"Just For Billionaires" U.S. Government Charges Bernie Sanders "Socialist" Senator Challenging Hillary Clinton For Democratic Presidential Nomination

     Thursday, 30 April 2015, WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) the nation's only Independent Party senator representing Vermont a self-described "socialist" and "one of the most outspoken liberals in Congress" Wednesday told U.S. media that he today will formally announce his bid for the 2016 Democratic Presidential nomination asserting that "voters want a fundamental change so that the government works for ordinary Americans and not just billionaires".

     Senator Sanders acknowledged that he will be "out-spent" and does not have the name recognition of presumed Democratic front-runner former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton but nevertheless believes he can prevail in the race by "attracting small contributions from millions of Americans" and mobilizing the young and other committed volunteers to wage a nationwide campaign in which Sanders says he is "running in this election to win".

     Readers interested in more information about the above can go to any or all of the below links.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/30/us/politics/bernie-sanders-campaign-for-president.html?ref=politics

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2015/04/29/this-guy-is-thrilled-bernie-sanders-is-officially-running-for-president/?tid=hpModule_ba0d4c2a-86a2-11e2-9d71-f0feafdd1394&hpid=z11

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/30/us-usa-election-sanders-idUSKBN0NL00J20150430?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews

Copyright 2015 Martin P. All World Rights Expressly Reserved

DEA Poison Sprays Colombia Farms Monsanto Roundup Glyphosate WHO Probable Carcinogen Begged To Stop By Health Ministry Officials, Farmers, Environmentalists Yet Another Misguided Signature DEA Disaster? Probably

     Wednesday, 29 April 2015, WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Colombian Health Ministry has urged a halt to an "American-funded campaign to eradicate crops of coca, the plant used to make cocaine" which has all the markings of yet another disastrous misguided failed U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) campaign to doubtless haphazardly spray Colombia and its farms and people against its will with the "herbicide" poison glyphosate which the World Health Organization (WHO) belatedly finally has admitted "probably causes cancer in people" and is the active ingredient in Roundup therefore "the herbicide that commits homicide" which apparently kills crops as well as weeds and people made by arguably the world's most hated company Monsanto itself malignant in its relentless campaign to profit by spraying the earth's food supply with carcinogenic poison while at the same time mutating the genes of the world's food sources with "genetically modified organisms" aka "genetically mutated organisms" (GMO's) out of the public eye wherever possible in an apparent demented doomsday campaign to kill the planet off at any expense.
     The Ninth Amendment without editorial comment emphasizes to readers that its Bogota bureau has not yet been able to confirm that this "American-funded campaign" is being undertaken by the DEA but simply observes that it might as well be given the DEA's history of so many other disastrously failed initiatives and policies long extending to include destroying the world's natural environment stretching at least back to the spraying of paraquat over Mexico which as all are aware turned out very well for the DEA's party hosts the drug cartels but no so much so for the rest of the world. Readers interested in more details can go to the link to the article below which itself contains links to information about Colombia, the WHO and the details of its agency's finding that glyphosate "probably causes cancer in people".

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/29/world/americas/colombia-officials-urge-end-to-herbicides-use-on-coca.html?ref=todayspaper

Copyright 2015 Martin P. All World Rights Expressly Reserved

War Room Cybersecurity And Communications US National Integration Center

The National Cybersecurity And Communications Integration Center In Arlington, Virginia

Copyright 2015 Martin P. All World Rights Expressly Reserved (no claim photo credit Evan Vucci /Associated Press)

N.Y. Times Endorses Cyberwarfare Pentagon New Strategy Signaling China, Russia, Iran, North Korea That Despite Cybermilitarization Concerns U.S. Is Prepared To Retaliate Against Cyberattacks With Cyberwarfare Capability

     Tuesday, 28 April 2015, NEW YORK, NY - The New York Times entire editorial board today endorses in the face of a "top national security threat" the Pentagon's newly released 33-page cybersecurity strategy (the "Strategy") in the absence of any meaningful comprehensive action by the Republican-controlled Congress on which President Obama has "given up" to address what U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter last week warned were cyberthreats "increasing in severity and sophistication".
     Some of the most notable recent cyberintrusions have been made by Russia into the Pentagon, State Department and White House as well as by North Korea in its 2014 corporate attack on Sony Pictures. A Russian White House attack last year although reportedly "only" into the White House unclassified computer system collected data including President Obama's email correspondence and in fact was "more intrusive and worrisome" than has been publicly acknowledged serving as a "chilling example" of the potential for deep penetration by cyberadversaries into government computers.  
     The Strategy in addition to being intended to send a warning directly to demonstrated cyberadversaries China, Russia, Iran and North Korea also lays out a broad framework for a comprehensive cyberdefense system responding to cyberthreats and cyberattacks on a scaled basis first by private business alone, in more serious cases with government assistance to private businesses from the Department of Homeland Security, in more serious cases yet by existing network defenses and law enforcement agencies such as the F.B.I. and finally in the most serious cases under order of the President the U.S. military could conduct operations to counter and presumably launch full U.S. cybersecurity retaliatory attacks to cause serious disruption, damage and destruction to adversaries' cybercapabilities with weapons now being developed in response to an "imminent or threatened attack against the U.S. homeland or U.S. interests in cyberspace".
     Threats of "cybermilitarization" as raised here in recent previous posts including the potential for further serious unacceptable unconstitutional threats to the American people's privacy rights remain a concern although unlike the Congressional "cybersecurity" bill reported on recently here which on its face appeared to focus most on immunizing private business from liability the Strategy announced by the Pentagon apparently does not address that subject with its focus as expected and appropriate being directly on United States national cybersecurity interests. How "cybermilitarization" and concomitant privacy invasion concerns are addressed should be scrutinized as more particulars of the Strategy develop the public release of which is noted to be a belated welcome step toward government "transparency" in this critical area of the greatest importance to business and the public such that these and other concerns must be meaningfully addressed in the Strategy's implementation.
     The Strategy's framework as solidified must address the coordination and various federal entities with current U.S. cybersecurity responsibilities including the National Security Agency, the Department of Homeland Security, the Central Intelligence Agency, the F.B.I. and the Pentagon. Considering the prominence given it with a photograph atop the below linked article and the sole mention of a federal agency in the recently proposed Congressional "cybersecuirty" bill being to it as well it would appear that significant cybersecurity information and response coordination responsibilities will fall with the previously obscure National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center in Arlington, Virginia.
     In addition to the great number of cybersecurity workers currently employed by the government the Strategy is expected  in coming years to increase military cybersecurity employment to 6,200 workers and cost billions of dollars annually. Readers interested in more information can go to the below link which also includes in it a direct link to the text of the 33-page Strategy publicly released by the Pentagon.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/28/opinion/preparing-for-warfare-in-cyberspace.html

Copyright 2015 Martin P. All World Rights Expressly Reserved

C.I.A. Drone Kills Obama Admits Include Aid Workers In "Signature Strike" Exposes Lie Of "Near Certainty" Standard Not To Kill Civilians UPDATE 2

     Tuesday, 28 April 2015, WASHINGTON, D.C. - President Barack Obama who belatedly in 2013 publicly assured a "near certainty" standard to Americans and the world that he would authorize unmanned armed U.S. drones to launch deadly attacks against human targets only when specific individuals had been positively identified to a "near certainty" last week inherently admitted that his promised standard long has been an unacknowledged government lie as the President for the first time confirmed only in the face of irrefutable evidence of CIA accidental drone kills in the course of a so-called "signature strike" resulting in U.S. drone civilian aid worker kills three months earlier in January 2015 in Pakistan of Al Qaeda hostage civilian aid workers American Warren Weinstein and Italian Giovanni lo Porto.
     C.I.A. Counterterrorism Center chief Michael D'Andrea aka "the Wolf" aka "Mike" aka "Roger" among his multitude of torture and other atrocities also is singularly personally responsible for an unrevealed (and/or unknown) enormous number of C.I.A. drone mass murders. Interested readers will find more information in the most recently added New York Times article at the last link below.
     As is apparent from the earlier New York Times article linked to below even at the time of his 2013 drone kill announcement President Obama in assuring that so-called "signature strikes" which the CIA claims are based on "patterns of behavior rather than intelligence about specific people" would continue through 2014 obviously was aware that this was at direct odds with the standard the he at the same time was articulating to the American people and effectively the world. In any case on the day of last week's Obama announcement of the civilian aid worker drone kills in January 2015 "several government officials" took the rare opportunity given no other choice to disingenuously exploit the trademark Obama administration "appearance" of candor and transparency by making the self-evident acknowledgement that Obama's 2013 assurance of ending such "signature strikes" by 2014 had "not been enforced".
     Meanwhile the CIA gave its own assurance that any drone strike kill even the not really terminated as promised "signature strikes" such as that announced by Obama last week where specific individuals admittedly were not identified curiously somehow also was based on a "near certainty" standard while at the same time officials implied that the CIA might more accurately be undertaking such drone strike kills actually based on their seemingly looser assessment made with "high confidence" a not altogether reassuring threshold especially as historically applied by the CIA before setting in motion operations from which typically there is no point of return.
     The total number of all innocents killed by all U.S. drone strikes ever worldwide is believed to be both largely unknown to the United States and in any case whatever information is available officially is a closely deeply guarded secret despite the alleged "transparency" (when convenient or otherwise concerning the undeniable) of the Obama administration but presumably numbers at least in the thousands if not more of innocent civilian drone kills and massacres apart from unreported kills from "friendly fire" as it were.
     In any case for interested readers the proliferation of drone exports recently approved by the Obama administration reportedly under armament industry pressure such as that of Predator manufacturer General Atomics given increasing foreign competition in the expanding drone export market as well as the recent CIA reorganization including the alleged repositioning of the longtime CIA Counter-Terrorism Center chief "the Wolf" aka "Mike" known as "Roger" or vice versa long directly responsible for authorizing great numbers of his favored CIA "signature strikes" as well as his responsibility for the implementation of CIA torture practices among other possibly tarnishing job responsibilities on his curriculum vitae making his future placement potentially problematic have been the subject of earlier posts here.
     Readers interested in more information on the above can go to the first link below including a video of last week's President Obama aid worker drone strike kill confession. The below first link in addition to reporting Pakistan's objection to these U.S. drone strike kills in Pakistan also includes a table of over 400 known U.S. unauthorized drone strikes since 2004 in Pakistan actually showing a sharp spike in 2015 Pakistan drone strikes including continuing "signature strikes" to all of which Pakistan long has objected including with the filing of previously reported lawsuits against the United States.
     [UPDATE] For readers interested in more information about U.S. drone strike killings of innocent civilians from the perspective of those on the ground along with estimated numbers of innocent civilians killed in Pakistan tribal regions alone by U.S. drone strike killings can go to the second link below to the Foreign Policy online magazine article "A Drone Killed My Friend, Warren Weinstein" which also includes information on the deadly aftermath for polio and other vaccine health aid workers trying to administer vaccines in Pakistan who now in addition to existing suspicions further are thought to be spies since the CIA's failed attempt to obtain DNA samples from the family of Osama bin Laden at his Abbottabad, Pakistan compound in a fake "polio vaccine drive" program devised and supported by the CIA.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/24/world/asia/fatal-blunder-was-apparent-in-aftermath-of-drone-strike-in-pakistan.html

http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/04/30/a-drone-killed-my-friend-warren-weinstein/?utm_content=buffer841b4&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/26/us/politics/deep-support-in-washington-for-cias-drone-missions.html

Copyright 2015 Martin P. All World Rights Expressly Reserved

UPDATED: Disgraced CIA "Love Note" Director Sentenced Former Four-Star General Petraeus Wrist Slapped For "Exceptionally Grave" National Security Breaches Raising Issue Of Impact If Edward J. Snowden Faces Prosecution

     Monday, 27 April 2015, NORFOK, VA - Former CIA Director previously Four-Star General David Petraeus who was removed as CIA chief by "resignation" tendered to President Obama three days after Obama's 2012 re-election following an F.B.I. what originated as a cyberstalking investigation during which Petraeus lied to F.B.I. agents revealed that Petraeus was using his official CIA computer apparently protected with a password equivalent to the name of his family pet to communicate via a "drafts" folder in his e-mail account love notes to his biographer cum mistress Patricia Broadwell which included classified "top-secret" CIA materials in addition to Petraeus physically giving Broadwell and recording conversations with her about "black notebooks that contained sensitive information about official meetings, war strategy and intelligence capabilities" last week after admitting to numerous crimes which presumably might have landed him life in prison was handed a misdemeanor probation sentence and fine for disclosing "classified information".
     The Justice Department said the black notebooks Petraeus gave his biographer cum lover Broadwell contained "top-secret information" and if disclosed could cause "exceptionally grave" damage to national security which information contained the code words for secret intelligence programs in addition to compromising the identities of covert officers and also war strategies and deliberative discussions with the National Security Council. When discussing and later handing over the books to his biographer-lover Broadwell then CIA Director Petraeus emphasized to Broadwell they were "highly classified". F.B.I. agents in 2013 found the top-secret notebooks and information in an unlocked drawer in Petraeus' home study.
     When Petraues last week was handed the misdemeanor plea sentence it was so laughably light that in addition to being a "disappointing one to F.B.I. agents" including for not the least of which having been lied to to obstruct their investigation even federal Federal Magistrate Judge David Keesler while sentencing Petraeus to hypocrite Attorney General's Holder's parting gift of no prison time but just two years probation felt required at the very least to more than double Petraeus' plea fine to $100,000 reportedly without elaborating beyond that it was "necessary because of the seriousness of the offense" after earlier in the hearing none of the lawyers present could provide any rational basis whatsoever to the Court for Petraeus' proposed original $40,000 plea fine.
     Perhaps most notably in Petraeus' military career he served as Commander of the Central Command (USCENTCOM) including overseeing the theaters of operations if Aghanistan and the Middle East. Petraeus later took the apparent step down to command U.S. and ISAF forces in Afghanistan to replace General Stanley McChrystal who in 2010 abruptly was recalled from his command by President Obama who accepted his resignation after the publication by Rolling Stone magazine of reporter Michael Hastings' article in which General McChrystal and top aides were quoted as repeatedly strongly disrespecting and expressing a lack of confidence in their Commander-In-Chief Obama and other administration officials as has been reported in previous posts here.
     Reporter Michael Hastings later was killed in June 2013 under highly suspicious circumstances in a single car accident involving the explosion of his new Mercedes one week before Rolling Stone was to publish a Michael Hastings article on CIA murderer Director John Brennan which article Rolling Stone said it nevertheless was going forward with publishing but never in fact did. The death of Michael Hastings also has been covered in previous posts here including a video captured of Mr. Hastings' car inexplicably travelling at great speed through a downtown business district other than under alleged remote "cyber control" before equally otherwise inexplicably swerving directly toward a tree and appearing clearly to explode in a tremendous fireball before actual contact with the tree killing Hastings instantly.
     Petraeus reputedly at least according to The Washington Post "one of the greatest military minds of his generation" apparently failed for an extended period to apply that greatest of minds to national intelligence and security matters. Although General Petraeus by stock mainstream media accounts served the United States with distinction throughout his military career on further (not too deep) investigation starting for example with the linked to below Wikekpedia article especially in the section "Criticism After 2012 Scandal" it is apparent that serious questions as to his integrity including regarding his receipt of various military medals and honors since have been raised by others including other military officers with whom Petraeus has served. Petraeus formerly was "a vocal advocate" in cases of others besides himself being prosecuted and meted out tough punishments for disclosing "classified" information which punishments those others have received including as reported previously here.

     Readers interested in more information about the above can go to any of the news links below and/or to the below linked Wikepedia article referenced above for more biographical information about Petraeus and his military career as well as more recent concerns and controversies that have been raised in the past few years about Petraeus' military career.
     [UPDATE] The extreme leniency of the sentence of Petraeus has raised obvious speculation about what the consequences Mr. Edward J. Snowden according to his attorney currently under investigation by the Department of Justice may face if and when tried for the alleged disclosure of national security secrets to the press concerning the N.S.A. unconstitutional domestic mass surveillance and metadata collection practices which additionally unlike Petraeus' disclosures have inarguably not only had great positive value in fueling a more (or at all) informed most important national debate which may not otherwise even have existed and which undoubtedly has influenced federal judges in decisions especially regarding citizens' technology privacy issues and most significantly have been vital indeed imperative in greatly informing the current national debate at the highest levels of all three branches of government at a time of decision-making of paramount importance because of Snowden's disclosures' undeniable impact on the judiciary, executive policy and decision-makers, and lawmakers in their assessment and actions taken regarding provisions of the so-called "Patriot Act" set to expire and potential legislation such as the "Freedom Act" as well as possibly other legislation attempting to deal in a now greatly more informed governmental discourse rooted in the tensions of the realities of potentialities of modern technology weighed against the enduring and essential values upon which this country has been rooted and relied for its innate security of continuity and endurance for nearly two and one half centuries.
     The uncertainties and concerns regarding iniquities in Mr. Snowden's plight in light of former General Petraeus' sentencing and its possible impact on Mr. Snowden is addressed in a Foreign Policy article added by his attorney added as a link below both of which matters further are related to the closely watched case of convicted former CIA officer Jeffrey A. Sterling originally scheduled for sentencing on what potentially quite fortunately for Sterling turned out to be the day after Petraeus shockingly received just probation and a fine for "gravely" compromising and endangering national security with Sterling's sentencing for espionage for a leak to New York Times reporter now continued to a Monday, 11 May 2015 hearing for which referenced which article interested readers can go to the final link added below. Mr. Snowden currently is living in exile in Russia with any communication with U.S. officials regarding the consequences of his return to the U.S. currently unknown. Readers interested in Mr. Sterling's case in addition to referring to the earlier post in the Ninth Amendment with link can go to the fourth link added below. Readers interested in the above-referenced article by the attorney for Mr. Snowden and several other alleged federal whistle-blowers can go to the fifth link added below.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/petraeus-set-to-plead-guilty-to-mishandling-classified-materials/2015/04/22/3e6dbf20-e8f5-11e4-aae1-d642717d8afa_story.html?hpid=z2

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/23/us-usa-petraeus-idUSKBN0NE15520150423?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/24/us/david-petraeus-to-be-sentenced-in-leak-investigation.html?_r=0

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Petraeus

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/federal-prosecutors-urge-severe-sentence-for-ex-cia-agent-in-leak-case/2015/04/21/4c8d1f5e-c001-4757-9b2a-50adf23b8d3c_story.html

https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/03/04/petraeus-snowden-and-the-department-of-two-tiered-justice/

Copyright 2015 Martin P. All World Rights Expressly Reserved

Airliner Hacker Hysteria Years-Old Story Planted By FBI Site "Airline Notice" On Day Of Expected Congress Cybersecurity Vote For Internet Militarization

     Thursday, 23 April 2015, WASHINGTON, D.C. - It comes as no surprise to the Ninth Amendment and readers of its recent posts which include the "Internet 'Militarization' Threat" post here of last Sunday, 19 April 2015 that the U.S. Government right on schedule yesterday on the expected day of the full Congressional House on the so-called "cybersecurity" bill vote eagerly awaited by corporate U.S. business to be "immunized" and the U.S. civilian and military "intelligence" community potentially greatly (legally) to expand its surveillance of and amassing of untold further amounts of private consumer information already largely compromised as revealed by Edward Snowden and others as to the NSA, took the occasion to fan public hysteria over alleged "cyberthreats" including the apparently recently coined "cyberjihad" most directly through the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) yesterday posting on the FBI's previously unknown "private airliner notification" feature of its FBI website nevertheless available for all to see and dutifully picked up by the media as in the BBC Technology News article linked to below a warning that airliner onboard wi-fi systems "might theoretically" be compromised by a hacker. This is by no means even remotely breaking but more along the lines of archival "news" if that noun even is appropriate.

     Any report of a notice from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) which regulates the airline industry also has been oddly absent from news reports. In any case the FBI notice advised airlines to perform reports and reviews concerning listed "suspicious activity" that airlines presumably already would be doing since "[a]irline experts have warned for years that airlines are a potential target for hackers". The reason for the notice and suspected apparent attempt to further fan immediate public hysteria about "cyberthreats" on the day of the Congressional "cybersecurity" bill vote was implied to be tied to a virtual non-incident concerning an onboard United Airlines "tweet" last week by private security expert Chris Roberts making a joke in which he "suggested that he might be able to deploy the oxygen masks on the flight".

     The media dutifully has greatly expanded on this incident reported right on schedule that "[a] terrorist theoretically could take over systems that fly a plane by compromising equipment at their seat". However the report also notes that "[t]he FBI and the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) (ed. note - which TSA perhaps is best known for its agents knowingly having allowed passengers to take guns and suitcases of illegal drugs aboard planes for cash and small gifts and more recently allegedly for 'groping' passengers) said they had no information to support claims a plane's information system could be interfered [sic] via its onboard wi-fi kit, but they were evaluating the evidence". Hopefully the FBI and TSA (not to mention the FAA and other federal agencies) have already been "evaluating" the hypothetical threat for some time as Mr. Roberts previously has given multiple public interviews including on CNN expressing his concerns (and presumably publicizing his private security company) in which he already "explained" weak points in airliners stating that one might conceivably hook up a computer under one's seat to "monitor" data from three of the onboard airline systems.

     Whatever the case Mr. Roberts co-founder of private security company One World Labs following the perpetration of his "tweet" last week was questioned by the FBI which "seized" his laptop computer and unidentified other devices (see previous Ninth Amendment posts for information on the very remote chance of getting back any "seized" items and cash from the government). United Airlines subsequently denied Mr. Roberts boarding to his flight to Seattle and banned him from all United flights so he now in punishment will need to travel by air on another airline. 

     Following last week's Mr. Roberts "tweet" incident security expert Bruce Schneier had explained " [t]he risk is a hacker sitting in the back of a plane, or even one on the ground, could use the wi-fi connection to hack into the plane's avionics and then fly the plane". He went on the the explain that no vulnerabilities to hackers were "currently" known but noted that such an attack was "theoretically possible" as all networks were "inherently insecure". Most significantly news reports rather downplayed that Mr. Schneier finally "added" that "[i]n the scheme of internet risks I worry about, its not very high".

     History would strongly suggest that the federal government (the State) here seized on the opportunity to take the occasion yesterday of the expected Congressional vote on the rushed through committee "cybersecurity" bill unconscionably to fan public fear and manipulate the People of this country over an apparent businessman's publicity stunt using an unjustified extraordinary action by the FBI and TSA (of all agencies) that could only serve needlessly to fan public hysteria over some specific remote act of "terrorism" when there undoubtedly are more pressing concerns at hand which this type of action can only serve dangerously to discount.

     It is well worth and in fact extremely important to recall at such times that from likely centuries before the time of the "Gulf of Tonkin" Congressional resolution over a totally phony incident which nevertheless drew the U.S. into the years-long nightmarish quagmire of what the military officially terms the "Vietnam conflict" since no war ever constitutionally has been declared since WWII up to and doubtless even beyond the known exploitation of public and even lawmakers' hysteria over the more recent extraordinary horrors of the 9/11 attacks and complicating subsequent anthrax scares which even had extended to the Capitol building all of which lead directly to the surreal passage of the blatantly unconstitutional last-minute ink still wet on the page unreviewed by Congress dangerously rambling laundry wish list of the illegitimate Bush Administration's worst civil liberties nightmares come true cynically misnamed "Patriot Act" that the State will exploit public fears and even create them and fan subsequent hysteria to achieve approval of extraordinary powers for the State to which it is not entitled under the U.S. Constitution and which the People in more reasoned times would not even purport to grant to the State when under the existing text of the Constitution the powers are not legitimate and therefore invalid and void as a competent U.S. Supreme Court should recognize as its sacrosanct duty under our system of government.

     In conclusion the so-called "cybersecurity" bill appears entirely objectionable on its face and in any case must be subjected to much more widespread public scrutiny than some behind-closed-doors deal between the Obama White House and Republican congresspersons before its passage by the Senate and signing into law by the President and as for the filthy piece of trash advanced by individuals who no longer even support its interpretations said to justify State abuses abhorrent to all founding principles of this republic the misnamed "Patriot Act" President Obama must not yet again betray his supporters who believed in and elected him by his once again routinely rubber-stamping out "sunset" provisions of this Bush Administration rotten legacy but on 1 June 2015 it is well past the time President Obama must allow the obviously unconstitutional and widely misused Section 215 and other provisions of the repulsive misnamed "Patriot Act" set to expire to lapse back into oblivion and most certainly not abdicate his duty only to relinquish this power to make such a critical decision to the following presidential administration.

     Without editorial comment the Ninth Amendment directs readers interested in more information on the above to the link below.   

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-32411491

Copyright 2015 Martin P. All World Rights Expressly Reserved

Corporate Internet Militarization "Cybersecurity" Bill Expected Today To Pass House As Obama White House Abandons Concerns Over Consumer Privacy

     Wednesday, 22 September 2015, WASHINGTON, D.C. - The House of Representatives today with virtually no public scrutiny but significant "intelligence" community excitement is expected to rush through with widespread congressional support and no debate (much like the disastrously unconstitutional Patriot Act) a so-called "cybersecurity" corporate immunity bill introduced by its "engineer" former C.I.A. Texas freshman Republian congressman Will Hurd along with fellow Texas freshman Republican congressman John Heath which bill grants businesses dangerously broad liability protections granting corporate immunity for sharing unlimited cyberdata with other businesses as well as corporate immunity for launching private "counterattacks" which may threaten any consumer's (i.e., the People's) personal private computers and mobile devices including phones if the business "suspects" itself to be the target of hackattacks.
     Information further will be shared with a "civilian agency" The New York Times assures readers which actually as detailed in the Sunday, 19 April 2015 Internet "Militarizaton" post here is the rather sinister-sounding "obscure" National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center which information first will have been double "scurbbed" once by the company and once by the above "civilian" government agency of Americans' personal information before passing it on to the NSA and the Department of Defense presumably through the Air Force Cyber Security Command and then eventually any other government agency that claims some need for it although such information alone can not be the grounds for some government enforcement action presumably should some personal privacy consumer information "leak through.
     (In an admitted aside The Ninth Amendment notes that the American people have come to be known principally as "consumers" rather than "citizens" or "We The People" in the extremely limited but most powerful corporate conception of the paramount purpose of civilization as a monetary profit endeavor when as here the dwindling protections of our fundamental rights are once again under attack from State and corporate encroachments on our civil liberties. The Ninth Amendment editorial board suggests this is yet another example of the "corporate creep" which not only has bought and/or is buying the State but deeply infiltrating and dominating the very terms at the foundations of its discourse with intended pre-ordained dangerously misdirected disastrous consequences.)
     The White House has abandoned earlier serious privacy and other constitutional concerns as raised by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and many other civil liberties groups. Meanwhile the federal government exploits its recent attempts to fan Americans' hysteria over isolated incidents and conveniently timed dire warnings implicating cybersecurity threats which largely are not even understood technically up to and including "cyberjihadists" although it is unclear why such an individual or group would want to target for example consumer credit card information rather than the United States infrastructure presumably hopefully already a focus of all available cybersecurity safeguards.
     At the time the bill recently was in a day rushed through the House Homeland Security Committee Republican chairman Michael McCaul another Texan allegedly the "chief architect" of the bill while "working with the White House" found it necessary to inform committee members immediately before voting that "American companies are under siege" and threw in that President Obama's White House "unclassified but sensitive" unpublished schedule had been acquired (Anyone can sign up or daily White House emails providing the President's "published" schedule although it is unclear what this had to do with granting widespread potentially blanket immunity from prosecution to companies for violating Americans privacy or "counterattacking" their cyberdevices. 
     In a shockingly sympathetic virtually cheerleading "cbersecurity" bill article reporting that only some Senate timing issues may slow up immediate passage of the bill The New York Times article linked to below further asserts that "White House passage of the Bill is not in question". (And The Ninth Amendment believed it already had staked out "All The News Before It Even Happens".) The White House which last Congressional term "mustered strong opposition" to the House bill because "it would jeopardize the privacy rights" of consumers has caved completely to continuing intense "intelligence" community and Department of Defense pressure eager to get their hands on the data. Reportedly a House Intelligence Committee Republican aide said that "the President has come our way". Unbelievably yesterday's last comments on the bill from the White House focused exclusively on concerns that business liability immunities were so broad as to potentially "backfire" on businesses afraid presumably for their own privacy about reporting "cyberthreats" as well as launching immunized corporate cyberattacks to "punish" competitors.
     Even in abandoning all real concerns about the rights of the People including to their already vastly unconstitutionally State invaded privacy rights and other civil liberties at least the Obama White House instead now has expressed its "deep concern" about threats posed by the proposed corporate Internet "militarization" bill to the privacy concerns of corporations now potentially free to go to cyberwar with one another as well as the American people. Readers interested in more information about the above can go to The New York Times link below. Readers interested in a significantly more in-depth analysis of the bill and its origins may can go if not previously to the Sunday, 19 April 2015 post here on "Internet Militarization" and/or directly to the to The San Antonio Express-News article at the second linked to below which as previously noted is not accessible in its entirety to non-subscribers to that publication unless they subscribe at least to a free two week digital subscription which by no means is meant as a promotion or endorsement of that publication here. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/23/us/politics/computer-attacks-spur-congress-to-act-on-cybersecurity-bill-years-in-making.html?_r=0

http://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/Cybersecurity-bill-could-let-companies-trade-info-6208429.php

Copyright 2015 Martin P. All World Rights Expressly Reserved

DEA Chief Booted For "Wild" DEA Agent Drug Cartel Hosted Prostitute Sex Parties Some Taking Cash, Expensive Gifts And Weapons Including AK-47

     Wednesday, 22 April 2015, WASHINGTON, D.C. - In the wake of disclosures of widespread DEA agent abuses and illegal misconduct involving Colombian drug cartels detailed extensively in recent posted reports here and elsewhere followed by news of a disastrous grilling at a Congressional hearing last week resulting in the extraordinary issuance of a bipartisan statement of "no confidence" U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) Adminstrator Michele M. Leonhart who opposes marijuana legalization in contrast to her boss President Barack Obama even while effectively dismissing her own DEA agents' attendance at Colombian drug cartel hosted prostitute sex parties at which some DEA agents accepted bribes including cash, expensive gifts and weapons including at least one AK-47 was shown the door with an announcement of her "resignation" effective in three weeks by U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr. who called her a "good friend" despite the fact that the U.S. Department of Justice he heads oversees the DEA which under Ms. Leonhart has faced "accusations of mismanagement in recent years" according to The New York Times.
     Readers interested in more information about the above can go to either or both of the links below.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/22/us/michele-leonhart-top-dea-official-is-expected-to-resign.html?_r=0

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/embattled-dea-chief-to-resign-following-sex-parties-scandal/2015/04/21/2f65108e-e853-11e4-9a6a-c1ab95a0600b_story.html

Copyright 2015 Martin P. All World Rights Expressly Reserved

Foul DOJ Hypocrisy Of AG Eric Holder Revealed In Routine Support Of Police Violence And Civil Rights Violations In Every Case Before US Supreme Court

     Tuesday, 21 April 2015, WASHINGTON, D.C. - United States Attorney General (AG) Eric Holder is an absolute sickening hypocrite of the worst sort who parades himself around the communities of this nation holding himself out as a champion of the People's and particularly minorities such as African-Americans right for example not to be killed by the State for no reason at all as he presents and portrays himself and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) he heads in apparent sympathy with victims of rampant police abuses such as unprovoked violence in the routine use of excessive force and civil rights violations such as citizens being shot in the back by police officers of the State while in fact the truth about AG Holder is quite the opposite as a review of the record of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) AG Holder heads definitively proves that when these cases of the State's crimes against the People finally get before the United States Supreme Court in every single case without a single exception argued before the Court throughout the tenure of the Obama administration AG Holder's DOJ and its so-called "Civil Rights Division" has taken the side of the police and the State always defending police officers charged with out-of-control violence abuses against the American people and endemic civil rights violations against the People's fundamental rights such as not to be killed by the government whether one is needlessly shot eleven times by yet another cop emptying a full clip of bullets into the body of someone already clearly dead or if one is a mentally ill woman living in a mental health facility pepper sprayed in the face and then blown away by police shooting her for "threatening" them by holding a small bread knife.
     The Ninth Amendment previously has reported on the hypocrisy of AG Eric Holder DOJ's tragic actions or lack thereof which are directly responsible for the continuing unforgivable transgressions of the State against the American people needlessly ruining so many lives in the AG Holder DOJ's  absolute failure to fulfill President Obama's unequivocal presidential campaign promises to the people who got him elected to reform the criminal justice system especially in its plainly tragically wrong treatment of non-violent drug offenders (which President Obama long ago admitted he himself to be except he just was not caught so he could become President rather than perhaps have his own life ruined) which AG Holder hypocrisy now further has been documented extensively in the horrid record of AG Holder's DOJ in every single case encouraging U.S. Supreme Court rulings wrongly holding obviously unconstitutional law enforcement police violence abuses and civil rights violations against the People to be permitted as the law of the land.
     While police associations unsurprising support AG Holder unfortunately the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is cast as incorrectly sympathetic to AG Holder's DOJ although that largely could be because of the horrible record of preceding Republican AGs as to ignoring law enforcement abuses and especially those GOP appointees who committed such unpardonable abuses as using DOJ for everything they could to attempt to shield the Bush Administration and its Executive Branch agencies by issuing or endorsing completely bogus legal opinions such as attempting to shield from prosecution the NSA's obviously unconstitutional use of mass surveillance and metadata collection against the American people and most notably attempting to immunize the Bush Administration and its CIA with self-serving legal opinions trying to shield them from punishment for loathsome violations of United States and international law such as the Geneva Conventions for their commission of international war crimes against humanity committing their routine worldwide infliction of torture and indefinite uncharged confinement as well as kidnapping of persons of many nations all of which is no longer a secret to anyone in the United States or the world.
     Not that AG Holder's DOJ has done a single thing to charge those for these crimes who in the name of and as representatives of the United States now are well documented as having committed repulsive and grotesque criminal acts of torture on human beings in violation of United States and international law even as Federal Bureau Investigation (FBI) Director James Comey former Bush administration Deputy Attorney General at DOJ has taken it upon himself needlessly to imply the complicity of Poland and Hungary in the perpetration of the horrors of the Holocaust drawing international outrage against this representative of the United States government who would have the audacity to for no reason at all at this time broadcast to the world such sentiments when the United States itself has proven to be among the worst human rights violators and abusers in modern times whether by torturing human beings or locking them up domestically in prisons as become an entrenched industry in astounding numbers that drawf the percentage of the population incarcerated in all other civilized countries.
     Readers interested in more information about the above most unfortunate undeniably abysmal record of AG Eric Holder's DOJ before the Supreme Court always having in every case without exception supported law enforcement abuses such as the excessive force of police violence and officers' civil rights violations against the American people encouraging the Supreme Court to make these abuses contrary to all principles upon this great nation was founded the law of the land only so they can be repeated over and over again no doubt just getting worse and worse due to the encouragement of ultimately a lack of criminal prosecution can to the link below.

Copyright 2015 Martin P. All World Rights Expressly Reserved

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/22/us/at-supreme-court-holders-justice-dept-routinely-backs-officers-use-of-force.html?_r=0

UPDATED: CIA Torture Videos Retro Report Fuels Attention To Sole "Torture-Related" CIA Conviction To Date Untrained "Contractor" Who For Two Days Beat Afghan Farmer Including With Heavy Flashlight And Groin Kicks To Death Sentenced To Six Year Prison Term After DOJ Patriot Act Prosecution

     Monday, 20 April 2015, NEW YORK, NY - "Retro Report" a series of video documentaries on major past news stories' impact today has brought attention to the case of remorseless CIA contractor David A. Passaro who served a six-plus year federal prison term prosecuted by the Department of Justice under the Patriot Act of all things for admittedly without training in interrogation techniques in 2003 beating Afghan farmer Abdul Wali with his fists as well as a heavy flashlight and groin kicks for information continuing despite Mr. Wali's pleas "to be shot" until his death two days later at an American military base in Afghanistan. Passaro maintains that he "wasn't hired to be nice to these terrorists" but that he "was there to get a job done" which he claims he did.
     Mr. Passaro's conviction is the only known CIA torture-related conviction to date even after the December 2014 release four months ago of the Senate Intelligence Committee's executive summary of its "Torture Report" concluding that the Bush Administration CIA routinely systematically committed many sick and grotesque acts of torture against "detainees" in violation of United States and international law finding however that the CIA's torture practices were "high in brutality and low in effectiveness". Even the CIA-controlled confinement conditions of detainees at Guantanamo Bay (much less CIA "black sites") shocked visitors from the U.S. Bureau of Prisons who despite not being known for their compassion for federal inmates said they never had seen such brutal conditions of confinement "deprivation" of prisoners in their lives.
     Attorney General John Ashcroft's announcement at the time of Mr. Passaro's grand jury indictment that "criminal acts of brutality and violence against detainees" would not be tolerated has to date not yet shown itself to be true as Bush hack White House Counsel later hack U.S. Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales found that the Geneva Conventions conveniently did not apply to CIA torture of detainees which legal opinion later was endorsed by CIA General Counsel John "Goodfella" Rizzo in reality endorsing years of a CIA untrained unsupervised employee and contractor free-for-all basically pointlessly torturing indefinitely kept without charges "detainees" with whatever torture technique came to their twisted minds including "rectal hydration" and "rectal feeding" and at least in one case killing a detainee by exposure chaining him overnight to a freezing cement floor which presumably elicited minimal information although collectively served as a terrific "recruitment" billboard for terrorist organizations according to several U.S. Senators.
     Despite President Obama's naive informal assurance to officials of CIA personnel immunity from prosecution if they in "good faith" adhered to the bogus legal opinions purporting to justify torture set forth in memos which President Obama then publically released CIA officials and personnel clearly had not adhered even to the confines of those memos at all. The need for the criminal prosecution for torture war crimes against humanity at home and/or abroad of Bush Administration and CIA officials, personnel and contractors has been clearly documented for all the world to see including in the Senate Torture Report most of which remains to be released as well as the so-called "Panetta Report" the history of which is addressed in a previous Ninth Amendment post. Former not-really-elected Vice-President "Pigheart" Dick "Criminal Notorious" Cheney upon release of the Senate Torture Report summary demonstrated the future danger he may pose to others by defiantly stating he would commit acts of torture "again" if given the opportunity although there may be certain countries he presumably would refrain from visiting due for fear of immediate prosecution.
     [UPDATED] Readers interested in more information about the above can go to the link directly below which includes Retro Report CIA torture videos. Readers interested in the horrifying but true saga of the two totally unqualified even untrained in interrogation psychologists James Elmer Mitchell and Bruce Jessen who were paid $180 million by the CIA to design the CIA's so-called "enhanced interrogation" torture program which the CIA's chief of interrogations after seeing the plans Mitchell and Elmer came up with wrote to CIA colleagues that "[t]his is a train wreak [sic] waiting to happen and I intend to get the hell off the train before it happens" according to the Senate Torture Report can go to the Vanity Fair article at the second link below.
   
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/20/us/a-singular-conviction-amid-the-debate-on-torture-and-terrorism.html?_r=0

http://www.vanityfair.com/news/daily-news/2014/12/psychologists-cia-torture-report

Copyright 2015 Martin P. All World Rights Expressly Reserved

Internet "Militarization" Threat As White House And GOP Congress Conspire On "Cyberdefense" Corporate Immunity Bill For Personal Privacy Invasions

     Sunday, 19 April 2015, WASHINGTON, D.C. - Exploiting the latest government-contrived hysteria over dire cybersecurity threats including a well-timed "chilling" Government Accountability Office (GAO) report concluding that hackers "potentially" could take control of airliners exploiting onboard Wi-Fi passenger networks (not to mention some kid just taking aircraft down with a consumer drone bought at a local market) further raising the alarm of those "confessing" the "rising threat of cyberjihadists" two Texans (freshmen from the endemically corrupt Lone Star state Republican party John Heath and formerly with the C.I.A. Will Hurd) have "written and engineered" a so-called "cyberdefense" bill (doubtless "engineered" as capably as the Patriot Act) granting businesses "broad immunity" for sharing "cyberthreat indicator" information with each other and the government's "obscure" National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center and for launching counterattacks (potentially against consumers' computers and phones) on the basis of "suspected" attacks which bill last week was rushed in a day through the House Homeland Security Committee by another Texan Republican chairman and "chief architect" of the bill (which apparently also required architecture as well as engineering and writing) Michael McCaul "working with the White House" who before calling for a vote informed committee members that "American companies are under siege" and also mentioned that hackers had this month acquired "nonclassified" but "sensitive" White House information including the President's unpublished schedule (President Obama's "published" schedule for the day is available to anyone signing up for daily White House emails).
     The House of Representatives is expected to pass the corporate immunity from "reasonable" privacy invasions and computer counterattack damages bill (the Ninth Amendment editorial board's proposed alternative name for the bill) as early as this week although the House and Senate still must resolve differences over privacy protections (or the lack thereof) and overcome concerns of civil liberties advocates such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) who "worry" about spying on innocent people and others about Internet "militarization" because of private companies being authorized or effectively deputized to "launch countermeasures" against those suspected of "attacking" them. Businesses long until now have been particularly concerned about liability for accidentally releasing personal customer information "compounded by leaks from National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden" which also reportedly causes industries to "fear disclosing vulnerability" presumably about themselves as well although it is unclear how. In any case reportedly "[i]n the end, fear may outweigh concerns about civil liberties".
     Readers interested in more information about the above can go to the San Antonio Express-News article link below also describing in some detail the huge cybersecurity apparatus in that city (which former C.I.A. Republican freshman Hurd represents) said to employ 2,000 through 3,000 in private companies and 7,000 through 10,000 in government cybersecurity installations including the Air Force Cyber Command and "one of the largest" National Security Agency (NSA) centers outside of the NSA's Fort Meade, Maryland headquarters. (Readers not presently subscribed to that newspaper can get a free two week all digital subscription which would seem to be necessary to read the article in its entirety although the Ninth Amendment by no means intends this as a promotion nor endorsement of that newspaper.)

http://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/Cybersecurity-bill-could-let-companies-trade-info-6208429.php

 Copyright 2015 Martin P. All World Rights Expressly Reserved  

Heroin Free Delivery Like Pizza To A Nearby Corner Just A Call Away Sweeps Over U.S. As Big Pharma And Physicians Dump Millions Addicted To Opioids

     Sunday, 19 April 2015, NEW YORK, NY - The largely unreported heroin epidemic now raging across the United States as addressed in a recent Ninth Amendment post is the direct result of a massively aggressive campaign (i.e. "pushing drugs") of large pharmaceutical companies' marketing based on obvious lies and compliant physicians obediently "suspending disbelief" that opioids are addictive many of whom in recent years made a fortune and/or generous tax-free "benefits" selling and dispensing opioids in huge numbers greater than any except hypertension medications but now dumping millions of painkiller addicted patients on the streets to become heroin addicts afraid of increased regulatory pressure reportedly with such subtle reminders as "personal visits" by drug enforcement authorities of physicians and even pharmacies notably since recent years' "crackdown" on the opioid and synthetic opioid "painkilllers" such as OxyContin, oxycodone aka Percocet, and most recently rescheduled hydrocodone aka Vicadin aka Lortab aka Norco.
     This of course was just the latest in an abysmally long series of DEA (home of the "international drug cartel prostitute sex party boys") unbelievably misguided, oblivious and/or worse darkly intentional policies "clamping down" on its latest drug scare which policy lays waste to those presumably for whose own good it would "regulate" meanwhile inuring to the direct benefit of those in the drug trade opening up as usual for drug syndicates vast new opportunities for explosive profit via the unregulated "dispensing" of drugs of unknown quality and composition and of course helping to insure the continued seeming perpetual employment of those invested in drug "enforcement" by further extending the permanent robust health of the illegal drug trade. As has been many times observed the DEA policies could not do a better job assisting the drug cartels (who in apparent thanks and encouragement give DEA agents weapons and other bribes and host DEA prostitute sex parties as recently detailed in the Ninth Amendment) than if the drug cartels where establishing the "drug enforcement" laws and policies themselves. This so much belabors the obvious as to be tiresome to repeat ad nauseum.
     Free market pressures coming to the rescue an industrious group from rural Mexico known has the "Xalisco Boys" has as detailed in The New York Times article below developed and is executing a currently apparently ideal local business model controlling manufacture, wholesale and retail sales (even giving free samples like drug reps and making follow-up customer service survey calls) to serve the heroin needs of those across the United States (without an already established heroin dealer home market) with just a telephone call and a nearby pickup of what usually is the less processed heroin known as "black tar" which according to the article can be injected or smoked. Advance planning is essential as The New York Times reports the Xalisco Boys maintain strict business hours of 7 AM to 7 PM. Readers interested in more information including about the reportedly recent threefold increase in largely publicly unreported heroin overdose deaths are directed to the below link.
     THE NINTH AMENDMENT DOES NOT PURPORT TO NOR DOES IT PROVIDE ANY MEDICAL ADVICE WHATSOEVER TO ANY PERSON WHATSOEVER AT ALL. READERS AND ALL IN NEED OF MEDICAL ADVICE MUST CONSULT THEIR PROPERLY LICENSED HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONAL.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/19/opinion/sunday/serving-all-your-heroin-needs.html?_r=0

Copyright 2015 Martin P. All World Rights Expressly Reserved

"No Confidence" DEA Chief Smacked On Out-Of-Control DEA Agents Run Wild With Drug Cartels For Years With Extraordinary Congress Rebuke As White House Non-Comment Hints DEA Administrator Leonhart On Way Out

     Saturday, 18 April 2015, WASHINGTON, D.C. - Outraged by responses received at last Tuesday's hearing from DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart as to her apparent complete lack of control of her own DEA agents in the face of disclosures that DEA agents largely without consequence supposedly compromised national security and the integrity of U.S. international law enforcement efforts for at least several years attending drug cartel hosted prostitute sex parties at which some DEA agents accepted gifts in the form of cash, expensive gifts and weapons including an AK-47 while checking their own weapons with drug cartel members or their representatives as well as bringing along laptop computers among other things, a "strong bipartisan majority" of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has issued an extraordinary statement of "no confidence" in DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart.
     The American mainstream press by largely limiting itself to focusing on the screamingly apparently headline spectacular transgressions of a relatively small number of DEA agents basically cast as "party boys" and the harsh rote words of "outraged" lawmakers nevertheless still calling it a "good old boy culture" falling on the unfortunate present head of the DEA naturally unsupported by the White House quite obviously intentionally ignores the "elephant in the corner" (other than hinted at by the Washington Post blog link below) that is the mainstream press has failed to make the obvious observation that this entire episode in which DEA agents clearly routinely broke the law taking bribes, compromising legal cases and essentially "partying" with the drug cartels with whom they are supposed to be at "war" serves unequivocally to prove to anyone willing to open their eyes even halfway the endemic total bankruptcy and monumental failure of the 30-plus year phony "war on drugs" seemingly without end.
     Let us call a spade a spade. If the DEA were prosecuting these DEA agents as ordinary domestic U.S. citizens on home turf they would be far from "good old boys". Anyone able and willing to be honest must admit these men at home would be fully prosecuted as hard-core drug criminals taking bribes and automatic weapons from and conspiring with international drug cartels as well as obstructing justice, compromising the prosecution of criminal cases they supposedly are prosecuting as well as breaching national security and probably a hundred other counts (take RICO for starters and maybe treason too) that any half-assed Assistant U.S. Attorney could think up and throw in a criminal complaint. These "boys" would be "men" real quick probably going away for life to the "big house", maybe even to the Florence, Colorado "Supermax" where they would be driven to insanity locked down alone for the rest of their lives in concrete cubes with a cold steel door and maybe entertain themselves by chewing off and eating mixed in a meal a fingertip as "meat" as at least one prisoner there has done according to the New York Times being made afterwards to mop up his own blood from the cell floor.
     Untold thousands of Americans' lives are being destroyed by the fallout from the excruciating longevity of the totally bogus Nixon cynically created phony "war on drugs" against nothing but an "enemy" of this country's own misguided (or nefarious) creation and there is little incentive to end it with all those long fully invested for their livelihood from police officers who never before could have cut the grade all the way to prison corporations making a profit from putting as high a percentage of the country's population of non-violent U.S. citizens in cages as possible, not to mention everyone with an interest in between who cannot afford to see this nightmare end. This is no joke at all. The "war on drugs" is as phony a crock as it could be but with who knows how many "agents" partying with seriously criminal organizations overseas yes even including those funding terrorists largely the creation of the United States own misguided drug policies contrary to this country's own national security interest just ask any DEA agent when they are not too drunk to speak.
     Readers interested in more information about the above hearing including choice comments from the House Oversight Committee about DEA Administrator Lionhart as well as further details about DEA agents' misconduct more recently revealed from the Judiciary Committee report can go to the link below.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/wp/2015/04/17/dea-agents-had-the-fun-now-boss-pays-the-price/?tid=hpModule_308f7142-9199-11e2-bdea-e32ad90da239&hpid=z15

Copyright 2015 Martin P. All World Rights Expressly Reserved

Corrupt Texas GOP Governor Greg "Payoff" Abbott And Bought Republican Lawmakers "Awash" In Oil And Gas Bribes To Force-"Frack" All Texans' Home Turf Including Parks, Day-Care Centers Even When Disaster Strikes

     Saturday, 18 April 2015, AUSTIN, TX - All good hardworking Texans who long have prided themselves as fiercely independent living in the natural beauty of the Lone Star state will have one less decision to make even about the sanctity of their own home ground and communities and the lives of their family and children as Denton, Texas has learned the hard way fracked in the face by long-corrupt GOP enemy of the people now-Governor Greg "Payoff" Abbott and his greedsick Republican lawmakers "awash" in the luxury of oil and gas bribes about to grab the very home ground of all Texans including also their parks and day-care centers right from underneath their feet and that of their families and children even leaving them powerless to stop "fracking" when disaster strikes right at home.
     The above expected Abbott forced-"fracking" ready to creep underneath the home ground of Denton, Texas that does not want it and now of all Texans, their families and children whether they want it or not officially called "hydraulic fracturing" (totally outlawed in some places where the people are allowed to make their own decisions) is now known to cause widespread devastating earthquakes and especially when done recklessly to widely pollute irreplaceable precious clean water resources with a highly toxic poisonous chemical stew force-injected into people's home turf. "Fracking" sounds great if it means more and cheaper independent American gas and oil but not if one's hard-earned home property loses all value and not at all if one and/or one's family and children become sick or even dead.
     Readers interested in more information about the above expected Texas Republican forced-"fracking"  law for Denton, Texas and all Texas communities even when disaster strikes can go to the Associated Press release link below.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/18/us/politics/texas-bill-prohibiting-cities-from-banning-fracking-advances.html?ref=todayspaper

Copyright 2015 Martin P. All World Rights Expressly Reserved

No Encryption Terrorist $10 Million Reward State Department Website Plus Departments Of Justice, Homeland Security, Treasury And Other U.S. Government Inspectors General Whistleblower Unsecured Websites Put Tipsters At Risk Of U.S. Federal Government Retaliation Some Even Of Death

     Friday, 17 April 2015, WASHINGTON, D.C. - Whistleblowers providing what they are assured is information treated as "confidential" pursuant to federal law exposing Federal Government "waste, fraud and abuse" to Inspectors General (IGs) of most federal agencies including the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, the Treasury and many others actually are subject to having their complaints and personal information including names, addresses and telephone numbers transmitted unencrypted via Internet exposing them to danger of career or other retaliation whether from the agencies themselves or even under the Obama Administration to Department of Justice (DOJ) overzealous prosecution not to mention tipsters facing obvious threats to life, limb, family or any number of other devastating consequences who might choose to send Internet communications to the unsecured State Department website offering up to a $10 million reward for terrorist information an ACLU review confirmed as accurate by federal government officials has disclosed leading to contact with the ACLU by DOJ IG Michael Horowitz regarding these most serious federal lapses.
     Among those that do encrypt their entire websites are the White House and CIA as well most major well-known technology firms especially in the wake of Edward J. Snowden's revelations disclosing the staggering extent of unconstitutional especially NSA domestic mass surveillance and metadata collection abuses perpetrated against the American people (assuming those major technology firms did not already know the full extent of and/or participate in those abuses themselves previously). Readers interested in significantly more information including the long list they should be aware of some of the federal agency IG's who do not have secure website Internet complaint and other transmissions can go to the link below.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2015/04/16/why-confidential-tips-to-the-government-may-not-be-confidential-after-all/?tid=hpModule_88854bf0-8691-11e2-9d71-f0feafdd1394&hpid=z14

Copyright 2015 Martin P. All World Rights Expressly Reserved

$5+ Billion BP Payouts May Reach $10 Billion Total For Deep Horizon Gulf Of Mexico Major Oil Rig Spill Disaster To Claimants Including Many Businesses

     Thursday, 16 April 2015, NEW YORK, NY - British Petroleum Plc's (BP) settlement fund now has paid out more than $5 billion to claimants including many businesses fund administrator Patrick Juneau announced yesterday on his website for victims of the BP Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion, delayed response and resultant oil spill disaster filling the Gulf of Mexico unchecked with oil allegedly later largely not cleaned up but actually hidden below the water surface by mixing it with the so-called Corexit "dispersant" claimed by many including HBO's VICE, environmentalists, the devastated Gulf coast seafood industry and others actually to have formed a lasting mixture much more toxic than the oil toxicity alone.
     BP reportedly has ceased complaints about and calls for the removal of settlement fund administrator Juneau for alleged excessive payouts including BP has claimed to those who suffered no harm from the BP environmental disaster. Juneau has stated that more than half of the payouts to date have gone to businesses suffering economic losses as well to the seafood industry devastated by BP's oil spill.
     Meanwhile BP has launched an aggressive marketing campaign casting itself as a reformed model corporate environmental citizen presumably relying on the misunderstanding of those exposed to the advertising campaign that BP actually is paying out any money willingly. Meanwhile as mentioned above many still believe BP's Deepwater Horizon oil spill has not been cleaned up but only hidden from view in a toxic stew just below the surface water of the Gulf of Mexico thus the new moniker BP's "Gulf of Corexit". BP has raised its estimate of what total payouts to claimants will be by more than $2 billion to a total estimate of nearly $10 billion. Readers interested in more information can go to the link below.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/16/us-bp-spill-payout-idUSKBN0N62OW20150416?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews

UPDATED: EU Hits Google With Search "Abuse" Action And Expands EU Investigation Of Google Android Anti-Competitive Practices As EU Antitrust, Tax And Privacy Scrutiny Of Tech Giants Grows Amid Widespread Concerns

     Wednesday, 15 April 2015, BRUSSELS - European Union (EU) competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager a leading Danish politician who last year became the EU's antitrust chief today accused Google in a statement of objection making the formal complaint that Google's dominant search engine diverts traffic from its competitors to favor Google's own goods and services particularly shopping websites. Google has ten weeks to respond and rebuke the charges or alternatively try to settle the matter to avoid the potential levy of a fine of more than 6 billion Euros (about $6.5 billion) which is approximately 10 per cent of Google's last reported annual revenue. Ms. Vestager also said the investigation leading to the complaint may expand beyond shopping websites.

     EU competition commissioner Vestager further announced today that the Commission was expanding its investigation into Google's business practices concerning its Android software with which operating system Google holds an 81% worldwide market share for phones and other mobile devices amid concerns that Google requires mobile device makers using the Android operating system and desiring Google applications such as YouTube to bundle and/or place Google-branded applications in the most prominent positions on the devices. Google vigorously denied all charges.

     The EU announcements come amid continuing complaints of competitors and intensifying EU scrutiny of tax breaks, anti-competitive and privacy policy concerns about U.S. tech giants in a widespread growing climate of European and other countries' concerns about possible abuses of nations and their citizens by dominant American technology companies whose practices have gone largely unchecked or in some areas such as privacy invasions even may have been encouraged by the U.S. government in light of revelations of the complicity of some in the U.S. government continuing global mass surveillance and metadata collection practices such as by the National Security Agency as well as other U.S. government agencies.  

     Readers interested in more information about the above EU actions can go to one or more links below while those readers interested in actions underway or contemplated in other non-European nations as to U.S. giant tech company practices are referred particularly to the New York Times link below. [UPDATE]  The New York Times article since also has been significantly expanded in the second link below.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/16/business/international/european-union-google-antitrust-case.html?ref=technology&_r=0

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/16/technology/google-joins-its-us-peers-under-europes-scrutiny.html?ref=todayspaper

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-32315649

Copyright 2015 Martin P. All World Rights Expressly Reserved

Congress Slams DEA "Completely Out Of Control" As Drug Cartel Hosted Sex Parties Scandal Widens To Include DEA Regional Official Soliciting Prostitutes

     Wednesday, 15 April 2015, WASHINGTON, D.C. - Congressional House Oversight Committee lawmakers at a hearing yesterday excoriated DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart disclosing greatly expanded revelations from and commencing a Congressional investigation based on a Department of Justice (DOJ) Inspector General (IG) report released last month detailing extensive DEA agent misconduct earlier reported here now said to extend back to 2001 and not only including drug cartel hosted sex parties at which agents checked their weapons with some accepting cash, expensive gifts, and weapons from drug cartel members, but also at which agents had their laptop computers and other electronic devices present and which included a newly reported but unverified account of a DEA Assistant Regional Administrator soliciting prostitutes to attend a "going away" party.
     Congressional lawmakers outraged over perceived light punishment of DEA agents suspended for two to ten days over recently reported misconduct by attending drug cartel hosted sex parties in Colombia included the House Oversight Committee's chairman declaring that agents who had repeatedly engaged in serious misconduct, including jeopardizing national security, should be stripped of their national security clearances and be fired over what the chairman called "truly breathtaking restlessness". DEA Administrator Leonhart responded to House Oversight Committee members that she had neither the power to revoke agents' national security clearances nor fire them for such misconduct.
     "Honestly, what power do you have?" continued another Congressional committee member who then rebuked DEA Administrator Leonhart that "[y]ou have to work with agents over whom you can't discipline and have no control. What the hell do you get to do?" Administrator Leonhart apparently did not answer. The Ninth Amendment without editorial response to the preceding nor comment on any of the content of this post refers readers interested in more information on the above hearing including more details of the DOJ IG's Report on DEA agents' and officials' lengthy list of continuing abuses to the below link.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/15/us/anger-over-reports-of-dea-agents-parties-and-bewilderment-at-mild-penalties.html?ref=us&_r=0

Copyright 2015 Martin P. All World Rights Expressly Reserved

UPDATED: U.S. Drone Mass Murders Of Innocents Worldwide Expose Obama Dishonesty Legal Report Finds As U.S. Expands Armed Drone Exports Under Armament Industry Pressure Recklessly Accelerating Arms Proliferation First Sale Of Predator Drones Outside NATO To United Arab Republics Imminent

     Tuesday, 14 April 2015, WASHINGTON, D.C. - The troubling direct hypocrisy and dishonesty of President Barack Obama and his administration crystallized yesterday with the release of an independent legal investigation of United State drone murders of untold masses of innocent men, women and children confirming large numbers of Yemeni civilians killed by drone strike kills as "collateral damage" in undeclared warfare there and many other nations as well which remains nearly completely hidden from the American people and the world.
     Doubtless continuing disclosures of U.S. drone strike kill atrocities and this country's leading role in related global arms proliferation in addition to the continuing illegal unconstitutional abuses of many Executive Branch agencies against the American people under the Obama administration in direct contravention to the compact among the people establishing the United States government enshrined in the United States Constitution could well become a much more central theme tarnishing the "legacy" which President Obama has hoped to craft than he would have wished.
     Even as President Obama has focused global attention on Iran's nuclear arms development Obama and his administration meanwhile reportedly have accelerated exportation including under direct so-called "defense" industry (armament merchants) pressure of the far greater more immediate menace of armed drone use and proliferation (intended and unintended) with "lethal operations" committed by the United States including throughout the Middle East, Pakistan (which called for the arrest of U.S. officials), Afghanistan and Africa, as well as by armed drone kill strikes by Great Britain and Israel, while directly contradicting Obama's promises to the American people and the world of a "near-certainty" standard regarding his Administration's use of drone kills publicly known to be through the Central Intelligence Agency and the United States military Joint Special Operations Command.
     Readers interested in more information as to what is known publicly to date of actual U.S. drone murders in what eventually may well be widely recognized to constitute U.S. undeclared war atrocities as well as a direct link to the investigation released yesterday by the New York legal advocacy group Open Society Justice Initiative working with the Mwatana Organization for Human Rights group in Yemen which interviewed witnesses of U.S. drone civilian mass kills can go to the link below. [UPDATE] Readers interested in more information regarding arms proliferation approved by the U.S. government fueling Middle East conflicts as well as the expected approved imminent sale for the first time outside of NATO of Predator drones by General Atomics to the United Arab Emirates "to run spying missions in their neighborhood" can go to the more recently added second link below.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/14/world/middleeast/legal-advocacy-group-says-us-drone-program-sets-dangerous-example.html?ref=todayspaper

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/19/world/middleeast/sale-of-us-arms-fuels-the-wars-of-arab-states.html

Copyright 2015 Martin P. All World Rights Expressly Reserved

RE-UPDATED: Cheney Blackwater Thugs Sentenced To Life And 30-Year Prison Terms For 2007 Slaughter Of 14 Iraqi Civilians Wounding 17 Others

     Tuesday, 14 April 2015, WASHINGTON, D.C. - Although former not-really-elected Vice-President "Pigheart" Dick "Criminal Notorious" Cheney has yet to be brought to justice in the United States or overseas for his central role in Bush-Cheney Administration CIA torture war crimes against humanity about which acts of torture Cheney upon release of a summary of the United States Senate Torture Report stated he would "do it again" if given the chance to commit further acts of torture nevertheless the noose does appear to be tightening with the conviction and sentencing of at least some of the first of Cheney's worldwide criminal conspiracy of the several times since renamed Blackwater "Blackdeath" contractor thugs made up among others of mercenaries, felons, early release violent prisoners, psychopaths, sadists, the dishonorably discharged, murderers, assassins and the criminally insane four of whom have been brought to justice in a Washington, D.C. Federal Court where the four Blackwater "guards" were convicted last year of a host of extremely violent crimes stemming from the horrific slaughter unleashed by them in 2007 upon innocent Iraqi unarmed civilians killing 14 and injuring 17 others who were caught in a traffic circle in Baghdad's crowded Nisoor Square in what was called a "wartime atrocity".
     Cheney's Blackwater "Blackdeath" contract ex-guard killer former army sniper Nicholas A. Slatten convicted of murder last year was sentenced to life in U.S. federal prison for his role in the slaughter which ignited worldwide outrage and belated wonderment among many as to why Cheney's homicidal maniacs were engaged at all by the U.S. Government to serve in various misnamed roles such as "guards" as well as paid allegedly with cash in the form of palettes of U.S. $100 bills lowered from helicopters for a great many grossly inadequate incomplete construction projects in Iraq which put United States armed forces at increased risk of death and injury due to late and or fraudulently shoddily or never completed projects such as airstrips.
     The other Cheney Blackwater "Blackdeath" contract ex-guard killers Dustin Heard, Evan Liberty and Paul Slough faced multiple counts of manslaughter, attempted manslaughter and using firearms while committing a felony for which they also were convicted in the Washington, D.C. Federal Court last year for their roles in the slaughter of the Iraqi civilians. Prosecutors argued in a daylong hearing that 30-year sentences were not harsh enough as the defendants had continued to maintain their innocence and expressed no remorse claiming they were "under attack" although they had been convicted on the finding that their homicidal rampage was an entirely unprovoked ambush unleashed upon Iraqi civilians caught in traffic.
     Defense attorneys asked for leniency for the killers who repeatedly invoked religion including citing "God as my witness", exoneration in "this life and the next", as well as Dustin Heard telling the judge that he did nothing "wrong", which judge also was told the "verdict is wrong" by Nicholas Slatten sentenced to life in prison for murder for "having started the melee with a precision shot through the head of a young man stopped at the intersection" before also telling the judge "[y]ou know I am innocent, sir". U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth according to The New York Times "strongly disagreed'. He rejected all requests from all parties telling the court that "[b]ased upon the seriousness of the crimes, I find the penalty is not excessive".
     Former not-really-elected Vice-President "Pigheart" Dick "Criminal Notorious" Cheney once head of the giant Halliburton all-purpose government contractor oft-rewarded with enormously profitable no-bid U.S. Government contracts supposedly cut his ties with that company while "serving" (himself) in the office of Vice-President although his rapidly escalating reported income while "serving" (himself) as Vice-President would seem to belie that claim. Halliburton has since payed out $1.1 billion to settle claims against it for its responsibility in the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion and delayed response leading to a subsequent environmentally disastrous huge oil spill filling the Gulf of Mexico (aka the "Gulf of Corexit") which British Petroleum (BP) now is using to advertise its self-described alleged status as a model corporate citizen while environmentalists and HBO's VICE program have maintained that claim to be as far from the truth as it could be as the Gulf is still filled with an oil and highly toxic Corexit "dispersant" mixture far more toxic than the oil itself actually now merely hidden beneath the surface by BP as reported here in an earlier post. BP's payout to claimants injured by BP's massive oil spill disaster now has topped $5 billion and is expected to reach nearly $10 billion in total payouts.
     During that time of alleged "service" to the United States Cheney also seemingly maintained a very cozy relationship with his Blackwater "Blackdeath" contractor outfit as it was rewarded amply with contracts including in war zones newly created by the Bush-Cheney administration as exemplified above as well as in worldwide positions serving in such dubious roles as "replacing" or "supplementing" Marine guards stationed at worldwide U.S. embassies for example in Pakistan where a local Blackwater office was raided and found by Pakistani police to contain an arsenal of illegal criminally-oriented weapons such as blackjacks, sawed-off shotguns and many others reportedly used in part violently to control long lines of Pakistani visitors waiting outside the United States embassy there. Meanwhile stateside in Texas Dick "Pigheart" Cheney in 2006 with a shotgun shot to the heart area Texas attorney Harry Wittington nearly killing him.
     Cheney also as mentioned above in addition to having maintained his close ties to Halliburton and the many times renamed (after each outrage) Blackwater "Blackdeath" outfit has been found to have played a central role in the Bush Administration's torture program carried out by the CIA committing war crimes against humanity all of which to date has not been known to have resulted in any criminal action against Cheney (who recently was interviewed by Playboy magazine) at home or abroad. Interested readers can find significantly more detailed information in the BBC World News and New York Times articles linked to below as well as several previous posts in the Ninth Amendment concerning the above Baghdad slaughterous rampage, other Blackwater transgressions, Halliburton, Cheney and the CIA's kidnapping and torture program of war crimes against humanity largely committed under the legal nod of CIA Acting General Counsel John "Goodfella" Rizzo.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/14/us/ex-blackwater-guards-sentenced-to-prison-in-2007-killings-of-iraqi-civilians.html?ref=us&_r=0

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-32292921

Copyright 2015 Martin P. All World Rights Expressly Reserved

Beat Polygraph Tests Easily Which Are But "Insidious Orwellian Instruments Of Torture" According To Former Police Detective And Polygraph Examiner

     Monday, 13 April 2015, NEW YORK, NY - Former Oklahoma police detective and polygraph examiner Doug Williams, now aged 69, reportedly has been coaching people for 36 years how to beat polygraph so-called "lie detector" tests which in addition to the quote in the above post heading he also calls "nothing more than a psychological billy club used to coerce and intimidate people". Federal law prohibiting the use of polygraphs by most employers, a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that lower courts may ban polygraph results from evidence and the scientific community repeatedly warning about polygraph tests' potential inability accurately to detect lies all would seem provide a firm foundation for former Detective Williams' strong assertions about the potential for the authoritarian misuse of essentially worthless polygraph test results to persecute the innocent.
     Nevertheless reportedly the federal government, state and local law enforcement unsurprisingly continue routinely to administer polygraph tests and apparently rely on them not unduly concerned with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling, federal legislation and the scientific community's seemingly obvious strong admonitions about the polygraph's unreliability. This intransigence extending to the highest levels of law enforcement and government would seem to be confirmed by the fact that even the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) less than a half year ago in November 2014 charged former Detective Williams with witness tampering after he tutored undercover agents posing as federal job applicants who had committed crimes on how to beat the polygraph.
     Not to worry that Mr. Williams will be stifled or unavailable for tutoring due to court dates ahead in the DOJ case against him as Mr. Williams would seem to be all the more enthused with presumably much added publicity to his cause of exposing the great polygraph lie including for example as widely circulated in The New York Times article linked to below now given the opportunity to broadcast his message far and wide of "this dangerous myth of lie detection". Moreover former Detective Williams has taken the opportunity of the publicity afforded him by DOJ to cast himself as the victim of government retaliation for widely publicizing the polygraph's apparently rich potential for false results or, again in Mr. William's own words, "I've made them look like fools and con men".
     Interested readers will find former Detective Williams' polygraph-beating techniques succinctly outlined in two short paragraphs in the article linked to below which techniques however presumably would best be learned due to physical monitoring considerations actually hooked up to a practice polygraph machine. Thankfully practice no longer even requires clenching one's anus in response to certain benign "control" questions to feign distress in contrast to how to "calm oneself" before answering "relevant ones about a specific incident" (after practicing in advance telling the two types of questions apart) as well as heeding Mr. Williams most important first admonition which is "not to be intimidated".

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/12/magazine/how-to-beat-a-polygraph-test.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0

Copyright 2015 Martin P. All World Rights Expressly Reserved

Facebook "Amassed The World's Largest Privately Held Database Of Consumer Biometrics Data" Claims Class-Action Lawsuit By "Hated" Law Firm Believed To Have Recovered $1 Billion For Tech Firm Privacy Violations

     Sunday, 12 April 2015, SAN FRANCISCO - In the face of longtime U.S. government lassitude in enforcing privacy, anti-trust and other laws against giant technology firms such as Facebook, Google, Amazon and a host of others big and smaller doubtless largely because of the documented complicity of most if not all giant tech firms in contributing data to continuing blatantly unconstitutional U.S. government domestic mass surveillance and data collection operations even as European regulators have pounded these tech behemoths with privacy and other violation rulings and huge fines to which big tech seems all but impervious, there is one most unlikely lawyer Jay Edelson, 43, and his most unconventional law firm Edelson PC (whose 20 lawyers reportedly wear hoodies sporting the firm's logo to work) which has been taking a leading role in class-action attacks using mostly older laws against these technology monsters based on their invasions of Americans' privacy and has earned Mr. Edelson the New York Times tribute (or condemnation depending on one's point of view) of being "if not the most hated person in Silicon Valley, very close to it" as well as earning Edelson PC an estimated $1 billion in recoveries from these companies for alleged privacy violations.
     The class-action lawsuit brought most recently by Edelson against Facebook for its allegedly "private" data collection from use of widespread facial recognition biometric technology which as reported here in an earlier Ninth Amendment post immediately had European regulators up in arms long ago yet met with a resounding silence in the U.S. is but one in a very long series of Edelson class-action lawsuits against a virtual who's-who of tech companies which also recently saw the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit rule that the named plaintiff had standing in another Edelson lawsuit claiming misinformation about him was sold by Spokeo a search engine that purports to sell all the (presumably correct) information it can gather on a person to whomever wishes to pay for it. Spokeo is appealing that ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court with plenty of friendly firepower provided by lawyers for other big tech companies in the form of amici curiae (friends of the Court) briefs. Mr. Edelson noted that since the revelations of contractor Edward J. Snowden of massively unconstitutional privacy breaches by the National Security Agency (N.S.A.) that courts have been much more willing to allow cases to go forward for widespread abuses and violations of Americans' privacy rights. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reportedly finally also has picked up the pace of initiating some actions. (The unofficial U.S. government regulatory motto being: "We're slow, but we're here.")
     Meanwhile Facebook unsurprisingly vigorously denies the charges filed against it claiming that Facebook users could turn off facial recognition biometric technology (if only they knew where to look in the notoriously confusing ever "evolving" user privacy controls of that Zuckerboy enterprise). This in fact also points to a bigger issue which may be facing Edelson in the future being that merely by clicking on a box users of many computer applications allegedly now are agreeing to the extremely lengthy "terms and conditions" which increasingly somewhere buried in them contain mandatory arbitration clauses as the days seem long gone when courts actually ruled in such cases for example against insurance companies that used such (once) obviously deceptive devices as "adhesion contracts" which virtually no one read and if they did found them essentially impossible to understand and digest much less being able to have them changed in any case if they did. Nevertheless Edelson PC reportedly took on one such matter with an arbitration clause against AT&T by filing dozens of arbitration cases just to "send a message" to other tech giants (although AT&T reportedly still does have the arbitration clause in its contracts which the Ninth Amendment thankfully has not had occasion to review).
     Whatever the case Mr. Edelson and his firm would seem to be undaunted based on his interview in San Francisco in the article linked to below as well as in viewing the photographs therein showing lawyers and/or staff from Edelson PC back in Chicago engaged in a seemingly casual untroubled game on a ping-pong table which apparently occupies one corner office of the most colorfully decorated firm of the "Billion Dollar Man" who some believe a chamption of privacy rights and others just another class-action scoundrel. In full disclosure Mr. Edelson is a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School which also was attended by a member of the Ninth Amendment's editorial board albeit in a different time period with no compensation sought nor provided for the publication of this post. Readers interested in more information concerning the above including some of the more obscure statutes relied on in lawsuits brought by Edelson PC can go to the link below.
       
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/05/technology/unpopular-in-silicon-valley.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0

Copyright 2015 Martin P. All World Rights Expressly Reserved