While much of the world is focused on the indignities being heaped on the United States by Russia, China and Ecuador in the fugitive Edward Snowden affair, the Taliban on Monday demonstrated their own contempt for the Obama administration.
Last week, U.S. officials celebrated what they regarded as a diplomatic breakthrough. They had persuaded the Taliban to open a political office in Doha, Qatar—and now America hopes it has the peace-negotiating partners the Obama administration covets as the U.S. plans its escape from Afghanistan. On Monday, the Taliban attacked the presidential compound in Kabul. The daylight gunbattle left at least eight Taliban and three guards dead.
The Afghan government—and the majority of Afghans—were not happy about the Doha news. The Taliban had immediately begun flying its flag and posting signs declaring the office as an outpost of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. President Karzai announced that he would not join peace negotiations with killers who had been so legitimized by the U.S., and he suspended talks with the U.S. about a long-term security arrangement.
The Taliban didn’t take long to prove his point. Or to expose Washington as a receding and tired presence in Afghanistan, desperate to leave.
But despair and confusion cannot bring enduring peace, or even an honorable exit. Now, with the U.S. endorsement of the Taliban office in Doha, the credibility and authority of the Afghan state has been undermined. The Doha debacle also represents the dismantling of an unwritten compact that Afghans thought they had with America: In return for Washington’s support for Afghanistan’s independence, sovereignty and constitutional order, the U.S. would enjoy all privileges of a strategic partnership in a dangerous part of the world, including cooperation on counterterrorism.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-06-26 03:12:362013-06-26 03:12:36Taliban Guns Send a Message About Obama’s Peace Process
Long-term Democratic U.S. Rep. Edward Markey beat out Republican newcomer Gabriel Gomez Tuesday in Massachusetts’ special election for John Kerry’s U.S. Senate seat.
Markey had an advantage of about 8 percentage points over Gomez with most precincts reporting late Tuesday, according to unofficial returns. He took to Twitter to thank voters after his victory.
“Thank you Massachusetts!” he tweeted. “I am deeply honored for the opportunity to serve you in the United States Senate.”
Gomez said he called Markey to congratulate him and wished him “nothing but the best.”
In a concession speech to supporters, Gomez said he was a better person as a result of the campaign and believed Markey would be a better senator having gone through the election.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-06-26 03:12:092013-06-26 03:12:09Democrat Markey Wins Kerry’s U.S. Senate Seat in Massachusetts Special Election
The National Security Agency has backdoor access to all Windows software since the release of Windows 95, according to informed sources, a development that follows the insistence by the agency and federal law enforcement for backdoor “keys” to any encryption, according to Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.
Having such “keys” is essential for the export of any encryption under U.S. export control laws.
The NSA plays a prominent role in deliberations over whether such products can be exported. It routinely turns down any requests above a megabyte level that exceeds NSA’s technical capacity to decrypt it. That’s been the standard for years for NSA, as well as the departments of Defense, Commerce and State.
Computer security specialists say the Windows software driver used for security and encryption functions contains unusual features the give NSA the backdoor access.
The security specialists have identified the driver as ADVAPI.DLL. It enables and controls a variety of security functions. The specialists say that in Windows, it is located at C:\Windowssystem.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-06-25 02:22:152013-06-25 02:22:15Sources: NSA Has Total Access to Computers via Microsoft Windows
By Evan Perez and Adam Entous. The U.S. hunt for National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden came to a boil Monday as the White House ripped into Hong Kong and China and issued warnings to Russia and Ecuador, where Mr. Snowden has sought asylum, sharply dialing up global pressure for his return to face espionage charges.
The case of Mr. Snowden, under federal indictment for stealing and leaking classified documents, has become a test of Washington’s ability to influence unsympathetic governments. Having failed after weeks of work through international legal channels, the U.S. turned to an aggressive diplomatic strategy.
President Barack Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry and officials at the White House and Justice Department took turns asking for Mr. Snowden’s return to the U.S. amid warnings that relations would be strained.
China was singled out for particular criticism after Mr. Snowden unexpectedly left Hong Kong on Sunday for Moscow in defiance of a U.S. demand for his extradition.
U.S. officials implied that Beijing scuttled what had been a steadily advancing process of establishing a case that would lead to extradition proceedings. Read more from this story HERE.
NSA leaker’s global flight appears to have stalled, at least for now, as US steps up pressure
By Associated Press. Edward Snowden’s stop-and-start flight across the globe appeared to stall in Moscow as the United States ratcheted up pressure to hand over the National Security Agency leaker who had seemed on his way to Ecuador to seek asylum.
In Ecuador’s most extensive statement about the case, the foreign minister hailed Snowden on Monday as “a man attempting to bring light and transparency to facts that affect everyone’s fundamental liberties.”
The decision whether to grant Snowden the asylum he has requested is a choice between “betraying the citizens of the world or betraying certain powerful elites in a specific country,” Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino told reporters while visiting Vietnam.
But what had been expected to be a straightforward journey to this South America nation dissolved into uncertainty by day’s end. Snowden didn’t use a reservation for a Havana-bound Russian airline flight that could have served as the first leg of a trip to safety in Ecuador, and his allies would not say where he was or what changed. Patino said Tuesday that he didn’t know Snowden’s exact whereabouts.
In Washington, the White House demanded that Ecuador and other countries deny Snowden asylum. It also sharply criticized China for letting him leave Hong Kong, and urged Russia to “do the right thing” and send him to the U.S. to face espionage charges. Read more from this story HERE.
U.S. Officials Don’t Know How Much Secret Material Snowden Took
By Thomson/Reuters. U.S. intelligence agencies are worried they do not yet know how much highly sensitive material is in the possession of former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, whose whereabouts are unclear, several U.S. officials said.
The agencies fear that Snowden may have taken many more documents than officials initially estimated and that his alliance with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange increases the likelihood that they will be made public without considering the security implications, they said.
Investigators believe Snowden, who was working in Hawaii for an NSA contractor, was partly successful at covering his tracks as he accessed a broad array of information about operations conducted by NSA and its British equivalent, Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), according to the sources, who declined to be identified.
In a weekend television appearance, the chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Senator Dianne Feinstein, said she had been informed by U.S. officials that Snowden possessed around 200 secret documents.
But one non-government source familiar with Snowden’s materials said that Feinstein grossly understated the size of Snowden’s document haul and that he left for Hong Kong with thousands of documents copied from the NSA files. Read more from this story HERE.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-06-25 02:20:232013-06-25 02:20:23U.S. Talks Tough on Snowden While His Efforts to Find Haven Appear to Have Stalled
By Willian Avila and Tony Shin. An Ontario resident shot and killed an intruder who broke into his apartment in the middle of the night and attacked his sleeping son, police said.
Officers said the suspect, identified as 24-year-old Thomas Gilbert Manzano, entered the home in the 2500 block of East Riverside Drive (map) about 3 a.m. when the resident opened fire.
Manzano and a friend had been drinking alcohol for several hours when they decided to go to what they thought was a vacant apartment where the friend had been squatting, police said. Manzano’s mother lives in the same complex.
When Manzano came to the door, the resident turned him away, police said. That’s when Manzano allegedly threatened the resident, forced his way into the home through a bedroom window and confronted the resident’s adult son. Police said Manzano began to threaten and attack the son.
The father, who heard the commotion from another bedroom, armed himself with a firearm before coming to his son’s aid. He fired several rounds at Manzano and struck him. Read more from this story HERE.
Man Who Protected his Sleeping Son from Drunk Intruder Now Subject to Homicide Investigation
By Jason Howerton. Police are investigating a potential homicide in Ontario, Calif., after a resident shot and killed a drunk intruder who broke into his apartment and attacked his sleeping son.
In California, citizens have a right to protect themselves and their families, however, there are stipulations in the state.
“The homeowner, the citizen, has to be able to articulate or apply the appropriate amount of force that was done against them,” Ontario Police Sgt. David McBride told NBC Los Angeles, later adding that Manzano was unarmed at the time of the shooting.
Thomas Gilbert Manzano, 24, forced his way into the California residence at around 3 a.m. on Monday, according to police. Manzano had been drinking alcohol for several hours with a friend when they decided to break into an apartment they thought was vacant. They had reportedly been squatting in one of the apartments but got confused as to its location. Read more from this story HERE.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-06-25 02:13:432013-06-25 02:13:43California Resident Shoots, Kills Drunk Intruder, Now Target of Murder Investigation
By Patrick Howley. A prominent African-American legal scholar is criticizing the prosecution’s tactics in the trial of half-Latino neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman, and says that a conflict-of-interest in the case could earn Zimmerman a re-trial if he is convicted.
Zimmerman is charged with second-degree murder for shooting unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in 2012. Zimmerman, whose fate will be decided by an all-female jury in Florida, claims he feared for his life and shot Martin after a violent fistfight.
“I think the prosecution clearly believes the all-female jury is not going to be interested in the law or the facts of the case,” Horace Cooper, co-chairman of the conservative Project 21, told The Daily Caller.
Opening arguments in the Zimmerman case began Monday morning, with prosecutor John Guy portraying Zimmerman as a pistol-toting vigilante who used the term “fucking punks…they always get away” when approaching Martin, who was “armed” merely with iced tea and Skittles. Defense lawyer Don West, meanwhile, opened with a joke criticizing media bias surrounding the case. Read more from this story HERE.
Jurors hear F-bomb, knock-knock joke as George Zimmerman murder trial begins
By Fox News. The prosecutor cursed and the defense attorney told a joke as both sides laid out opening arguments in the murder trial of George Zimmerman, the man who killed Florida teen Trayvon Martin in what his lawyers say was self-defense and authorities say was a case of fatal profiling.
The all-female jury of six took in both unconventional statements, alternately stunned, taking notes and at times appearing to nod in agreement. Jaws in the jury box dropped when prosecutor John Guy electrified the courtroom with a short, but profanity-laced and impassioned argument that sought to paint the defendant as an angry and out-of-control vigilante who was stalking Martin when he shot the teen in the gated community in Sanford, where he lived.
“F—ing punks,” prosecutor John Guy said in open court, quoting Zimmerman’s own words to a non-emergency police dispatcher. “These a–holes, they always get away.”
The language — rare for open court — appeared to stun the six female jurors who must decide whether Zimmerman shot and killed the 17-year-old African-American teen in self defense, or if he stalked the youth and provoked the deadly 2012 confrontation. Read more from this story HERE.
By Jack Cashill. During his opening statement in the case of Florida v. George Zimmerman Monday, Assistant State Attorney John Guy linked Trayvon Martin to the screaming that was heard on one 9-1-1 telephone call from a witness.
There were some 40 seconds of screams heard on the tape, and a witness when police arrived documented how he heard one man screaming while another man, a black man in a hoodie, was on top of him and beating him.
“You will hear screaming in the background,” said Guy, who added, “Trayvon Martin was silenced immediately when the bullet fired passed through his heart.”
The juxtaposition of the comment about screaming and Martin’s “silence” may have been intended to link the two in the minds of jurors, a maneuver used often by defense attorneys to create “reasonable doubt.”
But in his opening for the defense attorney Don West told the jurors that one thing all the witnesses could agree on was that they all heard “the screams of someone in a life-threatening situation needing desperately for someone to come to their assistance.” Read more from this story HERE.
Zimmerman parents barred from courtroom, Trayvon’s parents allowed to stay
By Ben Shapiro. In an exclusive to Breitbart News, the family of George Zimmerman has stated the Zimmerman’s parents have been barred from the courtroom by the State of Florida, even though under Florida law, the alleged victim’s family – the family of Trayvon Martin – has been allowed to stay. The state claims that because the Zimmermans may be witnesses for the state, they must be barred from the courtroom.
Defense attorney Don West “made it abundantly clear to the jury the limitations the rule of sequestration places upon Mr. and Mrs. Zimmerman’s ability to support their son George with their presence”…Read more from this story HERE.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-06-25 02:11:312013-06-25 02:11:31Conflict-Of-Interest Could Earn Zimmerman a New Trial (+video)
Obama would direct the Environmental Protection Agency to begin regulating greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants.
Coal-fired power plants are the single largest source of America’s greenhouse gas emissions – responsible for up to 40% of carbon pollution – and have long been a target of campaigners.
The Obama administration has already taken steps to raising standards on new power plants. But it has balked until now at imposing tougher standards on existing power plants – a measure which would deliver the biggest cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.
There was intense speculation ahead of Tuesday’s speech about whether Obama would promise to curb emissions of existing facilities.
All of this based on a premise that there is global warming and it is caused by human activity. This is not based on scientific fact and is hotly disputed by thousands of scientists and meteorologists around the world, including 32,000 American scientists. See Oregon Petition.
Perhaps the Presidents announcement was timed to distract attention away from the many scandals surrounding the White House. But for whatever reason, it clearly illustrates America is evolving into a monarchy when the chief executive (King), can make a proclamation that will effectively place a hardship on millions of Americans with huge spikes in energy costs.
Bypassing the checks and balances of our republic by executive order, shows too much power is put in the hands of one person.
The goal of course is to model our policy after Europe where electric energy costs as a result of green energy have forced some to choose between food or paying their electric bill. See German finance minister declaring solar is the path to bankruptcy.
Lots of talk about wind/solar/unicorn dust to take up the slack if coal is removed and other forms of fossil fuel are punished….But in reality, alternative energy at this stage of its technology will only compete as an energy source when all other energy competition is forced to subsidize them. See “EU’s Green Policies In Retreat”.
Additionally the reliance on natural gas if coal is taken out of the picture, refuses to recognize the price of gas has seen wild swings in the past. It will assuredly do it again without competition from a reliable supply of clean coal to keep it in line.
John Fay, an American in Ireland shows what will happen when the left imposes their will on a country’s energy policy with his excellent piece: “Irish people, shivering in their own homes, have only themselves to blame”.
The public needs to know what is in store for them if President Obama and the far left, achieve their goal of choosing energy winners and losers. By first killing coal and then punishing other productive fossil fuels in order to usher in and subsidize “green energy,” our modern society as we know it, can grind to a halt.
It is game changing and damaging to our society to let a small cabal of fossil fuel enemies decide that America’s most prolific source of cheap energy is no longer welcome to be used…..and then regulate it out of existence.
It is game changing and damaging to our society and our country to let this decision rest in the hands of one person.
America’s energy future is far too important to be regulated by an executive order with an agenda. Time to put a halt to energy legislation by regulation and let the rest of our branches of government be involved in these decisions.
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Ed Farnan is the conservative columnist at IrishCentral, where he has been writing on the need for energy independence, strong self defense, secure borders, 2nd amendment, smaller government and many other issues. His articles appear in many publications throughout the USA and world. He has been a guest on Fox News and a regular guest on radio stations in the US and Europe.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-06-25 02:07:132013-06-25 02:07:13An Unconstitutional Assault on Coal Will Be Accomplished Through Regulation
By Jason Howerton. Highly debated immigration legislation cleared a key Senate hurdle with votes to spare on Monday, pointing the way to near-certain passage within days for $38 billion worth of future security measures along the border with Mexico and an unprecedented chance at citizenship for millions living in the country illegally.
The vote was 67-27, seven more than the 60 needed, with 15 Republicans agreeing to advance legislation at the top of President Barack Obama’s second-term domestic agenda.
By Breanna Edwards. Arizona Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio scoffed at lawmakers’ attempts at showing that the border could be secured, saying that it would never happen – at least not without enforcing some immigration laws.
“[Undocumented immigrants] are very, very innovative. You’ll never secure the border,” Arpaio said on Fox News on Monday. “To say you’re not going to enforce the illegal immigration laws in the interior and blame it on the border, that’s just a copout.” Read more from this story HERE.
An unidentified southern Indiana man shot and killed a leopard on his property just outside Charlestown, Indiana late Thursday night.
The man and his also-unidentified girlfriend had allegedly been on guard because of a recent spate of unexplained attacks on local cats and dogs, reports Louisville FOX affiliate WDRB. The couple owns several cats and feared the pets might be mauled, or worse.
“She’s got cats that are basically her family,” said Donna Duke, the local resident who alerted WDRB about the feline fracas.
The concerned couple got in touch with a local wildlife official. He theorized that a bobcat might be on the loose and suggested that the couple look out for one — particularly at night.
During the couple’s vigilant watch on Thursday night, they spied an unidentified beast lurking in the shadows not far from the backyard pool. The man got his gun and shot the pacing creature.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-06-25 02:02:332013-06-25 02:02:33A Man Killed a Leopard in His Yard in Indiana the Other Night (+video)
A new Gallup poll of small-business owners indicates that Obamacare is having a dramatic and deleterious effect on Americans’ employment prospects. More than 40 percent of small-business owners say that Obamacare has caused them to freeze hiring, while nearly a fifth say that it has caused them to cut existing workers. According to the poll, 41 percent of small-business owners have frozen hiring, while 19 percent have “reduced the number of employees [they] have in [their] business as a specific result of the Affordable Care Act [Obamacare]” (italics added).
The Gallup poll was commissioned by Littler Mendelson, a firm specializing in employment law. Steven Friedman, an attorney for the firm, said of the results, “We were startled.” He added that these are “some pretty startling answers.”
Just 9 percent of the 603 employers surveyed by Gallup said Obamacare will be good for their business…
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-06-25 02:01:142013-06-25 02:01:14Only 9% of Employers Say Obamacare Will be Good for Their Businesses
