Is ‘Culturally Insensitive’ Attire At AT&T Park A Far Cry from Room 641A?

"The San Francisco Giants are considering a new dress code for fans, which may include a ban on fake Native American headdresses and other “culturally insensitive” clothing."

The proposal for a new dress code comes after two Native Americans were detained during a Giants game last month after asking a fan to remove a headdress they found disrespectful.

If approved, the new policy could be a first for a major-league sports franchise, American Indian activist Suzan Shown Harjo told USA Today. The headdress incident happened during Native American Heritage night on June 23 at AT&T Park when the Giants were hosting the San Diego Padres.

It may be worthy of note to point out just where these "culturally insensitive" fans are displaying their "culturally insensitive attire". AT&T Park was "originally named Pacific Bell Park, then SBC Park in 2003 after SBC Communications acquired Pacific Bell, the stadium was ultimately christened AT&T Park in 2006 following SBC's merger with AT&T." 

So, what's the big deal Lem? The Giants baseball team plays their home games at a park named AT&T. Whoopty Doo

Well... It just so happens that approximately seven minutes away from AT&T park, at 611 Folsom St, there is a room 641A which acquired certain "disrespectful" and "culturally insensitive" notoriety, operated and maintained by AT&T.

The room commenced operations of a "disrespectful" and "culturally insensitive" nature in 2003; about 3 years after the opening of AT&T park.

Room 641A is a telecommunication interception facility operated by AT&T for the U.S. National Security Agency

Room 641A is located in the SBC Communications building at 611 Folsom Street, San Francisco, three floors of which were occupied by AT&T before SBC purchased AT&T. The room was referred to in internal AT&T documents as the SG3 [Study Group 3] Secure Room. It is fed by fiber optic lines from beam splitters installed in fiber optic trunks carrying Internet backbone traffic and, as analyzed by J. Scott Marcus, a former CTO for GTE and a former adviser to the FCC, has access to all Internet traffic that passes through the building, and therefore "the capability to enable surveillance and analysis of internet content on a massive scale, including both overseas and purely domestic traffic." (read more)

While I, AT&T may listen in and/or read your private communications at will... 'just 'don't bring your disrespectful, cultural insensitivity to my ball games...', to paraphrase another notoriously "disrespectful" and "culturally insensitive" Tea Toddler A-hole :-P

"Police Keep Quiet About Cell-Tracking Technology"

"Police across the country may be intercepting phone calls or text messages to find suspects using a technology tool known as Stingray. But they're refusing to turn over details about its use or heavily censoring files when they do."

Police say Stingray, a suitcase-size device that pretends it's a cell tower, is useful for catching criminals, but that's about all they'll say.

For example, they won't disclose details about contracts with the device's manufacturer, Harris Corp., insisting they are protecting both police tactics and commercial secrets. The secrecy - at times imposed by nondisclosure agreements signed by police - is pitting obligations under private contracts against government transparency laws...

A Stingray device tricks all cellphones in an area into electronically identifying themselves and transmitting data to police rather than the nearest phone company's tower. Because documents about Stingrays are regularly censored, it's not immediately clear what information the devices could capture, such as the contents of phone conversations and text messages, what they routinely do capture based on how they're configured or how often they might be used.

So, it's not just the NSA tracking our cell phone use now. It could be anybody.

"Rand Paul gets standing ovation at Berkeley: ‘Your right to privacy is under assault’"

"Delivering a rare speech for a Republican at this bastion of liberalism, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul on Wednesday was given multiple standing ovations by the left-wing audience after railing against government surveillance and warning the students: “Your right to privacy is under assault.”

“I am here to tell you that if you own a cell phone, you’re under surveillance,” he told the crowd.

Paul’s address at the Berkeley Forum on the campus of the University of California at Berkeley focused on the National Security Agency’s collection of telephone metadata and the debate over privacy.

During his remarks, the potential 2016 Republican candidate discussed California Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s claim that the CIA had spied on her congressional staff, and announced that he plans to call for a special committee on Capitol Hill to investigate the domestic spying by government agencies .

“No one should be allowed to invade your privacy,” Paul said. “That’s why I’m announcing today that when I return to Washington, I will push for a select committee styled after the Church Committee that investigated the abuses of power of the intelligence committee in the 70s. It should be bipartisan. It should be independent, and wide reaching. It should have full power to investigate and reform those who spy on us in the name of protecting us.”

Added Paul: “It should watch the watchers.”

Meanwhile, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been lying (apparently) about his knowledge of the NSA domestic spying programs.

"Careful what you tweet: Police, schools tap social media to track behavior"

If you share something publicly on social media, "you should expect the world to read it," said Andy Sellars, a staff attorney at the Digital Media Law Project. "And you should expect that world to include law enforcement."

Expect, in fact, anybody — now more than ever. Beyond the feds, marketers and cops, there is a growing customer base for Internet-monitoring contractors who sift through personal details readily available on the Internet.

"Monitor large public events, social unrest, gang communications and criminally predicated individuals," suggests the online pamphlet for the BlueJay browser tool, which reads like a mission statement for George Orwell's Ministry of Truth. "Identify potential witnesses and indicators for evidence."

"We could stop bad things from happening if we install cameras in everyone’s bedroom in America," Jay Stanley, senior policy analyst at the American Civil Liberties Union, told NBC News. "Which trade-off are we willing to accept? Every word, every fleeting thought we type into a search engine and every product we think about buying gets recorded by a large database, not to help us but to exert power over us."

"Spying is the nature of our society," Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt said recently an an event in New York City.

NBC News

Obama says 'We Don’t Have a Domestic Spying Program'

President Obama tells comedian Jay Leno that "We don’t have a domestic spying program." He made the comment during a taping of Leno's TV show.

Here's the pool report:

POTUS finished taping the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. He was wearing the same dark suit and blue tie as earlier today in Arizona.

Pool watched the taping on TV from another room at the NBC studios.

We are able to report on the contents now, after the taping, but not release a full transcript or too many quotes.

Pretty newsy interview. Leno asked about Edward Snowden, NSA, embassy closings, Russia, Hillary Clinton, economy, healthcare.

On embassy closings: 

POTUS said the U.S. was not overreacting. 

POTUS said people can still take vacation, just do so in a “prudent way” by checking on the State Department Websites for up-to-day information before making plans.

"The odds of dying in a terrorist attack are a lot lower than they are of dying in a car accident, unfortunately." 

On NSA: 

POTUS said government surveillance is a "critical component to counterterrorism." But, he said, he knows that the surveillance programs have "raised a lot of questions for people."

"We don’t have a domestic spying program. What we do have is some mechanisms that can track a phone number or an email address that is connected to a terroritst attack...That information is useful." 

Snowden/Russia:

Leno asked POTUS what he would call Snowden?

"We don’t know exactly what he did, except what he said on the Internet and it's im important for me not to judge."

POTUS said he asked his staff to look at ways to reduce the number of contractors.

On Russia:

POTUS said he was disappointed in its decision on Snowden, but he said the two nations still work together on Afghainstan and the Boston bombing.

"There are times when they slip back into Cold War thinking and Cold War mentality. What I continually say to them and  to President Putin, that’s the past."

POTUS said he would be attending the G-20 summitt in St. Petersburg, Russia.  

He does not think that the gay rights controversy there will affect the Olympics.

The Weekly Standard