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Unfortunately WE don't have sufficient facts to even guess where the boundaries should be. But we do know the boundaries do not exist when intelligence services take all information. And then say, we will not look at it unless the super secret court says we can.
The telco companies and others, including Google and Microsoft, want to tell a US public what they have been forced to surrender. We cannot even know that. Without even that information, then we have few if any facts to define the boundaries. The 'secret' government is hiding behind its skirts to even keep such facts from most Senators and Congressmen. And was even denying the Supreme Court access to such information - on a theory that it is National Security.
Even the President does not know unless he asks the right questions. This is, in part, a legacy of Cheney who subverted intelligence so egregiously that the intelligence community became even more secretive and less forecoming. Even a cover up of torture and extraordinary rendition became normal operations.
BTW, a November voting booth (not the Census) is where public plebiscites are best enacted. Unfortunately, some (ie California's Propositions) get subverted by a legacy of their original purpose. But we have a bigger problem. Insufficient information. And a system that will make excuses to keep us ill informed. Because even secret prisons and torture made that secrecy necessary and routine.
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