CLibertyC

Common Core Exams: New York Schools Get an F

"No one knows what to do. They are in panic mode. Watch the videos. Parents are outraged. School officials are in hunker-down mode. The top educational official in the country is the Secretary of Education. She says this: no problem! Parents should not be alarmed, she says. The test results will 'give a clear picture of where our students are on the trajectory toward college and career readiness.' Yes, they do. The kids are not ready. Then, she added, don't blame tax-funded education. No, no, no. 'The lower proficiency rates that we will see . . . do not reflect that teachers are teaching less or students are learning less.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCommon Core Exams: New York Schools Get an F

Connections Between Michael Hastings, Edward Snowden and Barrett Brown

"When the FBI raided the Dallas home of journalist Barrett Brown in March 2012, the travails of the Vanity Fair and Guardian contributor didn’t get much ink — that is, until Michael Hastings published an exclusive on the Brown raid on Buzzfeed. The story included a copy of the search warrant that revealed why the government was so interested in Brown: Along with colleagues at the research wiki he started, ProjectPM (PPM), Brown was looking into a legion of shadowy cybersecurity firms whose work for the government raised all sorts of questions about privacy and the rule of law." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingConnections Between Michael Hastings, Edward Snowden and Barrett Brown

Send Mail To Bradley Manning (And Any Other Patriot In A Federal Dungeon)

"He is a political and persecuted prisoner just as our brothers and sisters overseas are. Indeed, most of the USSA’s inmates fall into that category since they have committed no crime: the only thing of which they’re guilty is angering a politician or bureaucrat because they persist in buying or selling plants Our Rulers dislike, or they consider their money their own rather than the IRS’s, or they’ve defied the totalitarian State in some other way. I don’t know whether the tyrants running this country have taken a page from North Korea and Saudi Arabia to deny Manning his mail, but no matter: writing him reminds the brutes that we are out here and we’re watching." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSend Mail To Bradley Manning (And Any Other Patriot In A Federal Dungeon)

The courage of Bradley Manning will inspire others to seize their moment of truth

"The critical moment in the political trial of the century was on 28 February when Bradley Manning stood and explained why he had risked his life to leak tens of thousands of official files. It was a statement of morality, conscience and truth: the very qualities that distinguish human beings. This was not deemed mainstream news in America; and were it not for Alexa O'Brien, an independent freelance journalist, Manning's voice would have been silenced. Working through the night, she transcribed and released his every word. It is a rare, revealing document." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe courage of Bradley Manning will inspire others to seize their moment of truth

Detroit city officials misplace $1 million check for a month

"Officials in the financially beleaguered city of Detroit misplaced a $1 million check made out to the city’s school system for a month. According to Bloomberg News, the fact that the check languished in a drawer, forgotten, for weeks from late February to March is another sign of the city government’s staggering inefficiency and bureaucratic incompetence. A spokesperson for Emergency Manager and Washington, D.C. bankruptcy lawyer Kevyn Orr blamed the oversight on the fact that the city’s technology is not up to date. 'Nobody sends million-dollar checks anymore — they wire the money,' Bill Nowling told Bloomberg." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDetroit city officials misplace $1 million check for a month

The Security State’s Reaction to Snowden Shows Why It’s Doomed

"Networks, when attacked, become even more decentralized and resilient. A good example is Napster and its successors, each of which has more closely approached an ideal peer-to-peer model, and further freed itself from reliance on infrastructure that can be shut down by central authority, than its predecessors. Hierarchies, on the other hand, respond to attack by becoming even more ossified, brittle and closed. Hierarchies respond to leaks by becoming internally opaque and closed even to themselves, so that their information is compartmentalized and they are less able to make effective use of the knowledge dispersed among their members." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe Security State’s Reaction to Snowden Shows Why It’s Doomed

Obama announces proposals to reform NSA surveillance

"At his first full news conference in more than three months, Obama said he intends to work with Congress on proposals that would add an adversarial voice — effectively one advocating privacy rights — to the secret proceedings before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Several Democratic senators have proposed such a measure. In addition, Obama said that he intends to work on ways to tighten one provision of the Patriot Act - known as Section 215 - that gives the government broader authority toobtain business phone data records." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingObama announces proposals to reform NSA surveillance

Secret NSA loophole allows data gathering on U.S. citizens without a warrant

"The previously undisclosed rule change allows NSA operatives to hunt for individual Americans’ communications using their name or other identifying information. Senator Ron Wyden told the Guardian the NSA’s authorities provide loopholes that allow 'warrantless searches for the phone calls or emails of law-abiding Americans'. The authority, approved in 2011, appears to contrast with repeated assurances from Barack Obama and senior intelligence officials to both Congress and the American public that the privacy of US citizens is protected from the NSA’s dragnet surveillance programs." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSecret NSA loophole allows data gathering on U.S. citizens without a warrant

Do We Really Want a Cold War II?

"In three years, the USSR gave up an empire, a third of its territory, and half its people. And it extended to us a hand of friendship. How did we respond? We pushed NATO right up to Russia's borders, bringing in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Rumania, Bulgaria, even former Soviet republics Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. To cut Moscow out of the Caspian Sea oil, we helped build a pipeline through two former Soviet republics. In the Boris Yeltsin decade, the 1990s, U.S. hustlers colluded with local oligarchs in looting Russia of her natural resources. When columnist Tony Blankley visited Russia, he was astounded at the hostility he encountered." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDo We Really Want a Cold War II?