News of the Week for June 16th, 2013
- Obama Scandals
- Gun Rights
- Hide the Decline
- Obamacare
- War & Terror
- National News
- Economy & Taxes
- International News
- Opinion
Obama Scandals
Snooping Concerns Emerge Over Congressional Blackberries Serviced By Verizon
Amid the revelations that the National Security Agency has been secretly monitoring the records of millions of phone calls across the country via telephone service provider Verizon, Congress is concerned that the NSA’s actions may have also captured phone calls of lawmakers and their staffers. It should be noted that Verizon is one of the main service providers to government issued Blackberries members and their staff use to communicate with one another.
Hundreds in government had advance word of Medicare action at heart of trading-spike probe
Hundreds of federal employees were given advance word of a Medicare decision worth billions of dollars to private insurers in the weeks before the official announcement, a period when trading in the shares of those firms spiked.
Officials at Hillary Clinton’s State Dept. accused of covering up sexual misconduct
A State Department whistleblower has accused high-ranking staff of a massive coverup — including keeping a lid on findings that members of then-Secretary Hillary Clinton’s security detail and the Belgian ambassador solicited prostitutes.
Lois Lerner Still Has Access to IRS Computers; Has Logged in While “On Leave”
This is precisely what we want and need: A person at the center of a federal inquiry with possible criminal dimensions f***ing about with the computer system of the agency at which she worked.
State Department has hired agents with criminal records, memo reveals
The State Department has hired an alarming number of law-enforcement agents with criminal or checkered backgrounds because of a flawed hiring process, a stunning memo obtained by The Post reveals.
Rep Stockman requests subpoena of NSA’s White House, IRS phone logs
Until now, I thought Democrats were being overly defensive as they circled the wagons around the White House, assuring everyone who would listen that the president obviously wasn’t involved. Who in Congress had overtly pointed the finger at the president?
Gun Rights
Pro-gun Republican wins vacated Democrat seat in Connecticut
A political theme being advanced by “progressives,” that pro-gun support is going to cost politicians their seats, got a harsh reality check Tuesday when Republican Samuel Belsito captured the Connecticut State Legislature’s 53rd House District. The special election, held to replace Democrat representative Bryan Hurlburt, who resigned to take a job with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, marks the first time a Republican has won the district in 40 years, The Journal Inquirer reported.
14-year-old at the center of “NRA T-Shirt Controversy” now facing possibility of 1 year in jail
Suspended and arrested after refusing to change his NRA shirt. Today, 14-year-old Jared Marcum appeared before a judge and was officially charged with obstructing an officer.
Hide the Decline
Environment &
“Green Energy”
The World Is Swimming in Shale
Nearly a third of the world’s technically recoverable natural gas and 10 percent of its oil can be found in shale formations, according to a new report by the Energy Information Administration. Thanks to fracking and horizontal drilling, there’s a bounty of oil and gas available to countries around the world .
Obamacare
Government in Healthcare
Ohio Dept. Of Insurance: Obamacare To Increase Individual-Market Health Premiums By 88 Percent
Democrats continue to try to dismiss the evidence that Obamacare will dramatically increase the cost of insurance for people who buy it on their own. But on Thursday, the Ohio Department of Insurance announced that, based on the rates submitted by insurers to date, the average individual-market health insurance premium in 2014 will come in around $420, “representing an increase of 88 percent” relative to 2013. “We have warned of these increases,” said Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor in a statement. “Consumers will have fewer choices and pay much higher premiums for their health insurance starting in 2014.”
Obamacare: Is a $2,000 deductible ‘affordable?’
Until now, much of the debate swirling around Obamacare has focused on the cost of premiums in the state-based health insurance exchanges.
Inside the GP clinic that WILL see you out of hours: It’s £70 an appointment and open all weekend. No wonder Britons flock to a Polish practice taking on the NHS
My Medyk clinic in West London is opened seven days a week
Set up in 2008 by two Polish doctors, it has 6,000 Britons among the 30,000 patients on its books
Same-day GP appointments last half an hour and cost £70
War & Terror
Obama’s Snooping Excludes Mosques, Missed Boston Bombers
Homeland Insecurity: The White House assures that tracking our every phone call and keystroke is to stop terrorists, and yet it won’t snoop in mosques, where the terrorists are.
U.S. Agencies Said to Swap Data With Thousands of Firms
Thousands of technology, finance and manufacturing companies are working closely with U.S. national security agencies, providing sensitive information and in return receiving benefits that include access to classified intelligence, four people familiar with the process said.
NSA admits listening to U.S. phone calls without warrants
National Security Agency discloses in secret Capitol Hill briefing that thousands of analysts can listen to domestic phone calls. That authorization appears to extend to e-mail and text messages too.
National
Seattle City Council approves crime-check hiring bill
The Seattle City Council today unanimously approved a bill that would prohibit employers from asking about an applicant’s criminal history until after an initial screening. Employers could reject an applicant because of a criminal record, but only if there is a legitimate business reason to do so.
Not-for-Profit Propaganda
What is the California Endowment?
Feds’ war on Western ranchers’ water rights takes a body blow
Judge refers BLM, USFS officers for potential criminal prosecution, shames DOJ lawyers
Our Partisan Bureaucracy — Lawyers Love President Obama
ThinkProgress and the English Language
See How Boehner Responded After Being Asked About Procedure That GOP Members Could Use to Revolt Against Immigration Bill
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Thursday he doesn’t “intend” to push an immigration bill that violates Republican “principles.”
CBS News confirms multiple breaches of Sharyl Attkisson’s computer
CBS News reporter Sharyl Attkisson revealed in May that her computer had been compromised. When asked about the situation, CBS News responded with a statement that it was conducting an investigation.
Economy
& Taxes
Emergency manager: Detroit won’t pay $2.5B it owes
Detroit’s emergency manager says the city is defaulting on about $2.5 billion of debt.
International
The Ghost of Chavez: Venezuela Getting Sicker
Venezuela may soon be forced to add hyperinflation to its list of socialist disasters. The FT reports that price rises last month hit an all time high while the economy careens into recession
Police crush barricades in Istanbul square, fire tear gas and water cannons at protesters
Hundreds of riot police overran improvised barricades at Istanbul’s Taksim Square on Tuesday, firing tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons in running battles with protesters who have been occupying the area for more than a week.
Data-collection program got green light from MacKay in 2011
Defence Minister Peter MacKay approved a secret electronic eavesdropping program that scours global telephone records and Internet data trails – including those of Canadians – for patterns of suspicious activity.
June 14, 1941
The first systematic mass deportations of Latvians, Lithuanians and Estonians from their Soviet-occupied homelands took place in mid-June 1941, many of them on June 14, the date now most associated with this particular atrocity.
Afghan Parliament Upholds Child Marriages, Sex Slavery, And Criminal Charges For Rape Victims
Passing the measure would have been contrary to Islamic principles.
Bacon Sandwiches Now Considered Racist In Britain
Contractor loses out on his ‘dream’ £1,000-a-week IT role after unwittingly saying he would treat his Muslim recruiter to a bacon sandwich
Iceland’s EU bid is over, commission told
Iceland’s bid to join the EU is over, the country’s foreign minister told the European Commission on Thursday
Hassan Rouhani wins Iran presidential election
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.
Opinion
Are Hispanic conservatives mythical beings?
The upcoming immigration bill fight has GOP insiders jumping through a lot of hoops these days, and it’s putting new life into the long standing debate over if and how Republicans can make more inroads with Hispanic voters. The two questions easily fit into one box, since it seems to be a given that any opposition to immigration reform will hurt Republicans in that area, and the Gang of 8 is exacerbating the situation.
Losing America
How much more will Americans take? The “fundamental transformation” of America proceeds apace. The erosion of our freedoms and traditions, once incremental and barely perceptible, accelerates daily.
How to lose 2016 in one easy amnesty bill
To say that there is disgust growing in the ranks is an understatement.
A Brief History of Media Bias
Who said that newspapers are supposed to report the news in an objective and fact-based way?
An Analysis of the Ideological Capture of an Institution, Expressed Through Interpretive Dance
Via Lee Stranahan, it’s a fun little A/V essay on how movements are made.
The Politics of Feeling
Why does the phrase “the pursuit of happiness” appear in our Declaration of Independence? Most people don’t know enough about history or political philosophy even to understand why this is an important question. Instructed with the simple-minded sentimentalism of an elementary school pageant, people cling to the phrase — along with whatever other bits and pieces of their education managed to stick in their minds — with the fierce emotion of a toddler clinging to his mother. Urging such a person to examine the facts critically is likely to produce antagonism, as if you were somehow unpatriotic for insisting that actual history is preferable to flattering mythology.
Rick Santorum and the Type A voters
Speaking at the Faith and Freedom Coalition conference in Washington on Friday, Rick Santorum offered criticism of the campaign that bested him in the 2012 GOP primary, but wound up losing the general election
America’s Vast Margin of Error
Because the U.S. has so much going for it, it’s taking everything from education to freedoms for granted.
Father’s Day: Children suffering from bias against men, says Captain Corelli author
Men are being subjected to relentless attack by a society that has become biased against fathers and in so doing threatens to undermine the welfare of thousands of children, best-selling author Louis de Bernières said today.
Dan Hannan On Anglosphere and Common Law, Civic Not Ethnic Nationality
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