The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports the following:

Big news. The Senate is planning to vote on NSA surveillance reform this week. If the USA FREEDOM Act (S. 2685) passes, it will be the first law to limit the NSA’s spying power in almost thirty years.

We’re asking friends of EFF to call their Senators today and urge them to pass the strongest bill possible. Not in the United States? Sign our petition against mass surveillance instead.

The new Senate version of the USA FREEDOM Act would:

• Rein in the NSA’s illegal collection of millions of Americans’ telephone records by amending one of the worst provisions of the Patriot Act, Section 215.
• Create a special advocate whom the secret surveillance court can appoint to argue for civil liberties and privacy in proceedings that raise novel or significant legal issues.
• Provide new reporting requirements about surveillance, so that the NSA is forced to tell us how many people are actually being surveilled under its programs, including the program that allows the NSA to see the contents of Americans’ communications without a warrant.

I got this email today from Home Depot.

Dear Valued Customer,

The Home Depot has discovered that a file containing your email address may have been taken during the payment card breach we announced in September. The file contained email addresses, but it did not contain passwords, payment card information, or other sensitive personal information. We apologize for this incident and for the inconvenience and frustration this may cause you.

In all likelihood this event will not impact you, but we recommend that you be on the alert for phony emails requesting personal or sensitive information. If you have any questions or would like additional information on how to protect yourself from email scams, please visit our website or call 1-800-HOMEDEPOT.

Again, we apologize for the frustration and inconvenience this incident may have caused. Thank you for your continued support.

Sincerely,

The Home Depot

For years the only real reason to vote for Democrats was “Republicans are even worse”. The NSA spying revealed by Snowden was one of the things that changed that. And when Nancy Pelosi and most of the rest of the Democrat Party got on board with it there ceased to be a significant difference. The Democrats should have got the message in 2013 at Netroots nation when Pelosi was booed and heckled (by your’s truly) for saying the Obama did the right thing and Snowden was a criminal. And I’ll bet the Democrats still don’t get it.

That’s not the only thing that made Dem voters not care about this election.

1. Obama has more aggressively deported Hispanics that any other president.
2. He was also very aggressive closing down California’s legal Medical Marijuana dispensaries.
3. He was against Gay Marriage before he was for it.
4. He imposed a tax on solar panels.
5. Guantanamo is still open for business.
6. Obama is covering up reports on Bush era torture.
7. When the economy crashed he handed out trillion to the rich and left us with the bill.
8. No crooked banker went to jail over the 2008 crash.
9. Egypt, Libya, Iraq, Syria, all far worse off. Iraq was Bush’s fault, Obama made it worse.
10. Obama skyjacked the plane of Bolivian president looking for Snowden.
11. Obama spied on our allies, tapping their phones, like the president of Germany.
12. Obama spies on and wire taps journalists.
13. Obama shut down the Space Shuttle without replacing it first leaving us to thumb rides to space for the Russians.
14. Obama gutted NASA funding.
15. Obama gutted scientific research funding.
16. Obama opposed the FDA recommendation to allow Plan B birth control.
17. Obama signed the sequestrations into law.
18. We got Romneycare rather than single payer health care.
19. Hope and Change became Nope and Same.
20. Obama is and example of affirmative action gone bad.
21. You can only stand so much weak and stupid.
22. Obama is still waiting for the Republican’s to give him permission to be president.
23. Democrats are not really serious about immigration reform. We deport highly talented people who we educated here who want to stay.
24. Declining living standards.
25. Rich getting even richer. Poor getting even poorer.
26. Wall Street borrows at 0% interest. main street pays 15-30%
27. No mortgage write down for home owners.
28. Children fleeing for their lives in Central America send back to die.
29. Secret Service more into whores than fence jumpers.
30. We’re going to defeat ISIS without boots on the ground?
31. Obama hands over more money to churches “faith based organizations” than bush.
32. Cuts in food stamps for the poor.
33. Obama at war with Journalists and free Speech.
34. Obama’s persecution of whistle blowers who report government wrongdoing.
35. Obama at war with 4th Amendment.
36. No minimum wage increase.
37. Selling guns to Mexican drug lords.
38. We could have had the Clinton’s back.

We hear a lot about glass ceilings and male privilege but it doesn’t have to be that way. Women could just take the power away from men. It won’t take year, it won’t take a revolution, it won’t take men giving women power. Women could just take power. All they have to do is just take it.

We have an election coming up next Tuesday and there are more women than there are men. So in theory women could just elect whoever they want and win EVERY SINGLE RACE. I’m not just talking about elections where women are running. I’m talking about elections where women can choose which candidate cares about women’s issues.

On the other hand if women don’t start asserting their rights they are going to lose not just abortions, but birth control. I personally think that a woman has the right to decide n ot to be pregnant for any reason or no reason at all. And women could put and end to this by just voting for the candidate who understands and supports women’s issues.

So – if you want equal pay for equal work. If you want maternity leave. If you want to be able to take care of a sick child or relative. If you want affordable health care that covers women’s health care needs, If you want affordable child care. If you want to be able to walk the streets and be safe. You can have it and you are just one vote away from making it happen.

If women were to take the time, study the issues, see where the candidates stand, and make a decision in the interests of women then we would have a congress, a senate, state officials, governors, all of which care about women’s issues. The situation can be transformed in just a few days with a single vote and all women, and men who care about women’s issues, can take the power away from those who are moving to oppress women.

It is not good for men or women to have the interests of women not on par with the interests of men. If we are going to have a healthy society long term we need to move forward to a world where women have 50% control of society. So i’m asking women – don’t wait till men give you power. Power is not given, power it taken. Take it.

The Droid Turbo is out today. I stopped by my local Verizon store and they had it. Very kool! I’m currently a RAZR M owner and overdue for an upgrade. It’s very new so I’m holding off till they at least root the device and hopefully unlock the bootloader. But it has a massive 3900mah battery and the specs are obscene! Gives me a serious case of the wants.