In the news

[thefadedone]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-meat.html?ITO=socialnet-googleplus-dailymail

 

[rainforests1]

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2013/05/kindergarten_graduation_turns.html
Eight arrested in a Kindergarten graduation. Why am I not surprised these days when I read about stuff like this?

 

[Amy SF]

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2013/05/kindergarten_graduation_turns.html
Eight arrested in a Kindergarten graduation. Why am I not surprised these days when I read about stuff like this?

1. First of all, it's Cleveland.

2. I was under the impression that the eight who were arrested were all kindergartners. The article doesn't say who got arrested, but I wouldn't be surprised if at least one person was one of the graduates.

 

[Blobbenstein]

To celebrate our 20th Birthday, we are delighted to inform you Redwood will be rebranding itself as ’VBites Foods Limited’.

 

[Spang]

The Republican Party is racist, report says:

Citing a series of surveys and focus groups, the 95-page report found that younger voters tended to view the Republican Party as “closed-minded, racist, rigid, and old-fashioned,” especially on issues related to gay rights, Latinos, and “outrageous statements made by errant Republican voices.”

 

[Amy SF]

Judge accepts Holmes insanity plea

RU kidding? It was premeditated murder. All those innocent people are dead now, and this idiot doesn't have to answer for what he did?

 

[SummerRain]

York Mosque praised for offering English Defence League protests tea and biscuits and an impromptu game of football.

I think this is a really uplifting story, in a time of lots of backlash after the death of Lee Rigby and a rise in islamophobic attacks.

 

[Alice-Bee]

I saw that and I thought how lovely it was. Terribly British too. Well done chaps!

Ive had to stop reading the news as much. Its too depressing and upsetting, but stories like this make it a bit better.

 

[Amy SF]

What a brilliant legal mind.

 

[Amy SF]

Amazon plans expansion of online grocery shopping

It will be interesting to see if this succeeds just because it's Amazon, or it's a spectacular failure.

ETA: I swear this country keeps getting dumber and dumber. I started to read the comments on the above article, and somebody posted that he's not sure he wants his ice cream delivered this way. He "has a feeling" that the ice cream won't be ice cream by the time he gets it.

Right, because the delivery guy is just going to plunk the commenter's pint of Ben & Jerry's on the seat next to him with the sun shining on it through the truck window in order to melt it into soup on the way to this idiot's house. Storing frozen items in a freezer container for the delivery trip is apparently an alien concept.

 

[ledboots]

(US)
"The National Security Agency is currently collecting the telephone records of millions of US customers of Verizon, one of America's largest telecoms providers, under a top secret court order issued in April.

The order, a copy of which has been obtained by the Guardian, requires Verizon on an "ongoing, daily basis" to give the NSA information on all telephone calls in its systems, both within the US and between the US and other countries.

The document shows for the first time that under the Obama administration the communication records of millions of US citizens are being collected indiscriminately and in bulk – regardless of whether they are suspected of any wrongdoing."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2013/jun/06/verizon-telephone-data-court-order

 

[beancounter]

"Leading members of Congress said the program had been going on for seven years."

This started under the Bush administration

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/06/us-usa-wiretaps-verizon-idUSBRE95502920130606

"Republican Mike Rogers of Michigan, chairman of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, said the program did not abuse civil liberties and told reporters it had been used to stop a "significant" terrorist attack within the United States, but did not give details"

"The White House said strict controls were in place to ensure the program did not violate civil liberties, and emphasized that the collection of data did not include listening to the calls."


"The intelligence community is conducting court-authorized intelligence activities pursuant to public statute with the knowledge and oversight of Congress," White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters."

(US)
"The National Security Agency is currently collecting the telephone records of millions of US customers of Verizon, one of America's largest telecoms providers, under a top secret court order issued in April.

The order, a copy of which has been obtained by the Guardian, requires Verizon on an "ongoing, daily basis" to give the NSA information on all telephone calls in its systems, both within the US and between the US and other countries.

The document shows for the first time that under the Obama administration the communication records of millions of US citizens are being collected indiscriminately and in bulk – regardless of whether they are suspected of any wrongdoing."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2013/jun/06/verizon-telephone-data-court-order

 

[ledboots]

You're okay with this, beancounter? The ACLU feels it's a gross constitutional violation. I don't care under which president or political party this began. It needs to stop, now. This is the United States of America.

"From a civil liberties perspective, the program could hardly be any more alarming. It’s a program in which some untold number of innocent people have been put under the constant surveillance of government agents," said Jameel Jaffer, American Civil Liberties Union deputy legal director. "It is beyond Orwellian, and it provides further evidence of the extent to which basic democratic rights are being surrendered in secret to the demands of unaccountable intelligence agencies."
http://www.aclu.org/national-securi...sive-nsa-phone-data-mining-operation-revealed

 

[Spang]

 

[beancounter]

I don't care under which president or political party this began.

Then why did you post an article that was implicating Obama? "For the first time", when in fact, it's not the first time.

 

[ledboots]

Then why did you post an article that was implicating Obama? "For the first time", when in fact, it's not the first time.

The article continues
Under the Bush administration, officials in security agencies had disclosed to reporters the large-scale collection of call records data by the NSA, but this is the first time significant and top-secret documents have revealed the continuation of the practice on a massive scale under President Obama.

 

[Spang]

When the Obama Administration continue a policy of the Bush Administration, they like to do it times a hundred.

 

[beancounter]

The article continues
Under the Bush administration, officials in security agencies had disclosed to reporters the large-scale collection of call records data by the NSA, but this is the first time significant and top-secret documents have revealed the continuation of the practice on a massive scale under President Obama.

And the article I posted says it's collected anonymously. Also, technology improves over time. it's quite possible that the Bush admin wanted to collect data "on a massive scale" but didn't have the means. Also, how is "massive" defined? And relative to what specifically? Just how did the obtain a copy of a "top secret order"?

And IMO, it is not "beyond Orwellian". Seems like an attempt to draw eyeballs.

 

[ledboots]

And the article I posted says it's collected anonymously. Also, technology improves over time. it's quite possible that the Bush admin wanted to collect data "on a massive scale" but didn't have the means. Also, how is "massive" defined? And relative to what specifically? Just how did the obtain a copy of a "top secret order"?

And IMO, it is not "beyond Orwellian". Seems like an attempt to draw eyeballs.

Verizon is a huge company with millions of paying subscibers, of both landline and cell phones. This private company was forced to give all the information on every call placed on its network by our government, and ordered not to disclose that the order was given nor carried out.

The Guardian broke the news on its website by publishing the order. It is right here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2013/jun/06/verizon-telephone-data-court-order

 

[Spang]

Binney, who worked nearly 40 years at the NSA and resigned shortly after the 9/11 attacks, says: "NSA has been doing all this stuff all along, and it’s been all the companies, not just one. And I basically looked at that and said: If Verizon got one, so did everybody else. Which means that they’re just continuing the collection of this kind of information of all U.S. citizens."

From a segment on Democracy Now!

And they end the it with New Editions' "Mr. Telephone Man".

Brilliant.