Tag Archives: Bullshit Artists

U.S. officials: We didn’t ask the UK to detain Greenwald’s partner

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“U.S. officials did not ask the British government to question the partner of the journalist who first reported secrets leaked by fugitive U.S. intelligence agency contractor Edward Snowden, the White House said on Monday. British authorities did, however, give their U.S. counterparts a ‘heads up’ before detaining the partner of American journalist Glenn Greenwald, Brazilian David Miranda, the White House said. ‘This was a decision that they made on their own, and not at the request of the United States,’ White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters at a briefing. ‘This is something that they did independent of our direction,’ he added.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/08/19/u-s-officials-we-didnt-ask-the-uk-to-detain-greenwalds-partner/

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Jack Lew’s “Extraordinary Measures” on Debt Just “Cooking the Books”

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“A little known story that got absolutely no coverage from the mainstream media surfaced last week about the reports from the Treasury Department’s Financial Management Service.  The FMS reports both the Daily Treasury Statement and the Monthly Treasury Statement. According to these reports the federal deficit rose by $98 billion dollars in July, but somehow the federal government’s debt remained exactly the same at $16,699,396,000,000 for the whole month.  It seems that Treasury Secretary, Jack Lew got a bit creative and magically decided to stop the addition of more debt from showing up in the reports.  Wow, don’t we all wish we could do that?”

http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/morganbrittany/2013/08/19/jack-lews-extraordinary-measures-on-debt-just-cooking-the-books-n1667607/page/full

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NSA abuses contradict Obama and congressional claims of oversight

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“Government officials from President Obama on down have insisted the nation’s surveillance programs are subject to layers of oversight. ‘I am comfortable that the program currently is not being abused,’ Mr. Obama said in a press conference last week, when he announced new efforts at increasing transparency. ‘Part of the reason they’re not abused is because these checks are in place.’ However, the latest revelation that the NSA violated privacy rules thousands of times, as documented in an internal report — an internal report withheld from at least one leader in Congress responsible for oversight — proves they were wrong.”

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57598928/nsa-abuses-contradict-obama-and-congressional-claims-of-oversight/

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N.S.A. Calls Violations of Privacy ‘Minuscule’

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“The top National Security Agency official charged with making sure analysts comply with rules protecting the privacy of Americans pushed back on Friday against reports that the N.S.A. had frequently violated privacy rules, after the publication of a leaked internal audit showing that there had been 2,776 such ‘incidents’ in a one-year period.  Mr. DeLong, speaking to reporters on a conference call, also argued that the overwhelming majority of the violations were unintentional human or technical errors and that the existence of the report showed that the agency’s efforts to detect and correct violations of the rules were robust.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/17/us/nsa-calls-violations-of-privacy-minuscule.html?_r=2&

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Nearly Every Major Federal Agency Has Reduced Projected Furloughs

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“When sequestration was about to kick in, the Obama administration began a nearly across-the-board campaign to discuss the devastating impact the automatic cuts would have on agency operations. Furloughs, combined with hiring freezes, would disrupt the proper functioning of government, agency chiefs said, as fewer employees working fewer hours could not accomplish the same amount as a fully staffed workforce. While many federal agencies have in fact moved forward with furloughs, most major departments have reduced furlough days, or eliminated them altogether.”

http://www.govexec.com/pay-benefits/2013/08/nearly-every-major-agency-has-reduced-furloughs/68660/

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Obama has not delivered on May’s promise of transparency on drones

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“When the president acknowledges four deaths of US citizens, but not 4,000 deaths of non-Americans, he signals to the world a callous and discriminatory disregard for human life. Perhaps only a fraction of these 4,000 deaths were unlawful. But acknowledging and investigating these deaths is a matter of dignity and justice – for the survivors of strikes, their communities and their countrymen. When deaths are found to be unlawful, victims’ families and survivors have a right to reparation. Refusing to investigate deaths is a matter of disrespect both for international law and for the public’s right to know the full truth.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/08/17/obama-has-not-delivered-on-mays-promise-of-transparency-on-drones/

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With the Central Subway Project, the Only Way Out is Through

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“At times, it’s difficult to remember that voters approved the Central Subway. That’s because the project, a 1.7-mile extension of the T-line running from SoMa to Chinatown, as described in Proposition K of 2003, hardly resembles its current iteration. A $647 million budget has swelled to some $1.6 billion. An estimated daily ridership exceeding 100,000 is now pegged at 35,100.  But if misery loves company, we’ve got both. A recent U.S. Department of Transportation study of 10 major rail projects revealed an average cost-per-passenger 500 percent higher than the initial figures used to sell the idea.”

http://www.sfweekly.com/2013-08-14/news/willie-brown-central-subway-muni-tom-otterness/full/

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The Surveillance Speech: A Low Point in Barack Obama’s Presidency

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“Why, he used to think just like us when he was younger, and promises to consider our arguments. But some decisions just have to be made by the grownups. Do we know how much he loves us? Can we even imagine how awful he would feel if anything bad ever happened while it was still his job to ensure our safety? By observing Obama’s condescension, I don’t mean to suggest tone was the most objectionable part of the speech. The disinformation should bother the American people most. The weasel words. The impossible-to-believe protestations. The factually inaccurate assertions. They’re all there.”

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/08/the-surveillance-speech-a-low-point-in-barack-obamas-presidency/278565/

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DOJ, FBI admit they inflated claims about mortgage fraud crackdown last year

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“The Justice Department and FBI have quietly acknowledged they grossly overstated the scope of a mortgage fraud crackdown, which the administration heralded with much fanfare a few weeks before last year’s presidential election. The DOJ and FBI had long been dogged by claims that their numbers were inflated. Bloomberg has been reporting since October that the cases cited by Holder included charges filed during the George W. Bush administration.  Bloomberg continued to press for clarification. The administration went dark on the issue until Friday, when the FBI acknowledged in a memo that it had conducted an ‘extensive review’ and found problems.”

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/08/14/doj-fbi-admit-inflated-claims-about-mortgage-fraud-crackdown-last-year/

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Obama’s surveillance revisions omit limits on warrantless email searches

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“In pledging to make changes that could curtail the federal government’s ability to spy on Americans, President Barack Obama failed to address calls by lawmakers and experts to overhaul a law that allows the National Security Agency to search vast databases of individual Americans’ emails without court warrants. Instead, Obama called on Congress to change the USA Patriot Act, which increased the government’s ability to gather intelligence after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and the secret court that oversees NSA surveillance programs.  Obama said he still backed the surveillance programs but was trying to strike a balance.”

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/08/14/199404/obamas-surveillance-revisions.html

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