Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: zax who wrote (854911)	5/7/2015 10:23:26 AM
From: jlallen	Respond to of 1574988

LOL!!! Got a credible source....?

To: zax who wrote (854911)	5/7/2015 10:45:31 AM
From: joseffy	1 Recommendation Recommended By FJB Respond to of 1574988

Extreme Secrecy Eroding Support For Obama's Trade Pact Classified briefings and bill-readings in basement rooms are making members queasy. Politico By Edward-Isaac Dovere Updated 5/4/15 9:52 PM EDT Excerpt: If you want to hear the details of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal the Obama administration is hoping to pass, you’ve got to be a member of Congress, and you’ve got to go to classified briefings and leave your staff and cellphone at the door. If you’re a member who wants to read the text, you’ve got to go to a room in the basement of the Capitol Visitor Center and be handed it one section at a time, watched over as you read, and forced to hand over any notes you make before leaving. And no matter what, you can’t discuss the details of what you’ve read. “It’s like being in kindergarten,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), who’s become the leader of the opposition to President Barack Obama’s trade agenda. “You give back the toys at the end.” For those out to sink Obama’s free trade push, highlighting the lack of public information is becoming central to their opposition strategy: The White House isn’t even telling Congress what it’s asking for, they say, or what it’s already promised foreign governments. The White House has been coordinating an administration-wide lobbying effort that’s included phone calls and briefings from Secretary of State John Kerry, Labor Secretary Tom Perez, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker and others. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz has been working members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro has been talking to members of his home state Texas delegation. Officials from the White House and the United States trade representative’s office say they’ve gone farther than ever before to provide Congress the information it needs and that the transparency complaints are just the latest excuse for people who were never going to vote for a new trade deal anyway. “We’ve worked closely with congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle to balance unprecedented access to classified documents with the appropriate level of discretion that’s needed to ensure Americans get the best deal possible in an ongoing, high-stakes international negotiation,” said USTR spokesman Matt McAlvanah. Obama’s seeking a renewal of fast-track authority, which would empower him to negotiate trade deals that then go to Congress for up-or-down votes but not amendments. He says he needs that authority to complete the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a 12-country free trade agreement that he calls essential to stopping China from setting trade, labor and environmental standards in the Asia-Pacific region. Administration aides say they can’t make the details public because the negotiations are still going on with multiple countries at once; if for example, Vietnam knew what the American bottom line was with Japan, that might drive them to change their own terms. Trade might not seem like a national security issue, they say, but it is (and foreign governments regularly try to hack their way in to American trade deliberations). Moreover, many of the leaders of the opposition, administration aides argue, are people who aren’t used to dealing with classified information and don’t realize how standard this secrecy is. And by the way, they note, neither congressional conference committees nor labor contract talks allow even this level of access to negotiations while in process. But those arguments aren’t making much headway among trade skeptics, who feel they are being treated with disrespect and condescension. And they increasingly are pinning the blame directly on United States Trade Representative Mike Froman, who’s been headlining the classified briefings, in addition to smaller meetings with members. “The access to information is totally at the whim of Ambassador Froman,” said Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), who’s a hard no on fast track but says he’d like to see other ways of promoting international trade. “He likes to make available information that he thinks helps his case, and if it conflicts, then he doesn’t make the information available,” Doggett said. Doggett, like other critics, pointed out that the cover sheets of the trade documents in that basement room are marked only “confidential document” and note they’re able to be transmitted over unsecured email and fax — but for some reason are still restricted to members of Congress. snip Full Story

To: zax who wrote (854911)	5/7/2015 10:46:19 AM
From: joseffy	1 Recommendation Recommended By FJB Respond to of 1574988

Sharpton, de Blasio, Obama only love cops when convenient ................................................................................................................. By Michael Goodwin May 5, 2015 If you are grateful for small things, it is a good sign that even constant critics of the police are denouncing the murder of NYPD cop Brian Moore. No less than President Obama, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Al Sharpton have expressed outrage and offered condolences. Their remarks are welcome, with Sharpton calling the murder an “unpardonable crime.” His comments reinforce the old-fashioned idea that attacking law enforcement is out of bounds, always and everywhere. Unfortunately, however, the progressive ringleaders could also have a less noble motive for joining the common-sense chorus. Maybe they concluded that dead cops are bad for business. In their day jobs, all three routinely make excuses for those who break the law and blast cops first and get the facts later. Each offered encouragement to the law-breaking rabble known as Occupy Wall Street and expressed varying degrees of support for anti-police protesters in New York, Baltimore and Ferguson, Mo., even as they criticized arsonists and looters. The effort to separate good protesters from bad rioters is doomed to fail because too many people in both groups are motivated by hatred for cops. Fanning that flame while expecting to control the damage is mission impossible, even for Sharpton and the skilled community organizers in the White House and City Hall. Recall that some anti-police protesters in New York last December chanted, “What do we want? Dead cops” a week before Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos were assassinated. Only then did de Blasio stop praising the protesters and letting them shut down highways and invade stores with impunity. Obama, even as Baltimore still smoldered over the Freddie Gray case, sneered that incidents involving dead black men and cops were “not new, ” then, after Moore died, switched gears to say cops have “a tough job.” The American Civil Liberties Union tweeted after charges were filed against six Baltimore cops that the “Black Spring has begun,” an awkward phrase given that three of the charged cops are black. [snip] nypost.com

To: zax who wrote (854911)	5/7/2015 1:42:04 PM
From: Brumar89	1 Recommendation Recommended By FJB Respond to of 1574988

Considering the media is a Democratic party propaganda organ, that's not surprising.

To: zax who wrote (854911)	5/7/2015 1:50:27 PM
From: Brumar89	1 Recommendation Recommended By FJB Respond to of 1574988

Bill Clinton on Foundation Troubles: 'I Just Work Here. I Don't Know.' Bill don't know nuffin. 9:05 AM, May 6, 2015 • By DANIEL HALPER At a Clinton Global Initiative event in Marrakesh, former President Bill Clinton was asked why he isn't defending the Clinton Foundation from increased scrutiny. "I just work here," Clinton replied. "I don't know." The extended question to Clinton came from billionaire Mo Ibrahim who said, "I opened the newspaper and I was shocked to see these attacks on the foundation." The billionaire continued, "I didn't see anybody from the foundation standing up and really having a go at that. I don't know what your board members--I know my daughter [a board member], she's useless. Because you should have stand up and really take issue. What is this money for? What have you done with it? And that's what people should ask." "I just work here," Clinton responded. "I don't know." http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/bill-clinton-foundation-troubles-i-just-work-here-i-dont-know_939951.html