I have a lot of esteem for Glenn Greenwald, he is a brilliant civil libertarian. Here he discusses Edward Snowdon’s revelations about how the the national security apparatus is conducting universal surveillance on every piece of telecommunication on the planet.
Affordable Drones made in Mexico
After it’s run through Google Translate…
The popularity grows apace drones and technology as its exclusive military longer, finally becoming available to the general public. Our country came through 3D Robotics, a company based in Tijuana who sells copies from $ 600 USD.
Although there are affordable models, the most advanced cost up to $ 1300 USD in exchange for offering higher performance. The most complete has six engines, multiple sensors (including GPS), telemetry equipment and can carry objects up to kilo and a half. All are capable of taking photo and video.
Fortunately, for those interested who do not understand robotics, copies it distributes this company are designed for simple, similar to a remote control helicopter. “We did a product easy to understand.’s Designed intuitively. I can use artists, architects, scientists,” said general manager Jose Guillermo Romero Mendez, in an interview with El Pais newspaper agency. The manager has his first customers were amateurs and experts in mechatronics, but today more and more people come. “The problem is that most want to press a button and the drone do the rest. Our challenge is to strike a balance between accessibility and functionality.” The interesting thing is that the proposal does not come from a corporate giant but small team, comprised of enthusiasts.
Seems real benign, right?
Alton Lemon won the case, Lemon v. Kurtzman, 1971, which successfully challenged a Pennsylvania law, the first such law in the nation, providing public tax funds to religious schools for teaching four secular subjects. Mr. Lemon, a member of the ACLU, volunteered to be part of the challenge of this law, which became a watershed for the Establishment Clause, and now bears his name. The Supreme Court unanimously invalidated the parochial aid.
In one of the enduring legacies of the Burger Court, it also codified existing precedent on the Establishment Clause into a test, which is called the “Lemon Test.” You can probably recite the “Lemon Test” with us. It has three prongs and if any of the three prongs are violated by an act of government, it is unconstitutional:
- It must have a secular legislative purpose.
- Its principal or primary effect must neither advance nor inhibit religion.
- It must not foster excessive entanglement between government and religion.
What if the sites you love were turned against you? CISPA turns sites into government spies. Protest to stop it!
To the disappointent of advocates for civil liberties and internet freedom, the controversial Cyber Intelligence and Protection Act (CISPA) passed the…
Oh yeah, I caught it after it was too late:
your vote for #CISPA was disgraceful, @repjuanvargas goo.gl/S05sF because of tab.bz/lzrqx #civilliberties #ChulaVista
— Ken (@diegueno) April 20, 2013
That’s the rub about Vargas: he’s a massive sellout, but at least he’s not a Republican, right?
Less than two days later, Sisson was dead. His stay in jail was so short that his autopsy report noted that the ink from his booking fingerprints was still on his fingers. The medical examiner listed the cause of death as asphyxiation from an acute asthma attack, with heroin withdrawal as a contributing factor. A small amount of methamphetamine was also found in his system.
Since March 27, CityBeat’s been taking a closer look at the 60 deaths that occurred in San Diego County jails between 2007 and 2012. Over that period, the county had the highest mortality rate of Californiaís 10 largest jail systems. Sisson’s was one of 11 deaths in San Diego County jails in 2011. That year, only Los Angeles County recorded more deaths—19 total—and L.A.’s jail system is triple the size of San Diego’s.
If you don’t care about Eighth Amendment rights, you suck as an American. That means you, neighbor.
Since its debut for Android users last June, the NYCLU says they’ve received over 1,000 written reports documenting police officers being verbally abusive or drawing weapons during stops, and one instance in Washington Heights in which an officer refused to give his name and badge number, then used his car’s floodlights to prevent a bystander from recording the police stop. Of the more than 5,000 videos submitted, around 200 document police incidents.
“While we’ve yet to see a ‘Rodney King’ moment, Stop and Frisk Watch submissions have confirmed a number of concerns the NYCLU has about stop and frisk abuse and has provided New Yorkers with a powerful tool to document police abuse,” NYCLU executive director Donna Lieberman says in a release.
Though it’s created “a lot of needless video review for our attorneys…it’s a good problem to have,” NYCLU spokeswoman Jennifer Carnig says of the glut of unusable footage. “It’s wonderful that thousands of people were so excited about the app that they couldn’t wait to try it out. We’re hopeful this test function will eliminate many of those submissions and leave us with the police accountability videos instead.”
You’ve had a busy play day - You’ve wiretapped Mom’s cell phone and e-mail without a warrant, you’ve indefinitely detained your little brother Timmy in the linen closet without trial, and you’ve confiscated all the Super-Soakers from the neighborhood children (after all, why does any kid - besides you, of course - even NEED a Super-Soaker for self-defense? A regular water pistol should be enough). What do you do for an encore?
That’s where the US Air Force Medium Altitude, Long Endurance, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) RQ-1 Predator from Maisto comes in. Let’s say that Dad has been labeled a terrorist in secret through your disposition matrix. Rather than just arrest him and go through the hassle of trying and convicting him in a court of law, and having to fool with all those terrorist-loving Constitutional protections, you can just use one of these flying death robots to assassinate him! Remember, due process and oversight are for sissies. Plus, you get the added bonus of taking out potential terrorists before they’ve even done anything - estimates have determined that you can kill up to 49 potential future terrorists of any age for every confirmed terrorist you kill, and with the innovative ‘double-tap’ option, you can even kill a few terrorist first responders, preventing them from committing terrorist acts like helping the wounded and rescuing survivors trapped in the rubble. Don’t let Dad get away with anti-American activities! Show him who’s boss, whether he’s at a wedding, a funeral, or just having his morning coffee. Sow fear and carnage in your wake! Win a Nobel Peace Prize and be declared Time Magazine’s Person of the Year - Twice!
This goes well with the Maisto Extraordinary Rendition playset, by the way - which gives you all the tools you need to kidnap the family pet and take him for interrogation at a neighbor’s house, where the rules of the Geneva Convention may not apply. Loads of fun!
Yes, let’s thank Maisto for conditioning our children to get used our government operating outside of constitutional rules.
Bradley complained about the restrictive conditions, and psychiatrists said that they were detrimental to Bradley’s health, because they amount to solitary confinement. Bradley wasn’t able to speak to any other detainees, as his adjacent cells were empty, he only got 20 minutes outside of his 6′x8′ cell each day, and when he left the cell the entire brig was in “lockdown” and he had to wear metal shackles on his hands and feet and be escorted everywhere he went. Guards and officials have testified that Bradley is far and away the only detainee they’ve ever seen or kept on POI for this long – previously, the longest they’ve seen a detainee on POI was merely a few days, or two weeks at most, while Bradley was kept in isolation for nine months. Military psychiatrists say these conditions can be detrimental to a detainee’s mental health, especially as they last this long.
Questioned for several hours yesterday by defense lawyer David Coombs, MSGT Blenis said that Bradley’s previous history was cause for concern: in Kuwait, disoriented and isolated in what he called an “animal cage,” Bradley had considered committing suicide. Upon arriving at Quantico, Bradley wrote on an intake form that regarding suicide he was “always planning, never acting.” However, Bradley testified this week that he didn’t feel suicidal at Quantico, and that the intake remark wasn’t serious: he had guards standing over him who ordered him to “write something” and he knew that he’d be placed on Suicide Risk watch no matter what he wrote. Furthermore, brig psychiatrists Cpt. William Hoctor and Cpt. Kevin Malone testified this week that they didn’t consider those incidents to be long-term problems – they said that suicidal thoughts are frequently temporary, and by mid-August, Bradley posed no risk to himself and didn’t require these harsh conditions.
In July, MuckRock’s Brandon Weiber filed a Freedom of Information Act request through California’s so-called Sunshine Amendment to try and find out about any plans the San Diego Sheriff’s Department has to acquire a drone. Requests for proposals, policies, departmental records and a bevy of other information was petitioned for in a plea sent July 12, but just a week later he was told, “The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department has no records that are responsive to your request.”
Weiber, on the other hand, begs to differ.
In September, Weiber sent a follow-up letter directing the Sheriff’s Department to a sales quotation from Datron World Communications, Inc. detailing a drone that was being pitched to Sgt. Richard Williams of the San Diego County Sheriff’s Dept., Special Investigations Division.
