This and That...

[Warph]

Even More Lawmakers Say Obama Never Told Them About NSA Program,
Despite Obama's Claim "Every Member" Of Congress Knew And Signed Off On It

(Why is this President such a "lying sack of sh!t...?"   Why does he make up straw men about "not listening in on our phone calls", then lies straight to our faces, claiming we should trust the process because our representatives all signed off on it, where does that leave us, when it is shown to be a lie?   Back to the drawing board, Clown Leader, it's not working well for you!)

Via Politico:
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/06/congress-nsa-prism-intelligence-briefing-92438.html?hp=f2

President Barack Obama's chief defense of his administration's wide-ranging data-gathering programs Friday: Congress authorized them, with "every member" well aware of the details.

Not so, say many members of Congress — Democrats and Republicans alike.

Typically, members of Congress "don't receive this kind of briefing," Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) told POLITICO Friday. They wouldn't have known about the programs unless they were on an intelligence committee, attended special sessions last held in 2011 or specifically asked to be briefed – something they would only know to do if they were clued in by an colleague who was already aware.

Durbin said he learned about the two programs himself only after requesting a briefing under "classified circumstances" after being urged to do so by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).

Congressional leadership and intelligence committees had access to information about the programs, he said — but the "average member" of Congress likely wouldn't have been aware of the breadth of the telephone and Internet surveillance.

There's no public record of who has attended any of these sessions — and even the Obama administration couldn't confirm the president's claim that "every member of Congress" had been briefed.

The White House declined to comment for this story.

And Rep. Aaron Schock (R-Ill.) told POLITICO that the classified intelligence briefing sessions he's attended haven't disclosed details on the two data-gathering programs as were unveiled this week.

Schock, in Congress since 2009, said he had "no idea" about the phone data gathering, or any briefings for House members to discuss it, until news reports this week.

Like other members who said they learned of the data-gathering efforts when they were revealed in the Guardian and the Washington Post, Schock said the administration classified briefings he's attended have revealed very little information.

"I can assure you the phone number tracking of non-criminal, non-terrorist suspects was not discussed," he said. "Most members have stopped going to their classified briefings because they rarely tell us anything we don't already know in the news. It really has become a charade."

[Warph]

The Obuma IRS Targeting Scandal in Five Minutes – Unbelievable Abuse of Power

Exposing the Obama Administration's attack on conservative Americans

The IRS targeted hundreds of conservative groups since 2010.  500 conservative and Christian groups were illegally targeted by the Obuma IRS starting in 2010.  For twenty-seven months the Obuma IRS refused to approve any Tea Party applications for tax-exempt status.  At the same time the Obuma IRS approved dozens of progressive liberal applications within weeks.

You definitely won't see this video in the mainstream media.
It is too devastating for Obuma:
Published on Jun 8, 2013

[/tt]

Kudos to Greta Van Susteren for putting together this powerful video


(What the IRS has done during the Obuma years far exceeds previous abuses of the tax agency and threatens the fundamental health of the nation's political system.  It's one thing for the tax returns of a few politically powerful individuals to be scanned.  But forcing hundreds of organizations representing millions of people to endure endless interrogation and other degrading harassment is typical of authoritarian regimes.  It is, as Becky Gerritson put it so well in the video, un-American.  No effort should be spared to bring all of those responsible to a full accounting and just prosecution.)

[Warph]

Impeach Obuma NOW Over IRS Targeting Scandal

[Warph]

Phone Call From Benghazi Linked Attackers to Al-Qaeda

On October 18, 2012, Barack Obama told supporters,
"Al-Qaeda's on the path to defeat."

But one month earlier, shortly after the attack on our consulate in Benghazi where four Americans were killed, a phone call was made from Benghazi that linked the attack to Al-Qaeda.
CNN reported:

Shortly after the attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi last September, a phone call was placed from the area.

Whoever made the call was excited. "Mabruk, Mabruk!" he repeated, meaning "Congratulations" in Arabic.

Two sources with high-level access to Western intelligence services have told CNN the call was made to a senior figure in al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM. There is no proof that the call was specifically about the attack, in which U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed, but the sources say that is the assumption among those with knowledge of the call.

One of the sources says the phone call was discovered when a Western intelligence service trawled through intercepts of communications made in the wake of the attack. That source told CNN that the call was made specifically to Moktar Belmoktar, leader of an al Qaeda faction based in northern Mali.

CIA officials told CNN they had no comment on whether any call had been intercepted.

(But Obuma said Al-Qaeda was defeated)

[Warph]

I have never been good with foreign languages except for french, so it's little wonder that I have had so much trouble figuring out what that POS Barack Obuma is talking about.  Still, it didn't take me too long to realize that "fees" and "revenues" are what the rest of us call taxes.

I'm ashamed to admit that the first time I heard him say, "I can't comment because there's an ongoing investigation," I assumed he couldn't comment because there was an ongoing investigation.  By the second time, it dawned on me that what he was really saying was "There's no way I'm going to talk about (Operation Fast & Furious) (voter intimidation by the New Black Panthers) (the monitoring of the AP) (the national security leaks to the NY Times that made me look like I knew what I was doing when it came to foreign affairs) (Syria) (Benghazi) (the targeting of conservatives by the IRS) while an ongoing investigation is taking place."

And if you asked when any of those investigations was likely to be concluded, the honest answer, which you'd never get, is sometime after January 20, 2017.

Does Obuma actually think anyone believes him when he says that he had no idea that Internal Revenue was targeting right-wing groups and individuals?  In order to swallow that, we would also have to believe he'd have been equally in the dark if the IRS had been targeting liberals for the past two or three years.

He's not alone when it comes to speaking in code.  For instance, when you ask Hillary Clinton why it makes no difference who killed Ambassador Stevens and his three colleagues in Benghazi, the honest answer would be that neither she nor Chelsea was one of the four victims, so it was no big deal.

And when Bill O'Reilly tells guests on The Factor "You're dodging my question," it really means they're not agreeing with his latest pontification.

There is a question I wished somebody would ask Obuma: "Why is it that Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood get free F-16s, but law-abiding Americans can't be trusted with hunting rifles?"  On behalf of Obuma, let me assure you that there is an ongoing investigation.

Let me point out that if you cross the North Korean border illegally, you'll be sentenced to 12 years hard labor.  If you sneak across the Afghan border, you'll be shot.  If, on the other hand, you enter the U.S. illegally, you get a job, food stamps, a driver's license, a place to live, health care and an education.  Some would suggest that proves we are better than North Korea and Afghanistan.  Others would suggest that what we are is a nation of suckers and screwballs.

And on a somewhat related matter, Radio Talk Show Host Dennis Prager has pointed out that when it comes to religion, there are three self-identified groups: Believers, Agnostics and Atheists, and of the three only the Agnostics are hypocrites.  As Prager argues, if a person really can't decide whether or not God exists, doesn't it behoove him to attend a church or synagogue every other week?  Instead, Agnostics behave exactly like Atheists, who at least have the courage of their convictions.

But I would suggest that Liberals, including the Atheists in their ranks, have their own religion.  It's called Big Government. They don't question it.  Instead, like Muslims, they prostrate themselves to it.

Their faith is so great that it doesn't even occur to them that at some point, Satan, otherwise known as a Republican, will inevitably gain control of it, and whatever powers have been granted or gobbled up by the executive branch will be in the hands of their archenemies.

But, then, nobody ever said that the followers of Liberalism were smart.  Well, at least not with a straight face.

Speaking of the Executive Branch, Obuma... this is how it's suppose to work:

[Warph]

Audit The IRS Rally June 19th Noon
US Capitol West Lawn - Washington D.C.

Join the Tea Party Patriots on the west lawn of the US Capitol in Washington DC as we rally to Audit the IRS! Fight back against government corruption! www.AuditTheIRS.org

What: Audit the IRS Rally
When: Wednesday, June 19, 2013 from Noon – 2pm
Where: West Lawn of the US Capitol

Speakers to be announced.

[Ross]

UCLA Report: US 'Great Recovery' Isn't 'Even Normal Growth - It's Bad'

Wednesday, 05 Jun 2013 03:52 PM

The expected U.S. "Great Recovery" hasn't materialized and the economy has fallen short of even normal growth, according to a new forecast.

The second-quarter UCLA Anderson Forecast said the growth of real gross domestic product — meaning the inflation-adjusted value of goods and services produced — is too small to help the nation climb out of its slump.

The figure was 15.4 percent below a "normal" growth trend, forecast director Edward Leamer wrote.

"To get back to that 3 percent trend, we would need 4 percent growth for 15 years, or 5 percent growth for eight years, or 6 percent growth for five years, not the disappointing twos and threes we have been racking up recently," he said.

"It's not a recovery. It's not even normal growth. It's bad," he wrote.

http://www.moneynews.com/StreetTalk/Economic-Forecast-Great-Recovery/2013/06/05/id/508168?s=al&promo_code=13BFE-1

[Ross]

NSA Whistleblower Outs Himself

29-year-old defense contractor Edward Snowden is now hiding out in Hong Kong

The whistleblower who leaked details of the NSA's secret surveillance programs has revealed himself as 29-year-old Edward Snowden, a former technical assistant with the CIA who has been working at the NSA for four years for a number of outside contractors.


http://www.newser.com/story/169231/nsa-whistleblower-outs-himself.html?utm_source=part&utm_medium=united&utm_campaign=rss_top

[Warph]

A President Who Wants Power but No Responsibility

"The reality is that we have a president who wants power but no responsibility.  The reality is that we have a president, an eternal "campaigner," who hasn't a clue about governing."

by Dr. Susan Berry

Over the past two weeks, conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh has been advancing a theory about why President Obama's approval ratings remain above average, despite the fact that most Americans say they are dissatisfied with the direction the country is taking.

Limbaugh has hypothesized that many Americans, perhaps the "low-information voters," are not connecting Obama's policies to what is actually happening in the country, because the president never actually governs. Obama's is a non-governing presidency, one that is built on an eternal campaign, a never-ending community organization effort.

Aided by a relatively weak Republican Party, Obama travels around the country, appearing to be fighting against the horrific consequences of his own policies. Consequently, the president has remained fairly popular without having to own any of his destructive strategies and programs. It's all about perception.

The situation with the sequester is a perfect example. The White House came up with the idea of sequestration as a punishment/enforcer during the debt ceiling debate of 2011. The sequestration--an across-the-board spending cut, or a slowing in the growth of spending--was the compulsory "trigger" designed to appear to cut spending. The White House believed it would never happen because Republicans allegedly would do anything to avoid cuts to defense spending in particular.

Fast forward to the present day, however, where we have Barack Obama traveling around the country denying he came up with the sequester idea as he warns Americans of the apocalypse that is upon them because of the compulsory cuts the Republicans want them to endure.

In an op-ed in the Washington Post, however, Mark Thiessen recommended a plan for Republicans to force Obama to take responsibility for the sequester: make the president decide where and how to make the required "cuts."

The problem with the sequester is that the cuts are indiscriminate, hitting both critical and unnecessary programs with equal force. And it is the indiscriminate nature of the cuts that Obama is using to bludgeon Republicans.

Using terms like "meat-cleaver approach" to attempt to whip Americans up into a fearful frenzy, Obama is even now, with the sequester upon us, doubling down on images of budgetary cuts that will cause enemy invasions because of a weakened military, criminals being let free because of a debilitated justice system, injured people dying in the streets because of a lack of emergency personnel, and a rampant rise in communicable diseases because of cuts to medical and preventive care.

To be sure, whatever negative event befalls the United States over the next several months, it will be blamed upon the "Republican Sequester."

Thiessen urged legislation, which Senate Republicans did eventually draft, to give Obama total authority to allocate the automatic cuts as he sees fit, allowing him to "replace the 'meat cleaver' with a scalpel."

In other words, Republicans would be placing Obama in a position in which he must govern. Even if they did not agree with the cuts he made, the cuts would belong to him.

However, while Thiessen advised, "Republicans should give him the power to cut bloated programs and protect vital services," he also admitted, "Obama may not want such authority."

In fact, on Tuesday, campaigning again against the "Republican" cuts, this time in Newport News, Virginia, Obama said that he rejected any suggestions that he should have more power to carry out the sequestration cuts.

Instead, the president insisted that Congress work out a better solution by raising taxes on the wealthy. He told shipyard workers that he doesn't want responsibility for making the sequester "cuts," because "there is no smart way to do it."

Sounding very much like he is not cut out for this governing stuff, Obama said:

The problem is, when you're cutting $85 billion in seven months there's no smart way to do that. You don't want to have to choose between, "Let's see, do I close funding for the disabled kid, or the poor kid? Do I close this Navy shipyard or some other?"

Sad for us that the president thinks that's how a national leader goes about budgetary decisions.

Nevertheless, when have we ever heard Obama decline more power? This is a president who has repeatedly attempted to consolidate power for the Executive Branch while openly bemoaning the fact that he must deal with a Congress and a Constitution.

As a governing leader, it is within the scope of Obama's authority already to stop truly harmful cuts that could damage the country and, instead, strategically target where the sequester cuts would occur, perhaps even eliminating wasteful spending first. Why would Congress have to force Obama to address the danger that he's been so passionately warning against?"

The reality is that we have a president who wants power but no responsibility. The reality is that we have a president, an eternal "campaigner," who hasn't a clue about governing.

[Warph]

NSA Whistleblower Outs Himself

29-year-old defense contractor Edward Snowden is now hiding out in Hong Kong

The whistleblower who leaked details of the NSA's secret surveillance programs has revealed himself as 29-year-old Edward Snowden, a former technical assistant with the CIA who has been working at the NSA for four years for a number of outside contractors.

http://www.newser.com/story/169231/nsa-whistleblower-outs-himself.html?utm_source=part&utm_medium=united&utm_campaign=rss_top

5 things to know about the NSA surveillance programs and the man who leaked their details
Published June 09, 2013
Associated Press

WASHINGTON –  Edward Snowden identified himself Sunday as a principal source behind revelations about the National Security Agency's sweeping phone and Internet surveillance programs. Five things to know about the disclosures:

— THE PROGRAMS: The NSA has been collecting the phone records of hundreds of millions of Americans each day, creating a database through which it can learn whether terror suspects have been in contact with people in the U.S. While the NSA program does not listen to actual conversations, the revelation of the program reopened the post-Sept. 11 debate about privacy concerns versus heightened measures to protect against terrorist attacks. Separately, an Internet scouring program, code-named PRISM, allows the NSA and FBI to tap directly into nine U.S. Internet companies to gather all Internet usage — audio, video, photographs, emails and searches. The effort is designed to detect suspicious behavior that begins overseas.

— THE LEAKER: A 29-year-old high school dropout who worked for consulting giant Booz Allen Hamilton has claimed responsibility for disclosing the programs to The Guardian and The Washington Post. Snowden told The Guardian that he enlisted in the Army, was dismissed after breaking both legs during a training exercise and later got a job as a security guard at a covert intelligence facility in Maryland. He says he later joined the CIA and was posted under diplomatic cover in Geneva, Switzerland. He later worked for consulting companies and claims he spent four years working as a contractor with the NSA. In a statement, Booz Allen Hamilton said he has worked for them less than three months.

— THE REASON: In interviews with The Guardian and the Washington Post, Snowden said he felt compelled to disclose the program because he wanted "to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them." Snowden says he also was disillusioned with CIA tactics to recruit spies in Geneva and was disappointed President Barack Obama did not do more to curtail surveillance programs after his 2008 election.

— THE REACTION: The government's response was fierce. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said the disclosures were "gut-wrenching to see this happen because of the huge, grave damage it does to our intelligence capabilities" and asked the Justice Department to investigate. Rep. Mike Rogers, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said the journalists who reported on the programs don't "have a clue how this thing works; neither did the person who released just enough information to literally be dangerous." Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said she wanted to see the leaker prosecuted. Rep. Peter King, a Republican on the intelligence panel, called for Snowden to be "extradited from Hong Kong immediately." John Negroponte, a former director of national intelligence, called it "an outright case of betrayal of confidences and a violation of his nondisclosure agreement." Yet some also said Snowden's revelations should spark a debate about the secret programs and civil liberties. "I am not happy that we've had leaks and these leaks are concerning, but I think it's an opportunity now to have a discussion about the limits of surveillance, how we create transparency, and above all, how we protect Americans' privacy," said Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo.

— THE CONSEQUENCES: The NSA has asked the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation, and Snowden could face decades in prison if convicted on espionage or treason charges. The Obama administration has been particularly aggressive in prosecuting those who disclose classified information. Snowden has fled to Hong Kong, a former British colony that is now a semi-autonomous region of China. Snowden says he chose the city because he expects leaders could resist pressure from the U.S. government. Snowden also says he would "ask for asylum from any countries that believe in free speech and oppose the victimization of global privacy." Hong Kong has an extradition treaty with the United States that took force in 1998, according to the U.S. State Department website.



Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/06/09/5-things-to-know-about-nsa-surveillance-programs-and-man-who-leaked-their/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+foxnews%2Fnational+%28Internal+-+US+Latest+-+Text%29#ixzz2VmmTrk4G