In photo blunder by the Hawaii Emergency Broadcast System, a password was revealed. In a photo released by the agency in July, a password can be seen stuck to a computer with a post-it note in the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency’s headquarters in Honolulu.
This government agency went so far as to brazenly display their password. Media outletHawaii News Now reports that the agency’s password protection measures are now in the spotlight after a photo from the agency’s Honolulu headquarters appeared in news reports. Sharp-eyed readers noticed that a password was on a Post-It note stuck on a computer. Agency spokesman Richard Rapoza says the password was for an “internal application” that is no longer in use, not a “major piece of software.”
The agency says the alert was sent was because “an employee pushed the wrong button,” not because of a hack, but the photo has still rightly sparked criticism about the agency’s level of security. The agency has said a worker clicked the wrong item in a drop-down menu; sent the warning, and that its system was not hacked.
“It was a mistake made during a standard procedure at the changeover of a shift, and an employee pushed the wrong button,” Governor David Ige said. But if that truly was the case, it should be closed, right? Yet there’s an “ongoing” investigation into the employee who sent the alert.
At the very least, government incompetence is more than evident when looking at this photo. But not only that, it helps prove to the regular, everyday American citizen that those who should be on the frontlines looking out for the public’s well-being don’t actually care much. Like the rest of us, they just want a paycheck.
The emergency warning officer who accidentally sent Hawaii an incoming missile alert has been receiving death threats and is “not doing well,” says the executive officer of the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency. Toby Clairmont told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that the employee, a 10-year agency veteran, has received “dozens of death threats by fax, telephone, social media.” The worker, who has been reassigned to other duties, is “distraught that they’ve received death threats,” Clairmont says. “This is hard. What can be worse than this? Running over a child in a crosswalk and you realize you did it? It’s that kind of feeling,” he says. “This employee is not doing well. We need to help them, too.”
When the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rolled back President Barack Obama’s “net neutrality” policy, Chairman Ajit Pai told reporters, “It’s not going to kill democracy.”
But could it kill him?
Federal officials are certainly concerned, now that a flood of death threats has reached a level most insiders say they’ve never seen. This is “routine for presidents and vice presidents,” sources say, “but highly unusual for heads of government agencies like the FCC.”
For the 44-year-old chief, the risks of the job were clear from his earliest days at the FCC. He tells horrifying stories about his house being surrounded by protestors, some lurking under his windows with signs of his children’s names.
“My kids are 5 and 3,” he told the Wall Street Journal in 2014. “It’s not pleasant.”
Now, the dangers to Pai and his family are so serious that the FCC head was forced to back out of a speech at one of the most important tech events of the year, the Consumer Electronics Show.
“Basically, if these threats are credible, you need armored vehicles—and I mean plural—not to mention area sweeps, aerial support, and Secret Service directly manning the commissioner at all times,” said a security expert familiar with the situation.
“There’s not the budget for staffing the Consumer Electronics Show from threats of that level,” he went on, explaining that Pai’s “detail is ill-equipped to protect against snipers, attackers, bombs, gas attacks, vehicular blockades, and other assassination attempts.”
Of course, the question on everyone’s minds is: Who cares this much about net neutrality?
Most people don’t even know what the FCC stands for, let alone who heads it. If it weren’t for Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction or Bono’s fleeting expletive, half the country probably wouldn’t know the agency existed.
As for net neutrality (which is about as misnamed as “marriage equality”), the issue has never been the stuff of mainstream political passion. It didn’t even get a passing mention in the presidential debates.
So what is it about this issue that’s leading an army of the far left to threaten an innocent man’s life?
Like most things, the crusade against Pai began in the dark shadows of Obama’s favorite radicals.
“The tech left, funded largely by George Soros, decided to champion under the banner of a benign-sounding ‘net neutrality’ campaign and seize a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to grab the moral high ground in their determination to allow the giant edge providers to censor the internet to suit their ideological preferences—ridding the internet of conservative and libertarian content,” Roger Stone explains in an eye-opening column for the Daily Caller.
Obama added the idea to his toolshed of unconstitutional crackdowns, all but demanding the FCC implement the policy in 2015.
As then-Commissioner Pai vented,
“Why is the FCC turning its back on internet freedom? Is it because we now have evidence that the internet is not open? No. Is it because we have discovered some problem with our prior interpretation of the law? No. We are flip-flopping for one reason and one reason alone. President Obama told us to do so.”
Essentially, Stone explains, the FCC “legalized censorship, allowing Soros-funded groups to run rampant spreading the most violent messages possible, while at the same time aggressively censoring Donald Trump supporters and patriotic Americans who desire only to make their country great again.”
The very opposite, he points out, of neutrality. Or, conservatives might add, the FCC’s mission.
For Pai, things only got worse. HBO host John Oliver kicked off a campaign called “Go FCC Yourself,” determined to gin up outrage (and worse) against the FCC chair. Liberals blocked the Pais’ driveway, while others savaged him on the FCC site, unloading on Pai as a “dirty, sneaky Indian.”
The rampage got so out of control that Oliver had to call on his own flock to tone down the threats. They didn’t.
The Pai doorbell rang every half hour “with pizza deliveries that they had not ordered,” Commentary Magazine’s Noah Rothman explained in his column about Pai’s tormentors. His neighborhood was plastered with fliers of Pai and his vitals, like something out of the FBI’s Most Wanted.
“Is this really the world you want Annabelle and Alexander to inherit,” read a hand-made sign affixed to a lamppost outside Pais’ residence in November, making a point to emphasize the names of Pai’s two children. “They will come to know the truth: Dad murdered democracy in cold blood,” read another.
The harassment of Pai and his family is a national outrage that should be a headline in every news outlet in America—especially considering the irony of the left’s position. These fanatics are attacking Pai on the same internet they’re complaining isn’t neutral. Only a liberal could keep a straight face.
For the rest of society, it’s just another example of the left’s ruthless and relentless intolerance. An intolerance, sadly, that too many in the media ignore—if not embrace.
As Pai said on “Washington Watch” in November, this culture of cruelty must stop.
Photo credit: FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and his family have been harassed and received death threats amid the net neutrality debate. (Photo: Ron Sachs/CNP/AdMedia/Newscom)
Marksville, LA — The officer-involved wounding of Christopher Few and the murder of his son Jeremy Mardis has taken a perverse and bizarre turn, if prosecutors of former Marksville, Lousiana Police Officer Norris Greenhouse, Jr. are to be believed. Marksville law enforcement officer, Derrick Stafford, was recently convicted of manslaughter and attempted manslaughter in the shooting that led to Mardis’ death, and Few’s close brush with death. Now it’s Greenhouse’s turn to be tried for second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder.
In a recent court filing, Greenhouse was accused by prosecutors of having a habit of abusing the authority implicit in his badge to “satisfy his sexual desires.” According to the Associated Press, “The Avoyelles Parish Sheriff’s Office fired Norris Greenhouse Jr. for “abandoning his job” after the mother of a 14-year-old girl complained in 2012 that she found him lying on a sofa with her daughter while he was dressed in his sheriff’s office uniform, prosecutors said in Friday’s filing.”
As the Free Thought Project previously reported, Greenhouse had a history with Few’s then-fiancé. Now, prosecutors also agree and have alleged Greenhouse had previously made “sexual advances” towards his ex-fiancé, Megan Dixon. So, it’s now becoming clear why Few may have fled from police in November of 2015. Greenhouse may have wanted him dead so he could have his way with Dixon.
The chase was caught on police body cameras and shows Few was unarmed, sitting in his small SUV, when Greenhouse opened fire, wounding Few and killing his autistic son. The chase was hardly record breaking, lasting only 2 miles before ending in a hail gunfire, and yet the officers displayed what appears to be an urgency to kill Few.
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Prosecutors now want the evidence made available to jurors for an upcoming trial involving Greenhouse. “Prosecutors argue that jurors for Greenhouse’s trial should hear these allegations because they could help explain why Greenhouse initiated the pursuit,” writes the AP.
Assistant Attorney General Matthew Derbes reportedly stated Greenhouse “has established a pattern of approaching women or teenage girls while ‘on the clock’ as a law enforcement officer and using the means at his disposal due to said employment to solicit those victims in an effort to satisfy his sexual desires.” Greenhouse’ attorney George Higgins III said prosecutors are attempting to “tarnish” their client’s reputation with “unfounded allegations” that are “clearly inadmissible” in court.
Stranger still, and what may add credibility to the prosecutor’s allegations, is that the two officers who killed Mardis and nearly killed Few, were moonlighting at the time of the shooting, and may have conspired to kill Few, completely unaware that his son was inside the car with him. In fact, Greenhouse has yet to produce a true reason for pulling Few over that night.
The tainted relationship appears to be the only possible motive for the stop that night as no definitive explanation has yet to be given as to why Greenhouse was moonlighting, riding alone that night and decided to pull Few over.
According to the Greenhouse and Stafford, the officers decided to conduct a traffic stop because Few had an outstanding warrant. However, the Clerk of Court, the District Attorney’s Office, Marksville Police Department, and City Court noted that they did not have any warrants against him. The officers also claimed Few had a weapon, that was also a lie.
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The only reason Few ran from Greenhouse that night was to catch up with Dixon so he could give her Jeremy in case he was arrested.
“The whole reason there was even a chase was for his well-being,” he said.
Greenhouse’s father is a prosecutor for the Avoyelles Parish. His trial starts June 12. He was accused of sexual misconduct with the 14-year-old in 2012 and resigned in 2014. When internal investigators questioned him about the incident with the 14-year-old, he admitted to going over to her house on three separate occasions when the mother wasn’t home.
Greenhouse also admitted to asking a 16-year-old to send him pictures of her breasts. With respect to Few’s girlfriend, “prosecutors say ‘more than one’ of Greenhouse’s sexual advances toward Few’s ex-girlfriend happened while he was in uniform and driving his patrol car. Greenhouse made the advances ‘under the guise of wanting her to work as a confidential informant (but) would quickly transition to wanting some sort of sexual contact,"” writes the AP. Stafford received a 40-year sentence for Manslaughter.
NBC News reported Dixon’s allegations of the bad blood between Few and Greenhouse. She told reporters Greenhouse “had started messaging her on Facebook and had come by the house that she and Few were sharing at the time.” When Dixon told her boyfriend, Few confronted Greenhouse and threatened him with bodily harm saying, “Next time you come to my house I’m going to hurt you.” In the end, the former officer and his friend killed little Jeremy Madis, the most innocent one involved.
Kuauhtemoc Rodriguez isn’t just a whistleblower in the Veterans Affairs Administration. He happens to the Chief of Specialty Care Clinics at the Phoenix VA Health Care System, the same system of VA hospitals which were at the center of the firestorm of the scandalous controversy of 2014. Freethinkers may recall the Phoenix VA hospital was ground zero for a scheduling scandal where some 40 veterans passed away while waiting to see a doctor at the VA.
The scandal led to the firing of several senior-level hospital administrators, criminal investigations by the FBI, several bills in Congress passed to protect veteran’s healthcare needs, and eventually led to the replacement of the Secretary of Veterans Affairs. President Obama replaced VA Sec. Eric Shinseki with former Proctor & Gamble CEO Robert A. McDonald. But Phoenix, AZ’s Rodriguez says more work still needs to be done, and he blew the whistle again in March 2016, on the VA’s handling of canceling appointments. Recall that the first scandal involved veterans not being able to get an appointment in time, leading to several deaths. Rodriguez noticed appointments made by veterans who had already passed away were being cancelled by those same dead veterans.
Rodriguez took his case to the court of public opinion and, according to AZ Family, the Chief of Specialty Care Clinics showed reporters several screenshots which indicated the deceased veterans had actually cancelled their own appointments. AZ Family reported in March, “hundreds of appointments that were more than 120 days past due to be scheduled were deleted from the system. That means many are still waiting to be seen and might not even realize they’re no longer in the system. ‘Obviously, if you’re deceased you’re not going to call the clinic and cancel your own appointment,’ said Kuauhtemoc Rodriguez, Chief of Specialty Care Clinics at the Phoenix VA.”
Months later, in May of 2016, Rodriguez, an Army veteran, felt the need to use the federal whistleblower system to report alleged retaliation against him, which he claimed also included death threats. According to the whistleblower form obtained by The Free Thought Project, Rodriguez alleged, “The Medical Center Deputy Director and the Medical Center Director have engaged in retaliation by notifying me that I was going to be removed from my position as Chief of Specialty Care Clinics at the Phoenix VA. The intent of these acts is merely to retaliate against me for exposing wrong doing, patient deaths due to delay of care, and mismanagement of Veterans programs by executive leadership and mid level managers. In addition I have exposed continued mismanagement at the Health System Specialist Level, Supervisory Level and Human Resources which has created a hostile working environment for me.”
The VA executive, after making the case that the retaliation against him was because he blew the whistle, then detailed the type of harassment he’s received since coming forward with such damning accusations. “I’m continually harassed by management at the highest levels, kept from meetings, have had my duties removed, and have been threatened with removal. In addition data shows that my leadership has enabled the facility to reduce patient backlog in consults, appointments for the last year and I have been still rated as fully successful in order to deny me advancement. In addition I have been denied advancement in positions I have applied for and have been recommended for hiring, again due to my whistleblower status.”
Whistleblowers are supposed to be protected under the federal Whistleblower Protection Act, from harassment for speaking out, but Rodriguez says he feels anything but protected. “Also the facility has failed to create a safe environment for me and has allowed various employees to threaten me physically, and one employee who threatened my life are still allowed to operate with impunity,” he writes. He also notes that his complaints to administration have fallen on deaf ears. “In addition I have and continue to be slandered by other managers at the phoenix VA with executive leadership knowing about it, and covering it up. The executive leadership of the facility seems to encourage personal attacks upon me professionally by allowing these attacks to happen. I have been subjected to this abuse for over a year now and they are still occurring,” he writes.
Now, Rodriguez is being called to answer for his actions. Instead of the VA answering for theirs, according to The Free Beacon, Rodriguez is, “now being forced to testify before an Administrative Investigation Board (AIB) regarding allegations that his department leadership created a hostile work environment and engaged in discriminatory practices. In conversations with the Washington Free Beacon, Rodriguez described the administrative investigation as the latest attempt by hospital leaders to ‘deflect from their malfeasance,’ claiming that hospital staffers have been retaliating against him for months after he blew the whistle on management failings at the facility.”
By all appearances, it seems that Rodriguez’ fate has already been decided, whether he knows it or not. As The Free Thought Project has faithfully reported, when whistleblowers do come forward, they’re often harassed, censored, fired, or worse, and yet, in the end, many of the whistleblowers end up suing their employers, often winning millions of dollars in restitution. But for now, Rodriguez can only hope, wait, and endure whatever comes his way.
According to the Free Beacon’s report, the problem at the VA, under the Obama administration, has not gotten better. Instead, it has gotten much worse. The latest report by the Office of the Inspector General found that 200 veterans had died waiting for appointments, up from the 40 deaths from the scandal of 2014. Now, the one person who blew the whistle is apparently being brought up on charges. “Rodriguez was informed on Dec. 9 that he was being summoned to provide testimony for the administrative investigation into allegations that leaders at the Health Administration Services (HAS), his department, ‘created a hostile work environment and engaged in discriminatory practices.’ The hearing, convened by RimaAnn Nelson, interim director of the Phoenix VA, was initially scheduled for Dec. 22 but has since been rescheduled for Jan. 12.”
The Free Beacon also contacted another VA employee turned whistleblower. His name is Brandon Coleman, a Marine veteran who helped coordinate mental health care at the VA hospital in Phoenix. Coleman reportedly told the Free Beacon, “In my case, it was proven up to 17 suicidal vets had escaped from the hospital and for that disclosure I was sent home for 460 days of leave, had my successful program destroyed, and even had a gag order placed on me by the hospital director trying to take away my First Amendment rights by forbidding me from seeking health care as a disabled veteran at the Phoenix VA hospital,” Coleman said. “I am one of the lucky ones…I won my case with (sic) help of Congress and the media. But there are hundreds of nameless VA whistleblowers no one will ever know who were also brave enough to bring up wrong doing.”
Coleman blames Obama and his administration for going after whistleblowers in some supposed attempt to avoid scandals. “If the next administration wants to protect whistleblowers then they first must acknowledge us. Under President Obama, VA leadership (both locally and nationally) was allowed to ‘hunt’ whistleblowers and many of us were sent running for our lives, forced to try and restart our careers at new locations, for doing nothing wrong other than telling the truth,” Coleman concluded.
Ironically enough, Valerie Jarrett, Obama’s top advisor, proudly proclaimed last Sunday on CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS, “The president prides himself on the fact that his administration hasn’t had a scandal and that he hasn’t done something to embarrass himself.” Arguably, an untold number of whistleblowers would likely disagree with Jarrett, having been silenced by the same type of intimidation Rodriguez reportedly has experienced, even to the point of death threats being leveled against them.
