Paranoia

You’re not paranoid if you have proof.

Who ya gonna trust?

According to this report as many as 40,000 subpoenas with a gag order attached are filed each year. This is a subpoena NOT signed by a judge (subpoenas don’t have to be signed by a judge in all cases anyway) and a subpoena gag order also not signed by a judge. Gag orders must come from a judge, unless apparently you are a federal agent.

Uncle Sam doesn't want to hear you.

IF the recipient violates the order, the person becomes an involuntary guest of Uncle Sam for an indefinite period in Leavenworth.

It gets worse.

One man who did finally get the right to speak out about the letter he got from the FBI won approval to speak in court. At that, his ability to comment is very limited. In the interview he says of 100 items he may not discuss prior to the court order, 97 remain gagged after the court order.

In court, the federal government presented secret evidence shown only to the judge and not his attorney.


Tolja it got worse.

All this got to me to thinking on two parallel tracks. What would I do if I got such a letter from the FBI?

Considering I am presently responsible for two teenagers, I’d probably have little choice but to go along with it; I have their welfare to consider. Were I only concerned about myself, I’d publish the entire contents of the letter and bunker down for the firestorm.

At that, there’s still Wikileaks and Julian Assange who’d gleefully publish the letter. (As I have often said, I have no permanent allies - except for 3 - only permanent interests.)

The second train of thought is how much is presently in government files about me? I am not naive enough to believe the federal government doesn’t have a file on me. In fact, I have proof it does. I periodically get a letter from the Social Security Administration telling me what my retirement benefits are and will be. HAH! I also recently got a letter from the IRS. I routinely send stuff to the IRS. Being a male, I am also listed in the Selective Service registry from the years ago when I had to sign up for that to keep financial aid for college. I also have a federal-issued license. There’s other stuff as well, but you get the idea.

I am not much concerned about what the federal government has on file about me.

I am far more concerned about the federal government trampling my Constitutional Rights in the name of usurpation of authority and increasing the reach of an increasingly distant federal authority.

Warrantless wire tapping, gag orders not signed by a judge, secret evidence, threats of imprisonment based in secret evidence, denial of due process.

These are the very things the federal government raises hell about on an international level when other countries do it. But when our federal government does it to us, it’s OK.

I ask again, do you trust the government?

Ask my ancestors about trusting the federal government.

I did not, have not and will not cede such rights to the federal government.

Where, you may well ask, did the Federal Government get this kind of authority, especially with such guarantees that are enumerated in the Constitution?

In short, YOU gave it to ‘em. You gave it to them by allowing them to get away with stealing it.

Yes huh.

This gestapo state run by jackbooted thugs with federal-issue badges is a direct result of the American populace not giving a damn about what our elected officials do in Washington, provided they keep those federal dollars coming home for various projects.

Oh yes. All you who support the Reboobicans and Damnocrats take note: The Patriot Act which authorized this kind of invasion of privacy was signed by Dubya and re-authorized without changes by Osama.

How did your elected official vote?

Senate
House

An excellent discourse which tangentially hits the same subject.