I know practically nothing about Martin O’Malley who used to be governor in Maryland. I did read this article telling why he is a better candidate than the Hill_Billies. I also read one by Joe Battenfeld the Herald columnist telling how he could beat the Hill_Billies.
I would like to see O’Malley win for my own good reasons that I’ll discuss later. They are quite compelling. I must admit, though, I have a sense the books have been cooked and nothing will stop the Hill_Billies from getting their hands on the wealth of our country.
While I know little about O’Malley I do know quite a bit about the Hill_Billies out of Arkansas to be frightened at the thought they may become president. The last time they occupied the White House they were renting out the Lincoln bedroom and when they left they absconded with just about everything that was not tied down. Since then they have gone on their “awe shucks, biting lower lip, eyes down” campaign and raked in billions of dollars to their coffers from people who expect future paybacks once the Hill_Billies get their hands in the cookie jar. You may not like Obama but one thing you have to admit is that unlike that covetous duo he hasn’t had us mired in scandal.
Did you ever hear the term “Slick Willie?” The Urban Dictionary definition is: “Nickname given to Bill Clinton, the 42nd President, for allegedly being cunning and deceptive.” Well, that’s not entirely correct. It was given to him by Paul Greenberg a syndicated columnist for the Arkansas-Democrat Gazette for his ability to stand on both sides of an issue at the same time. To get an idea of what he thought of Billie here’s a good interview he gave Frontline back in 1996. As part of it Greenberg who followed Billie’s career closely said: “I have never been able to detect any particular principle that Bill Clinton would not sacrifice in order to advance his political career.”
That’s what he has shown over the years and that’s what the folks are buying if they decide that the Hill_Billie team should like the foxes get into the Hen White House. This will be the last hurrah so rather than advancing their political careers they will be pushing their financial fortunes, although when I pause and think perhaps their political careers can continue.
Think of this – Hillary will be 68 when she gets to be president – if the people are so blind and daffy as to put her in then they’ll keep her for eight years. Who then will be in line for the presidency. It will be in the great tradition of diversity in America the 45-year-old woman who would have gained enormous experience traveling the world and dealing in American matters, Chelsea Clinton. That’s the way we are going folks, right down the coal chute but by then it wouldn’t matter much because very little would be left.
By the way that’s what is so horrible about thinking of a Clinton/Bush show down. Never before in our history have we seen such a back and forth between families. It is like the old interbreeding among the royalty that produced Ferdinand I who ruled for 18 years who had as a favorite pastime wedging his bottom in a wastebasket and rolling around the floor in it.
It is time to clean house. We need new people in the highest office. We need people unencumbered by past associations who will have some new ideas and not wallow in wastebaskets.
Here’s why I think O’Malley would be a great president. It is because my grandmother’s maiden name was O’Malley; not only that, my paternal grandfather’s sister married an O’Malley. The O’Malleys originate in Connemara, Ireland, so it is likely that I am related to him. It would be nice knowing that a person who is a relative occupied the presidency. Then, perhaps, he’d invite his cousin down and give me a chance to shape our country’s foreign policy. That is a comforting notion.
link de jour
http://www.thesullenbell.com/
1.
see link for full story
FBI
FBI operating fleet of surveillance aircraft flying over US cities
The planes, which are equipped with video and cellphone technology at times, are being managed behind fake companies to mask government involvement
fbi aircraft planes surveillance
A small plane flies near Manassas Regional Airport in Manassas, Virginia. The plane is among a fleet of surveillance aircraft by the FBI.
Tuesday 2 June 2015 08.16 EDT
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jun/02/fbi-surveillance-government-planes-cities
The FBI is operating a small air force with scores of low-flying planes across the US carrying video and, at times, cellphone surveillance technology – all hidden behind fictitious companies that are fronts for the government, the Associated Press has learned.
The planes’ surveillance equipment is generally used without a judge’s approval, and the FBI said the flights are used for specific, ongoing investigations. In a recent 30-day period, the agency flew above more than 30 cities in 11 states across the country, an AP review found.
Aerial surveillance represents a changing frontier for law enforcement, providing what the government maintains is an important tool in criminal, terrorism or intelligence probes. But the program raises questions about whether there should be updated policies protecting civil liberties as new technologies pose intrusive opportunities for government spying.
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The FBI confirmed for the first time the wide-scale use of the aircraft, which the AP traced to at least 13 fake companies, such as FVX Research, KQM Aviation, NBR Aviation and PXW Services. Even basic aspects of the program are withheld from the public in censored versions of official reports from the Justice Department’s inspector general.
“The FBI’s aviation program is not secret,” spokesman Christopher Allen said in a statement. “Specific aircraft and their capabilities are protected for operational security purposes.” Allen added that the FBI’s planes “are not equipped, designed or used for bulk collection activities or mass surveillance”.
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But the planes can capture video of unrelated criminal activity on the ground that could be handed over for prosecutions.
Some of the aircraft can also be equipped with technology that can identify thousands of people below through the cellphones they carry, even if they’re not making a call or in public. Officials said that practice, which mimics cell towers into coughing up basic subscriber information, is rare.
Details confirmed by the FBI track closely with published reports since at least 2003 that a government surveillance program might be behind suspicious-looking planes slowly circling neighborhoods. The AP traced at least 50 aircraft back to the FBI, and identified more than 100 flights since late April orbiting both major cities and rural areas.
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One of the planes, photographed in flight last week by the AP in northern Virginia, bristled with unusual antennas under its fuselage and a camera on its left side. A federal budget document from 2010 mentioned at least 115 planes, including 90 Cessna aircraft, in the FBI’s surveillance fleet.
The FBI said it also occasionally helps local police with aerial support, such as during the recent disturbance in Baltimore that followed the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray, who sustained grievous injuries while in police custody. Those types of requests are reviewed by senior FBI officials.
The surveillance flights comply with agency rules, an FBI spokesman said. Those rules, which are heavily redacted in publicly available documents, limit the types of equipment the agency can use, as well as the justifications and duration of the surveillance.
Details about the flights come as the Justice Department seeks to navigate privacy concerns arising from aerial surveillance by unmanned aircrafts, or drones. Barack Obama has said he welcomes a debate on government surveillance, and has called for more transparency about spying in the wake of disclosures about classified programs.
“These are not your grandparents’ surveillance aircraft,” said Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst with the American Civil Liberties Union, calling the flights significant “if the federal government is maintaining a fleet of aircraft whose purpose is to circle over American cities, especially with the technology we know can be attached to those aircraft.”
During the past few weeks, the AP tracked planes from the FBI’s fleet on more than 100 flights over at least 11 states plus Washington DC, most with Cessna 182T Skylane aircraft. These included parts of Houston, Phoenix, Seattle, Chicago, Boston, Minneapolis and southern California.
Evolving technology can record higher-quality video from long distances, even at night, and can capture certain identifying information from cellphones using a device known as a “cell-site simulator” – or Stingray, to use one of the product’s brand names. These can trick pinpointed cellphones into revealing identification numbers of subscribers, including those not suspected of a crime.
Officials say cellphone surveillance is rare, although the AP found in recent weeks FBI flights orbiting large, enclosed buildings for extended periods where aerial photography would be less effective than electronic signals collection. Those included above Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota.
After the Washington Post revealed flights by two planes circling over Baltimore in early May, the AP began analyzing detailed flight data and aircraft-ownership registrations that shared similar addresses and flight patterns. That review found some FBI missions circled above at least 40,000 residents during a single flight over Anaheim, California, in late May, according to census data and records provided by the website FlightRadar24.com.
Most flight patterns occurred in counter-clockwise orbits up to several miles wide and roughly one mile above the ground at slow speeds. A 2003 newsletter from the company FLIR Systems Inc, which makes camera technology such as seen on the planes, described flying slowly in left-handed patterns.
“Aircraft surveillance has become an indispensable intelligence collection and investigative technique which serves as a fo
MS:
Saw that article. They have over 50 planes listed to 7 fake companies. http://bigstory.ap.org/article/4b3f220e33b64123a3909c60845da045/fbi-behind-mysterious-surveillance-aircraft-over-us-cities
My information is it plans to do away with them under the new plan that Comey is pushing which is the drone fleet. The FBI expects to have upwards of 500 drones flying over trouble spots in the U.S. and even over some foreign countries. It has several up over Maine at present time but can’t figure out why. The drones are great because they can’t be seen or heard but they can see and hear everything.
In the spring of 2001 we brought
an honor roll list of speakers to
speak about crimes committed by
FBI agents at our 12 Annual Conference
on the same subject.
The speakers included former
LA cop Mike Ruppert subject
of the film COLLAPSE; former
Nebraska State Senator John
DeCamp who was elected while
serving in 1972 Viet Nam. Attorney
DeCamp is the author of the book
The Franklin Coverup.
Other speakers appearing also included
attorney John Clarke who created
a website detailing how Bill and Hilary Clinton
assassinated their friend Vince Foster .
see
http://www.fbicover-up.com/
MS:
That was a long time ago 2001. I guess there have been no FBI crimes since that time.
The most well-known O’Malley apart, from Walter and Peter of baseball fame, and a Cambridge pub owner, is Gráinne Ní Máille, the so-called Pirate Queen of Connacht.
Grace, in English, was from Co. Mayo where many of them lived and do now.
A genealogy note:
“The name O’Malley is derived from the old Irish Ó Maoileoin, which means ‘descendant of the follower of St John’ and come from the west of Ireland in Connacht. The name O’Malley never lost its prefix O. The name is derived from the Irish word “Maille” meaning gentle or smooth. The Clan originally came from the County of Mayo and were one the chieftains of the baronies of Murrisk and Burrishoole. The clan was small so it was very difficult for them to retain control of the lands.”
Let’s hope you get invited to the inauguration.
As for Bill Clinton, I hope the Owney Madden attribution continues to be told.
Pirate had different connotations back then. The Spanish consider Sir Francis Drake a pirate. The British of course don’t.
The real scandal for Grace O’Malley was her marriage to an O’Flaherty.
R:
True, that would be a real scandal.
Henry:
If I’m related to the O’Malleys from Connemara which is part of Connacht (the first four letters of my last name ties me into those places) and the O’Malleys from Mayo moved down there then there still is a chance I’ll get invited to the inauguration. If that’s not enough of a connection I have to tell you my mother’s father was from a place in Ireland called “Mayo God_help_us” So I may be connected in that manner.
Another good Irishman was Owney Madden. He sort of makes Whitey look small time. It does seem he had a hand in setting up the group that brought Bill Clinton into our lives. But most people have forgotten that he ruled Hot Springs, Arkansas, which gave Slick Willie his start.
Thanks, Matt.
My reference to Owney Madden was to the well-known Arkansas belief that Owney was Bill Clinton’s real father.
Henry:
I’m tracking that down. Bill Clinton born August 19, 1946, in Hope, Arkansas. Bill’s mother Virginia was the daughter of the town iceman born June 6, 1923. She was married to William Blythe from 1942 to 1946. He shipped out in the Army right after marrying her. When he got back they went to Chicago for four months. She then went back to Hope where they planned to build a house when he was killed in a car accident three months before Bill was born. That alone eliminate Owney in my mind. In 1950 the family moved to Hot Springs about 80 miles away.
Owney Madden born December 18, 1891. He moved to Hot Springs about 15 years earlier than Bill’s mother. If Owney was his father he would have been in early fifties. Age difference between her an Owney 31 years.
Bill’s mother is quoted as saying: “Hot Springs was so different. We had wide-open gambling, for one thing, and it was so wide open that it never occurred to me that it was illegal – it really didn’t – until it came to a vote about whether we were going to legalize gambling or not. I never was so shocked.”
I’d say Bill’s mother probably knew Owney since he died at Hot Springs in 1965, fifteen years after she moved there. But as far as Owney being Bill’s father, I don’t buy it.