I’ve been trying to wrap my head around what I think about all of the revelations about PRISM and the Verizon phone orders. Anyone who has read this blog for a long time (all two of you), knows how I reacted when Bush did it, sans warrant, and if you read me back in 2007 and 2008, my reaction was more angry, and indiscriminate about where I focused my anger.

Those were the days when we weren’t blasting out our locations with pictures and updating statuses every 30 seconds in a public venue. There was no Foursquare, Twitter was still the province of geeks and edge cases, and Facebook was that place where college kids could hang out with their classmates.

Simply put, today’s Internet leaves you numb to the thought that a) anyone gives a shit what you do and say online; and b) if they do give a shit, it’s only because they profit from it. Those days about worrying about ad cookies? Forget it. That’s just a tiny, less profitable corner of the Internet. Your internet provider knows exactly what you do online if they’re interested, and there’s not a damn thing anyone can really do about it.

Corporate vs. Government Tracking

It is one thing to know that your actions online might turn a profit for some large corporation. Likewise, it’s one thing to know that your supermarket knows who you boycott and who you don’t, what you eat and whether you’re dieting, if you have kids or your kids have moved out, how many males and females live in your house, and whether you live a green lifestyle or are a conspicuous consumer.

It is entirely another to know that you could say or do or write something that triggered a keyword that puts you right under the spotlight of the FBI or the NSA. Yes, there are warrants. Yes, those warrants are obtained via a court of law. And yes, that court basically rubber stamps requests without much in the way of questions.

There really are reasons to do it

I do believe that meta analysis of patterns and links enables attention to be focused in areas where it should be, because like many others, I also believe there really are people out there who want as many Americans dead in one strike as they can get without dropping a nuke.

Is your head spinning yet?

I’ve gone back and forth on the tension wire over this, but these things are clear:

• National security should not be outsourced to third parties. I really have a problem with private, for-profit companies having access to my data to analyze on behalf of the government, whether it is meta or not. This is because I don’t believe private enterprise — particularly corporations like Booz Allen Hamilton — will take much care with what they have. Their primary motive is profit, not patriotism.
• There is a history of abuse of private information by private companies with strong ties to the US government. If you’re not familiar with the HB Gary Federal, Palantir and Berico debacle of 2011, I suggest you read this. One of the targets in that debacle was Glenn Greenwald, which might explain why his theatrical story break had the ring of authenticity to it. If you’ve been targeted by the US Chamber of Commerce via companies who also do data-crunching for the NSA, you might want to expose their operations, too.
• Privacy is an illusion. That doesn’t give the government carte-blanche to invade it, but it is absolutely an illusion. We don’t have it, we won’t have it, and we aren’t going to get it back not because the government will snatch it away, but because we will give it away to get things we want online, whether that’s email or social connections or a platform to shout from.
• This is not partisan for me. The only thing that has saved Obama from my shrill rants is that at the executive level, there wasn’t illegal conduct. There were warrants, there were briefings, and so on. Good. That’s all good. The program itself still sucks and it’s still way too broad, but this is something ONLY Congress can fix.
• For all the power Snowden says they have, they certainly suck at using it effectively. Think of all the things that might have been prevented with a little effective spying. No massive ammo purchases from nutbags who want to shoot up elementary schools. No surprise town hall riots over health care. No lunatics killing people with bombs at the Boston Marathon. And so on. Either you accept that at this time, they are not using this power or you accept that they absolutely must have no clue how to use it in a way that actually works. If that’s the case, then why have it in the first place?

Now is the time to push for transparency

It is these six points which push me over into the transparency camp. Big Brother might be watching me, but I damn well deserve to know that now, not when something has been manufactured out of an occasional mention of some mysterious keyword. Since whatever domestic data they have doesn’t seem to be serving domestic purposes, they should simply be barred from collecting it in the first place. That way we can actually have a rational debate about what national security is and is not, and whether or not it should involve surveillance of US citizens, and under what circumstances that surveillance should be undertaken.

That’s really the problem I have with the way this whole debate has unfolded. It began with a shrill tone (I’m looking at YOU, Arianna Huffington and your incredibly dishonest headline), and it’s just gotten more shrill over time, instead of actually calming into a reasonable debate about where the line is between protection and invasion. It’s a debate we should have NOW. Because yes, I trust the Obama administration marginally more than I trust a Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio administration to have this very same power. Since we’ve got the White House, let’s deal with it now and for the future.

Snowden made his choices, and there will be consequences, good and bad

I don’t believe Ed Snowden is a hero, but I also don’t believe he’s a demon. I think he’s an idealist who doesn’t really process consequences until it’s too late to avert them. That sucks for him, but I don’t think he’s a treasonous SOB out to bring down a president or the government as much as he is a guy who imagines himself in the superhero suit.

I also don’t think we know enough about him to make a judgement beyond that. Let a court do that. No, I don’t think he should be pardoned. I’m not a big fan of pardons unless the crime was not actually committed. He did take an oath and he did break it. So no pardon. Also no tar and feathers. Just let justice do its thing.

If any good is to come of all of this, it will be a movement toward forcing Congress to revisit the Patriot Act and FISA, and begin to loosen the chains around the black boxes. There is an alliance forming between EFF, Mozilla, and other non-profit and corporate (mostly tech) entities to push ahead to open those boxes and let some of these secrets come out into the light. I think we should do it now. Sooner is better than later. If you want to add your name to their list, visit stopwatching.us and sign the petition. The irony isn’t lost on me that I’m asking you to give your information over to an organization fighting to keep the government from having your information, but it’s an emerging effort from respected entities, and they’ll definitely keep you up to date on what’s going on.

Meanwhile, the clock ticks on other things too…

Can we please also talk about sequester repeal, gun safety, immigration reform, and all the other important things that have been the victims of constant distraction for the past six weeks? If there’s one thing that just makes me want to wail, it’s how our ADHD press can’t manage to juggle two balls at the same time, nor can Congress. Losing momentum is frustrating, not that we had a ton of it. But all these distractions take eyeballs away from the FACT that the lack of progress has a perpetrator too.

Or we can just let them repeal Obamacare a zillion more times while the rest of everything sort of goes to hell in a handbasket. Whatever the choice, let’s find a way to actually get stuff done while holding their feet to the fire on this issue, too.

So you know, when people make it their career to harass and harangue others instead of just moving on to their own happy place, it’s always good to know there’s a guy like @MiltShook out there ready to stand up and play contrarian. Milt champions kiddie porn collector Bill Talley first, then decides to tweet this from his blog Twitter account:

@shoq isn’t just a black cat. He’s a pussy. po.st/sNYCWm

— PCTCBlog (@PlzCuttheCrap) June 12, 2013

That link, should you follow it, would lead you to an image of a cease and desist letter Shoq’s lawyer sent to Jessica after the Twitter insanity just would not stop. It would lead you to her entreaty for Shoq to leave her alone despite the fact that she hasn’t been mentioned, contacted or otherwise discussed in months. The same, however, cannot be said of Jessica and her merry band of Twitterpals, who seem to spend hours on end discussing nothing but the guy she so desperately wants to disappear.

That cease and desist letter is what civilized people are supposed to do rather than running around the Internet trying to libel people and whining about how awful it is that another person breathes the same earthly air over and over and over, until it’s so well done it’s overexposed and boring. Civilized people don’t respond by taking the law into their own hands. They have the choice of putting up with having their reputation destroyed for ever and ever, amen, or else they hire a third party to ask the offending party to stop it, with fair warning that legal action will follow if they don’t.

You might think a guy who brags about knowing the law and working with lawyers would know this. It seems not.

Message to Milt: Taking appropriate steps to protect one’s reputation from wanton and constant smears is not being a pussy. It is choosing to avail oneself of applicable law instead of being an idiot and doing idiotic things. One would expect that to be easily understood. Surely there must be a way to set aside the butthurt long enough to figure out that the way to stop the madness is to just leave it in the past.

(musical interlude)

…If you’re looking back, you’ll never move your feet.

Milt? White knights are so fifteenth century.

Footnote: In case there is some doubt, this post is not about defending Shoq. It is about making a point, and that point is simple: Laws exist for a reason. There is nothing cowardly about following them. Nothing at all. Jessica is a big girl. She can handle herself without the army of knights rushing to her side. All she has to do, is…

stop.

I can’t even describe how bizarre this is. John Amato has a great collection of links to people as incredulous as I am, but let me just say for the record that it’s clear this woman is an anti-cycling fascist liar. That’s a joke. Sort of. Watch the video and you’ll understand why I said that.

Then go read Bob Cesca’s great piece on why cycling isn’t the Great Satan.

I’m back on my bike after taking a stupid inertia-driven break from riding. After six weeks, I’m six pounds lighter and getting back in shape again. And yes, I ride in the bike lanes unless someone does something stupid like putting a sign in the middle of one. (I’m looking at YOU, City of Camarillo). There are totalitarian attitudes in government, for sure, but they don’t come from folks who ride bikes, for crying out loud.

Back in March, Talley left this comment on my original post about his conviction for possession of child pornography:

Today he was sentenced to one year in jail and eight years probation for possession of child porn. According to Matt Osborne, who was present at the sentencing, the light sentence was due to the timing of his arrest. Talley was arrested in 2005 and sentenced in 2013. In 2007, Tennessee changed the sentencing requirements for possession. So Mr. Talley serves 365 days for possessing thousands of pornographic images of children.

Tennessean:

Talley first fell on hard times with a substance abuse problem that culminated when local authorities, suspecting that he was trafficking drugs, raided his condo in 2005. Along with cocaine and lots of prescription medications, investigators also found droves of child pornography.

Prosecutors charged Talley on multiple counts of sexual exploitation of a minor and drug possession with intent to sell. He has fought the charges for eight years, with his final defeat coming when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear his appeal.

In February, Talley plead guilty to two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor and one count of drug possession with intent to sell. Six other charges were dismissed.

Yes, Milt Shook, it’s always great to get the whole story before mouthing off. Bill Talley pled guilty in February to possession of child pornography.

It wasn’t just a few images, either. From Osborne’s tweets:

Thousands of images, including images of children as young as three. Pay close attention to this one:

Detective Gish: “These videos were so reprehensible. A three year old girl screaming while she was being raped”

— Matt Osborne (@OsborneInk) May 29, 2013

Please tell me more about who is the fraud and embarrassment. Listen to the excuses Bill Talley offered:

• He didn’t think selling drugs to friends was dealing.
• He didn’t know possessing images of children as young as three being raped was illegal.
• Malware on his computer downloaded the images, paid for them with his credit card, printed them, and stored them in his office, his car, his safe, and on his coffee table.

Anyone who believes that crap ought to be in prison with him.

Enjoy the video

This morning I received a takedown notice from my web host of a PDF I had posted of emails between Michelle at Vested Protection Systems, LLC and Andrew Breitbart the night before he died. When I protested the order to pull it down I was informed that “he claimed they were copyrighted material.” The “he” in that sentence could only be Jeffrey Joy, owner of Vested Protection Systems, LLC.

For those who may not know, Jeffrey Joy is a private investigator in New Jersey who was contracted by Andrew Breitbart to dig up dirt on lefties in order to do harm to them.

His “assistant” or “partner” Michelle (aka ZAPEM), planned not only to infiltrate Anonymous for Andrew Breitbart, but also to wreak havoc and destruction on people who they believed were connected to Brett Kimberlin. I will quote one of their emails under fair use guidelines:

ANONYMOUS
a. A Hacker group solicited by Adbusters on IRC in early 2011 for use as a political weapon.
b. Co­opted by the left immediately for political use and frowned upon by the hacker factions
therein.
c. Our goal was to:

1. Infiltrate Anonymous
2. Cause a rift between the left and the hackers by first proving to the hackers involved that they were being used
3. Provide them with enough information to ultimately attack the left
4. Uncover the mechanics of how the left would filter control of the organization’s money to
   themselves

They also planned to go after the website BreitbartUnmasked because they were certain that there was a connection between BU and Crooks and Liars. There wasn’t, but when you’re a shitty investigator you do shitty investigations. Besides, they didn’t care who they ‘took down’ as long as they were perceived enemies.

My message to Jeffrey Joy and his pals:

You may think you’ve won a round by forcing a takedown of the actual PDF of your email to Andrew Breitbart on my site, but you haven’t. You won’t intimidate me and you don’t scare me. Whining to my web host about my content is just a way to mask your chickenshit activity from people like the school districts you contract with to make sure the poor kids don’t go to the rich kids’ schools.

There’s nothing worse than a cop who abuses authority, unless it’s an ex-cop who abuses authority. You fall into the latter. 

As for your plot to disrupt Anonymous, it doesn’t appear to be working. They seem quite active. I only hope they deal with you appropriately. 

I really, really loathe people who abuse authority. The last one I encountered was a cop, too. His name was Mark Lounsbury and he ended up being a discredited heap of offal, too.

This wasn’t the only site on the Internet where that PDF was posted, but it may have been the only one you could reach with your chickenshit whines about copyright. I don’t really think they give a shit about your copyright here.

Hmmm. It seems that the parent has decided the kids have had enough, and gobbles down the biggest fish before they have a chance at it. Of course, it’s as big as they are!

After 5 years, we have a full nest again, and this time it’s on my side of the lake. Here’s the best shot I’ve gotten yet of the biggest of at least three nestlings. They may be small, but their voices are mighty. When they’re hungry, the whole world knows.

I took this video yesterday right after the parent landed. You can hear the immediate calls for instant feeding. The parent, however, is nonplussed, and takes their time coughing up the fish. And yes, I really do mean coughing it up.

The heron is preening after spending most of the day on the nest. I could have cropped the picture much closer than I did but I wanted to show the nest. If you enlarge the pic to the largest size, you can see how intricate it is, and how many little perks there are for the kids. There’s shady spots, and even some strategically placed leaves to give a casual observer the impression of presence where there is none. If you come in really close, you can see at least one very small young heron in the picture. They’re really still too small to photograph coherently, but I know what I’m looking for so I keep at it, hoping for that one magic tiny great blue heron photo.

More to come…I’ve got over 1,000 shots but only a few worth publishing right now.