Monday, May 27, 2013

Obamacare 2.0: What Are Healthcare Practitioners Thinking?

As the battle rages-on over the implementation of the federal “Obamacare” law, there is an important question that rarely ever gets asked:  what do actual health care practitioners think of it? Without the practitioners themselves, there would be no healthcare. Yet politicians, government bureaucrats, insurance executives and healthcare administrators have so thoroughly co-opted any discussion on the subject that actual healthcare professionals – doctors, nurses, physician’s assistants and the like – often appear as mere pawns in a big government game.

http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/55483 

Did Our Brave Heroes Die in Vain?

Notwithstanding the fact that contemporary celebrations of Memorial Day have more to do with three-day weekends, back yard barbecues, reckless episodes of alcohol abuse, and other frivolities, the original purpose was to set aside a national spiritual holiday to remember and honor the brave American men and women who sacrificed their very lives in the service of this blessed nation.
Indeed, in the beginning, it was conceived as a day to memorialize those patriotic American men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice to defend and preserve the liberties and precious freedoms guaranteed by our Constitution and Bill of Rights.
No one can deny that horse shoes, watermelon, and fried chicken add zest to the celebratory spirit of Memorial Day.

http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/55479

A decade after 9/11, time for change

Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown appears to apply to U.S. President Barack Obama, a constitutional lawyer coming to grips with government policies that keep prisoners of war incarcerated without hope of release and executes U.S. nationals overseas without benefit of trial.
Obama delivered a counter-terrorism address last week at the National Defense University at Fort McNair in Washington, laying out the justification for rolling back those policies now that combat is finished in Iraq and winding down in Afghanistan and at the same time preserving his administration's ability to continue to confront threats.

Why Is it So Hard to Fire a Low-Performing Government Employee?

Federal officials at the time of the Gilded Age created the civil service as way to insulate government workers from the influence of politics. The Pendleton Act and the Civil Service Act of 1883 established the merit-based system, which ended the practice of awarding government jobs as political favors and led to the system that is currently in place.
But in the case of the IRS scandal, the very system aimed at keeping politics out of the civil service is helping the person who admitted to targeting tea party groups stay on the government payroll.
Lois Lerner, who headed the tax-exempt division of the IRS, was placed on paid administrative leave this week after she admitted to and apologized for the IRS's targeting of tea party groups. But the fact that she's expected to continue to receive her six-figure salary raised hackles in both parties and touched off a media sprint to explain why it is so difficult to fire federal civilian employees.

Sell-Off Is Clear ‘Warning Shot’ for Nikkei

Japanese equities emerged as major laggards in the region on Monday, falling as much as 4 percent after a volatile previous week, raising questions over where the world's top performing market is headed next.
While optimism among Japan bulls appears to be largely intact since last week's sell-off, Kingsley Jones, founder and chief investment officer at investment advisory Jevons Global believes it's time to be "really cautious" on this market. Jones added that he is considering turning short on Japanese equities "in a little while."

http://www.cnbc.com/id/100767606?__source=yahoo|finance|headline|headline|story&par=yahoo&doc=100767606|Sell-Off%20Is%20Clear%20%27Warnin 

Remembering What Matters on Memorial Day

On Memorial Day, all Americans should think about the sacrifices made by military service members, their spouses, and their children.  Instead, many Americans spend it as a day off of work, having a barbeque or watching baseball games.  American Thinker asked some former and current members of the military to consider what Memorial Day means to them.

Many military families talk about the importance of the day but do not reflect on the actual meaning of this holiday.  As Sam, a military spouse noted, "there are a lot of Gold Star Families in our neighborhood.  In seeing that, my children are reminded each and every day that their mom might not come back from Afghanistan.  I don't want the children focusing on the sadness and the specifics of that day."

Another Appointee Violates The Law???

One of the 1% billionaires President Obama  pretends to despise so much gets his nomination to serve as Commerce Secretary.  According to news reports the two are pals and she has managed to funnel bundles of money to his past election campaigns but I am sure that has nothing to do with her nomination.  And I am quite sure that her failure to report a mere $80 million of income to the IRS was an oversight, too.  It was reportably just another one of those clerical errors the elite famously make and somehow just mange to get a pat on the head for punishment instead of the IRS nightmare the rest of us would receive.  You will recall that several of Obama's other nominees have had unpunished/whitewashed IRS problems.  No matter.  Yes, this is the very same IRS we are talking about that has a propensity to punish average American citizens, especially conservatives or anyone who happens to disagree with excessive government controls over the citizenry or feels we are taxed too much.  And, they will soon have the opportunity serve our interests even better by trolling through our medical and financial records to assure we are in full compliance with all the rules and regulations governing Obamacare.  Oh joy!  How quaint!  The president rewards a government friendly billionaire "accidental" IRS law breaker with a high government position to oversee government responsibilities vital to those of us who are mere law abiding taxpayers.  Maybe a better way to put is would be to say mere law abiding "subjects".  Surely her efforts will benefit us and our nation as will Obamacare as have the administration's other policies, programs and actions now under investigation. 

 George Burns   

 http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/05/24/Obama-s-Commerce-Secretary-Didn-t-Report-80-Million-In-Income

Even a NY Times reporter was investigated for leaks by DoJ

If you can't trust your friends, who can you trust?
An indication of just how extensive was the Justice Department leak investigations, it appears that even the New York Times was not immune from this administration's mania to track down reporters who broke stories they didn't like:
Even before the F.B.I. conducted 550 interviews of officials and seized the phone records of Associated Press reporters in a leak investigation connected to a 2012 article about a Yemen bomb plot, agents had sought the same reporters' sources for two other articles about terrorism.

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/05/even_a_ny_times_reporter_was_investigated_for_leaks_by_doj.html#ixzz2UUGbB9IK

Sunday, May 26, 2013

THE SMOKING GUN IN THE IRS SCANDAL

Jeffrey Lord’s story in the American Spectator about a “smoking gun” in the IRS scandal has backfired. He implied that the head of the IRS union had personally met with President Obama to plot against the Tea Party when there is no evidence of such a meeting or such plotting. Instead, as the Daily Caller and U.S. News & World Report have reported, the union chief had been part of a “Workplace Flexibility Forum” in the Old Executive Office Building attended by 200 people and featuring Obama as a speaker.

http://www.newswithviews.com/Kincaid/cliff732.htm 

Dangers of Big Government

By now most of us should recognize the dangers of big government.  It is a bad deal for average Americans and a good deal for those in big government, big business, big banks and a plethora of special interest groups receiving various government benefits.  The fact is that in large measure big government looks after itself, its collaborators/supporters and selected foreign interests.  The principle roles played by average Americans is to foot the bills for those getting the good deals and suffer both the financial and societal consequences special domestic and foreign interests impose via government sanctioned  benefits, legal protections and privileges.   George Burns

Bill Seeks Transparency for Healthcare Reforms

Two senators introduced a bipartisan bill in California that would allow public inspection of records from the agency that oversees the state's health-care reforms.
     Republican Sen. Bill Emmerson and Democratic Sen. Mark De Saulnier introduced the amended bill, SB 332, into the California senate on May 16.
     Each state is required under the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to establish an American Health Benefit Exchange by Jan. 1, 2014 that would make health plans available to qualified individuals and small employers.

http://www.courthousenews.com/2013/05/23/57909.htm 

Congress Should Cut Spending, Forget Gun Control

Fifty-four percent of Americans say Congress should cut spending from current levels and 62 percent say Congress should forget about gun control and move on to other issues.
Social Security is widely popular, with 65 percent having a favorable view of the retirement portions of the program. But it's also widely misunderstood as an individual retirement account rather than a transfer payment financed by current tax dollars.
A plurality - 45 percent of respondents - still dislike Obamacare and one in five Americans qualifies as libertarian based on responses to questions about the role of the government in social and economic affairs.

http://reason.com/reasontv/2013/05/24/reason-rupe-poll-on-the-budget-guns-and 

Real Immigration Reform Requires Free Markets

Only in the United States Congress could a legislative provision entitled “Market-Based H-1B Visa Limits” actually mean that “the number of visas calculated under subparagraph (A) for any fiscal year shall not be less than 110,000 or more than 180,000.”
If you read even a few pages of the so-called Gang of Eight immigration bill trudging its way through Congress—a bill that contains many provisions as horrendous as that one—you can’t help but think of Otto von Bismarck’s famous sausage-making analogy and wonder “who the hell wrote this mess?” The answer, sadly but not surprisingly, is special interests, namely the Chamber of Commerce and big labor unions. Speaking on background for this article, an aide to a Senate Judiciary Committee member put it plainly: “Neither the Chamber nor the AFL-CIO is interested in a free market. The Chamber is interested in delivering for their big business cronies and labor is interested in protectionism. So they work out a secret deal together, and that’s how our legislation gets made.” It is a frightening shotgun marriage that embodies the old tale of two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for dinner. And guess who’s the lamb, my fellow citizen.

http://spectator.org/archives/2013/05/24/real-immigration-reform-requir 

Lying to Congress -- the IRS vs. BP

With the controversy swirling around the IRS's Lois Lerner and the issue of what constitutes lying to Congress, it is interesting to note the disparate standards of proof between government officials, such as Ms. Lerner, and private citizens. Is there a double standard?
In the wake of the government led oil spill containment operation following the Deepwater Horizon accident, two former BP employees were indicted. Once the President had proclaimed it a "Spill of National Significance" and appointed a "National Incident Commander", Admiral Thad Allen, the task became a government project.

Saturday, May 25, 2013

A Brief Look at Left Wing Terrorism

It has always interested me how many of those on the left frequently make history what they want us to believe it to be.  Misrepresentations, omissions or outright lies are so often the case.  For instance, MSNBC's Chris Matthews, whose extreme leftist views are well credentialed, has been quoted as saying "Normally domestic terrorists, tend to be on the far right."  It rolls off his tongue with such ease that it is likely that he believes what he says.  But, is it true?  There is no question that far rightist have engaged in acts of terrorism.  But to say they are "normally" the source of domestic terrorism is a stretch.  The most recent act of so called domestic terrorism for us was the Boston Marathon bombing. While it could be challenged as domestic in nature, it was distinctly leftist.  Here are few other acts of leftist domestic terrorism we have experienced throughout the past 100 years.  You might find them informative.

1.  The 1901 President William Mckinley was assassinated by Leon Czolgosz, a socialist anarchist.

2.  The 1919 bomb scares were initiated by Luigi Galleani and his anarcho-communist followers and sparked The First Red Scare of subversive actions of foreign and leftist elements within this country.  Galleani was active in the United States from 1901 to 1919.  Notable other actions include:

     In April 1919 approximately 36 booby trap bombs were mailed to a number of prominent politicians, including the US attorney general, judges and businessmen.  One bomb was sent to R.W. Finch, an agent investigating the Galleanist organization.  Only one of the bombs exploded injuring the target's wife and her maid.

     In June 1919, eight bombs, larger than those in April, exploded almost simultaneously in several cities. All of the intended targets had participated in some way with or openly supported the investigation of the Galleanist anarchist radicals.

     In 1920 Wall Street was bombed by the Galleanists.  Thirty eight people died and scores others were injured.  The accused bomber, known as Buda, fled to Italy after the bombing but other Galleanists continued their bombings for another twelve years.

3.  In October 1969 the Weather Underground Organization, a communist organization, split from the Students for a Democratic Society, a socialist group spawned in opposition to the Vietnam War.  Weather Underground conducted a series of terrorist activities known as the Days of Rage during which they rioted in the streets, destroyed public property and set off a bomb at Chicago's Haymarket police statue.  In December they bombed police vehicles.  Notable other actions include:

      In 1970 three of its members were killed while making bombs in a Greenwich village house.  However, they did bomb New York City's police headquarters.    

     In 1971 they bombed the US Capitol.

     In 1972 they bombed the Pentagon. 

     In 1981 they conducted the Nyack, NY Brinks robbery which seized $1.6 million, killing two guards and two Nyack policemen, wounding three others.

4.  The anti-capitalistic/socialistic Black Liberation Army (BLA) assisted the Weather Underground Organization in the just mentioned Brinks robbery.  Between 1970 and 1980 the BLA is credited with the killing of 13 police officers and over 60 other acts of left wing violence.

5.  Between 1978 and 1995, the Unibomber and noted leftist, Ted Kaczynski sent letter bombs to his selected targets which injured 23 people and killing three.    

6.  Over the last 20 years or so eco-terrorism by multiple groups of leftist environmental organizations have, according to the FBI, used or threatened the "use of violence of a criminal nature against innocent victims or property by an environmentally oriented, subnational group for environmental-political reasons, or aimed at an audience beyond the target, often of a symbolic nature."  Although no one has been killed, groups such as the Earth Liberation Front and the Animal Liberation Front have caused more than $100 million in damages.

We could cover more but it is clear that Leftism is not as benign as Chris Matthews apparently thinks it is or wants us to think it is.  Its history throughout the last century alone should make that point.  This is not to whitewash anything extreme rightist have done (ie: the Oklahoma City's 1995 Murrah Building bombing by extreme right wing radical Timothy McVeigh).  But, it is a fact that the left's big three (while each is different, Communism, Fascism and Nazism are varying forms of leftist/socialist political philosophies) has to this point committed murder of over 100 million people.  It is also interesting that the left frequently seeks to pin Nazism exclusively on the right.  Its official name, National Socialist German Worker's Party, belies that claim.  As Wikipedia explains:  "The party was created as a means to draw workers away from communism and into völkisch nationalism. Initially, Nazi political strategy focused on anti-big business, anti-bourgeois, and anti capitalist rhetoric, although such aspects were later downplayed in order to gain the support of industrial entities, and in 1930s the party's focus shifted to antisemitic and anti-Marxist themes."  Further, as also noted in Wikipedia, Hitler himself explained that "Nazism was not exclusively for any class, and indicated that it favoured neither the left nor the right, but preserved 'pure' elements from both 'camps' stating [according to Max Domarus in The Essential Hitler: Speeches and Commentary] that 'From the camp of bourgeois tradition, it takes national resolve, and from the materialism of the Marxist dogma, living, creative Socialism'." 

Lastly, we need to remember the definition of left wing terrorism.  Wikipedia notes it is "sometimes called Marxist-Leninist terrorism or revolutionary/left-wing terrorism" and it "is a set of tactics directed at the overthrow of capitalist governments and their replacement with Marzist-Leninist or socialist societies." Doesn't that have at least a partial ring of current day truth?  It is surprising to me that Chris Matthews and others of his ilk do not know the brief basics covered here.  Then again, maybe he and they know this quite well but don't want us to know they know. 

George Burns

Gang of Eight Increases Unemployment

The bill created in secret by the Gang of Eight is an outrageous betrayal of American workers, both high-skilled and low-skilled. Claiming it is bipartisan, the drafters were Democrats and globalist Republicans.
Economics 101 teaches that prices of products and wages go up when there is a shortage and go down when there is an ample supply of whatever. But funny thing, a consortium of billionaire oligarchs and high paid lobbyists have defied those axioms by rejecting U.S. STEM college graduates (science, technology, engineering or math) and then crying about shortages.
Half of American STEM graduates are not currently hired for a STEM job. Many students are so discouraged about the lack of job opportunities for STEM graduates that they have switched to more promising course majors, such as accounting.

http://townhall.com/columnists/phyllisschlafly/2013/05/25/gang-of-eight-increases-unemployment-n1605951/page/full 

Everyone Please Read This Article

Please read the linked article.  JB Williams has put his finger directly on the cause of so much of what is wrong today with our society and government.  Help him help us all by sharing it with as many others as we can.  We all must do our part to help return our nation to it's founding roots.  Here is the last paragraph of the article.  "Only a moral and righteous people are suited to do battle with the massive evil that grips America today. All others will falter in the face of evil. “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil. God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak; not to act is to act.” - Dietrich Bonhoeffer                http://www.newswithviews.com/JBWilliams/williams249.htm

Thanks, George Burns

U.S. Military: We Could Have Saved Ambassador Stevens

Elite U.S. troops were completely capable of saving Ambassador Chris Stevens during the Benghazi Consulate attacks on September 11, 2012.  Elements of the highly specialized Combatant Commanders In-Extremis (CIF) units are always on alert, on forward deployment, ready to respond.  Their job description is to hit the ground in 3 to 5 hours.  CIF elements are ready to engage in active combat anywhere in their region, 3 to 5 hours after the call.

Leon Panetta, Secretary of Defense at the time, either misled the U.S.  Congress or was incompetent.  Panetta testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee on February 7, 2013 that the U.S. military could not have responded in less than 9 to 12 hours.

Obama Meets In Oval Office With Illegal Aliens

President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden met with three illegal immigrants who have been granted deferred action legal status in the Oval Office Tuesday. Meanwhile, Obama still refuses to meet with any border security enforcement officers about any aspect of immigration reform.
“From Justino Mora, Angie Kim and Mehdi Mahraoui, to Diana Colin and Kevin Lee,” a White House blog entry reads, “all of the stories they shared were full of hope and optimism that one day their family members and their broader communities could realize the dream of becoming citizens of a country that has provided them with the opportunity to work hard and to succeed.”

IPhone Urinalysis Draws First FDA Inquiry of Medical Apps

An iPhone application that lets users check levels of blood, protein and other substances in their urine is the first target of U.S. regulators seeking boundaries in a burgeoning industry for medical diagnosis on-the-go.
Biosense Technologies Private Ltd.’s uChek system isn’t cleared by the Food and Drug Administration and the agency said it wants to know why not, in a first-of-its-kind letter to a maker of a mobile-device application. The app relies on users, such as diabetics checking their glucose, to dip test strips in urine and use the smartphone’s camera to allow the system to processes and generate automated results.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-23/iphone-urinalysis-draws-first-fda-inquiry-of-medical-apps.html 

Global Sell-Off Points To QE Addiction, Basic Weakness

The global stock sell-off that followed hints the Federal Reserve may trim its stimulus soon underscored how much the prior rally wasn't based on economic fundamentals, which, data Thursday showed, remain shaky.
Markit's manufacturing gauge for China swung back to contraction in May after six months of tepid expansion. Eurozone private-sector activity shrank at a slower pace but indicated the recession will continue into Q2. U.S. factories grew more slowly as exports fell.

The First Amendment Under Siege

It has been a bad few weeks for the First Amendment.
The sinister commonality to the Internal Revenue Service and AP scandals and the James Rosen affair is that each appears to have been (strike "appears ": each was) an attempt to suppress a core American right.
Freedom of the press was clearly the target in the Rosen Affair. The Justice Department, according to Ryan Lizza at newyorker.com, "not only subpoenaed Rosen's private e-mails but also said that Rosen was ‘an aider and abettor and/or co-conspirator' in the alleged crime." Lizza adds that, "[I]t is unprecedented for the government, in an official court document, to accuse a reporter of breaking the law for conducting the routine business of reporting on government secrets." Writes the Washington Post's Dana Milbank, "The Rosen affair... uses technology to silence critics in a way Richard Nixon could only have dreamed of."

http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/clark-judge/2013/05/23/irs-ap-and-james-rosen-scandals-strike-at-the-first-amendment 

IRS Scrutiny of Government Critics

Who Outed the CIA Annex in Benghazi?

More than eight months after the 9/11 anniversary attacks on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, the CIA is still trying to find out how the attack that killed two former Navy SEALs at the agency’s annex transpired.
The attack on the CIA base came more than seven hours after an armed mob stormed the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, setting the compound ablaze and killing U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and Sean Smith, a State Department communications officer who was with him.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/05/24/who-outed-the-cia-annex-in-benghazi.html 

Electronic medical records can allow more people access to your private health information

The days of doctor/patient privacy are dwindling as more agencies and companies wield technology to peer into your medical records.
Privacy advocates are now bracing for full implementation of the Affordable Health Care Act, which calls for more electronic record keeping and more opportunities for database mining of health records by marketers, credit agencies and law enforcement.
The latest example of this is the FICO medical adherence score. The credit rating company started collecting prescription information in 2011 and applying proprietary algorithms to determine who is most at risk for misusing their medication. The company said it uses the information to help health professionals identify those at risk for under using (or over using) medicine.

http://www.news10.net/news/article/246072/2/Who-has-access-to-your-medical-records-More-people-than-you-think 

The Sharyl Attkisson approach

Sharyl Attkisson has problems.
The Obama administration won’t answer the CBS News correspondent’s questions because her investigations — into Benghazi, Fast and Furious, Solyndra — often reflect negatively on it. Some colleagues at CBS News, where she has worked for two decades and earned multiple Emmy awards, dismiss her work because they perceive a political agenda. And now, she says, someone may have hacked into her computers.

Obama Just Made Himself a Prisoner of His Own Gitmo Policy

President Obama’s big speech on the future of the war on terrorism yesterday contained a contradiction that threatens to tie his counter-terror policy in rather thick knots. First he said he prefers to capture detainees instead of killing them. Then he recommitted himself to closing the Guantanamo Bay facility that houses those detainees — without offering an alternate prison. Welcome to a paradox.
Obama turned more than a few heads by declaring his “strong preference” for “the detention and prosecution of terrorists” over sending an armed robot to end their lives. It’s hard to know what to make of that. The simplest interpretation is that it’s a lie. Whatever Obama’s preferences are, he has killed exponentially more people than he has detained and prosecuted.

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2013/05/detention-fubar/ 

Obama's Empty Rhetoric

Like the "War on Drugs," a rhetorical phrase that the Obama administration has rejected even while continuing to wage the policy it describes, many ongoing activities of the government he presides over came under verbal attack from President Barack Obama this afternoon.
So the president says "journalists should not be at legal risk for doing their jobs," even though journalists are at legal risk—from his administration—for doing their jobs. "History will cast a harsh judgment" on the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, the president warned, even though (in the words of Human Rights Watch's Laura Pitter) "there are still a number of steps the Obama administration could have taken -- and can still take now -- to begin closing the facility and ending indefinite detention without trial."

http://reason.com/blog/2013/05/23/obamas-empty-rhetoric 

The Effect of Tax Increases and Spending Cuts on Economic Growth

Good morning, Chairman Murray, Ranking Member Sessions, and members of the committee. Thank you for the chance to discuss the effect of tax increases and spending cuts on economic growth. I appreciate the opportunity to testify today.
Last week the Congressional Budget Office released a revision of its budget outlook for FY 2013. According to CBO, our short-term outlook seems to be improving, at least on a superficial level, with this year’s deficit now expected to be $642 billion. That is $200 billion lower than projected in February, which would make it the smallest deficit since 2008.

http://reason.com/archives/2013/05/23/the-effect-of-tax-increases-and-spending 

IRS Scandal Highlights the Dangers of Big Government

It’s hard to believe, but the current tax scandal will eventually fade away just as all Washington, D.C. scandals run their course. It’s easier to believe that the IRS will remain a loathsome and abusive agency, subject perhaps to some reforms and personnel changes that ultimately will do nothing to change its character.
This has been a good teachable moment for Americans about the nature of the federal Leviathan, but few people will glean the most important lesson: Both parties need a powerful tax agency to collect the funds that support the programs they, and the constituencies they represent, favor.

http://reason.com/archives/2013/05/24/irs-scandal-highlights-the-dangers-of-bi 

IRS Deficiencies and Health Care

David Ricardo observed that taxation "frequently operates very differently from the intention of the legislature by its indirect effects." As reflected in the news headlines, Americans are now bearing the brunt of the indirect effects of misguided IRS personnel participating in an ill-advised health-care scheme.
At the House Ways and Means Committee hearing on 17 May 2013, deposed Acting Internal Revenue Commissioner Steve Miller was grilled by committee members regarding the IRS's use of political orientation in processing group applications for tax-exempt status, as detailed in a Treasury Inspector General's Report. In questioning Mr. Miller, Congressman Jim McDermott (D-WA) elicited testimony to the effect that under the Affordable Care Act, the IRS does not access individuals' personal healthcare information, but only notes the fact of insurance coverage or noncoverage during any given time period. "[W]ere you covered and over what period is what we would be getting" is what Miller told the congressman. McDermott then declared that there is "not a fascist takeover of the healthcare system."

Benghazi and Obama's Ambition to Be U.N. SecGen

Washington rumor has it that Obama wants to be U.N. Secretary General.

There are several reasons that make that likely, and if it's true, it throws new light on a lot of Obama's oddities -- including his Royalty Bows, his Apology Tours, his Muslim Sellout, and the Benghazi Cover-Up.

But first -- why would Obama be planning to become the chief of the U.N. before he has even finished his second term? 

1. Obama's unbounded ego.

In three and a half years, Obama will be out of a job.  He is 50 now and wants to soar to greater heights, because that's what matters more than anything else in his life.

Obamacare is a Big and Growing Problem for Democrats

Even before the IRS scandal reminded Americans of the unenjoyable prospect of that agency becoming involved in American’s health care decisions, Obamacare was becoming an increasing political problem for the president and for Democrats.
An Economist/YouGov poll released this week suggests just how big a problem it could be.
Some selected results:
  • 50% of respondents said that they expect to pay more for their health insurance because of Obamcare, with only 7 percent expecting to pay less.
  • 35% say they expect Obamacare to make their medical care worse, versus 13 percent who expect better.
  • 34% strongly disapprove of how Obama is handling health care versus 16% who strongly approve.
http://spectator.org/blog/2013/05/24/obamacare-is-a-big-and-growing 

DOJ confirms Holder OK'd search warrant for Fox News reporter's emails

The Justice Department pledged Friday to to review its policies relating to the seizure of information from journalists after acknowledging that a controversial search warrant for a  Fox News reporter’s private emails  was approved “at the highest levels” of the Justice Department, including “discussions” with Attorney General  Eric Holder.
The statement, confirming an NBC News account of Holder’s role, defended the secret warrant to obtain reporter James Rosen’s emails as a legitimate step to obtain evidence as part of an investigation of Stephen Kim. A former intelligence analyst, Kim has since been indicted under the Espionage Act for leaking classified information to Rosen about North Korea. He has denied the charges.

http://openchannel.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/23/18451142-doj-confirms-holder-okd-search-warrant-for-fox-news-reporters-emails?lite 

Republicans plus Democrats doesn’t equal good policy

In 1987, on the evening of her third general election victory as leader of the Conservative Party, the late and great Margaret Thatcher gave a speech before her constituents in the district of Finchley. It was mostly boilerplate stuff—thanking the voters, praising the poll watchers. But there was also something distinctly un-American going on: the address was constantly being interrupted by hecklers. Every time jeers broke out, Thatcher would smile, durable and unflappable, until quiet was restored.
This is how politics works in Britain, where it’s expected that the nation’s leader can handle an occasional boo or insult. The most familiar illustration of this is Prime Minister’s Questions, where the prime minister engages in a rapid-fire debate with the leader of the opposition while backbenchers hoot and holler. And this is tame compared to many other countries. In 2008, the South Korean parliament had 47 cases of “parliamentary disorder” a polite term for “brawl.”

http://spectator.org/archives/2013/05/24/enough-with-the-bipartisanship 

Friday, May 24, 2013

The Washington Post - Special Prosecutor for IRS Scandal Inevitable

Ed Rogers of The Washington Post reports that based on his White House experience "The only reason the legal counsel would tell the chief of staff about an impending report or disclosure would be so the chief of staff could tell the president."  The matter at hand is that late this past April the legal counsel informed the current chief of staff of the impending release of the Treasury Department Inspector General's report exposing IRS's targeting of conservative groups for harrassment and possibly even to influence the outcome of the last election.  President Obama claims not to have learned of the report and its highly volital implications until it was reported in the news on May 10th.  Here's the point.  Rogers explains that "The legal counsel would never assume that information shared with the chief of staff would not go to the president. In my experience, a legal counsel never would believe that there was information that was appropriate for the chief of staff to know but that was inappropriate for the president to know. Out of all the news that has emerged regarding the Obama IRS scandal, this is the most curious whopper I’ve heard so far."   Something is amiss.  George Burns

PENNSYLVANIA JUDGE SENTENCED FOR 28 YEARS FOR SELLING KIDS TO THE PRISON SYSTEM

In the private prison industry, longer sentences earn more money from the state.

Since 2003, Ciavarella received millions of dollars in bribes for condemning minors to maximum prison sentences. In one case, Ciavarella sentenced a 10-year-old to two years in a detention facility for accidentally bottoming out his mother’s car.

According to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, over 5,000 young men and women were unjustly sentenced to prison and denied their constitutional rights. Many of them have now been released and cleared of their charges.



http://republicbroadcasting.org/index.php?cmd=news.article&articleID=5319

We Are In The Midst of a Recovery???

We have heard President Obama, officials in his administration, many members of Congress, Mr. Bernanke of the Federal Reserve and a whole host of pundits tell us the economy is rebounding and the job market is improving.  How they can make such proclamations is beyond me.  I'm pretty sure those who have lost their jobs, their homes and their dignity would not agree.  What about the fact that the number of part time jobs is rising while full time jobs are declining. According to The Economic Institute the number of people who have stopped looking for work since late 2007 is 6.7 million.  Furthermore, the ever increasing number of people relying on various government aid programs just so they can survive contradicts such a notion.  Yet they persist in telling us what most of us know is simply not true. Not being an economist, maybe I just don't understand. But, common sense tells me that we are being lied to.  The short piece at the first link illustrates why I say that.  Just one sentence should seal the deal..."In our current malaise, we have been at this 5 years and employment is still 2.2 million people below the employment number in April 2008."  Get that?  Five years after the supposed recovery started the number of people employed today is 2.2 million actually less than it was in April 2008.  All the while the number of working aged citizens has increased.  The second link adds more detail.  Does that sound like improvement to you?    George Burns

La Raza Partners with Feds to Hire Government Employees

The National Council of La Raza (translation: The Race) has partnered with the Office of Personnel Management to encourage Hispanic activists and members to burrow into the federal government.
A workshop sponsored by La Raza/The Race will take place in New Orleans on July 23, 2013. Senior Executive Service (SES) employees are federal government employees in special executive management positions, often with salaries approaching $200,000 per year (and well past that with benefits).

http://pjmedia.com/jchristianadams/2013/05/23/la-raza-the-race-partners-with-feds-to-hire-200000-government-employees/ 

Obama wades back into debates over drones, Guantanamo Bay

President Barack Obama on Thursday declared that America is “at a crossroads,” as he urged the nation to wind down the war on terror, pledged to rein in controversial tactics like drone strikes and announced renewed efforts to close the prison for terrorism suspects at Guantánamo Bay.
“This war, like all wars, must end. That’s what history advises. That’s what our democracy demands,” Obama said in an address at the National Defense University in Washington. “In America, we’ve faced down angers far greater than Al Qaeda by staying true to our values.”

Federal Judge Applies GPS Ruling To Drug Dog Traffic Stop

US District Court Judge rules police cannot enter a car without a warrant to facilitate a drug dog sniff.
The effect of the Supreme Court's landmark Jones ruling outlawing warrantless GPS surveillance of motorists continues to affect the way drivers are treated at traffic stops. Last week, a judge with the US District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia applied the precedent to the common police practice of "permeation" where a police officer enters a suspect's vehicle without warrant or consent to facilitate a drug dog sniff of the car's exterior.

In January 2012, Justice Antonin Scalia penned the United States v. Jones decision that held attaching a GPS tracking device without a warrant was not permissible.


http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/41/4107.asp 

House pushes judicial oversight of DOJ in wake of Associated Press leaks case

A bipartisan group of House lawmakers unveiled a bill on Wednesday that would force the Department of Justice (DOJ) to get a federal court’s approval before seizing records from journalists.

The move comes in response to growing concerns from both parties on Capitol Hill that the DOJ may have violated the First Amendment rights of Associated Press and Fox News employees by seizing their telephone and email records in a pair of separate investigations into national security leaks.

 “This was nothing short of, in my opinion, a massive intimidation fishing expedition,” said Rep. Ted Poe (Texas), the lead Republican backer of the measure.

Following Texas’s Lead on Location Tracking

Yesterday, the Texas House of Representatives passed the first bill in the nation that would require law enforcement to obtain a probable cause warrant before tracking individuals’ location by collecting their cell phone location data. As Rebecca Robertson, legal and policy director for the ACLU of Texas put it, “By approving this amendment, our legislators would take a significant step to preserve the Fourth Amendment rights of Texas citizens, protecting them from potential unreasonable searches and seizures that could take place entirely outside judicial review.” They would also set a precedent that the rest of the country should be quick to follow.

http://www.aclu.org/blog/technology-and-liberty/following-texass-lead-location-tracking 

Despite bailout, Americans still could buy GM cars made in China

If you assumed the $50-billion taxpayer bailout of General Motors means the next GM car you buy is made in the USA, you may be in for a surprise.
GM has established 14 production facilities in China and is selling GM cars to the Chinese after investing $8 billion into that nation and hiring 6,000 workers.
GM officials are planning even more Chinese production facilities beyond that, GM spokesman Greg Martin told Tennessee Watchdog.

http://watchdog.org/86262/despite-bailout-americans-still-could-buy-gm-cars-made-in-china/ 

The Government Wants A Backdoor Into Your Online Communications

According to the New York Times, President Obama is "on the verge of backing" a proposal by the FBI to introduce legislation dramatically expanding the reach of the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, or CALEA. CALEA forces telephone companies to provide backdoors to the government so that it can spy on users after obtaining court approval, and was expanded in 2006 to reach Internet technologies like VoIP. The new proposal reportedly allows the FBI to listen in on any conversation online, regardless of the technology used, by mandating engineers build "backdoors" into communications software. We urge EFF supporters to tell the administration now to stop this proposal, provisionally called CALEA II.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/05/caleatwo 

White House Drone Policy

Opening Doors to Foldable Electronics With Inkjet-Printed Graphene

The technology for these devices may not be so far off. Northwestern University researchers have recently developed a graphene-based ink that is highly conductive and tolerant to bending, and they have used it to inkjet-print graphene patterns that could be used for extremely detailed, conductive electrodes.
The resulting patterns are 250 times more conductive than previous attempts to print graphene-based electronic patterns and could be a step toward low-cost, foldable electronics.
A paper describing the research, "Inkjet Printing of High Conductivity, Flexible Graphene Patterns," was published April 8 in the Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/05/130520154257.htm?utm_source=buffer&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Buffer&utm_content=buffer48203 

The Conservative Welfare State

When it comes to infringing on personal liberty, Ann Coulter is just as bad as her lefty enemies.

Conservative crank Ann Coulter has made a career out of bad manners, so it was no surprise when she slammed her libertarian hosts at the annual International Students for Liberty confab in February as “pussies.” That was almost a compliment, compared to “drunks” and “horny hicks,” two other terms Coulter has used to describe her political opponents. 

reason.com/archives/2013/05/23/the-conservative-welfare-state 

Survival Strategies of Governmentus Omnipotus

Government, an aggressive and complex multicellular organism, can be found in nearly every region and climate of the planet, including those such as North America where the natural habitat is often inhospitable. In order to thrive in such climates, government has evolved a variety of sophisticated survival strategies. These have enabled it to co-exist with, and often out-compete, other species.
A full examination of these strategies falls beyond the scope of this paper, but a brief summary should suffice to acquaint the lay reader with the more salient ones.

http://reason.com/archives/2013/05/22/survival-strategies-of-governmentus-omni 

Overtaxing Greeks: freelancers 42% tax; self-employed & businesses to pay 90% tax in advance!

On the way to the new taxation system, several details have been given to the press in order to do the usual of the last three bailout years: scare the people, test reactions and finally present the ‘worse’ as less bad than the ‘worst’. I mean, I hope it will work like that, because the new regulations are really out of this earth-world. How can Greece claim to combat tax evasion by pushing people to evade taxes? Will self-employed and freelancers issue receipts if they will cash just a bowl of peanuts out of two 500-euro banknotes?

http://www.keeptalkinggreece.com/2013/05/23/overtaxing-greeks-freelancers-42-tax-self-employed-businesses-to-pay-90-tax-in-advance/ 

IRS official on leave refused to resign, says GOP senator

First she refused to testify. Now Lois Lerner, the IRS official at the center of the tax agency scandal, is refusing to resign, according to a top Republican senator.
Sources confirmed to Fox News earlier Thursday that Lerner, the head of the IRS division that oversaw the unit targeting conservative groups, had been placed on administrative leave, with pay.
But Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, claimed she was only put in that status after refusing to step down.

Obama Talks War

Obama is at the point in his presidency where nothing is ever going to quite be enough.
Most two-term presidents do get there eventually, though the majority reach it in last year or so of their final term. Thanks to circumstance, Obama has gotten there in the first six months of his.
Such presidential purgatories are marked by frantic efforts to demonstrate the continued relevance of the incumbent, to make a frantic effort to boost the legacy. In general, such efforts take the form of switching he spotlight from whatever trouble spot is erupting at the moment to something -- anything -- that might look better in comparison.

For Mainstream Media, Snoozing is Losing

For many mainstream journalists, legacy matters. Leaving a mark is the only ticket out of oblivion -- at least for a time. What legacies do reporters and editors have in, say, fifty years if they continue to flak for Barack Obama and the Democratic Party by not aggressively investigating the president's triple-header scandals?
Advocacy journalism dead-ends at Palookaville.
Fifty years from now, when the history of the Obama presidency is being written with the objectivity that distance affords, those news organizations and reporters who took the bones in their teeth and actually reported, who peeled back the onions to get at the crass politics, lies, and misuse of power by the president and his minions, will win laurels and places in the history books.

From the Obama Ministry of Truth

Now, let’s see what we are supposed to believe today from the Obama Ministry of Truth….
First, that Hillary Rodham Clinton could possibly be taken seriously as a Presidential contender or a President. This is the woman who traveled one million miles with no positive accomplishments as Secretary of State. This is the woman who masterminded one of the great foreign policy catastrophes of all time… aiding the “Arab Spring” in which governments friendly to the west in Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia were replaced with Islamists bent on destroying all human rights and the main repository of human rights on earth, The United States of America.

http://spectator.org/archives/2013/05/21/from-the-obama-ministry-of-tru

Obama and the IRS: The Smoking Gun?

“For me, it’s about collaboration.” — National Treasury Employees Union President Colleen Kelley on the relationship between the anti-Tea Party IRS union and the Obama White House
 Is President Obama directly implicated in the IRS scandal?
Is the White House Visitors Log the trail to the smoking gun?
The stunning questions are raised by the following set of new facts.

http://spectator.org/archives/2013/05/20/obama-and-the-irs-the-smoking?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsalerts 

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Impeaching Holder is a Good First Start

Conservatives have alleged that progressives have been engaged in a callous attempt under this plutocratic administration in creating artificial crises so that the plutocracy can abridge citizens' rights.
I mean further than they’ve already abridged them.
And until now the press has ignored this vast right wing conspiracy theory time after time: Fast and Furious, Solyndra, TARP, HARP, Benghazi, the IRS, Gun Grabbing, Libya, Iran, Syria, Russia, stimulus spending, the Boston Bombing and the phony math on Obamacare.
Wisconsin’s Jim Sensenbrenner summed it up during a House hearing on Fast and Furious when he said: "There is really no responsibility within the Justice Department,"

http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/johnransom/2013/05/23/impeaching-holder-is-a-good-first-start-n1603639/page/full 

Obama May Survive, but Scandals a Blow to Left

For all the complaining the left has done about those shadowy outside political groups subverting the democratic process, we recently learned that no one has the means to undercut freedom of expression quite like an enthusiastic government agency.

Appropriately, nearly everyone in Washington is professing and/or pretending to be outraged that the Internal Revenue Service targeted conservative groups. Yet if we're to believe recent polls, an uninformed President Barack Obama (similarly outraged as he watches events unfold on the news) hasn't shouldered much of the blame for scandalmania just yet -- and perhaps he may never be damaged.

http://townhall.com/columnists/davidharsanyi/2013/05/23/obama-may-survive-but-scandals-a-blow-to-left-n1604010/page/full 

Consider This

Anyone who has not yet reached the tipping point of losing total faith in our current leadership in Washington, the contents of the below link should do it.  Just one example:  You will recall the Department of Justice's (DOJ) stonewalling of Congressional hearings of FBI gun-running operations that led to the use of weapons used to kill at least one American border patrol agent and multiple Mexicans, Adjutant General Holder's Contempt of Congress citation for his role in this stonewalling, DOJ's refusal to prosecute many voter fraud activities, it's interference in AP reporter's efforts to conduct legitimate investigations of and reporting about dubious government activities (now under investigation), ditto for at least one Fox news reporter's activities, etc..  Nonetheless, President Obama has repeatedly expressed his support for Holder and the DOJ.  Well, here is one more seriously questionable DOJ initiative.  It this is not an infringement of the First Amendment  rights of those who disagree with the LBGT agenda I don't know what would be.  

Consider this quote from the below link.  The author notes that "...our ruling junta in Washington is subverting and corrupting agencies of the federal government, staffing them with their creatures, turning them into the tools of an all-encompassing political agenda aimed at what they like to call a 'transformation of America'...They are turning a government of the people into a government of selected groups of people; a government by the people into a government by a tiny set of people; and a government for the people into a government for only favored groups of people."  Here is another quote:  "So far we have seen this done to the IRS, the EPA, the military, and now the Dept. of Justice. They have been transformed into operations that favor and assist the president’s political allies, and disable and harass his opposition. As for our once-free press, they have corrupted and enslaved themselves."   


 George Burns

The Real Reporting on the IRS

Carol Platt Liebau and Eliana Johnson aren't exactly Woodward and Bernstein --yet.
But if both reporters keep up their relentless focus on the details of the IRS scandal --"Targetcon," "Targetgate," "Senseless in Cincinnati" --their names will be far and widely known as the first two serious reporters to take the burgeoning scandal seriously.
Liebau labors at Townhall.com, and most her work appears first there in its "Tipsheet" column and eventually ends up easy to find and comprehensively categorized at CarolLiebau.com.
Johnson's work appears most frequently in "The Corner" at National Review Online, though her work on the IRS is getting landing page, stand-alone attention from the editors, as it should.

http://townhall.com/columnists/hughhewitt/2013/05/22/the-real-reporting-on-the-irs-n1603402/page/full 

AMID POLITICAL POSTURING THE REAL BENGHAZI SCANDALS ARE IGNORED

As numerous Benghazi-related scandals and even talk of impeachment swirl around the Obama administration with increasing ferocity — fiddling with talking points, deliberate lies, failing to defend U.S. personnel, and more — analysts and lawmakers say the real issues in “Benghazigate” that should have the American people outraged are largely being kept out of the discussion. Questions about U.S. government gun-running to radical Islamists from Libya to Syria, for example, or the wisdom and constitutionality of overthrowing foreign governments, have yet to be seriously addressed by the White House or Congress.

Of course, lawmakers in Washington, D.C., claim to be up in arms about the Benghazi attack — especially Republicans, who have been all over the media promising to find out what happened. "The goal here is to get to the truth," House Speaker John Boehner claimed at a press conference last week. "Four Americans lost their lives. Their families want to know the truth. The American people want to know the truth. And I believe it is Congress’ obligation to get to the truth."


http://www.libertynewsonline.com/article_390_33310.php

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Our Indispensable Government

Remember Lake Wobegon, Garrison Keillor’s fictional Minnesota town where “all the children are above average?” Well, too many members of Congress inhabit a Lake Wobegon government, where every government program is also above average — not just successful, but essential.
Here is just one example: Among the many outrages that congressional Democrats have assigned to the sequester is that it could reduce the available slots in the Head Start program by as many as 70,000 children.
This was repeatedly hammered home last month when the Democratic leadership complained that Congress was giving additional flexibility to the FAA to avoid furloughs and flight delays, but didn’t restore Head Start funding.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/348963/our-indispensable-government-michael-tanner 

9/11: Explosive Evidence – Experts Speak Out

Join 23-year architect Richard Gage, AIA, in this feature length documentary with cutting-edge 9/11 evidence from more than 50 top experts in their fields – high-rise architects, structural engineers, physicists, chemical engineers, firefighters, metallurgists, explosives experts, controlled demolition technicians, and more.
Each is highly qualified in his/her respective fields. Several have Ph.D’s – including National Medal of Science awardee Lynn Margulis.
She, along with the other experts, exposes the fraud of NIST and discusses how the scientific method should have been applied and acknowledges the overwhelming evidence of high temperature incendiaries in all dust samples of the WTC.
High-rise architects and structural engineers layout the evidence in the features of the destruction of these three high-rises that point inevitably to explosive controlled demolition.

http://video.cpt12.org/video/2270078138

Serfdom for dummies

Serfdom is making a big comeback these days.  It never really went out of style, of course, but it’s remarkable how many people are now willing to submit to government authority without question, or without much in the way of expectations.  Shoddy performance, from fiscal insolvency to a moribund economy, is no cause for outrage among the modern serfs.  They accept the “New Normal” without question, believing they live in the best of all possible worlds, because it’s now about five years removed from the worst.
That’s an important principle for the serf to accept: Success is measured by the suffering of your enemies.  It doesn’t matter if your taxes go up, provided some hated rich guy’s taxes go up more.  It doesn’t matter if the economy is weak, provided “income inequality” is under attack.  Daily life is a means toward the end of elections.  Any dissatisfaction you might feel with your political leadership is easily re-directed against their opponents.  This keeps the bar set nice and low for the leadership of your team.  Who cares if you’re hurting, as long as bad people are hurting worse?

http://www.redstate.com/2013/05/21/serfdom-for-dummies/ 

Well, I Guess I Was Wrong

Given their past failures to investigate and report on newsworthy items such as the spate of scandals now plaguing the White House, I thought that the mainstream media might come to recognize their history of extraordinarily biased reporting.  Well, it looks as if I was wrong.  Instead, many in the media seem to be doubling down on cover ups, biased reporting and defence of an Administration they so love.  Truth/facts be damned - telling the public what they want us to hear/read/think is their mission.  Presenting unfiltered news, unbiased reporting and honesty are apparently concepts they don't understand.   George Burns

Media Won’t Let Benghazi Become Watergate

There are at the moment a number of exaggerated, even breathless comparisons between President Obama's Benghazi/IRS/Associated Press controversies and President Nixon's Watergate scandal in 1973.
Part of that narrative is driven by the fact that the media like to associate controversies with anniversaries. Part is driven by partisan politics. And part is driven by overreach, presidential politics, incompetence, targeted "justice," and a seeming cover-up by certain people within our government. Will these controversies rise to the level of Watergate with regard to media interest and the media vilification of a White House and a president? Not even close.

http://townhall.com/columnists/douglasmackinnon/2013/05/22/media-wont-let-benghazi-become-watergate-n1602986/page/full 

The Debt Problem Hasn't Vanished

President Obama has raised the national debt by nearly $6.2 trillion, the equivalent of $78,385 per family of four. It is true that projected deficits recently have been reduced. April tax filings increased 28% from 2012, but much of this was thanks to a one-time rush at the end of 2012 to report income before rates rose in January. The second largest reduction in the deficit came from Fannie Mae FNMA +11.04% taking a one-time accounting adjustment.
But unless the economy soars, or a significant budget agreement is reached, the most lasting legacy of the Obama presidency will be a $10 trillion increase in the national debt—a burden that bodes ill for the nation's future.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324787004578494864042754582.html 

America’s cry for help lost in the White Noise

Back in the salad days of President Barack Obama in the Oval Office, the first sign of the coming soft tyranny against We the People should have been the roughly 2000 car dealerships forced out of business by the anti-free enterprise cabal squatting on the White House.
“It was Obama’s auto task force that pressed General Motors and Chrysler to close scores of dealerships without adequately considering the jobs that would be lost or having a firm idea of the cost savings that would be achieved, an audit of the process has concluded.” (The New York Times, July 18, 2010).
This was the first visible social engineering adventure of the Obama regime and tens of thousands of jobs were lost as a result.

http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/55345

3 More Reasons to Fear the IRS

So the IRS has admitted to sitting on applications for tax-exempt status by Tea Party groups for political reasons.
According to the government’s own investigation, applications containing terms such as Tea Party and Patriot were singled out for delays and holds even as groups with liberal-sounding names like "Bus for Progress" and "Progress Florida" sailed through the process.
President Obama said “the report's findings are intolerable and inexcusable” and even fired the acting head of the Internal Revenue Service.

http://reason.com/reasontv/2013/05/21/3-reasons-to-fear-the-irs 

The Justice Department and Fox News’s Phone Records

The Obama Justice Department has seized the phone records of numbers that are associated with White House staffers and, apparently, with Fox News reporters, according to a document filed in the case of Stephen Jin-Woo Kim, on October 13, 2011. Kim is a former State Department contractor accused of violating the Espionage Act for allegedly leaking classified information to James Rosen, a Fox News reporter. Ronald C. Machen, Jr., the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, who is prosecuting the case, has seized records associated with two phone numbers at the White House, at least five numbers associated with Fox News, and one that has the same area code and exchange as Rosen’s personal-cell-phone number (the last four numbers are redacted).
In all, Ronald C. Machen, Jr., the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, has seized records associated with over thirty different phone numbers. In the filing that included the new information, the last four digits of each telephone line targeted by the Obama Administration are redacted. Two of the numbers begin with area code 202 and the exchange 456, which, according to current and former Administration officials, are used exclusively by the White House. (The phone number for the White House switchboard is (202) 456-1414.)

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2013/05/the-justice-department-and-fox-newss-phone-records.html?mobify=0