Saturday, August 3, 2013

Weekly Republican Address: Sen. Susan Collins

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Source: Terrorists behind embassy threat in place



◼ The terror threat prompting the U.S. government to close nearly two dozen embassies and consulates Sunday is the most specific, credible threat information in years, CBS News senior correspondent John Miller reports. - CBS

The threat information has been described as the most specific and credible since the foiled plot to blow up British planes en route to the United States in 2006, Miller reports. The specificity ends there.

What authorities don't have is the date, the timing or the target of the attack, which is why they have taken such an approach to warning potential targets, Miller reports.

The threat has prompted the U.S. to issue a global travel warning to all Americans for the first time since the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

White House officials said President Obama was briefed Saturday morning on the potential terrorist threat before departing for Camp David, CBS News correspondent Jeff Pegues reports.

◼ Al Qaeda haunts August as State Dept. issues
worldwide travel alert, closes embassies - Ben Wolfgang/Washington Times
◼ Vague warnings, non-specific locations, and a trail of unanswered questions hint at head fake. - Discussion at Lucianne

◼ Report: Al Qaeda in Yemen Was in
'Final Stages´ of Planning Attack - Abby Ohlheiser/Atlantic
◼ A senior Yemeni national security official told CNN that the government was "on high alert against possible attacks in the days to come." - Discussion at Lucianne

◼ On the Embassy Closures - Erick Stakelbeck/National Review Online
◼ Obama was right. Al-Qaeda IS on the run - right toward our embassies. - Discussion at Lucianne

◼ U.S. Sees Threat of al Qaeda Attack - Jay Solomon, Siobhan Gorman/Wall Street Journal

◼ link - Doug Hagmann/Canada Free Press

There is one thing certain about the publicized threat to our embassies; it is not what it is presented to be. To accept the official explanation of a nebulous threat from al Qaeda as the reason for closing our embassies across the Middle East and North Africa is being dangerously naive and simplistic.

This is much more serious than what we are being told, but not for the reasons we are being given. We are seeing the consequences of a long running “Cold War” on two major fronts of political conflict that could escalate into military engagement with proxy nations of world super powers. The world, and life as we know it, could change in an instant should we awaken one morning to the news of bombs flying across the Middle East. That is a very real possibility, as we are now in a heightened proxy war environment. We are standing in a thick forest of dry tinder, and the smallest of sparks could ignite a conflagration the likes of which we have never before seen....
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Egypt's Commanding General: US 'turned its back'

◼ KERRY: Egypt's 'Military Did Not Take Over' - Jeryl Bier/Weekly Standard
◼ Kerry backpedals on controversial comment on Egyp - AP via Boston Globe
◼ Egypt's Commanding General: US 'turned its back' - Raf Sanchez/The Telegraph

Gen Abdulfattah al-Sisi, the Egyptian general who deposed Mohammed Morsi, the country's democratically-elected president has accused the US of "turning your backs" on Egypt....

In an interview with the Washington Post he appeared to blame the instability on the White House, saying: "You left the Egyptians. You turned your back on the Egyptians and they won't forget that."

◼ Morsi supporters defy orders to end sit-ins - Al Jazeera
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Allen West: ‘The nature of conservatism
is that it sees no color’


◼ Allen West headed to Amsterdam Tuesday to embark on National Review’s conservative summer cruise, saying he owes his success as a “young black man” to the nature of his character. - Jessica Chasmar/Washington Times

“I was invited to be a guest speaker with a premier assembly of conservative thinkers,” the Republican wrote. “Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would be proud to know that a young black man born and raised in his same neighborhood rose based upon character. It is this equality of opportunity that is great about America … not President Obama’s phony rhetoric of inequality which is no more than equality of outcomes — social egalitarianism.”

...“I would hope William F. Buckley Jr. and Dr. King are smiling above as the embodiment of conservatism and the civil rights movement has come to fruition. The nature of conservatism is that it sees no color. The nature of liberal progressivism is that color is all it sees,” he concluded.

On Sunday, Mr. West wrote, “as conservatives, we don’t care about the color of your skin, we care about the color of our flag.”
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'PHONY SCANDALS': CNN TO AIR BENGHAZI SPECIAL

◼ On Tuesday, August 6th at 10PM ET - Mary Chatain/Breitbart

On Tuesday, August 6th at 10PM ET, CNN's Erin Burnett will host “The Truth About Benghazi: An Erin Burnett Outfront Special Investigation.” The program follows the recent revelation that 35 CIA agents were on the ground in Benghazi, Libya on September 11, 2012.

Burnett’s colleague Jake Tapper revealed this bombshell on his show The Lead on Thursday night.

...Burnett will also interview the families of the four slain Americans: Tyrone Woods, Glen Doherty, Sean Smith, and Ambassador Christopher Stevens. Stevens is the first American ambassador murdered in over 30 years.
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Friday, August 2, 2013

All quiet on the White House front: No press briefing following Benghazi bombshell



◼ Guess Jay doesn’t have to explain any “phony scandals” today. - Twitchy

On the heels of CNN’s stunning — and damning — revelations about Benghazi, Ace of Spades predicted ◼ how Press Secretary Jay Carney would address the bombshell at the next White House press briefing.

◼ Meanwhile: CBS News’ Mark Knoller tweets Obama news that surprises nobody in particular - Twitchy





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The Attack in Benghazi: Worth Investigating After All

◼ CNN reports that dozens of CIA agents were on the ground there -- and that they're being pressured to keep quiet. Why? - Conor Friedersdorf/The Atlantic @CONOR64

Suddenly it is imperative that Congress investigate details surrounding the attack that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens. I've never felt that way before. But ◼ Drew Griffin's scoop changed my mind....

To be clear, it isn't at all certain that the CIA was secretly funneling Libyan weapons to Syria, long before Congress "lifted its hurdles" on arming Syrian rebels. But if CNN's report is correct, the CIA is at minimum trying to hide something huge from Congress, something that CIA agents might otherwise want to reveal -- itself a reason for Congress to press hard for information. And if speculation about moving weapons is grounded in anything substantive, that would be an additional reason to investigate what the CIA is doing in Libya. Dozens of CIA agents were apparently on the ground in Benghazi, Libya last September.

What I want to know is why.

◼ CNN Nails it On Benghazi - Larry Johnson/No Quarter What the CIA is doing in this case is unprecedented. I have spoken with two friends, both former Chiefs of Station, and they told me, long before this story hit the wires, of the same thing. It is up to Congress to get to the bottom of this. At least CNN, Fox and Sheryl Attkisson at CBS are doing their part to protect our democracy. ◼ ‘Benghazi lies matter’: Glenn Beck’s making a list of falsehoods about Libya - Twitchy
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In May, Drudge editor Joseph Curl tweeted that a CIA source said there was still one more Obama scandalpalooza shoe to drop. “Yes, four shoes. Dead ambassador, tapped phones, IRS probes. Will it be worse? Can it be?!” he asked. After the Fox News/DOJ scandal broke, Curl’s source suggested the White House was still sitting on something explosive that had “top aides terrified.”



◼ ‘This is the one’: Drudge editor’s CIA source raises key question about Benghazi bombshell - Twitchy

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When this spigot finally breaks lose on Benghazi this ‘phony scandal’ is gonna be really bad. And I don’t think it’s just about gun-running either.



◼ Gowdy: Obama admin is changing names of Benghazi survivors to hide them - The Right Scoop
◼ BREAKING>>> GOP Rep: Obama WH Is Hiding Benghazi Survivors AND CHANGING THEIR NAMES (Video) - Jim Hoft/Gateway Pundit

Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) was on with Greta Van Susteren Thursday to discuss the Obama scandals.

This came after Jake Tapper at CNN broke the news that there were “dozens” of CIA operatives on the ground in Benghazi on 9-11 when the consulate came under attack and the agency is going to great lengths to make sure whatever it was doing, remains a secret.

Gowdy told Greta the Obama Administration is hiding the survivors, dispersing them around the country, AND changing their names.
“Including changing names, creating aliases. Stop and think what things are most calculated to get at the truth? Talk to people with first-hand knowledge. What creates the appearance and perhaps the reality of a cover-up? Not letting us talk with people who have the most amount of information, dispersing them around the country and changing their names.”
And, at the same time Obama is hiding the survivors around the country he’s calling Benghazi a ‘phony’ scandal.
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Bombshell: CNN report suggests Benghazi coverup worse than previously thought



◼ ‘Phony scandal’ update: Strange Benghazi story gets even stranger - Doug Powers/Michelle Malkin

◼ CNN bombshell: Dozens of CIA operatives were on the ground during the Benghazi attack, agency in panic over revelations - Allahpundit/HotAir

Exit question: What was the CIA doing in Benghazi?

◼ All of this raises even more questions about the extent to which the White House went to keep the truth buried. What really happened in Benghazi? - Twitchy



◼ Exclusive: Dozens of CIA operatives on the ground during Benghazi attack - Jake Tapper/CNN

CNN has uncovered exclusive new information about what is allegedly happening at the CIA, in the wake of the deadly Benghazi terror attack.

Four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens, were killed in the assault by armed militants last September 11 in eastern Libya.

Sources now tell CNN dozens of people working for the CIA were on the ground that night, and that the agency is going to great lengths to make sure whatever it was doing, remains a secret.

CNN has learned the CIA is involved in what one source calls an unprecedented attempt to keep the spy agency's Benghazi secrets from ever leaking out.

Since January, some CIA operatives involved in the agency's missions in Libya, have been subjected to frequent, even monthly polygraph examinations, according to a source with deep inside knowledge of the agency's workings.

The goal of the questioning, according to sources, is to find out if anyone is talking to the media or Congress.

It is being described as pure intimidation, with the threat that any unauthorized CIA employee who leaks information could face the end of his or her career.

In exclusive communications obtained by CNN, one insider writes, "You don't jeopardize yourself, you jeopardize your family as well."

Another says, "You have no idea the amount of pressure being brought to bear on anyone with knowledge of this operation."

...In the aftermath of the attack, Wolf said he was contacted by people closely tied with CIA operatives and contractors who wanted to talk.

Then suddenly, there was silence.

"Initially they were not afraid to come forward. They wanted the opportunity, and they wanted to be subpoenaed, because if you're subpoenaed, it sort of protects you, you're forced to come before Congress. Now that's all changed," said Wolf.

Lawmakers also want to about know the weapons in Libya, and what happened to them.

Speculation on Capitol Hill has included the possibility the U.S. agencies operating in Benghazi were secretly helping to move surface-to-air missiles out of Libya, through Turkey, and into the hands of Syrian rebels.



◼ Jake Tapper: Remember when Rand Paul asked Hillary about gun running in Libya? - Twitchy

Nearly a year out from the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans, CNN’s Jake Tapper unveiled what looks like an enormous puzzle piece that’s been missing from the “phony scandal.” On today’s episode of “The Lead,” sources told CNN that dozens of people working for the CIA — the agency that ran the annex — were in Benghazi that night, and survivors are reportedly undergoing monthly polygraphs to ensure whatever they were doing there remains secret.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton might have trouble recalling things now and then, but Tapper remembers a question put to her by Sen. Rand Paul during the infamous “what difference does it make” hearing.

◼ REP. WOLF: SOURCES SAY CIA WAS MOVING GUNS IN BENGHAZI - Kerry Picket/Breitbart

...“We’re getting calls from people who are close to people who were [in Benghazi at the time] that they were moving guns. So where are the guns?” asked Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA), a sub-committee chairman of the Appropriations Committee. Wolf also wonders what Ambassador Chris Stevens was actually doing in Benghazi on that night. Stevens and three others were killed over the course of the attacks.

“Are they in a warehouse somewhere? Some people say they moved on to Turkey and then from Turkey to Syria," Wolf told Breitbart News on Thursday. "Did they fall into the hands of some of the Jihadis?"

"Nobody knows, so I think there are so many questions from the failure to respond to where the guns went,” he stated....



◼ CNN BOMBSHELL! Jake Tapper’s exclusive report about Benghazi and the ongoing CIA cover-up - BNI
◼ Many of us had surmised this — between the ambassador’s strange meetings, the nearby annex, rumors of attempts to recover ground to air missile launchers, etc., — the whole story has never added up. - Protein Wisdom
◼ We all suspected this kind of intimidation was going on but now CNN is confirming it. They are reporting that the CIA is involved in a “unprecedented” effort to keep everyone who was in Benghazi at the time of the attack to keep quiet - Flopping Aces
◼ Related: While Obama slept and then partied in Vegas, wounded Benghazi hero David Ubben waited 20 hours for help - Doug Ross

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US to temporarily shut down embassies around the world Sunday amid security concerns

◼ The United States will temporarily shut down its embassies and consulates around the world Sunday -- including those in Iraq, Afghanistan and Egypt -- as a precautionary measure over terror-related concerns, State Department officials said. - FOX

“We have instructed all U.S. embassies and consulates that would have normally been open on Sunday to suspend operations, specifically on August 4,” a senior State Department official said Thursday night. “It is possible we may have additional days of closing as well.”

◼ Strange...very strange. And on Obama's birthday, too. - Discussion at Lucianne (headline source)
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The problem was rooted in the original text of the Affordable Care Act. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) inserted a provision which said members of Congress and their aides must be covered by plans “created” by the law or “offered through an exchange.”

◼ Hill gets Obamacare fix - POLITICO

Anger was already evident as well. Senate Minority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) tweeted a link to POLITICO’s story Thursday night, with the comment: “Outrageous exemption for Congress.”

◼ Obamacare for Thee But Not for Me - Veronique de Rugy/National Review Online

Congress can breath easy now since it won’t be subjected to the ironically titled Affordable Care Act. As I ◼ mentioned on Tuesday, according to the New York Times, many in Congress were “freaking out” about having to get their insurance through the Obamacare exchanges without the lavish subsidies that they usually benefit from as federal employees.

◼ HERITAGE FOUNDATION: WH 'FLOUTING THE LAW' WITH OBAMACARE SUBSIDIES FOR CONGRESS - Tony Lee/Breitbart

The news came just hours after the Heritage Foundation released an embargoed study to reporters that found there was no legal way for the administration to offer subsidies for Members of Congress and their aides without passing a legislative "fix."

◼ Congress in the Obamacare Trap: No Easy Escape - Heritage

More on Drudge:
Taxpayers to foot bill for congressional employees' health care...
Will pay 75% of premiums...
DEAL: 'Exempt from Obamacare'...
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Study: Record Number 21 Million Young Adults Living With Parents

◼ A new study from Pew Research finds that 36 percent of Millennials – young adults ages 18 to 31 – are living at their parents’ homes, the highest number in four decades. A record 21.6 million young adults were still living at home last year. - CBS DC

◼ Obamacare Full Frontal: Of 953,000 Jobs Created In 2013, 77%, Or 731,000 Are Part-Time - Zerohedge

When the payroll report was released last month, the world finally noticed what we had been saying for nearly three years: that the US was slowly being converted to a part-time worker society. This slow conversion accelerated drastically in the last few months, and especially in June, when part time jobs exploded higher by 360K while full time jobs dropped by 240K.
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If there is any lesson to be learnt by Americans at all, the history of my country is worth pondering upon. We are not hate mongering, bigoted people; rather, we are freedom loving, democracy loving and human loving people. We just don’t want this freedom and democracy to be taken away from us by our ignorance and misguided ‘political correctness’, and the pretension of tolerance.

◼ UNDERSTANDING ISLAM: BUDDHIST COMMON SENSE VS. WESTERN NONSENSE - Raymond Ibrahim/Human Events

Here is the first lesson: unlike the West, Buddhist monks, despite their reputation as devotees of peace, are still able to accept and respond to reality; are still governed by common sense. Unlike the West, whose sense of reality has been so thoroughly warped by a nonstop media propaganda campaign emanating from ubiquitous TVs and computer screens, conditioning Americans how to think and what to believe, “third world” Buddhist monks are acquainted with reality on the ground. They know that, left unchecked, the Muslim minority living among them—which began hostilities—will grow more aggressive, a historically demonstrative fact.

As in other countries, the Muslims of Myanmar have engaged in violence, jihadi terror, and rape of Buddhist girls. And that’s as a minority. Myanmar’s Buddhists are also cognizant that, in neighboring nations like Bangladesh where Muslims are the majority, all non-Muslims are being ruthlessly persecuted into extinction. But even in bordering Thailand, where Buddhists are the majority and Muslims a minority, in the south where Muslims make for large numbers, thousands of Buddhists—men, women, and children—have been slaughtered, beheaded, and raped, as separatist Muslims try to cleanse the region of all “infidel” presence.

...lesson two: if Buddhists understand what is at stake—their entire civilization—the NYT report is a testimony to why the West still cannot face reality. Fuller’s article carries all the trademarks—moral relativism and pro-Islam bias, and that dangerous mixture of confidence and ignorance—that characterize the mainstream West’s inability to acknowledge and respond to Islam, but rather to sprout sentimental, nonsensical platitudes.

...But these objective facts are apparently not relevant to the NYT’s readership, which has been more conditioned to subjective talk of “feelings” and other therapeutic nonsense. And here Fuller certainly delivers: the entire tone of the article is one of disappointment at the Buddhists and how “many Muslims are worried.”
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America’s ‘Dangerous Slide’: On the Wrong Side in the Middle East

◼ Could you ever imagine that the leading American newspaper would openly advocate siding with radical Islamist forces in the Middle East against all of America’s allies and friends, and with eyes wide open, with full awareness that the radicals seek to overthrow them? Well, the day has come. - Barry Rubin/PJMedia

How has the argument for this strategy, which the Obama administration is already pursuing, been made? A New York Times July 30 editorial titled ◼ "Egypt’s Dangerous Slide" advocates a real catastrophe for the United States. Amazingly, it should take an informed person less than five minutes to deconstruct this, the Obama administration’s Middle East policy; but be wary that if you do this — even once — you will be ineligible for 95 percent of mass media and academic jobs.

...As for “good intentions”? May I remind you that Obama did not have good intentions at all. Just like any British or American imperialist in some previous century, Obama has sought to overthrow the regime and replace it with a Muslim Brotherhood, and thus inevitably a Sharia regime. How’s that for “good intentions”?

If Obama wanted to rebuild trust — as opposed to protecting the Brotherhood’s interests — he would rebuild trust with the Egyptian army and people by supporting the new government, rather than seek to empower an anti-Christian, anti-Western, anti-Semitic, anti-American, homophobic, genocidal, anti-woman, totalitarian-destined regime.
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SENATORS DEMAND WHITE HOUSE REVEAL WHICH AGENCIES ARE PROMOTING OBAMACARE

◼ On Thursday, 39 Republican senators sent a letter to the White House demanding to know the 21 agencies that are promoting Obamacare and whether those agencies are being reimbursed--or even have the legal authority to do so. - Tony Lee/Breitbart

Agencies suspected to be engaging in promotional work, according to the senators, include: the Food and Drug Administration; the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration; Institute for Museum and Library Services; the Small Business Administration; and the Departments of Agriculture, Housing and Urban Development, Labor, and Commerce....

"There is a cost to the taxpayers for each and every one of these actions -- particularly changing longstanding forms and notices or possibly adding new unfunded mandates or responsibilities to programs and grants without congressional consent," they wrote. "HHS now appears to be evading Congress' constitutional power of the purse by using unrelated resources and authorities dedicated to other missions."

◼ 21 federal agencies working to implement Obamacare, but who are they? - Ashe Schow/Washington Examiner
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This matters because FEC staff didn't have permission from the Commission to conduct this inquiry. It matters because the IRS is prohibited from sharing confidential information, even with the FEC

◼ New Links Emerge in the IRS Scandal - Kimberley Strassel/Wall St. Journal

Congressional investigators this week released emails suggesting that staff at the Federal Election Commission have been engaged in their own conservative targeting, with help from the IRS's infamous Lois Lerner. This means more than just an expansion of the probe to the FEC. It's a new link to the Obama team.

In May this column noted that the targeting of conservatives started in 2008, when liberals began a coordinated campaign of siccing the federal government on political opponents. The Obama campaign helped pioneer this tactic.

In late summer of 2008, Obama lawyer Bob Bauer took issue with ads run against his boss by a 501(c)(4) conservative outfit called American Issues Project. Mr. Bauer filed a complaint with the FEC, called on the criminal division of the Justice Department to prosecute AIP, and demanded to see documents the group had filed with the IRS.

Thanks to Congress's newly released emails, we now know that FEC attorneys went to Ms. Lerner to pry out information about AIP—the organization the Obama campaign wanted targeted. An email from Feb. 3, 2009, shows an FEC attorney asking Ms. Lerner "whether the IRS had issued an exemption letter" to AIP, and requesting that she share "any information" on the group. Nine minutes after Ms. Lerner received this FEC email, she directed IRS attorneys to fulfill the request....

This matters because FEC staff didn't have permission from the Commission to conduct this inquiry. It matters because the IRS is prohibited from sharing confidential information, even with the FEC. What the IRS divulged is unclear. Congressional investigators are demanding to see all communications between the IRS and FEC since 2008, and given that Ms. Lerner came out of the FEC's office of the general counsel, that correspondence could prove illuminating.

It also matters because we now know FEC staff engaged in a multiyear effort to deliver to the Obama campaign its win against AIP. This past week, FEC Vice Chairman Don McGahn, joined by his two fellow Republican commissioners, wrote an extraordinary statement recounting the staff's behavior in the case.
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Thursday, August 1, 2013

Kristen Chenowith's 'Wicked'-ly Hilarious Weiner Parody



◼ Actress Kristen Chenowith was the original Glinda in the Broadway smash hit "Wicked" by Stephen Schwartz. She appeared on The Tonight Show to perform a parody of the song "Popular" with new lyrics aimed directly at New York mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner. - Larry O'Connor/Breitbart
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OBAMA MEETS WITH LAWMAKERS ON NSA SURVEILLANCE

◼ The private Oval Office meeting is to discuss concerns about privacy. - AP

◼ Obama Tries to Calm a Handful of Surveillance Critics in Closed-Door Meeting - Bridget Johnson.PjMedia

The Thursday afternoon sit-down in the Oval Office included Senate Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and ranking member Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) and House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and ranking member Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.), as well as House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.).

Representing administration skeptics and critics of the surveillance programs were Assistant Majority Leader Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Mark Udall (D-Colo.), and principal Patriot Act author Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.).

The Obama administration called the combination a meeting of “some of the programs’ most prominent critics and defenders.”

◼ 'XKeyscore' sweeps up emails, social media, browsing history - The Guardian

XKeyscore: NSA tool collects 'nearly everything a user does on the internet'
• XKeyscore gives 'widest-reaching' collection of online data
• NSA analysts require no prior authorization for searches
• Sweeps up emails, social media activity and browsing history

A top secret National Security Agency program allows analysts to search with no prior authorization through vast databases containing emails, online chats and the browsing histories of millions of individuals, according to documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The NSA boasts in training materials that the program, called XKeyscore, is its "widest-reaching" system for developing intelligence from the internet.

The latest revelations will add to the intense public and congressional debate around the extent of NSA surveillance programs. They come as senior intelligence officials testify to the Senate judiciary committee on Wednesday, releasing classified documents in response to the Guardian's earlier stories on bulk collection of phone records and Fisa surveillance court oversight.

The files shed light on one of Snowden's most controversial statements, made in his first video interview published by the Guardian on June 10.

"I, sitting at my desk," said Snowden, could "wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant, to a federal judge or even the president, if I had a personal email".

◼ Secret court extends NSA trawl of VERIZON customers' phone records - The Guardian

◼ 'Stingray' system can also eavesdrop on audio of voice calls - arstechnica

◼ NETFLIX ROLLS OUT NEW TOOL TO PROFILE VIEWERS - AP

KREMLIN GRANTS SNOWDEN POLITICAL ASYLUM...
Father thanks Putin...
WH 'extremely disappointed'...
Russia sends warship to Cuba; Boosting military, intelligence ties...
Russia's FACEBOOK offers job...

◼ RAND PAUL KEPT OUT OF OBAMA MEET ON SURVEILLANCE... - POLITICO ◼ Via Drudge
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Me and My Obamaphones

◼ Not on welfare or below the poverty line? Never mind — here’s your free phone. - Jillian Kay Melchior/National Review

In the past month, I have received three shiny new cell phones, courtesy of American taxpayers, that should never have fallen into my hands.

The Federal Communications Commission oversees the so-called Lifeline program, created in 1984 to make sure impoverished Americans had telephone service available to call their moms, bosses, and 911. In 2008, the FCC expanded the program to offer subsidized cell-phone service, and since then, the expenses of running the program have soared. In 2012, the program’s costs had risen to $2.189 billion, up from $822 million before wireless carriers were included. As of June, there were 13.8 million active Lifeline subscriptions.

To be eligible for Lifeline, the applicant is supposed to be receiving some significant government benefit — food stamps, Medicaid, Supplemental Security Income, public housing assistance, etc. But because welfare eligibility has expanded under the Obama administration, more people than ever before are qualified to receive “free” cell-phone service — part of the reason why Lifeline mobiles have become commonly known as Obamaphones. Alternatively, applicants can qualify if their household income is less than 136 percent of the federal poverty line.

But as with any federal program with too much funding, too little oversight, and perverse financial incentives, Lifeline has become infamous for rampant fraud and abuse....
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Ted Cruz on Obamacare costs



◼ Ted Cruz: 62 Days to Defund Obamacare - Jeffrey Lord/American Spectator

The fight is on.

A growing — and furious — fight between the conservative base of the Republican Party and its Establishment elites in Washington is rapidly taking shape.

Senator Ted Cruz took to Sean Hannity’s television show ◼ Tuesday night and took on Karl Rove, who had immediately preceded him on the show. In response to Rove’s ◼ strategy (Rove compared the defunding strategy to the famous — and losing — Pickett’s Charge of the Battle of Gettysburg). Cruz immediately countered by saying that while he wasn’t a military strategist he was pretty sure 100% of battles were lost if one surrendered before the battle began.

The next morning Cruz was at the Heritage Foundation (seen ◼ here at Right Scoop) explaining how the defeat of gun control earlier this year can be used as a template to defeat ObamaCare.

As was ◼ discussed earlier this week in this space, this has become a battle between what Ronald Reagan once called “rabbits” and “tigers.” Reagan, a tiger himself on these matters, was furious with House Republicans when they abandoned him on a veto of a pork-laden “Clean Water Bill” out of fear of being labeled “anti-environment.” Reagan himself was targeted by Democrats over this veto and he never flinched, angry that House Republicans had abandoned principle....

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LOCAL ELECTIONS:

◼ CANDIDATES WANTED: SEATS OPEN ON MCSD, MUSD & NHUHSD - Jack Durham/McKinleyville Press

McKinleyville Community Services District Board of Directors – Three seats now held by Dennis Mayo, Dr. Bill Wennerholm and David Couch are open. Each is a four-year term.

McKinleyville Union School District Board of Trustees – Three seats held by Tim Hooven, Donald Rosebrook and Justin Zabel are open. All are four-year terms.

Northern Humboldt Union School District Board of Trustees – Three seats held by Dana Silvernale, Mike Pigg and Colleen Toste are open. All are four year terms.

FILING PERIOD: July 15 to Aug. 9 (extended to Aug. 14 if no incumbent files)

Election Day is Nov. 5
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Wednesday, July 31, 2013

"HE'S THE KING OF BACON" - THE CHRISTIE-PAUL FIGHT, AND OTHER FIGHTS TO COME

◼ Chris Christie and Rand Paul are in the midst of a food fight. Not literally, but very much figuratively. - Paul Mirengoff/Powerline

Their debate has devolved from one about warrantless federal surveillance programs to the question of which state, New Jersey or Kentucky, receives more “pork.”

◼ Paul: Christie is the 'king of bacon' on government spending
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What we said 100 years ago: Law and logic on women far apart


◼ link - Wisconsin Journal Editorial from July 25, 1913

An English justice has held that a woman under the English acts is disqualified by sex from acting as an attorney or solicitor.

He admits that she may be a marshal, a constable, a champion of England, a sexton, a church warden, a workhouse governor, a returning officer, an overseer of the poor; she may even be QUEEN and by her absolute order behead men. But she cannot be a barrister, and she cannot vote.

How wide is the sea between law and logic.
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Federal 'nudge squad' led by 20-something wunderkind gears up to change Americans' behaviors – for our own good

◼ When does a nudge become a shove? - Daily Mail

Americans may find out in coming years, as the federal government is setting up a 'behavioral insights team' to tinker with the way we accomplish everything from saving money and staying in school to losing weight and becoming more energy-efficient....

In the U.S., however, there's no indication that the White House's 'nudge unit' will be anything other than a government enterprise.

That may not bode well for the Obama administration, given the cautionary tale posed by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, whose long-ridiculed ban on large-size fizzy drinks has officially fallen flat.

An appeals court ruled Tuesday that the city's Board of Health didn't have the constitutional authority to limit how much soda can go into a restaurant's cup.

The measure was originally hailed as a perfect example of 'nudge' paternalism that would subtly change behaviors without preventing the truly thirsty from buying two cups.

But the ruling will set a precedent that opens up such government interventions to legal nannying of its own from industries whose bottom lines are affected when bureaucracies try to tweak what ordinary people do, and how they do it.
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IRS Colluded WIth FEC Against Conservative Organizations

◼ No wonder Lois Lerner has taken the Fifth. - Carol Platt Liebau/Townhall

In an exclusive obtained by Eliana Johnson, we are now learning that at least twice, Lois Lerner colluded with a lawyer from the Federal Elections Commission to try to influence the record before the FEC.

In the case of the American Future Fund, Lerner provided confidential information about the aspiring 501(c)(4)'s status -- in violation of the law -- thereby helping the FEC attorney with an (improper) investigation designed to convince the FEC commissioners to authorize the prosecution of the American Future Fund for violations of campaign finance law (namely, engaging in political activism without registering as a PAC). All this came in the wake of a complaint filed against the American Future Fund by the Minnesota Democratic Farm Labor Party. (Ultimately, the FEC elected not to pursue the case.)

The FEC attorney also sought confidential tax information about the American Issues Project, another conservative organization.

It's ironic, of course, that Lerner handed out confidential tax information about conservative groups -- given that the IRS has made a great show, in the targeting investigation, of its commitment to preserving the privacy of taxpayers.

◼ E-mails Suggest Collusion Between FEC, IRS to Target Conservative Groups - Eliana Johnson/National Review Online
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OBAMA’S FAVORITE VINEYARD “VULTURE”

◼ Schulte deserves special attention. If this deep-pocketed donor and private-equity whiz were a Republican, the Occupy hordes and left-wing super-PACs would have made him a household name by now. - Michelle Malkin/Human Events

The SEIU already would have picketed his private residence. Cher, Bette Midler and Chris Rock would be tweeting furiously about this privileged white robber baron in all caps.

Schulte, you see, earned his money in much the same way the demonized Mitt Romney did: through corporate restructuring and rescuing debt-burdened companies. He and his former partner, Sam Zell, have happily embraced the nickname “grave dancers” since the early 1990s. By 1993, their billion-dollar “vulture fund” based in Chicago had purchased all or part of Jacor Communications, the embattled media conglomerate; Sealy Corporation, the mattress empire; and the distressed Schwinn Bicycle Company.

The duo also scooped up Santa Fe Energy Resources (an oil and gas company) through a partnership and refinanced Revco D.S., the drugstore chain. Schulte called his financial playground “the land of broken dreams,” according to the Los Angeles Times, which described the partners as “bottom-fishing.”

Team Obama had plenty of brutal depictions for GOP private-equity mavens during the 2012 campaign: “Looter.” “Corporate raider.” “Greedy Gekko.” “Heartless profiteer.” Liberal media outlets likened Romney’s cohorts to mobsters, strip miners and cannibals. “Bain was just like the Donner Party,” comedian Stephen Colbert snarked. “They ate the weak.”
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Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Breitbart's #TwitterHoax - How It Went Down (updated w/smoking gun)

◼ I've traced a sort-of timeline of Breitbart's latest faux-scandal targetting Rep. Anthony Weiner. - stef/Daily KOS via the Wayback Machine

Flashback: Weiner claimed his account had been hacked. And people like 'Stef' believed him, and defended him. Later admitted he HAD actually sent the lewd photos himself. Not just one. And not just one woman.

And the rest is history - ongoing.

Somewhere, Andrew Breitbart is smiling.



























◼ The unraveling of Anthony Weiner - Politico
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Key economic indicator ranks #Wisconsin 2nd in nation in economic growth projection

◼ State Ranks First in the Midwest, Exceeds National Growth Rate - Scott Walker/Governor of Wisconsin

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia released its June leading economic indexes for states today. Their data suggest Wisconsin will have the second strongest economic growth of any state in the nation over the next six months.

“We know that employers want stability, and while we can’t control all of the factors affecting job creation, this ranking is another sign that the work we are doing is improving the business climate in the state.” Governor Walker said.
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Sen. Rand Paul on Fox New's Hannity

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Weiner’s communications director Barbara Morgan's curse-filled rant about intern, calls her a fame hungry “bitch” who “sucked” at her job. Morgan also called her a “sl*tbag,” “tw*t,” and “c*nt”

WARNING: LANGUAGE ALERT
◼ The Tell-All that triggers the rant: Anthony Weiner intern reveals why she, fellows joined New York mayoral campaign - Olivia Nuzzi/NY Daily News

Says Olivia Nuzzi: Several of my friends sent me links to the same online ad for the Weiner campaign, seeking applications for internships. They thought it would be educational and entertaining. How right they were....

Their hope was to make a connection with Weiner’s wife, Huma Abedin, and thus forge a potential connection to her longtime boss, Hillary Clinton, to get an inside track for a campaign position if she ran for president in 2016.

◼ link◼ Top Weiner Aide Trashes Intern Who Wrote Campaign Tell-All - TPM

Tuesday was an angry day in Weinerland.

The campaign staff awoke to see their former intern, Olivia Nuzzi, on the front cover of the Daily News. Inside the paper was an article bylined by Nuzzi in which she told a rather unflattering tale of her experience working on Anthony Weiner’s mayoral bid.

Now, Team Weiner is firing back. TPM called Weiner’s communications director Barbara Morgan to discuss an unrelated story Tuesday and she went off on a curse-filled rant about Nuzzi, describing her as a fame hungry “bitch” who “sucked” at her job. Morgan also called Nuzzi a “slutbag,” “twat,” and “cunt” while threatening to sue her.

On Monday, Nuzzi, a college student and writer, published a story on the blog NSFWCORP that claimed multiple sources on the campaign told her there had been “six departures” from Weiner’s team, more than had been previously disclosed. She also claimed that staffers had been underpaid and that the former campaign manager, Danny Kedem, left over the weekend because Weiner “lied to him about the timing of his sexting scandal.”



Nuzzi’s post on NSFWCORP was followed up by Tuesday’s Daily News cover story in which she claimed Weiner incorrectly called multiple interns “Monica” and said people only joined Weiner’s campaign to curry favor with his wife, Huma Abedin, a close aide to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Along with these allegations, Nuzzi wrote in the Daily News that “a lot” of Weiner’s staff had “short résumés,” including Morgan, who Nuzzi derisively noted “last worked as the press secretary for the New Jersey state education commissioner....”







◼ WEINER SPOX APOLOGIZES FOR TRASHING 'SLUTBAG' EX-INTERN - Tony Lee/Breitbart

“In a moment of frustration, I used inappropriate language in what I thought was an off the record conversation,” Morgan said in a statement to Business Insider. “It was wrong and I am very sorry, which is what I said tonight when I called and emailed Olivia to apologize.”
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California Commentary: Where Would We Be Without Prop. 13?

◼ DATELINE CHICAGO: Mayor warns property taxes could be going up 150%. - Jon Coupal/Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Foundation

Suppose the mayor of your city announced a property tax hike of 150% or, stated another way, two-and-a-half times your current tax. A homeowner accustomed to paying $2,000, would see their next bill increase to $5,000, while a bill of $4,000 would jump to $10,000. Coincidentally, these amounts roughly approximate the average property tax rate in California just prior to Proposition 13’s passage in 1978 -- a tax burden so high many homeowners were forced out of their homes.

An increase of this magnitude may sound farfetched, but not to Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who is seriously warning that in order to pay the mounting bill for government employee pensions -- a bill that will triple in 2015 when a balloon payment comes due -- property taxes could be forced to go up 150%. Needless to say, Chicago residents are not protected against the arbitrary increase in property taxes, a protection that Californians enjoy because of Proposition 13. Homeowners in the Windy City are entirely at the mercy of government officials.

Although the exodus from California continues unabated (net domestic out-migration of nearly 2 million residents over the last dozen years) it’s a good bet that not many looking for a better life are moving to Detroit, a city whose decline and now bankruptcy have made national headlines. But Chicago is not much better off.... MORE, at the link...
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Obama: Top Tax Rate Should Be 28% for Corporations, 40% for Small Business

◼ The New York Times reports that President Obama is reviving an old proposal to lower the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 28 percent (and 25 percent for manufacturers). - John McCormack/Weekly Standard

Obama's push to lower the corporate tax rate to 28 percent comes less than a year after he raised the top individual income tax rate, paid by many small businesses, to 39.6 percent.

◼ Obama Offers to Cut Corporate Tax Rate as Part of Jobs Deal - New York Times

◼ Paul Ryan: Obama's 'grand bargain' for Big Business - Psul Ryan/USA Today

President's pitch to cut corporate tax rates leaves families and small businesses behind.
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BACKFIRE: MEDIA FORCED TO DESTROY WEINER-MONSTER THEY CREATED

◼ After a salacious gossip site (not the mainstream media) broke the news that disgraced ex-Congressman Anthony Weiner had been sexting with Sydney Leathers, a 23 year-old Democrat operative from Indiana, everything changed. Not just with the fate of Weiner's potential comeback, but also the within a media that had worked so hard to make that comeback possible. - John Nolte/Breitbart

Let us never forget that the same media currently in hyper-drive to drive Weiner out of the race is the very same media that played a willing accomplice to Weiner's comeback strategy. In July 2012, People Magazine ran a fluffy cover profile of Weiner and his family. In April of 2013, the New York Times Magazine ran a very consequential cover story that pretty much did the same.

Tuesday's Politico lead features a Haberman piece that quotes who-knows-how-many unnamed sources within HillaryVille expressing concern for Weiner's wife Huma. The subtext, however, is crystal clear: Drop out, Weiner, or become an enemy of the Clintons.

Politico and Haberman certainly aren't alone. Much of the mainstream media were hoping to resurrect the man who was once an effective fighter for left-wing causes.

But because much of the media simply played stenographer instead of investigative inquisitor, they didn't know they had created a monster who hadn't changed and who is now hurting Hillary Clinton and taking attention away from Obama's 13,475th pivot to the economy.

So he now needs to be chased down and destroyed.

◼ Limbaugh: Clintons ‘Look Like A Joke,’ Are Furious Over Being Compared To Anthony Weiner, Huma Abedin - Noah Rothman/Mediaite
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NYC ban on large sugary drinks fizzles again

◼ Appellate court says ban is unconstitutional. - USA TODAY

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's efforts to ban large, non-diet sugary drinks from restaurants, fast-food spots, sports arenas, movie theaters and other outlets was rejected by a New York appellate court Tuesday, which said the move was illegal.
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WIKILEAKER GUILTY ON 20 CHARGES, NOT AIDING THE ENEMY

◼ Bradley Manning trial verdict: Acquitted of aiding the enemy, convicted on lesser charges - Politico
◼ Private First Class Bradley Manning, the former Army intelligence officer charged with leaking 700,000 classified military and diplomatic files through WikiLeaks, has been found not guilty of aiding the enemy. - Human Events
◼ Bradley Manning could still die in jail despite being found NOT GUILTY of Aiding the Enemy - as military judge rules army private is guilty of 20 charges for passing 700,000 secret files to WikiLeaks - Daily Mail

Not Guilty of Aiding Enemy...
Guilty in slew of lesser charges...
Still faces lengthy prison term...
Largest leak in US history...
ASSANGE: 'Hero'...
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Fox's Judge Jeanine Takes On Noted Hypocrite Barack Obama and His "Phony Scandals"


via IJ Review and The Right Scoop
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PRIVATE AND PUBLIC CHARACTER & THE ENDURANCE OF THE REPUBLIC

◼ This bizarre notion that we should separate our public officials’ private behavior from their public lives gained alarming credibility during the Clinton years, when the president’s enablers adamantly insisted that all of his improper behavior was private and of no concern to the public. - David Limbaugh/Human Events

...Anthony Weiner aside, when we have a president of the United States who daily demonstrates his disrespect for our founding principles and routinely flouts the rule of law, it is devastating to our liberties.

When Barack Obama acts unilaterally outside the scope of his constitutional authority to issue executive orders to implement provisions of the DREAM Act or environmental rules over Congress’ objection or to delay implementation of Obamacare and then scoffs dismissively when asked whether he consulted lawyers on his authority to do so, he is out of control.

If we care about the republic, we have to care about the character of its public officials.

Do not get lost in the sordid aspects of the Weiner affair and allow them to obscure your focus on the larger issues of character and respect threatening our republic today.

◼ Weiner: I'm Not Sure If I'm Still Sexting Anyone Right Now - Katie Pavlich/Townhall

During an interview with the New York Daily News, Weiner was asked directly by Denis Hamill:
Q. There is no one you are sexting now?

A. You can quibble about beginnings, middles and ends but what we're talking about is over a year ago.
◼ LIBERALISM MAKES IT EASIER TO BE BAD - Dennis Prager/Human Events
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Monday, July 29, 2013

Howard Dean: Sarah Palin was right about death panels!

◼ In 2009, Sarah Palin coined the term “death panels” as a more accurate name for Obamacare’s Independent Payment Advisory Board, or IPAB. Palin was widely ridiculed for her claim, but today, Howard Dean, of all people, is suggesting that she was on to something. After initially dismissing Palin’s credibility and assailing her for her remarks, the fist-pumping firebrand is coming out forcefully today against the IPAB: - Twitchy



◼ The Affordable Care Act's Rate-Setting Won't Work - Howard Dean/Wall St. Journal

◼ Was Sarah Palin right about death panels, Howard Dean? - Jim Treacher/Daily Caller

To sum up the first few paragraphs: Blah blah blah, Republicans are evil, Obamacare is awesome because Obama is awesome, you teabaggers need to get over it, etc.

But then:

That said, the law still has its flaws, and American lawmakers and citizens have both an opportunity and responsibility to fix them.
One major problem is the so-called Independent Payment Advisory Board. The IPAB is essentially a health-care rationing body. By setting doctor reimbursement rates for Medicare and determining which procedures and drugs will be covered and at what price, the IPAB will be able to stop certain treatments its members do not favor by simply setting rates to levels where no doctor or hospital will perform them.
There does have to be control of costs in our health-care system. However, rate setting—the essential mechanism of the IPAB—has a 40-year track record of failure.
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Even Weiner's Wedding Was A Scandal


◼ Weiner didn’t declare costs for lavish 2010 wedding - Daily Caller

Anthony Weiner may have violated federal law when he failed to disclose his lavish six-figure wedding in his financial disclosure forms, says a government accountability group.

Ethics watchdog group National Legal and Policy Center examined the federal Financial Disclosure Reports for both Weiner and long-suffering wife Huma Abedin for 2010, the year of their wedding.

The cost for the ceremony was at least $100,000 but probably ran closer to $250,000 including all accommodations, clothing and extras. Neither Weiner nor Abedin had the resources to pay for the ultra-expensive wedding, yet neither recorded gifts on their Financial Disclosure Reports for that year....

Abedin and Weiner were married in Oheka Castle on Long Island in 2010, which was “Long Island’s most expensive wedding venue,” according to Newsday in January 2011. “The average wedding cost — $100,000 — does not include flowers, photography, band and hotel rooms.”

Abedin’s wedding dress may have been almost as expensive as the wedding. Made by world-famous designer and dressmaker to Hillary Clinton, Oscar de la Renta, the custom dress would have gone for over $50,000.

Another Clintonite, Bryan Rafanelli, was the wedding planner, some three weeks before he did Chelsea Clinton’s nuptials. The event was officiated by Bill Clinton, even though according to state law Clinton could not legally perform the marriage.

Abedin made only $135,000 annually working for the State Department, according to financial disclosures. Anthony Weiner made $175,000 as a congressman.

What is not known is how much Abedin made while working as a consultant and when that work began. Abedin has rejected attempts by Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa to ascertain how much she was paid and by whom.

DRUDGE:
POLL: Younger Women Love Weiner...
Clintons pissed...
Tina Brown: End the Damn Dickmanship!
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Detroit is not a story of the principles of the Democrat party run wild. Democrats hate crime as much as Republicans. Unions hate crime as much as entrepreneurs.

◼ Detroit is a story of a city — once a great city, the city my father was born in — in which gangsters have basically taken over and they are almost all black. Who gets hurt by this? Not the rich people in Grosse Pointe. Not Ben Stein in Idaho. But the decent black people who have lost a city they thought was their home. No one talks about it. It’s as if race had zero to do with it and it is a story all about race. - ben Stein/American Spectator

We never tell the truth about race any longer in this country. Sad. We will never get anything done about our domestic problems until we recognize the unspeakable pain black people have suffered here, first at the hands of slave owners and overseers, and then at the hands of white racists — and now at the hands, the bloody hands, of black gang bangers. Dr. Dre put it well. The gang bangers, said he, are worse than the Klan. It’s not the GOP who are weighing down black people. It’s not the liberals. It’s gangsters and no one talks about it except to glorify it — which is nauseating.

You will search for the truth in the New York Times your whole life and never find it. Who are we helping by hiding the truth?

...There is way too much violence in the black community. It’s almost an ongoing terrorism — directed mostly at other blacks. Has Mr. Obama ever even mentioned it? Black gang violence is terrorism. Will Mr. Obama or any politician ever say it?
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WH still closed, but president finds cash for private parties...VINEYARD VACATION AT $7.6 MILLION HOUSE

◼ Obama Vineyard vacation at $7.6m private resort, over 75 rooms booked for staff - Paul Bedard/Washington Examiner ◼ Via Drudge

While the president typically keeps to himself and carries with him only a handful of staffers to Martha's Vineyard, security will be tight. As in the past, the Wesley Hotel in Oak Bluffs will house security and communications officials. The owner told the Vineyard Gazette that the Secret Service has booked 70 rooms and another five have been reserved for the Transportation Security Agency. Rates at the hotel run from $225-$345.

Also, telephone and communications lines are being installed on the island for the president's use.

75 staffers to join prez on ritzy island...
FLASHBACK: Income inequality 'morally wrong'...
NOONAN: Obama at point when Americans stop listening...
◼ WH still closed, but president finds cash for private parties - White House Dossier
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Sunday, July 28, 2013

Stein’s Law

◼ Like Detroit, things that can’t go on forever don’t. - Charles Krauthammer/National Review Online

Detroit, for example, can no longer go on borrowing, spending, raising taxes, and dangerously cutting such essential services as street lighting and police protection. So it stops. It goes bust.

Cause of death? Corruption, both legal and illegal, plus a classic case of reactionary liberalism in which the governing Democrats — there’s been no Republican mayor in half a century — simply refused to adapt to the straitened economic circumstances that followed the post–World War II auto boom....

In Wisconsin, Republicans showed that they recognize the perils of unconstrained government growth and will take on the unchecked power of government unions. Democratic Detroit, on the other hand, has for 50 years conducted a contrary experiment in myopia and the most imprudent passivity.

It doesn’t take a genius to see what happens when the entitlement state outgrows the economy upon which it rests. The time of Greece, Cyprus, Portugal, Spain, the rest of insolvent social-democratic Europe — and now Detroit — is the time for conservatives to raise the banner of Stein’s Law and yell “Stop.” You can kick the can down the road, but at some point it disappears over a cliff.
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1,000 paratroopers simulate operation behind enemy lines

◼ The IDF’s Paratroop Brigade held a nighttime parachuting exercise in the South on Wednesday involving 1,000 soldiers jumping out of Hercules transport planes. - Jerusalem Post

Speaking to the soldiers before the exercise, Col. Eliezer Toledano, the brigade’s commander, said, “Many eyes are watching us in this drill: The eyes of the Israeli people, which must know that when Israel decides to, it can send 1,000 combat soldiers deep into enemy territory at a moment’s notice. The eyes of IDF senior command, which knows it needs only mark the spot, and we’ll already be there. And the eyes of our enemies, who will know that any moment, more than 1,000 paratroopers keen for battle could spit fire in their home front.”
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CFRW Nominations Deadline

ATTENTION!! ATTENTION!!

There are only 4 days left to submit your intention to run for office to the Northern Division nominating committee!! Nominations close Wednesday, July 31st.

CFRW Northern Division Nominating Committee:
Olivia McCaffrey, Chair oliviamccaffrey404@gmail.com
Marlene Nelson cooknelson@digitalpath.net
Liz Froelich lizfroelich@sbcglobal.net
Laura Riffle Laura.Riffle@comcast.net
Kim Pruett kim.pruett@att.net
Ruth Van Bemmel, Alternate ruthvanb@yahoo.com

Please be sure to send all Letters of Intent or Letters of Recommendation for Northern Division officers to all ND
Nominating Committee Members and Alternate.

Thanks,
Olivia McCaffrey, Chair
CFRW-ND Nominating Committee
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Serial sexter Anthony Weiner paid a private eye nearly $45,000 in campaign cash to investigate his lie that a hacker posted a crotch shot on his Twitter feed, campaign spending records show


◼ The First Scandal: The Events of June 5, 2011 and June 6, 2011, and How the New York Times, Anthony Weiner, and Huma Abedin Falsely Portrayed Weiner’s Admission As Spontaneous - Patterico

◼ Weiner’s brazen attempt to cover his tracks occurred shortly after Memorial Day weekend in 2011, when his first sexting scandal erupted and he went into furious spin control trying to save his career in Congress. - New York Daily News

He maintained that he had been victimized — and promised an investigation to get to the bottom of how it happened.

“They’ll be looking into whether someone had my password,” he told CNN....

Weiner ultimately paid a private investigations firm, T&M Protection services, $43,100 from his campaign fund — knowing nobody hacked anything and that he’d sent the image himself.

◼ In new scandal: Woman who sexted Anthony Weiner says she loved him but is 'disgusted by him' now

Sydney Leathers shared the details of her months-long Internet fling with gossip media outlets. But, says an ex-friend, 'She is not the victim here … He is obviously weak and she has nothing to lose by this, but he does. They are both morons.'

...Yet, Leathers claimed she had deep feelings for Weiner — and that it was mutual. “I cared about him a lot. He was very important to me,” she told “Inside Edition.”

When asked if she told him that she loved him, she said, “Yes,” and claimed that he said the same to her.



◼ CAUGHT ON VIDEO: BOLD FORMER SCHOOL TEACHER GIVES ANTHONY WEINER A SURPRISE LESSON IN ‘MORAL AUTHORITY’ - Scott Baker/The Blaze

After walking through the destroyed house and meeting several neighbors who also shared their Sandy horror stories, he was confronted by retired schoolteacher Peg Brunda.

“I don’t quite understand how you would feel you’d have the moral authority, as the head administrator in this city, to oversee employees, when your standard of conduct is so much lower than the standard of conduct that is expected of us,” said Brunda.

Weiner asked whether she would vote for him. Brunda said no.

◼ Even Axelrod: 'It's Time for Him to Go Away' - Daniel Halper/Weekly Standard

◼ Why is everyone turning on Huma Abedin? - Emily Shire/The Week

◼ Weiner's wife Huma Abedin under scrutiny over two jobs - CBS

Abedin, a longtime aide to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, worked for a little under a year as a "special government employee" for the State Department. During that period in 2012, she was also working as a consultant for a private firm called Teneo, giving private investors information about the government.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, last month sent the State Department a letter inquiring about Abedin's two jobs.

It has been reported that Ms. Abedin earned approximately $135,000 from the State Department while receiving $355,000 in consulting income for representing outside clients, as she remained a Federal employee and a trusted advisor to Secretary Clinton," Grassley wrote. "This raises important questions about whether her dual role was adequately disclosed to government officials who may have provided her information without realizing that she was being paid by private investors to gather information."

Grassley asked the State Department and Abedin to respond to 17 questions, as well as a request for all documents relating to communications between the State Department and Teneo, or clients represented by Teneo. The State Department and Abedin responded, giving the specific dates of her employment and confirming that she read State Department ethics guidelines before becoming a "special government employee." They also explained that Abedin, as a State Department employee, "advised" Clinton and supervised the operations of her travel and schedule.

And then:
◼ Who Tipped BuzzFeed About Weiner’s Cyber-Girlfriend Sydney Leathers? - The Other McCain

One of the bloggers who did the most damage to Anthony Weiner during the 2011 scandal was Patterico who — just coincidentally, FYI — was also a target of relentless harassment by the obscure alliance of forces that we call Team Kimberlin. Today, Patterico returns to the saga with a devastating timeline of how Weiner’s enablers made this latest scandal possible, and don’t miss this:
And, disturbingly for a guy who was talking about “cape and tights” to a high school girl in Delaware — a grooming line he had used with an adult woman with whom he had sexted — Weiner asks Sydney Leathers if her “pussy” is “smooth” . . .
Oh, my goodness. That seems rather weird, eh?

And while the New York Times sees a pattern, they apparently can’t be bothered to notice that pattern.

◼ Timeline of Anthony Weiner’s Sociopathic Sexting and The Dishonesty of Him and His Wife Huma Abedin - Patterico

Here is the timeline you need to read to understand what a sociopath Anthony Weiner is, and how his wife Huma Abedin has actively helped him lie to the public about his supposed rehabilitation.... You aren’t going to read this in Big Media, so I think you should see some of the stuff he was saying to this young woman while he was supposedly a diaper-changing new dad whose life was turned around by the birth of his son - at the link.



SUNDAY TALK SHOW MUST READ! CBS Bob Schieffer said WHAT WE'RE ALL THINKING! Calls Anthony Weiner a "modern-day FLASHER" and orders him out of the New York Mayoral race! You'll die reading this:

"CBS host Bob Schieffer blasted Anthony Weiner on Sunday, calling his situation “sickening” and urging him to leave the New York City mayor’s race.

“About the Anthony Weiner story that hasn't been said before - actually, several things. One, it is not funny. It is sickening,” Schieffer said in his commentary on “Face the Nation.” “Two, it is important. The mayor of New York is not only the most powerful municipal post in America but because New York is so big and is the media capital of the world, the mayor of New York occupies a bully pulpit, second in bullyishness only to that of the White House.”

Schieffer said someone with Weiner's problems has "no business" leading a city that matters far beyond its city limits.

“The rest of us may not like it, but what the mayor of New York says matters far beyond the New York city limits, which is why someone with Anthony Weiner's problem has no business there and should leave the race,” Schieffer continued.

Schieffer said Weiner is not “an entertaining kook” and questioned why anyone would subject their family to such a situation.

“He is a new-age flasher who has traded the traditional raincoat that can be opened to show his wares, for a digital camera that enables him to expose himself for the world, a dubious technological achievement,” Schieffer said. “Why would anyone put themselves and their loved ones through something like this, I wouldn’t want to know.” (Via The Kitchen Cabinet on Facebook)
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"No fair, objective journalist can look at the facts of this flagrant abuse of power and not conclude that it is a massive political scandal deserving of constant, merciless scrutiny"

◼ Are media buying into ‘phony scandal’ claim?

...The "phony scandal" line was the unofficial talking point of the week in Washington. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney made it his fallback retort from the podium -- when asked about the president's new wave of speeches on the economy, Carney explained Obama was trying to refocus Washington away from "fake" controversies.
For three speeches in a row, Obama hammered this refrain: "With this endless parade of distractions and political posturing and phony scandals, Washington has taken its eye off the ball."

...But given the attention their own networks gave the IRS and other scandals just a few weeks earlier, a number of journalists and media personalities refused to go easy on the president this week.

On MSNBC, host Joe Scarborough ripped into Carney on Wednesday after the press secretary claimed the attention on "phony scandals" had all "come to naught."



◼ Carney shifts away from ‘phony’ scandals, Scarborough says not so fast - MSNBC

Scarborough Goes Off On Jay Carney: 'I'm Not Someone You Talk Down To From Your Podium'

“Is that the truth or not, Jay?” Scarborough asked. “I want to talk about the economy, but don’t give me talking points because that doesn’t work on this show and you’ve been here long enough to realize that doesn’t work on this show!”
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