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Bank Record Silliness in Wing-Nut land

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This article has gotten the ‘Lie and Die’ GOP Far right wing nuts on the internet fired up.
Bank Records Secretly Tapped

They still believe that al Qaeda are idiots, Osama bin Laden is a multimillion, don’t you think he knows how banks are transferring money?

Why does the Far Right believe that this ‘traitorous’ revelation of the Bush administration trying to ” bypass traditional banking privacy protections” was catching any terrorist?

Stupid ones maybe, but not likely, terrorist of that nature are ‘Cash and Carry’ and the smart ones are well aware of that can and cannot be seen in bank transfers, and they would have covered their trail.

This is just another destruction of freedom, and the removal of yet another privacy from the American People.

Update: A really good article about why this was never a secret, and if there is a traitor It’s George Bush Who talked about this;


In a September 24, 2001, speech, Bush announced the establishment of a “foreign terrorist asset tracking center at the Department of the Treasury to identify and investigate the financial infrastructure of the international terrorist networks.” He added, “It will bring together representatives of the intelligence, law enforcement, and financial regulatory agencies to accomplish two goals: to follow the money as a trail to the terrorists, to follow their money so we can find out where they are; and to freeze the money to disrupt their actions.”

So more lies from the Lie and Die party.

“WWIII Started in 1979”, paranoia

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I can usually usually judge the level of paranoia flowing through the GOP, NeoCons and the far right, from the propaganda email forwarded from my brother in the central United States. These usually follow some talking point or another that the White House would be proud of, but are cloaked in “personalization’s” like ‘joe’ told me, or a “friend of mine” something, to allude to a personal first person truth. Often, as in the last one, titled “WWIII Started in 1979” it resorts to paranoid delusion and vastly over simplified history and the motivations of the depicted (read spun) events. In this case many unrelated events are painted in a ‘pro-war with the Arabs’ fashion using little more commonality than of race. An enemy easily identified as Muslim, those “vicious anti-west, infidel killing religious fanatics”.

You get the picture anyway.

This brings me back to the point, that this represents another attempt to deflect attention from the GOP corruption, lawbreaking and embezzlement of the public trust. and an attempt to elevate paranoia, and create fear of “The ENEMY them, those people, that sleeper cell down the street that behaves strangely.

The real question, do we really question anymore? When do we stop believing in the ‘Bush who cried wolf”. When are we going to require real accountability for improving the security we really desire? When, if ever, are we going believe which “Terror Alerts” are real?

Why would anyone give up their freedoms, liberties and privacy, the very things that have made us great for the illusion of security being offered by the NeoCon GOP. Why would you believe any politician, for that matter.

People must believe in themselves, trust to the good elements of our chosen society, represent them, educate with them, and work to prevent the hate, paranoia and fear from blinding us to the truth that we are all human. And that the rights which we have fought for over the years must be applied to all equally.

Ok I’ll get off the soapbox.

Demonization of the ACLU

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I have been reading the blogs of the religiously self-righteous defenders of the U.S constitution. Or, in other words attempting to distorting the definitions of the constitution into religious mumbo-Jumbo. To quote;


The mission of the ACLU is to preserve all of these protections and guarantees:

  • Your First Amendment rights-freedom of speech, association and assembly. Freedom of the press, and freedom of religion supported by the strict separation of church and state.
  • Your right to equal protection under the law – equal treatment regardless of race, sex, religion or national origin.
  • Your right to due process – fair treatment by the government whenever the loss of your liberty or property is at stake.
  • Your right to privacy – freedom from unwarranted government intrusion into your personal and private affairs.

But they seem to be under attack because they are managing to get that job done, but are being attacked by the christian wing-nut far right because they

…work also to extend rights to segments of our population that have traditionally been denied their rights, including Native Americans and other people of color; lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgendered people; women; mental-health patients; prisoners; people with disabilities; and the poor.

In other words everything the fundamentalist are against. and who believe that

if the rights of society’s most vulnerable members are denied

Christianity as NOT embodied in the constitution can be preserved for all Americans.

The Founding Fathers are rolling over in their graves.

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The Founding fathers of the United States Constitution are rolling over in their graves. When the Top court allows evidence in illegal home entry It just doesn’t

“…destroy the strongest legal incentive for the police to comply with that constitutional requirement.”

It violates the 4th Amendment of the Constitution!

Amendment IV – Search and Seizure. Ratified 12/15/1791.

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Do Bloggers have a Gene?

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A good article about Gene’s and That Wild Streak? Maybe It Runs in the Family. So the argument about Nature vs Nurture is back in the news.

The real question is something more important, is it genetics or the ‘self fulfilling prophecy’! If people Believe they are predisposed to some action, or behavior they will act on that belief whether or not there really is a gene for that social behavior. What if I believe I’m predisposed to mass murder, or worse yet, that I am genetically destined to Blog?

What about freedom of choice? Does that also go by the wayside?

A Religious reason is a misnomer

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I’ve been reading about What did Canadians do to deserve this? And while the article makes a strong argument that Islamic Terrorist believe things like this.

Sayed Qutb, the Marx of Militant Islamism, stated unequivocally: “Truth and falsehood cannot coexist on earth…the liberating struggle of jihad does not cease until all religion belongs to God.” Looking at the world through such eyes, freedom, tolerance and democratic values are not virtues – they are symptoms of weakness and moral decline.

The author Clifford D. May has ask the some of the hard questions

What were these young men taught by the religious leaders in their mosques? Did their neighbors not see where they were heading? Was it sympathy or fear that prevented them from speaking up? If it was fear – fear of whom?

His belief that the Muslim community has any more control of their radical members than any right wing Christian fundamentalist is misplaced. The problem is this; in a secular democracy where “freedom, tolerance and democratic values” are truly valued, religion is the problem. Religion is the antithesis of common sense, of reason, and truth. If you take any religion to extremes you might as well perform a frontal lobotomy. A person so conditioned is beyond reason.

You can’t reason with someone, who didn’t start out that way.

And the only hope for Democracies, who wish to preserve their “freedom, tolerance and democratic values” is education. Teaching reason, freedom and tolerance. And the first step, is practicing what they preach. To hold themselves up as a model, they should be proud to look in a mirror. In a war of ideologies, insure that your’s is the best.

UPDATE: A christian example: Fox News host to guest: ‘You’re going to hell!’

You have to love the Irony

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You have to love the Irony that when you attempt to prevent the distortion of the news by requiring the identification of source of the Advertising and fake news VNC’s, a form of advertising propaganda, That you get the propagandist who is Confronted with Disclosure Demands, Fake News Moguls Cry “Censorship!”.

This all makes sense when Fox news can now distort the news legally as in this case in florida. Where the FCC’s rules on news distortion (read lies here) was ignored

…the reporters accused the station (WTVT-TV, a subsidiary of Fox Television) of attempting to distort the story to favor the manufacturer of BGH…It is undisputed that the FCC’s news distortion policy has never been “adopted” as defined by section 120.54, Florida Statutes…Because the FCC’s news distortion policy is not a “law, rule, or regulation” under section 448.102, … we reverse the judgment in her favor and remand for entry of a judgment in favor of WTVT

This is roughly the same as the cockroach complaining because you turned over the rock he was hiding under.

Law making

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When Congress creates laws, or for that matter when any political body either it be a Parliament, council, theocracy, Dáil or Oireachtas. Whenever a law is created, someone’s rights get eliminated or restricted. There is never a law created that grants more rights to a lifeform on this planet. Laws may refine the verbiage of a natural right, but that too is a form of restriction.

So if Congress passes NO LAWS, no one will feel further oppressed!

Terrorist, is a great label for freedom fighter.

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I’ve been seeing a lot of arrests for ‘terrorist’ in the UK, Canada and there seem to be terrorist all over the U.S. But if the MinuteMen of the American revolution were called Terrorist. Would they have managed to overthrow a corrupt government and an oppressive King?

If you can label anyone who opposes the Bush or Blair governments as a Terrorist, how do you restore freedom and democracy to once proud countries?

I love the term “al-Qaeda-inspired” as it makes a great label.

Iran nuclear bomb ‘in 10 years’

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Iran nuclear bomb ‘in 10 years’

I could build a nuclear bomb in 10 years, this is like saying that they haven’t made any progress. But I’ll bet the Bush and company will make this out to be a great threat to ‘Freedom and Liberty’ and I see another axis of evil speech coming.

Any, and I do mean ANY physics student at any university could make a nuclear bomb in less than 10 years. And if you are interested, let me know, and I’ll post you some clear instructions.

The Usurpation of Honor, the roots of Tyranny

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A few days ago I stumbled on an article (an article I can’t find now) that detailed a subtle change in the oath of secrecy that is rendered at the CIA and NSA. The article went something like this. The original oath;

I swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States, and that I will obey the lawful orders of the President of the United States

had been changed to;

I swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States, and that I will obey the lawful orders of the President of the United States

Now this is very subtle, and makes the assumption that the President is issuing legal orders. But is it strikes at the heart of the oath. The uses of the word ‘lawful’ removes the honor that is required of the oath taker. That he or she is required to understand the meaning of lawful, with regards to the Constitution of the United States. It also strikes blow a for tyranny in that it is tantamount to an oath of loyalty to the President and not to the laws of the United States. An oath of fealty to President Bush.

In my search to find the original article I came upon this as further evidence that I was not misplaced in my fear that something was amiss in the subtle change

…the oath represented more than a simple, ceremonial formality; rather, it provided overarching guidance and a standard of moral conduct, as opposed to dictating specific, limited criteria.

And the limited criteria represented with this change was to relinquish the responsibility of the individual to interpret the legality of orders from the president and place into presidential control all liability for the interpretation.

It’s roughly the equivalent of a soldier saying “I was only following orders” at the Nuremberg trials.

And then I stumble upon this article Sworn fealty to the president as the answer to everything and realized that this subtle change was exactly what Bush requires from his staff, his ‘serfs’. Loyalty, not to the constitution, or the truth, or to the American people. But loyalty to GW Bush. The same loyalty that would be due any tyrant, by that tyrant.

It also goes far in explaining the purge at the CIA. All the previous staff having sworn using the old oath, the one requiring the oath taker to interpret legality, are being purged and replaced with personnel sworn to fealty to Bush.

That should scare everyone. We are not worried about a dictator in the U.S. we already have one.

NSA domestic Spying and data mining

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There has been a lot of talk about the NSA domestic spying. The fact that AT&T Sprint, and others have been sending internet traffic, and phone calls to the NAS is not in Doubt. The issue is what they are doing with the data and phone calls.

Data mining is problematic, and probably always will be. The problem has to do with reducibility of content, and decisive targeting of probable results sets. In business, data mining focuses on business issues that can be, more or less, narrowed down. Discovering the percentage of persons with blue eyes who purchase your product might be interesting, but probably not useful unless you can link this data to an artifact that Blue eyed individuals purchase more of your product. Discussing terror takes on subtle difference wither you take it from the context of the “the grandchildren terrorizing their grandparents”, or the “we will be terrorizing the Capitol building” . Both word elements will trigger an automated scan, either vocal, or digital, but neither will be useful until connected with pertinent relevant data and reduced to comply with in the context of the target required.
What is the percentage of usage of the word terror in current conversations, and text? And how much reduction does it take to get to something useful? Does your filtration, remove valuable information.

You could simplify this issue by considering the general issues of the IT world. The distilling of facts into information.

I used to work in the Telecom world, and we had a cell phone fraud unit that, in order to catch fraud established a phone pattern recognition system. Not unlike the NSA’s own requirement. But unlike the NSA it’s target was focused on fraud. A requirement the telco applied to good customer service. But unlike the NSA privacy was not an issue. The design of the data mining system dissociated personal identification from phone numbers. The system only established a cell phone calling pattern for each phone number in the system. There was nothing to connect the user of the phone to the number at all. What was being detected was, change.

For everyone, there can be an associated pattern, a group of familiar phone numbers, a common event.
Calling your wife on your way home from work is a pattern. And can, over time, establish a rhythm, a pattern to the phone usage. And should that phone suddenly start calling Brazil, the call no longer fits the established pattern, and would trip a warning, which would be forwarded to a fraud investigator.

This is mealy an example, and evidence that the NSA did not need to acquire the amount and types of data that they requested in order to look for terrorist. They were spying, and listening in on Americans, and for that matter everyone else on the internet.

Time to dig out that old PGP encryption key.