Tell~A~Vision = Why Not Try Love Again?
FlyingSnail Links & Archives
Mad Cow Wishing Everyone a Happy New Year from the Crew @ FlyingSnail.com
Internet: A virus forced into prostitution by greedy corporations & used as a tool to Divide and Conquer.
Turn It Off, Tune It Out, Re-learn to Go Outside and Play.
STRONG M-FLARE: Big sunspot [twice the size of Earth] AR1967 unleashed a strong M6-class solar flare on Jan. 30th [2014] at approximately 1617 UTC. The explosion, which may be seen at the end of this movie of today's solar eclipse, hurled a CME into space. Radio emissions from shock waves preceding the CME suggest that it could be leaving the sun faster than 2100 km/s (4.7 million mph). Stay tuned for updates about this potentially significant event [here].
Final Comments
via ~@~ January 30, 2014
Note to those with links or pages I have listed since or after
January 28, 1998:
If you have something current going on and notify me without one of the banned email addresses, you will be listed in the Current Activity section below. Everybody else can be found on the links page, syndication page, or Archive pages.
Regarding YouTube: There are too many old links/pages that rely on this traitor site to be removed.
Currently, if one would like a video listed, consider getting a Vimeo account and notify me.
I have been weaning myself from Internet for years and am sure some folks are tired of hearing about it.
Some of you wondered what was taking me so long and here is your answer.
This site has around six thousand (6,000) pages, a lot of them contained things (search buttons, translators, etc.) from corporations who sold out users, which I no longer want on flyingsnail, and those I could locate have been removed. It took a while to do this and is still being worked on.
Stories on how a Corporate Sturmabteilung Internet happened will eventually appear.
Current Activity
Boptime with Even Steven + The Legends of Wilmington Jazz
Saturday, 6 AM Eastern time, 3 AM Pacific time:
MP3 Stream ~ Low 24K ~ High 128K ~ Real Audio ~ Low 24K ~ High 128K ~ Windows ~ Low 24K ~ High 128KARPSN Seismic Heliplots ~ Seismic Activity & Weather at Seismic Site
Mike Wilhelm ~ Charlatans, Flamin' Groovies, Loose Gravel, and more
Podcast ~ MP3 music page
Nobody for President = NONE OF THE ABOVE should be on voter ballots
Mad Cow Wishing Everyone A Happy New Year from the crew @ FlyingSnail.comFreedom of expression and freedom of speech aren't really important unless they're heard...It's hard for me to stay silent when I keep hearing that peace is only attainable through war. And there's nothing more scary than watching ignorance in action. So I dedicated this Emmy to all the people who feel compelled to speak out and not afraid to speak to power and won't shut up and refuse to be silenced. ~ Tommy Smothers
One Can Lead A Horse To Water, But...
Until there is a solution for this, where one solution has been provided, Nobody will bring Peace to Our Times, feed the hungry, care for the sick, and bake apple pie better than Mom. (otoh) If None of the Above was on voter ballots, it would be a huge step towards recovering U.S. political control, and Nobody gets it.
Oh, I hope that I see you again I never even caught your name As you looked through my window pane ~~ So I'm writing this message today I'm thinking that you'll have a way Of hearing the notes in my tune ~~ Where are you going? Where have you been? I can imagine other worlds you have seen ~~ Beautiful faces and music so serene ~~ So I do hope I see you again My universal citizen You went as quickly as you came ~~ You know the power Your love is right You have good reason To stay out of sight ~~ But break our illusions and help us Be the light ~ Message by Michael Pinder
Closing Argument
None of the Above Should Be A Choice On Voter Ballots
Without love in the dream, it will never come true. ~ Jerry Garcia/Robert Hunter
From: Wavy Gravy
Subject: Pete SeegerHey hey Pete Seeger I did write a bright haiku to light up your grave ~ Wavy G
http://vimeo.com/28302099
Why do television subscribers have to pay for commercials?
http://vimeo.com/77157271
http://vimeo.com/84713245
http://vimeo.com/84752242
http://vimeo.com/42242460Something to Consider
A year and a half ago I started building something as part of my final, elder, to-do list.
At that time, the best parts were available outside the country and since so many current products come from that country, it never occurred to me I would not be able to get future replacement parts.
Recently, a pissing match went down between the company (with the parts) and one of their previous employees, resulting in a cease U.S. operations injunction.
Personally, I could care less about the pissing match, but not being able to get parts because of it makes me extremely angry at myself for trusting this would not happen.
I guess David Hannum was correct when he said, "There's a sucker born every minute" and is something I will now consider regarding any future purchases from this country.
Apple’s Tim Cook On PRISM:
“There Is No Back Door. The Government Doesn’t Have Access To Our Servers”
Click to open TechCrunch Article, but before you do, here is some information worth knowing:
From the January 2014 Archive:
Lately, there have been outcries from Corporatists who sold out their users. Allegedly, this is why:
It was discovered internal servers in these corporations; specifically the ones corporate executives use, were being watched and recorded ... meaning it was okay for corporations to hand over user information, but when their own executives were being spied on, they complained.
Corporations knew spying was being done as far back as the '90s and here is proof directly from the NSA:
http://www.nsa.gov/research/selinux/background.shtml:
SELinux Background~ Researchers in the National Information Assurance Research Laboratory of the National Security Agency (NSA) worked with Secure Computing Corporation (SCC) to develop a strong, flexible mandatory access control architecture based on Type Enforcement, a mechanism first developed for the LOCK system. The NSA and SCC developed two Mach-based prototypes of the architecture: DTMach and DTOS. The NSA and SCC then worked with the University of Utah's Flux research group to transfer the architecture to the Fluke research operating system. During this transfer, the architecture was enhanced to provide better support for dynamic security policies. This enhanced architecture was named Flask. The NSA integrated the Flask architecture into the GNU/Linux® operating system to transfer the technology to a larger developer and user community. The architecture has been subsequently mainstreamed into GNU/Linux® and ported to several other systems, including the Solaris™ (Sun Microsystems/Oracle) operating system, the freeBSD® operating system, and the Darwin (Apple) kernel, spawning a wide range of related work.
Glitch Is Causing Thousands Of Emails To
Be Sent To One Man’s Hotmail AccountClick to open TechCrunch Article
David S. Peck is getting a lot of emails. In a glitch possibly related to the massive Gmail outage underway right now, there's an odd bug in Google search which is pointing users directly to his personal email address. The address appears in a "Compose" window that pops up when the top search result for Gmail is clicked. Yes, it's bizarre. Very, very bizarre.
Talk About Timing: Google’s Reliability Team Sat
Down For An AMA Right Before Gmail ExplodedClick to open TechCrunch Article
Worst. timing. ever. About an hour ago, a bunch of the engineers responsible for keeping Google alive sat down to answer questions on reddit. Know what else happened about an hour ago? Gmail and Google+ went down around the world.
Powerful Photos Go Deep Inside America’s Fracking Boom
Fracking is one of the most contentious energy issues in America, pitting the promise of cheap fossil fuels and good jobs against environmental concerns in an often acrimonious debate. Six photographers banded together to bring a nuanced look to the issue through the eyes of those directly impacted by it.
Absurd Creature of the Week:
Foot-Long, Sex-Crazed Snails That Pierce Tires and Devour HousesAh, the innocence of children. So free of corruption and cynicism, so sweet and sincere. Laughing and playing and introducing supremely destructive monster snails to Florida, where the beasts eat almost anything that’s green and then crap all over houses — quite literally laying waste to whole neighborhoods.
When companies break the law and people pay:
The scary lesson of the Google Bus30+ READ THIS: Don't ignore weird spots on your face
Two articles from imgur, with photographs, are about Basal-cell Carcinoma.
I feel everyone should take a look at these articles because cancer is affecting younger folks:
#1 Don't ignore weird spots on your face
#2 Thank you imgur user-submitted!So far, I am a cancer survivor and would like to point out a possible coincidence.
The photographs in the above articles show the location of the cancer to be in an area where a cellular telephone might be positioned and it may be a good time to read about
CASHCPR ~ Citizens Against Second Hand Cellular Phone Radiation
In a final attempt to avert possible human disaster before signing off an unsafe Internet, CASHCPR was/is an endeavor to make one aware of the hazards of cellular & broadband microwave radiation on the human body and brain.
For example, when a transmitting device is tested for public use, usually, only one device is used; allowing specifications to fall within the range of allowable human exposure.
There is no test or map showing what happens when there are millions of these devices (above graphic is a coverage map to show density); including repeater sites, and the long term effects of this radiation on living things. This is why there was conflict when known murderers (PG&E executives) started installing Smart Meters.
Cancer appears to be on the rise. Do you really believe corporatists will tell the truth when profit is involved? For example, the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant Lie and here is what a report from the Investigation Committee on the Accident at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Stations of Tokyo Electric Power Company said: the Japanese government and TEPCO failed to prevent the disaster because they were reluctant to invest time, effort and money in protecting against a natural disaster. Time for a corporate death penalty?
ARPSN Seismic Heliplots ~ Seismic Activity & Weather at Seismic Site
M 3.7 - NORTHERN CALIFORNIA - 2014-01-21 11:11:11 UTC
10 km W of Cobb, United States / pop: 1,778 / local time: 03:11:11.0 2014-01-21Dahbud Mensch ~ Stuck In the Middle With Who
The Two Words That Cost Medicare Patients Thousands
When it comes to Medicare claims, it’s all about the fine print on your hospital chart. Find out how being “under observation” can cost you. ~ IMPORTANT: If you are of Medicare age == Click to Watch this video ... via Joe
Internet: A virus forced into prostitution by greedy corporations!
Reserved for future comments.
Isn't War Based on Political Lies Criminal?
Bush 1 ~ Iraq 1
Baby Incubator Lies
When contemplating war, beware of babies in incubators by Tom Regan. Click csmonitor.com to read about this lie.
Bush 2 ~ Iraq 2
Weapons of Mass Destruction Lies
"See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda." George W Bush, 5/24/05 ~ click here: to read about this atrocity
Question:
How many people were exposed to depleted uranium during Bush 1 & 2 Iraq illegal wars and how many military were injured or killed because of these politician's lies?
Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. - Dick Cheney - August 26, 2002
Every day Saddam remains in power with chemical weapons, biological weapons, and the development of nuclear weapons is a day of danger for the United States. - Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-CT - September 4, 2002
If we wait for the danger to become clear, it could be too late. - Sen. Joseph Biden D-Del. - September 4, 2002
Right now, Iraq is expanding and improving facilities that were used for the production of biological weapons. - George W. Bush - September 12, 2002
If he declares he has none, then we will know that Saddam Hussein is once again misleading the world. - Ari Fleischer - December 2, 2002
We know for a fact that there are weapons there. - Ari Fleischer - January 9, 2003
Our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent. - George W. Bush - January 28, 2003
We know that Saddam Hussein is determined to keep his weapons of mass destruction, is determined to make more. - Colin Powell - February 5, 2003
Iraq both poses a continuing threat to the national security of the United States and international peace and security in the Persian Gulf region and remains in material and unacceptable breach of its international obligations by, among other things, continuing to possess and develop a significant chemical and biological weapons capability, actively seeking a nuclear weapons capability, and supporting and harboring terrorist organizations. - Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY - February 5, 2003
We have sources that tell us that Saddam Hussein recently authorized Iraqi field commanders to use chemical weapons -- the very weapons the dictator tells us he does not have. - George Bush - February 8, 2003
So has the strategic decision been made to disarm Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction by the leadership in Baghdad? I think our judgment has to be clearly not. - Colin Powell - March 8, 2003
Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised. - George Bush - March 18, 2003
We are asked to accept Saddam decided to destroy those weapons. I say that such a claim is palpably absurd. - Tony Blair, Prime Minister - March 18, 2003
Well, there is no question that we have evidence and information that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, biological and chemical particularly . . . all this will be made clear in the course of the operation, for whatever duration it takes. - Ari Fleischer - March 21, 2003
There is no doubt that the regime of Saddam Hussein possesses weapons of mass destruction. As this operation continues, those weapons will be identified, found, along with the people who have produced them and who guard them. - Gen. Tommy Franks - March 22, 2003
One of our top objectives is to find and destroy the WMD. There are a number of sites. - Pentagon Spokeswoman Victoria Clark - March 22, 2003
I have no doubt we're going to find big stores of weapons of mass destruction. - Kenneth Adelman, Defense Policy Board - March 23, 2003
We know where they are. They are in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad. - Donald Rumsfeld - March 30, 2003
Saddam's removal is necessary to eradicate the threat from his weapons of mass destruction - Jack Straw, Foreign Secretary - April 2, 2003
Obviously the administration intends to publicize all the weapons of mass destruction U.S. forces find -- and there will be plenty. - Neocon scholar Robert Kagan - April 9, 2003
I think you have always heard, and you continue to hear from officials, a measure of high confidence that, indeed, the weapons of mass destruction will be found. - Ari Fleischer - April 10, 2003
We are learning more as we interrogate or have discussions with Iraqi scientists and people within the Iraqi structure, that perhaps he destroyed some, perhaps he dispersed some. And so we will find them. - George Bush - April 24, 2003
There are people who in large measure have information that we need . . . so that we can track down the weapons of mass destruction in that country. - Donald Rumsfeld - April 25, 2003
Before people crow about the absence of weapons of mass destruction, I suggest they wait a bit. - Tony Blair - April 28, 2003
We'll find them. It'll be a matter of time to do so. - George Bush - May 3, 2003
I am confident that we will find evidence that makes it clear he had weapons of mass destruction. - Colin Powell - May 4, 2003
I never believed that we'd just tumble over weapons of mass destruction in that country. - Donald Rumsfeld - May 4, 2003
I'm not surprised if we begin to uncover the weapons program of Saddam Hussein -- because he had a weapons program. - George W. Bush - May 6, 2003
U.S. officials never expected that "we were going to open garages and find" weapons of mass destruction. - Condoleezza Rice - May 12, 2003
I just don't know whether it was all destroyed years ago -- I mean, there's no question that there were chemical weapons years ago -- whether they were destroyed right before the war, (or) whether they're still hidden. - Maj. Gen. David Petraeus, Commander 101st Airborne - May 13, 2003
Before the war, there's no doubt in my mind that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, biological and chemical. I expected them to be found. I still expect them to be found. - Gen. Michael Hagee, Commandant of the Marine Corps - May 21, 2003
Given time, given the number of prisoners now that we're interrogating, I'm confident that we're going to find weapons of mass destruction. - Gen. Richard Myers, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff - May 26, 2003
They may have had time to destroy them, and I don't know the answer. - Donald Rumsfeld - May 27, 2003
For bureaucratic reasons, we settled on one issue, weapons of mass destruction (as justification for invading Iraq) because it was the one reason everyone could agree on. - Paul Wolfowitz - May 28, 2003 - Source
The following has been placed here to show how shit can start:
A few days ago, a site I read had this image:
with the title:
In Syria, Sleeping between his parents.
http://imgur.com/gallery/R0QbdRA
Later, this shows up:
with the title:
This pic was staged as art work. A guy stole it and posted it as a kid from Syria
http://imgur.com/gallery/1UMVfil
Then this showed up:
with the title:
Syrian dead family picture turns out to be fake.
http://imgur.com/gallery/M8BhW
and reminds me of:
When contemplating war, beware of babies in incubators ~ from the Christian Science Monitor.
INTERNET IS NOT SAFE
TRUSTED CORPORATIONS SOLD OUT USERS.
NOBODY IS DEFENDING YOU.
RE-LEARN TO GO OUTSIDE AND PLAY.
http://vimeo.com/3525523EVIL CORPORATE EXECUTIVES?
The BBC will be plunged into a major crisis with the publication of a damning review, expected next month, that will reveal its staff turned a blind eye to the rape and sexual assault of up to 1,000 girls and boys by Jimmy Savile in the corporation's changing rooms and studios.
Dame Janet Smith, a former court of appeal judge, who previously led the inquiry into the murders by Dr Harold Shipman, will say in her report that the true number of victims of Savile's sexual proclivities may never be known but that his behaviour had been recognised by BBC executives who took no action. - Click to read article
PURCHASING TELEVISION SPONSORED
PRODUCTS IS AN ACT OF BUTTRESS FOR
CORPORATE SUPPORTED PEDOPHILIA?TURN YOUR TELEVISION OFF?
DO NOT BUY SPONSORED PRODUCTS?
RE-LEARN TO GO OUTSIDE AND PLAY?
http://vimeo.com/44298418Here Today, Gone Tomorrow
This is ~ vimeo.com/24051441
TODAY, A FEDERAL APPEALS COURT
KILLED FREE SPEECH ON THE INTERNET.The Internet will now be controlled by a handful of companies.
By Ben Collins, January 14, 2014, Article Source
Today, a federal appeals court handed over control of free speech on the Internet to a handful of companies. This is why it matters.
Say you’re an NRA Republican. You’re from Tennessee. The websites you go to on a daily basis are Yahoo for your email and news, ESPN for your sports, and TNGunOwners.com, a message board to talk about your day at the range.
What if one day your access to your email is fine, your Tim Tebow coverage from ESPN is as loud as ever, and TNGunOwners.com inexplicably took 4-to-6 times longer to load? What if you called your Internet service provider and their answer was, “That’s just the way it is now”?
Say you’re a Whole Foods-pillagin’ Democrat. You’re from Portland. You go to GMail for your email, MSNBC for your news, Reddit for your cat videos, and an indie music blog like Said The Gramophone to find your music.
One day, your access to Gmail is fine, your Rachel Maddow clips are coming in clear as day, and that YouTube video of a cat taking a bath on Reddit is rolling along smoothly. But it takes so long to load one song from that indie music blog you just turn on the radio.
Say you’re entirely apolitical. It doesn’t matter where you live. You’re struggling with depression because it’s hard to cope with your mother’s recently diagnosed cancer. You go to cancerforums.net. You go to takethislife.com for help, when you can’t read the cancer forum anymore.
One day, those sites take ten times longer to load than they did before. What if you called your Internet service provider and their answer was, “Verizon now throttles bandwidth to websites from the non-Premium Tier. Would you like to upgrade?”
A federal appeals court ruled that the FCC can no longer enforce which websites Verizon and all other broadband providers can favor, limit access to, or outright block — even if it’s to prop up a service or website of their own.
This is not a binary political issue. It is not a Republican or Democrat issue.
This is naked corporate greed. It is a bunch of companies who want to control the largest free information platform in the world.
There is nothing good that an individual can derive from this decision. Nothing.
Before someone tells you otherwise, Internet service providers’ backs were not against the wall in any way. “Bandwidth congestion” is not real. It costs just as much money, if not more money, to cap the data flowing through your broadband connection as it does to serve it to you. Data caps are solely a money-making construct.
Average connection speeds in South Korea are twice as fast as those in the United States. That gap will grow even wider now. This ruling is anti-competitive for American business on a global level.
Tech giants Google, Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Yahoo have come out against rulings like this in the past. Instead, the decision favors companies with access to pipelines, like Comcast. It will help them use the Internet as a marketing tool for its other ventures, like NBC Universal.
The very best scenario a consumer can hope for is this: Companies will start offering “unlimited” Internet plans to access the Internet you currently see today. The Web will be partitioned off into sections, like cable tiers, and those ISPs will offer speedier connections to certain kinds of websites if you buy into each tier.
The very worst a consumer can expect is that some information will be deemed too unsavory for public consumption, while select corporate messages can be blasted to your home at lightning speed.
This is not a political story. This is corporate greed at its most blatant and obvious.
This is where the end begins ~ Pax49 ~ vimeo.com/41496453
Nobody for President == NONE OF THE ABOVE == should be on voter ballots
Phil Ochs ~ Changes ~ http://vimeo.com/77107278
Happy 46th Anniversary YIPPIE
;-) Founded December 31, 1967 or January 16, 1968 depending on the acid. (-;
Youth International Party Line ~ Issue One ~ Click for large imageIssue: 1 ~ 2 ~ 3 ~ 4 ~ 5 ~ 6 ~ 7 ~ 8 ~ 9 ~ 10 ~ 11 ~ 12 ~ 13 ~ 14 ~ 15 ~ 16 ~ 17 ~ 18 ~ 19 ~ 20
Pranking the system
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaYippies mocked the system and its authority. The Youth International Party, having nominated a pig for U.S. president in 1968, ran "Nobody" as its presidential candidate in 1976. The Yippie campaign slogan: "Nobody's perfect."
Curtis Spangler & Wavy Gravy working for NOBODY October 12, 1976 - Photograph: James Stark
Radio Control Models ~ Aviation
Volocopter ~ http://vimeo.com/80050676
Oral Cancer Struggle ~ Email from Curtis
January 13, 2014 ~ Strong enough to ride motorcycle 1st time since diagnosed with cancer January 2011
Dahbud Mensch ~ Stuck In the Middle With Who
Cheney's in the Bunker ~ http://vimeo.com/4462906The song was inspired by reading a book by David Ray Griffin called The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions. The testimony Secretary of Transportation, Norman Mineta, is remarkable enough, but the Commission also changed the timeline. Mineta's testimony is on YouTube. He stated that he arrived at the Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC) at 9:20 am on September 11, 2001. He found Cheney already in charge and issuing orders. Mineta said "a young man" kept questioning Cheney as a plane flew toward the Pentagon at 50 miles out, 30 miles out, and 10 miles out. The Pentagon was hit at 9:38 am, but the Commission states that Cheney did not arrive at the PEOC bunker until 9:58 am. How many orders did Cheney issue? Why was the Pentagon not evacuated or defended after all that had already happened in New York? [Click to open page on Rethinking 9/11]
Kelly Thomas Pleas
DAD HELP ME... THEY'RE KILLING ME... ~ 31 times
SIR PLEASE ... OKAY... OKAY... ~ 30 times
HELP ME... HELP ME GOD... ~ 26 times
I'M SORRY... ~ 15 times
http://imgur.com/gallery/dNXOvij
GOD said, "thou shall not kill" and JESUS extended this concept when he said,
Christians are to no longer execute sinners, so they should not wage carnal war, but spiritual warfare (John 18:36; 2 Corinthians 10:1-6; Ephesians 6:10-18; 1 Timothy 1:18-20; 6:11-14; 2 Timothy 2:3-5; 4:6-8)
Christians must be peacemakers forgiving those who do them harm treating their enemies with love and not seeking revenge (Matthew 5:9, Romans 14:19), (Ephesians 4:29-32; Colossians 3:12-14; Matthew 6:9-15; Mark 11:25-26), (Luke 6:27-36) (Romans 12:17-21; 1 Peter 3:8-12).
Hatred which is the same as murder is unforgiving, vengeful and hostile towards one's enemies (1 John 3:15)
ARPSN Seismic Heliplots ~ Seismic Activity & Weather at Seismic Site
4.5-magnitude quake reported near The Geysers
Turkeys ~ January 12, 2014 ~ 7:30 AM
Dahbud Mensch ~ Stuck In the Middle With Who
Every time we do something you tell me America will do this and will do that . . . I want to tell you something very clear: Don't worry about American pressure on Israel. We, the Jewish people, control America, and the Americans know it. - Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, 3 October 2001.
http://www.mediamonitors.net/khodr49.html
http://www.fpp.co.uk/online/01/10/Sharon3.html
Even today I am willing to volunteer to do the dirty work for Israel, to kill as many Arabs as necessary, to deport them, to expel and burn them, to have everyone hate us, to pull the rug from underneath the feet of the Diaspora Jews, so that they will be forced to run to us crying. Even if it means blowing up one or two synagogues here and there [? 9/11 ?], I don’t care. And I don’t mind if after the job is done you put me in front of a Nuremberg Trial and then jail me for life. Hang me if you want, as a war criminal… What you lot don’t understand is that the dirty work of Zionism is not finished yet, far from it. - Ariel Sharon, 1982, Oz, Amos. [1983] Les voix d'israel, Calmann-Levy, Paris. Translated by Guy Seniak. [Interview on pages 79-91]:
http://rense.com/general81/killiing.htm
His finest hours: On Sharon's murderous legacy
Ed. Note:
Sharon's funeral was allegedly attended by Joe "Bulldozer" Biden, War Criminal Tony Blair, & the Good Riddance Choir.
Extended Ed. Note:
Some Obviously Feel Murder is a Joke
There are some who apparently did not understand the above Biden "Bulldozer" comment, so here is an explanation.
A BULLDOZER was used by Ariel Sharon and Israel to murder Rachel Corrie (see below). U. S. politicians did nothing about it.
Whether it was intentional or not, Joe Biden stated Sharon was an "indomitable bulldozer” whose mission was security of Israeli people; ??? forgetting Rachel Corrie was murdered by a bulldozer ??? under Sharon's watch.
When one looks at Rachael's photo below, ask how a young woman like Rachel could be a threat to Israel and why do U.S. politicians continually allow Israel to get away with murder?
What Mr. Biden said was cold & incredibly callous !!! and an apology should be offered to Rachel's family.
Yossi Gurvitz, January 13, 2014, Article Source
From the Qibya massacre, to Sabra and Shatila, to the dirty tricks, lies and deceptions that made the West Bank settlements what they are today, Ariel Sharon has caused unimaginable damage to Israel, its army, morality, and political life.
[Photo at site: President George W. Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon laugh together during their joint press conference in the Rose Garden Tuesday, July 29, 2003. (Paul Morse/White House Photo)]
On Saturday night, as soon as Ariel Sharon’s death became known, our hyperactive Minister of Education Shai Piron rushed to announce that teachers would devote part of the following day’s lesson to Sharon’s legacy. These classes would be based on pre-prepared outlines which were supposed to be distributed in the morning. You can get a really good idea of what the minister really thinks of his teachers and how desperate he is for publicity from this announcement. How long would it take a teacher to properly prepare such a lesson? How long would it take teachers to study the material not included in the presentation?
Meanwhile, Minister of Public Security Yitzhak Aharonovitch rushed to instruct the police to open an investigation into the publication and posting of announcements expressing joy at the death of Sharon. “This is despicable,” fired up the minister, “and I have no intention of letting the matter rest. I strongly disapprove of such criminal behavior and I have requested police command to address the matter quickly and professionally.” Oy! The public security minister does not know his job. It is not the role of the police to enforce conformity of thought, but rather to investigate actual violations of the law. Expressing joy over the death of a person is not breaking the law, even if it annoys a lot of desensitized oafs.
So here are a few words about Sharon’s contribution.
This is Ariel Sharon as we must remember him: a killer from his youth. He served as the commander of Unit 101, which carried out a series of war crimes, as its members began to admit years later. One of the most well-known was the “reprisal operation” on the West Bank village of Qibya. (Its official name was Operation Shoshana, named after Shoshana Kanias whose was murder alongside that of her children was the reason given for the operation.) The operation command, written by Sharon in advance of the raid , stated that its goal was to “attack and conquer the village of Qibya, and the achievement of maximal killing and damage to property.” His order was carried out in full, and 69 Palestinian civilians were murdered in their homes. Sharon and his men would later contend that they did not notice the inhabitants when they blew up their homes. This argument is, well, somewhat inconsistent with the order’s wording — something that Sharon would only admit decades later.
[Photo at site: Inhabitants of Qibya coming back in their village after its attack by israeli forces, October 1953.]
In the beginning of 1955, one of his Sharon’s subordinates, Meir Har-Zion, alongside three other members of Unit 101, went on a private revenge attack in Jordan. Har-Zion murdered members of a Bedouin tribe which were suspected of murdering his sister. Sharon knew about the revenge attack, and according to some testimonies, even gave Har-Zion the weapons that he ended up using. Neither Har-Zion nor Sharon were ever tried for the killing.
Around the same time, Sharon sent some paratroopers to rough up Uri Avnery, editor of the oppositional newspaper Haolam Hazeh, which had raised the ire of the Ben-Gurion’s corrupt regime. It isn’t clear whether the latter was aware or unaware of Sharon’s plans, or merely gave a wink and a nod for the attack.
Three years after Qibya, Sharon led the Paratroopers Brigade into an unnecessary battle at the Mitla Pass in the Egyptian-controlled Sinai Peninsula. He never received authorization to attack the narrow pass, so he persuaded the high command to allow him to send a “reconnaissance patrol” to the area. Instead, he sent a whole battalion. The result was a battle in which 38 paratroopers died in vain. The IDF’s well oiled machine rushed to bullshit the public, convincing everyone that it was a heroic battle, which indeed it was, omitting the fact that it was the most unnecessary of that war’s battles.
Away from main focus of the fighting, one of Sharon’s subordinates, Arieh Biro, a company commander in Battalion 890, murdered dozens Egyptian POWs. Later on, he regretted not having bothered to remove the ropes that bound the hands of the prisoners after the murder, which enabled the Egyptians to deduce that they were murdered upon capture. Biro continued his army career and reached the rank of Brigadier-General. No one bothered to find out what Sharon knew of the massacre.
On the eve of the Six Day War, when the government showed signs of standing up to the army brass’ pressure to go to war, Sharon proposed that the General Staff carry out a military coup. His impression was that such a coup would be welcomed with a sigh of relief by the government. The proposal was taken of the agenda without any discussion, but Sharon was not tried and executed for treason, as required by law.
The Six Day War and the Yom Kippur War were Sharon’s finest hours, when he was revealed to be a brilliant tactician. Nevertheless, both the government and the General Staff soon discovered, in Ben-Gurion’s inimitable words, that he had not been weaned off telling untruths. The military victories catapulted Sharon into the political arena. No one talks about his deliberate neglect of the Bar Lev line out of personal contempt for static defense during his time as GOC Southern Command.
As minister for agriculture, and even more so as defense minister, Sharon became the father of the West Bank settlements as we know them today. He holds the copyright for many of the dirty tricks, lies and deceptions that accompany all Jewish construction beyond the Green Line. He shoved settlements here and there like headless nails, knowing with certainty that the inability to extract them is the very obstacle which would prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state. These headless nails, which guarantee eternal conflict, are Sharon’s most indelible legacy.
In 1982, Sharon, with extensive support from the IDF, misled the Israeli government and embarked on a much larger campaign in Lebanon than that envisaged by his colleagues. The goal of the campaign — expelling the PLO from Lebanon and dealing a deadly blow to Palestinian national aspirations– was presented to the public as a quick-fix operation of short duration, with the express purpose of removing the Palestinian Katyusha rockets from the border region. Somehow, the public was duped into forgetting the fact that a ceasefire between Israel and the PLO had been kept for 13 months, and was only violated when Israel attacked PLO bases, located in Palestinian refugee camps, from the air.
The war became the most divisive event in Israel’s history until that point. The lies being put out by the IDF, Sharon and the government were so farfetched that they were exposed as ridiculous within a short time. The media, of course, jumped to attention. The best example was the conquest of Beaufort castles: since Sharon informed Begin that Israel took no casualties during that operation – it is not clear if he was mistaken or lied per his usual habit – and Begin repeated it to reporters, no newspaper dared challenge the prime minister’s word. Anyone who wanted to know what happened needed to read the deaths notices.
As far as large segments of the Israeli public were concerned, the war reached its nadir with the massacre of Sabra and Shatila. The notion that it was a massacre committed by Christians against Muslims has been very well inculcated in the minds of the Israeli public. Technically it is true – but in the process of accepting that interpretation, some critical facts were made to vanish, including: the IDF armed those who carried out the massacre; the IDF surrounded West Beirut; the perpetrators made their way into West Beirut at the invitation and with the assistance of the IDF; IDF artillery fired flares which facilitated the massacre and later on the helped the Phalangists conceal the bodies.
The massacre shocked the Israeli public. Then came that mythological demonstration of the 400,000 people, and eventually the government was forced to established the Kahan Commission of Inquiry. It concluded that IDF officers knew about the massacre in real time and failed to act decisively to stop it. The commission recommended that Sharon be held responsible and resign his post. Sharon declined, and the government considered rejecting the commission’s recommendations. A demonstration calling on Sharon to resign was held in Jerusalem. A lynch mob attacked it with unprecedented violence. Toward the end of the demonstration, a small-time crook and right-wing activist, Yona Avrushmi, tossed a grenade into the gathering. One demonstrator, Emile Grunzweig, was killed, while seven others were injured. When the wounded were taken to the hospital, the mob attacked them inside the emergency room.
The impact of Grunzweig’s murder forced the government to remove Sharon from office. He spent the next two decades in the party’s backwater, continuously plotting his next move. Following Netanyahu’s resignation as head of the Likud in 1999, Sharon quickly took over the helm of the party. He became prime minister soon after the start of the Second Intifada – of which he, through his provocative tour of the Temple Mount/Haram al Sharif, was one of the catalysts.
The years 2001-2004 were the years of major bloodletting. More Israelis were killed in terrorist attacks under Sharon’s watch than at any other time. Sharon fought a cruel battle of attrition. His goal was to crush the Palestinian Authority and grind the Oslo Accords into dust. On his orders, every Hamas terrorist attack was followed by an IDF attack on the PA’s facilities and personnel. The blood of Israelis was flowing like water on top of the alter of Sharon’s not-so-quiet population transfer. His other goal: a body blow to the Palestinian middle class, forcing them to flee.
It was still too early to say whether this strategy has achieved its goal. The amounts of blood, Jewish and Palestinian, that Sharon was willing to shed to subdue the Palestinian Authority was phenomenal. But in the middle of it all, Sharon found himself with an unexpected problem: his corrupt deeds over the years were coming home to roost. The State Attorney’s office was trying to find out how the hell Sharon’s son, Gilad, received three million dollars from building contractor Dudi Appel to surf the internet. Appel was later convicted of bribery.
Hard-pressed by the investigations and the erosion of Israel’s international status, and concerned about the increasing popularity of the Geneva Initiative, Sharon hit the road running with his Gaza Disengagement Plan. The goal was a faux withdrawal in order to prove that a withdrawal was impossible. Sharon refused to negotiate with the Palestinians on the issue, even after Arafat died and was replaced by Mahmoud Abbas. He insisted on a unilateral move, and subsequently, a Hamas victory. It was not a bug in the system: it was the central feature.
On that path, Sharon needed to confront the settlers. They, who used to admire Sharon, soon discovered what life was like when a lying, crushing bulldozer turned around over them. Sharon ignored his defeat in the Likud Central Committee. He managed to push the Disengagement Bill through the Knesset – and in the process forced Netanyahu to vote for it four times, after the latter was defeated on the night of the “banana coup” (a failed attempt to remove Sharon) – and simply went on with the implementation. When Chief of Staff Moshe “Boogie” Ya’alon told the media that the withdrawal would aid terrorism by “providing it with a tailwind,” Sharon did not blink, and Ya’alon became one of the few chiefs of staff who did not get a fourth year extension.
But fools love power, believe in it and nurture it to grow: following the Disengagement, war criminal Ariel Sharon became Israel’s hero. He was the media’s idol. It rewarded him with one title after another. He was somewhat less admired in the Likud, but then he split the party up, forming Kadima — an ideologically-challenged skeleton of a party, tailor made to Sharon’s measurements.
That was Sharon’s last maneuver. Shortly thereafter, following opinion polls showing that Kadima was slated to win about 50 seats in the Knesset, he suffered his first stroke. As usual, his courtiers lied and said everything was fine. A month later, Sharon suffered a second stroke .
And now he has finally died after long years of unimaginable damage to Israel, its army, morality, and political life. After long decades of shedding innocent blood. To a large extent, Israel’s media hurried to sweep away much of what is written here. It would annoy readers. They may stop reading. It’s not good for circulation.
Such is the stuff beautiful legends are made of.
Related: Former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon dies at 85 ~~ Ariel Sharon and my political education
Remembering Rachel Corrie
Murdered by Ariel Sharon & Israel on March 16, 2003
The Killing Zone from Global Information ServicesGaza: Israelis kill Rachel Corrie with a bulldozer. Tom Hurndall, James Miller and thousands of innocent Palestinian children, women and men are also killed.
My Name Is Rachel Corrie [The Play] from No Lies RadioThis play by Alan Rickman and Katharine Viner is based on the writings of Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old American who was crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer in Gaza while trying to save a Palestinian home from demolition.
This is a No Lies Radio News Live Video-Cast from Marin County, California on April 16, 2011.
Image placed here to avoid hot linking.
Above original located here @ imgur & derived from here.
Mike Wilhelm ~ Charlatans, Flamin' Groovies, Loose Gravel, and more
Flamin' Groovies - Don't Put Me On - 1978 ~ vimeo.com/22856565
Notes from ~@~
True Kings of Rock and Roll # 6 : Chuck Berry ~ vimeo.com/17994980
Steven Leech ~ Writer, Poet, D.J.
After All those Happy Endings
by Steven Leech, Sunday, March 10, 2013, Article Source
One writing idea I've had, but won't be using because I'm no longer writing literary art, is to continue the story after those happy endings from popular American cinema. A variant might be to recount incidents behind the scenes, which we don't see, that occur in those films. I played around a little with this idea in my novel UNTIME, but since I won't be taking the idea into any new writing projects it's an idea that maybe others might find useful.
Here's an example of one specific idea I've had of the continuance of the storyline from a fairly well known American movie. See if you can guess which one:
The story begins in Wilmington in October 1948. Frank and Nora McCloud have just gotten off the train at the Wilmington train station. They are on a honeymoon trip to New York City. Along the way from Nora's home in Florida where they had got married, they departed the train at several locations to see the sights. Among those have been Savannah, Washington D.C., and Wilmington, Delaware. Nora's father-in-law, James Temple, came from a long line of hotel owners, so they decided to visit hotels her father-in-law had told her about to wile away the time during the war when her husband had been overseas. One of those hotels had been the Terminal Hotel in Wilmington, which was conveniently across the street from the Wilmington train station.
Frank McCloud was a World War II veteran. Before the war he had been a newspaper reporter. He had served as a major in the army during the Italian campaign. One of the men in his unit, George Temple, had been killed during the battle of Cassino. Frank had promised George that if he didn't survive his wounds he would pay a visit to his wife and father-in-law at their home in Florida.
Frank McCloud's trip to Florida after the war proved eventful. While there, just as the tourist season had ended, a group of mob figures headed by Gianni Rocco showed up and commandeered the hotel. They had arrived by boat from Cuba with a stash of counterfeit money they planned to sell to some underworld figures from Miami. Next a major hurricane rolled in.
After waiting for an opportunity to get the drop on Rocco, Frank could make his move. Gianni appreciated a good hot bath while smoking his best Cuban panatela, the ashes falling in the sudsy water. He was surrounded by his goons. It wasn't 'til it was time to go after the hurricane subsided, that Frank could make his move. With the help of gangster moll, former singer and ex-chorus girl Gaye Dawn, who slipped Frank a pistol, he could get the drop on each of the gangsters where Nora and Mr. Temple were out of danger. It would be a story Nora would tell 'til her dying day because the incident would lead to their getting married.
After their honeymoon they returned to run the hotel because George Temple had bequeathed it to Nora unconditionally. James was infirm and getting older. They had many happy times through the remainder of the 1940s and the early years of the 50s. They had had a son, but new crises had hit all at once in the mid 50s.
Nora's husband and father-in-law died within a year of one another. Frank had terminal cancer. After James Temple died of a heart attack, Nora became sole owner of the hotel. Nora, still a young woman with a son to raise, hung onto the hotel with an enterprising local Seminole named Jay until 1968 when he died. That same year, her son was old enough to leave home to roam among the guests and the gangsters in Miami, and even though he made a lot of money, Nora was still dismayed and worried over her son's choices.
With her son gone and her business partner dead, Nora decided to sell the hotel. The hotel was still turning a dollar, so it was a good sale. Afterwards, Nora retired to Key West, bought a nice but modest house, and became a parrot head. Every now and then her son would visit. He'd become a "businessman." He'd bring his buddies from Miami, mostly rough trade. Thugs, Nora would think. They reminded her of Gianni Rocco.
Nora was not surprised to learn about her son's sudden demise in a room in the Terminal Hotel in the late 1970s. It had become a dive where dirty deals went down. One of those deals had cost her son's life.
These are the stories Nora's still repeats, sipping her Piña Colada under a broad fringed umbrella, in the cafés of Key West. An aura of Hemingway hangs in the air. She is famous but keeps her distance. She only loosens up when Jimmy Buffett holds a concert. She still knows how to sway those hips.
You've guessed the movie by now. Next is to write.
Karl Cohen ~ Association International du Film d'Animation-SF Newsletter
What we are seeing in the news now was a govt. policy to spy on citizens, disrupt dissenters, make them paranoid, etc. and dates, at least, back to this unsolved case. This short documentary is another disturbing footnote in the history of the US ~ KC
VIDEO: Stealing J. Edgar Hoover's Secrets
One night in 1971, files were stolen from an F.B.I. office near Philadelphia. They proved that the bureau was spying on thousands of Americans. The case was unsolved, until now. [Click below to watch video]
http://www.nytimes.com/video/us/100000002635482/stealing-j-edgar-hoovers-secrets.html
Keith Lampe ~ Co-Founder of YIPPIE and Progressive Activist Groups + Video Channel
From Keith Lampe, Ro-Non-So-Te, Ponderosa Pine:
A Day in the Life: January 2nd & 3rd, 2014 Newsletter‘Mossad: Bush planned, executed 9/11’
By Gordon Duff, Article Source
Press TV Related Interviews: Israel lobby ‘controls US politics’ ~ ‘Israel provoking US to strike Syria’
Recent revelations published on the Press TV website, the New York Post and Veterans Today have changed history.
The story was simple, two American congressional representatives were allowed to read the Congressional 9/11 Investigation Report, this time including the areas President Bush had ordered removed. Both congressmen clearly state that the redacted pages of the report place full responsibility for the planning and execution of 9/11 on one or more foreign intelligence agencies, not “terrorists.”
What is also clear is that President Bush’s personal role in covering this up protected the real perpetrators of 9/11 and pushed the US into, not just two insane wars but draconian moves against America’s government.
The NSA and the Bush 9/11 coup
Nine eleven was a coup against the constitution. Additional reports released this week make clear some of the reasons Bush lied to the American people, to congress, our military and our allies, “Obama’s Director for National Intelligence, James Clapper, has declassified new documents that reveal how the NSA was first given the green light to start collecting bulk communication data in the hunt for Al-Qaeda terrorists after 9/11.
President Barack Obama’s administration has for the first time publicly confirmed ‘the existence of collection activities authorized by President George W. Bush,’ such as bulk amounts of Internet and phone metadata, as part of the ‘Terrorist Surveillance Program’ (TSP). The disclosures are part of Washington’s campaign to justify the NSA’s surveillance activities, following massive leaks to the media about the classified programs by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
Clapper explained on Saturday that President George W. Bush first authorized the spying in October 2001, just weeks after the September 11 attacks.”
We can prove Bush was fully criminally culpable in covering the tracks of those responsible for 9/11.
AIPAC through Bandar and bush “under a bus”
More frighteningly, the articles published this week in Rupert Murdoch’s New York Daily News, written by Hoover Institute fellow and AIPAC member, Paul Sperry, now not only blame Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia as the 9/11 mastermind but tie Bush (43) in as well.
In fact, the entire AIPAC apparatus, the largest lobbying organization in Washington, is currently engaged in a “full court press,” to stop congress from pushing for the release of the real report. Is this because the real report accuses Israel, not Saudi Arabia, and AIPAC wants the Murdoch/Sperry story to stand?
From: Rethinking 9/11
YOU ARE LOOKING AT A US GOVERNMENT LIE
On Friday 14 December 2001 a videotape of Osama bin Laden "confessing" to the 9/11 attacks was released. The tape was supposedly found in a house in Qandahar, Afghanistan. The recording was of very poor audio and visual quality and the authenticity of the tape was questioned.
This annoyed President Bush who said "It is preposterous to think this tape was doctored."
Okay, let's have a look.
Here's 5 Osama's - which is the odd one out?Bin Laden myth “crashes down”
The real report, called “shocking” by the legislators, who have called for President Obama to declassify the entire report, proves that there was no al-Qaeda involvement, no reason to invade Afghanistan or Iraq and no reason to hunt CIA operative, Colonel Tim Osman, also known as “Osama bin Laden.”
In fact, Ambassador Lee Wanta, a former White House Intelligence Chief and Inspector General of the Department of Defense under Reagan, has cited meetings between key government officials and “bin Laden” that he attended, meetings held in both Los Angeles and Washington DC while the US was supposedly hunting him.
From Wanta, who was present during these meetings,
“In early 1990, bin Laden, suffering from advanced kidney disease, was flown to an American facility in the Persian Gulf. From there, bin Laden flew to Los Angeles, landing in the Ontario airport, met by Albert Hakim, representing President Bush (41), Ollie North (free on appeal bond), Admiral William Dickie, attorney Glenn Peglau and General Jack Singlaub, one of the founders of the CIA. Hakim was the personal representative of President Bush and in overall charge of the project. ‘Bud’ McFarlane, an Iran-Contra figure pardoned by President Bush in 1992, was also a part of the group.
Bin Laden then left Los Angeles for Washington DC. There he stayed in the Mayflower Hotel. Meetings were held at the Metropolitan Club in Washington. Attorney Glenn Peglau stayed at the Metropolitan. While there, Peglau’s room was broken into and “items” removed. At no point is there record, classified or public, that this ‘working group’ was ever dissolved nor is there any record that Osama bin Laden’s status as a security operative working for the US government ever ended. In 2001, Osama bin Laden’s last public statement denied any involvement in the 9/11 attacks. There are no classified documents tying bin Laden to 9/11 or citing him to be a ‘rogue CIA operative.’”
Which 9/11 is real?
In 2007, the FBI flew a team to Bangkok to interview former Soviet nuclear intelligence specialist Dimitri Khalezov. Khalezov told the FBI that, in the morning of September 12, 2001, he attended a breakfast gathering with Mossad Operations Chief Mike Harari and his son along with other Israeli operatives.
Khalezov reported to the FBI that this gathering was to celebrate the 9/11 attacks, not as Netanyahu had said, as a “fortunate happenstance for Israel” but as a Mossad attack on the United States. At that meeting, Harari also claimed credit for a role in the Oklahoma City bombing. According to Khalezov, Harari was courting him to join their group for an upcoming operation, a bombing attack on Bali, scheduled for 2002.
On October 12, 2002, a huge explosive device devastated nearly a square mile killing 202 people. An Islamic group was blamed, just as with not just 9/11 but, initially, Oklahoma City as well.
Khalezov told FBI agents that Harari claimed nuclear weapons were used to bring down the twin towers on 9/11. Harari also said he got a “cruise type” missile, a Soviet “Granit” for the Pentagon attack, purchased through Victor Bout, the “Lord of War” played by Nicholas Cage in the film of the same name.
Bout, residing in Bangkok with Harari and Khalezov, was extradited to the United States based on a highly classified indictment accusing him of supplying the guided missile used to attack the Pentagon on 9/11. Bout was arrested in Bangkok in 2008, not long after the FBI visit. He was officially convicted of supplying arms to rebels in Colombia, an activity Bout had long been engaged in on behalf of the CIA, his arms dealing partners for many years.
Leaks
Thus far, the initial report to congress on the Bush falsification does not qualify as a leak. Only Bush stands accused, the 9/11 perpetrators are still safe, their identities still protected by security protocols maintained by President Obama, despite congressional demands.
“Claimed” leaks reported by Sperry in the Washington Post blame Bandar and Saudi Intelligence for 9/11. Sperry cites the CIA as a source but, quite suspiciously, seems to be attempting to deflect the possible fallout against Israel when or if then real report is made public. The Sperry story, coordinated with AIPAC’s moves to quell congress’s demand to declassify the report may well be an indication that Israeli intelligence, as Khalezov indicates, worked with Bush to plan and execute 9/11.
From the Press TV article:
“This week, Congressional representatives Stephen Lynch (D-MA) and Walter Jones (R-NC) have officially requested a congressional resolution demanding President Obama declassify the heavily redacted Congressional Investigative Report on 9/11. The two representatives had just been given authority under penalty of ‘national security secrecy’ to read the censored 28 pages of the 800-page report that had not been seen. What has been made clear is that President Bush was fully aware that neither Afghanistan nor Iraq were involved in 9/11 and that military action against those two nations was done to cover involvement of his administration in 9/11, involvement that included support from foreign intelligence agencies.
The representatives, while reviewing the report, came to the portion titled ‘Specific Sources of Foreign Support.’
A 28-page section here had been ‘butchered’ by the White House on the personal orders of President Bush. On the original report given to Congress, an estimated 5-10,000 words were omitted from this section with page after page of dotted lines replacing text.”
This is only the most recent of revelations that AIPAC has managed to suppress through pressuring congress and its powerful assets in the press. What is increasingly clear is that many of AIPAC’s allies in Washington had access to the non-redacted report. An entire administration, leaders in congress and the Pentagon, the CIA, NSA and a dozen other organizations, all knew what was in the congressional report. They all lied to the 9/11 Commission. They all ordered measures to suppress freedom at home and to butcher hundreds of thousands around the world, kidnap and torture thousand more, all based on lies.
Countries were virtually wiped off the map on a whim. Often we hear it asked, “How could thousands be involved in a conspiracy so heinous?” We now stand ready to answer. The time has come to ask.
RISKS-LIST: RISKS-FORUM Digest Tuesday 11 April 1989 Volume 8 : Issue 54
FORUM ON RISKS TO THE PUBLIC IN COMPUTERS AND RELATED SYSTEMS ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy, Peter G. Neumann, moderator
Date: Tue, 11 Apr 89 08:12:04 PDT
From: cas@toad.com (Curtis Spangler)
Subject: NSA and Not Secure AgenciesSan Francisco Chronicle, Chronicle Wire Services, April 11, 1989:
"Computer Group Wary of Security Agency
A public interest group said yesterday that the National Security Agency, the nation's biggest intelligence agency, could exert excessive control over a program to strengthen the security of computer systems throughout the federal government.
The group, Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility - based in Palo Alto - urged key members of Congress to focus "particularly close scrutiny" on the agency's role in helping to implement legislation aimed at safeguarding sensitive but unclassified information in federal computers.
"There is a constant risk that the federal agencies, under the guise of enhancing computer security, may find their programs - to the extent that they rely upon computer systems - increasingly under the supervision of the largest and most secretive intelligence organization in the country," it said."
3.3-magnitude quake reported near Cobb
Proton Flux from GOES-13 Electron Flux and GOES Hp from GOES-13 and GOES-15 ~ NOAA
Nonprofit builds tiny houses for Wisconsin homeless
via WVMT, TV ~ Madison, Wisconsin + related video at site.
HAPPY NEW YEAR from Paul Krassner ~ photograph by Nancy CainPredictions for 2014
By Paul Krassner ~ for alternet.org
*Steve Jobs, the late founder and chief designer of the Apple Empire, will be honored posthumously by the Wall Street Journal for morphing the concept of planned obsolescence from a negative aspect of capitalism into a shrewd marketing virtue.
*Toddlers who can turn the pages of an electronic magazine on iPad with the swipe of a finger will get frustrated and have tantrums trying to turn the pages of a physical print magazine.
*Millennials will enjoy watching Avatar on their iPhones.
*Google’s chief executive, Larry Page, will retract his prognostication that “Eventually you’ll have an implant, where you think about a fact, it will just tell you the answer.”
*Jeff Bezos, who is now the owner of both Amazon.com and the Washington Post, will arrange for subscribers to pay extra for having their copies of the Post delivered by drones.
*Chelsea Manning –- formerly Bradley Manning –- will escape from prison with the aid of wealthy supporters. She will be flown to Russia, staying with fellow patriot Edward Snowden until she finds a place of her own. However, Vladimir Putin will interfere with Manning’s asylum, threatening to throw him out. But Manning’s attorneys will then convince President Putin that, since Manning is of the transgender persuasion, having intercourse with a male individual would legally be considered a heterosexual act.
*Dan Savage -- the gay activist who successfully led a mass online prank, landing the word Santorum listed on Google as “1. The frothy mix of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the byproduct of anal sex. 2. Senator Rick Santorum [infamous for homophobia]” –- will reveal potential presidential candidate Ted Cruz as a user of Viagra, and although Cruz will fail to obtain an erection, his right arm will stiffen and go straight up.
*House Speaker John Boehner will copyright the phrase, “Are you kidding me?”
*The square Hitler-style mustache will replace goatees as a fashion statement.
*Donald Trump will announce that he plans to make a run for the White House in the 2016 election, but inasmuch as he is an admitted germaphobic and therefore wouldn’t like to shake hands with countless strangers in the process, he will conduct his entire campaign wearing latex gloves.
*Campaign finance reform will finally become a reality as the result of a new law requiring all political contributors to remain anonymous.
*The electoral college will be replaced by a system where voters will choose the polling firm they trust the most.
*Mitt Romney will start smoking a pipe to help him portray the imaginary ultra-straight character Bob Dobbs in a movie about Dobbs’ infamously irreverent Church of the Subgenius.
*Cuban President Raul Castro will no longer accept $1 a year as rent for the United States’ prison in Guantanamo Bay. Rather, he will not only demand a million every month, but he will also insist that Barack Obama lift all sanctions. Castro will become angry with his brother Fidel, who ruled Cuba for almost fifty years, and yet he will end up leading a crusade for term limits.
*President Obama’s primary care physician will leave the White House and return to private practice, because he isn’t listed on Obama’s insurance policy network of doctors in his area.
*The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) will add a new rating for the film industry: PS, for Predictable Screenplay.
*It will be discovered that the first successful cloning of a human being took place twenty years ago, brought to public attention by his act of suing the scientific team that brought him into an unhappy life. The case will be dismissed as a frivolous lawsuit.
*In a moment of vulnerability, Pope Francis will blurt out from his balcony during a speech to a shocked crowd standing in Vatican Square, “After all, you know, I’m not infallible.”
*A horde of angry apes will ransack the Board of Education in Texas for not allowing evolution to be taught.
*Netflix and Hulu will merge, and along with the growth of binge viewers, a mysterious disease will become known as Netflu.
*Organized crime will attempt to produce counterfeit Bitcoins.
*Inspired by Milo Minderbinder, the entrepreneurial hustler in Joseph Heller’s novel, Catch-22, the Monsanto Company will market genetically engineered chocolate-covered cotton.
*There will be an epidemic of genetically engineered crops being inundated with genetically engineered crop circles.
*Show business celebrity vegetarian converts will include Lady Gaga, who will wear a dress made entirely of heirloom tomatoes, and Meatloaf, who will change his name to Tofuloaf.
*Paranoid hip-hop rapper fans will no longer trust Snopes.com because that website states that Kanye West did not say, “I am the next Nelson Mandela.”
*Louis Uccellini, director of the National Weather Service, will be charged with sexual harassment when he names a tornado Pussy.
*Adolescent boys will trigger a trend across the country with a ritual known as a circle twerk.
*Free online pornography will be allowed in public libraries, but moaning out loud will not be permitted.
*Fetal transplants from poor pregnant girls to wealthy anti-abortion women will become a controversial practice.
*Prescription drugs will serve as a new trend in children’s genderless names, with such examples as Lipitor and Cialis.
*A whistle-blower at the Department of Energy will leak a report concluding that so-called “clean coal” is actually “filthy dirty.”
*Hundred of thousands of jobs will be created as Unemployment Insurance clerks.
*In a surprising change of moral values, The Bank of America will stop doing phone business with the reactionary AT&T. Instead, they will switch to the progressive Credo.
*The Nobel Peace Prize will be secretly awarded to Anonymous.
*North Korea’s beloved young leader will permit 70 McDonald’s restaurants to open all over his dictatorial realm. But, following in his father’s footsteps, he will not allow them to sell any food.
*All around the U.S., Chinese restaurants will substitute the recently popularized word “takeaway” for “takeout” meals.
*A medical team –- the same researchers who concluded that pregnant women who eat peanuts are less likely to give birth to a baby that’s allergic to peanuts -- will visit Mr. Peanut, the logo character of Planter’s Peanuts, wearing a top hat, monocle and holding his elegant cane, in a hospital room where he is severely ill. He will be diagnosed as being allergic to human beings.
*Sociologists and anthropologists will take out a full-page ad in the New York Times condemning the “knockout game” as “utterly barbarian,” just as Conrad Alvin Barrett will be going on trial for assaulting a defenseless African-American man at random for no reason except to capture himself on a selfie cellphone video saying, “The plan is to see if I were to hit a black person, would this be nationally televised?” His lawyers will argue that the charge of a “hate crime” is not “equal justice under the law” because the punishment is more than other attackers in the knockout game are sentenced to. The defense team will further claim that hate crimes are unconstitutional because the law discriminates against racists, that all such crimes are hate crimes, and that the only love crime is an assisted suicide.
*The War on Christmas will continue until Easter, because Jesus will come. He will have a tattoo on the bicep of his left arm. Inside a red heart there will be the letters WWID (What Would I Do). He will stop at a soup kitchen on Skid Row and with the soup he will be given a grilled cheese sandwich. He will be thrilled to see on that sandwich an image of himself as an infant, suckling on his mother’s breast. He will suddenly shout out with joy to his fellow homeless friends: “Happy Holidays!”
*There will be a global competition for the best rationalization by a cult leader when the world doesn’t come to an end on any of those days that they prophesized it would.
*Everybody except you will go viral for fifteen minutes.
flyingsnail.com ~ Disclaimer
1. Be a Fundamentalist -- make sure the Fun always comes before the mental. Realize that life is a situation comedy that will never be canceled. A laugh track has been provided, and the reason why we are put in the material world is to get more material. Have a good laughsitive twice a day, and that will ensure regularhilarity.
2. Remember that each of us has been given a special gift, just for entering - so you are already a winner!
3. The most powerful tool on the planet today is Tell-A-Vision. That is where I tell a vision to you, and you tell a vision to me. That way, if we don't like the programming we're getting, we can simply change the channel.
4. Life is like photography. You use the negative to develop.
5. It is true. As we go through life thinking heavy thoughts, thought particles tend to get caught between the ears, causing a condition called truth decay. So be sure to use mental floss twice a day. And when you're tempted to practice tantrum yoga, remember what we teach in Swami's Absurdiveness Training class: *Don't get even, get odd.*
6. If we want world peace, we must let go of our attachments and truly live like nomads. That's where I no mad at you, you no mad at me. That way, there'll surely be nomadness on the planet. And peace begins with each of us. A little peace here, a little peace there, pretty soon all the peaces will fit together to make one big peace everywhere.
7. I know great earth changes have been predicted for the future, so if you're looking to avoid earthquakes, my advice is simple. When you find a fault, just don't dwell on it.
8. There's no need to change the world. All we have to do is toilet train the world, and we'll never have to change it again.
9. If you're looking to find the key to the Universe, I have some bad news and some good news. The bad news is: there is no key to the Universe. The good news is: it has been left unlocked.
10. Finally, everything I have told you is channeled. That way, if you don't like it, it's not my fault. And remember, enlightenment is not a bureaucracy. So we don't have to go through channels.
Swami Beyondananda's Guidelines for Millennium Enlightenment, Date: Sun, 15 Jul 2001 22:16:48 -0500, Permmalink
Freedom of expression and freedom of speech aren't really important unless they're heard...It's hard for me to stay silent when I keep hearing that peace is only attainable through war. And there's nothing more scary than watching ignorance in action. So I dedicated this Emmy to all the people who feel compelled to speak out and not afraid to speak to power and won't shut up and refuse to be silenced. ~ Tom Smothers
Internet
1991-2013Destroyed by the: Bush Administration, Obama Administration, and Evil, Greedy Corporations who had NOTHING to do with Internet Construction ~ [Click tombstone to see 100 Oldest Registered .COM Domains]
CURRENT THOUGHTS & OPINION
INTERNET = NOPE!
Having survived initial net withdrawal, while continuing to reduce net access, leads me to believe I will eventually be able to get off this compromised, spying, POS known as Internet!
Internet could have resulted in becoming a true treasure for humanity, but unfortunately your owners did not want that to happen.
The proverbial hit the fan when Google insinuated flyingsnail.com was not safe & stated "This site may be compromised. Jul 1, 2012 - Flying Snail - News & Views for Remnants of Paradise ... a strong feminist (and in Russia, utterly alien) message is at the heart of their work." (Screenshot below):
The (above) page in question passed W3C validation and was not "Compromised," as suggested (Screenshot below); proving one can not trust Google comments:
After Google's untrue insinuation, flyingsnail.com access dropped over seventy-five percent (75%) and page rank dropped from 6 to 3.
EMAIL = NOPE!
Unless notified otherwise, those still sending email using banned addresses will need to know the following.
For a slew of reasons all incoming email goes through Guardians.
Email from banned services goes directly into quarantine.
A list of five (5) quarantined emails is sent once a week, which can be rejected or accepted.
There is a master quarantine vault containing thousands of unread mail and "thousands" is 'minimalist speak,' in this case.
On occasion, when an email score is close to passing (yes, there is a scoring system and it constantly improves) a different set of rules 'kick in' and notification is sent. This is why those using a banned email server got a response.
eSHOPPING = NOPE!
This was almost another addiction and at first incredibly convenient; however, it seems to have changed and personally, I no longer trust eShopping or using a phone to shop.
According to recent news, somebody got their hands on millions of US bank PIN numbers and related account information; which appears to mean all those people affected will need to change those PIN numbers, credit cards, debit cards, etc.?
My first bad experiences involved purchasing music for gifts; where the recipient never received the gift, but the store computer said it did. I tried to get this fixed, but it was never rectified, so I stopped trusting that service, let those credit cards expire, and have not used it since.
CORPORATE LIES = YUP!
Lately, there have been outcries from Corporate America who sold out their users and here is the reason why:
It was discovered internal servers in these corporations; specifically the ones POS corporate executives use, were being watched and recorded; meaning it was okay for corporations to hand over user information, but when their own executives were being spied on, they complained.
POS corporations knew spying was being done as far back as the '90s and here is proof directly from the NSA:
http://www.nsa.gov/research/selinux/background.shtml:
SELinux Background~ Researchers in the National Information Assurance Research Laboratory of the National Security Agency (NSA) worked with Secure Computing Corporation (SCC) to develop a strong, flexible mandatory access control architecture based on Type Enforcement, a mechanism first developed for the LOCK system. The NSA and SCC developed two Mach-based prototypes of the architecture: DTMach and DTOS. The NSA and SCC then worked with the University of Utah's Flux research group to transfer the architecture to the Fluke research operating system. During this transfer, the architecture was enhanced to provide better support for dynamic security policies. This enhanced architecture was named Flask. The NSA integrated the Flask architecture into the GNU/Linux® operating system to transfer the technology to a larger developer and user community. The architecture has been subsequently mainstreamed into GNU/Linux® and ported to several other systems, including the Solaris™ (Sun Microsystems/Oracle) operating system, the freeBSD® operating system, and the Darwin (Apple) kernel, spawning a wide range of related work.
In other words, today, unless one is willing to give up all forms of current communication, as well as debit cards, credit cards, anything containing GPS, etc. there is no privacy.
Finally, it is important to remember politicians allow corporations to get away with legal murder, so ... it may be time for a corporate death penalty?
Web Reputation 100%
Here's how data thieves have
captured our lives on the internetIt's not just governments. Companies such as Google and Facebook spy on us too. We have clicked through to their 'free' digital services at the cost of sacrificing our privacy. So how do we get out?
John Naughton, The Observer, Sunday 29 December 2013, Article Source
Internet surveillance. Everything we do online is tracked. Photograph: AlamyWhatever else 2013 will be remembered for, it will be known as the year in which a courageous whistleblower brought home to us the extent to which the most liberating communications technology since printing has been captured.
Although Edward Snowden's revelations initially seemed only to document the extent to which the state had exploited internet technology to create a surveillance system of unimaginable comprehensiveness, as the leaks flowed it gradually dawned on us that our naive lust for "free" stuff online had also enabled commercial interests effectively to capture the internet for their own purposes.
And, as if that realisation wasn't traumatic enough, Snowden's revelations demonstrated the extent to which the corporate sector – the Googles, Facebooks, Yahoos and Microsofts of this world – have been, knowingly or unknowingly, complicit in spying on us.
What it boils down to is this: we now know for sure that nothing that you do online is immune to surveillance, and the only people who retain any hope of secure communications are geeks who understand cryptography and use open-source software.
This is a big deal by any standards and we are all in Snowden's debt, for he has sacrificed his prospects of freedom and a normal life so that the rest of us would know what has happened to the technologies on we now depend. We can no longer plead ignorance as an excuse for alarm or inaction.
The scale and intrusiveness of the snooping have been shocking, even to technical experts who understood, in principle, what could be done. From there it is but a short step to demonising the NSA, GCHQ and their partners in surveillance. But to do so is to miss the point.
Security services are military agencies and they do what military forces do, which is to try to accomplish the missions they have been assigned given the resources they have been allocated. Questions about whether the missions are wise, or whether the collateral damage is too high, are above the pay-grade of even the most senior officers.
And since politicians on both sides of the Atlantic insist that everything the NSA and GCHQ are doing and have done is/was done under legal authority and democratic (that is, political) control it follows that the excesses unveiled by Snowden are the consequences of political judgments and misjudgments. Which means that the only way back to more sensible regimes is also a political one. Ultimately, in other words, this is about politics, not technology.
The democratic dilemma
Secrecy impales democracies on the horns of an existential dilemma. On the one hand, democracy abhors secrecy because it makes accountability impossible: citizens cannot consent to what is done in their name if they don't know about it. On the other hand, secrecy is sometimes essential because some things have to be covert – for example activities necessary to ensure the safety of citizens. Societies face a choice between sacrificing accountability; or sacrificing secrecy.
In practice, democracies have fudged the issue by lifting the veil of secrecy just enough to provide a semblance of accountability. In the US, this takes the form of a secret court, with secret hearings and judgments, and a congressional committee, which is pathologically deferential to the intelligence services.
In the UK we have an "oversight" system comprising a deferential Commons committee, together with a couple of retired judges who examine warranted or authorised operations and monitor GCHQ's compliance with the law. This is our semblance of accountability and one of the most important services rendered by Snowden is his exposure of how threadbare it now looks.
To put this point of view to senior British politicians, as some of us have done in the last few months, is to provoke furiously indignant responses. Of course, they insist, they are on top of things. They may not understand the technological details, but they understand perfectly the issues involved and the difficult balances that need to be struck. The boffins and the spooks are on tap, not on top. These ministers (and former ministers) are infuriated by the ignorant questioning of journalists who – unlike those inside the magic circle – don't know what is "really going on". What's more important in explaining the inadequacy of oversight is that most senior politicians in Britain seem remarkably ignorant about IT. A good illustration of this comes from their fond belief that the public would be reassured by the news that GCHQ and the NSA are "only" doing bulk collection of metadata. This was the argument used by William Hague when the Snowden revelations broke and it suggests that our ministers come to the task of regulating digital technology with analogue mindsets.
Metadata are, literally, "data about data". In the case of a mobile phone, they are the numbers called by the handset, the duration of calls, the geographical location of the phone during the call, etc.
In the case of an email, the metadata include the email addresses of sender, addressee, others cc'd, the date and time of dispatch and so on. In web browsing, metadata include a user's clickstream – ie a list of the URLs visited – and the IP address of the computer running the browser. Hague, Sir Malcolm Rifkind et al maintain that collecting metadata is innocuous because it does not involve reading the content of communications. For that a warrant – with the usual supposedly legal procedures and safeguards – is required. So everything is hunky-dory.
This complacency reveals an alarming ignorance of digital technology. In our world of pervasive communications, metadata are incredibly informative. They reveal, for example, everything that one has read online. And everywhere a mobile phone user has been. In a famous case-study some time ago a German politician successfully sued a phone company for his metadata and from it reconstructed an alarmingly accurate, detailed picture of his activities, communications and movements over a period of six months. Hoovering up metadata amounts to invasive, near-comprehensive surveillance.
What's more, it's done without a warrant because of a legal precedent that goes back to the era of analogue telephony – specifically a US supreme court judgment in 1979, which decided that metadata were the property of the telephone company, not of the individual to whose calls the metadata applied. This might have been a reasonable proposition when telephone calls were routed along copper wires, but it's completely inappropriate today. And it is one of the factors that has provided the intelligence agencies with legal immunity.
But the biggest misjudgment of all – the one that legitimised most of the excesses that Snowden has unveiled – was also a political one. It was the decision of the George W Bush administration to declare a "war on terror" in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks – and the eager adoption by the UK and other allies of the same stance.
As Professor Eben Moglen of Columbia University puts it, the intelligence agencies "presented with a mission by an extraordinarily imprudent national government in the United States, which having failed to prevent a very serious attack on American civilians at home, largely by ignoring warnings, decreed that they were never again to be put in a position where they should have known. This resulted in a military response, which is to get as close to everything as possible. Because if you don't get as close to everything as possible, how can you say that you knew everything that you should have known?" In a real war, one in which the very survival of a state is threatened by a foreign adversary, almost anything is permissible, including the suspension of civil liberties, the right to privacy and all the other things we liberals hold dear. Between 1939 and 1945, Britain was governed by what was effectively a dictatorship wielding unimaginable powers, including comprehensive censorship, the power to requisition private property on demand, and so on. Citizens might not have liked this regime, but they consented to because they understood the need for it.
The "war" on terror is not a war in this sense. It is a rhetorical device aimed at engineering consent for a particular political strategy. But it was enough to provide legislative cover for the acquisition by the US intelligence-gathering agencies of warlike powers, which included the means of surveilling every citizen on earth who had an internet connection, and every owner of a mobile phone in most countries of the world. The war on terror may have succeeded in turbocharging the surveillance capabilities of the US and its allies, but it has also inflicted significant collateral damage on the foreign policy of the US, threatened its dominance of cloud computing and other markets, undermined its major technology companies, infuriated some of its most important allies and superimposed a huge question-mark on the future of the internet as a global system. The war on terror may have made tactical sense in the traumatic months post-9/11. But as a political decision it has had a catastrophic long-term impact.
Surveillance as a business model
Some years ago, when writing a book on understanding the internet, I said that our networked future was bracketed by the dystopian nightmares of two old-Etonian novelists, George Orwell and Aldous Huxley. Orwell thought we would be destroyed by the things we fear, while Huxley thought that we would be controlled by the things that delight us. What Snowden has taught us is that the two extremes have converged: the NSA and its franchises are doing the Orwellian bit, while Google, Facebook and co are attending to the Huxleyean side of things.
In The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires, his magisterial history of the main communications technologies of the 20th century – telephone, radio, movies and television – the legal scholar Timothy Wu discerned a pattern.
Each technology started out as magnificently open, chaotic, collaborative, creative, exuberant and experimental, but in the end all were "captured" by charismatic entrepreneurs who went on to build huge industrial empires on the back of this capture. This is what has become known as the Wu cycle – "a typical progression of information technologies: from somebody's hobby to somebody's industry; from jury-rigged contraption to slick production marvel; from a freely accessible channel to one strictly controlled by a single corporation or cartel – from open to closed system".
The big question, Wu asked, was whether the internet would be any different? Ten years ago, I would have answered: "Yes." Having digested Snowden's revelations, I am less sure, because one of the things he has demonstrated is the extent to which the NSA has suborned the internet companies which have captured the online activities of billions of internet users. It has done this via demands authorised by the secret foreign intelligence surveillance (Fisa) court, but kept secret from the companies' users; and by tapping into the communications that flow between the companies' server farms across the world.
The reason this made sense is because so much of our communications and data are now entrusted to these internet giants. Tapping into them must have seemed a no-brainer to the NSA. After all, Google and Facebook are essentially in the same business as the agency. Its mission – comprehensive surveillance – also happens to be their business model.
The only difference is that whereas the spooks have to jump through some modest legal hoops to inspect our content, the companies get to read it neat. And the great irony is that this has been made possible because of our gullibility. The internet companies offered us shiny new "free" services in return for our acceptance of click-wrap "agreements" which allow them to do anything they damn well please with our data and content. And we fell for it. We built the padded cells in which we now gambol and which the NSA bugs at its leisure.
In our rush for "free" services, we failed to notice how we were being conned. The deal, as presented to us in the End User Licence Agreement, was this: you exchange some of your privacy (in the form of personal information) for the wonderful free services that we (Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Skype, etc) provide in return. The implication is that privacy is a transactional good – something that you own and that can be traded. But, in these contexts, privacy is an environmental good, not a transactional one. Why? Because when I use, say, Gmail, then I'm not only surrendering my privacy to Google, but the privacy of everyone who writes to me at my Gmail address. They may not have consented to this deal, but their email is being read by Google nonetheless. And before any lawyer (or Sir Malcolm Rifkind) pops up to object that having machines read one's communications is not the same thing as having a human being do it, let me gently inquire if they are up to speed on machine-learning algorithms? The fact that Mark Zuckerberg is not sitting there sucking his pencil and reading your status updates doesn't mean that his algorithms aren't making pretty astute inferences from those same updates – which is why Facebook probably knows that two people are going to have an affair before they do; or why one can make interesting inferences about the nature of a couple's marriage from inspection of their network graphs.
And this is where the interests of the NSA and the big internet companies converge. For what they have both managed to do is to abolish the practice of anonymous reading which, in the good old analogue days, we regarded as an essential condition for an open, democratic society. In a networked world, the spooks and the companies know everything you read, and the companies even know how long you spent on a particular page. And if you don't think that's creepy then you haven't been paying attention.
So what is to be done?
All of this we now know – or have belatedly realised – because of Snowden's courage. In less than three decades we have turned a liberating technology into a controlling one. The question now is whether we can extricate ourselves from this mess, or whether we have to resign ourselves to a comprehensively surveilled future?
The answer depends partly on whether we treat the Snowden revelations as evidence of a scandal or a crisis. As the political philosopher David Runciman points out, scandals happen all the time in democracies, but they generate little real change. They pass – and business-as-usual resumes.
Crises, in contrast, do provoke structural change. Our best hope, therefore, is that the Snowden revelations signal a crisis. If they do, then there are some obvious things to be done.
On the technology front, for example, the internet engineering task force needs to reconfigure the network so that every communication on it is encrypted, end-to-end. But, since this crisis has been caused by politics, ultimately only politics can fix it. So we need radically to beef up parliamentary oversight regimes of intelligence services. This requires parliamentarians who are: not awed by spooks or cowed by cant about "national security"; sceptical about the need for surveillance; and advised by truly independent experts. And while some surveillance activities will always need to be covert, activities that are kept secret simply because they would be deemed unacceptable if the public knew about them should be scrapped.
We also need some legislative changes. In particular, the law relating to metadata should be changed. Our metadata belong to us, not to communications providers, and any state monitoring of them should need a warrant. Bulk collection of metadata must end, not only because it threatens democratic values and infringes human rights, but also because it's a wasteful and ineffective way of countering the threats from which it supposedly protects us. And, on the regulatory front, internet companies should be made legally liable for securing any data that we entrust to them.
But finally, and most importantly, President Obama must declare an end to the "war" on terror so that we can all get back to the legitimate and important police work that needs to be done.
John Naughton's book, From Gutenberg to Zuckerberg: What you really need to know about the Internet, is published by Quercus Books. He is currently working on a book about the implications of the Snowden revelations.
Cree Prophecy
Only after the last tree has been cut down,
Only after the last river has been poisoned,
Only after the last fish has been caught,
Only then will you find money cannot be eaten.
Closing Argument
None of the Above
Should be a choice on Voter Ballots
Oh, I hope that I see you again I never even caught your name As you looked through my window pane ~~ So I'm writing this message today I'm thinking that you'll have a way Of hearing the notes in my tune ~~ Where are you going? Where have you been? I can imagine other worlds you have seen ~~ Beautiful faces and music so serene ~~ So I do hope I see you again My universal citizen You went as quickly as you came ~~ You know the power Your love is right You have good reason To stay out of sight ~~ But break our illusions and help us Be the light ~ Message by Michael Pinder
Without love in the dream, it will never come true. ~ Jerry Garcia/Robert Hunter
The man whispered, "God, speak to me" and a meadowlark sang. But the man did not hear.
So the man yelled "God, speak to me" and the thunder rolled across the sky. But the man did not listen.
The man looked around and said, "God let me see you" and a star shined brightly. But the man did not notice.
And the man shouted, "God show me a miracle" and a life was born. But the man did not know.
So the man cried out in despair, "Touch me God, and let me know you are there"
Whereupon God reached down and touched the man. But the man brushed the butterfly away and walked on.
Don't miss out on a blessing because it isn't packaged the way you expect.
