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A legislative aid to FL Senator Don Gaetz explained to me some weeks ago that the reason FL Gov. Scott didn't get back to me is because he receives a lot of mail. I wrote back that two former US Presidents found me quite credible and responded to my letters within less than two weeks. I'll guess that the White House receives at least as much mail as the governor's office.

What follows is an excerpt from my letter to Gov. Scott, which he still hasn't replied to:

Quote
My charges and attempts to get help not only from the Governor’s Office, former FDLE Executive Investigations Director Jamie McLaughlin, Inspector Generals for both the Governor and FDLE, but other state departments and agencies are well documented, archived, and readily available. What follows is a brief history that summarizes the criminal activity, including cover-ups, by the respective agencies and departments. When I first suspected illegal electronic surveillance by law enforcement, I wrote West Florida Electric Cooperative VP & CEO Bill Rimes requesting that he conduct a search of the utility’s property (utility poles, lines, transformers, etc) for any illegal attachments. He wrote back that he takes my concerns seriously, none of the
utility’s employees were involved and that he forwarded my correspondence to the Holmes County Sheriff’s Office. I didn’t hear from the sheriff until two weeks later when he hovered over my residence one evening for about ½ hour in a Florida Dept. of Law Enforcement (FDLE) helicopter piloted by his first cousin. A large infrared device was mounted beneath the helicopter. Purportedly they were attempting to apprehend a suspect, who had fled with the evidence from a drug sting.

Earlier that day, an FDLE agent disguised as a FedEx driver delivered 3.5 lbs of meth to my neighbor. Just as his wife was signing for the parcel, my neighbor arrived home,snatched the evidence, and ran. He escaped a gaggle of FDLE agents and continued to elude them for some time. The FDLE had not notified the sheriff of their intended sting, but picked him up to accompany them just before it. The FDLE arrested my neighbor’s wife, who had signed for the parcel. FDLE Agents came back that same night on the unbelievable pretext of apprehending her husband, who had escaped with the 3.5 lbs of meth earlier that day and supposedly returned home to be snatched by FDLE agents waiting for him. However, I was the actual target. I heard a non-military helicopter performing a token “search” (less than a minute) over my neighbors’ residences to the north and north-west, I knew that it was a police helicopter when the helicopter did a bee-line to my residence. I put the dogs in the van, tripped the security lights, and walked around the backyard with the helicopter’s spotlight following me. At no time did the helicopter go anywhere near the “fleeing fugitive’s” house to the south. My “profilers” intended to provoke a violent confrontation and then remove their illegal surveillance devices in the aftermath (these devices have serial numbers and are inventoried). When I didn’t react as anticipated, the helicopter quickly flew away and called in reinforcements. I had a number of camouflaged agents run by in “hot-pursuit” of an imaginary non-existing fleeing fugitive. Afterward I asked them if this wasn’t a lot of trouble for one person. One of the agents agreed. Despite losing 3.5 lbs of meth and never conducting an official investigation of the “missing drugs,” all the FDLE agents in my backyard that evening
received subsequent promotions. Is it an FDLE practice to reward incompetence and failure or were they being rewarded for keeping quiet?

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A corollary: If you're not guilty of anything, then you wouldn't object to a little torture to prove it.

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huh?


"It's not a lie if you believe it." -- George Costanza
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves. --Bertrand Russel
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Originally Posted by Ardy
huh?
Ardy, let me help you understand this concept. It's somewhat sardonic. What it means is simply that you don't mind anyone invading your privacy anytime and anywhere because your life is an "open book" available to anyone for review, and the corollary is that if you're not guilty of anything, then you don't mind a little torture , er, "enhanced interrogation" to prove that you're not guilty. Do you now understand? If you do, then please answer my huh? that I asked at your republic vs. democracy thread. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery or else lack of understanding. Your choice. Thanks.

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Joe:

That's a classic non sequitur.


Take the nacilbupeR pledge: I solemnly swear that I will help back out all Republicans at the next election.
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Originally Posted by Ted Remington
Joe:

That's a classic non sequitur.

sequitur?.... sequitur????
we don't need no steenking sequiturs


"It's not a lie if you believe it." -- George Costanza
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves. --Bertrand Russel
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Originally Posted by Joe Keegan
Originally Posted by Ardy
huh?
Ardy, let me help you understand this concept. It's somewhat sardonic. What it means is simply that you don't mind anyone invading your privacy anytime and anywhere because your life is an "open book" available to anyone for review, and the corollary is that if you're not guilty of anything, then you don't mind a little torture , er, "enhanced interrogation" to prove that you're not guilty.

Joe
I said "huh" because in my experience you seldom read or consider anything that disagrees with your opinion. Therefore it is pointless to say much more than you would say "huh"

That said....
the video that you posted is a slick piece of drivel IMO

A guy on the street asks for someone's face book log in or bank account information. And then posits the dangers of letting government employees and contractors have access to that private information.

So.... consider the following. If you haVE A FACEBOOK ACCOUNT, someone somewhere will have records and access to that information. And if a nefarious hacker really wanted to get that information, chances are that he would be able to discover a way to do so. So I really do not see the added protection that you are advocating by protecting us from rogue government employees. The simple fact is that the only way to keep your Facebook information secure is to not have a Facebook account.... if that concerns you.

If you open a bank account, the person sitting behnd the desk has access to all of your inforrmation. And all of the Snowden imitators that work at the Bank IT department also have this access. And, to a large degree, banks sell all of this information to those who are willing to pay for it. If you do not like this arrangement... do not open a bank account.


If you simply live your life as a colonial american might.... you will have very nearly the same privacy that he would have had. You will have no bank accounts, no Facebook accounts, no google trails, no phone logs.

If all that stuff in a government database concerns you..... take personal responsibility for protecting the privacy that seems to so concern you. It is not a matter of impossibility for you to do this. It is a simple matter of inconvenience.

There are innumerable ways to protect your privacy. This ia all publicly available information. Criminals do this already, as do the terrorists. They bear the inconvenience because privacy is worth the price to them. What is it worth to you Joe?

Last edited by Ardy; 09/03/13 06:17 PM.

"It's not a lie if you believe it." -- George Costanza
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves. --Bertrand Russel
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By the way Joe, I suggest that you familiarize yourself with the Indian outsourcing business. Practically every large corporation has significantly outsourced large amounts of their IT work to these off shore organizations. They have people who are more sly and brilliant than snowden. These people will have access to all of the personal information that you hold so dear.

Beyond that, these Indian programmers also write much of the software that runs the computer systems. SOP it would be trivial for them to install some sort of backdoor access during the develpment provcess. So once agian you got people with access to your private data,

And only recently we have learned that the Syrian Army has hacked the web site of the NY times. The Chines army has hacked into most aspects of our coporations and national security apperatus. Russian mofia hackers are apparently quite talented to get what they want ... with few scruples.

I am not sure what "privacy" that you think you have, but IMO that idea is a delusional what ever happens with NSA databases.

But, you can take steps to protect yourself, I hear that the first and most important step is to start wearing a tin hat.... just in case the government has figured aout a way to tap directly into your brain.

And, as far as torture is concerned.... if the Mexican drug lords wanted to extract any information from you.... they could find you and use their own brand of "enhanced interrogation"

so once again I am not sure how much added protection you will get from protecting yourself from the possibility that the NSA might have torture on their agenda for you.


"It's not a lie if you believe it." -- George Costanza
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves. --Bertrand Russel
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Let us consider the case of Osama bin laden

Why did it take so long to find him?
Probably because he took extraordinary efforts to protect his privacy

Why was he eventually found?
Because if you invest enough resources.
You can find almost anyone

I am not safe from torture of the FBI or Mexican drug lords because of any legal protection. I am safe by being so innocuous that no one really cares to find me.

And my guess is that joe Keegan will live out his life without being tortured by the us government for similar reasons. His main protection from the government is that he is inconsequential, rather than any sort of legal process that he may wish were in place to protect him. If a powerful person is determined to screw with you, the law is not much help even in the best case


"It's not a lie if you believe it." -- George Costanza
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves. --Bertrand Russel
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wow

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