As expected, in facing yet another attack on civil liberties by the Obama Administration, Democratic members are choosing personality over principle. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D., CA) has come out to assure the public that it is a good thing that the Administration is spying on them and encourage them to accept such surveillance as the new normal. In the meantime, Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R, Ga), insists that the surveillance must be fine because “to my knowledge we have not had any citizen who has registered a complaint relative to the gathering of this information.” Of course, it has been secret and just last February the Administration succeeded in blocking an effort of dozens of citizens and groups challenging such surveillance programs before the Supreme Court.
Feinstein is notorious among civil libertarians as someone who knew of many of the abuses during the Bush Administration, including possible knowledge of the torture program and warrantless surveillance programs. However, the Administration is clearly putting the push on to get members in front of cameras to claim that that surveillance stopped a plot. It is an effort to get citizens to give up this core liberty. Of course, if you strip every civil liberty, you can claim additional plots. These members are responsible, again, for a failure to use oversight authority to protect civil liberties. They have clearly been given the message to try to change the story in the critical first 24-hours in classic Bush (now Obama) terms: yes we put everyone under surveillance but it paid off. It is working. Where the headlines began the day as “huge surveillance program,” media is now reporting the story as “surveillance program foiled terror plot.” Once again the media is being played like a fiddle by our homegrown Neros.
Feinstein has continued her dubious record of leading the charge against liberty — a curious role for the Democratic senator from a state like California.
My favorite however is Chambliss who seems clueless that the Obama Administration has classified information needed to challenge these laws and no citizens had information to complain about . . . because Chambliss and his colleagues kept it from their constituents.
Then there is Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) fresh from his questioning whether bloggers have first amendment rights. Graham stated “I’m a Verizon customer. I don’t mind Verizon turning over records to the government if the government is going to make sure that they try to match up a known terrorist phone with somebody in the United States.” Most citizens would shudder at the thought of using either Feinstein or Graham as the barometer for civil liberties.
However, the spin is on. This is the ultimate test for Obama in seeing whether he can get citizens to give up not only the protection for the free press but their own privacy rights. This program is a critical step in the establishment of massive databanks on citizens. However, our members of Congress are lining up to embrace such a potential authoritarian tool.
Source: ‘Huff Post
AP: (great Link) “The great irony is we’re the only ones not spying on the American people,” the Reuters news agency quoted him as saying. -Gen. Keith Alexander, head of the NSA, two weeks ago …. Alexander argued that the NSA has its hands full keeping tabs on potential terrorists and does not have the bandwidth to read the 420 billion e-mails generated by Americans daily.”
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Such liars.
The NSA data story is the one that is most worrying and I hope these two stories don’t get confused in people’s minds. It’s all part of the whole though: all of the data collected is eventually going to be funneled into these gigantic hoppers to be sifted in a comprehensive fashion- Total Information Awareness as a program doesn’t work optimally unless every agency funnels it’s information to one big database or shares access to and with it. The NSA wants all electronic data right down to the corner deli’s daily receipts. At some point they’re going to start doing whatever they want with all that data, that’s the way it always works with capacity, one finds ways to use it.
This from the linked article regarding initial capacity ($40mil in electricity costs initially):
“According to a 2012 Wired story about the project, the data center is designed to collect emails, cell-phone calls, the personal and legal data trails of individuals, as well as financial information, stock trades and other official communications. It will also contain code-breaking computers and staff.
The Wired story notes the data center will devote about 100,000 square feet to servers alone–25,000 sq. ft. in each of four separate server rooms. Wired estimates the center will pull an average of 65 megawatts of power to keep all that hardware running, but that expansions may raise the center’s power use as high as 200 megawatts within a couple of years, as adjunct buildings are completed and come on line. That’s a lot of electricity to tax.”
http://www.networkcomputing.com/next-generation-data-center/commentary/servers/nsa-caught-unawares-by-data-center-tax/240155566
Artists rendering of facility:
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/politics/56356242-90/nsa-utah-herbert-center.html.csp
Published on Jun 6, 2013
http://www.democracynow.org – A leaked court order has revealed the Obama administration is conducting a massive domestic surveillance program by collecting telephone records of millions of Verizon customers. The Guardian newspaper published a classified order issued by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court directing Verizon’s Business Network Services to give the National Security Agency electronic data, including all calling records on an “ongoing, daily basis.” The order covers each phone number dialed by all customers, along with location and routing data, and with the duration and frequency of the calls, but not the contents of the communications. We’re joined by Shayana Kadidal, senior managing attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, and two former National Security Agency employees turned whistleblowers: Thomas Drake and William Binney. In 2010, the Obama administration charged Drake with violating The Espionage Act after he was accused of leaking classified information to the press about waste and mismanagement at the agency. The charges were later dropped. “Where has the mainstream media been? These are routine orders, nothing new,” Drake says. “What’s new is we’re seeing an actual order and people are somehow surprised by it. The fact remains that this program has been in place for quite some time it was actually started shortly after 9/11. The PATRIOT Act was the enabling mechanism that allowed the United States government in secret to acquire subscriber records from any company.” Binney, who worked at nearly 40 years at the NSA and resigned shortly after the 9/11 attacks, says: “NSA has been doing all this stuff all along and it’s been all the companies not just one. And I basically looked at that and said if Verizon got one, so did everybody else. Which means that, they’re just continuing the collection of this kind of information of all U.S. citizens.”
The new NSA facility should be flattened.
Bravo Jill.
This has been my stance as well. Partisan politics is a plague upon us.
As for how to vote in coming elections, I have only one rule. The Bill of Rights. 1 through 10. Completely and utterly. At this point, everything else is absolutely irrelevant to me until that standard is met. I care not what party the person is from as long as they support the Bill of Rights without fail.
Social issues have been a wedge that has only served to help the corrupt retain office. As a Liberal I have social issues I care for but in the end scheme of things, I shall not vote for anyone ever again, who does not fully support ALL of the Bill of Rights. Social issues be damned. Lobbyists be damned, in either direction.
I will not vote for anyone who supports the 1st but condemns the 2nd.
I will not vote for anyone who supports the 2nd but condemns the 1st.
Social issues are for the easily fooled, of which I was one part of I am ashamed to say.
In my humble opinion, we as a nation are at a crossroads of which is of great importance as to the future of this country. We can either defend Liberty with all our will and might. Or we can leave it to be ravaged by the fascist of both parties. I vote that we fight for it and save this great nation.
On that note, I believe the best course of action is an economic Revolution.
Spending strikes, W2 Tax Exempt status, protests, marches and so forth.
We must bring the government in its entirety, back under the control of the people. We have far too many defense agencies. Cut some and control the rest.
Trying to post the link to Glenn Greenwald on Piers Morgan.
“There is a massive apparatus within the United States government that with complete secrecy has been building this enormous structure that has only one goal,” he told Piers Morgan. “And that is to destroy privacy and anonymity not just in the United States but around the world.”
Visibly impassioned, and notably distressed by what he’s uncovered, Greenwald called for action, insisting something must be done to address the movements of the National Security Agency:
“It’s well past time that we have a debate about whether that’s the kind of country and world in which we want to live,” he declared. “We haven’t had that debate because it’s all done in secrecy and the Obama administration has been very aggressive about bullying and threatening anybody who thinks about exposing it or writing about it or even doing journalism about it. It’s well past time that that come to an end.” -GG
“”There is a massive apparatus within the United States government that with complete secrecy has been building this enormous structure that has only one goal,” he told Piers Morgan. “And that is to destroy privacy and anonymity not just in the United States but around the world.”
Visibly impassioned, and notably distressed by what he’s uncovered, Greenwald called for action, insisting something must be done to address the movements of the National Security Agency:
“It’s well past time that we have a debate about whether that’s the kind of country and world in which we want to live,” he declared. “We haven’t had that debate because it’s all done in secrecy and the Obama administration has been very aggressive about bullying and threatening anybody who thinks about exposing it or writing about it or even doing journalism about it. It’s well past time that that come to an end.”” -Glenn Greenwald on Piers Morgan
******http://piersmorgan.blogs.cnn.com/2013/06/06/glenn-greenwald-on-the-nsa-and-prism-its-well-past-time-that-we-have-a-debate-about-whether-thats-the-kind-of-country-and-world-in-which-we-want-to-live/?hpt=pm_mid****** Having trouble posting this link. Remove trailing asterisks.
http://piersmorgan.blogs.cnn.com/2013/06/06/glenn-greenwald-on-the-nsa-and-prism-its-well-past-time-that-we-have-a-debate-about-whether-thats-the-kind-of-country-and-world-in-which-we-want-to-live/?hpt=pm_mid
Comments vanishing.
Just tried to post a comment. I’ll try posting it in pieces.
Glenn Greenwald on Piers Morgan
“There is a massive apparatus within the United States government that with complete secrecy has been building this enormous structure that has only one goal,” he told Piers Morgan. “And that is to destroy privacy and anonymity not just in the United States but around the world.”
Visibly impassioned, and notably distressed by what he’s uncovered, Greenwald called for action, insisting something must be done to address the movements of the National Security Agency:
“It’s well past time that we have a debate about whether that’s the kind of country and world in which we want to live,” he declared. “We haven’t had that debate because it’s all done in secrecy and the Obama administration has been very aggressive about bullying and threatening anybody who thinks about exposing it or writing about it or even doing journalism about it. It’s well past time that that come to an end.”
http://piersmorgan.blogs.cnn.com/2013/06/06/glenn-greenwald-on-the-nsa-and-prism-its-well-past-time-that-we-have-a-debate-about-whether-thats-the-kind-of-country-and-world-in-which-we-want-to-live/?hpt=pm_mid
“Glenn Greenwald on the NSA and PRISM: “It’s well past time that we have a debate about whether that’s the kind of country and world in which we want to live”
On the heels of Thursday’s news that revealed government agencies have been using a secret program to collect various types of data from some of the largest digital companies – including Google, Apple, and Facebook – so as to monitor Americans communications, “Piers Morgan Live” invited Glenn Greenwald to offer his perspective.
One of the reporters credited for delivering the scoop, the columnist for “The Guardian” shared specifics of a program that we now know to be called “PRISM”:
“There is a massive apparatus within the United States government that with complete secrecy has been building this enormous structure that has only one goal,” he told Piers Morgan. “And that is to destroy privacy and anonymity not just in the United States but around the world.”
Visibly impassioned, and notably distressed by what he’s uncovered, Greenwald called for action, insisting something must be done to address the movements of the National Security Agency:
“It’s well past time that we have a debate about whether that’s the kind of country and world in which we want to live,” he declared. “We haven’t had that debate because it’s all done in secrecy and the Obama administration has been very aggressive about bullying and threatening anybody who thinks about exposing it or writing about it or even doing journalism about it. It’s well past time that that come to an end.””
Jill,
Amen…
It is really creepy to see how open these losers are with their propaganda. They expect people to buy it I am worried that too many people will do so.
I have watched this nation’s people turn on each other. The govt. has proof that they can whip up the people against each other so they can go about their business destroying this earth and its people’s. We must stop turning on each other.
If you want to have a chance against this govt. when someone tells you the truth, don’t hate or attack that person for speaking the truth. Don’t automatically assume the person from your party is your “friend” while the person from the other party is your “enemy”. Listen to what is being said and understand what is actually happening. In the truth you will be able to make common cause. It’s not much of a chance, but it’s something. At least you will have lived a good life instead of the life of a hating, toady to power.
http://www.thelapine.ca/boatload-american-refugees-seek-asylum-canada
And where do we go from here, if not revolution? I’m 75 years of age, I’d rather die fighting than die in chains. (Oh, yes, I can still fight.)
Joy, “Never vote for the same politico twice – NEVER.”, my sentiments exactly.
How the hell can any self respecting democrat defend this….. She may be or was popular…. But her days are numbered….. I will donate to anyone running against her…..
I thought Eugene McCarthy was dead…. I thought his ideals got shut down…. What’s the difference between labeling someone communist and or a terrorist…. Oh yeah… One was to destroy a viable third party….. But aren’t we living in a state of communism to a certain extent….. Think about it….
Jill, you hit he nail on the head….
Welcome to The Democratic People’s Republic of Oceania, Incorporated
,
Who better, then, to violate the constitution than a “constitutional scholar”? Who better to wage endless “war” for its own sake than a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize? Who better to eviscerate the last vestiges of FDR’s New Deal, than a leader of FDR’s own party? Who better to bring about “change” than a hapless spokesman for the discredited
corporate status quo? How can these obvious and glaring contradictions — and one could easily cite more examples — pass unnoticed and unopposed by a citizenry which claims to love freedom, democracy, and peace but who reliably acts in just such a way as to achieve servitude, despotism, and war? How can a superpower “harmonize” through “largesse” these oxymoronic opposites? Well, for one thing:
President Barack Obama — and to a less spectacular degree, Senator Feinstein — virtually personifies controlled insanity. And I have no doubt that the ruling corporate oligarchy chose him and her for precisely that reason.
Fear of losing the body makes people paranoid wanting to watch everyone in an attempt to protect themselves. Perfect love will not do that. Perfect love will not say my army is bigger than your army or my police force that has more force than yours keeps me safe.
BD,
I see all three comments are identical, so only rescued one. After reading it carefully, it looks like the repetitive beginning each sentence with the exact same phrase and no paragraph spacing is a lot like the formatting spammers use. Suspect that was the trigger to trip the spam filter algorithm.