IRS Orders Coffee Trays With Hidden Cameras
Political Outcast
June 11, 2013
The news is replete with headlines about our government snooping and spying on Americans. We’re all being watched in some way or another. It kind of reminds me of that Simon and Garfunkel song “America,” where he sings, “The man in the gabardine suit is a spy. I said, ‘Be careful; his bowtie is really a camera.’”
It’s not just NSA that’s keeping tabs on everybody. Apparently, James Bond-style coffee trays are in demand by the IRS. And they need them immediately.
What in the world would the IRS need coffee trays with hidden cameras for? They also ordered plants and clock radios with hidden cameras and remote surveillance systems to go along with their “covert” items. Here’s what their purchase order read, and I have no idea why they kept misspelling “equipment”:
Sales Of George Orwell’s 1984 Have Surged 6884% In The Last 24 Hours
by Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
June 11, 2013
In the last 24 hours, sales of the ‘big brother’ book 1984 on Amazon.com have soared by almost 7000% as the reality of the surveillance state come to the public’s attention. As Liberty Blitzkrieg’s Mike Krieger notes, we suppose it makes sense that people would want to get up to speed on the dystopian world being constructed rapidly and secretly around them. 1984 is now the 4th fastest rising sales book and 184th most popular on Amazon!
VIDEO — NSA Spying: False Hope vs. Real Solutions (IMPORTANT – PLEASE SHARE)
Eyeopener Report
June 11, 2013
In this special edition of The Boiling Frogs Post Eyeopener report, James introduces new members of the irate minority to the problem, as well as the false hopes (and real solutions) that are available to address that problem.
For more information on the abuses of the NSA, please visit:
http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/tag/nsa/
For more information on CALEA, please visit:
http://www.corbettreport.com/episode-…
For more information on pirate internet, please visit:
http://www.corbettreport.com/episode-…
For a Google alternative, please use:
https://startpage.com/
For a Gmail alternative, please visit:
https://startmail.com/
For more information on the concept of open source information and how it can help to create alternative, spy-free technologies, please visit:
http://www.corbettreport.com/episode-…
Passwords to Surveillance
by Catherine J. Frompovich
Activist Post
June 6, 2013
Finally, some members of the U.S. Congress are waking up to what’s been going on right under their noses. Members of Congress are initiating oversight proceedings—why so late?—and the Senate Intelligence Committee is planning an investigation of the National Security Agency (NSA)[1] regarding the collection of individuals’ personal phone data.
Doesn’t that sound like something that would have taken place in the former Soviet Union or definitely in Nazi Germany, that is, if old Adolph would have had current technology? Instead of making Germany’s Jewish citizens wear their traditional six-pointed-star—actually interlocking triangles depicting “as above, so below”—Hitler would have targeted their every conversation, just like what’s going on now in the United States of America. Who would believe that really is going on in the USA?
Congress is to blame, in this writer’s opinion, because it has gone along with all the changes to the 2001 Patriot Act and certainly is not bridling all those Presidential Executive Orders (PEOs) citizens don’t know about—or care about—until they take effect. Please study all Mr. Obama’s PEOs.
Warning: Take a calming sedative before reading. Mr. Obama has issued over 150 PEOs since his very first PEO (#13489) dealing with Presidential Records secrecy the day after he was first inaugurated in 2009 to his most recent PEO Authorizing the Implementation of Certain Sanctions… issued June 3, 2013. In essence, what PEOs do is legally establish one-man-authoritarian-rule! A dictatorship, if and when a sitting president wants to invoke his ‘special’ privileges that he gave himself by issuing PEOs, while voters, the Congress, and the U.S. Supreme Court can’t do a damn thing about it. Did you know that?
If that’s the case, so why do we need Congress? Or even the U.S. Supreme Court? We certainly could save a lot of taxpayers’ money—and get closer to a balanced budget—by not having to pay those not-so-cheap-salaries plus pensions. Or, is that the ultimate plan for future change?
In view of how the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) was ramrodded down Congress’s collective throats, and how we now learn that it is not affordable at all, with healthcare insurance premiums for a family of five probably costing between $20,000 to $25,000 a year, shouldn’t everyone who breathes air be demanding change that Mr. Obama promised, e.g., like no more ‘sneaky Pete’ surprises from Congress, SCOTUS, or the Executive branch, i.e., the president. U.S. citizens deserve better, I think. How about you?
But wait! You haven’t heard how bad it gets. Thanks to WND’s columnist Andrea Shea King’s enlightening article “DHS Flags Tweets About ‘Militia’ But Not ‘Jihad’” we learn about what this writer terms “Passwords to Surveillance”[2]—certain words in Internet postings that are guaranteed to put the writer on the Department of Homeland Security’s surveillance list(s) as possible homeland terrorists.
According to the listing in King’s article, which I encourage you to read, this is how those selected ‘passwords’ or phrases break out:
Domestic Security includes 54 with such mundane words as recovery and drill. So, if you are writing an email telling your friend about your recovery from the drill bit accident you suffered, you have used two passwords to surveillance, i.e., recovery and drill.
Hazmat & Nuclear includes 35 words or phrases with such pedestrian words as cloud and burn.
Again, if you send an email to your sister telling her about your fantastic day spent at the beach being a cloudless day and that you suffered a nasty sun burn, you are now under DHS’s surveillance.
Health Concern & H1N1 has 38 words or phrases that will put everyone on DHS’s surveillance, in this writer’s opinion, because that list includes such words as pork, virus, flu, food poisoning, etc. Just imagine sharing this with your BFF: Boy, did I get a bad case of food poisoning from eating that pork barbecue sandwich we had for lunch today. At first I thought I was coming down with a virus or the flu until I went to the emergency room. Can you imagine being put on a watch list for those two sentences using 4 passwords to surveillance?
Even though we need terrorist-proof security, we also need common sense, something that seems to be lacking with the current administration and Congress, I think. If we are supposed to be protected from foreign terrorists, most of whom have been identified as Al-Qaeda associated, wouldn’t you think there would be some foreign language, Arabic-like, Farsi, or even Israeli words on that DHS “passwords to surveillance” lists? It’s not too hard to figure out what’s going on, but what do we do about it?
Sources:
[1] http://thehill.com/homenews/news/304075-congress-to-review-surveillance-laws
[2] http://www.wnd.com/2013/06/dhs-flags-tweets-about-militia-but-not-jihad/
Catherine J Frompovich (website) is a retired natural nutritionist who earned advanced degrees in Nutrition and Holistic Health Sciences, Certification in Orthomolecular Theory and Practice plus Paralegal Studies.
Her work has been published in national and airline magazines since the early 1980s. Catherine authored numerous books on health issues along with co-authoring papers and monographs with physicians, nurses, and holistic healthcare professionals. She has been a consumer healthcare researcher 35 years and counting.
Catherine’s latest book, A Cancer Answer, Holistic BREAST Cancer Management, A Guide to Effective & Non-Toxic Treatments, is available on Amazon.com and as a Kindle eBook.
Two of Catherine’s more recent books on Amazon.com are Our Chemical Lives And The Hijacking Of Our DNA, A Probe Into What’s Probably Making Us Sick (2009) and Lord, How Can I Make It Through Grieving My Loss, An Inspirational Guide Through the Grieving Process (2008).
VIDEO — The AP Spying Story: What You Aren’t Being Told
The Eyeopener
May 28, 2013
In recent weeks we have been told to focus on a series of scandals which, we are told, are rocking the Obama Administration. Has the media finally found outrage over the Obama regime’s use of drone strikes to kill scores of innocent women and children in countries that are not even at war with the United States? Or the DOJ’s recent admission that the strikes had indeed killed American citizens? Or John Kerry’s recent attempts to once again lead the American public into supporting military intervention in the Middle East based on provably false claims of WMD?
Of course not. No, the media’s sudden discovery of outrage is directed at an entirely different scandal: the fact that reporters have now allegedly found themselves in the government’s crosshairs.
Find out more about the real scandal behind the AP spying story in this weeks edition of The Eyeopener from BoilingFrogsPost.com
TRANSCRIPT AND SOURCES: http://www.corbettreport.com/?p=7416
Your Vote is Not Secret: Government Using SmartPhone Barcodes to Trace Ballot to Voter
by Susanne Posel
Occupy Corporatism
August 23, 2012
In Chaffee County, Colorado, the voter ballots for the 2012 Republican Primary election contain a smartphone data matrix barcode that ties the voter to the ballot. Both the ballot number and data matrix are on the ballot stub.
Using a smartphone and a free downloadable program called Barcode Director , the data matrix can be scanned and will produce a corresponding number to the one found on the ballot. The, with access to the county records through open-record laws, the ballot can be traced to the individual who voted by cross referencing the corresponding county.
Since the ballots containing the data matrix barcode are filed with the Chaffee County clerk, the information is obtainable by anyone – including campaign officials who might be interested in knowing who voted for which candidate.
The Colorado State Constitution says that ballots cannot have markings that would indicate the voter’s identity printed on the ballot and/or provide that the ballot be able to be traced back to the voter. However, that is exactly what the data matrix barcodes do.
Smartphone apps for the Obama For America and Mitt’s VP are data mining with the use of software. The app user’s name, address, home phone number, and Facebook information is given over during the account process and turned over by the app software. GPS location and access to the phone’s camera, along with audio recording abilities are accessed as well. The software can also extract the smartphone’s contact numbers, call logs and SD Card contents.
According to Joyce Reno, Chaffee County clerk, the reason the ballots contain a data matrix barcode is to prevent double voting and forgery.
The Election Protection Smartphone App has made data mining easier with direct access to “information and resources” just in time for the 2012 elections. With the app, a user can verify:
• Where the voter registered
• Where they voted
• Key rules and regulations for their state
• What type of machine the voter used
The ballot machines being used in Chaffee County are manufactured by Hart Intercivic Systems .
Gregg Burt, the Chairman of (HIS) is the former CEO of BuildForge, Inc., and a start-up enterprise software firm that was purchased by IBM in 2006. More employees of HIS have questionable backgrounds:
• Neil Tuch, managing director, a former Goldman Sachs employee who worked in Mergers and Acquisitions
• Jeff Bohl, principal capital, former JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo employee in mortgage-backed securities, M&A transactions and consultant for small businesses
• Amanda Kalin, associate capital, former private equity and investor of banking capital for CitiGroup Banking
Taylor v. Pile , a 1964 Colorado court case ruled that: “An election wherein ballots are numbered in such a manner that the vote of any person thereafter may be determined by comparison with the number on the ballot and poll registration book is contrary to constitutional and statutory guarantee of a secret ballot and results in a void election.”
Xbox One by default features camera that works in the dark and microphone you can’t turn off
by Madison Ruppert
Editor of End the Lie
May 23, 2013
By default, the upcoming Xbox One from Microsoft will feature an always-on microphone and camera that works in the dark, both of which are constantly connected to the internet and can’t be turned off.
The creepiness is only compounded when one realizes that Microsoft helps develop massive surveillance systems like the Domain Awareness System used in New York City. Microsoft has also been questioned about the privacy and security of Skype and criticized for censoring Windows Live Messenger chats.
Putting a product like this by Microsoft – a company that backed privacy-crushing legislation in the past – is only asking for trouble.
The new Kinect 2.0 will be bundled with every Xbox One and according to Extreme Tech, the Xbox One will not work if the Kinect isn’t plugged in.
That might sound quite nonsensical, but it was confirmed by Xbox’s UK marketing director.
“Xbox’s UK marketing director Harvey Eagle has said that the console will not function without Kinect connected,” Keza MacDonald wrote for IGN.
“Kinect does require to be connected to Xbox One in all cases, yes,” Harvey Eagle told IGN after a Microsoft-hosted event in London on May 21, 2013.
This was also confirmed by Corporate VP of Microsoft Studios Phil Spencer when he told Joystiq, “Kinect has to be connected to Xbox One.”
It gets even creepier when we learn that the new Kinect is capable of examining your facial features and identifying you, even if you don’t have the controller in hand. Perhaps even worse, it can estimate your heart rate.
“By examining your face’s skin color and transparency, the Kinect and Xbox One are able to estimate your current heart rate,” according to Joystiq.
While some users may think the Kinect will be awesome, others will be troubled by the fact that it remains on even when the Xbox One itself is turned off.
This fact is revealed when one realizes that one of the “great addition[s]” of the new Kinect is that it has “the ability to turn on the console just by saying ‘Xbox On,’” according to iDigital Times.
Obviously the device must remain on even when the Xbox itself is off in order for this feature to work.
Furthermore, the 1080p HD camera on the Kinect uses active infrared technology, thus eliminating any need light to accurately sense motion.
That wouldn’t necessarily be all that worrisome if Microsoft was vigilant in protecting user privacy. Unfortunately, Microsoft states in their Xbox Live terms of service that users should not expect any level or privacy.
Some of the statements in the terms of service that make this type of technology troubling include:
“[W]e may access or disclose information about you, including the content of your communications, in order to: (a) comply with the law or respond to lawful requests or legal process; (b) protect the rights or property of Microsoft or our customers, including the enforcement of our agreements or policies governing your use of the Service; or (c) act on a good faith belief that such access or disclosure is necessary to protect the personal safety of Microsoft employees, customers, or the public.”
Not to mention the explicit statement:
“You should not expect any level of privacy concerning your use of the live communication features (for example, voice chat, video and communications in live-hosted gameplay sessions) offered through the Service. These communications may be monitored; however, we cannot monitor the entire Service and make no attempt to do so. You understand that these communications can be recorded and used by others , and communications in live-hosted gameplay sessions may be broadcast to others.”
While it’s obviously quite obvious that the in-game communication is not private (since you’re talking to other human beings), the terms do not limit the lack of privacy to only those types of communications.
Instead, it says, “for example,” leaving the possibility that the information captured by the always-on Kinect would fall under similar terms.
Unfortunately when it comes to corporations like Microsoft, we can’t assume the best and think that all communications captured by Kinect will be treated as private and protected.
Furthermore, we must realize that this type of technology would be a prime target for hackers.
Microsoft says that privacy is a “top priority” and that “Kinect for Xbox 360 was designed and built with strong privacy protections in place and the new Kinect will continue this commitment.”
Yet as Extreme Tech points out, “we know from experience, though, no system is invulnerable to the manifold attack vectors exploited by malware authors. The Xbox and Xbox 360 were chipped/modded/rooted, and it’s fairly safe to assume that the Xbox One will also suffer the same fate.”
To make matters even worse, in 2012 Microsoft filed for a patent related to their Kinect system that uses “camera-based system that would monitor the number of viewers in a room and check to see if the number of occupants exceeded a certain threshold set by the content provider.”
“If there are too many warm bodies present, the device owner would be prompted to purchase a license for a greater number of viewers,” Extreme Tech explained in an article.
Concerned? You have some very legitimate reasons to be. You will probably want to keep these in mind when considering the purchase of an Xbox One.
UPDATE: While Extreme Tech says that it will constantly be connected to the Internet, Kotaku writes, “Microsoft is also being sketchy about whether or not the platform will be always-online, something that has been rumored for quite some time now.”
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