Year: 2013

borrowed from Slate.com
security state

FISA Court – Not a Court – an Administrative Rubber Stamp – Bureaucrats Dressed Up as Judges

July 11, 2013 Comments Off on FISA Court – Not a Court – an Administrative Rubber Stamp – Bureaucrats Dressed Up as Judges
The government and the press continue to refer to the FISA Court as a judicial review, a third party oversight of the government’s intrusions on our privacy. This misuse of words and concepts needs correction. 3657 Share this:TweetEmailLike this:Like Loading...
security state

The Uses of Metadata – an experiment you can conduct with your own life’s metadata

July 9, 2013 Comments Off on The Uses of Metadata – an experiment you can conduct with your own life’s metadata
With the recent revelations of the NSA vacuum cleaner collecting metadata about every aspect of our lives we have been subjected to calming incantations, “We are only collecting metadata, we aren’t looking at the content”. As I (and many others) have pointed out earlier, this is complete nonsense.  3640 Share --->> read more -->>
playing cards
economy

Wall St – not about investing but fixing the game

July 9, 2013 Comments Off on Wall St – not about investing but fixing the game
An article in the NY TImes today reports that NY Attorney General Schneiderman is pursuing various information providers, Thomson Reuters in the immediate case, for their practices of selling market sensitive information preferntially. Those paying a premium get information several minutes before its release to the general public. This is --->> read more -->>
James_R._Clapper_Director of National Intelligence
security state

NSA Vacuuming, Meta Data, Mistaken Misleading Metaphors

June 17, 2013 Comments Off on NSA Vacuuming, Meta Data, Mistaken Misleading Metaphors
NSA’s gathering of Meta Data Compared to Corporate Use of Information In the current discussions of the government’s wholesale seizure of the meta data of our personal digital lives there is regular comparison to the acquisition and use of information about our digital lives by corporations. At the moment corporate --->> read more -->>
LAURA POITRAS credit: Ruby Washington/New York Times photographer - borrowed w/o permission
security state

Dangers of the US Security State

June 16, 2013 Comments Off on Dangers of the US Security State
There are those, in response to the recent revelations of the US government vacuum cleaning our lives through the NSA and other secret programs, who take the line that the innocent have nothing to fear from the government. Here is an example of why no one should take such a --->> read more -->>
NSA is listening to everthing
security state

US Vacuum Cleaning Our Privacy – the bigger story

June 8, 2013 Comments Off on US Vacuum Cleaning Our Privacy – the bigger story
There has rightfully been considerable outrage over this week’s revelations that the Federal government has been sucking up information on virtually every aspect of our lives, email, telephones calls, pictures, credit card and banking transactions, and so on. Unfortunately almost all of this discussion is taking place without a useful --->> read more -->>
John le Carre - wikipedia image
empire

John le Carré on Bush’s Iraq War – The United States of America Has Gone Mad

April 21, 2013 Comments Off on John le Carré on Bush’s Iraq War – The United States of America Has Gone Mad
John le Carré, author of many beloved spy novels, e.g., Tinker Tailor, Soldier, Spy, wrote this piece critiquing the then upcoming War on Iraq in January 2003. Besides pointing out the very strong connections between big oil and the Bushes, many other elements of the critique continue to be applicable --->> read more -->>
tom lehrer
empire

US Imperialism Redux – Tom Lehrer

March 30, 2013 Comments Off on US Imperialism Redux – Tom Lehrer
The other day I stumbled on this Tom Lehrer song, “Send in the Marines”. This is as good a summary of American foreign policy as there is, though to update the lyrics for the Obama version just substitute “drones” for “Marines”. Here is a YouTube video performance, perhaps from the --->> read more -->>