Obama Schmoozes with Some of Main[Lame]stream Media’s Finest

The most ‘Transparent’ administration had a secret meeting Monday with ‘select’ reporters from some of the nation’s largest media outlets Monday.

White House officials regularly meet with reporters for so-called “background briefing sessions,” where the attendees cannot be mentioned by name nor quoted directly, but Monday’s meeting was different.

Buzzfeed reports: ‘White House officials regularly meet with reporters for so-called “background briefing sessions,” where the attendees cannot be mentioned by name nor quoted directly, but Monday’s meeting was different. Initially billed as a conversation with White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, the president made a surprise appearance — a very unusual move — and the White House placed the proceedings off the record beforehand. The meeting came amid a series of scandals crashing over the White House that has placed the administration on defense in a way it hasn’t been until now.

Relations between the press and the White House have been especially fraught since last month’s revelation that the Justice Department had covertly collected phone records from Associated Press reporters in pursuit of locating the source of a national security leak. When the Justice Department sought to hold an off-the-record meeting with journalists to discuss its investigation, news outlets pushed back, with The New York Times publicly refusing to attend.

Reporters who attended Monday’s session with the president were loathe to discuss it with BuzzFeed, citing the White House’s stipulation that the meeting remain off the record. But the session came after the White House announced a “travel/photo lid” for the day — White House parlance for no more events, and the signal for the pool reporter to go home — and reporters from The New York Times, Washington Post, Huffington Post, Time, McClatchy, Politico, Tribune, NPR, Bloomberg, USA Today, AFP, Yahoo and other outlets were milling around the briefing room waiting to be called in. In total, about two dozen reporters were included. (BuzzFeed was not invited to the meeting, although a reporter, who did not know the president would be present, requested to be included.)

New York Times White House reporter Peter Baker said reporters had not been told that Obama would be in the session, and that if he had known, he and his editors would have reconsidered whether to attend.

“If we had, I think we would have had a conversation here in our office first about whether to attend or not. We tend to evaluate these on a case-by-case basis,” Baker told BuzzFeed. “Our concern about off-the-record sessions with the president is that they not become substitutes for opportunities to ask questions and get answers on the record, which after all is our job.”

Off-the-record meetings like Monday’s — and a similar one with broadcast outlets a couple weeks earlier — are a historical traditional that has dwindled since the days when John F. Kennedy regularly entertained favored reporters in his office. Baker and others said the meeting was valuable from a journalistic perspective, giving reporters a chance to hear what the president is thinking directly from the president’s own mouth — even if they can’t share that wisdom directly with their readers.

How do you feel about Obama’s impromptu ‘secret’ meetings?  Let us know your thoughts below.

Rand Paul Spars with Contentious Lamestream Media [CBS] Over NSA… and Wins

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Asked by Charlie Rose if he thought NSA leaker Edward Snowden was a “hero or a traitor,” Paul sidestepped the question. “I think it’s kind of a side point,” he said. “I think the real point is that the Bill of Rights are being violated, our privacy is being violated, and really no government should do this.”

“I’m reserving judgment on Mr. Snowden,” Rand Paul said, “but I think he felt like this was something so wrong, billions of phone records, and you have to realize, by looking at your phone records they can actually track your movements all day long.”

“There’s no proof that the government is monitoring that and using that information,” countered Norah O’Donnell. “They need a warrant in order to find out where you are shopping and using your credit card.”

“Actually, you’re wrong,” Paul shot back. “There’s no proof that they’re actually doing it, but we do know that third party records, for the last 30, 40 years, have not been sufficiently protected by the Fourth Amendment.” Paul said that there is judicial precedent for this practice, but he thinks the American people “are fed up with it.”

O’Donnell said that Congress and the courts have approved the NSA’s surveillance program and that the legislature was briefed extensively on the scope of the program.

“I would say just because Congress approved it doesn’t make it right,” Paul replied. “Congress has about a 10 percent approval rating, so I think we’re doing things that the public doesn’t approve of.”

“The most ridiculous thing I hear from people of this persuasion is politicians saying, ‘oh, nobody was complaining.’ Well, you can’t complain because they put you in jail if you complain, or they don’t tell you if they’re investigating you,” he continued. “I think Americans don’t want this surveillance state.”

Rand Paul is one of the few congressmen that is making a stand on the Fourth Amendment and making sense. I especially liked that he stood on middle ground on whether Edward Snowden is a hero and traitor… which tells me that Paul agrees with the stand.

John Boehner: Calls Edward Snowden a ‘Traitor,’ Now That’s Calling the Kettle Black!

Today, John Boehner appeared on ‘Good Morning America’ and called Edward Snowden a ‘Traitor.’

Breitbart reports: ‘This morning, Speaker of the House John Boehner called NSA whistleblower/leaker a “traitor” and described his actions as a “giant violation of the law.”

On Good Morning America, Boehner explained, “The president outlined last week that these are important national security programs to help keep Americans safe and give us tools to help fight the terrorist threat we face. The disclosure of this information puts Americans at risk.”

Boehner continued to defend the administration and said that Congress had been briefed and that lawyers were always around to “protect the privacy of Americans.”

“There is heavy oversight of this program, by the House Intelligence Committee on a bipartisan basis and the Senate Intelligence Committee,” Boehner said. “And that’s why I feel comfortable that we can operate this program and protect the privacy rights of our citizens.”

“When you look at these programs, there are clear safeguards.There are no Americans that are going to be snooped on in anyway unless they’re in contact with some terrorist around the world,” he said.

Several Senators have come forward to express surprise and alarm over the scope of the government’s surveillance of Americans. Rand Paul (R-KY) in the Senate along with Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Mark Udall (D-CO) were disturbed about the spying programs.

Is John Boehner part of the problem of the mess we are in now?  It seems the lovefest Boehner has repeatedly shown toward Obama is undeniable and only promotes his agenda.  What say you?

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Bill Cosby: ‘We [Americans] should be more like Muslims’ Are you Kidding Me?

Over the weekend, Bill Cosby wrote an opinion piece that Americans need to be more like Muslims. At first, many thought it was a joke including Rep. Allen West.

Washing Times reports: Former Floridian Rep. Allen West had a blunt response to comedian Bill Cosby’s published weekend opinion piece, speaking of the attributes of Muslims and encouraging Americans to emulate them: Have you lost your mind?

“Bill Cosby said we should [be] more like Muslims,” Mr. West wrote, on his Twitter account. “[You] mean honor killings, beheadings, suicide bombings? Hope [you’re] kidding sir.”

Mr. West was responding to an opinion piece published in The New York Post written by Mr. Cosby.

Mr. Cosby wrote, The Blaze reported: “I’m a Christian, But Muslims are misunderstood. Intentionally misunderstood. We should all be more like them. They make sense, especially with their children. There is no other group like the Black Muslims, who put so much effort into teaching children the right things: They don’t smoke, they don’t drink or overindulge in alcohol, they protect their women, they command respect. And what do these other people do?”

He continued: “They complain about them, they criticize them. We’d be a better world if we emulated them. We don’t have to become black Muslims, but we can embrace the things that work.”

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What are your thoughts on this?