Facebook Report: Governments Asked for Data on 38,000 Users this Year

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Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

Government agencies around the world demanded access to the information of over 38,000 Facebook users in the first half of this year, and more than half the orders came from the United States, the company said on Tuesday.

Facebook’s first “global government requests report” covers the first six months of 2013, ending 30 June. It comes as the social network giant and its peers are coming under intense scrutiny following revelations about their co-operation with the National Security Agency’s mass surveillance of US and foreign citizens.

“Transparency and trust are core values at Facebook. We strive to embody them in all aspects of our services, including our approach to responding to government data requests,” Colin Stretch, Facebook general counsel, said in a blogpost. “We want to make sure that the people who use our service understand the nature and extent of the requests we receive and the strict policies and processes we have in place to handle them.”

US authorities made 11,000-12,000 requests for information on 20,000-21,000 individuals over the six months. The company complied in 79% of cases. Facebook said it had to give a range for the US figures in order to give an indication of “all criminal and national security requests to the maximum extent permitted by law”.

The figures released by Facebook give no detail on the types of requests received or of what type of information the company handed over. Facebook, along with Google and others, is currently pressing Congress to be allowed to give greater detail the number of requests it receives from the US authorities. The NSA has the the authority to demand data about communications with non-US citizens without specific warrants and gags companies from disclosing even the most basic details of those cases.

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U.S. Faces Mid-October Deadline to Raise Debt Limit

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debtBut there’s no guarantee — mainly because of partisan disagreement about whether to continue the automatic spending cuts known as the sequester that are slicing defense and domestic agency budgets.

Republicans favor restoring funding to the Pentagon while cutting domestic programs even more deeply. But Democrats want to roll back the automatic defense and non-defense cuts — in part through alternative spending reductions and tax increases on the wealthy.

Although Democrats say they are happy to debate how to fund the government, they add that they won’t negotiate over the separate issue of the debt ceiling.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen (Md.), the ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee, said Republicans ought not put the nation’s creditworthiness at risk by demanding concessions in return for raising the debt limit.

“I don’t think the American public is going to stand for playing with what remains an economic weapon,” he said. “Playing around with the debt ceiling will create unnecessary economic harm.”

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Boehner Warns Against Shutting U.S. Government over ‘Obamacare’

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Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner warned rank-and-file Republicans in a conference call on Thursday against using the threat of a government shutdown to stop the implementation of Obamacare, according to people on the call.

On the call, Boehner reminded Republicans of the political backlash their party suffered when the government shut down in 1995-1996, according to one person on the call.

Another participant in the call, Oklahoma Representative Tom Cole, said the speaker’s main message was that he and other leaders were still committed to killing President Barack Obama’s signature health care law but that they did not want a government shutdown.

A House Republican aide, however, emphasized that no final decision has been made on whether to pursue a strategy advocated by some in the party of denying funds for Obamacare.

Republicans agree strongly on their opposition to Obamacare, viewing the law as a burden to businesses that will cost jobs.

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On Hill, Deep Skepticism about Syria Entanglement

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Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

Despite mounting evidence that President Bashar Assad used chemical weapons on his people, many members of Congress still don’t see a role for the United States military in Syria.

A raft of Republican and Democratic lawmakers — including those directly involved in intelligence oversight — think the U.S. would be wise to take a pass on military intervention in the war-torn country.

Their line of thinking goes like this: Sending in U.S. troops now is too late, too dangerous, too pricey and not guaranteed to be successful. And a bombing campaign won’t do enough. There’s also the fear that the U.S. does not know who would lead Syria if Assad falls.

“Syria is too far gone to pick sides,” said Rep. Tom Rooney (R-Fla.), a member of the House Intelligence Committee who taught at West Point. “The rebels are infiltrated with Al Qaeda. Assad has joined the ranks of history’s most evil despots in what he’s willing to do to stay in power. And Russia won’t help us find a solution because relations [between Washington and Moscow] are as bad as they have been in 30 years. I don’t see a way forward, but U.S. boots on the ground is out of the question in my opinion.”

Rep. Loretta Sanchez of California, the No. 2 Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said that the situation in Syria is “as complicated as it could be” but added that military intervention in Syria could “have unintended consequences that could, in fact, make the situation worse.”

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From Architects to Lobbyists: Obamacare Designers Stand to Profit Handsomely from Bill

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photo credit: glyn lowe photoworks

photo credit: glyn lowe photoworks

Previously, they worked behind the scenes to help shape the Affordable Care Act. Today, they roam the streets of the nation’s capital as consultants and lobbyists.

And now this elite group of Washington insiders stands to profit handsomely from the full implementation of Obamacare, President Barack Obama’s landmark health care law.

“More than 30 former administration officials, lawmakers and congressional staffers who worked on the healthcare law have set up shop on K Street since 2010,” The Hill reports.

Many Washington lobbying firms, including Fierce, Isakowitz & Blalock, The Glover Park Group, Alston & Bird, BGR Group, and Akin Gump, have scooped up former Obamacare insiders. This, as the Hill report notes, puts the firms “in a prime position to land coveted clients.”

“When [Vice President] Biden leaned over [during the signing of the healthcare law] and said to [President] Obama, ‘This is a big f’n deal,’ ” Ivan Adler, a headhunter at the McCormick Group, said in the report, “he was right.”

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The Obama Administration Continues to Delay Keystone XL

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller

Photo Credit: Daily Caller

President Barack Obama has not officially come out against the Keystone XL pipeline, but the final decision could be pushed back into 2014.

For more than 1,800 days, the Obama administration has been analyzing whether the Keystone pipeline is in the national interest. The Department of State’s review of the pipeline found that it would create more than 42,000 jobs and not significantly impact global warming or the environment.

But that seems to be an outlier view within the Obama administration. Soon after the State Department released its review, the Environmental Protection Agency attacked it and said it needed to take a deeper look into the pipeline’s environmental and climate impacts.

More recently, the Department of Interior criticized the State Department’s review of Keystone, saying the project could harm wildlife along its proposed route.

“Given that the project includes not only constructing a pipeline but also related infrastructure, access roads, and power lines and substations, impacts to wildlife are not just related to project construction,” read the Interior comments on the pipeline review.
“Impacts to wildlife from this infrastructure will occur throughout the life of the project (i.e. operation and maintenance phases).”

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Faces of Evil in a Violent Underclass

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Photo Credit: American Thinker

Photo Credit: American Thinker

Faces of Evil – that was the headline of the Australian Herald Sun when reporting the depraved murder of Aussie Christopher Lane. It is instructive to carry that theme further with a few more faces.

James Edwards and his buddies murdered Chris Lane “for the fun of it”. James Edwards shot him in the back. It was reported that Edwards danced and laughed in the police station after his arrest. Ending a stranger’s life was funny to him.

He boasted on twitter that he had “knocked out 5 woods [whites] since Zimmerman court”. He advised others to “HATE” white people, and a few days before the murder he said he wanted to be “with my niggas when it’s time to start taken lifes”.

This is De’Marquise Elkins and his mother and aunt.

De’Marquise approached Sherri West in Brunswick, Georgia in March and asked for money. When she refused, he shot her 13 month old baby between the eyes. Elkins’ mother and aunt were arrested for obstructing justice when they lied to cover-up the crime.

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At RNC Event, Speaker Says African Americans Have Taken a Back Seat to Gays, Immigrants

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Photo Credit: Washington Post

Photo Credit: Washington Post

The Republican National Committee commemorated the 50th anniversary of the March of Washington and Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech with a luncheon Monday.

The most rousing speech of the luncheon came from Bob Woodson, the head of the Center for Neighborhood Enterprises. Woodson criticized black leaders over Trayvon Martin, the black Florida teen who was shot to death by George Zimmerman. Zimmerman was acquitted in Martin’s death. Woodson, who is black, said groups including gays and immigrants have been prioritized over poor black people in American society.

“Everybody has come in front of them on the bus — gays, immigrants, women, environmentalists,” Woodson said. “You never hear any talk about the conditions confronting poor blacks and poor people in general.”

Woodson also criticized the “moral traitors” who mourned the death of Martin but not Chris Lane, the Australian baseball player who prosecutors allege was shot to death in Oklahoma by three boys, two whom are black.

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Obama’s Fall from Grace Sets a Scary Precedent for Future Presidents

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

The increasing lawlessness with which President Barack Obama has been acting in his second term is not going unnoticed.

In fact, in a strong rebuke last week to the unilateral actions being taken by the Obama administration, a federal appeals court came down hard on the administration’s Nuclear Regulatory Commission by ruling that delaying a decision on a proposed nuclear waste storage facility was in violation of federal law. In the majority opinion, the judges declared that the administration was “simply flouting the law,” and that President Obama “may not decline to follow a statute or prohibition simply because of policy objections.”

President Obama’s fall from grace as the candidate elected to rein in executive power in 2008 is more than tragic – it sets scary new precedents for the behavior of future presidents from either party.

Just take for example how President Obama has selectively enforced his own health care law:

In 2011, the Obama administration unilaterally ended the CLASS Act – a long-term care insurance plan included in ObamaCare that proved to be unworkable. Congress would later pass a repeal of this program, but it still signaled a disturbing beginning to the President’s pattern of selectively enforcing his law.

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A Third-Party Candidate on the Rise in 2016?

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There are many lessons to be found in studying the American presidential election record.

We’re currently moving through a period of profound frustration with the Republican Party. Many were looking and hoping for a Reagan-esque candidate to arise during the 2012 primary debates. Alas, there wasn’t one anywhere to be found.

Obama and Romney took 98.17% of the popular vote. Obama won by 3.85%, and with only 1.83% of the popular vote going to candidates outside the top two parties, the non-two party vote was effectively irrelevant.

But it hasn’t always been this way, and — if history is any guidance — the tide will turn again, and soon.

The following figures show the percentage of the popular vote outside the top two candidates and the percentage of the popular vote for the third-place candidate since 1824.

Photo Credit: American Thinker

Photo Credit: American Thinker

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