FBI Files Document Communism in Valerie Jarrett’s Family.

FBI Files Document Communism in Valerie Jarrett’s Family. HT: Judicialwatch.

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) files obtained by Judicial Watch reveal that the dad, maternal grandpa and father-in-law of President Obama’s trusted senior advisor, Valerie Jarrett, were hardcore Communists under investigation by the U.S. government.

Jarrett’s dad, pathologist and geneticist Dr. James Bowman, had extensive ties to Communist associations and individuals, his lengthy FBI file shows. In 1950 Bowman was in communication with a paid Soviet agent named Alfred Stern, who fled to Prague after getting charged with espionage. Bowman was also a member of a Communist-sympathizing group called the Association of Internes and Medical Students. After his discharge from the Army Medical Corps in 1955, Bowman moved to Iran to work, the FBI records show.

JW also obtained documents on Bowman from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) showing that the FBI was brought into investigate him for his membership in a group that “follows the communist party line.” The Jarrett family Communist ties also include a business partnership between Jarrett’s maternal grandpa, Robert Rochon Taylor, and Stern, the Soviet agent associated with her dad.

Jarrett’s father-in-law, Vernon Jarrett, was also another big-time Chicago Communist, according to separate FBI files obtained by JW as part of a probe into the Jarrett family’s Communist ties.


It’s been well documented that Valerie Jarrett, a Chicago lawyer and longtime Obama confidant, is a liberal extremist who wields tremendous power in the White House. Faithful to her roots, she still has connections to many Communist and extremist groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood. Jarrett and her family also had strong ties to Frank Marshal Davis, a big Obama mentor and Communist Party member with an extensive FBI file. Read the full story here.

"L'etat C'est Moi" - President Obama Asks Congress To Give Up Its Oversight On Secret TPP Agreement.

"L'etat C'est Moi" - President Obama Asks Congress To Give Up Its Oversight On Secret TPP Agreement.(Tech Dirt).

We've talked a few times about how the USTR and the administration are asking Congress for "trade promotion authority," which would effectively let it bypass Congressional oversight of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement.

In fact, in many ways the USTR has been acting as if it already has this. The specifics of "trade promotion authority" or "fast track authority" are a bit down in the weeds, but the short version is that it's the administration asking Congress tocompletely abdicate its authority and mandate in overseeing international trade agreements. Basically, it removes the ability of Congress to seek any fixes or amendments to a trade agreement -- only allowing them to give a yes or no vote. 

This might not be such a big deal if the TPP wasn't negotiated in near total secrecy. We've been told that a final agreement is getting close, but no official text has been released at all. What we know of the IP section is one draft that leaked out from well over a year ago. And, now, we're going to get a product that will be released to the public with little time for debate and no way to make changes should the public point out how ridiculous and dangerous it is.

And, of course, President Obama is insisting it's necessary to undermine the authority of Congress with a secret agreement that will have tremendous impact on Americans... just because he wants it. He announced to "the President’s Export Council" that "We're going to need Trade Promotion Authority." Let's be clear: the only reason the administration "needs" TPA is so that it can ram through the agreement without letting Congress do its oversight job. Trade Promotion Authority offers no benefit to the public at all. All it does is make sure that the USTR has less oversight and fewer limitations on selling out the public for a few big special interests.

The "Export Council" which is basically made up of leaders of those big special interests who are looking for protectionist (not "free trade") policies that help their bottom line, but harm the American public, made an even more ridiculous statement:

“We believe that new TPA legislation is critical to America’s trade leadership in the world,” the group said in one of eight letters to Obama it approved at the meeting.

Did you get that? They're claiming that if we actually let Congress do its Constitutionally-mandated job that somehow undermines America's "trade leadership?" 

Does anyone take this even remotely seriously? Of course, the problem is that very few are paying attention to this. "Trade Promotion Authority" sounds boring and if some big business leaders claims it's necessary, Congress will probably go with it -- even though it subverts their own powers.

If the USTR had actually been transparent, had released negotiating texts so that the public could give feedback, and that feedback was reflected in the eventual agreements, then maybe you could see how trade promotion authority might make sense. But when you have a secret agreement, driven in large part by industry lobbyists, which the public still hasn't been allowed to see, how could anyone possibly have a legitimate reason for suggesting that Congress abdicate its oversight role?

Hmmm......And in the end they will say Congress has only a symbolic use lets just abolish it. 

"YES WE CAN" - NSA Can Spy on Smart Phone Data

"YES WE CAN" - NSA Can Spy on Smart Phone Data.HT: SPIEGEL.

SPIEGEL has learned from internal NSA documents that the US intelligence agency has the capability of tapping user data from the iPhone, devices using Android as well as BlackBerry, a system previously believed to be highly secure. 

The United States' National Security Agency intelligence-gathering operation is capable of accessing user data from smart phones from all leading manufacturers. Top secret NSA documents that SPIEGEL has seen explicitly note that the NSA can tap into such information on Apple iPhones, BlackBerry devices and Google's Android mobile operating system.

 The documents state that it is possible for the NSA to tap most sensitive data held on these smart phones, including contact lists, SMS traffic, notes and location information about where a user has been.

The documents also indicate that the NSA has set up specific working groups to deal with each operating system, with the goal of gaining secret access to the data held on the phones.

In the internal documents, experts boast about successful access to iPhone data in instances where the NSA is able to infiltrate the computer a person uses to sync their iPhone. Mini-programs, so-called "scripts," then enable additional access to at least 38 iPhone features.

The documents suggest the intelligence specialists have also had similar success in hacking into BlackBerrys. A 2009 NSA document states that it can "see and read SMS traffic." It also notes there was a period in 2009 when the NSA was temporarily unable to access BlackBerry devices. After the Canadian company acquired another firm, it changed the way in compresses its data. But in March 2010, the department responsible declared it had regained access to BlackBerry data and celebrated with the word, "champagne!"

The documents also state that the NSA has succeeded in accessing the BlackBerry mail system, which is known to be very secure. This could mark a huge setback for the company, which has always claimed that its mail system is uncrackable.

In response to questions from SPIEGEL, BlackBerry officials stated, "It is not for us to comment on media reports regarding alleged government surveillance of telecommunications traffic." The company said it had not programmed a "'back door' pipeline to our platform."

The material viewed by SPIEGEL suggests that the spying on smart phones has not been a mass phenomenon. It has been targeted, in some cases in an individually tailored manner and without the knowledge of the smart phone companies.
Hmmmm......Obama in Sweden:  "And I can give assurances to the publics in Europe and around the world that we’re not going around snooping at people’s emails or listening to their phone calls. What we try to do is to target very specifically areas of concern. Having said that, what I’ve said domestically and what I say to international audiences is with changes in technology, with the growth of our capabilities, if our -- if our attitude is, because we can do it we should go ahead and do it, then we may not be, you know, addressing some of the legitimate concerns and dangers that exist anytime we’re talking about intelligence gathering and surveillance."




 Visit SPIEGEL ONLINE International on Monday for the full article.
 

North Carolina Lieutenant Governor Dan Forest Reveals the Bureaucracy 'Blockade' Behind Common Core.

North Carolina Lieutenant Governor Dan Forest Reveals the Bureaucracy 'Blockade' Behind Common Core.HT: Heritage.

Why did North Carolina Lieutenant Governor Dan Forest just receive 40,000 sheets of paper in the mail?

In July, Forest sent the state’s Department of Public Instruction (DPI) a request for information on the Common Core national standards. 

DPI officials responded by asking Forest to send them 10,000 sheets of blank paper so they could answer the 67 questions. He obliged.

On August 2, he received his official reply: “12 boxes containing approximately 40,000 sheets of paper, with a cover letter that did not directly answer any of his 67 questions, but rather referred him to 134 separate websites, linking to over 100 separate pages, 320 separate reports, hundreds of original source documents, 40 presentations, 1 blog post and a thumb drive.”
Forest’s response:

This is government bureaucracy at its best. When an administrative body that is required to provide information to its board members fails to be forthcoming with the requested information it should raise a red flag.

The actions by the DPI and the amount of paperwork attached to the Common Core illustrate that this push for national standards and tests not only is a threat to educational freedom but fosters the same type of bureaucratic compliance mentality that has developed as federal intervention in education has grown over the years.

Forest is upholding his official duty to the people of North Carolina by questioning this very large and very expensive centralized initiative. He announced this week that he will mail a copy of the DPI’s letter to every member of the General Assembly, all 115 school superintendents, all elected county commissioners, and all local school board members statewide so that they will “understand the full scope of what is in the process of being implemented in their local communities.”

Forest is also demonstrating that it’s not too late for states to reconsider their involvement with Common Core and ultimately hop off the national standards bandwagon.

Right Before Snowden Leaks, President Obama Fired Nearly All Members On Key Intelligence Advisory Board.

Right Before Snowden Leaks, President Obama Fired Nearly All Members On Key Intelligence Advisory Board.HT: TechDirt.

Remember last week's press conference, where President Obama insisted that he had already kicked off the process of a major review of the way we do intelligence and surveillance in this country -- and about how he was going to set up an "outside" review group to look all this over? The same review group that will be set up by and report to James Clapper (but, the White House assures us, not run by him)?

Right, so a few people pointed out that President Obama already has an independent group that's supposed to do that thing: called the President's Intelligence Advisory Board (PIAB). There's just one tiny, tiny problem in all of this. It now appears that, back in May, just before all the Snowden stuff started coming out, it appears that the administration basically kicked nearly everyone off of the PIAB board. It went from 14 membersdown to just four. And those members were basically asked to leave:

“They kicked me off,” said former Rep. Lee Hamilton (D-Ind.). “I was on it a long time under Bush and under Obama. They wanted to make some changes.”

“I don’t know anything about whether they’ve brought in new members. They thanked me and that’s about all I know,” added Hamilton, widely known for his service as vice chairman of the 9/11 Commission.

[....] Philip Zelikow, who served as executive director of the 9/11 Commission and later as a top aide to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, was also asked recently to step off the PIAB.

“I’ve resigned from the Board, one of ten of the fourteen earlier members who have done so,” Zelikow said via email. “Four of the earlier members have remained, pending a reconstitution of the Board at some point for the balance of the President’s second term. The White House website displays the current situation, pending that.”

Hamilton's ouster is particularly interesting, given that just a month ago, he wrote an oped piece about how the NSA's surveillance efforts have gone too far. Seems like he'd be handy to have on this committee reviewing the NSA surveillance, no? So, forgive us for, once again, finding it difficult (or laughable) to believe President Obama's claims that he had a serious revamp of the NSA's surveillance activity in his priorities before the Snowden leaks happened. It seems clear that things were going in the other direction: ramping up the spying, while cutting back on the oversight and review.

Video - OBAMACARE PROVISION: “Forced” Home inspections.

Video - OBAMACARE PROVISION: “Forced” Home inspections.HT: BenSwann.

“Clearly, any family may be visited by federally paid agents for almost any reason.”

According to an Obamacare provision millions of Americans will be targeted.

The Health and Human Services’ website states that your family will be targeted if you fall under the “high-risk” categories below:

Families where mom is not yet 21.

Families where someone is a tobacco user.

Families where children have low student achievement, developmental delays, or disabilities.

Families with individuals who are serving or formerly served in the armed forces, including such families that have members of the armed forces who have had multiple deployments outside the United States.

There is no reference to Medicaid being the determinant for a family to be “eligible.”Read the full story here.

"Et Tu Jones?" - Obama’s former adviser ridicules statement that NSA doesn’t spy on Americans.

"Et Tu Jones?" - Obama’s former adviser ridicules statement that NSA doesn’t spy on Americans.(RT).

"Everybody knows I love this president, but this is ridiculous," former-Special Adviser for Green Jobs Van Jones said Wednesday on CNN. "First of all, we do have a domestic spying program, and what we need to be able to do is figure out how to balance these things, not pretend like there’s no balancing to be done.”

The remark made by Jones, who currently serves as a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, directly contrasts with comments Obama made earlier in the week to late night talk show host Jay Leno.

“We don’t have a domestic spying program,” Obama told Leno during a Tuesday night interview. "What we do have are some mechanisms where we can track a phone number or an email address that we know is connected to some sort of terrorist threat."

Speaking to CNN’s Jake Tapper, Jones jabbed the president’s remarks while also assaulting the commander-in-chief’s record with regards to charging intelligence leakers like Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden with espionage.

Despite campaigning on a platform of utmost transparency, Obama and his administration have so far charged more leakers with espionage than all previous presidents combined twice over. Speaking to CNN, Jones challenged the president’s past behavior towards whistleblowers and suggested that Snowden, the 30-year-old leaker of classified National Security Agency documents, stands little chance of a fair trial in America.

“But much more important, he said something else that I thought that was really awful,” Jones continued. He said that if somebody like Snowden wanted to be a whistleblower, they could have gone ahead.

“Well, hold on a second, sir. That is — you are right now prosecuting more whistleblowers – not only than any American president, than every American president combined! So you can’t then come out on Leno and yuck it up and say, 'Well, whistleblowers, come on out and we’ll treat you right.' because you haven’t been doing that.”

Last week, Russia approved Snowden’s request for asylum by allowing him a one-year stay overseas as charges of spying loom stateside. Meanwhile, days earlier a military judge convicted Army Private First Class Bradley Manning with multiple counts of espionage for his role in sharing classified material with the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks. Manning’s court-martial is currently in its sentencing phase and could end with Col. Denise Lind sending him to prison for a maximum of 90 years. Read the full story here.

Congress's ObamaCare Exemption - The President intervenes to give Members and staff an 'Illegal' break.

Picture HT : Carl In Jerusalem.

Congress's ObamaCare Exemption - The President intervenes to give Members and staff an 'Illegal' break.HT: WhiteHouseDossier.By Keith Koffler.

By what authority did President Obama decide to exempt members of Congress and their staffs from a provision of Obamacare that would deny them their federal subsidy and and make them buy insurance on the exchanges like everyone else?

Obama, as has been widely reported, promised Congress the other day that he would personally see to it that the federal benefit, which pays 75 percent of premiums, would be preserved even after Congress is forced onto the exchanges.
Lawmakers were complaining of a potential “brain drain” as high quality staffers left Capitol Hill instead of ponying up thousands more for health insurance.
Let’s be clear. Other brains would certainly have replaced the parting brains on Capitol Hill. It’s a cool job – makin’ laws for the rest of us – that others would have done before cashing in their padded resumes and scoring tons of dough in the private sector. The problem wasn’t a brain drain. The problem was a money drain.
And so, lo and behold, the administration’s Office of Personnel Management has dutifully determined that Congress will keep its taxpayer-funded health care gift.
According to the Wall Street Journal, OPM has no authority to pay for plans on the exchanges, which are not part of the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program.

This latest White House night at the improv is also illegal. OPM has no authority to pay for insurance plans that lack FEHBP contracts, nor does the Affordable Care Act permit either exchange contributions or a unilateral bump in congressional pay in return for less overall compensation. Those things require appropriations bills passed by Congress and signed by the President.

The White House, the WSJ notes, was eager to issue a decree instead of pursuing a legislative fix that would have uncomfortably opened up the Obamacare can of worms and invited Republican mischief.
So, as it has so often done when the law is inconvenient, the Obama administration has decided the laws are for stupid people.

Your government has unlawfully decided to take action to financially benefit the ruling class, those who WHO ACTUALLY WRITE THE LAWS. Democrats took the lead on this, but Republicans are complicit too.Hmmm......" L'Etat C'est Moi" - Louis XIV.Read the full story here.

Video - NSA Collects ‘Word For Word’ Every Domestic Communication.

Watch NSA Collects 'Word for Word' Every Domestic Communication on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

NSA inspector general report on email and internet data collection under Stellar Wind – full document

NSA inspector general report on email and internet data collection under Stellar Wind – full document. HT: Guardian.

Top-secret draft report from 2009 by the NSA's inspector general shows development of 'collection of bulk internet metadata' under program launched under Bush

• NSA collected US email records in bulk for more than two years under Obama.

Read and see the full story here.

Judicial Watch Obtains Records Detailing Obama Admin’s Warrantless Collection of Citizens’ Personal Financial Data.

Judicial Watch Obtains Records Detailing Obama Admin’s Warrantless Collection of Citizens’ Personal Financial Data.HT: JudicialWatch.

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that it has obtained records from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) revealing that the agency has spent millions of dollars for the warrantless collection and analysis of Americans’ financial transactions. The documents also reveal that CFPB contractors may be required to share the information with “additional government entities.”
The records were obtained pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed on April 24, 2013, following the April 23 Senate Banking Committee testimony of CFPB Director Richard Cordray. The documents uncovered by Judicial Watch include:

• Overlapping contracts with multiple credit reporting agencies and accounting firms to gather, store, and share credit card data as shown in the task list of a contract with Argus Information & Advisory Services LLC worth $2.9 million
  • Deloitte Consulting: solicitation issue date 11/30/2011, award effective date 05/29/2012;
  • Argus: solicitation issue date 02/14/2012, award effective date 03/15/2012;
  • Experian: solicitation issue date: 07/03/2012, award effective date: 09/24/2012

• An “indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity” contract with Experian worth up to $8,426,650 to track daily consumer habits of select individuals without their awareness or consent

• $4,951,333 for software and instruction paid to Deloitte Consulting LLP (

• A provision stipulating that “The contractor recognizes that, in performing this requirement, the Contractor may obtain access to non-public, confidential information, Personally Identifiable Information (PII), or proprietary information.”

• A stipulation that “The Contractor may be required to share credit card data collected from the Banks with additional government entities as directed by the Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR).”

The CFPB data collection program has been highly controversial since the April 2013 hearing, when Cordray disclosed elements of the venture at a Senate Banking Committee hearing. At the time, the US Chamber of Commerce accused the CFPB of breaking the law by demanding the account-level data without a warrant or National Security Letter.
“The Obama administration’s warrantless collection of the private financial information of millions of Americans is mind-blowing.  Is there anything that this administration thinks it can’t do?” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.
“These documents show that the Consumer Financial Protection Board is an out-of-control government agency that threatens the fundamental privacy and financial security of Americans. This is every bit as serious as the controversy over the NSA’s activities.”

Is the Government Spying On You Through Your Own Computer’s Webcam Or Microphone?

Is the Government Spying On You Through Your Own Computer’s Webcam Or Microphone?HT: Washington's Blog

Government – Or Private Individuals – May Be Watching and Listening. We documented earlier today that -  if you are near your smart phone – the NSA or private parties could remotely activate your microphone and camera and spy on you.

This post shows that the same is true for our computer.

Initially, the NSA built backdoors into the world’s most popular software program – Microsoft Windows – by 1999.
And a government expert told the Washington Post that the government “quite literally can watch your ideas form as you type” (confirmed).
Reuters documented last year that the U.S. and Israeli governments can remotely turn on a computer’s microphone:

Evidence suggest that the virus, dubbed Flame, may have been built on behalf of the same nation or nations that commissioned the Stuxnet worm that attacked Iran’s nuclear program in 2010 [i.e. the U.S. and Israel], according to Kaspersky Lab, the Russian cyber security software maker that took credit for discovering the infections.
Kaspersky researchers said they have yet to determine whether Flame had a specific mission like Stuxnet, and declined to say who they think built it.
Cyber security experts said the discovery publicly demonstrates what experts privy to classified information have long known: that nations have been using pieces of malicious computer code as weapons to promote their security interests for several years.
***
The virus contains about 20 times as much code as Stuxnet, which caused centrifuges to fail at the Iranian enrichment facility it attacked. It has about 100 times as much code as a typical virus designed to steal financial information, said Kaspersky Lab senior researcher Roel Schouwenberg.
Flame can gather data files, remotely change settings on computers, turn on PC microphones to record conversations, take screen shots and log instant messaging chats.
Kaspersky Lab said Flame and Stuxnet appear to infect machines by exploiting the same flaw in the Windows operating system and that both viruses employ a similar way of spreading.
***
“The scary thing for me is: if this is what they were capable of five years ago, I can only think what they are developing now,” Mohan Koo, managing director of British-based Dtex Systems cyber security company.

PC Magazine tech columnist John Dvorak writes:

From what we know the NSA has back door access into Apple, Microsoft [background], and Google. What kind of access we don’t know, but let us assume it is similar to what they did about 7 years ago to AT&T. They had a secret room at Fulsom St. in San Francisco and the AT&T engineers had no control and no access to a room full of NSA equipment that had direct access to everything AT&T could do.
Microsoft is the source of the operating system for Windows and Windows cell phones. Apple controls the OS for Macs, iPhones, and iPads. Google controls the Chrome OS, Chrome Browser, and Android cell phones. The companies regularly push operating system upgrades and security updates to users on a regular basis.
Imagine however that the NSA has access to these updates at the source and has the ability to alter these update in order to install some sort of spyware on your phone, tablet, or computer. The software could turn on your camera or microphone remotely, read all your private data, or erase everything and brick your phone or computer.

Moreover – as documented by Microsoft, Ars Technica, cnet, the Register, Sydney Morning Herald, and many other sources – private parties can turn on your computer’s microphone and camera as well.
Cracked noted in 2010:

All sorts of programs are available to let you remotely commandeer a webcam, and many of them are free. Simple versions will just take photos or videos when they detect movement, but more complex software will send you an e-mail when the computer you’ve installed the program on is in use, so you can immediately login and control the webcam without the hassle of having to stare at an empty room until the person you’re stalking shows up.

The bottom line is that – as with your phone, OnStar type system or other car microphone, Xbox, and other digital recording devices – you shouldn’t say or do anything near your computer that you don’t want shared with the world.
Postscript: You could obviously try to cover your webcam and microphone when you don’t want to use them. 
But if you really want privacy, take a lesson from spy movies: Go swimming with the person you want to speak with … since electronics can’t operate in water.

"Feind Hört Mit" - leaking is tantamount to aiding the enemies of the United States.

"Feind Hört Mit" - leaking is tantamount to aiding the enemies of the United States”HT: McClatchy.

Even before a former U.S. intelligence contractor exposed the secret collection of Americans’ phone records, the Obama administration was pressing a government-wide crackdown on security threats that requires federal employees to keep closer tabs on their co-workers and exhorts managers to punish those who fail to report their suspicions.

President Barack Obama’s unprecedented initiative, known as the Insider Threat Program, is sweeping in its reach. It has received scant public attention even though it extends beyond the U.S. national security bureaucracies to most federal departments and agencies nationwide, including the Peace Corps, the Social Security Administration and the Education and Agriculture departments. 

It emphasizes leaks of classified material, but catchall definitions of “insider threat” give agencies latitude to pursue and penalize a range of other conduct.

Government documents reviewed by McClatchy illustrate how some agencies are using that latitude to pursue unauthorized disclosures of any information, not just classified material. 

They also show how millions of federal employees and contractors must watch for “high-risk persons or behaviors” among co-workers and could face penalties, including criminal charges, for failing to report them. Leaks to the media are equated with espionage.

“Hammer this fact home . . . leaking is tantamount to aiding the enemies of the United States,” says a June 1, 2012, Defense Department strategy for the program that was obtained by McClatchy.Read the full story here.

Daniel Greenfield: OBAMA inc RENAMES FOUNDING FATHERS in ‘FOUNDING FOUNDERS’.

Daniel Greenfield: OBAMA inc RENAMES FOUNDING FATHERS in ‘FOUNDING FOUNDERS’.HT:FrontpageMag.

An unspecified time ago a bunch of Founding Founders of unknown sexual orientations and sexual identities founded a country on a non-exclusive basis in order to promote free birth control, open borders and cowboy poetry.

We are engaged now in a great civil war for transgender bathrooms, gay marines and abortions for all to test whether a nation so conceived can endure all its abortions.

The White House has today put up a link to a new government website that collates and offers key documents from the revolution and the founding era. But it appears that the administration couldn’t bring itself to say, “Founding Fathers”:

The graceful gender free replacement of choice for the factually sexist Founding Fathers was Founding Founders which like a guy named Lee Lee is hilariously redundant.

If a flock of Founding Founders founded a nation conceived in liberty how many MPH would they turn at the sight of their nation turning into Orwell’s Oceania run by the faculty of University of Wisconsin–Madison.Hmmm.......This is just another 'step' in rewriting US history according to Obama.Read the full story here.

Related: Another "OBAMINATION" - State Department Website Morphs into the World According to Obama.

House votes to delay bulk ammunition purchase by DHS .

House votes to delay bulk ammunition purchase by DHS.(The Hill).The House late Wednesday voted to stop the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from entering into new contracts to buy millions of rounds of ammunition until DHS reports to Congress on the need for the ammo, and its cost.

Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) proposed an amendment to the DHS spending bill for 2014 that would require the report to Congress before it can pursue plans to buy 1.1 billion rounds of ammunition. Meadows said the speed bump is a necessary reaction to news of the huge purchase, which alarmed many Americans and prompted conservative groups to suspect that the government was stocking up on the rounds to fight citizens.

“Given this large purchase, the American people and members of Congress rightfully had concerns and questions,” Meadows said. “This is a responsible amendment which ensures that Congress and the American people are aware of the necessity and the cost of ammunition prior to entering into new contracts for procurement.”

Rep. John Carter (R-Texas) said the amendment was unnecessary, based on his talks with DHS officials. Carter said DHS has since admitted that its ammunition needs are not as great as first reported, and said the department is pursuing a bulk purchase to keep the costs down.Read the full story here.

"I'm Not A Dictator" - 'US desperately trying to hide the truth about breaking its own Constitution'.

"I'm Not A Dictator" - 'US desperately trying to hide the truth about breaking its own Constitution'.(RT).

RT: This is obviously quite a shock to Verizon users but does this come as a surprise to you?

Afshin Rattansi: I think one can get blasé about the fact that the United States is repeatedly breaking its own Constitution. Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who broke it, I don’t know whether he’s on Verizon. He’s leaked this – this is the FBI document. To Americans, what it says: “It is further ordered that no person should disclose to any other person that the FBI or the National Security Agency has sought to obtain tangible things under this order.” So the order itself is trying to deny itself, signed by Judge Roger Vincent. Who is he? I don’t know, maybe the sunshine in Florida has got to his head or he’s a Tea Party judge.
It’s very interesting and I think the way it’s going to play in the United States, it will play quite big. Former vice president Al Gore, under Bill Clinton, who hardly ever says anything against Obama, has already tweaked him saying “Is this really the state of things?” Implying is this what James Madison and Thomas Paine, meant for the US Constitution? Is this leading up to President Obama signing an order? It was signed ten days after the Boston Marathon bombings.

RT: What about the man who leaked this? Are we looking at another Bradley Manning case now?

AR: I was looking at Roger Vincent, the man who signed this document, and his term expires as judge of the United States Foreign Intelligence Court. FISA, those secret courts in the United States. They expire, as far as I saw, on May 4 of this year. Could he be leaking it? One wonders, certainly he’ll be in the spotlight now. But of course more seriously, as to your question, Glenn Greenwald, presumably, his phone will be bugged. Journalists will be bugged and that is going to stop these sources from leaking. The United States and the Obama administration is desperately trying to stop the truth about mismanagement, Constitutional mismanagement, getting through to the American public.

RT: Of course the US government has admitted this after this report went public. It does make you wonder what else is going on behind the scenes, doesn’t it?

AR: Exactly and I think that hopefully all the whistleblowers, people that leak documents like this, will be unafraid but the Obama administration has charged people with the Espionage Act of 1917 more times than any other and it will be great to see whether they charge the journalist that leaked this Glenn Greenwald, presumably. President Obama won’t be happy with the fact that he’s being revealed as being worse than McCarthy?

RT: The US government will say this is a necessary tool to protect the people and national security. Is it not, then, a case of people sacrificing their privacy in order to make the world safer. It’s as simple as that isn’t it?

AR: Those are the exact words used by the Obama administration in response. I think the odd thing about this court document is that foreign calls made from the United States weren’t liable to the same record keeping for the National Security Agency and the FBI. Presumably they’re talking about home-grown terrorists here because even under what you’re saying “We need to monitor people’s phone conversations, times of calls, and monitor where people are.” Surely, you know, isn’t the War on Terror abroad? So basically if you’re phoning someone in Chechnya your call wouldn’t be registered under this law. The whole thing is a piece of incompetence dreamt up by people who obviously have no respect for the Constitution.

RT: Some will say that sounds like an overreaction. It’s only data that registers the telephone numbers, the time of the call, also various other significant statistics but not actually the content of the conversation. So if you and I are being modest and saying we’ve got nothing to hide then why should we worry about this?

AR: If it’s not that valuable then why do they want it? If one was going to make that argument then the government should release all these records. One can only just imagine what journalists would do trolling through all these records. Imagine the kinds of connections between lobbyists mobile phones and those of senators and congressmen. One could draw huge amounts of conclusions about billions, trillions of dollars and federal policy. There are no limits to what one could deduce or infer, at least related to these mobile and cell phone records.

RT: Do you think this type of thing is going on in the United Kingdom?

AR: In Britain we have stricter laws, as far as I understand. But Britain bans books. Britain recently banned a book about Scientology and in fact someone just had a sting about corrupt British politicians and the first thing David Cameron did was not to look at the problem of lobbying but to stop journalists from being able to be able to create fake lobbying companies to “entrap” Britain’s lawmakers. So Britain is desperately trying to cover up as much as they can, just as much as our cousins over the pond.

RT: Should we be concerned? Do you think that prying eyes will now turn to email and Internet traffic on personal computers or are we actually naïve in thinking that’s not already happening?

AR: President Obama just appointed Susan Rice as National Security advisor, widely considered a terrorist in many developing nations I’ve been to. 
You add up Obama’s program, this piece of appalling legislation and court order, to the people he’s putting together and this is a very dangerous administration. Desperately trying to cover up whistle blowers, assassinating people, I think people who saw the Nixon era and the Reagan death squad era – all of those people and contemporaries of that period – are saying that things have never been this bad.

RT: Politically, the Associated Press scandal was very embarrassing for Obama. What about this? What does it do for his political standing? 

AR: The thing about the Democratic Party, the big base of party is that they always vote Democrat. Especially with the split of the Republican Right with the Tea Party, President Obama doesn’t really seem to have to care about the standing he might have. Obviously he’s not seeking re-election but President Obama is a former Constitutional law professor. He’ll go down in history, presumably, as one of the most unconstitutional presidents in US history.

Hmmmmm......."Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty". ~ Plato.

Video - DeMint on Fox News: “Obamacare Puts the IRS on Steroids”

Video - DeMint on Fox News: “Obamacare Puts the IRS on Steroids”HT: Heritage.

Heritage Foundation President Jim DeMint appeared on Fox News’ “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren” tonight to warn about the new powers granted to the IRS as a result of Obamacare. “Obamacare puts the IRS on steroids,” DeMint said. “It opens the door for the IRS to come into all of our lives.” DeMint noted that more than 2,000 new IRS employees are charged with implementing President Obama’s health care law. They will be closely examining the incomes of Americans as well as business operations.

The many federal bureaucrats working on Obamacare implementation within the IRS stand at the center of an intricate web of government and regulation that will ensnare all Americans in its grasp.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) last year released a report with a chart showing all the bureaucratic offices and divisions within the IRS charged with carrying out Obamacare. Nowhere in the chart do the words doctor or patient appear—as clear a sign as any that Obamacare is not about health care; it’s about government power. 
And heading up this entire effort has been Sarah Hall Ingram, the same official previously in charge of the IRS unit that subjected conservative groups to additional scrutiny for their political beliefs.
The GAO made clear the extent of the IRS’s involvement with Obamacare:

The Internal Revenue Services’ implementation of [Obamacare] is a massive undertaking that involves 47 separate statutory provisions and extensive coordination across not only IRS, but multiple agencies and external partners. For example, IRS must coordinate with other federal agencies and states in providing assistance to qualifying individuals for health insurance premiums.

Read ad see the full story here.

'From Russia With Love' Obama and Putin’s Secret Correspondence.

'From Russia With Love' Obama and Putin’s Secret Correspondence.HT: TrevorLoudon.

This is very dangerous stuff folks. America’s pro-Moscow communist affiliated President Obama, doing secret deals with Russia’s KGB President Putin.


Which country do you think is going to get screwed out of this?

From Russia Today:

US President Barack Obama has received a personal response to his letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin: Moscow and Washington must work to overcome antagonism and deal with global political issues as partners, not foes.
The response was delivered by Russian National Security Council head Nikolay Patrushev, who has been on a two-day visit to Washington, DC. Patrushev delivered the letter to White House National Security Advisor Thomas Donilon. President Obama also carved out time to join the two for a talk, National Security Council spokesperson Caitlin Hayden said.
The Russian Embassy in Washington, DC, stressed that the negotiations were conducted in a “business-like benevolent atmosphere, and were aimed at preparing further top-level contacts.” Both presidents will have their next face-to-face meeting on the sidelines of the upcoming 39th G8 summit in Northern Ireland on June 17 and 18.
If progress is made at the summit, Obama might then make a special visit to Russia ahead of the G20 summit in St. Petersburg in September. The deal between Moscow and Washington that could arise from such a visit – well before the end of the first year of Obama’s second term – would certainly give him “more flexibility,” as he told Russia’s then-President Dmitry Medvedev in March 2012, for the rest of his term.
In April, Obama sent an initial letter to Putin, delivered by Donilon during a visit to Moscow. Though never published, the letter reportedly contained a number of constructive proposals aimed at improving bilateral relations and cooperation on pressing global issues.
“Ideas covering some of the directions have new elements, which our country will study carefully and respond to accordingly,” Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov said, referring to the letter’s contents.
A day later, Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov outlined key elements of Putin’s letter. According to Ushakov, Putin’s reply covered most of the burning issues in Russia-US bilateral relations, including missile defense, the civil war in Syria, Iran’s nuclear program, North Korea, and other topics.
Ushakov stressed that Russia’s position on missile defense generally does not converge with US plans to deploy the systems globally. “Of course, we give our assessment of the situation with the US plans for missile defense, and our estimates in many ways disagree with the American vision of this problem,” Ushakov told reporters.
While in Washington, Patrushev also met with US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Deputy Secretary of State William Burns, reportedly to discuss military cooperation and bilateral relations.

More on the Obama/Putin letter exchanges.

Hmmmm.......America’s worst ever President, a man with extensive pro-Moscow communist connections, doing secret deals involving U.S. national security with a life long KGB operative.Right in front of our noses folks.Read the full story here.

Timothy Geithner Is Key To IRS Scandal.

Timothy Geithner Is Key To IRS Scandal.HT: TestosteronPit.By Chris Street.

Acting IRS Commissioner Steven T. Miller was forced by to resign, predominantly due to the July 7, 2011 memorandum that I published last weekend in my report, IRS HAD ENEMIES LIST IN 2010 & 2012. The document, written on U.S. Treasury Department stationary, demanded that senior IRS management terminate attempts to have donations to selected tax-exempt groups be fully taxed as gifts.
The IRS admitted the groups examined were conservative, such as Tea Parties. The Miller memo appeared to confirm that he knowingly lied to Congress while under oath at least twice last year about predatory audits of conservative organizations. But Mr. Miller has told the press he is only resigning when his “acting assignment ends in early June.”
I was suspicious Mr. Miller’s resignation was an effort to prevent him from being required to testify again under oath on Friday to three Congressional Committees. But if Mr. Miller is staying until June, he must testify on Friday.
With the President throwing the IRS Commissioner “under the bus,” Mr. Miller may be ready to throw former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and President Obama under the bus.

Steven T. Miller is a career civil servant at the IRS. He holds a Juris Doctorate law degree from George Washington University and a Master of Laws in taxation from Georgetown University. He has held several senior positions at the IRS and worked for a number of years as an attorney in the IRS Chief Counsel’s office. He also served as a Congressional staff member for the Joint Committee on Taxation. Holding prestigious law degrees and having given harsh warnings to senior IRS staff in 2011 to ban predatory examinations, it is doubtful Mr. Miller would have authorized continued examinations unless ordered to by his direct boss, former IRA Commissioner Douglas H Shulman.
Douglas H. Shulman was nominated by Republican President George W. Bush  and confirmed by the Senate as IRS Commissioner on Friday March 14, 2008 at the youthful age of 41. Mr. Shulman formerly served as the Vice Chairman of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), at an even more youthful age, where he made a name for himself working closely with New York Federal Reserve Bank President Timothy Geithner, pioneering over-the-counter trading of derivatives by banks. As IRS Commissioner, he reported directly to Timothy Geithner as U.S. Treasury Secretary.
Over the next four days after his confirmation, the legendary Bear Stearns Brokerage firm collapsed, heralding the beginning the worst recession since the Great Depression. The U.S. Federal Reserve was required to take responsibility for $29 billion in toxic sub-prime assets from Bear Stearns' portfolio. As the FINRA whiz-kid he was the regulatory architect that championed banks and brokerage firms’ taking on sub-prime asset leverage. Douglas Shulman again showed incredible timing for avoiding horrific personal blame for scandal by resigning on November 9, 2012, a day after the reelection of President Barack Obama.
By the time Barack Obama came into office in January of 2009, real estate was collapsing, the stock market was down by 40% and unemployment was about to vault to over 10%. President Obama summed up his opinions of leveraged banks on CBS's “60 Minutes” stated: “I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat cat bankers on Wall Street.” Mr. Obama went on to say: “They're still puzzled why it is that people are mad at the banks. Well, let's see. You guys are drawing down $10, $20 million bonuses after America went through the worst economic year that it's gone through in—in decades, and you guys caused the problem. And we've got 10% unemployment.”
It was always baffling to me that IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman had managed to convince the President to not demand his resignation as punishment for his dubious leadership at FINRA that contributed to the financial crisis. As IRS Commissioner, Mr. Shulman must have received a copy of Deputy Commissioner for Services and Enforcement Steven T. Miller's memo of July 7, 2011 that screamed the audits and examinations had: “significant legal, administrative and policy implications with respect to which we have little enforcement history.” It is documented President Franklin Roosevelt used the IRS to investigate and intimidate his political enemies, so IRS Commissioner Shulman must have known that Mr. Miller was concerned the retaliation against conservative groups exceeded FDR’s using the IRS against political enemies.
The IRS continues to mislead the public, as Fox News reported that at least 471 tax-exempt organizations, not the 300 admitted to by the IRS, were examined with “extra scrutiny.” 
Then Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner must have received a copy of the 2011 Miller memo, because it was written on Department of Treasury stationary and Shulman and Miller reported to him.

 Therefore, to find out if the IRS has been running a massive enemies list for the White House, Congress must demand that Timothy Geithner testify under oath.

Harry Truman said that he took personal responsibility for the actions of his Administration’s by saying: “Buck stops here.” Barack Obama said at his Benghazi press conference “there is no there, there.” The question the American people want to know about any illegal use of the IRS for political purposes, “Is there any here, here?” By Chriss Street.
During their second term, Presidents not only get tangled up in scandals but also become obsessed with “legacy.” This includes their performance as measured by the stock market. Many people can relate to it. Retirement depends on it. Outside of a few shorts, everyone wants it to go up. But President Obama must be biting his fingernails down to the quick.Read the full story here.

Video - (D) Maxine Waters: ‘Obama Has Put In Place’ Secret Database With ‘Everything On Everyone’

Video - (D) Maxine Waters: ‘Obama Has Put In Place’ Secret Database With ‘Everything On Everyone’.

“The President has put in place an organization with the kind of database that no one has ever seen before in life,” Representative Maxine Waters told Roland Martin on Monday. “That’s going to be very, very powerful,” Waters said. “That database will have information about everything on every individual on ways that it’s never been done before and whoever runs for President on the Democratic ticket has to deal with that. They’re going to go down with that database and the concerns of those people because they can’t get around it. And he’s [President Obama] been very smart. It’s very powerful what he’s leaving in place.”

Maxine Waters is the U.S. Representative for California’s 43rd congressional district, and previously the 35th and 29th districts, serving since 1991. She is a member of the Democratic Party.