What’s interesting in the news today?
First up, the fires continue in Colorado, but crews may be making progress. From NBCNews
‘The fight against a massive, deadly wildfire in Colorado faced a new challenge Friday when isolated thunderstorms packing gusting winds and lightning churned into the region — but got a little help from rain that blew in too.
Authorities inched closer to curbing the Black Forest Fire on Friday afternoon, bringing containment to 30 percent. Mandatory evacuation orders for thousands of Colorado Springs residents were lifted, according to NBC station KOAA of Pueblo, Colo.“
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Next up, who would have the motive and capability to hack a reporters computer? A reporter who just happens to be doggedly reporting on the Fast and Furious scandal. The Obama DoJ is the obvious choice. From CBSNews
“CBS News spokeswoman Sonya McNair said that a cybersecurity firm hired by CBS News “has determined through forensic analysis” that “Attkisson’s computer was accessed by an unauthorized, external, unknown party on multiple occasions in late 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.””
More here, from TheWashingtonPost
“Attkisson said she noticed unusual activity in her CBS-issued laptop and her home computer, such as dormant computers spontaneously “waking up” at odd hours. The unusual activity, which also included disruptions on her home phone line, predate the December 2012 breach that CBS confirmed.
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.”
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Meanwhile a judge has decided the President has exerted unlawful command influence that may have adverse effects on the sentencing of military members convicted of sexual assault. Nice job there Barry. From Politico
“President Obama’s comments condemning military sexual assault and suggesting that those convicted be punished with, among other things, a dishonorable discharge may be backfiring on his efforts to root out the growing problem.
In pretrial hearings in two cases, a Navy judge in Hawaii ruled this week that Obama had exerted “unlawful command influence” as commander-in-chief in outlining the specific “consequences” he saw fit for members of the military convicted of sexual assault.
As a result of Navy Judge Cmdr. Marcus Fulton’s rulings, the defendants in United States v. Johnson and United States v. Fuentes can’t be punitively discharged, even if they’re convicted of sexual assault. Stars and Stripes first reported on the rulings.”
And speaking of unlawful influence…… From NationalReview
“Details of that testimony are interesting. Representative Tom Graves (R., Ga.) asked, “Have you asked the individuals who ordered them to use this extra scrutiny to punish, or penalize, or postpone, or deny?” George turns around to confer with his assistant. Just the fact that the inspector general had to confer to know the answer to this crucial question is amazing. George’s assistant says something to him that is not recorded, but one can see the assistant shaking his head back and forth. Then George responds publicly to the question, saying, “During our audit, Congressman, we did pose that question and no one would acknowledge who, if anyone, provided that direction.””
“Anyone who knows anything about the rights and responsibilities of an inspector general has to be shaking his head in disbelief at George’s explanation. First, every employee of the government has the responsibility to cooperate with and provide information to an IG concerning his work.”
The same thing they did with the so-called “independent” commission who investigated Benghazi as well. Meanwhile the so-called “investigation” by the FBI of IRS abuses has yet to interview even one conservative group who was targeted. How can you get to the bottom of a crime if you don’t talk to the victims? It’ll be yet another whitewash.
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In other news Democrats who forced ObamaCare on the rest of us now want a pass for themselves. What a dirt bag move. From 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.”
Waaa. 😦 Somebody call the wambulance. Now you know how the rest of us feel. Thanks for nothin’.
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And lastly, more rewarding of big campaign contributors by Obama. From TheHill
“The White House said that Obama had named John Emerson as the next ambassador to Germany. According to the president’s campaign, Emerson raised at least half a million dollars last year for the president’s reelection effort, topping the between $100,000 and $200,000 he netted for Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign.
Obama has also nominated Rufus Gifford, a former finance director for the Democratic National Committee and finance director of his reelection campaign, as the next ambassador to Denmark. Gifford also served as a major fundraiser for John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign and the chairman of the president’s inaugural committee.
Gifford joins the relatively small ranks of openly gay men to be appointed a U.S. ambassador. The president also appointed James Costos, an openly gay executive at HBO, as the next American representative to Spain. Costos gave $67,000 to support the president and Democratic National Committee during last year’s race, according to the Federal Election Commission.”
That’s a twofer there.
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Wandering Views 
The NSA has been hacking everyone’s computer as of late or at least anyone with any remote importance to anything. (Its to the point I ‘m disappointed I’m not hacked, I should really be more politically active and yes the NSA is active in Canada) To connect the NSA activity to one reporter for one story or issue and then link it to the Obama admin (ie a smoking gun) is near impossible. I’m quite sure the NSA and other gov’t agencies have been monitoring reporters and politically active persons since at least the Truman administration. I’ll give Carter a pass but the rest of the administrations have participated.
The judge is wrong in the Navy case. Here’s where law and order conservatives should be consistent and not partisan. A presidential statement in terms of how he wants policy to proceed is perfectly acceptable. He is after all commander in chief. It would be unacceptable if he made specific comments on a specific case; that would be undue interference. It appears the Navy judge is just looking for an excuse not to clean up the mess which exists in the armed forces in regards to sexual assault.
The Republicans have voted to repeal Obamacare or parts of it at least 37 times costing the taxpayer millions of dollars. There are more important things to do than make the same political statement over and over. Do it once or twice and then wait until of more fortuitous moment. Leftist sites are asking Republicans to repeal gov’t healthcare for Congressman/woman instead of repealing Obamacare and right wing sites want them to adopt Obamacare. The right and left should get together on this either is cheaper and more acceptable than the present state of affairs.
This is an example of how the right and left aren’t really represented by the two parties which occupy a floating center throwing crumbs to their base while in reality both parties kowtow to their real corporate base.
Finally, ambassadorial appointment are always patronage in the US to the point where embassy staff are recalled by a new administration. Faux outrage here.
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Interesting business news. The gov’t and venture capitalist have been investing money in “green” companies and then dumping them due to impatience and desire for short term gains. Chinese companies looking more long term are picking up these companies for less than the capital already invested in them. Apparently they see something capitalist don’t. Its all about management and patience not economic ideology.
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Finally something the pro-life should get involved in and make common cause with their feminist opponents … ending the harassment of rape victims.
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/06/10/2113781/another-town-shames-rape-victim/
http://www.indystar.com/article/20130605/NEWS/306050112/An-Elwood-girl-became-pregnant-sexual-assault-13-Her-story-illustrates-growing-problem-Indiana-?nclick_check=1
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HRW,
Monitoring the press and what they put out is one thing. This is flat out hacking. There’s a world of difference between the two, and you know that.
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HRW, Thanks for the laugh. Of the following three groups which would be least likely to make an investment because of “economic ideology”?
1. Tree-hugging socialist Democrats;
2. Chinese semi-communists; or
3. Free market conservatives?
Get governments out of the picture and no investments will be made because of economic ideology. For more than 100 years oil and gas has competed very well in the free market.
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HRW, I agree with you on protecting rape victims. Conservatives and feminists should work together on that issue and on fighting pornography
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To differentiate between monitoring and hacking is to draw lines that don’t exist. The only difference is the technology available and the sophistication of method.
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Given that social democracy is a compromise between capitalism and communism, it is far more diversified in its forms and is far more flexible. The other two straitjacket an individual in a particular form of market activity. And more to the point of my previous comment, free market capitalism especially in its modern form, is about short term gains and seldom looks at the long term something socialism with its focus on society as a whole is far more willing to do.
As for the oil companies, they’ve been heavily subsidized for over a century. In part because of its “strategic value” and in part due to simple corruption and political expediency.
http://news.yahoo.com/history-u-oil-subsidies-back-nearly-century-215500548.html
http://cen.acs.org/articles/89/i51/Long-History-US-Energy-Subsidies.html
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I have few problems with pornography … the issue for me is consent and then care for victims and punishment for perpetrators. As long as its consenting adults, pornography is not an issue. It may be a vice with ill effects but it resembles alcohol in this way not rape.
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Oh, the reason I linked the rape story is the lack of positive action from the pro-life movement. A rape victim choose to keep a child (abortion would have been the easy way out) and is now subjected to harassment. The pro-life movement should be building her a house, buying her dinner, start a trust fund for the kid, etc.
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Oil and gas has fueled the economies of nations all over the world for over a century. Why? It is plentiful and cost-efficient. If wind, solar or algae ever become cost-efficient they will power economies around the world. Until then, they will be subsidized by taxpayers so that Green hypocrites like Al Gore can become wealthy.
Pornography degrades the person who is photographed and leads its users into various other forms of sexual misbehavior, including rape.
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Oil and gas are the fuel of choice because they are heavily subsidized. When it comes to cheap and plentiful, solar energy is a far better choice but it terms of subsidizes and infrastructure it lags behind oil.
Alcohol has the same effect but we don’t work to ban it instead we regulate and limit its side effects.
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On the ‘green’ power alternatives – The Chinese are not bound by the Western cultural mindset of a long established power infrastructure. I am currently witnessing just how effective solar power can be, which is definitely the way of the future here. It also creates a whole different type of economic development.
Conventional power sources create dependencies – you have to pay a company to continually renew your resource and that company generally supplies an entire community through carefully placed lines. This dependence is evident in the way we speak of being tied to the power grid.
Solar power is much more autonomous – the panel and batteries are the sole property of the home owner. In regions that have high sunlight levels, like the desert and plains regions of Africa and Central Asia, there are rapidly growing populations who still value their tribal autonomy but also understand the benefits of electricity. The country who can cheaply manufacture and sell solar products in these regions will have cornered a much larger market than North America or Europe can offer.
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Americans are not generally bound by cultural mindsets that control their economic decisions. We adapted very quickly to the Internet. We switched quickly from land lines to cell phones. We are switching quickly to satellite radio. We are also switching quickly from books to Nooks and Kindles. Americans do want a cheap and reliable source of power. That won’t change. I don’t have a cultural mindset that favors any type of energy. I do have a mindset that gets irritated when my tax dollars are used to subsidize energy options that can’t compete in the free market.
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So you get irritated by the amount of subsidies the oil industry receives?
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HRW, I am not irritated about the oil subsides. What I am irritated about is General Electric not paying any Taxes. I am also irritated that both Siemens and G.E. are enablers of Iran’s pursuit of a Nuclear weapon.
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The cost of energy to produce solar panels in China is three times what it is in California. It will take 10 years before the Chinese solar panels make enough electricity to counterbalance what it cost to produce them, not to mention the ecological costs the Chinese do not calculate into their costs.
The life span is usually 7-10 years.
If those same solar panels were made in California, the payback would be about 3-4 years and the carbon footprint would be much smaller.
California, however, has decided it does not like manufacturing and so there are few plants, if any, that I know of making solar panels.
California also has decreed that soon, I can’t remember the year, 30% of all energy used in the state must be renewable (wind, solar), however, California will not allow the power lines built that can transmit energy collected by the massive amount of solar panels required to meet that spec–even if the solar panels were, say, far out in the desert where they don’t bother anyone.
In my community, tiger salamanders trump solar panels, and so at least one company has not been able to use them–even on an old runway that tiger salmanders don’t use either. The tiger salmanders also prefer to run around at night, when the solar panels . . . well, it doesn’t matter what they’re doing, the ecologists in my community want to protect their habitat from even the most benign activity.
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I do not know, personally, any pro-lifers who would do anything but encourage a woman to carry a child–no matter who fathered it in what circumstance.
I also know from personal experience that the first question we ask in a situation like that is, is the woman (or in my case, it was a girl we were discussing) getting the counseling she needs to help her deal with the rape?
You deal with the immediate–the personal and emotional ramifications of her violation– before you move on to how can we help her with the pregnancy.
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I do not know the Navy case to which HRW refers.
Sexual assault is a violation of the Uniformed Code of Military Justice. The UCMJ is different than the type of justice civilians have. The evidence requirements are not the same and the jury is usually three officers–if I have that correct.
I do not personally know any military people who would sanction sexual assault in any form. They get a lot of anti-sexual assault training. Even the senior military wives are trained in how to recognize a variety of social ills, including alcoholism, assault, battering, child abuse and a host of other problems.
If you are suspected of behaving in such a way, or your spouse or anyone else who lives in military housing with you, the onus is on the command and the neighbors to check into it.
I’m having a hard time believing any command would look the other way and not deal with the perpetrators–sending them for counseling at the minimum and training for all hands.
But then something like Abu Gahrib (sp?) happens, and you wonder what happened there? The general thought is “failure of command,” meaning whomever was in charge sanctioned an atmosphere than enabled “weak” members to feel they could behave in such an abominable manner.
Which is why the officer in charge often loses his job when vile things happened “on his watch.”
(And this may be why I don’t understand why people haven’t been losing their jobs over the scandals of the last several weeks. They would have in the military.)
One of the hallmarks of the nuclear navy was the sense that you were very careful about how you handled violations of the rules. If the “threat” of punishment was too brutal, people would not report mistakes. The risk of contamination and catastrophic results of failure were so high, not to mention political fall out, that they’d rather the sailors reported their mistakes without fear (and possibly without harsh punishment) than hide errors.
It’s a peculiar way of handling error–grace-filled almost, but effective in dealing with potentially dangerous situations.
I don’t know what is happening now, of course
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HRW, Oil “subsidies” are a complete myth. Oil and gas has fueled the world since long before the time the first foolish liberal ever thought of spending tax dollars to subsidize one form of energy over another.
California itself is an endangered species. The white commies on the coast are currently in control. However, they don’t reproduce well since they homosexually marry each other and kill their babies. The Mexicans reproduce very well. Folks like Michelle are becoming rarer each year. The Mexicans will soon seize control. Then things will get interesting. In theory, the Valley in the middle of the state is subject to the same ridiculous taxes and Eco-regs as the rest of the state. In practice the Mexicans have largely taken over the Valley and they choose to ignore the Eco-commies’ rules.
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The US military is simply a reflection of the nation as a whole. Sexual assaults are rampant in the military and they are rampant in the ghetto and on college campuses. The decision to put women on ships at sea and in combat was foolish, and the fact that a large percentage of sailorettes come back pregnant from their cruises was predictable. The good/humorous news is that our military will now steadily turn homosexual. Once it is fully homosexual, we will no longer have to worry about sexual misbehavior in the military, because to do so would be “homophobic”.
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Michelle — I was referring to the Politico link AJ has on the top of the thread
http://www.politico.com/politico44/2013/06/obama-exerted-unlawful-command-influence-in-speaking-166288.html
Failure of command is definitely part of the problem. Some might say its a fear of reprisals against speaking out in opposition to women on board. In any case, its been evident for a while that the armed forces have been hiding the problem. The recent judgment is an indication of this.
This problem is not just limited to the armed forces, its also evident in almost any hierarchical structured workplace. In Canada, the RCMP is being investigated for similar problems: a failure to report sexual assault amongst the ranks.
When your command is at risk, the motivation to cover up is high.
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As my links demonstrate oil subsides exist, and these subsidies doesn’t cover the cost of safeguarding the supply of oil. The US navy in the Persian Gulf has been employed as a private security firm, at taxpayers expense, since at least the Islamic revolution in Iran. Take half that money and you could effectively switch to solar or wind.
Interestingly, there’s no need to subsidize utility companies to create a large solar infrastructure of power plants and lines.This is just an other form of corporate corruption and continues the same pattern of subsidization. Instead the state could subsidize the consumer to purchase off the grid or reverse flow solar panels. Some European countries are now making it standard for any new buildings to have solar panels on the roof. This helps eliminate a monopoly which all good free marketers should encourage — you have a varied amount of producers and consumers.
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HRW, Do you drive to work in a solar or wind powered car?
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The US doesn’t need to guard the Middle East oil anymore. We are now a net exporter of oil, despite the best efforts of the EPA, Obama, and the tree huggers.
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HRW, just curious what you think of the Kaitlyn Hunt case.
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