Category: News

Anonymous Twitterer @natsecwonk outed as now fired Jofi Joseph, a former White House Official

This is most interesting. How this guy got away with this for as long as he did; speaks volumes to the incompetence of our Government. I thought the NSA could press a button and know all of this stuff? I thought that the Government was listening on everything; as snowden told everyone? Hmph, guess not.

If the house was smart; they would subpoena the man, force him to testify under oath, about everything he knows about fast and furious; and benghazi. Maybe even offer him clemency, if he tells everything; and I mean everything. But, it won’t happen now. The Republicans cannot afford anymore bad press; no thanks to the stupid, idiotic, clown actions of Ted Cruz. 🙄

The Story:

A White House national security official was fired last week after being caught as the mystery Tweeter who has been tormenting the foreign policy community with insulting comments and revealing internal Obama administration information for over two years.

Jofi Joseph, a director in the non-proliferation section of the National Security Staff at the White House, has been surreptitiously tweeting under the moniker @natsecwonk, a Twitter feed famous inside Washington policy circles since it began in February, 2011 until it was shut down last week. Two administration officials confirmed that the mystery tweeter was Joseph, who has also worked at the State Department and on Capitol Hill for Senators Bob Casey (D-PA) and Joe Biden. Until recently, he was part of the administration’s team working on negotiations with Iran.

During his time tweeting under the @natsecwonk name, Joseph openly criticized the policies of his White House bosses and often insulted their intellect and appearance. At different times, he insulted or criticized several top White House and State Department officials, including former National Security Advisor Tom Donilon, Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes, Secretary of State John Kerry, and many many others.

via Exclusive: White House Official Fired for Tweeting Under Fake Name – The Daily Beast.

Others: Talking Points Memo, Washington Wire, Mediaite, Hot Air, Right Wing News, BillMoyers.com,Outside the Beltway, The Other McCain, The Daily Caller, The Week, BBC, Taylor Marsh, Gawker, Weasel Zippers, The Raw Story and Althouse

Sebelius says President didn’t know of Obamacare website’s woes in advance

The Video:

Any other time, I would say that I find this to be very hard to believe. However, when it comes to the President of the United States; I can believe this one. Because it is a fact that President Bush was kept in the dark about what was happening in Iraq and with what was happening in afghanistan; and about the enhanced interrogation; until they could not keep it from him any longer. So, this could be entirely the case.

The Story:

(CNN) — President Barack Obama didn’t know of problems with the Affordable Care Act’s website — despite insurance companies’ complaints and the site’s crashing during a test run — until after its now well-documented abysmal launch, the nation’s health chief told CNN on Tuesday.

Rough Obamacare rollout: 4 reasons why

In an exclusive interview with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta asked when the President first learned about the considerable issues with the Obamacare website. Sebelius responded that it was in “the first couple of days” after the site went live October 1.

“But not before that?” Gupta followed up.

To which Sebelius replied, “No, sir.”

via Sebelius: President didn’t know of Obamacare website’s woes in advance – CNN.com.

Others: Yahoo! News, “The Lid”, BuzzFeed, Real Clear Politics, americanthinker.com, Scared Monkeys, The PJ Tatler, Business Insider, NBC Politics, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Weasel Zippers, Washington Wire, The Fix, Taylor Marsh, The Other McCain, Hot Air, The Raw Story and New York Times

September Jobs report is proof of stagnation

(H/T of credit goes to Ed Morrissey who’s report on this subject is most excellent.)

From the Bureau of Labor:

Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 148,000 in September, and the unemployment rate
was little changed at 7.2 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.
Employment increased in construction, wholesale trade, and transportation and warehousing.
[….]
In September, the number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more)
was little changed at 4.1 million. These individuals accounted for 36.9 percent of the
unemployed. The number of long-term unemployed has declined by 725,000 over the past
year. (See table A-12.)

Both the civilian labor force participation rate, at 63.2 percent, and the employment-
population ratio at 58.6 percent, were unchanged in September. Over the year, the labor
force participation rate has declined by 0.4 percentage point, while the employment-
population ratio has changed little. (See table A-1.)

The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to
as involuntary part-time workers) was unchanged at 7.9 million in September. These
individuals were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they
were unable to find a full-time job. (See table A-8.)

In September, 2.3 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force, down from
2.5 million a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) These individuals
were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a
job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they
had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey. (See table A-16.)

Among the marginally attached, there were 852,000 discouraged workers in September,
essentially unchanged from a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.)
Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe
no jobs are available for them. The remaining 1.5 million persons marginally attached
to the labor force in September had not searched for work for reasons such as school
attendance or family responsibilities. (See table A-16.)

Ed Morrissey as always, provides some excellent analysis:

The jobless rate declined to 7.2%, but that’s not coming from an employment explosion. In order to keep up with population growth, the US economy has to add around 150K jobs net each month, which means we did slightly worse than tread water in September.  Both the U-3 and the U-6 number declined in this case by a tenth of a point, with U-6 now at 13.6%.  Before the Great Recession really got into high gear in the fall of 2008, U-6 was at 10.8%, and it was at 14.2% when Barack Obama took office.

This month, 136,000 people left the workforce in the population survey, which is almost the same number as the net jobs added in the establishment survey.  The number of employed in the same population survey only increased 133,000.  It’s a real demonstration of the continuing stagnation, and another indication of the decreasing value of the jobless rate as an economic indicator.

The business friendly media saw this and called it the following (Via CNBC):

Today’s blistering jobs report has quickly reminded America that our economic problems are getting worse, despite talking point reassurances from Federal Reserve officials,” said Todd Schoenberger, managing partner at LandColt Capital.

The report likely will do little to move the needle on monetary policy.

Most market-watchers now expect the Federal Reserve to continue its $85 billion a month bond-buying program until well into 2014. Consensus sentiment is now that the central bank won’t even start easing back on, or “tapering,” the purchases until the spring.

“You would think by now you would be consistently creating over a couple hundred-thousand jobs a month, at least,” said Brad Levitt, senior economist for Oppenheimer Funds. “The Fed wants to see over 200,000 jobs a month on a consistent basis before a change of policy.”

[….]

In short, the demand isn’t there and the money to pay additional workers isn’t there,” Kathy Bostjancic, director of macroeconomic analysis for the Conference Board, said in a statement. “Both job and income growth remain stuck in neutral.”

Okay, now it is time for me to rant a little here; after all the domain name here, and the former name of this blog was “Thoughts and Rantings” at one point. Now before I begin; please keep in mind that I have never been much of a partisan blogger. I have my political convictions and all, but I am not, nor have I ever been a “Republican” blogger. I am a Paleoconservative, a Pat Buchanan type. Basically, when it comes to matters like this here, Free Trade, and somewhat wall street —- I am still pretty much a populist, not a progressive populist, but still very much a populist.

You see my friends, this here is what you get when you put in a Neoconservative President for eight years, who puts America into a war. This is what happens when you put in neoconservatives in congress that spend like drunken sailors. This is what happens when Democrats come in, take over congress and promise the moon and the stars and proceed to do absolutely nothing! What did they do? Continued the damned spending, just like the Republicans did under Dennis Hastert.

All the Democrats did, when they were campaigning, was carp on about ending the war, not once did they ever say anything about the jobs situation.  Then, finally, after they won the election, and routed out the Republicans; did they change anything? Did they stop the war? Did they even bother to slow down spending, did they bring the fed’s printing of money under control? Did they try to lighten the burden of taxes to the big and small businesses, did they try to clear some of the idiotic regulations for small businesses, so that job growth could actually happen? Hell no, they didn’t!

Now look what we have to show for it, Republicans and Democrats. A pure crap-hole for an economy! As for those job numbers; those numbers are a damn farce. When you add in the people, like myself, who have basically given up on trying to look for work, and have been out of the workforce for longer than say, six months; the numbers are much, much, higher. Some say, if you factor in ALL unemployed people, the number is as high as 30%. I believe if the United States Government would actually stop trying to fake the damned numbers on unemployment, and take a real damned survey; the numbers would be shocking and would plunge Wall Street into a full on panic.

The bottom line: The United States of America’s economy and jobs situation is an absolute disaster; and the United States Government continues under this neo-liberal Presidential administration to cover up the fact that America’s unemployment problem is extremely severe. Just like the previous neoconservative President did. The solution to this problem is to end the free trade deals, and get the federal reserve under control. This is when real economic reforms can begin.

Others:

This is what your taxpayers dollars are being used to fund in Palestine

I have always said, that I believe that Israel has a right to exist, just as Palestine does. However, I do not believe that the United States should be funding either side of that conflict; and this is why.:

For at least the second time in five months, Arab residents of Beit Umar in the Palestinian Authority (PA) have placed a Nazi flag over a major thoroughfare where Jews pass in their vehicles.

Beit Umar is located between Halhoul and the Etzion Bloc, not far from Hevron.

Soldiers from the Haruv battalion in Kfir Regiment tried to take down the flag Saturday, but encountered difficulty because it was placed very high up.

A similar event took place at Beit Umar in May, when hundreds of residents of Gush Etzion who drove down Highway 60 were astounded to see an oversized Nazi flag flying next to a mosque in the Arab town.

In a recent key seech, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu quoted numerous historical sources showing that the leader of the Palestinian Arabs in the first half of the 20th century, Mufti Hajj Amin Al-Husseini, was “one of the initiators of the Holocaust of the Jews of Europe,” and that he was constantly encouraging the Nazi leadership to annihilate the Jews, throughout the war. He cited evidence that the Mufti even visited the gas chambers at Auschwitz with Adolf Eichmann.

“The Mufti is still a greatly admired figure in the Palestinian national movement,” said Netanyahu. “These are the weeds that need to be uprooted,” he said. “The root of the conflict is the deep resistance among a hard core of Palestinians to the right of the Jewish people to its own state in Israel.”

via Again: Arabs Fly Nazi Flag Near Road – Defense/Security – News – Israel National News.

Because we fund this sort of crap; we are involved in this conflict by proxy. We should stop sending both sides money and let them both settle their differences.

Others:  Jihad Watch, Weasel Zippers, Algemeiner.com and The Gateway Pundit

More black on white crime in Brooklyn, NY

More Black on white crime; and this time, it actually made the media.

The Story:

A group of 10 black youths — one of them a 12-year-old girl — surrounded a white couple’s car in Brooklyn, viciously beating the husband and yanking the wife to the pavement by her hair as they peppered the two with racial slurs, authorities said.

“Get those crackers!” some of them screamed, according to court papers. “Get that white whore!”

The confrontation erupted about 7 p.m. Monday, as the marauding group crossed Avenue U at E. 58th St. near Kings Plaza Shopping Center in Mill Basin.

Ronald Russo, 30, and his wife, Alanna, apparently had the green light and the husband honked at the group to get out of the way. The rowdy kids started kicking the car, according to the criminal complaint. Ronald Russo got out to check on potential damage to his vehicle.

And that’s when all hell broke loose.

RELATED: BROOKLYN PIPE ATTACKER EYED IN MIDTOWN BRICK BEATING

Ronald Russo was dragged to the ground. Then he was punched and kicked in the head. He felt more blows all over his body, investigators said. He suffered a fractured nose, a broken septum, a blood clot and abrasions to his shoulder. He was treated and released from Beth Israel Medical Center.

In the midst of the attack, there was a steady chorus of epithets. “White motherf—–!” screamed the attackers, who ranged in age from 12 to 18.

Alanna Russo, 30, was calling 911 when the 12-year-old girl pulled the woman’s hair and threw her to the ground. The victim’s head slammed into the concrete. She suffered a black eye, bleeding and difficulty breathing, prosecutors said, but she refused medical attention.

Her husband’s iPhone was stolen during the melee, according to cops.

via Brooklyn group of black youths blocks white couple’s car, bloody victims in racial attack: cops – NY Daily News.

Weasel Zippers reports:

Kashawn Kirton, 18, has been charged with gang assault, harassment and menacing charges, all as hate crimes.

Daehrell Finch, 17 has been charged with gang assault, assault, menacing and harassment but does not face hate-crime charges.

Two more teens, a 12-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy, have also been arrested, but their names have not been released.

Urbangrounds has very good posting and gives some good advice:

The lesson here is obvious: If your car is ever surrounded by a mob of black youths, no matter what they say or do to your vehicle, DO NOT GET OUT OF THE CAR. Drive away. Drive over them if you have to. But do not get out of your car. Oh, and it should go without saying, but ALWAYS keep a loaded and readily-accessible hand-gun in your car. Because you never know where or when evil will raise it’s ugly head.

You can also too move away from areas where blacks tend to live too. Which is what I want to do so very bad. I wanna go live in the woods, and away from the city. I intend to get there; one day. Since Obama took office, there has been an noticeable uptick of black on white crime. Just Obama’s people doing what he told them to do, is the way I see it.

Previous black on white crime:

Wow: America’s Evangelist Billy Graham Turning 95

If I ever live that long, I hope I am able to get around as good as Billy Graham does.

The Story:

Evangelist Billy Graham turns 95 next month. His son, Franklin Graham, said hundreds have been invited to his father’s Nov. 7 birthday celebration.

Despite his advanced age, there are no signs that “America’s pastor” is slowing down.

This summer, he completed his latest book, The Reason for My Hope, along with an outreach video, titled “My Hope America with Billy Graham.”

Franklin said his father dictated the text and had it read back to him because his vision is poor.

He added that his father isn’t sure how he’ll feel on any given day, “until he’s had his cup of coffee.”

via America’s Evangelist Billy Graham Turning 95 – US – CBN News – Christian News 24-7 – CBN.com.

While I respect Billy Graham, and honor his age and all the accomplishments that he has made to the cause of Christ; I must be honest. I do, as a Fundamentalist Christian, have issues with Rev. Graham’s Ministry. Please see here and here for what they are, please.

My best to Rev. Graham on his 95’th Birthday. 😀