Obama's Culture of Surveillance

It is with deepest regret that I must inform you that our president is a digital pirate. I am not one of those who feels it likely that royalties were paid on that iPod, full of show tunes, the Obamas graciously bestowed on the Queen.

But, it is all kind of ironic—since the president was in London to promote the “New World Order.” One of the building blocks of that new order is the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), being negotiated behind closed doors.

Jamie Love, director of Knowledge Ecology International, believing all the BS that emanated from the Obama campaign about transparency in government, thought there would be no problem in obtaining some documents related to the negotiations on the ACTA, after all it was said to be just an intellectual property trade treaty—so he filed a Freedom of Information Act Request.

It turned out to be a hippie learning moment.

Only ten of the eight hundred pages requested were produced.

The remainder of the documents were withheld because they contain "information that is properly classified in the interest of national security pursuant to Executive Order 12958."

This probably seems curious if you are not aware there is a consensus among government officials, some industry leaders and liberal think tanks that counterfeiting music and movies is connected to organized crime, which is connected to TERRORISM. So, of course, what is needed is a Piracy Patriot Act.

The government officials of the treaty nations are devising ways to monitor the contents of your computer and iPod to prevent such things as downloading through peer to peer networks . Of course, any interesting stuff, incidentally discovered in rummaging through your hard drive, would be referred to the proper law enforcement agency—like the IRS, DEA—your ex-spouse--whatever.

However, these government hacks are savvy enough to realize that people will not readily buy the idea that a twelve year old girl, illegally downloading the Hannah Montana Movie, is connected to the International Jihadist movement. So they feel it best, for the time being, to hide behind the National Security shield, while they work out ways to efficiently rummage through our hard drives and mp3 players:



The privacy of your laptop is something that has to be forfeited in the New World Order. In the United States we have a Constitution, and a legal tradition, which has always frowned upon the government spying on its people, without a good reason.

But in Europe a lot of that has pretty much fallen by the wayside, and they have become accustomed to the culture of surveillance. As Barack Obama looked around the streets of London, he couldn't help but notice that every inch of the city is under video surveillance--something the president's old political pal, Mayor Daly, plans to replicate in Chicago.

I guess we will just have to give up some of our quaint American customs in favor of the hip ways of the New World Order.

One of those is embracing the culture of surveillance.

In suspicion we trust.