Department of Homeland Stasi or Security?

Lawmaker Demands DHS Cease Monitoring of Blogs, Social Media

 

Now this is rich. Here, we have a gigantic defense contractor getting a rather small (relativity 11 Million is small) contract to spy on ordinary Americans online activities regarding political topics on sites like Wired, Huffington Post, Drudge, Wikileaks etc etc. My first question after reading this was: if you are going to spy on us through an operation that focuses on social news media and blogs… why not someone from the NSA or some other agency where it could be hush hush? Well, according to the DHS director of office operations, Richard Chavez, General Dynamics possessed: “skilled technicians in surfing the web.”

Wow.

Not only has the Federal government been dumping 50+ billion dollars of year annually into DHS since 2003, it’s also the third largest cabinet department we have. You would think, that someone would be capable of “surfing the web” inside that bureaucratic wet dream, but apparently not so. That however, doesn’t surprise me. This rag tag assembly of departments is notorious for waste. Within its first five years of existence it had 15 Billion dollars worth of failed contracts; and that was by 2008! One shutters to think what that looks like now?

It is said that this program involves the monitoring of “publicly available online forums, blogs, public websites and message boards.” The most telling piece of this article however is the revelation that General Dynamics will be sifting people’s posts or words “containing anti-American sentiment and reaction to policy proposals”. I find it jaw dropping that this isn’t covered across the front page of every newspaper in the country, but privacy isnt in vogue anymore; this is why Facebook is so huge in the first place.

And with General Dynamics focusing in on the big boys (Twitter and Facebook), it appears that if SOPA and the House didn’t get the internet under the black boots; the Executive Office would do it themselves (through a sub contractor). I guess it’s only apropos then that the DHS would hire a killing machine like General Dynamics to do it.

Between Facebook and Twitter being blamed for using users personal info to sell to third partys (or "let" it just happen to be available) or having both social network sites software being used as a tool for espionage, it’s apparent that the walls are closing in on the Internets value. That, being mainly the free passage of information but a close second is/was the freedom of anonymity.

Not to be outdone, Google announced last week it will launch Screenwise, a mining tool built inside their Chrome browser that will track your every click, your every move on the net – for a handsome price (is the precursor for the RFID mass implantation or the mark of the beast?). If you choose to take part, you can receive up to $25 in a year from Amazon.com. I would be willing to bet there is a waiting list.  

I’d sell my soul, my self esteem a dollar at a time. - MJK

Chris Dodd - Most expensive whore money can buy

Chris Dodd is truly one of, if not the biggest scumbag to crawl out of the gutters of DC since Trent Lott. I would contend that the two of them could be pitted into a classic MTV staple (when it was still semi music television) Celebrity Death match as each being the biggest whores from their respective party’s in the last decade, which would be great theater. Two vile - spineless lawyers clawing each others eyes out for a stack of dollars is must see TV.

From his controversy surrounding his dealings with Countrywide getting sweetheart loans to his contributions and support for Frannie and Freddie even as the two were facing collapse to his AIG bonus “reversal”; Chris Dodd has always taken the sleazy route. I would assume it’s safe to say, the path of most lucrative assistance for sure, no doubt. So its of no surprise he would become a lobbyist after he left office.

He is a lawyer, but I can’t find any record he even practiced. He was in the Peace Corps and then the Army Reserve (thus excluding him from being sent to Vietnam) so what’s a 66 year old man with no job experience supposed to do? Kinda late in the game to take an entry level position… and with the amount of slime dripping off his torso; who would hire him anyway? Enter M.P.A.A.

Dodd (who spent 36 consecutive years in office) is on record saying he wouldn’t go through Washington’s "revolving door”. "No lobbying, no lobbying" was his answer to a question when facing "retirement". That however wouldn’t last long as he was tapped to replace Dan Glickman; a former nine time Congressmen (imagine that) as President of the Motion Picture Association of America last march for a reported cool 1.5 million annually. Within six months came SOPA. You have to tip your cap to the MPAA. You talk about fast-tracked? Six months and you got a bill with overwhelming support brewing? Money well spent, do doubt.

But we know SOPA failed. The grassroots movement is what makes the internet dangerous. It takes the power out of the elite and puts it back in the hands of the masses. And the representatives listened. This is what our Republic is about, is it not? Constituents prodding their elected leaders for changes they want... not their elected leaders beholden to corporate interests. 

The establishment was furious and Dodd led the charge; saying that websites that participated in the blackouts were somehow guilty of: "abuse of power given the freedoms these companies enjoy in the marketplace." Dodd, then assumed it was a timing issue. He had the nerve to assume a “Slow timeline” would have produced different results. Code word for: If we rammed this bill through faster, maybe on the eve of a holiday or as a rider on another bill we would have been fine. Transparency is not something Dodd has to worry about anymore, as if.  

To top this off and the most despicable of all was Dodd’s message to Congress and the Senate. In a moment of stupidity or some might say clarity, Dodd summarizes the rotten core of politics today in one fell swoop of a paragraph.  

“Those who count on quote ‘Hollywood’ for support need to understand that this industry is watching very carefully who’s going to stand up for them when their job is at stake," Dodd said. "Don’t ask me to write a check for you when you think your job is at risk and then don’t pay any attention to me when my job is at stake.” 

I loathe lobbying, but what I loathe even more so is former elected leaders lobbying and talking out of both sides of their mouth. This issue is the single most treacherous and destructive action against our Republic today and in the days to come. Special interest and “K-Street” will bring this country to its knees before they suck every last dollar out of the public’s jugular without any constraint or admission of guilt. If this isnt an example of how in drastic need we are of strict term limits, what is?

Dead on Arrival.. PIPA and SOPA are bleeding out before they even hit the floor

                                                        Graphic courtesy of Propublica

What a difference 24 hours makes? We are seeing firsthand just how powerful the internet has become. The petitions and blackouts virtually killed two pieces of legislation that was aimed at crimping the net's influence; in one day. It stands to reason why those in the power structure wish to blunt its effectiveness. Information is the internet. Information = Power. The powerful don't like competition, therefore we must not allow any attempts to discredit or regulate the ability for us all to have access to it.

If a man empties his purse in his head no one can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest. - Benjamin Franklin

Black Power

Whether it was Google's black stripe across its logo or Wikipedia actually blacking out its website for 24 hours, it appears freedom has one a battle in a long war waged by the State and its "business interests" in a conquest who's prize lies in the regulating of the internet.

Many internet users were surprised to see many of the sites the come to rely on so much in their day to day activities be altered or in cases like Wikipedia - shut down in protest of the legislation on the hill that threatens one of the key caveats of the net: anonymity.

That surly led to outrage, as users were directed by sites like Wikipedia to their local elected leaders of the House and Senate via their zip codes. I myself couldn't pass up on the opportunity to tell Mike Kelly, my Representative to the House just what i thought about HR 3261 (SOPA); and i did just that (thank you Wikipedia).

His office was rather cagey when asked of the Congressman's support for SOPA. Just introduced on October 26 2011, and being that its only in Committee, I was not sure where Mr Kelly would weigh in either way. He was not a co-sponsor and there was no vote and a Google search turned up... nothing. That's what his office basically told me... nothing: "we have no comment either way".

According to SOPA Track, Mr Kelly has received $101K from Pro-SOPA interests compared to $29K from Anti-SOPA interests. There has been online petitions with millions of signatures...4.5 million in Googles alone according to Forbes. In just days, eighteen Senators have tucked tail and dropped support due to the public firestorm, it will be interesting to see how this unfolds on a national level and in my case with Mr Kelly; the local as well.

Its a view that usually goes unnoticed, being the people vs big business and the representatives caught in the middle with their pants down. I, like many sit in eager anticipation to see where loyalties and convictions lie.