Ten stories Turkey's Islamist leadership forbids reporting on.

Ten stories Turkey Islamist leadership forbids reporting on.(HD).

Turkey’s media organizations have been banned from reporting on a parliamentary inquiry into corruption allegations concerning four former ministers of Cabinet.

Although the ban is unprecedented for a parliamentary inquiry, over 150 gag orders have been issued regarding the investigations of prosecutors in the last four years, according to Hürriyet reporter Zeynep Gürcanlı. Here are 10 of them. Read the full story here.

Friends Don't Snoop on Each Other: Indian FM Sushma Swaraj.

Friends Don't Snoop on Each Other: Indian FM Sushma Swaraj. (NDTv).

New Delhi:  Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj said that she complained today to US Secretary of State John Kerry about allegations that the National Security Agency targeted her party for surveillance.

"I told them that Indians were very angry when the report came out. I told them that both countries consider each other as friends and friends don't snoop on each other," Ms Swaraj said.

Earlier, speaking exclusively to NDTV, Mr Kerry said that he cannot comment publicly on the controversy; however, he said, "President Obama has taken extraordinary steps in order to be open and transparent, the entire new directive with respect to everything United States does or will engage in."

In July, a classified document made public by The Washington Post showed that the BJP, which swept the national election in May, was among authorised targets for the NSA in 2010 while it was India's main opposition.

The BJP was listed among six foreign political parties -- along with Egypt's Islamist movement the Muslim Brotherhood and the Pakistan People's Party -- on which the NSA was given permission to carry out surveillance in 2010, said the document published by The Washington Post. It was supplied by fugitive US intelligence worker Edward Snowden.

Obama Is Bypassing Congress Again. This Time It's Going to Cost You and US trade big time.

Obama Is Bypassing Congress Again. This Time It's Going to Cost You. HT: Heritage.

Next week, the Obama administration is planning to unveil a climate action plan that it intends to implement without legislative approval. It’s a creative approach to governing, not unlike other executive actions President Obama has taken to bypass Congress.

When lawmakers refused to pass cap-and-trade legislation, Obama announced there was more than one way to skin the cat. Through climate plans, executive orders and regulatory action, he directed his agencies to find ways to curb the country’s carbon dioxide output and commit to reducing greenhouse-gas emissions.

Help Us Rein in the Imperial Presidency: Sign Our Petition

Leading the charge, unsurprisingly, is the Environmental Protection Agency, which will release its carbon-dioxide regulations for existing power plants on Monday. The plan will drive up energy prices for American families and businesses without making a dent in global temperatures.

Our infographic explains what it means for jobs, incomes and the states hurt most.

The post Obama Is Bypassing Congress Again. This Time It's Going to Cost You. appeared first on The Foundry: Conservative Policy News from The Heritage Foundation.

Rep Sen Bob Corker of Tennesee: "White House Foreign Policy Meeting Bizarre”

Rep Sen Bob Corker of Tennesee: "White House Foreign Policy Meeting Bizarre” HT: WhiteHouseDossier. By Keith Koffler.

That’s what Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, the top Republican member of the Senate Foreign Policy Committee, termed a secret gathering Tuesday night that that included 14 senators – 11 Democrats, three Republicans – who met with White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough and National Security Advisor Susan Rice.

“I know we both attended sort of a discussion last night that I found to be one of the most bizarre I’ve attended on Foreign Relations on foreign policy in our country,” Corker said, referring to himself and Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), the committee’s chairman.

He didn’t say why it was bizarre, but based on some reporting by the Associated Press and my knowledge of how White Houses usually operate – and this one in particular – I know exactly what he meant.

First of all, the President Obama didn’t even drop by. You have the ranking member of the Foreign Relations Committee in the West Wing for what was, I’m sure, a very rare trip to the White House, and he doesn’t even see the president.


This is the only White House I’ve covered where senior senators go to the West Wing to meet with staff, not the president. The White House thinks it’s repairing relations with Congress – finally – but it’s actually insulting lawmakers instead.

According to the AP:

Another senator who attended the meeting said Obama’s advisers refused to provide lawmakers with answers about whether the president plans to keep U.S. troops in Afghanistan after the war formally concludes later this year or about the Pentagon’s efforts to find nearly 300 kidnapped Nigerian school girls.

I’m sure they just sat there in disbelief as Rice and McDonough refused to tell them anything, and then started wondering what they were doing there.

Eventually, senators just started leaving, EVEN BEFORE THE MEETING WAS OVER.

I’ve never heard of that either, unless there was some urgent matter or a vote on Capitol Hill. You don’t otherwise leave a White House meeting unless you are really either being disrespected or getting nothing of value out of it.Hmmmm........"L'etat c'est moi"

Turkey - Life Satisfaction lowest in group at 0.5 ; average life satisfaction is of 6.6... Canada : 9.4.

Turkey

Turkey - Life Satisfaction lowest in group at 0.5 ; average life satisfaction is of 6.6.. Canada : 9.4.

Happiness or subjective well-being can be measured in terms of life satisfaction, the presence of positive experiences and feelings, and the absence of negative experiences and feelings.

Such measures, while subjective, are a useful complement to objective data to compare the quality of life across countries.

Life satisfaction measures how people evaluate their life as a whole rather than their current feelings. It captures a reflective assessment of which life circumstances and conditions are important for subjective well-being. When asked to rate their general satisfaction with life on a scale from 0 to 10, Turkish people gave it a 0.5 grade, one of the lowest scores in the OECD, where average life satisfaction is of 6.6.

There is little difference in life satisfaction levels between men and women across OECD countries.

In Turkey, however, women reported being somewhat happier than men, rating their lives at 5.1, compared with 4.7 for men. Education levels also influence subjective well-being. Whereas Turkish people who have only completed primary education have a life satisfaction level of 4.4, this score reaches 5.8 for those with tertiary education.


Happiness, or subjective well-being, is also measured by the presence of positive experiences and feelings, and/or the absence of negative experiences and feelings. In Turkey 61% of people reported having more positive experiences in an average day (feelings of rest, pride in accomplishment, enjoyment, etc.) than negative ones (pain, worry, sadness, boredom, etc.). This figure is lower than the OECD average of 76% and one of the lowest in the OECD. Source: OECD offical site

"Sanctions that Benefit?" - How did Turkey export $1.2 billion worth gold to Switzerland?

"Sanctions that Benefit?" - How did Turkey export $1.2 billion worth gold to Switzerland?(HD).

A surge in gold exports to Switzerland narrowed Turkey's trade deficit more sharply than expected in March, with the gap falling by a third to $5.195 billion, data showed on Wednesday.

The deficit was narrower than the $6.05 billion forecast in a Reuters poll and down from $7.437 billion in the same month of the previous year, data from the Turkish Statistics Institute showed.

The trade gap was reined in by $1.275 billion in gold exports to Switzerland, out of a total $1.36 billion in exports to the country, making it Turkey's biggest trade destination last month.

Turkish gold exports to Switzerland in the first quarter as a whole amounted to $2 billion, up from just $102,912 a year earlier.

Turkey has in the past imported large amounts of gold to transfer to Iran.

Trade with Iran boomed in 2012 when Ankara was paying for its natural gas and oil imports with Turkish lira, and Iranians were using those deposits held in Turkish bank accounts to buy gold.

But the trade tailed off last year as U.S. sanctions imposed on Tehran were tightened. One official in the gold sector said this could explain the surge in exports to Switzerland.

"Turkey imported a huge amount of gold in the past period to be transferred to Iran," the official said.

"But when this channel was closed, a portion of this stock could have been sent to Switzerland to be turned into cash in anticipation of gold prices falling."
Overall Turkish exports rose 12.4 percent to $14.748 billion in March, while imports fell 3 percent to $19.943 billion, the statistics institute data showed. Hmmm.........Erdogan ......Obama's BFF.

Russia's State Duma agrees to refer to bloggers as mass media.

Russia's State Duma agrees to refer to bloggers as mass media.(RBTH).

The Russian State Duma has approved the amendment to refer to bloggers as mass media while considering in second reading a bill from the "counterterrorism set."

The amendment, drafted by Alexei Mitrofanov of the Just Russia faction, Andrei Lugovoi and Vadim Dengin both of the Russian Liberal Democratic Party, concerns creating a new category of users in the Internet called a blogger - a person, whose personal website or page in social networks has at least 3,000 visits per day, will be included in a certain registry and will be able, in particular, to post advertisements for a fee.

Being listed in the registry will oblige the blog owner to check the accuracy of the information being posted, comply with campaign rules, not to circulate information about the private lives of citizens and will stipulate age restrictions for users.

Violation of these demands will be punishable with a fine of 10,000-30,000 rubles for private citizens and 50,000-300,000 rubles for legal entities.

Repeating these violations within a year will lead to a fine of 30,000-50,000 rubles for private citizens and 300,000-500,000 rubles for legal entities or administrative suspension of activities for up to 30 days.

These amendments have been submitted upon the initiative prepared by a group of deputies headed by head of the State Duma committee on security and fighting corruption Irina Yarovaya of the United Russia party following terrorist attacks in Volgograd in late 2-13.

This draft law obliges private citizens and legal entities to inform the Federal Service for Supervision in Telecom, Information Technologies and Mass Communications (Roskomnadzor) on the start of delivering information on the Internet and storing data on information posted on the Internet for six months.Hmmmm.....How long before 'Islamist' Erdogan follows the example?

Google Spends $3.2 Billion To Control Every Object In The House Of The Future.....can you hear me now?

Google Spends $3.2 Billion To Control Every Object In The House Of The Future.(MotherboardVice)

After investing millions into smart thermostat company Nest, a shining star of the "internet of things" megatrend, Google just bit the bullet and decided to buy the company today, for an impressive $3.2 billion in cash. Google being Google, it’s staying tight-lipped about how the purchase fits into its grand plan. But considering some of the other moves the company's been making lately, it's not hard to speculate what it's angling at here.

Buying Nest is Google's play for one of the holy grails of future tech trends: the connected home. It's the tech giant's way into your living room, as the parlance goes. The vision of an automated home stocked with sensor-equipped objects gathering data about your every lifestyle habit and talking to each other to cater to your needs is a technoutopian dream that won't die. Not to mention it's estimated to be a multibillion dollar market over the next few years.Read the full story here.

Totalitarianism Essay.

Obama Media puts Putin on cover worldwide except in US.   Top Time Editor Taking State Department Job With John Kerry

Totalitarianism Essay. HT: EssayMania.

Please note: any relationships you may see between these symptoms and Mr. Obama are solely the responsibility of the reader.

In the broadest sense, totalitarianism is characterized by strong central rule that attempts to control and direct all aspects of life.

 It is distinguished from dictatorship and authoritarianism by its supplanting of all political institutions and all old legal and social traditions with new ones to meet the state's needs, which are usually highly focused.(Czars)

According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, the definition of totalitarianism is a form of government that theoretically permits no individual freedom and that seeks to subordinate all aspects of the individual's life to the authority of the government (http://www.britannica.com/).

Totalitarian governments are often believed to be a solution to political or economic problems in a country. Despite the brutality and lack of freedom, at its beginning, a totalitarian government often receives overwhelming support for its ideas and goals. History has proventhat such governments have had a tremendous negative impact on their people and traditions. Totalitarian governments often emerge from developing countries that are trying to build their economy. They are also considered to be a solution for countries that have recently been through a social, economic or political downfall. At the beginning of their rule, these regimes tend to be very popular and have the support of most people in the country. This popularity is mostly due to the government's promises of an ideal society.

A totalitarian administration also requires a charismatic leader and modern developments in transportation and communication to spread its message.

In order for a totalitarian state to be built, the leader must have a tremendous will to transform the society into his version of utopia (http://www.uta.edu). A central concept in the totalitarian system is the attainment of a specific goal. This goal is the reason why a totalitarian government exists and is essential to keeping the regime in power (http://www.britannica.com/). 

In Hitler's case, his goals were the purification of the Aryan race and the expansion of his territory. In a totalitarian state, all of its resources are directed toward the achievement of the goal. Because the goal is the foundation for each particular regime, the government will never acknowledge its achievement, for that would therefore eliminate its purpose (http://www.britannica.com/). This idea of dangling the carrot in front of its citizens, but rarely delivering, prolongs enthusiasm and support for these governments.

In a totalitarian state, power is in the hands of one person, the party leader who becomes the supreme ruler. Opposition parties are not allowed and there are no elections. The citizens do not have a choice to decide who they want to be their leader. Those who disagree with the dictator are killed. Such ruler does not have to answer to anybody or to the states court of law, for in a totalitarian regime, the leader is above the law (http://www.comptons.com/). He may change the laws at any time to facilitate the achievement of his goals. The law is not binding to him, but rather it is a tool at the dictator's disposal to use as he sees fit. This powerful instrument is used to exert control over the lifestyles of the citizens. When a totalitarian government comes into power, all legal, social and political, traditions are swept away (http://www.britannica.com/). Religion, if not banned entirely, is kept under tight control. The government censors the media and commands all means of communication. Traditional social institutions and organizations are discouraged or restricted. For example, the North Korean government controlled the amount of crops produced on every farm, the type of housing units in which each family lived and censored all literary and artistic 

Summary Of Totalitarian
Totalitarianism is the idea that all motions, buisness, thought, religion, are regulated by the state or the ruling upper hand that controls the people.

Presidential Halloween masks 2013 - Should they be Banned?

Presidential Halloween masks 2013 - Should they be banned?Source: Google 

Obama Tells U.S. Media To ‘Behave’

Obama Tells U.S. Media To ‘Behave’.HT: Breitbart.

President Barack Obama told American reporters to “behave” during a joint press conference with President Jacob Zuma of South Africa on Shabbos. Obama was warning U.S. journalists not to ask too many questions in one, complaining that “my press” tried too squeeze “three or four or five questions in there,” complimenting Zuma on his more compliant media.

(The Associated Press noted that “both U.S. and South African reporters asked multi-part questions,” though seconded Obama’s description of U.S. journalists as “his press corps.”)

Press freedom is being challenged in South Africa, where the ruling African National Congress (ANC) chafes at criticism of its difficulties and resents exposure of its numerous corruption scandals. Television networks are dominated by the government-owned South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), which favors a pro-ANC line, and Internet media growth has been stunted by the state telecommunications monopoly, Telkom.

Obama’s admonition of American journalists is not the first time he has rebuked them in the presence of a foreign leader, on foreign soil.  In March, during a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, he scolded NBC reporter Chuck Todd for asking several questions, saying an Israeli reporter who asked only one question had “behaved” better.Read the full story here.

EPA waives fee requests for friendly groups, denies conservative groups - Another Obama White House scandal?

EPA waives fee requests for friendly groups, denies conservative groups - Another Obama White House scandal?(WE).

Conservative groups seeking information from the Environmental Protection Agency have been routinely hindered by fees normally waived for media and watchdog groups, while fees for more than 90 percent of requests from green groups were waived, according to requests reviewed by the Conservative Enterprise Institute.

CEI reviewed Freedom of Information Act requests sent between January 2012 and this spring from several environmental groups friendly to the EPA’s mission, and several conservative groups, to see how equally the agency applies its fee waiver policy for media and watchdog groups. Government agencies are supposed to waive fees for groups disseminating information for public benefit.

“This is as clear an example of disparate treatment as the IRS’ hurdles selectively imposed upon groups with names ominously reflecting an interest in, say, a less intrusive or biased federal government,” said CEI fellow Chris Horner.

For 92 percent of requests from green groups, the EPA cooperated by waiving fees for the information. Those requests came from the Natural Resources Defense Council, EarthJustice, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, The Waterkeeper Alliance, Greenpeace, Southern Environmental Law Center and the Center for Biological Diversity.

Of the requests that were denied, the EPA said the group either didn’t respond to requests for justification of a waiver, or didn’t express intent to disseminate the information to the general public, according to documents obtained by The Washington Examiner. CEI, on the other hand, had its requests denied 93 percent of the time. One request was denied because CEI failed to express its intent to disseminate the information to the general public. The rest were denied because the agency said CEI “failed to demonstrate that the release of the information requested significantly increases the public understanding of government operations or activities.”
Similarly, requests from conservative groups Judicial Watch and National Center for Public Policy Research were approved half the time, and all requests from Franklin Center and the Institute for Energy Research were denied. “Their practice is to take care of their friends and impose ridiculous obstacles to deny problematic parties’ requests for information,” said Horner.

Freedom of Information Act requests from CEI forced the EPA to release emails under the the “Richard Windsor” alias former EPA administrator Lisa Jackson used to conduct government business. 

CEI has also filed FOIA requests for emails, text messages and instant messages from Jackson and EPA nominee Gina McCarthy. Horner said he believes the EPA has denied CEI’s requests because his think tank is the most active group seeking to hold the agency accountable. “This is a clear pattern of favoritism for allied groups and a concerted campaign to make life more difficult for those deemed unfriendly,” he said. “The left hand of big government reaches out to give a boost to its far-left hand at every turn. Argue against more of the same, however, and prepare to be treated as if you have fewer rights.”Hmmm......'Definition of 'totalitarian regime'. "Form of government that subordinates all aspects of its citizens' lives to the authority of the state, with a single charismatic leader as the ultimate authority."Read the full story here.

Video - Former Attorney General Mukasey: Arms of Government Are Being Used by WH for Political Purposes.

Former US Attorney General Michael Mukasey was on America's Newsroom this morning. The former AG slammed the Obama administration for using the arms of government for political purposes.

Obama White House claims no knowledge of AP investigation.

Obama White House claims no knowledge of AP investigation.(RT).Just hours after the AP reported on Monday that the Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records of reporters and editors employed by the news agency, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said, “Other than press reports, we have no knowledge of any attempt by the Justice Department to seek phone records of the AP.”
"We are not involved in decisions made in connection with criminal investigations, as those matters are handled independently by the Justice Department,” said Carney. “Any questions about an ongoing criminal investigation should be directed to the Department of Justice.”
But by the time the White House responded to the news on Monday, the AP had already authored a letter to Eric Holder, the US attorney general appointed by Pres. Obama and ergo the top official within the Department of Justice. According to the AP’s initial report on the investigation, AP President and Chief Executive Officer Gary Pruitt wrote Holder to condemn the probe as a "massive and unprecedented intrusion" into how news organizations operate.
"There can be no possible justification for such an overbroad collection of the telephone communications of The Associated Press and its reporters,” Pruitt wrote.
The Justice Department has yet to weigh in on the scandal and will likely defer questions for the time being since official policy prohibits the agency from formally discussing criminal investigations that are ongoing. Members of Congress, on the other hand, can’t say they’ve remained silent. Within hours of the AP story going live, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle were up in arms over the news.

Even if the administration attests that the White House and Justice Department weren’t in cahoots, politicians that are peeved by the matter are making it known that the Obama administration isn’t off the hook. Regardless of whether the probe were approved by Attorney General Holder — or, for that matter, if it was even necessary — many are saying the blame ultimately falls on the president, who campaigned on a promise of transparency yet oversees an administration that investigates journalists.

Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), a staunch constitutionalist, told Fox News on Monday, “This sounds like a president somewhat drunk on power, not cautious about how he uses power.”
Obama, Paul told Fox host Sean Hannity, is “using the power of his government to investigate his enemies, he’s tapping the phones of the press, and it turns out last year he signed legislation that allows him to detain an American without a trial and send them to Guantanamo Bay.”

The Obama administration’s attorneys have fought relentlessly to keep the NDAA on the books, even filing appeals to petition a federal judge after Section 1021 was deemed unconstitutional. Now with the AP’s latest revelation, though, members of the same Congress that approved of that bill only a year-and-a-half ago are attacking the White House.
“This is obviously disturbing,” House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa (R-California) told reporters. “Coming within a week of revelations that the White House lied to the American people about the Benghazi attacks and the IRS targeted conservative Americans for their political beliefs, Americans should take notice that top Obama administration officials increasingly see themselves as above the law and emboldened by the belief that they don’t have to answer to anyone.”
In a tweet, Issa added that he found the revelation “disturbing.”

News about @thejusticedept monitoring @ap phone lines is disturbing.
— Darrell Issa (@DarrellIssa) May 13, 2013

Whether it is secretly targeting patriotic Americans participating in the electoral progress or reporters exercising their First Amendment rights, these new revelations suggest a pattern of intimidation by the Obama Administration,” weighed in Douglas Heye, a spokesman for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Virginia).
Michael Steel, a representative for House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), said, “The First Amendment is first for a reason. If the Obama Administration is going after reporters’ phone records, they better have a damned good explanation.”
Even members of Obama’s own Democratic Party were disturbed by the AP’s report.
“The burden is always on the government when they go after private information – especially information regarding the press or its confidential sources,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) told reporters. “I want to know more about this case, but on the face of it, I am concerned that the government may not have met that burden. I am very troubled by these allegations and want to hear the government’s explanation.”
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) told the AP the Justice Department "must be forthcoming with the facts as soon as possible."
Holder’s office has not said why the investigation was ordered, but the AP suggested it’s likely in regards to a May 2012 exclusive the agency published in which a covert CIA operation was exposed. Earlier this year, CIA Director John Brennan told Congress that the FBI asked him if he was the source for the AP article. Brennan denied the allegation and said the release of information pertaining to a terror plot was an "unauthorized and dangerous disclosure of classified information."
The AP wrote Monday that the letter notifying the agency of the investigation arrived last Friday, and acknowledged that subpoenas were used to obtain phone records from reporters and editors.
Matthew Miller, a former top spokesman for Holder, defended the department’s actions to reporters for the Huffington Post.
"This is how leaks get investigated," Miller said. "Leaking classified information is a crime, and there are usually only two parties who know who committed the crime, the leaker and the reporter. Getting access to phone records allows investigators to see who the possible source might have been and confront them with evidence of a crime."Read the full story here.

Syrian troops destroy ancient 2,000-year-old Jobar Synagogue, one of Syria’s holiest sites for Jews.

Syrian troops destroy ancient 2,000-year-old Jobar Synagogue, one of Syria’s holiest sites for Jews.(TOI). One of the oldest synagogues in the world was partially destroyed by Syrian government shelling, according to a video posted to YouTube overnight Friday.

The Jobar Synagogue, located in a suburb of Damascus, is approximately 2,000 years old, and is said to have been built on top of a cave where the prophet Elijah concealed himself from persecution.

Syrian rebel sources reported that regime troops had fired mortars at the building. The video, uploaded by the Syrian opposition’s military council, appears to show that portions of the building and roof were blown off, with debris seen on the ground in front of the synagogue. The condition of the inside of the building is unclear from the video.

An inscription in English reads, “Shrine and synagogue of prophet Eliahou Hanabi since 720 B.C.,” although the actual date of founding is disputed. One of the earliest mentions of the synagogue is in the Talmud, which states that Rabbi Rafram bar Pappa prayed there.

The synagogue is one of Syria’s holiest sites for Jews.Hmmm....After the Jewish community, they'll go after the Christians.Read the full story here.

Obama Transforms State Department “Background Notes” Into Campaign Material.

Obama Transforms State Department “Background Notes” Into Campaign Material.(Heritage).Production by U.S. embassies of the State Department’s long-running series of annual “Background Notes” covering every country in the world had long been considered a useful service for the American public. Now, however, they appear to have morphed into yet another taxpayer-subsidized campaign commercial for the Obama Administration.
The old Background Notes were sui generis—useful reference materials that were more comprehensive than the practical but choppy CIA “Factbook” and other U.S. government publications. Now, though, State has dropped everything from the Background Notes but the section on relations with the U.S. No more historical context, no recounting of complex and long-standing issues in the country. Just cut to the chase—that is, the time when the current Administration came to power.
Compare the nearly 1,200-word “Fact Sheet” published this week by the U.S. embassy in Brazil with the last Background Note on Brazil written during the George W. Bush Administration.
The 4,100-word Bush document, chock full of facts and figures helpful in analyzing the country and its importance to the U.S., never once mentions the name of any U.S. President. The 300-word section on U.S.–Brazil relations takes up about 7 percent of the document.
Conversely, fully 70 percent (830 words) of the Brazil Fact Sheet, which is focused exclusively on U.S. relations with Brazil, discusses President Obama either directly by name (twice!) or in the context of the plethora of programs his Administration has launched with Brazil, including a shared “commitment to combat discrimination based on race, gender, ethnicity, or lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) status; to advance gender equality; a bilateral instrument that targets racism; support for HIV/AIDS prevention, promotion of clean energy technologies in Brazil, and mitigation of climate change.”
There is no mention, however, of how much these many programs are costing the American taxpayer.So, apparently, the need for historical context is selectively applied. And although President Obama visited Chile on the same March 2011 trip he made to Brazil, there is no mention of it in the document.
Since President Obama took office, the budget of the State Department has increased from $38.7 billion to $50.2 billion, and thousands have been added to the payroll. Seems pretty easy to tell what many of them are doing.Hmmmm............" DEFINITION OF TOTALITARIANISM " - Personality cultism.Regulation and restriction of speech.Control over the economy. Mass surveillance, political repression. Regulate every aspect of public and private life. politics.Read the full story here.

U.S. Olympians Told To Ditch The Cowboy Hats In Favor Of . . . 'Hugo Shavez Look'.

U.S. Olympians Told To Ditch The Cowboy Hats In Favor Of . . . 'Hugo Shavez Look'.(NYP) — Our Olympic heroes will be headed off to London this month — looking as if they’re decked out for a Hamptons lawn party. Ralph Lauren yesterday unveiled the preppy parade uniforms that Team USA members will wear at the July 27 opening ceremony, stirring an uproar over pricey duds fit for a regatta. The outfits include blue blazers, cream-colored trousers, white skirts — and berets. “2012 US Olympic team is wearing berets. Really? America?” tweeted John Lee Rudnicki, a Los Angeles entertainment lawyer. “How many people in the US have you ever seen wear a beret? Five?” “What the France?” tweeted Greg “Hollea” Rachal, a political activist and former Jacksonville, Fla., City Council candidate. The company said the outfits embody “the spirit of American athleticism and sportsmanship.”Hmmmm.........."CHANGE"..........Can't wait to see the First Lady applaud these guys in London.Read the story here.