Sunday, June 16, 2013

Brick TeeVee's Guardian NSA Fallout Special!


Your Guest List for Sunday's Talking Head News Shows beamed across America by Corporate Media PLUS reports from the best lib/prog media! If you have related STORIES share below! DEBUNK HERE! Throw Bricks! First brick is on us! Get your Foam Bricks at ThrowThings.com

btvBRICKbrick_teevee_test.jpgbtvBRICK


~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~


ALL LINKS OPEN A NEW WINDOW!!! Click on anything below and be INSTANTLY SMARTER!
Guardian NSA Fallout Special Seems Daniel Ellsberg picked up on our East German Stasi Theme in this op-ed! Daniel Ellsberg of the infamous Pentagon Papers leak in the 1970s tells us Edward Snowden: saving us from the United Stasi of America In my estimation, there has not been in American history a more important leak than Edward Snowden's release of NSA material – and that definitely includes the Pentagon Papers 40 years ago. Snowden's whistleblowing gives us the possibility to roll back a key part of what has amounted to an "executive coup" against the US constitution.
Since 9/11, there has been, at first secretly but increasingly openly, a revocation of the bill of rights for which this country fought over 200 years ago. In particular, the fourth and fifth amendments of the US constitution, which safeguard citizens from unwarranted intrusion by the government into their private lives, have been virtually suspended.
The government claims it has a court warrant under Fisa – but that unconstitutionally sweeping warrant is from a secret court, shielded from effective oversight, almost totally deferential to executive requests. As Russell Tice, a former National Security Agency analyst, put it: "It is a kangaroo court with a rubber stamp."
For the president then to say that there is judicial oversight is nonsense – as is the alleged oversight function of the intelligence committees in Congress. Not for the first time – as with issues of torture, kidnapping, detention, assassination by drones and death squads –they have shown themselves to be thoroughly co-opted by the agencies they supposedly monitor. They are also black holes for information that the public needs to know.
The fact that congressional leaders were "briefed" on this and went along with it, without any open debate, hearings, staff analysis, or any real chance for effective dissent, only shows how broken the system of checks and balances is in this country. ........ But what is not legitimate is to use a secrecy system to hide programs that are blatantly unconstitutional in their breadth and potential abuse. Neither the president nor Congress as a whole may by themselves revoke the fourth amendment – and that's why what Snowden has revealed so far was secret from the American people. In 1975, Senator Frank Church spoke of the National Security Agency in these terms:
    "I know the capacity that is there to make tyranny total in America, and we must see to it that this agency and all agencies that possess this technology operate within the law and under proper supervision, so that we never cross over that abyss. That is the abyss from which there is no return."
The dangerous prospect of which he warned was that America's intelligence gathering capability – which is today beyond any comparison with what existed in his pre-digital era – "at any time could be turned around on the American people and no American would have any privacy left." That has now happened. That is what Snowden has exposed, with official, secret documents. The NSA, FBI and CIA have, with the new digital technology, surveillance powers over our own citizens that the Stasi – the secret police in the former "democratic republic" of East Germany – could scarcely have dreamed of. Snowden reveals that the so-called intelligence community has become the United Stasi of America........ I see the unexpected possibility of a way up and out of the abyss. Pressure by an informed public on Congress to form a select committee to investigate the revelations by Snowden and, I hope, others to come might lead us to bring NSA and the rest of the intelligence community under real supervision and restraint and restore the protections of the bill of rights. ......
See Dan Ellsberg in an EXCLUSIVE BradCast show below! And read and watch Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind the NSA surveillance revelations by Glenn Greenwald, Ewen MacAskill and Laura Poitras in Hong Kong with Snowden's entire video statement. MUST WATCH (also below at DN!). More on the fall-out later including the revelation in WaPo's Documents: U.S. mining data from 9 leading Internet firms; companies deny knowledge.
We have much more but first some other items of interest and importance. The Guardian's Lisa O'Carrol reports on the unexpected ERT shutdown: Greek government reveals plans for new state broadcaster The Greek government has unveiled plans to open a slimmed down version of the state broadcaster just hours after taking the draconian step of shutting ERT down with the immediate loss of 2,700 jobs. As ERT journalists continued to defy the shutdown on Wednesday with a live web feed from the occupied studios at the broadcaster's headquarters in Athens, draft legislation was unveiled to launch a replacement service, but not until the end of August. Simos Kedikoglou, a government spokesman, said the proposed slimmed down state broadcaster would run on just 1,200 employees. "We tried during the past year to find a way of overhauling public television but it wasn't possible to change anything," Kedigolou added. A journalist inside ERT's radio HQ who has just returned from a succession of meetings with the leaders of the centre and left-of-centre Greek government coalition partners told the Guardian they are trying to draft fresh legislation which could offer the prime minister, Antonis Samaras, a face-saving compromise that will keep the broadcaster on air. Anastasia Zigou, a member of Strike Struggle, a group formed by ERT journalists in November 2011, said: "Many of us haven't slept for 48 hours, but we won't give in. We are sustained by the huge response we've had from citizens, not only here but at local radio stations all over the country." ...... Zigou continued: "We need solidarity from around the world, not just from fellow journalists and unions but from ordinary citizens. This matters to everyone." The decree to shut ERT, citing the need to cut the "incredible waste" at the broadcaster, has been condemned by Greek opposition politicians, sparking calls for a general strike and widespread international criticism. Leftwing opposition leader Alexis Tsipras, who met the Greek president Karolos Papoulias to discuss the ERT crisis on Wednesday, issued a statement calling the decision an "institutional coup", saying "we are all obliged to resist it". He asked the president to intervene and initiate a debate in parliament on Wednesday afternoon. Greece's two largest unions have called a 24-hour general strike for Thursday to protest against the government's move that has shocked the public and triggered a political crisis. ..... More info at The Telegraph Greek PM seeks to avert crisis over broadcaster shutdown by Anthee Carassava in Athens ....Buses and trains came to a halt, state offices were shut, hospitals operated on skeleton staff, and flights were grounded after Greece’s two biggest labour unions called 24-hour strikes in response to what they called a “coup-like move... to gag unbiased information”. Greek media maintained an indefinite news blackout while thousands of protesters rallied at ERT’s headquarters holding banners reading "Fire Samaras, not ERT workers!" Workers formed a human chain at the building's entrance, while inside defiant staff camped out, attempting to continue a makeshift news service via private satellite links and internet streaming. In a statement, staff called for an end to the violation of "fundamental democratic rights" and for a guarantee that police would not be ordered into the offices. .....
AUSTERITY UPDATE NORTH CAROLINA: Privatization Through Legislation. PolicyMIC.com reports
North Carolina NAACP Protests: Latest "Moral Mondays" Rally Sees 150 Arrested Over 150 people were arrested on Monday during ongoing weekly protests by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) against the policies of North Carolina's Republican-controlled General Assembly. Grievances include cuts to public education, restrictions on women's access to reproductive health care, suppression of voter rights, restrictions on access to health insurance, lifting of the fracking moratorium, and restrictions on labor rights. An estimated 1,000 people turned out at the latest rally, the largest yet since protests began in mid-April. While there is much attention being paid to the ongoing anti-government protests in Turkey, and rightly so given their significance and the nature of the police and government response, it is also worth remembering that many people in America are also engaging in protests against their government. According to those involved, the demonstrations, referred to as "Moral Mondays," seek to highlight the increasingly conservative nature of the state legislature since Republicans took control of both chambers in 2010 for the first time in over 100 years. The demonstrations have been going on every Monday for over a month, and the NAACP has been joined by other groups including environmentalists, pro-abortion activists and public educators..... Chris Kardish of the Associated Press reports that since 2010, Republicans have "built veto-proof majorities and taken control of the governor's mansion while lawmakers have pushed a conservative agenda on social programs, criminal justice, taxes, education, voting rights and other areas." ...... BeforeItsNews adds North Carolina Republicans– Anti-Democracy Authoritarians At Work citing a PublicPolicyPolling.com item
    The General Assembly as a whole fares particularly badly, with just 23% job approval and 49% disapproval. 50% say they have an unfavorable opinion of Republicans in the North Carolina Legislature compared to 36% who hold a favorable opinion.
WHAT? Can you say ALEC? Daily KOS blogger MsSpentyouth writes N.C. civil disobedience: Nearly 100 arrested so far for protesting ALEC-ification of state featuring the "Third Koch Brother" Art Pope. .....Many of these bills are taken verbatim from the American Legislative Exchange Council's (ALEC) "model legislation" playbook. All of this is made possible now that our newly elected Republican governor, Pat McCrory, has named Art Pope the state's deputy budget director. Pope's long been known as an ALEC vizier; his bankroll seeded the campaigns of many of the lawmakers now working to implement ALEC plans in North Carolina. ...... According to the Raleigh News & Observer, here are just a few of the odious bills that survived crossover. Yes, this is an exhaustive list. In less than 12 weeks (from January lawmaker installation to bill submittal deadlines late in March and early in April), nearly 1,000 bills were submitted in the N.C. Senate and more than 1,000 in the N.C. House. Geez didn't the DNC have their big party in "right-to-work" N.C. in 2012?
Michael R. Blood reports at HuffPoAOL San Onofre Nuclear Plant Closing Leaves $500 Million Bill ...... A $670 million equipment swap in 2009 and 2010 went haywire, leaving Southern California Edison on Friday with two idle reactors, more than $500 million in bills and a federal decision on a possible restart nowhere in sight. The company decided to close it, permanently. The announcement triggered a celebration among environmentalists and other critics of the nuclear power industry who argued the plant was too damaged to operate safely. "There's a huge sense of relief for us," said Laguna Beach Councilwoman Toni Iseman, whose community is about 20 miles up the coast from San Onofre's twin domes. "We were just sitting with a time bomb just to the south of us." Erich Pica, president of Friends of the Earth, said San Onofre's closing represents an opportunity for California to use more wind, solar and other clean energy. The group waged a long fight to block the restart. The U.S. nuclear industry, Pica said, "is on its final trajectory downward." ......... It will take months, and possibly years, to complete the closing of the reactors, which will involve removing all fuel from the reactor cores. And still unresolved: who pays for all the trouble, customers or shareholders. Boxer, who heads the Environment and Public Works Committee, said in a statement the plant "had a defective redesign and could no longer operate as intended. Modifications to the San Onofre nuclear plant were unsafe and posed a danger to the 8 million people living within 50 miles of the plant." The problems center on four new, much-heavier steam generators that were installed during in 2009 and 2010. Just a few years later, tests found some generator tubes so badly eroded that they could fail and possibly release radiation, a startling finding for nearly new equipment. ....... For some background on some other "problems" possibly caused by San Onofre read San Onofre Edison...West Coast Radiation Crisis - Part 1 by Yoichi Shimatsu, Exclusive to Rense.com 4-23-13. Very scary! Also read Next at San Onofre: Defuel, dismantle which explains Billions of dollars have been set aside for the plant’s dismantling, a decades long process that will sustain hundreds of jobs at the plant site in northern San Diego County. Spent nuclear fuel will remain on the site indefinitely, as the U.S. government wrestles with where the nation’s radioactive waste can be safely stored for centuries to come. Remember the "Too cheap to meter" slogan? In a related matter The Toldeo Blade reports Calif. nuclear plant closing has local implications - Critics want regulators to revisit Davis-Besse’s plans. Recall that Davis-Besse has the EXACT SAME DESIGN as the reactors at the Dai Ichi ones in Fukushima that have the spent nuclear waste on the SECOND FLOOR! DOH!
Lisa Song at InsideClimateNews.com has this Map: Another Major Tar Sands Pipeline Seeking U.S. Permit While all eyes are on TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline, another Canadian company is quietly building a 5,000-mile network of new and expanded pipelines that would achieve the same goal as the Keystone. In fact, the project by Enbridge, Inc., Canada's largest transporter of crude oil, would bring even more Canadian oil into the U.S. than the much-debated Keystone project. Enbridge has already begun growing its existing pipeline infrastructure to increase the flow of Canadian and U.S.-produced oil into refineries and ports in the Midwest, Gulf Coast and Northeastern Canada. The company's plans have largely escaped public scrutiny, in part because its expansion has proceeded in many segments and phases. The linchpin of Enbridge's Canadian oil transport system is its proposal to increase the capacity of Line 67 (often referred to as the Alberta Clipper pipeline) to bring an additional 430,000 barrels a day of oil into the United States. Line 67 runs from Hardisty, Alberta to Superior, Wisc. and currently ships up to 450,000 barrels of oil a day. Enbridge wants to expand the line’s capacity to 570,000 barrels a day, with the possibility of future growth to 880,000 barrels a day. That's larger than the Keystone XL's proposed daily capacity of 830,000 barrels. Because Line 67 crosses the U.S.-Canada border, it needs a presidential permit from the State Department before it can be expanded. That’s the same kind of permit TransCanada is seeking for the northern segment of Keystone XL. The Obama administration is expected to approve or deny the Keystone permit by the end of 2013. For Enbridge, the application process has just begun: the State Department is reviewing public comments on the scope of the environmental review. ...... Common Dreams staff writer Andrea Germanos explains further in Is Enbridge Building a Secret Keystone Pipeline? ..... The company's piecemeal approach—the expansion would include both new and existing pipelines—has allowed the project to move forward under the radar, Song reports. Like TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline, Enbridge's project would need State Department approval because it crosses the U.S./Canada border. Al Monaco, Enbridge's CEO and president, laid out the company's expansion plans to shareholders at a meeting in Calgary last month. ....... A key part of this secretive pipeline push is the company's Alberta Clipper pipeline, Song reports. Enbridge describes the Alberta Clipper as a 1,000-mile crude oil pipeline between Hardisty, Alberta, and Superior, Wisconsin, and, while its current capacity is 450,000 barrels per day, it has an "ultimate capacity of up to 800,000 barrels per day." This amount, Song points out, is "larger than the Keystone XL's proposed daily capacity of 830,000 barrels." Enbridge was dealt a blow on Friday when the government of British Columbia formally rejected its proposed Northern Gateway pipeline. The company is also still mired in its disastrous tar sands spill in Michigan's Kalamazoo River three years ago, a spill, the National Transportation Safety Board reported, that happened after the company ignored warning signs for five years.
In a related matter DeSmogCanada reports Apache's 9.5 Million Litre Spill Covers 42 Hectares of "Internationally Important" Wetlands A week and a half after its discovery, Apache Corporation estimates that a toxic water leak from a pipeline has affected 42 hectares of land near Zama City in Northern Alberta. The spill released 9.5 million litres of what the company called “produced water” from its operations there, making it the tenth largest in the province since 1975. Neither Apache nor Alberta Environment have spoken officially on the exact chemical content of the water. However, the Dene Tha First Nation who has been trapping in the area since the 1950s report detection of “hydrocarbons, high levels of salt, sulphurous compounds, metals and naturally occurring radioactive materials, along with chemical solvents and additives used by the oil industry.” No estimates have been released regarding the duration of the leak, although locals say the evidence shows it could have be present for "months" before it was detected on June 1st. Chief James Ahnassay told The Globe and Mail“‘Every plant and tree died’ in the area touched by the spill.” The Dene Tha has provided the first photos of the affected area, which show wide swaths of brown evergreens and black swampy fields where once there was marshland. The area around Zama City is protected as a Wildland Provincial Park and is a critical habitat for migrating waterfowl and prized for its interlocking waterways, muskeg and wetlands noted for their biological diversity. .....
FracturedParadigm.com explains Court To Monsanto: You Said You Won’t Sue, So You Can’t A federal appeals court slapped down a quixotic legal campaign against Monsanto’s biotech patents this week. Organic farmers had gone to court to declare those patents invalid. The farmers, according to their lawyers, were “forced to sue preemptively to protect themselves from being accused of patent infringement” if their field became contaminated by Monsanto’s genetically modified seed. Instead, the judges — echoing the ruling of a lower court — told the farmers that they were imagining a threat that doesn’t exist. “There is no justiciable case or controversy,” they wrote. Monsanto says that it won’t sue anyone for accidentally growing trace amounts of patented crops, and the organic farmers couldn’t come up with any cases in which this had happened. The organic farmers, however, declared partial victory, because the court’s decision binds Monsanto to this promise. Up to now, it was just a statement on the company’s website. Now, it’s enshrined in the legal record. In fact, according to the judges, since the decision to reject the organic farmers’ claims relies explicitly on Monsanto’s policy statements, “those representations are binding.” The reason is something called “judicial estoppel” — the common-law principle that someone can’t use an argument to win one case and then turn around and argue the opposite in a different case. Original article by Dan Charles for NPR.
MORE STASI AMERIKA: Senator AL FRANKEN calls for more transparency! Haha! Here's Al's statement:
    "There's a balance to strike between protecting Americans' privacy and protecting our country's national security. I don't think we've struck that balance. I'm concerned about the lack of transparency of these programs. The American public can't be kept in the dark about the basic architecture of the programs designed to protect them. "We need to revisit how we address that balance. I agree with Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) that the relevant significant FISA Court opinions should be made public to the degree possible, consistent with protecting national security."
Good luck with that Al! From the The Most Transparent Administration Ever™. Al used to be Funny-haha now he's just Funny-weird.
Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism explains how Edward Snowden Makes Himself an Even Bigger Problem to the Officialdom But putting the effectiveness of the strategy of the packaging of the story aside, the message in the video is even more disturbing than the program overviews released so far. If nothing else, listen to the section starting at 3:16 to 3:40, where he described the untrammeled access analysts have to information. Your information. And we’re already seeing serious fracturing on political lines. Some vocal members of the right are alarmed about the reach of the surveillance state. ....... As Chris Engel pointed out yesterday, a number of sites, particularly tech oriented sites, have tried attacking Greenwald’s work for inaccuracy. Ed Harrison has been keeping tabs on the reporting (see here and here) and describes it as falling into two camps, the first being techies who take issue with the use of terminology. This is similar to the sort of finance pedantry which was routine during and after the crisis. While getting the fine points right matters, too often the critics are simply trying to confine the discussion to experts, who also happen overwhelmingly to be pro status quo. The second is more obvious: journalists who are affiliated with the technology industry (and may not be experts but translate for them regularly) and will defend their meal tickets (the tech industry gets huge amounts of funding from the defense and intel communities). The other element that Ed highlighted by e-mail is that this shows the dangers of outsourcing government functions. Here are some sections of a blistering, 2007 Salon article by Tim Shorrock on Booz (hat tip Richard Smith): Go read all of that then see this new post by Tim Shorrock at Salon Meet the contractors analyzing your private data Private companies are getting rich probing your personal information for the government. Call it Digital Blackwater ...... Well, on Sunday we got part of the answer: Booz Allen Hamilton. In a stunning development in the NSA saga, Guardian reporter Glenn Greenwald revealed that the source for his blockbuster stories on the NSA is Edward Snowden, “a 29-year-old former technical assistant for the CIA and current employee of the defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton.” Snowden, it turns out, has been working at NSA for the last four years as a contract employee, including stints for Booz and the computer-services firm Dell. The revelation is not that surprising. With about 70 percent of our national intelligence budgets being spent on the private sector – a discovery I made in 2007 and first reported in Salon – contractors have become essential to the spying and surveillance operations of the NSA. From Narus, the Israeli-born Boeing subsidiary that makes NSA’s high-speed interception software, to CSC, the “systems integrator” that runs NSA’s internal IT system, defense and intelligence, contractors are making millions of dollars selling technology and services that help the world’s largest surveillance system spy on you. If the 70 percent figure is applied to the NSA’s estimated budget of $8 billion a year (the largest in the intelligence community), NSA contracting could reach as high as $6 billion every year. But it’s probably much more than that. ....... HUGE! Click over to Salon for the rest!
Sam Stein & Paul Blumenthal tell us at HuffPoAOL about NSA Surveillance: Telecom Companies Spend Millions Lobbying Congress To Protect Their Interests WASHINGTON -- As the U.S. government has ramped up its surveillance programs in the years since 9/11, telecommunications companies have spent millions of dollars lobbying Congress to ensure legislation is molded to their liking. From 2002 through 2012, officials and organizations associated with the three largest U.S. telecom companies -- Verizon, AT&T and Sprint -- spent a combined $52.7 million on campaign contributions, according to a review of records compiled by the open government group Center for Responsive Politics. Of that total, $29.3 million were donations to federal candidates from political action committees tied to the companies, a more direct form of political influence peddling. The federal lobbying expenditures by these three telecom giants were even more extensive. During that same 10-year period, Verizon filed 114 separate lobbying forms that listed Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act-related legislation as a topic of interest. The total cost of those filings was more than $22 million. AT&T filed 171 such forms at a cost of more than $29.5 million, and Sprint filed 26 forms at a cost of $2,539,000. ...... The totality of the expenditures does show an industry eager to protect its interests in the increasingly expanding national security state. In exchange for participating in the National Security Agency's surveillance operations -- the extent of which was further exposed in news reports by The Guardian last week -- telecommunication companies have been granted retroactive legal immunity from civil lawsuits. At various points during the past decade, lawmakers have pushed to end that arrangement, and the telecom industry has shepherded resources to Washington to maintain it. "The immunity is fairly broadly written," said Alex Abdo, a staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union's National Security Project. "It seemingly releases them from all liability from cooperating with the government in surveillance under the statute." There have been legal challenges, spearheaded by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, to put an end to that immunity. But they have been dismissed in higher courts, with judges giving deference to the laws passed by Congress. A spokesman for the EFF declined to comment for this article. ...... From 2003 to 2012, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), now the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, received $110,447 in donations from telecom companies. Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), the ranking member of the committee received $150,750. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, received $232,450 in donations, while Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.), the ranking member, received $110,650. Feinstein and Chambliss were some of the first lawmakers to publicly defend the NSA surveillance program after it was reported the agency was capturing call data from all Verizon phone customers, though the senators did not address the specific point of telecom immunity..... Remember a portion of your bill you pay to Verizon, AT&T and Sprint is used to lobby government representatives to pass laws favorable to THEM not YOU! Ever read the fine print in your contract? NO? Then read C|NET from 2012 Why you can't sue your wireless carrier in a class action - Millions of wireless subscribers probably don't realize that since a U.S. Supreme Court decision last year, consumers can no longer file class action suits against their carriers.
Over at ZeroHedge Tyler Durdan reports Thousands Of Firms Trade Confidential Data With The US Government In Exchange For Classified Intelligence The rabbit hole just got deeper. A whole lot deeper. On Sunday we predicated that "there's one reason why the administration, James Clapper and the NSA should just keep their mouths shut as the PRISM-gate fallout escalates: with every incremental attempt to refute some previously unknown facet of the US Big Brother state, a new piece of previously unleaked information from the same intelligence organization now scrambling for damage control, emerges and exposes the brand new narrative as yet another lie, forcing even more lies, more retribution against sources, more journalist persecution and so on."
And like a hole that just gets deeper the more you dug and exposes ever more dirt, tonight's installment revealing one more facet of the conversion of a once great republic into a great fascist, "big brother" state, comes from Bloomberg which reports that "thousands of technology, finance and manufacturing companies are working closely with U.S. national security agencies, providing sensitive information and in return receiving benefits that include access to classified intelligence, four people familiar with the process said."
The companies extend far wider than the legacy telcos, such as Verizon, that launched the entire NSA-spying scandal a week ago: "Makers of hardware and software, banks, Internet security providers, satellite telecommunications companies and many other companies also participate in the government programs. In some cases, the information gathered may be used not just to defend the nation but to help infiltrate computers of its adversaries." ......... Remember how they say conspiracies are impossible because too many people know about them, and the information always eventually leaks? Well not if you contain it to a handful of people in any organization, and force them to sign a bloody NDA, pledging one's first born in the case of secrecy breach.
An example of a company that is happy to "communicate" with tht the government is Intel's McAfee internet security unit, which in addition to everything is one giant backdoor entrance for the government. If need be of course:
    Intel Corp. (INTC)’s McAfee unit, which makes Internet security software, regularly cooperates with the NSA, FBI and the CIA, for example, and is a valuable partner because of its broad view of malicious Internet traffic, including espionage operations by foreign powers, according to one of the four people, who is familiar with the arrangement. Such a relationship would start with an approach to McAfee’s chief executive, who would then clear specific individuals to work with investigators or provide the requested data, the person said. The public would be surprised at how much help the government seeks, the person said. McAfee firewalls collect information on hackers who use legitimate servers to do their work, and the company data can be used to pinpoint where attacks begin. The company also has knowledge of the architecture of information networks worldwide, which may be useful to spy agencies who tap into them, the person said.
....... Going back to Obama's promise on live TV that nobody was listening in to any conversations, one wonders: why did the major telecom companies "ask for guarantees that they wouldn’t be held liable under U.S. wiretap laws." Because if the companies demanded a waiver, they obviously were wiretapping, i.e., eavesdropping, and doing so on US citizens, or those protected by US laws. And that's why Obama should have just kept his mouth shut, instead of having to explain what he meant and that he never said what he said. ......
More!
NEXT Laurie Penny asks What do Edward Snowden, Bradley Manning and the Steubenville hacker have in common? Expose injustice and pay the price. .......... I've been trying for a while now to convince the geek activists and hackers in my life that the fight for the principles of free speech, the fight against surveillance and the fight for a society where whistleblowers are protected, is a feminist fight. Steuvenville isn't the only case where the internet has pursued justice for rape victims where the state was unwilling to do so. There is a growing awareness that commitment to openness and transparency as organising principles necessarily involves a commitment to a new kind of sexual politics. Patriarchy doesn't like it when you tell its secrets, and neither does the government. Secrecy is only supposed to work for the strong against the weak. Right now Edward Snowden, the former CIA technical operative who leaked data exposing the extent of Anglo-American state internet surveillance to the world, is in hiding in Hong Kong. ........... Edward Snowden. Bradley Manning. Deric Lostutter. These young people are on the frontlines of a different war, a war of the old world of violence enforced by secrecy against the new logic of information transparency. It is generational, and it is gendered, and it's about values. The MO of national security, in a world where both the nation state and the notion of security are tenuous ideals, holds that any state should be able to access any information about any person at any time, but not vice versa. You can't ever turn off the internet, nor prevent people having access to it, so ordinary people must learn to fear cracking or publish the private data of state and corporate institutions. We must learn to be silent, to keep secrets, or pay for doing not doing so with our freedom, and possibly with our lives. Right now, a few brave souls are refusing to learn that lesson. The risks they are taking today will affect how states operate in the future, wherever we live; they will decide whether an information-rich society frees people to have more control over our lives or simply allows governments more control over people. What these hackers are writing isn't just history - it's the base code of future human relations, on the most intimate level. And it’s not just even about the state.... See Laurie Penny in the Max Keiser section below for more.
Scott Creighton has a different take Manufactured Hero Edward Snowden: Been Staying at Hong Kong’s Mira Hotel (pics) ......For those of you who don’t know, FACEBOOK isn’t just a company that agreed to help out the NSA under their Prism operation, it was created by the NSA and handed over to a couple of guys who played their part and cashed the checks. There have been very few major innovations in the tech world that didn’t come out of military and intelligence R&D over the past few decades, FACEBOOK is certainly no exception. Edward Snowden is quickly becoming the FACEBOOK HERO of the year. Previous honorees were the likes of Malala (Global privatized education systems for the Middle East) and STOP KONY 2012 (recolonization of the whole of Africa for the benefit of 45 major corporations including Monsanto. I received an email from World Can’t Wait. Apparently they are running their own Edward The Great campaign. Debra Sweet wrote a long email talking about this guy like he was the reincarnation of Howard Zinn and Martin Luther King Jr. all rolled into one. She proudly announces the Stand With Edward Snowden campaign and accusingly asks: “What are you willing to risk for real change?”
What am I willing to risk? I’ve been doing this for 7 years under my own name. When the various and sundry exploits of the NSA and the CIA and the lies of the Pentagon to go to war came out, when they FIRST came out, I was here writing about all of them, under my real name. False flags, staged color revolutions, fake congressional actions which only support the neoliberalizing of America. Even the marketing of the CHANGE candidate, the fake liberal who was nothing more than “George W. Obama” as he was recently called. I was there from the start to the finish and I’ve lost jobs, friends, family members turned their backs on me… all for what? To tell the truth to people about the growing police state and the neoliberalizing of America and the world. While I was doing that over the past 6 years, Edward Snowden was helping create the lies, helping to sweep up anything and everything all of you said wrote bought and did… and he was getting paid $200,000 a year to do it while I have had potential employers ask me about American Everyman before telling me I not the right “fit” for the job. What the fuck am I willing to “risk”? What haven’t I risked? What did Aaron Swartz risk? There was a real activist and look at what it got him. Where’s the calls to Stand With Aaron?
Anyway, that said, the FACEBOOK page for the new Snowden (snowjob?) Movement is up and running called “I Stand with Edward Snowden” (created by Yoni Jakob Brombacher Miller ) so I thought I would share some of the marketing campaign’s choicer quotes (one guy seems to have the right idea though he’s not getting many “likes” on the page “We should be more concerned about organizing around the issue instead of trying to create a hero...

Common Dreams staff writer Jacob Chamberlain reports the ACLU Sues Obama Administration Over NSA 'Dragnet' Surveillance Revealed in Historic Leaks Following this past week's groundbreaking NSA leaks, the ACLU has now filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the agency's vast phone spying practices—a move that could pose an eventual Supreme Court challenge to the NSA's now exposed "dragnet" surveillance network. (ACLU) As a Verizon customer, the ACLU—who is known as an active critic and opponent of U.S. government secrecy and overreach—was targeted by the NSA, and has thus had their ability to "engage in legitimate communications with clients, journalists, advocacy partners, and others," undermined, the ACLU argues.
The ACLU says the unprecedented 'metadata' now known to be collected by the NSA, "gives the government a comprehensive record of our associations and public movements, revealing a wealth of detail about our familial, political, professional, religious and intimate associations," adding that it “is likely to have a chilling effect on whistle-blowers and others who would otherwise contact” the ACLU. ACLU's Brett Kaufman writes Tuesday:
    As an organization that advocates for and litigates to defend the civil liberties of society's most vulnerable, the staff at the ACLU naturally use the phone—a lot—to talk about sensitive and confidential topics with clients, legislators, whistleblowers, and ACLU members. And since the ACLU is a VBNS customer, we were immediately confronted with the harmful impact that such broad surveillance would have on our legal and advocacy work. So we're acting quickly to get into court to challenge the government's abuse of [the Patriot Act's] Section 215.
The lawsuit maintains that given recent revelations, the NSA has violated the First Amendment rights of free speech and association as well as the right of privacy protected by the Fourth Amendment, and that the NSA has surpassed even the vast authority awarded to them by Congress through the Patriot Act. "This dragnet program is surely one of the largest surveillance efforts ever launched by a democratic government against its own citizens," said Jameel Jaffer, ACLU deputy legal director. "It is the equivalent of requiring every American to file a daily report with the government of every location they visited, every person they talked to on the phone, the time of each call, and the length of every conversation." "The program," Jaffer adds, "goes far beyond even the permissive limits set by the Patriot Act and represents a gross infringement of the freedom of association and the right to privacy." ........

BIG BROTHER UPDATE: Washington's Blog asks Is This the REAL Reason for the Government Spying On Americans? Are Emergency Plans Meant Only for Nuclear War the Real Justification for Spying?
To understand the scope and extent of government spying on all Americans – and the reasons for such spying – you have to understand what has happened to our Constitutional form of government since 9/11.
State of Emergency - The United States has been in a declared state of emergency from September 2001, to the present. Specifically, on September 11, 2001, the government declared a state of emergency. That declared state of emergency was formally put in writing on 9/14/2001:
    A national emergency exists by reason of the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center, New York, New York, and the Pentagon, and the continuing and immediate threat of further attacks on the United States. NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, I hereby declare that the national emergency has existed since September 11, 2001 . . .
That declared state of emergency has continued in full force and effect from 9/11 to the present. President Bush kept it in place, and President Obama has also. ....... The Washington Times wrote on September 18, 2001:
    Simply by proclaiming a national emergency on Friday, President Bush activated some 500 dormant legal provisions, including those allowing him to impose censorship and martial law.
The White House has kept substantial information concerning its presidential proclamations and directives hidden from Congress. For example, according to Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists Project on Government Secrecy:
    Of the 54 National Security Presidential Directives issued by the [George W.] Bush Administration to date, the titles of only about half have been publicly identified. There is descriptive material or actual text in the public domain for only about a third. In other words, there are dozens of undisclosed Presidential directives that define U.S. national security policy and task government agencies, but whose substance is unknown either to the public or, as a rule, to Congress.
Continuity of Government - Continuity of Government (“COG”) measures were implemented on 9/11. .....
Read the rest of this very long detailed item to find out what COG means to the U.S. form of democracy. When you're finished with that also read Government Spying on Americans … and then Giving Info to Giant Corporations

Don't think of them as D or R but gradients of the same fascist party.

HERE'S AN IDEA: How about if we STOP the PRIVATIZATION of NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE-for-PROFIT? That's right. Billions of unaccounted-for Taxpayer Dollars are PAYING for PRIVATE COMPANIES to gather ALL your communication. PRIVATIZATION OF INTELLIGENCE FUNCTIONS: On Thursday Amy Goodman interviewed Chris Pyle, a former military instructor who exposed the CIA and Army’s monitoring of millions of Americans in the 1970s Chris Pyle, Whistleblower on Domestic Spying in 70s, Says Be Wary of Attacks on NSA’s Critics. Pyle said this:
    Well, what we’ve seen in the ensuing years has been a vast explosion in intelligence-gathering capabilities. But the most significant part of that is the fact that civilian corporations are now doing the government’s work. Seventy percent of the intelligence budget of the United States today goes to private contractors like Booz Allen, which employed Edward Snowden. This is a major change in the power of surveillance. It now goes not only to the government, but to private corporations. ....... The forerunner of the PRISM system that Snowden disclosed was called Trailblazer. It wasted $1 billion on private contracts. It replaced a much less expensive system called ThinThread, which had more privacy protections and had been developed inside the government. Now, the reason that private contractors get this business is because members of Congress intercede with them with government agencies. And we now have a situation where members of the Intelligence Committee and other committees of Congress intercede with the bureaucracy to get sweetheart contracts for companies that waste taxpayers’ money and also violate the Constitution and the privacy of citizens. This is a very serious situation, because it means that it’s much more difficult to get effective oversight from Congress. ....... Well, it’s true. NSA doesn’t want to hire people like you and me. We don’t know enough about the Internet. That said, it’s important to note that the vice chairman of Booz Allen happens to be Mike McConnell, who was former director of NSA and of national intelligence. There is a revolving door between high government positions and private corporations, and this revolving door allows these people to make a great deal more money upon leaving the government, and then being rented back to the government in a contractor capacity. And that’s part of the corruption of the system. ....... Well, yes. The Fourth Amendment of the Constitution, which protects us from unreasonable searches and seizures, only binds the government, doesn’t bind corporations. That’s a serious problem. The reason we have privatization of prisons, in some ways, is for governments to escape liability. They put the liability on the private corporations that run the prisons, and they just charge their liabilities as an operating cost. .......... They must expel dissenters and discredit dissenters, because dissenters force them to reconsider what it is they’re doing, and no bureaucracy wants anybody to interrupt what they’re doing. And so, this is the natural, organic response of any bureaucracy or any establishment.
Add Chris Pyle's book "The Constitution Under Siege - Presidential Power versus the Rule of Law" to your reading list! Thom Hartmann picks up on this and explains here Bring back the boring bureaucrat bankers too.
Watch these Thom Hartmann "The Big Picture" segments!
»» Mike Papantonio THU WHAT Pap calls the "SPOOK INDUSTRY" Why hasn't the MSM Reported - National Security Has Been Outsourced
»» And ALAN GRAYSON! "Hands Off Americans' Information"
»»Lee Fang on Palantir Rise of the security state
Thursday's Big Picture isn't posted yet but Thom had a big riff on the privatization of the taxpayer-funded security state in his Daily Take at the end of the show. We'll post it next week if we find it. It's spot-on!
YER TAX DOLLARS AT WORK: LEE FANG posts at The Nation How Spy Agency Contrators Have Already Abused Their Power .......... Could the sprawling surveillance state enable government or its legion of private contractors to abuse their technology and spy upon domestic political targets or judges? This is not a far off possibility. Two years ago, a batch of stolen e-mails revealed a plot by a set of three defense contractors (Palantir Technologies, Berico Technologies and HBGary Federal) to target activists, reporters, labor unions and political organizations. The plans— one concocted in concert with lawyers for the US Chamber of Commerce to sabotage left-leaning critics, like the Center for American Progress and the SEIU, and a separate proposal to “combat” WikiLeaks and its supporters, including Glenn Greenwald, on behalf of Bank of America— fell apart after reports of their existence were published online. But the episode serves as a reminder that the expanding spy industry could use its government-backed cybertools to harm ordinary Americans and political dissident groups.The episode also shows that Greenwald, who helped Snowden expose massive spying efforts in the United States, had been targetted by spy agency contractors in the past for supporting whistleblowers and WikiLeaks. ............ Take Action: Help End the 'Secret Law' Behind Government Surveillance For those that don't recall the Anonymous/HBGary digital activism see
The HBGary Scandal: Using Counterterrorism Tactics on Citizen Activism by emptywheel Monday February 14, 2011. That's almost 2 1/2 years ago!
TheFrankFactor.com pronounces You Might be an American Idiot If George Carlin was right, it’s a big club and our asses aren’t in it, except to clean their toilets and change their diapers. The system must be reformed. Corporate money buys and runs public governance and we have to be smart and kick their asses out! Republicans are social retards, we all know that, but the truth is that they too are a bunch of corporate livestock used to further enrich the multi-national corporate scum in trade for social policy that brings back the dark ages. You Might be an American Idiot If........... Republican or Democrat, you getting fucked. Don’t be an idiot. Read all of this! Excellent! And lots more posts to consider at thefrankfactor.com including a weekly podcast!
From the EconomicCollapseBlog 27 Edward Snowden Quotes About U.S. Government Spying That Should Send A Chill Up Your Spine Thanks to Snowden, we now know that the U.S. government has been spying on us to a degree that most people would have never even dared to imagine. Up until now, the general public has known very little about the U.S. government spy grid that knows almost everything about us. But making this information public is going to cost Edward Snowden everything. Essentially, his previous life is now totally over. And if the U.S. government gets their hands on him, he will be very fortunate if he only has to spend the next several decades rotting in some horrible prison somewhere. There is a reason why government whistleblowers are so rare. And most Americans are so apathetic that they wouldn't even give up watching their favorite television show for a single evening to do something good for society. Most Americans never even try to make a difference because they do not believe that it will benefit them personally. Meanwhile, our society continues to fall apart all around us. Hopefully the great sacrifice that Edward Snowden has made will not be in vain. Hopefully people will carefully consider what he has tried to share with the world. The following are 27 quotes from Edward Snowden about U.S. government spying that should send a chill up your spine... ......... And if the U.S. government has anything to say about it, Snowden is most definitely going to pay for what he has done. In fact, according to the Daily Beast, a directorate known as "the Q Group" is already hunting Snowden down...
    The people who began chasing Snowden work for the Associate Directorate for Security and Counterintelligence, according to former U.S. intelligence officers who spoke on condition of anonymity. The directorate, sometimes known as “the Q Group,” is continuing to track Snowden now that he’s outed himself as The Guardian’s source, according to the intelligence officers.
If Snowden is not already under the protection of some foreign government (such as China), it will just be a matter of time before U.S. government agents get him. And how will they treat him once they find him? Well, one reporter overheard a group of U.S. intelligence officials talking about how Edward Snowden should be "disappeared". The following is from a Daily Mail article that was posted on Monday...
    A group of intelligence officials were overheard yesterday discussing how the National Security Agency worker who leaked sensitive documents to a reporter last week should be 'disappeared.' Foreign policy analyst and editor at large of The Atlantic, Steve Clemons, tweeted about the 'disturbing' conversation after listening in to four men who were sitting near him as he waited for a flight at Washington's Dulles airport. 'In Dulles UAL lounge listening to 4 US intel officials saying loudly leaker & reporter on #NSA stuff should be disappeared recorded a bit,' he tweeted at 8:42 a.m. on Saturday. According to Clemons, the men had been attending an event hosted by the Intelligence and National Security Alliance.
As an American, I am deeply disturbed that the U.S. government is embarrassing itself in front of the rest of the world like this. .....
Wow. So much more below! Catch Ring of Fire on Free Speech TV with David Sirota and John Nichols, Ring of Fire Radio with Lee Fang, D-Day, Tim Shorrock and Chris Hedges, also on DN! Find updates on the Bradley Manning trial with FDL's Kevin Gozstola on PBC, Juan Cole with SAM SEDER on Syria, BRAD FRIEDMAN with Abby Martin on Breaking the Set (our favorite RT show!) and a great interview with Bruce Schneier on the Scott Horton Show! Now that the wee wabbits have left their nest in the BTV Big Garden we have finally tilled up the whole garden. Late Garden no doubt but we'll go with it with our usual plant suspects and expect a late harvest since our growing season seems to go 3-4 weeks longer. now thanks in part to Anthropogenic global warming. More on that in coming weeks! And if you're in the mood throw bricks at DICK CHENEY on FAKE SNOOZE. Lots to check out so get busy! Click ANYTHING a be instantly smarter! See you next week!





BRICK TEEVEE ALERTS!©

Democracy NOW!

Democracy Now's Iraq interactive timeline

Headlines Monday, June 10, 2013

Headlines Tuesday, June 11, 2013 Headlines Wednesday, June 12, 2013 Headlines Thursday, June 13, 2013 Headlines Friday, June 14, 2013

GRITtv GRITtv @ www.grittv.org with Laura Flanders
»»» FEATURED SHOW Don't Regulate - Stop Hydro-Fracking Now! Julia Walsh of Frack Action New York is only one of two states that have a moratorium on high volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing also known as fracking – but this is under threat. more.....

BRICK TEEVEE SPORT!©
»»» NBA Championship on ABC SUNDAY Game 5 - Series tied 2-2! Heat @ Spurs 8:00 pm et
»»» NASCAR on TNT SUNDAY NASCAR Sprint Cup Series at Michigan International Speedway! Coverage begins at 1 pm et
»»» SUNDAY BASEBALL on TBS Dodgers @ Pirates 1:35 pm et
»»» SUNDAY NIGHT BASEBALL on ESPN Giants @ Braves 8 pm et

BRICK TEEVEE ACTION!©
The 1st Amendment is Our Permit Our permit to occupy is The First Amendment. Quickly sign the following statement which will be delivered to mayors, police chiefs and major media across the country:

    Our permit to occupy public squares and parks is in The First Amendment, which affirms "the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." When people across the Middle East occupied public squares, leaders in Washington mostly cheered those protesters and warned Middle Eastern governments not to use force to clear them. Those other societies don’t have a First Amendment. Yet Washington affirmed the universal right to assembly and protest. We do have a First Amendment. The force being used to clear nonviolent protesters from public squares in our country is unacceptable. It must stop.

StrikeDebt.org & RollingJubilee.org! A bailout of the people by the people Rolling Jubilee is a Strike Debt project that buys debt for pennies on the dollar, but instead of collecting it, abolishes it. Together we can liberate debtors at random through a campaign of mutual support, good will, and collective refusal. Debt resistance is just the beginning. Join us as we imagine and create a new world based on the common good, not Wall Street profits. ADDENDUM: Naked Capitalism reports Top Tax Expert Confirms Our Doubts About Occupy Wall Street’s Debt Buying/Forgiveness Scheme

STOP the ACHE NEW WEBSITE! AcheAct.org and Appalachian Community HEALTH EMERGENCY Advocating for government action and protection of the public from the health crisis in mountain top removal communi ties

    Lawmakers concerned about the health effects on humans from mountaintop removal coal mining set forth legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives today. Representatives Dennis Kucinich (OH), Louise Slaughter (NY), Maurice Hinchey (NY), Earl Blumenauer (OR), Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA), John Yarmuth (KY), Lynn Woolsey (CA), Judy Chu (CA), RaĂşl Grijalva (AZ), James Moran (VA), Michael Honda (CA), John Conyers (MI), and Keith Ellison (MN) introduced the Appalachian Communities Health Emergency (ACHE) Act H.R. 5959 which would place a moratorium on permitting for mountaintop removal coal mining until health studies are conducted by the Department of Health and Human Services. The ACHE coalition presently consists of participants from Coal River Mountain Watch, Mountain Health and Heritage Association, and Christians for the Mountains. “We encourage you, if you’re concerned about mountaintop removal’s effect on your community’s health, to join us in making your voice heard,” said Allen Johnson, executive director of Christians for the Mountains. “Please contact us, learn about the issue, and take action to protect your community.”

Community-Wealth.org community-wealth.org a project of the Democracy Collaborative at the University of Maryland Community-Wealth.org brings together, for the first time, information about the broad range of community wealth building activity. Featuring Overview: The Cleveland Model—How the Evergreen Cooperatives are Building Community Wealth Something important is happening in Cleveland. The Democracy Collaborative—the host of C-W.org—in partnership with the Cleveland Foundation, the Ohio Employee Ownership Center, Shorebank Enterprise Cleveland, the City of Cleveland, and the city's major hospitals and universities—is helping to implement a new model of large-scale worker-owned and community-benefiting businesses. The Evergreen Cooperative Initiative is beginning to build serious momentum in one of the cities most dramatically impacted by the nation's decaying economy. Increasingly, this model is being referred to nationally as The Cleveland Model. Initial planning is now underway to assist other cities in Ohio and nationwide to replicate and adapt this innovative approach to economic development, green job creation, and neighborhood stabilization. Find more many resources at Community-Wealth.org!

NET NEUTRALITY! SaveTheInternet.com Declaration of Internet Freedom Tired of fighting bad bills like SOPA, PIPA and CISPA? Want to stand up against those who are trying to control what we do and say online? It's time for something different. A group of more than 1,500 organizations, academics, startup founders and tech innovators has come together to produce a Declaration of Internet Freedom, a set of five principles that put forward a positive vision of the open Internet. Our goal: Get millions of Internet users to sign on to this Declaration. Build political power for Internet users to make sure that we get a seat at the table whenever, and wherever, the future of the Internet is being decided. It's time to stop playing defense and start going on the offensive. The open Internet is central to people’s freedom to communicate, share, advocate and innovate in the 21st century. But powerful interests want to censor free speech, block the sharing of information, hinder innovation and control how Internet users get online. And all too often, people in power are making political decisions behind closed doors about how the Internet should operate — and they're doing this without the involvement of actual Internet users. The result: policies that could close down the open Internet and destroy our freedom to connect. It’s time for us to reclaim the Internet for its users. Take action now and sign the Declaration of Internet Freedom. ACTION! Meet the New CISPA. Same as the Old CISPA. Last year, thanks to a public outcry, the effort to pass overreaching cybersecurity legislation stalled in the Senate. Now supporters have reintroduced the House version of that legislation — the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA). The “new” version is in fact identical to the original CISPA — and poses the same threat to our digital civil liberties. If CISPA becomes law, it will be a major blow to our online privacy. But more than that, CISPA’s passage would have a chilling effect on our freedom to connect online. We won’t feel as free to state unpopular opinions, or to speak truth to power, if we know that Big Brother could get a feed of everything we say and do. This is not what the free and open Internet is about. We must tell Congress: Vote NO on CISPA and bury this bill for good.

NEW!!! Stop Media Consolidation! Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski is trying to change the agency’s ownership rules to pave the way for Murdoch to get exactly what he wants. Worse, Genachowski and Murdoch are keeping this all very hush-hush, hoping you won't notice.3 These changes wouldn’t just benefit Murdoch. If the FCC proposal passes, one company could own the major daily newspaper, two TV stations and up to eight radio stations in your town. And that one company could be your Internet provider, too. What is the FCC thinking?!? We can still stop the agency from taking this perilous step — but we have less than a month to do it. By taking action, you’re joining a movement of millions who are working to stop big media from getting even bigger. Please take action today. Click HERE to view our infographic and send a message to the FCC! More info at Another FCC Cave-In: Julius Genachowski’s Media Consolidation Christmas Gift to Murdoch at StopTheCap.com! And Sign Senator Bernie Sanders petition to the FCC Protect Media Diversity: Stop Media Consolidation!

CAMPAIGN FOR AMERICA'S FUTURE American Majority Rejects Washington Austerity Consensus – And We Demand Media Coverage by Roger Hickey, President, Campaign for America's Future: No more silent majority. The Campaign for America’s Future is joining with the Center for Economic and Policy Research (whose Co-Director, Dean Baker blogs regularly about economic bias in the media) and with FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting) to monitor the media’s coverage and representation of the American Majority views as they go into covering the big deficit fight. But we want to enlist YOU too. Send us accounts of unbalanced coverage in the national media and in your local newspapers and television. Call up reporters, editors, assignment people and tell them when they are under-representing the views of the American Majority. We should have at least half the experts, pundits, quotes and real people represented in their coverage. In a debate as important as the one we are going into, we can’t allow the media to ignore the American Majority. Much more at www.ourfuture.org MOVE TO AMEND! www.movetoamend.org SIGN HERE NOW! And check out more actions on the Move to Amend Calendar for more! Also visit Rep Alan Grayson's site www.savedemocracy.net GET INVOLVED! And Alan Grayson is BACK in the 113th Congress! Help out at CongressmanWithGuts.com

REPRESENT.US IT’S TIME TO GET MONEY OUT OF POLITICS SO THE GOVERNMENT CAN REPRESENT US. Represent.Us is a fresh campaign to pass the American Anti-Corruption Act: a law that would overhaul campaign finance, impose strict lobbying and conflict of interest laws, and end secret political money. We are mobilizing millions of Americans — conservatives and progressives, young and old, every issue group fighting K Street, online and offline — to join this campaign. Represent.Us is not just building a movement to pass the Act. The campaign will use hard-hitting accountability tactics to unseat politicians who fail to endorse the Act. If passed, the Act will completely reshape American politics and policy-making and give people a voice. See this Guest Blog at Greenpeace by Executive Director Josh Silver The $6 Billion Auction: Finally, A Plan to Get Money Out of Politics for more information!

SUPPORT THE TROOPS WHO REFUSE TO FIGHT See CourageToResist.org and Bradley Manning Support Network UPDATE! From the Bradley Manning Support Network Update 6/10/13: NSA whistleblower says Manning is a classic whistleblower inspired by the public good Edward Snowden is the NSA whistleblower who blew the lid on secret government wiretapping and recording of phones, email, and other online communications. He has come out and admitted publicly that he was responsible for the release, and like Manning, he hopes to inspire debate and reform. He wants the public to know the truth...... AND Greg Palast for Vice Magazine Bradley Manning & The Deepwater Horizon Bradley Manning tried to save the eleven men who died, burnt alive, on the Deepwater Horizon. But Barack Obama and the New York Times made sure that wouldn't happen.

DONATE YOUR OLD CELL PHONES TO T.J. MARTELL FOUNDATION Help save lives. Donate your old & used iPhone, Blackberries, Droid and other phones to help the T.J. Martell Foundations fund life-saving cancer & AIDS research. For more information, go to www.tjmartellfoundation.org CELLULAR PHONE TASK FORCE EDUCATION, ADVOCACY, SUPPORT at CellPhoneTaskForce.org The Cellular Phone Task Force is dedicated to halting the expansion of wireless technology because it cannot be made safe. We provide: education to the public concerning electromagnetic pollution (electrosmog); advocacy for an electromagnetically cleaner environment; support for individuals disabled by radiation from wireless technology and other sources.

B R I C K T E E V E E
brick_teevee_test.jpg
The essential guide for watching government propaganda!
THEY report. YOU throw bricks.©
Get your Foam Bricks at ThrowThings.com HERE!
IRAQ: 4,486 US Military Dead as of April 21, 2012
AFGHANISTAN: 2,238 US Military Dead as of June 13, 2013
The Obameter: Tracking Obama's Campaign Promises
MOCKINGBIRD: The Subversion Of The Free Press By The CIA
Who Owns The Media? The 6 Monolithic Corporations That Control Almost Everything We Watch, Hear And Read

  • This Week (ABC) Host George Stephanopoulos
    • Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.
    • FORIEGN POLICY ROUNDTABLE: George Will, ABC News Chief Global Affairs Correspondent Martha Raddatz, former Defense Department and CIA chief of staff Jeremy Bash, and Bloomberg View columnist Jeffrey Goldberg.
    • ROUNDTABLE: George Will, Democratic strategist and ABC News contributor Donna Brazile, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, and Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill.
    • Father’s Day Sunday Spotlight: former Florida Governor Jeb Bush


  • Face The Nation (CBS) Host Bob Schiefer
    • White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough
    • House Intelligence committee Chairman Mike Rogers


  • 60 Minutes (CBS) Summer Reruns
    • The Super Cartel - 60 Minutes follows Immigration and Customs Enforcement on a three-year investigation and bust of the largest drug trafficking cartel the law has ever seen. Lara Logan reports from Colombia. Howard L. Rosenberg is the producer


  • Meet the Press (NBC) Host David Gregory
    Microsoft, NBC News Dissolve MSNBC.com Joint Venture NBC is buying Microsoft's 50 percent interest in the MSNBC website for an undisclosed amount. MSNBC.com will be rebranded as NBCNews.com, and readers who logged into MSNBC.com late Sunday were automatically redirected to NBCNews.com. Microsoft is preparing to launch its own news service this fall. Although he declined to provide many details about the operation general manager of MSN.com Bob Visse said the news staff will be about the same size as the roughly 100 people who created original content for the MSNBC.com. "There is no question that we are going to have more flexibility to make our own decisions," said Vivian Schiller, NBC News' chief digital officer. "This is really an amicable breakup. We think competition will make us better." Okay then.
    • Senate Intelligence committee Vice-Chair Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) and Mark Udall (D-CO)
    • Senate Intelligence committee's Mark Udall (D-CO)
    • ROUNDTABLE: Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA), former Director of the NSA and CIA – now a principal of The Chertoff Group -- Gen. Michael Hayden, Washington Post Columnist David Ignatius, New York Times national security reporter James Risen, and NBC’s foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell.


  • State of the Union With Candy Crowley (CNN) At 9 AM ET, Candy talks to the power players: politicians, business leaders and international newsmakers who will make Monday morning's headlines. At NOON ET, Candy wraps it all up with fresh interviews and the best of the earlier hours.
    • House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-MI)
    • Ranking Member of the House Oversight Committee, Elijah Cummings (D-MD)
    • ROUNDTABLE: Peter Baker of “The New York Times,” Nia-Malika Henderson of “The Washington Post,” Ray Suarez of PBS’ “The NewsHour” and A.B. Stoddard from “The Hill” newspaper.


  • HEAD ON RADIO with Bob Kincaid
    HEAD ON
    Headon Radio with Bob Kincaid 6 PM Eastern, 3 PM Pacific, 2300 GMT. Duration: 3 hrs. To be part of Conversation Radio on Head-on Radio, call toll-free (877) 443-2366, or use our Liberal community line at 304-658-3333. Email bob [at] headonradio [dot] com during the show!
    • MORAN MONDAY!!!!! Pull up a chair and a cold one! Listen NOW HERE - Monday, June 10th, 2013 (mp3)! Keep Bob on the air HERE ya hear? Amen to the White Rose Society! Bob's show archives at the White Rose HERE! Donate to Head On HERE! And join Coal River Mountain Watch at www.crmw.net!


  • YOUR GREEN NEWS REPORT With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen!
    desi-n-bradbaseball_Fire
    The Green News Report with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen: 6 minutes of green news, politics, analysis & snarky comment! BOOKMARK greennews.bradblog.com NOW!
    'Green News Report' - June 13, 2013 IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: CO wildfire now most destructive in state history; Another chemical plant explodes, this time in LA; Supreme Court rules on TX v. OK water war; New oil spills in Brazil and Canada; PLUS: Mayor Bloomberg's $20B Sandy recovery and climate change plan for NYC ... All that and more in today's Green News Report!
    • IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see link): Methane leaks could negate climate benefits of nat gas boom; Too hot to live: grim long-term prediction; Will coastal cities follow NYC's climate lead?; 1970s pollution led to African drought; Tea Party takes on utility over lack of solar energy; 'Understory' fires burning in drier Amazon rainforest; White House delays environmental, energy rules... PLUS: NASA Finds ‘Amazing’ Levels Of Arctic Methane And CO2, Asks ‘Is a Sleeping Climate Giant Stirring in the Arctic?’ ... and much, MUCH more! ...
    • BRADBLOG UPDATE! Brad Talks With Ed Schultz: The Politics of Snowden A quick radio conversation with the somewhat conflicted MSNBC host, about Snowden, Obama and what Democrats should do now....
    • THE BRADCAST! Ellsberg: 'We're In The Abyss' EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: 'Pentagon Papers' whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg on Edward Snowden, his disclosures, the privatized surveillance state, failure of Congressional oversight and 'stupid and misguided' journalism...
    • BRADBLOG UPDATE! VIDEO! Brad Discusses NSA Leaks and All Related on RT America An appearance with Abby Martin on Breaking the Set to talk about the massive, secret U.S. surveillance state, Snowden, Greenwald and overlooked dangers to the public...
    • BRADBLOG UPDATE! Even Snowden's Detractors See His Leaks As Helpful, Even If They Don't Admit It Outright .... Related to all of this, and true to many of those who have been critical of Snowden and Greenwald from both the Democratic and Republican side, is that while the recent disclosures have put us at risk (or something), as they argue, the issue of our massive, secret, privatized, surveillance state is, nonetheless, a very important issue about which we must have a public debate as a nation. On that, detractors from both sides seem to agree. Here are just a few examples of that and some thoughts on how twisted this logic seems to be...


  • The Peter B. Collins Show PODCAST!
    pbc show
    Listen at PeterBCollins.com!
    The Peter B. Collins Show covers American news and politics from the Left Coast. Veteran talk radio personality Peter B. Collins, based in San Francisco, delivers fresh interviews, commentary and analysis on a range of important topics, with views and voices you don’t often find in the corporate media.
    Holiday Break and Website Changes
      To my valued listeners: We are making some changes to the website and our terms, effective in January. We will continue to offer free podcasts–my new daily news and commentary. Our in-depth interviews will be available for $1 per episode, or to subscribers who pay $5 per month or more. Loyal listeners who simply can’t afford it should send an email to peter@peterbcollins.com, as we will be offering a limited number of scholarships to our friends who are hurting during these tough times. More information will be posted as we complete the revisions. I’m grateful to each of you for listening and supporting this work, and hope that the new model will enable us to keep it going well into the future. All the best, -pbc
    • Peter B Collins, Truthout | Op-Ed An Insider's View of the Progressive Talk Radio Devolution
    • PBC Standard Podcast June 12, 2013 Boiling Frogs: Pepe Escobar and Sibel Edmonds Update Domestic Surveillance, FBI Killing in Orlando, Protests in Turkey, Syrian Conflict and More
    • PBC Standard Podcast June 14, 2013 Kevin Gozstola of FireDogLake Recaps Week 2 of Bradley Manning Trial
    • PBC News & Comment June 12, 2013 PBC News & Comment: Snowden, Still in Hong Kong, Alleges US Hacking of China Ed Snowden alleges massive US hacking of China, underscoring cyberwarfare memo he exposed last week; US media focus on manhunt…
    • PBC News & Comment June 13, 2013 PBC News & Comment: War On Women Rages! Big setback: Senate committee protects old boys, rejects Gillibrand amendment to assign military sexual assault cases to outside prosecutors……..


  • Ring of Fire Radio
    rofheader
    Find us at http://ringoffireradio.com and http://goleft.tv/ hosted by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Mike Papantonio and Sam Seder
    Ring of Fire Radio - GoLeft TV - Robert F. Kennedy, Mike Papantonio, Sam Seder - Politics, Commentary, and News.
    This Weekend on Ring of Fire Radio! Saturdays at 3 o’clock Eastern, rebroadcasts Sunday nights at 7 pm Eastern.
    • Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Chris Hedges will be here to tell us about the judicial lynching of Bradley Manning.
    • Investigative journalist Tim Shorrock will talk to us about the companies who are profiting off the NSA’s spying activities.
    • Salon.com contributor David Dayen will give us the latest details on the student loan crisis.
    • And Nation Magazine investigative journalist Lee Fang will tell us about the private security contractors who are abusing their privileges.
    • NEW! This Week on Ring of Fire on Free Speech TV! Sundays at NOON!
    »» Big money billionaires have taken over everything from our electoral process to our media – author John Nichols will tell us how this happened.
    »» The whistleblower who exposed the NSA’s spying activities is facing a tremendous amount of heat from the government, and we’ll have author David Sirota with me to talk about who the REAL criminals are in this matter.
    »» Also on the NSA, Farron Cousins from The Trial Lawyer Magazine will tell us about the Republican hypocrisy taking place now that a Democratic President is using the same techniques as a Republican.
    »» State legislatures are becoming more and more polarized from their electorate, and attorneys Joe Cotchett and Dave TeSelle will tell us how Republicans have been able to gerrymander themselves into power.
    »» And could the GOP be losing their grip on southern voters? Attorney Howard Nations will be here to give us the answer to that question.
    • VIDEO! THE HISTORY OF CORPORATE CORRUPTION & FRAUD with Robert Kennedy Jr & Mike Papantonio “Call us if you have a personal story about Fraud on Taxpayers or False Claims for Payment made by Corportations at 1-866-389-FIRE (3473) or contact us by email at info@ringoffireradio.com if you have evidence of fraud that robbed taxpayer dollars. If our government is paying too much due to fraud by a corporation, Ring of Fire wants to do a story on it.”
    • VIDEO! Papantonio: Stop NSA Before Republicans Regain Power (VIDEO) Mike Papantonio appears on The War Room on Current TV with Michael Shure to discuss the NSA wiretapping story, and why we need to put an immediate end to the program before Republicans end up in power and in charge of the program again.
    • VIDEO! Papantonio: Private Contractors Sifting Through Your Personal Data (VIDEO) Sixty percent of the American public thinks that it is fine that the NSA spies on them. But that’s because they don’t know the whole story about how corporations are abusing their power to sift through their personal data. Ring of Fire host Mike Papantonio discusses how these data mining companies are abusing their power with investigative journalist Lee Fang.
    Ring of Fire’s Weekly Rewind June 15, 2013 featuring the top stories from Ring of Fire from the past week.
    • Join our blog at www.ringoffireradio.com. You can now SUBSCRIBE TO OUR PODCAST by clicking on the "Podcast" tab at the top of the Ring of Fire blog. Please help support progressive radio by signing up! Ring of Fire Radio Ring of Fire, hosted by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Mike Papantonio and Sam Seder: Saturdays at 3 o’clock Eastern, rebroadcasts 7-10 et Sunday evenings on Chicago's Progressive Talk WCPT AM & FM and 4 pm et on Sirius/XM 167 featuring The PAP Attack! "We’ll bring you the stories that the mainstream media didn’t feel like reporting this week."


  • Majority Report with Sam Seder Streaming LIVE weekdays 12 NOON et @ Majority.fm!

    • MONDAY 6/10/13 Juan Cole: Corporate Interests Distort The Constitution & Turkey's Uprising
    • TUESDAY 6/11/13 Who Profits From Surveillance State, James Clapper Lied To Congress & Plan B
    • WEDNESDAY 6/12/13 The Establishment Attacks Snowden & Poo Poos Whistleblowers
    • THURSDAY6/13/13 Richard Yeselson: Fortress Unionism
    • FRIDAY 6/14/13 Casual Friday: Cliff Schecter & Andy Kindler
    • MORE Podcast Interviews at majorityfm.libsyn.com!


  • KEISER REPORT Podcasts and more @ MaxKeiser.com!
    maxheaderhiyall
    "HI Y'ALL! Tell the people! Tell the people!"
    WHO IS MAX KEISER? Max Keiser is a financial expert, Prediction Markets analyst, inventor and filmmaker. He is the creator of the Hollywood Stock Exchange (HSX) the first Prediction Market. Max Keiser co-hosts "The Truth About Markets" on ResonanceFM 104.4 in London. He also produces and presents documentary films covering markets and finance for Al Jazeera’s "People & Power" series. Max Keiser started his career on Wall Street in 1983. He is the creator of KarmaBanque a site that enables activists to challenge corporate power.
    • VISIT PirateMyFilm.com!!! Crowd Funding for Pirates!
    • MaxKeiserTV on YouTube! MaxKeiserTV
    STACY SUMMARY: For once and for all, here are our real Facebook pages, the other ones are fake. But if you feel like chatting to the fake ones, by all means, go ahead.
    »»Max Keiser
    »»Keiser Report
    »»Stacey Herbert
    The Federal Reserve 100th Anniversary Road Show Spectacular! by alexschaefer - Paint Provocateur Alex Schaefer wants to say “Happy Birthday, Federal Reserve!’ You made it to 100 years of conducting the nation’s monetary policy! Since mainstream media didn’t send a card, a painter, a protestor, a filmmaker, a freedom fighter and a mad crew are going on a road trip across the USA to visit all twelve of your branches to help you celebrate! Come rain or monkey shines, they are on a mission to throw the birthday party nightmares are made of. A party to highlight the historic END of the original 100 year charter the Federal Reserve Bank has with the U.S. Government December 23rd, 2013! CLICK HERE FOR THE CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN & HELP GET THE SHOW ON THE ROAD! Lots of great donation perks, all original works of art by Alex Schaefer and Cain Motter! This is a great way to collect some art AND help fund this amazing journey and film. It’s a win-win situation! Let’s some history and shake things up around here!
    • VIDEO! The Artist Taxi Driver: Interview #13 Laurie penny by maxkeiser
    The following are 20 examples of how America is rapidly going down the toilet… by maxkeiser - READ 20 Examples Of How America Is Rapidly Going Down The Toilet
    • VIDEO! Intel’s chips allow for remote access: Prism has access to anything with an intel chip (and other stuff) by maxkeiser
    • KEISER REPORT [KR456] Keiser Report – #PRISM, #SOPA, #PIPA, #ACTA, Copyright Prostitutes We ask, “What is Boundless Informant, PRISM, Trans-Pacific Partnership, SOPA, PIPA and ACTA if not copyright prostitutes colluding and beating up the competition? Max also informs President Barack Obama that a food stamp is NOT a job. In the second half, Max talks to artist, Mark McGowan (aka The Artist Taxi Driver), about his pushing the pig to Downing Street as an artistic response to the privatisation of the National Health Service in the United Kingdom. They also discuss McGowan’s crowd-funded film currently in production, “This is Not a Recession, It’s a Robbery!”
    • KEISER REPORT Backstage #KeiserReport with George Galloway
    • KEISER REPORT [KR457] Keiser Report: Ooops, My Bad Economics We discuss the economics of Ooops, My Bad. From owning the patent on the mutant, super pests your company ‘accidentally’ created, to driving poor people out of the city and into wigwams, to rising bonds and crashing markets, Max and Stacy find that Oops, the global financial system is a not quite accidental disaster. In the second half, Max talks to Mark O’Byrne of GoldCore.com about the latest in the gold, silver and bond markets and about the Troika meat grinder and the RTE induced coma.
    • KEISER REPORT [KR458] Keiser Report: Up the creek with no paddle We discuss price holograms in a simulated economy where we’ve rowed, rowed, rowed our boats merrily up the stream only to find ourselves up the creek with no paddle. In the second half, Max talks to comedian, Lee Camp of LeeCamp.net, about the billionaire hoarders, the corporate pillagers and the Wall Street Occupiers.
    • THE TRUTH ABOUT MARKETS [TaM-1279] The Truth About Markets – 01 June 2013 – #blockupy and #occupygezi We discuss #blockupy, #occupygezi, Max Keiser’s fashion inspiration (Don Cherry) and more. Download show HERE (mp3)
    • THE TRUTH ABOUT MARKETS [TaM-1280] The Truth About Seeking Convicted Fraudster Bernie Madoff’s Investment Advice Download show HERE (mp3)
    • Donate to ResonanceFM here!


  • The Scott Horton Radio Show
    scotthorton
    Scott Horton is host of Antiwar Radio on Pacifica 90.7 FM KPFK in Los Angeles and KUCR 88.3 in Riverside, and the Scott Horton Show on No Agenda Radio. (You can listen live Monday through Friday, excluding Thursday, from 12-2 PM Eastern HERE.) Plenty of archives too!
    • Scott Horton Radio Show 6/13/13 Philip Giraldi: Philip Giraldi, executive director of the Council for the National Interest, discusses the NSA’s massive spying campaign against Americans; empty promises from government officials that they are only trying to protect us; further US involvement in the Syrian quagmire; why Saudi Arabia keeps getting away with exporting fundamentalist Islamic movements; and George W. Bush’s incredible failure in Iraq.

    • Scott Horton Radio Show 6/11/13 Bruce Schneier: Bruce Schneier, a security expert and author, discusses his article “What We Don’t Know About Spying on Citizens: Scarier Than What We Know;” the missing public debate on whether we want a public/private surveillance state; Glenn Greenwald’s “target lists” that will give individuals standing to sue the government for spying; why Obama is lying about the Congress and courts signing off on massive surveillance programs; what phone “metadata” really is; and the heroism (or foolishness) of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

    SCOTT HORTON July 5, 2012: Scott says goodbye to Antiwar.com. Scott Horton is the former host of Antiwar Radio. Visit his blog Stress. Due to budget cuts Scott lost his gig at AntiWarRadio.com! Whoa! See ScottHortonShow.com for archives! Send emails to Scott at scotthorton.org to help Scott keep his podcast going!
    • Older interviews at Antiwar Radio!


  • fauxnews
    • Former Vice President Dick Cheney


~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Brick TeeVee - THEY report. YOU throw bricks. ©

We're here because you're there. ©

First brick is on us! brick Get your Foam Bricks at ThrowThings.com HERE!

FAIR USE: Regarding postings which may contain material published online by various sources: This site may present material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We present such material available in an effort to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a "fair use" of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is presented without charge to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. See: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml

No comments: