be circumvented by a warrant - though it's highly impractical to tell a judge that you're investigating all phone numbers in North America regarding a criminal investigation - or potentially by a claim of Executive wartime authority found in the Constitution.

Which, you know, is exactly the catch-all that gets certain leftists to convulse and spit frothy Beer Hall Putsch references, as well as legitimately presents the greatest avenue for abuse of executive power. Orin Kerr's got a detailed post on the matter, if that's your bag.

Of course, none of this changes my opinion on the utility or base necessity of data mining something as simple as phone record patterns as an element of domestic defense, and thus, I still regard dorkafork's overall position as nuttier than squirrel shit.

*** Donnah discovers a surprisingly engaging and difficult internet time waster.

*** Michele has changed her blog name and URL from "A Small Victory" to "Faster than the World," now featuring punk rock and fast cars.

Beats politics, though I've always found Orrin Hatch to be sort of "punk rock."

*** Ruthless, effective:

*** Jim Joyner is hosting a caption contest featuring Eurovision Song Contest winners and Finnish Gwar knock-offs "Lordi."

My entry:

"No Blood for OIIIIIIIIIIIILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!"

Yeah, still a bit traumatized from all of that ANSWER protest coverage I did in '04.

Lordi's winning Eurovision song is as laughable as Dean says it is, featuring arguably the first lyrical use of the word "Arockalypse."

That said, this other video and song are actually fairly entertaining:

***WARNING: FOAM LATEX AND TERRIFYING UNDEAD***

***SERIOUSLY FOLKS, I AM NOT EFFING AROUND; I HAD NIGHTMARES ABOUT ITCHY FULL-BODY CHAFING AND LINGERING CONTACT EXCEMA AFTER WATCHING THIS CRAP***

Make sure to author your caption contest entries under the OTB post.

Posted by Bill at May 25, 2006 09:33 AM | TrackBack (0)

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.indcjournal.com/cgi-bin/mt/dafrules/tapaz.cgi/2565

Comments

Posted by: SeanH at May 25, 2006 01:11 PM

Posted by: medved at October 20, 2006 03:07 PM

Posted by: penis enlargement extender at October 27, 2006 11:31 AM

Posted by: d9tel at November 6, 2006 11:38 AM

Posted by: viagra viagra at November 14, 2006 06:02 AM

Posted by: Cellphone at April 14, 2007 12:54 PM

Posted by: Felipe Arsenault at April 16, 2007 07:38 AM

Posted by: Felipe Arsenault at April 16, 2007 07:39 AM

Posted by: Felipe Arsenault at April 16, 2007 07:40 AM

Posted by: Deven Hahn at April 17, 2007 03:10 AM

Posted by: Deven Hahn at April 17, 2007 03:11 AM