MEGA DATA COLLECTION WITTINGLY DANGEROUS

Whatever you think about the Patriot Act, as to whether it crosses the line or stays within the boundaries of the Constitution's  Bill of Rights' protections, one thing is clear, mega data unwittingly collected but allowed to be stored by our government is obviously an infringement.

When Director of National Intelligence James Clapper claimed that NSA was "not wittingly" gathering data on innocence citizens, he not only lied but failed to disclose that the government was also saving that tangential private data. 

Why is our government allowed to keep this collected mega data?  Why aren't more conservative Republicans amending the Patriot Act and introducing legislation that protects the rights of citizens from government intrusion?

It seems that only Senator Rand Paul is talking about the need to reform this un-patriotic Act, but then again, Paul supported Mitch McConnell's re-election campaign in Kentucky, so they both seem to be licking the same Utah salt.

The line between private and public papers is being blurred by technology, abused by government, corrupted by elites and ignored by our courts. Hillary Clinton uses a private e-mail account and server to conduct official State Department business (illegal) while innocent citizens within range of an NSA spying operation have their cell phone data swept up and then stored by the government. Hypocrisy or downright Big Brother corrupt tyranny? 

Sitting out in Bluffdale, Utah is an NSA facility called the Intelligence Community Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative Data Center or if you prefer the shorter name, the Utah Data Center.

This huge facility holds all the warrantless, unconstitutional seizure of citizen's phone and e-mail records in  brazen violation of Americans 1st and 4th amendment rights. In what can only be termed astounding arrogance, NSA wants Americans to believe that it collected this data unwittingly and  is not reading the personal information it has collected, all while storing citizen's ill-gained personal correspondence in a classified facility. Why?

I think the hills are alive with the sound of muzak. 

"Do, a tale of insincere, Re, a pocketful of lies, Mi, a name WE call ourselves, Fa, a long, long way from truth, Sol, a whole cloth made of fraud, La, our representatives support for Sol, Ti, a drink to jam our heads, that will brings us back to Do, or duh a tale of insincere."

We have been told that the reason innocent people's cell phones were tapped was because the spying technology is so sensitive it picks up the electronic data from a wide swath area beyond the targeted subject. Therefore, "unwittingly" was the term used for why the agency was capturing and collecting innocent American's private information without  their consent or a court warrant. 

We have been further assured that the agency is not reading the warrantless material that it snatched up in its eavesdropping trawler's net, because they claim they are not. Wow, now that's a gold standard of assurance, is it not?

Which of course brings us back to DO, a tale of insincere. For if the government claims it harvested our private data tangentially and is not using it to spy on innocent Americans, then why is it not destroying it, rather than storing it? 

Fisherman using nets routinely  find many different species they are not hunting, unwittingly caught among their intended catch, so what do they do? Keep them, or throw them back into the ocean? 

If you believe that NSA is being honest and not prying into data it collected without a warrant (naive is an inadequate description of your trust level) consider what might happen in the future, given what we already know has happened in the past with agencies holding sensitive information, like the Internal Revenue Service.

We have seen private information passed around by our government from conservative groups to social progressive groups by an IRS that targeted and harassed taxpaying Americans. These targeted American groups' crimes were merely to be in political opposition of the current administration and seeking to restore honesty and integrity in our political process (TRUE THE VOTE). Yet to date, no one has been prosecuted, no one has been charged, and recent news reports have charged that the targeting continues at the IRS.

But hey, if you are a lawful American citizen, committing no crimes and loyal to your country, why should you fear or care if your government has a cache of personal information about your life held in a classified computer facility, in a Utah, city called Bluffdale between Step and Sheep mountain? (The factual names are so metaphorically accurate you might think I made them up, I didn't.)

So considering that you are a law abiding citizen and in the interest of capturing terrorists, you support the NSA program and think you can trust that your government, then ask yourself; exactly what protections are in place for the government to not turn its focus on you?

Edwin Meese III wrote in an article, May 26, 2010 at the Heritage Foundation regarding the increasing trend of overcriminalization of our nations laws; http://www.heritage.org/research/commentary/2010/05/too-many-laws-turn-innocents-into-criminals

" But the typical American’s deeply held beliefs about the freedoms he cherishes and the fundamental principles of his government are no longer as well founded as they once were. Today, he is far more vulnerable than ever before to being caught up in a criminal investigation and prosecution — and to actually being convicted and punished as a criminal — for having done something he did not even suspect was illegal."

More and more we are not only seeing an explosion of laws by our federal and state government but an unmistakable, undisguised and completely brazen political corruption of our justice system. If you belong to the politically correct group, have the political correct pedigree and are part of the elite power peddlers then you are safe from prosecution. Everyone else that is not included on that safe list is fair game and vulnerable.

You might also ask, is that mega data safe from foreign hackers that could use that megadata information for identity theft? Do you think given the revelation recently that both the White House and the State Department computers were hacked that the computers storing data at the NSA would be safer? What about another Snowden, another spy slipped into the NSA with classified clearance but this time with far more sinister plans?

Americans have the right to use the latest technology under the assumption that private stays private. Just because this technology makes it easier for the government to ensnare us without breaking into our homes without a warrant, doesn't mean they should, nor does it mean that Americans must go off the grid to protect their privacy. We need to reform the Patriot Act.

The First and Fourth Amendment in our Bill of Rights has no expiration date, wittingly or unwittingly Congress must uphold our Constitution!