In other news, Texas Governor Rick Perry vetoed a bill on Friday that would have allowed women to take legal action against wage discrimination.
He’d also like the women of New York to know that Texas is open for business.
Also — Trent Franks would like you to donate to his campaign because Planned Parenthood and the “taxpayer-funded abortion lobby” are attacking him for that thing he said about rape. Aw shucks.
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, NSA Director Keith Alexander, the former chief judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), and the deputy director of the FBI held a classified briefing for members of the Senate on Thursday afternoon, however anyone who attended the briefing would have noticed that there were a lot of empty seats.
Less than half of the Senate actually attended this all-hands-on-deck briefing, much to the dismay of Intelligence Committee chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-CA).
Only 47 of 100 senators attended the 2:30 briefing, leaving dozens of chairs in the secure meeting room empty as Clapper, Alexander and other senior officials told lawmakers about classified programs to monitor millions of telephone calls and broad swaths of Internet activity. The room on the lower level of the Capitol Visitor Center is large enough to fit the entire Senate membership, according to a Senate aide. [...]
“It’s hard to get this story out. Even now we have this big briefing — we’ve got Alexander, we’ve got the FBI, we’ve got the Justice Department, we have the FISA Court there, we have Clapper there — and people are leaving,” [Feinstein] said.
I wasn’t told about this program and I demand an explanation, but I have a plane to catch.
The author of End of America has apparently lost whatever was left of her shpadoinkle and has written a lengthy screed with bulletpoints about how Snowden might’ve been an Obama Police State plant.
Personally, I think Naomi Wolf is a false flag for Alex Jones.
Up next? IBM, Raytheon, Bechtel, Radio Shack, the Trilateral Commission — they’re all in on it, too.
So Greenwald wrote a thing yesterday in which denied ever claiming that the NSA had “direct access” to servers belonging to the tech giants. He wrote, instead, that he was merely illustrating the discrepancies between the PRISM slide and statements from the tech giants.
But Charles Johnson at LGF compiled numerous examples of Greenwald ballyhooing “direct access” as the central scoop in his original article. For example:
With this program, the NSA is able to reach directly into the servers of the participating companies and obtain both stored communications as well as perform real-time collection on targeted users.
And…
.@ggreenwald, June 9: "It means what it says: they can take things directly from the servers of those companies." http://t.co/YO7IbnSGno
— Charles Johnson (@Green_Footballs) June 15, 2013
.@ggreenwald, June 8: "Allow me to quote from the NSA document: "COLLECTION DIRECTLY FROM THE SERVERS" http://t.co/7ulENLA15u
— Charles Johnson (@Green_Footballs) June 15, 2013
NSA has direct access to tech giants' systems for user data, secret files reveal: http://t.co/Ton79LT3jB
— The Guardian (@guardian) June 6, 2013
By reporting that the NSA had “direct access” regardless of where they got the information, Greenwald was reporting that it was true. Otherwise, he would’ve written in the article and within subsequent tweets: “reportedly direct access” or “the NSA claims to have direct access, but The Guardian hasn’t been able to confirm…” There was nothing in Greenwald’s reporting indicating that it might be untrue, other than the tech giants’ refutations. But the onus is on any journalist to take responsibility for what he reports as the truth — and especially to discover from his IT expert source how such a process might work, thus confirming its existence.
He’s seriously weaseling out of what way too many people interpreted to be truthful in his original article about PRISM.
Adding… Greenwald also wrote: “Rick Perlstein falsely accuses me of not having addressed the questions about the PRISM story.” Perlstein responded here.
…discovered that the NSA was collecting phone and email information, even from innocent American citizens.
Bombshell! In 2009. Oh, and the Obama Justice Department discovered the problem and took steps to correct it during “routine oversight” efforts. Directly from the WSJ server:
A National Security Agency eavesdropping program exceeded legal limits intended to safeguard privacy, and officials have taken steps to bring the intercepts program into compliance, the Justice Department said Wednesday.
The department, in a statement, said problems with the NSA program were uncovered as the Justice Department and National Security Agency were conducting routine oversight of intelligence activities to ensure compliance with laws and court orders.
Attorney General Eric Holder has sought court approval to renew the NSA program after instituting new safeguards.
The House intelligence committee was informed of the compliance issues and is conducting an inquiry, a House congressional official said.
The New York Times on Wednesday reported on its Web site that the program intercepted private email messages and phone calls of Americans. However, intelligence officials have described the program as primarily searching for information based on data about communications, such as email addresses, subject headers and the time a message or phone call was placed.
The Justice Department said officials notified the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of the problems with the NSA program and took “comprehensive steps” to correct the matter.
Yeah, that really happened. But it’s clearly been lost down the memory hole.
Were you expecting something else?
In other news, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is expected to sign a fast-tracked forced ultrasound bill, resulting in the closure of Northern Wisconsin’s only abortion clinic.
Also — Senator Al Franken announced today that he supports releasing court orders approved under FISA (redacted, of course), echoing Google’s sentiment that this would go a long way toward silencing the conspiracy theorists.
I was dismayed to learn that Al Franken came under attack after defending the scope of FISA, because he may be the closest ally (who has the authority and gravitas to get things done) that critics have. He is an exemplary congressmen and a gift to proponents of responsible government, not your enemy.
“We need to put some salsa sauce on top of the conservative movement.” -Rev. Samuel Rodriguez at the Faith and Freedom Coalition conference
Yeah. That’ll do it. It’s the Road to Majority.
File this away for posterity. And by that I mean the next time someone blames President Obama for failing to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The House of Representatives has voted to block the administration from transferring detainees by a margin of 236 to 188 by passing an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act of 2014 (NDAA). You can read the amendment here.
None of the amounts authorized to be available to the Department of Defense may be used to transfer, release, or assist in the transfer or release, during the period beginning on the date of enactment of this Act and ending on December 31, 2014, any individual detained at Guantanamo (as such term is defined in section 1033(f)(2)) to the custody or control of the Republic of Yemen or any entity within Yemen.
As many as 56 detainees have been cleared by the Department of Defense to be released to Yemen, but the House of Representatives simply will not allow it. In total, as many as 86 out of 166 detainees have been cleared for transfer.
In addition to barring the administration from transferring detainees from Guantanamo Bay to Yemen, the latest version of the NDAA also includes language that was included in previous versions that bar the administration from transferring detainees to American soil.
Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) sponsored an amendment that would have eased the restrictions on transferring detainees to American soil, but that amendment was defeated.
The House also rejected an amendment to ease the restrictions on transferring detainees to the U.S. by a 174-249 vote.
The amendment from Smith would have called for Obama to put forward a plan to close the detention facility. It also would have lifted the U.S. restrictions for detainees and ended funding for the facility by the end of 2014.
Just as they have in the past, representatives who are opposed to closing the prison at Guantanamo presented convincing arguments such as “they are not innocent goat herders swept up by marauding United States military” and that “every elementary school, every shopping mall, every small business” will become a target.
Ooga booga!
Watch Jeb Bush pull off a wink and nod while saying we need immigration reform because immigrants are fertile.
I can’t discern if Jeb was making a case for eugenics or implying that immigrants reproduce like rabbits. I assume it’s the latter, but either way it’s not a good look.
Offensive implications aside, Jeb Bush has flip flopped on the issue of immigration reform more times than any other politician, and as recently as March came out against a pathway to citizenship and healthcare for immigrants.
“Permanent residency in this context, however, should not lead to citizenship,” Bush writes. “It is absolutely vital to the integrity of our immigration system that actions have consequences — in this case, that those who violated the laws can remain but cannot obtain the cherished fruits of citizenship.”
His rhetorical support should be taken with a grain of salt as his position may change at any time.
06/12/13 Show: The NSA Eavesdropping Story; Snowden Leaks to Hong Kong Press; A Million Questions; Greenwald's Agenda; Misleading Reporting; Where Was the Tech Vetting; Chez's Media Guide; Direct Access is is an FTP Server; Credibility and Transparency; Where Do We Draw the Counterterrorism Line; Greenwald Blocked Bob; Ron Paul and Drones; and much more.
Listen and subscribe on iTunes (it's FREE!)
Download the mp3 (56 minutes, 23mb)
06/05/13 Show: Michelle Obama Confronted By Heckler; Bobby Kennedy Remembered; Right-Wing Racism; Breitbart Reactions to Susan Rice Appointment as NSA; The Morton Downey Jr. Phenomenon; Tea Party Racist Accidentally Speaks the Truth; Glenn Beck Interviews Glenn Beck; and much more.
Listen and subscribe on iTunes (it's FREE!)
Download the mp3 (55 minutes, 23mb)
05/29/13 Show: Michele Bachmann Leaving Congress; Michele Bachmann's Greatest Hits; Crazy Sells; The Fox News Mole on Bill O'Reilly; Jan Brewer Actually Did Something Good; The Five Demands Obama Focus on the Scandals; MSNBC's Ratings and Headline News; and much more.
Listen and subscribe on iTunes (it's FREE!)
Download the mp3 (55 minutes, 23mb)
05/22/13 Show:The London Terrorist Beheading; The Oklahoma Monster-Tornado; The Climate Crisis and Extreme Weather; Alex Jones Thinks a Weather Weapon Was Used in Oklahoma; James Inhofe is Incompetent; Chris Christie and the Climate Crisis; Turning Fox News into a Victim; The Second Term Curse; and much more.
Listen and subscribe on iTunes (it's FREE!)
Download the mp3 (55 minutes, 23mb)
05/15/13 Show: The IRS Scandal and Citizens United; John Boehner Demands Jail for Culprits; No Jail Time for Bush and Culprits of Iraq, Torture, Etc; The AP Phone Records Scandal and Watergate; Benghazi-Gate Continues; ABC News Rocks the Political World; and much more.
Listen and subscribe on iTunes (it's FREE!)
Download the mp3 (55 minutes, 23mb)
05/08/13 Show: Benghazi-Gate Returns; The Bush & Reagan Era Embassy Attacks (via Facebook friend Max McGloin); Dick Cheney claims he kept us safe on September 11; InfoWars Reporter Dan Bidondi's Illiterate Message; Babies with Guns; The Psychotic NRA Convention; Exotic Game Hunters Are Closet Serial Killers; and much more.
Listen and subscribe on iTunes (it's FREE!)
Download the mp3 (56 minutes, 23mb)
