NSA Monitoring US Citizens' Social Media Information

All of that personal information you have been posting on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. was not just interesting to your friends, family, and business associates. The National Security Agency finds that personal information interesting as well.

The NSA has been tracking and storing your personal and business relationships, travel history, GPS locations, and probably everything else you have been posting on your social media accounts. If your friends know every detail of your life, so does the NSA. So, if that weird friend you have from high school has been loosely associated with some sort of a criminal or terrorist organization, you are probably in some database right now as a possible associate. Do you know every single thing all of your social media contacts are doing? The NSA does.

Read all about it in the New York Times article by James Risen and Laura Poitras.

"NSA Gathers Data on Social Connections of U.S. Citizens"

TSA Officer Arrested for Aiding Illegal Aliens

TSA officer, David Alexander Díaz-Torres has been arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Orlando on suspicion he aided in the smuggling of illegal aliens from Brazil by allowing them to pass through TSA security.

So here we have a federal employee who has been given extensive powers to do extremely intrusive things such as fondle your children, force your grandmother out of her wheelchair, strip search your spouse, and grab your genitals just because he claims it is for your own safety. He is supposed to be protecting America's borders, but he is allegedly abusing his power to help sneak illegal aliens through security.

What if one of these illegal aliens was a terrorist? Can you imagine how sickening it would be to find out Americans were killed by someone who was sneaked into the country by the very people who have been granted tremendously broad powers to protect us?

Click here to read the press release.

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.

Oakwood Apartments Demands All Residents Give up Guns

If you ever needed proof the anti-Second Amendment people are unwise, here it is.

The Oakwood Apartments in Castle Rock, Colorado, under the Ross Management Group, has a new policy. After October 1, 2013, residents are not allowed to have firearms on the premises, including inside of their own apartments. Even current renters are not allowed to keep their firearms. Current renters must either dispose of their weapons or move. Those who do not comply with this gun ban face forcible eviction.

Now, the apartment complex is a business. As the owners of the property, they have a right to regulate what happens on their property. So, if the owners foolishly want to ban guns, that is their right to do so. That issue may not be that simple, however. This particular complex offers tax credit housing. If this business is being supported with tax-payer dollars, this creates a Constitutional issue. If tax dollars are supporting this complex, then the owners have no right to restrict the practice of Constitutional rights. (Note the President of Ross Management Group is Deborah Ross Weseloh. She is a Democratic Party donor.)

The idiocy behind this policy illustrates just how naive the whole gun control crowd is. Under this anti-gun policy, only the people who follow rules will obey it and dispose of their guns. So, only the people who follow the rules will be the ones without weapons. Since criminals do not follow rules, the criminals will still have guns, and they will have a huge advantage over the unarmed residents.

Look at this through the eyes of a criminal. If you were going to commit crimes, would you rather commit those crimes in a place where any resident might have a gun, or would you prefer to target a place where you know the residents are very likely to be unarmed. With this ridiculous ban on guns, the Oakwood Apartments has now made the complex an attractive target for criminals. Who would want to live in a place that criminals would see as an easy target? Maybe, to save everybody time, the residents of the Oakwood Apartments should just hand over their guns directly to the criminals who will be robbing them in the future.

If you have any concerns about the anti-gun policy of Oakwood Aprtments, contact them.

Oakwood Aprtments
559 Oakwood Drive
Castle Rock, CO 80104

Tel: (303) 688-5080
Fax: (303) 660-5409


Ross Management Group
4251 Kipling St, Suite 405
Wheat Ridge, CO 80033

Tel: (303) 860-7885

-----------------------------------------------------------

UPDATE 8/8/13: The Oakwood Apartments gun ban has been thrown out. This is probably due to bad publicity. The important thing to remember is that they tried it.

The Douglas County Housing Partnership owns the Oakwood Apartments, which was purchased with federal funds and continues to be supported with tax dollars from an array of government sources. The Ross Management Group will not be allowed to impose the gun ban they wanted to implement.

Agencies Falsify Investigation Histories to Mask Unconstitutional Involvement in Prosecutions

All of this spying the federal government does sometimes leads to criminal investigations for things like drug violations. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and National Security Agency (NSA) are all spying on Americans, and these agencies share information. The domestic spying is bad enough, but there is something even more sinister going on. Investigators sometimes alter records of investigations to conceal how and why the investigations began. An investigating agency such as the DEA can recreate and investigation to account for evidence that may have been obtained unconstitutionally.

To learn more about how agencies like the DEA recreate investigations to conceal the actual histories of the investigations, read, the Reuters article about the Special Operation Division (SOD), "U.S. Directs Agents to Cover up Program Used to Investigate Americans," by John Shiffman and Kristina Cooke.

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)

Why License Plate Readers Are Bad for Good People

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) recently released a report, "You Are Being Tracked: How License Plate Readers Are Being Used to Record Americans' Movements," about how license plate readers are becoming a growing threat to the privacy of innocent people.  License plate readers are essentially automatic cameras that constantly scan for license plates in their surrounding areas, read the plates, and then run the license plate numbers through a database.  If a license plate matches a plate that has been flagged in the database for some sort of a violation (e.g., expired registration, expired insurance, outstanding warrant, stolen vehicle, etc.), a law enforcement officer will be alerted to the violation. 

These license plate readers can be mounted almost anywhere.  They are commonly seen on the trunks of police cars; however, they are often installed at intersections and along major roads and points of entry where police want to monitor every vehicle as it passes by.

It is bad enough government agencies are using automated technology to impose a massive dragnet on the public, but the real problem comes in with data storage.  Some agencies are storing the information from these license plate readers for months, years, or indefinitely.  This data allows government agencies to form extensive logs of where each vehicle was at exact dates and times.

Now, supporters of this program will defend the data collection with the typical argument: If you don't have anything to hide, don't worry about it.  The reality, however, could be a bit more complicated.  Here are a few scenarios where stored license plate data could affect an innocent person like you.  

Insurance Company Name Change
Insurance companies sometimes change their corporate names a little.  A name change could cause your policy to show up in a state database as an invalid policy.  In the week or two that it might take for you to get a letter from your state about the problem, you will probably get pulled over for being an uninsured driver. 

Bounced Check
You pay to renew your auto registration with a check.  Due to a bank error, the check bounces.  You might get pulled over for an expired registration before you even know it happened.

On Trial
You are on trial for a crime committed months ago.  You did not commit the crime, and you were not in the area at the time in question.  You testify in court you have never been to that area.  Later in court, the prosecutor claims the license plate readers show your car was in the area.  You did not know one of your family members borrowed your car on that date.  Now, the jury suspects you are lying. 

Crime Investigation
A silver Honda Accord was seen leaving a crime.  You drive your silver Honda Accord past a license plate reader on a nearby street around the same time.  You are now a suspect in a crime.

Place of Worship
There is a license plate reader on the road leading to your place of worship.  A couple of people from your congregation are suspected of a religiously motivated terrorist attack.  You are now on a watch list.

Rifle Range
You take a wrong turn down a road that leads to a rifle range.  A license plate reader records your trip.  The problem is that you sought mental health treatment a year ago and lost your right to own a gun.  Your suspected trip to a rifle range could lead to a warrant to search your home for firearms.    

Drug House
You often visit a friend at his home.  The house next door is a place frequented by drug buyers.  The police are keeping a record of all of the cars that park near that house.  Now you are flagged as a potential drug buyer.

These are just a few scenarios to show how you might be innocent and still have your life complicated by license plate reader data.  Let's say, however, you are not entirely innocent.  Let's say you have some embarrassing habits right now.  You are not doing anything to hurt anyone, but there are some things in your life you would rather keep secret.  What is going to happen ten years from now, long after you have turned your life around?  Could this stored license plate data be used to intimidate you or turn you down for some sort of job or privilege you want?

With this license plate reader data, we are allowing government agencies to keep extensive records of our lives. Where you go says a lot about you.  If the government has detailed records of where your go, when you go there, and how often you visit, they can make many accurate (and some inaccurate) assumptions about you.  This information could be abused to reveal your religious beliefs, hobbies, political affiliations, habits, relationships etc.  Do you trust the government to know (or think they know) that much about you?  Just because you are out in public and have "no expectation of privacy," that does not automatically mean you are not entitled to some degree of privacy as an innocent person who is simply out driving around and going about your life.

How to File a Claim Against the TSA for Damaged or Stolen Property





Cardboard Box After TSA Baggage Inspection
This box was inspected by the TSA.  The TSA sliced open the box at a bottom corner and then, using white TSA tape, improperly taped the incisions, leaving the box partially open and structurally weakened during transit.

  
In the likely event the TSA has damaged or stolen your property, and you want to file a claim against them, you can download the form and find instructions here: TSA Claim Instructions and Form.

You will be stunned to see the form is a whopping four pages. Seriously, how many pages does it take to explain some TSA moron broke the zipper on your suitcase or stole the perfume you bought on your trip as a gift for your mother? Here's the deal. The TSA does not just want to know what you lost, they want to know everything.

The TSA wants to know a lot about you. They want to know your marital status. They want your birth date. They want employment information. They want your insurance information.

The TSA also wants to know about your travel and property. They want receipts. They want repair estimates. They want baggage claim numbers. They want flight numbers. They want complete flight itineraries. They want witnesses.

Even more ridiculous, the TSA expects you to know what happened to your luggage while it was out of your sight. They want to know when the offense occurred. They want to know where it occurred. How are you supposed to know the time and location of where your checked baggage was violated? You check your bags at your departure airport, and you do not see them again until you reach your destination. That means your luggage has gone through at least two airports. If you get routed through multiple airports, you might have a few possible locations and times spread over thousands of miles and several hours. You might assume your baggage got violated at your departure airport, but you have no way of knowing that for sure.

It is painfully clear the TSA has designed the claim process to be so cumbersome, very few people will bother to submit a claim. People who travel by air do not have time to spend hours filling out forms, tracking down documents, making copies, etc. just to have a chance at getting a small check at some undetermined point in the future. The TSA has made the process ridiculous because they do not want claims made against them. The claims make them look bad, cost money, take time, and provide fuel for critics of the TSA.

If you, however, have the time to file a claim against the TSA, go ahead. You may not get results, but, at the very least, you can generate a paper trail that can be used to embarrass the TSA and bog them down with paperwork. It is difficult to embarrass a shameless entity, and bureaucrats love paperwork, but maybe filing a claim will help you feel better. At least you will know somewhere there is one more document to prove the TSA has little respect for the personal property of innocent people. On the bright side, these claims do add up. Somewhere there will be a report documenting how many claims were made against the TSA and how many were resolved. Your claim could be that one that pushes the total up to a level someone in power will consider unacceptable.

You should not just stop with filing a claim with the TSA. You can cause a little more noise by getting some attention from the Congressional Oversight Committee. A simple little letter, fax or email containing a brief account of how the TSA damaged or stole your property will be sufficient.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz is the Chairman of the Subcommittee on National Security.

You can reach him at

Rep. Jason Chaffetz
2464 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC  20515

Phone: (202) 225-7751

In the unlikely event, you happen to live in his Utah district, you may be able to send an email to him through his Web site.

So, if you want to file a claim against the TSA for damaged or stolen property there is no easy way, but it is important that you do not sit by and do nothing. If the TSA has broken or stolen your stuff, you may just be one victim in a class of many thousands of people, but you and your property do matter. Make sure to do something. File a claim, contact your Representative, contact your Senators, contact officials in charge, post stories and photos online, etc. Just do something to make sure the TSA's abuse of your property does not go by unmentioned. If enough individuals make enough noise, things will change.

TSA Baggage Inspection Notices Should Be Stamped with Name, Date, Time, and Location

Due to the extensive problems the TSA has had with its employees damaging property and stealing from passengers' luggage, the TSA should take a simple step to single out the worst TSA employees and discourage property damage and theft. All the TSA needs to do is eliminate anonymous inspections by making it mandatory that every baggage inspection notice that goes into an inspected bag gets stamped with the name (or employee number) of the TSA employee who conducted the search and the time, date, and location of that search. Each failure to include a stamped baggage inspection notice would result in a reprimand.

Under this simple system, the TSA could easily identify TSA employees who are stealing the most or causing the most damage. Why has the TSA not already implemented this amazingly simple solution? (Hint, there are at least five good answers to this question.)