Posted on 07/05/2013 5:42:14 AM PDT by Kaslin
The Obama administration has been collecting enormous amounts of communications and other data on Americans. The justification which is offered (and which is being accepted on both sides of the aisle) is the need to monitor this information to protect us in the age of modern terrorism.
The most credible complaint we hear is that they’re gathering data on their political opposition. The IRS scandal gives weight to this thought.
But an overlooked motive will play a pivotal role in 2014: this data-mining effort, in significant part, is a vehicle for getting votes.
We’re told that no one is listening in on our phone calls, that only meta-data is being collected. But meta-data alone provides an ideal profile of your associations, affiliations and leanings.
From there it’s a few simple steps to deduce your personal preferences – and if you’re unregistered but likely to vote a certain way.
A lower-tech effort with the same purpose was pulled off last year in Arizona. A national left-wing advocacy group, Mi Familia Vota, sought to register new voters with as much certainty as possible that they would vote for Democrats.
Calls were made with the promise of home improvement store gift certificates if the respondent would answer a list of questions. The freebies never came. Instead, union members and paid activists canvassed and registered likely prospects in key congressional and legislative districts.
The results were dramatic. In the 13 offices where state-wide voting occurs, there’s not a single Democrat. But red-state Arizona’s congressional delegation, elected by district, was turned blue.
A left-wing takeover was also achieved in Colorado, as detailed in a 2010 book, The Blueprint. That effort was funded by four mega-donors. But that funding will be dwarfed by what’s in store.
The Left’s Holy Grail is both Senate and House majorities in 2014, and a recent Investor’s Business Daily article by Betsy McCaughey, former Lieutenant Governor of New York and forceful critic of federal healthcare (Using ObamaCare To Create A Permanent Democratic Majority), details how Obamacare and your tax money will bankroll the process nationally: the health care exchanges will function as Democrat voter registration boards and a chunk of the dollars will be used for get-out-the-vote efforts.
And it’s not even necessary to target a great number of congressional districts – just enough of them in amenable areas to take over the US House. With that would go all the necessary federal levers of power.
In the current climate this may seem an unattainable goal. But the achievements in Colorado and Arizona are harbingers of what may lie ahead.
Some still assert that domestic data collection has thwarted multiple attacks.
But when the hardest of data was received from the Russians, this administration couldn’t keep its eye on the ball long enough to get a clue about the Boston bombings. Likewise the flashing lights prior to the Fort Hood massacre.
In view of those failures, claims that this data is being used just for security ring hollow.
All incumbents want to retain power. But these anything goes, Alinsky acolytes now have access to data, and its electoral ramifications, which Nixon couldn’t begin to dream of. And this administration can’t be trusted not to use it.
There are questionable concerns being voiced about the Feds acquiring domestic SWAT vehicles or stocking up on ammunition. Folks with those worries are missing something more compelling – and sinister.
The Left is attempting a bloodless coup.
This administration can't be trusted with a bathroom key.
5.56mm
Ha! Folks who put up with broken promises vote Democrat....
It hadn’t even occurred to me that they would use the data this way, but this is exactly the kind of thing that Big Data is supposed to make possible. Between this and the promise if not the actuality of amnesty, this is why the Left thinks they have a chance of turning Texas blue within four years, and there’s a plausible chance that they’ll manage it too.
Those living in TX had better be on their toes in the upcoming election season. Get involved, and walk your shoes off to GOTV. The Left has two “legitimate” unfair advantages this time in addition to the usual vote tampering and ballot box stuffing, and they’re going to milk them for all they can. More than a few Texas districts are more “purple” than most are willing to admit. All the Left has to do is shift just enough of them by just enough, and they can manage a skin-of-the-teeth color change. It might not make all that much of an impact in the state house there, but it might buy them enough additional seats in the US House. Not to mention the psychological impact of a plausible “Blue Texas” for 2016.
It would not take that many keystrokes to do it.
A common refrain suppressing general election voter participation is that “aw, they’re all bums on the ballot, why should I care.”
I’d like to see primary campaigns stressing that “Primaries Count” and backing that up with graphic charts showing the typical anemic vote. My gut sense from political science is that people who bothered to vote primary are more likely to want to vote general election too, if the final candidate is halfway decent, or even better, the one they wanted in the primary.
They might even create a way that it can be had through the public Google interface in the guise of digested statistics.
You know, the most disturbing aspect of that quote is that she said it it with a great feeling of satisfaction and pride. This nation is in deep doo doo.
Just the other day I saw a report on the news that said the pentagon had looked at the idea of using internet connected wearable cameras but dropped the idea.
Now we have “Google Glasses”.
Post of the day!
Unfortunately people desperately cling to no chance candidates to the bitter end.
I started out supporting Michele Bachmann and then moved on to Cain before settling on Santorum because he was really the only one capable of beating Romney and Santorum is an actual conservative despite his imperfections.
In the end, Romney “won” by some 3000 votes in this state. Sadly, Michele Bachmann took at least that many votes herself and wasn’t even in the race. Other former candidates also took votes. If Romney had lost Michigan, it would have ended him.
Perhaps the very worst elements of having a surveillance state are not obvious, but matter most in the long run.
1) It is an admission by the government that it cannot deal with the few big, important things that government is supposed to do; so instead it puts all its energy into unimportant minutiae. It begins to think that *accurately* counting all the grains of sand on a beach doesn’t just “matter”, but is “vital” to some imagined purpose. At the same time it ignores an approaching tsunami, “because it is too busy doing this vital sand counting.”
2) Seeing that this is a ready source of bureaucratic funding, all the bureaucrats want a piece of the budget pie. For example, it’s *not* just the NSA that is spying on everyone with the PRISM system.
The FBI is *also* spying on everyone, which used to be with the CARNIVORE system, but now uses NarusInsight, CALEA, and information provided by and given to, other agencies.
The DHS is *also* spying on everyone, using the ADVISE system, which data-mines information as well from civilian sources.
And this opens yet another door to surveillance, of that surveillance conducted by numerous corporations at the behest of the government, which multiplies their data input considerable.
Truly vast amounts of sand being counted a grain at a time for a vital imaginary national purpose.
It is almost laughable that a tiny amount of this is being diverted for political purposes as an “outrage”, because of the fact that all of this surveillance is of people who are mostly honest, who would never commit terrorist acts, and are engaged in daily lives that are extremely boring and repetitive.
The Leviathan surveillance monster wastes so much time doing this that it is almost sheer luck that it ever finds anything useful. So what is the price for stopping two jackasses with a pressure cooker? $500 billion? A trillion?
And if it fails to stop them, does that mean that the vast majority of this surveillance should end?
No, but it does mean that it needs to be downsized to the point where it is efficient, cost effective, and actually does stop terrorists. Which is pretty much what we had before all of this other stuff was used.
Thanks. I had forgotten about that, and it was one of the very few things that wasn’t a lie.
There is a good reason the 2010 census was taken over by the White House and away from Commerce where it had been. That is the data base of data bases.
“All your data bases are belong to us.”
Hey, I think I’ll make that my tag line!
As someone thats very experienced with personal “information databases” there is an achilles heel. They can only collect what you tell them or put out there on the Internet so if you want to pretend to be a Muslim from Damascus with a false name and use it ir years thats what they’ll “know”. Of course, if you use multiple aliases from the same IP address they’ll pick up on that too.
It is an Achilles heel for individuals to use. Most people do not care, or are uninformed. This makes it very powerful for political purposes.
Barney Brenner of Townhall cites a specific effort in Arizona which is basic politicing using paid for canvassers going door to door into areas where the voting is light.
That type of campaigning used to be used by Republicans where the local organization through the committeeman was given funds to help defray any expences in running door to door campaigns. It also doesn’t require data mining in determining those areas,census tract vs voter turnout tells you the areas involved. Which the Brenner piece confirms.
Ostensibly to save money that style of campaigning was tossed by the Republican hierarchy in favor of mass media, tv, and mailings then subsequently robo-phone calls. What makes Brenner’s observations noteworthy was that those efforts go ignored and door to door canvassing paying off.
The difference is these were paid for canvassers.Paid for by whom ? Very likely in some fashion by US. In areas where the democrats had complete control it was done by patronage workers taking the time supposed to be devoted to their city, county or state job around election time and used to canvass their precincts or areas assigned to them by their committeeman. Most states have laws against this but few prosecutuions unless of course their Republicans.
If tea party and conservatives want to win races their candidates must develop a similar door to door strategy. It is just not good enough to show up at a protest rally. Part of their campaign strategy must include devoting campaign expences for door to door campaigning, and in particular identifying and targeting those areas.
We had a bloodless Coup d'état and are now moving on to a complete monarchy.
You have plainly stated the plans they have and I believe we had a preview of the success of their plans in the last election.
Many here don't see any danger in the MetaData collection, but we know better.
Thanks for the post.
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