FBI & The Warrantless GPS Trackers

Ahhhh.  Those pesky GPS trackers with warrantless tracking are back in the news today.  

Wired has the story that a US born citizen of Arab decent has been under FBI surveillance for the last few months.  Of course, (as covered here before) that surveillance included the use of a (unconfirmed) non-warranted GPS tracker being attached to Yasir Afifi’s personal vehicle.  

Afifi found the tracker on his vehicle due to a wire sticking out and decided to have a friend remove it from his vehicle.  Instead of ditching it in a lake or sticking it on someone else’s car, Afifi and his friend took pictures and posted them to the internet.  Of course, after that, the FBI was relatively quick to knock on Mr. Afifi’s door and ask for their device back.  

Obviously, there is more to this story than is being reported currently but at least it looks like a good test case to for the ACLU to challenge the new ruling that I’ve written about before.  Hopefully, the agents that have been surveilling Mr. Afifi did so with the support of a warrant, but I certainly wouldn’t count on that being the case. 

"Miss Me Yet?" Bush vs. Obama Opinion Poll

And the opinion is a statistical tie!  Meaning, that the current President enjoys a 47% to 45% "approval" advantage over his predecessor according to a CNN / Opinion Research Corporation survey released earlier today.  That two point margin is down from one that was 23% roughly one year earlier. 

I suppose it is safe to say that the bloom is finally off the rose? 

DJIA Over 11k! Really down 10% Since May's Similar 11K High

No linking in this post, just a quick hitter.  We've crossed the 11k mark on the Dow Jones Industrial Average for the first time since May!  YAY!  That's terrific!  We should pop the champagne corks and throw a big party!  Except, hold the phone, the dollar lost 10% from about mid-August until the end of September.  So, if you paid $100 for a stock in May, watched it sink, and then go back up to $110 bucks, did you gain anything?

I didn't think so either.