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America Is Being Systematically Transformed Into A Totalitarian Society

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March 27, 2024, 12:55:24 pm Mark says: Shocked Shocked Shocked Shocked  When Hamas spokesman Abu Ubaida began a speech marking the 100th day of the war in Gaza, one confounding yet eye-opening proclamation escaped the headlines. Listing the motives for the Palestinian militant group's Oct. 7 massacre in Israel, he accused Jews of "bringing red cows" to the Holy Land.
December 31, 2022, 10:08:58 am NilsFor1611 says: blessings
August 08, 2018, 02:38:10 am suzytr says: Hello, any good churches in the Sacto, CA area, also looking in Reno NV, thanks in advance and God Bless you Smiley
January 29, 2018, 01:21:57 am Christian40 says: It will be interesting to see what happens this year Israel being 70 years as a modern nation may 14 2018
October 17, 2017, 01:25:20 am Christian40 says: It is good to type Mark is here again!  Smiley
October 16, 2017, 03:28:18 am Christian40 says: anyone else thinking that time is accelerating now? it seems im doing days in shorter time now is time being affected in some way?
September 24, 2017, 10:45:16 pm Psalm 51:17 says: The specific rule pertaining to the national anthem is found on pages A62-63 of the league rulebook. It states: “The National Anthem must be played prior to every NFL game, and all players must be on the sideline for the National Anthem. “During the National Anthem, players on the field and bench area should stand at attention, face the flag, hold helmets in their left hand, and refrain from talking. The home team should ensure that the American flag is in good condition. It should be pointed out to players and coaches that we continue to be judged by the public in this area of respect for the flag and our country. Failure to be on the field by the start of the National Anthem may result in discipline, such as fines, suspensions, and/or the forfeiture of draft choice(s) for violations of the above, including first offenses.”
September 20, 2017, 04:32:32 am Christian40 says: "The most popular Hepatitis B vaccine is nothing short of a witch’s brew including aluminum, formaldehyde, yeast, amino acids, and soy. Aluminum is a known neurotoxin that destroys cellular metabolism and function. Hundreds of studies link to the ravaging effects of aluminum. The other proteins and formaldehyde serve to activate the immune system and open up the blood-brain barrier. This is NOT a good thing."
http://www.naturalnews.com/2017-08-11-new-fda-approved-hepatitis-b-vaccine-found-to-increase-heart-attack-risk-by-700.html
September 19, 2017, 03:59:21 am Christian40 says: bbc international did a video about there street preaching they are good witnesses
September 14, 2017, 08:06:04 am Psalm 51:17 says: bro Mark Hunter on YT has some good, edifying stuff too.
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Author Topic: America Is Being Systematically Transformed Into A Totalitarian Society  (Read 22292 times)
Psalm 51:17
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« Reply #30 on: May 14, 2013, 12:08:33 pm »

FYI, about that recent witchhunt the IRS did on certain conservative activist groups for the current White House...the IRS commissioner at the time also happened to be a George W. Bush appointee...

Douglas Shulman
Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service (since March 2008)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/douglas-shulman/gIQAjjnrAP_topic.html

And the IRS under Bush Jr. did similar witchhunt activities as well...
http://www.salon.com/2013/05/14/when_the_irs_targeted_liberals/

Just reading these articles, it's getting pretty obvious that almost all of these activist groups(whether conservative or liberal) are opposition-controlled. But the worst part about all this is that it's merely the MEMBERS that are being brought into mud, while the influential/heads(ie-Sarah Palin with the Tea Party) seem to be the ones working arm-in-arm with these draconian entities.
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« Reply #31 on: May 14, 2013, 10:49:31 pm »

OK, this is only a blog, but nonetheless it quotes what "conservative" radio show host Mark Levin said...

http://lamecherry.blogspot.com/2013/05/what-is-behind-real-irs-scandal.html
What is behind the real IRS Scandal
5/14/13

When Congresswoman Michele Bachmann revealed that Birther Obama released the IRS scandal as it had been on the burner for a long time, she has been ignorant of a reality which only this blog has covered in the methodical protocols unleashed in this jihad attack by the Obama regime, and now it is about to get a entire new twist on this in reality hitting the fan.

Obama is crook. Saying that for the three thousandths time solves nothing in IRS scandals or ANALGATE. It is WHY OBAMA CHOSE THE IRS SCANDAL WHICH THIS BLOG in matter and anti matter is about to blow the lid off things with.

I will utilize examples in this of real Congressional staff and Congressmen to explain exactly why Obama chose the IRS scandal. The reason Obama chose the IRS scandal is simple.....it was to blackmail the Republicans into silence over Benghazi, by silencing them with the IRS scandal.

Why is that?

It is because of some proof Mark Levin blurted out on his radio program on May 13th, in which he stated in his IRS investigations, that IT WAS CONGRESS previously who was sending the IRS to terrorize Americans who were "bothersome" to the members.

Has it been any secret that John Boehner or Eric Cantor have not only detested the Tea Party, but were in open war against it with Karl Rove and **** Army trying to engineer an overthrow of it?

You have no idea what it is like on Capitol Hill when the idea of REAL AMERICANS come up, unless you listen to the gay staff which operates behind the scenes, hired by all of the top GOP.

read more at the link
« Last Edit: May 14, 2013, 10:51:13 pm by BornAgain2 » Report Spam   Logged
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« Reply #32 on: May 15, 2013, 03:59:49 am »

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You have no idea what it is like on Capitol Hill when the idea of REAL AMERICANS come up

I can only imagine!
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« Reply #33 on: May 17, 2013, 06:34:53 am »

IN CHARGE DURING 'TEA PARTY' TARGETING, NOW RUNS IRS OBAMACARE OFFICE
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/05/irs-official-in-charge-during-tea-party-targeting-now-runs-health-care-office/

IRS henchwoman got $103,390 in bonuses...
http://washingtonexaminer.com/irs-tax-exemptionobamacare-exec-got-100390-in-bonuses/article/2529899

Outgoing IRS chief faces hearing after 'stunning' revelation on another scandal ...

The outgoing commissioner of the IRS is in the hot seat Friday, scheduled to testify for the first time on his agency's scandalous practice of targeting conservative groups -- after it was revealed that another implicated official is now in charge of an ObamaCare ...

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/05/17/outgoing-irs-chief-faces-hearing-after-stunning-revelation-on-another-scandal/
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« Reply #34 on: May 17, 2013, 08:32:40 am »

Looks like Caesar coming back to collect his chips is right around the corner...

As for these so-called "scandals" with Obama - the deeper this goes, the more chaos it'll likely bring, the more the American public will beg for a "savior" like they did toward the end of Bush II's term.
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« Reply #35 on: May 27, 2013, 07:12:01 am »

Tyranny Around the Corner
by Andrew P. Napolitano, May 23, 2013

A few weeks ago, President Obama advised graduates at Ohio State University that they need not listen to voices warning about tyranny around the corner, because we have self-government in America. He argued that self-government is in and of itself an adequate safeguard against tyranny, because voters can be counted upon to elect democrats (lowercase “d”) not tyrants. His argument defies logic and 20th-century history. It reveals an ignorance of the tyranny of the majority, which believes it can write any law, regulate any behavior, alter any procedure and tax any event so long as it can get away with it.

History has shown that the majority will not permit any higher law or logic or value — like fidelity to the natural law, a belief in the primacy of the individual or an acceptance of the supremacy of the Constitution — that prevents it from doing as it wishes.

Under Obama’s watch, the majority has, by active vote or refusal to interfere, killed hundreds of innocents — including three Americans — by drone, permitted federal agents to write their own search warrants, bombed Libya into tribal lawlessness without a declaration of war so that a mob there killed our ambassador with impunity, attempted to force the Roman Catholic Church to purchase insurance policies that cover artificial birth control, euthanasia and abortion, ordered your doctor to ask you whether you own guns, used the IRS to intimidate outspoken conservatives, seized the telephone records of newspaper reporters without lawful authority and in violation of court rules, and obtained a search warrant against one of my Fox colleagues by misrepresenting his true status to a federal judge.

James Rosen, my colleague and friend, is a professional journalist. He covers the State Department for Fox News. In order to do his job, he has cultivated sources in the State Department — folks willing to speak from time to time off the record.

One of Rosen’s sources apparently was a former employee of a federal contractor who was on detail to the State Department, Stephen Jin-Woo Kim. Kim is an expert in arms control and national defense whose lawyers have stated that his job was to explain byzantine government behavior so we all can understand it. When he was indicted for communicating top secret and sensitive information, presumably to Rosen, his lawyers replied by stating that the information he discussed was already in the public domain, and thus it wasn’t secret.

Prior to securing Kim’s indictment, the Department of Justice obtained a search warrant for Google’s records of Rosen’s personal emails by telling a federal judge that Rosen had committed the crime of conspiracy by undue flattery of Kim and appealing to Kim’s vanity until Kim told Rosen what he wanted to hear. In a word, that is rubbish. And the FBI agent who claimed that asking a source for information and the federal judge who found that the flattering questions alone constituted criminal behavior were gravely in error.

Reporters are protected in their craft by the First Amendment, and the Supreme Court has ruled that they can ask whatever questions they wish without fear of prosecution. If Kim revealed classified information to Rosen — a charge Kim vigorously denies — that is Kim’s crime, not Rosen’s. The Supreme Court ruled in the Pentagon Papers case that it is not a crime for a journalist to seek secrets, to receive them, to possess them and to publish them so long as they affect a matter of material public interest.

The government’s behavior here is very troubling. Government lawyers and FBI agents are charged with knowing the law. They must have known that Rosen committed no crime, and they no doubt never intended to charge him, and they never have. They materially misled the judge, who saw the phrase “probable cause” of criminal activity (taken from the Fourth Amendment) in their affidavit in support of the search warrant they sought, and he signed. The judge should have seen this for the ruse it was. It is inconceivable that a person could conspire to commit a crime (release of classified information) that is impossible for that person to commit, particularly with a Supreme Court case directly on point.

This misuse of the search warrant mechanism by misrepresentation of the status of the target continues the radicalization of federal criminal procedure now typical of this Department of Justice. It has claimed that it can release military weapons to foreign criminal gangs just to see where the weapons end up, and that its agents cannot be prosecuted for harm caused by those who received the weapons. It has held that the serious consideration given in the White House by high-ranking government officials to the identity of persons the president wants to kill somehow is a constitutional substitute for due process and thus enables the president to use drones to kill people uncharged with federal crimes. It has extended the public safety exception to the Miranda rule from the few seconds at the scene of the crime spent securing the prisoner, where the Supreme Court has said it resides, to more than 72 hours.

And now this.

The reason we have the due process safeguards imposed upon the government by the Constitution is to keep tyranny from lurking anywhere here, much less around the corner. Due process is the intentionally created obstacle to government procedural shortcuts, which, if disregarded, will invite tyranny to knock at the front door and sneak in through the back. Justice Felix Frankfurter warned of this 70 years ago when he wrote, “The history of liberty has largely been the history of the observance of procedural safeguards.” That was true then, and it is true now.

Do you expect the Department of Justice to cut constitutional corners against you?

http://original.antiwar.com/andrew-p-napolitano/2013/05/22/tyranny-around-the-corner/
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« Reply #36 on: May 28, 2013, 03:38:37 am »

Yes, that's exactly what I expect, and the US government is not letting me down in that regard.
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« Reply #37 on: May 30, 2013, 09:15:29 am »

The United States Is In Fact An Orwellian Tyranny-Obama Statements At The National Defense University

The United States is in fact an Orwellian Tyranny that merely chooses not to implement full tyrannical measures. It only makes this decision because it does not yet have sufficient power to completely control the masses, i.e. we have not been made sufficiently docile, nor sufficiently dumbed down, fattened, sickened, and disarmed. When the government does have that power, and it will soon enough, it may then be too late to effectively resist.
 
During a speech on May 23 at the National Defense University at Ft. McNair in Washington D.C. in which Barrack Hussein Obama was called to the carpet by Medea Benjamin, one of his employers, for his actions relating to men who are illegally imprisoned by the United States Government, he stated: “Now, even after we take these steps one issue will remain, just how to deal with those Gitmo detainees who we know have participated in dangerous plots or attacks but who cannot be prosecuted, for example, because the evidence against them has been compromised or is not admissible in a court of law. But once we commit to a process of closing Gitmo I am confident that this legacy problem can be resolved consistent with our commitment to the rule of law.”
 
Think about this, the man who claims to be the President of the United States has just admitted that he is refusing to order the immediate release of prisoners that the government admits it has no evidence against. Yet in the same breath Obama states that the government “knows” the men committed crimes! How can the government know that somebody has committed a crime yet simultaneously have no evidence against him?! And worse yet, how can it continue to unlawfully imprison that person?! How can Obama announce that these men are guilty when they have never been found guilty in a court of law?! Barrack Hussein Obama has just announced to the world that he has the authority to unilaterally declare that someone is or is not guilty of a crime. The executive branch of government has now officially partially assumed the proper and constitutionally delegated role of the judicial branch. Also notice the Orwellian Double Speak as he claims that it is possible to “deal” with this issue consistent with the rule of law, while simultaneously violating the rule of law! The two practices are mutually exclusive and completely incompatible, yet he states that they work together. This is a whole new level of new speak and double speak. Non-evidence is actually evidence, tainted evidence is reliable evidence, illegal evidence is legal evidence, violating the law is upholding the law, and usurping the Constitution is adhering to the rule of law! This is the definitive definition of new speak and tyranny!
 
Also, let us not gloss over the fact that Obama refers to this situation as a “legacy problem” in a clear attempt to insinuate that he holds no responsibility for and is in no way accountable for this unlawful practice. Indeed, George W. Bush implemented this unconstitutional practice, but Obama continued it despite his crystal clear campaign promises to the contrary. From the moment that Obama took office and failed to order the immediate civilian trial or the release of every prisoner, he not only proved himself to not be a man of his word, he also immediately assumed culpability and responsibility for the actions of his predecessor and for every day thereafter that those human beings are denied their inalienable and God-given rights. In legal parlance this is called conspiracy after the fact, and it is a criminal offense.
 
At this moment all doubts as to the Orwellian and tyrannical nature of this dictator and of the United States Federal Government have been evaporated! There is now no room for doubt on where we stand! Who among us will idly stand by as men, against whom there is no evidence, rot in prison? How many American Citizens does this include? How long until this new legal standard is incorporated into and utilized in domestic criminal courts at the local, state, and federal levels? Or has it already been introduced and continues to be so incrementally? A close examination of the criminal justice system clearly demonstrates that this is indeed the case at every level of government, from traffic courts, to tax courts, to criminal courts, and “adjudicated hearings” conducted by the likes of the EPA, the NLRB, et al.
 
The judicial tyrants on the Supreme Court and other federal courts have bent over backwards to allow every form of illegally, unlawfully, and unconstitutionally  obtained evidence by police and other government agents to be admissible in courts and used against the accused, essentially eviscerating the Fourth Amendment. They have also steadily chipped away at the right to a speedy trial, the right to confront you accuser, and the right to present evidence on your own behalf, while simultaneously increasing the so-called right of government law breakers to be immune from criminal and civil prosecution for their criminality, brutality, and lawlessness. No wonder so many people in government are afraid of an armed citizenry. An armed man is a citizen whereas an unarmed man is a subject. Or put another way, an armed citizenry will get to the point where they won’t take this abuse anymore and agents of the state will find that engaging in immoral and unconstitutional actions will more likely than not result in them being shot and killed by those whom they are oppressing, whereas an unarmed citizenry that finally gets to the point where they can’t take it anymore will have no choice but to roll over and take it-hard. History and the current world are replete with these kinds of societies.
 
All the while the one party system in Congress not only allows this to happen, but actively funds it with your money. Think about it. You spend on average 33% of every hour you work, every day you work, every week you work, every month you work, and every year you work, working to support these policies and practices. And when you are not working you are paying compound taxes that amount to an average of 33% of the costs for the goods and services that you consume and utilize every day. Essentially, the government says that it owns one-third of your life, whether you like it or not. At one time that figure was 0%, 1%, 5%, etc. One day it will be well over 50% and perhaps even 90%-100%. And there won’t be a damn thing you can do about it because by then you will have been fattened up, dumbed down, and disarmed. Perhaps we are getting what we deserve for allowing our government to do what it does to the sovereign peoples of foreign lands.
 
Keep in mind that the fact that most of these men are foreigners is not ok. The rights to habeas corpus, trial by jury, and due process are universal human rights that apply to all men. Remember that the Constitution does not grant these rights to Americans, it merely recognizes these preexisting rights which apply to all men by the nature of their very existence. As such, our government is obligated to apply these rights to all human beings with whom it interacts or comes into contact. If you have not yet attained a post-conventional stage of intellectual and moral development where just doing the right thing for the sake of doing what is right, is enough for you; then allow me to appeal to your selfish pre-conventional stage of intellectual and moral development and point out that it is also in your own best interest to oppose this tyranny because there is a direct inverse relationship between a government’s exertion of power over foreigners and foreign lands, and the amount of domestic freedom at home. As the exertion of foreign power increases, freedom at home decreases. This is because policies, procedures, practices, techniques, and technologies are invariably directed inward as opposed to exclusively outward. Proof of this is found throughout history but more recently is found in both of the Patriot Acts, both of the Military Commissions Acts, the NDAA, the de facto nullifications of the Posse Comitatus Act and of the Fourth and Fifth Amendments, the actions of C.I.A. personnel within the United States, as well as the events at Ruby Ridge, Waco, and Boston, and the general militarization of local and civilian law enforcement.
 
And what will become of the prisoners that Obama has found guilty by public proclamation? My guess is a combination of the following: Secret Star Chamber type trials that invariably find everyone guilty, executive orders finding them guilty-this would merely formalize Obama’s public pronouncements of guilt,  life in prison, death, handing over to third parties that will agree to do what we tell them to do to the prisoners-including murdering them. People like me will soon follow.
 
“Freedom is not bestowed upon by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature.” -Benjamin Franklin.
 
“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” -Lord Acton.
 
“A Republic, if you can keep it.” -Benjamin Franklin.
 
What are you waiting for? How much more of a clarion call do you require before you wake up and before you take action? Must you literally find yourself, a loved one, or a friend, dead, nearly beaten to death, about to die, or unjustly imprisoned, before you are ready to take action, and then wishing that you had already done so because at that point it will be too late?

http://libertycrier.com/forum/the-united-states-is-in-fact-an-orwellian-tyranny-obama-statements-at-the-national-defense-university/?utm
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« Reply #38 on: May 30, 2013, 09:25:23 am »

I, Big Government

Considering the current crop of scandals plaguing the Obama administration, the findings in a recent report from Gallup that fully half of Americans believe the government has too much power, comes as no surprise. However, if these findings signal a true awakening by the citizenry to the real danger of this Administration, it is good news.

The Obama Administration’s IRS has been caught targeting, harassing, and out-right blocking the lawful formation of conservative organizations -- during an election year. The Department of Justice, officially charged with protecting our constitutionally guaranteed rights, has been caught intimidating reporters and effectively silencing sources and whistleblowers in the federal government. On top of all this, the Justice Department has been running roughshod over fundamental First Amendment rights in pursuing the Associated Press, acquiring the press outlet's phone records as part of a fishing expedition to plug leaks in its own house.

These are dark times for the Obama Administration, but even darker for our country's liberty. Americans citizens are beginning to realize the full extent of the power now held by faceless officials in Washington, D.C.

The constant deceit and misinformation coming from the Administration makes even the most loyal Democrats question President Obama’s personal role in these scandals. Even if we were to take Obama at his word -- and assume these scandals are the work of Big Government gone “rogue” -- it hardly presents a more comforting scenario. If the IRS, for example, can institute its own program of viewpoint discrimination, and conduct a campaign of systematic persecution of conservative and Tea Party groups without oversight, accountability, or restraint, then it is as if Big Government has become a “sentient being” -- capable of operating without executive direction.

In the 2004 movie I, Robot, an army of robot drones -- once used as servants for public services -- are turned against humanity by a supercomputer named V.I.K.I., whose artificial intelligence matures until "she," on her own, decides humans are no longer worth protecting. In much the same way, Big Government in the real world is deciding American citizens -- particularly those who have grown suspicious of the awesome power and authority granted to this unaccountable behemoth -- are no longer worth serving.

For years the deck has been stacked against the American public as more and more power has flowed to federal agencies, and into the hands of unelected bureaucratic drones far from the watchful eye of Congress and the people themselves. And, in the shadowy corners of Washington, D.C., like a machine building itself, they have created a leviathan beyond the wildest nightmares of our Founding Fathers.

It would be easy -- and not without merit -- to blame the recklessness of Congress for entrusting so much power to the Executive Branch over the last few decades, rather than keeping it in the hands of the states its members represent. For their part, many in the Congress from both political parties have facilitated an unprecedented expansion of the Police State, justified by calls of protecting “national security.” At the same time, Democrats have overseen a grotesque expansion of the welfare state, evidenced by record-high spending on government programs as well as by regulations that limit consumer choice and economic opportunity. Adding insult to injury, neither side lifted a finger, in good faith, to slow their counterparts – until it became politically expedient. Both parties came to rely on the electoral benefits of Big Government, and neither exhibited any true will to slow the gravy train.

Ultimately, of course, blame also falls to citizens themselves, who watch with eyes-wide-open as Big Government creeps further into our day-to-day lives. Every national tragedy is followed by calls for “more government” and “more laws” to prevent what wasn’t prevented in the first place. This repetitive paranoia -- fueled by the Main Stream Media, which has its own political agenda riding the coattails of Big Government -- paved the way for greater abuse of constitutional rights.

For those patriots who have long-witnessed this malignant growth of bigger and bigger government, the current litany of scandals barely raises an eyebrow. They realize the scandals are not the byproduct of foolish knaves populating government agencies, but rather are the natural consequences of a federal government no longer encumbered by the restraints of the Constitution, congressional oversight, or a “watchdog” media. Where an obstacle appears, Big Government sidesteps it, claiming “national security,” “executive authority,” blind ignorance (a favorite of the Obama administration), or more recently -- and, ironically -- by invoking the Fifth Amendment.

We truly have reached a watershed moment with the current scandals that plague the Obama Administration. Should congressional investigators fail to hold the Administration accountable for its gross misconduct across multiple agencies and incidents, there is little else any administration -- Republican or Democrat -- will not in the future be able to get away with. If the government can kill U.S. citizens overseas without trial, refuse to aid its own diplomats in peril, crush the autonomy of the free press, and silence political opponents in the time where free speech is at its most critical importance -- what rights remain sacred?

It is worth pausing to reflect on the true implications of this moment. The outcome of the ongoing investigations will, without hyperbole, decide the future of America as a free nation, under a government that was once accountable for its actions. It will be at this point that the Constitution could become little more than a piece of lifeless parchment, without meaning or significance. Those who try to hijack the ongoing investigations of these scandals, for motives other than discovering the truth and then holding the perpetrators responsible, are doing liberty, and the nation, a grave disservice. We are not fighting for political points any more. We are fighting for the moral soul of our nation.


http://townhall.com/columnists/bobbarr/2013/05/29/i-big-government-n1608372

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« Reply #39 on: May 30, 2013, 11:54:55 am »

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Ultimately, of course, blame also falls to citizens themselves

The American form of government is designed such that if the citizenry do not manage their representatives, the representatives will take it upon themselves to run the country, and so they have.
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« Reply #40 on: May 30, 2013, 12:11:51 pm »

The American form of government is designed such that if the citizenry do not manage their representatives, the representatives will take it upon themselves to run the country, and so they have.

Yeah, we're in a day and age where it seems like people just don't want to think for themselves, nor for that matter read things for themselves. Not that I endorse the MSM or anything, but sitting down and reading news articles in a newspaper will at least help you read b/w the lines to get some truth over what is going on(ie-thinking logically). On the contrary, listening to a lot of these "shock jocks" like Rush Limbaugh and Alex Jones will not only lead you into a lot of deceptions, but will end up manipulating your emotions as well, that you can't think logically.

For example, was talking about political history over the last 30-40 years with my dad the other day, and was talking about Ronald Reagan and Mitt Romney - he was well aware of their liberalism agendas LONG before I asked him, and that's b/c he mostly reads.

No, I'm not speaking for everyone, but nonetheless it's come to a point now where the public is deceived into thinking they have to put all of their trust in a certain political party. "Curseth is the man that trusteth in man...".
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« Reply #41 on: June 01, 2013, 04:53:41 pm »

Wisconsin GOP pushing law to spy on and seize bank accounts of unemployed
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/06/01/wisconsin-gop-pushing-law-to-spy-on-and-seize-bank-accounts-of-unemployed/
6/1/13

A law is advancing through the Wisconsin state legislature that would double the job-seeking requirements for people collecting unemployment and which would allow the government to peer into their bank accounts and freeze them if they believe the account holder has received overpayments in their benefits. According to the Wisconsin State Journal, the co-authors of the bill, which was introduced in the state Assembly and Senate on Friday, insist that the changes would be for workers’ own good.

“This is to protect the workers and lessen the burden on employers who are paying all the bills,” said state Rep. Dan Knodl (R-Germantown).

The bill also addresses the concerns of businesses which say that the state has not done enough to train judges on how to rule in disputes between companies and employees.

Democratic state Rep. Christine Sinicki (Milwaukee) said that the law is another salvo by Republicans against working people and the middle class. She also worried that Republicans would make the bill even more intrusive and draconian during the legislative mark-up process.

Knodl said the aim of the legislation is to move the state’s unemployment fund to solvency. Wisconsin is one of 31 states that had to borrow from the federal government to pay out unemployment benefits. At its highest point, Wisconsin’s debt to the federal government was nearly $1.5 billion, although in April of 2013, the amount was significantly less than that, $476 million, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

Among the changes included in the Republican-backed legislation would slightly increase the maximum allowable benefit by $7 to $370 per week, it would render anyone cut off from receiving benefits for not taking a job ineligible to ever receive benefits again until they find a job that pays at least six times his or her benefit rate at the time of termination of benefits. The current requirement is four times their benefit rate.

It would force job applicants to apply for twice as many jobs to remain eligible for benefits. Currently employment seekers must apply for two jobs per week to keep unemployment benefits flowing. The new law raises that number to four.

Currently, people receiving educational or vocational training in order to qualify for a job can continue to receive unemployment benefits past their original expiration date. The new law would stop those payments.

The bill mandates that banks and financial institutions must hand over the private account information of any people suspected by the government of receiving overpayments.

In the event of overpayments, even those caused by government error or computer malfunctions, the government would be able to freeze and collect from the accounts of people receiving unemployment.

Assembly Bill 219 and Senate Bill 200 will go before legislative committees for consideration on Wednesday, June 5.

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« Reply #42 on: June 02, 2013, 07:07:56 am »

Couple Cuffed For Engaging In Free Speech In Front Of Independence Hall

A video that runs approximately 13:00 minutes records an ironic incident that took place on Saturday May 18 documents the incident of Mark and Barb, a couple who were engaged in handing out flyers and talking about ending the Federal Reserve system in the City of Brotherly Love, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They were detained and hand-cuffed for passing out flyers and engaging in free speech.

vid + story: http://freedomoutpost.com/2013/05/irony-couple-cuffed-for-engaging-in-free-speech-in-front-of-independence-hall/
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« Reply #43 on: June 03, 2013, 04:49:21 am »

Interesting, that site won't allow copy of comments. Highlight/copy doesn't work. So much for freedom of speech!  Roll Eyes

What I was wanting to copy is a article comment that mentions the actual law about flyers. Apparently it applies to commercial bills only, and even says outright you can approach a person in public and hand them a flyer freely.

All these wannabe Rambos are so busy being the lawman they don't even know their own laws!

Governments have never liked protestors. It's bad for business!
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« Reply #44 on: June 05, 2013, 12:07:37 pm »

The Wi-Fi in your home can track your moves like Xbox Kinect
http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/wi-fi-your-home-can-track-your-moves-xbox-kinect-6C10194118
6/5/13

Want to switch off the living room lights from bed, change channels while washing dishes, or turn the heat up from the couch? A team at the University of Washington has rigged a standard Wi-Fi home network to detect your movements anywhere in the home and convert them into commands to control connected devices.

Gesture recognition is the latest fad in games and tech, but even the newest systems require high-tech depth-sensing cameras or other special hardware. Microsoft's new Kinect, for instance, uses a photon-measuring method called "time of flight" sensing that was, until the Kinect was announced, limited to high-tech laboratories. And Kinect isn't small, either.

UW computer science students, led by assistant professor Shyam Gollakota, looked at the gesture-detection puzzle another way — specifically, how people affect the environment they're already in.

Our bodies distort the Wi-Fi signals we use to beam information to and from our laptops and phones. By watching those signals very closely, the team could determine not just what room you're in, but where you're standing and how you're moving your body. They call the system WiSee.

"By analyzing the variations of these signals over time, we can enable full-body gestures that go beyond simple hand motions," said Qifan Pu, a visiting student and one of the team at UW, in a video outlining the work.

That's no easy task: the "doppler effect" that our bodies have on the wavelength and path of the Wi-Fi signals is miniscule, meaning reliable measurement with consumer-grade hardware is difficult. But the WiSee team's expertise worked it out.

Once the sensing process was rigged up, the group combined the gesture recognition with store-bought home automation devices that wirelessly control lights, media players, thermostats, etc. Soon, they were using WiSee to perform simple tasks like playing a song or changing channels.

The system is also capable of tracking people as they wander through rooms or out of the house, turning off lights or adjusting music volume depending on their location.

The team put together a prototype piece of hardware to demonstrate WiSee, but any modern Wi-Fi router should do the trick, too, with a bit of custom software. With no special devices to buy, this could be the cheapest gesture-recognition tech yet.

Don't worry about anyone installing it surreptitiously on your router, though: It takes a bit of expertise and some specific "training" of the software before it can recognize anything at all, much less specific gestures or locations.

PhD student Sidhant Gupta and assistant professor Shwetak Patel, also on the project, have worked with Microsoft Research on similar body-tracking systems, but using soundwaves or radiation from electrical wires as the medium.

WiSee is currently in the proof-of-concept stage, but the creators hope to present it at the International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking in Miami later this year.
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« Reply #45 on: June 05, 2013, 03:16:50 pm »

Quote
Don't worry about anyone installing it surreptitiously on your router, though: It takes a bit of expertise and some specific "training" of the software before it can recognize anything at all, much less specific gestures or locations.

So basically, only the "experts" have it, and are using it.

The biggest hurdle to law enforcement in "keeping the peace", is not knowing what people are doing in the privacy of their homes. And they go to great lengths to get inside your home without a warrant, always looking for something they can deem legal that will allow access. But who says which person is following the law? They expect the public to "trust" them, that officials will follow the law and not abuse technology.

What a joke. It's the world! It's evil and corrupt, and they will ultimately try to do whatever they can to gain an advantage for the benefit of themselves, regardless of what affect it may have on the person targeted, like say the IRS!

I noticed the hard move to push WIFI back several years ago. Seems like it really got amped up back in maybe 2005 when it started to become obvious. In the last 2-3 years, especially the last year and a half or so, the push has been out of control. Now everybody is pitching it, and notice how it's being tied to the new vehicles as well.

Put together a list of things one might want if they were trying to get the masses "jacked in" to the global system. How do you sell it to people? In the so-called "free market", the buying public doesn't have to buy a game console, or a tablet, or a shiny new "smart tv that is internet-ready with WIFI, but the world caters to the lusts of the flesh, and people end up feeling they must have it to be a part of society, so they don't get "left behind".

How ironic they use that phrase to pressure people through guilt to get the public on the globalist bandwagon. The wicked are the ones that will be left behind!

Why? Because they simply cannot keep a simple commandment, "Thou shalt not covet...nor any thing that is thy neighbor's".
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« Reply #46 on: June 16, 2013, 10:10:05 am »

http://news.yahoo.com/rare-interview-dick-cheney-champions-nsa-surveillance-100827532.html
In Rare Interview, Dick Cheney Champions NSA Surveillance
6/16/13

Sunday show obsessives got a bit of a Father's Day treat on Sunday: Dick Cheney on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace to talk about, among other things, the NSA data collection program. In something of a Greatest Hits interview, the former vice president threw everything he has behind government surveillance. And, despite looking a bit rusty when his cell phone went off on air, he's still got it.

The interview kicked off with Cheney, who was introduced by Wallace as "the driving force behind increased government surveillance" in the Bush administration, calling leaker Edward Snowden a "traitor," and insinuating that he may have had help from within the NSA. Asked if Snowden was spying on behalf of China, the former vice president said he was "deeply suspicious," and that the U.S. will "need to be really aggressive" with China to extradite Snowden.

Cheney also pushed aside Sen. Rand Paul's reservations about the NSA program that he made on Fox News Sunday last week. When asked why the NSA has to "vacuum up" information on ordinary citizens, Cheney laughed off the suggestion, saying that "it's just a big bag of numbers that has been collected." And, getting right into the swing of being back defending government surveillance, Cheney slipped into the first-person plural: "The allegation is not that we get all this personal information on Aunt Fanny or Chris Wallace, that's not the way it works." Cheney also took some ownership—or at least authorship—of the data-collection, saying that he "worked with [former Director of National Intelligence] Mike Hayden when we set this program up."

And while the former vice-president had many nice things to say about the "fine" men leading the NSA, he had no kind words for the president. "I don't pay attention, frankly, to a lot of what Barack Obama says...I'm obviously not a fan." He also said that President Obama is "dead wrong" in suggesting that the War on Terror is winding down, and that "in terms of credibility, I don't think he has credibility."

And, just for good measure, Cheney threw in his two cents on the IRS scandal: "One of the worst abuses of power imaginable."

If Cheney wasn't enough for your Father's Day morning, you were in luck. As the former vice-president exited, Karl Rove entered the show's panel to talk Syria. Because what better way is there to spend Father's Day than to pretend it's still 2005.
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« Reply #47 on: June 17, 2013, 03:02:11 am »

That creature Cheney is still alive?  Roll Eyes

And he's calling Snowden a traitor? Speaking of traitors!

Quote
When asked why the NSA has to "vacuum up" information on ordinary citizens, Cheney laughed off the suggestion, saying that "it's just a big bag of numbers that has been collected." And, getting right into the swing of being back defending government surveillance, Cheney slipped into the first-person plural: "The allegation is not that we get all this personal information on Aunt Fanny or Chris Wallace, that's not the way it works." Cheney also took some ownership—or at least authorship—of the data-collection, saying that he "worked with [former Director of National Intelligence] Mike Hayden when we set this program up."

Classic indifference Cheney! People are just "a big bag of numbers"? I expect no less from such a wicked person.

Quote
Cheney threw in his two cents on the IRS scandal: "One of the worst abuses of power imaginable."

My translation: "One of the worst cases of government idiots getting caught. I thought we taught them better than that".
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« Reply #48 on: June 26, 2013, 06:40:30 am »

Sweeping Obama Program Urges Federal Workers to Inform on Each Other



Even before former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden revealed the extent of the government's secret surveillance programs, the Obama administration had ordered government employees to keep tabs on their fellow workers and report those who might be a security threat.

President Barack Obama launched what is known as the Insider Threat Program in October 2011, after Army Pfc. Bradley Manning downloaded hundreds of thousands of documents from a classified computer network and sent them to WikiLeaks, according to McClatchy Newspapers, which reviewed government documents related to the initiative.

When White House spokesman Jan Carney was asked Monday about the program, detailed by McClatchy last week, he said, "I confess I didn't see the story, I'll have to take the question," reports Fox News.

According to McClatchy, the "unprecedented initiative" has not received much public attention "even though it extends beyond the U.S. national security bureaucracies to most federal departments and agencies nationwide, including the Peace Corps, the Social Security Administration and the Education and Agriculture departments."

"It emphasizes leaks of classified material, but catchall definitions of 'insider threat' give agencies latitude to pursue and penalize a range of other conduct," said the newspaper, adding that the documents "show how millions of federal employees and contractors must watch for 'high-risk persons or behaviors' among co-workers and could face penalties, including criminal charges, for failing to report them."

"Leaks to the media are equated with espionage," it continued, pointing to a June 1, 2012, Defense Department strategy for the program that read, “Hammer this fact home … leaking is tantamount to aiding the enemies of the United States."

McClatchy cites concerns by former and current officials that the program "could make it easier for the government to stifle the flow of unclassified and potentially vital information to the public, while creating toxic work environments poisoned by unfounded suspicions and spurious investigations of loyal Americans."

"Some non-intelligence agencies already are urging employees to watch their co-workers for ‘indicators’ that include stress, divorce and financial problems," McClatchy reported.
 
"It was just a matter of time before the Department of Agriculture or the FDA started implementing, 'Hey, let's get people to snitch on their friends.' The only thing they haven't done here is reward it," said Kel McClanahan, a Washington lawyer specializing in national security law.


 http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/surveillance-insider-threat-obama/2013/06/25/id/511760#ixzz2XJzpxPbn
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« Reply #49 on: June 26, 2013, 12:39:54 pm »

Quote
"Leaks to the media are equated with espionage," it continued, pointing to a June 1, 2012, Defense Department strategy for the program that read, “Hammer this fact home … leaking is tantamount to aiding the enemies of the United States."

That depends on what is leaked that the government considers classified. Something illegal going on is not something that retains the right to be classified. The only people who want to withhold disclosure of illegal programs are the people who are trying to undermine the US government.

Interesting how they call it treason, when the very acts they are trying to hide is treason itself!
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« Reply #50 on: July 05, 2013, 02:09:17 pm »

Commit any felonies lately?


Elizabeth Daly went to jail over a case of bottled water.

According to the Charlottesville Daily Progress, shortly after 10 p.m. April 11, the University of Virginia student bought ice cream, cookie dough and a carton of LaCroix sparkling water from the Harris Teeter grocery store at the popular Barracks Road Shopping Center. In the parking lot, a half-dozen men and a woman approached her car, flashing some kind of badges. One jumped on the hood. Another drew a gun. Others started trying to break the windows.

Daly understandably panicked. With her roommate in the passenger seat yelling “Go, go, go!” Daly drove off, hoping to reach the nearest police station. The women dialed 911. Then a vehicle with lights and sirens pulled them over, and the situation clarified: The people who had swarmed Daly’s vehicle were plainclothes agents of the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. The agents had thought the sparkling water was a 12-pack of beer.

Did the ABC’s enforcers apologize? Not in the slightest. They charged Daly with three felonies: two for assaulting an officer (her vehicle had grazed two agents; neither was hurt) and one for eluding the police. Last week, the commonwealth’s attorney dropped the charges.

The agents’ excessive display of force is outrageously disproportionate to the offense they mistakenly thought they witnessed: an underage purchase of alcohol. But in a sense, Daly got off easy. A couple of weeks after her ordeal, a 61-year-old man in Tennessee was killed when the police executed a drug raid on the wrong house. A few weeks later, in another wrong-house raid, police officers killed a dog belonging to an Army veteran. These are not isolated incidents; for more information, visit the interactive map at www.cato.org/raidmap.

They are, however, part and parcel of two broader phenomena. One is the militarization of domestic law enforcement. In recent years, police departments have widely adopted military tactics, military equipment (armored personnel carriers, flash-bang grenades) — and, sometimes, the mindset of military conquerors rather than domestic peacekeepers.

The other phenomenon is the increasing degree to which civilians are subject to criminal prosecution for noncriminal acts, including exercising the constitutionally protected right to free speech.

Last week, A.J. Marin was arrested in Harrisburg, Pa., for writing in chalk on the sidewalk. Marin was participating in a health care demonstration outside Gov. Tom Corbett’s residence when he wrote, “Governor Corbett has health insurance, we should too.” Authorities charged Marin with writing “a derogatory remark about the governor on the sidewalk.” The horror.

This follows the case of Jeff Olson, who chalked messages such as “Stop big banks” outside branches of Bank of America last year. Law professor Jonathan Turley reports that prosecutors brought 13 vandalism charges against him. Moreover, the judge in the case recently prohibited Olson’s attorney from “mentioning the First Amendment, free speech,” or anything like them during the trial.

In May, a Texas woman was arrested for asking to see a warrant for the arrest of her 11-year-old son. “She spent the night in jail while her son was left at home,” reports Fox34 News. The son never was arrested. Also in Texas, Justin Carter has spent months in jail — and faces eight years more — for making an admittedly atrocious joke about shooting up a school in an online chat. Though he was plainly kidding, authorities charged him with making a terrorist threat.

Federal prosecutors also recently used an anti-terrorism measure to seize almost $70,000 from the owners of a Maryland dairy. Randy and Karen Sowers had made several bank deposits of just under $10,000 to avoid the headache of filing federal reports required for sums over that amount. The feds charged them with unlawful “structuring.” Last week, they settled the case. Authorities kept half their money to teach them a lesson.

“I broke the law yesterday,” writes George Mason economics professor Alex Tabarrok, “and I probably will break the law tomorrow. Don’t mistake me, I have done nothing wrong. I don’t even know what laws I have broken. … It’s hard for anyone to live today without breaking the law. Doubt me? Have you ever thrown out some junk mail that … was addressed to someone else? That’s a violation of federal law punishable by up to five years in prison.” Tabarrok notes that lawyer Harvey Silverglate thinks the typical American commits “Three Felonies a Day” — the title of Silverglate’s book on the subject.

As The Wall Street Journal has reported, lawmakers in Washington have greatly eroded the notion of mens rea — the principle that you need criminal intent in order to commit a crime. Thanks to a proliferating number of obscure offenses, Americans now resemble the condemned souls in Jonathan Edwards’ “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” — spared from perdition only by the temporary forbearance of those who sit in judgment.

“What once might have been considered simply a mistake,” The Journal explains, is now “punishable by jail time.” And as 20-year-old Elizabeth Daly has now learned, you can go to jail even when the person making the mistake wasn’t you.

http://www.timesdispatch.com/opinion/our-opinion/columnists-blogs/bart-hinkle/hinkle-commit-any-felonies-lately/article_58344fc1-7d4f-584a-8d16-36a1b1f2cdc0.html
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« Reply #51 on: July 12, 2013, 04:52:29 am »

Well, like everyone else, went through airport security going and coming from India over the last week. India was different b/c their focus is on the threats of Pakistan.

But aside from that, just couldn't tell you how much of a JOKE it is in the West. Since we left India, we all continued to remain WITHIN the confines of the airports(ie-never left outside beyond TSA et al). But we were STILL required to go through TSA at every place.

Went through it in Amsterdam even AFTER we spent the night in THEIR airport hotel, then when we got to Detroit and even AFTER going through customs baggage claims, we went through TSA *again*. Again, we REMAINED in the confines of the airports ALL THROUGHOUT.

Anyone that goes through this just HAS to be thinking..."What is the POINT of all this?". Roll Eyes
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« Reply #52 on: July 12, 2013, 04:57:44 am »

Quote
This follows the case of Jeff Olson, who chalked messages such as “Stop big banks” outside branches of Bank of America last year. Law professor Jonathan Turley reports that prosecutors brought 13 vandalism charges against him. Moreover, the judge in the case recently prohibited Olson’s attorney from “mentioning the First Amendment, free speech,” or anything like them during the trial.

You can't use the law as a defense? WOW! Though I know why, I still ask how it is that these judges are still on the bench! That clown should be brought up on charges and pulled from the court.

Quote
Anyone that goes through this just HAS to be thinking..."What is the POINT of all this?". Roll Eyes

Tracking and monitoring of the public. Nothing else.
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« Reply #53 on: July 12, 2013, 10:12:44 pm »

Did you know John Roberts is also chief justice of the NSA’s surveillance state?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/07/05/did-you-know-john-roberts-is-also-chief-justice-of-the-nsas-surveillance-state/
7/5/13

Chief justice of the United States is a pretty big job. You lead the Supreme Court conferences where cases are discussed and voted on. You preside over oral arguments. When in the majority, you decide who writes the opinion. You get a cool robe that you can decorate with awesome gold stripes.

Oh, and one more thing: You have exclusive, unaccountable, lifetime power to shape the surveillance state.

To use its surveillance powers — tapping phones or reading e-mails — the federal government must ask permission of the court set up by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. A FISA judge can deny the request or force the government to limit the scope of its investigation. It’s the only plausible check in the system. Whether it actually checks government surveillance power or acts as a rubber stamp is up to whichever FISA judge presides that day.

The 11 FISA judges, chosen from throughout the federal bench for seven-year terms, are all appointed by the chief justice. In fact, every FISA judge currently serving was appointed by Roberts, who will continue making such appointments until he retires or dies. FISA judges don’t need confirmation — by Congress or anyone else.

No other part of U.S. law works this way. The chief justice can’t choose the judges who rule on health law, or preside over labor cases, or decide software patents. But when it comes to surveillance, the composition of the bench is entirely in his hands, and, as a result, so is the extent to which the National Security Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation can spy on citizens.

“It really is up to these FISA judges to decide what the law means and what the NSA and FBI gets to do,” said Julian Sanchez, a privacy scholar at the Cato Institute. “So Roberts is single-handedly choosing the people who get to decide how much surveillance we’re subject to.”

There’s little evidence that this is a power Roberts particularly wants. Tom Clancy, a professor at the University of Mississippi School of Law, has analyzed Roberts’s record on surveillance issues and been impressed mostly by how little interest in them Roberts displays. The chief justice doesn’t push the Supreme Court to take cases related to surveillance powers, and when such cases do come up, he tends to let another justice write the opinion. “He does not have much of a record in this area at all,” Clancy said.

To the degree Roberts’s views can be divined, he leans toward giving the government the authority it says it needs. “He’s been very state-oriented,” Clancy said. “He’s done very little writing in the area, but to the extent he has, almost without exception, he’s come down in favor of the police.”

Roberts’s nominations to the FISA court are almost exclusively Republican. One of his first appointees, for instance, was Federal District Judge Roger Vinson of Florida, who not only struck down the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate but the rest of the law, too. (The Supreme Court disagreed.) Vinson’s term expired in May, but the partisan tilt on the court continues: Only one of the 11 members is a Democrat.

Critics contend the FISA court is too compromised to conduct genuine oversight. It meets in secret, and the presiding judge hears only the government’s argument before issuing a decision that can’t be appealed or even reviewed by the public. “Like any other group that meets in secret behind closed doors with only one constituency appearing before them, they’re subject to capture and bias,” said Elizabeth Goitein, co-director of the Brennan Center for Justice’s Liberty and National Security Program.

A Reuters investigation found that from 2001 to 2012, FISA judges approved 20,909 surveillance and property search warrants while rejecting only 10. Almost 1,000 of the approved requests required modification, and 26 were withdrawn by the government before a ruling. That’s a startling win rate for the government.

Perhaps the federal government is simply very judicious in invoking its surveillance authority. But it’s also possible that empowering the chief justice — especially one with an expansive view of state police powers — to appoint every FISA judge has created a tilted court. That’s probable even if the chief justice has been conscientious in his selections.

Harvard Law School professor and Bloomberg View columnist Cass R. Sunstein has found that judges are more ideologically rigid when their fellow judges are from the same party, and more moderate when fellow judges are from the other party. “Federal judges (no less than the rest of us) are subject to group polarization,” he wrote.

The FISA court is composed of federal judges. All are appointed by the same man. All but one hail from the same political party. And unlike judges in normal courts, FISA judges don’t hear opposing testimony or feel pressure from colleagues or the public to moderate their rulings. Under these circumstances, group polarization is almost a certainty. “There’s the real possibility that these judges become more extreme over time, even when they had only a mild bias to begin with,” Cato’s Sanchez said.

Just as the likelihood of polarization in the FISA court is more pronounced than in normal courts, the stakes are also higher. If trial judges are unduly biased, their rulings can be overturned on appeal. But FISA judges decide the momentous questions of whom the government may spy on and how. Their power is awesome, and their word is final. As the great legal scholar Kanye West said, no one man should have all that power.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And keep in mind that John Roberts is a Roman Catholic.
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« Reply #54 on: July 15, 2013, 01:26:31 am »

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/07/14/19471066-senior-gop-leader-says-us-must-step-up-efforts-to-get-snowden?lite
7/14/13
Senior GOP leader says U.S. must step up efforts to get Snowden

WASHINGTON — A key congressional Republican said on Sunday that the Obama administration must step up efforts and exert "any and all pressure" on Russia to get it to hand over Edward Snowden, the former U.S. spy agency contractor turned fugitive leaker.

"I'm sure Russia loves this," Representative Michael McCaul, chairman of the House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee, said of the Snowden drama that has opened the United States to international criticism.

McCaul told "Fox News Sunday" that the Russians are "making a mockery" of U.S. foreign policy, and, "I'm sure every day, they're extracting more and more information from this man."

Snowden, a former contractor with the National Security Agency, released previously secret documents revealing details of U.S. telephone and internet surveillance programs as part of counterterrorism efforts.

He has been stranded at a Moscow airport since late last month. He broke three weeks of silence on Friday and said he wanted asylum in Russia until he can go to Latin America.

Washington has asked Moscow to return Snowden to the United States where he is wanted on espionage charges but has not been able to get him.

McCaul described the showdown as "a test of our foreign policy," and, he said, "I would give the administration low marks for what they've done so far."

"We should be putting any and all pressure we have - economic, trade," on Russia to get Snowden, McCaul said.

McCaul said that the administration has failed to develop an acceptable relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"It's not working," McCaul said. "They're thumbing their nose at the United States."
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« Reply #55 on: July 15, 2013, 06:45:40 am »

Obama's Signs Executive Action: If a Child 'Confesses' to a Pediatrician that Mommy & Daddy Have a Gun in the House, Feds Can Disarm Parents…
June 25, 2013.

(By Michael Connelly, Constitutional Attorney) -- I have written extensively about the horrendous and ongoing efforts by the Veterans Administration to disarm American military veterans by declaring them incompetent to handle their financial affairs due to physical or mental disabilities. Once declared incompetent the veterans are arbitrarily stripped of their Second Amendment right to purchase, own, or possess a firearm.

This is all being done by broadening the definition of mental illness to the point of absurdity. Often with the VA there is no psychiatrist or psychologist involved in the determination of incompetence. Instead, some untrained bureaucrat reviews the file of the veteran and if they find any mention of PTSD or the use of the word depression they seize on that and make the declaration of incompetence. There is no legal adjudication process involved in this; the veterans have no right to due process as required by the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. It is tyranny in its purest form.

Unfortunately, what the VA is doing is not new. The use of phony psychiatry has been a weapon of tyranny for decades. In dictatorships like Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, Cuba, and China people who opposed the regime would be declared mentally ill and placed in psychiatric hospitals or internment camps. That way no charges had to be filed and no evidence offered that an individual had committed a crime.

For the Nazis it was initially a perfect way to deal with the Jews and other groups that they considered sub human. If you were Jewish you had to mentally defective and therefor you could be put in a hospital and experimented on. It was the beginning of the holocaust. In the Soviet Union anyone who was not a devout supporter of Communism was held in an institution and then often sent on to the Gulag where they could be worked and starved to death.

We have certainly not reached that point in the United States, but we have reached the point where the basic premise is the same. The VA is using declarations of mental illness to disarm veterans and there have been reports of states like California doing the same. If it happening to veterans now how long will it be before it starts happening to other American citizens?

Consider this; soon those stalwarts of integrity who run the IRS will have access to the medical records of every American. They will be able to review them to see if you have ever told a doctor that you were depressed, ever suffered from PTSD after the loss of a loved one or from being in an accident, or even suffered from some minor memory loss. Based on the criteria being used by the VA the IRS could declare you mentally defective and put you on the list of people that can’t legally purchase or own firearms.

You also have to consider the fact that one of the 23 so called executive actions on gun control Obama recently signed called for doctors to ask their patients if they owned a firearm. This is not just directed at psychiatrists, but at all physicians including pediatricians. In other words, if your child confesses that Mommy and Daddy have a gun in the house that could conceivably be considered the actions of mentally defective individuals and you could be disarmed. Once we are disarmed we cease to be citizens and become subjects.

http://www.redflagnews.com/headlines/psychiatry-as-a-weapon-of-tyranny-by-michael-connelly-constitutional-attorney
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« Reply #56 on: July 15, 2013, 04:33:25 pm »

I get the guy's point, but he's being a bit sensational, and a bit dishonest.

The following statement is not true. What he doesn't mention is that veterans do in fact have a process to be considered no longer mentally incompetent. The problem with this whole deal is like he says, these people are labeled as such with no bonafide professional mental evaluation made. They shouldn't be forced to prove they are not mental after the fact. That's guilty till proven innocent.

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There is no legal adjudication process involved in this; the veterans have no right to due process as required by the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. It is tyranny in its purest form.
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« Reply #57 on: July 17, 2013, 10:17:24 am »

Driving somewhere? There's a gov't record of that

Chances are, your local or state police departments have photographs of your car in their files, noting where you were driving on a particular day, even if you never did anything wrong.

Using automated scanners, law enforcement agencies across the country have amassed millions of digital records on the location and movement of every vehicle with a license plate, according to a study published Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union. Affixed to police cars, bridges or buildings, the scanners capture images of passing or parked vehicles and note their location, uploading that information into police databases. Departments keep the records for weeks or years, sometimes indefinitely.

As the technology becomes cheaper and more ubiquitous, and federal grants focus on aiding local terrorist detection, even small police agencies are able to deploy more sophisticated surveillance systems. While the Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that a judge's approval is needed to track a car with GPS, networks of plate scanners allow police effectively to track a driver's location, sometimes several times every day, with few legal restrictions. The ACLU says the scanners assemble what it calls a "single, high-resolution image of our lives."

"There's just a fundamental question of whether we're going to live in a society where these dragnet surveillance systems become routine," said Catherine Crump, a staff attorney with the ACLU. The civil rights group is proposing that police departments immediately delete any records of cars not linked to a crime.

Law enforcement officials said the scanners can be crucial to tracking suspicious cars, aiding drug busts and finding abducted children. License plate scanners also can be efficient. The state of Maryland told the ACLU that troopers could "maintain a normal patrol stance" while capturing up to 7,000 license plate images in a single eight hour shift.

"At a time of fiscal and budget constraints, we need better assistance for law enforcement," said Harvey Eisenberg, chief of the national security section and assistant U.S. attorney in Maryland.

Law enforcement officials also point out that the technology is legal in most cases, automating a practice that's been done for years. The ACLU found that only five states have laws governing license plate readers. New Hampshire, for example, bans the technology except in narrow circumstances, while Maine and Arkansas limit how long plate information can be stored.

"There's no expectation of privacy" for a vehicle driving on a public road or parked in a public place, said Lt. Bill Hedgpeth, a spokesman for the Mesquite Police Department in Texas, which has records stretching back to 2008, although the city plans next month to begin deleting files older than two years. "It's just a vehicle. It's just a license plate."

In Yonkers, N.Y., just north of the Bronx, police said retaining the information indefinitely helps detectives solve future crimes. In a statement, the department said it uses license plate readers as a "reactive investigative tool" that is only accessed if detectives are looking for a particular vehicle in connection to a crime.

"These plate readers are not intended nor used to follow the movements of members of the public," the department's statement said.

But even if law enforcement officials say they don't want a public location tracking system, the records add up quickly. In Jersey City, N.J., for example, the population is only 250,000 but the city collected more than 2 million plate images on file. Because the city keeps records for five years, the ACLU estimates that it has some 10 million on file, making it possible for police to plot the movements of most residents depending upon the number and location of the scanners, according to the ACLU.

The ACLU study, based on 26,000 pages of responses from 293 police departments and state agencies across the country, also found that license plate scanners produced a small fraction of "hits," or alerts to police that a suspicious vehicle has been found. In Maryland, for example, the state reported reading about 29 million plates between January and May of last year. Of that amount, about 60,000 — or roughly 1 in every 500 license plates — were suspicious. The No. 1 crime? A suspended or revoked registration, or a violation of the state's emissions inspection program accounted for 97 percent of all alerts.

Eisenberg, the assistant U.S. attorney, said the numbers "fail to show the real qualitative assistance to public safety and law enforcement." He points to the 132 wanted suspects the program helped track. They were a small fraction of the 29 million plates read, but he said tracking those suspects can be critical to keeping an area safe.

Also, he said, Maryland has rules in place restricting access for criminal investigations only. Most records are retained for one year in Maryland, and the state's privacy policies are reviewed by an independent board, Eisenberg noted.

At least in Maryland, "there are checks, and there are balances," he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/driving-somewhere-theres-govt-record-140052644.html
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« Reply #58 on: July 18, 2013, 05:37:09 am »

10 Ways That The Iron Grip Of The Big Brother Prison Grid Is Tightening On All Of Our Lives

Do you ever feel trapped in an invisible control grid that is slowly but surely closing in all around you?  Do you ever feel like virtually everything that you do is being watched, tracked, monitored and recorded?  If so, unfortunately it is not just your imagination.  Our society is rapidly being transformed into a Big Brother prison grid by a government that is seemingly obsessed with knowing everything that we do.  They want a record of all of our phone calls, all of our Internet activity and all of our financial transactions.  They even want our DNA.  They put chips in our passports, they are starting to scan the eyes of our children in our schools, and they have declared our border areas to be “Constitution-free zones” where they can do just about anything to us that they want.  The Bill of Rights has already been eroded so badly that many would argue that it is already dead.  The assault against our most basic freedoms and liberties never seems to end.  The following are 10 ways that the iron grip of the Big Brother prison grid is tightening on all of our lives…

#1 Automated License Plate Scanners

All over the United States automated license plate scanners are being installed.  Sometimes they are mounted on police vehicles, and other times they are put on stationary locations like bridges and road signs.  These automated license plate scanners are collecting a staggering amount of information about the travel patterns of millions of innocent American citizens every single day…

    Police are recording and storing information on millions of license plates that aren’t related to suspected violation of the law or any known activity of interest to law enforcement, according to data collected by the American Civil Liberties Union through Freedom of Information requests in 38 states.

According to the Washington Post, automated license plate scanners recorded the locations of vehicle plates 85 million times in the state of Maryland in 2012.

And as more of these scanners get installed around the nation, the amount of information that the government collects about the movements of our vehicles will continue to increase.

#2 Government Workers Ordered To Spy On The “Lifestyles, Attitudes And Behaviors” Of Their Fellow Workers

Did you know that the Obama administration has ordered federal workers to spy on one another?…

    Federal employees and contractors are asked to pay particular attention to the lifestyles, attitudes and behaviors – like financial troubles, odd working hours or unexplained travel – of co-workers as a way to predict whether they might do “harm to the United States.” Managers of special insider threat offices will have “regular, timely, and, if possible, electronic, access” to employees’ personnel, payroll, disciplinary and “personal contact” files, as well as records of their use of classified and unclassified computer networks, polygraph results, travel reports and financial disclosure forms.

If you do not spy on your fellow workers and something goes wrong, you could lose your job or potentially even be prosecuted yourself.

#3 Eye Scanners In Our Schools

According to CNN, iris scanners are already going into schools all over the country, and soon they will be used in banks, at airports and at ATM machines…

    In the next year, industry insiders say the technology will be available all over– from banks to airports. That means instead of entering your pin number, you can gain access to an ATM in a blink. Used in an airport, the system will analyze your iris as you pass through security, identifying and welcoming you by name.

Will we soon live in a world where we no longer use passwords and instead use our eyeballs?…

    “Imagine a world where you’re no longer reliant on user names and passwords,” Eyelock CMO Anthony Antolino told CNNMoney. “If we’re going through a turnstile and you have authorization to go beyond that, it’ll open the turnstile for you, if you embed it into a tablet or PC, it will unlock your phone or your tablet or it will log you into your email account.”

#4 Biometric Chips In Our Passports

Did you know that all U.S. passports contain biometric identity chips?  The following is from a recent CNSNews.com article…

    According to the website, the Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act of 2002 required foreigners participating in the Visa Waiver Program–which permits entry into the United States without a VISA for a limited period of time–to have these integrated circuits or chips on their passport.

    “As a security measure, Congress has legislated that all countries participating in the Visa Waiver Program with the United States must issue passports with integrated circuits (chips), to permit storage of at least a digital image of the passport photograph for use with face recognition technology,” the website states.

    The website also says that since 2007 the State Department has been issuing U.S. passports bearing the chips. The department did this on its own authority, and not in response to any statutory mandate enacted by Congress.

#5 All Your Financial Transactions Tracked By The Government?

Most Americans have never even heard of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, but one U.S. Senator is warning that this agency wants to keep a record of all of your financial transactions…

    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is looking to create a “Google Earth” of every financial transaction of every American, Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY) warned today in a Senate speech opposing confirmation of Richard Cordray as CFPB director.

    “This bill (creating the CFPB) was supposed to be about regulating Wall Street. Instead, it’s creating a Google Earth on every financial transaction. That’s right: the government will be able to see every detail of your finances. Your permission – not needed,” Sen. Enzi said.

#6 Complaining About The Tap Water Makes You A Terrorist?


Have you ever complained about the water?

If so, you might be a terrorist.

The following is a brief excerpt from a recent article by Anthony Gucciardi…

    Concerned about the high levels of arsenic in your water, or perhaps the known levels of radioactive contamination? Well you must be a terrorist, according to the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) and Homeland Security, who consider issuing such complaints to be classified under terrorist activity.

    It all started when Tennessee residents in Maury County recorded an exchange with the deputy director from the state’s environmental entity TDEC, who issued a warning that complaining about low quality tap water could put you in Guantanamo.

#7 DNA Databases


The United States already has a database that contains the DNA of approximately 11 million criminals…

    The biggest database is in the United States — the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS, which holds information on more than 11 million people suspected of or convicted of crimes.

    It is set to grow following a May Supreme Court ruling that upheld the right of police forces to take DNA swabs without a warrant from people who are arrested, not just those who are convicted. (Policies on DNA collection vary by state; more than half of the states and the federal government currently take DNA swabs after arrests.)

But of course authorities will never be satisfied until they have all of our DNA.  And we are definitely moving in that direction.  The following comes from my recent article entitled “The Coming National DNA Database“…

    A national DNA database is coming.  Barack Obama has already said that he wants one.  A major Supreme Court decision last month paved the way for one.  The DNA of those that commit “serious crimes” is already being routinely collected all over the nation.  Some states (such as New Jersey) are now passing laws that will require DNA collection from those charged with committing “low level crimes”.  And a law that was passed under George W. Bush allows the federal government to screen the DNA of all newborn babies in the United States.  So how long will it be before we are all required to give DNA samples to the authorities?

#8 Copying Your Hard Drive At The Border

How would you feel if you went to cross the U.S. border and officials grabbed your computer and made a copy of the hard drive?

As incredible as that sounds, it is happening all the time.  As I wrote about recently, if they do take your computer, you might not get it back for an extended period of time…

    Two years ago The Constitution Project issued a report on the issue, “Suspicionless Border Searches of Electronic Devices: Legal and Privacy Concerns with the Department of Homeland Security’s Policy.”

    The group explained: Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement “officers may detain electronic devices for significant periods of time. For CBP, detentions can be extended well beyond the minimum five-day guideline with supervisory approval. If the device is detained by ICE, the detention can last for ‘a reasonable time,’ which according to its Directive can last 30 days or more.” Neither agency sets any firm time limit.

#9 NSA Snooping

Thanks to Edward Snowden, we now know much more about NSA snooping.  Sadly, the NSA seems to want to collect every piece of data about everyone in the world that they possibly can.

And right now the NSA is building a place to store all of that data.  It is being constructed out in Utah, and it will be the largest data center in the history of the world.  It is going to have approximately a million square feet of storage space, it is going to cost nearly 2 billion dollars to build, and it is going to take about 40 million dollars a year just to pay for the energy needed to run it.  For much more on this, please see my previous article entitled “21 Facts About NSA Snooping That Every American Should Know“.

#10 Obama Now Has The Power To Seize Control Of The Internet?

Why does Barack Obama keep releasing very important executive orders very late on Friday afternoons?

Is he trying to sneak things through that nobody will notice?

For example, it is being reported that Barack Obama has just signed an executive order that will allow him to seize control of the Internet during a national emergency…

    Another late-Friday afternoon release from the White House — this one on how agencies should communicate with the public in emergencies — has Internet privacy advocates crying foul over a possible power grab.

    The executive order — “Assignment of National Security and Emergency Preparedness Communications Functions” — was released last Friday in the late afternoon.

This executive order is apparently worded so vaguely that it would allow Obama to do just about anything he wanted to as far as the Internet is concerned…

    Essentially, it says the government can take control of private telecommunications technology, presumably including those used for the Internet, for government communications in an emergency.

    “Under the Executive Order the White House has … granted the Department [of Homeland Security] the authority to seize private facilities when necessary, effectively shutting down or limiting civilian communications,” wrote the Electronic Privacy Information Center in a blog post.

Are you alarmed by all of this?

You should be.

Sadly, most Americans don’t even realize what is going on.  Most Americans are just working really hard to make it in this very difficult economic environment, and when they turn on their televisions the mainstream media doesn’t warn them that they are rapidly losing their freedoms and liberties.

Please share this article with as many people as you can.  We need people to get educated about what is happening.  What we are experiencing right now is kind of like “death by a thousand paper cuts”.  The Big Brother control grid is closing in on us in hundreds of different ways, but it is often happening so gradually that people don’t really feel it.

http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/10-ways-that-the-iron-grip-of-the-big-brother-prison-grid-is-tightening-on-all-of-our-lives
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« Reply #59 on: July 19, 2013, 10:46:35 am »

License plate data not just for cops: Private companies are tracking your car
7/19/13
http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/07/19/19548772-license-plate-data-not-just-for-cops-private-companies-are-tracking-your-car?lite

License plate recognition technology developed for law enforcement and embraced by the auto repossession industry is being opened to wider use through a Florida company that lets its clients track the travels of millions of private vehicles – adding to privacy advocates’ concerns that such data could be used improperly.

TLO, an investigative technology company in Boca Raton, Fla., began offering the search service to its private industry clients in late June, saying it taps into a database of more than 1 billion records collected by automatic license plate readers.

A report earlier this week by the ACLU found that U.S. law enforcement agencies are scooping up droves of data using license plate readers, creating massive databases where more than 99 percent of the entries represent innocent people.

But private industry also has put the technology to work, most prominently in recovering vehicles from deadbeat borrowers. As the new TLO service demonstrates, private use of LPR data for other purposes is expanding rapidly.

It’s unclear who runs the database that TLO taps into, but the two leading companies in the field say that each month their databases collect tens of millions of pieces of geo-located information from thousands of license plate readers, mounted on tow trucks, mall security vehicles, police cars, at the entrances to store parking lots, on toll booths or along city streets and highways.

The data can include the location of the vehicle, the date and time it was spotted, and an image. Sometimes, drivers and passengers appear in the images.

“The prospect of a private company making such data public to all comers is scary,” said Catherine Crump, an attorney with the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy and Technology Project. “This kind of information is particularly what stalkers would love to get their hands on.”

Crump, who wrote the ACLU report but said she had not been aware of TLO’s service, worried about privacy concerns with other possible uses, such as corporations tracking where their employees go after work, politicians scouting rivals or people keeping tabs on babysitters’ travels.

But those involved in amassing license plate databases say such fears are unfounded – and that data obtained via Facebook, Twitter or a person’s cellphone are far more intrusive.

“They can figure out who you date,” said Scott A. Jackson, founder and CEO of Illinois-based MVTRAC, which controls one of the two big private LPR databases in the U.S. “For us to figure out that information, it would take us billions and billions of license plates to get to that point. We’re at least 10 years away from that.”

Jackson also said companies that use MVTRAC’s camera systems and tap into its database go through rigorous background checks and vetting of computer security and personnel. He said that anyone who used MVTRAC’s database improperly could be violating three federal privacy laws.

Still, he said, the impetus is on companies like his to show that they use data properly.

“There’s no illegality whatsoever for me giving you data about a license plate. But as big data becomes exponential, society has a reasonable expectation that companies will handle themselves responsibly,” Jackson said. “I wouldn’t give this data to someone I don’t know – they might be a stalker.”

Similarly, Chris Metaxas, chief executive officer of Texas-based Digital Recognition Network, or DRN, which holds the other big private LPR database, said strict rules govern how such data is collected and used. He said that the ACLU’s concerns about how long LPR data is kept by law enforcement miss the point.

“The issue is really not about retention of data. The real issue is one of access control and effective policies” surrounding privacy and security, Metaxas said.

Metaxas said his company adheres to best practices laid out in federal driver’s privacy laws for access control, encryption and security of its data. DRN's data does not contain private information about individuals, he said.

“We do not retain any identifiable information related to owners of those license plates,” he said.

Jackson said that MVTRAC has expanded the use of its data beyond law enforcement and the repossession and insurance industries but that his company did not contract with TLO or have plans for a service like TLO’s.

When asked whether TLO used DRN’s database, Metaxas said he could not answer questions about possible clients.

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