Can’t sleep. Got online……Bill Richardson endorsed Obama!

Good morning Attaturk.

My comment last night when I heard was no one could have anticipated the breach of the files. It seems still that no matter how cynical I become I can’t keep up.

dugg ya, attaturk

I still need for someone to explain why passport checking would be something done by contractors rather than federal employees.

Hi Attaturk!

Surprised you made it through the night. When I went to bed I thought you where going to have to pull the blog over.

…should not have been done by contractors…that’s why they were fired…of course the whole story isn’t quite out yet…question is: who else was behind this…

yes Attaturk–

hello there!!!

Rove, no doubt. We’ll “see”.

naw, it helps knowing those are not real bullets being fired. helps keep it all in perspective as it compares to my former job (laughing)

Former job? Cat wrangler?

naw,cat wranglings too hard. i worked the streets of my former city and then did a couple tours up in detectives and then back to working the streets before i retired after putting in 24.

Good Morning! Surely the State Department assumed that the breachers could have meant harm to Barack and notified Secret Service, right!

It’s neither the “The War Mongering Republicans” or the “Rapture Republicans”. It’s The Limbaugh Republicans.

Nixonian nostalgia

Good Morning Full Moon pups, when and how will this all end? Will no one put a stop to this administration “gone wild”? I know to many questions, just starting to brew first cup….

Good morning Attaturk.

Is there any possible legitimate reason why they wouldn’t name the contractor? On its face, that seems outrageous to me.

Full moon just getting ready to set here.

Watching c-span, seeing Sen Rockefeller introducing Obama at the “End the Iraq War” stop..Richardson endorsing Obama this morning…looks like the full moon has brought about some very strange tides.

Does anyone know if the passport story even saw the light of day in the print editions of wapoo and nyt? (What time do both these “rags” literally “go to bed”?)

For all intents and purposes the news has been “disappeared” or whitewashed in the on-line versions. Since cnn attached so little importance to it last night, there’ll be no mention of it at all today. If lucky, they *may* commit two sentences to the topic; msnbc has already been reduced to that. It’s been treated as you would expect at scar’s.

Classic rovian tactics: when something is destined to come out, leak it to a toady (wt). Even better than a Friday news dump…..a holiday news dump coupled with congress out of session.

Note: lower case use in the appropriate names above is miniscule evidence of my opinion of all of them because there aren’t enough cuss words in the world. :-(

Dims at other progressive blogs I’ve checked seem much more intent on tearing down each other’s respective candidates to evidence much concern about the invasion of privacy thingie….Obama opponents glad it happened to him and Hillary opponents trying to find any way to tie her to it. Add to that, the immediate reaction by reich wingers will be, “If Obama has nothing to hide, he should release all the records himself.”

*******

Oh, and will someone be so kind to explain, after reading the following:

[snip] In defending their handling of the case, officials said that in the end, investigators chose to monitor his conduct but made no effort to set up a sting, or an arranged situation in which Mr. Spitzer might implicate himself. They did not surreptitiously record his activities inside the hotel or seek to obtain DNA evidence. It was not necessary, as Mr. Spitzer proved to be easy prey, according to the affidavit, which was signed by an F.B.I. agent.

It indicated that on Feb. 13 federal agents staked out his hotel in Washington, and it contained recorded conversations that amply demonstrated that he willingly had a sexual encounter with a prostitute. [snip]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03.....gewanted=2

since when does “recording conversations” not constitute “surreptitiously recording someone’s activities”?

*******

Thus endeth the rant.

So…

Thanks for the rant. Now I do not have to do it.

They were only taping Spitzer because he was a known terrerrisist. Nothing wrong there.

…from the NYTimes today:

State Dept. Punishes Aides for Obama Passport Breach

By Helene Cooper

Updated, 2 a.m. | WASHINGTON — The State Department has fired two employees and reprimanded a third for improperly opening electronic information from the passport file of Senator Barack Obama, State Department officials said Thursday night.

On three separate occasions in January, February and March, three employees looked through Mr. Obama’s file in the department’s consular affairs section, violating the department’s privacy rules, the State Department spokesman, Sean D. McCormack, said. Mr. McCormack said the department’s internal controls flagged the breach, which he attributed to “imprudent curiosity.”

State Department officials said that they had no idea why the employees broke into Mr. Obama’s files. The department is continuing to investigate, Mr. McCormack said.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was told of the security breach, which was first reported in The Washington Times on Thursday evening. Mr. McCormack said security measures used to monitor records of high-profile people like Mr. Obama worked properly in the three instances to alert department officials of the breaches.

Mr. Obama’s campaign said that the breaches were reprehensible.

“This is an outrageous breach of security and privacy, even from an administration that has shown little regard for either over the last eight years,” said Bill Burton, a spokesman for the Obama campaign. “Our government’s duty is to protect the private information of the American people, not use it for political purposes. This is a serious matter that merits a complete investigation, and we demand to know who looked at Senator Obama’s passport file, for what purpose, and why it took so long for them to reveal this security breach.”

BBC on line also writes about the breach at the State Department and they talk about the security issue…”The BBC’s North America editor, Justin Webb, says it is an extraordinary lapse in security which allowed temporary state department employees access to personal information on a man who is guarded by the secret service day and night”.

Does anyone know if the passport story even saw the light of day in the print editions of wapoo and nyt? (What time do both these “rags” literally “go to bed”?)

It made the WaPo. There was a brief lead-in on the bottom fold of the front page in their “Inside” block which led the read to the story on page A3.

For a good giggle this morning Gore Vidal has a few words about “dick head” buckley.

Looks like clinton2 is losing put on Michigan and Richardson is backing obama1 today so the pieces are filling into place for a clinton2 defeat. I must say that when she does withdraw the clinton party will have to realign openly with the goopers instead of surreptitiously if they want to continue in politics.

Good morning, pups. It’s Bobo and Krugman in the NYT. Bobo typed a thing called “Thoroughly Modern Do-Gooders,” where he says that earlier generations of benefactors thought that social service should be like sainthood or socialism. But this one thinks it should be like venture capital. Mr. Krugman says we’re “Partying Like It’s 1929,” and that it’s time to relearn the lessons of the 1930s, and get the financial system back under control. Otherwise, the next few years will surely be the worst slump we’ve seen in decades.

http://mgpaquin.wordpress.com/

The coffee, tea and hot chocolate are ready, and since it’s Good Friday I’ve got hot cross buns. Now I’ve got to really scamper — I’m running late and need my tea… Have a good day.

This sorry incident is reason enough to question whether the use of contractors for dealing with private information is at all wise. It’s very important to identify the contracting company which obviously did not have an effective orientation program for these folks. Just because Republicans don’t think government can do anything right, there is no reason to outsource incompetence at a cost higher than properly trained government clerks.

What, if any, relationship do these times indicated have to the spreading of patently false internet chatter about Obama? I don’t want these folks touching any paper that refers to me with private information like my SSN on it.

Gotta love this from the Times Online.

He said Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, was notified on Thursday and that she said the fact that the breach had been detected was proof that privacy safeguards were effective.

DoS didn’t find out about until I reported made them aware of it and Rice has the audacity to say that privacy safeguards were effective.

I’m sure they’ll stonewall this into oblivion, just like everything else.

What I described as “whitewashed”. Partly the reason why I asked about the print edition because (without access to same) it would appear they tried to hide it in a blog.

Bilbo @ 23 -

Thank you for that information.

TexasEllen @ 26 -

One of the republic spin points was predictable: “See, we told you gvbment is too big!”

Funny how State Department officials found this out from a reporter.

The big news here is not that they checked out obama’s passport, after all they did the same thing to clinton, no the real news is that a reporter actually did something. Who was the reporter that went off the reservation, will he/she be fired for doing their job? This breach of reporter standards during this administration could only have happened when cheenee was out of the country.

From swissinfo.ch

[…] officials said that when a prominent person’s passport records are accessed, it triggers an alarm in the computer system and the person who viewed them is questioned to see if there was a legitimate reason for looking at the file.

If this is so, why did DoS find out about it from a reporter?

Shorter Condi…

Never, never, tell me bad news nor managment problems.

Good morning everyone. Great post Attaturk! Loving your snark this morning. I’ve filed it in my pocket. ;-)

It was reported at Chrom.com that these employees who were fired are connected to the Clintons. Hillary would definitely benefit from someone at the State Dept peeking at his passport. What’s weird though is why they were peeking around those dates? He was still in the country and was not traveling overseas. Maybe these employees were asked to peek to quickly see where he HAS been throughout his lifetime? Could be.

The whole stinks to high hell. I didn’t sleep too well last night because of it. Honestly, I didn’t think the Bushbots could creep me out any further, but they’ve managed to. Not being able to trust them is scary!

The way it was being reported last night, it was the washington times that broke the story. Given *their* political leaning, one might well expect it was ordered by cheenee himself. Wish I could find the silver lining you describe…information to date gives me no hope.

The above is for you also, Bilbo. The dos is much more likely to have *given* it to the reporter. “Xcuse me a moment while I check the tilt on my tin foil hat.

mooning pups, here’s what’s on Washington Journal this morning:
7:00 am - Newspaper Articles & Viewer Calls

7:30 am - Maj. Gen. Robert Cone, Combined Security Transition Command - Afghanistan

8:00 am - Dalia Mogahed, Co-Author, “Who Speaks For Islam?: What a Billion Muslims Really Think”

9:00 am - Newspaper Articles & Viewer Calls

9:30 am - Dr. Denis Cortese, Mayo Clinic, President & CEO

Hot cross buns,
Hot cross buns,
one ha’ penny,
two ha’ penny,
hot cross buns.

It is a good friday!

Shorter Condi…
Never, never, tell me bad news nor managment problems.

“What was the name of the memo Sec Rice?”

boy did she try every which way not to say those words that day, didn’t she?

The dos is much more likely to have *given* it to the reporter.

Makes sense, Waccamaw. In fact, I read Attaturk’s post too quickly. It’s the timing of the events that the reporter made the DoS aware of, not the event itself.

Keith Olbermann covered the Obama passport story on his first [8 pm EDT] broadcast as it was ”breaking.” He and Shuster were really on fire about it. Andrea Mitchell even managed to gin up a thimbleful of outrage.

Keith stayed live for what would normally be his 10 pm ”repeat” of Countdown. In it, Shuster reported that the ”supervisor” of the section in which the shenanigans took place was a former ambassador to [I think] Paraguay, appointed by Clinton 1. Both KO & Shuster admitted they had no further info re whether this was related, but would be pursuing this point.

I think the MSNBC site should have a re-run. I’m a moron at doing links. Someone?

From Obama’s and even more from the Democratic side, this is pure gold. It brings into focus everything we have been saying about this administration since 2002: that it is a fascistic organization bent on getting its way no matter what the the constitutional safeguards are supposed to prohibit. It brings onto front stage the College Republicans, who as much as McCain should be put front and center in this campaign. Judging from Obama’s speech the other day, this is exactly what he will do.

The thugs just made a big political mistake. This isn’t going to go away. People like their privacy like they like their guns.

On YouTube,

2 State Dept Employees Fired 4 Accessing Obama’s Passport p3

has Olbermann giving an overview of the incident.

OT, but encouraging.

Washington Post - 6 hours ago
By Paul Kane Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds (RN.Y.) announced yesterday that he will not seek another term in office, becoming the latest member of the former GOP leadership team to step down in the past two years.

And another one rides the bus.

Good Morning everyone

Perhaps Obama will now take a more active role on the Senate version of the FISA bill now that this has happened.

Xcellent point MM!

Another point: what little has been said on the SCLM this morning keeps repeatedly saying, “The employees were ‘immediately’ fired.” Question: *exactly* what does “immediately” mean? Each time it happened…..or yesterday when the bigwigs at dos *claim* to have found out about it? HUGE difference! Questions you won’t hear asked, with the possible exception of KO.

Bilbo @ 40 -

Dial-up so can’t check content on vids. :-(

Millineryman @ 42 -

Now *there* is a potential silver lining. *g*

“The employees were ‘immediately’ fired.”

One of the sources I quoted above said that one of the employees was still working for the contractor although apparently not at DoS.

“re-assigned”

This isn’t going to go away.
Well, maybe.
Seems to me that we say that every big sh*t is discovered, but have we seen any accountability? On anything?

It was reported last night that this lady is one of the folks involved
http://www.state.gov/outofdate/bios/h/6297.htm

Here’s the link to the MSNBC site [don’t know if it will work; mods, help me out]. It’s 18 min long, and begins with an ad by Boeing.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21.....9#23736659

On a more positive note, I made a big batch of krispie treats to take to work. I’ll just leave the plate right here if anyone wants one.

OT-From Foreign Policy.com - “Is the U.S. State Department really backing plans that would make Iran Europe’s next major source of natural gas?
According to John Rosenthal in World Politics Review, the answer, surprisingly, is yes.”

Good Morning Attaturk and Firedogs,

waccamaw - I had the opposite experience - came home to hear Mrs. Greenspan doing actual, fact based reporting, turned the channel only to see Anderson Cooper/CNN doing all passport, all the time - and all but lost it when his guest Joe DiGenova went on for 10 minutes about how bad it was, what it implied - not just for the Senator and his family, but for all Americans -

Latest Update on Fired State Dept Employees Obama’s Passport

Interesting NBC video update here that points out incongruities in the reported story, e.g.,

If DoS Inspector General (IG) only found out about this yesterday and is instituting investigation, how can DoS claim that this is only low-level curiosity?

DoS IG has no jurisdiction over the “fired” contract employees.

My quote is paraphrase from video.

Sorry, Waccamaw.

NPR has this from AP.

Motive Sought for Obama Passport Breach

Two of the employees were fired for the security breach and the third was disciplined but is still working, the department said Thursday night. It would not release the names of those who were fired and disciplined or the names of the two companies for which they worked. The department’s inspector general is investigating.

So apparently, two separate contractors were involved.

Experience would lead one to assume they are probably *all* back with their respective employers. And since bushco are so good at cover-ups, who will ever find out the contractor’s or employee’s names?

Apologies, pups…can’t seem to shake the negativity this morning. Demi, I’ll take one of those crunchy krispies off your hands and go make sure my Dem friend down the street has heard the news. Check back later for subsequent thread comments.

cbl2 @ 52 -

I was glued to Keith the entire time and confess to basing my analysis wrt cnn on short flip back-and-forths.

Uh ohhhhhhh, picture of Rev. Wright and Bill Clinton together back in the 1990’s:

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.....-surfaces/

From AP this morning:

Filed at 7:41 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department says it is trying to determine whether three contract workers had a political motive for looking at Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s passport file.

Two of the employees were fired for the security breach and the third was disciplined but is still working, the department said Thursday night. It would not release the names of those who were fired and disciplined or the names of the two companies for which they worked. The department’s inspector general is investigating.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said that for now it appears that nothing other than ”imprudent curiosity” was involved in three separate breaches of the Illinois senator’s personal information, ”but we are taking steps to reassure ourselves that that is, in fact, the case.”

It is not clear whether the employees saw anything other than the basic personal data such as name, citizenship, age and place of birth that is required when a person fills out a passport application.

Bill Burton, a spokesman for Obama’s presidential campaign, called for a complete investigation.

Why worry about looking over the passport record. Virtually every electronic communication of Obama and his main staff are surely being intercepted. That goes for Fez Boy also as well as all congress critters and pretty much anybody who is anybody and last but not least millions of nobodies too.

There was no Watergate. War is Peace. Ignorance is Strength. Eurasia has always been at war with Eastasia. Support the troops.

Fuck these fucking fucks.

I’m thinking they might want to revisit the telecon retro immunity
question”

Bush: Trust us
Fuck you Bushie, again asleep at the switch
Where are those fucking e-mails and the IG Report on Gonzo

Why worry about looking over the passport record. Virtually every electronic communication of Obama and his main staff are surely being intercepted.

Possibly true, put there is no open evidence of the latter and there is of the former. Each unwarranted invasion of personal privacy that can be documented needs to be widely aired. Only in this manner will the sheeple have any chance of coming to understand the peril in which they live.

“That’s pervert, you private.”

“You Commie preeverts and your Commie preevert ways! …I’ll do it, but you’ll have to answer to the Coca-Cola Corporation.”

but the problem with your theory is that you fail to understand that Rush Limbaugh Republicans are made up entirely of War Mongering AND Rapture Republicans!

I’m hoping that when a new Democratic cabinet is put in place there will be lots of job opportunities within the Federal guvmint. It will help those who were laid off from their minimum wage corporate jobs (Home Depot and that ilk)during the non-recession and they’ll have a chance to train some competent people to perform the tasks the guvmint was supposed to be doing these last 8 years.

Ya know why they call him “W?”
So he can spell it.

No, in “Dr. Stangelove” Col. Bat Guano pronounced it “prevert” & “preversions”

marion,
attaturk morning guys,
missing you cause halfway around the world jetlag has me working nights and yee god sleeping late.
anyway.
left addresses where nyc true bagels of the 50s kind can be had/ordered in manhattan for marion a couple of am threads back. google bluestateetc bagels.

degenova is imho mr./married to Victoria toesing/toewhatever, he hired gun for libby/plame was not covert. he goes back to BC passport coverup of 92.

garbage from garbage.

go to Kos threads 2 and 3 for quotes/links to HRC foreign policy/security adviser and blogosphere promoter Hsu on MyDD specifically asking O for his passport.

in late december and february.

time for Easter fancy hats. Tin foil is the look this year they tell me.

Time to put in calls and letters to Joe Biden…

At least he can do some preliminary staff investigative work and prepare the way for hearings if as it sounded last night there was no real intent to investigate this thing. It is his committee after all that oversees the Department of State, and can call Condi to account.

From what I took off the cover story via Keith’s reporting, they only found out about this at the management level yesterday afternoon when called by a reporter, and within the next two hours of ws, the Inspector General finished his report, determining that no further investigation was necessary, and managed to leak that to the Washington Times.

Apparently there is no permenant Inspector General, the last one, Krongaard, left after his problematic appearance before Waxman’s committee.

So, let’s put the pressure on Biden to get into investigative mode, and it wouldn’t hurt to copy everything to Senator Lugar too, the ranking member, who apparently is quite friendly with Obama.

Thanks! Another kind pup (nomolos maybe?) told me you had left that information.

This wasn’t the Republican oppo machine

If the files had been accessed by their machine, we would never have have been told about it.

Josh Marshall asks a good follow-up question:

[W]hy is this only being handle at the State IG level? Remember, at the moment, there is no State IG, hasn’t been since Cookie Krongard had to resign over his Blackwater conflict of interest. And now that the two have been canned, the IG’s office cannot compel them to cooperate.

This wouldn’t be a planned process never to get at the bottom of the problem, would it. Not like disbanding the public integrity section at LA USA’s office, or the slow, “Go Cheney yourself” to the federal court about the White House’s lost e-mails, that it’s sure can be recovered, it just hasn’t done it yet, or ….

Pathetic that even on this blog, we now take for granted the criminal behavior of the Commander-in-Chief and those who report directly to the President of the United States. Bush has succeeded in remaking America in his own image.

Even master plumbers sometimes employ apprentices when the waste pipes are in hard to reach, filthy places. The supposition that the ReichWing is incapable of error might be a mortal sin.

This wasn’t the Republican oppo machine

If the files had been accessed by their machine, we would never have have been told about it.

Yeah, I think we can pretty well assume the Repub team has looked at both Clinton and Obama’s passport info a long time ago.

What kind of info is in there which might be of interest during a political campaign?