Big Brother is Watching You

[O Really]

BTW, the interview with the burglars shown on CNN (and elsewhere) is really interesting.
As it turns out, although the Raines' recognized that they had the most to lose if they got caught because they had children and made arrangements for their kids in case anything happened to them, they acknowledged that if they got caught they'd be in jail. Apparently they never even had a Plan B that involved fleeing the country.

[O Really]

That, or they've just been practicing their "haruummphing"

Draft resisters are different because they had registered and could easily be identified and ostensibly found at any time. If the Raines' could avoid being identified, they were home free. But sure, they may have thought about it - I only know what I read and see in the interview. Snowden, on the other hand...

[Ombudsman]

It's CREDO, my phone company for 25 years or so.

Boy, you're the quintessential hipster aren't ya Vrede? I think there might be a Portlanda episode or two about you.

[Ombudsman]

It's hilarious. I'm not sure you'd see it that way though.

[JTA]

If they're "hipsters", I love laughing at others' pretentiousness. If they're activists or hippies, I love laughing at myself, too.

Q: What do you call this?



A: Hippie on a stick.

He's doing it wrong.

When you build a tee pee, you're not supposed to sit on top of it. You first need to drape it with some kind of fabric to block out the elements then get inside it. Sitting on top will not protect you from the elements.

[mwearl]

Are you being facetious?

The first phone company to publish a transparency report isn’t AT&T or Verizon

It's CREDO, my phone company for 25 years or so.

Tell Congress: Join Rep. Holt and fight to repeal the PATRIOT Act.

Tell Congress: Stop the NSA's phone surveillance dragnet by passing the USA Freedom Act

Tell Congress: Investigate NSA abuses and protect our constitutional rights

Tell your Senator: We need real reform of the NSA, not Senator Feinstein’s sham bill

[mwearl]

I guess I was shocked that we completely agree on both points. I was against the Patriot Act and highly critical of Bush and other Republicans who supported it. It goes without saying how I feel about the NSA. Lindsey Graham has been on my sh*tlist for his support of said Act. Now, I identify the enemies of Democracy by those calling Snowden a traitor. George Washington was a traitor too, so he's in good company.

This is a perfect example of where people can cross political aisles to support radical change, but we are purposely distracted by things like bridges getting shut down in New Jersey.

No, I've been an opponent of national security state impositions on Americans and the world for decades and of the PATRIOT Act since before it was passed. Why did I seem facetious?

[mwearl]

Say what you will about Fox News. They give people like Rand Paul more airtime to criticize the government's security policy than any other network does. Regardless of what you think of him, you know the old adage. The enemy of my enemy...

Too bad so many support the national security state no matter what and so many others, like Faux Noise, only care when the other party is in charge.

Well, Christie's bridge too far was political revenge with hundreds of thousand of victims, but the NSA does have more. I can condemn both and neither issue will die soon.

[O Really]

.. George Washington was a traitor too, so he's in good company.

[/quote]
Sure he was - to the Brits. And they didn't treat him very well at the time either, did they? I'm pretty sure comparing George Washington to Snowden is a sub-paragraph B(s) violation of Godwin's Law.

[O Really]

??? Your measure of quality is the amount of airtime given to Rand Paul vs. the amount of airtime given to political revenge with hundreds of thousand of victims?

Mwearl may be familiar with NJ politics and politicians and thus thinks the bridge "scandal" is business as usual. Might be, if - big IF - Christie wasn't trying to build a national following as the "bridge-builder" across the aisles. If he hadn't built the image of "tough but fair" and if his political aspirations lay only within NJ. But as been frequently pointed out, even if he didn't know the specifics of the bridge stunt, and even if he would not have approved it had he known, it is clear that to some within his closest and top organization, that seemed an acceptable thing to do. We're not talking about some under assistant to the assistant grunt for press relations here. We're talking about top Christie people. The ones he's known and been with for years, and who theoretically know him best. That makes the bridge incident interesting to a lot of people - Dems, of course, who would like to use it as a hammer, but also to Republicans who have to consider is this the environment they want their leader to allow, if not encourage. It may turn out to be a passing storm, but to think it isn't important is just not paying attention.

[mwearl]

Not comparing, just pointing out that the characterization of being a traitor is only a bad thing if your treachery is against something noble and depends whose side you're on. I'm on Snowden's and I'm glad he did what he did.

.. George Washington was a traitor too, so he's in good company.

Sure he was - to the Brits. And they didn't treat him very well at the time either, did they? I'm pretty sure comparing George Washington to Snowden is a sub-paragraph B(s) violation of Godwin's Law.[/quote]

[mwearl]

You find quality in journalism? Where? I want to check it out for myself.

??? Your measure of quality is the amount of airtime given to Rand Paul vs. the amount of airtime given to political revenge with hundreds of thousand of victims?

[O Really]

So an "independent review board" says no security value has occurred from metadata collection. http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/nat ... story.html

I wonder how many on that panel have actually seen what happens in intelligence collection/analysis. They can't find many, if any, instances where the metadata collection has aided security. What makes them think everything turns into a report? Way back in the day, I can say that I, personally, along with people I worked with, kept a US reconnaissance plane from being shot down by a maverick Egyptian pilot in a MIG. Anybody read about that in the news? Noooooooo. Because it was prevention of something that didn't happen. I can say that I, personally, along with people I worked with, discovered and reported accurately events that were publicly lied about by Israelis, Egyptians, Jordanians, Syrians, and Lebanese. Some of these events had a significant effect on US foreign relations. Could you research and find out about that in the news? Nooooooo. When Nixon visited the Soviets, did AF-1 have any issues? No. Were there risks and threats? Yes. Did anything happen to Nixon? No. Did US Intelligence affect that favorable result? Yes, and no cite other than personal experience is required. Call it "Big Brother" if you like, but "Always Vigilant" isn't necessarily a bad thing.

[bannination]

Report: (NSA) Spies use smartphone apps to track people

Oh please, Obama specifically said “the United States is not spying on ordinary people who don’t threaten our national security.”

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/20 ... -metadata/

[O Really]

Would you not agree that anyone with the technical skill to turn on a smart phone knows or should know that using the location function and any of the apps that rely on location can expose them to a loss of privacy and possibly worse? Is there not an article out most every day about the risks of using Foursquare, Facebook, Yada? Is it not true that vulnerabilities in almost any location/social apps (except for Yada, which is ironclad) are exploited for various eveel uses including trying to phish your money, steal your ID, break into your house when they know you're not home, stalk you for dumping them last year, searching for victims, whatever. Would it not be unexcuseable if even the most incompetent intelligence agency didn't take advantage of the same technology and technology glitches as the actual bad guys?

[\V/]

After the ongoing inability to be truthful whatsoever...I expect the government to use their jakels to enact the usual activity when they get caught~project need by conducting some form of black-op to reclaim control

[neoplacebo]

Maybe it's a Super Bowl conspiracy. Maybe not.

[\V/]

[O Really]

I'm sorry - that vid reminds me of one of my favorite old movies, "Halloween III - Season of the Witch." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIHUv2ooG38

[Ombudsman]

That guy sounds familiar. Think I went to high school with him. Big Dungeons and Dragons fan.