Land Of The Flea

Police: Arrests possible for spreading false info on Facebook after shootings

"Authorities investigating the deadly US school shooting warned Sunday of misinformation circulating on social media about the massacre. Those spreading such fake details could be subject to arrest, Lieutenant Paul Vance of Connecticut State Police told reporters in the wake of Friday’s attack on the Sandy Hook Elementary School that killed 26 people — including 20 children between the ages of six and seven. 'All information relative to this case is coming from these microphones and any information coming from other sources cannot be confirmed and, in many cases, it has been found as inaccurate,' Vance said." Continue reading →

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Martial Law in One City: The Case of Paragould, Arkansas

"What Stovall and his fellow tax-feeders are 'fixing to do' is to leave the city’s streets clotted with SWAT operators toting AR-15s and official permission to harass anybody who comes within eyeshot. The marauders 'are going to be in SWAT gear and have AR-15s around their neck,' grunted Stovall at a town hall meeting held last Thursday at the West View Baptist Church. 'If you’re out walking, we’re going to stop you, ask why you’re out walking, check for your ID.' 'We’re going to do it to everybody,' Stovall explained, anticipating objections. 'Criminals don’t like being talked to.'" Continue reading →

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Armed SWAT Teams To Patrol Streets In Arkansas City

"Paragould, Arkansas Mayor Mike Gaskill and Police Chief Todd Stovall announced at a December 14 Town Hall meeting that beginning in 2013 the streets of their city were going to be patrolled by police officers bearing SWAT gear and AR-15s. 'If you’re out walking, we’re going to stop you, ask why you’re out walking, and check for your ID. [..] Will there be people who buck us? There may be. But we have a right to be doing what we’re doing. We have a zero-tolerance. We are prepared to throw your hind-end in jail, OK? We’re not going to take a lot of flack.'" Continue reading →

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Cops to Congress: We need logs of Americans’ text messages

"AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, and other wireless providers would be required to record and store information about Americans' private text messages for at least two years, according to a proposal that police have submitted to the U.S. Congress. CNET has learned a constellation of law enforcement groups has asked the U.S. Senate to require that wireless companies retain that information, warning that the lack of a current federal requirement 'can hinder law enforcement investigations.'" Continue reading →

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How the US Air Force Wasted $1 Billion on a Failed Software Plan

"Last month, [the Air Force] canceled a six-year-old modernization effort that had eaten up more than $1 billion. When the Air Force realized that it would cost another $1 billion just to achieve one-quarter of the capabilities originally planned - and that even then the system would not be fully ready before 2020 - it decided to decamp. You might expect the project to be exotic and experimental. If that were there case, the expense and failure might be understandable, if not desirable. But in fact the project was the implementation of commercial off-the-shelf software." Continue reading →

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Political Risk – The “Kill Switch” On Your Bank Account

"If you do anything the authorities don’t like - whether it’s speaking out against corruption, not filing your taxes correctly, having a Ron Paul bumper sticker, peacefully ingesting a non-approved substance, or just generally not being an obedient serf - you could find out the hard way that most governments are all too eager to exercise the “kill switch” that they hold over the assets within their reach. You could find your business or bank account shut down with the flip of a switch. In order to minimize your political risk and maximize your freedom, it is best to have your savings in one country, your citizenship in another, and your physical self in a third country." Continue reading →

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The Totalitarian One-way Mirror

"An official document produced by the FBI and Department of Homeland Security describes photographers as potential terrorists. The 'Roll Call Release' of November 13 recounted several incidents in which innocent photographers were detained for using cameras in public facilities like airports and shopping malls. Those incidents were described as successes because they served 'awareness and training purposes' – even though they had nothing to do with capturing terrorists or deterring terrorist acts. While police are trained to treat cameras in civilian hands as lethal weapons, the government they serve keeps us under unceasing surveillance." Continue reading →

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Extremely Serious Privacy Problem in America

"One effect of undermining privacy is to suppress free speech. It makes the person afraid or reluctant to speak for fear that at some undetermined future time , his actions or statements will be used against him. They can be misconstrued. They can be taken out of context. He can be forced to defend himself, and that's costly. He may be subject to a police inquiry or invasion whereby his belongings are seized and his whole life disrupted. The State's powers turned against a person in this way are enormous. Privacy is one of those socially-useful and socially-necessary things that we take for granted when it's there." Continue reading →

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It’s Happening Faster Than Even I Thought

"Since I manage an internet privacy company, people expect me to be pessimistic on the development of the surveillance state. But even I didn't expect the surveillance state to form this quickly. 2012 has been a banner year for amoral marketers and soul-dead overseers, and the situation is probably much worse than you realize. A very deep surveillance state is being completed now. It's your choice whether or not you'll escape it." Continue reading →

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Activists to U.S.: Release 5 Prisoners Serving Life Terms for Marijuana

"Recently, the law office of Michael Kennedy filed an historic legal petition with the federal government seeking clemency for five elderly prisoners serving lifetime sentences for cannabis-only related crimes. I’m vexed to no end when they make the ridiculous claim: ‘no one gets arrested for marijuana anymore and certainly no one is incarcerated for the stuff!’ This federal petition to release these men back to their loving families and to get off the tax roll is born out of the non-profit organization called Life For Pot, where the groups is tracking at least twenty prisoners serving life sentences for cannabis-only related offenses." Continue reading →

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