What First Amendment?

One of the bloggers I follow* is not fond of obama, and is not shy about saying so. I don't think he's crossed any lines in exercising his God-given First Amendment right of free speech ("dissent is the highest form of patriotism"), but the jack-booted thugs masquerading as DHS officials may have a different opinion.

In the past they would have dismissed his posts as the alcohol-fueled rantings of a deranged right-wing extremist hater (translation: freedom-loving conservative), but under a new DHS program they are probably scurrying around busily compiling a dossier on this fine upstanding patriot.

Freedom of speech might allow journalists to get away with a lot in America, but the Department of Homeland Security is on the ready to make sure that the government is keeping dibs on who is saying what.

Specifically, the DHS announced the (National Operations Center) (NOC) and its Office of Operations Coordination and Planning (OPS) can collect personal information from news anchors, journalists, reporters or anyone who may use “traditional and/or social media... ”

"Social media" includes blogs, Facebook, and Twitter. They'll probably expand the definition to include texting, Instant messaging, and passing notes in class.

According to the Department of Homeland Security’s own definition of personal identifiable information, or PII, such data could consist of any intellect “that permits the identity of an individual to be directly or indirectly inferred, including any information which is linked or linkable to that individual.”

So much for anonymous sources. If this was around in the Watergate days Deep Throat never would have come forward, Richard Nixon would have served his full term, Gerald Ford never would have been president, and Jimmy Carter quite likely never would have been elected, which led to the subsequent election of Ronald Reagan.

Ain't alternative history fun?

...the new provisions in the NOC’s write-up means that any reporter, whether someone along the lines of Walter Cronkite or a budding blogger, can be victimized by the agency.

The department says that they will only scour publically-made info available while retaining data, but it doesn’t help but raise suspicion as to why the government is going out of their way to spend time, money and resources on watching over those that helped bring news to the masses.

Perhaps because the blogosphere has become a viable alternative to the propaganda arm of the dems/libs - aka the mainstream media.

The website Fast Company reports that the intel collected by the Department of Homeland Security under the NOC Monitoring Initiative has been happening since as early as 2010 and the data is being shared with both private sector businesses and international third parties.

WTF? Private businesses and international parties? Yet another example of why I love my country but really, truly, fear and detest the government.

(H/T Jammie Wearing Fools for the link, and also for pointing out that "This program began in 2010, so Bush can’t be blamed.")

*Dedicated to AB (initials have been changed to protect the innocent ... hell, I can't type that last line without laughing).