Professor Lawrence Lessig & Jack Abramoff on political corruption
An insiders insight of political corruption in Washington DC and some suggestions to stop it.
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/303041-1
Saturday, 17 August 2013
Press your Congressmen to get these questions asked.
Town Hall meetings would seem to be a great opportunity - like this :-
But also send emails and phone calls to Congressional offices.
Get Congress to feel some heat for the massive abuses of the NSA.
Get them to do something about stopping it.
1. How many terrorist plots that threatened Americans have been foiled by NSA Mass Surveillance of Americans that could not of been stopped without the Patriot Act?
I.E. Could not of been stopped by following the pre 9/11 Constitutional process of obtaining a warrant after finding probable cause?
Specify the court cases as a result of these "foiled terrorist plots".
Name the plotters.
Presumably they were charged with their crimes.
Notes
In sworn testimony to the Senate Judicial Committee late July, John C. Inglis Deputy Director of the NSA testified that since 9/11 "at most one" terrorist plot had been foiled. See 1.
Specify the details of this "foiled terrorist plot".
2. What is the data storage capacity of the new Utah Data Center scheduled to be fully operational in the fall?
See 2 for best current estimate.
3. What are the data storage capacities of the NSA data storage facilities in each of the following locations?
Texas (near San Antonio)
Denver, Colorado
Maryland/Virginia
4. Does the NSA have any other data storage facilities located elsewhere?
5. If the NSA, as it claims, is not building a surveillance dossier on every American citizen why does it need the storage capacity to hold the entire contents of the internet thousands of times over?
Why does it need the storage capacity to hold the contents and metadata of every single phone call made in, to, or from the United States for 100 years?
See 2
6. Why does the NSA have a computer system that allows any NSA analyst to access all of the data collected on any American without first obtaining a warrant?
The computer system is called XKeyScore.
See 3
7. Why should not James Clapper and Keith Alexander already be in jail faces charges of perjury?
James Clapper through his own admission of lying under oath to Congress in March and multiple other evidence of the mass data collection on millions of Americans.
Keith Alexander through multiple demonstrable lies under oath to Congress.
See 4
8. How can American's data privacy be ensured in any shape or form when the Five Eyes program exists?
The U.S., the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand are all conducting their own mass data collection programs and then pooling and sharing data freely with each other.
The massive amount of data collected is to be centrally stored at and accessed from the new Utah data center.
Any privacy laws supposedly preventing any of these countries from spying on their own citizens are easily got round by another country collecting the data.
http://ian56.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/how-to-avoid-political-backlash-from.html
9. How do the public statements of James Clapper and Keith Alexander square with the public statement of the head of the CIA's technical department?
"We try to collect everything on everyone and keep it forever"
http://ian56.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/cias-tech-head-on-your-data-we-try-to.html
The above questions should be asked to both James Clapper and Keith Alexander under oath at the same Congressional hearing.
They should be asked separately of each witness, while the other witness is held incommunicado (as per normal procedures for witnesses in trials).
The purpose of these questions
Appendices
1. John C. Inglis Deputy Director of the NSA effectively calls his boss Keith Alexander a liar in sworn testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee
SPENCER ACKERMAN: What you heard was extraordinary. You heard the deputy director of theNSA say two things simultaneously—first, that the bulk phone records collection that’s gone on for at least seven years of all Americans’ phone records—hundreds of million, yours, mine, everyone’s, your neighbors’, your family members’—has in maybe one case—maybe—stopped a terrorist attack, maybe, at absolute most. And he also said—and this is the subtler thing that’s easier to miss but is very important to link with yesterday’s documents disclosure—he said that was the wrong way to view the program, that it wasn’t a sort of, as he put it, "but for" instance of actually directly stopping a plot. That’s not really the right way to view it, he said.
http://www.democracynow.org/2013/8/1/nsa_confirms_dragnet_phone_records_collection
2. The new $2bn NSA data center in Utah, expected to be fully operational in the Fall 2013
The data center is "expected to be able to process yottabytes of data".
One Yottabyte is equivalent to the entire contents of the internet 2,000 times over.
http://ian56.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/the-nsas-massive-new-2bn-data-center-in.html
3. XKeyScore
The Mass Surveillance State at the touch of a computer button
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/31/nsa-top-secret-program-online-data
4. James Clapper and Keith Alexander should already be in jail facing charges of perjury
Feinstein and Clapper caught lying BIG TIME. The implications of a MASS SURVEILLANCE STATE
http://ian56.blogspot.com/2013/06/feinstein-and-clapper-finally-admit.html
The 11 lies and 1 truth told at the recent NSA "hearing" on June 18th
http://ian56.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-catalog-of-nsa-lies-at-yesterdays.html
Keith Alexander caught lying under oath under questioning by Hank Johnson
http://ian56.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/nsa-director-is-caught-lying-14-times.html
5. What every American and every Congressman should know about the NSA's Mass Surveillance programs
Everything You Wanted to Know about NSA Spying … But Were Afraid to Ask
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/07/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-spying-but-were-afraid-to-ask.html
Saying the NSA's Mass Surveillance programs have anything to do with counter terrorism is an obvious and blatant lie
http://ian56.blogspot.com/2013/07/saying-nsas-mass-surveillance-programs.html
The purpose of these questions
Town Hall meetings would seem to be a great opportunity - like this :-
But also send emails and phone calls to Congressional offices.
Get Congress to feel some heat for the massive abuses of the NSA.
Get them to do something about stopping it.
1. How many terrorist plots that threatened Americans have been foiled by NSA Mass Surveillance of Americans that could not of been stopped without the Patriot Act?
I.E. Could not of been stopped by following the pre 9/11 Constitutional process of obtaining a warrant after finding probable cause?
Specify the court cases as a result of these "foiled terrorist plots".
Name the plotters.
Presumably they were charged with their crimes.
Notes
In sworn testimony to the Senate Judicial Committee late July, John C. Inglis Deputy Director of the NSA testified that since 9/11 "at most one" terrorist plot had been foiled. See 1.
Specify the details of this "foiled terrorist plot".
2. What is the data storage capacity of the new Utah Data Center scheduled to be fully operational in the fall?
See 2 for best current estimate.
3. What are the data storage capacities of the NSA data storage facilities in each of the following locations?
Texas (near San Antonio)
Denver, Colorado
Maryland/Virginia
4. Does the NSA have any other data storage facilities located elsewhere?
5. If the NSA, as it claims, is not building a surveillance dossier on every American citizen why does it need the storage capacity to hold the entire contents of the internet thousands of times over?
Why does it need the storage capacity to hold the contents and metadata of every single phone call made in, to, or from the United States for 100 years?
See 2
6. Why does the NSA have a computer system that allows any NSA analyst to access all of the data collected on any American without first obtaining a warrant?
The computer system is called XKeyScore.
See 3
7. Why should not James Clapper and Keith Alexander already be in jail faces charges of perjury?
James Clapper through his own admission of lying under oath to Congress in March and multiple other evidence of the mass data collection on millions of Americans.
Keith Alexander through multiple demonstrable lies under oath to Congress.
See 4
8. How can American's data privacy be ensured in any shape or form when the Five Eyes program exists?
The U.S., the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand are all conducting their own mass data collection programs and then pooling and sharing data freely with each other.
The massive amount of data collected is to be centrally stored at and accessed from the new Utah data center.
Any privacy laws supposedly preventing any of these countries from spying on their own citizens are easily got round by another country collecting the data.
http://ian56.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/how-to-avoid-political-backlash-from.html
9. How do the public statements of James Clapper and Keith Alexander square with the public statement of the head of the CIA's technical department?
"We try to collect everything on everyone and keep it forever"
http://ian56.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/cias-tech-head-on-your-data-we-try-to.html
The above questions should be asked to both James Clapper and Keith Alexander under oath at the same Congressional hearing.
They should be asked separately of each witness, while the other witness is held incommunicado (as per normal procedures for witnesses in trials).
The purpose of these questions
The only possible rational explanation to why the NSA needs so much storage capacity is to build a surveillance dossier on every American.
I EXPECT the NSA to lie about it and I want it on tape and under oath.
I want people like Justin Amash and Glenn Greenwald to use it.
I want more people to think about the questions :-
Why the heck do they need that much storage?
What the heck are they doing?
I want more people to wake up.
Appendices
1. John C. Inglis Deputy Director of the NSA effectively calls his boss Keith Alexander a liar in sworn testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee
SPENCER ACKERMAN: What you heard was extraordinary. You heard the deputy director of theNSA say two things simultaneously—first, that the bulk phone records collection that’s gone on for at least seven years of all Americans’ phone records—hundreds of million, yours, mine, everyone’s, your neighbors’, your family members’—has in maybe one case—maybe—stopped a terrorist attack, maybe, at absolute most. And he also said—and this is the subtler thing that’s easier to miss but is very important to link with yesterday’s documents disclosure—he said that was the wrong way to view the program, that it wasn’t a sort of, as he put it, "but for" instance of actually directly stopping a plot. That’s not really the right way to view it, he said.
http://www.democracynow.org/2013/8/1/nsa_confirms_dragnet_phone_records_collection
2. The new $2bn NSA data center in Utah, expected to be fully operational in the Fall 2013
The data center is "expected to be able to process yottabytes of data".
One Yottabyte is equivalent to the entire contents of the internet 2,000 times over.
http://ian56.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/the-nsas-massive-new-2bn-data-center-in.html
3. XKeyScore
The Mass Surveillance State at the touch of a computer button
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/31/nsa-top-secret-program-online-data
4. James Clapper and Keith Alexander should already be in jail facing charges of perjury
Feinstein and Clapper caught lying BIG TIME. The implications of a MASS SURVEILLANCE STATE
http://ian56.blogspot.com/2013/06/feinstein-and-clapper-finally-admit.html
The 11 lies and 1 truth told at the recent NSA "hearing" on June 18th
http://ian56.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-catalog-of-nsa-lies-at-yesterdays.html
Keith Alexander caught lying under oath under questioning by Hank Johnson
http://ian56.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/nsa-director-is-caught-lying-14-times.html
5. What every American and every Congressman should know about the NSA's Mass Surveillance programs
Everything You Wanted to Know about NSA Spying … But Were Afraid to Ask
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/07/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-spying-but-were-afraid-to-ask.html
Saying the NSA's Mass Surveillance programs have anything to do with counter terrorism is an obvious and blatant lie
http://ian56.blogspot.com/2013/07/saying-nsas-mass-surveillance-programs.html
The purpose of these questions
The only possible rational answer as to why the NSA needs so much storage capacity is to build a surveillance dossier on every American.
I EXPECT the NSA to lie about it and I want it on tape and under oath.
I want people like Justin Amash and Glenn Greenwald to use it.
I want more people to think about the questions :-
Why the heck do they need that much storage?
What the heck are they doing?
I want more people to wake up.
Wednesday, 14 August 2013
Preface: All capitalist systems have some inequality. We don’t want to prevent all inequality … justeconomy-wrecking levels:
Lawrence Katz, a Harvard economist, adds that some inequality is necessary to create incentives in a capitalist economy but that “too much inequality can harm the efficient operation of the economy.”
And you might assume that conservatives don’t worry about rampant inequality … but that is a myth.
Rampant Inequality – Which Hurts the Economy – Is Skyrocketing
A who’s-who’s of prominent economists in government and academia have all said that runaway inequality can cause financial crises.
Extreme inequality helped cause the Great Depression, the current financial crisis … and the fall of the Roman Empire.
But inequality in America today is actually twice as bad as in ancient Rome , worse than it was in inTsarist Russia, Gilded Age America, modern Egypt, Tunisia or Yemen, many banana republics in Latin America, and worse than experienced by slaves in 1774 colonial America.
Inequality has grown steadily worse:
Read more at :-
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/02/economic-leaders-pay-lip-service-to-decreasing-inequality-while-pushing-policies-which-increase-it.html
Sunday, 11 August 2013
Email addresses, twitter handles and Facebook accounts
Representatives
http://patriotjournalist.com/usHouse.php?src=Home
Official contact list for email addresses
http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/
Senators
http://patriotjournalist.com/usSenate.php
And there is a whole lot of complaining to do.
After destroying the 4th amendment, spending around $100bn and as the NSA has now just admitted foiling ZERO terrorist plots,
With the massive potential for abuse for the blackmail and intimidation of :-
politicians
judges
government officials
journalists
lawyers
top military
business people
ordinary protestors against government policies
critics of government policy
The risks to free speech, the rights to protest and the protection of the press and thus the substantial risks to the 1st amendment
NOBODY is seriously proposing completely dismantling the NSA Mass Surveillance and ending it totally.
It hasn't made anyone safer.
It has made everyone except the government LESS safe.
Saturday, 3 August 2013
The U.S. Military Code was changed in response to the Nuremberg War Crimes trials to :-
1. State that it was a soldier's duty to report war crimes 2. It was a duty to disobey blatantly illegal orders
Manning reported a war crime upwards through his chain of command as he was duty bound to do.
The indiscriminate killing of 12 Iraqi civilians, including two Reuter's reporters, from a helicopter gunship.
N.B. The carrying of AK-47 rifles was not unusual for Iraqi civilians at the time, given the violent nature of their surroundings.
Iraq collateral murder
http://www.collateralmurder.com/
Ethan McCord's eyewitness account
The indiscriminate killing of Iraqi civilians gave succour to the enemy.
It was used as a recruitment tool by Islamic Extremists.
His superiors told Manning to ignore the war crime - a blatantly illegal order.
According to the U.S. Military Code the incident should of been investigated.
Manning then tried a different route - trying to get the war crime reported in various American media outlets, including the NY Times.
The media refused to publish the story. So Manning went to Wikileaks as the only available route.
Espionage is giving information to the enemy.
The Iraqi's already knew about various U.S. war crimes as did Islamic Extremists across the Muslim world.
The only people that Manning gave new information to, was the American public.
If Manning is guilty of Espionage then the American government must consider the American public their enemy - not Islamic Extremists.
This is reflected in the crackdown on whistle blowers, the crackdown on press reporting and the Mass Surveillance of all Americans etc.
It is also reflected in the support given by the American government to Islamic Extremists in Egypt, Syria and Libya.
Friday, 2 August 2013
Highlights (lowlights?) :-
"But payroll growth was anaemic, wages dropped and more discouraged workers headed for the sidelines, continuing the slowest job-market recovery since World War II."
"Employers added just 162,000 jobs to non-farm payrolls in July, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Friday, down from 188,000 in June, which was revised lower from an initial reading of 195,000. Together, revisions to May and June figures subtracted 26,000 jobs from payrolls, another sign of weakness."
"The unemployment rate, meanwhile, fell in part because 37,000 workers dropped out of the labor force, meaning they gave up looking for work. The labor-force participation rate, which measures the percentage of working-age Americans who are working or looking for work, fell to 63.4 percent in July, near a 35-year low.
The civilian employment-population ratio, which measures how many working-age Americans actually have jobs, was flat at 58.7 percent, near the lowest in 30 years and down from more than 63 percent before the recession."
N.B. the author has made a mistake here - the actual number of people who gave up looking for work was 241,000 people in July - see below.
The author corrects himself in the next sentence - the labor participation rate is now 58.7%
"Average hourly wages fell 0.1 percent in July and are up just 1.9 percent in the past year, barely enough to keep up with inflation. The majority of the jobs that have been created during the recovery have been low-paying jobs, worsening income inequality and keeping the economy sluggish.
The author corrects himself in the next sentence - the labor participation rate is now 58.7%
"Really we have become a nation of hamburger flippers, Wal-Mart sales associates, barmaids, checkout people and other people working at very low wages," Daniel Alpert, managing partner of New York investment bank Westwood Capital, told Yahoo Finance's Daily Ticker. That's why job growth is "not increasing consumption or the ability to go out and buy stuff."
Again a mistake by the author, real inflation is between 6 and 9% not the official 1 to 2% quoted by the author.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/02/july-jobs-report-unemployment-rate_n_3690424.htmlBut the article fails to mention a lot of what is wrong with the U.S. labor market.
Some of the information that was neglected to be mentioned :-
The pace of jobs growth quoted - 192,000 a month is taken from the Establishment Survey.
It includes :-
500,000 jobs where people have taken a second or third poorly paid part time job
An over estimate of around 120,000 jobs due to miscalculations in the BLS Birth/Death model.
The REAL pace of jobs growth is around 100,000 a month.
Far short of the pace of jobs growth required to keep pace with population growth - which is around 180,000 a month.
Large numbers of the working age population are dropping out of the civilian labor pool, because decent paying jobs just aren't out there.
Increasingly Households are moving from two income households to single income.
Since the start of 2009 :-
There are 4.5 million more people over 54 with a job - increasing numbers of people can no longer retire early.
There are 2.5 million LESS people working in the 16 to 54 age group.
They cannot find jobs.
The situation is particularly dire for new jobs in the key 34 to 54 age group.
This is the age group where people generally earn the most money.
The civilian population of working age increased by 204,000 people in July.
The number of people in the civilian labor pool DECLINED by 37,000 people.
Source BLS Household survey.
From this we can calculate that the number of people of working age who stopped looking for work because decent paying jobs just aren't out there was 241,000 people in July.
Jobs by age range :-
Zero jobs added for those between 16 and 19
49,000 jobs added for people between 20 to 24 (this includes recent college graduates)
15,000 jobs were added for people between 25 and 54 (the highest earning age group)
96,000 jobs added for people aged 55+
The dramatic rise over the last 15 years in the number of people over 54 that are now working
Source St Louis Fed
The number of people graduating from college and entering the labor force is in the ball park of 3.5 million people in 2013.
This takes account of people going onto Masters and PhD courses.
It also takes account of the current 40% drop out rate.
Only 49,000 of these people seem to have started work so far.
We can assume that a very large number of the class of 2013 are now looking for work and will show up in the jobs and unemployment numbers over the next 2 months.
The article also fails to mention that most of the jobs created are low paid or part time jobs.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/31/business/majority-of-new-jobs-pay-low-wages-study-finds.html?_r=0
The situation has got worse since this article was published a year ago.
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