Government monitors to be placed in newsrooms? This is FUBAR! | Allen B. West - AllenBWest.com

Government monitors to be placed in newsrooms? This is FUBAR! | Allen B. West - AllenBWest.com

Thomas Jefferson, author of our Declaration of Independence stated, “our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.”

Well the first amendment freedom enshrined in our Constitution – like just about everything else about our fundamental principles – means nothing to President Obama and his administration.

I hope you’re sitting down while reading this. The Obama Administration has developed a formula of what it believes the free press should cover, and is going to send government monitors into newsrooms across America to stand over the shoulders of the press as they make editorial decisions. As reported by Red State, the FCC has apparently already selected eight categories of “critical information” “that it believes local newscasters should cover.”

I truly wish this were a “tinfoil hat story,” but the Obama Administration’s Federal Communication Commission (FCC) is poised to place government monitors in newsrooms across the country which Red State calls an “absurdly draconian attempt to intimidate and control the media.”

In fact, it’s so absurdly draconian, even FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai fears the program could be used in “pressuring media organizations into covering certain stories.” As Commissioner Pai explains in the Wall Street Journal:

Last May the FCC proposed an initiative to thrust the federal government into newsrooms across the country. With its “Multi-Market Study of Critical Information Needs,” or CIN, the agency plans to send researchers to grill reporters, editors and station owners about how they decide which stories to run. A field test in Columbia, S.C., is scheduled to begin this spring. The purpose of the CIN, according to the FCC, is to ferret out information from television and radio broadcasters about “the process by which stories are selected” and how often stations cover “critical information needs,” along with “perceived station bias” and “perceived responsiveness to underserved populations.

The abject discomfort and disdain exemplified by President Obama during his Fox News interview with Bill O’Reilly was in full flower as Obama constantly blames Fox News for his travails. He evidently feels he is above reproach when it comes to being questioned on his policy and actions.

But the federal government has absolutely no business determining what stories should and should not be run, what is critical for the American public and what is not, whether it perceives a bias, and whose interests are or are not being served by the free press.

Read more at http://allenbwest.com/2014/02/government-monitors-placed-newsrooms-fubar/#jbMdJIhM6Iqsj7Cq.99

thank you father

I don't know if I buy this or not: Department of Homeland Security cancels national license-plate tracking plan after Hundreds of detained immigrants released.

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson on Wednesday ordered the cancellation of a plan by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to develop a national license-plate tracking system after privacy advocates raised concern about the initiative.

Really?  What does that say about Ohio?

The order came just days after ICE solicited proposals from companies to compile a database of license-plate information from commercial and law enforcement tag readers. Officials said the database was intended to help apprehend fugitive illegal immigrants, but the plan raised concerns that the movements of ordinary citizens under no criminal suspicion could be scrutinized.

The data would have been drawn from readers that scan the tags of every vehicle crossing their paths, and would have been accessed only for “ongoing criminal investigations or to locate wanted individuals,” officials told The Washington Post this week.

“The solicitation, which was posted without the awareness of ICE leadership, has been cancelled,” ICE spokeswoman Gillian Christensen said in a statement. “While we continue to support a range of technologies to help meet our law enforcement mission, this solicitation will be reviewed to ensure the path forward appropriately meets our operational needs.”

Lawmakers and privacy advocates reacted with approval.

The fact that the solicitation was posted without knowledge of ICE leadership “highlights a serious management problem within this DHS component that currently does not have a director nominated by the president,” Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (Miss.), the ranking Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, said in a statement. He added that he hopes officials will consult with the department’s privacy and civil liberties officers in the future.

Hundreds of Detained immigrants released; officials cite sequester cuts

WASHINGTON -- Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have released “several hundred” immigrants from deportation centers across the country, saying the move is an effort to cut costs ahead of budget cuts due to hit later this week. 

Announcing the news Tuesday, ICE officials said that the immigrants were released under supervision and continue to face deportation. After reviewing hundreds of cases, those released were considered low-risk and “noncriminal,” officials said.

Finally and Who would have thought? smh in disgust; Somali fraudsters exposed in Lewiston, ME and Columbus, Ohio

Posted by Ann Corcoran on February 1, 2014

The Lewiston fraud is your run-of-the-mill welfare fraud (with a little alleged forgery and some lying thrown in!) which we are becoming familiar with in the cities, like Columbus and Lewiston, that have “welcomed” diversity.  The Columbus story adds an interesting and new piece of information about the creative ways refugees are defrauding Uncle Sam.

From the Lewiston Sun Journal  (by the way, when I type ‘Lewiston fraud’ into our search bar this is what I get—lots of previous posts):

AUBURN — A Lewiston couple denied in court Thursday charges that they schemed to defraud the government out of welfare benefits over the past nine years.

Amina H. Ege, 42, of 105 Shawmut St., was indicted by an Androscoggin County grand jury on two counts of theft by deception, four counts of aggravated forgery and 12 counts of unsworn falsification. Six of the charges are felonies punishable by up to 10 years in prison. The remaining charges are misdemeanors.

Abdi A. Hassan, 43, of the same address, was indicted on two counts of theft by deception, seven counts of aggravated forgery, one count of negotiating a worthless instrument and five counts of unsworn falsification. Nine of the charges are felonies, each punishable by up to 10 years in prison, and one of the counts is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison. The rest of the charges are misdemeanors.

According to court documents, the two are accused of lying about the fact that they were living together while Hassan was providing Ege with financial support. She was accused of failing to disclose that she had received a workers’ compensation settlement.

Because of those omissions, according to the indictment, Ege received more than $10,000 worth of benefits from programs such as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and Section 8 housing, among others.

Read it all.

Who knew that the federal ‘No Child Left Behind’ program was paying Somalis to educate kids!

Mussa Farah is a spokesman for the central Ohio Somali community and on Mayor Michael B. Coleman’s Community Relations Commission.

From the Columbus Dispatch (hat tip: ‘pungentpeppers’):

Columbus City Schools are stepping up oversight of independent tutors paid for by the federal No Child Left Behind program, terminating eight contracts this school year.

The problems have ranged from students’ signatures being falsified to employees who weren’t paid, according to district documents.

Last week, the district sent a letter to Horn of Africa, a tutoring program in Linden, stating that it was rescinding its contract based on evidence that employees “falsified dates, times of attendance and student signatures on attendance forms.”

The district conducted an inspection in January of Horn of Africa and said it had found students on computers not receiving instruction, including some playing online games, according to a district report.  >>MORE<<

Ohio National Guard Training Envisions Right-Wing Terrorism

Portsmouth Chief of Police Bill Raisin told NBC 3 WSAZ-TV in Huntington, West Virginia that the drill accurately represented “the reality of the world we live in,” adding that such training “helps us all be prepared.”

Internal ONG documents provided to Media Trackers after repeated delays provide further context to what WSAZ-TV reported last winter.

In the disaster-preparedness scenario, two Portsmouth Junior High School employees poisoned school lunches with mustard gas, acting on orders from white-nationalist leader William Pierce.

The ONG team discovered biological weapons being produced in the school, requiring activation of containment and decontamination procedures.

Participants in the disaster drill located documents expressing the school employees’ “anti-government” sentiments, as well as a note identifying Pierce as the fictional right-wing terrorists’ leader.

ONG’s 52nd Civil Support Unit participated in a similar drill involving left-wing terrorists with Athens County first responders last year; public officials apologized for that training the next day in response to complaints from local environmentalist groups.

No apology to Ohioans who support limited government and the Second Amendment appears to be forthcoming.  MORE

thank you John

The Swiss close borders to immigrants?!?

The decision by Swiss voters to cap immigration has imperiled relations with other European states, as it has burnished efforts by right-wing populists intent on spreading an anti-foreigner political agenda.

On Sunday, the Swiss narrowly backed a proposal to curb the country's open-borders treaty with the 28-nation European Union, of which it is not a member. Voters were stoked by fears of overpopulation and Europe's rising numbers of Muslims.

The vote's impact is echoing well beyond the country's Alpine peaks, bringing retaliatory threats from leaders across the continent and worries that the move could shake the European economy.

People are uneasy about unlimited freedom of movement

GERMANY’S WOLFGANG SCHAEUBLE

The vote in Switzerland - home to Nestle, the world's biggest food company, and international drugmakers Roche Holding and Novartis - could make it difficult to hire foreigners, some business leaders warned.

The government has three years to implement the new rules, which will primarily affect workers from the EU, many of them highly qualified.

About 20 per cent of Swiss residents are foreigners and 45 per cent of employees in the country's chemical, pharmaceutical and biotech industry are not Swiss.

Officials in Brussels, the EU's administrative capital, warned that the vote could threaten Switzerland's access to the 500 million consumers of the bloc, which stretches from Greece to Ireland and from Latvia to Portugal, and is anchored by economic powers Germany and France.

While not a member of the EU, neutral Switzerland signed a sweeping treaty with its neighbours in 1999. The fear and loathing over immigration that drove the referendum can also be seen in countries across the region.

"Switzerland is playing the role of a pioneer for the whole of Europe now," Toni Brunner - chairman of the Swiss People's Party, which backed the referendum and has launched an initiative to ban mosque minarets - told the Neue Zuerchernewspaper. "EU open borders, in the form they exist in today, will have to be discussed."

Hard economic times persist in much of Europe, the legacy of a multi-year debt crisis. And that leaves immigrants vulnerable to public wrath from Britain to Greece. Hungary's far-right Jobbik party - anti-immigrant, anti-Roma and anti-Semitic - has moved from the political fringes into the halls of parliament and is campaigning heavily before April elections.

Paramilitaries with the Golden Dawn in Athens have launched street battles against immigrants, staging a number of well-documented attacks. The flow of Syrian refugees into Europe has also helped boost the popularity of anti-immigrant nationalists in Bulgaria.

Advocates of a more united Europe are bracing for European Parliament elections this May, when anti-immigrant nationalists from France, Holland, Britain, Finland and elsewhere are expected to capture as many as one-third of the seats.

With many far-right European parties adopting protectionist stances, observers note that substantial victories for nationalists could jeopardise European parliamentary approval of a sweeping free-trade accord that is now being negotiated with the United States.

"Immigration is the big theme of 2014 in Europe," said Mats Persson, director of Open Europe, a think tank that focuses on EU changes. "One of the big risks is that the European Parliament becomes quite polarised after the May elections, filled with federalists who want a closer union in Europe and nationalists who want exactly the opposite."  MORE

Nelson Mandela Entrusts $4.1M Estate to Family, Staff, ANC and Schools

BY COLIN DAILEDA

Former South African President Nelson Mandela left his $4.1 million estate to his family, staff, several schools and the African National Congress — the nation's ruling political party of which he was a member — according to a public reading of his will on Monday.

Many expected Mandela's surviving family members to quarrel over how the money was allotted after his wishes were made public, but South African Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke, who read out the anti-apartheid hero's will, reportedly said nothing has been contested. The Nelson Mandela Foundation website published a memo that went along with the will, which we've embedded, below.

SEE ALSO: 11 Inspiring Moments to Remember Nelson Mandela

After Mandela's will was read to his family in the hours before the public announcement, Moseneke said they only asked for a few clarifications, according to Reuters.

The former president's third wife at the time he died, Graca Machel, is entitled to half his estate under South African marital law, though she could decide not to accept it. If she does, it's not clear what effect that would have on the will's implementation.  MORE

Canada floats new citizenship rules that could affect thousands of Chinese

Canada has unveiled sweeping reforms that would require immigrants spend more time as permanent residents, file tax returns and sign an undertaking to continue living in the country if they want to become citizens.

The proposed redrawing of the Citizenship Act, unveiled on Thursday, would lengthen the period of residency required from three years to four years.

Language proficiency requirements would be extended to children as young as 14 and adults as old as 64, and penalties for fraudulent applications toughened.

China is the biggest single source of applications for Canadian permanent residency and among those who may be affected by the changes are the 110,813 mainland Chinese and 3,305 Hongkongers granted permanent residency between 2010 and the middle of last year.

An investigation by the South China Morning Post yesterday revealed tens of thousands of mainland Chinese millionaires had swamped Canada's Hong Kong consulate with applications for its investor immigrant programme, forcing it to be shelved in 2012. It had been the favourite pathway for rich Chinese to obtain foreign citizenship.

The Post reported last year that at least 65,000 Hong Kong-born Canadians had returned to the city since 1996, a process that was not officially acknowledged because neither China nor Hong Kong recognise dual citizenship.

Immigration Minister Chris Alexander said the government was simply asking those applying for citizenship to promise to live in Canada and it would pursue those who lodged deceitful applications. "We know where the high risk of residency fraud is and we are going to focus our investigative resources there," he said.

The changes would affect only applications lodged after the rules were enforced later this year. The ruling Conservative Party enjoys a strong parliamentary majority, making the bill's passage likely.

The new rules also give a stricter definition of what constitutes "residence". Applicants must have spent 1,460 days in Canada over six years. They must also have been there for at least 183 days per year in four of the six years. Time spent in Canada before becoming permanent residents will no longer be counted.

"The only way to get to know this country is by being here and experiencing it," Alexander said.

A continued residency undertaking would deter "reverse migration" by newly minted Canadians, a process particularly extensive in the Chinese community. There are about 295,000 Canadian citizens in Hong Kong, many of them returnees.

Vancouver immigration lawyer Richard Kurland said the reforms were a potential "game changer" for wealth-based Chinese migration to Canada.  MORE