tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post100447587392554770..comments2024-03-28T16:08:29.578-04:00Comments on Sardonicky: Terrornado WeekKaren Garciahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15612731479365562803noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-53550663065476969722013-08-06T05:29:38.218-04:002013-08-06T05:29:38.218-04:00Yet another example of "boiling the frog"...Yet another example of "boiling the frog", acclimating the American people to totalitarian-style surveillance, searches, and a militarized police presence:<br /><br />http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/06/us/tsa-expands-duties-beyond-airport-security.html<br /><br />http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/748026/vipr-documents.pdfFred Drumlevitchhttp://www.freddrumlevitch.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-44748118099214784272013-08-05T23:25:08.878-04:002013-08-05T23:25:08.878-04:00Oh, well--
I suppose it could be worse. We could...Oh, well--<br /><br />I suppose it could be worse. We could all live in Zimbabwe, with 5-term, "President-for-Life" Robert Mugabe.<br /><br />http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Africa/2013/0805/Mugabe-s-Zimbabwe-election-victory-a-mandate-to-grab-foreign-banks-minister<br /><br /><i> '"There is evidence that retribution against those who backed the MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) has begun. At the MDC's downtown headquarters on Sunday night, some 15 party activists gathered for safety after allegedly being driven out of one of the city's oldest townships by Zanu PF supporters.<br /><br />Outside Harvest House, the MDC headquarters, riot police with helmets, shields and batons sat in a flatbed truck monitoring the situation.<br /><br />"The Zanu PF guys came to our houses chanting their slogans and said we should all go or they would kill us," said Steven Mutsipa, a party worker. <br /><br />"They have guns, machetes and sticks," said his friend, who gave his name only as Simon. "The police won't help us because they're Zanu PF. We've been beaten so many times before, so we just go."' </i><br /><br />Some of us here in the good ol' US of A are still armed, ourselves, for whatever good that will do us.Zeenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-82055880047280597602013-08-05T20:25:45.722-04:002013-08-05T20:25:45.722-04:00Interesting and worrisome...The Washington Post--a...Interesting and worrisome...The Washington Post--a paper that I generally trust--sold to the founder and CEO of Amazon.com:<br /><br />http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/washington-post-to-be-sold-to-jeff-bezos/2013/08/05/ca537c9e-fe0c-11e2-9711-3708310f6f4d_story.html<br /><br />Another nail in the coffin of real journalism?<br /><br />Zeenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-17446799838322171222013-08-05T14:18:14.944-04:002013-08-05T14:18:14.944-04:00It appears that not all of our Congresscritters ar...It appears that not all of our Congresscritters are prepared to credit the NSA surveillance program with “thwarting” what yet may turn out to be a trumped up “terror threat” designed to persuade American citizens that we need to surrender yet more of our right to privacy so that NSA can keep us “safe.”<br /><br />http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/315435-terror-threat-opens-new-front-in-nsa-debate<br /><br />From the article,<br /><br /><i> “There's no indication, unless I'm proved wrong later, that that program which collects vast amounts of … domestic telephone data contributed to information about this particular plot,” Rep. Adam Schiff (R-Calif.), a senior member of the House Intelligence Committee, said on CNN's “State of the Union.” </i><br /><br />In The Hill article, there a link to a Greenwald piece which shows just how much Congress is kept in the dark about the NSA program, too:<br /><br />http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/04/congress-nsa-denied-access<br /><br /><i> 'Two House members, GOP Rep. Morgan Griffith of Virginia and Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson of Florida, have provided the Guardian with numerous letters and emails documenting their persistent, and unsuccessful, efforts to learn about NSA programs and relevant FISA court rulings.<br /><br />"If I can't get basic information about these programs, then I'm not able to do my job", Rep. Griffith told me. A practicing lawyer before being elected to Congress, he said that his job includes "making decisions about whether these programs should be funded, but also an oath to safeguard the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, which includes the Fourth Amendment."<br /><br />Rep. Griffith requested information about the NSA from the House Intelligence Committee six weeks ago, on June 25. He asked for "access to the classified FISA court order(s) referenced on Meet the Press this past weekend": a reference to my raising with host David Gregory the still-secret 2011 86-page ruling from the FISA court that found substantial parts of NSA domestic spying to be in violation of the Fourth Amendment as well as governing surveillance statutes. <br /><br />In that same June 25 letter, Rep. Griffith also requested the semi-annual FISC "reviews and critiques" of the NSA. He stated the rationale for his request: "I took an oath to uphold the United States Constitution, and I intend to do so."<br /><br />Almost three weeks later, on July 12, Rep. Griffith requested additional information from the Intelligence Committee based on press accounts he had read about Yahoo's unsuccessful efforts in court to resist joining the NSA's PRISM program. He specifically wanted to review the arguments made by Yahoo and the DOJ, as well as the FISC's ruling requiring Yahoo to participate in PRISM. <br /><br />On July 22, he wrote another letter to the Committee seeking information. This time, it was prompted by press reports that that the FISA court had renewed its order compelling Verizon to turn over all phone records to the NSA. Rep. Griffith requested access to that court ruling.<br /><br />The Congressman received no response to any of his requests. With a House vote looming on whether to defund the NSA's bulk collection program - it was scheduled for July 25 - he felt he needed the information more urgently than ever. He recounted his thinking to me: "How can I responsibly vote on a program I know very little about?"<br /><br />On July 23, he wrote another letter to the Committee, noting that it had been four weeks since his original request, and several weeks since his subsequent ones. To date, six weeks since he first asked, he still has received no response to any of his requests...' </i> <br /><br />How, indeed, can Congress vote responsibly on programs about which they know nothing at all?<br /><br />(Although, I have observed, Congress <i> often </i> votes on bills that they haven't even read!)Zeenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-54672915328586079212013-08-05T12:58:28.377-04:002013-08-05T12:58:28.377-04:00For nasty chatterers interested in making a point,...For nasty chatterers interested in making a point, August is such an inviting month. August 6 and 9 are unhappy anniversaries. As President Truman tried to explain at the time, "Having found the bomb we have used it." The US keeps pushing people around the globe to find things and use them.<br /><br />Extend this worry period into September. The 11th would be an occasion for a repeat surprise, pure bravado by the terrorists.<br /><br />As for all other days of the year, they still belong to a certain winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. Whether playing with golf balls or drones, he's sure to smile and call out "Fore.....!" before he whacks you.Jay–Ottawahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10360356126450612113noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-70105227653122111052013-08-05T12:53:09.667-04:002013-08-05T12:53:09.667-04:00Of course, the terror meme and the governmental ab...Of course, the terror meme and the governmental abuses of power all fit together. And as @Karen wrote, "Since Terror Sells, They'll Never Shut Up". <br /><br />Re the yet newly-revealed DEA/prosecutorial abuses derived from NSA surveillance:<br /><br />(The Moon of Alabama link currently from the Sardonicky sidebar, but I'm repeating it here within a comment to keep it visible despite sidebar updating. And though Zee in the previous thread included a link to the Reuters story at yahoo news, I'm here including link to the original at Reuters (I didn't compare them to see whether the Yahoo version is complete or condensed). <br /><br />http://www.moonofalabama.org/2013/08/nsa-snooping-used-but-hidden-by-dea.html<br /><br />http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/05/us-dea-sod-idUSBRE97409R20130805<br /><br />These should be essential reading for all. Beyond the systemic attempts by "law enforcement" to pervert the concept of probable cause for investigations and warrants, all this shows yet again how the U.S. mass media, including even the New York Times, too often misses the salient details (let alone the greater abuses, and their implications). Yet no shortage of column-inches for the latest terror warning.<br /><br />Anyone with a basic knowledge of history, and whose head is not buried in the sand (or up his/her own ass), should understand the similarities to the historical perversion of the legal system in Nazi Germany. And as described by the well-known --- but unfortunately, not well-enough known, or understood --- Niemöller quote, the system here similarly starts by going after the criminals, the "degenerates", the political and social "agitators", the terrorists and other "threats to the homeland" --- such targets for the power of the state being perversely rationalizable and less likely to provoke widespread popular self-identification and outcry.<br /><br />Throw in the propaganda apparatus of the plutocracy and its mass-media lackeys, all so much more sophisticated than Goebbels probably ever dreamed of, and too many Americans scared of their own shadow, and how can the fascists miss?<br /><br />All historically-proven steps to successfully establishing a full-blown totalitarianism.Fred Drumlevitchhttp://www.freddrumlevitch.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-45616517638410226952013-08-05T11:52:54.264-04:002013-08-05T11:52:54.264-04:00Alexander Reed Kelly: Truthdigger of the Week: Bra...Alexander Reed Kelly: Truthdigger of the Week: Bradley Manning - <br /> Truthdigger of the Week - Truthdig: <br />http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/truthdigger_of_the_week_bradley_manning_20130803/#.Uf-aZrKvMkU.twitter <br />> via @truthdig <br />Pearlnoreply@blogger.com