It's This is Just Plain Wrong Thing

Dear America,

what is going on?

at almost two-to-one, the populace is siding with the intrusive, massive,  fishing expedition of the U.S. government surveillance program -- otherwise known as PRISM -- without cause?

[see PEW Research Center, here]

"Currently 62% say it is more important for the federal government to investigate possible terrorist threats, even if that intrudes on personal privacy. Just 34% say it is more important for the government not to intrude on personal privacy, even if that limits its ability to investigate possible terrorist threats."

That seems to be the answer that has the web getting all a-buzz, anyway.

Delving deeper into the nitty-gritty, the Pew tells us something different:


Question:  Should the government be able to monitor everyone's email to prevent possible terrorism?

Response:  45% say YES, 52% say NO, and 3% have no idea.

You know what I think?

I think that instead of making this grandiose announcement to the world declaring the U.S. government dirty rotten scoundrels when it comes to amassing deep background on every single one of us, Snowden should have just anonymously sent us all an email, boom. (You know, considering he said he had the full "authority" and ability to pull that off). 

yeah, yeah -- that might have got our attention right quick.  

pew ew....we would be like, who are you --  and what do mean all of my so-called secure information on the net is being currently, and severely, compromised?  What do mean every email, phone call, web link and troll, is being mined, collected, hoarded, by my own government, out in some remote, highly classified, secure location?  [yeah right...wanna see a picture of it?  Thank you, NPR.]

According to a post written by James Bamford @WIRED -- from over a year ago, by the way -- we get another view:

"Just off Beef Hollow Road, less than a mile from brethren headquarters, thousands of hard-hatted construction workers in sweat-soaked T-shirts are laying the groundwork for the newcomers’ own temple and archive, a massive complex so large that it necessitated expanding the town’s boundaries...

Rather than Bibles, prophets, and worshippers, this temple will be filled with servers, computer intelligence experts, and armed guards. And instead of listening for words flowing down from heaven, these newcomers will be secretly capturing, storing, and analyzing vast quantities of words and images hurtling through the world’s telecommunications networks. In the little town of Bluffdale, Big Love and Big Brother have become uneasy neighbors."

Indeed -  and five zettabytes and 1.5 million gallons of water needed a day, costing 20 million dollars a year just to maintain, costing taxpayers 1.2 BILLION dollars to build --  later...

I KNOW!   Has our head been in the sand, or what?
Snowden is really not giving us anything more than what all of us should have already figured out already! 

More from the WIRED post of March 2012:

But “this is more than just a data center,” says one senior intelligence official who until recently was involved with the program. The mammoth Bluffdale center will have another important and far more secret role that until now has gone unrevealed. It is also critical, he says, for breaking codes. And code-breaking is crucial, because much of the data that the center will handle—financial information, stock transactions, business deals, foreign military and diplomatic secrets, legal documents, confidential personal communications—will be heavily encrypted. According to another top official also involved with the program, the NSA made an enormous breakthrough several years ago in its ability to cryptanalyze, or break, unfathomably complex encryption systems employed by not only governments around the world but also many average computer users in the US. The upshot, according to this official: “Everybody’s a target; everybody with communication is a target.”

Oh, I get it --  it is more than just a data center. 

Everybody with communication is a target. 

While this so-called "senior intelligence official" continued to fort brag to enemies (foreign and domestic) "another important and far more secret role that UNTIL NOW has gone unrevealed...code-breaking...breakthrough...ability to break, unfathomably complex encryption systems employed by not only governments around the world but also many average computer users in the U.S" will be possible.

good to know.  can I get your name?


oh and  get this -- returning to the NPR article, it's still not enough!  The NSA headquarters at 9800 Savage Road, Fort George G. Meade, Md -- is expanding.  But not to worry, the upgrade will only amount to about two-thirds of the size of the facility in Utah.  well, that is a relief, isn't it.


What did Snowden actually do, but tell us something all of us -- including Congress -- including anyone who reads WIRED -- including anyone with their head up -- already knew?  What is making Snowden's circumstances of 'coming out'  any different? 

What is the problem with what he did?

If a majority of Americans -- as the Pew Research Center shows -- truly believes that government spying is no big deal, what is the issue?  IF upper level intelligence officers have already spilled the full capability and scope of this high-tech, super-duper, amassing of intelligence -- where anyone with communications is liable to be scooped up and stored, from within and abroad --  what's so secret?

Perhaps it was just the way he did it...Snowden...You know, embarrassing the President and all, carrying on so,  and making these stark, glaring contradictions of position from the President vs. Senator vs. campaigner-in-chief become so clear to all of us -- virtually overnight.   Nobody makes the president out to be a hypocrite, nobody.

I heard on the radio yesterday a great analogy:  Snowden is the modern day Paul Revere.  Is that just fabulous, or what?  Think about it.  What did Revere do, but warn the commonwealth that the British were comin', the British were comin'...And who were the British, but the current government!

But man, James Bamford -- you sir, deserve a Pulitzer or something.

What a magnificent piece detailing every living breathing detail of the NSA's prized golden calf, out there yonder, in the foothills of Bluffdale, just off Beef Hollow Road.  I am amazed, googly-eyed and awe struck of the amount of information, the way you presented it, the air of secrecy joined with nothing is sacred, let me tell you how it really is, intelligence briefing through and through...you covered it all...everything from the first kilowatt  to the last zettabyte.  Please people -- read it -- link into a second chance of life and limb before the government deems it too classified for your own good.  [warning: very detailed and very long and may take every ounce of human energy out of you]

Speaking of energy --  get this:

Electricity will come from the center’s own substation built by Rocky Mountain Power to satisfy the 65-megawatt power demand. Such a mammoth amount of energy comes with a mammoth price tag—about $40 million a year, according to one estimate.

And what about fueling the manpower? 
Oh that's been all figured out...even though something about the way it's being presented here gives me the creeps, but carry on:

"We were finding

that we had to make our own people

who understood data centers

from end to end

 that could manage it," 

according to Harvey Davis,

NSA director for installations and logistics.

 

He really said, "make our own people," Harvey did. yeah, I bet.  Does it have anything to do with cloning drones, or is that top secret, too?

 

More from the Salt Lake Tribune, May 30th:

 

"The NSA helped design the new program’s curriculum. Richard Brown, dean of the U. of U. College of Engineering, said undergraduate and master’s degree students studying computer science and electrical or mechanical engineering will take courses in the other two disciplines. That will ensure students know all facets of data-center management, from the computing to the importance of heating and cooling to the electrical requirements. The NSA needs "someone who is at least able to talk to people in all of these areas," Brown said.  [Just gushing with bureaucratic confidence, isn't he?    Can you hear me now -- Are you feeling more secure?  Are you feeling more secure?]

 

So, where are we now?

 

The NSA is creating behemoth Spy Centers, in  multiple NSA locations, indoctrinating our people to protect and to serve the NSA, costing the American taxpayers billions of dollars to build, maintain, and support the NSA, to keep us safe from terrorists -- foreign and domestic.

 

 

[I do believe China could see all of this from Google space without the help of Snowden; while WIRED efficiently, triumphantly,  highly accurately, seems to fill in any black holes remaining...just sayin']

 

Enter a new era following the enacting of The Patriot Act.

 

Wonder what will be their excuse when this doesn't change a thing?  Or worse, wonder what the response will be next?
 

Hard to fix "terrorism" when we can't even use the word, define it properly, call it what it really is.

 

Oh details, schmeetails -- right, Mr. President, who recently told a graduating class:

 

"Unfortunately, you've grown up hearing voices that incessantly warn of government as nothing more than some separate, sinister entity that's at the root of all our problems. Some of these same voices also do their best to gum up the works. They'll warn that tyranny always lurking just around the corner. You should reject these voices. Because what they suggest is that our brave, and creative, and unique experiment in self-rule is somehow just a sham with which we can't be trusted."

 

 

Enter the full floor speech by the senator, Barack Obama -- transcript 2005,  transcript 2006 -- along with a current update from Breitbart, here:

 

"If someone wants to know why their own government has decided to go on a fishing expedition through every personal record or private document - through library books they've read and phone calls they've made - this legislation gives people no rights to appeal the need for such a search in a court of law. No judge will hear their plea, no jury will hear their case. This is just plain wrong."  Barack Obama, 2005

 

exactly.

but now let's build a mammoth spy center or two and make no apologies about it  --  let's go fishing everybody.

 

yeah, yeah, that sounds just peachy (for about half of us, anyway, according to Pew).

 

Make it a Good Day, G

 

It's About a Loss of Credibility All the Way Around Thing

Dear America,

and wait, there's more!

PRISM:   It's like Google Glass, but even bigger, better, bad'r...so feast your eyes through the looking glass, here.

Invasion of privacy,

Government Body Snatchers,

welcome to the other side of midnight.

And just when we thought even the NY Times turned against the machine, we get edits sometime during zero dark thirty hour.

First, the editors bring us the piece du jour, boldly calling it, "President Obama's Dragnet."  Here it is, in it's original form, from Before It's News.

Now, let me take you to the new version...My guess it took a few edits back and forth, as the situation is still fluid awaiting for all the facts to come in, of course; but with what we know now, we believe this will be the final talking points...for the administration has us by the neck on this one, bear with us, if you will, for we are just groveling, begging for a second chance to prove our loyalty and unwavering admiration...so now without further adieu, here you go.

First version --  we get this:

"Those reassurances have never been persuasive — whether on secret warrants to scoop up a news agency’s phone records or secret orders to kill an American suspected of terrorism — especially coming from a president who once promised transparency and accountability. The administration has now lost all credibility. Mr. Obama is proving the truism that the executive will use any power it is given and very likely abuse it. That is one reason we have long argued that the Patriot Act, enacted in the heat of fear after the 9/11 attacks by members of Congress who mostly had not even read it, was reckless in its assignment of unnecessary and overbroad surveillance powers."

In the what difference does it make second version, we get this:

"Those reassurances have never been persuasive — whether on secret warrants to scoop up a news agency’s phone records or secret orders to kill an American suspected of terrorism — especially coming from a president who once promised transparency and accountability.

The administration has now lost all credibility on this issue. Mr. Obama is proving the truism that the executive branch will use any power it is given and very likely abuse it. That is one reason we have long argued that the Patriot Act, enacted in the heat of fear after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks by members of Congress who mostly had not even read it, was reckless in its assignment of unnecessary and overbroad surveillance powers."

Needless to say, somebody from the big White House got  to them.  They were asked to clean it up, or else...or else it may just be the last time THIS administration decides to use the NY Times as an extension of their administration, planting talking points and leaking information as it supports and elevates the brilliance of the Obama regime.    For nobody gets away with talking smack back, right Michelle?  

Simply love how they kept intact the comments made by the author of The Patriot Act --

"On Thursday, Representative Jim Sensenbrenner, Republican of Wisconsin, who introduced the Patriot Act in 2001, said that the National Security Agency overstepped its bounds by issuing a secret order to collect phone log records from millions of Americans. “As the author of the Patriot Act, I am extremely troubled by the F.B.I.’s interpretation of this legislation,” he said in a statement. “While I believe the Patriot Act appropriately balanced national security concerns and civil rights, I have always worried about potential abuses.” He added: “Seizing phone records of millions of innocent people is excessive and un-American.”

exactly.

Oh but rest assured -- per the president -- "nobody is listening on your phone calls..." this is simply "modest encroachments on privacy"..."they help us prevent terrorist attacks"...like, you know, "It’s important to recognize that you can’t have 100 percent security and also then have 100 percent privacy and zero inconvenience"...."we have to make choices as a society"... Comments plucked from a Washington Post update, just moments ago. 

But if you ask me, this is kind of sounding more like that commercial...you know the one ---  it's just better with "bed AND breakfast" (versus, bed OR breakfast)...it's just better with "sweet AND sour chicken" (instead of sweet OR sour)...Way to go, Ford....brilliant!

Since when did it become vogue --  IN AMERICA -- to force people to choose between a Police State OR our Freedom AND Liberty?  

And Karl Rove, entertaining Greta Van Susteren last night -- seriously?  Your elitism is showing, along with that pesky annoyance of making it sound like you speak for all of us (on the right).  Once again, the government (aka the establishment, both left and right, in equal portion it doth seem)  thinks it knows best  -- in a creepy, trust me, kind of way.  But more than that, something he said really raised my freshly waxed brow...

He said:

“Imagine what would happen if we were able to identify that he had called somebody in Chechnya,” Rove explained. “He was under review for a period of time. What if he had called somebody in Chechnya who was known to be a terrorist? That would have allowed us to then understand that he was a problem and to map his contacts back in the United States.”

“If we had a program like this in effect at the time that might have been helpful to us in stopping the 9.11 plot,” he said, adding that the program appears to be a “legitimate” tool for intelligence and law enforcement “in the environment and the world in which we live.”

First of all, KARL!

WE DID HAVE THIS PROGRAM IN PLACE -- according to just about who.... oh everybody.  This program and intelligence gathering doctrine has been in place for  SEVEN YEARS already; this is nothing new [although to the extent of The Patriot Act's usage and abuses IS a first, there is that].

But second of all -- what the hell are you talking about?  RUSSIA TOLD US TSARNAEV WAS TROUBLE with a capital T!    We didn't follow up, or we didn't believe them, or we didn't do a damn thing about it.  Notice the OR could be replaced with an AND indiscriminately. 

I'm sorry, Karl, but are you saying a Verizon phone call to Chechnya would have been the tipping point, and would have made all the difference?   Are you kidding me?    Oh my, you are either a pompous ass or a bonehead -- so hard to choose; oh, no bother, everything's better with AND.

Make it a Good Day, G

Oh wait!
There's more!

Falling into the same category as -- being against it (Patriot Act) before I was for it ( and President); we have yet another campaign promise -- the one that favored an energy policy embracing an "all of the above" framework -- broken:

Adversely affecting San Diego's local economy, it  has just been announced that the San Onofre Nuclear Plant will be shutdown permanently; Edison citing that the "lengthy regulatory review, rising costs, uncertainty" to be the root cause of such a dramatic close.  We lost 1100 jobs today.

The fastest way to true wealth is through our natural resources and energy production; as the dollar means jack these days, and on the verge of losing it's privileged designation as the world's reserve currency.  It's only a matter of time -- borrowed time --  before we permanently marginalize the dollars value and/or collapse --  and what do we do?  We choose to micromanage and stifle real economic growth by allowing the environmentalists and bureaucrats to control real gains from oil, natural gas, and gobs of nuclear power.

uncertainty.
otherwise known as a nudge...an itzy bitzy little nudge...can you feel me now?