According to a report on National Public Radio today, the White House asked YouTube to pull the "Innocence of Muslims" movie that is being blamed for the Middle East attacks. White House spokesman Jay Carney was asked about it during his press briefing today, and essentially punted.
On Twitter, NBC's Chuck Todd attempted to clarify the situation:
@chucktodd: To clarify, the WH ...asked YouTube to review the video to see if it violated their policies
As anyone who has dealt with YouTube knows, though, asking the video site to review a video for possible violations is how one starts the process of getting a video pulled from the site. Todd's clarification amounts to a confirmation.
Added to Thursday's news that the Department of Justice investigated and publicly identified the man believed to be behind the film, and the fact that Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Martin Dempsey called Rev. Terry Jones to ask him to rescind his support for the film, and the picture of a White House going out of its way to squelch free speech is clear.
Update: More from the LA Times.
Obama administration officials also flagged the trailer to YouTube and asked the company to review whether it violated the website's terms of service.
Nice to see executive power being used for censorship. Laws are for the peasants.
With excruciating detail, the White House's budget office on Friday laid out exactly where it will have to cut $109 billion from federal spending in January, including $11.1 billion from Medicare and $54.7 billion from defense spending.
The defense cuts include $21.5 billion from operations and maintenance for the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines and the reserves and National Guard, and nearly $1.4 billion from military aide to Afghanistan, with tens of billions coming from procurement and other Pentagon accounts.
"The report leaves no question that the sequestration would be deeply destructive to national security, domestic investments, and core government functions," the White House's budget office said in the report.
Everything from fencing and technology along the U.S.-Mexico border to the government's own internal watchdogs to local environmental programs are also on the chopping block.
The cuts fall particularly heavy on the federal civilian workforce, where staffing levels and salaries would be docked more than 8 percent almost across the board.
Also facing slashes are the National Institutes of Health, which would see a $2.5 billion cut, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which would have to trim $464 million, according to the 394-page report, issued by the White House Office of Management and Budget in response to a law.
And at a time when embassy security is under question following the recent attacks, that account would be cut by $129 million. Why is it that when teh 0ne is fund raising and going to parties I also get visions of Nero fiddling while Rome burned?
#1
Oh, and mods I have really no idea where this should go. Seedy pols, because of the politics, but at the same time WoTB since it will gut a lot of our defense at a time when AlQ is on the offensive.
#3
But it'as all the Trunks fault! Send me FORWARD! I have a PLAN! - BHO
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/14/2012 17:14 Comments ||
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#4
It's seedy pols, not WoT.
I wouldn't mind a $109 billion cut in the budget. On a $4300 billion budget, the proposed sequestration is a nice first step.
Go ahead and try to scare me, President Ladies-Tee.
I say this as an NIH grant holder. The cuts will be painful to many, but we can't keep spending at the current rate.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/14/2012 17:30 Comments ||
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#5
The cuts fall particularly heavy on the federal civilian workforce, where staffing levels and salaries would be docked more than 8 percent almost across the board.
Every cloud has a silver lining. I'm all for a net 10% cut. Start with the entire Dept. of Education & Energy and go on from there.
#9
reports earlier this week that many defense contractors intend to issue the 60 day pre-layoff notice. it hits just before the election. wonder if this is the reason for Bo's concern, now....
[blog.heritage.org] Independent federal legal officials have concluded that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius violated federal law by conducting political activity "in an official capacity," according to a statement released on Wednesday.
"Sebelius violated the Hatch Act when she made extemporaneous partisan remarks in a speech delivered in her official capacity on February 25, 2012," the news release from the U.S. Office of Special Council states. "Oh, but that doesn't apply to Democrats! And remember, it's been around since the '20s or '30s, at least! It's way obsolete!"
The Hatch Act prohibits federal employees from using their official authority or influence to affect the outcome of an election. A federal employee is permitted to make partisan remarks when speaking in their personal capacity, but not when using their official title or when speaking about agency business.
After the event, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reclassified the trip from official to political and issued a statement to that effect. Secretary Sebelius and HHS reimbursed the U.S. Treasury for all costs and expenses associated with her travel to the event. OSC found no evidence that Secretary Sebelius made any other political statements in her official capacity.
The B.O. regime's decision to allow cabinet secretaries such as Sebelius to speak at events sponsored by large Democratic electioneering groups has raised other Hatch Act concerns.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/14/2012 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
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#1
No longer illegal - trip was reclassified as political and costs repaid to the gov't. It's like if you get caught robbing a bank but give the money back everything is fine, right?
#2
He is their god! They must speak and chant of him!
The Amazons of Dahomey were crack all-female troops, all female, who also served as royal bodyguards. They were also priestesses and wore crescent moon crowns.
#6
Well yeah, Sebelius attempted to break money appropriations laws in Kansas before being promoted to steward of your body.
For Greensberg, she was instumental in coordinating with the national progressive movement before taking any action, turning a backwoods tragedy into private companies sporting green products paid for by government money.
Don't let the look and behavior fool you (Think grandma from futurama), she is on board and nose deep in the collectivist movement. In fact, I could listen to the arguement that she has been groomed for just such this position - no other reason for her, a nobody from a nobody state, to have the State of the Union rebuttle back in the W days (2008) except for her insurance busting days and grandmotherly behavior.
And she is as Kansan as Obama is. She is, in fact, from Ohio from generational high level government lineage, former governor of Ohio, just drives better than a Kennedy.
Posted by: Barbara ||
09/14/2012 19:24 Comments ||
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#12
During the Bush years, if a Republican politician had an integrity issue, he resigned immediately under Republican pressure. But when a Dhimmicrat had an integrity issue, the Republicans never put any pressure on the Dhimmicrat poli to resign.
I always felt that the reason you put pressure on your own, was to give legitimacy for putting a full court press on the opposition as well. Didn't happen, should've happen. Not happening even now!
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
According to a report on National Public Radio today, the White House asked YouTube to pull the "Innocence of Muslims" movie that is being blamed for the Middle East attacks. White House spokesman Jay Carney was asked about it during his press briefing today, and essentially punted.
With excruciating detail, the White House's budget office on Friday laid out exactly where it will have to cut $109 billion from federal spending in January, including $11.1 billion from Medicare and $54.7 billion from defense spending.
