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Monday, December 15, 2014

The Surveillance State

From this source:
Congress this week quietly passed a bill that may give unprecedented legal authority to the government's warrantless surveillance powers, despite a last-minute effort by Rep. Justin Amash to kill the bill.

[...]

The provision in question is "one of the most egregious sections of law I've encountered during my time as a representative," Amash wrote on his Facebook page. The tea-party libertarian, who teamed up with Rep. John Conyers in an almost-successful bid to defund the National Security Agency in the wake of the Snowden revelations, warned that the provision "grants the executive branch virtually unlimited access to the communications of every American."

The measure already passed the Senate by unanimous consent on Tuesday, and it is now on its way to the White House, where President Obama is expected to sign it.

The objections from Amash and others arose from language in the bill's Section 309, which includes a phrase to allow for "the acquisition, retention, and dissemination" of U.S. phone and Internet data. That passage will give unprecedented statutory authority to allow for the surveillance of private communications that currently exists only under a decades-old presidential decree, known as Executive Order 12333....
In the Digital Age, there is no way to insulate oneself completely from such intrusion on the part of the Surveillance State. To some extent, technology owns each one of us. Just try to get through one day without using the technology upon which we depend — whether or not we want or seek that dependence.

14 comments:

  1. With the votes recently taken,we know that there is no interest in Representative government. It is clear how the majority of us feel about many of these issues, yet they plow on with this foreign agenda. Boehner will use the Rinos and Dems to form a coalition and that is that. P.S. Thanks for your continued comments concerning the pension reduction in the Budget bill. How would most feel if they or loved ones were receiving Social Security and read that it was being reduced up to 80 percent?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Andthe sheeple keep marching toward the slaughter house. It's sad to watch.

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    Replies
    1. Unavoidable when the "shepherds" are armed with AK47's and cattle prods, ain't it?

      Delete
  3. More signs of Obama derangement syndrome. Our poor president is misunderstood by an increasingly large portion of the population, as his second shellacking last month showed.
    Yet his unpopularity is not because of his policies (which were all on the ballot), but because, as MIT professor and multi-million-dollar government consultant Jonathan Gruber has said many times, Americans are just too stupid to understand the nuance that is Obama.
    Dinesh D’Souza, in his new book, America, says, “America’s suicide, it turns out, is the result of a plan. The plan is not simply one of destruction but also one of reconstruction—it seeks the rebuilding of a different type of country, what President Obama terms ‘the work of remaking America.’
    “While Obama acknowledges the existence of the plan, he is not responsible for the plan; it would be more accurate to say that it is responsible for him. The plan preceded Obama, and it will outlast him. Obama is simply part of a fifty-year scheme for the undoing and remaking of America, and when he is gone there are others who are ready to continue the job. What makes the plan especially chilling is that most Americans are simply unaware of what’s going on. Their ignorance, as we shall see, is part of the plan. It should be emphasized at the outset that the domestic champions of American decline are not traitors or America-haters. They are bringing down America because they genuinely believe that America deserves to be brought down.”
    That’s one theory; I have a different one: Obama hates America. If one starts with that hideous premise, all his actions make sense. The racists have been and always will be in the democrat party..

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  4. Why aren't we hearing more about this instead of ad nauseam reporting of the past interrogation of thugs Hell-bent on our demise?

    Off Topic:

    So 25,000 people, with nothing better to do, showed-up in a metropolitan area of 19,900,000 to protest law enforcement. WOW, I'm impressed!

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  5. We can't lay this all at Obama's feet. He didn't inherited this criminal enterprise.

    Our government is losing its grip outside our borders, so it is increasingly turning more tyrannical to the citizenry.

    Uncle Sam is a craven, addicted, shriveled bully who is overweight, losing muscle and losing respect around the world. He's cornered, they're not afraid of him anymore and he has never tried to make any friends, so he's alone and scared.

    Where he would once go out and do some good, help people rebuild while fostering independence and prosperity at home, he now staggers around the family home, nervously looking out the windows and cuffing around his family, the only people still fearful of him, and the only people left on the planet he can still bully.

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    Replies
    1. @SF,

      If this is, indeed, really you I don't understand the first sentence; please explain.

      Delete
    2. JonBerg

      I garbled the first paragraph. It should read:

      "We can't lay this all at Obama's feet. He didn't start this criminal enterprise; he inherited it."


      As for the rest of it, I mean every word.

      Delete
  6. Big Brother is the preference of most Americans, who have managed to secure for themselves the government they deserve.

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  7. Let nothing disturb thee,
    Nothing affright thee.
    All things are passing.
    Patient endurance
    Attaineth to all things
    In whom God pleaseth
    In nothing is wanting.
    Alone God sufficeth.


    ~ St. Teresa of Avila (lines written in her breviary as translated by H. W. Longfellow)

    For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
    Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

    ~ St. Paul - Romans 8:38-39 (KJV)

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  8. Finally, [brothers and sisters in Love], whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

    ~ S. Paul - Philippians 4:8 (KJV)

    ReplyDelete

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