August 3, 2009 - 12:39 ET
GLENN: There's a couple of stories that I want to give you, first of all, the CARS system, the (cars dot gov), this is a website where you can find out all about cash for clunkers, and we're going to give you more on this tonight. But I'm sick and tired of these bloggers who will deny the facts on what's going on. We broke a story on Friday that if anyone in the media were doing their job, they would be after this story. They would be going on this story and saying, "What is the deal" on this. But they are leaving it up to us on Fox News and the blogs.
Here's what the story is. If you are the administrator, you know, in your company, let's say you're, you know, Bill's Car Lot and you are the guy who is processing all of the cash for clunkers thing. You get on your computer and you type in all of the information, you go onto the website, you click on something and it comes up and it says, warning, you are entering a secure site. Okay? You've seen that warning before. You go to input more information about who's going to buy this car and this warning comes up on the screen: This application provides access to the DOT CARS system. When logged onto the CARS system, your computer is considered a federal computer system and it is property of the United States government.
Now, you want to talk about eminent domain, what the heck is ‑‑ wait a minute. Wasn't this just my computer? Just by logging on, your computer becomes property of the United States government. Now, we started calling the United States government and asking them, could you please give us a reason why ‑‑ I mean, this thing gets much, much worse than this ‑‑ but why this disclaimer is there? Why are you doing this? We have yet to receive a response.
Any or all uses of this system, any or all uses of this system and all files on this system may be intercepted, monitored, recorded, copied, audited, inspected, and disclosed to authorized CARS, DOT, and law enforcement personnel as well as all authorized officials of other agencies, both domestic and foreign. By using this system, the user consents to such interception, monitoring, recording, copying, auditing, inspecting and disclosure at the discretion of CARS or the DOT personnel.
Why in God's name would you put "I accept"? Now, we've talked to four attorneys and all four attorneys have said, their exact quote was, dear God in heaven, or something like that. Why would you give the federal government this kind of power? Why would the federal government need this sort of power?
Now, they're going to make the case, I assume ‑‑ again they don't respond to us. I would assume that they are going to make the case that, "Well, we just wanted to make sure that nothing nefarious is going on at these car dealerships because there's an awful lot of money going into these car dealerships for tax dollars." Okay. That's cool. I appreciate your protection. You're doing such a fine job in monitoring our tax dollars there on the computers that you already own in Washington. But wouldn't that ‑‑ don't you already have this power? If you think something is going on, don't you have the power? I believe it's called a subpoena. What you're doing here, what the federal government is doing is a fishing expedition.
Now, these blogs have come out this weekend and said, "Oh, there goes Glenn Beck trying to stir up trouble again. It doesn't affect the average person. It's just the car dealerships." I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It's just the car dealerships. Oh, so then I shouldn't care? It's not the average people? It's just the average people who are in small business running the car dealerships.
Now, it's very interesting to look at the language. I'm not an attorney, but I never play one on the air. But let me ask you this: Why does the federal government now consider these computers a part of the federal computer system, a part of the federal computer system? It can be ‑‑ all files on this computer system may be intercepted. What does that mean? That means anything coming into the computer. Any kind of e‑mail can be intercepted, monitored. You're on ‑‑ if this car dealership happens to use Skype, they can now monitor that Skype conversation. Wouldn't that be something that you also need a subpoena for or something to clear for eavesdropping?
STU: Not if you agree to it.
GLENN: Exactly right.
PAT: Are these not the same people that were so concerned about, "the wiretapping, the warrantless wiretapping, George Bush is listening to our conversations..."
GLENN: This is an actual case ‑‑
PAT: Yeah.
GLENN: ‑‑ of they can listen to your conversations. If they use Skype on that computer and call you. Now, I don't know how regular that is, but it is certainly something that we should never say, "Oh, well, it's no big deal."
Now, the other question that has been raised by attorneys to me is the federal computer system. By using this system, the user consents to these things, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So if you're part of the system, well, where is the end of your system? So in other words, we know that the feds say you're part of the computer system of the federal government. Well, that would imply that it is a giant octopus. That would imply that it has tentacles everywhere. It's not just that one computer that is at CARS or DOT. It's not just that one computer. That one computer is connected to the federal government system. So your computer now becomes part of that system. But what about the system that your computer is connected to? Is that system considered it? Or is it just this one computer? So in other words, if I go on and I am sharing files with someone, is that computer that I reach out to and share files with, is that also now part of the system? Can they follow that file into someone else's system? Don't know. It's written in such a broad form that, yes, you could interpret it that way. Are they going to do that? I don't know. But why would ‑‑ they want to audit you? They want to inspect, copy, record, monitor, intercept? I know it's just the car dealers, but aren't your records ‑‑ have you not bought a car at a car dealership? Have you ever done that? I know I have. I've never bought at a candy store. So do they now have records of everything that I have done? Do they ‑‑ how long is the cash for clunkers? I have heard ‑‑ and I don't know if this is true. This sounds so unreasonable that I can't believe it's true. They say the cash for clunkers form is like 30 pages long.
STU: The instructions are 136 pages.
GLENN: No, no, no. If you come in and turn your car in, it's like 30 pages of questions.
STU: So you just have to fill out 30 pages, then add on 136 pages of instructions.
GLENN: I don't know if that's true. But if that's true, what kind of questions ‑‑ has anybody turned their car in for clunker, as a clunker? Because I'd like to hear from you. What kind of questions are they asking? And is your information now, when you go to the dealership, if you go buy a car from them, because their computers are now considered federal government property, anything that they ‑‑ any transaction that you do with them, is that now, does that open you up at all? This is insane.
http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/198/28815/
