“In this video Luke Rudkowski interviews Lavabit founder Ladar Levison, about the decision he had to make closing down Lavabit an email client server that Edward Snowden used. Levison also tells us about the transition he had to go through from a computer program to an activist against government surveillance.”
“Yesterday’s killing of Miriam Carey by Capitol Police in Washington, D.C. illustrates that law enforcement agencies in the nation’s capital operate under rules of engagement very similar to those of the military in occupied Baghdad. The 34-year-old native of Stamford, Connecticut, who had her 18-month-old daughter in her vehicle, reportedly collided with a barricade outside the White House and then fled when she was surrounded by police and Secret Service operatives. She was pursued down Pennsylvania Avenue before being shot to death. The incident led to a lockdown on Capitol Hill. Capitol Police Chief Cathy Lanier insisted that her subordinates acted ‘heroically.'”
http://prolibertate.us/index.php/we-re-all-iraqis-now?blog=7
“Former NSA boss Michael Hayden compared privacy advocates to terrorists. Complaining about the taste of your tap water could also get you labeled as a potential terrorist. Having ‘strange odors’ or ‘bright colored stains on clothes’ (what if you eat mustard or ketchup?) could get you labeled as a potential terrorist. Complaining about U.S. drone assassinations could get you labeled a terrorist. So could expressing fears of big brother or of economic collapse … or otherwise believing that we’re in a crisis. (Irony alert: if you’re afraid of the government, the government might go after you?) Indeed, any American could be labeled as a potential terrorist by our government on a whim.”
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/09/does-the-government-only-label-bad-guys-as-terrorists.html
“Today the nation’s various police departments have taken on the role of standing armies. The police don’t simply hold people ‘at the mercy of their governors,’ as Jefferson warned standing armies do. They hold Americans at mercy at every traffic stop, and the fear of a tazing or a misunderstanding leading to a brutal confrontation has become palpable for everyday folks. The police carry out national, state, and city government priorities. In terms of their materiel, today’s police not only dramatically out-gun anything the 18th century redcoats could have dreamt of; the disparity between police and public far outstrips the disparity between redcoats and colonists.”
http://blog.independent.org/2013/09/30/the-standing-army-marches-on/
“Capital controls. Gun controls. Wage and price controls. Steep penalties for minor infractions and victimless crimes. Suspension of Habeas Corpus. Confiscation of private pensions and retirement accounts. Huge tax increases. Dual currency systems. Much of this is happening already… or at least moving in that direction. It’s time to acknowledge reality. Politicians can talk about recovery and discipline all they want. But thinking, creative people need merely to take a sobering look at the data, trust in their own analysis and observations, and begin to make earnest plans for the very obvious trend that’s unfolding.”
http://www.sovereignman.com/trends/did-you-miss-your-irs-agent-today-12763/
“Ron Paul tried to warn again, and again, and again, prior to 9/11, that America’s foreign policy could someday come back to bite us here at home. After that tragic day did sadly occur, the Neocons and the U.S. government received (as Dick Cheney said) an amazing amount of trust and belief in what they could do. Now, here we are just 12 years later. Bloomberg is out today with a national poll that says 68% say that the government is on the wrong track. A few days ago, Gallup released a poll showing that American belief that government is too powerful is at record levels. But this is 12 years later….Dick & The Gang took the huge opening and crammed in as much as they possibly could.”
http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2013/09/this-is-what-happens-when-americans.html
“Think all these stories about the NSA’s surveillance overreach and abuses are getting to the folks there? Kevin Gosztola at Firedoglake has the details on a letter the NSA has given to all of its employees and contractors, which it tells them they can print out to share with ‘loved ones’ to reassure them that their NSA-working spouse/parent/child/best friend isn’t, technically, evil. Or at least I think that’s the idea. The letter suggests no self-reflection. It suggests no recognition of why people are concerned about both the breadth of the surveillance, as well as the thousands of reported abuses. It’s very much a circling of the wagons approach, insisting that the coverage has been unfair and biased.”
NSA Seeks To Reassure Family & Friends Of NSA Employees & Contractors By Sending A Letter With More Lies
“When the government gathers intelligence in order to prevent the future occurrence of an act of domestic terror, as opposed to when it gathers evidence in order to solve a crime that has already been committed, it believes it is not subject to the constraints of the Fourth Amendment. Such an argument is Stalinesque in its sweep, has no support in history, law or Supreme Court jurisprudence, and is a subterfuge concocted to dupe the public, the media and the judiciary into overlooking, accepting and authorizing the broadest governmental assault on constitutionally protected freedoms since the Alien and Sedition Acts.”
http://www.creators.com/opinion/judge-napolitano/spying-and-lying.html
“Without this limitation on warrants, officials could look for wrongdoing at will. Where there are witch hunts, witches will be found, and officials with unlimited authority to seek out wrong doing are going to find it. Protections such as the Fourth Amendment are especially important for people who make choices that don’t fit with mainstream thinking. People who choose to pursue happiness in unconventional ways or ways that differ from the majority should be free to do those things. These freedoms enable Americans to find their own paths to happiness as free and equal citizens. What value do you place on your constitutional rights in the United States?”
“Do you think it would be a cause for concern that the State employed an army of “private” Americans to be its spies in businesses of every kind, perhaps including the business where you work? Would it bother you that the State has deputized tens of thousands of otherwise ‘ordinary’ Americans to be murderers when martial law is declared — murderers who are given an advance blank check for their killings? But you don’t need to imagine any of this. All of this is true, and this program came into existence in 1996. The program is called InfraGard, and I wrote it about more than five years ago. As of February 2012, InfraGard had more than 45,000 members; roughly 7,000 new members join each year.”
http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.com/2013/09/when-state-floods-zone-reform-is-dead.html