Natasha Lennard writes
Surprise, Surprise! All Occupiers Phones Were Logged:
In light of news that everyday the entire of telecom giant Verizon’s call system records are handed over to the NSA, news that attendees of Occupy Wall Street protest attendees’ cell phones were logged should hardly come as a shock. It nonetheless bears noting that cell phone metadata of march and rally participants was likely specifically logged, as security expert Steven Ramdam recently noted. This means that individuals were directly targeted for their engagement with First Amendment protected activity.
As Privacy SOS noted, the controversial security expert who gave a talk entitled “Privacy is Dead”—advocating that we “get over it”—said:
I can tell you that everybody that attended an Occupy Wall Street protest, and didn’t turn their cell phone off, or put it — and sometimes even if they did—the identity of that cell phone has been logged, and everybody who was at that demonstration, whether they were arrested, not arrested, whether their photos were ID’d, whether an informant pointed them out, it’s known they were there anyway. This is routine.
I can tell you that if you go into any police station right now, the first thing they do is tell you, “Oh I’m sorry you’re not allowed to bring a cell phone in there. We’ll hold it for you.” Not a joke. And by the way it’s a legitimate investigatory technique. But cell phones are now the little snitch in your pocket. Cell phones tell me where you are, what you do, who you talk to, everbody you associate with. Cell phone tells me [sic] intimate details of your life and character, including: Were you at a demonstration? Did you attend a mosque? Did you demonstrate in front of an abortion clinic? Did you get an abortion?
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Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2009—Teabagging GM:
No one likes the idea of General Motors' collapse. GM executives don't like it. Workers don't like it. Dealers don't like it. Stockholders don't like it. Bondholders don't like it. Taxpayers don't like it. No one likes seeing so many who have worked for decades lose so much of their pensions and health care. No one wants to see a century old mainstay of the economy tottering on the brink.
But for the far right, there's a far bigger principle at work: government intervention is stinky. Once the government has invested in something, it's tainted by the unholy whiff of impure capitalism -- a smell that the farthest of the far right place just below catfish cheese bait. Worse, the government's largest partner in ownership of the new GM will be the United Autoworkers Union. In Wingnutia, that's like pairing cheese bait with roadkill possum (which every conservative knows is only proper in months containing the letter 'R').
So now that we are all investors in the comeback of GM, with billions riding on the company's resurrection, conservatives have developed a brilliant plan: We will boycott ourselves!
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Tweet of the Day:
On today's
Kagro in the Morning show, the NSA phone data collection story dominated the headlines and discussion today. Extended appearances from
Greg Dworkin and
Armando helped carry the show again.
Monte Frank of Team 26 and the Newtown Action Alliance joined the show as well, for an update on developments in Newtown, and their upcoming activities both next week and planned for the fall, to keep public attention focused on the need for gun safety measures.
High Impact Posts. Top Comments.