Conservative Blogger
Friday, December 16, 2016
Wikileaks founder Assange on hacked Podesta, DNC emails: 'Our source is not the Russian government'
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| Julian Assange: Our source is not the Russian government |
"Our source is not the Russian government," Assange told "The Sean Hannity Show."
"So in other words, let me be clear," Hannity asked, "Russia did not give you the Podesta documents or anything from the DNC?"
"That's correct," Assange responded.
Assange's assertion contradicts the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), which concluded in October that "the Russian Government directed the recent compromises of e-mails [sic] from U.S. persons and institutions, including from U.S. political organizations."
In addition to the hacked emails from the DNC and Podesta, Assange admitted that Wikileaks received "received about three pages of information to do with the [Republican National Committee] and Trump [during the campaign], but it was already public somewhere else."
Late Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Russian hackers had tried and failed to access the RNC using the same methods as the DNC hackers.
Assange had previously denied that the DNC and Podesta emails had came from any government. He has steadfastly refused to identify the source of the messages.
"We’re unhappy that we felt that we needed to even say that it wasn’t a state party. Normally, we say nothing at all," Assange told Hannity. "We have ... a strong interest in protecting our sources, and so we never say anything about them, never ruling anyone in or anyone out.
"And so here, in order to prevent a distraction attack against our publications, we’ve had to come out and say ‘no, it’s not a state party. Stop trying to distract in that way and pay attention to the content of the publication.’"
Assange added that the U.S. government, corporations and even private citizens are vulnerable to a cyberattack like the one on the DNC and Podesta.
"Everything is almost completely insecure now," he said. "Computer systems have become so complex that it is not possible to understand all the parts, let alone secure them. It’s just impossible."
Abedin claims she never received FBI warrant for Weiner emails
Can't get rid of the roaches, spray they go away but keep coming back.
In the letter, Abedin’s lawyer said she is unable to comment on a Los Angeles lawyer’s request for FBI warrants tied to her emails, because “the government has never provided her with a copy of the warrant it reportedly obtained to search certain emails.”
“We understand that Mr. Weiner has likewise not been provided with a copy of the material,” said the letter from lawyer Karen Dunn.
Abedin’s letter is tied to a request by E. Randol Schoenberg, a genealogist and lawyer based in LA, who has asked a Manhattan federal judge to help him get to the bottom of FBI Director Jim Comey’s late-October surprise announcement that emails tied to the agency’s probe into Clinton’s email server were found on Anthony Weiner’s computer during the FBI’s probe into his sexting with an underage teen.
Schoenberg, known for recovering artwork stolen by the Nazis, wants Judge Kevin Castel to make the warrants public to ensure the FBI had proper cause to investigate the emails. Schoenberg’s letter suggested urgency in getting to the bottom of the warrants before the “impending vote of the Electoral College” on Dec. 19 to finalize the presidential election.
The First 100 Days: Trump vows to roll back energy industry regs
America’s energy policy is about to change – big league.
Unlike President Obama – who prioritized energy regulations and handouts as part of an incentive system to curb global warming – President-elect Donald Trump says he will focus instead on making America energy independent.
How significantly U.S. energy policies will change remains to be seen. But several campaign promises provide a roadmap:
- Trump has said he will roll back regulations that damage the coal industry. That could mean ignoring Obama’s carefully negotiated Paris climate accord and tearing up his controversial Clean Power Plan, both of which dramatically restrict U.S. carbon emissions.
- Trump stated the U.S. has enough oil to last 285 years. It is “there for the taking,” he said. That could mean opening up areas currently off limits to offshore oil drilling, including the Pacific, Atlantic and parts of Alaska.
- Trump told voters the U.S. has enough natural gas reserves to “power America’s energy needs for the next 110 years.” He supports natural gas fracking on federal lands, something Obama did not.
- Unlike Obama, who was pressured by environmental allies to oppose most fossil fuel projects, Trump supports both the North Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines.
- On wind and solar, Trump said, “I’m all for alternative forms of energy” but also called it “just an expensive way to make tree huggers feel good about themselves.” While it is unlikely renewables will receive the favored status they did under Obama, Trump seems more likely to remain neutral on that front.
“We would just like the Trump administration to understand that wind is big. It's of scale, it's cost competitive, it's clean and renewable,” said Steve Lockhart, of TCI Composites, a wind turbine blade manufacturer in Iowa. “The wind industry employs 88,000 people today, 21,000 in the manufacturing sector, over 500 factories in forty-three states, so there is tremendous employment that is generated from this industry.”
Ten states now get more than 30 percent of their electricity from renewables, making it unlikely Trump would try to interfere in their power generation. States also have taken the lead by requiring utilities to get an increasing amount of their power from renewables, including Texas, where Energy Secretary nominee Rick Perry encouraged wind energy.
Rob Bishop, R-Utah, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, says it will be up to Trump to help rewrite America’s energy blueprint – in part, he hopes, by opening up federal lands to more development. Trump also will have to fight or negotiate with Democrats and the environmental lobby to navigate changes in the Endangered Species Act and National Environmental Protection Act to allow for more drilling.
“I am excited and I am nervous at the same time because it's not going to be as easy as some people think,” Bishop said.
One of the more difficult efforts will be reviving the coal industry as Trump has pledged. Coal towns in key states like Pennsylvania and Ohio came out big for the president-elect. The problem is not only have many utilities moved on -- signing long-term energy contracts with new providers – but coal is losing market share to natural gas, which is cleaner and cheaper.
Nevertheless, in the small mining town of Hotchkiss, Colo., people are hopeful.
“It is not just the coal itself, it is the downstream value to our economy, to our people to our community,” said Mayor Wendell Koontz.
Koontz used to work at the Oxbow mine. It closed earlier this year along with another nearby site. Koontz saw 1,200 coal jobs disappear in one year, leaving dozens of businesses in the town of 900 empty.
Eight years ago, coal provided half of America’s electricity. Today, it is 31 percent and falling.
Asked if this trend is market-driven or tied to politics, Mike Ludlow, president of Oxbow mining, said: “The shut-down of a lot of coal plants and the loss of market is due to regulation that restricted emissions from coal fired plants.”
Surveying what’s left of the huge mine, he said, “It is a combination of that and cheap natural gas.”
Obama says US needs to respond to Russian cyberattacks -- 'and we will'
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| Fox News Poll: Russian hacking did not affect election |
"I think there is no doubt that when any foreign government tries to impact the integrity of our elections ... we need to take action," Obama said in an interview scheduled to air Friday on National Public Radio. "And we will — at a time and place of our own choosing. Some of it may be explicit and publicized; some of it may not be."
Earlier Thursday, Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters during the daily White House briefing that "Mr. Trump obviously knew that Russia was engaged in malicious cyber activity that was helping him, [and] hurting [Democrat Hillary] Clinton ... "These are all facts that are not in dispute."
Earnest pointed out that Trump had encouraged Moscow during a news conference to find missing emails from Clinton's private server. Trump has said he was joking.
"I don't think anybody at the White House thinks it's funny that an adversary of the United States engaged in malicious cyber activity to destabilize our democracy," Earnest said. "That's not a joke."
Earnest, without mentioning Russian President Putin by name, also said "only Russia's senior-most officials could have authorized these activities," repeating the words from an October U.S. intelligence assessment.
Obama's deputy national security adviser, Ben Rhodes, connected the dots further, saying it was Putin who was responsible for the Russian government's actions.
"I don't think things happen in the Russian government of this consequence without Vladimir Putin knowing about it," Rhodes said on MSNBC.
Trump fired back Thursday evening, calling Earnest "foolish" during a "Thank You" rally in Hershey, Pa.
"I don't know if he's talking to President Obama," Trump said of Earnest, without addressing the hacking controversy directly. "You know, having the right press secretary's so important. Because he is so bad, the way he delivers a message ... The president is very positive, but he's not positive. And I mean, maybe he's getting his orders from somebody else? Does that make sense? Could that be possible?"
The White House officials' comments only escalate the feud between Trump allies and Democratic figures over Russia's alleged hacking.
U.S. intelligence officials have linked the hacking to Russia's intelligence agency and its military intelligence division. Moscow has denied all accusations that it orchestrated the hacking of email accounts of Democratic Party officials and Clinton's campaign chief, John Podesta, and then leaked them to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks.
But lawmakers seeking a briefing this week on potential conflicts in the record about Russia's role were rebuffed, fueling GOP concerns on Capitol Hill about what the intelligence says.
U.S. officials have not contended that Trump would have been defeated by Clinton on Nov. 8 if not for Russia's assistance. Nor has there has been any indication of tampering with the vote-counting.
The Kremlin flatly rejected the claim of Putin's involvement, with Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissing it Thursday as "laughable nonsense."
The dispute over Russia's role is fueling an increasingly public spat between Obama's White House and Trump's team that is threatening to spoil the delicate truce that Obama and Trump have forged since Election Day.
Although the president and president-elect have avoided criticizing each other publicly since Trump's win, their aides have been more openly antagonistic. Kellyanne Conway, Trump's senior transition adviser, said it was "breathtaking" and irresponsible that the White House had suggested Trump knew Russia was interfering to help his campaign.
Trump and his supporters insist the Democrats' outrage about Russia is really an attempt to undermine the validity of his election victory. Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., a Trump ally, called it "disgraceful" as he spoke to reporters amassed in Trump Tower after meeting with the president-elect.
"Right now, certain elements of the media, certain elements of the intelligence community and certain politicians are really doing the work of the Russians," King said.
There has been no specific, persuasive evidence shared publicly about the extent of Putin's role or knowledge of the hackings. That lack of proof undercuts Democrats' strategy to portray Putin's involvement as irrefutable evidence of a directed Russian government plot to undermine America's democratic system.
Thursday, December 15, 2016
‘Luxury’ living: Senate report finds IRS workers racked up huge travel tab
EXCLUSIVE: The IRS spent more than $1.4 million on long-term travel for just 27 employees in fiscal 2015, including on high-end car services and luxury apartment and hotel stays, a Senate report has found -- with one lawmaker blasting “woefully insufficient efforts” to reduce expenses at the agency.
The Senate Finance Committee report, obtained by FoxNews.com, found that while federal guidelines say employees must exercise the same care in incurring expenses as a “prudent person” traveling on personal business, IRS employees who traveled 125 business days or more racked up an average cost of over $52,000 a year.
The committee found more than half of the long-term travel time was spent in the Washington D.C., area. It found cases of five employees living in hotels, primarily in the capital, for months at a time without looking for lower-cost housing or having their per diem rates reduced as outlined in federal guidelines.
Further, the committee found “the IRS does not routinely or actively seek to reduce per diem rates for employees on long-term travel.”
The generous per diem rate allows employees traveling to Washington to spend up to $7,099 a month on lodging alone, despite the committee seeing “virtually no circumstance” in which an employee would need to spend that much on a month-to-month basis.
And yet some employees pushed the limits on the taxpayers' dime.
The report cites the case of one employee spending more than five months at the Grand Hyatt in Washington, racking up a $38,799 tab, while another stayed in a number of Washington hotels including the Ritz Carlton – Pentagon City in Northern Virginia to the tune of $72,544 for the fiscal year.
One employee rented a $1.07 million, four-bedroom townhouse in Arlington, Va., for a year, costing taxpayers $4,950 a month, while another stayed in a luxury apartment building in downtown Chicago overlooking the Chicago River at a price of $4,605 a month.
Also, despite the IRS’ own guidance to the contrary, the committee found evidence that some IRS executives are not geographically located where their primary job duties are, adding to the travel expenses.
“The number of employees who travel more than half of the year and the cost at which they do so is simply unacceptable,” the report said.
The report noted that such long-term travel led to other expenses also deemed excessive, including an employee charging $100 for black car service from Manhattan to LaGuardia Airport, and another employee charging the IRS for cab rides to dinner and the grocery store.
Committee Chair Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, in a letter to IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, called the results of the report “frustrating,” noting what he called the “lack of effort” by employees to be prudent, which he said could be a direct violation of federal travel regulations.
“And yet, Committee staff saw example after example of routine Amtrak Acela trips, black car service, and luxury apartment rentals when reviewing IRS employee travel vouchers,” Hatch said. “Furthermore, the IRS made woefully insufficient efforts to reduce expenses in ways that would still allow employees to travel comfortably.”
The committee recommended the IRS significantly reduce per diem rates for long-term travel, as outlined by federal guidelines, and noted that the agency could see “significant cost savings among all employees who travel for significant amounts of time during the year” if it followed its own guidelines.
The IRS did not immediately return a request for comment from FoxNews.com.
Iran sanctions renewal becomes law even without Obama signature
WASHINGTON – In an unexpected reversal, President Barack Obama declined to sign a renewal of sanctions against Iran but let it become law anyway, in an apparent bid to alleviate Tehran's concerns that the U.S. is backsliding on the nuclear deal.
Although the White House had said that Obama was expected to sign the 10-year-renewal, the midnight deadline came and went Thursday with no approval from the president. White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Obama had decided to let it become law without his signature.
"The administration has, and continues to use, all of the necessary authorities to waive the relevant sanctions" lifted as part of the nuclear deal, Earnest said in a statement.
Under the Constitution, the president has 10 days after Congress passes a bill to sign it, veto it or let it become law with no signature if Congress is still in session. Although lawmakers have returned home for the holidays, Congress technically has not adjourned and is holding "pro-forma" sessions this week.
Though Obama's move doesn't prevent the sanctions renewal from entering force, it marked a symbolic attempt by the president to demonstrate disapproval for lawmakers' actions. The White House has argued that the renewal is unnecessary because the administration retains other authorities to punish Iran, if necessary, and has expressed concern that the renewal may undermine the nuclear deal.
The Obama administration stressed that Iran would be unaffected by the renewal, as long as it continues honoring the nuclear deal. Secretary of State John Kerry said he'd told his Iranian counterpart that "to ensure maximum clarity," he'd issued new, redundant waivers exempting Iran from sanctions lifted under the deal.
"Extension of the Iran Sanctions Act does not affect in any way the scope of the sanctions relief Iran is receiving under the deal or the ability of companies to do business in Iran consistent with the JCPOA," Kerry said, using an acronym for the nuclear deal.
President-elect Donald Trump has been sharply critical of the nuclear deal and has threatened to try to renegotiate it, but has been vague about whether he'd pull the U.S. out of it.
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