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Rush: Why Obama really uses teleprompter

[PatriotUpdate.com]

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

president-teleprompter-600-596x283

MSNBC anchor Chris Matthews, who famously said he felt a thrill up his leg listening to Barack Obama speak in 2008, is now blaming a lackluster speech Wednesday by the U.S. president in Berlin on the sun.

“I think a lot of the problem he had today was the late afternoon sun in Berlin ruined his use of the teleprompter and so his usual dramatic windup was ruined,” Matthews said moments after the address. “I think he was really struggling with the text there.”

Online commenters are having a field day with Matthews’ remark, with comments such as, “Five years into his presidency, even sychophants like Chris Matthews know they can no longer blame Bush. So starting here, starting now, it becomes official: It’s the sun’s fault.”

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US, Taliban to hold Afghanistan peace talks in Qatar office this week, officials say

[FoxNews-AP]

Published June 18, 2013

taliban_qatar_office_061813.jpg

June 18, 2013: A general view of Taliban office in Doha before the official opening in Doha, Qatar. In a major breakthrough, the Taliban and the U.S. announced Tuesday that they will hold talks on finding a political solution to ending nearly 12 years of war in Afghanistan as the Islamic militant movement opened an office in Qatar. American officials with the Obama administration said the office in the Qatari capital of Doha was the first step toward the ultimate U.S.-Afghan goal of a full Taliban renouncement of links with Al Qaeda. (AP)

karzai_061813.jpg

June 18, 2013: Afghan President Hamid Karzai speaks during a ceremony at military academy on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan. Karzai announced at the ceremony that his country’s armed forces are taking over the lead for security nationwide from the U.S.-led NATO coalition. (AP)

Representatives from the United States and the Taliban will engage in Afghanistan peace talks Thursday in an office that has opened in Qatar, senior U.S. administration officials say.

The officials say detainee exchanges will likely be among the topics discussed in the Doha office, which opened Tuesday after months of delays. Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s High Peace Council is expected to follow up with its own talks a few days later.

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CNN Poll: Majority Doesn’t Trust Obama, Approval Rating Suffers Severe Drop

[Newsmax.com]

Monday, 17 Jun 2013 06:13 AM

President Barack Obama’s approval rating dropped a shocking 8 percentage points over the last month — one of sharpest, fastest plunges in his presidency, according to a new CNN poll released early Monday morning.

For the first time in Obama’s time in office,  more than half of the public doesn’t feel that the president is honest and trustworthy, the CNN/ORC International poll showed.

Specifically, Obama’s approval rating stands at 45 percent, down from 53 percent in mid-May, CNN reported. A shocking 54 percent of respondents told pollsters they disapprove of how Obama is handling his job. That was up 9 points in just a month.

It’s the first time in CNN polling since November 2011 that a majority of Americans have had a negative view of the president, CNN reported.

The severe drop in Obama’s approval rating was fueled by a sharp 17-point drop among Americans under 30, according to the poll. That’s particularly discouraging heading into 2014 because Democrats have felt they have a lock on the youth vote after the 2012 elections.

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Hassan Rouhani wins Iran presidential election

[BBC News]

June 15 , 2013 Last updated at 15:50 ET

Hassan_Rouhani_s4r7mrh2Mr Rouhani had a surge of support after endorsement by reformists 

Reformist-backed cleric Hassan Rouhani has won Iran’s presidential election, securing just over 50% of the vote and so avoiding the need for a run-off. Crowds gathered in Tehran to hail Mr Rouhani, who said he had achieved a “victory of moderation over extremism”.

Some 72.2% of the 50 million eligible Iranian voters cast ballots to choose the successor to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The US said it was “ready to engage directly” with Iran over its disputed nuclear programme.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei congratulated Mr Rouhani on his victory. “I urge everyone to help the president-elect and his colleagues in the government, as he is the president of the whole nation,” he said.

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Sarah Palin returns to FOX News Channel

[MSN.com ENTERTAINMENT]

By Tim Kenneally

Sarah Palin

© Sarah Palin / AP

Sarah Palin has kissed and made up with FOX News Channel.

The former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate has re-joined the channel as a contributor, after famously parting ways with the network in January.

Palin will appear on the network’s daytime and primetime programming, beginning with an appearance on Monday’s “FOX & Friends.” She will also contribute to FOX Business Network.

Bing: Joan Rivers on Bristol Palin

FOX News Channel chairman and CEO Roger Ailes said that Palin came back aboard after “several conversations” between the pair, adding, “I hope she continues to speak her mind.”

“I’ve had several conversations with Governor Palin in the past few weeks about her rejoining FOX News as a contributor,” Ailes said. “I have great confidence in her and am pleased that she will once again add her commentary to our programming. I hope she continues to speak her mind.”

Palin, whose original run as a FOX News contributor lasted from January 2010 to January 2013, called her once-again workplace an “indispensable” news outlet with “unparalleled” power.

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FBI director defends surveillance programs, says 9/11 could have been prevented

[FoxNews.com]

Published June 13, 2013

FBI_BOSS-snoopingFeb. 2, 2012: FBI Director Robert Mueller testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP)

Following revelations about the federal government’s surveillance programs, FBI Director Robert Mueller defended the government’s collection of millions of U.S. phone records, emails and other information that people transmit online as vital to the nation’s national security.  Mueller told a House Judiciary panel Thursday that law enforcement must stay “a step ahead of criminals and terrorists” while still heeding Americans’ civil liberties.

Early in the hearing, Mueller tried to make the case for the National Security Agency surveillance programs and said that law enforcement “must stay a step ahead of criminals and terrorists” while still heeding the civil liberties of Americans.

Mueller, who is stepping down from his post in September, says that if the metadata collection program had been in place before the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, they would have identified one of the 9/11 hijackers in San Diego and most likely derailed the plot.

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Accept or Change

[FloppingAces.net | Reader Post]

001Upon hearing about the latest “gate,” I thought “will this be the damning evidence that shows our Government is broken beyond repair?” The inevitable has been reached and the tin-foil hat and black helicopter crew have much more credibility. With this in mind what are my options in what the Democrats used to phrase as “keeping the “government” out of my bedroom?”

1.  Accept it.
2. Change it.

If I accept it, I have to expect that my Government in every form, from Health Care to personal phone calls, and yes, credit card purchases and automobile mileage, speed, and destination are being recorded and my entire identity is being placed in a file with a grade upon this file. Am I “URGENT,” or “To be Audited at Later Date?”

If I want to change it, am I prepared to “go dark?” I mean can I cancel my internet, cell phone, land line, all gaming systems, and bank credit/debit card? Can I deal in cash or money orders under $3000 only?

How can I go dark and not be a “low information voter?” Or how can I plug into what’s going on without my favorite blogs? If you’re sitting in your “Man Cave” thinking that you have a case of beans and weenies and that old 22 your grandpa gave you is enough, think again.

If not one person in the 50 or so communication sources such as Google, YouTube, Face book, or Verizon didn’t stop this blatant invasion of privacy then they should suffer the consequences of their actions. Would the Cloward–Piven strategy work for the “Atlas Shrugged” crowd? I think I have the answer. Are you prepared to go against an over-bearing government performing acts against her people that would make King George III look like a “light bringer” and could lower the seas?

Part two: Local newspapers and Thumb drives.

This entry was posted in . Bookmark the permalink. Wednesday, June 12th, 2013 at 10:24 am

Putin on NSA leak: Government surveillance shouldn’t break law

[RT.com]

Published time: June 11, 2013 14:53
 
Russian President Vladimir Putin, far center, during his talk with Russia Today television channel's journalists and correspondents, June 11, 2013. (RIA Novosti / Michael Klimentyev)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, far center, during his talk with Russia Today television channel’s journalists and correspondents, June 11, 2013. (RIA Novosti / Michael Klimentyev)

“Such methods are in demand. But you can’t just listen to the phone call in Russia; you need a special order from court. This is how this should be done in civilized society while tackling terrorism with the use of any technical means.  If it is in the framework of the law, then it’s ok. If not it is unacceptable,” Putin said answering the question of RT’s Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan. Commenting on Obama’s statement that “You can’t have 100 per cent security and 100 per cent privacy,” Putin disagreed, saying it is possible if done within the law.

Russia said it could consider the possibility of granting political asylum to 29-year-old Edward Snowden, if such request is made. The ex-CIA worker disclosed the existence of PRISM, the National Security Agency’s (NSA) massive data-mining surveillance program, to The Guardian.

“If we receive such a request, we will consider it,” President Vladimir Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov said.

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Did Obama Just Destroy the U.S. Internet Industry?

[CWNewsONLINE.net]

By: David Kirkpatrick

June 10, 2013

Photo: President Barack Obama talks with Michael Froman, then NSA deputy for international and economic affairs, during a working dinner at the G8 Summit, June 25, 2010. (White House/Flickr)

News about the National Security Agency’s PRISM program and its privileged access to internal user data at 9 U.S. Internet companies has unleashed a torrent of justified anger and hand-wringing. But the worries do not go far enough. Almost everybody is still looking at this through a narrow domestic lens. Our values and goals may be more challenged than you think.

The implications are not just about what happens to the privacy of Americans and to the future of American political due process. There are potentially vast negative global consequences. Giving the U.S. government special rights to data from U.S. companies sets a terrible precedent, and is hugely short-sighted.

The Internet is intrinsically a global business and social landscape. Yet up until now American companies have overwhelmingly dominated it. They have done so with astonishing innovation and technical achievement. Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Skype, Yahoo, and YouTube — all companies said to be participating in PRISM — are the world’s most important digital platforms for communications and information. The economic and political benefits both to the U.S. and to the world of this domination are obvious. Not only are they by far the world’s most valuable set of businesses for investors. They have created extraordinary value for their users by fostering an openness and landscape for free expression and dialogue that is unprecedented.

How much of this astonishing success are we willing to sacrifice on the altar of domestic security?

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Column: Mounting controversies are all about trust

[MyWayNews.com]

Jun 10, 10:51 AM (ET)

By LIZ SIDOTI

Barack ObamaWASHINGTON (AP) – As a candidate, Barack Obama vowed to bring a different, better kind of leadership to the dysfunctional capital. He’d make government more efficient, accountable and transparent. He’d rise above the “small-ball” nature of doing business. And he’d work with Republicans to break Washington paralysis.

You can trust me, Obama said back in 2008. And – for a while, at least – a good piece of the country did.

But with big promises often come big failures – and the potential for big hits to the one thing that can make or break a presidency: credibility.

A series of mounting controversies is exposing both the risks of political promise-making and the limits of national-level governing while undercutting the core assurance Obama made from the outset: that he and his administration would behave differently.

The latest: the government’s acknowledgement that, in a holdover from the Bush administration and with a bipartisan Congress’ approval and a secret court’s authorization, it was siphoning the phone records of millions of American citizens in a massive data-collection effort officials say was meant to protect the nation from terrorism. This came after the disclosure that the government was snooping on journalists.

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Treasury Omits All IRS and Other Bureaus’ Conference Costs in 2012 Response to Coburn; Politico Calls It ‘Incomplete Disclosure’

[Newsbusters.org]

By Tom Blumer | June 09, 2013 | 16:59

Coburn2013Although there are stories at Fox News and the Daily Caller, there appears to be almost no interest on the part of the establishment press in covering the Treasury Department’s failure to report over 99% of its conference costs when Oklahoma Republican Senator Tom Coburn asked for an itemized listing a year ago.

The Politico, the repository for stories which cause Democrats and the left discomfort that the rest of the press would prefer to ignore (“Oh, the Politico did something with it, so we don’t have to”), buried the item in a “Morning Tax” report Thursday. Writer Lauren French held off as long as she possibly could presenting how the $50 million in omitted IRS costs dwarfed the measly $500,000 which was reported (paragraph breaks added by me; bolds are mine throughout this post):

Coburn questions incomplete disclosure from Treasury

MORE MISSED DISCLOSURES. The inspector general audit detailing the nearly $50 million the IRS spent on conferences shocked members of Congress. But none more than Sen. Tom Coburn.

That’s because the Oklahoma Republican had already been told by the Treasury Department of each conference the department held from 2005 to 2012 — and that response did not mention any of the 200 IRS conferences included in the IG report.

The Treasury, responding from a 2012 request from Coburn, said it hosted only five conferences with more than 50 staffers and the cost for the events were under $500,000. Now Coburn is asking Treasury Secretary Jack Lew to explain the discrepancy.

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