Guest Blogger Joan—she is no longer naïve, believes she must speak out.

“For a number of years, I allowed myself to naively believe that individual citizens couldn't make any difference in our country's destiny and that surely those in charge had our country's best interests at heart and would take care of things. I believed that all the heated political debate was useless and that no one was going to change anyone else's opinions on any political topic. While I still believe that last sentence, I have finally grown up enough to realize that a responsible, patriotic citizen cannot sit on the sidelines and watch his/her country be totally destroyed without at least speaking up and taking a stand, for whatever it might be worth. We have elected leaders who do not share typical, traditional American values and who do not have the experience necessary for the job. We have elected leaders who have no depth of character from which to draw for decision-making. This link is to an article that gives a morsel of hope to those of us who realize the jeopardy our country is in and hope to avoid losing our treasured way of life."

If the Nixon era should have taught politicians anything, it is that trust and credibility are essential to the presidency. Nixon's downfall was not so much in the petty thievery of his campaign researchers; it was the lying and cover-up that brought him down. With Obama, abuse of trust is the theme running through all the scandals. Ironically, the shear number of scandals is helping the president in the short term - there is scattershot investigative coverage rather than focused probing. The cumulative effect, though, is beginning to show. Americans bought into the president's campaign image of "hope and change," but lately, they instinctively know that "where's there is smoke, there's fire" and the "smoke" of all the scandals seems to come directly from fires at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. In the Internet era, doubletalk doesn't work; there've been too many side-by-side comparisons of truth versus White House spin.

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/06/obamas_loss_of_trust_and_credibility.html#ixzz2WaDlKgdu

Today’s House hearings on the NSA phone surveillance and PRISM

This morning I've been watching representatives of the NSA and FBI describe at Congressional hearings (House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence) the details of the NSA phone and Prism programs. It all sounds benign and necessary--claims of 50 attacks thwarted. Deputy Attorney General James Cole, Deputy FBI Director Sean Joyce, Deputy Director NSA Chris Inglis, and Robert Litt, general counsel for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (addressing misconceptions).

Two questions. Then why were the details so secret and our Congress so uninformed (it's been upgraded and approved twice once under Bush in 2005, once under Obama in 2011) and how can we trust the assurances of any agency after the IRS scandal? Cole says collecting and analyzing phone metadata does not violate the 4th amendment. NSA Director Keith Alexander will bring information on the thwarted attacks on Wednesday. Stay tuned.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/06/18/live-blog-nsa-hearing/?hpt=hp_c2

How Obama stays popular with the uninformed

Obama has two very successful methods for staying popular as a leader. 1) Focus on Bush's mistakes, and 2) ignore his own.

Which was a bigger error, the Abu Ghraib abuses by military guards which Bush probably knew nothing about, or the fumbling of the closing of Guantanamo prison on which Obama campaigned in 2008?

Which is a bigger scandal, the passing of the Patriot Act after 9/11 with bipartisan support and debate under Bush, or its expansion in secret under Obama?

Bush supported traditional marriage and was consistent regardless of political attacks; Obama publicly supported traditional marriage until he was pushed into applauding same sex marriage in order to get gay support for the 2012 election.
Bush expanded government health care (Pt. D drug coverage in Medicare for 40 million seniors) with strong bipartisan support; Obama got no support from Republicans for Obamacare (estimated to eliminate employer coverage for 40 million), which increasingly is proving to be horribly more expensive and invasive to privacy (IRS) than he promised.

Bush was criticized for not offering war time detainees at Gitmo protections afforded American citizens; Obama has been slicing, dicing and trashing those freedoms we all should have as Americans. He and his cronies not only claim the 5th (the only amendment they like), they claim ignorance, absence and Cincinnati for their illegal behavior.

Why are Democrats and Republicans pushing us into war in Syria?

In 2002 President Bush took his case against Iraq and WMD to Congress and the U.N. He had bi-partisan and international support; he had intelligence going back years into the Clinton Administration. Obama has done none of that except to draw an imaginary red line about WMD and he's been fuzzy about that. Yet Democrats who originally supported Bush and later lied and feigned outrage, have been silent about Obama's duplicity, lack of leadership, and now arming rebels who are al-qaeda lite. Obama is taking us into another war, one in which we have no national interest. Where are the outraged Democrats? Why are Republican hawks like John McCain and Lindsey Graham playing along? Where are all those Republicans who switched parties so they could vote for Obama because Bush had failed them?

Google visits me regularly

Justification, justice, just us.

The shoe hunt

I drove to Tuttle Mall today to look at Ecco brand shoes. The Walking Company had four, none in my size and in bizarre colors. So I browsed a few other brands and had my feet measured. I have extremely high arches and according to the picture, no toes on my left foot. Anyway, the only pair that didn't slip or rub was $189. So I left the store and walked over to Sears. I bought a pair there that cost $20. Not any more uncomfortable than all the $120 styles I tried on in the other store. It looks a little odd in the photo because it is a soft fabric and sort of folds if your foot isn’t in it.

Ask the NSA

Keeping cool in Arizona, equine style

We have guests from Arizona this week, a Methodist minister and his wife who giving several presentations.   We tell them that Ohio is always this green--it's the greeniness that they comment on the most. And last night they were like little kids when the fireflies (lightning bugs) came out.

Obama is taking us to war

If you switched your party allegiance from GOP (Bush) to Dem (Obama) because of the two wars (which had bipartisan support and WMD intelligence from the Clinton years), then you’re just out of luck—or justifications. You fell for a slick speech and a pretty face topped off with a smattering of white guilt.  Obama’s red line has gotten very smudged.  We have no national interest in this civil war in Syria—and even if you say, “what about the slaughter of Syrian Christians,” keep in mind the rebel forces (which Obama is backing) are the ones killing the Christians.   Now we find out the decision was made weeks ago.

U.S. officials said that the determination to send weapons had been made weeks ago and that the chemical weapons finding provided fresh justification to act.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/decision-to-arm-syrian-rebels-was-reached-weeks-ago-us-officials-say/2013/06/14/3cc2d372-d51a-11e2-8cbe-1bcbee06f8f8_story.html?wpisrc=nl_headlines

You’ve been had.  The rest of us knew it back in 2008. He’s a liar; liars lie and then tell more lies to cover up the lies they told to get elected. Liars hang out with other liars—or even confirmed, unrepentant terrorists.

Sometimes he’s been right

Bush 41 is 89 today

In his honor, people are wearing loud, outrageous socks.

Ted Cruz on “help” from liberals

“Fifty-five years ago, my father fled Cuba, where he had been imprisoned and tortured—including having his teeth kicked out—as a teenager. Today my father is a pastor in Dallas. When he landed in Austin, Texas, in 1957, he was 18. He couldn’t speak a word of English. He had $100 sewn into his underwear. He went and got a job washing dishes and made 50 cents an hour. He worked seven days a week and paid his way through the University of Texas, and then he got a job, and then he went on to start a small business.

Now imagine if, at that time, the minimum wage had been two dollars an hour. He might never have had the opportunity to get that dishwashing job and work his way through school and work his way up from there. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve thanked God that some well-meaning liberal didn’t greet him when he landed in Austin and put his arm around him and say: “Let me take care of you. Let me make you dependent on government. Let me sap your self-respect—and by the way, don’t bother learning English.” “

Graduation speaker at Hillsdale College, “The Miracle of Freedom” May 11, 2013

This is most certainly true

In 2006 I jointed the choir at Upper Arlington Lutheran Church on Lytham Rd.  Alas. I only lasted about a year. My voice didn’t return. I had only four notes, and they weren’t in a row. But I certainly enjoyed it, and am so glad I tried. It gave me a new appreciation for our choir at UALC.

Thirteen things I liked about singing in the choir

Choir is hard work

Trying to keep up

Help Doma fight sex slavery

Human Trafficking is the THIRD largest and fastest growing international crime industry generating $32 Billion every year. $10 billion dollars in revenue comes from the US alone. We are 1/3 of the problem here. We can’t stop it alone, we need all of your help and support. Are you ready to help? Support Doma in the Fight - http://www.domaconnection.org/funding-freedom/

The Democrats’ War on Girls

Why wring hands over sexual assaults on military women, who at least should know how to protect themselves, physically, emotionally and sexually.  Plan B, a powerful hormone with complex directions that need to be followed exactly, is now available for girls of any age without medical or parental supervision, even though sex with a minor is against the law. The war against women is now the war against young girls.

How’s your trust level these days?

We’ve had these laws since the late 1970s

Privacy of phone records? Surveillance of foreign agents inside the U.S.? We've had the laws on the books for some time. What we've learned in the current Obama scandals is we can't trust government agencies not to misuse the guarantees. It’s disturbing that opinions on the law change among the electorate depending on who is in power.

Smith v. Maryland, 442 U.S. 735 (1979) was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that the installation and use of the pen register was not a "search" within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment, and hence no warrant was required. The pen register was installed on telephone company property at the telephone company's central offices. In the Majority opinion, Justice Blackmun rejected the idea that the installation and use of a pen registry constitutes a violation of the "legitimate expectation of privacy" since the numbers would be available to and recorded by the phone company anyway. [Wikipedia]

The United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA court, AKA FISC) is a U.S. federal court authorized under 50 U.S.C. § 1803, Pub.L. 95–511, 92 Stat. 1788, enacted October 25, 1978. It was established by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA). The court oversees requests for surveillance warrants against suspected foreign intelligence agents inside the United States by federal law enforcement agencies (primarily National Security Agency and the F.B.I.). FISA and its court were inspired by the recommendations of the Church Committee. . . It is also rare for FISA warrant requests to be turned down by the court. [Wikipedia

People don’t care about snoops

I'm shocked by the people who will accept the explanation that if you're not doing anything wrong why care if Google is passing your information along to the NSA. Tell that to the supporters, donors and board members of conservative groups who had their private financial information passed along to the Obama reelection campaign by someone in the IRS. We didn't think that would happen either. Hey, Chad Johnson is in jail because he didn't know he wasn't supposed to slap his lawyer's butt in front of a female judge. How many laws are out there you don't know about and are violating and perhaps blogging about or discussing

You are public, not private

Phone records are public information; many companies do data mining, plus every time you use a "loyalty" card you are giving away your privacy. Ever read a HIPAA compliance statement? Everyone but the janitor gets your information--same with credit card agreements. Librarians know what books you've checked out (even 25 years ago we knew which professor had what in his office at just a glance). There's a GPS thing in your smart phone. PRISM seems to be the item in question. It is beyond what the Patriot Act allowed--and many Republicans left Bush because they didn't like the Patriot Act. Many in the government have decided it is illegal, but I'm guessing half of Congress haven't read the Act.

A 29 year old high school drop out says NO to PRISM, flees to China, and we have no idea what he might reveal tomorrow that hurts our security. I don't call him a hero, I call him a traitor. I also think a President who calls Ft. Hood "work place violence," but thinks PRISM is our security against terrorists, is really screwed up. PRISM didn't find the Tsarnaev brothers, or even Edward Snowden and even the fact they gave him a job, any job, makes the NSA look pretty ineffective.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/06/09/edward_snowden_why_did_the_nsa_whistleblower_have_access_to_prism_and_other.html

The author of the Patriot Act says it was not intended for data mining. PRISM goes far beyond the original intention. That said, Snowden broke the law. And what about our Congress? Do they break the law by not knowing what is in the Act? Is it like Obamacare--they just don't bother to read it? Obama is defending the actions of the NSA which is violating the intent of the law.

http://www.ibtimes.com/jim-sensenbrenner-republican-author-patriot-act-says-nsa-prism-surveillance-goes-too-far-1297697