Edward Snowden Threatens the Establishment, Not Our Security. Just days after the Guardian published news of the NSA’s massive surveillance programs, Edward Snowden, the source of this classified information, has come forward. Already, politicians and pundits alike are calling for his head, outraged that Snowden has compromised national security. But we must ask ourselves: WHOSE security has been jeopardized? And it’s probably not yours or mine. Snowden was employed as a contractor for the NSA for four years, during which time he saw the government’s spying practices against its own citizens up close. “I think the public is owed an explanation,” Snowden said in a video. Though Snowden admits he is troubled by what he saw, he ultimately wants the practices to be judged by U.S. citizens. “These things needs to be determined by the public, not by somebody who was simply hired by the government,” he said.
In what way, as Snowden’s critics allege, has the national security been compromised? Vocal citizens are something Snowden hopes for. Fisainfographic3_nofoot.jpg (700×2200) Environment Petition: Make the Trucking Industry Clean Up Its Act. Inadequate regulation in a critical U.S. transportation industry has brought dirty air and dead-end jobs for too long.
The Transportation & Infrastructure Committee convened a Congressional hearing last year that uncovered these negative economic and environmental consequences in port trucking. The hearing exposed an unfair system that is forcing struggling blue-collar workers to buy and maintain... Inadequate regulation in a critical U.S. transportation industry has brought dirty air and dead-end jobs for too long. The Transportation & Infrastructure Committee convened a Congressional hearing last year that uncovered these negative economic and environmental consequences in port trucking. The hearing exposed an unfair system that is forcing struggling blue-collar workers to buy and maintain the next generation of green trucks , while the powerful and profitable industry they toil in gets a free ride. Behind Closed Doors: Congress Trying to Force Indefinite Detention Bill on Americans.
Even The Ancient Roman Empire Wasn't As Unequal As America Today. Some 1,500 years after the fall of the Roman Empire, the supposedly advanced and progressive United States of America is plagued by even worse income inequality. Tim De Chant at Per Square Mile reached this conclusion based on a study by historians Walter Schiedel and Steven Friesen. Rome's top 1% controlled 16 percent of the wealth, compared to modern America where the top 1% controls 40 percent of the wealth. Looking at the Gini coefficient, where 0 means perfect equality and 1 means perfect inequality, Rome measured between 0.42 and 0.44. Modern America scores worse at 0.45, and some areas are much worse like Fairfield County, Conn. with an alarming 0.54. De Chant comments on a telling line from the essay by Shiedel and Friesen: [A]t the end, they make a point that’s difficult to parse, yet provocative.
In other words, what we see as the glory of Rome is really just the rubble of the rich, built on the backs of poor farmers and laborers, traces of whom have all but vanished. Bonuses Worthy of Protest for Gannett and Tribune Executives. “The bonus system has gone beyond a means of rewarding talent and is now Wall Street’s primary business,” the newspaper editorial stated, adding: “Institutions take huge gambles because the short-term returns are a rationale for their rich payouts. But even when the consequences of their risky behavior come back to haunt them, they still pay huge bonuses.” Well thought and well put, but for one thing: If you were looking for bonus excess despite miserable operations, the best recent example I can think of is , which owns USA Today. The week before the editorial ran, Craig A.
Dubow resigned as Gannett’s chief executive. His short six-year tenure was, by most accounts, a disaster. Gannett’s stock price declined to about $10 a share from a high of $75 the day after he took over; the number of employees at Gannett plummeted to 32,000 from about 52,000, resulting in a remarkable diminution in journalistic boots on the ground at the 82 newspapers the company owns. “How did Mr. NY Deputy Mayor: press don't have the right to report in vicinity of NYPD ops. Anonymous Hackers Now Fighting Child Pornography. Anonymous, the group of high-powered hackers famous for targeting Bank of America and Sony, has turned its vigilante brand of online activism to child pornography sites. The "hacktivists" are targeting web host Freedom Hosting and accusing it of knowingly hosting child pornography. This marks a shift for Anonymous, which is better known for hitting corporate and big-business sites with DDoS attacks, briefly taking over operations or scraping information.
Anonymous released a statement condemning Freedom Hosting for its alleged practices and warning all other child pornography sites to take down their materials, reports BGR. “Our demands are simple. Remove all child pornography content from your servers," Anonymous wrote in a statement. Since the attacks began on Oct. 15, Anonymous has removed pornographic links, shut down access to all clients of Freedom Hosting and declared the web host as "#OpDarknet Enemy Number One.
" Image courtesy of Flickr, shaun wong. The 1% Are Changing The Law To Shut Down Occupy Wall St. Heaven forbid these people have a say in the future of the country! They're not rich! In a move that really shouldn’t surprise me in the slightest yet still does, the 1% landlords/masters of the universe have announced that they are seeking to change the law so privately owned public parks, like, for instance, Zuccotti Park, are no longer required to saty open 24 hours a day.
Shockingly, this would have the immediate effect of terminating any and all Occupy camps. In a jaw-dropping statement that redefines the word disingenuous, Steven Spinola, president of the Real Estate Board of New York had this to say: “We’re going to be clearly recommending to the city that there need to be some changes… If you can say that the plazas are closed between 1 and 5 a.m., I’m not sure who that’s harming.”
The fact that parks like Zuccotti are open 24 hours a day is an oversight in the original intent of the law which was a trade-off between the city and realtors. New Bill Being Considered In Congress Could Shut Down Social Media Sites Crucial To ‘Occupy’ Protests. In what would be a stunning disregard for First Amendment rights, rumors are swirling that the Republican controlled Congress is now considering a new bill that could blackout sites such as YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and other sites that utilize content generated by users.
Phones such as iPhone, Android, AmazonCloud, Pandora, Grooveshark and even your email accounts would be adversely affected. Some provisions in the bill would make it a “felony to stream unlicensed content — including cover band performances, karaoke videos, video game play-throughs, and more.” Major profit driven corporations are the driving force behind such a bill. This bill could also effectively silence the ‘Occupy’ movement that has swept the nation by killing information sharing. Most Americans currently get most of their news about ‘Occupy’ through social media. Please make your voice heard and demand that Congress kill this bill.