Government Gone Wild, Part 1: Verizon Phone Record Dump, Lindsey Graham's Ignorance, Valerie Jarret's Vendetta, and More

Recently, we did an inventory update of the many ways that we are not living in a free country any more. That post and the many ways we have allowed our politicians to strip us of our liberty can be accessed at:

http://www.loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2013/05/update-you-are-not-living-in-free.html

The updates included the latest freedom denying strategies and policies of the Obama administration. These actions include the use and abuse of the IRS to attack, weaken, and hamper political opponents (freedom of speech).

The use and abuse of the IRS to attack, weaken, and hamper the activities of religious organizations (freedom of religion).

The use and abuse of the Justice Department to secretly obtain phone records of Associated Press and Fox News journalists (freedom of the press).

The soulless abandonment of over 20 Americans who were under attack at the Benghazi, Libya U.S. consulate (life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.)

The use and abuse of the Justice Department to hunt down and persecute brave government whistleblowers.

Unfortunately, this assault on freedom has continued unabated just since the latest post listed above went up in late May. According to an Associated Press news report from June 6, 2013:

• The article discussed of the government's confiscation of Americans' phone records involving hundreds of millions of telephone calls of Verizon customers via a secret court order.
• It called the confiscation the first hard evidence of a massive data collection program aimed at combating terrorism as a result of the 9-11 attacks.
• The secret court order requires Verizon to turn over on an "ongoing, daily basis" the records of ALL landline and mobile telephone calls of its customers, both WITHIN the U.S. and BETWEEN the U.S. and other countries.
• The information does not include the contents of the calls but includes enough details about the calls that Intelligence experts said the government would be looking for patterns that could lead to terrorist activities.
• Intelligence experts, according to the article, believe similar orders were likely in place also for other phone companies.
• Furthermore, the a AP article also discussed recent Washington Post and The Guardian news reporting about the existence of another secret suirveillance program used by the NSA and FBI.
• This program scours the nation's primary Internet companies secretly confiscates audio, video, photographs, emails, documents and connection logs to help government officials track a person's movements and contacts.
• According to the article, it is not currently clear whether the program, called PRISM, targets known suspects or broadly collects data from other Americans like the Verizon order does.
• The companies include Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube and Apple.
• Theoretically, the collection of call data would allow the Federal government to look for “patterns” in calling through what is called a data mining process.
• If the government determines there is suspicious calling, and I guess suspicious online activity via Facebook, Yahoo, etc., they would then go to a court to get a wiretap order for specific Americans.

Pretty scary stuff, Federal bureaucrats and politicians having access to your telephone, online, and daily activities. Anything you did electronically is likely ending up at the finger tips of some intelligence analyst somewhere deep in the bowels of the FBI and National Security Agency.

Fortunately, many Americans across a broad spectrum of America are appalled by the massive and intrusive scope of the program:

• Senator Ron Wyden: "When law-abiding Americans make phone calls, who they call, when they call and where they call is private information. As a result of the discussion that came to light today, now we're going to have a real debate."
• Alexander Abdo, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union's National Security Project is quoted: “This confirms our worst fears," . "If the government can track who we call, the right to privacy has not just been compromised — it has been defeated."
• Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner, who was actually a sponsor of the USA Patriot Act that governs this type of private data collection, said he was "extremely troubled by the FBI's interpretation of this legislation."
• Another paragraph from the article summarizes the concern of another privacy advocate: “Jim Harper, a communications and privacy expert at the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute, questioned the effectiveness of pattern analyses to intercept terrorism. He said that kind of analysis would produce many false positives and give the government access to intricate data about people's calling habits.”

Once privacy is destroyed by government intrusion into our lives, freedom and liberty can no longer exist. However, this concept is apparently lost on at least one Washington politician, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina who does not get the concept of privacy when he state Americans have no cause for concern. "If you're not getting a call from a terrorist organization, you've got nothing to worry about."

Sorry, Senator, calls from terrorists are not the concern, oppression from our government is the real concern. Two months ago, who would have thought that this administration and Federal government, using the resources and information available to the IRS, would use that information to squash the freedom of speech rights of Tea Party and conservative voters and supporters of religious organizations? That was certainly against the law but it did not stop the Obama administration and government bureaucrats from hassling and oppressing American citizens.

Once the government has this type of information, whether it is phone records, Facebook posts, Yahoo searching history, etc., who says that the government will not manipulate that information to harass its political opponents? Who says they will not inappropriately use and manipulate that information to get the wiretaps they need not to track terrorism but to track their political opponents?

Nixon tried to the same thing in the Watergate scandal but he did not have this type of technology. He had to have people physically break into his political opponents’ office’s to place the wiretaps. This administration can now do the same type of break-ins and wiretaps “legally” by abusing the information it collects via their PRISM program. No Senator Graham, I am unlikely to get a call from a terrorist, but I am far more likely to get tracked and branded as an administration opponent, much like the Obama administration did with the abuse of IRS powers and information.

Plus, who knows where this stuff ends? IRS hassling of political opponents, IRS hassling of religious organizations, Obama’s enemies list, the secret collection of news reporters activities, the silencing of whistleblowers, when and where will it end? Two months ago, who thought our government could be so audacious and intrusive?

I can tell you one thing, these actions and trends are not likely to end with a renewal of freedom in this country. A recent Washington Post poll from mid April found that for the first time ever Americans, are more afraid of the Government than they are of a terrorist attack, given how they answered the following question: “Which worries you more, that the government will not go far enough to investigate terrorism because of concerns about constitutional rights, or that it will go too far in compromising constitutional rights in order to investigate terrorism?”

I will leave you with three quotes today that should cause great concern that we have a government that is out of control, whose power to control is growing exponentially, and that we are rapidly approaching, if not already truly living, Orwell’s “1984” freedom- less world:

1. The postal worker character Newman from the Seinfeld television series once observed: “When you control the mail, you control…information.” Or, in this case, when you control all electronic communication, you control the information that controls citizens.
2. Top advisor to President Obama, Valerie Jarret: “After we win this election, it’s our turn. Payback time. Everyone not with us is against us and they better be ready because we don’t forget. The ones who helped us will be rewarded, the ones who opposed us will get what they deserve. There is going to be hell to pay. Congress won’t be a problem for us this time. No election to worry about after this is over and we have two judges ready to go.” Proves my point, Senator Graham. It is not the terrorist call I am worried about, it is the domestic government oppression, as seen by this vindictive attitude from a top Obama advisor, that I worry about.
3. And last but certainly not least, the prophetic words of George Orwell published 64 years ago this past week in his novel, “1984: "Even the Catholic Church of the Middle Ages was tolerant by modern standards. Part of the reason for this was that in the past no government had the power to keep its citizens under constant surveillance. The invention of print, however, made it easier to manipulate public opinion, and the film and the radio carried the process further. With the development of television, and the technical advance which made it possible to receive and transmit simultaneously on the same instrument, private life came to an end." From George Orwell's novel, "1984."

We will continue this affront to freedom and democracy over the next few days. We will discuss Obama’s reaction to the whole mess from a “trusting government” perspective, review the latest research in more depth that shows we are now more afraid of the Washington political class and the government it operates than foreign terrorists, examine some quotes and warnings from famous and smart people from the past that predicted these types of actions would undermine our liberty, and lay out a plan to reset freedom and liberty in this country.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

http://www.reason.com/
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w