Big Lie

Hands-free cell phone devices still pose driving risk: study

"Speech-to-text devices in new cars fail to overcome the well-known perils of hands-on texting while driving, a US study published Wednesday suggests. While the research is ongoing, early findings suggest that sending texts with a hands-free voice recognition system — a feature in many new vehicles — was more distracting than listening to the radio or conversing with passengers. The 12 men and 20 women who participated in the study ranged in age from 18 to 33. All had clean driving records — and all confessed to regularly using their cell phones while driving." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingHands-free cell phone devices still pose driving risk: study

Key anecdote to defend NSA data gathering is full of holes

"James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, said a data collection program by the National Security Agency helped stop an attack on a Danish newspaper for which Headley did surveillance. And Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the Senate intelligence chairwoman, also called Headley’s capture a success. But a closer examination of the case, drawn from extensive reporting by ProPublica, shows that the government surveillance only caught up with Headley after the U.S. had been tipped by British intelligence. And even that victory came after seven years in which U.S. intelligence failed to stop Headley as he roamed the globe." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingKey anecdote to defend NSA data gathering is full of holes

Bradley Manning’s trial is no more than a ‘judicial lynching’

"The military trial of Bradley Manning is a judicial lynching. The government has effectively muzzled the defense team. The Army private first class is not permitted to argue that he had a moral and legal obligation under international law to make public the war crimes he uncovered. The documents that detail the crimes, torture and killing that Manning revealed, because they are classified, have been barred from discussion in court, effectively removing the fundamental issue of war crimes from the trial. Manning is forbidden by the court to challenge the government’s unverified assertion that he harmed national security." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBradley Manning’s trial is no more than a ‘judicial lynching’

Bob Higgs: What the State Fears Most—Revelations of the Truth about the State

"The rulers can continue to plunder and bully the great mass of people only as long as the people believe the Biggest of All Big Lies, which is that the government seeks to be, and is, their essential protector and general benefactor. The Ellsbergs, Mannings, Assanges, and Snowdens, rare as they are, demonstrate that the government’s pose as protector and benefactor is nothing but a ruse to hide its essential nature and functioning. The only protection the rulers aim to provide us is the kind that a shepherd provides his sheep—protection from anything that interferes with his exclusive ability to determine how and when the sheep will be sheared and slaughtered." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBob Higgs: What the State Fears Most—Revelations of the Truth about the State

Candidate Obama Debates President Obama On Government Surveillance

"On August 1, 2007, candidate Barack Obama sharply criticized then-President George W. Bush's government surveillance programs. Recently, following the disclosures of Edward Snowden, President Barack Obama defended the NSA's top-secret PRISM program. If you don't agree with President Obama, exercise your 1st amendment rights so together we can save our 4th amendment rights before it's too late." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCandidate Obama Debates President Obama On Government Surveillance

US lawmakers call for review of Patriot Act after NSA surveillance revelations

"In unbroadcast elements of a transcript issued by NBC, the director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, said he had responded in the 'least untruthful manner' possible when denying that the NSA collected data on millions of Americans during congressional hearings. Clapper also confirmed that senator Dianne Feinstein, chair of the intelligence committee, had asked for a review to 'refine these NSA processes and limit the exposure to Americans' private communications' and report back 'in about a month'." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingUS lawmakers call for review of Patriot Act after NSA surveillance revelations

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 →

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

Where Was Mainstream News While the Surveillance State Was Expanding?

"An honest report would explain how what is obviously one of the biggest stories of the modern era has gone unreported by Reuters and by the mainstream media in general. An honest report would address the aggregate courage of the alternative media in covering the rise of the surveillance state while being marginalized by the formal media and disparaged as being agents of 'conspiracy theories.' But instead, we get articles like this one, reporting that is good and serious as far as it goes ... but it surely doesn't go very far. What's needed is investigate reporting. Instead, we are presented with a kind of catalogue." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWhere Was Mainstream News While the Surveillance State Was Expanding?

Former ‘Plunge Protection Team’ Official: Expect More Government Theft

"Look, we are in a world where every major industrialized government doesn’t have the funds to deliver on the promises they’ve made to the public. So they are going to reach for the public’s cash in different ways....Some of it is through higher taxes. Some of it is what I would call ‘expropriation,’ although taxation and even inflation are a version of that. I think what we saw in Cyprus, a really overt expropriation, we are going to see that come in lots of different forms (going forward). Some of it will be obvious like Cyprus. Some of it will be subtle like Portugal, but what’s sure is that it’s happening.” Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFormer ‘Plunge Protection Team’ Official: Expect More Government Theft