Woz: This is not my AmericaStopped by Latin American tech journalists at an airport, the Apple co-founder says that after the NSA revelations, he questions his own government and wonders whether it’s behaving like a king. (Credit: FayerWayer/YouTube Screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET) As the passions and justifications swirl around the revelations concerning the NSA, the rest of the world sits and wonders.
MIDNIGHT IN THE AMERICAN EMPIREA Moscow-based, American political commentator for the TV news channel Russia Today looks with alarm and dismay at what he sees as the corporate domination of his native land. In this passionate debut laced with sardonic humor, Pittsburgh native Bridge writes that American citizens, formerly rugged individualists, have been reduced to mere consumers under the heel of profit-driven, power-hungry transnational corporate elites.
From Ike to “The Matrix”: Welcome to the American dystopiaPart Orwellian security state, part Huxley wonderland and part “Matrix,” America is three dystopias in one! Topics: Movies, Politics, Surveillance, technology, surveillance state, surveillance society, 1984, Barack Obama, George Orwell, Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, Science Fiction and Fantasy, the matrix, Editor’s Picks, Entertainment News, Politics News American society has been sliding toward the realm of dystopian science fiction – toward a nightmarish mishmash of George Orwell, Aldous Huxley and Philip K.
NSA spying flap extends to contents of U.S. phone callsNational Security Agency discloses in secret Capitol Hill briefing that thousands of analysts can listen to domestic phone calls. That authorization appears to extend to e-mail and text messages too. (Credit: Getty Images) The National Security Agency has acknowledged in a new classified briefing that it does not need court authorization to listen to domestic phone calls, a participant in the briefing said.
Lawyers rail at police response to Turkey protestsANKARA, Turkey (AP) – Thousands of black-robed Turkish lawyers stormed out of their courthouses Wednesday, shouting about the rough treatment police dished out to their colleagues amid Turkey’s biggest anti-government protests in years. The rallies by clapping, chanting jurists added a new twist to the nearly two weeks of protests that started in Istanbul and spread to dozens of other Turkish cities.
Here’s what’s happening to employment …
John Poindexter’s Plan for “Total Information Awareness” in Effect by Another NameCOLEEN ROWLEY, rowleyclan at earthlink.net Rowley is a former FBI special agent and division counsel whose May 2002 memo described some of the FBI’s pre-9/11 failures and was named one of Time magazine’s “Persons of the Year” in 2002.
Wealth of most Americans down 55% since recession(MoneyWatch) Increasing housing prices and the stock market”s posting all-time highs haven’t helped the plight most Americans. The average U.S. household has recovered only 45 percent of the wealth they lost during the recession, according to a report released yesterday from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
Graham: FBI hindered Congress’s 9/11 inquiry, withheld reports about Sarasota SaudisFormer U.S. Sen. Bob Graham has accused the FBI in court papers of having impeded Congress’s Joint Inquiry into 9/11 by withholding information about a Florida connection to the al-Qaeda attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.
Police crush barricades in Istanbul squareISTANBUL (AP) – Hundreds of riot police overran improvised barricades at Istanbul’s Taksim Square on Tuesday, firing tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons in running battles with protesters who have been occupying the area for more than a week.
Same games being played in England:
Hague under fire over GCHQ-PRISM intel sharing, slams leaksThe accusations that the US spying program PRISM was shared with the UK’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) are “baseless,” Foreign Secretary William Hague told MPs. He deplored classified data leaks, saying they create a “misleading picture.”
DHS insider: It’s about to get Very Ugly“Everyone needs to reflect on the United States having become obsessed with national security, even to the extent of gutting our Bill of Rights and turning the country into a “surveillance society”.
Edward Snowden: saving us from the United Stasi of AmericaIn my estimation, there has not been in American history a more important leak than Edward Snowden’s release of NSA material – and that definitely includes the Pentagon Papers 40 years ago. Snowden’s whistleblowing gives us the possibility to roll back a key part of what has amounted to an “executive coup” against the US constitution.
The average professional in this country wakes up in the morning, goes to work, comes home, eats dinner, and then goes to sleep, unaware that he or she has likely committed several federal crimes that day.
In Three Felonies a Day, Harvey A. Silverglate reveals how the federal criminal justice system has become dangerously disconnected from common law traditions of due process and fair notice of the law’s expectations, enabling prosecutors to pin arguable federal crimes on any one of us, for even the most seemingly innocuous behavior. The dangers spelled out in Three Felonies a Day do not apply solely to”white collar criminals,” state and local politicians, and professionals. No social class or profession is safe from this troubling form of social control by the executive branch, and nothing less than the continued functioning and integrity of our constitutional democracy hang in the balance.
Unprecedented Wealth, Debt Slavery and Conditioned ConsciousnessSeventeen years ago, I read a book called The Evolving Self. Though I didn’t realize it at the time, it profoundly affected the direction of my life. Here’s the section of the book that became a splinter in my mind and resonated the most with me: “In order to gain control of consciousness, we must learn how to moderate the biases built into the machinery of the brain.
Silicon Valley Joins the Surveillance State“Nobody is listening to your telephone calls,” President Barack Obama said today. Honestly, we didn’t think anyone was. If he intended to be reassuring, his words had the opposite effect. The president’s remarks in defense of the government’s vast electronic surveillance programs help explain why U.S. citizens — and, not incidentally, U.S.
Public Documents Contradict Claim Email Spying Foiled Terror PlotDefenders of the American government’s online spying program known as “PRISM” claimed Friday that the suddenly controversial secret effort had saved New York City’s subways from a 2009 terrorist plot led by a young Afghan-American, Najibullah Zazi.
Edward Snowden, NSA files source: ‘If they want to get you, in time they will’Edward Snowden was interviewed over several days in Hong Kong by Glenn Greenwald and Ewen MacAskill. Q: Why did you decide to become a whistleblower? A: “The NSA has built an infrastructure that allows it to intercept almost everything. With this capability, the vast majority of human communications are automatically ingested without targeting.
Anonymous Just Leaked a Trove of NSA DocumentsIn the wake of last night’s revelation that everyone in the world has a creepy NSA-shaped stalker, defenders of online liberty and generally angry internet people Anonymous have leaked a treasure trove of NSA documents, including seriously important stuff like the US Department of Defense’s ‘Strategic Vision’ for controlling the internet.
