David Rosenberg On A Modern Day Depression Vs Dow 20,000

via: ZeroHedge
by: Tyler Durden
July 23, 2012

This is looking more and more like a modem-day depression. After all, last month alone, 85,000 Americans signed on for Social Security disability cheques, which exceeded the 80,000 net new jobs that were created: and a record 46 million Americans or 14.8% of the population (also a record) are in the Food Stamp program (participation averaged 7.9% from 1970 to 2000, by way of contrast) — enrollment has risen an average of over 400,000 per month over the past four years. A record share of 41% pay zero national incomes tax as well (58 million), a share that has doubled over the past two decades. Increasingly, the U.S. is following in the footsteps of Europe of becoming a nation of dependants. Meanwhile, policy stimulus, whether traditional or non-conventional, are still falling well short of generating self-sustaining economic growth.

Continue Reading More At: ZeroHedge.com

Verizon Claims Right to “Edit” What You See on the Internet

via: AllGov
by: Noel Brinkerhoff
July 15, 2012

Like other Internet service providers, Verizon is fighting to derail the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) rules for network neutrality. But Verizon has set itself apart from other ISPs with its legal arguments for why the FCC’s Open Internet Order should be tossed out.

In its legal brief filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, Verizon lawyers claim the FCC has exceeded its regulatory authority by trying to dictate how ISPs control the flow of information across their networks. More importantly, the company claims the net neutrality rules violate its First Amendment and Fifth Amendment rights.

As Verizon sees it, “broadband networks are the modern-day microphone by which their owners [e.g. Verizon] engage in First Amendment speech.” Furthermore, the company should be allowed to act like a newspaper does, selectively choosing what information should be allowed to stay and what should be selected out.

Continue Reading At: AllGov.com

Cell Phone Corporations Help Government and Law Enforcement Spy On You

via: OccupyCorporatism
by: Susanne Posel
July 12, 2012

Your wireless company is tracking you with GPS, recording your phone calls and text messages . . . and they are selling the information they collect to other corporations, nations, governments – anyone willing to pay for the data. The US government is one of the wireless corporation’s biggest clients. They are collecting yotabytes of data from multiple sources on all American citizens.

Congressman Ed Markey complied a report wherein information from numerous cell phone corporations that showed just how much data law enforcement receives from prominent cell phone carriers.

AT&T, Sprint, Verizon and T-Mobile were requested to hand over personal client data to federal agencies and local law enforcement at an alarming rate.

• 1.3 million = total number of law enforcement requests for “text messages, caller locations and other information in the course of investigations.”
• 116 = average number of requests the tiny Cricket fields each day.
• 700 = average number of requests AT&T fields each day.
• 1,500 = average number of requests Sprint fields each day.
• $8.3 million = the total amount in bills that AT&T sent to law enforcement and government agencies to comply with their requests. (That was up from $2.8 million in 2007.)

Sprint, catering to the illegal data mining of government agencies, has also made their job easier by providing anautomated web interface specifically designed for law enforcement which allowed them to retrieve more public information than from any other cellular phone carrier.

Continue Reading At: OccupyCorporatism.com

U.S. mobile phone companies responded to 1.3 million requests for subscriber information in 2011 alone

via: ActivistPost
by: Madison Ruppert
Tuesday, July 10, 2012

According to new figures acquired from mobile phone companies by Representative Ed Markey of Massachusetts, carriers responded to a whopping 1.3 million requests for subscriber information from law enforcement.

Unfortunately this is not all that surprising in the American surveillance state where police regularly use cell phone tracking,armored surveillance vehicles, light poles and more to monitor the populace.

These requests, which all occurred last year, included a wide range of information from just text messages to pinpoint phone location data.

The documents – which come from AT&T, C Spire, Leap and Cricket, MetroPCS, Sprint, T-Mobile, TracFone, U.S. Cellular and Verizon – represent the first time these figures have been made available to the public, proving just how unbelievably widespread domestic surveillance has truly become.

Rep. Markey, co-chair of the Congressional Bi-Partisan Privacy Caucus, began the probe in an attempt to maintain what few privacy protections Americans have left.

“We cannot allow privacy protections to be swept aside with the sweeping nature of these information requests,” said Markey in a statement.

The data was made available to the public by Markey on Monday, while the New York Times received the information one day earlier.

Continue Reading At: ActivistPost.com