Obama Says His Secrets Are All Transparent

June 18th, 2013 | Posted by jclifford in Barack Obama | Homeland Insecurity | Liberty - (0 Comments)

Today, President Barack Obama is giving us a new reason that we should all just forget about his use of George W. Bush’s Homeland Security electronic dragnet to take our private communications and make them available to be read at will by military spies.

“It is transparent,”Obama says of his military spy network targeting tens of millions of Americans. “That’s why we set up the FISA court.”

File this story in the folder entitled How Stupid Does He Think We Are?

obama nsa transparencyThe Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, what Obama refers to as the FISA court, is not transparent. It’s a court that acts in secret. Its judges aren’t identified. Its location is not identified. The cases that are brought before the it are secret. Its process is secret. Even the legal theories the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court are kept secret from the American people.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has been kept so secret that, until this month, the American people didn’t have any concrete evidence that the court was rubber stamping a military surveillance system so huge that it has been spying on practically every human being within the borders of the USA for at least six years. The Obama Administration had been telling everyone that the court was only approving spying against foreigners outside the United States. We were being lied to, but we had no way of knowing it.

That’s not what transparency looks like.

The FISA court is the opposite of transparent.

Barack Obama’s excuses for his massive violation of Americans’ constitutional rights are transparently dishonest.

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Stephanie Miller Defends Big Brother Spying To Keep Advertisers Happy

June 18th, 2013 | Posted by jclifford in Ethics | Homeland Insecurity | Media | Tech - (0 Comments)

So Barack Obama ordered practically every cell phone in the United States to be traced. So what?

So the Obama Administration continued without reform the Orwellian programs from the days of George W. Bush that Obama promised to fix. What’s the big deal?

So the Democratic Party is now celebrating the sacrifice of freedom for the sake of a little security. Who cares, so long as we’re safe?

That’s been the attitude of the Stephanie Miller radio show for the last two weeks. With every new revelation that the Big Brother electronic spying against Americans was even bigger, and even worse, than what Barack Obama had admitted to, Stephanie Miller has released a sigh of exasperation, and blasted liberals for daring to criticize Barack Obama’s right wing position in favor of totalitarian surveillance of American citizens.

This stance may be surprising to some. Hasn’t Stephanie Miller positioned herself as a “progressive” and a “liberal”?

Yes, she did… for as long as that was a convenient advertising demographic.

You see, Stephanie Miller knows that if she can’t keep her advertisers, she can’t keep her radio show. Without her radio show, Stephanie Miller won’t have a job, and Stephanie Miller isn’t the sort to sacrifice her comfort and position for a matter of principle. She’s in the entertainment business, and she will say whatever it takes to keep the advertisers paying the bills.

stephanie miller shill

Oh dear, what advertisers Stephanie Miller has chosen to align herself with.

The two primary advertisers on the Stephanie Miller radio show are: Carbonite, a company that promises its customers private, secure storage of their data online; and Go To My PC, a company that promises its customers that they can access the data and programs on their computers securely and privately.

Would it do for Stephanie Miller to acknowledge to her listeners that the private information they store on Carbonite’s systems does not remain private? Would it be profitable for Stephanie Miller to admit to her listeners that, whenever they use a system like Go To My PC, their personal documents become available to be read by spies?

Could Stephanie Miller report honestly on these stories, and then turn around and give a little commercial endorsement for Carbonite and Go To My PC? Oh, no. That would be bad for business.

So, Stephanie Miller tells her radio audience that the NSA online surveillance scandal is nothing to worry about. Just relax, she says, and go pay your monthly fees to my advertisers.

There’s a word we have for people who will promote whatever political message they are paid to promote, regardless of its accuracy. We call them shills.

Stephanie Miller is a Grade A shill.

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Barack Obama Is Replacing Judges With Espionage Agents, Snowden Reveals

June 17th, 2013 | Posted by jclifford in Barack Obama | Democrats | Homeland Insecurity | Liberty - (0 Comments)

The Fourth Amendment is exceptionally clear. It reads: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

In order to seize “papers” – that is, people’s private information – the government is required by the highest law in the land to target particularly named people, searching only particular places, and naming before search and seizure takes place the things that will be seized.

There’s no exemption to this for security, or for the sake of criminal investigations. Nowhere in the Constitution is there a provision that the Fourth Amendment can be ignored if the Executive Branch claims (using supposedly secret information) that ignoring the Fourth Amendment helps stop criminal conspiracy. The whole point of the Fourth Amendment, and much of the rest of the Bill of Rights, is that, in order to protect the liberty of the American people, the Executive Branch must be strongly limited in its security and police powers.

nsa spying must stopHowever, we’ve learned this month that the National Security Agency, which is not even a domestic law enforcement agency, but a part of the U.S. military, has been engaging in massive violations of the Fourth Amendment rights of tens of millions, and perhaps hundreds of millions, of Americans every day. They’ve been seizing private phone records, spying on who talks to who. They’ve been seizing private social media data. They’ve been grabbing private emails, and information about who visits what web sites, when, and what for.

The U.S. military, through its PRISM and telephone surveillance program, has been spying on practically the entire population of the United States of America.

Still, Democrats in the media like Stephanie Miller have been rushing to the defense of Barack Obama. It doesn’t matter that Obama continued George W. Bush’s programs to violate the Constitution, they’re saying now. All that matters is that Americans are safe.

Besides, they’ve argued, spying on millions of people’s private activities doesn’t matter so long as the spying is only on people’s metadata. Sure, the government is watching who talks to who, and watches where they go, and what they buy, but what matters is that Americans feel secure, knowing that Big Brother is watching.

Can you believe it, that the Democratic Party has sunk so low that they’re now clapping loudly for the values of Big Brother and Homeland Security? They’ll approve of anything, it seems, just so long as it’s a Democrat who’s doing it.

Today, in the aftermath of the mental fog of a relaxing father’s day weekend, we’re learning that NO, THE NSA WAS NOT JUST SPYING ON OUR METADATA. U.S. military spies have been listening in on the content of our telephone calls as well – at will.

What’s more, Edward Snowden has revealed that the Obama Administration has been circumventing even the rubber stamp of the Judiciary Branch’s Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, and has been allowing low-level analysts to listen to phone calls and read emails without any search warrant being issued to do so. Electronic privacy experts are backing up his description of what’s been going on, pointing out that data from companies like Google, Facebook and Apple has been grabbed at “listening posts”, regardless of the limitations that those companies, now desperate to stop the stampede of customers leaving their systems, have described.

There are no judges issuing warrants for these searches – just the spies themselves, approving their own surveillance operations against Americans.

Every excuse that the Democratic Party establishment has offered for this Orwellian Obama surveillance against Americans has turned out to be a sham.

I’m saying this as a liberal: No person who sincerely believes in the integrity of the Bill of Rights can stay with the thoroughly corrupt Democratic Party. Oh, yes, the Republican Party is thoroughly corrupt as well, but this isn’t a partisan issue any more. The stain of authoritarianism is heavy upon both the Democrats and the Republicans, and it is time for politicians and voters of conscience to walk away from both. They deserve nothing but our firm opposition.

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NSA Military Spying Against Americans Stopped Jillions of Terrorist Attacks, Clapper Says

June 12th, 2013 | Posted by jclifford in Homeland Insecurity - (0 Comments)

Okay, James Clapper did not really testify that jillions of terrorist attacks were stopped by the military’s PRISM and telephone electronic surveillance dragnets targeted against Americans, but he might as well have.

nsa spyingClapper, the director of the military’s National Security Agency, told members of the U.S. Senate that his organization’s electronic surveillance dragnet had stopped “dozens” of attacks against the USA by nasty terrorists bent on bloody murder. The truth, however, is rather less dramatic.

Actually, the Obama Administration has only identified two cases in which the NSA’s unconstitutional spying is supposed to have contributed to thwarting terrorist attacks. What’s more, in those two cases, the NSA surveillance system played only a backup role. It was conventional, legal, constitutional intelligence methods that identified and blocked those attempted terrorist attacks. The NSA spying wasn’t necessary in these cases.

James Clapper knows that, as long as his electronic spying system is classified, he can make whatever claims of success he likes. Who’s going to try to verify his claims, after all? No one is conducting real oversight. The justifications for the massive daily violation of Americans’ constitutional rights are themselves top secret.

Of course, we don’t have to believe Clapper. We have no reason to. From what we know, it seems clear that James Clapper and his military friends have trashed the U.S. Constitution and given us, in return, an ineffectual security tool.

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Support An Obama Vs. Snowden Public Debate!

June 12th, 2013 | Posted by jclifford in Activism | Barack Obama | Video - (0 Comments)

Yesterday, I wrote of a petition in the official White House system that demands the resignation of Barack Obama over his continuation and expansion of a massive military electronic surveillance dragnet that is targeted against the American people. There are now over 20,000 signatures on that petition. When the number of signatures reaches 100,000, Barack Obama will be forced to officially respond to the demand for his resignation from office.

obama debate edward snowdenAn even more delicious petition in the White House system has come to my attention in the meantime. This petition demands that Barack Obama engage in a public, one-hour debate with Edward Snowden, the man who heroically exposed the unconstitutional Big Brother spying program, and who is now on the run from the feds.

The petition reads, “President Obama, you have said that the NSA’s blanket tracking of Americans’ phone calls and collaboration with tech giants “struck the right balance” and that you “welcome this debate”. You must agree that this issue is worthy of your time, and as our president you are the best qualified person to make the case in favor of broad surveillance. To make the opposing case, we can think of no one better than whistleblower Edward Snowden. Like you, he has access to the data showing the tradeoff between securing America and damaging democracy (which at this point the public does not). He speaks with breathtaking clarity, and has left behind a comfortable life, facing death for the strength of his convictions. If you are as strong in yours, you owe him (and us) 1 hour of your time for this.”

Until Barack Obama can summon the courage to face Edward Snowden, here’s another debate: This one is the debate over extreme government surveillance programs between Barack Obama the presidential candidate and Barack Obama the President.

(Warning: If your stomach is sensitive to extreme hypocrisy in the morning, you might not want to play this video)

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Don’t Quack With That Metadata Canard

June 11th, 2013 | Posted by jclifford in Homeland Insecurity | Liberty - (1 Comments)

One of the favored defenses, among those Democrats who choose to justify, rather than criticize, Barack Obama’s decision to keep George W. Bush’s program for electronic surveillance against the American people in place, has been that the system only collects metadata. It’s only metadata, they say, as if that makes it all right.

metadata surveillance is not duckyIt’s a canard.

First of all, we do not know that the National Security Agency – a part of the military – has only been collecting metadata. After all, the government once refused to acknowledge that it was collecting metadata from the Americans’ private communications, so why should we believe the Obama Administration now that it says that its secret spy network is only examining metadata? Obama has lied to us repeatedly about these surveillance programs. There’s no reason for us to trust him now.

Also, even if the government is only collecting metadata, that’s bad enough in itself. Consider that the program that seizes metadata on billions of phone calls from tens of millions of American Verizon customers per day is only one part of only one of many electronic spy programs run by the NSA. So, it’s not just collecting metadata on telephone calls made by Verizon customers. It’s collecting similar metadata from other telephone companies, and from online communication companies, as well.

Then, these points of metadata are joined together in a huge database, where they can be combined.

It’s like a huge pointillist painting… of Americans’ private lives. Collect just one dot, information that one person called another person at a certain time and date, and it doesn’t look like much. Combine that, however, with months upon months of that person’s calls, and details about that person’s life begin to emerge. Add in Facebook posts and private chats – even those that have been cut off from general public view. Add in purchases made online. A recognizable portrait of a person’s private life emerges. Now add in Google metadata – we now see what this person, identified from their unique IP address, searches for, who they are emailing, the titles of their emails and attachments, the items they have placed their daily calendar, and the documents that they have placed in their Google Drives.

Keep in mind that metadata also shows us what web sites people go to, as they are tracked by GoogleAdwords and Facebook cookies. So, we can see, just from metadata, what people are reading, and which online networks they are involved with.

Let’s not forget Google Maps, and “checking in” on Facebook. Metadata shows where we go, as long as we’re carrying a wireless device – and sometimes even when we aren’t.

The pointillist image of a person’s life is, at this point, exposed in fine resolution.

To justify government electronic surveillance by asserting that the spy networks only collect metadata is to miss the point that metadata allows for a remarkable examination of our private lives.

Metadata can tell the government who has attended political meetings. Metadata can provide government agents with material for blackmail. Metadata can easily expose secrets, whether those secrets are personal or commercial.

What’s more, that metadata can be used to provide grounds for further searches and seizures of personal information that goes far beyond the level of metadata.

Anyone who uses the phrase “only metadata” doesn’t understand just how pervasive electronic metadata has become.

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Green Shadow Cabinet Blasts Obama For Secret Courts

June 10th, 2013 | Posted by jclifford in Barack Obama | Democrats | Election 2008 | Election 2012 | Homeland Insecurity | Liberty | Video - (1 Comments)

Did you vote for Obama? If so, you voted for the monstrous military spying network that has been targeted against America’s civilian population.

Let’s be honest about this: Since 2008, it’s been quite clear, to those who cared enough to pay attention, that Barack Obama never had any intention of dismantling George W. Bush’s electronic surveillance operations. In 2008, Senator Obama broke his previous promises and voted in favor of the FISA Amendments Act. We protested it. Voters ignored it.

In 2009, independent progressives did their best to hold Obama to his promise that he would reform the Patriot Act and the FISA Amendments Act. But, we pointed out that Barack Obama kept the NSA spying going. A talking toilet from Irregular Times spread the warning that, under Barack Obama, the military’s National Security Agency was spying on Americans. Yes, we were so desperate to get the word out that we animated a talking toilet.

Democrats pretended it wasn’t happening. Obama got re-elected.

All the while, the Green Party has been paying attention, and speaking out against the Homeland Security surveillance state. In 2012, Jill Stein solidly criticized Obama for continuing George W. Bush’s old anti-liberty policies.

Now, in 2013, the presidential campaign is over, but the Green Party has not grown silent. The Green Shadow Cabinet is speaking out in protest against the National Security Agency’s spying against the American people.

Shahid Buttar, the Director of Civil Rights Enforcement, has responded to the revelations of Barack Obama’s unconstitutional seizure of millions of Verizon telephone records by pointing out the a larger context to the problem: When extraordinary powers are wielded by the government, we can’t trust secret courts to protect our constitutional rights. Buttar writes, “Courts exist to enforce our rights in the face of government abuses. That’s one of the central geniuses of the founding fathers and the system of checks and balances they constructed. But when the decisions are secret, they stop being judicial in character. Law is built on mutual references among courts. When the law can’t reference itself, it stops being law, and emerges as something very different: in this case, a rubber stamp allowing any manner of dragnet violations impacting law-abiding Americans and our fundamental rights.”

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How to take ACTION to defy the National Security Agency electronic surveillance system

June 10th, 2013 | Posted by jclifford in Activism | Homeland Insecurity | Liberty - (5 Comments)

Using the powers granted under the FISA Amendments Act and Patriot Act to establish unreasonable search and seizure of Americans’ homes, records, and communications by government agents, without any suspicion of a crime, the American military has moved its spies into almost every American home. These military spies, headquartered at the National Security Agency, have been watching ordinary Americans, to see what we do, who we talk to, what we buy – practically everything that we do. These days, there’s an electronic record of practically everything that we do, and the military’s spies at the NSA have seized control of that record.

Those who remember how governments have used surveillance systems in the past understand the danger that this military system spying against Americans poses to our liberty. Never before, however, has there been a surveillance system anything close to this large deployed by a military against a civilian population. The possible consequences, if this military spying network is allowed to survive, are terrifying.

SO WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?

It’s a early yet to know what form the resistance to project PRISM and the other unconstitutional NSA spying systems will be. Please, if you know of any protests being organized, post them in the comments section of this article.

Here are some initial opportunities for activism on this issue, however:

Street Protest

Live near New York City? Activists are gathering at 12:00 noon today at Union Square in New York City.

Prepare for Restore The Fourth street protests on the Fourth of July.

Another protest is being organized to take place outside the Boston headquarters of Verizon, on June 14.

Over on the West Coast, how about we crash Netroots Nation? Netroots Nation is an annual gathering of online activists who typically applaud Democratic Party politicians. We have discovered that Democratic Party politicians have joined with George W. Bush’s Republicans to body slam our online privacy, so it’s time for Netroots Nation to start talking back to the Democratic Party, don’t you think? Netroots Nation is meeting in just 10 days from now in San Jose, California.

Petitions

Sign the petitions logged in the official White House system to repeal the Patriot Act, to pardon Edward Snowden, to impeach Judge Roger Vinson for authorizing the Verizon phone data grab and to demand the resignation of Barack Obama.

Small Actions

Call your U.S. Representative and 2 U.S. Senators. Yes, this sounds hokey, but if these politicians in Congress do not hear from their constituents, they will interpret that silence as approval of the NSA spying programs. The congressional switchboard is at (202) 224-3121

Call the National Security Agency on your Verizon phone. When someone answers the phone, just say, “I am calling on a Verizon telephone. You should know that this call is being tracked by government spies.”

Among the public telephone numbers for the National Security Agency are:
(301) 688-6672
(301) 688-2336
(410) 854-8035
(301) 688-6527
(301) 688-5849
(410) 854-6334
(301) 688-6524

I’m endorsing this next one with a BIG asterisk: Consider contributing to a legal defense fund for Edward Snowden. The asterisk is that I want to confirm that we have some way of knowing that the money is really going to a legal defense fund for Edward Snowden before I fully recommend action on this front… I’ll check back in with that information.

Boycott the Searched Online Services

The security of Yahoo, AOL, Facebook, Google, Hotmail, etc. has been compromised. One way you can protest the NSA is to cut them off – by logging out of these systems, and deleting the cookies put on your computer by these companies to track your activities.

If Facebook activity plunges, and if people find alternatives to Google, members of Congress are going to start getting some passionate attention from freaked out tech company lobbyists.

nsa facebook protestOnline Activism

Be careful of this one. Protest organizers should be wary of using social media, what with the National Security Agency using places like Facebook to spy on Americans.

Still, if you really must stay on Facebook, at least use your account to keep awareness of this issue alive. Even though it annoys your friends who only want to see muffin recipes and pictures of kittens, keep posting links to news, and to protests related to the NSA spying program. Change your profile graphic to… oh, I don’t know, here’s an example over to the right.

OCCUPY!

It’s time for the Occupy Movement to get back on it’s feet, don’t you think? Contact the people you met during your participation in the Occupy protests, and organize a new wave of action!

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