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marmar
marmar's Journal
marmar's Journal
June 10, 2013
from hullabaloo, via alternet:
Yesterday I posted a little tid-bit about the NSA proposing some years back to "re-think the 4th Amendment" in a once secret (now de-classified) document. I was reading it over again this morning and happened upon this little tid-bit:
So, for all those who worry about ham-stringing the government in its noble quest to protect us from the boogeyman, where exactly does this fit into the matrix of concerns? Are we all ok with the NSA doing secret surveillance of Americans' activities with a mandate to "stem the flow of narcotics into our country"?
Remember, this document was written long before any alleged terrorist plots featuring Mexican drug lords existed. This was about drug interdiction, period. That's not to say that in recent years the DEA and the National Security apparatus haven't pretty much merged under the umbrella of "narco-terrorism". But the NSA has been involved in the drug war for a very long time.
Is everyone comfortable with that, knowing what we know about how much information they're collecting?
Digby: Did You Know that NSA Spymasters Are Involved in the War on Drugs?
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/nsa-drug-warfrom hullabaloo, via alternet:
Yesterday I posted a little tid-bit about the NSA proposing some years back to "re-think the 4th Amendment" in a once secret (now de-classified) document. I was reading it over again this morning and happened upon this little tid-bit:
So, for all those who worry about ham-stringing the government in its noble quest to protect us from the boogeyman, where exactly does this fit into the matrix of concerns? Are we all ok with the NSA doing secret surveillance of Americans' activities with a mandate to "stem the flow of narcotics into our country"?
Remember, this document was written long before any alleged terrorist plots featuring Mexican drug lords existed. This was about drug interdiction, period. That's not to say that in recent years the DEA and the National Security apparatus haven't pretty much merged under the umbrella of "narco-terrorism". But the NSA has been involved in the drug war for a very long time.
Is everyone comfortable with that, knowing what we know about how much information they're collecting?
June 10, 2013
from the BBC:
A dozen male train drivers in Sweden have circumvented a ban on shorts by wearing skirts to work in hot weather.
The workers, who operate the Roslagsbanan line north of the capital Stockholm, have been wearing skirts to work for the past two weeks.
Employer Arriva banned the drivers from wearing shorts after taking over the running of the line in January.
But the company has given the men its blessing to wear skirts, according to local newspaper Mitti. ................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22828150
Sweden: Male train drivers wear skirts after shorts row
from the BBC:
A dozen male train drivers in Sweden have circumvented a ban on shorts by wearing skirts to work in hot weather.
The workers, who operate the Roslagsbanan line north of the capital Stockholm, have been wearing skirts to work for the past two weeks.
Employer Arriva banned the drivers from wearing shorts after taking over the running of the line in January.
But the company has given the men its blessing to wear skirts, according to local newspaper Mitti. ................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22828150
June 10, 2013
Minimum wage workers haven’t seen their pay go up much in the past 50 years, but that doesn't mean they're less valuable to their employers.
The chart below from the New America Foundation, a non-profit public policy institute, shows that worker productivity has in fact skyrocketed even as the real minimum wage (which is the minimum wage adjusted for inflation) has seen slow growth.
The New America Foundation report adds to the growing body of evidence that workers are getting squeezed while companies profit.
The minimum wage would be $21.72 an hour if it kept pace with increases in worker productivity, according to a March study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research. ...................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/10/minimum-wage-productivity_n_3416866.html?ncid=txtlnkushpmg00000037&ir=Politics
Minimum Wage Saw Little Growth Over The Last 50 Years As Productivity Surged
Minimum wage workers haven’t seen their pay go up much in the past 50 years, but that doesn't mean they're less valuable to their employers.
The chart below from the New America Foundation, a non-profit public policy institute, shows that worker productivity has in fact skyrocketed even as the real minimum wage (which is the minimum wage adjusted for inflation) has seen slow growth.
The New America Foundation report adds to the growing body of evidence that workers are getting squeezed while companies profit.
The minimum wage would be $21.72 an hour if it kept pace with increases in worker productivity, according to a March study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research. ...................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/10/minimum-wage-productivity_n_3416866.html?ncid=txtlnkushpmg00000037&ir=Politics
June 10, 2013
from Grist:
Sugar low: Big Soda is losing the battle for American hearts and bellies
By Tom Laskawy
Don’t tell the Coca-Cola Corporation, but according to a major new study, kids today are drinking less soda. And that’s not all. They’re drinking less sugary drinks overall — a category that includes sports drinks like Gatorade and Powerade, flavored waters like Vitaminwater, and fruit drinks. Huzzah!
It probably has something to do with public ad campaigns like this latest from New York City:
Indeed, NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg has styled himself the Great (anti-)Soda Satan and he is probably pleased as punch about this latest news, despite the fact that his proposed ban on supersized sodas has been stopped, for the moment at least, by a beverage industry lawsuit.
The links between soda consumption and health risks like diabetes continue to grow stronger. This recent study from the U.K. found drinking one soda a day increases your diabetes risk by 22 percent. And of course, there’s plenty of evidence linking soda to obesity in general. So the drop in soda consumption here in the U.S. is likely a significant factor in the current slowing of the obesity epidemic, especially in cities that have put serious resources behind combating it. ...................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://grist.org/food/sugar-low-big-soda-is-losing-the-battle-for-american-hearts-and-bellies/
Sugar low: Big Soda is losing the battle for American hearts and bellies
from Grist:
Sugar low: Big Soda is losing the battle for American hearts and bellies
By Tom Laskawy
Don’t tell the Coca-Cola Corporation, but according to a major new study, kids today are drinking less soda. And that’s not all. They’re drinking less sugary drinks overall — a category that includes sports drinks like Gatorade and Powerade, flavored waters like Vitaminwater, and fruit drinks. Huzzah!
It probably has something to do with public ad campaigns like this latest from New York City:
Indeed, NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg has styled himself the Great (anti-)Soda Satan and he is probably pleased as punch about this latest news, despite the fact that his proposed ban on supersized sodas has been stopped, for the moment at least, by a beverage industry lawsuit.
The links between soda consumption and health risks like diabetes continue to grow stronger. This recent study from the U.K. found drinking one soda a day increases your diabetes risk by 22 percent. And of course, there’s plenty of evidence linking soda to obesity in general. So the drop in soda consumption here in the U.S. is likely a significant factor in the current slowing of the obesity epidemic, especially in cities that have put serious resources behind combating it. ...................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://grist.org/food/sugar-low-big-soda-is-losing-the-battle-for-american-hearts-and-bellies/
June 10, 2013
It's Time to Do Away With Homeland Security
Sunday, 09 June 2013 00:00
By The Thom Hartmann Program, The Daily Take | Op-Ed
The surveillance state is even bigger, and scarier, than we thought.
And, as a result, it's time that we broke up the failed national security experiment known as the Department of Homeland Security. Returning to dozens of independent agencies will return internal checks-and-balances to within the Executive branch, and actually make us both safer and less likely to be the victims of government snooping overreach.
On Wednesday night – the Guardian's Glenn Greenwald revealed that the National Security Agency is secretly collecting the phone records of millions of Verizon users. The agency received authorization to track phone "metadata" over a 3 month period from a special court order issued in April.
We now also know that what the Guardian uncovered is just the tip of the iceberg of an ongoing phone and internet records collection program that likely includes almost all major U.S. telecommunications companies. .................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/16854-its-time-to-do-away-with-homeland-security
It's Time to Do Away With Homeland Security
It's Time to Do Away With Homeland Security
Sunday, 09 June 2013 00:00
By The Thom Hartmann Program, The Daily Take | Op-Ed
The surveillance state is even bigger, and scarier, than we thought.
And, as a result, it's time that we broke up the failed national security experiment known as the Department of Homeland Security. Returning to dozens of independent agencies will return internal checks-and-balances to within the Executive branch, and actually make us both safer and less likely to be the victims of government snooping overreach.
On Wednesday night – the Guardian's Glenn Greenwald revealed that the National Security Agency is secretly collecting the phone records of millions of Verizon users. The agency received authorization to track phone "metadata" over a 3 month period from a special court order issued in April.
We now also know that what the Guardian uncovered is just the tip of the iceberg of an ongoing phone and internet records collection program that likely includes almost all major U.S. telecommunications companies. .................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/16854-its-time-to-do-away-with-homeland-security
June 10, 2013
from the American Prospect:
How All Three Branches Conspired to Threaten Your Privacy
Scott Lemieux
June 7, 2013
Checks and balances have not worked in the way the framers envisioned.
The recent revelations about the court order issued to Verizon asking them to hand over data about the calls made by millions of customers were chilling not so much for the specific information the government was asking for, but for what the order likely portended. Given its massive scope, the potential for spying into electronic communications made much more disturbing revelations inevitable. It didn't take long for the other shoe to drop.
In a blockbuster story, Barton Gellman and Laura Poitras of The Washington Post have revealed the existence of a more comprehensive spying program with the code name PRISM involving the National Security Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation, as well as at least nine telecommunications giants. It's a classic case of how checks and balances have not worked in the way the framers envisioned. Far from checking executive overreach, Congress has authorized dangerous expansions of power while various levels of the judiciary break out their rubber stamps.
While I disagree with much of what Slate's William Saletan has to say in defense of the Verizon letter uncovered on Wednesday, he does raise one powerful argument. The order did not seek the content of emails, making the spying less intrusive than wiretapping. "The targeted data are mathematical," he wrote, "not verbal." I can understand the argument that—to return to the classic Fourth Amendment analogies I mentioned yesterday—the Verizon order seized data more comparable to the front of an envelope or garbage left on the sidewalk than a private telephone call.
Whatever its merits, this defense of the NSA (and FBI) is no longer operative. The PRISM program does not merely assess the number and length of phone calls or emails. As explained in the remarkable slideshow leaked to the Post, the NSA data-mining includes a wide variety of content hosted on corporate servers: emails, online chats, phone calls, data stored on cloud drives, video conferences, and a variety of other data. (including, in case that list is not quite comprehensive enough, "special requests."
PRISM has access to both stored and live data. This isn't like looking at the front of envelopes; this is like ripping open the letters, scanning the contents, and storing the information. "The PRISM program appears more nearly to resemble the most controversial of the warrantless surveillance orders issued by President George W. Bush," the Post article asserts, and "shows how fundamentally surveillance law and practice have shifted away from individual suspicion in favor of systematic, mass collection techniques." ....................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://prospect.org/article/how-all-three-branches-conspired-threaten-your-privacy
How All Three Branches Conspired to Threaten Your Privacy
from the American Prospect:
How All Three Branches Conspired to Threaten Your Privacy
Scott Lemieux
June 7, 2013
Checks and balances have not worked in the way the framers envisioned.
The recent revelations about the court order issued to Verizon asking them to hand over data about the calls made by millions of customers were chilling not so much for the specific information the government was asking for, but for what the order likely portended. Given its massive scope, the potential for spying into electronic communications made much more disturbing revelations inevitable. It didn't take long for the other shoe to drop.
In a blockbuster story, Barton Gellman and Laura Poitras of The Washington Post have revealed the existence of a more comprehensive spying program with the code name PRISM involving the National Security Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation, as well as at least nine telecommunications giants. It's a classic case of how checks and balances have not worked in the way the framers envisioned. Far from checking executive overreach, Congress has authorized dangerous expansions of power while various levels of the judiciary break out their rubber stamps.
While I disagree with much of what Slate's William Saletan has to say in defense of the Verizon letter uncovered on Wednesday, he does raise one powerful argument. The order did not seek the content of emails, making the spying less intrusive than wiretapping. "The targeted data are mathematical," he wrote, "not verbal." I can understand the argument that—to return to the classic Fourth Amendment analogies I mentioned yesterday—the Verizon order seized data more comparable to the front of an envelope or garbage left on the sidewalk than a private telephone call.
Whatever its merits, this defense of the NSA (and FBI) is no longer operative. The PRISM program does not merely assess the number and length of phone calls or emails. As explained in the remarkable slideshow leaked to the Post, the NSA data-mining includes a wide variety of content hosted on corporate servers: emails, online chats, phone calls, data stored on cloud drives, video conferences, and a variety of other data. (including, in case that list is not quite comprehensive enough, "special requests."
PRISM has access to both stored and live data. This isn't like looking at the front of envelopes; this is like ripping open the letters, scanning the contents, and storing the information. "The PRISM program appears more nearly to resemble the most controversial of the warrantless surveillance orders issued by President George W. Bush," the Post article asserts, and "shows how fundamentally surveillance law and practice have shifted away from individual suspicion in favor of systematic, mass collection techniques." ....................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://prospect.org/article/how-all-three-branches-conspired-threaten-your-privacy
June 10, 2013
(WaPo) Global emissions of carbon dioxide from energy use rose 1.4 percent to 31.6 gigatons in 2012, setting a record and putting the planet on course for temperature increases well above international climate goals, the International Energy Agency said in a report scheduled to be issued Monday.
The agency said continuing that pace could mean a temperature increase over pre-industrial times of as much as 5.3 degrees Celsius (9 degrees Fahrenheit), which IEA chief economist Fatih Birol warned “would be a disaster for all countries.”
“This puts us on a difficult and dangerous trajectory,” Birol said. “If we don’t do anything between now and 2020, it will be very difficult because there will be a lot of carbon already in the atmosphere and the energy infrastructure will be locked in.”
The energy sector accounts for more than two-thirds of greenhouse gas emissions, so “energy has a crucial role to play in tackling climate change,” the IEA said. Its report urged nations to take four steps, including aggressive energy-efficiency measures, by 2015 to keep alive any hope of limiting climate change to 2 degrees Celsius. ..................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/carbon-dioxide-emissions-rose-14-percent-in-2012-iea-report-says/2013/06/09/35d32bac-d123-11e2-8cbe-1bcbee06f8f8_story.html?hpid=z2
Report: Rise in carbon dioxide emissions may be ‘a disaster for all’
(WaPo) Global emissions of carbon dioxide from energy use rose 1.4 percent to 31.6 gigatons in 2012, setting a record and putting the planet on course for temperature increases well above international climate goals, the International Energy Agency said in a report scheduled to be issued Monday.
The agency said continuing that pace could mean a temperature increase over pre-industrial times of as much as 5.3 degrees Celsius (9 degrees Fahrenheit), which IEA chief economist Fatih Birol warned “would be a disaster for all countries.”
“This puts us on a difficult and dangerous trajectory,” Birol said. “If we don’t do anything between now and 2020, it will be very difficult because there will be a lot of carbon already in the atmosphere and the energy infrastructure will be locked in.”
The energy sector accounts for more than two-thirds of greenhouse gas emissions, so “energy has a crucial role to play in tackling climate change,” the IEA said. Its report urged nations to take four steps, including aggressive energy-efficiency measures, by 2015 to keep alive any hope of limiting climate change to 2 degrees Celsius. ..................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/carbon-dioxide-emissions-rose-14-percent-in-2012-iea-report-says/2013/06/09/35d32bac-d123-11e2-8cbe-1bcbee06f8f8_story.html?hpid=z2
June 10, 2013
The Quiet Closing of Washington
Saturday, June 8, 2013
Conservative Republicans in our nation’s capital have managed to accomplish something they only dreamed of when Tea Partiers streamed into Congress at the start of 2011: They’ve basically shut Congress down. Their refusal to compromise is working just as they hoped: No jobs agenda. No budget. No grand bargain on the deficit. No background checks on guns. Nothing on climate change. No tax reform. No hike in the minimum wage. Nothing so far on immigration reform.
It’s as if an entire branch of the federal government — the branch that’s supposed to deal directly with the nation’s problems, not just execute the law or interpret the law but make the law — has gone out of business, leaving behind only a so-called “sequester” that’s cutting deeper and deeper into education, infrastructure, programs for the nation’s poor, and national defense.
The window of opportunity for the President to get anything done is closing rapidly. Even in less partisan times, new initiatives rarely occur after the first year of a second term, when a president inexorably slides toward lame duck status.
But the nation’s work doesn’t stop even if Washington does. By default, more and more of it is shifting to the states, which are far less gridlocked than Washington. Last November’s elections resulted in one-party control of both the legislatures and governor’s offices in all but 13 states — the most single-party dominance in decades. ...............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://robertreich.org/post/52488978442
Robert Reich: The Quiet Closing of Washington
The Quiet Closing of Washington
Saturday, June 8, 2013
Conservative Republicans in our nation’s capital have managed to accomplish something they only dreamed of when Tea Partiers streamed into Congress at the start of 2011: They’ve basically shut Congress down. Their refusal to compromise is working just as they hoped: No jobs agenda. No budget. No grand bargain on the deficit. No background checks on guns. Nothing on climate change. No tax reform. No hike in the minimum wage. Nothing so far on immigration reform.
It’s as if an entire branch of the federal government — the branch that’s supposed to deal directly with the nation’s problems, not just execute the law or interpret the law but make the law — has gone out of business, leaving behind only a so-called “sequester” that’s cutting deeper and deeper into education, infrastructure, programs for the nation’s poor, and national defense.
The window of opportunity for the President to get anything done is closing rapidly. Even in less partisan times, new initiatives rarely occur after the first year of a second term, when a president inexorably slides toward lame duck status.
But the nation’s work doesn’t stop even if Washington does. By default, more and more of it is shifting to the states, which are far less gridlocked than Washington. Last November’s elections resulted in one-party control of both the legislatures and governor’s offices in all but 13 states — the most single-party dominance in decades. ...............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://robertreich.org/post/52488978442
June 10, 2013
from truthdig:
The Judicial Lynching of Bradley Manning
Posted on Jun 9, 2013
By Chris Hedges
FORT MEADE, Md.—The military trial of Bradley Manning is a judicial lynching. The government has effectively muzzled the defense team. The Army private first class is not permitted to argue that he had a moral and legal obligation under international law to make public the war crimes he uncovered. The documents that detail the crimes, torture and killing Manning revealed, because they are classified, have been barred from discussion in court, effectively removing the fundamental issue of war crimes from the trial. Manning is forbidden by the court to challenge the government’s unverified assertion that he harmed national security. Lead defense attorney David E. Coombs said during pretrial proceedings that the judge’s refusal to permit information on the lack of actual damage from the leaks would “eliminate a viable defense, and cut defense off at the knees.” And this is what has happened.
Manning is also barred from presenting to the court his motives for giving the website WikiLeaks hundreds of thousands of classified diplomatic cables, war logs from Afghanistan and Iraq, and videos. The issues of his motives and potentially harming national security can be raised only at the time of sentencing, but by then it will be too late.
The draconian trial restrictions, familiar to many Muslim Americans tried in the so-called war on terror, presage a future of show trials and blind obedience. Our email and phone records, it is now confirmed, are swept up and stored in perpetuity on government computers. Those who attempt to disclose government crimes can be easily traced and prosecuted under the Espionage Act. Whistle-blowers have no privacy and no legal protection. This is why Edward Snowden—a former CIA technical assistant who worked for a defense contractor with ties to the National Security Agency and who leaked to Glenn Greenwald at The Guardian the information about the National Security Council’s top-secret program to collect Americans’ cellphone metadata, e-mail and other personal data—has fled the United States. The First Amendment is dead. There is no legal mechanism left to challenge the crimes of the power elite. We are bound and shackled. And those individuals who dare to resist face the prospect, if they remain in the country, of joining Manning in prison, perhaps the last refuge for the honest and the brave.
Coombs opened the trial last week by pleading with the judge, Army Col. Denise Lind, for leniency based on Manning’s youth and sincerity. Coombs is permitted by Lind to present only circumstantial evidence concerning Manning’s motives or state of mind. He can argue, for example, that Manning did not know al-Qaida might see the information he leaked. Coombs is also permitted to argue, as he did last week, that Manning was selective in his leak, intending no harm to national interests. But these are minor concessions by the court to the defense. Manning’s most impassioned pleas for freedom of information, especially regarding email exchanges with the confidential government informant Adrian Lamo, as well as his right under international law to defy military orders in exposing war crimes, are barred as evidence. .............................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_judicial_lynching_of_bradley_manning_20130609/
Chris Hedges: The Judicial Lynching of Bradley Manning
from truthdig:
The Judicial Lynching of Bradley Manning
Posted on Jun 9, 2013
By Chris Hedges
FORT MEADE, Md.—The military trial of Bradley Manning is a judicial lynching. The government has effectively muzzled the defense team. The Army private first class is not permitted to argue that he had a moral and legal obligation under international law to make public the war crimes he uncovered. The documents that detail the crimes, torture and killing Manning revealed, because they are classified, have been barred from discussion in court, effectively removing the fundamental issue of war crimes from the trial. Manning is forbidden by the court to challenge the government’s unverified assertion that he harmed national security. Lead defense attorney David E. Coombs said during pretrial proceedings that the judge’s refusal to permit information on the lack of actual damage from the leaks would “eliminate a viable defense, and cut defense off at the knees.” And this is what has happened.
Manning is also barred from presenting to the court his motives for giving the website WikiLeaks hundreds of thousands of classified diplomatic cables, war logs from Afghanistan and Iraq, and videos. The issues of his motives and potentially harming national security can be raised only at the time of sentencing, but by then it will be too late.
The draconian trial restrictions, familiar to many Muslim Americans tried in the so-called war on terror, presage a future of show trials and blind obedience. Our email and phone records, it is now confirmed, are swept up and stored in perpetuity on government computers. Those who attempt to disclose government crimes can be easily traced and prosecuted under the Espionage Act. Whistle-blowers have no privacy and no legal protection. This is why Edward Snowden—a former CIA technical assistant who worked for a defense contractor with ties to the National Security Agency and who leaked to Glenn Greenwald at The Guardian the information about the National Security Council’s top-secret program to collect Americans’ cellphone metadata, e-mail and other personal data—has fled the United States. The First Amendment is dead. There is no legal mechanism left to challenge the crimes of the power elite. We are bound and shackled. And those individuals who dare to resist face the prospect, if they remain in the country, of joining Manning in prison, perhaps the last refuge for the honest and the brave.
Coombs opened the trial last week by pleading with the judge, Army Col. Denise Lind, for leniency based on Manning’s youth and sincerity. Coombs is permitted by Lind to present only circumstantial evidence concerning Manning’s motives or state of mind. He can argue, for example, that Manning did not know al-Qaida might see the information he leaked. Coombs is also permitted to argue, as he did last week, that Manning was selective in his leak, intending no harm to national interests. But these are minor concessions by the court to the defense. Manning’s most impassioned pleas for freedom of information, especially regarding email exchanges with the confidential government informant Adrian Lamo, as well as his right under international law to defy military orders in exposing war crimes, are barred as evidence. .............................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_judicial_lynching_of_bradley_manning_20130609/
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