Revealing the extra-constitutional and criminal actions of the Government is merit. If laws are established to protect the abrogation of law, there is no rule-of-law at all.
Yesterday, Democracy Now had an extraordinary program devoted to America's Surveillance State. The show had three guests, each of whose treatment by the U.S. Government reflects how invasive, dangerous and out-of-control America's Surveillance State has become:
William Binney: he worked at the NSA for almost 40 years, and resigned in October, 2001, in protest of the NSA's turn to domestic spying. Binney immediately went to the House Intelligence Committee to warn them of the illegal spying the NSA was doing, and that resulted in nothing. In July, 2007 - while then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was testifying before the Senate about Bush's warrantless NSA spying program - Binney's home was invaded by a dozen FBI agents, who pointed guns at him, in an obvious effort to intimidate him out of telling the Senate the falsehoods and omissions in Gonzales' testimony about NSA domestic spying (another NSA whistleblower, Thomas Drake, had his home searched several months later, and was subsequently prosecuted by the Obama DOJ - unsuccessfully - for his whistleblowing).
Jacob Appelbaum: an Internet security expert and hacker, he is currently at the University of Washington and engaged in some of the world's most important work in the fight for Internet freedom. He's a key member of the Tor Project, which is devoted to enabling people around the world to use the Internet with complete anonymity: so as to thwart government surveillance and to prevent nation-based Internet censorship. In 2010, he was also identified as a spokesman for WikiLeaks. Rolling Stone dubbed him "The Most Dangerous Man in Cyberspace," writing: "In a sense, he's a bizarro version of Mark Zuckerberg: If Facebook's ambition is to âmake the world more open and connected,' Appelbaum has dedicated his life to fighting for anonymity and privacy. . . . 'I don't want to live in a world where everyone is watched all the time,' he says. âI want to be left alone as much as possible. I don't want a data trail to tell a story that isn't true'."
For the last two years, Appelbaum has been repeatedly detained and harassed at American airports upon his return to the country, including having his laptops and cellphone seized - all without a search warrant, of course - and never returned. The U.S. Government has issued secret orders to Internet providers demanding they provide information about his email communications and social networking activities. He's never been charged with, let alone convicted of, any crime.
Laura Poitras: she is the filmmaker about whom I wrote two weeks ago. After producing an Oscar-nominated film on the American occupation of Iraq, followed by a documentary about U.S. treatment of Islamic radicals in Yemen, she has been detained, searched, and interrogated every time she has returned to the U.S. She, too, has had her laptop and cell phone seized without a search warrant, and her reporters' notes repeatedly copied. This harassment has intensified as she works on her latest film about America's Surveillance State and the war on whistleblowers, which includes - among other things - interviews with NSA whistleblowers such as Binney and Drake.
So just look at what happens to people in the U.S. if they challenge government actions in any meaningful way - if they engage in any meaningful dissent. We love to tell ourselves that there are robust political freedoms and a thriving free political press in the U.S. because you're allowed to have an MSNBC show or blog in order to proclaim every day how awesome and magnanimous the President of the United States is and how terrible his GOP political adversaries are - how brave, cutting and edgy! - or to go on Fox News and do the opposite. But people who are engaged in actual dissent, outside the tiny and narrow permissible boundaries of pom-pom waving for one of the two political parties - those who are focused on the truly significant acts which the government and its owners are doing in secret - a
Why? This is not really an engineering project, but a business enterprise trying to create "facts on the ground" with nuclear deployments, before the outright ban of the technology.
The legal and forensic arguments from which this action stem are a part of American policy which can, in fact apply to any jurisdiction. Taken pretty strictly as it is defined, the policy can be expressed: "Look, We're the FBI. That means your fucked, no matter what you do."
All movement is accomplished in six stages And the seventh brings return. The seven is the number of the young light It forms when darkness is increased by one.
Change returns success Going and coming without error. Action brings good fortune. Sunset.
"Virtually every car that has an air bag has some kind of recording ability," says James Casassa, of Wolf Forensics which specializes in downloading crash information from vehicles made by GM, Ford, Chrysler, Toyota and Honda. The recorders capture information about how fast you were going and whether you slammed on the brakes in the seconds before and after a crash. They capture just a snapshot before and after a crash, not a continual record of your driving activity -- which would be far more concerning for privacy. (But don't worry! You can get a far more invasive event recorder from your insurance company if you're looking to lower your car insurance rates.)
Well, isolationism had its challenges with the Monroe doctrine, a bit. "The Americas are OUR colonial Empire! Back off, House of Bourbon!"
Isolationism also saw itself upended in the Spanish American war. "Hello, Philippines! I'd like you to have my babies, just don't ask for child support!"
But, yeah. The kicker was the HORRIBLE Wilson presidency, which saw the US cut and divided in so many ways, as a spoils for international industrial capital. Federal Reserve Act, 16th Amendment and the April 6th Declaration of 1917 are all deeply linked, and part of the dismantlement of the basis on which the Republic was founded and instituted, between 1776 and 1789.
Slashdot Mirror
Revealing the extra-constitutional and criminal actions of the Government is merit. If laws are established to protect the abrogation of law, there is no rule-of-law at all.
From Glen Greenwald's latest:
I know Blackpool. It was where you'd go for holiday, 'til it got cheaper to visit Greece in the 90's. :-P
After all, the Thames estuary can't be hurt by a few anthropogenic earthquakes, now? Can it?
One cultural indicator is determining the relative importance of The Beatles vs. Nirvana - or Earth Wind and Fire vs. Tupac.
Boomers and Xers generally fall on different sides of those lines.
Just because you buy her a steak, doesn't mean she's GOT to sleep with you!
I'm being a little bit farcical with my comment. Born in late '64, I am "the last of the boomers".
Close enough to understand and ID the foibles and phenomena, but also really keyed to what were "GenX/Slacker" milestones and ethos.
Heh! We were 20 somethings, that hated the 80's as the happened!
Boomer "science". :-)
"Look! We're still the center of the unverse! The reason for human existence!"
Calm down, Grandpa.
"She Blinded ME!"
Hence: Global Climate "Science"
Why? This is not really an engineering project, but a business enterprise trying to create "facts on the ground" with nuclear deployments, before the outright ban of the technology.
Call it a "fission expedition".
CompuServe and Delphi, Here I come!
I think that I still have my shell account on the NeXT cube in the compute lab, too. Quota on the optical is 2MB.
The legal and forensic arguments from which this action stem are a part of American policy which can, in fact apply to any jurisdiction. Taken pretty strictly as it is defined, the policy can be expressed: "Look, We're the FBI. That means your fucked, no matter what you do."
Stop agreeing with me, pedantically.
All movement is accomplished in six stages
And the seventh brings return.
The seven is the number of the young light
It forms when darkness is increased by one.
Change returns success
Going and coming without error.
Action brings good fortune.
Sunset.
Sorry. Only first-hand anecdote.
Can we all just agree it's 1999 again, and have a "do over"?
Also, if your car as On*Star, snip the antennae, and short the thing out.
They track your location, and listen to your cabin conversations in real-time.
There is a not insignificant parsing complexity.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/04/19/hate-to-break-it-to-you-but-your-car-likely-has-a-black-box-spying-on-you-already/
Well, isolationism had its challenges with the Monroe doctrine, a bit. "The Americas are OUR colonial Empire! Back off, House of Bourbon!"
Isolationism also saw itself upended in the Spanish American war. "Hello, Philippines! I'd like you to have my babies, just don't ask for child support!"
But, yeah. The kicker was the HORRIBLE Wilson presidency, which saw the US cut and divided in so many ways, as a spoils for international industrial capital. Federal Reserve Act, 16th Amendment and the April 6th Declaration of 1917 are all deeply linked, and part of the dismantlement of the basis on which the Republic was founded and instituted, between 1776 and 1789.
"SO GO FUCK YOURSELF SIDEWAYS YOU FUCKING COCK SUCKING FAGGOT."
Hence, the inability of Slashdot to succeed in attracting advertisers.
Oh, fuck!
What happened?
I think I just ported Gimp.
So. THAT'S what you're calling it, these days.
Well, it beats "Stinky Pink Twinkie Time".
Are you SURE?
God Bless America, and All Who Sail on Her!
I'd buy one of these, but I'm saving up to pay my CARBON TAXES!
Do they bark and scratch, just like their American counterparts?