Friday, July 26, 2013

Are B.O.’s Administration Policies beginning to Stink Up America?

I found this article at techdirt.com to be an interesting aside to all of the false hysteria President Obama preached about at his public speech yesterday.

Pass the Right Guard, cause it’s going to be a long, sweaty hot summer for B.O.

YiT ~  Shelly


Obama Promise To 'Protect Whistleblowers' Just Disappeared From Change.gov

from the not-the-change-we-were-looking-for dept

The folks from the Sunlight Foundation have noticed that the Change.gov website, which was set up by the Obama transition team after the election in 2008 has suddenly been scrubbed of all of its original content. They noted that the front page had pointed to the White House website for a while, but you could still access a variety of old material and agendas. They were wondering why the administration would suddenly pull all that interesting archival information... and hit upon a clue. A little bit from the "ethics agenda":

Protect Whistleblowers: Often the best source of information about waste, fraud, and abuse in government is an existing government employee committed to public integrity and willing to speak out. Such acts of courage and patriotism, which can sometimes save lives and often save taxpayer dollars, should be encouraged rather than stifled. We need to empower federal employees as watchdogs of wrongdoing and partners in performance. Barack Obama will strengthen whistleblower laws to protect federal workers who expose waste, fraud, and abuse of authority in government. Obama will ensure that federal agencies expedite the process for reviewing whistleblower claims and whistleblowers have full access to courts and due process.
Yeah. That statement seems a bit embarrassing at the very same time Obama's administration is threatening trade sanctions against anyone who grants asylum to Ed Snowden. Also... at the same time that we get to see how whistleblower Bradley Manning's "full access to courts and due process" will turn out. So far, it's been anything but reasonable, considering that the UN has already condemned Manning's treatment as "cruel and inhuman." And people wonder why Snowden left the country...

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Welcome to America–How May We Spy on You?

It has truly become disturbing that “We the People,” the citizens of America are not demanding that unwarranted searches and privacy violations, must be stopped immediately.    The Federal Governments actions to inventory the private citizen’s of this Country is an appalling fact that this nation will regret and our children, or grandchildren and ever-after they will ask us; “Why did everyone do nothing to stop this?”  Of course, since they’ve never truly experienced the type of freedom I had in my youth, they’ll never know what was stolen from them.

If we do not protect all of your civil rights, we will soon have no civil rights.  Come on America, wake-up and tell your Senators and Congress to stop this madness.

YiT – Shelly


Feds tell Web firms to turn over user account passwords

Secret demands mark escalation in Internet surveillance by the federal government through gaining access to user passwords, which are typically stored in encrypted form.

Declan McCullagh by Declan McCullagh / July 25, 2013 11:26 AM PDT

(Credit: Photo illustration by James Martin/CNET)

The U.S. government has demanded that major Internet companies divulge users' stored passwords, according to two industry sources familiar with these orders, which represent an escalation in surveillance techniques that has not previously been disclosed.

If the government is able to determine a person's password, which is typically stored in encrypted form, the credential could be used to log in to an account to peruse confidential correspondence or even impersonate the user. Obtaining it also would aid in deciphering encrypted devices in situations where passwords are reused.

"I've certainly seen them ask for passwords," said one Internet industry source who spoke on condition of anonymity. "We push back."

A second person who has worked at a large Silicon Valley company confirmed that it received legal requests from the federal government for stored passwords. Companies "really heavily scrutinize" these requests, the person said. "There's a lot of 'over my dead body.'"

Some of the government orders demand not only a user's password but also the encryption algorithm and the so-called salt, according to a person familiar with the requests. A salt is a random string of letters or numbers used to make it more difficult to reverse the encryption process and determine the original password. Other orders demand the secret question codes often associated with user accounts.

"This is one of those unanswered legal questions: Is there any circumstance under which they could get password information?"
--Jennifer Granick, Stanford University

Click here to read the full article.

Sunday, July 7, 2013

We Will No Longer Accept the Lies!

Is this the message that will register with the voters for 2014?  “No More Lies,” was the speech delivered by Glenn Beck, in Washington D.C., on June 19th, 2013.  With all of the recent deception that has been revealed on major incidents that under normal circumstances should have demanded for recalls, firings and even impeachment of political leaders for their actions, I wonder if people would recognize the truth if it stared them in the face?

Benghazi / Fast and Furious / Tea Party vs. IRS / NSA violation of the 4th Amendment

The 2014 election cycle for Washington State and Whatcom County is an opportunity to put people into office who are principled believers in the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Washington State Constitution (view electronic image of the original WA State Constitution here).  Don’t let this opportunity slip past you.  The only thing required will be to take the time necessary to research the candidates and get to know them a bit before casting your vote.  The primary is just around the corner, August 6th, 2013, will be here soon.

Things to ask Candidates at Political Forums:Image_of_Cover_Constitution_of_the_State_of_Washington

How long have you lived here?

What’s your current job?

Have you ever worked in the private sector?

Do you own your own private home, or property?

Do you have children?

Have you served in the military?

Will you insure that the individual is lawfully protected from the actions of the Crowd?

What’s your vision for Whatcom County, or your City?

What do you perceive your duties of office to be?

Can you read a financial report?

Is debt a good or bad thing?

YiT ~  Shelly