Greenwald's been sounding the erosion-of-our-civil-liberties alarm for years -- maybe now folks will pay attention

Glenn Greenwald's been truth-telling ever since I found him at Salon years ago. He was one of few real journalists willing to "tell the truth and shame the devil" -- and he spared no one, from the MSM puppets to the politricksters themselves. It was refreshing as hell!

Since he's always been unafraid to speak truth to power, I fully expected his swift, succinct and no-nonsense response to the detention and questioning of his partner, David Miranda at London's Heathrow airport. And in his, Detaining my partner: a failed attempt at intimidation, he doesn't disappoint:

If the UK and US governments believe that tactics like this are going to deter or intimidate us in any way from continuing to report aggressively on what these documents reveal, they are beyond deluded. If anything, it will have only the opposite effect: to embolden us even further. Beyond that, every time the US and UK governments show their true character to the world - when they prevent the Bolivian President's plane from flying safely home, when they threaten journalists with prosecution, when they engage in behavior like what they did today - all they do is helpfully underscore why it's so dangerous to allow them to exercise vast, unchecked spying power in the dark.

I also expected this:



You'd think the UK would know by now, that the US will always quickly and most certainly throw them under the bus, particularly when it comes to anything Snowden (gotta keep up the appearance of steady, clean hands, even as they franticly flail about trying to catch this guy with hands not even approaching anything resembling "clean").  It's not like there isn't recent precedent to remind them.

When FUKUS et al., forced down the plane of a sitting president of a sovereign nation, the US said, "It wasn't me," then too, leaving its lackeys scrambling to make up lame excuses and having to apologize.  Why in the world would the UK give the US a "heads up" that they'd be detaining Glenn's partner if they'd not already colluded to do so?  Please.  And I guess we're to believe the US had nothing to do with this either:  UK ordered Guardian to destroy hard drives in effort to stop Snowden revelations:

UK authorities reportedly raided the Guardian’s office in London to destroy hard drives in an effort to stop future publications of leaks from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden...

Mr. "Earnest," stop insulting our intelligence.  Even Stevie Wonder can see Snowden's whistle blowing is the one constant in all of these criminal and jack-booted acts of intimidation.   Earnestly guy, this is what I think of your press conference:

The Changeling will go to great lengths to serve white supremacy -- and himself (forget about all those folk, who thought "Change You Can Believe In" meant just that). Mr. "To know him, is to love him" over there, is more than okay with allowing Shrub & Co. to skate, totally free from prosecution for all the murderous atrocities and attacks on civil liberties they committed during their administration yet he's pulling out all the stops to not only capture Snowden, but to intimidate anyone else associated with him?  How crazy is that?

Certainly his other motivation is the fact that anything leaked, will implicate him even more horribly since he chose to sell his soul to be the first Black deus ex machina.  Now, the real powers-that-be can continue to perpetuate the aforementioned atrocities and attacks at an even higher level through him.  And when the shit hits the fan, he'll be left holding the proverbial bag.  It's already happening.  He will suffer the repercussions of all these world-dominating actions for a lifetime -- and so will his daughters (but they'll be rich, that's all that matters I guess).  There's just something really insecure or worse, megalomaniacal about that to me.  He reminds me of the power-lusting, Martin Sheen character, Stilson, bent on creating "his destiny" by destroying the world in the movie "Dead Zone."  It didn't end well for him.

Like the others before him, he raised his right hand and took the following oath and didn't mean one word of it:

Presidential Oath of Office
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

In stark contrast, Snowden, Poitras and Greenwald, like Bradley Manning and others before them,  are doing way more preserving, protecting and defending the Constitution than those who routinely raise that right hand. Knowing this government's reach however, my prayers are with them.

New York Times reporter, Pete Maass recently published a comprehensive, day-late-and-dollar-short account of how it all got to this point. His, How Laura Poitras Helped Snowden Spill His Secrets reads like a spy thriller (he is, according to the piece, working on a book about surveillance and privacy, after all) -- you should check it out.

Related:
- NSA collected non-terrorism related emails
- What NSA Transparency Looks Like
- Miranda threatens legal action over detention, confiscation
- ‘More aggressive': Greenwald vows to publish more secrets after UK detains partner
- Latin America Condemns US Espionage at United Nations Security Council
- Email service used by Snowden shuts itself down, warns against using US-based companies

Only 210 days to DTV - Mo' Money, Mo' Money, Mo' Money

I don't know about you, but I'm real tired of hearing about the debut of "DTV." When they first started talking about it, I turned to my husband and asked, "So, if all you have is an old television set with rabbit ears (laugh if you want to, but that's all plenty of people have!), you won't be able to watch anything?" He said, "We will, but some people won't, not unless they buy the converter box, hook up to cable or get a dish."

I went to the FCC's official website to find out why this mandatory change. Here is their rather obscure statement:

"DTV is a new type of broadcasting technology that will transform television as we now know it. DTV technology will allow broadcasters to offer television with movie-quality picture and CD-quality sound, along with a variety of other enhancements. DTV technology can also be used to transmit large amounts of other data into the home, which may be accessible by using your computer or television set."

Am I the only one that missed the hue and cry of the masses demanding the federal government pass a law so we could all have "movie-quality picture and CD-quality sound?" And exactly what are those "other enhancements?"

Call me cheap, I don't care, because that's not it - at all. This is just more of the greedy using the needy with the assistance of the federal government. People with rabbit ears will have to fork over somewhere between $50 and $70 to purchase a digital-to-analog converter box in order to continue watching free, non-cable TV!"

And just so you think they really care, every household can request up to two discount coupons worth $40 each through The Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration - the President's principal adviser on telecommunications and information policy (according their website). What a deal!

These crooks have found yet another way to dig, elbow-deep, into people's pockets and I'll lay odds the initial outlay won't be the last. The only other alternative for some, is to stop watching TV altogether (not necessarily a bad thing. But realistically, we all know there will be no stampede to pitch the boob tube).

Clicking through my links a month or so ago, I came across Bruce Dixon's, Grand Theft Digital: How Corporate Broadcasters Will Hijack Digital TV. I saved it to my "Blog Thoughts" file to write about it later. Well, with this all-out, stepped-up, absolutely annoying ad campaign getting on my last nerve (just like the non-stop Obama ads) - this is later. It's a little long but definitely worth the read.

While we're getting "movie-quality picture and CD-quality sound" along with those "other enhancements," broadcasters will be reaping the real benefit$ of this boondoggle. I guess enough will never be enough for this consumptive society in which we live, where the real American dream is how much money you can make, take or act like you have.