Never Let a Good Crisis Go to Waste: French Pass Fascist Surveillance Law

It might as well be the USA PATRIOT Act served up in a piping hot Brie cheese smothered crock as the frogs have utilized the Rahm Emanuel maxim of never letting "a good crisis go to waste”. The French government – the descendant of the one that surrendered to the Nazis – used January’s assassination of several staff members of the sleazy anti-Muslim rag Charlie Hebdo as well as two cops to ram through a new total surveillance law that would do the Gestapo proud. Alexis de Tocqueville must be rolling over in his grave today as his home country is now serving as an inspiration on a corrupt and debauched American political class who long ago spat on democracy.

As reported by the Guardian in the story “France passes new surveillance law in wake of Charlie Hebdo attack”:

The French parliament has overwhelmingly approved sweeping new surveillance powers in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Paris in January that killed 17 people at the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and a kosher grocery in Paris.

The new bill, which allows intelligence agencies to tap phones and emails without seeking permission from a judge, sparked protests from rights groups who claimed it would legalise highly intrusive surveillance methods without guarantees for individual freedom and privacy.

Protesters for civil liberties groups launched a last-ditch campaign against the bill under the banner “24 hours before 1984” in reference to George Orwell’s dystopian novel about life under an all-knowing dictatorship. Groups including Amnesty International warned of “extremely large and intrusive powers” without judicial controls.

AND

The new law will allow authorities to spy on the digital and mobile phone communications of anyone linked to a “terrorist” inquiry without prior authorisation from a judge. It forces internet service providers and phone companies to give up data upon request.

Intelligence services will have the right to place cameras and recording devices in private homes and install so-called keylogger devices that record every key stroke on a targeted computer in real time. The authorities will be able to keep recordings for a month and metadata for five years.

One of the most contentious elements of the bill is that it allows intelligence services to vacuum up metadata, which would then be subject to analysis for potentially suspicious behaviour. The metadata would be anonymous, but intelligence agents could follow up with a request to an independent panel for deeper surveillance that could yield the identity of users.

Another controversial element is the so-called “black boxes” – or complex algorithms – that internet providers will be forced to install to flag up a succession of suspect behavioural patterns online, such as keywords used, sites visited and contacts made

Surveillance agencies will also be able to bug suspects’ homes with microphones and cameras and add keyloggers to their computers to track every keystroke.

Times have really changed. Way back in 2001 it took the complete circumvention of all U.S. intelligence capabilities, the national air defense command and a lot of bad luck to allow 20 religious fanatic misfits to hijack airplanes and fly them into buildings to get such laws implemented. But with the ongoing, gradual conditioning of the American sheeple to kiss the whip and submit to the metastasizing police state the next iteration of the fascist surveillance society will take much less.

Look at the way that two losers who happened to run across ISIS propaganda on the internet that inspired them attacked an event staged by anti-Muslim provocateurs in Garland, TX over the weekend. A few more incidents like that and we will hear renewed cries for the rolling out of even more egregious attacks on civil liberties here in the Homeland.

Washington is listening and waiting for their opportunity to finally bring down the hammer on political dissent in America and are no doubt inspired to see how easily that the cheese eating surrender monkeys over in Paris just caved. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his lieutenants are right now putting the final touches on an effort to make the USA PATRIOT Act permanent. It will be one more capitulation to Emperor Barack Obama whose regime has now fully recovered from the exposure of the spying on millions of law-abiding Americans by his NSA Stasi.

Just imagine how much worse that it can get if there is an actual attack on domestic soil because sooner or later one of the nutjob self-styled jihadists won't be mentally ill and incompetent. The corrupt media is aiding and abetting ISIS by acting as it’s de facto public relations arm in sowing the seeds of fear and that is a very hot commodity in an election year while the authorities salivate over the stomping up and down of the big red, white and blue jackboot .

How Republicans Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Frogs

Republicans are piling onto Emperor Obama for his failure to attended the gathering of world “leaders” in a show of anti-Muslim unity Sunday in Paris. Media outlets were filled with the imagery of French President François Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Israeli Megalomaniac Benjamin “Bibi” Netenyahu and various and sundry other human rights abusers and war criminals marching with linked arms in front of the procession. It was however all staged as has been reported by a number of independent websites including Liberty Blitzkrieg.

In a piece entitled “NOUS SOMME HYPOCRITES – Authoritarian, Anti-Free Speech Politicians Pose for Staged Photo Op in Paris” Michael Krieger nails it:

 As I was wrapping up my travels in Asia, an extremely sad event unfolded in Paris during which 12 people were murdered at the office of satire magazine Charlie Hebdo. Just four days later, another sad and pathetic event occurred. A swarm of politicians, many of whom are professional authoritarians, shamelessly descended onto the streets of Paris to “join millions of protesters” in a rally for free speech and solidarity with the victims of the barbaric attack.

As is typically the case, mainstream media stories were filled with powerful images of these political hacks marching arm in arm; faces austere, defiantly standing their ground on behalf of freedom and liberty the world over. You have doubtlessly seen many variations of the following:

 

Such images were commingled with photos of the real march, which was estimated to include an incredible 3.7 million people.

Such images can bring a tear to the eye of even the most hardened cynic. Politicians and citizens united for a noble cause! There’s just one minor problem. As the Huffington Post and Independent both noted, this is what the politicians’ march actually looked like:

While this pathetic and shameless photo op is embarrassing enough, what’s far more concerning and downright hypocritical is the fact that many of the participants are active authoritarians in their home countries.

Even less surprising that the whole “unity” scam was yet another political dog and pony show is how many of the Republicans have now learned to love the French, a people who normally are vilified by party hacks. In excerpting from the smarmy Dana Milbanks in his Washington Post column entitled “Republicans’ inconsistent attacks on Obama’s Paris response”:

A decade ago, Republicans in Congress were renaming French fries “freedom fries” and French toast “freedom toast” because of that country’s refusal to support the Iraq war. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld belittled the “old Europe” French, President George W. Bush mocked an American reporter for speaking French to the French president, and conservative critics called the French “weasels,” “appeasers” and worse. John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, was ridiculed by the Bush administration for being “too French” and looking French, and his fluency in French was a liability in the campaign.

And now, that very same Monsieur Kerry, the secretary of state, and his boss, President Obama, are being condemned by conservatives for . . . not being nice enough to the French.

Quelle horreur!

The cause célèbre this time is the failure of the Obama administration to send anybody of higher rank than the U.S. ambassador to attend Sunday’s march in Paris showing solidarity against the terrorists.

“Our president should have been there, because we must never hesitate to stand with our allies,” proclaimed Sen. Ted Cruz, the Republican agent provocateur from Texas.

Fox News’s Greta van Susteren said the absence was “embarrassing” and that “Obama should not have snubbed Paris.”

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) — like Cruz a would-be presidential contender — declared it “a mistake not to send someone.” (For the record, neither Cruz nor Rubio attended the march.)

The grandstanding Cruz who passes himself off as a devout Christian should be asked whether he is down with the cover image from Charlie Hebdo that shows his lord and savior engaging an anal sex. While he is at it he can also weigh in on the “standing with our allies” – translation: Netanyahu – remark since the cat is now out of the bag that the entire world leader portion of the marched was yet another political farce. Nothing translates better than hypocrisy.

Cowardly U.S. Media Refuses to Publish Inflammatory Charlie Hebdo Cartoons

The audacious and savage attack on the Paris offices of a satiric newspaper yesterday by radical Islamists sent shockwaves throughout the civilized world. Two heavily armed gunmen stormed the Paris offices of the French publication Charlie Hebdo and proceeded to single out and execute writers and cartoonists. Their "crime" was publishing  images and stories that offended Muslims by showing rude caricatures of the prophet Mohammed. It was a major escalation in the ongoing conflict between violent religious primitivism and decent society and it is a certainty that the gunmen will be hailed as heroes by millions of Muslims and quietly praised by other interested parties. The domestic media was on it like gravy on rice to amplify the fear factor but they are self-censoring the actual cartoons.

While it is appropriate to be outraged over the attack and murder at the Charlie Hebdo offices it is more than a bit hypocritical to milk the tragic slaughter for maximum ratings but not show the controversial material produced by the magazine. The old newspaper maxim of “if it bleeds it leads” is certainly in effect as well as the saturation coverage that likely pleases the government to no end by serving to further justify the domestic surveillance state that is the greatest threat to freedom that we currently face. But why not show the cartoons? If nothing else it would be a big middle finger in the face of religious fanatics and Islamist extremists who believe that sprees of cold-blooded murder will intimidate westerners.

As reported by a story from the CNN Money website “The Charlie Hebdo Mohammed cartoons: Media outlets shy away or take a stand”:

In the wake of Wednesday's killings at the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, most major media outlets are choosing not to republish the French magazine's satirical but highly controversial cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed.

The news instinct to show the cartoons and express support for the slain journalists is countered by concerns about safety and sensitivity. Depictions of Mohammed are a strict taboo within Islam.

It's brought forth a fierce debate among journalists.

What some are calling sensitivity, others are calling censorship -- an acquiescence to terrorists. There has been widespread speculation that Wednesday's attack was motivated by the publication's criticism of religion.

CNN is among the news outlets that verbally described the cartoons but refrained from showing them on Wednesday. The network has made similar decisions about depictions of Mohammed in the past.

"We are actively discussing the best way of addressing the key issues and images across all of our platforms," a CNN spokeswoman said. "Those conversations will continue throughout the day and beyond as the story develops."

The Associated Press, the world's largest news gathering operation, has a "longstanding policy" to "not move deliberately provocative images on the wire," according to a spokesman. This includes depictions of Mohammed.

Jackson Diehl, deputy editorial page editor for the Washington Post, announced on Twitter that the newspaper will publish a Charlie Hebdo cartoon on the op-ed page on Thursday, though he didn't specify which one. The cartoon, Diehl said, will "help readers understand the story" and serve as a show of solidarity.

The New York Times, "after careful consideration," also decided that "describing the cartoons" would suffice, according to a spokeswoman.

NBC News said that the network will not be showing "headlines or cartoons that could be viewed as insensitive or offensive," and that guidance also applies to CNBC and MSNBC.

Another major network, ABC News, has taken the same position. A CBS News executive, meanwhile, said the network had implemented no explicit ban on the Mohammed cartoons, but had instructed its producers to exercise judgment. "CBS Evening News" showed some of the magazine's provocative cartoons, but none that depicted the prophet. Other outlets took a similar approach, showing covers that did not feature Mohammed.

Fox News told Mediaite it has "no plans to air" the Mohammed cartoons.

When Americans who have already surrendered to fear and the imposition of mass domestic snooping and data-mining programs as well as a de facto police state in the aftermath of 9/11 also engage in stifling themselves then the terrorists have already won. If halting the spread of the anti-Mohammad cartoons was the goal of the fiends who assassinated Charlie Hebdo staffers yesterday then having the majority of the domestic media censor the cartoons is a huge victory for their cause. Have we really become that much of a cowardly nation in the new American century?

Or perhaps not publishing the cartoons – particularly the most graphic ones – is a way to dance around the fact that Charlie Hebdo also published more than it’s share of material offensive to other religions. There are images that portray Jews negatively, Catholics take a beating and the magazine even had the gall to feature an image of Jesus Christ engaged in an act of anal sex. The failure to show the cartoons is not only a disservice to Americans by media corporations that have come to fancy themselves as the ultimate moral arbiters in our slowly closing society but also sheer cowardice of the worst type. God only knows how much further that American McNews would be dumbed-down and dummied up if something similar to what went down in Paris would happen here in The Homeland.

There is nothing quite as offensive as surrendering to the terrorists and the failure to provide the proper context by showing the cartoons in their entirety is exactly that.