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POPSWeird legislation going on in France French seem to be steering away from the principles of liberty and freedom, if there are trends such as this in their parlaiment. I mean, what happened to presumption of innocence, to trial, to prosecution and to defence. It seems they are ready to skip the inquiries and start punishing their citizens as soon as they seem to fit certain criterion. This law holds that every download is scanned. This is total surveilance.
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POPSHomeland Security Wants to Re-Write REAL ID The CNN headline is entirely misleading. Read the clip. They just want better compliance with States and Napolean-itano is bargaining with governors, never mind the 10th amendment and by-passing what citizens think. It will still be a National ID card irregardless of what they name it, even if the original legislation is rescinded. The goal is still the Federalization of a State drivers license , which taps into everyone's Socialist Security Number and biometric data (including facial mapping photos) , therefore linking all financial (bank accounts), medical, legal, and personal credit record by hijacking state drivers licenses for surveillance and data-mining purposes --not to thwart terrorists, but to monitor, track "free Americans" at will, whenever they choose (because you all will comply and consent). This was all based upon 9/11 of course and the typical plea of "necessity" toward a Big Brother Security State.
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POPSThe ultimate reaping of what one sows: right-wing edition From the article: When you cheer on a Surveillance State, you have no grounds to complain when it turns its eyes on you. If you create a massive and wildly empowered domestic surveillance apparatus, it's going to monitor and investigate domestic political activity. That's its nature. I'd love to know how many of the participants in today's right-wing self-victim orgy uttered a peep of protest about any of this, from 2005:
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POPSEx-MI5 Chief: UK Pushes Terrorism Fear to Pass Legislation for Police State
So does the U.S.. Finally someone with credibility shakes things up. Her words vindicate what many people have been warning of, i.e. a Police State agenda enacted by legislation being pushed under exaggerated threats and fear mongering. Even the former chief of the UK's MI5 agrees then. "It would be better that the Government recognised that there are risks, rather than frightening people in order to be able to pass laws which restrict civil liberties, precisely one of the objects of terrorism: that we live in fear and under a police state." ...and I add, "and threaten our way of life". Neither was she quoted out of context, but gave this message at a deliberately opportune time for greatest impact: The former MI5 chief chose to air her views on the same day as a three-year study called for urgent measures to stop the erosion of individual freedom by states and the abandoning of draconian measures brought on with the "War on Terror".
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POPSBush's Final Act, Legal Defense of Domestic Spying This shows what the Bush admin. is afraid of most, thereby demonstrating that the constitutionality of domestic, warrantless spying does not have firm legal support but was/is probably illegal (unless the 4th amendment has been stricken from the Bill of Rights). Americans, however, should have the same concern about Obama who shows no signs of "change" on domestic spying either: Eric Holder, the incoming U.S. attorney, said the Obama administration supported the spy legislation and would defend it Americans will have no freedom unless the Constitution and our rights are pressed against both the Executive and Congress.
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POPSTelecom Amnesty Illegal "The EFF blasted the retroactive amnesty as a "blatant attempt to prevent this Court—and every other court, federal or state—from deciding whether the carrier defendants conducted dragnet, warrantless surveillance of millions of Americans' communications and communications records in violation of the Constitution and numerous statutes." The government and the telecoms argued in earlier briefs that Congress can tinker with ongoing legislation without violating the Constitution and that citizens should sue the government, not private companies, over the spying."
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POPSObama's New World Order; "Change" is Required Listen carefully to the words of Obama's symbolic Berlin speech. We know the "war on terrorism" will continue from his debates with McCain, his view of Israel is similar, that the Surveillance State in America will continue to expand (his FISA domestic spying expansion vote), that he will NOT repeal the PATRIOT ACT, Homeland Security, REAL ID, or other anti-constitutional Executive Orders or legislation passed by the Bush-neocon administration. He will make use of the same apparatus for the same "global transformation". "Common security" (for their order ) is still being pled in his speech based upon 9/11. The "new world order" agenda of Social Change (under plea of "common humanity", despite any other distinctions) will be dictated and you will be required to adopt it, like it or not. Listen again. The burdens of global citizenship.....Americans and Europeans will be required to do more; partnership and cooperation is not a choice".
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POPSLawsuit to Counter Spy Bill Promised The constitution is supreme law over all legislation, period. ACLU promises a needed legal challenge. No tyranny permitted even if legislated. A legislative act, contrary to the Constitution, is not law.--Supreme Court Justice John Marshall
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POPSKennedy returns to say ‘aye’ He'll probably make it to the inauguration...I hope he goes out sailin...that would be my choice if I knew I was dying. But he hasn't given up yet, bless him!
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POPSSenate Approves Telecom Immunity & Spy Bill Proof the democrats (e.g. Obama) are not safer than the neocon controlled republicans: 4th Amendment trampled, violators now immune. This is not "compromise", but capitulation. For more indepth interview with the Telecom (AT&T) technician and whistleblower who discovered Americans were being spied on, listen to the Democracy Now interview here.
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POPSObama Should Follow Feingold
That’s bad — not just because Obama is putting politics ahead of principle, but because he’s calculating the politics wrong. As Feingold proved when he was overwhelmingly re-elected in a swing state in 2004, after casting the sole vote against the Patriot Act, standing strong for the Bill of Rights attracts rather than sacrifices votes. Even worse is the deceptive claim that the “compromise” on FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) reached by the Bush administration and congressional leaders allows for meaningful scrutiny. As Feingold says, “The proposed FISA deal is not a compromise; it is a capitulation. The House and Senate should not be taking up this bill, which effectively guarantees immunity for telecom companies alleged to have participated in the president’s illegal program, and which fails to protect the privacy of law-abiding Americans at home. Allowing courts to review the question of immunity is meaningless when the same legislation essentially requires the co
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POPSObama Disappoints on FISA The piece goes on: "This was not an easy call for me," he wrote. "I know that the FISA bill that passed the House is far from perfect. I wouldn't have drafted the legislation like this, and it does not resolve all of the concerns that we have about President Bush's abuse of executive power... But I also believe that the compromise bill is far better than the Protect America Act that I voted against last year. The exclusivity provision makes it clear to any President or telecommunications company that no law supersedes the authority of the FISA court." I think a lot of idealists out there are learning a couple of lessons; 1. If you want a candidate who believes exactly what you do, you're going to have to run. 2. In American Democracy, you pretty much wind up voting for the adversary you'd most want to have.
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POPSWhite House accuses Senate Democrats of slacking off Given the role the White House and Senate Republicans have played in slowing legislation, Manley said, “it takes a lot of chutzpah” for Fratto to accuse the Democrats of inaction. It's more than chutzpah...it's insanity and lies--both are so cosmically incompetent and the posturing is disgusting!
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POPSFair-Weather Civil Libertarians In January, Greenwald reports, Olbermann delivered an unhinged rant in which he called the immunity provision a "shameless, breathless, literally textbook example of fascism"--and in case you thought he meant the nongenocidal Italian kind, he also likened proponents of immunity to "the bureaucrats of the Third Reich." "But that was five whole months ago" Greenwald observes: Now that Barack Obama supports a law that does the same thing--and now that Obama justifies that support by claiming that this bill is necessary to keep us Safe from the Terrorists--everything has changed. . . . Olbermann invited Newsweek's Jonathan Alter onto his show to discuss Obama's support for the FISA. There wasn't a word of rational criticism of the bill. Instead, the two media stars jointly hailed Obama's bravery and strength--as evidenced by his "standing up to the left" in order to support this important centrist FISA compromise.
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POPSObama: I'll Fight To Strip Telecom Immunity From FISA It seems absolutely ridiculous that in this day and age we have the two candidates we have in this election. On one side is a man who knows the value of the constitution and i willing to defend it while on the other is a man who will follow in the footsteps of the President who has been actively dismantling it. How can such an argument even exist? It should almost be a no-contest vote.
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POPSObama Supports FISA Legislation, Angering Left Well, I for one am not surprised. Obama, Hillary, McCain: not enough difference between them to even mention. Americans had a chance to turn things around with Ron Paul. Personally I do not care to hear one sniffle from the supporters of Obama. This is just the beginning.
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POPSFISA Deal Reached That sounds pretty sensible, although I'll need to read the language first to get a sense of what really happened. Stay tuned.
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POPSLets phone companies freely eavesdrop on us. Sure I can survive, if you will check on me in key hole for the sake of peace and prosperity. But who are you? Why should I trust you? How I know for sure, that this is for society, and not for Halliburton?
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POPSPresident Bush Urges Quick Passage of Wiretapping Bill I'm watchin' on CSPAN the debate on this bill in the House of Reps. Supporters of the House version say this will NOT give Telecoms immunity and make the 4th Amendment (right to privacy, search and siezure) virtually shredding another piece of the Constitution, like the Senate version., but if The Preznut supports it, I have my doubts.
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POPSFISA Legislation: Congress Still Dithering! That bill hit a wall when the trial lawyers asked Pelosi to preserve their chance to earn huge contingency fees in lawsuits against the telecoms alleging the sort of class-action tort claims used to blackmail big companies into high-dollar settlements. These lawsuits aren’t merely the latest evolution in class action ambulance chasing. They are a form of “lawfare”: the use of the courts to interfere in America’s conduct in the war the terrorists are waging against us. The compromise measure reportedly enables the telecoms to obtain civil immunity by showing a court a request for cooperation from the government that assured the company that cooperation was legal. The trial lawyers and several liberal senators, chief among them Wisconsin’s Russell Feingold, are trying to block the compromise. Their amen chorus among the politically-activist media are working hard to help them.
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POPSPower and the relation between these two aricles More power to the leader of the US or could we do better without that institution? Parliamentary democracy seems to be more democratic when one looks at this administration. Way too much abuse of power. GITMO, surveillance, the list just goes on and on
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POPSFBI Pushes for Internet Dragnet FBI wants to go Big Brother versus the limits of the Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution. The excuse includes the doctrine of "preemption", the plea of "necessity".
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POPSCouncil Spy Cases In UK Hit 1,000 A Month
In 2006, more than 1,000 applications per day were being made to use Ripa powers. The Act allows councils to authorise surveillance, obtain phone records and details of email traffic from personal computers (though not their contents) and obtain details of websites individuals are logging on to. Councils cannot bug telephones, a power reserved for the police and security forces and which must be authorised by the Home Office. The Joyce family of Poole found Ripa allows council staff to spy on people suspected of lying in school applications. They're watched at their home by Poole borough council to make sure they lived in the catchment area of the school their three-year-old daughter attends. Miss Paton described the council's actions as "a grotesque invasion of privacy". Mr Joyce said: "It used to be that the Home Secretary had to talk to a judge to get surveillance through the police. Now it seems the world and his wife can carry out surveillance whenever they feel like it.
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POPSFISA Amendments Act of 2008 The assurances in this bill that Americans will not have their communications monitored without warrant are unconvincing. The bill merely states that the government should do its best to avoid monitoring Americans if possible. We have seen how meaningless such qualified prohibitions have been as we recount the abuses over the past several years. Just today, we read in the news that the federal government has massively abused its ability to monitor us by improperly targeting Americans through the use of “national security letters.” Apparently some 60 percent of the more than 50,000 national security letters targeted Americans, rather than foreign terrorists, for surveillance. This is what happens when we begin down the slippery slope of giving up our constitutional rights for the promise of more security. When we come to accept that the government can spy on us without a court order we have come to accept tyranny.
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POPSBush Claims Feds Can Open Mail w/o Warrant In case you missed it, like many of us did, Bush in a "signing statement" (i.e. Executive fiat legislation) claimed that Feds can open mail ("search and seize") of Americans under the plea of "necessity" without warrant. Amazingly his spokesperson said he was claiming "no new authority" in doing so and that the Constitution authorizes it. (Have they read the 4th amendment:?!) Though dated in January, what is not well published needs to be made known.
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POPSExecute Branch Continues Domestic Spying Despite Sunset of PAA The "Protect America Act" expired last Sat, but the White House, complicit with the new AG Mukasey and National Intel Director McConnell (both neocons) says it will continue (law-breaking) domestic spying "for now", along with help from the Telecom fascist corporations under the pretense of defending against "terrorists who want to kill us all" --while there is no evidence of credible threats or attacks, and the Constitution and law is trampled. This is nothing less than Federal Anarchy! Why should citizens obey the law, if the feds and Executive in particular, do not?
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POPSDeadlock On Surveillance Law Shows No Signs Of Breaking Soon Democrats counter that it was Republicans who blocked a second temporary extension of the expired law. They maintain that the government has all the intelligence tools it needs while lawmakers work on a compromise As with every major policy fight in the remaining months of the 110th Congress, political considerations are looming large. Republicans, confident that they can win any test of wills involving national security, have honed their attack into an accusation that the Democrats care more about enriching trial lawyers than protecting the country The rhetorical battle will certainly continue. Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, the top Republican on the House Intelligence panel, plans to give a speech at the conservative Heritage Foundation on Tuesday blasting House Democrats for not clearing the Senate legislation. The Justice Department is providing the House Judiciary Committee with at least some of its opinions regarding the legality of the NSA’s warrantless surveillance
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POPSSenate's Wiretap Vote "The defeat of these antiwar amendments means the legislation now moves to the House in a strong position. Speaker Nancy Pelosi is in the Dodd-Obama camp, but 21 Blue Dog Democrats have sent her a letter saying they are happy with the Senate bill. She may try to pass the restrictions that failed in the Senate, and Republicans should tell her to make their day. This is a fight Senator McCain should want to have right up through Election Day, with Democrats having to explain why they want to hamstring the best weapon -- real-time surveillance -- we have against al Qaeda."
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