The surveillance experts at the National Security Agency won’t tell two powerful United States Senators how many Americans have had their communications picked up by the agency as part of its sweeping new counterterrorism powers. The reason: it would violate your privacy to say so. via NSA: It Would Violate Your Privacy to Say if …
Category Archive: Police State
Jun 13 2012
Video: the policeman’s friend
Ed Brayton has published a long list of police departments abusing people’s First Amendment rights and illegally interfering with people trying to videotape their conduct. But now, in a refreshing change of pace, there is news of at least one police department that finally “gets” video technology. After years of seeing officers’ misconduct captured on …
May 29 2012
Second-degree terrorism
Over at Pharyngula, PZ has a nice wrap-up of the debate between Bruce Schneier and Sam Harris on the topic of whether or not we ought to implement a 2-tiered screening system that subjects “Muslims or anyone who looks Muslim” to extra scrutiny at airports. Bruce points out some very good reasons why this is …
May 16 2012
Not all definitions of marriage are equal
The other day I was listening to yet another Christian conservative parrot the tired mantra about how liberals are trying to change the definition of marriage. My first thought was that if marriage equality changes your definition of marriage, you’ve been using a bad definition of marriage. And that got me thinking about the various …
Apr 24 2012
Pentagon-sponsored identity theft
USA Today is reporting a disturbing and blatantly illegal propaganda campaign apparently being conducted by Pentagon contractors. A USA TODAY reporter and editor investigating Pentagon propaganda contractors have themselves been subjected to a propaganda campaign of sorts, waged on the Internet through a series of bogus websites. Fake Twitter and Facebook accounts have been created …
Apr 09 2012
Anything you say can and will be used
Via Wired comes word of a top secret government project with very disturbing implications. Under construction by contractors with top-secret clearances, the blandly named Utah Data Center is being built for the National Security Agency. A project of immense secrecy, it is the final piece in a complex puzzle assembled over the past decade. Its …
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