Misc.

Unprecedented Suppression of Civil Rights and Liberties

The Bush administration responded to the Sept. 11th, 2001 attacks by pushing the Patriot Act and other legislation through congress to fight terrorism. His agenda was backed by U.N. Security Council Resolution 1373. and the economic and military power of our country. (Res. 1373 pdf file) Other countries joined our country and soon the combined efforts of the “Coalition” brought about an unprecedented suppression of civil rights and liberties.

We are sacrificing our privacy and freedoms for the cause of National Security while our President demands extraordinary powers (see post here) The legal protections that are essential to our democratic society; due process, presumption of innocence and rights against unreasonable search and seizure, arbitrary detention and punishment, interception of personal communications without warrant are being ignored. (example link to for each) Infrastructures for strategic mass surveillance and dissemination of propaganda are in place to support governmental agendas. (See Govt. pdf docs: Information Operations Roadmap, Information Operations: Doctrine, Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures)

InfraGuard is Federal Bureau of Investigation program “that began in the Cleveland Field Office in 1996. It was a local effort to gain support from the information technology industry and academia for the FBI’s investigative efforts in the cyber arena. The program expanded to other FBI Field Offices, and in 1998 the FBI assigned national program responsibility for InfraGuard to the former National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC) and to the Cyber Division in 2003. InfraGard and the FBI have developed a relationship of trust and credibility in the exchange of information concerning various terrorism, intelligence, criminal, and security matters.” Info Businesses are surrendering their databases to government agencies. Among them are commercial airlines, Universities, driving schools, Double Click, and Choice Point. Major Internet companies have started to deal with this problem also.

CALEA gives law enforcement officials a back door that can be used to wiretap systems. Read my previous post on this subject here.

In Orwell’s 1984 Four, the hero says:

“It was inconceivable that they watched
everybody all the time. But at any rate,
they could plug in your wire whenever
they wanted to. You had to live – did
live from the habit that became instinct
– in the assumption that every sound
you made was overheard.”
George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four, 1949 (London,
Penguin Classics: 2000), p. 5.

In its May 2004 report on federal data mining efforts, Federal Efforts Cover a Wide Range of Uses, GAO-04-548,May 2004. . The U.S. General Accounting Office(now called the Government Accountability Office) revealed projects that use personal information from the private sector. The Defense Intelligence Agency, mines data “to identify foreign terrorists or U.S. citizens connected to foreign terrorism activities”. The National Security Agency program called Novel Intelligence from Massive Data, extracts information from databases including text, audio, video, graphs, images, maps, equations, and chemical formulas. The C.I.A. reportedly has a data-mining program called “Quantum Leap” which “enables an analyst to get quick access to all the information available – classified and unclassified – about virtually anyone”.

“Are we beginning, as a society to accept inhumane and extraordinary practices of social control? The majority of American’s have become apathetic and sheepishly have accepted the infringements of their rights and the rights of others. If you are not with us your against us. If you have nothing to hide, why worry. A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largess of the public treasury. From that time on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the results that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s great civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: from bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependency; from dependency back again to bondage.”

–Sir Alex Fraser Tytler (1742-1813) Scottish historian

Character Rocks Within Apolo Anton Ohno

ABC News: Unrepentant Bode: ‘Man, I Rocked Here”

Call me old fashioned, but, since when is the Olympic goal to party?

“Me, it’s been an awesome two weeks,” Miller said. “I got to party and socialize at an Olympic level.”

Bode Miller’s attitude has been discussed more than once while watching the programing. The general consensus – too bad another athlete with a competitive goal did not get the opportunity because Body filled the spot.

“As for his obligation to prepare, Miller said he was less ready for these games than the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, where he won two silver medals.”
“I’ve been living my life as if I might have died two weeks before the Olympics started,’ he said. ‘That left me the opportunity to dig deep, to go down that other route, to make more sacrifices and get back to where I was.”

Let us not forget the great television moments that teammates Shani Davisand and Chad Hedrick provided us with as they squabbled and how Jeret Peterson finished off a night of drinking in the mountains with a street scuffle. Well it seems the U.S. Olympic Committee CEO Jim Scherr did not forget these Kodak moments either.

“We have certain expectations,” said Scherr, detailing the code of conduct for the U.S. team. “The athletes have to prepare themselves and compete to the best of their ability. And their behavior should bring honor to the United States.” . .. “It affects how the world views our country, and how the athletes are viewed,” . ..”We’ll use a number of things that happened here to point things out to other athletes. Like case studies.”

Apolo Anton Ohno – Now here is a guy who “Rocked”! and not just because he won some medals, but, because character is what sees you through.

Stupid People In the News

Police said a 20-year-old was found upside down in an air duct of the 98 Cent store on Fruitridge Road. It took firefighters several hours to get him out. He was then taken to the UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento. The twenty year old was caught upside down in an air duct of a local 98 Cent store. It took the firefighters several hours to get him out. He ended up being taken to a local Medical Center. He might be our rooftop burgler.

Three people were arrested for stealing A DIRECTV vanfrom Vacaville. It was cornered near Northgate Boulevard and Interstate 80. The tracking device on board made it rather easy to find them. Unfortunatly, they plowed through a fence and some pallets of bricks before the surveillance video from a nearby business recorded them jumping out of the van.

Gov. Schwarzenegger Declares State of Emergency for CA Levee System

Schwarzenegger, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, as well as representatives Doris Matsui, Dan Lungren, and Richard Pombo took a 40-minute aerial tour of the American River, Sacramento River, and the Delta system Wednesday to survey the situation.

On Wednesday this week (Feb 22) our Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, and representatives Doris Matsui, Dan Lungren, and Richard Pombo took a 40-minute aerial tour of the American River, Sacramento River, and the Delta system. Surprise they found “conditions of extreme peril,” Therefore, on Friday Gov. Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency for California’s levee system. It is not really news to those of us who take a drive along the river roads once in awhile and have lived here long enough to realize the dire condition they are in.

I guess that is why many of us have axes in our attics, emergency kits, travel kennels for our pets, evacuation route plans, and a valid sense of high waters in our futures. Built on a flood plain more than 70 miles inland, Sacramento, a maritime port served by two rivers, is considered one of the most flood-prone U.S. cities. Rain and meltwater from nearby mountains could surge down the valley, overtaking dams and levees. Heavy rainfall from a storm in 1986 came 20 minutes short of causing a major flood.Of over 100 erosion sites in the levee system, 24 are critical in a major next flow event.

It is about time someone paid attention. Perhaps, our State Governments sudden awareness is one positive thing to come out of the floods in Gulf. Now they are listening. Let us hope it is not too late.