Can Holder hold on?

Too many a problem?

Washington D.C. in damage control .  Huffington Post ran a front-page call for Attorney General Eric Holder to resign. The Obama administration has been on damage control since the outbreak of the 'scandals'.  ***Eric Holder's tenure as Attorney General is beset with failures, even if you judge him by his own goals .President Obama has expressed concern about the chilling effects his own administration has caused on investigative reporting by aggressively spying on journalists reporting on government actions, even to the point of accusing some of being co-conspirators and/or using the Espionage Act against whistleblowers and reporters. That seemed weird enough already, but one point that was even stranger deserves to be called out separately. In asking for a review of the administration's policy, Obama has asked Attorney General Eric Holder to run that review. And that's ridiculous. It's asking Eric Holder to review his own surveillance of journalists. But Holder would have us believe that, contrary to the claims of journalists and civil libertarians, the Justice Department did nothing improper. In his telling, spying on journalists was necessary because there was a leak that compromised national security in a particularly serious way. Pestered by Republicans and some Democrats, Holder testified that he has faith in the individuals conducting the broad investigation, driven in large part by GOP outrage last year over the possibility that administration officials leaked information to enhance President Barack Obama's national security reputation in an election year. Holder said he had rescued himself from the case because "I am a possessor of information eventually leaked." He said he was unable to answer questions on the subpoenas and why the Justice Department failed to negotiate with the AP prior to the subpoenas, a standard practice. Newly released documents show how the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and local police forces partnered with corporations to spy on Occupy protesters in 2011 and 2012. Detailed in thousands of pages of records from counter terrorism and law enforcement agencies, the spying monitored the activists’ online usage and led to infiltration of their meetings. One document shows an undercover officer was dispatched in Arizona to infiltrate activists organizing protests around the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC),  the secretive group that helps corporate America propose and draft legislation for states across the country. Holder is a man not suited for the office he occupies. At most, Holder has shown himself to be completely incompetent and corrupt.

NOTES AND COMMENTS:

 *** While Eric Holder’s Justice Department was spying on Fox News… the Chinese were stealing all our military secrets. Patriot missile system, the Army’s Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system, the Navy’s Aegis ballistic-missile, the F/A-18 fighter jet, the V-22 Osprey, the Black Hawk helicopter, the Navy’s new Littoral Combat Ship, even the $1.4 trillion F-35 Joint Strike Fighter – Chinese hackers got them all. Holder should have been gone long ago. That he isn't brings a sharp focus to what this administration thinks is legally & morally important. Members of the previous administration have publicly admitted, in PRINT, to activities that would seem to be glaring violations of both US & international law. But this AG refuses to even open an independent investigation. The CEOs of major international banks seem to have violated a number of laws in the process of raping the global economy since 2007, & no real investigations have been forthcoming there either. Legal advisers to the President find creative ways to justify assassination by drone of US citizens, & apparently the Justice Dept thinks that is just okey dokey. But let some individual government employee with a conscience dare to go to the media with reports of government malfeasance, after being systematically ignored by the chain if command, & woe betide him.

Welcome Obama-care : California.

My Union said we have nothing to worry about Obama- care.

Are you ready? Obama-Care ( Affordable Care Act ) is coming to California near you. So far it's gotten a mixed press . How it's going to affect you is a problem . It's a problem if your employer provides you with negotiable benefits package . Already Unions whom I belong to tell that we don't have anything to worry about . However a cautionary note about negotiable benefits : Some labor unions that enthusiastically backed President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul are now frustrated and angry, fearful it will jeopardize benefits for millions of members.Union leaders warn that unless the problem is fixed, there could be consequences for Democrats facing re-election next year.“It makes an untruth out of what the president said — that if you like your insurance, you could keep it,” said Joe Hansen, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. “That is not going to be true for millions of workers now.”

[...] “We’re concerned that employers will be increasingly tempted to drop coverage through our plans and let our members fend for themselves on the health exchanges,” said David Treanor, director of health care initiatives at the Operating Engineers union. California and Oregon are poised to be the first to implement Obamacare, and will be hawkishly watched by both sides of the political spectrum. Labor union leaders are complaining they are getting shortchanged by the Affordable Care Act, or "Obamacare." They are asking the White House to allow the health care exchange subsidies to be used for their worker's health care plans, which could dramatically increase the cost of the ACA.  Let's read what we know now about it. Yesterday, Covered California—the name given to the healthcare exchange created pursuant to the Affordable Care Act that will serve the largest population of insured citizens in the nation—released the premium rates submitted by participating health insurance companies for the three health insurance program categories (bronze, silver and gold) established by the Affordable Care Act, along with the catastrophic policy created for and available to those under the age of 30.Keep in mind that the entire idea of the exchanges is to require health insurance companies to compete openly with one another by offering identical coverage programs in the three created classes—each offering insurance coverage that actually delivers meaningful protection to customers—and then openly disclosing the price each insurance company will charge for that policy. The announced rates are far below estimates and the average numbers show that a middle-aged Californian could pay anywhere from $40-$300 per month. The wide range includes the variety of benefits offered combined with the use of federal subsidies to pay for healthcare. Thus, shoppers can clearly see which company has the best price on an apples-to-apples basis. I am however dumbfounded by the level of willful ignorance by supposedly principled liberals and progressives which cheers the fact that Obamacare subjugated the entire populace to private health insurers which are merely Wall Street firms in nurses outfits.Bob Laszewski, a health care industry consultant, said the real fear among unions is that “a lot of these labor contracts are very expensive, and now employers are going to have an alternative to very expensive labor health benefits.” “If the workers can get benefits that are as good through Obamacare in the exchanges, then why do you need the union?” Laszewski said.

Future Shock revisited .

Future Shock is a book written by the futurist Alvin Toffler in 1970. In the book, Toffler defines the term "future shock" as a certain psychological state of individuals and entire societies. His shortest definition for the term is a personal perception of "too much change in too short a period of time". We don't have flying cars (give it a decade), fusion power (hey, 4 years), robotic house-servants (2040--you'll live to see it if you take your fish oil),  or rocket pants (disappointing)--but we do have something else: Twitter.  It seems to me that our 'society' has been accelerating at such a pace that people are going on 'overload' . While we have all this wonderful technology our American government can't no longer glue it together  , and along with the invention of the Internet our own privacy is assured no more. We all now have cyber tracks that we google daily .  Which tracks our credit rating and so on. We  do electronic transactions  that soon paper money will be replaced .The House recently posed the 37th vote to repeal ObamaCare (for a few reasons--one of which is to allow House freshmen to tell their constituents they tried--but another is, perhaps, to have some subtle psychological impact on the acceptance of the law) and, of course, it didn't go anywhere. But this time around Darrel Issa (a leading Republican critic of the administration) encouraged a particular hashtag meme, #ObamaCareInThreeWords, which encouraged participants (detractors) to describe the ACA in three pithy words. Here are two recent articles (not about the twitter war) that take on Obama and the scandals. We are now so numb to our American political system there are many of us that just don't care any more . Our society is bombard with violence , pretty sure that there is some pathological twist how it impends children . It  too has become the norm . We sit and watch our wages become smaller and smaller while the cost of our basic needs goes higher and higher.  The big bosses decide it’s in their best interest to make the job of two or three people into one job, so you are stretched to your limit to do the work of two or sometimes three people, but you are never paid more for your work.  You pray you don’t get sick, or your child does not become sick, for a sick day could mean not being able to have enough money for your rent and basic bills.  You have to work 2 jobs to meet the demands of having a roof over your head.  You live one paycheck away from sleeping on the street.Unfortunately, America hasn't changed much at all- from the beginning it's always been the rich vs the poor- We think all this angst and bad politics and injustices and economic inequality is NEW- It ain't new. The debt crisis has also spread to nearly every state as 46 states out of 50 states are on the verge of bankruptcy and many of our cities are going broke. Detroit is the epitome of a Third World city. America’s infrastructure is collapsing as evidenced by the pitiful condition of our roads which are quickly obtaining Third World status.  Toffler argued that society is undergoing an enormous structural change, a revolution from an industrial society to a "super-industrial society". This change overwhelms people, he believed, the accelerated rate of technological and social change leaving people disconnected and suffering from "shattering stress and disorientation"—future shocked. Toffler stated that the majority of social problems are symptoms of future shock. In his discussion of the components of such shock he popularized the term "information overload." Currently we have 'misinformation overload' as political scandals go,people in our society are now  feeling the disorientation shelled out by the news media . Now nothing is ever the same . Welcome to the future!

IRS America’s bloated system.

IRS Inspector General Russell George (left) and Steven MillerApril that the IRS singled out conservative groups for scrutiny, but the officials decided not to inform President Obama of the issue, White House spokesman Jay Carney said Monday. Ha hoe hum. So it goes with the White House claim that it knew nothing — nothing! — about the ** targeting of conservative groups by the Internal Revenue Service.

OK. We are all honest tax paying Americans ( or at least some ) we give our fair share and expect that our Governmental is well behaved .Is the IRS turning into a kind of common enemy of Average Americans . After all we are paying way too many taxes , we have already seen our government squander our tax dollars into wars on drugs and terror . Hardly any benefit to us . Simple: because the government needs money, and this is not likely to change. Millions of Americans owe a lot of money to the IRS. Not many of us would volunteer to pay if not for the threat of the IRS enforcement.The first income tax was enacted in 1862 to fund the Civil War. During that war a person who earned from $600 to $10,000 a year was taxed at a rate of 3%, which was not too onerous considering the fact that the federal government was financing an enormous active military effort. People who earned more than ten thousand dollars paid a higher rate of taxation. Sales taxes were increased and the first “inheritance” tax was imposed. The Act of 1862 created the office of Commissioner of Internal Revenue. The Commissioner was given the power to enforce the tax laws by prosecution and by the seizure of earnings and private property. The income tax was abolished in 1872, but was briefly revived in 1894-95. In 1895 the Supreme Court declared the income tax to be a violation of the United States Constitution and therefore illegal.Today America has an enormous, complex and deliberately bewildering tax code which, in its ponderous printed bulk, makes all of the world’s written moral codes  what has America’s bloated bloodsucking taxation bureaucracy been up to lately? Well. . .a recent examination of Internal Revenue Service employees by the Treasury Department’s inspector general has determined that these taxpayer-supported parasites spend more than half of their on-line time at work visiting chat rooms, gambling, making stock trades and drooling over video pornography.

Deputy inspector general for tax affairs, Pamela Gardiner, put 16,000 I.R.S. employees under the microscope and discovered that most of their time at work was spent attending to personal business. Almost a quarter of the I.R.S. staff hung out in chat rooms. A fifth of them spent their time researching personal financial information. Seven percent spent their time shopping. Many of them frequented gambling and pornography services. So, to hell with you Mister and Ms Taxpayer.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) says he is not happy about the crappy state of affairs at the I.R.S. He noted that during this year’s tax season 37% of taxpayers calling the I.R.S. for tax information didn’t get their calls answered at all. The sorry tax slaves who did manage to get a response were given wrong answers almost half of the time (47%). Grassley wondered aloud whether I.R.S. employees were ignoring taxpayer inquiries because they were engrossed in personal activities online.

In a separate investigation, the I.R.S. inspector general monitored 82,000 incoming e-mails at the I.R.S. and discovered that almost half of them (47% again) involved non-business matters such as daily jokes, high school reunion news and news blurbs from pop-culture websites.

A wise government would never abuse its citizens this way. A dignified people would never tolerate such abuse. In a democratic republic (America?) the citizens could actually abolish a tyrannical and wasteful taxing authority. They could secure their private property. They could send the parasites packing. They could repeal the Sixteenth Amendment. It would only require determination. Two IRS managers have already lost their jobs, and it seems likely that others will, too, as Congress conducts hearings to determine who's at fault, and who bears the political responsibility. But the criminal prosecutions that some members of Congress are calling for seem unlikely and far fetched  This scandal is about bureaucratic screw-ups and inefficiency, not political manipulation of the IRS, which the American public has reason to fear.

NOTES AND COMMENTS:

** There are many ways to influence people or an organization, so in investigating the IRS audits of conservative groups, although it would be convincing (and legally determinative) to find a secret tape or a secret email from Obama ordering the policy, that really wasn’t necessary in order to let the IRS know what he wanted. Obama set the tone as a matter of public record, through speeches that were not the least bit subtle:

The president derided “tea baggers*.” Vice President Joe Biden compared them to “terrorists.” In more than a dozen speeches Mr. Obama raised the specter that these groups represented nefarious interests that were perverting elections. “Nobody knows who’s paying for these ads,” he warned. “We don’t know where this money is coming from,” he intoned.
In case the IRS missed his point, he raised the threat of illegality: “All around this country there are groups with harmless-sounding names like Americans for Prosperity, who are running millions of dollars of ads against Democratic candidates . . . And they don’t have to say who exactly the Americans for Prosperity are. You don’t know if it’s a foreign-controlled corporation.”
Short of directly asking federal agencies to investigate these groups, this is as close as it gets.

The Big e-mail deal.

President Obama can't take all the Blame
on everything as of yet.......

The scandal with the Benghazi e-mails seems to be getting bigger . A few Nights ago I was tuning in to hear the Micheal Savage show  on the radio. Savage said something that drew my attention . He said that "some one from within was leaking things out." Sure , he might be right . I am  quoting Savage not  in in verbatim,but (my emphasis).   Honestly I am at the point that I don't believe either the Democrats  along with Obama , or the Republicans  . All the wire taps , and all the memos, typos and e-mails . It's Washington  D.C.'s crazy circus . Yes , they or whom ever want it to be like Watergate . Soon we all be hearing about possible "wire taps" on Tea Party organizations . Worse still to come  " Arms sales to Syrian Rebels scandal " . With Obama taking the hit .   Attorney General Eric Holder appoints two U.S. attorneys to lead a pair of investigations into possible unauthorized disclosures of classified information. Major Garrett of CBS News, that Republicans were behind the false leaks. explicit confirmation  ? CNN has obtained an e-mail sent by a top aide to President Barack Obama about White House reaction to the deadly attack last September 11 on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, that apparently differs from how sources characterized it to two different media organizations. The actual e-mail from then-Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategic Communications Ben Rhodes appears to show that whomever leaked it did so in a way that made it appear that the White House was primarily concerned with the State Department's desire to remove references and warnings about specific terrorist groups so as to not bring criticism to the department. Either case . My view these actions are no way taking the emphasis away from the Obama administration . I feel that there was "failure" on the Presidents part , and the State Department in regards to Libya . If you all remember  Press Secretary who in response to a question asking “What happened at Benghazi” said at 9/14/2012 press conference ” We have no information to suggest that it was a preplanned attack. The unrest we’ve seen around the region has been in reaction to a video that Muslims, many Muslims find offensive.” and again . In the same press conference CARNEY said: 

CARNEY: We also need to understand that this is a fairly volatile situation and it is in response not to United States policy, and not to, obviously, the administration, or the American people, but it is in response to a video, a film that we have judged to be be reprehensible and disgusting. That in no way justifies any violent reaction to it, but this is not a case of protests directed at the United States writ large or at U.S. policy, this is in response to a video that is offensive to Muslims.

Nothing changes my mind . I think was also have too much government corruption in the United States  that either political party can't  be "trusted" . All the investigations are all just going to get bigger , and perhaps they are all hype or-castrated by whom ever is behind the "leaks" and "misinformation" .

NOTES AND COMMENTS:

There are also two "stories" circulating about the Late Chris Stevens  that are Equally disturbing 

The American Ambassador killed last Sept. 11 in a brutal attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi refused offers for more security at the compound, according to a bombshell report.

Christopher Stevens, the U.S. Ambassador to Libya, who was killed along with three other Americans after terrorists stormed the mission, twice turned down offers from senior military officials for additional security at the facility, McClatchy news services reported.   (the Other version ) Hours before US Ambassador Christopher Stevens died in a terrorist attack in Libya, he sent Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a cable warning that local militias were threatening to take away security officers guarding the US diplomats. The cable, which Stevens submitted on the morning of Sept. 11, 2012, relayed the warning that Libyan militia “would not continue to guarantee security in Benghazi, a critical function they asserted they were currently providing.” Militia leaders had previously expressed anger at US support of a certain candidate for Libyan prime minister and consequentially planned to extract their security.

Another "scandal" Oh Mr. Pres............

Yes, “idle hands are the devil's workshop.” Jon Stewart skewered the IRS for targeting conservative groups and bashed President Obama for validating the "tinfoil behatted."  It's hard to say how much again President Obama knew about the IRS . Certainly enough the IRS' targeting of Tea Party groups  and definitely looks like something the Democrats , and their leaders would have  pulled off during Obama's  run for reelection . It's vary grainy now . Along with Benghazi , now Department of Justice subpoena of AP reporters's phone calls in association with an investigation into a possible government leak regarding a foiled bomb plot in Yemen. What get's me is that the President can't give a straight answer on any thing lately ..  he being attacked on all sides , and he fighting back mad . President Barack Obama in an official statement released Tuesday evening condemned the Internal Revenue Service for targeting conservative groups, calling the agency’s actions “intolerable” and “inexcusable.” “I have now had the opportunity to review the Treasury Department watchdog’s report on its investigation of the IRS personnel who improperly targeted conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status. And the report’s findings are intolerable and inexcusable,” the statement reads.Marco Rubio told the Senate on Wednesday.President Barack Obama’s “culture of intimidation” led to the scandalous IRS targeting of conservative groups. President Obama appears to have given the IRS "greater" powers as the administration prepares to hand the IRS far greater power to fully implement the Affordable Care Act this year.  The White House has requested hundreds of millions of dollars to hire new agents who would oversee the various tax breaks and credits included in the ACA. But the scandal over the IRS' targeting of Tea Party groups could tarnish an agency that is already far from popular, giving Republicans an opportunity to block those funds — and perhaps even achieve a long-held goal of crippling ObamaCare. President Obama’s appearance of boredom and disinterest toward Governor Romney during the first presidential debate, and Vice President Biden’s disrespectful grinning at Vice-Presidential candidate Paul Ryan, were an indication of something dangerously wrong with the Washington political culture. Many conservatives view Democrats, as not merely wrong but stupid, and many liberals view Republicans as not merely wrong but evil. If your opponents are evil, anything goes. Isn’t it ironic that, to Obama everything is Bush’s fault during the Bush administration. But, under his own administration….nothing is his fault….it’s ALWAYS someone else’s. Amazing.

Mrs. Clinton's tell all book.

Mrs. Clinton's tell all book might reveal her
inner frustrations.

The-as-yet untitled book is skedded for publication June 2014. Mrs. Clinton  has a deal for a memoir and policy book about her years in the Obama administration, Simon & Schuster told The Associated Press. The book has yet to be titled and is tentatively scheduled for June 2014. National Enquirer calls it a "reveling book" about the Obama administration . The GLOBE reports : In a world exclusive, has learned that President Barack Obama has issued a dire warning to Hillary Clinton NOT to write her planned memoir that would rip the lid off the ugly secrets in his presidency and in his marriage to Michelle. Find out what Obama said and why a bitter Hillary is ready to air the dirty laundry. Well if it is true , it show how much turmoil President Obama has on his plate . Most political "autobiographies" are a way in which a guilt ridden politician confesses , tries to paint a better picture of one self to the world . The President is worried the tome will rip the lid off the ugly secrets in his presidency and in his marriage to Michelle.“Hillary is bitter and ready to air the dirty laundry,” a source told America’s Globe magazine.Reports last month claimed Hillary is penning a $20 million tell-all book that will rip the lid off the First Family’s dirty secrets — as payback for the insults and humiliations they heaped on her and her dying hubby Bill.“The President and First Lady cruelly back stabbed the Clintons even as they loyally battled to keep the Obama's in the White House,” a source said. Author Ed Klein  Klein made some pretty shocking allegations about the White House response to the attacks, including that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ordered more security at the embassy only to have her request denied. He also said that her husband, Bill Clinton, encouraged her to resign rather than to take the full blame for the attacks on the embassy.Now the question is Hillary Clinton knew as well. The question that the press should be asking today is who gave the order to not go in and save these guys? Who made the decision, “Do not launch a plane, do not send a Marine?” Who made the decision “Let them die”? Hillary Clinton stepped up and she said she takes full responsibility. However, Ed Klein was on with Andrew Wilkow last night and he says that the Obama administration knew and Hillary requested extra security, she requested things, she was overridden, and Bill Clinton stepped in. Many people were surprised that Clinton would grant an exit interview to Fox News, and it looks as though people are even more surprised by her honesty and criticism of the Obama administration.CLINTON: But you have to I think take a step back and look at the fact that the people now in power have never been in government, never had a chance to really learn how to run agencies. You do get the impression that he and the team around him are trying to deal with the economy that is in very bad shape. And some of what he’s done we have approved of and supported and some of what he’s done, like abrogating a lot of power unto himself, personally reinstating emergency law provisions, are troubling. And, you know…I think Obama used Hillary to take the blame that he is totally guilty of.  Don't you realize that Obama NEVER exposes his faults?  never is anything but RIGHT?  He always puts the blame on others.  Hillary was TOLD to take the blame or he would ruin her.  I think she was ether tossed out on her ear, or else she ran out as fast as she could to save herself.  Yes before 2016.