jenk

...and, arguably, wastes our money. As journalist Doug Thompson writes:

According to my file, the banks where I have both business and checking accounts have been forced to turn over all records of my transactions, as have every company where I have a charge account or credit card. They’ve perused my book borrowing habits from libraries in Arlington and Floyd Counties as well as studied what television shows I watch on the Tivos in my house. They know I belong to the National Rifle Association, the National Press Photographers Association and other professional groups. They know I attend meetings of Alcoholic Anonymous on a regular basis and the file notes that my “pattern of spending” shows no purchase of “alcohol-related products” since the file was opened in 2001.

How can such data be collected without you knowing about it?

My file begins on September 11, 2001, the day of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. A Marine guard standing post at the Navy Yard in Washington jotted down the license number of my Jeep Wrangler after I was spotted taking pictures of armed guards at the locked-down military facility. ( I answerd all the questions, officer... )

I thought the matter was dead until a few weeks ago when an old friend from Washington called, said he was in the area, and suggested lunch. At lunch, he showed me the 100-plus pages of the file on me that grew out of that first encounter with Agent Ryan of NCIS.

“Much of this information was gathered through what we call ‘national security letters,’” he said. “It allows us to gather information from a variety of sources.”

The FBI issues more than 30,000 national security letters a year. ( And they're prohibited from telling you about it. )

- Source: Capitol Hill Blue

I don't know this Doug Thompson; the article link was forwarded by a friend. But I do think this is RATHER interesting. A member of the National Press Photographers Association has, arguably, good reason to take pictures of a major news event. Yet the file remains open

because I am a “person of interest” who has “written and promoted opinions that are contrary to the government of the United States of America.”

Also, check out this bit:

In the past, when information collected on an American citizen failed to turn up any criminal activity, FBI policy called for such information to be destroyed.

But President George W. Bush in 2003 reversed that long-standing policy and ordered the bureau and other federal agencies to not only keep that information but place it in government databases that can be accessed by local, state and federal law enforcement agencies.

In October, Bush also signed Executive Order 13388 which expands access to those databases to “appropriate private sector entities” although the order does not explain what those entities might be.

Is that a windfall for identity thieves or what?

I wonder what would happen if a larger portion of the were to come to the FBI's attention. Would they drown in the overload? And if so, would that be a net gain or net loss for citizens like me?

You know, full sympathy for those who suffer loss from this inexcusable behaviour, but for the rest of us, lets carry on without the slightest whiff of terror and remind the rest of the world that when this happens to us we neither look snarling for the nearest person to hit, veins a throb in our head, nor rush en masse to the psychiatrist chair.

As has been said elsewhere by better people than me, we`ve told a better class of bastard to fuck off.
[...]
They want Terror. Give them never going to bed on an argument. Give them never letting a kind act left undone. Give them the hateful sight of you remembering to share your love with everyone you care about. Give them your turned back whilst you share the beauty of life with your nearest and dearest in the fullest way possible.

There will be no Terror. There will be no erosion of civil liberties justified by this non existent Terror. For that is the British way, all of us, race or creed be damned and we will simply not allow these things. - from a post by markeris

This may seem a strange response to the carnage in London from one of Britain's own. I disagree. I find it comforting that someone who was as much a target as the rest of the dead can choose to respond instead of blindly reacting. I find it comforting to focus on life and not death, love instead of fear.

Seen on one of the news channels jw1776 watches incessently: Does knowing there are American POWs change your views on the war?

Think about what that question supposes for a moment. Did anyone really think there could be a war without American casulties, wounded, and POWs? For that matter, does anyone really think that an army that used chemical weapons against its own people would worry overmuch about the Geneva Convention's rules?

Sigh.

Shortly after we attacked Iraq, I thought of how Bruce introduced Badlands the night after Reagan was elected by saying he didn't think Reagan's election was a good thing. A king ain't satisfied till he rules everything... Yeah, I decide, I should listen to Badlands.

Before I alt-tab, up comes Empty Sky. I expect there will be many folks in Iraq in the coming weeks who can relate to that song.

-o-

Since then I've watched Angel and did some picking up in the guest room. Turn on media player and...Worlds Apart. A love song, yes, about two people ... one from the Middle East, the other Western.

I seek faith in your kiss and comfort in your heart
I taste the seed upon your lips, lay my tongue upon your scars
But when I look into your eyes we stand worlds apart [...]
Sometimes the truth just ain't enough
Or it's too much in times like this
Let's throw the truth away, we'll find it in this kiss
In your skin upon my skin, in the beating of our hearts
May the living let us in, before the dead tear us apart [...]
We've got this moment now to live, then it's all just dust and dark
Let love give what it gives
Let's let love give what it gives

Bruce has been putting 'Badlands' after 'Worlds Apart' in the setlists. A song about how differences and others - including the dead - keep us separate. A song about the drive to succeed, to live, even at the expense of others. Life in a nutshell.