Uhhhhhh, anyone else nervous about filling out this "request" for information? I'm having one of those don't trust anything on the internet moments. Just say'n.

http://911blimp.net/aud_BushImplicatesBush.shtml

Our FOIA request was denied:

http://911blimp.net/graphics/DISAdenial.gif

I filed a couple months ago, and no response yet.

What I hear, though, is that people are getting a letter stating that under an Executive Order, they are no longer giving that information out.

This article suggests that there is more than one domestic survelliance program.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/28/AR2006022801587.html

Blistering indictment of all this corrupt administration has wrought... please distribute widely to 'red state' contacts:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ellis-weiner/american-idealism-buckle_b_16594.html

latest on bolton:

http://www.prospect.org/weblog/archives/2006/03/index.html#009302

on foia requests for nsa spying info, why bother? one may safely assume they are spying. say you learn they are doing so, what next? individuals no longer have any rights in the USA. Unless one is a director or major shareholder of a multinational corporation or a big player financially, forget about justice in this country. so, i ask again, why bother? it's not as if we have any rights that have been violated. these were entirely abrogated by the implicit provisions of the iraq war resolution.

Elmo is correct in a sense...

I seem to remember
that if you fill one of these requests out...
the government creates a file for you
if there wasn't one prior...

I guess we should file this fact under: "Catch 69."

I think that the general idea is to overwhelm the government with FOIA requests. I find the idea of the government trying to maintain a database of 300 million names quite humorous.

~~~~~~~~I find the idea of the government trying to maintain a database of 300 million names quite humorous.~~~~~~~~~

Just because you find it humorous doesn't mean that it cant and/or isn't being done.

Band of the Week: The Meat Purveyors

Steambomb: perhaps you would find this article interesting then. A piece by Bob Kerr from the Providence Journal (Rhode Island):

Bob Kerr: Pay too much and you could raise the alarm

01:00 AM EST on Friday, February 24, 2006

Walter Soehnge is a retired Texas schoolteacher who traveled north with his wife, Deana, saw summer change to fall in Rhode Island and decided this was a place to stay for a while.

So the Soehnges live in Scituate now and Walter sometimes has breakfast at the Gentleman Farmer in Scituate Village, where he has passed the test and become a regular despite an accent that is definitely not local.

And it was there, at his usual table last week, that he told me that he was "madder than a panther with kerosene on his tail."

He says things like that. Texas does leave its mark on a man.

What got him so upset might seem trivial to some people who have learned to accept small infringements on their freedom as just part of the way things are in this age of terror-fed paranoia. It's that "everything changed after 9/11" thing.

But not Walter.

"We're a product of the '60s," he said. "We believe government should be way away from us in that regard."

He was referring to the recent decision by him and his wife to be responsible, to do the kind of thing that just about anyone would say makes good, solid financial sense.

They paid down some debt. The balance on their JCPenney Platinum MasterCard had gotten to an unhealthy level. So they sent in a large payment, a check for $6,522.

And an alarm went off. A red flag went up. The Soehnges' behavior was found questionable.

And all they did was pay down their debt. They didn't call a suspected terrorist on their cell phone. They didn't try to sneak a machine gun through customs.

They just paid a hefty chunk of their credit card balance. And they learned how frighteningly wide the net of suspicion has been cast.

After sending in the check, they checked online to see if their account had been duly credited. They learned that the check had arrived, but the amount available for credit on their account hadn't changed.

So Deana Soehnge called the credit-card company. Then Walter called.

"When you mess with my money, I want to know why," he said.

They both learned the same astounding piece of information about the little things that can set the threat sensors to beeping and blinking.

They were told, as they moved up the managerial ladder at the call center, that the amount they had sent in was much larger than their normal monthly payment. And if the increase hits a certain percentage higher than that normal payment, Homeland Security has to be notified. And the money doesn't move until the threat alert is lifted.

Walter called television stations, the American Civil Liberties Union and me. And he went on the Internet to see what he could learn. He learned about changes in something called the Bank Privacy Act.

"The more I'm on, the scarier it gets," he said. "It's scary how easily someone in Homeland Security can get permission to spy."

Eventually, his and his wife's money was freed up. The Soehnges were apparently found not to be promoting global terrorism under the guise of paying a credit-card bill. They never did learn how a large credit card payment can pose a security threat.

But the experience has been a reminder that a small piece of privacy has been surrendered. Walter Soehnge, who says he holds solid, middle-of-the-road American beliefs, worries about rights being lost.

"If it can happen to me, it can happen to others," he said.

bkerr@projo.com/

-- 30 --

One small example. What bills have you paid lately, steambomb? Checkin' up on you!!

The CEO: Is it too late to save UR ASS?

Consider for a moment that you are a shareholder in one of the world’s largest, richest companies, United Republic Amalgamated State Systems (Ticker symbol: UR ASS). This company has historically returned substantial profits over the past two centuries to its shareholders, and, despite a few periodic bumps, UR ASS has been considered a fairly secure long-term investment. However, a new CEO assumed control of UR ASS under questionable circumstances several years ago. The Board of Directors fell solidly behind many of the CEO’s decisions, and failed to exercise appropriate oversight in time to avert many disasters now presently in the making. These disasters combine to threaten the long-term and even short-term well-being of UR ASS.

This CEO’s confidence level has been steadily dropping since its high point after the company sustained a major threat several years ago, and a clear majority of shareholders now express their disapproval of the CEO’s policies and actions, including, among others:

*insisting upon economic policies and fiscal decisions that ensure substantial, ruinous long-term debt for UR ASS;
*promulgating trading and debt policies (see above) that prompt outside projections that the company’s share price will spiral downward (e.g., the dollar), so that UR ASS will hemorrhage debt during the foreseeable future and beyond;
*demonstrating repeated and cavalier disregard for expert but contrary opinion and advice regarding actions that the CEO intends that affect the well-being of UR ASS from now on, with only the weak, unsubstantiated defense that he is trying to “save” UR ASS;
*uncovering substantial evidence that the CEO and staff repeatedly lied to shareholders and the Board of Directors in order to conceal his true agenda;
*demonstrating (via leaked videotape) that the CEO exhibited an astonishing lack of curiosity or concern regarding the company’s preparation when a department chief informed him that an impending event threatened catastrophic damage to a major company holding, and the
actual events subsequently unfolded as predicted after the catastrophe indeed occurred, and the company failed to respond in time to save its human and fiscal resources. In fact, a recent poll indicates that many of the shareholders have determined that, frankly, the evidence indicates that CEO just doesn’t care about UR ASS, and
*the CEO and his small group of advisers have been known to assert through word and deed that they are above the company by-laws, above control of the Board of Directors, and are, in fact, in sole control of UR ASS.

It is not necessary to continue this metaphor with its infinite number of examples. Think about it: No shareholder of any company would long endure the hubris of any CEO that behaves exactly as described above, and the Board of Directors of this company would have been held to account by its screaming shareholders to censure, fire, and bring this irresponsible individual(s) to justice, including those who were silent or complicit in the corporate scandals, crimes, and just plain incompetence. Keeping this management with its ruinous policies in place for the next three years would be considered an absurd business practice.

This country’s “ shareholders” must demand that the entire company’s management and Board of Directors remember that they are employed by the shareholders and be held to account while we can still save UR ASS.

Speaking of the government watching us, it looks like, as bloggers, we might be hearing from CENTCOM's PR team if we post "inaccurate or untrue information" about the war in Iraq...

so, if i say the war is going great i'll be getting a phone call?