ATTENTION ALL VERIZON PHONE USERS: The National Security Agency(NSA) has been cataloging your phone calls. ALL. OF. THEM.
The best guess so far has the collection of all Verizon phone activity in the United States starting the day after the police captured the surviving Boston Marathon bombing suspect.
Bush tested, Obama Approved!
This is not a joke and I am not making this up.
Read here: NSA Collecting millions of Americans phone records daily.
To say it’s been a tough month for the President would be an understatement. It would also be completely illogical. It’s not like he’s having bad luck or catching bad breaks. He is being tripped up by snares of his own making. Obama is also reshaping National Security policy and his legacy in the mean time. My guess is by December he’ll be wishing someone reignites the birth certificate scandal.
Of course the defense being offered up by a lot of progressives and liberals for all this – Bush did it too.
No he didn’t. Not like this. Not to this magnitude. Obama passed Nixon and Bush three scandals ago.
Let me count the ways.
The spying scandals are mounting. First it was the illegal collection of AP reporter’s phone and email data. The legality of this is still in question.
Then the FBI and DoJ began the same invasive surveillance on FOX news reporter James Rosen because he, get this, reported on a story. They eventually tagged Rosen as a co-conspiritor in the leak of sensitive national defense information and named him a flight risk. That means Rosen cannot leave the country. What was the big story he broke that got him in hot water? Well, it seems Rosen got confirmation from 2 sources in the State Department that Kim Jong Un would respond with more nuclear testing if the UN Security Council passed another meaningless resolution. Now some people have called out Rosen because he said in his story that the State Department official or contractor, learned this info from “sources inside North Korea.” The theory being Rosen may have jeopardized some sources, even putting their lives in danger.
Guess what soft, liberal media, if you’re a spy inside North Korea, your life is in danger every minute you take a breath. Rosen’s obscure use of the word “sources” isn’t going to ID anyone or amp up the threat any more than it already is. North Korea only advertises what they want us to see. Any story about other events in NK would obviously come from sources within the country. This seems like a veiled scare tactic attempt by the Obama Administration to intimidate and now try and prosecute a reporter who just happens to work at a network that skewers Obama on a minute by minute basis.
All this in the name of National Security. If they can make us believe that Rosen violated NSA policy and endangered people then they can get our passively implied permission to do things like, oh I don’t know, collect all cell phone data in the US without a warrant, hell without probable cause. Just because they want it. All in the name of National Security.
But I digress. Moving on. After the Rosen story broke, a story pops up that the IRS has been targeting Tea Party groups who apply for tax exempt status. By targeting I mean, asking what their religious affiliation is, asking for donor and member lists, asking for the political affiliations of the leaders of said organizations, delaying applications for three years and counting, etc… The list of questions is pages and pages long and are questions police can’t even ask criminals without a lawyer present. It was impossible to get tax exempt status in this country from 2009 to 2012 if the name of your organization had words like freedom, take back america, prosperity, and the like.
Again liberals dismissed this as a rogue office in Cincinnati doing this on their own. Basically giving us the “These are not the drones you’re looking for. Move along, move along” routine. Turns out it’s not just the Cincy office. Turns out several offices have been doing this since long before the last election. You know the one. The election where the President got reelected in a landslide with a 23 million people still out of work. Also turns out that the director of the IRS, a Bush appointee, made 157 trips to the White House oddly enough during the exact time of this targeting tea party business.
How far do you have to go back to find a director of the IRS visiting the WH that many times? All the way to the start of the organization, then add all of them together and they still get no where near 150 visits. The last dude in charge of the IRS, who by the way was there during the mushroom cloud of the financial meltdown, visited the WH a grand total of 1 time, once, one, uno. And it was a perfunctory visit for a photo op.
And still were told there is nothing to see here. Move along, move the hell along.
A few weeks ago we saw the woman in charge of the branch of the IRS doing these invasive stall tactics, Lois Lerner, exercise her 5th amendment rights and refuse to answer any questions during a congressional hearing. I said then she was smart because her own administration was coming to lock her up. No need to hand it to them by incriminating herself.
Boy was I wrong. Turns out old Lois has a past, and her past conflicts with the administrations’ story that it was some rogue field agents who decided on their own to bring down the tea party.
Whoops. That lie just blew up.
In 1996 Lerner accused Al Salvi, a Republican State Representative from Illinois who was challenging then Democratic Congressman Dick Durbin for the open Senate seat in Illinois, with election fraud. Lerner was head of the enforcement division of the Federal Elections Commission at the time. Her accusation stemmed from an accounting error Salvi made on a personal loan to his campaign. He broke no law, committed no violation. When he tried to explain this to Lerner she said “We’ll drop the case if you promise to never run for elected office again.” Yeah, in case you are wondering, that’s illegal. Salvi asked her to put that in writing and smartly Lerner did not. So Salvi decided to proceed with the court case, and he won. But he was so tied up in this legal issue, the FEC had his money tied up, he was unable to campaign effectively and Durbin won the Senate seat.
Flash forward to 2010. Now Senator Dick Durbin (D) Illinois, sends a letter to Lerner asking her to target conservative groups who apply for tax exempt status prior to the run up for the mid-term elections. Yeah, that’s not legal and certainly not ethical.
And still we are told to move along, nothing to see here.
Then we’re told anyone who thinks there is a conspiracy is just a conspiracy nutjob. This isn’t coming from some liberal dope on MSNBC, but from the President and his spokesman.
Then the pice-de-resistance. During the congressional hearing into the IRS scandal, the tea party groups came foreword to testify. The line of questioning from the democratic congressmen was not to be believed. At one point Rep Jim McDermott says this is all their fault for applying for tax exempt status in the first place.
Watch this, you have to see to believe.
Read: Salvi vs Lerner & Durbin
Watch: Salvi himself explains what happened in 1996
And still we’re told to move along, nothing to freaking see here.
Now we find out that the President obtained a special writ that allows the NSA to collect all phone data, from everyone. Currently only Verizon customers have been targeted. And let me reiterate, all Verizon customers have had their phone data and phone conversation data collected, no matter if you’re a terror risk or not. All customers from April 25th on. So yeah, that means currently if you use Verizon and you make a call, the time, date, to who, duration, who disconnected first, all that is being collected by the NSA.
iPhones can’t be far behind.
While all this goes on, no one has been held accountable for the deaths of an American Ambassador and his security team in Benghazi and the Administration’s cover up of the mistakes and willful disregard that led to their deaths.
In the name of National Security I will now await the collection of my iPhone data by the NSA.
Hey NSA dudes, if you get into my LinkedIn app, can you tell me what my password is?
Nothing to see here folks, move along, move along.
Unfiltered and Unfettered 
Francis, this president has zero leadership abilities and even less integrity. He will be impeached soon for lack of control over his hand picked staff. Pannetta is being investigated for giving out the name of the commander of the team that killed bin laden which is against the law. This was done before he took over DOD. Obama is in way over his head. Hillary better watch out also, Benghazi is not over yet. Shamefully 4 people died an the administration just stood and watched it happen. I know everyone looks at an auto wreck and can’t look away, but you are suppose to be our leaders, act like it. You have three options, Lead, follow, or get the hell out of the way. Again, just an old fat guy venting. Thanks!
You can vent here anytime George. I think the most stark example of lack of leadership is Obama’s seemingly do nothing attitude. He could have jumped in to all this and gained some trust or respect but he seems to want to sit back and let it take care of itself.
Nicely done Fran. As long as the liberal press supports everything the administration does and fabricates “outs” who knows where it will end. I hope “they” enjoy my cell phone conversations….
Ha. Thank’s Chief. Unfortunately listening to you call is the least invasive ting they can do. As more of the story comes out it appears they have the ability and are gathering info that would basically allow them to map your entire social network. The data they are gathering, who you call, how long you talk, where you are when you make a call, where the recipient is when they receive the call, who the recipient is, is a lot more dangerous than just listening in.
Now it has come out that the “secret warrants” allow for the monitoring of internet activity in much the same manner as they’re doing with the phones.
Hard to believe.