Five years ago it was annoying. In today’s world it is down right unacceptable!

I am talking about a few Utilities Service companies refusal to transition into 21st century technology amenities. Simple things like being able to pay your bill, check your account online; pay by phone with check or credit card; and the worst one… excepting credit/debit cards as a form of payment. Yes there are still a few utility companies who do not have these services available. Can you believe it. In this day and age it seems almost unimaginable.

It does get worse though. Most of the time we as customers do not have the luxury of shopping around for a better price and service from these companies (e.g. garbage disposal service, phone, gas or whatnot) because there is no competition. There is only one company that will handle said utility service in the area you live. We are stuck with what they give us and we are expected to be happy about it. Cause if we are not and we happen to speak out against these atrocities, they will most certainly make sure to inconvenience you to almost the point of harassment. Ever wonder why when they tell you they’ll be at your house between 12pm and 5pm sometimes you come home, on time mind you, only to find a note on your door timestamped at 11:45am – sorry we missed you, please call this number to schedule. They’re teaching you a lesson that’s why. They are smug about it too because they know they are not going to lose your business. If you want electricity or water you’re stuck with them and boy do they know what power they have over you. They seem to enjoy rubbing it in your face every chance they can get.

I’m going to buy a plot of land out in the middle of nowhere. Built my house with my own bare hands. I am going to make it completely self sufficient too. I won’t need to rely on these bastards any longer. Ah, what a dream!

President Bush Addresses CENTCOM Coalition Conference

“Our main enemy is al Qaeda and its affiliates. Their allies choose their victims indiscriminately. They murder the innocent to advance a focused and clear ideology. They seek to establish a radical Islamic caliphate, so they can impose a brutal new order on unwilling people, much as Nazis and communists sought to do in the last century. This enemy will accept no compromise with the civilized world. Here is what the al Qaeda charter says about those who oppose their plans: ‘We will not meet them halfway, and there will be no room for dialogue with them.’ These enemies have embraced a cult of death. They are determined to bring days of even greater destruction on our people. They seek the world’s most dangerous weapons. Against this kind of enemy, there is only one effective response: We must go on the offense, stay on the offense, and take the fight to them.”

President George W. Bush
May 1, 2007

Al Qaeda and its affiliates resemble Nazi Germany in the last century, do they? I have to disagree. I am beginning to think our own U.S. Government more closely resembles Nazi Germany these days. Here is an example why:

Fact Sheet on FISA Modernization

The Problem

• The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) was drafted almost thirty years ago, for the purpose of establishing a process for obtaining a court order to conduct foreign intelligence surveillance in the United States.
• However, as a result of revolutions in telecommunications technology since FISA was passed, FISA now often requires the Government to get a court order to collect information on terrorists and other foreign intelligence targets located overseas.
• It makes no sense to require the Government to obtain a court order to collect foreign intelligence on foreign targets located in foreign countries. This requirement impairs our intelligence capabilities, and diverts scarce resources that would be better spent safeguarding the civil liberties of Americans, not foreigners who wish to do us harm.
• As the Director of National Intelligence has reported, as a result of this outdated law we now are “missing a significant amount of foreign intelligence that we should be collecting to protect our country.” This is unacceptable at any time-but it is intolerable in the current heightened threat environment.

The Director of National Intelligence Has Proposed A Reasonable Solution

• The Administration proposed a comprehensive FISA modernization bill to the Congress several months ago. However, Congress has made it clear that they will be unable to act upon the Administration’s full proposal before the August recess.
• In an effort to address this critical intelligence gap, the Director of National Intelligence has proposed a significantly narrowed proposal focused on the current, urgent need to protect our Nation.
• This new proposal would substantially enhance our capabilities to collect intelligence on targets located overseas. It would also preserve a role for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in reviewing the Government’s procedures for collecting intelligence on these overseas targets. This is an effort to balance court review and our urgent need to close the current intelligence gap.
• The court review procedures would not stand in the way of starting collection of foreign intelligence immediately. The Government would have 90 days after collection has started to submit its procedures to the court for review. If the court found any deficiency, collection would continue during any and all court review processes.

What Is Not Acceptable

• • Some have proposed that the Government must obtain pre-approval from a court before it conducts critical surveillance of targets located overseas. This is unacceptable. The Government must be able to act immediately, particularly in the case of national security emergencies, to protect the Nation.
  • Some have suggested that FISA must be reformed, but only to permit collection against certain overseas threats like al Qaeda terrorists. This is unacceptable. There are many threats that confront our Nation, including military, weapons proliferation, and economic, and we must be able to conduct foreign intelligence effectively on all of them.
  • Some have suggested that we must wait to modernize FISA. This is unacceptable. Congress must act now to give our intelligence professionals the tools they need to uncover plots in time to protect our homeland.
  • Some have suggested that a court order should be necessary before our intelligence professionals are able to gather any information about a foreign target who happens to contact someone in the United States frequently. This is unacceptable.

According to this, our government believes that ‘foreign’ people somehow have less rights than the U.S. citizens in the grand scheme of things. Or at least that seems to be the message, otherwise why would they feel the need to underline ‘foreign’ so frequently. This piece is obviously meant as a scare tactic. To frighten American Citizens into believing that any non-U.S. born citizens are to be immediately distrusted. As if ALL non-U.S. born citizens are out to hurt and destroy not only The United States of America itself but are also out to personally hurt every individual U.S. Citizen. As U.S. Citizens we MUST support this modernization of FISA at the very least and anything less would cause every U.S. law abiding citizen to be under eminent danger. Sounds kinda like propaganda, huh?

Giving the government a 90 day grace period to report any foreign intelligence gathered to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and the ability to continue gathering foreign intelligence, even after this court calls the validity of such actions into question, removes any checks and balances inherited in the system, and has no place in a country where personal liberties are held in such high esteem.

I guess the question I ask is this really in our best interests? Is the false sense of safety really worth personal liberties in trade? You could say, “How does this affect me? I am an U.S. raised and born citizen?”. So take a minute and put the shoe on the other foot. How would this affect you if you weren’t an U.S. Citizen? How could this be used to harm others, innocents? Not to mention giving our U.S. government more control, more power in the long run.

Anonymity online is on the rise, allowing people to write, lie and manipulate data without feeling responsible for it. But who’s doing all this hiding? Hint: It’s not angry, pajama-wearing bloggers.

And now the public can see all if they visit Griffith’s Wikiscanner site. Turns out that all the anonymous propaganda and lies on Wikipedia aren’t coming from basement dwellers at all — they’re coming from Congress, the CIA, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the American Civil Liberties Union. Somebody at Halliburton deleted key information from an entry on war crimes; Diebold, an electronic-voting machine manufacturer, deleted sections of its entry about a lawsuit filed against it. Someone at Pepsi deleted information about health problems caused by the soft drink. Somebody at The New York Times deleted huge chunks of information from the entry on the Wall Street Journal. And of course, the CIA has been editing the entry on the Iraq war.

Proof of why we should always question the validity of every bit of information that passes our way. Research the information from multiple sources until we become educated enough to have an opinion. And long before we pass that information on to someone else.