End Times and Current Events

House Judiciary investigating whether Holder lied under oath

The House Judiciary Committee is investigating whether Attorney General Eric Holder lied under oath during his May 15 testimony on the Justice Department’s (DOJ) surveillance of reporters, an aide close to the matter told The Hill.
 
The panel is looking at a statement Holder made during a back and forth with Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) about whether the DOJ could prosecute reporters under the Espionage Act of 1917.

“In regard to potential prosecution of the press for the disclosure of material - this is not something I’ve ever been involved in, heard of, or would think would be wise policy,” Holder said during the hearing.
 
However, NBC News reported last week that Holder personally approved a search warrant that labeled Fox News chief Washington correspondent James Rosen a co-conspirator in a national security leaks case.
 
The panel is investigating whether NBC’s report contradicts Holder’s claim that he had not looked into or been involved with a possible prosecution of the press in a leaks case.

Holder’s testimony at the hearing came before Justice’s actions against Rosen had become public. The hearing was held after the Associated Press revealed the Department of Justice had secretly subpoenaed its phone records in a separate leaks investigation.
 
Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (Wis.), the second-ranking Judiciary Committee Republican, told The Hill that Holder should resign.

He accused Holder of misleading the panel during the investigation of the Fast and Furious gun-tracking operation, and again when he claimed to not know about the AP probe.
 
“As we saw in Fast and Furious and are seeing now, Attorney General Holder refuses to hold himself accountable,” he said. “He misled the Judiciary Committee under oath when he said he had not heard about Fast and Furious and he misled us again when he claimed to be unaware of the AP scandal. The head of DOJ should be someone the American people can trust. Attorney General Holder should resign.”
 
The DOJ seized Rosen’s personal emails and used other surveillance methods to investigate whether he was complicit in a leak of classified information. It also examined Rosen’s phone records and tracked his visits to the State Department using security-badge data during the 2009 probe.
 
Justice filed legal papers saying Rosen may have acted as “an aider, abettor and/or co-conspirator” by getting materials from a government official also under investigation.

The investigation was primarily focused on rooting out Rosen’s source, a State Department worker who is facing federal charges for disclosing classified national security information and could see a trial as soon as next year.
 
The DOJ has also faced criticism over its seizure of phone records belonging to the AP. Unlike the Rosen case, the AP was never a target of that investigation.
 
The House voted to find Holder in contempt over his refusal to turn over documents to lawmakers on Fast and Furious, an operation in which the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms purposely allowed guns to be illegally purchased in the U.S. and Mexico in the hope they could be tracked.


Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/302131-house-judiciary-investigating-whether-holder-lied-under-oath#ixzz2UbcRXm00

Washington launches four different investigations into IRS scandal

Capitol Hill aides spent their Memorial Day weekend scanning hundreds of pages of documents related to the IRS scandal in order to prepare their bosses for what will inevitably be a frantic month of June involving multiple simultaneous investigations into government wrongdoing. By the time lawmakers return to session next week, at least four different investigations will be underway.
 
As The Daily Caller has reported, at least five different IRS offices including Cincinnati, Ohio; Baltimore, Maryland; Chicago, Illinois and El Monte and Laguna Niguel, California improperly targeted conservative nonprofit groups for extra scrutiny between 2010 and 2012.
 
The IRS’ shenanigans, chronicled in a damning report by Treasury Inspector General J. Russell George, started when a “team of [IRS] specialists” came together in April 2010 to process the tax-exempt nonprofit status of conservative groups that might be “potential political operations” (page 13 of the IG report). The IRS added “additional specialists” to this effort in December 2011.
 
The IRS also launched audits of existing conservative nonprofit groups including the Virginia-based Leadership Institute, demanding to see training materials and personal information about the organization’s 2008 college interns.
 
So for those of you keeping score at home (this reporter is still waiting for Ken Starr to send in his bracket picks) The Daily Caller presents a list of some of our favorite investigations into potential IRS wrongdoing. Which one will come up with the “Alexander Butterfield” quote?
 
1. The House Ways and Means Committee – Oversight Subcommittee

As head of the House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee, Republican Louisiana Rep. Charles Boustany has conducted the toughest probe into the IRS scandal so far. Boustany managed to acquire “all communications containing the word ‘tea party,’ ‘patriot,’ or ‘conservative,’” from recently-resigned IRS acting director Steven T. Miller. He also got the names of everyone involved with the improper targeting.
 
Republican Ways and Means chairman Rep. Dave Camp of Michigan also raised awareness of the issue by reaching out to the public, asking Americans to write in with their own stories of IRS harassment.
 
“Your story is critical to moving the investigation forward,” according to a form created on the Ways and Means’ Committee’s website asking for users’ stories, which also includes a two-year timeline of the scandal beginning in August 2010.
 
Boustany was in prime position to jump on the IRS scandal. Back in September, long before the current scandal, his subcommittee grilled Steven T. Miller with concerns about the IRS’ implementation of Obamacare.


Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2013/05/27/washington-launches-four-different-investigations-into-irs-scandal/#ixzz2UbdO7HXR

SCANDAL? WHAT SCANDAL?
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/302053-obama-embraces-consoler-in-chief-role-to-remain-above-the-fray

Washington launches four different investigations into IRS mess...
http://dailycaller.com/2013/05/27/washington-launches-four-different-investigations-into-irs-scandal/

REPORT: HOLDER WENT JUDGE SHOPPING TO OBTAIN FOXNEWS SUBPOENA...
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2013/05/28/Holder-Went-Court-Hopping-Until-Finally-Getting-His-Fox-News-Subpoena

REPORT: Holder 'Beginning to Feel Creeping Sense of Personal Remorse'...
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/claim-holder-beginning-feel-creeping-sense-personal-remorse_731734.html

Why is it Presidents in recently history have scandals in their SECOND terms?

Anyhow - we'll see where this goes - but it seems like if history has indicated recently, these "scandals" "exposing" these current sitting Presidents who are about to finish their terms end up giving the public perception false hope toward the next guy. Remember the Lewinsky scandal in Clinton's 2nd term, which was when the country decided they needed a "morally Christian" President, and turned to a Yale Skull and Bones alum? Or how about recently when this country wound up with Obama, thinking all of the illegal wars in the ME Bush II started would end?

Because they got nothing to lose. What would the public do, not re-elect them?

Tea Party Groups Hit IRS with Federal Lawsuit

Some are calling the IRS scandal "chilling," while others, like lawmakers, want to know what the tax agency was really up to when it targeted conservative groups.
 
A new TV ad by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has hit the airwaves, condemning the Obama administration for using the Internal Revenue Service to target Tea Party groups.
 
"Again and again this administration and its allies have used the resources of the government itself to intimidate or silence those who question," McConnell says in the ad.

"I don't know about you," he continued, "but I think that the leader of the free world and his advisers have better things to do than to dig through other people's tax returns."
 
The IRS scandal is just one of many rocking the White House lately. Can this administration gain back the trust of the American people? Seton Motley, founder and president of Less Government, answers this question and more following George Thomas's updated report.
 
Meanwhile, the scandal keeps getting bigger.

The Inspector General's report said a few low-level employees from the IRS Cincinnati office were involved. But Jay Sekulow, chief counsel with the American Center for Law & Justice, says he has new evidence showing the targeting of conservative groups went beyond a few agents in a single city.
 
"This is a letter from the United States Department of Treasury, Internal Revenue Service, Washington, D.C.," Sekulow said. "We have the letter; we have the documents."

"These aren't hard to get," he added. "Their agents wrote them to us: 15 agents, four different offices."
 
The ACLJ is suing the IRS on behalf of 25 Tea Party and conservative groups.

"This is an agency that is basically is out of control," Sekulow charged. "Right now, Treasury - I'd say the IRS in particular - is institutionally incapable of regulating itself."
 
The White House has dismissed suggestions it was aware of the targeting, saying the president only learned of the investigation from the media.

Meanwhile, the scope and breadth of the allegations have many wondering what the tax agency was really up to.
 
"When a government decides to start targeting its own citizens for no other reason than political affiliation we all have a right to be very, very scared," Adam Brandon, executive vice president of FreedomWorks, told CBN News.
 
The IRS sent out questionnaires wanting to know what books people read, their Facebook posts, donor names. Some groups were even asked to give information about their prayers.
 
Lawmakers pressed former acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller on the matter at a May 17 House Ways and Means Committee hearing:
 
Illinois Rep. Aaron Shock (R): "Specifically asked by the IRS to the pro-life coalition of Iowa, 'Please detail the content of the members of your organization's prayers.' Would that be an appropriate question to a 501c applicant?" the GOP lawmaker asked Miller.
 
Miller: "It pains me to say I can't speak to that one either."
 
Shock: "You don't know whether or not that would be an appropriate question of an applicant?"
 
Miller: "Speaking outside of this case, which I don't know anything about that case, it would surprise me that question was asked."
 
The big question is: who's responsible? Who ordered the IRS to target Tea Party and conservative groups?

Critics find it hard to believe a problem this big originated from the IRS's Cincinnati office.
 
"I would kind of sleep better at night if this were directed by someone in the White House or some agency, but I'm actually just fearful that this is just bureaucrats gone crazy," Brandon said.
 
"I think we're just starting to get into where this originated, who knew what when," Brandon continued. "And I believe, like Watergate, this is probably going to be a scandal that's going to continue to drip and we're going to learn more as time goes on."

http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/politics/2013/May/FreedomWorks-VP-IRS-Scandal-Just-Beginning/?utm

PRESS REVOLTS OVER OTR MEET
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/05/29/holder-runs-into-roadblocks-on-off-the-record-meetings-on-leaks/

Special IRS Prosecutor Favored as Obama Support Drops...
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-30/special-irs-prosecutor-favored-as-obama-support-drops.html

REPORT: IRS commish had most WH visits of Cabinet...
http://dailycaller.com/2013/05/29/irss-shulman-had-more-public-white-house-visits-than-any-cabinet-member/

Holder runs into roadblocks on off-the-record meetings on leaks
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/05/29/holder-runs-into-roadblocks-on-off-the-record-meetings-on-leaks/

As I see it, it's real simple. What they are up to is making sure their agenda is forwarded and people tow the official line. If you don't, your a target. It's play ball, or your out, just like it's always been in the world. It's just that now, it may be we have in part some real idiots that just aren't very good at being subtle in their agenda. Then again, it may be that they are just getting bolder and don't see the need to hide their agenda.

What ever the case, it's the world, and they will continue to do evil things, no matter how many senate hearings they have.

Emails of top Obama appointees remain a mystery

Some of President Barack Obama's political appointees, including the Cabinet secretary for the Health and Human Services Department, are using secret government email accounts they say are necessary to prevent their inboxes from being overwhelmed with unwanted messages, according to a review by The Associated Press.

The scope of using the secret accounts across government remains a mystery: Most U.S. agencies have failed to turn over lists of political appointees' email addresses, which the AP sought under the Freedom of Information Act more than three months ago. The Labor Department initially asked the AP to pay more than $1 million for its email addresses.

The AP asked for the addresses following last year's disclosures that the former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency had used separate email accounts at work. The practice is separate from officials who use personal, non-government email accounts for work, which generally is discouraged - but often happens anyway - due to laws requiring that most federal records be preserved. That means it is illegal for these people to use their private accounts, this stuff has to be public, by LAW. These are crimes.

The secret email accounts complicate an agency's legal responsibilities to find and turn over emails in response to congressional or internal investigations, civil lawsuits or public records requests because employees assigned to compile such responses would necessarily need to know about the accounts to search them. Secret accounts also drive perceptions that government officials are trying to hide actions or decisions.

"What happens when that person doesn't work there anymore? He leaves and someone makes a request (to review emails) in two years," said Kel McClanahan, executive director of National Security Counselors, an open government group. "Who's going to know to search the other accounts? You would hope that agencies doing this would keep a list of aliases in a desk drawer, but you know that isn't happening."

Agencies where the AP so far has identified secret addresses, including the Labor Department and HHS, said maintaining non-public email accounts allows senior officials to keep separate their internal messages with agency employees from emails they exchange with the public. They also said public and non-public accounts are always searched in response to official requests and the records are provided as necessary.

The AP couldn't independently verify the practice. It searched hundreds of pages of government emails previously released under the open records law and found only one instance of a published email with a secret address: an email from Labor Department spokesman Carl Fillichio to 34 coworkers in 2010 was turned over to an advocacy group, Americans for Limited Government. It included as one recipient the non-public address for Seth D. Harris, currently the acting labor secretary, who maintains at least three separate email accounts.

Google can't find any reference on the Internet to the secret address for HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. Congressional oversight committees told the AP they were unfamiliar with the non-public government addresses identified so far by the AP.

Ten agencies have not yet turned over lists of email addresses, including the Environmental Protection Agency; the Pentagon; and the departments of Veterans Affairs, Transportation, Treasury, Justice, Housing and Urban Development, Homeland Security, Commerce and Agriculture. All have said they are working on a response to the AP.

White House spokesman Eric Schultz declined to comment.

A Treasury Department spokeswoman, Marissa Hopkins Secreto, referred inquiries to the agency's FOIA office, which said its technology department was still searching for the email addresses. Other departments, including Homeland Security, did not respond to questions from the AP about the delays of nearly three months. The Pentagon said it may have an answer by later this summer.

The Health and Human Services Department initially turned over to the AP the email addresses for roughly 240 appointees - except none of the email accounts for Sebelius, even one for her already published on its website. After the AP objected, it turned over three of Sebelius' email addresses, including a secret one. It asked the AP not to publish the address, which it said she used to conduct day-to-day business at the department. Most of the 240 political appointees at HHS appeared to be using only public government accounts.

The AP decided to publish the secret address for Sebelius - KGS2(at)hhs.gov - over the government's objections because the secretary is a high-ranking civil servant who oversees not only major agencies like the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services but also the implementation of Obama's signature health care law. Her public email address is Kathleen.Sebelius(at)hhs.gov.

At least two other senior HHS officials - including Donald Berwick, former head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and Gary Cohen, a deputy administrator in charge of implementing health insurance reform - also have secret government email addresses, according to the records obtained by the AP.

The Interior Department gave the AP a list of about 100 government email addresses for political appointees who work there but none for the interior secretary at the time, Ken Salazar, who has since resigned. Spokeswoman Jessica Kershaw said Salazar maintained only one email address while serving as secretary but she would not disclose it. She said the AP should ask for it under the Freedom of Information Act, which would take months longer.

The Labor Department initially asked the AP to pay just over $1.03 million when the AP asked for email addresses of political appointees there. It said it needed pull 2,236 computer backup tapes from its archives and pay 50 people to pore over old records. Those costs included three weeks to identify tapes and ship them to a vendor, and pay each person $2,500 for nearly a month's work. But under the department's own FOIA rules - which it cited in its letter to the AP - it is prohibited from charging news organizations any costs except for photocopies after the first 100 pages. The department said it would take 14 weeks to find the emails if the AP had paid the money.

Fillichio later acknowledged that the $1.03 million bill was a mistake and provided the AP with email addresses for the agency's Senate-confirmed appointees, including three addresses for Harris, the acting secretary. His secret address was harris.sd(at)dol.gov. His other accounts were one for use with labor employees and the public, and another to send mass emails to the entire Labor Department, outside groups and the public. The Labor Department said it did not object to the AP publishing any of Harris' email addresses.

In addition to the email addresses, the AP also sought records government-wide about decisions to create separate email accounts. But the FOIA director at HHS, Robert Eckert, said the agency couldn't provide such emails without undergoing "an extensive and elongated department-wide search." He also said there were "no mechanisms in place to determine if such requests for the creation of secondary email accounts were submitted by the approximately 242 political appointees within HHS."

Late last year, the EPA's critics - including Republicans in Congress - accused former EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson of using an email account under the name "Richard Windsor" to sidestep disclosure rules. The EPA said emails Jackson sent using her Windsor alias were turned over under open records requests. The agency's inspector general is investigating the use of such accounts, after being asked to do so by Congress.

An EPA spokeswoman described Jackson's alternate email address as "an everyday, working email account of the administrator to communicate with staff and other government officials." It was later determined that Jackson also used the email address to correspond sometimes with environmentalists outside government and at least in some cases did not correct a misperception among outsiders they were corresponding with a government employee named Richard Windsor.

Although the EPA's inspector general is investigating the agency's use of secret email accounts, it is not reviewing whether emails from Jackson's secret account were released as required under the Freedom of Information Act.

The EPA's secret email accounts were revealed last fall by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a conservative Washington think tank that was tipped off about Jackson's alias by an insider and later noticed it in documents it obtained the FOIA. The EPA said its policy was to disclose in such documents that "Richard Windsor" was actually the EPA administrator.

Courts have consistently set a high bar for the government to withhold public officials' records under the federal privacy rules. A federal judge, Marilyn Hall Patel of California, said in August 2010 that "persons who have placed themselves in the public light" - such as through politics or voluntarily participation in the public arena - have a "significantly diminished privacy interest than others." Her ruling was part of a case in which a journalist sought FBI records, but was denied.

"We're talking about an email address, and an email address given to an individual by the government to conduct official business is not private," said Aaron Mackey, a FOIA attorney with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. He said that's different than, for example, confidential information, such as a Social Security number.

Under the law, citizens and foreigners may use the FOIA to compel the government to turn over copies of federal records for zero or little cost. Anyone who seeks information through the law is generally supposed to get it unless disclosure would hurt national security, violate personal privacy or expose business secrets or confidential decision-making in certain areas.

Obama pledged during his first week in office to make government more transparent and open. The nation's signature open-records law, he said in a memo to his Cabinet, would be "administered with a clear presumption: In the face of doubt, openness prevails."

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20130604/DA6MPFHG2.html

IRS victims testify as new agency scandal emerges


WASHINGTON (June 4, 2013) Conservative groups who were targeted by the Internal Revenue Service are getting their say on Capitol Hill just as the details of another IRS controversy are being made public.

The leaders of six conservative groups were scheduled to tell lawmakers Tuesday about their mistreatment at the hands of IRS agents. Several of the groups say their applications for tax-exempt status were delayed while agents asked intrusive questions that the IRS has since acknowledged were inappropriate. One group, the National Organization for Marriage, says the IRS publicly disclosed confidential information about donors.
 
Leaders of the groups were scheduled to testify before the House Ways and Means Committee. Ways and Means is one of three congressional committees investigating the IRS' treatment of such groups. The Justice Department is conducting a criminal investigation.
 
For more than 18 months during the 2010 and 2012 election campaigns, IRS agents in a Cincinnati office singled out tea party and other conservative groups for additional scrutiny when they sought tax-exempt status, according to a report by J. Russell George, the Treasury Department inspector general for tax administration.
 
The report said tea party groups were asked inappropriate questions about their donors, their political affiliations and their positions on political issues. The additional scrutiny delayed applications for an average of nearly two years, making it difficult for many of the groups to raise money.
 
George was scheduled to release another report Tuesday, one that said the IRS spent $50 million to hold at least 220 conferences for employees between 2010 and 2012.
 
The conference spending included $4 million for an August 2010 gathering in Anaheim, Calif., for which the agency did not negotiate lower room rates, even though that is standard government practice, according to a statement by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which requested the report.
 
Instead, some of the 2,600 attendees received benefits, including baseball tickets and stays in presidential suites that normally cost $1,500 to $3,500 a night. In addition, 15 outside speakers were paid a total of $135,000 in fees, with one paid $17,000 to talk about "leadership through art," the committee said.
 
"I am absolutely appalled at the apparent waste of taxpayer dollars on frivolous conferences," said Rep. Harold Rogers, R-Ky., chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. "It seems we have a new misstep every day at the IRS."
 
Acting IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel has called the conferences "an unfortunate vestige from a prior era."
 
Werfel took over the agency about two weeks ago, after President Barack Obama forced the previous acting commissioner to resign.
 
White House spokesman Jay Carney said Monday the president had not seen the forthcoming report. But, Carney said, Obama believed the IRS conduct was inappropriate.
 
When Obama appointed Werfel as acting head of the IRS, he ordered him to conduct a 30-day review of the agency's operations.
 
"We must have the trust of the American taxpayer. Unfortunately, that trust has been broken," Werfel told a House Appropriations subcommittee Monday. "The agency stands ready to confront the problems that occurred, hold accountable those who acted inappropriately, be open about what happened and permanently fix these problems so that such missteps do not occur again."

 - See more at: http://www.onenewsnow.com/ap/politics/irs-victims-testify-as-new-agency-scandal-emerges#sthash.GO4jI1oy.dpuf

Obama: If People 'Can't Trust' Government, 'We're Going to Have Some Problems Here'

During his speech in San Jose, California on Friday, President Obama took one question from the press on national security monitoring of Americans. Without any sense of irony whatsoever in the aftermath of the IRS’ targeting of conservatives, the administration’s stonewalling on Benghazi, the Department of Justice’s targeting of reporters, the Department of Health and Human Services’ leveraging of private organizations for Obamacare public relations cash, and the Environmental Protection Agency’s secret email addresses, Obama unloaded this line:
 
If people can’t trust not only the executive branch but also don’t trust Congress, and don’t trust federal judges, to make sure that we’re abiding by the Constitution with due process and rule of law, then we’re going to have some problems here.
 
Of course, that trust has been eroded by the least transparent administration in American history. But Obama added, “You can shout Big Brother or program run amok, but if you actually look at the details, I think we’ve struck the right balance.”

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/06/07/Obama-press-conference-problems-here

Wouldn't surprise me if all of this is a setup for Civil War, in order to get Martial Law here in America. Obama seems to be the perfect puppet for it.

Mat 24:6  And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
Mat 24:7  For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
Mat 24:8  All these are the beginning of sorrows.

France asks US to explain German magazine report that the National Security Agency bugged EU offices and computer networks - @Reuters

woops

France always needs an explanation. That's about the most clueless country out there. Of course they've been spying on them! DUH!  ::)

France's President Hollande demands that US stop spying on its European allies, after reports of bugging of embassies - @BBCNews

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-23125451#TWEET807438


Germany summons US ambassador over reported EU spying - @USATODAY

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/07/01/germany-eu-nsa-snowden/2478625/


 :D

keeps getting better and better.

French president threatens to block EU trade negotiations with the US amid bugging scandal - @BBCBreaking

EU orders security sweep of buildings after reports that the NSA bugged EU offices in Belgium, US - @Reuters

KERRY: 'Spying on allies is not unusual'...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2351883/Did-U-S-spies-bug-EU-offices-America-Fugitive-CIA-whistleblower-reveals-secret-operation-leaked-document.html

European Commission will sweep offices for bugs...
http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/01/world/europe/eu-nsa/index.html

NEW LEAKS SHOW HOW USA IS BUGGING ITS EUROPEAN ALLIES...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/30/nsa-leaks-us-bugging-european-allies

France, Germany rip surveillance...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-23125451

Prosecutors To Review Allegations...
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/german-prosecutors-to-review-nsa-spying-allegations-a-908636.html

Germany Summons US Ambassador...
http://www.cnbc.com/id/100855845

George W. Bush: Snowden damaged U.S....
http://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2013/07/01/george-w-bush-snowden-damaged-us-security-programs-protect-civil-liberties/

REPORT: NSA tracks in real-time -- email logins, sending, receiving email...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/politics/prism-collection-documents/

Guess there really is a one world conspiracy...  ;)

Has Putin changed his mind on hosting Snowden?

The Russian president has told Edward Snowden he can stay – but only if he stops hurting 'our American partners.'


Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden is welcome to stay in Russia, but only on the condition he ceases the barrage of classified leaks that are causing serious damage to US relations with governments as far flung as China and the European Union, President Vladimir Putin said Monday.

"If he wants to go somewhere [another country] and is accepted, he can. If he wants to stay here, there is one condition: He must stop his work aimed at harming our US partners – no matter how strange this may sound coming from me," Mr. Putin told a news conference following a gas conference in Moscow.

Putin's remarks come amid feverish speculation that Mr. Snowden – who's been trapped in the transit zone of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport for over a week – already applied for political asylum in Russia.
 
According to the Los Angeles Times, Snowden met with Russian foreign ministry officials Monday morning and handed them a list of 15 countries he would be willing to take refuge in.

"It was a desperate measure on his part after Ecuador disavowed his political protection credentials," the Los Angeles Times quoted an unnamed foreign ministry official as saying.

"In the document Snowden reiterated once again that he is not a traitor and explained his actions only by a desire to open the world’s eyes on the flagrant violations by US special services not only of American citizens but also citizens of European Union including their NATO allies," he added.

The countries to which Snowden would like to apply are not named. But The New York Times quoted an anonymous Russian immigration official as saying that Snowden applied for political asylum in Russia on Sunday night. Other news agencies have confirmed the report.   

On Monday, however, the official Russian news agency RIA-Novosti denied that report.

"The reports about Snowden requesting political asylum in Russia are untrue," the agency quoted a migration service spokesperson as saying. But Novosti followed up the denial story with one about mixed signals.

Putin's comments come amid all that uncertainty, and offer very little additional clarity.

He did reiterate his earlier insistence that Russia will not extradite Snowden to the US under any circumstances.

"Russia never gives up anyone to anybody and is not planning to," Putin said, repeating his earlier claim that Russian secret services are not working with the fugutive ex-NSA contractor.  "Since he sees himself as a human rights activist and a freedom fighter for people’s rights, apparently he is not intending to stop this work. So he must choose for himself a country to move to. When that will happen? Unfortunately, I don't know," Putin added.

Several leading Russians have appealed to the Kremlin to take Snowden in, both for human rights reasons and because he's probably done more than any single person in recent years to tear down the US facade of impeccable freedom and democracy that so many Russians find irksome.

But although the Kremlin's English-language satellite TV news network, RT, has a close relationship with WikiLeaks founder and Snowden-sponsor Julian Assange – who produced a series of interview shows for the station last year – it does not seem likely that Russia, which is a locked-down national security state with a massive domestic spying program of its own, would care to openly embrace Snowden's apparent cause of total global transparency.

Hence, Putin's condition that Snowden would have to stop leaking to earn refuge in Russia may be more than just a former KGB agent's empathy with the beleaguered NSA. He's probably also got his eye on the potential domestic fallout of taking someone like Snowden to Russia's bosom.

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2013/0701/Has-Putin-changed-his-mind-on-hosting-Snowden

Ah, now we see the real motivation! Love of money yet again.

Russia cannot afford info being leaked that exposes Russian antics as well. much less how the US and others have been spying on not only their own citizens, but other countries. Russian has a serious vested interest in Snowden keeping quiet.

EU Leaders Threaten Sanctions over US Spying

European leaders are furious over new allegations that U.S. spy agencies monitored European Union diplomatic offices in Washington, New York, and Brussels.
 
It's the latest in a string of revelations by National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden.
 
A report in Der Spiegel said the NSA monitored phone conversations and gained access to a computer network containing internal emails and documents of EU leaders.
 
European leaders are threatening economic sanctions and investigations.
 
The EU Justice Commission said "partners do not spy on each other."

http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2013/July/EU-Leaders-Threaten-Sanctions-over-US-Spying/

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/07/03/dni-chief-clapper-apologizes-for-erroneous-answer-on-nsa-surveillance/ (http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/07/03/dni-chief-clapper-apologizes-for-erroneous-answer-on-nsa-surveillance/)


WOW!

Latin American presidents plan an emergency meeting on Wednesday over the diversion to Austria of a plane carrying Bolivian President Evo Morales, the Bolivian ambassador to the United Nations said.

The Bolivian plane, which was taking Morales home from Moscow, was stranded and searched in Vienna on suspicion that it might be carrying fugitive U.S. intelligence analyst Edward Snowden. A search determined that Snowden was not onboard and the plane eventually left Vienna about noon on Wednesday.

"We have been told that an emergency meeting of Unasur (Union of South American Nations) is going to be held today," Sacha Llorenti Soliz told reporters in Geneva on Wednesday. No time for the meeting was mentioned.

"What's at stake here is ... the dignity of Bolivia and the dignity of Latin America," he said, adding that the presidents of Peru, Ecuador and Argentina had all spoken with Morales about the incident.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos told a news conference in Geneva that he had not received any request for such a meeting.

Bolivia accused Austria of "kidnapping" Morales by forcing him to land in Vienna on suspicion that his plane was carrying Snowden to Latin America.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/03/us-usa-security-latam-idUSBRE9620LM20130703?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&dlvrit=992637

Bolivia to register complaint with UN Human Rights commission after plane diverted for 'act of indignation and forced abduction of President Evo Morales' - @NBCNews

GOOD JOB OBAMA!!!

DRAMA IN THE SKY: Bolivian leader's plane rerouted on fear Snowden aboard...
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/bolivian-leaders-plane-rerouted-snowden-fear

Furor over denied airspace passage, refueling rights...
http://www.france24.com/en/20130703-bolivia-president-evo-morales-airplane-rerouted-vienna-snowden

'Act of aggression' by France, Portugal, Spain...
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_NSA_SURVEILLANCE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-07-03-04-22-09

'Orders came from United States'...
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=198257536

Austria finds 'no sign' Snowden on board...
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/03/us-usa-security-snowden-idUSBRE9610C520130703

Bolivia enraged, accuses Austria of 'kidnapping'...
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/03/us-usa-security-snowden-idUSBRE9610C520130703?irpc=932

 :o OBAMMY YOUVE BEEN CAUGHT!!!  :D

Ecuador: We found hidden microphone at our London embassy...

http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCABRE9620JS20130703?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0

I got a chuckle out of this one...


Standing back and trying to be objective, we must admit they need to produce exceptional evidence for the claim. Anybody can and has planted bugs in offices, for all kinds of reasons, and one of the classics is to make it appear what it is not, and that it was done by "somebody else". Standard misdirection. Then you cause a fuss, get the room all dusty, then stand back and watch people trying to get the dust out of their eyes! Subtle and crafty.

Bolivian President Blames 'North American Empire' for Blocking His Flight

Suspected Incorrectly of Harboring Snowden, Morales Suffered Forced Vienna Layover

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324399404578585041906862494.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

President Obama to hold crisis talks with Germany to settle claims that US spied ...

President Barack Obama is to hold high level meetings with the German government in an attempt to assuage concerns about reported US surveillance of their European allies.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/president-obama-to-hold-crisis-talks-with-germany-to-settle-claims-that-us-spied-of-eu-allies-8687264.html

SOUTH AMERICAN LEADERS DEMAND APOLOGY IN SNOWDEN PLANE ROW...
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/L/LT_NSA_SURVEILLANCE_BOLIVIA?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-07-05-05-56-19

Bolivian President: US 'Imperialism' Caused Flight To Be Diverted...
http://washington.cbslocal.com/2013/07/04/bolivian-president-us-imperialism-caused-flight-from-russia-to-be-diverted/

European states were told Snowden was on Morales plane, says Spain...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/05/european-states-snowden-morales-plane-nsa

Yep, that's pretty much it.

Snowden: West 'in bed with NSA'...
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/whistleblower-snowden-claims-german-intelligence-in-bed-with-nsa-a-909904.html

Russia official: Venezuela last chance...
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/07/07/venezuela-snowden/2497085/

... has until Monday
http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/07/07/19333719-venezuela-snowden-has-until-monday-to-respond-to-asylum-offer?lite

Brazil seeks U.S. response to alleged spying on citizens...
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/07/us-brazil-espionage-snowden-idUSBRE9660ER20130707

Congressman: IRS Scandal Will Widen to Leaks...
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/07/07/Congressman-IRS-scandal-will-widen-focus-on-alleged-politically-motivated-IRS-private-info-leaks

NSA 'spied' on most Latin American nations: Brazil paper


The U.S. National Security Agency has targeted most Latin American countries in its spying programs, with Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil and Mexico ranking among those of highest priority for the U.S. intelligence agency, a leading Brazilian newspaper reported on Tuesday.
 
Citing documents leaked by Edward Snowden, the fugitive former American intelligence contractor, O Globo newspaper said the NSA programs went beyond military affairs to what it termed "commercial secrets."

These included petroleum in Venezuela and energy in Mexico, according to a graphic O Globo identified as being from the NSA and dated February of this year.

Also swept up in what O Globo termed as U.S. spying were Argentina, Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Paraguay, Chile, Peru and El Salvador.

Peru's President Ollanta Humala said on Tuesday that the reported spying was worrisome.

"We are against these kinds of espionage activities," Humala said in a televised interview. "It would be good for (Peru's) Congress to look with concern at privacy issues related to personal information."

The most intense surveillance was directed at Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil and Mexico, the newspaper said.

The Globo article was written by Glenn Greenwald, Roberto Kaz and José Casado. Greenwald, an American citizen who works for Britain's Guardian newspaper and lives in Rio de Janeiro, was the journalist who first revealed classified documents provided by Snowden, outlining the extent of U.S. communications monitoring activity at home and abroad.

Greenwald said on Sunday in a Twitter message that he had worked with O Globo on the reports to relay more quickly the scope and reach of the alleged surveillance. The bulk of Greenwald's stories thus far have appeared in the Guardian.

As disclosed by Snowden to the Guardian, the NSA's Prism program collated mail, Internet chat and files directly from the servers of companies such as Google, Facebook, Twitter and Skype.

O Globo cited documents saying that from January to March this year, NSA agents carried out "spying actions" via "Boundless Informant," which it said cataloged telephone calls and access to the Internet. Agents also used Prism from February 2 to 8 this year, O Globo said.

A main NSA surveillance target was Colombia, the United States' top military ally in the region, where drug trafficking and movements by the FARC guerrilla group were monitored, O Globo said.

In Venezuela the NSA spied on military procurement and the oil industry, and in Mexico the agency gathered information on the drug trade, the energy sector and political affairs using Prism.

The newspaper reported on Sunday that the NSA and the Central Intelligence Agency had gathered telephone and email data in Brazil, based on documents Snowden provided to Greenwald.

Brazil's telecommunications agency said on Monday it would investigate whether local operators had violated customer privacy rules in alleged surveillance of Brazilian telecommunications data by the U.S. spy agencies.

The decision came as U.S. officials, including the American ambassador in Brasilia, sought to reassure Brazil that O Globo reports on Sunday and Monday about NSA surveillance of Brazilian communications were incorrect.

According to O Globo, access to Brazilian communications was obtained through American companies that were partners with Brazilian telecommunications companies. The report did not identify any of the companies but said an NSA program called Silverzephyr was used to access phone calls, faxes and emails.

O Globo also reported this week that the CIA and the NSA jointly ran monitoring stations to gather information from foreign satellites in 65 countries, including five in Latin America, citing documents dating from 2002 leaked by Snowden.

The so-called Special Collection Service operated from the capitals of Colombia, Venezuela, Panama, Mexico and Brazil. The newspaper said it was not known whether the alleged satellite espionage continued after 2002.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/09/us-usa-security-latinamerica-idUSBRE96816H20130709

What have we been saying for years now? I mean really. All people have to do is stop doing everything online and with their cellphones. And STOP USING WIFI, or any "wireless" technology whenever reasonably possible.

Legal or not, one SHOULD assume any digital communications are being monitored, period. These news reports shows it's a fact. HELLO!  ::)

When is the public going to get a clue? According to scripture, many never will.

Revealed: how Microsoft handed the NSA access to encrypted messages

• Secret files show scale of Silicon Valley co-operation on Prism
• Outlook.com encryption unlocked even before official launch
• Skype worked to enable Prism collection of video calls
• Company says it is legally compelled to comply


read here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/11/microsoft-nsa-collaboration-user-data

Who is this Snowden guy, and how in the world has he continued to be elusive DESPITE all the high level technology intelligence equipment this country has?

Reminds me over how Bob Chapman(formerly of International Forecaster and appeared on Alex Jones's show regularly before he died recently) claimed how he was able to hide himself outside of the country from American intelligence authorities(but somehow managed to go unscathed on Jesuit/CIA agent Alex's show).

Personally, it just seems like everything we see on the national(and local) news is nothing but a puppet show. No, I am not denying the NSA spying leaks.

Snowden worked for "them", so he knows their tricks. And also the US government have apparently canceled his passport, allegedly causing him to be stuck at an airport in Russia, or rather, so far as we know, prevents him from entering any country. They know where he is, they just can't go get him without causing a circus I'd say because there are some countries that appreciate his revealing that those countries are being spied on by the US.

When I last heard Nicauragua and Venezuela offered him asylum, my first thoughts were "being lead to the slaughter...".

WASH TIMES: Records of snooping into Christine O'Donnell tax file mysteriously go missing... Developing...

wooops  :o

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jul/23/records-of-christine-odonnell-tax-snooping-disappe/

White House opposes amendment to curb NSA spying

The White House said the amendment will "hastily dismantle" counterterrorism tools

The amendment proposed by Rep. Justin Amash, a Republican from Michigan, would limit spending only to orders by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that collect phone and other data only of a person who is the subject of an investigation.
 
Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden disclosed through newspaper reports in June that the NSA was collecting phone metadata from Verizon customers in the U.S. as part of its surveillance, which was said to include data collected from Internet companies.
 
The authorization to the NSA to collect phone metadata in bulk was last week renewed by the FISC court. The Department of Justice has said that it has to retain the bulk data required by its counterterrorism tools, as it need not be retained by telecommunications service providers.
 
The Obama administration said Tuesday that it opposes "the current effort in the House to hastily dismantle one of our Intelligence Community's counterterrorism tools. This blunt approach is not the product of an informed, open, or deliberative process," it added.

REST: https://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9241008/White_House_opposes_amendment_to_curb_NSA_spying?source=CTWNLE_nlt_dailyam_2013-07-24

Wasn't O'Donnell that same person who admitted she was a witch?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iWRw3oZdg4

If Satan wants to rise up against himself and be divided, then let them have an end.

But nobody, whether Democrats, Republicans, Tea Party, or whoever wants to admit 9/11 was an inside job - so there lies the problem.

Obama Denounces Congress for Focusing on ‘Phony Scandals,’ Promises More Executive Action

President Barack Obama, whose administration is staving off questions about several controversies, including the IRS-Tea Party investigation and the National Security Agency telephone surveillance offense – said Congress needs to move beyond “phony scandals.” Speaking at Knox College in Galesburg, Ill., on Wednesday, Obama gave the first of what will be several speeches on his economic proposals. He harshly criticized gridlock in Congress and pledged executive action. “With this endless parade of distractions and political posturing and phony scandals, Washington’s taken its eye off the ball,” Obama said. “And I’m here to say, this needs to stop. This needs to stop.” -

See more at: http://cnsnews.com/news/article/obama-denounces-congress-focusing-phony-scandals-promises-more-executive-action#sthash.Rhm1vwYQ.dpuf


Yes, it realy does need to stop

Well, in Caesar's world, it doesn't need to stop, because what he calls "phony scandals" is actually the government getting caught red-handed with their socialist agenda.

It's called accountability from representatives in government. It's part of rendering to Caesar. Not one recent scandal isn't true and Obama knows it.

Ultimately, it's not going to stop. Evil can't help itself. It will continue to do evil things till Jesus puts it down.

Feds Demand Major Internet Companies Turn Over User Passwords

The federal government has demanded that major internet companies turn over users’ stored passwords, two sources told the respected tech website CNet.

So what exactly does this “escalation” — as CNet calls it — mean?

“If the government is able to determine a person’s password, which is typically stored in encrypted form, the credential could be used to log in to an account to peruse confidential correspondence or even impersonate the user,” the report says. “Obtaining it also would aid in deciphering encrypted devices in situations where passwords are reused.”

But it doesn’t end there. The government is not only requesting the passwords, but its also asking for algorithms and even security questions:

    Some of the government orders demand not only a user’s password but also the encryption algorithm and the so-called salt, according to a person familiar with the requests. A salt is a random string of letters or numbers used to make it more difficult to reverse the encryption process and determine the original password. Other orders demand the secret question codes often associated with user accounts.

According to the report’s sources, the government has requested password information on numerous occasions. Still, both sources said the companies fight them.

“We push back,” one said.

“There’s a lot of ‘over my dead body,’” said another.

Most of the big internet companies — Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo — declined to comment or give any specific information regarding the allegations, but Yahoo did say, “”If we receive a request from law enforcement for a user’s password, we deny such requests on the grounds that they would allow overly broad access to our users’ private information. If we are required to provide information, we do so only in the strictest interpretation of what is required by law.”

Still, CNet does offer some hope for those who may be concerned about this new era of government surveillance: it’s not guaranteed that if the government gets a stored or encrypted password that they can crack it.

“Even if the National Security Agency or the FBI successfully obtains an encrypted password, salt, and details about the algorithm used, unearthing a user’s original password is hardly guaranteed,” the report says. “The odds of success depend in large part on two factors: the type of algorithm and the complexity of the password.”

There is some advice, though, buried deep in the report. Although the author doesn’t expressly say it, he does note that longer passwords that contain odd characters are much harder to crack — even with an algorithm:

    One popular algorithm, used by Twitter and LinkedIn, is called bcrypt. A 2009 paper (PDF) by computer scientist Colin Percival estimated that it would cost a mere $4 to crack, in an average of one year, an 8-character bcrypt password composed only of letters. To do it in an average of one day, the hardware cost would jump to approximately $1,500.

    But if a password of the same length included numbers, asterisks, punctuation marks, and other special characters, the cost-per-year leaps to $130,000. Increasing the length to any 10 characters, Percival estimated in 2009, brings the estimated cracking cost to a staggering $1.2 billion.

It almost makes you want to go back and read TheBlaze’s report on five ways to thwart the government from spying on you.

Read CNet’s full report for more.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/07/26/report-feds-demand-major-internet-companies-turn-over-user-passwords/

Like I've said before, people really need to start re-thinking their usage of the world's digital toys. As time passes, the restrictions and demands of using those things is rising.

Personally, I see my time coming to an end having internet service, a driver's license, etc. We plan on moving, God willing, in a couple years out of Arizona, and head back east, but that means a new state, and likely means I won't get a new license where we move to, and I'm really giving second thoughts to cable/satellite service as well. Even though I use a non-smart phone, cellular service is on it's way out too. The time to go off grid I think is rapidly approaching.

(http://www.onenewsnow.com/media/4432796/mrz072813dapr.jpg)

Well, the 12th and 14th Amendments in the US Constitutions are officially RIP now. First Obama, and now the Illuminati GOP establishment is pushing Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz(at least for now) for 2016...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Cruz
Born
Rafael Edward Cruz
December 22, 1970 (age 42)
Calgary, Alberta, Canada[1]

And to boot only Cruz's mother has an American born citizenship, while his father doesn't - so right there he shouldn't be eligible.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marco_Rubio
Born
Marco Antonio Rubio
May 28, 1971 (age 42)
Miami, Florida, U.S.

And to boot Rubio's parents were born in Cuba, and didn't get USA citizenship until 1975(4 year AFTER he was born) - so he shouldn't be eligible either.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_born_citizen_of_the_United_States
The Constitution does not define the phrase natural-born citizen, and various opinions have been offered over time regarding its precise meaning. A 2011 Congressional Research Service report stated that

The weight of legal and historical authority indicates that the term "natural born" citizen would mean a person who is entitled to U.S. citizenship "by birth" or "at birth", either by being born "in" the United States and under its jurisdiction, even those born to alien parents; by being born abroad to U.S. citizen-parents; or by being born in other situations meeting legal requirements for U.S. citizenship "at birth". Such term, however, would not include a person who was not a U.S. citizen by birth or at birth, and who was thus born an "alien" required to go through the legal process of "naturalization" to become a U.S. citizen.[1]

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

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

He just LIED to the American People, Clinton was impeached for LYING

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/obama-we-don-t-have-domestic-spying-program_745680.html

Ok thanks(didn't know that part).

Sorry I detoured this thread a bit - let's get back to the discussion of this thread.

Anyhow - forgot the Bush II stuff - it seems like now it's come to a point where people in power(whether they're politicians, pastors, or whoever) will blatantly lie for the whole world to see, but en yet no one will question them b/c they're more occupied with their own worldly materials.

Obama lying about the US government having no spying program is another example - we will see how everyone reacts to this, but so far you can hear a pin drop.

Obama calls off Putin summit amid Snowden tensions
 
LOS ANGELES (AP) - In a rare diplomatic rebuke, President Barack Obama called off an upcoming Moscow summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, sending a stern message of disapproval over Russia's harboring of National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden. Although U.S. frustration with Moscow has been growing over other key issues such as missile defense and human rights, it was Russia's decision to grant Snowden asylum in defiance of Obama's repeated requests that dealt the latest blow to uneasy U.S. relations with a former Cold War foe.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_OBAMA_RUSSIA?SITE=7219&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-08-07-14-25-11

The "Cold War" was never over...

Obama to Jay Leno: Russian Laws Against Homosexuality ‘Violating Basic Morality’

During his recent appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Barack Obama said that Russia and other countries like it are ‘violating basic morality’ by passing laws in opposition to the homosexual lifestyle. After Obama was asked about his reaction to Russia granting asylum to NSA leaker Edward Snowden, Leno then delved into the issue of homosexuality and the 2014 Olympics. “Well, something that shocked me about Russia — and I’m surprised this is not a huge story — suddenly, homosexuality is against the law,” he said. “I mean, this seems like Germany:  Let’s round up the Jews, let’s round up the gays, let’s round up the blacks. I mean, it starts with that. You round up people who you don’t — I mean, why is not more of the world outraged at this?”  
   
MORE: http://christiannews.net/2013/08/11/obama-to-jay-leno-russian-laws-against-homosexuality-violating-basic-morality/

 :o somebody is really trying to deflect!!!

The "fake" Cold War part deux coming to pass...

Obama Pledges Greater Transparency in Surveillance Programs
http://www.srnnews.com/obama-pledges-greater-transparency-in-surveillance-programs-5/

(http://i717.photobucket.com/albums/ww173/prestonjjrtr/Funny/ROFLSmiley.gif)

But itching ears will believe it...

Brazil demands clarifications on NSA surveillance

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Brazil demanded answers Tuesday from the U.S. about National Security Agency spying in the country and warned that trust between the two nations would be damaged if U.S. explanations about the program were not satisfactory.

http://news.yahoo.com/brazil-demands-clarifications-nsa-surveillance-200545031.html

HUH? The US has been caught red-handed, and has admitted to secretly spying on Brazil and others, and they say there would be lack of trust if they don't explain themselves satisfactorily? They were already lying to you, and deceiving you, and you still trust them?!  ::)

Snowden: NSA targeted journalists critical of government after 9/11...
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/316751-snowden-nsa-targeted-journalists-critical-of-government-after-911

Secret Service monitored REDDIT co-founder before suicide...
http://www.myfoxny.com/Story/23124440/documents-show-secret-service-kept-tab-of-swartz

Michael Hastings Was Investigating CIA Director John Brennan...
http://www.infowars.com/report-michael-hastings-was-investigating-cia-director-john-brennan/

CIA admits to snooping on Noam Chomsky...
http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/08/13/after_multiple_denials_cia_admits_to_snooping_on_noam_chomsky

And I pray to God that they have read every single one of my posts online!

"In God [is] my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, [and] my refuge, [is] in God." Psalm 62:7 (KJB)

Well, I'm surprised Congress and governors in America haven't come out to amend the Constitution a long time ago if they have no problems with Presidents not being naturalized born citizens. First Obama, and apparently Ted Cruz(a potential 2016 candidate) isn't either. And then throw in the whole Hegelian Dialectic game to cause more confusion(read the article, and you'll see why)...

http://tv.yahoo.com/news/birthers-republican-ted-cruzs-presidential-eligibility-questioned-141636992.html
The New Birthers: Republican Ted Cruz's Presidential Eligibility Questioned
8/14/13

Some members of the Republican party who have spent years questioning whether President Obama was really born in the U.S. now find one of their own rising stars in a birther controversy: Ted Cruz, the Canadian-born Tea Party darling.

Leading the conservative-leaning Drudge Report this morning is the headline "CNN: IS CRUZ ELIGIBLE?" The insinuation is that just as people on the right have questioned Obama's roots, CNN -- which many conservatives suspect of a left-wing bias -- is going after a rising conservative.

In other words: They do it, too, so it's okay when we do it.

To be blunt, Cruz's eligibilty to run is much less certain than Obama's. Obama's isn't even a real question. He's proven repeatedly he was born in Hawaii, and anyone who chooses to believe otherwise truly chooses to believe otherwise. Cruz was born in Calgary, Alberta, to an American mother and Cuban father. That's a potential problem, because the Constitution says presidents must be "natural born citizens."

But... why exactly? Because babies born just across the border may be raised to become president and tear down the government from within? That would seem equally easy/hard for natural-born babies. Also, this seems like kind of a slow-going and unlikely way to destroy America. The Kardashians are doing a much better job. Ba-dum.

As CNN notes, the Senate passed a 2008 resolution calling John McCain a "natural born American" despite his birth in a naval air station in the Panama Canal Zone, where his father was serving. That was a good idea. No one objected, because it would be ridiculous to say the children of servicemen and women can't run.

But maybe we can take that common-sense approach to Cruz, too. And Obama. Maybe it's time to amend one of the sillier parts of the Constitution. It's the height of xenophobia to pretend that every single "natural born" American is more qualified to lead the U.S. than anyone from any other country in the world, whether that country is Canada or Kenya.

Not that I'm saying Obama was born in -- nevermind. Not going there again.

Here's the CNN report:
Video inside link

Yep, there's the real spin.

It's NEVER been about qualifications, as in ability. Look at the actual document and see what the qualifications are for the office of president! Not one word about either education or experience. Not a peep. See Article 2, Section 1 Clause 5. It's all about age, residency and citizenship.

There are literally hundreds of millions of people that can do the job, citizen or not.

It's about constitutional law and retaining leadership that has roots in the country he serves. To let a foreigner rule, is to potentially turn power over to somebody that may end up having allegiance to their "home" country. It's about loyalty to America that ultimately can only be found among those who were born here.

http://wallstcheatsheet.com/stocks/snowdens-leak-made-china-worry-about-oracle-and-ibm.html/?ref=YF
Snowden’s Leak Made China Worry About Oracle and IBM
8/16/13

Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden revealed in June that he had passed top-secret documents to The Washington Post and the Guardian, which detailed classified U.S. surveillance programs — including PRISM, which gave the NSA access to vast amounts of Internet data from large tech and social media companies. Snowden also asserted that the agency had hacked into a critical network of infrastructure at universities in China and Hong Kong.

When the NSA conducted an internal review of the damage his revelation caused, it focused on the possibility that he had access to sensitive files that that outlined operations against Chinese leaders and other critical targets. “We’re deeply concerned,” an unnamed senior U.S. intelligence official, who was not authorized to speak on the record, told The Washington Post. “The more that this gets made public, the more capability we lose.”

Not only that, but the revelation gave China more political capital. The country has been repeatedly accused by the United States of hacking, and far stricter regulations exist for the purchase of technology equipment manufactured by Chinese companies for three important federal agencies — NASA and the departments of Justice and Commerce. Snowden’s allegations have given Beijing the opportunity to point a finger at the United States for hypocrisy.

Surprisingly(or unsurprisingly), this is likely why Congress's investigation has gone nowhere...

http://blogs.marketwatch.com/capitolreport/2013/08/20/obama-inquisitor-issa-tops-the-hills-50-wealthiest-list/
8/20/13
Obama inquisitor Issa tops the Hill’s 50 wealthiest list

California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa, a frequent critic of the Obama administration, is topping the Hill newspaper’s latest list of the 50 wealthiest members of Congress, with a fortune of at least $355 million in 2012.

Published Tuesday morning, the Hill’s rundown of lawmakers offers a snapshot of money and power in Washington — and is evidence that the two don’t always go together. High-profile lawmakers like Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky make the list, but other marquee names like GOP Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz – both possible presidential contenders – didn’t crack the top 50.

Another potential GOP presidential candidate, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, has a negative net worth of $190,000, the Hill said. That was an improvement from 2011, the newspaper reported earlier this year, when he was farther in the red thanks to mortgages and loans.

For the third year in a row, Republicans outweigh Democrats on the list: 29 of the 50 are from the GOP side of the aisle.

High-ranking Democrats include Sen. Mark Warner – third on the list with a minimum net worth of $88.5 million – and oil-family scion Sen. Jay Rockefeller, whose $83.8 million makes him fourth on the roster.

Issa, who has led probes into the IRS’s targeting of political groups and the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, made his fortune with the Viper car security system.

Brazil, Mexico angrily demand answers from US over alleged NSA 'violations'

• A daily summary of global reports on security issues.

http://news.yahoo.com/brazil-mexico-angrily-demand-answers-us-over-alleged-131257972.html

There's so much going on now, to the point where it's like juggling a bunch of objects at one time.

Brazil President Rousseff wants US apology for NSA spying on her communications - @Reuters

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/04/us-usa-security-snowden-brazil-idUSBRE98314N20130904

Google argues for right to continue scanning Gmail

Google's attorneys say their long-running practice of electronically scanning the contents of people's Gmail accounts to help sell ads is legal, and are asking a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit that seeks to stop the practice.
 
In court records filed in advance of a federal hearing scheduled for Thursday in San Jose, Google argues that "all users of email must necessarily expect that their emails will be subject to automated processing."
 
The class action lawsuit, filed in May, says Google "unlawfully opens up, reads, and acquires the content of people's private email messages" in violation of California's privacy laws and federal wiretapping statutes. The lawsuit notes that the company even scans messages sent to any of the 425 million active Gmail users from non-Gmail users who never agreed to the company's terms.
 
Google has repeatedly described how it targets its advertising based on words that show up in Gmail messages. For example, the company says if someone has received a lot of messages about photography or cameras then it might display an advertisement from a local camera store. Google says the process is fully automated, "and no humans read your email..."
 
"This case involves Plaintiffs' effort to criminalize ordinary business practices that have been part of Google's free Gmail service since it was introduced nearly a decade ago," argue company attorneys in their motion to dismiss the case.
 
Privacy advocates have long questioned the practice.
 
"People believe, for better or worse, that their email is private correspondence, not subject to the eyes of a $180 billion corporation and its whims," said Consumer Watchdog president Jamie Court.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_GMAIL_PRIVACY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-09-05-04-45-26

NRA joins ACLU lawsuit, claims NSA starting 'gun registry' (video)

 The National Rifle Association joined the American Civil Liberties Union's lawsuit on Wednesday to end the government's massive phone record collection program.
 
In a brief filed in federal court, the NRA argues that the National Security Agency's database of phone records amounts to a "national gun registry."

"It would be absurd to think that the Congress would adopt and maintain a web of statutes intended to protect against the creation of a national gun registry, while simultaneously authorizing the FBI and the NSA to gather records that could effectively create just such a registry," the group writes.
 
After leaks by Edward Snowden, the NSA acknowledged that it collects records on virtually all U.S. phone calls. The data include phone numbers, call times and call durations, but not the contents of the conversations. The NSA says it only "queries" the database a limited number of times for specific national security reasons. 
 
The NSA argues that Congress authorized the phone data surveillance with Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which allows for the collection of business records "relevant" to terrorism.
 
In its filing, the gun-rights group claims that the NSA's database would allow the government to identify and track gun owners based on whether they've called gun stores, shooting ranges or the NRA.
 
"Under the government’s reading of Section 215, the government could simply demand the periodic submission of all firearms dealers’ transaction records, then centralize them in a database indexed by the buyers’ names for later searching," the NRA writes.
 
The group claims that Congress could never have meant to authorize such a vast surveillance operation because it has repeatedly rejected proposals to create a national gun registry.
 
The NRA's brief also claims that the phone record program violates its members' First Amendment rights to associate and communicate freely. The group argues that people could fear retribution for associating with the gun-rights group if they knew the government was monitoring their phone records.
 
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, along with a host of news organizations including Bloomberg, Fox, National Public Radio and The New Yorker, also filed a brief on Wednesday in support of the ACLU lawsuit. The groups claim that the phone data collection inhibits the ability of journalists to contact sources and gather news.


Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/320357-nra-claims-nsa-illegally-created-a-gun-database#ixzz2e2kNQtB0

Brazil President Halts Planning for US Visit Over NSA Spying Rift

Revelations about U.S. surveillance programs are casting a pall over relations with Brazil, where President Dilma Rousseff has halted preparations for a long-anticipated state visit to the U.S.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324123004579056992935753388.html

Emails show IRS’ Lois Lerner specifically targeted tea party

Newly released emails show that Lois G. Lerner, the woman at the center of the IRS scandal over special scrutiny of conservative groups’ applications for tax-exempt status, specifically targeted tea party applications and directed they be held up in 2011 in order to come up with an agency policy.

The email, released by a House committee investigating the IRS, seems to counter Democrats’ arguments that tea party groups weren’t specifically targeted.

“Tea Party Matter very dangerous,” Ms. Lerner said in the 2011 email, saying that those applications could end up being the “vehicle to go to court” to get more clarity on a 2010 Supreme Court ruling on campaign finance rules.

In another email, from 2012, Ms. Lerner acknowledges that the agency’s handling of the tax-exempt applications had been bungled at the beginning, though she said they had taken steps to correct it.

“It is what it is,” she said in the email, released Thursday by the Ways and Means Committee. “Although the original story isn’t as pretty as we’d like, once we learned this [sic.] were off track, we have done what we can to change the process, better educate our staff and move the cases. So, we will get dinged, but we took steps before the ‘dinging’ to make things better and we have written procedures.”

That email suggests agency employees knew they had gone overboard in their scrutiny — despite top IRS officials telling Congress that there wasn’t any special scrutiny of conservative groups.

In another 2012 email, Ms. Lerner seemed to take sides in a battle between the Federal Election Commission and conservative group tax-exempt groups that were engaging in politics, saying that “perhaps the FEC will save the day.”

Ms. Lerner has been removed from her post at the helm of the tax-exempt organizations division, but has not been fired from the IRS.

She asserted her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in refusing to testify to the House oversight committee earlier this year, though committee members argue that she may actually have waived that right and should be recalled and forced to answer questions.

In releasing the latest emails, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp said they show a dangerous patter.

“There is increasing and overwhelming evidence that Lois Lerner and high-level IRS employees in Washington were abusing their power to prevent conservative groups from organizing and carrying out their missions,” he said. “There are still mountains of documents to go through, but it is clear the IRS is out of control and there will be consequences.”

But Sander Levin, the ranking Democrat on the committee, said there is still no evidence that the IRS was driven by a political motive to stifle conservative views.

“Lois Lerner was incompetent in her management of the IRS tax-exempt division and unprofessional in her conduct — reasons why I immediately called for her to be relieved of her duties,” Mr. Levin said.

He said, though, that the GOP is overselling what it’s found during its investigation.

“Selective leaking by Republicans does not change the fact that tens of thousands of documents and dozens of interviews with IRS employees have revealed absolutely no evidence of political motivation, no evidence of outside influence and no evidence of White House involvement,” Mr. Levin said.

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/sep/12/emails-ois-lerner-specifically-targeted-tea-party/#ixzz2ejHnrVvs

"Count 10 before you click send..." seems to be the new moto...

Brazil's Leader Postpones State Visit to Washington Over Spying

   
RIO DE JANEIRO - Brazil's president, Dilma Rousseff, said Tuesday that she was postponing a state visit to the United States, delivering a sharp rebuke to the Obama administration over revelations that the National Security Agency had spied on her, her ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/18/world/americas/brazils-leader-postpones-state-visit-to-us.html

Spitting on Their Graves: Democrats Leave Benghazi Hearing Before Testimony From Families of Victims

During the second portion of a House Oversight and Government Reform hearing about Benghazi Thursday on Capitol Hill, the majority of Democrats on the Committee left the room and refused to listen to the testimony of Patricia Smith and Charles Woods. Ms. Smith is the mother of Sean Smith, an information management officer killed in the 9/11 Benghazi attack. Charles Woods is the father of Navy SEAL Tyrone Woods, who was also killed.


(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BUjICCVCcAAoeIY.jpg)

The far side of the room, shown empty in the photo, belongs to the Democrats. The only Democrats who stayed were Ranking Member Elijah Cummings and Rep. Jackie Speier.

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2013/09/19/spitting-on-their-graves-democrats-leave-benghazi-hearing-before-testimony-from-benghazi-families-n1704732

IRS’ Lois Lerner at Center of Controversy Said to Retire

 
Lois Lerner, the Internal Revenue Service official at the center of the controversy surrounding the agency’s scrutiny of Tea Party groups, has retired effective today, according to a Republican congressional aide.

Lerner, the tax agency’s former director of exempt organizations, was placed on paid administrative leave earlier this year. Last week, acting IRS commissioner Danny Werfel told a congressional committee that she was “technically still employed.”

The agency informed some in Congress about the retirement, said the aide, who requested anonymity to discuss the private conversation.

William Taylor, Lerner’s attorney, didn’t respond immediately to a request for comment. Lerner refused to testify before Congress, citing her constitutional protections against self-incrimination.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-23/irs-lois-lerner-at-center-of-controversy-said-to-retire.html

So they are admitting this "aid" is revealing details of a private conversation without authorization, which suggests a violation of law? Seems to me that the people who this aid spoke to then have an obligation to explain their relationship with this "Republican congressional aid".

How convenient that these stories always have an unnamed source making the claim, that if this "source" is revealed, they'd at the least get fired, if not arrested, for their leaking information without authorization.

United Nations General Assembly 2013
Brazil's President Rousseff says US surveillance actions 'are totally unacceptable' - Live video

Brazil's President Rousseff says Brazil will adopt legislation, technology to protect it from illegal interception of its communications - @Reuters

woops

 :D Let us know how that goes! It took about 2 days for hackers to crack the iPhone finger print scanner.

ACLU says ATF blocks whistleblower book on scandal

The Obama administration is blocking a federal law enforcement agent from publishing a book about the failed "Fast and Furious" gun-smuggling sting operation because of concerns that the book would negatively affect morale, the American Civil Liberties Union said Monday.

The ACLU charged that the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is worried that the book proposed by an ATF agent would hurt relationships with other U.S. law enforcement agencies.

In a six-page letter to ATF Deputy Director Thomas Brandon, the ACLU said the bureau's decision to block the book proposed by Special Agent John Dodson was a violation of his First Amendment rights. The ACLU described Dodson as a whistleblower.

According to the letter, the ATF denied Dodson's request to try to publish a book about his version of the Fast and Furious scandal because the bureau predicted it would have "a negative impact on morale in the Phoenix (Field Division) and would have a detrimental" impact on ATF relationships with the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

The ATF did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Washington Times first reported the ATF's decision Monday.

Dodson was an agent in the Phoenix field office, where Fast and Furious investigation was run, when he went to Congress with details about the sting operation in which the ATF allowed gun-runners to buy weapons in hopes of tracking them and disrupting Mexican gun smuggling rings. At least one of the guns was found at the scene of the 2010 shooting death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in southern Arizona.

In the wake of the public revelations about Fast and Furious, many top bureau leaders were reassigned, forced out of the agency or retired, including then-Acting Director Kenneth Melson.

In a statement provided by the ACLU, Dodson defended his book.

"At the end of the day, we have a right to know and talk about what law enforcement agencies do in our name," Dodson said.

http://news.yahoo.com/aclu-says-atf-blocks-whistleblower-book-scandal-155538504--politics.html

 ::)

http://m.cjonline.com/news/2013-10-07/obamas-cousin-may-challenge-sen-roberts
Obama's cousin may challenge Sen. Roberts
10/7/13

A Johnson County Republican and second cousin of President Barack Obama is expected to move ahead Tuesday with planning for a primary challenge to U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts, of Kansas.

Milton Wolf, who advocates for a divinely inspired return to limited government and individual liberty, invited  supporters to a "major announcement" regarding the 2014 Senate campaign at an Overland Park hotel. The event will feature a performance by “American Idol” singer Krista Branch.

Wolf, a 42-year-old physician and a political novice, could highlight in Kansas the division playing out nationally among tea party conservatives and others in the Republican Party. Wolf indicated he wouldn’t follow in the footsteps of Roberts but would operate in the style of U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, who openly challenged established leaders of their own party.

"My fellow patriots," Wolf says on his website, "something big is happening and this is your call to arms. If you think that the career politicians in both parties have failed America, join us. If you've ever asked yourself what you can possibly do and you're ready to fight, then you belong here."

Wolf's campaign event is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at the Ritz Charles, 9000 W. 137th Street in Overland Park.

Roberts, 77, has been actively campaigning for re-election through personal appearances. He has collected endorsements from Gov. Sam Brownback, former Sen. Bob Dole, statewide elected Kansas Republicans, 77 of 92 Republican representatives and 31 of 32 Republican senators.

The incumbent had $1.5 million in his campaign account in June.

Leroy Towns, executive campaign manager for Roberts, said the senator was a "tough, tested and trusted conservative who works hard for Kansas."

"Dr. Wolf's attacks on Senator Roberts are attacks on those Kansas Republicans as well," Towns said. "Only a Johnson County doctor who is seriously out of touch with grassroots Republicans across the great state of Kansas would choose to announce his candidacy for statewide office with a glitzy party at the Ritz."

Towns said Wolf had shown little willingness to talk about "real issues that affect the lives and pocketbooks of Kansas families and businesses."

"Because he is unknown to most Kansas Republicans, he also will need to answer important questions regarding his qualifications, his medical business, including patient privacy issues and the extent his business relies on government payments."

Wolf, in part due to his status as Obama's second cousin once removed, has appeared on television and radio programs hosted by conservatives and has written for the Washington Times.

In 2010, Wolf testified in the Kansas Statehouse against the federal health insurance reform designed to extend health care to millions of uninsured Americans that has become known as Obamacare. He also endorsed a proposed state constitutional amendment — never passed — designed to block its implementation in Kansas.

He said the Kansas amendment could serve as a "final firewall to protect the citizens of Kansas from being forced into a government-run health care system that would rob them of their freedoms."

According to Politico, Wolf delivered a speech in New Orleans last month titled "Shaking the Moss Off the GOP."

"It's time to take a page out of Sarah Palin's playbook," Wolf said. "It's time to take on the establishment. For the sake of our party and the republic, it's time to lock and load."

In a column, Wolf said: "Spending. Taxes. Regulations. Welfare. Debt. By every objective measure, the Republican establishment has failed. They have the gall to claim, with a straight face, that conservative primary challengers would harm the GOP and help the Democrats."

Extreme Hypocrisy! Obama Orders Federal Workers To “Make Life As Difficult For People As We Can”

Why would the president of the United States try to purposely hurt the American people?  Well, in 2013 this is done in order to score political points and force the opposition in to doing what you want them to do.  A few days ago, an angry Park Service ranger publicly admitted that he and his fellow rangers have been ordered to "make life as difficult for people as we can" during this government shutdown.  That Park Service ranger would never have received such an order unless it came from the very top.  Apparently the Obama administration plans to cause as much pain as possible until Obama gets everything that he is demanding.  In many cases, it is actually going to cost far more money to put up barricades and use guards to keep Americans from visiting open air memorials, driving on roads, and fishing in bodies of water than it would to put up a "closed" sign and simply go home.  As you will see from the examples posted below, the Obama administration is being extremely spiteful and vindictive.  And the level of hypocrisy that we are now witnessing is hard to fathom.  For instance, the National Mall has been totally closed to the public, but the Obama administration is specifically reopening it for a massive pro-immigration rally that will benefit the Democrats politically.  The abuse of power that is taking place is absolutely staggering, and the American people need to demand that those that are abusing it be held accountable when all of this is over.

(Read More....) http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/extreme-hypocrisy-obama-orders-federal-workers-to-make-life-as-difficult-for-people-as-we-can

The reason why I'm posting this here is b/c this article shows the close ties b/w the recent Tea Party movement and the NWO-opposition controlled "religious right"/"moral majority". Both Ted Cruz and his pastor father has had long ties to the RR/MM as well. And the Pauls(Ron and Rand) are involved too.

It seems like in Obama's so-called IRS scandal, it's been LARGELY these TEA PARTY groups that have been (supposedly)targeted. I dunno - but considering ALL of these NWO groups are involved on BOTH sides of the spectrum...

http://www.talk2action.org/story/2013/10/8/132658/236/
Ted Cruz Worked With Religious Right Founder Paul Weyrich, To Elect George W. Bush
10/8/13

"We are talking about Christianizing America. We are talking about simply spreading the gospel in a political context." -- U.S. Senator Ted Cruz' late friend Paul Weyrich, in a 1980 Dallas speech to fundamentalist ministers. Weyrich is widely credited as one of the top architects of the new right and the religious right.

While a September 8, 2013 Politico story from Stephanie Simon documented U.S. Senator Ted Cruz' ties to pseudo-historian David Barton (one of the more influential national middle-aged leaders on the Christian right), Cruz' ties to the politicized religious right are far more profound than that.
 
Indeed, as a 2011 book from Bush presidential administration member Timothy Goeglein reveals, back in 1999 Cruz already had high-level national-level political connections that helped make George W. Bush president -- connections perhaps developed during his stint as a legal aide for Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist, but most certainly also tracing through his father Rafael Cruz' participation in the Paul Weyrich-cofounded Religious Roundtable that mobilized Christian conservative voters to help elect Ronald Reagan to the presidency in 1980.

Over the last several years, mainstream media, liberals and progressives alike have succumbed to a misleading narrative that depicts the Tea Party as secular and libertarian. But leading Tea Party Republicans in the U.S. Senate Ted Cruz and Rand Paul were raised within the bosom of the politicized Christian right and have access to its leadership, one of whom is former Texas U.S. Representative Ron Paul (consider this 2003 op-ed from Rand Paul's father, Ron.)

But Ted Cruz brings to the table his own formidable, even astonishing, elite connections that, in 1999, helped enable candidate George W. Bush's lock on the 2000 election Republican presidential nomination.

In 1999 Cruz, then a George W. Bush campaign aide, helped cement support from the religious right for Bush by arranging a meeting between one of the key architects of the movement, Paul Weyrich - who played a pivotal role in drawing evangelicals into electoral politics - and one of the Bush for president campaign leaders Timothy Goeglein, who went on to serve as Special Assistant to U.S. President George W. Bush and Deputy Director of the White House Office of Public Liaison from 2001 to 2008, and now works with Focus on The Family.

As Goeglein recounted in his book Man In The Middle - An Inside Account of Faith and Politics in the George W. Bush Era (2011, B&H Publishing Group), with book forward written by Karl Rove, George W. Bush had already sent a powerful message to conservative evangelicals that he was theirs when, during the December 14, 1999 Iowa Republican Primary Debate Bush stated that his favorite philosopher was "Christ, because he changed my heart."

But, reveals Goeglein, then-Bush campaign aide Ted Cruz helped play the inside track, by arranging a meeting between Cruz, Goeglein, and Paul Weyrich. Starting on page 34, Goeglein begins,

"In addition to the strong support Governor Bush was garnering in those early primaries, he was also gaining the support of key social conservatives in a systematic but off-the-record outreach effort where I was spending lots of my time. One of the most important such meetings occurred a month after I arrived in Austin. My friend and fellow campaign aide Ted Cruz, a former Supreme Court Clerk for Chief Justice William Rehnquist and later a candidate for the U.S. Senate from Texas, phoned me one day and told me Paul Weyrich, one of the leading traditional conservatives in the country, was in Austin and wanted to have breakfast to discuss Governor Bush's record and the campaign. Ted asked me to join him. Paul, who later became a close friend and ally, had a reputation for blunt talk and core, unswerving convictions, and so I knew the meeting would be foundational to our coalition efforts in the Bush campaign.
   
We met for a breakfast all of us thought would last an hour or so. It ended up going nearly three hours. Paul queried me and ted on nearly every issue possible in a spirited, lively session. I came to see the repartee among the three of us was rooted in common principles and values; and by the end of the breakfast, Paul told us, in all his years of following presidential politics, he had never felt more comfortable with the core convictions of a candidate on the issue he most believed in, the sanctity of every human life, the foundation of the traditional family, and American sovereignty. Te breakfast ended in unity and common purpose. This kind of one-on-one outreach was a cornerstone of the first Bush campaign, and conservative support was one of the keys to victory."

In other words, per Goeglein's account, Ted Cruz helped create the Bush Presidency. It's astonishing for an almost endless range of reasons, not the least of which is that it doubly true as well - Cruz also served on the Bush campaign's elite legal team that fought the legal battles over the vote recount in Florida which in turn led to the wildly controversial Bush v. Gore Supreme Court ruling that installed George W. Bush in the presidency.

But Cruz' ties to Paul Weyrich are nonetheless even more jaw-dropping than that considering who Weyrich was. How did Cruz earn the friendship of the man who helped create the Heritage Foundation, the Moral Majority, and the American Legislative Exchange Council, ALEC ?

As if Ted Cruz tenure as a legal aid to a U.S. Supreme Court Justice wasn't enough, Cruz had inherited ties, also -- through his father, businessman and pastor Rafael Cruz who, at a July 19th-20th, 2013 Iowa pastors conference that was also attended by his U.S. Senator son Ted, pastor Cruz, explained his role in helping get Ronald Reagan elected, through his involvement in one of the earliest incarnations of the politicized religious right, Ted McAteer's Religious Roundtable.

During a fiery speech at the Iowa pastor's' conference, that was sponsored by the virulently anti-LGBT rights nonprofit the American Family Association, in a speech followed by an appearance from Senator Cruz, pastor Rafael Cruz fulminated,

"Socialism requires that government becomes your god. That's why they have to destroy the concept of God. They have to destroy all loyalties except loyalty to the government. That's what's behind homosexual marriage. It's really about the destruction of the traditional family than about exalting homosexuality - because you need to destroy, also, loyalty to the traditional family."

Pastor Cruz also asserted that the Tea Party movement, in which his son is a major leader, was simply a continuation of the religious right movement he'd helped create. Pastor Cruz described his initial support for Jimmy Carter, then subsequent disappointment after deciding Carter was too liberal. He continued,

"I became very involved in an organization called the Religious Roundtable. The Religious Roundtable was a Judeo-Christian organization that mobilized millions of Christians all across the United States and helped elect Ronald Reagan. It was a precursor of the Tea Party, even before the Moral Majority."

As it happens, the co-founder of the Religious Roundtable was none other than Ted Cruz' friend the late Paul Weyrich. In a 1980 address to the Religious Roundtable, Paul Weyrich explained a key part of the electoral strategy by which the religious right, a relatively small percentage of the overall population, has managed to loft, over and over again down the years since Paul Weyrich helped found the movement, its ideologically extreme, Christian supremacist candidates into office:

"How many of our Christians have what I call the 'goo goo syndrome' ? 'Good government' - they want everybody to vote. I don't want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of people, they never have been from the beginning of our country and hey are not now. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down."
 
Cofounder of Theocracy Watch Joan Bokaer explains Weyrich's role, in her August 2006 story, Paul Weyrich: The Man Who Framed the Republican Party, provides in-depth background into Paul Weyrich's role in reshaping American politics  :

"As a strategist working for Republican Senator Barry Goldwater in his Presidential bid in 1964, Weyrich and other Goldwater conservatives had a rude awakening. Goldwater was soundly defeated. In fact, that presidential election was one of the most lopsided in U. S. history. Goldwater won only his native state of Arizona and five Deep South states that had been increasingly alienated by Democratic civil rights policies.
After Goldwater's defeat, Weyrich and his colleagues didn't waste any time. They formed the New Right and began the long, steady march to expand the base of their party. Weyrich focused on members of evangelical churches: a very large, mostly apolitical constituency that he vowed to bring into the Republican fold. Obviously, the New Right wasn't going to win over all evangelicals. Some were downright liberal. The New Right targeted members of fundamentalist, Pentecostal and charismatic churches.

Later, Goldwater was to become angry about what his Party had become. He lamented to a friend in 1994:

Our problem is with ... the religious extremists whose interpretation is very narrow, and who want to destroy everybody who doesn't agree with them. I see them as betrayers of the fundamental principles of conservatism. A lot of so-called conservatives today don't know what the word means.

Goldwater was speaking to journalist Bill Rentschler, when he said those words. Rentschler was another lifelong conservative. He had run the 1968 Nixon campaign in Illinois, and served briefly in the Nixon White House. He twice ran for the G.O.P. nomination for a U.S. Senate seat from Illinois, and lost both times. Rentschler sees in the politicizing of the Christian Right nothing less than the loss of democracy:

Prepare yourself, fellow Americans, for historic change, the most dramatic and far-reaching change in your lifetime, a sweeping metamorphosis that may alter radically the distinctive, time-honored structure of the fabled American experiment, which has endured for most of the last 225 years.

Goldwater's brand of conservatism couldn't win the White House because people liked the programs that President Roosevelt set up during the New Deal. They counted on receiving their social security checks in their old age. (President Bush discovered this when he tried to privatize social security.) And without necessarily understanding the complexities of government regulation, people continue to favor protections for the environment, public health, and worker safety.

So Weyrich and his gang set about reframing the political debate. He founded the highly influential Heritage Foundation in 1973 to translate controversial, very conservative beliefs into policy positions.

**And it was this same Heritage Foundation that came up with the Individual Mandate idea in 1989 that's in Obamacare.

He went on to found the Free Congress Foundation in 1977 which describes its  mission on its website:

Our main focus is on the Culture War. Will America return to the culture that made it great, our traditional, Judeo-Christian, Western culture? Or will we continue the long slide into the cultural and moral decay of political correctness? If we do, America, once the greatest nation on earth, will become no less than a third world country.

To fight the Culture War, Weyrich helped draft television preacher Rev. Jerry Falwell in 1979 to head a new political movement that Weyrich coined "the Moral Majority." How do you politicize a constituency that is mostly apolitical? And how do you get members of that constituency to join the political party that least represents their economic interests? In August of 1980, Weyrich laid out his vision for a new America at a meeting of fundamentalist ministers:

We are talking about Christianizing America. We are talking about simply spreading the gospel in a political context. 

 [...]
The Moral Majority burst onto the political scene in 1979 like an earthquake, sending shockwaves throughout the United States. They made up the margin that got Ronald Reagan elected President in 1980, and they managed to defeat five of the most liberal Senators from the U.S. Congress that same year.

Weyrich is one of the founders of American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and served as it's treasurer (1981-1992). ALEC is a coalition of corporate leaders and culture warriors. It will be the topic of a future post.

Weyrich is also one of the founders of the highly secretive Council for National Policy where he has served on the Executive Committee. ABC news wrote a story on the CNP with the subtitle, Meet the Most Powerful Conservative Group You've Never Heard Of.

[...]

Perhaps most disturbing of all is a strategy paper published by Weyrich's Free Congress Foundation. It is revealing of true Machiavelli and diabolical thinking. The Integration of Theory and Practice: A Program for the New Traditionalist Movement was written for CFC by Eric Heubeck.

Here are some samplings of what Katherine Yurica calls the  most immoral political program ever adopted by a political movement in this country.

This essay is based on the belief that the truth of an idea is not the primary reason for its acceptance.

Our movement will be entirely destructive, and entirely constructive. We will not try to reform the existing institutions. We only intend to weaken them, and eventually destroy them. We will endeavor to knock our opponents off-balance and unsettle them at every opportunity. All of our constructive energies will be dedicated to the creation of our own institutions.

We will maintain a constant barrage of criticism against the Left. We will attack the very legitimacy of the Left. We will not give them a moment's rest.

We will use guerrilla tactics to undermine the legitimacy of the dominant regime.

We must reframe this struggle as a moral struggle, as a transcendent struggle, as a struggle between good and evil.  (emphasis theirs)

^^ All by design...

http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/10/16/20995193-divided-gop-absorbs-shutdown-deal?chromedomain=nbcpolitics&ocid=msnhp&pos=2
10/16/13

Divided GOP absorbs shutdown deal

By Michael O’Brien, Political Reporter, NBC News

The GOP has little to show for a 16-day government shutdown except dismal headlines and sinking approval ratings. And to top it all off, the party remains as divided as ever.

“We fought the good fight,” House Speaker John Boehner, the nation’s top elected Republican, said Wednesday. “We just didn’t win.”

Eleven months removed from an election that saw President Barack Obama win a second term and Democrats perform more strongly than expected in congressional elections, Republicans have made little progress toward rehabilitating the party’s reputation. The GOP’s internal dividing lines remain as stark as ever and the party – at least on Capitol Hill – seems paralyzed when it comes to the business of governing.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., was accused by his conservative primary challenger of "selling out conservatives" for striking an eleventh-hour agreement to reopen the federal government and avert default on the national debt.

And as McConnell appeared on the Senate floor Wednesday to hail the bipartisan agreement, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz upstaged the Republican leader by holding a simultaneous press conference in which he castigated several Republicans.

“I would point out that had Senate Republicans united, and supported House Republicans, the outcome of this, I believe, would have been very, very different,” he said.

Cruz and outside conservative groups helped foist upon Republicans an untenable strategy of linking government funding to the defunding of Obamacare. Fellow Republicans were openly skeptical of the strategy heading into the fall, and Senate Democrats joined with the White House in opposition.

Nonetheless, conservatives managed to pressure leaders into pursuing the strategy, though public opinion polls suggested the public was deeply resistant to linking government funding to Obamacare defunding, regardless of the program’s popularity.

Despite these brightly flashing warning signs at every turn, Republicans barreled ahead with the strategy. But Wednesday’s legislative compromise does virtually nothing to affect Obamacare. Even a proposal to repeal a tax on medical devices – which enjoys wide bipartisan support – was left out of the eventual deal struck by McConnell and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

The collateral damage from the ordeal is clear: A Pew Research Center poll released Tuesday found that more Americans blamed Republicans in Congress for the government shutdown and debt standoff than the Obama administration, a figure that has only risen over the past month. Democrats now hold an advantage on the generic question of which party voters would rather see in control of Congress – an ominous sign for the GOP heading into next fall’s midterm elections.

And approval for the manner in which congressional Republicans are handling their job stands at 20 percent, according to Pew’s poll, while a whopping 72 members disapprove of the GOP in Congress. (Obama’s approval stands at 3 3percent in the same poll, while 31 percent approve of the way Democratic leaders are handling their jobs.)

On top of that, conservatives who helped lead the defund-Obamacare charge have now carefully backed away from their previous positions.

“Everybody understands that we’ll not be able to repeal this law until 2017, and that we have to win the Senate and win the White House,” said Michael Needham, the president of the influential conservative group Heritage Action, on Fox News. Heritage Action’s key vote alert against the House GOP’s last-ditch alternative to reopen the government on Tuesday helped seal the fate of the legislation, and forced Republican leaders to cancel a planned vote.

And Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, lashed out at the media, whom he accused of equating the defund-Obamacare push as a repeal effort.

"Every time you write a story that says that Republicans and conservatives were unreasonable in asking for a complete repeal of Obamacare, you have actually been lying to the American people," he said at a roundtable meeting with fellow conservatives on Wednesday.

At that same meeting, conservative Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan said there’s been absolutely no talk of deposing Boehner. And there haven’t been any public indications otherwise to suggest the speaker’s job is at risk.

But the GOP emerges from the shutdown as dysfunctional and factionalized as ever, heading into another deadline on Jan. 15 by which they must again vote to fund the government.

The only difference between now and then: 2014 is an election year, and Democrats are eager to make the midterms a referendum on Republican competence.

France summons US envoy over spying claims

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius has summoned the US ambassador over newspaper claims that the US spied on millions of phone calls in France.

France has labelled such activity between allies as "unacceptable".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24607880

Such hypocrites!  ::)

Allies have been spying on each other as long as man has had eyes because man knows deep down you can't trust man. Man also knows that the world is evil and is not to be trusted.

REPORT: NSA Hacked Mexican President's Email...

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/nsa-hacked-email-account-of-mexican-president-a-928817.html

Feinstein defends NSA data collection and insists program is 'not surveillance'

(http://american3rdposition.com/wp-content/uploads/dianne_feinstein.jpg)

WEB Notes: What a liar. When every phone call you make or email sent is recorded that is surveillance and absolutely illegal under the Constitution. Have you ever wondered who those are who claim to be of the tribe of Judah?
 
(Guardian) - Dianne Feinstein, the chair of the US Senate committee charged with holding the intelligence establishment to account, declared on Monday that the National Security Agency's mass collection of phone records is "not surveillance" and should be maintained as an essential tool to combat terrorism.
 
Feinstein made the case for retaining the program, which routinely collects and stores the phone records millions of Americans, in an op-ed for USA Today, in which she wrote that the NSA's work had been "effective in helping to prevent terrorist plots against the US and our allies".
 

Feinstein, a Democrat from California, is introducing legislation that would make superficial alterations to the NSA and the secret courts that are supposed to provide judicial oversight.
 
But her bill stops short of making any substantial changes to the way the agency conducts its work, despite the string of revelations based on disclosures by the former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
 
A host of rival bills being introduced in Washington go much further, including one from Democratic senator Patrick Leahy, who chairs the Senate judiciary committee. Leahy is proposing an end to the bulk collection of phone records, which is authorised under an interpretation of section 215 of the Patriot Act.
 
Leahy's bill, which is viewed as the main rival to Feinstein's, will be introduced simultaneously in the House by Republican Jim Sensenbrenner, the author of the Patriot Act. He has said the law was never intended for this kind of data collection, a program he now intends to put "out of business".
 
Senior intelligence officials are lobbying hard on Capitol Hill to protect the program, and Feinstein has been one of their strongest supporters in Congress. In her op-ed, Feinstein repeated the testimony of NSA and other intelligence leaders, which many critics argue has been misleading.
 
"The call-records program is not surveillance. It does not collect the content of any communication, nor do the records include names or locations," Feinstein wrote. "The NSA only collects the type of information found on a telephone bill: phone numbers of calls placed and received, the time of the calls and duration."
 
Several experts independent of the intelligence committee have testified, including to Feinstein's committee, that the collection of phone metadata can provide a detailed and intrusive window into an individual's life, particularly when matched with other data. A person's name, for instance, can easily be derived from their telephone number.
 
However, Feinstein said that it was necessary for the agency to obtain "the haystack" of phone records in order to find the terrorist "needle".
 
"To be effective, the NSA must be able to conduct these queries quickly, without regard to which phone carrier a terrorist or conspirator uses," she said. "And the records must be available for a few years – longer than phone companies need them for billing purposes."
 

Feinstein also advanced another controversial claim that has been repeatedly challenged by other senators, including Leahy, when she said the phone record collection program had "played a role in stopping roughly a dozen terror plots".
 
In their committee roles, Leahy and Feinstein have been given privileged access to classified information about the cases when the program has been used. Leahy has argued that the usefulness of the program has been exaggerated by the intelligence community.
 
"The American people are getting left with inaccurate reflection of the NSA's programs," he said during a committee hearing earlier this month. Under questioning from Leahy during that session, the director of the NSA, Keith Alexander, admitted there were only "one or possibly two" cases of terrorist activity that would not have been prevented "but for" section 215 of the Patriot Act.
 
In July, an amendment introduced in the House of Representatives to end the dragnet collection of phone records was narrowly defeated, falling just 12 votes short of passage. Justin Amash, the Republican who co-authored that measure, recently told the Guardian that opposition to the program has "solidified" in recent months.
 
Amash attributed the hardening of opposition to members of Congress returning to their districts, where they heard complaints from constituents angry about their records were being stored, and to the succession of revelations, published in the Guardian, the Washington Post and the New York Times, that have "completely discredited those who said nothing improper was going on within the NSA". - Guardian: Feinstein defends NSA data collection and insists program is 'not surveillance'
 
http://brandontward.blogspot.com/2013/10/feinstein-defends-nsa-data-collection.html#.UmZ3rRYxn8s

Obamacare is pretty much an upgraded NSA spying version.

REPORT: USA SPIED ON MERKEL'S MOBILE PHONE
MERKEL CALLS OBAMA

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2013/10/23/merkel-calls-obama-spying-mobile-phone

In digital terms, it's just another "data collection point". Just like cellphones used by government officials. Another source of data.

But with the new "smart phones" that are now mini personal computers with cellphone features, they all now come with GPS tracking for the "emergency services" like 911. So that means if it has GPS, potentially anyone can track that given phone, no matter who is using it, unless measures are taken to block or turn off the GPS in the phone. Even so, as soon as that phone connects a call, it can be traced. With the technology available today, security-wise, I don't see any high up government official carrying GPS-enabled/Blutooth devices. Of course I don't see them explaining how it was the US was able to "spy" on Merkel's phone.

NSA monitored calls of 35 world leaders after US official handed over contacts

• Agency given more than 200 numbers by government official
• NSA encourages departments to share their 'Rolodexes'
• Surveillance produced 'little intelligence', memo acknowledges



The National Security Agency monitored the phone conversations of 35 world leaders after being given the numbers by an official in another US government department, according to a classified document provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The confidential memo reveals that the NSA encourages senior officials in its "customer" departments, such the White House, State and the Pentagon, to share their "Rolodexes" so the agency can add the phone numbers of leading foreign politicians to their surveillance systems.

The document notes that one unnamed US official handed over 200 numbers, including those of the 35 world leaders, none of whom is named. These were immediately "tasked" for monitoring by the NSA.

The revelation is set to add to mounting diplomatic tensions between the US and its allies, after the German chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday accused the US of tapping her mobile phone.

After Merkel's allegations became public, White House press secretary Jay Carney issued a statement that said the US "is not monitoring and will not monitor" the German chancellor's communications. But that failed to quell the row, as officials in Berlin quickly pointed out that the US did not deny monitoring the phone in the past.

The NSA memo obtained by the Guardian suggests that such surveillance was not isolated, as the agency routinely monitors the phone numbers of world leaders – and even asks for the assistance of other US officials to do so.

The memo, dated October 2006 and which was issued to staff in the agency's Signals Intelligence Directorate (SID), was titled "Customers Can Help SID Obtain Targetable Phone Numbers".

It begins by setting out an example of how US officials who mixed with world leaders and politicians could help agency surveillance.

"In one recent case," the memo notes, "a US official provided NSA with 200 phone numbers to 35 world leaders … Despite the fact that the majority is probably available via open source, the PCs [intelligence production centers] have noted 43 previously unknown phone numbers. These numbers plus several others have been tasked."

The document continues by saying the new phone numbers had helped the agency discover still more new contact details to add to their monitoring: "These numbers have provided lead information to other numbers that have subsequently been tasked."

But the memo acknowledges that eavesdropping on the numbers had produced "little reportable intelligence". In the wake of the Merkel row, the US is facing growing international criticism that any intelligence benefit from spying on friendly governments is far outweighed by the potential diplomatic damage.

The memo then asks analysts to think about any customers they currently serve who might similarly be happy to turn over details of their contacts.

"This success leads S2 [signals intelligence] to wonder if there are NSA liaisons whose supported customers may be willing to share their 'Rolodexes' or phone lists with NSA as potential sources of intelligence," it states. "S2 welcomes such information!"

The document suggests that sometimes these offers come unsolicited, with US "customers" spontaneously offering the agency access to their overseas networks.

"From time to time, SID is offered access to the personal contact databases of US officials," it states. "Such 'Rolodexes' may contain contact information for foreign political or military leaders, to include direct line, fax, residence and cellular numbers."

The Guardian approached the Obama administration for comment on the latest document. Officials declined to respond directly to the new material, instead referring to comments delivered by Carney at Thursday's daily briefing.

Carney told reporters: "The [NSA] revelations have clearly caused tension in our relationships with some countries, and we are dealing with that through diplomatic channels.

"These are very important relations both economically and for our security, and we will work to maintain the closest possible ties."

The public accusation of spying on Merkel adds to mounting political tensions in Europe about the scope of US surveillance on the governments of its allies, after a cascade of backlashes and apologetic phone calls with leaders across the continent over the course of the week.

Asked on Wednesday evening if the NSA had in the past tracked the German chancellor's communications, Caitlin Hayden, the White House's National Security Council spokeswoman, said: "The United States is not monitoring and will not monitor the communications of Chancellor Merkel. Beyond that, I'm not in a position to comment publicly on every specific alleged intelligence activity."

At the daily briefing on Thursday, Carney again refused to answer repeated questions about whether the US had spied on Merkel's calls in the past.

The NSA memo seen by the Guardian was written halfway through George W Bush's second term, when Condoleezza Rice was secretary of state and Donald Rumsfeld was in his final months as defence secretary.

Merkel, who, according to Reuters, suspected the surveillance after finding her mobile phone number written on a US document, is said to have called for US surveillance to be placed on a new legal footing during a phone call to President Obama.

"The [German] federal government, as a close ally and partner of the US, expects in the future a clear contractual basis for the activity of the services and their co-operation," she told the president.

The leader of Germany's Green party, Katrin Goring-Eckhart, called the alleged spying an "unprecedented breach of trust" between the two countries.

Earlier in the week, Obama called the French president François Hollande in response to reports in Le Monde that the NSA accessed more than 70m phone records of French citizens in a single 30-day period, while earlier reports in Der Spiegel uncovered NSA activity against the offices and communications of senior officials of the European Union.

The European Commission, the executive body of the EU, this week backed proposals that could require US tech companies to seek permission before handing over EU citizens' data to US intelligence agencies, while the European parliament voted in favour of suspending a transatlantic bank data sharing agreement after Der Spiegel revealed the agency was monitoring the international bank transfer system Swift.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/24/nsa-surveillance-world-leaders-calls

This has so blown up in Obama's face.

Germany, Brazil Turn to U.N. to Restrain American Spies

 Brazil and Germany today joined forces to press for the adoption of a U.N. General Resolution that promotes the right of privacy on the internet, marking the first major international effort to restrain the National Security Agency's intrusions into the online communications of foreigners, according to diplomatic sources familiar with the push.

The effort follows a German claim that the American spy agency may have tapped the private telephone of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and dozens of other world leaders. It also comes about one month after Brazilian leader Dilma Rousseff denounced NSA espionage against her country as "a breach of international law" in a General Assembly speech and proposed that the U.N. establish legal guidelines to prevent "cyberspace from being used as a weapon of war."

rest: http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/10/24/exclusive_germany_brazil_turn_to_un_to_restrain_american_spies

Snowden: 'No telephone in America makes call without leaving record with NSA'...
http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/330497-snowden-fires-back-at-feinstein-over-surveillance-claim#ixzz2ifqcYtwc

Urges Americans to protest...
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/10/24/edward-snowden-endorses-dc-protest-against-nsa-in-rare-public-statement?src=usn_tw

Former NSA Director Overheard Bashing Obama Admin...
http://www.nationaljournal.com/pictures-video/the-acela-is-a-great-place-to-stalk-or-overhear-government-officials-20131024

Merkel Floats Privacy Deal...
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0bc3041a-3c92-11e3-a8c4-00144feab7de.html

Spying between friends 'just not done'...
http://www.france24.com/en/20131024-spying-between-friends-just-not-done-merkel

Germany, France unite in anger...
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/germany-france-unite-anger-over-u-spying-accusations-094005929.html

BRICS Countries Build New Internet to Avoid Spying...
http://www.infowars.com/brics-countries-build-new-internet-to-avoid-nsa-spying/

 :D

So NOW they want to talk privacy on the internet! Hypocrites.

Obama left increasingly isolated as anger builds among key US allies

Merkel the latest to rebuke Washington over NSA spying while US relationships in the Middle East are also unravelling


International anger over US government surveillance has combined with a backlash against its current Middle East policy to leave President Obama increasingly isolated from many of his key foreign allies, according to diplomats in Washington.

The furious call that German chancellor Angela Merkel made to the White House on Wednesday to ask if her phone had been tapped was the latest in a string of diplomatic rebukes by allies including France, Brazil and Mexico, all of which have distanced themselves from the US following revelations of spying by the National Security Agency.

But the collapse in trust of the US among its European and South American partners has been matched by an equally rapid deterioration in its relationships with key allies in the Middle East.

Saudi Arabia this week joined Israel, Jordan and United Arab Emirates in signalling a shift in its relations with the US over its unhappiness at a perceived policy of rapprochement toward Iran and Syria.

Though the issues are largely unrelated, they have led to a flurry of diplomatic activity from Washington, which is anxious to avoid a more permanent rift in the network of alliances that has been central to its foreign policy since the second world war.

Secretary of state John Kerry has been meeting with Saudi and Israeli leaders in an effort to keep them involved in Middle East peace talks about Palestine and Syria, Obama met Wednesday with Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif to reassure him over separate anxiety over US drone attacks, and the White House has been privately trying to mend fences with world leaders on the surveillance issue.

"The [NSA] revelations have clearly caused tension in our relationships with some countries and we are dealing with that through diplomatic channels," said White House spokesman Jay Carney on Thursday.

"These are very important relations both economically and for our security, and we will work to maintain the closest possible ties."

But the Guardian has spoken with several diplomats and foreign government officials – all of whom agreed to talk only on the condition of anonymity – who say the White House is still underestimating the anger felt over recent disclosures.

They argue that US officials are being deliberately disingenuous when they claim that all countries engage in similar forms of espionage, even against allies. While it is widely accepted that the US, Britain, France, Russia and China engage in counter-espionage, other countries do not have the tools to conduct surveillance on the scale of the NSA.

rest: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/24/obama-isolated-anger-builds-us-allies

NSA site down due to alleged DDoS attack

The website for the United States National Security Agency suddenly went offline Friday.

NSA.gov has been unavailable globally as of late Friday afternoon, and Twitter accounts belonging to people loosely affiliated with the Anonymous hacktivism movement have suggested they are responsible.

Twitter users @AnonymousOwn3r and @TruthIzSexy both were quick to comment on the matter, and implied that a distributed denial-of-service attack, or DDoS, may have been waged as an act of protest against the NSA



    So If it's a attack comming from me, or maybe from a country? won't say! It's just looks like a start of a cyber war
    — Anonymous Own3r (@AnonymousOwn3r) October 25, 2013


    NSA remains down! :D You do not **** the peoples human rights and information! #Anonymous
    — S.3xe (@TruthIzSexy) October 25, 2013

Allegations that those users participated in the DDoS — a method of over-loading a website with too much traffic — are currently unverified, and @AnonymousOwn3r has previously taken credit for downing websites in a similar fashion, although those claims have been largely contested.

The crippling of NSA.gov comes amid a series of damning national security documents that have been disclosed without authorization by former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden. The revelations in the leaked documents have impassioned people around the globe outraged by evidence of widespread surveillance operated by the NSA, and a massive “Stop Watching Us” rally is scheduled for Saturday in Washington, DC.

DDoS attacks are illegal in the United States under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, or CFAA, and two cases are currently underway in California and Virginia in which federal judges are weighing in on instances in which members of Anonymous allegedly used the technique to take down an array of sites during anti-copyright campaigns waged by the group in 2010 and 2011. In those cases, so-called hacktivsits are reported to have conspired together to send immense loads of traffic to targeted websites, rendering them inaccessible due to the overload.

http://rt.com/usa/nsa-site-ddos-attack-754/

21 Nations Line Up Behind U.N. Effort to Restrain NSA


An effort in the United Nations by Brazil and Germany to hold back government surveillance is quickly picking up steam, as the uproar over American eavesdropping grows.

The German and Brazilian delegations to the U.N. have opened talks with diplomats from 19 more countries to draft a General Resolution promoting the right of privacy on the Internet. Close American allies like France and Mexico -- as well as rivals like Cuba and Venezuela -- are all part of the effort.

The push marks the first major international effort to curb the National Security Agency's vast surveillance network. Its momentum is building. And it comes as concerns are growing within the U.S. intelligence community that the NSA may be, in effect, freelancing foreign policy by eavesdropping on leaders like Germany's Angela Merkel.

read more: http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/10/25/exclusive_21_nations_line_up_behind_un_effort_to_restrain_nsa

Should have done so a LONG time ago!

NSA surveillance: Spain demands US explain 'monitoring'

Spain has urged the US to give details of any eavesdropping, amid that reports it monitored 60 million Spanish telephone calls in a month.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24708410


NSA: HE DIDN'T KNOW!
http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/28/politics/white-house-stopped-wiretaps/index.html

NOBODY in their right mind believes that..

   PAPER: NSA spied on 60 million Spanish phone calls in a month...
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/u-nsa-spied-60-million-spanish-phone-calls-082941146.html

This Darrell Isa guy(Republican Congressman from California) is the same guy who has been holding investigations on the IRS spying scandal, Benghazi, etc - however, he's also the SAME GUY who's helping to push immigration reform.

Typical of these guys - bait and switch - get your trust on certain issues the public is desperate to get exposed, only to push for something else they want even less behind their backs.

 ::)

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/obamas-tea-party-cousin-wants-to-stop-him-from-destroying-america/
Obama’s Tea Party ‘Cousin’ Wants to Stop Him From ‘Destroying America’
10/28/13

Well, this is awkward. President Obama’s second cousin once removed, Dr. Milton Wolf, appeared on Fox News’ The Real Story with Gretchen Carlson Monday afternoon to speak out against the Affordable Care Act and take some personal shots at his estranged family member. “They say you cannot choose your own family,” Wolf said. “But you can choose to rise up and stop your family from destroying America.”

If things go his way, Wolf could eventually come face-to-face with his cousin in the halls of Congress. He has just announced a plan to challenge incumbent Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) from the right in the 2014 primary. “The sad thing is about Barack Obama, and I don’t mean anything personal against him,” Wolf continued, “but he doesn’t understand America. At least he doesn’t understand American Exceptionalism. What makes America exceptional is that unlike other countries around the world, our citizens are sovereign. You know, the power in America should reside in the people. And our government needs to relearn its place as servant rather than master.”

Wolf said that he’s said as much to his cousin’s face, noting that “there are probably few people in this world who have looked Barack Obama in the eye and stood toe-to-toe and told him he’s wrong,” something that should give the tea party candidate some added credibility with his base in next year’s primary.

Wolf began speaking out against Obamacare on Fox as early as March 2010, when he appeared as a health care expert on Hannity. He has clearly strengthened his talking points since that interview, getting the seal of approval from Carlson, who called him a “good politician” who “knows how to talk.”

Video inside link

This should have always been an Obamagate scandal, funny how the MSM is turning on Obama now.

Obama admin. knew millions could not keep their health insurance

NBC News

President Obama repeatedly assured Americans that after the Affordable Care Act became law, people who liked their health insurance would be able to keep it. But millions of Americans are getting or are about to get cancellation letters for their health insurance under Obamacare, say experts, and the Obama administration has known that for at least three years.

Four sources deeply involved in the Affordable Care Act tell NBC NEWS that 50 to 75 percent of the 14 million consumers who buy their insurance individually can expect to receive a “cancellation” letter or the equivalent over the next year because their existing policies don’t meet the standards mandated by the new health care law. One expert predicts that number could reach as high as 80 percent. And all say that many of those forced to buy pricier new policies will experience “sticker shock.” 
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None of this should come as a shock to the Obama administration. The law states that policies in effect as of March 23, 2010 will be “grandfathered,” meaning consumers can keep those policies even though they don’t meet requirements of the new health care law. But the Department of Health and Human Services then wrote regulations that narrowed that provision, by saying that if any part of a policy was significantly changed since that date -- the deductible, co-pay, or benefits, for example -- the policy would not be grandfathered.

Follow @NBCInvestigates

Buried in Obamacare regulations from July 2010 is an estimate that because of normal turnover in the individual insurance market, “40 to 67 percent” of customers will not be able to keep their policy. And because many policies will have been changed since the key date, “the percentage of individual market policies losing grandfather status in a given year exceeds the 40 to 67 percent range.” 

That means the administration knew that more than 40 to 67 percent of those in the individual market would not be able to keep their plans, even if they liked them.

Yet President Obama, who had promised in 2009, “if you like your health plan, you will be able to keep your health plan,” was still saying in 2012, “If [you] already have health insurance, you will keep your health insurance.”

“This says that when they made the promise, they knew half the people in this market outright couldn’t keep what they had and then they wrote the rules so that others couldn’t make it either,” said  Robert Laszewski, of Health Policy and Strategy Associates, a consultant who works for health industry firms. Laszewski estimates that 80 percent of those in the individual market will not be able to keep their current policies and will have to buy insurance that meets requirements of the new law, which generally requires a richer package of benefits than most policies today.
 
The White House does not dispute that many in the individual market will lose their current coverage, but argues they will be offered better coverage in its place, and that many will get tax subsidies that would offset any increased costs. “One of the main goals of the law is to ensure that people have insurance they can rely on – that doesn’t discriminate or charge more based on pre-existing conditions.  The consumers who are getting notices are in plans that do not provide all these protections – but in the vast majority of cases, those same insurers will automatically shift their enrollees to a plan that provides new consumer protections and, for nearly half of individual market enrollees, discounts through premium tax credits,” said White House spokesperson Jessica Santillo.
 
Individual insurance plans with low premiums often lack basic benefits, such as prescription drug coverage, or carry high deductibles and out-of-pocket costs. The Affordable Care Act requires all companies to offer more benefits, such as mental health care, and also bars companies from denying coverage for preexisting conditions.

Today, White House spokesman Jay Carney was asked about the president’s promise that consumers would be able to keep their health care. “What the president said and what everybody said all along is that there are going to be changes brought about by the Affordable Care Act to create minimum standards of coverage, minimum services that every insurance plan has to provide,” Carney said. “So it's true that there are existing healthcare plans on the individual market that don't meet those minimum standards and therefore do not qualify for the Affordable Care Act.”

Courtesy of Heather Goldwater

Heather Goldwater, 38, of South Carolina, says that she received a letter from her insurer saying the company would no longer offer her plan, but hasn't yet received a follow-up letter with a comparable option.

Other experts said that most consumers in the individual market will not be able to keep their policies. Nancy Thompson, senior vice president of CBIZ Benefits, which helps companies manage their employee benefits, says numbers in this market are hard to pin down, but that data from states and carriers suggests “anywhere from 50 to 75 percent” of individual policy holders will get cancellation letters. Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger, who chairs the health committee of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, says that estimate is “probably about right.” She added that a few states are asking insurance companies to cancel and replace policies, rather than just amend them, to avoid confusion.
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A spokesman for America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), an insurance trade association, also said the 50 to 75 percent estimate was consistent with the range they are hearing.
 
Those getting the cancellation letters are often shocked and unhappy.
 
George Schwab, 62, of North Carolina, said he was "perfectly happy" with his plan from Blue Cross Blue Shield, which also insured his wife for a $228 monthly premium. But this past September, he was surprised to receive a letter saying his policy was no longer available. The "comparable" plan the insurance company offered him carried a $1,208 monthly premium and a $5,500 deductible.

And the best option he’s found on the exchange so far offered a 415 percent jump in premium, to $948 a month.

"The deductible is less," he said, "But the plan doesn't meet my needs. Its unaffordable."

"I'm sitting here looking at this, thinking we ought to just pay the fine and just get insurance when we're sick," Schwab added. "Everybody's worried about whether the website works or not, but that's fixable. That's just the tip of the iceberg. This stuff isn't fixable."
 
Heather Goldwater, 38, of South Carolina, is raising a new baby while running her own PR firm. She said she received a letter last July from Cigna, her insurance company, that said the company would no longer offer her individual plan, and promised to send a letter by October offering a comparable option. So far, she hasn't received anything.
 
"I'm completely overwhelmed with a six-month-old and a business,” said Goldwater. “The last thing I can do is spend hours poring over a website that isn't working, trying to wrap my head around this entire health care overhaul."

Goldwater said she supports the new law and is grateful for provisions helping folks like her with pre-existing conditions, but she worries she won’t be able to afford the new insurance, which is expected to cost more because it has more benefits. "I'm jealous of people who have really good health insurance," she said. "It's people like me who are stuck in the middle who are going to get screwed."
 
Richard Helgren, a Lansing, Mich., retiree, said he was “irate” when he received a letter informing him that his wife Amy's $559 a month health plan was being changed because of the law. The plan the insurer offered raised his deductible from $0 to $2,500, and the company gave him 17 days to decide.

The higher costs spooked him and his wife, who have painstakingly planned for their retirement years. "Every dollar we didn't plan for erodes our standard of living," Helgren said.

Ulltimately, though Helgren opted not to shop through the ACA exchanges, he was able to apply for a good plan with a slightly lower premium through an insurance agent.

He said he never believed President Obama’s promise that people would be able to keep their current plans.

"I heard him only about a thousand times," he said. "I didn't believe him when he said it though because there was just no way that was going to happen. They wrote the regulations so strictly that none of the old polices can grandfather."

For months, Laszewski has warned that some consumers will face sticker shock. He recently got his own notice that he and his wife cannot keep their current policy, which he described as one of the best, so-called "Cadillac" plans offered for 2013. Now, he said, the best comparable plan he found for 2014 has a smaller doctor network, larger out-of-pocket costs, and a 66 percent premium increase.

“Mr. President, I like the coverage I have," Laszweski said. "It is the best health insurance policy you can buy."

http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/10/28/21213547-obama-admin-knew-millions-could-not-keep-their-health-insurance?lite

For mental health care? They forgot about the part where these mental health issues are caused by vaccinations, Aspertame, MSG, processed foods, and other poisons they put in foods(that the federal government legalized in the 80's) have played a large role in people getting mental illnesses.

Offering "more benefits" doesn't change the fact that people simply don't have the cash to cover those high deductibles that they did nothing to lower. In fact, the ACA has given them license to increase the deductibles.

Thieves and robbers!

Report: The NSA allegedly eavesdropped on cardinals before the conclave in March to elect a new pope, Italian weekly magazine Panorama reports - @AFP
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hkUaUTxJlrRZWbm91JfNj-YmEjhA?docId=4452213b-41dd-4d6b-bbf9-f0c36809cfcc


Im thinking there will be blow back on that one...


NSA infiltrates links to Yahoo, Google data centers worldwide, Snowden documents say - @washingtonpost
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-infiltrates-links-to-yahoo-google-data-centers-worldwide-snowden-documents-say/2013/10/30/e51d661e-4166-11e3-8b74-d89d714ca4dd_story.html

BETRAYED: Democrats now admit they knew all along that millions would lose their existing health plans

The degree of betrayal found in the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) is finally coming to the surface... and it's intense. As a top Democrat admitted today, the Democrats knew all along that Obamacare would cause millions to lose health care coverage. Yet they continued to promote it with premeditated lies such as, "You can keep your current health plan if you like it" and "your health insurance costs will be lower than a phone bill."

"We knew that there would be some policies that would not qualify and therefore people would [lose their existing coverage]," said House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer in a NationalReview.com article.

National Review goes on to report this astonishing exchange:

Asked by another reporter how repeated statements by Obama to the contrary weren't "misleading," Hoyer said "I don't think the message was wrong. I think the message was accurate. It was not precise enough…[it] should have been caveated with -- 'assuming you have a policy that in fact does do what the bill is designed to do.'"

In other words, lying to the public is not "wrong." It's accurate but not precise!

This is how Democrats think, of course: lie to the public to gain their contrived support, and then when things go wrong, shove a gun in everyone's face to force them to comply with their Big Government mandates. That's the entire plan of Obamacare and most socialists: obedience at gunpoint. Mao would have been proud to call Obamacare his own.


Obama administration also knew that "millions could not keep their health insurance


Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/042717_health_insurance_losing_coverage_Obamacare.html##ixzz2jE3sqGd9

And Republicans too - b/c the Individual Mandate in it was a Heritage Foundation/Gingrich idea from way back in 1989(and the GOP wanted this alternative when Clinton pushed for socialized medicine in 1993).

With that being said - it's as if socialized medicine was thrown on everyone b/c the country was begging for it(not everyone, but in general as a whole). Especially since the 1980's, a lot of poisons like Aspertame, MSG, etc were legalized into the market, as was processed foods largely b/c the Reagan admin wanted to completely de-regulate the markets(meaning getting ride of government oversight completely). Not that I endorse government intervention, but there needs to be SOME accountability. And throw in the pushing of Big Pharma and forced vaccinations since then too.

As a result - it's lead to a sicker and weaker population, to the point where everyone was begging the government to come up with a solution. If memory serves, not many insurance companies in the 80's were generous in terms of giving out mental health insurance. But since the turn of the 21th century, mental health insurance was the top priority among all insurance companies.

No - I'm not trying to point fingers at anyone, b/c I myself indulged in processed foods and Aspertame products for years and years. But nonetheless - this is yet another Problem. Reaction. Solution. model Caesar put out.

The White House ‘Pressured’ Insurance Execs to Keep Quiet About Obamacare: Report

Top White House officials have reportedly “pressured” insurance industry executives to keep quiet about Obamacare, according to a new CNN report.
 
Insurance executives are not exactly fond of President Barack Obama’s health care law. And after voicing concerns over the new bill and its disastrous rollout, White House officials allegedly retaliated by informing industry leaders that the administration was not pleased:

CNN notes multiple sources declined comment on this claim, presumably out of fear of retribution.
 
However, there was one insurance insider who was wiling to go on the record.
 
“The White House is exerting massive pressure on the industry, including the trade associations, to keep quiet,” said insurance industry consulting firm head Bob Laszewski.
 
Laszewski, a longtime opponent of the law, said he has been asked by industry leaders to speak out on their behalf because they feel as if their hands have been tied. Plus, Laszewski notes, the federal government is a huge customer for the industry (so insurance executives can only say so much).
 
He said industry insiders are embarrassed that they had to cancels plans, forcing consumers into larger — and possibly more expensive — coverage.
 
“One of the things I think is clear here is the Obama administration has no trust in anything the health insurance industry is telling them about how to run a health plan,” he said.
 
Laszewski said that insurers told the White House repeatedly that the law would lead to the discontinuation of thousands of policies.
 
The White House has, of course, denied accusations that it’s pressuring the insurance industry to keep quiet, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney going so far as to characterize the claim as “preposterous and inaccurate.”
 
“t ignores the fact that every day insurance companies are out talking about the law — in large part because they are trying to reach millions of new customers who will now have new affordable insurance options available from providers through the new Market Places,” Carney said.
 
Government-related health insurance plans accounted for approximately half of health care policies in 2012, CNN notes, and that number is “expected to grow over the years.”

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/10/30/report-white-house-pressured-insurance-execs-to-keep-quiet-about-obamacare/?utm

Snowden Gets Job...

Will maintain 'Russia's largest website'...

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2013/10/31/Lawyer-says-Edward-Snowden-to-maintain-Russias-largest-website

IRS' Lois Lerner gave confidential Tea Party tax info to FEC, violating law

The Internal Revenue Service shared highly confidential tax information of several Tea Party groups in the IRS scandal with the Federal Election Commission, a clear violation of federal law, according to newly obtained emails.
 
The public watchdog group Judicial Watch told Secrets Thursday that it was former scandal boss Lois Lerner who shared the information on groups including the American Future Fund and the American Issues Project.
 
The emails obtained by Judicial Watch show that the IRS, which was considering the tax status of the groups, gave the FEC the tax returns of the groups, including income, expenditures and staff pay. The emails also revealed the exact wording of the prying political questions the IRS wanted the groups to reveal, such as their goals and the requests for brochures and ads.
 
The information, sent via email, to the FEC came in response to the organization’s questions about whether the IRS had granted tax-exempt status to the Tea Party groups. It is unclear how the information the IRS sent was going to help the FEC, since the IRS hadn’t determined the tax status of the groups yet.
 
The emails were produced to Judicial Watch last week by the FEC in response to an Aug. 9, 2013, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.
 
The email chain began Feb. 3, 2009, when the FEC made it’s request to Lerner.
 
She emailed back 10 minutes later, and said: “I have sent your email out to some of my staff. Will get back to you as soon as I have heard from them.”
 
According to Judicial Watch, the materials “from the IRS’ files sent from Lerner to the FEC containing detailed, confidential information about the organizations. These include annual tax returns (Forms 990) and request for exempt recognition forms (Form 1024), Articles of Organization and other corporate documents, and correspondence between the nonprofit organizations and the IRS. Under Section 6013 of the Internal Revenue Code, it is a felony for an IRS official to disclose either ‘return information or ‘taxpayer return information,’ even to another government agency.”
 
Lerner, who was head of the unit deciding tax exempt status, quit in the scandal.
 
“These extensive emails and other materials provide a disturbing window into the activities of two out-of-control federal agencies: the IRS and FEC,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “And there is the very real question as to whether these documents evidence a crime.”

http://washingtonexaminer.com/irs-lois-lerner-gave-confidential-tea-party-group-tax-info-to-fec-violating-law/article/2538263

(http://www.onenewsnow.com/media/4573294/mrz103113dapr.jpg)

The Obama Facade Cracks at Last
Only now -- five years into his presidency -- are we seeing some cracks in the protective shield surrounding President Obama, and then only after the abuse of reporters' privacy has been threatened. Mainstream journalists have not scrutinized his controversial policies, nor have they held him accountable for questionable actions that have caused outrage among fair-minded critics and produced irreparable harm to the nation.   
http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/10/the_facade_cracks_at_last.html

While Obamcare stuns the U.S., ‘leading from behind’ unravels world peace
The U.S. is transfixed by the Obama administration’s massively bungled attempt to nationalize one sixth of the economy, the health welfare system. But the rest of the world watches the slow motion unfolding of another debacle: the loss of post-World War II American leadership of the worldwide alliance for peace and stability.   
http://www.worldtribune.com/2013/10/28/while-obamcare-stuns-the-u-s-leading-from-behind-unravels-world-peace/

At the same time - look out - immigration reform is slowly but surely being pushed right under everyone's noses, albeit in a bipartisan manner! I've yet to see the MSM have even the least bit of coverage concerning the illegal immigration bill!

John Kerry: Some NSA spying went too far
US Secretary of State John Kerry has said that in some cases, US spying has gone too far. Mr Kerry is the most senior Obama administration official to have commented directly on an issue that has upset America's European allies. He said he will work with the president to prevent further inappropriate acts by the National Security Agency.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-24768717?print=true


Brazil and Germany draft anti-spy resolution at UN
Germany and Brazil have asked the UN General Assembly to adopt a draft resolution calling for the right to privacy in the digital age. The draft calls for an end to excessive electronic surveillance, noting that the illegal collection of personal data "constitutes a highly intrusive act". Brazil and Germany have both been angered by allegations of large-scale US surveillance.   
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24781417

A Phalanx of Lies
 Remember that health insurance you could keep?

CNN has been pondering what they call “a particularly tough few days at the White House.” “Four out of five Americans have little or no trust in their government to do anything right,” says chief political analyst Gloria Borger. “And now Obama probably feels the same way.” Our hearts go out to him, poor wee disillusioned thing. We are assured by the headline writers that the president was “unaware” of Obamacare’s website defects, and the NSA spying, and the IRS targeting of his political enemies, and the Justice Department bugging the Associated Press, and pretty much anything else you ask him about. But, as he put it, “nobody’s madder than me” at this shadowy rogue entity called the “Government of the United States” that’s running around pulling all this stuff. And, once he finds out who’s running this Government of the United States rogue entity, he’s gonna come down as hard on him as he did on that videomaker in California; he’s gonna send round the National Park Service SWAT team to teach that punk a lesson he won’t forget.

Gloria Borger and CNN seem inclined to swallow the line that the president of the United States is not aware that he is president of the United States: For the media, just a spoonful of bovine manure makes the Obamacare medicine go down. It remains to be seen whether the American citizenry will be so genially indulgent. Hitherto, most of what the president claims to be unaware of, they are genuinely unaware of: Few people have plans to vacation in Benghazi, or shoot the breeze with Angela Merkel on her cell phone. But Obamacare is different: Whether or not the president is unaware of it, the more than 2 million Americans (at the time of writing) kicked off their current health-care plans are most certainly aware of it.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been opposed to government health care because, as I’ve said in at least two books, it fundamentally redefines the relationship between the citizen and the state into one closer to that of junkie and pusher. But that’s a philosophical position. Others prefer constitutional arguments: The federal government does not have the authority to do what it’s doing. Dear old John Roberts, chief justice of the United States, twisted himself into a pretzel to argue that, in fact, the government does. But he might as well have saved himself the trouble and just used Nancy Pelosi’s line: Asked by a journalist where in the Constitution it granted the feds the power to do this, she gave him the full Leslie Nielsen and said, “You’re not serious?” She has the measure of her people. Most Americans couldn’t care less about philosophical arguments or constitutional fine print: For them, all Obamacare has to do is work. That is why the last month has been so damaging to Big Government’s brand: In entirely non-ideological, technocratic, utilitarian terms, Obamacare is a bust.

The Canadian and British health systems get by on the principle that, as bad as they are, for enough people they’re good enough, and you don’t have to think about it. Obamacare doesn’t even meet that modest standard, and it’s not clear it ever will. You have to think about it constantly, alert to every potentially catastrophic regulatory tweak that might scuttle your next prescription refill. On Day One, the junkies were eager for their fix: As the administration crowed, the site received 4.7 million unique visits. By the following morning, the HHS “war room” was informed that “six enrollments have occurred so far.” That’s six as in half a dozen, as in fewer people than in just one vehicle of Obama’s 40-car motorcade. Kathleen Sebelius had successfully enrolled one American for every assistant secretary of health and human services. Oh, no, wait: She has seven assistant secretaries, so there was one free, waiting for that seventh enrollee. One in every 783,333 visitors managed to close the deal: Dr. Obama could make house calls to every one and still have time for a round of golf.

In order to meet its target of 7 million enrollees by March 1, Obamacare needs to enroll approximately 46,358 Americans per day. So on its opening day it fell 46,352 short. Were it to maintain that enrollment rate, Obamacare would reach its target of 7 million enrollees in the year 5209. That’s longer than waiting for a hip replacement on the Scottish NHS.

At the same time as dozens of Obamacare enrollees were being signed up, millions of other Americans were having their health insurance canceled — including so many pundits of left (Kirsten Powers), right (Michelle Malkin), and center (David Frum) that the Pulitzers should introduce a prize for Best Suddenly Uninsured Writing. Among their number was Matthew Fleischer, who wrote in the Los Angeles Times:

Most young, middle-class Americans I know are happy that millions of previously uninsured people will receive free or heavily subsidized insurance under the Affordable Care Act.

We just didn’t realize that, unless we had health insurance at work, we’d be the ones paying for it.

The reason he didn’t realize it is because the president lied to him, not just once in a casual aside, but on dozens of occasions, and very bluntly: “If you like your health-care plan, you can keep your health-care plan. Period.” But the entire premise of Obamacare was that, in order to cover (some of) the uninsured and (in many cases) uninsurable, other Americans were going to have to pay significantly more. Obamacare was always intended to be the Great Disruptor: Avik Roy reports that, by 2010, administration officials knew that 93 million Americans would lose their current plans under Obamacare. Small businesses are cutting back on full-time workers; medium businesses are dumping employees’ spouses and children from their plans; and the largest businesses are eating nine-figure bottom-line increases. Delta Airlines claims that it will spend an extra $100 million on health-care expenses next year: Even with cutbacks on complimentary mini-pretzels, a tenth of a billion is a big sum to recover. Meanwhile, the Obamacare plans won’t recognize your preferred doctor, and major hospitals won’t recognize the Obamacare plans.

My old comrade David Frum was somewhat insouciant about the extra $2,400 a year he’ll have to find for his new Obama-approved health arrangements. These days, comparatively few Americans are that liquid, and for most an extra $200 a month will have to be clawed away from real things of value. “Not only will I pay more,” grumbled Mr. Frum, “but I have had to divert many otherwise useful hours to futzing around with websites and paperwork.”

But that’s life in the Republic of Paperwork, isn’t it? The remorseless diversion of time and energy to “futzing around.” That’s why so much of American life seems to be seizing up, why so many routine features of human existence require time-consuming bureaucracy-heavy painstaking navigation (to borrow a term from Obamacare’s “customer-service representatives”). America would benefit from an opposition party that offered a serious de-futzing of the nation: a platform on the scale of Mrs. Thatcher’s privatization program in 1979 or Sir Roger Douglas’s in New Zealand in the Eighties that offered to make ordinary life comprehensible to non-wonks once more. Instead, the Obama crowd have bet that, after the usual whining, you’ll settle down and get used to it: higher co-pays, higher premiums, higher deductibles, higher mountain of paperwork, higher futzing. But the fact remains that nowhere in the Western world has the governmentalization of health care been so incompetently introduced and required protection by such a phalanx of lies. Obamacare is not a left–right issue; it’s a fraud issue.



http://www.nationalreview.com/article/362922/phalanx-lies-mark-steyn

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfl55GgHr5E

I just really have to come out and ask, Why isnt President Obama up for IMPEACHMENT by now? He lied. Plane and simple, he knew he was telling a lie, and he told it over and over again. So did all his cronies.

Bill Clinton was IMPEACHED for lying. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impeachment_of_Bill_Clinton

So why isnt Obama up yet?

Reagan and the Bushes should have been impeached for their crimes and their lyings as well. As for Clinton - yes, he was properly impeached(technically), but the whole thing was nothing more than a puppet show to usher in George W. Bush, who was painted as a true born again Christian that Churchianity embraced after going through an immoral President(and we all know how those 8 years went subsequently).

Look everyone, I understand what everyone's going through as this Obamacare is being pushed through(my parents were trying to get me to enroll in this draconian plan - but by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, it's been all but forgotten on their part, at least for now) - but let's not forget that Obamacare has been in the works for years and years and years. People like Newt Gingrich have PRAISED this(as this idea came from the Heritage Foundation). Romneycare in MA is pretty much the exact same. This bill was also the GOP alternative, believe it or not, when Clinton tried to push universal health care in 1993. Richard Nixon wanted it. And Franklin Roosevelt wanted socialized medicine. Wasn't Roosevelt supposedly a hero among the country?(ie-my late granddad hated politicians, but he loved FDR)

Anyhow - like said - I understand what everyone's going through now, but at the same time, we all(including myself) need to have some discernment. Instead of pointing the finger at one guy, we need to see that it's been a total team effort for years. As for Obama - as much as I hate to say it, but let's not forget Churchianity's silence when Reagan and the Bushes were running the country for 20 years prior.

They didnt lie like Clinton and Obama did. Both of them Lied directly to the American people, knowlingy and willingly. Now im quite sure they lie all the time, but this was directly and on purpose.

http://news.yahoo.com/why-israelis-once-again-angry-obama-absolutely-perplexing-113613240.html
Here’s Why Israelis Are Once Again Angry With Obama: ‘Absolutely Perplexing’
11/1/13

Israeli officials and media are voicing dismay and anger over yet another leak of sensitive military information by the Obama administration, with one veteran broadcaster asking if the White House is fine with Hezbollah obtaining advanced weaponry.

As TheBlaze reported on Thursday, an Obama administration official told the Associated Press that Israeli aircraft attacked a military site in the Syrian port city of Latakia early Thursday morning, targeting advanced Russian-made SA-125 missiles and other equipment the Israeli government believed would land in the hands of Hezbollah.

CNN and other American news outlets also quoted "an Obama administration official" revealing that Israel was behind the attack.

While the Israeli government is not commenting on the reports, Israeli media and officials are expressing annoyance at the repeated leaks about Israeli military activity by U.S. government officials.

"It is unclear why the US would leak such information, as it could increase the pressure on Syria to retaliate against Israel," the Jerusalem Post wrote.

Israel Army Radio devoted an extended segment to the issue on its Friday morning news program during which veteran broadcaster Micha Friedman asked if it's possible that while the Americans are saying "no" to Syrian chemical weapons, they are okay with weapons being transferred to Hezbollah.

Member of Knesset and retired Israeli Defense Forces General Amram Mitzna told Army Radio Friday morning, "There is something absolutely perplexing that I don't understand its meaning whereby American sources leak to the American press. The Americans know what's happening in the region and it's possible there's even strategic coordination [with Israel]. It sounds very, very jarring as there are strategic relations between Israel and the U.S. for years."

"I can tell you that the State of Israel has to maintain its strategic goals and regarding absolute and necessary security not to hesitate to act even when it's not pleasant for our friends in the West," Mitzna added.

Mitzna explained that Israel cannot afford to allow Syrian President Bashar Assad to transfer sophisticated weaponry like land-to-sea missiles to Hezbollah. Israeli defense officials are concerned that if Hezbollah obtains advanced weaponry that would change the strategic balance in the region, the Israel Defense Forces could face difficulty countering the radical Shi'ite group in the future.

This isn't the first time the Obama administration has been accused of leaking sensitive military information regarding Israel's reported operations in Syria. In July, Israeli officials were upset when unnamed Pentagon officials told the media that Israel was behind a missile attack again in Latakia that targeted Russian-made anti-ship missiles.

Bill Gertz of the Washington Free Beacon reported over the summer that when Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter was in Israel, "The Israelis argued in private meetings and other exchanges that the disclosures could lead to Syrian counterattacks against Israel and should have been coordinated first with the Israeli government."

In May, Israel Radio reported that the Obama administration had apologized to Israel for leaking that Israel was responsible for airstrikes on Damascus Airport that month. According to Israel Radio, the administration blamed "low-level" officials for the unauthorized leak, as TheBlaze previously reported.

Barry Rubin, director of the Global Research in International Affairs Center, told TheBlaze at the time, "Can you imagine if things were reversed and somebody did that to the U.S.?"

Who says it's a leak? Somebody used fighter jets to make a military strike on a location in Syria. Locally, it's no secret the attack happened. The locals can see the damage from the strike, so what's the secret? It's no secret Israel doesn't want weapons going into Syria, duh!

Is Israel mad because the US spoke up and pointed the finger at Israel as the one who did the strike? If so, then what does Israel expect? Are countries expected to lie on Israel's behalf about who is responsible? That seems to be the method Israel expected.

Regardless, Washington DC is no longer Israel-friendly. That is obvious. And the reason for that I think is getting really obvious. Obama is not who he says he is.

(http://cnsnews.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/cartoon_550/images/Foden20131030-B.Lie_.jpg)

 :D

Tennessee State Senator Presents Kathleen Sebelius With Really Embarrassing ‘Gift’ – and She Doesn’t Look Very Happy About It

During an education and outreach session in Memphis on Friday, Republican Tennessee State Sen. Brian Kelsey gave Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius a book that he thought she might need: “Web Sites for Dummies.”
 
That’s why we called it a “gift” in sarcastic quotes. The book is clearly meant to mock the Obama administration over the disastrous rollout of the Obamacare website.
 
The Daily News in Memphis was able to capture the moment in a photograph. As you can see, Sebelius doesn’t look very amused:

(http://www.theblaze.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/BYA1XZfCEAAZdEi.jpg)

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/11/01/tennessee-state-senator-presents-kathleen-sebelius-with-really-embarrassing-gift-and-she-doesnt-look-very-happy-about-it/

 ;D

That book won't help!

Judicial Watch scores again: IRS colluded with Federal Election Commission

A public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption says it has obtained more evidence that former IRS agent Lois Lerner showed bias against conservatives.

Judicial Watch has announced that through a Freedom of Information request it has obtained email exchanges between Lerner and enforcement attorneys at the Federal Election Commission. Those communications indicate that Lerner provided the FEC with detailed, confidential information concerning the tax-exempt application status and returns of conservative groups in violation of federal law.
 
Chris Farrell, a spokesman for Judicial Watch, says these government officials were looking for a problem.
 
"They're looking to find something wrong, something out of whack or illegal. These are people looking to enforce the law to the maximum degree," he tells OneNewsNow. "So it is not a positive or beneficial attention that anyone would want. This is people looking to try to cause trouble."
 
Farrell says don't expect the Eric Holder-led U.S. Justice Department to hold anyone accountable in this scandal.
 
Ferrell warns: "You've got a Justice Department that's completely compromised with a corrupt attorney general who's been held in contempt of Congress, whose part of a presidential claim of executive privilege back over the 'Fast and Furious' scandal that's never been resolved. No one's going to be taken out of the room in handcuffs on this one."
 
- See more at: http://www.onenewsnow.com/politics-govt/2013/11/04/judicial-watch-scores-again-irs-colluded-with-federal-election-commission-emails-show#sthash.i6CKe2F3.dpuf

Obama Reportedly Told Staff He’s ‘Really Good at Killing People’

Obama told his staff that he’s “really good at killing people,” according to a new book set to hit shelves Tuesday. The book, titled “Double Down” and authored by Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, reportedly says the Nobel Peace Prize winning president made the comments while discussing drone strikes with his aides.   

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/11/03/obama-reportedly-told-staff-hes-really-good-at-killing-people/

Obama: "What We Said Was You Can Keep It If It Hasn't Changed Since The Law Passed"

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Now, if you have or had one of these plans before the Affordable Care Act came into law and you really liked that plan, what we said was you can keep it if it hasn’t changed since the law passed. So we wrote into the Affordable Care Act, you're grandfathered in on that plan. But if the insurance company changes it, then what we're saying is they've got to change it to a higher standard. They've got to make it better, they've got to improve the quality of the plan they are selling. That's part of the promise that we made too. That's why we went out of our way to make sure that the law allowed for grandfathering.

If we had allowed these old plans to be downgraded, or sold to new enrollees once the law had already passed, then we would have broken an even more important promise -- making sure Americans gain access to health care that doesn't leave them one illness away from financial ruin. The bottom line is that we are making the insurance market better for everybody and that's the right thing to do. (Organizing for Action campaign event, November 4, 2013)

video: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2013/11/04/obama_what_we_said_was_you_can_keep_it_if_it_hasnt_changed_since_the_law_passed.html#.UnhBzabJp0Q.twitter

That isnt what you said, you are a damned LIAR, and nothing else, and should be impeached for your continuing lying about this.

Really? What about all those people out there, including my household, that cannot afford medical insurance or the deductible, thus don't have any, and we just had that one illness that basically means we are financially ruined.

Yep, liar indeed!

Obama denies ‘you can keep it’ videotaped promises

President Barack Obama told his enthusiastic supporters Monday night that he never promised what video recordings show him promising at least 29 times.
 
The videos show Obama promising 300 million Americans that “if you like your health-care plan, you will be able to keep your health-care plan, period.”

But that’s not what he really said, Obama announced Monday in a speech to about 200 Organizing for Action supporters, gathered at the St. Regis hotel in D.C.

“What we said was you could keep it if it hasn’t changed since the law was passed,” he told Obamacare’s political beneficiaries and contractors.
 
That claim is not supported by his videotaped statements, which don’t include any mention of his new “if it hasn’t changed” exception.
 
But the newly-revealed exception is justified by a higher-priority promise in Obamacare, Obama declared.
 
“If we had allowed these old plans [to continue]… then we would have broken an even more important promise — making sure that Americans gain access to health care that doesn’t leave them one illness away from financial ruin,” he announced.
 
“So the bottom line is, is that we are making the insurance market better for everybody,” he declared, prompting loud applause by supporters eager to ignore his three years of fraudulent statements.

Obama’s higher promise is now causing the cancelation of insurance policies chosen by at least 3.5 million Americans.
 
The cancellations are spreading from the individual market to the small-group market. For example, Kentucky’s Department of Insurance has reported that 150,000 people in small-group plans — typically created for employees of small companies— are losing their insurance.
 
Obama urged his supporters to counter the political effect of the many cancellations by highlighting good-news stories, and by reassuring people who have lost their insurance that they can buy new Obamacare-compliant policies.
 
“I realize that can be scary for people if they just get some [cancellation] notice like that… we’ve got to make sure that we’re getting them the right information,” he said.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2013/11/05/obama-denies-you-can-keep-it-videotaped-promises/#ixzz2jmQBT2Bl

Wow. ::)

It looks like part of the reason why the MSM has given Obama a free ride on a lot of things is not necessarily b/c he's Obama, but there's a lot of sideshows and distractions going on on the OTHER side of the aisle(the so-called GOP) where they're staging in-fightings b/w the GOP establishment and the Tea Party(among other things) on many issues. This did NOT happen under Bill Clinton.

Ultimately, these sideshows have only diverted attention AWAY from Obama's many scandals - and all of this has been by design. As for the MSM showing Obama complete bias? Well - just keep in mind that the MSM said next to nothing about Ronald Reagan's pro-abortion/pro-sodomy/pro-gun control agendas for years and years.

http://news.yahoo.com/election-day-2013-tale-two-republicans-highlight-split-155445163.html
11/5/13
On Election Day 2013, Tale of Two Republicans Highlights Split in GOP

If the Republican Party is at a crossroads, two distinct paths are being blazed by two very different candidates on Election Day 2013.

In New Jersey, a pragmatic and often aggressive incumbent is poised to run up the score on the Democratic challenger -- despite the state's deep shade of blue.

In Virginia, a strong social conservative with tea party support is in real danger of losing to a flawed Democrat -- despite the state's history of electing governors from the party that's shut out of the White House.

The result is that the two "off-year" races that have long been viewed as national harbingers are instead offering lessons primarily to a Republican Party that's still engaged in a spirited fight for its own identity.

The split decision that's likely to emerge today seems certain to exacerbate tensions over which way Republicans should be headed, a year after an election debacle for the GOP, and a year before the midterm elections.

"If the polls hold true and [Ken] Cuccinelli loses, it shows that successful Republicans drive down the middle of the right-hand side of the road -- they don't drive off into the ditch on the right," said Whit Ayres, a veteran Virginia-based Republican pollster.

"It's hard to say that the Republican Party is in a stronger position today than a year ago," Ayres added. "But I'm hopeful that more and more Republicans are willing to see the light at the end of the long, dark tunnel."

That light will be shining on Gov. Chris Christie, R-N.J., whose 30-point-plus lead in pre-election polls leave him poised to become perhaps the biggest GOP winner in a trying year.

Christie's team is hoping for a win that will hold conservative voters and make deep inroads among Latinos, Democrats and independents -- proving that a certain style of leadership can overcome partisan leanings.

"His apparent success proves that people will reward decisive action and truth-telling, and that people are prepared to look beyond maybe their own party affiliations or even ideological predispositions where they see an instance of effective action in the public interest," said former Gov. Mitch Daniels, R-Ind., who is now president of Purdue University. "Plainly, that's what's going on when a guy like Gov. Christie is that successful in a state like the one he lives in."

Though Republican leaders rarely say so directly, the flip side of that success is evident in Virginia. The GOP candidate for governor, Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, has trailed consistently in polls against Democrat Terry McAuliffe, swamped by independents and female voters in particular.

Virginia has been trending Democratic in recent years, but Cuccinelli barely sought out the center. His campaign has been defined by his tea party ties and strong social conservative views, with late efforts aimed primarily at turning out the Republican base.

McAuliffe, a former Democratic National Committee chairman and longtime friend of Bill and Hillary Clinton, was thought by many Democrats to be deeply flawed as a candidate, owing to a colorful business past and ties to the unsavory money side of politics. He didn't even make it through the Democratic primary when he ran for governor 2009.

On the eve of the election, though, McAuliffe aides see national implications in the fact that he's been able to reach moderate voters with a pro-jobs message, without sacrificing support inside the Democratic base.

"We have no real conflict in appealing to the base of our party and the center of the electorate," said Geoff Garin, McAuliffe's pollster. "Cuccinelli is emblematic of the Republican dilemma. It is impossible to do both of those things at the same time."

Though Republicans remain optimistic publicly about Cuccinelli's prospects, the second-guessing has already begun. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, now a Virginia resident, said Cuccinelli appears to have been too badly outspent by a finely tuned Clinton-backed machine to overcome his own flaws as a candidate.

"If he does lose, it may say more about the candidate than the movement," Gingrich said Monday in an interview for the ABC News/Yahoo! News "Power Players" series. "No one survives a 25-to-1 disadvantage in funding [down the stretch]. And this is the first great victory of the Clinton march back to the presidency."

"If McAuliffe wins the governorship, he is a Hillary Clinton total devotee," Gingrich continued. "He will spend half of his time as governor trying to help her to win the presidency. And I think it is a sign of the power of the Clinton machine."

In New Jersey, meanwhile, Christie is building a machine of his own. A party that's seen its identity defined by tea party firebrands Sen. Ted Cruz and Sen. Rand Paul counts among its stars a tough-talking Northeasterner who's proving he can win broadly in a blue state, said Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University.

"Chris Christie has defined himself around this theme -- that he's the person that's different from the national party, the person who's distancing himself from extreme views," Zelizer said. "The message he wants is that his brand of Republican politics is nationally potent."

That won't necessarily convince a conservative base that sees Christie as a social moderate who criticized tea party leaders over the government shutdown -- and that remembers Christie's embrace of President Obama's leadership after Hurricane Sandy, Zelizer said.

"A lot of conservative Republicans will say, 'We won't care. Ted Cruz is our guy,'" he said.

In a sense, the election in Virginia is demonstrating one of Christie's biggest obstacles moving forward. Cuccinelli captured the Republican nomination at a party convention dominated by conservative activists, as opposed to through a traditional primary that would draw a broader swath of voters.

"Virginia Republicans made this far harder than this needed to be," said Ayres, the Republican pollster.

After John McCain fell short of the presidency in 2008 and Mitt Romney followed with a loss in 2012, the appetite for moderates is limited among Republican primary voters and caucus-goers.

The path for Christie, should he choose to pursue it, only gets tougher from here. Should he run for president, he will need to at least neutralize a tea party movement that's grown more restive during the second Obama term.

Winning, though, will likely help.

"He has a powerful platform from which to preach," Ayres said.

^^ Go speak for yourself, Newt! You sound like a Liberal just from the comments you made here! And not to mention too you endorsed Obamacare!

So you have the Pauls(Ron and Rand) endorsing the GOP establishment candidate here(even though they've made themselves to be independent of the system) instead of the Libertarian independent. But en yet Obama has been funding the Libertarian guy?

Yeah - this system is incredibly manipulated, to say the least!

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/11/05/revealed-obama-campaign-bundler-helping-fund-libertarian-in-tight-va-gubernatorial-race/
11/5/13
Revealed: Obama Campaign Bundler Helping Fund Libertarian in Tight Va. Gubernatorial Race

A major Democratic Party benefactor and Obama campaign bundler helped pay for professional petition circulators responsible for getting Virginia Libertarian gubernatorial candidate Robert C. Sarvis on the ballot — a move that could split conservative votes in a tight race.

Campaign finance records show the Libertarian Booster PAC has made the largest independent contribution to Sarvis’ campaign, helping to pay for professional petition circulators who collected signatures necessary to get Sarvis’ name on Tuesday’s statewide ballot.

Austin, Texas, software billionaire Joe Liemandt is the Libertarian Booster PAC’s major benefactor. He’s also a top bundler for President Barack Obama. This revelation comes as Virginia voters head to the polls Tuesday in an election where some observers say the third-party gubernatorial candidate could be a spoiler for Republican Ken Cuccinelli.

A spokesman for Sarvis provided no direct answers late Monday when TheBlaze asked about Liemandt’s Democrat ties and whether Sarvis had been recruited to split conservative votes as a way to aid Democrat Terry McAuliffe.

“We’re coordinating Sarvis interviews with Richmond, Norfolk and Charlottesville TV news teams to reach Virginia voters – our first priority –  on Election Eve,” John Vaught LaBeaume, Sarvis communications director and strategist, responded in an email to TheBlaze.

According to Virginia election filings posted by the Virginia Public Access Project, Liemandt contributed $150,000 of the Texas-based Libertarian Booster PAC’s $229,000 revenue. The Libertarian Booster PAC reported providing $11,454 to pay for signature collection, yard signs and campaign materials for Sarvis and another $4,690 for four Libertarian candidates running for the Virginia state legislature.

In March 2012, ABC News reported Liemandt was among three dozen of the Obama campaign’s largest bundlers invited to a state dinner honoring British Prime Minister David Cameron. ABC News reported the invited bundlers, who also included Vogue editor Anna Wintour and Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, were responsible for at least $10.7 million of the $250 million the campaign had collected to that point.

Liemandt and his wife Andra have also been contributors to the Libertarian National Committee, but their largess has been mostly focused on the Democratic Party.

Donations linked to Liemandt’s company, Trilogy, also has split its political giving between libertarian third-party efforts and liberal Democrats. During the 2012 election cycle, Trilogy poured $100,000 into another libertarian group — Libertarian Action Super PAC — while simultaneously making generous contributions to the Democratic National Committee ($92,400), the Democratic Party of Ohio ($12,453) and Barack Obama ($10,000), as well as more than $25,000 for Democrat Party organizations in Florida, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nevada and New Hampshire.

The Liemandts have some other friends in common with the Obamas. The couple and some friends flew to New York to have dinner with Berkshire Hathaway billionaire Warren Buffet in October 2011.

On Sunday, the Danville Register & Bee, a Virginia newspaper owned by Berkshire Hathaway, announced that, for the first time in its history, it would back a Libertarian for public office. It endorsed Sarvis, a political neophyte, saying he “offers a real alternative this year, a break from the two-party paradigm that has not served us well.”

Signature Fight

According to campaign finance reports, the Libertarian Booster PAC focused the vast majority of its spending on getting Sarvis on the ballot, paying for people to circulate the petitions to collect nominating petitions for Sarvis.

News reports indicate the Sarvis campaign turned in 18,000 signatures, well above the 10,000 necessary to get his name on the statewide ballot.

But that didn’t come without a court fight. Virginia election law says people circulating nominating petitions for a third-party candidate must be legal state residents. Court records show Darryl Bonner, a Pennsylvania resident who has been hired to circulate petitions in other states’ elections, joined with the Libertarian Party of Virginia to argue that rule violated the First Amendment right to petition.

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the Virginia residency requirement last spring in an action where the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia represented the Libertarian Party and Bonner. The State of Virginia indicated in October it would appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Sarvis’ Positions Questioned

Some political observers have questioned Sarvis’ libertarian chops, pointing to some decidedly un-libertarian views on issues ranging from the economy and tax cuts to climate change. Conservative radio host Glenn Beck touched on Sarvis’ policy positions during his broadcast Monday morning, urging Virginia voters to educate themselves before heading the polls Tuesday.

“Terry McAuliffe looks like he may win in Virginia, if conservatives don’t come out in droves. If you don’t do everything you need to do,” Beck said. McAuliffe’s Republican opponent, Cuccinelli, gained favorability with Virginia conservatives as attorney general after leading the state’s legal charge against Obamacare, but a victory in Tuesday’s election is anything but certain.

“And so the first litigator against it you would think would be a shoo-in but, no, not necessarily,” Beck added. “And here’s why: Because you got this libertarian who has taken nine points off, but he’s not really a libertarian … Do not be fooled… Libertarians, if you indeed are voting for this guy, you need to know who he is, at least what he’s saying because he doesn’t sound like any libertarian I have ever met.”

In addition, it was Cuccinelli and not Sarvis who won the endorsement of former congressman and noted libertarian Ron Paul and his son, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul — two conservatives who share Beck’s concerns.

Democratic Ploy?

So why should a Texan with such extensive ties to big-government Democrats pour money into a Virginia libertarian gubernatorial campaign that has virtually no chance to win?

The Center for Public Integrity offers insight on the power and strategy of PACs:  “Super PACs are allowed to collect unlimited contributions from individuals, unions and corporations to produce political advertisements that are not coordinated with any candidate,” it says.  “They were made possible in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision.”

CPI illustrated the potential impact of strategic third-party candidates in the 2012 presidential race.  Republican-turned-Libertarian Gary Johnson could potentially peel away some Republican votes in a tight Obama-Romney race.  And Virgil Goode, nominated by the conservative Constitution Party in Virginia could have been a key to hurting Romney enough in that swing state to give its electoral votes to Obama.

With a divide between the Republican Establishment in Washington and its conservative grassroots base widening, could strategically leveraging a third-party be Democrats’ ace in the hole?

Exclusive: Obama personally apologizes for Americans losing health coverage

President Obama said Thursday that he is "sorry" that some Americans are losing their current health insurance plans as a result of the Affordable Care Act, despite his promise that no one would have to give up a health plan they liked.

"I am sorry that they are finding themselves in this situation based on assurances they got from me," he told NBC News in an exclusive interview at the White House.

"We've got to work hard to make sure that they know we hear them and we are going to do everything we can to deal with folks who find themselves in a tough position as a consequence of this."

For more from President Obama's interview with Chuck Todd tune in to NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams at 6:30 pm ET.

rest of this lie upon lie upon lie: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/11/07/21352724-exclusive-obama-personally-apologizes-for-americans-losing-health-coverage?lite

Mr President, that isnt an apology. You apologizing for people loosing health insurance that you KNEW they were going to loose the whole time. This is a distraction "apology". This is nothing, you didnt apologize for LYING for 4 years. You knew the whole time people were going to loose their insurance. YOU KNEW AS SOON AS THIS STARTED TO BECOME A REALITY!!!! Apologize for all the lies you told, repent from those lies and resign from office. You lied, and you lied to cover up that lie. And all your cronies went along with you.

This whole NBC MSM im sorry is to push all of his lies under the rug and move on. The Mouth of Sauron [jay carney] will be on tv tomorrow saying the President has apologized lets move on. 

Dem Senator: 'We All Knew' Obama Was Lying

On Sunday, appearing on ABC’s This Week with fill-in host Martha Raddatz, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) admitted that Democrats knew full well that Americans would be booted from their health insurance plans as an effect of Obamacare implementation. When asked whether Democrats were misled by President Obama about whether Americans would be able to keep their plans in the individual insurance market, Gillibrand answered: “He should’ve just been specific. No, we all knew.” 

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/11/17/Gillibrand-we-all-knew

‘First Amendment Rights of Americans at Even Greater Risk’: IRS Issues Rules Curbing Political Activity

In the shadow of the scandal over the targeting of Tea Party and other conservative groups, the Internal Revenue on Tuesday announced new regulations curbing the political activity of tax-exempt groups.

The new restrictions would prohibit such groups from backing candidates, making political pronouncements 60 days before an election and participating in get-out-the-vote drives.
 
Advocates for conservative organizations litigating against the IRS’ scrutiny say the new rules are an attack on free speech.
 
“It is never a positive when the government gets involved in regulating political speech,” Cleta Mitchell, a Washington-based attorney, told TheBlaze. “Remember the first five words of the First Amendment: ‘Congress shall make no law.’”
 
Mitchell is representing True the Vote and other conservative groups suing the IRS over targeting, which the agency has admitted to.
 
Mitchell said the rules should be more narrow and defined.
 
“If you think this somehow will stop the IRS from arbitrary enforcement, labor unions spent $4.4 billion between 2006 and 2011 on political activities,” Mitchell said. “Do you think the IRS has done any enforcement about that? I don’t think so.”
 
The regulations, being placed on the federal registry, likely won’t take effect for up to a year and are now open to public comment.
 
“This is part of ongoing efforts within the IRS that are improving our work in the tax-exempt area,” said IRS Acting Commissioner Danny Werfel, who took the helm after previous commissioner Steven Miller resigned over the targeting scandal earlier this year. “Once final, this proposed guidance will continue moving us forward and provide clarity for this important segment of exempt organizations.”
 
The conservative American Center for Law and Justice is representing 41 different organizations suing over IRS abuse.


.
 
“These proposed new regulations put the First Amendment rights of Americans at even greater risk,” ACLJ chief counsel Jay Sekulow said a statement. “This is a feeble attempt by the Obama administration to justify its own wrongdoing with the IRS targeting of conservative and Tea Party groups. Instead of holding those responsible for the unlawful targeting scheme accountable for their actions, the Obama administration is determined to further limit the free speech of Americans by attempting to change constitutional practices that are decades old. With this move, the Obama administration opens a new front in its war against political dissent. We will file comments with the IRS opposing these new regulations.”
 
The IRS guidelines concentrate on 501(c)(4) tax exempt non-profit groups. These groups, classified as social welfare groups, are allowed to engage in political activity on the basis of educating the public. However, politics cannot be their primary goal. Larger groups such as American Crossroad on the right and Priorities USA on the left spent millions in the 2012 election.
 
From 2010 through 2012, the IRS gave extra scrutiny to numerous Tea Party and conservative organizations applying for 501(c)(4) status. IRS officials admitted it in May 2013.
 
Under the proposed new rules, a nonprofit group would not eligible for tax-exempt status if it is clearly identified with a candidate or political party; communicates with or advocates for a candidate within 60 days of a general election and within 30 days of a general election; engages in voter registration drives or get out the vote drives, or hold events for candidates. Further, these groups will be required to report expenditures to the Federal Elections Commission.
 
The rules won’t be rushed, Assistant Treasury Secretary for Tax Policy Mark J. Mazur said.
 
“We are committed to getting this right before issuing final guidance that may affect a broad group of organizations,” Mazur said in a statement. “It will take time to work through the regulatory process and carefully consider all public feedback as we strive to ensure that the standards for tax-exemption are clear and can be applied consistently.”

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/11/26/first-amendment-rights-of-americans-at-even-greater-risk-irs-issues-rules-curbing-political-activity/

Elections are rigged anyways - don't know why anyone would give money to these "political campaigns".

Cancer Patient and ObamaCare Critic Says He's Being Audited by IRS

Amazing that the Americans of 2013 dont care, but the Americans of 1774 had a different opinion on things like this..

A cancer patient, who publicly discussed the cancellation of his insurance under ObamaCare, now says he has been informed by the Internal Revenue Service that he is going to be audited.
 
Bill Elliot appeared on Fox News on November 7th to discuss the cancellation of his insurance. He claims he was told that his cancer was considered “beyond the catastrophic previous condition” and his plan was being canceled because of ObamaCare regulations.
 
Elliot, who has Stage 4 cancer, informed viewers he wasn’t going to pay the $1,500 a month for the new plan being offered, preferring not to burden his family and to “let nature take it’s course.”
 
After his story attracted media attention, Elliot says his insurance company decided to let him keep his coverage:
 
"Well, the update on my health is: I went to the doctor last week and he told me that I was in full remission. So, that's good news; I'm getting better. Thanks to Steve, I wouldn't have found none of this out, 'cause I wouldn't have had health insurance to go back. So, I found out that I'm in full remission and that I've got four months to go - not four months to go, but be checked every four months.
 
"So, Monday I got a certified letter. I didn't get my mail until late, so this past Tuesday I went and picked it up. Lo and behold, it's from the IRS saying, "You're going to be audited for the tax year of 2009."
 
Elliot has told Rocky D on 1340 WQSC and the Sara Marie Brenner Show last week that he is now going to be audited by the IRS. If his claims are true, it's an interesting twist to his story.

 - See more at: http://www.cnsnews.com/mrctv-blog/eric-scheiner/cancer-patient-and-obamacare-critic-says-hes-being-audited-irs#sthash.o7738Bgu.dpuf

That's b/c everyone is more concerned about their own material wealth than anything else. Not saying we should be like Alex Jones and try to "fight" the system, but nonetheless just saying.

2Cor 5:1  For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
2Co 5:2  For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:
2Co 5:3  If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.
2Co 5:4  For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.

Its so AWESOME that we have a LAW that the "elect" are exempt from

DIRTY HARRY EXEMPTS STAFF FROM OBAMACARE
http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/04/politics/reid-obamacare-staff/index.html

I've been amazed at the American public in how they have bought into the sales pitch that federal politicians are entitled to different benefits than the public citizen, on the public's dime no less.

And added to that, these same politicians sit up there in DC, voting to keep things as they are for themselves, and add some pay raises in there too, and then they go back home and look in the face of the people they represent, telling the public they can't get the same benefits, with a straight face. I consider that a sign of psychosis!

The world, and Americans, needs to re-read history! ALL great civilizatons fell for the same general reason; corruption by the state against it's own people.

If Someone Wanted To Destroy America On Purpose

“Let’s say somebody were [in the White House] and they wanted to destroy this nation. I would create division among the people, encourage a culture of ridicule for basic morality and the principles that made and sustained the country, undermine the financial stability of the nation, and weaken and destroy the military. It appears coincidentally that those are the very things that are happening right now.”
 
-Dr. Ben Carson on March 16th, 2013
 
That quote by Dr. Ben Carson does a great job of capturing what is taking place in the United States right now.  If you wanted to destroy the most powerful nation on the planet, the best way to do so would be to destroy it from the inside out.  Right now, America is more divided than it has been at any point in any of our lifetimes.  Anger and frustration are growing to unprecedented levels, and one recent survey discovered that the level of trust that Americans have in one another is at an all-time low.  Our families are falling apart and moral decay is systematically rotting the foundations of our society.  Meanwhile, the U.S. national debt is on pace to more than double during the eight years of the Obama administration and the rest of the world is losing more respect for us with each passing day.
 
Sadly, at this critical juncture in U.S. history the American people have twice voted to elect a totally unqualified con man to be the President of the United States.  To say that this scandal-ridden administration has been “corrupt” would be a massive understatement.  The following is a political joke that one of my readers recently emailed me, and I think that it does a great job of illustrating the current state of our government…
 
*****
Bob: “Did you hear about the Obama administration scandal?”
 
Jim: “You mean the Mexican gun running?” Bob: “No, the other one.”
 Jim: “You mean SEAL Team 6?” Bob: “No, the other one.”
 Jim: “You mean the State Dept. lying about Benghazi?” Bob: “No, the other one.”
 Jim: “You mean voter fraud?” Bob: “No, the other one.”
 Jim: “You mean the military not getting their votes counted?” Bob: “No, the other one.”
 Jim: “The NSA monitoring our phone calls, emails and everything else?” Bob: “No, the other one.”
 Jim: “You mean the use of drones in our own country without the benefit of the law?” Bob: “No, the other one.”
 Jim: “Giving 123 Technologies $300 Million and right after it declared bankruptcy and was sold to the Chinese?” Bob: “No, the other one.”
 Jim: “You mean the president arming the Muslim Brotherhood?” Bob: “No the other one.”
 Jim: “The IRS targeting conservatives?” Bob: “No, the other one.”
 Jim: “The DOJ spying on the press?” Bob: “No, the other one.”
 Jim: “Sebelius shaking down health insurance executives?” Bob: “No, the other one.”
 Jim: “Giving SOLYNDRA $500 MILLION DOLLARS and 3 months later they declared bankruptcy and then the Chinese bought it?” Bob: “No, the other one.”
 Jim: “The president’s ordering the release of nearly 10,000 illegal immigrants from jails and prisons, and falsely blaming the sequester?” Bob: “No, the other one.”
 Jim: “The president’s threat to impose gun control by Executive Order in order to bypass Congress?” Bob: “No, the other one.”
 Jim: “The president’s repeated violation of the law requiring him to submit a budget no later than the first Monday in February?” Bob: “No, the other one.”
 Jim: “The 2012 vote where 115% of all registered voters in some counties voted 100% for Obama?” Bob: “No, the other one.”
 Jim: “The president’s unconstitutional recess appointments in an attempt to circumvent the Senate’s advise-and-consent role?” Bob: “No, the other one.”
 Jim: “The State Department interfering with an Inspector General investigation on departmental sexual misconduct?” Bob: “No, the other one.”
 Jim: “Clinton, the IRS, Clapper and Holder all lying to Congress?” Bob: “No, the other one.”
 Jim: “You mean that 65 million low-information voters who don’t pay taxes and get free stuff from taxpayers stuck us again with the most pandering, corrupt administration in American history?” Bob: “No, the other one.”
 Jim: “You mean the one where he lied and told us we could get better and cheaper healthcare or keep what we had if it was better for us?”
 
Bob: “THAT’S THE ONE!”
 
*****
Not only has the Obama administration been extremely corrupt, they have also failed to deliver on almost all of the promises that they have made to us.  In fact, just about every major promise that Barack Obama has uttered has turned out to be a lie.  If you doubt this, just check out this list: “A List Of 23 Famous Obama Quotes That Turned Out To Be Broken Promises Or Cold-Hearted Lies“.
 
But it isn’t just our government that is falling apart.  The truth is that America as a whole has been declining for a very long time.
 
For example, American families have never before been in such horrendous condition.  If you doubt this, just read the statistics in my previous article entitled “27 Facts That Prove That The Family In America Is In The Worst Shape Ever“.
 
And it isn’t just our families that are in trouble.  Everywhere you look these days, you can see the signs of advanced moral decay.  Things have gotten so bad that even the mainstream media is talking about this.  The following is from a Wall Street Journal editorial that was published just a few days ago…
 
“What’s celebrity sex, Dad?” It was my 7-year-old son, who had been looking over my shoulder at my computer screen. He mispronounced “celebrity” but spoke the word “sex” as if he had been using it all his life. “Celebrity six,” I said, abruptly closing my AOL screen. “It’s a game famous people play in teams of three,” I said, as I ushered him out of my office and downstairs into what I assumed was the safety of the living room.
 
No such luck. His 3-year-old sister had gotten her precocious little hands on my wife’s iPhone as it was charging on a table next to the sofa. By randomly tapping icons on the screen, she had conjured up an image of Beyoncé barely clad in black leather, caught in a suggestive pose that I hoped would suggest nothing at all to her or her brother.
 
And so it went on this typical weekend. The eff-word popped out of TV programs we thought were friendly enough to have on while the children played in the next room. Ads depicting all but naked couples beckoned to them from the mainstream magazines scattered around the house. The kids peered over my shoulder as I perused my email inbox, their curiosity piqued by the endless stream of solicitations having to do with one aspect or another of sex, sex, sex!
 
The reality is that if someone actually wanted to destroy America from the inside on purpose, they could hardly improve on what is already happening.
 
And we were warned that this would take place.
 
On April 3rd, 1965 legendary radio host Paul Harvey issued a warning to America.  In this warning, he described what he thought the devil should do if the devil wanted to destroy America.  Sadly, the truth is that most of what Paul Harvey warned us about back then has now come to pass…
 
*****
 If I were the Devil . . . I mean, if I were the Prince of Darkness, I would of course, want to engulf the whole earth in darkness. I would have a third of its real estate and four-fifths of its population, but I would not be happy until I had seized the ripest apple on the tree, so I should set about however necessary to take over the United States.
 
I would begin with a campaign of whispers. With the wisdom of a serpent, I would whisper to you as I whispered to Eve: “Do as you please.” “Do as you please.”
 
To the young, I would whisper, “The Bible is a myth.” I would convince them that man created God instead of the other way around. I would confide that what is bad is good, and what is good is “square”.
 
In the ears of the young marrieds, I would whisper that work is debasing, that cocktail parties are good for you. I would caution them not to be extreme in religion, in patriotism, in moral conduct.
 
And the old, I would teach to pray. I would teach them to say after me: “Our Father, which art in Washington” . . .
 
If I were the devil, I’d educate authors in how to make lurid literature exciting so that anything else would appear dull an uninteresting. I’d threaten T.V. with dirtier movies and vice versa.
 
And then, if I were the devil, I’d get organized. I’d infiltrate unions and urge more loafing and less work, because idle hands usually work for me.
 
I’d peddle narcotics to whom I could. I’d sell alcohol to ladies and gentlemen of distinction. And I’d tranquilize the rest with pills.
 
If I were the devil, I would encourage schools to refine young intellects but neglect to discipline emotions . . . let those run wild. I would designate an atheist to front for me before the highest courts in the land and I would get preachers to say “she’s right.”
 
With flattery and promises of power, I could get the courts to rule what I construe as against God and in favor of pornography, and thus, I would evict God from the courthouse, and then from the school house, and then from the houses of Congress and then, in His own churches I would substitute psychology for religion, and I would deify science because that way men would become smart enough to create super weapons, but not wise enough to control them.
 
If I were Satan, I’d make the symbol of Easter an egg and the symbol of Christmas a bottle. If I were the devil, I would take from those who have and I would give to those who wanted, until I had killed the incentive of the ambitious. And then, my police state would force everybody back to work. Then, I could separate families, putting children in uniform, women in coal mines, and objectors in slave camps.
 
In other words, if I were Satan,
 I’d just keep on doing what he’s doing.
 
Paul Harvey, Good Day.
 
*****
You can find the audio of Paul Harvey delivering this warning right here…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJc8Mzg0C-c&feature=player_embedded

So what do you think?
 
Is someone trying to destroy America on purpose?
 
Do you believe that there is still any hope for the future of this nation?

http://thetruthwins.com/archives/if-someone-wanted-to-destroy-america-on-purpose

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/senate-conservatives-fund-boehner-targeting-conservatives-just-like-irs
Senate Conservatives Fund: Boehner Targeting Conservatives Just Like IRS
12/16/13

In a new fundraising email, the Senate Conservatives Fund (SCF) said House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) is targeting conservatives in the same way that the Internal Revenue Service targeted conservative organizations seeking tax-exempt status.

"What these leaders are doing to conservatives is no different from what the IRS got caught doing to them this summer," Senate Conservatives Fund executive director Matt Hoskins wrote in the email sent to supporters on Monday. "They're using their power to discriminate against people they see as a political threat."

The fundraising email on Monday follows Boehner strongly criticizing conservative outside groups for urging lawmakers to oppose a two-year budget deal introduced by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Senate Budget Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-WA).

Hoskins continued that Boehner had joined Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) in declaring "war on conservatives."

"John Boehner called conservatives 'ridiculous' for opposing the budget agreement that increases spending, raises taxes, and funds Obamacare while Mitch McConnell previously called us stupid 'traitors' who should be locked in a bar and 'punched in the nose,'" Hoskins wrote in the email.

Hoskins also cited the recent firing of Republican Study Committee executive director Paul Teller, who had been secretly working with the outside groups Boehner criticized, as well as the National Republican Senatorial Committee blacklisting Republican consulting firm Jamestown Associates for working with SCF.

"Unfortunately, their attacks go beyond words," Hoskins continued. "A top conservative aide in the House was fired last week for opposing John Boehner's budget and Mitch McConnell has blacklisted political firms that work for conservatives."

Merkel compared NSA to Stasi in heated encounter with Obama

German chancellor furious after revelations US intelligence agency listened in on her personal mobile phone

In an angry exchange with Barack Obama, Angela Merkel has compared the snooping practices of the US with those of the Stasi, the ubiquitous and all-powerful secret police of the communist dictatorship in East Germany, where she grew up.

The German chancellor also told the US president that America's National Security Agency cannot be trusted because of the volume of material it had allowed to leak to the whistleblower Edward Snowden, according to the New York Times.

Livid after learning from Der Spiegel magazine that the Americans were listening in to her personal mobile phone, Merkel confronted Obama with the accusation: "This is like the Stasi."

read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/17/merkel-compares-nsa-stasi-obama

Nations shall rise against nations, and kingdoms against kingdoms...We are seeing prophesy coming to pass!

I'm thinking this story is being used politically, regardless of the facts, which sound suspect at best. Think about it, a modern first world country like Germany has to learn their leader's phone was being hacked from a civilian magazine? Really? What does that say about the government intelligence service in Germany that the president has to get intel from private citizens? Not buying it. All these front line countries are way too close these days. This stuff is for the general public's consumption, but has nothing to do with how it is among world leaders.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney on Obama on NSA recommendations: 'He's not going to make snap judgments, he's going to look at it and assess it' - @lesleyclark



Yep he sure desnt make "snap judgments",,,  ::)

Obama Punished Rural Schools to Increase Sequester Pain

This is a good deal worse than a bridge, but it won’t get one of those trendy ‘gate’ names because it’s not a one time event, this is just how Obama and his people do things. And the media that lies about it for them approves.

    A House Natural Resources Committee investigation has found that President Obama’s Office of Management and Budget ordered that sequestration cuts be applied retroactively to funding for rural schools over the opposition of the Agriculture Department.

    The committee’s report released today, “A Less Secure Future for Rural Schools: An Investigation into the Obama Administration’s Questionable Application of the Sequester to the Secure Rural Schools Program,” detailed how last February the USDA had determined 2013 sequestration wouldn’t apply to 2012 funds that had already been distributed in the program. The White House stepped in and overruled the USDA, though both agencies haven’t turned over numerous subpoenaed documents that could reveal more behind the decision.

    The program dates back to a 2000 bill, which was extended in July 2012 for that fiscal year. The $323 million in funds were doled out to 41 states by the USDA in January 2013. But two months later, after sequestration went into effect, the Obama administration announced it wanted $17.9 million back — prompting bipartisan backlash from governors and congressional representatives of the affected states.

It’s a rather bizarre story even by the standards of this administration.

    19 states weren’t able to give back the funds as requested under sequestration, with half a dozen in the administrative appeals process. They could get docked for “outstanding debt” in the distribution of fiscal year 2014 funds.

Obama clawed back 2012 funding that had already been distributed, that his own agriculture department opposed redistributing, but which he nonetheless tried redistributing anyway.

http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/obama-punished-rural-schools-to-increase-sequester-pain/

Obama 'threatens Fox News reporter's career'
Reports 'put broadcaster's job in jeopardy'

Fox News anchor Greta Van Susteren charges that the Obama administration tried to press her to shut down a colleague’s reporting on the jihadist attack in Benghazi, Libya, that cost the lives of a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans.

Van Susteren asserted recently on her blog that the administration made an extensive effort to conceal what happened in Benghazi. She cited U.S. officials’ refusal to include the Fox News Channel in several Benghazi briefings along with a warning that her colleague’s career would be ruined if she persisted in her reporting on the attack.

The Fox News host recalled a “disturbing phone call from a good friend in the Obama administration” shortly after the Sept. 11, 2012, attack, which the administration initially blamed on a protest of an anti-Islam video.

Jennifer Griffin serves as a national security correspondent for Fox News

“In this call, my friend told me that my colleague Jennifer Griffin, who was aggressively reporting on Benghazi, was wrong and that, as a favor to me, my friend in the administration was telling me so that I could tell Jennifer so that she did not ruin her career,” Van Susteren wrote.

Van Susteren said that in her 20-plus years in the business, she had never received a call to try to shut down a colleague.

“Here is what I know: Jennifer is a class act … experienced … and a very responsible journalist. One of the absolute best in the business – no ax to grind, she just wants the facts.”

Van Susteren said she challenged her friend in the Obama administration to provide facts to back up her charge against Griffin.

“I told my friend before I go to Jennifer telling her she is wrong, I need proof she is wrong, strong proof and you need to be specific – what are you saying she is getting wrong?”

But she found quickly there were no facts to offer.

“We went around and around – including the statement again that this was just a call as a favor to Jennifer and me to save Jennifer’s career from reporting incorrect information. I got no proof. Zero. I smelled a rat. Favor to me? Hardly. My friend was trying to use me.”

Van Susteren said she felt badly that a friend “tried to use me for a dirty reason.”

“I knew then – and it is now confirmed by bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee – Jennifer was getting her facts right. I think it is really low for the administration to stoop this low,” Van Susteren wrote.

Blogger Ben Bullard wrote at Personal Liberty Digest that Van Susteren “isn’t a media figure who makes her living by testing the bounds of plausibility along the outermost fringes of conspiracy theory.”

“That’s why it’s hard not to sit up and take notice when she writes that someone inside the Obama administration threatened to end the career of a fellow reporter who was digging too deep into the Benghazi story,” he wrote.

As WND reported, evidence arose shortly after the attack that the Obama administration’s insistence that the deadly incident was a protest turned violent was false.

This week, WND reported an eyewitness to the attack confirmed the conclusion of the report released last Wednesday by the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that the Obama administration misled the American public.

Speaking from Libya, Ahmed Salem, a young political activist opposed to radical Islamic terrorism, told WND that al-Qaida and other radical Islamic militia groups, including some from Egypt, launched a pre-planned, well-organized, heavily armed attack on the U.S. compound.

http://www.wnd.com/2014/01/fox-anchor-team-obama-threatened-benghazi-reporter/print/

State Department’s Own Guards Attacked U.S. Benghazi Mission

The recently released Senate report on the Benghazi attack reveals that the Islamic militia hired to protect the fated U.S. special mission had “vandalized” and “attacked” the mission in the months prior to Sept. 11, 2012.

The new detail raises the question of why the State Department, headed at the time by Hillary Clinton, would continue to employ the 17th of February Martyrs Brigade, an al-Qaida-linked organization, to provide external security to the U.S. facility.

The 88-page Senate report, reviewed in full by WND, states the U.S. Benghazi mission “had been vandalized and attacked in the months prior to the September 11-12 attacks by some of the same guards who were there to protect it.”

That piece of information was not mentioned in the State Department-sanctioned Accountability Review Board, or ARB, investigating the attack.

WND reported Tuesday the Senate report also for the first time reveals the 17th of February Brigade militia refused to “provide cover” for the U.S. security team that was trapped inside the compound.

The ARB paints a picture of the 17th of February Brigade as largely aiding in the evacuation of the U.S. personnel at the mission.

The 17th of February Brigade operates under the Ansar-Al-Sharia banner.

Ansar al-Sharia, tied to al-Qaida, has been implicated in carrying out the attack.

Senate report contradicts State Department

The Senate report states “there were three armed members of the Libyan 17th February Brigade militia” present and working as part of the mission’s security external detail during the attack.

“Outside the compound, the security team asked 17th February Brigade members to ‘provide cover’ for them to advance to the gate of the Temporary Mission Facility with gun trucks,” the report says. “The February Brigade members refused, saying they preferred to negotiate with the attackers instead.

“Eventually,” states the report, “the security team initiated their plan of assault on the mission compound. Some members of the 17th February Brigade ‘jump[ed] into the vehicle’ and ‘a few 17 Feb members follow[ed] behind on foot to support the team’ according to the informal CIA notes provided to the Committee.”

Read Full Article

http://www.wnd.com/2014/01/state-departments-own-guards-attacked-u-s-benghazi-mission/

http://news.yahoo.com/white-house-warns-obama-could-around-congress-160254673--politics.html
White House warns Obama could go around Congress
1/26/14

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama will work with Congress where he can and circumvent lawmakers where he must, his top advisers warned Sunday in previewing Tuesday's State of the Union speech.

Obama faces a politically divided Congress on Tuesday and will use his annual address to demand expanded economic opportunity. Absent legislative action, the White House is telling lawmakers that the president is ready to take unilateral action to close the gap between rich and poor Americans.

"I think the way we have to think about this year is we have a divided government," said Dan Pfeiffer, a longtime Obama adviser. "The Republican Congress is not going to rubber-stamp the president's agenda. The president is not going to sign the Republican Congress' agenda."

So the White House is eyeing compromise on some priorities, Obama advisers said. But the president is also looking at executive orders that can be enacted without Congress' approval.

"The president sees this as a year of action to work with Congress where he can and to bypass Congress where necessary," White House press secretary Jay Carney said.

The act-or-else posture bristled Republicans.

"The president has sort of hung out on the left and tried to get what he wants through the bureaucracy as opposed to moving to the political center," said Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the GOP Senate leader.

Added Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.: "It sounds vaguely like a threat, and I think it also has a certain amount of arrogance."

With campaigns for November's election on the horizon, there's scant reason for the White House to be optimistic about Republican support for measures to revive a bipartisan immigration bill that has passed the Senate, an increased minimum wage or expanding prekindergarten programs.

Republicans looking to wrest control of the Senate and keep their majority in the House instead want to keep the focus on the struggling economy and Obama's stewardship of it. The GOP is pinning hopes that voter frustration remains high and punishes Democrats on the ballot for Obama's tenure.

"His economic policies are not working," said Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.

The White House has been signaling to Republicans that it would not wait for Congress to act. It also is betting Obama's backers will rally behind his plans.

"When American jobs and livelihoods depend on getting something done, he will not wait for Congress," Pfeiffer wrote in an email to Obama supporters Saturday.

Following the speech, Obama will travel to Maryland, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Tennessee to promote the proposals he introduces Tuesday evening.

Pfeiffer appeared on CNN's "State of the Union" and "Fox News Sunday." Carney spoke with ABC's "This Week." McConnell was interviewed on Fox. Paul spoke with CNN and NBC's "Meet the Press." Cruz spoke to CBS' "Face the Nation."

They are really splashing that threat around lately. It's like a planned theme presented to media officials as the official tag line.


Your too kind, Rand. It IS an arrogant threat.

State of the Union: Obama to Disqualify Himself From Office

ome short-sighted observers are under the impression Obama’s State of the Union speech will be “insignificant.”

Some beg to differ.

Tuesday night Barack Obama is going to declare he’s both a Marxist and an enemy of the Constitution of the United States.

He will, thus, plead guilty to charges of Impeachment.

That qualifies for Page One, no?

Whether “Republicans” can actually make anything of it is another story.

But the astonishing prospect remains clear: Obama will state he is for ending “Income Inequality” (i.e. “I am a Marxist”) and that he intends to pursue that, and other left-wing policies, “with or without Congress.”

Without Congress?

Indeed?

Obama’s people call it a plan for a “Year of Action.” Guess what kind of action? The kind characteristic in South American and African juntas.

Obama’s flaks say it is a plan to enable El Presidente to “re-assert command.”

Say again?!

Interesting political system.

Problem is, it isn’t ours.

Obama’s brazen pre-fight threat to wield “my pen and my telephone” (more Steve Martin, “The Jerk,” than General Patton) to circumvent the Congress is, admittedly, novel.

It also happens to be blatantly Un (nay Anti-) Constitutional.

But why should that trouble Obama – the Harvard Law “constitutional expert,” so long as it serves partisan politics?

Speaking of which: when a President defies the law, aren’t we supposed to have Checks and Balances preventing it?

And we would. Only if we had any Real Republicans.

The State of the Union will be historical, hysterical in fact.

But it’s arrogance and illegality matter only if there is a countervailing force to challenge it.

That would, in theory, be the opposition party.

Republicans, Helloooooo? Anybody home?

Think about it; if you haven’t. We have: Obama vows to unilaterally “end income inequality” (you know, for the first time ever, on earth, in human history), and do it totally in defiance of our elected representatives, what do you call that?

We – and my 4th grader – call it: UnAmerican, Lawless, Impeachable.

But Impeachment is as Impeachment does.

If the opposition party sits on its hands (and rumor is, it will do worse*), then Obama can threaten, and do, anything.

(Rumor has it turncoat John “Benedict Arnold” Boehner, “Republican Leader” has cut the deal with Darth Obama to usher in massive amnesty for criminaliens. This will equal Game Over).

Given what Obama is planning to actually say Tuesday night – forgetting for the moment what we know he is planning to do thereafter – if the opposition has anybody, they will more than sit down when Obama rants.

They will stand up, turn their backs on this “Manchurian Candidate,” and storm out of the chamber.

Given the fundamental, mortal Constitutional sins expected of Obama in this historic State of the Union, this is the very least Real Republicans – Real Patriots – ought do.

But if these, our only hopes, demonstrate merely the pro-forma, nauseatingly polite, socially acceptable umbrage of, say, the model “Republican” John Boner(s), we’re sunk.

If there is nobody to make the case against Obama – there is no case!

And what do I mean by sunk?

I mean the crime – and political opportunity – of a President of the United States that stands before our elected representatives (i.e. you and I), and declares, screw you – I’ll do what I want…I mean, if we stand for that, we get what we deserve.

And we deserve better.

Stay tuned.

http://www.theblaze.com/contributions/state-of-the-union-obama-to-disqualify-himself-from-office/

Edward Snowden nominated for Nobel Peace Prize for making the world safer

 :D

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-01-30/edward-snowden-nominated-for-nobel-peace-prize-for-making-the-w/5226660

Did Obama Plagiarize Bush’s 2007 State Of The Union?

 :D

If listening to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address last night, you got the strange sense that you had heard some of the President’s talking points before, you certainly aren’t alone. At the offices of Personal Liberty Digest™, staff conversations about the speech were peppered with comments about vague Republican tones which were noticeable in portions of the speech that were not regurgitations of the President’s own rhetoric from past years.

Staff writer Ben Bullard notes in the opening paragraphs of his analysis of Obama’s State of the Union address (emphasis added):

    President Barack Obama delivered a State of the Union address last night that reflected a parallel-universe vision of America very different from the one most of us inhabit in the present day. It’s almost as though he had this speech written five years ago, on the cusp of taking his first Oath of Office, and had to redact and revise swaths of visionary optimism to save face after the embattled 5th year he just completed. It was a vainglorious, self-indulgent victory lap in an empty, echoing stadium.

    Some of his promises sounded very Republican, borrowed from conservative critics. At other times, he took credit for things that are either demonstrably unsuccessful or, where successful, can’t be attributed to a hand up from the government – and certainly not from his.

Fox News’ Megyn Kelly affirmed Bullard’s assertions shortly after the President’s speech in an interview with a former George W. Bush official. It turns out that, not only were portions of the speech probably written five years ago, but other parts—some of those with the Republican tinge—were written closer to seven years ago, for Bush’s 2007 State of the Union.

Former Bush Speech writer Marc Thiessen, the author of Bush’s 2007 speech, told Kelly that it appears as though “Barack Obama has gone from blaming George W. Bush to plagiarizing George W. Bush.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=CO2mLIs__xo

    Kelly: Our next guest says he liked the president’s speech in some ways – because he wrote something very similar for President Bush back in 2007. Former presidential speechwriter Marc Thiessen, now with AEI, joins me now from Washington. Did the president crib off of George W. Bush, is that what you’re saying?​

    Thiessen: Yeah, it was eerily familiar. There were lines like, “Our job is to help Americans build a future of hope and opportunity. A future of hope and opportunity begins with a growing economy. A future of hope and opportunity requires that all our citizens have affordable and available healthcare. Extending opportunity and hope depends on a stable supply of energy.” All of that came from the 2007 State of the Union Address by George W. Bush. So, Barack Obama has gone from blaming George W. Bush to plagiarizing George W. Bush.

    Kelly: Did you the write that speech? Is that why it was familiar to you?

    Thiessen: I was the lead writer on that, yeah. That was the first state of the union that I was the lead writer on…

It remains to be seen if MSNBC and other liberal media will attack the President with the same vigor it picked apart Senator Rand Paul’s (R-Ky.) speeches and books following revelations that the lawmaker had failed to cite his sources from time to time.

http://personalliberty.com/2014/01/29/did-obama-plagiarize-bushs-2007-state-of-the-union/

Aren't they all on the same team? No surprise here.

A Timeline of the IRS Targeting of Conservative, Evangelical and Pro-Life Groups Scandal

There is "not even a smidgen of corruption" at the Internal Revenue Service, President Barack Obama recently declared in response to a question about IRS harassment of conservative groups. Here is a timeline of the events to which Obama was referring:

May 10, 2013: In response to a question from an interviewer at the American Bar Association conference in Washington, D.C., Lois Lerner, director of the tax-exempt organizations division at the IRS, says that her division improperly targeted non-profit groups with the words "patriot" or "tea party" in their names for additional scrutiny. Lerner apologized and said it was not politically motivated but happened because of a botched effort by low-level IRS officials in Cincinnati.

"That was wrong, that was absolutely incorrect, insensitive, and inappropriate," Lerner said.

May 13, 2013: In a press conference, President Barack Obama says the targeting of conservative groups is "outrageous and there's no place for it." Those responsible "have to be held fully accountable, because the IRS as an independent agency requires absolute integrity, and people have to have confidence that they're ... applying the laws in a nonpartisan way."

May 14, 2013: The timing of Lerner's announcement becomes clear when an Inspector General report is released saying that the IRS used inappropriate criteria to identify which tax-exempt organizations were in need of further review.

May 14, 2013: Franklin Graham writes a letter to Obama saying that he believes the IRS also targeted two organizations that he leads – the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan's Purse.

May 15, 2013: Steven Miller steps down as acting commissioner of the IRS after being asked to do so by Treasury Secretary Jack Lew.

May 16, 2013: Daniel Werfel is appointed to replace Miller.

May 16, 2013: Dr. James Dobson reveals that his organization, Family Talk Action, was also harassed by the IRS and his application for tax-exempt status was delayed. The IRS agent overseeing his application incorrectly told Dobson that tax-exempt organizations must present all political views and he could be denied tax-exempt status for criticizing the president.

May 20, 2013: The Washington Post's fact checker, Glenn Kessler, compares the IG report with what Lerner said. He writes that Lerner gets a "bushel of Pinocchios" for three false statements she made, including: that there was an increase in applications for 501(c)4 tax-exempt status in the period that conservative groups were targeted (there was actually a decrease in applications); she only heard that conservative groups were complaining about IRS harassment in the fall of 2012 after reading news reports about it (she was briefed in June 2011); and Lerner's claim that she revealed the problem only four days before the IG report because "I don't believe anyone ever asked me that question before" (Lerner planted the question by asking the interviewer ahead of time to ask her the question).

May 22, 2013: Lerner appears at a House committee hearing, makes a statement claiming she did nothing wrong, then invokes her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) objects, saying she waived her Fifth Amendment rights when she made an opening statement.

May 23, 2013: Werfel asks Lerner to resign. She refuses. Werfel places Lerner on administrative leave. Lerner will continue to receive full pay and benefits while on leave.

May 29, 2013: Twenty-five Tea Party and conservative organizations jointly sue the IRS in federal court.

June 2, 2013: The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee releases transcripts of interviews with two IRS Cincinnati employees. When asked if he believes the targeting of conservative groups "emanated from Washington," one of them answered, "I believe so."

June 4, 2013: Dr. John Eastman, chairman of the board for the National Organization for Marriage, testifies before the House Ways and Means Committee that someone at the IRS provided NOM's confidential tax records to the Human Rights Campaign, a rival political advocacy group.

June 10, 2013: A pro-life group releases an audio file showing them getting harassed by an IRS official. The official incorrectly tells them that their tax-exempt status regulates the manner in which they can lawfully inform the public about abortion.

"Your action is based on more blind, emotional feelings," the IRS agent states. "You want to do something good for the society, your religion, and we understand that. But meanwhile, we want you to be aware that, you know, when you conduct religious activities, meanwhile you have to respect other people's beliefs, other people's religion. You cannot use any kind of, you know, confrontation way, or to, or against other groups or devalue other groups, other people's beliefs."

June 12, 2012: Elizabeth Hofacre, one of the Cincinnati IRS officials that Lerner blamed for the scandal, provides testimony to House Oversight Committee investigators. The public is being purposely misled by Lerner, she claimed. Oversight in the IRS is so tightly controlled, she said, that an intentional targeting of select groups by a rouge office for "three years, even for three months, it would never happen."

August 1, 2013: Thomas More Society provides over 200 pages of documentation to the House Ways and Means Committee showing that the IRS had continued to harass three pro-life organizations even after the scandal was revealed.

September 11, 2013: The House Ways and Means Committee releases emails by Lois Lerner from February 2011 showing that IRS interest in Tea Party groups came from her, not the Cincinnati office. The emails suggest she may have even directed the targeting of conservative groups.

In a Feb. 1, 2011, email to fellow IRS executive Holly Paz, Lerner writes, "Tea Party matter very dangerous. This could be the vehicle to go to court on the issue over whether Citizen's United overturning the ban on corporate spending applies to tax exempt rules ... Cincy should probably NOT have these cases – Holly please see what they have please."

"Cincy" is a reference to the IRS office in Cincinnati.

In another email sent on July 10, 2012, Lerner shows her partisan inclinations. She is forwarded an article showing Democrats complaining about anonymous donors influencing Senate races. She responds by writing, "Perhaps the FEC will save the day."

September 23, 2013: Lerner announces her retirement from the IRS. She is still eligible for her pension.

October 1, 2013: Dr. Ben Carson says that he had his first encounter with the IRS after giving a widely reported speech at the National Prayer Breakfast that was critical of Obama's healthcare policies.

October 3, 2013: NOM sues the IRS for the release of its confidential tax information to HRC.

December 5, 2013: In an interview on MSNBC's "Hardball with Chris Matthews," Obama complains about liberals who were outraged at the IRS scandal. In his wording, he also suggests that those liberals who did express outrage are not true liberals.

"There are some so-called progressives and perceived-to-be liberal commentators who, during that week, were just as outraged at the possibility that these folks had been, at the direction of the Democratic Party, in some way discriminated against," he said.

January 8, 2014: Two Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee send a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder asking him to remove Barbara Bosserman as the highest ranking official overseeing the Justice Department's investigation into the IRS scandal. Bosserman, the letter shows, had made political contributions to the Democratic National Committee and Obama's re-election campaign.

These donations suggest Bosserman has a conflict of interest when investigating the abuse of government power against conservatives in political campaigns, they argue.

February 2, 2014: As six investigations into the IRS scandal continue (two in the House, two in the Senate, one by the Justice Department and one by the IRS itself), Obama declares in a nationally televised interview that there was "not even a smidgen of corruption" at the IRS.

The targeting of conservative groups was simply the result of "bone-headed" decisions by IRS employees in Cincinnati, he added. Obama supported this view by saying, "There have been multiple hearings on it."

February 3, 2014: ABC's Jonathan Karl asks White House spokesperson Jay Carney to explain why the president is able to prejudge the outcome of an ongoing investigation.

Carney answered that Obama knows the outcome of those investigations because of what he read in the IG report and what he has learned from testimony that has been given. Obama's views are backed up by "20 different news organizations," Carney added.

February 5, 2014: At a House Ways and Means Committee hearing into the IRS scandal, evidence was revealed suggesting that the targeting of conservative groups was directed by high-level officials in Washington, D.C.

In February 2010, an IRS employee in Cincinnati flagged an application from a conservative group in a communications to his superiors in Washington with the note: "Recent media attention to this type of organization indicates to me that this is a 'high profile' case." After that, similar applications were routed through the offices of Lerner and IRS chief counsel William Wilkins, an Obama-appointee.

February 6, 2014: Catherine Engelbrecht testifies before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that after she filed two applications for her non-profit Tea Party group, True the Vote, her family, her private company and her nonprofit organizations experienced 15 separate audits or inquiries by federal agencies, including the IRS, FBI, OSHA, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (even though her company does not sell alcohol, tobacco nor firearms), and one member of Congress.

http://www.christianpost.com/news/a-timeline-of-the-irs-targeting-of-conservative-evangelical-and-pro-life-groups-scandal-114324/

Too bad that some of these "conservatives" targeted are also helping to usher in the NWO(ie-Thomas More Society, Ben Carson, James Dobson, Franklin Graham, etc).

Be ye NOT deceived...it's NOT for everybody!

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/obama-raises-minimum-wage-contract-193133366.html;_ylt=A0SO8ob86vtSgEMAvR5XNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTB0bm1obXJnBHNlYwNzYwRjb2xvA2dxMQR2dGlkA1NNRTI2Ml8x
Obama raises minimum wage for contract workers

Obama signs executive order raising minimum wage for federal contractors to $10.10
2/12/14

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama increased the minimum wage for a few hundred thousand federal contractors on Wednesday, then pressed the divided Congress to pass broader legislation that would apply to all workers. Obama declared, "It's the right thing to do."

Obama first announced the executive order to boost some contractor wages during his State of the Union address last month. He signed the measure Wednesday in a White House ceremony where he was flanked by Americans who would make more money if lawmakers take more sweeping action.

White House officials concede that the executive order, which raises the hourly wage from $7.25 to $10.10, only applies to a small percentage of the more than 2 million federal contractors. But officials are hoping it generates momentum for Obama's proposal on Capitol Hill, particularly as both parties try to focus on issues like income inequality and economic mobility.

"Raising the minimum wage is good for business, it's good for workers and it's good for the economy," Obama said.

The president first called on Congress to increase the minimum wage last year, but the effort languished on Capitol Hill. White House officials say they're working with lawmakers on a legislative strategy to tackle the issue this year, but it's unclear when a bill might be voted on or whether it would pass.

The executive order for federal contractors goes into effect next year but only applies to new contracts.

The White House said the order requires that employees who work for tips make at least $10.10 overall. It also prevents contract workers from being paid less than others if they have disabilities affecting their productivity.

A recent survey by the National Employment Law Project found that 77 percent of government contract employees who work in food service, retail or janitorial service earn less than $10 per hour. About 4 in 10 of those workers depend on public assistance programs such as food stamps and Medicaid, the study by the worker advocacy group found.

I don't get this. A federal contract is a "by-the-job" kind of thing, each contract standing on it's own, with the private company determining what they pay their workers. I actually have never heard of contracts where the government tells the private company what they must pay the employees of the contracted company.


Yep, and it's the major corporations that have those type contracts, like Halliburton, etc. due to a major push by government to hand over many aspects of the military to civilian contractors.

So it's corporate America that is paying such low wages, while the company makes massive amounts of cash from the contract, and with situations like the following, who needs executive orders!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/03/AR2011010304267.html (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/03/AR2011010304267.html)

There's ahh, no IRS scandal.. Nope not one at all

Vulnerable Dems want IRS to step up

Senate Democrats facing tough elections this year want the Internal Revenue Service to play a more aggressive role in regulating outside groups expected to spend millions of dollars on their races.

In the wake of the IRS targeting scandal, the Democrats are publicly prodding the agency instead of lobbying them directly. They are also careful to say the IRS should treat conservative and liberal groups equally, but they’re concerned about an impending tidal wave of attack ads funded by GOP-allied organizations. Much of the funding for those groups is secret, in contrast to the donations lawmakers collect, which must be reported publicly.

One of the most powerful groups is Americans for Prosperity, funded by the billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch. It has already spent close to $30 million on ads attacking Democrats this election cycle.

“If they’re claiming the tax relief, the tax benefit to be a nonprofit for social relief or social justice, then that’s what they should be doing,” said Sen. Mark Begich (D), who faces a competitive race in Alaska. “If it’s to give them cover so they can do political activity, that’s abusing the tax code. And either side.”

Asked if the IRS should play a more active role policing political advocacy by groups that claim to be focused on social welfare, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) responded, “Absolutely.”

“Both on the left and the right,” she said. “As taxpayers, we should not be providing a write-off to groups to do political activity, and that’s exactly what we’re doing.”

She called the glut of political spending by self-described social welfare groups that qualify under section 501(c)(4) of the tax code “outrageous.”

Shaheen is in a good position now but could find herself embroiled in a tight campaign if former Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) challenges her.

Sen. Mark Pryor (Ark.), the most vulnerable Democratic incumbent, said the IRS has jurisdiction over 501(c)(4) groups, as well as charities, which fall under section 501(c)(3) of the tax code and sometimes engage in quasi-political activity.

“That whole 501(c)(3), 501(c)(4) [issue], those are IRS numbers. It is inherently an internal revenue matter,” he said. “There are two things you don’t want in political money, in the fundraising world and expenditure world. You don’t want secret money, and you don’t want unlimited money, and that’s what we have now.”

This month, Americans for Prosperity launched a three-week advertising campaign targeting Pryor. The group has also targeted Shaheen and Sen. Kay Hagan (N.C.), another vulnerable Democratic incumbent.

Last month, Americans for Prosperity-New Hampshire launched a television ad criticizing Shaheen for her 2009 and 2010 votes for the Affordable Care Act. It highlighted the plight of New Hampshire residents who have to travel hours to find healthcare in hospitals covered by the state’s insurance exchange.

Last week, the group announced a $1.4 million TV campaign against Hagan.

On Wednesday, it unveiled an ad hitting Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), another endangered incumbent, for voting for ObamaCare.

A spokesman for Americans for Prosperity estimated the three-week advertising campaign would cost $750,000.

Robert Maguire, the political nonprofit investigator at the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks spending by outside groups, said Americans for Prosperity has spent far more money than any other 501(c)(4) group this election cycle.

In the last election cycle, Crossroads GPS, a group founded by GOP super-strategist Karl Rove, spent the most political money of any social-welfare group, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which estimated the total at $71 million. The group has remained relatively quiet this cycle.

The law states that 501(c)(4) groups must be operated exclusively for the promotion of social welfare, but the IRS has traditionally adopted a more lenient standard, said Paul S. Ryan, senior counsel at the Campaign Legal Center.

The IRS says social-welfare activity must be the primary activity of such groups. It gives them broad leeway by not classifying voter registration drives and even ads that criticize candidates as political activity.

Under new proposed regulations by the Treasury Department, the IRS would define voter registration, distributing voter guides and running ads that mention candidates as political activities.

It also proposed setting a bright-line limit for what percentage of groups’ activity would be allowed to fall into the category of candidate-related political activity.

If enacted, the regulations would, in effect, limit how much outside groups, such as Americans for Prosperity or League of Conservation Voters, could spend as a percentage of their budgets on the Senate races.

Sen. Charles Schumer (N.Y.), the Senate Democrats’ chief political strategist, called for the IRS to curb political spending by outside groups during a major speech on how to blunt the impact of conservative donors such as the Koch brothers.

“The Tea Party elites gained extraordinary influence by being able to funnel millions of dollars into campaigns with ads that distort the truth and attack government,” he said in remarks at the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

“There are many things that can be done administratively by the IRS and other government agencies — we must redouble those efforts immediately,” he added.

Democrats, however, know they must tread carefully while pushing the IRS to act. Revelations that the tax agency had targeted conservative groups swelled into a major controversy last year. Congressional Republicans have grilled the Obama administration on why there have been no indictments nine months after the IRS news broke.

The Senate Finance Committee is in the middle of investigating whether IRS investigators acted with improper political motivations. The probe could be delayed, however, by the departure of the recent chairman, former Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), who was recently confirmed as the U.S. ambassador to China.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), the incoming chairman of the Finance panel, has not yet fully merged his staff with the committee. A Wyden aide could not provide an update on the status of the investigation.

Republican lawmakers have pushed back strongly against the proposed IRS regulations.

Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.), the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, has introduced legislation that would block the agency from implementing new rules until after the 2014 midterm election.

“The administration’s proposed rules openly target groups that are exercising their First Amendment rights. We cannot allow these draft regulations to go into effect,” he said in a statement.

"These regulations will put conservative groups out of business," he later told Newsmax.

Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/198298-vulnerable-dems-want-irs-to-step-up#ixzz2tJbVUr7V

Reports: NSA spied on 122 world leaders, had over 300 reports on Merkel

The National Security Agency reportedly spied on as many as 122 foreign leaders and had over 300 reports on German Chancellor Angela Merkel, according to reports.

German magazine Der Spiegel reported that the NSA had over 300 reports on Merkel alone in their special database for world leaders, as revealed in documents obtained by NSA leaker Edward Snowden.

The special databank also includes surveillance information on the heads of countries ranging from Peru to Somalia to Guatemala, Columbia and Belarus.

German lawmakers agreed to start a formal inquiry into surveillance carried out not only by the NSA but also by other foreign intelligence services, according to Fox News. The inquiry will also examine the reported tapping of Merkel’s cellphone.

Last year, it was reported that Merkel’s cellphone was tapped for years, just as her predecessor Gerhard Schroeder was.

However, the Der Spiegel states that the NSA and British GCHQ also spied on employees of major German companies as well.

GCHQ spied on the employees to develop “in-depth knowledge of key satellite [Internet Protocol] service providers in Germany,” Der Spiegel reported.

The report indicates that Stellar, Cetel and IABG were all targeted for surveillance. Stellar provides telecommunications for clients that include governments. IABG was contracted by the German defense forces, according to Time.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance court authorized the monitoring of communications related to Germany on March 7, 2013. Other countries that have been targeted include  “China, Mexico, Japan, Venezuela, Yemen, Brazil, Sudan, Guatemala, Bosnia and Russia,” according to Der Spiegel.

This permission can be used to monitor telecommunications companies or individuals.

The surveillance didn’t stop there. Under an NSA search system named “Nymrod,” 122 heads of state were targeted for surveillance, as revealed in a slide published by The Intercept.

The Nymrod system is used “find information relating to targets that would otherwise be tough to track down,” an internal NSA document states.

“Nymrod sifts through secret reports based on intercepted communications as well as full transcripts of faxes, phone calls, and communications collected from computer systems,” Ryan Gallagher reports.

The number of “cites,” which are available in intelligence reports and transcripts for NSA agents to read, vary depending on the head of state. Some, including the Belarusian and Malian presidents have more than 50 each.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, on the other hand, has over 800, and former Columbian President Alvaro Uribe has over 700.

The NSA also adds some heads of state to a “Target Knowledge Base” (TKB), which is the NSA’s central database of individual targets, according to Der Spiegel.

NSA employees can use the TKB to analyze “complete profiles” of targeted people, according to an internal agency description.

When contacted about spying on German companies, GCHQ said their work “is carried out in accordance with a strict legal and policy framework which ensures that our activities are authorized, necessary and proportionate,” according to The Intercept.

The NSA declined to comment on their role in conducting surveillance on Germany. They directed The Intercept’s queries to the National Security Council and the Department of Justice.

While the DOJ did not respond by Saturday, National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hadyen said that the Obama administration was “not monitoring and will not monitor the communications of Chancellor Merkel.”

Notably, Hayden did not deny that surveillance was carried out in the past and “declined to rule out spying on other senior German officials going forward,” according to The Intercept.

“We have made clear that the United States gathers foreign intelligence of the type gathered by all nations,” Hayden said.

Read more at http://endthelie.com/2014/03/29/reports-nsa-spied-on-122-world-leaders-had-over-300-reports-on-merkel/#XtdjVf5t2breikEB.99

The reality is, a country NEEDS to keep an eye on other world leaders, as those same leaders may one day be their enemy. The world knows it can't trust men too, and I don't blame them, because we know men are lying thieves looking for an advantage over others.

I expect a government "security" agency to keep an eye on people, duh! But general spying on the public with no specific direction, warrant, or authority? Uh, no.

NSA Said to Exploit Heartbleed Bug for Intelligence for Years

The U.S. National Security Agency knew for at least two years about a flaw in the way that many websites send sensitive information, now dubbed the Heartbleed bug, and regularly used it to gather critical intelligence, two people familiar with the matter said.

The NSA’s decision to keep the bug secret in pursuit of national security interests threatens to renew the rancorous debate over the role of the government’s top computer experts.

Heartbleed appears to be one of the biggest glitches in the Internet’s history, a flaw in the basic security of as many as two-thirds of the world’s websites. Its discovery and the creation of a fix by researchers five days ago prompted consumers to change their passwords, the Canadian government to suspend electronic tax filing and computer companies including Cisco Systems Inc. to Juniper Networks Inc. to provide patches for their systems.

Putting the Heartbleed bug in its arsenal, the NSA was able to obtain passwords and other basic data that are the building blocks of the sophisticated hacking operations at the core of its mission, but at a cost. Millions of ordinary users were left vulnerable to attack from other nations’ intelligence arms and criminal hackers.
Controversial Practice

“It flies in the face of the agency’s comments that defense comes first,” said Jason Healey, director of the cyber statecraft initiative at the Atlantic Council and a former Air Force cyber officer. “They are going to be completely shredded by the computer security community for this.”

Vanee Vines, an NSA spokeswoman, declined to comment on the agency’s knowledge or use of the bug. Experts say the search for flaws is central to NSA’s mission, though the practice is controversial. A presidential board reviewing the NSA’s activities after Edward Snowden’s leaks recommended the agency halt the stockpiling of software vulnerabilities.

The NSA and other elite intelligence agencies devote millions of dollars to hunt for common software flaws that are critical to stealing data from secure computers. Open-source protocols like OpenSSL, where the flaw was found, are primary targets.

The Heartbleed flaw, introduced in early 2012 in a minor adjustment to the OpenSSL protocol, highlights one of the failings of open source software development.
Free Code

While many Internet companies rely on the free code, its integrity depends on a small number of underfunded researchers who devote their energies to the projects.

In contrast, the NSA has more than 1,000 experts devoted to ferreting out such flaws using sophisticated analysis techniques, many of them classified. The agency found the Heartbleed glitch shortly after its introduction, according to one of the people familiar with the matter, and it became a basic part of the agency’s toolkit for stealing account passwords and other common tasks.

The NSA has faced nine months of withering criticism for the breadth of its spying, documented in a rolling series of leaks from Snowden, who was a former agency contractor.

The revelations have created a clearer picture of the two roles, sometimes contradictory, played by the U.S.’s largest spy agency. The NSA protects the computers of the government and critical industry from cyberattacks, while gathering troves of intelligence attacking the computers of others, including terrorist organizations, nuclear smugglers and other governments.
Serious Flaws

Ordinary Internet users are ill-served by the arrangement because serious flaws are not fixed, exposing their data to domestic and international spy organizations and criminals, said John Pescatore, director of emerging security trends at the SANS Institute, a Bethesda, Maryland-based cyber-security training organization.

“If you combine the two into one government agency, which mission wins?” asked Pescatore, who formerly worked in security for the NSA and the U.S. Secret Service. “Invariably when this has happened over time, the offensive mission wins.”

When researchers uncovered the Heartbleed bug hiding in plain sight and made it public on April 7, it underscored an uncomfortable truth: The public may be placing too much trust in software and hardware developers to insure the security of our most sensitive transactions.

“We’ve never seen any quite like this,” said Michael Sutton, vice president of security research at Zscaler, a San Jose, California-based security firm. “Not only is a huge portion of the Internet impacted, but the damage that can be done, and with relative ease, is immense.”
Flawed Protocol

The potential stems from a flaw in the protocol used to encrypt communications between users and websites protected by OpenSSL, making those supposedly secure sites an open book. The damage could be done with relatively simple scans, so that millions of machines could be hit by a single attacker.

Questions remain about whether anyone other than the U.S. government might have exploited the flaw before the public disclosure. Sophisticated intelligence agencies in other countries are one possibility.

If criminals found the flaw before a fix was published this week, they could have scooped up troves of passwords for online bank accounts, e-commerce sites, and e-mail accounts across the world.

Evidence of that is so far lacking, and it’s possible that cybercriminals missed the potential in the same way security professionals did, suggested Tal Klein, vice president of marketing at Adallom, in Menlo Park, California.
Ordinary Data

The fact that the vulnerability existed in the transmission of ordinary data -- even if it’s the kind of data the vast majority of users are concerned about -- may have been a factor in the decision by NSA officials to keep it a secret, said James Lewis, a cybersecurity senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“They actually have a process when they find this stuff that goes all the way up to the director” of the agency, Lewis said. “They look at how likely it is that other guys have found it and might be using it, and they look at what’s the risk to the country.”

Lewis said the NSA has a range of options, including exploiting the vulnerability to gain intelligence for a short period of time and then discreetly contacting software makers or open source researchers to fix it.
SSL Protocol

The SSL protocol has a history of security problems, Lewis said, and is not the primary form of protection governments and others use to transmit highly sensitive information.

“I knew hackers who could break it nearly 15 years ago,” Lewis said of the SSL protocol.

That may not soothe the millions of users who were left vulnerable for so long.

Following the leaks about NSA’s electronic spying, President Barack Obama convened a panel to review the country’s surveillance activities and suggest reforms. Among the dozens of changes put forward was a recommendation that the NSA quickly move to fix software flaws rather that exploit them, and that they be used only in “rare instances” and for short periods of time.

Currently, the NSA has a trove of thousands of such vulnerabilities that can be used to breach some of the world’s most sensitive computers, according to a person briefed on the matter. Intelligence chiefs have said the country’s ability to spot terrorist threats and understand the intent of hostile leaders would be vastly diminished if their use were prohibited.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04-11/nsa-said-to-have-used-heartbleed-bug-exposing-consumers.html

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 Obama's press secretary decorates home with Soviet propaganda

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney and his family are featured in a worshipful profile in this month's Washingtonian magazine.

It's the sort of adoring journalistic exercise reserved for only the most handsome of the power elite. In it you can find out details about the Carney dog (a cousin to presidential pooch Sonny!), and how much the press secretary's tie costs ($135).

But keen observers may notice the kitchen decor in the photo: Soviet propaganda posters. They really are the perfect pop of color whether you are the dour and sincere Nikita Khrushchev or the cheeky press-wrangler for a president who is constantly accused of being a socialist himself. --Michael Brendan Dougherty

(http://media.theweek.com/img/generic/PHOTOformbd.jpg)

http://theweek.com/article/index/259887/speedreads-obamas-press-secretary-decorates-home-with-soviet-propaganda

awwwwww....

UPDATE: MICHELLE O SCRAPS GRADUATION SPEECH AFTER PROTESTS...
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_MICHELLE_OBAMA_TOPEKA_VISIT?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-04-24-12-30-05

Will headline 'senior recognition day'...
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_MICHELLE_OBAMA_TOPEKA_VISIT?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-04-24-12-30-05

FLASHBACK: 'She doesn't know our kids'...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2607817/Kansas-speech-Michelle-Obama-draws-complaints.html

First lady gets resume from girl with jobless dad...
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_MICHELLE_OBAMA?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-04-24-12-52-10

Holder cancels visit to Oklahoma City police academy amid protests...
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/apr/24/holder-cancels-speech-appearance-okc-amid-protests/#.U1lVHa0MnpU.twitter

Email Shows White House Planned Benghazi Video Deception

White House officials consciously planned to spin the successful 2012 jihadi attack on the Benghazi diplomatic compound as a spontaneous protest against an anti-Islam video, according to a new email exposed by the public-interest law firm Judicial Watch.

The Sept. 14 email by Ben Rhodes, President Obama’s chief foreign policy spokesman, described the public relations goals for a planned briefing of a top official — Susan Rice — who was scheduled to appear Sept. 16 on five Sunday talk-shows.

She was invited on the shows to explain the September 11 attack, which killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans. The subject of the email was “PREP CALL with Susan.”

The goal of the appearances, said Rhodes, is “to convey that the United States is doing everything that we can to protect our people and facilities abroad; [and] to underscore that these protests are rooted in an Internet video, not a broader failure of policy.”

In her Sunday appearances, Rice implemented the White House’s spin. ”Our current best assessment, based on the information that we have at present, is that, in fact, what this began as, it was a spontaneous — not a premeditated — response to what had transpired in Cairo,” she claimed on ABC.

“In Cairo, as you know, a few hours earlier, there was a violent protest that was undertaken in reaction to this very offensive video that was disseminated,” said Rice, who was promoted last year to become Obama’s national security advisor.

The email is black-and-white evidence of deception and spin by top White House officials, who have denied since shortly after the 2012 attack that they tried to portray it as an out-of-control protest. In fact, the Cairo demonstration — which was not blocked by the Obama-supported Muslim Brotherhood government of Egypt — was organized to demand the release of a jihadi locked up in a U.S. jail.

The new email was extracted only after Judicial watch took the administration to court. Clearly, it is a problem for Obama, whose poll ratings are sliding amid his failure to block Russia’s advance in Ukraine, and his decision to lie about the impact of Obamacare on Americans’ legal ability to keep their preferred health plans.

The damning email is also a problem for Hillary Clinton, who was secretary of state at the time, and who was responsible for lax security in Benghazi. She was implementing Obama’s foreign policy in Libya, following his decision to help kill the country’s leader in 2010. State Department officials have testified that senior officials insisted prior to the attack that there was no need for extra security. The insistence was caused by the White House’s judgement that the Obama-backed Libya government was keeping peace.

Immediately after the successful Sept. 11 attack, Clinton joined other White House officials in blaming a video made by an Egyptian immigrant in California. The video-maker was sent to jail for several months.

Obama also blamed the video. “The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam,” Obama told a U.N. meeting Sept. 25.

Since the attack, Clinton has tried to downplay the failure. “With all due respect, the fact is we had four dead Americans. If it was because of a protest or if it was because guys out for a walk decided to go kill some Americans. What difference at this point does it make?” Clinton said in a January hearing.

The Rhodes email was sent to several top officials who were involved in the briefing, including White House spokesman Jay Carney, deputy spokesman Josh Earnest, and Obama’s top political advisor, David Plouffe.

Ever since Rice’s much-criticized appearance on the five TV shows, officials have denied that the White House tried to spin the attack. Instead, they have claimed that Rice relied on “talking points” prepared by intelligence officials, and that the claims about the video were simply a a consequence of confusion about the attackers and their goals.

Since the attack, FBI officials have picked up one Libyan believed to be a leader of the attack. However, officials have acted very cautiously, because they worry that any counterstrike would undermine Libya’s weak government.

“Now we know the Obama White House’s chief concern about the Benghazi attack was making sure that President Obama looked good,” said a statement from Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch. “Given the explosive material in these documents, it is no surprise that we had to go to federal court to pry them loose from the Obama State Department,” he said.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2014/04/29/email-shows-white-house-planned-benghazi-video-deception/#ixzz30N2UGuxu

Head of Pentagon intelligence agency forced out, officials say

The top two officials at the Defense Intelligence Agency said Wednesday that they will retire from those positions in the coming months, part of a leadership shake-up at an agency that is under pressure to trim budgets and shift focus after more than a decade of war, current and former U.S. officials said.

Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn is expected to end his tenure as DIA director this summer, about a year before he was scheduled to depart, according to officials who said Flynn faced pressure from Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. and others in recent months. His deputy, David Shedd, had been in his job since 2010.

The moves come at a time when the DIA is in the midst of major changes, including an effort by senior Pentagon officials to expand the agency’s network of spies overseas, improve collection on unfolding crises such as the one in Ukraine, and work more closely with the CIA.

The Pentagon press secretary, John Kirby, said that their retirements “have been planned for some time” and that Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel “appreciates the service of these two dedicated and professional leaders.”

Kirby did not indicate when Flynn and Shedd would step down. Lt. Gen. Mary A. Legere, the Army’s top intelligence officer, is considered a leading candidate to replace Flynn, and she would be the first female DIA director if nominated and confirmed.

Flynn, who served as a top intelligence adviser to Gen. Stanley McChrystal in Iraq and Afghanistan, arrived at the DIA in July 2012 vowing to accelerate the agency’s overhaul. Asked after a public speech how he would treat employees reluctant to embrace his agenda, Flynn said he would “move them or fire them.”

He drafted a blueprint that called for sending more employees overseas, being more responsive to regional U.S. military commanders, and turning analysts’ attention from the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan to a broader array of emerging national security threats.

“I think that Flynn’s efforts to move the organization into a role supporting combatant commanders was spot on and it is where DIA should be heading,” said Fred Kagan, a military historian and unpaid adviser to the DIA. “I think that he was trying to introduce a lot of valuable innovation into the organization.”

Critics said that his management style could be chaotic and that the scope of his plans met resistance from both superiors and subordinates. At the same time, his tenure was marked by significant turbulence, including the fallout from the classified intelligence files leaked by former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, as well as other emerging crises.

“His vision in DIA was seen as disruptive,” said a former Pentagon official who worked closely with Flynn. At the DIA, Flynn sought to push DIA analysts and operators “up and out of their cubicles into the field to support war fighters or high-intensity operations,” the former official said. “I’m not sure DIA sees itself as that.”

Flynn clashed with other high-ranking officials, including Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Michael G. Vickers. Officials said Flynn had opposed Vickers’ efforts to make significant cuts to large intelligence centers established to support the U.S. military’s regional overseas commands. A former CIA operative, Vickers has sought to model the DIA’s training and overseas presence more closely on its civilian counterpart, according to current and former U.S. officials.

The plan has encountered significant opposition on Capitol Hill, particularly from members of the Senate Armed Services Committee who have voiced concern over the cost of creating the Defense Clandestine Service, and questioned whether Pentagon spies would end up being used to fill intelligence gaps that are supposed to be handled by the CIA.

Flynn’s departure, which has been rumored for weeks, was set in motion earlier this year when Clapper informed him that the administration had concluded that a leadership change was necessary, officials said. Others described it as a mutual agreement that Flynn would step down.

Flynn was a key player in U.S. military efforts to dismantle insurgent networks in Iraq and Afghanistan, an approach that relied heavily on combining U.S. Special Operations forces with intelligence operatives and analysts.

With McChrystal, Flynn helped to compress a cycle of carrying out raids and then exploiting the intelligence from those operations to find other targets.

In 2010, Flynn rankled many of his counterparts in the intelligence community when he published an article that was sharply critical of the information that spy agencies were assembling in Afghanistan. The effort was so focused on tracking insurgents that U.S. military and diplomatic leaders got little to help them understand the political, economic and cultural issues driving the insurgency.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/head-of-pentagon-intelligence-agency-forced-out-officials-say/2014/04/30/ec15a366-d09d-11e3-9e25-188ebe1fa93b_story.html

Boehner to appoint select Benghazi committee

House Speaker John Boehner declared Friday he would create a select committee to investigate the Benghazi attack, providing Republicans with a high-profile forum to target the Obama administration's credibility ahead of crucial midterm elections.

Boehner said U.S. officials misled the American people after the Sept. 11, 2012, assault on the U.S. diplomatic outpost in Libya that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. He said emails released this week showed the White House has withheld documents from congressional investigators and asked, "What else about Benghazi is the Obama administration still hiding from the American people?"

"Americans learned this week that the Obama administration is so intent on obstructing the truth about Benghazi that it is even willing to defy subpoenas issued by the standing committees of the people's House," Boehner, R-Ohio, said in a statement. "These revelations compel the House to take every possible action to ensure the American people have the truth about the terrorist attack on our consulate that killed four of our countrymen."

Separately, the Republican chairman of the House oversight committee, one of several investigating the violence, said Friday he would subpoena Secretary of State John Kerry to testify about the administration's response to the attack.

Republicans have accused President Barack Obama and his top aides of seeking to deceive the public about the true circumstances of a major, al-Qaida-linked terrorist attack during the final months of the 2012 presidential campaign — charges that the president and other U.S. officials reject. But administration officials didn't mention intelligence suggesting the Benghazi attack was distinct from simultaneous, anti-American protests elsewhere in the Arab world.

The State Department, which ordered an independent review days after the assault, called the notion that it has stonewalled multiple, ongoing congressional investigations "just false."

"We've produced tens of thousands of documents. We've done nine hearings, 46 briefings," State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf told reporters Friday. She called a select committee unnecessary: "How many more taxpayer dollars are we going to spend trying to prove a political point that in 18 months they haven't been able to prove?"

The White House did not immediately respond to Boehner's comments.

For Boehner, a select committee raises the profile of one of the Republicans' main points of attack against Obama ahead of November's elections, which could swing the Senate to GOP control. Benghazi is a rallying cry for the conservative GOP base and will be critical for fundraising and getting voters to the polls in typically low-turnout midterm contests.

A long-term investigation by a select committee could also provide a vehicle for Republican attacks on former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton ahead of another potential presidential run in 2016. And it could unify the Republican approach, which showed fissures Thursday as two powerful GOP committee chairmen sparred over whether the military was prevented from responding to the attack.

Boehner could schedule a vote as early as next week, a senior Republican aide said, which is a formality given the GOP's control of the House. Democrats controlling the Senate have shown no interest in launching a similar probe. Boehner has been under intense pressure from rank-and-file conservatives and outside groups for a year to make the move.

Republicans have pointed a finger at one passage in particular among the 40 or so emails obtained by the watchdog group Judicial Watch through a Freedom of Information Act request. Three days after the attack, Ben Rhodes, then the deputy national security adviser for strategic communications at the White House, stressed the goal of underscoring "that these protests are rooted in an Internet video, and not a broader policy failure."

The email was written the Friday before then-U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice appeared on the Sunday news programs and explained the Benghazi attack as a protest over a YouTube video that mocked the Islamic prophet Mohammed that was hijacked by extremists. Administration officials later changed their description of the attack and said references to a protest were inaccurate.

Earlier this week, White House press secretary Jay Carney said Rhodes' reminder was explicitly not about Benghazi but about the overall situation across the Arab world, where American embassies and consulates in several countries faced angry and sometimes violent demonstrations.

The oversight committee chairman, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said he wanted Kerry to appear before the panel May 21 to explain why the latest emails were omitted from previous administration submissions.

The State Department said Kerry plans to travel to Mexico around that time.

Issa has been the GOP's most prominent investigator of the Benghazi attack. But his star witness at a hearing Thursday came under sharp criticism from a fellow California Republican, Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon, who heads the House Armed Services Committee.

Retired Brig. Gen. Robert Lovell told Issa's panel that U.S. forces "should have tried" to get to the Benghazi outpost in time to help save Stevens and the other Americans. Lovell blamed the State Department for not making stronger requests for action.

McKeon responded by saying Lovell didn't serve in a capacity that gave him reliable insight into the available options commanders had during the attack, and repeated his own committee's conclusions that the State Department didn't delay a decision to deploy military resources and that the military couldn't have made a difference.

Issa voiced support Friday for Boehner's decision but vowed to pursue his own investigation further.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., predicted the select committee would be a "partisan political circus."

A separate, bipartisan examination by the Senate Intelligence Committee found the U.S. had insufficient security at the Benghazi post and spread the blame among the State Department, the military and U.S. intelligence for missing what now seem like obvious warning signs. It found no instances of the administration intentionally deceiving the public.

The senior Republican aide said Boehner was considering Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., to chair the select committee. The aide wasn't authorized to speak publicly on the matter and demanded anonymity.

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/boehner-appoint-select-benghazi-committee

(http://www.onenewsnow.com/media/4840985/mrz050414dapr.jpg)

(http://www.onenewsnow.com/media/4869414/mrz052214dapr.jpg)

To be frank, it's come to a point now where there's so many that I've lost count.

Nancy Pelosi blames George W. Bush for Veterans Affairs scandal

 :D really, thats all they got.

http://washingtonexaminer.com/nancy-pelosi-blames-george-w.-bush-for-veterans-affairs-scandal/article/2548784

A soldier gets his sex change while vets meet their maker

Outrage over the Obama administration’s seven years of U.S. military veteran neglect has erupted like never before against the President who touted, “We need a new sense of urgency,” during his 2007 campaign regarding hundreds of thousands of veterans seeking care.

As the administration’s latest scandal surfaces, disturbing reports leaking that 40 veterans have died while waiting for promised — but never delivered — appointments, familiar rhetoric from the White House continues to be disseminated from media outlets.

“I will not stand for it — not as commander-in-chief but also not as an American,” Obama exclaimed Wednesday, as the White House declared that the President is “madder than hell.”
Perkins

However, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins sees the recent neglect as nothing new under the Obama Administration, which he says “may be at the heart of one of the worst cases of medical neglect America has ever seen.”

Perkins reminds concerned Americans that the White House’s latest maneuverings to save face should be clearly recognized.

“Under fire from all sides, the White House is scrambling to explain how seven years went by without this deadly incompetence ever reaching the President’s desk,” Perkins noted. “Unfortunately for Press Secretary Jay Carney, nobody’s buying the White House’s old standby that ‘we get our news just like the rest of you.’”

According to Perkins, there is no excuse for the gross medical neglect of those who served their country with their lives.

“In an administration with the greatest communication and intelligence tools at its disposal, it’s just a little too much for the American people to swallow,” Perkins contends. “After Benghazi, Fast and Furious, ObamaCare, the IRS and NSA, the President’s surprised face isn’t fooling voters.”

Yet the administration continues to posture itself.

“I don’t know how systemic this is,” President Obama proclaimed when questioned about the numerous veteran deaths and cases of medical neglect. He went on to downplay the situation, emphasizing that Veteran Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki “indicated that he did not see a link between the wait and them actually dying.”

Perkins sees this as the dawn of yet another mass cover-up.

“While their loved ones were begging to see doctors for heart conditions, viruses and even cancer, the very government that was supposed to be caring for these patients was faking waiting times and covering it up by shredding documents,” Perkins contests. “’Two weeks,’ for an appointment turned into a year, until finally, Dr. Sam Foote, a VA employee, couldn’t stand it any longer and blew the cover off the story.”

Many tragic stories branch out from the overlying scandal, which include numerous meticulously documented press reports recently distributed that describe double books and 40 veteran deaths in the states of Texas, Arizona, Missouri and Colorado.

One CNN report details Thomas Breen’s tragic end spurred by VA neglect. The 71-year-old Navy veteran with a history of cancer was taken to a VA emergency room in Arizona last September with blood in his urine, only to be released and told he would see a urologist within the next seven days. Breen didn’t receive the appointment until three months later in December, when stage 4 bladder cancer had already claimed his life.

Another report shows a secret set of books held by the VA in Phoenix that gives the illusion that vets got their appointments within two weeks when they were really on a seven-month waiting list. On Wednesday the VA admitted that its local director was given approximately $9,000 for a performance bonus in April.

Perkins insists that such blatant care for vets has been under the radar for years.

“Despite warnings from the Bush administration, the GAO in 2012, and just last year from House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Jeff Miller (R-Fla.), it seems President Obama hasn’t lifted a finger to help the thousands of former military members waiting months for medical attention through the VA — and in 40 of those cases, dying before they receive it,” Perkins stressed.

And reports of the cover-up continue to flow in, as the probe by the inspector general now encompasses 26 VA hospitals nationwide — up from 10. News has recently surfaced that a VA deputy undersecretary was informed that “gaming strategies” and “inappropriate scheduling practices” were used to conceal and falsify wait times several years ago in 2010.

Seeing the scandal unfold from his FRC headquarters in the nation’s capital, Perkins views it as nothing short of a tragedy for military families.

“Their loved ones died, not in the line of duty, but waiting for the kind of care their sacrifice should have afforded them,” Perkins noted. “After more than a decade of war, America’s veterans have all kinds of needs. And how does their country express its appreciation? By ignoring them.”

Perkins claims that other interests within the White House supercede taking care of those who have served America with their lives, and that this preference has been exposed for some time.     

“None of this should come as a surprise, especially not from an administration that’s spent the last five years using the military as a mule for its illicit agenda,” Perkins relates. “The President’s own Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, said in his book that ‘the only military matter, apart from the leaks, about which I ever sensed deep passion on his part was ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’”

He notes that the homosexual agenda within the military has been a major concern for the Commander-in-Chief since the beginning of his presidency.

“We see those backwards priorities today,” Perkins continued. “Honorable veterans are dying while dishonorable traitors get sex changes. While the President ignores the crises of military suicide rates, sexual assault, and even VA neglect, the Obama Pentagon is working overtime to give national security leaker Bradley Manning the ability to live out his sentence as a woman. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel gave the Army the green light to work out a transfer agreement with the Federal Bureau of Prisons, which offers the kind of hormone therapy Manning demands.”

Despite the White House’s “outrage” over veteran care, Perkins sees little change in the future.

“Meanwhile, the men and women who served our nation with integrity are wasting away on ‘special lists,’ excluded from care,” Perkins concluded. “And in this administration’s hands, it is a system that — through incompetence, a political agenda, or both — continues to be the President’s greatest weapon.”

VIDEOS at: http://www.onenewsnow.com/politics-govt/2014/05/24/a-soldier-gets-his-sex-change-while-vets-meet-their-maker#.U4DhciihFyI

President Obama honors the fallen at Arlington on Memorial Day

Hours after President Obama returned from a surprise visit to American troops in Afghanistan, he paid tribute to the nation's fallen defenders on Memorial Day and alluded to the VA healthcare crisis, pledging to ensure that veterans “get the care ... they deserve.”

REST: http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-obama-arlington-20140526-story.html


Happy Memorial Day: Obama Slashes D-Day Veteran's Benefits from $300 to $6 a Month

What was that President Obama was saying about honoring a “sacred trust” with our veterans? One of them, 89-year-old World War II Navy veteran Joseph Teson came under heavy enemy fire aboard a landing craft on D-Day. And how is the government repaying his valor. By cutting his veteran benefits from $300 a month to $6.

According to Albany NBC affiliate WNYT (via Fox News), the decrease is to offset a past overpayment. No one would quibble with the need to correct clerical error, but by slashing the man’s monthly benefit to one-fiftieth of the previous amount?

Teson told reporters that in June 2013 he was notified by mail that the Department of Veterans Affairs had recomputed his “entitlement to compensation and pension benefits,” explaining:

Read more at http://visiontoamerica.com/17656/happy-memorial-day-obama-slashes-d-day-veterans-benefits-from-300-to-6-a-month/#kD4HHmV7XoBiPVsy.99

Obama Should Apologize For Treating Military Veterans Like Garbage For The Past 5 Years

This Memorial Day, Barack Obama and members of Congress will honor our veterans by wearing ribbons and laying wreaths, but what they should really do is apologize to the entire nation for treating them like human trash for the past five years.  You see, the truth is that this VA scandal is nothing new.  The problems at the VA hospitals have been documented over and over again for years.  When Barack Obama was a U.S. senator, he served on the Veterans Affairs Committee.  So as he entered the White House, he was supposed to be an expert in this area.  And back in 2008, he pledged to "make the VA a leader of national health care reform so that veterans get the best care possible".  But of course that never happened.  And now Obama is claiming that he only learned of the "secret waiting lists" at VA hospitals by "watching television", and his staff says that he is "madder than hell" about it.  So now that he has been publicly shamed, will Obama actually do something about it?  Because our military veterans deserve far better care than what they have been getting.

Most Americans don't realize this, but members of al-Qaeda detained at Guantanamo Bay actually receive far better medical treatment than our military veterans do.  Just consider what former Pentagon spokesperson J.D. Gordon had to say about the matter...

    Doctors and medical personnel are at their beck and call.  Got a cold, a fever, a toothache, a tumor, chest or back pain, mental health issues, PTSD?  No problem, come right on in. Military doctors are waiting to see you.

    The VA and Gitmo eligible patient-to-health care provider ratios speak volumes.

    While the Gitmo ratio is 1.5 to 1, for America’s 9 million veterans receiving VA health care and 267,930 VA employees, the ratio is 35 to 1.

Because there are not nearly enough doctors for our veterans, many of them end up waiting for months just to get an appointment with one.  It was CNN that blew the lid off this story when they reported that at least 40 military vets had died while waiting for appointments in the Phoenix area...

    At least 40 U.S. veterans died waiting for appointments at the Phoenix Veterans Affairs Health Care system, many of whom were placed on a secret waiting list.

    The secret list was part of an elaborate scheme designed by Veterans Affairs managers in Phoenix who were trying to hide that 1,400 to 1,600 sick veterans were forced to wait months to see a doctor, according to a recently retired top VA doctor and several high-level sources.

    For six months, CNN has been reporting on extended delays in health care appointments suffered by veterans across the country and who died while waiting for appointments and care. But the new revelations about the Phoenix VA are perhaps the most disturbing and striking to come to light thus far.

CNN was reporting on this for months, but Obama only learned about this just recently?

Considering that he is the chief executive of the entire system, how in the world is that possible?

And of course this has not just been happening in Phoenix.  The following is an excerpt from a news story about a vet that died in Houston while waiting for the VA system to take care of him...

    George Barraza love two things in this life: playing the electric guitar with all his heart and this country.

    During the Vietnam War, Barraza proudly served in the U.S. Army.

    But on April 16, Barraza, a father of three girls, a chef and an American veteran, died waiting for an appointment at the VA Medical Center in Houston.

    At the time of his death, Barraza was battling heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, cirrhosis of the liver and liver cancer. But his problems became much worse in September when he went to the Michael Debakey VA Medical Center in terrible pain and unable to move his hands at all.

    "They said, 'Oh, that looks like it hurts, let me give you some pain medication and send you on home,'" said Barraza's daughter, Georgia Barraza who complains the VA staff did not treat her father's problem that day by admitting him and caring for him, but instead gave him pain medication and an appointment to come back.

You can read the rest of this incredibly sad story right here.

And here is an example from Seattle...

    Donald Douglass had a small spot on his forehead when he went to the Seattle Veterans Affairs hospital in 2011.

    A biopsy confirmed it was cancerous. But it was four months before the hospital scheduled an appointment for him to have it removed — and by then, it had spread, wrapping around a facial nerve and eventually getting into his blood.

    The delay proved fatal, his lawyer said — and it mirrors concerns being raised about the VA system nationally.

In fact, veteran deaths like this have been documented all over the nation.  After sacrificing so much, our vets are being horribly neglected.

It is a national disgrace.

And of course the problems go far beyond waiting times.  For example, down in Miami illegal drug dealing is rampant at VA facilities...

    When asked why he would risk his job and speak publicly, Detective Thomas Fiore considered the question carefully before answering.

    “People are dying,” he finally said, “and there are so many things that are going on there that people need to know about.”

    Fiore, a criminal investigator for the VA police department in South Florida, contacted CBS4 News hoping to shed light on what he considers a culture of cover-ups and bureaucratic neglect. Among his charges: Drug dealing on the hospital grounds is a daily occurrence.

    “Anything from your standard prescription drugs like OxyContin, Vicodin, Percocet, and of course marijuana, ****, heroin, I’ve come across them all,” he explained.

And what one whistleblower at a VA hospital in North Carolina says is going on is beyond repulsive...

    The whistleblower, who wishes to remain anonymous for obvious reasons, works at a large 250 acre VA hospital in North Carolina. He presented his credentials to us which checked out. The VA employee lifted the lid on a number of shocking details during an interview with Sgt. Joe Biggs.

    “Recently there’s been a very rapid race to move records, boxes, change labels, whatever it may be, they’re putting them in rooms that nobody would look in….and there’s multiple times that I have seen in the past week or so them moving boxes….so apparently they’re hiding their tracks somewhere,” stated the VA employee, adding that the activity preceded an inspection of the facility, suggesting it was part of an effort to conceal evidence in the aftermath of the secret waiting list scandal.

    Even more chilling was a warning sent out to VA employees at the facility which, according to the whistleblower, was meant to get across the message, “Do you see what happens to the people that try to get things straight around here, they’re not here anymore,” a tone the whistleblower described as “pretty telling.”

    The employee also revealed the shocking attitude of one supervisor at the hospital towards older veterans, who asserted that older vets “should be taken outside and shot in the head because they’re worthless.” The individual still works at the hospital and was not disciplined for his comments.

What is happening to this nation?

How can we treat our military veterans like this?

The respect for veterans has gotten so low in this country that sometimes it takes more than a year to bury their dead bodies...

    The bodies of 28 veterans at the L.A. County Morgue were finally moved Friday for burial to the Riverside National Cemetery.

    CBS2/KCAL9 pressed the L.A. County Coroner’s Office Thursday to find out why the bodies had not yet received a proper burial after a source indicated there may have been as many as 60 veterans at the morgue for the past year and a half.

    The morgue says the bodies were unclaimed and they don’t know how long the veterans were there.

    The law states veterans are supposed to receive a proper burial.

Barack Obama is acting like all of this is a huge surprise to him.

Even though he worked on these issues as a U.S. Senator, and even though he has been the top executive in charge of the system for five years, he claims complete ignorance about what has been going on.

I find this very hard to believe.

The truth is that the news media has been reporting about these kinds of abuses for ages.

And personally, I have been writing about these things for years.  Here are some examples...

2013: "There Already Is A Government Health Care System In America And It Is The Medical Version Of Hell"

2013: "25 Signs That Military Veterans Are Being Treated Like Absolute Trash Under The Obama Administration"

2012: "Why Does The U.S. Government Treat Military Veterans Like Human Garbage?"

2010: "Memorial Day Shocker: How The U.S. Government Really Handles Veterans Benefits – Deny, Deny, Deny Until They Die"

So how is it possible that so many people could have been talking about these things for so many years and yet Obama knew nothing?

Come on.

The truth is that Obama does not want to take any responsibility for this scandal or any other scandal.

He wants to continue to be a teflon politician that nothing ever sticks to.

But now he has absolutely no excuse for not taking action.

Military veterans are dying right now, and they need medical attention.

Hopefully Obama will step up to the plate and do the right thing.

But I wouldn't count on it.

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/obama-should-apologize-for-treating-military-veterans-like-garbage-for-the-past-5-years

Bergdahl release arrangement could threaten the safety of Americans, Republicans say

Amid jubilation Saturday over the release of U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl from captivity by the Taliban, senior Republicans on Capitol Hill said they were troubled by the means by which it was accomplished, which was a deal to release five Afghan detainees from the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Top Republicans on the Senate and House armed services committees went so far as to accuse President Obama of having broken the law, which requires the administration to notify Congress before any transfers from Guantanamo are carried out.

“Trading five senior Taliban leaders from detention in Guantanamo Bay for Bergdahl’s release may have consequences for the rest of our forces and all Americans. Our terrorist adversaries now have a strong incentive to capture Americans. That incentive will put our forces in Afghanistan and around the world at even greater risk,” House Armed Services Committee Chairman Howard P. McKeon (R-Calif.) and the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, James M. Inhofe (Okla.), said in a joint statement.

Lawmakers were not notified of the Guantanamo detainees’ transfer until after it occurred.

The law requires the defense secretary to notify relevant congressional committees at least 30 days before making any transfers of prisoners, to explain the reason and to provide assurances that those released would not be in a position to reengage in activities that could threaten the United States or its interests.

Before the current law was enacted at the end of last year, the conditions were even more stringent. However, the administration and some Democrats had pressed for them to be loosened, in part to give them more flexibility to negotiate for Bergdahl’s release.

A senior administration official, agreeing to speak on the condition of anonymity to explain the timing of the congressional notification, acknowledged that the law was not followed. When he signed the law last year, Obama issued a signing statement contending that the notification requirement was an unconstitutional infringement on his powers as commander in chief and that he therefore could override it.

“Due to a near-term opportunity to save Sergeant Bergdahl’s life, we moved as quickly as possible,” the official said. “The administration determined that given these unique and exigent circumstances, such a transfer should go forward notwithstanding the notice requirement.”

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said that the detainees transferred from Guantanamo to Qatar, where they are to stay for at least a year, “are hardened terrorists who have the blood of Americans and countless Afghans on their hands. I am eager to learn what precise steps are being taken to ensure that these vicious and violent Taliban extremists never return to the fight against the United States and our partners or engage in any activities that can threaten the prospects for peace and security in Afghanistan.”

Beyond this individual instance, some raised the larger question of whether it is sound policy for the United States to have, in the words of House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), “negotiated with terrorists.”

Rogers said the action marked a “fundamental shift in U.S. policy.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/bergdahl-release-arrangement-could-threaten-the-safety-of-americans-republicans-say/2014/05/31/35e47a2a-e8ff-11e3-afc6-a1dd9407abcf_print.html

IRS claims it has LOST two years' worth of emails from embattled former official Lois Lerner as tea party targeting scandal heats up again

    More than a year after receiving a subpoena, the IRS says there's a 28-month period where Lerner's emails to and from people outside the IRS no longer exist
    The agency blames a computer crash for the loss
    Lois Lerner, formerly the director of the IRS subagency that awards tax exemptions to nonprofit groups, is accused of playing political favorites
    She allegedly led a conspiracy to cripple conservative groups by slow-walking or denying their applications for tax-exempt status, which is crucial for fundraising
    Conservatives hit the roof on Friday, with one group drawing a comparison with the famous 18 minutes of missing audio on Watergate-era tapes of Richard Nixon's daily Oval Office meetings

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2657545/IRS-claims-LOST-two-years-worth-email-embattled-former-official-Lois-Lerner-tea-party-targeting-scandal-heats-again.html

Germany asks U.S. intelligence official to leave amid spying row

Germany announced Thursday it is kicking out Washington’s top spy in Berlin, a dramatic response from a key U.S. ally to a year-long spying dispute over eavesdropping on Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cellphone calls that flared anew this week.

The immediate trigger for Thursday’s move was the emergence of two new cases of alleged American spying. More deeply, it appears to reflect a Germany at the end of its patience with what it sees as a pattern of American disrespect and interference in a nation that has cherished traditions of privacy.

U.S. officials described Germany’s move as extraordinary. A former U.S. official said he couldn’t remember a time in recent history when an intelligence official was asked to leave a country. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to discuss intelligence issues publicly.

The spy saga began last year with reports that the National Security Agency targeted Merkel’s cellphone and conducted mass surveillance of Internet traffic in Germany. Those allegations have resulted in a criminal investigation and the creation of a parliamentary panel tasked with probing the NSA’s activities in Germany.

“The representative of the U.S. intelligence services at the United States embassy has been asked to leave Germany,” government spokesman Steffen Seibert said in a statement.

Shortly before the announcement, Merkel told reporters that Germany and the United States had “very different approaches” to the role of intelligence agencies.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest wouldn’t comment on Germany’s decision but said the U.S. takes intelligence matters “very seriously.”

“I don’t want you to come away from this exchange thinking we take this matter lightly,” he said, adding that the U.S. and Germany continue to have a strong partnership.

Federal prosecutors said Wednesday that police raided properties in the Berlin area on “initial suspicion of activity for an intelligence agency.” They did not elaborate. Afterward Seibert told reporters that the case involved “a very serious suspicion” of espionage.

German media reported that the man being investigated Wednesday worked at Germany’s Defence Ministry in a department dealing with international security policy, and had aroused the suspicion of Germany’s military counterintelligence agency because of his close contacts to alleged U.S. spies.

Last week, a 31-year-old German intelligence employee was arrested on suspicion of spying for foreign powers since 2012. German media have reported that he spied for the CIA and came to authorities’ attention when he recently offered his services to Russian officials in Germany by e-mail.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said he could not comprehend why the United States would spy on his country: “We speak to each other all the time, and nobody keeps their views secret,” he said in an interview published Wednesday by the Saarbruecker Zeitung.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière said the political fallout outweighed any harm done to Germany by the alleged spying.

“If the situation remains what we know now, the information reaped by this suspected espionage is laughable,” de Maizière said in a statement. “However, the political damage is already disproportionate and serious.”

http://m.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/us-intelligence-official-asked-to-leave-berlin-over-spying-claims/article19542433/?service=mobile

GOP Congressman: ‘We Just Filed a Resolution Directing the Sergeant-at-Arms to Arrest Lois Lerner for Contempt’

Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas) announced on Thursday that he has filed a resolution directing the House sergeant-at-arms to “arrest Lois Lerner for contempt of Congress” over the IRS targeting scandal.   

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/07/10/gop-congressman-we-just-filed-a-resolution-directing-the-sergeant-at-arms-to-arrest-lois-lerner-for-contempt/

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/louisiana-republican-flees-interview-asked-115123316.html
Louisiana Republican Flees Interview When Asked About Obama's Birthplace
7/30/14

A Republican congressional candidate fled her interview with a major election-forecasting group after being asked why she believed global warming was a hoax and whether President Barack Obama was born in the United States, according to a new report in The Washington Post.

In the Post, David Wasserman, the House editor at the Cook Political Report, detailed his strange encounter with the "frightening" and "fact-averse" Louisiana State Rep. Lenar Whitney.

Whitney, who is running for Louisiana's open sixth district, gained some prominence in June when she released a campaign video blasting global warming as a "hoax" and the press as "lamestream media." Wasserman said he pressed Whitney on the issue of climate change only to find her unable to answer his questions.

"But it’s not unreasonable to expect candidates to explain how they arrived at their positions, and when I pressed Whitney repeatedly for the source of her claim that the earth is getting colder, she froze and was unable to cite a single scientist, journal, or news source to back up her beliefs," he wrote.

Wasserman said he attempted to "change the subject" and ask whether she believed Obama was born in the United States. Her aides then ended the interview.

"When she replied that it was a matter of some controversy, her two campaign consultants quickly whisked her out of the room, accusing me of conducting a 'Palin-style interview,'" he continued. "It was the first time in hundreds of Cook Political Report meetings that a candidate has fled the room."

Whitney could not immediately be reached for comment.

Update (10:10 a.m.): In a Facebook post last week, after the interview was conducted, Whitney slammed the Cook Political Report. "It was obvious, from the onset of the interview, that Wasserman had planned to jump me simply because I am a Conservative Woman and liberal shills like Dave Wasserman want to destroy us," she wrote.

**A "conservative" woman? Uhm...what you're doing is contrary to scripture...

Titus 2:3  The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things;
Tit 2:4  That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,
Tit 2:5  To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.

http://freedomoutpost.com/2014/08/obama-american-people-want-sign-executive-orders/
8/7/14
Obama: ‘The American People WANT Me to Sign All These Executive Orders’

The single quotes in this article’s headline denote a paraphrase of something Obama basically said Wednesday at his U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit specifically in defense of his use of executive orders to bypass Congress whenever he feels like it.

Quote:

    “The American people don’t want me just standing around twiddling my thumbs and waiting for Congress to get something done,” Obama said.

Really? The American people don’t want the president of the United States to follow the Constitution?

Strange, coming from someone who liked to refer to himself as a “constitutional law professor” back in the day on the campaign trail. Flashback to a fundraiser in March 2007 where Obama found it within himself to say, “I was a constitutional law professor, which means unlike the current president I actually respect the Constitution.”

Yeah. Unlike George W. Bush, Obama actually respects the Constitu— BWA HA HA HAHAHHAHAHHAHAHA!!!!

I’m sorry, I can’t even finish typing that sentence.

Back to the present, earlier today the Business Insider reported,

    The president repeatedly indicated he would prefer to work with Congress to find legislative solutions on a slew of issues including funding for federal infrastructure projects and the border crisis. However, in the face of what he described as “dysfunction” in Congress, Obama said he would “scour our authority to try to make progress” within the bounds of the law.

    “I’m going to seize those opportunities and that’s what I think the American people expect me to do,” said Obama.

Nice, right? Obama is just going to “seize those opportunities”.

But only specific opportunities he feels like seizing.

That’s right, the paid spokesman for The United States of America, Inc. then went on to make excuses about how, even though he can pass all these executive orders, he somehow can’t seem to sign one that would stop megacorporations from merging with foreign businesses and shell companies overseas to evade paying taxes…but, you know, he’ll look into it if he gets a chance.

The most infuriating thing about Obama saying these things isn’t even that he would excuse his overreach by pushing it off on the American citizens, but that he is even bothering to act like he has half a **** clue what the American people want or expect him to do at this point, or that he would muster up the strength to pretend to care even if he did.

But wait! I just remembered that corporations are people, too! So maybe those were the “American people” Obama was referring to in his statement.
Source

TSA Admits Lying About Illegal Aliens Flying Without Proper ID

A new letter from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) admits that illegal aliens were being allowed to board planes using Notice to Appear forms they received after entering the U.S. illegally. The revelation directly contradicts a TSA statement last month denying such allegations to various media outlets, including Breitbart News. In July Breitbart Texas Managing Director Brandon Darby broke the news that the TSA was letting illegal aliens board planes using Notice to Appear forms; subsequently, a TSA spokesperson publicly attacked Darby on Twitter, insisting that his report was "completely wrong."

The newly-surfaced TSA letter was penned on August 7, according to the Gateway Pundit. It was reportedly sent from the TSA to Rep. Kenny Marchant (R-TX), a member of the Border Security Caucus. The letter confirms that illegal aliens are being allowed to board planes using a Notice to Appear form (also known as I-862), as Darby revealed in July.

Hector Garza, a spokesman for the National Border Patrol Council (NBPC) told Darby that Notice to Appear forms can "easily be reproduced or manipulated on any home computer. The Notice to Appear form has no photo, anyone can make one and manipulate one. They do not have any security features, no watermark, nothing. They are simply printed on standard copy paper based on the information the illegal alien says is the truth."

According to the Gateway Pundit, the August 7 letter from the TSA admitted, "If a passenger does not have an acceptable form of identification, then the passenger is allowed to present two other forms of identification. One of the two forms of identification must bear the individual’s name and other identifying information such as photo, address, phone number, social security number, or date of birth. TSA may assess a variety of government issued documents to establish passenger identity. The I-862 form may be used along with another form of identification in this instance."

It continued, "If a passenger can only present a Form I-862, TSA will attempt to establish the passenger’s identity through DHS partner Components, such as U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) or U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)."

Despite the letter's admissions, the TSA had previously insisted that Darby's report--which detailed the acceptance of Notice to Appear forms at airports--was untrue.

Ross Feinstein, a press secretary and spokesman of the TSA, took to Twitter to attack Darby and his sources at the NPBC. After claiming that Darby's report was "completely wrong," Feinstein falsely complained that no one had “contacted us for a statement and/or info. before publishing story."

Darby responded to Feinstein, showing a screenshot which proved that he had, indeed, attempt to reach out to the agency via email prior to the publishing of his article.

The TSA continued to deny Darby's allegations. The agency said in a statement to multiple news outlets, "These reports are false. A Notice to Appear, issued by the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), is not an acceptable form of ID at the TSA checkpoint."

Reacting to the TSA's letter, Garza told Breitbart Texas, "Ross Feinstein and the TSA higher ups should apologize to the NBPC and to Brandon Darby for reporting the truth. ... The men and women of the Border Patrol reported this very serious situation directly to the TSA managers at the Laredo International Airport, but their concerns were ignored by the TSA. Soon after that, the NBPC was notified by Border Patrol agents of what was taking place at the Laredo International Airport and how TSA was allowing illegal aliens to board planes with only a notice to appear and without verifiable identification."

He continued, "The NBPC informed the American public of this very serious situation through a news article with Breitbart Texas Managing Director Brandon Darby. If anyone is saying the truth, it is the men and women of the Border Patrol, the NBPC and reporter Brandon Darby for reporting the truth."

"If the TSA and Ross Feinstein were allowed to continue lying to the American Public, it could have resulted in the next terrorist attack on American soil. We hope that terrorists did not enter our country while TSA was violating these security protocols and while Ross Feinstein continued to deny their actions," Garza said. "Shame on Ross Feisnten and the TSA for lying to the American Public and for saying that border patrol agents, the NBPC and Brandon Darby were liars."

The most recent incident is not the first time that the Department of Homeland Security has publicly attacked Darby and the NBPC. On June 4th Breitbart Texas' Managing Director Brandon Darby broke the news that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) would be relocating illegal immigrants from Texas to California. Within moments of that story being published, the official Twitter account of the San Diego CBPtweeted at Darby, insisting the report was “erroneous” and asking for it to be removed from the internet.

Days later the San Diego CBP deleted the tweet from their official account. Subsequent reports, outlining plans to fly immigrants to Southern California, proved CBP had indeed planned the relocation all along.

rest: http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-Texas/2014/08/22/TSA-Admits-Illegal-Aliens-Boarding-Planes-Using-Notice-to-Appear-Forms

18 Signs That The Obama Administration Is Openly Hostile To The Military

Has there ever been an administration that has had more disdain for the U.S. military than the Obama administration?  The way that this administration treats our veterans and the way that this administration is gutting our armed forces is absolutely shameful.  As you will read about below, Obama and his minions have been purging the military of officers that do not agree with their agenda, they have labeled veterans returning from overseas wars as “potential terrorists”, and they have turned our military into a playground for political correctness and social experiments.  Not that Obama has been afraid to use the military.  In fact, he has sent troops more places than just about any other president in U.S. history.  He is running our brave men and women into the ground at the same time that he is relentlessly reducing the size of the Army, Navy and Air Force.  As a result, our armed forces are smaller, weaker, more spread out and less prepared for a major war than at any other time in recent memory.  Please share this article with as many people as you can.  The American people deserve to know the truth.  The following are 18 signs that the Obama administration is openly hostile to the military…

#1 A new VA training guide compares our precious military veterans to Oscar the Grouch.

#2 Military veterans have been repeatedly labeled as “potential terrorists” in official government documents during the Obama years.

#3 According to a new report put out by the office of U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, the negligence of the VA while the Obama administration has been in charge may have resulted in the deaths of more than 1,000 veterans.

#4 Things have gotten so bad since Obama took over that some veterans have had to wait more than a year just to get an appointment with a doctor at a VA hospital.

#5 At one point during Obama’s reign, it was taking more than half a year for the average claim for veteran benefits to be processed, and the Department of Veterans Affairs had a backlog of more than half a million overdue claims for benefits that were at least 125 days old.

#6 Thanks to budget cuts that the Obama administration gleefully pushed for, a lot of really good career officers are being forced out of the military.  For example, earlier this month it was reported that more than 500 Army majors and more than 1,100 Army captains were getting “pink slips” due to these budget cuts.

#7 Since Obama entered the White House, dozens of very high ranking officers such as generals and admirals have been “purged” from the ranks of the military.  In a previous article, I included a very long list of the names of some of these officers.  A significant number of them were known to disagree with the Obama administration on matters of military policy.

#8 During Obama’s second term, the size of the U.S. Army is being reduced by a total of 60,000 soldiers.

#9 The size of the U.S. Air Force is going to be reduced by 500 planes over the next five years.

#10 According to retired Army Lt. Col. Robert Maginnis, the U.S. Air Force once had more than twice as many squadrons as it does today…

    “Our tanker aircraft are on average 47 years old and our strategic bombers 34 years old, and besides, their numbers are totally insufficient for America’s global missions. For example, our air force shrank from 82 fighter squadrons at the end of the Cold War to 39 today and our Navy is in worse shape.”

#11 Thanks in part of Obama, the U.S. Navy is already the smallest that it has been since World War I.

#12 Barack Obama has repeatedly used the military as a tool to advance the cause of political correctness.

#13 In an incredibly reckless move, the Obama administration left billions of dollars worth of military equipment in Iraq.  Now ISIS has captured much of that equipment and is using it to take over vast portions of Iraq and Syria.  It has been estimated that the equipment that ISIS has captured up to this point could equip an army of 200,000 soldiers.

#14 During the Obama years, sexual assaults in the U.S. military have soared to an all-time high, and most of the assaults have been male on male.

#15 In some areas of the country the Department of Veterans Affairs has been caught red-handed banning the words “God” and “Jesus” during funeral services for veterans.

#16 All over the United States, “mental illness” is being used as an excuse to take guns away from military veterans.

#17 Under the Obama administration, some military veterans have actually had to pay to have their medals shipped to them.  For example, one soldier had to shell out a 21 dollar shipping fee just to get his Purple Heart.

#18 Barack Obama seems to have a particular disdain for the U.S. strategic nuclear arsenal.  In fact, he seems absolutely determined to do all that he can to gut it.  The following is an extended excerpt from one of my previous articles…

*****

Back in 1967, the United States had an arsenal of more than 31,000 strategic nuclear warheads.

Since 1967, the size of the U.S. strategic nuclear arsenal has been reduced by about 95 percent.  The START Treaty that Barack Obama signed back in 2010 limits both the United States and Russia to a maximum of 1,550 deployed strategic nuclear warheads.

Unfortunately, that was not nearly enough of a reduction for Obama.

In June 2013, he announced to the world that he has decided that the United States can reduce the number of our deployed nuclear warheads by another one-third…

    After a comprehensive review, I’ve determined that we can ensure the security of America and our allies, and maintain a strong and credible strategic deterrent, while reducing our deployed strategic nuclear weapons by up to one-third.  And I intend to seek negotiated cuts with Russia to move beyond Cold War nuclear postures.

If those cuts are made, that would reduce the size of the U.S. strategic nuclear arsenal to about 1,000 warheads.

And there has even been some talk that the Obama administration ultimately wants to reduce our arsenal down to just 300 warheads.

*****

Are you starting to get the picture?

Barack Obama and his underlings do not value our armed forces.

They are more than happy to use them as political and social tools, but when the time comes to spend money for our national defense or to take care of our veterans they are always hesitant to do so.

At a time when the world is getting crazier than ever, our military is in a deep state of decline.

One day we might look back and bitterly regret what Obama has done to us.

http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/18-signs-that-the-obama-administration-is-openly-hostile-to-the-military

http://news.yahoo.com/republicans-tone-down-benghazi-talk-as-elections-near-042821732.html
Republicans tone down Benghazi talk as elections near

With growing unrest in the Middle East and President Obama's sinking popularity, Republicans fear Benghazi media 'circus' could hurt their 2014 electoral chances
9/2/14

Just four months ago, the future chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi delighted core elements of the Republican base when he declared that the panel would be probing “what appears to be a White House cover-up.”

Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina said he had secret evidence proving that President Obama’s administration had deliberately withheld key documents from lawmakers looking into the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks in the eastern Libyan city.

"I have evidence that not only are they hiding it, there’s an intent to hide it,” he told Fox News in May. “I can’t disclose that evidence yet, but I have evidence that there was a systematic, intentional decision to withhold certain documents from Congress, and we’re just sick of it.”

Now, with the 2014 midterm elections fast approaching and the panel’s first hearing slated for September, the former prosecutor from Spartanburg, S.C., is taking a more tempered, bipartisan tone. He has declared he wants to avoid a media “circus.” Other House Republicans are sending out similar signals, denying that their creation of the special panel was ever political in nature.

“You want to get on the news, go rob a bank,” Gowdy told ABC News in August, after saying that he meant “no disrespect to the media.”

“If you take the approach 'Are we doing this to learn more and better ourselves as a people? And be respectful of their sacrifice?' then you won’t let it become a circus,” he continued.

When the House voted in May to authorize the select committee, which could cost taxpayers up to $3.3 million to operate, the media attention such a panel was sure to draw was a huge part of the attraction for the Republicans who pushed for it. They wanted a channel to attack Obama and the Democrats in the lead-up to the midterm elections — so much so that House Democrats weren’t even sure they wanted to appoint representatives to the panel out of fear it would legitimize the GOP’s charged rhetoric on the issue.

But the politics of Benghazi have shifted. Domestically, the GOP appears poised to win back the Senate for the first time in nearly a decade, and internationally, the foreign policy picture has become much more complicated, with unrest in the Middle East growing dramatically since the last election.

The attacks on two American facilities in Benghazi left four Americans dead, including Ambassador Chris Stevens. In the nearly two years since, Republicans have held up the tragedy to argue that the Obama administration has failed to prosecute the war on terrorism, and accused the president of fighting tooth and nail to keep evidence of incompetence (or worse) from the public.

But a pair of reports from the House Armed Services Committee and the House Intelligence Committee – both of which are run by Republicans – has deflated many of the wildest allegations, with the intelligence panel publishing its findings in early August. In turn, these fact-finding operations have raised fresh questions about the purpose the special panel can serve.

Gowdy, in a written statement to Yahoo News, declined to say whether he would hold more public hearings than the first one, which is about a topic suggested by one of the committee’s reluctant Democratic participants.

“Public hearings are only one part of the work of this committee. The main work of an investigation involves much more outside the spotlight,” Gowdy said. “Depositions and witness interviews, both of which are not public, are more effective for gathering facts. The work of the committee will continue throughout the fall, whether it includes more public hearings or not.”

As American foreign-policy makers grapple with a new set of challenges across the Middle East, such as the rise of the brutal Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS), there seems to be more risk for the GOP in looking political in its investigation.

Accordingly, House Republicans have publicly and privately worked to shore up the bipartisan credibility of Gowdy’s investigation and banish all of what one Republican aide called the “circus” surrounding past GOP probes.

“The timing is not completely right on this. There’s other stuff happening. There is ISIS happening. The most important thing for Republicans is to be careful with this. This could blow up in their face,” said John Feehery, a former senior House Republican aide who is now president of QGA Communications.

Republicans hope to draw in independents and turn out their base in large numbers in November in their bid to defeat Democrats, who traditionally vote in smaller numbers in midterm elections. With the president’s popularity already at a low ebb and the public unfazed by relatively good economic news, the last thing Republicans should do, some strategists say, is alienate potentially sympathetic voters or energize disaffected Democrats with a fresh over-the-top hearing on the inflammatory topic of Benghazi.

“Things are going pretty well for Republicans,” Feehery explained. “Why screw it up? This is the time when you take the three [club] out but don’t take the driver out.”

Gowdy has said he does not believe the committee will finish its work before the midterms. In order for the panel to continue its work during the next Congress, the House would have to vote again to reauthorize it. Given its cost and current existential predicament, though, that vote might not be as easy in 2015 as it was in 2014.

That’s a long way from where Republicans were even in May, when Speaker John Boehner of Ohio finally relented to rank-and-file pressure to create the panel. Leadership had been reluctant to vote to form the committee. Now there may be no greater example of the shift in tone for Republicans on Benghazi than Gowdy himself, who was once one of the most outspoken advocates for going after the administration.

Where he once invoked secret evidence of a cover-up, the chairman has put the rhetorical fireworks away and decreed that the committee’s first formal hearing will focus on how well the State Department has implemented the 24 recommendations of the independent Accountability Review Board formed to investigate Benghazi.

Whether the GOP can stop the “circus” it now seems so intent on preventing remains an open question. One of the long-standing challenges this House conference has faced is keeping its conservative, flame-throwing rank-and-file membership in check. Just because Gowdy or Republicans involved have changed their tune does not mean others have — or have to.

Moreover, with millions of dollars allocated to the operation of the panel, there’s still the need for Gowdy to produce some final product, beyond what regular committees have done.

Democrat Adam Schiff of California, the member who came up with the idea for the first hearing, told Yahoo News that while there seems to be an air of bipartisanship to the select committee now, that could change if and when Gowdy takes heat over the effectiveness — or lack thereof —of the committee.

"The challenge will come down the road. I think there's going to be enormous pressure on the chairman to deliver something to justify the time, the expense of the select committee. Whether he can withstand that pressure, or wants to withstand that pressure, will determine how the committee is ultimately viewed," said Schiff.

When he was asked whether it was a good idea for Democrats to participate in this effort at all, Schiff’s answer was revealing: "I guess time will tell whether the committee is constructive and whether our participation on it helps it be productive, or whether it degenerates into a circus."

Got this in my email(Scott's end times current events newsletter)...

From: Bradley B
Subject: my testimony http://www.biblicaltruthkjv.com/ Go to testimony page.
 
Kent Hovind to be prosecuted by Eric Holder to extend his sentence!
GUESS WHO THE PROSECUTOR FOR THE U.S. GOV'T IS AGAINST KENT HOVIND...YEP. ERIC HOLDER !!!!!!!!MEANWHILE HOLDER WANTS TO PRESS ANOTHER CRIMINAL CHARGE....... A NEW ONE AGAINST KENT HOVIND... INCLUDING "FRIVOLOUS"...AND 81 OTHER CHARGES...FOR "ENCUMBERING" THE COURT SYSTEM......
THEY HAVE STUFFED HIM INTO A COUNTY JAIL IN SANTA ROSA,FLORIDA AND WOULD NOT ADDRESS ANY OF HIS GRIEVANCES. In spite of the fact that in the county facility, he has no access to his legal files, he will be represented by a public defender at his September 8 trial. SEND THIS TO AS MANY AS POSSIBLE. WRITE HIM, CALL, VISIT AND PRAY: FOR HIS IMMEDIATE RELEASE
KENT HOVIND O6452-017
SANTA ROSA COUNTY JAIL
5755 E. MILTON ROAD
MILTON, FLORIDA 32583
http://www.kenthovindblog.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMKwnyvgJr8

White House denies threatening families of James Foley and Steven Sotloff over ISIS ransom but adds 'we made the law clear to them'

    Journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff were executed last month in graphic videos released by ISIS
    Both families claim they were threatened with prosecution if they tried paying ransoms to free their sons


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2755906/White-House-denies-threatening-families-James-Foley-Steven-Sotloff-ISIS-ransom-adds-law-clear.html#ixzz3DOVuUPHp

http://rare.us/story/this-ted-cruz-bill-gives-shocking-new-powers-to-barack-obama/
This Ted Cruz bill gives shocking new powers to…Barack Obama?

9/19/14

Senator Ted Cruz isn’t one to throw a bone to the Obama administration. But a new bill that he introduced would give the government enormous new powers when it comes to national security.

It’s called the “Expatriate Terrorist Act” and on the surface its intentions seem good enough. It allows the United States to revoke the citizenship of anyone fighting for or aiding a terrorist group like ISIS.

“If we do not pass this legislation, the consequence will be that Americans fighting alongside ISIS today may come home tomorrow with a U.S. passport, may come home to New York or Los Angeles or Houston or Chicago and innocent Americans may be murdered if the Senate does not act today,” Cruz said yesterday.

The Cruz bill is similar to one former senator Scott Brown introduced last year, co-sponsored with former senator Joe Lieberman. Earlier this week Brown appeared on Fox News to boast that he’d given Cruz the idea.

As many as 100 U.S. citizens are believed to have linked up with ISIS, all of whom could theoretically return home and stage an attack on the United States. So Cruz’s idea is common sense, right?

There’s just one problem: Cruz’s bill allows the feds to strip someone of citizenship without requiring due process for suspects. As Ian Millhiser points out:

    Should Cruz’s bill become law, [the government] would only need to prove it by a “preponderance of the evidence” standard — which is to say there’s a lot of evidence against the suspect, but it’s not necessarily an iron-clad case. That’s a much lower burden of proof on the government than the “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard that applies in criminal proceedings.

Meaning Ted Cruz is actually ceding an enormous power to Barack Obama’s government: the ability to revoke someone’s citizenship without meeting the usual high standards of the criminal justice system.

Plus, as Millhiser notes, the crime of aiding and abetting ISIS is already covered in the Constitution: it’s treason, and treason has a much higher evidentiary standard than just a “preponderance of the evidence.”

Yesterday Democrats blocked Cruz’s bill in the Senate, saying that more time was needed to review its constitutional implications. As they do so, let’s hope they remember Senator Rand Paul’s words on Anwar al-Awlaki who was killed by a United States drone strike.

“In our country, even if you are a terrible person, if you are murderer or a rapist, you are accused, but then you’re given a chance to confront your accusers,” Paul said. “The burden is on the government.”

I'm guessing this is a stunt used to further push more gun control agendas.

Prosecutor: 800 rounds found in intruder case
9/22/14
http://news.yahoo.com/white-house-intruder-expected-appear-court-071102681--politics.html

WASHINGTON (AP) — Investigators found more than 800 rounds of ammunition, a machete and two hatchets in the car of the former soldier accused of scaling the White House fence and sprinting inside while carrying a knife, a federal prosecutor said Monday. President Barack Obama was "obviously concerned" about the weekend incident, a spokesman said.

The Secret Service increased security around the famous grounds on Pennsylvania Avenue in the nation's capital, some guards openly holding weapons, others escorting dogs. There was talk of expanding the security zone beyond the current area as a major investigation began into the question of how the man managed to get to the building without being stopped.

Forty-two-year-old Omar J. Gonzalez of Copperas Cove, Texas, faces charges of entering a restricted building or grounds while carrying a deadly or dangerous weapon. He had been arrested earlier in the summer in Virginia with a carful of weapons, authorities said, and a federal prosecutor said Monday in court that Gonzalez had had a map then with the White House circled.

Authorities ran into Gonzalez again, less than a month ago on Aug. 25, when he was stopped while walking along the south fence of the White House, his car parked nearby. He had a hatchet in a rear waistband but no firearms, a federal prosecutor said at Monday's hearing. Gonzalez gave permission to search his car and was not arrested.

Friday evening, Obama and his family had left the White House for Camp David when the incident occurred. Gonzalez was seized just inside the building's front door. No guns were found in his car.

In court, Gonzalez, with a gray beard, a shaved head and dressed in a standard prison orange jumpsuit, listened impassively as the prosecutor spoke. He could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted of illegally entering a restricted area with a dangerous weapon.

The Army said he served from 1997 until his discharge in 2003, and again from 2005 to December 2012, when he retired due to disability.

Obama, asked about the incident at the White House, said, "The Secret Service does a great job, and I'm grateful for the sacrifices that they make on my behalf -- and my family's behalf."

But spokesman Josh Earnest said the president was "obviously concerned" about what had happened.

At the federal court hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney David Mudd said Gonzalez already was under indictment in southwestern Virginia, accused of having a sawed-off shotgun and trying to elude police this summer.

In that case, state troopers and agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives found a cache of weapons that included two semi-automatic military style rifles, including one with a bipod and flashlight and one with a bipod and scope, three .45-caliber handguns and several loaded ammunition magazines, Wythe County Deputy Commonwealth Attorney David Saliba said in a telephone interview. Saliba said he also had a hatchet and camping equipment.

The weapons and ammunition were seized in that July 19 incident, but Gonzalez was released on bail.

Earnest said the Secret Service investigation will include a review of protective efforts both inside the White House grounds and outside the fence line along Pennsylvania Avenue, including staffing and threat assessment policies and procedures.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee announced it would hold a hearing next week.

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said he would ultimately review the findings of the investigation ordered by Secret Service Director Julia Pierson. Johnson said the public should not rush to judgment about the security breach and urged against second-guessing security officers whom he said "had only seconds to act."

The Secret Service didn't open fire on Gonzalez or send attack dogs after him.

Officers who spotted Gonzalez scale the fence quickly assessed that he didn't have any weapons in his hands and wasn't wearing clothing that could conceal substantial quantities of explosives, a primary reason agents did not fire their weapons, according to a U.S. official briefed on the investigation.

Another consideration was whether bystanders behind the fence could have been hit by errant gunfire, said the official, who was not authorized to discuss the investigation by name and spoke only on condition of anonymity.

The Secret Service has long tried to balance public access to the "People's House" and security of the presidential residence.

The two-block stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House's north gates has been closed to vehicle traffic since May 1995, when President Bill Clinton ordered the immediate closure of the road in an effort to prevent a potential car- or truck-bomb attack.

On any given day, numerous uniformed officers can be seen patrolling parts of the sprawling lawns on either side of the White House, and others are stationed along the fence line on Pennsylvania Avenue. Many more were in view on Monday.

But the pedestrian-only zone hasn't entirely prevented security breaches along the fence.

Last September a man was arrested and accused of throwing firecrackers over the fence on the north lawn, near the area where Gonzalez is accused of climbing over the barrier.

A few weeks later a Connecticut woman set off a police chase through downtown Washington after ramming a security checkpoint near the White House. Miriam Carey, 34, was shot and killed by police near the Capitol.

In May, a man was arrested after he followed a motorcade carrying President Obama's daughters through the gates. A charge of unlawful entry was later dismissed.

On a lighter note, in August a toddler managed to slip through the slats in the metal fence. The Secret Service joked that they would wait until the boy learned to talk before questioning him.

Less than 24 hours after Gonzalez's arrest, a second man was taken into custody after he drove up to a White House gate and refused to leave, the Secret Service said.

The Secret Service identified the man as Kevin Carr, 19, of Shamong, New Jersey. Earlier, Carr had been turned away at a different entrance, which he had approached on foot, claiming he communicated with the president through telepathy and had an appointment, a court document said.

The incidents have only intensified the scrutiny of the Secret Service, which is struggling to rehabilitate its image following a series of allegations of misconduct by agents in recent years, including agents on Obama's protective detail.

http://washingtonexaminer.com/something-is-terribly-wrong-with-the-secret-service/article/2553800#!
Something is terribly wrong with the Secret Service
By Byron York | September 22, 2014 | 6:05 pm

President Obama is supporting the Secret Service in the wake of a deeply troubling incident in which a disturbed man jumped the White House fence, sprinted across the North Lawn, and actually entered the White House Friday evening.

The man, 42 year-old Omar Gonzalez, had a folding knife in his pocket and had left 800 rounds of ammunition in his car not far from the White House. Gonzalez had also drawn the attention of authorities at least twice a few weeks ago — once in Virginia, when he was found with a sniper rifle, a sawed-off shotgun, and a map with the White House circled on it, and a second time when he walked near the White House fence with a hatchet in his waistband.

On Friday, Gonzalez was briefly in the White House itself.

Nevertheless, the president had nothing but praise for the agency responsible for his security. "The Secret Service does a great job," Obama said during an Oval Office meeting Monday. "I'm grateful for all the sacrifices they make on my behalf and on my family's behalf."

White House spokesman Josh Earnest added that the president has "complete confidence" in the Secret Service.

Despite all that positive talk, it appears something is very, very wrong with the Secret Service.

After the incident, the organization began to leak proposals for some major security changes around the White House. Some reports suggested the Secret Service would clear the area around the current White House fence and erect another barrier farther out. That would presumably make it impossible for a fence jumper make a long run to the White House door without being caught.

But the key question arising from Friday's incident is not whether the White House perimeter should be expanded, but why Secret Service agents did not act more quickly when Gonzalez jumped the fence and began running toward the mansion. Why was no agent able to catch him outside? Why did agents not release the dogs that are trained to stop intruders? And why did agents not lock the White House door once the perimeter had been breached?

Those were human failures, not design shortcomings. And to some members of Congress, those human failures have been going on for quite a while at the Secret Service.

Calling the breach "totally unacceptable" and expressing amazement that the White House door was open, Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, hinted there is more trouble than the public knows about. "This is not the first time Secret Service has shown too much vulnerability," Chaffetz tweeted after the incident. "There are other unreported incidents. I will continue to push."

"Been investigating the Secret Service for some time," Chaffetz continued. "Frustrating. Good men and women but HUGE question marks for their leadership." Lawmakers could hold a hearing on the matter soon.

House Intelligence Committee chairman Mike Rogers, a former FBI agent, also believes the Secret Service's problems go deeper than a new fence. In an interview Sunday, Rogers suggested that a guard's attention can wane when he is stationed in one place for long periods of time — a lapse that cannot be tolerated when the president's security is involved.

"It happens frequently in other places where there are static security forces," Rogers told CBS. "And it's just a matter of the Secret Service upping their game to make sure that they can maintain that every detail matters. A door locked, a quick reaction when somebody hits the fence and over the gate. I think they're going to have to reinstate some of these ongoing checks ... self-audits on their security."

Secret Service director Julia Pierson, appointed last year by President Obama to clean up the agency after the 2012 Colombia **** scandal, is starting an investigation. Pierson's boss, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, is trying to calm things down while asking for time to look into the incident.

"I encourage all of us to not rush to judgment about the event and not second-guess the judgment of security officers who had only seconds to act, until all the facts are in," Johnson said in a statement Monday.

But members of Congress are right to express deep concern. The Secret Service knew about Omar Gonzalez, who might as well have carried a sign saying "I AM A THREAT TO THE PRESIDENT." And yet he made it through the White House door.

It's not enough for the president and his aides to express confidence. They need to find out what is wrong with the Secret Service and fix it, fast.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/obama-approval-rating-climbs-more-191500109.html
Obama’s Approval Rating Climbs the More We Bomb ISIS
10/2/14

After many months in a popularity trough, President Obama appears to be getting a little bump in the polls as a result of Americans strong support for U.S. airstrikes against ISIS jihadist forces in Iraq and Syria.

A new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows that 50 percent of Americans approve of his handling of the military campaign against ISIS, compared with 44 percent who say they disapprove.  That represents an eight-point improvement over the response back in August -- when just 42 percent said they approved of the president’s handling of the situation -- although that question only mentioned the bombing in northern Iraq and not the expanded warfare in Syria.

Some political analysts predicted that Obama would see his numbers rise a little after he announced Sept. 10 that the United States would step up its military air war against Islamic State fighters “wherever they exist.” While many have reservations or questions about the details of Obama’s joint operations with European and Middle Eastern allies, the American air campaign is highly popular with many Americans and lawmakers.

Seven in 10 Americans say they support the action, according to the new poll, which is up from 65 percent in early September. However, Obama’s decision to send in nearly 2,000 U.S. forces to train Iraqi government troops and coordinate airstrikes against Islamic State fighters is less popular. Still, 53 percent of Americans say they support that decision.

Overall public support for going after ISIS is up from the 60 percent level registered in a Gallup survey last month, a fairly solid majority although still slightly below their average of 68 percent for 10 other Obama military actions that Gallup has asked about in the past.

More importantly for Obama and the Democrats, however, the president’s approval rating is beginning to pick up after spending months in the 40-percent range. According to Gallup’s most recent three-day average, Sept. 28 to 30, the president’s approval rating stands at 44 percent, up a percentage point from the previous soundings.


Whether there will be enough improvement in Obama’s standing to make a difference in the Nov. 4 mid-term election is highly questionable. Political analysts say Republicans stand a good chance of picking up at least the six net seats they will need to regain control of the Senate. Moreover, many Democratic incumbents are keeping their distance from the President in the final weeks of campaigning –fearing that his continued unpopularity will rub off on them.

For example, Obama will be in Chicago Thursday afternoon to deliver a major speech on the economy. While there, he will hold a private fundraiser for embattled Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn that has been closed to the press. And there are no plans for Obama to publicly campaign for Quinn.

http://theweek.com/article/index/269169/speedreads-george-w-bush-to-fox-news-im-not-gonna-second-guess-our-president
10/2/14
George W. Bush to Fox News: 'I'm not gonna second guess our president'

Former President George W. Bush sat down with Fox News Thursday to discuss everything from his brother's potential White House run — Bush says he's all for it — to ISIS. And though Bush said he stood by his warning in 2007 that pulling U.S. troops from Iraq could be disastrous, he declined to criticize President Obama for doing so.

"I'm not gonna second guess our president," he said. "I understand how tough the job is. And to have a former president, you know, bloviating and second-guessing is I don't think good for the presidency or the country."

The remark comes around the 5:30 mark in the video below. --Jon Terbush

Obamacare website won’t reveal insurance costs for 2015 until after election

Those planning to purchase health insurance on the Obamacare exchange will soon find out how much rates have increased — after the Nov. 4 election. Enrollment on the Healthcare.gov website begins Nov. 15, or 11 days after the midterm vote, and critics who worry about rising premium hikes in 2015 say that’s no coincidence. Last year’s inaugural enrollment period on the health-care exchange began Oct. 1.   

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/oct/14/obamacare-website-wont-reveal-insurance-costs-for-/

Obama Asserts Fast and Furious Executive Privilege Claim for Holder’s Wife

Judicial Watch announced today that it received from the Obama Department of Justice (DOJ) a “Vaughn index” detailing records about the Operation Fast and Furious scandal.  The index was forced out of the Obama administration thanks to JW’s June 2012 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request and subsequent September 2012 FOIA lawsuit (Judicial Watch v. Department of Justice (No. 1:12-cv-01510)).  A federal court had ordered the production over the objections of the Obama Justice Department.

The document details the Attorney General Holder’s personal involvement in managing the Justice Department’s strategy on media and Congressional investigations into the Fast and Furious scandal.  Notably, the document discloses that emails between Attorney General Holder and his wife Sharon Malone – as well as his mother – are being withheld under an extraordinary claim of executive privilege as well as a dubious claim of deliberative process privilege under the Freedom of Information Act.  The “First Lady of the Justice Department” is a physician and not a government employee.

This is the first time that the Obama administration has provided a detailed listing of all records being withheld from Congress and the American people about the deadly Fast and Furious gun running scandal. The 1307-page “draft” Vaughn index was emailed to Judicial Watch at 8:34 p.m. last night, a few hours before a federal court-ordered deadline.  In its cover letter, the Department of Justice asserts that all of the responsive records described in the index are “subject to the assertion of executive privilege.”

The Vaughn index explains 15,662 documents. Typically, a Vaughn index must: (1) identify each record withheld; (2) state the statutory exemption claimed; and (3) explain how disclosure would damage the interests protected by the claimed exemption.  The Vaughn index arguably fails to provide all of this required information but does provide plenty of interesting information for a public kept in the dark for years about the Fast and Furious scandal.

Based on a preliminary review of the massive document, Judicial Watch can disclose that the Vaughn index reveals:

    Numerous emails that detail Attorney General Holder’s direct involvement in crafting talking points, the timing of public disclosures, and handling Congressional inquiries in the Fast and Furious matter.

    President Obama has asserted executive privilege over nearly 20 email communications between Holder and his spouse Sharon Malone. The administration also claims that the records are also subject to withholding under the “deliberative process” exemption. This exemption ordinarily exempts from public disclosure records that could chill internal government deliberations.

    Numerous entries detail DOJ’s communications (including those of Eric Holder) concerning the White House about Fast and Furious.

    The scandal required the attention of virtually every top official of the DOJ and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF). Communications to and from the United States Ambassador to Mexico about the Fast and Furious matter are also described.

    Many of the records are already publicly available such as letters from Congress, press clips, and typical agency communications. Ordinarily, these records would, in whole or part, be subject to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act.  Few of the records seem to even implicate presidential decision-making and advice that might be subject to President Obama’s broad and unprecedented executive privilege claim.

Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton criticized President Obama and his disgraced Attorney General in a statement today:

This document provides key information about the cover-up of Fast and Furious by Attorney General Eric Holder and other high-level officials of the Obama administration. Obama’s executive privilege claims over these records are a fraud and an abuse of his office.  There is no precedent for President Obama’s Nixonian assertion of executive privilege over these ordinary government agency records.  Americans will be astonished that Obama asserted executive privilege over Eric Holder’s emails to his wife about Fast and Furious.

Once again, Judicial Watch has proven itself more effective than Congress and the establishment media in providing basic oversight of this out-of-control Administration.  This Fast and Furious document provides dozens of leads for further congressional, media, and even criminal investigations.

On June 28, 2012, Attorney General Eric Holder was held in contempt by the House of Representatives over his refusal to turn over records explaining why the Obama administration may have lied to Congress and refused for months to disclose the truth about the gun running operation.  It marked the first time in U.S. history that a sitting Attorney General was held in contempt of Congress.

A week before the contempt finding, to protect Holder from criminal prosecution and stave off the contempt vote, President Obama asserted executive privilege over the Fast and Furious records the House Oversight Committee had subpoenaed eight months earlier. Judicial Watch filed its FOIA request two days later.  Holder’s Justice Department wouldn’t budge (or follow the law), so JW filed a FOIA lawsuit on September 12, 2012.

But then the Justice Department convinced U.S. District Court Judge John D. Bates to stay our lawsuit, in part to allow ongoing settlement discussions between the Holder’s government lawyers and the House Committee to continue.  Unsurprisingly, the “negotiations” between politicians running the House and the Justice Department went nowhere.

Fed up with the interminable delay caused Holder’s gamesmanship and stonewalling, JW renewed its request to the Court to allow our transparency lawsuit to continue.  Thankfully, this past July, Judge John D. Bates ended the 16-month delay and ordered the Obama administration to produce a Vaughn index of the alleged “executive privilege” records by October 1. Judge Bates noted that no court has ever “expressly recognized” President Obama’s unprecedented executive privilege claims in the Fast and Furious matter.

Unhappy with having to produce the records prior to the elections, Justice lawyers asked the judge to give them one extra month, until November 3 (the day before Election Day!) to produce the info.  Judge Bates rejected this gambit, suggested that the Holder’s agency did not take court order seriously.  Rather than a month, Judge Bates gave Justice until yesterday to cough up the Vaughn index. Judge Bates issued his smack down on September 23.

Attorney General Eric Holder announced his resignation two days later.

Many share our opinion it was “no coincidence” that Holder’s resignation came “on the heels of another court ruling that the Justice Department must finally cough up information about how Holder’s Justice Department lied to Congress and the American people about the Operation Fast and Furious scandal, for which Eric Holder was held in contempt by the House of Representatives.”

The House had been separately litigating to obtain the records but had gotten nowhere until after Judge Bates ruled that the DOJ finally had to disclose information to Judicial Watch.

On September 9, U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson, citing Judicial Watch’s success, ordered the Justice Department to produce information to Congress by November 3.

Fast and Furious was a DOJ/Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) “gun running” operation in which the Obama administration reportedly allowed guns to go to Mexican drug cartels hoping they would end up at crime scenes, advancing gun-control policies. Fast and Furious weapons have been implicated in the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and hundreds of other innocents in Mexico.  Guns from the Fast and Furious scandal are expected to be used in criminal activity on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border for years to come.

Guns from the Fast and Furious scandal continue to be used in crimes.  Just last week, Judicial Watch disclosed that a Fast and Furious gun was used in gang -style assault on a Phoenix apartment building that left two people wounded.  We figured this out from information we uncovered through another public records lawsuit against the City of Phoenix.

Congress officially confirmed the AK-47 was used in the assault that terrorized residents in Phoenix.  In an October 16 letter sent from Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) and Rep. Darryl Issa (R-CA) to Deputy Attorney General James Cole discloses that “we have learned of another crime gun connected to Fast and Furious.  The [Justice] Department did not provide any notice to the Congress or the public about this gun….This lack of transparency about the consequences of Fast and Furious undermines public confidence in law enforcement and gives the impression that the Department is seeking to suppress information and limit its exposure to public scrutiny.”

We have many other active lawsuits over the Fast and Furious scandal:

On October 11, 2011, Judicial Watch sued the DOJ and the ATF to obtain all Fast and Furious records submitted to the House Committee on Oversight.

On June 6, 2012, Judicial Watch sued the ATF seeking access to records detailing communications between ATF officials and Kevin O’Reilly, former Obama White House Director of North American Affairs at the U.S. National Security Council.

On September 5, 2013, Judicial Watch sued the DOJ seeking access to all records of communications between DOJ and the Oversight Committee relating to settlement discussions in the Committee’s 2012 contempt of Congress lawsuit against Holder. The contempt citation stemmed from Holder’s refusal to turn over documents to Congress related to the Fast and Furious gunrunning scandal.

On May 28, 2014, Judicial Watch sued the DOJ on behalf of ATF Special Agent John Dodson, who blew the whistle on Operation Fast and Furious and was then subjected to an alleged smear campaign designed to destroy his reputation.

http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2014/10/obama-asserts-fast-furious-executive-privilege-claim-holders-wife-2/

BREAKING: Judicial Watch Obtains List of Fast and Furious Documents Held Under Obama's Executive Privilege

Late last night the Department of Justice complied with a court order and turned over a list to government watchdog Judicial Watch , known as a Vaughn Index, of Fast and Furious documents being held from Congress and the American people under President Obama's assertion of executive privilege. Not surprisingly, DOJ failed to fully comply with the requirements of providing a Vaughn Index.

    The Vaughn index explains 15,662 documents. Typically, a Vaughn index must: (1) identify each record withheld; (2) state the statutory exemption claimed; and (3) explain how disclosure would damage the interests protected by the claimed exemption. The Vaughn index arguably fails to provide all of this required information but does provide plenty of interesting information for a public kept in the dark for years about the Fast and Furious scandal.

rest: http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2014/10/23/fast-and-furious-news-n1909193

Valerie Jarrett Key Player in Fast and Furious Cover-Up After Holder Lied to Congress

OCTOBER 24, 2014

President Obama’s trusted senior advisor, Valerie Jarrett, was a key player in the effort to cover up that Attorney General Eric Holder lied to Congress about the Fast and Furious scandal, according to public records obtained by Judicial Watch.

The information is part of a Department of Justice (DOJ) “Vaughn index” detailing records about the gun-running operation known as Fast and Furious. JW had to sue the agency for the records after the Obama administration failed to provide them under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). A federal court ordered the DOJ to provide the records over the agency’s objections. Yesterday JW reported on the broad information in the records, including that Obama asserted executive privilege for Holder’s wife as part of the administration’s efforts to cover up the scandal.

Practically lost in the 1,000-plus pages of records is an index that shows Jarrett was brought in to manage the fact that Holder lied to Congress after the story about the disastrous gun-running operation broke in the media. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (ATF) ran the once-secret program that allowed guns from the U.S. to be smuggled into Mexico so they could eventually be traced to drug cartels. Instead, federal law enforcement officers lost track of hundreds of weapons which have been used in an unknown number of crimes, including the murder of a U.S. Border Patrol agent in Arizona.

The files received by JW include three electronic mails between Holder and Jarrett and one from former U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke to Jarrett. The e-mails with Holder are all from October 4, 2011, a significant date because, on the evening of October 3rd, Sheryl Attkisson (then at CBS news) released documents showing that Holder had been sent a briefing paper on Operation Fast and Furious on June 5, 2010. The paper was from the director of the National Drug Intelligence Center, Michael Walther.

This directly contradicted Holder’s May 3, 2011 testimony to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, during which he stated that he, “probably heard about Fast and Furious for the first time over the last few weeks.” The October 4, 2011 date may also be significant because it came shortly after the August 30, 2011 resignation of U.S. Attorney for Arizona Dennis Burke and reassignment of acting ATF director Kenneth Melson to the position of “senior forensics advisor” at DOJ.

The description of one of the e-mails, written from Jarrett to Holder, reads, “re: personnel issues.” Another, also from Jarrett, reads, “outlining and discussing preferred course of action for future responses in light of recent development in congressional investigation.” Unfortunately, the index is vague and that’s all the information we have about them. Nevertheless, given the timing and subject of these e-mails, it seems clear that Jarrett quickly became a key player in the Fast and Furious cover-up in the immediate aftermath of the revelation that Holder had lied to Congress

http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2014/10/valerie-jarrett-key-player-fast-furious-cover-holder-lied-congress/

   Is Barack Obama Attempting To Harass And Intimidate Media Personalities On His ‘Enemies List’?

Barack Obama Giving Orders - Public DomainSomeone is attempting to harass and intimidate media personalities that are very critical of Barack Obama and his administration.  Whoever is doing this has extremely advanced technical capabilities.  As you will see below, there is very strong anecdotal evidence that federal agents are involved.  But these agents would never commit such actions on their own.  It seems clear that they are getting orders from someone above them.  Of course Barack Obama (or any of his top lieutenants) would never come out and publicly admit that Gestapo tactics are being used against media personalities on Obama’s rumored “enemies list”, but that appears to be precisely what is happening.  Hopefully by shining a light on these activities it will cause those that are doing these things to cease and desist.  And it is very important to point out that what is being done to these media personalities is illegal.  Anyone that is involved in harassing media personalities because of what they are saying is violating federal law and is in danger of going to prison for a very, very long time. (Read More...)

http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/is-barack-obama-attempting-to-harass-and-intimidate-media-personalities-on-his-enemies-list

wooops

30,000 missing emails from IRS' Lerner recovered

The U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) informed congressional staffers from several committees on Friday that the emails were found among hundreds of “disaster recovery tapes” that were used to back up the IRS email system. 

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/30000-missing-emails-from-irs-lerner-recovered/article/2556522

With all this technology we have - pretty much anything can be recovered.

IRS mistakenly penalizes Christine O’Donnell a second time, placed levy on bank accounts

Adding to the long-running saga of IRS dealings with conservatives, former Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell says the tax agency punished her mistakenly for the second time in five years by imposing an erroneous levy on her bank accounts.

Ms. O’Donnell told The Washington Times that she discovered the levy when she couldn’t access her checking account as she was preparing to visit relatives over Thanksgiving.

“The day before I was heading out of town for the Thanksgiving weekend, my bank told me the IRS had frozen my accounts. They didn’t give me a reason why, just a phone number to call,” Ms. O’Donnell said in an interview this week.

She said she called the Internal Revenue Service and was told the agency had concluded she owed $30,000 in taxes from a 2008 house transaction, which was long ago accounted for on her federal returns. She said she implored the agency to check her tax records and eventually was told the levy was generated in error and her accounts would be freed up.

Although IRS officials removed the levy, they first withdrew all the funds from her account. They said that, too, was in error and the funds would be returned to her. The funds have not been replaced, Ms. O’Donnell said.

Ms. O’Donnell, who writes a column for the online Washington Times Communities, says her only current matter pending with the IRS is that she filed for an extension to pay her 2013 taxes but that the levy had nothing to do with that filing.

“They said it was a mistake, and they removed the levy. I’m grateful, but I also wonder what someone with less government experience might do when they find themselves frozen from their money because the IRS got its paperwork mixed up. It can be scary. You feel helpless if you can’t even buy gas for your car,” she said.
Asked where she thought her latest IRS run-in fit into the bigger controversy over the agency’s dealings with conservatives, she answered cautiously.

“While I don’t believe in coincidences, it’s possible that this was just bureaucratic bungling. But either way, the IRS has to be held accountable. It needs to do its job right and not target or inconvenience taxpayers unfairly,” she said.
IRS officials said federal tax privacy laws prohibit them from commenting on individual taxpayer matters.

Ms. O’Donnell, a tea party favorite who burst onto the national stage in 2010 when she upset a longtime incumbent and won the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in Delaware, has been one of several high-profile conservatives to claim mistreatment from the IRS and other federal authorities.

Senate investigators continue to probe why Delaware state authorities accessed Ms. O’Donnell’s IRS tax file on a Saturday morning in spring 2010, right around the time she announced her candidacy and a story was leaked alleging that she owed back taxes to the IRS, which was later proved to be false.

Delaware authorities claim the records check was routine but that the computer records detailing what was searched have since been destroyed. Lawmakers in both parties have cited the episode in raising concerns about possible lax access for state agencies to sensitive federal tax records.

The first tax lien was placed on a house she had sold more than two years earlier, and it created headaches for her finances and her campaign. The lien was highly publicized and used to discredit Ms. O’Donnell’s candidacy just as it was getting off the ground, even though she no longer owned the home in question.

The IRS eventually removed the lien, blaming it on a computer error. Ms. O’Donnell sold the home in 2008, and financial documents from her lender show that her back payments were satisfied in July 2008, long before the IRS initiated the bogus lien.

Ms. O’Donnell also battled a three-year audit of her personal finances that ultimately ended with her repaying $1,100 to the federal government. She said friends and family also were subjected to intrusive audits, though they were cleared. She believes the first round of IRS intrusions were political and malicious, and she has called on Congress to rein in the tax agency.

The second erroneous tax lien was revealed the same week that House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell E. Issa, California Republican, released a report highlighting emails he said showed a clear anti-conservative bias inside the IRS. It was also the same week that the House Ways and Means and Senate Judiciary committees confirmed they were still investigating the 2010 breach of Ms. O’Donnell’s tax records.

Story Continues →

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/dec/25/christine-odonnell-tea-party-figure-says-irs-mista/#ixzz3N0zLJdJ8

Exposed: Obama team working on election campaigns worldwide

Intuitive Winston Churchill’s warning: “A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on” can now be taken literally.

The lies of President Barack Obama’s have reached all the way over to Israel and are still traveling with the truth yet to get its pants on.

Obama claimed that neither he nor his Secretary of State John Kerry can meet with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he addresses Congress next month because “Our general policy is, we don’t meet with any world leader two weeks before their election”. (Daily Mail, Jan. 28, 2015)

Press Secretary Josh Ernest made the big whopper worse when he further explained, “This administration goes to great lengths to ensure that we don‘t give even the appearance of interfering or attempting to influence the outcome of democratic elections abroad”.

The plain truth?

The Obama administration is using taxpayer dollars from the State Department with boots on the ground to promote an Israeli campaign run by Obama campaign aides to defeat Netanyahu.

Churchill’s lie getting halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on suits to a tee V15—which arrogantly stands for ‘Victory 2015’—-that has the colossal nerve to try to cover its attempted sabotage of Israel ‘s 2015 election with the whitewash alibi that 270 Strategies, the company owned by President Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign national field director Jeremy Bird organizing its efforts: “works on election campaigns worldwide”.

We thought it was just Israel and Canada.  There’s more?!

With Obama’s Fundamental Transformation of America already in the bag, guess you could call influencing the outcome of the general elections in Israel and Canada, while feverishly trying to return the Muslim Brotherhood to Egypt,“working on election campaigns worldwide”.

Get your pants on, Israel and Canada.  Through his top election aides, Obama is trying to add your nations to his coveted kingdom.

It is only thanks to providence that intuiting Obama’s every move to reinstall the Muslim Brotherhood to Egypt, President Abdel-Fattah el Sisi jumped into his pants before even being elected.

The necessity for truth hurrying to get its pants on should also apply to V15‘s audacious claim that it is only “conservative media speculation” that Big Bird Jeremy was sent to participate in Israel elections by Obama.  The White House denies it had any knowledge of Bird’s involvement in Israel elections.  That’s their story and they’re sticking to it.

File Obama’s not knowing what his own national field director of 2012 elections is up to in Israel under ‘h’ for horse feathers, as it belongs in the same deceit category that Obama did not know at least one of the top five Taliban generals he irresponsibly traded off for deserter Bowe Bergdahl would make an attempt to go running back to the jihad as soon as the coast became clear.

In the real world,  V15 partners in Israel with ‘pro-peace’ organization One Voice.  The goal of this partnership is to recruit thousands of volunteers who will go door to door before the election to persuade as many as one million people to vote to change the government.

When it bolted out of the barn, Obama’s ‘Hope & Change’ made it all the way over to Israel.

In their own words this is the precise kind of peace OneVoice advocates:

    “OneVoice is an international grassroots movement that amplifies the voice of mainstream Israelis and Palestinians, empowering them to propel their elected representatives toward the two-state solution. The Movement works to forge consensus for conflict resolution and build a human infrastructure capable of mobilizing the people toward a negotiated, comprehensive, and permanent agreement between Israel and Palestine that ends the occupation, ensures security and peace for both sides, and solves all final-status issues in accordance with international law and previous bilateral agreements. The 1967 borders form the basis for the establishment of an independent, viable Palestinian state, with permanent borders and any modifications to be agreed upon by both parties. The Movement recognizes that violence by either side will never be a means to end the conflict.

    “Our mission is premised on the notion that everyday people have a crucial role to play in creating the political conditions necessary to propel their leaders toward ending the conflict and the occupation. While a majority of Israelis and Palestinians support the two-state solution, an emphasis on the risks of an agreement and the compromises it entails has led many to lose sight of the transformative change that peace can bring. An increasing percentage also doubt they will see such an agreement in their lifetimes, widening the ‘incredulity gap’ of those who would readily accept a two-state compromise but cannot envision one.

    From the Caucus to End the Arab-Israeli Conflict that we established in the Israeli Knesset to our “Wake Up! What Is Your Role Campaign?” to mobilize Palestinians to end the occupation and the conflict through non-violent activism, we are providing the centrist mainstream on both sides with the opportunities and tools to build momentum for a peace agreement and #2StatesNOW

At least someone is exposing Jeremy Bird “working on election campaigns worldwide” in Israel:

“Likud petitioned the Central Elections Committee on Wednesday for an order barring campaigning by the V15 organization, after Haaretz earlier this week reported on the organization’s efforts to replace the Likud-led government. (Haaretz, Jan. 30, 2015)

    “The Likud petition argued that V15 - which it termed an “extreme left-wing organization” - was indirectly campaigning on behalf of Likud’s rivals, Zionist Camp and Meretz, thereby circumventing campaign-finance restrictions imposed by law.

    “Specifically, the petition said, the organization “is making criminal use of anonymous foreign funding in extremely large amounts.” The petition also demanded that V15 reveal its funding sources.

    “The petition cited the Haaretz report of Bird’s hiring to bolster its argument, writing that “hiring services of this sort costs a fortune. We’re talking about foreign funding on an enormous scale, in violation of the Party Funding Law.”

Meanwhile, we don’t know what, if any, measures are being taken to protect Canada’s federal election against Obama meddling.

Other than Canada Free Press (CFP), there’s been no mainstream coverage of the Globe & Mail’s Dec. 27 story:

“With polls pointing to a Liberal victory over Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government come October, key Obama presidential campaign bigwigs will brand unwitting Canada with the Big O stamp.” (Canada Free Press Jan. 5, 2015)

“Justin Trudeau’s Liberals have quietly been getting regular advice from Jennifer O’Malley Dillon, Barack Obama’s deputy campaign manager in the last U.S. presidential campaign. (Adam Radwanski, Globe and Mail, Dec. 27, 2014)

“Somewhat more openly, Tom Mulcair’s New Democrats have been receiving guidance from Jeremy Bird, who was Mr. Obama’s national field director.”

It’s not just Canada’s Prime Minister the Obama election team aims to replace, the team also participated in the elections of Ontario, Canada’s largest province.
(CFP, Oct. 28, 2013)

And while elections in Egypt aren’t imminent, anti-Muslim President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi’s on Obama’s hit list.

“Earlier this week, State hosted a Brotherhood-linked delegation looking to mobilize support for the overthrow of Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi.” (The Washington Beacon, Jan. 30, 2015).

So there it is, Obama’s ‘Fundamental Transformation of the Free World’ on public display.

Where is the respect for sovereignty and democratic elections in Israel and Canada?

If sovereignty counts for naught in the U.SA., where ‘Executive Amnesty’ is on the way, it counts for naught in Israel, Canada and Egypt too.

Meanwhile, if the truth doesn’t get its pants on, and get them on, on the double,  Obama will have have transitioned himself from American president to Uncrowned King of the World.

http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/69458

http://news.yahoo.com/axelrod-obama-misled-gay-marriage-2008-135612155.html
Obama concealed support for gay marriage in 2008, former senior adviser claims in new book
2/10/15

As Barack Obama campaigned for president in 2008, the then-U.S. senator hid from Americans his support for same-sex marriage, but he did so at the guidance of his former political adviser, David Axelrod.

And, it is Axelrod who is exposing Obama’s flip-flop on the very politicized issue in a new book, “Believer: My Forty Years In Politics.”

“I’m just not very good at bulls----ing,” Obama told Axelrod after a campaign event where he stated his opposition to gay marriage, according to an excerpt from the Axelrod's book published by Time magazine.

“I just don’t feel my marriage is somehow threatened by the gay couple next door,” Obama told Axelrod, according to the excerpt.

As a state senate candidate in 1996, Obama filled out a questionnaire stating he was in favor of legalizing same-sex marriages, and “would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages.”

But Axelrod, who was Obama’s chief campaign adviser in 2008, says he advised the then-Illinois senator to conceal his support for gay marriage in an effort to help him win the White House.

“Opposition to gay marriage was particularly strong in the black church,” Axelrod writes, “and as [Obama] ran for higher office, he grudgingly accepted the counsel of more pragmatic folks like me and modified his position to support civil unions rather than marriage.”

But “having prided himself on forthrightness,” Axelrod continues, “Obama never felt comfortable with his compromise and, no doubt, compromised position. He routinely stumbled over the question when it came up in debates or interviews.”

In 2010, Obama told reporters his position on same-sex marriage was “evolving” — an assertion Axelrod, who was then a senior White House advisor, says was also not true.

If “Obama’s views were ‘evolving’ publicly,” he writes, “they were fully evolved behind closed doors. The president was champing at the bit to announce his support for the right of gay and lesbian couples to wed — and having watched him struggle with this issue for years, I was ready, too.”

But it wasn’t until 2012, after Vice President Joe Biden said on “Meet the Press” that he was “absolutely comfortable” with marriage equality, that the president publicly revealed his support for gay marriage.

“I would have preferred doing this on my own terms, but it is what it is,” Obama told Axelrod, according to the book. “I know Joe screwed up, and when I have lunch with him tomorrow, I’m going to talk to him about it. It was sloppy. But you know, I can’t be too hard on him. He was speaking from a bigheartedness.”

All the President’s Boot Lickers Still Pretend Obama is a Christian

They routinely lament on twitter that there surely must be more important things than conservatives focused on Benghazi, Fast and Furious, the IRS scandal, the Libyan disaster, the Syrian disaster, the growth of ISIS, the resurgence of Al Quaeda, etc., etc., etc. They lament that we are a frivolous society easily distracted from important things. They give awards to deep thinkers who write 20,000 word pieces on subjects no one cares about outside of the Circle of Jerks who make up the political press.

Then Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York and failed Presidential candidate who will never serve in public office again, suggests President Obama does not love America (he doesn’t, by the way). The very same Circle of Jerks who lament a lack of seriousness in American discourse, immediately swing into action to protect their precious.

These are Barack Obama’s boot lickers.

From the New York Times to the Washington Post to the Atlantic to the Politico to National Journal to the various news networks to NPR, these people want to have President Obama’s baby, protect his policy, and advance his cause.

They could be focusing on all the important stories they lament are being ignored, but instead they have to ask Republicans whether they believe in evolution and whether they believe President Obama is a Christian. He’s not, by the way.

This is not just why Americans increasingly hate the media, it is also why Republican Presidential candidates should kick them, rhetorically, in the nuts at every opportunity. When some Presidential boot licker asks a Presidential candidate if he believes Barack Obama is a Christian, he should ask the boot licker why it is relevant to anything. After all, the constitution says there can be no religious test for office.

The most amazing thing about the bootlickers is that they think this stuff matters. They are mostly atheist and in some part agnostic, but are highly offended that anyone would point out Barack Obama is not a Christian, or at least has no evidence of being one. They misquote Matthew 7 claiming statements of fact are judging then slide into bed next to their significant other who, increasingly, is a member of the Obama Administration.

They really think the 2016 campaign will be waged on evolution and whether President Obama, who will not even be on the ballot, is a Christian. These are people who got into journalism to defend the precious and that is what they will do.

But there are two important conclusions that must be drawn.

First, the outrage from people who are, at bet, nominal Christians over other people pointing out Barack Obama is not one shows just how important it is for even the faithless to pretend to be faithful in a society they tell us is increasingly secular.

Second, the outrage flows in large part as a recognition that though liberal secularists have been fairly successful at posing as all sorts of things in modern American life, they continue to fail at posing as actual Christians and must, as a result, scream loudly at those who point it out hoping to shut them up.

As the President’s Boot Lickers continue to focus on the obscure, ridiculous, and essentially impose a religion test on Republican candidates for office, conservatives need a guerilla movement like that of Jason Mattera.

    We should be asking Democrats if they believe taxpayers should pay for the sex change treatments of Bradley Manning.
    We should be asking Democrats if they believe God created the Heavens and Earth.
    We should be asking Democrats if they believe Muhammad is a legitimate prophet and, if yes, why aren’t they following him.
    We should be asking Democrats if they believe gender is something you are born with or something you choose.
    We should be asking Democrats if we need to raise taxes to pay for global warming cures.
    We should be asking Democrats if they believe Jesus is a real person and, if yes, why aren’t they following him.

We’ve got lots of questions to ask Democrats and should start shoving cameras in their faces while President Obama’s bootlickers are distracted by his boots.

http://www.redstate.com/2015/02/23/all-the-presidents-boot-lickers-still-pretend-obama-is-a-christian/

Too little, too late - Giuliani and his ilk should have been vocal about this 7 years ago(when Obama first ran for the Presidency, that is). IOW, the damage has already been done.

And GOP Presidential candidates like Scott Walker have stood down when asked questions over whether Obama is a Christian. So it's not like these "liberal media outlets" are the only "boot lickers".

http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/blog/?p=31273
OBAMA BLATANTLY DECEIVING THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ABOUT IRAN’S NUCLEAR AMBITIONS
Geoffrey Grider | February 28, 2015 | 10 Comments

OBAMA IS NEITHER DELUSIONAL OR INCOMPETENT, HIS CONTINUED ACTS OF DECEPTION WHEN IT COMES TO IRAN ARE WILLFUL AND PLANNED.

Barack Obama wants us all to simmer down about Iran. He wants Senator Bob Menendez, a fellow Democrat, and the donors he represents to butt out of the sanctions debate. He wants Republicans to quit crying wolf about Iran’s nuclear weapons program. He wants the media to stop hyping terror threats. He wants the American people in the dark about the secret correspondence he’s had for years with Iran’s supreme leader. He wants John Boehner to be mindful of protocol. And most of all, he wants Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stop questioning his accommodationist approach to Tehran.

With the breezy confidence that is his trademark, the president has repeatedly delivered a reassuring message on Iran to the country and the world: Trust me.

With respect, Mr. President: No.

From the earliest moments of his first term, Obama sought to convince the country that threats from our erstwhile enemies were overblown. He forged an approach to jihadist attacks and rogue regimes meant to be a stark contrast from that of his predecessor. He ended the war on terror, quietly sought rapprochement with radical Islamist movements like the Muslim Brotherhood and the Taliban, and ostentatiously undertook a more conciliatory approach to terror-sponsoring regimes like Syria and Iran.

Notwithstanding periodic drone strikes on bad guys, Obama has demonstrated repeatedly that his instinct is to ignore, dismiss, or downplay threats to the United States and its interests and allies. The record over six years is a long list of mistaken judgments, awkward euphemisms, and false assurances.

Read the rest of the story on the Weekly Standard…

Obama 'Very Interested' In Raising Taxes Through Executive Action

...."Now I don't want to leave you with the impression that there is some imminent announcement..." Earnest continued. "But the president has asked his team to examine the array of executive authorities that are available to him to try to make progress on his goals. So I am not in a position to talk in any detail at this point, but the president is very interested in this avenue generally," Earnest finished. 

MORE http://townhall.com/tipsheet/conncarroll/2015/03/02/obama-very-interested-in-raising-taxes-through-executive-action-n1964629

http://www.naturalnews.com/048806_vaccine_petition_White_House_fraud.html
EXCLUSIVE: Whitehouse.gov caught freezing vaccine choice petition to prevent signatures from reaching 100,000 threshold
3/1/15

(NaturalNews) A WhiteHouse.gov petition calling for the prohibition of laws requiring mandatory vaccines has been throttled by the White House, buried from public view and finally frozen for over 36 hours to prevent the petition from achieving 100,000 signatures, Natural News can now reveal.

The petition, which was rapidly headed toward the 100,000 signatures needed to trigger a response from the White House, was frozen mid-day Friday and has remained stuck at 56,791 signatures for over 36 hours.

The petition is titled "PROHIBIT ANY LAWS MANDATING THE FORCE AND REQUIREMENT OF VACCINATIONS OF ANY KIND." It can be found at this link.

The petition reads:

No human being should be FORCED to be vaccinated against their will and/or personal/religious beliefs. I petition against making vaccinations of any kind mandatory. This includes forcing children to be vaccinated to attend public schools, activities, and daycare centers. This also includes adults working in the public or private sector.

The petition still allows people to sign it, and it still sends a confirmation email that claims your signature counts. But the numbers on the petition website never change, no matter how many people sign it.

Petition signatures systematically ignored

As the following screen shot shows, the petition confirmation page claims, "Your signature has been verified and counted."

(http://www.naturalnews.com/gallery/articles/Vaccine-Petition-Signature-Confirmed-600.jpg)

But in reality, your signature doesn't count at all, and the signatures number on the petition page stays frozen:

(http://www.naturalnews.com/gallery/articles/Vaccine-Petition-56791-600.jpg)

Throttled to a maximum of 100 per hour before being frozen

Before the petition was frozen by the White House to prevent it from reaching 100,000 signatures, it was throttled to allow a maximum of 100 signatures per hour.

Dr. Rima Laibow of the Natural Solutions Foundation has been monitoring the petition's numbers for several days. "Counsel Ralph Fucetola, JD, and I were tracking the number of signatures for the petition on our Skype chat and I noted something rather strange: there were many hours when the number increasing on the petition was exactly, EXACTLY, 100," she told Natural News.

"We realized that although it is really important in this debate to get to the 100,000 signature threshold on this petition, the system was gamed, making it harder than it should be. We knew that if we did not reach that number, the White House juggernaught would claim that only a tiny fraction of Americans were against Mandatory Adult Vaccines and would use that against us."

"...the White House Petition Site programming is not recording signatures on a petition it disagrees with," Dr. Laibow concludes in a breaking news warning published at her website.

WhiteHouse.gov buried the petition to try to hide it from the public

Even before the throttling and the freezing of the petition numbers, the White House went to great lengths to bury the petition and make sure it could not be easily found by the public.

Unlike other petitions which are easily found at Petitions.WhiteHouse.gov, the petition opposing vaccine mandates was deliberately hidden from view and could only be accessed if someone knew the direct URL.

On YouTube, this is equivalent to setting a video to "unlisted" status to prevent the public from finding it.

To help people find the petition, Rima Laibow set up a new link that directs people to the correct petition URL:

http://TinyURL.com/VaccinationISViolation

A pattern of systematic deceit by vaccine pushers

This fraudulent attempt by the White House to suppress this petition and prevent it from reaching 100,000 signatures is part of an extraordinary pattern of lying and deceit on the part of today's medical extremists who demand all people be injected with vaccines, even against their wishes and in blatant violation of the American Medical Association's code of ethics.

The vaccine industry, we have all observed, is willing to do anything it takes to prevent the public from learning real facts about vaccines or even achieving success with an online petition that calls for the protection of medical choice for mothers and their children.

USA Today, the same publication that ran an article authored by a mentally deranged vaccine fanatic who called for the arrest and imprisonment of "anti-vaxxers," recently conducted an online survey that asked Americans whether they support the arrest and imprisonment of people who rejected vaccines. The results of that survey reveal that 92% of Americans support vaccine choice and reject government coercion for forced vaccinations.

(http://www.naturalnews.com/gallery/articles/USA-Today-Vaccine-Choice-92.jpg)

Jail parents who opt out: 2%
It's a choice: 92%
Fine parents who opt out: 5%
Inform parents vs. jail: 2%

Only 2% support government coercion against parents who choose to avoid toxic vaccines. Public support for laws prohibiting forced vaccination policies is remarkably high; far higher than public support for President Obama himself.

So in an attempt to destroy the perception that the public strongly opposes the government coercion of medical choice (also called "medical fascism"), the White House has now gone to extraordinary lengths to suppress the online petition that calls for fundamental human rights and medical choice.

This pattern of deceit and coercion is far larger than the White House alone. It includes:

• The CDC's deliberate burying of scientific data linking vaccines to autism (as confessed by the CDC whistleblower Dr. William Thompson).

• The mainstream media's blatantly one-sided media coverage of vaccines, where no scientific questions about vaccines are ever allowed to be aired, and any doctor who asks an intelligent question about vaccine ingredients, vaccine safety or vaccination schedules is verbally assaulted with the derogatory, intellectually-bigoted label of "ANTI-SCIENCE!"

• The ongoing delusion of "mercury denialism" where even the Associated Press publishes articles that falsely claim mercury has been "phased out" of all vaccines even though the CDC confirms mercury, MSG, formaldehyde and aluminum are still used in vaccines.

• The Disneyland measles hoax, where the CDC knows full well that the viral strain of measles found in MMR vaccines is different from the strain of measles that has spread among children. The genetics don't match, which means the MMR vaccine would have done little or nothing to stop the outbreak in the first place.

• The complete suppression of true stories of vaccine-damaged children who have suffered severe neurological harm, painful skin disorders, comas and even death due to vaccines. See horrifying photos here of just some of the children who are being medically mutilated by the very same vaccines that government authorities tell us are "safe."

• The widespread refusal of the FDA to acknowledge the truth that it does not test vaccines for safety or efficacy and instead relies entirely on Big Pharma's own self-funded studies to "prove" vaccines work. But those studies have been faked, say the industry's own scientists, who describe how animal antibodies were used to spike human blood samples in order to defraud the FDA and keep selling vaccines that do not work.

• The publication of a medical extremism article in USA Today which openly called for the government to arrest and imprison so-called "anti-vaxxers." This article, like nearly all articles on vaccines that appear in the mainstream media, was written by a mentally ill vaccine fanatic with a bizarre desire to incarcerate informed vaccine skeptics who raise intelligent, rational questions about vaccine safety and immunization scheduling. USA Today has no problem giving a platform to mentally ill vaccine fanatics as long as they keep calling for more vaccines.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2015/03/02/2016-gop-hopefuls-not-willing-to-fight-obama-lawlessness-with-every-fiber-of-their-being/
3/2/15

2016 GOP hopefuls not willing to fight Obama lawlessness with every fiber of their being

To hear conservatives tell it, the question of whether Republicans are prepared to use Department of Homeland Security funding to fight President Obama’s executive deportation relief is a test of their resolve to combat Obama’s lawlessness. So you’d think the GOP presidential candidates would have a good answer when pressed on this.

Yet when Byron York posed that question to Scott Walker, he did not get anything close to a clear answer. First, Walker claimed that Congress “needs to find a way to fund homeland security,” but added that it’s understandable if lawmakers are reluctant to give up their leverage to “to push back on the president’s questionable, if not illegal, actions.” Asked whether Republicans should stand firm against Obama’s actions, or agree to fund Homeland Security independently of continuing the battle against them, Walker replied:

“I think they have to figure out some way to have the bridge to continue to fund homeland security, but in a way that doesn’t remove their ability to come back sometime in the not too distant future if the court rules or if the administration changes how they do this action in a way that could be upheld in court. They need to have the power of the purse string to offer a counter to that.”

York asks: “What does that mean, exactly?” It’s a good question. What it seems to mean is that Walker is not willing to say Republicans should entirely relinquish Homeland Security funding as leverage to block Obama’s actions, but he also doesn’t want to appear unwilling to keep the department funded. So his answer, if you can call it that, is that Republicans should fund DHS now, while retaining the promise of using that funding as leverage against Obama’s actions later — for example, if the courts ultimately uphold them. But it could be months until this is settled in the courts. And at any rate, House Republicans were unable to pass something funding DHS for a mere three weeks.

Jeb Bush, by contrast, has given a clearer answer to this question. When pressed on it by Sean Hannity last week at CPAC, Bush said:

“Congress ought to pass a bill that does not allow him to use that authority. I’m not an expert on the ways of Washington. It makes no sense to me that we’re not funding control of our border, which is the whole argument. I’m missing something. The simple fact is the president has gone way beyond his Constitutional powers to do this. And Congress has every right to reinstate their responsibilty for what law is about.”

This seems to mean Bush doesn’t think Republicans should allow the Homeland Security funding fight to get tied up in the battle over Obama’s executive actions. He says Congressional Republicans should exercise their authority by passing something restricting Obama’s authority to carry out the actions themselves, as opposed to trying to restrict funding to them. As it happens, that’s exactly what House Republicans did earlier this year, passing such measures as amendments to the Homeland Security funding bill. Bush’s position is basically that if Congressional Republicans want to restrict Obama’s actions, they should vote to roll back the president’s authority, but not take the added step of holding up DHS funding to accomplish it.

There is an actual difference between the candidates here. (Ted Cruz is fully committed to using DHS funding to block Obama’s actions, unlike Walker, who wants to keep that option open for later, and Bush, who wants to take it off the table.) And this is no small matter: The GOP continues to be deeply divided on it, with Senate Republicans more oriented towards Bush’s position, and many House Republicans still in the Walker or Cruz camps. The resolution of this difference (though it will probably end with House GOP leaders passing clean DHS funding with a lot of Democrats) remains uncertain.

This whole question has become a big test of whether Republicans are willing to walk through political fire to prevent Obama’s lawless overreach from destroying the Constitution and the country, and Jeb Bush was willing to give a straighter answer to it than Scott Walker was.

White House formally exempts office from FOIA regs

The White House on Tuesday will announce new rules exempting an administrative office from subjection to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which allows citizens to obtain government documents from federal agencies.

In a Federal Register notice scheduled to publish Tuesday morning, the action to exempt the Office of Administration is listed as a final rule, which means there will be no opportunity for public comment. It formalizes a longstanding policy for the office that was upheld in multiple courts.

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The move stems from a lawsuit that began before President Obama took office, but it comes at an odd time – during Sunshine Week, in which government watchdogs promote and push for more transparency. 

“From the day he took office, the President committed his Administration to work towards unprecedented openness in government. Over the past six years, Federal agencies have gone to great efforts to make government more transparent and more accessible than ever,” said Brandi Hoffine, a White House spokeswoman.

While much of White House operations are not subject to FOIA laws and regulations – including the president, vice president and immediate advisors – one of its largest offices, the Executive Office of the President, must hand over certain documents when requested. 

The Executive Office of the President is headed by the president’s White House chief of staff and includes the Office of Management and Budget and the Council of Economic Advisors. 

The Office of Administration is also within the Executive Office of the President – and complied with FOIA requests for years – but stopped doing so during the Bush administration.

The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) sued the office after being denied access to documents it had requested to obtain details about a slew of emails that had gone missing from White House servers. 

After a lengthy appeal, the court upheld the ruling that the Office of Administration, which advises and assists the president, is not an “agency” as defined by the FOIA.

Since it only “performs only operational and administrative tasks in support of the president and his staff,” the court ruled in 2009, “under our precedent, [the Office of Administration] lacks substantial independent authority.”

The White House, which has not released any Office of Administration records under FOIA, used the ruling to defend the change.

“This federal register notice does not change any aspect of the Administration’s FOIA policy.  It simply removes outdated regulations that no longer apply to the Office of Administration and haven’t applied since the Bush Administration,” a White House official told The Hill in an email. 

“Generally speaking, the Administration has gone to great lengths to release more information on the front end so that individuals do not have to file a FOIA to get access to government data and other information,” the official added.

However, the appeals court ruling is almost six years old, which makes for odd timing – as a week that features organizations pushing for government openness began on Sunday. Monday is National Freedom of Information Act Day.

“This step makes mockery of that commitment [to transparency], especially given that it's Sunshine Week. The White House has reversed a decades long practice of opening the files of OA to the public,” Anne Weissmann, CREW’s interim executive director and senior counsel, told The Hill. “Apparently they have abandoned even the appearance of transparency.” 

The White House did not respond to questions about the timing of the official rule change, but did note that President Obama won an award from the organizing groups of Sunshine Week in 2011 for his policies.

A tally of government records last year by the Associated Press paints a less rosy picture – the administration had censored or denied access to records more frequently than ever in 2013 and cited more legal reasons than ever for exempting them. Some redactions could be names or personal information, while others may take up large chunks of entire pages.

The Obama administration responded to 678,391 FOIA requests in 2014, according to its own count, an increase over last year. The Justice Department says that 91 percent of records were released in whole or in part.

“While there is always more work to be done, our record demonstrates this Administration’s commitment to transparency is second to none,” the White House said.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/235900-white-house-exempts-office-from-foia-regs

Investigative Journalist Shreds Official WH Story on Bin Laden Raid
"Blatant lie"



Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh wrote a blistering report questioning the official White House account of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden four years ago.

In his piece for the London Review of Books, Hersh accuses the Obama administration of "blatant lies" and claims to have a "major U.S. source" to back up his assertions. Though the source is unnamed, Hersh says he is "a retired intelligence official" with close ties to the Navy SEALs and "after-action reports."

Other sources Hersh cites come from inside the U.S. as well as Pakistan, where, he states, senior military leadership shared "widespread dismay" over President Obama's public announcement of the death of bin Laden.

"The White House’s story might have been written by Lewis Carroll," Hersh begins. "Would bin Laden, target of a massive international manhunt, really decide that a resort town forty miles from Islamabad would be the safest place to live and command al-Qaida’s operations? He was hiding in the open. So America said."

Hersh explains that his U.S. source described Obama at the time as "cautious," because "it was just too crazy" that bin Laden would live so exposed in Abbottabad. "Don’t talk to me about this any more unless you have proof that it really is bin Laden," Obama had said, according to the source.

Another claim was that bin Laden was an invalid and unable to defend himself. But Hersh's source said they weren't allowed to mention that. That was the main reason the Pakistani doctor was ordered to move nearby, he said, so that medical treatments could be administered. As is stated in the report, "You mean you guys shot a cripple? Who was about to grab his AK-47?"

Hersh states that the SEALs going into the compound were well aware that they were on a mission of "premeditated murder" despite the White House's continual insistence that bin Laden would have been taken alive if he had only surrendered.

The source also told Hersh a very different version of the raid on the compound:

    One of bin Laden’s wives was screaming hysterically and a bullet – perhaps a stray round – struck her knee. Aside from those that hit bin Laden, no other shots were fired. (The Obama administration’s account would hold otherwise.)

    ‘They knew where the target was – third floor, second door on the right,’ the retired official said. ‘Go straight there. Osama was cowering and retreated into the bedroom. Two shooters followed him and opened up. Very simple, very straightforward, very professional hit.’ Some of the Seals were appalled later at the White House’s initial insistence that they had shot bin Laden in self-defense, the retired official said. ‘Six of the Seals’ finest, most experienced NCOs, faced with an unarmed elderly civilian, had to kill him in self-defense? The house was shabby and bin Laden was living in a cell with bars on the window and barbed wire on the roof. The rules of engagement were that if bin Laden put up any opposition they were authorized to take lethal action. But if they suspected he might have some means of opposition, like an explosive vest under his robe, they could also kill him. So here’s this guy in a mystery robe and they shot him. It’s not because he was reaching for a weapon. The rules gave them absolute authority to kill the guy.’ The later White House claim that only one or two bullets were fired into his head was ‘bullshit’, the retired official said. ‘The squad came through the door and obliterated him. As the Seals say, “We kicked his ass and took his gas."'

Because one of the Black Hawk helicopters crashed at the compound, the Obama administration felt it necessary to immediately address the public because "the explosion and fireball would be impossible to hide." According to Hersh, this meant ignoring a previous agreement with Pakistan in which the president would say bin Laden was killed in an earlier drone attack. This is explained as Obama getting "in front of the story."

Hersh even questions bin Laden's burial at sea stating that it was just another cover by the Obama administration because there was not much of his body left after being riddled with gunfire. It is stated that the SEALs made initial claims that bin Laden's body parts were thrown from the sky as they made their way back from the mission. But once Obama decided to make the announcement of bin Laden's death, administration officials scrambled for a body to wrap and toss in the ocean.

There is a lot more to Hersh's story and it can be read here. The White House has since responded to his claims calling them "baseless," according to Yahoo News. White House National Security spokesman Ned Price said, "There are too many inaccuracies and baseless assertions in this piece to fact-check each one."

http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/investigative-journalist-shreds-official-wh-story-bin-laden-raid

Obama: "I will never engage in a politics in which I’m trying to divide people”

Thats all you have ever done.

 Today the White House proudly posted on Twitter a video clip of President Obama speaking somewhere - it's unclear when and where, but he was clearly without the assistance of teleprompters.

The highlight of the short clip was Obama's assertion that

    One of my core principles is that I will never engage in a politics in which I’m trying to divide people, or make them less than me because they look different or have a different religion. That's not something I would violate.

Needless to say, the responses on Twitter expressed incredulity:

tweets: http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/obama-i-will-never-engage-politics-which-im-trying-divide-people

Obamatrade resurrected by Republicans...
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jun/17/gop-leaders-vow-resurrect-obama-trade-deal/

Could encompass up to 90% of world GDP...
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/sessions-fast-track-would-lead-3-pacts-encompassing-90-world-gdp_973310.html

SESSIONS: 'Members did not know that when they voted'...
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/06/17/jeff-sessions-on-obamatrades-new-pacific-union-like-the-eu-something-america-has-never-seen-before/

SCHLAFLY: Creates 'global governance superstructure'...
http://www.wnd.com/2015/06/no-wonder-obama-wont-let-us-read-tpp/

HANNITY: 'Selling Out American Sovereignty'...
http://dailycaller.com/2015/06/17/hannity-on-trade-gop-leadership-selling-out-american-sovereignty-audio/

House Conservatives Put Boehner on Notice...
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/419875/fellow-ohio-republican-leads-opposition-boehner-house-joel-gehrke

Ryan talking point debunked -- by Australian Trade Minister...
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/06/17/ryans-misperceptions-on-trade-deal-unveiled-reports-suggest/

Obama Rips Question on Hostages in Iran

CBS News’s Major Garrett asked President Obama at a press conference Wednesday if he was “content” with four Americans held in Iranian jails while his administration celebrated the nuclear deal. “That’s nonsense and you should know better,” Obama bit back. The Daily Beast’s Shane Harris reported yesterday that the Americans came up during negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program. “We believe very strongly that this is an opportunity for Iran to let the Americans come home,” an administration official said.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2015/07/15/obama-rips-jab-on-u-s-hostages-in-iran.html

http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/blog/?p=36506
OBAMA SIGNS ‘MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING’ WITH PUTIN AS RUSSIAN JETS BUZZ US PILOTS
Geoffrey Grider | October 20, 2015 | 9 Comments

U.S. PILOTS HAVE BEEN TOLD NOT TO REACT TO AGGRESSIVE RUSSIA MILITARY AIRCRAFT FLYING ABOVE SYRIA, ACCORDING TO A U.S. OFFICIAL.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Russia is having it’s way in the Middle East, acting at will with impunity. As Putin pretends to be bombing ISIS, what is actually happening is that he is shoring  up Assad’s power base in Syria. Obama’s reaction to all this? As Commander-in-chief, he has signed off on a “no-response” protocol that causes American pilots to not react, even as they are buzzed by SU-24’s at extremely close range. The same nations that allowed Hitler to take Poland and Czechoslovakia are allowing Putin to take Ukraine and Syria. If you’ll check your calendar, you will see it’s 1938. Welcome to peace in our time.

It comes after recent reports that Russian jets had flown so close to U.S. planes that pilots were able to see each other. But the official, who is said to be familiar with the incident, told CNN that pilots have been instructed to proceed with normal aviation safety procedures.

The official said Russian planes had flown extremely close to U.S. planes twice in the past two weeks – one flew within 500ft and another, on Thursday, came within 1,500 feet of two U.S. jets. However, there was no suggestion of hostile intent or action in either incident.

russian-su-24-jet-fighter
America is getting used to this view which sadly has become the new normal.
And today, the United States and Russia signed a memorandum of understanding that includes steps their pilots should take in order to avoid inadvertent clashes in the air over Syria as the two countries conduct separate bombing campaigns.

PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY PETER COOK TOLD REPORTERS: ‘WITH TODAY’S SIGNATURES, THE MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING IS NOW IN EFFECT.

‘That was signed a short time ago, earlier today.’

But he said the full text of the memo would not be released at Russia’s request, but said it included specific protocols for air crews to follow, plus the creation of a ground communications link between the two sides in the event that air communications fail.

Cook said the memo calls for aircraft to maintain a safe distance, but he declined to be more specific about whether the protocols included specific distances.

He added that the agreement included coalition aircrafts. Coalition members include Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

‘The fact that we have had to resort to a memorandum of understanding gives you an indication of our concern about Russia’s activities but (also) our willingness to work with the Russians when it’s in our own interest,’ Cook added.

neville-chamberlain-peace-in-our-time
Neville Chamberlain had a ‘memorandum of understanding’, too. How’d that work out?
The U.S. State Department said the agreement is only about keeping pilots safe. Spokesman John Kirby said: ‘It’s not a treaty of cooperation or anything like that … It doesn’t connote cooperation or coordination or joint targeting.’

The issue of aircraft safety started after Russia started bombing targets in Syria last month. Moscow claims it is attacking Islamic State, but many of its air strikes have hit territory held by other rebel groups fighting against Russia’s Syrian ally, President Bashar al-Assad.

EARLIER THIS MONTH, THE PENTAGON SAID U.S.-LED COALITION AIRCRAFTS BOMBING ISLAMIC STATE IN SYRIA WERE RE-ROUTED AT LEAST ONCE TO AVOID A CLOSE ENCOUNTER WITH RUSSIAN PLANES.

‘The U.S. and Russia will form a working group to discuss any implementation issues that follow,’ Cook said, during a press briefing. Meanwhile, Moscow confirmed it had received the memorandum on preventing mid-air incidents from the U.S. military.

According to Ria-Novosti, Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov said: ‘The memorandum contains a number of rules and restrictions aimed at preventing incidents between American and Russian plans.’

Russia had asked for ‘deconfliction’ talks with the United States after Moscow began bombing Syria on September 30. source

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ByhgIeGUFo

Clinton Told Chelsea Truth, Lied to American People on Benghazi
Called Benghazi an attack by terror group

Hillary Clinton and her department spent days after the Benghazi attack of September 11, 2012 telling the American people that the attack was the result of an "offensive" video posted to YouTube but on the night of the attack, she told her daughter it was a terror attack.

An email sent to Chelsea Clinton's online pseudonym Diane Reynolds at 11:12 pm on that day clearly said the attack in Libya was the result of an al-Qaida affiliated group.

(http://www.truthrevolt.org/sites/default/files/images/clinton%20email.jpg)

"Two of our officers were killed in Benghazi by an Al Queda-like [sic] group," Clinton wrote. The email and transcripts of phone calls between Clinton and foreign leaders were read out by Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan.

The transcript of a phone call with Libyan President Mohammed Magariaf made minutes after the email to Chelsea, Secretary Clinton says clearly that the al-Qaida linked group Ansar al-Sharif was claiming responsibility for the attack.

Under questioning before the House Select Committee, Clinton said the conflicting statements of the violence being a planned attack by terror groups or spontaneous protest prompted by a YouTube video were the result of so much information coming in at once. And yet the transcript of another call days later shows that when not speaking to the American people, Clinton stuck with the line that Benghazi was a terror attack.

"We know the attack in Libya had nothing to do with the film. It was a planned attack - not a protest," Clinton said in a phone call with Egypt's then Prime Minister Hisham Kandil. Clinton went on in the call to blame an al-Qaida affiliated group.

Almost a week after the attack on September 16, UN Ambassador Susan Rice went on several Sunday talk shows to continue pushing the message that the Benghazi attacks were the result of anger over a video.

The House Select Committee on Benghazi has been trying to get to the truth of the attacks for some time but have been stymied by Clinton's lack of openness and her use of a secret home-brew email server. She initially refused to hand over all emails from the account to the committee and then handed over a server that had been wiped clean. Backups of the server and technology have been used to uncover material that is shedding light on what really happened the night that four Americans were killed in an obvious terrorist attack.

http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/clinton-told-chelsea-truth-lied-american-people-benghazi

Bad news but whats the point?

It's come to a point now where our leaders are doing wickedness at an all-time low, but the masses are turning a blind eye to it.

Remember the 90's when everyone made a big deal about Lewinsky. Now? Even these GOP-voting (Apostate)churches are indifferent about Obama.

My take on this? This country has been put under mass hypnosis - it seems like they care much more about football games and entertainment, more than getting saved and obeying God's word.

I don't know when the Time of Jacob's Trouble period will hit, but whether it's Hillary or Trump next year, it won't matter - this country is getting what it deserves.

The people should fear God and His judgement, I`m not sure this place will still be here to witness the time of Jacobs trouble. I`m pretty concerned that it won`t be. The West has ceased to be the center of Christianity, the heart of it if you can accept the analogy, has moved into the 3rd world and it is often seen in scripture that the righteous will go through the judgement that comes upon the unrighteous. Kinda the wrong place at the wrong time thing and that is what worrys me. I don`t pray for this place because I know God has already made up his mind. It`s already too late.

"Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues."

The 7 seals of Revelation follow a sequence that is consistent with the signs of Matthew 24. The first 4 seals are consistent with Matthew 24:6-8. These events end with the death of 25% of the world population Rev 6:8. In my opinion it will reach the 25% in the aftermath of WW3. WW3 is preceded by increasing tension among nations Rev 6:4, and economic collapse Rev 6:5-6. The aftermath of WW3 in my opinion creates the hunger and disease of Rev 6:8. Nuclear war driving dangerous animals into contact with people Rev 6:8. All of it becoming a pseudo Armagedden that will bring out the anti christ.

Then you have the false peace, anti christ and they say peace and safety fulfilling the requirement of 2nd Thessalonians 2:3-5.

The time of Jacobs trouble is the 5th seal, Matthew 24:9.

It`s not necessary for this place to be here for that.

Even if the pre trib idea were correct (it isn`t), you still don`t get a Rapture until after the events of the first 4 seals produce the death of 25% of the worlds population.

Of course: Justice Department will file no charges against Lois Lerner

I suppose there was no other way this could have ended. The Obama-era Justice Department does not exist to enforce the laws on the books except to the extent that doing so is politically helpful to Democrats, so just as her predecessor Eric Holder would have done, Attorney General Loretta Lynch has declined to bring any charges against Lois Lerner for using her position at the IRS to harass nonprofit conservative groups. 

http://canadafreepress.com/article/76297

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlRo5AyODN4

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/obama-readies-biggest-reach-presidential-175000647.html
Obama Readies Biggest Reach of Presidential Power Yet
11/15/15

With only 14 months left in office, President Obama is set to issue an executive order in what could be the most aggressive use of his authority to date: unilaterally closing the federal detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

“At this point, I would not take anything off the table in terms of the president doing everything that he can to achieve this critically important national security objective,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters earlier this month during a briefing.

Related: Terror Attacks in Paris Kill 129, Leaving France in Shock

The administration is likely to submit a plan for how it would shutter the controversial site to Congress in the next few weeks, if not days. There are still 112 detainees at Guantanamo, of whom 53 have been deemed eligible for transfer.

The prison has cost the American taxpayers nearly $5 billion since it opened in 2002, with an average price tag of around $495 million every year for the past five years, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

Obama pledged during his 2008 campaign that he would close the detention facility; he has since repeatedly promised to take action, citing the exorbitant cost of running the prison and its use as a recruiting tool for terrorist organizations around the globe.

His plan, however, could be reconsidered in light of the latest attack by ISIS in Paris, which killed 129 people and injured 352—a massacre that French President Hollande has called an “act of war.”

Republican and Democratic majorities in Congress have passed multiple laws to check the president’s ability to close the site. The latest came earlier this month when Congress overwhelmingly approved the fiscal 2016 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

Related: The Fight Against ISIS Has New Price Tag: $5 Billion and Counting

The $607 billion policy roadmap for the Pentagon contains several provisions aimed at stopping the administration from shutting down the facility, including a ban on bringing detainees into the United States.

Obama is expected to sign the bill later this month, making a unilateral attempt to shutter the prison his last resort before his term expires. Such a move would set the stage for an enormous test of his presidential power, which took a blow last week when a federal appeals court blocked Obama’s executive order to stop the deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants.

 

Capitol Hill Democrats have expressed modest support for an executive order on Guantanamo, waiting to see the administration’s plan before they fall in line behind their party’s leader. Republicans in both chambers have already begun to dig in their heels, signaling they would challenge the administration on a variety of fronts.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) demurred on what action the Senate might take against the president, telling reporters last week, “We’ll see what he does.” Senate Armed Services Committee chair John McCain (R-AZ), a proponent of closing Guantanamo, has threatened a court battle if Obama tries to circumvent Congress.

Related: Why Hillary Clinton Should Keep Her Distance from Obama’s Policies

Meanwhile, the Pentagon has dispatched a small team in three states to survey existing military detention sites as possible alternatives to Guantanamo. GOP senators from Colorado, Kansas and South Carolina have vowed to use every legislative tool available to them to blunt the White House. They believe that moving terrorists into the U.S. amounts to putting a big, red bulls-eye on the facilities and the surrounding communities for other extremists to target.

Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) has placed a hold on Obama’s nominee to be the next Army secretary, a hint of how lawmakers could potentially jam up the administration. Newly elected House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) has also spoken out against a possible go-it-alone approach.

“He can’t. He [Obama] doesn’t have the authority to do it,” he said in an interview on Bloomberg TV’s With All Due Respect before the last GOP presidential debate.

The “language is very clear that he can’t transfer the prisoners,” Ryan added, noting the 2016 NDAA text was similar to the kind Democrats put in the bill when they ran Congress.

“The law is the law; it’s just that clear,” he said.

Related: With ISIS Making Millions, U.S. Boosts Its Attacks on Oil Fields

Between Obama’s desire to burnish his legacy and the GOP’s strategy to make sure Obama doesn’t do “more damage” while still in office ahead of the 2016 presidential election, a major Constitutional showdown is brewing.

In a recent Washington Post op-ed, former White Counsel Gregory and former State Department Guantanamo envoy Cliff Sloan, argued the president should ignore the restrictions imposed by Congress.

The president “in his capacity as commander in chief, has the exclusive authority to make tactical military decisions. Congress can declare war but cannot direct the conduct of military campaigns,” they wrote. “It can pass generally applicable military regulations but cannot direct the military’s response to contingent developments.”

Last week, Benjamin Wittes, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, wrote that the view such restrictions are unconstitutional “would be a bold assertion of executive authority.”

“The president would be suddenly defying laws he has consistently observed. And he would be doing so only at the point he had lost the ability to get them changed,” he wrote.

http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/as-paris-burned-obama-was-ordering-more-muslim-migrants-to-be-admitted-to-u-s/
AS PARIS BURNED, OBAMA WAS ORDERING MORE MUSLIM MIGRANTS TO BE ADMITTED TO U.S.

The U.S. State Department confirmed the plans to open a refugee settlement processing centre in Erbil, Iraq, before the end of 2015, and to resume refugee processing in Lebanon in early 2016, said spokeswoman Danna Van Brandt.
11/14/15

THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION IS MOVING TO INCREASE AND ACCELERATE THE NUMBER OF SYRIAN REFUGEES WHO MIGHT BE ADMITTED INTO THE UNITED STATES BY OPENING NEW SCREENING OUTPOSTS IN IRAQ AND LEBANON, ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS TOLD REUTERS ON FRIDAY.

EDITOR’S NOTE: EVEN AS THE BULLETS WERE FLYING IN PARIS YESTERDAY DURING THE HORRIFIC ISIS TERROR ATTACK, BARACK OBAMA WAS ORDERING HIS ADMINISTRATION TO FIND WAYS TO DRAMATICALLY INCREASE THE NUMBER OF MUSLIM MIGRANTS HE IS LEGALLY ALLOWED TO LET INTO THE UNITED STATES. IT IS HIS DREAM THAT WHAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY IN FRANCE WILL SOON BE HAPPENING HERE IN AMERICA. HE IS VERY CLOSE TO SEEING THAT BECOME A REALITY THANKS TO YOU, THE ELECTED LEADERS OF CONGRESS, WHO ALLOW HIM TO DO IT.

The move comes after President Barack Obama pledged in September to admit an additional 10,000 Syrian refugees in 2016, torn by four years of civil war and disorder.

The U.S. State Department confirmed the plans to open a refugee settlement processing centre in Erbil, Iraq, before the end of 2015, and to resume refugee processing in Lebanon in early 2016, said spokeswoman Danna Van Brandt.

The White House would not say how many additional refugees it may take in beyond the 10,000, but two senior administration officials said they are seeking ways to increase the number.

WHITE HOUSE: OBAMA WANTS US TO PREPARE FOR 10,000 SYRIAN REFUGEES NEXT YEAR

“We want to be in a place where we can push out really ambitious goals,” said one of the officials, who spoke to Reuters on the condition of anonymity.

The State Department runs nine screening centres worldwide that serve as meeting points for refugees and U.S. Department of Homeland Security employees who have to decide who is suitable for resettlement in the United States.

THE ADDITIONAL CENTRES WILL DOUBLE THE NUMBER AVAILABLE TO REFUGEES IN THE MIDDLE EAST.

Most Syrians are now screened for potential U.S. resettlement at centres in Istanbul and Amman, Jordan. The new centres are designed to “increase the channels” the United States has for reaching Syrian refugees, the official said.

Amid a tide of refugees in Europe, some congressional Democrats and refugee advocates say the United States should do more for Syrians who often make dangerous journeys to lands where they have no home or means of employment.

HOWEVER, SOME REPUBLICANS HAVE RAISED CONCERNS THAT ALLOWING MORE SYRIANS INTO THE UNITED STATES JEOPARDIZES NATIONAL SECURITY.

In another development, Anne Richard, U.S. assistant secretary of state, told C-SPAN’s Newsmakers program on Friday that wealthy Gulf Arab states such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar as well as the so-called BRICs emerging market nations should do more to help Syrian refugee.

“I would like to see more aid come from the Gulf states that are in the Middle East area and are relatively wealthy compared to Jordan and Lebanon,” she said.  “We would also like to see more from the so-called BRICs — Brazil, Russia, India, China and, to a lesser extent South Africa,” she added. “These are the wealthy states that care about the region that could and should be doing more on the humanitarian side.”

About 250,000 people have died and an estimated four million driven abroad as refugees because of the Syrian conflict, which began in 2011 with protests against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, which has evolved into a full-blown civil war. The majority of the refugees have flowed into neighbouring nations such as Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon but hundreds of thousands have also made their way to Europe. source

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMS8tYFk9Bc

This is Obamas Government.  ::)

This is your tax dollars at work

The Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Office of Screening Coordination in the Department of Homeland Security had one job Thursday: answer questions about the review of Syrian refugees.

She couldn’t do it.

“I would like to see if you could give us some numbers, so that the committee and the American people have this information,” Ohio U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, co-chairman of a joint subcommittee hearing on “Terrorism and the Visa Waiver Program,” told senior DHS employee Kelli Ann Burriesci yesterday.

In a 5 minute exchange posted to YouTube, he questioned: “How many Syrian refugees have entered the United States in the last year?”

https://youtu.be/0uErCCRaytU

“I’m sorry, I didn’t bring any of the refugee numbers with me, because I was prepared to talk about visa waiver, but I can certainly have us send that to you,” she replied.

“Do you know how many Americans have traveled to Syria in the last year?” Jordan pressed.

“I don’t have that number on me either,” Burriesci said.

Jordan: “So don’t know how many Americans have traveled and then returned?”

“I don’t have that number on me,” she said.

“How many visa program overstays are there currently in the United States?” Jordan asked.

Burriesci: “Sorry, I didn’t bring that number with me.”

The exchange clearly frustrated lawmakers.

Jordan: “Ms. Burriesci, when I look at the witness list, you have the longest title: Deputy Assistant Secretary Screening Coordination Office of Policy Department of Homeland Security. … It says screening coordination, now what screening are you coordinating? Is that inter agency or intra agency?”

Burriesci: “It’s both.”

“And the two biggest issues we’re dealing with right now, we had these terrible tragedies, these terrible terrorist attacks, and we’re talking about the refugee issue and the visa waiver program issue, and you can’t give us any numbers on either program?” Jordan questioned.

Burriesci: “So I came prepared to talk about the visa waiver program …”

Jordan cut her off there: “I just asked you how many visa program overstays are there and you said I don’t know.”

Burriesci: “Sir, I don’t have a number.”

“So when I ask you how many overstays of the visa waiver program may have traveled to Syria before they got here, do you know that number?” Jordan continued.

The question prompted Burriesci to attempt to steer the conversation into the details of the program, but Jordan wasn’t having it.

“Do we know if that person who’s here today, maybe not even on an overstay, do we know if that person has been to Syria before they came to the United States? Do we know that?” he questioned.

“ … I don’t know …,” Burriesci replied.

After a brief exchange, a frustrated Jordan tried to coax other information.

“How many American citizens are on the no-fly list right now? Can you give me that number?” he asked.

“I know there are American citizens on the list. It is an extremely small number, but I don’t have my numbers with me …,” Burriesci said.

Jordan summarized, according to BizPac Review:

“Ms. Burriesci, I’ve asked you the number of American’s who’ve traveled to Syria, you don’t know. The number of Americans who may have traveled and returned, you don’t know. The number of Syrian refugees who’ve entered the country in the last year, you don’t know. The number of visa waiver program overstays, you don’t know. The number of visa waiver overstays who may have been to Syria before they came here, you don’t know. And the number of American citizens on the no-fly list and you don’t know. And yet you are the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Screening Coordination, Office of Policy, Department of Homeland Security in front of the oversight committee and you can’t give us one single number to some, I think, pretty basic questions?”

Burriesci, a 1997 graduate of Binghamton University, struggled with other simple questions, as well.

U.S. Rep. Jason Chaffetz, of Utah, also tried to pry out information to no avail, according to a video posted to YouTube.

https://youtu.be/JLLpZX3qjBQ

She couldn’t explain whether most people come into the country by plane or by vehicle or on foot, how the department tracks those who leave by car, the number of people who have come in legally and overstayed, the departments or agencies that have access to the list of people who overstay, the databases the list is entered into, or how DHS asses potential threats among those who overstay.

Chaffetz pointed out that the subcommittee never requested to speak with Burriesci to begin with, and made it clear her non-answers to important national security questions aren’t going to fly.

“The request we sent was for (DHS Secretary) Jay Johnson, and Jay Johnson sent you as the expert on these topics, so this is why I think … Mr. Johnson, the secretary himself, needs to come answer these questions,” he said.

“You strike me as a very nice person, but these are basic questions about the functionality here and when we’re having a congressional hearing it is a waste of this committee’s time to send somebody who doesn’t know the answers to very basic questions,” Chaffetz continued. “ … You are accelerating the need to have multiple hearings on this.”

This spring, Burriesci discussed her role in DHS with Pipe Dream, “Binghamton University’s oldest and largest student newspaper.”

“I work on policies that facilitate the travel of individuals to the United States,” she said proudly in March. “The legitimate issuant of immigration benefits and policy that deters bad guys that threaten the United States.”

Ironically, Burriesci touted her experience and “preparedness” for the 30-something’s blazing-fast path through the ranks of the department.

“People tell me I’m lucky, but luck is when preparedness meets opportunity,” Burriesci said. “I was prepared to step up to the role. I knew my job and had the management skills needed if the opportunity was offered to me.”

http://www.infowars.com/video-homeland-refugee-screening-coordinator-cant-answer-basic-questions-about-program/

When Fox News Host Notes Investigators Concluded There Was No Benghazi ‘Stand Down’ Order, Commando Replies With Just Three Words

Three security operators responsible for guarding the CIA station in Benghazi dismissed on Monday claims they were never told to “stand down” during the night of the deadly 2012 attacks.

“Congressional investigators concluded there was no ‘stand down’ order,” Fox News host Megyn Kelly told the three commandoes.

“That’s just silly,” replied Kris “Tanto” Paronto, a former Army Ranger.

WATCH: Heroes of Benghazi open up in Fox News interview (relevant portion at 13 minute mark)

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2016/01/05/when-fox-news-host-notes-investigators-concluded-there-was-no-benghazi-stand-down-order-commando-replies-with-just-three-words/

The Republican-led House Armed Services Committee concluded in 2014 that there was no military “stand down” order given. That conclusion was drawn from the testimony of nine military officers.

Kelly noted that President Barack Obama and other leaders, including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, rely on such reports.

“It’s kind of funny,” John “Tig” Tiegen said. “Everything we testified to they agreed with us 100 percent. … But for some reason they don’t want to believe us that we were told to stand down.”

“Do you have a political motive?” Kelly asked.

“No,” replied the three commandos.

The claim that the security operators were told to “stand down” is nothing new. Mark “Oz” Geist, Paronto and Tiegen made it in their book “13 Hours: The Inside Account of What Really Happened in Benghazi” last year. That book, however, has found its way back in the media spotlight as Michael Bay’s film adaption is set to hit theaters this month.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2016/01/05/when-fox-news-host-notes-investigators-concluded-there-was-no-benghazi-stand-down-order-commando-replies-with-just-three-words/

Obama on "Conspiracy" To Take Away Guns: "The United States Was Born Suspicious Of Some Distant Authority"

https://youtu.be/Pvylv6z1qSU

https://youtu.be/inJsw8Z690I

MARK KELLY: Often what you hear in the debate of expanding background checks to more gun sales, and, as you know, Gabby and I are 100% behind the concept of somebody getting a background check before buying a gun.

But, when we testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, we heard not only from the gun lobby, but from United States Senators that expanding background checks will, not may, will lead to a registry, which will lead to confiscation, which will lead to a tyrannical government.

So, I would like you to explain with 350 million guns in 65 million places, households, from Key West, to Alaska, 350 million objects in 65 million places, if the Federal government wanted to confiscate those objects, how would they do that? (APPLAUSE)

OBAMA: Well, look, first of all, everytime I see Gabby I'm just so thrilled because I visited her in the hospital, and, as I mentioned, I think, in the speech in the White House, as we left the hospital then to go to a memorial service, we got word that Gabby had opened her eyes for the first time.

And, we did not think she was going to be here, and she is, and Mark's just been extraordinary.

And, by the way, Mark's twin brothers up in space right now, and is breaking the record for the longest continuous orbiting of the planet, which is pretty impressive stuff.

What I think Mark is alluding to is what I said earlier, this notion of a conspiracy out there, and it gets wrapped up in concerns about the Federal government.

Now, there's a long history of that, that's in our DNA, you know? The United States was born suspicious of some distant authority...

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN: ... now, let me just jump in here, is it fair to call it a conspiracy...

PRESIDENT OBAMA: ... well, yeah...

COOPER: ... because a lot of people really believe this deeply, that they just don't...

OBAMA: ... no...

COOPER: ... they just don't trust you.

OBAMA: I'm sorry, Cooper, yes. It is fair to call the conspiracy, what are you saying? Are you suggesting that the notion that we are creating a plot to take everybody's guns away so that we can impose martial law...

COOPER: ... not everybody, but there's certainly a lot of...

OBAMA: ... but a conspiracy? Yes, that is a conspiracy! I would hope that would agree with that.

(APPLAUSE)

OBAMA: Is that controversial? Except on some website...

COOPER: There are -- there are certainly a lot of people who just have a fundamental distrust that you do not want to get -- go further and further and further down this road.

OBAMA: Well, look, I mean, I'm only going to be here for another year. I don't know -- when -- when would I have started on this enterprise, right? I come from the state of Illinois, which we've been talking about

Chicago, but downstate Illinois is closer to Kentucky than it is to Chicago. And everybody hunts down there. And a lot of folks own guns. And so this is not, like, alien territory to me. I've got a lot of friends, like Mark, who are hunters. I just came back from Alaska where I ate a moose that had just been shot, and it was pretty good.

So, yes, it is -- it is a false notion that I believe is circulated for either political reasons or commercial reasons in order to prevent a coming-together among people of goodwill to develop commonsense rules that will make us safer while preserving the Second Amendment.

And the notion that we can't agree on some things while not agreeing on others, and the reason for that is because, "Well, the president secretly wants to do X," would mean that we'd be paralyzed about doing everything. I mean, maybe when I propose to make sure that, you know, unsafe drugs are taken off the market that secretly I'm trying to control the entire drug industry or take people's drugs away, but probably not. What's more likely is I just want to make sure that people are not dying by taking bad drugs.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2016/01/07/obama_on_conspiracy_to_take_away_guns_the_united_states_was_born_suspicious_of_some_distant_authority.html

JUDGE RULES AGAINST OBAMA ON 'FAST AND FURIOUS'
President cannot use executive privilege to keep records hidden

(THE HILL) — A federal judge on Tuesday ruled President Obama cannot use executive privilege to keep records on the “Fast and Furious” gun-tracking program from Congress.

U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson ordered the administration to release documents that it has been attempting to withhold by asserting executive privilege.

The ruling also requires the administration to release to Congress all “segregable portions” of records they are withholding that are considered “attorney-client privileged material, attorney work product, private information, law enforcement sensitive material, or foreign policy sensitive material.”

Read the full story ›

http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/266321-judge-rules-against-obama-on-fast-and-furious

http://www.businessinsider.com/r-special-report-why-obama-and-other-gun-control-advocates-own-stock-in-firearms-makers-2016-2
Why Obama and other gun control advocates own stock in firearm companies
2/5/16

Barack Obama might seem an unlikely investor in the firearms industry. But the U.S. president, a fierce advocate for gun regulation, has money in a pension fund that holds stock in gun and ammunition companies.

Although Obama’s stake is minuscule, worth no more than $30, it reflects a much larger surge of investment.

The president is among millions of Americans buying into gun companies - often unwittingly - as mutual funds have increased such holdings to record levels, according to a Reuters analysis of institutional investment in firearms companies.

Since Obama was elected in 2009, mutual funds have raised their stakes to about $510 million from $30 million in the nation’s two largest gun manufacturers with publicly traded shares, Smith & Wesson Corp and Sturm, Ruger & Co. That means such stocks are now common in retirement and college savings plans.

The influx has helped to boost both companies' shares by more than 750 percent during the Obama presidency; each now has a market value of about $1 billion.

Beyond mutual funds, such investments also are held in the portfolios of hedge funds and public pension plans, which are harder to track.

The White House declined to comment on Obama’s holdings in the Illinois General Assembly’s pension plan, which he earned while serving in that state’s senate. The president has disclosed between $50,000 and $100,000 in the plan.

more

Obama: ‘I Certainly Have Not Contributed To’ Dividing The Country
What planet is he living on?

(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/7f/34/5d/7f345d4734b6f49e43fdff2d8d0d9887.jpg)

President Obama said today during a White House joint press conference with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that he, Obama, has “certainly... not contributed to” dividing the country, reports the Daily Caller.

Obama said, “I’ve said at the State of the Union that one of my regrets is the degree to which polarization and the nasty tone of our politics has accelerated rather than waned over the course of the last 7 1/2 years.”

Agreed. And you were president for that time frame. Interesting coincidence, no?

Obama went on to explain who is at fault. Take a wild guess:

    I do all kinds of soul searching in terms of, are there things that I can do better to make sure that we are unifying the country. But I also have to say… that objectively it’s fair to say that the Republican political elites and many of the information outlets, social media and news stations, talk radio, television stations have been feeding the Republican base for the last seven years a notion that everything I do is to be opposed, that cooperation or compromise somehow is a betrayal, that maximalist, absolutist positions on issues are politically advantageous, that there is a ‘them’ out there and an ‘us’ and ‘them’ are the folks who are causing whatever the problems you’re experiencing and the tone of that politics, which I certainly have not contributed to.

No, Mr. President, "objectively it's fair to say" that your radical anti-Americanism and your aim to fundamentally transform this country are to blame. It's not the fault of the vast right-wing conspiracy.

He continued:

    You know, I don’t think that I was the one to prompt questions about my birth certificate, for example. I don’t remember saying, "Hey, why don’t you ask me about that?" "Why don’t you question whether I’m American or whether I’m loyal or whether I have America’s best interests at heart." Those aren’t things that were prompted by any actions of mine, and so what you’re seeing within the Republican Party is, to some degree, all of those efforts over a course of time creating an environment where somebody like a Donald Trump can thrive.

Questions about whether Obama has America's best interests at heart weren't prompted by any of his actions? Seriously? Sounds like someone is living in a river in Egypt.

http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/obama-i-certainly-have-not-contributed-dividing-country

9/11 Victims Families Furious As Obama Tries To Block Passage Of Bill Holding Saudi Arabia Responsible

“It’s stunning to think that Obama and our government would back the Saudis over its own citizens,” said Mindy Kleinberg, whose husband died in the World Trade Center on Sept. 11 and who is part of a group of victims’ family members pushing for the legislation.

Saudi Arabia has told the Obama administration and members of Congress that it will sell off hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of American assets held by the kingdom if Congress passes a bill that would allow the Saudi government to be held responsible in American courts for any role in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

“I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.” – Barack Hussein Obama

The Obama administration has lobbied Congress to block the bill’s passage, according to administration officials and congressional aides from both parties, and the Saudi threats have been the subject of intense discussions in recent weeks between lawmakers and officials from the State Department and the Pentagon. The officials have warned senators of diplomatic and economic fallout from the legislation.

https://youtu.be/n-iA6tZTYZg

Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi foreign minister, delivered the kingdom’s message personally last month during a trip to Washington, telling lawmakers that Saudi Arabia would be forced to sell up to $750 billion in treasury securities and other assets in the United States before they could be in danger of being frozen by American courts.

The administration, which argues that the legislation would put Americans at legal risk overseas, has been lobbying so intently against the bill that some lawmakers and families of Sept. 11 victims are infuriated. In their view, the Obama administration has consistently sided with the kingdom and has thwarted their efforts to learn what they believe to be the truth about the role some Saudi officials played in the terrorist plot.

https://youtu.be/pQG8PIqLp7k

“It’s stunning to think that our government would back the Saudis over its own citizens,” said Mindy Kleinberg, whose husband died in the World Trade Center on Sept. 11 and who is part of a group of victims’ family members pushing for the legislation.
28 Pages That Will Change the World:

Will Bush and Cheney end up behind bars? Senator is on board with an ongoing effort to release government documents pertaining to the 9/11 attacks that have thus far remained secret on “national security” grounds. The 28 pages of documents are thought to contain information relating to the direct involvement in the attacks of senior figures in the Saudi Arabian government.

https://youtu.be/t6sodFTx8So

President Obama will arrive in Riyadh on Wednesday for meetings with King Salman and other Saudi officials. It is unclear whether the dispute over the Sept. 11 legislation will be on the agenda for the talks.

Saudi officials have long denied that the kingdom had any role in the Sept. 11 plot, and the 9/11 Commission found “no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded the organization.” But critics have noted that the commission’s narrow wording left open the possibility that less senior officials or parts of the Saudi government could have played a role. Suspicions have lingered, partly because of the conclusions of a 2002 congressional inquiry into the attacks that cited some evidence that Saudi officials living in the United States at the time had a hand in the plot.
Those conclusions, contained in 28 pages of the report, still have not been released publicly.

The dispute comes as bipartisan criticism is growing in Congress about Washington’s alliance with Saudi Arabia, for decades a crucial American ally in the Middle East and half of a partnership that once received little scrutiny from lawmakers. Last week, two senators introduced a resolution that would put restrictions on American arms sales to Saudi Arabia, which have expanded during the Obama administration. source

http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/obama-tries-to-block-passage-of-911-bill-that-would-hold-saudi-arabia-responsible-for-attacks/

Saudi Arabia Warns of Economic Fallout if Congress Passes 9/11 Bill

 Saudi Arabia has told the Obama administration and members of Congress that it will sell off hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of American assets held by the kingdom if Congress passes a bill that would allow the Saudi government to be held responsible in American courts for any role in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The Obama administration has lobbied Congress to block the bill’s passage, according to administration officials and congressional aides from both parties, and the Saudi threats have been the subject of intense discussions in recent weeks between lawmakers and officials from the State Department and the Pentagon. The officials have warned senators of diplomatic and economic fallout from the legislation.

Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi foreign minister, delivered the kingdom’s message personally last month during a trip to Washington, telling lawmakers that Saudi Arabia would be forced to sell up to $750 billion in treasury securities and other assets in the United States before they could be in danger of being frozen by American courts.

Several outside economists are skeptical that the Saudis will follow through, saying that such a sell-off would be difficult to execute and would end up crippling the kingdom’s economy. But the threat is another sign of the escalating tensions between Saudi Arabia and the United States.

The administration, which argues that the legislation would put Americans at legal risk overseas, has been lobbying so intently against the bill that some lawmakers and families of Sept. 11 victims are infuriated. In their view, the Obama administration has consistently sided with the kingdom and has thwarted their efforts to learn what they believe to be the truth about the role some Saudi officials played in the terrorist plot.

“It’s stunning to think that our government would back the Saudis over its own citizens,” said Mindy Kleinberg, whose husband died in the World Trade Center on Sept. 11 and who is part of a group of victims’ family members pushing for the legislation.

President Obama will arrive in Riyadh on Wednesday for meetings with King Salman and other Saudi officials. It is unclear whether the dispute over the Sept. 11 legislation will be on the agenda for the talks.
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    ISIS Turns Saudis Against the Kingdom, and Families Against Their Own MARCH 31, 2016

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A spokesman for the Saudi Embassy did not respond to a message seeking comment.

Saudi officials have long denied that the kingdom had any role in the Sept. 11 plot, and the 9/11 Commission found “no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded the organization.” But critics have noted that the commission’s narrow wording left open the possibility that less senior officials or parts of the Saudi government could have played a role. Suspicions have lingered, partly because of the conclusions of a 2002 congressional inquiry into the attacks that cited some evidence that Saudi officials living in the United States at the time had a hand in the plot.

Those conclusions, contained in 28 pages of the report, still have not been released publicly.

The dispute comes as bipartisan criticism is growing in Congress about Washington’s alliance with Saudi Arabia, for decades a crucial American ally in the Middle East and half of a partnership that once received little scrutiny from lawmakers. Last week, two senators introduced a resolution that would put restrictions on American arms sales to Saudi Arabia, which have expanded during the Obama administration.

Families of the Sept. 11 victims have used the courts to try to hold members of the Saudi royal family, Saudi banks and charities liable because of what the plaintiffs charged was Saudi financial support for terrorism. These efforts have largely been stymied, in part because of a 1976 law that gives foreign nations some immunity from lawsuits in American courts.

The Senate bill is intended to make clear that the immunity given to foreign nations under the law should not apply in cases where nations are found culpable for terrorist attacks that kill Americans on United States soil. If the bill were to pass both houses of Congress and be signed by the president, it could clear a path for the role of the Saudi government to be examined in the Sept. 11 lawsuits.

Obama administration officials counter that weakening the sovereign immunity provisions would put the American government, along with its citizens and corporations, in legal risk abroad because other nations might retaliate with their own legislation. Secretary of State John Kerry told a Senate panel in February that the bill, in its current form, would “expose the United States of America to lawsuits and take away our sovereign immunity and create a terrible precedent.”

The bill’s sponsors have said that the legislation is purposely drawn very narrowly — involving only attacks on American soil — to reduce the prospect that other nations might try to fight back.

In a closed-door briefing on Capitol Hill on March 4, Anne W. Patterson, an assistant secretary of state, and Andrew Exum, a top Pentagon official on Middle East policy, told staff members of the Senate Armed Services Committee that American troops and civilians could be in legal jeopardy if other nations decide to retaliate and strip Americans of immunity abroad. They also discussed the Saudi threats specifically, laying out the impacts if Saudi Arabia made good on its economic threats.

John Kirby, a State Department spokesman, said in a statement that the administration stands by the victims of terrorism, “especially those who suffered and sacrificed so much on 9/11.”

Edwin M. Truman, a fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said he thought the Saudis were most likely making an “empty threat.” Selling hundreds of billions of dollars in American assets would not only be technically difficult to pull off, he said, but would also very likely cause global market turmoil for which the Saudis would be blamed.

Moreover, he said, it could destabilize the American dollar — the currency to which the Saudi riyal is pegged.

“The only way they could punish us is by punishing themselves,” Mr. Truman said.

The bill is an anomaly in a Congress fractured by bitter partisanship, especially during an election year. It is sponsored by Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, and Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York. It has the support of an unlikely coalition of liberal and conservative senators, including Al Franken, Democrat of Minnesota, and Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas. It passed through the Judiciary Committee in January without dissent.

“As our nation confronts new and expanding terror networks that are targeting our citizens, stopping the funding source for terrorists becomes even more important,” Mr. Cornyn said last month.

The alliance with Saudi Arabia has frayed in recent years as the White House has tried to thaw ties with Iran — Saudi Arabia’s bitter enemy— in the midst of recriminations between American and Saudi officials about the role that both countries should play in the stability of the Middle East.

But the administration has supported Saudi Arabia on other fronts, including providing the country with targeting intelligence and logistical support for its war in Yemen. The Saudi military is flying jets and dropping bombs it bought from the United States — part of the billions of dollars in arms deals that have been negotiated with Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf nations during the Obama administration.

The war has been a humanitarian disaster and fueled a resurgence of Al Qaeda in Yemen, leading to the resolution in Congress to put new restrictions on arms deals to the kingdom. Senator Christopher S. Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, one of the resolution’s sponsors and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that Congress has been “feckless” in conducting oversight of arms sales, especially those destined for Saudi Arabia.

“My first desire is for our relationship with Saudi Arabia to come with a greater degree of conditionality than it currently does,” he said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/16/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-warns-ofeconomic-fallout-if-congress-passes-9-11-bill.html?_r=0

Do you know when Hillary Clinton is lying? Her lips are moving

See Stephanopoulos’ Reaction When Clinton Claims She’s Ignorant About 9/11 Legislation

Days before the April 19 New York primary, Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton appeared on ABC’s “This Week” with George Stephanopoulos. The former secretary of state fielded questions on a wide range of sensitive topics like the FBI investigation into her private email server, the transcripts of her paid Wall Street speeches and a proposed $15 federal minimum wage.

But one issue in particular seemed to launch the candidate into self-defense mode: A New York bill backed by families of 9/11 victims.

“Your senior senator here in New York, Chuck Schumer, sponsored a bill backed by the 9/11 families that would give them the right to sue state sponsors of terror in federal court,” Stephanopoulos said. “Now, it’s opposed by the Obama administration. They say it’s going to expose the U.S. and its officials to retaliation. So who’s right here, Senator Schumer or President Obama?”

Instead of answering the questions, Clinton claimed she was unfamiliar with the legislation and thus wouldn’t be able to provide clear or accurate details. Instead, she took a middle-ground approach:

“I don’t really know about that, George,” she said. “I’ll have to look into it. Obviously, we’ve got to make anyone who participates in or supports terrorism pay a price, and we also have to be aware of any consequences that might affect Americans, either military or civilian or our nation. So, I’m not able to take a position on something…”

Clinton’s response triggered this expression:

“You don’t know about this issue?” Stephanopoulos asked, evidently surprised by the former New York senator’s response. “It’s been around for several years.”

“Well … I know there’s been an issue about it for quite some time,” Clinton replied. “I don’t know about the specific legislation that you’re referring to. But obviously, I’ll look into it.”

“Ok, so but you’re not prepared to say now if you support it or oppose it?” the ABC host pressed.

“I can’t. I haven’t studied it,” Clinton said. “Unlike some people, I actually do try to learn what’s at the core of any question before I offer an opinion, because you know, it’s not enough to say what’s wrong. I think you have a responsibility to say how you’re going to fix it.”

Clinton served as a New York senator from 2001 to 2009 before leaving her post to work for the Obama Administration as secretary of state until 2013.

https://youtu.be/7c9NUcY5JA4

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2016/04/17/see-stephanopoulos-reaction-when-clinton-claims-shes-ignorant-about-911-legislation/

Video of a State Dept. Official ‘Lying’ to Reporter James Rosen Mysteriously Deleted — Here’s the Government’s Response

Fox News’ chief Washington correspondent James Rosen reported that a video of a 2013 State Department press briefing regarding the Iranian nuclear agreement had been altered to omit his exchange with the department spokesperson during an appearance on “Special Report” with Bret Baier on Monday.

The video’s alteration comes as the Obama Administration faces allegations that it knowingly deceived the American public about details of the deal with Iran.

“Late today, we discovered that the State Department’s video of its December 2, 2013, press briefing, at which I confronted spokesperson Jen Psaki about the false statement made by her predecessor, Victoria Nuland – the one you saw in my story tonight – has itself, with the use of a white flash, been deleted from both the State Department’s official website and from its YouTube channel,” Rosen said. “In that exchange, Psaki effectively admitted that the administration had lied to me because the diplomacy needed ‘privacy.’”

During the 2013 exchange in question, Rosen asked Psaki about Nuland’s statement that there were “no” secret talks going on with Iran.

“Is it the policy of the State Department, where the preservation or the secrecy of secret negotiations is concerned, to lie in order to achieve that goal?” Rosen asked.

Psaki replied, “James, I think there are times where diplomacy needs privacy in order to progress. This is a good example of that.”

When asked about the deletion by Rosen, the State Department replied that they cannot explain the omission and they are working to restore the footage.

In an interview with the New York Times last week, President Obama’s Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said that talks with Iran started around 2011. However, the administration has pointed to the election of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in 2013, whom they characterized as a moderate, as the reason for the beginning of the talks in 2013.

In an article published on Medium on Monday, Rhodes wrote “we never made any secret of our interest in pursuing a nuclear deal with Iran.”

“The fact that there were discreet channels of communication established with Iran in 2012 is something that we confirmed publicly,” he added.

Rosen alleged “that’s not true,” arguing that the “talks were under way for eight months” at the time of the now-deleted exchange.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZMrCh74zQI

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2016/05/10/video-of-a-state-dept-official-lying-to-reporter-james-rosen-mysteriously-deleted-heres-the-governments-response/

Obama Blames 'Right-Wing Radio' for Making 'People Think Big Government is the Problem'
"It's pumped into cars and bars and VFW halls all across America."

President Obama visited Elkhart, Indiana on Wednesday and during a town hall meeting blamed "right-wing radio" for distorting his economic record and for making "people think big government is the problem."

"I hope you don't mind me being blunt about this," the president said, "but I've been listening to this stuff for a while now and I'm concerned when I watch the direction of our politics."

When Obama visited Elkhart seven years ago, the unemployment rate was near 20%. Now, he boasts that the rate has dropped to around 4% in the city and 5% across the state.

The president seems to be on a legacy tour, promoting his tenure in the last remaining months he has at the White House. So, every opportunity must be used to blame the vast right-wing conspiracy, especially Fox News and talk radio:

"I mean, we have been hearing this story for decades: tales about welfare queens, talking about takers, talking about the '47 percent'. It's the story that is broadcast every day on some cable news stations, on right-wing radio. It's pumped into cars and bars and VFW halls all across America, and right here in Elkhart. And if you're hearing that story all the time, you start believing it.

"It's no wonder people think big government is the problem."

We don't need talk radio to tell us big government is the problem, Mr. President. Our Founding Fathers warned of it long ago.

http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/obama-blames-right-wing-radio-making-people-think-big-government-problem

If that was true than why are there so many Liberals in office right now?  ::)

Authorities Find Accused Somali War Criminal Working as Airport Security Guard in Washington, D.C.

A Somali national accused of leading mass executions and torturing people during his country’s bloody civil war in the 1980s has been working as a security guard at the Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C, passing through all TSA and FBI checks for the past six years.

Yusuf Abdi Ali, who is living in Alexandria, Virginia, was discovered by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, according to Fox 5. Ali had been through the full, federally mandated vetting process required to obtain an airport badge, officials said.

Since the revelation, Ali has been placed on administrative leave, and his airport access has been revoked. Airport officials said that they are aware the Somali native was named in a lawsuit filed by a human rights group in 2006 for crimes against humanity. According to CNN, the case has faced several appeals and is headed to the Supreme Court.

“The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority maintains a contract with Master Security to provide unarmed security services,” MWAA spokesman Rob Yingling said. “Master Security’s employees are subject to the full, federally-mandated vetting process in order to be approved for an airport badge, including a criminal history records check by the FBI and a security threat assessment by the TSA.”

Tingling said the authority has “verified that all of these processes were followed and approved” when it comes to Ali.

The MWAA also said it was unaware of the pending litigation involving Ali and is now reviewing the information surrounding that case.

The U.S. government has been aware of Ali for several years, officials told CNN, “based upon allegations that he had been involved in human rights violations.” They declined to provide any further information.

“He oversaw some of the most incredible violence that you can imagine,” Kathy Roberts, a lawyer for the Center of Justice and Accountability, which is leading the civil lawsuit, told CNN. “He tortured people personally; he oversaw torture.”

A government regime led by Mohamed Siad Barre took power in 1969 and ruled dictatorially following a coup in Somalia. Ali served as a commander in the regime and is accused of terrorizing Isaaq, the once-dominant clan in the country’s northern region.

“He tied [my brother] to military vehicle and dragged him behind. He said to us if you’ve got enough power, get him back,” one survivor said on a 1992 CBC documentary. “He shredded him into pieces. That’s how he died.”

However, Ali denies all the accusations of violence, claiming they are both “false” and “baseless.”

“How dare anyone call him a war criminal,” Joseph Peter Drennan, Ali’s lawyer, said. “If he is indeed a war criminal, take him to The Hague. Or if he is a war criminal, take it up with the immigration authorities. Don’t sue him in an American court.”

“My client deserves to live in the U.S. just as any other legal permanent resident,” he added.

Ali first came to the United States on a visa through his wife, who became a citizen. She was found guilty in 2006 of naturalization fraud, after claiming to be a refugee from Somalia’s Isaaq clan.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2016/06/02/authorities-find-accused-somali-war-criminal-working-as-airport-security-guard-in-washington-d-c/

For starters, where does the Justice Department get this authority? Now the government is just out right concealing information and lying to people. 

Lynch: "Partial Transcript" Of Orlando 911 Calls Will Have References To Islamic Terrorism Removed

In an interview with NBC's Chuck Todd, Attorney General Loretta Lynch says that on Monday, the FBI will release edited transcripts of the 911 calls made by the Orlando nightclub shooter to the police during his rampage.

"What we're not going to do is further proclaim this man's pledges of allegiance to terrorist groups, and further his propaganda," Lynch said. "We are not going to hear him make his assertions of allegiance [to the Islamic State]."

Lynch: References to Islam From Orlando Terrorist 911 Call Removed "To Avoid Revictimizing"

The Washington Post reported last week that the gunman made multiple phone calls while holding hostages: "The gunman who opened fire inside a nightclub here said he carried out the attack because he wanted 'Americans to stop bombing his country,' according to a witness who survived the rampage."

Salon reported that: “Everybody who was in the bathroom who survived could hear him talking to 911, saying the reason why he’s doing this is because he wanted America to stop bombing his country."

The Washington Post also noted that during his 911 call from the club, the gunman referenced the Boston Marathon bombers and claimed "that he carried out the shooting to prevent bombings, [echoing] a message the younger Boston attacker had scrawled in a note before he was taken into custody by police."

FBI Director James Comey said at a press conference that the shooter’s past comments about Islamist groups were "inflammatory and contradictory."

"We see no clear evidence that he was directed externally," the president added. "It does appear that at the last minute, he announced allegiance to ISIL. But there is no evidence so far that he was in fact directed by ISIL, and at this stage there’s no direct evidence that he was part of a larger plot." ISIL is another name for ISIS, or the Islamic State.

Loretta Lynch says the FBI will release: "A printed transcript [that] will begin to capture the back and forth between him and the negotiators."

"We're trying to get as much information about this investigation out as possible," she said.

Transcript:
LORETTA LYNCH: What we're announcing tomorrow is that the FBI is releasing a partial transcript of the killer's calls with law enforcement, from inside the club. These are the calls with the Orlando PD negotiating team, who he was, where he was... that will be coming out tomorrow and I'll be headed to Orlando on Tuesday.

CHUCK TODD: Including the hostage negotiation part of this?

LYNCH: Yes, it will be primarily a partial transcript of his calls with the hostage negotiators.

CHUCK TODD: You say partial, what's being left out?

LYNCH: What we're not going to do is further proclaim this man's pledges of allegiance to terrorist groups, and further his propaganda.

CHUCK TODD: We're not going to hear him talk about those things?

LYNCH: We will hear him talk about some of those things, but we are not going to hear him make his assertions of allegiance and that. It will not be audio, it will be a printed transcript. But it will begin to capture the back and forth between him and the negotiators, we're trying to get as much information about this investigation out as possible. As you know, because the killer is dead, we have a bit more leeway there and we will be producing that information tomorrow.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2016/06/19/lynch_partial_transcript_of_orlando_911_calls_will_have_references_to_isis_cut_out.html

Time For A Military Coup In America? Obama Administration Inarguably Just Provided Aid And Comfort To Enemies Within The United States Of America

ISIS aka ISIL and IS (Islamic State) is listed at the U.S. State Department is designated as a "Foreign Terrorist Organization," that has threatened the United States on dozens of occassions, has specifically called on supporters to attack within America, urging so-called "lone wolf" attacks to strike. ISIS warned there would be an attack in Florida just three days before 49 people were killed with another 50-plus injured in an attack at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando. ISIS published a list of 8,000 names as a "hit list," with hundreds of those people residing in Florida. After the Orlando massacre ISIS praised the killer and encouraged other "lone wolf" terrorists to attack "movie theaters, hospitals, airports, trains, amusement parks and restaurants."

Links to each assertion is hyperlinked above or readers can do their own search on whatever engine they use to find a number of reports about each assertion...... so, is there any doubt whatsoever that ISIS is an enemy of the United States of America and urging their supporters to attack Americans on U.S. soil?

NO.

SAN BERNARDINO AND ORLANDO TERRORISTS PLEDGED ALLEGIANCE TO ISIS

The Washington Post, NBC News, NY Daily News and NY Post, among a variety of other news organizations, confirm the San Bernardino attacker, who killed over a dozen people in California, pledged allegiance to the Islamic State aka ISIS.

On June 12, 2016, the morning of the Orlando Florida attack, NBC News, CNN, The Hill and others all reported that in a call with authorities the killer, Omar Mateen, "pledged allegiance to ISIS."

NBC News reported "The gunman called 911 before the attack, expressing fealty to ISIS. He twice had been investigated by federally authorities for alleged comments he made about terrorism, but both investigations were closed."

Via The Hill "Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said on Sunday that he was told the Orlando, Fla., nightclub shooting suspect pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS)."

CBS News and Fox News reported that Mateen also called a local news station, News 13 in Orlando, who reported the following:

"It was at 2:45 a.m. when I had just received the phone call of someone claiming to be the Orlando shooter," he said in an interview with the station. "I answered the phone as I always do: 'News 13, this is Matt.' And on the other end, I heard, 'Do you know about the shooting?'"

Gentili started to explain that he was aware of the shooting before the caller interrupted him.

"I'm the shooter. It's me. I am the shooter," the person on the line said.

The caller began to tell him that he committed the atrocity at the nightclub and that he was doing it for the Islamic State.

"He did it for ISIS, and he started speaking Arabic," Gentili said. "At the time, I didn't know what he was saying. He was speaking so fast. But it was ... he was speaking fluently. Whatever language he was speaking, he knew it. And he was speaking it very quickly. And that is when I said to him, 'Sir. Please. Speak in English, please.'"

ABC News, CBS News and Fox News all reported on posts Mateen put on Facebook pledging his allegiance to ISIS, stating "I pledge my alliance to (ISIS leader) abu bakr al Baghdadi..may Allah accept me.  The real muslims will never accept the filthy ways of the west" …"You kill innocent women and children by doing us airstrikes..now taste the Islamic state vengeance."

(Please note I linked to only MSM sources so trolls cannot pretend that only "alternative" news reported it.)

Is there any doubt whatsoever that the San Bernardino and Orlando attacks were perpetrated by ISIS supporters that pledged allegiance to the terror group?

NO.

OBAMA ADMINISTRATION JUST PROVIDED AID AND COMFORT TO ISIS SUPPORTERS - TREASON

It has clearly been established that ISIS is an enemy of the United States of America. It is also just as clear that the San Bernardino and Orlando attackers swore allegiance to ISIS, committed their heinous crimes in the name of ISIS.

Which brings us to the legal definition of Treason.

18 U.S. Code § 2381 - Treason - "Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States."

The first words are clear, those "owing allegiance to the United States" includes everyone from the president to members of congress, all taking an oath of office swearing to "defend the Constitution of the United States."

See Senate Oath, House Oath, Presidential Oath.

If any of the above "levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid or comfort within the United States or elsewhere," they are guilty of Treason.

We are going to set aside the issues of Fast and Furious, Benghazi and the importation of radical Islamics into the U.S. in the guise of the refugee resettlement program where ISIS has openly admitted they were infiltrating the refugee program, and a variety of other issues, and we are going to focus on just the release by the Obama administration of censored transcripts from the Orlando shooter where the Obama admin deliberately redacted any mention of the enemy of the United States, ISIS.

Those censored transcripts are geared to hide the fact that the terrorists was an ISIS supporter,and the Obama administration also removed reference to "Allah" and replaced it with the word "God," in yet a further attempt to hide from American citizens that the killer was a radical Islamic.

https://youtu.be/bigk-MEXyTw

As terrorists are gearing up for a summer of blood, the Obama administration, via the DOJ and Attorney General Loretta Lynch, are deliberately hiding the radical Islamic connection, which endangers Americans and hinders counter-terrorism efforts, following recent news that this is an official Obama administration policy, further evidenced  from reports that the Homeland Security Advisory Council (HSAC) submitted its Countering Violent Extremism report to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Jeh Johnson, urging officials to "avoid using the words "sharia" and "jihad" (among others) when discussing terrorism, in order to avoid offending Muslims.

By removing any reference from the official transcripts of the Orlando killer to the police, of ISIS and Islam and by removing Mateen's reference to "Allah," and replacing it with the word God, the Obama administration is not only offering "aid and comfort" to enemies "within the United States and elsewhere," but they are deliberately misleading Americans as to the nature of the threat with falsely edited transcripts.

AG Lynch has also recently made it clear that Muslims in America are "Under our protection," providing further evidence that the redaction of Mateen's references to "Allah" and ISIS, is an act by the Obama adminsitration to deliberately hide the truth from Americans to "protect" Muslims in America, which include radical Islamics, which could be considered a "subversive act" to "weaken the power of the United States," providing "aid and comfort" to the enemy, which is radical Islamics supportive of ISIS and residing in America.

That ladies and gentlemen is Treason by its legal definition.

Under Article III, Section 3, of the Constitution, any person who levies war against the United States or adheres to its enemies by giving them Aid and Comfort has committed treason within the meaning of the Constitution. The term aid and comfort refers to any act that manifests a betrayal of allegiance to the United States, such as furnishing enemies with arms, troops, transportation, shelter, or classified information. If a subversive act has any tendency to weaken the power of the United States to attack or resist its enemies, aid and comfort has been given.

This brings me to my last point, the headlined question of whether it is time for the U.S. military to remove Barack Obama and company from office.

IS IT TIME FOR A MILITARY COUP IN THE U.S.?

Commissioned officers take an oath as well, shown below:

"I, _____ (SSAN), having been appointed an officer in the Army of the United States, as indicated above in the grade of _____ do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which I am about to enter; So help me God." (DA Form 71, 1 August 1959, for officers.)

By that very oath alone, is it  not a requirement for those that took that oath in the U.S. military, to remove a man that has committed Treason against the United States, by giving comfort and aid to our enemies within the U.S., making Obama a "domestic enemy?"

https://youtu.be/vp3t5LEUVCA

http://allnewspipeline.com/Time_For_A_Military_Coup_In_The_US.php

BREAKING: ISIS Terrorists Used Obama’s Fast and Furious Gun During Paris Attack!

On the evening of 13 November 2015, ISIS linked terrorists slaughtered 130 people in a series of coordinated attacks in Paris.

The Islamists murdered 89 concertgoers at the Bataclan during a concert by the Eagles of Death Metal.

ISIS later released a poster of the Paris killers.

One of the guns used in the November 13, 2015 Paris terrorist attacks was from Phoenix where Obama allowed criminals and cartel members to buy thousands of guns in his Fast and Furious gun-walking program.

Judicial Watch reported:

One of the guns used in the November 13, 2015 Paris terrorist attacks came from Phoenix, Arizona where the Obama administration allowed criminals to buy thousands of weapons illegally in a deadly and futile “gun-walking” operation known as “Fast and Furious.”

A Report of Investigation (ROI) filed by a case agent in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (ATF) tracked the gun used in the Paris attacks to a Phoenix gun owner who sold it illegally, “off book,” Judicial Watch’s law enforcement sources confirm. Federal agents tracing the firearm also found the Phoenix gun owner to be in possession of an unregistered fully automatic weapon, according to law enforcement officials with firsthand knowledge of the investigation.

The investigative follow up of the Paris weapon consisted of tracking a paper trail using a 4473 form, which documents a gun’s ownership history by, among other things, using serial numbers. The Phoenix gun owner that the weapon was traced back to was found to have at least two federal firearms violations—for selling one weapon illegally and possessing an unregistered automatic—but no enforcement or prosecutorial action was taken against the individual. Instead, ATF leaders went out of their way to keep the information under the radar and ensure that the gun owner’s identity was “kept quiet,” according to law enforcement sources involved with the case. “Agents were told, in the process of taking the fully auto, not to anger the seller to prevent him from going public,” a veteran law enforcement official told Judicial Watch.

It’s not clear if the agency, which is responsible for cracking down on the illegal use and trafficking of firearms, did this because the individual was involved in the Fast and Furious gun-running scheme. An ATF spokesman, Corey Ray, at the agency’s Washington D.C. headquarters told Judicial Watch that “no firearms used in the Paris attacks have been traced” by the agency. When asked about the ROI report linking the weapon used in Paris to Phoenix, Ray said “I’m not familiar with the report you’re referencing.” Judicial Watch also tried contacting the Phoenix ATF office, but multiple calls were not returned.

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2016/06/breaking-isis-terrorists-used-obamas-fast-furious-gun-paris-attack/

Could Trump have been right? Propaganda film suggests Iran DID videotape cash-drop plane and photograph shipment of cash during January prisoner swap
February documentary that aired on Iranian state-run TV shows nighttime flight, pallet of cash matching prisoner-swap scenario reported this week
Donald Trump claimed three times this week that he had seen similar footage and that Iran had filmed the cash transfer to embarrass America
He walked back that claim Friday morning, saying he had only seen archival footage of a different plane delivering hostages safely to Geneva
He may have been right without knowing it: Propaganda broadcast shows the images and boasts the deal was great for Iran but terrible for the U.S.

Iranian state-run media in Tehran did indeed videotape the arrival of a January 17 flight carrying $400 million in cash from the United States – and the money itself – judging from a documentary that aired the following month in the Islamic republic.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has been in a firestorm of controversy since first claiming on Wednesday to have seen 'secret' footage of money being offloaded from an aircraft.

He admitted Friday morning on Twitter what his campaign had said more than a day earlier, that he had seen ordinary archival footage of a different plane, carrying American hostages freed from Iran arriving in Geneva Switzerland after the money changed hands.

But it turns out he may have been right without knowing it.

SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3725770/Could-Trump-right-Propaganda-film-suggests-Iran-DID-videotape-cash-drop-plane-photograph-shipment-cash-January-prisoner-swap.html#ixzz4GapqBwnw

House Task Force Confirms: ISIS Threat Was Altered in Intelligence Reports For Political Purposes

Last year the Daily Beast published a bombshell report featuring dozens of intelligence community whistleblowers alleging the Obama administration and top tier levels of the military were "cooking the books" on ISIS in order to paint a rosier picture for the American public and to downplay the real threat the terror army posed.

https://youtu.be/iEphkV7GWbw

https://youtu.be/NlbxLXG_9q8

Now, a House panel investigating the situation is confirming intelligence reports containing warnings about ISIS, it's growth, expansion, threat and overall influence, were scrubbed for political purposes.

A House Republican task force has found that officials from the U.S. military’s Central Command altered intelligence reports to portray the U.S. fight against ISIS and al Qaeda in a more positive light than lower-level analysts believed was warranted by the facts on the ground, three officials familiar with the task force’s findings told The Daily Beast.

A roughly 10-page report on the controversy is expected to be released by the end of next week, two officials said. While it contains no definitive evidence that senior Obama administration officials ordered the reports to be doctored, the five-month investigation did corroborate earlier reports that analysts felt the leaders of CENTCOM’s intelligence directorate pressured them to conclude that the threat from ISIS was not as ominous as the analysts believed, the officials said.

“The investigation is ongoing but the report substantiates the claims” that intelligence reports were altered, one official familiar with the report explained to The Daily Beast.
The Obama administration has been putting politics above national security for years. It's no wonder America and the world have become increasingly less safe.

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2016/08/10/house-task-force-confirms-isis-threat-was-downplayed-for-political-purposes-n2203772?utm_source=thdailypm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_pm&newsletterad=

State Dep't Admits $400 Million to Iran Was Prisoner Ransom, Confirming Obama Lied

The U.S. State Department on Thursday confirmed that the $400 million payment to Iran was contingent on the release of several American prisoners in Iran last January.

State Department spokesman John Kirby said that while negotiations over returning money to Iran from the decades-old accounts were conducted separately, the U.S. withheld the delivery of the cash as leverage until U.S. citizens had left Iran, the Associated Press reported.

The confirmation by the State Department comes following a report by the Wall Street Journal on Thursday that gave new details on the U.S.-Iran money exchange.

“U.S. officials wouldn’t let Iranians take control of the money until a Swiss Air Force plane carrying three freed Americans departed from Tehran on Jan. 17. Once that happened, an Iranian cargo plane was allowed to bring the cash home from a Geneva airport that day,” the WSJ report said.

Pres. Barack Obama and other top U.S. officials have repeatedly denied that the $400 million payment, which is part of a larger $1.7 billion debt from 1979 when Iran was ruled by Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was a ransom payment to the Islamic Republic. Republican lawmakers, however, have charged that the payment equated to ransom and promised to hold hearings on the exchange when Congress returns from its summer recess.

http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/74212/us-state-department-yes-paid-400-million-iran-release-prisoners/#DX5wmwbaXuDzETeV.97

http://www.naturalnews.com/054856_GMO_labeling_President_Obama_Dark_Act_20.html
President Obama signs bill that forever exempts Big Food from placing GMO labels on food packages
8/2/16

NaturalNews) While Americans were bustling about in preparation for their weekend, President Barack Obama quietly signed a bill late Friday afternoon that will likely forever keep people in the dark about the presence of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in their food.

Drafted by Senate Agriculture Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., and ranking Democrat Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, the legislation gives food producers the option to disclose GMO ingredients through digital codes, instead of the mandatory, on-package labels called for by 90 percent of citizens.

Consumers wishing to learn about GMO ingredients will have to use smart phones to scan a barcode on food packages that reads: "Scan here for more food information." The percentage of GMOs in a food product that requires QR code labeling will be decided by the future Secretary of Agriculture.

Future USDA secretary to decide which GMOs qualify for digital labeling
Arguably, the most devastating component of the faux GMO-labeling law is that it effectively overrides existing (and genuine) labeling laws in various states such as in Vermont, Maine and Connecticut.

The bill indefinitely bars Americans from their right to vote at the state level in the future for any sort of mandatory GMO-labeling. Under the law, it's possible that genetically engineered salmon will not be labeled as such in Alaska.

More than a decade ago, the state became the first in the nation to pass a GMO-labeling law, requiring genetically engineered fish be "conspicuously labeled to identify the fish or fish product as a genetically modified fish or fish product," applying to both packaged and unpackaged products.


Americans to eat GMO animals without knowing it
Many believed that Alaska's labeling law paved the way for other states to enact similar legislation – and it did – that is until the federal government gave in to industry pressures. Although GMO salmon is not yet on the market, advocates fear that once it is available, it won't be labeled.

"What we've been told is that if these genetically engineered salmon are out on the market, those who are marketing these salmon can voluntarily label them," said Senator Lisa Murkowski R-AK.

"Well let me ask you, who do you think is really going to voluntarily place a label on something that says, 'This is not the real thing. This is not your wild Alaska salmon. This is a genetically engineered species?'"


Food and chemical industry wins battle to keep Americans in the dark about GMOs
The legislation signed by Obama is a huge win for the food and chemical industry. Never again will they have to spend large sums of money defeating labeling at the state level, as was done previously in California, Colorado, Oregon and Washington – where hundreds of millions of dollars were spent by Big Food and Big Ag.

Never again will they bear the responsibility or fear of having to place on-package GMO labels, which would have surely caused substantial losses in revenue. The biotech industry will also be exempted from labeling gene edited foods, which just like GMOs are altered to withstand noxious herbicides that would normally result in plant death.

Obama's decision not to label GMOs highlights the false promises routinely made by candidates on the campaign trail.

"Here's what I'll do as president. I'll immediately implement Country Of Origin labeling because Americans should know where their food comes from. And we'll let folks know whether their food has been genetically modified because Americans should know what they're buying," said Obama while campaigning in 2007.

But instead Obama perpetuated the conflict-of-interest between powerful industries and government regulators, appointing a former Monsanto executive as the head of the Food and Drug Administration.

Rather than labeling GMOs, Obama made it so they may never be transparently labeled.

"I don't know what kind of legacy the president hopes to leave, but denying one-third of Americans the right to know what is in the food they feed their families isn't one to be proud of," said Andy Kimbrell, executive director at the Center for Food Safety.

"This law is a sham and a shame, a rushed backroom deal that discriminates against low-income, rural, minority and elderly populations. The law also represents a major assault on the democratic decision making of several states and erases their laws with a vague multi-year bureaucratic process specifically designed to provide less transparency to consumers."

Avoid GMOs altogether by growing your own organic veggies in the Garden Tower, a vertical grow box that produces healthy food without the need for chemical fertilizers. The Garden Tower allows you to grow up to 50 food-producing plants in about four square feet of space – making it the perfect solution for urban dwellers.

Obama Admin Won’t Tell Congress How It Paid Iran $1.3 Billion in Taxpayer Funds

The Obama administration is withholding from Congress details about how $1.3 billion in U.S. taxpayer funds was delivered to Iran... The Departments of State, Treasury, and Justice have all rebuffed a congressional probe into the...$1.3 billion payment to Iran which is part of an additional $400 million cash payout that occurred just prior to the release of several U.S. hostages...

http://freebeacon.com/national-security/obama-admin-wont-tell-congress-paid-iran-1-3-billion-taxpayer-funds/

MORE LIES: Obama Said Pallet of Cash Sent to Iran Because ‘Wire Transfers Not Available’ – But Wire Transfers Sent 2 Days Later

Jim Hoft Aug 25th, 2016 11:22 am 77 Comments

The Conservative Treehouse just caught Barack Obama in another blatant lie to the American public.

On August 4, 2016, Obama scolded the press for suggesting the $400 million pallet of cash sent to the Iranian regime was a ransom payment.

Obama sneered at the press when he told them a wire payment was not available.

And the only bit of news that is relevant on this, is the fact that we paid cash. Which brings me to my last point.

The reason that we had to give them cash is precisely because we are so strict in maintaining sanctions, and we do not have a banking relationship with Iran, that we couldn’t send them a check; and we could not wire the money.

Here’s the video:
https://youtu.be/aNJXlIwZEYA

But it was another Obama lie.

Two days after Obama sent Iran the ransom cash the US government wired 13 individual payments for $99,999,999.99 , each with an independent MICR, totaling $1,299,999,999.87.

Apparently President Obama was not being honest about why pallets of cash were sent and unloaded, and about the ability of the U.S. being able to wire Iran the funds.

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2016/08/lies-obama-said-pallet-cash-sent-iran-wire-transfers-not-available-wire-transfers-sent-2-days-later/

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/pence-i-accept-obama-was-born-in-us/ar-AAiC6IU?ocid=ansmsnnews11
Pence: 'I accept' Obama was born in US
9/7/16

Donald Trump's running mate, Mike Pence, on Wednesday said he accepts that President Obama was born in the U.S., something the GOP presidential nominee himself has shied away from discussing.

"I believe Barack Obama was born in Hawaii. I accept his birthplace," the Indiana governor told reporters, according to multiple tweets.

"I just don't know where he's coming from on foreign policy and on economics and on ObamaCare," Pence added.

Pence declined to say whether Trump should apologize for questioning Obama's birthplace, as Trump adviser Ben Carson has suggested he do.

Trump was reticent Tuesday night on Fox News when asked if his image among African-Americans was damaged because he repeatedly questioned whether Obama was born in the U.S.

Some considered his attacks to be racially charged and an attempt to delegitimize the nation's first black president.

"I don't know, I have no idea," Trump said. "I guess with maybe some."

"I don't even talk about it anymore," he said, adding, "I don't think so."

Trump's questioning of Obama's birthplace stoked a national debate on race and ultimately led to the White House releasing the president's long-form certificate in 2011.

The latest questions this week came after Trump on Monday declined to say whether he believes Obama was born in the U.S. during a discussion with reporters aboard his plane.

"I don't talk about it," Trump said.

http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/obama-united-nations-trashes-america-calls-global-government/
Obama At United Nations Calls For America To Be ‘Bound By International Laws’ Give Up Control

In his final speech to the United Nations General Assembly, President Obama laid out what he views as his foreign policy legacy -- and in so doing, highlighted how America itself still has much work to do.
9/20/16

11 TIMES OBAMA TALKED DOWN THE U.S. IN HIS FINAL U.N. ADDRESS

In his final speech to the United Nations General Assembly, President Obama laid out what he views as his foreign policy legacy — and in so doing, highlighted how America itself still has much work to do. Specifically, Obama found 11 separate opportunities to talk down his own country.
Here are some of the ways Obama told the United Nations America is falling short:

    In America, there’s too much money in politics.
    There’s also too much “entrenched partisanship.”
    Too few Americans are civically engaged.
    A “patchwork of laws” in America set out to make it hard for Americans to vote.
    Considering our founding ideals, America has made “our share of mistakes over these last 25 years.”
    The only way the world will become more secure is for powerful nations like America to “accept constraints.”
    For believing that all countries must adhere to certain “international norms,” many Americans criticize Obama.
    Too many in Washington believe all of the problems in the world can be solved by Washington.
    As president, he’s helped “curb” America’s “excesses of capitalism.”
    America has “undermined unions,” which has destroyed manufacturing jobs.
    In calling for greater respect and tolerance, Obama also likened racial discrimination in the U.S. to ethnic discrimination in Burundi and and religious discrimination in Burma.

EGYPT FILES SUIT AGAINST BARACK OBAMA AND HILLARY CLINTON FOR CONSPIRING WITH MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD
In two separate criminal complaints, Egyptian lawmakers have charged Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton with conspiring with the Muslim Brotherhood...

THE EGYPTIAN COMPLAINT READS THAT “BARACK OBAMA ASSISTED THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD IN CRIMES AGAINST EGYPT AND IT’S CITIZENS”
“Let his days be few; and let another take his office.” Psalm 109:8 (KJV)

My favorite expression about Barack Obama is “Everything is calculated.” I read comments and commentaries about how inept he is — that he does not know what he is doing. Ha! Obama knows exactly what he’s doing.

Remember when BHO went on the apology tour right after he was elected in 2008? Remember when he told world leaders that America had been involved in too many countries affairs and deserved the name “The world’s policeman?”

How in the world do you think that the so-called Arab Spring came about? Obama was a major player in this, and his Puppetmaster, George Soros, supplied the money. The plan was to destabilize the Middles East, and rid the Arabic countries of their secular governments, and replace them with the Muslim Brotherhood. That was the plan.

His diabolical plan backfired in Egypt. Not only was his great buddy, Mohamed Morsi, ousted, but he was incarcerated in 2012. He still sits in a jail cell to this day.

Egypt also jailed many members of the Muslim Brotherhood, and made it a crime to be part of this terrorist organization. Think about this: Obama has hosted the Muslim Brotherhood in the White House on several occasions. He has not hidden this from the press.

THIS IS SO SERIOUS TO THE EGYPTIAN GOVERNMENT, THAT OBAMA AND HILLARY CLINTON HAVE FORMAL CHARGES FILED AGAINST THEM IN EGYPT.
“In two separate criminal complaints, Egyptian lawmakers have charged Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton with conspiring with the Muslim Brotherhood.”

https://youtu.be/BqO0b_VcQ_Q

According to one of the criminal charges, Hillary Clinton was found to be working with ousted Muslim Brotherhood president Mohammed Morsi’s wife, Naglaa Mahmood, in attempting to overthrow the current leader of Egypt, General Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi.

But this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Watch Western Center for Journalism’s exclusive video to find out all the details about the traitor in the White House, Barack Hussein Obama, and his Muslim Brotherhood collaborator, Hillary Rodham Clinton.” [1] – source

WHAT’S SO BAD ABOUT THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD?
History of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt (1939-1954)

Links to the Nazis began during the 1930s and were close during the Second World War, involving agitation against the British, espionage and sabotage, as well as support for terrorist activities orchestrated by Haj Amin el-Hussaini in British Mandate Palestine, as a wide range of declassified documents from the British, American and Nazi German governmental archives, as well as from personal accounts and memoires from that period, confirm. Reflecting this connection the Muslim Brotherhood also disseminated Hitler’s Mein Kampf and The Protocols of the Elders of Zion widely in Arab translations, helping to deepen and extend already existing hostile views about Jews and Western societies generally.

In November 1948 police seized an automobile containing the documents and plans of what is thought to be the Brotherhood’s `secret apparatus` with names of its members. The seizure was preceded by an assortment of bombings and assassination attempts by the apparatus. Subsequently 32 of its leaders were arrested and its offices raided. The next month the Egyptian Prime Minister, Mahmud Fahmi Nokrashi, ordered the dissolution of the Brotherhood.
On December 28, 1948 Egypt’s prime minister was assassinated by Brotherhood member and veterinary student Abdel Meguid Ahmed Hassan, in what is thought to have been retaliation for the government crackdown. A month and half later Al-Banna himself was killed in Cairo by men believed to be government agents and/or supporters of the murdered premier. Al-Banna was succeeded as head of the Brotherhood by Hassan Isma’il al-Hudaybi, a former judge.

In 1952, members of the Muslim Brotherhood are accused of taking part in arson that destroyed some “750 buildings” in downtown Cairo — mainly night clubs, theatres, hotels, and restaurants frequented by British and other foreigners — “that marked the end of the liberal, progressive, cosmopolitan” Egypt.

The Brotherhood supported the military coup that overthrew the monarchy in 1952, but the junta was unwilling to share power or lift martial law and clashed with the Brotherhood. [2] – source

BARACK OBAMA AND HILLARY CLINTON – MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD MEMBERS
It does not take a rocket scientist to clearly see that BHO and Hillary are Muslim Brotherhood operatives. People – we ARE the frogs in the pot of water, which is heated very slowly as we happily hop around. The water get a tiny bit hotter little by little. Then, without seeing it coming, we are boiled and destroyed.

It may be too late already

It most certainly may be too late for us. By that I mean that America has turned her back on God, and is so immersed in gross, unspeakable sin, that God’s judgment IS Barack Obama, and possibly Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2016.

Those of us who belong to God must pray for America. Even though it looks so bleak, our Father is waiting to hear from us:

“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14 (KJV)

http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/bho-hillary-clinton-law-suit-egypt/

Report: Attorney General Loretta Lynch 'Pleads the Fifth' Over Iran Payment

According to a new report from The Washington Free Beacon, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch is refusing to answer any questions about her role in the Obama administration's $1.7 billion cash payment to Iran that coincided with the release of several Americans in Iranian custody.

Effectively, she's "pleading the fifth" to avoid incriminating herself over these payments, according to lawmakers and communications made public in the Free Beacon report. At issue is a series of questions asked by U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.) over how the payment to Iran was approved and delivered.

The Free Beacon's Adam Kredo reports:

In an Oct. 24 response, Assistant Attorney General Peter Kadzik responded on Lynch's behalf, refusing to answer the questions and informing the lawmakers that they are barred from publicly disclosing any details about the cash payment, which was bound up in a ransom deal aimed at freeing several American hostages from Iran.

The response from the attorney general's office is "unacceptable" and provides evidence that Lynch has chosen to "essentially plead the fifth and refuse to respond to inquiries regarding [her] role in providing cash to the world's foremost state sponsor of terrorism," Rubio and Pompeo wrote on Friday in a follow-up letter to Lynch, according to a copy obtained by the Free Beacon.

The inquiry launched by the lawmakers is just one of several concurrent ongoing congressional probes aimed at unearthing a full accounting of the administration's secret negotiations with Iran.

"It is frankly unacceptable that your department refuses to answer straightforward questions from the people's elected representatives in Congress about an important national security issue," the lawmakers wrote. "Your staff failed to address any of our questions, and instead provided a copy of public testimony and a lecture about the sensitivity of information associated with this issue."

"As the United States' chief law enforcement officer, it is outrageous that you would essentially plead the fifth and refuse to respond to inquiries," they stated. "The actions of your department come at time when Iran continues to hold Americans hostage and unjustly sentence them to prison."

http://www.charismanews.com/politics/issues/60885-report-attorney-general-loretta-lynch-pleads-the-fifth-over-iran-payment

Obama complains about fake news to a magazine that just got sued for publishing fake news\

 :D



President Barack Obama sat down with Jann Wenner of Rolling Stone magazine to discuss his legacy in the wake of the presidential election. When asked how the country goes about putting itself back together, Obama had quite an interesting take on the situation.

“Well, the most important thing that I’m focused on is how we create a common set of facts,” he started. “The biggest challenge that I think we have right now in terms of this divide is that the country receives information from completely different sources.”

Obama then continued:

    Good journalism continues to this day. There’s great work done in Rolling Stone. The challenge is people are getting a hundred different visions of the world from a hundred different outlets or a thousand different outlets, and that is ramping up divisions. It’s making people exaggerate or say what’s most controversial or peddling in the most vicious of insults or lies, because that attracts eyeballs. And if we are gonna solve that, it’s not going to be simply an issue of subsidizing or propping up traditional media; it’s going to be figuring out how do we organize in a virtual world the same way we organize in the physical world. We have to come up with new models.

Absent from Obama’s take on “fake news” was the fact that the very magazine he was speaking to had just been found guilty of, in fact, publishing fake news. Earlier this month, the very same magazine Obama dubbed as “good journalism” was found guilty of defamation for an article written by Sabrina Rubin Erdely.

Her article titled “A **** on Campus,” appeared in the December 2014 issue of Rolling Stone and centered around a woman named “Jackie” and an account of a vicious gang **** at the University of Virginia. The story unfortunately turned out to be, well, fake news.  The jury in the case found the story was written with reckless disregard for the truth and that Erdely was guilty of false reporting. Rolling Stone and Erdely were ordered to pay $3 million in damages to an administrator at the school who filed the suit.

Earlier in the interview, Obama singled out Fox News as a major reason the Democratic party lost the recent election, telling Wenner, “Part of it is Fox News in every bar and restaurant in big chunks of the country.”


http://www.theblaze.com/news/2016/11/30/obama-complains-about-fake-news-to-a-magazine-that-just-got-sued-for-publishing-fake-news/

IG Investigating Obama Admin Cyber Attacks On Georgia Election System

Feds have launched an investigation into why the Department of Homeland Security hacked into the Georgia state governmental network, including its election system, The Daily Caller News Foundation’s Investigative Group has learned.

John Roth, inspector general for DHS, wants to know why the agency broke protocol on its way to 10 unprecedented attacks on the system overseen by Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp — who is also one of the most vocal critics about the Obama administration’s attempt to designate local and state election machinery as part of federal “critical infrastructure.”

A Jan. 17 letter from Roth notified Kemp his office was officially “investigating a series of ten alleged scanning events of the Georgia Secretary of State’s network that may have originated from DHS-affiliated IP addresses.” A firewall in Georgia’s system thwarted each attempt.

Former DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson and Kemp have clashed over a federal government designation of election systems as  “critical infrastructure.”  Kemp called it “political power play to federalize elections.”

Johnson sparked a firestorm among state-level secretaries of state – Democrat and Republican alike — when he announced Jan. 6, two weeks before leaving office, that he was unilaterally issuing the designation.

If Roth’s investigation shows Johnson or his subordinates deliberately used federal cybersecurity resources to penetrate a state election system in order to pressure a state official over a policy dispute, it could represent a significant scandal for Johnson and for the outgoing Obama administration.

The “scans” are attacks to test security weaknesses in a network. It’s called the electronic equivalent of “rattling doorknobs” to see if they’re unlocked — or on a darker side, to send a message to a recipient.

Georgian IT specialists traced 10 such scans back to a DHS IP address. DHS officials confirmed the attacks came from an unnamed contractor attached to the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, Georgia, a part of DHS.

FLETCO officials have refuse to identify the contractor and the agency did not respond to a DCNF inquiry about the intrusions.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, a Utah Republican, asked Roth to investigate the matter in a Jan. 11 letter.

Chaffetz, who also is the chairman of the powerful House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform told Roth, “If these allegations are true, they implicate state sovereignty laws and various other constitutional issues, as well as federal and state criminal laws.” Rep. Jody Hice, a Georgia Republican, co-signed the letter to Roth. Hice sits on the national security subcommittee.

Title 18 of the federal code makes it a federal crime to “having knowingly accessed a computer without authorization” and to damage or impair the integrity or availability of data, a program, a system, or information.  The penalty could be a fine and up to 20 years for each offense.

Georgia also has several computer fraud and abuse statutes that could apply to the DHS contract employee and to other officials in Georgia who are implicated in the effort. Four of the 10 attacks against the Georgia network occurred as Kemp was about to talk to DHS officials, or coincided with his public testimony about his opposition to the critical infrastructure designation.

“It’s certainly concerning about the dates,” Kemp told TheDCNF in an interview. Kemp said he hopes the Inspector General gets to the bottom of the attacks and determines if there is a possibility the hacks were timed to intimidate him.

“Well, that’s a pretty easy dot to connect,” he said about the timing of the attacks.  “Certainly from a political perspective it makes a lot of sense to ask that question.” he said.

Kemp wrote President-elect Donald Trump Dec. 13, telling him “I respectfully write today to request that you task your new Secretary of Homeland Security with investigating the failed cyberattacks against the Georgia Secretary of State’s network firewall.”

“We’re certainly excited and glad that we’re just going to get our questions answered,” Kemp told TheDCNF.  “That’s all we’ve been asking for and we think we deserve to know what was going on.  The explanation they (DHS) have been giving us leaves a lot of holes unanswered.”

Johnson has given several explanations for the attempted intrusion. One was that an unnamed contracted who hit the site “as part of his normal job duties” to confirm professional licenses.

The former secretary hedged his response in a Dec. 12 letter, telling Kemp, “This is an interim response to your inquiry, subject to change.”

Kemp said the DHS answers have continued to change over time, and the department has been unwilling to identify the contractor.

“First they said it was an individual in Corpus Christi Texas who worked for border patrol that had a bug in his Microsoft software that was causing it.  And then they moved off of that, and said that it was somebody in Georgia at FLETCO down in Gleynn County on the coast of Georgia.”

Kemp said, “We’ve never been given the name of the employee.  We haven’t been able to talk to them.  We expect OIG would want to talk to that employee.”

The attacks against Kemp’s network – which also contains corporate information of registered companies in the state as well as professional licenses – began on February 2.

The last effort to penetrate the Georgia system, which Kemp called a “large attack,” occurred Nov. 15, a week after the election but before the state certified its results.



Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2017/01/25/exclusive-inspector-general-to-investigate-10-dhs-cyberattacks-on-georgia-election-system/#ixzz4Wqg2fTir

Malik Obama shares photo of brother Barack’s Kenya ‘certificate of birth’

An Obama has joined the birther movement.

Malik Obama, Barack Obama’s half-brother, tweeted image of what appears to be Barack’s birth certificate.

Except it’s not from Hawaii, but rather Kenya.

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C6f8IkCWAAAcyjN.jpg)

“What’s this?” he tweeted.

The document is from the “Coast Province General Hospital” in Mombasa, British Protectorate of Kenya, and is for Barack Hussein Obama II, who was born on the “4th day of August, 1961.”

In 2011, the White House released what it claimed was President Obama’s “long form birth certificate.”

The President believed the distraction over his birth certificate wasn’t good for the country. It may have been good politics and good TV, but it was bad for the American people and distracting from the many challenges we face as a country. Therefore, the President directed his counsel to review the legal authority for seeking access to the long form certificate and to request on that basis that the Hawaii State Department of Health make an exception to release a copy of his long form birth certificate.

Obama’s staff released this image of his Hawaii birth certificate:

http://www.theamericanmirror.com/malik-obama-shares-photo-brother-baracks-kenya-certificate-birth/

Lois Lerner: Public Can Never Know What I Did

Embattled ex-IRS executive Lois Lerner was in federal court last week, asking a judge to seal her forthcoming deposition due to the inflammatory nature of her testimony.

Lerner told the judge that if her actions at the IRS were to become public knowledge, she could face death threats from angry Americans – particularly those on the conservative side of the spectrum.

Lerner is well-known for her role in the IRS’s partisan targeting of Tea Party groups; under the Obama administration, the IRS singled out nonprofit groups with conservative, Tea Party-ish style names for extra scrutiny. Many of their cases lingered in limbo for years while the IRS pretended to review their applications. Ultimately, there came to be no denying that there was a systematic, political effort inside the IRS to make life as difficult as possible for groups seen as threats to Obama’s agenda.

Lerner and Holly Paz are scheduled to testify in a class action lawsuit against the IRS, which is being brought by 428 groups who were affected by the targeting scandal. But before the pair commit their testimony to record, they want assurances that what they say will never be read by the public.

“Mss. Lerner and Paz have demonstrated that the public dissemination of their deposition testimony would expose them and their families to harassment and a credible risk of violence and physical harm,” their lawyer said in documents to the court.

Reportedly, the women have submitted evidence to the judge that shows they’ve already received threats couched in “graphic, profane, and disturbing language.”

No matter what the judge decides, the request itself has put the IRS scandal back in the headlines, and it comes at a time when Republicans want the Justice Department to re-open the case against Lerner. They say she deliberately obstructed the congressional investigation into the targeting and may have even contributed to it with her snide emails about Republicans.

If Lerner is so terrified about her actions coming to public light, that says it all. If she could reduce her perceived role in all this, she would shout her testimony from the highest mountain. Instead, she has wrapped herself in every layer of secrecy she can find. Either she’s protecting a certain someone higher on the food chain or she’s covering her own behind.

Knowing the Obama administration, we’re guessing it’s a little of both.

http://unfilteredpatriot.com/lois-lerner-public-can-never-know-what-i-did/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GECxKjm31Y

http://truthfeed.com/new-study-obamaphone-fraud-as-high-as-65/86630/

NEW STUDY : Obamaphone Fraud as High as 65%
Videos By Eren Moreno June 30, 2017

I think we all remember the original “Obamaphone” lady, who made the whole program an absolute joke.

But with this latest study, the program has proven itself to be an absolute joke without her help.

An undercover sting operation on the Obamaphone program found that a massive portion of Obamaphone recipients are receiving the benefit after lying on their applications.

Thanks, Obama…

From The Daily Caller

An undercover sting operation showed ineligible applications were approved 63 percent of the time, and a review that found that 36 to 65 percent of beneficiaries in various categories had lied in easily-detectable ways but were approved anyway.

The fraud reached unheard-of proportions because the Federal Communications Commission let the task of screening for eligibility fall to phone companies that profit off of enrolling as many people as
possible.

GAO undercover investigators applied for free government phones 19 times using criteria that should have been rejected, and “we were approved to receive Lifeline services by 12 of the 19 Lifeline providers using fictitious eligibility documentation.”

All someone has to do to apply for free cell phone service is say that they are on another welfare program, such as food stamps or disability, known as SSI.

But nationwide, “only 35.5 percent of people claiming eligibility based on SSI could actually be confirmed as eligible,” the GAO found.

That means 64.5 percent of people appear to have lied and may not even be poor. The rate at which GAO’s undercover applications were approved works out to a nearly identical figure as the SSI metric.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGGVs8N9iME&t=0s

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/09/21/irs-boss-koskinen-admits-failings-at-impeachment-hearing.html
9/21/16
IRS boss Koskinen takes heat at impeachment hearing for faulty testimony

IRS Commissioner John Koskinen faced tough questioning Wednesday from Republicans at his Capitol Hill impeachment hearing, where he admitted “failings” in responding to congressional probes into his agency’s targeting of conservative groups – but seemed unable to satisfy some lawmakers’ concerns about 2014 testimony that later turned out to be false.   

The commissioner maintained that he had not committed the offenses he’s accused of, and that impeachment would be “improper.”

But his 2014 testimony quickly emerged as a focal point. Koskinen, who was brought in to lead the agency after the targeting scandal flared, had told lawmakers in June 2014 that no emails had been destroyed since congressional investigations began. Yet backup tapes containing numerous emails had been erased by IRS workers in March of 2014.

Koskinen says he didn’t learn about that until later, and reiterated Wednesday he believed his June 2014 statement was true at the time. 

“The statement was not correct in light of that evidence,” he acknowledged Wednesday before the House Judiciary Committee.

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http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/traitor-trumps-national-security-advisor-h-r-mcmaster-revealed-george-soros-plant-obama-era/
TRAITOR: Trump’s National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster Revealed To Be George Soros Plant From Obama Era
From September 2006 to February 2017, McMaster is listed as a member of International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), where he served as consulting senior fellow.  The IISS describes itself as a “world-leading authority on global security, political risk and military conflict.” The IISS has been supportive of the Obama administration-brokered 2015 nuclear accord with Iran, and the group has repeatedly hit back against charges that Tehran has violated the agreement.
8/6/17

White House National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster served at a UK-based think tank financed by a controversial, George Soros-funded group identified by the Obama White House as central in helping to sell the Iran nuclear deal to the public and news media.

EDITOR’S NOTE: President Trump’s administration has been plagued by leaks and other problems because his administration is filled with people loyal to Barack Obama and George Soros. Such is the case with his National Security Advisor, H.R. McMaster, an Obama loyalist who has deep ties to New World Order puppet-master, George Soros. The swamp has reached your bathtub, Mr. President, you better start draining a little bit faster.

From September 2006 to February 2017, McMaster is listed as a member of International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), where he served as consulting senior fellow.  The IISS describes itself as a “world-leading authority on global security, political risk and military conflict.”

The IISS has been supportive of the Obama administration-brokered 2015 nuclear accord with Iran, and the group has repeatedly hit back against charges that Tehran has violated the agreement.

McMaster himself has been accused of purging the National Security Council of hardliners on Iran, and he is seen as a leading proponent of the Iran nuclear accord within the Trump administration. He has reportedly urged the White House to recertify Iran’s compliance with the Iran nuclear deal.

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http://truthfeed.com/obama-deal-fail-iran-now-making-nuclear-threats/101239/

OBAMA DEAL FAIL! Iran Now Making Nuclear Threats
Breaking News By Just In August 15, 2017

After being hit with new sanctions, Iran is trying to talk tough to the United States, and is threatening to restart its nuclear program.

Apparently these guys didn’t learn from watching North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un being forced to back down after President Trump and his administration refused to allow the bully to gain ground with his hollow threats.

Iran, like all the other bullies on the world stage, needs to learn that America has a new leader, and is not going to be pushed around by unhinged lunatics and their threats of violence.

We do not have a weak, spineless coward like Obama at the helm anymore; we have a strong leader who is making sure that America regains its former glory and gets the respect we deserve.

From BBC News

Iran’s president has warned that it could restart its nuclear programme “within hours” if the United States imposes any more new sanctions.

Hassan Rouhani also said the programme would be more advanced than in 2015, when Iran curbed its nuclear activities as part of a deal with world powers.

Iran says unilateral US sanctions targeting its ballistic missile programme breach the agreement.

But the US says Iran’s missile tests have violated a UN resolution.

The resolution endorsed the nuclear deal and called upon Iran not to “undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology”.

Iran says the missiles it has tested are not designed to carry nuclear warheads and insists its nuclear programme is entirely peaceful.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to pull out of the nuclear agreement, and after a missile test at the end of January his administration declared that the US would no longer turn “a blind eye to Iran’s hostile and belligerent actions”.

While acknowledging that the test was “not a direct violation” of the nuclear agreement, it imposed sanctions on 25 individuals and entities connected to its missile programme and the powerful Revolutionary Guards force.

Further sanctions targeting six Iranian companies were announced in late July following Iran’s launch of a rocket capable of putting a satellite into orbit.

(http://media.sermonaudio.com/gallery/photos/CooleyJason-02.jpg)

http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=91417740492

The Spirit of Constant Conspiracy And Paranoia
9/14/2017 (THU)
Audio: http://mp3.sa-media.com/download/91417740492/91417740492.mp3