Search Results for “https:” – Page 900

Bill O’Reilly suddenly opposed to NSA surveillance he supported under Bush

“The conservative host described the NSA’s surveillance programs as a ‘massive intrusion.’ O’Reilly warned that ‘corrupt government officials’ could leak sensitive data to hurt their political opponents. He said that keeping actual content of private conversations on file was ‘flat out unconstitutional.’ O’Reilly’s tune was far different under the Bush administration. At the time, he voiced strong support for the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping program, which collected the telephone records of millions of Americans. In 2006, after a judge ruled the program was unconstitutional, O’Reilly speculated that she didn’t care if Americans were killed by terrorists.” Continue reading →

Julian Assange praises Edward Snowden for exposing ‘mass surveillance state’

“Edward Snowden is a ‘hero’ who has exposed ‘one of the most serious events of the decade – the creeping formulation of a mass surveillance state’, Julian Assange said on Monday. The WikiLeaks founder said the question of surveillance abuses by states and tech companies was ‘something that I and many other journalists and civil libertarians have been campaigning about for a long time. It is very pleasing to see such clear and concrete proof presented to the public.’ Assange told Sky News that Snowden was ‘in a very, very serious position, because we can see the kind of rhetoric that occurred against me and Bradley Manning back in 2010, 2011, applied to Snowden’.” Continue reading →

Not Really Adjourned: NE Legislature, Medicaid Expansion, ObamaCare

“No man’s life, liberty or property are safe while the Legislature is in session.” ~ Gideon J. Tucker, 1866 Wednesday, June 5, was the final day of the 103rd Unicameral, 1st Session. I wish I could say: “At ease Nebraskans, the Legislature is out of session!” Unfortunately, I can’t. I […]

(Visited 418 times, 1 visits today)

Annals of the Security State: More Airplane Stories

“Over the weekend I related the story of Gabriel Silverstein, a businessman and pilot who for no apparent reason was subjected to a two-hour detention and invasive search by Homeland Security officials as he traveled across the country in his small plane. The picture above is not from that episode; it’s an official DHS photo of its emergency-response agents being trained. Below and after the jump are two additional stories of the same sort. The first is a long account from Larry Gaines, a small-plane pilot from California who had a similar episode last year. The story is long and detailed, and will be riveting for those in the aviation world.” Continue reading →

854,000 U.S. Government Snoopers

“What is being done about this? Nothing. It keeps growing. How much does this cost? At least $80 billion a year. That is a lot of money. What is being done inside the federal government to control this? Nothing. Do they monitor our phone calls? Yes. Did they deny this for years? Of course. Then Edward Snowden blew the whistle. A British newspaper published it. Will this change anything? Yes. He will go to jail. Anything else? He will get a great deal of publicity. Anything else? No. The Obama Administration is far more concerned with Snowden’s leaks than with the snoopers. The Obama Administration is the Bush Administration, digitally speaking.” Continue reading →

NSA spying allegations mean U.S. could provide ‘virtually unlimited’ info on citizens to allies

“Britain’s foreign secretary took to television on Sunday to reassure Britons that London’s own spies had not circumvented laws restricting their own activity by obtaining information collected by Washington. In Germany, sensitive to decades of snooping by East German Stasi secret police, the opposition said Chancellor Angela Merkel should do more to protect Germans from U.S. spying and demand answers when President Barack Obama visits this month. In Australia, a government source said the U.S. revelations could make it more difficult to pass a law allowing the government to access Internet data at home.” Continue reading →

Michael Scheuer: Bin Laden predicted Obama’s war on the 4th Amendment

“More than a decade ago, Osama bin Laden appeared in a brief video to speak about several issues. One of them was to advise the Islamic world that they should expect the U.S. military to be defeated. The other was to suggest that Muslims should be prepared to watch the U.S. government strangle the civil liberties of Americans in the name of prosecuting its war against the Islamist mujahedin. We have learned that the bin Laden’s second prediction has come to pass in the Obama administration’s expansion of a Bush-era program to collect electronic information on U.S. citizens who are entirely unrelated to the war against the Islamists.” Continue reading →

Mint: U.S. bullion coin demand still at ‘unprecedented’ levels

“Demand for U.S. gold and silver bullion coins is still at ‘unprecedented’ high levels almost two months after an historic sell-off in gold released years of pent-up demand from retail investors, the head of the U.S. Mint said on Wednesday. His comments are likely to allay concerns among some traders that frenzied buying by mom-and-pop investors since mid-April after prices plunged to two-year lows had started to fade. Their interest has helped prices recover to above $1,400 an ounce, providing key support to prices after institutional investors fled the futures market and exchange-traded funds.” Continue reading →