Friday, August 9, 2013

Barker's Newsbites: Friday, August 9, 2013


OK, folks... I know you weren't expecting this when you tuned in today!
(*GRIN*)

 Yeah...!!!

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10 comments:

William R. Barker said...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/08/08/snowdens-e-mail-provider-is-closing-cannot-legally-say-why/

* THE HEADLINE:

Snowden’s e-mail provider is closing, cannot legally say why

* BUT... BUT... BUT... WHAT OF THE FIRST AMENDMENT...???

The e-mail service used by National Security Agency (NSA) leaker Edward Snowden is suspending operations. And they can’t tell us why — although this cryptic post heavily suggests it has something to do with a government request for information:

* READ IT AND WEEP, MY FRIENDS; WEEP FOR AN AMERICA LOST... THROWN AWAY...

I have been forced to make a difficult decision: to become complicit in crimes against the American people or walk away from nearly ten years of hard work by shutting down Lavabit. After significant soul searching, I have decided to suspend operations. I wish that I could legally share with you the events that led to my decision. I cannot. I feel you deserve to know what’s going on — the first amendment is supposed to guarantee me the freedom to speak out in situations like this. Unfortunately, Congress has passed laws that say otherwise.

(*PURSED LIPS*)

As things currently stand, I cannot share my experiences over the last six weeks, even though I have twice made the appropriate requests.

* GEEZUS...

What’s going to happen now? We’ve already started preparing the paperwork needed to continue to fight for the Constitution in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. A favorable decision would allow me resurrect Lavabit as an American company.

* I HOPE THOSE OF YOU WHO VOTED FOR OBAMA ARE PROUD OF YOURSELVES...

Lavabit was created by a group of Texas programmers who had concerns about privacy protections in Gmail. Snowden used their encrypted e-mail service, and the 6-week timeframe suggests that Snowden’s own account might be at issue. It seems likely that the government has requested data under a statute that allows them to enforce a gag order, such as the Patriot Act and the FISA Act. Civil liberties groups have argued that these gag orders violate the First Amendment.

* WELL OF COURSE THEY VIOLATE THE FIRST AMENDMENT!!!

August 9, 2013 at 10:01 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/08/08/obama-marthas-vineyard-clinton-bush-fdr-vacation/2632979/

President Obama and his family are heading to Martha's Vineyard on Saturday for a week of rest and relaxation, but not before facing the ritual partisan grumblings that presidential vacations are extravagant and waste taxpayer money.

* NOTEE, FOLKS, IF YOU CLICK THE LINK YOU'LL SEE THAT THIS IS SUPPOSEDLY A NEWS ARTICLE - STRAIGHT NEWS - NOT AN OPINION PIECE. AND YET.... "THE RITUAL PARTISAN GRUMBLINGS." I SAY BULLSHIT! I'M QUITE CAPABLE OF JUDGING FOR MYSELF WHAT'S OVER THE TOP AND WHAT'S NOT; WHAT'S APPROPRIATE AND WHAT'S NOT. THIS PRESIDENT... THE RECORD IS PRETTY CLEAR... HE MILKS IT FOR ALL HE CAN AND HAS NEVER GIVEN A DAMN WHAT'S APPROPRIATE AND WHAT'S NOT.

While Congress is in the midst of its own five-week break, Republican officials haven't missed the opportunity to question the president for heading to the upscale Massachusetts community at a time when automatic cuts to the federal budget have left the Defense Department and other agencies furloughing employees.

* YEAH... FOCUS ON THE MESSENGER AND NOT THE MESSAGE... MODERN "JOURNALISM" IN ACTION!

Rep. Chris Stewart, R-Utah, said no one begrudges the president taking some time with his family. But Stewart, who earlier this year introduced a resolution calling on Obama to skip vacations until the White House restored public tours — mothballed as a result of across-the-board federal cuts known as sequestration — suggested the president's trip to the upscale community in Chilmark, Mass., appears "tone deaf."

* AND DOESN'T IT...??? IT SEEMS AS IF ONLY A MONTH OR SO AGO HE WAS VACATIONING IN HAWAII!

"Most of the people in my district could never afford to visit Martha's Vineyard, and those who could would feel uncomfortable vacationing in a place that has a reputation for being for the elite," said Stewart in a telephone interview from his district.

* THAT'S NOT THE POINT. MOST AMERICANS WILL NEVER STAY AT THE TYPES OF PLACES I STAY WHEN I'M ON VACATION! BUT I'M NOT THE PRESIDENT AND I'M NOT AMERICA'S HEAD OF STATE IN THE MIDST OF A LOUSY ECONOMY AND SEQUESTRATION!

* FOLKS... WHAT'S WRONG WITH CAMP DAVID? HEY... WHY NOT SPEND A WEEK IN DETROIT TO SEND A MESSAGE AND STIMULATE THEIR ECONOMY?

White House spokesman Jay Carney on Thursday dismissed the criticism and said that Republicans scoffed at those who pilloried George W. Bush for spending too much time away from Washington during his presidency. At the same point in Bush's presidency, the 43rd president had spent 367 days at his ranch in Crawford, Texas...

* EXACTLY! HIS RANCH... IN CRAWFORD FRIGGIN' TEXAS!

...and his parent's compound at Kennebunkport, Maine...

* EXACTLY! JUST AS HE WAS USED TO DOING ALL HIS LIFE... LONG BEFORE HE BECAME PRESIDENT! (NO ONE BEGRUDGED THE KENNEDY FAMILY SPENDING TIME AT THE KENNEDY COMPOUND... EXCEPT WHEN DRUNKEN DRIVING AND FLEEING THE SCENE OF AN ACCIDENT AND LETTING A WOMAN DROWN WERE PART OF THE TIME SPENT.)

Obama, who doesn't own a vacation home, has spent a total of 92 days of his presidency on vacation, according to Knoller.

* OBAMA AND HIS WIFE HAVE PISSED AWAY TAXPAYER MONEY LIKE MAD ON THEIR INDIVIDUAL AND FAMILY TRIPS AND ON SENDING THE OLDER DAUGHTER TO MEXICO ON "SPRING BREAK." TO COMPARE THIS TO GWB "GETTING AWAY FROM WASHINGTON" TO WORK FROM HIS SECURE RANCH IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE IS JUST BULLSHIT. NO, FOLKS... NO ONE HAS MILKED IT LIKE OBAMA... NO ONE!

The tradition of criticizing presidents for the choice of vacation spots and duration of their holiday is as old as the Republic itself.

* MAYBE SO... BUT TO PRETEND THAT THERE'S NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN APPROPRIATE AND INAPPROPRIATE...

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

August 9, 2013 at 10:25 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://washingtonexaminer.com/irs-agent-tax-agency-is-still-targeting-tea-party-groups/article/2534044

n a remarkable admission...an IRS agent involved in reviewing tax exempt applications from conservative groups told a Congressional committee investigator that the agency is still targeting Tea Party groups, three months after the IRS scandal erupted.

(*HEAD EXPLODING*)

In closed door testimony before the House Ways & Means Committee, the unidentified IRS agent said...

* WHY IS HE (OR SHE) UNIDENTIFIED...???

...requests for special tax status from Tea Party groups is [still] being forced into a special "secondary screening" because the agency has yet to come up with new guidance on how to judge the tax status of the groups.

In a redacted transcript from the committee provided to Secrets...

* WHY REDACTED...???

...a Ways & Means investigator asked: "If you saw - I am asking this currently, if today if a Tea Party case, a group - a case from a Tea Party group came in to your desk, you reviewed the file and there was no evidence of political activity, would you potentially approve that case? Is that something you would do?"

* AND THE AGENT ANSWERED...

The agent said, "At this point I would send it to secondary screening, political advocacy."

(*RAPID BLINKING*)

The committee staffer then said, "So you would treat a Tea Party group as a political advocacy case even if there was no evidence of political activity on the application. Is that right?"

The agent admitted, "Based on my current manager's direction, uh-huh."

(*JUST THROWING MY HANDS UP*)

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp called the renewed targeting of Tea Party groups "outrageous." Added a committee aide, "In plain English, the IRS is still targeting Tea Party cases."

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

During 2010-2012 period when the anti-Obama Tea Party groups faced special scrutiny from the president's IRS, agents used a "be on the lookout," or BOLO, list which said groups with words like "Tea Party" in their title should face special, secondary screening for political activities that might hamper their special tax status. When the scandal erupted after a Treasury Department inspector general revealed the improper political scrutiny, the acting head of the IRS, Danny Werfel, said the BOLO list had been suspended.

That was six weeks ago.

But because there is nothing in its place, agents apparently either don't know how to handle Tea Party tax exempt applications, or are too scared to make a decision.

* GEEZUS...

Asked by the committee how it handles Tea Party applications, the agent said, "If a political advocacy case came in today, I would give it - or talk about it - to my manager because right now we really don't have any direction or we haven't had any for the last month and a half."

* THIS IS THE F--KING IRS...

In response, the IRS reiterated Werfel's pledge to not target groups because of political labels. "The IRS has taken decisive action to eliminate the use of inappropriate political labels in the screening of 501(c)(4) applications. We look forward to seeing the full transcript to gain a fuller understanding of the context of the interview," they said early Friday.

* ME TOO...

August 9, 2013 at 10:50 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2387572/State-Department-evacuates-U-S-consulate-Pakistan-following-terror-threat.html

The State Department has evacuated most of its diplomats from Lahore, Pakistan in response to terrorist threats against the U.S. consulate, according to senior officials.

* SENDS A HELL OF A MESSAGE, HUH; THEY SAY "JUMP," AND WE... BUG OUT.

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

'We have picked up what we regard as a threat worthy of taking this action,' a senior U.S. official told CNN.

* AND THE ACTION IS... (*DRUM ROLL*)... "RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY!"

All diplomats were ordered to evacuate Thursday except for a few emergency personnel. The diplomats were reportedly moved to Islamabad.

* PERHAPS WE SHOULD MOVE THEM TO CAP COD... YOU KNOW... JUST TO BE SAFE...

(*SPITTING ON THE GROUND*)

August 9, 2013 at 11:07 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/08/mark-zuckerberg-paul-ryan-immigration-95361.html?hp=l2

The arm of the Mark Zuckerberg-backed immigration "reform" group that focuses on conservatives is going on air in Milwaukee with a pro-reform spot defending Rep. Paul Ryan, Politico has learned.

* YEP... RYAN... (HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL TEA PARTIERS THAT RYAN ISN'T WHO THEY THINK HE IS?)

Americans for a Conservative Direction bought roughly $350,000 worth of TV time targeted toward Ryan’s district, a source tracking the air wars said. That’s almost double what the anti-immigration Federation for American Immigration Reform is spending on 30-second spots accusing Ryan of backing “amnesty.”

* AMERICANS FOR A "CONSERVATIVE DIRECTION" IS ANYTHING BUT. IT'S A RINO PROJECT. AS TO THE FEDERATION FOR AMERICAN IMMIGRATION REFORM... CONTRARY TO THE SLUR THAT THEY'RE "ANTI-IMMIGRATION," WHAT THEY REALLY ARE IS A REAL REFORM GROUP - THEY'RE THE GOOD GUYS!

Ryan has been working to push for a version of comprehensive reform in the House.

* "COMPREHENSIVE REFORM" IS A FANCY TERM FOR "YET ANOTHER AMNESTY."

August 9, 2013 at 4:49 PM
William R. Barker said...

* THREE-PARTER... (Part 1 of 3)

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/aug/9/paul-national-security-run-amok/?page=all#pagebreak

* BY SENATOR RAND PAUL

In March, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) asked Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper if the federal government had “any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans.”

Mr. Clapper replied, “Not wittingly.”

In June, we learned that the National Security Agency (NSA) had not only been collecting millions of Americans’ phone data, but every American’s phone data — wittingly.

* AND AGAIN... CLAPPER ISN'T IN JAIL... HE'S NOT BEEN INDICTED... HE'S STILL OBAMA DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE...

This astounding level of surveillance that government officials first denied quickly became something they were eager to defend.

All of it was essential and necessary, we were told.

President Obama and others also assured us that the NSA was only collecting “metadata” and not eavesdropping on our phone calls.

Never mind that you can learn a lot about a person by tracking their private communications, even if you’re not necessarily privy to the nature of those communications.

Never mind that we have little reason to trust the government’s claims that it does not listen to our private conversations.

Never mind that we have a Fourth Amendment that requires the government to acquire a warrant before it can pry into our private lives — for metadata or any other data.

Never mind that we should never simply trust our government’s “good intentions” when it steps beyond its constitutional bounds.

* TO BE CONTINUED...

August 9, 2013 at 7:34 PM
William R. Barker said...

* CONTINUING... (Part 2 of 3)

This week, Reuters reported: “A secretive U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration unit is funneling information from intelligence intercepts, wiretaps, informants and a massive database of telephone records to authorities across the nation to help them launch criminal investigations of Americans.”

Reuters continued, “Although these cases rarely involve national security issues, documents reviewed by Reuters show that law enforcement agents have been directed to conceal how such investigations truly begin — not only from defense lawyers, but also sometimes from prosecutors and judges.”

The DEA is supposed to track drug dealers.

The NSA is supposed to track terrorists.

We already know that the NSA now monitors every American as a potential terrorist, something the director of national intelligence once denied.

We now know that federal agents have been trying to cover up a program that investigates Americans.

Is the DEA now operating above or outside the law as well?

And if not, why the cover-up?

* I ADMIT... I'M TORN. I DON'T KNOW WHETHER TO HAVE PITY ON THOSE OF YOU WHO JUST DON'T GIVE A DAMN ABOUT OUR CONSTITUTION, OUR RIGHTS, THE RULE OF LAW... OR WHETHER I SHOULD DETEST YOU AND CONSIDER YOU ENEMIES OF ALL I HOLD DEAR.

Government agencies backtracking their investigations to make it harder for lawyers and judges to know where a case originated do not exactly enhance the public trust.

Former federal judge and Harvard Law School professor Nancy Gertner remarked, “I have never heard of anything like this at all. It is one thing to create special rules for national security. Ordinary crime is entirely different.”

* AND, ACTUALLY, EVEN WHEN WE'RE TALKING "NATIONAL SECURITY," THE CONSTITUTION REMAINS THE CONSTITUTION. (I WONDER IF PROFESSOR GERTNER TRULY UNDERSTANDS - AND BELIEVES - THIS?)

She concluded, “It sounds like they are phony-ing up investigations.”

* Er... THAT'S BECAUSE THEY WERE "PHONY-ING UP" INVESTIGATIONS!

* TO BE CONTINUED...

August 9, 2013 at 7:35 PM
William R. Barker said...

* OOPS...! LOOKS LIKE IT'S GONNA BE A FOUR-PARTER! (Part 3 of 4)

Before the Patriot Act, information gained through special national security orders could not be used in regular criminal court. The Patriot Act, for the first time, allowed information gained through extralegal maneuvers to be used in criminal court for crimes unrelated to terrorism.

* FOLKS... AN "ACT" IS A LAW. LAWS DO NOT SUPERSEDE CONSTITUTIONAL PROTECTIONS AND MANDATES. ONLY CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS CAN DO THAT. THE PATRIOT ACT IS NOT A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT!!!

At the time, authors of the Patriot Act said, “Don’t worry. We will never do that.” I asked former Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey precisely that question, and he reassured me, as a parent reassures a child, that we are good people, and will never use illegally obtained information in regular court. (This reminds me of President Obama’s promises never to detain American citizens without trial. Only time will tell if that promise is kept.)

* BUT IF A TREE FALLS IN THE FOREST...

(*RUEFUL SMIRK*)

* SENATOR PAUL - WHAT GIVES YOU THE IDEA THAT YOU AND YOUR COLLEAGUES WOULD EVER KNOW IF OBAMA WERE TO BREAK HIS PROMISE?

* BTW... OBAMA PROMISES NOT TO "DETAIN" AMERICAN CITIZENS WITHOUT TRIAL... BUT ASSASSINATIONS ARE OK...???

The New York Times reported last week that NSA officials have been dealing internally with “other federal intelligence agencies that want to use its surveillance tools for their own investigations.”

The more you realize the incestuous relationships between these agencies, the more questions that are raised.

Reuters noted, “The unit of the DEA that distributes the information is called the Special Operations Division, or SOD. Two dozen partner agencies comprise the unit, including the FBI, CIA, NSA, Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Homeland Security.”

* FOLKS... THINK ABOUT IT... WE DON'T EVEN KNOW WHO GAVE THE STAND-DOWN ORDER REGARDING AN ATTEMPT TO RESCUE OUR PEOPLE UNDER ATTACK IN BENGHAZI! WE DON'T KNOW WHO GAVE THE ORDER FOR THE IRS TO TARGET TEA PARTY GROUPS! AND YET TWO DOZEN "PARTNER AGENCIES" WITH DIFFERENT HEADS ARE SUPPOSED TO COMPRISE ONE UNIT AND IT'S EXPECTED THAT THE LEFT HAND WILL KNOW WHAT THE RIGHT HAND IS DOING - LET ALONE ACCURATELY REPORT ON WHO IS DOING WHAT ON WHOSE ORDERS?

(*SNORT*)

* TO BE CONTINUED IN PART 4

August 9, 2013 at 7:37 PM
William R. Barker said...

* CONCLUDING... (Part 4 of 4)

Each new agency scandal or revelation — whether the IRS, Department of Justice, NSA or now, the DEA — paints a picture of a domestic and national security apparatus run amok.

* YEP! ABSOFRIGGIN'LUTELY!

Our long-standing tradition of balancing liberty against security is now threatened by an emerging Washington mentality in which no liberty is protected against the greater need for "security."

When it was revealed that the NSA was spying on all of us, Washington simply circled the wagons and defended the program. The Bill of Rights became an afterthought.

* WORSE. THESE PEOPLE SIMPLY DON'T CARE ABOUT THE BILL OF RIGHTS - OR THE REST OF THE CONSTITUTION. THIS ISN'T ME JUST SAYIN' THIS... THIS IS THEM PROVING IT AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN THROUGH THEIR ACTIONS!

If it is discovered that agencies like the DEA are involved in similar government overreach, can we reasonably expect that the wrongdoers will be punished?

* NO.

Or will they be defended and, thus, allowed to continue doing wrong?

* RHETORICAL QUESTION.

Is an unlimited, no-questions-asked police state America’s current trajectory?

* YEP...

Is Big Brother now the new norm?

* YEP...

Given Washington’s current standards, what are the limits, exactly, of how far the federal government can intrude into the private lives of American citizens?

* NONE. ZILCH. ZERO.

The simple answer is found in our Constitution.

* THE ONE THEY DON'T ABIDE BY...

(*SNORT*)

But as with the NSA scandal, we now see a political establishment that treats the document most of them swore to uphold as a dead letter.

* AGAIN... FOLKS... THEY DO... THEY REALLY DO...!

James Madison once observed, “If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.”

August 9, 2013 at 7:37 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/cuomo-100k-developer-signing-tax-break-law-article-1.1422003

Twin $50,000 donations were made to Andrew Cuomo’s campaign by two companies that have the same address as Extell Financial Services, which is part of Extell Development Co. — one of five developers to receive hefty tax relief thanks to a bill signed by the governor two days after the contributions.

* I'M SURE IT'S ALL JUST A COINCIDENCE...

(*SNORTING WHILE ROLLING MY EYES*)

The twin $50,000 donations were made by Elco Master LLC and 134 W 58 LLC. Each listed the same Louisville, Ky., address of Extell Financial Services, which is part of Extell Development. It was the first time either company contributed to Cuomo, state records show.

* AGAIN... I'M SURE... POSITIVE... CERTAIN...

(*COUGHING FIT*)

* IT'S JUST A COINCIDENCE.

[L]ess than three weeks after the bill became law, Extell President Gary Barnett donated $100,000 to a state Democratic Party account that Cuomo was tapping to finance ads pushing his agenda. Records dating to 1999 show it was the only time he gave to the state party.

(*TWEDDLING MY THUMBS)

The benefit for Extell’s 57th St. luxury apartment tower is projected to cost the city $35 million over 10 years.

* AND WHY EXACTLY SHOULD THE TAXPAYERS HAVE TO CHIP IN...? (OH... YEAH... FORGOT... BECAUSE A TOTAL OF $200,000 CHANGED HANDS.)

(*SMIRK*)

Extell and the other four companies who benefited from the legislation have been subpoenaed by a special commission created by Cuomo to investigate corruption in state government. The commission is looking at circumstances surrounding the bill’s passage.

* WHAT CAME FIRST, PUBLIC DISCLOSURE OF THE BRI... er.. "DONATIONS"... OR THIS CUOMO COMMISSION? (JUST CURIOUS!)

A Cuomo aide called it “beyond reckless” to suggest the governor is influenced by donations.

* JUST CALL ME "BEYOND RECKLESS" THEN!

(*LAUGHING*)

* ANYWAY... IN ALL SERIOUSNESS... YEP, IT COULD BE JUST COINCIDENCE. WE'LL SEE! (OR AT LEAST I HOPE WE'LL SEE...)

August 9, 2013 at 7:56 PM

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