AP-GATE: Obama Administration Secretly Tapped AP Phone Records For Two Months … Media Outraged

Good grief, another Obama administration scandal, AP-GATE – Talk about irony, the AP finds itself reporting on itself … Richard Nixon Barack Obama Administration secretly Obtains AP Phone records.

MORE CHICAGO-STYLE POLITICS … From the AP comes the following, the Obama administration’s Justice Department secretly obtained phone records of the Associated Press for two month. The Justice Department seized the records for more than 20 separate telephone lines assigned to AP and its journalists from its offices in New York, Washington, DC and Hartford, Connecticut in April and May of 2012. Hmm, right in the midst of a presidential election. The AP is calling it a ”massive and unprecedented intrusion” into how news organizations gather the news. Once again the Obama administration is sounding a bit “Nixonian”. The MSM has been a lapdog for Barack Obama in the not covering and holding this president’s feet to the fire, now the shoe is on the other foot and they are being abused by this paranoid White House. The Justice Department has a lot of explaining to do as to why this is not to be interpreted as government intimidation. Which is beginning to become a daily patters of Obama administration scandals.  First we hear that the IRS is operating against Conservatives and political enemies of Obama and now the Justice Department is secretly tapping the AP, all during the run up and during a presidential election. Can you say Barack “Nixon” Obama.

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 outgoing calls for the work and personal phone numbers of individual reporters, for general AP office numbers in New York, Washington and Hartford, Conn., and for the main number for the AP in the House of Representatives press gallery, according to attorneys for the AP. It was not clear if the records also included incoming calls or the duration of the calls.

In all, the government seized the 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 where phone records were targeted, on a wide array of stories about government and other matters.

In a phrase, It’s an Obama world, and now the MSM knows what it feels like to be a Conservative in America and on the Obama enemies list. The AP and other media outlets are livid as they called the Justice Department’s seizing of AP phone records over a two month period “chilling” and a “dragnet to intimidate the media.” Gary Pruitt, the president and CEO of the AP sent a scathing letter in response to the revelations. Calling it a “massive and unprecedented intrusion” that is “a serious interference with AP’s constitutional rights.”

“There can be no possible justification for such an overbroad collection of the telephone communications of The Associated Press and its reporters. These records potentially reveal communications with confidential sources across all of the newsgathering activities undertaken by the AP during a two-month period, provide a road map to AP’s newsgathering operations, and disclose information about AP’s activities and operations that the government has no conceivable right to know,” Pruitt said.

Journalists and the MSM were already starting to turn on the Obama administration and now they learn about this intrusion into “Freedom of the Press” as the Politico pens, Journalists fume over DOJ raid on AP. If Obama loses the very people who have been complicit in not informing the American people as to the complete failure of this president, he will be destroyed. Sorry, but there is no way that Attorney General Eric Holder did not have to sign off on this for approval.

What is stunning is the breadth of the seizure!” Van Susteren said. “If you read the AP President’s letter to DOJ, and if his letter is accurate, the seizure was very broad: 2 months of telephone records involving many who work at AP! 20 phone lines, home and cell? NY, DC, Connecticut employees? That doesn’t sound like a criminal investigation, that sounds like a dragnet to intimidate the media. The US Attorney’s issued statement about the secret seizure was blah, blah, blah. It doesn’t say anything. The DOJ better be following the law and the Constitution.”

Why Attorney General Eric Holder Initiate the Legal Process of Miranda for Boston Bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to Stop Talking to FBI and Lawyer-Up? … District Court Judge Marianne Bowler Arrived at the Hospital & Reads Terrorist Miranda Rights (VIDEO)

There is still a war on terror, isn’t there?

FOX news Megyn Kelly was shocked and astonished at the revelation as are many Americans as to how and why the only remaining suspect,  Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, of the Boston Marathon bomber was read his Miranda Rights … FBI Was ‘Shocked’ to See Judge ‘Waltz’ in and Give Suspect Miranda Rights. How is it possible that just 16 hours into a FBI interrogation that District Court Judge Marianne Bowler shows up unannounced to the hospital room and reads the terrorist suspect his Miranda rights? What intel did we lose because of this legal screw up? According to reports, the suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was singing like a bird. That was until he was read his rights. Who gave this judge the go ahead?  Watch the VIDEO below and your blood will boil. What does AG Eric Holder and this administration want to hide, the fact that there may have been foreign state sponsored terrorism and the two bombers did not act alone? The interrogation of this suspect had to do with US National Security, not whether he was innocent or guilty of the bombings. What are they hiding?

Two officials with knowledge of the FBI briefing on Capitol Hill said the FBI was against stopping the investigators’ questioning and was stunned that the judge, Justice Department prosecutors and public defenders showed up, feeling valuable intelligence may have been sacrificed as a result.

The FBI had been questioning Tsarnaev for 16 hours before the judge called a start to the court proceeding, officials familiar with the Capitol Hill briefing told Fox News.

More From FOX News:

The FBI filed a federal criminal complaint against the 19-year-old on Sunday, and federal District Court Judge Marianne Bowler arrived at the hospital where he is being treated to preside over his initial hearing Monday, when she read him his Miranda rights.

[FBI officials told The Associated Press Wednesday that Tsarnaev acknowledged to investigators his role in the attacks before he was advised of his constitutional rights. He reportedly said he was only recently recruited by his brother to be part of the attack.]

But Fox News’ sources say there was confusion about Bowler’s timing, with some voicing concerns that investigators were not given enough time to question Dzhokhar under the “public safety exception” invoked by the Justice Department.

Two officials with knowledge of the FBI briefing on Capitol Hill said the FBI was against stopping the investigators’ questioning and was stunned that the judge, Justice Department prosecutors and public defenders showed up, feeling valuable intelligence may have been sacrificed as a result.

The FBI had been questioning Tsarnaev for 16 hours before the judge called a start to the court proceeding, officials familiar with the Capitol Hill briefing told Fox News. Moreover, the FBI informed lawmakers that the suspect had been providing valuable intelligence, but stopped talking once the magistrate judge read him his rights.

More from the Politico:  House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers slammed a judicial process that prematurely halted FBI questioning of the Boston bombing suspect and said it provided the suspect with Miranda rights too quickly.

“We need to make sure that the court doesn’t believe that they are now in the position to intercede in that public safety administration of an interrogation,” Rogers (R-Mich.) said on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports.” “That’s really dangerous and concerning, especially when the FBI will tell you, ‘we weren’t quite finished with him. We didn’t really believe that we had all that we could get out of him.’”

Obama’s Enemies List … Barack’s DOJ Goes After Mitt Romney’s Top Donor Sheldon Adelson

This should be chilling for all Americans no matter what your party affiliation is, an incumbent US President’s DOJ going after his opponents top campaign donor. No abuse of power or revenge politics here.

President Barack Obama’s Department of Justice is going after Mitt Romney’s top campaign donor Sheldon Adelson. Frightening, simply frightening. The same DOJ that would not go after the New Black Panther Party for obvious voter intimidation sees fit to go after an opponents donor. Who else is on Obama’s enemies list and can you imagine what Obama and his henchman will do if reelected for another 4 years.

And this peons think I am a nice guy, boy do I have them fooled …

The Justice Department is investigating whether Las Vegas Sands Corp., owned by high-profile Republican donor Sheldon Adelson, broke federal law by failing to report millions of dollars of potentially laundered money transferred to its casinos by two high-rolling Las Vegas gamblers, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles is investigating deposits made in the mid-2000s by a Mexican pharmaceutical businessman, later indicted for drug trafficking in 2007, and a California executive with Fry’s Electronics, who later pleaded guilty to taking illegal kickbacks, the newspaper said, citing lawyers and federal officials working on the case.

As stated at Weasel Zippers this is a chilling abuse of power, yet the MSM is as silent as a church mouse. Imagine, just imagine if GWB had done this when seeking reelection?

GOP Report on ‘Fast and Furious’ Blames 5 ATF Officials for Failed Gun Walking Program

The first shoe has dropped in the Republicans investigation into the ‘Fast and Furious’ scandal. The GOP report names five ATF officials for the disastrous gun walking program that oversaw the sale of nearly 2,000 guns to buyers for Mexican drug cartels and contributed to the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. Up next will be the House commencing legal action against Attorney General Eric Holder to enforce the Contempt of Congress charges. Also, a second of the three reports that is expected to look at the alleged breakdown in management within Department of Justice headquarters with a special focus on the deputy attorney general’s office and the DOJ’s criminal division.

Republican investigators pinned the failures of “Operation Fast and Furious” on five officials in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in a scathing joint congressional draft report issued Monday evening.

The 211-page draft report, obtained by The Hill, called on the Obama administration and the Senate to bolster the leadership of the ATF — which has been without a permanent director for six years — in order to move beyond the failed gun-tracking operation that led House Republicans to place Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress last month.

Specifically, the report pins blame on former Special Agent in Charge of the Phoenix Field Division William Newell, former Deputy Assistant Director for Field Operations William McMahon, former Assistant Director for Field Operations Mark Chait, the former Deputy Director William Hoover, and former acting ATF director Kenneth Melson.

When will Eric Holder step down before or after the 2012 elections?

Hypocrisy Alert: AG Eric Holder Requires Journalists Show Photo ID to Attend His NAACP Speech on Evils of Photo ID Laws

File this one under truth is stranger than fiction, hypocrisy and you just can’t make this stuff up …

Attorney General Eric Holder gave a speech today to the NAACP conference in Houston, TX on the evils of photo ID laws; however, in order for the media to get in and cover the event, wait for it, wait for it … they needed to show photo ID.

Holder described photo ID laws as racist and a poll tax.  What a sad, pathetic man. Worse yet, what a sad and pathetic Presidential administration that was voted into office. If they are not doing class warfare, they are playing the race card. Just curious, how does anyone conduct any form of business or travel in today’s society without a photo ID?

“Many of those without IDs would have to travel great distances to get them and some would struggle to pay for the documents they might need to obtain them,” Holder said in a speech to the NAACP on Tuesday, referring specifically to a law being implemented in Texas. “We call those poll taxes.”

Check out the media advisory that was handed out to have the media show photo ID’s to hear a race-bating and divisive speech in the evils of photo ID laws. Hmm, wasn’t it the Michelle Obama book signing that also required that individuals show photo ID as well?

 As correctly stated at Powerline, “liberals require identification to get access to anything they think is important. Where they part company with us is that they don’t think preventing voter fraud is important.”

Attorney General Eric Holder Plays the Victim Card, Says Republicans Made Him a ‘proxy’ to Attack President Obama

Well, if Democrats can’t play the race card, they are all too willing to play the victim card … or both.

Attorney General Eric Holder has played the victim card. Holder stated that the Republican House have made the “Fast & Furious” gun walking program a politically motivated investigation during an election year and used him as a proxy to attack President Obama.  The House voted last week to hold Eric Holder in criminal and civil  Contempt of Congress.   Actually, the only reason why the “Fast & Furious” scandal has lead to an election year was because of the delay and stall tactics by Holder. Had he handed over the requested documents when they were first asked for, this would have been over months ago.  Instead Holder wants to play the victim, but like states at The Gateway Pundit,  this could have nothing to do with getting documents and information as to the gun walking program and the death of border agent Brian Terry and finding answers for the slain agent’s family.

Ya got my back, right dude?

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. sharply criticized lawmakers Monday for voting to hold him in contempt of Congress last week, saying Republicans have made him a “proxy” to attack President Obama in an election year.

In his first interview since Thursday’s vote, Holder said lawmakers have used an investigation of a botched gun-tracking operation as a way to seek retribution against the Justice Department for its policies on a host of issues, including immigration, voting rights and gay marriage. He said the chairman of the committee leading the inquiry, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), is engaging in political theater as the Justice Department tries to focus on public safety.

“I’ve been doing all of these things all the time Darrell Issa and his band have been nipping at my heels,” a defiant Holder said. “They’ve been nipping, but I’ve been walking.”

Brian Terry, the real victim in “Fast & Furious”

So let’s get this correct, Eric Holder thinks he has done nothing wrong and this is all about an concerted effort to get Barack Obama? Really Mr. Holder, that is your final answer? Who is playing politics? Could anyone really be this arrogant? It is hard to believe that a White House could be so insensitive to a slain border agent’s family in refusing to get to the bottom of what happened, who knew what and when. A note to the Honorable Eric Holder, the only victim is Brian Terry, his family and the individuals killed in Mexico as a result of this failed program.

Executive Privilege … Dennis K. Burke, Obama Contributor Who Helped Enact Assault-Weapons Ban, Ran ‘Fast and Furious’

Things that make you go hmmm … As stated at Weasel Zippers, maybe we see the reason for “executive privilege”,  everything points directly to Obama policy.

From CNS News:

Dennis K. Burke, who as a lawyer for the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee in the 1990s was a key player behind the enactment of the 1994 assault-weapons ban, and who then went on to become Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano’s chief of staff, and a contributor to Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential primary campaign, and then a member of Obama’s transition team focusing on border-enforcement issues, ended up in the Obama administration as the U.S. attorney in Arizona responsible for overseeing Operation Fast and Furious. (read the full article at CNS News.com)

Nancy Pelosi’s & House Democrats Disrespect for Slain Border Agent Brian Terry, Botches Terry’s Name While Addressing Congress on Holder Contempt “Fast & Furious” Charges Before Walking Out (VIDEO)

The disrespect continues toward the family and the memory of slain border patrol agent Brian Terry by House Democrats and Democrat Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). While speaking on the House floor opposing the contempt charges of Attorney General Eric Holder and calling it a political witch hunt, Pelosi actually managed to mess up saying Brian Terry’s name. Really? San Fran Nan has no problem using the words witch hunt and racism, as well as actually walk out of the House without casting a vote, but she can botch the name of an American hero gunned down as a result of “Fast and Furious”. One would think that the leader of a party would want answers for the family. Who is playing politics Nancy?

cat got your tongue Nancy? As Pelosi expressed condolences to his family, she called him “Brian Tay, Tay, Terry”

From Newsbusters:

NANCY PELOSI: I think we all also agree, I think we all very, very much agree that we are very sad and seek justice for the family of border patrol agent Brian Tay, Tay, Terry. His loss is a tragedy for all who knew him, for all of us who care about him, and we offer our condolences to his family. So sad.

Just curious, how sincere is a condolence when you cannot even spit the individuals name out?

US House of Representatives Votes to Attorney General Eric Holder in Criminal and Civil Contempt of Congress over ‘Fast and Furious’

The US House of Representatives voted Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress over his obstruction in handing over documents with the ‘Fast and Furious’ government gun walking program. Democrats House minority leader Pelosi Holder Obama, the liberal MSM and the numerous Democrats have called it a political witch hunt. The criminal contempt of vote was 255-67. However, that is hard to say this vote was political AG Holder when 17 Democrats crossed party lines and voted to find Eric Holder in contempt of Congress. The House also passed civil contempt of Congress  258 – 95.

The House of Representatives voted to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress Thursday for failing to provide documents relating to the Fast and Furious gunwalking program.

The House took two votes, one on criminal contempt charges, which passed 255-67. The criminal contempt of Congress is likely not to go anywhere as the Justice Department, which Holder heads, is the department responsible for opening a criminal investigation.

The second charge, which passed 258 – 95, was a civil contempt charge, could move to federal court where it could take years to litigate. Though the action puts more pressure on the administration to abide by the subpoenas and provide requested documents.

The Democratic Party was split on the action. Seventeen members voted with the Republicans to hold Holder in criminal contempt while just under two dozen voted to hold him in civil contempt. But most, led by the Congressional Black Caucus, walked off the floor to protest the vote, which they called “appalling.”

Federal Judge Rejects Obama Admin & Holder’s DOJ Request to Stop Florida’s Non-Citizen Voter Purge to Stop Voter Fraud

Wow, didn’t U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle get the Obama memo of Team Reelect Obama as to how they planned to win Florida? Another blow to President Barack Obama and Attorney Eric Holder.

Finally some common sense in the ruling of whether the state of Florida should stop the purge their voter rolls of non-citizens. U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle rejected the DOJ’s restraining order. Judge Hinkle stated that the 90 day provision of purging voter rolls pertained to citizens, not non-citizens. What a novel concept, non-US citizens are not allowed to vote. What is Obama to do now? Talk about your bad weeks, it is going to be a toss up as to who might be having a worse week, President Barack Obama or Attorney General Eric Holder.

A federal judge rejected a request from the Obama administration to put an immediate stop to the state’s non-citizen voter purge program.

The Justice Department had asked for a restraining order, arguing that the program attempting to remove 2,600 non-citizens from the voter rolls violated federal voting law that prohibits the systemic removal of voters 90 days before an election.

U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle said that, according to his reading of the law, the 90-day provision did not apply to removing non-citizens from the rolls. But, he also chastised the state, saying there were “some problems” with the way that the program had been carried out.

“Determining citizenship is not as easy as the state would have it,” Hinkle said in a ruling from the bench made about a half hour after arguments concluded. “Questioning someone’s citizenship isn’t as trivial as the state would have it.”

Read more