A Surveillance State for Cops

Family Security Matters

The dreaded so-called “surveillance state” was held in contempt by many in the media until President Obama announced that he would extend it to police officers. All of a sudden, the idea of the National Security Agency (NSA) targeting the thin blue line between the public and the criminals became a great, “progressive” idea.

Obama euphemistically calls it the “Body Worn Camera Partnership Program ^[1],” and insists it will “help strengthen accountability and transparency.”

Perhaps these body-worn cameras ought to be used by high-level government officials, in order to sniff out corruption such as the location of missing IRS emails.

Under Hope & Change, Misery Index Climbs

Moonbattery

We all know the official economic numbers are a fraud, but just how bad is the real situation? According to an influential Wall Street advisor, extremely bad:

In a memo to clients provided to Secrets, David John Marotta calculates the actual unemployment rate of those not working at a sky-high 37.2 percent, not the 6.7 percent advertised by the Fed, and the Misery Index at over 14, not the 8 claimed by the government.

Unemployment + inflation = the Misery Index. Put smiley-faced lies into the equation, a smiley-faced lie comes out. According to Marotta:

“Unemployment in its truest definition, meaning the portion of people who do not have any job, is 37.2 percent.”

The reason the official unemployment rate has declined despite Obama still being in office, as Marotta and colleague Megan Russell explain, is that

“officially-reported unemployment numbers decrease when enough time passes to discourage the unemployed from looking for work. A decrease is not necessarily beneficial; an increase is clearly detrimental.”

As for inflation, the government underreports it “by about 3%.”

According to official numbers, the current Misery Index is 7.54. But we no longer have the sort of government that produces reliable numbers. Using a more honest inflation rate of 4.5% and an unemployment rate of 10.2% (which includes discouraged workers who aren’t actively seeking a job, but not everybody who isn’t working) yields a Misery Index of 14.7, “worse even than during the Ford Administration.”

Worse still is the Youth Misery Index, which tracks how well voting for Obama is working out for young people. The YMI is

calculated by adding youth unemployment and average college loan debt figures with each person’s share of the national debt. While it has steadily grown over the decades, under Obama the figure has shot up dramatically, from 83.5 in 2009 to 98.6 in 2013.

The index has increased by 18.1 percent since Obama took office, the highest increase under any president, making Obama the worst president for youth economic opportunity, according to the nonprofit that released the figure.

“Young people are suffering under this economy,” said Ashley Pratte, program officer for Young America’s Foundation, which developed the index and calculates it annually using federal statistics.

Look at the bright side, young people. It could be worse. They could calculate the YMI using real numbers instead of government stats. Then you would really be hurting.

 

DoJ Lawyers: Americans Have No Right to Challenge NSA Spy Programs

Freedom Outpost

US District Court Judge William H. Pauley is at the center of the debate over  whether or not Americans can request that the National Security Agency (NSA)  halt their surveillance programs.

Lawyers for the government stated to Pauley that “ordinary Americans cannot  legally challenge it.”

Stuart Delery, attorney for the Department of Justice (DoJ) explained that  based on Smith v. Maryland (SvM), “ordinary Americans have no standing to challenge  the collection of their call records. Americans have no reasonable expectation  of privacy for those records, and that only phone companies can challenge their  collection.”

 

Because  of this legal standing, government attorneys are moving for a dismissal of the  case.

Janet Napolitano’s Homeland Security Replacement is a Constitution Killer

By Joe Wright

The entire Homeland Security apparatus is designed as much for suppression of the American people as it is for any perceived protection. Janet Napolitano’s reign included ushering in the notorious “See Something, Say Something” program which encouraged citizen spies and a system of Big Brother telescreens to tell us what to fear and when to fear it, as well as operating her personal domain like a tyrant for more than four years.

When Napolitano exited in July to become the President of The University of California, she made a couple of curious statements. The first was to warn of a major cyber attack:

Americans Have Lost VIRTUALLY ALL of Our Constitutional Rights

 WashingtonsBlog

Painting by Anthony Freda: www.AnthonyFreda.com

 

How Many Constitutional Freedoms Have We Lost?

This post explains the liberties guaranteed in the Bill of Rights – the first 10 amendments to the United States Constitution – and provides a scorecard on the extent of the loss of each right.  (This is an updated version of an essay we wrote in February.  Unfortunately, a lot of information has come out since then.)

BIG BROTHER WATCHING: Gov’t Creating Squad to ‘Nudge’ Your Behavior

By Maxim Lott

 FoxNews.com

The federal government is hiring what it calls a “Behavioral Insights Team”  that will look for ways to subtly influence people’s behavior, according to a  document describing the program obtained by FoxNews.com. Critics warn there  could be unintended consequences to such policies, while supporters say the team  could make government and society more efficient.

While the program is still in its early stages, the document shows the White  House is already working on such projects with almost a dozen federal  departments and agencies including the Department of Health and Human Services  and the Department of Agriculture.

“Behavioral sciences can be used to help design public policies that work  better, cost less, and help people to achieve their goals,” reads the government  document describing the program, which goes on to call for applicants to apply  for positions on the team.

The document was emailed by Maya Shankar, a White House senior adviser on  social and behavioral sciences, to a university professor with the request that  it be distributed to people interested in joining the team. The idea is that the  team would “experiment” with various techniques, with the goal of tweaking  behavior so people do everything from saving more for retirement to saving more  in energy costs.

The document praises subtle policies to change behavior that have already  been implemented in England, which already has a “Behavioral Insights Team.” One  British policy concerns how to get late tax filers to pay up.

“Sending letters to late taxpayers that indicated a social norm — i.e., that  ‘9 out of 10 people in Britain paid their taxes on time’ — resulted in a 15  percent increase in response rates over a three-month period, rolling out to £30  million of extra annual revenue,” the document reads.

Another policy aimed to convince people to install attic insulation to  conserve energy. 

“Offering an attic-clearance service (at full cost) to people led to a  five-fold increase in their subsequent adoption of attic-insulation.”

CLICK  HERE to read the full document

Read more:  http://nation.foxnews.com/2013/07/30/big-brother-watching-govt-creating-squad-nudge-your-behavior#ixzz2aaDq6h2l

Convenient New Efforts To Curtail Posse Comitatus As More Questions About Colorado Massacre Surface…

Knowledge Creates Power

Remember when the entire nation was looking for John Doe #2—the suspect that was allegedly with Timothy McVeigh when he rented the Ryder truck used in the Oklahoma City Bombing?  But then the FBI deemed John Doe #2 to be a mass hallucination despite dozens of witnesses seeing him (and despite a man being beaten to death for looking like him.)

Well, now we have a mirror image of this case with the Colorado massacre—that is, the complete reverse situation now exists.

Our Ever Over-Reaching Government… Just a Few Examples

Knowledge Creates Power

This Grandpa will be fined $1,000 for playing Frizbee with his grandkids as will the high school boys tossing around the football at Los Angeles Beaches.

Updated: 5-Reasons Obama is Losing the Contraceptive Mandate Battle… But Could be Winning the Power Grab Mandate War

HOLDER AS INTERNET ‘CZAR’: Congress Poised to Grant DOJ Unprecedented Authority

Knowledge Creates Power

Lawmakers in Washington are well known for using the calendar to sneak past the American voters political decisions certain to be unpopular. Take the holiday season, for example, when we’re all preoccupied with events completely unrelated to politics. According to attorney Gary Kreep, President of the United States Justice Foundation (USJF), this season is no different, as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (R-NV) is preparing to fast track through the Senate a bill that has Constitutionalists like Kreep very concerned. Now, after learning from his Washington insiders that Reid has planned a snap final vote on the Senate version of…

Big Brother Alert: Your face and Movements are Being Tracked

The rights of the American People and the U.S. Constitution have been under attack for a long time and the war on personal freedoms was dramatically increased after 9/11 with the passing of the Patriot Act in the name of security.  And under the Obama administration the onslaught has continued at a frightening pace.  Big brother is watching and monitoring us all from Onstar in your car, to everything you write and post on the Internet, to cameras on street corners and the box on your TV, to SmartMeters on your homes and the increased push for chips and biometric information in our bodies and on all our ID.

“He who trades freedom for security usually gets neither!”  …Benjamin Franklin

Yet through the planned process to grind America down including the dumbing down of America and purposeful distraction of the masses, the average American is suffering from either the Sheeple Shuffle or Ostrich Syndrome.