Linux shminux. Just notice how many stories there are lately on/. and elsewhere showing Russia and a negative light. Our marketing machine is running overtime to change public opinion and shape the debate on and around the whistleblower Snowden (correction, Spy named Snowden). Do you know how many resources it takes to stuff/. submission systems and voting AND every similar news channels out there. Lucky for us the media echo chamber helps us do our work for us, most people cant smell the propaganda if we had an army of monkeys throw that shit at them. The focus is on Snowden and all who offer him help and asylum, NOT the actual details of what he has revealed and how far we can peer into everyones lives. Please ignore this new news, it is nothing new everyone knew this was happening anyway, Snowden is a liar, we will scramble countries to bring down air force one jets/presidents if we think you might harbor him. Just carry on with your life in the glass house... and please, do not even think of moving to encryption solutions - SSL is perfect as it is, and forget voting us out or taking away our power - we know what you do at night and can identify the key players in all your civil movements before your email even hits anyones inbox...
Tour conclusion does not seem to fit the facts, please correct me if wrong.
Correa is trying to nationalize the press
His goverment has taken almost 100% private media (of seven networks, five were owned by the banking cartel) and divided the airspace into 33% PRIVATE OWNED, 33% run by community groups governed and run by local communities/university/cultural - i.e. not run by the party in power - verified by UNESCO, remaining 33% state owned media. A far cry from your "nationalize [all] the press" assertion.
Correa prosecuted his own defamation case
I know of no country where if you sue for libel, you do not have to hire your own prosecutors to act on your behalf. Or perhaps your trying to imply that the court system is not independent in Ecuador - if so that is a grave claim I would like to see your evidence. Despite winning the court battle, Correa pardoned the reporters involved - the point had been made: Ecuador, like the rest of the world, does not tolerate blatant libel. Even the fines placed on the reporters fall far below what they would of got if the equivalent happened here in the US, say if NY Times started accusing Obama of being a dictator then invent a story about him ordering troops to open fire on civilians. Even the fines were pardoned as well. The only unusual thing about this is that libel is a criminal offense in Ecuador, but as you incorrectly believed in your first post, this is not a law passed by the current goverment - the opposite is true and they are in the process of repealing it (apparently, according to UNESCO). You can be forgiven for not knowing this - mass corporate media is always suggesting this criminal penalty is something new that Correas goverment introduced. The truth turned upside down.
Do not take my word for any of this, read the UNESCO report posted in this thread. I do not think your trolling like others have said in this thread, I believe your just repeating what mass media has been pounding out for years on all channels. Ecuador might be setting an example for other countries to follow - how to reign in corporate controlled medias death grip over society. Here is a news source which prides itself in being independent and defiantly not mass media talking points, which I hope will be more informative for you than wherever you have been getting your news to date. You will find both sides of the debate here - some making much more damaging accusations against Ecuador than you have raised:
Ill just end by repeating the point I originally made: Ecuador is attempting to tackle the problem of an overwhelming corporate controlled press acting in self interest only is damaging for society. Ecuador has seen more than its fair share of this destruction (check its history under former governments - see second video "Ecuador Vs the Banks" also refers to it) - and it is attempting to tackle the issue head on. The only country I know of trying to do so in an intelligent way (see UNESCO report linked in this thread for details).
References? Please, name those people that have gone to jail - provide a link? Please share since AFAIK the only people that have been sentenced to jail over that affair were reporters, and were done so by the courts on defamation charges. Defamation law requires criminal penalties - draconian left over from a previous extreme right wing goverment. Criminal penalties for defamation are in the process of being repealed (apparently - see UNESCO report above). The kicker - those reporters were pardoned and never went to jail.
So please, cough up some evidence, or are you just you just another shill with the typical rehtoric and media dumbing down talking points?
True, but public media is a thin line of defense that is very quickly being eroded. Saying that state-run media is relatively free of corporate influence is like saying that their politicians and power brokers are relatively free of corporate influence... i.e, not by much if at all.
You do not have to look far to see the cracks. I have already Mentioned Spain governments firing any reporter that steps out of party line - and in Spain the banks own the two main political parties, lock, stock, and barrel. BBCs behavior in the drum beating leading up to all the latest decade plus of middle east wars is worse than shameful - following Tony Blairs US set agenda to the T. In Australia the government cant cut the ABCs budget enough year after year, so now they might as well be a private interconnected company given that they have to go hat in hand to advertisers just to make basic broadcasting costs. New right wing goverment set to win big the next election there will probably be the final nail in the ABCs coffin.
You say "passing laws to make it illegal to criticize the president". With all due respect that is typical muddy the debate tactics, and not factually correct. The facts is that all countries have defamation laws, just that Ecuador has criminal penalties for defamation which is unusual and extreme by comparison. You imply that this is a law made by Correas government - which it is not. It is a punishment for defamations passed by and left over from previous extreme right wing government. If you read the UNESCO report I posted earlier in this thread you will see that the current government is set to repeal this draconian left over from previous governments - NOT pass more of them as you imply.
Of course, I will believe it when I see it but it is encouraging that Correa has pardoned anyone the courts have found guilty using this old draconian penalties for defamation law. As for defamation law itself, what would other western countries do if the major newspaper started yelling on the front page that the president is a dictator and ordered government troops to kill innocent civilians... when that message is completely factually incorrect?
I encourage you to read up more on the facts before posting more mass media dumbing down talking points on Ecuador.
A follow up link (pdf) with much more information and an in depth study into Ecuadorian media by UNESCO - for those that are interested in more than the 20,000ft overview with simplifications/possible inaccuracies that I gave above...
Sorry your right. I meant to say "interconnected corporations" or corporations with conflicts of interest. - not that corporations per se are bad for media. Also letting mass media information market "news" when it is not news is very controversial (see "Fox News Has a First Amendment Right to Lie – Updated" for a lawyers take).
The media has done their job well, that is they have actively assisted in the dumbing down of america.
You are correct, but lets be clear: "The Media" is overwhelmingly dominated by corporations, and it is not just Americas problem. Those corporations are overwhelmingly interconnected with the interests of a vast array of other unrelated businesses, be it just advertising revenue or outright arms of the same corporation. The mass corporate media is using FUD/muddying the waters/dumbing down just enough to make the majority of voters for political reasons, they are doing so because it is good business for other arms of their corporation and their partners.
This is also the reason the mass worldwide corporate media react so violently, distort the facts as far as to turn them upside down, make unfounded extreme accusations when any country or individual calls out the massive, obviously society destroying conflicts of interest that we have today in corporate media. Imagine what the worlds media combined do when a country starts to pass media and airspace legislation to even up the playing field with more to share the space with social organizations (say 33% government channels, 33% private companies with no other business interests in country, 33% to social groups and organizations)? Well no need to imagine, we have a good example: Ecuador. If your first reaction to naming Ecuador as a shining example is that you start frothing at the mouth, wanting to post AC to educate me on "the human rights abuses", "censorship", "repression"... etc etc of Ecuador - then you are knee-jerk reacting, a product of the pervasive mass media dumbing down we are talking about here. There are even " international press freedom organizations" lining up to condemn the country - all of them with dubious shady origins when you look into the details and all of them making claims that dont add up when you look critically into the facts. If your one of those then you owe it to yourself to read the link provided and do a bit of searching outside of mass media channels on this topic. Ecuador is the only country I know of that is attempting to tackle front on the conflict of interest that dominates mass media today (Apart from some organizations - Wiklleaks Party is trying to make it part of their election campaign in Australia, see "Can we trust the media").
For example Rafael Correa told a well known Spanish interviewer Anita Pastor, and a paraphrase, "How could we reform the banking system when 80% of the countries media was owned by banks". As an aside, Anita Pastor during the course of the interview claimed that the worlds press was free and independent. In a stroke of irony she was fired shortly after by an incoming government due to asking the ministers uncomfortable questions during the election campaign. The same government and the other major party in Spain has now passed decrees in true American style,that all election interviews will be controlled, with controlled questions in a controlled marketing directed act. They have even changed the government controlled media so that all stories pass by them before being published. Just like nearly every other western country now. Free press, indeed.
"you are a chicken, you were born a chicken, and when you were but a little chick you watched a big spider with an orange body and green legs. You watched her build her web, then one day there's a big egg in it. The egg hatched and a hundred baby spiders came out... and you ate them all."
Maybe your right. Or maybe they have watched the US continually lower the bar for illegally kidnapping people... (sorry it is called "extraordinary rendition" now). If not kidnapping then you never know when politicians will cut a deal that happens to includes your head...
The indictment is from 2009. Two of the 5 men were arrested last year. The other three men are on the run most likely hiding out somewhere in Russia, and suddenly this is offered up as new "news" for the masses to contemplate. Could we be seeing some Snowden kickback - time to drag the words "Russia"/"Russian" through the dirt as much as possible for not handing over the US whisteblower Edward Snowden. The battle here is all about public opinion, after all - because they sure cant win against him based on morality, or even the law.
Does the name COINTELPRO mean anything to you? Decades ago the government used illegal surveillance to attempt to quash the civil rights movement. What assurances do we have that they won't do this again? Why should we believe they have good intentions at all when they cannot comply with the 4th amendment?
Exactly -this is why it is a big deal arekin (GP). When the government pretty much knows everything about everyone - then there is no more ability to effectively and democratically reform society for the better, right injustices, fight to change the status quo etc. For example try and organize a rally, information drive, any form of community organization against or for [insert cause]. If it upsets those in power you will be picked up/harassed/fired/detained before any of your emails/chats/phone calls to organize democratically allowed protest even hit anyones inbox. This is not speculation, all these police state things have already happened. One recent example: if you care to look into the details of one particular movement called "Occupy" that threatened the heart of power and money by asking for those in wall street that broke laws to actually be punished for their crimes.
Allowing the surveillance state means any slippery sloped we are now on with just continue to get worse, no leaders in our community can take charge to organize others to resist/complain/pushback against [insert cause]. History has given us enough examples now to know that if we do not reject the surveillance state we now find ourselves living in, then we really do deserve everything that is coming...
You're spending ALL day EVERY day spewing pro-NSA propaganda.
Lets not forget the slow and steady downmodding over hours/days/weeks of any well reasoned posts/facts that tear down Cold Fjords frequently used straw-man arguments. What really worries me is how often he gets his stories posted on Slashdot - WTF is with that!?
Best bet is to just use the flag post report on his more dubious posts (there are plenty to go around).
The organization would have to be multi-national with preference for countries with strong privacy and anti-foreign-spying stances - Iceland is one that springs to mind. The FISA secret rubber stamp court (please refer to it by its proper name) would be worthless then if the organization had the balls to stand up to any additional threats that the NSA is known to level against those that do not roll over to their demands.
You are missing the point amiga3D. When "the government pretty much knows everything about [everyone] now anyway" - then there is no more ability to effectively and democratically reform society for the better, right injustices, fight to change the status quo etc. For example try and organize a rally, information drive, any form of community organization against or for [insert cause]. If it upsets those in power you will be picked up/harassed/fired/detained before any of your emails/chats/phone calls to organize democratically allowed protest even hit anyones inbox. This is not speculation, all these police state things have already happened. One recent example: if you care to look into the details of one particular movement called "Occupy..." that threatened the heart of power and money by asking for those in wall street that broke laws to actually be punished for their crimes.
Allowing the surveillance state means any slippery sloped we are now on with just continue to get worse, no leaders in our community can take charge to organize others to resist/complain/pushback against [insert cause]. What Taantric said is correct, history has given us enough examples now to know that if we do not reject the surveillance state we now find ourselves living in, then we really do deserve everything that is coming...
Be careful; cold fjord might reply to you and spam a million links that don't demonstrate that security is more important than freedom and probably aren't even relevant.
Worse, As all good propaganda mouthpieces should have - Cold Fjord appears to have an army of accounts/mod points to blast your karma to kingdom come, fairly easy to spot when you check the details/timestamps. I wonder what his exact relationship is with slashdot editors is, given his record getting obvious propaganda placements posted by them. Perhaps there is a gag order covering that too...
We have become a country for the rich and by the rich, subject to foriegn powers. Our property is being sold out from underneath us, our laws have become mutable. There is little responsibilty in government, and even less in the corporate sector.
Well, seriously, you New Zealanders did vote for this (like every other country facing this same shit). Face the music or change it at the next election. Of course sheeple will just continue to vote for whoever the rich tell us to vote for (via their mass media channels).
Google, Amazon and Microsoft can't be trusted with your data, but it's better than taking the risk of having a little downtime due to a freak accident.
Exactly what I was thinking. Part of the two (three?) pronged PR strategy to stem the hemorrhaging of international customers due to the Whistlblower Snowden revelations and subsequent fallout:
Step 1: "We are planning (only planning we dont want to rock the boat too hard), a very stern letter to the feds. Even so, we only comply with the law, pinky promise. Ignore those docs Snowden released showing the contrary and our willingness to hand your cloud/email/chat/phone data over to not only 'the feds' but every private Military Industrial Complex company out there, such as Booz Allen."
Step 2: Fear! Yes make them fear if they not not using cloud servers - drunks could take out their servers OMG!
Step 3:...?
They are fighting an uphill batter to regain trust - you would be mad or incredible ignorant to hand private information over to these companies given what they have done...
Notice how they keep using the phrase 'We do not provide any government...'? That's 'cause the NSA uses private contractors - like Snowden - to do the dirty work. There's lots more evasive lawyer-speak there too.
Your right there, if you actually read the "series of clarifying remarks" - it is all lawyer weasel words aimed to try and persuade those that are left to listen, "there is nothing to see here, we comply with the law". Seriously - trust, once lost, is going to seriously hard to earn back for all these tech companies in bed with the Military Industrial Complex. We may not be able to do much immediately to rein in an out of control surveillance state run by the private and unaccountable MIC, but we sure as hell can vote with our feet by abandoning these big tech companies services, and encouraging those less informed about this whole debacle that they should too.
Now, just have to encourage in every way possible the development of easy to use default on encryption solutions for email (like OTR provides for chat). Also why the hell isnt slashdot offering https yet - apathy helps the sorry state of affairs continue...
Startpage looks great, if it is indeed legitimate and not some spook front. Will be giving it a go and watching out for more news about the company behind it... thanks for the reference
How can this be modded off-topic: DHS is all about immigration control. The story even says "make our immigration system more fair and focused while deploying record resources to protect our nation's borders;". 100 Billion certainly sounds like "record resources", but the real story certainly does not sound like it is more fair.
but the detractors always say that the right wing will get a place of power. Well, that's part of the public opinion. There's also the significant majority who aren't aligned that way, so we still end up with sane minds getting things done.
As various South American countries bucking the world trend and posting rising living standards are pointing out from their 80s experience: Unfortunately public opinion usually always just happens to go with whatever goal mass media sets. Unfortunately for Australia that means Rupert Murdoch's goal. Throw in the fact that there are no laws that prevent marketing information as "news", but then when the information they delivered is actually challenged in court, the media class can get off any charges by claiming that news is actually entertainment after all and they have no obligation to tell the truth - then yeah, public opinion is a fickle thing. Witness the mass campaign to change the word "WhistleBlower" to "Spy" re:Snowden, as one small example of changing public opinion, one "news" broadcast at a time.
Unfortunately the two dominant parties are all on-board with this shit. Unless there is a mass migration to third parties (Like Greens, Wikileaks party, Pirate Party...) that form a coalition bigger than Labor/Liberal together, then the two main parties will just continue to do as they have been the last few years - voting in police state expansion of ASIO powers, giving Tesltra the all clear to send private sensitive Aussie data to foreign corporations, etc. Admitedly Aussies have more chance of handing power to third parties than the does US - but it is a reeeally long shot when Rupert Murdoch controls 70%+ of the countries media (and by extension, their hearts and minds).
Slashdot Mirror
/sacasm
Tour conclusion does not seem to fit the facts, please correct me if wrong.
Correa is trying to nationalize the press
His goverment has taken almost 100% private media (of seven networks, five were owned by the banking cartel) and divided the airspace into 33% PRIVATE OWNED, 33% run by community groups governed and run by local communities/university/cultural - i.e. not run by the party in power - verified by UNESCO, remaining 33% state owned media. A far cry from your "nationalize [all] the press" assertion.
Correa prosecuted his own defamation case
I know of no country where if you sue for libel, you do not have to hire your own prosecutors to act on your behalf. Or perhaps your trying to imply that the court system is not independent in Ecuador - if so that is a grave claim I would like to see your evidence. Despite winning the court battle, Correa pardoned the reporters involved - the point had been made: Ecuador, like the rest of the world, does not tolerate blatant libel. Even the fines placed on the reporters fall far below what they would of got if the equivalent happened here in the US, say if NY Times started accusing Obama of being a dictator then invent a story about him ordering troops to open fire on civilians. Even the fines were pardoned as well. The only unusual thing about this is that libel is a criminal offense in Ecuador, but as you incorrectly believed in your first post, this is not a law passed by the current goverment - the opposite is true and they are in the process of repealing it (apparently, according to UNESCO). You can be forgiven for not knowing this - mass corporate media is always suggesting this criminal penalty is something new that Correas goverment introduced. The truth turned upside down.
Do not take my word for any of this, read the UNESCO report posted in this thread. I do not think your trolling like others have said in this thread, I believe your just repeating what mass media has been pounding out for years on all channels. Ecuador might be setting an example for other countries to follow - how to reign in corporate controlled medias death grip over society. Here is a news source which prides itself in being independent and defiantly not mass media talking points, which I hope will be more informative for you than wherever you have been getting your news to date. You will find both sides of the debate here - some making much more damaging accusations against Ecuador than you have raised:
Ecuador's President Attacks US Over Press Freedom Critique
Ecuador vs The Bankers
Ill just end by repeating the point I originally made: Ecuador is attempting to tackle the problem of an overwhelming corporate controlled press acting in self interest only is damaging for society. Ecuador has seen more than its fair share of this destruction (check its history under former governments - see second video "Ecuador Vs the Banks" also refers to it) - and it is attempting to tackle the issue head on. The only country I know of trying to do so in an intelligent way (see UNESCO report linked in this thread for details).
So please, cough up some evidence, or are you just you just another shill with the typical rehtoric and media dumbing down talking points?
True, but public media is a thin line of defense that is very quickly being eroded. Saying that state-run media is relatively free of corporate influence is like saying that their politicians and power brokers are relatively free of corporate influence... i.e, not by much if at all.
You do not have to look far to see the cracks. I have already Mentioned Spain governments firing any reporter that steps out of party line - and in Spain the banks own the two main political parties, lock, stock, and barrel. BBCs behavior in the drum beating leading up to all the latest decade plus of middle east wars is worse than shameful - following Tony Blairs US set agenda to the T. In Australia the government cant cut the ABCs budget enough year after year, so now they might as well be a private interconnected company given that they have to go hat in hand to advertisers just to make basic broadcasting costs. New right wing goverment set to win big the next election there will probably be the final nail in the ABCs coffin.
You say "passing laws to make it illegal to criticize the president". With all due respect that is typical muddy the debate tactics, and not factually correct. The facts is that all countries have defamation laws, just that Ecuador has criminal penalties for defamation which is unusual and extreme by comparison. You imply that this is a law made by Correas government - which it is not. It is a punishment for defamations passed by and left over from previous extreme right wing government. If you read the UNESCO report I posted earlier in this thread you will see that the current government is set to repeal this draconian left over from previous governments - NOT pass more of them as you imply.
Of course, I will believe it when I see it but it is encouraging that Correa has pardoned anyone the courts have found guilty using this old draconian penalties for defamation law. As for defamation law itself, what would other western countries do if the major newspaper started yelling on the front page that the president is a dictator and ordered government troops to kill innocent civilians... when that message is completely factually incorrect?
I encourage you to read up more on the facts before posting more mass media dumbing down talking points on Ecuador.
A follow up link (pdf) with much more information and an in depth study into Ecuadorian media by UNESCO - for those that are interested in more than the 20,000ft overview with simplifications/possible inaccuracies that I gave above...
Sorry your right. I meant to say "interconnected corporations" or corporations with conflicts of interest. - not that corporations per se are bad for media. Also letting mass media information market "news" when it is not news is very controversial (see "Fox News Has a First Amendment Right to Lie – Updated" for a lawyers take).
The media has done their job well, that is they have actively assisted in the dumbing down of america.
You are correct, but lets be clear: "The Media" is overwhelmingly dominated by corporations, and it is not just Americas problem. Those corporations are overwhelmingly interconnected with the interests of a vast array of other unrelated businesses, be it just advertising revenue or outright arms of the same corporation. The mass corporate media is using FUD/muddying the waters/dumbing down just enough to make the majority of voters for political reasons, they are doing so because it is good business for other arms of their corporation and their partners.
This is also the reason the mass worldwide corporate media react so violently, distort the facts as far as to turn them upside down, make unfounded extreme accusations when any country or individual calls out the massive, obviously society destroying conflicts of interest that we have today in corporate media. Imagine what the worlds media combined do when a country starts to pass media and airspace legislation to even up the playing field with more to share the space with social organizations (say 33% government channels, 33% private companies with no other business interests in country, 33% to social groups and organizations)? Well no need to imagine, we have a good example: Ecuador. If your first reaction to naming Ecuador as a shining example is that you start frothing at the mouth, wanting to post AC to educate me on "the human rights abuses", "censorship", "repression"... etc etc of Ecuador - then you are knee-jerk reacting, a product of the pervasive mass media dumbing down we are talking about here. There are even " international press freedom organizations" lining up to condemn the country - all of them with dubious shady origins when you look into the details and all of them making claims that dont add up when you look critically into the facts. If your one of those then you owe it to yourself to read the link provided and do a bit of searching outside of mass media channels on this topic. Ecuador is the only country I know of that is attempting to tackle front on the conflict of interest that dominates mass media today (Apart from some organizations - Wiklleaks Party is trying to make it part of their election campaign in Australia, see "Can we trust the media").
For example Rafael Correa told a well known Spanish interviewer Anita Pastor, and a paraphrase, "How could we reform the banking system when 80% of the countries media was owned by banks". As an aside, Anita Pastor during the course of the interview claimed that the worlds press was free and independent. In a stroke of irony she was fired shortly after by an incoming government due to asking the ministers uncomfortable questions during the election campaign. The same government and the other major party in Spain has now passed decrees in true American style,that all election interviews will be controlled, with controlled questions in a controlled marketing directed act. They have even changed the government controlled media so that all stories pass by them before being published. Just like nearly every other western country now. Free press, indeed.
"you are a chicken, you were born a chicken, and when you were but a little chick you watched a big spider with an orange body and green legs. You watched her build her web, then one day there's a big egg in it. The egg hatched and a hundred baby spiders came out... and you ate them all."
Maybe your right. Or maybe they have watched the US continually lower the bar for illegally kidnapping people... (sorry it is called "extraordinary rendition" now). If not kidnapping then you never know when politicians will cut a deal that happens to includes your head...
The indictment is from 2009. Two of the 5 men were arrested last year. The other three men are on the run most likely hiding out somewhere in Russia, and suddenly this is offered up as new "news" for the masses to contemplate. Could we be seeing some Snowden kickback - time to drag the words "Russia"/"Russian" through the dirt as much as possible for not handing over the US whisteblower Edward Snowden. The battle here is all about public opinion, after all - because they sure cant win against him based on morality, or even the law.
Does the name COINTELPRO mean anything to you? Decades ago the government used illegal surveillance to attempt to quash the civil rights movement. What assurances do we have that they won't do this again? Why should we believe they have good intentions at all when they cannot comply with the 4th amendment?
Exactly -this is why it is a big deal arekin (GP). When the government pretty much knows everything about everyone - then there is no more ability to effectively and democratically reform society for the better, right injustices, fight to change the status quo etc. For example try and organize a rally, information drive, any form of community organization against or for [insert cause]. If it upsets those in power you will be picked up/harassed/fired/detained before any of your emails/chats/phone calls to organize democratically allowed protest even hit anyones inbox. This is not speculation, all these police state things have already happened. One recent example: if you care to look into the details of one particular movement called "Occupy" that threatened the heart of power and money by asking for those in wall street that broke laws to actually be punished for their crimes.
Allowing the surveillance state means any slippery sloped we are now on with just continue to get worse, no leaders in our community can take charge to organize others to resist/complain/pushback against [insert cause]. History has given us enough examples now to know that if we do not reject the surveillance state we now find ourselves living in, then we really do deserve everything that is coming...
You're spending ALL day EVERY day spewing pro-NSA propaganda.
Lets not forget the slow and steady downmodding over hours/days/weeks of any well reasoned posts/facts that tear down Cold Fjords frequently used straw-man arguments. What really worries me is how often he gets his stories posted on Slashdot - WTF is with that!?
Best bet is to just use the flag post report on his more dubious posts (there are plenty to go around).
The organization would have to be multi-national with preference for countries with strong privacy and anti-foreign-spying stances - Iceland is one that springs to mind. The FISA secret rubber stamp court (please refer to it by its proper name) would be worthless then if the organization had the balls to stand up to any additional threats that the NSA is known to level against those that do not roll over to their demands.
You are missing the point amiga3D. When "the government pretty much knows everything about [everyone] now anyway" - then there is no more ability to effectively and democratically reform society for the better, right injustices, fight to change the status quo etc. For example try and organize a rally, information drive, any form of community organization against or for [insert cause]. If it upsets those in power you will be picked up/harassed/fired/detained before any of your emails/chats/phone calls to organize democratically allowed protest even hit anyones inbox. This is not speculation, all these police state things have already happened. One recent example: if you care to look into the details of one particular movement called "Occupy ..." that threatened the heart of power and money by asking for those in wall street that broke laws to actually be punished for their crimes.
Allowing the surveillance state means any slippery sloped we are now on with just continue to get worse, no leaders in our community can take charge to organize others to resist/complain/pushback against [insert cause]. What Taantric said is correct, history has given us enough examples now to know that if we do not reject the surveillance state we now find ourselves living in, then we really do deserve everything that is coming...
Be careful; cold fjord might reply to you and spam a million links that don't demonstrate that security is more important than freedom and probably aren't even relevant.
Worse, As all good propaganda mouthpieces should have - Cold Fjord appears to have an army of accounts/mod points to blast your karma to kingdom come, fairly easy to spot when you check the details/timestamps. I wonder what his exact relationship is with slashdot editors is, given his record getting obvious propaganda placements posted by them. Perhaps there is a gag order covering that too...
We have become a country for the rich and by the rich, subject to foriegn powers. Our property is being sold out from underneath us, our laws have become mutable. There is little responsibilty in government, and even less in the corporate sector.
Well, seriously, you New Zealanders did vote for this (like every other country facing this same shit). Face the music or change it at the next election. Of course sheeple will just continue to vote for whoever the rich tell us to vote for (via their mass media channels).
Google, Amazon and Microsoft can't be trusted with your data, but it's better than taking the risk of having a little downtime due to a freak accident.
Exactly what I was thinking. Part of the two (three?) pronged PR strategy to stem the hemorrhaging of international customers due to the Whistlblower Snowden revelations and subsequent fallout:
Step 1: "We are planning (only planning we dont want to rock the boat too hard), a very stern letter to the feds. Even so, we only comply with the law, pinky promise. Ignore those docs Snowden released showing the contrary and our willingness to hand your cloud/email/chat/phone data over to not only 'the feds' but every private Military Industrial Complex company out there, such as Booz Allen."
Step 2: Fear! Yes make them fear if they not not using cloud servers - drunks could take out their servers OMG!
Step 3: ...?
They are fighting an uphill batter to regain trust - you would be mad or incredible ignorant to hand private information over to these companies given what they have done...
Not to mention John Grishams "The Pelican Brief". Pure fantasy in this day and age to think you can run to "the [traditional] press"
Notice how they keep using the phrase 'We do not provide any government...'? That's 'cause the NSA uses private contractors - like Snowden - to do the dirty work. There's lots more evasive lawyer-speak there too.
Your right there, if you actually read the "series of clarifying remarks" - it is all lawyer weasel words aimed to try and persuade those that are left to listen, "there is nothing to see here, we comply with the law". Seriously - trust, once lost, is going to seriously hard to earn back for all these tech companies in bed with the Military Industrial Complex. We may not be able to do much immediately to rein in an out of control surveillance state run by the private and unaccountable MIC, but we sure as hell can vote with our feet by abandoning these big tech companies services, and encouraging those less informed about this whole debacle that they should too.
Now, just have to encourage in every way possible the development of easy to use default on encryption solutions for email (like OTR provides for chat). Also why the hell isnt slashdot offering https yet - apathy helps the sorry state of affairs continue...
Startpage looks great, if it is indeed legitimate and not some spook front. Will be giving it a go and watching out for more news about the company behind it... thanks for the reference
How can this be modded off-topic: DHS is all about immigration control. The story even says "make our immigration system more fair and focused while deploying record resources to protect our nation's borders;". 100 Billion certainly sounds like "record resources", but the real story certainly does not sound like it is more fair.
Its going fantastically after $100 BILLION/10 years spent. Well done results are fantastic. See immigration reform = surveillance reform as military tactics move inland from US borders
but the detractors always say that the right wing will get a place of power. Well, that's part of the public opinion. There's also the significant majority who aren't aligned that way, so we still end up with sane minds getting things done.
As various South American countries bucking the world trend and posting rising living standards are pointing out from their 80s experience: Unfortunately public opinion usually always just happens to go with whatever goal mass media sets. Unfortunately for Australia that means Rupert Murdoch's goal. Throw in the fact that there are no laws that prevent marketing information as "news", but then when the information they delivered is actually challenged in court, the media class can get off any charges by claiming that news is actually entertainment after all and they have no obligation to tell the truth - then yeah, public opinion is a fickle thing. Witness the mass campaign to change the word "WhistleBlower" to "Spy" re:Snowden, as one small example of changing public opinion, one "news" broadcast at a time.
Unfortunately the two dominant parties are all on-board with this shit. Unless there is a mass migration to third parties (Like Greens, Wikileaks party, Pirate Party...) that form a coalition bigger than Labor/Liberal together, then the two main parties will just continue to do as they have been the last few years - voting in police state expansion of ASIO powers, giving Tesltra the all clear to send private sensitive Aussie data to foreign corporations, etc. Admitedly Aussies have more chance of handing power to third parties than the does US - but it is a reeeally long shot when Rupert Murdoch controls 70%+ of the countries media (and by extension, their hearts and minds).