PRISM---Is not a high tech SFI-FY Thriller

Totalitarianism (or totalitarian rule) is a political system in which the state holds total authority over the society and seeks to control all aspects of public and private life whenever necessary.

As I'm typing this... in real time the NSA is recording it. To infuriate me further the IRS is used by Obama and his brigade to attack conservatives and probably played some role in the outcome of the election. Perish the thought these same thugs will be entrusted with your medical records once Obamacare is fully implemented. How does that sit with you? Now we learn our phone calls, emails, blogs, etc are all being monitored. From what we now know does anyone seriously believe the information gathered by the NSA will be used SOLEY "for tracking terrorists". 

My ass!

And the caveat to add to my anxiety, Susan Rice has just been appointed the head of the NSA! 

PRISM — the program that collects massive quantities of Internet user data through providers and database holders like Google — has been defined as constitutional. Obamacare was ruled constitutional by one judge... and of all people it was John Roberts. Wonder who was reading his emails? 

The word Prism alone makes me think of a high tech SFI-FY Thriller but now it's the new reality and we are the principle players.

BTW... I love this recent comment by Barry after the NSA scandal broke. 

 “I welcome this debate and I think it’s healthy for our Democracy. I think it’s a sign of maturity because probably five years ago, six years ago, we might not have been having this debate.”

This is classic Barry.

 First "this debate that is healthy for our Democracy" we wouldn't even be having unless someone blew the whistle.

Secondly, if you read between the lines subliminally he's blaming Bush without saying his favorite line "the problems he inherited."

They lie about everything. Do you really think they're not going to listen in on  your phone calls if they really wanted to? 

What's the next shoe to drop? Believe it or not, they are now talking about installing "black boxes" in new cars so they know where you are at all times.

 Ed Snowden, for me anyway, is closer to Daniel Ellsberg than Bradley Manning.

-------------------------------------------------------------

NSA WHISTLE-BLOWER: DATA GRABS 'EXISTENTIAL THREAT TO DEMOCRACY'

The Guardian revealed on Sunday the identity of the NSA whistle-blower who gave the publication information about the NSA's data surveillance programs. 

Edward Snowden, who is reportedly hiding out in Hong Kong, leaked information about the PRISM program and presumably gave the publication documents about how the federal government has obtained court orders to force Verizon to turn over the private and international phone records of all of its customers on an ongoing basis. 

Snowden is described as "a 29-year-old former technical assistant for the CIA and current employee of the defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton," who has been "working at the National Security Agency for the last four years as an employee of various outside contractors, including Booz Allen and Dell."

After the Washington Post broke the story about the NSA's PRISM program, the Guardian revealed more details, including the three billion pieces of intelligence the NSA reportedly collected from American computer networks over a 30-day period ending in March of 2013. The article, though, is not clear about what specific pieces of information Snowden leaked. 

Snowden said he leaked the the various NSA documents because he felt the agency was "intent on making every conversation and every form of behavior in the world known to them," and he believed this posed an "existential threat" to democracy.

He is currently hiding in Hong Kong and may try to get asylum in Iceland because of its "reputation of a champion of internet freedom."

According to the report, Snowden left for Hong Kong three weeks ago from Hawaii after copying the "last set of documents he intended to disclose" from the NSA facility there. He told his supervisor and girlfriend that he had to be away from work "for a couple of weeks" to receive treatment for his epilepsy.

The Guardian reports Snowden boarded a flight on May 20 to Hong Kong because the city has "a spirited commitment to free speech and the right of political dissent," and he believed "that it was one of the few places in the world that both could and would resist the dictates of the US."

He now "lines the door of his hotel room with pillows to prevent eavesdropping" and "puts a large red hood over his head and laptop when entering his passwords to prevent any hidden cameras from detecting them." He has left his hotel room a total of three times and is concerned the CIA, the Chinese government, or Triad gangs could come after him.

The Guardian says Snowden never asked for anonymity, saying, "I have no intention of hiding who I am because I know I have done nothing wrong." He reportedly wrote in a note accompanying the first set of documents that he understood he would be "made to suffer for my actions," but "I will be satisfied if the federation of secret law, unequal pardon and irresistible executive powers that rule the world that I love are revealed even for an instant."

He said he did not see himself as a "hero" but as someone who just leaked the information because he did not "want to live in a world where there's no privacy and therefore no room for intellectual exploration and creativity."

Snowden also claims to have "carefully evaluated every single document I disclosed to ensure that each was legitimately in the public interest." He chose to disclose them because he said the NSA programs posed an "existential threat to democracy." He said he did not turn over documents that would have made a big impact because those documents could have harmed people. He said he once viewed the Internet as "the most important intervention in all of human history" before realizing how it could be used to undermine everyone's privacy. 

According to the Guardian, he was living a "very comfortable life" that "included a salary of roughly $200,000, a girlfriend with whom he shared a home in Hawaii, a stable career, and a family he loves." The publication also reported that the "NSA police and other law enforcement officers have twice visited his home in Hawaii and already contacted his girlfriend, though he believes that may have been prompted by his absence from work, and not because of suspicions of any connection to the leaks." 

He said he regrets that he will no longer be able to help his family but was satisfied and had "no regrets."

Snowden reportedly got a job with the NSA shortly after 2003, then moved to the CIA and was stationed in Geneva in 2007. He reportedly left the CIA in 2009 "in order to take his first job working for a private contractor that assigned him to a functioning NSA facility."

PRISM---Is not a high tech SFI-FY Thriller

Cincinnati IRS employee: Washington 'throwing us under bus’

"Low level rouge agents in Cincinnati"

"It was the video" 

"You can keep your doctor"

"Workplace violence"

"I heard about it when you did"

 And this is just a smattering.

The common thread. They're all lies.

------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

In interviews with House Oversight Committee investigators, Cincinnati IRS employees said that they believed that targeting of conservative groups came from Washington, not from a couple of "rogue agents. "

Sunday the House Oversight Committee released partial transcripts of Oversight Committee investigators' interviews with unnamed Cincinnati IRS employees, which contradicts the line coming from the White House.

"It's impossible," an IRS employee responded to an investigator's question about the allegations that the targeting of conservative groups was due to "two 'rogue agents." "As an agent we are controlled by many, many people. We have to submit many, many reports. So the chance of two agents being rogue and doing things like that could never happen."

Answering a question about the employee's reaction to news reports that the targeting was contained in Cincinnati and the fault of the Cincinnati office, the employee said that Washington has been throwing them under the bus.

"Well, it's hard to answer the question because in my mind I still hear people saying we were low‑level employees, so we were lower than dirt, according to people in D.C. So, take it for what it is," a Cincinnati IRS employee said. "They were basically throwing us underneath the bus."

The employee further noted that it was a supervisor who requested they do a search for tea party and similar applications in March of 2010.

"Did [your supervisor] give you any indication of the need for the search, any more context?" an investigator asked.

"He told me that Washington, D.C., wanted some cases," the employee responded, going on to answer that by April 2010 the group was handling fewer than 40 cases and had sent seven cases to Washington, D.C.

When asked for the reason behind the request that cases be sent to Washington, D.C. the employee responded, "He said Washington, D.C. wanted seven. Because at one point I believe I heard they were thinking 10, but it came down to seven. I said okay, seven."

The employee explained that the Cincinnati office sent the first seven cases that had come into the system.

The employee further noted that Washington, D.C. had additionally requested the applications or parts of the applications for two specific groups.

Investigator: "But just to be clear, she told you the specific names of these applicants."

IRS employee: "Yes." 

Investigator: "And she told you that Washington, D.C. had requested these two specific applications be sent to D.C." 

IRS employee: "Yes, or parts of them."

According to the partial transcript, the employee noted that this was an unusual request.
The employee added that the Cincinnati IRS employees were just following orders and that the employee believed those instructions came from Washington, D.C. 

Investigator: "So is it your perspective that ultimately the responsible parties for the decisions that were reported by the IG are not in the Cincinnati office?" 

IRS employee: "I don't know how to answer that question. I mean, from an agent standpoint, we didn't do anything wrong. We followed directions based on other people telling us what to do."

 Investigator: "And you ultimately followed directions from Washington; is that correct?" 

IRS employee: "If direction had come down from Washington, yes." 

Investigator: "But with respect to the particular scrutiny that was given to Tea Party applications, those directions emanated from Washington; is that right?" 

IRS employee: "I believe so."

Another interviewee, described by the Oversight Committee as a more senior IRS employee, complained about micromanagement from Washington, D.C. that ultimately led the employee to apply for another job in July 2010.

"It was the whole Tea Party. It was the whole picture. I mean, it was the micromanagement. The fact that the subject area was extremely sensitive and it was something that I didn't want to be associated with," the more senior IRS employee told an investigator who was asking about his decision to find another job.

The more senior employee added that what was going on was "inappropriate."

Investigator: "Why didn't you want to be associated with it?"

IRS employee: "For what happened now. I mean, rogue agent? Even though I was taking all my direction from EO Technical [Washington, D.C], I didn't want my name in the paper for being this rogue agent for a project I had no control over."

Investigator: "Did you think there was something inappropriate about what was happening in 2010?"

IRS employee: "Yes. The inappropriateness was not processing these applications fairly and timely."

Sunday, Committee Chairman Darrell Issa unveiled that committee's findings on CNN, promised that the full transcripts will come out, and called White House spokesman Jay Carney a "paid liar."

Cincinnati IRS employee: Washington 'throwing us under bus’

Cavuto: We owe them a better America

Yesterday June 6th was the anniversary of the D-Day Invasion. The country we are left with today. Is this what they fought and died for?

Please read what Neil had to say. Believe me it will be worth your while.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Nearly 70 years after they saved the world this is what's become of the world?

Almost seven decades, to the day after D-Day, this is the country they rescued today?

Soldiers who put it all on the line to protect--

A government now tapping our lines?

And targeting our tax returns?

And spying on our reporters?

And harassing campaign donors, with whom they might not agree?

While snooping on pretty much everyone else, whether or not they agree?

They died for this?

Forgive my memory, but 69 years ago--

Weren't they busy trying to topple a guy who did stuff like this?

Who targeted whole groups of people like this?

That guy went further, but don't you think those guys would be telling us today:

"Stop right there, before you go any further!"

What are we saying to the 600 World War II veterans who pass away each day what's become of this country they so loved today?

It's not fair. It's not right. It's not American.

How ironic.

That nearly seven decades after freedom struck a death blow to despots, we are now fending off American agencies headed by crackpots.

Listening in on our calls. Reading our e-mails. Tracking our movements. Our friends. Our families. Our finances. Our interests. Our lives.

Ask all those soldiers who never made it past that Omaha Beach whether this ain't a bitch.

To die. For this.

A government that has grown so big, so intrusive, and so annoying that the best defense its culprits have, is that they had no idea.

69 years.

From guts. To gutless.

From guys who knew all too well the cost of freedom.

To guys who just keep hiking the costs under the guise of freedom.

Well, I have a very good idea what those guys back then would say, if they could see all this now.

My dad was one of them.

Gone now, and in a way, I'm almost glad now, so he wouldn't have to see this now.

A man who signed up to fight right after Pearl Harbor was bombed.

Not because he had to, because, he told me, he wanted to.

Because he wanted to protect something he and a whole generation of his buddies and family saw as something important.

And he didn't have anything. No money. No status. No power. No nothing.

Because back then, guys like my dad didn't weigh things by their price.

They fought for something they knew in their gut was just priceless.

Forget about whether we owe ourselves a better America, without all this nonsense.

We owe them a better America, once and for all, putting an end to this nonsense.

Cavuto: We owe them a better America

It's official Sarah Ingram breaks Shulman's record with 165 recorded White House visits

So between the both of them they visited the WH a whopping 322 times! Is anyone truly going to swallow, they never, not once, talked about targeting conservatives? 

This is beyond absurd-- its inconceivable!

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Separate from Shulman, IRS official Sarah Hall Ingram recorded 165 White House visits

Sarah Hall Ingram, the IRS official currently in charge of overseeing the agency's implementation of Obamacare, has logged 165 recorded visits to the White House 165 times since 2011, according to an analysis of White House visitor records compiled by the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity.

Ingram headed the IRS' tax-exempt division in 2010 when the scandal-ridden agency began improperly targeting the tax-exempt nonprofit status of conservative groups.

Despite logging 165 visits, Ingram's meetings never overlapped with those of former IRS commissioner Douglas Shulman, who, as The Daily Caller reported, has appeared in the White House visitor logs 157 times since September 15, 2009.

The Franklin Center's record of White House visits covers a period after Ingram had left the division at the center of the targeting scandal. The IRS has said she left to head the Affordable Care Act division in December 2010. It is not clear whether the Center's record is of actual visits or scheduled visits that may or may not have occurred.

Ingram visited with President Obama six times, according to White House visitor logs. All of Ingram's 165 recorded visits involved meetings with White House staff.

Ingram took many of her White House meetings with Jeanne Lambrew, deputy assistant to the president for health policy.

Considering that Ingram and Shulman never visited the White House together, the two IRS officials have been responsible for more than 300 public visits since the beginning of the Obama administration.

Ingram received more than $100,000 in bonuses between 2009 and 2012.

It's official Sarah Ingram breaks Shulman's record with 165 recorded White House visits

The new standard

The new standard