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DOJ's "Nixonian" Phone Spying Scandal Sets Labor Unions Against Obama
It is just a few hours old, and already the Department of Justice's (legal) AP phone spying scandal has generated unintended consequences, by alienating and confronting Obama with his traditionally strongest constituency: labor unions, in this case the Newspaper Guild. From the Guild's shocked statement: "There could be no justification or explanation for this broad, over-reaching investigation. It appears officials are twisting legislation designed to protect public safety as a means to muzzle those concerned with the public’s right to know." They sound legitimately surprised.
Full Newspaper Guild statement:
The Newspaper Guild-CWA and its local that represents AP staffers, The News Media Guild, demands that the U.S. Justice Department return all telephone records that it obtained from phones — including some home and cell phones – of Associated Press reporters and editors.
The collection of these records is egregious and a direct attack on journalists, and the Justice Department needs to cease and desist such investigations. The ability of journalists to develop and protect sources is vital to keeping the public informed about issues affecting their lives.
There could be no justification or explanation for this broad, over-reaching investigation. It appears officials are twisting legislation designed to protect public safety as a means to muzzle those concerned with the public’s right to know.
The suggestion that the news story ‘scooped’ an announcement for partisan political purposes only exacerbates the damage such actions can have on a free press. This investigation has a chilling effect on press freedom in the United States – a right enshrined in the Constitution. Please contact your representatives and the White House to tell them to stop this outrageous, abusive investigation now.
And separately, freedom of the press watchdogs called the move "Nixonian."
"The Justice Department’s seizure of the Associated Press’ phone records is Nixonian," said Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, a group that advocates on behalf of whistleblowers. "The American public deserves a full accounting of why and how this could happen."
But why? In a totalitarian state nobody is accountable to anyone else...
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Obama is not set against the unions, he is the recipient of a lot of cash from the unions - they are the same.
So now, the MSM will report "nothing happening, move along" for the next several months and the DC rot will continue.
Don't worry, it's all bullish.
This is bullshit. The signs in the stock photo don't even match the allegations. This is Pravda grade crap
or......they're mad about outsourcing the phone tapping to India and didn't get the work
It is Bush's fault.
What else are they doing?
Who said we have freedom of press? We have news agencies that spread government propaganda...they don't do independent investigations anymore..
"We have news agencies that spread banker propaganda" - FIXED, follow the money...
The bankers are the Totalitarian's stooges. They just think they are in charge but will end up at the end of a rope when their usefulness has expired.
Don't follow the money, follow the power. That is where the money comes from. It is dispersed.
not seeing it??? power can operate in a vaccum? please explain physics behind your idea.....not saying you're wrong but would like more than a one liner to your nongravitational theory
You don't get the power without the money...
Follow the money, and you will find who actually wields the power, for the last few centuries...
murder gives you the power--the power over life trumps money every time--get smart--its about power.
no, you get it straight. Outside of personal passionate disorganized actions of an animal, all power-murder situations are sourced by money, paid for. The money always comes first and the banksters always have the most. Always.
No, it's like this: First you get the Money. Then you get the Power. Then you get the Women. Everyone knows this. Haven't you ever seen Scarface?
"The bankers are the Totalitarian's stooges. They just think they are in charge but will end up at the end of a rope when their usefulness has expired." - You sir are an optimist. never... going... to ... happen...
Sure, there are a few outraged voices, but not the real uproar I would expect under the circumstances. I do not understand how people still support this administration's behavior. Do they think it could not happen to them? Do they believe they will always be the ones in power? It is mind boggling.
Free US Press? Haha!
"Investigators within the DEA, INS and FBI have all told Fox News that to pursue or even suggest Israeli spying ... is considered career suicide."
"While I agree with you, if I say anything about US geopolitical interests with Israel, I might as well clean off my desk."
"Evidence linking these Israelis to 9/11 is classified. I cannot tell you about evidence that has been gathered. It's classified information."
While you're at it, tell the guy in the blue sweater holding the sign to stop eating fast food.
BENGHAZI
TREASON
Make Obama the first president to finish his term from prison, and send up the Clintons for their murders.
You do know Clinton had nothing to do with it. Gross negligence yes, but not on her part...it's not as if they're involved in every single dealing of the department they oversee, just like a CEO doesn't necessarily know what his foot soldiers are doing.
And let's not kid ourselves, the only reason the GOP cares is because they are scared of Clinton running in 2016 (which would basically mean they won't have a GOP president until 2024). Look up how many similar incidents happened under Bush's watch and how few enquiries (only 3!!!!) were requested by them back then. Incredibly hypocritical if you ask me...
Another D versus R nebbhish heard from...
Just stating facts here. Count how many times embassies suffered similar incidents during bush (the figure's at 95 fyi) and how often people called for an official enquiry...3 times! How many GOPers did you hear scream "impeachment" when the very same thing happened 95 times under Bush? Not a single time!
If there was negligence or fault, it should be examined and the responsible people should be sacked. What shouldn't happen is this stupid double standard where one party only really gets "angry" at it if the other party might be at fault.
Anyone with a brain will realise this is mostly about 2016 and Clinton's possible run than anything else. If you believe otherwise, explain to me why they only care now but didn't care the 95 times it happened under Bush? Whether you like or dislike Clinton doesn't even matter to be honest...what should matter is that the government is held accountable EVERY SINGLE TIME something happens, not just when it fits a political agenda. Clearly that isn't the case.
Go back to the Dailybeast!
Wake up and see the shackles.
Whitewater #1 http://www.hourofthetime.com/bcmp3/327.mp3
Whitewater #2 http://www.hourofthetime.com/bcmp3/328.mp3
Whitewater #3 http://www.hourofthetime.com/bcmp3/329.mp3
Whitewater #4 http://www.hourofthetime.com/bcmp3/330.mp3
Waco http://www.hourofthetime.com/bcmp3/148.mp3
OKC http://www.hourofthetime.com/bcmp3/840.mp3
Ruby Ridge http://www.hourofthetime.com/bcmp3/1103.mp3
The photo seems 'stock'...the signs say theyre mad about 'outsourcing'? That makes no sense, it doesn't even fit this story.
Obama .... the first "outsourced" President ?
People should rightfully be outraged. The thing that seems hypocritical to me is that a lot of the (GOP) people now whining about this kept their mouths shut when Bush did similar things...it's an obvious double standard. What it shows is that the actions aren't peoples' prime concern, it only seems to matter when the "other party" does it.
Did you excoriate the Democrats when Nixon had his dick in the wringer .... Mr. Party Wonk ?
What are you talking about? Like I said, people should be outraged about this...it's just amazing how few of the people who dare speaking out against this kept silent when Bush did the very same thing. Where was the GOP outrage about the "patriot" act for example? There was NONE whatsoever. Warrantless wiretabs? Total silence from their end.
Like I said, people should definitely be outraged about all of this...but to keep silent if "your party" does it while screaming when the other party does it is hypocritical.
I think a nerve has been touched .... when the Party Wonks get so exercised ?
Again, what on earth are you talking about? I'm just as outraged about all this as the rest of us...just mentioning the FACT that a large chunk of people being outraged now are hypocrites because they remained silent when Bush pulled off similar crap.
Look at old news reports and interviews and try to find someoen on the GOP side being outraged about the "patriot" act or warrantless wiretabs. Only a tiny miniority of them spoke up against it...and that's a FACT.
so let me understand--its whinning now but not about what happend before?? and that was ?? so with you its the big FACT of hypocracy? let me be one of the first to call bullshit ---troll
Nice ad hominem attack...how old are you? 12?
Here's a list of major attacks on embassies: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_attacks_on_diplomatic_missions
Keep in mind those are just embassies and not CIA stations (7), it's way more if you include minor stations and government offices abroad. Either way, where was the outrage when the embassy in Jeddha was attacked for example?
Imo stuff like that should be investigated every single time...but that clearly isn't the case. So I ask...why not? Where was FOX "News" ranting when Jeddha was attacked? Why now and not back then?
The only explanation I can come up with is that the GOP is scared to death about a possible Clinton run. What amazes me even more is that the first report we have lists the names of who messed up and who was involved in handling this crisis. Clinton wasn't part of it as the independent board found out...so why is it that certain "news" outlets keep on mentioning her name while completely ignoring the other names we know of?
It's all political games. People really need to stop thinking in terms of left vs right and more in terms of what's right or wrong. If something like an embassy attack happens, there should be an investigation every single time...not just when the "other party" is leading at the time of the attack. How can you possibly disagree with this? If you disagree wtih this you're essentially admitting to being so politically brainwashed that you only care if the other party does something bad...which is kinda sad.
Where do you get your information Huffington Post? When did Bush monitor the phone calls of reporters? Or have the IRS shutdown liberal groups? You are an IDITO(yes spelled correctly for you!)!
the warrantless wiretaps and darkweb stuff all came up under Bush. You must have amnesia.
Alberto Gonzales resigns
An error occurred ! Please vote again !
Last few weeks, Obama went after the second amendment and it was OK because it was against us. Now we find out he was after the first amendment too. And the Left is having a fit because it's against THEM. Wake up Leftists, this administration is out of control.
Asking for more regulation isn't "going after the 2nd amendmend". The part of the 2nd amendmend gun people seem to conveniently leave out is the "well REGULATED militia" part...I wonder why that is ;)
A scandal is a terrible thing to waste ! They conveniently never let us have people's militias ! I'm a "gun people" !
Doesn't change the FACT that the 2nd amanedment specifically mentions "well regulated"...and that's something the NRA & Co conveniently ignore every single time ;)
You can pretend otherwise, but in that case I suggest you read the amendment again ;)
a bunch of us wanted to start a well "regulated group" and decided to buy tanks and missles but some how weren't allowed even though thats the criteria ??? You are the most bullshit gov't shill I've incounterd since the guy with the extention cord comment "its fixed in Fukashima" asshole on Market Watch.
"Well regulated" doesn't mean you can just buy tanks...comon', how can you expect people to take you serious if you make silly remarks like this?
"Well regulated" doesn't mean everyone gets to randomly make up their own definitions of regulations.
Keep the childish ad hominem attacks in kindergarden where they belong...they make you look like an idiot ;)
Nice distraction.
BTW, in the context of the era in which it was written, "well regulated" means operating to a certain degree of precision, as in a well regulated timepiece. Its implication is that having firearms is not enough, but that one should regularly drill and practice.
Riiiight...and they wouldn't have written "well trained" instead, right? I take it you never studied law? Because your interpretation is certainly not how a lawyer would define it ;)
How hard is this to read..... " the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." See the word people? It doesn't say Miltia....it says PEOPLE!!!!
why doesn't it? what does well regulated mean then? Does it mean your gov't is the regulator? Does it mean anything under the umbrella of COG is ok but other than that its not?
It,s not about political parties-- its about tyranny and control and missinformation and slight of hand and fool em again. It's about relativism and destruction of the individual, its about destroying private property and by extention the right to life.
any time you start with the he did it first or he said she said or it's ok for you but not for me dialoge it's a flag for bullshit and the party label thing as an argument is the icing on the cake-- you are a gov't troll ---childish as it may be and ad hominem.
@4ex
You Sir, are a moron. Stop the thinly veiled "walk the line" shit. It's obvious you are a progressive. Now shut the fuck up. Go stew over the anti-islamic video that prompted these deaths, as divulged on several Sunday shows. Doesn't that video offennndddd you? Stand down peon, stand down.
What nonsense. The context of the statement is that the guns are a pre-requisite to having a well-regulated militia. Not that you have to have a well-regulated militia before you can have your guns. Idiots like you trying to put the cart before the horse. The right to guns is specifically so that the people have the ultimate power of violence to wield against the government in order to prevent tyranny.
Edit: And yes, this right includes tanks and everything else. What part of right-to-bear-arms and shall-not-be-infringed do you not understand?
You keep using that word and complaining that the militia is not well enough regulated, the actual solution is to make everyone take more NRA firearms classes, with DHS supplied ammunition...
But I suppose if they were even to ask for that or it were to happen, you would find something else to complain about.
BTW I would read Elliot's Debates (at least volume 3) before starting a debate about the meaning of the Second Ammendment
4ex take the rose color glassed off!
well-regulated MILITIA is not "over-regulated / banned" tools OF the militia.
Try reading comprehension.
CHICAGO POLITICS; ITS NOT ILLEGAL UNLESS YOU GET CAUGHT
Stick with this story Tyler(s)
The worms are starting to come to the surface
please release WB to attack as well
With the dates and phone numbers in hand, could they not go to NSA archives, find and listen to the actual conversations?
Does anyone else think it is odd that these stories of what appears to be the abusive actions of the Federal Government are now starting to appear more and more? It is almost like an attempt is being made to draw attention to the left hand while the right hand is doing what? What are we missing?
Let's face it, every single administration (Democrats or GOP) pulled off crap like that...some are just better at hiding it than others.
LOL, love the guys who down vote this as if it's not true. If you believe only one party's pulling off crap like this, you're politically so brainwashed you don't see reality anymore :D
Wrong...we down arrow because the left is allowed to get away with it...especially now, this administration, now.
I'll bet you have to wear a drool bib.
Wow, good one
Have you followed the news lately? They CLEARLY aren't getting away with it.
That remains to be seen...
"I take full responsibility" is not prosecution. That's all that seems to happen to these guys they come out an apologize and everything is forgiven.
Corzine's misdeeds were reported but he got away with it-- not the same is it? having a little trouble with your "fool em" business this morning huh? Maybe you should check in with your boss and start over again tomorrow.
even more foolish - that hasn't changed in the last 20 years either.
Ironic isn't it. Candidates for public office are very good at contrasting the differences between themselves and their opponents, but when they get into office they are all the same.
Right you are. Looks like 11 fools are in terminal denial, however, at this time.
There are several outcomes that could be derived from DoJ recent actions. The obvious is distractions to events outside the U.S., but those particular actions noted by the MSM can be a distraction for actual intentions. A secondary outcome can simply be the need to pass the current immigration bill with biometric registration included, which considering the present injustices, appears of late only minor inconvenience to the sheeple.
Quite a few possible outcomes indeed.
I'm definitely noticing it!
And I'm increasingly seeing dissent from the sheeple on MSM comment sections.
They are waking up slowly!
It helps when you plaster ZH and mises.org links when debating sheeple.
You can't argue with the truth for long, unless you're a lefty or a positivist!
Mann Coulter isn't a lefty or a positivist and yet she can't connect to reality at all.
"Seem legitimately surprised?"
SEEM surprised indeed!
Remember: "the unions" are syndicate/communist to the CORE. THIS is how they operate in EVERY country in which they ultimately have their political way.
Those on top get R-I-C-H and the stupid-members get S-C-R-E-W-E-D.
That's right they're commies and their concern for your constitutional rights is therefore illegitmate. Grow up moron.
As Z-Brezinski aptly noted "Everyone wants more for less, and ultimately everything for nothing."
You obviously have never been in a union, ass-breath. Their "legitimate" concern for "constitutional rights" are to preserve their own while undermining yours, all at your expense.
The natural end of unions is syndicate/communism.
Keep the name-calling out of the discussion...and wipe those feces off your mouth.
Remember no such thing. A union seeks a private contract to bargain between employers and employees - flat out capitalism. How investors want to collectively manage, or not, their holdings, how employees want to colelctively bargain their wages or not, is the business of the market participants (unions included)
Remember no such thing?
A union seeks a private contract to bargain between employers and employees - flat out capitalism?
When they don't get it, they call upon the government bully to stop the "scabs" from crossing their line, FORCING the employer (who has ALL the risk) to create "benefits" which amounts to more for less AND ultimately everything for nothing.
Ultimately, the car companies don't sell cars, they sell ever increasing unionized benefits in the form of cars.
Your argument is bogus.
IF the market were able to work withOUT government coercion, THEN it would be flat out capitalism.
Go back to your "progressive" roots.
In case you hadn't noticed government also does things like "back to work legislation" so it cuts both ways. Government is the bad guy both times.
I'm not a "progressive" or "conservative". I deal with facts & I have a preference for capitalism but I'm happy with consenting non-governmental socialism - to permit others to have it and the option to choose it one day if for some insane reason it benefits me more at that time than black market capitalism.
Vindication & Impeachment! http://shutupnsing.wordpress.com/2013/05/14/vindication-impeachment/
With you my friend...
+17 Trillion
Yeah Nixon was a piece of shit for targeting liberals with the IRS. Let's see how the man in lieu of a president weasels his way out of this one.
Are you kidding? They can't even get ONE birth certificate on this guy!
To the democraps, (Cuomos & Bloombergs of the world, et al) WE are the enemy of the State, not the actual criminals! Because we are the only thing standing between them and total control!
"...the man in lieu of a president" WON'T have to weasel his way out of this one: the fascist government press will give him a pass because
a. he's a the first AA-mulato,
b. he's "their progressive," and
c. he's a democrat.
My bet: he gets off (with his fellow sodomites).
REV WRIGHT racist statements - "didn't know"
BILL AYERS - "didn't know him from that era"
AIG EXECUTIVE BONUSES - "didn't know"
SOCIAL SECURITY SCANDAL lavish parties- "didn't know"
VAN JONES resignation - "didn't know his radical past"
ACORN wide-spread scandals - "didn't know"
SECRET SERVICE scandal - "didn't know"
ALIAS EMAILS / EPA - "didn't know"
EPA RADICAL ARMENDARIZ, RESIGNATION - "didn't know"
FAST & FURIOUS - "didn't know"
BENGHAZI - "didn't know"
IRS TARGETING CONSERVATIVES - "didn't know"
AP PHONE WIRETAPPING scandal - "didn't know"
............ and that's only a fraction
Damnit. Dup
With great arrogance comes great stupidity.
Now what we need to do is divide and conquer. Lets number all of those statements and each of us agree to look up/source the corresponding video clip. Then I'll splice them all together to create the 2016 talking points video; whaddaya say?
I am always surprised the unions don't put up a fuss about the $5/hour labor flooding in from across the border.....I like the cheap cost of labor but would think unions wouldn't.
The useful idiots are finally starting to understand the real situation.
The useful idiots are finally starting to understand the real situation.
I'll believe it when I see it. History shows the 'useful idiots' fiqure it out when they are being put against a wall to be shot.
Wait a minute...I thought the Gubmint only targeted conservative groups like the poor little tea party, not so-called liberal organizations like labor unions who supposedly run the whole show in the conservative mind.
Maybe people will finally start seeing that it's pretty much the ultra wealthy, powerful and connected against the rest of us. But that's hoping for too much in this country of poor and working folks who view themselves as temporarily embarrassed millionaires who are waiting for their break so they too can join the Big Boyzzz club and start shitting all over those below them.
That pretty much sums it up. All those left vs right political games are nothing but gladiator games to distract the (let's face it) dumb masses.
George Carlin said it best:"It's an exclusive club, but you ain't in it!"
The funny thing is, so many seem to believe it's only "a matter of time" before they join that exclusive club. :D
Democrat is to Republican as Harlem Globetrotter is to Washington General. This story indicates that the one group of Fascists is pissed off that the other group of Fascists is using their own tactics against them.
Our political vocabulary in America has become so distorted, and intentionally so, that we can't even call things by their right names because the names have been stripped of meaning. Listen to anything Frank Luntz has said in his career, or read Orwell's essays, and it's unavoidably obvious what's happened to us.
To call Obama anything other than what he is, a Fascist, is patently absurd.
The problem with our WWE-worthy narrative scripting of politics is that neither faction of the Corporatiist Party ever represents what most Americans want. So they flail around in their "triangulation;" trying to shrink the electorate as much as possible by alienating most people, and then trying to capture that elusive 50% +1. As a result, Republicans now pretend to hate Government. Funny, they sure love Government when they get to be in charge of it. The difference between Republican and Democratic Administrations is which group of favored insiders gets which spoils. That's it. When the Bushies were keeping Democrats off of airplanes, nobody on the Right said "boo" about it.
I've never been much of a team cheerleader. When my team sucks, I'll say so. That makes me very unpopular in Minnesota Twins chatrooms. I never had many Republican friends, because my parents were vocally opposed to the Vietnam War, so we grew up under surveillance. The phone always clicked and popped, and as a very young child, I used to go talk to the guys in suits in cars parked outside the house. At that time, Republicans loved government and institutions and wars, and anyone who didn't was suspect. That followed all the way through Bush I, though Reagan talked a lot out of the other side of his mouth to wring advantage out of Nixon's Southern Strategy.
Later, I lost most of my "Liberal" friends when I observed that Clinton had done all the things Reagan could never have gotten away with, like cutting welfare to nearly nothing, imposing the Death Penalty for a huge range of new crimes, and removing every barrier to protect Wall Street from itself. I lost the few I still had in the spring of 2008, when I pointed out that candidate Obama had raised more money from Wall Street than even the sitting Senator from New York and long-time patron of Wall Street, Hilary Clinton; never mind John McCain, God Help Us. I theorized that this showed that Wall Street knew things were collapsing and had extracted the best bailout and immunity deals from candidate Obama, of the three still in the running.
This earned me the hatred of the Republicans I knew, who said I had Bush Derangement Syndrome for even suggesting that the Stock Market and moreover the Housing Market could possibly go anywhere buy UP-UP-UP. Obviously I hated capitalism and freedom. And the Democrats I knew couldn't imagine how I could think The Anointed One would be so corrupt. They hated me even more once I pointed to Obama's long and clear trail of statements favoring cuts to Social Security and Medicare. When the whole Obamacare boondoggle got rolling, I said the reason it came up when it did was that the cost of health insurance had reached the tipping point and a critical mass of employers and employees could not afford it much longer, so Obama was cobbling together an exit strategy for the insurance industry to grab whatever pennies were stil stuck in America's couch before the whole scheme collapsed and the next Republican president opened up Medicare to everyone, to thunderous acclaim from Business as a job-saving measure. That pretty much got me excluded from all the nice cocktaiil parties.
So. Now Republicans are defending the MSM and outraged at the harassment of domestic opponents of the sitting Administration? Rich.
Lookout! Meadowlark is going to douse the referee with a bucket of water! Oh, wait, it's just confetti. Isn't that funny? That one never gets old. Oh-Oh--here comes The Iron Sheik with the folding chair-- Ah, but just in the nick of time the Hulkster fends him off with the flagpole. And order is restored.
Yup, that pretty much explains me as well.
I wonder if these politicians know that it isn't going o end well for them, in regards to their traitorous activities??!!
How quaint... someone still fooled by left vs right politics. Such nonsense.
Pretty nice Wonka you got there.
took me a while to find that one :D
NO SHIT. A pathological Chicago narcissist is elected president with exactly ZERO EXPERIENCE MANAGING ANYTHING....and people are surprised?
This is a liberal's idea of freedom when they are in power!
Much ado about nothing.
This man can do anything he wants and he will not face the big I. He could rape those three kidnapped Cleveland girls during an Oval Office address to the nation while dressed in a Darth Vader outfit, only pausing to order the FBI and DHS to hunt his political enemies and exterminate them and the MSM would find a way to portray any complaints as racist or partisan. Jay Carneyval would step to the podium and proclaim that the President is the only one in DC looking out for ordinary Americans, and then order the SS to gun down any reporter who asked a question outside the script, and the rest of the WH press corps would clap respectfully.
But at least he's intelligent enough to want infants killed if the sperm-sponge wants to off 'em, to want to disarm all those "fringe" thought-criminals who dare to want to own a firearm, and by God he won a Nobel Prize!
instant loss of credibility referencing abortion as anything but a rightful free choice.
If you had been free choiced, would you be here lecturing me? F-ck off. I'm an Atheist who believes in human rights. I just think a human being with a heart beat, functioning limbs, eyes and nerve endings deserves human rights as much as adults. Doesn't mean I am beating a religious drum for some legal ban BS. You want to tempt karma by killing a human 'cause you let a dude blow his wad in you and wouldn't make him wear a .32 cent condom? Have at it. I hope the Budhists are right though.
Also, nice fascist mind of saying only your opinion on the matter is valid. Double f-ck off.
I'm lecturing you because some other less useful pre-human was free-choiced outta here. Aren't you filled with glee, now?
Obama is the Politcal Reincarnation of Al Capone and Jimmy Carter.
You can add the EPA to the list.
http://reason.com/blog/2013/05/14/not-just-the-irs-federal-agencies-are-po
The Environmental Protection Agency has been "routinely" waiving freedom of information fees for environmentalist groups while routinely denying fee waiver requests filed by think tanks that frequently criticizes the EPA. The Washington Examiner reports that:
FOIA fees can add up in a hurry, so it's not uncommon for requesters to argue that their fees should be waived. The criteria for asking for a waiver is pretty simple. The EPA lists a two-part criteria:
Easy, right? Nope, becase the EPA claims quite a bit of an interpretive license when determing whether requesters have "adequately showed" etc., etc.:
Bolding mine. Using those metrics, the EPA was able to deny FOIA fee waivers from groups that criticized it, while charging nothing to fill FOIA requests filed by pro-environmental groups.
More troubling: The EPA isn't the first federal agency under Obama to make FOIA decisions based on a requester's politics. In July 2009, the Department of Homeland Security instituted a new rule requiring career FOIA employees to route information requests through political appointees in Secretary Janet Napolitano's office. If the request came from Congress, career employees were expected to alert political appointees to the party affiliation of the office making the request. The policy lasted for roughly a year, and was discontinued when the Associated Press's reporting led to an investigation by the House Oversight Committee.
Smack in the middle between the EPA and DHS incidents is the Federal Communications Commission, which in 2011 was accused of expediting an insanely broad request from the left-leaning Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington while at the same time maintaing one of the highest rejection rates of any federal agency.
The Daily Caller described it thusly:
Why are those circumstances so extraordinary? Because FOIA requests, if they're to be accepted (not to mention completed) have to be relatively precise: If you want emails, you need to tell the agency who you think sent them or received them, roughly when they were sent/received, and what they were about. If you want internal memos, you need to know what division of a department generated them, what they concern, and when they were distributed. It's possible to get a FOIA request without submitting those details, but it's far more likely your request will be rejected for being overly broad.
That should have happened to CREW. Instead, the group's request was turned around in a little over three weeks and netted them over 200 pages of documents. If that were happening for everybody, I'd be thrilled. But when you consider that the request was for everything the FCC had on FOX, then in the middle of a lawsuit with the FCC, and everything it had on Rupert Murdoch, a political enemy of the president, it's naive to pretend that the request had nothing to do with politics.
It going to be fun watching the sharks cannibalize each other. Yeah you don't give shit until it happens to you fucking asshole compromised press. Remember this how it went down with people like Stalin. Take the Oreo out before he takes you out in a fit of paranoia.
If it is being covered this deep on msm, it is a distraction from something huge!
These dumb a$$ unions and media morons all thought that nobama would Never spy on them. Just because they supported nobama they thought they were exempt from the NDAA, CISPA and the Patriot Act. All these acts were made Especially FOR YOU!!! Fu*king MORONS!!!! They're getting exactly what they deserve!!!!
Obama supporters don't know Obama,Wearechange WRC
Wearechange,do Americans think they face tyranny?
But why? In a totalitarian state nobody is accountable to anyone else...
... and institutional memory is a robodoc