the more things change- the more they don’t
June 18, 2009 by Betmo · 2 Comments
most of us started blogging during a time when we had no other way to fight against what we saw as the fascist takeover of our democratic republic. we signed petitions, emailed our ‘represenatatives’ in congress, and tore apart the falsehoods, lies and propaganda being perpetuated in the media. we were the truth line- tenuous as it was- and we showed the rest of the world that not all americans were jesus lovin’, gun totin’, flag wavin’ morans. and we burned out fighting- and november, 2008, we thought we got a reprieve.
i think most folks gave the obama administration and the democratically controlled congress the first 100 days in office. and, granted, quite a few good things happened during the first month or so. and i think we all took a much deserved rest. but, cheney kept talking, fox news kept spewing its hate speech and the gop talking heads continued their lies, propaganda and falsehoods. and somewhere along the way, we lost sight of what we need to be doing- holding the democrats feet to the fire and forcing change. because- the right is always going to grab at power and they are always going to be at war with the rest of us. we have to force change in spite of them.
which leads me to the bigger point of this post- we heard many promises from the dems during campaign season- open government, transparency, a return to the rule of law- and indeed, the obama admin has made some progress on that front. but, they are dropping the ball on some pretty important issues. there are still police raids and ice roundups and civil liberties that need to be restored. we need some accountability and we need to get rid of the odious patriot act and military commissions act- and we need some decisive, actual leadership from obama, pelosi and reid. and, barring that- we need some decisive action from american citizens. otherwise,
“Toute nation a le gouvernement qu’elle mérite.”
Sphere: Related Content“we watch impassively as the wealthy and the elite, the huge corporations, rob us, ruin the environment, defraud consumers and taxpayers and create an exclusive american oligarchy that fuses the wealth and political power. we watch passively because we believe we can enter the club. it is greed that inspires us. it is greed that keeps us silent. our greed is devouring us.”
chris hedges, ‘losing moses on the freeway‘
The Spy Factory: In Need Of Quality Control
The highly secretive National Security Agency, subject of James Bamford’s latest book “The Spy Factory” was revealed for television viewers last night on the PBS documentary series, “Nova”, in a report with the same title as the book. Bamford is the preeminent journalist reporting on intelligence issues, and specifically on the NSA going back to his first book, “The Puzzle Palace: a Report on America’s Most Secret Agency” which was first published in 1982, and subsequent books published in 2001, 2002 and 2005.
The revelation of the extent of eavesdropping that the NSA has been engaged in was not in itself surprising, given everything that has come out in the media during the past year, however, the fact that the NSA and the CIA both refused to share pertinent information they had collected with the other duly constituted federal intelligence, counter-intelligence and law enforcement agencies was the most disturbing message in the “Nova” report.
It was quite clear, that had information collected by the NSA and CIA been shared with the FBI, and all agencies cooperated and worked together towards a common goal, that at least part of the 9/11 attacks could have been thwarted
In addition these other conclusions could clearly be drawn from the report:
The NSA is conducting continuous, unrestrained by any courts or statutes, eavesdropping on all telephonic and data communications (whether email, text messaging, fax, etc.) occurring in or passing through the United States.
The NSA is currently not capable of effectively managing or leveraging this data, it is too massive and current technology is not up to the task of intelligently “mining” the data for pertinent “grains” of information that would lead to completing the “puzzle” of information.
Human analysts at the NSA in many cases are not adequately trained or equipped with the necessary foreign language skills and intelligence analysis techniques to extrapolate on the available data and increase our ability to leverage available intelligence data.
Administrators at the NSA have not been forthcoming with sharing information with their counter-parts in other intelligence, law enforcement or defense agencies of the federal government. Conversely, neither has the CIA been collaborative in sharing the information they have developed.
Despite the vast amount of data that has been and continues to be collected by the NSA, the agency operates like a “black hole”, much data is sucked up, the bulk of it perfectly legitimate communications by law abiding people, their personal lives and communications compromised by government agents, but little, if anything, of value to the defense and welfare of the American people comes out of the NSA.
It is going to be up to General Keith Alexander, the new Director of NSA to figure out how the NSA can do a better job of isolating and analyzing the data that is pertinent to national security, and it will be up to Dennis C. Blair, the new Director of National Intelligence to marshal all of his resources and getting them all “playing together” as an effective team. It will also be incumbent upon director Blair to open the lines of communication and collaboration with pertinent officials of the Justice Department and the FBI.
This is all too important to either compromise the constitutional protections of privacy for the American people or to drop the ball in protecting the security of the United States.
For more information on how Americans have lost their civil liberties over the years, in terms of personal privacy rights, the History Commons has a very enlightening chronology titled “Loss of US Civil Liberties”
at their web site.
To view the Nova report please go to the PBS web site where the program is available in five segements of streaming video.
“The Black Hole” NSA headquarters, Ft. Meade, Maryland:
snoops, and snitches and spies, oh my!
July 9, 2008 by Betmo · 2 Comments
“…the dispatching of police officers, firefighters, paramedics, and utility workers as so-called “terrorism liaison officers,” according to a report by Bruce Finley in the Denver Post.
They are entrusted with hunting for “suspicious activity,” and then they report their findings, which end up in secret government databases.
What constitutes “suspicious activity,” of course, is in the eye of the beholder. But a draft Justice Department memo on the subject says that such things as “taking photos of no apparent aesthetic value” or “making notes” could constitute suspicious activity, Finley wrote.
The states where this is going on include: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Tennessee, Wisconsin, and Washington, D.C.
Dozens more are planning to do so, Finley reports.”
Sphere: Related Contentj. edgar hoover is smiling
my buddy and i email news stories back and forth and chat about them. he sent me this yesterday-
court orders youtube to turn over video logs
and it dovetails with what my suspicions have been all along- communism is alive and well in new america. i was born in the 1970’s and i grew up in the 1980’s. in fact, the berlin wall fell the year i graduated high school. and we all cheered. we cheered when that little man stood up to the tank in tianamen square in china- because freedom couldn’t be stopped or silenced. so, i guess i am in a quandary as to what happened in the 20 or so years since the fall of communism- and why it is exactly that americans are so very willing to embrace that ideology.
because let’s face it- the fascist-communist corporate oligarchy we have running our country- isn’t a representative democracy. the constitution and all that we held dear- gone. you can’t tell me that a country that behaves as we do- is free. we got our torture techniques from china and our nsa has spied on us for decades in ways that would make the kgb blush. the 20th century saw the fall of communism in one incarnation and the 21st century is seeing world totalitarianism rise again. and it only stands to reason- america has many, many natural resources. whoever controls them- well, pretty much survives the longest.
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