Category: News

Of all the excuses ladled out for the Obama administration’s shredding of the Fourth Amendment while assaulting press freedom and prosecuting “national security” whistleblowers, none is more pernicious than the claim that technology is responsible.

At first glance, the explanation might seem to make sense. After all, the capacities of digital tech have become truly awesome. It’s easy to finger “technology” as the driver of government policies, as if the president at the wheel has little choice but to follow the technological routes that have opened up for Big Brother.

Now comes New York Times reporter Charlie Savage, telling listeners and viewers of a Democracy Now interview that the surveillance state is largely a matter of technology: “It’s just the way it is in the 21st century.”

That’s a great way to depoliticize a crucial subject – downplaying the major dynamics of the political economy, anti-democratic power and top-down choices – letting leaders off the hook, as if sophistication calls for understanding that government is to be regulated by high-tech forces rather than the other way around.

In effect, the message is that – if you don’t like mass surveillance and draconian measures to intimidate whistleblowers as well as journalists – your beef is really with technology, and good luck with pushing back against that. Get it? The fault, dear citizen, is not in our political stars but in digital tech.

Continue reading “The Digital Dog Ate Our Civil-Liberties Homework: ‘It’s Just the Way It Is’”

1. Sound Moral Ideas:

Rational arguments for peaceful behavior in specific situations. Want to hear my rational argument against the war on terror? Read here. In order to form an opinion on any one particular issue it is useful to have a rational moral framework from which to start. Although I am of the opinion that morality, like all human behavior, is based on subjective value judgments, it is my belief that people of faith and those of secular morality can more or less get behind the following two concepts:

• The Non-Aggression Principle: I like to call this rule the “silver” rule after it’s more popularized cousin the “golden” rule. Contrary to the golden rule, however, the silver rule does not tell you what to do. It simply tells you what NOT to do. What is the rule, you ask? “Do not initiate violence against another person or their justly acquired property.” This is synonymous with saying: “don’t murder, don’t steal, and don’t commit fraud.” Without getting nuanced in theory I think it’s fair to say that most people recognize the moral legitimacy of this concept and generally behave accordingly in their personal lives.
• The Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” This is a cult classic for a good reason: it invokes the moral supremacy of what Mohatma Gandhi termed “the still voice within.” The thing that in my opinion is most important to understand about the golden rule is that it is non-coercive and individual. Doing what you believe to be the right thing does not mean coercing others to do what you think to be the right thing. After all, you wouldn’t want others to impose their version of “right” on you by force. There is a big difference between acting on conscience and mandating behavior for others. That is also why Gandhi told us to “be the change you want to see in the world.” Remember that we all have our own conscience, our own experiences, and our own understanding of the world. We will not always see eye-to-eye with one another. It is in these situations where I believe we should all always act on our conscience (follow the “golden” rule) so long as it is not expanding outside the framework of the non-aggression principle (the “silver” rule).

2. A Decrease in Attitudes That Tolerate or Glorify Violence:

Harvard University psychologist Steven Pinker points out in an essay entitled The History of Violence that “the decline of violent behavior has been paralleled by a decline in attitudes that tolerate or glorify violence, and often the attitudes are in the lead.”

Continue reading “Seven Strategies for Less War”

Video Conference: Tuesday, November 10, 2pm EST (11am PST)

• Robert Scheer: Editor-In-Chief of Truthdig & Professor at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication
• Gareth Porter: Independent Investigative Journalist & Historian
• Heather Hurlburt: Director of New Models of Policy Change at New America
• Robert Naiman: Policy Director at Just Foreign Policy
• Charles Knight: Senior Fellow at Center for International Policy & Co-Founder of Project on Defense Alternatives
• Peter Leyden: Founder of Reinvent

What are America’s core national security interests, and what are the real security threats we face in coming decades?

As we move into an era of increasing global integration and challenges that defy national borders, it may be time to reevaluate the ways we determine our national security priorities and protect our interests abroad. This roundtable will step back, look to the future, and talk about about the big picture. How should we adjust our foreign policies now to fit the new realities going forward?

Policing the world is expensive, ineffective, and undercuts America’s ability to deal with our real security needs. Can America become more humble in its foreign policy aspirations? How can we build a more effective foreign policy and move away from a foreign policy based on military interventions and support for tyrannical regimes? How do we mobilize an American public that’s tired of expensive, counterproductive wars but still wants to feel secure?

What would a foreign policy that emphasizes cooperation and collective action look like? In this roundtable, our participants will think critically about reimagining our foreign policy goals.

Tune in here on Tuesday, November 10, 2pm EST (11am PST).

The same ridiculed and useless techniques used by the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) to not find terrorists at America’s airports are now being used at Orlando theme parks, including Disney World, Sea World, and Busch Gardens, to not find terrorists.

A Billion Dollars Hits the SPOT

The Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques, or SPOT, program is TSA’s one billion dollar “behavioral detection” scheme. SPOT requires TSA staff to be on the lookout for indicators, “tells” to you poker players out there, that give away bad guys. Some of the actual indicators are listed on the graphic, above.

There are actually 92 individual indicators (terrorists are sneaky!), divided into various categories with a point score assigned to each. Those categories include a preliminary “observation and behavior analysis.” Those passengers pulled over for additional inspection are scored based on two more categories: whether they have “unusual items,” like almanacs and “numerous prepaid calling cards or cell phones,” and a final category for “signs of deception,” which include “covers mouth with hand when speaking” and “fast eye blink rate.”

Continue reading “TSA-Trained Disney World in Goofy ‘Terrorist Detection’ Methods”

As the US State Department goes around the world lecturing other countries about how they must adhere to the rule of law, the White House again proves it is one of the most lawless entities on earth. The Constitution is clear; the War Powers Resolution is clear: the president is not allowed to commit the US military to combat without a Congressional declaration or at least authorization. Yet the president has been bombing Syria for a year and now is sending in US ground troops with no legal authority to do so. Congress is the president’s partner in crime and we are the victims – today on the Liberty Report:

Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.