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One Federal Jurist Finally Gets It

Trey Smith

A federal judge on Monday concluded that a National Security Agency program that collects massive amounts of telephone data “likely” violates the Constitution, propelling a high-stakes fight right toward the Supreme Court.

In an extraordinary 68-page decision, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon of Washington ordered the NSA to stop snooping on two specific individuals who had challenged the so-called “bulk telephony metadata” collection program. While Leon then put a stay on his own order, pending a government appeal, his skepticism about the program’s constitutional validity came through loud and clear.

“I believe that bulk telephony metadata collection almost certainly does violate a reasonable expectation of privacy,” Leon wrote, taking note of the “almost Orwellian technology that enables the government to store and analyze the phone metadata of every telephone user in the United States.”

Appointed to the federal bench by President George W. Bush in 2002, Leon further cautioned that the 21st century surveillance technologies may have outstripped the decades-old legal precedents being used to justify them. The only way to resolve the dilemma spelled out in Leon’s decision is for the Supreme Court to revisit the issues once the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit takes a crack at it.
~ from NSA Telephone Spying "Likely" Illegal, Judge Says by Michael Doyle and Ali Watkins ~

In this day and age, it almost is surprising to see that a federal judge finally gets it. This bulk collection of almost ALL phone data on the potentially guilty and innocent alike is obviously far over the legal line. It treats those suspected of no wrongdoing like criminals which is something the founding fathers sought to thwart. I mean, why enumerate specific rights of citizens that government is supposed to not breach?

It's even more amazing that the judge who finally got it was appointed by a Republican President, not a Democratic one. If a conservative jurist is alarmed, this only shows that this program has crossed far, far over the line...or maybe Judge Leon is just some crackpot. Maybe the rest of our vaunted judicial system will give the Obama administration what they want: the ability to abrogate the US Constitution whenever they feel like it!

Wouldn't that be a glorious day!

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So Sorry...But Not THAT Sorry

Trey Smith

I've been catching up on my reading and I came across a November op/ed in the Wall Street Journal, Confessions of a Quantitative Easer, in which a former member of the Fed admits that quantitative easing is what some of us always thought it was: a humungous backdoor bailout of some of the wealthiest banks in the world! As is my wont, that's not what caught my eye.

Before returning to the Fed to lead the program, the author writes,

I had left the Fed out of frustration, having witnessed the institution deferring more and more to Wall Street. Independence is at the heart of any central bank's credibility, and I had come to believe that the Fed's independence was eroding.

Yes, he was soo frustrated with Wall Street's power that, when he left the Fed the first time, where did he go? To Wall Street, of course! He then returned to the Fed, before going back to Wall Street again. The proverbial revolving door!

It is hard to believe that he is troubled by the relationship between the Fed and Wall Street because he bounces back and forth between the two of them. Seems to me that his "apology" is lacking sincerity.

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The Bottom Line Stands Up and Roars

Trey Smith

The world's leading technology companies have united to demand sweeping changes to US surveillance laws, urging an international ban on bulk collection of data to help preserve the public's “trust in the internet”.

In their most concerted response yet to disclosures by the National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Yahoo, LinkedIn, Twitter and AOL will publish an open letter to Barack Obama and Congress on Monday, throwing their weight behind radical reforms already proposed by Washington politicians.

“The balance in many countries has tipped too far in favour of the state and away from the rights of the individual rights that are enshrined in our constitution,” urges the letter signed by the eight US-based internet giants. “This undermines the freedoms we all cherish. It’s time for change.”

Several of the companies claim the revelations have shaken public faith in the internet and blamed spy agencies for the resulting threat to their business interests. “People won’t use technology they don’t trust,” said Brad Smith, Microsoft's general counsel. “Governments have put this trust at risk, and governments need to help restore it.”
~ from NSA Surveillance: Tech Companies Demand Sweeping Changes to US Laws by Dan Roberts and Jemima Kiss ~

It seems rather ironic that corporations who regularly spy and collect hordes of data from their often unsuspecting users are demanding that the federal government not spy and collect hordes of data so much from the unsuspecting masses. There is an obvious reason why these tech giants have committed to this drastic action: money. If people don't trust the internet, they might not rely on it so much and this development could put a serious dent in the bottom line of these companies.

There is no way to gauge how serious these outfits are. Only a very naive person would not understand that, at the very least, this could be nothing more than a savvy pr move. Were it not for Edward Snowden, most of the revelations related to this open letter would have remained hidden from public view. The abuses would have been the same, but it's hard to imagine ANY of these corporations going to bat for the rights of citizens out of the apparent blue. My guess is that, as long as the bottom line was not impacted, these giants wouldn't give a wit about possible governmental abuses of power.

That said, beggars can't be choosers. If this open letter helps to create the political will to put some serious constraints on the NSA, then I welcome it. Just don't expect me to sing praises for the altruistic actions of Microsoft or Google.

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This Really Isn't "News"

Trey Smith

Conservative groups across the US are planning a coordinated assault against public sector rights and services in the key areas of education, healthcare, income tax, workers' compensation and the environment, documents obtained by the Guardian reveal.

The strategy for the state-level organisations, which describe themselves as "free-market think tanks", includes proposals from six different states for cuts in public sector pensions, campaigns to reduce the wages of government workers and eliminate income taxes, school voucher schemes to counter public education, opposition to Medicaid, and a campaign against regional efforts to combat greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change.

The policy goals are contained in a set of funding proposals obtained by the Guardian. The proposals were coordinated by the State Policy Network, an alliance of groups that act as incubators of conservative strategy at state level.

The documents contain 40 funding proposals from 34 states, providing a blueprint for the conservative agenda in 2014.
~ from State Conservative Groups Plan US-Wide Assault on Education, Health and Tax by Ed Pilkington and Suzanne Goldenberg ~

A lot of liberal and alternative media pundits are acting like this leaked information is big, B-I-G news, but is it really? Which of these policy initiatives is new? Which one hasn't been part of the conservative agenda in year's past?

Let's get real here, folks. This agenda doesn't look much different from the one pursued 10 or 20 years ago. Yes, some of the specific targets (issues) change with the generations, but the overall aim is the same. The elite want to eliminate the social safety net as much as possible and shift public monies into their own pockets. They also want tight controls placed on the unwashed masses, while, at the same time, they want to be freed from almost any degree of constraint.

I suppose the difference between now and twenty years ago is that this agenda is out in the open for all to see. In the olden days, the elite pursued such policy initiatives behind the scenes and the general public was none the wiser. These days, however, it's getting harder to keep one's activities under the radar...even for the elite. Someone always is ready to spill the beans.

Unfortunately, just because we know the parameters of their current blueprint, this doesn't mean we have much chance of stopping them. They hold most of the cards and they know it. In some ways, they probably don't care that we know what they are up to because we pose so little of a threat.

Turn It Around

Trey Smith

French MPs have voted to impose punitive fines on prostitutes' customers as part of a controversial new law going through parliament aimed at helping sex workers throw off the shackles of pimps and organised criminal gangs.

The measure, part of an anti-sex-trade bill, was approved by a show of hands in the Assemblée Nationale in the early hours of Saturday.

If the rest of the law is approved, customers of prostitutes will face a fine of €1,500 for a first "contravention", rising to €3,750 for subsequent offences, which will be considered crimes.

The proposals, introduced under a private members' bill, shift the criminal responsibility away from the estimated 40,000 prostitutes in France and on to their clients. Prostitution is legal in France, but soliciting, pimping and selling underage sex are not.

France's Socialist government introduced the legislation after examining a similar law in Sweden passed in 1999, which supporters claim has reduced the level of prostitution in the country by half.
~ from French MPs Vote to Impose Fines on Prostitutes' Customers by Kim Willsher ~

Personally, I think the act of prostitution should be legal between consenting adults, so I don't favor laws that seek to target prostitutes OR their clients. But this post isn't about prostitution anyway; it's about illegal immigration.

In the US, we don't go after the clientele of "illegal" aliens -- the corporations who enrich themselves on the backs of the immigrants. If we were serious about ending the flow of illegal immigration -- I submit that our political leaders aren't all that serious -- this is the tack to be taken. If we hammered those who hire illegal immigrants -- massive fines and/or jail time -- the market for those kinds of workers would dry up rather quickly.

But illegal immigration is vital to our national economy. Get rid of all the migrant workers and you can flush any economic prosperity goodbye. This is why we punish the "prostitute" and not the "john". It makes it appear as if something is being done about the "problem" when, in fact, almost nothing is being done.

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Is Diplomacy More Important Than Constitutional Rights?

Trey Smith

People in Europe are growing increasingly incensed that the US is “hoovering up” their communications, storing them, and picking through them with mega computers that hunt for key words. But people in the US are growing increasingly angry that the NSA is doing the same thing here at home.

And just as this outrageous international electronic eavesdropping is destroying America’s image abroad and threatening long-held alliances, it is destroying American democracy, and public faith in the Bill of Rights, right here at home.

Not that Alexander and Clapper care. They don’t answer to the American people. They work for the US government, and the government these days -- the president, the Congress and the Supreme Court -- is clearly not “of, by and for” the people. It is of, by and for the corporations and the elite, and that oligarchic power elite, having stolen the country blind over the past several decades, is getting worried that the public is starting to wake up to, and grow restive about it.

The ruling elite wants an all-seeing NSA to keep the public in check, and to enable it to spot, and then to crush, any outbreak of rebellion, as was done so effectively to the Occupy Movement in the autumn of 2011.

It’s probably fair to say that the crushing of Occupy was the first battle of the second American revolution. Looking back someday, it will also probably be recognized as the trial run of the NSA security net.
~ from The Big Question the National Security State Isn’t Asking by Dave Lindorff ~

As Lindorff points out in this column, our higher ups admit that spying on allies might not be such a good thing, but they don't seem to have the same qualms about spying on Americans! So, it won't be all that surprising if NSA reforms end up protecting those in Europe more so than citizens in the US.

What I find the most amazing about these revelations about wide scale "intelligence gathering" is that, for the most part, the politicians and power brokers who support it are the very same people who present themselves as staunch defenders of the US Constitution. We should remember that Obama is a constitutional scholar and many of those on the right rabidly defend the part of the constitution that deals with "the right to bear arms." But when it comes to the part of the constitution that deals with "unreasonable search and seizure," these same defenders go mute!

Big Number Means Next Too Nothing

Trey Smith

The US government has urged that Bank of America Corp pay $863.6m in damages after a federal jury found it liable for fraud over defective mortgages sold by its Countrywide unit.

In a filing late Friday in the US district court in Manhattan, the government also asked for penalties against Rebecca Mairone, a former mid-level executive at the bank's Countrywide unit who the jury also found liable, "commensurate with her ability to pay".

The government said the penalties were necessary to punish the bank and Mairone "and to send a clear and unambiguous message that mortgage fraud for profit will not be tolerated".

Bank of America and Mairone were each found liable for defrauding government-controlled mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac through the sale of shoddy loans purchased from Countrywide in 2007 and 2008. The case centered on a mortgage lending process at Countrywide, which Bank of America bought in July 2008, known as the "High Speed Swim Lane," or alternatively "HSSL" or "Hustle". (my emphasis)
~ from US Seeks $864 Million From Bank of America After Mortgage Fraud Verdict via Reuters ~

Here we have yet another example of a big number that isn't nearly as big as it seems. According to Wikipedia, around the time that this fraud was committed, Bank of America (BoFA) controlled "20–25% of the home loan market." That is a staggering percentage and it means they were pulling in a staggering amount of money. We're not talking about millions of dollars either. Try over $100 billion per year.

Let's take a look at the proposed fine from another angle. In 2012 alone, BoFA had $83.33 billion in revenue. They held $236.95 billion in equity and had total assets of $2.209 trillion. As a percentage of these vast assets, $863.6 million represents 0.000425628. That's not even one-tenth of one percent!

As I have done before, let's bring down these high brow numbers to something most of us can get a handle on. If you or I was fined $1,000 for some offense and we only had to pay at the rate of 0.000425628, the actual fine would be...drum roll please...43 cents. Not even one measly dollar! Do you think this would dissuade you from committing a similar offense again?

The point here is that the real message the government is sending is the OPPOSITE of what they say. A fine of such a miniscule amount sends a clear and unambiguous message that mortgage fraud for profit WILL BE tolerated, if not encouraged. It is saying, as Cenk Uygur likes to say, "Have at it, Hoss!"

With a Friend Like This...

Trey Smith

Remember a week or so ago when staunch NSA defender Sen. Dianne Feinstein became all "upset" that German Chancellor Angela Merkel had been spied on? Feinstein announced that this was going too far and it had motivated her to introduce legislation to "reform" the nasty NSA. As it turns out, Feinstein has an odd way of defining the word, reform.

The legislation would make clear in no uncertain terms that communication records like phone, email, and internet data can be collected without even an ounce of suspicion, pursuant to the so-called privacy rules already in place. Being silent on other types of data like location information or financial records, it passively condones their collection too, but without even the benefit of the paltry protections in place now. For the first time in history, Congress would explicitly and intentionally authorize dragnet domestic spying programs targeting every day Americans.

The Feinstein bill also makes the current situation even worse. It gives the government a 72-hour grace period to warrantlessly spy on foreigners who enter the US, without even the attorney general approval that is currently required in emergency situations. It explicitly states that none of its provisions should be read to prevent law enforcement from digging through massive NSA databases for evidence of criminal activity. By doing so, it authorizes that specific practice in a roundabout way. Finally, it sets up the prospect of all members of Congress accessing important court orders and other information, but then undercuts this requirement by endorsing current rules and practices that have been used to prevent members of the House from reading foundational documents that could inform the votes they must make on whether to continue these programs.

I think we can call this doubling down! Not only does she not really want to reform anything, she wants to make a bad situation worse. She wants to provide the NSA with the legal permission to do whatever they want to. She wants to grant the NSA the ability to ignore the US Constitution outright.

It also should be remembered that Dianne Feinstein is a D-E-M-O-C-R-A-T, not some rabid conservative who doesn't trust the rabble. She supposedly is a leading member of a political party that historically stood up for the unwashed masses. Sadly, that Democratic Party is dead as a doornail. What we are left with is two parties that represent the same constituency -- the elite. No one is left to represent the rest of us.

Breaking Bad (For Jesus)

Trey Smith

In a move sure to please religious conservatives, President Obama's Justice Department filed a brief in the Supreme Court in favor of allowing overtly Christian prayers before city council meetings. It's an inexplicable move, and it's one more befitting a Republican administration than one headed by a Democrat and a constitutional scholar.

The case is Town of Greece v. Galloway, and it's set to be argued in the Supreme Court on Wednesday. Greece is a suburb of Rochester, N.Y. Until 1999, its Town Board opened meetings with a moment of silence - a practice that excludes no one. But then Town Supervisor John Auberger initiated a policy change, and the town began inviting clergy to open meetings with a prayer.

These prayers were decidedly and explicitly Christian. From 1999 to 2007, the town invited exclusively Christian ministers, most of whom included explicitly Christian content. Some elaborated on Christian theology, including such discussions as "the saving sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross" and "the plan of redemption that is fulfilled in Jesus Christ."

These prayers were delivered to an audience of local citizens, including children and adults, who attend meetings at the Town Board's invitation or direction. Children's athletic teams are invited to be publicly honored, police officers and their families attend to participate in oath-of-office ceremonies, people come to speak about local issues of great personal importance, and would-be business owners come to request zoning permits.

All of these people - Christians and non-Christians - are asked to stand and bow their heads for many of these prayers. But Muslims, Jews and nonbelievers cannot in good conscience participate in a prayer to Jesus Christ, and doing so shouldn't be the price of civic participation.
~ from Why Is the Obama Administration Bowing to Religion? by Erwin Chemerinsky ~

What will conservatives say now that the "Kenyan-born", "secret Muslim" and "ardent socialist" Obama is arguing THEIR side before the US Supreme Court?

This report has me so dumbfounded that I don't know what to say. 

Why even get involved in this hot-button political issue when you don't have to? What is he thinking?  Is he trying to manufacture a political firestorm in an attempt to move NSA and FBI misdeeds off the front page?

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The Writing on the Wall

Trey Smith

Amidst all the political races and ballot initiative votes yesterday, something very positive happened in the State of Illinois. The legislature passed a bill legalizing same-sex marriage. The governor has said he will sign it and, when he does, Illinois will become the 15th state to legalize it. That means that same-sex marriage will be legal in nearly one-third of all states.

Who would have imagined this only a generation or two ago? This development helps to explain why conservatives are running around the country as if their hair is on fire! They see the writing on the wall. At the rate we're going, same-sex marriage will be a non-issue in another generation or two. Soon, maybe we can start tackling REAL problems -- not made-up religious ones -- like global warming or ever-widening income disparity. Ya know, the kinds of problems that impact almost everyone...regardless of your nationality, skin color, gender or sexual orientation.

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