Snowden Breaks Silence as New Asylum Requests Revealed, Says He Is ‘Free and Able’ to Continue Leaking (+video)

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Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

By Fox News. NSA leaker Edward Snowden broke his weeklong silence on Monday, defending his “right to seek asylum” while separately claiming he remains “free and able” to publish sensitive information on U.S. surveillance.

The statements came as Wikileaks revealed that Snowden had made requests for asylum or asylum assistance to 19 additional countries around the world, following earlier requests made to the countries of Ecuador and Iceland.

In a statement issued on the WikiLeaks website, Snowden attacked the Obama administration, saying, “On Thursday, President Obama declared before the world that he would not permit any diplomatic ‘wheeling and dealing’ over my case. Yet now it is being reported that after promising not to do so, the President ordered his Vice President to pressure the leaders of nations from which I have requested protection to deny my asylum petitions.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Statement from Edward Snowden in Moscow

Monday July 1, 21:40 UTC

One week ago I left Hong Kong after it became clear that my freedom and safety were under threat for revealing the truth. My continued liberty has been owed to the efforts of friends new and old, family, and others who I have never met and probably never will. I trusted them with my life and they returned that trust with a faith in me for which I will always be thankful.

On Thursday, President Obama declared before the world that he would not permit any diplomatic “wheeling and dealing” over my case. Yet now it is being reported that after promising not to do so, the President ordered his Vice President to pressure the leaders of nations from which I have requested protection to deny my asylum petitions.

This kind of deception from a world leader is not justice, and neither is the extralegal penalty of exile. These are the old, bad tools of political aggression. Their purpose is to frighten, not me, but those who would come after me.

For decades the United States of America has been one of the strongest defenders of the human right to seek asylum. Sadly, this right, laid out and voted for by the U.S. in Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is now being rejected by the current government of my country. The Obama administration has now adopted the strategy of using citizenship as a weapon. Although I am convicted of nothing, it has unilaterally revoked my passport, leaving me a stateless person. Without any judicial order, the administration now seeks to stop me exercising a basic right. A right that belongs to everybody. The right to seek asylum.

In the end the Obama administration is not afraid of whistleblowers like me, Bradley Manning or Thomas Drake. We are stateless, imprisoned, or powerless. No, the Obama administration is afraid of you. It is afraid of an informed, angry public demanding the constitutional government it was promised — and it should be.

I am unbowed in my convictions and impressed at the efforts taken by so many.

Edward Joseph Snowden

Monday 1st July 2013

[Snowden’s statement originally appeared HERE.]

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Honey, Snowden Shrank Obama

By Jed Babbin. Even vacationing in Africa, President Obama isn’t far enough away to avoid the international disdain being heaped on him on the subject of infamous NSA leaker Edward Snowden. These days, you’re just not cool unless you’ve dissed Obama. It’s almost as if he welcomes the treatment he’s receiving.

On Thursday, President Obama said he’s not going to start “wheeling and dealing” with Russia and China to get Snowden extradited to the US. He disclaimed any intention to become involved in the matter by calling Putin or Chinese President Xi to try to get Snowden back. Obama evidently views the matter as below his pay grade.

“I’m not going to be scrambling jets to get a 29-year-old hacker,” he also told reporters during a news conference in Senegal. Nevertheless, he had Joey Biden call Ecuadoran Prez Rafael Correa on Friday to ask that Snowden be denied asylum there. Correa announced the call in a radio address, and didn’t miss the opportunity to slam Obama…

Though he’s not wheeling and dealing, you have to conclude that Obama is wheedling and diddling. Hong Kong authorities reported that they let Snowden go to Russia because our Justice Department didn’t respond to their requests for more information on why Snowden should be arrested. The Russians are denying that Snowden is really in Russia (being kept in a transit zone at an airport) so they can’t do anything about him either. And Correa is also saying that Ecuador will decide what to do with Snowden if he gets there (or to one of their embassies).

Being serially dissed by China, Russia, and now Ecuador, Obama looks — and is — more and more powerless. Yesterday, even the European Union (!) joined in. Some guy named Martin Schulz, who is apparently president of the European Parliament said he was “deeply worried and shocked” by reports that the NSA surveillance had been pointed at the EU. (My sources expressed equal shock at the idea that anyone had any interest in anything the EU had to say.) Read more from this story HERE.

Allen West: Time to Teach Obama ‘Lesson Our Forefathers Taught King George III’

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Former Rep. Allen B. West had some harsh words for President Obama and the Supreme Court on Sunday night, taking to Facebook to express his disdain for the court’s decision on Proposition 8.

“This week we’ll celebrate the 237th anniversary of our independence. But are we a free people?” Mr. West, a Florida Republican, asked.

“SCOTUS made an ill-conceived ruling believing the choice of sexual behavior should trump the people’s referendum. We are free to love anyone or anything we desire in America, but that does not correlate to rights beyond the unalienable ones Jefferson articulated 237 years ago.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Toasts Failed Socialist Founding Dictator of Tanzania

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller

Photo Credit: Daily Caller

President Barack Obama toasted the founding dictator of post-colonial Tanzania on Monday, who collectivized the nation’s low-tech agricultural sector, established a one-party state and left that African nation’s economy in ruins.

“[Y]ou might say an American child is my child. We might say a Tanzanian child is my child,” Obama said after quoting the Tanzanian saying “my neighbor’s child is my child.”

“In this way, both of our nations will be looking after all of our children and we’ll be living out the vision of President [Julius] Nyerere,” Obama continued.

“The core values that he proclaimed for Tanzania also describe what both our countries seek — wisdom, unity, and peace — Hekima, Umoja, na Amani,” Obama said at a state dinner, held at 9:00 p.m. local time…

Nyerere “led a one-party state that nationalized key industries and created ujamaa, a rural, collective village-based movement of ‘African socialism’ and ‘self reliance,’” according to a 2011 report by the Congressional Research Service.

Read more from this story HERE.

Israel: Obama Sending “Highly Confusing and Contradictory” Signals

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

With violence and chaos surrounding Israel, policy experts within the Jewish state say the Obama administration is sending mixed – and highly confusing – signals as to where it stands.

The U.S. policies regarding Egypt, Syria, Turkey and even Qatar, where talks are slated with the Taliban, has left some observers in Israel, America’s staunchest ally in the region, wondering if the alliance still holds. In Egypt, the Obama administration was quick to support protesters in 2011, when they rose up against President Hosni Mubarak. But with fresh demonstrations aimed at President Morsi’s regime, there is no sign of the U.S. calling for the removal of the Muslim Brotherhood government despite its violent crackdown and widespread persecution of Egypt’s Christian community.

“In Egypt, the fanatics of the Muslim Brotherhood are attempting to control every aspect of Egyptian society,” said Gerald Steinberg, professor of political science at Israel’s Bar Ilan University. “You would think the Obama administration would sympathize with liberals and with democrats, with people who oppose the Muslim Brotherhood, but they are paralyzed there, too. They have shown no sign of dealing with the fact that we have replaced one dictatorship with another dictatorship.”

To the north, where more than 100,000 Syrians have died in a bloody, two-year civil war, the U.S. is planning to arm rebels, who include anti-Israel jihadists. The plan goes against previous stated policies, and threatens to put U.S. arms in the hands of Israel’s enemies, said Steinberg.

Read more from this story HERE.

Perpetuating Fraud on the Public: DC Cooks Numbers on Student-Loan Program, Obamacare

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Photo Credit: Getty Images

Photo Credit: Getty Images

If you think the federal student-loan program looks like a bad deal for taxpayers, imagine how it would look with honest accounting. And now you don’t need to imagine thanks to a new report that’s receiving far too little attention. Turns out that the official “savings” for taxpayers of $184 billion over the next decade really add up to $95 billion in losses.

Here’s the scam: Lawmakers peddle what is a massive subsidy for universities while claiming that student loans generate a windfall for the taxpayer. This phony windfall is conjured by creative accounting that politicians mandated via the Federal Credit Reform Act of 1990. Specifically, the law requires a deliberate under-counting of the cost of defaults.

This is partly how a Democratic Congress and President Obama managed to enact ObamaCare in 2010 while claiming that their big entitlement expansion would reduce costs. The health plan was paired with legislation that made the U.S. Department of Education the originator of roughly 90% of all student loans, which in turn generated billions in imaginary budget “savings.”

To its credit, the Congressional Budget Office has noted on various occasions that while the law forces it to use this Beltway math, CBO knows it’s not accurate under fair-value accounting. And in a new report on the costs of student loans made in the decade ending in 2023, CBO quantifies the size of this discrepancy at $279 billion. CBO adds with its typically wry understatement that Washington’s mandated accounting method “does not consider some costs borne by the government.”

Read more from this story HERE.

European Nations Lash Out at Kerry Who Maintains that “Spying on Allies is Not Unusual”

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

The US spying scandal deepened today as Secretary of State John Kerry said it is ‘not unusual’ for governments to bug the offices of their allies sparking fierce retorts from France and Germany.

The extraordinary statement has angered leaders across the world after leaked documents revealed America spied on 38 foreign missions and embassies including the European Union’s Washington nerve centre.

As outrage grew across the EU over the damaging revelations, German Chancellor Angela Merkel was first to lash out, declaring that ‘bugging friends is unacceptable’ before French premier Francois Hollande demanded its ‘immediate halt’.

Speaking to a press conference today, Kerry said: ‘I will say that every country in the world that is engaged in international affairs and national security undertakes lots of activities to protect its national security and all kinds of information contributes to that. All I know is that is not unusual for lots of nations.’

But the remarks did not wash with Francois Hallande who demanded an immediate explanation, adding: ‘We cannot accept this kind of behavior.

Read more from this story HERE.

College and Career Ready Standards: A Catch Phrase Intended to Goad the Public Into Believing a Lie

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Photo Credit: Life in the Last Frontier

Photo Credit: Life in the Last Frontier

The goal behind College and Career Ready standards is to prepare children to be global citizens in the new global economy. Global citizenship implies a global community, known as a One World Order. To have citizens of One World, what will be the governing structure? Will it be a Democracy? A Republic? Communist? Socialist? Will the new global economy consist of Capitalism and the Free Market or will it be controlled by the One World government in terms of socialism and/or communism?

The United States is still the freest nation in the world. No other country, before or since, has stepped forth with a similar Constitution or governing structure grounded in the beliefs that individuals are both unique and important. While it would almost be fantastic if the global community adopted the same foundations as our own nation, we all subconsciously know that will NOT happen. The United States was founded as a Christian nation: grounded in Biblical principles. These principles alone are contrary to the majority of other country’s religions.

So what will the One World Order look like? It won’t resemble anything that American’s hold dear. Most likely, we will be subjects of a form of socialism or communism. The individual will be sacrificed for the good of the collective whole. Children of the Common Core, the College and Career Ready “standards,” will be pigeon-holed into the lines of work that the “state” determines from very young ages through data collection. The “state” will dictate a child’s education to promote what the “state” has determined to be that child’s career path. STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) careers will be reserved for those that the “state” determines are worthy to work in such fields: worthiness is determined through academic performance, ability to follow directions with no opposition, and ability to conform to current thoughts and ideas without questioning validity. The class system will be magnified.

The elite class that also has its hand in the governing structure will likely control the global economy. Forget about IRAs and 401-Ks because retirement is NOT an option in the global economy. With the eminent risks of doomsday events, there is no need for “retirement.” What will happen when you can no longer work to benefit the global society? Don’t worry – individuals are of no value; you can easily be replaced by the next college graduate.

I’m not merely creating a scary scenario in regards to the global community. Similar agendas are documented throughout history. The idea of the One World Order is nothing new, either. It is found in the writings of H.G. Wells. What most do not know is that his last book, Mind at the End of Its Tether (1945), he stated that the One World Order is optimistic humanism and it isn’t going to work!

John Dewey is considered the father of modern education; he was a Humanist and co-author of the Humanist Manifesto (1933). Dewey followed the teachings of German psychologist Wilhelm Wundt; both men viewed children as animals requiring guidance, control and molding. After he visited the Soviet Union, Dewey wrote six articles on the “wonders” of Soviet education. Dewey’s writings preclude and greatly influence College and Career Ready Standards. Both have the same objective.

“Our major concern that the school should provide a purified environment for the child
… this means stacking the cards in favor of the particular systems of value we possess. We must
move to make certain every Progressive School will use whatever power it may possess in
opposing and checking the forces of social conservatism.”

“Children who know how to think for themselves spoil the harmony of the collective
society which is coming, where everyone is interdependent.”

“You can’t make socialists out of individualists.”

School curricula have been altered to purport the ideas presented in the Humanist Manifesto. This continues today in the form of College and Career Ready Standards. Here is an abbreviated version of the Humanist Manifesto #1:

1. Man gradually emerged by chance from lower forms of life over millions of years.
2. Man creates god out of his own experiences.
3. Man is his own authority and is not accountable to any higher power.
4. There are no absolute rules to live by.
5. All men should be exposed to diverse ‘realistic’ viewpoints, including profanity, immorality, and
perversions as acceptable modes of self-expression.
6. All forms of sexual expression are acceptable.
7. Government ownership or control of the economy should replace private ownership of property
and the free market economy.
8. ‘Global Citizenship’ should replace national self-determination.
9. There is no hope of existence beyond the grave – no heaven or hell.

People and corporations such as Partnership for Assessing Readiness for College and Career (PARCC), Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC), Next Generation, Planned Parenthood, inBloom, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Weather Underground, Bill Ayers, Linda Darling Hammond, Tides Foundation, and UNESCO all have ties in one form or another to the proliferation of global citizens through education system control under the auspices of College and Career Ready standards.

Patriots, lovers of freedom, anyone who believes in and values America and our American way of life should be opposed to EVERY FACET of the College and Career Ready standards known as Common Core State Standards. It is high time that Americans come together to take back control of our educational system and re-instill the values that America has held dear for over 237 years. Our freedom and continuation as a great nation depend upon it.

Russia’s Putin Signs ‘Gay Propaganda’ Ban Into Law

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Photo Credit: AFP

Photo Credit: AFP

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed into law a bill punishing people for homosexual “propaganda”, an official publication showed Sunday, in a move critics fear will fuel hate crimes.

In another controversial step, Putin also signed a bill imposing jail terms and fines on those who offend religious believers, seen as a response to last year’s anti-Putin stunt by the punk band Pussy Riot in a Moscow cathedral.

Rights activists and Western governments have criticised both bills as part of an unprecedented crackdown on dissenting voices after Putin returned to the Kremlin last year.

The anti-propaganda law introduces fines of up to 5,000 rubles ($156) for citizens who disseminate information aimed at minors “directed at forming nontraditional sexual setup” or which may cause a “distorted understanding” that gay and heterosexual relations are “socially equivalent”, the official publication of the bill showed.

Read more from this story HERE.

Suits Alleging Molestations by Sesame Street’s “Voice of Elmo” Dismissed on Technicalities

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Photo Credit: NY Post

Photo Credit: NY Post

It’s a sunny day for ex-“Sesame Street” puppeteer Kevin Clash after a judge tossed three suits filed by young men who claim they suffered psychological damage from having sex him when they were underage.

In a ruling filed this morning, Manhattan federal Judge John Koeltl said that the men, all in their 20s, waited too long to sue the longtime voice of “Elmo” under a statute of limitations that requires legal action within “six years after the cause of action accrues, or three years after the plaintiff turns 21, which ever is longer.”

All three suits — which Koeltl noted contain “nearly identical” language — were filed between eight and 16 years after the men say they had sex with Clash while in their teens.

Clash resigned in disgrace after the first suit was filed last year, but the scandal didn’t stop him from winning three Daytime Emmy Awards last month, including outstanding performer in a children’s series.

Plaintiffs’ lawyer Jeff Herman vowed to appeal, calling the statute of limitations “an arbitrary timeline that silences victims.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Shaking Down the Public at Alaska State Parks

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Photo Credit: Alaskan Dude

Photo Credit: Alaskan Dude

A couple of days ago, I decided to go fishing at Rocky Lake. I loaded up the float tube and had my wife drop me off at the local public access point, which happens to be a state park. I unloaded the float tube, told my wife I would call he for a ride home, and proceeded down to the lake.

A few yards into the park I was interrupted by a state park employee named Holly. She informed me I “still had to pay.” I informed her I had a constitutional right to access navigable water from the public domain and one does not pay to exercise ones rights. The discussion ensued.

Holly’s main point was the park belongs to the State of Alaska and she was charging the public for access to state property although she did mention that state and federal agencies are exempted from paying these fees.

My point was the park is public domain, it belongs to the people and while it is appropriate to charge for services rendered, citizens have a right enumerated by our state constitution to access the park. Since I was not utilizing any service, no fee could be charged.

In an attempt to give my point credibility , I informed Holly that the understanding of the issue I have, is from information I have reviewed while serving on the state Citizens Advisory Commission on Federal Area’s.

Holly while still disagreeing, took my name and phone number and said a park ranger will get back to me. She decided to allow me to continue to the lake. She ended our conversation with a sarcastic “have a nice day” knowing that she disturbed what would have otherwise been for me a pleasant time on the lake.

As I was out one the lake I began thinking about how she had turned away local kids away from the camp ground for not paying and how such a thing would have affected my childhood in Alaska.

I simply could not let the situation stand.

Returning home I proceed to research my position to ensure I did not overlook something . I did Not.

Article 8 of Alaska’s constitution has clearly established the citizen’s right to access public resources. Sections 2,3 ,6,14 and 15 all affirm this right. In fact section 14 explicitly states “Free access to the navigable or public waters of the State, as defined by the legislature, shall not be denied any citizen of the United States or resident of the State,” It does mention regulation for other purposes not applicable here since the the point of a park IS public access.

I looked at statute as well and found these applicable statutes:

AS 41.21.026 (12) (b) – “The department may not charge or collect a fee for an ordinary use of a park unit or the use of a rest room in a park unit.”

and a lawful concessionaire

AS 41.21.027 (6) – “recognizes and accommodates, at no cost, ordinary uses in a park unit…”

With this information in hand I trotted down to my State Representative, Mark Neuman’s office to register a complaint. Representative Neuman was attentive and effective. Within minutes had an answer to the specific question from the State Park supervisor she sent an email stating,

“In response to your request for information regarding fees charged at the Rocky Lake State Recreation Site, the following fees apply:

Daily use of designated parking areas with access to rest rooms – $5 per vehicle per day; Overnight camping – $15 per site per night There is no fee for use of the site that does not include any of the above.”

While it was nice to see the state park supervisor confirm what the constitution and statute enumerate, I still cannot help but think this same scenario of shaking down the public to access their public land plays out in camp grounds and parks across Alaska.

The right of the people to access resources in the public domain is as essential to our liberty as any other right. We must ensure our children and our state employees understand this right.

I hope you share with others this knowledge, that our lands belong to us and managers of that land are trustees, not exclusive owners of the resource.