Tag: politics

The US continues spying on phones under Obama

There are a ton of opinions on this subject and we’ll get to those in a moment.

But first the story:

The National Security Agency is currently collecting the telephone records of millions of US customers of Verizon, one of America’s largest telecoms providers, under a top secret court order issued in April.

The order, a copy of which has been obtained by the Guardian, requires Verizon on an “ongoing, daily basis” to give the NSA information on all telephone calls in its systems, both within the US and between the US and other countries.

The document shows for the first time that under the Obama administration the communication records of millions of US citizens are being collected indiscriminately and in bulk – regardless of whether they are suspected of any wrongdoing.

The secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (Fisa) granted the order to the FBI on April 25, giving the government unlimited authority to obtain the data for a specified three-month period ending on July 19.

Under the terms of the blanket order, the numbers of both parties on a call are handed over, as is location data, call duration, unique identifiers, and the time and duration of all calls. The contents of the conversation itself are not covered.

via NSA collecting phone records of millions of Verizon customers daily | World news | The Guardian.

But, there is a big difference this time:

Under the Bush administration, officials in security agencies had disclosed to reporters the large-scale collection of call records data by the NSA, but this is the first time significant and top-secret documents have revealed the continuation of the practice on a massive scale under President Obama.

The unlimited nature of the records being handed over to the NSA is extremely unusual. Fisa court orders typically direct the production of records pertaining to a specific named target who is suspected of being an agent of a terrorist group or foreign state, or a finite set of individually named targets.

Which sounds about right for the Democrats, because they are perfectly fine with Government of a massive scale.

Now there are two very important opinions on this subject that I want you to see. They are same political slant; however, the opinions are very different. Please go check out Michelle Malkin’s take and Ed Morrissey’s take on this subject. While I agree on Michelle Malkin’s assessment, I really do not agree with her narrative at all. If you are smart and read her a good deal, you will know what I am talking about.

Now there is one thing that Ed Morrissey wrote that I, as an Independent, and someone who believes that the war on terror is a very real thing and that we should at least try to keep America safe, without trampling on our constitutional rights. I believe this to be very true and  very profound statement coming from someone like Mr. Morrissey:

Hypocrisy is an unfortunately ubiquitous condition in politics, but in the case of NSA seizing Verizon’s phone records, it’s particularly widespread.  Some of the people expressing outrage for the Obama administration’s efforts at data mining had a different attitude toward it when Bush was in office.  Conversely, we’ll see some people defending Obama who considered Bush evil incarnate for the same thing.

Either way, we’re left with the situation of having the federal government seizing private records without any meaningful civil due process that engages the citizens affected, whether that includes actual wiretaps or just cataloguing our calls and movements.  Perhaps this will move this issue out of the partisan sphere and into a common ground in which we can all work to define exactly how far we’re willing to go in trading privacy for security.  In order to get there, we’d all better recognize the hypocrisy that has abounded on this issue for far too long, and start thinking about higher principles than party affiliation when it comes to national security and constitutional protections.

Now that last part that I underlined, is something I wholeheartedly agree with. When the story broke about Bush and Co. came about the wiretaps, I remember Keith Olbermann doing a special comment on it and I admired him for standing up. Now, where’s Keith? Where are the liberals who thought that this was much too intrusive? Where are they now? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

My hat tip goes to Glenn Greenwald for putting principles over partisanship and getting this story to the masses. Glenn has been about the only liberal who has stood up and pointed out that Obama Administration has continued the policies of the George W. Bush Administration and in some cases; like this one here — has expanded them to an alarming degree. Yes, this is overreach and it is alarming and I do hope the Congress does something about it.

Others: Hullabaloo, Yahoo! News, Washington Wire, Washington Monthly, New York Times,ThinkProgress, Politico, Firedoglake, BuzzFeed, CNN, Forbes, Joshua Foust, The World’s Greatest …, msnbc.com, The Atlantic Wire, JustOneMinute, American Spectator, Democracy in America,WorldViews, TIME, Business Insider, Examiner, The Fix, News Desk, Associated Press, New Republic, Daily Kos, The Maddow Blog, Mashable, Wake up America, Wonkblog, The Huffington Post, Taylor Marsh, The Volokh Conspiracy, Mediaite, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Library of Law & Liberty, Moon of Alabama, The Daily Caller, TechCrunch, Wall Street Journal, Engadget, Betsy’s Page, Patterico’s Pontifications, AllThingsD, Outside the Beltway, Post Politics, Informed Comment,Nice Deb, Real Clear Politics, Wired, The Gateway Pundit, The Week, Illinois Review,AMERICAblog, Pirate’s Cove, CANNONFIRE, VentureBeat, No More Mister Nice Blog, First Read,Prairie Weather, The PJ Tatler, Telegraph, The Hinterland Gazette, Alan Colmes’ Liberaland, Weasel Zippers, Jammie Wearing Fools, GigaOM, Corrente, The Spectacle Blog, Gawker, Boing Boing, The Raw Story, Shakesville, Secrecy News, The Verge, Conservatives4Palin, susiemadrak.com, Sense of Events, Taegan Goddard’s …, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, The BLT, emptywheel and Overlawyered  Via Memeorandum 

About those ricin letters

I have some thoughts about this here and I will share them after the story here:

A threatening letter was mailed to President Obama that is similar to two letters containing poisonous ricin sent to Mayor Bloomberg and his anti-gun group, officials confirmed Thursday. 

The letter, first reported by NBC 4 New York, is being tested for ricin. It was received Wednesday at an off-site facility, and did not reach the White House, according to the Secret Service.

“This letter has been turned over to the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force for testing and investigation,” said Brian Leary, a Secret Service spokesman.

The text of that mailing was identical to the letters sent to the mayor and his gun group, which threatened: “what’s in this letter is nothing compared to what I’ve got planned for you,” police and law enforcement sources said.

via Third Letter Sent to President Obama, Similar to NY Mayor Ricin Letters: Officials | NBC New York.

I just want to say the following: Call me cynical, but I happen to think that anyone who blames the NRA for the actions of one lone nut; is just scapegoating. Of course, the usual suspects are blaming that organization. I mean, it is one thing to blame radical Islam or America’s foreign policy for terrorism and Jihad. Because it is established that Islam, especially that of a political sort happens to be a  threat. A threat most likely created by the United States love for foreign policy.  However, this could have been some lone nut or even some idiot looking to smear the gun crowd.

This is why I have come to dislike politics, because both sides case blame so early, which is very dumb in my opinion. Casting blame cheapens the debate.  Now, before anyone says it in comments; I know about the stupid “We came unarmed, this time” signs. I wish those people with those signs were removed the Tea Party gatherings, as it gives the impression that Tea Party people are crazy. The accusation that the Tea Party supporters are crazy gun nuts or whatever is so totally unfair, because a good number of those people are like me —- people who love their Country and just do not want to see it end up like up like Europe or even worse, like Canada with a broken healthcare system or worse — broke. Truthfully, America is already broke and borrowing money for China as it is.

However, that is no reason to send these sort of letters, nor is it a reason do it, if you think your gun rights are being infringed upon. The best course of action is the ballot box; which is an American constitutional right that many a brave man fought, bled and died for in this Country and in other Countries abroad.

Anyway, just my thoughts on the subject. 😀

Others: Little Green Footballs, Yahoo! News, Mediaite, Wonkette,msnbc.com, The Raw Story, The Daily Caller and CNN

Update: Pic of said letter:

(via ABC News)

 

Sorry — accusing the President of United States of America of being high on cocaine is just WRONG!

First of all, before I get into this little story, let me remind everyone; for the purpose of informing the drive-by readers, that I am not an Obama supporter at all. I voted for Mitt Romney and I have repeatedly criticized this President before he was elected and after he was elected.  However, I did have him the benefit of the doubt on Benghazi, and I also rescinded that, once all the scandals came out.

However, the following that I am about report about, made even this Obama critic want to retch when I saw this idiotic conspiracy theory, which is solely based in old school Democratic Party racism; dressed up a legitimate political speculation.

Please, feast your eyes on this disgusting piece of racist bile, by a one Kevin DuJan — a Homosexual Hillary Clinton Supporter: (H/T to Little Green Footballs)

Yesterday, Rich Lowry at Politico wrote about “The Mystery Night” on September 11th, 2012 when the current US President disappeared for many hours and was seemingly unavailable…despite the fact that the first US Ambassador in 30 years had been murdered in the line of duty.  Lowry wonders where Barack Obama disappeared to that fateful night…and why White House aide Dan Pfeiffer insists it’s “irrelevant” where Obama was in those missing hours.

If you’ve ever known anyone who is a drug addict, you’d see it’s obvious that Barack Obama was high on cocaine the night of Benghazi; it is the only logical explanation for his disappearance and the White House’s refusal to comment on what he was doing at the time.  Since this was a night of great crisis for our country, the only logical reason that the White House won’t explain where the president was is if this man was high as a kite on illegal narcotics at the time.

Lowry did a great job in his article fleshing out the last time Obama was seen on September 11th of last year…and then noting when he reappeared again the next day, briefly, before jetting off to fabulous Las Vegas for a fun-and-games fundraiser event he had scheduled there (where, it also should be noted, not only Chippendales but also Thunder From Down Under male revues are regularly held…which certainly establishes the appeal of heading to Las Vegas instead of managing a national crisis back in Washington for this particular president).

The sick and sad part? This actually was linked to and written about, by some deranged far right loon, who writes at the Examiner.com.

For the record, Kevin DuJan is a Hillary Clinton supporter, who was one of the many who was fanning the flames of the idiotic conspiracy theories of the President not being an american citizen. The Hillary campaign were the ones who discovered this story; on, of all places, a White Nationalist website. After this, some so-called “Conservative” websites began, without attribution — copying this story, nearly word for word. This idiotic theory about Obama being a cokehead, and the basis for this libel was started by a one Larry Sinclair, who is, for lack of a better word, a thug criminal, with a questionable past.

Larry Sinclair is also a Homosexual, who is friends with, and used to broadcast his radio show on Jeff Rense’s network. Jeff Rense is a notorious Anti-Semite. I happen to know about all of this, because I happened to be blogging about of this, when it originally broke back in 2007 on my old blog — feel free to check the archives for yourselves.

The point of this, is not to defend the President of the United States, as much as it is to expose these two-bit, racist and anti-Semites for what they truly are —- hate mongers. It is a tragic sad shame that the Democratic Party is still the home of scum-sucking hate mongers like these people. This is why Hillary lost, not because she was not qualified to do the job; but because of the racial bigotry that she became “chummy” with during the 2008 election. It was a sick and sad ending to the new left that might have been able to fix the damage of the Neocons who were in power. Instead, because of the idiotic missteps of the Hillary campaign, such this here —- the new left was defeated.

Now let me be clear on something here. This is not my attempt at Frankfort School PC nonsense. This is the real deal, old bigotry that did, in fact, raise its head during the election. I was there, I saw it and yes, I wrote about it at the time. I am not a fan of the PC nonsense at all. But, as a Christian and as a someone who thinks that this brand of hate; although, I have been accused of it, by people with an agenda —- is simply immoral and wrong. Period.  Furthermore, I will call these people out and expose them for what they are, no matter what the cost it is to me as a writer and blogger.

….and that…..is all.

 

IRS official to take the Fifth

Oh boy:

WASHINGTON — A top IRS official in the division that reviews nonprofit groups will invoke the 5th Amendment and refuse to answer questions before a House committee investigating the agency’s improper screening of conservative nonprofit groups.

Lois Lerner, the head of the exempt organizations division of the IRS, won’t answer questions about what she knew about the improper screening — or why she didn’t disclose it to Congress, according to a letter from her defense lawyer, William W. Taylor III. Lerner was scheduled to appear before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday.

“She has not committed any crime or made any misrepresentation but under the circumstances she has no choice but to take this course,” said a letter by Taylor to committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Vista). The letter, sent Monday, was obtained Tuesday by the Los Angeles Times.

via Top IRS official will invoke 5th Amendment – latimes.com.

She’s taking the fifth, but she didn’t do anything wrong. Right. 🙄

I dunno about you, but I am thinking that the fit is about to hit the shan —- real quick. Especially after seeing this here. Again, I say, Oh boy, oooohhhhh boy…. 😯

Others: Power Line, Post Politics, Weasel Zippers, UrbanGrounds, Hot Air, National Review,New York Times, CNN, Scared Monkeys, americanthinker.com, The Jawa Report, News Desk,Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, The PJ Tatler, Right Turn, The Daily Caller, Belmont Club, Yahoo! News, The Gateway Pundit, The Hill, Dark Money, Mediaite, American Spectator, Business Insider, First Read,Riehl World News, The Right Scoop, Conservatives4Palin, The Hinterland Gazette and Washington Free Beacon (Via Memeorandum)

Disaster Exploitation Redux

First it was the Republicans and now the Democrats are getting into the act.

The Video:

The Story via the Daily Caller:

While many Americans were tuned into news coverage of the massive damage from tornadoes ravaging the state of Oklahoma, Rhode Island Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse took to the Senate floor to rail against his Republican colleagues for denying the theory of anthropogenic global warming.

Whitehouse spent 15 minutes chastising GOP senators and justified his remarks by alluding to states that seek federal assistance in the wake of natural disasters.

“So, you may have a question for me,” Whitehouse said. “Why do you care? Why do you, Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, care if we Republicans run off the climate cliff like a bunch of proverbial lemmings and disgrace ourselves? I’ll tell you why. We’re stuck in this together. We are stuck in this together. When cyclones tear up Oklahoma and hurricanes swamp Alabama and wildfires scorch Texas, you come to us, the rest of the country, for billions of dollars to recover. And the damage that your polluters and deniers are doing doesn’t just hit Oklahoma and Alabama and Texas. It hits Rhode Island with floods and storms. It hits Oregon with acidified seas, it hits Montana with dying forests. So, like it or not, we’re in this together.”

Unlike some bloggers who claim to be Independent, I point out when both sides do stupid stuff like this; because it is sick and wrong to exploit a tragic event like this for one’s political agenda. For the record, I do not totally deny climate change; I just happen to think that the science in incomplete and that the whole climate change movement became radically politicized, which I believe personally is harmful. I believe that science is a great thing; but science with a political agenda is dangerous, like unto Nazi propaganda or Soviet propaganda.

Others: Weasel Zippers, The Gateway Pundit, americanthinker.com,Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Right Wing News and Rumproast

Movie: “Choice”

This is from 1964:

youtube placeholder image

Daniel McCarthy explains:

I’d heard a lot about “Choice,” the campaign film Clif White instigated for Goldwater in 1964 but that the candidate ultimately vetoed. Until it appeared on YouTube, however, I hadn’t seen the program in full. It’s a doozy: fast cars, fast women, John Wayne. And more problematically, scenes of riots and civil rights protests portrayed in a way that led Goldwater to call it “a racist film” and demand that “Choice” not be shown on his behalf.

Clif White had been indispensable in helping Goldwater win the Republican nomination, but after that the candidate entrusted his campaign to others. Getting to make “Choice” was something of a consolation prize—but as Rick Perlstein writes in Before the Storm, in giving White permission to do a film on the “morality issue,” Goldwater “didn’t realize he had just become Truman giving MacArthur what the general thought was a green light to cross the Yalu.” The film wasn’t an official campaign product, but the campaign got the blame—both for the film itself and, from right-wing activists, for canceling it.

via Barry Goldwater vs. the Swinging ’60s: The ‘Choice’ Film | The American Conservative.

I think that movie was vetoed, because it told the truth a little too well.

….and you know what? We’re seeing the fruits of that truth today.

 

Benghazi and IRS scandal facts are irrelevant according to Obama flack Dan Pfeiffer

This here my friends —– is called digging your own hole, with your own shovel. However, in this case, I would call it “your own backhoe.” It is, as the Three Stooges short was called, “Dutiful, But Dumb.”

I simply cannot believe that I actually was stupid enough to give these stupid son-of-a-bitches the benefit of the doubt. 🙄

Video #1 via Weekly Standard:

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Video #2 also via Weekly Standard:

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The general rule is, when you’re in the hole, like this Presidential Administration; you…..stop….digging….  So, somebody needs to tell Pfeiffer to shut off that Cat® and take the keys away from him — before he ends in China!  (or worse! 😯 😀 )

Related:

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Update: From reader Judith:

Later this  month barry and michelle are hosting a concert in the WH featuring greats like Carol King, Billy Joel and others.  I hope Billy Joel dedicates this song to our fearless leader.

Here’s the song that she is referring to:

[podcast]

Wishful thinking there Judith. But, quite funny. 😉 😀

I guess we can put Dana Milbank in the non-Obama left corner too

Ouch! 😯

Quote:

NPR’s Ari Shapiro asked Carney to square Obama’s belief in an unfettered press with the fact that he has prosecuted twice as many leakers as all previous administrations combined.

Carney said Obama’s love of press freedom “is backed up by his support for a media shield law.” This would be the shield law that died in Congress in 2010 because of Obama’s objections.

Alexis Simendinger, from RealClearPolitics, challenged Carney to harmonize his refusal to meddle in an “ongoing investigation” with Obama’s comments on the Trayvon Martin case last year, when a Justice Department investigation was ongoing.

“Come on,” Carney replied with scorn, repeating the excuse that “we have no knowledge” of the phone snooping “beyond the press reports that we’ve read.”

And that’s just the problem.

via Dana Milbank: Obama, the uninterested president – The Washington Post.

Yeah, I pretty much think that Obama bit the very hand that elected him; and I believe you are going to see a press driven beltway turning against Obama.