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Michael Evans, painter of light - full frame

Thursday, June 13, 2013

6.13.13


I have a really bad cold. Airplane flights often wreak havoc with my respiratory system and I am out for the count. I must put life on hold for a couple days.

This tin foil hat is hurting my temples as well. My blog has been a bit strident of late, even for me. I need to back off a little bit.

It has been quite a couple of weeks. The deck has had a reshuffle like I have never seen. Glenn Beck and Michael Moore on the same side of the equation? Who would have thunk...The establishment against the outliers, the people who trust their government and the people who aren't sure that they can. I must cast my lot with the latter on this one.

People are shaken by the enormity of the state's intrusion. Even those of us who believe in protecting our country against terrorists. What is next, do we go after dissenters, demand loyalty oaths? Would be really simple to find the subversives, just sift for a few key search terms, like freedom and liberty... See what books you have been checking out of the library. Maybe we could send the I.R.S. after the President's political enemies? Wait, we already did that.

Let's see, on one side we have Feinstein, Franken, Harry Reid, Mitch McConnell, Wasserman Strauss, Lindsay Graham, Obama, etc. and on the other Udall, Wyden, Paul, Tester, Merkley, Mike Lee and the libertarians. Very, very strange. Rep. Loretta Sanchez left a classified intelligence meeting yesterday and said we have only seen the tip of the iceberg. Chilling.

Least Untruthful was published on Reader Supported News today. The early version. On a personal note, I have been incredibly prolific this year from a writing standpoint. Keeping the pedal to the metal. If I keep this up (and don't get disappeared) records should fall.

Hudg sent this article over from Wired on the NSA, James Bamford's The Secret War. I had already seen it but something popped up on second glance:
Inside the government, the general is regarded with a mixture of respect and fear, not unlike J. Edgar Hoover, another security figure whose tenure spanned multiple presidencies. “We jokingly referred to him as Emperor Alexander—with good cause, because whatever Keith wants, Keith gets,” says one former senior CIA official who agreed to speak on condition of anonymity. “We would sit back literally in awe of what he was able to get from Congress, from the White House, and at the expense of everybody else.”
Now 61, Alexander has said he plans to retire in 2014; when he does step down he will leave behind an enduring legacy—a position of far-reaching authority and potentially Strangelovian powers at a time when the distinction between cyberwarfare and conventional warfare is beginning to blur. A recent Pentagon report made that point in dramatic terms. It recommended possible deterrents to a cyberattack on the US. Among the options: launching nuclear weapons.
Oh jeez, just what we need. All those nukes are just sitting around getting dusty on the shelf, time to put them to good use. Unbelievable. That will show those damn hackers...


According to a new Time poll, 54% of Americans think that Edward Snowden did a good thing in exposing the scope of government surveillance. They also want to see him prosecuted. I believe that 54% is really a quite remarkable percentage.

5 comments:

Sanoguy said...

The coffee boys have missed you. Get better!!!

This whole surveillance thing is very perplexing. Obama has basically continued with the Bush programs. Had he discontinued them and had there been a serious (or even maybe a smaller) terrorist attack, he would have been pilloried.... probably by both sides. He was / is in a no win situation.

Also, we are worried about our e-mails being read... "they" have said it is only foreigners that are being monitored.... however, Google and other companies know what we are looking at and probably saying also. Is that really any better than the government reading / listening?? If you want to keep your conversations private, you need to speak face to face, don't use anything electronic.

I am afraid, in our new world with terrorists anywhere and everywhere, we are going to be living in much more of a security state. I guess we just get used to it.

Blue Heron said...

Stupid me. I was hoping that we had a President who valued constitutional principles more than politics and getting the possibility of getting pilloried...

Anonymous said...

Democrips losing ground again, Obama paranoia another Clinton blow job....Rebloodicans will take advantage....think what they will do if they win the White House back?!!!!
Cybernazi America...America is getting dumbed-downed on TV to the point that the average American citizen hasn't a clue what our government is up to.....TV is a big joke of 30 min. idiot shows, info B.S. commercials and slanted fake news.
Just a matter of time before drones patrols Main St. and you are charged an additional [safety] fee for govt. spying on your cell phone bill.
World politics are heating way too fast. In some places the pot is boiling over and some regions are so near the kindling that they will burn like an out of control forest fire...
Ever feel like the balloon is about to burst?

Sanoguy said...

I understand your concern but he is a politician. They all are. That is not going to change as much as we might want it to.

Ken Seals said...

Like I said at coffee, you are ok until the next Republican administration. :-)))