BloggeRhythms

FoxNews.com posted an update yesterday, saying: “A federal judge in Texas denied a Justice Department request Tuesday to lift his temporary hold on President Obama's executive action shielding potentially millions of illegal immigrants from deportation.”

 

The order denies the government's request, because according to the judge, “the government hasn't shown any credible reason for why this Directive necessitates immediate implementation."

 

Following the article, a reader, roughrider1964, offered a truly insightful, valid and well-phrased comment, as follows: “I think we should round up all 40 million illegal aliens and put military uniforms on them and send 1/3 to fight ISIS in Iraq, 1/3 to fight ISIS in Syria, and the other 1/3 to fight the crazies in Yemen. If any survive, we will then put them in the back of the line to become citizens.”

 

On another issue, Lisa Rein writes in washingtonpost.com that in regard to the IRS, “Five years of budget cuts by Congress have left the agency so cash-strapped that Commissioner John Koskinen doesn’t bother sugarcoating the state of customer service. “It’s abysmal,” he said.

 

The personnel issue situation is so dire that, “When callers do get a real person, they can forget about asking questions that require expertise. These are now considered “out of scope.” The customer-service agents have been instructed to only tell callers what tax forms they need, where to get them and where to look for online information. Staff can no longer offer line-by-line assistance, provide guidance on tax planning or tax law, or help make payment arrangements.”

 

Now, this situation only refers to the handling of taxes, however, this same agency is now responsible for the administration of the president’s health care tax. Which means that all of those who have now been able to arrange health care coverage via the government, may have insurance in place. But, if they have any need for actual service or require any kind of timely information at all, they’re very unlikely to get it.  

 

In another government miscue, Evan Perez and Shimon Prokupecz, report on CNN.com that: “Russian hackers behind the damaging cyber intrusion of the State Department in recent months used that perch to penetrate sensitive parts of the White House computer system, according to U.S. officials briefed on the investigation. 

 

“While the White House has said the breach only affected an unclassified system, that description belies the seriousness of the intrusion. The hackers had access to sensitive information such as real-time non-public details of the president's schedule. While such information is not classified, it is still highly sensitive and prized by foreign intelligence agencies, U.S. officials say.”

 

What’s most important in this case, is that regardless of the sensitivity of the information involved, it’s now known that both the State Department and the White House have computer systems that have been hacked. Which implies that there very well might be others.

 

And, therefore, if technology employed by two of the most important sites in the nation have been vulnerable to foreign hackers, the personal computers employed by Bill Clinton’s wife when Secretary of State may well have been hacked too. But, this is something that it’s unlikely will ever be known.

 

So, that leads to the question of the reliability of a person who takes it upon herself to employ an unauthorized alternative to government regulations regarding the transmission and safekeeping of sensitive information. And also leads to wondering about what else that type of individual might pursue outside the parameters of sound judgment if given significant responsibility, such as leadership of the United States.   

 

That’s it for today folks.

 

Adios