Obama, Team Struggle With Accuracy When Explaining Impact of Cuts

foxnews

President Obama and top administration officials are struggling with accuracy in explaining the impact of billions in federal budget cuts known as sequester that kicked in Saturday morning  -- even getting called out by a Capitol Hill superintendent about furloughs for support staffers.

Carlos Elias, the Capitol Building superintendent, sent out a memo Friday reminding staffers that the current sequestration plan does not include “reductions in force or furloughs” and that “pay and benefit of each of our employees will not be impacted.”

Though not directly mentioning Obama by name, Elias also said in the memo that a “high-ranking official said employees that clean and maintain the U.S. Capitol will receive a cut in pay.”

Hours before the memo was released, the president, in what appears to be the administration’s attempt to maximize the potential impact of the cuts, said at a press conference: “Starting tomorrow everybody here, all the folks who are cleaning the floors at the Capitol. Now that Congress has left, somebody’s going to be vacuuming and cleaning those floors and throwing out the garbage. They’re going to have less pay. The janitors, the security guards, they just got a pay cut, and they’ve got to figure out how to manage that. That’s real.”

The cuts were proposed by the president and agree upon by Congress in 2011 after Democrats and Republicans failed to agree on a more measured way to reduce the deficit. The $85 billion in cuts in 2013 to the Defense Department and domestic program will be more like $45 billion when pro-rated this year.

Last weekend, Education Secretary Arne Duncan told CBS “there are literally teachers now who are getting pink slips, who are getting notices that they can’t come back this fall." However, Duncan appeared to backpedaling Wednesday, coming up with just one example, a West Virginia county, and the disclaimer that “whether it’s all sequester-related, I don’t know.”

Officials in the state’s Kanawha County told The Washington Post that “transfer notices” were sent to at least 104 educators and they had more to do with how West Virginia allocates federal dollars designated for poor children.

PolitiFact, the Tampa Tribune’s fact-checking operation, has also reviewed officials’ sequester claims, concluding much has been “doomsday” and “worst-case-scenario” rhetoric.

The newspaper’s Pulitzer Prize-winning group found that Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood’s recent warning that air travel will be delayed because of Federal Aviation Administration cuts is just mostly true.

"Flights to major cities like New York, Chicago, and San Francisco and others could experience delays of up to 90 minutes during peak hours because we have fewer (air traffic) controllers on staff,” LaHood said  last week.

Thought sequester requires across-the-board cuts with no shifting of money between agency departments, there appears to be some flexibility in make the cuts, including $600 million from the FAA, experts told PolitiFact.

Rough one-third of FAA employees are controllers, so furloughs are possible. But agency Chairman Michael Huerta recently suggested cuts might start on the midnight shifts or at smaller and low-traffic facilities, which would at least in the short term spare the major airports.   

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/03/02/obama-his-team-struggling-with-accuracy-when-explaining-impact-sequester-cuts/#ixzz2MQ2GyUC8

Congressional Black Caucus Member: Obama Disrespects Blacks

AP

theblaze
Madeleine Morgenstern

Congressman Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.) accused President Barack Obama of ignoring and disrespecting black groups that were crucial to his winning re-election in November, including the Congressional Black Caucus, black newspapers and historically black colleges.

The 76-year-old lawmaker said the Congressional Black Caucus sent a number of qualified names to the White House as possible cabinet picks but was ignored. The Obama administration has been criticized, particularly in recent weeks, for a lack of diversity in key posts.

“The black caucus of Congress then sent 61 names to the White House,” Hastings told the National Newspaper Publishers Association last week. “Time went by. Not one of that 61 was selected – not one.”

Hastings said the Congressional Black Caucus also had to pressure the Obama campaign to advertise more with black newspapers. Of the $1 billion the campaign raised, just $1 million was spent on black newspapers — and that was up from the initial plan of $650,000, he said.

“If I was president of the United States, there is no way in hell that I would raise a billion dollars and don’t spend but a million dollars with people who probably had as much to do with my becoming president as anybody,” Hastings charged.

He accused Obama of not spending enough money on historically black colleges, and said it took nearly a year before he appointed a single historically black college graduate to his administration.

“It was nine months into the administration before he appointed a single person, not just at the cabinet level…none in his first nine months of his administration was from a historically black college,” Hastings said.

(h/t Weasel Zippers)

EEUU/Alan Gross/CUBA: Las premisas cubanológicas de la USAID y la ficción de la libre competencia en la blogosfera

eichikawa

abordodelottoneurath.blogspot.com

Emilio Ichikawa

Un punto de interés que aparece en la segunda página del referido documento es que tanto la USAID como la DAI asumen como premisa de su proyecto una tesis “cubanológica” específica, rastreable en sus autorías y simpatizantes; una premisa “partidista” sobre el estado actual del problema cubano. Como ni la USAID ni la DAI son instituciones formalmente dedicadas a la producción de conocimiento, quedan abiertas al menos dos posibilidades:

1-Existen en la USAID o en la DAI funcionarios con excepcional capacidad o atribuciones para producir saber; en particular para producir “saber cubanológico”.

2-La USAID o la DAI no producen saber pero han estado atentas a aquellos sujetos que sí producen conocimiento sobre Cuba y lo exponen en Congresos, radio, TV, Internet… Y a partir de aquí han elegido como más eficiente o verdadero un diagnóstico científico sobre otros acerca de la situación cubana.

¿Cuál es ese diagnóstico con que trabaja USAID y la DAI? El documento lo expone con toda claridad: “Since Raul Castro assumed power there has been marginal change in the economic sphere, but still no opening has ocurred”. Frase que se repite en español todos los días; particularmente “manifiesta” desde 2009-10 en que se popularizó el “desencanto raulista” creado por los propios “raulistas entusiastas”. Es decir, se trata de la posición cubanológica “anticastrista moderada” (o “castrista crítica”)  que reconoce que Raúl Castro ha hecho algunos cambios económicos pero todavía no la apertura política.

Esta posición “teórica” de la USAID, presuntamente la del Departamento de Estado, difiere al menos de otras dos opciones disponibles en la batería discursiva de la cubanidad:

1-La de aquellos que opinan que no hay tal reforma económica sino otra de tantas improvisaciones; por demás reversible.

2-La de aquellos que creen que la reforma económica de Raúl Castro es estructural en lo económico y óptima en lo político.

La constatación de que existen percepciones de la situación cubana diferentes a la que maneja la USAID es importante por varias razones; citemos una. Cuando en los medios de difusión del sur de Florida como Mega TV, Canal 41, Telemiami, etc., se presentan analistas políticos cuyo punto de vista coincide con lo que dice la USAID y presuntamente el Departamento de Estado: ¿Cómo explicar esa coincidencia? ¿Es un acuerdo casual, una duplicación accidental (poligenética) o es un trato convenido? La misma interrogante vale para algunos casos donde esa posición “anticastrista racional” rebasa lo personal y parece como la posición editorial de ciertos espacios de prensa y sitios en Internet.

En el documento citado la USAID recomienda explícitamente al personal enrolado formarse una idea sobre Cuba a partir de fuentes muy específicas. USAID sugiere al personal clave leer un blog llamado “Babalú”, que define como hecho por cubanoamericanos conservadores que apoyan a los programas norteamericanos relacionados con la “libertad de Cuba”.  También recomienda el sitio “Cuban Triangle” de “X Peters”, como dice el documento previamente censurado en oscuro. Pero “Cuban Triangle” no es más que el blog de “Philip Peters”, director del programa Cuba del Lexington Institute, que es tenida por una institución académica. El documento recomienda también consultar respecto a Cuba materiales de The Miami Herald y El Nuevo Herald.

Quiere esto decir que en la llamada “blogosfera cubana” muchas cosas están pre-cocinadas. Si bien existe una blogosfera que se identifica como “revolucionaria” u “oficialista”, también existe otra sostenida por instituciones y agencias del gobierno norteamericano. La libertad de competencia en el tema cubano en la red es por el momento una ficción dado el empuje monopólico de las mega fuerzas políticas reales. O un esfuerzo en el trapecio que por momentos parece conducir a la nada. En el caso del ciber exilio-emigración cubano, poco de todo esto tiene que ver en verdad con la llamada libertad de Cuba. Tiene que ver realmente (y no lo critico) con el éxito y el prestigio intelectual personal y grupal. Se trata de la competencia por lograr financiamiento para sostener proyectos periodísticos, investigativos y culturales sobre el tema de Cuba, fuera de Cuba. Y sucede que aún en ese limitado y para algunos cuestionable ámbito, la competencia no es legítima. 

Texto completo en eichikawa >>

Holder Begs Court to Stop Document Release on Fast and Furious Scandal

Vision to America News/

mypetjawa.mu.nu

Attorney General Eric Holder and his Department of Justice have >asked a federal court to indefinitely delay a lawsuit brought by watchdog group Judicial Watch. The lawsuit seeks the enforcement of open records requests relating to Operation Fast and Furious, as required by law.Judicial Watch had filed, on June 22, 2012, a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking all documents relating to Operation Fast and Furious and “specifically [a]ll records subject to the claim of executive privilege invoked by President Barack Obama on or about June 20, 2012.”

The administration has refused to comply with Judicial Watch’s FOIA request, and in mid-September the group filed a lawsuit challenging Holder’s denial. That lawsuit remains ongoing but within the past week President Barack Obama’s administration filed what’s called a “motion to stay” the suit. Such a motion is something that if granted would delay the lawsuit indefinitely.

O'Reilly on Guns and the federal government

The Muslim Brotherhood in the Obama Administration: ‘People For the American Way’ Smears Michele Bachmann

frontpagemag

By John Perazzo

Huma Abedin/ policymic.com

Last June, Rep. Michele Bachmann and four Republican colleagues sent letters to the Inspectors General at the Departments of Homeland Security, Justice, and State, asking them to investigate whether the Muslim Brotherhood—the ideological wellspring from which such terrorist outfits as al Qaeda and Hamas first emerged—might be gaining undue influence over high-level U.S. government officials. One letter, for instance, noted that Hillary Clinton‘s closest aide, her deputy chief of staff Huma Abedin, “has three family members … connected to Muslim Brotherhood operatives and/or organizations.”

A few days ago, when Bachmann was reassigned to the House Select Committee on Intelligence, the left-wing activist group, People For the American Way (PFAW)—which had originally launched an unsuccessful petition drive to have the congresswoman removed from that Committee last year—decided to revive that effort. By PFAW’s telling, some 178,000 people have signed the petition thus far.

According to PFAW president Michael Keegan, Rep. Bachmann’s warnings amount to nothing more than a “smear campaign” of “baseless conspiracy theories” designed to ruin “the reputations of honorable public servants.” PFAW spokesman Drew Courtney accuses Bachmann of engaging in “reckless extremism” aimed chiefly at “making headlines and pandering to the Tea Party.” And PFAW’s online strategy manager, Ben Betz, derides Bachmann’s “Islamaphobic fear mongering” and her “disregard for honesty.” These accusations are entirely consistent with PFAW’s previous claims that “right-wing anti-Muslim activists,” filled with “anti-Muslim paranoia,” routinely “demoniz[e]” and “vilif[y]” members of the Islamic faith in an effort to stoke Americans’ “irrational fears.” Such conservative activists, says PFAW, “sanction and encourage [the] persecution” of Muslims while aiming to “prevent” them from “freely worshiping and practicing their religion.”

These very serious allegations about a sitting Member of Congress raise a single, obvious question: Are Bachmann’s stated concerns about Huma Abedin and others associated with radical Islamic organizations unfounded or illogical in any way? The evidence suggests otherwise:

From 1996-2008, Ms. Abedin was employed as an assistant editor of a publication produced by the Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs (IMMA), a group founded and developed by her parents. As the intrepid journalist Walid Shoebat has made plain, “Muslim Minority Affairs” refers unequivocally to a calculated foreign policy of the Saudi Ministry of Religious Affairs, designed to: (a) persuade Muslims who reside in non-Muslim lands to consciously refrain from assimilating into the cultures of their host countries; (b) advance an agenda based on fundamentalist Wahhabi teachings and Sharia Law; (c) gradually shift the demographic scales by means of Muslim population growth in the host countries; and (d) eventually reach a critical mass that tilts those societies toward majority-Muslim status and membership in the Muslim commonwealth. Key to this process is the influence of Muslim Brotherhood affiliates and support groups like the Islamic Society of North America, the Muslim Students Association, and the IMMA.

But, according to PFAW, there’s nothing to see here, so don’t trouble yourself with any of this information; it’s really just an old-fashioned “smear campaign.” And, presumably, we are likewise expected to believe that only a delusional “right-wing” bigot could possibly feel even the barest shred of concern regarding other Muslim Brotherhood affiliates with similarly close ties to the Obama administration.

Arif Alikhan/ dailytarheel.com

Consider Arif Alikhan, who joined President Obama’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in 2009.  Previously, Alikhan had helped derail the Los Angeles Police Department’s efforts to monitor the activities of that city’s well-known radical mosques and madrassas (where some of the 9/11 hijackers, in fact, had received support from local residents).
 Shortly prior to his DHS appointment, Alikhan participated in a fundraiser for the Muslim Public Affairs Council, an organization founded by followers of the Muslim Brotherhood and admirers of Hezbollah. On another occasion, Alikhan spoke at a California banquet/fundraiser alongside Agha Saeed, a Cal State professor who defended Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Sami Al-Arian during the latter’s prosecution on terrorism charges. But alas, PFAW wouldn’t want any of us to wade, unwittingly, into the murky waters of “baseless conspiracy theories.”

Then there is Mohamed Elibiary, a Texas-based Islamic cleric who joined
 President Obama’s Department of Homeland Security in October 2010, even though he had previously spoken at a Dallas conference titled “A Tribute to the Great Islamic Visionary,” held in honor of none other than the late Ayatollah Khomeini. But before you jump to any conclusions about Mr. Elibiary’s ideological makeup, take a moment to unburden your mind of those pesky “irrational fears” that PFAW has painstakingly traced to the doorstep of “right-wing anti-Muslim activists.”

Mohamed Elibiary/ vimeo.com

Along the same lines, who, other than an “Islamophobic fear monger,” would have any misgivings about Rashad Hussain, who has served the Obama administration as a deputy associate counsel and a special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference, a 57-country coalition that seeks to outlaw any and all criticism of Islamic people, practices, legal codes, and governments? Sure, Hussain once spoke at a conference sponsored by a Muslim Brotherhood front group and headlined by numerous leaders of the global Brotherhood movement. And yes, he participated in a panel at an annual convention of the American Muslim Council, which was then headed by the Muslim Brotherhood leader Abdurahman Alamoudi—later convicted and incarcerated on terrorism charges.
 And true, in September 2004 Hussain took part in a Muslim Students Association event where he denounced the “politically motivated persecution” 
of the terrorist Sami Al-Arian. And yes, in 2008 he published a paper that contained a number of recommendations consistent with the agendas and worldviews of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood. But hey, nobody’s perfect.

And what are we to make of Mohamed Magid, the Virginia-based Imam who was appointed to Obama’s Department of Homeland Security in 2011? Claiming that media references to jihad as “holy war” constitute an egregious “misuse” of that term, Magid currently serves as president of America’s largest Muslim organization, the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), which was founded by U.S.-based members of … yes, you guessed it, the Muslim Brotherhood. Moreover, ISNA was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the prosecution of five officials of the Holy Land Foundation, the largest terror-financing trial in American history. Ah, but surely PFAW would wisely counsel us not to let “anti-Muslim paranoia” about such trivia spoil our day.

Another character of note is Ingrid Mattson, a Connecticut-based professor of Islam who delivered a prayer at the National Prayer Service, one of the events associated with President Obama’s 2008 inauguration. In June 2009 she was invited by Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett to work on the White House Council on Women and Girls.
 Mattson, whose resumé features a stint as president of the Islamic Society of North America, has characterized Wahhabism—an extremist, intolerant form of Islam with close ties to Saudi Arabia and terrorism—as “a reform movement … analogous to the European Protestant Reformation.” If by any chance you were to find this troubling, PFAW would surely remind you to hold your tongue, lest you “sanction and encourage” the “persecution” of Muslims.

In April 2009, Dalia Mogahed, a senior analyst and executive director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies, was appointed by President Obama to serve on his Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, making Mogahed the first veiled Muslim woman to serve in the White House. She was also assigned to the advisory council of Obama’s Department of Homeland Security. Prior to these appointments, Mogahed had co-authored a book with Professor John Esposito, an apologist for radical Islam and an editorial board member of the same Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs journal that employed Huma Abedin for a dozen years. In addition, Mogahed’s research provided key data for a project by Feisal Abdul Rauf, the New York City Imam who was associated with the proposed contruction of the “Ground Zero Mosque.” According to the Investigative Project on Terrorism, Mogahed has stated that most Muslims view Sharia Law as a framework for achieving “a more just society” and the “protection of human rights.” Moreover, she has consistently defended and reached out to Islamist organizations like the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Islamic Society of North America, the Islamic Circle of North America, the Muslim American Society, and the Muslim Public Affairs Council. In September 2008, she stated that it would be unfair for such groups to be “disenfranchised” by a “witch hunt” designed to “malign” them. If you find any of this problematic, you just might be one of those “reckless,” irresponsible “demonizers” whom PFAW deplores.

Eboo Patel/ asmasociety.org

In February 2009, Eboo Patel was appointed to President Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based Neighborhood Partnerships. 
This same Mr. Patel has asserted that “Muslim totalitarians” are hardly distinguishable from “the Christian totalitarians in America,” “the Jewish totalitarians in Israel,” or “the Hindu totalitarians in India.”
 At the main event of a three-day convention held by the Muslim Students Association in 2011, Patel participated in a panel alongside Tariq Ramadan (grandson of Muslim Brotherhood founder Hasan al-Banna) and Siraj Wahhaj (a former Islamic Society of North America vice president who was named as a possible co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing). 
And, for good measure, Patel has depicted Van Jones, the revolutionary communist who served several months as President Obama’s “green jobs” czar, as an “American patriot,” a “faith hero,” and one of “the true giants of history.” But bite your tongue if you feel an impulse to “demonize” or “vilify” this esteemed presidential adviser.

In the final analysis, we must indeed be grateful for the existence of groups like People For the American Way—ever prepared to alert us to the menacing presence of “right-wing anti-Muslim activists” who would rather “make headlines” with their own brazen rhetoric, than show proper respect for devoted public servants whose only transgression is that they just happen to be supportive of an organization that gave rise to Hamas, al Qaeda, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad; an organization that seeks unequivocally to establish an Islamic caliphate spanning the entire globe; an organization that aims to dismantle all non-Islamic governments wherever they currently exist; an organization that advocates Islamic Law as the sole basis of jurisprudence everywhere on earth; and an organization that unapologetically embraces the credo: “God is our objective, the Koran is our Constitution, the Prophet is our leader, [jihad] is our way, and death for the sake of God is the highest of our aspirations.” Now, what reasonable person could possibly have a problem with any of that?

Republican senator rips Obama Treasury pick over 'false' statement on debt

President Obama plans to announce Thursday afternoon that he is nominating White House chief of staff Jack Lew to replace Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, a White House official told Fox News.

Keep reading on foxnews >>

Nominations of Brennan and Hagel signal changes at CIA and Pentagon

washingtonpost

guardian.co.uk

By Greg Miller and Scott Wilson

President Obama is assembling a national security team designed for an era of downsized but enduring conflict, a team that will be asked to preside over the return of exhausted American troops and wield power through the targeted use of sanctions, Special Operations forces and drone strikes.
Obama’s nominations of former senator Chuck Hagel as defense secretary and White House counterterrorism adviser John O. Brennan as CIA director signal second-term course adjustments at institutions that have been dominated by their lethal assignments during more than a decade of war.

Those adjustments could include returning the CIA’s focus to its core mission of gathering intelligence, even though it is expected to maintain its fleet of armed drones for years. The Pentagon faces an even more aggressive restructuring to balance budget cuts against threats, including China’s ascendent military and emerging al-Qaeda affiliates in North Africa and the Middle East.
The nominations also set the stage for confirmation fights driven not only by criticism of Hagel and Brennan but also by the foreign policy approach they represent.
Hagel, a decorated Vietnam War veteran, shares Obama’s aversion to military intervention. White House officials described him as ideally suited to managing the drawdown of U.S. forces in Afghanistan and the shrinking Pentagon budget. But he has attracted fierce criticism from groups that question the strength of his support for Israel.
Brennan is a 25-year CIA veteran who has voiced concern over the agency’s paramilitary mission and has imposed tighter controls on targeted killing, even while his White House tenure has been marked by a massive increase in the agency’s drone campaign.
Four years ago, Brennan withdrew from consideration to lead the CIA amid questions about his role as a high-ranking CIA official at a time when the agency employed brutal interrogation techniques — a link certain to resurface when he faces a Senate vote.
Both men are known for their strong personalities and strongly held views. Still, associates described them as comfortable fits for an administration that favors covert action — including Predator drone strikes on al-Qaeda targets and cyber-sabotage of Iran’s nuclear plants — over conventional force.
In announcing the nominees, Obama said that their agenda would include “ending the war in Afghanistan and caring for those who have borne the battle, [and] preparing for the full range of threats.” He also emphasized their experiences in the lower ranks of the institutions they would run, saying both served overseas and understand firsthand “the consequences of decisions that we make in this town.”
Obama avoided one confirmation fight when U.N. Ambassador Susan E. Rice withdrew from consideration to be secretary of state amid criticism of her role in the aftermath of the attack on the U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya. Instead, Obama turned to a compromise pick, Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.). The former presidential candidate has established relationships with foreign leaders that could help the administration push for tougher sanctions on Iran, expand its pursuit of al-Qaeda beyond Yemen and Pakistan, and deal with the Syrian civil war.

Keep reading  >>

Government Silently Positions for Martial Law as Financial Collapse Arrives in America

tatoott1009

Head of Obama’s Jobs Council: ‘State-Run Communism’ Actually ‘Works’

The Blaze/ Jonathon M. Seidl 

If you were ever in doubt what type of thinking this administration fosters, this clip should put any debate to rest.

Appearing Monday morning on CBS, Obama’s jobs council head and the CEO of GE Jeffrey Immelt said that one thing that “actually works” is “state-run Communism” in China.

After host Charlie Rose brought up the “growth rate” of China falling from double digits to about eight percent, Immelt chimed in.

“Look, I think it’s good for China,” he said. “To a certain extent, Charlie, 11 to 12 percent is unsustainable. You end up getting too much stimulus or a misallocation of resources. They are much better off working on a more consumer-based economy, less dependent on exports, driving technology and innovation harder. Really, the one thing that actually works, state run communism may not be your cup of tea, but their government works.”

“They get things done,” Rose responded.

Watch it below:

 Keep reading >>

Will Petraeus Set the Record Straight?

PJMedia/  Richard Fernandez

Breitbart quotes a tweet by CNN correspondent Frances Townsend claiming information by Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr that David Petraeus will testify that he knew the attack on the Benghazi consulate was terrorism “almost immediately.” The “same source” claims he will say Susan Rice’s talking points ascribing the attack to a video came from the White House.

If Petraeus really does testify to this effect, he will inescapably be alleging under oath that the president was a liar. Even if the testimony is restricted strictly to Benghazi and not its aftermath, the crucial question remains: did the president abandon the men on the ground to their fates?

Of course the purpose of this new leak may be to muddy the waters. In Washington, home to hundreds of newspaper correspondents and reporters, nothing is as it seems. The age of Obama resembles nothing so much as an evil fun-house of mirrors.

There may be a behind-the-scenes effort to influence what Petraeus will say. Charles Krauthammer has already suggested that the administration has tried to use the Broadwell incident to silence the former CIA director. But if Petraeus testifies as advertised, it may mean that he has decided that the administration will destroy him even if tries to go along and that his only remaining option is to fight.

DP’s options are rapidly shrinking. CNN reports that the CIA has opened an internal investigation into Petraeus’ conduct. Does anybody still believe this is about an extra-marital affair? Probably the same people who who believed that Benghazi was about a YouTube video.

The announcement of the internal investigation comes on the eve of closed door testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee. Petraeus is expected to offer his thoughts to the committee members on what the Agency knew and when it knew it in the days after the attack in Benghazi, Libya that killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans on September 11.

For reasons that the public does not understand, the incident in Benghazi has started a full-blown power struggle that is raging beneath the surface of official Washington.  More >>

Government Surveillance on Citizens Rising

Nic Halverson 

As the inferno of the David Petraeus scandal continues to burn, the latest Google Transparency Report shows government surveillance is starting to heat up.

"This is the sixth time we’ve released this data, and one trend has become clear: Government surveillance is on the rise," Dorothy Chou, Senior Policy Analyst, explains on Google's blog.

Between January and June of this year governments from around the world filed 20,939 requests with Google to access data on 34,614 accounts. According to company data, during that same time frame last year, governments made 15,744 requests on 25,342 accounts.  More >>

Krauthammer Wants To Know Why Obama Sent Susan Rice To Explain Benghazi

On Wednesday, President Obama railed against intense criticism from Republican lawmakers who are demanding to know why Rice went on national television and blamed the Sept. 11 Benghazi attack on a YouTube video. Watch Charles Krauthammer's scathing review of Obama's explanation HERE >>

The U.S. Government's Growing Appetite for Google Users' Data

Searching suspects: Data Google holds on its users is increasingly being requested by - and given to - law enforcement and government agencies.

Tom Simonite

U.S. government and law enforcement agencies are increasingly asking Google to hand over data on its customers to help with investigations.

The search and ads company today released figures revealing that it was asked to hand over user data 7,969 times by US agencies in the first six months of 2012 - an increase of 26 percent over the previous six months. That continues a long established trend in the figures released in Google's twice-yearly transparency report and charted above. The 7,969 requests asked for data from a total of 16,281 user accounts, and ninety percent of the requests were complied with.

Google is unusual amongst Web companies in that it shares information about the number of such requests it receives. Social network Facebook is likely subject to a similarly high volume, for example, but does not disclose any information on their number or origin. Google started reporting the number of requests for its data in 2009, and the number of affected accounts in 2011. Since January 2011, U.S. authorities have requested data pertaining to a total of 39,581 accounts.

Law enforcement and government agencies see Google and other companies as valuable sources of data that can help with criminal and intelligence investigations, such as the one that led to the resignation of CIA director David Petraeus last week. Knowing what a person searched for, who they emailed, and which IP address they logged in from can provide evidence of a person's motivations, movements and much more.

Some privacy activists say that the ease with which U.S. authorities can extract information on users from Google and other companies suggests changes in the law, and company policies are needed to protect innocent users against the risk of unnecessary surveillance. Data can only be handed over by a company if it exists, and some campaigners think companies such as Google should reduce how long they retain some information. For example, Google currently stores search query details for 9 months before anonymizing them, a period some argue is too long. The main target of legal campaigning about data access is against the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act, which allows government and law enforcement to obtain data from Internet companies without a warrant if it is at least 6 months old.
-----------------------------------
But worldwide:

theatlantic.com

Google: 'Government Surveillance Is on the Rise' >>

ObamaCare Nightmare Comes True

 

Is Obamacare too much work for the Obama administration?

By Sarah Kliff on November 12, 2012 | The Washington Post

By the end of this week, states must decide whether they will build a health-insurance exchange or leave the task to the federal government. The question is, with as many as 17 states expected to leave it to the feds, can the Obama administration handle the workload.

“These are systems that typically take two or three years to build,” says Kevin Walsh, managing director of insurance exchange services at Xerox. “The last time I looked at the calendar, that’s not what we’re working with.”

When Walsh meets with state officials deciding whether to build a health exchange, he brings a chart. It outlines how to build the insurance marketplace required under the Affordable Care Act. To call it complex would probably be an understatement:

These marketplaces often get described as a Travelocity or Expedia for health benefits. While that might be the case for the consumer experience, experts say the underlying technology is hugely more complex, a maze of interconnecting computer systems meant to deliver health insurance to 30 million Americans.

“The reality is, states and the federal government are building something new,” says Pat Howard, who runs state health issues for consulting firm Deloitte. “There’s a rough blueprint in terms of federal regulations, but there’s still a number of decisions that need to happen to operationalize this.”

A health exchange’s first task is ensuring that those who are eligible for benefits know about them — right now, research suggests three-quarters have no idea.

That suggests a huge outreach challenge — and one the federal government may not be ideally suited to completing. Evidence suggests that it works better when it caters to local markets. Massachusetts, for example, saw high enrollment after it partnered with the Red Sox to promote its health-insurance exchange.

After people become aware of benefits, the health exchange faces its biggest challenge: Figuring out who is eligible for what. In many states those who earn less than 133 percent of the Federal Poverty Line are eligible for Medicaid — except if the state has already extended benefits to an even higher level, as 35 states have for children.

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What is and How to Solve the "Fiscal Cliff"

MidweekPolitics --Richard Wolff, Economist and Professor Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, joins David to explain what exactly the so-called "fiscal cliff" now in the news actually is, what the possible outcomes and solutions are, and its potential effect on the economy.

Assessing security implications of Petraeus' infidelity

Security Clearance 

With reporting from Suzanne Kelly and Pam Benson/ By CNN's Adam Levine

While affairs may be commonplace in Washington, when they involve the director of the CIA, things can take on a different tone.

Paula Broadwell and David Petraeus/
dailymail.co.uk

A U.S. official has said there was no breach of national security as a result of David Petraeus' affair, but that hasn't stopped discussion that Paula Broadwell could have gained access to classified information as a result of what she has routinely described as "unprecedented access" to Petraeus.

That discussion seemed to gain momentum Monday thanks to comments Broadwell made in a speech last month at the University of Denver.

"I don't know if a lot of you have heard this, but the CIA annex had actually taken a couple of Libyan militia members prisoner and they think that the attack on the consulate was an effort to get these prisoners back," Broadwell said.

A senior intelligence official told CNN on Monday, "These detention claims are categorically not true. Nobody was ever held at the annex before, during, or after the attacks."

Broadwell's source for that previously unpublished bit of information remains unclear, and there's no evidence so far that it came from Petraeus. Administration officials have said the Benghazi assault was a terrorist attack.

The New York Times also reported Sunday that investigators found classified documents on Broadwell's laptop computer. The newspaper cited investigators as saying Petraeus denied he had given them to her.

Retired Gen. James "Spider" Marks, for whom Broadwell once worked and who knows Petraeus, said he doubts security protocols were breached despite what seems an unlikely indiscretion on the part of Petraeus.

"There's almost zero percent chance that national security was compromised or at risk," he said Monday.

A senior U.S. intelligence official said an extramarital affair by a CIA officer is not automatically considered a security violation.

"It depends on the circumstances," the official said.

The official also said Broadwell did not have a security clearance from the CIA.

Another official said Broadwell, who is a reserve Army officer, did have some kind of security clearance and that there are no issues with Broadwell having unauthorized access to classified information.

Petraeus' resignation also presents challenges to the congressional inquiry into the Benghazi attack.

CNN has confirmed that Petraeus recently traveled to Libya to meet the CIA station chief to discuss the attack. He was scheduled to testify before a congressional committee this week on the assault and the U.S. government response to it.

That will now not happen, but it is possible that he could be summoned by Congress to testify later.

Some Republicans have criticized the administration's response to the Benghazi attack and have speculated that Petraeus' departure was linked to the congressional inquiry.

Rep. Peter King, R-New York, said elements of the story "don't add up." He called Petraeus "an absolutely essential witness, maybe more than anybody else."

However, a senior U.S. official said Petraeus' departure wasn't connected to the Benghazi hearing.

"Director Petraeus' frank and forthright letter of resignation stands on its own," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic. "Any suggestion that his departure has anything to do with criticism about Benghazi is completely baseless."

6 splitting headaches for Obama

By Tom Curry, NBC News national affairs writer/

As President Barack Obama celebrates his election night victory, he faces a second term that presents both immediate and longer-term challenges, some with deadlines that must be confronted in the seven weeks before New Years’ Eve.

And he'll do it with a Senate still in Democratic control and a House of Representatives again ruled by Republicans.

Here's a look at the six splitting headaches awaiting Obama:

Automatic spending cuts
Congress passed and Obama signed into law the 2011 Deficit Control Act which will cut more than $100 billion in outlays in 2013, starting in January. These cuts were intended to be so unpalatable that they’d spur Congress and the president to strike a deficit reduction deal, but the plan seems about to backfire. Congress and the president in 2013 will be getting more deficit reduction than they really want. The director of the Congressional Budget Office, Douglas Elmendorf, said in August that the cuts in spending, combined with scheduled increases in taxes at the year's end would cause “a significant tightening of fiscal policy” which would “probably lead to a recession early next year.”

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Taxes going up, by a significant amount – and not just on the rich The current income tax rates expire on Dec. 31. A popular middle-class tax break, the $1,000-per-child tax credit for each child age 17 and younger, will be cut in half unless Congress and the president take action before the end of the year. The temporary reduction in the Social Security payroll tax is also set to expire. As a result of all this, according to the Tax Policy Center, the average tax burden will increase by almost $3,500 per taxpayer in 2013. In addition, the Affordable Care Act, starting on Jan. 1, imposes a $20 billion tax increase in 2013 on people with incomes above $200,000, or $250,000 for joint filers.

Debt limit According to the Bipartisan Policy Center, by sometime in February the federal government will reach its borrowing limit, even with the use of extraordinary stopgap accounting measures by the Treasury Department to push back that date. The House Republicans only very reluctantly voted to raise the debt limit in 2011 after the impasse between Obama and the House GOP over debt had severely shaken the confidence of investors in U.S. financial markets. The new House may be even more resistant to a debt ceiling increase with Obama winning a second term.

Confirmation of pivotal Cabinet members and regulatory chiefs After securing a second term, Obama will, at a minimum, need to nominate a new Treasury Secretary to replace outgoing Tim Geithner and a new secretary of state to replace Hillary Clinton. Depending on the mood and membership of the Senate, the nomination hearings could prove contentious. Obama will also need to win Senate confirmation for those nominees selected to fill 82 judicial vacancies.

Implementing the Affordable Care Act and appointing the members of the Independent Payment Advisory Board The administrative mechanism to carry out “Obamacare” needs to be designed, refined and run. Congressional Republicans are especially hostile to the Independent Payment Advisory Board, an outside body of experts, picked by the president, which is supposed to propose cuts in Medicare spending, with those cuts getting special fast-track consideration in Congress. So far Obama has appointed none of IPAB’s 15 members. Those nominees will be subject to Senate confirmation. 

Chaos in Syria, WMD – and don't forget Iran The phrase “weapons of mass destruction” may have gone out of fashion after U.S. forces failed to find any in Iraq after they invaded in 2003, but there’s no dispute that the Syrian regime does possess a large arsenal of chemical weapons, including nerve gas. Some of those weapons and ingredients might go missing as the civil war grinds on. Meanwhile Syria’s ally Iran has carried on work to build nuclear weapons and is not cooperating with the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency which is trying to find out more about the Iranians’ secret research.

17 years for model-plane plot to bomb US Capitol

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Cable from slain ambassador disputes Obama version of facts

The Liberty Sphere

A cable obtained Wednesday by reporters covering the scandal surrounding the Libyan massacre at Benghazi shows that U.S.Ambassador Chris Stevens, who was killed in the attack, had sent multiple requests to Washington for more security in the wake of a report which indicated that U.S. personnel in the region were in grave danger.

The cable, and the report that prompted it, directly dispute the version of the facts told to the American public by the Obama administration.

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