You've Got Mail

“Y'all still do not have mail from me.”

“Techntrek, you have mail.”

“Sarge - It's ok if you can't make it. I just invited you to be polite.”

“Thanks Geobeet for pushing the numbers! Your SIGINT skills really paid off this time.”

“Hey, just gimme a number and it's crunched.”

“Hint: 2 words.

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“Same to you, fella!”

“Thanks!”

“none of you will ever get mail from me. ever”

“---/-.-/.-/-.--”

“I don't think Geobeet gives a rats behind, Crash.”

“bump

for the abusers of the system”

“are you the new net nanny?”

“Nope, just the sarcasm king.”

“C!B! ygm”

“C!B! You've got male.”

“Moonglo! You’ve got syphilis!
last edited: 8/07/06 3:39:46 PM”

“you can cross me off your list now. thanks for the notification”

“Apparantly the government can now read your first-class mail. No court order required; no warrants needed. This is the latest power that George W. Bush has arrogated to himself. He didn't win it by jamming it down Congress's throat, or ramming it through the Supreme Court, or amending the Constitution. He did it just by saying so.

He just had it written down, and signed his name beneath it. Dick Cheney and Alberto Gonzales came up with a signing statement just before Christmas that he tacked on to a Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act.

The Act itself, according to the NY Daily News scoop that broke this coup-by-signing-statement story, "explicitly reinforced protections of first-class mail from searches without a court's approval. Yet in his statement Bush said he will 'construe' an exception, 'which provides for opening of an item of a class of mail otherwise sealed against inspection in a manner consistent ... with the need to conduct searches in exigent circumstances.'"

To read your first-class mail, all Bush needs to do is "construe" you. No judges, no criminal courts, no FISA warrants, no due process, nada.

Does it make you feel better to learn from White House spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore that Bush was claiming no new authority? "In certain circumstances - such as with the proverbial 'ticking bomb' - the Constitution does not require warrants for reasonable searches," she said.

Do any of you remember being taught about the "proverbial 'ticking bomb'" section of our constitution in school? There's no such thing!

Neither the FBI or the CIA believe in the ticking bomb scenario, but thanks to the defenders of freedom in the White House who don't know the difference between episodes of 24 and reality, your civil liberties are now yours only as long as some chickenhawk neocon lawyer in the West Wing basement thinks you deserve them.”