June 10, 2013 Diane Rehm Show: What’s private in modern age

click the image and watch the video about the incident. It is on NBC Nightly News website.

About the topic

An ex-CIA computer technician and a relatively low level consultant for Booze Allen Hamilton has admitted that he was the source of the series of leaks on the us surveillance programs. He is 29 years old Edward Snowden who set off diplomatic intrigue Monday by holing up in Hong Kong and hinting at seeking protection in Iceland. The Guardian and The Washington Post, with Snowden’s consent, revealed him Sunday as the source for stories that disclosed two giant surveillance programs collecting data on Americans’ phone calls and foreigners’ Internet use.

Points of view

“This is somebody who — it appears, at least — leaked sensitive classified information, and I think he needs to be prosecuted.” (Sen.John Thune, R-S.D.)

“Nobody is listening to your phone calls” — and to insist that Americans must make tradeoffs between safety and privacy. (President Barack Obama)

“Snowden’s whistleblowing gives us the possibility to roll back a key part of what has amounted to an ‘executive coup’ against the U.S. Constitution,” he wrote. “Since 9/11, there has been, at first secretly but increasingly openly, a revocation of the Bill of Rights for which this country fought over 200 years ago.” (Daniel Ellsberg)

There is an instant survey on NBC website. At this moment, people who think that Snowden is a whistleblower, which means he did a good thing, is the majority. You can do your survey on the website. Please click the image and go there.

My point of view

It seems that many are still unknown and it is difficult to talk about this incident even for anchor people. Why he did this and who he is really? He flew to Hong Kong and it makes things more complicated. Even though the US has treaty with Hong Kong, it is legally a part of China, which is not friendly to this country in relate to security matters. In my opinion, I wonder why he could be in Booze Allen Hamilton. It is a big defense contractor and highest security should be required. He was there just for 3 months, and revealed the secret. Their standard to hire people is so low? I wonder if they need to review the quality of their people.

References

NBC.com
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/06/10/18877589-diplomatic-intrigue-where-will-unmasked-nsa-leaker-go?lite

May 23, 2013 Diane Rehm Show: Prospects For Reform Legislation

Photo: Daily News

Why this topic was chosen? and About the Topic

The Senate Judiciary Committee passed the bipartisan gang of eight immigration bill on Tuesday in a 13-5 vote, with three Republicans — Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and gang of eight members Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) — supporting the bill. Next it goes to full Senate.[1] The bill would bring the biggest changes in US immigration policy in years.[2] If enacted, the measure will create a 13-year path to citizenship for most of the country’s 11 million undocumented immigrants.It aims to strengthen border security while raising the cap on visas for high-skilled workers and establishing a new visa program for low-skilled workers on America’s farms and elsewhere.[3]

Point of views

I was surprised to know how complex issues are there concerning this immigration reform. Below is some of them:

• Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) pulled his amendment that would have allowed foreign-born partners in same-sex, binational couples to petition for a green card in the same way heterosexual partners can. LGBT activists will continue to support the bill, saying there are aspects of the “gang of eight” plan worth fighting for, even if it leaves out gay couples.[1]
• Criminal prosecutions of immigrants who entered or reentered the country illegally have soared in the last decade, bringing with them huge financial and human costs, according to a report released Wednesday by Human Rights Watch. Immigration prosecutions were up by 10 percent, according to recent data from the U.S. Department Of Justice.[4]
• how newly legalized immigrants can have access to affordable health care under President Obama’s signature legislation.[5]

My Point of View

As a matter of fact, I always try to avoid to watch news relating to immigration. I may be a cold-heart person, and I do not like what the protesters trying to appeal to the public. When I googled images for the top of this article, I found a lot of photos of protesters hanging their signs. “No More Families Torn Apart”, “my dreams are not illegal”, “No Human Being is ‘illegal'”, “I love this country, I just want to stay”, “Families Have No Borders”, and so on. I do not understand why they can blame the government for what they did. Illegal means ‘illegal.’ For me, what they are appealing sounds very selfish.
[1]Huffingtonpost: LGBT Activists Stand Behind Immigration Reform, Even After Loss
[2]Diane Rehm Show
[3]CNN: 5 things you should know about immigration reform
[4]Huffingtonpost: Criminal Prosecutions of Undocumented Immigrants have Soared in Past Decade, Report Says
[5]The Christian Science Monitor: Immigration reform: A step forward in Senate, a leap back in House?

May 16, 2013 Diane Rehm Show: The Department of Justice, National Security and Freedom of the Press

click and watch the video. You can see the transcript of the show by clicking “transcript.” AP scandal will start around 4.10.

About today’s topic
This is also one of the scandals brought the Obama administration under fire. The Justice Department disclosed it seized phone records of the Associated Press without first informing the news agency. The seizure is said to be part of an investigation into a leak about a counter-terrorism operation in Yemen. Media and First Amendment groups reacted strongly, calling it an abuse of power.[1]

Guest
Scott Fredericksen: managing partner at the law firm Foley & Lardner, and a former federal prosecutor and independent counsel.
David Folkenflik: media correspondent for NPR.
Gabe Rottman: legislative counsel and policy adviser, Washington Legislative Office of the ACLU.

In a nutshell…
AP published this story on May 7, 2012. This reported that the CIA had stopped the terrorism act before it happened. It noted that “the AP learned about the thwarted plot last week but agreed to White House and CIA requests not to publish it immediately because the sensitive intelligence operation was still under way.” And after one year after the report published, AP notified by the US Justice Department that the Justice Department monitored 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. AP immediately responded that this is “massive and unprecedented intrusion.”

But US officials called it “a very grave leak” and justified their action as that the news organization “put the American people at risk.” Because, according to NPR, that suicide bomber was actually a double agent of Western intelligence agencies and more information would be expected if there were such a leak from AP.

In the Rachel Maddow Show, they say that more narrower seizures is acceptable for national security, but such a broad range of this case is unprecedented.

My point of view
As a matter of fact, anytime I hear “freedom of press”, I feel some dubiousness. Maybe because I have some doubt in today’s media. They have too much power and less conscience. Well, they may have their conscience and they think they are doing good thing, but many times I look them very selfish and lead people to their way, not better way. The one who has bigger voice can be justice these days. Well, I digress. In Diane Rehm Show, they were talking about how they should keep balance between freedom and national security. In my opinion, I want officials to dig any facts if we can obtain safety. But when one person pointed out; “then who watch the officials?”, I realized that I cannot answer the question. In the US federal government system, executive, judicial, and legislative branches should watch each other. But in this case, “who” does not mean that. Media should take that role, too. Ordinary people should watch, too. So maybe it is good thing that we can talk about this scandal open today. At least it is open now.

Reference

[1] Diane Rehm Show
NPR: Leaks, Bombs and Double Agents: More on that AP Story
The Rachel Maddow Show: DOJ Seizes AP Phone Records in Leak Investigation Dragnet
NBC NEWS: Bomb plot briefing may undercut DOJ’s case for AP records seizure

May 15, 2013 Diane Rehm Show: Tax Exempt Status: Which Organizations Qualify and Why

abc news video. Click and watch the news.

About This Topic
This is one of the series of issues which is attacking Obama administration these days. The Internal Revenue Service is apologizing for what it acknowledges was “inappropriate” targeting of conservative political groups during the 2012 election to see if they were violating their tax-exempt status.[1]IRS agents singled out dozens of organizations for additional reviews because they included the words “tea party” or “patriot” in their exemption applications, Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt groups, said Friday. In some cases, groups were asked for lists of donors, which violates IRS policy in most cases, she said.[1]

Guests

Paul S. Ryan: senior counsel at Campaign Legal Center.
Jan Baran: head of the election law group at Wiley Rein LLP, former general counsel to the Republican National Committee and author of “The Election Law Primer for Corporations.”
Richard Schmalbeck: Simpson Thacher & Bartlett professor at Duke University School of Law.
David French: senior counsel at American Center for Law and Justice

In a nutshell…
To understand the topic, I checked some things. I think above video and below information will help to understand what is the problem in this case.

Tea Party: Tea Party is not a political party. It is a grass-root movement of people who are conservative, partly libertarian, and partly populist.[2] They strict adherence to the US Constitution, reducing US government spending and taxes, and reduction of the US national debt and federal budget deficit.[2] Polls show that most Tea Partiers consider themselves to be Republicans and the movement’s supporters have tended to endorse Republican candidates.[2] The Tea Party movement’s membership includes notable Republican politicians Sarah Palin, Dick Armey, Michele Bachmann, Marco Rubio, and Ted Cruz.

Tea party activist William Temple marches in front of the US Supreme Court, June 27, 2012

Important point we should not forget: the IRS does need to crack down on political groups masquerading as social-welfare organizations. Many of the nonprofit groups who claim 501(c)(4) status either flout tax law or flirt with the murky line between electioneering and issue advocacy, all while using their tax-exempt status to conceal their donors. The problem isn’t that the IRS flagged nonprofit groups for additional review. The problem is that it did so poorly, lavishing special attention on Tea Party outfits when it should have been scrutinizing everyone — or at least more egregious offenders.[3]

What was wrong?: To look into which groups are legitimate social-welfare organizations and which are political organizations, IRS picked a political filter as a shortcut, singling out keywords like tea party, patriot and other conservative terms of art.[3]

My point of view
Again, politics… It is very difficult for me to say something about it because I do not know anything about it. And as a matter of fact, I am not interested in it. I like justice, I like the things which are done fairly. So I cannot stand to read about politics or foreign matter. It is so frustrating. But this, reading about what I usually avoid, may be included in my summer challenge, and I need to face it. I will follow this kind of news everyday by internet or TV news and I want to write about it someday soon. Some people are calling this series of scandal, Benghazi, IRS and AP, Obama’s Watergate. It seems very big thing but the stock market is doing well lately. I would like to know how this scandal is affecting, is not affecting or will affect the economy as well.

stock market as of May 15, 2013

Reference
[1] ABC News: IRS Apologizes for Targeting Tea Party Groups
[2] Wikipedia: Tea Party movement
[3] TIME: The real IRS Scandal
NPR: IRS Inquiries Crossed the Line, Tea Party Groups Say

May 14, 2013 Dian Rehm Show: Ongoing Controversy Over the Deadly Attack in Benghazi

Why this topic was chosen today?
There are two hot issues going on in Washington now. One is the doubt on improper scrutiny of conservative groups’ tax status during last year’s presidential campaign, and the other is Benghazi controversy. On the network television Sunday, Mr.Pickering, who is the chairman of the State Department board which reviewed the case, defended its decision not to question Mrs.Clinton.[1] Republicans keep attacking Obama administration on those issues and President Obama called it “political circus” which Republican lawmakers are creating.[2]

Guests
Clifford May: president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
Peter Baker: reporter for The New York Times.
Eleanor Clift: contributing editor for Newsweek/The Daily Beast and author of “Selecting a President” with Matthew Spieler.
Thomas Pickering: former U.S. Ambassador and former Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs. Pickering is now Senior Vice President of International Relations at The Boeing Company.

Discussion
On Sept. 11, 2012, the U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, was attacked. Four Americans died, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens. In the days and months following the deadly attack, the Obama administration has been criticized by Republicans for its handling of the tragedy. U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice withdrew her name from consideration for Secretary of State, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testified before Congress. But Republicans have continued to press the issue, saying the White House misled the American people. The administration denies any wrongdoing. Diane and guests discuss the ongoing controversy over the Benghazi tragedy.[3]

My Point of View
Everyday, Diane Rehm Show provides me fresh and challenging topics for me. Anytime I see “today’s topic”, I always feel some bitter feeling in my mind remembering; “Ah, I have heard something about it somewhere, sometime, but I avoided to think through because it seemed difficult for me…” Today’s topic is just like the one. Politics is the thing I especially avoid to read through. It is too complicated always. There are too much background and too many people involved. But, thank you Diane. Because you chose this topic today, I could try to know the basic matter of Benghazi controversy and problems President Obama is facing now.

To watch the movie, click above image or below link.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-3460_162-57584096/pickering-wasnt-necessary-to-question-clinton-in-benghazi-report/

Above video is the CBS Face the Nation broadcasted last Sunday which Thomas Pickering was interviewed. There are other videos on the website relating to Benghazi which I need to check. I am still studying about the topic and I cannot say anything constructive, but I do not know why the board did not even ask Mrs.Clinton questions. Pickering is answering the same question in the interview that he did not have to do it because the board had known enough about the issue. This explanation doesn’t clear the question at all, I think. But the most peculiar thing for me is why this topic should be considered so much now? Democrats say Republicans are using the issue to attack Obama administration and prevent them to proceed their agenda. If further investigation about this problem carries only that meaning, political games, it is nonsense. I do not like political war. But it is possible that some truth, which nobody is expecting to be reveal now, which is not directly related to the issue, can be found after an unexpected turn of events. So I would like to study and follow about this matter more.

Reference
[1]The New York Times “Chairman of Benghazi Board Defends Its Decision Not to question Clinton”
[2]The Wall Street Journal “Obama Dismisses Benghazi Claims”
[3]Dian Rehm Show “Ongoing Controversy Over the Deadly Attack in Benghazi”
Other
The Wall Street Journal “Chiefs at IRS knows of Targeting“