Regardless of your political orientation, everyone should view this.

yeah, Ive lost a lot of respect for this administration in the past few months.

A lot of the reasons I voted for this president are nonexistent at this point. Sad, really sad.



Just like the media coverage of massacres elicits more of the same as time goes on, coverage of people holding our government accountable should incite others to follow in the same manner, and it does seem to. It is a poor analogy, but one that I feel captures the relationship of our media outlets and the emergent reactions in our population.

Smart and articulate.

Bah, that is nothing. He's just nothing but a puppet, a smokescreen to distract from the real threat to freedom, a new world order brought about by the ultra secretive Bilderberg Group. Ignore them at your peril.



But really though, Obama has really turned in to a lame-duck President now, and in fact seems to be moving backwards. Whereas a lot of people were hoping he would take a stronger stand in his second term, and stand up for what he [supposedly] believes in, the actions of this administration sure do make you wonder.

Thanks for posting this. What's odd to me is that this is "breaking news". I thought it was semi-common knowledge. The Guardian certainly didn't break this - years ago I read about how the telecom networks were set up, and because there was such heavy government involvement in creating the networks they've had access to all communications for decades. But it's only more recently that they've been able to record and store everything. Last year Wired wrote about this very topic, and specifically about a new spy center being built in Utah: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/0 ... atacenter/

I'm glad this is getting some attention, but I'm sure it'll quickly fade away (if it hasn't already).

This story has been in the main news articles on Yahoo for 2 days in a row now surprisingly.

One of those things, I think most people intrinsically know or suspect, but what can you do about it... nothing.

NT, yeah I have a subscription to Wired and read that article last year as well. I've been reading about this invasiveness for years. Scary stuff. Sad part is most people believe that the government should have these powers by reasoning "if you're not doing anything wrong what do you have to worry about?" but what they don't get is the bigger picture. It's a clear case of just playing unfair and profiling anyone they want. Any information they can get can be used against you in a negative fashion. I'm quite sure this won't even make mainstream news programs or if it does just a short tidbit.

It should also come as no surprise to anyone (yet I am sure that it does) that this behavior is hardly confined to agencies within the US.

Here is a good article about the reaction, or lack thereof, to this news. It's no shock that they are going to try and lower the impact of the surveillance actions in the name of terror and whatnot. Given how much electronic media is involved in our daily lives in 2013 and the amount we are captured on video (especially in the UK) there really isn't any shortage of ways to track people when they are so inclined.
Big Brother is listening in and no one seems to care

http://obamaischeckingyouremail.tumblr.com/

And I'll quote a friend of mine:

"There are several things people should be doing all the time, but no one does ever. Encrypt email using GPG. Surf the web using TOR. Use Ghostery or Adblock to make it harder for behaviour trackers. Look into something like Pump.IO for social networks. It's not about *not* using Facebook. It's about being offered shit for free that is clearly a trap. The issue is that this information is being gathered now, for unknown future policy makers who could turn out to be fascists. We can prevent those issues if we weren't so collectively lazy."

All that info is too valuable for them not to collect. One thing i found notable regarding Snowden is that Michael Moore is in agreeance with Glenn Beck that he is in fact a hero

I turned into the national news just now to see how they'd spin it. Of course they painted him as just some low level I.T. guy who accessed information he was not supposed to be accessing. They brought in John Miller ( and as always introduce him as the former NSA deputy director lol) and he's all gung ho saying as soon as they have a case they'll ask for extradition. I'd go out on a limb and say even if he was a low level IT I'm actually happy someone reported it. Makes one think who the hell does the government think they are anymore? We are only kidding ourselves though if we actually think there are governments anymore. The whole world is run by a few competing factions under guises of various forms of government. It's 100% a control issue and that's no conspiracy theory. It's fact. Seems like whenever the real world gets exposed to our supposed governments dirty little secrets they go ballistic. Look what happened to Jullian Assange.

Oli, I've read up on TOR but I'm alway hesitant about 'installing' anything. Would you recommend it?

I just don't see much of a case given that the information Snowden exposed had already been "exposed" by the former senior NSA official (William Binney) who was quoted in the Wired article I linked to. I mean, sure, they'll make a case on the fact that he revealed info he wasn't suppose to reveal. But given that the information was already public, and had been put into the public by a former senior NSA official, where's the harm? The conspiracy theorist in me says this is all a smokescreen.

The NSA is one of the leakiest agencies out there though isn't it? It's hard to tell the motives of all of these people coming out. Is it a ploy to dismantle Obama or is it a series of people giving the same warning over and over hoping the general population wise up and listen- that the government is essentially overstepping privacy regardless of who is in charge? I mean I read this article on Thomas Drake in 2011:

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011 ... fact_mayer

Essentially pretty much covering the same issues.

Join the petition to pardon whistle-blower Edward Snowden!

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petiti ... n/Dp03vGYD

If not for him, then for his girlfriend, Lindsay Mills:

http://www.lsjourney.com/

[Oops, looks like the NSA already shut her blog down.]

Turns out I -thought- I was using TOR but I wasn't. I was using HTTPS Everywhere though. Which isn't bad, but completely different.

Can you tell me more about TOR and GPG? I'm not computer illiterate, but I'm pretty close.

I tried using TOR when I was in Japan to get around regional proxy-controlled content, but just couldn't get it to work properly. Not what it is for obviously, but I missed my CBC dammit! Anyways, just to say that it wasn't simple to figure out.

Eh, if it's not easy I won't worry about it. I've probably been watch-listed for my Facebook posts and posting in this thread anyway - TOR won't help me now!

They are already monitoring SB like made these past few days, I am sure you noticed the lag. We are on 'the list.'

shit, i hope he doesnt catch on to how cool japanese toys are

http://obamaischeckingyouremail.tumblr.com/

Everyone is on the list. Everything. Including all voice phone calls are recorded, and stored away. This is a implicit violation of US citizens' constitutional rights of privacy and is beyond overreaching. Add this to the increase in drone assassinations by at least 3 times under Obama, who I too supported politically, and you get a picture of a police state worse than that envisioned under Bush II or Nixon.

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2013/06/nsa-datacenters-size-analysis/66100/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt9kRLrmrjc&feature=player_embedded

Wow. Leave it to Fox News to take a serious issue and turn it into.... what? I don't even know anymore.

NSA leaker hero or villain? Lou Ferrigno’s view

make it into a laughable nonissue? Frame it so that its as important as how many shirts Ferrigno has ripped throughout his lifetime?

Truly pathetic. Instead of talking about the real issue they're talking about body building.

It's just as relevant as CNN being told by the Democrat's to de-humanize Snowden and call him a "clown" and a "traitor". All major media is controlled. That's not some secret theory. It's just the way it is.