Unbridled Exuberant Arrogance

[Turtle]

First we have Eric Holder going bonkers with arrogance with him wanting to change the laws and regulations that prevent him from doing his job as he sees fit without him being hamstrung by that pesky piece of paper known as the US Constitution. Holder and Obama already have a fine history of reacting viciously when it comes to going after leaks that make Obama look bad, and turning a blind eye to leaks that make Obama look good. They are so intently focused on punishing those who leak information which doesn't present Obama in a favorable light that Holder stood there and lied to a judge to obtain the court ordered search warrant by calling James Rosen, the Fox News reporter to whom the information was leaked, a co-conspirator in the leaks. Unbelievable. He says the laws and regulations that restrict him from doing as he wants forced his hand in having to lie, subvert the regulations and break the laws, and those laws and regulations should be changed so that he's not forced to do that anymore. Poor baby.

Amid calls by some congressional Republicans for his resignation, Attorney General Eric Holder told NBC News Wednesday that he has no intentions of stepping down.

Holder has been embroiled in a furor over a Justice Department subpoena of Associated Press phone records and an investigation of leaks to Fox News correspondent James Rosen.

Holder told NBC he is uncomfortable with how some of the leak investigations have progressed. Although he approved some of the steps in the investigation, he said laws and regulations forced his hand and should be changed.

"I'm a little concerned that things have gotten a little out of whack ... I think we can do a better job than we have. We can reform those regulations, reform those guidelines to better reflect that balance,” he said.

In a back-peddling attempt to make himself look like the victim here, Holder states (boldly lies) regarding naming Rosen a "co-conspirator":

"I don't like that, because it means that me as a government official, and who has great respect for the press, is in essence saying that the reporter who is doing his or her job, and doing that very important job, is somehow branded a criminal,” he said. “And I'm just not comfortable with that. And we're going to change it."

Yeah, he's so uncomfortable with that and he has such a respect for the press that he did it anyway, because he needed to get what he wanted. But he's gonna change that so he doesn't need to be forced into lying like that again.

Read the full story on Holder here:
Holder says he has no intention of stepping down - NBC Politics

---
Now we have the White House defending the practice of gathering phone records of American citizens in "Top Secret" fashion. You know, classifying something as "Top Secret" in order to protect national security is one thing, but using "Top Secret" to make an end run around the Constitution and to protect yourself from being scrutinized in breaking the laws is quite another.

We have a Super Sekrit Court issuing Super Sekrit Court Orders now, and doing so well outside the scope of their authority.

The order, marked "Top Secret" and issued by the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court instructs Verizon Business Network Services, a subsidiary that provides internet and telecommunications provider for corporations, to hand over data including all calling records on an "ongoing, daily basis.”

Who? What? Wait! Huh? The U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court handles requests for surveillance warrants against suspected foreign intelligence agents while they are inside the United States, usually, and used to be exclusively, from the FBI. Obama and Holder have interpreted "suspected foreign intelligence agents" to mean anyone with a Verizon business account, or anyone who uses a phone on a Verizon business account, and, incidentally, anyone with a Verizon wireless cell phone, since that division of Verizon occupies the shadow under the Verizon Business Network umbrella. That's pretty nifty.

“Now that this unconstitutional surveillance effort has been revealed, the government should end it and disclose its full scope, and Congress should initiate an investigation,” Michelle Richardson, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement. “This disclosure also highlights the growing gap between the public’s and the government’s understandings of the many sweeping surveillance authorities enacted by Congress.”

The law on which the order explicitly relies is the "business records" provision of the USA Patriot Act.

Senators Ron Wyden of Oregon and Mark Udall of Colorado, both Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a March 2012 letter to Attorney General Eric Holder that most Americans would be “stunned to learn the details of how these secret court opinions have interpreted section 215 of the Patriot Act.”

Back in 1975 when the Church Committee was investigating the intelligence services and intelligence gathering of the CIA, NSA, FBI promted by Watergate, Frank Church having noted the NSA's mandate to never direct it's surveillance activities domestically, also noted, "The NSA's capability at any time could be turned around on the American people, and no American would have any privacy left, such is the capability to monitor everything: telephone conversations, telegrams, it doesn't matter." And thanks to Bush's Patriot Act, and then Obama taking the football and running with it (as all presidents do), that's exactly what is happening now.

Read the rest of that little Verizon gem here:
Obama administration defends phone record seizure, does not confirm Verizon report - U.S. News

And the Guardian story that broke it:
NSA collecting phone records of millions of Verizon customers daily | World news | The Guardian

 

[Brisco]

Phew........

Title of thread you came up with had me worried that I finally Got To Ya...........

Other than that......I couldn't agree with you any more over this issue vs anything else we have agreed upon/disagreed upon in that past.

My Opinion..........Holder needs to be tried, convicted, then taken out and Hung in Public Display there on the White House lawn somewhere................

 

[LDB]

Obama and Holder are lying sacks of you know what, as worthless as anything could be. We are all victims of their stupidity and the stupidity of everyone who voted for anyone other than McCain or Romney or didn't vote at all in the general election when those were the only votes that mattered. It would be nice if either or both of them screwed up badly enough to go to jail but they'll frame someone first.

 

[RLENT]

What this whole thing clearly illustrates is that we are all victims of the unbridled stupidity of those, who when confronted with the substance of the (original) Patriot Act, blindly and mindlessly replied (like the good little goose-steppers they truly are) that it was somehow "no big deal" ... and unless you were a terrorist you had really "nothing to worry about" ...

Yeah, uh-huh ... riiight ...

 

[layoutshooter]

The crimes are starting and being pushing out of the White House. Holder is a willing partner and so are the Republicans and Democrats. This government is totally out of control and headed deeper and deeper into tyranny. We, as a nation, has allowed this, and in many cases encouraged it, and it is up to us to put an end to it. Of course, every thing that anyone one in this thread says to point this out, makes all targets of the tyrants. Get used to it. It is what the United States is without the Constitution.

 

[Turtle]

​

The stuff that's come out, from Fast and Furious to targeted killings of American citizens to the IRS targeting Tea Partiers to invading the privacy of Americans to the revenge on unflattering leaks to... well, the list goes disturbingly on and on, and every one of these that comes out is even more beyond-outrageous than the last.

Kinda makes you wonder what all they are doing that we don't have a clue about, doesn't it?

If you have to hide what you are doing, what you are doing is almost certainly wrong.

 

[skyraider]

First we have Eric Holder going bonkers with arrogance with him wanting to change the laws and regulations that prevent him from doing his job as he sees fit without him being hamstrung by that pesky piece of paper known as the US Constitution. Holder and Obama already have a fine history of reacting viciously when it comes to going after leaks that make Obama look bad, and turning a blind eye to leaks that make Obama look good. They are so intently focused on punishing those who leak information which doesn't present Obama in a favorable light that Holder stood there and lied to a judge to obtain the court ordered search warrant by calling James Rosen, the Fox News reporter to whom the information was leaked, a co-conspirator in the leaks. Unbelievable. He says the laws and regulations that restrict him from doing as he wants forced his hand in having to lie, subvert the regulations and break the laws, and those laws and regulations should be changed so that he's not forced to do that anymore. Poor baby.



In a back-peddling attempt to make himself look like the victim here, Holder states (boldly lies) regarding naming Rosen a "co-conspirator": Yeah, he's so uncomfortable with that and he has such a respect for the press that he did it anyway, because he needed to get what he wanted. But he's gonna change that so he doesn't need to be forced into lying like that again.

Read the full story on Holder here:
Holder says he has no intention of stepping down - NBC Politics

---
Now we have the White House defending the practice of gathering phone records of American citizens in "Top Secret" fashion. You know, classifying something as "Top Secret" in order to protect national security is one thing, but using "Top Secret" to make an end run around the Constitution and to protect yourself from being scrutinized in breaking the laws is quite another.

We have a Super Sekrit Court issuing Super Sekrit Court Orders now, and doing so well outside the scope of their authority.
Who? What? Wait! Huh? The U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court handles requests for surveillance warrants against suspected foreign intelligence agents while they are inside the United States, usually, and used to be exclusively, from the FBI. Obama and Holder have interpreted "suspected foreign intelligence agents" to mean anyone with a Verizon business account, or anyone who uses a phone on a Verizon business account, and, incidentally, anyone with a Verizon wireless cell phone, since that division of Verizon occupies the shadow under the Verizon Business Network umbrella. That's pretty nifty.



Back in 1975 when the Church Committee was investigating the intelligence services and intelligence gathering of the CIA, NSA, FBI promted by Watergate, Frank Church having noted the NSA's mandate to never direct it's surveillance activities domestically, also noted, "The NSA's capability at any time could be turned around on the American people, and no American would have any privacy left, such is the capability to monitor everything: telephone conversations, telegrams, it doesn't matter." And thanks to Bush's Patriot Act, and then Obama taking the football and running with it (as all presidents do), that's exactly what is happening now.

Read the rest of that little Verizon gem here:
Obama administration defends phone record seizure, does not confirm Verizon report - U.S. News

And the Guardian story that broke it:
NSA collecting phone records of millions of Verizon customers daily | World news | The Guardian

Mr. T is all over this one, good job.........way past 1500 words,,just kidding.....I like dots...

 

[layoutshooter]

​

The stuff that's come out, from Fast and Furious to targeted killings of American citizens to the IRS targeting Tea Partiers to invading the privacy of Americans to the revenge on unflattering leaks to... well, the list goes disturbingly on and on, and every one of these that comes out is even more beyond-outrageous than the last.

Kinda makes you wonder what all they are doing that we don't have a clue about, doesn't it?

The congress AND the press are willing partners. The press is only feigning outrage over the "attacks" on the free press. Most of our "news outlets" are willing shills of Obama and the government. Nothing of what is really going on is coming out. Congress is wallowing in their new found powers of control over the people.

Obama and Co. are being assisted in their coup.

 

[davekc]

I would be shocked if better than half the country even knows this stuff is going on.
Last poll shows 48 percent supporting this administration. Just can't make this stuff up.
Yeah, looking more like a Nixon era every day.
Well....almost. Now we give a lot of stuff out for free so people are dumbed to look the other way.

 

[layoutshooter]

I would be shocked if better than half the country even knows this stuff is going on.
Last poll shows 48 percent supporting this administration. Just can't make this stuff up.
Yeah, looking more like a Nixon era every day.
Well....almost. Now we give a lot of stuff out for free so people are dumbed to look the other way.

Popcorn ducks are the easiest ducks to kill. There is a reason it is illegal to "care" for wild animals. The same laws should apply to people.

 

[denny2010]

My kind of lady ( in photo above )

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using EO Forums mobile app

 

[Turtle]

I would be shocked if better than half the country even knows this stuff is going on. Last poll shows 48 percent supporting this administration. Just can't make this stuff up. Yeah, looking more like a Nixon era every day.

Not only will people turn a blind eye to whatever "their man" does wrong (be they Republican or Democrat) but in this case, people are so enamored with him that they figure whatever he does, he has a good and just reason for doing it. Noting the Nixon era isn't that far off, where Nixon said when the President does it, it's not wrong, because it needs to be done. That's the very thinking that many people have about Obama.

In a time of financial woes for the government, the NSA recently broke ground on an $860 million data center at Fort Meade, Maryland that will span more than 600,000 square feet, including 70,000 square feet of technical space. Scheduled for completion in 2016, the center’s {publicly stated} mission will be to protect national security networks and providing U.S. authorities with intelligence and warnings about cyber threats. The project is part of the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative (CNCI), which the White House launched in 2008 to provide a unified approach to securing America’s digital infrastructure.

“With this new state-of-the-art computing center, Maryland and the NSA will continue to protect America from cyber terrorists, spies, and thugs,” said Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski of Maryland, Chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee and senior member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. “Maryland is the global epicenter of cybersecurity, leading the way in finding cyber-tech solutions that make our country safer, and creating cyber-warrior jobs that make our economy stronger.”

Gag me with a spoon.

Twenty-five miles due south of Salt Lake City, a massive construction project is nearing completion. The heavily secured site (makes Fort Knox look like an open door) belongs to the National Security Agency. The NSA says the Utah Data Center is a facility for the intelligence community that will have a major focus on cyber security. Published reports suggest it could hold at least 5 zettabytes of data. That's a really, really lot. It's 5x 10[SUP]21[/SUP] bytes of data, or, more than 50,000 times the all of the words ever spoken by every human being who has ever lived.

A month ago, asked if the Utah Data Center would hold the data of American citizens, General Keith B. Alexander, Director of the NSA said, "No...we don't hold data on U.S. citizens," adding that the NSA staff, "take protecting your civil liberties and privacy as the most important thing that they do, and securing this nation."

We now know that to be a lie. A really big one. They don't give a furry little rat's behind about your civil liberties and privacy. And they do, absolutely, store the data of American citizens, as we found out today from the story in the OP and from the honorable Senator from California, Diane Feinstein when she revealed that the Verizon deal in the OP was nothing more than a routine 3-month renewal of an ongoing process that's been going on for YEARS. “This is the exact three-month renewal of what has been in place for the past seven years,” Feinstein asid. “This renewal is carried out by the [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court] under the business records section of the PATRIOT Act. Therefore, it is lawful." She also added, "It’s called protecting America.”

The honorable and criminally retarded Senator from Georgia, Clarence Saxby Chambliss, stated, "This is nothing new. This has been going on for seven years … every member of the United States Senate has been advised of this."

"To my knowledge, there has not been any citizen who has registered a complaint,” he said.

“It has proved meritorious because we have collected significant information on bad guys, but only on bad guys, over the years, he added”

If there was anyone who needed to be bіtch-slapped by a 12-year-old-crack whоre, it's Feinstein and Chambliss. When she's done with them, then Obama, Holder, DOD, DOJ, and Congress. It's out of control.

 

[Moot]

Phew........

Title of thread you came up with had me worried that I finally Got To Ya...........

Knowing a bit of the history between the two of you, that's a great line!

 

[Moot]

Yeah, looking more like a Nixon era every day.
Well....almost.

Nixon and crew are beginning to look like Boy Scouts compared to this administration. The biggest difference between the two is one was a crook and the other is the Messiah.

 

[Turtle]

Here's a new one to get outraged over. The Washington Post and The Guardian reported that the NSA and FBI can scour the nation's main Internet companies, extracting audio, video, emails and other documents to help analysts track not just a person's Internet goings on, but a person's movements and contacts. Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube and Apple were all included. The FBI has had direct access to all of the Internet backbones in this country since the early 90s, but that was just raw data (although they can track endpoints and TCP/IP packets with ease. But now we find out they've directly connected to these companies, as well.

There are also rumblings, which came out Thursday night in a report from The Wall Street Journal, of yet a third secret program letting the NSA tap into credit card transaction records. The White House, shockingly, had no comment on that one.

But wait! There's more!

After a public outrage, and likely after the NSA reading this thread, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, in an unusual late-night statement Thursday declassified the key details about one of the programs.

Obviously, they never should have been classified in the first place. Duh.

He insisted the phone-tracking efforts were legal, limited in scope and necessary to detect terrorist threats, basically nothing to see here, move along.

From the You Can't Make It Up Department...

"The unauthorized disclosure of a top secret U.S. court document threatens potentially long-lasting and irreversible harm to our ability to identify and respond to the many threats facing our nation," Clapper said of the phone-tracking program.

He's actually claiming that the fact that it's now known that they are collecting information about Americans makes it harder to identify threats to the national security.

The phone records program has been taken out of context, Clapper alleged. His defense was echoed hours earlier by leaders of Congress' intelligence panels, who dismissed the furor over what they said was standard three-month renewal to a program that's operated for seven years.

So, basically, Clapper and the Dynamic Duo of Feinstein and Chambliss are trying to get us to swallow the notion that since they've been this for seven years, it ain't that bog a deal.

Committee leaders also said the program recently helped thwart what would have been a significant domestic terrorist attack.

They offered no specifics and couldn't come up with any when asked.

My two favorite statement from Clapper make up a wonderful oxymoron.

"The NSA must collect the phone data in broad swaths," Clapper said, "because collecting it narrowly would make it harder to identify terrorism-related communications."

"The court prohibits the government from indiscriminately rummaging through the phone data without evidence of a terrorist group connection," he said.

We're not allowed to collect indiscriminately, but that's how we have to do it, anyway. Unbelievable.

Voice of Sanity:
"The American public can't be kept in the dark about the basic architecture of the programs designed to protect them," said Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn.

Voice of Sanity:
"The National Security Agency's seizure and surveillance of virtually all of Verizon's phone customers is an astounding assault on the Constitution," said Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.

Voice of a Complete and Total Idiot:
"I'm a Verizon customer. I could care less if they're looking at my phone records. ... If you're not getting a call from a terrorist organization, you got nothing to worry about," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

Here's the full AP story on all of this. It's very informative.
Associated Press

 

[layoutshooter]

This is what the majority of voters want. Get used to it. It will get worse. The next election is going to be a train wreck. The United States of American no longer exists. The Constitution is dead and the country died with it.

The programs that the Soviets put in place way back in the early 1900's have paid off for them. Infiltrate the schools and you will eventually control the country. It worked.

 

[skyraider]

This is what the majority of voters want. Get used to it. It will get worse. The next election is going to be a train wreck. The United States of American no longer exists. The Constitution is dead and the country died with it.

The programs that the Soviets put in place way back in the early 1900's have paid off for them. Infiltrate the schools and you will eventually control the country. It worked.

You forgot to add the snooping now on our phones, wow,,now we are paying for someone to listen in on our calls and computer transactions...guess some little nerd will make a note you bought groceries at a foreign owned grocery soon...omy

 

[jimby82]

Here's a chilling thought for everyone, and especially Layout. Remember how Verizon couldn't explain the increased data usage on your phones? Just makes you wonder who really was "using" all that bandwidth?

 

[layoutshooter]

Here's a chilling thought for everyone, and especially Layout. Remember how Verizon couldn't explain the increased data usage on your phones? Just makes you wonder who really was "using" all that bandwidth?

Makes you think, eh?

 

[letzrockexpress]

Popcorn ducks are the easiest ducks to kill. There is a reason it is illegal to "care" for wild animals. The same laws should apply to people.

Just to be clear is this popped or unpopped?