Brian Winter
reuters.com
February 5, 2014
Brazilian security forces are using undercover agents, intercepting e-mails,
and rigorously monitoring social media to try to ensure that violent
anti-government protesters do not ruin soccer’s World Cup this year, officials
told Reuters.
Demonstrations in recent months have been much smaller than those last June
when Brazil hosted a dress rehearsal tournament for the World Cup, shaking
President Dilma Rousseff’s government and contributing to an economic
slowdown.
But they have still resulted in vandalism of banks and paralyzed parts of
major cities as a hard core of perhaps a few thousand protesters nationwide,
some of whom wear masks and call themselves “Black Blocs,” clash with
police.
Read more
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
Man Claims Personal Info Stolen After Using HealthCare.gov
Joe Schoffstall
Capitol City Project
February 5, 2014
A Virginia man’s personal information has been stolen after he signed up for Obamacare on the healthcare.gov website. Now, he’s questioning if the website is the reason why.
“There’s a possibility someone got my personal information from your website,” Virginia Beach resident Rich Guillory said in a video shot by WVEC-VA while speaking on the phone. “They knew my name and they had my number” — along with his address and social security number as well.
The day after he signed up on the website, he got a call from someone claiming they could help him with finding health insurance. When the call came in, he didn’t have time to talk.
Read more
Capitol City Project
February 5, 2014
A Virginia man’s personal information has been stolen after he signed up for Obamacare on the healthcare.gov website. Now, he’s questioning if the website is the reason why.
“There’s a possibility someone got my personal information from your website,” Virginia Beach resident Rich Guillory said in a video shot by WVEC-VA while speaking on the phone. “They knew my name and they had my number” — along with his address and social security number as well.
The day after he signed up on the website, he got a call from someone claiming they could help him with finding health insurance. When the call came in, he didn’t have time to talk.
Read more
U.S. Postal Service Announces Giant Ammo Purchase
Post Office joins other federal agencies stockpiling over two billion rounds
of ammo
Kit Daniels
Infowars.com
February 5, 2014
The U.S. Postal Service is currently seeking companies that can provide “assorted small arms ammunition” in the near future.
On Jan. 31, the USPS Supplies and Services Purchasing Office posted a notice on the Federal Business Opportunities website asking contractors to register with USPS as potential ammunition suppliers for a variety of cartridges.
“The United States Postal Service intends to solicit proposals for assorted small arms ammunition,” the notice reads, which also mentioned a deadline of Feb. 10.
The Post Office published the notice just two days after Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) announced his proposal to remove a federal gun ban that prevents lawful concealed carry holders from carrying handguns inside post offices across the country.
Ironically the Postal Service isn’t the first non-law enforcement agency seeking firearms and ammunition.
Since 2001, the U.S. Dept. of Education has been building a massive arsenal through purchases orchestrated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
The Education Dept. has spent over $80,000 so far on Glock pistols and over $17,000 on Remington shotguns.
Back in July, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also purchased 72,000 rounds of .40 Smith & Wesson, following a 2012 purchase for 46,000 rounds of .40 S&W jacketed hollow point by the National Weather Service.
NOAA spokesperson Scott Smullen responded to concerns over the weather service purchase by stating that it was meant for the NOAA Fisheries Office of Law Enforcement for its bi-annual “target qualifications and training.”
That seems excessive considering that JHP ammunition is typically several times more expensive than practice rounds, which can usually be found in equivalent power loadings and thus offer similar recoil characteristics as duty rounds.
Including mass purchases by the Dept. of Homeland Security, non-military federal agencies combined have purchased an estimated amount of over two billion rounds of ammunition in the past two years.
Additionally, the U.S. Army bought almost 600,000 Soviet AK-47 magazines last fall, enough to hold nearly 18,000,000 rounds of 7.62x39mm ammo which is not standard-issue for either the U.S. military or even NATO.
It would take a Lockheed Martin C-5 Galaxy, one of the largest cargo aircraft in the world, two trips to haul that many magazines.
A month prior, the army purchased nearly 3,000,000 rounds of 7.62x39mm ammo, a huge amount but still only 1/6th of what the magazines purchased can hold in total.
The Feds have also spent millions on riot control measures in addition to the ammo acquisitions.
Earlier this month, Homeland Security spent over $58 million on hiring security details for just two Social Security offices in Maryland.
DHS also spent $80 million on armed guards to protect government buildings in New York and sought even more guards for federal facilities in Wisconsin and Minnesota.
While the government gears up for civil unrest and stockpiles ammo without limit, private gun owners on the other hand are finding ammunition shelves empty at gun stores across America, including shortages of once-common cartridges such as .22 Long Rifle.
Kit Daniels
Infowars.com
February 5, 2014
The U.S. Postal Service is currently seeking companies that can provide “assorted small arms ammunition” in the near future.
The U.S. Postal Service joins the long list of
non-military federal agencies purchasing large amounts of ammunition.
On Jan. 31, the USPS Supplies and Services Purchasing Office posted a notice on the Federal Business Opportunities website asking contractors to register with USPS as potential ammunition suppliers for a variety of cartridges.
“The United States Postal Service intends to solicit proposals for assorted small arms ammunition,” the notice reads, which also mentioned a deadline of Feb. 10.
The Post Office published the notice just two days after Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) announced his proposal to remove a federal gun ban that prevents lawful concealed carry holders from carrying handguns inside post offices across the country.
Ironically the Postal Service isn’t the first non-law enforcement agency seeking firearms and ammunition.
Since 2001, the U.S. Dept. of Education has been building a massive arsenal through purchases orchestrated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
The Education Dept. has spent over $80,000 so far on Glock pistols and over $17,000 on Remington shotguns.
Back in July, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also purchased 72,000 rounds of .40 Smith & Wesson, following a 2012 purchase for 46,000 rounds of .40 S&W jacketed hollow point by the National Weather Service.
NOAA spokesperson Scott Smullen responded to concerns over the weather service purchase by stating that it was meant for the NOAA Fisheries Office of Law Enforcement for its bi-annual “target qualifications and training.”
That seems excessive considering that JHP ammunition is typically several times more expensive than practice rounds, which can usually be found in equivalent power loadings and thus offer similar recoil characteristics as duty rounds.
Including mass purchases by the Dept. of Homeland Security, non-military federal agencies combined have purchased an estimated amount of over two billion rounds of ammunition in the past two years.
Additionally, the U.S. Army bought almost 600,000 Soviet AK-47 magazines last fall, enough to hold nearly 18,000,000 rounds of 7.62x39mm ammo which is not standard-issue for either the U.S. military or even NATO.
It would take a Lockheed Martin C-5 Galaxy, one of the largest cargo aircraft in the world, two trips to haul that many magazines.
A month prior, the army purchased nearly 3,000,000 rounds of 7.62x39mm ammo, a huge amount but still only 1/6th of what the magazines purchased can hold in total.
The Feds have also spent millions on riot control measures in addition to the ammo acquisitions.
Earlier this month, Homeland Security spent over $58 million on hiring security details for just two Social Security offices in Maryland.
DHS also spent $80 million on armed guards to protect government buildings in New York and sought even more guards for federal facilities in Wisconsin and Minnesota.
While the government gears up for civil unrest and stockpiles ammo without limit, private gun owners on the other hand are finding ammunition shelves empty at gun stores across America, including shortages of once-common cartridges such as .22 Long Rifle.
The War on the Tea Party
Thomas R. Eddlem
New American
February 5, 2014
The establishment is gunning for Tea Party congressmen who back civil liberties and oppose war, and is putting tens of millions of dollars on the line to defeat them in 2014. Congressman Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) claimed on MSNBC’s Now With Alex Wagner January 15:
Ellison specifically complained on MSNBC about the unwillingness of Tea Party Republicans to back pet leftist causes, such as increasing the minimum wage, providing amnesty for illegal immigrants, and transforming unemployment insurance into a long-term dole.
Ellison and his cheerleaders on MSNBC — and other establishment television networks — have decried the increasing partisanship in Congress and attributed it almost exclusively to the Tea Party movement. But is the Tea Party responsible for this partisanship?
Read more
New American
February 5, 2014
The establishment is gunning for Tea Party congressmen
who back civil liberties and oppose war / Image by Fibonacci Blue
The establishment is gunning for Tea Party congressmen who back civil liberties and oppose war, and is putting tens of millions of dollars on the line to defeat them in 2014. Congressman Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) claimed on MSNBC’s Now With Alex Wagner January 15:
It’s often said this is not your father’s or grandfather’s Republican Party. It’s not even the Republican Party of five years ago. These folks have gone Tea Party over the edge and they’re obsessive. They’re extremists, and quite frankly, they’ve destroyed the Republican Party and used it only in name. The fact is, we haven’t done anything. We’ve only passed about 60 bills. Most of them are suspensions, post office namings and a few of them have been bills to simply reopen the government after they shut it down.
Ellison specifically complained on MSNBC about the unwillingness of Tea Party Republicans to back pet leftist causes, such as increasing the minimum wage, providing amnesty for illegal immigrants, and transforming unemployment insurance into a long-term dole.
Ellison and his cheerleaders on MSNBC — and other establishment television networks — have decried the increasing partisanship in Congress and attributed it almost exclusively to the Tea Party movement. But is the Tea Party responsible for this partisanship?
Read more
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
Rep. Rogers: Limit On Illegal Drone Kills Puts America at Risk
Drone strikes have killed 2,371 people in Pakistan, many civilians
Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
February 4, 2014
Pakistan and Amnesty International call for end to drone strikes.
Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
February 4, 2014
The chair of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Mike Rogers, said Americans are in danger due to a
reported limit on drone strikes.
Pakistan and Amnesty International call for end to drone strikes.
Obama announced last May that the United States
would move away from a “boundless global war on terror” and rollback the
attacks. He reserved the authority, however, to launch drone strikes where a
threat was “continuing and imminent.” Reuters characterized the modification as “nuanced” and not a
significant policy change.
Rogers disagrees. “The President’s May 2013 policy
changes for U.S. targeted strikes are an utter and complete failure and they
leave Americans’ lives at risk,” he said prior to a hearing on terrorist
threats.
“It’s been a very, very effective tool in
disrupting the leadership of al Qaeda. I would be cautious about trying to shift
around key assets in the government,” Rogers said of the drone program last March. “The value of
this program comes from the entire set of the package, from trying to figure out
who these people are, where they are, and then having the ability to do
something about it.” He made the comments prior to the program being shifted
from the CIA to the Pentagon.
Classified data collected by Pakistan gives detailed information on 330 drones
strikes in that country since 2006. Pakistan claims the CIA-run program has
killed 2,371 people. The document is unusual because it provides
strike-by-strike details. The information, however, is spotty. For instance, it
does not include strikes occurring in 2007 and stops recording civilian
casualties after 2008.
In October Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International declared the
strikes in Pakistan and Yemen to be illegal violations of international law.
Some of the violations, the groups claimed, rise to the level of war crimes.
The reports followed a United Nations investigation claiming at least 33 drone
strikes have resulted in civilian casualties
Justice Antonin Scalia says World War II-style internment camps could happen again
Joel Gehrke
Washington Examiner
February 4, 2014
Justice Antonin Scalia predicts that the Supreme Court will
eventually authorize another a wartime abuse of civil rights such as the
internment camps for Japanese Americans during World War II.
“You are kidding yourself if you think the same thing will not happen again,” Scalia told the University of Hawaii law school while discussing Korematsu v. United States, the ruling in which the court gave its imprimatur to the internment camps.
The local Associated Press report quotes Scalia as using a Latin phrase that means “in times of war, the laws fall silent,” to explain why the court erred in that decision and will do so again.
Read more
Washington Examiner
February 4, 2014
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia says, “You are
kidding yourself if you think the same thing will not happen
again.”
“You are kidding yourself if you think the same thing will not happen again,” Scalia told the University of Hawaii law school while discussing Korematsu v. United States, the ruling in which the court gave its imprimatur to the internment camps.
The local Associated Press report quotes Scalia as using a Latin phrase that means “in times of war, the laws fall silent,” to explain why the court erred in that decision and will do so again.
Read more
Monday, February 3, 2014
Super Bowl Hijack Proves Government Cannot Protect You
Man penetrates multi-million dollar security ring with excuses and fake
pass
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
February 3, 2014
The much vaunted multi-million dollar security ring put in place at taxpayer expense for this year’s Super Bowl was easily penetrated by a man with a fake pass and an excuse that he was “late for work,” yet another example of how government security theater cannot protect you and is a colossal waste of money.
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
February 3, 2014
The much vaunted multi-million dollar security ring put in place at taxpayer expense for this year’s Super Bowl was easily penetrated by a man with a fake pass and an excuse that he was “late for work,” yet another example of how government security theater cannot protect you and is a colossal waste of money.
Prior to the big game, authorities boasted of their lavish
preparations for Super Bowl 2014 – bomb sniffing dogs, 700 extra troopers, a
24-hour FBI command center, a vast network of surveillance cameras, the ‘See
Something, Say Something’ snitch program in full force, TSA agents, snipers, no
fly zones, helicopter patrols.
The bill for all this – which ran into tens of millions of dollars
– was paid
for by taxpayers despite the NFL already getting a sales tax break at a
further cost of $8 million to residents of New Jersey. Also remember that the
NFL is tax exempt and pays no federal income tax on its vast profits.
However, 30-year-old Matthew Mills made a mockery of all this when
he crashed a post-game press conference to tell the viewing millions that the
9/11 attacks were, “perpetrated by people in our own government,” urging them to
“investigate 9/11,” before being dragged away.
How did Mills penetrate the fearsome ring of steel erected around
the MetLife Stadium? He used a fake pass from an old music festival and claimed
he was “late for work.”
Mills hopped on board an employee bus headed for the stadium and
relied on the same excuse every time he was confronted by security.
“I just said I was running late for work and I had to get in
there,” Mills
told NJ.com. “It was that simple.”
“I didn’t think that I’d get that far,” Mill said. “I just kept
getting closer and closer. Once I got past the final gate and into the stadium,
I was dumbfounded.”
Mills’ actions left NJ.com’s A.J. Perez to wonder, “With all of
the millions spent on security, how safe is the Super Bowl anyway?”
Although Mills used his opportunity to send a warning about false
flag terrorism staged by governments, his actions proved that governments, no
matter how much money they spend on invasive and unconstitutional security
measures, cannot protect the public from terrorists.
What if Mills had been an Al-Qaeda militant (you know, the kind
that the State Department affords
VIP access)? What if his intention had not been a ‘truth bomb’ but an actual
bomb?
In addition to the ease with which Mills made it through
security, Infowars
reporters said that their tickets were not even checked at any point of the
journey to and inside the MetLife Stadium, despite John Durkin, special agent in
charge of the TSA Newark field office, asserting
beforehand that only fans who showed a valid ticket would even be allowed to
board the train to the game.
It’s unsurprising that authorities have remained silent on how
easy it was for Mills to penetrate security, since any admission that they
failed would merely reinforce the fact that America’s multi-billion dollar
terrorism-fear-security complex is a monumental fraud and a monstrous waste of
taxpayer money.
Students Sign Petition To Have Gun Owners Executed In Concentration Camps
Californians want to round up, intern and kill Second Amendment advocates
Steve Watson
Infowars.com
February 3, 2014
Media analyst Mark Dice has once again documented how many young Americans are completely disconnected from reality, capturing California college students signing a fake petition to imprison all legal gun owners in concentration camps and even to have them executed.
“We just want to make sure we disarm the citizens. We can trust the government to be the only ones with guns.” Dice said to students on campus in San Diego, while they unquestioningly signed the petition to “repeal the Second Amendment.”
“These peasants don’t need guns,” Dice stated, adding “We want to put all registered gun owners in prison,” prompting one student to replay “Yes, it’s too dangerous.” for people to own guns.
“It’s just a simple repeal of the Second Amendment and we’ll be terminating and executing all of the gun owners.” Dice told another signatory who replied “OK, thank you.” and walked off.
“We are going to ban all guns except for the military and police.” Dice told another student, who signed the petition. “We’ll do door to door confiscations, we have lists of all the registered weapons, so the military will just go and take those away from people.” Dice added. “Ok.” the student replied.
Another male student signed the petition even though Dice suggested confiscating gun owners’ weapons and shooting them with them. “If they like their guns so much, let’s just feed the gun owners some of their own lead.” Dice ludicrously said.
“I didn’t think I could get any more ridiculous.” Dice stated after the student thanked him and went about his day.
But he did get more ridiculous. “We need to take these gun owners and put them into FEMA concentration camps to keep everybody safe.” Dice told a skateboarding jock who replied “well I agree with you there, keep them safe.” Although he refused to sign “something I don’t know anything about,” which is something the next student did not consider as he replied “sounds about right” to Dice’s FEMA camp suggestion.
Several other students then happily signed the petition, with responses such as “no problem!” as Dice suggested putting Americans in detention camps and killing them.
Dice has now successfully managed to persuade Americans in his area to agree to repeal the First, Second, Third, Fourth , Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Amendments, as well as the entire Bill Of Rights.
Steve Watson
Infowars.com
February 3, 2014
Media analyst Mark Dice has once again documented how many young Americans are completely disconnected from reality, capturing California college students signing a fake petition to imprison all legal gun owners in concentration camps and even to have them executed.
“We just want to make sure we disarm the citizens. We can trust the government to be the only ones with guns.” Dice said to students on campus in San Diego, while they unquestioningly signed the petition to “repeal the Second Amendment.”
“These peasants don’t need guns,” Dice stated, adding “We want to put all registered gun owners in prison,” prompting one student to replay “Yes, it’s too dangerous.” for people to own guns.
“It’s just a simple repeal of the Second Amendment and we’ll be terminating and executing all of the gun owners.” Dice told another signatory who replied “OK, thank you.” and walked off.
“We are going to ban all guns except for the military and police.” Dice told another student, who signed the petition. “We’ll do door to door confiscations, we have lists of all the registered weapons, so the military will just go and take those away from people.” Dice added. “Ok.” the student replied.
Another male student signed the petition even though Dice suggested confiscating gun owners’ weapons and shooting them with them. “If they like their guns so much, let’s just feed the gun owners some of their own lead.” Dice ludicrously said.
“I didn’t think I could get any more ridiculous.” Dice stated after the student thanked him and went about his day.
But he did get more ridiculous. “We need to take these gun owners and put them into FEMA concentration camps to keep everybody safe.” Dice told a skateboarding jock who replied “well I agree with you there, keep them safe.” Although he refused to sign “something I don’t know anything about,” which is something the next student did not consider as he replied “sounds about right” to Dice’s FEMA camp suggestion.
Several other students then happily signed the petition, with responses such as “no problem!” as Dice suggested putting Americans in detention camps and killing them.
Dice has now successfully managed to persuade Americans in his area to agree to repeal the First, Second, Third, Fourth , Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Amendments, as well as the entire Bill Of Rights.
Weird But True! Netflix, Skype, Kindle Predicted in 1965
Obscure comic book foresaw rollout of Internet with stunning accuracy
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
February 3, 2014
An article in a 1965 edition of Eagle, a British comic book, predicted the arrival of the Internet with stunning accuracy, including services similar to Skype, Netflix, Kindle and Google years before the very first rudimentary ARPANET links were even established and decades before the first incarnation of the world wide web became available to the general public.
Click for enlargement.
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
February 3, 2014
An article in a 1965 edition of Eagle, a British comic book, predicted the arrival of the Internet with stunning accuracy, including services similar to Skype, Netflix, Kindle and Google years before the very first rudimentary ARPANET links were even established and decades before the first incarnation of the world wide web became available to the general public.
The article, entitled Computers for Everyone, predicted
“world knowledge at your fingertips….as early as the 1990′s.”
“How would you like to be able to solve any mathematical problem
in a fraction of a second: summon any page of any book or newspaper instantly
before your eyes: have all factual information known to man at your own
fingertips – all without leaving your own living room? This fantastic dream of
scientific achievement may come true by the 1990s if a plan now being worked on
by top scientists in this country and the U.S.A. is successful,” states the
article.
Bear in mind that ARPANET, the very first rudimentary Internet
communication system, was not conceived until the early 1960′s and the first
ARPANET link between the University of California and the Stanford Research
Institute was not established until October 1969.
More than merely predicting the arrival of the Internet as a tool
of communication, the piece foresaw services like Netflix, Skype, Kindle, and
even the “Internet of things” where every home appliance is linked to the world
wide web.
“Your TV set, your telephone, your electricity and gas meters, and
your typewriter, tape-recorder and record player. All these things will be as
out of date as the gas-lamp is today, for the computer will control all power
supplies to your house, your videophone link and multi-channel TV signal,”
states the article.
The piece goes on to assert that the miniaturization process will
solve the problem of computers being the size of rooms, while the “installation
of the complex nationwide network of connections between the computers” will be
the biggest challenge.
The arrival of high speed fiber optic connections is even
predicted when the article speaks of a new system that, “carries thousands of
times more information than a cable at close to the speed of light.”
Click for enlargement.
In summary, the article predicted at least seven fundamental
aspects of the Internet, some of which are still only in their early stages
today, a full four years before the very first arcane Internet-style
communications were even tested, three decades before the Internet became
accessible for the general public, and four decades before we saw services like
Skype, Netflix and so-called ‘smart’ products.
- “World knowledge at your fingertips” (the search engine).
- “Summon any page of any book or newspaper instantly before your
eyes” (Kindle).
- “The computer will control all power supplies to your house”
(smart home, Internet of things).
- “Videophone” (Skype).
- “Multi-channel TV signal” (Netflix, Internet TVs).
- Computers/Internet to replace “Tape recorder and record player”
(Spotify, iTunes).
- Network to operate at speed of light (fiber optic).
All of these were predicted 50 years ago by a children’s comic
book! Weird, but true.
Panelist at Podesta Think Tank on Common Core: ‘The Children Belong to All of Us’
Penny Starr
cnsnews.com
February 3, 2014
In addressing criticism of the Common Core national education standards, a panelist at the Center for American Progress (CAP), a liberal think tank, said critics were a “tiny minority” who opposed standards altogether, which was unfair because “the children belong to all of us.”
The CAP was founded by John Podesta, former chief of staff to Bill Clinton and now an adviser to President Barack Obama. At a CAP event to promote Common Core on Friday, CNSNews.com asked about the critics who say federal monetary incentives attached to Common Core is driving the states to implement the standards.
Paul Reville, the former secretary of education for Massachusetts and a Common Core supporter, said, “To be sure, there’s always a small voice – and I think these voices get amplified in the midst of these arguments – of people who were never in favor of standards in the first place and never wanted to have any kind of testing or accountability and those voices get amplified.”
Read more
cnsnews.com
February 3, 2014
In addressing criticism of the Common Core national education standards, a panelist at the Center for American Progress (CAP), a liberal think tank, said critics were a “tiny minority” who opposed standards altogether, which was unfair because “the children belong to all of us.”
The CAP was founded by John Podesta, former chief of staff to Bill Clinton and now an adviser to President Barack Obama. At a CAP event to promote Common Core on Friday, CNSNews.com asked about the critics who say federal monetary incentives attached to Common Core is driving the states to implement the standards.
Paul Reville, the former secretary of education for Massachusetts and a Common Core supporter, said, “To be sure, there’s always a small voice – and I think these voices get amplified in the midst of these arguments – of people who were never in favor of standards in the first place and never wanted to have any kind of testing or accountability and those voices get amplified.”
Read more
Police Fail to Stop Violent Attack Just Outside Police Station
Gun control myth is destroyed as police officers cannot stop violence outside
their own headquarters
Kit Daniels
Infowars.com
February 3, 2014
Three men were brutally attacked by at least six others on Friday night despite being only blocks away from the Austin, Texas Police Department in yet another assault which debunks the myth that police can prevent violence better than armed individuals.
Even though the attack occurred at the intersection of East Sixth St. and Interstate 35, which is at most two blocks away from police headquarters, officers did not arrive at the scene until after the fighting ended and the crowd dispersed.
The police’s slow response time is even more troubling considering that the intersection is a well-known hot spot for violent crime.
After a video of the attack went viral, Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo scheduled a town hall meeting in the middle of February to discuss the incident.
“Nice response, a town hall meeting in two weeks because you can’t stop crime two blocks from your headquarters,” Austin resident Joe Hafkey wrote on Twitter in response to Acevedo’s announcement. “Similar response time as APD.”
He added that four of his friends were also severely attacked at the same location in the past two years.
Another resident, Chris Cubas, also had friends violently assaulted near the police station.
“This isn’t the first time it has happened [fighting] in that spot just to people I know,” he wrote on Twitter. “How are people supposed to have confidence?”
Chris Crowley, who works across the street from the police dept., pointed out that the violence occurring in the area is routine.
“I’ve been followed to my car multiple times,” he said according to My Fox Austin. “My brother was stabbed on that bridge right across from the police station twice on New Year’s Eve.”
This incident is a great example of why Americans are always better off protecting themselves with firearms and other methods of self-defense instead of relying on police officers who do not even have a duty to protect individuals according to Warren v. District of Columbia.
The mere sight of a drawn handgun, for example, is usually enough to stop an aggressor from committing a crime. In such instances, violence is prevented.
Besides, police are always minutes away when seconds matter, even if they’re only two blocks away as the three victims experienced on Friday.
Yet gun control advocates constantly claim that individuals do not need to be armed because the police can protect them, but as these Austin residents revealed, the police can never be found in the high-crime area surrounding their headquarters.
Individuals must always be the primary defenders of their lives. An able-bodied person relying and depending on anyone else for safety is acting as a slave.
Kit Daniels
Infowars.com
February 3, 2014
Three men were brutally attacked by at least six others on Friday night despite being only blocks away from the Austin, Texas Police Department in yet another assault which debunks the myth that police can prevent violence better than armed individuals.
Even though the attack occurred at the intersection of East Sixth St. and Interstate 35, which is at most two blocks away from police headquarters, officers did not arrive at the scene until after the fighting ended and the crowd dispersed.
The police’s slow response time is even more troubling considering that the intersection is a well-known hot spot for violent crime.
After a video of the attack went viral, Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo scheduled a town hall meeting in the middle of February to discuss the incident.
“Nice response, a town hall meeting in two weeks because you can’t stop crime two blocks from your headquarters,” Austin resident Joe Hafkey wrote on Twitter in response to Acevedo’s announcement. “Similar response time as APD.”
He added that four of his friends were also severely attacked at the same location in the past two years.
Another resident, Chris Cubas, also had friends violently assaulted near the police station.
“This isn’t the first time it has happened [fighting] in that spot just to people I know,” he wrote on Twitter. “How are people supposed to have confidence?”
Chris Crowley, who works across the street from the police dept., pointed out that the violence occurring in the area is routine.
“I’ve been followed to my car multiple times,” he said according to My Fox Austin. “My brother was stabbed on that bridge right across from the police station twice on New Year’s Eve.”
This incident is a great example of why Americans are always better off protecting themselves with firearms and other methods of self-defense instead of relying on police officers who do not even have a duty to protect individuals according to Warren v. District of Columbia.
The mere sight of a drawn handgun, for example, is usually enough to stop an aggressor from committing a crime. In such instances, violence is prevented.
Besides, police are always minutes away when seconds matter, even if they’re only two blocks away as the three victims experienced on Friday.
Yet gun control advocates constantly claim that individuals do not need to be armed because the police can protect them, but as these Austin residents revealed, the police can never be found in the high-crime area surrounding their headquarters.
Individuals must always be the primary defenders of their lives. An able-bodied person relying and depending on anyone else for safety is acting as a slave.
Sunday, February 2, 2014
New Regime at NSA to Deal With Snowden Fallout
Leaked Source
February 2, 2014
Spencer Ackerman/Guardian/RT:
The embattled National Security Agency is about to get new leaders to deal with the ongoing fallout from whistleblower Edward Snowden’s surveillance disclosures.
Vice-admiral Michael Rogers, the commander of the US navy’s tenth fleet and its Fleet Cyber Command, will take over from NSA Director Keith Alexander, who reluctantly became a global figure in the wake of the Snowden revelations.
Rogers is a longtime cryptologist in the Navy, whose informal turn it was to nominate a director for the NSA. Alexander is an Army general; and his predecessor, Michael Hayden, hailed from the Air Force.
Rogers has a resume studded with experience in cryptography and electronic eavesdropping that are central to the NSA’s charter. Tenth Fleet, inert since World War II, was reactivated as the Navy’s cybersecurity command and based at Fort Meade, the base of operations for the military’s infant Cyber Command – which Rogers will also head, pending Senate approval – and the NSA. Rogers also served for two years on the military’s Joint Staff as intelligence director, a prestigious Pentagon post.
But his low-profile commissions have not provided him with a platform to articulate his views on the propriety and appropriate scope of the bulk surveillance of a large swath of world communications, the subject of Snowden’s disclosures that have been published in the Guardian, the Washington Post and other news outlets worldwide.
Nor will the Senate have a chance to scrutinize him, at least formally. The NSA directorship is not a position confirmed by the Senate. Rogers’ appointment to head US Cyber Command, which is co-located with the NSA and largely reliant on its personnel and expertise to protect US military networks, will require Senate approval, making Rogers’ forthcoming Senate Armed Services Committee hearing a proxy venue to learn his views on surveillance.
“Rogers has never had to make the public case that the country’s intelligence apparatus is not abusing its legal authorities,” wrote Shane Harris in a recent Foreign Policy profile.
Whether or not Rogers will endorse any further reigning in of those NSA programs is a matter that will likely not be known until and if he is officially confirmed to take control. According to at least one interview with the Navy cryptologist, though, he’s likely to continue Gen. Alexander’s ethos of ensuring the US can collect and control seemingly all of the intelligence that’s transmitted around the globe.
Speaking in late-2012 to CHIPS, the Department of the Navy’s Information Technology magazine, Rogers indicated that he favored not just increasing the offensive power of the American military’s cyber units, but also stressed the importance of the US maintaining its dominance over the world’s information.
“The Navy’s cyber warriors are doing an incredible job every day defending the network and achieving information dominance,” he told CHIPS. “To preserve the Navy’s cyber warfighting advantage, we must continue to develop an elite workforce that is recruited, trained and educated to better understand the maritime environment, employ the latest technological advances and deliver cyber warfighting capability anywhere around the world,” he told CHIPS.
“In summary, the Navy’s success across the maritime domain is guaranteed by our ability to defend, project power and prevail in cyberspace with an exceptionally trained cyber force, continued vigilance, proven tactics and an unshakable warrior ethos,” he added. “If you are not excited by the opportunity that cyber represents to the Navy then you do not have a pulse,” he said in a separate interview last year to the Navy Times.
Richard Ledgett, the head of the agency’s investigation into Snowden – who publicly floated the prospect of an amnesty for the former contractor – will become the NSA’s new deputy director and top civilian leader.
The appointments, both long anticipated, were announced by the Pentagon on Thursday.
February 2, 2014
Spencer Ackerman/Guardian/RT:
The embattled National Security Agency is about to get new leaders to deal with the ongoing fallout from whistleblower Edward Snowden’s surveillance disclosures.
Vice-admiral Michael Rogers, the commander of the US navy’s tenth fleet and its Fleet Cyber Command, will take over from NSA Director Keith Alexander, who reluctantly became a global figure in the wake of the Snowden revelations.
Rogers is a longtime cryptologist in the Navy, whose informal turn it was to nominate a director for the NSA. Alexander is an Army general; and his predecessor, Michael Hayden, hailed from the Air Force.
Rogers has a resume studded with experience in cryptography and electronic eavesdropping that are central to the NSA’s charter. Tenth Fleet, inert since World War II, was reactivated as the Navy’s cybersecurity command and based at Fort Meade, the base of operations for the military’s infant Cyber Command – which Rogers will also head, pending Senate approval – and the NSA. Rogers also served for two years on the military’s Joint Staff as intelligence director, a prestigious Pentagon post.
But his low-profile commissions have not provided him with a platform to articulate his views on the propriety and appropriate scope of the bulk surveillance of a large swath of world communications, the subject of Snowden’s disclosures that have been published in the Guardian, the Washington Post and other news outlets worldwide.
Nor will the Senate have a chance to scrutinize him, at least formally. The NSA directorship is not a position confirmed by the Senate. Rogers’ appointment to head US Cyber Command, which is co-located with the NSA and largely reliant on its personnel and expertise to protect US military networks, will require Senate approval, making Rogers’ forthcoming Senate Armed Services Committee hearing a proxy venue to learn his views on surveillance.
“Rogers has never had to make the public case that the country’s intelligence apparatus is not abusing its legal authorities,” wrote Shane Harris in a recent Foreign Policy profile.
Whether or not Rogers will endorse any further reigning in of those NSA programs is a matter that will likely not be known until and if he is officially confirmed to take control. According to at least one interview with the Navy cryptologist, though, he’s likely to continue Gen. Alexander’s ethos of ensuring the US can collect and control seemingly all of the intelligence that’s transmitted around the globe.
Speaking in late-2012 to CHIPS, the Department of the Navy’s Information Technology magazine, Rogers indicated that he favored not just increasing the offensive power of the American military’s cyber units, but also stressed the importance of the US maintaining its dominance over the world’s information.
“The Navy’s cyber warriors are doing an incredible job every day defending the network and achieving information dominance,” he told CHIPS. “To preserve the Navy’s cyber warfighting advantage, we must continue to develop an elite workforce that is recruited, trained and educated to better understand the maritime environment, employ the latest technological advances and deliver cyber warfighting capability anywhere around the world,” he told CHIPS.
“In summary, the Navy’s success across the maritime domain is guaranteed by our ability to defend, project power and prevail in cyberspace with an exceptionally trained cyber force, continued vigilance, proven tactics and an unshakable warrior ethos,” he added. “If you are not excited by the opportunity that cyber represents to the Navy then you do not have a pulse,” he said in a separate interview last year to the Navy Times.
Richard Ledgett, the head of the agency’s investigation into Snowden – who publicly floated the prospect of an amnesty for the former contractor – will become the NSA’s new deputy director and top civilian leader.
The appointments, both long anticipated, were announced by the Pentagon on Thursday.
Is the GOP really going to pass immigration reform?
Rick Moran
americanthinker.com
February 2, 2014
It is perplexing to watch the Republican leadership falling all over themselves trying to come up with an immigration reform plan that won’t look like they’ve totally caved to the Democrats.
But the ultimate question has to be “why?” Just because the Chamber of Commerce and a few other business groups are leanung on the GOP to get something done on immigration reform doesn’t mean they should jump throught those hoops. The issue is far down the list of priorities according to the polls, where job creation is the #1 concern.
Reihan Salam is asking the same question:
One of the most curious political developments in recent memory is House Speaker John Boehner’s decision to press for a new Republican immigration bill before addressing America’s bona fide jobs crisis. Immigration reform is important. Many conservatives are convinced that unless the GOP deals with the challenges facing unauthorized immigrants who have been living and working in the country for years, it will never build trust with voters with strong ties to immigrant communities. This is no small thing in a country in which 13 percent of the population is foreign-born and another 11 percent of the population has at least one foreign-born parent.
Read more
americanthinker.com
February 2, 2014
It is perplexing to watch the Republican leadership falling all over themselves trying to come up with an immigration reform plan that won’t look like they’ve totally caved to the Democrats.
But the ultimate question has to be “why?” Just because the Chamber of Commerce and a few other business groups are leanung on the GOP to get something done on immigration reform doesn’t mean they should jump throught those hoops. The issue is far down the list of priorities according to the polls, where job creation is the #1 concern.
Reihan Salam is asking the same question:
One of the most curious political developments in recent memory is House Speaker John Boehner’s decision to press for a new Republican immigration bill before addressing America’s bona fide jobs crisis. Immigration reform is important. Many conservatives are convinced that unless the GOP deals with the challenges facing unauthorized immigrants who have been living and working in the country for years, it will never build trust with voters with strong ties to immigrant communities. This is no small thing in a country in which 13 percent of the population is foreign-born and another 11 percent of the population has at least one foreign-born parent.
Read more
Republicans face 2016 turmoil
Karen Tumulty and Robert Costa
washingtonpost.com
February 2, 2014
As Republicans look ahead to the 2016 presidential race, they are hoping to avoid the kind of chaotic and protracted nominating battle that dismayed party elders and damaged the eventual candidacy of Mitt Romney.
That, however, could be a hard thing to prevent.
The party is divided and in turmoil, with a civil war raging between its establishment and insurgent factions. For the first time in memory, there is no obvious early favorite — no candidate with wide appeal who has run before, no incumbent president or vice president, no clear establishment pick.
Read more
washingtonpost.com
February 2, 2014
As Republicans look ahead to the 2016 presidential race, they are hoping to avoid the kind of chaotic and protracted nominating battle that dismayed party elders and damaged the eventual candidacy of Mitt Romney.
That, however, could be a hard thing to prevent.
The party is divided and in turmoil, with a civil war raging between its establishment and insurgent factions. For the first time in memory, there is no obvious early favorite — no candidate with wide appeal who has run before, no incumbent president or vice president, no clear establishment pick.
Read more
Why banks can treat their customers like dirt
Daniel J. Mitchell
thecommentator.com
February 2, 2014
People are getting increasingly agitated about being spied on by government. The snoops at the National Security Agency have gotten the most attention, and those bureaucrats are in the challenging position of trying to justify massive invasions of our privacy when they can’t show any evidence that this voyeurism has stopped a single terrorist attack.
And let’s not forget that some politicians and bureaucrats want to track our driving habits with GPS devices. Their immediate goal is taxing us (gee, what a surprise), but does anyone doubt that the next step would be a database of our movements?
But the worst example of government spying may be the web of laws and regulations that require banks to monitor our bank accounts and to share millions of reports about our financial transactions with the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.
Read more
thecommentator.com
February 2, 2014
People are getting increasingly agitated about being spied on by government. The snoops at the National Security Agency have gotten the most attention, and those bureaucrats are in the challenging position of trying to justify massive invasions of our privacy when they can’t show any evidence that this voyeurism has stopped a single terrorist attack.
And let’s not forget that some politicians and bureaucrats want to track our driving habits with GPS devices. Their immediate goal is taxing us (gee, what a surprise), but does anyone doubt that the next step would be a database of our movements?
But the worst example of government spying may be the web of laws and regulations that require banks to monitor our bank accounts and to share millions of reports about our financial transactions with the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.
Read more
81-year Old Woman Jailed Without Bond for Feeding Backyard Animals
Deborah Bowden
myfoxtampabay.com
February 2, 2014
Neighbors say Mary Musselman has been feeding backyard animals as long as they can remember.
“She fed the squirrels, the birds, strays and that was in the community. She’s just always been that kind of soul,” says neighbor Patty Palmer.
That is, until Wednesday, when the 81-year retired physical education teacher was hauled to jail for feeding bears one too many times.
“I just think it’s so heavy handed. Way overdone. I don’t think that there was much thought given to her age, her physical, her mental condition,” says John Payne, who is also a neighbor.
Read more
myfoxtampabay.com
February 2, 2014
Neighbors say Mary Musselman has been feeding backyard animals as long as they can remember.
“She fed the squirrels, the birds, strays and that was in the community. She’s just always been that kind of soul,” says neighbor Patty Palmer.
That is, until Wednesday, when the 81-year retired physical education teacher was hauled to jail for feeding bears one too many times.
“I just think it’s so heavy handed. Way overdone. I don’t think that there was much thought given to her age, her physical, her mental condition,” says John Payne, who is also a neighbor.
Read more
Winner Of Super Bowl 48 Announced!
Infowars.com
February 1, 2014
Alex Jones is a man known for having access to insider information. Here it is ladies and gentleman, without a shred of doubt. The definite winner of Super Bowl XLVIII!
February 1, 2014
Alex Jones is a man known for having access to insider information. Here it is ladies and gentleman, without a shred of doubt. The definite winner of Super Bowl XLVIII!
Attack Chopper Joins Snipers & Checkpoints at Super Bowl
Pentagon budget cuts will not stop PR opportunity
Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
February 1, 2014
Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
February 1, 2014
The Super Bowl will provide a venue to acclimate
the American people to the presence of the military. The Defense Department said
on Friday it will play a major role – with air defense, ground troops, a flyover
and other contributions – at the high profile event.
Despite a flight restriction zone imposed over New
Jersey’s MetLife Stadium, F-16 fighters will patrol the skies.
National Guardsmen will attend the event for
security and “community relations.”
There will be a 32-member armed forces chorus that
will contribute to the national anthem.
Black Hawk attack helicopters and Chinook
transports from the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) will do a flyover. It
was requested by the NFL, Col. Steve Warren told Politico.
The flyover will cost around $100,000. There was
no estimate provided on how much it will cost taxpayers for the remainder of the
Pentagon’s public relations stunt. “This is the type of audience we want to
connect with,” Col. Warren explained.
In addition to in-your-face military displays,
football fans will be subjected to unprecedented security at the event: 700
troopers, 3,000 security guards, and state, local, county and federal “assets,”
according to Fox News.
The Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, the
TSA and other federal agencies will be involved, which is to say the American
people will be obliged to pay millions for over-the-top security while the
Seahawks and the Broncos throw around a pigskin ball.
As usual, there is no specific terror threat.
“Of particular concern to us is what was going on
overseas in Volgograd in regard to the Sochi Olympics. As you know both of those
bombings were targeting mass transit,” said Col. Rick Fuentes, head of the New Jersey State Police.
Iranian commander: We have targets within America
Katie McHugh
Daily Caller
February 2, 2014
Full article here
Daily Caller
February 2, 2014
A top commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards boasted Saturday that
his forces have plans in place to attack the United States from within, should
the U.S. attack the Islamic Republic.
“America, with its strategic ignorance, does not have a full
understanding of the power of the Islamic Republic,” Brig. Gen. Hossein Salami
said in a televised interview. “We have recognized
America’s military strategy, and have arranged our abilities, and have
identified centers in America [for attack] that will create a shock.”
Reports indicate that terrorist Hezbollah forces — allies of Iran —
have infiltrated the U.S. and have mapped out targets.
“We will conduct such a blow in which they [America] will be
destroyed from within,” Salami said.
Full article here
New Conan O’Brien Segment Exposes Media Scripting Yet Again
Infowars.com
February 2, 2014
Once again, the Conan O’Brien show has revealed countless examples of local media reading off the same script, proving that most corporate news outlets do nothing more than push national talking points.
February 2, 2014
Once again, the Conan O’Brien show has revealed countless examples of local media reading off the same script, proving that most corporate news outlets do nothing more than push national talking points.
NFL: Microcosm of the Corporate Class
Billions stolen from tax payers
Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
February 2, 2014
“Once tax breaks, subsidies, mandates or whatever goodies Washington comes up with are in place, it’s almost impossible to get rid of them,” notes Bonner Cohen, a senior fellow with the National Center for Public Policy Research.
Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
February 2, 2014
Alexis Garcia has produced a video for Reason.tv
showing how an NFL franchise is not a good idea, especially for cash-strapped
cities.
“The NFL is good at fleecing taxpayers,” ESPN
columnist Gregg Easterbrook and the author of The King of Sports:
Football’s Impact on America told Garcia. “It’s about a billion dollars a
year I’ve calculated in public subsidies to NFL owners and this is a group that
consists almost entirely of billionaires and yet receiving significant public
subsidies every year.”
The organization closely resembles the corporate
class sucking the life blood out of America. Like banksters and transnational
companies, it depends of corporate socialism. It buys politicians who agree to use tax dollars to subsidize
operations and build lavish stadiums. It is owned by billionaires. (See an interactive Muckety map here.)
“Judith
Grant Long, a Harvard
University professor of urban planning, calculates that
league-wide, 70 percent of the capital cost of NFL stadiums has been provided by
taxpayers, not NFL owners. Many cities, counties, and states also pay the
stadiums’ ongoing costs, by providing power, sewer services, other
infrastructure, and stadium improvements,” Easterbook
writes.
The NFL does not pay a dime in taxes. The IRS says it is a 501(c)(6) tax-exempt organization.
Like the Rockefellers and the elite, the NFL exploits the tax code to avoid
paying taxes the rest of us pay at gunpoint. The tea party may have difficulty
gaining tax exempt status, but it is not a problem for the billionaire owned
NFL.
But the NFL is hardly run like a charity on a
shoestring with a volunteer staff. Roger Goodell, the current NFL commissioner,
for instance pulls down $30 million a year. Former Commissioner Paul Tagliabue
received nearly $8.6 million in 2011. Five executive vice presidents received
multi-million-dollar compensation, ranging from $1.5 million to $8.8 million,
notes Laurie Bennett.
“Goodell’s taking some $30 million from an
enterprise made more profitable because it hides behind its tax-exempt status
does not seem materially different from, say, the Fannie Mae CEO’s taking a
gigantic bonus while taxpayers were bailing out his company,” writes
Easterbrook.
In September, Oklahoma Republican Senator Tom
Coburn introduced legislation to put an end to the NFL’s tax exemption.
Coburn’s bill, however, is not a sure deal.
“Once tax breaks, subsidies, mandates or whatever goodies Washington comes up with are in place, it’s almost impossible to get rid of them,” notes Bonner Cohen, a senior fellow with the National Center for Public Policy Research.
Saturday, February 1, 2014
Obama says he’s open to taking executive action on immigration
Rebecca Shabad
The Hill
February 1, 2014
President Obama on Friday said he’s open to taking executive action on immigration.
The president said if Congress can’t pass reform legislation, he would explore all “available options” to implement a “smart system” unilaterally.
“I’m going to look at all available options,” Obama said during a virtual “road trip” chat hosted by Google.
Obama said he’s “modestly optimistic” that Congress would pass immigration legislation this year and called the immigration principles unveiled by House Republican leaders this week a step in the right direction.
“There are still some differences,” Obama said.
Full article here
The Hill
February 1, 2014
President Obama on Friday said he’s open to taking executive action on immigration.
The president said if Congress can’t pass reform legislation, he would explore all “available options” to implement a “smart system” unilaterally.
“I’m going to look at all available options,” Obama said during a virtual “road trip” chat hosted by Google.
Obama said he’s “modestly optimistic” that Congress would pass immigration legislation this year and called the immigration principles unveiled by House Republican leaders this week a step in the right direction.
“There are still some differences,” Obama said.
Full article here
Why Are Costs For Generic Medications Soaring?
Dr. Susan Berry
breitbart.com
February 1, 2014
The pervasive use of generic over brand-name medications was anticipated to be a money-saver, but recently prices are soaring, even up 6,000 percent for some common drugs that were once fairly low-cost.
As National Journal reports, pharmacists are perplexed about the huge price hikes in many drugs and are asking Congress to hold a hearing to look into the matter.
Generic drugs such as Pravastatin, which treats high cholesterol, and the antibiotic Doxycycline spiked upwards of 1,000 percent in 2013, according to a survey by the National Community Pharmacists Association.
According to the survey, 77 percent of pharmacists said they experienced 26 or more instances of a large increase in the acquisition price of a generic drug within the last six months of 2013.
Read more
breitbart.com
February 1, 2014
The pervasive use of generic over brand-name medications was anticipated to be a money-saver, but recently prices are soaring, even up 6,000 percent for some common drugs that were once fairly low-cost.
As National Journal reports, pharmacists are perplexed about the huge price hikes in many drugs and are asking Congress to hold a hearing to look into the matter.
Generic drugs such as Pravastatin, which treats high cholesterol, and the antibiotic Doxycycline spiked upwards of 1,000 percent in 2013, according to a survey by the National Community Pharmacists Association.
According to the survey, 77 percent of pharmacists said they experienced 26 or more instances of a large increase in the acquisition price of a generic drug within the last six months of 2013.
Read more
Are CIA Cyber-Spooks Hacking Americans’ Computers?
Robyn Greene
aclu.org
February 1, 2014
At Wednesday’s Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, titled “Global Security Threats,” Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Mark Udall (D-Colo.) hinted that CIA agents might be engaging in abusive cyber operations against Americans. And CIA Director John Brennan did little to dispel the notion.
At the hearing, Wyden asked Brennan point-blank whether CIA activities are covered by the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), which prohibits hacking people’s computers. Brennan shrugged off the question, saying that he wasn’t familiar enough with the law to answer. Udall followed up by demanding that Brennan assure the committee that the “CIA does not conduct domestic spying and searches in violation of Executive Order 12333,” which “prohibits the CIA from engaging in domestic spying and searches of U.S. citizens within our borders.” Brennan said only that “the CIA follows the letter and spirit of the law … in terms of its responsibilities to collect intelligence that will keep this country safe.”
If experience has taught us anything, it’s that the interesting part of all of this may lie more in the questions than in their answers. Wyden and Udall’s line of questioning recalls a now-famous Senate Intelligence Committee hearing last March. In that hearing, Wyden pointedly asked Director of National Intelligence Director James Clapper whether the NSA was collecting information on millions of Americans. Clapper responded with one word: “No.” We learned how untrue that was when the first Snowden document was published on June 5, exposing the NSA’s call-records program, which collects the metadata of virtually every call placed by every American.
This would not be the first time that the CIA has violated Americans’ rights. In the 1950s, the CIA opened hundreds of thousands of Americans’ letters, and in the 60s and 70s, its covert Domestic Operations Division engaged in widespread surveillance and infiltration of domestic civil rights and anti-war groups, through Operation CHAOS, Project RESISTANCE, and Project MERRIMAC.
Right now, we don’t know whether the CIA is engaging in cyber-ops against Americans. But we do now know that the NSA’s spy shenanigans range from sucking up massive amounts of internet traffic through upstream and downstream collection programs, undermining online security and encryption standards, infiltrating online gaming realms, and even scooping up detailed user information sent over smartphone apps. If Senators Wyden and Udall are sounding another warning call about another government agency running afoul of the law without regard to our privacy – we should be listening.
aclu.org
February 1, 2014
At Wednesday’s Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, titled “Global Security Threats,” Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Mark Udall (D-Colo.) hinted that CIA agents might be engaging in abusive cyber operations against Americans. And CIA Director John Brennan did little to dispel the notion.
At the hearing, Wyden asked Brennan point-blank whether CIA activities are covered by the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), which prohibits hacking people’s computers. Brennan shrugged off the question, saying that he wasn’t familiar enough with the law to answer. Udall followed up by demanding that Brennan assure the committee that the “CIA does not conduct domestic spying and searches in violation of Executive Order 12333,” which “prohibits the CIA from engaging in domestic spying and searches of U.S. citizens within our borders.” Brennan said only that “the CIA follows the letter and spirit of the law … in terms of its responsibilities to collect intelligence that will keep this country safe.”
If experience has taught us anything, it’s that the interesting part of all of this may lie more in the questions than in their answers. Wyden and Udall’s line of questioning recalls a now-famous Senate Intelligence Committee hearing last March. In that hearing, Wyden pointedly asked Director of National Intelligence Director James Clapper whether the NSA was collecting information on millions of Americans. Clapper responded with one word: “No.” We learned how untrue that was when the first Snowden document was published on June 5, exposing the NSA’s call-records program, which collects the metadata of virtually every call placed by every American.
This would not be the first time that the CIA has violated Americans’ rights. In the 1950s, the CIA opened hundreds of thousands of Americans’ letters, and in the 60s and 70s, its covert Domestic Operations Division engaged in widespread surveillance and infiltration of domestic civil rights and anti-war groups, through Operation CHAOS, Project RESISTANCE, and Project MERRIMAC.
Right now, we don’t know whether the CIA is engaging in cyber-ops against Americans. But we do now know that the NSA’s spy shenanigans range from sucking up massive amounts of internet traffic through upstream and downstream collection programs, undermining online security and encryption standards, infiltrating online gaming realms, and even scooping up detailed user information sent over smartphone apps. If Senators Wyden and Udall are sounding another warning call about another government agency running afoul of the law without regard to our privacy – we should be listening.
It Ain’t Paranoia If It’s True
Bionic Mosquito
February 1, 2014
Cass, Cass, Cass…why do you serve up such softballs?
Paranoia
Cass Sunstein apparently believes that speaking truth to power and exposing the lies in government is paranoid behavior:
In a recent essay in the New Republic, Princeton University historian Sean Wilentz contends that Edward Snowden, Glenn Greenwald and Julian Assange reflect a political impulse he calls “paranoid libertarianism.”
Are there lies buried in the allegations of these gentlemen?If Snowden is lying, why is Obama pretending to act? These gentlemen have certainly been ridiculed by the mainstream and the politicians; however, I have not read a refutation of any meaningful portion of the government abuses as exposed.
Wilentz claims that far from being “truth-telling comrades intent on protecting the state and the Constitution from authoritarian malefactors,” they “despise the modern liberal state, and they want to wound it.”
Why not both truth-telling and a desire to wound the modern liberal state?If, in fact, the accusations are correct, isn’t a little reputational wounding in order?Should not such a state, and the actors behind it, be despised?
Sunstein moves beyond the three named “paranoids,” and to the larger group of libertarian paranoids.He identifies five characteristics of this breed:
The first is a wildly exaggerated sense of risks — a belief that if government is engaging in certain action (such as surveillance or gun control), it will inevitably use its authority so as to jeopardize civil liberties and perhaps democracy itself.
One need look no further than events in Boston after the marathon bombing.Civil liberties were more than jeopardized – they were ignored.Or what of reports that data from the massive NSA surveillance system is subtly handed over to prosecutors to be used in convicting defendants of non-national-security crimes?
What of a Federal conviction rate well over 90%?For a government that fails at almost every endeavor, how is it possible that it is so successful at this one?What of the highest incarceration rate in the world?Higher than Russia, and six times higher than Canada?Are Americans just more criminal than residents in every other country?
In practice, of course, the risk might be real. But paranoid libertarians are convinced of its reality whether or not they have good reason for their conviction.
Wait a minute, Cass.If “of course, the risk might be real,” how do you point to paranoia in the minds of those who see the risk?
The second characteristic is a presumption of bad faith on the part of government officials — a belief that their motivations must be distrusted.
This one is a whopper.Let’s start with the non-libertarian critiques of just a few American military actions:
What of the “narratives at variance with the facts” (to quote a wonderful line by Mr. Rozeff)?Just to name two: JFK and September 11.
If their motives can be trusted, why do they need to lie their way to their objectives?Why have they developed systems so effective at spreading fairy tales?
The third characteristic is a sense of past, present or future victimization. Paranoid libertarians tend to believe that as individuals or as members of specified groups, they are being targeted by the government…
Specified groups have been targeted many times in the past.What of slaves at the founding?American Indians?Japanese Americans during World War II?Minorities through the drug war?Wealthy taxpayers?Are libertarians – critics of government power – wrong to feel some concern in this regard?
The fourth characteristic is an indifference to trade-offs — a belief that liberty, as paranoid libertarians understand it, is the overriding if not the only value, and that it is unreasonable and weak to see relevant considerations on both sides.
What is the “both sides” of this?is there some form of liberty on the more side of liberty?There can only be considerations to weaken liberty, if liberty is the standard.
Sunstein uses such language to feign balance – there is a position in the middle that the so-called wise government leaders honestly seek to find.In any compromise between food and poison, and all that….
The fifth and final characteristic is passionate enthusiasm for slippery-slope arguments. The fear is that if government is allowed to take an apparently modest step today, it will take far less modest steps tomorrow, and on the next day, freedom itself will be in terrible trouble. Modest and apparently reasonable steps must be resisted as if they were the incarnation of tyranny itself.
This is the entire history of the republic.The slope has been slippery ever since July 4, 1776.
Try to identify significant incidents in the rollback of state power – absent at the conclusion of major wars, which as Robert Higgs documents results in rollbacks, but never to pre-war levels; a ratchet effect.
I can think of a couple such events (the end of the first two banks of the United States come to mind).However, to describe these as anything other than pebbles on the double-black-diamond downhill slope representing the erosion of personal liberty in the United States would be an exaggeration.
Sunstein ends with his softer, gentler side:
In some times and places, the threats are real, and paranoid libertarians turn out to be right. As Joseph Heller wrote in “Catch-22,” “Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t after you.”
Societies can benefit a lot from paranoid libertarians. Even if their apocalyptic warnings are wildly overstated, they might draw attention to genuine risks, or at least improve public discussion.
I’m not fooled.
The mentions (and obligatory attacks) on libertarian thinking and Austrian economics is on the rise in recent days and months.The dialogue is slowly shifting from the false debate of democrat vs. republican or liberal vs. conservative to one of establishment vs. libertarian / Austrian.The establishment can no longer get away with merely citing Hayek.They have had to address Mises – even Rothbard can no longer be ignored.
The recent shift can only be tied to the successes of Ron Paul – of course, built on a foundation of Mises, Rothbard and others.It is too bad, just as the dialogue is shifting our way, too many milquetoast libertarians desire to jump on the mainstream bandwagon.
February 1, 2014
Cass, Cass, Cass…why do you serve up such softballs?
Paranoia
1. Psychiatry.a mental disorder characterized by systematized delusions and the projection of personal conflicts, which are ascribed to the supposed hostility of others, sometimes progressing to disturbances of consciousness and aggressive acts believed to be performed in self-defense or as a mission.
2. baseless or excessive suspicion of the motives of others.
Cass Sunstein apparently believes that speaking truth to power and exposing the lies in government is paranoid behavior:
In a recent essay in the New Republic, Princeton University historian Sean Wilentz contends that Edward Snowden, Glenn Greenwald and Julian Assange reflect a political impulse he calls “paranoid libertarianism.”
Are there lies buried in the allegations of these gentlemen?If Snowden is lying, why is Obama pretending to act? These gentlemen have certainly been ridiculed by the mainstream and the politicians; however, I have not read a refutation of any meaningful portion of the government abuses as exposed.
Wilentz claims that far from being “truth-telling comrades intent on protecting the state and the Constitution from authoritarian malefactors,” they “despise the modern liberal state, and they want to wound it.”
Why not both truth-telling and a desire to wound the modern liberal state?If, in fact, the accusations are correct, isn’t a little reputational wounding in order?Should not such a state, and the actors behind it, be despised?
Sunstein moves beyond the three named “paranoids,” and to the larger group of libertarian paranoids.He identifies five characteristics of this breed:
The first is a wildly exaggerated sense of risks — a belief that if government is engaging in certain action (such as surveillance or gun control), it will inevitably use its authority so as to jeopardize civil liberties and perhaps democracy itself.
One need look no further than events in Boston after the marathon bombing.Civil liberties were more than jeopardized – they were ignored.Or what of reports that data from the massive NSA surveillance system is subtly handed over to prosecutors to be used in convicting defendants of non-national-security crimes?
What of a Federal conviction rate well over 90%?For a government that fails at almost every endeavor, how is it possible that it is so successful at this one?What of the highest incarceration rate in the world?Higher than Russia, and six times higher than Canada?Are Americans just more criminal than residents in every other country?
In practice, of course, the risk might be real. But paranoid libertarians are convinced of its reality whether or not they have good reason for their conviction.
Wait a minute, Cass.If “of course, the risk might be real,” how do you point to paranoia in the minds of those who see the risk?
The second characteristic is a presumption of bad faith on the part of government officials — a belief that their motivations must be distrusted.
This one is a whopper.Let’s start with the non-libertarian critiques of just a few American military actions:
1) Lerone Bennett, Jr. (a black American, to get a red herring out of the way) questions Abraham Lincoln.
2) America’s adventures in Cuba and the Philippines were started under false pretenses.
3) Pearl Harbor was a lie.
4) The need to drop atomic bombs to end the war was a lie.
5) The pretense to escalate in Vietnam was a lie.
6) Kuwait in 1990 was based on a lie.
7) Iraq in 2003 was based on a lie.
What of the “narratives at variance with the facts” (to quote a wonderful line by Mr. Rozeff)?Just to name two: JFK and September 11.
If their motives can be trusted, why do they need to lie their way to their objectives?Why have they developed systems so effective at spreading fairy tales?
The third characteristic is a sense of past, present or future victimization. Paranoid libertarians tend to believe that as individuals or as members of specified groups, they are being targeted by the government…
Specified groups have been targeted many times in the past.What of slaves at the founding?American Indians?Japanese Americans during World War II?Minorities through the drug war?Wealthy taxpayers?Are libertarians – critics of government power – wrong to feel some concern in this regard?
The fourth characteristic is an indifference to trade-offs — a belief that liberty, as paranoid libertarians understand it, is the overriding if not the only value, and that it is unreasonable and weak to see relevant considerations on both sides.
What is the “both sides” of this?is there some form of liberty on the more side of liberty?There can only be considerations to weaken liberty, if liberty is the standard.
Sunstein uses such language to feign balance – there is a position in the middle that the so-called wise government leaders honestly seek to find.In any compromise between food and poison, and all that….
The fifth and final characteristic is passionate enthusiasm for slippery-slope arguments. The fear is that if government is allowed to take an apparently modest step today, it will take far less modest steps tomorrow, and on the next day, freedom itself will be in terrible trouble. Modest and apparently reasonable steps must be resisted as if they were the incarnation of tyranny itself.
This is the entire history of the republic.The slope has been slippery ever since July 4, 1776.
Try to identify significant incidents in the rollback of state power – absent at the conclusion of major wars, which as Robert Higgs documents results in rollbacks, but never to pre-war levels; a ratchet effect.
I can think of a couple such events (the end of the first two banks of the United States come to mind).However, to describe these as anything other than pebbles on the double-black-diamond downhill slope representing the erosion of personal liberty in the United States would be an exaggeration.
Sunstein ends with his softer, gentler side:
In some times and places, the threats are real, and paranoid libertarians turn out to be right. As Joseph Heller wrote in “Catch-22,” “Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t after you.”
Societies can benefit a lot from paranoid libertarians. Even if their apocalyptic warnings are wildly overstated, they might draw attention to genuine risks, or at least improve public discussion.
I’m not fooled.
The mentions (and obligatory attacks) on libertarian thinking and Austrian economics is on the rise in recent days and months.The dialogue is slowly shifting from the false debate of democrat vs. republican or liberal vs. conservative to one of establishment vs. libertarian / Austrian.The establishment can no longer get away with merely citing Hayek.They have had to address Mises – even Rothbard can no longer be ignored.
The recent shift can only be tied to the successes of Ron Paul – of course, built on a foundation of Mises, Rothbard and others.It is too bad, just as the dialogue is shifting our way, too many milquetoast libertarians desire to jump on the mainstream bandwagon.
US and Europe stand with people of Ukraine, says John Kerry
theguardian.com
February1, 2014
The US secretary of state, John Kerry, has said that the US and Europe stand with the people of Ukraine as fears that the Ukrainian army could be deployed against anti-government protesters grow.
Speaking in Munich, Kerry said: “Nowhere is the fight for a democratic, European future more important today than in Ukraine,” Kerry told political, diplomatic and military leaders at a Munich security conference. The United States and EU stand with the people of Ukraine in that fight.”
Leaders of the opposition were due to meet Kerry in Munich, hours after the Ukrainian army called on the president, Viktor Yanukovych, to act to end the crisis. Moscow also warned Yanukovych that he would lose power if he failed to “quash the rebellion”.
Read more
February1, 2014
The US secretary of state, John Kerry, has said that the US and Europe stand with the people of Ukraine as fears that the Ukrainian army could be deployed against anti-government protesters grow.
Speaking in Munich, Kerry said: “Nowhere is the fight for a democratic, European future more important today than in Ukraine,” Kerry told political, diplomatic and military leaders at a Munich security conference. The United States and EU stand with the people of Ukraine in that fight.”
Leaders of the opposition were due to meet Kerry in Munich, hours after the Ukrainian army called on the president, Viktor Yanukovych, to act to end the crisis. Moscow also warned Yanukovych that he would lose power if he failed to “quash the rebellion”.
Read more
Attack Chopper Joins Snipers & Checkpoints at Super Bowl
Pentagon budget cuts will not stop PR opportunity
Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
February 1, 2014
Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
February 1, 2014
The Super Bowl will provide a venue to acclimate
the American people to the presence of the military. The Defense Department said
on Friday it will play a major role – with air defense, ground troops, a flyover
and other contributions – at the high profile event.
Despite a flight restriction zone imposed over New
Jersey’s MetLife Stadium, F-16 fighters will patrol the skies.
National Guardsmen will attend the event for
security and “community relations.”
There will be a 32-member armed forces chorus that
will contribute to the national anthem.
Black Hawk attack helicopters and Chinook
transports from the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) will do a flyover. It
was requested by the NFL, Col. Steve Warren told Politico.
The flyover will cost around $100,000. There was
no estimate provided on how much it will cost taxpayers for the remainder of the
Pentagon’s public relations stunt. “This is the type of audience we want to
connect with,” Col. Warren explained.
In addition to in-your-face military displays,
football fans will be subjected to unprecedented security at the event: 700
troopers, 3,000 security guards, and state, local, county and federal “assets,”
according to Fox News.
The Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, the
TSA and other federal agencies will be involved, which is to say the American
people will be obliged to pay millions for over-the-top security while the
Seahawks and the Broncos throw around a pigskin ball.
As usual, there is no specific terror threat.
“Of particular concern to us is what was going on
overseas in Volgograd in regard to the Sochi Olympics. As you know both of those
bombings were targeting mass transit,” said Col. Rick Fuentes, head of the New Jersey State Police.
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