Free Republic

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is preparing to send “thousands more” migrants to the Big Apple, Chicago and other sanctuary cities “in the coming days,” as the border is besieged ahead of Title 42 ending this week. Abbott, a Republican, slammed President Joe Biden for failing to act as states bordering Mexico prepare for the end of the federal policy which has allowed for the fast ejection of immigrants from the US since it went into place in 2021. Even before its end, the border has been swarmed with 81,000 people attempting to cross into the US in the last 10...

A secret National Security Agency program to collect vast amounts of phone records has foiled multiple attempted terrorist attacks inside the United States, the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee told reporters on Thursday. Sen. Dianne Feinstein did not specify how many attempted attacks had been prevented, or the nature of the threats, but the California Democrat said there had been more than one. The remarks were made to reporters following a meeting with senators who were concerned over a report in a British newspaper that the NSA had requested phone records from a division of telecommunications giant Verizon. According...

A top-secret April PowerPoint slideshow details how the National Security Agency partnered with nine tech companies, including Apple, Microsoft and Google, to monitor users activity. The NSA got direct access to these companies servers´ in order to directly watch user communications, according to the presentation obtained by the Washington Post and the Guardian. The program was nominally aimed at foreign actors, but as the Post reports, purely domestic communications could easily end up in NSA hands, so long as an algorithm estimated at least a 51 percent probability that they were foreign.

Since the Guardian story about the NSA seizure of the Verizon phone records of millions of Americans dropped last night, the administration and its allies have been asserting that privacy wasn’t invaded because intelligence agencies didn’t listen in on those calls. “The order reprinted overnight does not allow the government to listen in on anyone’s telephone calls. The information acquired does not include the content of any communications or the name of any subscriber. It relates exclusively to call details, such as a telephone number or the length of a telephone call,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters aboard...

A timely video from Reason TV on the surveillance state’s newest venture: Cameras and microphones on city buses, just in case Al Qaeda decides to plan its next attack on municipal transportation within earshot of other passengers. Not every city does this, but the practice is spreading — early adapters include San Francisco, Baltimore, and Hartford with funding from, you guessed it, DHS. It’s darkly amusing to think of someone on the bus in one of those cities, reading the news today about the NSA/Verizon warrant on their cell phone, and worrying that the state has their phone records. Who...

<p>The Washington Post has published a remarkable report showing that the National Security Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have been monitoring the central servers of major Internet companies -- Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube and Apple -- and "extracting audio, video, photographs, e-mails, documents and connection logs that enable analysts to track a person’s movements and contacts over time."</p>

The National Security Agency and the FBI are tapping directly into the central servers of nine leading U.S. Internet companies, extracting audio, video, photographs, e-mails, documents and connection logs that enable analysts to track a person’s movements and contacts over time. The highly classified program, code-named PRISM, has not been disclosed publicly before. Its establishment in 2007 and six years of exponential growth took place beneath the surface of a roiling debate over the boundaries of surveillance and privacy. Even late last year, when critics of the foreign intelligence statute argued for changes, the only members of Congress who know...

The National Security Agency's warrant for metadata on every single Verizon call for three months is jaw-dropping in its scope. Except, well, the NSA's surveillance of our communications is most likely much, much bigger than that. Technology has made it possible for the American government to spy on citizens to an extent East Germany could only dream of. Basically everything we say that can be traced digitally is being collected by the NSA. We're supposed to trust that our government will be much better behaved, but they're not, and the White House almost admits it. That doesn't mean they're admitting...

IT GETS WORSE: Google, Microsoft, Apple Allowed Government To 'Watch Your Ideas Form As You Type' Brett LoGiurato Jun. 6, 2013, 6:19 PM The National Security Agency and FBI have been engaging in a highly classified program that mines data from leading U.S. internet companies, according to a bombshell report in The Washington Post Thursday night. The program is code-named PRISMand the Post reports that it was established in 2007. According to the report, the nine companies that "participate knowingly" in the program are Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, Apple. The program has not been disclosed publicly,...

Al-Qaeda followers are inside the United States and would like to attack targets here and in other countries, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Wednesday night.

Usually the guy who’s ahead finds it within himself to be gracious to his competitors whereas the desperate runner-up goes negative and reaches for any stick. So it was peculiar to watch John McCain sneering and slicing his way through the debate with Mitt Romney at the Reagan library. When McCain was given up for dead last summer, he was witty and fun on the stump. Now that he is the frontrunner he is snarky and obnoxious. Dr. Freud, call your office. They say that John McCain harbors a particular dislike for Romney. And why would that be? Well, Romney...

Reports from the state Republican convention this weekend suggest that state GOP members are excited about former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who is likely to run for president. Think about this: The state GOP is becoming the party of liberal Arnold Schwarzenegger, supporter of socialized health care, minimum wage hikes, global warming extremism, debt spending and tax increases. Giuliani is the premiere police-state Republican. This is no longer the party of Reagan. Is it time for supporters of limited government (remember that idea?) and a humbler foreign policy (to use GW Bush's election words) to jump ship?

Angus Reid Global Monitor : Polls & Research Giuliani Leads McCain in Texas GOP Race February 13, 2007 (Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Rudy Giuliani and John McCain are the favourite presidential hopefuls for Republican Party supporters in the Lone Star State, according to a poll by Baselice & Associates. 28 per cent of likely GOP primary voters would vote for the New York City mayor in the 2008 United States primary, while 26 per cent would support Arizona senator John McCain. Former House of Representatives speaker Newt Gingrich is third with 17 per cent, followed by former Massachusetts governor...

Giuliani Nabs Key Endorsement "Rudy Giuliani, fresh off a weekend visit to California, is set to nab the support of one of the Golden State’s most influential lawmakers as sources confirmed that" Rep. David Dreier (R-CA) "is expected to endorse the former New York mayor’s 2008 GOP presidential bid," according to Roll Call. "Dreier, the ranking member on the Rules Committee, is chairman of the state’s GOP delegation and his extensive ties to California’s lucrative business community make him one of his party’s leading fundraisers. He also is extremely close to California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R)."

Suspect freed, OK despite speeds of up to 120 mph By Becky Pallack ARIZONA DAILY STAR A man who led Highway Patrol officers on a high-speed chase Wednesday morning violently crashed his car east of Tucson and had to be pulled from the burning wreckage, officials said. Neither the man nor his rescuers were seriously injured in the crash, near the Vail interchange on Interstate 10. The 10-mile chase began when Officer Ted Edwards of the Arizona Department of Public Safety tried to stop a white 2004 Chevy Impala near the eastbound Kolb Road exit on I-10 around 9:45 a.m....