What’s interesting in the news today?
1. 8 ways the most transparent administration ever is blocking information.
From TheAP “The fight for access to public information has never been harder, Associated Press Washington Bureau Chief Sally Buzbee said recently at a joint meeting of the American Society of News Editors, the Associated Press Media Editors and the Associated Press Photo Managers. The problem extends across the entire federal government and is now trickling down to state and local governments.
Here is Buzbee’s list of eight ways the Obama administration is making it hard for journalists to find information and cover the news:
1) As the United States ramps up its fight against Islamic militants, the public can’t see any of it. News organizations can’t shoot photos or video of bombers as they take off — there are no embeds. In fact, the administration won’t even say what country the S. bombers fly from.
2) The White House once fought to get cameramen, photographers and reporters into meetings the president had with foreign leaders overseas. That access has become much rarer. Think about the message that sends other nations about how the world’s leading democracy deals with the media: Keep them out and let them use handout photos.”“
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2. Ummm…. make that 9.
Also from TheAP “The federal government refuses to say whether prosecutors in Yuma, Arizona, have scaled back a years-old program that guarantees jail time for most immigrants caught crossing the border illegally and which law enforcement officials say is crucial to public safety.
Reports that federal prosecutors have stopped some prosecutions under Operation Streamline surfaced nearly two weeks ago when Arizona Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake wrote a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder seeking information on the status of the zero-tolerance program that circumvents the civil immigration system and lumps together months’ worth of criminal proceedings into one day for immigrants caught crossing the border illegally.
Yuma County Sheriff Leon Wilmot said in a letter to the senators that he had been informed that federal prosecutors in Yuma are no longer going after first offenders.
But the government has been completely silent on the issue. Public affairs officials from the Department of Homeland Security, Justice Department and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection have all refused to answer questions about whether the program has been scaled back.”
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3. Oh wait….. 10.
From TheNYPost “Three and a half months have come and gone and the Pentagon has offered no clarity on what happened to alleged Army deserter and Taliban collaborator Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. Fellow soldiers and other critics fear the military’s now-delayed investigation is shaping up to be a whitewash.
The case has become a political powder keg for President Obama.
Since he traded five imprisoned Taliban leaders for Bergdahl, the US Government Accountability Office has declared the swap illegal, and nearly two dozen House Democrats have joined Republicans in officially condemning the move for making “Americans less safe.”
In addition, the Taliban deal appears to have encouraged the Islamic State to put up American hostages as trade bait to free other terrorist detainees, namely “Lady al Qaeda” Aafia Siddiqui.”
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4. So what is the Obama admin doing about this? Or aren’t we allowed to know that either?
From TheFreeBeacon “Rep. Tim Bishop (D., N.Y.) warned during a recent speech that up to 40 radicalized U.S. citizens who have fought alongside the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL or ISIS) have already returned to the United States, where they could pose a terrorist threat.
Bishop claims that of the 100 or so Americans who have traveled to the Middle East to join ISIL’s ranks, some 40 have returned and are currently being surveilled by the FBI, according to his remarks, which were filmed and uploaded to YouTube last week.
“One of the concerns is the number of U.S. citizens who have left our country to go join up with ISIS,” Bishop said during the speech. “It is believed there have been some number up to 100 that have done that.”
“It is also believed that some 40 of those who left this country to join up with ISIS have now returned to our country,” Bishop said, eliciting shocked responses from some in the crowd.
These 40 individuals, Bishop said, “are under FBI attention and surveillance. So they are known and being tracked by the FBI.””
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5. Recovery huh? For the first time in 30 years more businesses are closing than are starting up.
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6. Here’s an interesting look into the differences in ideologies when it comes to teaching children.
From PewResearch “As the public grows more politically polarized, differences between conservatives and liberals extend their long reach even to opinions about which qualities are important to teach children, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center.
People who express consistently conservative political attitudes across a range of issues are more likely than other ideological groups to rate teaching religious faith as especially important – and the least likely to say the same about teaching tolerance.
By contrast, people with consistent liberal opinions stand out for the high priority they give to teaching tolerance – and the low priority they attach to teaching religious faith and obedience.
These are among the key findings from a Pew Research Center survey conducted April 29-May 27 among 3,243 adults who are part of Pew Research’s new American Trends Panel, a nationally representative panel of randomly selected U.S. adults surveyed online and by mail. “
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Wandering Views 
1-3 happening everywhere as the backroom boys are more interested in campaigning than governing. Canada’s conservative govt makes the Obama administration look like amateurs in this regard.
4. The FBI is watching them and a politician is talking. Way to blow an investigation.
5. Change the headline. Not since the Reagan presidency has more businesses closed than open.
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HRW is correct about #4. Nobody should know what they are doing, they all go underground and the next thing we know is a plane blows up or a building comes down
I told you a couple of times before, Clancy used the border crossing scenario to start two of his books.
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1984 and Brave New World were different kinds of books, with different views of the way government controls people.
They had one thing in common: control of the media.
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6. By “teaching tolerance” they mean, “teaching their viewpoint”.
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kBells – I often say that most of those who promote “diversity” do not really believe in diversity of thought.
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Sigh. Friends keep promising the rapture is coming soon, but it never happens . . . I’m ready!
Today’s newspaper headline was about Obama looking into nuclear options. Is it my imagination, or is history going backwards?
Grrrr.
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Really? Nothing?
Just let them roam about freely? Don’t you think maybe they should be rounded up and charged? Maybe with treason? “Cuz that’s what fighting for a foreign entity is, it’s treason.
How is letting them walk around free to spread their ideology and extremism the right course? That’s just stupid. That will allow them to plan attacks. They can’t do that from prison.
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There no moderates in Syria.
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Democrats/Leftists/progressives in 2003 before the authorization of the use of military force in Iraq: “Don’t go it alone, Mr. President!”
Democrats/Leftists/progressives circa 2006: The mounting insurgency in Iraq is a result of Bush’s rush to go to war instead of building a coalition of countries to assist the US in its efforts to rebuild Iraq and create an inclusive government.
Fast forward to current times after Germany, France, the UK, and Turkey decline to participate in an attack on ISIS: Democrats/Leftists/progressives? .
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That should read Democrats/Leftists/progressives? Crickets…
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According to this, companies that move their headquarters overseas to lessen their tax burden are robbing the U.S. Treasury of billions of dollars. What warped thinking!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/2014/09/22/e5294e0a-429d-11e4-b437-1a7368204804_story.html?wpisrc=al_comboNE
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The title for that article is “Obama hits at companies moving overseas to avoid taxes”.
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Bombing in Syria has begun.
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/09/are-we-too-dysfunctional-for-a-new-war-on-terror-111186.html#.VCDcw0uQlBW
” … The larger, harder question that we—the White House, Congress and the American people—must ask is whether the United States actually has the laser-focused will to take on ISIL. The group has shown its willingness to be absolutely ruthless in putting down its enemies—through co-option, mass murder, sexual violence and religious cleansing—and consolidating its grip on power. This is not an organization that will go gently into that good night. It has the will to win. Do we? … it remains unclear whether America has the popular stamina to take on this group for what clearly will be a years-long struggle. …”
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