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WillyT
WillyT's Journal
WillyT's Journal
January 9, 2014
The George Washington Bridge fiasco is a deeply damning window on the governor's administration.
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 8, 2014, 8:03 PM
http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.1570245.1389227760!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_635/traffic-mystery.jpg
<snip>
In the best possible light, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie built a top staff of lying thugs who threatened lives and safety to serve his political ends. If not, Christie is a lying thug himself.
Emails and text messages among his close aides made public Wednesday documented that in September they gleefully engineered George Washington Bridge lane closures to punish the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee for failing to endorse their boss’ reelection.
Local officials say the gridlock they caused delayed ambulances in responding to four calls, including one involving an unconscious 91-year-old woman who later died.
Christie’s presidential ambitions are all but kaput, as he will be lambasted and lampooned as a man of low character and horrible judgment — again viewing him in the most favorable way.
The Port Authority’s sudden, unannounced closing of bridge entrance lanes produced hours-long backups for four days. They ended only after Executive Director Patrick Foye discovered the shutdowns, which were later traced to rogue orders issued by Christie PA appointee David Wildstein, a high school buddy, and to a cover-up by Bill Baroni, Christie’s top person at the bi-state agency.
For months, responsibility remained clouded. During that time, Christie made light of the charges. He joked that the press was suggesting he had moved traffic cones personally. Last month, he described the affair as “not that big a deal.” He supported Baroni’s story that the lane closures were part of a traffic study.
His aides’ communications, made public Wednesday, put the lie to that...
<snip>
More: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/christie-waterloo-article-1.1570246
WOW !!! - 'Christie’s Waterloo' - NYDailyNews
Christie’s WaterlooThe George Washington Bridge fiasco is a deeply damning window on the governor's administration.
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 8, 2014, 8:03 PM
http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.1570245.1389227760!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_635/traffic-mystery.jpg
<snip>
In the best possible light, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie built a top staff of lying thugs who threatened lives and safety to serve his political ends. If not, Christie is a lying thug himself.
Emails and text messages among his close aides made public Wednesday documented that in September they gleefully engineered George Washington Bridge lane closures to punish the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee for failing to endorse their boss’ reelection.
Local officials say the gridlock they caused delayed ambulances in responding to four calls, including one involving an unconscious 91-year-old woman who later died.
Christie’s presidential ambitions are all but kaput, as he will be lambasted and lampooned as a man of low character and horrible judgment — again viewing him in the most favorable way.
The Port Authority’s sudden, unannounced closing of bridge entrance lanes produced hours-long backups for four days. They ended only after Executive Director Patrick Foye discovered the shutdowns, which were later traced to rogue orders issued by Christie PA appointee David Wildstein, a high school buddy, and to a cover-up by Bill Baroni, Christie’s top person at the bi-state agency.
For months, responsibility remained clouded. During that time, Christie made light of the charges. He joked that the press was suggesting he had moved traffic cones personally. Last month, he described the affair as “not that big a deal.” He supported Baroni’s story that the lane closures were part of a traffic study.
His aides’ communications, made public Wednesday, put the lie to that...
<snip>
More: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/christie-waterloo-article-1.1570246
January 9, 2014
Link: http://www.exposethetpp.org/TPPImpactsYou.html
A Phun Fact About The TPP...
Although it is called a
"free trade" agreement,
the TPP is not really
mainly about trade.
Of the TPP's 29 draft chapters, only 5 deal with traditional trade issues. Most would set rules on non-trade matters that affect our daily lives:
food safety, internet freedom, medicine costs, job off-shoring, financial regulation, and more.
Our domestic policies
would be required to
comply with the TPP rules.
"free trade" agreement,
the TPP is not really
mainly about trade.
Of the TPP's 29 draft chapters, only 5 deal with traditional trade issues. Most would set rules on non-trade matters that affect our daily lives:
food safety, internet freedom, medicine costs, job off-shoring, financial regulation, and more.
Our domestic policies
would be required to
comply with the TPP rules.
Link: http://www.exposethetpp.org/TPPImpactsYou.html
January 9, 2014
Richard (RJ) Eskow - HuffPo
Posted: 01/07/2014 7:29 pm
<snip>
"Overcoming poverty is not a task of charity," said Nelson Mandela, "it is an act of justice." When the War on Poverty began a half-century ago, it was widely seen as the moral obligation of a wealthy nation. President Lyndon Johnson declared war on poverty in his first State of the Union message, fifty years ago. That speech was delivered on January 8, 1964, to a Congress and a nation still grieving the assassination of a young and vibrant President. "Let us carry forward the plans and programs of John Fitzgerald Kennedy," said Johnson, "not because of our sorrow or sympathy, but because they are right."
Johnson knew that some of his colleagues might pay a price for their political courage on this issue. But he rejected the path of centrist convenience in his moral call to fellow Democrats. Said Johnson: "I especially ask all members of my own political faith, in this election year, to put your country ahead of your party."
Some sacrifices are worth the price. But then, as now, politicians and journalists often dealt with the moral challenge of poverty by rendering it invisible. Michael Harrington talked about that in his 1962 book, "The Other America," writing of the "normal and obvious causes of the invisibility of the poor." Those forces "operated a generation ago," wrote Harrington, and "they will be functioning a generation hence... the very development of American society is creating a new kind of blindness about poverty. The poor are increasingly slipping out of the very experience and consciousness of the nation."
He was right. A generation later the ranks of the poor, which swelled after Wall Street triggered the 2008 crisis, have too often remained out of sight and out of mind to a political and media class obsessed with false arguments about deficit reduction and "downsizing government."
That's not to say that the War on Poverty has been a failure. Far from it. When Ronald Reagan said that "we waged a war on poverty and poverty won," he was either being deceitful or woefully ignorant. The Census Bureau reports that government programs kept 41 million Americans out of poverty, including 9 million children in 2012.
As the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities observes...
<snip>
More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rj-eskow/the-war-on-poverty-is-our_b_4557846.html
The War On Poverty Is Our Moral Challenge Now - Richard (RJ) Eskow/HuffPo
The War on Poverty is Our Moral Challenge NowRichard (RJ) Eskow - HuffPo
Posted: 01/07/2014 7:29 pm
<snip>
"Overcoming poverty is not a task of charity," said Nelson Mandela, "it is an act of justice." When the War on Poverty began a half-century ago, it was widely seen as the moral obligation of a wealthy nation. President Lyndon Johnson declared war on poverty in his first State of the Union message, fifty years ago. That speech was delivered on January 8, 1964, to a Congress and a nation still grieving the assassination of a young and vibrant President. "Let us carry forward the plans and programs of John Fitzgerald Kennedy," said Johnson, "not because of our sorrow or sympathy, but because they are right."
Johnson knew that some of his colleagues might pay a price for their political courage on this issue. But he rejected the path of centrist convenience in his moral call to fellow Democrats. Said Johnson: "I especially ask all members of my own political faith, in this election year, to put your country ahead of your party."
Some sacrifices are worth the price. But then, as now, politicians and journalists often dealt with the moral challenge of poverty by rendering it invisible. Michael Harrington talked about that in his 1962 book, "The Other America," writing of the "normal and obvious causes of the invisibility of the poor." Those forces "operated a generation ago," wrote Harrington, and "they will be functioning a generation hence... the very development of American society is creating a new kind of blindness about poverty. The poor are increasingly slipping out of the very experience and consciousness of the nation."
He was right. A generation later the ranks of the poor, which swelled after Wall Street triggered the 2008 crisis, have too often remained out of sight and out of mind to a political and media class obsessed with false arguments about deficit reduction and "downsizing government."
That's not to say that the War on Poverty has been a failure. Far from it. When Ronald Reagan said that "we waged a war on poverty and poverty won," he was either being deceitful or woefully ignorant. The Census Bureau reports that government programs kept 41 million Americans out of poverty, including 9 million children in 2012.
As the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities observes...
<snip>
More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rj-eskow/the-war-on-poverty-is-our_b_4557846.html
January 9, 2014
Pat Dollard.com ^ | Pat Dollard
Posted on 1/8/2014 4:29:07 PM by icwhatudo
Link: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3109772/posts
Sorry... Can't Help Myself... From The Site That Shall Not Be Named... Re: Christie
UPDATE, CASUALTY COUNT BEGINS: So Far One Known Person Killed By Chris Christie In Bridge VendettaPat Dollard.com ^ | Pat Dollard
Posted on 1/8/2014 4:29:07 PM by icwhatudo
Link: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3109772/posts
January 9, 2014
I'm Curious To See How The Christie Scandal Plays Into The Republican Rift...
I mean... the Chamber of Commerce and the Republican Establishment probably were ready to go Full Christie, the Tea-Bagger/Ultra-Conservatives, not so much.
The Libertarian/Ayn Randians... probably not so much as well.
It will be interesting to see if anybody tries to come to Christie's aid, or if he's left to twist slowly in the wind.
Any predictions ???
Stay tuned.
January 8, 2014
Laura Bassett - HuffPo
Posted: 01/08/2014 4:47 pm EST | Updated: 01/08/2014 5:33 pm ES
<snip>
As the Senate takes up a measure to extend unemployment insurance, Republicans in the House of Representatives are looking to make 2014 another banner year for anti-abortion laws.
A panel of 12 men on the House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on a bill Thursday that would deny tax subsidies to women and small businesses who purchase health insurance plans that include abortion coverage. The bill only makes an exception for rape and incest victims and women who would die without abortion care, which opponents say could prompt the IRS to audit any woman who claims one of these exceptions.
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has also promised to fight for a rider in the appropriations package Congress is expected to pass next week that would allow employers to refuse to cover contraception in their health insurance plans for moral reasons. And the Republican National Committee has announced it plans to delay its annual winter meeting this year so that members can attend the annual March for Life, an anti-abortion rally in Washington, D.C.
"I'm not a psychologist, but we're dealing with behavior that, to me, appears obsessive," Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, told HuffPost in an interview. "The jury is in from the rest of country as well -- they want Congress to legislate on issues that are priorities for all Americans. But Republicans don't hear it, because it's an obsessive-compulsive behavior, their focus on rolling back women's rights. They can't stop themselves."
<snip>
More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/08/house-gop-kicks-off-2014-_n_4563303.html
House Republicans Kick Off 2014 With Renewed Focus On Abortion, Birth Control - Laura Bassett/HuffPo
House Republicans Kick Off 2014 With Renewed Focus On Abortion, Birth ControlLaura Bassett - HuffPo
Posted: 01/08/2014 4:47 pm EST | Updated: 01/08/2014 5:33 pm ES
<snip>
As the Senate takes up a measure to extend unemployment insurance, Republicans in the House of Representatives are looking to make 2014 another banner year for anti-abortion laws.
A panel of 12 men on the House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on a bill Thursday that would deny tax subsidies to women and small businesses who purchase health insurance plans that include abortion coverage. The bill only makes an exception for rape and incest victims and women who would die without abortion care, which opponents say could prompt the IRS to audit any woman who claims one of these exceptions.
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has also promised to fight for a rider in the appropriations package Congress is expected to pass next week that would allow employers to refuse to cover contraception in their health insurance plans for moral reasons. And the Republican National Committee has announced it plans to delay its annual winter meeting this year so that members can attend the annual March for Life, an anti-abortion rally in Washington, D.C.
"I'm not a psychologist, but we're dealing with behavior that, to me, appears obsessive," Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, told HuffPost in an interview. "The jury is in from the rest of country as well -- they want Congress to legislate on issues that are priorities for all Americans. But Republicans don't hear it, because it's an obsessive-compulsive behavior, their focus on rolling back women's rights. They can't stop themselves."
<snip>
More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/08/house-gop-kicks-off-2014-_n_4563303.html
January 8, 2014
By Eugene Robinson - RCP
January 7, 2014
<snip>
WASHINGTON -- President Obama's anticipated reform of the National Security Agency's practices needs to go beyond ending the mass surveillance of innocent Americans' phone calls. He should force the agency to think less about the quantity of information it gathers and more about the quality.
Obama should ignore the choir of apologists singing in lamentation over the beastly way the NSA is being treated. I refer to voices such as that of Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., who on Monday accused Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. -- and, by extension, all the agency's critics -- of "trying to create this paranoia among Americans that the NSA is spying on everyone."
In fact, the NSA is spying on everyone by keeping a detailed log of our private phone calls. This practice was sanctioned by secret court rulings that stretched the words of the Constitution and the Patriot Act beyond recognition. We couldn't challenge these rulings because we weren't allowed to know about them. When asked last March whether any such blanket domestic surveillance was taking place, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper lied to Congress and said no. In what universe is it "paranoia" to be angry about all of this?
King and the rest of the NSA chorus blame whistleblower Edward Snowden for getting the agency in trouble over the phone surveillance and other rogue practices, such as eavesdropping on the cellphone conversations of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and secretly tapping into the data streams of major Internet providers. But Snowden just revealed these abuses. It was the NSA that committed them -- and brought this world of hurt on itself.
The Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies -- one of two blue-ribbon panels Obama appointed to examine the NSA mess -- recommended that the agency stop compiling its comprehensive log of domestic phone calls. This information should be kept by the phone companies or some third party, the review group said, and the government should have to obtain warrants to search it.
Obama should go further...
<snip>
More: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2014/01/07/defining_the_nsas_role_121143.html
Thank You, Eugene Robinson !!! - 'Defining the NSA's Role'
Defining the NSA's RoleBy Eugene Robinson - RCP
January 7, 2014
<snip>
WASHINGTON -- President Obama's anticipated reform of the National Security Agency's practices needs to go beyond ending the mass surveillance of innocent Americans' phone calls. He should force the agency to think less about the quantity of information it gathers and more about the quality.
Obama should ignore the choir of apologists singing in lamentation over the beastly way the NSA is being treated. I refer to voices such as that of Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., who on Monday accused Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. -- and, by extension, all the agency's critics -- of "trying to create this paranoia among Americans that the NSA is spying on everyone."
In fact, the NSA is spying on everyone by keeping a detailed log of our private phone calls. This practice was sanctioned by secret court rulings that stretched the words of the Constitution and the Patriot Act beyond recognition. We couldn't challenge these rulings because we weren't allowed to know about them. When asked last March whether any such blanket domestic surveillance was taking place, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper lied to Congress and said no. In what universe is it "paranoia" to be angry about all of this?
King and the rest of the NSA chorus blame whistleblower Edward Snowden for getting the agency in trouble over the phone surveillance and other rogue practices, such as eavesdropping on the cellphone conversations of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and secretly tapping into the data streams of major Internet providers. But Snowden just revealed these abuses. It was the NSA that committed them -- and brought this world of hurt on itself.
The Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies -- one of two blue-ribbon panels Obama appointed to examine the NSA mess -- recommended that the agency stop compiling its comprehensive log of domestic phone calls. This information should be kept by the phone companies or some third party, the review group said, and the government should have to obtain warrants to search it.
Obama should go further...
<snip>
More: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2014/01/07/defining_the_nsas_role_121143.html
January 8, 2014
By Michael Isikoff - NBC News National Investigative Correspondent
1/8/14
<snip>
The files stolen from an FBI office outside Philadelphia in 1971 were stunning, describing secret efforts to spy on student protestors and infiltrate civil rights groups. But one document proved especially interesting to the NBC News correspondent who would later break the news of the FBI’s most notorious secret program of nationwide domestic surveillance. It discussed a proposal from bureau headquarters that agents send letters “anonymously” to college professors who had “shown a reluctance to take decisive action” against left-wing protestors. And it included a cryptic acronym he’d never seen before: “COINTELPRO.”
“The first question that popped in my mind was, ‘By what authority do FBI agents write anonymous letters?’” recalls Carl Stern, who covered the Justice Department for NBC News for nearly 30 years. He also wanted to know what “COINTELPRO” stood for. But when he pressed those questions with top DOJ officials, “nobody would talk to me about it.”
Stern recalled his efforts to learn more about the document—and the mysterious reference to “COINTELPRO” -- on Tuesday after the confession by three former peace activists that they had committed the unsolved burglary of the Media, Pa. office in order to document what they were convinced was “massive illegal surveillance” by J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI. The identities of the burglars are revealed in a new book, “The Burglary,” by former Washington Post reporter Betty Medsger, and were reported Tuesday on the “Today” show.
The burglars cracked open the door to exposing illicit FBI snooping by stealing the files and sending them to select journalists, but it was Stern who opened it all the way. Using a then-novel tool called the Freedom of Information Act to obtain documents from the government, Stern uncovered the long-running surveillance program known as COINTELPRO, a now-infamous effort at political intimidation and disruption that may have been Hoover's biggest secret.
As Stern recalled it, when his initial inquiries about COINTELPRO were rebuffed, he refused to take no for an answer and sought an explanation over lunch with L. Patrick Gray, who had become acting director of the FBI after Hoover died in 1972. He got back a terse letter in Sept. 1972. “This matter involved a highly sensitive operation,” it read. “It has now been discontinued” and any further disclosures “would definitely be harmful to the Bureau’s operations and to the national security.”
So Stern filed a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act...
<snip>
More: http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2014/01/08/22220561-nbc-reporter-recounts-breaking-fbi-spying-story?lite
When COINTELPRO = National Security - 'NBC Reporter Recounts Breaking FBI Spying Story' - NBC
NBC reporter recounts breaking FBI spying storyBy Michael Isikoff - NBC News National Investigative Correspondent
1/8/14
<snip>
The files stolen from an FBI office outside Philadelphia in 1971 were stunning, describing secret efforts to spy on student protestors and infiltrate civil rights groups. But one document proved especially interesting to the NBC News correspondent who would later break the news of the FBI’s most notorious secret program of nationwide domestic surveillance. It discussed a proposal from bureau headquarters that agents send letters “anonymously” to college professors who had “shown a reluctance to take decisive action” against left-wing protestors. And it included a cryptic acronym he’d never seen before: “COINTELPRO.”
“The first question that popped in my mind was, ‘By what authority do FBI agents write anonymous letters?’” recalls Carl Stern, who covered the Justice Department for NBC News for nearly 30 years. He also wanted to know what “COINTELPRO” stood for. But when he pressed those questions with top DOJ officials, “nobody would talk to me about it.”
Stern recalled his efforts to learn more about the document—and the mysterious reference to “COINTELPRO” -- on Tuesday after the confession by three former peace activists that they had committed the unsolved burglary of the Media, Pa. office in order to document what they were convinced was “massive illegal surveillance” by J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI. The identities of the burglars are revealed in a new book, “The Burglary,” by former Washington Post reporter Betty Medsger, and were reported Tuesday on the “Today” show.
The burglars cracked open the door to exposing illicit FBI snooping by stealing the files and sending them to select journalists, but it was Stern who opened it all the way. Using a then-novel tool called the Freedom of Information Act to obtain documents from the government, Stern uncovered the long-running surveillance program known as COINTELPRO, a now-infamous effort at political intimidation and disruption that may have been Hoover's biggest secret.
As Stern recalled it, when his initial inquiries about COINTELPRO were rebuffed, he refused to take no for an answer and sought an explanation over lunch with L. Patrick Gray, who had become acting director of the FBI after Hoover died in 1972. He got back a terse letter in Sept. 1972. “This matter involved a highly sensitive operation,” it read. “It has now been discontinued” and any further disclosures “would definitely be harmful to the Bureau’s operations and to the national security.”
So Stern filed a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act...
<snip>
More: http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2014/01/08/22220561-nbc-reporter-recounts-breaking-fbi-spying-story?lite
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