Luxembourg NSA dragnet hauls in Skype for investigation – report
Published time: October 12, 2013 10:07
Once heralded as a communication tool free from eavesdropping, Skype is now reportedly under scrutiny for secretly and voluntarily handing over personal data on users to government agencies.
The Microsoft-owned instant-messaging site, used by some 600 million people worldwide, is being probed by Luxembourg's data protection commissioner over concerns about its secret cooperation with the US National Security Agency’s Prism spying program, according to a report in the Guardian, the UK newspaper that first broke the story on NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.
Skype, believed to be the first Internet company among many to be brought within the NSA program, could potentially face criminal and administrative charges, as well as hefty fines if it is found to be in violation of Luxembourg’s data protection laws.
If found guilty, Skype be banned from passing along user data to the US spy agency, the newspaper reported.
The Luxembourg commissioner initiated an investigation into Skype's privacy policies following revelations in June about its ties to the NSA, the Guardian said. No additional comments were immediately available.
Microsoft’s purchase of Skype for $8.5 billion in 2011 “tripled some types of data flow to the NSA,” the Guardian said, citing secret documents in its possession.
But even before the Microsoft buyout, Skype had initiated its own secret program, dubbed Project Chess, which sought ways of making customer communications “readily available to intelligence agencies and law enforcement officials,” The New York Times reported.
According to the NSA files shown by Snowden to the Guardian, Skype was served with a directive to comply with an NSA surveillance request signed by US Attorney General Eric Holder in February 2011. Several days later, the NSA had successfully monitored its first Skype transmission.
Skype, founded in Estonia in 2003 and now headquartered in Luxembourg, is facing a public backlash in the wake of the Prism disclosures.
"The only people who lose are users," Eric King, head of research at human rights group Privacy International, said in comments to the Guardian. "Skype promoted itself as a fantastic tool for secure communications around the world, but quickly caved to government pressure and can no longer be trusted to protect user privacy."
Thank you for posting a fascinatingly informative interview.
ReplyDeleteGiven the fear now felt by media, it maybe the case that future whistle blowing will be possible, only safely, while the parties are buck naked in a public bath.
Like days of yore, documents will have to be transported by hand or carrier pigeon to minimize the risk of interception.
Delete: ) You know you are right. I remember Caspar Weinberger saying that he did not use email. I thought at the time he was the smartest man in government.
DeleteThere is a part of N. Mississippi where I'd rethink that "carrier pigeon" strategy. :)
DeleteI used to shoot pigeons out on the farm.
DeleteDone right, like mom used to make them in pigeon pies, they're not bad.
Thinks doves.
In MIssissippi, I've heard, they mix them in with alligator meant.....don't know about that.
" A pigeon!.. no, it's not pretty at all.
DeleteThey're...they're...
they're rats with wings .....
You see, it's got a swastika under its wing."
The Poi Dog lovers her claim cats are furry rats.
DeleteI call them on their BS.
"here"
DeleteThis forthright interview given by a strong supporter of Mr. Obama is a cruel, cruel cut to the Won's legacy.
ReplyDeleteTavis Smiley: 'Black People Will Have Lost Ground in Every Single Economic Indicator' Under Obama'
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2013/10/11/tavis-smiley-black-people-will-have-lost-ground-every-single-economic#ixzz2hQqlEq3z
alt.twentysomethings too. They're still voting straight Donk because Rolling Stone tells them it's cool.
Delete1) Applies, also, to white people, and
ReplyDelete2) Applies to the Bush period, as well.
Median Income Did peak in 1999.
Dot-com bubble. Everyone got in the IPO for FreshLettuceDeliveredHome.Com. Crash in 2000 did everyone about half.
DeleteThe middle class is taking it on the chin, regardless of demographics.
DeleteMr. Bush's people were able to keep the lid on the pressure cooker until he was out of office. Mr. Obama is not incorrect in observing that he inherited the mess.
Inherited the mess, and spent a billion dollars and two years campaigning doing so.
DeleteGosh, they hacked Skype? Now the NSA can see the jewelry I got my mother on Amazon and plan to give her when she comes up. Is nothing sacred?
ReplyDeleteDamn, come to think of it a lot of views of jewels must be shared on Skype.
ReplyDeletePhone sex is so Nineties.
DeleteAllen, you dumb slut.
Delete.
DeleteWell, that's comforting. It's a beautiful fall morning. Jenny is still around. And she is here to grace the blog in her usual articulate and informative manner.
I've heard a bit o' the hair of the dog can sometimes help.
.
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DeleteQ-FU
.
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Delete:)
I love it when you talk dirty.
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Is this the gal who used to say "blow me" when you dinnit treat her right, Quirk?
Delete.
DeleteNo.
When Jenny uses foul language, her words are never ambiguous.
:)
.
No gentle puffs of air for Jenny.
Delete.
DeleteStill, it is all part of the erotically-charged banter that punctuates the love/hate relationship that exists between Jenny and me. At times you have to read between the lines. At others, the charade breaks down and she openly calls me her little 'Chubbo'.
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Sorry to hear, Quirkster, that your chubbo is little.
DeleteContact .. Erections-R-Us.com
Get an extension
Sure has worked for me!
:):):)
.
DeleteEvidently. No one doubts that you're a dick.
.
Snowden’s father: Edward is ‘a whistleblower in the best sense’
ReplyDeleteAlexander Zemlianichenko / AP
Lon Snowden, Edward Snowden's father, in Moscow on Thursday.
By Jim Maceda, Correspondent, NBC News
MOSCOW – In a sometimes rambling conversation that lasted more than an hour, Lon Snowden, the father of former National Security Agency intelligence analyst and fugitive from justice, Edward Snowden, sounded at times like a human rights activist, and at other times like a proud, loving father.
He said he looked forward to “getting information on my son’s physical and mental health,” but he’s grateful to the Russian government for keeping Edward safe.
Lon Snowden, a retired U.S. Coast Guard officer, spoke with NBC News Friday in Moscow by phone, as he waited for his Russian hosts to organize a visit with his son -- whom he’s had no direct contact with for months.
The elder Snowden arrived Thursday at the same Moscow airport his son had spent five weeks living in a transit zone before receiving temporary asylum in Russia. He said he was “pleased” with his trip so far. He had not met with any Russian government officials, but admitted that he was not in control of his meetings.
Lon Snowden said he planned to stay at least through next week and hoped to see his son “multiple times.” If things went well, he’d consider staying in Moscow for up to a month, he said. But he added that, while his focus is on Edward, he has other children back home in Pennsylvania who need their dad, too.
When he sees his son, Lon Snowden said he would advise him not to go to Latin America -- but rather stay put in Russia, where Edward can have a normal life. There have been rumors recently that the younger Snowden might move to Brazil, where Russians don’t need visas.
He said that he’d like to see his son return to the United States someday, but that it’s still too early – and his son is still too “demonized” by the Obama administration and mainstream media – for him to get a fair trial at home.
“Ed’s role is effectively over,” his father told NBC News. “He whistleblew. Now he has nothing else to offer. He’s just a symbol and a threat to the U.S. government and certain corporations, and an inspiration to other potential whistle-blowers.”
{…}
Spy
DeleteSuccessful spies are anonymous
DeleteConsider the enormous and country wrecking power of disinformation. Markets are highly irrational, day to day, when it comes to rumors, say, involving Buffett or Baron Rothschild (Waterloo).
ReplyDeleteHas anyone really articulated the changes made to World by the internet? Has there ever been anything close to being as revolutionary? Certainly not in terms of global changes over such a short period of time.
DeleteIf you think about human beings have been around in one form or another for at least 200,000 generations. Go back only five or six generations and every life was the same as his father’s life and his son’s life.
Mobile connectivity is reaching into the poorest districts. Everyone, absolutely everyone, now has access to the total accumulated lore of mankind. Anyone can talk to anyone, anytime. Even if a regime shuts down the grid, there's always USB sticks passing over sneakernet. That changes everything.
DeleteThe attendant problem, as Rat has stated, is it's leading, in the short term, at least, to an Oversupply of Labor.
DeleteNot enough people around know how to fix robots when they blow a MOSFET power transistor. Gotta train 'em up from nothing, and it's like being a one-legged woman in an ass-kicking contest.
Delete.
DeleteNot enough people around know how to fix robots when they blow a MOSFET power transistor.
Only one as far as I know.
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{…}
ReplyDeleteThe Guardian via EPA
Former CIA employee Edward Snowden during an exclusive interview with The Guardian newspaper's Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras in Hong Kong on June 10, 2013.
He bristled over Friday’s New York Times story about a Central Intelligence Agency supervisor’s derogatory report in 2009, which suspected the young technician of hacking into unauthorized CIA computer files.
Lon Snowden called the report “bulls—t.” He said the “two unnamed senior American officials” cited in the article did not “send [Edward] home” from Geneva as the story stated.
“I brought my son home,” he claimed. “He was very ill – and overseas – at the time and needed to see a real doctor.” The CIA “derog” report on Edward Snowden was reportedly never passed on to the NSA, his future employer.
Lon Snowden also vigorously denied there is any tension between him and his fugitive son.
In August, Washington lawyer Mattie Fein – part of Lon Snowden’s legal team – told The Wall Street Journal the team didn't trust the whistleblower’s entourage: neither the Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald, who has broken several controversial stories on U.S. and British government surveillance based on Snowden’s NSA leaks, nor WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy organization representing Snowden since his flight from justice began.
Shortly thereafter, The Huffington Post reported receiving an email from Edward Snowden stating that “neither my father, his lawyer Bruce Fein, nor his wife Mattie Fein, represent me in any way. None of them have been or are involved in my current situation.”
On Friday, Lon Snowden told NBC News that Fein's comments were “baseless,” and that he subsequently split with his legal team. He now has new counsel, he said, and his relationship with his son, Edward, is “stronger than ever.” He said he has had indirect contact with Edward through the American Civil Liberties Union, including an encrypted chat with him online.
Lon Snowden said he hopes Edward has no regrets, because he believes his son did the right thing, despite three federal charges against him, including one for espionage.
“He defended the Fourth Amendment and the right to privacy, protected by international law. I consider my son to be a whistleblower in the best sense of the term,” he said.
But would his son speak out, too?
“The day will come when Ed Snowden will speak,” Lon SNowden replied. But he added that his son has no desire to be a part of the story more than is absolutely necessary: “Ed is not looking for a book or a movie deal.”
Jim Maceda is an NBC News Foreign Correspondent based in London, currently on assignment in Moscow.
Amazing when a Russian spy is celebrated by Americans as a hero.
DeleteNot at all amazing, when the people of the United States realize their government is no longer theirs.
DeleteBut merely the lackeys of the monied interests.
That it has been so since the days of Andrew Jackson.
Delete"The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the large centers has owned the government of the U.S. since the days of Andrew Jackson."
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DeleteLooks like little Jimmy Clapper is signing in as Anonymous again.
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Delete"For some time I have been disturbed by the way the CIA has been diverted from its original assignment. It has become an operational and at times a policy making arm of the government."
ReplyDelete"We can't be so fixated on our desire to preserve the rights of ordinary Americans."
Delete“Give me control of a nation's money and I care not who makes it's laws."
L'etat C'est Moi.
DeleteLouis XIV
Delete“History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling money and its issuance.”
One reason the Janet Yellen pick was so extraordinary.
DeleteYeah, no one saw that coming. Only been the Vice Chairman for years.
DeleteWall Street, and the Banksters really, really wanted Summers.
Delete.
DeleteExtraordinary in what sense?
She is reported to be a Bernanke clone, trickle down economics 101.
Sounds like business as usual to me.
.
Same play, same characters, different actors.
DeleteThe delivery may be change, but the script is the same.
Yellen is the only one of the whole bunch that saw with perfect clarity the impending "blow-up," its reasons, and its aftereffects.
Delete.
DeleteNo one said she wasn't a clever girl. But that is ancient history.
Today we are interested in solutions and reportedly she offers us the same ol same ol.
.
Inflation is running at about 1.2%, annually, and we're not in recession.
DeleteIntelligence might not be forever, but stupid certainly is; and she ain't stupid.
DeleteMayer Amschel Bauer Rothschild - “Give me control of a nation's money and I care not who makes it's laws."
DeleteThe earliest authenticated use of this quote was 1935. Baron Rothschild had been dead 123 years at that time.
It is a stupid statement, readily falsifiable, hardly the thought of one as brilliant as Rothschild.
In a former life, Rufus captained The Titanic:
Delete"All Systems Go, Full Speed Ahead!"
I wrote that poorly. I meant, the "Fact" that she was appointed was extraordinary, not that "she," necessarily, is/was.
DeleteWhat we have here ...
DeleteIs not a "Failure to Communicate", no indeed.
What we have is another example of ...
"The Myth that Became Fact"
Permit me to issue and control the money of a nation, and I care not who makes its laws!
Attributed to Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744 - 1812).
No primary source for this is known and the earliest attribution to him known is in Money Creators (1935) by Gertrude M. Coogan.
Before that, "Let us control the money of a nation, and we care not who makes its laws"
was said to be a "maxim" of the House of Rothschilds, or, even more vaguely, of the "money lenders of the Old World".
This is a play on an English proverb, Let me make the songs of a nation, and I care not who makes its laws
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DeleteInflation is running at about 1.2%, annually, and we're not in recession
Whoopi-friggin-do.
And the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.
All Bernanke's continued use of the trickle down approach has done is exacerbate pernicious trends and make them even more deleterious.
The FEDs mandated goals are price stability AND growth and full employment. They do not have a mandate to pump up the stock market or line the pockets of the 1%. They have done a piss poor job on growth, both of GPD and jobs.
QE was necessary the first couple years of the downturn. Now it has little effect accept to keep providing liquidity to the only people that can take advantage of it, the rich. The FED is out of bullets. Bernanke and reportedly Yellen are now shooting blanks.
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Delete"This is the west, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."
What else can the Fed do? Raise interest rates, and put us into a recession?
DeleteGive me control of the data and I can control any amount of inflation.
Delete1.2% inflation -- right -- in their dreams
:-)
Congress could pass some Jobs programs, but that isn't in the republican program.
DeleteThe Government has only the one viable option available to it
DeleteStay the Course!
I'm getting richer.
DeleteThree generations of forethought helps.
Delete.
DeleteAs are government subsidies.
.
Nothing pays off like a Federal Land Grant!
DeleteWelfare that led to Wealth!
Pull up the drawbridge, no one else gets in!
.
ReplyDeleteMicrosoft and the NSA. A marriage hatched in hell. Every Microsoft program is designed with a backdoor for easy NSA access. it's the 'good neighbor policy' as it exists in the surveillance state. These days the two are never far away from each other.
San Antonio, TX.
So just what will be going on inside the NSA’s new San Antonio facility? Bamford describes former NSA Director Mike Hayden’s goals for the data-mining center as knowing “exactly what Americans were doing day by day, hour by hour, and second by second. He wanted to know where they shopped, what they bought, what movies they saw, what books they read, the toll booths they went through, the plane tickets they purchased, the hotels they stayed in… In other words, Total Information Awareness, the same Orwellian concept that John Poindexter had tried to develop while working for the Pentagon’s [Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency].”
Bamford details how Hayden, now head of the CIA, had originally leaned toward being overprotective of civil rights, not wanting to see the NSA revisit the scandal-ridden era of the 1970s and the violations of “Project Shamrock.” But 9/11 altered Hayden’s philosophical direction 180 degrees. The Total Information Awareness project supposedly died when the plan was exposed, Poindexter resigned, and Congress cut off further funding. But Bamford and others have reported that the project simply migrated to the NSA, “an agency with a far better track record than DARPA for keeping secrets.”
The NSA remembers the Alamo
The NSA was waffling on selection of a home for its new facility when the City of San Antonio sent a mission to NSA headquarters in January 2007 to lobby for it, part of a continuing effort to woo the agency. On January 18, Microsoft announced its selection of San Antonio for a new data center. The NSA followed suit three months later. Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff was part of the effort to entice the NSA to choose San Antonio. He says talks centered on economic factors and what the city could do to facilitate the NSA’s plans.
“They’re pretty tight on what they do; they don’t share that information with you,” says Wolff. “I hope that the administration will be addressing [civil-rights violations], and I hope they’re correcting those concerns.” [Editorial interjection: Buffoon or merely Hypocrite?]
Bamford writes about how NSA and Microsoft had both been eyeing San Antonio for years because it has the cheapest electricity in Texas, and the state has its own power grid, making it less vulnerable to power outages on the national grid. He notes that it seemed the NSA wanted assurance Microsoft would be here, too, before making a final commitment, due to the advantages of “having their miners virtually next door to the mother lode of data centers.” The new NSA facility is just a few miles from Microsoft’s data center of the same size. Bamford says that under current law, NSA could gain access to Microsoft’s stored data without even a warrant, but merely a fiber-optic cable.
http://www2.sacurrent.com/news/story.asp?id=69607
Note: This article was published in 2008. Since then the NSA/Microsoft cabal has only grown as note in the Skype story above.
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In 2003 the NSA tried to insert a backdoor in the Linux kernel by removing one "=" sign in some C code, this "bug" would have granted root access to a process with a certain name that happened to coincide with the variable that was supposed to be compared to zero with a double =. It was caught because there was no signed audit trail on that code (version control software eliminates the possibility of this very exploit). Linus Torvalds switched over to a version control package called "git" that he wrote himself in case the NSA compromised the third-party one he was using. It goes without saying, however, that Windows is riddled through and through with NSA hacks.
Delete.
DeleteI had heard that Linux was one of the tougher systems for the NSA to crack. Of course what expertise do you need when a company like Microsoft willingly writes in the backdoor when they put out a new program?
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This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteI got Skype now.
ReplyDelete.
DeleteI'm sure there are plenty of other Anonymooses out there who have it too.
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Farmer Fudd, the anonymous dimwit, told us he could have had the ObamaCare websites up and running in the three years the Federals had to do it.
DeleteNow to illustrate his abilities, he and his "tech support" have been working hard, really hard, to get him signed onto a Google account.
It has been four months, now.
Failure has dogged their every step.
Absolute and complete failure is all that Team Farmer Fudd has produced.
That "Team Fudd" has failed to even access the Google sign on page.
So, so sad to see his high hopes for change come crashing down to earth.
In his last public comment on the subject, Farmer Fudd related to the crowd ....
Gotta be a Wizard to run one of these dang computers!
They didn't actually have three years. They couldn't really get going until the Supreme Court case was settled, and they were further hindered by not knowing which states would set up their own exchanges. It hasn't helped that (although, this would have to be verified by Teresita) this is probably the most complicated, ambitious web-site in history.
DeleteCreating a Google account and signing in, a task that takes the "average" teenager in the United States about 3 minutes to accomplish.
DeleteThere is something really wrong with Farmer Fudd!
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DeleteMust be a glitch.
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This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteCarl Icahn and his team, they had five years to get Grand Theft Auto 5 ready to launch, rufus.
DeleteThe "best" software writers and web meister money could buy.
Even that web site failed to perform to expectations, on opening day.
Nature of the beast.
Servers not up to the task, over whelmed by the onslaught of "hits".
Beat down like a SUV driver in NYCity that has run over a "biker".
Farmer Fudd Brain Fart.
Delete"Best" web guys in the World:
DeleteCompare Chrome to Internet Explorer.
...like comparing Amazon to The Post Office.
Or DMV.
It was exciting to read about small young upstart Microsoft out-dueling bloated, over regulated, Lawyered Up IBM.
DeleteDepressing to read about MS married to The Man.
...the opposite of that Classic Apple Ad striking out for free market innovation.
No wonder the kid is well paid for trying to maintain security for the Air Force Supercomputer when the trolls run their networks on Microsoft.
DeleteSome funny stuff !!
Delete"Your Healthcare Provider is currently Out of Service due to the Super-cyclone in India"
Delete"Healthcare?
Shit!
I've fallen and I can't get u..."
Actually Whackadoodle, my techy has not been working on that at all lately. She looked into it one day, but had to run. She put in my Skype though.
Delete
DeleteFAILURE TO ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR OWN ACTIONS – a failure to accept responsibility for one’s actions reflected in low conscientiousness, an absence of dutifulness, antagonistic manipulation, denial of responsibility, and an effort to manipulate others through this denial.
"Hit in head with steel rod..."
ReplyDeleteI've often dreamed of clubbing a two year old w/a steel rod.
Takes a Real Guy.
US Army plans 'Iron Man' armour for soldiers
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24474336
"Starship Troopers", coming to reality.
In more ways than one.
I have diagnosed a part of Whackadoodle's problem.
ReplyDeleteIt is pronoia.
""Pronoia is the positive counterpart of paranoia. It is the delusion that others think well of one. Actions and the products of one's efforts are thought to be well received and praised by others. Mere acquaintances are thought to be close friends; politeness and the exchange of pleasantries are taken as expressions of deep attachment and the promise of future support. Pronoia appears rooted in the social complexity and cultural ambiguity of our lives: we have become increasingly dependent on the opinions of others based on uncertain criteria."
I stress this is just a fraction of his issues.
Delete"A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject"
Delete""Keep your attention on what you WANT exclusively, passionately and faithfully. Do not put one attention particle on the what ifs that do not serve you. You make real what you place your attention on."
Though disgusting, his case presents some unusual characteristics, Winnie.
DeleteThe tendency to violence and the death threats and swearing when frustrated are a notable element.
Tentative call: Paranoid pronoiac bully with low IQ.
Delete"Life flows in the direction your attention goes."
Delete"“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”
DougSat Oct 12, 11:59:00 AM EDT
ReplyDelete"Hit in head with steel rod..."
I've often dreamed of clubbing a two year old w/a steel rod.
Takes a Real Guy.
Spare the rod, spoil the child. Use the rod, no child left behind.
Poor kid. It's sad.
No Child's Behind Left.
DeleteExcellent!
ReplyDeleteHeadline on Drudge says: No Deal
So far, I haven't missed the government, have you?
Am I dreaming of did Jenny tell Quirk to fuck off?
With the opposing teams scoring an average of just over 42 points per game over six games, I think we have tough going today against Arkansas State.
I love to listen when we are losing big.
GoVandals!
Delete"America loves a winner, and will not tolerate a loser ..."
So very 40's.
DeleteDeconstruction and Destruction, Baby!
...it's what's happenin
To love a loser ...
DeleteTo be entertained by losing, to celebrate losing.
To hold it up for adulation!
Those are actions that no American worthy of the word would ever embrace.
You see, George, there is more to it than that. Losing is an art form in these parts. Without emotion, one rationally analyzes the game, watching to see how Arkansas State goes about 'ripping us a new asshole'.
DeleteI disagree with my wife that we ought 'to just go to Rodeo'.
She hasn't been in these parts long enough - only a little over thirty years - to really get the hang of, to really appreciate a good whipping.
It takes time.
GoVandals!!!
-50 at least!
Yes!!!!!
Delete“Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.”
Delete"You can’t blame your opponents for applying a strategy that beats your brains out with regularity.
ReplyDeleteThere's no government. Embrace anarchy. Punch a vet. Eat a bald eagle, Eat shit. Fuck off and die but don’t get sick.
That's just what I was thinking!
Delete.
DeleteA bit pugnacious and aggressive, IMO. After all, vets and bald eagles are victims too.
However, on the whole, one of the most stirring polemics I heard in a long time. You go girl.
I'm searching for my Guy Fawkes mask right now but will meet you on the barricades.
.
.
DeleteA bravo performance, a bitter diatribe, a vituperate jeremiad, a fierce philippic. Perhaps not quite on a par with 'Bad Trish' when she was on a roll, yet, still impressive.
.
That broken bad bitch? I’ll prove you wrong. Tell me what to do & I'll tell you off. Say I'm not worth it & watch where I end up. Call me a BITCH & and I'll show you one. Fuck me over & I'll do it to you twice as bad. Call me crazy, but you really have no fucking idea. Boot & Scoot,
Delete.
DeleteNow, you are just being silly. You might be the present incarnation of her but you are still a poor imitation.
'Good Trish' or 'Bad Trish' (and she had her reasons) on her worst day was preferable.
I find you kind of cute and entertaining at times but let's not get delusions of grandeur.
(Although, I did kinda like the part about me doing you and you doing me twice.)
Boot & Scoot?
Good lord.
Keep practicing, Sweet.
:)
.
It's also the right thing to do.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, we are doomed to do it.
DeleteLove fate, embrace it!
Amor fatty or whatever.
And deserve to be doomed to do it, too.
DeleteFuck You Fudd. Farmers, Populists and Libertarians are at their core are anarchists to a large degree, which is why you can’t graft them successfully onto any party for very long.
ReplyDeleteTheir beliefs only work on paper. In the real world, they fall apart because they rely on absurd presumptions on the how a country with 300 million inhabitants can successfully function.
I agree with you, Jenny. Except about the farmers.
DeleteThey live in a dream world, these Libertarians.
It's wonderful to have a straight talking strong willed woman around here for a change.
Wanna go to Vegas with me?
Fucker Fudd
The truth is these Libertarians couldn't run City water system.
DeleteIt's always just bitch, bitch, bitch.....
Fudd
In your dreams asshole.
DeleteIn my nightmares rather.
DeleteBut it is wonderful having you around.
We are so on the same page, politically.
Beats ethanol!
:)
Here's a sloppy kiss for ya.....sssshhlop!
Fudd
I’m getting ill.
DeleteNot to worry, kiddo, just had flu, tetanus, pneumonia, and shingles shots.
DeleteWho’s the bitch Deuce, where’s the big ass elephant?
ReplyDeleteI prefer red tops to big ass bottoms. Is that a problem?
ReplyDeleteThanks for asking.
ReplyDelete:) Where is the broad that did the smiley faces backwards? (:
ReplyDeleteWHO LOST EGYPT?
ReplyDeleteTo defeat anti-Obama and U.S. feelings growing in Egypt, Obama must embrace the Egyptian army and a secular, military-ruled Egyptian government rather than supporting the Muslim Brotherhood. Otherwise the Russians will be welcome back to Egypt and the U.S. and Israel will lose an important ally.
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/10/who_lost_egypt.html#ixzz2hX7wjnFJ
This is just what I've been thinking of late. Cutting off the aid just pushes Egypt towards the Roosians.
How can this be good?
How could anyone give a fuck?
DeleteSuspending US aid does not push the Egyptians anywhere, dimwit.
DeleteThe Egyptians will be right there, in Egypt, not going any where.
The US Hegemony is paying the Egyptian much more than the US ever contributed, directly.
20AUG2013 as reported at CNN - As for Egypt, our puny "contribution" of $1 billion+/year is far over shadowed by the rich Gulf oil states pumping in over $12 billion!!!
The Saudi are not pushing the Egyptians into the open arms of the Russians.
Grow brain, open your eyes
The debate in the US about the aid to Egypt is a domestic debate, not a foreign policy one.
Egypt is funded, the US & Saudi actions in regards to Libya saw to that.
Egypt' Transitional Government will remain funded.
The rest is Kabuki dancing, ...
How could anyone not give a fuck?
DeleteFudd
Whackadoodle can't think.
DeleteAt least we're not paying them to kill people.
Delete|
ReplyDeleteOctober 12, 2013
Police Video Captures Thug Assaulting Blind Man
Taleeb Starkes
The Germantown section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania has some of the country's best-maintained historic landmarks, districts, cobblestone streets, and buildings from the colonial era. Many of these structures, including the home where George Washington stayed to escape Yellow Fever, remain open to the public. Germantown is also the birthplace of America's anti-slavery movement and home to the first bank of the United States.
What does all this wonderful Germantown history mean to the average Germantown citizen? Nothing. Today's Germantown is a shadow of its former self and has a victimization rate that rivals small cities.
The following story is yet another occurrence that illustrates why today's Germantown desperately needs the German Quakers and Mennonites to return
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/10/police_video_captures_thug_assaulting_blind_man.html#ixzz2hXCimUMI
What is really chilling is the lack of intervention, or even any thought of it. People just walk on by, or watch it happen.
Jungle.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/racist-la-police-dogs-only-bite-latinos-and-africanamericans-8874913.html
ReplyDelete"'Racist' LA police dogs only bite Latinos and African-Americans"
...proving the adage: practice makes perfect
...talking about practice making perfect...
Deletehttp://tbo.com/pinellas-county/juvenile-st-pete-cop-killer-to-be-resentenced-today-20131011/
"Lindsey again sentenced to life in St. Pete officer’s slaying"
Thing about racist dogs, they don't care what you call them.
DeleteCutting off the aid just pushes Egypt towards the Roosians.
ReplyDeleteHow'd that work out for them in 1948, 1956, 1967, and 1973?
Admittedly not so good but why risk it?
DeleteSeems like the risk is all on Cairo's side. This isn't their grandfather's IDF they're up against.
Delete“If you’ve only got a dozen bad enrollments, that’s OK. But what are you going to do when you have 200,000 bad enrollments?” Laszewski says. “The insurance industry is scared to death.”
ReplyDeletehttp://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-10-10/obamacare-the-federal-health-exchanges-tech-problems-hit-insurers
If You Think Enrolling in Obamacare Is Hard
Oh, that magic 7,000,000 enrollment number the administration keeps heralding as an indicator of the ACA's success, well, it's not: that's the number of healthy, young employees necessary to carry the burden of the otherwise uninsurable. If the kids do not enroll, a) the system is toast or b) the already beleaguered will have to pay the freight..
DeleteActually, they need about 30% to be in the 18 - 35 range, and the way it's looking, that's about what they'll get.
DeleteBeing two years away from official AARP-defined geezerhood, I'm so glad the kids helped ram Obamacare through. Now if they would just stay the fuck off my lawn.
DeleteNow, if you happen to get laid off before you're 65 you will still be able to get affordable insurance, and not have to worry about losing everything due to a relapse.
DeleteAnd, yeah, yeah, I know, you're a star - but you never know what can happen in life. (That's why we buy insurance.) :)
I survived two hardcore RIF's in the Clinton 90s that took our base from 3600 folks down to 1200, and that was with just 11 years of Federal service and being a Wage Grade 8, now I'm a GS-11 with almost 30 years for Uncle Sam, that makes me untouchable. A crapload of interns would get axed first, I don't care how big their tits are.
DeleteIt's back with a vengeance: Private debt
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cnbc.com/id/101103819
It's 2007 all over again - shop till you drop.."We have not solved (anything) when it comes to the deleveraging myth," said Michael Pento, president of Pento Portfolio Strategies. "We have learned nothing."
"Through September, high-yield—or junk—bond issuance came in at $378.2 billion...Total investment-grade volume hit $148.1 billion..."
Globally, syndicated marketed loans [derivatives] —put together by multiple parties for a single borrower—hit $2.93 trillion in the first three quarters, a 15 percent annualized gain...High-risk leveraged loans hit a global volume of $1.23 trillion, passing the trillion barrier for the first time since 2007."
.
All told, the total foreign-currency reserves of emerging nations rose from around $700 billion in 2000 to nearly $7 trillion in 2012.
DeleteMeanwhile, several export powerhouses in the developed world also piled up more cash.
Japan's reserves tripled during the first decade of the 21 century, to over $1 trillion.
Germany's reserves also almost tripled, as did South Korea's.
What's more, many of those nations getting richer fast were just as bad as China at consuming their new wealth.
As a practical necessity, most of this money went looking for decent returns at relatively low risk of loss in -- guess where?
The United States and certain nations of Western Europe, with a seemingly limitless appetite for incurring debt of every kind -- public, private and corporate.
....
. Thanks to George W. Bush's fiscal plan of cutting taxes while waging two wars and expanding Medicare, the federal government developed massive borrowing needs during the same period in which China and other emerging countries were piling up record amounts of cash.
But while America's borrowing from China has gotten all the attention, many other foreign countries rolling in reserves also loaded up on Treasuries. Brazil's holdings soared from $12 billion in 2002 to over $226 billion a decade later. And when Russia started finding itself with piles of excess wealth, it too started bankrolling America's deficit spending to the tune of billions of dollars a year, buying over $150 billion in U. S. securities by 2010. Japan kept buying Treasuries, too, as it had for years, tripling its holdings to over $1 trillion over the past decade.
American state and local governments took advantage of cheap money as well, borrowing more than $1 trillion between 2000 and 2008. Twenty-two state and local government leaders thus avoided unpopular tax increases while providing public services at an often expanding rate. Recent municipal bankruptcies in cities such as Stockton and San Bernardino, California, are the aftermath of such practices.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/businessdesk/2013/09/a-supply-side-nightmare-scenar.html
It is truly remarkable just how quickly a growing pile of money -- whether owned by sovereign funds, Indian billionaires, union pensions, Saudi sheiks, or Chinese banks holding middle-class people's savings -- hooked up with legions of creative MBAs in places like New York and London. According to estimates by the Financial Stability Board, total worldwide assets in the shadow banking system grew from $26 trillion in 2002 to $62 trillion in 2007.
DeleteThe age of oversupply created a lot of easy money for people to play with, too often with very little oversight. Bad things inevitably happened. The reckless overleveraging of a top Wall Street firm like Lehman Brothers, which collapsed with startling speed in the financial crisis, would not have been possible in a world where money was less plentiful and more costly.
It would be nice to think that such bad behavior will never happen again. In fact, though, all signs point to a future in which capital will remain cheap and regulators will struggle to impose oversight in the face of constant attack by the financial industry and its powerful political allies.
the age of oversupply hasn't ended -- and won't anytime soon.
DeleteAbundant labor, excess capital, and cheap money are here to stay.
The expanding savings accounts of an exploding middle class represent only one reason, among others, that cheap money is going to keep flowing. Exports are another, as in the past. In fact, in the five years since the financial crisis, the foreign-currency reserve holdings of emerging countries have more than doubled, according to the IMF.
Via extraordinary monetary-easing measures, the developed world's central banks have turned trillions of dollars of financial investments into so much cash that it is metaphorically bulging out of the pockets of banks and other investors. Yet it is not getting lent and it is not getting invested in new capacity. Why?
In a nutshell, the reason that the enormous ocean of liquidity is not being deployed is that there is so much global supply and excess capacity of labor, plants, equipment, and goods and services relative to present demand that there is little reason for private-sector investment in the development of additional capacity to produce additional supply.
What we have on our hands is a supply-side nightmare scenario.
Simplified version: The Plutocrats have rounded up all of the money.
DeleteThe factories are more, and more automated, and the demand for labor is down. Commerce converges on cheap foreign labor, driving down wages, and raising unemployment in the U.S.
DeletePoor folks = weak demand.
Thus, Oversupply.
Up to this point in history, the main driver bringing the U.S. out of recession has been small business formation. This is normally accomplished by a Middle Class family borrowing money on their Home, and starting said small business.
DeleteObviously, that isn't happening much This time. Not with so many (most?) mortgages underwater. As a grizzled old farmer once told me, "It doesn't matter how cheap the money is, if the bank ain't lending."
So you're saying we're still in a recession. Who's GDP figures are you using to make that claim? In the past 12 months a big jump in home values has pulled 3.2 million homeowners above water on their mortgages.
DeleteSimplified version: The Plutocrats have rounded up all of the money
DeleteThey've rounded up all the pretty little markers that are used to exchange wealth in lieu of barter. They've not rounded up any wealth, any more than Obama can create wealth by showing us a "trillion dollar coin" with an intrinsic value in zinc and copper of 1.4 cents.
You're right; technically we're Not still in recession. However, if you look at certain other metrics (median income comes to mind) it doesn't look too sporty. And, then, this nonsense that's going on right now isn't going to help a hell of a lot, either.
DeleteI've said, before, that I'm pretty pessimistic about the next 10 or 20 years.
Nah, it is another appraisal ruse, to increase the prices of the limited number of homes on the market, that can be purhcased by the even fewer that can qualify for loans.
DeleteThose recent deals that I am aware of, talked about with local realtors, most all of the transactions were either seller carrybacks or paid for in cash. They tell me less than 40% of the sales are financed through lenders.
But they CAN create a $ ..Trillion Dollars ...$
Deleteand not even bother to mint the coin.
Wake me up when they can run off a trillion dollars of Android slates on a 3D printer.
DeleteAs it was in Iraq, let's hope it is in Afghanistan!
ReplyDeleteThe Australian -
THE issue of US troop immunity is proving a major sticking point in talks on the future of American forces in Afghanistan. US Secretary of State John Kerry extended his stay in Kabul to try to thrash out a long-delayed security pact....
45 minutes to ass kicking time
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile there's always Taylor Swift and Mr Rucker to listen to....
DeleteAnd next week we get ass kicked by Ol' Miss.
DeleteJudges in Europe may OK on demand suicide for any reason -
ReplyDeletehttp://www.wnd.com/2013/10/judges-on-track-to-legalize-suicide-on-demand/
Chose carefully. Like suicide bombing, you can only do this once in each lifetime.
We have doctor-assisted suicide in WA along with legal grass and marriage equality for gays and lesbians, and God hasn't made Mt Rainier erupt and bury the Seattle metro area with a lahar yet.
DeleteThis woman appears to be perfectly healthy.
DeletePermanent solution to a temporary problem.
What;s a lahar? Typo, or word I've not heard for lava/flood?
Too lazy too look it up.
Don't discount the Big One either.
Jenny would say you're doomed and deserve to be doomed.
I disagree, though.
lavahotash - r?
DeleteThere's a fly in here I thought I got late last night but he must be RaidResistant.
Hopefully the last one of the year.
A lahar is when those big glaciers you see up on Mt Rainier's shoulders melt off in about five seconds and come crashing down a valley like the Carbon River, where there's a town like Orting crammed with all those big carbon copy homes you've seen go up lately that are so close together you have to turn sideways to get into your own backyard, the ones with three-car garages, one SUV for dad, one for mom, one for junior. All those SUVs use a two-lane road to get out of town to go to Tacoma or Bellevue or Seattle to work. Come lahar time, and a six-hundred foot tall wall of mud and pumice and uprooted trees, they'll be taking that same road. All at the same time. And I'll be sitting up here on Kent's west hill looking down at them and laughing, at least until I try to get over the Puyallup River bridge in Tacoma to go to work.
DeleteThanks.
DeleteI'd think Tacoma might be in more peril than Seattle.
You're across the Sound though so what you worry?
Game is starting......these guys sound big.....Arkansas Stare Wolves, I think he said....
Misread that......thought you were across the Sound......you've moved?
DeleteSince 1997 we've been living in King County. Drive to Tacoma, ride a vanpool to Keyport.
Delete
ReplyDeleteOctober 12, 2013
Dangerous Times: Obama Bows to the Mullahs
By James Lewis
It looks like the fix is in. The mullahs will certainly get their nukes and ICBMs, and neither Israel nor the Saudis (who are scared to death of the mullahs) will rely on American protection as long as Obama is in office. Obama just put out the welcome mat for Mullah Rouhani, the killer of 245 U.S. Marines in Beirut in 1984, and the ultraleft UK Guardian just claimed that its readers voted for Great Humanitarian Rouhani to be the next winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. The post-Stalinist Guardian is not known for telling the truth too often, and nobody knows if that "survey" is real or not. But the Guardian and the BBC are the two biggest hard-left organs of propaganda in Europe, and they have long promoted a kind of Hitler-Stalin Pact between European socialists in the EU and radical Muslims of both stripes in the Middle East. These are politically powerful signals, and they will be read as such around the world.
Here is the way the dominos seem to be falling: We are going back to a binary power split between Russia and the United States, with China dominating Asia. Our former allies like Israel and the Saudis are quickly moving away from us and seeking more trustworthy allies, notably Russia, as this column has pointed out before. Putin successfully protected his ally Assad in Syria against a pathetic Obama, who has systematically sabotaged the Pax Americana of the last seven decades. The U.S. only needed to betray a few allies (like Poland on anti-missile defense and Israel against Iran) to spur on our other allies to get the idea. Japan and South Korea may be drawn to China, and Japan is now said to be developing its own nuclear weapons, seventy years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Europeans (who have lost the will to defend themselves) are looking to Russia as well, which is acting like the old Tsarist empire, promising to protect Western civilization against the barbarian hordes of imperial Islam. Vladimir Putin visited Jerusalem last year and sat down to talk with the Israeli Cabinet. He also prayed at a Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where the Russian Orthodox Church has long staked its own claim. Putin says he is a Christian, and is often shown in photos with the ancient Patriarch of Moscow, the equivalent of the Catholic Pope.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/10/dangerous_times_obama_bows_to_the_mullahs.html
What me worry?
Gosh, looks like we're going to have to get our oil the way China and Japan and Europe do it, with contracts.
DeleteWhich is of course, the way we actually do it now.
DeleteWe should have taken a bunch from Iraq to pay for things but didn't.
Yep, should have just flat stolen all the oil in Iraq from the Iraqis, just like the Israeli stole the land in Jerusalem!
DeleteThere were lessons we should have learned from the Zionists, but we aren't that smart.
Naw, they owed us. We're too honest.
DeleteAnd the bs about Jerusalem has already been answered.
Chill, listen to a football game or somethin'.
"but we aren't that smart"
DeleteYou're right, you're not,
" just like the Israeli stole the land in Jerusalem!"
DeleteAmazing how those crafty Jews placed the temple there 2600 years ago KNOWIng that they would have to have some bogus claim to the land...
Meanwhile, America claims Manhattan was purchased for some glass beads...
Delete7 minutes till game time!
ReplyDeletelater
Idaho run five plays, punts, Arkansas State Red Wolves score in two plays.
Deleteheh, Great Start!
Wife says 47 of 48 NFL player brains autopsied in study showed signs of brain damage.
DeleteDing, ding, ding........Ark State 14 - Idaho 0.....4 plays
DeleteRight on schedule so far....
It was 7 plays not 4, fans.
DeleteSorry.
Ark State 17 Idaho 7
DeleteArk State plagued by penalties.
Ark State 24 Idaho 7
DeleteHalf time score, Vandal fans, nationally and internationally, is:
DeleteArkansas State 24
Idaho 7
Ah, this is more like it then....Ark State 31 - Idaho 7
DeleteI've had literally hundreds of emails, snail mails, texts, from Vandal fans around the world thanking me for my efforts. Even two from China, some from India, former students, Africa, Asia, Europe, Russia, big time from the Scandinavian countries.
Idaho is 0 - 9 on third down conversions.
Just got their first first down on 3rd and five.
DeleteWow, 2nd 3rd down conversion all the way down to the 14 yard line!
Delete3rd and seven from the eleven...........incomplete.....
Delete7.09 to go in the third, Ark State 31 - Idaho 10
DeleteIdaho's Tray Williams runs an interception back for a touchdown!!!!
DeleteAlas, blocking foul on Idaho on the run back, but the interception holds.
3rd and six - 2-11 on third down conversions.......runs to the 12!!!! First Down!!!
DeleteLoss of seven yards, my money says they will get a field goal, no touchdown.
DeleteThird and twelve......TOUCHDOWN VANDALS!!!!!!
DeleteWhoooooeeeeeee
Ark St. 31
Idaho 17
Red Wolves must kick.
DeleteVandal defense stiffens like a bridegroom in a bride here in the second half, world wide Vandal fans.
My Lord, 41 yard run down to the 34.
DeleteQuarterback keeper down to 18.
DeleteIn the 'red zone' this means another Red Zone ad.
Time out.
How the Fuck can an English Major not know Lahar from Shinola?
Delete...oh, I forgot:
The Farmer Fudd Factor.
Too many years in a John Deere cage match w/existential boredom.
Compounded by Vandal Envy.
2nd and goal from the 1 yard line......3rd and goal from the 1.......SCORE!!!!!
DeleteThis is turning, totally unexpectedly, into a decent game.
Ark State 31
Idaho 24
Many of the fans have already left. To do what? There is nothing else to do than watch football in the fall in all of Arkansas.