unlikely convergence

NEW WEBSITE , NEW TUMBLR coming as well !

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 21:34:24 -0400

So here’s the official new, brand new, site- careful it’s new treat her with respect...

NIGHT MUSIC: SUNN O))) meets NURSE WITH WOUND

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 23:19:48 -0400

NIGHT MUSIC: SUNN O))) meets NURSE WITH WOUND

Chambliss: Law Enforcement Agency May Have Known About Boston Bombing in Advance

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 23:13:31 -0400

Chambliss: Law Enforcement Agency May Have Known About Boston Bombing in Advance: Really? You...

Disaster in Watertown

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 23:12:07 -0400

Disaster in Watertown: Loss of freedom, or a necessary evil in the modern world?

Ex-CNN Reporter: I Received Orders to Manipulate News to Demonize Syria and Iran

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 21:22:00 -0400

Ex-CNN Reporter: I Received Orders to Manipulate News to Demonize Syria and Iran:...

geekrest: A recent update on Amazon has apparently confirmed...

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 23:06:52 -0400

geekrest:

A recent update on Amazon has apparently confirmed the upcoming release of a brand new original graphic novel from Marvel titled, “Avengers: Endless Wartime.”

Read More: ‘Avengers: Endless Wartime’ Original Graphic Novel Coming Soon

First issue of Constantine...What the fuck?

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 00:29:17 -0400

I picked up the first issue of Constantine today, not out of necessity, nor out of any sense of...

crudeoilcafe: Never forget! On March 20th 2003, the USA Bush...

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 19:10:56 -0400

crudeoilcafe:

Never forget!

On March 20th 2003, the USA Bush regime attacked Iraq and the world was about to experience some of the darkest years in modern history.

While the USA tend to forget and say; “Ok, a few bad apples made some errors but now we gotta move on”, the rest of us have to remember the medieval epoch under the Bush regime:

The American war in Iraq

The American war crimes in Abu Ghraib

oldenough2burmom: NEW YORK, March 14 (Reuters) - The U.S. war...

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 19:08:36 -0400

oldenough2burmom:

NEW YORK, March 14 (Reuters) - The U.S. war in Iraq has cost $1.7 trillion with an additional $490 billion in benefits owed to war veterans, expenses that could grow to more than $6 trillion over the next four decades counting interest, a study released on Thursday said.

The war has killed at least 134,000 Iraqi civilians and may have contributed to the deaths of as many as four times that number, according to the Costs of War Project by the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University.

When security forces, insurgents, journalists and humanitarian workers were included, the war’s death toll rose to an estimated 176,000 to 189,000, the study said.

Map of total U.S. military deaths and the soldiers’ states of origin:

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/indepth_coverage/middle_east/iraq/honorroll/map_flash.html

Total U.S. soldiers killed: 4,885

Audio

Sun, 17 Mar 2013 23:23:19 -0400

anarcho-queer: Google Says the FBI Is Secretly Spying on Some...

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 22:22:38 -0500

anarcho-queer:

Google Says the FBI Is Secretly Spying on Some of Its Customers

The terrorists apparently would win if Google told you the exact number of times the Federal Bureau of Investigation invoked a secret process to extract data about the media giant’s customers.

That’s why it is unlawful for any record-keeper to disclose it has received a so-called National Security Letter. But under a deal brokered with the President Barack Obama administration, Google on Tuesday published a “range” of times it received National Security Letters demanding it divulge account information to the authorities without warrants.

It was the first time a company has ever released data chronicling the volume of National Security Letter requests.

National Security Letters allow the government to get detailed information on Americans’ finances and communications without oversight from a judge. The FBI has issued hundreds of thousands of NSLs and has even been reprimanded for abusing them. The NSLs are written demands from the FBI that compel internet service providers, credit companies, financial institutions and businesses like Google to hand over confidential records about their customers, such as subscriber information, phone numbers and e-mail addresses, websites visited and more as long as the FBI says the information is “relevant” to an investigation.

In each year from 2009 to 2012, Google said it received “0-999″ National Security Letters.

But in its talks with the authorities over releasing figures, Google said national security was on the mind of the Obama administration.

“You’ll notice that we’re reporting numerical ranges rather than exact numbers. This is to address concerns raised by the FBI, Justice Department and other agencies that releasing exact numbers might reveal information about investigations. We plan to update these figures annually,” Richard Salgado, a Google legal director, wrote in a blog post.

What makes the government’s position questionable is that it is required by Congress to disclose the number of times the bureau issues National Security Letters. In 2011, the year with the latest available figures, the FBI issued 16,511 National Security Letters pertaining to 7,201 different persons. (.pdf)

Google said the number of accounts connected to National Security letters ranged between “1000-1999″ for each of the reported years other than 2010. In that year, the range was “2000-2999.”

Google noted that the FBI may “obtain ‘the name, address, length of service, and local and long distance toll billing records’ of a subscriber to a wire or electronic communications service. The FBI can’t use NSLs to obtain anything else from Google, such as Gmail content, search queries, YouTube videos or user IP addresses.”

Google often must disclose that data via other means, as described here.

Under the Patriot Act, Google or others who receive a NSL must disclose the sought-after information if the authorities say the request is “relevant to an authorized investigation to protect against international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities.”

National Security Letters are a powerful tool because they do not require court approval, and they come with a built-in gag order, preventing recipients from disclosing to anyone that they have even received an NSL. An FBI agent looking into a possible anti-terrorism case can self-issue an NSL to a credit bureau, ISP or phone company with only the sign-off of the special agent in charge of their office.

What’s more, the lack of court oversight raises the possibility for extensive abuse.

In 2007 a Justice Department Inspector General audit found that the FBI had indeed abused its authority and misused NSLs on many occasions. After 9/11, for example, the FBI paid multimillion-dollar contracts to AT&T and Verizon requiring the companies to station employees inside the FBI and to give these employees access to the telecom databases so they could immediately service FBI requests for telephone records. The IG found that the employees let FBI agents illegally look at customer records without paperwork and even wrote NSLs for the FBI.

GoogleGoogle Transparency ReportTransparency ReportFBINSAGovernment SurveillancePrivacyWarrantless WiretappingObamaBarack ObamaObama Administration

real-news: American Wealth Inequality

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 22:20:24 -0500

real-news:

American Wealth Inequality

thepeoplesrecord: DHS drones equipped to eavesdrop on...

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 22:20:12 -0500

thepeoplesrecord:

DHS drones equipped to eavesdrop on Americans
March 4, 2013

The US Department of Homeland Security already has an arsenal of drones to be deployed for whatever the agency deems fit, but the actual capabilities of those vehicles exceed what many Americans may expect.

The unmanned drones being used inside of the United States right now can’t shoot Hellfire missiles like their overseas counterparts. They can, however, conduct surveillance, intercept communications and even determine whether or not a person thousands of feet below the aircraft is armed.

The latest revelation comes courtesy of a DHS document that was recently obtained by the Electronic Privacy Information Center, or EPIC, through a Freedom of Information Act request. After analyzing a partially-redacted drone “performance specification” file received through their FOIA plea, EPIC said that records indicate “the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection is operating drones in the United States capable of intercepting electronic communications.”

Of the ten Predator B drones currently maintained by the agency, EPIC adds that the document confirms that those aircraft “have the capacity to recognize and identify a person on the ground.”

“The records obtained by EPIC raise questions about the agency’s compliance with federal privacy laws and the scope of domestic surveillance,” the center writes on their website this week.

Speaking to CNet, EPIC’s Open Government Project director, Ginger McCall, says the discovery shows just how dangerous drones could be to the privacy of the millions of Americans who could have drones overhead right this moment.

“The documents clearly evidence that the Department of Homeland Security is developing drones with signals interception technology and the capability to identify people on the ground,” McCall says. “This allows for invasive surveillance, including potential communications surveillance, that could run afoul of federal privacy laws.”

Since EPIC published their FOID’d documents last week, Cnet has managed to scrounge up an unredacted copy that outlines what the DHS was looking for in drones when the report was written in 2010. Specifically, the performance specifications note that while the DHS is not implementing drones for eavesdropping on America right now, “Further tasks, such as communication relay and interception, although not yet evaluated in the field, are assessed to also be best performed” by the unmanned aerial vehicles.

Additionally, DHS drones must “be capable of identifying a standing human being at night as likely armed or not” and “be capable of marking a target into a retrievable database.” No information is given as to what database that refers to, but a Homeland Security official speaking on condition of anonymity tells DHS that the drones lack — for now, at least — the ability to read a subject’s face to find out who they are.

“The drones are able to identify whether movement on the ground comes from a human or an animal, but that they do not perform facial recognition,” Cnet reporter Declan McCullagh says the DHS source’s claims.

“Any potential deployment of such technology in the future would be implemented in full consideration of civil rights, civil liberties, and privacy interests and in a manner consistent with the law and long standing law enforcement practices,” the source adds.

The Homeland Security department’s drones are currently used to allow federal officials to monitor any criminal activity on America’s borders to the north and south. As RT reported recently, however, a 2012 Supreme Court ruling determined that the government can conduct border patrol operations within 100 miles of an international crossing. By that logic, the approximately 200 million Americans residing within that parameter are subject to Border Patrol searches and, perhaps soon enough, surveillance drones.

Source

May I have your attention please

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 23:48:51 -0500

darziel: Holding down a job is not a measure of value. Attending school is not a measure of...

Yale Will Train US Special Forces in Interrogation Techniques Using Immigrants as Guinea Pigs

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 21:32:19 -0500

Yale Will Train US Special Forces in Interrogation Techniques Using Immigrants as Guinea Pigs:...

"NATO spends $2 billion a week on the Afghanistan War while half the planet lives on less than $2 a..."

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 12:27:36 -0500

“NATO spends $2 billion a week on the Afghanistan War while half the planet lives on less than...

laliberty: hipsterlibertarian: In this video, the TSA insists...

Sun, 24 Feb 2013 23:24:58 -0500

laliberty:

hipsterlibertarian:

In this video, the TSA insists on patting down a sobbing three-year-old on her way to Disney World. Agents first took away the girl’s toy, then tried to tell her parents it was illegal for them to film the encounter despite the fact that the TSA’s own website admits filming and photography at TSA checkpoints can’t be banned.

From the video description on YouTube:

The TSA wants to touch your kids…but you’re not allowed to document it. Like your “special secret”with the “Inappropriate Uncle” division of the federal government, that you’re not allowed to share with other grown-ups (they’d just accuse you of lying and trying to get attention anyway).

This is abuse, pure and simple.

Years ago, my then-20-month old was patted down and her diaper checked for explosives. Thankfully, the experience wasn’t near as traumatic as what this poor little girl had to endure to just go to Disney.

This is security theater. It doesn’t make us safer, it only aims to make us subservient.

The problem is the state, of course. But the root of that problem is among the public at large. Those who think this nonsense is necessary… those who are willing to sacrifice essential liberty for the facade of temporary safety… those who support, and campaign for, and vote for politicians who push for a bigger role for the state and who extend cushy government contracts to favored cronies… they are who are truly to blame.

If you voted for Obama or Romney, or if you quietly go along with all the government’s decrees, or if you cattle yourself through the porno-scanners without protest, or if you’ve ever uttered the phrase “they’re just doing their job” at an abuse of power, or if you believe in democracy or the state - then you are ultimately to blame for this little girl’s emotionally distressing ordeal.

And I don’t mean “you” as some general catch-all phrase to mean the general public. I mean you, specifically, as an individual. Just as you have the blood of innocents on your hands for what those you put in power ultimately do with it (drones, war on drugs, etc.), so is this abuse of innocents on your conscience.

As a supporter of the state and its so-called “leaders,” you are an accomplice to heinous acts.

One of my earlier posts on my blog (from late 2010): The Case Against the TSA.

20 Signs That The U.S. Economy Is Heading For Big Trouble In The Months Ahead - BlackListedNews.com

Sun, 24 Feb 2013 23:23:33 -0500

20 Signs That The U.S. Economy Is Heading For Big Trouble In The Months Ahead - BlackListedNews.com:...

An artist with Alzheimer’s drawing self-portraits.

Sun, 24 Feb 2013 23:19:38 -0500

An artist with Alzheimer’s drawing self-portraits.

Audio

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 23:43:51 -0500