It's About a Loss of Credibility All the Way Around Thing

Dear America,

and wait, there's more!

PRISM:   It's like Google Glass, but even bigger, better, bad'r...so feast your eyes through the looking glass, here.

Invasion of privacy,

Government Body Snatchers,

welcome to the other side of midnight.

And just when we thought even the NY Times turned against the machine, we get edits sometime during zero dark thirty hour.

First, the editors bring us the piece du jour, boldly calling it, "President Obama's Dragnet."  Here it is, in it's original form, from Before It's News.

Now, let me take you to the new version...My guess it took a few edits back and forth, as the situation is still fluid awaiting for all the facts to come in, of course; but with what we know now, we believe this will be the final talking points...for the administration has us by the neck on this one, bear with us, if you will, for we are just groveling, begging for a second chance to prove our loyalty and unwavering admiration...so now without further adieu, here you go.

First version --  we get this:

"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. Mr. Obama is proving the truism that the executive will use any power it is given and very likely abuse it. That is one reason we have long argued that the Patriot Act, enacted in the heat of fear after the 9/11 attacks by members of Congress who mostly had not even read it, was reckless in its assignment of unnecessary and overbroad surveillance powers."

In the what difference does it make second version, we get this:

"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 branch will use any power it is given and very likely abuse it. That is one reason we have long argued that the Patriot Act, enacted in the heat of fear after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks by members of Congress who mostly had not even read it, was reckless in its assignment of unnecessary and overbroad surveillance powers."

Needless to say, somebody from the big White House got  to them.  They were asked to clean it up, or else...or else it may just be the last time THIS administration decides to use the NY Times as an extension of their administration, planting talking points and leaking information as it supports and elevates the brilliance of the Obama regime.    For nobody gets away with talking smack back, right Michelle?  

Simply love how they kept intact the comments made by the author of The Patriot Act --

"On Thursday, Representative Jim Sensenbrenner, Republican of Wisconsin, who introduced the Patriot Act in 2001, said that the National Security Agency overstepped its bounds by issuing a secret order to collect phone log records from millions of Americans. “As the author of the Patriot Act, I am extremely troubled by the F.B.I.’s interpretation of this legislation,” he said in a statement. “While I believe the Patriot Act appropriately balanced national security concerns and civil rights, I have always worried about potential abuses.” He added: “Seizing phone records of millions of innocent people is excessive and un-American.”

exactly.

Oh but rest assured -- per the president -- "nobody is listening on your phone calls..." this is simply "modest encroachments on privacy"..."they help us prevent terrorist attacks"...like, you know, "It’s important to recognize that you can’t have 100 percent security and also then have 100 percent privacy and zero inconvenience"...."we have to make choices as a society"... Comments plucked from a Washington Post update, just moments ago. 

But if you ask me, this is kind of sounding more like that commercial...you know the one ---  it's just better with "bed AND breakfast" (versus, bed OR breakfast)...it's just better with "sweet AND sour chicken" (instead of sweet OR sour)...Way to go, Ford....brilliant!

Since when did it become vogue --  IN AMERICA -- to force people to choose between a Police State OR our Freedom AND Liberty?  

And Karl Rove, entertaining Greta Van Susteren last night -- seriously?  Your elitism is showing, along with that pesky annoyance of making it sound like you speak for all of us (on the right).  Once again, the government (aka the establishment, both left and right, in equal portion it doth seem)  thinks it knows best  -- in a creepy, trust me, kind of way.  But more than that, something he said really raised my freshly waxed brow...

He said:

“Imagine what would happen if we were able to identify that he had called somebody in Chechnya,” Rove explained. “He was under review for a period of time. What if he had called somebody in Chechnya who was known to be a terrorist? That would have allowed us to then understand that he was a problem and to map his contacts back in the United States.”

“If we had a program like this in effect at the time that might have been helpful to us in stopping the 9.11 plot,” he said, adding that the program appears to be a “legitimate” tool for intelligence and law enforcement “in the environment and the world in which we live.”

First of all, KARL!

WE DID HAVE THIS PROGRAM IN PLACE -- according to just about who.... oh everybody.  This program and intelligence gathering doctrine has been in place for  SEVEN YEARS already; this is nothing new [although to the extent of The Patriot Act's usage and abuses IS a first, there is that].

But second of all -- what the hell are you talking about?  RUSSIA TOLD US TSARNAEV WAS TROUBLE with a capital T!    We didn't follow up, or we didn't believe them, or we didn't do a damn thing about it.  Notice the OR could be replaced with an AND indiscriminately. 

I'm sorry, Karl, but are you saying a Verizon phone call to Chechnya would have been the tipping point, and would have made all the difference?   Are you kidding me?    Oh my, you are either a pompous ass or a bonehead -- so hard to choose; oh, no bother, everything's better with AND.

Make it a Good Day, G

Oh wait!
There's more!

Falling into the same category as -- being against it (Patriot Act) before I was for it ( and President); we have yet another campaign promise -- the one that favored an energy policy embracing an "all of the above" framework -- broken:

Adversely affecting San Diego's local economy, it  has just been announced that the San Onofre Nuclear Plant will be shutdown permanently; Edison citing that the "lengthy regulatory review, rising costs, uncertainty" to be the root cause of such a dramatic close.  We lost 1100 jobs today.

The fastest way to true wealth is through our natural resources and energy production; as the dollar means jack these days, and on the verge of losing it's privileged designation as the world's reserve currency.  It's only a matter of time -- borrowed time --  before we permanently marginalize the dollars value and/or collapse --  and what do we do?  We choose to micromanage and stifle real economic growth by allowing the environmentalists and bureaucrats to control real gains from oil, natural gas, and gobs of nuclear power.

uncertainty.
otherwise known as a nudge...an itzy bitzy little nudge...can you feel me now?