Silly Interview Sketch
Continue reading ‘night owl chat continued – a bit of monty python’
Archive for June 6th, 2013
Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls, brothers and sisters, welcome to LibLib’s TOD Soul Music Revue, guaranteed to get you dancing and soothe the day’s cares away.
Arthur Conley – “Sweet Soul Music”
Sam Cooke – “A Change is Gonna Come”
06
Jun
13
DC to NC
Charlotte-Douglas International Airport
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Text of the President’s remarks here
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RT if you agree: Every student in America deserves access to high-speed internet at school: at.wh.gov/lN576, twitter.com/whitehouse/sta…
— The White House (@whitehouse) June 7, 2013
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When you get water on your lens, just call your pics ‘arty’ 😎
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So, doughty warrior of the glibertarians Glenn Greenwald has a MAJOR SCOOP: the National Security Agency obtained a warrant from the FISA court to have Verizon Business hand over millions of phone records. SHOCK! ALARM! OBAMA IS SPYING ON YOU!
Now, I don’t mean to be glib myself. The expanded powers given to intelligence agencies in the wake of 9/11 are a valid subject of debate. Barack Obama’s NDU speech in which he wants to work to curtail the Presidency’s expanded powers is an indication on where he stand on this issue.
But comparing the NSA’s latest data mining to what was occurring under the Bush administration is an exercise in the purest sophistry, and a way for Mr. Greenwald to drive clicks to his Guardian website. (And, really, Guardian, why do you employ a writer who BEGS FOR DONATIONS on your website? )
Continue reading ‘Intelligence agency conducts intelligence. News at 11.’
2:55: President Obama Speaks at Mooresville Middle School, North Carolina
3:30: Google+ Hangout: National “Show and Tell” on Connected Classrooms
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HuuuuUUUUuuuge thanks to UT for today’s posts: legend! Will be back in a while with a This & That, only seven hours late for my work deadline, I’m amazing 😎
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TPM: In response to a report by the Guardian about the National Security Agency collecting telephone records of millions of Verizon customers, a senior Obama administration official provided this statement to TPM: The article discusses what purports to be an order issued by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court under a provision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that authorizes the production of business records. Orders of the FISA Court are classified. On its face, the order reprinted in the article does not allow the Government to listen in on anyone’s telephone calls. The information acquired does not include the content of any communications or the name of any subscriber. It relates exclusively to metadata, such as a telephone number or the length of a call.
@BarackObama could come out, read The Patriot Act to us in its entirety, get heckled & MSM would report on the heckling, not the substance
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Andie Hussein Walsh (@andie_walsh) June 06, 2013Y'all standing in your apartment parking lot mooning the sky to see if it will show up on Google Earth but #NSA is invading your privacy? Oh
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April (@ReignOfApril) June 06, 2013Information of the sort described in the Guardian article has been a critical tool in protecting the nation from terrorist threats to the United States, as it allows counterterrorism personnel to discover whether known or suspected terrorists have been in contact with other persons who may be engaged in terrorist activities, particularly people located inside the United States.
Y'all can't figure out how Facebook ads seem to know you better than your Mama but #NSA is interested in how you're stealing cable? Okay.
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April (@ReignOfApril) June 06, 2013Shorter Google: People who use Google's services are outraged at the NSA collecting phone records? Hahahaha. Tell us more.
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Nerdy Wonka (@NerdyWonka) June 06, 2013As we have publicly stated before, all three branches of government are involved in reviewing and authorizing intelligence collection under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Congress passed that act and is regularly and fully briefed on how it is used, and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court authorizes such collection.
Spoiler: you've been hoodwinked by GG's shtick of turning the mundane into Doomsday.
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Jordan Ashby (@JM_Ashby) June 06, 2013You want something to be mad about? If Congress does nothing, student loan interest rates will skyrocket on July 1st. That is outrageous.
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Nerdy Wonka (@NerdyWonka) June 06, 2013There is a robust legal regime in place governing all activities conducted pursuant to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. That regime has been briefed to and approved by the Court. And, activities authorized under the Act are subject to strict controls and procedures under oversight of the Department of Justice, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the FISA Court, to ensure that they comply with the Constitution and laws of the United States and appropriately protect privacy and civil liberties.
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06
Jun
13
Rise and Shine
President Barack Obama talks on the phone with Prime Minister Mario Monti of Italy aboard Air Force One, June 6, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
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President Obama’s image juxtaposed with this discussion says a lot about how far we’ve come but how there is much more progress needed
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Ken Wheaton: Last week, a new ad from Cheerios was deemed controversial when media outlets discovered that the racist contingent of the idiocracy known as the YouTube comment section trashed the ad for featuring a mixed-race couple and a biracial child.
But according to data from Ace Metrix, Americans like the ad. In fact, “Good for Your Heart” (called “Just Checking” on YouTube) tested the highest of six new Cheerios ads this year and garnered attention and likeability scores 9% and 11% “above the current 90-day norm for cereals.”
More here
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Jeffrey Goldberg: Now Rice will be, in effect, Kerry’s supervisor. McCain and Graham, by turning Rice into the scapegoat of the Benghazi debacle, have inadvertently allowed the president to bring her into the innermost ring of power, in a role that requires no Senate confirmation.
Honored to be named the President's next NSA. To all my @USUN & @StateDept colleagues, we've accomplished a ton. Thanks for 4.5 great years.
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Susan Rice (@AmbassadorRice) June 05, 2013In the highly centralized White House foreign-policy and national-security operation (critics would call it overcentralized, and they have a point) the secretary of state, even one of Kerry’s stature, does comparatively little to set the administration’s overarching policy. It will be Rice’s job to interpret the president’s broadest wishes and put them into place across several government departments.
Her influence will be especially pronounced, I think, because she is part of Obama’s original foreign-policy team — in what could have been a near-suicidal career move, Rice, a former official in President Bill Clinton’s administration, signed on to Obama’s campaign when his victory didn’t seem at all assured. Her appointment today is partly payback for her loyalty, and a thumb in the eyes of her Senate critics. It is also a sign that the president and Rice are in sync on a broad set of issues, and here is where it gets interesting.
More here
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New York Times: Wisconsin and Minnesota are neighboring states with long traditions of caring for the least fortunate, but, at the moment, only one of them is concerned about the health of the poor and uninsured. In February, more than 130,000 Minnesota residents who lack health insurance became eligible for coverage when the state expanded its Medicaid program under the health care reform law. That will save the state $129 million in the first two years alone.
Wisconsin, however, has chosen to take the path of indifference. On Tuesday, the Republicans who control the State Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee voted to reject the expansion of Medicaid, even though it would have covered 85,000 people at less cost to the state. The committee was marching in lock step behind the governor, Scott Walker, who claims to be worried that federal financing will run out. What’s really going on, of course, is that state Republicans have made poor people the victims of their ideological resistance to President Obama and his health care law.
More here
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NSA's three month surveillance order for Verizon dates from right after the Boston bombing.
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Gideon Lichfield (@glichfield) June 06, 2013*********
So, @ggreenwald is *still* claiming he's been a lifelong opponent of eeeeeevil Presidents? Aaaaaah..... http://t.co/gfpDZtxABn
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TheObamaDiary.com (@TheObamaDiary) June 06, 2013*******
This is a MUST read by Joshua Foust if you want to know the truth about the NSA story and not fall for Glenn Greenwald’s and the media’s nonsense. Click Here
Delicious irony: On Sunday, @ggreenwald accused Obama aides of 'cashing in', just before he launched personal fundraiser on Guardian website
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TheObamaDiary.com (@TheObamaDiary) June 06, 2013Joshua Foust: 1. Congress voted to legalize expansive surveillance powers in 2001 (The USA PATRIOT ACT), 2008 (retroactive immunity for warantless NSA wiretaps in the FISA Amendments Act), and in 2012 (renewing the FISA Amendments Act).
06
Jun
13
Privilege
by @Lib_Librarian – Cross posted on The People’s View
Screw You MT @codepink: FLOTUS should have been coached, long ago, on how to deal diplomatically w ppl who stand up to protest govt policies
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Nerdy Wonka (@NerdyWonka) June 05, 2013I did not grow up in an atmosphere of privilege. My dad owned his own barbershop, and my mom was a seamstress in New York’s garment district. I wanted for nothing, but I knew we were solidly working class. If I and my brothers wanted to go to university—and with our parents, it was expected—we would have to work for it. There were no college funds, and no rich uncle was going to swoop in and save us. All we had were each other, our willingness to work, and our native intelligences.
Not coming from a place of privilege, I know instinctively that most things in this life for most people come at a price, the price usually being hard struggle. The world gives up very little for free. Short cuts, when they do exist, are far and few between. As I said in my post yesterday, at first that made me a practiced cynic. Fortunately I grew out of it, and embraced the rewards that come with struggle; the struggle makes the reward all that much sweeter.
But just as cynicism infects our modern politics, so does a culture of privilege.
The Obama Diary 
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