If you live in Texas...

[J Scott]

...beware that the government may be watching you from above pretty soon:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kS5vm149vGc

While perhaps there are some good uses for this technology, it seems like it could also be an opportunity for the government to start violating Texans' 4th Amendment rights...

Note that this thread has nothing to do with Obama, Bush, or Palin, so hopefully any discussion here can be non-partisan and kept on-topic...

[J Scott]

Originally posted by Carlton Ellis:

Ask yourself if this is any different than having closed circuit T.V cameras on city streets? They already have them in just about every major city in the country.

In my opinion it is, because at least I know those cameras aren't trained on my house or my backyard, so at least I don't have to worry about invasion of my privacy in my own home (not that I have anything to hide, but that's besides the point, of course).

There are places where there is no expectation of privacy (city streets, for example) and there are places where there is still an expectation of privacy (my house, my backyard, my car, etc). Where I have an expectation of privacy, I'd like to keep it.

If I was going to play devils advocate here I'd even go as far as saying having UAV with camera's may be more efficent and cost effective than having fix based closed circuit cameras.

When giving up my 4th Amendment rights, cost effectiveness to the government is not my main consideration...but I see what you're saying...

And no I'm not in favor of unfettered police surveillance but the reality is that technology allows national security and law enforcement agencies access to people and personal information like never before.

It's a slippery slope. If we trance on the 4th Amendment in the name of national security, what's next? Trancing on the 1st Amendment by abolishing religious groups that we feel are a threat or making it illegal to have verbal discussions that the government doesn't like? Or trancing on the 2nd Amendment by taking away citizen's right to own guns just to ensure that people don't own weapons that might be used to threaten national security?

Obviously, getting rid of the Constitution would make it a lot easier for the government to provide "security," but I don't think that's the solution...

Unless there is a massive public outcry against it I don't see it changing.

That's the problem...in my opinion, people are being led to believe that they have to make a choice between *security* and *liberty*. Personally, I don't think the two are mutually exclusive, and even if they were, I'm pretty sure I'd still go with liberty...