Some questions I'd like answered regarding the NSA and their spying on ordinary Americans

"If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy" - James Madison 

In his book, A Time for Truth, William Simon (Nixon's Treasury Secretary) wrote about freedom when describing his trip to the old Soviet Union, saying that while they were never directly bothered by anyone there, they were aware of being under constant observation. It was on the flight back to the U.S. that he gained a true understanding of the nature of freedom: when the pilot announced they had left Soviet air space, everyone visibly relaxed. Simon wrote that it was at that moment that he realized that it's easy to take freedom for granted because it isn't a presence in our lives, but an absence. 

Here are some questions I'd like answered regarding the NSA and the new revelations of their breaking thousands of laws and spying on ordinary Americans: 

• Why wasn't the NSA with all their data mining about to detect and prevent the Boston massacre? They even had explicit warnings from the Russians.
• Why was the NSA was not able to stop the Maj. Nidal Hassan from committing his jihad slaughter of 13 individuals at Ft. Hood along with 33 who were injured? We had ample evidence of his radical Islamic beliefs several years earlier and didn't need any data mining to discover that he was becoming radicalized.
• Where is there any real accountability with the NSA? Security agencies like the NSA define their own legal standards and have no real accountability. 
• Where is the judge who rules on these privacy invasions? 
• Where is the court where an ordinary citizen like myself can appeal this personal intrusions? What mechanism ever informs an individual that his rights have been violated?
• How can we trust those who are in charge of our national intelligence when the director of national intelligence lied to the American people with no consequences? If we lie to the federal government under oath, we face imprisonment.
• Explain why phone records of the 202 area code were mistaken for the dialing code of Egypt, (20)? Why was the 202 area code even available for such an error. This is a database query, so the records had to be in the database to query them. Which means that somebody, somewhere, thought that they should be or thought that they should not have been excluded from the collection.
• Why should we believe anyone in this administration or those heading up the NSA or national intelligence when thus far, they have lied to us on numerous occasions and proven to be less than truthful in the scope and amount of data being searched?
• President Obama assures the American people that there is no evidence of this data being abused or misused against the American people. In light of the IRS going after Tea Party groups, and the Justice Dept. going after Fox reporter, James Rosen, why should we not believe that this information could be used against any American to destroy their life or put them in jail just because they are opposed to this administration?

Chief Justice Roberts gives us the New Gestapo!

Chief Justice John Roberts

Thank-you, Honorable John Roberts. With your help, we've fallen down the rabbit hole in "Alice in Wonderland." We make words mean whatever we want them to mean.

We now have a Chief Justice whose guiding principle is not to determine whether or not a law is constitutional, but to move heaven and earth to make it constitutional. He has become a politician. Roberts actually went in search of some way to make the mandate constitutional. He actually rewrote Congress' law. Never mind that the law never defines itself as a tax. Chief Justice Roberts chose not to interpret the statute but to re-write it.

Then, Chief Roberts writes, "It's not our job to protect the American people from their political choices." He's got it wrong. The American people did not want Obamacare, and they were NEVER told that this would be a massive tax increase! The ONLY ones who wanted Obamacare and voted for it were the Democrats in Congress!


The New Gestapo!
Thanks to Chief Justice John Roberts, the IRS (the U.S. version of the Nazi Gestapo) will now have terrifying new powers to investigate you under Obamacare! 


The IRS has hired 4-5,000 new agents to delve into every small business's entire payroll, the level of their insurance coverage. Also, contained within Obamacare is the authorization for the IRS to seek out income of not just the primary breadwinner in your house, but your entire family’s income, in order to assess/collect the mandated tax. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. The IRS will now have the authority to put a lien on your business and even your house if you don't pay the fine (tax). 

The Taxpayer Advocate Office "has noted Americans must now tell the IRS under the new law: Insurance plan information, including who is covered under the plan and the dates of coverage; The costs of your family’s health insurance plans; Whether a taxpayer had an offer of employer-sponsored health insurance; The cost of employer-sponsored insurance; Whether a taxpayer received a premium tax credit; and whether a taxpayer has an exemption from the individual responsibility requirement."

Talk about an invasion of privacy. The Left always likes to talk about the dangers of the Patriot Act limiting our right to privacy, but they seem to have no problem with the IRS investigating every aspect of your life.

I believe that Chief Justice Roberts will go down in history as the Neville Chamberlain of Supreme Court justices.

Are Smart Meters Dangerous To Your Health & Privacy?

The other day, I spoke with a woman from Idaho who was forced to abandon her home two years ago, because of the installation of a smart meter which caused her all kinds of health problems. At first, I thought “this woman is a nut”, but as I listened, I realized that she was on to something and her issues carry some serious weight.

We (that would be you and I, and the public at large) need to stop and take some time to consider these SMART METERS which are being FORCED upon us by President Obama's Dept. of Energy, IBM, Siemens, and your local utility companies. 

What is a Smart Meter?

Nearly 9 percent of the electric meters in the U.S. are smart, and more are on the way. But those smart meters may be a lot smarter than you think -- and know a lot more about you than you might want.

"The idea behind a smart meter is that it communicates information to the utility," Kevin Doran, a research professor at the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

In an interview with PRI’s Living On Earth, Prof. Doran stated: "In theory, the utility can also use that pathway, if you will, to send information back to the consumer. The utility company could charge more for peak times, or it could even turn off appliances when they're not being used but could be saving electricity.Information from smart meters could help utilities manage energy more efficiently, but it could also be used for more nefarious purposes. 

My concerns:

·    Not only can your utility company (electric, water, or gas) monitor your energy use, but they can also RATION your use if they choose to, or they can penalize you for useage during peak periods. For example, if during the summer, it’s 96-degrees outside and you choose to keep your thermostat set at a comfortable 70-degrees,  the power company might demand that you set your thermostat no lower than 74-degrees and they could actually prevent you from going any lower in temp. Also, they could penalize you with a much higher rate for use during these peak periods.

This rationing is akin to what took place in the East European countries under Communism. I visited Romania in the early 1990s, and was informed that all their heat and electricity was centralized; it flowed from the center of the city (Bucharest) to the rest of the region. In many cases, under Nikolai Ceausescu (Romanian president from 1967-1989), Romanian citizens froze in their homes because they were only given enough heat to keep temps at 34-degrees. Sometimes the government would not turn on the heat until the middle of December when it was already below-zero temps. Also, Romanian citizens were only given enough electricity to light one or two 40-watt light bulbs, never mind trying to run an appliance or television.

·    Privacy issues. Each appliance in your house is being designed to send back information to the utility company under the guise of using energy more efficiently. But these chips and the smart meters can be used for more nefarious purposes. This data holds information about when you arrive home, go to bed, watch TV. Smart meters can be hacked, and someone in your neighborhood who has issues with you could hack into your smart meter and increase your electric or water bill.

·     We are told that smart meters will reduce our energy costs, but homeowners in Bakersfield and Fresno, CA., saw a dramatic increase in their electric bills after smart meters were installed. There is NO evidence currently that smart meters lower your utility bills, it’s just the opposite.

·      Health issues. Smart meters are causing increasing numbers of physical problems for consumers including headaches, heart palpitations, ringing in the ears, sleeplessness, pains in various parts of the body. There are numerous reports of fires beings started by faulty smart meters which have taken the lives of the homeowners.

 What should you do?

• Get informed. Ask yourself why there is a current moratorium on smart meters in Marin County and Santa Cruz, CA. This is home to “green activists” who are concerned about energy usage and its effects on the environment, but now they are also concerned about the effect of smart meters on humans.
• Call your utility company (Electric, water, gas) and ask them what their plans are for smart meters.    Tell them you are opposed to the installation of a smart meter on your home until they can assure you in writing with factual evidence that smart meters are safe.
• Write your senator or congressman and tell them you want a moratorium on smart meters. Tell them you don’t care for the invasion of privacy or the ability of the government to control and mandate your energy usage from your smart meter.