Greenwald, The NSA And Journalism

Some of you are aware that I am a Journalism Major in college, so this entire story is one that is pretty dear to me. The fact that the government is charging Edward Snowden with espionage is a pretty bold step. Edward Snowden didn't make rounds to the world powers that be. He contacted a Journalist, a very well known journalist for Civil Liberties. Everyone I talk to about this cant really wrap there head around it and nobody can be bothered to go and read Glenn's blog entries. 

"I think the crucial thing to realize is that hundreds of millions of Americans and hundreds of millions—in fact, billions of people around the world essentially rely on the Internet exclusively to communicate with one another. Very few people use landline phones for much of anything. So when you talk about things like online chats and social media messages and emails, what you’re really talking about is the full extent of human communication." ---Glenn Greenwald

So basically anybody (myself included) that uses G chat or Yahoo messenger to chat. Your messages can be watched  in real time. That means I type "Hi" and Snowden could have seen it from his desk at the NSA. This is rather surprising since back in March, when questioned by U.S. Senator Ron Wyden; James Clapper Directer of National Intelligence stated that the only way the U.S. Government is collecting any kind of date would be 'unwittingly' or by accident.

Now that we know we are being lied to, now what? How do we protect civil liberties? How do we reign in the governments surveillance state? Can we just turn off the so called Prism? I would be lying to myself If I truly thought we could. As long as this data is collectible someone will collect it. I would argue that Google collects just as much data as the NSA. The difference? Google is using the information to serve you ads. What we can do is make is so that this date is only used in real national security threats. Not in DEA drug busts. 

Last month a report came out that a secret unit of the DEA has the ability; and uses it. To see the data the NSA collects. Lets say someone texts a drug dealer asking to buy Marijuana. The DEA sees that text and passes it along to Local Law Enforcement guys. The LEO's are then instructed that they are not allowed to say where they got the number from, they must then back track and make it seem as if they collected this data not at the cost our 4th, 5th and 6th amendments but through legal means. 

You may ask "how does someone just happen to see that text about Marijuana" Think of the words Marijuana and Cocaine as hash tags, they can search for keywords like Marijuana and have it show by date the texts. Not saying that's what they indeed do but its what I do and it would be easy considering I already am collecting the information.

As some of you know I was a Fall Fellow for President Barrack Obamas 2012 re-election campaign. President Obama has made me a disappointed constituent. He has not only lied about the collection of data but has for the past 5 years let this continue. I'm not sorry for working on the campaign, I would do it again. I just thought my president was more of a liberal than he has shown. Free healthcare and gun law REFORM can only go so far if we no longer have basic civil liberties like freedom of speech and freedom of press. 

Racism In America This Afternoon

     Apparently our president has been accused of race baiting because of his surprise speech this afternoon about the Trayvon Martin Case. He started off by saying that Trayvon Martin could have been him 35 years ago. He touched on the disproportionate rate of jailed black men in the United States.  He talks about how when a black man gets on a subway train women sometimes feel the need to clutch their purse a little tighter and breath a little less.

     Im going to stop here, if you truly believe that racism doesn't exist in the United States and as one twitter used put it:

      If you agree with Chandler and are not aware that in 1963 black men in this country were still fighting for equality then you might as well just leave this blog post because all im going to do from here on out is piss you off. If you don't agree that racism is still a real thing in this country then sit down and Ill show you a couple statistics.

"African-Americans who use drugs are more than four times as likely to be incarcerated than whites who use drugs. African Americans constitute 14% of the population and 14% of monthly drug users. But African-Americans represent 34% of those arrested for a drug offense and 53% of those sentenced to prison for a drug offense."

   "Black youth who are referred to juvenile court are much more likely to be detained, referred to adult court or end up in adult prison than their white counterparts. Blacks represented 28% of juvenile arrests, 30% of referrals to juvenile court, 37% of the detained population, 35% of youth judicially waived to criminal court and 58% of youth admitted to state adult prison."

      If you are born in this country and your skin is black then good luck not having a criminal record by the end of your 21st birthday because you are profiled everyday. These and more statistics are detailed here.

      The thing I don't get is that when Obama does keep his mouth quiet about controversial things everyone complains, but when he shows humanity like today and talks in my opinion does his most personal public experience to date he is said to be voicing his opinion where it doesn't belong. Guess what guys, his name is Barack Hussein Obama, his is our president and he can voice an opinion about whatever he wants.

       Another indication that racism is huge in our country is twitter, the amount of people who feel like it is okay to call our commander in chief the N word on a public social platform is astounding. You may not like him, you may profile him as a Muslim because of his skin color You may pretend that his live birth certificate is a fake because his last name is different, but when he says "We're becoming a more perfect Union. But we're not a perfect Union."  he is your president and you must respect him.