It’s Good To Be The King

Alabama man sentenced to prison for tweeting ‘let’s kill the president’

"U.S. District Judge C. Lynwood Smith Jr. sentenced 26-year-old Jarvis Britton of Birmingham to one year in prison for threatening the life of Obama. He must serve three years on probation after finishing the prison term. Britton pleaded guilty in March to threatening to kill, kidnap or inflict bodily harm on the president by tweeting the message, 'Let’s kill the president. F.E.A.R.,' in September. He received a warning from the Secret Service in June, but continued to make the threats. 'Serious question? If you knew about a terrorist group planning to kill the president, would you tell? I kinda wanna see if they can! F.E.A.R,' he tweeted on September 19, 2012." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingAlabama man sentenced to prison for tweeting ‘let’s kill the president’

The top secret rules that allow NSA to use US data without a warrant

"Top secret documents submitted to the court that oversees surveillance by US intelligence agencies show the judges have signed off on broad orders which allow the NSA to make use of information 'inadvertently' collected from domestic US communications without a warrant. The previously revealed bulk collection of domestic call records takes place under rolling court orders issued on the basis of a legal interpretation of a different authority, section 215 of the Patriot Act. On Thursday, two US congressmen introduced a bill compelling the Obama administration to declassify the secret legal justifications for NSA surveillance." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe top secret rules that allow NSA to use US data without a warrant

Xerxes Is On The Move

"At a cost of 'between $60 million to $100 million,' 'President Obama goes to sub-Saharan Africa this month,' reports the usually adoring Washington Post. A good part of the comitatus—'the sprawling apparatus that encompasses … the emperor’s household and its personnel'—is going along for the ride. Military cargo planes will airlift in 56 support vehicles, including 14 limousines and three trucks loaded with sheets of bulletproof glass to cover the windows of the hotels where the first family will stay. Fighter jets will fly in shifts, giving 24-hour coverage over the president’s airspace, so they can intervene quickly if an errant plane gets too close." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingXerxes Is On The Move

Freeloaders

"The president's family descended on Northern Ireland to enjoy a lavish holiday in a five-star hotel, where just their room (one of 30 they have commandeered) goes for a cool $3,300 dollars per night. The first family's two-day vacation to Northern Ireland is estimated to cost our families some $5.2 million. Not many working American families can afford a vacation at all, but they have no choice but chip in for the Obama family's fun and games. The first class holiday for the first family is said to be the 'biggest security operation ever mounted in Northern Ireland' -- and in a region that not long ago was mired in brutal warfare and terrorism that is saying quite a bit!" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFreeloaders

Responding to Scandals and Corruption, the IRS Rewards Itself with Giant Bonuses

"What do you do if you’re part of a government bureaucracy that has been caught red-handed engaged in sleazy, corrupt, and (almost surely) illegal targeting of Americans for their political beliefs? But before you answer, keep in mind that your bureaucracy also has been exposed for wasting huge amounts of money at lavish conferences. What’s the ideal way of dealing with the fallout from that scandal as well? The answer is simple. Even though you and your pals already are paid more than the peasants in the private sector, give yourself and your cronies giant bonuses!" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingResponding to Scandals and Corruption, the IRS Rewards Itself with Giant Bonuses

Perjury as a State Privilege

"Every year, hundreds of U.S. citizens are threatened with prosecution for lying to federal agents. Former Major League baseball star Roger Clemens was threatened with a prison term over supposedly lying to Congress over his alleged steroid use. Lying to federal investigators or during Congressional testimony is thus treated as a grave criminal offense – unless, apparently, it is done by the Director of National Intelligence. Clapper’s reply was: 'No, sir' – a statement that is now known to be a direct, conscious lie, as he subsequently admitted. If this were a society of laws, Clapper would be prosecuted for perjury. Then again, in such a society the NSA wouldn’t exist." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPerjury as a State Privilege

Guardian Reporter Glenn Greenwald: We Have List of NSA Targets

"Glenn Greenwald, the reporter at The Guardian who broke the story about NSA surveillance programs, discusses the information received from whistleblower Edward Snowden, saying the federal government is now trying to 'scare the American people' to justify its 'massive spying program.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGuardian Reporter Glenn Greenwald: We Have List of NSA Targets

State Department personnel running amok with drugs and ‘hookers on foreign soil’

"CBS News obtained excerpts from a draft of an Inspector General inquiry into another incident involving 'hookers on foreign soil.' This time, however, rather than Obama’s Secret Service detail getting into trouble abroad, it was the security detail charged with protecting then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The report called the problem of U.S. foreign service employees hiring sex workers while abroad 'endemic' and cited eight different incidents. In 2011, the State Department ordered investigators to halt investigation into a U.S. ambassador who routinely left his post and 'ditched his security detail' to have sex with prostitutes in a public park." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingState Department personnel running amok with drugs and ‘hookers on foreign soil’

US government invokes special privilege to stop scrutiny of data mining

"The Obama administration is invoking an obscure legal privilege to avoid judicial scrutiny of its secret collection of the communications of potentially millions of Americans. Civil liberties lawyers trying to hold the administration to account through the courts for its surveillance of phone calls and emails of American citizens have been repeatedly stymied by the government's recourse to the 'military and state secrets privilege'. The precedent, rarely used but devastating in its legal impact, allows the government to claim that it cannot be submitted to judicial oversight because to do so it would have to compromise national security." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingUS government invokes special privilege to stop scrutiny of data mining

The Problem of Leviathan

"The Internal Revenue Service, already under fire after officials disclosed that the agency targeted conservative groups, faces increased scrutiny because of an inspector general's report that it spent about $50 million to hold at least 220 conferences for employees between 2010 and 2012. The report by the Treasury Department's inspector general about conference spending is set to be released Tuesday. The department issued a statement Sunday saying the administration 'has already taken aggressive and dramatic action to reduce conference spending.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe Problem of Leviathan