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	<title>FrontPage Magazine &#187; phone records</title>
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		<title>The Loss of Trust</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/thomas-sowell/the-loss-of-trust/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=the-loss-of-trust</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/thomas-sowell/the-loss-of-trust/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 18 Jun 2013 04:10:39 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Thomas Sowell]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Government]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[trust]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=193625</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Why the Obama scandals are doing permanent damage to the nation's spirit. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/obama-5.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-193628" alt="obama-5" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/obama-5-450x329.jpg" width="270" height="197" /></a>Amid all the heated cross-currents of debate about the National Security Agency&#8217;s massive surveillance program, there is a growing distrust of the Obama administration that makes weighing the costs and benefits of the NSA program itself hard to assess.</p>
<p>The belated recognition of this administration&#8217;s contempt for the truth, for the American people and for the Constitution of the United States, has been long overdue.</p>
<p>But what if the NSA program has in fact thwarted terrorists and saved many American lives in ways that cannot be revealed publicly?</p>
<p>Nothing is easier than saying that you still don&#8217;t want your telephone records collected by the government. But the first time you have to collect the remains of your loved ones, after they have been killed by terrorists, telephone records can suddenly seem like a small price to pay to prevent such things.</p>
<p>The millions of records of phone calls collected every day virtually guarantee that nobody has the time to listen to them all, even if NSA could get a judge to authorize listening to what is said in all these calls, instead of just keeping a record of who called whom.</p>
<p>Moreover, Congressional oversight by members of both political parties limits what Barack Obama or any other president can get away with.</p>
<p>Are these safeguards foolproof? No. Nothing is ever foolproof.</p>
<p>As Edmund Burke said, more than two centuries ago: &#8220;Constitute government how you please, infinitely the greater part of it must depend upon the exercise of the powers which are left at large to the prudence and uprightness of ministers of state.&#8221;</p>
<p>In other words, we do not have a choice whether to trust or not to trust government officials. Unless we are willing to risk anarchy or terrorism, the most we can do is set up checks and balances within government — and be a lot more careful in the future than we have been in the past when deciding whom to elect.</p>
<p>Anyone old enough to remember the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, when President John F. Kennedy took this country to the brink of nuclear war with the Soviet Union, may remember that there was nothing like the distrust and backlash against later presidents, whose controversial decisions risked nothing approaching the cataclysm that President Kennedy&#8217;s decision could have led to.</p>
<p>Even those of us who were not John F. Kennedy supporters, and who were not dazzled by the glitter and glamour of the Kennedy aura, nevertheless felt that the President of the United States was someone who knew much more than we did about the realities on which all our lives depended.</p>
<p>Whatever happened to that feeling? Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon happened — and both were shameless liars. They destroyed not only their own credibility, but the credibility of the office.</p>
<p>Even when Lyndon Johnson told us the truth at a crucial juncture during the Vietnam war — that the Communist offensive of 1968 was a defeat for them, even as the media depicted it as a defeat for us — we didn&#8217;t believe him.</p>
<p>In later years, Communist leaders themselves admitted that they had been devastated on the battlefield. But, by then it was too late. What the Communists lost militarily on the ground in Vietnam they won politically in the American media and in American public opinion.</p>
<p>More than 50,000 Americans lost their lives winning battles on the ground in Vietnam, only to have the war lost politically back home. We seem to be having a similar scenario unfolding today in Iraq, where soldiers won the war, only to have politicians lose the peace, as Iraq now increasingly aligns itself with Iran.</p>
<p>When Barack Obama squanders his own credibility with his glib lies, he is not just injuring himself during his time in office. He is inflicting a lasting wound on the country as a whole.</p>
<p>But we the voters are not blameless. Having chosen an untested man to be president, on the basis of rhetoric, style and symbolism, we have ourselves to blame if we now have only a choice between two potentially tragic fates — the loss of American lives to terrorism or a further dismantling of our freedoms that has already led many people to ask: &#8220;Is this still America?&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank">Click here</a>.</strong></p>
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		<title>Still the Land of the Free?</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/ronn-torossian/still-the-land-of-the-free/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=still-the-land-of-the-free</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/ronn-torossian/still-the-land-of-the-free/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 10 Jun 2013 04:09:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ronn Torossian]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[totalitarianism]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=192531</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Obama's frightening new America exposed. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/obama-tracking-american-people_prism-nsa-800x.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-192532" alt="obama-tracking-american-people_prism-nsa-800x" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/obama-tracking-american-people_prism-nsa-800x-450x317.jpg" width="270" height="190" /></a>The Obama Administration&#8217;s totalitarian ways have been outed.</p>
<p>As a Jewish-American, born and bred in New York City, and a self-made entrepreneur, I love this great country.  To succeed in the competitive <a href="http://www.5wpr.com/news/5wpr_named_finalist_for_public_relations_agency_of_year_in_2013_american_business_awards.cfm">Public Relations</a> world, it is often necessary to &#8220;think in sound bites.&#8221;  As such, there are some questions that anyone with a brain perusing the newspapers would have to ask themselves, in fact, anyone with a brain even not reading the news every day should consider these questions (particularly those people who come from the liberal-thinking school of ideology):</p>
<p>The Guardian just revealed that the Obama Administration is collecting the phone records of millions of Americans. The Obama Administration which has already said it can kill Americans anywhere in the world at will, has admitted to spying on reporters at the Associated Press and Fox News, and has published an enemies list &#8212; not enemies like foreign combatants or domestic terrorists, but political and ideological thoughts leaders who do not necessarily agree with this President’s policies or actions.  These actions are ones that groups such as the ACLU would normally protest, but where are the usual activists who would otherwise rally against any leader from parties on the Right had they been caught violating civil liberties?</p>
<p>The Obama Administration offers a truly free sky to Saudi Arabia; it is among a handful of countries whose citizens <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/3947/special-travel-benefit-for-saudis-a-slap-in">can bypass normal passport controls</a> at major U.S. airports, yet the IRS is going after political enemies of the administration? The nation that produced 15 of the 19 hijackers in the 9/11 attacks, Saudi Arabia, will have a direct role in vetting who is eligible for getting fast-tracked for entry into the United States.  Is this in America’s best interests?</p>
<p>Soon enough, Americans can be in big legal trouble if they do not have health care.  Jail time and fines can all be imposed if you do not comply with Obama care’s requirements. A country which gives quarter to anti-American provocateurs can choose who can enter the U.S. without being properly screened, while people without health insurance will be considered criminals in Obama’s Land of the Free.</p>
<p>In the Middle East, Israel is an ally; the rare Western-facing civilization in a region where the Muslim Brotherhood, which has killed Americans, is the ruling political entity in Egypt.  Iran is building nukes. Libya, which saw our own ambassador and three of his staff killed by extremists, and of course now America&#8217;s &#8220;ally,&#8221; the Turks, are facing mass riots &#8212; and increasingly religious extremist policies leading the government.  Is this good for America?</p>
<p>Samantha Power, the new Obama-appointee at the United Nations, has equated terrorist Yasser Arafat with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Making a moral equivalence she wrote, “We will lambaste Yasser Arafat, investing significant political capital in regime change, but we will only ritualistically take issue with Ariel Sharon[.]&#8221; Power has attacked Israel on many occasions, saying supporting Israel harms the U.S. national interest. She has publicly come very close to calling former U.S. presidents war criminals and has advocated for the U.S. to beg the world for forgiveness. Is this good for America?</p>
<p>President Obama has gone from being the elected leader of our nation to thinking he is on the level of a deity.  Only his decisions are right, and only when he or his minions take action. They believe it should be beyond our right to question the administration&#8217;s wisdom.</p>
<p>Of course, don’t ask me – I live in the least free state in America – according to a study by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. I only pay <a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2012/ronn-torossian/taxing-the-successful-to-death/">50% taxes</a> as an entrepreneur.  Rest assured, however, I am standing now in the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/5WPublicRelations">5WPR</a> office on 6<sup>th</sup> avenue in the heart of Manhattan – there’s no one drinking a Big Gulp, butter will soon be labeled contraband and anyone who dares drive a car in the city will be a scofflaw.</p>
<p>Is this the land of the free? The Obama totalitarian is indeed exposed.</p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank">Click here</a>.</strong></p>
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		<title>Big Brother Barack</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/arnold-ahlert/big-brother-barack-2/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=big-brother-barack-2</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/arnold-ahlert/big-brother-barack-2/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 07 Jun 2013 04:54:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Arnold Ahlert]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[national security]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[phone records]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=192396</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Obama's dragnet serves as an ominous reminder that inside every liberal is a totalitarian screaming to get out.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/flickering.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-192420" alt="flickering" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/flickering.jpg" width="276" height="390" /></a>A stunning <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/06/nsa-phone-records-verizon-court-order">report</a> by the Guardian newspaper published late Wednesday evening reveals that the National Security Agency (NSA) has been collecting the phone records of millions of Americans who are customers of Verizon, one of the nation&#8217;s largest telecom companies. The top-secret <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2013/jun/06/verizon-telephone-data-court-order">order</a>, obtained by the paper, requires Verizon to submit to the NSA, &#8220;on an ongoing daily basis…all call details or &#8216;telephony metadata&#8217; created by Verizon for communications (i) between the United States and abroad; or (ii) wholly within the United States, including local telephone calls.&#8221; Moreover, the paper reports that Americans&#8217; communication records &#8220;are being collected indiscriminately and in bulk&#8211;regardless of whether they are suspected of any wrongdoing.&#8221;</p>
<p>The parameters of the exposed surveillance program are indeed massive, indiscriminate and involve no conditions of probable cause or reasonable suspicion of terrorist activities. Judge Roger Vinson of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/06/us/us-secretly-collecting-logs-of-business-calls.html?hp&amp;_r=1&amp;">granted</a> the order on April 25, directing Verizon to collect the data only until July 19, unless the blanket order is extended. The so-called &#8220;metadata&#8221; includes</p>
<blockquote><p>comprehensive communications routing information, including but not limited to session identifying information (e.g. originating and terminating telephone number, International Mobile station Equipment Identity (IMEI) number,etc.), trunk identifier, telephone calling card numbers, and time and duration of call.</p></blockquote>
<p>The content of the conversations are not covered. Neither is the name, address or financial information for a subscriber or customer. Yet the targets of this seizure &#8212; Americans &#8212; are clear in that the above order does <i>not</i> include calls made between foreigners. Furthermore, none of these limitations would stop the NSA from putting together a clear picture of who called who, how and when the call was made, and from what location.</p>
<p>Vinson&#8217;s order clearly states that while the application was initiated by the FBI, Verizon&#8217;s &#8220;Custodian of Records&#8221; shall turn the data over to the NSA. Yet section 2.3,  “Collection of Information&#8221; included in <a href="http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/codification/executive-order/12333.html#content">&#8220;Executive Order 12333-United States Intelligence activities,&#8221;</a> specifically limits the NSA&#8217;s collection of data to &#8220;foreign intelligence or counterintelligence&#8221; sources, further stipulating that data collection within the United States</p>
<blockquote><p>shall be undertaken by the FBI or, when significant foreign intelligence is sought, by other authorized agencies of the Intelligence Community, provided that no foreign intelligence collection by such agencies may be undertaken for the purpose of acquiring information concerning the domestic activities of United States persons.</p></blockquote>
<p>Thus, the NSA is in violation of its own charter.</p>
<p>Kate Martin of the Center for National Security Studies, a civil liberties advocacy group, contends that, “absent some explanation I haven’t thought of, this looks like the largest assault on privacy since the N.S.A. wiretapped Americans in clear violation of the law” during the Bush administration. “On what possible basis has the government refused to tell us that it believes that the law authorizes this kind of request?” she asks.</p>
<p>On its face, however, the Obama administration&#8217;s cell phone surveillance is vastly more abusive than the Bush wiretapping program, which was leaked to the press in 2006 and discontinued in 2007. The Bush administration defended those efforts at the time, stressing that the NSA was focused <a href="http://yahoo.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-05-10-nsa_x.htm?csp=1">exclusively</a> on international calls in connection to al Qaeda operatives and post-9/11 terrorism. &#8220;In other words,&#8221; Bush explained at the time, &#8220;one end of the communication must be outside the United States.&#8221; In 2007, former Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez sent a <a href="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/politics/20060117gonzales_Letter.pdf">letter</a> to the Senate Judiciary Committee, affirming that a FISA court judge authorized the targeting of international communications where there was probable cause that &#8220;one of the communicants is a member or agent of al Qaeda, or an associated terrorist organization.&#8221;</p>
<p>Even the far-left ACLU recognizes the tremendous difference between the Bush-era and Obama-era programs. Alex Abdo, a staff attorney with the ACLU’s National Security Project, <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/06/05/nsas-verizon-spying-order-specifically-targeted-americans-not-foreigners/">noted</a>, “In many ways it’s even more troubling than [Bush era] warrantless wiretapping, in part because the program is purely domestic,” he explains.  &#8220;But this is also an indiscriminate dragnet. Say what you will about warrantless wiretapping, at least it was targeted at agents of Al Qaeda. This includes every customer of Verizon Business Services.”</p>
<p>Prior to publishing its revelations, the <i>Guardian</i> contacted the NSA, the White House and the Justice Department for comment. All of them declined to say anything. So did Verizon, but that is completely expected. The order expressly states that</p>
<blockquote><p>no person shall disclose to any other person that the FBI or the NSA has sought or obtained tangible things under this order other than to: a) those persons to whom disclosure is necessary to comply with such Order; b) an attorney to obtain legal advice or assistance with respect to the production of things in response to the Order; or c) other persons as permitted by the Director of the FBI, or the Director&#8217;s designee.</p></blockquote>
<p>As several news sources note, Verizon may represent the tip of the iceberg. It remains a distinct possibility that other phone carriers, as well as giant Internet entities such as Google, Facebook, or Microsoft or any other ISPs, may be under surveillance&#8211;and that such surveillance may have been taking place far longer than the three months granted in the specific order.</p>
<p>Furthermore, officials have been dishonest about the nature of these programs. On March 15, 2012, an <a href="http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/03/ff_nsadatacenter/all/1">article</a> in <i>Wired</i> magazine chronicled the construction of the NSA&#8217;s top-secret Utah Data Center. The article also contended that the agency &#8220;has turned its surveillance apparatus on the US and its citizens,&#8221; and &#8220;established listening posts throughout the nation to collect and sift through billions of email messages and phone calls, whether they originate within the country or overseas.&#8221;</p>
<p>Five days later, during a budget hearing in Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee of the Armed Services Committee, Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2012/03/20/nsa-chief-denies-wireds-domestic-spying-story-fourteen-times-in-congressional-hearing/">questioned</a> NSA director general Keith Alexander about whether the agency was conducting the kind of domestic surveillance outlined in the article. During the ensuing exchange, Alexander denied the charge fourteen times, insisting that any and all domestic surveillance would have to be conducted by the FBI. “Within the United States, that would be the FBI lead,” responded Alexander. “If it were a foreign actor in the United States, the FBI would still have to lead. It could work that with NSA or other intelligence agencies as authorized. But to conduct that kind of collection in the United States it would have to go through a court order, and the court would have to authorize it. We’re not authorized to do it, nor do we do it.”</p>
<p>This latest revelation makes a mockery of that testimony.</p>
<p>On July 9, 2012, Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2012/07/09/by-the-numbers-heres-how-often-att-sprint-and-verizon-hand-over-users-data-to-the-government/">released</a> a series of letters from major phone carriers responding to his demand they provide information on how often and under what circumstances they released information to the government. In addition to Verizon, companies such as Sprint, AT&amp;T, T-Mobile, MetroPCS and Cricket  revealed they had answered a staggering <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/09/us/cell-carriers-see-uptick-in-requests-to-aid-surveillance.html?_r=2">1.3 million requests</a> for data. Moreover, those requests represented annual increases of between 12 percent and 16 percent over the previous five years. “I never expected it to be this massive,” said Markey. ACLU attorney Chris Calebrese noted that much of that data collection, like the effort revealed by the <i>Guardian</i> on Wednesday, was completely indiscriminate. “Just the sheer volume of orders is amazing, but a significant chunk are dumps from entire cell towers,” he said at the time. “That means tons of people’s information is being grabbed with a single one of these orders.”</p>
<p>The latest court order seemingly confirms numerous, but vague, warnings issued by U.S. Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Mark Udall (D-CO) regarding the scope of the Obama administration&#8217;s surveillance efforts. For more than two years, both these members of the Senate Intelligence Committee have been sounding the alarm regarding the &#8220;secret legal interpretations&#8221; used by the administration to justify a level of domestic surveillance so broad, Americans would be &#8220;stunned&#8221; by the revelations.</p>
<p>Yet as recently as March 12, 2013, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-TV/2013/06/06/Three-Months-Ago-Director-of-National-Intelligence-Testified-Gov-Does-Not-Collect-Data-On-Americans">denied</a> any such domestic surveillance was taking place in an exchange with Sen. Wyden:</p>
<blockquote><p>Senator Ron Wyden: &#8220;Does the NSA collect any kind of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?</p>
<p>Clapper: &#8220;No, sir.&#8221;</p>
<p>Wyden: &#8220;It does not?&#8221;</p>
<p>Clapper: &#8220;Not wittingly. There are cases where they could, inadvertently, perhaps…&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>Late yesterday afternoon, White House spokesman Josh Earnest <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/06/us-usa-wiretaps-verizon-idUSBRE95502920130606">defended</a> the administration&#8217;s efforts. “The intelligence community is conducting court-authorized intelligence activities pursuant to public statute with the knowledge and oversight of Congress,&#8221; he contended. A senior administration official speaking on condition of anonymity, also justified the effort. &#8220;Information of the sort described in the <i>Guardian</i> article has been a critical tool in protecting the nation from terrorist threats to the United States, as it allows counterterrorism personnel to discover whether known or suspected terrorists have been in contact with other persons who may be engaged in terrorist activities, particularly people located inside the United States,&#8221; he argued.</p>
<p>Members of both political parties supported that contention. &#8220;It&#8217;s called protecting America,&#8221; said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA). &#8220;If we didn&#8217;t do it, we&#8217;d be crazy,&#8221; said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-NC).</p>
<p>However, Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI), who introduced the Patriot Act in 2001, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/06/jim-sensenbrenner-nsa_n_3397440.html">sent</a> a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder expressing precisely the opposite, a viewpoint undoubtedly shared by many Americans. “I do not believe the released FISA order is consistent with the requirements of the Patriot Act,” he wrote. “How could the phone records of so many innocent Americans be relevant to an authorized investigation as required by the Act?” In a press release accompanying the letter he made it clear where he stood. &#8220;Seizing phone records of millions of innocent people is excessive and un-American,&#8221; it stated.</p>
<p>The NSA clearly exceeded its legal mandate. The dishonest statements of officials involved with the program indicate the government was aware of the bounds it was overstepping. But the dishonesty is dual in nature. While the Obama administration has been declaring the war on terror dead and gone, a relic of a bygone era, it has been secretly implementing extraordinary measures <em>against Americans</em>, and it has done so on the basis of the dire exigencies of the jihadist threat. And while posturing, as always, as a &#8220;progressive&#8221; force, this leftist administration is, once again, engaging in &#8220;Big-Brother&#8221; 1984-style tactics &#8212; revealing, in true leftist tradition, that inside every liberal is a totalitarian screaming to get out. The scandal-ridden atmosphere has become so rotten and disturbing that even the <em>New York Times</em><a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/06/06/new-york-times-editorial-board-says-administration-has-lost-all-credibility/"> has noted</a> that this is an administration that has lost all credibility.</p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank">Click here</a>.</strong></p>
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		<title>Obama: Wounded &#8230; and Dangerous</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/caroline-glick/obama-wounded-and-dangerous/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=obama-wounded-and-dangerous</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/caroline-glick/obama-wounded-and-dangerous/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 07 Jun 2013 04:46:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Caroline Glick]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[IRS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Israel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kerry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NSA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[phone records]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=192507</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Beware the president's modus operandi: respond to defeat with radicalization. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><em><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Obama-Scandal.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-192508" alt="Obama-Scandal" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Obama-Scandal-450x298.jpg" width="270" height="179" /></a>Originally <a href="http://www.jpost.com/LandedPages/PrintArticle.aspx?id=315749">published</a> in the Jerusalem Post.</em></p>
<p>US Secretary of State John Kerry looks like a bit of an idiot these days. On Monday he announced that he will be returning to Israel and the Palestinian Authority and Jordan for the fifth time since he was sworn into office on February 1. That is an average of more than one visit a month.</p>
<p>And aside from frequent flier miles, the only thing he has to show for it is a big black eye from PLO chief and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.</p>
<p>When Kerry was here last month he unveiled a stunning plan to bring $4 billion in investment funds to the PA. If his plan actually pans out, its champions claim it will increase the PA&#8217;s GDP by a mind-numbing 50 percent in three years and drop Palestinian unemployment from 21 to 8 percent.</p>
<p>Standing before world and regional leaders on May 26, Kerry said plaintively, &#8220;This will help build the future. Is this a fantasy? I don&#8217;t think so.&#8221;</p>
<p>Abbas and his underlings wasted no time, however, in demonstrating that indeed, Kerry&#8217;s plan is fantasy. Abbas appointed Rami Hamdallah, a Fatah apparatchik with perfect English, to replace America&#8217;s favorite moderate Palestinian, Salam Fayyad, as PA prime minister.</p>
<p>As <i>The Jerusalem Post&#8217;s</i> Khaled Abu Toameh has pointedly explained, Hamdallah was appointed for two reasons. First, to facilitate Fatah&#8217;s absconding with hundreds of millions of dollars in donor aid to the PA and to Palestinian development projects precisely of the type that Kerry hopes to finance with his $4b. grant. The second reason Abbas appointed Hamdallah the English professor from Nablus was because his language skills will enable him to make American and European donors feel comfortable as his colleagues in Fatah pick their taxpayer- funded pockets.</p>
<p>Aside from mooning Kerry in the middle of his speech in Jordan, Abbas couldn&#8217;t have thought of a more graphic way to show his contempt for Kerry and the Obama administration.</p>
<p>But that wasn&#8217;t the only thing the Palestinians did. Again, as Abu Toameh has reported, the popular Palestinian response to last week&#8217;s World Economic Forum in Jordan, where Abbas and Kerry rubbed elbows with President Shimon Peres and Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, was to attack the businessmen who accompanied Abbas to the conference. Their crime was meeting with Israeli businessmen who came to the conference in Peres&#8217;s entourage. Led by Fatah activists, Palestinian writers, unions and others also went after Palestinian businessmen from Jenin who went to Haifa to meet with Israeli businesspeople at the invitation of Haifa&#8217;s Chamber of Commerce. The &#8220;anti-normalization&#8221; crowd is calling for Palestinians to boycott Palestinian businesses that do business with Israelis.</p>
<p>And again, that isn&#8217;t all. At the PLO&#8217;s birthday celebrations this week, Abbas said that the group&#8217;s 1964 charter reflects the will of the Palestinian people. That charter calls for the destruction of Israel. It was written three years before Israel took control of Judea, Samaria and northern, southern and eastern Jerusalem.</p>
<p>But wait, there&#8217;s more. The Palestinian leadership attacked Kerry personally and his plan as an attempt to bribe them. They promised that while they will happily take the money, $4b. measly dollars won&#8217;t convince them to moderate one iota. They still demand that Israel release all Palestinian terrorists from its jails, agree to its demographic destruction through the so-called &#8220;right of return,&#8221; or unfettered immigration of millions of foreign Arabs to Israel, and the surrender of all of Judea, Samaria and northern, southern and eastern Jerusalem to the PLO as a precondition to beginning negotiations.</p>
<p>And for all that, Kerry responded by applauding Hamdallah&#8217;s appointment and announcing he will return here next week and is planning to roll out his own comprehensive peace plan very soon.</p>
<p>Israeli leaders for the most part have reacted to Kerry&#8217;s constant harping by rolling their eyes. He seems like a complete lunatic. Obviously he will fail and the best thing we can do is smile and nod, like you do when you are dealing with a crazy person.</p>
<p>Even when Kerry claimed that the reason Israelis aren&#8217;t interested in peace is that we have too much money to care, we didn&#8217;t take offense. Because really, why take anything he says seriously? And aside from that, they ask, what can the Obama administration do to us, at this point? Every single day it becomes more mired in scandal.</p>
<p>The Guardian&#8217;s revelation Wednesday that the US government has been confiscating the phone records of tens of millions of Americans who use the Verizon business network since April is just the latest serious, normal-presidency destroying scandal to be exposed in the past month. And every single scandal &#8211; the IRS&#8217;s unlawful harassment and discrimination of conservative organizations and individuals, the Justice Department&#8217;s spying on AP journalists and attempt to criminalize the normal practice of journalism through its investigation of Fox News correspondent James Rosen &#8211; makes it more difficult for President Barack Obama to advance his agenda.</p>
<p>As for foreign policy, the whistle-blower testimony that exposed Obama&#8217;s cover-up of the September 11, 2012, al-Qaida attack on the US Consulate and CIA annex in Benghazi has caused massive damage to Obama&#8217;s credibility in foreign affairs and to the basic logic of his foreign policy.</p>
<p>Ambassador Chris Stevens was tortured and murdered by al-Qaida terrorists who owed their freedom of operation to the Obama administration. If it hadn&#8217;t been for Obama&#8217;s decision to bring down the regime of Muammar Gaddafi, who had been largely harmless to the US since he gave up his illicit nuclear weapons program in 2004, those al-Qaida forces probably wouldn&#8217;t have be capable of waging an eight-hour assault on US installations and personnel in Benghazi.</p>
<p>With the Benghazi scandal hounding him, the Syrian civil war and, for the past week, the anti-government protests in Turkey all exposing his incompetence on a daily basis, these Israeli leaders take heart, no doubt in the belief that Obama&#8217;s freedom to attack us has vastly diminished.</p>
<p>Although this interpretation of events is attractive, and on its face seems reasonable, it is wrong.</p>
<p>And it would be a devastating mistake for Israeli leaders to believe it.</p>
<p>Since he entered office, Obama has responded to every defeat by doubling down and radicalizing.</p>
<p>When in 2009 public sentiment against his plan to nationalize the US healthcare industry was so high that Republican Scott Brown was elected senator from Massachusetts for the sole purpose of blocking Obamacare&#8217;s passage in the US Senate, Obama did not accept the public&#8217;s verdict.</p>
<p>Instead he used a technicality to ram the hated legislation through without giving Brown and the Senate the chance to vote it down.</p>
<p>And now, as his Middle East strategy of appeasing Islamists lies in the ruins of the US Consulate in Benghazi and in the cemeteries interning the Syrians murdered in sarin gas attacks as Obama shrugged his shoulders, Obama is again doubling down. On Wednesday he announced that he is elevating the two architects of his policy to senior leadership roles in his administration.</p>
<p>Obama&#8217;s appointments of UN Ambassador Susan Rice to serve as his national security adviser, and of former National Security Council member Samantha Power to serve as ambassador to the UN, are a finger in the eye to his critics. These women rose to national prominence through their breathless insistence that the US use force to overthrow Gaddafi in spite of clear evidence that al-Qaida was a major force in his opposition.</p>
<p>Power is reportedly the author of Obama&#8217;s policy of apologizing to foreign countries for the actions of past administrations. Certainly she shares Obama&#8217;s hostility toward Israel. And she has been outspoken in expressing her negative opinions.</p>
<p>In a nutshell, Power&#8217;s vision for US foreign policy is a noxious brew of equal parts self-righteousness, ignorance and prejudice. And now she will be responsible for defending Israel (or not) at the most hostile international arena in the world, where Israel&#8217;s very right to exist is subject to assault on a daily basis.</p>
<p>Obama&#8217;s decision to appoint Rice and Power in the face of the mounting scandals surrounding his presidency generally and his foreign policy particularly is not the only reason Israeli leaders should not expect for his weakened political position to diminish Obama&#8217;s plan to put the screws on Israel in the coming years. There is also the disturbing pattern of the abuse of power that the scandals expose.</p>
<p>To date, all administration officials questioned have denied that Obama was in any way involved in directing the IRS to use the tax code to intimidate with the aim of discrediting and destroying conservative organizations and donors. Likewise, they say he played no role in the Justice Department&#8217;s espionage operations against American journalists, or in the intentional cover-up of the al-Qaida assault on US installations and personnel in Benghazi. But mounting circumstantial evidence indicates that this is not true.</p>
<p>White House visitor records show that IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman visited Obama&#8217;s White House 157 times. His predecessor Mark Everson who served under president George W. Bush only visited the White House once.</p>
<p>So, too, as Andrew McCarthy reported last month in National Review, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney admitted that Obama spoke with then secretary of state Hillary Clinton at 10 p.m. on September 11, 2012, during the al- Qaida assault in Benghazi.</p>
<p>It was after that phone conversation that the administration changed its talking points about the nature of the assault, purging details on the identity of the perpetrators and blaming an unrelated Internet movie trailer for inciting the attack.</p>
<p>The one thing all the scandals share is a single-minded willingness to pursue radical goals to the bitter end. The IRS&#8217;s targeting of conservatives was an appalling abuse of executive power, unlike anything we have seen in recent history. The passage of Obamacare in the face massive public opposition was another means to the end of destroying his opponents.</p>
<p>The cover-up of the Benghazi attack was a bid to hide the failure of a policy in order to double down on it &#8211; despite its failure. The only reason you would want to double down on an already failed policy is if you are ideologically committed to a larger goal that the failed policy advances.</p>
<p>The similarities of the pattern of behavior in all of these actions, as well as the circumstantial evidence already unearthed, indicate strongly that despite the denials, Obama was in fact involved and may have directed the actions of all of his underlings in all of the scandals now unfolding.</p>
<p>What this means for Israel is we cannot be lured into complacency by Kerry&#8217;s buffoonery or Obama&#8217;s apparent political weakness. This is a man who is most dangerous when attacked. And this is a man who is absolutely committed to his ideological agenda. We had better be ready, because if we are not, we won&#8217;t know what has hit us.</p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank">Click here</a>.</strong></p>
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		<title>Desperate Holder Throws Underlings Under the Bus</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/arnold-ahlert/desperate-holder-throws-underlings-under-the-bus/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=desperate-holder-throws-underlings-under-the-bus</link>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 16 May 2013 04:52:29 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Arnold Ahlert]]></dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=189652</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[How long can the embattled Attorney General hang on? ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/0514-eric-holder-ap_full_600.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-189672" alt="0514-eric-holder-ap_full_600" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/0514-eric-holder-ap_full_600-450x322.jpg" width="270" height="193" /></a></p>
<p>[<strong>To order the Freedom Center&#8217;s pamphlet &#8220;Ten Reasons to Impeach Eric Holder,&#8221; written by Department of Justice whistleblower J. Christian Adams, click <a href="https://secure.donationreport.com/productlist.html?key=WY6LJDB7J48Y">here</a>.]</strong></p>
<p>In <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2325076/Eric-Holder-faces-congressional-grilling-IRS-investigation-Boston-bombing-Benghazi-spying-journalists-phone-records-scandal-fever-sweeps-Washington.html">testimony</a> before the House Judiciary Committee yesterday, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder reinforced the notion that he is unfit to remain in office. Although he was grilled about many of the scandals afflicting the Obama administration, the seizure of phone records from the Associated Press (AP) remained the major concern for both Republicans and Democrats. Holder made it clear they were <a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2013/05/15/holder_on_ap_scandal_i_was_not_the_person_involved.html">wasting</a> their time trying to get answers about the investigation from him. “I was not the person involved in that decision,” he insisted. “I was recused in that matter as I described in a press conference held yesterday. The decision to issue this subpoena was made by the people presently involved in the case.&#8221;</p>
<p>Holder said he <a href="http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2013/05/15/holder-testifies-house-panel-gathering-phone-records/20iY1XRHoif4S3zHdOP8kK/story.html">recused</a> himself from the probe because &#8220;I am a possessor of information eventually leaked.&#8221; He expressed faith in the ability of those looking into the leaking of top-secret information to the AP. the leak revealed details of a CIA operation in Yemen that undermined an al Qaeda plot to get an underwear bomber on a jetliner. &#8220;I have faith in the people who actually were responsible for this case, that they were aware of the rules and that they followed them,&#8221; Holder said. &#8220;But I don’t have a factual basis to answer the questions that you have asked, because I was recused.&#8221;</p>
<p>That was an understatement. Holder wasn&#8217;t even able to answer the most basic questions about the investigation. He couldn&#8217;t say why the DOJ didn&#8217;t follow the standard practice of negotiating with the AP before issuing the subpoenas. &#8220;That I don&#8217;t know,&#8221; he responded to the question posed by Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI). &#8220;There are exceptions if the integrity of the investigation would be impacted. I don&#8217;t know why that didn&#8217;t happen.&#8221; Sensenbrenner <a href="http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/holder-95-99-certain-deputy-ag-authorized-subpoena-acting-my-stead_724558.html">asked</a> him who authorized the subpoena, &#8220;because the code of federal regulations is pretty specific that this is supposed to go as close to the top as possible.&#8221; Holder was noncommittal, claiming he was &#8220;probably 95 percent, 99 percent certain the deputy attorney general acting in my stead was the one who authorizes the subpoena.&#8221; After being handed a note, he confirmed that &#8220;the (Deputy Attorney General James Cole) was the one who authorized the subpoena.&#8221; Sensenbrenner expressed frustration regarding Holder&#8217;s evasiveness, suggesting administration officials travel to the Harry Truman Presidential Library and take a photo of the famous sign, &#8220;the buck stops here.&#8221;</p>
<p>The Congressman then explained why. &#8220;There doesn&#8217;t appear to be any acceptance of responsibility for things that have gone wrong,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>Holder couldn&#8217;t even say for certain when he recused himself. &#8220;I&#8217;m not sure, I think it was towards the beginning of the matter. I don&#8217;t know exactly when, but it was towards the beginning of the matter,&#8221; he told Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL).  Despite this complete lack of knowledge, Holder remains supportive of the seizure of two months of phone records via a secretly issued subpoena, because the aforementioned story involved &#8220;a very serious leak, a very grave leak.&#8221;</p>
<p>What Holder leaves out is the reality that this leak, as well as the ones regarding the president’s “kill list” of terror suspects, the Stuxnet virus used to foil Iranian nuclear ambitions, and the <a href="http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2012/05/25/why-isnt-undersecretary-of-defense-michael-vickers-being-prosecuted-for-outing-seal-team-6s-commander/">leaking</a> of classified information about SEAL Team 6 to Hollywood producers by Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Michael Vickers were remarkably consistent in one respect: they all accrued to Barack Obama&#8217;s efforts to appear &#8220;tough on terror&#8221; leading up to the 2012 election. Thus, it would stand to reason someone in the Obama administration was the source of the leaks for which AP phone records were secretly subpoenaed. It would be useful to know who has been subpoenaed on the other side of this equation&#8211;or who hasn&#8217;t, making the seizure of AP phone records necessary.</p>
<p>Democrats were willing to offer Holder cover on the issue. Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) was delighted that Republicans were now interested in media protection, considering a shield law died in the Senate in 2009. Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) criticized the &#8220;hue and cry&#8221; raised by the same Republicans who, last year, &#8220;wanted reporters subpoenaed, put in front of grand juries&#8221; in an effort to stop leaks. Apparently Conyers forgot that Democrats have controlled the Senate since 2006, and Nadler is unable to fathom the difference between overt and covert subpoenas, as well as the difference between grand jury testimony and a secret DOJ investigation.</p>
<p>Holder was grilled on the additional scandals surrounding the administration, including the potential lapses in intelligence sharing prior to the Boston Marathon bombings, and the IRS&#8217;s targeting conservative groups for special scrutiny.</p>
<p>With regard to the Boston bombings, Holder asserted that the DOJ&#8217;s investigation had been &#8220;thorough.&#8221; Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, disagreed, contending there was &#8220;troubling information&#8221; leading to the conclusion that the federal agencies involved in the investigation &#8220;failed to connect the dots.&#8221; “It does not appear that all of the information was received by all the pertinent parties, particularly the FBI,” the congressman said. When Goodlatte asked what the DOJ is doing about procedure regarding hits in terror databases, Holder  sidestepped the question, saying only that there is an ongoing inspector general investigation.</p>
<p>Holder was further <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2013/05/15/holder-and-gohmert-go-full-contact-in-house-fight-over-boston-bombings/">challenged</a> by Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX), who wondered what the FBI did, or didn&#8217;t, pursue after receiving Russian intelligence indicating Tamerlan Tsarnaev had become radicalized. “A lot of people are concerned about profiling, but there are a lot more people concerned about getting blown up by a terrorist,” Gomert contended.</p>
<p>Holder responded angrily to Gomert&#8217;s assertion. “Unless somebody has done something inappropriate, you don’t have access to the FBI files, you don’t know what the FBI did,” Holder said. “You simply do not know.&#8221;</p>
<p>Neither does anyone else at this point, and given the DOJ&#8217;s track record regarding other administration investigations, such as the one over Fast and Furious, it is more than likely any revelations about who knew what and when will be stonewalled.</p>
<p>Holder was equally vague regarding the IRS scandal. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50146898n">inquired</a> if the investigation would be far reaching, &#8220;including Washington, D.C.,&#8221; if necessary. Holder promised to go &#8220;wherever the facts take us.&#8221; On the other hand, he said it would take time to determine if there was &#8220;criminal&#8221; wrongdoing.</p>
<p>Late yesterday afternoon, it appeared that timeline would get even longer. Around 6 p.m. EDT, the president announced that Treasury Secretary Jack Lew had accepted the <a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/story/obama-says-acting-irs-commissioner-resigned-2013-05-15">resignation</a> of acting IRS commissioner Steve Miller. Obama characterized the &#8220;misconduct&#8221; detailed in the just-released Inspector General report about the IRS&#8217;s handling of conservative tax exempt applications as &#8220;inexcusable.&#8221; It remains to be a seen if Miller will be part of Holder&#8217;s investigation into IRS malfeasance, or simply be allowed to fade into oblivion.</p>
<p>The progressive media have <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2013/05/15/media-matters-sides-with-justice-dept-says-ap-sounds-like-it-should-be-investigated/">already begun</a> circling the wagons around the Attorney General. Media Matters insisted the secret seizure of AP phone records was a necessity. “If the press compromised active counter-terror operations for a story that only tipped off the terrorists, that sounds like it should be investigated,” they contended.</p>
<p>So should Media Matters&#8217; relationship with the DOJ. Internal DOJ emails <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2012/09/18/emails-reveal-justice-dept-regularly-enlists-media-matters-to-spin-press/">obtained</a> in 2012 by the<i> Daily Caller </i>revealed the leftist advocacy group regularly collaborated with the DOJ to attack reporters who covered DOJ scandals. Tracy Schmaler, Office of Public Affairs Director for the Justice Department, worked with Media Matters staffers to attack a number of prominent journalists, including Townhall Magazine’s Katie Pavlich, <a href="http://Breitbart.com/">Breitbart.com</a> writers Joel Pollak and Ken Klukowski, Fox News&#8217;s  William LaJeunesse, Judge Andrew Napolitano, Megyn Kelly, Martha MacCallum, Bill Hemmer, Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity, and National Review’s Andrew C. McCarthy. Former DOJ Civil Rights Division attorneys J. Christian Adams and Hans von Spakovsky were also attacked.</p>
<p>The<i> Daily Caller</i> obtained the emails after filing a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request that was fulfilled long after the 20-business-day limit required by law.</p>
<p>Moreover, the Office of Public Affairs has no business conducting a political operation. Its function is to keep the public informed about what the DOJ is doing to enforce the laws. That it was more than willing to violate its mandate is a good indication of how deep the rot at the DOJ goes.</p>
<p>Yesterday, Eric Holder did what he does best whenever he appears before a Congressional Committee: provide as little information as possible, become indignant when anyone suggests he has acted improperly, and fob responsibility for every possible impropriety conducted by his department onto someone else&#8211;when he&#8217;s not busy stonewalling scandals. Even a contempt of Congress citation for his refusal to provide critical information in the Fast and Furious gunrunning debacle that resulted in the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, along with <i>hundreds</i> of Mexican nationals, including children, has failed to chasten his contempt for the rule of law, or his determination to maintain the most ideologically-compromised Department of Justice in modern history.</p>
<p>Holder can only serve as long as he maintains the support of President Barack Obama. That he still does, speaks volumes&#8211;about <i>both</i> men.</p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank">Click here</a>.</strong></p>
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