At Home and Abroad: the Democratic-Republican Party's War on Civil Liberties and the Right to Privacy (Update)

As the apologists of the Democratic-Republican party's national security police state continue to howl about how unauthorized access to confidential diplomatic cables published by Wikileaks compromises the security of the United States, it is now being reported that agencies of the federal government have been tracking the financial transactions of American citizens without search warrants and "with little to no judicial or Congressional oversight."  From Wired via Memeorandum:

Federal law enforcement agencies have been tracking Americans in real-time using credit cards, loyalty cards and travel reservations without getting a court order, a new document released under a government sunshine request shows.

The document, obtained by security researcher Christopher Soghoian, explains how so-called “Hotwatch” orders allow for real-time tracking of individuals in a criminal investigation via credit card companies, rental car agencies, calling cards, and even grocery store loyalty programs. The revelation sheds a little more light on the Justice Department’s increasing power and willingness to surveil Americans with little to no judicial or Congressional oversight. . . .

the Justice Department does not report or make public the number of times it got real time or historic cell phone location information, nor how often it is using these so-called “hotwatch” orders.

Unsurprisingly, Democratic and Republican leaders of the ruling criminal-political class do not appear to be especially perturbed by this news, as they are the primary architects of the policies that have eviscerated the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution.  At Outside the Beltway, Doug Mataconis comments:

All of this is an outgrowth of the broad surveillance powers given to Federal law enforcement after 9/11 and as part of the “war on drugs,” and it stands as evidence to support the argument that once such powers are granted, they will be used for more than just tracking down national security threats.

Classical Values states the obvious:

Call it the war on drugs, call it the war on terror. It's really a war on privacy and on freedom, and the government is behind it.

The Democratic-Republican party's war on privacy and freedom is not confined to the United States, and is, in fact, global in scope.  This week, Third Party and Independent Daily reported on a series of leaked cables from Berlin, documenting a sustained, high-level diplomatic effort to defeat the German Free Democratic Party's opposition to the erosion of civil liberties and invasive breaches of individual data privacy.  From the second post in the series, Liberty vs. Security: Germany's Free Democratic Party and US Data Privacy Policy:

an action request was sent out in January 2010 calling on US officials to explain US data privacy policy to their German counterparts, on the assumption that concerns over US data privacy protections were based on misrepresentations and distortions of official policy (2010/01/10BERLIN128).  The cable frames the  "exaggerated data privacy views" of the FDP, as well as its "fixation on data privacy and protection issues," as a primary obstacle to German cooperation with US national security policy, stating that their opposition to data sharing operations results from the fact that the FDP sees itself as "defenders of citizens' privacy rights."

A prior cable states that "intense pressure" from high-level US officials – including Secretary of State Clinton, Treasury Secretary Geithner, Attorney General Holder, National Security Advisor Gen. Jones and Ambassador Murphy – was necessary to overcome overt opposition to sweeping data-sharing proposals supported by the US.

Update: In related news, the Washington Post reports:

The federal government has repeatedly violated legal limits governing the surveillance of U.S. citizens, according to previously secret internal documents obtained through a court battle by the American Civil Liberties Union.

In releasing 900 pages of documents, U.S. government agencies refused to say how many Americans' telephone, e-mail or other communications have been intercepted under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act - or FISA - Amendments Act of 2008, or to discuss any specific abuses, the ACLU said. Most of the documents were heavily redacted. 

The national security police state apparatus that has been erected by Democratic-Republican party policy consensus is a threat to individual rights, civil liberties and the very existence of constitutional, democratic, republican government in the United States.