Quote :

"In an interview, Sturtz told the Washington Post, that she was stunned by the first lady's response to her heckling. "She came right down in my face," Sturtz told the Post. "I was taken aback.""

lol. She did realize she was heckling a black woman didn't she?

6/6/2013 9:03:13 AM

The best part of this is watching conservatives run to the aid of a gay rights activist, I guess there is a first for everything. We can call this new developing scandal "HECKLEGHAZI!!!!!" Just don't expect the lame stream media to pick this story up, duh.

[Edited on June 6, 2013 at 9:11 AM. Reason : Time to FOIA all of Michelle's emails before the speech]

6/6/2013 9:09:46 AM

America doesn't have royalty. Please stop discussing non-important people in this thread.

6/6/2013 9:13:22 AM

Quote :

"The majority of any audience will typically wait for the heckler to finish and observe the speakers reaction before they decide what to do."

I encourage you to go to places people paid a lot of money to get into and begin to interupt and heckle the person they paid $500 to see. Please report back on whether the worst treatment you got was being asked to leave.

6/6/2013 9:44:45 AM

Move along folks, nothing to see here

In other news, Obama's NSA is wiretapping companies cell records without cause.

6/6/2013 9:48:21 AM

so can we PLEASE go ahead and repeal the Patriot Act? I am getting tired of this crap

6/6/2013 9:54:56 AM

^Shouldn't that be under GOP credibility watch?

6/6/2013 10:11:51 AM

I'm sure it was back when Bush was president. Stop blaming him for Obama's problems. This is currently Obama's administration, his problem. These people decided to use the infrastructure in place to spy on corporations.

6/6/2013 10:30:39 AM

Quote :

"^Shouldn't that be under GOP credibility watch?"

It should fall under "government credibility watch", but Obama isn't blameless in this either. After all, he signed two extensions to allow the continuation of the powers being used here, which were set to expire.

Quote :

"On Saturday, February 27, 2010, President Barack Obama signed into law legislation that would temporarily extend for one year, three controversial provisions of the Patriot Act that had been set to expire:[178] [179] [180] Authorize court-approved roving wiretaps that permit surveillance on multiple phones. Allow court-approved seizure of records and property in anti-terrorism operations. Permit surveillance against a so-called lone wolf, a non-U.S. citizen engaged in terrorism who may not be part of a recognized terrorist group.[181] In a vote on February 8, 2011, the House of Representatives considered a further extension of the Act through the end of 2011.[182] House leadership moved the extension bill under suspension of the rules, which is intended for noncontroversial legislation and requires two-thirds majority to pass.[182] After the vote, the extension bill did not pass; 277 members voted in favor, which was less than the 290 votes needed to pass the bill under suspension of the rules.[182] Without an extension, the Act was set to expire on February 28, 2011. However, it eventually passed, 275-144.[183] The FISA Sunsets Extension Act of 2011 was signed into law February 25, 2011."

Of course, when the republicans get re-elected, it's not like they'll let it expire either so we're sort of screwed either way if you people keep voting these guys into office.

6/6/2013 10:52:11 AM

It doesn't matter who is elected. No one can put the patriot act genie back in the bottle.

6/6/2013 11:57:44 AM

+1 for putting Susan Rice back in the mix. I just enjoy watching the GOP cry and whine.

6/6/2013 12:07:51 PM

Its a superficial diversion tactic that isn't going to work. We see through it.

6/6/2013 12:21:03 PM

Quote :

"The document shows for the first time that under the Obama administration the communication records of millions of US citizens are being collected indiscriminately and in bulk – regardless of whether they are suspected of any wrongdoing. The secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (Fisa) granted the order to the FBI on April 25, giving the government unlimited authority to obtain the data for a specified three-month period ending on July 19. Under the terms of the blanket order, the numbers of both parties on a call are handed over, as is location data, call duration, unique identifiers, and the time and duration of all calls. The contents of the conversation itself are not covered."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/06/nsa-phone-records-verizon-court-order

Bush did it. Obama's doing it. The next empty suit in office will do it, too.

But hey, at least they're not reading your mail! Snail mail, that is. They're probably reading your e-mail.

6/6/2013 12:26:17 PM

What's funny about the snail mail analogy is that the cell phone meta-data grab is essentially the same thing as reading the outside of an envelope.

That's the government's justification at least.

[Edited on June 6, 2013 at 12:44 PM. Reason : .]

6/6/2013 12:43:46 PM

An envelope you sent using a pseudo-government run agency (USPS). I realize that I would have no right to privacy if I were making phone calls on a phone that was issued to me by the government. So no, the snail mail analogy doesn't fit here.

6/6/2013 12:56:11 PM

Ok so what if I sent a package via UPS. Anyone can see who it is from, where it is from, where it is going. Hell you can even pick it up and get an idea of its contents potentially.

6/6/2013 1:04:38 PM

That wasn't the point. Whether or not your communications are being monitored directly by the government through a government agency, or by proxy through a private corporation, the result is still the same. Surveillance of communications is a hallmark of totalitarianism.

6/6/2013 1:06:55 PM

Right. We agree. I'm just telling you, their justification is that the meta-data is "transactional" information that is equivalent to your address on a box sitting on your friend's front porch across the country. You have no expectation of privacy for that information.

6/6/2013 1:16:33 PM

Even that is a dubious argument, as that information has not been requested in bulk.

And if that information were requested at that massive of a scale on Americans who were suspected of no wrongdoing, it would be considered an outrage. If NSA officials began opening mailboxes of ordinary Americans and collecting that "transactional" information on a daily basis, people would rightly consider that an invasion of privacy. So their justification is on hollow ground to begin with, and it is a far more loose interpretation of the law than the public is aware of.

[Edited on June 6, 2013 at 1:31 PM. Reason : ]

6/6/2013 1:27:09 PM

Agreed. Two Democratic senators were hinting at exactly what you said last year.

6/6/2013 1:30:34 PM

Udall and Wyden, I believe?

[Edited on June 6, 2013 at 1:32 PM. Reason : ]

6/6/2013 1:31:25 PM

I'm sure this is just another thing that Obama heard about on the news today. I'm sure he had no idea.

6/6/2013 4:09:04 PM

George W. Obama.

6/6/2013 4:43:27 PM

People seem unwilling to admit this, but the Obama administration might have the worst record on civil liberty administration in the last 40 years. He really is going to go down in history as a terrible president, maybe even worse than W. when it's all said and done.

6/6/2013 6:42:28 PM

Quote :

"worst record on civil liberty"

Repeal of DOMA? DADT?

6/6/2013 6:47:37 PM

^^ lol, nowhere close.

He seems to have a boner for spying, but so does the right, as long as it's mostly on brown people. Can't have it both ways unfortunately.

6/6/2013 6:50:11 PM

New York Times: Obama administration has lost all credibility.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/06/06/new-york-times-editorial-board-says-administration-has-lost-all-credibility/

6/6/2013 7:06:24 PM

Fox News doesnt have any credibility to call someone else out for credibility. Pretty LOLable.

6/6/2013 7:18:08 PM

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/07/opinion/president-obamas-dragnet.html?_r=1&

Here's the article the fox news link was referencing.

Quote :

"Those reassurances have never been persuasive — whether on secret warrants to scoop up a news agency’s phone records or secret orders to kill an American suspected of terrorism — especially coming from a president who once promised transparency and accountability. The administration has now lost all credibility on this issue. Mr. Obama is proving the truism that the executive will use any power it is given and very likely abuse it."

[Edited on June 6, 2013 at 7:27 PM. Reason : afsdf]

6/6/2013 7:26:14 PM

Quote :

"And while activists strongly suspected what was going on, the US Senate knew what was going on—and saw surprisingly little dissent. Two who did protest were Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Mark Udall (D-CO). "

The Senate knew this was happening, and obviously none of them really cared.

Quote :

"The ranking Republican who presides over Senate Intelligence with Feinstein is Saxby Chambliss (D-GA). Chambliss today spoke to The New York Times about how the program is used: It’s metadata only and it’s what we call minimized. All of these numbers are basically ferreted out by a computer, but if there’s a number that matches a terrorist number that has been dialed by a US number or dialed from a terrorist to a US number, then that may be flagged. And they may or may not seek a court order to go further on that particular instance. But that’s the only time that this information is ever used in any kind of substantive way.” "

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/06/as-senators-defend-mass-surveillance-effs-foia-lawsuit-still-awaits/

^ thats pretty shameless of Fox News. They're taking the NY Times piece and reinterpreting it and twisting it on their own website for their viewers, as a news piece.

[Edited on June 6, 2013 at 7:31 PM. Reason : ]

6/6/2013 7:29:46 PM

the headline:

Quote :

"New York Times editorial board says..."

6/6/2013 7:43:16 PM

They also have a link in their article to the NY Times piece.

6/6/2013 8:15:18 PM

Quote :

"People seem unwilling to admit this, but the Obama administration might have the worst record on civil liberty administration in the last 40 years. He really is going to go down in history as a terrible president, maybe even worse than W. when it's all said and done."

worse than the dude who instituted all of the policies?

[Edited on June 6, 2013 at 9:29 PM. Reason : come on, man]

6/6/2013 9:23:34 PM

The shit has officially hit the fan:




[Edited on June 6, 2013 at 9:28 PM. Reason : .]

6/6/2013 9:27:05 PM

Is it because W. is the princeling by Chinese' stand of view that people blame him?

[Edited on June 6, 2013 at 9:30 PM. Reason : can't recognize Chinese??]

6/6/2013 9:30:10 PM

It's being reported that PRISM gives direct server access to over 50 companies, including all major credit card companies. This is not news to anyone following this...even the acronym has been known for a long time. But now all major news organizations are reporting it as fact. Tomorrow is going to be interesting.

6/6/2013 9:43:42 PM

^^^^^
Did you read it? They linked to it but then made up their own motivations for what nyt column said.

6/6/2013 9:55:19 PM

Quote :

"Since the news broke, Apple, Google, and Facebook have all gone on the record. Apple told CNBC that it never heard of PRISM and did not grant the government such access. It echoed the same sentiment to the Wall Street Journal. Facebook told The Next Web that it also does not provide federal authorities with direct access to its servers. And Google told the site that it ”does not have a ‘back door’ for the government to access private user data.” It continued in a statement, "Google cares deeply about the security of our users’ data. We disclose user data to government in accordance with the law, and we review all such requests carefully.""

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/06/new-leak-feds-can-access-anything-in-your-google-facebook-and-more/

6/6/2013 10:02:35 PM

The FBI was just complaining last month that it can't strongarm these same companies into providing more access, so apparently the NSA wasn't sharing. It's also possible that few people of consequence actually knew about the program...certainly not the PR reps issuing statements.

6/6/2013 10:13:04 PM

We are overdue now for one of our resident Obama drones to defend this.

6/6/2013 11:12:42 PM

Maybe we don't want to defend any of this.

6/6/2013 11:17:11 PM

While I'm glad you arent don't worry-

Someone will be along shortly. TSB doesnt disappoint-

6/6/2013 11:19:11 PM

Quote :

"worse than the dude who instituted all of the policies?"

It's debatable. Did Obama get us into two wars over bogus and fabricated intel? No.

But he's done some shit-awful things and done exactly dick-all to reverse the trend of domestic spying.


I mean, c'mon. How fucking low are you setting the bar, here? So what, he's not a half-retarded benefactor of nepotism and political apathy, so therefore he's not all that bad? His track record on civil liberties are a fucking travesty. He literally is doing all of the things that Nixon wanted to do but couldn't. The Obama administration is clouded in secrecy. He has made more documents classified than any other administration, and has prosecuted more whistleblowers than all previous administrations combined. It's indefensible. And if your position is "well, he's still better than that retard that chuckled funny and mispronounced words" then I don't know what to say.

6/6/2013 11:20:39 PM

I didn't say he's without blame, of course he shares the blame

just that I can't see the argument that he's worse than the one who one who got this ball rolling

now, there could be an argument that his inaction is worse, but I'm still on the side of the one who instituted it all is the worst

6/6/2013 11:25:31 PM

what fucking difference does it make?

6/6/2013 11:27:10 PM

Ok thegoodlife3, lets say GWB is a terrorist who planted this "bomb," and Obama was the self-proclaimed "bomb squad" sent to defuse the situation and save us all.

Instead he just says "fuck it" becomes a terrorist himself, and maybe just adds a brick of C4 to the existing design for good measure.

You know, just to make sure he really blows us all to shit.

Obviously Obama then would be worse because he's a liar, hypocrite, backstabber, whatever.

Of course his inaction is worse; his entire platform was ACTION.

6/6/2013 11:51:40 PM

It'd be interesting to know what the NSA was doing with the data. The fact that they wanted all data rather than info related to a specific set of numbers suggest data mining (obviously) but perhaps of a more experimental nature. And what sense does it make if it was just version? Or are other phone companies involved just keeping quiet?

6/7/2013 12:06:00 AM

the information from verizon is useless on its own. I read an article from a CBS affiliate in NY that said that all the phone companies were involved.

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2013/06/06/report-nsa-getting-phone-records-of-all-verizon-customers/

Quote :

"A former U.S. intelligence official who is familiar with the NSA program said that records from all U.S. phone companies would be seized by the government under the warrants, and that they would include business and residential numbers."

6/7/2013 1:19:09 AM

Sounds like from this article: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/us-govt-collecting-huge-number-phone-records-19339870 that some number of congress has been complicit in approving and overseeing this program too.

6/7/2013 8:57:07 AM

Obama pushing for Obamacare in California on Friday means the administration is in panic mode.

6/7/2013 9:53:17 AM