The creative contest! Win lunch w/ HCP, SPD and a Wesley Matthews...

Not even following his own rules

 

Yeah, he's just stealing shit from Reddit!

 

You can't make these nerds WANT to have a free lunch with me!

 

The Truth Is Out There

Not to rain on your parade but while you guys are photo-shopping your way into a possibly awkward lunchdate that you'll end up re-gifting at the last moment, the people who ruthlessly run the world from behind the scenes are never idle.

Take Paul Allen for instance. One of the richest men in the world. On the surface a great guy, a major philanthropist, a funder of research, the world's best superyachtcelebritypartythrower, and a Hendrix fan.

Oh, he also owns the NBA's Trailblazers.

Wait, was it the NBA's Trailblazers, or was it the
NSA's Trailblazer Project?

Trailblazer Project
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Trailblazer was a United States National Security Agency (NSA) program intended to develop a capability to analyze data carried on communications networks like the Internet. It was intended to track entities using communication methods such as cell phones and e-mail...

NSA whistleblowers REDACTED complained to the DoD's Inspector General (IG) about waste, fraud, and abuse in the program, and the fact that a successful operating prototype existed, but was ignored when the Trailblazer program was launched. The complaint was accepted by the IG and an investigation lasted until mid-2005. The results were largely hidden, as the report given to the public was heavily (90%) redacted, while the original report was heavily classified, thus restricting the ability of most people to see it.

The people who filed the IG complaint were later raided by armed Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents. While the Government threatened to prosecute all who signed the IG report, it ultimately chose to pursue an NSA Senior Executive REDACTED who helped with the report internally to NSA and who had spoken with a reporter about the project. REDACTED was later charged under the Espionage Act of 1917. His defenders claimed this was retaliation. The charges against him were later dropped, and he agreed to plead guilty to having committed a misdemeanor under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, something that REDACTED of the Government Accountability Project (which helped represent him) called an "act of civil disobedience"...

Trailblazer was chosen over a similar program named ThinThread, a less costly project which had been designed with built-in privacy protections for United States citizens. Trailblazer was later linked to the NSA electronic surveillance program and the NSA warrantless surveillance controversy...

SAIC had also hired a former NSA director to its management; Bobby Inman(Whoa....any relation to Stu Inman?).[9] SAIC also participated in the concept definition phase of Trailblazer...


Here's where the parallels between the team and the project seem more than a little too coincidental, back in 2004.


In 2004 the DoD IG report criticized the program (see the Whistleblowing section below). It said that the "NSA 'disregarded solutions to urgent national security needs'" and "that TRAILBLAZER was poorly executed and overly expensive ..." Several contractors for the project were worried about cooperating with DoD's audit for fear of "management reprisal."
In 2005, NSA director Michael Hayden told a Senate hearing that the Trailblazer program was several hundred million dollars over budget and years behind schedule. In 2006 the program was shut down, after having cost billions of US Dollars.


After that the connection between the Trailblazers team and the Trailblazer Project gets murky, then fades away entirely. Or so it seemed at the time.


In 2005, President George W. Bush ordered the FBI to find whoever had disclosed information about the NSA electronic surveillance program in the New York Times. Eventually, this investigation led to the people who had filed the 2002 DoD IG request, even though they had nothing to do with the New York Times disclosure. In 2007, the houses of REDACTED, and REDACTED were raided by armed FBI agents. According to REDACTED, REDACTED claims the FBI pointed guns at his head and that of his wife. REDACTED said it reminded him of the Soviet Union. None of these people were ever charged with any crime. Four months later, REDACTED was raided in November 2007 and his computers and documents were confiscated.

In 2010 REDACTED was indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice on charges of obstructing justice, providing false information, and violating the Espionage Act of 1917, part of President Barack Obama's crackdown on whistleblowers and "leakers". The government tried to get REDACTED to testify to a conspiracy, and made similar requests to REDACTED, offering him a plea bargain. They both refused.

In June 2011, the ten original charges against REDACTED were dropped, instead he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor.


Suddenly the Trailblazers team was improving, winning more often, becoming more efficient. Little did we know that behind the scenes, the supposedly mothballed Trailblazer Project was also up and running fulltime at fullspeed, with the NSA reading Putin's rudimentary emails while simultaneously watching your little sister through her Iphone while she bathes.

But now we know, thanks to Edward Snowden, and they know we know, but they're still doing it. And they're not going to stop. It's a means to an end, and believe me you're not going to like the end.

On the bright side, the obvious parallel to the Trailblazers teamwise is they win the Championship, so there's that at least.

GO BLAZERS!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trailblazer_Project

(My sincerest apologies to Wikipedia.)

 

OK Maris - that was impressive! Let me be the last to shake your hand before they come for you.

 

I believe my body of work deserves some sort of recognition...















[video]http://s96.photobucket.com/user/HyperBully/media/ThePowerofPositiveThinking.mp4.html[/video]

 

Nice^

 

I do! Was going to shave the pinwheel into my head, but recently shaved it, so waiting for it to grow slightly so it will show up.

 

I REALLY want a Wesley Matthews bobblehead.

Hard to make time to do anything with all this calling bullshit on Batum haters...

 

I want one too. I'm just not creative.

 

Excuse me! I spent 10 minutes making that gif! And it was made specifically for this contest, and it has a title.

 

Uh-Oh. The competition is getting heated!

 

rosemarys nards

 

Fuck it.....whoever gives me the most money will win!