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I hope Obama is watching what I'm doing on Facebook! I would love to meet one on one to discuss our differences of opinion!
According to the National Legal and Policy Center the White House is planning a twelve month contract to capture information from social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. The 51 page solicitation shows that the NLPC uncovered shows that the White House does not have to notify the people whose information is being retrieved and there is no restriction on what the White House can do with that information.
If you're watching or reading this, you probably have a You Tube, Twitter, Facebook or MySpace account. According to the NLPC, the White House can access your email address. The White House is trying to gather an enemies list like they did with flag@whitehouse.gov -- the so-called "enemies list" solicited for "misinformation" about the health care debate. Both are arguably not only unconstitutional, but fascist.
NLPC has uncovered a plan by the White House New Media operation to hire a technology vendor to conduct a massive, secret effort to harvest personal information on millions of Americans from social networking websites.
The information to be captured includes comments, tag lines, emails, audio, and video. The targeted sites include Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr and others – any space where the White House “maintains a presence.”
In the course of investigating procurement by the White House New Media office, NLPC discovered a 51-page solicitation of bids that was filed on Friday, August 21, 2009. Filed as Solicitation # WHO-S-09-0003, it is posted at FedBizzOps.com. Click here to download a 51-page pdf of the solicitation.
While the solicitation specifies a 12-month contract, it allows for seven one-year extensions. It specifies no dollar cap. Other troubling issues include:
extremely broad secrecy terms preventing the vendor from disclosing to the public or the media what information is being captured and archived (page 7, “Restriction Against Disclosure”)
wholesale capturing of comments by non-White House staff on publicly accessible sites
capturing of content of any type (text, graphics, audio, or video)
capturing of comments by both Obama critics and supporters, with no restriction as to how the White House would use the information.
This is the third controversy involving the White House internet operations in less than a month. First, Obama’s New Media operation asked supporters to send information about critics of the White House health care effort to a White House email. This provoked a storm of criticism and the White House retreated. Then large number of people complained of getting email spam from the White House supporting the President’s health care position. Again the White House was forced to back down.
Now the same people at the White House are at it again with an ambitious plan to harvest huge amounts of information from the web and specifically social networking sites.
Given the White House’s recent abuse of its New Media operations, this huge, new secretive program is yet another sign that this Administration is at best indifferent to privacy rights and at worst prepared to violate civil liberties for political purposes.
Perhaps anticipating negative reaction to the invasiveness of the plan, a justification is provided in a Q&A. section of the solicitation. Question #9 reads:
The Presidential Records Act does not require the storage or archiving of non-EOP content, as such is there a specific reason as to why the content provided on EOP related websites in the form of comments is included in these archiving procedures?
Answer: The PRA includes in its definition of presidential records content ―received by PRA components and personnel. Out of an abundance of caution, we are treating comments made by non-PRA personnel on sites on which a PRA component has a presence as presidential records, requiring them to be captured or sampled.
Of course, this interpretation of the Presidential Records Act is so expansive that virtually any communication mentioning the president or the Administration could become subject to collection and archiving under the Act. This is not out of an “abundance of caution,” but out of an over-abundance of power. President Obama should make sure that this plan goes no further.
NLPC promotes ethics in public life through research, investigation, education and legal action.
We recognize that the bigger the government, the more opportunities for corruption; and the more intervention in the economy, the more reason for special interests to seek influence. We believe that the best way to promote ethics is to reduce the size of government.
We do not believe that ethics are advanced through more laws or "better guidelines," even as existing ones are ignored. We don't believe the problem is with too few laws, or with too much freedom, but with men and women. We believe the missing ingredients are character, morality and common sense.
This video was taken on Tuesday, August 25th, 2009 at Rep. Jim Moran's (D-VA) Town Hall meeting on Obama Deathcare held at South Lakes High School in Reston, VA. Many people were left outside when the school filled to capacity. School security officer Wesley Cheeks, Jr. did not like my anti-Obamacare poster which used one of the gone-viral "Joker" graphics.
When I said to Officer Cheeks, "This used to be America!" his response was: "It ain't no more, OK?"
I especially enjoy when the officer says he can charge the man with whatever he wants!
More proof of Chicago politics at work. Obama and the Libs keep attacking Town Hall protesters as "Nazis" and "thugs" and "unpatriotic" when the reality has become more clear each day -- this is a radical, fascist Administration who despises American liberty!
Smith has done more harm to the British democratic system than any other person in history, the only thing that still shocks me about this awful woman is not her total disregard for democracy and her absolute arrogance but her lack of respect for the British people. This government is doing more to help the BNP get to power than any amount of canvassing done by the BNP. By the way Savage is a patriot who speaks the blatant truth, but even if you don't like him, you should fight for his right to speak openly and freely.
"For this lunatic Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary of England, to link me up with skinheads who are killing people in Russia, to put me in (the same) league with mass murderers who kill Jews on buses is defamation. "I thought this was a joke or a mistake." He has a point. Jacqui Smith said the people who were banned were those whose views the country 'would not tolerate'. But who is she to make that decision? While it is the job of the Home Secretary to ensure the security and safety of the nation, it is not for her to decree what we should hear and to whom we should listen.
Talk radio host Michael Savage is considering legal action against Britain's top homeland security official after she released today a list grouping him with terrorists and neo-Nazi murderers banned from entry because the government believes their views might provoke violence.
In a telephone interview with WND, Savage said he is still waiting to hear back from attorneys, but he noted Britain has very strict anti-defamation laws.
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said she decided to publicize the list of 16 people banned since October to show the type of behavior Britain will not tolerate, according to U.K. news reports.
Savage's immediate reaction upon hearing the news was typically wry.
"Darn! And I was just planning a trip to England for their superior dental work and cuisine," he recalled thinking.
"Then it sank in," he told WND, "and I said, 'She said this is the kind of behavior we won't tolerate? She's linking me with mass murderers who are in prison for killing Jewish children on buses? For my speech? The country where the Magna Carta was created?'"
Smith explained to Britain's GMTV that she believed it was "important that people understand the sorts of values and sorts of standards that we have here, the fact that it's a privilege to come and the sort of things that mean you won't be welcome in this country."
"Coming to this country is a privilege," she said. "If you can't live by the rules that we live by, the standards and the values that we live by, we should exclude you from this country and, what's more, now we will make public those people that we have excluded."
Savage said he wants top First Amendment attorneys to represent him "in a major international case."
"I want to sue the British home secretary for defamation," he said, "for linking me up with murderers because of my opinions, my writings, my speaking – none of which have advocated any violence, ever."
Savage said the last time he was in Britain was about 20 years ago, and he had no immediate plans to return.
Sixteen people banned from entering the UK were "named and shamed" by the Home Office today.
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said she decided to make public the names of 16 people banned since October so others could better understand what sort of behaviour Britain was not prepared to tolerate.
The list includes hate preachers, anti-gay protesters and a far- right US talk show host.
"I think it's important that people understand the sorts of values and sorts of standards that we have here, the fact that it's a privilege to come and the sort of things that mean you won't be welcome in this country," Ms Smith told GMTV.
"Coming to this country is a privilege. If you can't live by the rules that we live by, the standards and the values that we live by, we should exclude you from this country and, what's more, now we will make public those people that we have excluded.
"We are publishing the names of 16 of those that we have excluded since October. We are telling people who they are and why it is we don't want them in this country."
"One of my clients was directly threatened by the White House and, in essence, compelled to withdraw its opposition to the deal under the threat that the full force of the White House press corps would destroy its reputation if it continued to fight."
--Attorney Tom Lauria
Thomas Lauria is the Global Practice Head of the Financial Restructuring and Insolvency Group at White & Case, which is comprised of over 130 lawyers located in over 20 countries around the world. Mr. Lauria has led White & Case teams in efforts to restructure more than US$100 billion of debt in some of the largest and most complex restructurings in history, including Washington Mutual Inc., WCI Communities, Delphi Corporation, Adelphia Communications Corporation, Mirant Corporation, Corporación Durango, PhyAmerica Physician Group, The Williams Companies, and Williams Communications Group.
On May 4, Fox Business co-hosts Cheryl Casone and Tom Sullivan and radio host Rush Limbaugh advanced the disputed claim by lawyer Thomas E. Lauria that his client, Perella Weinberg Partners, was, in Limbaugh's words, "threatened with reputation ruination from the White House press corps" to compel the firm to support the terms of the Chrysler bankruptcy offer. While both Casone and Sullivan's report and Limbaugh's noted that the White House has denied the allegation, neither noted that Perella Weinberg has done so as well.
On Fox Business Network's Fox Business, Casone teased Lauria's upcoming appearance on that evening's broadcast of FBN's Cavuto by noting that the "White House [is] denying claims that it strong-armed at least one of Chrysler's creditors to accept the terms of the bankruptcy offer." Casone then aired an audio clip of Lauria stating during a Detroit radio interview: "One of my clients was directly threatened by the White House and, in essence, compelled to withdraw its opposition to the deal under the threat that the full force of the White House press corps would destroy its reputation if it continued to fight." Sullivan later asserted: "I did not know the White House had control over the White House press corps to go destroy a company."
Similarly, on his nationally syndicated radio show, Limbaugh cited the interview in which Lauria made the comments aired on Fox Business. Limbaugh went on to state: "[N]ow the White House, by the way, is denying all of this, but there's a pattern here, ladies and gentlemen, that sort of gives the lie to the denial. I mean, this is -- we've referred to the situation that's going on in Washington as loan-sharking, Obama loan-sharking people."
In a May 2 post to his Political Punch blog, ABC News senior White House correspondent Jake Tapper reported that Lauria "told ABC News Saturday that Steve Rattner, the leader of the Obama administration's Auto Industry Task Force, threatened" Perella Weinberg "that if it continued to oppose the administration's Chrysler bankruptcy plan, the White House would use the White House press corps to destroy its reputation." Tapper subsequently updated the post to note that "[t]he White House and a spokesperson for the investment bank in question challenged the accuracy of the story" and quoted a Perella Weinberg spokesperson saying, "The firm denies Mr. Lauria's account of events."
Additionally, a May 3 post on The New York Times' DealBook blog reported that "Perella Weinberg said in a statement that the firm decided to back the government-proposed settlement Thursday afternoon, after Mr. Obama criticized the lenders in harsh terms," and included the following "full statement by Perella Weinberg":
Suggestions have been made that the Perella Weinberg Partners Xerion Fund changed its stance on the Chrysler restructuring due to pressure from White House officials. This is incorrect. The decision to accept and support the proposed deal was made by the Xerion Fund after reflecting carefully on the statement of the President when announcing Chrysler's bankruptcy filing. In considering the President's words and exercising our best investment judgment, we concluded that the risks of potentially severe capital loss that could arise from fighting this in bankruptcy court far outweighed any realistic potential upside.
We have a very specific mandate from our investors, and that is to carefully weigh investment risks and rewards. It is not our investment mandate to pursue political or risky legal campaigns with our investors' money. This was our assessment of investment risk and reward, nothing else.
While we did and still do believe that the lenders would be justified in pressing their objections under conventional bankruptcy law principles, we believe a settlement would now be in the best interests of all parties in the context of avoiding a drawn out contested bankruptcy litigation proceeding, and we encourage our colleagues in the loan syndicate to pursue this immediately.
From the May 4 broadcast of Premiere Radio Networks' The Rush Limbaugh Show:
LIMBAUGH: Now we know, ladies and gentlemen, I was right. Now we know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, I was right; option number three: They are scared to death. My buddy Frank Beckmann at WJR in Detroit interviewed one of the bankruptcy lawyers for one of the bondholders at Chrysler, one of the clients. His name is Tom Lauria.
Tom Lauria said, "Let me tell you, it's no fun standing on this side of the fence opposing the president of the United States. In fact, let me just say people have asked me who I represent. That's a moving target. I can tell you for sure that I represent one less investor today than I represented yesterday. One of my clients was directly threatened by the White House and, in essence, compelled to withdraw its opposition to the Chrysler deal under the threat that the full force of the White House press corps would destroy its reputation if it continued to fight. That's how hard it is to stand on this side of the fence."
And Frank Beckmann said, "Was it Perella Weinberg?" Lauria says, "It was Perella Weinberg."
Now, this happened in Friday -- on Friday in Detroit. It's made the news throughout the weekend. I -- so here's -- now the White House, by the way, is denying all of this, but there's a pattern here, ladies and gentlemen, that sort of gives the lie to the denial. I mean, this is -- we've referred to the situation that's going on in Washington as loan-sharking, Obama loan-sharking people.
Basically what happened was, as we mentioned last week, the bondholders, the investors at Chrysler, were leaned on by Obama and called out personally by the name of hedge funds and they were selfish and they were holding out for a better deal. These people were forced to settle for 20 to 30 cents on the dollar, while the UAW was made whole in the whole thing. And the lawyer, Thomas Lauria, now says that his client was threatened with reputation ruination from the White House press corps.
From the May 4 broadcast of Fox Business Network's Fox Business:
CASONE: The White House denying claims that it strong-armed at least one of Chrysler's creditors to accept terms of the bankruptcy offer. The accusation comes from the attorney for the creditor, Thomas Lauria, in an interview with Detroit radio station WJR -- WJR. Let's listen in to this.
LAURIA [audio clip]: One of my clients was directly threatened by the White House and, in essence, compelled to withdraw its opposition to the deal under the threat that the full force of the White House press corps would destroy its reputation if it continued to fight.
CASONE: And it turns out that the bondholding firm Perella Weinberg eventually agreed to the bankruptcy terms proposed by the White House. We're going to have much more on this story when Neil Cavuto talks to attorney Thomas Lauria tonight at 6 p.m. Eastern time right here on Fox Business.
SULLIVAN: That brings up the whole question about -- I did not know the White House had control over the White House press corps to go destroy a company. But I'm sure Neil will sort it all out for us.
Beck has, in fact, dropped the "F bomb", but not the Mussolini version; it's Neo-Fascism.
And he is dead on balls accurate.
Obama parallels and exemplifies what the Italians saw in Mussolini and what the Germans saw in Hitler; the attractive quality of a Megalomaniacnarcissist.
CNN: Conservatives using apocalypticism against Obama.
Glenn Beck and other conservatives have said that President Obama's policies will lead to fascism. CNN political analyst Bill Schneider refers to their tactics as "apocalypticism."
News flash to the Commie News Network! Beck is not that far off! Stop hiding behind Dear Leader.
Nothing more than another attack against Beck by the jealous competition.
CNBC's Rick Santelli messed with the bull; and got the Fascist horns.
Now it's Jim Kramer's turn.
"Until they realize that their agenda is destroying the life savings of millions of Americans, then all I can give you is caution... I'm not saying Mr. President go stare at the Bloomberg quote machine and come to your senses. I just want some sign that Obama realizes the market is totally falling apart and that his agenda has a big hand in that happening. I don't know about you but I felt it everywhere I went this weekend... A young kid took me aside. He said I was right when I said we've elected a Leninist... I felt the total lack of control we all feel right now, the, "It's out of my hands but where's the authority?" The, "Hey it's amateur hour at our darkest moment." Jim Kramer
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