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"Pooh" Dahlia and butterfly. Longwood Gardens. August, 2012. Photo by: joanneleon
"Pooh" Dahlia. Longwood Gardens. August, 2012. Photo by: joanneleon
Santana - Oye Como Va
News & Opinion
I'm amused, in a gallows humor (or something, I don't even know what these feelings are anymore) at the way people are shocked to know that everything they say and do online or on a phone is being hoovered up and stored. The "hair on fire" "conspiracy theorists" are not surprised at all because they've been, you know, paying attention to traitors whistleblowers and reading things other than cheerleader sites. Okay, so now that you know this, there's more to learn. Go look at what's being hoovered up from other places and put into a counterterrorism center data base. Check out the progress on surveillance cameras too. Countdown for another dkos diary mocking those who see the march toward police state in three, two, one... Just a buncha conspiracy theorists! ZOMG, my president and my government would never lie to me. ZOMG what are you worried about? If you're not doing anything wrong, you've got nothing to worry about.
Are all telephone calls recorded and accessible to the US government?
A former FBI counterterrorism agent claims on CNN that this is the case
On Wednesday night, Burnett interviewed Tim Clemente, a former FBI counterterrorism agent, about whether the FBI would be able to discover the contents of past telephone conversations between the two. He quite clearly insisted that they could:
BURNETT: Tim, is there any way, obviously, there is a voice mail they can try to get the phone companies to give that up at this point. It's not a voice mail. It's just a conversation. There's no way they actually can find out what happened, right, unless she tells them?
CLEMENTE: "No, there is a way. We certainly have ways in national security investigations to find out exactly what was said in that conversation. It's not necessarily something that the FBI is going to want to present in court, but it may help lead the investigation and/or lead to questioning of her. We certainly can find that out.
BURNETT: "So they can actually get that? People are saying, look, that is incredible.
CLEMENTE: "No, welcome to America. All of that stuff is being captured as we speak whether we know it or like it or not."
What Would ‘Wartime Mobilization’ to Fight Climate Change Look Like?
The United States and 140 other countries have signed or otherwise associated with the Copenhagen Accord, in which it is agreed that the nations of the world should “hold the increase in global temperature below 2°C, and take action to meet this objective consistent with science and on the basis of equity.” For there to be a chance — even just a 50/50 chance — of limiting temperature rise to 2°C, global greenhouse gas emissions must peak by 2020 (earlier for the developed world) and fall by 9 or 10 percent a year every year thereafter.
Nothing like that has ever been done. Not even close. No major energy transition has ever moved that quickly. Carbon emissions have never fallen that fast, not even during the economic collapse brought on by the demise of the USSR. Getting to change of that scale and speed is not a matter of nudging along a natural economic shift, as clean energy cost curves come down and fossil fuels get more expensive. That scale and speed seem to demand something like wartime mobilization.
A case of fact being more bizarre than fiction. The warlords need petty cash!! Meanwhile, homeless elderly patients are dropped off by ambulances onto the street. Kids go to school hungry. Families are losing their homes. But the warlords need cash.
Karzai Says He Was Assured C.I.A. Would Continue Delivering Bags of Cash
KABUL, Afghanistan — The C.I.A.’s station chief here met with President Hamid Karzai on Saturday, and the Afghan leader said he had been assured that the agency would continue dropping off stacks of cash at his office despite a storm of criticism that has erupted since the payments were disclosed.
The C.I.A. money, Mr. Karzai told reporters, was “an easy source of petty cash,” and some of it was used to pay off members of the political elite, a group dominated by warlords.
Blog Posts and Tweets of Interest
Evening Blues
Samba Pa Ti - Santana (Live in Mexico)