We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Friday, April 26, 2013

EPIC v. NSA - Cybersecurity Authority

Click here to access document from Electronic Privacy Information Center

This non-profit public research center has since 1994 focused its efforts on securing transparency in government and fighting against invasions of citizen privacy by government agencies. This document reports on its recent efforts. 

Notice the ongoing resistance by government agencies, most egregiously by the National Security Agency (NSA), to keep what it is doing secret with regard to accessing private information. NSA is the prime mover behind efforts to enact the CISPA bill which would streamline their ability to collect private information on citizens. 

It is clear to me that the One Percent, whose government we live under, greatly fear that we of the 99 Percent will wake up one day to realize that we are living in a police state; and, as a result, will forget about shopping and begin to engage in acts of rebellion. They, the One Percent ruling class, have already established militarized local police forces controlled largely by the Department of Homeland Security; and now they want to complement this by snooping into our internet activities and information on us held by corporations.

See also this regarding collusion between the Dept. of Defense and corporations regarding access to personal information.