"acting" Inspector General feels its been handled already.

Sure... because in this administration, why would we need a real Inspector General.

What sort of banana republic is this?

This happened to Clinton in '92.  MSNBC, CNN, even Fox has the story.  Washington Post, Boston Globe, I bet the Times has it now..

How well I remember the flap when Bill Clinton's file was breached in 1992.
.
They were looking for proof of allegations that he went to play footsie with the Soviet Union in the 60's.  

What does this mean for the 2008 campaign?  Probably not much.
Americans have become numb to privacy invasions.

Barack is on Larry King trying to do damage control about blocking the MI and FL re-dos. He is sounding much more humble and conciliating - "We will be united in November"  Interesting.  Sorry this doesn't deal with subject of diary.  I just thought it was interesting.

That would be offense, stupid, an JUST as UNWORTHY as attacks on Obama being at Trinity are.  

Let's get the facts before any accusations are lobbed.

That's the issue.

Why did it take until the THIRD TIME to notify Obama?

I mean... what... did they want to triplecheck and make sure they didn't miss anything the first 2 times?

I think we need to know the names of who accessed the information.

The official is calling it "imprudent curiosity".

OK... fine.. it's illegal.  Let's have the names of the criminals so we can see exactly WHO had 'imprudent curiosity', and whether they might have friends and associates who shared that 'imprudent curiosity'.

just when Obama needed to turn the narrative to D.C. Corruption, lobbyists, and campaign tactics.  

Ah-ha.

According to what we're hearing now -- the IG can no longer even INTERVIEW the already fired employees.

We need the names.  We need to know who was fired.  We need to know who they are.

This administration cannot be trusted to make the judgment of what was "imprudent curiosity" and what is more nefarious.  No way.  No way.

Someone else, not selected by this administration, needs to make that judgment.

Independent Counsel.

Why did it take more than two months to notify Obama?

This doesn't pass the smell test.

Independent Counsel time.

I'm very angry about this. How dare they breach Obama's files like this.

How long before we hear calls from the 'bots that Clinton had a mole in the State Department to do this?

Oh shit...it ALREADY happened! Gotta give them props for timeliness....

David Schuster reports that the Inspector General didn't learn about this till TODAY.

Woah

What did Condi know, and when did she know it? Why were 3 incidents allowed? Was the motive political?

Let's make sure the media doesn't drop this issue until these and other questions have been fully addressed.

it gets worse.

The IG NEVER EVEN TALKED TO THE FIRED EMPLOYEES - and now cannot do so.

Others in state fired them - it just HIT the IG.

How can this NOT deserve an Independent Counsel?

We know nothing -- NOTHING -- about the first 2 accesses except the word of a "mid level" manager within the Bush administration.

...that Obama is STILL going to be the nominee.  They are flailing.  Between this and the endless propping up of Hillary... they clearly want to get Obama OUT...so they can run against HRC.

Former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger on Dan Abrams MSNBC just commented that the 1992 incident was much worse than the recent Obama incident.

He elaborates that the 1992 incident was instigated by political appointees specifically investgating Bill Clinton's passport for political ammunition. He does not believe that this is the case regarding this incident.

How does he know? Does he know more than us? Or is he already engaging in spin control, trying to downplay the incident?

It may be nothing more than 2 Kelly temps who were hired to data entry information into the system who went where they were not authorized to go and were summarily fired.  Wait for all the facts before Keith turns Obama into a "martyr" again.  As the story is unfolding, one of the temps had the same birthday as Obama and wanted to see what was in his travel file.  Could be all that this is.  I worked in a hospital and this happened all the time with people just being nosy.  Look at what happened to 13 staff members of the hospital where Britney stayed.  All fired.

3 separate independent contractors look into his file just b/c they can't help themselves?  What are the chances?  BTW, they didn't look into any of the other candidates files so I guess they were all curious about just Obama?  That's a stretch, not impossible, but a stretch.

I think Hillary should have a news conference tomorrow where she says that just Bill Clinton's passport was scooped in 1992 now that it happened to Obama in 2008 it is just as bad.

Looks good; promotes Dem unity

Are we doing things like this in America?

You better believe it, baby.

Would a smart Democrat, preferably our two smart Presidential candidates, please, PRETTY PLEASE use this as a springboard to make the whole FISA debate more than just something 'those silly liberal bloggers' care about?

That's been my single biggest disappointment with Obama - I'm a long time, card-carrying ACLU member.

FISA is a BIG DEAL to me.

This brings it all home -- this is EXACTLY why Americans should not ever have to just 'trust' the people running our government.  It's why we have laws and why even PRESIDENTS must follow them when it comes to our personal info, our privacy, and our communications.

Damn Harry Reid if he doesn't have a press conference tomorrow apologizing for being a pussy on FISA.

does the chronology.

Nuggets

A few more details about the Obama passport breach. According to a new piece out in the Post from Glenn Kessler, the breaches occurred Jan. 9th, Feb. 21st and March 14th.

That would be the day after the New Hampshire primary, the day of the Democratic debate in Texas and the day the Wright story really hit.

OK.

So now it's not just idle or imprudent curiosity -- now it's coincidental curiosity.

finally, we may have an excuse to investigate and end this Obama controversy. I wanted Clinton for the nomination, but I don't want either destroyed for the purpose of guaranteeing November.

Folks, you forget the shenanigans with Clintons.....they were masters of breaching personnel files, fbi files etc.....all in an attempt to smear others.....thsi sint a Bush things its happned in virtually every white house....lest we forget how the Kennedy;s spied on MLK?

Thanks Todd!

Yawn... Americans don't care about privacy, just like they barely care about Iraq, right guys?

We can't hang stuff like this around McCain's neck, cause people like him. Right?  I, for one, would like to talk about the ecomony and put the Wright videos back on a constant loop.  Who's with me?

Please excuse me for not joining the hysteria, but....this sort of thing happened rather frequently before the monitoring systems they have now were put in place. In fact, most of the time we didn't even know a breach had taken place unless the breachee complained publicly.  It took thirteen months for anyone to notify me that my passport info had been snooped...but then, of course, I'm not Barack Obama.  

In this case, it looks as if the system worked.  Two of the culprits were quickly discovered and fired, the third disciplined.  I can't see why this unfortunate but hardly catastrophic development required a breathless Keith Olbermann to speculate for a full hour, unless he was a waiting for some kind of detail that might, hopefully, implicate Hillary Clinton....while in the meantime showing endless clips of BO gesticulating at milling crowds of people.  As it happened, I was watching a pre-season Yankee-Blue Jays game on TV and kept switching back to see if there was actually any news on Olbermann.  Nope, just frenzied repeating of the same sparse information and miles of speculation.  

When the game was over (Yanks won) I switched to CNN only to find my TV screen again filled with nothing but Obama.  It's unbelievable to what lengths these networks will go to shove their  candidate down our throats.  THANK GOD baseball season will begin soon!  (And I'll bet God's thankful, too.)

OK folks, repeat after me:

No matter whether Hillary or Barak get the nomination, I will vote for the Democratic candidate in the GE!

Um, is it possible that these are just some nosy people with time on their hands, playing with a govt' computer?

I know that the Obama organs (CNN, MSNBC) want to treat this like Ruby killing Oswald, but could it be that it's just a way to get around reporting on Barak's race problem?

Before you go and call me a typical white person, do you really think that McCain, Clinton, or Bush need to resort to using contractor geeks to look at a system jimmied to give an alarm on a breach? Heck, they all already probably have this info, and more. And Barak probably has info on them.

One thing I did hear that was interesting. Obama has NEVER been to Europe?

BTW, Keith-O has taken to reporing things off of the Drudge wire. This story is one. Then he and Obama lackey Eugene Robinson were talking with great gravity of the picture of Bill Clinton with the Rev. Hatred.

Funny... Drudge had that too.

Earth to Keith-O: Please don't tell that the picture was taken during the 1990s, BEFORE the Rev. Hatred delivered his putrid sermons.

I think it's pretty clear what happened.  The repuglies made this whole thing up, see, you can't find out who the perps are.  Why?  Obama will spin this to his advantage, as well as get visibility.  The repugs love this, since it brings closer the nominee they can beat.  Soundly.  They do not want to face HRC, she will beat their asses.  Soundly.

they can listen to our phone calls, read our e-mail, open our mail, send us to gitmo on a whim, all kinds of crazy shit.

If Hilary passport was looked up CNN and Msnbc,, would not cover it are care,but since its barack Obama there going to make a big Deal out of it to take the focus off Obama And Race

Al sharpton Jesse Jackson, There are done ,,, they have a double standard,,, when it come to whites and black,, there is racism in the United State, most of it is coming from the Black Americans,,,, How can Al Sharpton say, its ok for black to get imus fired,,, for the comments imus made, but Jeremiah Wright is ok thousands of excuses a double standard,, its time for Jesse and Al to get out of the lime light,,, Had respect for all sharpton,, until I seen him on Oreilly ,, Just like Obama,, I voted for Obama
in California,, but now when it comes time for the presidency He does not have my vote,, On CNN And Msnbc, I seen alot of barack Obama supporter out there saying
I Hilary is given the primary,,, with the super delegates,,, Obama supporter are going to Vote for McCain,,, there for OBama lost my Vote, in fact I will Vote for McCain,,
If OBama wins the primary,,, because

Barack Obama is a liar,,,

To all
Obama speech ,,,, Not sure if you caught Not only did Obama,,, Refuses to denounce him,, but even More,, He say in his own words,,,
Barack Obama was in church when Jeremiah Wright,, was spewing Anti-American, Racist ism ,,,, Those were his own words,,, barack was there
After going on keith Oberman ,Show obama said he would denounce that if he heard that language he would leave and not tolerate it , and denounce it
After he went on MSNBC,, he went on FOX CNN ABC< all the news station saying he was never there,,, in his church when he said these things,,
But Now today during his speech,,He states flat out Say's HE was there,,, Last week Barack Obama Lied,, went on all the news stations, and Lied,,
But your not reporting that,,,, You can rest assure,,, cnn ,,, Fox , ABC,,, Msnbc,, are getting more on this ,,, they will be reporting on this, and we will see
If you chose to report, Obama Lying on tv,,, If this was Hilary clinton lying and caught lying on all the new station,,, you can be sure,, you would talk about it every hour
people will be on your station debating this,,,, people analysing , if it is hilary clinton but it was not her it was Barack Obama, ,, it bad enought He lied, about being in church
With Jeremiah Write, when he said these anti american ,,,,,and still refuse to denounce him...all the news agency want to do is speak on how good his speech was,
Not that he lied,,, Last week on all the news agency ,, He was never there today in how own speech He say I was there,,,,should play all Obama videos from last week
stating he was not there,,, or heard any of the anti-american Jeremiah Write, said in his churc then play his speech today saying he was there and he did hear him in church and refuse to denounce Jeremiah Wright..

If Hilary passport was looked up CNN and Msnbc,, would not cover it are care,but since its barack Obama there going to make a big Deal out of it to take the focus off Obama And Race

Al sharpton Jesse Jackson, There are done ,,, they have a double standard,,, when it come to whites and black,, there is racism in the United State, most of it is coming from the Black Americans,,,, How can Al Sharpton say, its ok for black to get imus fired,,, for the comments imus made, but Jeremiah Wright is ok thousands of excuses a double standard,, its time for Jesse and Al to get out of the lime light,,, Had respect for all sharpton,, until I seen him on Oreilly ,, Just like Obama,, I voted for Obama
in California,, but now when it comes time for the presidency He does not have my vote,, On CNN And Msnbc, I seen alot of barack Obama supporter out there saying
I Hilary is given the primary,,, with the super delegates,,, Obama supporter are going to Vote for McCain,,, there for OBama lost my Vote, in fact I will Vote for McCain,,
If OBama wins the primary,,, because

Barack Obama is a liar,,,

To all
Obama speech ,,,, Not sure if you caught Not only did Obama,,, Refuses to denounce him,, but even More,, He say in his own words,,,
Barack Obama was in church when Jeremiah Wright,, was spewing Anti-American, Racist ism ,,,, Those were his own words,,, barack was there
After going on keith Oberman ,Show obama said he would denounce that if he heard that language he would leave and not tolerate it , and denounce it
After he went on MSNBC,, he went on FOX CNN ABC< all the news station saying he was never there,,, in his church when he said these things,,
But Now today during his speech,,He states flat out Say's HE was there,,, Last week Barack Obama Lied,, went on all the news stations, and Lied,,
But your not reporting that,,,, You can rest assure,,, cnn ,,, Fox , ABC,,, Msnbc,, are getting more on this ,,, they will be reporting on this, and we will see
If you chose to report, Obama Lying on tv,,, If this was Hilary clinton lying and caught lying on all the new station,,, you can be sure,, you would talk about it every hour
people will be on your station debating this,,,, people analysing , if it is hilary clinton but it was not her it was Barack Obama, ,, it bad enought He lied, about being in church
With Jeremiah Write, when he said these anti american ,,,,,and still refuse to denounce him...all the news agency want to do is speak on how good his speech was,
Not that he lied,,, Last week on all the news agency ,, He was never there today in how own speech He say I was there,,,,should play all Obama videos from last week
stating he was not there,,, or heard any of the anti-american Jeremiah Write, said in his churc then play his speech today saying he was there and he did hear him in church and refuse to denounce Jeremiah Wright..

I would really like to know what happened to those 2 thugs from '92, Steven M. Moheban and  Elizabeth M. Tamposi.  My money is on some right wing 'think tank'.

This is just the first probings of the Republican smear machine, by November "even his own mother wouldn't know him" (Local R politician's campaign manager).  And I would like to ask the Obama supporters if they're ready for much more of this?

whats laughable about this is that everyone suddenyl sees conspiracy! Hey someone used my motherinlaws credit card number to make illegal purchases...must have been Bush......cmon folks....get alife.....he evil Bush and Cheney gremlins are not responsible for everything that happens in the world. Obama calling for a congressional investigation just sounds silly.....its a waste fo time and money , Just let the inspector general due his investigation. I am so sick of this ridiculous Bush conspiracy crap...you all sound liek a bunch of nuits. I cant stand Bush.....but I also know he isnt the boogeyman....