Smiert Spionem!
By Mitch Berg
Its’ been a mainstay of totalitarian life, from Lenin and Stalin through Orwell to today’s North Korea; “If you see something, say something – to the komissar!”
And now it’s coming to America (with emphasis added):
Under the program, which is being implemented with little public attention, security investigations can be launched when government employees showing “indicators of insider threat behavior” are reported by co-workers, according to previously undisclosed administration documents obtained by McClatchy. Investigations also can be triggered when “suspicious user behavior” is detected by computer network monitoring and reported to “insider threat personnel.”
Federal employees and contractors are asked to pay particular attention to the lifestyles, attitudes and behaviors – like financial troubles, odd working hours or unexplained travel – of co-workers as a way to predict whether they might do “harm to the United States.”
Potential for abuse, you think?
On the other hand, if there’s a toll-free number, it’d be a monkey-wrencher’s dream.
July 11th, 2013 at 5:59 am
Maybe DOJ personnel would have spotted that the DOJ was sending people to incite race riots in Florida.
July 11th, 2013 at 8:22 am
So Big Sis has degenerated down to treating all Federal employees like they’re potential Republicans? Getting a little paranoid Obama?
July 11th, 2013 at 8:46 am
no, nerdbert not paranoia, think pogrom – this is how dear leader purifies the ranks of gov employees – wouldn’t want any nasty conservative types working for the gov would you?
Too bad DG can’t get her puppy mill socialized, she’d be good at ratting out fellow employees for the greater good and then maybe she’d finally have time to explain why the Cornish Bill was “crap”.
July 11th, 2013 at 9:06 am
Find a coworker who does not participate in LGBT celebrations. Accuse her of being a bigot and creating a hostile work environment Make her attend sensitivity sessions. Fire her or demote her if she does vocally and enthusiastically affirm the LGBT agenda.
The totalitarian impulses of the left were never much of a secret, were they?
July 11th, 2013 at 10:15 am
My late maternal grandmother would 120+ years old. Like most grandmothers, she was a wonderful woman. She emigrated here as a teen from Poland in the early part of the 20th century. Although her English took a lot of listening to decipher, she resented any implication that she was an immigrant or “DP” (displaced person) as was the commonterm for them.
Towards the end of her life she would kindly admonish us if we were critical of the government, or anything for that matter, saying “Shhhh, you never know who is listening.” We just chalked it up to part of the aging process. It probably was, but part of her Eastern European immigrant experience provided some foundation for these concerns. She was not truly paranoid, but was particulary wary of her neighbors who she felt capable of “informing.” The consensus was that no one would bother to listen to the conversations of normal folks even if it was possible. She died in her late 90’s in 1978.
I guess they do, I guess they can, and I guess my grandmother was not as far gone as we thought. Most law enforcement officers will agree that neighbors and cell phones are always a good source of information.
Not saying it’s all bad. Just that it requires caution.
July 11th, 2013 at 11:22 am
This is a society where a T-shirt shop in Duluth got a visit from The Authorities because he had a shirt for sale that said “My Indian name is ‘Drinks like Fish”‘.
Where a restaurant in St Paul got a surprise visit from The Government because he had a “Dago Sandwich” on his menu.
And now where a Biblican Christian photgrapher will have her business taken away from her if she refuses to go to and provide services at a homosexual wedding.
July 11th, 2013 at 11:31 am
You’re a functionary in the Raisin Control Division of the Ag Dept, walking back from lunch with your fellow raisin expert Emery. On the way in the building you’re accosted by your AFSCME union boss who want’s you to sign a demand for free groceries from the Ag Dept.
You decline.
Uunionthug: “You decline? Why”
You: “I don’t think it’s right. Free groceries aren’t free; taxpayers will end up paying for them.”
Unionthug (eyes like a deer in headlights) to Emery: “You notice anything funny about this guy lately?”
Emery: “As a matter of fact, he’s been shopping at Walmart”
Unionthug: “Sure sign of money troubles. Make sure you phone this in to the ObamaSnitch hotline as soon as you get back to the office; charge it as overtime.”
Emery: “Was just waiting for an excuse”
July 11th, 2013 at 12:13 pm
Sigh… Been there, done that… Nowhere else left to run…
July 11th, 2013 at 1:01 pm
Do we get to call Obama “President Honecker”, then? :^)
July 11th, 2013 at 2:15 pm
The “other” conservative talker morning show was talking about this today, asking callers “would you ‘say something if you saw something’ at work?”
Here at our company, reporting ethics and compliance violations of not only your coworkers, but outside parties as well, is very much encouraged, and with the very strict guarantee that YOU WILL NOT BE RETALIATED AGAINST for doing so.
Mainly because violating HIPAA regs is a huge money loss potential, not only from fines, but from loss of reputation and therefore loss of business as well.
That said, the only “ethics and compliance” violations I’ve ever personally witnessed are people who have mp3s on their hard drives. The head of our little subdivision of UHG IT has said “You are not the computer police. You don’t have to report them for this infraction, our infrastructure monitoring systems will detect the files.”
July 11th, 2013 at 7:15 pm
in the spirit of purging neighborhoods to assure target rich zones for deranged leftists we have a new app:
http://gungeomarker.org/
July 12th, 2013 at 10:51 am
Hey sweet! I installed that app just to see what it was. In the Google Play store, the app has a 1.1 out of 5 stars rating. 40 reviews gave it 5 stars, 2 gave it 4, 1 gave it 3, 7 gave it 2, and 1,962 gave it a 1 star rating.
The first review of the app is, amusingly, “How many marks at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave? I only rate 1 star because you can’t rate no stars.”
Gun owners flooded the reviews of this app. Hope that Professor Stalbaum is happy with the results of his efforts.
I wonder how many dangerous gun markers I’ll find in my neighborhood. I might have to go introduce myself to my fellow gun owning neighbors. Great networking idea!
July 12th, 2013 at 4:34 pm
You always have to love it when a lefty comes up with what they think is a great idea and then is totally co-opted by the right.