News You Need to Know – Page 117

We’re Literally Serfs Now

I often use the term serf as an example of how the state thinks of the people under it’s rule. It appears that my statement may be more literal than I thought:

The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012, or NDAA, signed into law by Hope/Change enthusiast Barack Obama on December 31, 2011, potentially ends right to due process and habeas corpus for US citizens. You can now be detained by military forces and imprisoned, without trial or charges, for as long as the government deems necessary.

The Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act of 2011, or Trespass Bill, signed into law by Barack Obama on March 9, 2012, “potentially makes peaceable protest anywhere in the U.S. a federal felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.” Nice. More specifically, peaceful protest within proximity to those protected by the Secret Service, including presidential candidates and the President, may be a federal felony now. So much for that First Amendment, huh? (Source.)

The Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act of 2011, or H.R. 1981, is the brainchild of SOPA author Rep. Lamar Smith. The bill, according to VentureBeat and others, “would alter U.S. code Chapter 18 section 2703 ‘Required Disclosure of Customer Communications or Records’ so that all Internet service providers would need to store your IP address for at least 12 months, along with any highly sensitive personal information such as credit card data.” Keep in mind, this would be used on ALL Americans who use the Internet, including you and I. Just in case, you know, we are harming children. Police state surveillance: it’s all for the kids!

[…]

The National Defense Resources Preparedness Executive Order, or NDRP, was released by Barack Obama’s administration on March 16, 2012 — it received very little broadcast media attention. According to a columnist at The Washington Times, “It states that, in case of a war or national emergency, the federal government has the authority to take over almost every aspect of American society. Food, livestock, farming equipment, manufacturing, industry, energy, transportation, hospitals, health care facilities, water resources, defense and construction…

In short, the order gives Mr. Obama the ability to impose martial law. He now possesses the potential powers of a dictator. The order is a direct assault on individual liberties, private property rights and the rule of law. It is blatantly unconstitutional.”

The United States, land of the formerly free.

Tapping Phones is Expensive

It’s nice to know I’m not the only person being gouged by cell phone providers:

But at least one document also details the day-to-day business of telecoms’ handing over of data to law enforcement, including a breakdown of every major carrier’s fees for every sort of data request from targeted wiretaps to so-called “tower dumps” that provide information on every user of certain cell tower. The guide, as provided by the Tucson, Arizona police department to the ACLU, is dated July 2009, and the fees it lists may be somewhat outdated. But representatives I reached by email at Verizon and AT&T both declined to detail any changes to the numbers.

Here are a few of the highlights from the fee data.

Wiretaps cost hundreds of dollars per target every month, generally paid at daily or monthly rates. To wiretap a customer’s phone, T-Mobile charges law enforcement a flat fee of $500 per target. Sprint’s wireless carrier Sprint Nextel requires police pay $400 per “market area” and per “technology” as well as a $10 per day fee, capped at $2,000. AT&T charges a $325 activation fee, plus $5 per day for data and $10 for audio. Verizon charges a $50 administrative fee plus $700 per month, per target.

Data requests for voicemail or text messages cost extra. AT&T demands $150 for access to a target’s voicemail, while Verizon charges $50 for access to text messages. Sprint offers the most detailed breakdown of fees for various kinds of data on a phone, asking $120 for pictures or video, $60 for email, $60 for voice mail and $30 for text messages.

All four telecom firms also offer so-called “tower dumps” that allow police to see the numbers of every user accessing a certain cell tower over a certain time at an hourly rate. AT&T charges $75 per tower per hour, with a minimum of two hours. Verizon charges between $30 and $60 per hour for each cell tower. T-Mobile demands $150 per cell tower per hour, and Sprint charges $50 per tower, seemingly without an hourly rate.

For location data, the carrier firms offer automated tools that let police track suspects in real time. Sprint charges $30 per month per target to use its L-Site program for location tracking. AT&T’s E911 tool costs $100 to activate and then $25 a day. T-Mobile charges a much pricier $100 per day.

Here I was thinking my bill was high, the state’s bill must be insane considering the cost of obtaining customer data and the frequency in which they attempt to buy it. Just remember, when you carry a cell phone you’re carrying a personal state spy around in your pocket.

It’s About Time

It’s been six years since Hurricane Katrina struck American shores and some semblance of justice is finally coming out of the state initiated violence that took place immediately after the hurricane passed:

Five former New Orleans police officers who shot six unarmed civilians, two fatally, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina have been jailed.

The prison terms range from six to 65 years for the shootings on the Danziger Bridge in September 2005.

Four of the officers were found guilty of firearms offences and the fifth was jailed for helping the cover-up.

The officers planted a gun and fabricated witnesses and false reports to make the shootings appear justified.

Robert Faulcon, 48, received the longest sentence of 65 years; Kenneth Bowen, 38, and Robert Gisevius, 39, received 40 years each; and Anthony Villavaso, 35, was sentenced to 38 years in prison.

It’s not surprising to see agents of the largest criminal syndicate in the United States not only murdering unarmed civilians, but also attempting to cover up their misdeed. The aftermath of Katrina showed us what the state really means when they say they’re “helping” people. First they diarm the populace and then they commit criminal acts against the disarmed populace. This court ruling is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the misdeeds performed by the states after Katrina and, unfortunately, is likely the only semblance of justice that will come from that disaster.

Protect Your Privacy

Why is it that people must always be reminded to avoid voluntarily divulging information they don’t want others to know? When you provide your location to servies like Facebook and Foursquare, don’t be surprised when some clever individual finds a way to use that information for less than noble purposes:

The developer of a controversial mobile app that used data from Facebook and Foursquare to reveal the location of nearby women defended its intentions Saturday after drawing a firestorm of criticism over privacy concerns.

On Saturday, Foursquare cut off access to the “Girls Around Me” app that made it possible to view the location of women on a map and their publicly available data and photographs from Facebook. Foursquare said the app violated a policy against aggregating information across venues. A number of blogs, led by Cult of Mac, raised questions as to whether the app encourages stalking.

You know what encourages stalking? Putting your location and other personal data out there for all to see. Think about this for a minute: when you check-in on Facebook or Foursquare everybody following you can see where you are, and those not following you can see where you are depending on your privacy settings. Since other people can see where you are, well, they know where you are. Should you want to avoid having stalkers it would be smart not to broadcast your location for all to hear.

Some may ask how you are supposed to alert your friends of your location if you don’t use a check-in service and to that I would say this: call you friends and tell them where you are. A phone call, unlike a check-in on Facebook and Foursquare, doesn’t get broadcast for all to hear. Instead only you, your friend, and the National Security Agency (NSA) will know where you are.

Don’t be stupid, when you put something on the Internet it’s there for all to see. When you don’t want people to see something don’t put it on the Internet.

Gun Control Fails Again

California consistently scores the highest on the Brady Campaign Scorecard [PDF] meaning they have the most draconian gun laws on the books. You can’t carry a firearm unless you’re extremely wealth or politically well connected so I have to ask, which was this guy:

The gunman who killed seven people and injured three others at a California college has been named by police as 43-year-old One Goh.

If Goh was not wealth or politically well connect it should have been impossible for him to carry a firearm into that school. That is, of course, if you’re dumb enough to believe the gun control advocates’ claims about gun control being an effective means of preventing crimes involving firearms. What could have stopped Goh before he managed to murder seven people? Another armed individual who could have fought back. Unfortunately this occurred at a school, which is a gun-free zone in California. Wait… if college campuses are gun-free zones then how did Goh carry a firearm onto campus grounds? Was he not properly informed? Perhaps the idea of gun-free zones is a load of malarkey and does nothing to prevent criminals from brining a firearm onto a college campus.

Time and time again the ideas of the gun control advocates are proven to be entirely wrong. It’s a good thing people are waking up to this fact because were people still listening to the gun control advocates we wouldn’t have so many states allowing individuals to legally carry a firearm.

You Decide, Sting Operation or Giving the State the Finger

I’m not sure what to make of this:

A retailer selling tools to grow cannabis has opened in the US capital, just a few miles from the White House.

WeGrow sells plant food and lighting – but no cannabis or seeds – to help cultivators grow medical marijuana.

The chain, dubbed the “Walmart of weed”, launches its latest outlet just as Washington’s medical marijuana laws come into effect.

Is WeGrow a legitimate business run by people that love to give the state the middle finger or is it run by agents of the Drug Enforcement Agency who are using the chain as a clever type of sting operation?

The store claims to sell people equipment so they can grow marijuana at home:

WeGrow’s founder says he hopes his company will help create a “green rush” by selling the equipment needed to grow cannabis at home.

“The more that businesses start to push the envelope by showing that this is a legitimate industry, the further we’re going to be able to go in changing people’s minds,” Dhar Mann told the Associated Press news agency.

If the chain was targeting the medical marijuana business I would imagine they would setup a system to ensure they only sell to licensed growers, although I could be wrong. While I hope this is an actual business and not a fancy sting operation I’m left wondering. Has anybody heard of this chain before? Is there any news regarding their customers mysteriously being arrested after busying supplies from one of the stores?

That’ll Fix the Problem

The Minneapolis Police Department, in their infinite wisdom, have finally released their idea to combat the recent attacks by gangs of unruly individuals. The solution? Enact a curfew:

According to the Minneapolis Police Department, there have been at least six incidents since early February where mobs of young people have randomly assaulted individuals on Nicollet Mall or nearby. The last attack occurred in mid-March.

So now police are proposing a new curfew for teens on Nicollet and also on Hennepin Avenue.

Sgt. Steve McCarty of Minneapolis Police said, “Certainly the vast majority of kids that come downtown are not creating these problems. But we have seen in the recent weeks, there have been some problems.”

The new curfew would ban teens age 17 and younger from Nicollet and Hennepin Avenues after 8 p.m.

Because kids who get their jollies off of beating the living shit out of random strangers are surely going to obey a curfew. Curfews are one of the dumbest strategies to deal with crime problems, namely because they don’t work [PDF]. Setting aside the fact that violent criminals aren’t going to obey a law against staying out past a certain hour we also have the fact that determining who is and isn’t under 17 is nearly impossible. Either the police will have to card every person they see that looks to be underage, something that is going to be hard to do because nobody has an obligation to present identification to the police unless they’re being arrested, or they’re going to have to hope that underage kids are going to obey this law.

Also notice that the curfew only applies to Nicollet and Hennepin Avenues meaning it will have the exact same effect as the mobile Orwellian cameras, it’ll just move crime somewhere else. Instead of Nicollet and Hennepin Avenues being scenes of rare gang attacks another street will be. I’m constantly amazed at how stupid an agency granted a monopoly on a large section of the security business can be when it comes to implementing security.

Not Helping

I criticize our legal system often enough that people probably believe I hold no faith in it. Truth be told I don’t really hold much faith in it but even I will admit that it’s a damn side better than courts of public opinions. When you go by public opinion the evidence is no longer considered and only what the media tell you is accepted as fact, which is why tweeting the supposed address of George Zimmerman’s home doesn’t help the situation:

An elderly Florida couple have been forced to move into a hotel after their home address was wrongly tweeted as belonging to the man who shot teen Trayvon Martin.

The tweets were traced back to a man in California and the address was also reportedly retweeted by director Spike Lee to his almost 250,000 followers.

The couple, aged 70 and 72, have been harassed with hate mail, been hassled by media and had scared neighbors questioning them since the tweet, their son Chip Humble told the Orlando Sentinel.

Fearful for their safety, and hoping to escape the spotlight, the couple have temporarily moved to a hotel.

This is what happens in a court of public opinion, the supposed facts aren’t verified and lynch mobs go after innocent people. The two people who lived at the address tweeted by Spike Lee were forced to flee their home because of harassment by those demanding Zimmerman’s blood.

Yes our legal system is broken, and yes this is caused, in part, by monopoly maintained by the state over the court system, but it’s still better then roving gangs of blood thirsty idiots deciding who lives and who dies based on little evidence and unverified information.

Police Surveillance Video of Zimmerman

Well this video doesn’t help Zimmerman’s self-defense claim nor grant much believability to the police report:

A police surveillance video taken the night that Trayvon Martin was shot dead shows no blood or bruises on George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch captain who says he shot Martin after he was punched in the nose, knocked down and had his head slammed into the ground.

The surveillance video, which was obtained exclusively by ABC News, shows Zimmerman arriving in a police cruiser. As he exits the car, his hands are cuffed behind his back. Zimmerman is frisked and then led down a series of hallways, still cuffed.

Zimmerman, 28, is wearing a red and black fleece and his face and head are cleanly shaven. He appears well built, hardly the portly young man depicted in a 2005 mug shot that until a two days ago was the single image the media had of Zimmerman.

The initial police report noted that Zimmerman was bleeding from the back of the head and nose, and after medical attention it was decided that he was in good enough condition to travel in a police cruiser to the Sanford, Fla., police station for questioning.

His lawyer later insisted that Zimmerman’s nose had been broken in his scuffle with 17-year-old Martin.

You can watch the video here. I do want to say ABC news could have found a better place to drop it’s “ABC New Exclusive” banner as it obscures the video of Zimmerman’s head for much of the video. Either way the video shows no sign of injury on Zimmerman brining the claim that Martin knocked Zimmerman on his back and began pummeling his face in question.

The grand jury hearing is going to be interesting. As of right now we have evidence flying back and forth that supports and opposes Zimmerman’s claim and may even uncover an attempt by the police department to cover up a crime. Either way we won’t know until next month when the grand jury has access to all the available evidence and makes a decision on whether or not Zimmerman will be tried.

You Might be a Terrorist

The New Jersey Department of ~~Motherland~~ Homeland Security has released a document that explains the signs of terrorism [PDF]. After reading this document I’ve come to realize that we all may be terrorists without even realizing it. Why? Because some of the signs of being a terrorist are:

Be alert to the indicators regarding actions, individual behaviors, personal interactions and social dynamics, vehicle characteristics and movements. Use your judgment in determining whether or not they are unusual or suspicious in your community or work environment. Be wary of people who depart quickly when seen or attempt to conceal something. Look for signs of nervousness in the people you come in contact with. Signs will become particularly evident in a person’s eyes, face, neck, and body movements. The following is a list of things to look for:

Eyes

Glances: directions, duration, timing

Wide open “flashbulb eyes”

Cold penetrating stare

Trance-like gaze

Face and Neck

Exaggerated yawning when engaged in conversation

Protruding or beating neck arteries

Repetitive touching of face, tugging on or covering ears

Increased breathing rate, panting

Excessive fidgeting, clock watching, head turning

Body

Pacing or jumpy

Trembling

Unusual perspiration

Goose bumps

Rigid posture with minimal body movements and arms close to sides

Basically everybody who has ever shown signs of nervousness is a potential terrorist. Another way to detect a terrorist is to look for common equipment used by their kind:

Individuals may be observed:

Drawing or taking pictures in areas not normally of interest

Taking notes or annotating maps

Sitting in a parked vehicle

Some of the tools terrorists might use during surveillance include:

Cameras- video, still, or panoramic

Laptop computers or PDA’s (Personal Data Assistants)

Diagrams or maps

Binoculars or other vision-enhancing devices

GPS (Global Positioning System) devices

Not only is every person who has ever been nervous a potential terrorist but so is every tourist. Russia Today has a list of potential terrorists that you should be on the lookout for.

Just in case this document gets thrown down the memory hole I’ve uploaded a copy here.