“It is not an easy task to unring a bell, nor to remove from the mind an impression once firmly imprinted there*”

“I’m not anti-government …. I’m just pro Freedom”.

-Ladar Levison, (the founder of secure email provider Lavabit, facing a court case because he closed his company rather than hand over encryption keys) interviewed in the interactive UK Guardian piece published November, 2013

Whether or not you think Snowden was a traitor or a hero; the fact remains that “the bell can not be unrung”.

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Go here for full story and follow up

WASHINGTON DC – While members of Congress ended 2013 congratulating themselves for passing a budget, the media missed the fact that the agreement doesn’t actually avoid a government shutdown. The deal reached by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) provides simply a blueprint for government spending. Congress must still pass legislation detailing specific spending before January 15, when government’s spending authority expires. Government still faces a potential shutdown in a little over a week.
The budget agreement passed by Congress in the closing days of last year provides what is called the “top-Line” number, setting the overall level of discretionary spending. Congress still has to pass appropriations bills authorizing specific spending for thousands of government agencies, departments and programs. While there is agreement on the total amount of discretionary spending, there is far less agreement on how this spending is allocated. These agreements will have to be reached by the 15th, of the government would shut down again. (read more)
I am reminded of a previous conversation point we discussed in 2011.

Obama and the Magic Monkey Routine

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“March of the Phlegm-quins”  
The original Russian Vessel now abandoned, stuck in the ice;  the Chinese rescue vessel now abandoned, stuck in the ice;  the Glo-bull scientists are transferred to ship #3 an Australian Ice-Breaker.
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — An Australian icebreaker carrying 52 passengers who were retrieved from an icebound ship in the Antarctic resumed its journey home on Saturday, leaving behind another two icebreakers trapped in pack ice.

The Aurora Australis will continue its interrupted resupply mission to Australia’s Antarctic base Casey Station before returning to the Australian island state of Tasmania in mid-January with the rescued scientists, journalists and tourists.
It had been slowly cracking through thick ice toward open water after a Chinese ship’s helicopter on Thursday plucked the passengers from their stranded Russian research ship and carried them to an ice floe near the Australian ship. But on Friday afternoon, the crew of the Chinese icebreaker that had provided the helicopter said they were worried about their own ship’s ability to move through the ice. (more…)

The apology by itself appears genuine, but also appears more apologetic for reflecting the truth behind almost all liberals.   They are, by ideological disposition, genuinely trapped in a life fraught with expressed hypocrisy.
Liberal advocacy is always, 100% of the time, structured around a ‘do as I say, not as I do’ advancement.   I have never met, nor witnessed, a modern liberal who actually walk their talk.

Subsequently, to me at least, this apology is more associated with an outcome of being called to the mat. Watch the entire video and toward the end you’ll see this is not an apology toward Mitt Romney, it’s an apology toward a mirror.

Jacob Appelbaum is a US citizen and core member of TOR project (funded originally to provide internet communication security).  He writes open source software, is an independent security software developer, activist hacker and passionate resister to tyranny.
He has stated in past interviews that he believes “personal privacy and institutional transparency are complementary ideas that help to create a free and open society …..Tor is part of an ecosystem of software that helps people regain and reclaim their autonomy. It helps to enable people to have agency of all kinds; it helps others to help each other and it helps you to help yourself. It runs, it is open and it is supported by a large community spread across all walks of life.”
Appelbaum eloquently discusses warrantless or “open writ” dragnet surveillance as “turnkey tyranny” and posits that the black budget agencies that engage in such surveillance are violating the 3rd Amendment Rights of US Citizens, likening the actions of the NSA to de facto “digital soldiers” being quartered in our homes without our knowledge or permission. (more…)

(Independent Journal) An Open Letter to the Obama Administration and American Citizens:

My family’s journey with securing our new insurance under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) started on October 1, 2013. I have decided to write this letter to let the American people know what it has been like for us.

We are a family of four, with two little boys’ ages seven years old and three years old. My husband and I have had full time jobs for 6 years and 13 years respectively. We have been with the same two companies for those years.
We are a middle class family; we own our three bedroom two bath house, we own two cars, and previously provided our own insurance for the four of us. We have coverage through Individual Blue from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama until 12/31/13. Our premiums have been $380.00 a month, which also included dental coverage for all four of us.
On October, 1, 2013 we received our letters like other Alabamians about our new premiums and plans for 2014 from Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) of Alabama. When I opened our letter to say I had sticker shock was an understatement. (more…)

During his 2009 Notre Dame speech  President Obama said the federal government should accommodate religious objections to parts of the law:

“Let’s honor the conscience of those who disagree with abortion and draft a sensible conscience clause. And make sure that all of our health care policies are grounded, not only in sound science, but also in clear ethics.”  – President Obama (2009)

The catholic group Little Sisters of the Poor received a temporary injunction from the Supreme Court protecting them from the controversial HHS contraceptive mandate. The injunction means that the Little Sisters would not be forced to sign and deliver forms authorizing and directing others to provide contraceptives, sterilizations and drugs and devices that cause abortions.

Now in 2014 President Obama appeals that injunction demanding the Little Sisters of The Poor should be forced to comply with the abortifacient service delivery approved within the ObamaCare.  (link)

(Via Daily Mail)  Hospital staff in Northern Virginia are turning away sick people on a frigid Thursday morning because they can’t determine whether their Obamacare insurance plans are in effect.
Patients in a close-in DC suburb who think they’ve signed up for new insurance plans are struggling to show their December enrollments are in force, and health care administrators aren’t taking their word for it.
In place of quick service and painless billing, these Virginians are now facing the threat of sticker-shock that comes with bills they can’t afford.
‘They had no idea if my insurance was active or not!’ a coughing Maria Galvez told MailOnline outside the Inova Healthplex facility in the town of Springfield.
She was leaving the building without getting a needed chest x-ray.
‘The people in there told me that since I didn’t have an insurance card, I would be billed for the whole cost of the x-ray,’ Galvez said, her young daughter in tow. ‘It’s not fair – you know, I signed up last week like I was supposed to.’ (more…)

RUSH LIMBAUGH […]  Now, last year, before HealthCare.gov opened for business, the Regime said they needed seven million before the end of the year, before this day. They needed seven million, and over the weekend they were doing hoops and making dances and having parties because they claimed that the corner had been turned and 2.1 million people had signed up.
So somebody said, “Well, wait, you said you needed seven million,” and they’re saying, “No, we didn’t,” but they did.  It’s on tape, it’s in print, but they’re just denying it.  “We didn’t say seven million! Nobody ever said seven million,” and in a political sense, the Republicans don’t know what to do with this.  Do you know how to deal with a liar?  It is a challenging thing to deal with a liar. But these people, this is a political party that just lies as a matter of course.
The problem with it is that the impressionable low-information people who vote for them believe all these lies, and then they create lives, circumstances, based on a series of lies.  And then standards begin to crumble, and then promises mean nothing, and then honor and integrity come to mean nothing, and then standards don’t exist.  And then there’s nothing accountable and nothing anybody can depend on.  So there aren’t any guardrails — and that’s where we are, in many ways, in our culture.  (more…)