Category Archives: Ethics

Turning The State Against Itself

Barack Obama, Ethics, Government, Homeland Security, Intelligence, Morality, Technology, Terrorism, The State

Morality as you and I think of it is already in short supply in government. Barack Obama has taken the initiative to weed out any vestiges of ethical impulses in government workers, the kind of urges that motivate whistleblowers, for instance.

The tyrant has launched the “Insider Threat Program,” “an unprecedented government-wide crackdown under which millions of federal bureaucrats and contractors must watch out for ‘high-risk persons or behaviors’ among co-workers. Those who fail to report them could face penalties, including criminal charges.”

Correction: The creep-in-chief issued the edict way back, after he jailed Army Pfc. Bradley Manning for exposing US war crimes. (There is a hell of a lot we don’t know about the foolish filth that is in office, as media have been unwilling to track this man’s infractions.)

The state spying on itself could turn out well for its subjects. Let the oink sector turn on itself. Let these pampered state workers be permanently consumed with and distracted by suspicion and fear, lest they end up in jail.

Killer Justice

China, Ethics, Law, Morality, Taxation

Guess the official. “He helped 11 people win contracts and promotions in return for bribes … totalling over $10m over 25 years,” and now, following a trial, he’s being given a very stiff sentence. “The indictment reportedly said that” our anonymous minister’s “malpractice” led to “huge losses of public assets and damage to the interests of the state and people.”

This sounds like a standard description of a state official anywhere, really, but this one is different. The man was stopped and sentenced.

If you’ve been following the news and still hold hope for the US, you might have thought that I was speaking of Gregory Roseman, former IRS deputy director for enterprise networks and tier support systems.

But then you’d have scratched your head and wondered aloud about the paltry sum for which the stiff sentence was meted. The Roseman scumbag, on the other hand, “pushed for contract awards worth up to $500 million to a company owned by a friend,” and has “pleaded the Fifth Amendment and refused to testify at a House hearing Wednesday.”

Perhaps I am referring to Roseman’s pal, so-called war hero Braulio Castillo, the owner of a “small disadvantaged business,” whatever that means, who grew his hobbling business thanks to “contract steering”—contracts to the tune of the $500 million aforementioned taxpayer funds, funneled to him by the thugs at the den of iniquity and vice that is the Internal Revenue Service.

(Castillo’s war injuries, for which Veteran’s Affairs awarded him compensation, were sustained after a prep school injury. I suppose America’s government schools are a war theatre of sorts.)

No. The official who was given “a suspended death sentence for bribery and abuse of power” is Chinese Railways Minister Liu Zhijun.

Greg Roseman, Braulio Castillo and the rest of the American gang at IRS will be allowed to plead the Fifth, will net a book deal from some big American publisher, and will go on to officiate as experts on network or cable TV.

UPDATE II: ‘Thank You For Your Service, Mr. Snowden’

Barack Obama, Ethics, Fascism, Propaganda, Republicans, Russia, Technology, Terrorism, The State

“‘Thank You For Your Service, Mr. Snowden'” is the current column, now on WND. Here’s an excerpt:

“A heroic American whistleblower chooses, oh-so wisely, to expose Uncle Sam’s usurpations to the veteran reporters of the British Guardian and not to the partisan hacks of the American press. This fact tells you all you need to know about US presstitutes.

Confirmation of the degree to which American media has been co-opted by power came on June 10, again, via a British newspaper. The Mail Online divulged that Edward Snowden had ‘first approached the Washington Post with his leaks but the newspaper refused to comply with his publishing demands.’

You see, the Washington Post had to hotfoot it back to Big Brother Obama before it would do its journalistic due diligence. ‘The Post broke the story on PRISM two weeks later, on Thursday, after consulting with government officials,’ confirmed the Mail Online.

Even after being scooped by the Guardian, the Obama embeds at the Washington Post saw fit to inform their readers about PRISM on a purely need-to-know basis, ‘eprinting only four of the 41 PRISM PowerPoint slides,’ and generally misrepresenting the nature of the program known as PRISM. The manufactured-in-America version of PRISM thus contradicts the ‘internal NSA documents’ leaked to the Guardian.

According to the guardian of American freedoms at the Guardian, reporter Glenn Greenwald, the 41-slide PowerPoint presentation he acquired from Snowden has been authenticated as a document ‘used to train intelligence operatives on the capabilities of the program.’ The presentation, pictorials with captions, handed out by the National Security Agency, boasts of having ‘direct access to the systems of Google, Facebook, Apple, Yahoo, PalTalk, YouTube in 2010; Skype and AOL, and other servers.’

Contrary to what you’re being told, ‘the world’s largest surveillance organization’ can and does ‘obtain targeted communications without having to request them from the service providers and without having to obtain individual court orders.’ And it is contrary to the Bill of Rights, the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, in particular. It specifies that ‘warrants shall issue’ only ‘upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.’

Tellingly, the tools of Big Media and big government are not apprising you of these facts. Like a tortoise in its shell they’ve retreated from the watersheds that are the AP, the IRS and the NSA scandals, informing you only of what New York and Northeast elites think is important: “Most of you still like Obama” …

The complete column is, “‘Thank You For Your Service, Mr. Snowden.'” Read it on WND.

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UPDATE I: In his unrehearsed conversation with Glenn Greenwald, Snowden demonstrates analytical clarity, the kind you don’t get from his inferior critics. It comes natural for him to distinguish between NSA posturing for the national interest and reality; between intelligence gathered overseas and domestically; between surveillance of the foreign born and the domestic.

Snowden’s desperation—defecting and leaking as a last resort—is corroborated by other whistleblowers. When you blow the whistle through acceptable NSA channels you can expect cover-ups, heavily redacted reports and retaliation. This is what two veteran intelligence officers relayed to Sean Hannity at Fox News.

UPDATE II: From the Facebook thread. Memorial Day is a way to ensure men die for the state, not for their neighbors. It wasn’t always so, but it has become that. It’s the sad truth. Good men serve their countrymen outside the state. For example, Samuel Williams is an American hero. The same goes for the wonderful JOE HORN.

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A Jarring Juxtaposition

Constitution, Ethics, Family, Individual Rights, libertarianism, Ron Paul

Economic Policy Journal juxtaposes Ron Paul and Rand Paul with resepct to what will, one day, be recognized as one of the defining issues of our time: EDWARD SNOWDEN’s whistleblowing bravery.

Ron Paul on Edward Snowden:

We should be thankful for individuals like Edward Snowden and Glenn Greenwald who see injustice being carried out by their own government and speak out, despite the risk.

Rand’s equivocation makes me miss Ron Paul even more. Read it at EPJ.