The Department of Fatherland Homeland Security is a farce, a scam, a waste of tax payer money designed to be used as a tool of political intimidation aimed at anyone who doesn't agree with the criminal activity our corporatocracy is involved in around the world. If our founding fathers were alive today they would be marching in the streets, mad as hell at the rest of us for sitting on our collective asses while the enemies of liberty conquered this nation without firing a shot. We were too busy eating "freedom fries" and looking in the desert for weapons of mass destruction to notice we were losing our freedom because of a weapon of mass deception.

And the assault on our civil liberties continues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

I do not feel safer with increased government surveillance and increases in the number of government employees for anti-terrorism. In fact I feel more threatened. This whole anti-terrorism industrial complex needs to end and it needs to end fast.

This is a tough call. When trying to be pro-active in preventing terrorism, something has to give. Unfortunately, and as it seems in this case, intrusion into private lives may have been a by-product of serious security concerns. The DHS may need to re-evaluate to see if the hundreds of millions spent on this effort is worth it, or the money can be spent in more effective ways that can produce better intelligence while preserving privacy concerns.

Is Napolitano is smart enough to do it or will continue to defend the program, remails to be seen.

Go figure. Apparently, they made the government larger to protect us from ourselves.

At what point did "WE" become the enemy. Next they will remove our right to vote. Not that there is much to choose from anyway.

DHS is a bloated, obcene mess and don't forget who created it (hint: it was the party of smaller government). Obama should get rid of most if not all of it, but if he does the GOP will scream he's soft on terrorism. Until the GOP realizes what a mess they made and actually want to do something about it (not just yell 'mismanagement' and blame the Dems), it won't get any better....

Kristin Johanssen

I take offense. I am Libertarian and not what took over the tea party, religious fanatics looking to control others lives. The original tea party had merit, what they became because of the likes of Michelle Bachman and their social engineering is offensive to everyone who believes in freedom. Maybe you should research the foundation of the groups you would like to attack.

"You won't hear libertarian teabaggers complain about this waste of $289M - $1.4B dollars of tax payer money."

Maybe, but I'm sure we'll hear enough liberals complaining about what they think the libertarian teabaggers should be complaining about.

"They're too busy complaining whether Obama is a citizen and for him to keep his government hands out of their medicare."

Why, do you think his hands should be in the Medicare? Ah, ok, I see, you're looking for things to complain about when it comes to the libertarian teabaggers. So this is a complaint because of a complaint then, I get it now. Right Kristin?

ldo,

Please be careful. NASA is the National Space and Aeronautics Administration, the space agency. NSA is the National Security Agency, the domestic spying agency.

This article makes me want to say No S*#@ Dick Tracy what was your first clue? Since Obama took over this outfit has been a complete farce, serving only his agenda. Time for him and them to go before another really big disaster happens here.

Ido

I guess that would be Obama's expansion to the Narwhale room for spying on American citizens. Throw out the person and all his unpatriotic plans for ruining our country.

Kristin Johanssen

Wrong, those that care about America complain about the debt he has sunk us into and the burden it will put on our kids and grandkids his messing with our health care and our freedoms. Most of us could care less where he was born. We do care about his training in his youth, his writings saying when the winds change he will stand on the side of muslims and all the other facts that point to his being a danger to our country as we have know it.

Any time you create a governmental entity they will create something to do and lots of paperwork to justify their existence. Kind of like suggested in the movie Cube. The original intent gets lost and eventually an entity gains a mind of its own then do all sorts of evil with little oversight.

Soon they will be purchasing drones, watching our face book posts, tapping our phone lines, and confiscating medical records w/o dr's being able to tell anyone... Ohhhh wait they already do that! Then soon they will be arresting people who use their free speech rights because of political reasons, ohhh they do that as well. Hmmmm well ... you fill in the blank.

"Kristin got it GOING ON. That is my only contribution to this entire thread."

That's not a contribution, that's a joke. Writing gag lines for comedians has to be your night job, correct?

It's my day job and no, I ain't going to quit it.

Mike_P101

I just hope upon hope, that the next thing they go after is freedom of the press. The true scoundrels in fair and balanced government. It would be righteous.

This reminds me of the Secret-level intel I used to see in the AF, lots of interesting info but almost nothing timely or specific enough to act on. For that you needed to bump up to TS, but then you weren't allowed to act on it in case you revealed sensitive sources. By the time they actually released anything, it was often too late to use tactically.

Anrkist

You must be a congressman?

Benjamin Franklin stated those of us who give up freedoms for the sense of security are basically nuts. The Patriot Act did just that. It is an oxymoron. It needs repealed. Lots of freedoms were given up for a false sense of security. I do not need the government surveying my reading habits or tapping my phone. King George and Congress did a good job taking away freedoms. Law enforcement uses it for their SS behaviors. How else is NYC getting away wth stop and frisk.

@ Kristin-You obviously did not read the article. It did specify that Republicans and teabaggers as you call them did indeed complain loudly about this waste of money.

Mike_P101, you're right about them justifying their existence. This mess was created under GWB (and, yes I voted for him), and then expanded by BO. BO is doing everything he can to make sure Big Brother can watch what we do, when we do it, and how we do it. I don't object to DHS; but, reports such as those listed are useless, as well as monitoring what any of us read. I would like DHS more if it were doing what it's supposed to do; but, I don't believe it is regardless of who is in DC.

Kristin just got an old fashioned smack down.

Time for a mass Gov. lay-off resulting in the dismanteling of DHS. This never should have been allowed by congress under Bush let alone expanded under obama!.

On another note: I've always said the DHS was useless.

@Kristin Johanssenvia Facebook

You won't hear libertarian teabaggers complain about this waste of $289M - $1.4B dollars of tax payer money.

BS, try to get a clue. We libertarians were bitching about the entire Department of Homeland Security from the moment it was conceived. The fact that a bloated government bureaucracy is wasting money is hardly a shock to any libertarian.

They're too busy complaining whether Obama is a citizen and for him to keep his government hands out of their medicare.

No, we don't care much for medicare either and quite frankly, what we wonder most about Obama is how he can keep doubling down on the failed policies of GWB and not get called out on it by sheep such as yourself. We all hear you libs bitch about the mess GWB made but "somehow" you fail to notice that Obama has done pretty much the same things times two.

So, admitted spying on American citizens is acceptable? This is not the America I pledged my allegiance to.

Next they will remove our right to vote. Not that there is much to choose from anyway.

What value does our vote have anyway when we're fed two figure heads, err, candidates on a silver platter, having been chosen by our "bettors"?

Homeland Security 'fusion' centers spy on citizens, produce 'shoddy' work, report says

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?

NO WAY!

Our government producing "shoddy" work? How can you say that with the governments success with the debt, jobs, home foreclosures, gas, etc, etc.

And in typical fashion this is the most egregious aspect.

Although Homeland Security “was unable to provide an accurate tally,” the panel estimated the federal dollars spent on the centers between 2003 and 2011 at between $289 million and $1.4 billion.

Pfffttt, somewhere between $289 million and $1.4 billion, that's only a spread of about $1.1 billion. Who cares about how much "shoddy" work costs in our government. Our government doesn't care, they'll just tell us they need to raise our taxes to take better care of us.

More "shoddy" economics. More "shoddy" budgets (if we ever get a budget passed). More "shoddy" low wage/low-no benefit jobs created with an $863 billion $timulu$ and more "shoddy" foreign policies that allow our Ambassadors and diplomats to be murdered.

When are we going to realize that government is the most incompetent redistributor of our hard earned tax dollars? Millions and billions of dollars lost to waste, fraud, abuse and corruption every year and we're expected to just submissively give them more money to waste.

The federal government made at least $125 billion in improper payments in 2011.

Washington spends $25 billion annually maintaining unused or vacant federal properties.

The Congressional Budget Office published a “Budget Options” series identifying more than $140 billion in potential spending cuts.

Government auditors spent the past five years examining all federal programs and found that 22 percent of them–costing taxpayers a total of $123 billion annually–fail to show any positive impact on the populations they serve.

And the list goes on.

All this waste, fraud, abuse and corruption and most of it is unconstitutional to boot.

Of course the Liberal solution is always to just take more from the makers and give it to the takers. Even though this delusional thinking can be simply argued with the massive amount of money we have spent on “their wars”, it still falls on deaf ears.

You may wonder what “their wars” are. Their wars are the wars on drugs, crime, illiteracy and, my favorite, poverty.

The war on poverty has been waged for 47 years. In 1965 the poverty rate was 14%, today it is 15.1% (14.3% excluding recessionary effect). In that 47 year span we have spent over $17 TRILLION on it. Yet it’s never enough. Just keep wasting more money and someday, somehow it will magically fix itself.

No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth! ~ Ronald Reagan

Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves. ~ Ronald Reagan

ROMNEY/RYAN 2012 for real Americans

This snooping on citizens has to stop or at least it should require court order. Here is the problem.

The US intelligence gave some contract to private sectors to snoop on US public that included some companies. Some of these US citizens are engineers and scientist. Their jobs is to research and develop new technology, medicine etc. Along their profession they use personal or corporate emails, FTP, etc : to communicate between various departments of same company or other companies in various regions using internet or intranet. In either case, shady intelligence gatherers snoop technology in development what might ultimately cost US corporation billions and time because some third party employee of private security firm stole and sold the technology to China, Taiwan, Korea, Germany or even Iran.

While I do not dispute that US Department of Homeland Security do its job as effectively and efficiently, it has to put some guard to preserve the secrecy of US corporate employees and private researchers intellectual property. The Department of Homeland Security must disclose on its website which companies are hired to do such task and if the public knows something about them, then they can inform the DHS about things or two they might know and concerning.

OK Ido:

"Now, TERMINATE the NASA $ 1,600,000,000 data center in Utah."

I don't think that NASA, you know, the guys that just landed a rover on Mars, can afford any data center any where near that expensive. As a matter of fact, when that recent rover landed all of the data was streamed back went to a cloud based on demand system that scaled up as millions of people logged on to see the event. All of that on a pay for usage only basis. As in, no demand or not data, no charge, since NASA didn't have to buy and set up and power the computers. And even with lots of data and millions of viewers, still a reasonable charge. Seems like NASA under Obama is getting smarter about how they spend our money.

But, I doubt that is something you would even come close to understanding. You know, there's a recent health study out that shows a strong link between prejudice and depression. You might want to check with your Medicaid doctor to see if you qualify for some happy pills.

Not to worry. Obama is going to make everything wonderful again. He just needs a liiiiiiittle more time.

If they really wanted an end to terrorist activity, they would have spent that money forcing Isreal to abide by the agreements it has made and the UN mandates of long ago. Oppressed people have a tendency to be a little pissed off.

George... Clinton (Bill) did just that.. He tried to negotiate with Israel/Arafat at Camp David and Israel under pressure gave into demand after demand after demand. Including giving up almost all captured lands and the Palestinians being able to put their capital in Jerusalem. They had to stop short when the demands left basically meant that Israel ceased to exist. It wasn't just Arafat that said no, the Arab & Iranian leaders told him no deal or they would cut funding. It's always easier to maintain control when you can rally people together to fight a common evil enemy, kind of like what the US gov has been doing since after the cold war ended, with we must fight the terrorists by sacrificing our rights or they'll destroy our way of life.

Jon:

I believe Ido was referring to the $1.6 billion foreign and domestic communications (cell phones, emails, land lines, etc.) gathering building being built in Utah, of which American citizens have a valid reason to be highly concerned:

"The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers broke ground this week on a massive new National Security Agency cyber intelligence center in Utah. Located at Camp Williams, 25 miles south of Salt Lake City, the $1.2 billion facility — officially known as the Utah Data Center — will be responsible for collecting and aggregating incoming intelligence data. A principle reason for the center's location is the affordability of electrical power in Utah.

According to USACE, the center will have 100,000 square feet of raised-floor data center space and more than 900,000 square feet of technical support and administrative space. Support facilities will include an electrical substation, a vehicle inspection facility and visitor control center, fuel storage, water storage, and a chiller plant. Camp Williams is a National Guard training site operated by the Utah National Guard."

Well hog, if there weren't so many cynical do nothing boneheads out there, things might be better. It's easy to make illiterate cynical comments. It's hard to actually do something to improve the lives of those that sit on their backside cynical conservative no nothings, who do nothing to help themselves.

Do you know, the most ironic thing about Romney's 47% comment is that, the states with the highest percentage of people who don't pay income tax are Repbulican states in the south, that will vote Romney, and a lot of that 47% are lower income seniors that majority vote for Romney. And the rest...well there's the percentage that will vote for Romney simply because they hate Obama for no logical reason (we know what drives them), and the other group that Romney seems to hate: front line combat soldiers.

With the exception of the front line soldiers, these groups that make up the mjority of the 47% that don't pay income tax are mostly Romney voters. Everyone who loves America and freedom should rejoice in the fact that Romeny is honest enough to insult over half of his base.

Well, to all who said Jesse Ventura was nuts back in 2010 when he reported on this, here's proof he wasn't!

Debi,

One simple question. Do you, or Ido for that matter, know what NASA is short for?

I guess that if you did some research, you might discover that NASA does none of those things. Think of nice things, rather than your own depression caused by prejudice. You know. puppies, kitties, and maybe little robotic rovers landed on Mars beaming back pictures and other data from the red planet.

When NASA does spying it's about trying to find evidence of water on another planet, without regard to what you and your tea party friends, or other terrrorists, are plotting.

NASA is the National Aeronautics and Space Adminsitration, you know, the people that landed Neil Armstrong on the moon? The people behind the Hubble telescope? The shuttle Enterprise? Does any of this sound at all familiar? I'm not totally sure and not interested in looking it up right now, but I think that 1.6 billion is about double the annual NASA budget.

Ido, the idiot, may have made an unfortunate typo. You, on the other hand...., are simply living up to the conservative standard.

Since Obama took over this outfit has been a complete farce,

no, since GW created it, it has been a complete farce. (and Obama hasn't made it any better either).

amazing that the right complains about "freedom" and "big government intruding on our freedom", and then proceeds to create the most massive government bureaucracy ever that is targeted directly at our freedom.

For once and for all....

Seperate Libertarian and Teabaggers!!

Teabaggers are part of the Republican party.

Libertarians are patriots. They believe in the Constitution. Neither Republicans nor Democrats exhibit enough respect for the Constitution to be referred to as Libertarians.

Doesn't anyone know what the Constitution is any more?

Surprising we don't already live in a dictatorship. Or do we?

Jon:

One simple question. Do you, or Ido for that matter, know what NASA is short for?

WTF are you talking about? I never said anything about NASA, just simply helping to correct a typo mistake made by another poster.

The information I posted was about the National Security Agency or do you have trouble comprehending the written word? Before you start anointing others as "idiots", take a hard long look in the mirror.

This DHS program needs to be scrapped. It is just an excuse for poorly performed Government jobs. They all need secret decoder rings, Become an instant spy and snoop on everyone. It is Government gone wild again. When are we going to clean this behemoth out??

I agree with Burning Brightly. It is a bipartisan study that says this department is no good and probably infringes on our rights as well. It should be a bipartisan decision to stop wasting money on it, and scrap it right now.

90% of money US spends on defense is a total waste, just like what the article describes. The wars we have waged in the last 10 years clearly fall in that category. And it is not just money that is wasted - American LIVES are wasted as well. Tell the crooks in Washington DC - in both parties - DON'T WASTE OUR MONEY ON WARMONGERING!!!

Or·well·i·an-

adj.
Of, relating to, or evocative of the works of George Orwell, especially the satirical novel 1984, which depicts a futuristic totalitarian state.

It's funny (not really).....when I was a kid, people would have freaked out (to the point of action) at the mere "thought" of "fusion centers" (does a word get any more Orwellian than that?).

Now.....not so much.

Big Brother has done an excellent job of brainwashing the sheeple.

Mmmm.....Kool-Aid is yummy.....

Another mystical term- 'fusion centers' - isn't that interesting. Kind of fits in with those 30,000 drones that Washington has 'lost' recently.

Implemented under Bush, continued under Obama....what do you think Romney would do? Only one candidate has pledged to do as government was meant to do: protect the civil liberties of its citizens.

Civil liberties are so foundational to America that the first eight amendments to the Constitution address them directly. These amendments enshrine government’s duty to protect individual liberties, including the rights to free speech and free association.

But today, government has created for itself sweeping powers to monitor the private lives of individuals and otherwise intrude upon our daily activities, our households and our businesses. The extent of the government’s reach today would be unrecognizable to the Founders.

Much of the recent erosion in civil liberties has occurred in the name of national security. But we can – and must -- combat threats to our safety while adhering to due process and the rule of law.

http://www.garyjohnson2012.com/issues/civil-liberties

If you want to learn more about how your liberty is being drained via "fusion centers", go to the FRONTLINE web site and watch "Are We Safer?"

I'll try to post a link, but I don't know if I can yet.

Here goes:

@Jon-1321288

Debi,

One simple question. Do you, or Ido for that matter, know what NASA is short for?...

...Ido, the idiot, may have made an unfortunate typo. You, on the other hand...., are simply living up to the conservative standard.

Wait. So you made two posts entirely about NASA when it was blatantly obvious that he made a typo and meant to say NSA and you're calling OTHER people idiots??? You really think the guy who made a typo is a bigger idiot than the guy who couldn't figure out it was just that?? LOL!

@TwoPartsLogic HoldTheBS

I'll try to post a link, but I don't know if I can yet.

Go to the "contact us" page -http://www.newsvine.com/_nv/cms/info/contact and tell them you want to post links. It isn't allowed for new users but I think you've been around long enough that they should allow it if you ask.

TwoPartsLogic HoldTheBS

Seed a couple articles too. That will help.

Burning Brightly,

"This DHS program needs to be scrapped. It is just an excuse for poorly performed Government jobs. They all need secret decoder rings, Become an instant spy and snoop on everyone. It is Government gone wild again. When are we going to clean this behemoth out??"

I agree with you completely and as their arses are booted out the door tell them to take their P.O.S. Patriot Act with em'.

The reality is that unless you do some type of intelligence gathering, there will not be terrorist attacks stopped, unless the terrorist is very stupid and/or the LEO's are very lucky.

Part of the problem is the investigator has done something, he has to write a report on what he did. Most of the time, they are not finding any terrorist activity. The very existence of DHS, the FBI, police and these "fusion centers" probably gives pause to some people who might act if they thought they would not get caught.

All that being said, once it is determined that a citizen is doing a protected activity, or nothing at all, the investigation of that person has to stop.

So many on these articles talk about our liberties being taken away, quoting Ben Franklin, and posting links to other sites, but how many will defend their rights that are guaranteed in the Bill of Rights and the Constitution? My guess is few to none. Everyone talks loud, but that's the end of their involvement. Our founding fathers believed in them so much that they risked and sacrificed their lives for them. Today, people can't be bothered with such things, but they will certainly talk a good game.

Then there are posters like Crazy Steve and others who want to make it a partisan, political issue (Bush Did It, etc., etc.). Things like DHS and that monstrosity called the Patriot Act need to go, but they won't go away ever while the apathetic citizens of today just whine and shout about their political rivals. I really do not understand such people.

Wrong, those that care about America complain about the debt he has sunk us into and the burden it will put on our kids and grandkids his messing with our health care and our freedoms.

It's not your freedom that the people who oppose government healthcare are worried about. It is the freedom of the healthcare insurance industry to charge you whatever price they want that the dispute is about. If you think any of the professional Obama-haters care anything about your freedom, you are greviously mistaken.

I have never understood this dichotomy. There is a group of people who will fight to the death for the right of a mega-corporation to dictate rules to their customers and their reasoning is that government regulation in favor of the customers is "communism", "socialism" and "anti-free market" practice.

Mitt Romney said that corporations are people. What is the government if not also people? And people that we vote in and people we can vote out if we don't like them?

You cannot vote for who runs Enron. You can, however, vote for the government that regulates Enron.

Gee...how did we get by for over 200 years without the Department of Homeland Security? I've been doing some checking and can't seem to find significant contributions beyond intelligence sharing which they seem to be good at. Most of the agencies absorbed into DHS are very successful (ie., US Coast Guard); I'm just not sure we're getting the bang for our buck with the overall department. The whole idea of "fusion" cells in our communities to keep an eye on us rather bothers me as well.

dingleB said:

Implemented under Bush, continued under Obama....

What everyone seems to miss is that the Secret Service, tasked with safeguarding the lives of the First Family, is now also a branch of Homeland Security (used to be under the Treasury, now under Homeland security). Now how willing is the President--ANY president--going to be to veto something Homeland Security wants knowing that?

what do you think Romney would do?

Speaker of the House John Boehner recently petitioned the president to give his 33-member Homeland Security Oversight Committee sole oversight of the $98 billion a year DHS juggernaut. As far as I am aware, the President declined; however, I do believe that if Romney were to take office that request would be granted--and articles like this would no longer be printed because the only people responsible for looking at Homeland Security's budgets, wastage, relevancy and mistakes would be the 33 people on Boehner's Committee.

I do not believe that this is what our Founding Fathers had in mind when this country was founded.

Bill Marvell

ldo,

Please be careful. NASA is the National Space and Aeronautics Administration, the space agency. NSA is the National Security Agency, the domestic spying agency.

The NSA's mandate is not domestic spying, it's international electronic monitoring. The FBI's job on the other hand is internal and for some reason that wasn't good enough after 911 so they added "Homeland Security." which appears to have a fuzzy mandate. But seeing as how the boundaries for domestic and foreign communications have virtually disappeared, you have FBI agents being sent to Lybia and HomeLand Security monitoring libraries and NSA building massive data centers. Who knows what the CIA is doing. But all's fair in love and war. As soon as I hit the enter button this little missive will at the very least become part of Google's search engine. For chuckles go to Google and type in Bill Marvel or Ida. Technology has thrown out the rule book.

myspellcheckerisbroken,

RE: "Our founding fathers believed in them so much that they risked and sacrificed their lives for them."

I would suggest more peaceful means to start and "Conveniently" there just happens to be an election looming. I for one will read up and research all of my choices. My only regret is neither the Dems. nor the Repubs. have anyone running for POTUS that is willing to restore our Civil Rights & Liberties. Gary Johnson is an interesting choice but in Ohio he is polling a little over 10% which is just about the difference in points between the President and Mr. Romney. Essentially just making him a spoiler and not a contendor. Plus the world is looking a little "Sporty" right now if we reduce (Libertarians advocate this) our military (and dump many on unemployment) right now things could go "South" in a hurry. No easy answers there. I think he sounds good (with what little I've researched in the last day anyway) other than the Military cuts. I know that there is no perfect candidate on all of the issues.

"Things like DHS and that monstrosity called the Patriot Act need to go, but they won't go away ever while the apathetic citizens of today just whine and shout about their political rivals. I really do not understand such people."

All I can think of so far is to patiently explain things to people I know and encourage them to vote, right letters, (Nag, nag and more nag) and spread the word to others. Seriously if you have any ideas let me know as I'll be thrilled to read them. What worries me is none of the big lobbies like the ACLU and NRA have really said much. The ACLU is making only minor noise that I've heard anyway. I guess that they are too busy with Father and Daughter dances for this sort of thing ;)

If our CNC and company would just fix the Habeus Corpus portion, the adder regarding civilians, and the lock down on what we hear in the news I would be more inclined to vote for him again. He was against all this in 2004 when I checked during his DNC speech. If he would listen to our Military regarding the current threats and be more cautious with his liberating the whole world stuff I would overlook his other policies and give him another chance.

Again any ideas would be great and I mean that ! ( I have to leave for a bit but I will check back.....so ya know its not "Crickets" time :)

I'm a Libertarian. Since when did we stop caring about fiscal responsibility?? Kristin, dear, maybe you should actually do some research on the Libertarian platform. You're quite a bit mistaken.

All that being said, once it is determined that a citizen is doing a protected activity, or nothing at all, the investigation of that person has to stop.

Have we become so apathetic now that it has become acceptable for citizens to be investigated as a normal course of business?

I do believe that if Romney were to take office that request would be granted--

Are you kidding? All presidents since Nixon have done their fair share through Acts and their influence in the Supreme Courts, to weaken the power of the people, while the people have sat back and watched. What motivation does the government have to maintain "of the people, by the people, for the people"? The government, especially current, is heavily influenced by corporations and they lack motivation, too. Romney is certainly no Robin Hood.

thats not really kristian....noone that hot could be so stupid.

Snugglepuss

I agree with Burning Brightly. It is a bipartisan study that says this department is no good and probably infringes on our rights as well. It should be a bipartisan decision to stop wasting money on it, and scrap it right now.

Why do you want to go and ruin all the fun by bringing logic into the equation!

howard:

Seriously if you have any ideas let me know as I'll be thrilled to read them.

It too seems hopeless to me. Protesters are silenced by being arrested by government paid muscle. Newspapers have turned into pure propaganda machines. Voting has turned into an exercise of futility with one corrupt politician only being replaced by another. Courts are ruling in favor of governmental agendas.

The only hope I can see for the people is through grassroots propositions to change the laws ourselves.

"Well, to all who said Jesse Ventura was nuts back in 2010 when he reported on this here's proof he wasn't!"

I wondered if anyone remembered him reporting about Fusion Centers years ago. I love being on that list right along with him, makes it fun to try to do things like "get a job", and I am not even Muslim. He does go a little to far with the conspiracy theories imo, but who am I to judge. Imo it is just of bunch of addicts that have ALWAYS been rewarded for their addiction. Stop rewarding them or giving them their fix, and they may not be such addicts. I know what a crack head needs, MORE CRACK...

Who owns these centers BTW? Who is making $ and who has access to the info? I love the fact that GOP members are able to look up anyone they might feel is a threat all without due process or any repercussions. Why is a "citizen" able to access my personal information, read my emails, see what sites I go to, etc., AND GET PAID?

They do not think a hardware engineer notices when they scan his hard drive for info or create unnecessary network traffic...sad. I have nothing to hide or to be afraid of, you on the other hand have plenty to worry about.

Who owns this country? Who owns you?

Is there such a thing as 'free' in this country, other than what the government gives away?

I've said it for years now and here it is, GOP is not about smaller government because this is their brain child. It's a big waste of money and needs to be gone NOW.

OMG they were just some reports. Not all reports are confirmed or whatever someone could make a report on anything everyone has wild suspicions but they don't take every report and run with it. etc BUT! If someone is listed as a terrorist then yea i want to know wtf hes doing in the US and all his friends and what hes doing with his money.. wouldn't anyone?

@ deprogrammer

I will say it in plain english so you can understand, our worst enemy is coming from south of the border but that border in quite a bit farther north than the rio grand, try just south of the mason-dixon line. The right-wing racists from the American south have done

You are one of the most racist, bigotive, idiots in the world. You and your kind need to quite calling your racist asses liberals or democrats and call yourself what your really are. A floating peice of @!$%# that needs flushed

This one is pretty easy to figure out.

1. Arizona was a swing state when Obama first ran, needing Napalitano favor.

2. Obama no longer needs Janet for this election, its time to give her seat to someone who he needs to win a election

3. this type of report could be any entity tied to this administration, its just the they dont need Janet anymore...and so bam a story is born

This is how mr Obama works...if he dont need you to win, your out. Not that we need DHLS but lets be real this is about Obama's position and how he can better win...win win win..thats all he could care about is winning for no other reason but to be on top...not to do the job but just win.

johngis:

OMG they were just some reports.

Spying on American citizens is acceptable to you, John?

Here's an example. I am not a terrorist. I am American citizen who pays my taxes and follows the law.

I made a loan to someone borrowing against the equity in their home. The funds needed to be transferred from my account at Merrill Lynch to the bank (located in my state, not international). While on the phone arranging the wire transfer, I was informed a third party would come on the line to ask me some questions. The questions asked were what was the money for, who was the party obtaining the funds, etc. Getting very irritated, I asked why all of these questions were being asked when it should be nobody's business what I do with my money. They replied due to the Patriot Act.

Debi said;

Have we become so apathetic now that it has become acceptable for citizens to be investigated as a normal course of business?

Of course. And it has been that way for a while.

USCIS was doing a 'routine record search' some years back when they discovered that they had lost my adoption paper (I was adopted internationally as an infant.) Having never been told I was adopted before both my parents passed away in a car accident, I had absolutely no idea what ICE/DHS was talking about when they came knocking on my door.

Despite having a brand new DL, valid SS card/number, and a BC with my parents' names on it (after an adoption is decreed the jurisdiction usually issues a BC with the adoptive parents names on it) ICE/DHS decided that the lack of an adoption paper made me 'illegal' (I wasn't illegal, just undocumented) and placed me in indefinite detention in a deportation camp until I could produce the adoption paper. I couldn't be deported because I was abandoned as an infant with no birth certificate, so there was no home country to deport me to.

My coworker's mother was deported in December of last year, two days before Christmas. She was adopted in 1945 from Germany after WWII as an orphaned infant; Immigration at the time never told her adoptive parents that citizenship was not automatic. Fast forward 60+ years, she owns her own house, car, has a grown son (my coworker) and then gets a call from ICE/DHS stating that they discovered that her citizenship was never filed and she was therefore illegal. Her now-90 year old parents testified that they were never told they had to, and her paperwork showed that the immigration officer had scribbled a note that said 'citizenship is automatic.'

ICE/DHS refused to allow her to file paperwork to obtain citizenship and deported her two days before Christmas last year. She will have to remain in Germany for 10 years before her son can apply for her to come back--a 60 year old woman in a country where she knows no one, does not peak the language, and as her house, car and bank accounts were seized upon her deportation as 'civil asset forfeiture', my coworker is now sending her money to an account some German nuns were kind enough to set up for her so she can afford to live.

So yes, investigation of citizens is a normal course of business, and has been that way for some time now.

#1.61- food for thought indeed!

I blame most of the false "free-market" evangelism on one man, Milton Friedman. Anyone who is interested in why or how we went down the road of "laissez faire" economics, please check into the damage this one man did to U.S.:

From: http://prorev.com/2009/02/from-our-overstocked-archives.html

Sam Smith wrote in 2006:

You'd never guess it from the sycophantic obituaries, but Milton Friedman did more damage to American democracy and culture than just about any figure in the 20th century....

Further, one of the best kept secrets of economics is that there are lots of systems that work provided, that is, you don't care who they work for. Feudalism, for example, was great if you were a lord, not so efficient a marketplace is you were merely a serf. And each system works differently depending on the culture in which it operates, which is why communism in the Soviet Union, China and Italy meant such different things. In the end, the real test of an economy is not its math but its social, financial and moral effect on its culture and those who live there....

But for the most part both public figures and the media bought Friedman's mythology, never stopping to look critically at the effect it had on America. Here are a just few things that have happened since America's elite swallowed the Friedman myth (see Reagonomics):

- Real income-down
- Real manufacturing wages-down
- Top one percent's share of wealth-up
- Income gap between rich and poor-up
- Family indebtedness-up
- Bottom forty percent's share of wealth-down
- CEO pay as a percent of average workers' pay-up
- Workers covered by pensions-down
- Workers covered by health plans-down
- Age at which one can receive Social Security-up
- Personal bankruptcies-up
- Housing foreclosures-up
- Median rent-up

The moral vacuum was clear from the start. Ronald Reagan said things like "We were told four years ago that 17 million people went to bed hungry every night. Well, that was probably true. They were all on a diet." And: "Unemployment insurance is a pre-paid vacation for freeloaders."...

We have paid a terrible price for this corruption of our culture by the new robber barons egged on by Friedman and his ilk. We so accept their foul standards that we don't even discuss or debate them. We have become prisoners of their lie.

I would submit that MItt Romney is one of the modern robber barons through his involveent with Bain Capital. To be fair, I also submit that Paul Ryan and Barack Obama (and most of the 112th U.S. Congresspersons) are prime enablers of said Robber Barons!

FZknew:

You've got to read "The Shock Doctrine". It gives a blow by blow on Milton Friedman and the damage he has done.

Why would anyone would want 4 more yrs. of Obama? Union?blacks? Socialist? Mooslims? I for one will not allow 1 day more for this Tyrant...

@ Howard44024 and Debi 1314897

Howard, I appreciate you taking the time to read my post, and like Debi, these type of things bother me to my core. I usually try to come on these articles and "attempt" to make a witty remark and drive on with my day. However, I think Gtouch and a few others have the market cornered on the witty remarks.

Like Debi had mentioned, I cannot understand how an article can be written about our government spying on it's own citizens or the police or other agency trample on our rights and no one cares, not even a little. I live in the DFW area now, but I used to live in the RGV on the border with Mexico. There are checkpoints all over the area in southern Texas and you must stop to be interrogated. After several of these, when one of the agents asked me where I was going and why, I said it was none of his business. After a few of our verbal exchanges, agents came running out and threatened to hold me for weeks for "terrorist" activities. They made it clear that they could make me disappear and that no one would give a sh*t.

Outside of family and friends, he was right. No one would care. If an article came out today that regular citizens were missing after going through these checkpoints, how many folks posting on here would care. No one.

Anyway, these things have to stop, but as long as people are apathetic and/or divided, it will never stop. I do have some (non-crazy) ideas, but this has been the longest post I have ever written and I apologize for that. And if Gtouch is nearby, I apologize for no witty/humorous remarks. Thank you.

#1.2 @ deprogrammer

The Department of Fatherland Homeland Security is a farce, a scam, a waste of tax payer money designed to be used as a tool of political intimidation aimed at anyone who doesn't agree with the criminal activity our corporatocracy is involved in around the world. If our founding fathers were alive today they would be marching in the streets, mad as hell at the rest of us for sitting on our collective asses while the enemies of liberty conquered this nation without firing a shot. We were too busy eating "freedom fries" and looking in the desert for weapons of mass destruction to notice we were losing our freedom because of a weapon of mass deception.

You Sir, are a Rock Star. "So it is said, let it be written". You have my vote.

Anyway, these things have to stop, but as long as people are apathetic and/or divided, it will never stop. I do have some (non-crazy) ideas, but this has been the longest post I have ever written and I apologize for that. And if Gtouch is nearby, I apologize for no witty/humorous remarks. Thank you.

Spellchecker my fellow DFW friend no reason to apologize. Our rights have been slowly been taken because of fear. Our political parties have been high jacked by the extreme right and left. So candidates have to placate to the extremes to receive the nomination for each party. Some studies show that both the extreme left and right represent about 20% of the population each. So the other 60% of the US population is moderate with slight leanings some to the left and some to the right but they have no candidate that really represents them and we just vote the candidate we think will hurt the country the least. Our entire system was built for compromise but as the parties have gone further to each side compromise has been lost. So come election time the die hard partisan voters go vote for their ideological poster boy and the rest of us hold our noses and pick the least distasteful.

Chris-- I normally do not agree with you but in this I am clear. The department of Homeland(Fatherland) needs to be dismantled, disassembled, dispatched and it's ashes spread across the US. Bush or Obama it does not matter, this beast was supposed to be a temporary fix, not a permanent home for more bureaucrats to violate our rights.

Lee-

Mooslims? Are those skinny cows?

"The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.". The fusion centers were created with good intentions. The excuse for 9/11 was that our intelligence agencies refused to cooperate or talk to each other. But when privacy and civil liberties are violated simply in order to justify their existence or to waste our hard earned money, then things need to change...drastically.

But that's our government...by the people, of the people, for (against) the people. pfff

Our entire system was built for compromise...

Actually gtouch, our system was built and written by and for the elite in power at the time, with the illusion of compromise for the rest of us as an appeasement in order to keep the fully armed public from getting restless.

DPT, the Department of Peeping Toms.

Been there, done that, got the T-shirt! Homeland Security was formed "originally" with the intent to force the "intelligence gathering" agencies to SHARE INFO and to STOP THE PROPRIETARY WARS. These inter-agency conflicts were proven to have contributed to many lapses in the "security of our homeland", because the agency that discovered the info wanted total credit for their discovery to justify their existence(worth) and to therefore insure their continued funding.

ERGO...Homeland Security was formed to "funnel all suspected activity" to a "central clearing house" with the "activities" being screened and evaluated by ALL AGENCIES to insure uniform dissemination of INFO. HOWEVER...as with all government agencies...in order to stay in business you have to "prove your worth", and that is where the "growth" occurred by forming more "focus centers".

SO...SPYING ON CITIZENS...YES...FOR MORE YEARS THAN YOU KNOW...AND SUCCESSFULLY TOO...WITH EXTREMELY RARE INSTANCES OF CITIZENS BEING ERRONEOUSLY AFFECTED. As we have seen in our "legal" system...If it is run by humans...errors occur for one reason or another...no excuses, just facts...LIVE WITH IT...IT AIN'T GOING AWAY.

I have to say that I am seeing some interesting posts today.

gtouch, I'm not impressed with either of our political choices , and yes we seem to be directed by fears that are projected on us . We are a divided nation

Debi , Your post on being interogated by a third party over the phone about your monies being transfered , really got my attention !!! ,,,,,the explanation given "The patriot act" ,,,!!!

myspellcheckerisbroken, I always feel violated when I'm interogated by agencys too,

I'm very concerned about what our goverment can do to it's citizens

FZknew, Your post also got my attention ,,,I really know very little about "Milton Friedman" and now I'm curious ,,,,

It's nice to read some posts that are thought provoking , and not full of name calling and bashing .

the panel estimated the federal dollars spent on the centers between 2003 and 2011 at between $289 million and $1.4 billion.

I wish I had the option of not knowing what happened to over a billion dollars (yes thats billion) and not be accountable in any way! That Janet Nepoiltano, she's such a minx. Just another darling of the Obama administration that can do no wrong. Janet and Eric (Holder) should hold a seminar on "How to avoid being held responsible at the highest level" Congressmen, Senators, Aspiring politicians, and Corporate CEOs would line up in droves.

Your ignorance is ignorance; no right to believe anything can be derived from it. - Sigmund Freud

I previously warned all of you what was happening and what happened. Newsvine posters like Ol_Doc, Amanda-2017567, started with the typical name calling "Conspiracy Theorist", "Wearing a Tin Foil Hat", etc. and personal attacks in failed attempts to discredit the Facts. (and don't even attempt to lie Ol_Doc, Amanda-2017567 I copied your posts attacking me and saved them for just this "I told you so" occasion).

President Obama's January 21, 2009 Patriot Acts (Plural) that legalized all the illegal things of President Bush's Patriot Act (singular). This included the defeated provisions of H.R.1955 and S.1959, the George Orwell 1984 Thought Crimes Laws, verbal or written statements are the crime also, as "Anyone stating a radical change to (US) Government is a Homegrown Domestic Terrorist". Then US Supreme Court Ruling on President Obama's Patriot Acts Section pertaining to (No) Material Support to Terrorist Organizations (including Legal Representation (Defense) as "Expert Advise"); Preemptive Detentions; Expanded Presidential Powers; The Authorized Use of Deadly Force Against US Citizens by the US Military; Legalizes the Warrantless requests for the physical locations of internet users from Internet Service Providers. Monitoring and censorship of all US Communications, as to why youtube, February 2009, changed their policies as well as many other internet sites, http 404, content not available in your region/zone, blocked in your country, etc.. US Military Tribunals (Legal Defense no access to witnesses (accusers) nor Classified Evidence). Classified Sections.

Then Speaker for all Demoncraps, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, US Congress, Nancy Pelosi's Anti US Military and Guilty Until Proven Innocent, "Anyone returning from the Wars is a potential Homegrown Domestic Terrorist". This became current US Policy.

Don't blame me the Demoncraps did all of that and want to do much more.

As far as rising up against the U.S. Government that is the Insurrection Act and sedition. As far as "Treason" legally that is only for those that can be proven to have stated an Oath or Pledge to the United States of America. Most of us (US Military) are aware of what will happen if by Executive Order the Insurrection Act is invoked. We will either use Deadly Force Against US Citizens when ordered to do so or we will be Summarily Executed as Traitors (some of us already know the pecking order). Even after we are Summarily Executed our families, relatives, friends, etc. will be suspected of being Co Conspirators to our Treason resulting in their indefinite detentions, indefinite extraordinary interrogations and releases, black lists (no work), SSS coding by Homeland Security, No Fly Lists, etc..

President Obama shown during a Staged News Media Event, January 22, 2009, signing into US Laws, his January 21, 2009 Patriot Acts, 04:38 minutes of 11:55 minutes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLSeD19m3UE

To close a loop hole President Obama signs into US Law, his 2012 NDAA, US Military Indefinite Detentions of US Citizens. This was Ruled Illegal. Currently, President Obama is appealing this Ruling And is using "Executive Privilege" to deny this is still being done pending his appeal.

Obama Signs NDAA, ACLU Disgusted

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IeuE16LLDY

At one time the Department of Homeland Security Centers were valuable sources of information (not intelligence until verified) until they were neutered and became "Politically Correct"; just like the President Obama Rules of Engagement for the US Military being Cannot Shoot Until Shot, Rules of US Civilian Law, Rules of US Civilian Evidence during War tying the US Military hands, legs, blindfolds and ear plugs. Just like we are not supposed to tie Fundamentalist Islam to acts of Terrorism, we can say Conservative Islam or Ultra Conservative Islam to tie this (implied) to the Conservative US Repugnants Party.

Recent events, the Tracking of all Cellular Telephone (Smartphone) Users. The hypothetical use of this is targeting for termination a person within the US that has been labelled as a "Terrorist".

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57524109-38/justice-dept-to-defend-warrantless-cell-phone-tracking/

OBAMA'S FAULT. OBAMA'S FAULT. OBAMA'S FAULT. OBAMA'S FAULT.

Don't even attempt the Deflection of Blame Game, "Bush's Fault" these are events that occured after President Bush and not "Inherited" as implemented by President Obama.

caribbeanslim,

I have also been told that a form I signed as part of a loan agreement was "required by the Patriot act".

For more info regarding Milton and his "Chicago Boys" check these out:

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/01/miltons-paradise-lost/

http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/re-capturing-the-friedmans

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2007/feb/15/who-was-milton-friedman/?pagination=false

http://seekingalpha.com/article/312033-paul-krugman-versus-milton-friedman

And this commentary regarding "free markets":

Well, "Free Markets", in the sense of the US economy are a grand illusion.

FROM: www.economicsanity101.com/capitalism-illusion.html

The so-called "free market" is another illusion peddled by The Powers That Be. What we actually have is a highly-controlled exploitation economy -- an economy with literally thousands of laws, rules, and regulations all designed to direct the "lion's share" of everything to the super wealthy who run the banking, finance, oil, and insurance industries -- an exploitation economy run by Money & Profit Addicts in which the only thing that matters is to produce and show a short-term profit on the next, quarterly, corporate report.

Most people believe that the world's economy functions under a system called "Free Market Capitalism." This is another grand illusion peddled by the super-wealthy to cover up centuries of manipulation, control, fraud, and outright criminal activity.

Capitalism is anything but free. It's a system of exploitation designed and managed by and for the super-wealthy. It has thousands of laws and restrictions and hundreds of ways to manipulate and milk the public of money.

The major problem is not that we can't find any workable solutions. The problem is that real solutions are being completely ignored by those who have a vested interest in maintaining their positions of power and privilege.

Backcountry:

@Jon-1321288

Debi,

One simple question. Do you, or Ido for that matter, know what NASA is short for?...

...Ido, the idiot, may have made an unfortunate typo. You, on the other hand...., are simply living up to the conservative standard.

Wait. So you made two posts entirely about NASA when it was blatantly obvious that he made a typo and meant to say NSA and you're calling OTHER people idiots??? You really think the guy who made a typo is a bigger idiot than the guy who couldn't figure out it was just that?? LOL!

If you're still reading these posts, we may never agree on whether or not big boy Exxon Mobil is paying their fair share of taxes (I will go to my grave saying they don't, Lol), but thanks for having my back when it mattered.

Debi

@Debi-1314897

If you're still reading these posts, we may never agree on whether or not big boy Exxon Mobil is paying their fair share of taxes (I will go to my grave saying they don't, Lol), but thanks for having my back when it mattered.

What can I say, I'm an equal opportunity a-hole, lol. And I'm sure there are plenty of things that we DO agree on.

Backcountry164

Go to the "contact us" page -http://www.newsvine.com/_nv/cms/info/contact and tell them you want to post links. It isn't allowed for new users but I think you've been around long enough that they should allow it if you ask.

I did what you said, and received an e-mail saying I am now a "trusted user."

I guess we'll find out, as your quote has a link in it.

If it works.....THANKS!!!

(here goes)

Spellchecker:

I do have some (non-crazy) ideas,...

Ideas are the only way to progress. Please, plant the seeds.

@TwoPartsLogic HoldTheBS

I did what you said, and received an e-mail saying I am now a "trusted user."

I spent about a week scratching my head trying to figure out why other people could post links but mine just disappeared before I finally went to the contact us page to ask "what the hell". Now I pass that along whenever I see someone reference a link in their post that isn't there. Sucks to have something to back up your point of view and not be able to share it.

Still no link from you though; maybe it takes a day for them to get you in the system. Good luck!

david:

I previously warned all of you what was happening and what happened. Newsvine posters like Ol_Doc, Amanda-2017567, started with the typical name calling "Conspiracy Theorist", "Wearing a Tin Foil Hat", etc. and personal attacks in failed attempts to discredit the Facts. (and don't even attempt to lie Ol_Doc, Amanda-2017567 I copied your posts attacking me and saved them for just this "I told you so" occasion).

I am human and my memory might be faulty but I seriously don't remember any posts in which I called you a 'Conspiracy Theorist' and I have NEVER ONCE used the phrase 'tin foil hat.' I have called myself that on many occasions, being something of a conspiracy theorist myself, but I believe I have always clearly been against the idea of Homeland Security from the start--having been previously wrongly detained by them as an 'illegal' when it was their fault they lost my adoption paper and I never knew I was adopted, I have been and always will be, an opponent of Homeland Security. Few people remember that when the German SS started out, they were called 'Saal-Schutz'--Home Protection. Only later, when they officially aligned themselves with the Nazi Party, did they change their name to 'Schutz-Staffen'--Protection Corps.

Spellchecker--please do tell us your ideas--I for one would like to hear them.

That's right spellchecker. Nothing else is working and we need to come up with new ideas.

An idea I have suggested was to organize into grassroots proposition drives to actually change the laws. We can't trust our representatives and we need to take our power back through law changes.

Debi--yes, I agree---it has to start at the grass roots level, for most if not all things. Your suggestion is a good one, and a good start! And not just for the Homeland Security issues. There are SSOOO many issues facing our nation and the world right now. But any real and positive change will have to come from the local level first. Because literally we can not trust our representatives to truly represent us. That is sad, but true.

These 'centers' are walking a fine line between actually gathering relavent information and infringing on free speech. Profiling works, whether prople like it or not. All I can see they have gotten so far is data so the idiots at the TSA can steal your peanut butter.

Bush Cheney created Homeland Security and needed 200,000 to 500,000 new people to staff it. TSA alone is huge. They dredged the streets and hired an enormous number of people with low skills, no skills. People who may have had jobs in the private sector but could see they weren't doing well and wanted a gubmint job where once they passed the "probationary" period they'd have a job for life and lifetime benefits no matter what. Who knew they were creating these dumb fusion centers ? But the same pool of candidates that gave us TSA agents sticking their hands in the pants of 80 yr olds in wheel chairs while their buddies are stealing jewelry and cameras from luggage behind the wall have apparently staffed up the fusion centers. So they not only write useless intel reports but three layers of reviewers and supervisors look at the dumb reports and think they are great ! They pass this crap on to big shots who at least have enough on the ball to recognize it's crap. But being gubmint employees they file it and tomorrow do it again. Don't want to make waves or anything - and if they do, nothing will change. They continue to waste the hard earned money of the taxpayers while doing nothing to improve security. Somebody please fire Napolitano ! Please oh pretty please !

IReadyou - Bush Cheney created Homeland Security and needed 200,000 to 500,000 new people to staff it.

And you hired President Obama to do WHAT, Nothing.

Don't even attempt the LAME EXCUSE "Obstructionist" US Congress, as IF President Obama wanted to do something and be held 100% Responsible and 100% Accountable he could do as he did before (keep clicking "next"; see something Unconstitutional TOUGH LUCK that is what you Voted For):

http://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions

Read post#1.93

Sure people want to know what happened, but NBC finds it to be "counterproductive" during the elections.

It's been up all day long. If want it beat to death, go to FOX. People get shot in the drug-running corridors nearly every day. Complain about the drug demands of Americans.

Yeah, right - counter productive during the elections.....heaven forbid that they find yet another link to fast and furious. THAT would be extremely counter productive!!! Especially to getting the anointed one re-elected.....

That story is still up in my feed. If you change to "News" instead of sports or entertainment, then you get more actual news I have found, not saying you have anything else or trying to be disparaging, just, hopefully, helpful.

Unlike the majority of you, i refuse to believe that our politicians are stupid. It is that view that gives them a free pass. they don't deserve a pass. The economy is not some mystical ethereal event. It is simple math. They know what made the economy good in the 40s 50s and 60s. they know what made the economy flourish in the late 90s. The problem is not that they can't fix things. the problem is that their agenda is anything but "we the people" and most of you do exactly what the hidden rich want you to do. And they laugh at you all the way to their banks. Politicians are not idiots, YOU ARE.

The economy is not some mystical ethereal event. It is simple math. They know what made the economy good in the 40s 50s and 60s. they know what made the economy flourish in the late 90s.

The economy is a lot more complex than that - Nobel prize winning economists cannot agree on exactly what makes an economy good. There are some basics like free trade that almost every economist agrees on, but there is a lot more disagreement than consensus.

I do agree with you on not giving politicians a free pass though. I see a whole bunch of counter-productive moves being made, both now and in the past.

Slodan: "What happened to the story on the Border Patrol Agents being shot today?? One was killed and the other seriously wounded. Why did NBCNEWS take the story down?? Don't they want people to know what happened?"

How come you only care about guns re: Fast & Furious and border agents' deaths? Don't you know that guns don't kill people? People kill people?

" Don't you know that guns don't kill people? People kill people?"

yeah and so does Spam that's been in the refrigerator for a week...

Spam will not kill you its got too much salt to go bad (or insane) in a week.

only the uneducated uses a gun to get his point across. People kill not guns and the more we get in peoples hands the less people we have.

george pauljohn - Unlike the majority of you, i refuse to believe that our politicians are stupid.

Because that implies all that voted for them are even stup!der.

Robert-385246 - The economy is a lot more complex than that - Nobel prize winning economists cannot agree on exactly what makes an economy good.

Uh, huh, a bunch of Idealist Academics with their butts so specialized in their Niches, that they cannot see to obvious (cannot see the trees in the forest). Did I mention their Conflicts of Interest as the Arse Puppets of All the Political Parties (Follow The Money). How about doing the Research and doing a Causative Timeline. If you don't know the actual Cause(s) (most of you don't based on your posts) how can you even create a Solution (Usually by eliminating the Cause(s)).

A while back most of us (bunch of nerds) did a Predictive Model Timeline, and started to take our own personal measures before the $60 Trillion to $100 Trillion Global Economic Crisis consisting of the Mortgage Crisis, Wall Street Crisis, Financial Crisis, Banking Crisis, Credit Crisis, etc.; with some of us with less scruples even using our knowledge to make Millions USDs. Some of us attempted to warn you what was happening and were immediately called "Conspiracy Theorists", "Wearing a Tin Foil Hat", etc..

And most of you are still worse than Islamic Jihadists in your defending President Obama's Actions Wrong or Right to your Deaths.

I told you President Obama's Motives for most of his Actions, being his Buddy "Mr. Corporate America" and I challenged most of you to find out who "Mr. Corporate America" is; as your own Research is more valuable to YOU, than my spoonfeeding you and then you calling me a liar because you don't want or "like" (opinion not fact) that Result. So currently, since 2009, only ONE Newsvine Poster even bothered to find out who President Obama's Buddy "Mr. Corporate America" is; and then connected all the Events from then till current as a Causative Timeline.

Do you realize that if we investigated every single 'strange' or 'out of place' observation in this country we would have to deputize every citizen just to have the manpower to do so? It is impossible, yet they're attempting that very thing

My cat hacked up a hairball this morning. It was no doubt a super secret message that he was in secret contact with the possum down the lane. They plan a hostile takeover of the street. After that? The neighborhood. After that? THE WORLD.

That's what you people do who's lives are controlled by fear. You wait for the next attack. You keep your eye out the window for anyone that doesn't look right, stare down any stranger in your neighborhood you don't recognize, check that nobody has stolen your ammo supply every night, watch Fox news in case there is yet another "threat assessment."

The rest of us go about living our lives free from fear, enjoying freedom, having set in place a system that may not be perfect but is good enough.

Yes Garrick, just like they did in Germany. It's all good, no worries mate.

@interested observer....if you call these centers 'security' you are easily duped...the cop wanna-bes at the TSA are another fine example of Bush era stipidity.

Well ever heard of "if you see something, say something"? lots of reports get made that way but its always good to be aware of your surroundings. Paranoid and aware are two different things though.

Allen-2635884 - @interested observer....if you call these centers 'security' you are easily duped...the cop wanna-bes at the TSA are another fine example of Bush era stipidity.

As continued by President Bush III (the turd), as President Obama.

Read post#1.93. You Don't "Like" (a emotive non factual opinion) that, well that is what happened.

Don't forget the NSA as well.

WE THE PEOPLE must not allow the government (you know those criminals who go to DC to 'fight' for us?) to continue spying on every American Citizen.

These freaks who eat at the public trough are just pawns of a few 'liberal thinkers' who have in mind the DOMINATION of this Nation.

Term Limits, drug tests, IQ tests and financial reporting will go a long way to restore America the Beautiful to her self.

Throw all of these 535 pucks out and imprison most of them. WE THE PEOPLE must assert our Constitutional Rights before this fraud in the Oval Office trashes all of them

Get rid of this AFFIRMATIVE ACTION beast and his wife and their minions.

Do it NOW.

josh, it is amazing that you point as so called liberals, bush created this spy on america situation. they took us off the gold standard, they deregulated hospitals, power companies etc. and took away the tariffs that made america great in industry. you make me very sad. you give me no hope for America at all.

george pauljohn - josh, it is amazing that you point as so called liberals, bush created this spy on america situation. they took us off the gold standard, they deregulated hospitals, power companies etc. and took away the tariffs that made america great in industry. you make me very sad. you give me no hope for America at all.

NICE FAILED DEFLECTION OF BLAME GAME.

And you hired President Obama to do WHAT, Nothing.

Don't even attempt the LAME EXCUSE "Obstructionist" US Congress, as IF President Obama wanted to do something and be held 100% Responsible and 100% Accountable he could do as he did before (keep clicking "next"; see something Unconstitutional TOUGH LUCK that is what you Voted For):

http://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions

Read post#1.93. You Don't "Like" (a emotive non factual opinion) that, well that is what happened.

She can spin a good lay, er; lie.

I see your racism is affecting your politics. You will be sad to hear Barack will be reelected on Nov 6. Obama 2012. Mitt Robme will not get to harvest America like Bain Capital has harvested American companies.

Really? You criticize a woman over her physical characteristics? Now that's moronic and immature. That's all you got? There's plenty ugly men out there in positions of power. Grow up!

HAve you not heard Muslim is not the color of the week this week? This week he is a Jeremiah Wright follower again.

@IXLR8

Used to spy on the reading habits of Muslins and Obama expanded it?? Oh my, he must not be the Muslim crusader the GOP likes to make him out to be.

No, he's actually a carbon copy clone of GWB which NEITHER side will admit to.

Are you serious?? Playboy Clinton was handed Bin Laden on a silver platter and refused to do anything. 9/11 had nothing to do with any ones incompetence. If Bush had intelligence and did nothing, you would have a leg to stand on. Kinda like the intelligence that the Obama administration had on Libya but did nothing with.....other than flat out lie about it after the fact when they got caught with their pants down.....which the mainstream media lapdogs ignored....and are still ignoring even after the administration all but admitted that they they were wrong in their initial assessment....the blood of Chris Stevens is squarely on the hands of this administration!

If you want to talk about TOTAL incompetence, you need look no further than the man-child now occupying the oval office.

If Bush had intelligence and did nothing, you would have a leg to stand on.

Good god. The cognitive dissonance on display here is staggering. Tell me, any time you stumble upon one of the THOUSANDS of pieces of reportage demonstrating that he had received multiple reports on an imminent threat prior to 9/11 and did nothing, what happens? Do you black out? Wake up on the floor with no memory of how you got there and a ringing buzz in your ear that whispers "God bless Bush?"

And these reports, by the way, along with the work done to raise suspicion about this group of mostly Saudi Arabians getting pilot training over the spring and summer of 2001, were accomplished entirely without the Patriot Act, or Homeland Security, or the entire apparatus of sham security that Bush (or more accurately, Cheney) launched into existence.

Having said that I must apologize when you inevitably wake in a few minutes on the floor. A condition such as yours can't be pleasurable. I can only imagine the agony you endure suffering the constant blows of reality to that bubble of delusion. You have my sympathies.

Stephen...typically well - worded leftist vomit!

You are among those who quite typically are obviously enamored with their fine use of vocabulary, to your credit. But you need to brush up on your reality - discernment skills. The nation is in ruins and we're being presided over by a throng of so - called "leaders" with no semblance of desire or purpose in their "leadership". NOTHING is being done to change the fact that the country is diametrically in the opposite direction from what it could be if there was NO agenda to destroy it.

None of the false "global warming" and "green" idiocy has been foisted upon the minds of every person and child as fact aside from being done in an effort to undermine the ability for any entity, be they corporate or individual, who may wish to embark on some profitable enterprise. How? By making using ANY form of available and cheap energy impossible through mandates by the Nazi - like EPA. Physics teaches that you cannot expend one form of energy without creating some form of an after effect, such as exhaust. If we cease to make a single dent in the entirety of the planet which contains said resources, then we will end up with a sanitized, sterile planet filled with dying, starving people who cannot eat because they have no money as the result of a loss of ALL jobs.

Second, the bulk of our manufacturing, mining and production of ALL items which would and have previously employed millions of our fellow countrymen and women have been sent elsewhere. Now, nobody in our glorious government ever mentions bringing the work back here, because they have vested interests in keeping these jobs anywhere but on American Terra fir ma. It is elementary to recognize that, without jobs which could easily exist if not for "outsourcing" and as a result of the aforementioned EPA (read "greenweenie") laws making it either illegal or impossible to do virtually anything of use on our sovereign soil, there cannot be massive employment, prosperity and money moving about in an economy where such activity is the lifeblood of a free, capitalistic society,

This is all being done by design, because one can easily hypothesize that anyone with a modicum of intelligence would NOT intentionally allow and / or cause such a debacle to occur in the first place. But a lackadaisical populace which has been stricken with forgetting that, until we relinquish it, we have the legal and moral obligation to stop the demise of our nation especially when those entrusted with overseeing what is supposedly in the best interests of our nation have abandoned the cause and violated the trust placed with them.

In layman's terms, we're f^cked unless liberalism and rampant socialistic intentions are terminated in their tracks at the voting booths in a matter of weeks. Your "Messiah" has failed, is a failure, a consummate joke and a dangerous person that needs to be sent back to whatever third - world sh!thole he was born in. You can't blame GWB for the total lack of anything constructive coming from the likes of this current administration. Sorry...Obama has to take full responsibility for the damage he's done to our once great nation.

Hahaha. Wow. What an epic amount of totally irrelevant text which still does nothing to change the fact that the Bush White House received multiple briefings on the threat Al Qaeda posed in 2001.

That tactic, by the way, in which you instantly refuse to even acknowledge the point being made and instead launch immediately into a torrent of labyrinthine and infinitely ranging insanity is why the GOP's brand has never been more damaged in its history. We'll thank the Tea Party for that one.

G'job.

Jim, you're so f^ucking full of sh*t! Doesn't matter whether its been the Democrats or the Republicans in the White House or Congress. All of these douche bags have sold AMERICA down the river for years and years.You people need to realize, that as long as Corporate America pulls their strings these F^UCKERS will dance!

Cowboy1:

Well said.

Too true cowboy, until we can stop our politicians from using "favors" in the tax code to get corporate money and using our tax dollars to buy votes, this disgusting mess will continue. Unfortunately, some type of open revolt is the only thing that will change this. Until then it's business as usual.

@stephen

using academic bloated vocab does not make a point more or less valid. the 9/11 intel reports were not near as specific as the threat to our embassy. The two can not be compared. The State Department and Administration let us down and Americans were killed because of their lack of action. Its not a dem or republican thing its a simple command and communication failure.

Fact of the matter we needed multiple M-134 mounted on remote controlled flowerpots around the embassy. If this was put in then the attack would have been over in a matter of a few minutes.

Stephen-1004672,

Go read the US Congressional 9/11 Committee Investigations, Findings and Recommendations. With former President Clinton saying, "I'm so sorry".

Previously, President Clinton had Gutted the US Intelligence Agencies. This left the US Blind and Deaf to the Events leading to the 9/11 2001 Attacks as well as the US no longer having credible verifiable Intelligence Assets Worldwide. The US then having to rely on information (not even "intelligence") from "Potentially Hostile" Nations like Jordan, Pakistan, etc..

Because of President Clinton's Cut to the Bone Reduction In Forces of the US Military, the Anti Aircraft Missile Batteries at most Major US Cities were removed and then these US Military Units deactivated (in 2012 NYC reinstituted this); the previous "Hot" USAF Jet Fighters (interceptors) were removed from the US Commercial Airports;

the US Military Asymmetric Warfare Forces used to independently verify US Intelligence Agencies and Foreign information were decimated (President Clinton's RIFs) and during the many FAILED President Clinton as Commander In Chief Ordered Missions were almost completely killed off, as in most cases because there were no longer any Intelligence Assets in the Hostile Nations the US Military Asymmetric Warfare Forces ended up going into these Hostile Nations without any Intelligence Asset linkups on the ground.

After the President Clinton's Gutting of the US Intelligence Agencies, most of the previous US Intelligence Assets at these Hostile Nations had a choice, try to make their Cover Jobs pay enough to support them and their families and evade capture (evident change in income) as their own Nation's Traitors; OR, become that Nation's Counter Intelligence and outing the rest of the US Intelligence Assets in their Nations. It will be Decades, if at all, to even repair the Damages of President Clinton; while the former US Intelligence Assets, now the Hostile Nation's Counter Intelligence wait for the US to even attempt anything that took Decades to establish.

This is why prior to the 9/11 2001 most US Allies Intelligence Agencies Refused to allow the US to access their Intelligence, as the FORMER US Intelligence Assets now Hostile Nation's Counter Intelligence Agents would compromise the US Allies Intelligence Agencies Assets (Sources).

And don't even attempt to say that I don't know, as I survived the President Clinton Reduction In Forces of the US Military, and saw many former US Military Asymmetric Warfare form the US Security Contractors. And normally being attached as US Military Asymmetric Warfare Middle East Qualified Officer to the CIA's SAD/SOG, I witnessed the President Clinton Gutting of the US Intelligence Agencies and survived the Consequences from before then until currently (Diverted from Deployment again to Afghanistan, to US AFRICOM, Northwest).

Before you even start talking about RQs, MQs, High Altitude Surveillance Platforms, US High Tech; all you will be doing is prove that you know NOTHING.

I'm waiting for it my friend, it will happen, sooner rather than later.

This avowed lesbian may not be the least effective political appointee ever but she sure is the ugliest as I see it.

Josh - You don't give her enough credit. Aside from your astute observation that she (?) is butt ugly, she IS one of the least effective political appointees ever, with only Eric Holder exceeding her. Keep in mind that it's President Stinky (BO) that makes the appointments, and his goal was to hire the least competent creeps available. Well done, Mr. President, well done!

mat: " she runs her government agency like a lesbian sorority party."

What is it with you and lesbians? Jealous?

And stevie (shaking my head) your idea of an "astute observation" is that she is "butt ugly?" Give me a break? How "beautiful" are you? Pathetic drivel. "Stinky BO???!" Give me a break!

Ah personal insults! The last bastion of the ignorant and uneducated.

mathuin - When is the American Spring going to happen?

Do not even imply that. "Anyone stating a Radical Change to (US) Government is a Homegrown Domestic Terrorist" - Definition from President Obama's January 21, 2009 Patriot Acts (Plural US Laws).

Ignorance of the Law(s) Is NOT a Valid Defense.

Is it the fox guarding the hen house here ? Yup sure is. Another blow to freedom just took place.

We must rid the Oval Office of this unbearable destroyer this November.

DO IT!

Josh Brogan

Is it the fox guarding the hen house here ? Yup sure is. Another blow to freedom just took place.

We must rid the Oval Office of this unbearable destroyer this November.

Give me a @!$%#ing break! If you don't like Obama fine, we can agree on that. But to imply that this particular issue will be in any way changed by his removal from office is a joke. Romney will simply increase this BS even more just as Obama did, if you doubt that you are a fool.

Unless you've something to hide, one doesn't worry about it. In fact if one is a conservative law abiding person, he

might like the idea of a robust program of eavesdropping. If one is a target it's no different than what some freely

post on Facebook.

Backcountry164 - Romney will simply increase this BS even more just as Obama did, if you doubt that you are a fool.

And you know this because you are a mind reader or President Obama told you. Otherwise show me where (link) Repugnant Romulan said he would.

@david-475776

And you know this because you are a mind reader or President Obama told you. Otherwise show me where (link) Repugnant Romulan said he would.

Huh? You actually believe the things politicians say means jack @!$%# compared to what they'll actually do?

Backcountry164 - Huh? You actually believe the things politicians say means jack @!$%# compared to what they'll actually do?

Ok, then show me where Repugnant Romulan did what President Obama already DID as listed in post# 1.93.

Don't worry this article must be a mistake and whoever posted it won't have a job tomorrow. This looks like a whistle blower article.

I lament the waste of tax dollars. However, if you engage in public speech, anyone, including government weenies, can listen, take notes, record, analyze, etc. You should probably be more worried by Big Data - the combination of data from multiple sources which is then aggregated and used to profile individuals. Consider someone who had your credit card purchases, your browsing history, your Tweets, your e-mail, your magazine and newspaper subscriptions, your charitable and political donations, maybe some of your medical history (e.g., RX list), the time line of your locations (e.g., GPS in cell phone, GPS data on Facebook pictures, toll charges on E-ZPass, facial recognition by security cameras), movie and TV viewing, grocery purchases (e.g., those little bar code tags on your key chain or in our wallet), Facebook and Linked-In contacts, and call in and call out telephone numbers. People like Facebook, Twitter, Equifax, and Amazon are well along in gathering, sharing, and utilizing this data. How much pressure will they absorb from the government before they share with it too?

You forgot to mention those little RFID tags that are sewn into your clothing. The ones that track you every time you enter a store.

So, guess what's next...

That's right...

Sub-dermal tracking ID tags that link all of your personal data.

It will be heralded as the next step in personal and financial security. It will be welcomed with open arms by the masses. Implemented into law by big brother and mandatory for conducting business of every kind. From voter ID to buying a pack of gum from the local mini-mart. Mr Orwell' science fiction will become fact. The Sheeple will love it! For all any of us know, they could be planted in us now from an innocuous injection of medicine at the doctors office.

Our government has become a monster that will not obey and it's hungry.

Any dragon slayers out there?

Herb Sneebler - Any dragon slayers out there?

Has nothing to do with Mythical Creatures, and everything to do with "Government of the Government for the Government".

If you are so worried about RFIDs go buy a Boat Magnet and deactivate everything. Does not matter, the other means of Tracking.

About half of this nations citizenry could use some good ole totalitarianism.

Google

The great America plan is to spend a dollar to 'fix' IT. Then if that dollar does not fix IT. Spend three dollars. And if spending three dollars doesn't FIX IT. Spend a trillion or so. By then the country will be broke, in bankruptcy and millions will be out of work and businesses will be shut down.

But by then we will not care about whatever it was we set out to fix will we?| Sort of like the Afghan War... does anyone know why we are in Afghanistan? Anyone?

Buehler ? Forrest Buehler? Anyone?

Afghanistan… why are we there? Why did the rookie "nobel peace prize winner' send 60 000 additional troops to Afghanistan after he campaigned on shutting down that war ?

Because he is a liar and like his appointees he lies whenever he speaks. Get used to it, if he wins the contest this November we will see a passel of lies so huge even a giant tyrannosaurus would choke on them.

Do you really want this dude to be the dude in the Oval Office?

I don't.

Josh, until you try to pin this on one party (yes, the traditionally worst offender, to be sure) I am completely with you ... but the central control mentality of the old Roosevelt Democratic Party has poisoned the Republican Party as well ... never pay attention to what anyone ever says when they are running for office .... only to what they actually do ... ignore the rhetoric, which is there as a distraction .. what comes out ... and you will be amazed at how completely consistent it is ...

It is time for revolution

Ron Paul is a very smart man! I would like to see him as President.

soarer - In 10 years Bush will be known for the Patriot act.

Nice Failed Deflection of Blame Game.

President Obama's January 21, 2009 Patriot Acts (Plural) that legalized all the illegal things of President Bush's Patriot Act (singular). This included the defeated provisions of H.R.1955 and S.1959, the George Orwell 1984 Thought Crimes Laws, verbal or written statements are the crime also, as "Anyone stating a radical change to (US) Government is a Homegrown Domestic Terrorist". Then US Supreme Court Ruling on President Obama's Patriot Acts Section pertaining to (No) Material Support to Terrorist Organizations (including Legal Representation (Defense) as "Expert Advise"); Preemptive Detentions; Expanded Presidential Powers; The Authorized Use of Deadly Force Against US Citizens by the US Military; Legalizes the Warrantless requests for the physical locations of internet users from Internet Service Providers. Monitoring and censorship of all US Communications, as to why youtube, February 2009, changed their policies as well as many other internet sites, http 404, content not available in your region/zone, blocked in your country, etc.. US Military Tribunals (Legal Defense no access to witnesses (accusers) nor Classified Evidence). Classified Sections.

Then Speaker for all Demoncraps, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, US Congress, Nancy Pelosi's Anti US Military and Guilty Until Proven Innocent, "Anyone returning from the Wars is a potential Homegrown Domestic Terrorist". This became current US Policy.

Don't blame me the Demoncraps did all of that and want to do much more.

As far as rising up against the U.S. Government that is the Insurrection Act and sedition. As far as "Treason" legally that is only for those that can be proven to have stated an Oath or Pledge to the United States of America. Most of us (US Military) are aware of what will happen if by Executive Order the Insurrection Act is invoked. We will either use Deadly Force Against US Citizens when ordered to do so or we will be Summarily Executed as Traitors (some of us already know the pecking order). Even after we are Summarily Executed our families, relatives, friends, etc. will be suspected of being Co Conspirators to our Treason resulting in their indefinite detentions, indefinite extraordinary interrogations and releases, black lists (no work), SSS coding by Homeland Security, No Fly Lists, etc..

President Obama shown during a Staged News Media Event, January 22, 2009, signing into US Laws, his January 21, 2009 Patriot Acts, 04:38 minutes of 11:55 minutes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLSeD19m3UE

To close a loop hole President Obama signs into US Law, his 2012 NDAA, US Military Indefinite Detentions of US Citizens. This was Ruled Illegal. Currently, President Obama is appealing this Ruling And is using "Executive Privilege" to deny this is still being done pending his appeal.

Obama Signs NDAA, ACLU Disgusted

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IeuE16LLDY

At one time the Department of Homeland Security Centers were valuable sources of information (not intelligence until verified) until they were neutered and became "Politically Correct"; just like the President Obama Rules of Engagement for the US Military being Cannot Shoot Until Shot, Rules of US Civilian Law, Rules of US Civilian Evidence during War tying the US Military hands, legs, blindfolds and ear plugs. Just like we are not supposed to tie Fundamentalist Islam to acts of Terrorism, we can say Conservative Islam or Ultra Conservative Islam to tie this (implied) to the Conservative US Repugnants Party.

Recent events, the Tracking of all Cellular Telephone (Smartphone) Users. The hypothetical use of this is targeting for termination a person within the US that has been labelled as a "Terrorist".

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57524109-38/justice-dept-to-defend-warrantless-cell-phone-tracking/

OBAMA'S FAULT. OBAMA'S FAULT. OBAMA'S FAULT. OBAMA'S FAULT.

Don't even attempt the Deflection of Blame Game, "Bush's Fault" these are events that occured after President Bush and not "Inherited" as implemented by President Obama.

American Citizen-1779594 - It is time for revolution

Do not even imply that. "Anyone stating a Radical Change to (US) Government is a Homegrown Domestic Terrorist" - Definition from President Obama's January 21, 2009 Patriot Acts (Plural US Laws).

Ignorance of the President Obama Law(s) Is NOT a Valid Defense.

And there is the problem. You have an enormous department created virtually overnight with an outrageously huge budget. Is it that these analysts are bad people or even stupid? Probably not. But you have too many people trying to justify their jobs by churning out reports. Of course many are going to contain garbage. There is just not enough terrorism to go around to justify this budget.

The truly frightening thing is that when you have so many people whose jobs depend on finding terrorism, they become highly incentivized to find it (even when it is not there).

seems the only "terrorists" our government can catch are the one's they set up in stings

gottta justify their existence AND tell us how safe they're making America. Hang 'em HIGH!

Why is this a total surprise. Jessie Ventura has been speaking about fusion centers and FEMA camps for 4 years. They called him a conspiracy theorist and is a joke. Now what do think about him now on this issue.

The only reason so many put him down, was because of the MSM. Between them and the government, they didn't like the way he spoke his mind. They don't like it when someone has the government pegged.

#23.1- Check out Ventura's new book: Democrips and Rebloodlicans. While his theories go a bit far for my "truth-o-meter" he has some real life understanding about how Independents and Libertarians are treated by the "political elite".

So under Obama the executive powers have increased along with NDAA and wire taps with no warrant.And its the fault of evil republicans?you all have some wierd thinking going on.Oh i like the drones flying over the usa thing also.Dont worry i think republicans suck also.

Are you sure Osama is dead?

Let us see, hmmm, who was it that initiated the Patriot Act (which is what led to this breach of American citizen's rights)? George W. Bush and his Republican croneys. Obama had nothing to do with the implementation of this, if anything, he has fallen victim to the most likely "false" intel that the DHS pumps out, just so they can keep funding. Bottom line is this IS America folks, we should not have to give up ANY rights that are inalienably given to us at birth as American citizens.

soarer: it's called "sarcasm." No, I am not surprised in the least.

bigdaddysdawg: no, I am not sure. Funny, Benazir Bhutto and many others active in M.E. politics thought he died years ago from kidney failure

hoolie1 - Let us see, hmmm, who was it that initiated the Patriot Act (which is what led to this breach of American citizen's rights)? George W. Bush and his Republican croneys. Obama had nothing to do with the implementation of this, if anything,

hoolie1 Another failure, that is worse than the Islamic Jihadists that will defend President Obama's Actions Wrong or Right to their Deaths.

President Obama's January 21, 2009 Patriot Acts (Plural) that legalized all the illegal things of President Bush's Patriot Act (singular). This included the defeated provisions of H.R.1955 and S.1959, the George Orwell 1984 Thought Crimes Laws, verbal or written statements are the crime also, as "Anyone stating a radical change to (US) Government is a Homegrown Domestic Terrorist". Then US Supreme Court Ruling on President Obama's Patriot Acts Section pertaining to (No) Material Support to Terrorist Organizations (including Legal Representation (Defense) as "Expert Advise"); Preemptive Detentions; Expanded Presidential Powers; The Authorized Use of Deadly Force Against US Citizens by the US Military; Legalizes the Warrantless requests for the physical locations of internet users from Internet Service Providers. Monitoring and censorship of all US Communications, as to why youtube, February 2009, changed their policies as well as many other internet sites, http 404, content not available in your region/zone, blocked in your country, etc.. US Military Tribunals (Legal Defense no access to witnesses (accusers) nor Classified Evidence). Classified Sections.

Then Speaker for all Demoncraps, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, US Congress, Nancy Pelosi's Anti US Military and Guilty Until Proven Innocent, "Anyone returning from the Wars is a potential Homegrown Domestic Terrorist". This became current US Policy.

Don't blame me the Demoncraps did all of that and want to do much more.

As far as rising up against the U.S. Government that is the Insurrection Act and sedition. As far as "Treason" legally that is only for those that can be proven to have stated an Oath or Pledge to the United States of America. Most of us (US Military) are aware of what will happen if by Executive Order the Insurrection Act is invoked. We will either use Deadly Force Against US Citizens when ordered to do so or we will be Summarily Executed as Traitors (some of us already know the pecking order). Even after we are Summarily Executed our families, relatives, friends, etc. will be suspected of being Co Conspirators to our Treason resulting in their indefinite detentions, indefinite extraordinary interrogations and releases, black lists (no work), SSS coding by Homeland Security, No Fly Lists, etc..

President Obama shown during a Staged News Media Event, January 22, 2009, signing into US Laws, his January 21, 2009 Patriot Acts, 04:38 minutes of 11:55 minutes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLSeD19m3UE

To close a loop hole President Obama signs into US Law, his 2012 NDAA, US Military Indefinite Detentions of US Citizens. This was Ruled Illegal. Currently, President Obama is appealing this Ruling And is using "Executive Privilege" to deny this is still being done pending his appeal.

Obama Signs NDAA, ACLU Disgusted

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IeuE16LLDY

At one time the Department of Homeland Security Centers were valuable sources of information (not intelligence until verified) until they were neutered and became "Politically Correct"; just like the President Obama Rules of Engagement for the US Military being Cannot Shoot Until Shot, Rules of US Civilian Law, Rules of US Civilian Evidence during War tying the US Military hands, legs, blindfolds and ear plugs. Just like we are not supposed to tie Fundamentalist Islam to acts of Terrorism, we can say Conservative Islam or Ultra Conservative Islam to tie this (implied) to the Conservative US Repugnants Party.

Recent events, the Tracking of all Cellular Telephone (Smartphone) Users. The hypothetical use of this is targeting for termination a person within the US that has been labelled as a "Terrorist".

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57524109-38/justice-dept-to-defend-warrantless-cell-phone-tracking/

OBAMA'S FAULT. OBAMA'S FAULT. OBAMA'S FAULT. OBAMA'S FAULT.

Don't even attempt the Deflection of Blame Game, "Bush's Fault" these are events that occured after President Bush and not "Inherited" as implemented by President Obama.

some of the arrested couldn't even find their own shoes

They might have left them at the airport security inspection show.

Entrapment is just the tip of the ICEBERG. Of course DHS doesn't want senate oversight. Of course DHS doesn't want to look stupid. Too bad, so sad. I don't mind them looking at what I do. They can look at my computer just by walking up and asking. Period. They don't need a warrant. They don't need to sneek in.

Big Brother has been in power for years. Osama Obama doesn't want to look bad at the polls. I don't care. Follow the Muslims. Look at their computers. Look at mine. I don't care!! Just be efficient, and don't waste money on farting around. Protect our borders! Protect our Border Patrol. Stop illegal aliens from invading our country! OH WAIT! OSAMA OBAMA WANTS SOME MORE LATINO VOTERS. MUSN'T MAKE THEM ANGRY BY STOPPING ALL OF THE DRUGS FROM GETTING TO CHICAGO SO THEY CAN TAKE OVER THE DRUG TRADE!

It's to big to fail! Throw mo money at it!