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Is the NSA Blinded by Big Data?

medium.com

by Zeynep Tufekci

July 23, 2013

Who says it's the best method to catch the bad guys?

Rabbits hop around but that's not very threatening. Hops on a network, however, are a different game. When a rabbit hops on a lawn, each hop adds a yard or so. Not so in a network topology. In a network, the difference between one and two hops is huge. The difference between two and three hops is humongous because the effect of "hops" on traversing a network is exponential rather than additive. Exponential mechanisms don't add, they multiply-and that is the key to understanding a multitude of modern phenomena ranging from viral videos to pandemics.

Feds Gave Tor Project $1.8M While NSA Actively Tried to Destroy It

reason.com

by Zenon Evans

July 30, 2014

The Tor Project is a great way for people to cover their tracks on the Internet. Because of this, some in the federal government, specifically the National Security Agency (NSA), really dislikes Tor.

So it comes as a bit of a surprise that the project actually received over $1.8 million in federal money last year. The Tor Project, which provides free software to users interested in surveillance- and censorship-resistant web activity, recently released its financial statements and reports for 2013, and sources began taking note yesterday. The documents show that the State Department directly granted the organization $256,900 as part of its mission to fund "international programs [that] support democracy, human rights and labor."

Sriracha Kerfuffle Documents Revealed: 'THIS PROBLEM NEEDS TO BE TAKEN CARE OF NOW, NOT LATER!!!!!'

reason.com

by Zenon Evans

July 11, 2014

The public just got some new insight into one of the last year's spiciest (and fishiest) political kerfuffles: the push by the city council of Irwindale, California to shut down Huy Fong Foods, the makers of Sriracha hot sauce.

The tireless freedom-of-information requesters at MuckRock yesterday published internal council documents, revealing theatrically furious communication among the local government officials and a desire to exploit regulations to force the company into submission. First, to recap the situation. The squabbling began last October when reports emerged that some residents of the 1,500-person industrial town experienced watery eyes and sore throats due to the smells emitted by the Huy Fong factory. However, L.A. Weekly's Dennis Romero was skeptical, noting that "most of the odor complaints have come from four nearby homes, one of which is occupied by the relative of a city councilman. That councilman, Hector Ortiz, recused himself from discussion and voting on the matter because, he says, he owns property near the plant." And, the city was trying to sell property next to the factory at the time.

NYPD Mulls Using Microphone-Equipped Dones

reason.com

by Zenon Evans

May 22, 2014

Do you ever get that creepy feeling like you're being watched in public? That your conversations are being bugged and transmitted to the shadowy headquarters of an organization just looking for ways it can catch you?

Well, good news: The New York City Police Department (NYPD) is thinking about justifying your paranoia. At a city council meeting on Tuesday the boys in blue discussed the possibility of buying some drones...

Professor Sues Town Over Yard Sign Free Speech

reason.com

by Zenon Evans

August 9, 2013

Frustrated by demands from town officials, one professor is suing his local government for violating his First Amendment rights by harshly regulating political yard signs.

David Rubin's struggle began in 2006 when government workers of Manlius, New York, told him to remove political signs from his yard. Rubin is no stranger to free speech issues. He is the former dean of Newhouse School of Communications and current First Amendment law professor at Syracuse University. On Tuesday, the Center for Competitive Politics (CCP), a non-profit, filed a lawsuit on the professor's behalf.

Chemtrail Crimes: Human Hybridization and Aerial Vaccinations

zengardner.com

by Zen Gardner

March 8, 2016

Well, this is about as dark as it gets but it needs to be said. As we've known all along, chemtrails are a multi-faceted program. It's the ultimate delivery system. By poisoning our air it affects every living thing.

With this massive program in place, even though they won't even admit its obvious existence, anything can be loaded onto these air tankers at any time and sprayed onto unsuspecting humanity. While the known metallic elements of nano sized aluminum and barium and a host of other toxic ingredients are accepted generally to be used for at least for massive weather modification programs, there are other even more nefarious elements that we've been ingesting over the years.

Gary Johnson Files Anti-Trust Lawsuit To Get Into Presidential Debates

buzzfeed.com

by Zeke Miller

September 22, 2012

Both parties and the debate commission are trying to "hoodwink" the American people.

Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson filed an anti-trust lawsuit in federal court Friday to try to force his way into next month's presidential debates. Johnson, who first sought the GOP primary nomination before launching a third-party bid, is suing the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates and both the Democratic and Republican parties, calling the CPD a "conspiracy." The CPD was founded jointly by the two parties and the nominee, and the lawsuit alleges that they meet every four years to set the rules for the debate to "hoodwink" the American people.

Romney Executes Republican Party Power Grab

buzzfeed.com

by Zeke Miller

August 24, 2012

The Republican National Convention Rules Committee voted 63-38 to approve a new rule allowing granting the Republican National Committee - and Mitt Romney - sweeping new powers to amend the governing document of the GOP.

The move came at the encouragement of Mitt Romney supporters on the committee, including Romney's top lawyer Ben Ginsberg, who stressed that it would grant "flexibility" to Romney and the committee to adapt to changing political environments. The rule allows the RNC to amend the party's rules without a vote by the full Republican National Convention. And it offers the Republican Establishment a new tool to keep at by Tea Party initiatives that threaten to embarrass or contradict party leadership and stray from a planned message. Romney, as his party's nominee, exerts significant influence over the RNC, which is made up of elected party officials from all 50 states, while the larger Convention Rules Committee is larger and has a more grassroots membership.

HUH? Weiner's Seat 'Difficult' For Dems, Chairwoman Says - Even Though They've Held It Since 1920

businessinsider.com

by Zeke Miller

September 14, 2011

Republican Bob Turner defeated Democrat David Weprin 54-47 in the heavily Jewish district last night.

Speaker of the House John Boehner dismissed Wasserman-Schultz's remarks, citing historical precedent and calling it a "very seriously Democrat district," according to The Wall Street Journal. "This is not a district that Republicans have any right to believe we could win," he said.

GOP Goes Public With Long-Brewing Foreign Policy Civil War

swampland.time.com

by Zeke J Miller

July 27, 2013

The long-delayed GOP foreign policy civil war is finally here. For years the Republican Party has fractured over foreign policy, but libertarians and neoconservatives, while vehemently disagreeing on substance, tried to project an air of party cohesion.

Those days are over. "We ignored them and then tried to placate them," said one hawkish Senate Republican foreign policy aide about the libertarians. "If we don't move now [to counterattack], it may be too late in 2016." New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's comments Thursday evening at a gathering of the Republican Governors Association in Aspen, Colo. calling libertarianism "a very dangerous thought" marked an opening salvo of the fight for the Republican Party's identity in an age where a war-weary public wants to focus on the home front. On one side are libertarians like Sen. Rand Paul and others in the Tea Party. On the other, more mainstream conservatives like Christie, Arizona Sen. John McCain and New York Rep. Pete King.

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