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Government
Janet Napolitano Denies Existence of 'Orwellian State'
2013-06-17
[POLITICKER] Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano weighed in on the NSA intelligence leaks on Friday, telling NY1 that fears over government surveillance were overblown.
"Tut tut. Nothing to worry about. Trust me on that."
"I think people have gotten the idea that there's an Orwellian state out there that somehow we're operating in. That's far from the case," she told Errol Louis during an appearance on Road to City Hall.
"And tut. We don't have the technology for true Orwellianism."
Despite civil liberties advocates' fears that monitoring efforts have gone too far, "there are lots of protections built into the system," Ms. Napolitano said, pointing to a privacy office embedded in her own department that is "constantly reviewing our policies and procedures." She further stressed the court review system. "No one should believe that we are simply going willy-nilly and using any kind of data that we can gather."

Still, she acknowledged the federal government hasn't done the best job of keeping the public informed about how it is treating the enormous amounts of personal information that could potentially be used in intelligence gathering.

"I think we need to do a better job of explaining to the American people exactly what is kept, what are the real restrictions on how--I'm just talking now for DHS, Department of Homeland Security--how we use it, how long we can keep it, how we share it, all those thing," she explained.
Posted by:Fred

#17  11 years after 9/11 the NSA geeks evolved computing power snooping in leaps and bounds. It speaks of American ingenuity coupled with out of control leftist shinanigans that the world is trying to get its mind around.
Posted by: Winky Sproing5899   2013-06-17 22:35  

#16  Super computing is now a fact of life, world. Single core, dual core, quad core, forget it. Processors are now 12-core. Thats 12 high speed processors in one chip. Combined with fast memory and terrabyte hardrives, computers can tap into the worlds backbones and store or listen to the world chatter.

The new frontier. Its the new NASA of Micro-Space. The NSA geeks got drunk on super computer processing power and the Rulers got drunk on the potential of knowing everything about anyone of their subjects with one mouse click of the GUI.

The world will have to learn from this technological threat and adapt all thins accordingly.
Posted by: Winky Sproing5899   2013-06-17 22:30  

#15  He might let 'em have Bud Light.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305   2013-06-17 18:09  

#14  Yep can hardly see tyrant-bloomberg allowing the proles victory gin and smokes...
Posted by: Bright Pebbles   2013-06-17 17:59  

#13  That is inner party and outer party were controlled.
Posted by: rjschwarz   2013-06-17 15:06  

#12  Actually we aren't an Orwellian state as detailed in 1984 because if memory serves the state was very punishing towards the political class and pretty much left the prols alone to fornicate and do whatever.

We have the opposite of that and it is a damn site worse.
Posted by: rjschwarz   2013-06-17 15:06  

#11  The first rule of having an Orwellian State is to never admit to having an Orwelling State.

The second rule of course is to silence, imprison or 'disappear' any who claim you are.
Posted by: CrazyFool   2013-06-17 13:43  

#10  Me thinks the lady is into disinformation campaign.

Yep. Her willingness to spin these types of yarns is her primary qualification for the job she holds today. She can sit and spout this kind of nonsense without batting an eye. They love her for that.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305   2013-06-17 12:14  

#9  "We are not an Orwellian state, and we'll hunt down and 'disappear' anyone who disagrees."

Posted by: Frozen Al   2013-06-17 12:08  

#8  If anywhere needs Gun control and disarmament it's the state.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles   2013-06-17 11:48  

#7  Let's see if IRS sent any 501 applications to DHS of conservatives groups. Then if that's established ask Janet how many Muslim charities were sent to them. you know full well if it were the targeting of Muslims, Holder would instruct the FBI to conduct a vial rights investigation...and if Mueller was asked how many agents and who's the lead agent, he'd have it on the tip of his tongue.
Posted by: Jack Salami   2013-06-17 11:29  

#6  Napolitano, like Champ, says a lot of things; many strain credibility and belief.
Posted by: JohnQC   2013-06-17 11:25  

#5  Range certification time is required and a weapon worthiness inspection by a qualified armorer is required before each event. If the inspections are quarterly, that's the $90/yr.
Posted by: Skidmark   2013-06-17 09:34  

#4  I've never seen the pistol that needed $90.00 in repairs per year.

That's cause you've never worked contracts before. At least half of that is allowed for overhead and administration (0&A). Got to comply with all those Fed regulations and required filings. Those, in turn, limit or dictate the sources that the contractor can use to provide parts, lub, etc and distribution and storage. It's not like the contractor can simply go on line to find the lowest cost provider. No, no, Fed regs require compliance to a limited number of 'qualified' providers. The profit margin is in knowing who has greased the system the most efficient way.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2013-06-17 05:54  

#3  I've never seen the pistol that needed $90.00 in repairs per year.

You ever worked with Homeland Security personnel?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2013-06-17 05:02  

#2  By my rough calculations, $4.5m would buy about 10,000 Sigs. An Operations and Maintenance [O&M] funding line of $900k per year for 10k Sigs is roughly $90.00 per weapon. I've never seen the pistol that needed $90.00 in repairs per year.

Where is the $900k really going ?
Posted by: Besoeker   2013-06-17 03:56  

#1  This from the Department Head that recently:

The Department of Homeland Security approved two more $450 million contracts for more weapons and ammo recently.

the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) posted details of a no bid contract with weapons manufacturer Sig Sauer, worth $4.5 million over the next five years.
The contract is identical to the one DHS announced last week with Heckler & Koch.
Both contracts are for $900,000 worth of “replacement parts” a year, for weapons used by DHS agents.
While it is hard to imagine how or why a domestic agency could anticipate firing their weapons enough over the next five years to need $1.8 million annually in replacement parts, the DHS documents clearly state their need to “stock sufficient quantities of parts needed to fulfill the quantities of parts anticipated to be ordered.”
In April 2012, DHS purchased $143,000 worth of submachine guns from Heckler & Koch.
Exactly what plans does the department of Homeland Security have for all this military stuff? Just look at their recent purchases:
2,717 Heavy-weapon configured armored vehicles
7,000 “Real” assault weapons
1.6 Billion rounds of ammunition

Me thinks the lady is into disinformation campaign.
Posted by: John Pialoglou The First   2013-06-17 01:37  

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