February 10, 2015

JEB BUSH JUST DUMPED Emails, Home Addresses, And Social Security Numbers Of Florida Residents Online

Jeb Bush, a rumored 2016 Republican presidential candidate, just decided to publish hundreds of thousands of emails sent to him during his time as governor of Florida. On its face it seems like a great idea in the name of transparency, but there's one huge problem: neither Bush nor those who facilitated the publication of the records decided to redact potentially sensitive personal information from them. "In the spirit of transparency, I am posting the emails of my governorship here," a note on Bush's website says. "Some are funny; some are serious; some I wrote in frustration." Some also contain the email addresses, home addresses, phone numbers, and social security numbers of Florida residents. The emails are available in Outlook format, or can be searched on the web at Bush's website. The Verge did not receive a response from Mr. Bush or his Political Action Committee's office at the time of publication.


"IN THE SPIRIT OF TRANSPARENCY, I AM POSTING THE EMAILS OF MY GOVERNORSHIP."

We reviewed many of the emails released by Bush, and found a wide variety of communications — everything from religious parables, to praise of the governor's support of creationism, to routine bureaucratic correspondence. Some of the emails, though, appear to be highly sensitive or personal. Many, like the one excerpted below, share tales of personal struggle or sorrow.





Other emails include potentially sensitive details about government operations. One email reviewed by The Verge discussed termination of a Florida Lottery employee; the email revealed the reasons for his termination, including "conduct unbecoming a public employee, insubordination, and neglect of duty." The employee had emailed then-governor Bush to appeal for reinstatement. Bush followed up with a lottery official to see if his request could be granted. Other emails include personal appeals from citizens with medical or employment issues. Some of these people included their social security numbers in the clear, as in the email shown below. (The redactions are our own.)






We do not know yet if any of these email disclosures violate Florida privacy laws — as Bush notes in the signature of many of his emails, "Florida has a very broad public records law," and "your email communications may therefore be subject to public disclosure." We will update this story as we receive comment from experts on privacy and Florida law.




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http://www.theverge.com/2015/2/10/8013531/jeb-bush-florida-email-dump-privacy

February 10, 2015

It’s Time To Face The Truth That REPUBLICANS ARE TRAITORS

According to the dictionary definition, a traitor is one who betrays a person, a principle, or especially their country. It is of no consequence why someone, or a group, chooses to work in opposition to their nation, or fellow citizens’ well-being, because if their intent and result of their actions is to deliberately damage or cause harm to their country or fellow citizens, they are by definition traitors. It is likely that throughout America’s short history, except for the traitorous Confederacy, no group of individuals has exhibited the characteristic betrayal of a traitor more than conservatives in general, and Republicans in particular. What makes their actions all the more despicable is that their traitorous actions are founded on racial animus for one man; and allegiance to foreigners and one tiny segment of the population.


These Republicans’ malicious, calculated, and concerted acts of betrayal of their country and its people started the evening of Barack Obama’s first inauguration and, despite his overwhelming re-election victory in 2012, they have persisted unabated and in fact continue to grow. Of course the latest blatant example of betrayal is Speaker of the House John Boehner violating a 216 year-old federal law by “joining with the leader of a foreign nation against his own president.” That was the assessment in a scathing article published in the conservative magazine Forbes that rightly asserted that Boehner “seeking to damage any American President by helping a foreign leader can never be considered something that is best for the nation.” That comment, in a nutshell, elucidates exactly why Republicans are traitors to America; they have no regard whatsoever for “what is best for the nation” or its people. Coupled with their blatant disregard for the Constitution they swore to uphold, their opposition to what is best for the nation has become the defining characteristic of the 21st Century conservative movement and it is why they are traitors.


The Republican drive to subvert this nation and its people’s well-being began when they met and secretly plotted to undermine economic recovery after they just spent 8 long years creating the Great Recession for the benefit of the rich; including starting two wars of religious aggression. At no time in history has a group of political leaders purposely conspired to destroy the nation’s economic well-being as Republicans did on Inauguration night in January 2009. They ramped up their war on the economy in 2011 when they nearly destroyed the full faith and credit of the United States that the Constitution states “shall not be questioned,” much less deliberately decimated. The constitutional betrayal garnered America’s first credit downgrade in history and a ploy they came precariously close to repeating in 2013 when they shut down the government by betraying their Constitutional mandate to legislate for the “people’s general welfare;” all over their opposition to Americans having access to affordable healthcare. It was a betrayal of their fellow citizens, and their oath to uphold the Constitution that tasks them to pass legislation, not shut down the government or threaten a credit default. Over the past six years, Republicans have shown that their allegiance to the Constitution is as non-existent as their allegiance to this country or their fellow citizens.


Republicans have compiled a despicable record of betraying Americans by conspiring and plotting to rob them of their wealth and transferring it, by way of tax cuts, to multi-national corporations with American-sounding names; all while assisting them to avoid taxes by protecting their ill-gotten gains in foreign banks. In fact, the Republican drive to enrich another foreign entity, TransCanada, at the expense of America’s environment, the people’s health, and economy is, as Forbes noted, “something that can never be considered in the best interest for the nation;” as if any American traitor ever considered what was in the best interest of the nation. Republicans also betrayed the Constitution by conspiring with foreigners (Canadians) to undermine the Executive Branch and upset the balance of power to benefit a foreign corporation, other foreign nations’ energy needs, and two un-American John Birch devotees.





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http://www.politicususa.com/2015/02/09/its-time-face-truth-republicans-traitors.html

February 10, 2015

Jeb Bush Hires CTO Who CALLS WOMEN 'SLUTS'

If you're running a campaign you hope to ultimately be against a woman, Ethan Czahor might not want to be the guy you hire for digital operations. Right after the announcement was made that Czahor would be joining Jeb Bush's campaign as digital director, some of his tweets started disappearing. Like these, calling women 'sluts':


Czahor's activism goes back a ways. In 2007, while he was still in college, he launched a website attacking Rosie O'Donnell trying to get her knocked off The View. Ironically, the guy who claims James O'Keefe as a pal was upset about "unbalanced opinions" on television.


Jeb is unfazed.




Which tells you all you need to know about the values of the so-called "family values" party.




http://crooksandliars.com/2015/02/jeb-bush-hires-cto-who-calls-women-sluts

February 9, 2015

Michael Moore: Please WATCH This Video Made By Marine Corps Iraq WAR VET Adam Kokesh

Michael Moore:
https://twitter.com/mmflint

February 9, 2015

Israeli Official: Boehner And Netanyahu CONSPIRED “To DEFY AND HUMILIATE President Obama”

Retribution is some form of punishment inflicted on someone as vengeance for a wrong, whether the wrong is perceived or real. For the past four years, Speaker of the House John A. Boehner (R-OH) has likely perceived that President Barack Obama has inflicted all manner of wrongs on him due to the ease the President is able to thwart Republican efforts to rule America according to their masters the Koch brothers. Obviously Boehner is frustrated that he has been outplayed and out-maneuvered at every turn by the President, and lacking the wherewithal to take on the President himself, he marshaled support and conspired with a foreigner, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to “defy and humiliate President Obama.” Many political observers, the White House, and Democrats were rightly incensed when Boehner invited the foreigner to address a joint session of Congress without going through normal State Department protocols, and their supposition that Boehner deliberately went around the normal diplomatic channels as an act of defiance against the Executive Branch seemed more than credible. Now it is official; Boehner’s illegal invitation to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address a joint session of Congress represents a coordinated attack on President Barack Obama by the radical Republican right-wing and all its bad actors. This official reiteration of what many Democrats suspected all along is according to the Israeli consul general.




As reported in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Yaron Sideman said that Speaker of the House John Boehner, congressional Republicans, the Republican Jewish Coalition, the Zionist Organization of America, and radical Christian leaders’ only purpose “in inviting and supporting Netanyahu’s speech is to defy and humiliate President Barack Obama by addressing the Iranian issue.” In most people’s minds, Boehner and Netanyahu’s conspiracy was more than just to defy and humiliate the President on Iran; it was an attempt to subvert America’s negotiations with Iran over its nuclear ambitions to start another Middle East war at the behest of Israel. In fact, according to Boehner, his illegal conspiracy was specifically to allow Netanyahu “send a clear message to the White House” that in matters regarding America’s Middle East policy, Republicans are committed to Israel. It makes no difference how committed to Israel un-American Republicans are, foreign policy is the purview of the Executive Branch led by President Obama; not Boehner, not Israel, not Republicans, and certainly not the warmongering foreigner Netanyahu. According to the U.S. Constitution and the Supreme Court, “all ability to conduct foreign policy is vested in the President. It is given implicitly and by the fact that the Executive Branch, by its very nature, is empowered to conduct foreign affairs in a way that Congress cannot and should not.” John Boehner, like Israeli foreigner Benjamin Netanyahu, has no allegiance to the U.S. Constitution or the need to adhere to rulings by the United States Supreme Court; no foreigner does.


Many Democrats already regarded Boehner and Netanyahu’s actions a deliberate, well-planned, attack on the sitting President of the United States; including Representative John Lewis (D-GA). Lewis is part of a growing number of Democrats who signaled they are not attending Netanyahu’s speech because “what the speaker did is an affront to the President and the State Department.” Now, according to an Israeli consul general, it is official that “an affront to the President” is precisely what Boehner and Netanyahu intended in their conspiracy to thwart American foreign policy. Another Democrat, Rep. G.K. Butterfield, said he was “very disappointed that the speaker would cause such a ruckus” in his leadership role in Congress, and stated what the White House and others have said on first learning John Boehner violated the 216 year old “Logan Act;” Boehner’s action was “unprecedented.” His action was also illegal according to 18 U.S.C. § 953. The Logan Act “forbids unauthorized citizens” like John Boehner “from negotiating with foreign governments.” The law expressly prohibits “Any citizen from directly or indirectly commencing or carrying on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence or defeat the measures of the United States.” Netanyahu, an anti-Obama foreigner, cannot be punished under federal law, but Boehner can be and should be charged, tried, convicted, and sentenced to serve time in a federal penitentiary; not for conspiring with a foreigner to “defy and humiliate President Barack Obama,” but for breaking the law.


It is an abomination that John Boehner’s need for vengeance against President Obama, and fealty to Israel, overshadows any pretense of loyalty to the United States, or federal law, he claims to support. It is one thing to support Israel and send them billions upon billions of taxpayer dollars to prop up their military, but quite another to conspire with Israel’s leader to thwart America’s negotiations for a peaceful resolution to Iran’s “alleged” nuclear threat. Boehner is not a Jew, but he would do well to heed the sentiment of Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY) who said “I am a Jewish member of Congress, and a strong supporter of Israel. But my first obligation is to the Constitution of the United States, not to the Constitution of Israel.”





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http://www.politicususa.com/2015/02/08/israeli-official-boehner-netanyahu-conspired-to-defy-humiliate-president-obama.html

February 7, 2015

Investigations Might SINK CHRISTIE After All

~snip~

According to a report published last night in the Bergen (NJ) Record, federal investigators working for the U.S. Attorney for New Jersey in January subpoenaed the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey for records relating to the personal travel of its former chairman, David Samson. Included in the report, written by the indefatigable Shawn Boburg, were details surrounding a now-cancelled nonstop flight route that United Airlines briefly ran between Newark Liberty Airport and Columbia Metropolitan Airport in South Carolina, less than an hour from Aiken, South Carolina, where Samson has owned a home since 2006. United ran that flight for nineteen months before canceling the route on April 1, 2014, three days after Samson resigned from his position as the head of the bi-state agency with an annual budget of just under $8 billion. According to an insider, Samson referred to the briefly-lived and lightly-used Newark-Columbia route as “the chairman’s flight.”


~snip~

But until now it has been unclear whether Governor Christie is a target of Fishman’s investigation, largely because it has been unclear how deeply David Samson would be implicated in any wrongdoing at the Port Authority. Samson is an almost legendary figure in New Jersey politics, a former New Jersey attorney general who has worked for both Democratic and Republican governors. He was one of Christie’s closest supporters, chairing the governor’s transition team and emceeing Christie’s 2010 inauguration. Christie appointed Samson to be chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in 2010 and he was confirmed in early 2011. It has become apparent in the last year, however, that Samson monetized much of the goodwill and connections he built up over his long career by positioning his law firm, Wolff & Samson, on both sides of many public agency actions and deals. Last year I reported for TPM on a Port Authority-funded land use study in Hoboken that would have exclusively benefitted one of Wolff & Samson’s clients. Samson was soon shown to have been personally involved in so many deals that he took the unusual step of retroactively recusing himself from certain Port Authority board votes shortly before resigning from the agency last March. The sensational revelation surrounding “the chairman’s flight,” can therefore be seen in some ways as more of the same.

BUT IT ISN'T.

In the event that David Samson is indicted, it is widely expected that the 75-year-old former Port Authority chairman would be eager to cut a deal rather than risk serving a prison sentence. The subpoenas to the Port Authority and to United Airlines suggest that Fishman’s team have discovered (or been directed to) exercises of influence that have nothing to do with Bridgegate and everything to do with the way Samson and Christie collaborated to use the agency. Something not mentioned in the Record’s story was that in the same period that United Airlines was negotiating a 20-year, $150 million lease at Newark Liberty Airport, the Port Authority was also reportedly trying to entice the airline to begin running commercial flights to Atlantic City’s airport by offering to build a $1 billion commuter subway extension from lower Manhattan to Newark Liberty. On at least one occasion, August 23, 2013, Chris Christie and David Samson together met with United Airlines CEO Jeffrey Smisek to discuss this arrangement. Two months prior to that meeting, and two months after signing of the new lease at Newark, thirteen United executives donated a total of $31,500 toward Christie’s re-election effort. The donations all were made between June 5 and June 17, 2013; only two of the twelve contributors listed New Jersey residences. It was the only time that United management collectively donated to a New Jersey political campaign, and in that particular cycle they represented the single largest pool of contributions from a publicly traded company and the third-largest pool overall, trailing a medical group and state employees.


~snip~

The revelation of “the chairman’s flight” is a sign that investigators are gaining leverage over David Samson. In the event they want to turn him into a cooperating witness against Governor Christie, all he would have to show is that Christie directed him to ask United Airlines for contributions. Alternatively, United could simply show evidence that they felt pressure to donate. In the wake of Samson’s departure, United dropped its Atlantic City flights and filed an 81-page complaint against the Port Authority with the Federal Aviation Administration, alleging mismanagement at the agency and extortionately high fees at Newark Liberty. We can already see that United went through the trouble of setting up and operating a money-losing route just to satisfy the travel appetite of the chairman of the Port Authority.

Is it a stretch to think David Samson might have asked them for other things, too?




cont'

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/investigations-might-sink-christie-after-all

February 7, 2015

Israeli Elections - Likud - BIBISITTER NETANYAHU

Republicans ordered a Bibisitter!..................






.

February 7, 2015

BAM! Vice President Biden WON'T ATTEND Netanyahu’s Address to U.S. Congress

Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. announced on Friday that he would not attend the speech to Congress by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel next month, further escalating a diplomatic flap that has already soured relations between the Obama administration and one of America’s closest allies.

Mr. Biden, who as president of the Senate would normally be seated next to the House speaker during such a speech, plans to be overseas when Mr. Netanyahu visits, his office announced. President Obama had already decided that he would not meet with Mr. Netanyahu, citing a policy of not getting together with foreign leaders shortly before elections in their countries.

There have been deepening strains between the Israeli leader and the administration since Mr. Netanyahu accepted an invitation from Representative John A. Boehner, the House speaker, to address Congress about Iran without informing the White House. Mr. Netanyahu is deeply worried about Mr. Obama’s efforts to negotiate a nuclear pact with Iran, and Republicans want to give him a forum to express those concerns.



cont'


http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/07/world/middleeast/citing-overseas-travel-plans-biden-wont-attend-netanyahus-speech-to-congress.html

February 6, 2015

Democrats In FULL REVOLT As Republican Netanyahu Speech Scheme COMPLETELY BACKFIRES

"....Boehner and Netanyahu’s scheme to humiliate Obama has backfired into an embarrassing public disaster for the conservatives...."

Bibi's snub should not be rewarded by Democratic Reps by attending his speech.........Boycott!........




Republicans and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu are facing potential humiliation as congressional Democrats are in full revolt and refusing to attend the Israeli leader’s planned speech before Congress. Politico reported that a meeting to try to end the Democratic revolt has only served to make things worse:



The White House isn’t providing any guidance to congressional Democrats, but the reports that Vice President Biden may skip Netanyahu’s speech are a powerful non-verbal signal. Anyone with an ounce of political sense understands that Boehner and Netanyahu cooked up this scheme in order to humiliate the president and pressure him to drop the nuclear talks with Iran. Republicans misread the political landscape. Boehner assumed that his Netanyahu invitation would divide Democrats and split what he presumed was a weakened Democratic Party.

The exact opposite has happened. The Democrats have emerged from the 2014 midterm as a revived party. Their resurgence has been powered by President Obama. The president has seen his poll numbers steadily increase as he has chosen to take on Republicans on a number of issues. Democrats have formed a unified front with their president that has led to Republicans struggling to get their agenda off of the ground. Boehner and Netanyahu have entered damage control mode. They can’t cancel Netanyahu’s address, so the conservatives are trying to get Democrats on board. The prospect of Netanyahu addressing Congress and looking out upon dozens to hundreds of empty seats is becoming very real. Democrats are rebelling against the speech in order to expose it as the partisan stunt that it is.




cont'

http://www.politicususa.com/2015/02/05/democrats-full-revolt-republican-netanyahu-speech-scheme-completely-backfires.html

February 5, 2015

Ted Cruz 'Foolishly Experimented With Marijuana' His Campaign Admits AFTER BUSH CONFESSES TO POT USE

It was 'when he was a teenager,' Cruz's spokesperson told Daily Mail Online; 'It was a mistake, and he's never tried it since'

Rick Perry, Donald Trump and John Bolton say they have never smoked pot; Rand Paul hints that he 'wasn't a choirboy' – but won't answer directly

Marco Rubio refuses to answer, saying no one will believe him if the answer is 'no'; Carly Fiorina will only say she opposes legalizing weed

Spokesmen for Govs. Scott Walker and Gov. Chris Christie, and former neurosurgeon Ben Carson, ignored questions entirely

Bush told the Boston Globe on Friday that he had smoked pot as a teenager at his elite prep school

Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz smoked marijuana in his youth, his campaign told Daily Mail Online on Tuesday – putting him in the same camp as former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who acknowledged his high school pot-smoking days on Friday. 'Teenagers are often known for their lack of judgment, and Sen. Cruz was no exception,' a Cruz spokesperson said. 'When he was a teenager, he foolishly experimented with marijuana. It was a mistake, and he's never tried it since.' The spokesperson wouldn't elaborate about how many times Cruz had tried the illegal drug, over how long a period the experimentation occurred, and exactly how old he was at the time. Daily Mail Online asked spokespersons for 10 likely Republican presidential candidates whether their bosses had ever lit up doobies, smoked bongs or otherwise tried weed. Seven of them responded. Cruz's reply was the only one that provided a new admission of what tends to become a character issue during major political cycles.

~snip~

The last three U.S. presidents were all admitted pot smokers: Bill Clinton claimed improbably that he never inhaled, while Barack Obama said he definitely did. George W. Bush told his biographer after he left the White House that he never answered the question publicly because he didn't want American children following his example. In that light it's unclear whether admitting to having tried a few joints in college is the disqualifier that it likely was in the 1940s or '50s. But Cruz's conservative political base may not look kindly on the news. An aide to a Democratic senator told Daily Mail Online: 'Just wait until the tea party gets its hooks in this. I mean, we all have skeletons and even moral crusaders eventually topple of their own weight, right?' 'At the same time,' he acknowledged, 'this certainly isn't on the level of a Michael Grimm.' Grimm, a rare New York City Republican congressman, resigned his House seat last month after he pleaded guilty to a federal charge of felony tax fraud.

~snip~

Alex Conant, who fields press requests for Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, side-stepped a request for comment about past marijuana use. He sent Daily Mail Online a link to a Fusion television interview with a note that 'this is his standard answer to that question.' Rubio told Fusion, a joint venture between Disney and the Spanish-language Univision network, that he would decline to say whether he had ever smoked pot. 'I'll tell you why I never answer that question,' he said at a February 2014 Miami event. 'If I tell you that I haven't, you won’t believe me.' 'And if I tell you that I did, then kids will look up to me and say, "Well, I can smoke marijuana because look how he made it".' The answer to your question is: at this point, it’s irrelevant,' Rubio said. But if Rubio throws his hat into the ring for 2016, it might become a question he's pressed to answer. 'I don’t have anything to add,' Conant said when pressed for a more direct answer.


~snip~

Rand Paul, the Kentucky senator known for his libertarian leanings, would be a natural candidate for the 'yes' column, but his press spokesperson also deflected questions with a link to a previous interview. In December 2014 Paul hinted to WHAS-TV in Louisville that he had smoked pot in his younger days, but wouldn't confirm it directly. 'Let's just say I wasn't a choirboy when I was in college,' Paul said, 'and that I can recognize that kids make mistakes, and I can say that I made mistakes when I was a kid.' The grown-up Paul, though, described even casual drug use as 'not a good idea.' 'Even people who say marijuana is no big deal. No, I think marijuana is a problem for our kids and I think it's a mistake for kids to be smoking even marijuana.' 'Even though it may not kill you I don't think it's good for you. It's not good for studies, it's not good for showing up for work.' Bush, the former Florida governor, told the Boston Globe on Friday that he had smoked pot as a teenager – an activity he describes as 'pretty common' at the tony Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. The current GOP fundraising favorite told The Boston Globe in an interview published ahead of Sunday's edition that 'I drank alcohol and I smoked marijuana when I was at Andover.' Both activities were strictly forbidden at the time – and still are – and could have gotten him expelled.




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