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Too many scandals to track In the latest attempt by the Obama White House to recapture the glory days of the Nixon administration, it has been revealed that the US Department of Justice went on a fishing expedition into the telephone records of the Associated Press. They learned who everyone that any AP reporter using one of the telephones in question spoke to for months.
Government obtains wide AP phone records in probe.
As it happens, this is against the law. According to 28 CFR 50.10: “”No subpoena may be issued to any member of the news media or for the telephone toll records of any member of the news media without the express authorization of the Attorney General.”
What are the odds anyone will even be mildly disciplined for this? Zero, I’d say.
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What are the odds any of the court eunuchs in the Washington press corp will make a fuss about this – even though this an attack on free journalism? Zero, I’d say.
Some of them have gotten very mad so far. We’ll see if it makes the front pages tomorrow.
You got a real nice Freedom of the Press here. Be a real shame if something were to happen to it…
So, there’s an implication in your screed that the Attorney General didn’t know.
Wanna bet? And did some tame judge actually sign off on subpoenas?
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Who needs a subpoena? What are the AP hiding? You sound like a Red/Drug Smuggler/Terrorist/Republican with talk of things like Due Process, Probable Cause, and Subpoenas. Why do you hate America?
Given that a sub-human scumbag like Hank Paulson was able to rob trillions of taxpayers money and still be a free man, that should have surely communicated to you that anything is now possible.
Oh, what’s this I hear? The US Supreme Court has just, in the past few hours, effectively stripped farmers of the right to their own property.
No they didn’t. I hate Monsanto as much as the next guy, but let’s not make them the bad guy because the farmer broke the terms of sale between the two of them. The terms specified that the farmer couldn’t save genetically-modified soybeans that resulted from one year’s crops and use them the following year, and that’s exactly what farmer Bowman did. There is a licensing agreement that goes along with purchasing the initial soybeans, Bowman signed it, ignored the stipulations in it, and when he got caught tried to claim that Monsanto’s patent did not apply. The Supremes rightly smacked Bowman down.
It’s only a ten page decision and you can read it here: http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/12pdf/11-796_c07d.pdf
We may be seeing the beginning of the “press” peeling off from the present administration; but, they will soon glom onto the next ideologue that makes them feel “right” about themselves and their views.
The “depth” of intellect in the press corps, as reflected in print media writing or visual media presentations requires constant reinforcement from imagined commonality with political power and “social objectives.”
Monsanto has the same number of letters as… Moriarty! Holmes’s nemesis and arch-enemy! A coincidence? I think not! Therefore Monsanto MUST be EVIL!!!
Q.E.D.
RRS wrote:
‘We may be seeing the beginning of the “press” peeling off from the present administration . . . . ‘
Oh, I doubt it.
There will be a day or two of outraged vapourings from the media. President Obama will declare himself shocked ! Shocked! that this appalling and unacceptable behaviour went on. And then it will be back to business-as-usual. The default process of straining all news through the Democrat/Obama filter will be resumed directly.
The US majority media is already busy providing explanations and justifications for the IRS targeting of specific political groups, and for the activities of convicted murderer Kermit Gosnell, and those stories are both 3-5 days old. That’s about as long as the battered wife that is the US media can stay mad at her abuser. I heard a commenter on NPR today telling us how Gosnell should get a pass because he was ‘helping desperate women’ – the fact that he helped at least one ‘desparate woman’ by overdosing her to death has already been swept under the rug. The John Reginald Christie of his era is already being sanitized.
The AP-phone-records story will have a similar trajectory. President Obama and the Democrats know full well that the US media is so utterly in the tank for them that they they will never suffer any serious media pressure, beyond a few days of faux outrage. Thye have proven it a thousand times over.
llater,
llamas
Obama isn’t a man. He’s an idea.
Barrack Hussein Obama (the man) was by design or by accident fortunate enough to possess several key attributes which placed him at the very nexus of modern American left-wing thought. This has caused the line between him and “Obama” (the idea he represents) to become blurred to left wing thinkers.
He’s an impoverished minority and a privileged white man at the same time. He’s a career politician who has never had a real job and yet is possessed of a great deal of charisma as if he had. He’s a strident abortionist and yet looks so convincing when he gets all teary eyed “for the children”. He’s living proof of the left-wing version of the American dream having been accelerated up the ranks thanks to affirmative action, showing just what can happen with an unlevel playing field.
They’ve invested so much emotionally and spiritually in the cult of Obama I not sure there is anything he could now do which would cause his followers to abandon him. Things have escalated to such an extent that Obama now is modern American “liberalism”. The two are inextricably combined.
Of course that also means they’ve got all their eggs in one basket. If a scandal of sufficient magnitude occurs which then beats the odds and actually manages to stick to Obama, the left will have a severe problem. They will not be able to bring themselves to disavow Obama and throw him under the bus as is usual in politics. They will be forced to adopt the “Well actually, X is appropriate behaviour for a Commander in Chief” argument, or even better the “It’s not that bad, come on folks cut him some slack” argument.
Which of course will instantly alienate everyone but the true believers, now and forever.
“In the latest attempt by the Obama White House to recapture the glory days of the Nixon administration . . .”
Brilliant line!
Some people have been calling Obama “Bush 3”. Turns out he’s just Nixon Lite!
There are so many scandals – the IRS (tax police) targeting of pro liberty (and pro Israeli) groups.
The hitting of the Associated Press (kicking the lapdog) by Mr Holder’s “Justice Department” (Mr Holder is a well known scumbag – involved in vile conduct for many years, the fact that Obama selectd him to be A.G. speaks volumes).
Obama friend Mike Bloomberg – finally we know how the Bloomberg organisation makes so much money (it loots the confidential information of its own clients). Will Mike Bloomberg serve a day in jail? Do not hold your breath.
And, of course, the wall of lies that is Benghazi.
But will any of it have an impact?
Or will Barack Obama’s approval ratings remain at about half the population?
I suspect that only economic collapse will break the spell – and send Comrade Barack Obama and his “cultural” Marxism to the trash heap of history.
I note the disappearance of the Pigford scandal under the festering pile. Let’s mention it now and then to keep it going.
I find it interesting that Eric “Sergeant Schultz” Holder is now claiming that he knows nothing (nothing!) about this incident, and furthermore that he had recused himself from the investigation into White House leaks. In fact, it was his deputy who authorized the warrantless grab of the AP’s phone records. (Yeah, that’s the ticket!) Of course there is no paper trail of the recusal, he can’t remember when it occurred, and he isn’t saying why he (allegedly) recused himself. It’s all too pat, isn’t it? Are we really expected to believe any of that drivel?
Here’s my theory: Holder himself was the source of those leaks, and his deputy knows it and can be counted upon to give the appearance of conducting a vigorous investigation (to the point of violating the rules concerning obtaining media records) while in reality covering up Holder’s involvement. There, let Holder defend himself against that!
The man is unadulterated scum.
Q. What do you say to a politician if you see one in the gutter?
A. You congratulate them for having escaped from their normal home in the sewer!
J V
That “idea” is a clear demonstration of what happens when the process which is democracy is determined to attain specific political, social and economic objectives. Where that process becomes an instrument for specific ends, the purpose for, and function of, the process will diminish and disappear.
See, The Servile Mind by Minogue
Better yet, RRS, READ ‘The Servile Mind’!
Ah Nick Gray:
Indeed I have