You’ll Never Guess What Edward Snowden Says His Only Regret is

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By Military. NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden says he wishes he had come forward sooner with documents exposing the agency’s surveillance program.

In a Reddit ask-me-anything interview Monday, Snowden said that’s the one thing he would do differently in 2013 when he revealed NSA practices.

“I would have come forward sooner,” he said.

“Had I come forward a little sooner, these programs would have been a little less entrenched, and those abusing them would have felt a little less familiar with and accustomed to the exercise of those powers. This is something we see in almost every sector of government, not just in the national security space, but it’s very important: Once you grant the government some new power or authority, it becomes exponentially more difficult to roll it back,” he said. (Read more about Edward Snowden and his only regret HERE)

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Oscars Host Slams Edward Snowden at the Event

By Will Oremus. One of the first things users asked the fugitive whistleblower was what he thought of Oscars host Neil Patrick Harris’s pun about him Sunday night.

(“Edward Snowden couldn’t be here, for some treason,” NPH had quipped.)

Many of Snowden’s allies, including Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald, slammed the one-liner as insulting and irresponsible.

But Snowden himself took it in stride:

To be honest, I laughed at NPH. I don’t think it was meant as a political statement, but even if it was, that’s not so bad. My perspective is if you’re not willing to be called a few names to help out your country, you don’t care enough.

(Read more from this story HERE)

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Snowden: Spy Agencies ‘Screwed All of Us’ in Hacking Crypto Keys

By Kim Zetter. NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden didn’t mince words during a Reddit Ask Me Anything session on Monday when he said the NSA and the British spy agency GCHQ had “screwed all of us” when it hacked into the Dutch firm Gemalto to steal cryptographic keys used in billions of mobile SIM cards worldwide.

“When the NSA and GCHQ compromised the security of potentially billions of phones (3g/4g encryption relies on the shared secret resident on the sim),” Snowden wrote in the AMA, “they not only screwed the manufacturer, they screwed all of us, because the only way to address the security compromise is to recall and replace every SIM sold by Gemalto.”


Gemalto is one of the leading makers of SIM cards used in billions of mobile phones around the world to secure the communications of telecom customers of AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint and more than 400 other wireless carriers in 85 countries. Stealing the crypto keys essentially allows the spy agencies to wiretap and decipher encrypted phone communications at will without the assistance of telecom carriers or the oversight of a court or government. The keys also allow the agencies to decrypt previously intercepted messages they hadn’t been able to crack. (Read more from this story HERE)

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17,000 Federal Employees Earned More Than $200K Last Year

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Photo Credit: WNDBy Eric Katz. More than 16,900 federal employees took home in excess of $200,000 in base salary in 2014, according to a partial database of federal salary data.

The information, compiled by FedSmith.com using data from the Office of Personnel Management and other agencies, shows the annual compensation for every civilian federal worker, save those at the Defense Department. The number of workers earning more than $200,000 represented about 1.6 percent of employees on the list and is up from about 15,000 who cleared that salary in 2013. It also makes up a slightly higher percentage of the employees on this list.

Most of the high earners worked as medical officers at the Veterans Affairs Department. Other agencies that require a highly specialized workforce paid several employees at least $200,000; these included the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

More than 1,600 federal employees cleared $300,000 in base salary last year. Just two—VA doctors in Palo Alto, Calif., and Pittsburgh—took in more than $400,000. (Read more from this story about what federal employees earned HERE)

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Lois Lerner Received $129K in Bonuses

By CJ Ciaramella. Former IRS official Lois Lerner received $129,300 in bonuses between 2010 and 2013, records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act show.

Over a three-year period, Lerner, the head of the tax-exempt division at the heart of the IRS targeting scandal, received a 25 percent retention bonus—averaging $43,000 a year—on top of her regular salary.

The federal government uses retention bonuses to incentivize valuable employees who are considering retirement or private sector jobs to stay at their agencies.


Former acting IRS commissioner Steven T. Miller recommended Lerner for a $42,000 retention bonus in December 2009, when she first became eligible for retirement.

“Ms. Lerner is eligible for retirement and as an attorney with extensive experience would likely command a much greater pay and benefits if she left the Service,” Miller wrote. “Without a retention incentive she will leave the Service.” (Read more from this story HERE)

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State Court: Common Core Consortium Violates the Constitution

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Today a Missouri State Court issued a judgment declaring that the “existence and operation” of the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) violates the Constitution “as well as numerous federal statutes” and that “Missouri’s participation in [SBAC] as a member is unlawful under state and federal law.” In other words: payments from Missouri to other states to develop and test education assessments, and the agreements to do so, violate the U.S. Constitution, federal statutes, and state statutes.

Although Governor Palin rejected the Common Core, in the spring of 2013, under the leadership of Governor Parnell and Education Commissioner Hanley, Alaska joined SBAC. “The Smarter Balanced assessment will allow us to compare our students more closely with those around the country and confirm the rigor of Alaska’s standards compared to the Common Core,” stated Commissioner Hanley in defending his actions signing up Alaska to the Common Core consortium, the same consortium today declared unconstitutional and in violation of federal law.

Just over one year ago, Alaska abandoned SBAC in favor of paying the University of Kansas approximately $5 million per year to create English and math assessments. It would seem that this interstate compact, too, violates the Constitution and federal law, not to mention the Alaska state law, House Bill 278, that prohibits DEED from spending money on the Common Core.

Considering that even the former General Counsel and Deputy General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Education (not to mention Louisiana Governor Jindal in his federal lawsuit) assert that the Common Core violates the Constitution, federal statutes, and Congressional intent by illegally conditioning federal education money on the states’ adoption of the Common Core, one has to wonder why Commissioner Hanley, State Board Chair Cox, and others in the state executive and legislative branches, have ushered in and embraced the Common Core in Alaska. (Note that Commissioner Hanley wrote to the U.S. Department of Education on 1/23/13 that Alaska’s standards are “nearly identical to the Common Core State Standards.”)

In addition to the $5 million per year Alaska unlawfully and unconstitutionally sends to the University of Kansas, the implementation of the Alaska Common Core standards is costing Alaskans exorbitant amounts of money. Exactly how much, nobody knows: when asked ten days ago by the House Education Committee just how much this is all costing, DEED Chair Cox stated that she “could not possibly answer that question.” Want to cut the budget while helping students? Cut expenditures on the implementation of Common Core – such expenditures are illegal under state law away.

We the People can put a stop to this unconstitutional and illegal activity. The U.S. Supreme Court has made it clear: the federal government has no authority to condition federal money on the adoption of education standards and the states have no authority to consent to such a requirement. Neither the state legislature nor the state executive – such as Commissioner Hanley or Chair Cox – has the right to consent to a violation of the Constitution. Any such action is, according to the Supreme Court, “invalid and cannot be enforced.” Indeed: these elected officials took an oath to defend the Constitution. Now is the time for citizens to hold their local officials accountable and help the same hold the federal government accountable. This is the intent and design of our Constitutional Republic; U.S. Supreme Court precedent agrees.

American Sniper Killer Not Insane, Guilty of Murder

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It took a Texas jury less than three hours to find Eddie Ray Routh guilty of capital murder in the deaths of two men, including Chris Kyle, the author of the bestselling book “American Sniper.”

Judge Jason Cashon immediately sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Jurors deliberating the case had three choices: guilty, not guilty or not guilty by reason of insanity.

No one disputed that Eddie Ray Routh shot and killed the men. But defense attorneys said Routh was insane.

Prosecutors dismissed that claim outright.

“Ladies and gentleman, that is not insanity. That is just cold, calculated capital murder. He is guilty of capital murder. He is not in any way insane,” said attorney Jane Starnes during closing arguments. (Read more about the American Sniper killer HERE)

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Prosecutors Claim Chris Kyle’s Killer Was Influenced by Seinfeld

By Darla Atlas. Confessed killer Eddie Ray Routh was sane at the time he gunned down real life American Sniper Chris Kyle and his friend, Chad Littlefield, say two doctors who testified at his murder trial on Friday . . .

But on Friday, Price noted that Routh has a television in his cell and is a fan of the show Seinfeld.


“There’s an episode where Kramer believed he saw a pig man – half man, half pig,” Price said, adding that Routh told someone by phone that he’s been watching Seinfeld in jail. In the episode, Kramer claims the government is responsible for the hybrid, yelling, “They’re probably creating a whole army of pig warriors!” . . .

With the talk of pig hybrids and other ramblings, “would you say he’s setting the stage for that to happen again?” Starnes asked.

“It seems likely,” Price said, also calling the Seinfeld similarities “suspicious.” (Read more from this story HERE)

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It’s Official, Obama Vetoed the Keystone XL Bill [+video]

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By Kevin Liptak. President Barack Obama, exercising his veto power for the first time in five years, rejected on Tuesday a measure green-lighting the construction of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline.

Obama’s signature denying the Keystone bill kicks off what’s expected to be a flurry of vetoes on measures that Republicans will send to the White House now they control both chambers of Congress. The President has already threatened to reject 13 GOP-sponsored pieces of legislation, including bills rolling back the Affordable Care Act and reversing his executive action on immigration.

On Keystone, it appears unlikely GOP lawmakers will be able to reverse Obama’s veto. The threshold for overriding a President’s veto is a two-thirds vote in each chamber of Congress.

After the President’s official veto message was received in the Senate at about 3:30 p.m., Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced the veto override will happen no later than next Tuesday.

The measure, which passed the Republican controlled House and Senate earlier this month, would have bypassed an administration review of the oil pipeline project, which if completed would transport oil from tar sands in Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. (Read more about the vetoed Keystone XL bill HERE)

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Obama’s Veto on the Keystone XL Bill is Likely to be the First in a Wave

By Michael D. Shear and Coral Davenport. Wielding the weapon of his pen, President Obama this week is expected to formally reject a Republican attempt to force construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline. But in stopping the transit of petroleum from the forests of Alberta to the Gulf Coast, Mr. Obama will be opening the veto era of his presidency.

The expected Keystone veto, the third and most significant of Mr. Obama’s six years in office, would most likely be followed by presidential vetoes of bills that could emerge to make changes in the Affordable Care Act, impose new sanctions on Iran and roll back child nutrition standards, among others.


For Mr. Obama, his Cross Townsend black roller-ball pen will become an extension of his second-term strategy to act alone in the face of Republican opposition and safeguard his legislative record.

“It’s a new period of his administration,” said James Thurber, director of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University in Washington. “He will use the veto to protect his past record and not allow things he disagrees with to go forward.” (Read more from this story HERE)

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Private Drones are Spying on Phone Signals While the Feds are Using the Mysterious “StingRay” to Eavesdrop

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By Barry Levine. It was only a matter of time before drones started monitoring signals from mobile devices.

Since early February, several small drones flying around the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles have been determining mobile devices’ locations from WiFi and cellular transmission signals.

They are part of an experiment by Singapore-based location marketing firm Adnear, which has offices around the world. The firm told me that, to its knowledge, this is the first time an adtech company has employed drones to collect wireless data.

The capture does not involve conversations or personally identifiable information, according to director of marketing and research Smriti Kataria. It uses signal strength, cell tower triangulation, and other indicators to determine where the device is, and that information is then used to map the user’s travel patterns. (Read more about how the new drones are spying on the phones HERE)


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Secrecy Around Police Surveillance Equipment Proves a Case’s Undoing

By Ellen Nakashima. The case against Tadrae McKenzie looked like an easy win for prosecutors. He and two buddies robbed a small-time pot dealer of $130 worth of weed using BB guns. Under Florida law, that was robbery with a deadly weapon, with a sentence of at least four years in prison.

But before trial, his defense team detected investigators’ use of a secret surveillance tool, one that raises significant privacy concerns. In an unprecedented move, a state judge ordered the police to show the device — a cell-tower simulator sometimes called a StingRay — to the attorneys.

Rather than show the equipment, the state offered McKenzie a plea bargain.


Today, 20-year-old McKenzie is serving six months’ probation ­after pleading guilty to a second-degree misdemeanor. He got, as one civil liberties advocate said, the deal of the century. (The other two defendants also pleaded guilty and were sentenced to two years’ probation.)

McKenzie’s case is emblematic of the growing, but hidden, use by local law enforcement of a sophisticated surveillance technology borrowed from the national security world. It shows how a gag order imposed by the FBI — on grounds that discussing the device’s operation would compromise its effectiveness — has left judges, the public and criminal defendants in the dark on how the tool works. (Read more from this story HERE)

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After Five Years of Obamanomics, a Record 100 Million Americans Not Working

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The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) jobs report for December counted 74,000 jobs created last month. That was less than half the 200,000 new jobs expected.

Nevertheless, the BLS reported those 74,000 new jobs as reducing at least what it calls the U3 unemployment rate by three tenths of a percentage point, from 7.0% to 6.7%. That was because 347,000 workers fled the work force altogether last month, and so were no longer counted as unemployed.

Those 347,000 workers leaving the workforce altogether were almost 5 times (4.689) the 74,000 new jobs created. But the BLS, and the New York Times, still count that as headline unemployment plummeting on net to 6.7% from 7.0%. In fact, all of the decline in the U3 headline unemployment rate since President Obama entered office has been due to workers leaving the work force, and therefore no longer counted as unemployed, rather than to new jobs created.

Those 347,000 for December, 2013, however, are still out there not working, and suffering. Indeed, they joined a near record of more than 102 million Americans not working in December, all still out there and suffering without jobs. Those 102 million Americans are the human face of an employment-population ratio stuck at a pitiful 58.6%. In fact, more than 100 million Americans were not working in Obama’s workers’ paradise for all of 2013 and 2012.

The 102.159 million Americans not working in December is not the all-time record of Americans not working. That all-time record was set in October, 2013, at 102.896 million. The employment-population ratio that month was an even more pitiful 58.2%. (Read more about the Obamanomics HERE)

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Homosexual Author Claims Christian Publisher Cancelled His Project ‘Because He Came Out Gay’ [+video]

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By Stoyan Zaimov. Brandan Robertson, national spokesperson for the LGBT advocacy group Evangelicals for Gay Marriage, claims that Christian publisher Destiny Image canceled his upcoming book project because he came out as gay. Destiny Image on the other hand has said that the decision was purely financial-based.

“There is much consideration for every book, every author, but the final determination is financial viability,” said Don Nori, CEO of Destiny Image’s parent company, Nori Media Group, according to Time magazine.

Robertson claimed that Destiny Image had concerns that evangelical bookstores wouldn’t carry the book, the manuscript for which is titled Nomad: Not-So-Religious Thoughts on Faith, Doubt, and the Journey In Between.

The script apparently mentions the word “gay” online once, where Robertson writes: “One high school biology class is all that it takes to begin asking some serious questions about the book of Genesis and the origins of humanity. One conversation with a close friend who is struggling to be gay and Christian is all that it takes to begin wondering if the interpretation of Leviticus we heard in Sunday school is actually applicable in today’s context. One life shattering tragedy is all that it takes to begin rethinking the whole notion of the ‘sovereignty’ of God.” (Read more from “Homosexual Author Claims Discrimination” HERE)


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Former HGTV Stars: Our Dad Taught Us ‘You’re Going to Experience Persecution’

(Read more from this story HERE)

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American Malls on Edge from Domestic Threats and International Terror

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By Allen West. It didn’t take long before the aggrieved and disadvantaged members of the Somali Islamic terrorist group al-Shabaab to send a clear message. You remember those fellas who attacked a large mall in Nairobi, Kenya? Yes, I know, we can hardly remember last week unless it has something to do with the Kardashians.

Well, I’m quite certain this will get the attention of the Kardashians and other avid shoppers. Now Islamic terrorists are threatening to attack malls.

I know President Obama stated last week that we’re not at war with Islam, codifying that as an “ugly lie.” He was adamant about not declaring this as some Holy War. I suppose we should just push it aside that during that Kenyan mall attack, the al-Shabaab members reportedly asked patrons if they were Muslim or Christian — and we know what happened to the Christians.

Hey, following along the thought process of Marie Harf, perhaps al-Shabab members were upset because Christians were being hired at the mall? Or maybe because there were sales in stores for Christians only — after all we must embrace their grievances and empathize with the enemy. Ok, that was egregious sarcasm, but it also displays the absurdity of the comments from the Obama administration this past week and the summit on “Countering Violent Extremism.”

As reported by Fox News, “A new video from al-Shabaab purportedly shows the terror group calling for an attack on Mall of America, in Bloomington, Minn. According to Fox 9, the mall is one of three similar targets the terror group specifically names, including West Edmonton Mall in Canada and the Oxford Street shopping area in London. The video purportedly shows 6 minutes of graphic images and the terrorists celebrating the 2013 Westgate Mall attack in Nairobi, Kenya, that killed more than 60 people. “We will continue to monitor events with the help of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies,” Mall of America said in a statement. “As always, we take any potential threat seriously and respond appropriately. Mall of America has implemented extra security precautions, some may be noticeable to guests, and others won’t be. We will continue to follow the situation, along with law enforcement, and will remain vigilant as we always do in similar situations.” (Read more about the threat on American malls HERE)


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Forget the Terrorists: Malls Already Under Attack from Black Mob Violence

By Colin Flaherty. Since the Christmas season, at least 25 malls around the country have experienced black mob violence, many connected to movie theaters. With much of the mayhem captured on video. With many of the malls turning into No Go Zones because of the regular racial violence and the muted response to it.

Let’s list these attacks, starting with the latest and working back. The first three are from Valentine’s Day:

At Pittsfield Township, near Ann Arbor, more than 100 black people attacked patrons and police and destroyed property, first at a movie theater, then an arcade, then a restaurant. Two were arrested.

At Ocoee, Florida, near Orlando, 800 to 1000 black people tried to rush into a theater without paying, then created violence in the lobby and the parking lot, where they defied police, destroyed property and assaulted others.

At Conyers, Georgia, 300 black people rioted at a mall movie theater, yelling, screaming, threatening to kill moviegoers. One was arrested. An “irate and hostile” crowd threatened police after one was arrested for drugs and weapons violations. The local media reported theaters are the site of frequent black mob violence because “often, the teens have nowhere else to go,” said the Newton Citizen. (Read more from this story HERE)


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