CIA spying on international finance and monetary system?

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CIA Collecting Records of International Money Transfers

From Wall St. Journal online

From Leaksource blog

The current accusations of various govt:    spying  by US seems to be gathering confirmation as true.  Why is Barack Obama, a democrat allowing this?  He does not know this?  What happens to command responsibility?

CIA seems to be using the same law, the Patriot Act that NSA uses in tapping phone and internet records, in monitoring records of Western Union on wire transfers (to track funding of terrorists?)

That is there is a group of Civil Libertarians who are activitists vs this kind of govt curtailment of US liberties.

Well CIA could always invoke national security in monitoring money transfers.  Is this legal or constitutional, moral?
 


 

Sen Santiago attacks Sen Enrile personally; calls him various names; a counter attack to JPE

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Rizal  Philippines  |  December 4, 2013

 From Rappler by Ayee Macaraig | December 4, 2013


 

Sen Myriam Defensor Santiago, who was accompanied by sister, and husband delivered a privileged speech at the Senate today and mentioned the following (aside from being a liar and being guilty of 7 crimes)
1. architect of martial law (true)

2.  mastermind of PDAF;

3.  behind gambling and smuggling at Port Irene in Cagayan (hmmm friends and students hinted this to be correct)

4.  womanizer  (of his chief of staff) had special relations with another top level personality, and even had relations with the domestic help;

What do you think of this speech?

What do you think of Sen Enrile?

Of Sen Santiago?

Of our public sector leaders?

Maybe Sen Santiago counter attacked Sen Enrile on account of this portion of the privilege speech of JPE last 11/27/2013 for which Sen Myriam is particularly sensitive about:

"During the hearing of the Commission on Appointments on her confirmation as Secretary of Agrarian Reform, testing the suitability and qualifications of the nominee then, I asked her if she was ever under the care of a psychiatrist. She admitted that she was. She said that she was treated by a psychiatrist at the Makati Medical Center.
In the same Commission on Appointments committee deliberation, I asked her also what grade she got in her bar examination. She replied that she got 76%. That meant that she obtained low grades in all her bar subjects. In fact, I remember that she got a grade of 56% in Ethics, the easiest bar examination subject.


In that same Commission on Appointments committee deliberation, I asked about a white Toyota Celica sports car that the nominee then was said to be driving as her personal car when she was a judge in Quezon City. Toots Trinidad, a former PNB Vice President, owned that sports car. He shipped it back to the Philippines upon his return from the United States after his surgical operation for a brain tumor at the Standford University. That sports car disappeared from the compound of the Bureau of Customs when it arrived in the Port of Manila.


Toots Trinidad learned that his sports car was with a judge of Quezon City. Toots Trinidad asked then Judge Miriam Defensor Santiago to give the car back to him. She refused. I was told that she claimed that her husband, Narciso Yap Santiago of the Province of Tarlac, who was at that time employed in the Bureau of Customs, gave her that sports car as a birthday gift. Later on, I found out that the car was registered in her name in the Bureau of Land Transportation in the Province of Tarlac.
As a consequence of my opposition, and among other concerns taken into consideration, the Committee on Agrarian Reform of the Commission on Appointments voted to reject her appointment as Secretary of Agrarian Reform."
 

Jeepney drivers strike over continued unjust arrests

It is more fun criticizing

Rizal Philippines  | December 2, 2013

 

From Inquirer News | December 2, 2013

The FEDOJAP, headed by Zenaida Maranan went on strike early this morning to protest the alleged "unreasonable apprehensions by traffic enforces in Manila"  Some 3000 to 4000 units were involved in the protest action.  She said that the protest will continue because she felt that Vice Mayor Isko Moreno does not have anything concrete to solve the issue.

Really, can the VM solve the problem.

It is Christmas time, and for the traffic enforcer, who does not get much anyway to arrest, and make hay while he may.  What else is new?  When the NPA still roamed freely, the Sparrow attacks had a way of stopping this banal act dead on its tracks.

But there should be a better way because the drivers are shooting themselves in the foot and hare hurting their customers;  damned if they do, damned if they dont.
 

Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) is indeed the moment of truth, the defining moment for the "Tuwid na Daan" of this regime!

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Rizal, Philippines  | December 2, 2013

 

The comments of Christianne  Amanpour of CNN to the President during their interview, post Yolanda typhoon crisis, still ring clearly in my ears " How your respond to this crisis, defines your Presidency"  as he was embarrassed by apparent grasp of reality on the ground.

As I got the other stories from somebody whose relatives were victims of the typhoon  (Inside story of the Typhoon Haiyan devastation)  there were several incidents that may not speak well of the rule of the national govt:

1,  The staging of relief distribution;

2.  The repacking of relief goods by the government agencies.

3.  The military commandeering the relief goods for personal use of disposition.

4.   The grandstanding of the Presidency with the LGU Mayor Alfred Romualdez

5.  The military men leading the civilian in commandeering private goods for personal use (the military were in bonnet as seen in TV and fully armed)

It is the time for compassion rather than greed.  How the people in the govt, representing the national government really really reflects zillions the values, the mores of the present govt, and whether the leadership now, has made a dent on how we run things here, especially during crisis.

 

A convenient way to donate to Typhoon Yolanda victims

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Rizal   Philippines  |  December 2, 2013

I just learned from an announcement in ANC that an online gift giving portal has reinvented itself to help generous individuals send donation to typhoon victims in Eastern Visayas.  I did not get the name correnctly but it should be www.regalo.com.ph   You can select packs of P200, P500, 1,000 and they will be delivered to the typhoon affected areas.

I think this is a better and secured way to donate.  Donating to a well known national NGO is not safe because the friend we talked to last November 30,2013 said that the NGO personnel have been known to :   1.  repack the gift packages,   2.  bring home the donation packages.  Whew.  I hope this hearsay is not true.  We sent our donation through the mass media companies spearheading the donation