Category: The Future!

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HR6304 – Those Who Sacrifice Liberty

WASHINGTON - JUNE 10: (L-R) U.S. Democratic ...Those Who Sacrifice Liberty

Back To Work?

The holiday is over and both the House of Representatives and the Senate are back at work. This week the Senate is scheduled to take up debate and vote on HR6304, The FISA Amendments Act. Regular readers will remember it from a weeklong rant appearing here at Wordout when the House introduced the bill one day and passed it the next.

Last October, Senator Obama promised he would do whatever it took to block any bill with the provisions of this one. Last October, Barack said he would even go as far as supporting a filibuster to block this bill. This June, he backed down, just like most of the Democrats in the House backed down (my Rep didn’t!).

How did it get this far, this fast? It was just this past spring that the Democrats were preaching loudly how they would never back down on this issue. What has happened to make the democrats fold up like a fern at night?

What’s Worse Than Recession?

The economy happened. The mortgage crisis took out one of the top players, wiping out hundreds of billions of invested dollars. The Fed pumped in a few hundred billion more dollars, trying to shore up the system. Around the world the same thing happened, is still happening. The mortgage crisis is spreading to become a general credit crisis, which means a finance crisis, which threatens the entire global economy.

Things are bad, and they will probably get a bit worse before they turn around.

The Bushies could care less. They’re on the way out, taking their profits with them. But that newly elected Democratic Congress is mostly intact this election, and they know that we have some hard times a’comin. So they made a ‘compromise‘ with the Bushies. They would give in to the neocon demands for no judicial oversight and retroactive immunity in exchange for some extra spending attached to a different bill.

What Was Compromised?

Remember last week the big hooplah about Bush signing a bill that gave veterans extended educational benefits, extended some unemployment benefits and things like that? You may have seen a sound-bite of Bushy himself taking credit for pushing the bill through.

Don’t be so gullible. Bush opposed that bill and threatened to veto it. The only reason that bill became law was the FISA deal. Congress traded our 4th amendment guarantees for a few million dollars in temporary funding. Later on this can be used to make them look like they care about us, once the economy goes to the deep south.

We can be sure, with the passage of HR6304, our Congress doesn’t care about us or the rule of law which used to make America so great. It was never our wealth. It was never our military might. It was never our ‘God-Given Place’ in the world. It was always our rule of law that made us great. We stood as a beacon throughout history, as a place where the law was above all else a guarantee at a chance for justice.

War On Terror or War On Tyranny?

For 7 long years that is what we have been defending. Our rule of law is what gave us our way of life. Is this the solution our government has come up with? Do we really have to choose between Terrorism or Tyranny? Are these really our only options?

This administration has consistently and aggressively attacked the very rule of law that made America great. At the end of their reign over us we find that they have consistently misused their power and authority for profit. Worse than that, they have changed us for the worse.

That our elected Congress, sworn to defend the Constitution, would debate and then pass a law which negates a vital part of that very Constitution, is an idea totally alien to me. But to see my nation sit and say nothing at all is appalling. Will we sit and do nothing while our freedoms are stripped from us?

Ben Franklin said this:

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

The Senate has not passed this bill yet. Call your Senator. Send an email to your senator. Send an email to everyone you know, asking them to look into this for themselves. Do even a small bit of reading about it and you will almost certainly come to the same angry conclusion I did. There is no way this bill should ever become law.

I am Jon, and I agree with Ben.

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IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776


The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

— John Hancock

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Radical Abrupt Climate Change in 1 Year

Description unavailableImage by jagosaurus via Flickr

It’s Happened Before

We’ve always thought of climate as just the longer term view of the weather. You might be able to look at the moon and tell the next day’s weather, but you can’t look up there and say what will happen next year.

Much of the computer models we use to predict climate change caused by global warming is based on long term observations of the climate in the past. We’ve always thought the longer the term, the more accurate the models. When we see in these observations a gradual shift in things like CO2, temperature, rainfall, we believe that indicates the gradual nature of climate change. But that view was shattered recently.

Scientists examined an ice core sample and determined that the last glacial period ended in a single year. The online edition of Scientific American reports:

‘Roughly 14,700 years ago the weather patterns that bring snow to Greenland shifted from one year to the next—a pattern of abrupt change that was repeated 12,900 years ago and 11,700 years ago when the earth’s climate became the one enjoyed today—according to records preserved in an ice core taken from the northern island. These speedy changes—transitions from warming to cooling and back again—in the absence of changes in greenhouse gas could presage abrupt, catastrophic climate change in our future.’

The scientists reported evidence of a 20 degree temperature increase over the course of a few decades following the abrupt shift. Other evidence indicated a change in global weather patterns immediately following the shift. Variations in the amount and origin of atmospheric dust, and the amounts of certain hydrogen and oxygen atoms can be observed in each layer of ice in the sample. The scientists were able to make measurements accurate to a resolution of one year.

‘Roughly five years after this change in dust levels, the levels of heavy hydrogen ensconced in the ice indicate that weather patterns were shifting and driving precipitation over Greenland that had originated in evaporated water from a different area of the ocean than had previously been the source of the island’s rain. And this change happened in as little as a year. “During the glacial period, abrupt warmings show change of the atmospheric circulation from year to year,” says glaciologist Dorthe Dahl-Jensen, also of the University of Copenhagen, who participated in the study as well.

Following this abrupt shift, as much as 20 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius) of warming occurred over the subsequent decades—a change that ultimately resulted in at least 33 feet (10 meters) of sea-level rise as the ice melted on Greenland.

Greenland can change quickly, even living up to its name, according to another paper in this week’s Science. Sediment cores from the ocean show that forests of spruce and even fern grew on Greenland just 125,000 years ago. That means Greenland’s ice sheet—potentially responsible for as much as 75 feet (23 meters) of sea-level rise if it all melts—has grown and shrunk far more frequently than previously known.’

Go Swimming At The North Pole

The Independent reports that there’s a better than 50:50 chance that the North Pole will be ice free by the end of August. In human history, this has never happened. From that article:

‘Seasoned polar scientists believe the chances of a totally ice-free North Pole this summer are greater than 50:50 because the normally thick ice formed over many years at the Pole has been blown away and replaced by huge swathes of thinner ice formed over a single year.

This one-year ice is highly vulnerable to melting during the summer months and satellite data coming in over recent weeks shows that the rate of melting is faster than last year, when there was an all-time record loss of summer sea ice at the Arctic.’

Computer models predict that the polar regions will feel the effects of global warming both earlier and more intensely than lower latitudes. Last year, the ice melted in the far northern latitudes enough to create a temporary shortcut from one side of the planet to the other. Local sea ice melted as close as 700 miles from the pole. All of that ice is expected to melt easily this year. The more the ice melts, the warmer the waters become, helping more ice to melt. Again, from The Independent:

‘Professor Peter Wadhams of Cambridge University, who was one of the first civilian scientists to sail underneath the Arctic sea ice in a Royal Navy submarine, said that the conditions are ripe for an unprecedented melting of the ice at the North Pole.

“Last year we saw huge areas of the ocean open up, which has never been experienced before. People are expecting this to continue this year and it is likely to extend over the North Pole. It is quite likely that the North Pole will be exposed this summer – it’s not happened before,” Professor Wadhams said.’

Tipping Points, Mass Extinctions, and the Chairman of Exxon

Twenty years ago this week, Jim Hansen testified before Congress on the subject of global warming. This week, he again presented a statement to Congress, saying that global warming was indisputably caused by humans, and that we were very quickly running out of time to do anything about it. Quoting his prepared statement:

‘The next President and Congress must define a course next year in which the United States exerts leadership commensurate with our responsibility for the present dangerous situation. Otherwise it will become impractical to constrain atmospheric carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas produced in burning fossil fuels, to a level that prevents the climate system from passing tipping points that lead to disastrous climate changes that spiral dynamically out of humanity’s control.
Changes needed to preserve creation, the planet on which civilization developed, are clear. But the changes have been blocked by special interests, focused on short-term profits, who hold sway in Washington and other capitals. I argue that a path yielding energy independence and a healthier environment is, barely, still possible. It requires a transformative change of direction in Washington in the next year…

…The disturbing conclusion, documented in a paper I have written with several of the world’s leading climate experts, is that the safe level of atmospheric carbon dioxide is no more than 350 ppm (parts per million) and it may be less. Carbon dioxide amount is already 385 ppm and rising about 2 ppm per year. Stunning corollary: the oft-stated goal to keep global warming less than two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) is a recipe for global disaster, not salvation…

Special interests have blocked transition to our renewable energy future. Instead of moving heavily into renewable energies, fossil companies choose to spread doubt about global warming, as tobacco companies discredited the smoking-cancer link. Methods are sophisticated, including funding to help shape school textbook discussions of global warming.
CEOs of fossil energy companies know what they are doing and are aware of long-term consequences of continued business as usual. In my opinion, these CEOs should be tried for high crimes against humanity and nature.
Conviction of ExxonMobil and Peabody Coal CEOs will be no consolation, if we pass on a runaway climate to our children. Humanity would be impoverished by ravages of continually shifting shorelines and intensification of regional climate extremes…’

One Year

Jim Hansen was right 20 years ago. My bet is that he’s right, now. He says we have one year at the most to DO something about it. We don’t have time to plan elegant solutions. We don’t have time for committees and studies and cost estimates and other things which are there explicitly to slow us down. We need to be doing something.

We need to Stop investing in anything coal or oil. We need to stop calling it ‘alternative’ energy, and move it to ‘mainstream’. We need to be digging deep and working hard to get a handle on this. It’s getting hot. We know now that radical changes in the climate can occur in a matter of months. We see the polar ice melting like it’s never done in the history of mankind. We see mass extinctions taking place all around us. We see deserts expanding, once huge lakes drying up.

And we see our political and business leaders doing everything they can to hide from us the awful truth: They are more concerned with making record profits and controlling the world through energy idiocy. We simply do not have the time to play with these guys. The changes are upon us already. The world they think they will control won’t exist in a few years if we keep on our present course. They are, to put it bluntly, stupid.

Like I’ve heard people say, “We need to be keeping it real” with these so-called leaders. We cannot afford short-sighted corporate greed, whether for power or for money, to get in our way any longer. A runaway climate would most likely kill billions of us. But we’re smart. We’ve faced threats before and here we still are. If we put forth a real effort, we can change this planet, eliminate our dependence on finite and dangerous energy sources, and grow the global economy all at the same time. If these leaders are not part of the solution, then as part of the problem, there must be a solution to them, as well.

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I am Jon, a peaceful man, being backed into a corner.

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Read more about this at Scholars and Rogues and TerraDaily.

For a follow-up of the info presented in this article, read Arctic Methane and Oh Crap, Arctic Methane Confirmed.

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HR6304 – An Open Letter To Barack Obama

A Typical Senate DeskA typical Senate deskLots Of Room For A Laptop
Image via Wikipedia

Senator Obama,

I am expecting you to personally and professionally support, even organize, a filibuster against this bill, referred to as HR6304. The telecom immunity provisions are important, yes, but on a deeper and more meaningful note, this bill erodes the powers of both the 1st and 4th Amendment to The Constitution.

You guys have been very good at utilizing the web for information spreading. We in the tech community are impressed, and even proud of you. Use it now to gather information from the web. Search for the Senator’s name along with various combinations of the words “FISA” and “HR6304” and you will find a strong and near unanimous disapproval of this bill and everyone associated with its progress towards approval. Ignore the mainstream media and look carefully at what the real America is saying. We are opposed to it on many grounds.

A filibuster on the Senate floor could consist of your staff reading hundreds of thousands of short comments, limited to 144 characters each, on the twitter service, all of them in favor of your actions against this bill. Your staff already has this setup. It could be tempered with the reading of thousands of blogs, many with tens and hundreds of thousands of readers, all supporting your actions against this bill. You would potentially be bringing the voice of millions of voting Americans to the debate. I will help you organize this technical side if you want.

Mr Obama, you would be literally the 1st man in history to bring the American people, the entire Republic, to the Senate floor. All old school politics would be thrown out the window and the American people, the vast majority of every political party would support you. To do otherwise would be for them to take a public stand against the stated views of the American people, which, having been read on the Senate floor, would become a matter of record. The ‘politics as usual’ would be forever changed with this one action. You become one of our greatest Presidents, months before the election.

You will guarantee your election in November with this one grand gesture. You will prove your honor. You will prove your loyalty to the the public, as opposed to the Washington ‘business as usual’ crowd. You will show the world that you are, indeed , the choice and the voice of all America. It’s realistic that you would become the de facto most powerful man in American politics. But even more than that: You will get my support, my voice, and my vote.

Thank you for thinking this over. If you need any help whatsoever with the technical aspects of organizing all those RSS and twitter feeds, I offer my services to this cause. We could set this up in mere hours. It would be quite an affair for the mainstream media, and I believe it would be the single largest event on the web, ever.

Jon Knight
Publisher @ Wordout

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HR 6304 – The YouTube Collection

Watch, Listen, Learn

The next bill on the Senate agenda is HR 6304, the bill which will make us all subject to warrantless surveillance, search and seizure with no judicial recourse. This is the bill which, when it becomes law, will take away one of our most basic rights.

This bill even goes as far as to say that any American citizen attempting to use their 1st Amendment rights may be considered the agent of a foreign government. This bill takes away our rights, folks. And our Congress knows this. Watch at least the 1st video and you will see exactly what our representatives said about this bill, right before they voted overwhelmingly, to pass it.

Your Representatives Saw Right Through It


But They Voted For It Anyway

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Dennis Kucinich – The Guy Who Introduced The Articles Of Impeachment


I’m Thinking He’s Not Too Popular Right Now On The Hill.

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Even Ralph Nader – Maybe He’ll Finally Get My Vote.


Consumer Advocate – Defender of The Constitution

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Be An American! Make A Ruckus!

The only chance we the people have against this bill is a filibuster on the floor of the Senate. Last October, Barack Obama PROMISED he would support a filibuster of any bill that contained the provisions this one does. Call him (866-675-2008). Email his campaign. Call your 2 Senators, regardless of who they are. Tell them to help filibuster this bill until it is completely defeated in the Senate. If there’s no filibuster, just tell them you are watching every vote in the Senate, and that you consider the Constitution important enough by itself to decide who you vote for. Don’t let the fear of losing your freedom make you just give it up altogether.

Be an American Make a ruckus. This is worth it, not to just to you, but to your children and theirs.

I am Jon, still hoping for that filibuster.

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Barack Obama – We Are The People. Be One Of Us.

This is a private publication for Senator Barack Obama. If you aren’t really Barack Obama, please don’t be offended if I just ignore you and focus exclusively on the Senator. I’m not being rude, it’s just that I have a few things he might want to hear right about now, and I am not certain anyone else is going to tell him this stuff. Right about now, I’m guessing that he’s finding himself somehow just a bit too deeply embedded in the political machine for even his own liking. Right about now, he needs to hear other… options.

The Audacity of HopeImage via Wikipedia

Kennedys

Man, I have really been hard on you these past few days. I’m sorry for that in a way, but you probably needed it. You expected the backlash, but you might not have realized what it was gonna feel like being looked at as part of the evil machine. You’ve done a pretty good job lately, these past few months. You overcame the Clinton machine way back when the DNC decided not to use Michigan and Florida. I figured you’d be fairly quiet for awhile, but with the Reverend and all, you couldn’t. Still, it was diversionary and you didn’t have to really take a stand on anything.

You’re like a Kennedy, you know? You have these good looks and charisma that people just want to believe in. Except maybe it’s a bit easier to understand what you’re saying. I was really young, but I remember that I couldn’t understand much of what John F said. Maybe that’s why I liked his brother Robert so much. Robert’s accent was tempered somehow, more down to earth. Like yours. You have a really good presence on the videos and television. That, and the casual way you present yourself to us, makes it easy for us to like you. You look like a good guy, and we want you to be a good guy.

But are you, really? I’m sure, after studying your history as an Illinois Senator until now, that once again, your thoughts have turned to that question by themselves. I don’t think you need any goading from the web, or your staff, or your phones or your emails. I think that in the quietest parts of your soul, this weekend you are wondering who you are, all by yourself. There have been a few times you have questioned yourself on that very question. Sometimes you don’t like the answers so much, but mostly because you know that you could have made a real change for the better, but didn’t fight enough for it. You console yourself with the word, compromise.

And some of those things were legitimate compromises. You were right to make those decisions. A few of them… well, we’ll hope that they weren’t that important, in the end.

The Real Issue

The bill before the Senate is a bad thing, and you know this. This so called ‘compromise’ is a literal sell-out of the 4th Amendment, bought with promises of cash for domestic programs, surreptitiously added to the Iraq War Spending bill. The Democrats have assigned a value to the 4th Amendment, sold our guaranteed rights for a few million dollars. You know this is just wrong. It’s not just the retroactive immunity. The real issue, and you know this, is the removal of adequate Judicial restraint and oversight. This telecom thing is a smokescreen, and in the larger scheme of things, totally irrelevant. What is at issue here is the removal of the Judicial from the 3 Branch system of government.

That is a really big deal, Barack, and you know it. That’s why you are still trying to figure out what you could do about it. But you feel backed into a corner. The entire Democratic ‘leadership’ is behind this bill. If you do anything to upset them, you might find yourself on the receiving end of a very hostile convention very soon. All those Superdelegates can do whatever the hell they want to, and there’s still enough of them to vote Hillary as the next candidate.

You ever watch Star Trek, Barack? You like Kirk or Picard better? I’m betting you’re a Picard kinda guy. He was always looking for options. He never believed he was backed into a corner. Somewhat as a result, he never was. There was always an option which turned out to be the right way to go. The option where Picard always won. If you’re looking for options, I’ve got an idea for you.

Organize

Organize the filibuster. I know it sounds crazy and on the surface, appears to be political suicide, but hear me out. Look at that title up there again. That means something. I know Wordout’s not on your reading list, so let me quote an article published here lately:

We are the American Republic. We are The People. If we choose you, no amount of money or might will stand in our way. All you have to do is: Be One Of Us.

After I published that I realized something: It’s still true. If we get behind you, that so-called Democratic leadership will have to get behind us. They really will have no choice. If they go against us, we will vote them out. The only thing is, there has to be enough of us. These days, enough means almost all of us. Is it possible? To get say, 80% of all voting Americans behind one man? I think it is.

I think it is because it’s possible to get that many against one man. Look at GW Bush’ approval ratings. Over 80% think he’s doing a lousy job. That means over 80% are against him. Right now, there’s a poll somewhere saying how many would vote for you versus McCain. It’s probably a good predictor of how the election would go. Wouldn’t it be nice to see your ratings consistently over 80%? You need to give people a real tangible reason, something they can point to. You need to do something.

If you organize this filibuster, you’ll be following through on statements you made in the past. Never undestimate what that means to us ‘normal’ Americans. We expect politicians to bend and sway in the political breeze, but when a promise is made, we do remember. Following through on this will show every voting person in America that you will not succumb to political pressures or ‘politics as usual’. I believe you’ve made a statement to the effect that politics as usual has to change. This would be your chance to push that point.

You Know The Rules – Make A Ruckus!

Nope, it won’t be a popular thing to do on the hill. As a matter of fact, my guess is that they’ll try to make sure you can’t do it at all. But you should do it anyway. You know the rules. Number 22, isn’t it? To avoid cloture, all you need is 41 Senators to either abstain from voting or voting against it. Now, these guys aren’t wanting to get on the bad side of the Democratic leadership any more than you are. You’ll have to convince them that it’s worth it. You’ll have some support going in, from Senators who already publicly oppose the bill. I know, there aren’t many, but they are there, and they will be hoping for this.

You’ll need to generate that grassroots support you’re always talking about. These guys are holding their breath, Barack. Your supporters are really counting on you. I know, because there’s more than a few in my family alone. They just know, in their hearts, that you are going to be the man we can trust to make America back into what it was. They are counting on you, and if you ask them to get behind you on this thing, they will not stop short of marching on Washington itself. They are that intense about you, Barack. I am not exaggerating.

Make a real public statement. Put it on your website, right on the front page. Call a news conference and release the statement to the mainstream media outlets. Make it a defining moment in this campaign. Make it a defining moment in the life of the Republic. Like I said at the end of one of my posts here: Be an American. Make a ruckus. The so called Democrat ‘leadership’ is counting on the fact that most Americans don’t understand the bill but are attracted to the money for the domestic programs. Those are the two hinges of their statements. They are counting on the American majority to not notice at all. Expose it.

Imagine All The People

That’s right, expose it. Get out there on Fox News and CNN and the AP and Reuters and everywhere on the web and explain exactly what this bill is trying to do. Explain it simply, without talking down to us, and we will understand. And we will see it as the last straw for the Bushie way of thinking and anyone else who thinks that way. We will get mad. We will get very, very mad. But not at you. You will be the man who told us the truth. You will be the man who stood up for us against the political machine. You will be exactly who you have said you are, and we will love you.

I mean that literally. We will love you for being true to us. We will demand you. Every commentator on the news services, every political blogger out here, all of us will support you. Every person you meet on the street. The congressional leadership will have no choice but to fall in step with you. It may seem to some that we have come so far down this road of tyranny that our votes no longer matter, and that may be. I don’t think we’ve gone quite that far, though. An overwhelming majority cannot yet be ignored.

Imagine it, you would be causing quite a ruckus on the floor of the Senate. Filibustering a bill when you could be out campaigning? That’s unheard of! And what the hell would you talk about there, if you were pressed into it? Well, gee, I guess you could just stand there with a laptop in front of you, reading a feed of all the political blogs who’ll be posting support for you. Or you could tap into the twitter feed your staff set up and read tweets from your supporters. I’d bet most of them would be in support of the filibuster, all in 140 characters or less. Until twitter went down, anyway.

That would be your style, what we’ve come to hope for and expect from you. You’ve used the web and its technology to penetrate deep into the heart of America. Use it now to bring the voice of America to the Senate floor. Use it to show the Senate, actually, the whole world, that we, the people, are behind you all the way. You think American Idol has an audience? Organize this filibuster in a really over-the-top, public way, and CSPAN will have the highest ratings in its history. Everyone in America will be watching, and we’ll all be behind you if you’ll just do it, Mr. President.

Anyway, I’m Jon, just trying to help.

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Obama’s HR6304 Statement – A Dozen Red Flags

Disclaimer:
I am Jon, and I will vote for the best candidate on November 4th. If it seems I disagree with Senator Obama here, if it seems that I am ‘against’ him, let me make it clear that of the two major candidates, I don’t consider McCain to be a viable choice. I may be against some of Obama’s policy, but I am not against the man.

Obama has shown an incredible ability to learn his way into better choices, better decisions, throughout this whole campaign. In energy, finance and security, his statements have become more comprehensive as the race has continued.

He seems not to be afraid of learning.

I will be voting for the best man November 4th: Barack Obama.

Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.), rebounds the ball during a basketball game with U.S. military service members from Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa during his visit at Camp Lemonier, Djibouti, on Aug. 31, 2006. Sen. Obama is touring Kenya, Djibouti and flood-damaged areas of Ethiopia. The CJTF-HOA works to prevent conflict, promote regional stability and protect Coalition interests in Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan, Eritea, Djibouti and Yemen through humanitarian assistance, disaster relief and civic action programs. (U.S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Eric A. Clement) (Released) (Released to Public)Obama: Just The Same Old Games?
Image via Wikipedia

Obama Releases “Statement” on HR6304

If I were Barack, I’d be worried. If I were a Barack supporter, I’d be embarrassed. I am an American, and I am disgusted. This bill, HR6304, which was passed Friday in the House, is a big thing. Naturally, mainstream media is giving it lip service. Not surprisingly, the political blog-world is going nuts over it, mostly focusing now on Barack Obama’s plans to endorse the bill bull. I’ve been searching online to find an official statement from Obama, but I can’t find it.

What I did find I traced back to Glenn Greenwald. From what I can gather, it’s believed around the web to be the authentic words of Barack Obama, sent to Glenn as a response to a post he published last week with the title “A Letter to the Next President of the United States“. Well, at least I found something. Regular readers know I am stickler for going to the source. It bothers me that I can’t point directly at Obama and say to you: “Go here to read what he says.”

I have to wonder why Obama doesn’t have an ‘official’ statement at his website. I am simply amazed that instead, he chose to reply via email to a blog post. I don’t mean to imply that Glenn doesn’t deserve an answer to his open letter. I do mean to state that the rest of us deserve just as official an answer. We deserve to be able to go to Obama’s website and find out where he stands on important issues. I spent nearly 4 hours researching online, looking for an ‘official’ Obama statement. Obama, you have already started wasting my time.

Here is the response in its entirety (I’ve BOLDED some parts which I will address individually below):

Statement of Senator Barack Obama on FISA Compromise

“Given the grave threats that we face, our national security agencies must have the capability to gather intelligence and track down terrorists before they strike, while respecting the rule of law and the privacy and civil liberties of the American people. There is also little doubt that the Bush Administration, with the cooperation of major telecommunications companies, has abused that authority and undermined the Constitution by intercepting the communications of innocent Americans without their knowledge or the required court orders.

“That is why last year I opposed the so-called Protect America Act, which expanded the surveillance powers of the government without sufficient independent oversight to protect the privacy and civil liberties of innocent Americans. I have also opposed the granting of retroactive immunity to those who were allegedly complicit in acts of illegal spying in the past.

“After months of negotiation, the House today passed a compromise that, while far from perfect, is a marked improvement over last year’s Protect America Act.

“Under this compromise legislation, an important tool in the fight against terrorism will continue, but the President’s illegal program of warrantless surveillance will be over. It restores FISA and existing criminal wiretap statutes as the exclusive means to conduct surveillance – making it clear that the President cannot circumvent the law and disregard the civil liberties of the American people. It also firmly re-establishes basic judicial oversight over all domestic surveillance in the future. It does, however, grant retroactive immunity, and I will work in the Senate to remove this provision so that we can seek full accountability for past offenses. But this compromise guarantees a thorough review by the Inspectors General of our national security agencies to determine what took place in the past, and ensures that there will be accountability going forward. By demanding oversight and accountability, a grassroots movement of Americans has helped yield a bill that is far better than the Protect America Act.

“It is not all that I would want. But given the legitimate threats we face, providing effective intelligence collection tools with appropriate safeguards is too important to delay. So I support the compromise, but do so with a firm pledge that as President, I will carefully monitor the program, review the report by the Inspectors General, and work with the Congress to take any additional steps I deem necessary to protect the lives – and the liberty – of the American people.”

1. compromise legislation

This is not a compromise. It is a total caving in to what the administration asked for, and even more. All the administration wanted was immunity for the telecoms and themselves, and the ability to keep using the so-called FISA court setup under the 1978 bill. HR6304 abolishes that and says that the district court will now review the process, under the direction of the Executive Branch(The President).

By compromise, you are referring to the additional Domestic Spending which the Democrats attached to the bill FUNDING THE WAR IN IRAQ, wherein the Democrats also gave the Bushies the billions they asked for in exchange for some paltry millions of dollars, to be used as proof in the current election that the Democrats care about us. Bullshit compromise, if you ask me. If you care about us, protect us; protect the Constitution.

2. illegal program of warrantless surveillance will be over

The illegality of it will be over. According to the provisions in this bill, the program of warrantless surveillance will be expanded greatly. But you’re right, the lack of a warrant will not be a legal issue any longer.

3. restores FISA and existing criminal wiretap statutes

This is a misdirection of facts. In fact, FISA was alive and well, as were the “existing’ statutes. To imply that they are being restored, when in fact, they are not, is at best a misdirection of facts. At worst, it’s a barefaced lie. Under the existing law, all the President has to do is get a warrant. All a warrant requires is probable cause. HR6304 does away with that. There’s no requirement for anything more than a statement saying they want to do whatever it is they want to do, simply because they want to do it. No reason why required. In that manner, this bill completely destroys the existing statutes.

4. re-establishes basic judicial oversight over all domestic surveillance in the future

This is pure dishonesty on the senator’s part. In fact, the revisions contained in HR6304 completely abolish any judicial oversight. The provisions of the bill say that if the President says that he(she) thinks an action is needed, then the court must agree and not investigate further. The court is not even allowed to ask for an explanation of why. The court simply has to do whatever it is told.

5. grant retroactive immunity, and I will work in the Senate to remove this provision so that we can seek full accountability for past offenses

Okay, Barack, here’s your chance to show America what you really are. Remember back in October of last year? You’re not elected yet, so I’m sure you haven’t developed the memory loss that comes with being in the Executive Branch. Let me quote your campaign:

“To be clear: Barack will support a filibuster of any bill that includes retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies.”

If you do this on Monday, on the floor of the Senate, you will prove to all of US that you can be trusted to follow through on what you say. You will convince us that you are not another Bush. Do otherwise, and you will prove that you are not to be trusted. Fail here and you prove that you are a liar who will say anything to us to be elected. Anything to gain power.

6. thorough review by the Inspectors General

The Inspectors General are a part of the Executive Branch, reporting directly to the President. Giving the President the authority to review the President’s actions is not a real review by anyone’s standards.

7. accountability going forward

Once again, real accountability would disclose details, at least to the judges reviewing the actions. Oh, that’s right, they aren’t allowed to review anything at all unless the President says so. So I guess the President is accountable to …. the President!

8. grassroots movement of Americans

This is just bullshit. Barack, show me a grassroots movement to grant immunity to the telecoms. Barack, show me a grassroots movement to allow warrantless searches and seizures. Barack, show me a grassroots movement to allow the President to be the Supreme Authority on what is legal in this country. You, sir, are a liar.

9. But given the legitimate threats we face, providing effective intelligence collection tools with appropriate safeguards is too important to delay

This sounds alarmingly similar to what GW Bush has said for the past 7 years. We have ALWAYS faced legitimate threats, the greatest of which caused our founding fathers to set up this crazy system of government… one which pits 3 different branches against each other so as to prevent one branch, one man, from attaining too much power. The most legitimate threat we face today, Mr. Obama, is from within our own government. The Executive Branch is trying to usurp all the power. As a member of the Legislative Branch, this should make you wary. Unless you really think you can win.

10. firm pledge that as President

Dude, you’ve already made a firm pledge as a Senator! Uphold the Constitution of The United States Of America! If you fail on that pledge, why should we expect you to do any better as President? Especially since you, alone, are in a position to turn this around. You don’t think so? You think you can’t fight the good fight on our behalf? You think you need to be a part of that machine to win?

You underestimate us, Mr. Obama. We are the American Republic. We are The People. If we choose you, no amount of money or might will stand in our way. All you have to do is: Be One Of Us.

11. any additional steps I deem necessary

This is not all that comforting to read. GW Bush did whatever he deemed necessary as well. Hey, doesn’t this bill give the President the power to do whatever he deems necessary anyway? Yeah, it does… whatever he wants with no fear of any real judicial review. The ‘Get Out Of Jail’ card which is called HR6304 says that all you would have to do is say you ‘deemed it necessary’ and that would be that. It’s not comforting to know that you already have decided that you WILL use this bill to do exactly what it gives the President the power to do. Anything you want.

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Filibuster

Are you supporting Obama’s bid to become President? Why? Most likely, it’s because you’re really fed up with the way the Bushies have been running things. Maybe, like me, you think the Bushies are all criminals. Be certain of this: HR6304 will make everything they have done Perfectly Legal. And not only that, but it gives the Executive Branch, the President, the power to literally DO ANYTHING THEY WANT. This bill, once it becomes law, will completely abolish the protections from our own government that we have enjoyed for more than 2 centuries. No judge will be able to protect you. No law will supersede this one.

Don’t think that such a high-level thing will not affect you. The Executive branch includes a bunch of politicians and civil servants in Washington. It also includes all of our military. It also includes your local police force and sheriff’s department. The executive branch is that branch which ENFORCES the laws. This law gives them the power, at the top, to decide what is law. Don’t misunderstand me, I respect my local police force. I have friends in blue and friends in brown, and I respect them and am glad that they are out there trying to protect me. But they are not judges. Their bosses are not judges, and neither are their bosses all the way up to the President himself. None of them are qualified to judge, and the ones I know will tell you so themselves.

Probably the only thing that can stop this bill now is a filibuster on the floor of the Senate. Obama promised us all last year that he would do this for us, if it ever came to that. Well, it has come to that. It’s time to see what kind of people come from Illinois. He wants to lead this country. Let’s see him lead his party first. The Democrats control the Senate. Surely their selected leader, the man they want us to vote into office in November, can organize a filibuster against a bill which does so much to destroy the very foundation of our nation.

A long time ago, a man from Illinois changed the course of our future. He stood up for the values laid out plainly in our Constitution. He went against the prevailing sentiment in Washington – and our country, each individual one of us, is greater because of that. If Obama has the integrity that he’s spent millions selling to us, he will do what he said he would do and filibuster this bill. It won’t be the popular thing to do on the hill on Monday, but it will be the right thing.


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I am Jon, waiting for Monday’s filibuster.

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HR 6304 – The Vote Count Counts

Brad Miller (congressman)Brad Miller, One of The Good Guys
Image via Wikipedia

The Vote Fix Is In

The House of Representatives of The United States Of America voted by a much-too-wide majority in favor of HR 6304. Next week the bill will most likely be passed in the Senate and sent to Bush to be signed into law. This bill allows the president to legally authorize physical searches without a warrant. This bill allows the president to authorize wiretapping with absolutely no real judicial oversight. This bill essentially gives the executive branch of government free reign to do anything they want to do, without fear of any judicial consequences whatsoever.

More than 100 democrats voted in favor of the bill. Here in North Carolina, 4 of the 7 Democrat Representatives voted for it, and only 3 voted against. The Representative for my district is Brad Miller. That’s him on the right. He’s one of the good guys. He voted against HR 6304. From all of us: Thanks, Brad. I’m one of those that voted for you last time around, and with votes like this on your record, I’ll be there with your name in my mind next time. As a matter of fact, drop me an email when you need some campaigning done around Reidsville. I will be there for you.

The other NC Representatives that had the courage to stand up for a free America were Melvin Watt and David Price. I can’t thank you guys enough. When it’s time, just drop me an email and I’ll work for your campaign, too. I want people like you all over the District, and I’ll get off my butt to help you make it happen.

Too Many Checks, Not Enough Balances

As for the rest of the North Carolina democrats, who the hell are you people? What is your real reason for being a Representative? Do you care about us at all? Can you look more than a few months into the future? Can you see more than a few years into the past? Have you forgotten what inevitably happens to governments that ignore the well-being of its people? Have you received so many checks that your sense of justice is out of balance? Has the taste of influence, prestige and money numbed you to the responsibilities you have to uphold the Constitution? That is, after all, your job.

It’s the only job you have. Uphold the Constitution. Did you read the bull bill? I did. It destroys the 4th amendment completely. It negates the power of our entire Judicial branch of government. It abrogates all power in the Legislative and Judicial branches to the Executive. It finally clears the way for America to become a police state.

As a citizen, I reject the passing of this bill. I am certain that the majority of citizens agree with me that this bill, as law, is just wrong. It goes against everything I have ever been taught about how our nation works. It removes all checks and balances from the system at the president’s whim. It does not allow us to even question the president about anything at all. It does, in fact, create a de facto totalitarian type of rule for the USA. Passage of this bill is therefore illegal, in my opinion.

Roll Call

Here is a list of the NC Representatives who voted in favor of HR 6304. Do them a favor and click their names or call their phones. Let them know how pleased you are the powers of the president are now limitless. Let them know how grateful you are that with this bill becoming law, even they can look forward to warrantless searches, wiretapped phone calls and intercepted emails and instant messages. Let them know how proud you are to have them serving you. Let them know they can count on you to vote in this election and the next and the next. Let them know you will not forget their name, or what they have done for to you today.

Representative G. K. Butterfield, Jr. (D – 01) 202-225-3101 or 202-225-3354
Representative Bobby Etheridge (D – 02) 202-225-4531 or 202-225-5662
Representative Virginia Foxx (R – 05) 202-225-2071 or 202-225-2995
Representative Howard Coble (R – 06) 202-225-3065 or 202-225-8611
Representative Mike McIntyre (D – 07) 202-225-2731 or 202-225-5773
Representative Robin Hayes (R – 08) 202-225-3715 or 202-225-4036
Representative Sue Myrick (R – 09) 202-225-1976 or 202-225-3389
Representative Patrick McHenry (R – 10) 202-225-2576 or 202-225-0316
Representative Heath Shuler (D – 11) 202-225-6401 or 202-226-6422

If you live in another state, you can find out how your Representative voted by clicking here. To check up on your Senators’ votes, click here. If you want to make sure your guys are doing what you want them to, you really ought to go look for yourself.

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I am Jon, disappointed but not defeated.

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US to OBAMA – Where Are You on FISA

Nazi-Propaganda PosterImage via Wikipedia

(EDIT: The following is an excerpt from the Special Rules concerning Resolution HR 6304, which appears to have been drafted during an ‘emergency session‘ of the House Committee on Rules. As you can see, it appears they are not allowing objections to any of the bill’s provisions.

“All points of order against provisions of the bill are waived. The previous question shall be considered as ordered on the bill to final passage without intervening motion except: (1) one hour of debate equally divided among and controlled by the chairman and ranking minority member of the Committee on the Judiciary and the chairman and ranking minority member of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence; and (2) one motion to recommit.”

Only a few words for an hour and then the vote. Click the link to contact your representative! Call them right now! There can be no objections allowed and still a non-passing vote. Tell your representative to vote against this resolution. The whole thing is 180 pages and they didn’t get it until last night or early this morning. Tell them they should vote against it. Call them now.)

HR 6304

Where the Hell Is Obama A Real Leader

Forgive me. I am so angry I can hardly write this. The Congress of The United States Of America is planning to pass the amendments to the FISA Act of 1978 (H.R. 6304) on Friday. This is the bill that will give ATT and friends the immunity from prosecution for illegally helping the NSA spy on American citizens during the Bush reign of terror. Yeah, I’m mad about that but what really gets me ANGRY is what the bill gives us in our future. If this becomes law, it means that everything the Bushies have done will be considered legal, not because a judge said so, but because the president says so. And it will be that way from now on.

Regular readers here know that I am a card carrying, voting Republican. You know that because I’m really fed up with what passes for GOP nowadays, and I haven’t been extremely silent about it. I think the Bushies are all criminals, and I mean that literally. Since election day 2000 I have thought so, and they have never, not once, given me any reason to change my assessment. I consider the Bushie regime to be on a par with Hitler’s Nazi Germany, except the Nazis were amateurs.

Needless to say, McCain hasn’t got a chance of getting my vote. He sounds too much like Bush. He outright lies to us. Stupid lies that are just too easy to catch. Plus he’s just too connected to the big oil companies. He won’t do anything to help the people on this planet. He’ll just continue down the current disastrous path.

So I’ve been looking at Obama, since Hillary’s probably out of things now. But you know, I don’t see Obama doing ANYTHING that really matters. He’s running nothing. It doesn’t matter though. He’s a no-show in this particular arena, anyway. Someone who did get through to his campaign staff on the phone was sent a bland response saying what Barack will do AFTER he’s elected. Dude, if you don’t do something now, you have lost alot of votes. So many, in fact, that you probably won’t become president. If ever we needed a candidate to step up and show something different, it is TODAY. Where are you Barack? Are you scared to come out and play?

POINTLESS

The convoluted logic of this bill says that it’s okay for the president to ask anyone to break the law and be immune to prosecution. All the president has to do is say he asked for the help, and that he thinks whatever he asked was lawful. According to this bill, if those 2 conditions are met, the court has absolutely no choice but to dismiss any charges pending. Furthermore, the court cannot even say WHY the case is dismissed. The court becomes pointless.

Pointless is what we have in Washington, DC lately. All you happy Democrats with your big wins last time: So What? So what, you took over the Senate. So what, you took over the House. You know, back when the Republicans controlled Congress, Bush couldn’t get this kind of crap passed. But now, with the Dems in control, he gets everything he wanted and even more. Hey, don’t take it personally. This card carrying republican helped you vote all those democrats in. I was really counting on them to take a stand against the Bushies. I guess we were all wrong. These democrats, these republicans, these people IN POWER have decided en masse that we the people have no power. They’ve decided that you and I are pointless.

Comments

Just a few comments found around the web…

Russ Feingold, US Senate
June 19, 2008

“The proposed FISA deal is not a compromise; it is a capitulation. The House and Senate should not be taking up this bill, which effectively guarantees immunity for telecom companies alleged to have participated in the President’s illegal program, and which fails to protect the privacy of law-abiding Americans at home. Allowing courts to review the question of immunity is meaningless when the same legislation essentially requires the court to grant immunity. And under this bill, the government can still sweep up and keep the international communications of innocent Americans in the U.S. with no connection to suspected terrorists, with very few safeguards to protect against abuse of this power. Instead of cutting bad deals on both FISA and funding for the war in Iraq, Democrats should be standing up to the flawed and dangerous policies of this administration.”

Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) is a member of the Senate Judiciary and Intelligence Committees.

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from irregulartimes.com

You think this is just about intercepting phone calls? No, it’s not. It’s about physical searches, too. Read pages 73-77 of H.R. 6304. Come on, do it. Those pages say that a presidential administration can, without a warrant or even the prior approval of a FISA judge, engage in any physical search whatsoever so long as 1) later on, the administration files a piece of paper not asking permission but just telling a judge it has done so. As long as it 2) says — not proves, just says — that the information has to do with public safety, it can go ahead and engage in ANY physical search, ANYWHERE, WHENEVER it wants — then use the information as it sees fit, even if some judge later on says that the search was unjustified. Because under H.R. 6304, who ultimately determines whether a presidential administration’s warrantless surveillance was necessary? Yes, that’s right folks, the presidential administration itself.

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earlofhuntingdon from emptywheel
Not surprisingly, while this bill frequently mentions the mantra, ”in compliance with the requirements of the Fourth Amendment”, it redefines those requirements away.

Like at p. 14, line 4, where the USG ”is not required to identify the specific facilities, places, premises, or property at which an acquisition authorized under subsection (a) will be
directed or conducted.”

Just for laughs, keep your insides in, the Fourth Amendment reads in its entirety as follows:

”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.”

Sophistry. Bi-partisan sophistry.

I did like the snark on p. 15, lines 1-5, that require the communications services provider to maintain the secrecy of its cooperation with the government and the services provided to the target. Any concern about limiting interference with services to others caused by such cooperation? Nada.

Oh, and like the Social Security drugs provision that prohibited the USG from bargaining with drugs companies over price, the USG here is to pay communications services providers the ”prevailing rate”. I wonder where the rate for assisting the government in secretly spying on Americans is listed in their product brochures? I’d just like to check that’s it’s not more than I pay for a few bars on my mobile phone.

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From an article found on Salon.com

If Obama remains missing much longer, it may be necessary to issue an Amber Alert for him.

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ACLU

The following may be attributed to Caroline Fredrickson, director of the ACLU’s Washington Legislative Office:

“Congress is poised to once again pass disastrous surveillance legislation, now upping the ante with a thinly-veiled giveaway to some major campaign donors.

“This bill allows for mass and untargeted surveillance of Americans’ communications. The court review is mere window-dressing – all the court would look at is the procedures for the year-long dragnet and not at the who, what and why of the spying. Even this superficial court review has a gaping loophole – ‘exigent’ circumstances can short cut even this perfunctory oversight since any delay in the onset of spying meets the test and by definition going to the court would cause at least a minimal pause. Worse yet, if the court denies an order for any reason, the government is allowed to continue surveillance throughout the appeals process, thereby rendering the role of the judiciary meaningless. In the end, there is no one to answer to; a court review without power is no court review at all.”

“The Hoyer/Bush surveillance deal was clearly written with the telephone companies and internet providers at the table and for their benefit. They wanted immunity, and this bill gives it to them.

“The telecom companies simply have to produce a piece of paper we already know exists, resulting in immediate dismissal. That’s not accountability. Loopholes and judicial theater don’t do our Fourth Amendment rights justice. In the end, this is politics. This bill does nothing to keep Americans safe and is a constitutional farce.

“The process by which this deal has come about has been as secretive as the warrantless wiretapping program it is seeking to legitimize. While members and organizations who would seek to fiercely protect the civil liberties of Americans have been denied a seat at the table, one wonders how present the powerful telecom lobby has been.

“Leadership should be leading to protect the Constitution, not bowing to pressure from Republicans, the White House, and the telecommunications companies.

“The ACLU is asking Congress, as the final minutes tick by, to stand up and do the right thing.”

Copyright [2008] American Civil Liberties Union
Reprinted with permission of the
American Civil Liberties Union http://www.aclu.org

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We The People

I am so ashamed of all of us. We let these criminals take the office way back in 2000. Then we let them do the exact same thing in 2004. We, as a nation, are being herded like cattle by these people who are supposed to be there for one reason only: to protect and uphold the Constitution, to see to it that we the people are governed honestly and for our individual and collective prosperity according to the supreme law of our land.

We can bitch all we want, but until We The People actually do something about it, this is what we’re going to get. We’re getting it because we deserve it, because we’re not standing up and saying NO! A nation that will not demand its rights deserves none. It’s the 21st century, so we don’t have to do a midnight ride or anything. All you need to do is one thing.

Get to your phone. Call your representative NOW! They will be voting TODAY on this bill which was delivered to them LAST NIGHT! Call them right now! CLICK HERE FOR THE NUMBER!

I am Jon. I am an American. I believe in the country I grew up in. I believe in the rights of a free people and the responsibilties that come with that freedom. Exercise your right to call your congress! Perform your duty as a free citizen of what once was, and could easily again be, the greatest nation in the history of mankind.

Call them, please. Call them, now. Be an American. Make a ruckus.

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350

Average Stay

Chances are you’ll be here at Wordout between 2 and 4 minutes. That’s the range of average stays for about 90% of readers here. The average stay here on earth is between 30,000 and 40,000 days for most of us. That’s up from just 7,000 days (2,000 years ago). So far, it’s taken about 8 seconds to read this paragraph.

Zero Day

Armageddon loomingImage by nimboo via FlickrThat’s what we call a web exploit that we don’t have any defenses against. Zero Day means we have to act fast, take chances, patch things up as best we can as fast as we can so we don’t lose it all. Zero Day means we’re out of time. We don’t even have that 8 seconds you spent on the 1st paragraph, or the 10 you spent on this one.

We Are They

Like it says at the top of this page, 350 is the limit. We’re already over the limit. It’s a Zero Day scenario, folks. We don’t have time to come up with an elegant solution to this problem. We can’t afford to sit here thinking, they will fix it. We are that They. We have to act now.

There Is A Way

Give me just another 97 seconds. Power begins with knowledge. Watch the video.


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I am Jon. 350 is the limit. Tell people.

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Hip On Iran

The Well-Armed Hippie

If you ask most of the people who know me to describe me in one word, they would probably say, “Hippie“. And I’d have to agree with them that I fit that description. Even though I own an AK47 and enough ammunition to hold out here for awhile. Even though I also own a couple of shotguns and a long range rifle with scope. Even though I regularly plan, discuss and practice tactics and strategy in war simulations (games) online. Yes, “hippie” fits me just fine.

They call me a hippie not because of my hair or the hundreds of acid trips I must have taken (look at the hair! Must be a druggie!), but because of the rest of my life. I’m a fairly peaceful chap who, for nearly all my life, has just been interested in understanding everything. That is, after all, one of the primary tenets of being a hippie: to be hip. Hip isn’t cool, unless it’s cool to be hip. Being hip means traveling a path in life that is always exploring the limits of what we know both individually and as a society. In other words, becoming truly well-armed through understanding.

So, in my hippie quest to understand everything, I’d like to address some thoughts toward the Bushie folks and all this talk about Iran. As it turns out, even a superficial look into it is very revealing about the guys running our show. In literally less than 30 minutes of researching, their farce is exposed. Remember the build-up to the Iraq invasion? Remember the lies we were fed? Remember the last time?

Those Crazy Persians

There’s much ado in the news about Iran. We’ve been listening to the Bushies and their damning of Iran since right after we invaded Iraq. We’ve been told so many times in the past 4 years that they’re developing nukes that some of you are probably starting to believe it. I don’t believe it for a minute. And neither do the Bushies. The National Intelligence Estimate from this past winter concluded that Iran had most likely halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003.

For sure, they were planning to develop nuclear weapons. After all, it’s common knowledge that at least one of their neighbors already has a nuclear stockpile. But I don’t think they are quite that ignorant of the rest of the world. Their 4000 year history indicates a trend toward survival as a nation, not suicide. And as sure as the sun is shining somewhere, developing nuclear weapons would be as certain as suicide for the Iranian people. Nearly all of them live in just 8 cities. If anyone really believed that the “crazy Iranians” were capable of launching a nuclear attack, all the Iranians would be toast.

Tehran skyline with Milad Tower in the background.Image via WikipediaTruth is, the “crazy Iranians” don’t exist. Their ways may not be the same as ours, but that doesn’t make them crazy or dangerous. And they aren’t so backwards either, like much of American media would have you believe. Tehran is a world class city, with pretty much everything you’d expect. And yes, they have truly ancient customs and beliefs. As a member of a supposedly educated democratic republic, I respect that. Our ways say that their ways can be different from our ways and still be okay. Isn’t that true?

Enter: Staged Right

Yeah, well, if they aren’t the scary beast of hell then why are they so intent on developing nuclear technology?

Because they know that there’s a limited supply of oil and the climate is being destroyed.

Well, if all they wanted were nuclear power plants, both the US and Russia have said they would basically supply all the stuff Iran needs to develop nuclear power. If they aren’t planning to build weapons, why don’t they take us up on that offer?

Because then they would be forever unable to control their own energy demands. Iran owns one of the largest supplies of oil in the world. They are an energy superpower. What the Bushies are asking them to do is to forever give up that position, and in addition to give up being an energy producer completely. The Bushies are asking them to take our place in the future energy hierarchy, and let us take theirs. What. A. Deal.

But if the Iranians aren’t planning to build and use nukes, why wont they comply with that UN resolution that says they have to stop enriching their own uranium, Mr Smarty Pants?

Because the Iranians know, just as we do, just as the rest of the UN knows, that the resolution in question is completely illegal. That resolution violates the provisions of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, which both the US and Iran have signed and ratified. UN resolutions do not have the effect of binding law on member nations. Treaties do, in fact, have that effect of becoming a part of a nation’s laws.

Always go to the source if you can. Here it is (emphasis added):

Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons

Article IV

1. Nothing in this Treaty shall be interpreted as affecting the inalienable right of all the Parties to the Treaty to develop research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes without discrimination and in conformity with Articles I and II of this Treaty.

2. All the Parties to the Treaty undertake to facilitate, and have the right to participate in, the fullest possible exchange of equipment, materials and scientific and technological information for the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. Parties to the Treaty in a position to do so shall also co-operate in contributing alone or together with other States or international organizations to the further development of the applications of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, especially in the territories of non-nuclear-weapon States Party to the Treaty, with due consideration for the needs of the developing areas of the world.

Up In Smoke

Gee, that treaty must be so unclear to the Bushies. For some reason, they think that we are supposed to do whatever we can to stop countries from doing exactly what the treaty says they have the “inalienable right” to do. And not only that, but we’re supposed to be helping them develop their nuclear power plants! Who woulda thunk it?

Interestingly enough, Iran’s neighbor, Pakistan and its neighbor, India, neither of which have signed the treaty, have both detonated nuclear devices with little response from the American government. Israel, another country which refused to sign the treaty, is also believed to have a nuclear arsenal. The US remains mute on these points.

I know I’m expecting too much from the Bushie guys. They’re a bunch of (soon to be ex) oil flunkies who see the source of their fortunes literally going up in smoke every day. Their daddies and their grand-daddies told them it would be around forever, told them that they would always be on top, always in power. Poor little rich bastards. What were they smokin?

I’m certain this won’t be the last time I write about the Iranian threat. In my mind, as crazy and just plain stupid as they have already shown themselves to be, I guess there’s a 100% chance that the Bushies will keep trying to antagonize Iran. And I expect the hard sell for a strike against Iran to get more airplay in the mainstream media. Hopefully, we won’t fall for it this time.

I am Jon, the well-armed hippie.

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For more insight on US policy as it relates to Iran, I recommend Pen and Sword, a blog by retired Naval Commander Jeff Huber.

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Election 2008 – Diebold Spoils The Surprise

The Glass Onion

Every so often I find myself watching some of The Onion’s many video spoofs. I thought you might like this one. Remember, this is a parody, a spoof, and totally (I hope) unreal.

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I am Jon, and I want to remind you: this is a parody. Don’t believe it until November.

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The New School Speech

Nothing To Fear

Remember the 60s? Yeah, me too. What a crazy time, right? All those love-ins and drop-outs, flower power and huge demonstrations about what we, the children of the new age, wanted changed. What the hell happened? Why did so many of us grow up to be integral parts of what we said we hated? And why did we raise our children to keep their mouths shut about everything they see that’s wrong with the world?

That last question has been on my mind alot lately. When my kids were kids, they had only 3 rules. Rule #3 was that they had to correct their parents whenever they found a chance. The only stipulation was that they had better be right. As a result, at 23 they both have the habit of not accepting BS as fact. They can be quite vocal about it. I’ve learned over the years to listen to them; they do seem to do the research before they open their mouths.

But still, something seems missing. For instance, where are the hundreds of thousands of young people taking to the streets to peacefully protest the insanity of Iraq? Or the inhumanity of Guantanamo Bay? Where is the unrest that should be led by our young people when they find that big oil companies are raking in record profits and our congress does nothing? Where is the voice of America that I grew up with, whispering, flatly stating and if needed, screaming for us to be “the good guys”? And why the hell are we still ignoring what’s happening with the climate?

No unRest For The Weary

It bothers me that there is no massive unrest in this country right now. If ever we needed to assert our civic responsibilities, it is now. Our government and the large corporations who control this country are obviously not concerned with anything more than short term profits at any cost. Our future, literally, is at stake and we, as a society, do nothing.

It’s made me sad. I’ve been thinking that I am just getting old, missing the “good old days”, and that made me feel even worse. How do you look forward to growing older in a world that, for all intents and purposes, nobody cares about? And then I found this video. Here, a lone young woman named Jean Sara Rohe stands and states in certain terms her objections to… well, just listen to her. She brings me to tears with her honesty and her courage.


Just one more thing: I want to quote a small bit of what she had to say on her blog the day after this speech was given. Although I am and have always been a voting Republican, I have to agree with her here:

“It’s been noted in several columns that anti-McCain sentiment coming from the left may actually help him to garner support from the conservatives by giving him the opportunity to paint us as extremist liberals, so we should all keep our mouths shut. I say we need some “extremist liberals” if we’re ever going to get our democracy back.”

I am Jon, and I will stand beside anyone, of any age, who delivers like this.

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Watch Free StarTrek Online

GeekSugar

I can’t remember how I found them. Maybe I was over at Technorati surfing blogs, I don’t know. But after finding them, I don’t know how I ever missed them before. You should check out their entire site, it looks interesting. The part that I was looking at, of course, was GeekSugar. And that’s where I found the story about the free Star Trek episodes available online.

That’s right, CBS.com is making the 1st three seasons, 76 full length episodes in all, available for online viewing. I don’t have the bandwidth to embed one here, so instead here are a couple of shorts. The 1st one runs under 90 seconds, and the second one is about 7 minutes.



The fight scene between Spock and Kirk on Vulcan.
Includes the timeless “fight music” from every great fight scene on Star Trek.

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Star Trek vs Star Wars. It can’t all be serious!

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CBS has some other shows available as well. Look for MacGyver, Hawaii Five-O and The Twilight Zone while you’re over there. There are even some current shows, like Jericho. Just hover over the VIDEO text at the top of the page and a list of over 30 shows will drop down for you to browse.

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I am Jon, and right about now I just might be watching some Trek.

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.HAPPY EASTER!

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Self Service

This Is About Options

Marshall Kirkpatrick published an article today about the new MySpace apps, and the conspicuous absence of a “long tail” in the adoption of apps by users. It was an interesting read, as it usually is over at RWW, even though I didn’t think the title was justified by the content. That is not what this piece is about, however.

I’m a comment reader, and sometimes I even add a comment, myself. The first comment on Marshall’s piece was from Antonio Evans:

When Myspace gets their self service advertising up and redesigns access to these applications we’ll see a great jump in applications getting well deserved installs.

Self Service

That phrase, “self service advertising”, jumped right out at me. I even chuckled a bit. Self service advertising is exactly what we need, but not the way it’s being presented. Three generations of the current model of free content in exchange for ads has conditioned us to expect ads on our web. But the model is completely backwards for the 21st century. When will the marketing and advertising industry just evolve already, and realize that as consumers, we all want to choose our own ads?

We’ve been promised that targeted advertising will make our ads more relevant to us, more pertinent to what we might actually need, but I’m willing to bet that each one of you reading this has had an ad on your screen today that was totally off the mark. For instance, maybe you’re a married man, and you get the “meet singles” ad. That’s a really popular one. Ever wonder why that happens?

I have. It’s because of a couple of things, as far as I can tell. First, the technology just isn’t there yet to do what they’re trying to do. Evidently, from what I see and read around the web, no one has written an application yet that can truly understand who we are. In a way, I guess that’s a good thing. I don’t know how I’d like it if a computer program allowed somebody to understand me that well.

The second, and most important reason our online ads suck so much is that the concept is applied incorrectly. Targeting ads personally is a great idea. It’s win-win for everybody. But the way it’s being done doesn’t really work. I’ll assume here that marketing professionals are benevolent entities who really do want to help the consumer find what they are looking for. That’s what the truly great ones are doing, anyway. Hopefully some will read the next paragraph.

Self Serving

We, as consumers, absolutely hate for a product to be shoved at us if it’s something we know we’ll never use. I mean, come on! I get ads served about Muslim singles, only because I once wrote about a Muslim holiday here at Wordout. In a perfect ad-world, we could tell the “ad-universe” what we needed and it would respond with ads that were not only relevant, but right on time. Needless to say, it’s not a perfect world.

But if we can’t tell advertisers what we want, why can’t we tell them what we explicitly DO NOT want? Why isn’t there an “opt out” for these incessant singles ads? I keep “singling” these ads out, but you all know there are any number of intrusive and worthless ads shown to you every day. All I want to know is why we are still seeing such tripe. The answer is simple.

Advertisers are still operating under the 20th century notion that they are in control of the sales process. Advertisers, marketers, lend me your eyes! You are not in control! The consumer has the power to destroy you at a whim, and also the power to elevate you above your competitors. But only if you make us happy. You see, we’re growing up.

We’re not adults yet, no. But through the 20th century we were like small children. You could hold our hands and lead us wherever you wanted, and we went willingly. But we are growing up. We’re more like adolescents now, and we don’t like your hand-holding ways. We want some say in our choices. And if we don’t get it from you, we’ll go somewhere else. There’s always somewhere else. If there’s not, we’ll make one right before your eyes.

Why don’t one of you big guys create some way to get some consumer feedback? What if you could look at your clients and say that you could guarantee interest from your ads? You could have such a guarantee, if you let us tell you what we want. Just add something like “Don’t like your ads? Tell us what you want!” to your displays. Let us help you get it right.

That would be a step towards true “self service advertising”. What you’ve got now is mostly just self serving schlock.

I am Jon, and I want some options.

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Too Late, More BS Fears

The New World Order?

Monday was a crazy day in the financial markets worldwide. Oil and gold achieved record prices, the dollar sank lower and in general, the situation got worse. And it doesn’t appear to be over. Weekend efforts by the Federal Reserve to ease investor fears, instead seem to have fueled those fears to new heights. Invoking powers they haven’t used since the Great Depression of the 20th century, the Fed has adopted a “no-holds-barred” stance to fight the current recession. The Guardian reports:

Wall Street opened almost 200 points lower this afternoon, at 11,760.67. There was a brief respite later with the Dow Jones index briefly moving into positive territory. By 5pm, however, it was back in the red with a loss of 87 points, at 11,870.
The FTSE 100 closed 217.3 points down, or 3.9%, at 5,414.4 – its lowest since November 2005. There were sharp falls throughout the rest of Europe and in Asia the Nikkei 225 ended the day down 3.7% at 11,787.51, its lowest level in two-and-a-half years.
The Bank of England moved to stabilise the markets this morning, offering £5bn of three-day funds in a move designed to bring overnight interest rates down. Banks scrambled for the cash, asking for nearly five times more than was on offer.
The US Federal Reserve took emergency action on Sunday, cutting its discount rate – the rate at which banks lend to each other – by a quarter of a point. It also said it would set up a new lending facility for investment banks – something it has not done since the Great Depression in the 1930s.
But the Fed’s actions failed to reassure the markets and traders remained in a state of near-panic, with many fearing that Bear Stearns will not be the last casualty of the credit crunch that has gripped the global financial system since last August.

All Aboard!

Asian and European markets tumbled, as investors were finally convinced that the US markets are on the verge of catastrophe. Indexes closed down across the board, posting losses from 3 and a half to more than 4 percent. Overseas investors seem worried that the economic crisis in the US is more severe than they’ve been led to believe. As Time reports

“There is persistent credit uncertainty. Market players have been repeatedly let down which shows the subprime mortgage problems are so deep-rooted,” said Atsuji Ohara, global strategist of Shinko Securities in Tokyo.
“Just buying an investment bank does not solve the problem,” he said. “Markets are prodding (the U.S. government) to inject public funds.”
Further slides in Asian markets are likely, said Ismael Cruz, the governor of the Philippine Association of Securities Brokers and Dealers Inc.
“The outlook is very grim,” he said.

The bane of BS was their exposure to “bad mortgages”, which they hawked like carnies to unwary consumers for the past several years. According to ADN.com, that same risk has already accounted for more than $150 billion in write-downs worldwide. They go on to say, “The head of the International Monetary Fund said Monday that the global financial crisis is more serious and more widespread than even a few weeks ago.”

No Confidence

Speculation abounds as to who will be next, and whether they will garner the kind of help that BS was able to get. Most eyes are on Lehman Brothers, another investment firm sunk heabily into the subprime mortgage mess. LEH was trading considerably lower at the close on Monday, down nearly 20% after tumbling over 45% during the day. Earlier, Lehman “repeated that it has enough cash to keep doing business”. As late as last Thursday, BS was assuring their investors the exact same thing. It’s no surprise that investors aren’t listening to management anymore. Like it says over on UrbanDigs

“…the kicker is that TWICE in the past 4 days that this rumor was floating around executives at Bear told us that rumors were FALSE, and that cash cushion was fine; THERE IS NO LIQUIDITY ISSUES AT BEAR!
What happened today proves one thing: we can’t trust anything we hear!”

When investors lose confidence in management, there are hard times ahead for the markets. And that means hard times ahead for all of us, not just here in the US, but everywhere. Terry Smith, chief executive of specialist inter-bank broker Tullett Prebon explains in an article from the Guardian:

“I don’t think anybody alive has seen events of this seriousness and magnitude affecting the financial markets.”
He doubts that lowering interest rates will have any real effect: “High interest rates didn’t cause this problem, so lowering interest rates isn’t going to solve it. It is hard to see exactly what tools the authorities do have.”
The Fed’s activities over the last fortnight imply that a number of systemic risks are crystalising – “and this in turn implies a need for an extraordinary response,” he said.
Russell Jones, head of fixed income and currencies global research at RBC Capital Markets
“If the US financial system is in as much trouble as it seems, it is a global problem and will require a global policy response.”

Bring Out The Big Guns

The men who are the Federal Reserve must agree. More than half a century has passed since the Fed has taken such drastic action to bolster the economy. With last week’s promise to inject more than $200 billion to support the failing credit markets, the weekend bailout of BS, and the opening of a new program to provide emergency loans, the Fed hopes to make investors confident in the system as a whole, even while admitting some of the system’s major components are faulty. The Telegraph puts it this way:

The Federal Reserve, the Bank of England and the other central banks today ramped up their efforts to prevent credit markets falling into a deeper freeze by announcing plans to inject more than $200bn.
The agency crisis was a Tsunami event,” said Tim Bond, global strategist at Barclays Capital.
“The market was starting to question the solvency of bodies that stand at the top of the credit pile. These agencies together wrap or insure $6 trillion of mortgages. They cannot be allowed to fail because it would cause a financial disaster. The fact that this sector has blown up has caught everybody’s attention in Washington,” he said.
It is a ground-breaking move for the Fed to accept mortgage collateral, even if the debt is theoretically ‘AAA-grade’ debt. The Fed is constrained by Article 13 of the Federal Reserve Act from buying mortgage bonds outright, but it can achieve a similar effect by letting banks roll over collateral indefinitely. The European Central Bank is already doing this, shielding Dutch, Spanish, German, and some British banks from the full impact of the credit crunch.
The Fed is to create a new facility that allows banks to swap their mortgage bonds for US Treasuries. It is a well-targeted “sterilized” move to avoid adding fuel to inflationary fire. It follows the Fed’s separate pledge last Friday to add up to $200bn in liquidity.
Bernard Connolly, global strategist at Banque AIG, said the Fed action may help calm the markets for now, but it cannot solve the root problem of eroded of bank capital.
“There is the risk of a very damaging credit contraction. We face the most serious global crisis since the Great Depression. But this time at least the North American central banks are doing their best to stop it spreading to the real economy,” he said.
Mr Bond said the mortgage agencies may ultimately need to be nationalized. Fannie Mae has already seen its stock price drop 70pc since October at a cost of $50bn in market value, even though it has an implicit federal guarantee. “There is going to have to be a very big bail-out,” he said.

A very big bailout, indeed. That sentiment is echoed across the spectrum. At MSNBC we read, “You’re going to have some very weak players pushed out of business,” said Joseph V. Battipaglia, chief investment officer at Ryan Beck & Co. He said JPMorgan’s buy of Bear Stearns and Bank of America Corp.’s acquisition of mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp. are probably not the only rescues the industry will witness during this credit crisis.”

Grief

I caught a bit of grief from a few readers over my last post here @ Wordout. It seems that I am “ignoring all the little guys” that got caught up in this greed-grab we are now calling the subprime mortgage crisis. Let me make myself clear: I do feel badly for the “little guys” who were manipulated into these horrible instruments of financial destruction by the slightly less little guys at the local bank. You were manipulated by your desires and your fears. I do feel terribly for most of you.

But that loan agent at your local bank who might lose her job? Or her boss, the manager, or the VP or the investment firm employees? You guys can live in a ditch, for all I care. All you “house flippers” and speculators who drove prices so unsustainably high, you can eat smegma and wash it down with horse urine. You deserve everything that’s happening, and is going to happen to you. And to you really big fish, you billionaires who started this whole fiasco:
The windows are open. Jump.
Oh, that’s right, you guys didn’t lose any money, did you…. I almost forgot that part.

I am Jon, and this is your world.

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See a timeline of the BS decline here.

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$30 Billion Bear Meltdown

No Doubt, It’s BS

It was only a little over a year ago that Bear Stearns traded around $170 a share. With about 118 million shares outstanding as of last Friday, the company agreed to a sale with a share price of just $2, a 99.99% drop in value since those glory days of early 2007. Let the doubt in your mind disappear: We are in a recession, and maybe worse.

The BS problems began several years ago when they became a major player in the so-called “sub-prime” housing market. They heavily gambled in that market with several hedge funds, which went belly-up in 2007. By the end of trading last Thursday, their stock was still trading above $51, but early Friday morning, the final “run on the bank” began, and the stock entered a free fall. At the close of trading, the stock had barely held on above $30 per share. If you want to see what a run on the bank looks like, check out the free falling graph in that Bear Stearns link up there.

So what prompted the weekend emergency deal? The New York Times described it this way:

The price represents a startling 93 percent discount to Bear Stearns’ closing stock price on Friday. Bankers and policy makers raced to complete the deal before financial markets in Asia opened on Monday, as fears grew that the financial panic could spread if Bear Stearns failed to find a buyer.

Everybody’s A Little Bit BS

But Bear Stearns is just one company, right? Well, not quite so right anymore, in this ever more interconnected global marketplace. The subprime calamity had been marketed to investment firms worldwide, and BS was a large part of that. Business Week explains it this way:

It would have been highly risky for other Wall Street firms if Bear Stearns had been allowed to go under because Bear is tightly interconnected with them as both a borrower and a lender. Any firms that are owed a lot of money by Bear would have fallen under suspicion, on grounds that they might not be able to pay their own debts if Bear failed to pay them. That could have triggered a dangerous wave of defaults. The rescue by JPMorgan Chase gives the financial system breathing room to pay off Bear’s debts gradually.

The Federal Reserve has agreed to back the deal with JP Morgan to the tune of $30 billion. This is the first time since 1998 that the Fed has gotten involved with a plan to salvage a failing company, and is thought to be the largest bailout in history. As we learn from Wall Street Journal:

To help facilitate the deal, the Federal Reserve is taking the extraordinary step of providing as much as $30 billion in financing for Bear Stearns’s less-liquid assets, such as mortgage securities that the firm has been unable to sell, in what is believed to be the largest Fed advance on record to a single company.

Interestingly, in the 1998 bailout of Long Term Capital management, many sources report that BS refused to help. For instance, from the New York Times:

When the Federal Reserve helped plan a bailout in 1998 of Long Term Capital Management, the hedge fund, Bear Stearns proudly refused to join the effort.

At The End Of The Day

This didn’t happen overnight. And it is somebody’s fault. For half a decade firms like BS have pushed lousy loans on unwary consumers with no regard for the obvious consequences. Many of those people had much more money last week than they have today, and I truly don’t care. It’s their greed that brought this calamity on us all. The quote below from The Wall Street Journal says that BS was left with a “horrible choice”. I’m certain that those few who made that horrible choice aren’t the ones who lost their cash in this fiasco.

Bear Stearns had a stock-market value of about $3.5 billion as of Friday — and was worth $20 billion in January 2007. But the crisis of confidence that swept the firm and fueled a customer exodus in recent days left Bear Stearns with a horrible choice: sell the firm — at any price — to a big bank willing to assume its trading obligations or file for bankruptcy.

“At the end of the day, what Bear Stearns was looking at was either taking $2 a share or going bust,” said one person involved in the negotiations. “Those were the only options.”

I am Jon, and I think the whole thing is BS.

If you’d like to read more about the mortgage crisis, the credit meltdown, the financial fiasco… cick HERE.
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Retroactive Immunity

A House of Good Guys?

(writer’s comment: i know it’s slightly political, but try to think of it as a post about technology being used for illegal purposes, kind of like hackers or something…)

This past week the House of Representatives declined to offer immunity to the large telecoms who illegally handed over their customers’ data to the White House. At the risk of sounding naive, I didn’t think they would have the guts to do it. Maybe they are counting on the Senate’s and Bush’s promises to kill the bill. Below are some reactions:

Republicans

“They [Democrats] know, they know the risks they are taking on behalf of the American people and they don’t care … and that’s what bothers me most,” said Republican Rep. Heather Wilson of New Mexico on Friday.”

A joint statement from the Department of Justice and the office of the director of national intelligence said that based on initial reports, “We are concerned that the proposal would not provide the intelligence community the critical tools needed to protect the country.”

“Exposing the private sector to continued litigation for assisting in efforts to defend the country understandably makes the private sector much more reluctant to cooperate. Without their cooperation, our efforts to protect the country cannot succeed,” it said.

Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, warned Wednesday that the House proposal “would, in essence, shut us down”

Democrats

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers took a different angle.

“We are not going to cave into a retroactive immunity situation,” the Michigan Democrat said. “There’s no law school example in our memory that gives retroactive immunity for something you don’t know what you are giving it for. It just doesn’t work in the real world or on the Hill either.”

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I am Jon, and to me, retroactive immunity sounds like a disease.

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CeBit User Interfaces

Coming Soon To A PC Near You

Have you been wondering what the next generation of user interfaces will be like? The iPhone has already shown us some of it. If you’ve been following Wordout or Google’s Android, you’ve seen some more of it. But what if you applied that same thing to larger screens?

What if you plastered it across an entire wall? Below you’ll see such an exhibition, displayed at the annual Cebit in Europe. The demo here lasts less than a minute.



CeBit Wall Sized User Interface Demo

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If you liked that, you might this one too, but I warn you… it’s about 10 minutes long. Still, it’s worth checking out, even for a couple of minutes, before you go on to something else.



Jeff Han of New York University’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences

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I am Jon, and I’m ready for some “hands-on” access.

(edit) There’s a story on practically the same subject over at ReadWriteWeb. I particularly liked the “Bump Top” video over there… so here it is.



Bump Top – Your 3D Real Life Desktop

It looks like this is a popular subject. -jon

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Touching Things In The Real World

The Challenge of Stuff

Over at the BlueBlog, Fraser asked an interesting question. One which, if I’m not mistaken, goes a bit deeper than the surface “marketing” spin it seemed to receive. Here is what he wrote:

“Here’s what I want: an easy-to-understand term that encompasses all of the items we recognize.

Here’s the challenge: we recognize a broad-range of items – books, music albums, stocks, recipes, people, restaurants, etc – and there isn’t a simple to grasp term that captures everything in the list.

Here are some words that occasionally get used:

* things
* objects
* items

If you’re not familiar with what we do, after hearing that we recognize things you’re left asking “things? what are things?.” ”

The problem, it seems to me, isn’t so much that the words being used are too technical for the average web surfer to understand. The problem is that the concept is somewhat alien.

For those of you not familiar with AdaptiveBlue and BlueOrganizer Indigo: AdaptiveBlue is a small company that provides the BlueOrganizer Indigo add-on for Firefox. BlueOrganizer works with SmartLinks, another AdaptiveBlue product, to provide contextually relevant shortcuts for many terms found within web pages, allowing actions to be taken on the real-world items behind those terms. For instance, if you’re looking at a movie, it knows you’re looking at a movie and will help you to read reviews, purchase, rent or just about anything else you would do with a movie. Indigo also has a very tight integration with services like Twitter and Tumblr, as well as social networking sites such as Facebook.

Returning visitors to Wordout will recognize that I have written several times about AdaptiveBlue and their products. To say the least, I am very impressed by their vision and what they are trying to do. While much of the so-called semantic web is focused right now on providing more information, or “better” ways of sifting and recommending that information, AdaptiveBlue is beginning to actually connect the virtual world we find on our screens to the real world outside our doors.

The New Paradigm

And that, Fraser, is what the problem is. Every schoolchild knows what a “noun” is. We all know what “things”, “objects” and “items” are. But those concepts are viewed differently, depending on the circumstance. We’ve been conditioned by half a century of television to think that the screen is not real. What you guys are doing is applying a new paradigm to the way we use our screens. AdaptiveBlue is trying to take what has been considered primarily a “passive” activity, and apply “action” to it.

That is why I love you guys, your products and your company. The hype on the street is all about the next iteration of the current web and you guys are out building new streets. It’s obvious, to me at least, that our webs will evolve along with us, becoming more tightly integrated into our lives the same way the telephone did.

The voice on my great-grandfather’s 1st phone sounded like a caricature of a voice, and my son’s Pearl has MP3 ringtones. Old Abel Roberts could go months without using the phone. Young Abel Knight works at a help desk fielding phone calls all day. Pa Roberts thought the phone might be a useful toy, but he had no real use for it. His great-great grandson’s phone is an extension of his life.

In many ways, it’s the same with Indigo. Television and then the internet trained us to think in terms of ‘non-reality’ and passive entertainment. We don’t expect that what we do online has any real bearing on our everyday lives. So for most of us it’s still just a distraction, and certainly not an extension of who we are and what we do.

From Communicate to Manipulate

But for the internet to be more than a distraction, more than entertainment, for it to have the impact we want it to have and not just that of CB radio or television, it must become more firmly integrated with the real world. It has to extend us, to physically connect us to our world.

We must be able to use it like we use our telephones. Few of us would dare to go out without our telephones. At any time, we might need to be able to communicate. The web will take that a step further, allowing us, at any time, to manipulate. Indigo is a step in that direction. I wrote before, and I will quote me here:

I don’t think this way about many web applications, but I think Indigo is a major deal. With this release, AdaptiveBlue has slightly changed the playing field. Indigo begins the bridge-building effort that must begin somewhere if any of this so-called Semantic Stuff is ever going to have real value.

I wish I could answer Fraser’s question. I wish I could come up with an easy one or two word way of describing Indigo to someone new to it. But it’s just not that simple. How can you show someone in a couple of words that they need to re-think the way they look at the web? How can you just tell them that now, what they do with a click can make something actually happen for them, right here, right now, in their real world?

I am Jon, and I’m working on that…

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