latimes: Justice Department secretly taps into AP reporters’ phone records In a surprising declaration a short time ago, the Associated Press revealed that the Justice Department had obtained two months of phone records tied to numerous reporters and editors in various cities, in what the news organization is calling a “massive and unprecedented intrusion.” The reason for the government’s actions, which the AP was alerted to in a letter Friday, are as of now unknown. From the Associated Press’ story on the emerging scandal: In all, the government seized those records for more than 20 separate telephone lines assigned to AP and its journalists in April and May of 2012. The exact number of journalists who used the phone lines during that period is unknown but more than 100 journalists work in the offices whose phone records were targeted on a wide array of stories about government and other matters. AP’s President and CEO, Gary Pruitt, issued a strongly-worded letter to Attorney General Eric Holder: We regard this action by the Department of Justice as a serious interference with AP’s constitutional rights to gather and report the news. While we evaluate our options we urgently request that you immediately return to the AP the telephone toll records that the Department subpoenaed and destroy all copies. Read the full story here. Photo: Molly Riley / Associated Press
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latimes:

Justice Department secretly taps into AP reporters’ phone records

In a surprising declaration a short time ago, the Associated Press revealed that the Justice Department had obtained two months of phone records tied to numerous reporters and editors in various cities, in what the news organization is calling a “massive and unprecedented intrusion.”

The reason for the government’s actions, which the AP was alerted to in a letter Friday, are as of now unknown.

From the Associated Press’ story on the emerging scandal:

In all, the government seized those records for more than 20 separate telephone lines assigned to AP and its journalists in April and May of 2012. The exact number of journalists who used the phone lines during that period is unknown but more than 100 journalists work in the offices whose phone records were targeted on a wide array of stories about government and other matters.

AP’s President and CEO, Gary Pruitt, issued a strongly-worded letter to Attorney General Eric Holder:

We regard this action by the Department of Justice as a serious interference with AP’s constitutional rights to gather and report the news. While we evaluate our options we urgently request that you immediately return to the AP the telephone toll records that the Department subpoenaed and destroy all copies.

Photo: Molly Riley / Associated Press

mindfuller: This will be the only post to this website today, as we are participating in #CISPABlackout. If you’re eligible to vote in the USA, please take 10 minutes today to call your Senator and tell them that your right to privacy is important to you. ALABAMA Sessions, Jeff (202) 224-4124 Contact: http://www.sessions.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=ConstituentServices.ContactMe Shelby, Richard C. (202) 224-5744 Contact: www.shelby.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/emailsenatorshelby ALASKA Begich, Mark (202) 224-3004 Contact: www.begich.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=EmailSenator Murkowski, Lisa (202) 224-6665 Contact: www.murkowski.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=Contact ARIZONA Flake, Jeff (202) 224-4521 Contact: www.flake.senate.gov/contact.cfm McCain, John (202) 224-2235 Contact: http://www.mccain.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.ContactForm ARKANSAS Boozman, John (202) 224-4843 Contact: www.boozman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/e-mail-me Pryor, Mark L. (202) 224-2353 Contact: www.pryor.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=ContactMe CALIFORNIA Boxer, Barbara (202) 224-3553 Contact: www.boxer.senate.gov/en/contact/ Feinstein, Dianne (202) 224-3841 Contact: www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/e-mail-me COLORADO Bennet, Michael F. (202) 224-5852 Contact: www.bennet.senate.gov/contact/ Udall, Mark (202) 224-5941 Contact: www.markudall.senate.gov/?p=contact CONNECTICUT Blumenthal, Richard (202) 224-2823 Contact: www.blumenthal.senate.gov/contact/ Murphy, Christopher (202) 224-4041 Contact: www.murphy.senate.gov/contact.cfm Read More
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mindfuller:

This will be the only post to this website today, as we are participating in #CISPABlackout.

If you’re eligible to vote in the USA, please take 10 minutes today to call your Senator and tell them that your right to privacy is important to you.

ALABAMA

Sessions, Jeff

(202) 224-4124

Contact: http://www.sessions.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=ConstituentServices.ContactMe

Shelby, Richard C.

(202) 224-5744

Contact: www.shelby.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/emailsenatorshelby

ALASKA

Begich, Mark

(202) 224-3004

Contact: www.begich.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=EmailSenator

Murkowski, Lisa

(202) 224-6665

Contact: www.murkowski.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=Contact

ARIZONA

Flake, Jeff

(202) 224-4521

Contact: www.flake.senate.gov/contact.cfm

McCain, John

(202) 224-2235

Contact: http://www.mccain.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.ContactForm

ARKANSAS

Boozman, John

(202) 224-4843

Contact: www.boozman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/e-mail-me

Pryor, Mark L.

(202) 224-2353

Contact: www.pryor.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=ContactMe

CALIFORNIA

Boxer, Barbara

(202) 224-3553

Contact: www.boxer.senate.gov/en/contact/

Feinstein, Dianne

(202) 224-3841

Contact: www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/e-mail-me

COLORADO

Bennet, Michael F.

(202) 224-5852

Contact: www.bennet.senate.gov/contact/

Udall, Mark

(202) 224-5941

Contact: www.markudall.senate.gov/?p=contact

CONNECTICUT

Blumenthal, Richard

(202) 224-2823

Contact: www.blumenthal.senate.gov/contact/

Murphy, Christopher

(202) 224-4041

Contact: www.murphy.senate.gov/contact.cfm

Read More

(via seattle-gadgets)

beatyourselfup:

New York Police Union and NYPD Work Together To Generate Quotas

Audio obtained by The Nation confirms that New York City’s police union cooperated with the NYPD in setting arrest quotas for the department’s officers. According to some officers and critics of quotas, the practice has played a direct role in increasing the number of stop-and-frisk encounters since Mayor Michael Bloomberg came to office. Patrolmen who spoke to The Nation explained that the pressure from superiors to meet quota goals has caused some officers to seek out or even manufacture arrests to avoid department retaliation.

video mirror

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(via whatiscapitalism)

The federal government can read your email without a warrant.

notablystated:

________________________________________________________________________________

“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” -Martin Luther King Jr.

________________________________________________________________________________

“The federal government will continue to access Americans’ emails without a warrant, after the U.S. Senate dropped a key amendment to legislation now headed to the White House for approval.

Last month, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved an amendment attached to the Video Privacy Protection Act Amendments Act (which deals with publishing users’ Netflix information on Facebook pages) that would have required federal law enforcement to obtain a warrant before monitoring email or other data stored remotely (i.e., the cloud).

The Senate was set to approve the video privacy bill along with the email amendment, which would have applied to a different law, the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act. But then senators decided for reasons unknown to drop the amendment.

Currently, the government can collect emails and other cloud data without a warrant as long as the content has been stored on a third-party server for 180 days or more. Federal agents need only demonstrate that they have “reasonable grounds to believe” the information would be useful in an investigation.”

                                                                    As quoted from -Noel Brinkerhoff

Read more about this issue here.

CIA 'tortured and sodomised' terror suspect, human rights court rules | Guardian

thefreelioness:

“CIA agents tortured a German citizen, sodomising, shackling, and beating him, as Macedonian state police looked on, the European court of human rights said in a historic judgment released on Thursday.

In a unanimous ruling, it also found Macedonia guilty of torturing, abusing, and secretly imprisoning Khaled el-Masri, a German of Lebanese origin allegedly linked to terrorist organisations.

Masri was seized in Macedonia in December 2003 and handed over to a CIA “rendition team” at Skopje airport and secretly flown to Afghanistan.

It is the first time the court has described CIA treatment meted out to terror suspects as torture.

“The grand chamber of the European court of human rights unanimously found that Mr el-Masri was subjected to forced disappearance, unlawful detention, extraordinary rendition outside any judicial process, and inhuman and degrading treatment,” said James Goldston, executive director of the Open Society Justice Initiative.

He described the judgment as “an authoritative condemnation of some of the most objectionable tactics employed in the post-9/11 war on terror”. It should be a wake-up call for the Obama administration and US courts, he told the Guardian. For them to continue to avoid serious scrutiny of CIA activities was “simply unacceptable”, he said.”

Oak Ridge, Tenn. Police sued over warrentless rectal exam after drug dog alerted to $20 bill during traffic stop.

beatyourselfup:

CLINTON — An Oak Ridge man who says he was forced in June 2011 to submit to a digital rectal exam for suspected drugs — and no drugs were found — has filed a lawsuit in Anderson County Circuit Court.

Wesley Antwan Gulley’s legal action contends his constitutional rights were violated and he was subjected to false arrest and imprisonment, assault and battery and medical battery.

The lawsuit alleges Gulley was in shackles and reluctantly consented to the exam, but only after Dr. Michael A. LaPaglia ordered an injectable sedative and threatened to use it “in performing the digital rectal exam …”

The defendants used coercion and “undue influence” to force Gulley’s consent, and police officers didn’t have a warrant, it continues.

Gulley was stopped in Oak Ridge for an alleged traffic violation on June 3, 2011, and told he was being arrested for drugs, according to the lawsuit. He was 19 at the time, records show.

A drug-sniffing dog alerted on a $20 bill found on the driver’s seat of the vehicle, and Gulley underwent an extensive pat-down search.

He was then taken to Methodist Medical Center of Oak Ridge for the exam, the lawsuit states.

Three Oak Ridge police officers and two nurses were in the hospital room at Methodist Medical Center of Oak Ridge at the time of the exam, according to the complaint.

Nothing was found and Gulley was never charged with any drug-related crime, the lawsuit states. A resisting arrest charge filed against Gulley was later dismissed by the state, the lawsuit states.

The exam, the legal action contends, left Gulley under severe stress and mental anguish, and he suffered “ridicule from third parties” as a result.

Gulley also was forced to make a bond and hire an attorney to represent him, it continues.

Knoxville lawyer Bob Jolley, who represented another Oak Ridge man subjected to a warrantless body cavity search, filed the lawsuit on Gulley’s behalf.

In the other case, Felix Booker, 21, was convicted in federal court of possessing 5.7 grams of crack cocaine, found after LaPaglia injected Booker with paralyzing drugs and recovered the drugs from the man’s rectum.

Booker’s conviction has been appealed to the 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

The lawsuit on behalf of Gulley was filed June 1 and names as defendants LaPaglia, Methodist Medical Center of Oak Ridge, two nurses, three Oak Ridge Police Department officers, the city of Oak Ridge and Police Chief James T. Akagi.

The complaint seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages and an injunction prohibiting the police chief from enforcing policies allowing such cavity searches under similar conditions.

Aurora police stopped dozens of cars and pulled out their drivers at gunpoint looking for a bank robbery suspect Saturday afternoon.

beatyourselfup:

DENVER — Aurora police stopped dozens of cars and pulled out their drivers at gunpoint looking for a bank robbery suspect Saturday afternoon.

Police said an armed man robbed a Wells Fargo bank on E. Hampden Avenue and S. Chambers Road and fled.Police tracked the robber to the intersection of E. Iliff Avenue and S. Buckley Road.

Responding officers barricaded the area, trapping about 25 cars near the intersection. Then police went car by car and pulled out each occupant at gunpoint and handcuffed them.”Cops came in from every direction and just threw their car in front of my car,” said Sonya Romero, who was one of the drivers handcuffed. “We all got cuffed until they figured out who did what.”Ben Barker watched the ordeal and told 7NEWS police were armed with shot guns and rifles.”We didn’t know if we were in the line of fire or what the hell was happening,” Romero said.Eventually police came to a white Ford Expedition and arrested the driver. Police have not released the suspect’s name.The other drivers were then released. The whole ordeal lasted about two hours.

Let’s assume this tactic worked, do you really wanted to be treated like a thief and a criminal because someone in your vicinity broke the law? And that’s not even addressing the fact that the cops pointed guns at people and arrested and detained innocent citizens, which is a blatant violation of their civil rights. The department should be sued out the wazoo.

beatyourselfup:

Patriot Act Interpretations Would “Stun” Americans

The FCC is determining the conditions under which it can disable communications to protect public safety (internet, cell phones, etc)

beatyourselfup:

“The Federal Communications Commission is reviewing whether or when the police and other government officials can intentionally interrupt cellphone and Internet service to protect public safety. A scary proposition which will easily become a First Amendment issue. Does the FCC have the authority to [regulate local or state authorities’ decision to] take down cellular networks if they determine there is an imminent threat? The FCC is currently asking for public input (PDF) on this decision.”

According to the article, “among the issues on which the F.C.C. is seeking comment is whether it even has authority over the issue. The public notice asks for comment on whether the F.C.C. itself has legal authority over shutdowns of wireless service and whether it can pre-empt local, state or federal laws that prohibit or constrain the ability of anyone to interrupt service.” Maybe they just don’t like being upstaged by BART.

Indiana House Approves Bill That Allows Homeowners To Kill Police Officers

beatyourselfup:

Warning: Bootlicking, cop ass kissing author wrote the page.

Apparently, the right to be secure in your own home against unreasonable searches and seizures is a “Republican” ideology. What a load of bullshit. It’s an American right. Any cop or civilian enters my home unlawfully, I will blow their head clean off their shoulders. I don’t need permission, nor am I under any obligation to retreat.

The rhetoric this author is displaying is anti-Constitutional bullshit. I totally support the bill passed by the Indiana legislators. It’s about time someone gave The People back their inalienable right to be secure in their own home.

The argument he’s using is that people don’t know the difference between a cop legally entering their home and illegally entering their home. I think people know the difference. But the solution can NOT be to take away their rights to defend their persons, effects and property from unlawful raids by police. That’s the argument! Which can be fairly reworded as: “Since civilians can’t be trusted to know the difference between lawful and unlawful entry into their property, they shouldn’t be allowed to defend themselves, their families and their own property.”

This is the kind of bullshit that the police advocate. Think about it.

SUPPORT HR 3785, A BILL TO REPEAL THE INDEFINITE DETENTION OF US CITIZENS PROVISION (SECT. 1021) OF THE NDAA

beatyourselfup:

uniteordie:

Click the above link to contact your Congressmen, it only takes a few seconds. 

It worked for SOPA and this is so much more important. 

Read the bill HERE.

Though, truthfully, the president already has this ability. In fact, the entire Bill of Rights has already been underminded by presidential authority. There’s a huge list of these things. But, nonetheless, the NDAA just reaffirms the presidents authority already granted to him through the AUMF.

What I’m saying is that even without the NDAA, the president can already detain you indefinitely, without due process, regardless of your American citizenship.

Here’s a link to the list of presidential authorities that we seem to ignore, all of which have the ability to really fuck your shit up. This NDAA thing is getting a lot of attention, as it should, but it’s ironic that we ignore the list of other egregious presidential powers that were not given to the president in the Constitution.

(via beatyourselfup)

beatyourselfup:

Big Brother Arrives To Monitor Dissent

DHS Attacks Constitutional Right to Anonymity

read more

This has nothing at all to do with keeping us safe:

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beatyourselfup:

‘Obama has no balls to shut Gitmo for good’


A brief conversation talking about a long list of things wrong with the United States foreign and domestic policy.

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