Edward Snowden Is a National Hero

Barack Obama and many of the other big government statists are demonizing Edward Snowden and trying to convince the American people Snowden is a spy and/or a traitor. They are saying Edward Snowden is an enemy of America, because he put people's lives in danger by compromising secret illegal National Security Agency spying programs.

All Snowden did was tell the people of America the federal government was spying on the emails, phone calls, Internet activity, etc. of nearly every innocent person in America. How did this exposure place any lives in jeopardy? All this did was make people aware of what their government is doing to them and embarrass all of the control freaks in the federal government who ordered or support this wildly illegal domestic spying.

Here is the deal on Edward Snowden. We do not know much about him as a man and what his motives may have been. What we do know is that Snowden was aware of massive and egregious violations of civil rights that affect nearly every person in the country, and he put his whole life and career on the line to expose the truth. For that sacrifice and service alone, Edward Snowden is a national hero.

The biggest threat to the average American citizen is not China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, or even terrorism. Those are all real threats and things to worry about, but nothing threatens the daily lives, freedom, property, and physical safety of typical Americans more than out-of-control government.

Edward Snowden is a patriot who deserves to come back to America, be fully covered under whistleblower protection laws, and serve as an expert witness in a Congressional investigation into NSA abuses. The Stalinists who ordered these domestic spying operations should go to jail. Those leaders who knew about the spying and did nothing to stop it need to be thrown out of office. Most importantly, the President should be impeached for obscenely aggressive violations of the Fourth Amendment.

The United States government is spying on you. They even know you read this article. The only reason you know that they know is because Edward Snowden gave up everything for the benefit of his fellow Americans. Edward Snowden may have humiliated a lot of very powerful people, but those people brought it on themselves by trampling on the rights of Americans. Thanks to Snowden we know the truth now.

NSA's XKeyscore Tracks Everything You Do Online

The XKeyscore program allows the NSA to run queries of virtually almost anything you do online. Facebook chats, IP addresses, email addresses, browsing histories, etc. are all fair game. If you do it online, the NSA can run queries on a database of your activity and anyone else in America (and probably many other countries in the world). All they need is one little piece of information like an email address, IP address, etc. The NSA can even see you that you read this article.

If you want to learn more, read Glenn Greenwald's article, "XKeyscore: NSA Tool Collects 'Nearly Everything a User Does on the Internet'," on The Guardian.

Amash Amendment to Limit NSA's Domestic Spying Voted Down in Congress

The House of Representatives voted on the Amash Amendment to H.R.2397 on July 24, 2013. This was a measure from Justin Amash of Michigan to reign in the NSA by preventing taxpayer dollars from being used to support warrantless surveillance of innocent Americans. As exposed by Edward Snowden, the NSA is currently collecting phone records, emails, and Internet activity of nearly every innocent person in the United States, and this is all going on without warrants. The NSA's program of spying on nearly everyone in America is clearly a violation of the Fourth Amendment, but the majority of Congressmen in the House of Representatives have chosen the NSA over the Bill of Rights.

Here is a list of the Republican and Democrat Representatives who voted against your Fourth Amendment Rights by voting down the Amash Amendment today.  (Democrats in italics.)

Aderholt
Alexander
Andrews
Bachmann
Barber
Barr
Barrow (GA)
Benishek
Bera (CA)
Bilirakis
Bishop (GA)
Bishop (NY)
Boehner
Bonner
Boustany
Brady (TX)
Brooks (AL)
Brooks (IN)
Brown (FL)
Brownley (CA)
Bucshon
Butterfield
Calvert
Camp
Cantor
Capito
Carney
Carter
Castor (FL)
Castro (TX)
Cole
Collins (GA)
Collins (NY)
Conaway
Cook
Cooper
Costa
Cotton
Crawford
Crenshaw
Cuellar
Culberson
Davis (CA)
Delaney
Denham
Dent
Diaz-Balart
Duckworth
Ellmers
Engel
Enyart
Esty
Flores
Forbes
Fortenberry
Foster
Foxx
Frankel (FL)
Franks (AZ)
Frelinghuysen
Gallego
Garcia
Gerlach
Gibbs
Gingrey (GA)
Goodlatte
Granger
Graves (MO)
Green, Al
Grimm
Guthrie
Gutiérrez
Hanabusa
Hanna
Harper
Hartzler
Hastings (WA)
Heck (NV)
Heck (WA)
Hensarling
Higgins
Himes
Hinojosa
Holding
Hoyer
Hudson
Hunter
Hurt
Israel
Issa
Jackson Lee
Johnson (GA)
Johnson, E. B.
Johnson, Sam
Joyce
Kaptur
Kelly (IL)
Kelly (PA)
Kennedy
Kilmer
Kind
King (IA)
King (NY)
Kinzinger (IL)
Kirkpatrick
Kline
Kuster
Lance
Langevin
Lankford
Larsen (WA)
Latham
Latta
Levin
Lipinski
LoBiondo
Long
Lowey
Lucas
Luetkemeyer
Maloney, Sean
Marino
Matheson
McCarthy (CA)
McCaul
McIntyre
McKeon
McKinley
McNerney
Meehan
Meeks
Meng
Messer
Miller (FL)
Miller (MI)
Murphy (FL)
Murphy (PA)
Neugebauer
Noem
Nunes
Nunnelee
Olson
Palazzo
Paulsen
Payne
Pelosi
Peters (CA)
Peters (MI)
Peterson
Pittenger
Pitts
Pompeo
Price (NC)
Quigley
Reed
Reichert
Renacci
Rigell
Roby
Rogers (AL)
Rogers (KY)
Rogers (MI)
Rooney
Ros-Lehtinen
Roskam
Royce
Ruiz
Runyan
Ruppersberger
Ryan (OH)
Ryan (WI)
Schakowsky
Schneider
Schwartz
Scott, Austin
Scott, David
Sessions
Sewell (AL)
Shimkus
Shuster
Simpson
Sinema
Sires
Slaughter
Smith (NE)
Smith (TX)
Smith (WA)
Stivers
Stutzman
Terry
Thompson (CA)
Thornberry
Tiberi
Titus
Turner
Upton
Valadao
Van Hollen
Vargas
Veasey
Visclosky
Wagner
Walberg
Walden
Walorski
Wasserman Schultz
Webster (FL)
Wenstrup
Westmoreland
Whitfield
Wilson (FL)
Wittman
Wolf
Womack
Woodall
Young (FL)
Young (IN)

The Government May Install Hidden Cameras on Your Private Property to Spy on You

On rural lands, it is legal for government agencies to secretly come onto your private property without a warrant and install hidden cameras to spy on you. U.S. District Judge William Griesbach ruled that it was not a violation of the Fourth Amendment for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to trespass on Marco Magana's rural private property, install hidden cameras, and spy on him and Manuel Mendoza. The argument is that rural private property is not covered under the Fourth Amendment. Magana and Mendoza are now facing life imprisonment for being marijuana farmers.

Read Declan McCullagh's full story on CNET.

Police Opening Doors of Unlocked Vehicles

In another example of police overreaching into the lives of innocent civilians, police in Beverly, Massachusetts are actively looking for parked vehicles with unlocked doors. If a vehicle is unlocked, the police will open the door, lock the vehicle, then shut the door. The police are also leaving warnings for the owners informing them their vehicles are easy targets for thieves. This police action has caused some problems. Some owners left their keys in their vehicles and got locked out of their own vehicles.

This police action is just one element of a larger program in which the police are warning vehicle owners to not make their vehicles targets by leaving valuables in their vehicles in plain view, leaving doors unlocked, etc. The police are going from vehicle to vehicle and leaving written warnings on any vehicles the police feel might be attractive to thieves.

Sure, this sounds like the police are just trying to be helpful, but this is a perfect example of how governments now feel the need to get involved in even the most minute details of innocent people's lives. If people are too stupid to lock their vehicles and keep their valuables out of sight, that is too bad. Those people are taking a risk. If someone steals from the vehicle, the owner will have to face the consequences of being careless. The last thing the vehicle owner needs is some busybody cop putting a sign on the vehicle that advertises to all passers-by there are valuables in the vehicle. That is just idiotic. The cops are marking the targets for thieves.

The most troubling thing is that the cops are actually opening the doors of unlocked vehicles. These vehicles are private property, and opening a private vehicle without permission or a warrant is a clear violation of the Fourth Amendment. What happens if the cop opens a vehicle and notices something suspicious that might be visible only when a vehicle door is opened? Does the cop continue snooping around in the vehicle? Does the cop make an arrest or file a report if he finds something illegal?

Also, there are some good reasons to leave a vehicle unlocked. Anyone with a convertible or soft-top jeep knows to never lock the vehicle. Thieves cut through soft-tops to get in, and the cost to replace the soft-top far exceeds the value of the items inside the vehicle. Also, people know thieves will smash windows to get into vehicles. Some vehicle owners do not keep anything valuable in their vehicles, so they leave them unlocked, hoping no one will smash a window to get inside. After all, the windows are just glass and do not provide much security. They are, however, expensive to replace.

The bottom line is this. It does not matter why people leave their vehicles unlocked. If people want to do things with their private property that may seem careless, it is not the concern of the police. Here's a fresh thought. Instead of the police wasting time checking door locks, they should be out arresting thieves. The reason we have so many vehicle break-in is because the cops are not doing their jobs and putting the thieves in jail where they belong.

Indiana Supreme Court Makes Resisting Illegal Police Entry a Crime

The Indiana Supreme Court has decided that people have no right to resist police officers who attempt to enter their private homes illegally. This is a major blow to the Fourth Amendment.

Read about it here.
"Court: No Right to Resist Illegal Cop Entry into Home"

DC Metro Bag Searches Are Unconstitutional

On December 21, 2010, random bag searches began for those wishing to board the DC Metro system. Passengers are selected at random to undergo searches of their private property. Those who choose not to be searched are not allowed to board a train. This is unconstitutional, and here is why.

The DC Metro, like all public transportation, is funded by the taxpayers; therefore, the DC Metro is public property, which belongs to the taxpayers. Barring innocent taxpayers from public property without just cause is a violation of civil rights and a misuse of public property.

Those who have already surrendered their rights to the TSA in order to get on a plane will cynically reply, "This is no different from the airport. We have surrendered our rights there, so we should surrender them on the DC Metro."

This is a flawed argument. Commercial airplanes are private property. Taxpayers do not own the airplanes, but they do own the trains. Yes, it is wrong that innocent people get violated when attempting to board planes, but the plans are private property, so the owners of the planes do not have to allow people to board. The DC Metro trains are different. The taxpayers own the trains, and they are intended for public use, so the taxpayers have a right to ride the trains. Making people subject to searches before being allowed to board a DC Metro train is barely different than making people subject to searches before allowing them to walk down a public sidewalk.

One Man’s Sign Affects Two of His Civil Rights

According to Bridget Nash of the Enid News and Eagle, Chip Harrison, an Oklahoma City man, was driving on the interstate with a sign in his window. The sign read, “Abort Obama, not the unborn.” The man was pulled over by an Oklahoma City police officer who confiscated the sign. The sign was later returned by the police department, but the Secret Service later visited the man’s house and asked to conduct an informal search. The Secret Service walked through Harrison’s house to determine if Harrison was a threat.

Harrison was unwise in the way he worded his sign, but government overreaction over Chip Harrison’s sign lead to infringements on his First and Fourth Amendment rights. Harrison did get his sign back, and he voluntarily allowed the Secret Service to search his house, but this event should be a warning to all that the reach of government is extensive. Who knows what might have happened to Harrison had he not cooperated with the police and Secret Service. Harrison probably has his own special Secret Service file now, but things could have been much worse for him if he had tried to stand up for his freedom of speech and his right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure.

Enid News and Eagle Article
"OKC Officer Pulls Man over for Anti-Obama Sign on Vehicle"