UK's Guardian: US Government Collecting Phone Records of Millions of Verizon Subscribers

But fear not- we're in the very best of hands.

Britain's The Guardian released a report on Wednesday that the National Security Agency has been compiling call data from millions of Verizon subscribers in the USA thanks to a secret court order. A copy of the court order was also posted on The Guardian's website the same day.

The document shows for the first time that under the Obama administration the communication records of millions of US citizens are being collected indiscriminately and in bulk – regardless of whether they are suspected of any wrongdoing.

The secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (Fisa) granted the order to the FBI on April 25, giving the government unlimited authority to obtain the data for a specified three-month period ending on July 19.

Under the terms of the blanket order, the numbers of both parties on a call are handed over, as is location data, call duration, unique identifiers, and the time and duration of all calls. The contents of the conversation itself are not covered.

Despite the fact that the order came from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the call records from millions of American citizens are included in the NSA's data logs. That basically means that despite the order originating from FISA, the NSA's PRISM program monitored the phone records and internet usage of millions of Americans who have not been accused of any crimes.

As recently as March, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper denied any knowledge of government agencies collecting electronic data of millions of Americans.

In March, DNI Clapper specifically told me #NSA does not wittingly collect any type of data on millions of Americans youtu.be/QwiUVUJmGjs?t=…
— Ron Wyden (@RonWyden) June 6, 2013

President Obama defended the NSA's surveillance program in public remarks on Friday. The President seemed pretty dismissive overall regarding any concerns about intrusive government snooping into citizens' phone calls and online browsing.

Interstingly, Verizon [NYSE: VZ] being ordered to turn over their subscriber's records activities to the government hasn't adversely affected their share prices. In fact, shares of Verizon gained nearly 4% since The Guardian broke the story. This may be due to the fact that the massive scope of the NSA's PRISM project alone would indicate that other communications companies are being ordered to turn over their records to the government.

Communist Third-World Dictator Gives 0bamacare Thumbs-Up As Waxman Summons Companies to Apprear Before Congress

Former warden of the island prison known as Cuba Cuban dictator Fidel Castro spoke out in support of President Obama's recently passed healthcare legislation in an essay published in state-run newspapers last week.

"It is really incredible that 234 years after the Declaration of Independence ... the government of that country has approved medical attention for the majority of its citizens, something that Cuba was able to do half a century ago," Castro wrote

Curiously, the White House and Congress don't seem the least bit bothered by the dictator's kudos and apparently are far more interested in continuing to sell this turd to the public now that it's actually passed.

House Committee Chairman on Energy & Commerce Henry Waxman (D-Nostril-iaCA) has summoned the heads of companies- so far including AT&T, Valero Energy, John Deere, Verizon, AK Steel, 3M and Caterpillar- to appear before Congress after claiming that the newly passed legislation would increase costs for them and erode prescription drug benefits for retired employees of those companies.

"After the president signed the health care reform bill into law, your company announced that provisions in the law could adversely affect your ability to provide health insurance," Waxman wrote in a letter to the CEO of AT&T and other companies "The new law is designed to expand coverage and bring down costs, so your assertions are a matter of concern,"

[Translation- How dare you contradict us!]
Earlier this week, Boeing and Prudential had announced an estimated hit of anywhere between $100 Million to $150 Million per year to their earnings. The 2002 Sabarnes-Oxley Act mandates that senior level executives are held responsible for disclosing to the SEC accurate and complete financial information regarding the company [including future cost estimates for far-reaching legislation like 0bamacare] by the end of each quarter. For those of you questioning the timing of the various companies announcements, the first quarter for 2010 ended on March 31st. In other words, Waxman is setting up a dog-and-pony show over CEO's complying with SEC regulations and disclosing some unintended consequences in the process.

Meanwhile, despite passing this wonderful, popular legislation that's going to be deficit neutral in the most open, bi-partisan and above-board manner possible, many Democrats are avoiding their constituents during the Easter recess for some reason.