Telephone tapping

Telephone tapping (also wire tapping or wiretapping in American English) is the monitoring of telephone and Internet conversations by a third party, often by covert means. The wire tap received its name because, historically, the monitoring connection was an actual electrical tap on the telephone line. Legal wiretapping by a government agency is also called lawful interception. Passive wiretapping monitors or records the traffic, while active wiretapping alters or otherwise affects it.

Legal status

Lawful interception is officially strictly controlled in many countries to safeguard privacy; this is the case in all developed democracies. In theory, telephone tapping often needs to be authorized by a court, and is, again in theory, normally only approved when evidence shows it is not possible to detect criminal or subversive activity in less intrusive ways; often the law and regulations require that the crime investigated must be at least of a certain severity. Illegal or unauthorized telephone tapping is often a criminal offense. However, in certain jurisdictions such as Germany and France, courts will accept illegally recorded phone calls without the other party's consent as evidence, but the unauthorized telephone tapping will still be prosecuted.

Jimmy Dore

James Patrick "Jimmy" Dore (born July 26, 1965) is an American stand-up comedian. Dore started performing in 1989.

Life and career

Dore was born into and raised in a Catholic family of 12 on the southwest side of Chicago, Illinois. He is the star of several Comedy Central specials, host of The Jimmy Dore Show, and a writer–performer for the Off-Broadway hit The Marijuana -Logues. His hour-long Comedy Central Special Citizen Jimmy was chosen Best Of 2008 by iTunes, and was named one of the Top 5 Comedy DVDs of 2008 by Punchline Magazine. Jimmy Dore's latest comedy special Sentenced to Live was released on October 6, 2015.

Dore currently lives in Pasadena, California, and hosts his own monthly show Left, Right & Ridiculous at the UCB theater in Hollywood. Much of his recent material is focused on the absurdity of the corporate news media, social criticism, and modern politics. In June 2009 he began producing The Jimmy Dore Show, a one-hour comedic look at the news, which originates at KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles, airs nationally on the Pacifica Network and on the web via The Young Turk's Network. He also hosts the podcast Comedy And Everything Else with his wife Stefane Zamorano and formerly with Todd Glass, who departed from the show in late 2009.