 |
| "Stop presenting me with facts! I'm trying to smear a President here!" |
But after a burst of attention, Issa’s investigation appears to have stalled. Although he turned up embarrassing material—has any government official been humiliated quite like the IRS commissioner in the dorky video dressed up as Spock?—Issa hasn’t made the all-important connection to the White House. And he may not be able to. The news this week that he won’t release the full transcripts of his interviews with IRS officials—interviews he selectively quoted from to imply White House complicity—suggests that what they contain may in fact exonerate the administration of the very charge Issa is laboring so hard to prosecute.
“Your push to release entire transcripts from witness interviews while the investigation remains active was reckless and threatened to undermine the integrity of the committee’s investigation,” Issa wrote in response to a letter from his Democratic counterpart, Representative Elijah Cummings of Maryland, who himself had selectively quoted the transcripts and then called on Issa to publicize the whole thing.
In theory, Issa could be building a case against the White House to rival Watergate that he just isn’t quite ready to unveil. But that’s highly unlikely. Cummings has seen the transcripts and wouldn’t call for their release if they contained information that would fell his party’s president. Issa’s weak-tea defense of why he won’t comply—witnesses might be demoted or fired, he says—only buttresses this suspicion. So does the effort by Issa’s colleague, Representative Dave Camp of Michigan, to broaden the investigation’s scope to include donor audits. You don’t broaden an investigation if you’ve found the smoking gun and nailed the culprit.
Issa must be just about shitting himself right now. First the "Fast and Furious" investigation turns out to be "snail-like and anti-climatic" and now, according to Elijah Cummings, THIS Obama "scandal" turns out to be a Republican scandal instead.
I mean what's a slimy, unethical, political hit-man to do?
If only Obama would knock over a liquor store or something, Then they'd have him by God!
Issa doesn't want the public to see that the IRS official who called for scrutinizing tea party groups is a card-carrying conservative Republican and 21-year employee of the IRS. The low-level employee who went to this supervisor was only following the established rules. His conservative Republican supervisor agreed that the tea party organization in question didn't appear to meet the nonprofit criteria. All of this is in the transcripts that Issa wants to keep under wraps.
ReplyDeleteSo why would the President of the United States, who is the busiest human being on the planet, waste time colluding with a Republican regional IRS supervisor? Issa the Arsonist and Car Thief has a lot of nerve.
Well said.
DeleteRep. Darrell Issa, of California's cushy 49th district, has no history of telling the truth. Starting with his hot-car scams. Watching him talk on TV makes you think he will be off to pawn some hub caps after he's done.
ReplyDeleteHis Black Man in White House syndrome is on par with that of Sen. Mitch McConnell. In short, he is a venal racist.
And he's not the only one who's now being called out on their weaseling...
ReplyDeleteThese anti-Obama agendas are being turned on their heads and simply evaporating in front of our eyes. It's been said repeatedly in these blog comments how slimy Greenwald is and it is becoming clearer and clearer the cahoots he's in with this traitor. They're just attention-seeking dicks that have no self control or ability to be measurable in their desire for grandstanding and the chickens are coming home to roost. Throw BOTH their asses in jail! They keep trying, but nothing sticks with President Obama since it's all bullshit and after the immediate media orgasm, the truth begins to shine through. Someone said, beware of shiny objects, the other day. I have been watching, and they are exactly right!
Snowden and Greenwald Beginning to Self-Destruct; ‘The Nation’ and ‘Mother Jones’ Raise Questions
...Indeed, Greenwald continues to shout “fire!” in the face of mounting concern (see my previous posts) over the veracity of his central scoop. Perlstein also quoted open-source expert Ken Fogel who referred to the use of “direct access” as an “epic botch.” Mother Jones‘ Kevin Drum wrote yesterday, “…the ‘direct access’ claim puzzled me from the start. Even with my modest technical background, I understood immediately that it didn’t make sense.” Wednesday night on Chris Hayes’ MSNBC show, Greenwald weaseled around the questions, saying essentially the same thing he’s said all week: that he summarized the line from the PRISM PowerPoint slide and therefore he’s didn’t botch the story.
http://thedailybanter.com/2013/06/snowden-and-greenwald-beginning-to-self-destruct-the-nation-and-mother-jones-raise-questions/
The United States went security-mad after Sept. 11, 2001, in ways that harmed the country. But these excesses led Congress to restructure surveillance programs so that they were lawful and controlled. These lawful programs were the ones Snowden unilaterally disclosed.
Deletehttp://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/david-ignatius-snowden-exposed-policies-approved-by-congress-courts/2013/06/12/815c8aa4-d2d7-11e2-a73e-826d299ff459_story.html
I feel sorry for the president having to put up with this shite, but it just makes him stronger, I guess. Go Obama!
ReplyDeleteTime To Change The Story Again, Glenn?
ReplyDeleteSurprise, Glenn Greenwald keeps changing his story on NSA leaker Edward Snowden and did it again last night on All In With Chris Hayes. Here's the transcript, from LGF contributor simoom:
HAYES: In terms of the revelations that we’ve gotten so far, and they fall into a number of different categories, but I do want to ask you, before I let you go, there’s been some push back on the reporting, particularly about the PRISM program, and there’s another program codenamed BLARNEY, that come from those power point slides that use the phrase directly from the servers, direct access, and there was push back by the tech companies who are listed in those slides saying we didn’t give any direct access.
And there’s some question, I think, about what exactly that phrase means or could mean. And I just want you to clarify your best understanding of what the reality is about the nexus between how the NSA is working with these private tech companies.
Now, to Hayes's credit, this is exactly the question to ask. Greenwald has changed his story on a number of occasions prior to last night's interview, and the factual component of his story doesn't hold up to scrutiny. Greenwald's response is telling:
GREENWALD: Sure. We’ve published four stories so far. The only one about which there has been any questions raised is the one that the Washington — the only one the Washington Post also published which is the PRISM story.
Again, that's not true. The first story, the Verizon carrier story, has also been disputed in the above link, and for good reason. Bob Cesca and Chez Pazienza have been all over Greenwald on this. It's a pattern of walk-backs.
http://zandarvts.blogspot.com/2013/06/time-to-change-story-again-glenn.html
Memo to Pres. Clinton: Who are you calling a “wuss”?
ReplyDeletehttp://theobamadiary.com/2013/06/14/memo-to-pres-clinton-who-are-you-calling-a-wuss/
I sometimes wonder about former President Clinton. He likes to jump on bandwagons but, if he thinks President Obama is vulnerable right now because of the trumped up Republican "scandals," he's sadly mistaken. He'd be much more interesting and more effective if he took off after Boehner and McConnell for their years of seditious activity. President Obama is no "wuss" but the GOP Congressional leadership is composed of nothing but "wusses," too afraid of their own far right constituency to do what's best for the country and too cowed by the Koch Brothers and other overly rich people to pass the legislation that we all need.
DeleteBeaglemom
What a funny picture - he's making the Sarah mouth!
ReplyDeleteObama doesn't have to knock over a gas station, all he has to do is wear a "hoodie", be a 'swaggering thug" and carry a "street attitude," then the public gets to stand their ground for liberty and kill him.
ReplyDeleteHere is the zinger of a letter Cummings sent back to Issa yesterday: http://democrats.oversight.house.gov/images/stories/2013-06-13.EEC%20to%20Issa.pdf
ReplyDeleteThe first paragraph nails Issa to the wall:
I am writing in response to your letter on June 11, 2013, regarding your recent objection to releasing the full transcripts of Committee staff interviews with IRS employees. Specifically, I am writing to seek clarification of your position and to request that you identify the specific text of the transcripts you believe should be withheld from the American public.
Ouch!
DeleteI've seen Representative Cummings on some of the Sunday and weeknight political talk shows and he's one smart cookie. AND he doesn't back down from bullies. I suspect Cummings' will keep after Issa until he releases the full transcripts or explains why he won't. Either way, his witch hunt is over.
The Media Gets Suckered Again By Sarah Palin Exploitation Of Her Special Needs Son
ReplyDelete...First of all, Trig Palin is not a target of the left. That is more Sarah Palin self-victimization mythology. Futrell hurts his credibility by making such a ridiculous claim. The left has generally treated Trig Palin better than his own mother has.
Except for the people in the room, nobody has heard this joke. There’s no YouTube video. There is no evidence to judge for ourselves. This didn’t stop Sarah Palin from doing the two things she does best, exploiting her special needs son, and threatening violence.
...It wouldn’t surprise me if Maher did make this joke, but the way Sarah Palin handled it reeks of exploitation. Sarah Palin has a history of hypocrisy on the R-word. She looks the other way when a Republican uses the word. In 2012, when Allegheny County, PA chairman Jim Roddey made national headlines by using the R-word, Sarah Palin was nowhere to be found. While still governor of Alaska, Palin turned down $170 million in funding for special needs kids.
Sarah Palin has been exploiting her children for years with absurd claims that the left is out to get them. Her most absurd claim was that celebrities were trying to kill her children.
Palin has been using the disabled as props since she hit the national scene. It is a major part of her gimmick. What the media never picks up on is that Palin’s attitude towards the disabled has been insulting and demeaning. Part of Palin’s stock and trade is to paint the disabled as defenseless. I have often felt that Trig Palin’s biggest disability was that he has such a shallow and backwards thinking woman for a mother. Instead of empowering her child, Sarah Palin uses every opportunity to reinforce the idea that he is weak and dependent. Sarah Palin is a parasite who reinforces every negative perception of disability.
Instead of childishly threatening violence Sarah Palin had a chance to educate people, but she has never been interested in education and advocacy.
Palin is too selfish for any of that. She would rather continue to exploit her son, and troll for another drop of fame.
Once again, the media doesn’t wait for evidence before they push another dubious right wing story. The only reason Sarah Palin is famous is because the media keeps buying her hypocritical Mama Grizzly bulls**t.
http://www.politicususa.com/2013/06/14/media-suckered-sarah-palin-exploitation-special-son.html
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...I just might have to get this book just to read page 280!
Delete"Do not take the word of the Erik Wemple Blog, however. We have evidence that others reached the same conclusions.
On page 280 of his highly readable book “An Atheist in the Foxhole,” former Fox News “mole” Joe Muto details how Palin came to be regarded in the Fox News newsroom:
[H]er abilities as a pundit left much to be desired. She conversed entirely in shallow, empty platitudes, as if she’d just memorized a list of talking points instead of actually boning up on whatever issue was on her plate. … A few months into her tenure, O’Reilly exploded with frustration when he was told for the third time in a row that Palin wouldn’t be available. “I don’t know why this woman refuses to help us out,” he vented. “And when she does come on, she doesn’t say anything. It’s just the same BS talking points every time.”
Even the “conservative true believers,” writes Muto, came to admit over time that Palin was “every bit as uninformed as her liberal critics had charged.”
Another insight on Palin comes from Muto’s book: She “tended to play hard to get,” he writes, stiff-arming requests for appearances. She also allegedly refused to participate in pre-interview briefings, which “meant that we producers could never brief her on the segment, making it that much more likely she’d get hit with an unpleasant surprise or unexpected question on live television.”
So: As unfortunate as this is for Fox News viewers, it’s worse for Fox News producers.
With this announcement, the backstory of the rapprochement between Ailes and Palin becomes by far the most precious commodity on the media-news beat. Was Ailes concerned about ratings and wanted the Palin brand and Facebook audience behind his network? Did one of the parties beg and plead?"
Here's the link....
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2013/06/13/fox-news-reunites-with-sarah-palin-but-why/
She started to use Trig for political purposes when she faked the pregnancy.
DeleteBeaglemom
"Sarah Palin had a chance to educate people...."
DeleteNo, actually she didn't. Why? Because she is INCAPABLE of educating people on this or any other subject. She doesn't KNOW anything about special needs children!
I look forward to the day I may witness her complete and utter PUBLIC destruction!
The hypocrisy and unreasonableness of the GOP and its so-called 'stars' continues to stun. Independents are disgusted, and even thinking Republicans are increasingly horrified and disgusted. Palin's return to Fox News elicited just such a reaction from a Republican conservative, yet!
ReplyDeletehttp://theweek.com/article/index/245648/sarah-palins-fox-return-proves-conservative-media-doesnt-care-about-conservatism
#gopisdirty
ReplyDeleteI hope Issa is NOT reelected his next go around. The guys is a friggin' asshole!!!
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of assholes in Congress.
DeleteIssa, however, is a dangerous asshole with a vendetta and a willingness to do and say anything to accomplish his goal of destroying the President.
That makes him special...and not in a good way!
Not so fast there, Mr. Fancy Pants Alaska Librul Blogger! Rep. Darrel "Dimebag" Issa may not be perfect and I'm not opposed to pursuing the numerous credible long standing allegations of criminal misconduct against this respected legislator. But don't you think we should get Obama's impeachment proceedings out of the way first?
ReplyDeleteYou and your librul blog buddies always seem to misunderestimate the difficulty Issa has in prosecuting this so-called president for "high crimes and misdemeanors" when there's no, ya know, actual evidence that any such impeachable acts have been committed. Talk about "heavy lifting"!
Issa needs EVERY lunatic conservative in our nation to lift their aluminum foil headgear and rise up in support of his perpetual investigations into the black man in the White House!! Remember, without these hearings, Obama has no obstacles to pursuing the job he was elected to do in 2008!! And 2012, also, too.
Fire up those hover-rounds and strap on your tea bag hats, all you TPers out there!
DeleteIt's time to rally behind that wonderful Mr. Ih-suh (or is it Eye-suh?) fella and impeach that Kenyan, Muzzlin, soshalist usurper in the White House!
Who cares if there's no Constitutional justification for impeachment. We never pay much attention to anything besides the 2nd Amendment anyway!
House Intel Chair: Snowden Is Lying About Access To Surveillance Program
ReplyDeleteThe chairman of the House Intelligence Committee said Thursday that the man who leaked information about National Security Agency surveillance programs is lying about his access to that information as well as the programs' scope.
"He was lying," Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) said after a closed briefing with NSA Director Keith Alexander, as quoted by The Hill. "He clearly has over-inflated his position, he has over-inflated his access and he's even over-inflated what the actually technology of the programs would allow one to do. It's impossible for him to do what he was saying he could do."
Leaker Edward Snowden claimed that while working for a security contractor, he had virtually unlimited access to the information the NSA's phone and internet data collection programs culled.
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/house-intel-chair-snowden-is-lying
And when the Chinese find out they bought a pig in a poke, they are going to be so pissed off we may never see the little shit on our shores again.
DeleteA man who lives in Binzhou Shangdong province, China, was just jailed by the Chinese government for lying (disrupting social order). He claimed that a UFO had crash-landed near his home, and that he had the ET 'body' in a freezer box to 'prove it'. The government examined the proof and found out the body was made of rubber! For THIS, the man is now in prison. Just imagine the Chinese government's rage when they discover their allegedly well-paid informant who may have promised them intelligence information is a liar!!!! I think they'll look upon it as far worse than a little story about a crashed UFO.
Deletehttp://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/china-alien-hoax-lands-farmer-jail-days-article-1.1372717
My creeping concern that the NSA leaker is not who he purports to be …
ReplyDeletehttp://naomiwolf.org/2013/06/my-creeping-concern-that-the-nsa-leaker-is-not-who-he-purports-to-be/
Greenwald gives away the game on his PRISM claims
ReplyDeleteAdmits he has no idea what arrangement exists between internet companies and the NSA
Just a few hours ago All In With Chris Hayes featured an interview with The Guardian’s Glenn Greenwald. Greenwald gave an extremely revealing answer in response to Hayes’ final question, in which he was asked for more clarity on the relationship between the NSA and private internet companies.
Here’s the video of the interview:
Greenwald’s inability to defend his original PRISM reporting might help explain its absence from the Guardian’s more recent coverage.
See:
The Guardian quietly walks back their PRISM overreach without correcting previous reporting.
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/42126_Greenwald_gives_away_the_game_on_his_PRISM_claims
Old Snowie just cooked his goose.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/15/world/asia/ex-nsa-contractors-disclosures-could-complicate-his-fate.html?_r=0
Give him enough rope... Wouldn't it be poetic justice if his number came up by coincidence in a tax audit and they found something BIG?
ReplyDeleteAll these "scandals" are a waste of resources.