Archive
Obama rewards fundraisers with ambassadorships
“President Obama named some of the major financial backers of his 2012 reelection campaign to top European ambassadorships on Friday, ahead of his trip to Northern Ireland for next week’s G8 summit.
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.”
Via The Hill
The Obama Family Trip to Africa to Cost $60 to $100 Million
“President Obama and his family will be going to Africa later this month. But the trip won’t be cheap; it’s expected to cost American taxpayers $60 to $100 million, according to the Washington Post.
“When President Obama makes his first extended trip to sub-Saharan Africa later this month, the federal agencies charged with keeping him safe won’t be taking any chances. Hundreds of U.S. Secret Service agents will be dispatched to secure facilities in Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania. A Navy aircraft carrier or amphibious ship, with a fully staffed medical trauma center, will be stationed offshore in case of emergency,” reports the Post.
“Military cargo planes will airlift in 56 support vehicles, including 14 limousines and three trucks loaded with sheets of bullet-proof glass to cover the windows of the hotels where the first family will stay. Fighter jets will fly in shifts giving 24-hour coverage over the president’s airspace so they can intervene quickly if an errant plane gets too close.”
Gallup: 32% say White House ethics ‘poor’ – worse than Bush or Clinton
“The percentage of Americans who believe President Barack Obama’s administration has poor ethical standards is higher than that measured by Gallup at various points during presidencies of George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, a new poll finds.
Thirty-two percent of those surveyed said top Obama officials have “poor” ethics, according to a Gallup poll on Friday. This compares with figures of 29 percent for George W. Bush, 21 percent for Bill Clinton, 7 percent for George H.W. Bush, and 15 percent for Ronald Reagan, pollsters said.”
Via Politico
Obama: Don’t Worry, Folks, I Expanded Anything Bush Did, But They’re Just “Modest Encroachments”
“Obama: Don’t Worry, Folks, I Expanded Anything Bush Did, But They’re Just “Modest Encroachments”
Listen carefully to above at around ~08 where Obama admits he expanded on anything Bush had done, but calls it “modest encroachment” on privacy.
Modest encroachments. That makes me feel so much better,”
Via Weasel Zippers
Cut The Crap Obama — And The NSA
Clapper acknowledged the risks inherent in publicly discussing details about the phone records program but said he wanted to correct the “misleading impression” created by the article that disclosed its existence. “I believe it is important for the American people to understand the limits of this targeted counterterrorism program and the principles that govern its use.”
…
The NSA collects the phone data in broad swaths, Clapper said, because collecting it a narrow fashion would make it harder to identify terrorism-related communications. He said the information collected lets the government, over time, make connections about terrorist activities. He said the program doesn’t let the U.S. listen to people’s calls, but only includes information like call length and telephone numbers dialed.
The court also prohibits the government from indiscriminately rummaging through the phone data, which he said can only be queried when there are specific facts to back up a reasonable suspicion of an association with a foreign terrorist group.
“Convenience is utterly immaterial.
The 4th Amendment protects from seizure without a warrant describing particularly what is being seized and the probable cause upon which the seizure is taking place.
It is immaterial whether or not the seized data is then sifted through, that is, searched, with or without said authorization of the court.
The seizure en-masse of data pertaining to the actions of persons not suspected of terrorism or other lawful reasons for the government to acquire and use said data is flatly unlawful as it violates The Constitution, irrespective of what pretense Mr. Douchenozzle Clapper may wish to try to arrogate to himself.
Likewise, the seizure of data from internet portals and providers, irrespective of how it is done, is unlawful if it takes place in the United States and is not supported by legal process permitted under the 4th Amendment.
Whether the data is at the time or subsequently searched is again immaterial.”
Via Market Ticker
Government Surveillance Of American Citizens Goes Far Beyond What You Are Being Told
“Every single day, the U.S. government gathers and stores more than a billion phone calls, emails, text messages, photographs and Internet searches. Just about every form of electronic communication that you can possibly imagine is being harvested. In fact, it has been reported that NSA personnel gather 2.1 million gigabytes of data every hour. This is being done even though it is a blatant violation of the U.S. Constitution. Sadly, most Americans do not even know what the Fourth Amendment actually says. For those that do not know, the Fourth Amendment says the following: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” Unfortunately, our leaders have totally abandoned the Constitution. They seem to believe that they have the right to look through our electronic communications any time they want and that we should not complain about it. As you will see below, workers at the NSA have even eavesdropped on very intimate conversations between soldiers serving in Iraq and their female loved ones back home. What kind of sick person would do such a thing? Sadly, the truth is that we have allowed ourselves to become a “Big Brother society”, and we are an utter disgrace to the millions of brave men and women who have died to defend our freedoms.”
Dem. Senator disputes Obama’s claim that Congress was briefed
“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.
Merkley said only select members of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees had been briefed on the program, and that he was only aware of it because he obtained “special permission” to review the pertinent documents after hearing about it second-hand.”
Via The Hill
NSA taps in to internet giants’ systems to mine user data, secret files reveal
“The National Security Agency has obtained direct access to the systems of Google, Facebook, Apple and other US internet giants, according to a top secret document obtained by the Guardian.
The NSA access is part of a previously undisclosed program called PRISM, which allows officials to collect material including search history, the content of emails, file transfers and live chats, the document says.
The Guardian has verified the authenticity of the document, a 41-slide PowerPoint presentation – classified as top secret with no distribution to foreign allies – which was apparently used to train intelligence operatives on the capabilities of the program. The document claims “collection directly from the servers” of major US service providers.”
Via Guardian
Obama’s Super Secret Treaty Which Will Push The Deindustrialization Of America Into Overdrive
“Did you know that Barack Obama has been secretly negotiating the most important trade agreement since the formation of the World Trade Organization? Did you know that this agreement will impose very strict Internet copyright rules, ban all “Buy American” laws, give Wall Street banks much more freedom to trade risky derivatives and force even more domestic manufacturing offshore? If you have not heard about this treaty, don’t feel bad. Obama has refused to even give Congress a copy of the draft agreement and he has banned members of Congress from attending the negotiations. The plan is to keep this treaty secret until the very last minute and then to railroad it through Congress and have it signed into law by October. The treaty is known as “the Trans-Pacific Partnership”, and the nations that are reported to be involved in the development of this treaty include the United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Peru, Brunei, Singapore, Vietnam and Malaysia. Opponents of this treaty refer to it as “the NAFTA of the Pacific”, and if it is enacted it will push the deindustrialization of America into overdrive.”
25 Signs That Military Veterans Are Being Treated Like Absolute Trash Under The Obama Administration
“Why does the Obama administration treat our military veterans like human garbage? Every year on Memorial Day and Veterans Day, Barack Obama and our other politicians make very nice speeches, but the truth about how they feel about our veterans can be seen in how they are treated every single day. In the United States today, there are well over half a million veterans that have been waiting for at least 125 days to have their benefit claims processed. Many of them will ultimately have their claims sent back or denied just so a government employee somewhere can get a bigger bonus. Meanwhile, conditions at VA facilities all over the country are absolutely abysmal, and many veterans have to wait more than half a year just to get an appointment at one of those facilities. Once you start looking into how this country really treats military veterans, it becomes easier to understand why 22 military veterans commit suicide in America every single day. Our vets have a higher rate of unemployment, a higher rate of poverty, a higher rate of homelessness, a higher rate of depression and a higher rate of divorce then the general population. It is a crying shame. One of the ways that any society is judged is by how it treats military veterans, and the truth is that America has failed miserably. This has been particularly true since Barack Obama has been in the White House.”
