Obama Administration Scandals
June 18, 2013 — John Hinderaker
There is lots of talk, these days, about privacy: about cyber surveillance; about intrusive government; about whether we can feel secure on the telephone and on line. Amid all the noise, it is sometimes hard to sort the wheat from the chaff. But one story that definitely deserves our attention is the hacking of CBS reporter Sharyl Attkisson’s home and work computers. This is precisely the kind of totalitarian scenario
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June 18, 2013 — Scott Johnson
House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa has posted a statement on the IRS investigation that responds to Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings’ announced intention to post the full investigative interview of IRS employee John Shafer online. Cummings has now posted the transcript here (part 1) and here (part 2), as the Washington Post reports. Here is Issa’s statement in its entirety: I am deeply disappointed that Ranking Member Cummings has decided
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June 17, 2013 — Scott Johnson
In “The other IRS scandal” John took a look at the IRS treatment of pro-Israel charities. The experience of some pro-Israel groups suggested that they had been subject to harassing and discriminatory treatment based on their support of policies that conflict with those of the Obama administration. John called for The House committees that looking into the IRS scandal to put this topic high on their agenda. My daughter Eliana
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June 14, 2013 — John Hinderaker
On June 18, 1972, the Washington Post reported that the night before, there had been a break-in at the offices of the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate Hotel. Although the break-in story made the Post’s front page, no one could then foresee the consequences that would spin out over the ensuing months. This morning, the Post’s Erik Wemple reported that forensic analysis has confirmed multiple invasions of at least
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June 13, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Last week, I argued that Eric Holder’s submission to a court suggested that Fox News’ James Rosen was a flight risk. This representation — coupled with the statement that Rosen was “an aider, abettor and/or co-conspirator” in illegal obtaining, national security materials from a government official also under investigation — led me to conclude that Holder lied to Congress when he testified that he has never been “involved in” “potential
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June 11, 2013 — Scott Johnson
The New York Post adds detail to one of the scandals mentioned in yesterday’s CBS report in the series of scandals involving Hillary Clinton’s State Department. John wrote about the CBS report here. Now the Post reports: A State Department whistleblower has accused high-ranking staff of a massive coverup — including keeping a lid on findings that members of then-Secretary Hillary Clinton’s security detail and the Belgian ambassador solicited prostitutes.
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June 10, 2013 — John Hinderaker
CBS News is reporting on an Inspector General’s report on a series of scandals involving Hillary Clinton’s State Department. The most troubling aspect of the OIG report, according to CBS, is the extent to which senior State Department officials have tried to quash investigations of wrongdoing. Mrs. Clinton is not specifically named in the CBS report: CBS News’ John Miller reports that according to an internal State Department Inspector General’s
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June 10, 2013 — Scott Johnson
In a sidebar to the Washington Post’s profile of of NSA leakmeister Edward Snowden, Barton Gellman reports regarding Snowden: “I understand that I will be made to suffer for my actions, and that the return of this information to the public marks my end,” he wrote in early May, before we had our first direct contact. He warned that even journalists who pursued his story were at risk until they
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June 10, 2013 — Scott Johnson
My daughter Eliana has what I believe to be an important update on the IRS scandal that has just been posted at NRO. As Eliana explains, Democrats and their media adjunct to the contrary notwithstanding, the scandal didn’t originate in Cincinnati. It originated in Washington, DC, within shouting distance of the Department of Justice, the State Department, and the White House. Precisely where in Washington we have yet to determine,
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June 10, 2013 — Steven Hayward
Cast your mind back a ways to the 1980s and early 1990s, and you may recall that our thoughts about technology started undergoing a revision—namely, that far from offering increasingly powerful tools for government oppression and control, personal computers, cell phones, and all the rest of the emergent technologies were becoming means of our liberation as well as barriers to oppressive government. Certainly personal computers and new communication technology—or really
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June 10, 2013 — Scott Johnson
It turns out that the lunatic leftist Glenn Greenwald has relied on one source for his Guardian articles blowing the anti-terror surveillance programs conducted by the National Security Agency — one Edward Snowden. Snowden has an unusual background for a security expert with a top-secret clearance. He holds a high-school equivalency degree and expertise in digital security systems, leading to his most recent position as he describes it — a
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June 10, 2013 — Scott Johnson
In the scandals roiling around the Internal Revenue Service, the case of the National Organization for Marriage is egregious. NOM chairman John Eastman made a powerful presentation of the case before the House Ways and Means Committee last week. John also responded to asinine comments of the Democratic members who suggested that the outrage suffered by the group was somehow deserved. Unlike the several Tea-Party groups whose applications for nonprofit
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June 9, 2013 — Scott Johnson
If you’ve been queasy about the ongoing disclosures of anti-terror national security programs by lefty Glenn Greenwald in the Guardian (UK), as I have, I doubt the Guardian’s profile of Greenwald’s source — one Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old self-described former technical assistant for the CIA who says he has has worked at the NSA for the last four years as an employee of outside contractors including Booz Allen and Dell
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June 9, 2013 — Steven Hayward
Well why the heck not? He needs something to do after he retires from the Tonight Show. I think he already owns every classic car ever made. And he certainly seems to be cultivating a constituency with his recent runners about the Obama scandals. I do know that back in the 1980s, before he succeeded Johnny Carson, Leno expressed some occasional libertarian sentiments, such as his opposition to the mandatory
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June 8, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Revelations over the past few days of the Obama administration’s national security surveillance measures have prompted a furious reaction on the left. The New York Times announced that with the revelations the administration had forfeited all credibility, then ratcheted back its condemnation to apply only to “this issue.” The Times isn’t getting off the Obama Express with a midterm to come and nearly four years to go, but the disillusionment
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June 8, 2013 — Steven Hayward
So the scandals piling up faster than cars on a foggy road are finally starting to take their toll on Obama’s approval rating, but there’s one group of Americans among whom Obama’s popularity is soaring: editorial cartoonists. They haven’t had this much to work with since . . . Nixon. Oops–there’s that unwelcome comparison again. Anyway, the main theme for this week was obvious–so obvious you could spot it without
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June 8, 2013 — Scott Johnson
For the six years that James Buckley represented New York in the United States Senate, the great William F. Buckley found an ingenious way to acknowledge his fraternal relationship to Senator Buckley whenever he had occasion to mention him in a column. He referred to him as “the sainted junior senator from New York.” It was his characteristically witty way of disclosing his interest in the matter under discussion. I
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