http://tequilaexpress.blogspot.com/ View Blog

A Voice in the Wilderness

As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there's a twilight where everything remains seemingly unchanged, and it is in such twilight that we must be aware of change in the air, however slight, lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness. -- William O. Douglas

Thursday, March 08, 2007

Boycott AT&T - They are spying on you

Labels:

3 Comments:

At Sat Mar 10, 10:56:00 AM MST, Anonymous Anonymous said...

http://www.fcc.gov/calea/

Follow the link...here is an excerpt from this page:

"Congress enacted CALEA on October 25, 1994. CALEA was intended to preserve the ability of law enforcement agencies to conduct electronic surveillance by requiring that telecommunications carriers and manufacturers of telecommunications equipment modify and design their equipment, facilities, and services to ensure that they have the necessary surveillance capabilities. Common carriers, facilities-based broadband Internet access providers, and providers of interconnected Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service – all three types of entities are defined to be “telecommunications carriers” for purposes of CALEA section 102, 47 U.S.C. § 1001 – must comply with the CALEA obligations set forth in CALEA section 103, 47 U.S.C. § 1002. See CALEA First Report and Order (rel. Sept. 23, 2005)."

The point I'm trying to make is the fact that the government has had this ability for quite some time. AT&T or any other provider have no choice but to comply, less they face heavy regulations. What does that mean to you as a consumer? Higher Prices. I understand that private corporations are ruled by the all mighty dollar, but as a consumer, I also understand that competition drives prices down. Regardless of who your provider is, they are forced to comply with CALEA. No matter the provider: Telco, Cable, Cellular, Wireless, Satellite, or Power Company, you and the packets of information you are transmitting are collected at various points in thier journey to thier ultimate destination. This is nothing new.

I understand that the first response to the unknown is fear. Don't let this fear grip you and cloud your judgment, instead use this fear to motivate you to educate yourself.

 
At Sun Mar 11, 07:43:00 AM MDT, Blogger The Voice said...

Anonymous,

What a bunch of horse shit!

So what you are saying is since the system is broken the situation is so futile that we might as well accept it?

You condone having your government spy on you? People like you do not deserve Democracy because you can't even begin to understand what you are willing to give up in the name of security. You are letting phantom enemies dictate your willingnes to forego your most basic civil liberties - guaranteed to you by the greatest document ever created.

Did you ditch your Civics classes or did you sleep through them? Do you not recall that these guarantees were formulated as a means of protecting the masses from the tyrrany of the few? Have you forgotten what this nation was founded upon? How can you condone this right-wing assault on the very prinicpals set forth by our nation's founding fathers? Why are you so willing to weaken the very document that was created with the intent of protecting Human rights - arguably, the greatest document in the history of Humanity?

WOW.

Part of my ’educational’ process ought to be figuring just who you are. Why would you take so much effort post something here on my blog and then fail to identify yourself?

Forgive me for my cynicism but, you strike me as someone who works for AT&T. I am fully aware of CALEA and moreover, I understand just what you are getting at however, it is patently clear that your effort to distribute the blame by falling back on this regulation and furthermore makeing a futile attempt to justify it using the auspices of increased competition is so weak that you ought ot be ashmed of yourself for making it - such an argument indicates to me just how intellectually lazy and ignorant you really are.

Please correct me if I am wrong but, to my understanding, this most recent revelation put forth by ABC – something that was dismissed by the LA Times after a ‘meeting’ with then, Homeland Security Chief, John Negroponte.

Don’t you find it disturbing that he could be that powerful so as to put the kibosh on such a newsworthy incident? That tells me a couple of things;

1. the US government is compromising the basic civil rights guaranteed to its citizens by the Constitution.

2. it is appalling that you and other people could dismiss encroachment of basic civil liberties such as the right to privacy even remotely acceptable.

This is why you - and people like you - scare me.

Following on the heels of this most recent revelation, another newsworthy event surfacing this week is that the FBI has failed to provide security letters as required by law to the corporations they are accessing information for the targets whom they are spying on. In other words, the government can investigate with impunity and not be bound by the constitution they – and the NSA are constitutionally bound to protect.

Again, you don’t find that a little bit spooky?

According to your post, you think I am being motivated by fear. My response is simple; you don’t know me because if you did, you would know that I have a healthy measure of cynicism for anything that threatens my civil rights. I am also cynical of anyone who makes a post and refuses to leave anything that might identify that person – could it be that you are on the hired staff of AT&T?

I understand that you might also be Law Enforcement but that still makes no sense to me because, anything you had to say of relevance was shot in the foot by your lack of commitment to your words.

You may call me alarmist or reactionary and you may even accuse me of being 'uneducated' – put very nicely I might add – however, a few things do not change, AT&T never cited CALEA. Nonetheless, that doesn’t change anything because your reference still does nothing to mitigate the reality that AT&T is party to a crime.

By the way, I am not ‘gripped’ by fear, I am upset that my government is using fear of terrorists to spy on the American public. There is no need to parse words here, I am motivated by my cynicism for the Neo-conservatives currently in power and I flat out do not believe that they even remotely represent the interests of America at large. They use the Constitution as a discretionary device and would gladly get rid of it if they saw the opportunity.

You might want to look at he quote at the top of my blog. It might explain to you where I am coming from.

Better yet, I will requote it right here for you so there is no mistake about whether I am, "gripped by fear" and thus have my judgement "clouded"

As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there's a twilight where everything remains seemingly unchanged, and it is in such twilight that we must be aware of change in the air, however slight, lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness. -- William O. Douglas

You are right about one thing; I am motivated. I am motivated by my faith in the United States Constitution even more than I believe the post of a random, anonymous person who uses distributed responsibility and competition as the two best modes of defense of a corporation that worked to put George Bush in power – a corporation who benefits when the neo-conservatives are in office.

I don’t believe you, and I still will not give my personal or commercial business to any AT&T affiliate.

That is my right.

I am as aware as you are that the only thing that is going to motivate AT&T is the almighty buck. When the American public is made aware of their political inclinations and moreover their complicity in something that is unconstitutional. AT&T is going to lose revenue – and it should. Quite frankly, that will be the only way this monolith will be reigned in.

It is also my right to keep turning on the light even if it is in this little old blog because disclosure tends to keep the cockroaches under control.

 
At Wed Nov 19, 03:57:00 AM MST, Blogger The Voice said...

I think the asshole who is commenting here may be none other than a local journalist - with bad teeth. He specializes in science-related articles in the local ABQ rag.

what a fucking moron - for someone who ostensibly uses journalism in order to shed light on topics to rely on anonymity only serves to show just how far down the hill journalism has sunk these days with the Bush & Co neo-con fascist machine running the government.

You are a fucking coward - and I am not posting your last response only because you are a chicken-shit who would just as soon wipe your ass with the constitution because you are a scared little white man.

As your admired leader Dickhead Cheney would say, "Go fuck yourself" - you pussy.

 

Post a Comment

<< Home

Web 
Counter
PeoplePC Accelerated ISP Access

Powered by Blogger