Moreover, for anyone who defends the Obama administration here and insists that the U.S. Government simply must have access to all forms of human communication: does that also apply to in-person communication? Should home and apartment builders be required to install monitors in every room they build to ensure that the Government can surveil all human communications in order to prevent threats to national security and public safety? I believe someone once wrote a book about where this mindset inevitably leads. The very idea that no human communication should ever be allowed to take place beyond the reach of the Government is definitive authoritarianism, which is why Saudi Arabia and the UAE — and their American patron-ally — have so vigorously embraced it.
Greenwald points out that the FBI does not need this, because they can go to a judge, get a warrant, and use traditional surveillance when it’s necessary. “But what about encryption?!” Well:
the problem cited by the FBI to justify this new power is a total pretext: “investigators encountered encrypted communications only one time during 2009′s wiretaps” and, even then, “the state investigators told the court that the encryption did not prevent them from getting the plain text of the messages.” As usual, fear-mongering over national security and other threats is the instrument to justify massive new surveillance powers that will extend far beyond their claimed function.
I’m profoundly disappointed in the Obama administration’s record on civil rights and privacy. I expected better from a president who is a Constitutional law scholar.
tl;dr: The very idea that no human communication should ever be allowed to take place beyond the reach of the Government is definitive authoritarianism
The goal of CISPA is to completely eliminate any sort of privacy online. It really is a Big Brother bill, and that isn’t hyperbole.
CISPA is orders of magnitude worse than SOPA/PIPA. We need to mobilize like we did before, and stop this.
See how close all these guys are? Tells me all the smoke and mirrors about how different they are is pure unadulterated bullshit.
There’s no left vs. right. There’s right vs. ever so slightly more right.
Same guy. Different suit.
Well… HERE’S your problem…
Wow. Just wow.
IF YOU EVER THOUGHT THE MEDIA MIGHT BE CONTROLLED
I’ve been saying this since the early 90’s about the “ASSociated press” and been called “crazy’- this is such a great example proving my point- the lamestream media is rigged by the same 1% . Proper Journalism and freedom of the press does not exist on U.S. television anymore and was infiltrated by the right wing shortly after Nixon being caught and exposed by credible journalists. it’s not just FOX people . thanks Chandler. - Lady Kier
The longer it went, the more depressing it got.
Political dig of the day.
These are NOT tears of laughter.
The Chart That Should Accompany All Discussions of the Debt Ceiling
To be accurate, I’d move part of the Iraq/Afghanistan war funds over to Obama’s column.
/head shaking
While hard working Americans fill out their income tax returns this tax season, General Electric and other giant profitable corporations are avoiding U.S. taxes altogether.
With Congress returning to Capitol Hill on Monday to debate steep spending cuts, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said the wealthiest Americans and most profitable corporations must do their share to help bring down our record-breaking deficit.
Sanders renewed his call for shared sacrifice after it was reported that General Electric and other major corporations paid no U.S. taxes after posting huge profits. Sanders said it is grossly unfair for congressional Republicans to propose major cuts to Head Start, Pell Grants, the Social Security Administration, nutrition grants for pregnant low-income women and the Environmental Protection Agency while ignoring the reality that some of the most profitable corporations pay nothing or almost nothing in federal income taxes.
Sanders compiled a list of some of some of the 10 worst corporate income tax avoiders.
1) Exxon Mobil made $19 billion in profits in 2009. Exxon not only paid no federal income taxes, it actually received a $156 million rebate from the IRS, according to its SEC filings.
2) Bank of America received a $1.9 billion tax refund from the IRS last year, although it made $4.4 billion in profits and received a bailout from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department of nearly $1 trillion.
3) Over the past five years, while General Electric made $26 billion in profits in the United States, it received a $4.1 billion refund from the IRS.
4) Chevron received a $19 million refund from the IRS last year after it made $10 billion in profits in 2009.
5) Boeing, which received a $30 billion contract from the Pentagon to build 179 airborne tankers, got a $124 million refund from the IRS last year.
6) Valero Energy, the 25th largest company in America with $68 billion in sales last year received a $157 million tax refund check from the IRS and, over the past three years, it received a $134 million tax break from the oil and gas manufacturing tax deduction.
7) Goldman Sachs in 2008 only paid 1.1 percent of its income in taxes even though it earned a profit of $2.3 billion and received an almost $800 billion from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury Department.
8) Citigroup last year made more than $4 billion in profits but paid no federal income taxes. It received a $2.5 trillion bailout from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury.
9) ConocoPhillips, the fifth largest oil company in the United States, made $16 billion in profits from 2007 through 2009, but received $451 million in tax breaks through the oil and gas manufacturing deduction.
10) Over the past five years, Carnival Cruise Lines made more than $11 billion in profits, but its federal income tax rate during those years was just 1.1 percent.
The problem isn’t that we can’t afford social services, or that we’re wasteful with our government spending, or that the nation is ‘broke’, the problem is that the wealthy have set up a system where they can avoid paying taxes. They have subverted the government into a tool for profit rather than a tool for societal stability.
But GOD FORBID we tax Corporate Entity A to help out Little Guy B! Don’t the wealthy have enough problems???
Actual signs going up on Wisconsin highways. Apparently the DOT workers are displeased.
OK, that is hilarious.
