Gumby,
When you made the quote "if it stops one terrorist", it reminded me of the 2nd amendment debate.
How many times during the gun debates have we heard "if it saves one life"
I agree that we cannot fall for that argument. It is bogus. No one can ever guarantee the savings of any life, and going down that road on every issue would eventually lead to an insanely tyrannical society.
We cannot give up our God given or natural rights for the hope of more security.
Modern technology blurs the lines, and is moving them further and further all the time.
Courts have apparently ruled that keeping records of the facts ABOUT your calls and emails are not the same as the actual content within them, which are supposedly still off limits to big brother.
Someone mentioned Limbaugh. I listen to him some, and today he quoted a tech blogger who gave the following examples.
If you called a sex hotline at 2am for 18 minutes, do you think you know what the conversation was about?
If you called an HIV hotline, and then immediately called your doctor, do you think you know what the conversation was about?
If you received a call from the local Tea Party office, and then immediately called your congressman, could you guess what the conversation was about?
Point is, you can tell an awful lot about people with the facts ABOUT your calls and emails.
Two more issues.
They are apparently intercepting EVERYONES digital communications AND transactions (credit, debit, etc). Not from just non-citizens, but common sense tells me EVERYONE, and then supposedly reviewing only those that are subject to FISA warrants, etc. If this is true, and it may be so, whats to prevent government employees from abusing that information, which they have already done. Remember the IRS scandals and releases of confidential tax return information. And what about if you get arrested for something 10 years from now, and the prosecutors office gets access to all of this going back as far as they want. Which leads me to google, facebook, twitter, etc. Many people put all kinds of embarrassing stuff on there, and they have no idea, or ignorantly dont care, how much privacy they are giving up.
What a shame that so many people have no idea the cost of freedom.