Thank You Google

Google just announced that as of today, Gmail is more secure than ever before. And the company isn't shying away from the fact that it's actively trying to stop the thwart the government from spying on your email activity. Google made HTTPS encryption the default for its users back in 2010 when sending from point of use devices to get into and out of the Google network, but in it's efforts to continually make improvements wherever possible to keep out prying eyes and as an additional barrier between you and the NSA, Google is making the additional change that every single email message Gmail users send or receive will now be encrypted as it moves internally between the company's data centers. That would seem to defeat a popular strategy of the NSA, which involves the agency intercepting email messages as they move between data centers and servers located within Google's massive network. Google says this change became "a top priority after last summer’s revelations" from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

It's not so hard to see why Google is taking this action. There is a fundamental concept that the NSA is completely disregarding, that when you send someone a message that it is intended for the person that the message is addressed to. We no longer live in the era of wax seals and blood bound couriers. Is it so unreasonable that we be able to send a message to someone without it being logged by our government that I did it without first having a responsible suspicion case brought before a judge in order to issue a warrant?

Read 1984, see how the main characters in that story have to take extraordinary measures to avoid what is considered suspicious activity out of the massive web of Big Brother's surveillance and then tell me with a straight face that we are not moving in that direction. People are not pissed off because they have something to hide, they are pissed off because they now re forced to accept living in the world where our own thoughts and communications are no longer our own. They are pissed that another entity outside of their control has deemed the masses undeserving of a simple degree of trust and privacy. And we are pissed that there is so little that we, as individuals, can do about it. 

Thankfully for us, Google does appear to be slightly pissed as well and is in a position to do something about it. They, along with several other large communication and social media groups have launched the website http://reformgovernmentsurveillance.com/ where they outline governing concepts and principles that should be followed by the NSA and other spying agencies should the surveillance activities be allowed to continue under the law of the land. Yes, the people are telling the government how they should be acting, and their voice is very reasonable. It appears, at least for now, that Google is focusing its efforts on protecting our right to privacy – Thank you Edward Snowden for all the leaks!

The NSA makes me as mad as...

The National Security Agency has broken privacy rules or overstepped its legal authority thousands of times each year since Congress granted the agency broad new powers in 2008, according to an internal audit and other top-secret documents.

We aren't talking about dips into the grey area of the law either, these are violations that fly in the face of both the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Courts very lenient interpretation of current law, and breaking rules that where established specifically through Executive Orders. They range from blatant violations of citizens legal rights to typographical errors that resulted in unintended interception of U.S. e-mails and telephone calls that in several instances where never reported to congress. 

Couple these infractions with FISA officials stating that these programs are near impossible to grant appropriate oversight to and you have an underbelly part of this government that is so dark that even Al Sharpton won't march for it.

This story, as appalling as it is, is nothing new. I could rant here for pages and pages, but you can already guess what I would say, most of you only read this for my delightful euphemisms, so let's just skip straight to the chase.

The NSA makes me as mad as...

• Waking up on the wrong side of a bed that over looks a cliff.
• Reboot movies that come out 5 years after the franchise 'ended'.
• Being charged for uneaten food on my plate at the all you can eat sushi buffet after you realize that it's day old day.
• Giving Pepsi Max a try, only to realize that it tastes exactly the same as Diet Pepsi.
• The Alanis Morissette song 'Ironic'. Cause it's not that ironic.
• People who where slacks to work on Friday irregardless of casual Friday dress codes.
• People who correct people for using the word 'irregardless'.
• Ray Lewis, he knows why.
• Unrated DVD releases that have no nudity.
• Calling a missile shield a shield when it's really just a bunch of missiles going the other way.

...and of course...

• Getting spied on by your government, then being told that I'm not getting spied on, then finding out that indeed I have been spied on, then being told that it's not that bad, then being told it's actually much worse then what I was told, then being told to trust them, then being told nothing cause apparently I'm overreacting and am supposed to move on to other things that are supposed to upset me like Rodeo Clowns. 

Which reminds me...

• Rodeo Clowns, they know why.

Urgent! Fight to Defund NSA Data Mining has Begun!

The National Security Agency called for a "top secret" meeting with members of the House today to lobby against Rep. Justin Amish's (R-MI) amendment to challenge the agency's authority to cull broad swaths of communications data. And to curtail article 215 of the Patriot act so it would only be applicable to those under investigation or with known ties to terrorist organizations. 

What a Crazy Idea

The bill was cosponsored by former chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and liberal Michigan Democratic Rep. John Conyers. The House ruled the amendment in order on Monday, and it is expected to get a vote sometime this week.

NSA head Gen. Keith Alexander scheduled the last-minute, members-only briefing in response to the amendment, according to an invitation distributed to members of Congress this morning and forwarded to HuffPost. "In advance of anticipated action on amendments to the DoD Appropriations bill, Ranking Member C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger of the House Intelligence Committee invites your Member to attend a question and answer session with General Keith B. Alexander of the National Security Agency," reads the invitation.

The invitation warned members that they could not share what they learned with their constituents or others. "The briefing will be held at the Top Secret/SCI level and will be strictly Members-Only," reads the invite.

The section of the Patriot Act that Amash is targeting was the subject of the first piece that the British news outlet The Guardian broke from the NSA leaker Edward Snowden's collection. A secret intelligence court has secretly interpreted the law to allow the NSA to secretly collect hundreds of millions of records on every American phone call under the theory that such records might be useful in future terrorism investigations. The President has called this program 'transparent', and the intelligence community has claimed that the law is useful in thwarting potential terrorist incidents.

But Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee with access to classified details about the program, said there is no evidence that the data collection had been directly responsible for stopping any single plot. Civil libertarians, meanwhile, are aghast at the NSA's broad interpretation of the law, and even the bill's author said he was surprised at how it is being used.

This is aiming to be an epic showdown. The shouts of the people versus the quite whispers of a government that rules and legislates behind closed doors and under the rubber stamp of 'Top Secret'. The debate is about to take place and now is the time to make your voice heard. Below are sites you can lend your support to and links that say how to contact your congressmen. You will notice the mix of right and left leaning groups that are all crying out in support of this amendment. If ever there was a time to be heard on this issue is now!

Demand Progress Website

Freedom Works Letter - Call to Action

Electronic Frontier Foundation Website

Defund the NSA.com

The Amendment

Find Your Congressman

Nobody Wants to Play With U.S.

Over the last week more documents and details have been fed to the populous from the Snowden collection of NSA secrets. The latest revelation is that the US of A has not only been spying on terrorist groups, China, and Russia, but also the leadership of the EU and other countries for the past 6 years.

This latest bit of embarrassing news has, understandably, outraged several ally nations which prompted a slew of questions and outright demands for explanations from around the EU directed at Washington.

President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry have tried to play these new leaks down. Secretary Kerry stated, "Every country in the world that is engaged in international affairs of national security undertakes lots of activities to protect its national security and all kinds of information contributes to that," But these dismissive remarks appear to have only provoked further anger among some European leaders, who seem genuinely shocked and aghast at the scope of the NSA’s blatent disregard for the 1961 Vienna accord. Elsewhere, government officials in Luxemburg, Austria, Turkey, and Japan have demanded answers from the Obama administration about the NSA’s spying efforts. And U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon raising serious questions about the faithfulness of the United States diplomatic core.

There are two possible lines of logic that I can follow that could lead the government to take these extreme measures. The first being that we are truly scared of countries like France, Germany, Japan, and the UK. We fear that they may be helping terrorists enter this country under the guise of a diplomatic convoy and using these connections to get so close to our upper echelons of government that these terrorists would complain about the President's bad breath before exploding their suicide vests. Leaving us with little recourse but to pull a Jack Bauer try and get a step ahead of these groups to protect ourselves.

The other scenario that I see is that the United State's negotiating position has gotten as weak as a starving mans farts over the years, and we are so incapable in regaining a more persuasive position when going into something as mundane as trade talks, that we feel obligated to obtain an upper hand through these amoral methods.

Seeing the almost daily revelations that this administration (with an acknowledgement that a lot of this began prior to Obama's election) of diplomatic failures, be it the Ecuador trade agreement, the North Korean saber rattling, Iran still thumbing their nose at us, or dozens of failures in the middle east, a different explanation seems somewhat more likely;

This administration sucks at negotiating...

Sucks the big one, sucks like a leech on a blood bag, like a plunger on my toilet after mexican night, like a movie starring Nicholas Cage, well you get the idea. Be it a sanction against a country doing something wrong or trying to enforce a treaty for extraditing. This administration appears to have such a poor track record of using it's leverage, winning friends in the diplomatic arena, and rallying countries to the American view to the point that it has cheat and lie it's way into getting an upper hand at the negotiating table. The truly sad part is that this method still appears to leave the U.S. wondering what just happened on many occasions.

This administration, especially, has built it's reputation on it's ability to talk. Though it looks like every time someone talks back, it suffers from a lack of ability to justify itself, and lacks any true conviction or guiding principals in it's navigation and foreign policy.

America is now standing on an island. We have disenfranchised our friends, and forsaken our own populace. Either that or the new practice of diplomats just mumbling their demands in their embassies late at night and waiting for the US to respond on a card that is delivered via a secret code embedded in the monthly unemployment numbers. Ironically all this takes place while also we discuss building up a massive wall on our borders, because not having any country willingly talk to us is not sufficient, we don't want to look at them or smell them either. A very rude gesture since we come visit almost every country in the world in the form of setting up military bases all over the globe. We can't return the favor of being a good host?