There Were Whistle-blowers - There Are Whistle-blowers But No One is Listening

OK,  I am not saying Snowden is a hero or a criminal.  What I am saying, is that he is undoubtedly a whistle-blower.

Let us look at what the people who "justify" NSA's actions say.  "It has approval of all three branches of the government."  First off, I don't buy a "secret court" watching over the "secret police" any kind of oversight.  What is far worse, from a whistle-blower of 2005, we now know that all three branches of the government have been compromised by the illegal spying of the NSA.

Russ Tice blew the whistle on the NSA back in 2005.  He asked for protection and to testify before Congress and was ignored by congress.  This has all been more than well documented in the historical record.

Tice has already stated this:

Okay. They went after--and I know this because I had my hands literally on the paperwork for these sort of things--they went after high-ranking military officers; they went after members of Congress, both Senate and the House, especially on the intelligence committees and on the armed services committees and some of the--and judicial. But they went after other ones, too. They went after lawyers and law firms. All kinds of--heaps of lawyers and law firms. They went after judges. One of the judges is now sitting on the Supreme Court that I had his wiretap information in my hand. Two are former FISA court judges. They went after State Department officials. They went after people in the executive service that were part of the White House--their own people. They went after antiwar groups. They went after U.S. international--U.S. companies that that do international business, you know, business around the world. They went after U.S. banking firms and financial firms that do international business. They went after NGOs that--like the Red Cross, people like that that go overseas and do humanitarian work. They went after a few antiwar civil rights groups. 

He has also said:

...I was worried that the intelligence community now has sway over what is going on. Now here’s the big one. I haven’t given you any names. This was is summer of 2004. One of the papers that I held in my hand was to wiretap a bunch of numbers associated with, with a 40-something-year-old wannabe senator from Illinois. You wouldn't happen to know where that guy lives right now, would you? It’s a big white house in Washington, DC. That’s who they went after. And that’s the president of the United States now.

So if you think that the people who are in charge of oversight have not been compromised - think again.

Try to stay safe!

OK, Tell Me What Abuse the Obama Administration Has Not Done!

Before I start:  Hi NSA spy gathering this information!

We can go back to the fact that Timothy Geitner doesn't Pay his taxes.  We can go back to the early years of the administration about how opponents to the Obama administration were threatened and abused by the government.  We can go back to the "stimulus" where the Obama administration's forced car dealerships in rural areas to be closed before car makers like Chrysler were bailed out.  It did not matter that the car make did not own said dealerships, it was about punishing the parts of the country that did not vote for the "savior."

In violating the 10th amendment, the Obama administration filed suit against the state of Arizona.  This was ruled to be an unconstitutional act.  Allegedly Obama is a constitutional lawyer, though we have no idea about his real college background.  He made a moratorium against off shore drilling for all oil companies without any approval from Congress. This was ruled unconstitutional by the courts.

Maybe we should ignore the fact that he instructed ICE not to enforce anything against illegal aliens that did not match his ideals, no matter what the law is.

And now we move into the current state of affairs.  It is a fact, that the Obama administration instructed Ambassador Rice (Now National Security Director Rice) to lie to America about what happened in Benghazi.  It is a fact that the IRS targeted conservative groups, that just happened to oppose Obama, for unrealistic scrutinization before being awarded tax-exempt status.  Allegedly he "didn't know anything about it before news reports" despite the fact that the head of the IRS had visited the White House 157 times during his administration.  That is only about 6 times that of the Secretary of State.

Then we learn that Eric Holder himself, (you know the guy that would not investigate the Black Panthers for obvious voter intimidation) had signed off on a "fishing expedition" warrant against a Fox News Employee.  Of course he lied to Congress about it when he testified, but he does not see that as a big deal.  Oh yeah, and he signed off on blanket search warrant agaisnt AP reporters.  Collecting all sorts of data from the AP's phone lines and reporters person phones.  This is because they are trying to catch someone inside who was a whistle blower leaked some information.

Oh yeah, and the NSA scandal.  Where there are a couple of people in Congress saying it is no big deal to spy on millions of Americans without cause.  Seriously, this would be expected of the cold war KGB, but it is ridiculous in a free society.  So far we have only seen the tip of the iceberg, which includes all Verizon users and most on the internet.

So someone please, give a logical argument as to how this is NOT the most abusive administration of the 21st Century!  I would put this up against any country out there including Iran and North Korea.

Whatever you do - Stay safe!

WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE?

I'll tell you what difference it makes.  While a US Diplomat and others were dying, under attack by a terroristict threat, the US government decided to let them die.  They conciously decided to NOT take action to support US Diploatic Corps.  In other words, those people were politically expendable.

Then, they decided to cover up the whole affair.  Claiming there was some sort of "spontaneous protest" to a video that no one in Lybia even knew existed beforehand.

Then, the government proceeded to cover up the willfull denial of protection for US foreign diplomats.

This is worse than Watergate.  This is the worst cover-up in US history.  It is also the most shameful failure to support US personnel anywhere in the last 30 years.  Worst of all, it was done on purpose.  This is not an accident, or incompetence by lower level bureacrats.  This is intentional denial of support at the highest level.


Yet, I doubt Barack Obama will face the consequences. He never does.

Brake Job

I had to do the brakes on the old Suburban today.  No, I didn't take pictures. It had been so long since I have worked on drum brakes (the rear) that I needed some guidance.

I give props to this guy for his pictorial view of drum brakes.

The old Suburban has 220K miles on it - still running strong!.

Y'all stay safe!