20 Monday May 2013
Posted in Politics
The safety of the tyrant is better guarded by the goodwill of the citizens than by the spears of a bodyguard…
Periander
– in reference to the Corinthian tyrant, Cypselus.
All the guns in the world won’t protect a man or government if they abuse the people for too long.
18 Saturday May 2013
Posted in Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Terrorism
Tags
civil rights, department of defense, dod instruction 3025.21, drug war, military coup, military-industrial complex, police state, terror war
In Instruction 3025.21, filed 27 February 2013, the Department of Defense decided to give itself the power to assist civilian police authorities militarily during periods of extreme emergency of civil unrest. The memo states that
Federal military commanders have the authority, in extraordinary emergency circumstances where prior authorization by the President is impossible and duly constituted local authorities are unable to control the situation, to engage temporarily in activities that are necessary…to quell large-scale, unexpected civil disturbances…
Excuse me, but if the president is indisposed, doesn’t the military have to go through the vice president, the secretary of defense, and — before all of that — doesn’t it require the authorization of the Congress, as per the 1807 Insurrection Act? (Yes…yes, it does.) Furthermore, wasn’t the military barred from military action in support of police due to massive corruption and civil rights violations during Reconstruction? (Yes…yes, it was: Posse Comitatus.)
If you can’t see how bad this is, or where this inevitably leads, you might want to look at the history of Rome, or any medieval period European country, 1660 Britain, 1917 Russia, 1920 Italy, 1930s France, Germany, Hungary, and Spain, and time during the early 20th Century China and Japan, or any of the other innumerable examples where the military decides to be the final arbiter of law, order, and power.
Contact the worthless windbags that allegedly represent you in Washington — remind them that military coups don’t just target the people, but also the worthless windbags that are in charge. If it’s their life and power on the line, they might shift their asses.
18 Saturday May 2013
…they eject you from their meetings. This is democracy in New Jersey: do what we want, say what we want, or we’ll punish you.
And just in case you thought they were applauding his ejection…
They were continuing to turf people out after they “cut off debate” over their gun bills:
This is your police state at work. Don’t agree with what they are doing to you? They shut down debate and sic the police on you. And as far as they are concerned, “You can’t stop government…” But don’t worry there, Mr. and Mrs. Jersey Shore…I’m sure they won’t be coming for you in the future…
17 Friday May 2013
Posted in Law Enforcement, Military
…yet…
Here’s Brazil’s Rio Civil Police shooting wildly at what they thought was Marcio “The Mathematician” Pereira’s car. Note the FLIR allows you to see them engaged in “disproportionate” (according to Martha Rocha, head of the RCP) collateral damage…
15 Wednesday May 2013
Posted in Law Enforcement, Media, Politics
≈ Comments Off
Tags
associated press, department of justice, eric holder, government corruption, police state, wiretaps
Oh, Nelly, she’s havin’ the vapors! 52 media groups protested the Department of Justice’s wide-ranging seizures of telephone records on Associated Press reporters in an effort to find the source of a leak on a counterterrorist operation. Apparently, they’re doubly worried that the DoJ didn’t inform them they were the subject of an investigation until a year later. Imagine how much freer we’d be if the media had been this interested in any of the other abuses of power that the administration has pursued these past five years.
Already, the administration is in “lying our asses off” mode, with Eric “Pinnochio” Holder claim he “doesn’t know” how many orders for data seizures he signed. That brings up a few interesting problems: 1) Incompetence — Holder wasn’t smart enough to pull the information before going out to flap his yap on the matter, 2) Arrogance — Holder didn’t feel he needed to have that information…after all, the media’s been covering up for the Chicago gang for five years, why stop now? (Answer: Because sycophants don’t like to be scorned by the object of their adulation.) or 3) HE’S LYING. Maybe because they actually did much worse and they’re trying to stave off discovery of wiretaps or other surveillance techniques used, or maybe because the administration is so used to prevarication it now comes naturally, or maybe because what they did wasn’t exactly legal…
Let’s turn to the US Attorney’s Manual 9-13.400 (News Media Subpoenas; Subpoenas for Telephone Toll Records of News Media; Interrogation, Arrest, or Criminal Charging of Members of the News Media) to see a few things you should know about subpoenaing evidence, Mr. Holder:
Section 50.10(g)(1): “should be as narrowly drawn as possible; it should be directed at relevant information regarding a limited subject matter and should cover a reasonably limited time period.”
Sections 50.10(b) and 50.10(g)(1): This requires you to take all investigative steps before a wiretap or draw of confidential records can be subpoenaed. “We couldn’t get any one to talk, judge. Can we have a wiretap?” “Well, sure, Eric — just don’t forget to invite me to the next swanky White House dinner!)
Section 50.10(d): This is the part where you are required to tell the person they are under investigation unless it would “pose a substantial threat to the integrity of the investigation.”
11 Saturday May 2013
Tags
2nd amendment, bill moyers, fairleigh dickinson poll, government corruption, gun rights, police state, progressivism
…and should. First published on his website, the aging Progressive talking head laments the end of dialogue and the rise of disillusionment and anger in the United States, citing the Fairleigh Dickinson poll that showed about 30% of the population think an armed revolt will be necessary to protect their rights.
“Have we lost our minds?” cries the antique PBS “journalist” who for years has spread the Progressive ideals that have caused people to start arming to the teeth in anticipation that “experts” like Moyers will finally make that last push to control our lives through big government intervention. “Paranoia and just plain meanness.”
Why would the people be paranoid? Could it be the recent push for gun control that dovetailed with hearings on using drones to spy on or kill American citizens inside the United States — a scenario that the Attorney General wouldn’t call unconstitutional or illegal until pushed to the wall? Could it be the passage of the NDAA and the ability to make anyone a “terrorist” with the right policy letter from an administration security “expert”, and with that lose their right to due process, a speedy trial by their peers? Could it be that the president used the IRS to lock up the monies of conservative political groups ahead of the 2012 election — a crime easily on par with using CIA assets to spy on the opposing party? (Watergate.) What about the militarization of the police around the nation and the constant increases in surveillance?
Why would we worry about that?
Moyers does manage to figure out that crony capitalism — the corruption of Washington politicians by big monied interests — is partly to blame, but doesn’t quite get past his Vietnam-era socialist bullshit of the “gap between rich and poor” causing anger. That’s not it, Billy; it’s that both parties, and especially your beloved Obama, have been robbing us blind to support irresponsible banks and businesses that should have been allowed to go bust. The companies cannot rob the people without the complicity of the government that Progressives like Moyers so love to tout as the solution to every problem.
But a violent uprising, with all the bloodshed and chaos that would follow? Armed revolt is when people are so desperate they kill and are killed. Who would wash the blood from the streets, restore order after the chaos and bury the dead? Have we lost our minds?
Why would they be that desperate? Could it be that in addition to the elements above, they see no representation of their views from the would-be aristocrats in government and their sycophantic crew of courtiers (that would be the media, Mr. Moyers…you.) They lie to us, the media passes on the lie unquestioningly because of their political allegiance to a faction, to the point of covering rank incompetence or worse in Benghazi, with Fast & Furious, with the misuse of civil assets to gain political gain? How about the open cheating in the electoral process by both parties this past season?
Who would wash the blood from the streets, restore order…? The same people that always do; the folks caught in the middle between those who want their freedom, and those that wish to deny them the same.
There is an alternative to force, blood, and suffering. It’s called democracy…If Congress and the White House are crooked and out of touch, come Election Day, you make sure they lose.
Great sentiment, Billy, but when the president uses the IRS to lock up the ability of the opposition to organize and speak against him, when the opposition party’s elitist kleptocracy changes the rules of the game to keep spoilers out and lies openly about who won primaries…democracy doesn’t work.
Perhaps, had you been willing to leave people to their lives without meddling at every turn in what we eat, drink, smoke; who we screw; how we make our money and how much we keep; stopped playing games with our energy supply over bogus climate fearmongering; didn’t intrude on how we educate our kids…well, maybe people would have finally had enough of it.
Moyers and other unhappy, arrogant, meddlesome folks push relentlessly against people, attempting to make them and society “better.” They don’t like being told “no” — that’s mean-spirited. They don’t like being called on their actions and intentions — that’s paranoia. And, like most bullies, when you finally raise your dukes, they cry for parlay to retreat, regroup, and retool their endless message of approbation. T
You keep pushing. People are going to throw down.
10 Friday May 2013
Nothing gets the government more riled up that wasting money (Chortle! Just kidding!), or at least very visible and embarrassing wastes of money that can be turned into political hay for the news cycle. In this case, the thieves lawmakers of the House Homeland Security Committee came down super-extra hard on the Transport Security Agency for spending $800,000 a year to store the “safe…kinda” Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT) X-ray machines they bought without testing when the agency was looking to peep under your clothes and irradiate you at the same time.
Finding that groping people was much more empowering for the blueshirts in the airport, and intrusive, demeaning, and/or terrifying for travelers, the ATIs have been sitting DOA in a FLF (federal leased facility. They don’t use this acronym but should, since I just made it up.) And darn it, that’s wasteful! Not the fact they bought a bunch of crap they can’t use…that they would store it in an $800,000/year facility instead of really adding insult to the injury of misspent taxes by letting it rust out in the back of some TSA facility.
So be of good cheer, America! Even if the lawmakers don’t care about the violation of your privacy and dignity, despite the fact they ignore the rampant theft of traveler’s property by federal (now unionized!) employees who can’t catch 3/4s of the weapons at a recent airport test (compared to 20% failure of private security), they really really care that the TSA is wasting your money.
Because, dammit, they could find ways to waste that money even more egregiously. Just give ‘em a chance!
06 Monday May 2013
President Obama gave a commencement speech to students of Ohio State University, yesterday. The students were not allowed to bring liquids into the stadium (Dehydration be damned!), umbrellas, or anything that might remotely be considered a weapon. Because the president’s safety is paramount, after all — it’s not like we would have someone to replace him, or could elect another man in his place.
During his speech, Obama proved the size of the chasm of perception between the political class and the average America:
Unfortunately, you’ve grown up hearing voices that incessantly warn of government as nothing more than some separate, sinister entity that’s at the root of all our problems. Some of these same voices also do their best to gum up the works. They’ll warn that tyranny always lurking just around the corner. You should reject these voices…
How could tyranny be lurking around the corner, just because the only area with economic growth is the Washington area, or that we’re killing Americans without due process or a trial using drones, or passed a law that made Congress exempt from the same trading laws as businessmen (and were working on exempting themselves from the Affordable Care Act before they got caught), or can deem people terrorists through the NDAA of 2012 and hold them without due process or charge indefinitely, or there is an active push to disarm the American people?
Why would people think the government might be worrying against your interests with asset forfeiture laws being applied to travelers, their money effectively stolen as a road tax by police? Or that police are being armed with military weaponry, armored personnel carriers and MRAPs, and are applying as fast as they can for DHS grants to get drones?
Why might people worry about tyranny?
Because what they suggest is that our brave, and creative, and unique experiment in self-rule is somehow just a sham with which we can’t be trusted.
Actually, the brave, creative, and unique experiment in self rule, is not an element of the federal government. It was create to protect that self-rule, by keeping the central government from growing too large and powerful. Hence the “negative rights” the Constitution gives the government.
We have never been a people who place all our faith in government to solve our problems. We shouldn’t want to. But we don’t think the government is the source of all our problems, either.
We may not have been a people that place our faith in government to solve our problems, but that’s what’s being sold to us with the push to get more and more folks on food stamps and welfare programs. Isn’t that what the Affordable Care Act is all about? And you are absolutely right, Mr. Obama…we should not want to, but if we did that, you and the rest of the bought-and-paid-for in Washington wouldn’t have as much access to our money, and as much power over us as your have now.
Because we understand that this democracy is ours.
Is it? Or is it the property of the bankers you bailed out for failing to do their jobs diligently and well? Or the foreign interests that keep our gas and oil industries hamstrung, and federal grant money — our money — from going to Chinese solar companies? does it belong to the big box stores that are pushing the internet sales tax? Or the international aristocrats that want Americans disarmed?
So don’t look behind the curtain, graduates of 2013, half of whom are staring down the barrel of un- or underemployment, heavy student loan debt, and a restricted chance of success — because it’s not about what America can do for you, it’s about how much you can make for the political class and their monied friends. Vote Democrat!
06 Monday May 2013
Posted in Law Enforcement
Feel safer, yet?
04 Saturday May 2013
Posted in Education, Law Enforcement, Terrorism
≈ Comments Off
Tags
active shooter drills, halfway oregon, pine eagle charter school, police state, principal cammie decastro, safety drill
Authorities decided it would be a great idea to scare the crap out of the kids of Pine Eagle Charter School in Halfway, Oregon (pop. 288), with a “safety drill” that involved two armed, masked men, but dammit! the kids were out on a half day for admin time, leaving the faux assailants to terrorize the faculty of the school.
“The goal of the drill was to learn how people would react, so better emergency plans could be made,” said Principal Cammie DeCastro. The proper response to this would have been for the faculty to beat the living hell out of DeCastro.
What are the chances of a major incident at Pine Eagle? About the same as taking a direct hit from an asteroid, but don’t let that stop the idiots in the school administration from frightening people to death. The teacher claim they learned aout reacting to an “active shooter”, but the lesson seems to be “Oh, crap, I’ll get killed if someone goes Sandy Hook on our ass.”
Scare tactics aren’t going to create prepared teachers…just paranoid ones.
