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More Than A Penny For Your Thoughts

Aug 12, 2013
by Caroline Miller
"Robert's power over surveillance", "The high cost of snooping", Anne Flaherty, Ezra Klein, FISA court
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Now that Edward Snowden has given us an inkling of how far our government will go to invade our privacy , we are also learning that the oversight of that surveillance seems little more than a rubber stamp. Records reveal that members of the FISA* court, which grants the government the right to open our emails or listen to our phone conversations, has turned down only 10 request out of 10,909 between 2001 and 2012. Worse, FISA judges are appointed by one person: the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. (“Robert’s power over surveillance,” by Ezra Klein, excerpted from Bloomberg.com for The Week, July 19, 2013)

 So much authority resting in the hands of a single person is worrying enough. But Anne Flaherty of the Associate Press has come up with another set of facts equally troubling. The invasion of our privacy isn’t free. To accommodate surveillance activities, telephone companies “are raking in millions in U. S. Tax dollars in hefty fees.” (“The high cost of snooping,” by Ann Flaherty, excerpted in The Week 7/ 19, 2013 pg. 10)

AT&T, for example, charges the government a $325 “activation fee” for each wiretap and $10 to maintain it. Verizon charges $776 for the first month and $500 after that for access. Microsoft, Yahoo and Google refuse to reveal what they charge. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, an email can be turned over for a mere $25. (Ibid, pg. 10.)

 I admit, information like Flaherty’s forces me to wonder if American enterprise doesn’t sometimes make the Chinese drool. We’ve invented a system whereby those subjected to surveillance get stuck with the tab. Now that’s ingenious. 

Taxpayer paying the bills

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Courtesy of www.inkity.com)

 

*Court created as part of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act

 

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Contact Caroline at

carolinemiller11@yahoo.com

Portland, Oregon author Caroline Miller had distinguished careers as an educator, union president, elected official and artist/advocate.

Her play, Woman on the Scarlet Beast, was performed at the Post5 Theatre, Portland, OR, January/February 2015

Caroline published a serialized novelette, Marie Eau-Claire, on the website, The Colored Lens.  She also published the story Gustav Pavel,  a parable about ordinary lives, choice and alternate potential, on the website Fixional.co.

Caroline has published four novels

  • Ballet Noir
  • Trompe l’Oeil
  • Gothic Spring
  • Heart Land

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