Saturday, November 6, 2010
Re: Ex-Clinton strategist: Obama needs event ‘similar’ to OKC to ‘reconnect’ with voters
Mass Bloodshed on American Soil: The Key to a 'Great' Presidency
Posted by William Grigg on November 5, 2010 03:04 PM
Shortly after winning re-election in November 1996, Bill Clinton confided to reporters on Air Force One that his political recovery began with the Oklahoma City bombing: "It broke a spell in the country as people began searching for our common ground again."
That "common ground" was defined by unqualified submission to the central government. Mr. Clinton skillfully exploited the bombing to define "anti-government" sentiment as supposedly displayed in the Republican conquest of the House in the 1994 mid-term elections as something akin to a criminal psychosis. "You can't say you love your country and hate your government," Clinton insisted in a Michigan State University Commencement address following the bombing. Touching on the same theme during a speech to a handpicked audience in Montana, Clinton admonished his devotees not to permit anyone to speak ill of the Regime: "When you hear someone doing it, you ought to stand up and double up your fist and stick it in the sky and shout them down."
That Bill Clinton perceived the Oklahoma City atrocity in terms of its impact upon his own political fortunes offered a useful measure of his capacity for self-preoccupation but he is hardly unique. Indeed, the imperial presidency is designed to attract the kind of people who are eager to exploit, or precipitate, the death of thousands or millions of human beings. Clinton's immediate successor, after all, cynically used the much larger tragedy of 9-11 to similar ends. In August 2001, George W. Bush's presidency was a floundering, sputtering mess. After the Twin Towers fell, Bush was transformed into a "war president" whose will was law.
According to Mark Penn, former Hillary Clinton campaign strategist, Barrack Obama needs his own OKC-style tragedy to offer him a chance to "reconnect" with the American people.
"Remember, President Clinton reconnected through Oklahoma, right?" Penn said during a November 4 panel discussion on MSNBC's Hardball program. "And the president right now seems removed. It wasn't until that speech [after the bombing] that [Clinton] really clicked with the American public." According to Penn, Obama needs a similar "a similar kind" of opportunity for greatness, even if that means hundreds or thousands of mere Mundanes must die to provide it.
Ex-Clinton strategist: Obama needs event ‘similar’ to OKC to ‘reconnect’ with voters
Ex-Clinton strategist: Obama needs event 'similar' to OKC to 'reconnect' with voters
By Stephen C. Webster
Friday, November 5th, 2010 -- 1:14 pm
Talk about a bad analogy: Appearing on television recently, former Hillary Clinton campaign adviser and current public relations executive Mark Penn suggested that President Obama needs a moment "similar" to the tragic terrorist attack on the Oklahoma City federal building, in order to "reconnect" with voters.
He didn't even seem to flinch in making the comment.
Penn is currently president and CEO of Burson-Marsteller, a multi-national public relations firm. He also served in 2008 as chief strategist for then-Senator Hillary Clinton's run for the White House. Before that, Penn advised former British Prime Minister Tony Blair in his third run for the UK leadership post, and served clients such as AT&T, Texaco, Ford, Merck, Verizon, BP, McDonald's and Microsoft.
After the events of Sept. 11, 2001, President George W. Bush experienced the highest approval ratings of his presidency, but the same could not be said of President Clinton after the Oklahoma City bombing.
On April 19, 1995 -- the same day as the attack in Oklahoma -- President Clinton was sitting on a 46 percent approval rating, according to polling firm Gallup. Following his speech to the nation regarding the attack, a Time/CNN poll on April 27 found his approval had jumped to 60 percent, but it was back down to 42 percent by the end of May according to Gallup.
"Remember, President Clinton reconnected through Oklahoma, right?" Penn said, appearing on MSNBC's Hardball on Thursday. "And the president right now seems removed. It wasn't until that speech [after the bombing] that [Clinton] really clicked with the American public. Obama needs a similar -- a similar kind of ... Yeah."
By comparison, President Obama, freshly chastised by voters in the mid-term elections that flipped control of the US House into Republican hands, is in roughly the same place as President Clinton was after the 1994 mid-terms, although his party still controls the US Senate whereas Clinton's Democrats did not.
With an approval rating stuck at 44 percent according to Gallup, indicators as to how well the president's party is faring actually show a clear contrast between 1994 and 2010. Then, congressional Democrats were saddled with a 47 percent disapproval rating according to Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, whereas today they sit at 37 percent disapproval.
All numbers considered, it seems at the very least cynical and at the very worst maniacal to suggest that a mass casualty event is just the thing Obama needs right now.
Following the Oklahoma City attack, Congress acted to implement most of the president's national security proposals, much as representatives did with the USA Patriot Act following Sept. 11, 2001.
Penn's claim is sure to stir up right-leaning conspiracy mills that insist federal agents helped Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh on behalf of the Clinton administration. This is especially likely in the wake of President Clinton's analogy in April, comparing irrational tea party rage to the right-wing militia movement many credit with fostering McVeigh's thought process.
This video was broadcast on MSNBC's Hardball on Nov. 4, 2010, as snipped by Think Progress.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_0Ixm21tn8&feature=player_embedded
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/11/exclinton-strategist-obama-event-similar-okc-reconnect-voters/
How Anyone Can Hijack Your Online Accounts
How anyone can 'point-and-click' to hijack your online accounts
Ben Grubb
November 1, 2010
The Firesheep add-on in action. Photo: Codebutler.com
Logging in to your Facebook or online email accounts from an unsecured public Wi-Fi network? Think again, as a new add-on for the web browser Firefox allows even the most amateur hackers to hijack your account.
The Firesheep add-on allows anyone to easily break in to Facebook, Twitter and legions of other online accounts of individuals when they log in from unsecured public Wi-Fi found at places such as McDonald's, hotels and cafes.
For example, as a victim is logging in to their Facebook or Twitter account from any web browser, the attacker, using the Firefox add-on, can sniff out their credentials, allowing the attacker to hijack the victim's account without having any physical access to their computer.
Using the add-on, the attacker can then access the victim's account using the unsecured Wi-Fi just by clicking on the account.
The attacker is then able to pretend to be the victim by taking over their account.
Depending on the type of account, they are able to send emails or Facebook messages to those the victim is in touch with - and view all of the victim's existing messages.
Without special software that encrypts internet traffic it is impossible to avoid these types of attacks.
In the first couple of days of being available the Firesheep add-on was downloaded more than 129,000 times, said its developer, Eric Butler, a freelance web application and software developer based in Seattle.
Firesheep is not an official Firefox add-on. The reason it was released, Butler said, was to demonstrate how many sites were not using proper security practices.
"Websites have a responsibility to protect the people who depend on their services," he said on his blog.
"They've been ignoring this responsibility for too long, and it's time for everyone to demand a more secure web."
Chris Gatford, a security consultant at Hacklabs, said the tool was embarrassing large websites, such as Facebook and Twitter, into moving them to secure their online applications.
"A lot of these web services should be moving to fix these vulnerabilities in light of this," he said.
Gatford said the flaw that the add-on was taking advantage of had "been around for a long time" and that there had been "several tools" that had the ability to do the same thing in the past.
But he said that the Firesheep add-on had made it "much easier" for anyone – not just security professionals or savvy computer users – to hijack people's Facebook, Twitter and various other online accounts being accessed from unsecured Wi-Fi.
"The great thing about Firesheep from a security professional's perspective is that it makes what we call stealing session cookies much easier to do and makes it much easier – and much easier for other people – to point out vulnerabilities in applications that they're using, such as Facebook and Twitter and various other clients," he said.
The tool works by looking at web traffic available on open Wi-Fi access points, Gatford said.
Many websites don't use what is known as HTTP over SSL (HTTPS) by default. It is the lack of HTTPS not being used consistently throughout the online application that is causing a users' credentials to leak, he said.
"Unfortunately when you're not using HTTPS you are exposing these credentials and this is what Firesheep does; it picks up some of these credentials flying around the airwaves, in this particular case the open Wi-Fi access point you are connected to, and alows the attacker point-and-click access to other people's accounts," he said.
Gatford said a lot of web applications were designed to use HTTP instead of HTTPS for "speed and performance" and that this may be one of the many reason why websites that require a log-in weren't using HTTPS.
In a statement to tech blog TechCrunch, Facebook said it was "making progress testing SSL access across Facebook" and said that it hoped to "provide it as an option in the coming months".
Since being available to download, a number of tools have been released to counter Firesheep's ability to hijack people's credentials. One tool, named FireShepherd, works by flooding a network with certain traffic that stops Firesheep's ability to work.
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US Department of Justice Prosecutes Infidels for "Hate" Speech Crimes (against a mosque?) - 1 yr sentence
November 04, 2010
Obama's Department of [In]Justice and Sharia Prosecutes Infidels for "Hate" Speech Crimes
And so it begins. This is an outrage. An infidel was prosecuted by Obama's Department of Justice and sent to jail for a year for saying in an email that he would "do WHATEVER it takes to eradicate Islam." So what? A year in prison? A $3,000 fine?
We witnessed a traitorous Department of Justice refuse to prosecute the Black Panther party for voter harassment and intimidation with weapons on Election day. Senior DoJ lawyers resigned in protest.
"Obama has Violated His Oath of Office" in Racist Dept of Justice Decision to Drop New Black Panther Party Voter Intimidation Case and Mandate DOJ Policy: "No Voter Intimidation Cases Will Brought Against Black Defendent Where the Victim is White" (read it at Atlas Shrugs)
The Department of Justice sponsored a booth at the Muslim Brotherhood front ISNA (Islamic Society of North America) convention underwritten by, among others, the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas-linked CAIR.
Obama's Department of Justice sued a New Jersey county, alleging that it refused to accommodate a Muslim employee's khimar, a religious head covering. The suit seeks monetary damages and also seeks to require Essex County to adopt a policy that accommodates the religious observances and practices of employees.
Further, Obama's Department of Justice dropped the "charges" against the Muslims who blew up the USS Cole.
Obama's Department of Justice is still trying to bring the 911 mastermind to New York City for a civilian trial. And these examples are just the tip of the iceberg. The prosecution of Sobolevskiy is by far the worst, and Judge David G. Bernthal, referring to the defendant's crime as "an act of terror," is in need of immediate removal. Nuts.
I do not advocate for violence or ugly email missives, but a year in jail for them? This is something altogether different. The Department of Justice is enforcing sharia and abandoning rule of law.
Washington - Maryland Man Sentenced To 1 Year For Sending Threatening Email to Illinois Mosque Vosizneias.com (hat tip Nik)
Washington - Ilya Sobolevskiy, a 25-year-old resident of Maryland, was sentenced today to serve 12 months in prison and to pay a $3,000 fine for violating the civil rights of members of an Urbana, Ill., mosque, announced the Justice Department.
During a guilty plea hearing in August 2010, Sobolevskiy admitted that he sent an email to a member of the Central Illinois Mosque and Islamic Center (CIMIC), in which he threatened, among other things, that he would "do WHATEVER it takes to eradicate Islam." Officials at CIMIC reported the threat to the FBI, which referred the case to the department's Civil Rights Division.
"One of our most basic rights is the freedom to practice one's faith in peace," said Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez of the Civil Rights Division.
I agree. Tell that to the Coptics, Sikhs, Hindus, Jews, Christians, living under Islamic law.
Actually our most basic human right is free speech.
"We have no tolerance for threats of violence fueled by bigotry, and we will aggressively prosecute such actions."
"It is a top priority of the FBI to protect the civil rights of the American people. We encourage members of the community to report all allegations of civil rights violations. The FBI will aggressively investigate these matters to ensure that our society remains free," said Stuart R. McArthur, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Springfield Office.
CAIR must be laughing in jihadic glee.
Federal Magistrate Judge David G. Bernthal, referring to the defendant's crime as "an act of terror," gave the defendant the maximum sentence permitted by law.
This case was investigated by the Springfield, Ill., division of the FBI, and was prosecuted by department Trial Attorney Patricia Sumner.
So I guess I should turn over my hundreds of "hate" emails. Something tells me that those emailers won't be serving time any time soon.
Washington Post has it here.
UPDATE: The last name is Sobolevsky. The offense is "Obstruction Of The Free Exercise Of Religious Beliefs" (U.S.C Sec. 247(a)(2)). The case number is 2:10-cr-20062-DGB.
Not only was Sobolevsky sentenced to a year in prison, but also a year of supervised release.
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Re: Gay marriage support knocks 3 Iowa justices off the bench after spiteful campaign against them
Yep.
If people REALLY want to 'protect marriage' (whatever that means), they would do everything they could to OUST the Government from the entire argument.
The problem is that it is the Government provided advantage that is the 'rub' AND why in the end those 'protecting' will ultimately lose.
Regard$,
--MJ
"If a politician found he had cannibals among his constituents, he would promise them missionaries for dinner" -- H. L. Mencken.
At 04:14 PM 11/5/2010, you wrote:
all benefits, rights, protection of tangible and intangible properties; again with a few documents, I can remedy, fix, guarantee, make right, and protect.
A couple years ago, a lesbian couple and their children were about to take a Caribbean cruise leaving from Miami. They had all the necessary paperwork with them - power of attorney, health care, "Civil Union," etc. One woman became ill and was hospitalized. The partner and children were denied any contact with the patient because they were deemed non-relative. The partner presented all the documentation and she was told "You're in Florida now." When the woman died, it was without the physical presence and emotional comfort of her family.
If two metals can be married, why can't two people? Who officiates? Must it be performed in a House of Worship? Do the metals need a marriage license beforehand and get a certificate after the ceremony?
If "marriage" is a religious rite, how come it requires a license from the government? How come certain people are allowed to practice a marriage rite and others are refused the right to the rite?
Is a common law marriage from one state recognized in all the other states? Would a utility bill in both names be acceptable as proof? What if opposite gender roommates have recreational carnal knowledge, are they considered married?
The way many heterosexuals do it, holy matrimony with its vows (until death do us part) seems to be the first step to divorce. Similar to washing hair, they repeat the sacred ritual.
From: Keith In Tampa <keithintampa@gmail.com>
To: politicalforum@googlegroups.com
Sent: Fri, November 5, 2010 6:25:36 AM
Subject: Re: Gay marriage support knocks 3 Iowa justices off the bench after spiteful campaign against them
Other than your support for "Gay Marriage", I tend to agree with you Greg. We have discussed this a good bit here, (you were hanging out across the street when we did...<Grin>!) but in a nutshell, the only thing that I could not change for two individuals who choose to cohabitate as a couple; today, as the laws currently are, with just a few documents, is the Federal Tax Code.
Other than that, all benefits, rights, protection of tangible and intangible properties; again with a few documents, I can remedy, fix, guarantee, make right, and protect.
On Fri, Nov 5, 2010 at 9:19 AM, GregfromBoston <greg.vincent@yahoo.com > wrote:
- I happen to support gay marriage. I also live in Massachusetts, where
- it was the courts that validated gay marriage too (but our judges are
- not elected). For the record, it was DEMOCRATS who shat themselves
- over that ruling, and attempted to change the state constitution to
- overrule it.
- The real issue is that states acknowledging gay marriage is basically
- meaningless until the fed does, and the fed does NOT. 4 years of a
- dem congress, 2 of which with a dem president, and the ever so
- tolerant ones haven't lifted a finger on DOMA - a dem law as well -
- and that includes Massachusetts' very own, and proudly gay, Barney
- Frank.
- Right here, we have Dean Hara, married to former congressman Gerry
- Studds (D-MA). Gerry died. Dean applied for his pension and benefits
- from his departed spouse. The fed said, "Not a fucking dime, you were
- never married".
- And Barney and his tolerant friends are still mum.
- --
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