Ray McGovern and the Sam Adams party have presented the Sam Adams award to Edward Snowden. I am delighted. This from Ray’s account of the event:
In brief remarks from his visitors, Snowden was reassured — first and foremost — that he need no longer be worried that nothing significant would happen as a result of his decision to risk his future by revealing documentary proof that the U.S. government was playing fast and loose with the Constitutional rights of Americans.
Even amid the government shutdown, Establishment Washington and the normally docile “mainstream media” have not been able to deflect attention from the intrusive eavesdropping that makes a mockery of the Fourth Amendment. Even Congress is showing signs of awaking from its torpor.
In the somnolent Senate, a few hardy souls have gone so far as to express displeasure at having been lied to by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and NSA Director Keith Alexander — Clapper having formally apologized for telling the Senate Intelligence Committee eavesdropping-related things that were, in his words, “clearly erroneous” and Alexander having told now-discredited whoppers about the effectiveness of NSA’s intrusive and unconstitutional methods in combating terrorism.
Coleen Rowley, the first winner of the Sam Adams Award (2002), cited some little-known history to remind Snowden that he is in good company as a whistleblower — and not only because of previous Sam Adams honorees. She noted that in 1773, Benjamin Franklin leaked confidential information by releasing letters written by then-Lt. Governor of Massachusetts Thomas Hutchinson to Thomas Whatley, an assistant to the British Prime Minister.
The letters suggested that it was impossible for the colonists to enjoy the same rights as subjects living in England and that “an abridgement of what are called English liberties” might be necessary. The content of the letters was so damaging to the British government that Benjamin Franklin was dismissed as colonial Postmaster General and had to endure an hour-long censure from British Solicitor General Alexander Wedderburn.
There has been a determined attempt by government to justify the need to intercept everybody’s communications, all the time. We have, yet again, had MI5 claim there are many thousand violent Islamic terrorists running around the UK, (yet somehow not managing to kill anybody). The cry of “paedophiles” is raised, as always. I can imagine them suggesting the entire population be shot dead, and justifying it as making sure they get the paedophiles. The tabloids would go with that.
There still had not been a single credible claim by the mainstream media that any named individual has died, despite that contingency being trotted out all the time as the reason Snowden and Manning should not have revealed state crimes and abuse of power. I am hopeful that, with the internet still largely free to the dissemination of information, out next massive whistleblower is only weeks away.
Dreo, i have never felt that old-regular rank being pulled on me by you or observed that attitude coming from you toward anyone else. With all humility, i won’t take it simply because my brain wiring won’t permit it and i try to live true to myself.
Re: “Having said that, I have argued in the past for “dissidents” to be allowed to stay and speak their minds. I think it makes for a more interesting place. And that remains my position.”
Thanks for speaking out, and i shall assume that encompasses Habby. I was rather shocked how many of the liberals and lefties hungry for power here would sacrifice freedom of speech and abandon the principle in their zealotry. Not a single one — wrong, only Daniel Rich — spoke out against Habby’s ban other than Anon, RD and myself.
Have a pleasant evening and if you come up to London i’ll take you to the best coffee place there is and it’d make for a truly stimulating chat. Eggs benedict or Spaghetti al arragosta thrown in.
The doorbell rings and Groucho asks “Who is it?”
Zeppo calls out “Its the garbage man.”
Groucho says “Tell him we don’t any today!”
Mary, please take note.
Mary to me : “Perhaps he is ‘Habby’. 🙂 ”
Yes, Mary, I am Habby. So, perhaps, with your permission i shall have the last laugh? 🙂 x 2
@ Rouge,
“Well, sir…, did you… or didn’t you… rape that woman?”
“You mean that ‘comfort woman?'”
“Yes.”
“No.”
It’s all in the eye of the beholder, but behold you when that entity veers off the beaten path and beats up the truth and history and passes laws to guard the unlawful.
History is but a faint memory, yet its shadows cast an array of tomorrow’s footsteps for those who’re unsure where to tread next or lightly.
Me: “Not a single one — wrong, only Daniel Rich — spoke out against Habby’s ban other than Anon, RD and myself.”
Please add Evgueni…
Good night, Dreoilin, will steal, thanks. Interested in a reply from Resident Dissident, didn’t understand your joke, sorry, Villager; Daniel, came across this recently:
The Japanese word ‘yugen’ (with a dash over the ‘u’) apparently means:
“To watch the sun sink behind a flower clad hill. To wander on in a huge forest without thought of return. To stand upon the shore and gaze after a boat that disappears behind distant islands. To contemplate the flight of wild geese seen and lost among the clouds. And, subtle shadows of bamboo on bamboo.”
Repeat with correction edit:
The doorbell rings and Groucho asks “Who is it?”
Zeppo calls out “Its the garbage man.”
Groucho says “Tell him we don’t want any today!”
Mary, please take note.
TC: “didn’t understand your joke, sorry”
Which one?
“Having said that, I have argued in the past for “dissidents” to be allowed to stay and speak their minds. I think it makes for a more interesting place. And that remains my position.”
Jon, I hope you’re making note of voices other than the “tricycling triumvirate”.
The one i’m most interested in is Craig’s so kindly press on that. I find it hard, very hard, to imagine that he would be anything other than like-minded to the above.
I hope you manage to take yourself less seriously — after all, as you have said many times, its only a blog so people are only shooting rubber bullets, if at all.
Technicolour
I’ve saved so much time in my life by using the word “taghairm” instead of telling people “I’ve been seeking inspiration by lying in a bullock’s hide behind a waterfall.”
a Node, I love the Horologicon (everybody, buy it). I gongoozle as often as possible.
@ Technicolour,
The blade of my katana is razor sharp [you can drop a tissue on it and it will actually be cut in half], yet if you look at the pattern left behind when it was sharpened, it must have been done by a tanked sailor. More about their history and current restrictions.
As there’s hardly any space left for gardens, those who do have the means [or had them] have elaborate ’teien’, aka perfection in disharmony.
I am not allowed to have a gun in my home [or a concealed weapon outside of it for that matter], but this will suffice https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=OQ0wmjxYeiE
A [semi] word play:
Wabi
Sabi
Wasabi
‘kotodama& is another phrase that tries to bring us closer to understanding the complexity of our choice of words and the ramifications of those choices when we misunderstand [or misuse] the true spirit of them.
Our Words Have a Spirit Within.
When a master explains zen, zen dies instantly.
@ Ben
I meant Ron Paul, not The Gipper [sorry for confusion].
Technicolour …. Now that I know the Horologicon exists, I don’t need to read it. I can just extemflagrate when parsevelient.
TC, thanks for the tip. Here’s another one you can keep on your bedside:
“A Gentleman Publisher’s Commonplace Book”
authored by John Murray of the publisher of the same name.
“When a master explains zen, zen dies instantly” – didn’t you just do that? 😉
Villager: “Some of my favourites among its pages are “A house unkempt cannot be so distressing as a life unlived”
thanks, will look at more, despite being of that ‘i like aesthetics and perhaps life and aesthetics are not unconnected’ variety.
but yes, essentially, yes.
Still: “Woman was made after man and man has been after her ever since” – anodyne. Daniel, will think, thanks. Goodnight.
Tunnel of TeRRoR!! – Adults £5, Children £3, Terrorists and Unemployed £2.50
Yes, Emmpey’s observations about the “T-E-R-R-O-R T-U-N-N-E-L” are interesting. A lot of work went into that tunnel for the doubtful purpose of smuggling Isr@eli soldiers for holding them ransom – in an era when Palestinians are increasingly dependent on Western sympathy. Kidnapping for political ransom doesn’t have the same public appeal as it used to.
And it’s surprising that it was allowed to be constructed. Doesn’t Isr@el have border activity sensors – like vibration sensors every hundred metres? Electromagnet sensors that detect electrical activity? Ground scanning radar to detect cavities?
It could, of course, have been an Isr@eli construction that was discovered on the Gaza side by Palestinians, prompting Isr@elis to scramble for an inverted explantion that has been used as a propaganda scoop.
It looks like the next Wikileaks movie, “The Fifth Estate”, is already available and being downloaded for free. The movie is based on a book written by one time Wikileaks volunteer, subsequent saboteur and self-promoting traitor, Daniel Domscheit-Berg. Assange has produced a list of corrections to the purported facts in the movie, and posted it on the Wikileaks website.
I’m not sure how well this movie will fair at the box office when people can download it for free – which, incidentally, is illegal to do so in some countries. Please check your local copyright laws before downloading the movie to ensure that it is lawful to do so.
http://freemoviestorrents.com/drama/the-fifth-estate-2013.html
“It could, of course, have been an Isr@eli construction ”
It could also have been an extension of the Channel Tunnel which went badly off course or a long lost section of the Bakerloo Line. Without evidence we shall never know.
I’d like to know how anyone could manouevre a missile along that narrow tunnel.
Ah what would we do without the sanguine sayanim here at this blog, We have just witnessed a MONSTROUS attempted Ghouta deception, chemical bandar supplying 426 gassed Alawite children and bibi (sewage) satanyahu supplying the “live” 8200 intercepts. A deafening silence, no says a habba (originally a Yorkshire Methodist,then a Catholic and lately “not a jew”) its just a payback for the sins of Hafez Assad.
They better change, the West (the famed Gharqad tree) is slowly changing its mind, there is STILL time before all the hell breaks loose upon 911 truth revelations.
BTW-if marshalling a vote against the forces of such EVIL in the Commons has not earned Ed Milliband and Labour a win in the forthcoming general election, there is no God !
Kempe, the missiles fired into Isr@el aren’t very long and the tunnel need not have any sharp bends that would prevent transport of them. It’s a plausible tactic that might be used by Isr@el to maintain the image of continuing hostilities or truce breaches by Palestinians.
I’d be happy to hear arguments, technical and otherwise, how this couldn’t or wouldn’t be done.
Or they have managed to introduce the same substance that has turned the cousins across the pond into dumb rednecks and hillybillys, in burgers served at our McDonalds!!
It was revealed on Radio 4 Today earlier that Cameron has gone back on his promise to provide funding for ‘innovative medicine’.
The promise – Cameron Pledges $282 Million to Spur U.K. Medical Innovation
December 05, 2011
(Bloomberg) — Prime Minister David Cameron pledged 180 million pounds ($282 million) to help turn the most promising British medical breakthroughs into commercial realities.
The Biomedical Catalyst fund aims to bridge “the valley of death” funding gap that kills off many early-stage innovations, Cameron said in a speech in London today. He also vowed to speed the arrival of new drugs and technologies in the state-run National Health Service, targeting areas where treatments are urgently needed such as brain and lung cancer.
/..
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-12-05/cameron-pledges-282-million-to-spur-u-k-medical-innovation.html
The changeabout is buried in the jargon on the NHS England website apparently.
This is yet another of Cameron’s broken promises which will affect almost everyone ultimately if your assets exceed the threshold of £23.5k. Just more of the ConDem cruelty.
New betrayal of middle classes over care home costs: ‘U-turn’ by ministers could mean thousands still lose their homes
Coalition had previously pledged no one would need to sell homes to meet care home costs while they were still alive
Emerged there will be a cut-off for the ‘deferred payment’ scheme
Will only apply as a matter of course to those with assets less than £23,500
Labour peer said apparent U-turn has been done ‘in a back-door manner’
Lord Lipsey said the manner of the change ‘disgraces the Government’
Health Minister Earl Howe said 40,000 people may have to sell up per year
By Daniel Martin, Whitehall Correspondent
PUBLISHED: 23:45, 14 October 2013 | UPDATED: 07:42, 15 October 2013
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2459972/Care-home-cost-U-turn-mean-thousands-lose-homes.html
Got a D-Link router? Heads Up.
Back door found in D-Link routers
D-secret is D-logon string allowing access to everything
Some of these routers were shipped by Virgin Media and many are still in use today (especially the very common DI-524) .The good news is that, as far as I can gather, the exploit is only possible from the web if you’ve enabled remote administration. However it is possible from anyone with your wifi password by default,
Technical info at http://www.devttys0.com/2013/10/reverse-engineering-a-d-link-backdoor/
Fascist UK. Dawn raids. Broken down doors. Three hundred officers. Arrests.
Not terrrrism this time but the watchword now is MIGRANTS OUT.
Note that the raids took place earlier this morning yet the report is up on the state broadcaster’s website by 7.49am
15 October 2013 Last updated at 07:49
Cambridgeshire Police carry out migrant worker raids
Nine arrests were made in the Wisbech and March areas of Cambridgeshire
Three hundred officers have carried out early morning raids linked to suspected exploitation of migrant workers.
Nine arrests were made in the Wisbech and March areas of Cambridgeshire and King’s Lynn in Norfolk.
The operation is the biggest of its kind in the county and involved police, the National Crime Agency and the Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA)
/..
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-24523841
Horror too in Northern Nigeria where as many as 950 deaths in custody have been reported.
Hundreds dead in Nigeria detention, Amnesty says
Updated Tuesday, October 15th 2013 at 08:41 GMT + 3
NIGERIA: Hundreds of people have died in detention facilities in north-east Nigeria as the army tries to crush an Islamist militant rebellion there, according to Amnesty International.
The human rights group said some detainees died from suffocation in overcrowded cells, others from starvation and extra-judicial killings.
It is calling for an urgent investigation into the deaths.
There has not yet been an official response to the report.
/..
http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000095605&story_title=hundreds-die-in-nigerian-jails
The trolls reveal their true mindsets overnight. One of them (with chutzpah)suggests that contributors here set up their own blogs. A suggestion I offer is that the trolls should set up blogs of their own. They mostly talk to each other anyway but include one or two regulars along the way.
Another dismissed comments as rubber bullets, inferring that rubber bullets are harmless. Not so. Just look at the record of the damage to the flesh and bones of Palestinians that the IDF have inflicted by their use.