bill of rights

Glenn Greenwald: Major opinion shifts, in the US and Congress, on NSA surveillance and privacy

"Pew finds that 'a majority of Americans – 56% – say that federal courts fail to provide adequate limits on data the government is collecting as part of its anti-terrorism efforts.' And 'an even larger percentage (70%) believes that the government uses this data for purposes other than investigating terrorism.' Moreover, '63% think the government is also gathering information about the content of communications.' That demonstrates a decisive rejection of the US government's three primary defenses of its secret programs. Overall, 47% say their greater concern about government anti-terrorism policies is that they have gone too far." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGlenn Greenwald: Major opinion shifts, in the US and Congress, on NSA surveillance and privacy

Ron Paul: A House Divided Over NSA Spying on Americans

"Taken together, the NSA's Maryland headquarters and its newly built enormous data center in Utah will be seven times larger than the Pentagon! Over the last week we have seen two significant prison-breaks, one in Iraq, where some 500 al-Qaeda members broke out of the infamous Abu Ghraib prison, which the US built, and another 1,000 escaped in a huge break in Benghazi, Libya – the city where the US Ambassador was killed by the rebels that the US government helped put in power. Did the US intelligence community, focused on listening to our phone calls, not see this real threat coming?" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingRon Paul: A House Divided Over NSA Spying on Americans

Glenn Greenwald: Low-level NSA analysts can spy on Americans

"The NSA keeps trillions of telephone calls and emails in their databases which they can access anytime, he said. 'And what these programs are, are very simple screens, like the ones that supermarket clerks or shipping and receiving clerks use, where all an analyst has to do is enter an email address or an IP address, and it does two things. It searches that database and lets them listen to the calls or read the emails of everything that the NSA has stored, or look at the browsing histories or Google search terms that you’ve entered, and it also alerts them to any further activity that people connected to that email address or that IP address do in the future.'” Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGlenn Greenwald: Low-level NSA analysts can spy on Americans

Reforms of Domestic Government Surveillance

"Proposals to reform the court have included publishing declassified summaries of all its rulings and the creation of a public advocate to argue against the government’s filings with the court and to appeal FISA court rulings (now only the government can appeal). These proposals to increase the court’s transparency would be an improvement on the current Orwellian situation, but a better solution would be to get rid of the Orwellian situation. There is no place in a constitutional republic for a secret, parallel system of justice with lower standards. Thus, both the FISA Court and the Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act (actually the entire PATRIOT Act) need to be neutered." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingReforms of Domestic Government Surveillance

Chicago Firearms Confiscation Begins

"There’s a good reason that law abiding gun owners don’t want their names on a national gun registry — namely, registration leads to confiscation. Gun control advocates immediately spout that “no one wants to take your guns” and other assorted platitudes. In Illinois, gun owners are required to get a Firearms Owners ID card, or FOID. Cook County police officers have become increasingly worried that when someone’s FOID card is revoked, their guns aren’t instantly confiscated. So they’re doing exactly what gun control advocates have said that registration would never result in — door to door confiscation." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingChicago Firearms Confiscation Begins

Activist Adam Kokesh ordered held without bond in D.C.

"A D.C. Superior Court judge has ordered a veteran and activist accused of openly carrying a shotgun in D.C.'s Freedom Plaza held without bond. During a preliminary hearing Monday, an attorney representing Adam Kokesh argued that the stunt -- filmed and posted on YouTube -- was nothing more than political theater. The judge disagreed, ordering that Kokesh be held until his next court appearance. 'I consider your client to be a very dangerous man,' the judge said. 'This is not a political statement.' Kokesh had been arrested and charged with drug-related offenses in Fairfax County, Va., earlier in July. He is expected back in a D.C. courtroom Aug. 13." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingActivist Adam Kokesh ordered held without bond in D.C.

Judge fires 34-year court employee for providing document that helped free innocent man

"A longtime judge's assistant in Jackson County says she was fired for providing a public document that helped a wrongfully convicted inmate win his freedom. But court officials say 70-year-old Sharon Snyder was sent packing four weeks ago because she violated court rules against inappropriately providing advice and discussing court matters with outsiders. Snyder says she gave Robert Nelson's sister a copy of a motion last year from a different case in which a defendant successfully requested DNA testing. Nelson was freed June 12 after DNA tests ruled him out as one of the rapists in the 1983 attack." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingJudge fires 34-year court employee for providing document that helped free innocent man

The American Surveillance State Is Here. Can It Be Evaded?

"On any given day, the average American going about his daily business will be monitored, surveilled, spied on and tracked in more than 20 different ways, by both government and corporate eyes and ears. Whether you’re walking through a store, driving your car, checking email, or talking to friends and family on the phone, you can be sure that some government agency, whether the NSA or some other entity, is listening in and tracking your behavior. Erected in secret, without any public input, these surveillance programs amount to an electronic concentration camp which houses every single person in the United States today." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe American Surveillance State Is Here. Can It Be Evaded?

Snowden’s father criticizes Congress, Obama over spy programs

"Lonnie Snowden, in an interview with NBC's 'Today' show, said lawmakers were 'complicit or negligent' in allowing the National Security Agency's massive electronic surveillance program to continue. 'I am extremely disappointed and angry,' he said. 'The American people - at this point, they don't know the full truth, but the truth is coming.' Lonnie Snowden told NBC he was confident in his son's actions. 'I believe that my son, when he takes his final breath whether it's today or 100 years from now, he will be comfortable with what he did because he did what he knew was right.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSnowden’s father criticizes Congress, Obama over spy programs

The Worldwide Evil Empire

"Did you know that our taxes pay for an 'Office of Global Strategies' at the TSA? Victoria Reeder from that 'office' recently enjoyed a junket to the Bahamas at our expense. After Bahamian pols and bureaucrats kissed her butt a while, she and various other Amerikan bureaucrats connived with those tinhorns to 'engage in co-operation activities in the area of civil aviation, establishing, among other things, screening standards, comparable to those implemented in airports in the USA, for both passengers and checked baggage departing Bahamian Pre-clearance airports bound for the United States.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe Worldwide Evil Empire