Rational Nation USA

by: Les Carpenter Rational Nation U S A Purveyor of Truth I've said all along that the NSA surveillance plan (data mining)was not only an infringement on the privacy rights of every American citizen but quite probably illegal as well. An independent federal agency has arrived at the same conclusion. WASHINGTON — An independent federal privacy watchdog has concluded that the National Security Agency’s program to collect bulk phone call records has provided only “minimal” benefits in counterterrorism efforts, is illegal and should be shut down. The findings are laid out in a 238-page report, scheduled for release by Thursday and obtained by The New York Times, that represent the first major public statement by the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, which Congress made an independent agency in 2007 and only recently became fully operational. The report is likely to inject a significant new voice into the debate over surveillance, underscoring that the issue was no...

by: Les Carpenter Rational Nation USA Lib e rty -vs- Tyr a nny Brave New World and Big Brother continuing to grow in the Land of the Free, the United States of America. Government is simply growing too effing big for its britches. Thank you GWB, BHO, and all your henchmen. A very disturbing trend, one the government is very likely to accelerate in the coming months and years. The Washington Post - Microsoft is moving toward a major new effort to encrypt its Internet traffic amid fears that the National Security Agency may have broken into its global communications links, said people familiar with the emerging plans. Suspicions at Microsoft, while building for several months, sharpened in October when it was reported that the NSA was intercepting traffic inside the private networks of Google and Yahoo, two industry rivals with similar global infrastructures, said people with direct knowledge of the company’s deliberations. They said top Microsoft executives are meeting thi...

by: Les Carpenter Rational Nation USA Lib e rty -vs- Tyr a nny The Obama administration has legally justified the National Security Agency's collection of phone data from every American by citing a provision of the Patriot Act that applies to business records. Above, President Obama is seen at a news conference on Aug. 9 in which he discussed NSA surveillance and terrorist threats. ( Drew Angerer / EPA ) The Congress, under President George W. Bush, on the heels of the 2001 - 911 terrorist attacks on American soil, ushered in a new and enhanced surveillance state. Upon enactment of the Patriot Act, bringing about the great expansion of the government intelligence bureaucracy that gave us the Department of Homeland Security, NSA, and TSA, we now find ourselves in the midst of a growing discussion/debate as to whether the government has crossed the line with it's super surveillance of every phone call made by individ...

by: Les Carpenter Rational Nation U S A Lib e rty -vs- Tyr a nny Following 911, and the understandable fear it created in the hearts and minds of Americans, our federal government took steps to insure the security of the nation's citizenry and prevent possible future terrorist attacks. Beginning with the enactment of the Patriot Act the United States of America, in the pursuit of enhanced put into motion the legal mechanisms that can just as assuredly be used against the liberty of individuals as it can be used to provide national society ad thwarting terrorist attacks. Certainly the argument for grossly expanded federal power in the name of protecting the American people is a powerful one, one few people took issue with following the Islamist attack on the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001. From the initial enactment of the Patriot Act federal agencies like TSA, NSA, and the FISA court have grown ever more intrusive of the rights of innocent and law abiding citizens. This ...