December 2009 archive
Dec 03 2009
Docudharma Times Thursday December 3
Dec 03 2009
John Pilger – Obama and Empire
Well worth the look in light of Obama’s escalation in Afghanistan.
Dec 03 2009
Spying on you, it turns out, is lucrative!
Get ready. Turns out that spying on Americans is a lucrative business. Yes, it’s becoming its own “Industry”. Soon we’ll have a Domestic Spying Lobby, Domestic Spying Foundations, Domestic Spying Majors at Universities.
All this time, I thought they did it because, well, they were evil. You know, that whole “power corrupts” thing. But no, it’s really pretty mundane anymore — you can sell the info that you get on your customers. I guess companies have always done this, but instead of giving your phone number to annoying telemarketers, they are giving a record of your whereabouts, and everything you’ve ever said on the phone, to the fucking GOVERNMENT.
Here’s one little story about it:
Yahoo: Our spying policy would ‘shock’ customers
A little-noticed letter from Yahoo! to the US Marshals Service offers troubling insight into the surveillance policies of one of the Internet’s largest email providers.
In response to a Freedom of Information Act request seeking details of Yahoo’s! policies allowing the Justice Department to request wiretaps of its users and the amount they charge US taxpayers per wiretap — the search engine leviathan declared in a 12-page letter that they couldn’t provide information on their approach because their pricing scheme would “shock” customers. The news was first reported by Kim Zetter at Wired.
“It is reasonable to assume from these comments that the [pricing] information, if disclosed, would be used to “shame” Yahoo! and other companies — and to “shock” their customers,” a lawyer for the company writes. “Therefore, release of Yahoo!’s information is reasonably likely to lead to impairment of its reputation for protection of user privacy and security, which is a competitive disadvantage for technology companies.”
Yahoo! also argues that because their price sheet for wiretaps was “voluntarily submitted” to the US Marshals Service, it is exempt from the Freedom of Information Act law.
Verizon, meanwhile, says (letter PDF) they can’t provide details on how much they charge for wiretaps because it would be “confusing.”
Hell, why can’t the Justice Department just come to us first? I mean, if they wanted to buy a record of my e-mails and my whereabouts, shouldn’t they offer me the money first? I’ll gladly tell them! I’ll wear a goddamn ankle bracelet for them if the price is right! No need to go to Yahoo at all. But no, it’s always Corporate Welfare First with these people …..
Here’s the other story:
Sprint Nextel provided law enforcement agencies with its customers’ (GPS) location information over 8 million times between September 2008 and October 2009. This massive disclosure of sensitive customer information was made possible due to the roll-out by Sprint of a new, special web portal for law enforcement officers.
8 million times! Holy shit! How do they even have the personnel to handle that kind of info-tsunami? WTF is up with that? I’m a Sprint customer, did they pay for my records? Again, I’ll gladly tell them if they want to pay me! Or shit, just give me free phone service and they can do whatever they want with my records! “Hey, honey. I’m at the store. Are we out of milk? I can’t remember …..”
And one of the links embedded here points to the fact that I’m not joking around here, this really IS a business!
Check out this proud corporate website!
http://www.issworldtraining.co…
Intelligence Support Systems for Lawful Interception,
Criminal Investigations and Intelligence GatheringISS World Americas is the world’s largest gathering of North American, Caribbean and Latin American Law Enforcement, Intelligence and Homeland Security Analysts and Telecom Operators responsible for lawful interception, electronic investigations and network Intelligence gathering.
ISS World Programs present the methodologies and tools to bridge the chasms from lawful intercept data gathering to information creation to investigator knowledge to actionable intelligence.
Our 2010 Agenda is coming soon! Below find the agenda for our just completed 2009 conference.
Nice! Big Brother has gone public! You, too, can have a career in spying on your neighbors. I thought we won the cold war, and the Soviet Union was no more. When did we turn into a capitalist version of it again? Oh yeah, “911 changed everything blah blah blah blah”. Fuck 9/11. What Ben Franklin said. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, look it up. Something about deserving to lose your liberties.
Dec 03 2009
Dark days for the Unemployed
There’s nothing like having a good job.
So WHY is Corporate America so keen on giving those good jobs to someone other than Americans?
The Geography Of A Recession 2007-2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…
Of course, the answer to that WHY — is to increase their bottom lines, whatever it may cost their country in the long run.
It’s just Business, right?
Dec 03 2009
What do you know about inflammatory breast cancer?
There is a little known but deadly breast cancer that presents itself without a lump, so most women do not know how to check for the signs. It is cunning because it looks like a common, everyday irritation when it’s in the early stages, and it can progress to Stage IV in a matter of weeks or months. Many doctors see this cancer and mistake it for a spider bite, an allergic rash, or a mild infection.
Inflammatory breast cancer is a rare and aggressive disease. It strikes black women disproportionately, and doesn’t discriminate against the young. The average woman who gets this diagnosis is 57, but it’s seen in teenagers, as well. It kills young people more visciously than the rest: the trend is that younger patients commonly fail to survive five years after treatment. Perhaps they are less likely to seek treatment as soon as older women. But this disease can kill a woman stone dead in a matter of months without treatment.
Update: Photobucket removed the pictures of this disease, probably because they contain breasts. Great. Look in the links and the videos, and you will see many good photos of this disease’s various expressions.
Dec 03 2009
I Am The Lord Thy God, & You Fuckers Have Every Part of It Wrong.
ONE: ‘You shall have no other gods before Me.‘
God. Good. Love. Is that REALLY your God, people? Are you honoring my request?
No. You are putting money before me, power before me, and every other God before me, including the Message I gave other people.
You are more obsessed with THEIR god, than your own contract with me. I told you NOT to put their Gods before Me, just as I told them not to put your God before Me.
Mind your business with yourself and Me. Mind not Atheists either, you are making their lack of God more important than your relationship with me. Perhaps I am already IN THEM directly. It is NOT your business.
Mind Yourself, and what I think of you.
Dec 03 2009
Why Obama’s “troop surge” will succeed — and fail
Yes, this new “troop surge” will succeed. Yes, it will also fail.
The first thing you have to do is realize what the escalation of troops in Afghanistan is meant to accomplish.
As Rachel Maddow is, as I type, explaining, the entire goal of the surge is to provide enough cover for President Karzai’s government that, within 18 months, we can leave and his government is no longer threatened.
(crossposted at Daily Kos)
Dec 03 2009
Hessians Part II
You all remember Blackwater (now Xe) don’t you? And Erik Prince, Soldier of God?
Well, there’s been some web commentary on this Vanity Fair piece that is certainly worth looking at (not that it isn’t always worth stopping by emptywheel’s place).
Spy Versus Spy with Erik Prince
By: emptywheel Wednesday December 2, 2009 4:00 pm
Among the revelations emptywheel enumerates-
- He was tasked by the CIA to create a “small, focused capability”
- The CIA’s original assassination squad trained at his personal estate outside of DC
- Prince integrated third-party nationals into the assassination squad who did not know of the CIA connection
- He (personally) and a team of foreign nationals targeted someone in 2008
- He did the targeting on al-Qaeda middleman Abu Ghadiyah in Syria
- The CIA referred the stories on Blackwater to the DOJ for criminal investigation
This in addition to the ‘old’ news that Blackwater was given operational control of CIA Predator Drones and fired Hellfire Missiles at targets and that Blackwater was the Cheney assassination squad that Leon Panetta (Director of the CIA) and the Congress were lied to about by the CIA.
I’ll ask you to give her your eyeballs for a moment or two and if you like it you might also be interested in dday’s take.
Dec 03 2009
Capitulation or Compromise?
Don’t Confuse Capitulation With Compromise
By: Jon Walker, Firedog Lake
Wednesday December 2, 2009 3:28 pm
The progressives have said a public option is a must-have. A majority of both the House and Senate would vote for bill with a public option. If progressives are forced to surrender the public option, to try to “trade” it for something better, then they must officially admit that Ben Nelson, Blanche Lincoln, Mary Landrieu, and Joe Lieberman are the infinitely more powerful bloc. If progressives give up on the public option, they will cede power and influence in Washington for a very long time. Even bigger than health care, if the entire Democratic party exists only to give Joe Lieberman, Ben Nelson, Blanche Lincoln, and Mary Landrieu sole power to design every peice of legislation, the progressive grassroots needs to reevaluate why they even vote for Democrats.
Dec 03 2009
Pony Party: Caption These!
I will be at work tonight but will check in when I get home. Meanwhile, I hope you have fun with these, and as always, feel free to add your own lols, vids, or whatever in the comments.
Pony Party is an open thread. Please do not rec the party.
moar funny pictures