Drones over U.S. get OK by Congress

[Odysseus]

I think the understandable public response is that drones or any other eye in the sky is another nail in the coffin of the Fourth Amendment, piercing the veneer of privacy. Like some other societies, our security isn't making us feel safer, it's making us feel like prisoners. The public is getting tired of being told that the War On Drugs justifies these measures and isn't quite willing to buy that they are essential for national security. The public wants to be able to swim naked in the back yard if it wants, without feeling like the government is watching.

If a drone lands in my yard, I am keeping it and selling it on ebay-slovenia.

This isn't about your feelings. Believe me when I say that nobody wants to see you swimming naked. The Fourth Amendment guarantees us the right to be secure in our persons, papers and homes. It does not provide an expectation of privacy in public, and the uses of these drones are going to be the same as the uses of other police aircraft, at least those uses which can be done without a crew. They will be used to track movements along the border, for example, to include drug smuggling and illegal immigration. They won't be used to peer over your backyard fence.

[Rockntractor]

This isn't about your feelings. Believe me when I say that nobody wants to see you swimming naked.

I'm not so sure about Dolby.

[JB]

Maybe they can pull advertising banners like the planes that ruin the peaceful sounds of the waves.

You can do whatever you want with yours.

I'm going to weaponize mine and nickname it The Panty Remover.

[Odysseus]

You can do whatever you want with yours.

I'm going to weaponize mine and nickname it The Panty Remover.

I thought that we were talking about drones. :D

[Janice]

Your' Car Won't Be After 2015

After a certain point, it's not paranoia.

The latest brick in the wall is the predictably named "Moving Ahead For Progress in the 21st Century Act," also known as Senate Bill 1813. This legislation -- already passed by the Senate and likely to be passed by the House -- will impose a legal requirement that all new cars made beginning with the 2015 models be fitted with so-called Event Data Recorders (EDRs). These are the "black boxes" you may have read about that store data about how you drive -- including whether you wear a seat belt and how fast you drive -- ostensibly for purposes of post-accident investigation.

These EDRs are not new. GM and other automakers have been installing them in new cars for years -- in GM's case, since the late 1990s. What's new is the proposed federal mandate, which would make it illegal to not have one -- or (in all likelihood) to remove or disable one in a car required to have the device.

The question arises: why?

Several possibilities come to mind >>>

And naturally, they -- the government, insurance companies -- will be able to track your every move, noting (and recording) where you've been and when. This will create a surveillance net beyond anything that ever existed previously. Some will not sweat this: After all, if you've got nothing to hide, why worry? Except for the fact that, courtesy of almost everything we do being either "illegal" or at least "suspicious," we all have a great deal to hide. The naivety of the Don't Worry, it's No Big Deal crowd is breathtaking.

But the last possibility is probably the creepiest: EDRs tied into your car's GPS will give them -- the government and/or corporations -- literal physical control over (hack) "your" vehicle. This is not conspiracy theorizing. It is technological fact. Current GM vehicles equipped with the same technology about to be mandated for every vehicle can be disabled remotely. Just turned off. >>>

In the future, it will be used to limit your driving -- for the sake of "energy conservation" or, perhaps, "the environment." It will be the perfect, er, vehicle, for implementing U.N. Agenda 21 -- the plan to herd all of us formerly free-range tax cattle into urban feedlots. So much easier to control us this way. No more bailing out to the country or living off the grid - unless you get there (and to your work) by walking.

The pieces are all coming together.

First, computer-controlled cars. Next, widespread adoption of GPS in cars. Then, EDRs tied into them. >>>

Our cars were once a tangible expression of the freedom ideal. They are fast becoming mobile cages. And the really devilish thing is they're making us pay the costs of our own imprisonment, too.

AmericanSpectator

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And just as all things seemingly innocently start out -- first voluntary... then mandatory. Every single dem voted for this bill in the Senate. 22 Republicans voted for it, 22 voted against it. 3 GOP did not vote. (This bill also contains among other attachments the provision that allows the IRS to confiscate passports). So ONLY 22 Senators in our Country aren't for Government tracking our every move. And of course the political royalty will be exempt.

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny. When the government fears it's people, there is liberty. All the do-gooders (and most think they're doing good) are destroying Liberty ... a "death by a thousand cuts." In the meantime, year three with no budget proposed or voted on in the US Senate. Someone remind me umm... the purpose of the Senate again is what?