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News/Politics 6-8-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

The hits just keep coming.  The DoJ is fighting the release of a court opinion that found the surveillance programs activities unconstitutional. From MotherJones

“In the midst of revelations that the government has conducted extensive top-secret surveillance operations to collect domestic phone records and internet communications, the Justice Department was due to file a court motion Friday in its effort to keep secret an 86-page court opinion that determined that the government had violated the spirit of federal surveillance laws and engaged in unconstitutional spying.”

“For those who follow the secret and often complex world of high-tech government spying, this was an aha moment. The FISA court Wyden referred to oversees the surveillance programs run by the government, authorizing requests for various surveillance activities related to national security, and it does this behind a thick cloak of secrecy. Wyden’s statements led to an obvious conclusion: He had seen a secret FISA court opinion that ruled that one surveillance program was unconstitutional and violated the spirit of the law. But, yet again, Wyden could not publicly identify this program.”

More cover-up.

Not millions…. billions. From Bloomberg

“Collect telephone numbers for billions of U.S. calls, load the information into super-fast computers and you can start building a map of connections revealing patterns or oddities to help spot a terrorist.”

“The U.S. government’s primary electronic surveillance arm, the National Security Agency, is doing just that — vacuuming up U.S. phone records and, at least in certain circumstances, analyzing them to develop leads that authorities can pursue to identify and stop terror plots.”

Some of those hits are friendly fire too. From TheHill

“Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) on Friday disputed a claim President Obama made at a  press conference only moments earlier, when the president said that every member  of Congress had been briefed on the National Security Agency’s (NSA) domestic  phone surveillance program.”

““I knew about the program because I specifically sought it out,” Merkley said on  MSNBC. “It’s not something that’s briefed outside the Intelligence Committee. I  had to get special permission to find out about the program. It raised concerns  for me. … When I saw what was being done, I felt it was so out of sync with the  plain language of the law and that it merited full public examination, and  that’s why I called for the declassification.”

There went the blame Bush meme too.

Even NBCNews?

“The National Security Agency has at times mistakenly intercepted the private email messages and phone calls of Americans who had no link to terrorism, requiring Justice Department officials to report the errors to a secret national security court and destroy the data, according to two former U.S. intelligence officials. “

“Another former senior official, who asked not to be identified, confirmed Blair’s recollection and said the incident created serious problems for the Justice Department, which represents the NSA before the federal judges on the secret court.

The judges “were really upset about this,” said the former official. As a result, Attorney General Eric Holder pledged to the judges that the intelligence agencies would take steps to correct the problem as a condition of renewing the NSA’s surveillance program. “

Next up, does the US want to destroy privacy around the world? From BusinessInsider

“”It’s well past time that we have a debate about whether that’s  the kind of country and world in which we want to live,” Greenwald said on CNN.  “We haven’t had that debate because it’s all done in secrecy and the Obama  administration has been very aggressive about bullying and threatening anybody  who thinks about exposing it or writing about it or even doing journalism about  it. It’s well past time that that come to an end.”

The Obama administration and some members of Congress have defended the use of the  programs. Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) said  the NSA’s collection of phone data has been going on for seven years. Feinstein  said it’s about “protecting America.”

“People like Dianne Feinstein and Saxby Chambliss can have press  conferences threatening people for bringing light to what it is they’re doing,  but the only people who are going to be investigated are them,” Greenwald said  in response.”

And it’s starting to look like this isn’t just on foreigners as first claimed. From WeaselZippers

“Anyone can appreciate the need to go after foreign terrorists, even that some information might cross over to some Americans who might be in league with foreign terrorists. Yet the order that allowed this massive NSA grab didn’t even give that as a justification, the order says the following:

IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that, the Custodian of Records shall produce to the National Security Agency (NSA) upon service of this Order, and continue production on an ongoing daily basis thereafter for the duration of this Order, unless otherwise ordered by the Court, an electronic copy of the following tangible things: all call detail records or “telephony metadata” created by Verizon for communications (i) between the United States and abroad; or (ii) wholly within the United States, including local telephone calls. This Order does not require Verizon to produce telephony metadata.”

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And look what James Rosen found in the Friday Night News Dump. Susan Rice Benghazi documents. From TheGretaWire/FoxInsider

“State Dept does a ‘document dump’ late on a Friday – 97 pages of documents relating to Ambassador Susan Rice’s television appearances”

Hmmmmm……

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ObamaCare Navigators, coming to a red state near you. Or as I like to call it, ACORN Reborn. From WatchDog.org

“In those states where there is a significant level of hostility toward ObamaCare, trained “navigators” will be on the ground to ensure the program is successfully implemented,  senior administration officials said Thursday during a conference call.”

“Another administration official on the call said funding is available through the Department of Health and Human Services for ObamaCare navigators who she described as “trained in-person consumer assistants.” The official also told reporters $150 million is available in supplemental grants for community health centers, which she said are “quite prevalent in Florida and Texas.””

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I’m not a Ravens fan at all. But I like this guy. 🙂  From TheWashingtonExaminer

“Retired Baltimore Ravens center Matt Birk, who won a Super Bowl with the team last year, skipped the team’s visit to the White House due to President Obama’s support for Planned Parenthood.

“I have great respect for the office of the presidency but about five or six weeks ago, our president made a comment in a speech and he said, ‘God bless Planned Parenthood,’” Birk, a former Minnesota Viking, told a local Minnesota sports blog. “I’m very confused by [Obama’s] statement,” he explained. “”For God to bless a place where they’re ending 330,000 lives a year? I just chose not to attend.”

Birk said he’s a pro-life Roman Catholic. “Planned Parenthood performs about 330,000 abortions a year,” he said. “I couldn’t endorse that in any way.”

Nice to see him sticking to his beliefs and principles.

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16 thoughts on “News/Politics 6-8-13”

  2. Excerpt from an e-mail I got.

    “I walked down the street in Barcelona and suddenly discovered a terrible truth – Europe died in Auschwitz … We killed six million Jews and replaced them with 20 million Muslims. In Auschwitz we burned a culture, thought, creativity, talent. We destroyed the chosen people, truly chosen, because they produced great and wonderful people who changed the world.”
    ……………………
    “And under the pretence of tolerance, and because we wanted to prove to ourselves that we were cured of the disease of racism, we opened our gates to 20 million Muslims, who brought us stupidity and ignorance, religious extremism and lack of tolerance, crime and poverty, due to an unwillingness to work and support their families with pride.

    They have blown up our trains and turned our beautiful Spanish cities into the third world, drowning in filth and crime. Shut up in the apartments they receive free from the government, they plan the murder and destruction of their naive hosts.

    And thus, in our misery, we have exchanged culture for fanatical hatred, creative skill for destructive skill, intelligence for backwardness and superstition. We have exchanged the pursuit of peace of the Jews of Europe and their talent for a better future for their children, their determined clinging to life because life is holy, for those who pursue death, for people consumed by the desire for death for themselves and others, for our children and theirs.

    What a terrible mistake was made by miserable Europe .

    ……………..

    Is this where we’re headed?
    It may be.

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  3. Coming here I was not surprised AJ had posted the latest in privacy violations of the federal gov’t. I am surprised at the outrage of some who should clearly know better. The American republic has a long tradition of violating civil rights and privacy as far back as the second presidency with the Alien Sedition Act, civil war repression, Palmer Raids, red scares, internment camps, cointelpro, etc. As technology progressed so has the violations. This latest incarnation stems from the Patriot Act supported by both parties and continued with support from both parties despite warnings from both sides of the political spectrum. Back in 2001 only one senator, Sen Fiengold, voted against it. Here’s parts of his speech.
    http://on.aol.com/video/russ-feingolds-early-warning-on-patriot-act-517809507

    Noam Chomsky once suggested the best way to limit freedom of speech/expression/ideas is to allow for a lively debate within a narrow spectrum of ideas or expression. This is essentially what both Republicans and Democrats do. There appears to be a lively debate (mostly by outliners on both sides or on social questions) but on questions of economics and foreign policy, they close ranks. In this case, PRISM and other activities of the NSA are defended by both parties who see it as an essential extension of the security/corporate state. Similarly, the military industrial complex, agricultural subsidies, corporate tax loopholes, etc will continued to be supported by both parties. For those here who either casually support the Republicans or even help on the ground game, there’s not much chance of any significant change …… A different part of the elite may enjoy the benefits and this branch may change a few social policies but no significant change.

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  5. “The American republic has a long tradition of violating civil rights and privacy”

    As does also every government or do you really think none of us are smart enough to go on the internet and look up the history of human rights in Canada?
    Either way it’s all proof of the need for small government.

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  6. My comment was in the context of the latest privacy scandal in the US. If the context was a Canadian privacy scandal, I could give you a list of RCMP intrusion on the civil rights of leftist activist from the Winnepeg General Strike 1919 to the G20 last year and everything in between. Since Canada is a small c conservative nation (really it is) most of the gov’t spying is on leftist. Although in the 80s, right racist groups were monitored.

    The European countries have a different legal tradition and thus its difficult to compare.

    In the US both the left and right are libertarian in nature — making both sides a little utopian in my opinion. Where the two sides differ iis when the gov’t should be used or be intrusive. The right tends to lean towards moral activism and the left tend towards economic activism. Neither make a good argument for small gov’t instead both contradict themselves arguing for activism in one sector but not an other. Its more accurate to say all political ideologies argue for gov’t intervention the debate is where and for whom.

    For example; Republicans will argue for unnecessary military spending (even when the military doesn’t want it) because its corporate sponsors demand large gov’t in that area. In agriculture, both their mass base and corporate sponsors demand a large gov’t. In moral policies, their mass base demands an intrusive gov’t. And I’m sure you can develop a list where Democrats want big gov’t and where they want a small gov’t.

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  7. Brilliance is never a word I associate with Krugman.

    Not shockingly, after reading that I still don’t. He’s just playing the roll of ObamaCare cheerleader, as he does with all things Obama, despite it being one disaster after another. And of course, Republicans are always stupid too. He’s just doing what the Obama admin has asked of friendly media folks, help us sell a plan that more than half the country despises. Propaganda I believe it’s called.

    And he talks of the costs to states that aren’t co-operating, yet he ignores the cost states that are will incur. The CBO estimates have gone thru the roof and are already double what was advertised. And they haven’t even started to pay yet. All they’ve done is expand govt. And the cuts to Medicare, and the ones yet to come, have turned it into something doctors don’t want to be involved in. What good is it when no one takes it because they got robbed by the govt on what’s paid back? I see it collapsing. The pre-existing condition policymakers are already out of money and haven’t even started to pay out on the level they will. As always happens when the feds shove mandates on states and then can’t fund them, States end up holding the bag. There’s a long way to go here, and the implementation of ObamaCare has been a disaster thus far. You may buy the hype from Krugman, I don’t. He reads like just another White House Press release. They’re also not brilliant.

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  9. HRW. The greatest violator of civil rights are Islamic countries. If you bring a Bible into Saudi Arabia, the religious police will shred your bible.

    Here are a few more examples where there is no freedom of conscience in Islam.

    http://www.christianpost.com/news/iranian-authorities-shut-church-in-tehran-76399/
    http://www.christianpost.com/news/islamists-bomb-three-churches-in-kaduna-state-nigeria-76808/
    http://www.christianpost.com/news/convert-from-islam-in-sudan-loses-wife-children-76942/

    And of course we would not want to miss Obama’s favorite example Islamic Tolerance Indonesia

    http://www.christianpost.com/news/uptick-in-church-closures-attacks-in-indonesia-76144/

    Need I go on?

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  11. Krugman’s article reveals his ignorance. The federal government makes the Medicaid rules, but only funds half the costs. State Medicaid obligations were causing states major problems even before Obabacare. The states are wisely choosing not to make that problem much worse. If the states opted to expand Medicaid, their own costs would shoot up. It is typical of Krugman to call label a financially responsible position as “spite”. This is exactly the reaction liberals had to Reagan when he fought to curb runaway domestic spending.

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  12. Reagan tried to sharply reduce Medicare and Medicaid in the early 80s. He was able to slightly increase co-payments by Medicare recipients. Dad said this act saved his mother’s life. Like many women, she had a series of medical procedures she wanted; most of which were completely unnecessary. The first procedure had complications which nearly killed her and cost her $20,000. The fact that she nearly died did not deter her, but the copayment scared her away from future surgeries. She then lived 25 more healthy years and died at 93.

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