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Exasperated White House Pushes Senate to Pass Surveillance Reform Bill

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By Dustin Volz. An exasperated White House on Tuesday ratcheted up pressure on the Senate to pass surveillance-reform legislation before intelligence tools considered crucial to national security expire at the end of the month—while appearing to throw a direct barb at Sen. Rand Paul for gumming up the process.

Though he didn’t call out Paul by name, White House press secretary Josh Earnest seemed to accuse the Kentucky senator of using the debate over the Patriot Act’s sunsetting spying powers to bolster his presidential campaign.

“At some point, the political ambitions of individual members of the United States Senate are going to have to come second to the national security of the United States,” Earnest said.

Earnest’s comments come after the Senate failed to forge a path forward on dealing with the June 1 sunset of the Patriot Act’s spy provisions following a late-night round of votes Friday night into Saturday morning. Those authorities include the controversial Section 215, which the National Security Agency uses to justify its bulk collection of U.S. call data.

House-passed reform legislation known as the USA Freedom Act, which would effectively end the NSA’s phone dragnet, failed to advance Saturday, coming three votes short of the 60 necessary to clear a procedural hurdle. A bill to extend the provisions unchanged also failed. (Read more from “Exasperated White House Pushes Senate to Pass Surveillance Reform Bill” HERE)

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Obama Claims Bill is Necessary to Keep Nation “Safe and Secure”

Photo Credit: APBy Erica Werner. President Barack Obama called on the Senate Tuesday to extend key Patriot Act provisions before they expire five days from now, including the government’s ability to search Americans’ phone records.

“This needs to get done,” he told reporters in the Oval Office. “It’s necessary to keep the American people safe and secure.”

But with the May 31 deadline fast approaching, there was scant evidence Tuesday of a search for a deal on Capitol Hill. The House and Senate stood in recess for the week, and a House GOP leadership aide said there were no talks happening between the two chambers. The aide spoke on condition of anonymity, because the aide was not authorized to discuss the issue on the record.

The Senate adjourned for its Memorial Day break early Saturday after a chaotic late-night session during which senators failed to pass a White House-backed House bill reforming the phone collection program. Attempts by GOP leaders to extend current law also repeatedly fell short, amid objections from presidential candidate Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and others.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is calling the Senate back into session on Sunday, May 31, just hours before the midnight deadline, but it’s not clear lawmakers will have any new solution. (Read more from “Obama Urges Senate to Renew Phone-Records Program” HERE)

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White House Denies Obama’s Gulf Overtures Are Unraveling

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download (14)The White House on Monday raced to dispel the notion that President Barack Obama’s efforts to reassure anxious Persian Gulf nations about his overtures to Iran were unraveling ahead of a rare Camp David summit this week.

Officials insisted there was no weakening in ties between the U.S. and the Gulf, despite the fact that just two other heads of state will join Obama for Thursday’s meetings at the presidential retreat in the Maryland mountains. The rulers of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Oman are skipping the summit and instead sending lower-ranking, yet highly influential representatives.

“We very much feel we have the right group around the table,” said Ben Rhodes, Obama’s deputy national security adviser.

The absence of Saudi Arabia’s newly crowned King Salman in particular has sparked questions about summit’s effectiveness. The Saudis are bitter rivals with Iran and among the most outspoken critics of Obama’s nuclear detente with Tehran.

Adding to the diplomatic intrigue: Saudi Arabia’s announcement Sunday that Salman would not travel to the U.S. came just two days after White House officials said Obama and the king would hold one-on-one talks in Washington ahead of the Camp David meeting. (Read more from “White House Denies Obama’s Gulf Overtures Are Unraveling” HERE)

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Tom Brady “No Show” for Patriots’ White House Trip

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Photo Credit: CBS Boston

Photo Credit: CBS Boston

By CBS Boston. The Patriots [were] honored by President Barack Obama at the White House on Thursday, but the MVP [wasn’t] in attendance.

According to ESPN’s Mike Reiss and the Boston Herald’s Jeff Howe, Tom Brady [wasn’t] present at the White House due to a family obligation . . .

The quarterback earned Super Bowl MVP honors for the third time in his career when he threw four touchdowns in a 28-24 win over the Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX. (Read more from “Tom Brady Won’t Be Present for Patriots’ White House Trip” HERE)

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Obama ‘Deflategate’ Joke Falls Flat

By Jordan Fabian. President Obama gave the New England Patriots a hard time about the “Deflategate” scandal on Thursday.

“I usually tell jokes at these events, but I was worried 11 of 12 of them would fall flat,” Obama joked during a ceremony honoring the Patriots’ Super Bowl title on the South Lawn.

The crowd let out an audible groan at the president’s jab.

The president conceded that the “whole story got blown a little out of proportion.”

The Patriots’ championship run was clouded by allegations that a team employee deflated 11 out its 12 footballs during the AFC Championship game. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Ayatollah Khamenei Accuses White House of ‘Lying,’ Being ‘Deceptive,’ and Having ‘Devilish’ Intentions

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Photo Credit: Weekly Standard

Photo Credit: Weekly Standard

President Obama has long known that the real decision maker in Iran is Ayatollah Khamenei, the so-called supreme leader. While other Iranian officials have negotiated with Western powers over the mullahs’ nuclear program, Khamenei’s opinion is the only one that really counts. It is for this reason that Obama began writing directly to Khamenei early in his presidency.

Earlier today, Khamenei broke his silence on the supposed “framework” the Obama administration has been trumpeting as the basis for a nuclear accord. Khamenei’s speech pulled the rug out from underneath the administration.

Khamenei accused the Obama administration of “lying” about the proposed terms, being “deceptive,” and having “devilish” intentions, according to multiple published accounts of his speech, as well as posts on his official Twitter feed.

I trust our negotiators but I’m really worried as the other side is into lying & breaching promises; an example was White House fact sheet.

— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) April 9, 2015

Hours after the #talks, Americans offered a fact sheet that most of it was contrary to what was agreed.They always deceive &breach promises.

— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) April 9, 2015

Khamenei also disputed the key terms Obama administration officials have said were agreed upon in principle. Economic sanctions will not be phased out once Iran’s compliance has been “verified,” according to the Ayatollah. Instead, Khamenei said that if the U.S. wants a deal, then all sanctions must be dropped as soon as the agreement is finalized. Khamenei also put strict limits on the reach of the inspectors who would be tasked with this verification process in the first place.

Beginning earlier this month and in the days since, Obama and his advisers have attempted to portray the negotiations as major step forward. During an appearance in the Rose Garden on April 2, Obama said the U.S. and its allies have “reached a historic understanding with Iran.” (Read more from “Ayatollah Khamenei Accuses White House of ‘Lying,’ Being ‘Deceptive,’ and Having ‘Devilish’ Intentions” HERE)

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White House Declares War on Three Antibiotic-Resistant ‘Superbugs’

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CDIFF CDCTrying to avert what some clinicians are calling “the post-antibiotic era,” the White House has declared war on three antibiotic-resistant “superbugs.”

Drug-resistant bacteria have caused 23,000 deaths and more than 2 million illnesses in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Last Friday, President Obama released his National Action Plan for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria, with the ambitious goal of reducing “inappropriate antibiotic use by 50 percent in outpatient settings and by 20 percent in inpatient settings” over the next five years.

Under the National Action Plan, all acute-care hospitals in the nation will be required to improve their infection control rates while simultaneously reducing the use of commonly prescribed antibiotics whose overuse is blamed for the rise of drug-resistant strains.

By 2020, the White House hopes to slash in half the infection rate of three superbugs currently listed by the CDC as “urgent threats” to public health. (Read more from “White House Declares War on Three Antibiotic-Resistant ‘Superbugs’” HERE)

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Famous White House Adviser Working to Put Muslim Shariah Law Dictator in Power

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davidNew evidence suggests that David Axelrod, senior strategist for President Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign, aspires to put former Muslim Shariah law dictator and retired Gen. Muhammadu Buhari into power.

Buhari ruled Nigeria as a dictator from 1983 until 1985, when he was overthrown by a coup d’état. The radical Islamist leader is now attempting to reclaim power by going up against incumbent Christian President Dr. Ebele Goodluck Jonathan in Nigera’s 2015 presidential election.

It just so happens that Buhari is a client of the political firm AKPD Message and Media, which incidentally was founded by none other than David Axelrod.

That Obama’s close associate David Axelrod is working for this radical Islamist explains why the president did practically nothing to assist Nigeria’s in its efforts to wipe out the terrorist group Boko Haram.

“Nigerians overwhelmingly, at least the ones that I talk to and the articles I’ve been able to access, believe that the U.S. deliberately withheld military aid to the Nigerian president because David Axelrod’s group, AKPD, is consulting his Muslim opponent in the upcoming elections,” investigative journalist James Simpson wrote in a piece for Accuracy in Media.

[Editor’s note: For Mr. Simpson’s heavily cited article that directly supports this theory, please click HERE]

(Read more from “BREAKING: Famous White House Adviser Working to Put Muslim Shariah Law Dictator in Power” HERE)

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Bombshell Police Video Shows Secret Service SUV Hit White House Security Barricade as Bomb Threat Played out Just a Few Feet Away

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whPolice surveillance video shown publicly for the first time Tuesday shows Secret Service agents in their government vehicle driving through the secured area and nudging a temporary barrier at low speed as it drove toward a checkpoint.

The incident occurred as on-duty officers and agents investigated a suspicious package thrown near the White House on March 4 – and an accompanying threat that it contained a bomb.

The House Oversight Committee showed the video from the Washington Metropolitan Police Department during a hearing on Capitol Hill.

Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy was testifying for the third time about the incident, in which two senior agents are accused of drinking before driving into the White House complex and pushing the barrier with the SUV’s bumper . . .

Utah Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz, the committee’s chairman, angrily recounted a series of events including an 11-minutes stretch of time the Secret Service let the suspicious package lay near the White House before evacuating the area. (Read more from “Bombshell Police Video Shows Secret Service SUV Hit White House Security Barricade as Bomb Threat Played out Just a Few Feet Away” HERE)

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Secret Service Wants a Fake White House to Help Protect the Real One [+video]

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Stung by accusations that it cannot adequately protect the White House, the Secret Service wants to spend $8 million to build another White House in Beltsville, Md.

In testimony before the House Appropriations Committee, Joseph P. Clancy, the director of the Secret Service, on Tuesday urged lawmakers to give him money to build a detailed replica of the White House to aid in training officers and agents to protect the real thing. Beltsville, about 20 miles from the real White House at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, is the location of a 500-acre Secret Service training site in the verdant terrain of southern Maryland.

“Right now, we train on a parking lot, basically,” Mr. Clancy said. “We put up a makeshift fence and walk off the distance between the fence at the White House and the actual house itself. We don’t have the bushes, we don’t have the fountains, we don’t get a realistic look at the White House.”

Mr. Clancy added, “It’s important to have a true replica of what the White House is so we can do a better job of this integrated training between our uniform division officers, our agents and our tactical teams.”

The proposed replica would provide what Mr. Clancy described in prepared testimony as a “more realistic environment, conducive to scenario-based training exercises,” for instructing those who must protect the president’s home. It would mimic the facade of the White House residence, the East and West Wings, guard booths, and the surrounding grounds and roads. (Read more from “Secret Service Wants a Fake White House to Help Protect the Real One” HERE)

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Senior Secret Service Agents Investigated after their Car Hits White House; Cover-up Suspected

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The Obama administration is investigating allegations that two senior Secret Service agents, including a top member of the president’s protective detail, drove a government car into White House security barricades after drinking at a late-night party last week, an agency official said Wednesday.

Officers on duty who witnessed the March 4 incident wanted to arrest the agents and conduct sobriety tests, according to a current and a former government official familiar with the incident. But the officers were ordered by a supervisor on duty that night to let the agents go home, said these people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive internal matter.

The episode presents an early test for the Secret Service’s new director, Joseph P. Clancy, who was appointed by Obama last month after a string of security lapses at the White House and other embarrassing missteps and had vowed to restore the agency’s once-stellar reputation.

Clancy on Monday directed that the inquiry be led by the Department of Homeland Security inspector general, in part because the incident involves such senior officials, a law enforcement official said.

Agency spokesman Brian Leary confirmed the investigation after questions from The Washington Post, saying the Secret Service was “aware of the allegations of misconduct involving two of our employees.” He declined to specify which allegations are the focus of the inquiry. (Read more from “Senior Secret Service Agents Investigated after Car Hits White House” HERE)

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White House Lied About Obama’s Illegal Executive Amnesty

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When President Obama announced his sweeping unilateral executive action on immigration last November, administration officials stressed that the new edict would not take effect immediately. One part of the president’s action — changes to DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, to extend the period in which illegal immigrants are protected from deportation to three years from its present two years, and also to extend work permits for the same time — was scheduled to go into effect Feb. 18, 2015, three months after the president’s announcement. The other part of the president’s action — the newly-created DAPA, or Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents — would go into effect six months after Obama’s edict.

The day after Obama’s Nov. 20 announcement, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service published notice that it “expects to begin accepting requests for the Expanded DACA program on Feb. 18, 2015; and Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) program in mid-to-late May 2015.” The dates were set.

The administration’s schedule shaped the schedule of those challenging the president’s action. On Feb. 16, federal judge Andrew Hanen issued an order stopping the program, noting in his opinion that “the DHS’ website provides February 18, 2015 as the date it will begin accepting applications under DACA’s new criteria, and mid-to-late May for DAPA applications.” Hanen barred the administration from implementing “any and all aspects or phases of the expansions (including any and all changes)” to DACA and also “any and all aspects or phases” of DAPA.

So everyone involved knew the score. Changes to DACA, which had been scheduled to start Feb. 18, were on hold. DAPA was also on hold. And everyone assumed those dates to be accurate. But now, the administration is telling a different story.

In a “Defendants’ Advisory” filed with Hanen’s court late Tuesday, the Justice Department notified the judge that it has already implemented significant parts of the Expanded DACA program, and indeed that it has already granted expanded DACA protections and work permits to “approximately 100,000” people. (Read more about the possible lie on Obama’s immigration action HERE)

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