The Syrian Conflict

Good afternoon.


  It's just 5 days away from the Congressional Vote on the Syrian conflict.  The President has been steady in his stance to begin some sort of military type operation on Assad and his forces.  Syria has been in a deep rooted civil war since 2011 and well over 100,000 have perished.  It's now got the United states looking at them from the barrel of a gun.  2.5 million refugees have fled the are since Secretary of state John Kerry came out and said we were going to deal with Assad. This all despite there being no real, concrete evidence that Assad is responsible for the chemical attack that killed 1400 a mere few weeks ago.  The US isn't waiting on the UN for confirmation.  They are essentially ready to roll.

Allies France were totally on board but have made a similar move to the UK and stalled on an all out cooperative alliance with the US in this matter.  Last week the UK's Parliament voted against any type of military movement in the region.  Funny how no one is really mentioned that Britain sold nerve gas chemicals to Syria almost a year after the civil war began  http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/revealed-britain-sold-nerve-gas-2242520

Or this report from Syria of rebel forces claiming responsibility for the bombings,stating they acquired the weapons from Al Qaeda operatives.  This report has mysteriously disappeared online.  Assad has said that Syria will never become a "Western Puppet State" but it's looking like his days may be numbered.

For those of you not fully understanding this whole issue check the links and videos below.

The Senator's Response

In my last entry, I emailed Sen. Chambliss over his remarks over the whole NSA ordeal.  If you go back and read it, then read this response, it's abundantly clear that emailing didn't do a bit of good.  I guess a direct letter is in order. Anyway, here's his response, which answered NONE of my questions.

Dear Mr. Stroud:

Thank you for contacting me about the recent disclosure of classified information related to the National Security Agency (NSA).  I appreciate your concern on this important issue.

In approximately June 2013, former NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked classified information related to NSA's activities to the media.  The characterization of this information by Mr. Snowden and the media has in many cases been inaccurate. Unfortunately, these disclosures have already damaged our national security.  We now know that because of these unauthorized disclosures, terrorists have learned more about how we gather information on them and are taking different tactics to thwart detection.   

Ensuring security must be consistent with respect for the constitutional rights of all Americans, and there is strong oversight of these programs by all three branches of government. Congress has worked closely with the Executive branch over two administrations to ensure that these activities fully comply with the law, and we will continue to do so.  These programs are also carefully reviewed by the Judicial branch on a regular basis.   

As Vice Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, I will continue to engage in vigorous oversight of our intelligence activities to balance national security priorities with individual rights.  Ultimately, the threat from terrorism remains very real and these lawful intelligence activities, which we know have prevented over 50 terrorist attacks since 9/11, must continue.  As the Committee and the Senate consider legislation relating to our intelligence collection activities, I will keep your thoughts in mind. 

If you would like to receive timely email alerts regarding the latest congressional actions and my weekly e-newsletter, please sign up via my web site at: www.chambliss.senate.gov. Please let me know whenever I may be of assistance.

I plan writing a direct letter tomorrow.  Maybe this will get me some more inforation.  I'll post whatever response I get.

Thnx for reading!

sTs

A Letter to Sen. Chabliss

After listening to Dan Carlin's "Common Sense" podcast, which I HIGHLY recommend checking out, I came across what my Senator Chambliss ahd to say over the whole ordeal of Edward Snowden releasing information on the NSA spying on Americans.

I wasn't pleased with his response, so I wrote him the following.  I wonder how the response, if I get one, will read.


Dear Sen. Chambliss:

I'd first like to apologize for the late letter.  I have only recently become aware of your statements regarding the NSA leak by one Edward Snowden.  You have a few remarks on the matter that I inherently believe deserve some sort of explanation.  Any light you can shed would be very much appreciated and valued.

The Guardian's Glen Greenwald has been steadily releasing information that is quite staggering, and frankly, no one in the government has done an adequate job of explaining why this is happening and how they plan to remedy the situation.  On your initial press conference, back on the 7th of June you stated,

"Let me just emphasize, this is nothing particularly new. This has been going on for seven years under the auspices of the FISA authority and every member of the United States Senate has been advised of this.

To my knowledge, we have not had any citizen who has registered a complaint relative to the gathering of this information. It is simply what we call metadata that is never utilized by any governmental agency unless they go back to the FISA court and show that there’s real cause as to why something within the metadata should be looked at.

That’s been very clear all along through the years of this program. It is proved meritorious, because we have gathered significant information on bad guys, but only on bad guys, over the years."

Ok... first off, how were we the people suppose to know that the NSA, which as I understood it, was responsible for spying on people OUTSIDE of the US, was actually spying on us?  It has been kept a secret for quite some time now.  It's kind of hard to register a complaint when you have no idea something is happening to you!  Your fellow Senator Mark Udall has expressed concerns over privacy issues for Americans but I can't seem to find where you yourself have said anything similar. What are your views on this whole NSA debacle?  Do you think it is OK for them to have such either a) have such a poor system of intelligence gathering that it swoops up American info as well, or b) that they've been doing it behind our backs anyway.  I understand we need to keep terrorists at bay, but how does spying, on everyone, help exactly? What bad guys have been nabbed due to this surveillance? I value my privacy, and if I had known about this I'd have emailed you sooner!  What do you guys know about how this NSA works exactly?  I'm sure you have to take some sort of vow to be on the Senate Intelligence Commitee, but by doing so, what about your vow to protect the Constitution?  How is what the NSA doing not a violation of the 4th amendment?

The whistle blowers who have come out and reported what they have seen happen at the NSA, Snowden, William Binney, and there's another whose name escapes me, have released information that seems to prove that the government is violating the people's right to privacy in order to protect us.  I personally think that sentiment is outrageous and needs to be changed.

Before this email goes more off the rails I guess I should get to my true point and that is this,  as a Senator, representing my state of GA, what exactly do you plan to do about this?  The NSA seems to be in violation of the Constitution.  What does the Senate Intelligence Committee plan to do here, in order to hold the people accountable for spying on Americans, be it on purpose or by accident?

I look forward to your response.

Thanks-

sTs


Reply coming soon hopefully!

White to be Minority by 2043

It appears right around the time I'll be exiting this realm of existence, God willing, that white people will no longer be the majority in this country. Not that they are in the world, which is something no one really talks about when race comes up.  Anyway...   Watch the video for more.

White Minority

Jesus it's been a LOOOONNNG while....

Well it's been a good three years since I've posted anything on this blog and I'm not sure why I really stopped.  Laziness I suppose.... but with that being said it's time to start writing again.  Writing has always helped me get my feelings out.  I just don't seem to have anyone in real life that I feel I can open up to 100%.  And it's not that their aren't people I trust too, but it's that I don't want to burden them with my own problems.  So, I plan on blogging more now.  I'll keep posting stories that I think are a big deal, news worthy stories not being covered, AND I reeealllly wanna start up a podcast.  So anyone who is interested in that should hit me up.  Alright!  Let's do this!

Illegal Immigration Down 67%- Jan Brewer Shenanigans

If you've been in the know as far as the big talking points this election season, then you know the immigration one is a key issues amongst many republican camps. Take a look at how Arizona signed into law that ridiculous sb1070 "Show me your papers" law to somehow curb illegal immigration. Then, think about how candidates for Governors in 20 other states, including us in Georgia(both Nathan Deal and Roy Barnes have stated they would sign similar deals),are actually looking at Arizona's take on the issue to perhaps implement similar laws into action. Now you'd think illegal immigration numbers must be through the roof.

Wrong.

They're actually going down. They've been going down for the past 5 years.

Care of the Washington Post:

"Just 300,000 illegal immigrants came per year in the last two years, or down nearly two-thirds from the rate earlier this decade. And the overall illegal immigrant population dropped from 12 million in 2007 down to 11.1 million as of March 2009, the report said."


Now it's not perfect but hey. It is going down. Do we still need reform. You're fucking right we do. But the way people like Arizona Governor Jan Brewer are painting illegal immigrants is a bit of why so many people may think the situation is growing to a dire need. Back in July, when the rev up to sb1070 was heating up, she claimed these illegals were responsible for beheadings.

Observe:




For the record, there are ZERO confirmations on these beheading charges. Go ahead and google it. You won't find a one. More fear mongering. She actually withdrew her campaign ads from the CBS channel in Arizona for investigating her bogus claims. If she gets elected in November then AZ has some explaining to do...

Net Neutraility

There has been some coverage on this issue but not much. If people don't start screaming to their government reprsentatives, and getting in the FCC's face over this issue... well... kiss the internet as you know it goodbye.

Here's a decent chart if you have no idea what net neutraility means:



[Source: OnlineMBA.com]


This is a big deal. If Google-Verizon gets what they want, we're done. Call your government representatives. Email, call. This is important.