Yesterday, NSA whistle-blower Ed Snowden was granted asylum in Russia. The White House has had an ongoing conniption. And it's not just the White House. It's also the fools who identify with it.
Oh, look, here comes Daniel Treisman (at CNN) working it for Barack, slinging that ass and looking to pick up anyone for his pimp. His come on line is apparently that Russian President Vladimir Putin doesn't want Ed in Russia and wishes he were gone.
What are you basing that on, Daniel?
Your most recent wet dream of Barack?
Keep licking those sticky sheets, Daniel, while polite company talks.
Reality, Putin's thrilled.
Why wouldn't he be?
He doesn't care for Barack. He leads Russia today which isn't the USSR of yesteryear.
But it raises his profile to be clashing with Barack, as he fully knows.
In addition, it takes the focus off Russia's human rights abuses. (The US has human rights abuses as well. I'm neither picking on nor praising Russia.)
Russia goes from being beat up in the global public square to putting a spotlight on Barack's ridiculous efforts.
In addition, Putin now has leverage. He can play the Snowden card for 12 months.
Putin hates this? Oh, poor, foolish Daniel.
Ilya Arkhipov and Olga Tanas (Bloomberg News) report, "Russian President Vladimir Putin is showing his gamesmanship on a global stage by giving his voters what they want with the asylum granted to ex-U.S. contractor Edward Snowden, while leaving the White House flustered."
Joe Coscarelli (New York magazine) writes some garbage under the headline "Snowden Officially Making Things Awkward Between Obama and Putin." Get off your knees, Coscarelli, you're embarrassing yourself.
That's really cute, isn't it?
Barack Obama has snubbed Russia and worse. The US government has never had as bad relations with the Russian government as it currently does.
(I said with Russia -- I didn't say with the USSR.)
Where has Coscarelli been since 2009?
Scowcroft Center at the Atlantic Council's Barry Pavel tells Terry Atlas and Nichole Gaouette (Bloomberg News) states, "We're far apart on a lot of issues, we don't have a lot of leverage, and the Russians seem to like it this way. This is part of the pattern of relations since the Obama administration began." At Investor's Business Daily, Andrew Malcolm not only notes how humiliated Barack and company now are, he also reviews the relationship between Barack and Russia over the last years.
Alec Luhn, Luke Harding and Paul Lewis (Guardian) report:
The White House expressed anger and dismay on Thursday after Russia granted temporary asylum to the American whistleblower Edward Snowden and allowed him to leave the Moscow airport where he had been holed up for over a month.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said the US was "extremely disappointed" by the decision, almost certainly taken personally by President Vladimir Putin. He said Moscow should hand Snowden back and hinted that Barack Obama might now boycott a bilateral meeting with Putin in September, due to be held when the US president travels to Russia for a G20 summit.
Jay Carney babbled yesterday at the White House. Here's what he said (although the White House cleaned it up to make him sound less like a fool):
We are extremely disappointed that the Russian government would take this step despite our very clear and lawful requests in public and in private to have Mr. Stowden -- Snowden -- expelled to the United States to face the charges against him. Mr. Snowden is not a whistleblower. He is accused of leaking classified information and has been charged with three felly -- felony counts, and he should be returned to the United States as soon as possible where he will be accorded full due process and protections. This move by the Russian government undermines a longstanding record of law enforcement cooperation -- cooperation that has recently been on the upswing since the Boston Marathon bombings.
Poor, stupid, Jay Carney. He once passed as a reporter now he's the White House's neutered pooch.
Poochie declares that Snowden isn't a whistle-blower. But Quinnipiac released their latest poll yesterday and 55% think Ed is a whistle-blower while 34% -- only 34% -- call him a traitor.
Remember that ABC News - Washington Post poll that was being praised by idiots but that we called out? It's looking even more stupid now, isn't it? We told you it was flawed in several ways and therefore worthless (see the July 25th snapshot).
Ed's a whistle-blower and he's one that got it right. Thomas R. Eddlem (New American) points out:
With the revelations by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden and reporter Glenn Greenwald, there seem to be only two possibilities regarding claims by House Permanent Intelligence Subcommittee Chairman Mike Rogers: He either boldly lied about the breadth of NSA surveillance of the American people, or he didn't know and was therefore engaged in incompetent oversight of the NSA.
Either possibility has huge implications for American constitutional government: If Rogers didn't know, what does that say about congressional oversight of these shadowy NSA programs? And if he did know, and was willingly lying to the American people, is that any better?
Rogers, a liberal Michigan Republican (51 percent cumulative Freedom Index score, one of the lowest scores among Republicans), claimed in debate on the Amash amendment, which would have forbidden the NSA from spending any of its funding on the bulk collection of Americans' electronic messages, July 24: “We should have time and education on what actually happens in the particular program of which we speak. And I'll pledge each and every one of you today, and give you my word, that this fall, when we do the Intel authorization bill, we will work to find additional privacy protections with this program, that has no emails, no phone calls, no names and no addresses.”
I don't believe Jay Carney has Ed's record on accuracy.
In 2013, Senator Patty Murray became the Chair of the Senate Budget Committee and Senator Bernie Sanders replaced her as Senate Veterans Affairs Committee Chair. Murray continues to serve on the Veterans Affairs Committee and she continues to work on behalf of service members and veterans. Yesterday, her office issued the following:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Murray Press Office
Thursday, August 01, 2013 (202) 224-2834
Murray Special Victims Counsels Receive Full Funding
Senate Defense Appropriations bill includes $25 million for trained military lawyers to help victims of sexual assault take action against attackers
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Senate Defense Appropriations Committee approved $25 million to fully fund Senator Patty Murray’s (D-WA) Special Victims Counsels (SVCs) program aimed at providing victims of military sexual assault, in all branches, with a trained lawyer to guide them through the legal process. The House of Representatives has also approved full funding for the SVC program in their Department of Defense spending legislation. In May, Senators Murray and Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) introduced the bipartisan Combating Military Sexual Assault Act, which has been included in the pending National Defense Authorization Act.
“I’m pleased this bill supports several important initiatives, starting with expanding the highly successful Special Victims’ Counsel program across the whole military,” said Senator Murray. “The SVC program will provide victims of sexual assault with the legal assistance they need to pursue justice and be protected from retaliation, while getting to the heart of effectively addressing this tragic epidemic. Thank you to Chairman Durbin and Ranking Member Cochran for their leadership in putting forward a strong, bipartisan Defense appropriations bill that puts a priority on tackling this scourge within the ranks.”
“We include $25 million in this bill to implement their great idea of a Special Victims Counsel program across all services to address the issues of sexual harassment,” said Chairman Dick Durbin during the hearing. “The Air Force has good program. We’re going to incorporate this across the services with the $25 million here. I think this will have a greater positive impact than many of the other issues that are being debated that should make our military more welcoming.”
In a statement endorsing the Murray-Ayotte SVC legislation, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey said, “The Air Force Special Victims’ Counsel (SVC) pilot program, while very new, has shown positive results and provides a robust support program for victims of sexual assault. Hundreds of victims have availed themselves of SVC services in the Air Force in just the past several months since it was implemented. Many of those victims who initially filed restricted reports of sexual assault decided to change their report to unrestricted, allowing full investigation of the offenses committed by their assailant. As the early reports have been so promising, I expressed in my May 20, 2013, letters to Senators Levin and Inhofe that the proposed SVC legislation had merit. I support providing victims of sexual assault this important resource.”
The Senate Defense Appropriations legislation also addresses Senator Murray’s priorities to continue oversight of the struggling integrated electronic health record system, funding for Army National Guard Behavioral Health programs, and includes $10 million for the Office of Suicide Prevention.
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Meghan Roh
Press Secretary | New Media Director
Office of U.S. Senator Patty Murray
Mobile: (202) 365-1235
Office: (202) 224-2834
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
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