Weekend Edition 02-23-14

FCC Retreats From Outrageous Media Control Project 

As recent media reports indicated, the Federal Communications Commission recently promoted a program designed to control – or at least influence – what stories news media cover. Under the proposal, reporters and news directors would be required to answer a number of survey questions regarding what and how they cover certain stories.

Naturally, a resounding backlash from Republicans and concerned Americans of all stripes erupted, voicing an understandable concern regarding government operatives being released into all realms of the journalism industry.

Fortunately, the FCC listened to the criticism and, for now, promises to curtail any efforts to implement the practice.

Though the commission alluded to the possibility of a new version of the project, it insisted any future renditions would not include any direct interviews with media professionals.

While plenty of citizens were outraged by the proposed government takeover of media coverage, some within the FCC were similarly incensed.

According to Commissioner Ajit Pai, the proposed study “would have thrust the federal government into newsrooms across the country, somewhere it just doesn’t belong.”

He celebrated the decision to repeal it as “an important victory for the First Amendment.”

Though FCC Chariman Tom Wheeler refuted the claims that the commission would be infringing on a network or reporter’s right to free speech, he conceded the study amounted to an unwarranted intrusion. Certain questions included in the survey, he added, should be stripped.

Former CIA official accused of misleading lawmakers on Benghazi

Former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell is facing accusations from Republicans that he misled lawmakers about the Obama administration's role in crafting the bogus storyline that a protest gone awry was to blame for the deadly Benghazi attack. 
Among other discrepancies, Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee allege Morell insisted the talking points were sent to the White House for informational purposes, and not for their input -- but emails, later released by the administration, showed otherwise. 
"We found that there was actual coordination which could influence then -- and did influence -- what CIA conveyed to the committees about what happened [in Benghazi]," Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., told Fox News. 
Burr was one of six Republicans who leveled the allegations against Morell, who also served as acting director, in an addendum to a recently released Senate Intelligence Committee report. According to the claims, in late 2012, Morell testified the so-called Benghazi talking points were sent to the White House "for their awareness, not for their coordination." 
The 16-page addendum continues, "No effort was made to correct the record ... the Acting Director's (Morell) testimony perpetuated the myth that the White House played no part in the drafting or editing of the talking points." 
After Morell's 2012 testimony, committee Republicans say they insisted on reading the raw email traffic in the days leading up to then-Ambassador Susan Rice's controversial Sunday show appearances, where she linked the attack to a protest. Vice Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., told Fox News in a recent interview that they only got the emails between the CIA, State Department and White House because lawmakers threatened to hold up former White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan's confirmation as CIA director. 
Once the emails were released, Republican lawmakers say the conflict with Morell's testimony was clear. Morell, who at the time was CIA Director David Petraeus' deputy, was at the heart of the process, cutting some 50 percent of the text -- and Republicans say White House coordination began at the earliest stages. 
Also in late 2012, Morell and Rice met with Sens. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H.; John McCain, R-Ariz.; and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. In a statement released at the time, the senators said Morell blamed the FBI for cutting references to Al Qaeda and did so to prevent compromising an ongoing criminal investigation. 
"What I found curious is that he did not accept responsibility for changing the talking points. He told me the FBI had done this. I called the FBI. They went ballistic," Graham said in a recent interview. "Within 24 hours, his statement was changed where he admitted the CIA had done it."

For Obama, a new sense of purpose in acting alone

WASHINGTON (AP) — This week, President Barack Obama promoted tougher fuel efficiency standards for trucks. He touted progress on initiatives to strengthen the U.S. patent system. And he signed an executive order intended to speed up the process for approving import or export cargo.

Welcome to Obama's self-proclaimed "year of action," where hardly a day goes by without the president and his top advisers trumpeting policy initiatives the White House is undertaking without the help of Congress.

The mostly modest actions — far shy of the sweeping immigration overhaul Obama hoped for this year — put into sharp focus the president's limitations as he grapples with reluctant lawmakers in an election year. They also underscore how much has changed for Obama since the early days of his presidency, when he declared, "We do big things."

Yet the flurry of executive actions does seem to be having a cathartic effect inside the White House, which was in need of a jolt after a frustrating and disjointed 2013 that included the flawed rollout of Obama's signature health care law and a sharp drop in the president's approval ratings. Advisers who ended the year dispirited now appear buoyed by a new sense of purpose — and the prospect of working around a Congress that has long been an irritant to the president.

"I think people came back from the break over the holidays in a real positive frame of mind," said David Axelrod, a longtime adviser to the president. "You don't want to be the prisoner of a negative narrative that somehow Congress has stymied the president and nothing can get done."

Signaling how little the White House expects to change on Capitol Hill this year, Obama communications director Jennifer Palmieri said advisers are already mapping out plans for executive actions that will be unveiled well into the fall and winter. That process, she said, "has ignited a lot of creative thinking around here."

New Clues in Suicide of JP Morgan Banker Add to Mystery

Friends of the JP Morgan banker who leapt to his death from a high rise building in Hong Kong this week, becoming the 7th financial worker to die under strange circumstances in recent weeks, suggest that he planning to return to Canada, adding to the mystery of the suicide.

33-year-old Dennis Li Junjie plunged to his death on Tuesday after jumping from the roof of Chater House, which serves as JP Morgan’s Asia headquarters. Junjie worked for JP Morgan as a back up services associate.

His suicide was blamed on ”the stressful environment of investment banking,” although its timing, just three weeks after JP Morgan senior manager Gabriel Magee jumped 500ft from the top of the bank’s headquarters in central London, and amidst a number of other strange banker deaths, has prompted speculation that something more insidious may be afoot.

Just two days before his suicide, Junjie told a friend that he planned to return to Toronto, where he had worked as an analyst at the Royal Bank of Canada.

“RIP … What happened to all the promises and plans you made? What happened to your return to Toronto? I didn’t know you were that upset! I will miss you always,” remarked the friend.

Junjie had recently bought a HK$5.5 million apartment in Hong Kong and friends commented on how he always had a smile on his face.

The fact that Junjie did not seem to be depressed and had made specific future plans suggests that his suicide was quite spontaneous and may have been in response to information he was told or had uncovered in the 48 hours preceding his death.

While such an assertion is impossible to prove, it has been suggested as a factor that could connect the spate of recent banker deaths.

Could knowledge of an impending financial crash that outstrips anything previously experienced be the explanation behind the mystery?

Dearborn: Muslim at city council meeting calls for Sharia patrols, restriction on free speech

The council members appear to have received this man’s appeals with some impatience. However, make no mistake: there will be many more incidents like this, with calls for the implementation of Sharia morals police and Sharia restrictions on the freedom of speech growing louder and more insistent. And then city councils and other governing bodies will be forced either to articulate and implement a defense of Western principles of free expression, or capitulate. Right now the latter looks much more likely.

“Super Bowl coach honored at city council meeting, first garage ordinance reading approved,” by Samer Hijazi for Arab American News, February 14 (thanks to Creeping Sharia):
DEARBORN — This week’s city council meeting started out on a positive note as the city honored former Seattle Seahawks assistant coach and Dearborn native Robert Saleh for his recent Super Bowl victory. However, the atmosphere at City Hall took a bizarre turn after a local Arab American confronted the council on what he said were “troubling issues in the city.”…
The highlight of the evening came at the very end during the public comment section, when a local Arab American took the podium to address concerns he had with the city. The man, who identified himself as Hassan, stated that he lived in Westland but had concerns he wanted to address as an individual who works in the city. He refused to publicly give his address fearing for the safety of his family.

Yes, civil rights champions, you can admit Obama is a failed president

After watching the movie “The Butler” staring Lee Daniels and Oprah Winfrey, I have a better understanding of why some people are reluctant to let go of the hoped-for glory of Barack Obama’s presidency and acknowledge his failed policies.

The historic nature of his presidency trumps his failed policies in their minds because of the struggle, the sit-ins, the abuse, the senseless killings, the lynchings, the water hoses and attack dogs unleashed on the “freedom riders” during the Civil Rights Movement and beyond.

Even more black people are reluctant to let go, but I believe that the champion of the Movement, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and others would encourage them to let go, because they would not condone the social equivalent of spousal abuse. On the one hand, people are hanging on to the significance of a black man making it to the White House. And on the other hand they are enduring the abuse of failed policies, deceptions and now the arrogant trampling of the First Amendment to the Constitution.

Just as the butler in the movie eventually let go of his anger toward his son who became a “freedom rider” and civil rights activist, it is past time for people to let go of their denial. It is time to face the facts so the future can be better than the past.
It took the butler nearly his entire life to let go of his anger, because he could never let go of watching the senseless killing of his father when he was a child. His father was killed for standing up to a white man who had abused his mother.

Yes, we must celebrate the good things in our history, but we must not hold on to the bad things in our history. Remember them, yes! Hold on to them, no! Let go!

History will record Barack Obama as the first African American president of the United States of America. Some people want to quibble that he’s not the first black president since his father was from Africa and his mother was from the USA. Get over it! The semantics do not matter.
-
25 charged in largest healthcare fraud bust in D.C. history, feds say


More than 20 people have been arrested in what federal prosectors are calling the largest healthcare fraud takedown in the history of the District of Columbia.
Following a multi-year-long investigation into bogus billing practices, more than 200 law enforcement agents spread across the region Thursday to raid homes and businesses, make arrests and seize dozens of bank accounts and property.
Those arrested include operators of home care agencies, operators of nurse staffing agencies, office workers and personal care assistants. One woman is accused of bilking taxpayers out of $75 million.
“This investigation has revealed that Medicaid fraud in the District of Columbia is at epidemic levels,” said U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen.  “This fraud diverts precious taxpayer dollars, drives up the cost of health care, and jeopardizes the strength of a program that serves the most vulnerable members of our society.”
Investigators uncovered numerous and separate schemes involving fraud, kickbacks, and false billings in the growing field of home care services for D.C. Medicaid patients. Medicaid pays for home health care aides to help patients with daily living, such as getting in and out of bed, bathing, dressing and keeping track of medication.
In one scheme, Florence Bikundi, 51, of Bowie, the owner of three home care agencies, who was barred from participating in federal health care programs after her nursing license was revoked, is accused of collecting more than $75 million through the District of Columbia and Maryland Medicaid programs.
Read more at DCCrimeStories.com

After DHS Denial, Local Reporter Finds Evidence Terrorists Crossed the Border (MUST SEE)

As we reported last week, a local news station found Border Patrol documents that indicated that thousands  of OTMs — “Other Than Mexicans” — have been caught crossing the Mexican border into the U.S., including some known terrorists.
But since that report, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has DENIED that there is any “credible evidence” that any terrorists have crossed over.
So the reporter took another look — and the evidence he found is even worse than originally revealed.
He found that 300 terrorists from the Somali Al Queda group Al-Shabaab — the group behind the terror attack at the Kenyan shopping mall last September – have entered the U.S. and are unaccounted for.
WATCH:

-