The Council Has Spoken!! This Weeks’ Watcher’s Council Results

‘Duck Dynasty’ Suspension Lifted to Resume Filming With Phil Robertson… No Response from Phil or Family Yet

Alea iacta est…The Council Has Spoken! has spoken, the votes have been cast, and we have the results  for this week’s Watcher’s Council match up.

The one who conceals hatred has lying lips, and whoever utters slander is a fool.- Proverbs 10:18

“We do not merely destroy our enemies; we change them.” – George Orwell, 1984

Former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, who revealed details of electronic surveillance by American and British spy services, warned of the dangers posed by a loss of privacy in a message broadcast to Britain on Christmas Day.

In a two-minute video recorded in Moscow, where Snowden has been granted temporary asylum, he spoke of concerns over surveillance and appeared to draw comparison with the dystopian tale “1984″ which described a fictional state which operates widespread surveillance of its citizens.

“Great Britain’s George Orwell warned us of the danger of this kind of information. The types of collection in the book – microphones and video cameras, TVs that watch us are nothing compared to what we have available today.” “We have sensors in our pockets that track us everywhere we go. Think about what this means for the privacy of the average person,” he said.

“A child born today will grow up with no conception of privacy at all,” said Snowden. “They’ll never know what it means to have a private moment to themselves, an unrecorded, unanalysed thought. And that’s a problem because privacy matters, privacy

This week’s winner, The Noisy Room’s The Silencing of the Ducks is her sharp, well written examination of the recent A&E/Duck Dynasty controversy and what it reveals about the Angry Left’s attempt at thought control and the war on America’s culture…including traditional Christianity and the right to profess its values. Here’s a slice:

I did not start viewing Duck Dynasty until a few months ago. It has since become our favorite show and we can’t get enough of it. Christian values, real people, guns and hunting – what’s not to love? But it would seem that being a Christian and espousing your beliefs in America is now becoming ever more dangerous. As RedState pointed out, ultimately you will care and you will have to take a stand and take sides.

Phil Robertson, the patriarch of Duck Dynasty, just did a GQ interview where he stated his Christian beliefs, which included those concerning Gays. This whole blowup is not so much about the Gay issue, but far more about the Constitution and the First Amendment. In the interview, Phil was asked if he thought homosexuality was sinful:

“Start with homosexual behavior and just morph out from there. Bestiality, sleeping around with this woman and that woman and that woman and those men,” he told GQ, before paraphrasing the Bible in Corinthians. “Don’t be deceived. Neither the adulterers, the idolaters, the male prostitutes, the homosexual offenders, the greedy, the drunkards, the slanderers, the swindlers — they won’t inherit the kingdom of God. Don’t deceive yourself. It’s not right.”

For telling the truth and stating what he personally believed, A&E put him on indefinite hiatus. They fired him. I would be very surprised if the family did not tell A&E to stuff it. They managed to take THE most popular rated show ever and scuttle it. Phil had told A&E earlier that if they insisted he remove God or guns from his show, they were through:

On May 9, Greensboro, NC country station 93.1 The Wolf reported that after receiving complaints over prayers to God and the frequent use of guns on air, Duck Dynasty patriarch Phil Robertson said, “God and guns are part of our everyday lives [and] to remove either of them from the show is unacceptable.”

Sarah Palin came to Phil’s defense with the following quote:

Free speech is an endangered species. Those “intolerants” hatin’ and taking on the Duck Dynasty patriarch for voicing his personal opinion are taking on all of us.

She’s right and this will backfire on A&E and all the others out there that are anti-Christian. Phil Robertson just became a warrior for God and the Constitution and I am sure he is up to the task. An attack on one Christian, is an attack on all of us. Time to draw our line in the Marxist sand.

Much more at the link.

In our non-Council category, the winner was Victor Davis Hanson with  Pajama Boy Nation submitted by Joshuapundit. It’s an examination of the metrosexual Pajama Boy used as a shill fro ObamaCare and what it says about the Left and how they see the country.  This opening paragraphs are a nice taste:

Will Kane of High Noon Pajama Boy wasn’t. Somehow we as a nation went from the iconic Marlboro Man to Pajama Boy — from the noble individual with a bad habit to the ignoble without a good habit — without a blink in between.

There are lots of revolting things in the Pajama Boy ad. After all, how can you top all at once a nerdy-looking child-man dressed in infantile pajamas while cradling a cup of hot chocolate with the smug assurance that he is running your life more than you his?

Do read it.

OK, so here are this week’s full results. Both the Mellow Jihadi and VA Right were unable to vote this week,but neither was subject to the usual 2/3 vote penalty:

Council Winners

• *First place with 2 1/3 votes! - The Noisy Room – The Silencing of the Ducks
• Second place with 2  votes – Bookworm Room – The Obama Christmas card reveals the zero at the center of our government
• Third place *t* with 1 2/3 votes – The Right Planet – U.S. Army Tells Soldiers Not to Say ‘Christmas’
• Third place *t* with 1 2/3 votes – Joshuapundit - Crash And Burn – Obama Waives Individual Mandate On ObamaCare
• Third place *t* with 1 2/3 votes – Liberty’s Spirit – Fat-Shaming, Body Image and a Culture of Dehumanization
• Fourth place  with 1 vote – Simply Jews – Sweden’s conflictual relationship with issues of tolerance
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – Nice Deb – Young Invincibles Insulted By ObamaCare Ads (Video)
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – The Mellow Jihadi – Israel & Iran. Good against Evil…
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – The Political Commentator – US Navy and cancer: Fukushima has been extremely hazardous to their health!
• Sixth place *t* with 2/3 vote – GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Killing Our Enemies On Christmas Day Since 1776
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – The Razor – Would a Different Software Methodology Have Saved Obamacare?
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – Rhymes With Right – May I Point Out That Phil Robertson Was Indisputably Right About One Thing?

Non-Council Winners

• First place with 2 2/3 votes! – Victor Davis Hanson - Pajama Boy Nation submitted by Joshuapundit
• Second place *t* with 2 2/3 votes – Pressure Points – The Un-American Studies Association submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
• Second place *t* with 2 2/3 votes – Bret Stephens/WSJ – Of Jane Fonda and Pope Francis submitted by Liberty’s Spirit
• Second place *t* with 2 2/3 votes – Larry Correia/Monster Hunter Nation – Angsty Emo Outrage and Ducks submitted by The Noisy Room
• Third place with 1 vote – John O’Sullivan/NRO -  The New Blacklist submitted by Bookworm Room
• Fourth place with 2/3 vote-Nick Nipclose – Cyber-libertarians for Child Pornography submitted by Simply Jews
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 votes -Washington Free Beacon - A Year of Inspiring Democratic Quotes submitted by Nice Deb
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote - Big Jolly Politics – Christopher Busby, HCRP Precinct Chair submitted by Rhymes with Right
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote - Buckhorn Road – Freedom Died On This Day 100 Years Ago submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote - The People’s Cube – Duck Dynasty’s Robertson Angers Alcoholics, Philanderers submitted by The Razor
• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote - Arnold Kling – Obama Repeals Obamacare submitted by The Glittering Eye
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote - Cato@Liberty – It’s a Very Merry Christmas for Washington Insiders submitted by The Watcher

Honorable Mentions

• Ask Marion – Simpler Times, A Groetzmeier Christmas – WoC 2013
• The Independent Sentinel – Wow! Susan Rice Doesn’t Have Time For Benghazi, The False Controversy
• Right Truth – Lesbian Supervisor Allegedly Fired Male Gym Teacher Because He Was Heterosexual And Married
• The Pirate’s Cove – Here’s A Handy Dandy Warmist Survival Guide For Christmas Climate Change Discussions

See you next week! Don’t forget to tune in on Monday AM for this week’s Watcher’s Forum, as the Council and their invited special guests take apart one of the provocative issues of the day with short takes and weigh in…don’t you dare miss it. And don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter…..’cause we’re cool like that!

Technorati Tags: Duck Dynasty,Snowden,Surveillance,Freedom,Victories,Stand-up,WoC,Palin 2016,Ducks,ObamaCare,Watcher’s Council,Alternative media,News nuggets,News,Bloggers,Blogosphere,Politics,NSA,Free Market,Collection of Articles,Obamaland,Get-Involved,Knowledge,Holidays,Christmas,War on Chtistmas,Religion,Simpler Times

NROL – Nothing Is Beyond Our Reach

By: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton – The NoisyRoom – Cross-Posted at AskMarion

Seriously? Having created an uber tense surveillance climate, the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office decided this was the perfect time to unveil their new logo of the squid who spied on me. It’s a monster octopus with tentacles that encircle the globe. I share Doug Ross’ sentiments… I’m all for a strong U.S. intelligence capability, as long as it is not used against Americans. But after the whole NSA kerfluffle (which by the way, is ridiculous since everyone is spying on everyone else and then screaming over the US doing it), this is a giant ‘F’-you moment to the world. Boy, talk about poking the Russian bear and the Chinese dragon – you might as well flash neon saying: “Please attack me.” You know, like the sign on Biden’s back that he sports during his foreign policy comedy tour.

Sometimes, The Register approaches Godhood in their prose:

The NRO are totally embracing their menacing Big Brother persona and putting it out there for world+dog to see, having launched a bunch of satellites and a mysterious payload on a spacecraft yesterday – complete with the logo of a creepy octopus sucking the life out of our world.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) tweeted pictures of an Atlas 5 rocket bearing the NROL-39 getting ready for launch yesterday, which it said was carrying a “classified NRO payload” along with some cubesats.

The NRO is the agency in charge of designing, building, launching and maintaining America’s spy satellites. The DNI said that its latest rocket would carry a dozen mini satellites co-funded by NASA as well as its unknown primary payload.

The DNI did not say just why the NRO thought that a good logo for its spy-craft would be a hugely evil-looking octopus with its tentacles wrapped around the Earth and the inscription “Nothing is beyond our reach”.

Thursday’s launch was the second time an Atlas 5 rocket has lifted off from the West Coast this year. Hmmm… Wonder what is in that payload? Nothing good, I would imagine. Looks like the surveillance state is not lacking for funding and is reaching out to touch everyone. Look out boys, your evil intentions are showing. You are taking the ‘Intelligence’ out of ‘Intelligence Agency.’

From Fox News:

The U.S. National Reconnaissance Office launched a new spy satellite Thursday evening on mission NROL-39 — and the new logo and tagline are quite an eye opener.

The new logo features a giant, world-dominating octopus, its sucker-covered tentacles encircling the planet while it looks on with determination, a steely glint in its enormous eye. The logo carries a five-word tagline: “Nothing is beyond our reach.”

Christopher Soghoian, principal technologist and senior policy analyst with the ACLU, raised a quizzical eyebrow at the new slogan.

“Advice to @ODNIgov: You may want to downplay the massive dragnet spying thing right now. This logo isn’t helping,” he wrote.

An agency spokeswoman told Forbes that there’s a very good reason for the symbol: The octopus is intelligent, and therefore a good emblem for an intelligence agency.

“NROL-39 is represented by the octopus, a versatile, adaptable, and highly intelligent creature. Emblematically, enemies of the United States can be reached no matter where they choose to hide,” said Karen Furgerson, a spokeswoman for the NRO. “‘Nothing is beyond our reach’ defines this mission and the value it brings to our nation and the warfighters it supports, who serve valiantly all over the globe, protecting our nation.”

The NROL-39 mission was classified, as are nearly all missions and satellites launched by the secretive NRO. It was carried aloft by a United Launch Alliance rocket from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 11:13 p.m. PST, according to NASAspaceflight.com. Because the launch trajectory matched that used by other launches, it was likely carrying a third satellite for the agency’s radar reconnaissance fleet, the site said.

Along with its secretive payload, the rocket also carried the Government Experimental Multi-Satellite (GEMSat) payload, which contained 12 “nanosatellites” that will perform a variety of science missions.

The NRO mission is to design, build, launch, and maintain America’s intelligence satellites.

Twice in one week, I’ve had to agree with the commies at the ACLU. This is getting surreal. Depicting a weakened America as a sea monster that has the planet in her 8-armed embrace is laughable. They’ve turned us into a cartoon character with just about as much menace. Seriously, who isn’t afraid of the Russian bear waiting to tear you apart? Or the Chinese dragon that could burn you to ashes while eviscerating you? We get an octopus? It’s like getting Obama instead of Reagan. It’s a joke. Next, really cool makeup for the military and snappy uniforms – oh, wait…

Deaf, insensitive and invasive… yep, nothing is beyond Obama’s reach.

Yes We 'Scan' - Obama Defends NSA Spying Program! - (But) I'm No Dick Cheney!

Video:  Yes We 'Scan' - Obama Defends NSA Spying Program! - (But) I'm No Dick Cheney!

Technorati Tags: NSA,manipulation of the public,lies,Dick Cheney,NSA spying,Big Brother tactics,1984,scandals,cover-ups,Constitution,surveillance,flip-flop,freedom

Watcher’s Council Nominations – Under Surveillance Edition - 06.12.13

JoshuaPundit on Jun 12 2013 | Nominations

Welcome to the Watcher’s Council, a blogging group consisting of some of the most incisive blogs in the ‘sphere’, and the longest running group of its kind in existence. Every week, the members nominate two posts each, one written by themselves and one written by someone from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council. Then we vote on the best two posts, with the results appearing on Friday.

Council News:

Ch-ch-ch-Changes: Council Members Gay Patriot and The Independent Sentinel have departed the Council due to the need to concentrate on other pursuits, although they will still remain members of the WoW community. We’ve greatly enjoyed having them as part of our group and wish them well in their future endeavors.

But hey, just looky what we have here!

This week marks the stellar debut of Liberty’s Spirit and Nice Deb, two awesome writers we’ve been fans of for some time. They’re definitely going to add something special to the Council mix… check out their submissions this week and see if you don’t agree.

This week, Ask Marion, Right Truth, and The Pirate’s Cove earned honorable mention status with some great pieces.

Council Submissions

• The Political Commentator – Connecting the radical dots in Boston!
• Simply Jews – More fun and games with Alice Walker
• The Noisy Room – Samantha Power: The Hand That Rocks A Nation
• Liberty’s Spirit – Autism-Meme as Political Insult
• The Razor – The Power of Islamic Propaganda
• Joshuapundit - The Anniversary Of A Miracle – Israel’s Victory In The Six Day War
• The Colossus of Rhodey – Poll Shows Support for Affirmative Action Dwindling
• Nice Deb – National Organization for Marriage’s John Eastman RIPS Democrats At IRS Hearing + Proof IRS Leaked Confidential Donor List to Political Rival
• GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Beirut Is The Next Benghazi
• The Right Planet – What Are Some Good ‘Liberal’ Books?
• Bookworm Room – Game of Thrones and how the things that we watch reveal something about who we are and what we’ve become
• VA Right! - NSA Leaker Snowden: Hero or Traitor?
• The Glittering Eye - Weasels
• Rhymes With Right – A Long Distance Dedication To Obama Voters
• The Mellow Jihadi – My First Fist-Fight in the Navy

Honorable Mentions

• Ask Marion – NSA Whistleblower Snowden in Exile as the Obama Scandals List Grows
• Right Truth – Soldier Who Read Conservative Books Faces Charges…
• The Pirate’s Cove – Bummer: NY Times Admits To 15 Year Pause In Global Warming

Non-Council Submissions

• Zero Hedge - Are Central Bankers Losing Control? submitted by The Political Commentator
• The Texas Scribbler – Our Creepy President submitted by Simply Jews
• Sultan Knish – We’ll Keep the Red Flag Flying Here submitted by The Noisy Room
• This Ongoing War: A Blog – Will Appeasing Hezbollah Work Better Now Than it Did With Nazi Germany? submitted by Liberty’s Spirit
• Victor Davis Hanson – Obama is Just Obama submitted by The Razor
• Mark Steyn – The All Seeing State submitted by Joshuapundit
• Reason.com – Obama’’s Last Gasp at a Legacy submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey
• Doug Ross @ Journal – The Complete IRS Scandal Timeline in Spreadsheet Format [Updated] submitted by Nice Deb
• The Long War Journal – Iran’s Latin American Terror Network submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
• The National Journal – NSA Spying Scandal: 2006 or 2013? submitted by The Right Planet
• Israel Thrives - The Nakba Stratagem submitted by Bookworm Room
• Michelle Malkin – Assimilation, Not Amnesty submitted by VA Right!
• Alexis Simendinger/RealClearPolitics – Privacy, Security and Obama’s Uphill Quest for Trust submitted by The Glittering Eye
• Red State – IRS lectures pro-life group on acceptable speech, practice of religion. submitted by Rhymes with Right
• Chicago Boyz – Peggy Noonan is figuring it out … submitted by The Mellow Jihadi
• Gatestone Institute/Raheel Raza – On Israel’s President’s Conference submitted by The Watcher
• Ann Coulter – Tips For Right-Wingers On The IRS Scandal submitted by Watcher 

Forum: Given The Scandals Surrounding His Administration, Will Obama Finish His Second Term?

Enjoy! And don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us Twitter..’cause we’re cool like that!

Technorati Tags: Watcher's Council,bloggers,blogosphere,patterns,education,media,articles,news,news-nuggets,connections,freedom,knowledge,scandals,cover-ups,NSA,IRS-gate,Obamaland,surveillance

NSA Whistleblower Snowden in Exile as the Obama Scandals List Grows

By Marion Algier - AskMarion

Alexis de Tocqueville, the French political thinker and historian who is most famous for his work Democracy in America (paperback), said, “People get the government they deserve.” and there is a similar and well-documented quotation by Joseph de Maistre: "Every country has the government it deserves.” 

They are both quotes usually used to explain why our governments (worldwide) are generally pretty awful. The inference is that if people were more careful who they voted for, if they took the time to inform themselves and if more people took the trouble to vote (and get involved in the system) in the first place, we would not have such mediocre or corrupt people in government, and indeed politicians would have to clean up their act and work a lot harder than they do or they would be replaced. 

When I was a young student of history, government and politics, I used to think those comments were pretty cynical, but as I have watched and chronicled America’s decline since the Reagan era I have sadly found them to be more true than I ever wanted to believe or admit.

The Great American Experiment, as America is often called, was supposed to prove that the common man could rule himself and America’s Founding Fathers gave us every tool we needed to survive as long as we stayed engaged.  But even with those tools the average American is lost, uninformed and disinterested, even now as they watch the one-time greatest country in the world crashing down around them!

The American people as a whole have given the politicians in Washington D.C., and even locally, carte blanche with little oversight or interest for decades.  A trend that really began as the so-called ‘Greatest Generation’ returned home from war and the inattention and apathy has grown with each generation thereafter, except by those focused on destroying America.   We have allowed ourselves and our children to methodically be dumbed-down, indoctrinated, and manipulated to the point that Pravda, the former propaganda newspaper for the USSR dubbed us Sheeple. We elected and re-elected a president that we still don’t really know and who has ‘always’ surrounded himself with radicals that didn’t like the American system, American ideals or the values of the average American.  And we now find ourselves with a president, his administration and a government in general embroiled in scandal, cover-ups, and over-reach.  Yet half the people still don’t know about or understand the scandals, that the 2012 election probably was stolen and when asked they just say, “Our president, ‘Obama’, is cool.” The other half are losing or have already lost faith in the government, as well as in their low-informed counterparts.

How many scandals are there now?  Benghazi-gate, IRS-gate, NSA-gate, Press-gate… Sebelius-gate (or ObamaCare-gate), EPA-gate, Fast and Furious, voter/election fraud and the list goes on… now State Dept-gate and maybe Islamist-gate.  They are spying on us and collecting our data without cause or warrants; using czars and Executive Orders to circumvent the Constitution; they arrogantly promote and defend those involved in the corruption and they investigated and suppressed the activities of anyone or group that opposed them to steal an election.  And now courageous whistleblowers and witnesses, who are finally stepping up but are afraid enough that they won’t get a fair trial (or worse), are fleeing the country.  Where is the outrage?

FoxNews:  NSA whistle-blower who sought to 'inform the public' in surveillance risks decades in jail. 

The source of the bombshell leaks about the U.S. government gathering information on billions of phone calls and Internet activities risks decades in jail for the disclosures if the U.S. can extradite him from Hong Kong, where he says he has taken refuge after saying his sole motive was to “inform the public.”

“We have the elements of a Police State here”- Mark Levin

Daniel Ellsberg, the man who leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971, fully approves of Edward Snowden's leak about a top-secret National Security Agency surveillance program.

"I'm very impressed by what I've heard in the last couple of hours, including Snowden's own video here. I think he's done an enormous service, incalculable service," Ellsberg said Sunday night on CNN.

As for the surveillance program, Ellsberg said, "I have no doubt that this violates the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution and probably other parts of the Bill of Rights and should have been exposed."

"Can it really be a crime to expose crime?" Ellsberg asked.

 Photo: AP Edward Snowden, who worked as a contract employee at the National Security Agency, on Sunday, June 9, 2013, in Hong Kong. The Guardian identified Snowden as a source for its reports on intelligence

HONG KONG (AP) — The American intelligence contractor who disclosed the U.S. government surveillance programs fled to Hong Kong because he believed he wouldn't get a fair trial in his home country. 

Snowden says he worked as a contractor at the National Security Agency and the CIA. He allowed both the Guardian and The Washington Post newspapers to reveal his identity on Sunday (06.09.13) as the source of a series of top-secret documents outlining two NSA surveillance programs.  He told the papers if the DOJ indicts him, which seems almost inevitable, that he doesn't really trust the judicial system in the United States to give him a fair trial".  Most would agree that he is right.

One can only ask… wow, has America really fallen that far?  It wasn’t so long ago that those would have headlines expected out of the USSR, not the USA.

Video: Neil Cavuto Erupts Over Democratic Operative's Defense of Government NSA Scandal

Infowars.com:  Fox News host Neil Cavuto and Democratic strategist Julian Epstein erupted at each other on Saturday morning, when Cavuto demanded Epstein see the NSA subpoena as part of a larger pattern of oppressive behavior on the part of the Obama administration. “You see one incident after another that comes up,” Cavuto said. “It all comes back to the same basic issue: privacy invaded or potentially invaded. Institutions of all sorts doing the same thing. There is a pattern.”

Video: Judge Jeanine Slams IRS, NSA and Obama for Expanding Surveillance Program - Opening Statement

Video:  “We have the elements of a Police State here”- A fired up Mark Levin talks to Neil Cavuto

Where are men (and women… the Margaret Thatchers of our day) like Harry Truman and Ronald Reagan, presidents/public servants who knew the buck stopped with them, who would have made the tough decisions and taken responsibility? In Obamaland it is everyone’s fault but his.  And when they (present day leaders) do surface… why don’t we recognize them?  What has happened to Americans who expected their elected leaders to represent their interests and values and who would have called for the resignations or impeachments of those in power today?

Yet when we look for responsibility and blame we must also add ourselves plus everyone in Congress, government workers and the mainstream media to the list.  How many people voted without knowing who or what they were voting for?  How many parents and grandparents even have knowledge of the anti-American rhetoric being taught in our schools… about the Common C.O.R.E. educational program? How many informed public servants and media have remained silent?  How many have misled or lied under oath?  How many are uninformed themselves?  Did Congress tell us about the PRISM Project… the data centers (Utah) being built and is Congress asking the right questions now?

We, and globally, have already been so programmed that too many Americans actually believe that spying on and droning American citizens is okay. After all most people voluntarily post all their information on social media for the powers that be, and everyone else, to access.   We are being led like sheep(le) to the slaughter.  See: Timeline of revelations about surveillance that sweeps up Americans' phone calls, data  Founding Father Benjamin Franklin said, “He who gives up freedom for safety deserves neither”, yet in an America who no longer knew (knows) her (or world) history, Americans could not wait for “W” and Congress to ram through the Patriot Act after 9/11, which 12-years later has only become ever more intrusive.  People… if the government is watching and monitoring you, it is never good!!  We are living in George Orwell’s 1984… Hear Beck’s emotional 1984 monologue HERE.

America… it is the responsibility of each of us to be informed, to vote for integrity and demand it.  If the America our Founding Fathers left us is to survive, it is up to all of us to take a stand and get involved… today!  Or there won’t be an American tomorrow that you will be comfortable leaving to your children!!  Remember the words of Alexis de Tocqueville, “People get the government they deserve.”  If you don’t inform yourself and get involved, what will you tell you children and grandchildren you were doing when America and freedom was being stolen?

Technorati Tags: Cavuto,scandals,cover-ups,Snowden,whistleblowers,Obamaland,Fox,Fox News,Obama,IRS-gate,IRS,NSA,NSA-gate,paternalism,surveillance,sheeple,1984,warnings,connecting the dots,wake-up,lies,Levin,Ellsberg,Tocqueville,Constitution,privacy,Fourth Amendment,patterns,connect the dots

AG Holder Perjures Himself Under Oath On Press Surveillance Scandal

Joshua Pundit: Here's a smoking gun for you. Attorney General Holder is speaking to Democrat Rep. Hank Johnson of Georgia of the oversight committee about the AP scandal...and at 5:00 Holder says clearly, under oath that he never had anything to do with signing off on spying on the press:

"In regard to potential prosecution of the press for the disclosure of material. This is not something I’ve ever been involved in, heard of, or would think would be wise policy."

Today, it came out that it was Eric Holder who personally signed off on the warrant to spy on FOX News senior correspondent James Rosen... and who knows how many others. Not only that, but it was Holder's decision to keep the warrants secret for years. Can you say 'fishing expedition'? Can you say clear violation of the First Amendment?

Sure you can.

And who was the DOJ attorney who filed in district court to keep the illegal surveillance ongoing and secret for years even though they hadn't found anything? That would be U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen - the same attorney who was charged with deciding whether to pursue the House’s contempt citation against his boss, Eric Holder, over Fast and Furious. And - what a coincidence - he just happens to be leading the FBI investigation into the leak that involved the DOJ subpoenaing AP reporters’ phone records.

And who appointed him to that position? None other than James Cole, Holder's deputy, who took over after Holder recused himself.

Even more disgusting, President Obama acted socked, just shocked about all this and proclaimed yesterday in that faux sincere baritone of his that he had  ordered the Attorney General to review the DOJ’s guidelines for spying on reporters.

In other words, Eric Holder will be in charge of investigating what Eric Holder did. And in the areas where he recused himself , he has a couple of loyal, dependable  soldiers to take care of things.

Yet the fact remains that Holder committing perjury and likely obstruction of justice, and that particular cat is now out of the bag.

Technorati Tags: press-gate,purjury,Eric Holder,AP,Fox News,media,freedom of the press,Fast and Furious,scandal,cover-ups,lies,DOJ,James Rosen

The Internet is a Surveillance State

Brandontward - h/t to Joe Miller

I'm going to start with three data points.

One: Some of the Chinese military hackers who were implicated in a broad set of attacks against the U.S. government and corporations were identified because they accessed Facebook from the same network infrastructure they used to carry out their attacks.

Two: Hector Monsegur, one of the leaders of the LulzSac hacker movement, was identified and arrested last year by the FBI. Although he practiced good computer security and used an anonymous relay service to protect his identity, he slipped up.

And three: Paula Broadwell,who had an affair with CIA director David Petraeus, similarly took extensive precautions to hide her identity. She never logged in to her anonymous e-mail service from her home network. Instead, she used hotel and other public networks when she e-mailed him. The FBI correlated hotel registration data from several different hotels -- and hers was the common name.

The Internet is a surveillance state. Whether we admit it to ourselves or not, and whether we like it or not, we're being tracked all the time. Google tracks us, both on its pages and on other pages it has access to. Facebook does the same; it even tracks non-Facebook users. Apple tracks us on our iPhones and iPads. One reporter used a tool called Collusion to track who was tracking him; 105 companies tracked his Internet use during one 36-hour period.

Increasingly, what we do on the Internet is being combined with other data about us. Unmasking Broadwell's identity involved correlating her Internet activity with her hotel stays. Everything we do now involves computers, and computers produce data as a natural by-product. Everything is now being saved and correlated, and many big-data companies make money by building up intimate profiles of our lives from a variety of sources.

Facebook, for example, correlates your online behavior with your purchasing habits offline. And there's more. There's location data from your cell phone, there's a record of your movements from closed-circuit TVs.

This is ubiquitous surveillance: All of us being watched, all the time, and that data being stored forever. This is what a surveillance state looks like, and it's efficient beyond the wildest dreams of George Orwell.

Sure, we can take measures to prevent this. We can limit what we search on Google from our iPhones, and instead use computer web browsers that allow us to delete cookies. We can use an alias on Facebook. We can turn our cell phones off and spend cash. But increasingly, none of it matters.

There are simply too many ways to be tracked. The Internet, e-mail, cell phones, web browsers, social networking sites, search engines: these have become necessities, and it's fanciful to expect people to simply refuse to use them just because they don't like the spying, especially since the full extent of such spying is deliberately hidden from us and there are few alternatives being marketed by companies that don't spy.

This isn't something the free market can fix. We consumers have no choice in the matter. All the major companies that provide us with Internet services are interested in tracking us. Visit a website and it will almost certainly know who you are; there are lots of ways to be tracked without cookies.

Cellphone companies routinely undo the web's privacy protection. One experiment at Carnegie Mellon took real-time videos of students on campus and was able to identify one-third of them by comparing their photos with publicly available tagged Facebook photos.

Maintaining privacy on the Internet is nearly impossible. If you forget even once to enable your protections, or click on the wrong link, or type the wrong thing, and you've permanently attached your name to whatever anonymous service you're using. Monsegur slipped up once, and the FBI got him. If the director of the CIA can't maintain his privacy on the Internet, we've got no hope.

In today's world, governments and corporations are working together to keep things that way.

Governments are happy to use the data corporations collect -- occasionally demanding that they collect more and save it longer -- to spy on us. And corporations are happy to buy data from governments. Together the powerful spy on the powerless, and they're not going to give up their positions of power, despite what the people want.

Fixing this requires strong government will, but they're just as punch-drunk on data as the corporations. Slap-on-the-wrist fines notwithstanding, no one is agitating for better privacy laws.

So, we're done. Welcome to a world where Google knows exactly what sort of porn you all like, and more about your interests than your spouse does. Welcome to a world where your cell phone company knows exactly where you are all the time. Welcome to the end of private conversations, because increasingly your conversations are conducted by e-mail, text, or social networking sites.

And welcome to a world where all of this, and everything else that you do or is done on a computer, is saved, correlated, studied, passed around from company to company without your knowledge or consent; and where the government accesses it at will without a warrant.

Welcome to an Internet without privacy, and we've ended up here with hardly a fight. - CNN

Technorati Tags: Internet,Surveillance,loss of common sense,Big Brother,Facebook,Big Brother is watching you,Google,social media,social networking,cookies

Cops to Use Facial Recognition iPhone

CRIMEARE U.S. COPS PREPARING WIDESPREAD USE OF FACIAL RECOGNITION IPHONE?

Starting as early as September, cops across the country  may be using a new iphone-based device to identify people based on a picture of their face, iris scan, or a fingerprint reader, raising concerns about how the data will be gathered, stored, and used.

The device in question is called the MORIS,  which stands for Mobile Offender Recognition and Information System. Made by BI2 Technologies of Plymouth, Mass, it runs on the iphone platform. The company states that it has contracts with 40 government agencies to deliver 1,000 devices this fall.

Unlike other currently used biometric technologies, the MORIS does not require a separate digital camera or upload time, and automatically scans known databases for criminal warrants and other relevant history. The Wall Street Journal gives specifics on how this new device works:

“To scan a person’s iris, police officers can hold the special iris-scanning camera on device, called MORIS, about 5 to 6 inches away from an individual’s irises. After snapping a high resolution photo, the MORIS system analyzes 235 unique features in each iris and uses an algorithm to match that person with their identity if they are in the database.”

“For the facial recognition, an officer takes a photo of a person at a distance of about 2 feet to 5 feet. Based on technologies from Animetrics Inc., the system analyzes about 130 distinguishing points on the face, such as the distance between a person’s eye and nose. It then scans the database for likely matches.”

As for the usage of the devices, the law does not appear settled on whether police need consent to take a person’s photo.  Generally speaking, the law does not prohibit taking photos of people in a public place. But taking and storing photos for law enforcement purposes- particularly if the subject is in custody- could trigger a different standard of rules. The law becomes even more vague on issues such as whether an iris scan constitutes a search.

Below is a video presentation for the Brockton Police Department showing facial recognition and iris scanning technologies that have been demoed and will soon be in use by various law enforcement units in Massachusetts. The presenters show the devices, discuss the database, and describe the features designed to help law enforcement officers.

Video:  Mass. Police Get Facial Recognition App For iPhones

US Troops overseas have used a variety of biometric tools for years to vet allies and identify insurgents and terrorists. But the MORIS is poised to become the first widespread, mobile usage of such technology here in the US by local and federal law enforcement.

Law enforcement analysts believe the device could prevent the wrong inmates from obtaining prison release, to identify accident victims and keep track of the homeless. While there are many privacy and civil liberties concerns associated with law enforcement’s widespread use of facial recognition devices, the landscape of biometrics is already rapidly changing with programs such as Facebook Facial Recognition:

Video:  Facebook Expands Facial Recognition for Photo Tagging, Triggering Privacy Concerns

Source:  the Blaze

Important info for anyone- just like "Minority Report" - please read the threads below as well.

After frantic calls and a hearing with Registry officials, Gass learned the problem: An antiterrorism computerized facial recognition system that scans a database of millions of state driver’s license images had picked his as a possible fraud.

It turned out Gass was flagged because he looks like another driver, not because his image was being used to create a fake identity. His driving privileges were returned but, he alleges in a lawsuit, only after 10 days of bureaucratic wrangling to prove he is who he says he is.

· Caught in a dragnet [facial recognition software glitch - MA]

Sunday, July 17, 2011 11:09:57 AM · by Daffynition · 8 replies

Boston Globe ^ | July 17, 2011 | Meghan E. Irons

John H. Gass hadn’t had a traffic ticket in years, so the Natick resident was surprised this spring when he received a letter from the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles informing him to cease driving because his license had been revoked. Tweet 4 people Tweeted this ShareThis “I was shocked,’’ Gass said in a recent interview. “As far as I was concerned, I had done nothing wrong.’’ After frantic calls and a hearing with Registry officials, Gass learned the problem: An antiterrorism computerized facial recognition system that scans a database of millions of state driver’s license images had picked his...

Police to Scan Faces and Eyes, Prompting Privacy Concerns
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread728366/pg1

*** FACE RECOGNITION DEVICE - ALL POLICE FORCES WILL HAVE IT BEFORE YEAR END ***
http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message1563576/pg1

Hospitals, doctors take 'palm prints' to ID patients

Palms have taken on a new meaning at some doctors' offices and hospitals. More unique than fingerprints, palm readings are helping keep patients straight and safe.

Full Speed Ahead For Facial Recognition Technology

Face.com has been used to tag over 25 billion faces in over 7 billion photos since launching in late 2007. Facebook users had been using the Face.com facial recognition app to tag friends in photos for two years before Facebook stepped on the Israel-based company’s toes by making facial recognition a default feature for photo tagging this year.

How to protect your mobile phone and computer from illegal police searches

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, long defenders of electronic rights, has  written a legal guide - http://www.naturalnews.com/032985_illegal_searches_mobile_phones.html

(NaturalNews) The U.S. Constitution is clear about the issue of privacy. In fact, the Fourth Amendment states, in part, "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated..."
With that in mind, it's safe to say it's more than just a little disturbing to know that, in certain circumstances, police can search your cell phone and computer(s), even if you don't want them to and even if they don't yet have a warrant to do so.

The good news is, someone out there has recognized the problem and has taken steps to help you protect that vast amount of data you have stored on your smart phone or laptop.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, long defenders of electronic rights, has written a legal guide designed to help you better understand your rights and, more importantly, when police can - and cannot - legally confiscate and search your personal electronic devices.
"In the heat of the moment, it can be hard to remember what your rights are and how to exercise them," says EFF Senior Staff Attorney Marcia Hofmann. "Sometimes police can search your computer whether you like it or not, but sometimes they can't. We wrote this guide to help you tell the difference and to empower you to assert your rights when the police come knocking."

Adds EFF Staff Attorney Hanni Fakhoury, "With smart phones, tablet computers, and laptops, we carry around with us an unprecedented amount of sensitive personal information.

"That smart phone in your pocket right now could contain email from your doctor or your kid's teacher, not to mention detailed contact information for all of your friends and family members," Fakhoury continued. "Your laptop probably holds even more data -- your Internet browsing history, family photo albums, and maybe even things like an electronic copy of your taxes or your employment agreement. This is sensitive data that's worth protecting from prying eyes."

According to a summary of full EFF legal guide:

· Always say "no" when police ask if they can search your server, personal computer or cell phone because if you give them permission to search, they don't need a warrant - even to enter your home;
· If police tell you they have a search warrant, ask to see it because you have a right to;
· Make sure police are only searching the areas outlined in the warrant;
· Be silent - you don't have to help the police or answer their questions, and that means you don't have to give them your encryption keys or passwords;
· If you do decide to talk, don't lie because lying to the police is a crime;
· Finally, if you can consult with a lawyer before police conduct a search or even just talk to you, that's ideal.

This guide is extremely helpful in this digital age when being secure in our "papers" and effects now includes our data-filled electronic devices. Know your rights; that is your best protection.

HIDDEN CAMERA : Actual Cable Box with Hidden Camera

You really need to read the comments on this video.  Evidently if your computer has a video camera, web cam, the gov't can go in and activate it. Also I saw this advertised on TV today
http://thefutureoftv.org/

Mirrored

Video:  Hidden Camera in Cable Box

What do you think?

Uploaded by ledaOhio937 on Jul 20, 2011

FULL ARTICLES BELOW!!

SUB my Channels Since YT nukes me!!!

Cable companies installing HIDDEN CAMERAS in your boxes!!

Did You Go Digital Last Night? Does Your Latest Must-Have Tech Gadget Have Hidden Surveillance for Our Police State Nanny System?
http://ur1.ca/44yio  from newteevee: If you have some tinfoil handy, now might be a good time to fashion a hat. At the Digital Living Room conference today, Gerard Kunkel, Comcast's senior VP of user experience, told me the cable company is experimenting with different camera technologies built into devices so it can know who's in your living room.

Kunkel also spoke on camera with me about fixing bad Comcast user experiences, the ongoing BitTorrent battle and VOD. But he mostly towed the corporate line on these issues (the monitoring your living room came up after my camera was put away).

There Is No First Amendment Without the Second Amendment!

“ He who gives up their freedom for security, generally gets or deserves either!!”  …Benjamin Franklin