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Government has your number
St. Paul Pioneer Press ^ | May. 14, 2006 | JOE SOUCHERAY

Posted on 05/14/2006 6:09:13 PM PDT by rhema

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1 posted on 05/14/2006 6:09:15 PM PDT by rhema
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To: rhema
There never has been "privacy" in "public". That's part of the problem inherent in modern communications systems ~ they all make use of "public" right of way.

Eventually we'll have some sort of "private" communications technology, but not just yet.

While a quite serious war against us is underway is no time to start pretending "public" means "private".

2 posted on 05/14/2006 6:14:22 PM PDT by muawiyah (-)
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To: rhema
Government has your number

Yep. Them and the phone company and the IRS and the RNC and a thousand other state, local and federal entities.

3 posted on 05/14/2006 6:16:48 PM PDT by airborne (Satan's greatest trick was convincing people he doesn't exist.)
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To: muawiyah

Well put.

Your medical records are everywhere.

Your credit history is everywhere.

A prospective employer can find out just about anything he wants to about you.

Your driving records are everywhere.

Your police record is everywhere.

Just about anything ANYONE wants to know about you is available for a price.

And people are worried about the government knowing who you called???!!!

Privacy is an illusion that disappeared with the first mainframe computer.


4 posted on 05/14/2006 6:22:42 PM PDT by EEDUDE (A penny saved is......a penny Congress overlooked.)
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To: rhema
which is why they're regulated by the PUC: Public Utilities Commission
5 posted on 05/14/2006 6:23:10 PM PDT by Rakkasan1 (lead ,follow or get out of the majority.start with our borders.)
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To: EEDUDE
Government employees have NEVER had any expectation of privacy about anything. You want to know what a government worker earns, call the personnel office. That's public information.

BTW, one of the nice features of government employment is that when you go to buy a new car, they simply call the office and get the information they need about as fast as you can get there. Fast, easy, quick ~ no skin off my nose, and the new car, or house, is great.

6 posted on 05/14/2006 6:26:41 PM PDT by muawiyah (-)
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To: rhema

My number is in the phone book. Also, it doesn't take much if you have a computer and some skills to find people anywhere in America.


7 posted on 05/14/2006 6:32:32 PM PDT by GeorgefromGeorgia
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To: rhema
We're giving up even more in our various ineffective, counter-productive, "War[s] on...". *

Consider that to preserve ex post facto requirements that sex offenders register their address et al with police, it was successfully argued that there was no civil liberty or right being lost by such a requirement. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed -- so the way is now cleared for a requirement that every resident in the U.S. register his residence with the local police, exactly as Swiss residents have had to do for a long time.

No big deal, you say? Me too.

What's that about President Hillary...?

(* I don't have any good answers on the War On Drugs, btw. As a parent I truly dislike the Libertarian/Bill Buckley position, but...)

8 posted on 05/14/2006 6:40:38 PM PDT by Clint Williams (Why Islam? Jesus saves and Moses invests, but Mohammed's a riot.)
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To: rhema

Wow! A Travis McGee reference. One of the greatest fictional characters ever created in American literature.
The common themes running through all of the Travis McGee series, was that Travis was always taking in broken and battered(not just physically), women and he would nurture them back to health.

Usually along the way, there would be attempts on his life, encounters with the authorities and payback of the ultimate type on evil doers everywhere. A hero by any other name.


9 posted on 05/14/2006 6:46:32 PM PDT by Delta Dawn (The whole truth.)
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To: rhema
Does anyone else remember two-party telephone lines? Now you had to be careful on those.
10 posted on 05/14/2006 6:50:21 PM PDT by Ruth A. (we might as well fight in the first ditch as the last)
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To: EEDUDE

Millions have grocery store cards - they have a data base that records everything you buy.

If you're on the Internet, there's a record of every site you visit.

If you ever fill out warranty cards for things you've purchased, there's a record for that.

If you use charge cards, there's a record of everything you bought.

And the phone cos. have always had a record of who you call. If they remove your name, and send the phone numbers to the gov't for analysis in the WOT, exactly how have we lost any privacy that we haven't been voluntarily giving up for years?


11 posted on 05/14/2006 6:52:00 PM PDT by speekinout
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To: speekinout

Eggs Ackley

I really don't see what the big deal is about, except of course the Dems trying to trash Bush as some kind of demonic dictator.


12 posted on 05/14/2006 6:56:50 PM PDT by EEDUDE (A penny saved is......a penny Congress overlooked.)
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To: rhema
I hated this crap when Clinton was doing it, and I hate it now! What amazes me are all of the people who justify it now would be raising mortal hell if a Democratic president would be doing it.

However, if we are doing nothing wrong, we have nothing to hide...... /sarc
13 posted on 05/14/2006 7:01:22 PM PDT by KoRn
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To: rhema

If the Government doesn't have my number yet, they can get it from the Maui phone book. I could care less.


14 posted on 05/14/2006 7:07:58 PM PDT by fish hawk
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To: EEDUDE

Of course. Trashing Bush is what it's all about. But what really fries my socks is that they assume that we are all stupid enough to buy the flimsiest of stories.

I don't think many people are really that stupid, but I think people who hate Bush are hoping that at least some of us are.


15 posted on 05/14/2006 7:14:53 PM PDT by speekinout
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To: rhema

It brings to mind the old adage, " Assume that all your telephone calls are public."


16 posted on 05/14/2006 7:19:06 PM PDT by Tench_Coxe
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To: Tench_Coxe

Why is it the liberals are for big government i.e. big brother, but cry crocodile tears about losing civil liberties. Guess it's only okay when they are in charge.

When something is a fact, no matter how much you hate it, it is still a fact. If you partake in any government program or entity overseen by government, no matter what the form, there is a public record somewhere. Computers just made it easier to put the dots together.

Conservatives clap when fraud is discovered and stopped when it comes to tax payer dollars, but don't seem to appreciate it was government dot connecting that caught the fraud.
Oh well.


17 posted on 05/14/2006 7:51:12 PM PDT by pacpam (action=consequence applies in all cases)
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To: rhema
The government has my phone number? I hope so! I've filled out enough tax returns over the year, I imagine they have my address, too! Maybe they are the ones who sold my number off to the telemarketers, who I suppose also have my phone number. If I had a dollar for every annoying business or organization that had my number against my will, I'd be pretty wealthy by now, as would most of us.

This whole phone number brouhaha is just another attempt by the usual suspects to stir up more dissent and ill will against our President, our government, and our nation.

18 posted on 05/14/2006 8:15:17 PM PDT by kittycatonline.com
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To: rhema


I've rigged my plumbing with tinfoil, because damn it all to hell, Karl Rove has no right to know that I'm lactose intolerant.
19 posted on 05/14/2006 9:19:04 PM PDT by sully777 (wWBBD: What would Brian Boitano do?)
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To: sully777
I've rigged my plumbing with tinfoil, because damn it all to hell, Karl Rove has no right to know that I'm lactose intolerant.

Good show. Me, I've lined my phone lines with lead 'cause the NSA has no right knowing that I'm in a torrid love triangle with Ann Coulter and Michelle Malkin, darn it!

Mum's da woid!

20 posted on 05/14/2006 9:41:53 PM PDT by Prime Choice (We are RepubliCANs, not RepubliCAN'Ts.)
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