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Friday, October 25, 2013
White House official fired over anonymous tweets
By Roberta Rampton and Steve Holland
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A senior White House official who was helping negotiate nuclear issues with Iran has been fired after being unmasked as the acidic voice behind a Twitter account known for its insults of public figures at the White House and on Capitol Hill, a government official said on Tuesday.
Jofi Joseph was director of nuclear non-proliferation on the White House National Security Council staff, but for more than two years sent hundreds of anonymous and abrasive tweets using the handle @NatSecWonk.
He was fired last week after he was caught, the official said.
A White House official confirmed Joseph no longer worked there, but would not comment on personnel matters. The firing was first reported by the website Daily Beast.
In his Twitter biography, now removed from the social networking site, Joseph described himself as a "keen observer of the foreign policy and national security scene" who "unapologetically says what everyone else only thinks."
As the widely followed @NatSecWonk, Joseph speculated anonymously about the political motives and career moves of administration officials he worked with. They included Ben Rhodes, President Barack Obama's spokesman on national security issues.
This month, Joseph tweeted that Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state, "had few policy goals and no wins" in the Middle East. He agreed with Republican Representative Darrell Issa, who has relentlessly pursued Clinton for administration actions after last year's attack on the U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya.
"Look, Issa is an ass, but he's on to something here with the @HillaryClinton whitewash of accountability for Benghazi," he tweeted.
He also sniped at U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power's use of Twitter. "Can someone again brief @AmbassadorPower that Bashar Assad likely doesn't follow her Twitter feed?" he recently wrote.
Joseph did not respond to phone and email requests for comment, but he told the website Politico he regretted his tweets.
"What started out as an intended parody account of DC culture developed over time into a series of inappropriate and mean-spirited comments. I bear complete responsibility for this affair and I sincerely apologize to everyone I insulted," Joseph said in an email to Politico.
He also targeted journalists, including Daily Beast reporter Josh Rogin who broke the story of his firing. "Just a hunch, but I have the sense lots of people would like to punch @joshrogin in the face," he said earlier this month.
(Fixes Twitter links)
(Reporting by Roberta Rampton and Steve Holland; editing by Christopher Wilson)
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Guy On Train Live Tweets Former CIA Chief's On-Background Interview
You'd think he'd be more careful: The man who was once responsible for the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency was giving a background interview during a train ride, but he didn't notice that a fellow passenger was live tweeting the highlights.
In truth, we didn't learn any secrets from Ret. Gen. Michael Hayden, but Tom Matzzie, who used to work for the liberal group MoveOn.org, provided a riveting — and funny — account of the ordeal on his Twitter feed.
Matzzie said Hayden told the journalists that he could only be identified as a former senior administration official and then went on to give "disparaging quotes about" the Obama administration. At one point Hayden, said Matzzie, was "bragging about rendition and black sites."
Hayden, you might remember, served as the NSA director under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. He served as CIA director for Bush and President Obama. Currently, he works for the Chertoff Group.
As you might imagine, eventually Hayden got a call from his office telling him what was going on. Matzzie wondered if he should hide. But Hayden graciously offered an interview and even took a picture with Matzzie.
Eventually, Matzzie tweeted, Hayden got off the train in Newark.
"He touched my back ... again," Matzzie tweeted, before adding that he was about to get off the train himself and someone should "email my wife and explain all this."
Micah Sifry, the co-founder of Personal Democracy Forum, Storified the entire thing:
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This is the Modem World: The connected cyclist's dilemma
Each week Joshua Fruhlinger contributes This is the Modem World, a column dedicated to exploring the culture of consumer technology.The number of health-tracking gadgets and apps is officially out of control. Fitbit just announced its Force activity-tracking watch. Apple integrated Nike+ and ...
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Saudi Women Go For A Spin In Latest Challenge To Driving Ban
A woman drives a car in Saudi Arabia on Sunday. Saudi Arabia is the only country where women are barred from driving, but activists have launched a renewed protest and are urging women to drive on Saturday.
Faisal Al Nasser/Reuters/Landov
A woman drives a car in Saudi Arabia on Sunday. Saudi Arabia is the only country where women are barred from driving, but activists have launched a renewed protest and are urging women to drive on Saturday.
Faisal Al Nasser/Reuters/Landov
Activists in Saudi Arabia tried once, they tried again and now they're making a third challenge to the kingdom's long-standing ban on female drivers.
Some women have recently made short drives, posting videos on social media sites, and many more are planning to get behind the wheel on Saturday.
Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world that effectively prohibits women from driving, a ban supported by conservative clerics. While there is no law formally banning female drivers, the government does not give them licenses.
Government authorities seem to be more lenient these days, however.
Sara Hussein, 32, says it's time to claim the right to drive.
"Think back in history — Rosa Parks was the only person who sat down on the bus, wasn't she? And then it started to happen gradually," Hussein says. "It does have to start with the few brave people who are willing to risk whatever there is to risk."
Hussein's mother, Aziza al-Yousef, who is in her 50s and teaches computer science at King Saud University, is a key organizer of the drive-in. Activists set Saturday as a date for a national road rally, but also encouraged women to just get behind the wheel any time.
"We are saying, 'Just go ahead and drive now,' " says al-Yousef. "I know women started driving. The messages are in the hundreds. We are counting the videotapes."
YouTube
Activists have been challenging Saudi Arabia's ban on female drivers by taking to the road and posting videos. Here is one of what organizers say are 100 videos posted so far.
The mother and daughter say the videos are coming from across the kingdom and even show one man teaching his wife and sister to drive.
Relying On Male Drivers
Saudi Arabia was made for driving, with wide open spaces and cheap gas. The sprawling capital, Riyadh, is as big as Los Angeles, with no dependable public transportation.
Women must rely on men to drive them around. They may be male relatives or drivers who are part of the country's imported labor. But this is expensive and an intrusion into their lives, many women say.
As the country changes bit by bit, the prohibition on female drivers can contradict other efforts by the government. For example, the government is urging private companies to hire more women. It is hard to see how that can happen unless women can drive to work, Hussein says.
"No one has been given orders from higher up" to arrest female drivers, she adds.
Al-Yousef says this campaign, the third challenge to the driving ban, has learned from past mistakes.
In 1990, 47 women made the first attempt to challenge the ban. They all lost their jobs, were prohibited from traveling for years, and were shunned for their defiance.
The next challenge came in 2011, when activists Maha al-Qatani was the first Saudi woman to get a traffic ticket. The campaign fizzled after some women were jailed for driving. But soon after, King Abdullah said women could vote in local elections, and 30 women were appointed to the 150-member Shura Council, an advisory body to the king.
Going For A Spin
Al-Yousef — who has an international driver's license — says she and other drivers don't want to break laws aside from the one banning driving.
She now takes a short drive every day and invites me to join her for a cruise around the capital. We get in the front, her male driver climbs in the back, and we take to the road.
"I need people to see that it is normal; we have to let people accept it," al-Yousef says. "It doesn't mean anything if you drive only one day."
The afternoon traffic is so heavy that nobody notices two women in the front seat of a car.
Then we approach a police station.
"Let's see what their reaction is," she says. "You watch it; it's going to be on your right."
She says the head of the national police stated publicly that his officers would not arrest women for driving. But they will ticket those without a license, which is impossible for a woman to get here.
Al-Yousef drives like a pro. She learned while attending a university in the U.S. The only time she shows excitement is when another activist calls her.
"I am driving!" she announces with a distinct rise in her voice.
We end our drive at her front door, where her husband is waiting to meet her.
"Hello, I'm a coward. How do you do," her husband, Moisen al-Haydar, says with a laugh.
Al-Haydar says he's given up driving. He's proud of his wife for braving Riyadh's hectic traffic. He supports her driving campaign, but he's worried, too.
Threats Against Activists
There have been online threats and insults against activists. Al-Yousef filed a case this week against the attackers in court. Also this week, conservative clerics urged King Abdullah to stop Saturday's drive-in, but the king did not meet with the complaining clerics.
Al-Yousef sweeps away her husband's concerns and sits down to check the latest driving videos.
"We've had four today and we are now up to 100 videos," she says as she turns up the volume on the latest driving demonstration.
Al-Yousef translates the Arabic in the video: "She says this is a very positive movement; Saudi ladies should have the choice to drive her own car. And she named the tape, 'Yes, we can.' "
The final decision is up to the king, who has said he believes women have the right to drive, but hasn't said when.
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A Diagram Of HealthCare.gov, Based On The People Who Built It
An attempt to draw out the various parts of HealthCare.gov's tech system, based on the testimony of its contractors.
Elise Hu/NPR
An attempt to draw out the various parts of HealthCare.gov's tech system, based on the testimony of its contractors.
Elise Hu/NPR
One of the major issues that's emerged since the failed rollout of HealthCare.gov is that there was no lead contractor on the project. (CGI Federal was the biggest contractor — awarded the most expensive contract — but says it did not have oversight over the other parts of the system.) Instead, the quarterbacking was left to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a subagency of the Department of Health and Human Services.
As it's become clear recently, the team at CMS did not have the in-house technological expertise to be an effective "quarterback" over a complicated and unprecedented tech system.*
The testimony of contractors on the Hill today before the House Energy and Commerce Committee illustrates the complexity of not just the system, but the procurement process that led to having different contractors responsible for separate parts of a whole that were all dependent on the reliability of other parts.
"When you have five or six different people, each optimizing their part of the process, it's easy to pass a performance problem around in an infinite loop," says Michael Slaby, who headed the technology systems behind President Obama's 2008 and 2012 campaigns.
We tried to draw out each part of HealthCare.gov based on how 4 of its 55 total contractors described it. But if you prefer reading about their responsibilities, I've laid that out below.
CGI Federal is the contractor that has developed a portion of the federal exchange, the software application known as the Federally Facilitated Marketplace, or "FFM." It's the online marketplace for shopping after you create a secure account, so it's a combination of the website and a transaction processor for taking payments after you enroll.
Tools created by CGI include the e-mail that is sent to the user to confirm registration, the link that the user clicks on to activate the account, and the Web page the user lands on.
QSSI built the enterprise identity management (or EIDM), better known as the front door to HealthCare.gov. It's the registration management tool — the part that allows users to create secure accounts. You have to get past the front door before getting to the marketplace. According to administration officials, high traffic led the account creation, or front door, to bottleneck, which prevented the vast majority of users from accessing the marketplace. QSSI says the bottleneck happened because of a late-in-the-game decision to force users to create an account before getting to browse the plans.
QSSI also built the Data Services Hub that is not actually a hub because it doesn't store data. It's better described as a pipeline that transfers data — routing queries and responses between various trusted data sources. For example, after you enter information about yourself, things like citizenship must be verified. The pipeline directs queries to information sources, such as government databases that verify that information, and sends the responses back to the marketplace.
Data from the Internal Revenue Service, the Department of Homeland Security, Social Security and insurance carriers will be channeled by this pipeline.
Equifax is responsible for income verification data for those seeking financial assistance (subsidies) through the new health law. It does real-time verification of income and employment, and pipes it through the "hub." It verifies a user's eligibility for Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and for eligibility for tax credits and for reduced copays and deductibles for low-income applicants. This happens after a user gets through the front door, of course.
Serco's contract is to handle the paper applications. To date, the company has received about 8,000 paper applications. But, "Our challenges have included coping with the performance of the portal as that is our means of entering data just as it is for the consumer," Serco's John Lau says. The contract awarded had projected Serco to process 6 million paper applications by the end of March 2014.
*To be fair, the federal government isn't structured in a way that is inviting to the most expert technology minds. The way government hires for tech projects treats technology systems like single end products — a bridge, for example — that can be bought and built and left alone, instead of as services that roll out in stages, respond to users, and are continuously nurtured. For more on that topic, check out my Q&A with Mike Bracken, the United Kingdom's executive director of digital.
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Thursday, October 24, 2013
Veteran Iowa Republicans seek state GOP makeover
This photo taken Monday, Oct. 21, 2013 shows Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, left, accompanied by Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds, speaking during his weekly news conference at the Statehouse in Des Moines, Iowa. Fed up and ready to get off the sidelines, veteran Iowa Republicans are working to wrest control of the state GOP from the evangelicals, tea partyers and libertarians they blame for alienating longtime party loyalists. Led by Branstad, these Republicans want to grow the state party _ one that ideological crusaders have shaped over the past few years _ by bringing back into the fold pragmatic-minded voters while attracting more women and younger voters. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
This photo taken Monday, Oct. 21, 2013 shows Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, left, accompanied by Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds, speaking during his weekly news conference at the Statehouse in Des Moines, Iowa. Fed up and ready to get off the sidelines, veteran Iowa Republicans are working to wrest control of the state GOP from the evangelicals, tea partyers and libertarians they blame for alienating longtime party loyalists. Led by Branstad, these Republicans want to grow the state party _ one that ideological crusaders have shaped over the past few years _ by bringing back into the fold pragmatic-minded voters while attracting more women and younger voters. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
This photo taken Monday, Oct. 21, 2013 shows Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, followed by Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds, walking into his weekly news conference at the Statehouse in Des Moines, Iowa. Fed up with being pushed aside, veteran Iowa Republicans are quietly working to wrest control of the state GOP from the evangelicals, tea partyers and libertarians they blame for alienating longtime party loyalists and diminishing the state’s coveted presidential caucuses. Led by Branstad, these Republicans want to grow the state party __ led lately by ideological crusaders __ by bringing back into the fold voters seeking pragmatic solutions to a host of problems and attracting people of diverse political stripes, including women and younger voters. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
This photo taken Monday, Oct. 21, 2013 shows Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad speaking during his weekly news conference at the Statehouse in Des Moines, Iowa. Fed up with being pushed aside, veteran Iowa Republicans are quietly working to wrest control of the state GOP from the evangelicals, tea partyers and libertarians they blame for alienating longtime party loyalists and diminishing the state’s coveted presidential caucuses. Led by Branstad, these Republicans want to grow the state party __ led lately by ideological crusaders __ by bringing back into the fold voters seeking pragmatic solutions to a host of problems and attracting people of diverse political stripes, including women and younger voters. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
This photo taken Monday, Oct. 21, 2013 shows Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad speaking during his weekly news conference at the Statehouse in Des Moines, Iowa. Fed up with being pushed aside, veteran Iowa Republicans are quietly working to wrest control of the state GOP from the evangelicals, tea partyers and libertarians they blame for alienating longtime party loyalists and diminishing the state’s coveted presidential caucuses. Led by Branstad, these Republicans want to grow the state party __ led lately by ideological crusaders __ by bringing back into the fold voters seeking pragmatic solutions to a host of problems and attracting people of diverse political stripes, including women and younger voters. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Fed up and ready to get off the sidelines, veteran Iowa Republicans are working to wrest control of the state GOP from the evangelicals, tea partyers and libertarians they blame for alienating longtime party loyalists.
Led by Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, these Republicans want to grow the state party — one that ideological crusaders have shaped over the past few years — by bringing back into the fold pragmatic-minded voters while attracting more women and younger voters.
These Republicans say success would be Branstad winning re-election next fall and paving the way for a national GOP comeback in the 2016 presidential election by choosing a mainstream Republican in the leadoff presidential caucuses.
"What we need is someone who knows how to get things done, accomplish things," Branstad told the Associated Press recently. "My goal is to strengthen the party and to try to encourage people, new people, to participate and to show that I think the future for the party can be bright if we are welcoming — and if we really work."
The power struggle shaping up here has begun playing out across the nation. Some national Republican luminaries are blaming tea party figures like Texas Sen. Ted Cruz for demanding ideological purity, inciting the partial government shutdown and damaging perceptions of the party across the country.
In Iowa, it took the party two months to sell all the tickets to its annual fall fundraiser featuring Cruz, who led the failed effort to defund President Barack Obama's health care law. The event usually sells out quickly, and Branstad allies point to the sluggish pace as evidence that local GOP leaders are unhappy — and ready for a change.
Others dispute that, and accuse Branstad's backers of trying to weaken the party's conservative base.
"It's really unfortunate that a small few who are loud are trying to speak for the grassroots," said Tamara Scott, a Republican National Committee woman and outspoken Christian conservative who speaks highly of Cruz.
For decades, pro-business, economic conservatives like Branstad controlled the Iowa GOP. In the 1980s, the evangelical wing injected new energy. But those Republicans also rallied behind presidential candidates who ultimately lost the party's nomination, raising questions of whether Iowa Republicans were reflective of the GOP nationally.
In 2000, George W. Bush broke the mold, knitting business and Christian conservatives together to win the caucuses en route to the White House.
But big budget deficits under Bush turned off centrists, and the war in Iraq roused supporters for former Texas Rep. Ron Paul. That left evangelicals and Paul-type libertarians — many who would also later identify with the tea party — the most engaged Republicans in Iowa. They flexed their power in 2008, choosing as their caucus winner Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, whose dominant Christian conservative profile further alienated mainstream Republicans.
By 2010, the Iowa GOP was so weak that it recruited the long-retired former governor, Branstad, to run again. This pragmatic, not ideological, Republican beat a well-known social conservative in a tough primary before unseating the unpopular Democratic incumbent. Branstad backers viewed his victory as the start of a complete reclaiming of the party.
Then came the 2012 Iowa caucus debacle.
The state GOP initially declared Mitt Romney the winner. Three weeks later, the party drew ridicule when it said former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum — a social conservative — had actually received the most votes.
Meanwhile, insurgent tea party conservatives and Paul supporters from his two failed presidential campaigns worked at the precinct level to seize the state GOP committee and chairmanship. They succeeded.
A.J. Spiker, a Paul backer, became the state party chairman. Since then, he's faced criticism from activists for weak fundraising. Records show that the party was raising more than $40,000 a month four years ago and now is raising less than $30,000 per month. Spiker dismisses the criticisms and the Branstad effort as nothing more than typical squabbling.
"We are in a period of some disagreement within the party. But I think that is happening nationally," Spiker said.
Branstad's allies have had enough. They hope to drive disaffected Republicans back into the party's grassroots, starting with the midterm caucuses in January where party activists will choose delegates who will decide the GOP's direction heading into 2016.
"If the establishment wants to take over, they have to show up," said Doug Gross, a longtime Branstad adviser. "And frankly we haven't."
The effort doesn't stop with the caucuses.
Branstad is publicly neutral in the U.S. Senate primary here, but Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds is publicly backing Joni Ernst — a state senator from rural southwest Iowa — in a crowded field.
Reynolds says her endorsement is "not just in name only," and plans to campaign and raise money for Ernst. in hopes that the six-candidate Senate field's only woman could help the party attract more women voters next fall, and to the 2016 caucuses.
Oskaloosa lawyer Diane Crookham Johnson is among those Republicans Branstad wants back.
The state party's chief fundraiser in 2000, Johnson supports abortion rights, but dropped out of party leadership after growing frustrated with what she saw as increasing rigidity on social issues.
But Johnson has been contacted by Ernst and rival Mark Jacobs, and likes what she's starting to hear.
"They want to know where I'm at," she said "And that's a good sign."
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-10-24-Iowa-GOP%20Divisions/id-6b3e3283236b4a1590aca902f3bfb8e1Similar Articles: broncos Sleepy Hollow Clemson University tracy mcgrady msft
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