Cya Spitzer

So New York State Governor extraordinaire Elliot Spitzer who happens to like busting and prosecuting prostitution rings also happen to enjoy his fair share of prostitutes himself. In an uniquely ironic situation it has come to light that this man, considered by many to be a prominent rising Democrat, enjoyed a pleasant evening with a wonderful lady. Oh yah, and he paid her for sex, and he paid her a lot, $4300 to be exact. Wonderful. I’m just going to say I didn’t like Spitzer from the beginning. Personal feelings really. I have a tendency to judge a public officials character before I listen to their politics, and I just didn’t like his character. Connecting this thing here to the bigger picture, I love how CNN.com constantly updates me on this too. They just told me the profit split between the prostitute and her “agency” (i.e. Pimp). This is in no way relevant to the story, but hey I guess the American people have a right to know. On a serious note though, this will lead to all sorts of speculation and investigation as to just where all this money came from. Do I smell a New York State Tax money scam? Oh Boy!

Oh by the way, Big Brother is here, and the EFF is not happy with him. So apparently AT&T has been copying all their telecommunications information and forwarding it on to the FBI and NSA. The EFF is not to happy with this, rightfully so, and is taking steps to bring AT&T to court. This website lists the specifics of the potential case as a rebuttal to the NSA’s determination of what exactly they think they can look at. Heres a brief rundown:

E-Mail – The NSA says that subject line, To, and From are all public property – These are in direct conflict with the DoJ’s manual dealing with the search and seizure of electronic evidence.

Internet – The NSA monitored sites visited and searches conducted – The NSA was taking direct copies of URL’s, this is in direct violation  of United States v. Forrester, 495 F.3d 1041 which rules only IP addresses are acceptable in terms of monitoring internet usage, as a URL points to a specific article or section of a page invading a persons right to privacy

Cellphone – The NSA is using GPS to locate cell phones -  Majority legislative opinion holds that a probable cause warrant is necessary for this sort of thing.

Phones – The NSA says it can monitor the incoming and outgoing numbers as well as length of call – The Government needs to obtain a Pen Register or Trap and Trace Order to obtain such call records.

Long story short, Bush is evil. I jest. The article talks about how the NSA zeros in on one suspect, tracing his contacts and searches outwards like a spiderweb. I hope a friend of a friend of your friend doesn’t know any terrorists, or Agent Smith might be knocking on your door here sometime soon. I don’t know how this story doesn’t have any more media coverage than what the EFF and the Wall Street Journal are reporting. This has serious implications. This is just what the NSA and the Government claimed they WEREN’T doing, beyond that this is just what they have admitted to so far. This whole thing could get ugly before anything gets settled. I smell a whole new wave of electronic security and information access laws coming. Basically the fight for our digital civil rights has begun.