Op-ed: 
The NSA Scandal…Obama tried to make it go away...he failed
By: Diane Sori

“I will end the program as it currently exists."                                                     - Barack HUSSEIN Obama, 1/17/14
           
OK folks…I’ll begin at the end…Barack HUSSEIN Obama saying “God Bless America” twice at the end of yesterday’s press conference just turned my stomach because you could see him choking on those words while trying to get them out…good thing they were on the teleprompter or I doubt they would have come out at all, but back to the beginning.

Yesterday, after a six-month White House ‘supposed’ investigation into whistleblower Edward Snowden’s flood of disclosures about the true scope of U.S. spying, President Obama (gag) held a press conference to discuss the changes he will implement in how the NSA collects and stores data on ‘We the People,’ our allies, and our enemies.

Saying that the NSA officials did NOT “intentionally abuse” the program to invade our privacy…yeah right…Obama went on to say that he believed opponents of the program had been correct in saying that without proper safeguards the data collection could be used to garner even more personal information about the private lives of Americans then they already had, and that it could open the door to even more intrusive programs.  Nice words but the thing is Barack HUSSEIN Obama was the very man who ordered the NSA to 'spy' on American citizens and will continue to order them do so.

And critical to all he said…actually to what he did NOT say (taqiyya in action)…is that in NO way will the invasion of our privacy be stopped… translating into the information will still be collected just NOT as much of it…at least that we can see that is. 

Also, Obama said that ‘some’ of the changes he intends to make will take effect immediately, but that ‘other’ changes will require further study…which means more of our taxpayer dollars will be wasted on a study of a program that clearly violates our 4th Amendment rights…and that those changes may take an action of Congress to be implemented.  Uh oh…this sitting Congress does NOTHING as it is so I guess that means that in regards to spying on ‘We the People’ they will do even less than NOTHING.

"The reforms I am proposing today should give the American people greater confidence that their rights are being protected, even as our intelligence and law enforcement agencies maintain the tools they need to make us safe,” Obama said during the press conference.

Greater confidence in an administration that shoved the ObamaCare monstrosity down our throats, still covers-up ‘Fast & Furious and does even worse in regards to Benghazi…NO...I don’t think we have any confidence at all in anything this most miserable of presidents proposes.

So folks here now is just a bit of what Obama proposed…and just this bit alone should have you hopping mad.  First off, effective immediately, the NSA will be required to get a ‘secretive' court’s (actually the Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Court) permission before accessing phone records and data that will still be collected from millions of law-abiding Americans…but I say why NOT an ‘open court’ of public record...why a ‘secretive court’…what’s he still trying to hide…hmmmmm…

And Obama said that those phone records...which includes numbers dialed and length but NOT content of calls...will NO longer be stored by the government itself but either by a third party or by the phone providers themselves. Oh really…and what of the huge data mining storage center that he had built in Bluffdale Utah…who now will be the keeper of the phone records when a  ‘For Sale’ sign gets tacked to its front door.  And with the phone companies opposing the expense and potential liability of holding said data, and with NO ‘credible’ third party yet to come forward, you can rest assured that if a third party does takes over they will be one hand-picked from his many campaign donors so that all Obama has to do when he wants to do his snooping is just mossy on over to that third party and say, ‘let me see’…just a slight detour in his targeted control of ‘We the People.’

And this little goody…which al-Qaeda operatives and other assorted terrorists will love…borders on the outright dangerous when it comes to the monitoring of true terrorist activity (the only activity that actually should be monitored), as Obama has said that the government will NO longer be allowed to access phone records beyond two so-called ‘hops’ from the person they are targeting... meaning NO access to phone records for someone who called someone, who called someone, who called the suspect, will be allowed…. NOTHING like helping the brethren yet again.

  Also saying that the U.S. won’t monitor the communications of “our close friends and allies overseas” unless there’s a ‘compelling’ national security reason is pure hogwash as Obama is NOT releasing a list of which countries fall under that category…and Obama being what he is with America’s allies being his enemies and America’s enemies being his allies, heaven only knows where he’s going with this one…or should I say hell only knows to be more exact.

And Obama stating that he will be issuing a ‘presidential directive’ (an order that has the same legal standing as an executive order that remains in effect until a change in administration deems otherwise),that will state the government can only use collected phone data for counterintelligence, counterterrorism and cyber-security to protect U.S. forces and allies, and to "combat weapons proliferation and transnational crime” is again even more hogwash as first, we cannot believe a single word coming out of his proven to be lying mouth ("If you like your current health insurance policy you can keep it…period”) and second, everyday Americans like you and me are NOT involved in spying, terrorism, cyber-hacking, weapons trading, or international crime and Obama and his NSA buddies know it as well as we know that it’s ‘We the People’ who will still be the ones spied on.

And proof is that Obama wants to give foreigners protections against spying and is directing the Director of National Intelligence and his ‘good bud’ AG Eric ‘Fast & Furious’ Holder to put in place safeguards as to how long the U.S. can hold information on non-citizens overseas, and restrictions on how the data is used.  This he does for non-Americans while ‘We the People’ continue to get the proverbial shaft…and again continue to be spied on.

But NO matter what changes Obama says he will make but NOT really do, the bottom line remains that Barack HUSSEIN Obama stands by and completely supports the NSA’s spying on ‘We the People.’  By calling said spying "necessary for national security” he continues to look away at what he called ‘the foreigners’ in our country…meaning his muslim brethren…who are the only real terrorists this program needs to keep track on. And being that he left all the final decisions primarily to Eric Holder's anything but Justice Department and to intelligence agencies that oppose making any changes to the current surveillance operations at all, you just know this entire matter will soon be swept under the rug...or at least that is what Obama will try to do.  Maybe this time Congress will make sure it's NOT but I'm NOT going to hold my breath for that.

Oh and by the way, Obama's shiny and sweating face...that you can see got shinier, sweatier, and pastier as time went on...is a dead give-away that even he knows all his talk was NOTHING but empty political bloviatings...smoke and mirrors if you will...as he tried to get our attention focused off ObamaCare and Benghazi...and to that I say he failed miserably.

Op-ed:
Leon vs. Pauley...our freedoms rest on the final outcome
By: Diane Sori

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." - The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

Well we all knew this was coming didn't we as yesterday U.S. District Judge William Pauley betrayed our Constitution by negating our right to privacy as per the Fourth Amendment.  And he did so with his ruling that the National Security Agency's (NSA) 'sticking their nose into our private business' phone-tracking program is indeed legal.

Negating the December 16th ruling that came down from U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon that stated the NSA's surveillance program is actually unconstitutional, Judge Pauley justified his ruling by stating that what the NSA is doing "represents the government's counter-punch" needed to eliminate al-Qaida's terror network by connecting fragmented and fleeting communications.

But didn't Obama say al-Qaeda is decimated and on the run...but I digress...

And so I say NO way to Pauley's ruling as all that needs to be done is to listen in on those of a 'certain' ethnicity and 'certain' religious persuasion...oh wait...that would be racial profiling wouldn't it...the chief Obama political correctness no-no. Better the NSA spy and invade the privacy of everyday innocent Americans than focus their attention on those they know damn well are the only ones they need to keep tabs on.

And so political correctness wins out yet again and 'We the People' lose as there goes our Fourth Amendment rights to privacy and to be protected against unreasonable searches and seizures.

Using the 'what if' argument instead of adhering to the Fourth Amendment's 'probable cause' wording in issuing his decision, Pauley dismissed a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of conservative legal activist Larry Klayman (who wanting to turn the case into a class action on behalf of all Americans) against both James Clapper, the director of the NSA, and against the Justice Department. In doing so, Judge Pauley claimed that if a phone data-collection system had been used back in 2001 it could have "helped investigators connect the dots before the attacks occurred" and possibly prevented them.

To which I say NO way as those determined to kill will always find a way to do so.

And this snooping...this out and out spying on innocent Americans just in case they might someday maybe get involved in criminal activity should be blatantly in-your-face unconstitutional to anyone who has even a moniker of understanding about our constitutionally given rights and protections.

Sadly, Judge Pauley just does NOT get it as he continued that the government learned from its previous mistakes and "adapted to confront a new enemy: a terror network capable of orchestrating attacks across the world" and that the bulk data-collection program (data mining) was part of that adjustment.

Pretty words that negate the very heart of the Fourth Amendment as it dismisses the underlying premise of privacy and unreasonable searches and seizures, thus allowing the Obama government in effect to initiate a police state...to be Big Brother...and to iron fist rule over us all.

And the problem here is that Judge Pauley's ruling should NEVER have happened but did because the previous ruling by Judge Leon (who was appointed to the bench by Republican George W. Bush in 2002) was issued as a preliminary injunction against the program, which is well and fine, but then Leon stayed his injunction “in light of the significant national security interests at stake in this case and the novelty of the constitutional issues,” which allowed for an appeal by the Justice Department, which they did post haste.

Judge Leon's ruling stated that the government "does not cite a single instance in which analysis of the NSA's bulk metadata collection actually stopped an imminent attack'' yet in (Clinton appointee) Pauley's ruling it states just the opposite.

“Surely, such a program infringes on ‘that degree of privacy’ that the founders enshrined in the Fourth Amendment,” which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures, Leon said while Pauley stated that 15 separate judges on the surveillance court have held on 35 occasions that the data collection program is legal. So the final ruling to reconcile the two opposing decisions according to the ACLU...who plans to appeal their case to the Second Circuit in Manhattan...could be reached by the U.S. Supreme Court.

And if it does go to the Supreme Court we are in serious trouble if Barack HUSSEIN Obama gets a chance to shift the now somewhat conservative leaning court...somewhat conservative because we cannot be sure which way Chief Justice John Roberts will rule...over to an outright liberal leaning court by his being able to nominate new leftist judges to the bench.

And if that's the case 'We the People' are screwed big time as lost on most of those currently sitting on the bench...and assuredly to be lost on any Obama nominees to the bench...is the fact that NO one should be able to read our letters, track our phone calls, or monitor our internet usage, except if there is an undeniable and reasonable suspicion that we have committed or are in the process of committing a crime...period.

And so as the Leon ruling vs. Pauley ruling works its way through the Appellate Court and maybe up to the Supreme Court, 'We the People' can only hope and pray that the right thing is done in the end and that the Constitution's words are honored...but I won't hold my breath that they are.

Op-ed
Fourth Amendment violations and Big Brother all rolled into one
By: Diane Sori

A computer geek just might have put the key into the lock of Obama’s downfall.

Edward Snowden, the much heralded NSA (National Security Agency) leaker, was one of thousands of analysts hired by the Obama government to manage and go through huge amounts of personal data collected through monitoring our personal phone calls and internet usage.

Blowing the lid off what in reality is the Obama government’s spying on Americans through what’s known as PRISM…a covert government electronic surveillance program operated by the NSA and originally designed to identify terrorists, PRISM has now become a collaboration between the NSA, the FBI, and major tech companies that allow government access to your personal information...Obama and crew are unconstitutionally and without warrants spying on private citizens who have committed NO crime, who belong to NO terrorist groups, who are just going about their daily lives…in a direct and flagrant violation of rights afforded us under the Fourth Amendment.

The Fourth Amendment protects citizens from unreasonable search and seizures (phone and internet snooping meets this definition), yet the Obama government is listening in on…spying on…half the country which was NOT the intention of the policies (the Patriot Act most specifically) George W. Bush put in place immediately after 9/11.

But laws passed since then have given authorities the ability to request judicial approval through a special National Security court, to basically troll for all sorts of records under the premise that the searching and accumulation of citizen’s phone and internet records could be analyzed for patterns of suspicious behavior while not involving a specific focus on any specific individual or group.

And this is where the violation of our Fourth Amendment rights come into play.

The Fourth Amendment requires that searches meet a ‘reasonableness standard’. This means that ‘reasonableness’ can be judged on the circumstances surrounding the search, and then weighing the search’s overall intrusive nature against the legitimate interests of the government.

However, the government must show that there was ‘probable cause’ for the search, meaning some form of evidence must be brought forth showing that there’s good reason to suspect an individual of a particular transgression, and only then can said search be deemed Constitutional.

A search will be constitutionally ‘unreasonable’ when the government can’t prove the search was necessary.

And listening in on…intruding on…spying on…collecting data on…law-abiding American citizens engaged in NO activity harmful to this country or its citizens is indeed ‘unreasonable’. And just because our government has the technical ability to conduct such searches on such a large scale does NOT mean the government should conduct such searches…legally or otherwise.

So how did Obama and crew justify their spying when exposed…by using the totally ridiculous justification that since terrorists have cell phones and internet access that they use to plot and carry out acts of terrorism, and because millions of American citizens have cell phones and computers with internet access, government surveillance…NO…government spying…is necessary to weed out suspicious activity. This means that every citizen is under suspicion until they are cleared by an Obama sanctioned look-see at their records.

So now we are NO longer innocent until proven guilty but guilty until the Obama government deems us innocent.

And to make this worse the fact is that every American who uses a cell phone or logs onto the internet is being tracked to some degree on a daily basis.  And the Obama controlled NSA is building a massive cyber intelligence data center, dubbed The Dark Star, in Bluffdale, Utah (scheduled to be operational this fall) that can analyze, in real time, the actual voice content of phone calls and ‘see’ what people are doing on the internet. In fact, it’s the largest of a network of data farms which include sites in Colorado, Georgia, and Maryland.

And it’s Fourth Amendment violations and Big Brother all rolled into one.

So with Edward Snowden now fearing retaliation against him for blowing the whistle on this operation, he is out of the country and on the run…and who can blame him with Obama’s thugs after him…and with the Obama government’s very defense reaction to the lid being blown off their doing what they knew was unconstitutional to begin with, this gives much credibility to the supposition that the Obama government actually did spy on and continues to spy on 'We the People' NOT to weed out potential acts of terrorism as they claim, but to ‘tag’ those of us who oppose this miserable excuse of a president and his equally miserable administration.

And I can bet one of those ‘tags’ is most assuredly on me...and damn proud of it.