FOIA docs show feds can lojack mobiles without telco help

Courts in recent years have been raising the evidentiary bar law enforcement agents must meet in order to obtain historical cell phone records that reveal information about a target’s location. But documents obtained by civil liberties groups under a Freedom of Information Act request suggest that “triggerfish” technology can be used to pinpoint cell phones without involving cell phone providers at all.

The Justice Department’s electronic surveillance manual explicitly suggests that triggerfish may be used to avoid restrictions in statutes like CALEA that bar the use of pen register or trap-and-trace devices—which allow tracking of incoming and outgoing calls from a phone subject to much less stringent evidentiary standards—to gather location data. “By its very terms,” according to the manual, “this prohibition applies only to information collected by a provider and not to information collected directly by law enforcement authorities.Thus, CALEA does not bar the use of pen/trap orders to authorize the use of cell phone tracking devices used to locate targeted cell phones.”

Ask yourself this. Why does the government need to know where you are- without a court order?

Another thing I don’t know is whether the psychological impact of this has sunken in. The Bush administration intended the SOFA process to entrench the occupation. Instead it gave the Iraqi government the means to end it. And that’s the best-possible way for the war to end: with the Iraqi government — the one we’ve disingenuously told the world we’re in Iraq to support — showing its political maturation to get us out the day after tomorrow. And out actually means out. The SOFA demands that every last U.S. serviceman is on a plane by December 31, 2011. Obama’s plan for a 30,000-troop residual force? Officially overtaken by events. As I say, the impact of this appears not to have sunken in. The Iraqis have forced an end to the war.

McCartney hopes to release funky Beatles track

LONDON – Paul McCartney says it’s time an experimental Beatles track saw the light of day.

The band played the recording for an audience just once, at an electronic music festival in London. It reportedly includes distorted guitar, organ sounds, gargling and shouts of “Barcelona!” and “Are you all right?” from McCartney and John Lennon.

Betcha this will prove to be more musically compelling than anything he’s released solo. Just a hunch.

At least there’s one positive note to this crappy economy- fear mongering and zealotry ain’t as profitable as they used to be:

Focus On The Family Focusing On Layoffs

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Focus on the Family is planning more layoffs.

Focus has a staff of about 1,300 people in the United States. On its Web site, the company claims to be the world’s largest nonprofit organization dedicated to nurturing and defending families worldwide. Focus on the Family was founded in 1977 in Arcadia, Calif. It is headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Comes around. Heh:

Whenever libertarians and some liberals defended civil liberties and the Bill of Rights during the past 8 years, conservatives went on the attack. We were just soft on terrorism, cowards, pacifists, unpatriotic, even treasonous, they said.

No wonder conservatives are suffering from malaise, despondency, and depression.

No president should ever have the powers that Cheney and Bush stole for themselves. And we’re going to learn more and more about why this is so in the coming months and years.

And its all because we didn’t deal with this sack of crap when we should have. For a nation that supposedly loves freedom and hates tyrants, we sure don’t seem to get too worked up about any of it, do we?

In the past two years, I found that when the young people heard the message of liberty, they overwhelmingly responded favorably, fully realizing the failure of the status quo and the need to once again endorse a system of self reliance, personal responsibility, sound money, and a non-interventionist foreign policy while rejecting the cradle-to-grave nanny state all based on the rule of law and the Constitution.

All those who care — and especially those who understand the stakes involved — have an ominous responsibility to energetically get involved in the battle of survival for a free and prosperous America.

He’s got my vote in ’12. How about you?

Fed Defies Transparency Aim in Refusal to Disclose

Nov. 10 (Bloomberg) — The Federal Reserve is refusing to identify the recipients of almost $2 trillion of emergency loans from American taxpayers or the troubled assets the central bank is accepting as collateral.

Bloomberg News has requested details of the Fed lending under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act and filed a federal lawsuit Nov. 7 seeking to force disclosure.

Good luck with that. We’re gonna look back on this looting one day (while eating cold beans out of dented cans salvaged from junk heaps) and wonder where the money went.

Journey song most downloaded catalog track

Journey have become the band with the “biggest-ever catalog song on digital platforms.”

The song was originally released in 1981, then made available through iTunes in April 2003.

I’d rather chew broken glass- salted- while having knitting needles rammed into my ears than ever hear that screeching ode to losers again, even just walking through a Wal Mart to buy ammo. But to pay 99 cents for the privilege? Ugh.

But a quick perusal of the top digital tracks shows such stellar artistry as Britney (she’s still alive? Who knew?), Pink, and Jason Mraz. Proving, you kids have all the toys, but no taste. Thank god those things have earbuds.

Oh my god, Obama is demanding what?

Podesta promises ‘strictest’ ethics rules

President-elect Barack Obama did not employ lobbyists on his campaign, but they can assist with his transition as long as they de-register as lobbyists and their activities do not cross into policy areas they have tried to influence.

Carrying over the anti-lobbying tenets that defined the campaign, Obama transition chief John Podesta announced Tuesday that the president-elect would enforce what he called “the strictest, the most far-reaching ethics rules of any transition team in history.”

Imagine. An ethical White House.

No, really. Imagine such.

Rainy day, dream away Mitch.