ACLU Email: Dick Cheney Wants Access To Your Email

[Hissyspit]

Dear Friend,

It's true. Dick Cheney is pushing Congress to allow the government to access Americans' conversations and emails without getting an individualized warrant.

The ACLU has been fighting in the courts and on Capitol Hill to halt the Bush secret program of warrantless domestic spying. Just last month, we won a tremendous victory when the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan declared the National Security Agency program unconstitutional and called for an immediate halt to this abuse of presidential power.

Stand with us today to protect your privacy and the rule of law: https://secure.aclu.org/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&page=UserAction&id=487&s_src=dems

Even as this important civil liberties victory works its way through the courts, the White House is playing politics with our privacy to bolster their numbers and appear "tough on terrorism." And now the Bush administration's allies in Congress are scrambling to find ways to keep their illegal activities moving forward with two bills drafted under Dick Cheney's supervision.

The bills – scheduled for debate in Congress this week – would expand the president's power, and allow for new ways to invade your privacy. Now is the time to tell Congress to protect your privacy and the rule of law.

The Cheney legislation is characterized by some as "surveillance we can live with," but it would vastly expand the government's power to search and spy on Americans without any individualized judicial check. It would even set government spies loose on any email you send if the government does not know where all the recipients are physically located.

If these bills pass, our homes, cell phone records and email inboxes will be vulnerable to new kinds of government spying that are currently completely illegal. But we have a chance to stop these bills this week, before White House pressure drives them to a speedy vote.

The Cheney bills are worse than the powers ceded to the government by the Patriot Act, and would write into law what is now the administration's belief that the president can wiretap any American he wants without any check required by the Fourth Amendment or without any meaningful check to protect individual rights. If these bills pass, nothing will prevent government agents from unilaterally targeting Americans for indefinite secret surveillance without cause. That's not America; with your help, we will ensure these bills do not pass. Please take action today to protect your privacy and the rule of law.

Your voice is critical right now. Please take action today.

Sincerely,

Anthony D. Romero
Executive Director
American Civil Liberties Union

P.S. Don't be deceived by claims that these bills will protect your privacy and restore judicial review. To learn more, visit our website.

[napi21]

1. Bill Elliott was talking about this tonght.. He said Cheney is

sponsoring two bills. One in the Senate identified as the Cheney/Spector bill, and one in the House known as the Cheney/Wilson bill.

I asked this on another thread....Is the VP allowed to sponsor bills? I always thought the only power the VP had was to be the tie breaking vote in the Senate.

Is Cheney trying to do an edn run around the law AGAIN????

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

2. Time to start using PGP

I actually just installed the latest version this evening, and created a 4056 bit encryption key. I'd love to see 'em break that one!

[Nikki Stone 1]

3. What is PGP?

Thanks.

[Occulus]

5. Pretty Good Privacy

It really is pretty good.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PGP

I should add: I had heard, many years ago, that the publicly available version of PGP was/has been actually crippled because the original algorithm was so good the NSA couldn't hack it, not even with all the computers on the planet and a couple thousand years. I'm sure that's changed, but just how good is PGP today, anyway?

Seriously.

[Syrinx]

6. a program to encrypt your email

I don't really understand how it works, but it encrypts your email, so that only your intended recipient can read it.

You have a private key and a public key. When you send someone an email, it is encrypted using your private key and the recipients public key. Or vice versa. Or something like that. ;)

Here's the wikipedia on it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pretty_Good_Privacy

[Recursion]

10. If you aren't using it, your email is already being read

Seriously, the tools for encryption are out there. PGP is a software suite that allows you to send and receive encrypted emails that not even NSA can break without a couple of months of supercomputer time per email.

The cavalier attitude people have about their privacy discourages me:

1. If you send unencrypted email, the government and criminals (and criminals in the government) can read it very easily
2. If you talk on a cell phone, the government and criminals can listen in
3. If you normally send unsigned email (signing is the "other half" of encryption), the government and criminals (and pranksters) can very easily send email claiming to be from you

http://www.gnupg.org/
http://www.openpgp.org/

If you aren't using strong encryption, you aren't paying attention.

[smtpgirl]

13. PGP - Pretty Good Privacy

This software uses encryption keys to "scramble" email messages and other important documents.

In fact, PGP is a good idea, will invest in that software.

Used PGP about 5 years ago. Used a beta version to help early DSL customers with their email.

[magellan]

4. They're already doing these things

They just want to make it all retroactively legal to cover their a$$es.

FTS.

[Luna_Chick]

7. Only if he just takes the Viagra and Britney Spears Porn Spam

I can't believe so much time and energy was given to bring Big Dog down for a BJ while THIS shit is going down. :mad:

[Cobalt-60]

8. I get a thousand spams a week

Have fun sorting them.
Say good night Dick.

[bonito]

9. Kick

[chat_noir]

11. email this!

[lisainmilo]

12. K&R

thanks!