So, are they going to actually be useful, and catch identity thieves, or just stare at the screen, and tug at their yogurt blasters?
Yet another workaround of the 4th Amendment. Why bother getting a warrant? Just create an agency/program that stores information on everybody in the first place!
Not as pithy as some of the paraphrases, but what the hell, that's the original quote. But hey, between the alphabet agencies monitoring our phone calls and e-mails, these guys tracking 80% of our credit purchases and 90% of our mortgages, and the IRS making sure we have health insurance, the Obama has made us very, very safe. ...unless, of course you're the US diplomat in Libya.
I can see it now, I decide to check out a new store that opens up, 5 minutes later my phone rings. "Yes, Hi, Mr Burger King, this is Shawn at the CPFB, We noticed an unusual charge on your debt card so we blocked it and shut off your card, please contact your card provider to have them send you the paperwork to fill out in triplicate and send to us, them, and the IRS to receive your new CPFB backed card in six to nine weeks."
This. We need a concept of privacy that doesn't recur solely to your physical home. Of course, that first assumes that you accept the 4th amemdment is about privacy in the first place, and not just property rights in a superficial sense.
The CFPB is supposed to be a government watchdog program, and by all account they are, and I'm fine with that. I'm not fine with the idea of delving into consumers' mortgage accounts via data mining. Sure, you can say "but we need to check for fraud," and on the surface that would appear to be reasonable, but it's still no excuse for poking around in the accounts of innocent people. It would be the equivalent of the police showing up at your home and walking right in, without permission, just to check around for illegal activity. So if that is what the CFPB is going for, they can forget it. I'm generally in favor of the efforts the CFPB makes regarding consumer protection, but this isn't protection, it's intrusion.
It reminds me of when we discussed the civil rights movement in my sixth grade class and if we would have been willing to march and protest in spite of all the dangers that came with it. I'm pretty sure I said no, because of the immediate safety concerns. I don't think it was until I joined the Navy that I truly understood Franklin's quote. Sure, we have as much job security as anyone and the housing allowance is decent enough...but at the expense of having your boss dictate everything in your life, having to run around in circles and wait on incompetent people to get your paperwork filed for you, and not even allowed to even bitch about your shitty boss to there folks (on paper, anyway). My time on USS Last Ship was a mother fucking wake-up call that life of glorified indebtedness is not for me at all. And that will mean some struggling when I get out because the school program I want to join in is here in San Diego and...it's California. But it'll feel great to be in charge of my own life, instead of letting others drag me all over the place like most of my family does.
Why are you asking this? How did you not notice "new Federal agency"?! When's the last time any Federal agency did its job, as opposed to simply finding new ways to fuck with people?
Well, Homeland Security pretends to catch a "terrorist", every now and then, I wanna know of identity thieves will get caught even if by accident. Y'know, every now and then as a mathematical percentage to justify themselves. Or, if they even bother to pretend anymore.
The way that works is that if they don't catch anyone, all they will do is say that their presents prevented people from committing crimes.
Not anymore it doesn't...when I first joined, they had what was known as Perform to Serve, a whole system that looked at whether a sailor should be kept in. To put it simply, a computer system scanned your whole life from basic on forward and any discretion could be enough to send one packing in some ratings. And that would've been fine if any of the known shitbags had been booted (of the ten I knew, there was only one that I felt fullhearted deserved it), but more often than not, folks were being separated because the number of sailors needed that month had been filled up. Or something like that. Suffice it to say PTS has become a four-letter word in the Navy and the whole system was revamped and renamed. But it's definitely not as easy as saying you want to re-enlist and singing the paper anymore.
Again, a program that works IN THEORY. Then when it gets down to the sailors the real shitbag criminals sail thru (no pun intended) their careers, while Jimmy "one too many parking tickets" gets booted. Here's an example of a DUI technicality that involves promotions, but could affect getting kicked out depending on rank: Two E-6 instructors here at Ft. Gordon got DUI's not long after they updated/ submitted their "promotion packets" for the E-7 Selection Board, along with every other E-6. Their cases weren't even settled yet. So, the list comes out about a week later and BAM! They both made E-7. IMMEDIATELY every other E-6 that didn't make E-7 went apeshit saying "Bullshit! Both these guys just got DUI's!" But here's the rub - the Selection Board reviews the most recent promotion packets. Their DUI hadn't made it into their records yet. And once the decisions are made nobody can do anything about it, because the board process is a secret and all decisions are final. There is no "runner up" wins even if a newly selected E-7 dies or joins the Officer Corps or whatever. So that "slot" is wasted for a year, because the Selection Board only meets once a year. Now by the time their punishments are settled they will be E-7, and it takes an Act Of Congress to boot them out, unlike E-6 and below who can get kicked out at the local level. Granted, the DUI will be in their records for the E-8 Selection Board, but they will be retiring in a few years anyway and didn't care about making E-8. Nice fucking system! Now you've got two guys who could run your child over in charge of you making more money, and because they are E-7 (Senior NCO's/untouchable) they can get in unlimited trouble and at most they will be moved to another post if they do. They hit the mother-lode of "getting over."
