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Government Data Collection Efforts More
Widespread than Previously Believed
by Heywood U. Reedmore

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Washington was set afire last week when
the
USA Today re-broke a story the New York Times broke last
December. According to the articles, the
National Security Agency
(NSA) has been collecting phone records from the three largest
phone companies.

The secret program, which was launched after the attacks of 9/11 in
an effort to try and deduce the calling patterns of terrorists was
criticized by Democrats like
Patrick Leahy, as a violation of the rights
of Americans.  

Just the Tip of the Iceberg
But according to an investigation by Spolitics.com, this is just one of
many data collection efforts by the
Bush Administration. Under Bush’
s stewardship, the U.S. Government is collecting all types of private
information from ordinary Americans who are not suspected of any
wrongdoing.  

    The government is
    collecting our names,
    where we live, our phone
    numbers, even who we
    marry and how many kids
    we have. The agency in
    charge of this data
    collection, know as the
    IRS, also collects
    information on how we
make our money, how much we earn and who pays us. In addition,
they want to know where we have our money invested and ask us
for a detailed list of all our expenses.

Violating Our Rights
For years, congressional Republicans have been fighting to shut this
agency down, claiming it’s too powerful and places too great a
burden on the freedoms and rights of Americans.

They argue that if our government used a flat tax or excise tax
system, there would be no need for the IRS and their data collection
efforts.  
                                                    --continued below--
Democrats Committed to IRS Data Collection
Ironically, the same Democrats who abhor by the secret NSA
program are deeply committed to maintaining the IRS data collection
program. In fact, they favor expanding this agency’s role in the
lives of ordinary Americans. Democrats even want this agency to
start collecting information on whether or not Americans are
homosexual and currently in a committed relationship.  

When asked to comment on the apparent contradiction, Senator
John Kerry said, "We don't want to collect this kind of data from
everyone, just the richest one percent of Americans."  
________________________________________________________
In an effort to better understand the Democratic Party’s stance on
data collection, we hear at Spolitics.com have started the following
list detailing where Democrats believe our privacy should be
protected, and where they want information collected.  
Democrats do not believe this  
information should be private:
  • Our name
  • The name of our spouse
  • If homosexual, the name of
    our life partner
  • How many children we have
  • Whether or not we adopted
  • Whether or not we’re caring
    for an elderly parent
  • Where we live
  • Our phone number
  • How much money we make
  • Who pays us
  • Whether or not we own our
    house
  • How much we’re paying for
    college
  • Whether or not we borrowed
    money for college
  • Whether or not we’re saving
    for our children’s college
  • Whether we’ve moved
    recently
  • Whether we own our own
    business
  • Whether we own property
    that we rent to others
  • What kind of retirement
    accounts we have
  • Whether we collect a pension
  • Where our money is invested
  • How much we earn of those
    investments
  • Have we paid any taxes to
    foreign governments
  • Health care expenses
  • All other expenses
Democrats believe this
information should be protected:

  • What books we check out
    from the library
  • Our phone number
  • What phone numbers we dial
  • Whether or not we’re calling
    known terrorist overseas
  • (During the 1950’s) whether
    or not we’re actively working
    for the Comintern in Moscow
Did we miss anything?  
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The stories on Spolitics.com are made up for entertainment purposes.  Spolitics maintains that nothing on this site is accurate.  Anything that happens to be
accurate is purely accidental, coincidental or both and Spolitics will fire the writer responsible.  

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