NSA Needs No Warrants

Rep. Jerrold Nadler has blown the lid off of something big.

Not that I didn't already know this was happening, but now there's confirmation. Naive Americans, oh-so-trusting of big government, believed that there's nothing to worry about — we're just being paranoid. Understand this:

The NSA can listen to your calls, read your email or text messages in secret, without a warrant, and that data is being stored on servers.

Also, President Obama could be fucking your liberty. Do you remember that movie Enemy of the State starring Will Smith? Unfortunately, this isn't a movie.

Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell indicated during a House Intelligence hearing in 2007 that the NSA's surveillance process involves "billions" of bulk communications being intercepted, analyzed, and incorporated into a database.

They can be accessed by an analyst who's part of the NSA's "workforce of thousands of people" who are "trained" annually in minimization procedures, he said. (McConnell, who had previously worked as the director of the NSA, is now vice chairman at Booz Allen Hamilton, Snowden's former employer.)

If it were "a U.S. person inside the United States, now that would stimulate the system to get a warrant," McConnell told the committee. "And that is how the process would work. Now, if you have foreign intelligence data, you publish it [inside the federal government]. Because it has foreign intelligence value."

McConnell said during a separate congressional appearance around the same time that he believed the president had the constitutional authority, no matter what the law actually says, to order domestic spying without warrants.

Read the full details at CNET. Be upset. Share it with friends and family. No matter what the law actually says?! It's not that surprising. However, it is horrendous and people should be pissed.

The technology exists, why wouldn't they use it? Why wouldn't someone abuse it?

People are fallible; is it unreasonable to assume that some analyst with an axe to grind would use his power illegally? Maybe about as unreasonable as the IRS selectively targeting Conservative groups (based, in part, on keywords in the organizations' names) for audits and denying these groups tax exempt status, bankrupting law-abiding, taxpaying citizens and costing them hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Happy Father's Day.

Posted with Blogsy

Memorial Day on my Facebook, State of our Union

Browsing through the endless feed, something insane looking grabs my attention:

Chris Hayes: I'm 'Uncomfortable' Calling Fallen Military 'Heroes'

By Mark Finkelstein Effete: affected, overrefined, and ineffectual; see "Chris Hayes." OK, I appended the name of the MSNBC host to the dictionary definition. But if ever you wanted to see the human embodiment of the adjective in action, have a look at the video from his MSNBC show this morning of the too-refined-by-half Hayes explaining why he is "uncomfortable" in calling America's fallen military members "heroes."

Here's a link to the Newsbusters post. (There's a lot of interesting, quick articles at newsbusters.org — if you're interested in something other than TV's typical liberal rhetoric.)

Crazy, I tell you. Immediately after reading/watching the post, I noticed a friend recently "liked" a Clibe sketch (image). It seemed particularly poignant, as if I was somehow telling myself to forget about changing the liberal mindset.

I typically don't do artsy catch-phrases, quotes and truisms; not because they seem like an artistic cop-out (they kind of are), not because they're usually bad and boring (this is the case, as these memes are usually started by talentless trolls), but because to do them well takes much more time than it's worth. Unfortunately, Clibe isn't good for much else.

Not every liberal is insane — unrealistic idealists, maybe — and there are certainly crazy conservatives… getting sidetracked.

Memorial Day: honoring the fallen, our heroes, is NOT a message or statement about war. It's about respect for those brave enough to defend us all, and remembrance for those whom made the ultimate sacrifice. Our way of life is constantly being threatened; our armed forces oppose enemies abroad, and far too often, Americans treat them like dirt — like a nuisance.

Our way of life is being threatened from within

High taxes, new regulations, inflation, overspending, Obama, ObamaCare, $5 TRILLION dollars increase in debt, rising unemployment (and numerous people employed, but still not making enough money to escape poverty), the loss of the American dream and American industry, self-created necessity on foreign oil and rising gas prices, Occupy (instead of occupation, often by choice and what Hannity calls the entitlement mentality)…

…big government, American socialists and Marxists, Washington corruption (once Presidential hopeful John Edwards, anyone?), products made in China, complacency, arrogance, racism, widening poverty gap, class warfare (constantly ignited by liberal media and Obama: the rich are screwing the poor, paying 'less' in taxes — yeah, sure, Romney's 15% is somehow less money than the average person's 35%)…

…millions more on food stamps due to this Presidential administration, the Obama machine and supporters taking the fallback position, "blame Bush," instead of actually fixing the problem (remember, Obama promised "hope" and "change" — his words — along with cutting the deficit and unemployment in half), dismal public education, ridiculously overpriced colleges, student loans that can't be paid off…

…failing criminal justice system (prosecuting and jailing simple drug offenses is a waste of time and money, and it isn't stopping people from getting high if they want to), prejudicial courts (judges, attorneys, prosecutors, laws), prison overpopulation, increased gang activity, failed "war on crime" and "war on drugs," wasted money on "prevention" programs, cultural glorification of vigilantism…

…drug addiction, alcoholism, extreme obesity, underage drinking and drug use, early puberty, meat glue and pink slime, fast food diets, high divorce rates, mixed messages (on violence, sex, drugs, beauty), meth.

How can we trust?

People have lost faith; but because humans need faith, it's misplaced frequently — in bad science, technology, government, large corporations... an interesting point: so many people complain about large chain stores that pay minimum wage, import products from Asia, kill off small brick and mortar businesses — and yet, people still shop at Walmart… because of low prices.

Politicians can't seem to just tell the truth without embellishment, make realistic promises and curb spending. Even if taxes were increased dramatically and raised more money, our government would just find some new initiative to pour it into and increase debt.

Crazy

Obama won't release his college transcripts, admitted to drinking and using cocaine in high school, worked at a law firm but did who knows what there (he didn't try cases, that's for sure), lied about a relationship in his book, and promised numerous things in 2008 and didn't deliver—

We're supposed to trust him? People are actually going to vote for him?!

Barack Obama is the first sitting President in over 30 years to lose more than 40% of the vote in three primaries. Maybe that's the "change" I can put "hope" into.