There is so much happening today, but still, it is just another day in America. Where to begin?
First, we have the latest "leak" from Edward Snowden. We now are being told that the NSA can and does go through the internet activity of individuals, including Americans, without any court approvals. For Americans, the NSA folks have to fill out a form explaining why they are looking at all this personal information, but that's it as far as any control on the activity. There is no word yet whether an entry of "I felt like it" is sufficient to justify someone at NSA looking through your records.
Let's put this in proper context. Many, indeed most people in America use the internet to communicate with friends and business acquaintances, to pay bills, to purchase things, to search for information and for plenty of other stuff. Much of what gets said, reviewed or transacted is meant to be completely private. The idea that the feds are reviewing all this without any reason is troubling to say the least. Of course, in fairness to the NSA, we ought to wait for the story to unfold a bit more before coming to a conclusion. Edward Snowden is hardly the most trustworthy source.
Second, we have the seemingly never-ending stream of sex scandals coming from the Democrats. We have Weiner, Spitzer, Filner and a vintage appearance by Clinton with Monica. Then we have Weiner's press spokesman calling a former female employee who spoke to the press about the campaign a "slutbag". It sure sounds like what Rush Limbaugh called that Georgetown law student, a statement that prompted enormous outrage from the left. On top of this, we have silence. President Obama has said nothing. He did not call the poor woman slimed as a "slutbag" the way he called Sandra Fluke after Limbaugh spoke. He did not ask Weiner to pull out of the race. He is just silent. Joe Biden is likewise silent. Harry Reid, who seems to have an opinion on everything, is silent. These people who treat women like trash are all Democrats, so party loyalty may require this silence. Nevertheless, shouldn't the party that claims that there is a war on women at least try to defend those women when it is their fellow party members who are causing the problems?
Third, we have yesterday's "wonderful" economic growth figures. Reading press reports about the "strong" growth made me extremely angry. The truth is something far different. Let's put it all into context. For the first half of the year, the economy grew at the annual rate of 1.5%. In the past seventy years, after a recession, especially a severe one, the growth rate would have been up above 5% at first and then leveled off at 3-4%. During the Obama recovery we never go even close to those normal numbers. But let's just look at the first half of this year. If the usual recovery had been achieved, we would have had a growth rate of something like 3.5% during the last six months. That means that during the first half of 2013, the American economy would have produced about 160 billion dollars more goods and services than it did. Just think how many more people would have been working just to produce that huge amount of economic output. And that would be an average result. Instead, under the Obama leadership (and I use that term loosely), the USA has had a terrible recovery. Only the press has the nerve to try to tell us all that things are good. They are not, except on Wall Street where the Federal Reserve policies are pumping up stock prices.
Fourth, we have Attorney General Eric Holder cited for lying to Congress. What more can one say than that? The man who personally approved telling a court under oath that reporter James Rosen was an accomplice to espionage and could be charged as such, told Congress not long afterwards that he had never even heard of any potential prosecution of a reporter. HE WAS LYING. HE SHOULD BE FIRED!
First, we have the latest "leak" from Edward Snowden. We now are being told that the NSA can and does go through the internet activity of individuals, including Americans, without any court approvals. For Americans, the NSA folks have to fill out a form explaining why they are looking at all this personal information, but that's it as far as any control on the activity. There is no word yet whether an entry of "I felt like it" is sufficient to justify someone at NSA looking through your records.
Let's put this in proper context. Many, indeed most people in America use the internet to communicate with friends and business acquaintances, to pay bills, to purchase things, to search for information and for plenty of other stuff. Much of what gets said, reviewed or transacted is meant to be completely private. The idea that the feds are reviewing all this without any reason is troubling to say the least. Of course, in fairness to the NSA, we ought to wait for the story to unfold a bit more before coming to a conclusion. Edward Snowden is hardly the most trustworthy source.
Second, we have the seemingly never-ending stream of sex scandals coming from the Democrats. We have Weiner, Spitzer, Filner and a vintage appearance by Clinton with Monica. Then we have Weiner's press spokesman calling a former female employee who spoke to the press about the campaign a "slutbag". It sure sounds like what Rush Limbaugh called that Georgetown law student, a statement that prompted enormous outrage from the left. On top of this, we have silence. President Obama has said nothing. He did not call the poor woman slimed as a "slutbag" the way he called Sandra Fluke after Limbaugh spoke. He did not ask Weiner to pull out of the race. He is just silent. Joe Biden is likewise silent. Harry Reid, who seems to have an opinion on everything, is silent. These people who treat women like trash are all Democrats, so party loyalty may require this silence. Nevertheless, shouldn't the party that claims that there is a war on women at least try to defend those women when it is their fellow party members who are causing the problems?
Third, we have yesterday's "wonderful" economic growth figures. Reading press reports about the "strong" growth made me extremely angry. The truth is something far different. Let's put it all into context. For the first half of the year, the economy grew at the annual rate of 1.5%. In the past seventy years, after a recession, especially a severe one, the growth rate would have been up above 5% at first and then leveled off at 3-4%. During the Obama recovery we never go even close to those normal numbers. But let's just look at the first half of this year. If the usual recovery had been achieved, we would have had a growth rate of something like 3.5% during the last six months. That means that during the first half of 2013, the American economy would have produced about 160 billion dollars more goods and services than it did. Just think how many more people would have been working just to produce that huge amount of economic output. And that would be an average result. Instead, under the Obama leadership (and I use that term loosely), the USA has had a terrible recovery. Only the press has the nerve to try to tell us all that things are good. They are not, except on Wall Street where the Federal Reserve policies are pumping up stock prices.
Fourth, we have Attorney General Eric Holder cited for lying to Congress. What more can one say than that? The man who personally approved telling a court under oath that reporter James Rosen was an accomplice to espionage and could be charged as such, told Congress not long afterwards that he had never even heard of any potential prosecution of a reporter. HE WAS LYING. HE SHOULD BE FIRED!
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