WikiLeaks releases draft of highly-secretive multi-national trade deal - TPP is about world domination for US corporations.

TPP Uncovered: WikiLeaks releases draft of highly-secretive multi-national trade deal. HT: RussiaToday.

'No wonder they kept it secret, TPP is about world domination for US corporations.'

 Details of a highly secretive, multi-national trade agreement long in works has been published by WikiLeaks, and critics say there will be major repercussions for much of the modern world if its approved in this incarnation.
The anti-secrecy group published on Wednesday a 95-page excerpt taken from a recent draft of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, a NAFTA-like agreement that is expected to encompass nations representing more than 40 percent of the world’s gross domestic product when it is finally approved: the United States, Japan, Mexico, Canada, Australia, Malaysia, Chile, Singapore, Peru, Vietnam, New Zealand and Brunei.

#WikiLeaks release on secret #TPP that represents more than 40% of the world GDP - full negotiated IP draft text | http://t.co/FOOH82tBCI
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) November 13, 2013

US President Barack Obama and counterparts from 11 other prospective member states have been hammering out the free trade agreement in utmost secrecy for years now, the result of which, according to the White House, would rekindle the economies of all of those involved, including many countries considered to still be emerging.
“The TPP will boost our economies, lowering barriers to trade and investment, increasing exports and creating more jobs for our people, which is my number-one priority,” Obama said during a Nov. 2011 address. The deal, he said, “has the potential to be a model not only for the Asia Pacific but for future trade agreements” by regulating markets and creating opportunities for small and medium-sized businesses in the growing global marketplace. 
Upon the publication of an excerpt obtained by WikiLeaks this week, however, opponents of the act are insisting that provisions dealing with creation, invention and innovation could serve a severe blow to everyone, particularly those the internet realm.
Although the TPP covers an array of topics — many of which have not been covered by past agreements, according to Obama — WikiLeaks has published a chapter from a draft dated August 30, 2013 that deals solely on Intellectual Property, or IP, rights. Previous reports about the rumored contents of the TPP with regards to IP law have raised concern among activists before, with the California-based Electronic Frontier Foundation going as far as to warn that earlier leaked draft text suggested the agreement “would have extensive negative ramifications for users’ freedom of speech, right to privacy and due process and hinder peoples' abilities to innovate,” all of which is being agreed upon without any oversight or observation. Indeed, the thousands of words released by WikiLeaks this week has concreted those fears and has already caused the likes of the EFF and others to sound an alarm.

The newly leaked TPP text confirms it's a serious threat to users' rights. Help us stop it: https://t.co/JEfZ5SNMhJ
— EFF (@EFF) November 13, 2013

The IP chapter, wrote WikiLeaks, “provides the public with the fullest opportunity so far to familiarize themselves with the details and implications of the TPP,” an agreement that has largely avoided scrutiny in the mainstream media during its development, no thanks, presumably, to the under-the-table arguments that have led prospective member states to the point they’re at today.
Julian Assange, the Australian founder of the whistleblower site who has been confined to the Ecuadorian Embassy in London for over a year now, had particularly harsh words for the TPP in a statement published alongside the draft release.
“If instituted, the TPP’s IP regime would trample over individual rights and free expression, as well as ride roughshod over the intellectual and creative commons,” Assange said. “If you read, write, publish, think, listen, dance, sing or invent; if you farm or consume food; if you’re ill now or might one day be ill, the TPP has you in its crosshairs.”
Within the IP chapter, the partaking nations in one excerpt agree to “Enhance the role of intellectual property in promoting economic and social development,” but elsewhere suggest that the way in which such could be accomplished would involve serious policing of the World Wide Web. Later, the countries write they hope to “reduce impediments to trade and investment by promoting deeper economic integration through effective and adequate creation, utilization, protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights, taking into account the different levels of economic development and capacity as well as differences in national legal systems.”
“Compared to existing multilateral agreements, the TPP IPR chapter proposes the granting of more patents, the creation of intellectual property rights on data, the extension of the terms of protection for patents and copyrights, expansions of right holder privileges and increases in the penalties for infringement,” James Love of Knowledge Ecology International explained after reading the leaked chapter. “The TPP text shrinks the space for exceptions in all types of intellectual property rights. Negotiated in secret, the proposed text is bad for access to knowledge, bad for access to medicine and profoundly bad for innovation.”
Opponents have argued in the past that stringent new rules under the TPP with regards to copyrighted material would cause the price of medication to go up: potentially catastrophic news for residents of member state who may have difficulties affording prescriptions. Public Citizen, a Washington-based consumer advocacy organization, has warned that US Trade Representatives privy to the TPP discussions have demanded provisions that “would strengthen, lengthen and broaden pharmaceutical monopolies on cancer, heart disease and HIV/AIDS drugs, among others, in the Asia-Pacific region.” Indeed, the leaked chapter suggests drug companies could easily extend and widen patents under the TPP, prohibiting other countries from producing life-saving pills and selling them for less. Outside of the world of medicine, though, the implications that could come with new copyright rules agreed upon my essentially half of the world’s economy are likely to affect everyone.
"One could see the TPP as a Christmas wish-list for major corporations, and the copyright parts of the text support such a view," Dr. Matthew Rimmer, an expert in intellectual property law, told the Sydney Morning Herald. "Hollywood, the music industry, big IT companies such as Microsoft and the pharmaceutical sector would all be very happy with this."
WikiLeaks wrote in response that the enforcement measures discussed have “far-reaching implications for individual rights, civil liberties, publishers, internet service providers and internet privacy, as well as for the creative, intellectual, biological and environmental commons.”
“Particular measures proposed include supranational litigation tribunals to which sovereign national courts are expected to defer, but which have no human rights safeguards,” warned WikiLeaks. “The TPP IP Chapter states that these courts can conduct hearings with secret evidence.”
According to the whistleblower site, the IP chapter also includes provisions that rehash some of the very surveillance and enforcement rules from the abandoned SOPA and ACTA treaties that were left to die after public outrage halted any agreement with regards to those legislation.
“The WikiLeaks text also features Hollywood and recording industry inspired proposals – think about the SOPA debacle – to limit internet freedom and access to educational materials, to force internet providers to act as copyright enforcers and to cut off people’s internet access,” Burcu Kilic, an intellectual property lawyer with Public Citizen, explained to the website TorrentFreak.
SOPA, or the Stop Online Privacy Act, was abandoned last year after massive public campaign thwarted the US Congress’ attempt to censor access to certain internet sites where copyrighted content may be incidentally hosted. One of the bill’s biggest opponents, Kim Dotcom of file-sharing sites Megaupload and Mega, was quick to condone WikiLeaks for their release of the TPP draft and condemned those responsible for drafting a bill that he warned would have major consequences for all if approved, including residents of New Zealand such as himself.
“No wonder they kept it secret. What a malicious piece of US corporate lobbying. TPP is about world domination for US corporations. Nothing else. We will stop this madness in New Zealand,” he told RT’s Andrew Blake.
According to WikiLeaks, the Obama administration and senior heads of state from other potential TPP nations have expressed interest in ratifying the agreement before 2014. All of that could now be put in jeopardy. 

Video - Agenda 21: Land grab.

Video - No protection from tragedy.

Brian Lilley has a message for President Barack Obama: You can’t legislate your way out of tragedies.

Statement by Gov. Perry on President Obama’s Executive Actions .

Statement by Gov. Perry on President Obama’s Executive Actions.(GOV Texas).
Gov. Rick Perry released the following statement regarding President Obama's executive actions:

"The Vice President's committee was appointed in response to the tragedy at Newtown, but very few of his recommendations have anything to do with what happened there.

"Guns require a finger to pull the trigger. The sad young man who did that in Newtown was clearly haunted by demons and no gun law could have saved the children in Sandy Hook Elementary from his terror.

"There is evil prowling in the world - it shows up in our movies, video games and online fascinations, and finds its way into vulnerable hearts and minds. As a free people, let us choose what kind of people we will be. Laws, the only redoubt of secularism, will not suffice. Let us all return to our places of worship and pray for help. Above all, let us pray for our children.

"In fact, the piling on by the political left, and their cohorts in the media, to use the massacre of little children to advance a pre-existing political agenda that would not have saved those children, disgusts me, personally.

The second amendment to the Constitution is a basic right of free people and cannot be nor will it be abridged by the executive power of this or any other president."



Meanwhile in Pakistan, nearly 900 civilians have been reported killed since 2004 from drone attacks, many of which have been under Obama’s watch. During this quiet drone war, largely ignored by the general public, 176 children have been reported killed.

Obama's New Treasury Secretary Jack Lew might 'BAN IMPORTATION OF GUNS!'

Obama's New Treasury Secretary Jack Lew might 'BAN IMPORTATION OF GUNS!'(IW).By Karl Denninger.
Bet you didn't know what's hidden in The Gun Control Act of 1968.
The Treasury Secretary is vested with the right to ban importation of any firearm he finds "does not have a sporting purpose."
While this authority is "currently" delegated to the BATFE, it doesn't have to remain delegated. In fact, there is nothing legislative about that delegation to the best of my knowledge, which means it can be revoked by pure fiat.
Jack Lew, the person most-likely to be nominated to replace Geithner, is Obama's current Chief of Staff. As such it must be presumed that he will do whatever Obama wants, within the limit of his statutory authority.

And that authority includes the ability to ban the import of any gun.

The Gun Control Act of 1968 should be repealed. But so long as it stands, no person who comes from inside the Obama administration can be considered for confirmation to the Treasury Secretary's post, and any such person must be made subject to strict scrutiny on their 2nd Amendment views.Read the full story here.

The Chuck Hagel Bankster Connections.

The Chuck Hagel Bankster Connections.HT: EconomicPolicyJournal.The nomination of Chuck Hagel has prompted an email response from Alan P. at PEU Report. He writes to EPJ:

Pentagon nominee Chuck Hagel has his own PEU ties. I've yet to see the media report them.

Alan, also, provided a link to his post, Chuck Hagel PEU, which details how Hagel has been keeping himself busy with his bankster ties.

In his post, Alan notes that Hagel sits on the advisory board of Corsair Capital. a private equity underwriter (PEU) focused on the financial services industry. He also serves on the Board of Directors of Chevron Corporation and Zurich’s Holding Company of America; and the Advisory Board of Deutsche Bank America, and is a Senior Advisor to Gallup.

Most noteworthy, Hagel is a director of Wolfensohn and Company. The company is founded by global operator James Wolfensohn. After Paul Volcker left the Federal Reserve to cash in, he chose to go with Wolfensohn's predecessor firm as a senior partner. Wolfensohn sold the predecessor firm when he became president of the World Bank.

In 2005, upon leaving as president of the World Bank, he founded Wolfensohn & Company, LLC, where Hagel is a director. The firm is privately held firm that invests, and provides strategic consulting advice to governments and large corporations doing business, in emerging market economies.

Since 2006, Wolfensohn has also been the chairman of the International Advisory Board of Citigroup.

In 2009, he became a member of the International Advisory Council of the Chinese sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corporation.

Bottom line, Hagel is operating at the core of crony corporate America and the expanding empire, if he is that close to Wolfensohn.

Neoconservatives and and gay rights groups are up in arms about some of Hagel's comments in the past about Israel and gays, but Hagel is a major insider. The empire will continue to expand under him, if he becomes Defense Secretary. For the real insiders, the Israel controversy and the gay comments are surface skirmishes, what the Hagel nomination is really about is a major league bankster heading the DOD, and in the end that means its about huge crony $$$$.Read the full story here.

Obama's secret plan to reclassify your guns.

Obama's secret plan to reclassify your guns.(WND).President may ban certain firearms with 1 simple move.President Obama, congressional Democrats and even some Republicans plan to push new gun-control legislation in the 113th Congress, but defenders of the Second Amendment fear Obama is poised to enact the restrictions through the Executive Branch if Congress is not cooperative.
John M. Snyder heads GunRightsPolicies.org and has worked for organizations from the National Rifle Association to the Second Amendment Foundation and the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. He said Obama and his allies have already chartered what regulatory course to pursue through the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or ATF.
“We have some confidential information that he may order the ATF to reclassify certain models of semi-automatic firearms as Title 2 guns under the Gun Control Act of 1968,” Snyder told WND. “What this would mean is that people could not obtain these without going through a terribly difficult process that includes registration of each firearm and paying a severe fee for the ownership of each one.”
Snyder said an even more drastic approach from Obama would be to try to ban semiautomatic weapons altogether.

“Also, there is the possibility that the administration could try to declare that semi-automatic firearms are fully automatic firearms or machine guns under this Title 2, in which case they would be banned because of an amendment that’s on the books, the Gun Control Act of 1968.

Snyder is referring to what’s known as the Hughes Amendment, which forbids the acquisition of any new fully automatic weapons or machine guns.
The possible strategy is not a new idea, according to Snyder. He said liberal groups have advocated the move for years, but Democrats have been reluctant to pursue it because of the massive public backlash that will ensue. Even if the Obama administration were to bypass Congress by imposing new regulations, there is still one card left for pro-Second Amendment forces to play: The House of Representatives could remove funding for the ATF or abolish it completely. But would the House GOP actually do that? Snyder is confident it would.

“I wouldn’t be surprised. I think the House is really furious with the president,” Snyder said. “The Republicans would like to cut budgets of the federal government because they think the federal government is taking too much money and spending too much money, and a good place for them to cut would be in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. If there is strong enough public support against the activities of the federal government, the House of Representatives will develop a plan to slash the budget of the agency. I think it’s a real possibility.”Hmmmm.....What's to prevent him from installing a 'Gun Czar" once the ATF is 'neutered'?Read the full story here.

Video: Obama – Forged Birth Certificate, SSN, Passport, Draft Card Fraud.

20 dark predictions for 2013, the year of oppression and insanity

20 dark predictions for 2013, the year of oppression and insanity.(IWB).Mike Adams
NaturalNews
January 1, 2013
2013 will go down in history as the year of global insanity. The Earth isn’t going crazy, but many of the people who inhabit it certainly are. Madness is about to be unleashed on many fronts: economic, social, political, financial and more. In the near future, you will look back on the Christmas of 2012 and think, “Wow, those were the GOOD times!”
Do not read this article if you wish to continue frolicking in the land of TV delusions, fake news and celebrity gossip. These are the darkest real-world predictions I’ve ever published, and they are not things I ever wish to see come true. But I can’t deny the reality of where things are headed. If we project present-day trends into 2013, 2014 and 2015, the picture becomes a multi-front nightmare.
The madness in America has reached a crescendo. Nearly half the population is now under the mind control of a “cult of personality” political figure named Obama who is deliberately dismantling America one day at a time. Unlike Bush who was simply a tyrant, Obama is a charismatic tyrant, and that’s far more dangerous. As you may recall, Adolf Hitler was also highly charismatic and won over the hearts and minds of his followers, using many of the very same speech patterns as Obama, an expert in neurolinguistic programming and emotional manipulation.
Because the population has been mesmerized into a state of near-total complacency, an actual police state society is being rolled out right before our eyes, complete with the planned destruction of the Bill of Rights and the characterization of anyone who believes in the Constitution as a “terrorist.”
Both Republicans and Democrats are doing nothing to stop it, as they have been taken over by corporate interests or have been promised positions of power in the new society that they plan to install after they crush the Republic.
With Obama at the helm, America is being turned into a gulag nation, complete with the sexual abuse of the citizens by federal agents (TSA), secret execution lists of American citizens (NDAA), secret gulag prisons and the government’s continued staging of mass shootings (Aurora and more) to keep the population psychologically controlled in a never-ending state of fear.
2013 will be 1984 on steroids
The ultimate plan, as you will see rolled out over the next few years, is installing Communism in America, which requires the complete government takeover of the economy, the total disarmament of the population so that people cannot fight back, the “elimination” of all who believe in freedom and liberty, and the official destruction of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
I wish I could say 2013 would be the year of “love” and “peace,” but unfortunately these will be used to provide a cover story for hatred, destruction and war. President Obama, the Nobel Peace Prize winner, is already one of the most repugnant war criminals in human history, having launched or continued eight regional wars, complete with the dropping of “peace bombs” on innocent women and children.
As long as Obama talks about “love” at home — even while firing drone missiles at innocent children in the Middle East — he is worshipped by his mind-slave minions in the USA. By invoking LOVE, Obama emotionally disarms the People and furthers his agenda of hatred, destruction and enslavement. His supporters have lost discernment and unknowingly are supporting the rise of the next tyrannical dictator.
If we even have a Presidential election in 2016, I will be surprised. 2012 may have witnessed the last shreds of the Republic being deliberately terminated.
The following predictions apply from 2013 to the end of 2015, as I always make predictions in three-year blocks.
#1) The global debt collapse arrives
The so-called “fiscal cliff” is only the beginning of what we’re about to witness. When record-low tax revenues are reported in April because of Obama’s planned destruction of the U.S. economy, ratings organizations will downgrade U.S. debt, setting off a global selloff that could thrust America into a “nightmare” scenario of being unable to sell more debt (or at least not at reasonable interest rates).
This, in turn, would result in the Fed turning solely to printing new money to buy U.S. debt, quickly accelerating into compounding hyperinflation.
#2) Obama administration attempts to gut the Second Amendment
Obama is coming after the guns, and he’s aided by some of the most insidious and psychotic individuals walking the planet today: Joe Biden, Dianne Feinstein, Michael Moore and others.
Their goal is the complete disarmament of the American people so that the government has total control over all firepower, just like in China, North Korea and Hitler’s Germany.
It’s all pure hypocrisy, of course, because all of these people have their own armed bodyguards. Obama’s children are protected by eleven armed guards in a private school. Michael Moore has armed body guards. Dianne Feinstein has a concealed weapons permit in California. They all want themselves to be able to have weapons, but not YOU, the “little people” of America.
#3) Martial Law declared across America
2013 is the year things may break out into mass violence in America. Look for Obama to declare Martial Law and announce a mandatory nationwide gun confiscation measure.
This, of course, will lead to even more violence as armed citizens begin fighting back against an out-of-control federal government that attempts to seize power and nullify the entire U.S. Constitution and its Bill of Rights.
#4) Extreme shortages of guns, ammo, magazines as their barter value skyrockets
Already, guns, ammo and magazines are virtually impossible to find and buy. This shortage will continue throughout 2013 and even well into 2014. Even if strict new gun control laws are not passed, the existing shortage cannot be filled until roughly the end of 2013.
The wait time on purchase many new rifles has already reached one year. It’s likely to get even worse in 2013.
#5) Tactical weapon strikes target Iran
The U.S. is very likely to be involved in military strikes on Iran. The excuse will be that “Iran has nuclear weapons,” but of course so does America, and the leadership of America is clinically insane.
This old “weapons of mass destruction” sham was the same excuse President Bush used to attack Iraq, remember? Now Obama will use essentially the same ploy to launch another “Peace Prize” war on a nation of innocent people. After all, he’s the President of LOVE, right? And there’s no better way to express LOVE for people than to bomb their children into bloody bits, Obama believes.
#6) Massive false flag attack carried out in USA and blamed on patriots
This is the big prediction for 2013 – 2015. A very large false flag attack will be carried out by the government and used to blame patriots and gun owners. This attack will be, on the small side, another school massacre or the bombing of a government building. On the large side, it could even be the release of a radiological weapon in a major U.S. city.
The false flag 9/11 attack worked so well to strip away America’s rights and freedoms that it will be repeated. But this time it could be much larger, potentially involving the death of hundreds of thousands of people. There is no limit to the evil of Big Government. They will do anything to maintain power and destroy liberty, even if it means “sacrificing” a few hundred thousand innocent lives. Once this happens, Obama will once again take to the airways and pronounce his “LOVE” for the American people.
#7) DHS arms the TSA and begins insane abuses of Americans on roadway checkpoints
The TSA will soon be armed. That’s the plan, didn’t you know? Take the most psychotic government workers in the nation — who are already known pedophiles, drug dealers, child porn dealers, thieves and shakedown artists — and arm them with government weapons to be used against the American people.
Soon, the roadway checkpoints will be set up and armed TSA goons will be molesting women and children on highways just like they already do in the airports!
Remember, TSA “officers” receive no police training. They take no oath of office. They are not “law enforcement” by any stretch of the imagination. They receive a week’s worth of training and then are let loose on the American people. (A typical police officer, in great contrast, will receive many months of training and swear an oath to protect the Constitution.) The uniforms worn by TSA are actually costumes with fake badges that mean nothing more than a plastic badge you might buy at a toy store.
#8) The rise of the Resistance: Secret resistance groups begin to form across America
As the crushing of liberties continues across America (censorship, destroying the Bill of Rights, secret arrests, etc.) you will witness the rise of resistance groups. They may take many forms, including info-warriors, online resistance, protests, and possibly even physical resistance groups that carry out missions in the physical world.
The more aggressive, abuse and outrageous the government becomes, the more easily resistance groups will be able to recruit members. This is just an historical fact. In times of peace and fairness, there is little or no resistance. But in times of government oppression and tyranny, resistance grows quickly.
#9) Attacks on the First Amendment accelerate as government seizes websites
You can expect websites like NaturalNews.com, InfoWars.com and many others to be seized by the government following a declaration of Martial Law. The purpose of this is to prevent people from asking questions or being informed. The U.S. press, already tightly controlled by the White House, will be completely taken over to become state-run media much like exists in China.
Natural News is right now working on an “information underground railroad” technology that can allow readers to stay in touch with us without using websites, browsers or email.
#10) The rise of violent rhetoric among the population as disagreements turn to threats
The irreconcilable differences between government worshippers and government skeptics will reach a boiling point, especially over the issue of gun control. Those who worship government vehemently believe that all people should be disarmed and tightly controlled by the “all knowing” government, which they see as the ultimate source of wisdom and love. True Americans, on the other hand, rightfully see government as inherently evil and destructive, and they believe in individual liberty, the Constitution, and genuine patriotism.
Expect to see isolated acts of violence between these two groups. Remember, the government worshippers want to see all the Constitutionalists rounded up and sent to concentration camps (FEMA camps). But Constitutionalists will not willingly go. They will fight back against tyranny.

Read the full story here.

Video - Global control starts with Agenda 21 - Part I.

Conservative commentator Glenn Beck joins Brian Lilley to discuss his new book about Agenda 21, a fiction book based on a terrifying UN project.

CITI'S MATT KING PRESENTS: 'The Most Depressing Slide I've Ever Created' .

CITI'S MATT KING PRESENTS: 'The Most Depressing Slide I've Ever Created'.(BI).Citi's Global Head of Credit Strategy, Matt King, has a knack for putting together useful illustrations.
Here, he examines one of the implications of one of the most powerful forces in all of economics: demographics.
King explained his charts to us like this:
It's what I like to call "the most depressing slide I've ever created." In almost every country you look at, the peak in real estate prices has coincided – give or take literally a couple of years – with the peak in the inverse dependency ratio (the proportion of population of working age relative to old and young). In the past, we all levered up, bought a big house, enjoyed capital gains tax-free, lived in the thing, and then, when the kids grew up and left home, we sold it to someone in our children's generation. Unfortunately, that doesn't work so well when there start to be more pensioners than workers. Read the full story here.

Related: Feud at The Fed: "Horrific Consequences" for Unlimited Easing.

Video - NSA Whistleblower: Everyone in US under virtual surveillance, all info stored, no matter the post.

RT talks to William Binney, whistleblower and former NSA crypto-mathematician who served in the agency for decades. Virtual privacy in US, Petraeus affair and whistleblowers' odds in fight against the authorities are among key topics of this exclusive interview -

WB: It’s everybody. The Naris device if it takes in the entire line, so it takes in all the data. In fact they advertised they can process the lines at session rates, which means 10 gigabit lines. I forgot the name of the device (it’s not the Naris) – the other one does it at 10 gigabits. That’s why the building Buffdale, because they have to have more storage, because they can’t figure out what’s important, so they are just storing everything there. So, e-mails are going to be stored there for the future, but right now stored in different places around the country. But it is being collected – and the FBI has access to it.

RT: You mean it’s being collected in bulk without even requesting providers? 

WB:Yes. 

RT: Then what about Google, you know, releasing this biannual transparency report and saying that the government’s demands for personal data is at an all-time high and for all of those requesting the US, Google says they complied with the government’s demands 90% of the time. But they are still saying that they are making the request, it’s not like it’s all being funneled into that storage. What do you say to that?

WB: I would assume, that it’s just simply another source for the same data they are already collecting. My line is in declarations in a court about the 18-T facility in San Francisco, that documented the NSA room inside that ASTandT facility, where they had Naris devices to collect data off the fiber optic lines inside the United States. So, that’s kind of a powerful device, that would collect everything it was being sent. It could collect on the order over one hundred billion one thousand character e-mails a day. One device.

 RT: You say they sift through billions of e-mails. I wonder how do they prioritize? How do they filter it?

 WB: I don’t think they are filtering it. They are just storing it. I think it’s just a matter of selecting when they want it. So, if they want to target you, they would take your attributes, go into that database and pull out all your data. 

 RT: Were you on the target list?

WB: Oh, sure! I believe I’ve been on it for quite a few years. So I keep telling them everything I think of them in my e-mail. So that when they want to read it they’ll understand what I think of them.

TSA Claims It Is Above Congressional Oversight.

TSA Claims It Is Above Congressional Oversight.(PP).By Steve Watson.The TSA has refused to attend a House Transportation hearing this week, with agency head John Pistole personally refusing to appear and declaring that the Congressional Committee has “no jurisdiction over the TSA”.
The hearing, schedule for Thursday, will be held by the Subcommittee on Aviation, a part of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee (TIC). It is titled HOW BEST TO IMPROVE OUR NATION’S AIRPORT PASSENGER SECURITY SYSTEM THROUGH COMMON SENSE SOLUTIONS.
Headed by Rep. Thomas Petri, it will “examine the impact that the regulations and policies of the Transportation Security Administration have on aviation passenger experience and the free flow of aviation commerce,” according to a brief on the subcommittee’s website (PDF).
The TIC’s website indicates that TSA head John Pistole has been asked to testify at the hearing. However, a statement issued on the TSA’s website made it clear that neither Pistole, nor any TSA official intends to attend the hearing.
The statement reads:

By U.S. House of Representatives rules which state that the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has no jurisdiction over the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), no representative from TSA will be present at the Subcommittee on Aviation hearing scheduled for Nov. 29.TSA will continue to work with its committees of jurisdiction to pursue effective and efficient security solutions. In the 112th Congress alone, TSA witnesses have testified at 38 hearings and provided 425 briefings for Members of Congress.TSA also continues to work to enhance security screening measures and to improve the passenger experience including through the expansion of TSA Pre?™. As part of its risk-based security initiatives, TSA has modified screening procedures for passengers 12 and under and 75 and older while pursuing a multi-layered approach to security that includes behavior detection officers, explosives-detection systems and federal air marshals, among other measures both seen and unseen.

House Republicans on the TIC have made it clear that they believe the TSA is in dire need of reform. A section on the Committee’s website describes the TSA as “a massive, inflexible, backward-looking bureaucracy of more than 65,000.”
“TSA is a top-heavy agency in need of reform,” the site also states.
In the next Congress, Mica will make way for Pennsylvania Rep. Bill Shuster. When asked by reporters for a reaction on the TSA’s refusal to testify at Thursday’s hearing, and the agency’s declaration that it is not beholden to the Committee, Shuster said “I don’t think we have direct jurisdiction but when they impede commerce, when they impede the traveling public, they need to answer to the committee.”
Speaking to Bloomberg News, Shuster said he “absolutely” expects TSA officials to appear at transportation committee hearings. Asked what will happen if they refuse to testify, Shuster said: “We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”
With public backlash against the TSA at an all time high, and given the scrutiny that the TSA has faced at the hands of the TIC and its subcommittees, it is somewhat unsurprising that agency head Pistole is no longer willing to face the music as it were.Read the full story here.

Noted Gun Rights Activist Warns Obama May Skirt Congress and Outlaw Semiautos

Noted Gun Rights Activist Warns Obama May Skirt Congress and Outlaw Semiautos.(IW).By Kurt Nimmo.Second Amendment activist John Snyder writes on his blog today that confidential sources have told him that the Obama administration may attempt to skirt Congress and outlaw semiautomatic firearms and multiple capacity ammunition feeding devices under Title 2 National Firearms Act items under the Gun Control Act of 1968.

“Under this scenario, semiautomatics and high capacity magazines could be acquired only with great difficulty and at great expense by America’s estimated 100 million law-abiding firearms owners,” Snyder explains.
Prior to Obama’s reelection earlier this month, it was rumored that notorious gun-grabber Dianne Feinstein instructed her legal staff to meet with the legal staff over at the BATF to discuss possible legislation outlawing semiautomatic firearms, according to sources cited by The Shooting Wire. The legal staffs reportedly also talked about banning pistol grips and “high-capacity” magazines.
Lawrence G. Keane, Senior Vice President, Assistant Secretary and General Counsel for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, allegedly forwarded information confirming the meeting and its objectives, according to David Codrea.

Snyder writes that congressional Second Amendment supporters are preparing to do battle and defeat any effort by Feinstein to rollback the Second Amendment. In response, the “Obama administration now may order the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to take the classification step. Some gun-grabbers view the designation of Street Sweeper shotguns as Title 2 items during the Clinton administration as precedent for such a move.”
The so-called Street Sweeper was reclassified as a destructive device in 1999 and requires an owner to register it with ATF within 30 days. Failure to do so may result in a $250,000 fine or up to 10 years in prison. Moreover, following the reclassification, the ATF contacted all purchasers of record of the shotguns and told them the weapons are now considered destructive devices and that they must be registered with the government.Read the full story here.

Video - Krauthammer: "Obama trying to destroy GOP not fix economy."

U.N. to Seek Control of the Internet.

U.N. to Seek Control of the Internet.(WS).Next week the United Nations' International Telecommunications Union will meet in Dubai to figure out how to control the Internet. Representatives from 193 nations will attend the nearly two week long meeting, according to news reports. "Next week the ITU holds a negotiating conference in Dubai, and past months have brought many leaks of proposals for a new treaty. U.S. congressional resolutions and much of the commentary, including in this column, have focused on proposals by authoritarian governments to censor the Internet. Just as objectionable are proposals that ignore how the Internet works, threatening its smooth and open operations," reports the Wall Street Journal. "Having the Internet rewired by bureaucrats would be like handing a Stradivarius to a gorilla. The Internet is made up of 40,000 networks that interconnect among 425,000 global routes, cheaply and efficiently delivering messages and other digital content among more than two billion people around the world, with some 500,000 new users a day. ... "Proposals for the new ITU treaty run to more than 200 pages. One idea is to apply the ITU's long-distance telephone rules to the Internet by creating a 'sender-party-pays' rule. International phone calls include a fee from the originating country to the local phone company at the receiving end. Under a sender-pays approach, U.S.-based websites would pay a local network for each visitor from overseas, effectively taxing firms such as Google and Facebook. The idea is technically impractical because unlike phone networks, the Internet doesn't recognize national borders. But authoritarians are pushing the tax, hoping their citizens will be cut off from U.S. websites that decide foreign visitors are too expensive to serve."Arthur Herman explains "The UN's Internet Grab" here.And even Google has already come out against the ITU.Read the full story here.

"CHANGE' - 6,125 Proposed Regulations and Notifications Posted in Last 90 Days--Average 68 per Day.

"CHANGE' - 6,125 Proposed Regulations and Notifications Posted in Last 90 Days--Average 68 per Day.(CNS).By Penny Starr.It’s Friday morning, and so far today, the Obama administration has posted 165 new regulations and notifications on its reguations.gov website. In the past 90 days, it has posted 6,125 regulations and notices – an average of 68 a day. The website allows visitors to find and comment on proposed regulations and related documents published by the U.S. federal government. "Help improve Federal regulations by submitting your comments," the website says. The thousands of entries run the gamut from meeting notifications to fee schedules to actual rules and proposed rule changes. In recent days, for example, the EPA posted a proposed rule involving volatile organic compound emissions from architectural coatings: “We are approving a local rule that regulates these emission sources under the Clean Air Act (CAA or the Act),” the proposed rule states. “We are taking comments on this proposal and plan to follow with a final action.”Read the full story here.

Video - Right to Know: "What makes you think you have the right to know?" asks Danny DeVito.

To learn more about Prop 37 and Food & Water Watch's campaign to make GE Labeling the Law, visit www.foodandwaterwatch.org/yeson37.

"What makes you think you have the right to know?" asks Danny DeVito in a witty, ironic public service announcement by the political action committee sponsored by consumer advocacy group Food & Water Watch in support of Proposition 37. California's ballot initiative to label genetically engineered foods. A diverse, all-star cast joins DeVito in the "Right to Know" PSA, including Bill Maher, Dave Matthews, Jillian Michaels, Emily Deschanel, John Cho, Glenn Howerton, Kaitlin Olson, KaDee Strickland and Kristin Bauer van Straten.

Video - Max Keiser: World Gov’t, World Tax is Here.

The Biggest Threat to Free Speech and Intellectual Property That You’ve Never Heard Of.

The Biggest Threat to Free Speech and Intellectual Property That You’ve Never Heard Of.(ACLU).By Sandra Fulton.As we have seen in the failed attempts of SOPA/PIPA, and the floundering Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, intellectual property (“IP”) laws are often poorly constructed, hastily proposed and ultimately both ineffective and potentially abusive.
Now, the latest threat to free speech in guise of IP reform is a multilateral trade agreement currently being negotiated (in secret) by the Office of the United States Trade Representative (“USTR”). That agreement—the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or “TPP”—would reportedly include dramatic changes to intellectual property laws, changes that could potentially permit the patenting of plants, animals, and medical procedures.
And, while some of the proposed changes run contrary to enacted federal law, the USTR is not only pushing for TPP, it is doing its best to avoid congressional oversight. For instance, they recently rebuffed a request from the staff director on the Senate Finance Committee's international trade subcommittee to review documents pertaining to the negotiations. Senator Wyden, chairman of the subcommittee, wrote:

[M]y office is responsible for conducting oversight over the USTR and trade negotiations. To do that, I asked that my staff obtain the proper security credentials to view the information that USTR keeps confidential and secret. This is material that fully describes what the USTR is seeking in the TPP talks on behalf of the American people and on behalf of Congress. More than two months after receiving the proper security credentials, my staff is still barred from viewing the details of the proposals that USTR is advancing.

USTR later gave in a bit and allowed the Senator himself to view the documents but still refused the staffer’s access.
Prominent senators aren’t the only ones being kept in the dark. Consumer and advocacy groups are also totally shut out of the negotiations, while certain interested corporations have a preferred seat at the table. As Senator Wyden further explained:

The majority of Congress is being kept in the dark as to the substance of the TPP negotiations, while representatives of U.S. corporations – like Halliburton, Chevron, PHRMA, Comcast, and the Motion Picture Association of America – are being consulted and made privy to details of the agreement.

Aside from the cloak and dagger nature of the negotiations, some of the most troubling aspects of the TPP are significant expansions of patent protections.
While we tend to hear a lot about how IP regulations will affect online content, leaked versions of TPP would require the signatory countries to permit the patenting of plants and animals as well as diagnostic, therapeutic and surgical methods of treatment of humans or animals—all without explicit limits on enforcement. Current U.S. law forbids the enforcement of surgical patents against medical practitioners for good reason. We do not want doctors wondering if they’ll be risking a patent infringement suit every time they want to try a new surgical technique.
While the ACLU believes that the First Amendment can be served by effective IP protections that provide artists, writers, scientists and other innovators and creators with the incentive to innovate and create, any IP enforcement regime must be crafted carefully and after full public deliberation. Expect to hear much more about TPP in the coming days. We’ll be digging into the leaked draft, and will continue to raise concerns with the USTR and Congress about both the secrecy of the negotiations and the substantive problems in the agreement. The patent laws must yield to the First Amendment, and it seems likely that the opposite has been true in the USTR’s efforts on TPP.Read the full story here.