Would you support any candidates or office holders who were committed to the status quo in regards

to the current surveillance state?

I am talking about voting for candidates or office holder seeking reelection for Congress or the Senate or for the Presidency

2008 Bill Moyer interview with Glenn Greenwald about the George W. Bush legacy

How much does the current NSA surveillance program concern you?

DU you believe that most people who oppose expansive NSA surveillance are libertarian trolls?

or some other kind of disruptor/troll

I am the most politically depressed that I have been in a long, long time.

If I didn't know for absolute certainty that it would do more harm than good - I would withdraw my support from the Democratic Party. But more than 30 years ago I did the third party thing and needless to say, it did not work out well. I'm afraid ours system is simply configured for the two parties. Last time there was a truly successful and lasting third party effort was when Abraham Lincoln led the Republicans to power when the nation was on the brink of civil war. Even a party led by a former President under Teddy Roosevelt could not last. Even a party led by a former Vice President, Henry Wallace quickly faded into obscurity. We simply are and for the foreseeable future a two party system in the U.S.

It is not that I am so shocked and cannot believe the intelligence services are getting way, way, way out of control - even under a Democratic administration. It is not because I personally blame President Obama for this travesty. This is the results of bipartisan post September 11 madness fueled all the more by the explosive growth of the private surveillance industry of what Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson have called the Intelligence Industrial Complex. Just as there came a time when the Democrats realized that they had made a mistake in Vietnam - a mistake caused by cold war bipartisan madness - most Democrats eventually came to the realization that we had to get out of that terrible mistake - I cannot imagine why anyone who would espouse liberal or progressive or even basic eighth grade civics class values - cannot see how dangerous it is to continue down this road into an ever expanding Intelligence Industrial Complex. Quite likely the NSA are already keeping records of every time and place any of us communicate with anyone on the phone or on the Internet or by any electronic means. If they are not already doing this - there is a strong possibility that they are rapidly moving in that direction. Even if the Obama administration does not actively abuse the system very much - it is only a matter of time before it is abused by some future Dick Cheney or John Ashcroft. This massive growth of the Intelligence Industrial Complex can only mean that in time a whole web of clandestine surveillance and ultimately clandestine control will soon encapsulate all of us. Does anyone seriously believe that this meteoric growth of the clandestine services will stop at simply making records of who and when we call and who and when we send E-mails to and when or what websites we might be visiting or searches on the search engines we might be searching? The massive growth of the clandestine private sector industry and the boom of technology - what do people think the future bodes? The Snowden affair gives us the opportunity to stop, appraise and reverse the direction we are heading. But majorities in both parties - the media from Fox News to CNN as well as most of the liberal establishment - are not appraising the situation - Many liberals are now supporting that which only a short time they were denouncing with outrage and fury - So here we are as we sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age, made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science…”.


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Read the original Verizon/NSA Top Secret Court order in full:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2013/jun/06/verizon-telephone-data-court-order

The National Security Agency is currently collecting the telephone records of millions of US customers of Verizon, one of America's largest telecoms providers, under a top secret court order issued in April.

The order, a copy of which has been obtained by the Guardian, requires Verizon on an "ongoing, daily basis" to give the NSA information on all telephone calls in its systems, both within the US and between the US and other countries.The document shows for the first time that under the Obama administration the communication records of millions of US citizens are being collected indiscriminately and in bulk – regardless of whether they are suspected of any wrongdoing.

The secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (Fisa) granted the order to the FBI on April 25, giving the government unlimited authority to obtain the data for a specified three-month period ending on July 19. Under the terms of the blanket order, the numbers of both parties on a call are handed over, as is location data, call duration, unique identifiers, and the time and duration of all calls. The contents of the conversation itself are not covered.

The court order expressly bars Verizon from disclosing to the public either the existence of the FBI's request for its customers' records, or the court order itself. The order, signed by Judge Roger Vinson, compels Verizon to produce to the NSA electronic copies of "all call detail records or 'telephony metadata' created by Verizon for communications between the United States and abroad" or "wholly within the United States, including local telephone calls".

Read the original Verizon/NSA Top Secret Court order in full:

The National Security Agency is currently collecting the telephone records of millions of US customers of Verizon, one of America's largest telecoms providers, under a top secret court order issued in April.

The order, a copy of which has been obtained by the Guardian, requires Verizon on an "ongoing, daily basis" to give the NSA information on all telephone calls in its systems, both within the US and between the US and other countries.The document shows for the first time that under the Obama administration the communication records of millions of US citizens are being collected indiscriminately and in bulk – regardless of whether they are suspected of any wrongdoing.

The secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (Fisa) granted the order to the FBI on April 25, giving the government unlimited authority to obtain the data for a specified three-month period ending on July 19. Under the terms of the blanket order, the numbers of both parties on a call are handed over, as is location data, call duration, unique identifiers, and the time and duration of all calls. The contents of the conversation itself are not covered.

The court order expressly bars Verizon from disclosing to the public either the existence of the FBI's request for its customers' records, or the court order itself. The order, signed by Judge Roger Vinson, compels Verizon to produce to the NSA electronic copies of "all call detail records or 'telephony metadata' created by Verizon for communications between the United States and abroad" or "wholly within the United States, including local telephone calls".

Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Voting Rights Act

Documents Show Liberals on I.R.S. Dragnet

Source: New York Times

WASHINGTON — The instructions that Internal Revenue Service officials used to look for applicants seeking tax-exempt status with “Tea Party” and “Patriots” in their titles also included groups whose names included the words “Progressive” and “Occupy,” according to I.R.S. documents released Monday.

The documents appeared to back up contentions by I.R.S. officials and some Democrats that the agency did not intend to single out conservative groups for special scrutiny. Instead, the documents say, officials were trying to use “key word” shortcuts to find overtly political organizations — both liberal and conservative — that were after tax favors by saying they were social welfare organizations.

But the practice appeared to go much farther than that. One such “be on the lookout” list included medical marijuana groups, organizations that were promoting President Obama’s health care law, and applications that dealt “with disputed territories in the Middle East.”

Taken together, the documents seem to change the terms of a scandal that exploded over accusations that the I.R.S. had tried to stifle a nascent conservative political movement. Instead, the dispute now revolves around questionable sorting tactics used by I.R.S. application screeners.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/25/us/politics/documents-show-liberals-in-irs-dragnet.html?_r=0

Why shouldn’t David Gregory be charged with a crime?

Monday, Jun 24, 2013 09:45 PM +1000

Why shouldn’t David Gregory be charged with a crime?

The NBC host thinks Glenn Greenwald may be a criminal. Here are 10 items to ponder about this gross double standard

By David Sirota


NBC's David Gregory

Two weeks into the hullabaloo surrounding whistle-blower Edward Snowden and Guardian reporter Glenn Greenwald, one thing is clear: They did not just reveal potentially serious crimes perpetrated by the government — including possible perjury, unlawful spying and unconstitutional surveillance. They also laid bare in historic fashion the powerful double standards that now define most U.S. media coverage of the American government — the kind that portray those who challenge power as criminals, and those who worship it as heroes deserving legal immunity. Indeed, after “Meet the Press” host David Gregory’s instantly notorious performance yesterday, it is clear Snowden’s revelations so brazenly exposed these double standards that it will be difficult for the Washington press corps to ever successfully hide them again.

The best way to see these double standards is to ponder 10 simple questions.

1. During that “Meet the Press” discussion yesterday of Greenwald publishing stories about Snowden’s disclosures, Gregory asked Greenwald, “Why shouldn’t you, Mr. Greenwald, be charged with a crime?” Beyond the odiousness of a supposed journalist like Gregory seeming to endorse criminal charges against journalists for the alleged crime of committing journalism, there’s an even more poignant question suggested by Mother Jones’ David Corn: Why hasn’t David Gregory asked reporters at the Washington Post, the Associated Press and Bloomberg News the same question, considering their publication of similar leaks? Is it because Greenwald is seen as representing a form of journalism too adversarial toward the government, while those establishment outlets are still held in Good Standing by Washington?

2. Trevor Timm of the Freedom of the Press Foundation asks a question that probably won’t be asked of Gregory: Should Gregory himself be prosecuted? After all, as Trimm notes, “when interviewing Greenwald, he repeated what government officials told him about classified FISA opinions.” So will anyone of Gregory’s stature in Washington go on national television and ask if Gregory should now be charged with a crime?

3. Later during the “Meet the Press’” discussion of Greenwald’s reporting, NBC’s Chuck Todd demanded to know, “How much was (Greenwald) involved in the plot? … What was his role — did he have a role beyond simply being a receiver of this information? And is he going to have to answer those questions?” Why did Todd not ask that same question of reporters at the Washington Post, the Associated Press and Bloomberg News? Again, is it because Greenwald is seen as representing a form of journalism too adversarial toward the government, while those establishment outlets are still held in Good Standing by Washington?


continued/read more: http://www.salon.com/2013/06/24/why_shouldnt_david_gregory_be_charged_with_a_crime/

What comes the closest to describing your political leanings