Washington meddlers are already on the ground and in our schools gathering intimate data on children and families.
Earlier this year, revelations about the Department of Justice spying on the Associated Press were quickly followed by revelations that the NSA was collecting phone data on all Verizon, and then all American cell phone, users. Edward Snowden’s whistleblowing drew yet more attention to the issue, and domestic surveillance programs have remained a top issue in people’s minds ever since.
While Americans focus on institutions like the CIA and NSA, though, programs are being implemented which would lead to a much more institutional way of tracking citizens. Obamacare is one of these, but Common Core Standards – the federal educational program – is the most eyebrow-raising.
Bill Gates likes Common Core. So, he is purchasing it. In doing so, Gates demonstrates (sadly so) that when one has enough money, one can purchase fundamentally democratic institutions.
Even the Department of Education, admits that privacy is a concern, and that that some of the data gathered may be “of a sensitive nature.” The information collected will be more than sensitive; much of it will also be completely unrelated to education. Data collected will not only include grades, test scores, name, date of birth and social security number, it will also include parents’ political affiliations, children’s health records and blood types, individual or familial mental or psychological problems, beliefs, religious practices and income.
In addition, all activities, as well as those deemed demeaning, self-incriminating or anti-social, will be stored in students’ school records. In other words, not only will permanently stored data reflect criminal activities, it will also reflect bullying or anything perceived as abnormal. The mere fact that the White House notes the program can be used to “automatically demonstrate proof of competency in a work setting” means such data is intended to affect students’ futures…
NSA data mining is troubling because it could lead to intensely negative outcomes, because it opens up new avenues for control, and because it is fundamentally wrong. Common Core data mining, tracking students with GPS devices and RFID chips, however, is far, far scarier.
It gives the government the ability to completely control the futures of every student of public education, and that will soon extend to private and home schools. It provides a way to intimidate students – who already have a difficult time socially – into conforming to norms which are not only social, but also political and cultural.
Indiana U.S. House Representative, Jackie Walorski
Jackie Walorski will be in Rochester for a town hall meeting with constituents there. The meeting is set for 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 21, at the Fulton County Council chambers, 125 E. Ninth St., Rochester.
Map to the Fulton County Council chambers, 125 E. Ninth St., Rochester.
Jackie values all feedback from residents of the 2nd Congressional District of Indiana. If you are not able to attend this town meeting, check THIS SITE to find out when Jackie or one of her representatives will be visiting your county. Or send Jackie an e-mail from HERE.
Amash Amendment #100: Stop NSA’s Blanket Surveillance of Americans
H R 2397, Stop Dragnet Surveillance of U.S. citizens. Justin Amash: “We came close (205-217). If just seven Representatives had switched their votes, we would have succeeded. Thank YOU for making a difference. We fight on to defend liberty.” CLICK HERE TO SEE HOW YOUR REPRESENTATIVE VOTED
2014 NDAA
H R 1960, National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2014. The bill authorizes $55 billion*more* in military spending than the amount authorized by law under sequestration and provides $5 billion*more*than the President’s request for Overseas Contingency Operations (i.e., war funding). It also contains a misguided and dangerous policy statement on Syria that encourages greater military intervention and implies congressional support for arming the Syrian rebels.And yet again, the House rejected an amendment (Smith-Amash-Gibson) that would have repealed unconstitutional sec. 1021 of the 2012 NDAA, which gives the President sweeping new power to indefinitely detain anyone, including American citizens inside the United States, without charge or trial. Eighteen Republicans opposed their own party’s NDAA, which is the high mark for opposition in modern history. It passed 315-108. CLICK HERE TO SEE HOW YOUR REPRESENTATIVE VOTED
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 23, 2013
Statement by the Press Secretary on the Amash Amendment
WH:”We’re against Amash/Conyers amendment because it’s not an “OPEN” process”(unlike what the FISA court & NSA do in total secrecy.)
In light of the recent unauthorized disclosures, the President has said that he welcomes a debate about how best to simultaneously safeguard both our national security and the privacy of our citizens. The Administration has taken various proactive steps to advance this debate including the President’s meeting with the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, his public statements on the disclosed programs, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s release of its own public statements, ODNI General Counsel Bob Litt’s speech at Brookings, and ODNI’s decision to declassify and disclose publicly that the Administration filed an application with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. We look forward to continuing to discuss these critical issues with the American people and the Congress.
However, we oppose the current effort in the House to hastily dismantle one of our Intelligence Community’s counter terrorism tools. This blunt approach is not the product of an informed, open, or deliberative process. We urge the House to reject the Amash Amendment, and instead move forward with an approach that appropriately takes into account the need for a reasoned review of what tools can best secure the nation.
(Presented without comment. Bold emphasis is mine.)
While he may not be close to becoming Speaker of the House, Justin Amash has slowly but surely become one of the more prominent Republicans in the rebellious wing of the House conference, as evidenced Monday when he effectively forced theactual Speaker of the House, John Boehner, to allow a vote on his amendment to partially defund the National Security Agency as part of the Department of Defense appropriations process. The revelations that the NSA had been collecting the phone and Internet data of millions of Americans en masse has given Amash a prime opportunity to move forward with some of his most important priorities.
Tomorrow the the house will vote on Amash’s HR 2397 amendment which will remove funding for NSA programs using the Patriot Act for blanket collection of phone records and metadata from phone service providers.
The summary of the amendment on the House of Representatives website reads:
Ends authority for the blanket collection of records under the Patriot Act. Bars the NSA and other agencies from using Section 215 of the Patriot Act to collect records, including telephone call records, that pertain to persons who are not subject to an investigation under Section 215.
NSA defenders in the Senate, especially Diane Feinstein and Saxby Chambliss, are flipping out. Today the National Security Head, Keith Alexander, scheduled a last-minute, members-only ‘top secret’ briefing. The invitation warned members that they could not share what they learned with their constituents or others. “The briefing will be held at the Top Secret/SCI level and will be strictly Members-Only,” reads the invite.
Keith Alexander, National Security Head
No matter what the results of tomorrows vote, the Amash amendment will put the House Representatives on record when it comes to NSA ‘snooping’. Voters will easily be able to find out WHICH REPRESENTATIVES favor tossing our 4th and 5th Amendments down “the toilet”.
As SOON as I have the information I will publish the ROLL CALL here so everyone knows how their representatives voted on limiting NSA mass surveillance. I will also include how U.S. House Representatives voted on the 2014 NDAA, which provides for arming and militarily aiding Al-Qaeda Syrian Rebels (yes, the ones that are massacring Christians, among others) and takes away American citizen’s rights to due process. I will also include the Roll Call for CISPA which aids dragnet surveillance by destroying private corporation’s “freedom of contract”, actually PROHIBITING companies from making legally binding commitment to users not to share personal data/e-mails. (Click here to find out how CISPA aids NSA ‘Dragnet Surveillance’.)
~It is STILL NOT TO LATE TO E-MAIL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE TONIGHT OR TO CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE TOMORROW MORNING TO VOICE YOUR OPINION ABOUT
JUSTIN AMASH’S AMENDMENT.~
My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government.
What happened?
“We were hopeful when Obama came into office that some of what we had seen in the Bush years would be reversed,” said Gary Daniels of the ACLU. “Instead, not only has it continued but it has EXPANDED.”
Guardian Journalist, Glenn Greenwald, and whistle blower, Edward Snowden, recently revealed that Obama has, for years, been in charge of a ‘Big Brother’ surveillance state that would make Richard Nixon blush with envy. The FBI, the NSA, DHS, CIA, plus Federal, military and “privately contracted” agencies, more than you can count using every finger on both hands, has a database of all your iMessages, your photos, your videos, your e-mails, your music playlist, your web search history, your documents and connection logs and your cell phone text messages.
Since Sept. 11, 2001, the top-secret world created to respond to the terrorist attacks has grown into an unwieldy enterprise spread over 10,000 U.S. locations
They have put your phone calls into their data base, including recordings of the contents and the ping triangulations — which can enable analysts to track your every movement of every day, even inside your home, if you are carrying your phone. Obama’s spy network has photocopied the front of every one of your snail mail envelopes. There’s evidence the federal government has collected information on your financial and credit card transactions in addition to your health records.
Obama’s spy agencies don’t just snoop on citizens.
Federal agencies used security badge access records to track the chief Washington correspondent for Fox News’, James Rosen’s, comings and goings from the State Department (court affidavit here). They traced the timing of his calls with a State Department security adviser suspected of sharing the classified report. They obtained a search warrant for Rosen’s personal e-mails.
Associated Press executives and First Amendment watchdogs ALSO have criticized the Justice Department for the broad scope of phone records it secretly subpoenaed from more than 20 phone lines of AP offices in Washington, Hartford, Conn., and New York.
Given the First Amendment’s protection of press freedom, is it ever legal for government to spy on, persecute or prosecute reporters doing their jobs? Just conducting an investigation is intimidating. According to Associated Press CEO Gary Pruit, “the message the government is now sending is — if you talk to the press we are going to go after you.”
To extend his executive power and oversight even further, Barack Obama has ordered federal employees to spy on their colleagues.
“See something, say something” appallingly has overreached into every nook and cranny of our personal lives.
But, if it keeps Americans safe what is the problem? Its not like any of us regular people are troublemakers who might, for example, do something rabble-rousing like doubt the “settled science of climate change” out-loud.
Why should we be concerned about surveillance if we have nothing to hide?
Here’s why…
Privacy isn’t simply the option to hide bad things. Privacy enables us to freely pursue the things that we enjoy, on our own terms. Privacy is your right to control the flow of information about yourself. You choose what details to share, when, where, and with whom. You may not be a terrorist, but there are details in everyone’s personal lives that they want to keep private. Privacy should be important to all who value freedom and the security of a comfortable voluntary lifestyle. It would be awkward to have your mother read through your every email and monitor your phone calls — forever. Let alone some stranger from the government.
Who hasn’t used the Internet to learn about and discuss political ideology? Which is something that the government is more likely to take a serious interest in than your embarrassing late night texts to your ex-boyfriend.
Should you trust government with the power to listen to private conversations—some undoubtedly concerning politics — whenever they want?
The answer should always be: no. Some Democrats are willing to defend the NSA-Verizon scandal because Barack Obama is in the Oval Office, just as some Republicans were willing to downplay wiretapping under George W. Bush.
That’s partisan political games.
The protection of civilian privacy is an issue far more important than red versus blue. No one should give any president, any power that they wouldn’t trust with their WORST enemy. A Democrat is POTUS today, but a future presidents could be Republican, Libertarian, from the Green Party or whatever. Parties have come and gone. So far, the Constitution has stood.
“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” ~4th Amendment
Our fourth amendment has been 100% compromised. As well as our first. Most of us did NOT consent. It was kept secret. When confronted by Senator Mark Udall (D-CO) and Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR), the Obama administration LIED. They denied what was going on.
Any individual courageous enough to inform the public about secret abuses of our rights risked being prosecuted at unprecedented levels under the Obama administration. Even the Nixon administration was wussy in comparison. Fear of repercussions and intimidation enabled America’s “top secret world” to become so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work.
“Watch your back.”
Allowing it to go on and stand unchallenged does far more damage to the republic than any law breaking. It sets new boundaries and rules for our government. It confirms what Richard Nixon argued for: “When the president does it, that means it is not illegal.”
The sheer breadth of America’s behemoth “top secret world” confirms the inadequacy of secret courts. Courts exist to enforce our rights in the face of government abuses. That’s one of the central geniuses of the founding fathers and the system of checks and balances they constructed.
When the decisions are secret, they stop being judicial in character. Law is built on mutual references among courts. When the law can’t reference itself, it stops being law, and emerges as something very different: in this case, a rubber stamp allowing any manner of dragnet violations impacting law-abiding Americans and our fundamental rights.
MUST READ: Top Secret America: a Hidden World, Growing Beyond Control. I can’t recommend this Washington Post article enough. It’s about the scope and size of America’s domestic spying and is shocking. CLICK HERE TO READ ARTICLE — YOU NEED TO KNOW THIS
The Stellar Wind program was considered so illegal by the Justice Department and FBI agents who knew about it, there was a belief that then-Attorney General John Ashcroft would be indicted for allowing the interception program to operate. Known also as the “Terrorist Surveillance Program,” the warrantless wiretapping was authorized by President George W. Bush in the wake of 9/11 and had to be recertified every 45 days. In March 2004, Deputy Attorney General James Comey, upon the determination of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, decided that certification would not occur because the program was deemed illegal.
How many “Stellar Wind/Fusion Spy Centers” exist? Read, TOP SECRET AMERICA/A Washington Post Investigation. The report (which is shocking) determines that the “secret world” the government created has become so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work.
About the “Indiana Intelligence Fusion Center”HERE.
The NSA Is Building the Country’s Biggest Spy Center (Watch What You Say)Article by WIRED HERE
Privacy Is Not Secrecy; Debunking The ‘If You’ve Got Nothing To Hide…’ Argument Article by TechDirt HERE
