Jalopnik 
Enter your username and password.
Detroit, 10:03 PM
Mon Nov 9
27 posts in the last 24 hours
Tip your editors:
tips@jalopnik.com
Editor-in-Chief:
Ray Wert | Email | AIM
Road Test Editor:
Wes Siler | Email
Weekend Editor:
Murilee Martin | Email
Associate Editor - Houston:
Matt Hardigree
Associate Editor - Detroit:
Ben Wojdyla
Editor-at-Large:
Mike Spinelli
Contributors:
Mark Arnold
John Krewson | Email
Andy Didorosi
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
08/05/09
If there was a "National Village Idiot" position, I'd vote for Beck in a heartbeat.
08/05/09
1) That language was taken from esc.gov, not cars.gov, and only applied to dealerships who logged on to the site, not the general government simply viewing it. (shocking Glenn is either an idiot or liar)
2) The language was removed on August 3rd because, as Sasha Johnson (DOT spokeswoman) says: "It would be factually inaccurate to say that any computer that went to cars.gov would become the property of the U.S. government."
Similar broad, generic and alarming to the unstable conspiracy nut, type wording can be found in your Windows (and Mac, I'm sure) EULA.
08/05/09
08/05/09
08/05/09
Jackpot.
08/05/09
08/05/09
When it comes to the government, though, I am of a completely different mindset. The warning they put on it might just be boiler plate info, but it really gets into some serious civil liberty issues. Normally, in order for a government agency to get a look at the files on my computer, they have to get a judge to sign a warrant granting them permission to dig around my personal, digital property. This right can be waived if the citizen gives tacit permission to the Gov. The agreement on the CARS system does just that. It grants the government whole sale permission to copy your hard drive and view any of the files in it.
Now they might not be doing that now, and the thought maybe didn't occur to anyone in the DOT to do so, but the fact remains that it becomes a perfectly legal way to snoop into someone's privacy under the guise of fraud prevention, which in itself is an assault of our personal freedoms.
Glenn Beck might have blown this entire thing out of proportion, but then again, this isn't the first time little things like this can snowball into loss of rights. Take the Underwood Tariff act of 1913. It levied an income tax 1 percent on those making more than $3000 a year, and a 6% surtax on those making more than $500'000. By 1918, the top annual income tax rate was 77%. By 1932, it was 92%. President Wilson assured everyone that this number would go up to at most five and ten percent when this Tariff act was passed.
I personally believe you can't trust the government, regardless of who is in power. The government is at times like an evil, and manipulative child. Give it an inch, and it will take all of your personal liberties.
08/05/09
08/05/09
My guesses:
- the complete set of audio mp3s of Dr. Peter Beter.
- "Daily Affirmations" from the "In Touch With My Feelings" series
- James Forrestal's unpublished memoires
- Online order widgets for Chuck E. Cheeze and Popeye's Chicken
- L. Ron Hubbard's "I did it...And So Can You!"
- multiple Twitter "Follow Me" apps
- Notes on how to negate David Icke's & Christine Fitzgerald's theories with the public ("Lord Draco will be proud!")
- his initial rough draft of "1001 Projects With Ju Ju Bees"
- Scanned copies of his Teen Beat collection to be OCR'd later.
- Barcode tatoo rear/write software
- Many, many photochops of Keith Olbermann.
08/05/09
08/05/09
08/05/09
08/05/09
08/05/09
It's because the federal government is just not that competent or efficient. Plain and simple.
08/05/09
08/05/09
...
08/05/09
08/05/09
08/05/09
08/05/09
08/05/09
08/05/09
08/05/09
08/05/09
08/05/09
ahem...
Oh noes! The muslin furrin born preznit is tryin ta git in mah computer and watch me! The only thing I'm tradin' my clunkerz in on is more gunz.
There, that's more appropriate for a discussion involving Glenn Beck. Don't get me started on Lou Dobbs' latest shenanigans.
08/05/09
What you'd be better advised to be concerned about is the ongoing NSA program to monitor all telephone and internet traffic, particularly those with one leg in foreign countries, that seems to be archiving streams wholesale and analyzed to detect keywords, usage patterns, and links to other persons of interest. That's your Big Brother right there.
But since that's a proto-fascist activity it doesn't concern beck and his buddies.
08/05/09
08/05/09
08/05/09