Thursday, February 27, 2014

Jan Brewer Vetoes Arizona Anti-Gay Bill

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Jan Brewer, Governor of Arizona, announced that she has vetoed bill #SB1062 which would ostensibly give business owners the right to turn away anyone based on their sexual orientation (or whatever) for religious reasons.



"Reality Trumps Prejudice"
~ Former Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass, 
on Up with Steve Kornacki




Some Folks Are Ecstatic!











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But is Brewer just a pathetic Moneygrubber?









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The Right Wingers - "Jan, You Gutless PC RINO!"


































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Monday, February 24, 2014

Ragnarok ~ Another Apocalypse Fail for Doomsayers

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From the Daily Mail UK
Danielle Daglan from the Norvik Viking Centre told MailOnline that a number of recent events spoken about in the legends of Ragnarok led them to believe that the end of the world may well be imminent.

. . . Viking tradition also believes that a vast winter will appear before the apocalypse.
‘There are predictions that we are heading into a mini-ice age thanks to a fall in solar flare activity - what is a mini-ice age but several winters rolled into one?’ said Ms Daglan.
Another part of the legend claims that the Midgard Serpent, named Jormungand, shall free itself from its tail and rise up from the ocean.
Ms Dagland points to the two huge fish which appeared on a beach in California last month. The giant oarfish were dead when they washed up on land, and some scientists believe they came ashore to die because they are ‘in distress’.
‘Traditionally, the Viking festival of Jolablot marked the end of the winter - if this winter truly does not end, then that feast may be given over to Ragnarok instead,’ said Ms Dagland. The Jorvik Viking Centre predicted that Ragnarok would occur on 22 February because this is the end of the feast of Jolablot.

Of course, the world didn't end on Saturday. Odin didn't fall, if he ever existed at all. No one ate the sun or the moon. No gods took to the battlefield. We are still faced with all the bad things we were faced with on Friday, situations in which Ukrainians took to fighting instead of Viking gods, and Comcast threatened to eat the Internet instead of celestial bodies. Russia, Uganda and Arizona all still seemed determined to help along some kind of new Holocaust.
~ John Seven, Berkshire Eagle

Heck, Nostradamus, the Mayans, the late Harold Camping, Orson Wells, and even prognosticators of Y2K were all wrong about doomsday.
In short, Ragnarok is merely tongue-in-cheek and a reason for those who celebrate the legend to raise their mugs to. Whether a "Thor 3" includes an Armageddon scenario is anyone's guess. Until then, stock up on water, iodine, and plywood from Home Depot.
While the Norse Vikings won't be running amok and raiding monasteries, on Ragnarok Day 2014, the next best thing to do is stampede the local bars and taverns before a nearby star goes supernova.
~ Bruce Baker in The Examiner

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#Walkergate Email Dump in Wisconsin

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Previous Related Posts:
Grinchy Scott Walker: Don't Buy Your Kids Toys, Just Send Me Money
Wisconsin Judge Tosses Scott Walker's Anti-Union Law
Wisconsin Aftermath of Walker Recall Vote
Badgers Vote and the Whole World Watches

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ever since a recall election failed to toss Governor Scott Walker from office in Wisconsin, there have been persistent rumors of wrongdoing on the part of his staff, and many have been tried and convicted. And now that the Chris Christie offenses are mounting up, prosecutors in Wisconsin seem to be zeroing in on Scott Walker once more. Like Christie, Walker downplays the scandal in hopes he might be a viable GOP candidate for President in 2016. But with baggage like this, his chances are shrinking daily, right along with Christie's.

Walkergate Commercial


A few weeks ago, a staffer named Kelly Rindfleisch was back in court appealing her charges when a Judge decided that her emails should be released to the public - probably not the outcome Rindfleisch was hoping for. She has become Walker's scapegoat in much the same way that Bridget Kelly, David Wildstein and others are falling under suspicion for being close to Chris Christie.

From Milwaukee Journal-Sentinal
Court of Appeals Judge Patricia Curley ruled last week that thousands of records in the appeal of Kelly Rindfleisch should be available in the court file of her misconduct in office case, even though the documents have long been sealed as part of a secret investigation of former Walker aides.
. . . (Judge) Curley wrote records collected as part of a criminal investigation are routinely included in court files and that court records are to be available to the public except in unusual circumstances.

Rindfleisch, who served as Walker's deputy chief of staff when Walker was Milwaukee County executive, is one of six people convicted as the result of a John Doe investigation led by Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm. John Doe proceedings are often conducted in secret and give prosecutors the power to compel people to produce documents and testify.
The records in question include emails from Rindfleisch's personal computer and private email account, affidavits supporting John Doe search warrants, and a transcript of a secret hearing on search warrants issued the day before Walker was elected governor in 2010.
Likely included in the emails are messages exchanged with Walker or his top political aides as he ran his 2010 campaign for governor.

Although Rindfleisch sat just 25 feet from Walker’s office, was one of his top staffers and was illegally raising funds for Davis while on county time, the governor himself was not charged and the investigation was closed in early 2013. It resulted in the convictions of five former aides and associates and one contributor to Walker’s gubernatorial campaign.
According to prosecutors, there were at least 3,486 emails between Rindfleisch and members of Walker’s 2010 gubernatorial campaign. Most were sent and received during normal business hours while Rindfleisch was at her $59,560-a-year county job.
~ Wisconsin State Journal

Some of the emails uncovered in the investigation are just downright nasty:

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From Time.com
Six former Walker aides and allies have been convicted of wrongdoing following an investigation into improper campaign activities by official staff when Walker was Milwaukee County executive mounting a campaign for the governor’s mansion. The release last week of tens of thousands of pages of documents from that first investigation was branded as “old news” by Walker, who noted repeatedly that a Democratic prosecutor had closed the investigation last year without any accusation that he had done anything improper. ”People want to go through 27,000 pages plus of details, and our approach is ‘case is closed,’” Walker said. “A Democrat district attorney looked at it, and he’s done. It’s done.”

To put it mildly, this is a BFD. For once, we have proof that Scott Walker encouraged government workers to campaign for him while on government time, which is illegal in Wisconsin. Scott Walker has been dishonest about the allegations of corruption surrounding him from the outset, and we finally have indisputable proof that Walker encouraged illegal campaigning.
~ The Prairie Badger



In one message, Walker aide Cindy Archer wrote to deputy chief of staff Kelly Rindfleisch that she used a private email account to communicate with Walker and his chief of staff, Tom Nardelli.
“Consider yourself now in the ‘inner circle’ :) I use this private account quite a bit to communicate with SKW and Nardelli,” Archer wrote, referring to Walker’s initials. “You should be sure you check it throughout the day.”
~ Wisconsin State Journal

From Milwaukee Journal-Sentinal
Tapping out a message on his campaign Blackberry on the afternoon of May 4, 2010, Walker urged county aides, campaign staffers and other trusted volunteers to go to an online Journal Sentinel business story and respond to critics of his plan to privatize the airport in the comments section below the story.
"Someone should comment on the fact that the only way for the county to benefit from that success is to contract out operations," Walker wrote in an email. "Having a well performing airport increases the value that the county could receive."
A half-hour later, Brian Pierick — the boyfriend of Walker aide Timothy D. Russell — posted a comment on the story under the alias "WI_Calvin," calling rising airport traffic "another example of Scott Walker's outstanding leadership."
. . . Pierick and Russell were both later convicted of other activities in the secret probe.
Walker's airport directive came a little more than a week before he ousted county aide Darlene Wink after the Journal Sentinel reported she had been spending much of her government work hours posting anonymous political comments promoting Walker on the JS Online website.

Walker Evades Questions on Fox News, Via aattp.org
Question: if county workers were doing nothing wrong, why should they be using a private e-mail account?

WALKER: Well, but that’s exactly to my point. you had a Democratic district attorney spend almost three years looking at every single one of those communications, interviewing people, talking to people and closed the case.

WALLACE: Did you have your own private e-mail account?

WALKER: It’s one of those where I point out district attorney has reviewed every single one of these issues.

WALLACE: But sir, you’re not answering my question.

WALKER: No, because I’m not going to get into 27,000 different pieces of information.





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Thursday, February 20, 2014

Port Authority Under Scrutiny in #Bridgegate



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New York/New Jersey Port Authority Executive Director Patrick Foye is one of the few heroes emerging from the #Bridgegate scandal. He's the guy who got fed up with excuses coming from the Christie Administration and did the right thing for by opening up the three closed lanes leading to Fort Lee on the George Washington Bridge. Yesterday was the first time the Port Authority has met for a public meeting since all of this hit the fan.

Previous Related Posts:
New Christie Cronies Chip and Jeff
David Wildstein Implicates Christie in Bridgegate Scandal
Christie Faces Bad Karma for Dissing Wildstein
Chris Christie Has Tumultuous Super Bowl Weekend

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From the Press Conference with the Port Authority Executive Director

Pat Foye: I believe I took the right action when I learned about the lane closures, promptly opened them. I stand by my email and my decision. I believed then and I believe now - and given the multiplicity of law enforcement investigations underway there's some question - that there was a question of violations of federal and state law.

Question: Has the Chairman (of the Port Authority, David Samson) ever apologized to you for his emails or whatever attacking you?

Foye: The answer is no, don't expect one.

~~~

About that "special" job created by Chris Christie just for David Wildstein, which has now been eliminated by the Port Authority:


Steve Kornacki: The title that David Wildstein had created for him - Director of Interstate Capital Projects - what was your understand of what his job was? And now apparently that role isn't going to exist in the future, so functionally how will the Port continue without a Director of Interstate Capital Projects?

Pat Foye: Well, look - the decision to eliminate the position was a joint one....we made that decision. I think it was the right one. The absence of someone in that position, whether David Wildstein or someone else, will have zero, nada effect on the Port Authority.

Kornacki: What was his (Wildstein's) job, since there was no formal job description that we have been able to find? What in your understanding did you think his job at the Port Authority was?

Pat Foye: I understood he was primarily interested in politics. Next . . . 





On behalf of the board of commissioners, we are deeply sorry for the inconvenience caused to our travelers.
. . . Recently, there have been many comments and concerns about how the Port Authority operates. I cannot allow this agency to be mischaracterized by the actions of a few individuals when the day-to-day work of so many, including this board, is so important.
. . . While I would like to comment more specifically about some of the outstanding issues, I recognize there are established efforts to examine the events that occurred. I defer to these procedures and I trust when the facts unfold, and they will unfold, the public will have a complete picture.
~ Port Authority Chairman, David Samson, via the Star-Ledger

While Samson's law firm worked for NJ Transit, he cast a vote authorizing the Port Authority to lease a park-and-ride lot in North Bergen to the transportation agency for $1 a year, the report said.
. . . Before the 49-year lease was approved, NJ Transit paid the Port Authority $900,000 a year for the Hudson County lot. Commuters pay $9.50 per day for a parking space and a round-trip bus ticket to the Port Authority bus terminal in Manhattan.
NJ Transit paid Wolf & Samson as much as $1.5 million to "advise" it how to generate additional revenue from its parking facilities, the Record reported.
~ From NJ.com

Over the years, the Port Authority has often served as a political candy jar, providing patronage jobs for political allies. Mr. Christie has been particularly skillful at doling out well-paid jobs at the authority to his supporters. By most counts, there are at least 50 agency employees who owe their jobs to the New Jersey governor.
The traffic scandal that has resulted in numerous investigations and two resignations of Christie appointees is just the latest example of how governance of the Port Authority is tainted by personal politics. And because two states share executive control, and thus responsibility, there is no meaningful oversight.
~ New York Times Editorial

(State Attorney Philip) Kwon, it has been reported, spent four or five days counseling one of Bridgegate’s chief players, Bill Baroni, the Port Authority’s deputy executive director, when Baroni was preparing to testify before a New Jersey state legislative committee investigating the lane-closing affair last November. That’s important because Baroni, a close ally of Christie’s, told the legislators that the closings were due to a “traffic study” being conducted by the Port Authority, which manages the bridge. But if there was no traffic study—and by now it’s widely known that there wasn’t any such thing—then what did Kwon tell Baroni to say? Did he counsel him to lie? Was he unaware that there was no study underway?
~ From "Christie Watch" on The Nation
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Tuesday, February 18, 2014

New Christie Cronies Chip and Jeff

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Previous Related Posts:
Christie's Well-Named Minion Bridget Kelly
Christie Faces Bad Karma for Dissing Wildstein
Chris Christie Has Tumultuous Super Bowl Weekend
David Wildstein Implicates Christie in #Bridgegate Scandal

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So now more cronies have emerged in the never-ending Bridgegate Brouhaha. A high school buddy of Governor Christie was the policeman who helped Port Authority insider David Wildstein tour the bridge after the lanes were closed. And that same cop just happens to be the brother of a wealthy Republican donor who supported Christie's election campaigns. Also there are reports that it was the Port Authority Police who told angry drivers to call the mayor of Fort Lee and complain, as though it was part of a rehearsed plot.

Via Dartagnan on Daily Kos
The "Port Authority Police Officer," Lietenant Thomas "Chip" Michaels, was Christie's childhood buddy, coach of Christie's son's Little League hockey team and his brother Jeff Michaels is (or was) a top Christie donor and one of the most powerful Republicans in the state. Jeff Michaels purportedly delivered the news to Christie that he had won the election of 2009.
Essentially the guy was assigned to monitor the bridge, texting Wildstein at the Port Authority over and over, apparently about how "the plan" was going. According to MSNBC, he took Wildstein for a drive around the area so Wildstein could see for himself.

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From Steve Kornacki on MSNBC
On Sunday, MSNBC’s Steve Kornacki reported that a Port Authority police officer with long-time ties to Gov. Christie drove and exchanged text messages with one of the political appointees, David Wildstein, as he was overseeing the traffic snarl last September. Port Authority police Lt. Thomas “Chip” Michaels grew up with Christie in Livingston, N.J., and in recent years coached one of the governor’s children in youth hockey. Michaels is posted to the PAPD’s George Washington Bridge command. Michaels’ brother, Jeffrey, is a powerful Republican lobbyist in Trenton who was a high-level adviser to Christie’s successful 2009 campaign.

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Port Authority executive director Pat Foye, appointed by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, ordered the latest investigation after learning of the connection between Michaels and Christie. Foye was also concerned by a Bergen Record report Sunday on comments Port Authority police officers made to those stuck in the traffic jams. Multiple commuters recalled being told to call Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich to complain, something Sokolich wrote about in a September 12 letter to then-deputy director Bill Baroni, another Christie appointee who has since resigned.

The Governor has never had any conversations with either Jeff or Chip Michaels on this topic.
~ Email from Chris Christie's Office to MSNBC












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Thursday, February 13, 2014

Mitch McConnell Forced by Tea Party to Vote For Debt Limit

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The House quietly voted to raise the debt limit this week and it signals that at least some of the right-wing extremists realize they need to avoid more lose-lose situations no matter what their die-hard convictions. Creating false emergencies over the economy of the United States and watching the Stock Market fall isn't a good idea in an election year. But apparently Senator Ted Cruz didn't get the memo, and immediately vowed to filibuster the whole thing again. His rabble-rousing in the Senate created drama yesterday when suddenly there weren't enough votes to pass what should have been a no-brainer vote to raise the debt limit.

In the end, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was pushed by his own right-wing contingency to vote "Aye" on the Debt Limit bill, creating a no-win situation for him. This year he is facing not only a Tea Party opponent in the Kentucky Republican Primary, but also a really strong threat in Alison Lundergan Grimes, his Democratic adversary. He has to appeal to the independents in order to save his bacon, but the Tea Party doesn't care about that - they see him as a RINO (Republican in Name Only) because very occasionally he shows signs of sanity. So of course they jumped on him when this vote came down.

According to this video paid for by Jim DeMint's Heritage Foundation, all this bipartisanship just shows that McConnell is a damned librul' BULLY, just like the IRS and Obama. How dare he expect that Senate Conservatives would ever vote for something that might help the country!











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From the New Yorker
There was a rare outbreak of sanity in the Grand Old Party on Tuesday, when Speaker John Boehner and a group of his allies joined with the Democrats to approve a raise in the debt ceiling without any preconditions, thereby avoiding the risk of the United States defaulting on its financial obligations. Never fear, though: the outbreak has been contained, and there doesn’t seem to be any danger of contagion.
By Wednesday morning, Senator Ted Cruz, the Texan firebrand, appeared to threaten to filibuster a Senate vote on the debt ceiling, and the Tea Partiers, gold bugs, Randians, birthers, anti-government bootboys, and other assorted wing nuts that make up a big part of the party’s base were happily ranting on about Boehner’s perfidy. If there’s one thing your typical Republican activist likes more than berating President Obama and the Democrats it’s attacking traitors and yellowbellies in his (or her) own ranks, and, once again, the long-suffering Speaker of the House is the primary target.

From WSJ
The drama came as the Senate began consideration of a suspension of the federal borrowing limit. The tension was not on the debt-ceiling vote itself, but on a procedural move that requires 60 senators to vote yes. That meant the chamber’s 55 Democrats needed five Republicans to move forward.
But who would the five Republicans be?
That question was apparently not answered in advance, and it ended up being settled out in the open, on the Senate floor.
. . . Before long, the doors to the Republican cloakroom swung open and a phalanx of Republicans marched down the aisle to the well of the Senate to switch their votes to Yes, including Sens. John Thune of South Dakota, John McCain of Arizona, Jeff Flake of Arizona and Orrin Hatch of Utah.
The tally hit 67. Mr. McConnell shook hands with Ms. Murkowski. Mr. Hatch hugged Sen. Susan Collins (R., Maine), who had also voted “yes.” Relief spread as the risk of a market-rattling defeat of the bill lifted.

~~~~~~~~~~~

It should have been a very easy vote. In my view every Senate Republican should have stood together and said what every single one of us tells our constituents back home, which is that we will not go along with raising the debt ceiling while doing nothing to fix the underlying out of control spending problem.
~ Senator Ted Cruz R-Texas

Kentucky and America can literally no longer afford such financially reckless behavior from the likes of Mitch McConnell.
~ Matt Bevin, McConnell's GOP opponent in Kentucky Senate race

GOP Tea Party Anger Directed at Mitch:















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Friday, February 7, 2014

Russian Laugh Olympics ~ #SochiProblems

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The design of the opening ceremony in Sochi looks magnificent, but even that was beset by a few, um, problems. #SochiProblems - such as the fifth Olympic Ring being replaced by a snowflake. At least that was more whimsical than the bad hotels where the journalists are staying, which prompted the #SochiProblems hashtag in the first place. Others might say the spoiled Western mainstream media is making a big deal out of a few inconveniences. Still - pretty funny.



















































Then there's the water . . . ick . . .







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Bob Costas of NBC seemed to have caught Pink Eye from Sochi Water

























And Epic Hotel Problems:














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Define Spy for Us ~ Greenwald and the Snowden Secrets

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Previous Related Posts:
Snowden Finally Leaves Russian Airport
Snowden Supporters Applaud His Empty Chair in Berlin
Greenwald Poutrage: Reuters is a Pro-U.S. Government Activist Ring
Miranda Was Carrying Passwords When Stopped in the U.K.
Was Miranda a Mule or a Journalist?
U.K. Detains Greenwald's Partner, Twitter Wars Erupt
Greenwald Threatens to Spill U.K. Secrets

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Olympics have begun in Sochi, Russia, but that won't stop the Snowden controversy juggernaut that keeps rolling on both sides of the Atlantic. Is he a traitorous spy putting the U.S. in danger or a hero saving the First Amendment? Is he a Russian Puppet or a pawn of over-zealous journalists who hate the U.S.? Suffice it to say, Edward Snowden still remains a mystery even to the government that used to employ him.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said a week ago that Snowden’s activities have placed the lives of intelligence officers and assets at risk. Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine, said if one were to stack the documents stolen by Snowden it would be three miles high. On Wednesday, Rep. Mac Thornberry, the Texas Republican who is next in line to be the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said the damage done by Snowden “will certainly cost billions to repair.”
~ The Daily Beast

For personal gain, (Greenwald is) now selling his access to information, that’s how they’re terming it…. A thief selling stolen material is a thief
. . . If I’m a newspaper reporter for fill-in-the-blank and I sell stolen material, is that legal because I’m a newspaper reporter?
~ House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) talking about journalist and possible Snowden accomplice Glenn Greenwald

If you’re a newspaper reporter and you’re hawking stolen jewelry, it’s still a crime.
. . . It’s an issue that can be complicated if it involves a news-gathering or a news promulgation function.
~ FBI Director James Comey, in reply to Mike Rogers

I’m going to go back to the U.S. for many reasons, but just the f***ing principle is enough … On principle I’m going to force the issue
~ Glenn Greenwald, via Brian Beutler on Salon.com







The Public will never know the full cost, and therefore will never be able to truly understand the damage Snowden did. A true 'Patriot,' which he claims to be, would have given the documents to Congress and stayed in the U.S. to face the consequences. He's a coward.
~ A National Security "Insider" quoted anonymously on National Journal

A new website led by investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald will launch next week with a focus on the remaining treasure trove of leaked documents from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.
. . . Journalists Laura Poitras and Jeremy Scahill will work with Greenwald on the publication, which has also added Peter Maass as senior staff writer, Marcy Wheeler as senior policy analyst and Ryan Gallagher as a reporter.
"First Look will uphold the rights of journalists everywhere to report on the sensitive and often controversial information that they learn from sources. We are launching the new site as a public service, committed to reporting on one of the most pressing issues of our time in a transparent and responsible manner," Omidyar and former Rolling Stone editor Eric Bates wrote in the blog post.
~ Mashable

Like It or Not, Glenn Greenwald Is Now the Face of the 1st Amendment
One reason to stand up for Greenwald is that there is no evidence suggesting that he's acted as anything other than a journalist on the Snowden story. Another reason to defend Greenwald is that whatever one thinks of him personally, or his politics, or his attacks on various mainstream-media figures over the years, prosecuting him as a criminal would set a precedent affecting all journalists.
~ The Atlantic

Snowden has abdicated moral responsibility by handing off much of what he stole to Laura Poitras, a freelance journalist, and Glenn Greenwald, formerly of the Guardian, and allowing them to decide what should be published. Greenwald says encrypted copies also have been given to other parties and that, if something happens to Snowden, "all the information will be revealed and it could be [the government's] worst nightmare."
One problem with the reporting by Greenwald and Poitras has been that, in relying so heavily on the documents supplied by Snowden, it fails to provide context. From reading their stories, for example, you'd know little about official steps to minimize NSA privacy threats.
~ Ex-CIA 70's Whistleblower Frank Snepp





Greenwald is a frequent guest on Russian propaganda organ Russia Today. And Russia has provided safety for his cash cow Snowden, which Greenwald has parlayed into an entirely new media venture funded by libertarian tech billionaire Pierre Omidyar. It takes a special cognitive dissonance to be a gay man who fled the US for its stance on gay marriage to remain silent on a country where homophobia is official state policy.
. . . The fact that Greenwald can dismiss Russia's atrocious human rights record because, in his estimation, it's right in this instance of supporting Snowden should make any real journalist's hair spin. Strange bedfellows are the commonplaces of international relations. But putting lipstick on a pig doesn't make it Marilyn Monroe.
~ Liberal Librarian on The People's View

What are Snowden's prospects of exiting Moscow for a new life in western Europe? Left-leaning politicians, intellectuals and writers have called on the German government to grant him asylum. There was even a campaign to rename a Berlin street next to the US embassy "Snowden Strasse". (An artist erected a new street sign, and posted the video on Facebook.) But Germany's strategic relationship with the US is more important than the fate of one individual, at least in the probable view of Merkel, now chancellor for a third time.
So it is in Moscow that Snowden remains. Kucherena gently reminded the world that if he did try and leave, he would forfeit his asylum status. He is a guest of the Russian Federation, whether he likes it or not. And, in some sense, its captive. No one quite knows how long his exile might last. Months? Years? Decades?
~ Excerpt from "The Snowden Files" by Tony Harding, published in Guardian UK



We know that the Russians target people like Snowden. The actions he took are the sort of thing they would very much like. Now he’s in Moscow where we can’t ask him about it. If they did approach him, they would have concentrated chiefly on developing and exploiting his psychological weaknesses, massaging his ego and corroding his bonds of loyalty to his employer. Once he was fully detached psychologically from the NSA, they would have put him in touch with someone from the Wikileaks or hacker milieu. The effect from their point of view would be like a chemical reaction. No need to do anything much, just stand back and watch.
~ From an interview in InterpreterMag with Edward Lucas, author of the ebook The Snowden Operation: Inside the West’s Greatest Intelligence Disaste

Mr. Snowden's allies—the Snowdenistas, as I term them—lack the skills to keep the material safe, or redact it to limit the damage. Their claims to the contrary are not credible. Moreover, they seem oblivious to the idea that we in the West have enemies and competitors. Yet if we suffer, they gain.
. . . the damage done by Edward Snowden dwarfs the impact of Cold War traitors and defectors. Western agencies now assume that the NSA material is in the hands of Moscow and Beijing, or will get there eventually. Many worthwhile intelligence operations must be shut down or started anew: A serious spy service does not risk lives on the hopeful assumption that the other side will not exploit its blunders.
. . . Far too little attention has been paid to the political agendas of people such as the bombastic Brazil-based blogger Glenn Greenwald, the hysterical hacktivist Jacob Appelbaum and the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who cloak their extreme and muddled beliefs in the language of rights, liberties and justice. Their actions are bringing about the greatest peacetime defeat in the history of the West. That is not a noble crusade.
~ Edward Lucas writing for WSJ


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Monday, February 3, 2014

Right Wingers Pop their Lids Over Coke Superbowl Ad

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I knew when we saw this Coke commercial during the Super Bowl that Right Wing Heads were Splodin' all over the country, and Twitter proved that to be true. Americans not speaking perfect English? America the Beautiful in other languages! The horror! I want my country back!!! Some of them were so filled with hatred and apoplexy that they forgot that our National Anthem is "The Star-Spangled Banner" and not "America the Beautiful." Oops.

And American History Alert - the Spaniards were here before the British!


If we cannot be proud enough as a country to sing 'American the Beautiful' in English in a commercial during the Super Bowl, by a company as American as they come — doggone we are on the road to perdition.
~ Former Rep. Allen West

As far as the executives at Coca Cola are concerned, however, the United States of America is no longer a nation ruled by the Constitution and American traditions in which English is the language of government. It is not a nation governed in the Anglo-American tradition of liberty. It is instead a nation governed by some all inclusive multi-cultural synthesis of the various forms of government in the world, as expressed by the multiple languages used in the Super Bowl ad to sing a uniquely American hymn that celebrates our heritage.
~ Breitbart







































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