"Major newspapers in Germany (FAZ, Die Welt, SZ, ...) and the Huffington Post report that the author Ilja Trojanow has been prevented from boarding a plane from Salvador da Bahia to the U.S. where he was invited to attend a conference. He had ESTA documents showing that his visit was approved as part of the Visa Waiver Program and was last year given a visa to teach at the university of Saint Louis. Trojanow was one of the initiators of an open letter (Google translation to English) urging Chancellor Merkel to take actions against NSA surveillance in Germany."
Oh ya...sure...the people don't want Obamacare?
My rates, for the same health coverage that I currently have, will go way down with no deductible under Obamacare. I currently am paying $1300.00 a month with a deductible for my wife and I. On Obamacare I will be paying only $800.00 a month for better coverage with no deductible! Seriously What's not to like?
"The launch of a national health exchange site was marred by overloaded servers in several states
'I don't remember anybody suggesting Apple should stop selling iPhones or iPads, or threatening to shut down the company if they didn't,' the president argued."
Meanwhile, a number government websites went blank as a result of the shutdown, instead of simply lying dormant until personnel could return. The National Science Foundation, NASA, the FCC, and the Library of Congress are a few examples.
The more things change the more they stay the same.
Just like the NIST panel that investigated 911 we now have another wonderful panel.
"After a public backlash to government spying, President Barack Obama called for an independent group to review the vast surveillance programs that allow the collections of phone and email records. The members of the review group are:
Richard Clarke, the chief counterterrorism adviser on the National Security Council for Clinton who later worked for Republican President George W. Bush
Michael Morell, Obama's former deputy CIA director
Geoffrey Stone, law professor who has raised money for Obama and spearheads a committee hoping to build Obama's presidential library in Chicago
Cass Sunstein, law professor and administrator of information and regulatory affairs for Obama
Peter Swire, a former Office of Management and Budget privacy director for Clinton
'At the end of the day, a task force led by Gen. Clapper full of insiders – and not directed to look at the extensive abuse – will never get at the bottom of the unconstitutional spying,' said Mark Jaycox, a policy analyst for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a privacy advocacy group.
A stacked deck?
The panel's meetings are closed after Clapper exempted it from the U.S. Federal Advisory Committee Act, which would have required it to keep the public informed and hold open meetings, for 'reasons of national security,' according to a statement from the group sent from Clapper's office. 'While we are exempt from the FACA, we are conducting this review as openly and transparently as possible.'"
Whether you’re cheering, jeering or just a devoted fan of colossal train wrecks, the news and developments out of D.C. are coming fast and furious. The government shutdown will certainly be the main topic but I don't think the main stream news will cover it with the weight that it deserves.
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