Americans Want More Than Rhetoric And Reports on The NSA.
By Thom Hartmann A...
On the 53rd anniversary of President Eisenhower's warning about the military-industrial complex, President Obama spoke in defense of massive government spying programs. During the much-anticipated speech, the President claimed that he will reign in our government's wide net of surveillance, and give the public “more confidence” in the National Security Agency's spying programs. However, most of the reforms that the President offered focus on data storage, mining, and sharing. They do not put limits on bulk data collection, make FISA Court rulings transparent, or do anything to protect the privacy rights of Americans.
These so-called signal intelligence directives simply call for reports, reviews, and future policies, instead of defining concrete measures to protect Americans' civil rights. Fifty three years ago, President Eisenhower warned us about the power of “the potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power,” and we only need to look at the influence our intelligence agencies have to understand that warning. Despite the fact that there is no evidence that these government spying programs have saved American lives, our President, and our national security officials continue to claim that these violations of our civil rights are necessary to keep us safe.
Americans don't want rhetoric and reports about government surveillance, they want their personal information to remain private in the absence of a warrant. There is a legitimate role for our national intelligence agencies, but we should not be asked to sacrifice our essential liberty in the name of national security.
Comments
#2
Alice..
I wanted to reply to your comments re. the current degeneration of our nation back into a misogynistic "a woman’s place is in the home and her womb’s around my dick” state of affairs...but too much to say for just anyone’s eyes...soooo... Nice to read you anyway and dang, I wish you lived ‘round the corner...still hoping for a Tea&Toke one day.... :)
#3
Sandlewould - you're neat! I share your wish; indeed, it would be fun if we were neighbors. But please stick around here on Thom's blog. Your contributions add valuable insight and perspective to our discussions. - AIW
#4
Pal---ary -- Have you tried the intermittent fasting to grow those telomeres? I just want someone else to try it before me.
#5
Pal--ary -- I am surprised and overjoyed with your optiism.
#6
Mark S -- I think it would be interesting to construct the story that spying on the American people causes 40,000 deaths a year and not having a spy network would only cause 4000 deaths every ten years or so in an event like the WTC. The basis of the 40,000 deaths a year would be the scenario in Client #9. Eliot Spitzer was going after the banksters is the reason the press received the information about his prostitute. Among the banksters Eliot would have eventurally indicted would be the health insurance executives.
#7
AIW -- Wonderful. Please keep giving them hell. Thom does point out misogyny in our male reps from time to time. He also says from time to time that testerone is the most dangerous drug on earth.
What is the response of the dirt bags you describe when you tell them that the SCOTUS says human life begins at 6 months? Why do they think their opinion of human life supersedes that of SCOTUS? I like the Jewish definition. Life begins at first breath i.e. 9 months.
#8
Pal--ary -- Are you aware of those explosions that kill fireman in LA? They blow manhole covers from here to eternity. They are due to small electrical sub-stations. WTC-7 had a substation for all of lower Manhattan (I'm not sure of what area it served so I am just guessing lower Manhattan).under it.
#9
chuckle8: No, I had not heard of that explosion in LA. I don't often get the mainstream media news up here in Semipalatinsk. You lucky Americans don't know what it's like to have really cold weather for long durations. That little cold snap you had...what was it called...polar votex...yes..that's it... balmy weather for us Ruskies.;-}
Seriously though, yes I believe that I had seen some youtube videos of a 'substation' under the WTC buildings.
I don't know if you are suggesting that perhaps the people who rigged the WTC buildings for demolition just prior to 9/11 used that route? I don't know but it was reported by people who worked in those buildings that there was a lot of "strange construction" going on in the months prior to 9/11. Lots of thumping and banging. Floors were cut off from access to regular employees. Cargo trucks were seen entering and leaving the buildings at very odd hours. And they even shut the buildings down for "rewiring" in those pre-9/11 days and told everyone to stay home.
They had the means, motive and opportunity since Bush's bro not only ran the security of the WTC buildings but also a "construction" company that worked on the buildings.
The means was partly from having about 10 years previous to 9/11 had developed high tech nano-thermite which when used in conjunction with regular demolition explosives would accomplish an eerie looking collapse of the buildings. The charges were set up using remote control and really did not need a lot of wiring.
Another means was their ability to remotely control aircraft and guide them to their targets...something that they've had for some time. They had even flown an large unmanned airplane, all controlled remotely, from ...I think it was from the US to Australia.
Another means was key people in high places that could coordinate this during an official military exercise within the US on that day. The scenarios had to do with hijackers crashing planes into key targets...the WTC towers was one, the Pentagon and White House were others.
Another means was the predisposition of xenophobic, myopic Americans who would be easily led through the nose to buy the whole lie against terrorist Muslims.
Another means was it's relationship with Saudi Arabia (most of those 'hijacker' patsies were from Saudi Arabia). Even now, the US and Saudi Arabia are backing Al Qaida terrorists in against the Syrian regime. Osama bin Laden was on the CIA payroll as are many of the Al Qaida terrorists in the Middle East.
The motives, and there were several: one was fulfillment of PNAC plans formulated many years before to create a "New Pearl Harbor" in order to invade the Middle East and to make people so afraid with misdirected jingoism that they would fall into the trap of giving up their liberties and freedoms. It would usher in an increase in spying on the citizens and it would tend to cover up the criminal activities that the ruling elite had already been guilty of in the corporate world, Wall Street, and banking. There really were a lot of Enrons and Maddoffs. And, OPEC was moving away from the US dollar which was seen as a threat against US control.
The opportunity came after Bush stole the election...and picked tricky Dick Cheney and all the other Neocons to his cabinet. Bush was largely the bumbling idiot puppet the Neocons needed to ice the cake for a massive treasonous overthrow of what America was supposed to stand for and the beginning of the impoverishment and enslavement of all the citizens.
#10
chuckle8: no, I have never tried fasting to affect my telomeres but, you know, it might work. After all, being overweight certainly decreases a person's lifespan. Those skinny yogis in India, all skin and bones, often live to be very, very old. But maybe the meditation plays a part as well. But then, I wonder how many of those poor people get too skinny and starve to death. I believe that telomeres are mostly genetically inherited although external influences could adversely affect them.
And that reminds me of a video I saw on TV...Free Speech TV or maybe Link TV. I didn't see the whole thing but this guy who made the film was investigating this Indian cult based around the Maharishi...something about T.M. He managed to tick off David Lynch so badly that Lynch was going to, or threatened to sue the guy, as I understood it. Lynch was really into the Maharishi (I believe) and was not happy that this guy was bashing the Maharishi. The guy exposed the Maharishi of preaching celibacy for his followers while having private sex sessions with women. He preached giving up worldly goods while getting filthy rich off of his followers. After they ran out of money the Maharishi would discard them and used clothes. The Maharishi's sales pitch was that he was building this kingdom in India that had thousands of hopping "fliers" and that when 10,000 destitute Indians were to become trained "fliers" living in that city, then total world peace would ensue. The guy making the film managed to get into the "city", past the guards, and found that none of it was true...very few people there.
How can people fall for all of this silliness and nonsense? To give up your life's savings in many cases to follow cartoon characters like this?
#11
chuckle8 and bobbler: you can also do something like this in a regular google search:
site:thomhartmann.com bobbler
and it will give you all of the entries that bobbler made on Thom Hartmann
you can also do this:
site:thomhartmann.com bobbler -chuckle8
and it will give you all of the entries made by bobbler that doesn't mention chuckle8
of course, you can enter other search terms that you also want to search for to narrow it down.
site:thomhartmann.com bobbler fukushima
gives about 271 results.
site:thomhartmann.com/message-boards bobbler fukushima -chuckle8
gives 56 results
site:thomhartmann.com/thom/blog bobbler fukushima -chuckle8
gives 5 results
site:thomhartmann.com/thom/blog bobbler
gives 436 results
#12
Thanks "chuck"! I agree, the Jewish version of when life begins makes a lot more sense, altho I've more than a hunch the little buggers become conscious in late gestation, while still in the womb. I just get tired of these arrogant macho creeps telling us what to do with our bodies; especially in cases of rape. - AIW
#13
Pal--ary -- sounds like Jonestown in India.
#14
Pal--ary -- Thanks for all the numbers. The NSA could really use you. The advantage of the method I suggested was that you do not need to read all that has gone on before.
#15
AIW -- Most of my previous reply had very little to do with abortion. I was interested in why the dirtbags thought their views superseded those of SCOTUS. Of course, I agree with Thom and Jefferson that judicial review is destroying our democracy about as much as anything.
#16
chuckle8: I seriously doubt the NSA would ever hire me...they'd certainly "use" me as they "use" a lot of people...use and abuse. The thing is never to be taken in by these tricksters...and always suspect that the person you are communicating with could be either "one of them" or that "they" are certainly spying on what you are saying. Funny that the many whistle blowers, like Snowden and Asange and Manning, prove that we the people are not the ones that have mental disorders...it's the powerful and dangerous fascist pigs that have the problem. The world is being run and controlled by insane greedy people behind the curtain.
TNO-Trust No One...because the minute you do..they'll get you. Sounds paranoid, I know...but we live in paranoid-inducing times. Paranoid people running paranoid institutions that think people like me are paranoid to think that they are paranoid.
And it's not just the NSA..the other 3 letter government organizations and their well paid private MICkey Mouse companies will trick people into being their patsies..all for the propaganda effect in order to justify their existence.
#17
SCOTUS's opinion is simply their opinion. They are not "God". The question of when consciousness begins is, and will always be, a mystery. No one's theory or opinion carries more weight, in my own mind, than anyone else's. Those dirtbags probably don't even know what SCOTUS's position was. I'll admit, I didn't either. But it is of no consequence to me, for reasons just explained. - AIW
#18
AIW -- You need to be a constitutional lawyer. They teach you that SCOTUS is god (per Mike Pap...). That is one of the weaknesses of Obama, he is a constitutional lawyer. Unlike you, I think it is one of very few weaknesses he has. Actually, I was assuming the dirtbag's defense of pro-life would be god. Then, I wanted you to tell him that we do not live in theocracy and recommend that he move to someplace like Iran.
#19
Pal--ary -- I know the NSA would not hire you (esecially if they read your blogs here). I just noticed how invaded I felt when you pointed out just those few blog entries I did. Thanks for the heads up.
#20
My debate with that bilingual dirtbag didn't go that far. After I told him to take estrogen pills, grow some tits and be a "wet nurse", I never heard back from him. Heh-heh.
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