peecoolyour
peecoolyour's JournalHow Private Contractors Have Created a Shadow NSA
These are the people—often referred to as “intelligence professionals”—who do the actual analytical and targeting work of the NSA and other agencies in America’s secret government. Over the last 15 years, thousands of former high-ranking intelligence officials and operatives have left their government posts and taken up senior positions at military contractors, consultancies, law firms, and private-equity firms. In their new jobs, they replicate what they did in government—often for the same agencies they left. But this time, their mission is strictly for-profit.
Second, it places participatory democracy at risk. The vast majority of Americans are excluded from the consequential discussions that take place at the cyber-intelligence elite’s secret meetings. While hashing over controversial programs such as domestic spying, offensive cyberintelligence operations, or FBI terrorist-entrapment programs, the state and corporate leaders at INSA—as well as other places where the new class meets—operate on a completely different plane from the rest of us. Meanwhile, the black hole of secrecy keeps the new hybrid class and its organizations immune from any meaningful oversight by either the executive branch or Congress.
Do yourself a favor and read the whole article: http://www.thenation.com/article/208481/how-private-contractors-have-created-shadow-nsa
The Patriot Act May Be Dead Forever
This week, senators have been negotiating over whether to pass a House bill that would renew and tweak existing provisions in the long-controversial law, rather than let them “sunset” on June 1. But if the sunset comes and the provisions are off the books, lawmakers in both chambers would be facing a vote to reinstate controversial surveillance authorities, which is an entirely different political calculation.
And that may suit civil libertarians and privacy advocates just fine.
Geiger, with the Center for Democracy and Technology, said, “We hope that if the Senate fails to pass meaningful surveillance reform that it does lead to a sunset, and then meaningful reform of the Patriot Act.”
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/05/28/the-patriot-act-may-be-dead-for-good.html
Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert Indicted On Federal Charges
Source: Buzzfeed
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department has indicted former House Speaker Dennis Hastert on reporting evasion charges and lying to the FBI as part of an effort to pay off victims of “prior bad acts.”
In an indictment handed down in the District Court of Northern Illinois, the Department of Justice and IRS charged Hastert, 73, with illegally transferring funds in an effort to avoid detection by the IRS, a scheme known as “structuring.”
In the indictment, Hastert is accused of agreeing to pay one individual $3.5 million.
Although the indictment specifies neither the “bad acts” nor the victims, sources said they could be from before Hastert, who is now a lobbyist in Washington, entered politics in 1980.
Read more: http://www.buzzfeed.com/johnstanton/former-house-speaker-dennis-hastert-indicted-on-federal-char#.fqx4YL1Yq2
Bernie Sanders, then chairman of the CORE social action committee, speaks at a UChicago sit-in
Bernie Sanders @SenSanders
#TBT Bernie Sanders, then chairman of the CORE social action committee, speaks at a sit-in at @UChicago in 1962.
Disability payments to 1,200 Kentuckians under review; payments suspended for 900 of them
"You couldn't pick a more vulnerable group," said Ned Pillersdorf, a lawyer in Prestonsburg. "We're gonna have cancer patients who will be homeless."
There are two programs at issue in the mass re-determination process.
One is Social Security Disability Insurance, which covers people who have worked and paid into the system before becoming disabled. The other is Supplemental Security Income, or SSI, which is for people who are disabled — including children — and have little or no work history, income or resources.
The 1,500 cases under review include 900 beneficiaries and family members covered under Social Security Disability Insurance, LaVelle said. Those are the people who had their benefits suspended.
http://www.kentucky.com/2015/05/27/3872036_disability-payments-to-1200-kentuckians.html
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A disability lawyer was busted by the U.S. Senate (you might remember the report on 60 Minutes) for defrauding the SSA and now a majority of his clients are suffering as a result.
The Bernie Sanders Song
NRO: Bernie will be a thug who utilizes concentration camps and firing squads to push his agenda
Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/418926/bernie-sanderss-dark-age-economics-kevin-d-williamson
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I love how scared he has all of them. All the right people are terrified of a Sanders presidency.
Sanders in Selma Says Civil Rights Struggle Continues
SELMA, Ala., March 7 – U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today joined U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) and other civil rights pioneers on the 50th anniversary of an historic civil rights march that led to enactment of the Voting Rights Act.
“In 1965, against racist legalized violence, incredibly brave men and women put their lives on the line to demand that all Americans, regardless of their color, have the right to vote. And they won. When people stand together for justice, nothing is impossible,” Sanders said.
President Barack Obama and members of Congress gathered at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge to commemorate the events of Bloody Sunday in 1965, when baton-wielding police beat Lewis, the future Georgia congressman, and other peaceful protesters.
Later that year, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, which protected voters from discrimination until the Supreme Court two years ago invalidated a key portion of the landmark law.
Sanders said he hoped the anniversary of the march will be a catalyst for Congress to undo that 2013 court decision.
“What Bloody Sunday was about was showing the entire country and the entire world how far some of the racist officials in Alabama would go to prevent African-Americans from participating the political process and from voting,” Sanders said. “What happened on that bridge that day was a huge step forward for democracy in America. But what is happening right now – not just in the South but all over this country – are efforts by Republican governors and Republican legislatures to make it harder for African-Americans, for low-income people and for senior citizens to vote.”
The election of Obama, the first African-American president, is a sign of the nation’s progress in the past half century, Sanders said. “But we also know that much more needs to be done. Today, African American unemployment is double the national average while African American household income is $17,000 less. The struggle for racial and economic justice continues,” Sanders said.
http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sanders-in-selma-says-civil-rights-struggle-continues
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