Here Kitty - Kitty.

Growing up we always had some sort of pet in our home, rabbits, hamsters, birds, chimpanzees, dogs and the ever-preset cat that no one ever knew just how she got there, but she quickly took over the house and liked to pee on my Father’s favorite chair, we children loved her.

I feel some people go just a little too far when selecting a family pet, as this family in last nights headline, Kentucky Family Fights to Keep Pet Lion. It seems this family in a small Appalachian town should win the strangest pet of the year award with a full-grown lion for a pet.

The owners purchased the lion or Kitty as they named him, three years ago, when he was a 5-pound cub at a flea market. Of course, most of us have seen a lion cub on television and they are so cute and cuddly, that is until they mature and are capable of taking down an elephant before breakfast, or is that for breakfast, in any case, he is full size now.

His cute, tiny little purr is no longer music to the ear, now it is a lour roar and some residents are not too happy. Time and the law will decide on little Kitty and until then he is part of the family. I hope they keep him well fed and the mail carrier does not turn up missing.

Military troops along the border...

President’s Bush’s latest plan to augment the Border Patrol along our Border with Mexico by sending 6000 National Guard troops will be a blessing for US Citizens living along the border in Arizona. I have been following news reports originating in Yuma, Arizona and residents there are hoping and praying that Congress approves the plan.

Border crossers have long besieged Arizona, currently one of the illegal immigrant hot spots of our country. Residents of Yuma, Arizona have stated in interviews that their property and homes are no longer safe with the nightly incursions into their city lead by the coyotes. The low-life characters, who charge their flock thousands of dollars apiece, often take their money, lead them into an out of the way location in the Arizona Desert, far from water and leave them for the heat to dispose of.

Some time ago civilian human rights groups and Border Patrol agents began placing bottles and large containers of water in some of the remote Desert locations where coyotes often leave people to die from exposure and heat stroke, there are no statistics available to demonstrate if it works or not. In any case, even the smallest bit of water can mean the difference between life and death in the Sonora Desert. It is a hot, dry, unforgiving environment that was never meant for man or beast, yet these inhuman, filth coyotes, who call themselves human beings lead people through it all of the time.

The media is constantly drawing attention to the illegal immigrant issue related to border crossers when they need to be dwelling more on the depth of the illegal drug smuggling, which takes place between the borders of Mexico and America. The drug problem in America is not going to go away, or simply stop on its own merit. It needs constant work, workers, equipment and different laws and even then, the smugglers would still find ways in which to bring their death trash into our country.

It is unknown if Congress is going to allow Bush to proceed with the National Guard plan and even if they do; Washington has already announced the Guard will not be patrolling the border, just augmenting the personnel located there. That is a not only a waste of Guard resources, but may not accomplish anything at all. We will just have to wait and see.

The illegal immigration and drug smuggling issue is not going to fade away quietly, the National Guard alone will not correct much of it either, time will tell.

Thief needed to landscape his house...

I absolutely love it when surfing the news services and from out of nowhere, you spot a headline that makes you exclaim, “What the hell!” aloud before you actually click on it to view the entire story. I always expect the outrageous, dual meaning headlines if I am surfing through the oddities of the day or the sexual innuendos that tend to scream out from some want-to-be news site just to make you click and read the link.

Of course, once you have loaded the page, well there you are, reading something that had nothing to do with the headline what so ever and you discover why they created a screaming sex headline, it was boring!

With all the ranting and raving off my mind, I can get down to what I had planned on writing about. Honestly, in this particular case, the story does relate to the headline, but the headline is what grabbed my attention. I guess the reporter who wrote the story could actually say their journalism degree was worth it, I could not give their name from the byline because the AP (Associated Press) felt it was not important enough to include with the news article.

“Thief Steals Calif. Homeowner's Front Yard”, now try to tell me that headline did not at least get a “Huh?” from you. I realize that it had nothing to do with sex, nor was it even derogatory about some celebrity, but hey; sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. (By the way, experts agree that Sigmund Freud never even said that famous quote, a comedian in his stand up act used the phrase. Look at all the great tidbits of useless knowledge you learn here.

This particular incident took place in Adelanto, California, where a Mojave Desert homeowner came home to find their entire front law, which had just been professional landscaped hauled away by one determined thief. The culprit apparently was one determined person; taking all the fresh sod, plants and even the entire irrigation system. I can well imagine authorities investigating this incident, we can rule out CSI coming in, that is for sure.

Luckily, for the homeowner witnesses watched the event take place and watched as the thief, (we know this one cannot be referred to as a master thief) hauled the lawn, lock stock and barrel, to their own home. Witnesses contacted sheriff’s deputies who showed up and after investigation, took him to a nice soft cell where he never had to worry about a nice front yard again.

The Grinch Electric Company

The financial problems of businesses everywhere appears to be stemming from skyrocketing delinquent accounts, hence they’re no longer tolerating any form of late payment due on any amount. Gone are the days of “Payment due fifteen days upon receipt of bill” that once adorned those pretty bills they used to send, adorned with cute stickers and sayings, you owe it, you pay it, or else.

Politicians have gained a lucrative income from touring the news panel circuit, telling everyone, billing departments no longer have a heart and by Head Who, we are going to investigate and stop the accounts receivable departments from being the anal-retentive heartless ding-dongs they have become. (A new saying is making the rounds too, “Hit like the Grinch hit Whoville”)

Why are we going to do that, you ask, well because we are politician’s thank you very much, making threats we forget about upon leaving the podium is what we do. Hey, Mr. News host, do you think I can I have my check for appearing now, quickly too, I have to seventeen more talk shows to do this morning, After all, I have to pay for that new wing on my house.
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The city of Flint, Michigan’s electric company really do not like their customers very much at all, they have appeared to have taken the stand of the “Grinch who stole everything and they will not tolerate their customers ignoring them.

No, they really have neither compassion nor understanding and like the Grinch, when it comes to people, why their heart is so small that physician’s were unable to locate it in their last Grinch checkup.

Whoville reporters, lost deeply in their daily Christmas song, “Fah who for-aze! Fah who for-aze” when the news of the electric companies microbe size heart reached them rushed to the cave of the head Grinch to obtain his comments, he simply shed one tear and refitted the deer antlers on his dog. Happiness is a sad Grinch.

They have finally proved to their customers and to the entire world their Grinch status, they proved it once and for all, when they turned off the power of a Michigan women. I mean how much can a Grinch stand, the woman owed them ONE CENT and they are not waiting any longer.

Yahoo News reported this article this morning, “It was just a penny, but to Consumers Energy it was enough to cut off power in a local home. Jacqueline Williams, 41, of Flint had an electricity bill of $1,662.08 and paid all of it, except for one cent.” That one cent was simply too much for a Grinch heart, I hope it grows just little larger, customers would be happier if it did.

Updated Links from Iraq and Others

I updated my Links section located on the bottom left of the page, adding quite a few of the great blogs and web sites that I make a point of visiting daily.

The sites belonging to soldiers presently serving in Iraq defending freedom are worth every minute you stay visiting and reading their personal entries, stories and viewing a few of their photos. I highly recommend them and sincerely hope you take the time to stop by and visit.

Blogs like, Fun with Hand Grenades, Midnight in Iraq, A Female Soldier's Story and others provide insight, wisdom and stories of their lives while serving in the big sandbox and I can assure you they would love hearing from you.

I also added two new items that are now available for all my visiting friends, situated on the lower left of the site below the links is a Google Search and below that is a blogarithm.com tool. The Google Search tool will search my entire blog for any word or phrases and display what it locates in another window. Of course, it also contains the great Google web search engine that made it famous.

The blogarithm.com tool is a great new feature that I discovered while reading “A Soldier’s Perspective” this morning and I have to say that I was very impressed. The tool provides all my visiting friends the opportunity to receive e-mail notifications whenever I have updated the blog. All you have to do to activate this feature is simply provide your e-mail address and you will receive notification of updates.

I hope you find both of these tools useful, if you have seen or used tools on other blogs that you have liked and found useful drop me an e-mail about them and I will see about adding them.

Ranter

Comment on Iraq..

I have two comments to make on this morning’s news from Iraq as both affected me in a different way and tended to tick me off in the same manner.

The first comment pertains to the news from Baghdad, Iraq that insurgents shot down a U.S. helicopter south of Baghdad and killed two soldiers, bringing the weekend death toll of American service members to seven.

As a vet, this affected me as brothers, sisters fell to additional attacks from insurgents, and I sincerely hope the US forces are able to seek out and locate these murderous, cowardly individuals and send them to their maker so they are able to explain their actions and pay through eternity for their cowardly act. It also infuriates me that Zacarias Moussaoui is sitting in jail while men and women of our military are being killed or wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. He should have received the death penalty for his knowledge and actions on 9/11.

The second issue from Baghdad, Iraq that the genocide-ordering coward, Saddam Hussein angrily refused to enter a plea on Monday after hearing a full, formal list of charges of crimes against humanity read to him in court filled me with yet more utter disgust and hatred for this slime who calls himself a human being. He murdered, tortured and humiliated entire sects of his own people, men, women and children combined and he has the audacity to stand in court claiming he is immune as he is the rightful president of Iraq.

The judge officiating the hearing took the right stance as he entered a formal "not guilty" plea on Saddam's behalf after giving a 15-minute recitation of killings, torture and executions that followed an attempt on the Iraqi leader's life in 1982.

This inhuman, murdering scum’s only legal position in this case is that of a murderer of women and children facing charges, if justice prevails he will soon swing from an Iraqi rope to answer for them and he too can explain why he did it to his maker.

National Guard to patrol our borders

I wholeheartedly agree with the President’s plan to bolster the nation’s Homeland Security, Border Patrol by augmenting it with National Guard. Of course, there will be heated discussions surrounding his plan, as the illegal immigration issue has become the political hot potatoes of both parties.

The White House also stated the added role of border patrol and security will not compromise National Guard responsibilities in the Iraq war or traditional disaster response issues when they occur. This is welcome news as long as they tick to that statement and not spread the guard too thin. The reports from the White House further insured that no active duty troops would be involved in this plan.

White House counselor Dan Bartlett was quoted by CBS News that the use of National Guard troops won't be "a militarization of the borders, nor will that guard forces sent to the Mexican border area "will not have law enforcement responsibilities or powers." They will act "in a supportive role."

The Border Patrol working along both the Arizona and Texas borders have been reported to be spread too thin to be an effective border crossing and illegal drug enforcement federal agency to fully accomplish their assigned mission. I feel that as long as the National Guard forces are not overworked and spread too far out, as some analysts are currently predicting then they would be a welcome addition to not only the border patrol, but American’s living along the border in various border towns.

IED Roll-up! From CJ.

CJ can be reached at:
A Soldier's Perspective
www.soldiersperspective.us

In all this week, more than 225 IEDs were prevented from being constructed. This does not take into account the IEDs that would have been built later by the guys we killed/captured this week. 225 is a pretty conservative number given the amount of materiel we found here. More than 1800 people will not be killed or injured from the devestating effects of these devices. Here's this week's IED Roll-Up:

6 May - Ansar al-Islam member and chemical expert Ali Wali, was killed during a counterterrorist raid in the Mansur district of Baghdad. Local citizens transported two bodies to the morgue where Coalition forces later confirmed the identity of the wanted terrorist. soldiers were not able to confirm the identity of the other man. Ali Wali, whose full name is believed to be Abbas bin Farnas bin Qafqas, was an Iraqi Kurd who served as a key leader in Ansar al-Islam's military command responsible for training and military operations including the planning of suicide operations, ambushes and kidnapping. Ali Wali was also an expert in the implementation of explosives as well as in the use of artillery, tanks and anti-aircraft weapons and allegedly was an expert in toxins and poisons. Wait, this can't be. I thought all the Dumbocrats said that there weren't any toxins and poisons in Iraq? If I weren't smarter than that, I'd be cornfused.

7 May - Soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 4th Iraqi Army Division and Coalition forces captured nine suspected members of a terrorist cell near Kirkuk. Iraqi soldiers moved to the target in the village of Tawilah, just outside Kirkuk, where they found five suspects, all members of a local terror cell responsible for making and emplacing improvised explosive devices. The five suspects, with four other individuals who were in the home at the time, were taken to a U.S. military compound in Kirkuk for questioning.

7 May - Coalition Soldiers discovered a cache west of Bayji based on information from a local citizen . The cache included an improvised explosive device ready for placement, nine anti-tank mines, eight hand grenades, various other weapons and IED making equipment, as well as an improvised rocket launcher. An explosive ordnance disposal team conducted a controlled detonation of the cache. Another tip from the informant led the Coalition Soldiers to an individual who is suspected to have ties to the cache and the leader of an anti-Iraqi terrorism cell in the province. The suspected insurgent was taken to a nearby military facility for further questioning.

10 May - Elements of the 6th Brigade, 2nd National Police Division, and 3rd Battalion, 67th Armor Regiment, seized a large cache of deadly explosives in a residence in eastern Baghdad. The search in the New Baghdad neighborhood by the National police and Soldiers resulted in the discovery of 142 land mines, 58 blocks of C4 explosives, approximately 8,000 feet of detonation cord, 107 fuses, 22 rocket-propelled grenades, a launcher, 59 mortars, 40 pounds of mortar propellant, four shape charges, 43 blasting caps, explosive-formed projectile materials, two gas masks, six two-way radios, multiple mortar launching tubes, maps of Baghdad and Iraq and insurgent literature. The operation took place with no rounds fired and no injuries. Three men were detained in connection with the cache. One female was detained and then released to a local leader under house arrest. A group of more than 300 residents gathered in the area. A local Imam and civic leaders ensured that the group demonstrating did not turn violent. Explosive Ordnance Disposal personnel removed and destroyed the explosives from the house.

11 May - Iraqi Police killed two terrorists when the two men attacked a police patrol in Tal Afar. Task Force Band of Brothers Soldiers from the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division arrived on scene to assist the police and conducted a search of the building the terrorists were using. The Soldiers uncovered a false wall that led to a tunnel system and another hidden door that opened into a room used as clandestine sleeping quarters. The "Ready First" Soldiers discovered a variety of weapons and munitions scattered about the tunnel and underground room. A Katusha rocket, 10 rifle grenades, four mortar rounds, three IEDs and two mortar tubes were seized. An explosive ordnance disposal team conducted a controlled detonation of the weapons and munitions, destroying the house and tunnel system to prevent terrorists from using them again. Three police officers were wounded in the initial attack and transported to the Tal Afar hospital.

Supporting the President...

I feel with all of the constitutional rights violations I have been discussing and ranting about that I need to step back for one moment to make something perfectly clear.

I support President Bush in the war on terrorism and I openly agree with the majority of what he has been doing to combat this war. I do not agree with all of his actions and that is my right as a citizen.

I also feel had the NSA truly wished to test their new “social network analysis” techniques with a test-range of American’s recorded telephone conversations, the probability is very high that if asked, the majority of American’s would have consented to the action. This would have been something truly unique in the spy game, open – truth. Washington should learn from this instead of carrying on in spin-control business as usual.

Further, I do not agree whatsoever with the “Hate Bush”, Michael Moore, Fahrenheit 9/11 crowd running around in their constant “chicken little” mode screaming the sky is falling, calling for the impeachment of President Bush every time an incident occurs, including a loud Presidential belch. This is the same crowd still saying Ohio lied and Bush did not win the election. (Further proving you can say anything you want on the web)

I agree with the majority of news correspondents saying the President’s problem is he has surrounded himself with a staff of advisors constantly making wrong decisions and knowing this the President still relies on their advice. When in fact he should have sent them packing, telling them that great Texas saying “Don’t let the door hit you where Mother Nature split you”. This same comment applies to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld too. The President should have accepted his resignation every moment he offered.

That is about it folks. I just wanted everyone to know that just because I am trying to champion individual rights does not necessarily mean I do not support the President, because I do.

Happy Mother's Day...

I wanted to take a brief moment and extend my warmest wishes of Happy Mother’s Day to the all the Moms out there who stop by visiting my blog as well as making a few comments from time to time. I also wish you to know that I love hearing from you and value your thoughts and opinions on my ramblings and ranting.

As a vet, I recall the difficulty in the 1960’s my Mother had on holidays knowing that I would not be stopping by with a card and plant in hand for her. There were many occasions that I was unable to call to wish her greetings and love as the telephone industry was very different back then, with telephone calls averaging $12 to $15 per minute that made it even harder. My Father always accepted the charges on my collect. Calls from somewhere in the world I might be at the time and at times the lines were so bad that hundreds of cross-talk voices could be heard softly in the background. My parents have both passed on since then, but many warm memories remain.

What is at Stake...

I wish to make something perfectly clear in the telephone recording and database issue that I have been discussing lately.

The oath administered upon entering the military and law enforcement both contain passages pertaining to the constitution of the United States of America. The oath regarding law enforcement officers dwells further into state, county and/ or city, but both involve the person swearing under oath of office to protect and uphold those rights and laws.

I have been privileged to serve my country and the citizens of it in both situations. I have taken the oath for each of these positions as a soldier in the US Army and as a Police Officer. I am no longer with either, but considered a veteran and I personally consider the oaths I took to be a sacred trust. I strive within my life to uphold this trust.

The issue of the NSA or any government agency for that matter obtaining your telephone number is not under discussion here. Yes, that would be a time consuming factor, but it is not an impossibility, nor is it that difficult of a task to achieve.

The agencies which have physical control of the largest database ever compiled consisting of tens of millions of recorded personal and business telephone conversations are already working with the primary owner and operators of the nations telephone exchanges. The task of backtracking the telephone numbers would entail compiling an algorithm and implementing it within the exchange system. It would take awhile, but rest assured that if needed, it could and would be done.

What is at stake is the personal liberties of every American citizen contained within this database created by the telephone companies recording your conversations without consent or court order, violating your fourth amendment rights under the constitution. As well as Federal laws, The Electronic Communications Privacy Act, 18 USC 2516, along with applicable individual state and city laws.

The Fourth Amendment of the Constitution states, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

These rights and laws were enacted to protect our rights and they have been wantonly violated in the name of national security. That is what I am upset about and that is what I have been writing about.

Thank You.

A few Nixon memories...

I have been a registered, voting republican since Nixon, and people, do not blame me, I voted for McGovern, I thought Nixon looked too much like one of those untrustworthy guys who would scam someone out of their last buck on some gold mine that never existed and I simply did not like him.

I confess that when Woodward and Bernstein told the world what they had discovered while tracking the “Nixon money-trail” I ran around screaming, “I told you so” to every family member and friend within range. The Watergate inept, felony in waiting “gee I want to be a burglar” plumbers provided me with many hours of even more entertainment.

Who can ever forget the infamous “I am not a crook” speech he gave with his traditional five o’clock shadow accompanied by that sweat glistening on his upper lip that had cost him the election during the Kennedy debates.

Here was John F. Kennedy, rich and famous, looking like a GQ cover photo, the man every guy wanted to be, married to beautiful Jackie, standing there delivering his lines like a tenured professor explaining college life to his freshmen assistant.

Standing next to him, we had Tricky Dickey, looking like he was going to explode with anger or had just been caught playing with matches, sweat pouring down his face, his upper lip dripping moisture and the man actually later questioned in a book why he lost the debate and the election that very moment.

I have never done as my Father and voted the straight party ticket, individual not mattering, party affiliation only. Except my Father was not republican, but a democrat and proud of it, all except for his, “I like Ike” days he could always be counted on to vote democrat straight up the ballot. There were a few instances where I questioned him about it and he would to tell me he made sure to vote that way simply to cancel out my vote. He always did have a way with words.

This is simply a few memories I wanted to share with everyone. I actually did not feel like ranting this morning, but hey, give me a few hours and I am sure something will tick me off and be put here for your reading pleasure. Thanks for stopping by and listening to my Nixon years memories.

Security - Better safe than sorry

As a computer consultant specializing in security, I have always advocated the use of e-mail encryption techniques to prevent information leakage within the business community. Stop for one moment to reflect back to the Netscape vs. Microsoft wars, the eventual government hearings on monopoly then recall the leaked memos from Bill Gates and wonder if Bill wished he had used PGP encryption. If anyone is interested in this form, it is available in a commercial and freeware package.

Note: If you are presently using any of the commercial security packages available look into what you have before running out and purchasing others. You may have sufficient encryption available to you already.

I would bet that he would have given a few million of his easy-earned bucks to use his own NT encryption techniques let alone something along the lines of PGP or anything with blowfish encryption, much faster than DES Algorithm.

While I am on this subject, we can also add to his past plethora of ill wills the fact of washing any e-mail correspondence after a certain date. This would insure the company’s security and keep internal secrets safe from the prying eyes of industrial espionage. Their stored e-mail records provided many a silver bullet in the monopoly case when a simple wash technique would have kept them safe and out of court.

The hearings did have one thing going for it though, without them the world would have never learned that Gates rocks back and forth in some form of Zen trance whenever he is concentrating.

So with all of this useless information out in the open I would like to take a few moments to advise everyone within reading, listening or throwing distance – encrypt your personal and business correspondence!

We have a wide variety of encryption techniques available to us in today’s age of computers. I have provided a link to the site www.download.com to provide a brief overview of what is available.  

Update to the NSA

I have to admit that I could care less if the NSA wants the calls of tens of millions of American citizens so they can use their social network analysis techniques, all I care about is their invasion upon our privacy. The interesting item contained within the link I added in the last sentence was one small sentence located towards the end of the article, and I quote, “social network analysis would appear to be powerless against criminals and terrorists who rely on a multitude of cell phones, payphones, calling cards and Internet cafes.”

Here is my comment on this, did the NSA have any idea about that little tidbit of information when they told President Bush, “Gee Sir, we really need those records for the security of the country and we can tell you all the criminal and terrorists links in them, please can we have them?”

So, with that quoted bit of information one would be lead to imagine the NSA will next be after cell phone records, transcriptions, oh, wait one moment, they already have those, what was I thinking of. How about Internet Messenger transcriptions, well, they have those too. Yes, I have a problem with all of this being done in the name of national security while the government feels the citizens will accept it in that manner of spin mode.

The article I linked to is very informative and goes into quite a bit of detail on just what the NSA is attempting to accomplish, stop by and read it.

Know your Rights

The newspapers yesterday were packed with articles of the latest attacks upon the rights of American citizens and I am very glad the government is being called to explain its actions. Our government is comprised of three branches, legislative, judicial and executive and they were put in place to provide checks and balances against one another in situations such as this.

Our government was established in that manner by the founding fathers and so far, it has stood the test of time. The manner in which present events have played out turn heads to another form of government, the politburo and that will never rule its ugly head here, because our system works and now we have to allow it to do its job.

At the same time, we the people need to be vocal in our support of our rights to our elected officials. We need to remind them that we will not stand quietly while our rights slowly disappear as they have been doing. Every American citizen should be aware of their rights, know them as they were set forth and ratified, go to “Know your rights!” and read them, study them and be aware of what you have. Our rights are precious commodities given to us by the founding fathers and should never be taken lightly.

Border groups under the microscope

In an attempt to clarify information previously reported the Border Patrol is now stating they do not report the location of its citizens within the minutemen organization volunteering along the border to Mexican officials.

Their spokesperson said in a statement that the report was "inaccurate'' and that Border Patrol officials are not giving the location of civilian watch groups to the Mexican government.

They went on to say the United States gives information to Mexican officials under the rules of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations of 1963, which provides foreign nationals being detained by a government the right to consular access.

Mexican consulates, however, went beyond the boundaries of the Vienna Convention, asking U.S. Border Patrol officials to provide them with information on "vigilantes'' operating along the U.S. border, according to the August report.

Since the initial report of the Border Patrol’s action, the Department of Homeland Security has been asked to investigate the charges. It appears the Border Patrol is working overtime to insure a misinformation campaign is implemented to cover these allegations and statements have been flying from their offices to insure this continues.

The common knowledge along the border is the drug runners simply enter America through alternate locations totally circumventing the watchful eyes of the volunteers presently working there. The reasons behind this are now clear with the knowledge that their locations are reported to a government who has already attempted to legalize the use of drugs in their own country. If not for the negative media attention and comments from our own government this would have been signed into law effectively removing Mexico from the fight against drugs along the border.

Our rights are fading.

I want to begin by openly stating something my readers already know, I support our troops with every fiber of my being and as a combat vet a part of me dies each time a soldier is killed in action. I am sixty years of age, but if permitted I would rejoin my brothers and sisters at a moments notice and serve my country once again.

Yesterday I commented on the latest news from Washington and the largest database of telephone information ever compiled and turned over to the NSA. I feel strongly as an American citizen that I have certain rights and protection that must never be violated and old as I am the warrior within me would still give his life to insure these rights remain to every American.

A line was once drawn into American soil by our founding fathers as not only an act of defiance against a foreign nation upon our soil, but also an act of personal liberties that must not ever be given up by the people to anyone, for any reason, ever again. Our nation is getting closer and closer each day to removing a large portion of these liberties and it frightens me to death.

The telephone-monitoring situation bothers me because as a computer consultant I know the NSA had another option in which to monitor for phrases. They could have simply created an algorithm monitoring key words and phrases and if detected that line locked onto for further investigation. This form of electronic surveillance still crosses the line, but in a manner that can be understood and even approved. The NSA has the nations most brilliant computer personnel and they would have had little problem creating one. The very fact that the recorded conversations of every American have been given to the NSA and turned into the largest database ever created not only crosses the line it wipes it away from the soil in which it was drawn.

Ladies and Gentlemen do not forget for one moment that this is the NSA we are taking about, do not think for one moment that they do not have the technology to backtrack and obtain the telephone numbers and names and locations of the American citizens within this database. That form of thinking is dangerous because they can and would do so if ordered by executive order or act of congress.

I see the constitutional rights of American citizens slowly fading into the horizon and being done so in the name of war and terrorism so Americans will agree with the loss and this is wrong. We have lost enough of our rights and we must draw our invisible line into the soil and say enough is enough. We must inform our elected officials and congressional representatives that this must stop. We must do this before it is too late and we are unable to do so.

The NSA has gone too far...

We all recall that the existence of an NSA eavesdropping program launched after the September 11 attacks was revealed in December and created quite a nationwide stir among the Senate and Congress. Defending their controversial program at the time, the Bush administration said it had aimed to uncover links between international terrorists and their domestic collaborators and only targeted communications between a person inside the United States and a person overseas. At that point in time people tended to fall into a “Yes sir, what’s good for the country is good for us” line of agreement.

It is very disheartening to discover that the entire conversations of tens of millions of Americans were compiled by NSA through monitoring - AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc. and BellSouth Corp. The source of this latest information USA Today stated, “although customers' names and addresses are not being handed over, the phone numbers the NSA collects can easily be cross-checked with other databases to obtain that information,"

The fact the NSA created the database using entire conversations is what boggles my mind and sets the hair on the back of my neck on end. By now any computer literate person in America is well aware that instead of a total call monitoring and database compilation system a simple data mining program could have been constructed monitoring the calls, searching for key words, i.e. bomb, explosives, etc. any hits it incurred then tabulated into a database

This latest report may indeed be the culprit that provides the proverbial straw breaking the camels back once the public realizes the full picture of what their government has done in the name of national security. This is action not only violates citizens rights, it stomps all over every one of them and takes it foot and grinds it into the dirt.

Follow up:

Here is a wonderful link to contact, write or e-mail your elected official, Contact your Congressman or representative; we need to state our unhappiness that America is reporting the whereabouts of its own citizens to a foreign nation, Mexico as can be read at the Daily Bulletin.

Reporting on our own citizens!

Not too long ago I posted about the Minuteman project I questioned what would happen when the time came when one of these people had to use deadly force and the repercussions that would ensue.

This morning I received information from Cj stating that our country must report the whereabouts of these people on the borders to Mexico! This is an absurdity of the highest proportions and it is a violation of their constitutional rights to congregate as an American citizen.

CJ pointed out that according to three documents on the Mexican Secretary of Foreign Relations Web site, the U.S. Border Patrol is to notify the Mexican government as to the location of Minutemen and other civilian border patrol groups when they participate in apprehending illegal immigrants-- and when violence is used against border crossers.

What bothered me more than anything else in the above statement is the fact of America, a sovereign nation and the majority of financial support for Mexico reporting the whereabouts of it own citizens, their movement and actions to another government?

This actually solves a question that has been on many individuals lips lately pertaining to the Minuteman project. The fact that illegal drug runners all have prior knowledge of the whereabouts of the Minuteman and their taking alternate routes to bring their death dealing drugs into our country. I have read some publications in Mexico and Texas where the reporters are actually using this as humor when discussing the Minuteman project and now I understand the situation completely, their government is giving them the information as to the location of the groups.

I agree with CJ and feel we all should initiate a letter or e-mail writing campaign to our elected officials telling them this is a violation and we as citizens do not agree with it. I will be posting the information needed for this later on in the day.