Month: May 2013

Govt obtains wide AP phone records in probe
By MARK SHERMAN
May. 13 4:47 PM EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records of reporters and editors for The Associated Press in what the news cooperative’s top executive called a “massive and unprecedented intrusion” into how news organizations gather the news.

The records obtained by the Justice Department listed incoming and outgoing calls, and the duration of each call, for the work and personal phone numbers of individual reporters, general AP office numbers in New York, Washington and Hartford, Conn., and the main number for AP reporters in the House of Representatives press gallery, according to attorneys for the AP.

In all, the government seized those records for more than 20 separate telephone lines assigned to AP and its journalists in April and May of 2012. The exact number of journalists who used the phone lines during that period is unknown but more than 100 journalists work in the offices whose phone records were targeted on a wide array of stories about government and other matters.

https://bigstory.ap.org/article/govt-obtains-wide-ap-phone-records-probe

The IRS admits to ‘targeting’ conservative groups, but were they also ‘leaking’?

A little over a year ago, I reported that, ”It is likely that someone at the Internal Revenue Service illegally leaked confidential donor information showing a contribution from Mitt Romney’s political action committee to the National Organization for Marriage, says the group.”

Now — on the heels of news the IRS’s apology for having targeted conservative groups — NOM is renewing their demand that the Internal Revenue Service reveal the identity of the people responsible.

“There is little question that one or more employees at the IRS stole our confidential tax return and leaked it to our political enemies, in violation of federal law,” said NOM’s president Brian Brow, in a prepared statement. “The only questions are who did it, and whether there was any knowledge or coordination between people in the White House, the Obama reelection campaign and the Human Rights Campaign. We and the American people deserve answers.”

Read more: https://dailycaller.com/2013/05/13/the-irs-admits-to-targeting-conservative-groups-but-were-they-also-leaking/#ixzz2TBU076gI

bike racks at Ridgewood Post Office

Ticket Blitz : Bike ordinance scrubbed
May 13, 2013
the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, The Village Council voted down a proposed ordinance that would have given police the authority to remove bicycles blocking public rights-of-way.

Residents had expressed concern that commuters often leave their bicycles chained to sign posts and fences near the Ridgewood Train Station, blocking  pedestrian right a ways.

After receiving heavy criticism from commuters,  bike riders and environmentalist Mayor Paul Aronsohn recanted telling the Bergen Record that  the ordinance was not meant to be “punitive,” but that after careful consideration, “there may not be such a compelling need” for new rules.https://www.northjersey.com/news/207152811_Bike_ordinance_scrubbed.html

Critics suggested a simple fix of adding a few more bike racks at the train station and that the Village needed to change its attitude toward alternative methods of transportation primary bycyles. Blog readers suggested the Village like the rest of the country should be encouraging bicycles not discouraging them . While other thought the Mayor had simply hoped to squeeze more ticket revenue from commuters .

The Village council decide to defer action until a better plan can be established  with
Deputy Mayor Al Pucciarelli,telling the Record any change should “encourage the use of bicycles as something that’s in the public interest.”https://www.northjersey.com/news/207152811_Bike_ordinance_scrubbed.html

The fact of the matter is the whole village need to made more bike friendly and the first step would be to offer more bike racks .

sourced : https://www.northjersey.com/news/207152811_Bike_ordinance_scrubbed.html

Media and Obama administration on trial with Benghazi Cover-Up

Spinning Benghazi
May 10, 2013
Posted by Alex Koppelman

It’s a cliché, of course, but it really is true: in Washington, every scandal has a crime and a coverup. The ongoing debate about the attack on the United States facility in Benghazi where four Americans were killed, and the Obama Administration’s response to it, is no exception. For a long time, it seemed like the idea of a coverup was just a Republican obsession. But now there is something to it.

On Friday, ABC News’s Jonathan Karl revealed the details of the editing process for the C.I.A.’s talking points about the attack, including the edits themselves and some of the reasons a State Department spokeswoman gave for requesting those edits. It’s striking to see the twelve different iterations that the talking points went through before they were released to Congress and to United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice, who used them in Sunday show appearances that became a central focus of Republicans’ criticism of the Administration’s public response to the attacks. Over the course of about twenty-four hours, the remarks evolved from something specific and fairly detailed into a bland, vague mush.

https://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2013/05/benghazi-cia-talking-point-edits-white-house.html?mobify=0

Wider Problems Found at IRS

Probe Says Tax Agency Used Sweeping Criteria to Scrutinize Conservative Groups

By JOHN D. MCKINNON and SIOBHAN HUGHES

The Internal Revenue Service’s scrutiny of conservative groups went beyond those with “tea party” or “patriot” in their names—as the agency admitted Friday—to also include ones worried about government spending, debt or taxes, and even ones that lobbied to “make America a better place to live,” according to new details of a government probe.

The investigation also revealed that a high-ranking IRS official knew as early as mid-2011 that conservative groups were being inappropriately targeted—nearly a year before then-IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman told a congressional committee the agency wasn’t targeting conservative groups.

https://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324715704578478851998004528.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEFTTopStories

National Police Week

In 1962, President Kennedy proclaimed May 15th as National Peace Officers Memorial Day and the calendar week in which May 15th falls, as National Police Week.

Established by a joint resolution of Congress in 1962, National Police Week pays special recognition to those law enforcement officers who have lost their lives in the line of duty for the safety and protection of others.

Democratic  Senator Loretta Weinberg

Democratic  Senators Sen. Loretta Weinberg, Sen. Sandy Cunningham and Sen. Linda Greenstein Caught on Tape: “Confiscate, Confiscate, Confiscate”

Second Amendment rights advocates are fuming today over words from three Democratic state senator caught on tape after Thursday’s hearing on the upper chamber’s gun control package.

The three female senators, who sound from the recording to be Sen. Loretta Weinberg, Sen. Sandy Cunningham and Sen. Linda Greenstein are heard discussing the just-closed hearing. (Isherwood/PolitickerNJ)

https://www.politickernj.com/back_room/confiscate-confiscate-confiscate

Final Voter Registration Night for June Primary Electionis May 14, 2013

Ridgewood NJ, The final date to register to vote for the June Primary Election is May 14, 2013. This voter registration is for new voters to Ridgewood or those who have moved within Ridgewood. On May 14, 2013, you may register to vote at the Village Clerk’s Office, on the 5th Floor of Village Hall, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and in the lobby of the Ridgewood Public Library from 4:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

Reader Comments : “IRS apologizes for targeting tea party groups”

It is telling that the IRS thoughtlessly let the cat out of the bag that they used words like “tea party” and “patriot” in the titles of organizations as triggers for increased scrutiny (read: audit) when determining whether they merit tax-exempt status.  More than likely 90-95% of IRS staffers already personally thoughtlessly assume that tea party/patriot organizations are inherently political.

Ardent progressives/liberals have been hard at work in this country politicizing everything they can get their grubby little mitts on.  Once they are successful in politicizing a subject, they can begin to dominate it under the umbrella of their political perspective, because most people in polite conversation shy away from politically sensitive subjects.

Tea Party/Patriot organizations are not truly political in nature, much to the chagrin of dedicated progressives and modern liberals.  They believe in preserving and strengthening the principles upon which this country was founded.  Such principles should be, and thankfully still are, above mere ‘politics’.

One reason why the Ridgewood Fourth of July parade organizers do not and should not have a problem with individuals who are members of Tea Party organizations marching under their own banner in the parade is that they are true civic organizations that do not support particular candidates or parties.  Another reason is that the annual Ridgewood Fourth of July Parade exists for essentially the same reason that Tea Party/Patriot organizations do:  To foster greater respect for the founding principles and documents (e.g., Declaration of Independence, Constitution) of this country!

Snapchat Stores “Deleted” Photos In Phones’ Data: Forensic Experts

Data engineers can retrieve images simply by removing a file extension.
By: Addy Dugdale

Snapchat, that clever app that allows friends to send photos that automatically disappear after several seconds, may not be disposing of the evidence after all. A digital forensics firm in Utah has discovered that the app actually saves the photos on the user’s device, rather than destroying them, as it claims.

https://www.fastcompany.com/3009560/fast-feed/snapchat-stores-deleted-photos-in-phones-data-forensic-experts?utm_source=twitter

What Search Warrant? Your Facebook Messages And Private Emails Are Not Safe From FBI Surveillance, Says ACLU

Warrants? We don’t need no stinking warrants.

According to new documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union, government officials may not always obtain warrants when they snoop through our emails, Facebook messages, and other electronic communications — and the FBI apparently doesn’t even believe it’s legally required to do so.

The documents, which were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request and posted on the ACLU website, suggest that the U.S. Department of Justice is flouting a 2010 federal appeals court ruling that declared warrantless access to email a violation of the Fourth Amendment.

https://www.ibtimes.com/what-search-warrant-your-facebook-messages-private-emails-are-not-safe-fbi-surveillance-says-aclu#