99.7%

Two posts in almost as many days, look out!

While we're on the topic I wanted to make mention of a story that had me craning my neck towards the radio as I arched a brow the other day. Apparently the visitors center to the Capitol Rotunda caused a stir some years back when it rang in at a svelte 600 million dollars. The consensus was, it's nice, but not a half billion nice if you get my drift. It was chalked up to yet more evidence of government's inability to be efficient with our money, reminiscent of the old $500 Pentagon toilet seats (or was it a hammer?). Well, not so.

Apparently their is a heretofore secret underground lair (insert Dr. Evil laugh here) beneath the visitor center. A state of the art, protected (sound proofed and the works) facility where top secret meetings, or more accurately, "cases" are held. This is where the FISA Court warrants are issued. It's also where precedent is being set on what the feds can and can not "gather" domestically. The word is that SCOTUS level 4th Amendment decisions are being meted out there, which in turn is what the NSA, FBI, and even the CIA use as legal backing. In other words, this may be the source from which the NSA draws when Director Hayden claims, "We're working completely within the law."

My source on this? That rabid right wing dog... The Washington Post. You can read the full article here. And I quote, "The public is getting a peek into the little-known workings of a powerful and mostly invisible government entity... Critics, including some with knowledge of the court’s internal operations, say the court has undergone a disturbing shift. It was created in 1978 to handle routine surveillance warrants, but these critics say it is now issuing complex, classified, Supreme Court-style rulings that are quietly expanding the government’s reach into the private lives of unwitting Americans... The government can get virtually anything."

Apparently eleven members, federal judges each, serve on this court for an average of seven years. They are hand selected by one man, the Chief Justice, and the current eleven were all picked by Roberts... but we know we can trust him, right? Cough...ahem...Obamacare.

It's an interesting read, and may be the source of our current concerns over civil liberty violations, whereas the NSA is merely the end result. By the way, my post title... it's the rate at which this court approves government requests.