Surveillance Nation

Last week the local Bar Association asked me to speak at Boardman High School on Law Day about the dangers of Facebook. During my research, it became apparent to me that the United States is walking down a dangerous path. The amount of surveillance of Americans appears to be non-stop. While each piece of the system may seem to be legitimate, the totality is an Orwellian nightmare. Freedom , the life blood of our nation, is at risk.

1) Most obvious and probably the least likely to be abused are the cameras placed everywhere from inside stores to parking lots to streets to sidewalks to garages. New York City is installing these cameras all over Times Square. It is creepy notwithstanding the security they provide. In the United Kingdom, London is completely covered with these cameras. Are we headed for something like this here? Do we really somebody watching us all of the time?

2) More problematic are traffic light cameras doing the job of law enforcement officers. Couple that with facial and license plate recognition technology it also is a little creepy…and a source of revenue for the political subdivision instead of a law enforcement mechanism.

3) Next there is the TSA and Homeland Security which has made invasion of privacy an art form. The recent pat-downs of young children hugging their grandmothers and old women in wheelchairs wearing colostomy bags is disgusting. X-ray machines that in effect do a strip search are in a class by themselves. Everybody wants safety on a plane…but this? Where is common sense? Or is political correctness strangling the breath of of the nation?

4) All American cars will now be required to have “black boxes”. I just found out that my current GM car has a black box. Monitoring what? The news stories I have watched say there are safeguards in the law protecting who gets access to this information, but I don’t know what the information is. Can my car be monitored by GPS system? Can my insurance company determine how fast I was driving? I understand that the content of the box belongs to me…but so did the contents of my client's safety deposit box and the government got access to that. Why is this black box needed?

5) Internet surveillance is out of control in both the private and public sector. Start with Google which probably knows more about me than I know. They watch every move I make on line even when I am not on their system. Google chrome provides a “privacy” mode…but there are so many exceptions it is an exercise in futility. Yet the government refuses to intervene and put limits on what Google can do with my information.

6) Legislation in Congress is currently pending to allow the free flow of information from companies to government if a security risk becomes apparent. That is obviously a good thing. The way our country operates today, if the internet is “hacked” we have a major problem and we are back to the stone-age over night. Our country would grind to a halt. But couple that piece of legislation with recent reports of the NSA gathering trillions of emails and telephone information from American citizens while constructing a mammoth facility Bluffdale, Utah, to handle storage and reading of emails…this is scary stuff.  All emails sent within the United States will eventually end up at this facility. This is way beyond the Patriot Act, which I was led to believe covered only emails going in and out of the country to certain locations and/or people. I am well aware that thosw who are making these privacy violation allegations may or not be credible, and that one of the sources was involved with the Wikileaks disclosures. Nevertheless, I think Americans have the right to know whether the allegations are true…and what is being done to safeguard our privacy in the future.

There is no argument from me that all of the above listed items were done with the best of intentions and with some safeguards supposedly built into the system. On the other hand, the old saying goes “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.” As an attorney, I know how the laws can be twisted and turned. As an historian, I know how the ebb and flow of events can make something like this turn ugly.

I believe that the mindset of America since 9-11 has allowed these types of activities to develop in a way that in a different time would never been allowed. Security is important. Freedom is more important. There has to be balance. People cannot live under continual scrutiny and continue to function in a normal manner. It has a chilling effect on basic human behavior, which is not perfect.  It will lead to frustration in an overly complicated world, and ultimately violence from those who crack.  

It is freedom that makes us strong. Not this stuff. I hope that our elected officials will begin to analyze the totality of what has developed in America with the confluence of 9-11 and the digital information age. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. 

I am for security, but not at the cost of our freedom.

Ohio State's Age Discrimination Football Ticket Policy

How to buy Ohio State football tickets not among the burning issues of the day. Maybe it should be. The Alumni Association sent out its football lottery application form this week. It was a one page letter, front and back, that is the poster child for why people are frustrated in America. It is also a perfect example of age discrimination by technology.

The university made it clear two years ago that it was going to an all online system for its football ticket lottery and purchase. I have been through it at least twice now, and it is one of the most complicated and frustrating procedures I have ever had to deal with online, and I do all of my banking, bill paying, investing, and run a website online.

Let’s start with the issue that the least computer literate among us are those my age and older. My mother or father could not use a computer nor showed any inclination to use one. Many of those over eighty don’t own one. Then there are the seventy somethings…some of whom have been able to master advance useage, but for the most part use it for emails. Then there are those of us in our sixties. 40% in my age group know how to use a computer in an advanced way…and there are a few more, like me, that  have actively embraced the technology. But there are also those who despise and use it grudgingly, making big deals out of relatively routine activities to anyone under forty. Those in their fifties are the bridge generation, most of whom have some experience on the computer…but this is the AOL generation. FYI, if you are applying for a job, don’t use your AOL email address. It gives away your age, seriously. In fact, most people who have AOL email addresses are over 50. That’s how they learned the online experience, and show no propensity to move away from what works for them.

Keeping all of this in mind, the Ohio State ticket application this year started by defining what browsers would work and what browsers would not in processing their application. To get your tickets you have to first have a computer and know how to use it. Your computer must have Internet Explorer 8 or higher as its browser. It will not work with Internet Explorer 7, which is found in many computers over 2 years old. It will not work with Google Chrome, which those who use Google as their search engine on a regular basis have some familiarity because Google has tried to shove it down the our throats. It also won't work with AOL!!! So much for those over the age of 50.  I was talking about this with a friend over coffee, his response: what's a browser?

It would not be an exaggeration that those over 70 and great number over 60 probably don't have a clue what Ohio State is talking about. The application goes on from there…in great detail….more than even I want to deal with.

And the kicker is…in an attempt to appear to be concerned about those who don’t have access or unable to use a computer…they advise to find a friend or family member who can go through the process for you. Really? You can’t make this stuff up.

Ohio State and the Alumni Association should be ashamed of themselves. Perhaps a class action age discrimination lawsuit might get their attention…or at least a complaint filed with the Ohio Civil Rights Commission. Turning over this kind of an endeavor to bunch of technofreaks is exactly why so many Americans are feeling angry and disenfranchised.

Try it again next year, Ohio State. Filling out a card and putting it in the mail with a check was so much easier. If the goal is to discourage ticket applications, you certainly have achieved that. Too bad.

Go YoCo!!!!!!!!

Youngtstown State University Fight Song

Divider in Chief

Hilary Rosen, Partner and Adopted Children

Hilary Rosen, Democratic strategist and Obama insider, really stepped in it on CNN the other night when she opined that Anne Romney is not qualified to know what women's issues are because she never worked a day in her life.   Between the attacks on Palin, a working mother who was Governor of Alaska while raising numerous children and now taking care of a mentally challenged child...and Anne Romney who raised five kids and is breast cancer survivor and currently suffering with a form of MS...the Democrats only seem that one kind of woman matters...their kind. 

Mitt and Anne Romney with Five Children and Sixteen Grandchildren

Although Ms. Rosen apologized...profusely...the damage was done.  In the Obama's campaign never ending quest to divide the nation and fuel hatred, he succeeded.  The emails and tweets on the Cafferty Report were filled with the usual left wing hatred and vitriol.  The envy and jealousy is appalling, and we should be ashamed as a nation that we allow this type of rhetoric to fuel a nation of hate.

I'm not sure it wasn't done deliberately looking at those emails and tweets.  After all, it is always easier to beg forgiveness after you have done the dirty deed.   They got their message across, and it is nothing new.  Obama and those of that ilk have been demeaning conservative women for years...marginalizing anyone who isn't Betty Friedan or Roseanne Barr.  The only people treated worse than conservative women are conservative African Americans...and now the new classification of privilege...white Hispanics.

Where does this hate come from?  Everybody makes their choices in life.  Those women who choose a career over family...good for them.  Those women who choose to have children, a career and not get married...good for them.  Those women who choose to stay at home and raise their children which is probably more the rule in Romney's Mormon religion with large families....good for them.  Why are those on the left always so offended by choices made by conservative women?  And the hate and the language and names conservative women are called starting with terms like media whores and down to the most base of derogatory female terms is patently offensive.

Betty Friedan - An Acceptable Type of Woman

Elitism is a tough nut to crack.  The superiority of the few...usually those that want to tell you how to lead your life...is the basis of do-gooder liberalism.  There is no tolerance for discussion.  There is no room for difference of opinion.  There is only room for name calling and intimidation if you don't agree with them.

The President who was supposed to give us hope and change has instead become the hate monger in chief as he proceeds to use a divide and conquer strategy against the American people, pitting one group against another group against another group, and then sitting by and watching.

Whether it is Hilary Rosen fueling hatred among women, whether it is the New Black Panther Party intimidating voters and now threatening an overt, all out race war in Sanford, Florida while Eric Holder sits on his thumbs, whether it is the so-called "occupy" movement who is attacking the job producers and our financial system, whether is public employee union thugs using tactics that are despicable and violent...this is the President of Hate. 

I never in my wildest imagination believed when he got elected he would stoop to these types of tactics.  He should hang his head in shame.  And if there are dead people this summer resulting from fire of hate that he and his advisors are fueling, he should be held accountable. 

It is going to be a campaign like none ever seen before to get rid of this guy who is single handling destroying the morale of a great nation. 

The Wearing of the Hoodie

 Jesse Jackson says that African Americans should wear hoodies to vote.  It would be funny if it weren’t so sad.  Turn on any news broadcast, and if there is a video of someone robbing a bank or a convenience store at gunpoint, I’ll bet the rent the perp is wearing a hoodie.  Hoodies are a disgusting piece of pop culture clothing that allow folks to hide their face in public.  There is no other reason to wear them.  It provides privacy for drug deals, robberies, assaults and other kinds of violence used by all thugs of every ethnic persuasion.  In the You Tube video of the fight club incident in Boardman Park those who were doing the refereeing  were wearing hoodies, with loaded guns tucked up inside the muff front for added effect.  Many banks require that if you want to do business there, hoodies along with any other face hiding accoutrements such as sun glasses have to come off.

Now…are all people who wear hoodies criminals?  Of course not.   On the other hand, the correlation between the hoodie and crime and violence is more than anecdotal.  Trayvon Martin, the teenager shot in Florida, was wearing a hoodie.  Did it make him look suspicious?  Yes it did, and no amount of political correctness can trump common sense and pictures on the six o’clock news. Did it justify his killing?  That is for the authorities to decide when the facts are ferreted out of the media cesspool this poor young man’s death has become.  

And this is the identity Jesse Jackson wishes for African Americans.  Really?  It’s not cute.  It reinforces the stereotype.  It is counterproductive in so many ways they can’t be listed here, but let’s start with that most black violence is black on black violence…and the hoodies hide identities there too.  There is no upside to these things.  Why would Jesse Jackson want this for anyone?

Congressman Bobby Rush (D) of Illinois, a former member of the Black Panthers, donned a hoodie during a Congressional tirade last week.  He was gaveled for violating House rules about wearing hats in the House chamber…and eventually had to be escorted off the floor for refusing to remove the hoodie.  Congressman Rush said it wasn’t a hat, it was a hoodie.  The next day, a hoodie wearing gunman shot six people, killing one, in Congressman Rush’s district.

Violence is on the uptick in America.  It crosses all color and race lines.  Gang violence is epidemic.   One of the dirty little secrets in America are the amount of riots taking place in our major urban areas and covered up by the press.  You get glimpses of the violence in the Drudge Report citing local media outlets, but the stories NEVER make the evening news…not even on Fox.

The O’Reilly Factor reported about a new phenomenon in our urban areas, Arabs buying up all of the convenience stores in the black neighborhoods and then using black gangbangers to move smuggled drugs into white neighborhoods.  One of the gangbangers interviewed stated that he and his operatives would never kill a white folks because they are his best customers.  What do you know…capitalism at work?  We all should be concerned and ashamed about this triumvirate. 

At the end of the day, violence in this country affects every American.  Jesse Jackson promoting the emblem of violence is not helpful.  Congressman Rush wearing one in Congress is not helpful.  Students wearing them en masse to schools is not helpful.   The Trayvon Martin tragedy is the very tip of a deep and scary iceberg destroying our society and all races and colors should take heed. 

Jesse…take a lesson from Louis Farrakhan.  I might not agree with his philosophy, but his followers have on shirts and ties, and I will guarantee you they have respect.  That, alone, is worth the effort to clean up everybody’s act. 

Health Care: Republicans Beware

It is becoming increasingly clear that Obamacare, the whole shebang, is going to be declared unconstitutional. If reports hold true, it will be a stunning victory for the citizens of the United States. Polls show the bill is scathingly unpopular, passed on Christmas Eve in the middle of the night, passed among some of the dirtiest deals Congress has seen in years, and finally extinguishing Barack Obama's view of an expansionist government dictating through political whim whatever do-gooding idea some whack job may come up with. Let's not even mention the exemptions granted to the favored few as political rewards while the rest of us are left to wallow in the fear of death panels.

It is a double edged sword. Now the health care issue belongs to the Republicans. If what the pundits think is going to happen does in fact happen, the Republicans will have the mess that existed in our health care system at the beginning of the Obamacare fiasco. There will still be a large amount of uninsured Americans. Issues with pre-existing conditions. Medicaid is in shambles. The Republicans cannot punt or push back paying attention to these very serious issues.

But I am optimistic. While you were sleeping in your Obama induced trance, there have been changes in the health care system as the market begins to address at least the fringes of these issues. Most encouraging is the formation of private, free standing clinics that can provide basic medical care for colds, flu, sore throats, coughs and minor infections in places like Walmart. The Mahoning Valley is one of the few places that doesn't have that service. Instead, free standing clinics providing these services are popping up here and there. The cost to use any of these services is minimal, affordable for the individual without insurance and greatly reducing the strain on and the cost of emergency room services and the associated insurance costs.

The Republicans plan to use the states as the vehicles to provide health care relief through the use of block grants to allow the states to tailor their solution to the needs of the state. For example, a state with a large elderly population may find a different solution to a state with a large number of unemployed urban dwellers. The solution may be through insurance, or it may be through state sponsored clinics, or tax breaks to private service providers.

There is only one way to bring down the cost of health care, and that is to allow citizens to pay the bill and search for the best deal. Health care costs would plummet. Individual health savings accounts may be the catalyst for this kind of approach.

Treatment of those with pre-existing conditions is the ultimate issue, especially those who are over 50 years old and have lost their job and benefits. This is a tough one. But at the end of the day, some combination of individual health savings accounts and catastrophic insurance may provide the solution to this problem, as well as the health care problem as a whole.

Whatever it takes, Republicans better be ready to move on the issue...and quickly if they expect to win the trust and confidence of the American people.