Despite all my weeping, gnashing of what teeth I’ve got left and screaming at the walls last night, here we are again on a Monday.
Again, too, it’s cold and clear on California’s north coast as we start the first official-real week of 2014.
And if this year is like 2013, we’ll witness more of the end of America as we’ve known it — in actuality, we’re just a couple of metadata loops and ‘fingerprints’ away from a George Orwell look-alike.
The NSA has been revealed to be a state within a state — even spying/listening on Congress.
Sen. Bernie Sanders asked on Friday: Is The NSA spaying on Congress? The answer: “Members of Congress have the same privacy protections as all US persons.”
Which, of course, is none.
(Illustration found here).
Sanders fired off a letter to Keith Alexander, the NSA head asshole, requesting to know whether the agency “has spied, or is the NSA currently spying, on members of Congress or other American elected officials.”
Lying, spying, what’s the difference? And the NSA piled on the bullshit — from the Guardian on Saturday:
On Saturday, the NSA released a statement in response to Sanders’ letter, which said: “NSA’s authorities to collect signals intelligence data include procedures that protect the privacy of US persons.
Such protections are built into and cut across the entire process.
Members of Congress have the same privacy protections as all US persons.
“NSA is fully committed to transparency with Congress.
Our interaction with Congress has been extensive both before and since the media disclosures began last June.
We are reviewing Senator Sanders’s letter now, and we will continue to work to ensure that all Members of Congress, including Senator Sanders, have information about NSA’s mission, authorities, and programs to fully inform the discharge of their duties.”
Republican Peter King, asshole from New York, said Sunday Congresscritters could be terrorists like any other American.
Via Mediaite:
“I think members of Congress should be treated the same as everyone else,” King said.
“If a member of Congress is talking to an Al Qaeda leader in Iraq or Afghanistan, why should that member of Congress be any different from any person on the street?”
He added that Sanders was attempting to imply that the NSA is “spying” on Congress.
“They’re not spying on anyone,” he added.
The shaker-and-roller of this NSA debacle, Eddie Snowden, said in December: “These programs were never about terrorism: they’re about economic spying, social control, and diplomatic manipulation. They’re about power.”
Well, of course — and billions and billions of dollars.
And there’s other government feelers, too. At your favorite coffee shop — no!
In doing its part, the FBI has installed the Communities Against Terrorism (CAT) program to enlist your friendly local businesses as spies for — wait for it — the FBI.
This morning from Linda Lewis at BoilingFrogsPost:
The CAT program, funded by the State and Local Anti-Terrorism Training program (SLATT) is described as a “tool to engage members of the local community in the fight against terrorism.”
The program interprets “local community” to mean businesses, and only registered businesses may access the program’s flyers listing “potential indicators” of terrorist activity.
Each flyer is designed for a particular kind of business.
For example, this list was prepared for owners of internet cafes.
Unquestionably, someone planning a terrorist attack has engaged in one or more of the “suspicious” activities on that list. But so, too, have most of the estimated 289 million computer users in this country.
The government’s flyer designates people as suspicious if they “always pay cash” at an internet café.
That’s a jaw-dropping assumption considering that we’re talking about businesses that sell $2 cups of joe, not $600 airline tickets.
Good luck paying with a credit card for a purchase under $10.
Evidence that one has a “residential based internet provider” (such as Comcast or AOL) is another pretext for government snooping.
If your home internet connection is unreliable, if you are on travel, or if you simply relish a good cup of coffee with your internet browsing, you run the risk of acquiring an FBI file.
Trying to shield personal information on your computer screen from the prying eyes of others will mark you as a potential terrorist, also.
It is officially creepy to use a café hotspot to download “photos, maps or diagrams” of a stadium, metro rail stop, or any “populated locations.”
To be safe, confine your travel plans to the Alaskan tundra.
And, should there be another terrorist attack, do not demonstrate any “preoccupation with press coverage” of the attack.
Just move along–nothing to see here.
Big h/t to the Washingtons Blog post at the Big Picture — a long, detailed account of how Americans have lost a shitload of Constitutional rights. Good read, but depressing, frustrating.
And when the worse Congress in US history comes back together after the holiday break, the NSA shit will either hit the fan, or spatter all over the floor. Fan, or floor, whatta ya think?
Meanwhile, for me just a small cup of coffee to go — and I’ll pay with both Visa, and, MasterCharge.
And take that croissant and shove it where the NSA can’t see.
(Illustration out front found here).