Worthless MSM has moved from constant talk of Obama or Romney to a fiscal cliff mantra while trillions in police state surveillance programs expand domestic spying operations with no check on the cost or to taxpayers or civil liberties.  When Washington can't even manage the basics of responsible spending why in the world are they allowed to micromanage spying on the public?

How in the world can they sort any usable information from all the public buses when they can't find contractor fraud in Pentagon paperwork?

 

Transit authorities in cities across the country are quietly installing microphone-enabled surveillance systems on public buses that would give them the ability to record and store private conversations, according to documents obtained by a news outlet.

The systems are being installed in San Francisco, Baltimore, and other cities with funding from the Department of Homeland Security in some cases, according to the Daily, which obtained copies of contracts, procurement requests, specs and other documents.

The use of the equipment raises serious questions about eavesdropping without a warrant, particularly since recordings of passengers could be obtained and used by law enforcement agencies.

It also raises questions about security, since the IP audio-video systems can be accessed remotely via a built-in web server (.pdf), and can be combined with GPS data to track the movement of buses and passengers throughout the city.