Thread: Privacy Alert! Big Brother is watching and listening, UPDATED

RUSH LIMBAUGH: STAGE PROPS IN OBAMA’S NSA SPEECH LIKE THIRD WORLD DICTATORS’ ANTICS

Posted on Saturday, January 18th, 2014 at 1:07 am.by: Thomas Jefferson



Video at the Page Link:

http://www.conservativeinfidel.com/o...tators-antics/

Know Nothing President Makes Excuses for Wrecking the Fourth

Posted on Saturday, January 18th, 2014 at 1:10 am.
by: Benjamin Franklin



By Kurt Nimmo

A teleprompter reader left out in the cold as the national security state gains steam.

Obama’s aides claim he was surprised to learn about NSA surveillance. “Mr. Obama was surprised to learn after leaks by Edward J. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor, just how far the surveillance had gone,” the New York Times reported earlier this week.



Obama will announce “toothless reforms” and it will be business as usual at the NSA.

Obama’s aides were also surprised. “Things seem to have grown at the N.S.A.,” David Plouffe, Obama sidekick and trusty advisor, told the newspaper, citing the surveillance of foreign leaders’ phones. “I think it was disturbing to most people, and I think he found it disturbing.”

Despite his alleged ignorance of NSA snooping, the Times tells us that as an Illinois senator Obama “supported robust surveillance as long as it was legal and appropriate,” whatever that means (normally it would mean respect for the Fourth Amendment and court-issued warrants), but once in the White House he changed his mind.

Story after story underscore constitutional law professor Obama’s remarkable conversion (in fact, Obama was a constitutional law lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School, not a professor, a useful skill now that he is the federal government’s chief teleprompter reader).

Aides said “his views have been shaped to a striking degree by the reality of waking up every day in the White House responsible for heading off the myriad threats he finds in his daily intelligence briefings,” briefings presented by agencies most involved in surveillance – the NSA, CIA, DIA, FBI, and other members of the intelligence community.

“When you get the package every morning, it puts steel in your spine,” said Plouffe. “There are people out there every day who are plotting. The notion that we would put down a tool that would protect people here in America is hard to fathom.”

A worthless tool, it should be added. Earlier this week we learned that unconstitutional NSA surveillance “has had no discernible impact on preventing acts of terrorism.” Moreover, the White House’s own appointed review group has concluded that the NSA “counterterrorism program” (widespread violation of the Fourth Amendment) is “not essential to preventing attacks” and that much of the evidence it did turn up “could readily have been obtained in a timely manner using conventional [court] orders.”

The review board examined 225 government terrorism cases. A report issued by the New America Foundation cites Najibullah Zazi, the street vendor who supposedly planned to bomb New York’s subway, although investigators admitted important facts were missing, including a specific target, date, and the recruitment of others to facilitate the terrorist attack. Moreover, no operational bomb existed. In other words, the terrorist attack was a fantasy gussied up into a full-fledged national security threat.



Despite the lack of a case and sketchy circumstantial evidence, the leaders of the Senate and House Intelligence committees showcased Zazi as the reason millions of Americans should surrender their Fourth Amendment.

“The instances where [squashing the Fourth Amendment and defecating on the Bill of Rights] has produced good – has disrupted plots, prevented terrorist attacks – is all classified, that’s what’s so hard about this,” said Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat.

“So that we can’t actually go in there and, other than the two that have been released, give the public an actual idea of people that have been saved, attacks that have been prevented, that kind of thing.”

As for a number of cases rolled out by the FBI and subsequently used to defend NSA surveillance, see this page. The FBI has spent a lot of time and money grooming agent provocateurs who ferret out primarily witless patsies who are then paraded before the propaganda media as national security threats.

On Friday, Obama will deliver another of his teleprompter speeches and attempt to mollycoddle the American public into thinking the government will reform the NSA.

“President Obama will call Friday for ending the National Security Agency’s ability to store phone data from millions of Americans, and he will ask Congress, the Justice Department and the intelligence community to help decide who should hold these records, officials said,” USA Today reports.

“In his speech Friday on surveillance policy, Obama plans to argue that the metadata program is a major counterterrorism tool, but changes can be made to reassure Americans that it is not being abused.”

Obama, with plenty of help by the establishment media, will undoubtedly get away with this. Now that the government has more or less successfully sold the “only metadata” farce to the American people and successfully hitched this to a few dim-witted would-be terrorists (and others classified) who were steered by the FBI, we can expect the “reforms” announced by Obama today to be of little to no value in protecting the Constitution and our liberties.

The national security state has a keen interest in putting the finishing touches on its high-tech panopticon. The tempest, however minimal, thanks to the wholesale ignorance of the American people and the persistence of a surrealistic terror meme with its pantheon of scary Muslim boogiemen, will be subdued, for now, as the talking heads herald Obama’s “reforms” and move on.

http://www.infowars.com/know-nothing...ng-the-fourth/

Obama Picks Soros Crony to Lead NSA Probe

January 17, 2014 - 3:21 PM

By Mike Ciandella
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When President Obama needs help, he can always turn to one of the Soros inner circle. In a speech on Jan. 17, Obama announced that his new Presidential Counsel John Podesta will lead a "comprehensive review of Big Data and privacy," following the NSA privacy scandal that has dogged his administration.
What he didn't mention was that Podesta is the founder of the liberal Center for American Progress. CAP has gotten $7.3 million from liberal billionaire George Soros since 2000 and was one of the keystone liberal think tanks founded after the Democrats lost the 2004 election.
Podesta was to have focused on the health care law and climate change issues, according to a Dec. 9, New York Times article.
According to Obama, Podesta will work with a group of government officials and the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, as well as reaching out to "privacy experts, technologists and business leaders," to "look at how the challenges inherent in big data are being confronted by both the public and private sectors." Podesta will also examine how government can "continue to promote the free flow of information in ways that are consistent with both privacy and security." This will be done to address the ongoing NSA spying scandal that came to light in June 2013.
Podesta has a long history with Democrats. He co-chaired the transition team when Obama first came into office. He was also White House chief of staff under Clinton. Neera Tanden, who has worked for both Obama and Hillary Clinton, currently runs CAP.
CAP is an influential liberal policy writing and advocacy organization, complete with its own media outlet. Not only has CAP received more than $7.3 million from George Soros, it also has a membership program for corporations to be part of the discussion. Recently, CAP partnered with NBC Special anchor (and former wife of Arnold Schwarzenegger) Maria Shriver on a report which NBC News promoted without qualification.
CAP was part of coalition of liberal groups in March of 2012 who targeted the pro-free market American Legislative Exchange Council for having corporate donors and promoting policy initiatives not in line with liberal goals. This attack resulted in several of ALEC's corporate members pulling out. A similar attack was launched by some of the same groups against the State Policy Network.

Video at the Page Link:

http://cnsnews.com/mrctv-blog/mike-c...lead-nsa-probe

Computer Security Expert: ObamaCare Website Security “Much Worse Off” Today (Video)

Posted by Jim Hoft on Sunday, January 19, 2014, 9:02 AM
Computer Security Expert: ObamaCare Website Security “Much Worse Off” Today
David Kennedy, CEO, TrustedSec, told Chris Wallace on FOX News Sunday the Obamacare website security is “much worse off” today despite the testimony of government agents. Kennedy and seven other security researchers came to the same conclusion –
“The site itself is not secure. It’s much worse off.”

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Jose Aguilar shared Fitness Ladies's photo.



Not a mosquito.
It's an insect spy drone for urban areas, already in production, funded by the US Government. It can be remotely controlled and is equipped with a camera and a microphone. It can land on you, and it may have the potential to take a DNA sample or leave RFID tracking nanotechnology on your skin. It can fly through an open window, or it can attach to your clothing until you take it in your home. ( Sorry to scare ya'll )






Not a mosquito. It's an insect spy drone for urban areas, already in production, funded by the US Government. It can be remotely controlled and is equipped with a camera and a microphone. It can land on you, and it may have the potential to take a DNA sample or leave RFID tracking nanotechnology on your skin. It can fly through an open window, or it can attach to your clothing until you take it in your home. ( Sorry to scare ya'll )

Originally Posted by kathyet2

Jose Aguilar shared Fitness Ladies's photo.



Not a mosquito.
It's an insect spy drone for urban areas, already in production, funded by the US Government. It can be remotely controlled and is equipped with a camera and a microphone. It can land on you, and it may have the potential to take a DNA sample or leave RFID tracking nanotechnology on your skin. It can fly through an open window, or it can attach to your clothing until you take it in your home. ( Sorry to scare ya'll )






Not a mosquito. It's an insect spy drone for urban areas, already in production, funded by the US Government. It can be remotely controlled and is equipped with a camera and a microphone. It can land on you, and it may have the potential to take a DNA sample or leave RFID tracking nanotechnology on your skin. It can fly through an open window, or it can attach to your clothing until you take it in your home. ( Sorry to scare ya'll )

I know I read about this some time ago.....we have no hope of privacy.....make sure you smack anything that lands on you........twice.

Now it's your kids in Obama's evil eye ...
If you thought Big Brother was after you and your personal information, think again.

All the mind-blowing news you've heard about that is "a walk in the park" compared to the evil that's now here for your children ...

WND EXCLUSIVE

NSA ops 'walk in park' next to plans to track kids

Watchdog says personal details about attitudes collected, measured, assessed

Published: 23 hours ago



The spying on Americans by the National Security Agency and the Internal Revenue Service’s attacks on conservative groups are “like a walk in the park” compared to government plans to track school children, says a prominent national education researcher, analyst and Johns Hopkins-trained pediatrician.

Dr. Karen Effrem, president of the national watchdog group, Education Liberty Watch, is sounding an alarm about Common Core, the federal education standards that almost all states are adopting by accepting federal “Race to the Top” funding.
Under Common Core, Effrem said, students’ personal information increasingly is being collected, measured and assessed while the standards shift the focus away from academics and toward psychological training and testing of personal attitudes and behaviors.
Jane Robbins, senior fellow with the American Principles Project and a Common Core expert, shares Effrem’s concerns.
She said an agreement between a group that develops the Common Core tests and the DOE requires the consortium to give the DOE “complete access to any and all data collected at the state level.”
Robbins said parents will not be notified if personal information about their children is released, nor will they be told who gets it.
Common Core, Effrem said, creates “a womb-to-tomb dossier on kids and families” that includes between 300 and 400 different data points, such as parents’ voting status, religious affiliation, medical data, newborn screening and genetic data.
That personal student information is to be stored and shared between states in what amounts to a national database clearinghouse of information that Effrem said will follow children and may help determine where they work or go to school.
“It’s lifelong,” Effrem said. “And, it’s not just phone records or tax returns or that kind of thing. It’s literally their entire lives and everything about them and their families.”
Robbins added it is illegal for the federal government to establish a student database, “but they get around that by having the states do it.”
Effrem cited concerns about what these kinds of personal data collections will ultimately do to freedom in America.
“It’s going to be like what happened in the Soviet Union or China,” Effrem said. “Only it’s going to be with super computers; it’s going to be at the click of a button instead of on paper.”
Teachers as psychologists
Effrem said many Common Core standards and assessments will be used to collect data that go beyond academics to focus on student’s psychological attitudes, values and beliefs.
She points to documents from the National School Boards Association, the Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL) and the U.S. Department of Education that promote teaching children beyond academics to focus on “non-cognitive” “21st Century skills” that include the disposition, social skills and behavior of children.
“Various elements of SEL can be found in nearly every state’s K-12 standards framework and in the Common Core State Standards for the English Language Arts,” states the National Association of State Boards of Education in an October 2013 paper, “From Practice to Policy.”
SEL (social emotional learning) is also starting to be incorporated in federal policies and initiatives, such as the Race to the Top, according to a 2013 CASEL report, “The Missing Piece, How Social and Emotional Learning Can Empower Children and Transform Schools.”
That finding was echoed by Pamela Orme, Anchorage School District social studies curriculum coordinator.
Orme said the SEL aspect of the standards became evident as they “began to unpack standards we found a clear correlation between Common Core and social, emotional learning.”
The CASEL report adds that some states like Illinois and Kansas are also implementing social emotional standards on their own, a practice it found is supported by a majority of teachers it surveyed.
The report also called it “critical” to develop social and emotional assessment tools so teachers can “measure students’ social and emotional competence.”
The Orwellian lengths the government is willing to go to to measure those results is made clear in the U.S. Department of Education Technology’s February 2013 draft report, “Promoting Grit, Tenacity and Perseverance: Critical Factors for Success in the 21st Century.”
Dubbed “affective computing” the report explores the “growing movement” within schools about how traits like dispositions, social skills, attitudes and “interpersonal resources” can be measured in students.
It also indicates a move toward changing student behaviors to promote what government declares are keys to success beyond “cognitive.”
The report also states assessments “can serve a wide range of purposes well beyond accountability” to include research and “diagnostic indicators for vulnerable students.”
It lauds the use of “affective computing” to measure social-emotional competencies, such as a student’s level of grit, tenacity and perseverance.
Included are photos of equipment that measures student responses: a facial expression camera, wrist wires, pressure mouse and posture analysis seat.



The report states the equipment has been used in studies of “data mining techniques.”
It states the sensors provide “constant, parallel streams of data” that when used with data mining techniques and self-reporting allows measurement and examination of feelings that include frustration, motivation, confidence, boredom and fatigue.
The report notes, “While this type of tool may not be necessary in a small class of students, it could be useful for examining emotional responses in informal learning environments for large groups, like museums.”
It also indicates collecting such data would help “individualize” learning, the latest trend in education.
To achieve individualized learning, many districts are providing computerized devices to students.
The devices not only provide a new way to access content, they are another way schools can track student activities, raising concerns of some parents and privacy advocates.
At least one school district has spied on students using school-issued laptops as revealed in a 2010 class action lawsuit against the Lower Merion School District in Philadelphia, Pa.
There, remote webcam spying was revealed after district officials attempted to punish then 15-year-old Blake Robbins for behavior in his bedroom.
The district admitted it gave students laptops they could use at home that included webcams that could be activated remotely by district personnel to spy on students.
Through the suit, it was revealed that two high schools in the district had secretly snapped 66,000 images.
Another student filed a separate lawsuit against the district after he discovered his school-issued laptop had been used to capture over 1,000 photos and screenshots without his knowledge.
These days, many districts have graduated to more portable products, like iPads, to give students.
A concerned father in Farmington, Minn., said the iPad initiative has resulted in district officials frequently examining the equipment that many also use at home.
He said middle school announcements regularly include a list of students who are ordered to the office so district personnel can inspect their iPad.
Since the iPad includes GPS tracking device capabilities, the parent, who asked to remain anonymous, cited concerns about the extent of data tracking the schools could access.
“Is there a tracking chip in there so that you could theoretically follow the student wherever he goes?” The parent asked. “How much information is the school district collecting through the iPad?”
There are few limits on how geolocation data collected in electronic devices can be used by educators.
Whatever information is on the iPad is completely accessible to school administrators, whether or not the device is owned by the district, according to Mo Canady, executive director of the National Association of School Resource Officers.
Canady said in most cases, school administrators have a lesser standard to meet than police when it comes to searching students and their belongings.
He added that school administrators have even more latitude when it involves a school-owned device.
“Law enforcement are bound by the Fourth Amendment (prohibiting unreasonable search and seizures),” Canady said. “School administration is not, so it makes a lot of difference.”
He said the same type of information school administrators can access if they have “reasonable suspicion” would require an officer to first obtain a search warrant before accessing the content.
Districts across the country that have allowed student iPad use also have polices that govern their use, and all reviewed for this article state they can be “seized and inspected” by the district at any time without warning.
The level of information about children districts are able to access, collect and distribute concerns Effrem, who said it is not their role as educators.
“I do not believe that parents are sending their kids to school to have psychological teaching, manipulation, monitoring, testing and data collection performed on their children,” she said. “That is not the role of the school.”

http://www.wnd.com/2014/01/nsa-ops-w...to-track-kids/

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http://www.wnd.com/2014/01/nsa-ops-w...to-track-kids/

If you like your concealed-carry permit, you can keep it

By: John Hayward | January 20th, 2014 at 04:43 PM | 28



There’s a good reason people are growing nervous about the huge amount of information our government is amassing on its citizens. The strange story of John Filippidis should put a chill in the hearts of everyone concerned about protecting their Constitutional rights, especially their gun rights.


Filippidis is a Floridian with a concealed-carry permit, who drove to visit family in New Jersey over the Christmas holiday. He decided not to push his luck by bringing his legal pistol with him on the interstate drive. But while passing through Maryland on the way home on New Years Eve with his wife and kids in the car, he somehow caught the attention of an unmarked Maryland Transportation Authority Police car, which played a bizarre game of cat-and-mouse with them for a while before popping on its lights and pulling them over.
I have yet to read a story about why, exactly, the officer decided to initiate an encounter with the Filippidis family; the MTAP is supposedly conducting an internal investigation and won’t answer such questions until it’s over, although they have apologized to the Filippidis family for what happened next.
From the Tampa Tribune, we learn that it took about ten minutes for the officer to check Filippidis’ license and registration, and then…

Ten minutes later he’s back, and he wants John out of the Expedition. Retreating to the space between the SUV and the unmarked car, the officer orders John to hook his thumbs behind his back and spread his feet. “You own a gun,” the officer says. “Where is it?”
“At home in my safe,” John answers.
“Don’t move,” says the officer.
Now he’s at the passenger’s window. “Your husband owns a gun,” he says. “Where is it?”
First Kally says, “I don’t know.” Retelling it later she says, “And that’s all I should have said.” Instead, attempting to be helpful, she added, “Maybe in the glove [box]. Maybe in the console. I’m scared of it. I don’t want to have anything to do with it. I might shoot right through my foot.”
The officer came back to John. “You’re a liar. You’re lying to me. Your family says you have it. Where is the gun? Tell me where it is and we can resolve this right now.”
Of course, John couldn’t show him what didn’t exist, but Kally’s failure to corroborate John’s account, the officer would tell them later, was the probable cause that allowed him to summon backup — three marked cars joined the lineup along the I-95 shoulder — and empty the Expedition of riders, luggage, Christmas gifts, laundry bags; to pat down Kally and Yianni; to explore the engine compartment and probe inside door panels; and to separate and isolate the Filippidises in the back seats of the patrol cars.
Ninety minutes later, or maybe it was two hours — “It felt like forever,” Kally says — no weapon found and their possessions repacked, the episode ended … with the officer writing out a warning.

“A warning for what?” every reader is doubtless asking in unison, but I haven’t found that detail in any media account. Most of them appear to be built entirely from the Tampa Tribune article. The nature of the warning seems like a detail the reporter should have nailed down. (If everyone involved either refused to disclose the nature of the warning, or was legally barred from doing so, that could have been duly noted in the story.) If I don’t see some “WARNING – Do not visit the Peoples’ Republic of Maryland if you value your rights!” Photoshops at the next gun show I visit, I will be very disappointed.
It seems almost incredible that some sort of minor infraction would not be cited by the officer as the reason for the stop, but even with an internal investigation under way, it’s strange that they haven’t made some effort to explain that Filippidas was driving slightly over the speed limit, drove erratically because he was tired, had a tail light out, etc. As it stands, the conduct of the officers in this case appears either incomprehensible or downright sinister.
According to the Tampa Tribune, Mr. Filippidas was badly shaken by the incident, and is on the verge of canceling his concealed-carry license to avoid further difficulties, which would be a textbook nightmare scenario of a citizen intimidated out of exercising his lawful rights:

“All that time, he’s humiliating me in front of my family, making me feel like a criminal,” John says. “I’ve never been to prison, never declared bankruptcy, I pay my taxes, support my 20 employees’ families; I’ve never been in any kind of trouble.”
Face red, eyes shining, John pounds his knees. “And he wants to put me in jail. He wants to put me in jail. For no reason. He wants to take my wife and children away and put me in jail. In America, how does such a thing happen? … And after all that, he didn’t even write me a ticket.”

The National Rifle Association reviewed the gun laws of Florida and Maryland in a statement on the case:

Florida’s concealed carry law states: “The Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services shall maintain an automated listing of licenseholders and pertinent information, and such information shall be available online, upon request, at all times to all law enforcement agencies through the Florida Crime Information Center.” Maryland also has very strict laws governing the carrying or transportation of firearms, rarely issues concealed carry licenses under its discretionary “need-based” licensing regime, and does not recognize any out-of-state carry licenses. It has also aggressively pursued gun control recently, resulting in a sweeping law that includes gun bans, licensing, and registration. This, in turn, has sparked multiple lawsuits, some of which have already been settled (see ILA’s January 2014 Legal Update for more information).
How these factors may have interacted in this incident is unclear, but at the very least, the Tribune’s report raises serious questions about how records indicating a person is a gun owner might lead to unwarranted suspicion and discrimination, even in the absence of wrongdoing.

And here I thought “profiling” was the worst thing law enforcement could do. (I wonder if Mr. Filippidas have any bumper stickers on his car advertising his gun ownership.) At any rate, “the absence of wrongdoing” is an increasingly precious commodity in a hyper-regulated nation where everyone is presumably guilty of some infraction or other at any given moment.

http://www.redstate.com/2014/01/20/i...u-can-keep-it/

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden to hold live chat on Thursday

Ian Paul @ianpaul

• Jan 22, 2014 6:45 AM

If you’ve ever wanted to ask NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden a question, you might get your chance on Thursday, January 23 at 3 PM ET/12 PM Pacific. The man who revealed the startling revelations about the NSA’s Prism program and cell phone metadata collection—and inspired a slew of security-focused apps and services—is lining up for his second official question and answer session tomorrow.
Thursday’s virtual town hall meeting is Snowden’s second public Q&A, following one hosted by The Guardian and moderated by Glenn Greenwald last June. This time around Snowden will answer questions on freesnowden.is, a leading advocacy site for the whistleblower.
Anyone who wants to submit questions must ask them on Twitter starting Thursday using the hashtag #AskSnowden. Snowden’s responses will be logged on the Free Snowden site.
Snowden is also expected to respond to President Barack Obama’s speech on NSA reforms last Friday, though not necessarily during the live chat session.
Better the second time?

The Guardian ’s original Snowden Q&A was criticized by some as being a PR exercise where the public learned little of real value about the former NSA contractor, so it’s something of an open question whether the NSA leaker will satisfy questioning minds this time around.
ProPublica Senior Editor Scott Klein said on Twitter after the last Q&A that the “Snowden chat was handled like [a] Soviet gymnast’s press conference.” Tom Watson, a Forbes Contributor and New York University instructor, also took to Twitter with a Russian-themed crack, saying he’d "seen scripted Presidential "town halls" that were less Potemkin Village-like than this so-called #askSnowden 'chat.'"
Snowden is currently living in Russia, where he was granted a one-year asylum in August after the U.S. revoked his passport while he was en route to Cuba.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/20900...-thursday.html