6.13.13

I have a really bad cold. Airplane flights often wreak havoc with my respiratory system and I am out for the count. I must put life on hold for a couple days.

This tin foil hat is hurting my temples as well. My blog has been a bit strident of late, even for me. I need to back off a little bit.

It has been quite a couple of weeks. The deck has had a reshuffle like I have never seen. Glenn Beck and Michael Moore on the same side of the equation? Who would have thunk...The establishment against the outliers, the people who trust their government and the people who aren't sure that they can. I must cast my lot with the latter on this one.

People are shaken by the enormity of the state's intrusion. Even those of us who believe in protecting our country against terrorists. What is next, do we go after dissenters, demand loyalty oaths? Would be really simple to find the subversives, just sift for a few key search terms, like freedom and liberty... See what books you have been checking out of the library. Maybe we could send the I.R.S. after the President's political enemies? Wait, we already did that.

Let's see, on one side we have Feinstein, Franken, Harry Reid, Mitch McConnell, Wasserman Strauss, Lindsay Graham, Obama, etc. and on the other Udall, Wyden, Paul, Tester, Merkley, Mike Lee and the libertarians. Very, very strange. Rep. Loretta Sanchez left a classified intelligence meeting yesterday and said we have only seen the tip of the iceberg. Chilling.

Least Untruthful was published on Reader Supported News today. The early version. On a personal note, I have been incredibly prolific this year from a writing standpoint. Keeping the pedal to the metal. If I keep this up (and don't get disappeared) records should fall.

Hudg sent this article over from Wired on the NSA, James Bamford's The Secret War. I had already seen it but something popped up on second glance:

Inside the government, the general is regarded with a mixture of respect and fear, not unlike J. Edgar Hoover, another security figure whose tenure spanned multiple presidencies. “We jokingly referred to him as Emperor Alexander—with good cause, because whatever Keith wants, Keith gets,” says one former senior CIA official who agreed to speak on condition of anonymity. “We would sit back literally in awe of what he was able to get from Congress, from the White House, and at the expense of everybody else.”
Now 61, Alexander has said he plans to retire in 2014; when he does step down he will leave behind an enduring legacy—a position of far-reaching authority and potentially Strangelovian powers at a time when the distinction between cyberwarfare and conventional warfare is beginning to blur. A recent Pentagon report made that point in dramatic terms. It recommended possible deterrents to a cyberattack on the US. Among the options: launching nuclear weapons.

Oh jeez, just what we need. All those nukes are just sitting around getting dusty on the shelf, time to put them to good use. Unbelievable. That will show those damn hackers...

According to a new Time poll, 54% of Americans think that Edward Snowden did a good thing in exposing the scope of government surveillance. They also want to see him prosecuted. I believe that 54% is really a quite remarkable percentage.