What it means to be an American

[MaggieL]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

I sure as hell don't, when the government can illegally listen to my phone calls...

See, that's what I mean.

Which of your phone calls are likely illegally listened to? Do you regularly receive calls from suspected overseas terrorists? Domestic calls are not "listened to".

I remeber when I read that when monitoring an international call made by a non-US national being surveillied that NSA had to immediately cease if they figured out the other party was a US national. Seemed kinda extreme. These days, with how difficult it is to identify who the called party is, it's even more so.

And you do remeber the Clipper Chip, right? :-)

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

...and illegally read my emails...

I hate to break it to you, but plaintext email has never been anything close to secure.

If that worries you, you should encrypt it.; many people do.

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Now obviously amateur radio stations can be used to pass sensitive information to terrorists and should be confiscated. That's not much of a stretch. Wouldn't affect me in the least but I think you'd change your tune, damn quick.

Which is exactly why radio amateurs radio operators have *always* been forbidden encrypt any of their messages...this is not new. They are also subject to stringent controls as to which country's nationals can pass messages though amateur radio.

FCC doesn't have to seize my radios to shut me down, all they need to do is lift my licence.