Gov. To Intercept, Read, And Store American's Smoke Signals? ... J. D. Longstreet

Gov. To Intercept, Read, And Store American's Smoke Signals?
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
*************************

This scribe warned for years that the US Government was intent upon reigning supreme over the Internet.


Government control of the Internet was a given.  They could not allow the Internet to remain free.

See, the Internet is the biggest threat to government, free and dictatorial, of all the threats existing today.

Why?

Because the Internet represents power, real power, for the individual.  The Internet is power in the form of information and communication.

Altho they will deny it, governments, the world over, want to control world wide instant communications between the people of the planet … period. 

I have mentioned in previous scribblings that there was a time, and not so long ago, that in order for there to be a successful revolution or uprising of the people against their government, the rebels absolutely MUST take control of the country’s radio and TV stations.

It remains a fact today, that for tin horn dictators (who still dot the globe) control of broadcast stations and other means of communications -- including the Internet and the print media -- is imperative in order to maintain power over their people.

Remember the key word in the paragraph above -- "POWER."   That's what it is all, about:  gaining and maintaining POWER.

Here in the United States we have just learned how vulnerable we have been for some time now to government eavesdropping on all our electronic communications.  See, we thought we were safe from such shenanigans, protected by our much vaunted Constitution and Bill of Rights. Imagine how BETRAYED we feel.  And make no mistake -- it is flat out  old-fashioned B E T R A Y A L !

And we can't point fingers at only the White House.  It is the Congress and the Courts, as well -- the whole shooting match -- they have all betrayed the confidence of every American citizen.

In the name of national security our government is acting more like the government of 1930's Germany than the government of free Americans.

Here, in what used to be a free America, we now know the government has access to every e-mail we send … not to mention our land line phone calls, and our cell phones, as well.  According to Col. Ollie North, the only communications the US government does not read are smoke signals. 

Now we learn from CNET the following:  "CNET has learned the FBI has developed custom "port reader" software to intercept Internet metadata in real time. And, in some cases, it wants to force Internet providers to use the software."  SOURCE:  http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57596791-38/fbi-pressures-internet-providers-to-install-surveillance-software/

The FBI, we learn from this article, is pressuring Internet providers to install this eavesdropping technology deep inside the companies' internal networks to facilitate government surveillance efforts. 

"FBI officials have been sparring with carriers, a process that has on occasion included threats of contempt of court, in a bid to deploy government-provided software capable of intercepting and analyzing entire communications streams. The FBI's legal position during these discussions is that the software's real-time interception of metadata is authorized under the Patriot Act."   SOURCE:  http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57596791-38/fbi-pressures-internet-providers-to-install-surveillance-software/

OK.  So how much more of this are we going to tolerate before we stand up, like men, and say:  "ENOUGH!"  

Indeed, the question is… how much control is enough control for the federal government, and, in particular -- Obama’s White House?  Or, how much control is TOO much control for the American people?  I ask again: when do we say ENOUGH and say it loud and clear so that those barricaded inside the White House hear us and understand that they are treading on some very tender toes, indeed.

The US government is also walking all over the constitution, the Fourth Amendment, to be exact. The Fourth Amendment is the part of the Bill of Rights which guards against unreasonable searches and seizures. 

One has to ask:  Has the Fourth Amendment been suspended?  Are these truly Post-Constitution days?  Is it time to pass out the pitch forks and torches?

Maybe I have just lived entirely too long. I have spoken to a number of my contemporaries and we all are in agreement that we never thought we'd live long enough to see our country, America, become a third world socialist/communist dung heap.  But, unfortunately, we have.  It's here.

The thing that is so disappointing for me, as an American who can still remember a free America, is the fact that Americans did not put up a struggle.  None -- at all.  We just marched right into slavery like the good little Marxists we were indoctrinated to be. 

The surrender of America to socialism/communism compels me to remember the 1970 feature move: "Suppose They Gave A War and Nobody Came."    Even though the title is derived from an American anti-war slogan from the hippie subculture during the Vietnam War era, to this scribe it still sums up, perfectly, what has happened in recent decades here in America.   The socialists/Marxists threw a war and we -- WE -- DID NOT RESPOND!   Hell, THEY WON BY DEFAULT!

I had always though that when our government even appeared ready to foist their socialist agenda on free Americans  the American public would rise up in righteous anger.  The tar pots would be dragged out and lit. The tar would be heated, the chickens would be plucked, and the rails would be split.  Washington would be slammed with a tsunami of American anger surging through its marble halls sweeping the rot of socialism before it into the gutter of American history where it rightfully belongs.

Grandiose, huh?  Yeah, well, forgive an old man his hallucinations of freedom loving America.  I now know THAT America no longer exists.  Forgive me for my now discredited belief that Americans were a breed apart, that when the  "ship DID hit the sand" red-blooded American men and women would defend their heritage of freedom and liberty with the fervor of their ancestors.

I was W R O N G!  

So what happens now?  I have no idea. I'm not a futurist.  Unlike them I haven't the training to advance theories based on future probabilities.  I don't have a clue how they do that.  But -- I can daydream.  And in my flights of day time fantasy, I see a period of chaos and then two nations emerge where one existed previously.  I dare not allow my imagination to pursue the route it has apparently chosen.  So, I will end my flirtation with futurism here.

America's taste of socialism has stripped us of our "greatness," our self confidence as a nation, our pride, and -- our freedom.

© J. D. Longstreet