I was thinking about this article I read today because of the vote that will pass tomorrow in the Senate. A federal court has just ruled that Bush does not have the
the "interent rights" he claims he has.
Yet our party is set to pass a law tomorrow that goes against the court rulings.
Amazingly, just as a federal court says he was wrong, the Congress seeks to throw the plaintiffs who proved him wrong out of court, and bar anyone else from ever asking the question again.
..."But supporters of the new FISA "revisions" say although they disagree with certain parts of the bill, they'll support it because this one really makes itself super, duper Double Secret Exclusive.
From the ACLU a shocking article, and a map showing us at the very bottom of the barrel among the worst of societies in surveillance of its people.
U.S. Among World's Worst Surveillance SocietiesLondon-based ACLU partner Privacy International (PI) has issued its most recent ranking of the world's leading surveillance societies. By examining national policies in 14 categories such as constitutional protection, privacy enforcement, and workplace monitoring, PI has ranked nations on a scale from "consistently upholds human right standards" to "endemic surveillance societies." The United States ranked with Russia, China and the U.K. at the bottom among the worst surveillance societies.
..."With the advent of powerful cameras, sensors, satellites, and other technologies, we have begun to see the reality of a surveillance society George Orwell fictionalized in his novel 1984. The only barriers that remain to such prying eyes are political and legal.
We should be responding to intrusive new technologies by building stronger restraints to protect our privacy. Unfortunately, in the United States we are doing the opposite: loosening regulations on government surveillance, watching passively as private surveillance grows unchecked, and contemplating the introduction of tremendously powerful new surveillance infrastructures like the Total Information Awareness program that will tie all this information together.
Here is the larger map with
great detail from Privacy International.In terms of statutory protections and privacy enforcement, the US is the worst ranking country in the democratic world. In terms of overall privacy protection the United States has performed very poorly, being out-ranked by both India and the Philippines and falling into the "black" category, denoting endemic surveillance.
The worst ranking EU country is the United Kingdom, which again fell into the "black" category along with Russia and Singapore. However for the first time Scotland has been given its own ranking score and performed significantly better than England & Wales.
We are now in the lowest 7...in black.