Cartoons: smoke and mirrors

Under the Patriot Act the NSA gathers too much data, much of it using phone company and social media records. This week Congress partially renewed the Patriot Act with passage of the Freedom Act. As a side note, China hacked the federal Office of Personnel Management. Looks to me like privacy is an illusion.

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Drew Sheneman, The Week

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Meanwhile, Edward Snowden spoke out in the Washington Post.

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Pat Bagley, The Week

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The TSA has been found to be 95% ineffective. According to the Washington Post,

This week, the acting head of the Transportation Security Administration got bounced from his job because in 95 percent of test cases, real guns or fake bombs made it past the TSA.

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Steve Sack, The Week

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Because of the extended drought in California, the largest desalination plant in the Western Hemisphere is being brought online. Hopefully this cartoon will prove to be a false prediction.

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Steve Breen, The Week

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-- Marge

Cartoons: the NSA online

With recent news of the NSA spying on World of Warcraft and Secondlife, you'd think online gamers would be more upset.  Maybe they're too intent on gaming.  Then there's rule no.1:  Nobody is who they say they are online.  Getting to know other players may reveal a real person, but continually fighting MOBs doesn't reveal much.  There's some humor to be found in the whole situation, too.

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Drew Sheneman, USNews

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Pauly D, Memegenerator

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"Operation Spycraft," actiontrip.com

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By the way, a n00b is "A inexperienced and/or ignorant or unskilled person. Especially used in computer games."  And what about the result of gathering all this information?

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Patrick Chappatte, "Huge Data Collection By NSA," Cagle

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While I was looking for these cartoons, I came across the NSA's site for kids.  In its Google listing it advertises, "How to make your own secret codes, games and activities from the National Security Agency for America's future codemakers and codebreakers." Looks like they're recruiting people early.

-- Marge

Tracking the tracker

With Snowden, the federal government's current policy of hiring temporary contractors whenever possible essentially backfired.  According to an article at Bloomberg Businessweek, "Snowden's Access to NSA's Deepest Secrets Disputed."  Quoting from the article --

Snowden, who leaked a PowerPoint deck on the NSA’s secret Prism spying program and a trove of other classified information that he stole from the agency, has depicted himself as a highly skilled mole who exposed the NSA’s deepest secrets to the world. News coverage of the leaks has helped promote this storyline. Yet current and former intelligence officials familiar with his role within the agency present a different picture—one of a 30-year-old outsider with a talent for self-promotion, whose junior position kept him at a distance from the NSA’s most sensitive spy operations.

With that in mind, let's take a look at the fun editorial cartoonists are having with Snowden's current situation: he was last seen 'hiding out' at the Moscow airport.

From Jeremy Nell at Cagle, "Where's Snowden:"
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Jeremy Nell, cagle.com

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From Chip Bok, also at Cagle, "Snowden in Moscow:"
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Chip Bok, cagle.com

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From Christopher Weyant at politicalhumor.about.com, "NSA Like Me:"
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Christopher Weyant, politicalhumor.about.com

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From Scott Stantis at the Chicago Tribune, "With 'Friends' Like These:"
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Scott Stantis, Chicago Tribune

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And my personal favorite, from Walt Handelsman at USNews:
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Walt Handelsman, US News (July 19, 2013)

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According to Huffington Post, 38% of those polled at first said Snowden did the right thing, and later said it was wrong (not necessarily the same people, just the same percentage).

-- Marge