That's Not An Oversight, That's A Plan

Sure, ISIS uses Facebook and Twitter to recruit, but should we check Facebook and Twitter to evaluate visa applicants? No so fast, you privacy pirate! Those foreigners have civil rights too, or something; from ABC News:

Secret US Policy Blocks Agents From Looking at Social Media of Visa Applicants, Former Official Says

Fearing a civil liberties backlash and "bad public relations" for the Obama administration, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson refused in early 2014 to end a secret U.S. policy that prohibited immigration officials from reviewing the social media messages of all foreign citizens applying for U.S. visas, a former senior department official said.

"During that time period immigration officials were not allowed to use or review social media as part of the screening process," John Cohen, a former acting under-secretary at DHS for intelligence and analysis. Cohen is now a national security consultant for ABC News.

One current and one former senior counter-terrorism official confirmed Cohen's account about the refusal of DHS to change its policy about the public social media posts of all foreign applicants.

Bad public relations"? Well, they are getting that.

Here's a pro tip for our hard-working government officials - if you are trying to choose between protecting the lives of Americans and protecting the civil liberties of foreigners not covered by the US Constitution, don't overthink it.

Yes, we understand that a portion of Obama's base hates America even more than ISIS does, but still, Obama is President of all Americans, even the bitter-clingers in flyover country. And that will be true for another year, regardless of how much both sides regret it. Think of it as a bad marriage with a delayed court date. Smile, be civil, don't pour hot coffee on each other - we can get through this. And think of the children.

#TheHolidaysAreHardest

WHOSE FACE IS RED NOW?

Former DHS under-secretary Cohen said he and others pressed hard for just such a policy change in 2014 that would allow a review of publicly-posted social media messages as terror group followers increasingly used Twitter and Facebook to show their allegiance to a variety of jihadist groups.

Cohen said officials from United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) both pressed for a change in policy.

"Immigration, security, law enforcement officials recognized at the time that it was important to more extensively review public social media postings because they offered potential insights into whether somebody was an extremist or potentially connected to a terrorist organization or a supporter of the movement," said Cohen, who left DHS in June 2014.

Cohen said the issue reached a head at a heated 2014 meeting chaired by Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, other top deputies and representatives of the DHS Office of Civil Liberties and the Office of Privacy.

"The primary concern was that it would be viewed negatively if it was disclosed publicly and there were concerns that it would be embarrassing," Cohen said in an interview broadcast on "Good Morning America" today.

But they kept the Greenwald vote.

Comments

[James D.]

I've read 13 from the list. Probably should have read a lot more than that, though.

[narciso]

he doesn't have as wide a profile as cbruz was what meant,

maybe she knew about that loan, maybe not, when she spoke out against Ground Zero mosque, she was dubbed islamophobic, which is the description for
those who are aware of their surroundings,l

The Top Men, on both sides of the Atlantic strive to suppress real issues, consider Cameron's climbdown on demands on the EU

[peter]

Anyone ever see that Judy Garland Show Christmas episode where Mel Torme (he was the show's musical director) sings The Christmas Song including the rarely recorded opening verse?

[Rick Ballard]

Could someone put up another link to the list?

[Jim Miller]

12 or 13 books on that BBC list. (I lost exact count because I started arguing with some of the choices.)

[peter]

At 37:45 at the LUN, Torme sings the intro verse

[narciso]

yes it goes pearshaped after 15 or so,

http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20151204-the-100-greatest-british-novels

[NKtonipad]

Inigo montoya unhappy with cruz quoting princess bride: now I really like cruz.

[narciso]

is atonement good enough for that rank, 1984 sometimes strikes as too grim sometimes, even though I mine references from it,

[peter]

sad to say only four

[jimmyk]

Yeah, I kind of think they shouldn't have anything from this century, it's too soon to judge. 1984 belongs just for its impact. There at least a dozen on the list that I've never heard of.

[DrJ]

Here you go, Rick:

http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20151204-the-100-greatest-british-novels

[narciso]

I started with Trollope's the Prime Minister, note things haven't changed much in 150 years, but didn't get into the rest of the series,

[Captain Hate on the iPad]

I didn't think that much of Atonement.

I get confused when people say Rand's books weren't literature but rather polemics and then praise 1984.

[narciso]

well pick a side,

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/eureferendum/12050477/UK-exit-from-European-Union-on-a-knife-edge-as-poll-shows-British-public-are-now-5050-over-leaving.html

[Rick Ballard]

37

The absence of Chesterton and MacDonald make the list just a wee bit specious.

[narciso]

I guess the film made a stronger impression, a lesser known McEwan work, Saturday impressed me more,

[narciso]

no Kipling, if memory serves, a lot of whistful meditations on colonialism I noted,

[narciso]

and they just worse as time goes on, the previous Booker prize, went to an Iraq derangement screed that ran 800 pages, and three volumes,

[sbw]

Miss Marple’s 7:02 wins the thread.

[Rick Ballard]

No Robert Louis Stevenson either. That's a bit like leaving Twain off a list of American writers.

[Rick Ballard]

Narciso and DrJ,

Thank you for re-linking.

[clarice]

nytol

[Stephanie]

Brit Book list...Still number 1 at three books actually read. Should I wear that as a badge of honor?

Is there a best of Am Lit list anywhere? I suspect I might fare better there.

BTW we will be heading to the Keys on Christmas day so I will not be doing the annual Bowl Challenge on JOM as I will not have access to a computer to update the Excel file for the majority of the best bowls (we're coming back on Jan 3). If anyone wants to take over, I'll gladly email the file I have used for the last few years with the formulas embedded.

[MaryD]

Peter, the clip reminded me that even as a child I spotted Judy Garland as a total phony.
Her voice was gone, and her so-called relationships with her children were totally forced. The son looked totally terified.

[Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Harris]

I went to TK's excellent Cashill link and there's some dude using my exact Lemay photo as an avatar. I may have to do something about that.
Posted by: Ignatz Ratzkywatzky | December 13, 2015 at 11:08 AM

I say, have you considered carpet bombing the bloody impostor to smithereens?

[narciso]

in an otherwise ridiculous thread, we see a familiar appearance,

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=6329595&postID=4055492858954907613

[Threadkiller]

http://mobile.wnd.com/2015/12/judge-orders-u-s-landlord-to-learn-islam/?cat_orig=faith

JATFI

[narciso]

I was noting on the other thread, how their kunyas, like Abu Sufyan, all echo Islamic history, same for many of their militant organizations,

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

--I say, have you considered carpet bombing the bloody impostor to smithereens?--

Jeez, I was gonna change my avatar.
WTH was I thinking?

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Fargo has been a killing field all season, narc.
I'm just trying to figure out what the UFOs were all about.

[narciso]

I've really been watching Legends among other programming, but they introduced this new fangled killing machine, in some piece or another,

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

--Great talent.--

Yeah, when you write a great song and sing it better than anyone else....

[Dave (in MA)]

Did you watch the last episode of Fargo, Ig?

[narciso]

another look at Harold Ford,

http://www.wsj.com/articles/sen-bob-corker-failed-to-properly-disclose-millions-of-dollars-in-income-1450051046

[narciso]

Thats half of one percent,

http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/56143/only-1-christian-237-syrian-refugees-admitted-us-paris-attacks-middle-east/

[narciso]

nothing to see here,

http://www.weaselzippers.us/245508-breaking-indian-point-nuclear-plant-in-ny-suffer-mysterious-shutdown/

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Yes I did Dave.
Still digesting it but there is one transcendent sequence about halfway through.
Lou's wife with cancer is talking to the teen girl with her who quotes Camus that knowing we will die renders life absurd.
The woman scoffs telling her Camus must have not had a six year old daughter. She then says something extremely wise about our time here, our job and standing before the Lord when our job is done.
It then cuts to magical thinking Peg in the back of Lou's car hoping she gets a prison with an ocean view.
Lou tells a war story and ends by saying men doing whatever they can, even dying for their family is what men call their burden but it's really a privilege.
Peg doesn't get it and complains because she couldn't have it all as a wife, mom and career girl and rattles on until Lou cuts her off by saying "people are dead Peg".

It was both the most grown up dialog I've heard in a long, long time and shockingly un-PC in endorsing the fatalistic, adult, stoic, traditional male and female roles of Lou and his wife vs the self actualizing birdbrain with a wake of corpses behind her, including her husband, who fell for every EST, self-improvement, feminist, who-said-you-can't-have-it-all, Helen Gurley Brown Cosmo claptrap.

Watched the repeat just to see it again.

[narciso]

it's a cookbook:

http://twitchy.com/2015/12/14/youtube-suspends-investigative-reporter-sharyl-attkissons-full-measure-news/

[Dave (in MA)]

Well said, Ig. You should write reviews.

I did some googling after watching it - apparently the name on Hanzee's card matches the head of the mob that Billy Bob's character massacres in season one. I'd never have remembered that without looking it up.

[narciso]

that's the fellow, the first season was easier to stomach, they went overboard in the first episode
this season,

[narciso]

that whole interview is NC-17.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/us-officials-netanyahu-myopic-entitled-untrustworthy-disrespectful-of-obama/

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

-- apparently the name on Hanzee's card matches the head of the mob that Billy Bob's character massacres in season one.--

Excellent. One weakness I thought was Hanzee's nearly supernatural unstoppable-force aspect and hoped to see him killed off in a nicely prosaic manner in this series, preferably by Peg. :)

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

--us-officials-netanyahu-myopic-entitled-untrustworthy-disrespectful-of-obama--

Do they not have even the slightest sense of professionalism?
Barry and his crew would be lucky to be warming the bench on any JV squad.

[daddy]

Judge orders U.S. landlord to learn Islam

Judge should be ordered to learn how to catch bullets.

[Gentlejim]

Judge orders U.S. landlord to learn Islam
What's to learn? Convert or die seems to be all there is.

[Gentlejim]

I suppose I could've added the ravings of the pedophilic psychopath

[Man Tran]

Catching up after a disastrous project day. I may match Stephanie's three books. My misspent yute involved bike trips to the library during the school year where I devoured whole sections in the nonfiction techie realm and a little bit of western/pioneer/fur trapper history stuff. Twain fit in there. Summers were consumed in the back country of MT, where reading seemed far away.

[daddy]

Via Insty, A Hat tip from Don Surber to his "Cyberbuddy Clarice:)"

When Don Imus asked the question we all should have asked

Cool!

[pagar a bacon, ham and sausage supporter]

"Judge sentences woman to learn Islam."

"alleged victim had upwards of 15 people living her the apartment,"

http://www.dcclothesline.com/2015/12/15/sharia-in-boston-judge-orders-pastor-to-learn-and-study-islam/

I'm not sure what the rules are but I'd be very surprised if there isn't a limit on the number of people allowed to live in an Apartment.

[Janet]

from pagar's link...this bit quoting the AP -

"The Supreme Judicial Court will hear arguments next month in a case that poses interesting legal questions at a time when the country is grappling with anti-Muslim backlash following deadly attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California, both allegedly carried out by radical Muslims."

???? The only thing I'm grappling with is wading through all the propaganda about anti-Muslim backlash.