Tag Archives: Patriot Act

Justin Amash’s Revolution

July 29, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

The Republican congressional leadership didn’t even want to bring Michigan Rep. Justin Amash’s anti-surveillance amendment up for a vote. The Obama administration certainly didn’t want it to pass.

Yet last week, Amash managed to force a debate on the House floor that should have happened more than a decade ago in the aftermath of 9/11. His amendment would have denied funding to the National Security Agency’s vast data-mining program.

Amash’s opponents hid behind classified information and misguided emotionalism. “Have 12 years gone by and our memories faded so badly that we forgot what happened on Sept. 11?” asked Rep. Mike Rogers, a fellow Michigan Republican who chairs the House Intelligence Committee.

“We oppose the current effort in the House to hastily dismantle one of our intelligence community’s counterterrorism tools,” White House press secretary Jay Carney echoed in a statement.

Wisconsin Rep. James Sensenbrenner, a past chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and a co-author of the Patriot Act, was one of the 93 Republicans who voted with Amash. Sensenbrenner argued that Congress never intended for the government to sweep the phone records of all Americans.

Read More at the American Conservative . By W. James Antle III.

Articles of Interest

Conservatives Win: DOD Bill Will See Amendment Votes On NSA, Syria, Egypt

July 23, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

By Breaking News

Justin Amash SC Conservatives Win: DOD bill will see amendment votes on NSA, Syria, Egypt

The House Rules Committee late Monday approved a rule for the 2014 Defense Department spending bill that will allow votes on controversial amendments dealing with Syria, Egypt, and the National Security Agency (NSA) spying on Americans.

House GOP leaders had hoped to set up a rule that disallowed votes on these issues and keep the spending bill free of controversy. But after several delayed meetings, the Rules Committee ultimately decided to allow consideration of these amendments, which are among the 100 amendments to the bill that will be considered this week.

On the NSA, the House will get to vote on two amendments. One is from Rep. Richard Nugent (R-Fla.), which would prohibit funding in the bill from being used by the NSA to target U.S. citizens or obtain and store phone call and email data from U.S. citizens.

The second one, from Reps. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) and John Conyers (D-Mich.), would end the authority the NSA has under the Patriot Act from collecting any communications records from people who are not subject to an investigation under that law.

Both amendments are a reaction to news made earlier this year that the NSA was collecting billions of phone and email records from American citizens, even those not subject to an investigation.

Read More at The Hill . By Pete Kasperowicz.

Computers

Foreign VPNs offer protection against US government spying

July 21, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

Foreign providers of virtual private networks trying to cash in on recently uncovered U.S. government surveillance can increase the level of secrecy of Web activity, experts say.

However, no VPN vendor, foreign or domestic, sells a bulletproof defense against government snooping, given the resources and sophistication of spy agencies. However, using a service outside the U.S. does make the task of tracking and logging someone’s Web activity more difficult.

Privacy jitters reached new heights last month following reports that the U.S. National Security Agency is collecting massive amounts of private data on citizens from telephone and Internet companies, such as Verizon, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft. The court-approved data gathering is legal under the post-9/11 Patriot Act.

A VPN is essentially an encrypted tunnel between a computer and the service provider, which effectively hides the customer’s IP address and Web activity.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld

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Barack Obama: George W. Bush Fan Or Foe?

April 27, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

By Peter Brown

Prior to being elected President, Barack Obama came across as a real outsider hoping to bring change to a failing system personified in one man: then-President of the United States George W. Bush. Indeed, much of the criticism leveled against Bush was valid. He and the Congress had started long and costly wars in Afghanistan and Iraq at a time when America could ill afford to be spending such amounts, given the precarious state of its public finances. Bush had made compromises with treasured civil liberties by passing the invasive Patriot Act and indefinitely detaining suspects at Guantanamo Bay. Some of these suspects at Guantanamo Bay had been tortured by the American authorities. George W. Bush had been a combination of the worst traits of Republicans and Democrats; he had combined the aggressive militarism and nationalism of Republicans, hated by many people worldwide, with the free spending ways of the liberal Democrats, leading to the worst public finances this nation had ever seen (that is, before Barack Obama’s presidency). He gave Obama a mess that unfortunately has been further complicated by Obama instead of cleaned up. Indeed, while many admired George W. Bush’s personal decency, as far as policy was concerned, many began to see Bush’s policies for what they were: disasters.

Many of these things should be no mystery to anyone after Obama rightfully criticized Bush over and over again in the 2008 campaign. It has been noted by some writers that Obama’s policies have been very oddly a continuation of much of what Bush’s policies were while he was in office. Of course, there have been differences as one would hope to see between a “conservative” Republican and a far-left Democrat, but the similarities have been uncanny. Obama has continued Bush’s interventionist ways and has compiled a record of spending that matches his largess.

That is why it was no surprise to see Barack Obama get up and roundly praise the man whom he had routinely condemned to get elected. To see him chum around with the former Presidents both left and right showed what a sham his criticisms of Bush had been. Bush was transformed from the almost devilish figure he had been to Obama in his early days to a man of “compassion and generosity,” a real example (in Obama’s eyes) of what a leader should be. It is clear that Barack Obama has joined the “world’s most exclusive club” and has forgotten the very reasons why he wanted to be elected in the first place. It was also no surprise to see George W. Bush praised by Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton in addition to Obama. Maybe this “conservative” President, this “Reaganite,” is a little more to the left than we had assumed. Maybe our current President is a little more of an insider and a statist than he appeared to be in order to get elected to the world’s most powerful office. Food for thought, at least.

F. Peter Brown is an Associate Editor

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Western Journalism

Articles of Interest

Video: The Takedown Of America

April 18, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

By Kris Zane

There is something eating away at this country.

A dark, oppressive cloud hovering over America.

Rush Limbaugh said on Monday that America is dying.

We are in the throes of the worst terrorist attack since 9/11. Poison-laced letters are making their way through the mail. Bomb threats are now a daily occurrence. Boston is being managed like a war zone, with other cities quickly falling in line.

With all of this going on, Barack Hussein Obama stood in the Rose Garden yesterday and threw what can only be described as a temper tantrum.

He didn’t get his way—universal background checks for all gun sales—and proceeded to threaten and cajole America for daring to engage in the democratic process.

If it would have been any other day in America, we would have chocked it up to a normal occurrence in the Obama administration.

But it was not a normal day. And there won’t be a normal day for a while.

How could Barack Obama stamp his foot and shake his fist in the midst of a crisis for something that a recent poll said about 4% of the public thinks is important? It doesn’t make sense. It is like something out of a Twilight Zone episode.

It only makes sense if the something that is eaten away at this country, oppressing us, and poisoning us like a toxic cloud, is Barack Hussein Obama.

North Korea is threatening nuclear war, the Middle East is slowly being taken over by the Muslim Brotherhood (who we happen to be in bed with), and our economy is on the verge of collapse as we approach a $20 trillion national debt.

And what is Barack Hussein Obama doing? Playing golf. On another vacation. Hosting a star-studded, multi-million dollar “soul music” celebration and throwing tempter tantrums.

It doesn’t make sense.

It only makes sense if the something that is eating away at this country is in fact Barack Hussein Obama.

And that is exactly what is happening.

It is time to accept the truth, however hard to swallow as Americans, that Barack Hussein Obama’s goal is to destroy the United States of America.

Go ahead, let everyone cry “conspiracy theorist” until hell freezes over. There is no other explanation.

Obama has turned America into a police state, with TSA agents’ presence expanding by the day.

Cameras peek into every nook and cranny of public space.

Bush’s Patriot Act has been discarded for something completely new: simply spy on everyone and everything.

The Utah Data Center in Bluffdale, built by an army of 10,000 construction workers and due to open in September, will be the biggest spy center in the world. The one million square foot facility is so massive that it can store every single electronic communication for the next 100 years—and still have room to spare.

What exactly will the Utah Data Center be storing? Emails. Telephone calls. Tweets. Facebook posts. Travel records. Credit card transactions. Bank records. Stock market trades. Google searches. In a word: everything. Oh, and by the way, this will all be done without

From: http://www.westernjournalism.com/the-takedown-of-america/

Articles of Interest

Video: Insider: Obama Plans To ‘Kill’ U.S. Dollar

April 5, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

By Kris Zane

The so-called “Gang of Eight” yesterday announced they were very close to coming up with an immigration reform bill.

Leading conservative Republicans, however—not the gaggle of RINOS that make up half of the Gang of Eight—point out that the immigration “reform” bill has a flaw: it will provide a back door for millions of illegal aliens to collect welfare.

The cost? Several trillion dollars.

That’s trillion with a “t.”

That would put our national debt above the “magic number” of twenty trillion, the point that many economists state is the tipping point of our economy. Tipping point meaning the U.S. economy would implode.

Add to this the fact that Obama is actually calling for a second Stimulus—as if a trillion dollars flushed down the toilet wasn’t enough.

Add to this the artificially high level of the stock market due to Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s endless printing of money in which many are stating a crash is imminent—losing up to 90% of its value.

If one were a conspiracy theorist, it would seem like Barack Obama was actually trying to collapse the economy, putting us in a place like Cyprus where the EU is “taxing”—that is, confiscating—privately held bank accounts to the tune of 40% of their value.

On April 2, Ben Bernanke was asked if the U.S. would do the same thing in a dire economic crisis.

Bernanke hemmed and hawed for several minutes and finally gave up this answer: “It’s unlikely.”

Gee, that sure instills confidence in our banking system.

I guess we’re just a bunch of knuckle-dragging conspiracy theorists who think Obama is actually trying to collapse the economy—by devaluing (killing) the U.S. dollar.

Except that is exactly what a high level source in the intelligence community has stated, as reported in the Canada Free Press on Monday, in the widely read article, “Intelligence Insider: Obama Administration Agenda to Kill U.S Dollar.”

But that is just the beginning. According to the source, after the collapse of the economy, after the collapse of the dollar—after the U.S. dollar is properly devalued and buried long after the collapse of the euro—there will be a banshee cry by the globalists and banksters for an international currency with global government in order to prevent another world-wide economic crisis.

Yes, the economic crisis that they caused.

Obama’s push to gut the Second Amendment, the DHS’s stockpiling of two billion rounds of hollow point ammunition and tens of thousands of assault weapons, and Obama pushing George W. Bush’s Patriot Act to Orwellian levels by spying on literally every single American—is all part of a plan to institute a totalitarian New World Order.

Welcome to Barack Hussein Obama’s fundamental transformation of America.

Articles of Interest

Video: Barack Obama’s Surveillance Society

March 19, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

By Kris Zane

After 9/11, Barack Obama and his leftist base were livid that George W. Bush under the Patriot Act was engaged in warrantless wiretapping of Americans’ phone calls and email. We all remember them foaming at the mouth, marching in the streets with their idiotic swastikas and photos of Bush as Hitler.

The Left, proclaiming Barack Obama lord and savior, are eerily quiet now that Obama has taken Bush’s Patriot Act to an unimaginable, Orwellian level.

Obama has embraced Total Information Awareness—TIA for short—which refers to the government’s ability to compile a massive, searchable database, comprised of every type of electronic communication and information imaginable. We’re not just talking about phone calls and emails anymore. Barry Obama has already been compiling literally billions of phone and email records since ascending the throne. Now he’s out for bigger fish.

In September, the National Security Agency will open a one million square foot mega-database facility, built by an army of ten thousand construction workers. Located in Bluffdale, Utah—an area known more for polygamists than Orwellian databases—the Utah Data Center will store information in the yottabytes. A yottabyte—10 with 24 zeros after it—makes a terabyte look like small potatoes. It will take 200 megawatts—enough to power 200,000 homes—to feed this behemoth and will use an air conditioning system larger than what was used for the World Trade Centers—combined. So much for “Green” energy.

What kind of data is Big Brother Obama gathering?

Landline and cell phone traffic. Email. Texting. Facebook posts. Tweets. Skype. Discussion boards. Web pages. Travel records. Banking records. Credit card transactions. Stock market trades. Google searches. If it travels through wires or the air, you can bank on it that Big Brother Obama is routing it to the Utah Data Center. Your smart phone’s GPS will even beam your exact location so Big Brother Barack Obama will know whether you’ve joined one of those “domestic terrorist” groups like the Tea Party.

This massive database will be available to the FBI, CIA, the Department of Defense, and of course the White House, gorging Obama’s gaggle of leftist czars with private information on every single American.

The Fourth Amendment, protecting us against unreasonable search and seizure? Barry Obama can’t be bothered with little things like the Constitution.

But snooping on Americans electronically isn’t enough for Obama. He’s ordered a fleet of “public safety” drones, estimated to reach 30,000, that are able to make sure all the conservative “domestic terrorists” are behaving themselves. All outfitted with the ability to intercept virtually any wireless electronic communication. All able to determine whether Americans are armed or not. All with the ability to vaporize American citizens in the blink of an eye.

Want a look into the future for conservative Americans, who don’t want to be a part of Obama’s Orwellian database?

In June of 2011, a rogue North Dakota sheriff out for blood against a family of government separatists trampled the nine-member Brossart family’s …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Western Journalism

Articles of Interest

National Security Letter Gag Orders Struck Down As Unconstitutional

March 15, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

By The Huffington Post News Editors

NEW YORK — Concluding that they suffer from “significant constitutional infirmities,” a federal district court judge in San Francisco on Thursday struck down sections of federal law that allow the FBI to warrantlessly obtain private information under a gag order in the name of national security.

But U.S. District Judge Susan Illston temporarily put her order on hold to allow the government to appeal her decision, recognizing that a higher court should first be able to “consider the weighty questions of national security and First Amendment rights” at issue in the case. The authority of national security letters, government orders to communications providers to reveal user information, was vastly expanded in the post-9/11 Patriot Act. The federal government has made wide use of them in the name of the fight against terrorism.

In May 2011, the non-profit Electronic Frontier Foundation brought a lawsuit against the national security letter statutes on behalf of an unnamed telephone service provider, arguing that placing the company under a gag order violated its First Amendment rights. EFF also argued that the 2005 renewal of the Patriot Act provided too little judicial review for the secret letters.

The Tea Party Isn’t White Folks Only

March 11, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

By capblack

Tea Party Protesters The Tea Party Isnt White Folks Only

News flash: The Tea Party isn’t WFO ( White Folks Only! ).

In politics I’ve found a healthy skepticism to be equivalent to the caged canary miners used to detect invisible poison gases.

This skepticism greeted the first time I heard of the Tea Party. Unlike liberal Blacks and even ( shhh! ) some conservatives on my proverbial side of town, I didn’t deal the race card.

I didn’t quantum leap to denouncing it as a Ku Klux Klan upgrade, I merely watched and wanted for their platform to unfold.

George W Bush was a big spender and loose with civil liberties, as enshrined by his horrific Patriot Act; and thuggish Transportation Security Administration ( TSA ).

Please note Obama hasn’t loosened the yoke of either upon the public.

Liberals forget the Tea Party opposed Bush over reach first, as opposed to their narrative where this was just a reload of the ” Angry White Men ( and Women ) meme now attacking America’s bi-racial president.

The following disclaimer is issued to squash the unimaginative claim that Black Tea Party support proves said Black persons are sock puppets for White supremacy:

I oppose Obama based upon my American Black experience. I didn’t need a distant Svengali for hypnosis nor plying me with Koolaid.

His career exploitation of Black liberal low self esteem and two terms of pretending his reign hadn’t worsened our lot beyond what any White man had accomplished are reason enough.

When American Whites start rallying; marching and singing spirituals in the face of worsening government, my question to the Black community remain, ” What are you waiting for??? ”

My view of the Tea Party, informed now by years of experience, is it’s a group of grassroots activists whose open mindedness toward American Blacks with the same concerns isn’t reflected in what is arguably America’s conservative party, the GOP.

Please insert Michael Steele’s tumultuous tenure as RNC chair as evidence that Republicans haven’t forgotten their civil rights era role as champions of quotas, under Nixon.

This isn’t a knock on Steele’s ability. It’s merely noting the scramble to deploy a face of color as competition with a bi-racial president in an uncharted political marketplace.

White members of the Greatest Generation; Baby Boomers and Generation X within the Tea Party survived varying degrees of American Apartheid.

Instead of rushing to recreate past hate, they’re marching beside American Blacks with a unity that would have shocked the Old Right of generations past.

White folks like these, who look a person in the eye and recognize a fellow American trying to save traditional values, aren’t rednecks or racists.

They’re a modern fusion of Abolitionists and Confederates without the hatred which pitted the first to label themselves such in the bloody war between the states.

Today they try to free slaves of all colors from a federal government content to addict every class of American to a plantation which puts the old one to shame.

Now, they oppose repressive homeland security laws which reduce Americans of all colors to the status of fugitive slaves at airports …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Western Journalism

Articles of Interest

The Big Picture Is A New World Order

January 26, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

By Tim Powers

(Author’s note: The views expressed here may not be those of The Western Center for Journalism.)

George H. W. Bush spoke about a New World Order when he was in office. There was barely a blip on the news radar about it.

Since that time, a lot of chaos has ensued which I believe can be mostly attributed to the 1961 US state department directive aimed at disarming the governments around the world and placing total rule in the hands of the United Nations. After Bush Sr. came Bill Clinton, who not only ordered up private land grabs across the United States, but also pushed for the closing of many military bases in an effort to reduce our strength to defend ourselves. In the heat of all of this, the Monica Lewinski affair happened. I believe that this whole affair was planned as a distraction and that Hillary was in on it. Why would she still be married to the adulterer Bill if she wasn’t? Remember, these people are the 60′s hippies from the free love generation. They have no shame.

Then we have George W. Bush, who was cut directly from his daddy’s backside. He was intent on finishing the war that his daddy started, which only led to more dead American servicemen as well as leading to more instability in the Middle East. He is also responsible for the Patriot Act, which has allowed for Americans to be spied on.

Then we have Barack Hussein Obama, a Constitutionally questionable President who has VIOLATED the US Constitution by chairing the United Nations security council. It has become abundantly clear that he is backed by the soulless monster George Soros, who has his hand in total control of the propaganda-driven media that gives Obama a pass at every turn. It seems that every time the heat gets put on Obama, another crisis erupts to distract people and get them to move on to the next story.

In essence, this is about world domination through programs such as Agenda 21 and weapons bans. Barack Obama already has his seat at the table. Our two-party system of government is dead, as they all think alike now. Our national debt is NOW unsustainable; and I do believe that Hillary Clinton, by virtue of her husband’s land grab actions as President, has given guarantees of US land to the Chinese in order to secure our ever-increasing debt. Why else would OUR government not seem to be worried about it?

The end game here will be total disarmament of the world, a world court (already established), and a world bank (already established). We will have a few at the top controlling everything, and US sovereignty will be ceded to the United Nations. The UN will be the only entity that will have firearms in order to control the rest of us. We as Americans must wake up before it is too late. Our very existence is at stake. As always, stay safe and be aware of your surroundings.

Photo credit: duncan (Creative Commons)

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Western Journalism

Articles of Interest

Should Safety Really Trump Our Privacy?

January 23, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

By Joanne M. Saldiveri

There are now some who are calling for GPS tracking of legal firearms. It has been reported by WBBM Newsradio Political Editor Craig Dellimore that Ald. Willie Cochran (20th), a former police officer, has said “safety is … a much more important issue than is privacy.” “It is extremely important that we look past this privacy issue, at this point, and understand how important it is for us to address the issue of safety,” he added.

I would like to make the argument that not only is this completely absurd, but unconstitutional as well.

If we apply this mentality to our society, all in the name of safety, then just how many activities we rely upon on a daily basis would be banned, limited, or policed?

Car accidents happen everyday; and we already have devices such as GPS, Onstar, and (soon) black boxes for our safety. Will they stop them from happening?

We are subjected to all sorts of pat downs and searches when we board airplanes, but will that stop them from running off the runway or leaking fuel? How many more subway accidents have to happen in NYC before we start banning riders from standing on the platforms? Maybe we should consider making amusement parks and water rides illegal since they can cause us harm as well.

Once you open Pandora’s box, as we have, there is no going back. Once we allow all levels of government into homes and private lives at this alarming rate, we can only expect to lose more of our freedoms.

They are already starting to put black boxes in our cars to track us. Our cell phones are being used to monitor what we say and write. At what point do we wake up and realize that having a GPS tracking device on our phones is not really about locating it when it’s lost. The electrical devices in our homes now, thanks to smart meters, are already tracking our usage. The appliances we use are monitoring our water consumption every time we wash clothes, take a shower, or flush the toilet. You cannot surf the Internet anymore without getting flashy ads from advertisers promoting products you just viewed.

Every day, we lose a little more of our privacy. Every day, we lose a little more of our freedoms. Every day, we are becoming more of a police state than we ever could have imagined.

There are multiple databases created by local, state, and federal agencies that keep track of just about everything . The Freedom Of Information Act makes it easy to gather personal information on just about anyone and then makes it legal to publish, as we have seen with the Journal News Gun map. And we cannot forget all the goodies in the Patriot Act under the presumption of keeping us safe.

Our schools are asking our children all sorts of private questions through nosy surveys and questionnaires that we have not consented to. Our doctors and hospitals ask us questions on intake forms that have no relevance to the visit. Social sites and others are trying to collect as much information as possible from you in order to make your experiences better, but is the information really private when more than half of the companies are in bed with the federal government?

At what point will Americans say “Enough!” to this ever-growing police state and stop the assault on our liberty?

Photo credit: waif69 (Creative Commons)

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Western Journalism

Bartle Doo Article Archives

Tag Archives: Patriot Act

Justin Amash’s Revolution

Conservatives Win: DOD Bill Will See Amendment Votes On NSA, Syria, Egypt

Foreign VPNs offer protection against US government spying

Barack Obama: George W. Bush Fan Or Foe?

Video: The Takedown Of America

Video: Insider: Obama Plans To ‘Kill’ U.S. Dollar

Video: Barack Obama’s Surveillance Society

National Security Letter Gag Orders Struck Down As Unconstitutional

The Tea Party Isn’t White Folks Only

The Big Picture Is A New World Order

Should Safety Really Trump Our Privacy?

Articles Archive