Category: US Politics
The analysis published under this category are as follows.
Monday, June 17, 2013
Governments Love Secrecy to Hide their Crimes and Totalitarian Ambitions / Politics / US Politics
By: Michael_S_Rozeff
"Governments, like married couples, are entitled to their secrets" has written Richard Cohen a few years back. Which secrets? Lines have to be drawn. A government shouldn't cover up crimes under the mantle of secrecy. It shouldn't conceal wrongful seizures and exercises of power. This government and the preceding one under Bush have concealed the fact that they were collecting information wrongfully, namely, information on private communications. The term "national security" cannot reasonably be invoked as an excuse for doing this because it's too vague, and almost anything can be construed as affecting "national security". The quest for catching terrorists cannot be offered as a reason because there are bounds on searches and invasions of privacy that have long standing and that specifically apply to government and policing activities. These governments have gone way beyond these bounds and then compounded their trespasses by attempting to keep them secret.
Monday, June 17, 2013
United Stasi of America through the Echelon Prism / Politics / US Politics
By: BATR
Signals collection has a long secretive and enigmatic history. The very definition of espionage implies spying, most closely associated with foreign sources. Since the Echelon network, the unified function of data retrieval became a given during the cold war. With the revelation of Prism, advances in sophisticated electronic devices and software algorithms provide a major leap. The article, Is PRISM the US version of Echelon?, sums up the evolution. "With this kind of setup and ambition to capture and evaluate private conversations (well, not so private now), makes Echelon that much more believable, and that PRISM is a reflection of the infamous project, but focused solely on the US."
Monday, June 17, 2013
Ron Paul Warns - Obama's Syria Policy Looks a Lot Like Bush's Iraq Policy / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
President Obama announced late last week that the US intelligence community had just determined that the Syrian government had used poison gas on a small scale, killing some 100 people in a civil conflict that has claimed an estimated 100,000 lives. Because of this use of gas, the president claimed, Syria had crossed his "red line" and the US must begin to arm the rebels fighting to overthrow the Syrian government.
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Monday, June 17, 2013
NSA Big Brother “Pre-Crime” Artificial Intelligence Program / Politics / US Politics
By: Washingtons_Blog
NSA spying whistleblower Edward Snowden’s statements have been verified. Reporter Glenn Greenwald has promised numerous additional disclosures from Snowden.
What other revelations are coming?
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Saturday, June 15, 2013
The US Spy Leviathan, Advice for Edward Snowden / Politics / US Politics
By: Videos
Thomas Drake, a former intelligence guy at the NSA, was prosecuted under the Espionage Act in 2010 for allegedly revealing secrets about the agency's massive warrantless wire-tapping program. The feds subsequently dropped all but a misdemeanor charge. He says the U.S. government has an "industrial-scale" surveillance system that "the Stasi in East Germany would have drooled over."
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Saturday, June 15, 2013
NSA Neocon Spying Agency - American's are Living in East Germany / Politics / US Politics
By: LewRockwell
Eric Margolis writes: In June, 1942, the United States Navy achieved one of history’s greatest naval triumphs over the Imperial Japanese Navy, thanks to a combination of brilliant leadership, plain good luck, and code-breaking.
US carrier-based dive bombers led by the intrepid Commander Wade McClusky Jr. swiftly sank three Japanese carriers. A fourth Japanese carrier was sunk soon after.
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Friday, June 14, 2013
The Demographic Death of the GOP / Politics / US Politics
By: LewRockwell
Next year should be a banner year for the GOP, and may yet be.
Obamacare, a "train wreck" about to happen, says Democratic Sen. Max Baucus, goes into full effect Jan. 1, with the popular IRS as enforcer.
The Obama media feel betrayed by the secret intrusions on First Amendment rights. Libertarians see the National Security Agency's data mining as a massive violation of Fourth Amendment rights.
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Thursday, June 13, 2013
US Secret Police Secrets / Politics / US Politics
By: LewRockwell
It's obvious that Edward Snowden was able to copy massive amounts of NSA secret data because at Booz Allen he had access to it. He has specifically said he could have revealed NSA material damaging to the U.S. but chose not to do so. There are reports that "more explosive material" will be forthcoming from The Guardian. [Booz Allen is in reality a CIA-NSA subsidiary now and quite international, but I doubt they deal much with the military docs on the U.S. secret wars around the world.]
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Thursday, June 13, 2013
China Now A Safe Haven From The US Empire / Politics / US Politics
By: Jeff_Berwick
Gary Gibson writes: As the USSA continues to devolve into a full blown police state empire the ironic keeps becoming the norm. So it is that a whistleblower has to take refuge from the secretive, tyrannical US government in totalitarian socialist China. Ah, but here I'm playing it fast and loose with what is considered to be China. NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden is actually in Hong Kong, which is technically part of China again though it remains semi-autonomous. Years of British rule left Hong Kong with a Western-stlye justic system that seems to be more in tact than the tattered one barely covering up the empire's naughty bits back in the US.
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Mass Surveillance Dirty Secret - NSA Spying Doesn’t Work to Prevent Terrorism / Politics / US Politics
By: Washingtons_Blog
William Binney knows as much about spying as anyone alive.
Binney – a 32-year National Security Agency veteran – is the former head of the NSA’s global digital data gathering program, and a very highly-regarded cryptographer.
Binney told Daily Caller yesterday that the spying “dragnet” being carried out by the government is useless:
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Monday, June 10, 2013
NSA Built Back Door In All Microsoft Windows Software Since 1999 / Politics / US Politics
By: Washingtons_Blog
In researching the stunning pervasiveness of spying by the government (it’s much more wide spread than you’ve heard even now), we ran across the fact that the FBI wants software programmers to install a backdoor in all software.
Digging a little further, we found a 1999 article by leading European computer publication Heise which noted that the NSA had already built a backdoor into all Windows software:
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Monday, June 10, 2013
Ron Paul on NSA U.S. Government Spying: Should We Be Shocked? / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Last week we saw dramatic new evidence of illegal government surveillance of our telephone calls, and of the National Security Agency's deep penetration into American companies such as Facebook and Microsoft to spy on us. The media seemed shocked.
Many of us are not so surprised.
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Friday, June 07, 2013
America's Stasi Collecting Your Phone Records / Politics / US Politics
By: Michael_S_Rozeff
Verizon is being forced by the government to disclose telephone records of all of its customers. Those of us who want our call records to be private are being forced to reveal them to the government. We can't keep them private even if we want to. What is wrong with the government spying on us in this way?
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Wednesday, June 05, 2013
Obama Warfare / Politics / US Politics
By: Jeff_Berwick
Redmond Weissenberger writes: Amid varying scandals in late May, President Obama gave a speech on foreign policy at the National Defense University (it's a dismaying sign when a university is dedicated to teaching the art of global war) highlighting his administration's goals when it comes to international conduct. Among flashing cameras and his handy teleprompter, Obama stressed the War on Terror will "come to an end at some point". He finally acknowledged his administration is responsible for the murder of four American citizens without due process - one of which was a sixteen year-old who committed no crime other than having a radicalized father. To top it off, the President assured the public he was going to enact strict measures so the vast killing authority he granted himself would not be abused by future Oval Office holders.
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Monday, June 03, 2013
Ron Paul - Iraq Collapse Shows Bankruptcy of American Interventionism / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
May was Iraq's deadliest month in nearly five years, with more than 1,000 dead - both civilians and security personnel -- in a rash of bombings, shootings and other violence. As we read each day of new horrors in Iraq, it becomes more obvious that the US invasion delivered none of the promised peace or stability that proponents of the attack promised.
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Saturday, June 01, 2013
Welcome to the Electronic U.S. Concentration Camp / Politics / US Politics
By: Videos
In conjunction with the upcoming release of his new book, A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, John W. Whitehead sits down to discuss several "pressure points" that are threatening the Bill of Rights and undermining our essential freedoms. In part four of this special series, Whitehead examines the collusion between corporations and government officials in erecting a system of mass surveillance aimed at all Americans.
Saturday, June 01, 2013
Escaping from the United States Gulag / Politics / US Politics
By: David_Galland
Argentines have a phrase, "mi lugar," for when you find your special place in this world – the perfect combination of place and people that entirely suits your nature. The phrase translates simply as "my place."
I was very fortunate in my early thirties to be able to spend three years on a quest for paradise on earth, visiting pretty much every country I thought might be a suitable candidate. It turns out, in hindsight, what I was really looking for was not paradise, but mi lugar.
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Monday, May 27, 2013
America's Global Gulag, Congressional Resistance against Presidential Despotism / Politics / US Politics
By: BATR
The authoritarian arrogance of the executive branch is defined by their tyrannical decrees. As any reader of BREAKING ALL THE RULES commentary, knows all too well, the dictatorship of central planning and unlawful administration has hijacked our federalist form of a constitutional republic. The primacy of the legislature over the executive branch was always the intent of our founding fathers. Unfortunately, the exact reverse has taken hold in the den of inequity that holds court in Washington, DC.
Monday, May 27, 2013
Dumbing Down of U.S. Public School Curriculum / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
In addition to shredding civil liberties, launching a utopian global war for democracy, and going on a spending spree that would make LBJ blush, the so-called "conservative" Bush administration dramatically increased federal control over education via the "No Child Left Behind" act. During my time in Congress I heard nothing but complaints about this law from teachers, administrators, and, most importantly, students and parents. Most of the complaints concerned No Child Left Behind's testing requirements, which encouraged educators to "teach to the test."
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Thursday, May 23, 2013
The 4th Turning - Millennials Will Replace the Baby Boomers / Politics / US Politics
By: James_Quinn
A confluence of events last week has me reminiscing about the days gone by and apprehensive about the future. I’ve spent a substantial portion of my adulthood rushing to baseball fields, hockey rinks, gymnasiums, and school auditoriums after a long day at work. I’d be lying if I said I enjoyed every moment. Watching eight year olds trying to throw a strike for two hours can become excruciatingly mind-numbing. But, the years of baseball, hockey, basketball, and band taught my boys life lessons about teamwork, sportsmanship, winning, losing, hard work, and having fun. There were championship teams, awful teams and of course trophies for finishing in 7th place. As my boys have gotten older and no longer participate in organized sports, the time commitment has dropped considerably. Last week was one of those few occasions where I had to rush home from work, wolf down a slice of pizza and head out to a school function. It was the annual 8th grade Spring concert.