US House votes to continue NSA's phone surveillance

[DigitalBuddha]

US House votes to continue NSA's phone surveillance

The US House of Representatives has narrowly voted to continue collecting data on US phone calls, in the first legislative move on the programme.

In a 205-217 vote, lawmakers rejected an effort to restrict the National Security Agency's (NSA) ability to collect electronic information.

Big Brother- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-23445231

...nothing ever changes.

[LotsaBadKarma]

Fuck it, dude. Let's go bowlin'.

You know, I get the whole privacy thing. I'm over being pissed about that because we, out here in Shit-Town, never had any control over it anyway. As far as I'm concerned wasting time and energy being pissed and protesting is too exhausting for me to worry about. I'm over caring about anything gubmint related. Fuck it, I don't even vote anymore. That's an example of how little I care.
Undoubtedly in the next erection (2016) we'll have Hillary Clinton squaring off against Chris Christie or one of the Bush boys. Is that really the best we fuckin' have? So why don't we have a NOTA option? Because these fucks know that we'll use it for sure.
So the system's fucked. So fuckin' what? It is what it is and none of us have the power to change it. If we did it would have already been done.

I think there's a lane open over there.

[purple_drank]

I always forget whether the House or the Senate get things first, but in this case I'm hoping the House got it first and that the Senate will shoot it down.

What the heck has happened to our constitutional rights??? Even the Patriot Act states that they must first have evidence to start any wiretapping; and it specifically forbids wiretapping if the only evidence being used is something that is protected by our constitutional rights! 

To vote or not to vote... well that's certainly you're right to choose dude

There's no way in hell I'm voting for Killary though, I personally hope Rand Paul or Ted Cruz (or maybe Trey Gowdy but he's much less likely) get the nomination cause I think they could fix and restore a lot of things if they're given the opportunity

[wuliheron]

LOL, that means that many more feds inspecting conservatives bung holes while they rant and rave about seceding from the union. So long as one in five Americans refuses to compromise on the smallest thing and continues to insist Jesus will return in their lifetime real competition in D.C. is impossible.

[DigitalBuddha]

LOL, that means that many more feds inspecting conservatives bung holes while they rant and rave about seceding from the union. So long as one in five Americans refuses to compromise on the smallest thing and continues to insist Jesus will return in their lifetime real competition in D.C. is impossible.

This Jesus?...

[Oompa Loompa Dude]

Fuck it, dude. Let's go bowlin'.

You know, I get the whole privacy thing. I'm over being pissed about that because we, out here in Shit-Town, never had any control over it anyway. As far as I'm concerned wasting time and energy being pissed and protesting is too exhausting for me to worry about. I'm over caring about anything gubmint related. Fuck it, I don't even vote anymore. That's an example of how little I care.
Undoubtedly in the next erection (2016) we'll have Hillary Clinton squaring off against Chris Christie or one of the Bush boys. Is that really the best we fuckin' have? So why don't we have a NOTA option? Because these fucks know that we'll use it for sure.
So the system's fucked. So fuckin' what? It is what it is and none of us have the power to change it. If we did it would have already been done.

I think there's a lane open over there.

You gotta buck up, dude, you can't go into the tournament with this negative attitude.

[LotsaBadKarma]

It's not really a negative attitude insofar as I don't get bummed out by it. It's just that I have no faith left in our system. The old saying about the inmates running the asylum is nowhere truer than it is here. The problem is that we get presented with the biggest clowns that our system has to offer and then we "vote for the lesser of 2 evils". The problem with voting for the lesser of 2 evils is that what you have in the end is  evil anyway. But that's what we have and I simply choose to make my statement via my abstinence from the process. So my withdrawal from the process is not a bummer so much as it is a statement that on Erection Day I have better things to do whether that means downing some Caucasians and rolling a few games or taking a nap.

The thing that clinched it for me was our most recent occupant of la casa blanca. Not only did I vote for this individual but I campaigned for him in '08. I did that based on what he said in the lead up to the erection. All the promises made about health care and getting us out of the middle east (militarily). So I cast my vote and he does exactly the opposite of what he promised during the campaign. That just made me see that no matter how good a candidate sounds during foreplay his/her performance during league play is going to be dictated by the money'd interests who pay him the real bucks. So I figure that no matter how good somebody looks beforehand he or she will end up treating objects like women and handing me a Caucasian with a little Mickey Finn mixed in for good measure.

So rather than this being a bad thing I feel more like I just woke out of a coma. This is all nothing but theatre, man, and we are the audience with the imaginary 4th wall between us and what is really going on. There's nothing I can do to change anything so I'm content to just sit and watch it all come a-tumblin' down. 

[wuliheron]

Americans love to blame their government for everything including their personal problems when they are the ones constantly electing these fools into office. Last year when the conservative billionaire mayor of NYC rented the cops out to Wall Street and had them arrest 26 reporters in one day in violation of the constitution nobody said boo. No law suits were filed and it wasn't even front page news. No massive protests took place and there were no demands to recall the mayor because freedom has become synonymous with the right to buy whatever the hell you want. That's called corruption and has nothing to do with the "system".

[Rev. Gary (revgms)]

I'm going with Bill Maher on this one.

http://youtu.be/OCfxITklNZY?t=2m3s

[Rev. Gary (revgms)]

Privacy is dead, it is a mtter of technology and the human drive for knowledge, in this modern world atoms have lost their privacy, stars across the universe have lost their privacy, planets in other solar systems can no longer keep secrets. Like the Buddha said, there are three things that can not remain hidden for long, the sun the moon and the truth. The concept of privacy is the idea that you can keep the truth hidden. What's more important and where the real fight lays, is in how noble are our laws, and how forgiving can we be to each other. In the age of the dick pic, we need to learn to for give each other for being human, and not criminalize non-crimes that reveal our humanity.

[wuliheron]

Privacy is dead, it is a mtter of technology and the human drive for knowledge, in this modern world atoms have lost their privacy, stars across the universe have lost their privacy, planets in other solar systems can no longer keep secrets. Like the Buddha said, there are three things that can not remain hidden for long, the sun the moon and the truth. The concept of privacy is the idea that you can keep the truth hidden. What's more important and where the real fight lays, is in how noble are our laws, and how forgiving can we be to each other. In the age of the dick pic, we need to learn to for give each other for being human, and not criminalize non-crimes that reveal our humanity.

Privacy is only dead because the Empire rules my young pad wan learner. The US has been the world's largest exporter for over a century, weapons are our #1 manufactured export, and business is better than ever. Our subs have been routinely tapping underwater phone lines and others monitoring cell phone towers for ages. We've even developed the technology for cops to look right through your clothing using a cell phone sized device and right through the walls of your house with a slightly bigger model. Privacy isn't dead, but you have to have money to have any.

[Rev. Gary (revgms)]

That's some uptight thinking, to think it is only the empire who is able to know truth. The ultimate goal for humanity is to know where every single atom in the universe is. Where it has been and where it is going. All facts are to be revealed, it is not the empire, it's archaeology.

We must start preparing our selves for the coming Singularity, the hive mind. We are in that process, just look at Facebook, reddit and Google Glass. If you do it, some one will record it, and it will be online, end of story. There are more cameras than people in some places, and every robot is recording and sharing everything we do (technically not yet, but Skynet is in development, it will be real in a few years, your dishwasher will be on the robot internet).

You do bring up a point, and one I would say is the most important, democratizing this technology, so that it is not exclusively in the hands of the wicked. In a world of quantum computers, Google Glass and robot internets, privacy is a technological impossibility, there is no right or wrong to that fact, it just is. And in that world, nobility, justice and equality are the most important things to hold on to and defend.

What I am saying is, the truth will be revealed, all truth, past present and future. That's not the problem, how we organize our societies is where the problem lies.

[Rev. Gary (revgms)]

Think about this, no one in Star Trek worries about privacy, because they are part of a just and rational society, not because they fear the truth.

[LotsaBadKarma]

Americans love to blame their government for everything including their personal problems when they are the ones constantly electing these fools into office.

And hence my decision to abstain.

The problem is that we aren't given people to pick from that really have talent and integrity. For example, when Ralph Nader used to run for president ever so often he was basically barred from participating in the debates. People can say what they want about Nader but my impression of him always was that he was a true advocate for the common man. All the recalls that he prompted, particularly in the auto industry including the outright extinction of the Pinto, were actions designed to protect us out in the real world from the shoddy shit that the auto makers just wanted to pump onto the highways inspite of the fact that a lot of this shit was "unsafe at any speed". Yet the debates would roll around and Nader was prevented by law from getting on TV and speaking his piece. The reason given was that he did not secure a sufficient percentage of public support but this is a circular problem. If you can't raise enough support according to law then you can't be in the debates. If you can't be in the debates you can't possibly hope to get the support of the public because they can't hear you. If you can't get the support of the public you won't raise enough votes or money. If you can't get enough support blah, blah, blah. So the system gets set up to effectively keep people out who might change things for the better.

And I'm sorry but I'm done with the lesser of two evils crap.

And I still have the right to complain when a president or a senator or representative does something shitty like excluding themselves from the law that prohibits insider trading because I PAY TAXES! They're doing this dirty shit on my dime. And the people who vote religiously and say that if you don't vote you give up the right to complain have it backwards. If someone votes for so-and-so for prez and they turn out to be a scumbag I (like George Carlin) say that that individual, the one who voted, lacks the right to complain because that person helped to get a scumbag elected to a political office. To argue the validity of this could go on infinitesimally and without resolution. Suffice to say that whatever I'm doing on erection day far outweighs the importance of casting a vote.

[Oompa Loompa Dude]

....Like the Buddha said, there are three things that can not remain hidden for long, the sun the moon and the truth. ...... we need to learn to for give each other for being human, and not criminalize non-crimes that reveal our humanity.

I don't know about you, but I take comfort in that.  Welp, that about does her, wraps her all up.