Yeah, that sucks. I will be sending out letters this weekend.
FWIW, speaking of legislators and laws, I attended a talk last night for a guy from the sunlight foundation. They have this free app http://itunes.apple.com/app/open-states/id500672932?mt=8 Which is _awesome_ if you are interested at all in state level government. I especially love the "here are the legislators for the place you are standing right now" feature. Including the ability to tweet at them near instantly. Good use of free data. On Fri, Mar 23, 2012 at 9:00 PM, Jerry Barnes <[email protected]> wrote: > > File extension: US to keep innocent civilians data 10 times longer > > The US intelligence community has risen tenfold the time it has the right > to keep data on American citizens and legal residents with no established > ties to terrorists. Previously all such records had to be destroyed after > six months. > > The new guidelines for the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), which > gathers and shares information among American intelligence and law > enforcement agencies, were approved on Thursday. > > The previous retention period set in 2008 was very limiting, Robert Litt, > the chief lawyer for the body which oversees the NCTC, told the Washington > Post. > > On Day One, you may look at something and think that it has nothing to do > with terrorism. Then six months later, all of a sudden, it becomes > relevant, he explained. > > The ability to search against these data sets for up to five years on a > continuing basis as these updated guidelines permit will enable NCTC to > accomplish its mission more practically and effectively, National > Intelligence Director James R. Clapper Jr. commented in a statement. > > The White House said the new rules come with strong safeguards for privacy. > A request to NCYC to share data mined by another agency would require a > high-level review. > > The news comes amid a heated debate over whether or not the fight against > terrorism justifies increasingly large powers the US government wields. > Human rights groups are criticizing the administration for things like > indefinite detention without trial of terrorism suspects, assassination of > US citizens without a court warrant, promoting citizen spying on neighbors > and other policies. > > Commenting on the new guidelines, some rights groups stated their concern > over the increasing ability of the government to collect and distribute > data on its citizens not even suspected of wrongdoing. > > American Civil Liberties Unions national security policy counsel, Michael > German believes thewatering down of the safeguards in counter-terrorism > rules raises significant concerns that US persons are being targeted or > swept up in these collection programs and can be harmed by continuing > investigations for as long as these agencies hold the data. > > The fact that this data can be retained for five years on US citizens for > whom theres no evidence of criminal conduct is very disturbing, Marc > Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, > told AP. He added that the new guidelines undercut the Federal Privacy Act. > > > http://rt.com/usa/news/terrorism-data-retention-guidelines-263/ > > > > J > > - > > 04-28-2003: I am sick and tired of people who say that if you debate and > you disagree with this administration somehow you're not patriotic. We > should stand up and say we are Americans and we have a right to debate and > disagree with any administration. - Hill > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:349028 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
