Saturday, June 15, 2013

Jeanine Pirro: “In God We Trust – In This Government, Not So Much” (Video)



Pirro grabbed hold of the “trust” theme in her opening statement on her Fox Show show, “Justice With Judge Jeanine”, and she didn’t let go. - Nice Deb

It’s the swift eroding of “trust” people have in this dishonest and corrupt Regime that has made the NSA surveillance story into such a scandal. We’re seeing ”hookers and drugs in the State Dept, Big Brother invading your privacy, and more vindictive retaliatory acts towards those Americans perceived by this administration as the enemy…” Who can trust such a Regime?

A bureaucracy exists to regulate to achieve a specific end, but a bureaucracy that exists for its own sake is tyranny. It seeks to control for the sake of control. It wields power for the sake of power.

The End of Control - Daniel Greenfield/Sultan Knish

It insists that its ends are moral, but as they are not achieved, the true end of control is revealed.

Socialism begins with control to achieve social ends only for control to become the end. And that leads to the end of freedom....

The left provides tyranny with the social motive to come into being, but in the long run the left Is only the midwife of tyranny. Its ideology and activists dismantle democracies and burgeoning democracies and replace them with tyrannies.

Whether it's Islam or a conventional oligarchy or a cult of personality tyrant, the left's role is to act as the virus that kills the host and then allows it to be fed on by predators in the hopes of infecting them in turn.

The left injects bureaucratic collectivism into a healthy state to control it, but in the long run the bureaucratic collectivism will outlive it as it becomes the end for which the left was only the means.

PALIN ON SYRIA: UNTIL WE HAVE A COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF WHO KNOWS WHAT HE IS DOING, 'LET ALLAH SORT IT OUT'



"Until we have someone who knows what they’re doing, I say let Allah sort it out,” Palin said... - Breitbart News

“Militarily, where is our commander-in-chief? We’re talking now more new interventions. I say until we know what we’re doing, until we have a commander-in-chief who knows what he’s doing, well, let these radical Islamic countries who aren’t even respecting basic human rights, where both sides are slaughtering each other as they scream over an arbitrary red line, ‘Allah Akbar,’ I say until we have someone who knows what they’re doing, I say let Allah sort it out."

Big Sis Denies Existence of 'Orwellian State'...

“No one should believe that we are simply going willy-nilly and using any kind of data that we can gather,” she said. - CNN

Still, she acknowledged the federal government hasn’t done the best job of keeping the public informed about how it is treating the enormous amounts of personal information that could potentially be used in intelligence gathering.

“I think we need to do a better job of explaining to the American people exactly what is kept, what are the real restrictions on how—I’m just talking now for DHS, Department of Homeland Security–how we use it, how long we can keep it, how we share it, all those thing,” she explained.

Ms. Napolitano added that striking the right balance between security and civil liberties is always a challenge.

Even The Associated Press Stylebook notes that B.C. is “acceptable in all references to a calendar year in the period before Christ.” How long until “B.C.” goes the way of “illegal immigrant“?

‘God bless this student’: Laura Ingraham tweets pic of kid standing up to PC teacher - Twitchy



Laura Ingraham shared this photo of a test paper on which a student refused to use the PC-preferred “B.C.E.” Evidently the standard usage “B.C.” is a big ol’ no-no these days.

SO VERY, VERY SAD: Democrat John Larson says it's "simply not fair" to subject Congress to Obamacare

Well, we wouldn't want members of our ruling class suffering with the rest of us. - Doug Ross

Sarah Palin is right. The problem isn't a few agents in Cincinnati "going rogue". And it's not a few reporters -- and their parents -- being targeted for doing their job. And it's not a couple dozen contractors leaking classified documents. The problem is government grown so big that it intrudes into every aspect of our lives.

Democratic Congressman: 'Not Fair' To Subject Congress To Obamacare Just Like Everyone Else - Robert Books/Forbes
When the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”) was being debated, proponents were accused of saddling Americans with inferior and expensive health care while keeping generous coverage for themselves at taxpayer expense. To rebut that allegation and build confidence in the bill, a provision was added mandating that members of Congress – and their staff members – get their coverage through the new exchange system the bill set up. Now that the time to sign up for exchange coverage is nearing, a Democratic member, Rep. John Larson (D., Conn.), is saying that “this is simply not fair” – as key staff members head for the exits to avoid Obamacare.

Politico reports that “many on Capitol Hill fear it could lead to a brain drain” and notes that “[t]he problem is far more acute in the House, where lawmakers and aides are generally younger and less wealthy.”

What? Obamacare disproportionally hurts those with lower incomes? It may come as a surprise, but it shouldn’t. We’ve known this since before the legislation even passed.

More to the point, why did Rep. Larson vote to impose on the country a health coverage system that “is simply not fair”?

"So, just out of curiosity; are we requiring background checks on the folks we are funneling arms to in Syria?"

Just askin'

A reportedly stolen 13-inch MacBook Pro laptop? $75,537. The price listed on the Apple website is $1,199. A lost iPhone? $30,503. A lost Blackberry? $54,250. The DNC did not respond to a request for comment.

Democratic Convention Organizers Claim $500K of Lost Electronics - ABC News

The Democratic National Convention may be long over, but its organizers have not forgotten the almost half a million dollars worth of electronics they seem to have lost. Organizers of the Charlotte, N.C., convention have filed a police report for lost and stolen electronics, some of which they appear to have valued at as much as 62 times the listed market prices. A reportedly stolen 13-inch MacBook Pro laptop? $75,537. The price listed on the Apple website is $1,199. A lost iPhone? $30,503. A lost Blackberry? $54,250. The DNC did not respond to a request for comment....

Other items reported to have gone missing at the convention included two iPads worth around $15,000 each, laptops listed at $40,000, $34,000 and $25,000 each, and other miscellaneous items worth far more than their list price.

The report claimed that 40 items were reported lost and one item – the most highly valued one, the $75,000 MacBook Pro – was stolen.

The apparently inflated prices were reported in May with the Charlotte Police Department by Kenneth Hardy, deputy in-house counsel for the Democratic National Convention Committee, on behalf of the DNCC Host Committee.

The report was filed almost eight months after the convention, when the losses supposedly took place.

Discussion at Lucianne

WAR GAMES

Patriot batteries, F-16s and 4,500 US troops near Syrian border - Reuters

Multinational military exercise 'Eager Lion' has been launched in Jordan amid condemnation from neighboring Syria and its ally Russia. The US brings Patriot missile batteries to the Syrian border, which could remain deployed afterwards.

Drudge headlines:
AMERICAN TROOPS ON SYRIA BORDER...
CIA preparing to deliver rebels arms through Turkey and Jordan - Washington Post
RUSSIA HITS BACK - Paul Sonne/Wall St. Journal

The Kremlin criticized the U.S. decision to arm Syrian opposition fighters and said Washington's evidence that the Syrian regime is using chemical weapons was unconvincing, but said Friday that Moscow is "not yet" discussing its plans to deliver of air-defense missiles to the regime

Questions chemical weapons claims...
Says no-fly zone violates international law...
WH policy 'a mess' - Lee Smith/Weekly Standard

Thursday the White House announced that the American intelligence community assesses, with a level of high confidence, that the regime of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons against the opposition multiple times, in a limited fashion. Now that it is clear Assad has crossed the Obama red line by using chemical weapons, the question is, has this changed the president’s “calculus,” as he said it might? The media is reporting that it has. According to the press, Obama has decided to arm the opposition.

Assad Prepares Offensive as Obama Promises Rebels Arms...
Warplanes bomb resistance in Damascus...
Oil Hits 9-Month High...
Saudi King cuts holiday short due to 'events in region...
Thousands of Egypt Islamists rally for Syria jihad...

Obama Official Admits They Would Have Lied About “Red Line” Breach - Daniel Greenfield/Frontpage Magazine

I have been saying all along that the real determining factor for intervention would not be chemical weapons, but the collapse of the Sunni rebel advance.

That’s how it was in Libya where the intervention was not triggered by the phony genocide, but by Gaddafi ‘s gains. And that is what is pushing along the intervention now. Not the supposed use of chemical weapons, but the gains made by Assad.

This isn’t about chemical weapons. It’s about more Muslim Brotherhood regime change. And now there is the closest thing we’ll get to an admission from the halls of Obama Inc.

Friday, June 14, 2013

"The numbers don't lie: either the administration is bad at math, or they simply don't see a problem with their excessive spending," he added. "The American people have had enough of the frivolous and careless spending, and they deserve real, appropriate cuts from this excessive administration." Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/305687-lawmaker-obamas-africa-trip-would-fund-1350-weeks-of-white-house-tours#ixzz2WGGS9oe8 Follow us: @thehill on Twitter | TheHill on Facebook

Lawmaker: Obama's Africa trip would fund 1,350 weeks of White House tours - Pete Kasperowicz/The Hill

Rep. George Holding (R-N.C.) suggested Friday that rather than spend $100 million on President Obama's pending trip to Africa, the administration should fund the White House tours canceled under sequestration.

"For the cost of this trip to Africa, you could have 1,350 weeks of White House tours, which the White House has canceled indefinitely due to budget constraints," Holding said on the House floor.

Holding said with the country more than $16 trillion in debt, the administration should not be looking to spend $100 million on a weeklong visit to Africa.

he White House has defended the trip, which will reportedly involve sending over Secret Service agents, military jets and ships to Africa. But Holding said that while security is needed, these costs are "excessive."

White House defends high bills for Africa trip - Dave Boyer/The Washington Times

The White House Friday defended the first family’s upcoming weeklong trip to Africa, which could cost taxpayers up to $100 million, as “great bang for our buck.”

FBI hasn’t contacted a single tea party group in IRS probe, groups say

“We have not been contacted by any federal investigative agency and, to date, none of our clients have been contacted or interviewed by the FBI,” Jay Sekulow of the American Center for Law and Justice told The Daily Caller on Thursday. - Vince Coglianese/Daily Caller

The ACLJ has filed suit against the IRS on behalf of 25 conservative groups, with additional groups being added in the next couple weeks, according to a spokesman.

“I have been very surprised that I have not heard from anybody and frankly, none of my clients have. I talk to other tea party leaders on a regular basis,” said Cleta Mitchell, the lawyer largely credited with pushing the IRS abuses to the forefront.



(In) testimony before congressional investigators Thursday, FBI Director Robert Mueller seemed completely unaware of the progress of any such investigation.

Republican Rep. Jim Jordan lit into Mueller for his lack of knowledge during a House judiciary committee hearing.

“This is the most important issue in front of the country in the last six weeks, and you don’t know who the lead investigator is?” Jordan asked, sounding shocked.

“At this juncture, no I do not,” Mueller responded...

Reached for comment Thursday afternoon, the FBI’s Washington, D.C. press office transferred TheDC to a long-ringing phone line and eventually hung up.

Prism revelations: Home Office warns airlines not to fly NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden to Britain

Carriers who fly him to the UK are told they face fines and the costs of his detention - The Independent

The Home Secretary, Theresa May, has powers to turn away foreign nationals whose presence in the UK is deemed “detrimental to the public good”. The Home Office refused to comment on the letter sent out by the Risk and Liaison Overseas Network, part of UK Border Agency.

But a British official confirmed its authenticity and told Associated Press it was dispatched to airlines. It is not clear if other governments had issued similar warnings to carriers. Civil liberties groups will today protest in Hong Kong in support of Mr Snowden.

The European Commissioner for Justice Viviane Reding said yesterday US security measures should not be conducted at the expense of the public’s rights. She said there were still “fundamental issues” over the use of Prism against targets in Europe.

Gang of 8: IMMIGRATION BILL

By this time I am sure you all know about the Immigration bill in the Senate put together by the Gang of 8. In my opinion, this bill personifies what is the matter in Washington. This bill is now 1000 pages. Bills that long give lawmakers the opportunity to put everything into the legislation including the kitchen sink. (Remember Obamacare).

In my opinion, there should be one separate bill that comes before all others. That is a bill dealing with border security. After that is resolved, then bills should deal with how we deal with illegal immigrants who have lived here. It is helpful to remember that not just Hispanics are covered by the proposed law. There are numerous Orientals and people from the Middle East who are also here illegally and would of course be covered by the new law.

Let our Senators know what you think about this legislation. People supporting Amnesty are making numerous calls.

Phone And Fax Numbers:
Senator Diane Feinstein...CA...(202) 224-3841...(202) 228-3954
Senator Barbara Boxer...CA...(202) 224-3553...(202) 224-0454
Senator Mitch McConnell...KY...(202) 224-2541...(202) 224-2499
Senator Rand Paul...KY...(202) 224-4343...(202) 228-6917
Senator Max Baucus...MT (202) 224-2651...(202) 224-9412
Senator Charles Grassley...IA...(202) 224-3744...(202) 224-6020
Senator John Cornyn...TX...(202) 224-2934...(202) 224-2934

Remember, every Senator can be called. This bill is an example of the dysfunction in Washington.
Thank you for your work.
Edelweiss Geary
Legislative Issues Chair
Northern Division - CFRW
www.cfrwnd.or
g

Happy Flag Day!

17) INDIO, CA - APRIL 27: Festival goers display the American 
Flag during 2013 Stagecoach: California's Country Music Festival 
held at The Empire Polo Club on April 27, 2013 in Indio, California.
24 of the best flag photos in the news in 2013 - Charlie Spiering/Washington Examiner @charlesspiering

CBS News confirms multiple breaches of Sharyl Attkisson’s computer


CBS News reporter Sharyl Attkisson revealed in May that her computer had been compromised. When asked about the situation, CBS News responded with a statement that it was conducting an investigation. - Erik Wemple/Washington Post

That investigation has reached the following conclusions, according to CBS News spokeswoman Sonya McNair:
“A cyber security firm hired by CBS News has determined through forensic analysis that Sharyl Attkisson’s computer was accessed by an unauthorized, external, unknown party on multiple occasions late in 2012. Evidence suggests this party performed all access remotely using Attkisson’s accounts. While no malicious code was found, forensic analysis revealed an intruder had executed commands that appeared to involve search and exfiltration of data.

This party also used sophisticated methods to remove all possible indications of unauthorized activity, and alter system times to cause further confusion.

CBS News is taking steps to identify the responsible party and their method of access.”
Hacking occurred during time when Attkisson was reporting on Benghazi attack - Ed Morrissey/HotAir

What was going on in “late 2012″? Well, that would have been the controversy over the terrorist attack on our consulate in Benghazi. And, checking the record, we see that Attkisson had a very interesting scoop on October 20th, relying on anonymous military sources that called into question the Obama administration’s claim that they couldn’t have responded in time to assist in the attack:
CBS News has been told that, hours after the attack began, an unmanned Predator drone was sent over the U.S. mission in Benghazi, and that the drone and other reconnaissance aircraft apparently observed the final hours of the protracted battle.

The State Department, White House and Pentagon declined to say what military options were available. A White House official told CBS News that, at the start of the attack, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Martin Dempsey and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta “looked at available options, and the ones we exercised had our military forces arrive in less than 24 hours, well ahead of timelines laid out in established policies.”

But it was too late to help the Americans in Benghazi. The ambassador and three others were dead.

A White House official told CBS News that a “small group of reinforcements” was sent from Tripoli to Benghazi, but declined to say how many or what time they arrived.

Retired CIA officer Gary Berntsen believes help could have come much sooner. He commanded CIA counter-terrorism missions targeting Osama bin Laden and led the team that responded after bombings of the U.S. Embassy in East Africa.

“You find a way to make this happen,” Berntsen says. “There isn’t a plan for every single engagement. Sometimes you have to be able to make adjustments. They made zero adjustments in this. They stood and they watched and our people died.”
Before the Rosen revelation, the DoJ would have been unthinkable as a suspect. If I were CBS now, though, I’d be executing a FOIA demand to know whether Eric Holder and the Department of Justice acquired a Rosen-like warrant on Attkisson in the days after that scoop went live.

'I assume someone wanted to see what I was working on' - John P. Filo/AP via Washington Post

She said in an interview Friday that she was “outraged” by the breach, which did not appear to be aimed at extracting personal financial information.

“This wasn’t any ordinary malware of a phishing attempt,” that is, an effort to gain personal information, she said. “I assume someone wanted to see what I was working on.”

Bill Clinton Taunts Obama as a “Wuss” If He Doesn’t Ignore Congress, Go to War in Syria

Bill Clinton is telling Obama to ignore Congress, which he would anyway, but as a matter of philosophy, he is urging some sort of alternate Constitution in which presidents can go to war without regard to what Congress thinks. - Daniel Greenfield/Frontpage Magazine

Sadly this is the Constitution we’re living under, but it’s not too comforting to future voters to know that 2016 would be Round 2 of Clinton Lawlessness. A basic question that should be asked of Hillary is whether she will go to war without talking to Congress the way Obama did....

Actually that’s the one thing you can say. An elected official is supposed to follow the will of the people. It’s amazing that Clinton is openly talking about his contempt for that even while he wants to plant his wife in the Oval Office.

“Some people say, ‘See what a mess it is. Stay out.’ I think that’s a bad mistake. I agree with you about this,” Clinton told McCain. “Sometimes it’s just best to get caught trying, as long as you don’t overcommit.”

“Get caught trying.” That’s the story of his life.

BILL CLINTON WARNS OBAMA NOT “WUSS” OUT ON SYRIA - John Hayward/Human Events @Doc_o
Bill Clinton splits with President Obama on Syria - Maggie Haberman/Politico

WAG THE DOG: U.S. TO ENTER SYRIAN CIVIL WAR


After a great deal of confusion concerning the chemical weapons “red line,” whether Syria has crossed it, and whether Barack Obama was serious when he drew it, we learned on Thursday evening that America will be entering the Syrian civil war on the side of the rebels. - John Hayward/Human Events @Doc_o

Earlier this week, a teenage boy working at a cafe refused to bring one of the customers more coffee, quipping “Even if Mohammed comes back to life, I won’t.” (Bizarrely, the Washington Post’s account of the incident inserts the word [Prophet] in front of Mohammed’s name, as if readers wouldn’t understand who the lad was talking about. Why not throw in [PBUH] after his name, too?) The boy’s comment was overheard by a passing group of rebel fighters, who grabbed him, whipped him, gathered a crowd – including his parents – to hear him accused of blasphemy, and then made an example of him by putting bullets in his mouth and neck. Just think what these guys will be able to do with American weapons!

Supposedly we’ll be providing military support to only the nice rebels. How we’re going to do that without putting boots on the ground is anyone’s guess.

DRUDGE HEADLINES:
WAR: USA MILITARY SUPPORT FOR SYRIAN 'REBELS'...
No-Fly Zone...
Syrian 'rebels' pledge loyalty to Al Qaeda...
Key to victories...
Executed Teenager 2 Days Ago For Insulting Islam...
ADMIN CONSIDERS RESETTLING THOUSANDS OF SYRIAN REFUGEES IN AMERICA...

Barack Obama's "Social Innovation" Slush Fund

The phony-baloney statistics that SIF bureaucrats tout to show how many have been "served" simply demonstrate the Nanny State "entrepreneurs'" real agenda: maximizing the number of government dependents and rewarding social welfare operatives. - Michelle Malkin/Townhall

The Obama administration's politicization of charity -- or the "Solyndra-ization of philanthropy," as the Manhattan Institute's Howard Husock calls it -- has created a permanent taxpayer-backed pipeline to Democratic partisan outfits masquerading as public-interest do-gooders. There's nothing "innovative" about underwriting the same failed dependency-inducing community organizing fronts while persecuting others based on ideology.

It's self-SERVE-ing Chicago business as usual.

Obama administration: Some religions are more equal than others

...it sure looks like a double standard to me: Christianity, bad; Islam, good. I seem to remember, from some ancient reading, the phrase, “or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” - Michael Barone/Washington Examiner @michaelbarone

Obama ‘Strongly Objects’ to Religious Liberty Amendment

The Obama Administration “strongly objects” to a proposed amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act on Wednesday that would have protected the religious rights of soldiers – including evangelical Christian service members who are facing growing hostility towards their religion....

Fleming said the purpose of his amendment is to clarify ambiguities in the Pentagon’s policies.
“The bottom line is the military is bending over backwards to remove – even in the case of chaplains – expressions of faith and conscience,” Fleming said.

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, called the Obama Administration’s edict a “chilling suppression of religious freedom.”

“The Obama administration has joined forces with those who are attacking the religious freedoms of those who serve in our Armed Services,” Perkins said. “The Administration’s opposition to Rep. Fleming’s religious freedom amendment reveals that this administration has gone beyond accommodating the anti-Christian activists who want to remove any vestige of Christianity from the military, to aiding them by blocking this bipartisan measure.”

Thursday, June 13, 2013

NFRW: An Update on the Special Senate Election in Massachusetts


The special election for the Massachusetts Senate seat is set for June 25th, and Republican Gabriel Gomez is aiming to win over Democrat Ed Markey. Gomez is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy, a former Navy SEAL, and has an MBA from Harvard Business School. Markey was first elected to Congress in 1976 after serving five years in the Army. He is currently representing the 5th district of Massachusetts.

Recent polls suggest that Gomez may be gaining a lead among women and independents in Massachusetts, but any Republican there needs to gain 60 percent of the independent vote in order to win a race; Gomez needs to gain 14 more percentage points before he can claim the independent vote, and possibly the election. The Gomez campaign has set up a call from home tool that you can access through the campaign website. This enables you to make calls (with a script) on Gomez's behalf. ◼ Click here to access the Gomez campaign website and help his campaign effort.
__________________

◼ Related: PAC, DSCC plan TV ads hitting Gabriel Gomez - Politico 6/6 (image source)

Canada Free Press columnist being investigated by NSA, FOIA filed

It was reported last night that, Douglas J. Hagmann, columnist for the Canada Free Press (CFP) was informed that he was put on an active investigation list by NSA by an unnamed security source. - examiner.com

Judi McLeod, an award-winning journalist with 30 years’ experience in the print media stated that Hagmann’s recent reporting and for the past several years of his Insider Reports, has earned him the spot on the NSA’s watch list and that a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request has been filed on his behalf.

Judi stated that the NSA investigation was found on the heels when Hagmann wrote a column warning Americans, ◼ “It’s about to get very ugly.”

In his column, “It’s about to get very ugly” and reported on by the Paulding County Republican Examiner, Hagmann said that a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) insider told him, “The present administration is going after leakers, media sources, anyone and everyone who is even suspected of ‘betrayal.’ That’s what they call it, ‘betrayal.’ Can you believe the size of their cahones? This administration considers anyone telling the truth about Benghazi, the IRS, hell, you name the issue, ‘betrayal’.”

“It’s about to get very ugly.” - exerpt: “First, they intend to use the Justice Department to silence journalists like in the Rosen case, but they won’t stop there. They will use a host of national security policies, laws, letters, whatever to take out the bigger threats,” he stated.

Next, they will use some sort of excuse, an external threat, and I believe it will be a combination of the economic collapse and a Mid-East war that will begin in Syria to throttle the information that is accessible on the Internet. And you know what? People will believe it!”

The wheels have come off Obama's Battle Bus from Mordor

California Democrats seek higher revenue, more spending

AP via Vacaville Express - The budget compromise between Gov. Jerry Brown and the Legislature's Democratic leaders largely mirrors the governor's proposal for a fiscally restrained spending plan that assumes conservative revenue projections.

But there's a catch: Rank-and-file Democratic lawmakers say they are agreeing to less spending than they wanted so they could pass the budget on time, although they will push for funding pet projects next year. That's when they expect the state's tax revenue will be coming in higher than the Brown administration projects.

Such a scenario could clear the way for hundreds of millions of dollars in discretionary spending on a wide range of programs, from Medicaid reimbursements paid to doctors and hospitals to extra money for courts and community colleges. Just this week, the state controller's office said monthly cash receipts beat estimates by 12.4 percent, or nearly $800 million.

"If the revenues continue to perform as they have, the question becomes, 'What do they do with the surplus collections?' " Gabriel Petek, a senior director who tracks California finances for the ratings agency Standard & Poor's, said in an email Tuesday.

Petek said it appears the compromise budget plan pays down less debt than Brown had proposed. From a credit perspective, he said "that could be a bit of a fly in the ointment of an otherwise favorable process."

National Federation of Republican Women to Bring Campaign Management School to Ohio

MANSFIELD, Ohio – Local Republican candidates and campaign workers will train with a nationally-recognized expert as part of the National Federation of Republican Women's (NFRW) long-standing and acclaimed Campaign Management School.

The seminar will be held Saturday, June 29, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Waterford, 1296 S. Trimble Road. Campaign fundamentals to be covered include creating a campaign budget and a finance plan, earned and paid media, social media and the Internet, strategy and message development, opposition and issue research, voter targeting and voter identification, get-out-the-vote activities, recruiting and managing volunteers, direct mail, organizing events, asking for money, and putting together a finance committee.

Holly Robichaud, a nationally-recognized campaign consultant, fundraiser, political analyst and columnist from Massachusetts, will conduct the training.

Registration is $100 per person and includes lunch and materials. Online registration is available through June 28.

To register or for more information, visit www.nfrw.org/programs/political_education.htm, or contact Maria Jeffrey, political director, at 703-548-9688.

Founded in 1938, the NFRW has thousands of active members in local clubs across the nation and in several U.S. territories, making it one of the largest women’s political organizations in the country. The grassroots organization works to promote the principles and objectives of the Republican Party, elect Republican candidates, inform the public through political education and activity, and increase the effectiveness of women in the cause of good government.

For more information about the NFRW, visit ◼ www.nfrw.org.

Report: Obamacare To Trigger Health Insurance Cancellation Notices As Early As This Fall…

No, you can’t keep your plan if you like it. - WeaselZippers



New health insurance rules under ObamaCare could lead to a host of personal insurance plans being canceled as early as this fall, a scenario expected to cause consumer confusion. - FOX

New health insurance rules under ObamaCare could lead to a host of personal insurance plans being canceled as early as this fall, a scenario expected to cause consumer confusion.

Democrats terrify Hispanics into thinking they'll be lynched if they vote for Republicans, and then turn around and taunt Republicans for not winning a majority of the Hispanic vote.

IF THE GOP IS THIS STUPID, IT DESERVES TO DIE - Ann Coulter

This line of attack has real resonance with our stupidest Republicans. (Proposed Republican primary targets: Sens. Kelly Ayotte, Jeff Flake, Lindsey Graham and Marco Rubio.) Which explains why Republicans are devoting all their energy to slightly increasing their share of the Hispanic vote while alienating everyone else in America....

The (pro-amnesty) Pew Research Hispanic Center has produced poll after poll showing that Hispanics don't care about amnesty. In a poll last fall, Hispanic voters said they cared more about education, jobs and health care than immigration. They even care more about the federal budget deficit than immigration! (To put that in perspective, the next item on their list of concerns was "scratchy towels.")

Also, note that Pew asked about "immigration," not "amnesty." Those Hispanics who said they cared about immigration might care about it the way I care about it -- by supporting a fence and E-Verify.

Who convinced Republicans that Hispanic wages aren't low enough and what they really need is an influx of low-wage workers competing for their jobs?

Maybe the greedy businessmen now running the Republican Party should talk with their Hispanic maids sometime. Ask Juanita if she'd like to have seven new immigrants competing with her for the opportunity to clean other people's houses, so that her wages can be dropped from $20 an hour to $10 an hour.... Read the rest, at the link.

Obama's Snooping Excludes Mosques

Homeland Insecurity: The White House assures that tracking our every phone call and keystroke is to stop terrorists, and yet it won't snoop in mosques, where the terrorists are. - FOX

That's right, the government's sweeping surveillance of our most private communications excludes the jihad factories where homegrown terrorists are radicalized.

Since October 2011, mosques have been off-limits to FBI agents. No more surveillance or undercover string operations without high-level approval from a special oversight body at the Justice Department dubbed the Sensitive Operations Review Committee.

Who makes up this body, and how do they decide requests? Nobody knows; the names of the chairman, members and staff are kept secret.

Obama's Snooping Excludes Mosques, Missed Boston Bombers - IBD

Before mosques were excluded from the otherwise wide domestic spy net the administration has cast, the FBI launched dozens of successful sting operations against homegrown jihadists — inside mosques — and disrupted dozens of plots against the homeland.
If only they were allowed to continue, perhaps the many victims of the Boston Marathon bombings would not have lost their lives and limbs. The FBI never canvassed Boston mosques until four days after the April 15 attacks, and it did not check out the radical Boston mosque where the Muslim bombers worshipped.
The bureau didn't even contact mosque leaders for help in identifying their images after those images were captured on closed-circuit TV cameras and cellphones.

MEDIA FAIL: VOTERS TURN AGAINST OBAMA, HIS SURVEILLANCE STATE - John Nolte/Breitbart

Monday, The Washington Post released a Pew Poll that supposedly proved that a majority of Americans found "acceptable" the new revelations about the NSA's seizing of all of our phone records. Instantly, and across almost every media outlet, this poll was hailed as good news for President Obama. But now that three subsequent polls prove that the complete opposite is true, the media have chose to ignore those -- and Obama's falling poll numbers.

So what's going on….

NFRW: First Convention Deadline Approaching

June 20, 2013 is the deadline to have your membership dues paid and entered into the database. As a reminder, to be a delegate or alternate for your club to the convention:
◼ Your dues need to be paid and reported by June 20, 2013.
◼ Your state needs to file a club/member certification form with national headquarters.
◼ You need to register. For registration information, ◼ linkclick here. You will receive a registration confirmation.
◼ You need to fill out a credential application and send it to NFRW at membership@nfrw.org or by mail to 124 N Alfred Street, Alexandria VA 22314 or fax to 703-548-9836.
◼ You will receive a credential approval with a number either by email or by postcard. Please bring the confirmation with you to the convention.
To be a delegate-at-large/alternate-at-large for your state:
◼ Your dues need to be paid and reported by June 20, 2013.
◼ Your state needs to file a club/member certification form with national headquarters.
◼ You need to register. For registration information, ◼ linkclick here. You will receive a registration confirmation.
◼ You need to fill out a credential application and send it to your state president for her signature.
Your state president will submit your credential application to NFRW at membership@nfrw.org or by mail to 124 N Alfred Street, Alexandria VA 22314 or by fax to 703-548-9836. You will receive a credential approval with a number either by email or by postcard. Please bring the confirmation with you to the convention. All board of director delegates need to send in their credential application to NFRW at membership@nfrw.org or by mail to 124 N Alfred Street, Alexandria VA 22314 or by fax to 703-548-9836. They will receive confirmation of said credential by email or postcard.

NFRW: Region 4 Meeting a Success

More than 160 Republican women and guests from at least five states traveled to Sugar Land, Texas, for the NFRW Region 4 meeting on May 17-18.

The event featured Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Senator Ted Cruz, and former U.N. Ambassador Sichan Siv. George P. Bush, deputy finance chairman of the Republican Party of Texas, served as the banquet speaker. The event also featured Capt. Gene Cernan, the last man on the moon, and Jeffrey Addicott, director of the Center for Terrorism Law at St. Mary's University.

In addition, presentations were made on immigration solutions, youth outreach, and the Republican ground game in the 2014 midterm elections. Authors Debbie Georgatos, Rachael Woods and Toni Anne Dashiell also made a presentation on leadership.

Region 4 includes Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas. Each state contributed to the meeting by bringing items for the welcome bags and live/silent auctions. The state presidents shared their successful programs with attendees, and former NFRW Membership Chair Tonya Stiel discussed membership and fundraising.

Region 4 Director Kathy Brugger reports that the following were instrumental in making the event a success: the Texas FRW and President Carolyn Hodges, event coordinator Marilyn Davis, and the Houston Greater Council. "I am fortunate to have worked with Region 4, and especially with Carolyn Hodges," Brugger said. "Carolyn's 'leap of faith' helped bring forth an educational, informative regional meeting. This is how I spell SUCCESS!"

NFRW: Exciting Region 5 Meeting Re-Cap

Region 5 (Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin and Minnesota) held its regional meeting April 20 an 21. Wisconsin's Lt. Governor, Rebecca Kleefisch spoke during the luncheon on Saturday. She did a great job talking about how adversity makes us strong and encouraged us all to keep working towards our goal. She talked about her colon cancer during the initial 2010 election, the recall, and the fight for fiscal responsibility in Wisconsin. Steve Schleffler, the RNC National Committeeman from Iowa followed and discussed the RNC rule changes that were made at the RNC Spring meeting.

RNC Co-Chair Sharon Day presented the first workshop, in which she encouraged us to use social media and to demand a seat at the table with Republican men. She also encouraged us to run for office and discussed how important it is for Republican women to be on the ticket. Matt Schultz, Iowa's Secretary of State, then presented the second workshop on Voter ID laws. He explained how important a photo ID is for election integrity. Everyone had the opportunity Saturday night to have some great food and to visit informally at a reception at the hotel.

Tamara Scott, Iowa's RNC National Committeewoman, led Sunday morning's prayer breakfast and talked about her trip to Israel in January, tying scenes from the Holy Land into conditions in our country now, and emphasizing how important it for America to support Israel. As Regional Director, I would like to extend heartfelt and warm thanks to the Iowa Federation of Republican Women and President Jeanita McNulty for all their work putting together our regional meeting. - by Martha Jenkins

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

This little item could give the IRS’ whole “targeting” conservatives scandal a brand-new twist.

REPUBLICAN REP. NOTICES IRS AGENTS TRAINING WITH AR-15S DURING DHS TOUR: ‘I’M LOOKING INTO THE ISSUE NOW’

When Your W-2 Meets an AR-15 - Mark Steyn/National Review Online

...A bureaucracy is bad. A politicized bureaucracy is worse. A paramilitary politicized bureaucracy is nuts. And, in fact, evil. There is no reason in a civilized society why the Deputy Assistant Commissioner of Paperwork should have his own SEAL Team Six....

Flashback: Obama Civilian Security



Levin on Obama's Civilian National Security Force

Feds hunted for Snowden in days before NSA programs went public

U.S. government investigators began an urgent search for Edward Snowden several days before the first media reports were published on the government's secret surveillance programs, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. - Reuters

Snowden, who has admitted to providing details of the top-secret programs, had worked on assignment at a Hawaii facility run by the National Security Agency for about four weeks before he said he was ill and requested leave without pay, according to the sources who spoke on condition of anonymity.

When Snowden failed to return, that prompted a hunt for the contractor, first by his employer Booz Allen Hamilton and then by the U.S. government, they said.

Snowden, 29, was known among colleagues as a very gifted "geek," according to one of the sources, who added, "This guy's really good with his fingers on the keyboard. He's really good."

His job as a systems administrator would have afforded Snowden very wide access to servers containing classified information at the NSA, and possibly other U.S. intelligence agencies, the same source said, without giving specifics.

U.S. officials do not yet know the extent to which Snowden was able to access intelligence databases, nor have they identified all the secret material he might have downloaded before leaving for Hong Kong, according to three sources.

NSA leaker Snowden says he's not avoiding justice - AP

Asked about his choice of Hong Kong to leak the information, Snowden said, "People who think I made a mistake in picking Hong Kong as a location misunderstand my intentions. I am not here to hide from justice; I am here to reveal criminality."

DRUDGE:
Feds hunted for Snowden in days before NSA programs went public...
NEW INTERVIEW...
More explosive details on US surveillance targets...
Steps he claims US took since he broke cover...
'If They Want To Get You, They'll Get You In Time'...
White House Celebrates New High Performance Computing Center Opening...
PATRIOT Act Author: Obama's NSA Reassurances 'A Bunch of Bunk'...
FLASHBACK: Actor Shia LaBeouf Tells Leno Gov't Records 1 in 5 Phone Calls...
FLASHBACK: US Soldier's 'Phone Sex' Intercepted, Shared...
Embarrassing Photos Of Snowden Leaked On Net...
GOOGLEPROOF: MAKING YOURSELF UNSEARCHABLE BECOMES CHIC...
MAG: Inside NSA's Ultra-Secret China Hacking Group...
DIRECTOR: PROGRAMS DISRUPTED DOZENS OF ATTACKS...
EXPERTS: Played little role in foiling terror plots...
Unravelling? GUARDIAN's scoop 'looking bit dodgy'...
Obama, 9 PRISM Partners Targeted by Class-Action Lawsuit...
Parents Of Slain Navy SEAL Join; Tapping Sounds On Phone, Got Strange Texts After Son's Death...
Hentoff: This is America?
EU warns US of 'grave consequences'...

The ‘eyes’ have it! Cartoonist scores with hope and NSA zinger

Why public-sector unions are ‘special’ special interests

Why Public Sector Unions Are the Most Elite of All Special Interests - Ed Ring/Cal Watchdog

Breaking: Deputy CIA director Mike Morell resigns; Update: Morell to join Obama’s intel advisory board

The news broke within the last few minutes. - HotAir

If his name sounds familiar, it’s because Morell was the guy who signed off on the now infamous edit of the CIA’s Benghazi talking points that removed references to previous warnings about jihadi activity in the area. Is today’s resignation related to that, or is it related somehow to the NSA/PRISM/Snowden clusterfark?

Fox News is quoting his statement as saying “It’s time for my family,” but I can’t remotely believe this guy would quit now in the middle of a Category Five natsec hurricane knowing how suspicious it would look if he didn’t have a more compelling reason than that. Is he being squeezed out because there’s some more damning leak to come and the White House wants to get out in front of it by dispatching with the person or persons responsible? More, at the link.

"MR. GORBECHEV, TEAR DOWN THIS WALL"



On this day, 26 years ago, Ronald Reagan gave what would become known as one of the most iconic speeches of his presidency. The dramatic speech, set against the backdrop of the Brandenburg Gate, helped crumble the Berlin Wall and the entire Soviet Empire with it. ◼ Via Darrel Issa

The Snowden Identity



Monday 10 June 2013 / Hour 2, Block C: Larry Johnson, NoQuarter, in re: Snowden flees to Hong Kong with a lot of intellectual property of US citizens. What does the info mean"? WH has no comment. - John Batchelor Show

Happy Birthday, 41!


‘Cutest photo ever’: POTUS slippers, rockin’ socks! Jenna’s pic of baby Mila with ‘gampy’ Bush 41 scores - Twitchy

‘Awesome socks!’ Greta, GWB Center and others celebrate Bush 41′s 89th birthday in style [photos] - Twitchy

An appeal to have an eight year-old boy's record expunged for a suspension he received for biting a Pop-Tart into the shape of a gun has been denied


7-year old Pop-Tart gun offender loses first appeal - Le-gal In-sur-rec-tion



We will keep an eye on the legal developments of the Pop-Tart offender and his gang members, the young toughs who were caught in possession of ◼ pencil pointed like a gun, a ◼ Quarter-size Lego piece, a ◼ clear plastic toy gun, a ◼ Lego Gun, an ◼ empty cap gun, and a ◼ Nerf Gun, and who trashed talked other kids about a ◼ Bubble Gun and ◼ Nerf Gun.

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

By Revealing PRISM, Snowden May Have Committed Treason

Like many others, we have raised constitutional questions about the expansive nature of the so-called Prism program that collects data on more than 100 million Americans. - IBD EDITORIAL

That said, Snowden's revelation of Prism and U.S. intelligence data-mining efforts to the left-wing British newspaper the Guardian broke the law. As a government contractor with top-security clearance, he agreed not to reveal the secrets that were entrusted to him, under penalty of U.S. law. He violated that....

Russia offers to consider asylum request - Miriam Elder in Moscow/The Guardian

Has the US become the type of nation from which you have to seek asylum? - Timothy B. Lee/Washington Post

Americans are familiar with stories of dissidents fleeing repressive regimes such as those in China or Iran and seeking asylum in the United States. Snowden is in the opposite position. He’s an American leaving the land of his birth because he fears persecution.

Taxpayers spend $41.3 million in a year to advertise food stamps, a 6-fold increase over last decade


Spending on advertising and outreach for food stamps has increased six-fold since 2000 — reaching $41.3 million in 2011, according to a new GOP report. - Daily Caller

The increase in spending on SNAP advertising came as the program’s cost rapidly increased — quadrupling since 2001 and more than doubling since 2008.

Participation in the program has also skyrocketed, increasing from approximately 17.3 million average annual participants to approximately 47.7 million average annual participants in 2013. In 2008, the average annual participation was approximately 28.2 million.

In recent years, Sessions — a vocal critic of SNAP — has pointed to the government’s aggressive advertising and outreach campaigns as partially responsible for the explosion in participation and cost of the programs.

Was President Obama the leaker?

(Take it with a grain of salt) - Journ-O-list Ezra Klein, Washington Post

...If Obama so welcomed this debate, his administration could have released the details on these proposals long ago. Doing so would, at the least, have allowed them to deliver a precise description of what is and isn’t going on, thus avoiding the “numerous inaccuracies” James Clapper, director of national intelligence, decries but doesn’t identify.

But the Obama administration didn’t release the details on these programs. In fact, they’ve pursued an energetic war on the kinds of leaks that have led to details on these programs. So for Obama to say he “welcomes” this debate is a bit rich. He did everything in his power to keep it from happening. He may still try and throw the people who did create this debate in jail.

Unless, of course, he actually was the leaker.

Discussion at Lucianne

Truth behind Snowden's claims about tracking Americans



link - FOX

What spying apologists don’t tell you about “thwarted plots” - MARCY WHEELER/Salon

...At the very least, the fuzzy cases Feinstein and Clapper are boasting about demonstrate the need for far more transparency on these tools. If they’re justifying a gross incursion on American privacy, in part because they helped track down an informant our intelligence services lost track of — and created false positives based on hair bleach purchases — then we need to seriously reconsider their use.

Democrats Love Government Surveillance --
As Long As It's Obama, Not Bush...

Majority Views NSA Phone Tracking as Acceptable Anti-terror Tactic - Pew ◼ Via Drudge

A majority of Americans – 56% – say the National Security Agency’s (NSA) program tracking the telephone records of millions of Americans is an acceptable way for the government to investigate terrorism, though a substantial minority – 41% – say it is unacceptable. And while the public is more evenly divided over the government’s monitoring of email and other online activities to prevent possible terrorism, these views are largely unchanged since 2002, shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center and The Washington Post, conducted June 6-9 among 1,004 adults, finds no indications that last week’s revelations of the government’s collection of phone records and internet data have altered fundamental public views about the tradeoff between investigating possible terrorism and protecting personal privacy.

Obama administration under pressure as US senators demand end to secrecy - Spencer Ackerman in Washington and Paul Lewis/The Guardian

This abuse of the Patriot Act must end - /Jim Sensenbrenner/The Guardian

President Obama falsely claims Congress authorised all NSA surveillance. In fact, our law was designed to protect liberties...

This is well beyond what the Patriot Act allows.

President Obama's claim that "this is the most transparent administration in history" has once again proven false. In fact, it appears that no administration has ever peered more closely or intimately into the lives of innocent Americans. The president should immediately direct his administration to stop abusing the US constitution.

We all know the saying "eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." We are seeing that truth demonstrated once again.

Our liberties are secure only so long as we are prepared to defend them. I and many other members of Congress intend to take immediate action to ensure that such abuses are not repeated.

Barbara Boxer Praises Santa Monica Shooting That Left Six People Dead: “This Gives Us Wind At Our Back” To Pass Gun Control…

Obama's Orwellian Legacy

Is America moving toward the Big Brother dystopia envisioned by George Orwell in some of his most famous novels?

Read more: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/06/11/obamas_orwellian_legacy_118759.html#.UbdoqXz3S2I.twitter#ixzz2VwzJNiRI
Follow us: @RCP_Articles on Twitter
- Dustin Walker/Real Clear Politics

That question has been on many minds in the wake of revelations about the National Security Agency’s sweeping surveillance of phone records and Internet data. The ACLU, for one, called these programs “beyond Orwellian” in a statement released last week. The ACLU’s response is characteristically feverish, but in at least one respect, the organization is right: We are indeed approaching an Orwellian world....

The real effect of the NSA stories is to cement a narrative about Obama that will likely become part of his legacy: the liberal senator and constitutional law professor who, like the pigs in “Animal Farm,” metamorphosed into what he had so notoriously opposed. Guantanamo remains open. Drones still rain down on Pakistan, Yemen, and anywhere else the president sees fit. Leaks are prosecuted vigorously and reporters are investigated to uncover their sources. And now, the president is affirming the surveillance practices he once mused could be unconstitutional. In light of these actions alone, it seems that Barack Obama has learned that George W. Bush got a lot of things right....

BUSH MORE POPULAR THAN OBAMA

In a Gallup tracking poll released Tuesday, former-President George W. Bush currently stands with a favorability rating of 49%, compared to 46% who see the 43rd president unfavorably. Meanwhile, another Gallup poll shows President Obama with only a 47% approval rating, with 44% disapproving. - John Nolte/Breitbart

Bush’s ratings beat Obama’s - Jennifer Rubin/Washington Post

There is unmistakable satisfaction among Obama critics at this reversal in approval ratings, in part because Obama used Bush as an excuse for practically every miscue and problem right up through the election. Obama nevertheless was compelled to adopt and expand upon many of Bush’s anti-terrorism tactics, even as he was publicly excoriating Bush for his handling of jihadist terror. And now Obama must resort to exactly the same defenses that Bush used to explain our cyberdefenses. Unlike Bush, however, Obama has suffered from serial revelations of wrongdoing and cannot point to a blemish-free record (e.g. Boston, Fort Hood) on terrorist homeland attacks after Sept. 11.

Obama is not a gracious man and, therefore, has not credited Bush with instituting a raft of effective anti-terror tactics. By contrast, Bush has refrained from publicly criticizing his successor. Obama, one suspects, has no net to catch him now as his support and credibility plunge. In fact he might look back fondly on yesterday’s numbers as a time his approval was at least close to Bush’s.

Ruling issued in McKee lawsuit

Sohum developer Bob McKee has been ordered to pay $200,000 in fines to Humboldt County in the culmination of a costly 11-year lawsuit over McKee’s purchase and division of Tooby Ranch near Garberville. - Grant Scott-Goforth/The Journal Blogthing

...The county spent at least $3 million pursuing the court case since 2004. That figure was released by the county following a separate lawsuit.

In his ruling, Reinholtsen wrote that “both sides acted reasonably but imperfectly” and said McKee could be credited for believing he was following the law when he divided the land.

“The evidence did not support the notion that he is a victim of local government run amok,” Reinholtsen wrote. “At the same time, he cannot be reduced to the caricature of a greedy land developer who flouts the law in the careless pursuit of profits.”

The ruling is not final. Both parties have 20 days to file objections with the court.

Prostitution, drugs alleged in State Department memo



link - Ashley Fantz and Jill Dougherty, CNN

The timeline surrounding the allegations places the incidents during former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's tenure, opening the possibility that a widening scandal might taint both her record and her possible political aspirations. Clinton has also taken heat for the department's response to the September 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya.

Regarding the latest allegations, CNN was provided the documents by a lawyer for a whistle-blower who is a former senior inspector general investigator.
They include:
An active U.S. ambassador "routinely ditched his protective security detail in order to solicit sexual favors from both prostitutes and minor children," the memo says. The ambassador's protective detail and others "were well aware of the behavior," the memo asserts. When a diplomatic security officer tried to investigate, undersecretary of state for management Patrick Kennedy allegedly ordered the investigator "not to open a formal investigation."

A State Department security official in Beirut allegedly "engaged in sexual assaults" against foreign nationals working as embassy guards. The security official, the Office of the Inspector General says, was also accused of committing "similar assaults during assignments in Baghdad, and possibly Khartoum and Monrovia." The office's memo says that an inspector general's investigator who went to Beirut to try to conduct an investigation was not given enough time to complete the job.

• A member of Clinton's security detail allegedly "engaged prostitutes while on official trips in foreign countries." The inspector general's agent assigned to investigate "concluded" that the "prostitution problem was endemic."

• In Iraq, an "underground drug ring" may have been operating near the U.S. Embassy and "supplying" drugs to State Department security contractors, but an agent sent to investigate the allegations was prevented from completing the job.
On Tuesday, Nicholas Merrill, a spokesman for Hillary Clinton, said Clinton was completely unaware of any of the investigations mentioned in the Office of the Inspector General's reports and memos, including the case involving her personal security detail allegedly soliciting prostitutes.

"We learned of it from the media and don't know anything beyond what's been reported," Merrill told CNN in a written statement.

Hillary’s Sorry State of Affairs - .A. MILLER and GEOFF EARLE, New York Post Correspondents
Discussion at Lucianne

ACLU Files Lawsuit Over NSA Phone Surveillance - MORE

The ACLU has just filed a lawsuit challenging several in the Obama administration over its indiscriminate scooping up of phone records. - Le-gal In-sur-rec-tion

The ACLU has just filed a lawsuit challenging several in the Obama administration over its indiscriminate scooping up of phone records.

In the wake of the past week's revelations about the NSA's unprecedented mass surveillance of phone calls, today the ACLU filed a lawsuit charging that the program violates Americans' constitutional rights of free speech, association, and privacy. - ACLU

This lawsuit comes a day after we submitted a motion to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) seeking the release of secret court opinions on the Patriot Act's Section 215, which has been interpreted to authorize this warrantless and suspicionless collection of phone records.

Last week, The Guardian released an order issued by the FISC that compelled a Verizon subsidiary—Verizon Business Network Services (VBNS)—to hand over, on an "ongoing, daily basis," details for every phone call placed on its network for a prospective three-month period. Collecting those details—"metadata" that reveals who people talk to, for how long, how often, and possibly from where—allows the government to paint an alarmingly detailed picture of Americans' private lives. The FISC order cited Section 215 as its legal basis, yet the breadth of the authority it granted to the government is simply incompatible with the text of the statute.

As an organization that advocates for and litigates to defend the civil liberties of society's most vulnerable, the staff at the ACLU naturally use the phone—a lot—to talk about sensitive and confidential topics with clients, legislators, whistleblowers, and ACLU members. And since the ACLU is a VBNS customer, we were immediately confronted with the harmful impact that such broad surveillance would have on our legal and advocacy work. So we're acting quickly to get into court to challenge the government's abuse of Section 215.

Nine Companies Tied to PRISM, Obama Will Be Smacked With (Another) Class-Action Lawsuit Wednesday - US News & World Report

AOL, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, PalTalk, Skype, Yahoo! and Youtube will be named in the suit, attorney says

AB 711 would ban lead ammunition for hunting



It may not seem like it, but it’s been more than a generation now that lead shot was banned for all waterfowl hunting and replaced with materials such as steel. - George deVilbiss/Auburn Journal

In regions where the condor soars, all lead-based ammunition has been banned, and the condor has made a great comeback from nearly depleted numbers.

Now there’s a move in the state Legislature to ban all lead ammunition via AB 711. That means you can’t be in possession of any lead-based ammunition for all hunting anywhere in the state. Stores would have in stock nothing but non-lead ammunition.

AB 711 recently passed its committee test with vote of a 9 ayes, 5 no’s and one abstain to advance to the Assembly Floor. If it becomes law, the ban would take full effect in 2016.

When I contacted the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, I was told the bill was under review and DFW hadn’t taken a position. Now that the bill is advancing, there is an urgency factor if you’re like many recreational shooters and hunters that oppose the bill.

If you oppose the bill, contact your legislator immediately. The vote could come soon.

AB 711 Assembly Bill - Bill Analysis - leginfo.ca.gov

California Lead Ammunition Ban (AB 711) Goes to Assembly Floor - NRA/ILA

Contact your state Assemblyman IMMEDIATELY

Earlier this week, the California Assembly Appropriations Committee voted 11 to 5 to approve a proposed statewide lead ammunition ban for all hunting, Assembly Bill 711. AB 711 would make California the first state in the nation to prohibit the use of all lead ammunition for hunting. This bill now goes to the state Assembly floor where it is expected to be brought up for a vote soon. The NRA urges all hunters, recreational shooters and gun owners to actively oppose AB 711. We strongly urge you to contact members of the state Assembly. Please forward this alert to your family, friends, fellow sportsmen and gun owners throughout California and urge them to do the same. Contact information for all state Assemblymen can be found here.

Be sure to check out HuntForTruth.org’s ◼ shocking new video opposing AB 711 and its recent hard-hitting rebuttal to the bill sponsor’s alleged “facts” sheet in support of the bill. This video and the rebuttal reveal the truth regarding lead ammunition, and expose the misinformation being spread by the ammunition ban proponents in their latest attack on hunters that is being disguised as a campaign to “get the lead out.”

Please act now! Visit the HuntForTruth.org website and Facebook page and “like” us, “share us with your friends, and anyone else you think may be interested in helping to fight this serious assault on hunting. You can also follow HuntforTruth.org on YouTube.

Click here to receive e-bulletins from Hunt for Truth

You can also remain informed on important issue to hunters, like California’s AB 711 and other attempts to ban traditional ammunition at ◼ NRAhuntersrights.org.

It has long been theorized the federal and state governments may attempt to significantly regulate ammunition as a roundabout way to infringe on the right of the general populace to keep and bear arms. - gunssavelivesa.net

Take Action! California sportsmen and women must contact their State Senators today. Tell them to vote NO on AB 711. To find your Senator’s contact information visit the ◼ USSA Legislative Action Center

California Governor Jerry Brown
State Senator Noreen Evans
State Assembly Wesley Chesbro

Ron Paul Blasts NSA Defenders On Piers Morgan: 'You're Justifying Dictatorship!'

Rand Paul: Big Brother Really Is Watching Us

Monitoring hundreds of millions of phone records is an extraordinary invasion of privacy. - Ran Paul/Wall St. Journal

When Americans expressed outrage last week over the seizure and surveillance of Verizon's client data by the National Security Agency, President Obama responded: "In the abstract, you can complain about Big Brother . . . but when you actually look at the details, I think we've struck the right balance."

How many records did the NSA seize from Verizon? Hundreds of millions. We are now learning about more potential mass data collections by the government from other communications and online companies. These are the "details," and few Americans consider this approach "balanced," though many rightly consider it Orwellian....

To protect against the invasion of Americans' privacy, I have introduced the Fourth Amendment Restoration Act. I introduced similar Fourth Amendment protections in December and again just last month. Both measures would have prevented the data-mining we're now seeing, but both bills were rejected by the Senate. We will see if this time my colleagues will vote to support the Constitution that they all took an oath to uphold.

I am also looking into a class-action lawsuit to overturn the decisions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that allowed for this to happen. I will take the fight all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary. My office has already heard much enthusiasm for this action.

The administration has responded to the public uproar by simply claiming that it is allowed to have unlimited access to all Americans' private information. This response is a clear indication that the president views our Constitutional "right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects" as null and void.

If this is the new normal in America, then Big Brother certainly is watching and it's not hyperbolic or extreme to say so. Nor is it unreasonable to fear which parts of the Constitution this government will next consider negotiable or negligible.

JONAH GOLDBERG: The IRS and NSA scandals show the president can't be trusted to keep politics out of government.

We can't trust Obama - Jonah Goldberg/LA Times

AP Demolishes the Obama Presidency in One Brutal Piece

If you’re a Democrat, you might want to hold your hand over your child’s eyes. - Independent Journal Review

This is from Liz Sidotti of the Associated Press (that’s right — the AP):

Read the whole delicious thing, savor it, and then share the news to your friends who may not understand what “right-wingers” have been squawking about for four long years.

COLUMN: MOUNTING CONTROVERSIES ARE ALL ABOUT TRUST - LIZ SIDOTI | The Associated Press

Why Expanded Government Spying Doesn’t Mean Better Security Against Terrorism

What is most important to understand about the revelations of massive message interception by the U.S. government is this: in counterterrorist terms, it is a farce. - Barry Rubin/PJMedia

There is a fallacy behind the current intelligence strategy of the United States, behind this collection of up to three billion phone calls a day, of emails, and even of credit card expenditures, not to mention the government spying on the mass media. It is this:

The more quantity of intelligence, the better it is for preventing terrorism.

In the real, practical world this is untrue, though it might seem counterintuitive. You don’t need — to put it in an exaggerated way — an atomic bomb against a flea.

Isn’t it absurd that the United States — which can’t finish a simple border fence to keep out potential terrorists; can’t stop a would-be terrorist in the U.S. Army who gives a PowerPoint presentation on why he is about to shoot people (Major Nidal Hasan); can’t follow up on Russian intelligence warnings about Chechen terrorist contacts (the Boston bombing); or a dozen similar incidents — must now collect every telephone call in the country?

Monday, June 10, 2013

Carney Walks Back Obama Statement That All Members Briefed On NSA


GET YOUR TICKETS NOW:
John Fund coming to Humboldt


COMING THURSDAY, JUNE 20: The Humboldt Republican Party presents a Sizzlin' Summer Dinner & Auction

Featuring Author/Fox News commentator JOHN FUND
and REX BOHN, Auctioneer at the Blue Lake Casino

6:00 p.m. No-Host Cocktails
7:00 p.m. Tri-tip Dinner
8:00 p.m. Speaker: John Fund
8:30 p.m. Auction with Rex Bohn
At Blue Lake Casino’s Sapphire Room
Tickets: $45 per person.
To purchase tickets online through HGOP's secure server (Piryx) ◼ CLICK HERE


We will have your tickets at the door.

MAKE YOUR RESERVATIONS TODAY
Call Republican Headquarters,442-2259
or go to ◼ www.humboldtgop.org
John Fund at Amazon:
◼ (Jul 21, 2008) Stealing Elections: How Voter Fraud Threatens Our Democracy
◼ (Nov 24, 2009) How the Obama Administration Threatens to Undermine Our Elections (Encounter Broadsides)
◼ (Aug 14, 2012) Who's Counting?: How Fraudsters and Bureaucrats Put Your Vote at Risk

Shakedowns

By introducing bills threatening taxes on interests that can afford to defend themselves, and then tabling the measures for reconsideration next year, members of the majority party have another 12 months to run their highly profitable shakedown racket, pressing politically vulnerable industries for campaign contributions. - Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association

These business interests get the message and they pay. Back in 2009, when then-Gov. Schwarzenegger was promoting his Proposition 1A, a $16 billion tax increase on regular folks, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce admitted that it was important to support the governor’s measure, because the alternative would likely be higher taxes on business.

Those who look at compliant business interests as the problem, would only be part right. California continues to be rated as one of the worst states in the nation to do business. The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has released its annual economic rankings of all U.S. states, and California ranks 47th for economic outlook and CEO Magazine has rated California as the worst state to do business for eight years in a row. California businesses are struggling under high taxes and suffocating regulations.

Interestingly, the reaction among various businesses and industries to the shakedowns is not uniform. Some are more than happy to play the game as a cost of doing business and, besides, it gets them into some pretty fancy parties. Other quietly seethe as they reluctantly write the checks because they know how wrong it is. Either way, businesses have adopted a “go along to get along” approach in a desperate effort to survive.

But in the end, to see who is really responsible for our pay-for-play culture in the state capitol, we voters must look in the mirror. As long as we continue to elect ego-driven, money-grasping politicians who put themselves above the interests of average Californians, we will continue to suffer under dysfunctional governance.
__________________
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Scandal number five (Six? Seven?): Insider-trading probe of Medicare announcement reveals hundreds of HHS employees had secret info

Is this scandal number five or number six? There’s Benghazi, the IRS, the DOJ snooping on reporters, Sebelius shaking down health executives for ObamaCare contributions, and now the NSA/PRISM/Snowden mega-clusterfark. This new WaPo story makes six. No, wait — seven. - HotAir

Ed just posted on the State Department covering up misconduct. We’re going to need a bigger boat.

Actually, there are two potential scandals here. One is HHS tossing around what was supposed to be sensitive information to a huge swath of employees in-house. The other scandal is who actually leaked it, assuming anyone did. It might not have come from HHS at all but rather from some old-fashioned Beltway congressional/lobbyist incest. As with most of the other Obama scandals, this story is less about O himself than about the foreseeable abuses that result as the federal whale grows. You can have bigger government or you can have more accountable government. The guy who signed ObamaCare into law has made his choice.
Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) told The Washington Post late last week that his office reviewed the e-mail records of employees at the Department of Health and Human Services and found that 436 of them had early access to the Medicare decision as much as two weeks before it was made public…

“In the statistical agencies, where the handling of sensitive information is their bread and butter, they’re very serious about confidentiality,” said Keith Hall, a former commissioner at the Bureau of Labor Statistics who has spent more than two decades in government. “But in other parts of the government that handle policy issues, there’s a whole different level of treatment.”

Hall said employees in other parts of the government, including the Medicare office, are not subject to the same types of potential consequences as employees at statistical agencies, who can land in prison for up to five years and face a fine of a quarter of a million dollars for disclosing information early.

Giving hundreds of government employees advance notice of a policy decision “is way too many,” said Hall, now a senior fellow at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center. “I’ve done my share of working on policy issues and policy decisions, and you just don’t spread that stuff around like that.”

Glenn Beck, Michael Moore call NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden a hero

Conservative radio commentator Glenn Beck and liberal Hollywood movie-maker Michael Moore have found common ground on the National Security Agency whistleblower, Edward Snowden: He’s a hero. - Cheryl K. Chumley/Washington Times









Ron Paul: We should be thankful for people like Edward Snowden and Glenn Greenwald - HotAir