This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Legal

  • Well, Fair IS Fair

    I wonder how this is going to play with the “Social Justice Warrior” crowd?

    Generals say women should have to register for draft

    Specifically, the two “generals” in question were the Army Chief of Staff and Commandant of the Marine Corps.

    In contrast, the SECNAV and Acting SECARMY merely stated “that the issue should be discussed.”  Yeah, that’s some really decisive leadership from the Army’s and Navy’s senior civilians, isn’t it?

    No surprise, though.  Military leaders tend to speak plainly, and want to “do”.  Politicians generally like to speak obliquely and prefer to “discuss” at length.

    The linked article has more info.  It’s worth the time to read.

  • Oh . . . Sh!t.

    Like the perhaps-apocryphal “Chinese Water Torture”, more details about the classified information found on that unauthorized, unsecured Clintoon “private email server” keeps steadily drip . . . drip . . . dripping out.  In fact, it’s kinda like the movie Groundhog Day:  it more-or-less keeps repeating itself over and over – with respect to revealing more and more new “good news”, anyway.

    But this latest drip of “good news” concerning the information found – and presumably, now known by the Russians, Chinese, and Iranians – on Clintoon’s server is bad.   Extraordinarily bad.

    How bad? Allegedly, as in “compromised the identities of US spies and foreign sources” bad.

    This article from New York Observer’s website gives more details. If even part of what that article alleges happened is true . . . well, we could literally be talking lives at stake. Or already lost.

    Someone should already be doing time for this.  Serious time.

     

    (Hat tip to TAH reader/commenter “Climb to Glory” for bringing the Observer link above to my attention.)

  • Another Day, . . .

    . . . another report of a new Clintoon “private email server” security issue.  And like yesterday, this one is “Big (Effing) Deal” bad, too.

    How bad?  Well, I’ll just provide a link or two to explain that.  Here’s the first link, identifying yet another type of highly classified material that’s reportedly been found on Clintoon’s unauthorized, inadequately-secured “private email server”.  It rather goes without saying that this newly-identified type of classified information was not authorized to be stored there either.

    Now, here’s the second link to publicly-available IC documentation briefly describing that type of information.  The need for extreme protection for this type of information should be obvious to anyone with 3 or more working brain cells.

    Oh, and here’s another little bit of “good news”.  Former SECDEF and CIA Director Robert Gates believes there’s a very good chance that Clintoon’s server was accessed by Russian, Chinese, and Iranian intelligence .  So anything that was there . . . is very likely no longer exactly a secret.

    Geez.  First unauthorized TS-SCI info is found stored on Clintoon’s inadequately-secured “private server”.  Next, unauthorized SAP info.   Now this.

    And all of the information stored there has likely been divulged to Russia, China, and Iran.  Great.  Just freaking great.

    Damn, what’s going to be found next on that effectively unsecured “private” server – Pentagon OPLANs?  The design specifications and blueprints for a US nuclear warhead?  At this point, given what we’ve seen found so far I’m not sure I’d be shocked even by that.

    IMO multiple people should end up doing serious time for this fiasco.  There’s simply no excuse for this degree of negligence – or deliberate disregard for the law – when handling these types of classified information.

  • A Clintoon SAP Story

    “Welcome back my friends, to the show that never ends . . . .”  Well, at least it seems sometimes as if this one will persist forever.

    Still, maybe not.  Remember the argument a few weeks ago, when the Clintoon camp tried to “pooh-pooh” two emails found on her poorly-secured “private email server” that contained top secret information, calling them the result of a “disagreement” over the proper classification or claiming that they “weren’t classified at the time”?  The IC came on record and flatly stated that was not the case, and that the materials in question were indeed top secret.

    Well, it looks as if there was a bit more to it than that.

    It seems as if the Intelligence Community IG office did a comprehensive review of the issue, apparently between November and earlier this month. And it’s considerably worse than they first let on.

    Bottom line: dozens of classified emails were on that ineffectively-secured and unauthorized “private” server.  And at least some of those emails apparently contained information that was not only top secret, but which was also SAP (special access program) material from the Intelligence Community.  For those of you unfamiliar with the term, this linked Wikipedia article provides a decent overview of what a special access program is and why one would exist.

    If you’re thinking, “That’s bad” – yeah, that’s bad.  Really bad.  As in “Big (Freaking) Deal” bad, to quote the current VP.

    Something like this is simply NOT supposed to happen.  Period.

    The material here is so highly controlled that some members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee – the Senate committee which oversees operations of the State Department – were not authorized access to this information without receiving additional security briefings and signing additional nondisclosure agreements specifically relating to the material.  This was true even though those same individuals were previously cleared for access to all other materials publicly acknowledged as being found on Clintoon’s unauthorized “private” server.

    The linked articles are quite informative – and disturbing as hell.  IMO they’re worth your time to read.

    IMO, a number of people should be going to jail for this.  At this point it appears obvious that this was not merely the result of some “honest mistake” in handling classified information.

    18 USC 793(f) and (g), anyone?  Sure looks like it to me.

  • More IRS IT Data “Issues”

    To paraphrase a great man: “Well, there they go again.” And this time, while it indeed involves the IRS and their IT operations it doesn’t involve screwing with conservative nonprofit groups.

    Some time ago, the IRS entered into a questionable $2.2 million contract with a law firm. The law firm was to assist with IRS audit activities – but had little experience in handling IRS audit data, and was very expensive ($1000/hour billing rate). The contract was bad enough to draw Congressional interest – and could well have been both unnecessary and contrary to Federal law, which appears to restrict performance of IRS audit functions to government employees.

    The matter apparently became the subject of some form of litigation or investigation. As a result, a Federal judge ordered the IRS to preserve the hard drive used on the personal PC of the IRS’s former director of transfer pricing operations at the IRS Large Business and International Division– and individual named Samuel Maruca. Mr. Maruca (or one of his subordinates) apparently oversaw or influenced the contract in question.

    Do I really need to tell you what happened?

    Yeah, you guessed it. Contrary to the judge’s order, the IRS wiped the drive – last April, well after the judge had ordered it preserved.

    To me, it seems this means either the IRS’s IT folks are spectacularly incompetent – or someone is deliberately trying to hide something.  I can’t see any other plausible explanation for a drive ordered preserved by a Federal judge being wiped after it had been ordered preserved.

    But maybe that’s just me.  Feel free to draw your own conclusions regarding why the IRS did this.

    Oh, did I mention that this had happened before?  In March 2014, the IRS deleted “hundreds” of backup tapes containing an estimated 24,000 emails from Lois Lerner – after they’d been subpoenaed by Congress.

    But remember: this is the “most transparent Administration in history”.  So we’ll shortly be getting a simple, straightforward explanation regarding what happened here  – right?

    Yeah, right.  If you believe that . . . please come talk to me about buying this bridge.  I’ll make ya a great deal on it.

  • A Clintoon “Private” Email Update

    Well, it’s time for a long-overdue periodic update on the Neverending Saga of the Clintoon Private Email Server. And for anyone who’s a Hillary “fanboy”, well . . . things ain’t lookin’ so good these days.

    Why? Well, let’s just look at the current “biggies”:

    • Over 1300 emails containing classified information were sent to Clintoon at her “private” email address. At least two were indeed classified Top Secret.

    • New email has been discovered that appears to show Clintoon “encouraging” subordinates to strip classification markings from documents and send them to her on her unsecure system anyway.

    • Oh, and did I mention that the FBI is now looking hard at the confluence of DoS and Clintoon Foundation business exhibited by Ms. Clintoon while SECSTATE? Looking hard, as in “with an eye towards possible public corruption charges”? Corruption, as in possible evidence of “pay for play” quid pro quo?

    And, on the non-email side:  it seems the Department of State recently found a rather large cache of unreviewed documents from the time Clintoon was SECSTATE.  They’re under court order to provide those to Judicial Watch if relevant to an ongoing lawsuit – and it appears many of those newly-discovered documents will be relevant.

    Yeah, it seems things aren’t going too well for Team Clintoon these days. As the elder President Bush’s wife Barbara might have put it, “It couldn’t happen to a nicer witch.”

  • More Idiocy from the Pinheads at PETA

    Well the fools at PETA have been at it again, clogging up the courts with idiocy. And this latest one is a real winner.

    They went to US court over the copyright rights for a photograph.  The international copyright was owned by a British photographer.  He’d left his camera unattended while visiting Indonesia’s Sulawesi Island, and some monkey managed to take a “selfie” with it.  The photo is now quite famous.

    PETA went to court and requested the copyright rights be reassigned.  They wanted the copyright rights reassigned to the monkey.  And they wanted PETA to be allowed to administer those copyrights “on behalf of the monkey”.

    Yep, you read that right.  They wanted the legal copyright rights – and thus any income derived from same – to be assigned to a freaking monkey.  And they actually went to court to try and make that happen.

    In a refreshing display of common sense, the judge essentially – in polite, legal language – told PETA to go pound sand.

    Sheesh.  These imbeciles should be required to have an escort any time they’re walking around in public, for their own protection and that of others.

  • Michigan protects service animals

    Michigan protects service animals

    According to UpNorthLive, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder signed legislation that protects service animals and their owners in the state. In addition to adding protections for veterans with PTS and their animals, it makes it a misdemeanor to falsely represent your animal to be a service animal;

    Senate Bill 298, sponsored by state Sen. David Knezek, now makes it a crime to refuse entry to a person using a service animal or to assault a service animal. The bill is now Public Act 144.

    Senate Bill 299, sponsered by state Sen. Margaret O’Brien, exempts dogs from licensing fees if they are a serice animal to someone with a disability or veteran with a service-related disability. The bill is now Public Act 145.

    […]

    House Bill 4527, sponsored by state Rep. David Rutledge, makes it a misdemeanor to falsely represent a service animal, and brings state law more in line with the Americans with Disabilities Act with respect to the definitions of “person with a disability” and “service animal”. It also specifically permits veterans to possess a service animal for post-traumatic stress disorder, a traumatic brain injury, or other service-related disability.

    According to the bill, falsely representing your animal as a service animal, will earn you a $500 fine (the fine was $10), 90 days in jail and 30 days of community service.

    We’ve seen an explosion of valor thieves who use a service to validate their claims, so maybe if more states enacted these types of laws, that would reduce stolen valor, somewhat. Every little bit helps.