Monthly Archives: August 2016

Politics

This is presidential?

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I turned on the news this morning and Singaporean Prime Minister Lee and President Obama were holding a joint press conference. This was the first time in 30 years that a Singaporean Prime Minister has made a state visit to our country.

Unfortunately I turned it on as our president was once again railing on Mr. Trump in front of the  world.

How is this “presidential”?  It was an embarrassment to our country to have the commander in chief campaigning for his anointed successor at a state visit and trade talk news conference.  I wanted to yell at the TV and tell our president to just “shut the **** up!” and talk about issues.

Prime Minister Lee had class  when he said it was “not his place” to comment on the United States election.  He also said that his country has worked successfully with 5 Republican presidents and 4 Democrat ones.  Prime Minister Lee also said, “The Americans are proud of their system of checks and balances.”  Regarding if we were to elect a president that was not as open to trade, he went on to say, “They (checks and balances) make things not so easy to do, but also make it not so easy to completely mess things up.”

Prime Minister Lee showed class and a knowledge of how the real world works.

And for the record, BOTH Felon Hillary and Bombastic Trump are currently expressing that they do not agree with the terms and structure of the Trans-Pacific-Partnership (TPP).  Of course Hillybob has flip-flopped on this issue.  She at one time called the TPP the “gold standard” of trade agreements.  Now that she adopted Senator Sanders’ progressive platform, she is against it as she stated “it doesn’t meet my standard”.  But according to her close friend Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, she will embrace the TPP once she is elected president.  Flippity-floppity-foo.  Or probably more correctly, “Flippity-floppity, I fool you!”.

Government, Politics

Classified Documents Revealed

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Nothing here is classified. What I will reveal is little known information (by the general public) about how classified documents are created. Once you understand this process you’ll understand that FBI Director James Comey came to the wrong conclusion.

Documents are classified to protect our nation. There are three defined levels of classification, CONFIDENTIAL, SECRET, and TOP SECRET. There are levels of classification beyond Top Secret known as Special Access. Access to ALL classified documents is by a “need to know” basis only.  There are penalties, including fines and imprisonment, for the mishandling of classified information.

Classified information can ONLY be created by the Original Classification Authority (OCA), which is The President of The United States. The President can legally grant OCA powers to other individuals. An OCA designee would be an EXPERT in understanding the classification process. Anyone who works with classified information and is not an OCA can only create DERIVED classified documents.

Who are designated OCAs? That is a very simple question to answer. President Obama issued Executive Order 13526 on 29 December 2009 of his presidency listing who he has granted OCA power to. In EO-13526, section 1.3 “Classification Authority” paragraph a-2, we can see that Agency Heads are given OCA powers. This includes THE SECRETARY OF STATE. If you read further in the document the Secretary of State is given SPECIFIC additional powers to determine extending DECLASSIFICATION dates.

How do we know that an OCA designee is an EXPERT? Read section 1.3 paragraph d., “All original classification authorities must receive training in proper classification (including the avoidance of over-classification) and declassification as provided in this order and its implementing directives at least once a calendar year.”  The paragraph describes in detail what this training requires of the OCA designee.  Every year the OCA designees MUST undergo training on the classification process and they certify that they have both taken the training and understand the material.

FBI Director James Comey stated that he did not bring charges against then Secretary of State Clinton because he believed she did not understand nor could she recognize what constituted classified information and documents!!! I believe the term Director Comey used was “not sophisticated enough”.  His conclusion about her guilt begs the question, does Director Comey himself understand the classification process?

Here’s a link to EO-13526 http://www.archives.gov/about/laws/appendix/13526.html