Feds Getting Phone Data Without Warrants
Jun 20, 2006 Officials from the Dept of Homeland Security and the FBI are paying private data brokers to gather personal phone record information--circumventing the need to obtain warrants for such data It's ironic that some federal agents are availing themselves of this potentially illegal service; other federal agents (from the FCC) are already investigating the practice See "Feds Probe Sale of Private Phone Records" And earlier: All Your Phone Call Records Are for Sale, Cheap.Eating at Lobbyists’ Troughs, Congress Votes Itself a Pay Raise
Jun 15, 2006 House and Senate lawmakers embraced a $3,300 pay raise that would increase their salaries to $168,500. Meanwhile, it's been reported that members of the House's own ethics committee took over $1 million in privately funded (read: lobbyist-funded) trips last year.
Bush: Spy Program Isn’t ‘Mining’ Private Info
May 11, 2006 "We're not mining or trolling though the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans,'' Bush says, without directly addressing the NSA program reported in USA Today. Meanwhile, GOP Sen. Arlen Specter demands that phone company executives testify before Congress about the data they provided to the NSA.
