(no subject)

Ex-NSA chief calls for Obama to reject recommendations

http://usat.ly/1cDuY83

Would NSA surveillance have stopped 9/11 plot?

http://cnn.it/19W4dLl

NSA targets foreigners, catches Americans: Column

http://usat.ly/1bzenxJ

Your USB cable, the spy: Inside the NSA’s catalog of surveillance magic
Latest batch of documents from Snowden shows NSA's power to pwn.

http://bit.ly/KiMmnN

Feds admit start of NSA surveillance, still say it’s too secretive for court

http://bit.ly/1gkhgYo

Obama says Snowden’s actions have “done unnecessary damage”
President will spend winter holiday in Hawaii reflecting on surveillance policy.

http://bit.ly/1fNP2ov

The NSA's TAO hacking unit is considered to be the intelligence agency's top secret weapon. It maintains its own covert network, infiltrates computers around the world and even intercepts shipping deliveries to plant back doors in electronics ordered by those it is targeting.

http://bit.ly/JmZOXM

NSA Uses Windows Error Messages To Spy On People

http://huff.to/1isfgQS

The NSA's elite hackers can hijack your Wi-Fi from 8 miles away

http://bit.ly/1ci0Nia

Report: NSA Intercepting Laptops Ordered Online, Installing Spyware

Also, it's got a creepy/snazzy octopus... logo... badge... thing?

http://onforb.es/JFui6G

U.S. Spy Rocket Has Octopus-Themed 'Nothing Is Beyond Our Reach' Logo. Seriously.

See? I couldn't make that up!

http://onforb.es/18GL69H

The U.S. National Security Agency has the ability to snoop on nearly every communication sent from an Apple iPhone, according to leaked documents shared by security researcher Jacob Appelbaum and German news magazine Der Spiegel.

http://bit.ly/1eRgwg3

Appelbaum: ‘Scary’ NSA will spy on you – every which way they can

http://bitly.com/1ghxCRA

U.S. to China: We Hacked Your Internet Gear We Told You Not to Hack

http://bitly.com/1eSUHwC

Good or not, change is coming to the NSA

http://bitly.com/1eRDrYB

Microsoft responds to report NSA snooped in Windows

http://cbsn.ws/1d6SIOo

Oooh, I just had a thought.

Congressional salaries are about 174,000 a year. Congress is in session only 130 - 180 days a year, and even if we assume members of congress spend several of those "free" hours a week listening to constituents, it's clear their hourly pay is pretty darn high.

And the minimum wage is pretty darn low.

It would never happen, but instead of tying minimum wage to inflation (which we ought to have done already), what if we tied congressional salaries to the minimum wage? Some reasonable multiple of the minimum wage for hours spent on the job, when congress is in session, and a little more to cover hours spent on the job answering constituents. None for when they are campaigning, that should be done on their own time, they have enough of it.

No matter what the effect on the economy, I bet either minimum wage would get increase real fast, or congress would start being in session for a lot longer.