The new details are revealed in a court filing detailing a back and forth between the Justice Department and the federal judges who oversaw the request to search a Gmail account belonging to Rosen, a reporter for Fox News.
The new details show U.S. Attorney Ron Machen argued in 2010 that the traditional 30-day notice period did not apply to Fox News reporter James Rosen. Justice wanted to secretly monitor Rosen’s Gmail account.
Machen, through a separate court order, also successfully stopped Google from telling Rosen that the government was spying on his e-mail account. Machen demanded to see all of Rosen’s e-mail records, including his deleted messages, e-mails in his trash folder and all attachments sent to and from the reporter.
The government successfully argued to keep the search warrant under seal for 18 months before making it public in November, 2011.
Meanwhile, the Justice Department said on Friday that senior officials including Attorney General Eric Holder vetted a decision to search an email account belonging to a Fox News reporter whose story on North Korea prompted a leak investigation. The D.O.J
We also have the IRS scandal continuing to cause more headaches for the Obama administration, there are democrat and republicans talking about a special prosecutor to investigate the IRS targeting conservative groups. If a special prosecutor is appointed, he will have the authority to dig much farther and this will cause a major embarrassment for the Obama whitehouse. I believe that this goes all the way to the top. This is Chicago politics writ large. Obama is doing the same thing he did when first started his political career. Dig up all the dirt on your opponents and use your friends to make things difficult for your enemies.
There may be a unanticipated factor in all this. You know that if Obama steps down because of all the scandals...guess who will take over. Vice President Biden. I am positive that Biden is out of the loop, he is a loose cannon and cannot keep his mouth shut. I belive that he was excluded on account of his "open mouth first and insert foot then think about what he said". Imagine President Biden.....Now that is scary.
On a different note, we will have our Monday Music. I am going with "Allentown" from Billy Joel, I remember a line from the song, "The jobs went away and the union people crawled away" this happened when in the video it showed a worker getting his pink slip while in the shower. I thought about this when my job went away at Ford motor company.
"Allentown" is a song by American singer Billy Joel, which first appeared on Joel's The Nylon Curtain (1982) album, accompanied by a conceptual music video. It later appeared on Joel's Greatest Hits: Volume II (1985), 2000 Years: The Millennium Concert (2000), The Essential Billy Joel (2001), and 12 Gardens Live (2006) albums. Also, it was featured in Hangover II (2011) "Allentown" is the lead track on The Nylon Curtain, which was the seventh best-selling album of the year in 1982. The song reached #17 on the Billboard Hot 100,[1] spending six consecutive weeks at that position and certified gold. Despite the song placing no higher than #17 on the weekly Billboard Hot 100 chart, it was popular enough to place at #43 on the Billboard year-end Hot 100 chart for 1982.
Upon its release, and especially in subsequent years, "Allentown" has emerged as an anthem of blue collar America, representing both the aspirations and frustrations of America's working class in the late 20th century.
The song's theme is of the resolve of those coping with the demise of the American manufacturing industry in the latter part of the 20th century. More specifically, it depicts the depressed, blue-collar livelihood of residents of Allentown, Pennsylvania and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in the wake of Bethlehem Steel's decline and eventual closure.[1] Joel witnessed this first-hand while performing at the Lehigh Valley's numerous music venues and colleges at the start of his career in the late 1960s and early 1970s.[citation needed]
The introductory rhythm of the song is reminiscent of the sound of a rolling mill converting steel ingots into I-beams or other shapes. Such a sound was commonly heard throughout South Bethlehem when the Bethlehem Steel plant was in operation from 1857 through 1995.
When Joel first started writing the song, it was originally named "Levittown", after the Long Island town right next to Hicksville, the town in which Joel had grown up. He had originally written a chord progression and lyrics for the song, but struggled for a topic for the song. Joel remembered reading about the decline of the steel industry in the Lehigh Valley, which included the small cities of both Bethlehem and Allentown. While the steel industry was based in Bethlehem with none of it in Allentown, Joel named the song "Allentown" because it sounded better and it was easier to find other words to rhyme with "Allentown." Although Joel started writing the song in the late 1970s, it wasn't finished until 1982.
Truly, though as he was struggling for a title for the song(who knows). I met Billy in a bar in Washington D.C. called the "Crazy Horse". I was sitting at the bar and this guy next to me asked me for a cigarette. I said "sure", he said "thanks, I'll dedicate my next album to you". I said, "what, are you a star or something?" He said, "kinda". I asked him, what's your name, he said "Billy" (and I began thinking of who was named Billy that was a star).
The night went on, he was enticed with the waitress at the bar (this is before C.B.) and wrote her a note on a napkin (and signed it)(keep in mind we are still sitting next to each other). She threw the note the trash (discreetly).
So, were sitting there, having a good time, and it dawns on me, who he may be. I turn to him and asked "are you Billy Joel?" he says "don't let anyone know I'm in here". I say "OK" and we just kept sitting there and having a good time joking around and stuff. Anyway, later, he asks me if If I want to meet some of his friends who were with him and I said "OK". We strolled around the club and he introduced me to his brother and some football players that were accompanying him. That was all cool (wish I could have remembered all their names).
So were hanging out, walking around and talking and he asks me if I want to go to a party with all of them later on, I said that would be cool (or something like that). We shook hands and departed each others company. Well, that's kinda where the story ends as, we went our separate ways (around the club). Never hooked up with them (the entourage) again.
Although he didn't dedicate the album to me, I think the thought stuck in his head "I'll dedicate my next album to you". He did, my name is Allen Hinton and whether you believe it or not, it's my story................ ask Billy if it's true or not. I am Still alive and well Billy, Still alive and well, in North Carolina now my home.
Peace Billy, you've done well! Hope all is well with you, my friend. Hope all is well with you!
A year after the song was released, the mayor of Allentown sent a letter to Joel about giving some of his royalties to the town. Mayor Joseph Daddona, who sent the letter, said it would help for scholarships for future musicians. On January 20, 1983, the letter was mailed to Joel, and a local paper published an article on the subject the next day, quoting Daddona as saying the following:
Not only would this fund be a great way to share a tiny part of your good fortune to others in Allentown, it would also help keep alive the 'Allentown' song and the Billy Joel legend (which you've already become here).When Joel performed the song in Leningrad during the concert recorded and later released as Концерт, he introduced the song by analogizing the situation to that faced by Soviet youths:
This song is about young people living in the Northeast of America. Their lives are miserable because the steel factories are closing down. They desperately want to leave... but they stay because they were brought up to believe that things were going to get better. Maybe that sounds familiar.
Reaction to song in Allentown
Before a sold-out crowd at Stabler Arena in neighboring Bethlehem, People magazine reported that Joel was greeted enthusiastically with a five minute standing ovation as he closed his third encore with "Allentown." At the end of the song and extended ovation, Joel was greeted with even more sustained applause when, in an apparent defense of the song's meaning, he pointedly told the Allentown crowd, as is his wont at the end of every one of his concerts: "Don't take any shit from anybody."[5]
Good post, and it's nice to learn some of the backstory... :-)
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