"Nothing to about worry friends. It was all Bush's fault. Help yourself to free glass of Cool aid. Go back to playing your video games. Nothing to see here". That seems to be the message ABC, CBS, NBS, MSNBC, CNN, and the other media outlets are giving us. Even Obama offers us reassurance when he claims that the only data being seized is "mega data". No one's individual emails, phone calls, or photos were compromised. "Trust us" he implies. After all, "we can't have 100% security and 100% privacy" as the President says, and besides, it was only a "minor" infraction of Bill of Rights, and look how much we're getting for your patriotic sacrifice---we're capturing bad guys; you know, "terrorists". Why, the Feds have caught three or four by now using the millions and millions phone calls and internet site searches. So, just what the heck is going on here?
Well, it seems that a British news journal, The Guardian, published a leak that the National Security Agency, which is the American Government's version of the nosy neighbor, managed to get its hands on millions of phone records belonging to Verizon. The phone records include outgoing and incoming calls. That's right. Anyone using Verizon, or who called you through Verizon, got tapped. Of course, this comes just a few weeks after NSA Chairman, James Clapper (seriously, that's his name) testified before the Senate that they were playing nice and no one's records were being snatched. It seems, however, that he lied (to the collective "duh" of the American People). Now, it seems that not only did they go after Verizon, the NSA has also gone after T-Mobile, AOL, Google, AT&T, YouTube, Skype, and just about every other electronic media service out there. Yeah, we hear you now.
While Obama campaigned on ending Bush's use of wiretaps and electronic media taps of known or suspected terrorists, apparently he warmed up to the idea after being elected and has expanded the bugging to include everyone everywhere. Gee, does that mean the Feds think that all Americans are potential terrorists? Are now presumed guilty before even being charged? Think about it. Why else would the NSA be interested in your Facebook posts? Why would they care who you follow on Twitter? Are those family photos you posted a matter of national security? What about those amateur radio shows on Blogtalk radio? Secret Commie propaganda sites? (Never mind. Scratch that).
Right now, the Obama Administrations is scurrying around like proverbial wet rats trying to find where the leak came from. Only a very small handful of Congressmen, Senators, and selected bureaucrats, had excess to this kind of hush-hush screwing of the American Public. Of course, this follows on the cheeky admission of the Justice Department, Eric Holder (who gutted anti-illegal immigration enforcement with his buddy, Homeland Security Director, Janet Napolitano, and sued the State of Arizona for enforcing existing federal immigration laws) that they backdoored the Associated Press in trying to get a reporter's phone records. Why? Because of their investigation of the Benghazi Massacre and Cover-up. Oh, and that followed on a similar "oopsie" when it came to light that they did the same thing to Fox News. And while we're at it, let's not overlook the Infernal Revenue Service's harassment of the various Tea Party and other conservatives groups, including requesting overwhelming and often irrelevant information that sometimes included requesting the names and ages of members or mailing addresses of contributors, as well as holding up approval for tax exempt status for months. Not only that, but it turns out that some of this information was turned over their liberal opposites. Kinda handy information to have don't you think? And... (here comes the surprise)...they initially lied about it. Of course, just before all this, we had the Obama Administration wanting to curtail our ability to defend ourselves. "For our own good" they told us. There's that "trust me" again.
I don't care who you are or what your political leaning is, as an American, you've got to admit that this is not only (exceptionally) dirty and underhanded, it's criminal. It's a violation, if not outright, then the intent of the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Republics and democracies throughout history have voluntarily surrendered their freedoms..inch by inch...in the name of security. No crimes. Complete economic stability. Peace. But no freedom of press. No freedom of expression. Limited freedom to travel. No freedom to think as you please. Economic stagnation. No dissention. Absolute conformity.
So, here's my take on the whole situation. First off, the head of the IRS need to be fired, along with the department heads and individuals involved. Not only that, they lose their federal benefits and are prohibited from working for any federal agency or from securing a federal lobbying job. And all those Tea Party and other groups need to be automatically granted tax exempt status and reimbursed in full any and all costs. Second, use the opportunity to overhaul the IRS. I would personally love to see either a flat tax or consumption tax. It would make life easier for everyone and would end much of the tax cheating, the reams of tax laws, and ensure everyone pays their fair share.
Eric Holder should be fired. While he should be brought up on criminal charges, that isn't likely to happen. However, he should received the same penalty as the IRS chief. No retirement. No benefits. Nothing. James Clapper lied to Congress. Ok, well that's actually part of his job as "Spy-in-Chief". However, he should be reprimanded. Understand too that the FBI was doing this. They need their hands slapped just as hard. Lastly, whoever was responsible for ordering the massive seizure of private and personal data should be pursued criminally for not only an unauthorized invasion of privacy, but for a blatant violation of our Bill of Rights. However, I don't think that will ever happen. "Messiahs" seem to be exempt somehow.
Clapper denied NSA Surveillance before Senate panel in March testimony
http://thehill.com/blogs/defcon-hill/policy-and-strategy/304009-clapper-denied-nsa-surveillance-in-us-weeks-before-verizon-tracking-program-began-
NSA Collecting Phone Records of Millions of Verizon Customers Daily
http://visiontoamerica.com/15125/nsa-collecting-phone-records-of-millions-of-verizon-customers-daily/
Obama Administration defends 2nd mass surveillance project
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/06/07/intelligence-officials-reportedly-mining-data-from-us-internet-companies/
Press Blames George W Bush for Obama's Unprecedented Eavesdropping
http://visiontoamerica.com/15137/press-blames-george-w-bush-for-obamas-unprecedented-eavesdropping/
US, British intelligence mining Data from 9 US Internet companies
http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/us-intelligence-mining-data-from-nine-us-internet-companies-in-broad-secret-program/2013/06/06/3a0c0da8-cebf-11e2-8845-d970ccb04497_story.html
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