Birthday Wishes and Sunday Links

Thanks for the birthday wishes everyone. 24 feels old for sure. But I'm going to be positive and think of myself as an athlete in my prime. Year and a half done with law school and then we'll see where to go from there. ....

Sport Birthday Gifts I'd like from the  Sports Gods


Patriots Victory
Beating Kurt in Fantasy
Lester Resigning
Sandoval Signing

Please and Thank You,

The Sunday links which I'm trying to make a weekly submission here at Ramblings... 

The Way More Important News That Must Be Known and Understood MUST READ 

http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/224281-cyber-bills-fate-hinges-on-nsa-reform

The upcoming Senate vote on a bill to reform the National Security Agency (NSA) could make or break legislation on sharing cyber threat information in the lame duck.

Privacy groups are warning that they will oppose the cyber bill unless lawmakers first reform the NSA’s surveillance programs.

Senate Intelligence committee leaders have been pushing hard to pass the Cybersecurity Intelligence Sharing Act (CISA), which would enable critical infrastructure companies to exchange cyber threat information with the NSA.

Supporters say allowing companies and the government to share information about cyber threats is critical to protecting the country from hackers. But privacy advocates remain wary of the intelligence community.

But if the NSA bill dies, it could also deal a blow to the cyber sharing bill.

“The Senate absolutely must pass USA Freedom before it can even consider taking up cyber info sharing legislation,” said Robyn Greene, policy counsel for the Open Technology Institute.

Some critics of the cyber bill also say that CISA as currently written could weaken reforms enacted by the NSA bill. 

“If CISA passes, it is quite literally an exemption to existing privacy protections,” added Gabe Rottman, legislative counsel and policy advisor with the American Civil Liberties Union.

“It would severely undercut everything that USA Freedom is trying to do.”

CISA’s co-author and main champion, Senate Intelligence Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), says the White House is adamant about moving first on surveillance reform.

But Feinstein thinks her bill can move independently of NSA reform, and some wonder if she will offer it as an amendment to USA Freedom during the lame duck session.

America's Bi-Polar Impossible New War- complete with a developing beheading video... The video is undoubtedly tragic but I hope the media learns from the prior videos to not show stills or even keep talking about it. If you haven't noticed the news stirs their own hysteria about anything and everything. Yet ignores the impossible reasoning by our top Military advisor provided below

http://www.mediaite.com/online/u-s-military-chief-isis-a-bunch-of-midgets-running-around-with-radical-ideology/

According to Reuters, General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, declared that his visit was important because it would show that ISIS forces were not some unstoppable group, but rather “a bunch of midgets running around with a really radical ideology.” { Running around with U.S made military artillery given up by the Iraqi army}

He was hardly triumphant, however. Earlier, he visited a Joint Operations Center and watched a live video feed of a location showing Islamic State’s black flag waving.

[...] Dempsey repeatedly made the point that military force could not root out Islamic State unless Iraq’s government manages to work across the Sunni-Shi’ite divide.

Building trust would take time. So would the U.S. mission, he said.

How long would that take? “Several years,” Dempsey said.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/224309-durbin-congress-should-vote-on-isis-fight-authorization-now

He said the bill should put "a timeframe and some limitations on what we’re doing in the Middle East."

President Obama has said he will seek a new authorization from Congress, but it is unclear if Congress will vote on the bill before the new Congress arrives in January. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said in September that a vote should until then.

Durbin responded to reports of a new ISIS beheading video, calling it a "tragic reminder of the savagery of ISIS and the complexity of our challenge."

Durbin said he is still opposed to U.S. ground troops in combat against ISIS, though. 

"The notion of sending in rotational troops as we saw in Iraq in the past and in Afghanistan, I think we learned our lesson," he said. ( WOW SO GLAD )

The President Refuses to Admit He Was a Washington Politician in Getting his Legacy Passed 

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/obama-on-gruber-no-we-did-not-mislead-to-get-obamacare-passed/

Some More Questions for Mr. Wilson 

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/nov/15/michael-brown-shooting-darren-wilson-radio-call-segment-missing