Well written and researched article describing what it means to live in a post-Constitutional America.  Chilling facts with a cold but obvious conclusion.

The NSA is sharing personal data with the DEA, IRS and Homeland Security. the new Diigo SUCKS!!!! Whenever you click off the diigo dialog, either to the page being bookmarked, or, another browser window, the diigo dialog closes!!! Who is the damn MORON behind this god awful design???????? MORON!! Three times I have tried to bookmark the Judge Napolitano interview, with notes on his comments. And three times the dialog blew up and disappeared. The morons at diigo don't seem to have a clue as to how end users collect information into a dialog. No clue whatsoever!

Good interview with Phil Zimmerman, the inventor of PGP, and founder of Silent Circle eMail Service.  Which is being shut down because of the what the Feds did to LavaBit. What concerns me most about this illegal and systematic invasion of privacy is the massive potential for blackmail and extortion.  Think of what the IRS illegally did to tens of millions of Americans, targeting them because of their religious and political views, and seeking volumes of highly personal information far beyond reasonable requirements.   What happens when the politicians in power start using the IRS and NSA for political purposes - like what we just saw in the 2012 elections? When I was working on the wiki-Word and SurDoc projects, we were very concerned about having our documents and designs hosted or passing through competitor (Microsoft and Google) servers and email systems.  At the time I thought I was just being paranoid.  Now we know differently.  We had every reason to be concerned.

Incredible must read article by Bruce Schneier, author of "Liars and Outliers: Enabling the Trust Society Needs to Thrive." Bruce makes the argument that the Government and big Corporations are locked in a parasitical symbiotic relationship, with the citizen being the host they feed on.   He argues that modern citizens need Internet communications and data services.  The corporate service providers need to "collect" massive amounts of citizen data to further their profit models. So the corporations need continuing government consent to use the personal citizen information.  The government seeks to control citizens, and needs access to the personal information the corporations are collecting.  The mutually beneficial symbiosis is formed.  One that will prove very difficult for citizens to turn back. Great piece of thinking!!!  Must read.

Bye bye encryption :( It's incredible to think this could happen in America. Marbux and I recently signed up for lavabit accounts, hoping to use the PGP encryption. And we knew uber patriot Edward Snowden had used Lavabit. Yet, it didn't occur to us that the Feds would shut demand their information and shut them down. We are fools. We take our freedom for granted and expect the Constitution to be upheld and adhered to. It's the law of the land, and no entity, public or private, can trump the law of the land. Yet, here we are. Totally trumped. No longer free. I feel like someone so used to the passing of night into day and back again, my freedom so caught up within the rhythms of the seasons and the passing of time that I am unable to see that it's become night time and darkness everywhere. There will be no return to sunlight unless we make it so. And the Guardian has it right: Cloud Computing will grind to a halt in the USSA. excerpt: "On Thursday afternoon, Ladar Levison, the owner and operator of Lavabit, an email service that prides itself on privacy and security, abruptly closed his website, posting a short message to his former users. "I have been forced to make a difficult decision: to become complicit in crimes against the American people or walk away from nearly 10 years of hard work by shutting down Lavabit," he wrote. "After significant soul searching, I have decided to suspend operations. I wish that I could legally share with you the events that led to my decision. I cannot." Levison might be gagged by the law, but it's not hard to guess at least part of the reason why his site is having legal troubles. In early July, journalists and human rights activists received an email from edsnowden@lavabit.com, inviting them to a press conference in Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport. Given the NSA leaker's understandable desire for security, it is not surprising that Edward Snowden would use a service designed for keeping messages out of prying hand

"Free Google Book Search (360 B.C.) The Republic - Plato (46 B.C.) Cicero's Brutus - Cicero   (1517) Discourses on Livy - Machiavelli (1553) The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude - Étienne de La Boétie (1690) Two Treatises of Government - John Locke   (1698) Discourses Concerning Government - Algernon Sydney Sidney's Discourses and Locke's Second Treatise were recommended by Jefferson and Madison as containing the "general principles of liberty and the rights of man, in nature and society" (1748) The Spirit of Laws  - Montesquieu (1748) The Principles of Natural and Politic Law - Burlamaqui   (1755) Old Family Letters - John Adams (1758) The Law of Nations- Vattel   (1764-1769) The Writings of Samuel Adams (1765-1769) Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England (1766) The Declaratory Act (1770) The Writings of John Adams V1-2              The Writings of John Adams V3-4              The Writings of John Adams V5-7              The Writings of John Adams V8-10   (1771-1788) The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (1772) The Votes and Proceedings of the Freeholders and other Inhabitants (1774) A Full Vindication of the Measures of Congress - Hamilton (1774) Novanglus - John Adams Principle Controversy between Great Britain and Her Colonies (1776) Common Sense- Thomas Paine One Incident which gave a stimulus to the pamphlet Common Sense was, that it happened to appear on the very day that the King of England's speech reached the United States, in which the Americans were denounced as rebels and traitors, and in which speech it was asserted to be the right of the legislature of England to bind the Colonies in all cases whatsoever. (1776-1783) The Crisis- Thomas Paine (1780) Journal of the Convention for Framing the Massachusetts Bay Constitution (1785) Remarks concerning the Government and Laws of the United States of America: in Four Letters addressed to Mr. Adams (1787) The Anti-Federalist (audio) (1787) The Federalist

This blog was bookmarked by Marbux a few days ago, and i finally had some time to catch up. It's really extraordinary. The information is an analysis of the ongoing battle between Obama and his illegal NSA spying activities and uber patriot, Edward Snowden; and his media connection Glen Greenwald of the UK Guardian. So far the patriots are winning. So often we hear the facts about an issue; the date, time and places stuff. But rarely do we find insightful analysis where the dots are connected. Naked Capitalism provides exactly that kind of insight. Awesome covergage! Covers Congressman Alan Grayson's unsuccessful attempts to hold a hearing on NSA activities. Grayson has scheduled Greenwald to appear and testify before Congress. excerpt: "Shortly after the vote, Alan Grayson invited members to a session scheduled for the morning of Wednesday, July 31, in which Greenwald would testify via video link. Richard Clarke, the chairman of the Counter-terrorism Security Group and a member of the National Security Group, was also scheduled to participate. Within 24 hours of Grayson announcing the meeting, which got the expected considerable interest from members, Clarke withdrew. He initially claimed to have developed a scheduling conflict, but it became clear he'd gotten the Elizabeth Warren treatment from the Administration, of being offered an undisclosed goodie (not of monetary value, but of participation in an insider process) and he was told that participating in this session would preclude his involvement in the other initiative. But that monkey wrench apparently wasn't sufficient. The prospect of having Greenwald and other whistleblowers develop a direct relationship with members of Congress, who had just barely been kept on the reservation, was too threatening to Obama. Jane Hamsher tells us the denouement: President Obama has historically considered the Hill some lower bardo of hell. One of the major complaints of congressional Democrats has always

Thanks Paul. Not sure how Google News does that. Especially since the link I followed was from your Diigo bookmark! It had nothing to do with Google News! Also, Diigo does not provide a way to edit the URL???? No editing options???? Must be a new crippleware feature.

Wow! excerpt: "The American people have suffered a coup d'etat, but they are hesitant to acknowledge it. The regime ruling in Washington today lacks constitutional and legal legitimacy. Americans are ruled by usurpers who claim that the executive branch is above the law and that the US Constitution is a mere "scrap of paper." An unconstitutional government is an illegitimate government. The oath of allegiance requires defense of the Constitution "against all enemies, foreign and domestic." As the Founding Fathers made clear, the main enemy of the Constitution is the government itself. Power does not like to be bound and tied down and constantly works to free itself from constraints. The basis of the regime in Washington is nothing but usurped power. The Obama Regime, like the Bush/Cheney Regime, has no legitimacy. Americans are oppressed by an illegitimate government ruling, not by law and the Constitution, but by lies and naked force. Those in government see the US Constitution as a "chain that binds our hands." The South African apartheid regime was more legitimate than the regime in Washington. The apartheid Israeli regime in Palestine is more legitimate. The Taliban are more legitimate. Muammar Gaddafi and Saddam Hussein were more legitimate. The only constitutional protection that the Bush/Obama regime has left standing is the Second Amendment, a meaningless amendment considering the disparity in arms between Washington and what is permitted to the citizenry. No citizen standing with a rifle can protect himself and his family from one of the Department of Homeland Security's 2,700 tanks, or from a drone, or from a heavily armed SWAT force in body armor. Like serfs in the dark ages, American citizens can be picked up on the authority of some unknown person in the executive branch and thrown in a dungeon, subject to torture, without any evidence ever being presented to a court or any information to the person's relatives of his/her wherea

Meanwhile, illegal NSA spying is expected to cost USA Cloud Computing companies $35 Billion in lost sales and services. "whistleblower Edward Snowden worked for the CIA, rather than the NSA. Here's the original text in the Guardian: By 2007, the CIA stationed him with diplomatic cover in Geneva, Switzerland. His responsibility for maintaining computer network security meant he had clearance to access a wide array of classified documents. That access, along with the almost three years he spent around CIA officers, led him to begin seriously questioning the rightness of what he saw. He described as formative an incident in which he claimed CIA operatives were attempting to recruit a Swiss banker to obtain secret banking information. Snowden said they achieved this by purposely getting the banker drunk and encouraging him to drive home in his car. When the banker was arrested for drunk driving, the undercover agent seeking to befriend him offered to help, and a bond was formed that led to successful recruitment. In that quotation, there's the nugget of information that the CIA was not targeting terrorists on this occasion, at least not directly, but "attempting to recruit a Swiss banker to obtain secret banking information". That raises an interesting possibility for the heightened interest in Germany, as revealed by Boundless Informant. Given that the NSA is gathering information on a large scale -- even though we don't know exactly how large -- it's inevitable that some of that data will include sensitive information about business activities in foreign countries. That could be very handy for US companies seeking to gain a competitive advantage, and it's not hard to imagine the NSA passing it on in a suitably discreet way. Germany is known as the industrial and economic powerhouse of Europe, so it would make sense to keep a particularly close eye on what people are doing there -- especially if those people happen to work in companies that compete with US firms.

Wag the Dog? Obama using terror threats to divert public attention from NSA illegal spying? No surprise here except for the admission to the NYT. excerpt: "Some analysts and Congressional officials suggested Friday that emphasizing a terrorist threat now was a good way to divert attention from the uproar over the N.S.A.'s data-collection programs, and that if it showed the intercepts had uncovered a possible plot, even better. - NY Times article from August 2, 2013: Qaeda Messages Prompt U.S. Terror Warning Nothing about the above quote should surprise any of my readers, we all know the sick, twisted mindset of those involved in the Military-Industrial-Wall Street complex. What's more shocking is the fact that these folks so openly admit it to the New York Times, albeit in a typical anonymous and cowardly fashion. Let's not forget what Robert Shapiro, former Clinton official and Obama supporter told the FT in July 2010: The bottom line here is that Americans don't believe in President Obama's leadership. He has to find some way between now and November of demonstrating that he is a leader who can command confidence and, short of a 9/11 event or an Oklahoma City bombing, I can't think of how he could do that. I discussed the above quote and related topics in my 2010 piece: The Dangers of a Failed Presidency. Well, if Mr. Shapiro thinks President Obama didn't have credibility in 2010, one can only imagine what he thinks today. That is precisely what makes the current moment so extraordinarily dangerous. From the New York Times: WASHINGTON - The United States intercepted electronic communications this week among senior operatives of Al Qaeda, in which the terrorists discussed attacks against American interests in the Middle East and North Africa, American officials said Friday. It is unusual for the United States to come across discussions among senior Qaeda operatives about operational planning - through informants, intercepted e-mails o

This isn't surprising. But why does the author think the NSA or anyone else in the US government would care? The political extortion benefits of the massive global spying program to government and politicians far outweigh the profit/loss consequences to private cloud computing companies. excerpt: "Foreign competitors think they can grow market share in cloud computing because of concerns raised by the National Security Agency's PRISM program and other government collection of electronic data from third parties. U.S. cloud computing companies could lose $22 billion to $35 billion in revenue over the next three years because of foreign customers' concerns about the privacy of their data, according to Daniel Castro, a senior analyst at the Information Technology & Innovation Forum. Foreign companies, particularly in Europe, already were making aggressive moves to win more of the cloud market, which is expected to be a $207 billion industry by 2016. Now they've got a compelling argument to make, especially to Europeans who currently are using U.S. cloud companies. "If European cloud customers cannot trust the United States government, then maybe they won't trust U.S. cloud providers either," Nellie Kroes, European commissioner for digital affairs, told The Guardian last month. "If I were an American cloud provider, I would be quite frustrated with my government right now." A survey conducted in June and July by the Cloud Security Alliance found that 10 percent of foreign cloud industry participants had cancelled a project with a U.S. cloud computing provider, and 56 percent said they would be less likely to use an American company."

"Here is another example of how this administration and Congress randomly decide which laws they like and which ones they don't. For those of us paying attention we remember that Sen. Chuck Grassley, (R-Iowa) added a clause into the original text of the Affordable Care Act that said members of Congress and their aides MUST be covered by plans created by the law or offered through an exchange. Before Obamacare, Congress and their staff were covered by a health care plan that was considered "golden".  This was being paid for by the taxpayers.  Under Obamacare and Grassley's provision, Congress and staff would be subject to the exact same treatment as the rest of us. In other words, if government payments stopped, lawmakers and their aides would have been looking at thousands of dollars in additional premium payments.  (Just like the rest of us.)  Before Obamacare, the government contributed almost 75% to their premium payments. When they finally got around to "finding out what was in the bill", Capitol Hill started wringing their hands and hyperventilating.  With Grassley's provision in there, that would mean that, gasp, they would have to live by the same rules as the rest of and they just could not let that happen. All sorts of complaints were being made. For instance, "staffers don't make enough money to pay those premiums"; or "they will look for more lucrative jobs" in order to afford them.  Really?  How about the rest of the American people out there?  Do you think that they can afford higher premiums on the part-time work that they now will be forced into because of employer cut-backs?  The best line came from Nancy Pelosi who said that if Congress lost these Capitol Hill workers, a "tremendous intellectual resource" would be lost.  You just have to shake your head in disbelief. Congress is not the only one in the Ruling Class crying foul.  Just last week, IRS Chief, Daniel Werfel stated in no uncertain terms that he w

excerpt: "….Transnationalists want to rewrite the laws of war, do away with the death penalty, restrict gun rights and much more-all without having to win popular majorities or heed American constitutional limits. And these advocates are making major strides under an Obama administration that is itself a hotbed of transnational legal thinking…. To be clear, transnationalism isn't a conspiratorial enterprise. In the legal academy, its advocates have openly stated their aims and means. "International law now seeks to influence political outcomes within sovereign States," Anne-Marie Slaughter, then dean of Princeton's public-affairs school, wrote in an influential 2007 essay. International law, she went on, must expand to include "domestic choices previously left to the determination of national political processes" and be able to "alter domestic politics." The preferred entry point for importing foreign norms into American law is the U.S. court system. The Yale Law School scholar Howard Koh, a transnationalist advocate, has written that "domestic courts must play a key role in coordinating U.S. domestic constitutional rules with rules of foreign and international law." Over the past two decades, activist judges have increasingly cited "evolving" international standards to overturn state laws, and Mr. Koh has suggested that foreign norms can be "downloaded" into American law in this manner…. Ms. Slaughter and Mr. Koh held top posts at the State Department during Mr. Obama's first term, and their tenures coincided with an aggressive push to ratify or recognize as customary law… a host of … progressive causes. For proof that the transnationalist threat isn't merely theoretical, look no further than the European Union…. Today over half of the regulations that affect Europeans' lives are made by administrators in Brussels, not by national legislatures. These regulations include the EU's ban, announced in May, on restau

"Anyone Who Says the Government Only Spies On Metadata Is Sadly Mistaken PBS interviewed NSA whistleblowers William Binney and Russell Tice this week. Binney is the NSA's former director of global digital data, and a 32-year NSA veteran widely regarded as a "legend" within the agency.  Tice helped the NSA spy with satellites for 20 years. Binney and Tice confirmed that the NSA is recording every word of every phone call made within the United States:"

The real story behind Benghazi, Syria and WWIII. excerpt: "Benghazi exposed .... It was shortly after the September 11, 2012 attack in Benghazi that I wrote in explicit detail the actual reason for that attack. Thanks to a highly placed source in the intelligence venue, readers learned the truth ten months before the corporate media finally acknowledged that the compound in Benghazi was the operations center for a large CIA weapons smugglin... where Libya was being used as a weaponsstorage depot to arm the anti-Assad "rebels." The attack at Benghazi was described by this administration and the Clinton State Department as a spontaneous protest over an internet video, although that narrative was proven to be a lie. It was a lie they continued to stick with to hide the fact that the U.S., in conjunction with other NATO allies, were actually doing the work of Saudi Arabia. But why - who benefits? To understand the answer to that question, we must look at what Saudi Arabia is and how the Saudi royals came to power. Much like the U.S., the nation of Saudi Arabia itself is a captured operation, established by a cabal of globalists for the sake of oil. It would be helpful to understand the role Aramco and other oil interests played in the establishment of the Saudi power structure. As the Obama regime continued forward to advance this Saudi-globalist agenda, Russia's Putin warned the U.S. that the insanity of destabilizing Syria was not in their best interests, and certainly not in ours. When the warnings were not heeded, proxy groups for Russia, Syria and Iran, in the form of Ansar al Sharia and AQIM launched a deadly assault on the CIA operations center in Benghazi. The continued pressure of possibly exposing the true nature of the activities in Benghazi, from the illegal arms trafficking in violation of international law to the attack itself, became a serious annoyance to the globalist planners and the Obama subjects to the Saudi royals. The assistanc

The truth about Benghazi is finally dribbling out. More on this later: "The recent revelations by CNN's Jake Tapper about the actual players from the U.S. in the annex, along with their unexpressed intents and purposes, brings a particular clarity to events. For the sake of intellectual absorption this event outline is essentially going to be comprised of separate articles which we have compiled, along with our own research, over the past 10+ months. It begins with understanding the relationship between Turkish President Erdogan and President Obama against the Syrian uprising. Many articles have drawn the connection between our activity in Benghazi and the potential for arms shipments to Syrian *rebels* back in 2012.  Indeed, even some Senators have called attention therein.   But the recent outline by Jack Tapper solidifies some of what was only formerly supposition.   So let's take the new information and cast it back against the prior considerations. Back in 2012 we highlighted the following:  [...] it is important to remember how close President Obama is to Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan. Erdogan is a severe islamist and both Obama and Erdogan are very friendly."

Okay, this URL should work! for the Tea Party Community Organizers and Precinct Activist thread.