You don't need me to tell you that the federal government was originally designed to be much smaller and much less powerful than it is today.  (Well... maybe some of you do.)  Certainly the founding fathers intended it to be far less intrusive and costly.  But today we have arrived at a point where the federal government micro-manages numerous little details, including a law — the Comprehensive Energy Policy Act of 1994 — requiring that new toilets use only 1.6 gallons per flush.  (As long as swimming pools are legal and golf courses are irrigated with drinking water, 1.6 gallon toilets should not be mandatory.)  Very gradually, more and more laws and regulatory agencies are being created, and one day even the most gullible citizen will wake up and realize that he is ruled by tyrants.

Subtopics on this or other pages:

Abuse of Power by Ordinary Cops
USA Patriot Act
Obamacare opens the door to tyranny
The Invasion of the Food Police
Domestic surveillance
The Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Act
Obama vs Gibson Guitar

Our Enemy, the Bureaucrat.  The emerging grassroots movement for smaller government presents an existential peril to bureaucrats — of which they are sharply aware.  Public sector unions have been Democrat bastions for years, of course.  What the Obama presidency has done is embolden federal worker bees to coordinate directly or indirectly with a president who wants hypergovernment.  Barack Obama is a pro-growth president — for Uncle Sam's bureaucrats.  Through the IRS scandal and the NSA phone records sweeps, federal bureaucrats are revealing themselves as enemies of the people [...]

Spying on Americans: the Legal Status of Emails.  This topic has several main issues.  At the top of the list is President Obama's outrageous statement that Americans may need to give up some freedom for security from terrorism.  The president has no right to decide what degree of freedom Americans can have.  The freedom Americans have is defined not by any one elected official but by the Constitution.  The Fourth Amendment of the Constitution has very precise language that directly applies to the NSA's seizure of personal information.

When government can't be trusted.  What has led to this distrust?  The Benghazi cover-up, the IRS fiasco, the Justice Department's monitoring of reporters, the commandeering of phone records of private citizens in the name of national security, "data mining," the so-called "kill list," drones with the power to spy and kill, the proliferation of surveillance cameras, DNA swabs after arrests, ObamaCare, unrestrained spending and unending debt.  This is the federal government encroaching on our civil liberties.  The federal government long ago exceeded its constitutional boundaries.

Mark Levin: The Constitution's Churchill.  Suddenly, awash in headlines about the abuses of the IRS, the Justice Department seizing the phone records of the Associated Press, monitoring the calls and emails of Fox correspondent James Rosen and now the "metadata" gathering activities of the National Security Agency — Levin's constant warnings of the dangers in ignoring the Constitution are gaining considerable traction with Americans well beyond his already huge radio audience.

How much more will Americans take?  The "fundamental transformation" of America proceeds apace.  The erosion of our freedoms and traditions, once incremental and barely perceptible, accelerates daily.  Armies of bureaucrats commanded by political ideologues remarkable mainly for their galactic incompetence intrude on ever more aspects of our lives — aspects both large and small.  They tell us what light bulbs we're allowed to use and how much water we may flush.  They stick swabs in our mouths to collect our DNA and order us to buy health insurance we don't want.  They can seize our land if they think they know how to use it better, or stop us from using our land because a favored amphibian might live there too.

A Little Wisdom from Benjamin Franklin.  [Scroll down]  Just like those unpleasant chaps in Orwell's 1984, the fact that we are now and apparently ever shall be on a war footing means that we are living in a state of perpetual emergency, which in turn means that he, the man in charge, can do pretty much whatever he wants to whomever he wants, and so can his minions. [...] Few people, I think, would deny that extraordinary situations call for extraordinary measures. [...] But what we have here is the fabrication of perpetual emergency in order to justify the unlimited and permanent expansion of of government power.  The other word for that process is tyranny.  It doesn't happen all at once.  But it's happening pretty fast.

"Justice is supposed to be blind, not stupid."
US snooping is slippery slope to abuse of civil liberties.  A Top Israeli security official zeroed in on the American system of airline security:  "You worry about what people are carrying.  In Israel we worry about who the people are." [...] The sweeping collection of data on private behavior is every bit as indiscriminate and flawed as the airport-screening system.  In both, everybody is guilty until proven innocent.  Because one terrorist hid a bomb in his shoe, we all must remove our shoes before flying.  Because one terrorist hid a bomb in his underwear, we all are subject to X-ray- like screenings.

Two times the government used its anti-terrorism powers to target Americans not engaged in terrorism.  The revelations detailing the extent of the National Security Agency's espionage capabilities raises the specter that their powers could be misused to target Americans who have nothing to do with terrorism.  In fact, allegations of such misconduct already exist.  Here are two examples where anti-terrorism powers granted to law enforcement were allegedly used to target American citizens not engaged in terrorism.

Mark Levin On NSA Tracking: "We Have The Elements Of A Police State Here".  On Thursday's broadcast of Fox News Channel's "Your World with Neil Cavuto," conservative talk show host Mark Levin reacted to recent revelations that the National Security Agency had been collecting the phone records of millions of Verizon customers.  He said that the NSA news in addition to other openings for intrusion by the federal government are the makings of a "police state."

Good news: Government's recording your conversations on the bus too.  A timely video from Reason TV on the surveillance state's newest venture: Cameras and microphones on city buses, just in case Al Qaeda decides to plan its next attack on municipal transportation within earshot of other passengers.  Not every city does this, but the practice is spreading — early adapters include San Francisco, Baltimore, and Hartford with funding from, you guessed it, DHS.

We should be shocked at the American tapping scandal, and shocked that Obama doesn't seem to care.  You know all those bearded survivalist types holed up in places like Idaho with their paranoid anti-government conspiracy theories?  Suddenly they're looking rather less paranoid.  The rest of us, by contrast, are rushing to adjust our world view.  The revelation that the U.S. Government systematically taps online communications challenges the way we think about freedom, the way we think about privacy, the way we think about the Internet and, not least, the way we think about America.

What is the difference between a hunch and a profile?
Dept. of Homeland Security: Laptops, Phones Can Be Searched Based on Hunches.  U.S. border agents should continue to be allowed to search a traveler's laptop, cellphone or other electronic device and keep copies of any data on them based on no more than a hunch, according to an internal Homeland Security Department study.

Fascism In America.  Ours has become a system of virtually limitless central governmental power.  Whatever one thinks of the IRS and Justice Department scandals — targeting conservatives and evangelical Christian and orthodox Jewish organizations, spying on AP reporters, and labeling a Fox News journalist a felon — their common theme is that the federal government can do anything it wishes.

From Verizon's 'Can you hear me now' to NSA's "Yes, every eavesdropped word".  When "Big Brother is Watching You" was the cold war mantra of the day, there were no cellphones, no iPads, no satellite communications of any kind in the hands of the unwashed masses.  Today Big Brother is not watching you, he's stalking and harassing you — right in the place you call home.  There's nowhere to hide; nowhere to run to and no one to turn to in a world where a government that has learned how to slip being held accountable has all the tools on its side.

Law enforcement applaud ruling on DNA swabbing.  The Supreme Court has ruled that is now legal for law enforcement to take the DNA of people arrested, even though they have not yet been convicted of a crime.  The decision was a big victory to police and victim rights groups in the fight over how and when your DNA can be used, with the justices being nearly split down the middle.

Court: Police can take DNA swabs from arrestees.  A sharply divided Supreme Court on Monday [6/3/2013] cleared the way for police to take a DNA swab from anyone they arrest for a serious crime, endorsing a practice now followed by more than half the states as well as the federal government.

Court's DNA Ruling Brings U.S. a Step Closer to 'Gattaca'.  The day that DNA cheek swabs officially became the new fingerprints deserves to be marked and remembered — and not just because of the inevitable march of technology.  No, the Supreme Court's 5-4 holding today [6/3/2013] in Maryland v. King, that anyone arrested for a "serious crime" can have his or her DNA taken without any suspicion, is a landmark because it represents a major step toward a "Gattaca" world.  This means that evidence of a crime can be collected without any particular suspicion, avoiding the pesky requirement of a warrant that the Founding Fathers thought would give us liberty and privacy.

"The Justice Department is trying to curtail free speech by promising increased scrutiny of any Internet posts which mention Islam."
People Power Against the Department of Justice.  The Department of Justice (DOJ) and its allies, the Council on American Islamic Relations and the Southern Poverty Law Center, are on the defensive after thousands of people turned out in Tennessee on Tuesday night [6/4/2013] to protest a scheme to censor criticism of Islam.  The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), a key component of a network of Muslim Brotherhood organizations in the U.S., called the turnout a "mob" and praised the Obama/Holder Justice Department for standing up to local residents.

Free Speech and Islamic Sensibilities.  Apparently a United States attorney in Tennessee is seeking to use civil rights statutes to criminalize criticism of Islam or inflammatory statements that offend Muslims.  According to the Tullahoma News, Bill Killian, the U.S. attorney for Eastern Tennessee, believes "Internet postings that violate civil rights are subject to federal jurisdiction."  Though the newspaper makes clear that Killian's intent is to promote better community relations and to prevent discrimination against Muslims that is based on the false notion that all are terrorists, his willingness to dump the First Amendment rights of some in order to protect the sensibility of others ought to scare all Americans.

Another Obama Assault on Free Speech.  The Obama Administration's latest assault on the freedom of speech is so audacious that it leaves me speechless — and that's the idea.  According to Politico, Bill Killian, the Obama-appointed U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee, "is reportedly vowing to use federal civil rights statutes to clamp down on offensive and inflammatory speech about Islam."  Said Killian:  "We need to educate people about Muslims and their civil rights, and as long as we're here, they're going to be protected."

US Attorney Bill Killian: Posting Something Mean About Muslims on Social Media Might Be a Criminal Action Under Federal Civil Rights Laws.  The First Amendment served us well for a time, but now it's outdated.  Remember reading that England had arrested a guy for anti-Muslim Twitter postings in the aftermath of the Woolrich slaughter?  And remember thinking, "Well, this is America, that can't happen here"?  Oh yes it can.  Obama's Attorney for the Eastern district of Tennessee wants you to know that if you say something untoward about Muslims, the Federal government may imprison you.

DOJ: Watch what you say about Muslims on social media.  How many civil-rights prosecutions are currently in progress against Muslims who say inflammatory things on social media? [...] This is also the same government that flagrantly abused the power of the Internal Revenue Service, and other agencies, to oppress political dissidents.  There are a lot of Tea Party groups who wish the only thing they had to fear from Democrat politicians is offensive Facebook chatter.  No one in this government seems terribly concerned about protecting their hurt feelings, or encouraging the rest of the American public to treat them with dignity and respect.

DoJ places a chill on criticism of Islam.  By "spreading information considered inflammatory against Muslims" — even if it's true — you could violate the civil rights act and be subject to prosecution.  We all know that this new ruling will target those considered to be "blasphemers" against Islam.  Muslims here and around the world have been after western governments to enforce their idea of blasphemy and to punish those who speak out against Islam.

More about President Obama's undeniable favoritism toward the Muslims.

Washington state and the ACLU sue florist for refusing to sell flowers for gay wedding because of Christian beliefs.  The American Civil Liberties Union joined the state of Washington by filing its own lawsuit on Thursday [5/30/2013] against Arlene's Flowers and its proprietor, Barronelle Stutzman, over the woman's refusal to sell flowers for a same-sex wedding.

DOJ Tells Employees to Verbally Affirm Homosexuality.  The Department of Justice has been accused of religious intolerance and viewpoint discrimination after workers were sent an email directing them to verbally affirm homosexuality, according to a law firm specializing in religious liberty and now representing a DOJ whistleblower.  Liberty Counsel said DOJ employees were emailed a brochure called "LGBT Inclusion at Work: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Managers."  The brochure was created as a resource from DOJ Pride, an association of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees of the DOJ.

Durbin wonders: Does [the] First Amendment apply to bloggers, Twitter?  Thanks to the Obama administration's attacks on the Associated Press and its representation in federal court that Fox News' James Rosen is a spy for asking questions, one has to wonder whether the First Amendment applies to anyone in the Age of Hope and Change.

The VanderSlooting of America.  [Scroll down]  But what the massive abuse of the IRS illustrates is a tyranny of a different sort.  A bloodless yet still quite decided tyranny.  A tyranny of the American Left designed not just to chill free speech — although that is a primary goal.  What has evidenced itself in the Obama era is a tyranny designed not just to silence dissent, but to deliberately, willfully damage if not ruin outright the reputations and businesses of Americans across the land.

More about the use of the IRS as a weapon.

America's cry for help lost in the White Noise.  Tyranny, the same kind that kept the people of the former Soviet Union and environs in the stranglehold of communism for 70 years, is making its way — unhampered — through the USA.  The Obama administration started off by identifying Tea Partiers, returning war vets and Christians as terrorists — and got away with it.  Now news reporters like James Rosen, a Fox News correspondent has been openly branded a "possible criminal co-conspirator" for his alleged role in publishing sensitive security information.  The only difference between soft tyranny and hard tyrannies is that in the latter, those deemed enemies of the state are jailed and killed.  But a cursory read through history teaches that hard tyrannies usually got their start as soft ones.

Congressman: IRS asked pro-life group about 'the content of their prayers'.  During a House Ways and Means Committee hearing today, Rep. Aaron Schock, R-Ill., grilled outgoing IRS commissioner Steven Miller about the IRS targeting a pro-life group in Iowa.  "Their question, specifically asked from the IRS to the Coalition for Life of Iowa:  'Please detail the content of the members of your organization's prayers,'" Schock declared.  "Would that be an inappropriate question to a 501 c3 applicant?" asked Schock.  "The content of one's prayers?"

Abolish the IRS (and the Income Tax With It).  The Internal Revenue Service has been caught engaging in political profiling while processing applications for tax-exempt status.  In this case it was against organizations with "tea-party" or "patriot" in their names and other right-wing groups.  Next time it could be libertarian or left-wing antiwar and pro-civil-liberties groups.  No dissenter can ever rest assured he is safe from the arbitrary power of the IRS.

Washington bureaucrats use force to suffocate liberty.  Remember Armand Armendariz, the Environmental Protection Agency regional administrator who resigned after regaling an audience of Big Green activists with a history lesson to illustrate his agency's approach to critics of the EPA's harshest policies?  When the Romans conquered a new province, he said, they would "... find the first five guys they saw and they'd crucify them ..." to make the province "really easy to manage for the next few years."  The EPA, he continued, also makes "examples of people who are not complying with the law, you make examples out of them, use it as a deterrent method ... Find people who are not complying with the law and you hit them as hard as you can and make examples of them."

Keene sues six parking meter 'Robin Hoods' who put money in expired meters.  The city has filed a lawsuit against six citizens, part of a group dubbed Robin Hood of Keene that patrols downtown armed with video cameras and pockets full of change to fill expired parking meters.  Also known as Robin Hooders, the six are associated with the Free Keene group.

The Editor says...
Note that the city is filing a civil suit, not a criminal complaint, because the "Robin Hood" people didn't do anything illegal.  The issue has nothing to do with orderly parking.  It's all about money and control.

Small Business Struggles to Survive, All Because of Gun-Shaped Lighter.  The owner of a small business in New York City is facing a $60,000 fine, thousands in legal fees, and the potential loss of his business — all because he carried a dozen three-inch, gun-shaped lighters which caught the eye of a city inspector.  "When you hear something like this, you're going to have a couple of nightmares," Fred Shayes tells me, leaning across the counter of his midtown Manhattan shop, US Camera & Computer Inc.  Nervous, he won't let me photograph him or tape-record the interview.

New York City Shop Fined $60,000 For Selling Gun-Shaped Lighters.  Not sure what Mayor Bloomberg finds upsetting about a gun-shaped lighter.  Does it have a bayonet attachment making it an "assault" lighter?  Does it ignite 10 times instead of 7?

Biometric Database of All Adult Americans Hidden in Immigration Reform.  The immigration reform measure the Senate began debating yesterday would create a national biometric database of virtually every adult in the U.S., in what privacy groups fear could be the first step to a ubiquitous national identification system.  Buried in the more than 800 pages of the bipartisan legislation is language mandating the creation of the innocuously-named "photo tool," a massive federal database administered by the Department of Homeland Security and containing names, ages, Social Security numbers and photographs of everyone in the country with a driver's license or other state-issued photo ID.

Bill Gives DHS Sec. 'Virtually Unlimited Discretion to Waive Any Manner of Crimes,' ICE Council Warns Congress.  [Scroll down]  The letter concludes that ICE officers would continue to be "powerless" to protect the public and do their jobs if the bill becomes law:  "If this legislation were enacted tomorrow, ICE officers would continue to be powerless to effectively enforce our nation's laws and provide for public safety as S. 744 does nothing to end these dangerous agency- and department-level directives."

DOJ Won't Require Warrants for Email, Chat Seizures.  In blatant violation of the Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure, the Department of Justice has apparently declared that they do not require warrants for grabbing Americans' emails and Facebook chats.  The ACLU has gotten hold of the documents from the FBI and DOJ that show that a subpoena, which comes from a prosecutor, is all that is necessary to seize emails and chats.

A Federal Takeover of Elections?.  On March 28, President Obama issued Executive Order 13639, establishing a Presidential Commission on Election Administration "in order to promote the efficient administration of Federal elections and to improve the experience of all voters."  The ostensible premise behind this effort is the idea that some voters were forced to wait too long in line to cast their ballots.  Yet a growing number of critics see something entirely different:  they see this as an attempt to initiate a federal takeover of elections.

Leave your vuvuzula in the car.
Liquids banned from Obama's Ohio State speech despite past heat-related medical emergencies.  President Barack Obama's speech at the Ohio State University graduation ceremony Sunday will be on tight security lockdown, with graduating students subject to "airport-like security screening" and a strict list of prohibited items for graduates and their relatives attending the event at Ohio Stadium (capacity: 102,329).  Attendees are prohibited from bringing liquids into the stadium, despite high temperatures.

Floridians Encouraged to Report Neighbors Who "Hate Government".  That we actually have a County Sheriff, here in the great Sunshine State of Florida, a man sworn to protect and defend ALL of the Constitution, against every enemy, foreign and domestic, plus each and every word, that would want to even initiate a program like this shows that distrust for the Government is growing and that dissention has been noticed and it will not and cannot be allowed by the Progressive enemies of the Constitution.  This hot line for reporting on Patriots, Conservatives, Christians, Gun Owners, Tea Party members and yes, even probably members of this Foundation, will go into place unless Governor Scott says no and puts a veto in place.

Achtung, Baby: Are People Being Encouraged to Rat On 'Anti-Government' Neighbors?  [Scroll down]  The teams will respond to citizen phone calls to a 24-hour hotline with a knock on the door and a referral to services, if needed reports the Palm Beach Post.  Bradshaw makes it clear that the kind of behavior which could prompt a visit from the authorities includes anti-government political statements that may be deemed a prelude to violent action.  The program will also include "public service announcements to encourage local citizens to report their neighbors", reports the newspaper.

Ron Paul: Police manhunt for Boston Marathon bombing suspect scarier than attack.  Former Rep. Ron Paul said the law enforcement that swarmed around Boston in the days following the marathon bombings was scarier than the actual terrorist attack. [...] Mr. Paul, a former libertarian political candidate who served in Congress as a member of the Republican Party, said the door-to-door searches police conducted in Watertown for the bombing suspects were particularly alarming.  They reminded [him] of a "military coup in a far off banana republic," he said, Politico reported.  "Force lockdown of a city.  Militarized police riding tanks in the streets.  Door-to-door armed searches without warrant.  Families thrown out of their homes at gunpoint to be searched without probable cause.  Businesses forced to close.  Transport shut down."

An Unbearable Aroma of Self-Righteousness in SWAT Nation.  [Scroll down]  The so-called "voluntary lock-down" in Watertown — a more appropriate phrase might be "martial law" — offered a chilling spectacle for anyone who cherishes his personal freedom.  Remember the Fourth Amendment?  That guaranteed that "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated."  Yet in Watertown, platoons of heavily armed police in combat gear went from house to house, guns drawn, banging down doors, screaming at people to come out of their own houses with their hands on their head.  There were "a lot of big guns pointed at us," said one Watertown resident.  Several news outlets used the word "surreal" to describe this concentrated display of the coercive power of the state.  What worries me is not that it is "surreal" but that it is, increasingly, all too real.

Inconvenient Truths of the Boston Bombings.  It is understandable that a lot of people were relieved when the government was quickly able to identify and locate the perpetrators of the Boston Marathon bombings.  And it is also understandable why some people might want to treat the surviving attacker as an "enemy combatant," given his ostensible beliefs in — and potential ties to — militant Islam.  But that doesn't make any of it right or just — or permissible under our Constitution.

Is this an excuse to get a sample of everyone's DNA?
Federal panel says everyone 15 to 65 should have HIV test.  Citing recent evidence that HIV infections are best managed when treated early, an influential panel of medical experts has finalized its recommendation that all people ages 15 to 65 be screened for the virus that causes AIDS.  The recommendation from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force seeks to address one of the key challenges in the fight against HIV/AIDS:  The window during which patients respond best to treatment is also the time when symptoms of the disease are least noticeable.

Surveillance's dark downside.  Cameras follow us like gum stuck to a shoe.  But while official Washington is fixated on law enforcement efficiency in the wake of Boston, you might wonder about the precautions taken by those protecting us.  That's especially true given the rise of facial recognition, zoom technology, biometrics and the overall ability to track us from one camera to another, right across town.

The Pressure is Building!  [Scroll down]  Two of the more dangerous issues, aside from gun CONTROL, amnesty, EPA dictates, Fast & Furious, the Benghazi Massacre, NDAA, drones being used against U. S. citizens within our borders, Dodd-Frank, the Sequester, etc., are U. N. Agenda 21 and Common Core.  The low information voter is blissfully ignorant of these assaults, thanks to the media.  The media will not discuss these issues because if people/parents knew about these assaults, they would get involved.  If people were to become involved, the layers on the onions of lies, fraud and malfeasance may be unwound.

Why Does DHS Need More Bullets Per Officer Than [the] Army?  Homeland Security's procurement officer is grilled in Congress on why federal agents who rarely fire weapons need several times more bullets annually than an Army officer.  Who or what are they shooting at?

Mayor Bloomberg's Personal Reading Of Constitution.  New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg says that in light of the Boston Marathon bombing, our interpretation of the Constitution will "have to change."  Americans should be appalled at such a statement.

Big Sis: Obama Admin Can Pick Which Laws to Enforce.  During her testimony on the "Gang of Eight" immigration bill before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday [4/23/2013], Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano declared that she, President Barack Obama and other political officials at the top of this administration have the authority to decide which laws to enforce, and which ones to ignore.

Napolitano: Obama Regime can decide which laws to enforce.  In a startling and candid admission, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano argued to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday [4/23/2013] that regardless of oaths to uphold the law, the President and the executive branch can choose what laws are to be enforced.  Tensions rose as the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee questioned Napolitano over the enforcement, or lack thereof, of current U.S. immigration policies.

Big Government Mind-Readers.  Like Big Brother, Big Government cannot read minds.  But he can read your emails (at least, the IRS can, and apparently without a warrant) and your social media.  He can obtain your Google history and data.  He knows which candidates you voted for and how much you contributed to political campaigns.  Big Government can calculate how much you're worth, what you earn, spend, and owe, whether you pay bills on time, and how much you dropped in the offering plate at church.  He knows what kind of car you drive, where you drive it, and how quickly it guzzles gas.  If you use public transportation, he can see what you packed for the trip and then pat you down.

Trick Language In Senate Gun Bill Turns All Gun Owners Into Felons.  While President Obama and Mayor Bloomberg talk about "gun sales," the actual legislation moving through Congress aims to regulate far more than sales.  It would turn almost every gun owner into a felon.  The trick is that the language under consideration applies not only to sales but also to "transfers," which are defined to include innocent activities such as letting your spouse borrow your gun for a few hours.

Why Are the Feds Trying to Identify All Gun Owners in Missouri?  They keep telling you they have noting but good intentions, that to worry about the feds coming for your guns makes you part of "the black helicopter crowd."  But then things like this happen:  In Missouri, federal investigators have demanded and obtained from the state government — apparently twice — the entire list of Missouri concealed weapon permit holders.

The IRS is reading your email, and doesn't care a court said they can't.  If you aren't encrypting your email, the IRS is probably reading it right now.

It Wouldn't Take Long for Martial Law to be Imposed.  This is how Obama will impose martial law, if he chooses. [...] It will be done by presidential order, as has been the pattern of most of his illegality.

The Militarized DHS: 5 Shocking Purchases.  The Department of Homeland Security has alarmed people, including members of Congress like Tim Huelskamp (R-Kan.) and Doug LaMalfa (R-Kan.), with the truly massive amounts of militaristic gear that it's buying.  Why does the DHS need enough gear to equip an army on the move?  Is there an ominous reason behind it or is DHS merely stockpiling gear for training purposes?  While we're waiting for Republicans in D.C. to fully investigate the matter, it's worth taking a look at the sort of purchases that have caused so much concern.

Fight for the right to grow raisins.  Since the 1930s, the Agriculture Department has turned California raisin growers into pawns of its Raisin Administrative Committee, which can commandeer up to half of the farmer's crop and then pay them little or nothing for the product.  Marvin Horne, a 67-year-old raisin farmer in Fresno, Calif., was fined almost $700,000 for refusing to surrender control of much of his harvest to the government committee in 2002.  Horne, who has been growing raisins for more than 40 years, has battled the raisin committee for more than a decade and describes its regime as "involuntary servitude."

"You don't know what freedom is, because you've never lost it."
Gun-rights testimony from a communism survivor.  I am always amazed — amazed — when anyone has the gall to dismiss, even laugh off, the suggestion that the right to keep and bear arms is a smart and necessary provision for a free society.  Human history (not to mention current events!) is too chock-full of examples of nefarious regimes violently abusing and controlling their people, and the freedoms enjoyed by American citizens are the exception, not the rule.

U.S. Army lists Evangelical Christianity, Catholicism, and "Islamophobia" as forms of "Religious Extremism".  This is the politically manipulative and ridiculous nonsense that has replaced truthful information about Islam and jihad.  And the implications of it are quite ominous.  Evangelical Christianity, Catholicism and "Islamophobia" are forms of "Religion Extremism" on par with al-Qaeda and Hamas?  Then how long will it be before the Obama Administration goes to war against them, as it has repeatedly declared that it is at war with al-Qaeda?

The Editor says...
That's the handiest part of the "war on terror" — the list of designated enemies can be flexed and expanded at any time.

Army lists Christians, Catholics and Jews as Religious Extremists.  How nice of them to include the Ku Klux Klan on the list of Religious Extremism.  Who knew political ideologies were a religion.

Don't Fire Until You See The Whites of Their Cassocks.  When I first saw the headline, I assumed it must all be a little less obviously bone-crushingly stupid or at any rate more nuanced once you got into the story.  But I invite you to look at the accompanying poster for the Equal Opportunity training brief issued by the Army Reserve in Pennsylvania.  It lists "extremist" groups, starting with "Evangelical Christianity" at Number One, "Al Quaeda" (misspelled under any Roman rendering of Arabic) at Number Five, "Hamas" at Six, and "Catholicism" rounding out the Top Ten.

Has U.S. Army Declared War On Christianity?.  It has been said that there are no atheists in foxholes, but like so many things askew in our politically correct modern-day universe, there are apparently some.  An atheist U.S. soldier made a formal complaint about the steeple and crosses on a chapel located at Forward Operation Base Orgun-E.  "We can confirm that those items were removed from the chapel," said a spokesman for the ISAF Joint Command.  "These items were removed out of respect for the beliefs of other faiths."

The Editor says...
Obviously this is just another means of appeasing the Muslims, while diminishing all religious beliefs through homogenization.  There is nothing wrong with standing up for your faith, if it means a lot to you.  The problem with expressing "respect for the beliefs of other faiths" is that some other faiths do not have beliefs that are worthy of respect.

Police Militarization, Abuses of Power, and the Road to Impeachment.  The Internet is abuzz with news that the Department of Homeland Security is purchasing over 1.6 billion rounds of pistol and rifle ammunition, 2,700 Mine Resistant Armored Vehicles (MRAP), and 7,000 fully-automatic "personal defense weapons." [...] Instead of asking why DHS needs 1.6 billion rounds of ammo, the real question we should be asking is, "Why does DHS need 55,000 law enforcement officers?"

Hundreds Of DHS Armored Trucks Are On The Move. Should You Be Freaking Out?  At first glance, it does seem more than a bit strange that the government is buying truly massive amounts of ammunition, body armor and military style vehicles.  That's why even members of Congress like Tim Huelskamp (R-Kan.) and Doug LaMalfa (R-Kan.) have become concerned enough to publicly request that the DHS explain itself.

A declaration of war against the American public?  Retired U.S. Army Captain Terry M. Hestilow has written his U.S. senator, Senator John Cornyn, Texas, stating that he believes the Department of Homeland Security is preparing for war against, well, us.  He advances in his letter the proposition that the Dept. of Homeland Security is without legal or constitutional authority to have acquired the war powers it has.
No capitalization in original.  (Must be a public school student.)  Corrected by The Editor.

Technologies of Surveillance.  The NYPD is testing a new type of security apparatus that uses terahertz radiation to detect guns under clothing from a distance.  As Police Commissioner Ray Kelly explained to the "Daily News" back in January, If something is obstructing the flow of that radiation — a weapon, for example — the device will highlight that object.  Ignore, for a moment, the glaring constitutional concerns, which make the stop-and-frisk debate pale in comparison:  virtual strip-searching, evasion of probable cause, potential racial profiling. [...] We're scared of both terrorism and crime, even as the risks decrease; and when we're scared, we're willing to give up all sorts of freedoms to assuage our fears.  Often, the courts go along.

NYPD Commissioner says department will begin testing a new high-tech device that scans for concealed weapons.  The department just received a machine that reads terahertz [sic] — the natural energy emitted by people and inanimate objects — and allows police to view concealed weapons from a distance.  "If something is obstructing the flow of that radiation, for example a weapon, the device will highlight that object," Kelly said.  A video image aired at a Police Foundation breakfast Wednesday [1/23/2013] showed an officer, clad in a New York Jets jersey and jeans, with the shape of a hidden gun clearly visible under his clothing when viewed through the device.

The Editor says...
No doubt the system is being fine-tuned to search for marijuana.  Overlapping objects could easily appear to be a gun, which could lead to an unfortunate misunderstanding.

DHS Buys Another 360,000 More Rounds of Hollow Point Ammunition.  While you were sleeping — DHS bought another 360,000 rounds of hollow point ammunition.

Is it time to ask: What's Homeland Security up to?  Following the statement by presidential candidate Barack Obama about his Civilian National Security Force, Rep. Paul Broun, in an Associated Press interview, said he feared that then President-elect Obama would establish a security force to impose a Marxist dictatorship.  He said, "It may sound a bit crazy and off base, but the thing is, he's the one who proposed this National Security Force." [...] The lack of transparency and explanation about the need for such acquisitions certainly has contributed to conspiracy theories similar to that expressed by the congressman.  With all this ammunition, it is useless without a means to discharge it.  The DHS has also attempted concealment of the purchase of 7,000 assault weapons, and has again censored information about its $1.5 million no-bid contract with Remington.  Normally this would be required to be done in an open, full, and competitive bidding process.  What is the emergency that compels them to avoid this legal bidding process?

DHS Won't Answer Congress On Billion Bullet Purchase.  As we have noted, DHS has been buying lots of ammo, enough by one calculation to fight the equivalent of a 24-year Iraqi War.  Peggy Dixon, spokeswoman for the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, Ga., told the Associated Press that the training center and others like it run by the Homeland Security Department use as many as 15 million rounds every year, mostly on shooting ranges and in training exercises.  The massive purchases are said to be spread out over five years and due simply to the best practice of saving money by buying in bulk what comes down to five rounds of ammo for every man, woman and child on the U.S.  That's a lot of practice and training.

DHS Has Declared War On the USA.  DHS is not your friend.  They are not combating foreign terrorists.  Their mission is not to protect you from Al Qaeda.  Their mission is to protect the global elite from you and your anticipated failure to submit to the tyranny being rolled out across the country in the form of an administratively imposed martial law.  I am not going to mix words in this report, DHS is an enemy of the state, the legitimate state, not the state that has been hijacked by foreign bankers on behalf of the globalists.  Janet Napolitano is a domestic enemy of the state and she serves under a foreign enemy of the state, "President Obama."

The Great DHS Ammunition Stockpile Myth.  There are dozens of articles hyping government purchases of ammunition over the last nine months.  After spending weeks researching this topic, this is a collection of commonly held myths that are based more on panic than fact.

DHS Denies Massive Ammunition Purchase.  The Department of Homeland Security responded Friday [3/22/2013] to questions from Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan., about why the agency was allegedly planning to buy some 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition over the next five years.  DHS told Whispers it regularly fills all of its goods and services requirements at one time because it's cheaper for the agency, and that the 1.6 billion number was misleading because the language of DHS's purchase said it would need "up to" a certain amount.

The Editor says...
Still, the central question remains:  Why does the "Homeland Security" department need that many bullets?  All 1.6 billion rounds are intended for use on the "homeland."  If DHS is expecting an invasion of the "homeland," isn't that what the Army is for?  The U.S. mainland has never been invaded because every foreign country knows we all have our own guns, even if the entire Army is defeated — or told to stand down by a traitorous commander in chief.

DHS buys 1.6 billion rounds "for practice"? But they're hollow-points.  Are hollow points used for target practice?  A former Marine says no.  A former Army Major says 'no.'  Here's the thing, hollow points are safer for everyone but the bad guy you're aiming at.  A hollow point will not exit your target and hit the person behind him/her.  Here's the other thing, hollow points are twice as expensive as the full metal bullet.  So why would they be used for target practice, especially when the taxpayer is paying for it, and practicing with either ... aiming with either, doesn't impact for accuracy of the person 'practicing?'

Retired Army Officer: DHS Must Surrender Their War Weapons to Dept. of Defense.  On Saturday March 23, Terry M. Hestilow, a retired Army officer with nearly 30 years of service under his belt, posted this letter he sent to Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) this week.  Hestilow wants DHS to hand over their war weapons to the Department of Defense.

First bullets, now assault rifles bought by Feds.  The federal government's grab for bullets is now being matched with a buy of assault-style rifles that would be banned for civilians under President Obama's gun control law.  The Drug Enforcement Agency has just issued a solicitation for AR-15-styled rifles that include other elements that the president and his Democratic allies in the Senate would ban:  30-bullet magazines and a pistol grip.

Police Departments Beg And Barter For Ammo.  The nationwide shortage of ammunition has left many police departments scrambling to get their hands on the necessary rounds — with some even bartering among each other.  Meanwhile, Rep. Timothy Huelskamp (R-Kansas) says the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has failed to respond to multiple members of Congress asking why DHS bought more than 1.6 billion rounds in the past year.

Family's Home Raided over Facebook Photo of Child's Rifle.  New Jersey police and Dept. of Children and Families officials raided the home of a firearms instructor and demanded to see his guns after he posted a Facebook photo of his 11-year-old son holding a rifle.  "Someone called family services about the photo," said Evan Nappen, an attorney representing Shawn Moore.  "It led to an incredible, heavy-handed raid on his house.  They wanted to see his gun safe, his guns and search his house.  They even threatened to take his kids."  Moore was not arrested or charged.

Family says NJ overreacted to boy's gun photo.  The ruddy-cheeked, camouflage-clad boy in the photo smiles out from behind a pair of glasses, proudly holding a gun his father gave him as a present for his upcoming 11th birthday.  The weapon in the photo, posted by his dad on Facebook, resembles a military-style assault rifle but, his father says, is actually just a .22-caliber copy.  And that, the family believes, is why child welfare case workers and police officers visited the home in Carneys Point last Friday [3/15/2013] and asked to see his guns.

The Other Drone Question: Is Obama Building A Federal Police Force?  [Scroll down]  Put it all together, and it sure looks like Obama is building the backbone for that national police force he wanted the first time he ran for office.  Worse yet, both Democrats and Republicans are now openly discussing a plan to put all the drones flown in America's skies, including those owned and operated by local police departments, under the ultimate supervision of the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice, consolidating the country's surveillance and law enforcement powers under one powerful federal police jurisdiction.

DHS deploying in Homeland with 'weapons of war'.  Compounded by the administration's now "on the radar" push to further restrict civilian firearm ownership, the recent controversy over the potential use of drones over American soil to kill citizens without due process, and a longstanding and documented train of abuses tied to the militarization of law enforcement activities, those who keep an eye on such things are noticeably distressed.

U.S. to let spy agencies scour Americans' finances.  The Obama administration is drawing up plans to give all U.S. spy agencies full access to a massive database that contains financial data on American citizens and others who bank in the country, according to a Treasury Department document seen by Reuters.

DHS Approves Two $4.5 Million No Bid Contracts For More Weapons and Ammo.  According to one estimate, since last year the Department of Homeland Security has stockpiled more than 1.6 billion bullets, mainly .40 caliber and 9mm.  DHS also reportedly purchased 2,700 Mine Resistant Armor Protected Vehicles (MRAPs) to go with their bullet stockpile.  ATK is one company that won a contract with the Department of Homeland Security to provide 450 million rounds of .40 caliber ammunition in 2012.  Now this...

1.6 Billion Rounds Of Ammo For Homeland Security?  The Denver Post, on February 15th, ran an Associated Press article entitled Homeland Security aims to buy 1.6b rounds of ammo, so far to little notice.  It confirmed that the Department of Homeland Security has issued an open purchase order for 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition.  As reported elsewhere, some of this purchase order is for hollow-point rounds, forbidden by international law for use in war, along with a frightening amount specialized for snipers.

What does DHS need with 2,700 armored vehicles?  You see a story like this — and the one about a billion bullets bought by the government — and you wonder why no one in Congress has bothered to look into it.  I am totally unconvinced there are any dark designs by DHS on American citizens or our democracy.  But this seems a colossal waste of money — if true — and isn't ferreting out waste like this what we are paying those jamokes on Capitol Hill for?

Isn't this what Fort Hood is for?
Special Forces axe their plan to infiltrate Utah and tame the indigenous population.  The U.S. Army chose a quiet community in central Utah as the training ground for Special Forces soldiers needing to develop Jason Bourne-like skills and to learn how to build a resistance movement by infiltrating the town leadership.  With the deeply religious culture present in Manti, Utah and the desert landscape of the area, residents were deemed ideal candidates by the Defense Department to role play with soldiers in the 10th Special Forces as part of a two week training exercise in July on unconventional warfare tactics.

DOJ: Children Do Not Need — and Have No Right to — Mothers.  The Obama Justice Department is arguing in the United States Supreme Court that children do not need mothers.  The Justice Department's argument on the superfluity of motherhood is presented in a brief the Obama administration filed in the case of Hollingsworth v. Perry, which challenges the constitutionality of Proposition 8, the California ballot initiative that amended California's Constitution to say that marriage involves only one man and one woman.

Why Is Obama's Growing DHS Army Buying Armored Vehicles?  The sequestration question du jour is why the Department of Homeland Security, busy releasing hundreds, if not thousands, of deportable and detained illegal aliens due to budget constraints, is buying several thousand Mine Resistant Armored Protection (MRAP) vehicles?  And just who are they intended to be used against?

The Tyranny of ObamaCare Continues to Unfold .  According to a lawyer for the Obama Regime, the federal government has the authority to compel you to commit the most appalling crimes against your conscience — even to murder children — regardless of how grievously this would betray your religious beliefs.

The Growing Tyranny of the Political Elite.  So much power has now been concentrated in the hands of a handful of appointees, most of them reporting directly to the president, that it is now doubtful whether America can still be considered a democratic nation.  Government has become the enemy of the people, because it is now in the hands of left-wing elitists who are opposed to traditional American values and who have only contempt for the democratic process.

DOJ to Federal Judge: We Can Force Your Wife to Violate Her Religion.  While presenting an oral argument in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia last fall, a lawyer for the U.S. Justice Department told a federal judge that the Obama administration believed it could force the judge's own wife — a physician — to act against her religious faith in the conduct of her medical practice.  The assertion came in the case of Tyndale House Publishers v. Sebelius, a challenge to the Obama administration's regulation requiring health-care plans to cover sterilizations, contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs.

Clearing Away the Rubble...with Black Hawks, Tanks, and Loads of Ammo.  I've lived in this country my entire life and never heard of government agencies stockpiling millions of rounds of the hollow-point "training ammo" listed in its solicitations or shooting blanks from military aircraft over our neighborhoods and cities.  Not until now.  None of this makes sense if things are as peachy as the president claims, and I think these circumstances raise enough questions to warrant a congressional hearing.

Veterans Receive Letters From VA Prohibiting Ownership or Purchase of Firearms.  This must be Barack Obama's way of thanking our veterans for serving.  US veterans are receiving letters from the government informing them that they are disabled and not allowed to own, purchase or possess a firearm.  If the veteran does decide to purchase a firearm he will by fined, imprisoned or both.

Clearing Away the Rubble...with Black Hawks, Tanks, and Loads of Ammo.  What's with the Black Hawk helicopters and urban warfare drills?  The Army took over an empty high school in southeast Houston without warning last month in a Department of Defense drill.  Terrified residents mistook blank fire for live rounds.  At a City Council meeting the next day, Mayor Annise Parker decried "a shocking lack of sensitivity to community concerns" that caught even some in the police department by surprise.  About the same time council members were meeting in Houston, "federal law enforcement" agents were rappelling down ropes from military helicopters hovering over the Capitol in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Warrantless Searches Proposed — for the Third Time — by WA Democrats.  In this case, liberal Democrats in the legislature have introduced an assault weapon ban that includes annual inspections of the homes of people that already own assault weapons to make sure that they are being safely stored.  There is no need for a warrant; there is no probable cause requirement; and the Seattle Times columnist writing about this clearly unconstitutional law observes that the sponsors include "Sen. Adam Kline, D-Seattle, a lawyer who typically is hyper-attuned to civil-liberties issues."  After a stream of criticism, the author withdrew the warrantless search section of the bill, calling it a "mistake."

That Could NEVER Happen Here...  On February 19th, 1942 FDR willfully and intentionally violated The Constitution, an act for which he should have been impeached.  I am speaking of the Japanese internment — the rounding up of over 100,000 people who were frog-marched into Concentration Camps on American soil.  Far more than half were American Citizens with a full and complete set of alleged Constitutional Rights.

Feds Buy 2 Billion Rounds of Ammunition.  Something strange is going on.  Federal non-military agencies have bought two billion rounds of ammunition in the last 10 months.  The Obama Administration says that federal law enforcement agents need the ammunition for "mandatory quarterly firearms qualifications and other training sessions."

Mark Levin: US preparing for societal collapse by buying up billions of rounds of ammo.  On Friday's [2/15/2013] night broadcast of his radio show, Mark Levin speculated that the federal government is stockpiling ammunition to ensure the rule of law in the event of a total societal and economic collapse.  On Feb. 8, Investor's Business Daily editorial writer Andrew Malcolm penned a piece about the Department of Homeland Security amassing what he called "sufficient firepower to shoot every American about five times — including illegal immigrants," or more than 1.6 billion bullets.

Homeland Security Now Armed With Enough Ammo for 24 Year-Long Iraq War.  The government reportedly repositioned several of their Homeland Security ammunition containers recently. [...] Mark Levin told his audience the government is buying the vast amounts of ammo to prepare for the collapse of our financial system and our society.

An ominous warning from Canada.  Sun News Network news anchor Brian Lilley warns Americans that if we allow our government to create a national firearms registry, it WILL lead to gun confiscation.  He explains how registration led to confiscation in Canada and how a man who recently defended himself with a gun is now being prosecuted by the government.

Would New Gun Laws Spark Widespread Civil Disobedience?  In his State of the Union address, President Obama doubled down on his gun-control proposals, again demanding that Congress ban so-called "assault weapons" and "high capacity magazines."  This is not a surprise.  What has been a surprise are the increasingly open calls for defiance from gun owners, state legislatures, and local law enforcement.  If the president's proposals become law, he may move the country into turbulent waters we haven't seen in many years.

Utah Resident Forced to Forfeit Gun Used to Stop Home Invasion.  In late January, 64-year old Clare Niederhauser was arrested for shooting at burglars fleeing from his property.  At a plea deal hearing, he apologized for firing the shots, agreed to pay a $700 fine, take a weapons class, and forfeit the weapon he used.  Fellow residents of Layton, UT are coming to the aid of the elderly man, who was arrested after firing a shot at a burglar's vehicle and a fleeing accomplice after they attempted to break in to his property with a crowbar.

Obama's license to snoop.  Uncle Sam is downloading the contents of laptops, cellphones and digital cameras belonging to international travelers.  The widespread snooping may help agents discover whether someone illegally downloaded music before boarding a long flight, but it also has chilling implications for personal privacy.  A report released Jan. 29 by the Department of Homeland Security's internal civil liberties watchdog saw nothing wrong with the searches.

A Property Rights Revolution for 2013.  Martha Boneta had a business license for her tiny farm store in scenic Paris, Virginia, yet she was threatened with fines of up to $5,000 per violation per day for selling organic tea and wool products crafted from her rescued animals, and for hosting a birthday party for eight 10-year-old girls.  Officials from Fauquier County using zoning ordinances to bully Mrs. Boneta never obtained a warrant nor set foot on her property to gather actual evidence.  Instead a county bureaucrat relied on unscrupulous, unlawful methods to make these charges against Mrs. Boneta.  Her store remains closed out of fear of further uncertain charges carrying even criminal penalties.

Yes, he is a tyrant, just like the Founders warned us against.  [Scroll down]  PDWs of the kind desired by DHS are very fascinating short-range firearms, with a very specific mission profile.  The question is, what sort of mission profile would benefit from extremely short rifles for DHS?  There are only two that I can easily think of.  One is for the security details of high-value individuals, which isn't a publicly-known mission of DHS, and would appear to beyond the scope of their mandate.  The other use for such weapon in the DHS's hands is "door-kicking;" close quarters combat inside structures.  Why does the Department of Homeland Security need to outfit so many agents for close quarters combat within the United States?

Mold? Leaky Roof? Clutter? Obama Administration Says All Americans Must Have 'Healthy Housing'.  Under the broad banner of "health," the federal government not only is telling Americans what to eat, it's also telling us to make our homes safer.  This week, the Obama administration released a "bold new vision for addressing the nation's health and economic burdens caused by preventable hazards associated with the home."

The Editor says...
The maintenance of my house is my business, not the government's — especially if I'm the one paying for repairs and upkeep.

DHS Ammo Purchases: Gun Control by Another Name?  According to reports, the Department of Homeland Security has stockpiled over 1.6 billion rounds of ammo for its various agencies, and one of the worst side effects of this appears to be a shortage of ammo for private gun owners.  The question is — what if the shortage is intentional?

Why are the feds loading up on so much ammo?.  In a puzzling, unexplained development, the Obama administration has been buying and storing vast amounts of ammunition in recent months, with the Department of Homeland Security just placing another order for an additional 21.6 million rounds.  Several other agencies of the federal government also began buying large quantities of bullets last year.  The Social Security Administration, for instance, not normally considered on the frontlines of anything but dealing with seniors, explained that its purchase of millions of rounds was for special agents' required quarterly weapons qualifications.  They must be pretty poor shots.

Is DHS Ammo For Obama's "National Security Force"?  As Andrew Malcolm has noted on these pages, the Department of Homeland Security has been buying lots of ammo, enough by one calculation to fight the equivalent of a 24-year Iraqi War.  Some have speculated about a link between the stockpiling between candidate Obama's off-prompter campaign remarks about a national security force and the stockpiling by DHS of more than 1.6 billion (with a 'b') bullets.  DHS has been buying more than bullets.  As [IBD] noted in a recent editorial, DHS is seeking to acquire 7,000 5.56x45mm NATO "personal defense weapons" (PDW) — also known as "assault weapons" when owned by civilians.

Why is the Department of Homeland Security buying so many bullets?  Online rumors about a big government munitions purchase are true, sort of.  The Homeland Security Department wants to buy more than 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition in the next four or five years.  It says it needs them — roughly the equivalent of five bullets for every person in the United States — for law enforcement agents in training and on duty.

Mark Levin: Obama Administration is Preparing for Economic and Social Collapse.  This topic has been right-wing blog-fodder for many months, but when the well respected Andrew Malcolm of Investor's Business Daily finally asked, Why are the feds loading up on so much ammo?  on Feb 8, syndicated radio talk show host, Mark Levin took notice. [...] When the welfare checks stop coming, when those EBT cards stop working, when the ObamaPhones turn off — what are those people going to do?  They are going to do what they always do.  Loot and riot in the streets.

Waters: We Have 'Database That Has 'Everything On Everyone'.  "The President has put in place an organization with the kind of database that no one has ever seen before in life," Representative Maxine Waters told Roland Martin on Monday.  "That's going to be very, very powerful," Waters said.  "That database will have information about everything on every individual on ways that it's never been done before and whoever runs for President on the Democratic ticket has to deal with that. [..."]

This Dog Can Send You to Jail.  [Scroll down]  He said that he was going to write me a warning, and I said, 'OK, that's fine.'  He asked me if I had any drugs in the car.  I said, 'No, sir, I don't do drugs, and I don't associate with people who do.'  He asked me would I mind if he searched my vehicle, and I said, 'Well, yes, I would mind if you searched my vehicle.'"  But thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court, the deputy did not have to take no for an answer.  In the 2005 case Illinois v. Caballes, the Court declared that "the use of a well-trained narcotics-detection dog... during a lawful traffic stop generally does not implicate legitimate privacy interests."

The Canary in the Culture.  It may seem that asking Catholics and others who believe that abortion-inducing chemicals are tools of murder and as such something they cannot directly pay for is not that big of a deal.  That's precisely why the HHS mandate is the canary.  It's true that the HHS mandate is not on the same level as China's forced abortion policy.  But the core philosophical assumption that powers the HHS mandate, even in its latest revision, would allow the government to institute a forced abortion policy or reinstitute slavery.

Court Silences Man Who Painted Protest Sign on His House.  William Bowden painted "Screwed by the Town of Cary" on his house after a road-widening project (allegedly) directed runoff onto his property, damaging his North Carolina home.  Within hours, zoning officials paid him a visit, ordering him to remove the sign or pay fines of up to $500 for each day of noncompliance.  When Bowden sued, the town argued the sign was a safety hazard for passing motorists.  Officials presented no evidence for this assertion — no studies or experts.  An estimated 15,000 drivers passed the sign every day for months and, according to court testimony, had precisely zero accidents.

The Tyranny Before Us.  Adolph Hitler was not always a tyrant.  As he rose to political power his vision for a better Germany lifted his nation from the depths of a severe depression and the humiliation of defeat.  But more importantly, he gave his countrymen hope for better future while he returned to them their pride in their homeland, the pride they so passionately desired.  Tyrants are not uniformly evil.  They are capable of great good and small kindnesses.  They smile, they laugh and they love their children.  But eventually they embrace the evil which defines their tyranny, and then those who gave them their power begin to pay a terrible price.  First a tyrant tells you he cares for you, then he presumes to think for you, then he simply tells you what to do.  This is the essence of tyranny.

Cuomo: Gun Control Would Have Never Happened If Public Was Allowed to Review It.  In order to pass the New York SAFE Act, which substantially erodes a citizens Constitutionally granted Second Amendment right to bear arms, Governor Cuomo had to circumvent his own state Constitution.  That document has an amendment requiring a three-day public review of all laws.  By issuing a "Message of Necessity", Cuomo was able to pass the law without public scrutiny, with the Senate actually voting on the bill a mere 30 minutes after receiving it.  The process led to State Assemblyman Steve McLaughlin to say that, "Moscow would be proud of our state Legislature and Executive Chamber, but every New Yorker should be outraged."

Trusting Your Own Government (or Not).  Many in the media and academia who largely reject American Exceptionalism want us to believe instead that our government is exceptional in light of the history of governments.  In how easily they dismiss the Second Amendment as being obsolete, they are telling us that there are no circumstances whatsoever in which some future American government would ever turn feral.  They are willing to stake the lives of their children and grandchildren on that assertion.

Obama Administration: We Will Still Force Christians to Act Against Their Faith.  The Department of Health and Human Services on Friday [2/1/2013] set the stage for a massive showdown between the federal government of the United States and American Christians who believe the government has no right to force them to act against their faith by mandating that they buy, provide or facilitate health-care coverage that includes sterilizations, contraception, or abortion-inducing drugs.

Web of environmental rules threatens Gulf Coast businesses with jail, steep fines.  According to a new report by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, thousands of people are being prosecuted for environmental crimes every day they didn't know were even on the books.  They've been threatened, fined and thrown in jail.  The trend is especially prominent along the Gulf Coast, but is becoming a national issue.

Army drill scares residents on Houston's south side.  The sight of Army helicopters and the sound of gunfire created a lot of concern Monday afternoon [1/28/2013] in one Houston neighborhood. [...] The U.S. Army along with other agencies took over the old Carnegie Vanguard High School near Scott and Airport.  There were armed men in fatigues, plenty of weapons and what many thought were real live rounds.

Feinstein Gun Control Bill to Exempt Government Officials.  Not everyone will have to abide by Senator Dianne Feinstein's gun control bill.  If the proposed legislation becomes law, government officials and others will be exempt.  "Mrs. Feinstein's measure would exempt more than 2,200 types of hunting and sporting rifles; guns manually operated by bolt, pump, lever or slide action; and weapons used by government officials, law enforcement and retired law enforcement personnel," the Washington Times reports.

Emphasis in original.

New York Gun Owners [Defy] "Assault Weapons" Registration Law.  New York Governor Cuomo the Junior may have rushed through his new gun control law with such speed that police will avoid its restrictions only through the blessed miracle of selective enforcement, but he may have a little trouble getting the state's firearms owners to attend his party.  The new law requires owners of those scary-looking rifles known as "assault weapons" to register their property (amidst assurances that, oh no, the registration lists will never be used for confiscation), but gun rights activists are actively urging gun owners to defy the new mandate.

Empty gun stores shelves, empty words and memories of ObamaCare.  There is a run on firearms and ammunition and its scope is beyond what the world has ever witnessed.  In the last two months, American citizens have purchased enough guns to outfit the entire Chinese and Indian armies, combined.  Membership in the NRA grew by a quarter million in one month.

Gun stores running low on popular ammunition.  People who have managed to buy a gun despite the high demand and empty shelves at many area gun stores may now be facing a new problem.  Gun stores around Nashville are running out of ammunition.

Gun Owners Must Contact Schools In Proposed Legislation.  Missouri state Senator Maria Chappelle-Nadal wants parents to notify schools if they own a gun.  Anyone enrolling in a private or charter school will need to notify the school district or governing body if they own a firearm.  The state senator also wants to make failing to prevent guns getting into the wrong hands a class A misdemeanor.  If someone kills or injures another person with the weapon then it would be a class D felony.  That means spending 2-7 years in prison if someone is injured or killed with your gun if it is stolen or unsecured.

Litmus Test for Top Officers: Willingness to Fire on Americans?  [Jim] Garrow is a respected activist who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his work rescuing baby girls from one-child China.  His source is "one of America's foremost military heroes."  This certainly gives the urgent drive to disarm law-abiding citizens some perspective.  It could also help us make sense of massive ammunition purchases by the increasingly frightening Department of Homeland Security.

NJ town proposes flag ban.  The Hudson County town of West New York is considering a widespread sign regulation that could include banning American flags from being flown.  The Board of Commissioners have a draft ordinance for "General Sign Regulations".  Among the prohibited signs under the proposal would be "Flags, banners and pennants."

Gov't: Food allergies may be disability under law.  The Justice Department said in a recent settlement with a Massachusetts college that severe food allergies can be considered a disability under the law.

No Guns, No Freedom, No Country.  Will the gun rights issue be the tipping point for the American public, (over half of which voted for the alien traitor in the White House)?  One major issue after another, robbing Americans of Constitutional rights, has passed before the treacherous Congress of the United States, and no successful effort has been made.  Will the gun control laws be the straw that breaks the camel's back?

Guns and the Government.  The Supreme Court has ruled consistently and countless times that the "police power," that is, the power to regulate for health, safety, welfare and morality, continues to be reposed in the states, and that there is no federal police power.

Study: Environmental regulations turning outdoorsmen into eco-felons.  Five Gulf Coast states have over 1,000 laws that allow prosecutors to target people with criminal sanctions over rather minor infractions related to the environment and outdoor living, a new study shows, even in cases where the accused did not cause any harm or knowingly break the law.

Plead Guilty or Go to Prison for Life.  Chris Williams, a Montana medical marijuana grower, faces at least five years in federal prison when he is sentenced on February 1.  The penalty seems unduly severe, especially because his business openly supplied marijuana to patients who were allowed to use it under state law.  Yet five years is a cakewalk compared to the sentence Williams originally faced, which would have kept the 38-year-old father behind bars for the rest of his life.

This Metamorphosis Will Require a Permit.  [Scroll down]  Yet it wasn't until the workmen we hired had ripped apart most of the first floor that the phrase "building permit" first wafted past us.  Turns out we needed one.  "What, to repair our own house we need a building permit?"  Of course.  Before you could get a building permit, however, you had to be approved by the Zoning Authority.  And Zoning — citing FEMA regulations — would force you to bring the house "up to code," which in many cases meant elevating the house by several feet.  Now, elevating your house is very expensive and time consuming — not because of the actual raising, which takes just a day or two, but because of the required permits.

Obama's Panicked Gun Control Won't Solve Gun Violence.  House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, in an interview last week, very tellingly said regarding new gun-control laws, "the safety of our country cannot go as slow as the slowest ship in the House of Representatives or even the United States Senate."  Translation:  Democrats are determined to bypass the normal, orderly process of congressional hearings and votes by the elected representatives of the American people.  And how coincidental that the House of Representatives has a Republican majority.

Biden: Obama May Use 'Executive Orders' to Crack Down on Guns.  Earlier today [1/9/2013], Vice President Joe Biden addressed the ongoing discussion and debate surrounding gun control.  Rather than relying strictly upon the legislative process, he said that Obama "is going to act" — and potentially without Congress' blessing.  Before meeting with gun safety and victims' groups, the vice president told reporters that "executive orders" may be an avenue that the administration will use to take swift action on firearms.

When the government tells you how to pray, or what to exclude from your prayers, you live in tyranny.
Politically Correct Checklist for Those Praying at Inauguration?  Once again, liberal activists have demanded a theological litmus test for the pastor who will pray at President Obama's Inauguration ceremony.  Pastor Louie Giglio of Passion City Church in Atlanta has been forced to withdraw his acceptance to pray at the inauguration because activists found a sermon from the mid-1990s where he preached the Biblical doctrine defining marriage as one man and one woman.  Because Giglio applied that doctrine to homosexual behavior, activists howled that he must not pray at the inauguration.

Obama Power Grabs on the Horizon.  Almost a dozen new gun control bills were introduced on the first day of the new congressional session.  Joe Biden's task force continues its frenzied pace of activity, even as it broadens its scope far beyond the reinstatement of the ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, moving into such arenas as universal background checks for gun buyers, a national database tracking the movement and sale of weapons and measures that Obama could enact by executive order.  Yet such an imperious manner of governance will not be limited to gun control.

Biden: Obama Will Bypass Congress for Gun Control.  Vice President Joe Biden, who has been charged by President Obama with running the task force to prevent situations like the Sandy Hook massacre, announced that he wouldn't be raising legislative solutions at all.  Instead, he said that President Obama might simply declare his preferred gun policy the law of the nation.

Krauthammer: 'Unconstitutional' gun confiscation 'would cause insurrection in the country'.  On Wednesday's "Special Report," Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer acknowledged a link between gun ownership and gun violence, but said Americans would revolt if Congress implemented sweeping, unprecedented gun control legislation.  "I think we are going to end up exactly where we started," Krauthammer said.

Let it begin here.  Word has come down in recent days that the President of the United States may attempt to gut the Second Amendment via an executive order, reclassifying popular self-loading firearms as Title II weapons the same as hand grenades, rocket launchers, and crew-served machine guns.  In doing so, he would force you to register your firearms with the Federal government, pay a draconian tax for merely keeping what you already own, and shred your right to privacy, allowing the federal government into your home unannounced to "check up" on or confiscate your guns at any moment they see fit.

What To Expect On Gun Control In The Coming Months.  If new gun control measures pass to the President's desk (in which case he will surely sign the measures into law), it means more than just new background checks.  All semi-automatic firearms will be taxed, required to be submitted to the ATF for approval, controlled from crossing state lines, and prohibited from being bequeathed to your children or grandchildren in your wills.  Violation of any of these rules will turn you into an instant felon.  Of course, this would mean a resistance for which America isn't prepared.

Politicized, Militarized Homeland Security Department Unveils New Panzer Division.  To the list of recent unsettling developments at DHS and other federal agencies — such as FEMA camp expansions, massive DHS ammo buys, a creepy new biometric surveillance system just being rolled-out by the FBI, and drones buzzing our backyards with cameras — we can now add the appearance across the country of not just heavily-armored military grade Humvees, but 'GLS' armored personnel carriers (APC's) such as in the picture [here] — 2500 of them to be exact.

Nobody needs an assault weapon!  We are told that it is a small thing to give up semi-automatic rifles, which the political and cooperating media elites will dutifully call "assault weapons," even though nobody can quite define the term.  In any case, we are told, nobody needs an "assault weapon" with a thirty-round magazine.  Well, actually, almost nobody needs them.  Apparently, Mr. Security Agent and his comrades need them, lots of them.  Tens of thousands of new "assault weapons," enough to shoot all of the billions (with a "b") of .223 and .40 caliber hollow-point bullets recently purchased by our federal law enforcement agencies in unprecedented new acquisitions.  Are we suddenly expecting a foreign invasion I missed reading about?  Wouldn't that be the job of the military?  Why do our federal law enforcement agencies suddenly need tens of thousands of "assault weapons" and billions of new hollow-point (not training) bullets, many times more than in previous years?

Who (or What) Are They Looking For?  TSA is omnipresent.  Trains, planes and automobiles.  Now railroads and buses.  Next it will be dog walkers and model airplanes.  Homeland Security peers through every remote camera and surveillance platform.  The federal decision to see and record everything is approaching total coverage.  You're even recorded and surveilled in many national parks.  Who, or what, are they looking for?

State Rep's anti-Free Stater post draws local, national criticism.  A Democratic state lawmaker's recent web post critical of the libertarian-leaning Free State Project has gone virtually viral in the past few days and, as one might expect, has drawn criticism.

New Hampshire Legislator: We Need to 'Restrict Freedoms' of Conservatives.  A New Hampshire legislator wants her constituents to know that she feels conservatives are the "single biggest threat" her state faces today, and she wants to use her powers to legislate to "pass measures that will restrict" the freedoms of Granite State conservatives.

Gov't Posts 61 New Federal Regulations, Including 500-Page Rule to Protect 'Critical Habitat' of Flycatcher.  The federal government posted 61 new regulations in the Federal Register on Friday [1/4/2013], including the Department of Interior's 500-page document outlining a new rule to protect the southwestern willow flycatcher's "critical habitat" in six states. [...] "The effect of this regulation is to conserve the flycatcher's habitat under the Endangered Species Act," the summary of the regulation states.

Something funny happened on the way to tyranny.  [Scroll down]  There were no less than six clerks working feverishly with the dozen or so customers, so I simply stepped to the side and walked the aisles.  The cases of ammunition that typically lined the far wall were picked to pieces. [...] Every weapon of military utility designed within the past 100+ years was gone.  This isn't a society stocking up on certain guns because they fear they may be banned.  This is a society preparing for war.

What you'll see in the rebellion.  Let me explain, gun grabbers, how your confiscatory fantasy plays out.  Let us imagine for a moment that a sweeping gun control bill similar to the one currently suggested is passed by the House and Senate, and signed into law by a contemptuous President.  Perhaps 50-100 million firearms currently owned by law-abiding citizens will become contraband with the stroke of a pen.  Citizens will either register their firearms, or turn them in to agents of the federal government, or risk becoming criminals themselves.  Faced with this choice, millions will indeed register their arms. [...] Tens of millions of Americans will refuse to comply with an order that is clearly a violation of the explicit intent of the Second Amendment.

Feinstein: More Power, More Money to ATF to Register All Guns.  As the day on which Sen. Dianne Feinstein's (D-CA) "assault weapon" ban will be introduced draws closer, another troubling aspect of it has come to light — namely, that it will give new funding and expanded powers to the ATF for the purpose of registering all guns and gun owners in the country.  In other words, in addition to banning "assault weapons" and handguns like Glocks, Sig Sauers, Smith & Wesson M&Ps, and H&Ks, the legislation will also empower the ATF to be sure every gun is placed on a government registry.

Rand Paul Condemns Indefinite Detention.  Referring to indefinite detention as "an abomination," Senator Paul urged his colleagues to vote against the FY 2013 NDAA Conference Report.

Gun Control and the Long Night of Tyranny: a Cuban Exile Speaks.  One of the first steps historically taken by would-be totalitarians is to disarm the population to be ruled:  the Bolsheviks did this in Russia, the Nazis in Germany and the occupied countries, the Maoists in China, the Castroites in Cuba, and on and on.  In some cases, as in Cuba, weapons of limited military value, like single- or double-barrelled shotguns, are allowed — as a privilege and under permit — to be possessed by the well-behaved ... though permitted ammunition is generally limited to birdshot.

Oliver Stone to RT: 'US has become an Orwellian state'.  "He has taken all the Bush changes he basically put them into the establishment, he has codified them," Stone told RT.  "It is an Orwellian state.  It might not be oppressive on the surface, but there is no place to hide.  Some part of you is going to end up in the database somewhere."  According to [historian Peter] Kuznick, American citizens live in a fish tank where their government intercepts more than 1.7 billion messages a day.  "That is email, telephone calls, other forms of communication."

Welcome to the Salazar Wilderness.  [Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar] seems to think that turning a tiny portion of the lovely coastline of California's Marin County (part of the National Seashore) into the first marine wilderness in the continental United States also requires destroying a family-run oyster operation that has conducted business in the same spot for eight decades.  So Mr. Salazar recently ordered the business to close within 90 days — a decision that will spell ruin for the Lunny family, owners of Drake's Bay Oyster Farm, which supplies 40% of California's oysters.

Oliver Stone: Obama-era America is 'Orwellian'.  In an interview with the English language Russian news website RT on Friday [12/28/2012], the oft-controversial filmmaker said the Obama administration was as guilty of violating the Constitution and the rule of law as the previous Bush administration.  "He has taken all the Bush changes.  He basically put them into the establishment.  He has codified them," Mr. Stone said.

Too Much Bipartisanship.  The 112th Congress has not been a bright one for our civil liberties.  While new champions have emerged like Rand Paul and Mike Lee in the Senate and House freshmen like Justin Amash, in national security state matters, the majority of both parties are in agreement.  First, there was the so-called "Patriot" Act reauthorization.  After a drawn out fight over 2011, the statists extended three controversial provisions until 2015.  Then came the FY 2012 NDAA and Section 1021 authorizing indefinite detention of American citizens, effectively turning America into a "battlefield" where anyone captured may be considered an enemy combatant.

Feinstein unveils sweeping gun-control agenda.  Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., plans to introduce sweeping gun-control legislation at the beginning of the congressional session in January. [...] The senator describes the proposal as a version of the assault-weapons ban that expired in 2004.  Feinstein's legislation ban scores of firearms, including military-style "assault" weapons and high-capacity ammunition feeding devices.  It also calls for the creation of a federal register that would require millions of gun owners to be fingerprinted and photographed.

The 10 Worst Regulations of 2012.  Most of these rules increase the cost of living, others hinder job creation, and many erode freedom.  Not all regulations are unwarranted, of course, but increasingly, the rules imposed by the government have less to do with health and safety and more to do with whether government or individuals get to make basic pocketbook and lifestyle decisions that affect them.  And it is not just the regulators who are to blame.  Congress writes laws that give unelected bureaucrats the broad powers they wield.

The latest from "DHS Insider".  As Fred states here and I have to agree with his thoughts, make of this what you will.  There are too many incidents, reports, things that just do not 'add up' and when one looks at massive ammo purchases by numerous government agencies, the 'facts' about Newton NOT adding up as reported by the LSM, one had better be thinking about the coming collapse and worse.

The Day The War Began.  If you were a farmer without a radio during Pearl Harbor, you would not have known that the world had just gone to war and it would not end without the deaths of millions and millions.  If you don't know that the American Civil War Deux just started, I pity you for you have no radio. [...] You do not see what is coming your way.  You are going to be drafted into a war you have not even heard of, yet.  You have experienced Pearl Harbor without knowing it.

Presumed Guilty in the Name of Fighting Terrorism.  [Scroll down]  The change in the standards by which the NCTC now is able to troll data means every action a person takes that is logged into a government database, is subject to scrutiny for criminal behavior.  Probable cause or reasonable suspicion — constitutional standards for invading a person's privacy by government snooping — are irrelevant in such a scenario.  We are all presumed guilty of engaging in potential terrorist acts.

Hey Senator Feinstein, You Say You Want A Revolution?  Senator Feinstein and her statist friends want to make America safer by taking guns away from honest people who don't commit gun crimes.  Such is liberal logic.  Feinstein, who knows as much about guns as she does fiscal responsibility, is going to introduce a bill that will "stop the sale, transfer, importation and manufacturing of military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition feeding devices."  Her bill will also affect handguns and require registration of firearms with photos, fingerprints, makes and models, and serial numbers.  I know you'll all be lining up to comply!

Feinstein's Gun Control Bill Will Trigger The Next American Revolution.  Over the past two years alone, multiple draconian policies have been enacted through executive order by the Obama Administration which build upon the civil liberty crushing actions of George W. Bush and press far beyond.  The Patriot Acts, the FISA domestic spy bill, the bailouts of corrupt international banks, attempts at CISPA and SOPA, actions like the NDAA authorizing the treatment of U.S. citizens as "enemy combatants" without rights to due process; all paint a picture so clear only a one-celled amoeba (or your average suburban yuppie) would not see it.

Feinstein: All Gun Owners Should Be Registered, Fingerprinted.  Even as news that Sen. Dianne Feinstein's (D-CA) "Assault Weapon" ban is really a ban on some of the most popular civilian-owned handguns in the U.S., details of her promised legislation also show that it will require gun owners to register their guns with the government. [...] This will require not simply the registration of the specific gun's serial number but also a photograph and fingerprints of the owner as well.  This would necessarily take away the ability of people to sell guns in private sales to friends or family members too.

Democrats Seek the Holy Grail of Gun Control.  Dianne Feinstein has announced that she will introduce sweeping gun control legislation in the Senate.  Under her bill, countless standard handguns apparently would now be banned, and for the first time a federal register that may include many millions of gun owners, fingerprinted and photographed, would be created.

December 27, 2012: The Day Freedom Died in America.  Just two days after Christmas, the American Senate is coming for your guns, in a move that will toss the Founding Fathers' cherished Second Amendment into the dustbin of history.

Softening up the public for the end of the Second Amendment:
Arne Duncan: 'We Have Common Values That Go Far Beyond the Constitutional Right to Bear Arms'.  Americans value their children, their safety, and the right to pursue their dreams without fear — and those "common values" trump the rights set forth in the U.S. Constitution, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said last Friday [12/21/2012] in a speech at a Washington, D.C., elementary school.

Just Freeze! EPA Says Burning Wood Is Bad, but so Is Natural Gas, Coal, Oil.  So, you're living in Fairbanks, Alaska, and it's 45 degrees below zero, Fahrenheit.  The high today will be -39 degrees below zero.  The weather services all project lots more double-digit minus numbers in the coming days and weeks, with dips into the minus 50s and 60s.  Heating oil prices are killing your family budget, so you crank up the wood stove and start burning some of the firewood you collected last summer.  Uh-oh!  Now you're in trouble!

What about bubble-gum cigars?
Old fashioned candy store threatened with fine for selling sugar cigarettes.  Owners of an old-school soda shop in St. Paul, Minnesota, have been warned to kick the habit and stop stocking novelty candy cigarettes.  City inspectors threatened a misdemeanor citation and $500 fine if Lynden's soda fountain is caught selling the fake smokes again.

The coming drone attack on America.  Drones on domestic surveillance duties are already deployed by police and corporations.  In time, they will likely be weaponised.

Did someone mention drones?

Beware! Regulations Incoming!  The problem, of course, is not simply the number and cost of new regulations.  The larger concern is about the way these regulations are actually being made and enforced.  The process is often unconstitutional and empowers bureaucrats instead of American citizens.

The government already controls too much.  Last week, a lengthy article in the Wall Street Journal detailed how the federal government's "little-known National Counterterrorism Center" can now, under new authority, examine "the government files of U.S. citizens for possible criminal behavior, even if there is no reason to suspect them."  It "can copy entire government databases — flight records, casino-employee lists, the names of Americans hosting foreign-exchange students and many others," keeping "data about innocent U.S. citizens for up to five years ... to analyze it for suspicious patterns of behavior."

Mandatory Voting: Is This The Obama Administration's Goal?  [Scroll down]  Remember this as the Obama administration mounts a drive to federalize voter registration, a step toward making voting mandatory.  Attorney General Eric Holder considers it self-evidently alarming that 60 million adult citizens were not registered in 2008.  He wants Washington to register everyone automatically.

IRS rule threatens to shut down the small businesses that prepare tax returns.  Small business owners who prepare tax returns for a living every year must either seek additional training or close their doors due to a new Internal Revenue Service regulation set to take effect at the end of this year.

Marxist EPA Wants to Regulate Water As a Pollutant in Virginia.  Ken Cuccinelli likes to call the EPA the "Employment Prevention Agency."  In addition to preventing job creation, the EPA wants other peoples' private property and their money for non-existant or minor problems.

More information — none of it favorable — about the EPA.

U.S. Can't Afford Obama's No-Debt-Limit Credit Card.  The president tells business leaders he wants to do away with Congress when it comes to raising the country's legal debt limit and be able to do it all by himself.

Man sits in jail while unable to pay alimony that exceeds his income.  For nearly seven weeks, John Waldorf has been in the county jail on a "non-support" charge for allegedly failing to pay alimony.  He claims he is a victim of New Jersey's "antiquated" alimony system and many people agree with him.  In late October a small protest was held outside the courthouse.

Regulators R Us: Feds Crank Up Regulations — on Everything.  Get set for the Obama administration's post-election tsunami of business-killing, job-killing, economy-killing federal regulations.  It's already begun.  Take a look at www.regulations.gov, the administration's regulatory website.  The home page informs us that in the last 90 days, the administration has posted 5,934 new regulations. [...] A cost analysis by the Small Business Administration in 2008 found that the cost to our national economy of compliance with federal regulations was an astronomical $1.75 trillion!

New federal law may make replacing your furnace much costlier.  Replacing an aging furnace could cost homeowners thousands of dollars more after May 1, when new federal energy efficiency standards take effect for northern states, including New Jersey.  The new energy-efficient natural gas furnaces aren't that much more expensive themselves, but they must be vented directly to an outside wall rather than through the chimney, which can increase installation costs dramatically, home heating contractors say.

Your Future in Obama World.  Right now, you can wander the USA all day without running into a person in military uniform or a government office more threatening than the Post Office.  That may change.  Recently, the federal government has been issuing regulations at the rate of 68 per day, controlling healthcare, food, energy, education, law enforcement, travel and transportation, commerce, communications, the environment et cetera.  Don't expect its attention to detail to stop anytime soon.  ObamaCare calls for creation of 159 new agencies or programs.

State Dept. Official to Attend OIC Meeting Today on Banning 'Defamation of Islam'.  After the disaster of trying to blame an obscure YouTube video for the attack on the CIA operation in Benghazi and Obama's prophecy at the UN that "the future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam," Hillary Clinton's State Department appears to be taking another run at the First Amendment free speech rights of American citizens.

The $4,000 Trash Can.  [Martha] Boneta, a Fauquier County farmer, hosted a birthday party for eight 10-year-old girls -- an occasion for which she lacked the proper "events permit."  For this, the county slammed her with a $5,000 fine.  She also got in hot water for selling items, such as yarn and birdhouses, that she had not made herself.

California vs. Texas.  Certainly, many government workers are working in legitimate government functions: police, courts, and prisons.  But what are the others doing? They are creating regulations, checking paperwork, inspecting businesses, and generally putting obstacles in the path of citizens living their lives and operating their businesses.  California has substantially more people erecting these arbitrary barriers than Texas.  In short, California has more people snooping and prying into the lives of its citizens than Texas does.

6,125 Proposed Regulations and Notifications Posted in Last 90 Days — Average 68 per Day.  It's Friday morning, and so far today, the Obama administration has posted 165 new regulations and notifications on its reguations.gov website.  In the past 90 days, it has posted 6,125 regulations and notices — an average of 68 a day.

Obama Administration Makes A Mockery Of The Rule Of Law.  Arbitrary ObamaCare waivers are bad enough by themselves.  They are truly ominous as part of a more general practice of this administration to create arbitrary powers that permit them to walk roughshod over the basic rights of the American people.  The checks and balances of the Constitution have been evaded time and time again by the Obama administration, undermining the fundamental right of the people to determine the laws that govern them, through their elected representatives.  You do not have a self-governing people when huge laws are passed too fast for the public to even know what is in them.

Federal Judge OKs Installation of Surveillance Cameras Without a Warrant.  On October 29, a federal district court judge ruled that police can enter onto privately owned property and install secret surveillance cameras without a warrant.  The judge did set forth a few guidelines that must be followed before such activity would be permissible, but the fact that such a scenario is accepted as constitutional by a federal judge is a serious setback for privacy and for the Fourth Amendment.

A National Security Hybrid.  B.H. Obama has issued 139 executive orders since becoming president.  Some are fairly benign; many are deeply troubling, specifically as to the wholesale consolidation of emergency powers into the office of the presidency.  The newest executive order is a breathtaking assault on entire sections of Constitution and the rights, freedoms, and liberties of all Americans, carefully hidden within the stultifying and banal language of bureaucratic doublespeak.

Video: Truck Driver Stands Up To Unconstitutional Checkpoint.  A truck driver who passed through an unconstitutional checkpoint 30 miles from the Mexican border stood up for his 4th Amendment rights by refusing to answer questions in another example of how Americans are re-asserting their liberties. [...] This is just the latest in a series of confrontations caught on video showing Americans standing up to 4th Amendment-violating checkpoints that are creeping further and further inside America, in some cases as much as 100 miles from the border.

The food police inhibit freedom of speech:
Bad Rules.  Steve Cooksey started a blog about low-carb nutrition, which included "Dear Abby"-style advice.  The state told him that giving such advice without a license is illegal!  Cooksey stopped, but enlisted help from the Institute for Justice, the libertarian public-interest law group.  Together they sued the state for the free-speech violation.  Unfortunately, a federal court dismissed the suit, saying that since the state took no formal action, Cooksey was not harmed.  IJ will appeal.

Good news: Interior Department creating their very own climate-change committee.  I'd bet big money that this is not going to be a dispassionate, balanced committee looking for ways to keep bureaucrats noses out of Americans' private property and businesses; rather, it's going to 'inform' the Interior Department's already-made-up collective mind with contrived reasons to further regulate, control, and acquire land.

Interior Dept. creates climate change committee.  The Obama administration is creating an advisory committee on climate change to advise the federal government on future operations.  The Interior Department announced the new bureaucracy in a recent federal registry notice along with a call for nominations by Nov. 19 to seat the 25-member board.  The notice specifically states membership will be comprised of state and local government employees, non-governmental organizations, Native American tribes, academia, individual landowners and business interests.

The Mayor of East St. Louis is the New Baby Sitter.  A new restriction passed by Mayor Alvin Parks of East St. Louis has enacted a new curfew and dress code for the city's youth.  Anyone under 18 that is caught out of class during school hours, outside after 10pm or out of the house or school anytime without a parent or guardian, they will be arrested.  Additionally, the mayor decided that youth should also be prohibited from wearing any blue or red.

Why Sebelius Campaigns So Hard for Her Boss — and Why He Won't Fire Her.  In fact, if the president makes no appointments, or the Senate rejects the president's appointees, then all of IPAB's considerable powers fall to one person: the Secretary of Health and Human Services.  The HHS secretary would effectively become an economic dictator, with more power over the health care sector than any chamber of Congress.  If Obama wins in November, he would have zero incentive to appoint any IPAB members.

Another Obama Executive Order Allows Seizure of Americans' Bank Accounts.  The latest executive order (EO) emanating from the White House October 9 now claims the power to freeze all bank accounts and stop any related financial transactions that a "sanctioned person" may own or try to perform — all in the name of "Iran Sanctions." [...] And if the individual so "sanctioned" decides that the ruling is unfair, he isn't allowed to sue. In two words, the individual has successfully been robbed blind.  But it's all very legal.  The EO says the president has his "vested authority" to issue it, and then references endless previous EOs, including one dating back to 1995 which declared a "state of emergency" (which hasn't been lifted):  Executive Order 12957.

Read This While You Can.  Read this column by Diana West while you can — while we still have journalists brave enough to write the truth, and before the truth is censored.  West, a syndicated columnist and author, noted an astonishing statement within Obama's speech to the UN General Assembly, and dissected and explored its meaning and terrifying implications.

'Overcriminalization' Making Us a Nation of Felons?  Capitol Hill is probably the best place to start if you want more information on overcriminalization — the United States Code — Title 18, Crimes and Criminal Procedure.  There are about a thousand different pages that cover material considered to be a federal crime.  The problem is not all of the estimated 4,500 federal crimes are listed in the code.  There are about 50 volumes that cover all the different federal agencies that have the jurisdiction to enforce and interpret rules and regulations.  When you add all of that up you're somewhere in the neighborhood of 300,000 to 400,000 rules that could be considered a federal offense.

The TSA is flexing its muscles, just to see how much the public will tolerate.
TSA Lies About Bizarre "Freeze" Drill.  The footage shows travelers at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport in Arizona being caught up in what the TSA calls "Code Bravo," a suddenly announced drill whereby passengers who have already passed through security are required to "freeze" on command.  The You Tube user who uploaded the video commented, "I suddenly found myself in a bunch of travelers who were being sharply told to "STAY RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE!  DON'T MOVE!".  A TSA employee was pointing his blue-gloved hand at anyone who moved a muscle (including airport workers) and barking these orders. [...] TSA spokeswoman Kristin Lee admitted to the New York Times that travelers are not mandated to obey the order to "freeze".

Euthanasia for Obama-care.  [Scroll down]  For example, Obama-care is making it illegal for anyone in America (with the narrow exception of houses of worship) to freely sell or buy an insurance plan that fails to offer free birth control and sterilization.  But this ban is nowhere to be found in the 2,700 pages of the law itself.  Rather, it came as a decree from HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, exercising her newfound power.  If Obama-care isn't repealed, examples of such rule by fiat will proliferate.

Constitution Day: 225 Years in Passage of Time; Light Years in Loss of Liberty.  In increasingly sophisticated and insidious ways, today's national government weaves a web of monitoring that allows the national intelligence apparatus to keep most citizens under some form of surveillance nearly 24 hours a day.  Add to that the passage by Congress and the signing by the president of the National Defense Authorization Act — legislation that grants the president the unprecedented and unconstitutional power to deploy members of the U.S. military to apprehend and indefinitely detain anyone he suspects of posing a threat to national security.  Finally, with the Supreme Court's decision to deem ObamaCare a constitutional exercise of Congress' taxing power, all three branches of the federal government established in the document drafted in Philadelphia 225 years ago have colluded in the creation of a government whose power is nearly immeasurable.

So much for freedom of expression.
New Jersey tells drivers:  You can't smile too much in license photos.  With its infamous long lines, going to the Department of Motor Vehicles to get your license is usually nothing to smile about.  These days, it's a mandatory no-big-smiles policy in New Jersey, one of a growing list of states that tell drivers drivers to keep a poker face in their license photos.

Shame.  The people who booed the God of love, now rush to the defense of a hateful Allah.  The people who p***ed on the Christ of redemption, now bewail the hurt feelings of a damnable Islam.  The people who denounced the death of civil liberties under the Patriot Act, now make rationalizations as brown-shirted cops drag a man from his home at midnight for the crime of posting a video on YouTube.

Push to call blasphemy a crime.  Muslim leaders have vowed to discuss the offensive video from their UN platforms, sowing concern among free-speech activists of a fresh push toward an international law that would criminalise blasphemy.  Human rights groups and Western democracies resisted such a law for years and thought they had finally quashed the matter after convincing enough nations that repressive regimes used blasphemy laws to imprison or execute dissidents.

Obama's DOJ Can't Say Criticizing Religion Will Remain Legal.  [A recent exchange], between Representative Trent Franks and Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez, occurred in late July, but is particularly relevant today.  Representatvie Franks tries to extract an assurance from Perez that the Obama administration will not push a proposal to criminalize speech "against any religion."  He has a tough time doing so.

DoJ Civil Rights Division chief can't commit to protecting free speech.  Via Eliana Johnson and Michael Totten, the question that Rep. Trent Franks asked Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez in July shouldn't be very difficult to answer — especially for the man who heads up the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, and who swore to uphold the Constitution when taking that job. [...] If you read the First Amendment, the answer is simple.  Perez, however, does a two-minute dodge while Franks asks it four times.

ATF's latest gun grab.  The Obama administration is making it easier for bureaucrats to take away guns without offering the accused any realistic due process. [...] That means government can grab firearms and other property from someone who has never been convicted or even charged with any crime.  It's a dangerous extension of the civil-forfeiture doctrine, a surreal legal fiction in which the seized property — not a person — is put on trial.  This allows prosecutors to dispense with pesky constitutional rights, which conveniently don't apply to inanimate objects.  In this looking-glass world, the owner is effectively guilty until proved innocent and has the burden of proving otherwise.  Anyone falsely accused will never see his property again unless he succeeds in an expensive uphill legal battle.

Obama Expands ATF's Right to Seize Guns Without Due Process.  Obama has expanded civil-forfeiture rules making it permissible for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) to seize weapons from citizens without the hassle of due process.  This effectively gives Attorney General Eric Holder, of Fast and Furious fame, extended power over guns and gun-related property.  The rules were broadened under the guise of giving the ATF authority "to seize and administatively forfeit property involved in controlled substance abuses."  And if that doesn't strike you as extreme on first glance, consider the fact that this expansion of civil-forfeiture allows the ATF to forego almost all "due process" in making their seizures — in effect, placing the burden of proof on the citizen instead of federal agents.

The FBI's Nationwide Facial Recognition System Ends Anonymity As We Know It.  The FBI has begun installing state-of-the-art facial recognition technology across the country as part of an update to the national fingerprint database, Sara Reardon of the New Scientist reports.  The agency's $1 billion Next Generation Identification (NGI) program will also include iris scans, DNA analysis and voice identification by 2014.  RT reports that as of July 18, 2012, the FBI said the NGI program "is on scope, on schedule, on cost, and 60 percent deployed."

FBI to roll out $1 billion public facial recognition system in 2014.  They're watching you — or at least will be in a couple of years.  That's when the FBI is gearing up for a nationwide launch of a $1 billion project designed to identify people of interest, according to the New Scientist.  Dubbed the Next Generation Identification (NGI) program, the high-tech endeavor uses biometric data such as DNA analysis, iris scans and voice identification to track down folks with a criminal history.

The Editor says...
That sounds harmless enough, but with a large enough database, the government could track anybody's movements -- not just criminals.

Activist Forced to Show Papers to DHS or be Detained for 72 Hrs.  Alex talks with Derrick Broze, a founding member of The Houston Free Thinkers.  Broze has covered TSA agents working in the Metro rail is Houston.  [Video clip].

Update on NDAA and drones flying over the US.  Let me challenge readers, the next time you go to church, ask your pastor what he is doing or what he would do to prevent military personnel from taking you off to a military prison without an arrest warrant, without issuing Miranda, without telling you why you are being seized, without allowing you access to an attorney, without recognizing that you have any constitutional rights, without any requirement to release you, or even without any requirement to keep you in the United States of America for a trial or judicial proceeding.  I challenge you:  ask him!

A blogger was dragged off to a mental ward because of his Facebook posts.  Exactly what you'd expect in North Korea, China, or Cuba.
'Outraged' judge frees veteran Raub from Virginia psych ward.  [Scroll down]  His saga began Aug. 16.  That's when [Brandon] Raub was taken into custody at his Richmond home by FBI and Secret Service agents and Chesterfield County Police.  He was not charged with a crime, yet he was handcuffed and placed in the back of a police vehicle.  From there, Mr. Raub was taken to a police station and then to the John Randolph Medical Facility in Hopewell, Va., for a psychiatric evaluation.  He was never formally arrested or charged with a crime, Mr. Whitehead said.  "He was in his underwear, in his living room, he sees a group of police, FBI agents walking up, he talks with them, he's asked about some Facebook postings, they handcuff him," Mr. Whitehead said.

Brandon Raub: Persecuted for Telling the Truth About the Federal Reserve .  Corporate media news reports state that former Marine Brandon Raub was arrested by the FBI and the Secret Service and detained in a psychiatric hospital for anti-government posts on Facebook.  A large part of Raub's post, however, was not directed at the government.  It was directed at the Federal Reserve.  The Fed is not the government.  It is a privately owned financial institution run by a cartel of banksters.

Thought police victim Brandon Raub ordered released from psychiatric prison.  The thought police are hard at work in America, crushing anyone who expresses ideas of liberty and freedom.  The latest case involves U.S. veteran Brandon Raub, who posted text on Facebook saying, among other things, that 9/11 was an inside job, that the country is being run by an evil cabal of insiders, and that the global elite are pedophiles who rape children.  Pointing to these opinion statements, the FBI, U.S. Secret Service and local law enforcement authorities in Virginia raided his home, kidnapped the 26-year-old, and stuffed him into a psychiatric hospital where he was to be detained for any number of weeks, months or even years.  Raub was not charged with a crime, was never read any Miranda rights, and was never given a hearing in front of a judge.  No judge, no jury, no rights, no nothing.  He was simply targeted, kidnapped, stuffed and cuffed because of his free speech posted on Facebook.

Attorney of Former Marine: Psychiatrist Threatened to 'Brainwash' My Client With Meds.  Earlier today [8/23/2012], 26-year-old former U.S. Marine Brandon Raub was released from a psychiatric facility via a judge's order, who ruled that the government had no legal grounds to hold him.  Tonight on Glenn Beck's show on GBTV, soon-to-become TheBlazeTV, John Whitehead, Raub's lead attorney and president of the Rutherford Institute, gave his first interview following his client's release to discuss the case.

Lawyer Says 20,000 'Civil Commitments' in Virginia Each Year Part of Bigger Problem.  Brandon Raub was scooped up in Richmond, Va. by federal and local law enforcement officials on Aug. 16 for making anti-government Facebook posts referring to "revolution" and statements that questioned the official story behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks, said John Whitehead, Raub's lead attorney and president of the Rutherford Institute.  He was then sentenced to up to 30 days in a psychiatric facility on Aug. 20 — no trial, no arrest warrant, no charges filed.  He was finally released on Thursday [8/23/2012].

Brandon Raub is hauled in for a mental health examination because he's not too keen on the current administration,
while Joshua Scott Albert gets a pass for his unabashed hatred of Romney and cops.
Government Clamp Down on Free Speech: Marine vs. Occupier.  In mid-August, government and law enforcement officials went to former Marine Brandon Raub's door with no warrant.  They questioned Raub about what they considered ominous Facebook postings, handcuffed him, and forced him to undergo a psych evaluation at a local hospital.  The 26-year-old North Chesterfield, Virginia man was taken into custody by FBI and Secret Service agents as well as Chesterfield police for posting anti-government messages on his private Facebook page.  Raub was released on August 23, but not before he was transferred to a veterans' hospital psychiatric unit 188 miles away from his home.

"If you do not have the right to speak freely about food, what do you have a right to speak freely about?"
From Licensing to Censorship.  Every day, millions of Americans dispense advice to friends, relatives, and complete strangers through blogs, websites, and a variety of online publications.  And each time they do so, many of these Americans could be risking substantial fines and perhaps even imprisonment. [...] Across the nation, more than eight hundred different professions require a state license.  Among those professions are:  manure spreaders in Iowa, upholsterers in Utah, and florists in Louisiana.

I'll bet they wouldn't have stopped a Muslim from doing the same thing.
City tells woman she can't pass out free water in 112-degree heat.  The city of Phoenix is facing a possible lawsuit after a woman claimed a city worker told her she could not pass out free water in the Arizona heat without a permit.  Dana Crow-Smith tells ABC 15 she was passing out water bottles in the 112-degree heat along with others in an attempt to share their Christian beliefs with people attending a festival downtown last month, when a city worker ordered them to stop.  She said the worker told the group they would be cited if they continued passing out the water because they did not have a permit.

Presidential race boils down to one issue.  There's really only one issue in the 2012 presidential race; all the rest is trivia.  That one issue is:  Do you want to be in control of your life, or do you want government to control your life?  If you want to keep control over your life, then do not re-elect Barack Obama to a second term in the White House.  Hold tight to your liberty.  If, however, you want your life defined, channeled and limited by Obama's "we can't wait" executive orders and the bureaucratic rules of government agencies, then Obama is your guy.

Why does Homeland Security need 1.4 billion rounds of ammunition?  The Department of Homeland Security has purchased 1.4 billion rounds of ammunition — that is not a typo — during the last six months.  This includes 450 million rounds of .40 hollow point, 200 million rounds of .223 rifle ammunition, and 176,000 rounds of .308 168-grain hollow point boat tail (HPBT) that is used almost exclusively as ammo for sniper rifles. [...] We must never forget that tyrants throughout modern history (Pol Pot, Hitler, Stalin and Mao) always disarmed their opponents before rounding them up and sending them to the killing fields.

Social Security Administration Explains Plan to Buy 174,000 Hollow-Point Bullets.  The Social Security Administration posted a blog on Thursday [8/16/2012] to explain why it was planning to purchase 174,000 hollow point bullets.  SSA posted a "Request for Quote for Ammunition" on the FedBizOps.gov website on Aug. 7.  The request listed the commodity that SSA desired as ".357 Sig 125 grain bonded jacketed hollow point pistol ammunition."  The quantity listed was "174 TH."

Who Does The Government Intend To Shoot?  The Social Security Administration (SSA) confirms that it is purchasing 174 thousand rounds of hollow point bullets to be delivered to 41 locations in major cities across the U.S.  No one has yet said what the purpose of these purchases is, though we are led to believe that they will be used only in an emergency to counteract and control civil unrest.  Those against whom the hollow point bullets are to be used — those causing the civil unrest — must be American citizens; since the SSA has never been used overseas to help foreign countries maintain control of their citizens. [...] If this were only a one time order of ammunition, it could easily be dismissed.  But there is a pattern here.  The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has ordered 46,000 rounds of hollow point ammunition.

US Homeland Security officials get the okay to amass a vast ammo cache.  According to a report on infowars.com: 'Back in March, Homeland Security purchased 450 million rounds of .40-calibre hollow point bullets that are designed to expand upon entry and cause maximum organ damage, prompting questions as to why the DHS needed such a large amount of powerful bullets merely for training purposes.'  This phenomenal cache of ammunition must be intended for use against Americans, because I understand that hollow point bullets have been illegal in international warfare since 1899.

Agencies tamp down speculation over hollow-point ammo purchases.  Obscure federal agencies triggered a firestorm of conspiracy theories this week after they put out orders for thousands of rounds of deadly hollow-point bullets.  But the agencies, most recently the Social Security Administration, are trying to put a damper on the speculation — noting the ammunition is "standard issue" and simply used for mandatory federal training sessions.

Obama Government On Ammunition Purchases — Move Along Now, Nothing To See Here...  Hundreds of thousands of rounds of hollow-point ammunition is being ordered up by various Obama government agencies, including the National Weather Service, leading for a growing number to question why?  The answer to that question from the Obama administration appears to simply "don't worry about it."

DHS Redacts Quantity of Ammo Order — Issues "Justification for Other Than Full and Open Competition".  In a date-redacted document, DHS claimed "Unusual and Compelling Urgency" NOT to inform the public of quantities of ammo purchased with tax money ($4.6 Million) for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Federal Protective Service (FPS).

Why are Gun Ownership Numbers in U.S. Highest since 1993?  Why does the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration need to purchase ammunition?  NOAA is devoted to studying the weather and providing notice of events such as hurricanes.  Why would meteorologists need to be armed?  Why does the Social Security Administration need to purchase ammunition?  A spokesman for the SSA compared its investigators to state or local police officers who are armed while on "official duty."  Why would the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) specifically purchase 750 million rounds of hollow-point ammunition in March and follow up with an additional 750 million?

The Ammo Controversy.  Several facets of the government have recently purchased a variety of ammunition in large quantities.  In total, more than 1.2 billion rounds of ammunition was ordered between April and August of 2012.  This ammunition primarily consisted of .223 ammunition, which is used in military style weapons such as AR-15s or M16s.  The largest purchase of ammunition was placed by the Department of Homeland Security.  However, the amounts of ammunition were redacted in a later version of the purchase order.  Additional purchases were made by the Social Security Administration and the National Weather Service.

Bullets, False Flags and Biological Warfare: What Is the US Government Planning?  The Pacific Southwest Region of the US Forest Service has solicited ammunition that is supposedly needed for target practice.  In this instance, the amounts of hollow point bullets, 12 gauge rifle slugs, and other accessories are smaller than the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has requested through other federal agencies.  DHS previously ordered more than 63,000,000 rounds of .40 S&W jacketed hollow point bullets (JHP).  The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) published a solicitation for 16,000 rounds of .40 S&W JHP.  The Social Security Office has also made a solicitation for 174,000 rounds of .357 hollow point bullets.  Earlier this month, DHS requested 700 pounds of high density ammonium nitrate and 700 pounds of A-5 Flake RDX explosives.  These ingredients are known to be very high powered explosives.

Christianity & gun owners in the crosshairs: Chilling tactic exposed.  If you are an outspoken Christian in America, you need to be concerned.  If you are an outspoken Christian in America who happens to be a gun owner, you need to be very concerned.  And if you are a Christian gun owner who disagrees with the Progressive anti-Christian agenda in America and have a platform to inform others, you better believe that you are under intense scrutiny. [...] It appears the war against freedom of opinion, freedom of speech, openly professing one's belief in God and the right to bear arms is now sufficient to earn you a medical diagnosis of "psychosis."

Man Sentenced to 30 Days for Catching Rain Water on Own Property Enters Jail.  Gary Harrington, the Oregon man convicted of collecting rainwater and snow runoff on his rural property surrendered Wednesday morning [8/8/2012] to begin serving his 30-day jail sentence in Medford, Ore.  "I'm sacrificing my liberty so we can stand up as a country and stand for our liberty," Harrington told a small crowd of people gathered outside of the Jackson County (Oregon) Jail.  Several people held signs that showed support for Harrington as he was taken inside the jail.

Warrantless searches without probable cause:
Local Government Stupidity Contest.  [Scroll down]  Contestant Number Two is the Metro Police in Washington, DC, which has decided to harass random travelers by searching their bags before they board the subway.  This is akin to the TSA's mindless bureaucracy — but even worse. [...] Good intelligence by the CIA and FBI is the way to stop these crackpots, not empty security theater that makes life more difficult for law-abiding people.

At-Home Bible Study Lands Man in Jail.  Gang-member-turned-pastor Michael Salman found himself behind bars after holding a Bible study at his home, reports Fox News.  Authorities say Salman violated zoning laws, and thus his probation, when he gathered some 80 people at his four-acre home, but the Phoenix man and his family are crying foul, saying his constitutional rights have been violated.  "Christians deserve the right to gather at their homes privately just like every other American has the right to gather for their reasons," says his wife.

EPA Moving to Control All Water in the United States.  There is a story in Net Right Daily about landowner, Dexter Lutter of Noble County, who thought he was cleaning up the water supply and creating a healthier environment for years to come.  Instead, he is facing hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines from the EPA, whose main goal is complete control over all land, air and water.

Landowner engages in clean water act; receives EPA fine.  Dexter Lutter was expecting an award; instead he got a $20,000 fine.  He made environmental improvements on his land — his farm — by taking steps to clean up the water supply and better preserve the soil, but the Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers fined him for his efforts.  "That's how out of touch I am," Lutter says.  "I feel like we should have won a medal for what we did, but the EPA tells us we were wrong."

DOJ Official Won't Say Whether Justice Department Would 'Criminalize Speech against Any Religion'.  Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Thomas Perez refused to say Thursday whether the Justice Department would ever "entertain or advance a proposal that criminalizes speech against any religion."  During a House subcommittee hearing examining fairness in voting rights enforcement, Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Constitution, referenced an article detailing a meeting between top Justice Department officials and Islamist advocates, where the advocates reportedly lobbied officials for "a legal declaration that U.S. citizens' criticism of Islam constitutes racial discrimination."

Oregon Man Sentenced to 30 Days in Jail — for Collecting Rainwater on His Property.  Gary Harrington of Eagle Point, Oregon, says he plans to appeal his conviction in Jackson County Circuit Court on nine misdemeanor charges under a 1925 law for having what state water managers called "three illegal reservoirs" on his property — and for filling the reservoirs with rainwater and snow runoff.

Federal court rules Wisconsin schools' graduations in church were unconstitutional.  A federal appeals court ruled Monday [7/23/2012] that two Wisconsin high schools violated the U.S. Constitution by holding graduations in a church — among the most recent decisions in a long-running debate about the separation of church and state.  A three-judge panel from the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in September the schools did nothing wrong by hold graduation in Elmbrook Church, in the southeastern part of the state.

Choose your Poison, Communism or Other Dictatorship?  I thought we had choices in a free country but I was wrong.  We moved as far away from the metro area as possible to escape [Home Owner Associations].  We could have bought a parcel of land in the woods somewhere, but I am sure, EPA regulations would have made it impossible since everything is close to marshland.  In Maryland, you can no longer build in an area without an established sewer system.  Governor O'Malley, through executive order, has forbidden septic tanks.  Houses can only be built along an approved corridor, thanks to UN Agenda 21's Smart Growth, which requires that a very large portion of our lands be given back to the wilderness.  We must move into high rises, five minutes' walk or bike from work, school, and play.  We no longer live in a free country; we just have an illusion of freedom.

The Drone Zone.  It took a few seconds to figure out exactly what we were looking at.  A white S.U.V. traveling along a highway adjacent to the base came into the cross hairs in the center of the screen and was tracked as it headed south along the desert road.  When the S.U.V. drove out of the picture, the drone began following another car.  "Wait, you guys practice tracking enemies by using civilian cars?" a reporter asked.  One Air Force officer responded that this was only a training mission, and then the group was quickly hustled out of the room.

DHS Labels Liberty-Lovers as Potential Terrorists.  By the Department of Homeland Security's standards, anyone who just celebrated the Fourth of July can be capable of terrorism.  A new study by the DHS states that "those who are reverent of individual liberty" may promote terrorism. [...] But while the report identifies seemingly average Americans as potential terrorists, it completely ignores any references to Islamic terrorism.  In fact, its table displaying the "hot spots" for religious terrorism indicates that there was no such terrorism in New York City in the 1990s — totally disregarding the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in that city.

Man Facing Jail For Hosting Home Bible Study.  A Phoenix man has been sentenced to 60 days in jail after he refused to stop hosting Bible studies in the privacy of his home — in violation of the city's building code laws.  However, the Phoenix city prosecutor's office said the violations have nothing to do with religious freedom — and everything to do with public safety.

The Editor says...
I'll bet they don't check for overcrowding at the neighborhood mosques.

Homeowner Jailed for Hosting Bible Study.  A Phoenix man who violated city zoning laws by hosting a Bible study in the privacy of his home has started serving a 60-day jail sentence for his crimes.  Michael Salman was found guilty in the City of Phoenix Court of 67 code violations.  He was sentenced to 60 days in jail along with three years of probation and a $12,180 fine.  A spokesperson for the city attorney confirmed that Salman reported to a county jail Monday afternoon [7/9/2012].

Government's total control.  How much power does the federal government have to control the lives of Americans and dictate our individual behaviors in any and all ways it chooses?  The answer, according to the Court, is that the federal government has complete and total control over all of us — it has the power to regulate everything we do and everything we choose not to do — provided Congress taxes the income of anyone who fails to comply with the government's dictates.

Gulf Coast States Chafe at Feds' Fishing Seasons.  Louisiana and Florida are considering joining Texas in allowing longer fishing seasons in state waters than federal wildlife officials allow in federally controlled waters further offshore.  Federal wildlife officials completely banned red snapper fishing in the Gulf of Mexico during 2010 and 2011, and they are allowing red snapper fishing for only 40 days in 2012.  Scientists and state wildlife officials say the federal restrictions are too stringent and that longer fishing seasons are warranted in states where red snappers are abundant.

4 Foods the Government Should Ban.  New York Mayor Bloomberg has decided that New Yorkers can't be trusted to have access to soda served in anything larger than a 16 ounce cup.  It's clear that New Yorkers can't be trusted in general, so this ban on soda is not so surprising.  The New York City Council is now eyeing popcorn and coffee drinks for a possible ban, because if you can ban one thing you can ban everything.

Pastors plan to defy IRS ban on political speech.  Setting the stage for a collision of religion and politics, Christian ministers from California and 21 other states will use their pulpits Sunday to deliver political sermons or endorse presidential candidates — defying a federal ban on campaigning by nonprofit groups.  The pastors' advocacy could violate the Internal Revenue Service's rules against political speech with the purpose of triggering IRS investigations.

Human Rights: A Governmental Power Grab.  [Scroll down]  This brings us to a dangerous scenario associated with human rights.  Namely, the way governments can use them as a justification for reaching deeper and deeper into the daily lives of their citizens.  A great example of this can be seen in the way President Obama and his surrogates couched many of their arguments for the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. ObamaCare, in the language of human rights.  According to them, health care is a human right which, in turn, justifies putting a system into place whereby every American has health care coverage.

Some laws are on the books just in case the cops can't think of anything else you've done wrong.
Use a Computer, Go to Jail.  If you are reading this column online at work, you may be committing a federal crime.  Or so says the Justice Department, which reads the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) broadly enough to encompass personal use of company computers as well as violations of website rules that people routinely ignore.  In April the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit rightly rejected this view of the CFAA, which Chief Judge Alex Kozinski noted could conceivably make a criminal out of "everyone who uses a computer."

This sounds like an idea you'd expect to hear in a communist dictatorship.
Desperation: Obama Surrogate Calls to Make Voting Mandatory.  Peter Orszag, former head of the Obama Office of Management and Budget, is desperate.  With even Roll Call recognizing that President Obama is fighting an uphill battle for re-election, Orszag is floating a trial balloon:  mandatory voting.

Voter Apathy Isn't a Crime.  It's a sure sign someone is losing when he demands that the rules be changed.  That might explain the renewed interest in forcing people to vote against their will.  Peter Orszag, President Obama's former budget director and now a vice chairman at Citigroup, recently wrote a column for Bloomberg View arguing for making voting mandatory.

McConnell: 'Radical, Dangerous' Obama Admin Seeks to 'Shut Up' Opponents.  [Scroll down]  McConnell is incensed over the administration's use of government and nongovernmental resources to target its political enemies.  "They've used the IRS, the FEC, the FCC, the SEC, their allies in the Obama campaign to go after people who disagree with them.  The Obama campaign has rifled through the divorce records of a major donor to an opposing super PAC.  The government itself is intimidating donors.  Appointees at the IRS and other agencies are pursuing similar efforts to ferret out who is contributing to outside groups critical of the administration so that they can scare them off the playing field and shut them up."

Federal Judge Reaffirms Her Order Blocking Indefinite Detention by Obama Administration.  Lest there was any lingering doubt, the federal judge who enjoined enforcement of the indefinite detention provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) told the Obama Administration that it may not legally detain an American indefinitely based on a suspicion of support of terrorism unless the government can demonstrate a connection to the attacks of September 11, 2001.

Rhode Island House Defends Constitution, Passes Anti-NDAA Resolution.  After overcoming an attempted sandbagging by members of the Republican leadership, at about nine o'clock Tuesday night [6/12/2012], the House of Representatives of Rhode Island overwhelmingly passed a resolution calling for the repeal of the indefinite detention provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2012. [...] The text of the resolution pulls no punches in its recrimination of the Congress and President for their role in pushing our Republic closer to the precipice of tyranny.

Meet John Brennan, Obama's Assassination Czar.  A relatively unnoticed article by Associated Press reporter Kimberly Dozier two weeks ago outlined new Obama administration policy changes which consolidated power for authorizing drone attacks and assassinations under political appointees within the White House.  The article identifies White House counterterrorism chief John Brennan as the official assuming the role of Obama's de facto assassination czar, raising concerns even within the Obama administration that the White House is increasingly turning into "a pseudo-military headquarters" under the direction of just a few senior Obama administration officials.  Adding to these concerns are serious questions about Brennan's qualifications for this role.

"Never in the history of the CWA has federal regulation defined ditches and other upland features as 'waters of the United States.'"
EPA power grab to regulate ditches, gullies on private property.  Lawmakers are working to block an unprecedented power grab by the Environmental Protection Agency to use the Clean Water Act (CWA) and control land alongside ditches, gullies and other ephemeral spots by claiming the sources are part of navigable waterways.  These temporary water sources are often created by rain or snowmelt, and would make it harder for private property owners to build in their own backyards, grow crops, raise livestock and conduct other activities on their own land, lawmakers say.

Wisc. Pastor Gets Two-Year Sentence for Preaching Spanking.  Black Earth, Wisconsin, pastor Philip Caminiti, 55, has been sentenced to two years in prison for preaching a message that was not well-received by some members of the community.  The message that landed Caminiti in prison is that parents should be spanking their children when they misbehave, even those as young as two months old, with wooden spoons and rods.

This Memorial Day, Freedom Is Dying Before Our Very Eyes.  What if Memorial Day reminds us of times when we had more freedom?  What if freedom is dying right under our eyes?  What if the memory of the past is more fulfilling than the reality of the present?  What if the federal government could write any law, regulate any behavior and tax any event, no matter what the Constitution authorized?

Not buckling up your pet in the car can mean big fines.  Judging from the alarming number of summonses issued so far for failing to buckle up in the back seat, motorists don't seem overly concerned about the current Click It or Ticket crackdown.  After all, most unrestrained drivers and passengers can afford a measly $46 fine.  But if you drive with an unrestrained pet, don't expect a slap on the wrist.  Penalties range from $250 to $1,000 and as much as six months in jail.

The Editor says...
Just imagine if they catch you with a box of kittens in the back of your truck!

43 Catholic institutions file suits over HHS mandate.  This is a critical moment for religious freedom in the US.  If the federal government can define religious expression, then it can control or even outlaw it.

Propaganda that was supposed to target foreigners could now be aimed at Americans, reversing a longstanding policy.
Congressmen Seek To Lift Propaganda Ban.  The new law would give sweeping powers to the State Department and Pentagon to push television, radio, newspaper, and social media onto the U.S. public.  "It removes the protection for Americans," says a Pentagon official who is concerned about the law.  "It removes oversight from the people who want to put out this information.  There are no checks and balances.  No one knows if the information is accurate, partially accurate, or entirely false."  According to this official, "senior public affairs" officers within the Department of Defense want to "get rid" of Smith-Mundt and other restrictions because it prevents information activities designed to prop up unpopular policies — like the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

21 Unanswered Questions That They Don't Want You To Look Into.  [#1]  Why is the TSA being allowed to conduct warrantless searches at bus stations and train stations all over America?  According to an article in the Guardian, the following motto is displayed at the TSA's air marshal training center:  "Dominate. Intimidate. Control."  Why is there no outrage over this?  [#2]  Why does the TSA believe that it is necessary to pat-down a 7-year-old girl with cerebral palsy?  Does touching the private areas of disabled little girls really improve our national security?

Kentucky Supreme Court Rules Highway Checkpoints Illegal.  Kentucky's Supreme Court has ruled that highway checkpoints of drivers who refused to display a $10 city sticker in their window are in fact unconstitutional and therefore, illegal.  The city of Liberty required all 1,850 residents and anyone working within the city limits to purchase and display the sticker, but teachers at a local school had failed to do so, prompting local police to take action.  Those individuals who refused to purchase a $10 sticker and place it in their vehicle windows were targeted by city officials, who mandated that police set up roadblocks.

The Editor says...
This won't be the last case of its kind, as long as there are local politicians willing to implement such a scheme (for as long as they can get away with it), and as long as the local police do whatever they're told, without ever questioning the legality of their orders.  Unfortunately, I think several areas of the U.S. have those ingredients in place.

Federal Government is Keeping Tombstone, Arizona from Accessing Drinking Water.  Tombstone, Arizona, once dubbed "The Town Too Tough To Die," may finally have met its match in the Obama Administration.  According to a lawsuit filed against the United States Department of Agriculture, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, and the USDA Forest Service by the Arizona-based Goldwater Institute, the Forest Service is endangering the town's supply of safe drinking water and ability to fight fires by cutting off the famous city's access to the mountain springs that has provided the desert town with water since the 1880s.

Y2Kyoto: Rise Of The Green Reich.  Not a minute too soon, the Department of Homeland Security has announced that it is creating "environmental justice" units that will be empowered to oversee regulations in conjunction with local governments throughout the country.  The framework for the Environmental Justice Working Group includes eleven federal government agencies, including the TSA, the Secret Service and FEMA.

The Department Of Homeland Security Is Buying 450 Million New Bullets.  The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office is getting an "indefinite delivery" of an "indefinite quantity" of .40 caliber ammunition from defense contractor ATK.  U.S. agents will receive a maximum of 450 million rounds over five years, according to a press release on the deal.  The high performance HST bullets are designed for law enforcement and ATK says they offer "optimum penetration for terminal performance."

The Editor says...
If the Immigration and Customs people need that many bullets, I'd say it's time to put the U.S. Army on the Mexican border.

21 Unanswered Questions That They Don't Want You To Look Into.  [#19]  Why are federal government agencies stockpiling massive amounts of food and ammunition?  Do they know something that we don't?

Why Does The Department Of Homeland Security Need 450 Million Hollow Point Bullets?  Somebody out there has decided that the Department of Homeland Security needs a whole lot of ammunition.  Recently it was announced that ATK was awarded a contract to provide up to 450 million hollow point bullets to the Department of Homeland Security over the next five years.  Is it just me, or does that sound incredibly excessive?  What in the world is the DHS going to do with 450 million rounds?  What possible event would ever require that much ammunition?  If the United States was ever invaded, it would be the job of the U.S. military to defend the country, so that can't be it.  So what are all of those bullets for?

Homeland Security seeking assault and sniper rifles.  The Department of Homeland Security issued a bid for 36 Colt LE901 rifle systems, which will accept and function any military specification (Mil-Spec) .223 caliber upper receiver, and is thus backwards compatible with all CBP/U.S. Border Patrol M4 upper receivers.  Not surprisingly in this matter is the recent award by DHS, but no solicitation can be found for, .223 caliber Remington Enhanced Performance ammunition.

CISPA Assumes Too Much Trust in Government.  In a surprise move the White House issued a statement on Wednesday [4/25/2012] threatening to veto CISPA (Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act) because of privacy concerns. [...] This is the first time in recent memory that the White House has expressed any such concerns.  When signing into law the controversial National Defense Authorization Act [NDAA] the White House blithely ignored its trampling of those same civil liberties through its "indefinite detention" provisions.

Rural kids, parents angry about Labor Dept. rule banning farm chores.  A proposal from the Obama administration to prevent children from doing farm chores has drawn plenty of criticism from rural-district members of Congress.  But now it's attracting barbs from farm kids themselves.  The Department of Labor is poised to put the finishing touches on a rule that would apply child-labor laws to children working on family farms, prohibiting them from performing a list of jobs on their own families' land.  Under the rules, children under 18 could no longer work "in the storing, marketing and transporting of farm product raw materials."

Is there a drone in your neighbourhood?  There are at least 63 active drone sites around the U.S, federal authorities have been forced to reveal following a landmark Freedom of Information lawsuit.  The unmanned planes — some of which may have been designed to kill terror suspects — are being launched from locations in 20 states.

Krauthammer On Drones Flying In US: "Stop It Here, Stop It Now".  "I'm going to go hard left on you here, I'm going ACLU," syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer said in opposition to the use of drones on the U.S. homeland.  "I don't want regulations, I don't want restrictions, I want a ban on this.  Drones are instruments of war.  The Founders had a great aversion to any instruments of war, the use of the military inside even the United States.  It didn't like standing armies, it has all kinds of statutes of using the army in the country."  "A drone is a high-tech version of an old army and a musket.  It ought to be used in Somalia to hunt bad guys but not in America.  I don't want to see it hovering over anybody's home. [...]"

Democrats And Republicans Together Assault Our Liberty.  Both Romney and Obama are enthusiastic advocates of America's bipartisan statist consensus.  More government, all the time and in most every way.  The United States government was created as an institution of limited, enumerated powers with a duty to preserve individual liberty.  Those who wrote the Constitution and the citizens who ratified that document vigorously debated what authority was to be placed into whose hands.  However, the Leviathan which now exercises its power around the globe has far outstripped its intended role.

Where Are the Rolling Heads from NOAA?  NOAA law enforcement collected close to $100,000,000 in fines and seized goods from fishermen over the past several years.  The Department of Commerce IG investigated and found that only about $60M could be accounted for, while some $40M is just plain gone.  This is not taxpayer money, but money taken in huge chunks from fishermen for infractions, some very minor.  Claims by the fishermen of coercion and extortion were validated by the IG.

Is Big Brother's black box coming to your car?  MAP-21 clearly bears the fingerprints of our nanny-in-chief, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, but it passed the Senate last month by a strong bipartisan vote, 74 to 22.  The massive bill federalizes everything within sight of the feds' roving eye. [...] Perhaps most troubling, at least for anyone who harbors even the remotest interest in privacy, MAP-21 mandates that within three years every single passenger vehicle in the country must be outfitted with a "vehicle event data recorder" — the proverbial "black box."

Big Brother's Next Target: Your Car.  Many are quite concerned about Senate Bill 1813, a massive piece of legislation supposedly devoted to transportation issues.  Besides including a provision allowing the IRS the power to revoke passports belonging to those who are delinquent with tax debt in excess of $50,000, it appears that the potential law may be used to measure the size of your carbon footprint each time you get behind the wheel.

Senate-Passed Bill Would Mandate Black Boxes in Cars, Plus More.  [Scroll down]  Approximately 85 percent of vehicles already come equipped with black boxes, notes the NHTSA, whose own guidelines for vehicles include the devices, even though they are not currently mandatory.  According to those guidelines, the boxes must measure such things as speed, position of the gas pedal, whether or not the brakes were pressed, seat belt usage, and the amount of time it took for airbags to deploy.  In fact, it was a black box that landed Massachusetts Lt. Governor Timothy Murray with a hefty fine following the 2011 accident that totaled his vehicle, because the device recorded that he was speeding and was not wearing a seat belt prior to the accident.  However, critics contend that the data box is part of the slippery slope to total surveillance of the transportation habits and whereabouts of Americans.

The Editor says...
The current generation of "black boxes" may only record what happened right before a crash, but there is no way to predict (the limits of) what future software "upgrades" might include.  The black box might be used to show that a vehicle spends a lot of time idling, or that the driver has a habit of excessive acceleration.  The box might also keep track of your movements and whereabouts.  One thing is fairly certain:  The evidence in the "black box" will only be available to the government.  You would have a hard time extracting the data if you needed it for a legal defense.

'Your' Car Won't Be After 2015.  First, the EDRs [Event Data Recorders] could be — and almost certainly will be — tied into your vehicle's GPS.  (Most new and late model cars, conveniently, already have this, too.)  Then data about your driving can be transmitted — as well as recorded.  To whom?  Your insurance company, of course.  Progressive Insurance already has such a system in place — voluntary, for the moment.  When EDRs are mandated, you will no longer have a choice.  We'll be told it's all for the sake of (groan) "safety" — just like the old 55 MPH highway speed limit and every radar trap in the country.  Of course, it's really for the sake of revenue — the government's and the insurance company's.

New federal agency OFR stirs 'Orwellian' fears.  Starting in July, the OFR [Office of Financial Research] Fiscal Year 2013 budget, estimated at $158 million, will be funded entirely through assessments — also known as taxes — on bank-holding firms with consolidated assets worth at least $50 billion.  But as became clear at Thursday's [4/19/2012] hearing by the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, a close reading of the law the president signed provides no limit on the growth of OFR's budget, nor on the taxes the agency can impose on big banks to fund it.

A Government of Waste.  The same Congress that professes outrage over the GSA and the Secret Service escapades does whatever it can get away with every day.  It writes whatever laws it wants; it regulates whatever behavior it chooses; it taxes whatever events it thinks will keep it in power.  And it does so with utter disregard to whether its work is permitted by the Constitution.  The president bombs whatever countries he wants and spies on whatever Americans he chooses and kills whatever persons he fears and lends tax dollars to whatever friends he wishes, as if the Constitution didn't exist.  And the courts look the other way.

TSA harassing and searching a 9 year old.  The only bad thing on our trip was TSA was at the Savannah train station.  There were about 14 agents pulling people inside the building and coralling everyone in a roped area AFTER you got OFF THE TRAIN!  This made no sense!

Sheila Jackson Lee partners with DHS, brings TSA to Houston Metro.  Originally only at the airports, the TSA has since began to expand across America in the form of Visible Intermodal Preparedness and Response or VIPR Teams.  Most recently cropping up in Amtrack stations in Florida and other cities, and setting up illegal checkpoints on state highways in Tennessee.  Now, Houston will be taking part in a national pilot program known as Bus Safe involving the DHS, TSA, Metro Police, Harris County Constables, and Congress woman Sheila Jackson Lee.

TSA expands power, VIPR Squads Roam Florida Train Stations.  Squads of TSA agents conducted random searches and patrols at a train station in West Palm Beach, Florida yesterday [4/21/2011] in yet another example of the expansion of TSA Tyranny beyond the nation's airports.

A Government of Waste.  The same Congress that professes outrage over the GSA and the Secret Service escapades does whatever it can get away with every day.  It writes whatever laws it wants; it regulates whatever behavior it chooses; it taxes whatever events it thinks will keep it in power.  And it does so with utter disregard to whether its work is permitted by the Constitution.  The president bombs whatever countries he wants and spies on whatever Americans he chooses and kills whatever persons he fears and lends tax dollars to whatever friends he wishes, as if the Constitution didn't exist.  And the courts look the other way.

Shredding the Constitution.  The Obama administration has expanded its executive branch powers under a comprehensive czar system and myriad executive orders.  Meanwhile, Congress quietly passes questionable legislation with the potential to limit personal freedoms — and U.S. agencies, such as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Justice (DOJ), engage in activities that raise serious concerns about constitutional violations.  Even local law enforcement officials have become increasingly intrusive and hostile to civil liberties.

Michigan government unleashes armed raids on small pig farmers.  NaturalNews can now confirm that the Michigan Department of Natural Resources has, in total violation of the Fourth Amendment, conducted two armed raids on pig farmers in that state, one in Kalkaska County at Fife Lake and another in Cheboygan County.  Staging raids involving six vehicles and ten armed men, DNA conducted unconstitutional, illegal and arguably criminal armed raids on these two farms with the intent of shooting all the farmers' pigs under a bizarre new "Invasive Species Order" (ISO) that has suddenly declared traditional livestock to be an invasive species.

Why America is Devolving Towards Absolute Government Control.  The relentless encroachment of socialism upon America's economic, cultural and governmental landscape is like a bad dream to most red-blooded Americans.  When society changes it can seem like the ineluctable drift of evolution or chance.  But in the case of America's ongoing continued expansion of government powers, spiking taxes, and shrinking military, it's all part of a planned elitist push into socialism.  And one need not believe in secret conspiracies when contemplating this shift.

Zoning the ocean.  President Barack Obama has an ambitious plan for Washington bureaucrats to take command of the oceans — and with it control over much of the nation's energy, fisheries, even recreation in a move described by lawmakers as the ultimate power grab to zone the seas.  The massive undertaking also includes control over key inland waterways and rivers that reach hundreds of miles upstream, and began with little fanfare when Obama signed an executive order in 2010 to protect the aquatic environment.

AG Beau Biden, Mandates That Sheriffs No Longer Have Arrest Powers.  Sheriff Jeff Christopher of Sussex County, Delaware, when he was elected to the office in 2010, thought he was handpicked by the people to represent them as the highest-ranking law officer in the county.  Instead, he has found himself in the middle of a fight for the future of American law enforcement as a result of a nationwide effort to abolish the sheriff's office altogether.

The Editor says...
Any time there is a power struggle like this, it's not good -- for us.

IRS may be given the authority to restrict travel.  Imagine someday in the not too distant future having to apply for a government permit to sell your home and move somewhere else.  Imagine that you apply for and are denied a permit to visit your grandchildren in another state. ... Americans best sit up and take note of this new encroachment on our rights.

Obama to restrict travel.  Kurt Nimmo of Info Wars reported, "Senator Barbara Boxer's MAP-21 (Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act) is headed to the House after clearing the Senate last month.  Boxer's bill allows the federal government to revoke the passports of citizens the IRS claims owe taxes."  Revoke.  On a whim.  Without trial.  All the IRS has to do is accuse you of not paying your taxes.

5 New Ways the IRS Is [Harshly and Unfairly Treating] America.  [#2]  The United States Senate on March 14th passed a transportation funding bill that contained a slipped-in section authorizing the "denial, revocation, or limitation of a passport" for anyone with "a seriously delinquent tax debt in an amount in excess of $50,000."  The "revocation" bit is especially heinous:  Even the outrageous and barely-known State Department provision denying passports to those who owe $2,500 in back child support only deals with issuances and renewals.  Now the feds are apparently willing to actively hunt you down and take away your getaway card.

Freedom Is a Smoky Burnout.  How long before it becomes a crime to drive a pre-computer vehicle?

Five Ways that Barack Obama has Decimated the American Economy.  American businesses were vastly over-regulated before Obama got into office, but he has kicked things into high gear.  Hundreds of new regulations are being added each month.  There are different ways to estimate the staggering compliance cost for all of these regulations, but the numbers go as high as 84 billion dollars.  That's 84 billion dollars A YEAR that could be used to expand businesses, buy new equipment, and hire workers to increase production instead of doing paperwork for the federal government.

Supreme Court Ruling Allows Strip-Searches for Any Offense.  The Supreme Court on Monday ruled by a 5-to-4 vote that officials may strip-search people arrested for any offense, however minor, before admitting them to jails even if the officials have no reason to suspect the presence of contraband.  Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, joined by the court's conservative wing, wrote that courts are in no position to second-guess the judgments of correctional officials who must consider not only the possibility of smuggled weapons and drugs but also public health and information about gang affiliations.

Obama's power grab.  In short, the order gives Mr. Obama the ability to impose martial law.  He now possesses the potential powers of a dictator.  The order is a direct assault on individual liberties, private property rights and the rule of law.  It is blatantly unconstitutional.  The executive branch is arrogating responsibilities precluded by the Constitution without even asking the permission of Congress.  The order gives Mr. Obama a blank check to erect a centralized authoritarian state.  This is a law one would expect to find in Hugo Chavez's Venezuela or Vladimir Putin's Russia.

Martial Law Executive Order: History Should Cause Concern, Not Comfort.  This executive order is but the latest document in President Obama's ever-expanding dossier of dictatorship.  The National Defense Authorization Act permits the President to deploy the military to arrest and indefinitely detain American citizens without charge and without due process.  The Federal Restricted Buildings and Ground Improvement Act revokes the rights of speech and assembly protected by the First Amendment. ... Readers are encouraged to study the history of tyranny.  Demagogues are always crowned by the people with autocratic authority in response to the need for safety, particularly when faced with the exigencies of national emergencies.  Although its mention is nearly cliché, consider the example of Germany in the 1930s.

The Fear of Martial Law.  The President of the United States of America, Barack Hussein Obama, has generated so much fear that the most common theme of posted comments and private communications is that he will refuse to relinquish power if defeated in November or that, under some pretext, he will declare a state of martial law.  Many, myself included, did not like the Patriot Act that was enacted following 9/11 but there is little evidence that this law has been abused to deprive Americans of their fundamental rights and freedom, though surely some suspected of being terrorists were detained.  An Executive Order posted on the White House website on Friday, March 16, 2012, has generated a wave of fear.

The states recognize a threat on the horizon.
Virginia's Anti-NDAA Bill Set to Become Law; Ariz. Joins the Fight.  After agreeing to changes suggested by Governor Bob McDonnell, both houses of the state legislature of Virginia passed HB 1160, the bill sponsored (and shepherded) by Delegate Bob Marshall (left) that prohibits state officers and agents from participating in the unconstitutional detention of citizens of the Old Dominion.

Is the CIA in your kitchen?  The war on drugs has regrettably weakened the intended protections of the Fourth Amendment, and the Patriot Act — which permits federal agents to write their own search warrants — has dealt it a serious blow.  That act, which has not yet been ruled upon by the Supreme Court, fortunately has not yet animated the Supreme Court's privacy jurisprudence.  Last year, the court invalidated the police use of warrantless heat-seeking devices aimed at the home, and it will probably soon invalidate the warrantless use of GPS devices secretly planted by cops in cars. ... Relying on the Patriot Act, federal agents have written their own search warrants just like the British soldiers did [in the 18th century].  They have done this more than 250,000 times since 2001.

If our government can do this, what can they not do?  It's always fascinating when people on either side of a partisan divide give each other gifts.  Case in point:  President Obama's approval of a rule ordering Catholic institutions to offer insurance policies covering birth control, sterilization procedures and the morning after pill — all contrary to church teachings.  No one has fully explained why Obama took this step.

The CIA wants to spy on you through your TV.  When people download a film from Netflix to a flatscreen, or turn on web radio, they could be alerting unwanted watchers to exactly what they are doing and where they are.  Spies will no longer have to plant bugs in your home — the rise of 'connected' gadgets controlled by apps will mean that people 'bug' their own homes, says CIA director David Petraeus.  The CIA claims it will be able to 'read' these devices via the internet — and perhaps even via radio waves from outside the home.

CIA Chief: We'll Spy on You Through Your Dishwasher.  More and more personal and household devices are connecting to the internet, from your television to your car navigation systems to your light switches.  CIA Director David Petraeus cannot wait to spy on you through them.  Earlier this month, Petraeus mused about the emergence of an "Internet of Things" — that is, wired devices — at a summit for In-Q-Tel, the CIA's venture capital firm.  "'Transformational' is an overused word, but I do believe it properly applies to these technologies," Petraeus enthused, "particularly to their effect on clandestine tradecraft."

US Secret Service Says No Anti-Obama Rallies Allowed!  When the US Secret Service discovered that the enterprising group of our Southeast New Mexico Patriots had, also, switched their plans and would drive to Roswell to engage in peaceful and Constitutionally allowed dissent against the Obama policies of the destruction of the United States of America, the SS began to put their respective feet down.  First, the SS made a strong request that the anti-Obama rally not occur... at all.  When the TEA Party members advised them that they still planned to do so, it was announced that the main road (Earl Cummings Loop) into and out of the Roswell airport would be closed.  In other words, ONLY the planned Obama sycophants, adherents and Adoration Groups will be allowed in... all others no longer have any free speech.

End The Tyranny — No Regulation Without Representation.  By 1760, our forefathers had popularized the slogan "no taxation without representation."  That was shorthand for their biggest complaint, that the government of Britain was imposing taxes on the colonists even though the colonists had no voice in the British Parliament.  They described it as a tyranny and our nation was born in the war fought over it.  Today, with Obama openly ruling through regulatory bureaucracies and without regard to Congress, justifying his acts by stating that "we can't wait" for Congress to act, our nation faces essentially the same problem of our 1750 colonialist forebearers — a tyranny.

Fifth Amendment Protects Suspects from Having to Decrypt Hard Drives.  Over time, whether one chooses to like it or not, governments may be forced to accept the reality that increasing amounts of data will remain beyond their abilities to successfully demand, regardless of sanctions and pressures applied to defendants or other interested parties.

Can the Secret Service Tell You To Shut Up?  When the Framers of the Constitution wrote the First Amendment, they lived in a society in which anyone could walk up to George Washington or John Adams or Thomas Jefferson on a public street and say directly to them whatever one wished.  They never dreamed of a regal-like force of armed agents keeping public officials away from the public, as we have today.  And they never imagined that it could be a felony for anyone to congregate in public within earshot or eyesight of certain government officials.  And yet, today in America, it is.

Another Brick Removed.  HR 347 was recently signed into law by President Obama.  This statute had wide support amongst both parties of Congress.  In essence, it criminalizes disruptive behavior upon government grounds, at specially designated national events (Super Bowl, nominating conventions, etc.) and anywhere that Secret Service is protecting "any" person.  Obviously, the goal of this law is to enhance the ability of the Secret Service to protect those persons it is charged to do so; but in extending this power, this law eviscerates the citizens' rights to assemble and petition under the First Amendment.

Business Owner Threatened with Jail Time for Flying American Flag.  A Georgia man was slapped with a ticket and threatened with jail time after he refused to remove an American flag that's been flying outside his business for more than thirty years.  An Albany code enforcement officer alleged that Tom Gieryic's flag was in violation of the city's sign ordinance.  The standard size American flag was posted on a pole outside Gieryic's automotive repair shop.

Justice Department to Force Public Pools to Install Elevators.  A new regulation from the Justice Department will require "public-access swimming pools across the country to install handicapped-accessible ramps and lifts or face a fine of up to $100,000," the Hill reports.  This regulation could cost "hotels and other organizations ...to spend up to $9,000 to stay in compliance with the rule."

Poolmageddon.  Today [3/14/2012] is "Poolmageddon" — the day when sweeping new regulations governing the provision of handicapped lifts for public swimming pools go into effect.  The rule, which Eric Holder's Justice Department somehow found time to promulgate in between gun-running excursions to Mexico, says that "all public access swimming pools must provide a lift capable of moving disabled patrons from their wheelchairs into the water," according to the Washington Examiner.

"Poolmageddon" postponed 60 days by our merciful Justice Department.  CNN brings us the joyous news that our wise and compassionate masters have realized their latest hyper-regulations might be just a wee bit difficult to comply with — by which I mean, "physically impossible" — and have generously allowed us an extra 60 whole days to get with the program.

Thanks again, Obama voters.
ObamaCare Subjects Nearly Every Phone and Computer to Government Control.  On July 19, 2011, the Obama Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released Draft Guidance for Industry and Food and Drug Administration Staff on Mobile Medical Applications[, i.e.,] our smartphone, tablet and computer apps.  The Obama Administration — the most unilateral-power-grab Presidency in our nation's history — is asserting that these mobile medical apps may pose "risks."  And thusly should be regulated as medical devices.

Those 'Rogue' Prosecutors.  North Carolina has no Speedy Trial law; a suspect may literally be jailed for years before trial.  Grand juries keep no transcripts, and a defendant indicted by a grand jury has no right to a probable cause hearing where he may contest the jury's conclusions.  In practice, a district attorney may accuse anyone before a grand jury, falsify evidence to get an indictment, and then hold his targeted suspect for years before releasing him.  This gives a prosecutor almost unlimited power to pressure defendants into accepting plea deals and inculcates in them a sense of invincibility.

Congress Passes Bill Severely Curtailing First Amendment Liberties.  A bill has just passed the House and the Senate that criminalizes protests anywhere near the presence of a designated government official.  On Monday [2/27/2012], the U.S. House of Representatives voted nearly unanimously (388-3) in favor of H.R. 347, the Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act of 2011.  As part of this legislation, Congress expressly forbids trespass onto the grounds of the White House.  Many likely believe that such a law already existed and they are right.  The controversial aspect of this bill's restatement of that statute is that it expands the scope of the federal government's authority to bring charges against those deemed trespassers at any location placed provisionally under the jurisdiction of the Secret Service.  The present state of the law prosecutes White House trespassers under a local Washington, D.C. ordinance.  Prior to this latest federal action, violation of this ordinance was a misdemeanor.

Protests Near Secret Service Protected Folk Effectively Outlawed.  In case you question the value of having a Justin Amash or a Ron Paul in the House of Representatives, they were two of only three votes against H.R. 347, the "Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act of 2011." ... Although [Secret Service] protection isn't extended to just everybody, making it a federal offense to even accidently disrupt an event attended by a person with such status essentially crushes whatever currently remains of the right to assemble and peacefully protest.

Obama is judge, jury and executioner.  In a speech to students at the Northwestern School of Law, Holder asserted that Barack Obama had the lawful power to order "the killing of American citizens overseas" if the president believes, based on secret information, that the American citizen is an "operational leader of al-Qaeda."  Holder went on to state that the presidential power to declare an American citizen an enemy of the state based on secret information and order the death of that person was sufficient "due process."  He declared that the "Constitution guarantees due process, not judicial process" overturning 200 years of settled case law in one sentence.

Surveillance without proper authority is illegal.  On June 2, 2009, a janitor in an office building in New Brunswick, N.J., noticed what he thought was terrorist-related literature and sophisticated surveillance equipment in an office he had been assigned to clean.  He told his boss, who called the local police, who notified the FBI.  Later in the day, the FBI and the New Brunswick police broke into the office and discovered five men busily operating the equipment.  Four of the men were officers from the New York City Police Department, and the fifth was a CIA agent.  The conundrum faced by all of these public servants soon became apparent.  Who should arrest whom?

Paying Cash for that Latte? It May Land You on FBI's Terrorist List.  Really?  Yes, crazy as it sounds, in our post-9/11 snitch/spy/surveillance society, if you "always pay cash," you may be marked as a potential terrorist.  That's according to an FBI flyer that appears to be aimed at proprietors and employees of Internet cafés.

Church Ordered to Stop Giving Away Free Water.  A Louisiana church was ordered to stop giving away free water along Mardi Gras parade routes because they did not have the proper permits.  "We were given a cease and desist order," said Matt Tipton, pastor of Hope Church in Metairie, LA.  "We had no idea we were breaking the law."

Death of a nation.  It was bad enough when the Congress told all citizens of this country that we did not control our own health destiny — that we either accepted the dictates of the government or would be fined accordingly.  But now, to be told that the state controls not only our medical choices but also our moral choices — that is really too much to bear.

The Rising Fever of Despotism.  Nowhere in the Constitution do we find that Executive branch appointees, such as those comfortably ensconced at HHS, EPA, or Treasury may write laws that the people are expected to obey.  Congress and her law-writing committees were once responsible for actually writing all the Federal laws and regulations, down to the smallest detail.  Now Congress passes two thousand pages of overview legislation that specifically permits the unelected, unappointed, and unconfirmed bureaucrats to add cauldrons full of the devil brew to the details of new legislation.  The Founders of this country would be aghast at the powers so easily forfeited by Congress and hoarded by the Executive branch.

Impeach Them All.  The government has now grown to Leviathan proportions.  It is into everything from light bulbs to toilets and every other aspect of our lives.  No business is immune from inane and arbitrary bureaucratic regulations, most of which make no economic, environmental or occupational sense.  Faceless bureaucrats now run your life and your business, believing they are more knowledgeable and trustworthy than you.  Via force they have slowly crippled the productivity of American workers and companies.  In doing so, they raise the cost of living for all citizens.

California's New Frisbee Law Just Latest Attempt to Raise Cash.  This week, Los Angeles County okayed a new regulation banning the throwing of Frisbees or footballs on the beaches — which, of course, destroys the purpose of living in Southern California in the first place.  The first offense will earn you a hefty $100 fine; the second, $200; the third and beyond, $500.  You can, of course, apply for a permit.  For parents with industrious children, holes deeper than 18 inches are also banned — so get your kids the cheap plastic shovels or pay a fine.

LA County OKs $1,000 Fine For Throwing Football, Frisbee On Beaches.  When you head down to the beach for a little fun this summer, county officials want you to know about some updated rules.  The Board of Supervisors this week agreed to lift an all-out ban on playing with footballs, other balls and Frisbees on the beach, according to a media statement released by the L.A. County Department of Beaches and Harbors.

Los Angeles County Bans Frisbees on Beaches.  The moonbat micromanagers ruling La-La Land must finally be running out of things to ban.  Now they're suppressing fun on the beach.

10 years in prison for Sudafed?  Amazingly, many of the supporters of a throw-'em-in-prison-for-possession-of-Sudafed law are the very same people who complain that we have too many people in prison because of our nation's drug laws.

Mark Levin: We're Living In A Post-Constitutional America.  We are not a representative republic really in the true sense anymore.  We have this massive administrative state with, you know, hundreds of thousands if not several million bureaucrats who are making laws and issuing them every day, 80,000 pages last year.  So that's not a representative republic.

On the Church, the Military, and the Descent into Tyranny.  If a chaplain can be commanded to change his archbishop's letter calling a government policy unjust; if he can be called seditious for reading the letter; if he can be commanded to change or expurgate the words of his spiritual superior, the archbishop; if the archbishop himself can be commanded to censor statements about Church doctrines and practices, then religious freedom and free speech in this country are dead, and no American is safe from attack by his own government.

Homeland Security: You're All 'Militia Extremists' Now.  A recently published "lexicon" distributed to thousands of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) targets citizens concerned about their Second Amendment rights and the steady encroachment of the federal government, categorizing such as "militia extremists." ... So what drives militia extremism according to DHS now is "belief that the government deliberately is stripping Americans of their freedoms."  It is demonstrated by opposing "many federal and state authorities' laws and regulations, (particularly those related to firearms ownership)."  Would writing about those topics (as I am now) fall under "facilitation"?

The Military Is Now Telling Catholic Chaplains What They Can And Can't Say About The Obama Administration.  All the bishops in the country sent out a letter to be read in their parishes promising that the Church "cannot — and will not — comply with this unjust law."  Even Archbishop Timothy Broglio, who is in charge of Catholic military chaplains sent out the same letter.  But after he did, the Army's Office of the Chief of Chaplains sent out another communication forbidding Catholic priests to read the letter, in part because it seemed to encourage civil disobedience, and could be read as seditious against the Commander-in-Chief.

How states are restricting political speech.  Dina Galassini does not seem to pose a threat to Arizona's civic integrity.  But the government of this desert community believes that you cannot be too careful.  And state law empowers local governments to be vigilant against the lurking danger that political speech might occur before the speakers notify the government and comply with all the speech rules.

Obey the feds or else.  We have a socialist President and an aggressive Administration where disobedience to its new rules will be severly punished.  And, shockingly, such disobedience is already being punished in a park near you.  A single event can beautifully illuminate the darkness ahead.

Labor Dept. Targets the Family Farm.  Yes, sometimes the work is dangerous and accidents do happen.  They can be serious, even fatal.  But the rewards of the culture of the family farm have long been believed to far outweigh the risks, and government historically left parenting and farm family life alone.  That's about to change.  The Obama Administration is proposing to use the force of federal law to usurp the judgment of farm parents and replace it with government regulations.  Led by big labor, union advocate Hilda Solis, Secretary of Labor, the Administration is proposing a sweeping set of new rules ... Solis believes that some farm work is "too hazardous for children to be engaged in."  How she knows this is anyone's guess since she apparently has never lived or worked on a farm, nor do we find any evidence that she has children of her own.

Neither liberty nor safety.  Obama's FBI has obtained a court order against an American woman accused of mortgage fraud to force her to decrypt her PGP-scrambled hard drive so that the FBI can fish around without a warrant in her personal computer for incriminating evidence.  The judge said the Fifth Amendment did not apply.  For Obama, the Constitution (that "list of negative rights") does not apply whenever it acts to restrain his objectives.

Neither liberty nor safety.  "No Child Left Behind" has been expanded to collect not only student test scores and grades, but the government now keeps permanent records on students' disciplinary actions, economic status, and even pregnancies.  Worse, the feds discourage the states from allowing parents to access these "permanent records."  What police state has ever done without such record keeping?

Religious intolerance, California-style.  The Obama administration proved Friday that California laws continue to have national influence.  But this time, the pattern has wrought a serious violation of the First Amendment protection for religious liberty.

Do President Obama and his fellow Democrats seriously believe that "government should not intrude on private family matters?"  Let us count the ways!
Obama's Government vs. Your Family:  [Scroll down]  The idea that liberal Democrats like Barack Obama regard anything as a "private family matter" is ludicrous.  As far as they are concerned, every single thing that you and your family do is a proper subject for government regulation.  The doctrine of "choice" ends once your child is born.  If you think that there is some other aspect of your life, or your family's that is so personal and so private that the Democrats couldn't possibly want to regulate and control it — well, then, you are a fool.

Why is it necessary to conduct military exercises in a big city?
LA Military Exercises.  The training, which a department official said would involve helicopters, has been coordinated with local authorities and owners of the training sites, police said.  Police said safety precautions have been taken to prevent risk to the general public and military personnel involved.  The exercises are closed to the public, police said.

Obama and his Syndicate.  [Scroll down]  Now the extremely bad news for US citizens.  First, on 19 January 2012, multiple videos were made of a shipment — via rail — of hundreds of Bradley armored vehicles and related equipment moving from Northern California Southward. ... The US military, Department of Homeland Security and LOCAL Police are conducting "urban warfare exercises" in recent and unprecedented "showings of force" under the now undeniable (by any intelligent beings) Dictator-in-Chief Barack Hussein Obama.  These military forces are inhabiting the streets and air of and over Los Angeles, Boston, Little Rock, Miami and Colorado amongst others.

The Case Against Driver's Licenses:  Even a person merely walking down the street, having committed no crime, can be compelled to produce his ID.  And if that person lacks an ID, that person will very likely be arrested on the spot and held until his identity is ascertained.  This is the reality of Homeland America.  You must have permission to move.  You do not move freely.  Even if you are walking.

Moisturizing the EPA.  The Sacketts had purchased a small lot in Priest Lake, Idaho, to build their home.  The lot was in a residential area and they obtained all the necessary permits, graded the lot, and dumped gravel for the foundation.  Then the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) suddenly declared their lot a federally protected wetland under the Clean Water Act, and told the Sacketts they must restore it to pristine condition or face a fine of $37,500 per day.  They were told they could not appeal until they had exhausted all administrative remedies.

FEMA lives at your house.  FEMA is stocking barbed wire camps with food and water as if they are expecting lots of company.  The government does not need to round up people via FEMA.  They already have the ability to control you in your own home.  Government now knows through Smart Meters when you're home or away; how much power you use and effectively curtails your ability to choose certain products, like Mr. Edison's incandescent light bulb.  The Big Government noose around the neck of its citizens has been tightening all along.  The government made a FEMA prison camp out of your home a long time ago.

A Fine for Not Using a Biofuel That Doesn't Exist.  When the companies that supply motor fuel close the books on 2011, they will pay about $6.8 million in penalties to the Treasury because they failed to mix a special type of biofuel into their gasoline and diesel as required by law.  But there was none to be had.  Outside a handful of laboratories and workshops, the ingredient, cellulosic biofuel, does not exist.

EPA Fines Companies Because They Didn't Use A Fuel That Doesn't Exist.  The Orwellian nightmare of running a business in the shadow of the Obama Administration is nicely captured in this story from the New York Times, which explains why motor fuel companies are about to be fined $6.8 million for failure to use a biofuel that does not exist.

More about the EPA.

Obama's Fascist America in 10 Easy Steps.  [#4]  Set up an internal surveillance system.  Obama has set up and is setting up a heavy internet surveillance.  DHS has special spy technology capable of seeing through walls and has vans cruising city streets, spying on Americans indiscriminately.  And don't forget Obama's "Truth Squad" in Missouri, where elected Democrats were cruising the internet looking for examples of "misrepresentations" and threatening to use legal means to suppress opponent's "Lies."

Feds Want Judge to Force Suspect to Give Up Laptop Password.  Federal prosecutors want a judge to order a Colorado woman to provide the password to decrypt her laptop, which the government seized with a search warrant.  With backup from digital rights groups, the woman is fighting the feds, arguing that being forced to provide her password violates the Fifth Amendment's protection against forced self-incrimination.

Judge Orders Defendant to Decrypt Laptop.  A judge on Monday [1/23/2012] ordered a Colorado woman to decrypt her laptop computer so prosecutors can use the files against her in a criminal case.  The defendant, accused of bank fraud, had unsuccessfully argued that being forced to do so violates the Fifth Amendment's protection against compelled self-incrimination.  "I conclude that the Fifth Amendment is not implicated by requiring production of the unencrypted contents of the Toshiba Satellite M305 laptop computer," Colorado U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn ruled Monday [1/23/2012].

'Disappearing' dissenters in Obama's new Amerika.  Patriots, who long clung to the hope that in the end the US military would be on the side of the people, will now live in the real fear of being nabbed off their streets by the military and packed off to Gitmo.  The effects of this bill on American society are truly monstrous and were birthed by someone with a never-ending evil hatred of America and its people.

Connecting the dots on the National Defense Authorization Act.  While much of the bill deals with the mundane, sections 1031 and 1032 are raising the concerns of many, including some unlikely allies.  In plain speak, those sections of the bill broadly classifies certain U.S. citizens as terrorists, and allow for military intervention against such citizens on U.S. soil.  The language of the bill is cumbersome and difficult to assess, thus creating some plausible deniability for those who support this piece of draconian legislation.  Representative Justin Amash (D-MI) apparently agrees.  According to Rep. Amash, the language of the bill is "carefully crafted to mislead the public."

The NDAA and Suspension of Habeas Corpus: Not Just for "Enemy Combatants" Anymore.  Remember all those neocons and Republicans who cheered George W. Bush's "indefinite detainment" of "enemy combatants"?  Many of them — though, amazingly, not all — have lost their enthusiasm for trampling the Constitution now that Obama's administration has suspended habeas corpus for American citizens, too, with the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 (NDAA).

Obama on Guns:  [Scroll down]  In fact, there is an undercurrent of Americans who are sick and tired of politicians turning their backs on the Constitution in their attempts to manage our lives and money, and are calling, no screaming, for a return of Constitutional principles of governing.  Now if those same politicians who turn a blind eye to the constraints placed upon them in the Constitution are successful in taking our guns away, we will find an America vulnerable to tyrannical government; a situation that will mark the beginning of the end of our Republic.

Tweeting the word 'drill' could mean your Twitter account is read by U.S. government spies.  The Department of Homeland Security makes fake Twitter and Facebook profiles for the specific purpose of scanning the networks for 'sensitive' words — and tracking people who use them.  Simply using a word or phrase from the DHS's 'watch' list could mean that spies from the government read your posts, investigate your account, and attempt to identify you from it, acccording to an online privacy group.

The Editor says...
In many other countries, you might be in big trouble if you merely mentioned a word like "dynamite" in your e-mail or telephone conversations.  We in the United States should have the freedom to communicate with almost any combination of words and phrases, especially if those words and sentences are not used in a manner which is unlawful, threatening, abusive, harassing, or defamatory, and as long as these words and sentences do not encourage conduct that would constitute a criminal offense.  Of course, if you're writing to a soldier overseas during a war, naturally your mail will be opened and read before it gets to its destination.  Just in the last 20 years or so, some governments around the world have begun to sift through every email and phone call, especially the ones travelling across international borders.  In the United States, there are fairly well-known systems in place to do this 24 hours a days and report suspicious words and phrases if any are detected.

Obama's Freeloader Economy.  Whether it is bullying people to buy mercury-filled light bulbs, or bullying Boeing to sign up for more union labor, or bullying people into government health care, or forcing the American people to pay good money to crony solar and wind capitalists, or jacking up the price of energy to save the planet, or bullying millionaires and billionaires into coughing up more taxes, it's the new dance at the predator's ball.

The Hitman Cometh.  When the first citizen was felled by President Obama's new citizen assassination program, the act was lauded by members of both parties as a tough and needed measure to successfully prosecute the war on terror.  I counseled that this new and self-declared power would quickly morph into something dangerous to both democratic dialogue and the expression of ideas, potentially putting anyone with the temerity to criticize the President at risk.  Since no one has seen the names of the persons supposedly on the classified "hit list," there is no accountability in the way the new program is leveraged or organized.

DC Resident Fined Thousands For Not Recycling Cat Litter.  Dupont Circle resident Patricia White says she has been fined eight times for throwing homemade cat litter in her trash.  The fines total $2,000.  White says she shreds old newspaper and junk mail to use as cat litter.  She believes she is helping the environment by reusing the paper and avoiding cat litter you will find in stores.  After being fined several times, White says she called the Department of Public Works inspector who issued the tickets.  According to White, the inspector admitted to digging through trash looking for violations.

Obama's Standing Army of Regulators among Us.  The Third Amendment, prohibiting the quartering of government troops in peacetime in private homes, seems irrelevant in modern times.  Yet how is the intrusion of government regulators into every corner of our lives substantively different from quartering troops in our homes without our consent?  While Americans have clashed in sharp debate over taxation from the very beginning, government regulation has, oddly enough, escaped scrutiny.  Yet regulators' destruction of a vibrant economy by strangling industry and commerce while depriving owners of their private property rights is as toxic and pervasive as taxation.

Washington doesn't need to regulate rain.  If the Supreme Court declines to review it, a recent ruling from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco will put federal courts into the business of managing every acre of privately owned timberland in America.  Farmers beware.  You could be next.  In May, the 9th Circuit determined that rainwater draining from forest roads into local streams, rivers and lakes is "point source pollution."  As such, it must be regulated in the same way effluent from sewage-treatment plants is regulated.  To make a long story short, rainwater that accumulates alongside logging roads has become a new target of environmental litigators.  Several lawsuits were filed within days of the 9th Circuit's decision.

Indefinite Detention and American Citizens.  I, like most Americans, want to ensure that we punish and prevent terrorism.  However, we must do so in a way that protects the rights of American citizens.  In his recent column, Andrew C. McCarthy simply has his facts wrong when he claims that last week's Senate debate on the 2012 defense-authorization bill was not about American citizens.  It was.

Top 10 Most Needed Government Reforms.  [#5]  Reduce regulations:  America is drowning in red tape, which is choking the entrepreneurial spirit of small businesses and hampering job creation.  The best way to get the economy moving again is to relieve the regulatory burden dumped on the private sector by overbearing federal bureaucrats.

Justice Dept. Targets Freedom of Information Act.  With the U.S. Justice Department and Attorney General Eric Holder continually under fire these days, it was something of a surprise, even to Capitol Hill insiders, that the Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, is now in the crosshairs, and that new rules are being advanced not only to deny the public access to documents, but to lie outright, telling requesters that either the documents never existed or don't exist now.

Secret Bill To Be Voted On Today Would Allow The Military To Sweep Up US Citizens At Home Or Abroad.  Either Monday or Tuesday [November 28/29, 2011] the Senate will vote on a bill that allows the US military to imprison civilians with no formal charges and hold them with no trial.  The ACLU reports even US citizens wouldn't be immune as the legislation aims to declare national territory part of the "battlefield" in the War on Terror.

The Declaration of Independence Defines Our Principles.  Is it not sad that the most fundamental aspects of our ability to live as a free people boil down these days to how nine Supreme Court justices choose to read and interpret a word or phrase?  Is it not sad that most basic violations of individual liberty are not intuitively obvious to so many citizens and members of Congress?  Or perhaps even sadder, that liberty may no longer be the objective?

Hydrophophia.  Americans retain control over their government, throwing the bums out from time to time.  But do we?  80,000 pages of regulations were published last year at the Federal level, alone.  That's just over 220 pages per day.  An unknown number of these federal regulations specify penalties for non-compliance, up to and including jail time.  Do any of them affect you?  Are you sure?  In reality, it is very likely you've already committed a federal crime or punishable infraction, and the day is young.

DOJ: Lying on Match.com needs to be a crime.  The U.S. Department of Justice is defending computer hacking laws that make it a crime to use a fake name on Facebook or lie about your weight in an online dating profile at a site like Match.com.

Members of Congress get away with activities that would send you or me to prison.
The Wonk Who Slays Washington.  [Peter] Schweizer had been struck by the fact that members of Congress are free to buy and sell stocks in companies whose fate can be profoundly influenced, or even determined, by Washington policy, and he wondered, do these ultimate insiders act on what they know?  Yes, Schweizer found, they certainly seem to.  Schweizer's research revealed that some of Congress's most prominent members are in a position to routinely engage in what amounts to a legal form of insider trading, profiting from investment activity that, he says, "would send the rest of us to prison."

Justice Breyer warns of Orwellian government.  A Supreme Court justice on Tuesday [11/8/2011] expressed major concerns that the government would engage in round-the-clock surveillance reminiscent of the totalitarian world of the George Orwell novel 1984 if the court ruled in the government's favor.  The court heard oral arguments in the Jones case, in which the outcome will determine whether warrantless GPS tracking by law enforcement is an invasion of Fourth Amendment protection from unreasonable search and seizure.

Why the Supreme Court GPS Decision Won't Stop Warrantless Digital Surveillance:  On January 23 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that law enforcement authorities do not generally have a right to affix a GPS tracking device to a suspect's car without first obtaining a valid warrant.  Of the many things that can be said about the case, which has been called the most important Fourth Amendment test in a decade, perhaps the most sobering in the long run will be this:  the decision is based on technology assumptions that are rapidly becoming irrelevant.

Levin: U.S. Has Become A 'Post-Constitutional Gov't' Heading For 'Utopian Tyranny'.  Speaking at the Americans For Prosperity (AFP) event at the DC Convention Center on Nov. 5, [Mark] Levin said the U.S. has become "a Post-Constitutional government transitioning into an increasingly Utopian tyranny."

Supreme Court justice: Warrantless GPS tracking 'sounds like 1984'.  The Supreme Court heard oral arguments today in United States v. Jones, a case that will determine whether the government has the right to use GPS devices to track the locations of criminal suspects without a warrant.  Several justices reportedly expressed concern over the government's argument, but Justice Stephen Breyer seemed particularly unnerved, bringing George Orwell into the legal debate.

When Did It Become Legal to Spy on Americans?  It just got easier for the federal government to collect information about innocent Americans — and those Americans have had surprisingly little say in the matter.  On October 15, the FBI reportedly implemented new rules that relax restrictions on, and oversight of, the FBI's intelligence collection activities.  Although they are not available to the public, reports indicate the changes permit FBI agents to search an individual's trash with the goal of finding material that might pressure him into becoming a government informant, grant agents the authority to search commercial or law enforcement databases without first opening an investigation, and reduce the type of investigations subjected to heightened oversight because of their relationship to protected First Amendment expression, association, or religious practice.

When Government Knows No Limitation: New DOJ Rules Allow More Intrusive Searches.  Shouldn't law-abiding citizens be able to live their lives free from the fear that our own government would underhandedly manipulate our rights in their pursuit of an investigation?  After all, the Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution enumerates a limitation on the federal government, one that prevents "unreasonable search and seizure."  Today, this enumerated protection is being ignored by — of all institutions — the U.S. Justice Department, under the darkened shadow of Attorney General Eric Holder.

TSA's power grope.  As part of a "statewide safety operation," TSA employees fondled travelers at bus terminals in Nashville and Knoxville, hunting for "security threats."  Truckers were harassed at four Volunteer State highway locations between the hours of 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. — prime time for terrorism, apparently.  Brian Gamble, a Florida firefighter, caught one of these intrusive VIPR operations on video after he got off a train in Savannah, Ga., earlier this year.  "They had the scanners and everything there," Mr. Gamble told The Washington Times.  "They had them pull up their shirts, patted them down, wanded them.  There were a couple ladies in our group getting searched. ... It's kinda ridiculous when you're coming off a train — it doesn't make any sense."

The FBI's latest assault on our privacy.  The FBI wants to track us using its new facial recognition system.  No, really.  The bureau is set to roll it out as early as January.  It's part of the FBI's "Next Generation Identification" program.  And according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), FBI officials explained at a biometric conference last year that one of the agency's goals is "for the program to be able to track people as they move from one location to another."  The FBI's fingerprint database now includes records on nearly one-third of Americans.  But it's now being expanded to include all sorts of biometric information, such as palm prints, iris scans, even voice information.

Bill Approved To Create Massive Surveillance Database Of Internet Users.  Legislation that will force Internet providers to store information on all their customers and share it with the federal government and law enforcement agencies was significantly beefed at the last minute yesterday and approved by a U.S. House of Representatives committee.  Under the guise of protecting children from internet pornographers, the House Judiciary committee voted 19-10 to approve a bill that will require Internet Service Providers to store temporarily assigned IP addresses for future government use.

OSHA is another Obama agency gone rogue.  [Scroll down]  OSHA has issued this directive under the assumption that a vague clause of the Occupational Safety and Health Act gives OSHA the power to cite employers for something as specific and unpredictable as workplace violence.  Known as the "General Duty Clause," this provision requires employers to keep their workplaces "free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm" to employees.  Congress intended for this clause to be used only as a temporary measure, until OSHA could draft rules regarding specific hazards that had the agency had not yet addressed.  It was not intended to be used as a means for OSHA to issue citations for anything under the sun.

Why not $100?
Arizona prisons charge visitors $25 to see inmates.  Visitors to Arizona prison are being charged $25 to see inmates in a move believed to be the first of its kind in the U.S., it has emerged.  Relatives and friends of prisoners arriving at the jail have to pay the one-off 'background check fee' on their first visit.

Judge OKs warrantless tracking of suspect's cellphone.  Investigators seeking the location history of an armed robbery suspect's cellphone aren't required to obtain a search warrant before compelling the carrier to turn over the information, a federal judge has ruled.  The decision, issued by US District Judge Royce C. Lamberth of the District of Columbia, said the Stored Communications Act doesn't require investigators to get a warrant based on probable cause to access the suspect's location history pulled from cellphone towers.

More about the police using your cell phone to collect evidence against you.

Phoenix Cops Raid Blogger Critical of Police.  In what should send a frightening chill down the spine of every blogger, writer, journalist and First Amendment advocate in the United States, Phoenix police raided the home of a blogger who has been highly critical of the department.  Jeff Pataky, who runs Bad Phoenix Cops, said the officers confiscated three computers, routers, modems, hard drives, memory cards and everything necessary to continue blogging.  The 41-year-old software engineer said they also confiscated numerous personal files and documents relating to a pending lawsuit he has against the department alleging harassment — which he says makes it obvious the raid was an act of retaliation.

Jackson, Jr: Obama should 'declare a national emergency,' add jobs with 'extra-constitutional' action.  Illinois Democratic Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. told The Daily Caller on Wednesday that congressional opposition to the American Jobs Act is akin to the Confederate "states in rebellion."  Jackson called for full government employment of the 15 million unemployed and said that Obama should "declare a national emergency" and take "extra-constitutional" action "administratively" — without the approval of Congress — to tackle unemployment.  "I hope the president continues to exercise extraordinary constitutional means, based on the history of Congresses that have been in rebellion in the past," Jackson said.

Rivals from both sides slam Jackson's call to bypass the Constitution.  Political firebrands hit Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. from both his left and his right Thursday afternoon [10/13/2011], reacting to the Illinois congressman's call for the president to bypass the Constitution to deal with the jobs crisis.  During a Wednesday interview with The Daily Caller, Jackson said President Obama should "declare a national emergency" and use "extra-constitutional" measures to create jobs.

Gov't cameras in your car? E-toll patent hints at Big Brotherish future.  Imagine that you couldn't drive on major highways without agreeing to put a camera in your car — one that could film either the occupants or the vehicle's surroundings and transmit the images back to a central office for inspection.  You don't have to read George Orwell to conjure up such an ominous surveillance state.  You just have to skim through filings at the U.S. Patent Office.  It's hard to imagine Americans would tolerate such a direct, Big-Brotherish intrusion.  But they might not notice if the all-seeing cameras were tucked inside another kind of government tracking technology that millions of Americans have already invited into their cars.

DOJ: Feds Can Tell Church Who Its Ministers Will Be.  In yet another stunning attack on freedom of religion, President Barack Obama's Justice Department asked the Supreme Court last week to give the federal government the power to tell a church who its ministers will be.  The case involves a former teacher at Lutheran school, who along with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is pushing a claim that a Lutheran congregation should be forced to restore her ministry position.

CA couple ordered by city not to hold home Bible study.  Snooping around garage sales, regulating kids' lemonade stands — anything the government wants to do, can do, it will do.  Who's going to stop it?

State V. Church At High Court.  When government can make the rules for communities of faith, there's little else that stands in its way.  One such threat comes from an Obama administration that is trying to limit the hiring and firing powers of religious institutions.  It has taken up the cause of a teacher, Cheryl Perich, who was fired by a church-run Lutheran school in Michigan after filing a suit under federal disability law.

White House Won't Comment on Reuters Story About Secret 'Kill List' Panel.  Reuters' Mark Hosenball today [10/6/2011] reported that:  "American militants like Anwar al-Awlaki are placed on a kill or capture list by a secretive panel of senior government officials, which then informs the president of its decisions, according to officials.  There is no public record of the operations or decisions of the panel, which is a subset of the White House's National Security Council, several current and former officials said.  Neither is there any law establishing its existence or setting out the rules by which it is supposed to operate."

Senate Dems strip Republicans of power.  Senate Republicans tried to embarrass Democrats who don't support President Obama's job bill by forcing a vote on the measure Thursday [10/6/2011], but Democrats responded by stripping Republicans of legislative power.  The GOP tried to force Democrats to vote on Obama's $447 billion jobs-creation bill to prove that even the president's own party doesn't support the proposal.

Reid triggers 'nuclear option' to change Senate rules, end repeat filibusters.  In a shocking development Thursday evening, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) triggered a rarely used procedural option informally called the "nuclear option" to change the Senate rules.  Reid and 50 members of his caucus voted to change Senate rules unilaterally to prevent Republicans from forcing votes on uncomfortable amendments after the chamber has voted to move to final passage of a bill.  Reid's coup passed by a vote of 51-48, leaving Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) fuming.

Obama: Banks Don't Have 'Inherent Right' to 'Certain Amount of Profit'.  President Obama suggested on Monday [10/3/2011] that the nation's banks should "take a little bit less of a profit" rather than raise fees on customers.  In an interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos, Obama was asked if the government can stop banks from imposing a new debit card fee on their customers.

This quote is being posted from multiple sources just so nobody can deny its authenticity.
Perdue suggests suspending Congressional elections for two years — was she serious?  Speaking to a Cary Rotary Club today [9/27/2011], N.C. Gov. Bev Perdue suggested suspending Congressional elections for two years so that Congress can focus on economic recovery and not the next election.  "I think we ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years and just tell them we won't hold it against them, whatever decisions they make, to just let them help this country recover.  I really hope that someone can agree with me on that," Perdue said.  "You want people who don't worry about the next election."

Democrat Governor Bev Perdue of NC Wasn't Joking.  We have the audio of Bev Perdue suggesting the elections be canceled and she's not joking, as you will hear, and it's quite interesting.  The Democrats, the more they get in trouble, and the more that things unravel, the more they show us who they really are.  She's not the first one suggesting we cancel the elections.  Peter Orszag, the former budget director of the White House, suggested pretty much the same thing in the New Republic last week.

Democrats Emerge From Closet, Oppose Democracy.  How many Democrats are National Socialists at heart?  Quite a few, I suspect, and every now and then the Democrats' totalitarian urges break through to the surface.  Thus, we have the Governor of North Carolina, Bev Perdue, suggesting that we "ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years."  The press assures us that she was just kidding.  I would modestly submit that suspending elections is not something an elected executive should kid about.

Dem Governor suggests suspending elections.  During the Civil War elections were not suspended.  During the worst of the "Long Depression" (the Panic of 1873 until 1879) no elections were suspended.  And during the Great Depression, (1929 to 1939) no elections were suspended.  Why now?  What event has occurred that even warrants such obscene speculation?  ObamaCare.  The far left cannot have a new, and hopefully more conservative, Congress (House and Senate) repeal ObamaCare, as it is their not-so stealthy vehicle on which the far-left bases its hopes of destroying our Constitutional Republic.

(Un)Democratic.  Peter Orszag, formerly Obama's budget director and now a vice chairman at Citigroup, recently penned a column in the New Republic titled:  "Too Much of a Good Thing: Why We Need Less Democracy."  No joke, folks.  "To counter gridlock," he wrote, we may need to make our political institutions "a little less democratic."  "A little less democratic"?  As in you no longer have the right to object to what the government does?  Seems Hitler, Stalin and Mao tried that, but it didn't work out.  That's bad enough.  But North Carolina's Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue stuck her foot in it too, suggesting "we ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years" so it can run up trillions more debt.

What was Bev Perdue thinking?  On Tuesday [9/27/2011], during a Q & A at a rotary club meeting, North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue (D) made a very odd suggestion.  Asked what she could do to turn around the economy, Perdue gave a rambling, two-minute answer that included this tidbit:  "I think we ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years and just tell them we won't hold it against them, whatever decisions they make, to just let them help this country recover.  I really hope that someone can agree with me on that.  You want people who don't worry about the next election."

Warning: The threat of suspended elections is real.  It is crucial to not let this day go down without remembering what Perdue said.  Don't let the state-controlled mainstream media lure you back to sleep by saying if there is no election, then why is Obama so diligently campaigning.  Obama is not campaigning.  He is preparing for Stage Two of the Total Transformation of America, using taxpayer money to prepare his Internet-identified "troops" for the coming Marxist Revolution.  He must not be allowed to get away with it.

Democrat Strategies Right Out Of V.I. Lenin Playbook.  Vladimir Lenin, leader of the socialist revolution in Russia, published multiple tutorials for like-minded revolutionaries around the world.  Someone in the Obama administration must be familiar with his writings. ... The theme of "broken government" is popular among liberals — so much so that the governor of North Carolina, Bev Perdue, recently said:  "I think we ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years and just tell them we won't hold it against them, whatever decisions they make, to just let them help this country recover."  Peter Orszag, former director of President Obama's Office of Management & Budget, wrote an article titled "Too Much of a Good Thing — Why We Need Less Democracy."  Top mainstream Democrats such as Purdue and Orszag are in alignment with Lenin's teachings.

As Federal Crime List Grows, Threshold of Guilt Declines.  For centuries, a bedrock principle of criminal law has held that people must know they are doing something wrong before they can be found guilty.  The concept is known as mens rea, Latin for a "guilty mind."  This legal protection is now being eroded as the U.S. federal criminal code dramatically swells.  In recent decades, Congress has repeatedly crafted laws that weaken or disregard the notion of criminal intent.  Today not only are there thousands more criminal laws than before, but it is easier to fall afoul of them.

If Obamacare prevails, then what's to prevent Obamajobs?.  Liberals assure us that we need not fear the Obamacare individual mandate.  It's simply a way to ensure that individuals behave responsibly, they say.  Fine, if it's such a great idea, then let's mandate that every individual be responsible and get a job.  Unemployment problem solved.

Serfs in Warrenville.  Elizabeth Warren is unsurprisingly a lawyer, even less surprisingly, a Harvard Law professor, still less surprisingly, she had a string of government appointments on influential committees.  Her resume is representative of how unrepresentative Harvard lawyers with government connections are to the people on whose behalf they claim to have abolished private property.

Manufacturers sue NLRB over union poster rule.  The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) has sued the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to stop a new regulation by the board that would require employers to post notices informing their workers of their right to organize a union.

The Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act Sets an Unusual Standard.  In response to attacks on researchers by animal-rights activists, Congress in 2006 passed the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act.  The bill made a critical change to the legislation it replaced:  Demonstrators could now earn a sentence in federal prison if the target of their attention felt threatened, regardless of the protesters' actual intention.

Farmers Worry Over Crop of New Rules.  Farmers are concerned that some new, tighter federal regulations on agriculture are stunting the growth of their businesses and say regulatory uncertainty makes it difficult for them to plan for the future.

More about the EPA.

It Strikes Me As Odd.  How did the federal government come to control the national economy?  The Constitution has only one provision giving Congress some influence over economic matters, the "interstate commerce" clause.  And yet, clinging to this weak reed, Washington manages to wield near-total power over the entire economy on the thinnest, purely legalistic, and often patently risible grounds.

EPA: Fundamental Transformation through Regulation.  What happens when the information our government's "specialists" provide becomes driven by agenda rather than fact? ... The EPA, finding organized resistance to its regulating machine, has turned to offering "guidance," which it then enforces as if said "guidance" were the product of regulatory channels.  The big difference, of course, is that "guidance" is not subject to the same rigors of accountability and oversight that regulations must meet.  These crone-tended kettles at the EPA are really just an end-run around the law.

Obama is using every federal agency to choke the life out of the country.
DOT targets farm tractors.  One of the rites of passage in rural life comes when parents decide a child is old enough to help out by driving the tractor.  If the Obama administration has its way that will be a thing of the past.  The Federal government now proposes to require that motorized farm equipment carry DOT ID numbers and that all users have a commercial drivers license.  Most of these vehicle never travel on public roads unless it is a short trip to another field or a neighbor's farm.

Fertilizer Control:  Another liberty lost.
DHS Creates 'Ammonium Nitrate Security Program'.  The Homeland Security Department on Tuesday [8/2/2011] announced the creation of an Ammonium Nitrate Security Program, which is intended to prevent terror attacks like the ones perpetrated by Timothy McVeigh in Oklahoma City in 1995; and more recently, by a Norwegian man in Oslo.

The Editor says...
First of all, the actions of a single psycho in Norway should not affect U.S. laws or diminish our freedom.  Secondly, there is considerable doubt that a fertilizer bomb in a truck could have done the damage inflicted in the Oklahoma City bombing.

Team Obama Regulates Goat Herders' Workplaces.  The Obama administration is setting new workplace regulations to assist foreign workers who fill goat herding positions in the U.S., including employee-paid cell phones and comfy beds.  These new special procedures issued by the Labor Department must be followed by employers who want to hire temporary agricultural foreign workers to perform sheep herding or goat herding activities.

What is Liberty, That We May Defend It?  Is American Liberty under attack?  Perhaps more so than any time since the Revolution. ... The Constitution is displayed as an elaborate, ancient joke.  Politicians present themselves as gods, above error, who dismiss dissent as if it were the babble of infants.  Between irrational new laws, and the government's refusal to enforce common sense rules, Americans feel trapped and betrayed by increasingly tyrannical leaders.

DOJ: We can force you to decrypt that laptop.  The Colorado prosecution of a woman accused of a mortgage scam will test whether the government can punish you for refusing to disclose your encryption passphrase.  The Obama administration has asked a federal judge to order the defendant, Ramona Fricosu, to decrypt an encrypted laptop that police found in her bedroom during a raid of her home.  Because Fricosu has opposed the proposal, this could turn into a precedent-setting case.

Worse than any czar, Warren building independent fiefdom at CFPB.  She hasn't been confirmed as chairman of the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, but that hasn't stopped Elizabeth Warren from creating her own bureaucratic kingdom to rule.

Dude, Where's My Freedom?  Obama administration officials recently let slip that they are working on new gun control measures "under the radar."  Gun control is the classic example of foolishly exchanging an essential liberty for an illusion of security.  The U.S. states that respect the honest citizen's right to carry firearms in self-defense have consistently lower rates of violent crimes than states with strict gun control laws.

Homeowners' Associations Becoming Unavoidable and Quasi-Governmental.  Homeowners' Associations ("HOAs") are losing money due to the high numbers of foreclosures and are scrambling to make up for it by assessing additional fees on the remaining homeowners. ... To compensate, HOAs are acting like private investigators, even peering into homeowners' yards daily until one weed pops its head up, then nailing homeowners with fines.

These incremental changes only move in one direction.
F.B.I. Agents Get Leeway to Push Privacy Bounds.  The Federal Bureau of Investigation is giving significant new powers to its roughly 14,000 agents, allowing them more leeway to search databases, go through household trash or use surveillance teams to scrutinize the lives of people who have attracted their attention.

FBI's New Rules to Give Agents More Leeway on Surveillance.  The changes are expected to be outlined in a new edition of the Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide, a lengthy 2008 document detailing how far agents can go in tracking suspects.  They will expand the use of techniques ranging from dispatching surveillance teams to digging through trash cans.

High court urged to rethink ruling on resisting police.  A group of 71 state lawmakers is asking the Indiana Supreme Court to reconsider a ruling that says people don't have the right to resist police officers who enter their homes illegally.

Center for American Progress Finally Comes Out in Favor of Tyranny.  Buried deep within the Obamacare bill is the Democrats' plan for lowering Medicare costs -- something called the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB). ... The Center for American Progress is more or less in favor handing off the whole of America's budget issues to a likely unconstitutional panel of democratically unaccountable bureaucrats with no meaningful oversight.  Or to put it more bluntly, this is basically a recipe for tyranny.

One law for us, another for you.  The California state Senate voted 28-8 Wednesday [6/1/2011] to exempt itself from the pointless gun-control laws that apply to the rest of the populace.  Legislators apparently think they alone are worthy to pack heat on the streets for personal protection, and the masses ought to wait until the police arrive.

California Bill Could Protect Cross-Dressing in the Work Force.  A California bill working its way through the state legislature providing more protection for transgender individuals in the workplace could allow for cross-dressing employees to wear whatever they want to work, despite workplace dress codes.

The Editor says...
Apparently the government's position is that employers do not have the freedom to associate -- or refrain from associating -- with whomever they choose.

Homeland Security system knows when you're even thinking about committing a crime.  The Future Attribute Screening Technology (FAST) security programme is designed to spot people who are planning to commit a terrorist act.  The U.S. government system can 'sense' when you are planning and measures physiological factors such as heart rates and eye movements.

The Editor says...
You might exhibit the same symptoms if you're just looking for the nearest restroom.

Albemarle Road church fined $100 per branch for excessive tree pruning.  The church was fined $100 per branch cut for excessive pruning, bringing the violation to $4,000.

Grand theft education.  Two cases of what might be called "grand theft education" raise serious questions for many states, especially California.  Tonya McDowell, a single mother from Bridgeport, Conn., was arrested and charged with first-degree larceny for "stealing education" by using the address of a baby sitter to register her 6-year-old son in a Norwalk school district where she didn't live.  Ms. McDowell, 33, could face repayment of more than $15,000 and 20 years in prison.

A Federal No-Fly Zone Over Texas?  Proving that the extortionist tendencies of the Obama administration aren't limited to the NLRB's suit against Boeing, the Department of Justice threatened the state of Texas with a complete suspension of air travel in and out of that state if its Senate approved HB 1937, a bill which would have banned "intrusive touching of persons seeking access to public buildings and transportation."  The penalty for doing so would have been a $4,000 fine and one year in jail.

TSA Threatens To Cancel All Flights Out Of Texas If 'Groping Bill' Passed.  Upset about invasive screening techniques at the airport, the Lone Star State was considering a bill that would make a TSA patdown that involves touching "the anus, sexual organ, buttocks, or breast of another person including through the clothing" a misdemeanor, allowing Texas law enforcement to arrest TSA officials and charge them with sexual harassment.  It would have meant that TSA officials could be fined $4,000 and spend up to a year in jail for doing their jobs of feeling up prospective fliers.

Emergency manager's autocratic power puts Benton Harbor in national spotlight.  For more than a generation, this city on the shores of southern Lake Michigan has been the state's poster child for poverty, racial division and dysfunctional government.  Now, it's starring on a national stage.

The Indiana Supreme Court Guts the Fourth Amendment.  A ruling by the state of Indiana's Supreme Court last Thursday [5/12/2011] in Barnes vs. Indiana has seemingly vacated the Constitution's Fourth Amendment provision against unreasonable search and seizure.  The case involved a domestic dispute and the Court ruled 3-2 that police can force their way into a person's home without a warrant if they deem such entry is necessary.

Court: No right to resist illegal cop entry into home.  Overturning a common law dating back to the English Magna Carta of 1215, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled Thursday [5/12/2011] that Hoosiers have no right to resist unlawful police entry into their homes.  In a 3-2 decision, Justice Steven David writing for the court said if a police officer wants to enter a home for any reason or no reason at all, a homeowner cannot do anything to block the officer's entry.

Supreme Court gives police a new entryway into homes.  The Supreme Court, in an 8-1 decision in a Kentucky case, says police officers who loudly knock on a door in search of illegal drugs and then hear sounds suggesting evidence is being destroyed may break down the door and enter without a search warrant.

Department of Pre-Crime.  Moral of this story:  If you hear the cops at the door, quietly get off the john, and whatever you do, don't flush.  Read the whole account of the case, which ought to get your blood boiling.

Indiana Sheriff: If We Need to Conduct Random House to House Searches We Will.  According to Newton County Sheriff, Don Hartman Sr., random house to house searches are now possible and could be helpful following the Barnes v. State of Indiana Supreme Court ruling issued on May 12th, 2011.  When asked three separate times due to the astounding callousness as it relates to trampling the inherent natural rights of Americans, he emphatically indicated that he would use random house to house checks, adding he felt people will welcome random searches if it means capturing a criminal.

Giving too much license to cops.  A series of recent court rulings, including one this week from the US Supreme Court, appear to erode one of our bedrock defenses against the arbitrary, abusive power of the state.  At risk:  the Fourth Amendment guarantee to all American citizens of the right to be "secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures."

Home Insecurity.  While the U.S. Supreme Court said police may force their way into a home to prevent the destruction of evidence, the Indiana Supreme Court, in a less noticed decision issued the week before, said police may force their way into a home for any reason or no reason at all.  Although the victim of an illegal search can challenge it in court after the fact, three of the five justices agreed, "there is no right to reasonably resist unlawful entry by police officers."  They thereby nullified a principle of common law that is centuries old, arguably dating back to the Magna Carta.

US Police State Begins Exponential Expansion.  The recent Indiana Supreme Court ruling against the US Constitution, rendering the Fourth Amendment null and void in that State by patently leftist activist judges, is only the latest unconscionable step in a series of actions designed to unravel each and every portion of the Bill of Rights.  It is also one of the latest actions designed to compliment and enhance the already jack-booted Obama police State march into our States, our cities and homes.

Rally held in protest of 'unlawful police entry' ruling by Indiana Supreme Court.  Protesters showed up on the south steps of the Indiana Statehouse Wednesday [5/25/2011], to rally against a controversial ruling by the Indiana Supreme Court.  The ruling, which allows police to enter your home without a warrant, sparked threatening emails and phone calls from those angry with the court's decision.

Puddle Power Grab.  Barack Obama's EPA means to implement the major provisions of failed legislation by regulatory means, a massive power grab with frightening implications.  But with the American media preoccupied with a royal wedding and the assassination of Osama bin Laden, almost nobody seems to have noticed when late last month an important announcement was made by the Environmental Protection Agency. ... The administration would have us believe it to be concerned about water quality, but the real issues are land, power and control.  If implemented, EPA guidelines will allow the agency to decide the extent of their jurisdiction over every body of water of any size and eventually result in binding regulations that will affect us all.

'Eat your broccoli': Moms demand it. Can government?  About 20 minutes into Tuesday's [5/10/2011] hearings, Appeals Court Judge Diana Gribbon Motz told Liberty University lawyer Mathew Staver that she was surprised a certain topic had yet to come up:  "the broccoli question."  "There is a lot of talk in the papers about if Congress can do this, it can require people to buy broccoli," Motz said.

Sen. Schumer: Create 'Do Not Ride' list for railways.  Sen. Charles Schumer is calling for a "Do Not Ride" list for Amtrak following reports that terrorist Osama bin Laden was plotting attacks on U.S. railways before his death.  The list would be similar to the "Do Not Fly" registry that is checked before passengers board flights at airports.  Schumer (D-N.Y.) said that it's a lot easier for would-be terrorists to get on trains that it has been for them to board airplanes.

The Editor says...
I'm sure Osama bin Laden wanted to do all kinds of things.  But we should not constrict our society to protect ourselves from suicide bombers on trains, because if they're not on the train, they could be on a bus, or in a supermarket or taxi.

The Education plantation.  We are now approaching the end game with respect to sanity and the public school system.  A homeless woman who registered her 6-year-old son at a Norwalk, Conn. elementary school has been charged with first-degree larceny and conspiracy to commit first-degree larceny for ostensibly "stealing" over $15,000 worth of education.  Tonya McDowell, 33, was released after posting a $25,000 bond.  She faces a fine of up to $15,000 and as many as 20 years in jail.

The Best-ever Symbol of Government Incompetence?  America's largest coal mine fire is the marquee for government ineffectiveness and environmental activism's false pretense.  Centralia, PA is home to America's largest coal mine fire — still burning today since May of 1962.  Forty-nine years of government folly, environmentalist demonization, and media sensationalism have managed to fan the flames under Centralia, escalating the costs to end this ecological disaster from under $100,000 in the early sixties to over $600 million today.

Uncle Sam is slow.  As Ronald Reagan once said, "Government is not a solution to our problem, government is the problem."  Government fails miserably at virtually everything it does, year after year, day after day, hour after hour.  Government is brutal.  Government violates our rights.  Government steals your money and property.  Government steals your liberty.  Government tries its best to control your thinking and your life.  Government wastes billions every day, trillions over time.  But most of all, government loves to use sleight of hand to distract you.  It manages to do one thing right and then tries to use it to make us forget all the incompetence and the misery it has inflicted on us.

Out-of-control government, unaccountable president.  Rejection of dictatorships and corrupt governments by citizens across the globe is the signature news story of the year.  People are rising up, roaring to demand their rights, defying decades of iron-fisted leadership in Libya, Syria, Egypt and beyond.  By sad contrast, here in the United States — "land of the free" — a huge segment of citizens go about their daily business oblivious to, or apathetic about, the assault on our Constitutional freedoms by the Obama Administration and its congressional supporters.  Unless more Americans wake up, our steady slide will continue into a soft tyranny of unconstitutional, intrusive laws such has Obamacare health reform.

Who is running Boeing?  Imagine you own a company and a five unelected appointees of a government board, among them two unconfirmed appointees, tell you where must open your new manufacturing plant.  Would you ever consider opening another manufacturing facility in the United States?  Is this the tyranny that Thomas Jefferson warned us of?

Can Boeing Really Fight The US Government?.  When Boeing announced that it would be moving part of its 787 manufacturing capability from Washington State to South Carolina, it was only a matter of time before the Obama Administration would retaliate.  It wasn't a long wait.  The National Labor Relations Board last week filed a complaint against Boeing, saying that its decision to build a manufacturing facility in South Carolina amounted to unfair bargaining with its labor unions.  Everyone denied that politics were involved, an assertion believed by exactly no one.

Ex-Labor Board Chairman: Union-Backed Case Against Boeing 'Unprecedented'.  The former chairman of the National Labor Relations Board told FoxNews.com that a board attorney's bid to stop Boeing from opening a production line at a non-union site in South Carolina is "unprecedented" and could have serious implications for companies looking to expand.

Pulling Labor Law Out of Thin Air.  Last week, the National Labor Relations Board's general counsel — acting at the behest of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union — filed a complaint against Boeing.  According to the complaint, the company decided to locate a new production line for the Dreamliner 787 airplane in South Carolina (a right-to-work state) instead of Washington (a state in which unions are powerful and strikes have cost Boeing billions of dollars) out of anti-union bias.  Should the general counsel convince the board that Boeing violated the law, the company could be forced to operate the line in Washington.

Justice Dept. to Congress: Don't Saddle 4th Amendment on Us.  The Obama administration is urging Congress not to adopt legislation that would impose constitutional safeguards on Americans' e-mail stored in the cloud.  As the law stands now, the authorities may obtain cloud e-mail without a warrant if it is older than 180 days, thanks to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act adopted in 1986.

What Do Light Bulbs Have to do with the Commerce Clause?  We don't consume power from an interstate enterprise.  We buy power from a local utility.  And how about the homeowner who relies on a propane generator, solar panels, or a wind generator?  What's interstate about that?  Thus the feds cannot regulate residential appliances at least as far as electricity usage is concerned.

Trying to Avoid Regulations? The Department of Energy is Not Amused.  Last month, the Department of Energy issued a "Showerhead Enforcement Guidance" related to flow standards through consumer showerheads.  You see, it turns out that "efficiency standards" tend to upset people, as it usually leads to products being outlawed that people really like.  What happened was that certain showerhead manufacturers were taking a bit of creative license in interpreting the definition of a "showerhead," and selling showerheads that (by the DOE's standards) exceeded the maximum allowable 2.5 gallons per minute.

Tales of the red tape.  For years, there have been rules that restrict the flow of water to a shower head.  That was bad enough but now those rules have been tweaked.  The flow restriction no longer applies to each individual shower head, but to the whole shower.  The Energy Policy Conservation Act of 1992 set the restriction for each shower head at only 2.5 gallons per minute (half what Americans could have before then).  Now, if you install a shower fixture with two nozzles, it's down to 1.25 gallons per minute per shower head — and so on, for those who want to have more than two.

The worst homeland-security menace.  How much of your freedom are you willing to give up in the name of your personal safety?  That question is prompted by the latest news about the Transportation Security Administration, which has reportedly been contemplating expanding its controversial X-ray body-scanning program from airports to public events, mass transit and possibly even the streets where you live.  According to documents obtained by the nonprofit Electronic Privacy Information Center, the TSA in 2006 began planning pilot programs that, if ever fully implemented, would expand its reach into the everyday lives of American citizens.

No need to vote on this — the mayor knows what's best for you.
Menino Bans Sugary Drink Sales On Boston City Property.  Mayor Tom Menino issued an executive order to ban the sale of sugary drinks on Boston city property on Thursday.  "I want to make this a healthier choice, the easier choice in people's daily lives, whether it's the schools, the work sites or other places in the community," Menino said.

Menino expands sugary drink ban.  Mayor Thomas M. Menino said yesterday [4/7/2011] that he is expanding his ban on sugar-sweetened drinks in schools to include all city properties and functions, a sweeping restriction that means that calorie-laden soft drinks, juices with added sugar, and sports drinks like Gatorade will no longer be offered in vending machines, concession stands, and city-run meetings, programs and events.

Fed Judge: Now the Commerce Clause covers 'mental activity'.  According to federal Judge Gladys Kessler of the DC US District Court, the powers granted to the federal government on the Commerce Clause extend to regulating "mental activity."  Ruling on an ObamaCare challenge brought by two individuals, the good Judge made the leap from "physical activity" to "mental activity" in extending the reach of the federal government.  This is not a joke.

Federal Judge Rules Congress Can Regulate "Mental Activity" Under Commerce Clause.  In something right out of Harrison Bergeron, [U.S. District Court Judge Gladys] Kessler notes that Washington has the authority to regulate "mental activity":  ["]As previous Commerce Clause cases have all involved physical activity, as opposed to mental activity, i.e. decision-making, there is little judicial guidance on whether the latter falls within Congress's power...["]

Hands off My Mental Activity.  In the sense that so irked [Warren] Harding, Judge Gladys Kessler is a great good friend of Obamacare.  The U.S. district-court judge in Washington, D.C., delivered a more telling blow against the law in the course of ruling it constitutional than critics have in assailing it as a travesty.

It's illegal to recite the Gettysburg Address on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.  It is illegal to deliver the Gettysburg Address on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial without permission from the U.S. National Park Service.  On President's Day — standing where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream Speech" — Phillip Howell, 25, recited Lincoln's famous address and was quickly stopped by a Park Police officer.  He told Howell that he could not give speeches on the steps of the memorial without a permit.

Congress Must Derail President Obama's Backdoor EPA Power Grab.  In last year's budget, President Obama called for Congress to enact cap-and-trade legislation, using a slush fund to disguise the cost of the program.  But cap-and-trade was decisively rejected in the 2010 election, so this year President Obama's budget simply funds the EPA to move forward with regulating greenhouse gases on its own — against the clear wishes of voters and without any legitimate legislative basis.  Congress must take responsibility, step in, and stop this power grab.

In the opinion of The Editor, the EPA is one of the greatest threats to freedom in America today.

Florida Bar vs. Free Press.  According to Mark A. Adams, writing for The Daily Censored, a news blog affiliated with Project Censored, "The Florida Bar has proposed a new rule to eliminate coverage of court proceedings by citizen journalists."  Outstanding investigative journalism by Adams has uncovered this proposed rule which would allow only an employee of a "traditional media outlet" or an official court reporter to bring audio or video recording equipment into a court room.  Not even a laptop computer would escape this infringement of free speech.

Spilled Milk.  Despite the old saying, "Don't cry over spilled milk," the Environmental Protection Agency is doing just that. ... The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has expanded its definition of "discrimination" to include things that no one thought was discrimination when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed.  The Federal Communications Commission is trying to expand its jurisdiction to cover things that were never included in its jurisdiction, and that have no relationship to the reason why the FCC was created in the first place.

GOP All Set To Wimp Out On EPA?  Since the new Congress will not rubber-stamp Obama's socialist legislative agenda, the President will seek to socialize us via regulation — regardless of legality.  The EPA's climate regulation plan is unconstitutional on its face (only Congress, not federal agencies, can change laws).  Another example of the coming socialization-by-regulation is the Federal Communications Commission's recent party-line vote to implement net neutrality rules despite the a federal appellate court ruling that it lacks the statutory authority to do so.

Sisyphus in Boulder City.  Public officials cannot simply throw dissenters into a gulag and govern by decree.  But the city governors in Boulder City, Nevada, have found the next best thing.  Sue the people.  Regularly and repeatedly.  As a method of effectuating an oligarchy, what could be more American?

Your Papers, Please!  I recently received an e-mail from the St. Louis Association of Realtors detailing a new policy being implemented by the Missouri Real Estate Commission (the official governmental board regulating real estate practices).  In the next licensing period anyone licensed to sell or rent real estate will have to be fingerprinted and their fingerprints — along with a tougher background check — kept on file with both the state police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  Of course, I will have to pony up $52.20 for this singular honor.  Granted, other states have had this provision, but why implement it in Missouri now?

Fingerprint Registry in Housing Bill.  Fingerprints are considered to be among the most personal of information, and fingerprint databases created and proposed in the name of national security have generated much debate.  Recently, "Server in the Sky" — a proposed international database of the fingerprints of suspected criminals and terrorists to be shared among the U.S., U.K. and Canada — has ignited a firestorm of controversy.  As have cavalier comments by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff that fingerprints aren't "personal data."

Are Borrowers Next?  [Scroll down]  I have still not been able to find any debate or justification for it, but it seems now that fingerprint requirements are a simplistic way for polticians to argue that they are getting tough about a particular problem, even if it's questionable how much fingerprinting will contibute to solving the problem.  Some commenters were right to note that this is an issue concerning federalism as well as privacy.  Through the CNET story, comments on the blog, and e-mails I have received, I learned about other state fingerprint registries of questionable justification for various professions.

More about the proposed National ID Card.

Labor Dept: If You Let Girl Scouts Sell Cookies, You Have to Let Unions Come in Too.  Obama's NLRB is trying to push a new rule that would force any business that allows Girl Scouts or any other local groups like baseball or football teams, school bands, charity groups etc. to sell their fundraiser items or solicit donations in front of or inside of their businesses to also allow unions into their businesses to cajole employees to organize.  Even when the purpose of many union actions are meant to drive customers away from the business in order to force the employer to accede to union demands, this rule would prevent a business owner from turning disruptive union activists away from their businesses.

The Perils of a Siege Mentality.  What bothers me endlessly about the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is that they operate on the policy that defeat by our enemies is implicitly conceded. ... What bothers me just as much is also the willingness of Americans to tolerate and endure the airport terminal as a police state. ... Obey, or suffer the consequences.  So, let us suggest here that, for example, the omnipotent IRS, as one controlling agency, has conditioned Americans to that kind of treatment, to sanction the hostage-taking of their values and to concede that they are but the wards of a guardian government.

The government usurps the role of churches and private charities:
City puts a stop to homeless outreach.  Bobby and Amanda Herring spent more than a year providing food to homeless people in downtown Houston every day.  They fed them, left behind no trash and doled out warm meals peacefully without a single crime being committed, Bobby Herring said.  That ended two weeks ago when the city shut down their "Feed a Friend" effort for lack of a permit.  And city officials say the couple most likely will not be able to obtain one. ... Anyone serving food for public consumption, whether for the homeless or for sale, must have a permit, said Kathy Barton, a spokeswoman for the Health and Human Services Department.

When cops knock, can they barge in?  Police came to Maria Huff's Burbank home in 2007 after hearing that her son had written a letter threatening to shoot up his high school.  They asked Huff if they could come in and she said no, not without a warrant.  When they asked if there were any guns in the house, Huff said she would get her husband, then headed inside, followed by her son, who was also at the doorway, and four officers.  After remaining for five to 10 minutes and finding no evidence of a crime, the officers left.  In short order they were hit with a civil suit by Huff, her husband and son — who had written no such threatening letter — for entering the home without any legal justification.

New Jersey may soon require teens and adults to register bikes.  New Jersey residents older than 15 may soon be required to register their bicycles — and attach license plates to prove compliance — if a recently proposed law passes the state assembly.  On Jan. 6, assemblywoman Cleopatra Tucker of Newark introduced Bill A3657, requiring registration of all bicycles ridden on public roads.

Texas school police ticketing students as young as six.  School police officers in Texas are doling out more tickets to children as young as 6, who under past disciplinary practices would have been sent to the principal's office instead, according to a report by a Texas nonprofit.

Chafee to Issue Talk Radio Ban.  State officials in Rhode Island will soon be ordered to stay off the airways, provided the interviewer happens to be a talk show host.  A spokesman for Gov. Lincoln Chafee tells the Providence Journal that talk radio is essentially "ratings-driven, for-profit programming," and "we don't think it is appropriate to use taxpayer resources" to have state employees use work time to "support for-profit, ratings-driven programming."

New Food Safety Legislation Gives Gov't Power to Order Recalls, Increase Inspections.  The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will have the authority to order recalls of food products, increase inspections, and boost paperwork for food packaging companies under a bill President Barack Obama quietly signed into law on Tuesday [1/4/2011].

Outsourcing Democracy:  The past century or so has witnessed Congress outsource these and other powers to the Federal Reserve, the regulatory bureaucracy, the executive branch, and the courts.  This is bad news for the American people, whose direct role in electing congressmen stands in contrast to their indirect role in electing presidents and approving judges — let alone their impotence to hold anonymous bureaucrats accountable.  We have become more a government of, by, and for people unknown to the people.

Manmade famine in America.  It seems inconceivable, but people in America are going hungry en masse due to a famine caused by political authorities.  Fresno, California is not yet a sister city of Kiev, Ukraine, but the two cities, capitals of rich agricultural regions, share a history of mass hunger caused by central governments indifferent to the suffering of their people, in the pursuit of ideological goals.

Court OKs searches of cell phones without warrant.  The California Supreme Court allowed police Monday [1/3/2011] to search arrestees' cell phones without a warrant, saying defendants lose their privacy rights for any items they're carrying when taken into custody.  Under U.S. Supreme Court precedents, "this loss of privacy allows police not only to seize anything of importance they find on the arrestee's body ... but also to open and examine what they find," the state court said in a 5-2 ruling.

PC Airport Safety is an Oxymoron.  Freedom doesn't die all at once.  It gets chipped away, piece by piece, until what we once had becomes unrecognizable.  On December 22nd in Austin, Texas, 56-year-old Claire Hirschkind suffered the kind of indignity that is only possible in a society that is morally confused and, as a result, Constitutionally uninformed.  When she refused to have her breasts groped by a TSA agent at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, she was arrested.

'Civil Rights' Gone Wild.  The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division has no time to pursue voter-intimidation cases against black defendants.  But it has plenty of time to pursue local school boards that make common-sense decisions about student dress codes and accommodations for teachers' religious practices.

In England:
Big Brother Police Collecting Data on Those Who Report Crimes.  Millions of innocent people have had their details recorded and stored on police databases after reporting a crime, it has emerged.  Forces across England and Wales have amassed data about people who dial 999 or non-emergency numbers to report their concerns or pass on information.  Details such as age and ethnicity are being kept in databases without the callers' knowledge.

Digital Totalitarianism -- The Conspiracy to Abolish Cash.  For many years figures on the political fringe, especially on the right, have claimed that the government and its corporate owners want to transform us into a cashless society.  Their warnings about the conspiracy against paper money fell on deaf ears, primarily because the digitalization of financial transactions seemed more like the result of organic business trends than the manifestation of some sinister conspiracy.  Now, however, those who want to do away with liquid currency are stepping out of the shadows.

Is reading wife's e-mail a crime?  Rochester Hills man faces trial.  A Rochester Hills man faces up to 5 years in prison — for reading his wife's e-mail.  Oakland County prosecutors, relying on a Michigan statute typically used to prosecute crimes such as identity theft or stealing trade secrets, have charged Leon Walker, 33, with a felony after he logged onto a laptop in the home he shared with his wife, Clara Walker.

EPA: For 'When Congress Resists Action'.  Surely you remember this dynamic from civics class, or even some more advanced inquiry into our system:  Congress only decides major domestic policy issues until unelected bureaucrats and political appointees decide they can no longer wait for our elected representatives.  Like (as the article also notes) the Department of Interior is for locking up land when Congress resists doing so, the FCC is for when Congress resists action on the Progressives' view of the internet, and so on through the alphabet soup of government.

Obamacare's unbridled bullying power must end.  Authority to enforce the law is inherent in police powers.  Enforcement means investigations into violations of law.  Given Obamacare's "unbridled" police powers, it would be a historic, massive expansion of government authority to investigate or audit businesses and households.  The power to investigate is the power to bully and deprive people of rights, which is why government investigations are subject to the Fourth Amendment.  Protections under the Fourth Amendment, however, have eroded as Congress expanded use of its powers to regulate interstate commerce.

TSA, under the direction of Napolitano, consent of Obama, collecting names, personal information, labeling them as potential "domestic extremists."
Taking names, Napolitano style.  [Scroll down]  As I stated in my original report, the new DHS procedures have everything to do with control and conditioning and nothing to do with actual security.  The TSA enhancements and the DHS databases are noticeably on the uptick, taking aim at law abiding American citizens who threaten the globalist agenda or the allegedly non-existent, once conspiratorial "New World Order" under global governance doctrine.

Al Sharpton Helping FCC Design Rush Limbaugh 'Free Speech' Show Trials.  [Scroll down]  This particular portion of the FCC trend towards the totalitarian may be explained thusly — they have in their employ as their inaugural Chief Diversity Officer Mark Lloyd.  Who in 2007 co-wrote a Center for American Progress-Free Press "report" — entitled The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio — that calls on the government to "equalize" Conservative talk radio.  Who wrote a follow-up essay that directed "community organizations" (run one would think by community organizers) to threaten the FCC broadcast licenses of stations with whom they do not agree politically.

Secret BLM Meetings Cause Uproar in Wyoming.  Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal (D) is leading a bipartisan challenge against the secretive nature of bureaucratic planning regarding federal lands in the state.  The U.S. Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management, which controls how federal lands are used, refuses to open its decision-making process to the public, and Wyoming residents are outraged about it.

The Editor says...
There's only one reason for this secrecy, and that is deception.

Behind the broccoli: Liberalism's war on liberty.  What this country needs is a crop of healthy, hunger-free kids — and now, thanks to the hectoring of Michelle Obama and the terrible swift presidential pen of her husband, it has one:  the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. ... ObamaCare and the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 are the things that expose modern liberalism for the iron fist in the velvet glove.  Can't feed yourself?  Dinner's on us.  Out of work?  We'll pay you to stay unemployed.  After all, you're too stupid to make your own best decisions in what used to be personal matters.  All we ask in exchange for your freedom is your vote.

Napolitano Says DHS to Begin Battling Climate Change as Homeland Security Issue.  At an all-day White House conference on "environmental justice," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced that her department is creating a new task force to battle the effects of climate change on domestic security operations.  Speaking at the first White House Forum on Environmental Justice on Thursday, Napolitano discussed the initial findings of the department's recently created "Climate Change and Adaptation Task Force."

The Editor says...
This maneuver by Ms. Napolitano is risible as well as ominous.  When ordinary weather is used as an excuse for the creation of a "task force" pertaining to "domestic security operations", it is obvious that the so-called Homeland Security people are hungry for additional power.  There has been no extraordinary climate change, but the threat of change is being used as a justification for expanded government power.  Global warming is a hoax.

No Such Thing as Carbon Neutral.  If you can't stop yourself from driving your car, cooking in your kitchen, heating and cooling your home, exhaling CO2, then 'They' will charge you fees you can't afford.  'They' have set up unelected local authorities through the EPA who have no accountability to voters and who will decide who uses what resources to 'their' ends.  To insure your submission and compliance with 'their' vision of utopia, 'they' will place Smart meters on your home, GPS devices in your car, tax you for your non-compliant appliances, take away your incandescent light bulbs, tax your airline flight, tax your tickets to entertainment venues, tax and cut your water usage, tax your hair-dresser, tax your nail salon, tax your local deli, tax your (exhale CO2) dry cleaner, anything that does or doesn't move.  'Their' will be done on earth.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.
Feds Force Oklahoma Bank To Remove Crosses, Bible Verse.  A small-town bank in Oklahoma said the Federal Reserve won't let it keep religious signs and symbols on display.  Federal Reserve examiners come every four years to make sure banks are complying with a long list of regulations.  The examiners came to Perkins last week.  And the team from Kansas City deemed a Bible verse of the day, crosses on the teller's counter and buttons that say "Merry Christmas, God With Us." were inappropriate.  The Bible verse of the day on the bank's Internet site also had to be taken down.

Federal Reserve Orders Private Bank to Remove Crosses and Bible Verse.  While the Injustice Department is suing an Illinois school district on behalf of a Muslim teacher and a federal judge has issued an injunction against an Oklahoma measure prohibiting the use of Sharia law in court decisions, a private business in the Sooner State no longer seems to have First Amendment rights.  Outrageously, the Federal Reserve has ordered the small Payne County Bank in Perkins, OK to remove religious symbols and sentiments in deference to an anti-discrimination regulation.

Republicans rip the Fed after examiner tells Oklahoma bank to hide religious items.  The Federal Reserve quickly withdrew an order to an Oklahoma bank to remove religious items from public view on Friday [12/17/2010] after two Republicans blasted the action as an "assault on faith."  Sen. James Inhofe and Rep. Frank Lucas of Oklahoma sent a pointed letter to Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke on Friday asking him whether he stood by a Federal Reserve examiner who told Payne County Bank officials to remove the religious references from their business.  The Fed examiner told the bank the religious items could discourage a person from seeking an application.

Democrat economics borrowed from Marx.  The Democrats lack a winning platform on estate taxes — work hard, save, invest and after death, Uncle Sam gets half.  Why would anyone in their right mind put any effort into work or take any chances on starting a new business if they knew half was going to the government?  It shows hard work and risk-taking isn't all it's cracked up to be.  Democrats don't realize that unlike the Joe Kennedys of this world, children might not keep accumulating wealth.

Does Berwick answer to no one?  Dr. Donald Berwick, President Obama's recess-appointed administrator of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, may be the least accountable federal agency head.

The Confiscation Con.  If you've spent enough time in the gold community, you might be under the impression that the most imminent threat to the average American isn't terrorism or unemployment, but rather gold confiscation.  Starting with the fact that FDR confiscated gold during the last Great Depression, and continuing to the quite accurate forecast that we are headed into an even Greater Depression, unscrupulous coin dealers have been pushing investors to buy expensive "numismatic" or "collectible" coins that they claim would be protected from government seizure. ... If the situation really gets this bad, you aren't going to trust some government agent with the intelligence of your average TSA officer to judge whether your coins are "numismatic" enough to be exempt from confiscation.

FCC's "Public Value Test": An Essential Step To Dictatorship.  And so it begins.  Michael Copps, of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), has suggested a "public value test" to determine who should, and should not, hold licenses for television and radio. ... Which segment of the "public" is to decide the nature of the "value" being tested?  It doesn't matter.  A few officials at the FCC will take care of that for you.  If this doesn't sound like Soviet Russia, Nazi Germany or any other totalitarian state, I don't know what does.

Another Victory for Islamic Jihad Courtesy of the TSA.  Reading several articles about how the Transportation Security Administration's (TSA's) full-body scans and pat-down "enhanced" security procedures violate the Fourth Amendment, I was struck by the utter irrelevancy of the argument.  Citing that Amendment against unreasonable searches and seizures would indeed present an unarguable efficacy if we lived in a political environment in which the rule of law otherwise prevailed.  No court could contradict the argument and still retain any credibility.  But we do not live in such an environment.  We are living in a political era of fiat law.

Obama's Malice Aforethought:  [Scroll down]  Even a "temporary" or "emergency" lock-up of this kind of speech is intolerable.  Under a statist regime, "temporary" means permanently.  The regime also decrees what is an "emergency."  Nazi Germany existed in a state of permanent emergency, from the day Hitler came to power in 1933 to its collapse in 1945.  Obama and his allies in government are pining for a Nazi-style "Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda" that would filter, interpret, suppress, and outlaw news and information they deem harmful to and critical of the government's policies, powers, and actions.  The Obama administration, at first defensive of its powers, policies and actions, has conducted an offensive against any and all who question the motive and wisdom of that administration.

TSA New Enemies List.  The TSA's policy is simply to ignore and overrule the Fourth Amendment, and to resort to brute force.  This is what it regularly tells travelers who question the policy.  It and the DHS will sooner or later decide to ignore and overrule the First Amendment, or freedom of speech.  It can claim that my writing — or anyone else's writing, no matter how calmly or emotionally composed — has caused others to oppose or "disrupt" the TSA's policies.  Whether the actions of those so inspired or so persuaded are criminal in nature, or lawful actions taken under the mantle of the Fourth Amendment, is irrelevant.  The threat implied in that directive is there are certain individuals and organizations that must sooner or later be silenced.

The TSA's "Protection" Racket.  There is a scene in Schindler's List in which all the inmates of the concentration camp are forced to strip naked en masse and run through a gauntlet of outdoor medical checks. ... Too eerily a parallel with the Transportation Security Administration's (TSA's) new "enhanced" security policies at American airports, which include full-body scans that show every detail of one's person beneath clothing and/or intimate "pat-downs" by manqués wearing blue surgeon's gloves, who are authorized to probe and grope infants, school children, adults, nuns, businessmen, well, everyone for combustibles or explosive materials.  Passengers are allowed to "opt out" for the pat-down, should they object to being seen naked, or if they're susceptible to involuntary radiation treatments.  Some choice.  No pressure at all, your choice — unless you choose to stop flying the unfriendly skies.

Obama Must Veto Omnibus Spending Bill.  The omnibus spending bill for fiscal year 2011, which Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid dropped on his colleagues yesterday, is more than 1,900 pages long, costs more than $1 trillion, and consists of some 6,600 earmarks.  The entire GOP leadership has come out strongly against the omnibus bill — on substance (it's terribly wasteful and profligate) and process (a lame-duck session of Congress should not be passing legislation of this dimension, which is clearly at odds with what most Americans voted for during the 2010 midterm election).

"It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood."

— James Madison    

Would Your Government Do These Things?  The individual has very little if any protections against a powerful, tyrannical government that has flagrantly and openly severed the bonds on its limits.  Strict adherence to the constitution by the government and the people is the only thing that stands between freedom and slavery.  It is only by banding together en masse, does a society have any hope of gaining control over that government and returning to one that respects and protects individual freedom.

A Tyrant's Thinking.  A member of the Federal Communications Commission appears to want Washington in control of broadcast news.  What a shame that people with such ideas are placed in positions of power.

FCC Commissioner Wants to Control the Content of Broadcast Media.  The First Amendment forbids Congress from infringing on Americans' right to free speech.  But the Federal Communications Commission is not Congress.  And Michael Copps, one of four FCC commissioners reporting to Chairman Julius Genachowski, seems intent on ignoring that pesky part of the First Amendment about "abridging the freedom of speech" when that speech is sent out over the airwaves.

Leasing Your Life From The State.  The right to own property is actually one of the most intellectually challenging aspects of our Constitutional system, as evidenced by how easily people are willing to abandon the defense of that right for others.  There is towering public outrage at the merest suggestion of compromised First Amendment rights for millionaire actors or musicians, but nary a peep at the idea those same millionaires don't have the right to pass their full estates — built with already-taxed earnings — along to their children.  You don't "own" anything that can be taken away from you when you're no longer alive to defend it.

Show Me Your Papers!!  With the introduction of the new body scanners that show what is essentially a nude image of the person being scanned, the American public is getting a taste of what it is like to live in a police state.

Feds Target School Bake Sales.  On December 3, the lame-duck House passed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, previously approved by the Senate.  President Obama, doubtless preoccupied with such trivia as taxes, unemployment, Korea, and China, has yet to sign it into law.  A mere two hundred and twenty pages long, it has lots of provisions for allocation of funds, demonstration projects, and the like.  Many may be worthwhile.  However, included in the legislation is a provision authorizing the secretary of Agriculture to regulate school fundraising bake sales to ensure that they are infrequent and that the goodies sold are nutritionally acceptable.  Far from innocuous, that is yet another distasteful and unnecessary intrusion of the federal government into our daily lives.

Jekyll and Hyde Government.  Government is hopelessly out of touch and is trending authoritarian.  It is corrupt and inept.  Ordinary people see a ruling class thriving while they suffer.  Large corporations get preferred treatment while the little guy is supposed to play by the rules and bail out mistakes he did not make.  Politicians ask everyone but themselves and their cronies to "sacrifice."  Government is no longer trusted or believed.  No government can survive when it loses the confidence of the people.  We have nearly reached this dangerous point.

Will The Light Bulb Ban Inspire a Conversion?  Why is the incandescent light bulb ban such a lightning rod for Tea Party-inspired remorse from big government Republicans?  Simple:  it's a liberty-stealing assault on our privacy and common sense, outrageously expensive, and doesn't solve any of the problems it's intended to fix.  That's only for starters.  The most egregious feature is that the ban makes fools of the American people who willingly succumb to such nonsense from Washington, D.C.

The mask has slipped.  We've seen our national treasury looted, with the unaccounted for cash handed out to already fabulously wealthy financial houses.  We've seen core industries taken over and control given to thug unions who caused most of the financial woes the industries suffered from in the first place.  We've seen regulations heaped ever deeper on independent agriculture, making us further dependent on the Third World and large multinational corporations for our food.  Despite the wailing about dependency on foreign oil, Obama and his unindicted Democrat/RINO co-conspirators have — quite illegally — thrown up roadblock after roadblock to domestic oil production.  Bad as all this has been, with the stentorian efforts of the "mainstream" media, the fascists have managed to keep up the pretense that this is all for our own good.

Government By Executive Order.  Because President Obama will now have a tough time getting his liberal agenda through a more Republican Congress, many Democrats are urging him to ram it through using the executive branch's unilateral power.  John Podesta, head of the Center for American Progress, even issued a list of executive orders and rule-makings last month that Mr. Obama can use to "push the country to a better place."  If the Department of Labor is representative, his advice is in sync with moves already under way.

The Soft Dictatorship.  [Scroll down]  The final piece to the puzzle of the soft dictatorship is the completely unconstitutional creation of executive orders.  Not only is there no basis in the Constitution for executive orders, but executive orders are often used to outright violate the Constitution.  Franklin D. Roosevelt used executive orders to demand the seizure of all gold owned by Americans and imprison all Americans of Japanese ancestry. ... George W. Bush signed executive orders that, among other things, established an alternative government in the case of a presidentially declared emergency.  Barack Obama has continued the tradition of unconstitutional executive orders by granting wide powers to Interpol in America and sealing his own records from inspection, and he is now looking for means to impose gun control through executive orders.

Washington Set to Control Your Light Switch.  Smart Grid sounds harmless and modern, but it will be incredibly intrusive.  Appliances in the future will have microchips installed; when you plug them in, they will handshake with the grid, and a central authority will determine whether that appliance deserves to get power or not.  If a bureaucrat in Washington decides that it's not hot enough for you to put on the air conditioner, your air conditioner will not work.  If the Fed decides that Margaritas lead to too much trouble on Cinco de Mayo, all blenders can be disabled for the day.  They can also turn off radios, televisions and computers.  In the era of electronic information, restricting the freedom of the press is as easy as turning off the light.  The idea is to conserve power, but a Smart Government will be able to use the technology to retain power as well.

America: Closed Due to Terrorism.  [Scroll down]  I asked a friendly Capitol Police officer where I was allowed to go and if I could take pictures.  The fact that I felt it necessary to ask speaks volumes to the extent that the Muslim terrorists have driven America into adopting extreme security measures to combat fear.  I was told I could take pictures, but could only enter the Capitol through an underground visitor's center after being subjected to security measures similar to an airport.  America's government buildings are closed off from the populace in an effort to combat terrorism, resulting in America's government officials being increasingly closed off from ordinary Americans.

First Health Care, Next the Food Supply.  Just because the duck is lame doesn't mean it can't still do terrible damage to American freedom.  Our new Congress, especially the new House, isn't yet seated, and this current Congress can still wreak terrible havoc on our rights if not stopped.  Case in point:  Senate Bill 510, believed to be coming to the floor Wednesday, November 17.  This is the food safety version of ObamaCare.

TSA scanners are a front to implement biometric chips.  You might of heard that the TSA scanners at US airports are a front because the guy that owns part of the company also makes the rules.  If you dont know who this is then dont worry, that is not the story.  The same guy also claims that the TSA scanners are just a front to implement them in schools and make people used to the idea, they would rather choose the machines than being molested by TSA agents.  Their plan is to see a machine in every school, shopping mall and public building.  Just about everywhere.

More about the TSA's abusive and invasive searches.

Obama's Torrent of New Regulation.  The burden of regulation on Americans increased at an alarming rate in fiscal year 2010.  Based on data from the Government Accountability Office, an unprecedented 43 major new regulations were imposed by Washington.  And based on reports from government regulators themselves, the total cost of these rules topped $26.5 billion, far more than any other year for which records are available.  These costs will affect Americans in many ways, raising the price of the cars they buy and the food they eat, while destroying an untold number of jobs.

Why Air Security is the Issue.  One of the great freedoms provided by those resources is the ability to move about.  Those who attack one attack the other.  Citizens who are self-sufficient and on the go are much harder to control than those who are not.  It is no coincidence that liberalism flourishes in the big cities, where people live in close quarters in a high-rise urban lifestyle.  A nation of Seinfelds is easier to keep tabs on than a nation of Palins.  As such, the Seinfelds don't even feel the morphing grip of bureaucrats because they rarely do anything or go anywhere that threatens the bureaucratic state's ability to control.  The Palins of the country instinctively feel this grip and abhor it.

TSA Searches:  Are Trains and Subways Next?  "I understand people's frustrations," said president Obama from Lisbon over the weekend.  Obama said at present naked body scanners and pat down searches bordering on sexual molestation are the best way to prevent Muslims in caves from attacking the American people.  Secretary of State Clinton told Meet the Press on Sunday [11/21/2010] that "everyone, including our security experts, are looking for ways to diminish the impact on the traveling public" and that "striking the right balance is what this is about."  For now, that "balance" means a near minimum wage TSA worker will fondle your testicles and there is nothing you can do about it.  Protesting will only slow down traffic and prevent people from visiting their family and friends.

The Frogs Finally Notice the Water is Boiling.  Maybe it really did need to come to this.  Maybe Americans had to literally have their privates groped by a government bureaucrat to finally realize that they have been the proverbial frogs sitting in a pot of water, unaware that they are being incrementally boiled to death.  For those of you who still don't get it, let me make it clear:  The ultimate destination of Political Correctness is totalitarianism.

More about the TSA's abusive and invasive searches.

Conservatives Should Not Be Celebrating the Election Results.  [Scroll down]  If Congress doesn't know what is in its legislation with its army of lawyers, how likely is it that the average citizen will know what is in it?  We have a situation where there are thousands, and perhaps tens of thousands, of pages of laws that every citizen is subject to every day.  Do you know them all?  Remember, ignorance is no defense for breaking the law.  After you figure out all the laws that apply, now go work on the regulations.  Regulations passed by the EPA, DHS, HHS, SEC, and so on still have the full force of law, and you can still go to jail for violating them.

Are We Free?  We are required to have a social security number as individuals or a taxpayer identification number as a business.  We need a license to operate a business, get married, drive a car, hold a rally in a park, etc.  We ask permission from the building and zoning department to build a house or change the house we have.  We get fined if we do not wear a seatbelt.  We pay taxes for just about everything we do.  The government controls the airwaves, the waterways, the sky and highways.  They tell us where we are allowed to go in the national forests and parks.  We are charged fees to use public lands.  We are prohibited from using our own land if some rare insect is found there.  Our churches ask the IRS for permission to operate with tax favors.  Our leaders tell us what we can and cannot say.  The first two of the Bill of Rights have been trampled at every opportunity.  This list could go on and on, but you get the message.  We are controlled from cradle to grave.

A Crossroads Election.  Runaway "stimulus" spending, high unemployment and ObamaCare are all legitimate and important issues.  It is just that freedom and survival are more important.  For all its sweeping and scary provisions, ObamaCare is not nearly as important as the way it was passed.  If legislation can become laws passed without either the public or the Congress knowing what is in those laws, then the fundamental principle of a free, self-governing people is completely undermined.

Michigan Woman Prosecuted for Christian Roommate Ad.  A Michigan woman who posted an ad seeking a Christian roommate on her church bulletin board has been charged with violating the law.  The Fair Housing Center of West Michigan filed the complaint against the 31-year-old unnamed woman.  The complaint states the ad "expresses an illegal preference for a Christian roommate, thus excluding people of other faiths."

Seeking Promiscuous Heathen Female Roommate.  Harold Core, director of public affairs with the Michigan Department of Civil Rights, recently told the Grand Rapids Press that the Fair Housing Act prevents people from publishing an advertisement stating their preference of religion with respect to the sale or rental of a dwelling.  And he made no distinction between an owner-placed ad and one placed by a prospective occupant.  Joel Oster, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) is representing the Christian woman free of charge.  He says this case is simply "outrageous."

Update:
Federal government drops case against Grand Rapids woman seeking Christian roommate.  On the surface, an ad posted in a church by a 31-year-old nursing student seeking a Christian roommate does violate fair housing law, but other issues prompted the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to drop its case against her.

Criminal barbering?  Raids at Orange County shops lead to arrests.  As many as 14 armed Orange County deputies, including narcotics agents, stormed Strictly Skillz barbershop during business hours on a Saturday in August, handcuffing barbers in front of customers during a busy back-to-school weekend. ... In "sweeps" on Aug. 21 and Sept. 17 targeting at least nine shops, deputies arrested 37 people — the majority charged with "barbering without a license," a misdemeanor that state records show only three other people have been jailed in Florida in the past 10 years.

Is Unlicensed Yacht Dealing a "Serious Threat"?  The fear that rich yacht-buyers are getting ripped off by scofflaw boat salesmen seems pretty implausible.

Unions target your private retirement savings.  Will the government outlaw your 401(k) plan?  It seems like an absurd possibility, yet earlier this month two Democratic senators, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., held a hearing on Capitol Hill exploring the possibility of doing exactly that.

Europe starts confiscating private pension funds.  Obviously, this is a cautionary tale for America.  If fiscal austerity becomes a real issue in the U.S. the way that it's been reaching critical mass in Europe — don't think that U.S. lawmakers regard your either your personal wealth or money they might owe you as sacrosanct.  Government has a habit of looking out for itself.

European nations begin seizing private pensions.  People's retirement savings are a convenient source of revenue for governments that don't want to reduce spending or make privatizations.  As most pension schemes in Europe are organised by the state, European ministers of finance have a facilitated access to the savings accumulated there, and it is only logical that they try to get a hold of this money for their own ends.

How Safe are Americans' Private Retirement Savings?  In Europe, the cost of socialism is apparently reaching critical mass.  According to the Christian Science Monitor, five countries — Hungary, Bulgaria, Poland, Ireland and France — are in various stages of confiscating or attempting to confiscate citizens' pension savings as a means of offsetting government revenue shortfalls.  Since most pensions plans in Europe are state-generated, such seizures are relatively easy to accomplish.  Yet while two of the attempts are being made to get back savings invested in national funds, the other three are grabs for "private personal savings."

Stealing Pensions.  Europe is trying to dig out of its budget hole by seizing private pensions.  It's a last-ditch effort to preserve socialism at the expense of the very assets that would sustain its future growth.

Is Your IRA Going To Be Raided?  The notion of government raiding personal retirement accounts for funds may seem extreme.  Perhaps it shouldn't.  Other governments have done it.  Argentina did in 2008.  Ireland has indicated it might.  The worsening financial crisis may eventually move other countries in that direction.  Surely the US would never do so.  Actually, there is little basis for assuming they would not and factual evidence they would.  Here are three good reasons to believe they would...

46 Percent Say Federal Gov't 'Poses Immediate Threat'.  The percentage of Americans who think the federal government poses "an immediate threat" to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens has increased significantly over the last seven years, rising from 30 percent to 46 percent, according to a Gallup poll conducted Sept. 13-16 and released today [10/13/2010].  Only 51 percent of Americans now say they do not think the federal government poses "an immediate threat" to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens.

Got student loans?  Feds make an offer you can't refuse.  Worried about how to pay off that student debt?  Head on over to the closest government agency, and you too can score loan forgiveness after ten years of "public service."  Does that sound too good to be true?  Well, Paul Winfree tells us that politicians voted to make these dreams (or nightmares) a reality.

A new threat is coming, and it's called Famlink.  [Scroll down]  Also with how corrupt CPS has been getting it is very easy for the Federal Government to forge documents and records in order to criminalize dissidents and take their children away.  One of these examples of John Irish and his wife losing their child over simply belonging to a Oath Keepers discussion board.  Although the Irish family managed to get their baby back after the court admitted defeat they aren't the only family to be persecuted by CPS.  Now What is FamLink?  Well through searching through many bits and pieces the U.S. Government forgot to cover-up (Save the documents while you can!) I was able to start putting together the pieces of what FamLink is.

The Hubris of NOAA.  Fisherman face declining fishing allocations, stormy weather, and fluctuating prices as routine dangers of their profession.  But federal regulators from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration are becoming even scarier.  This essay gives my assessment of the NOAA Fisheries Service Summary Report, which covers a series of meetings between the NOAA bureaucracy and the northeast commercial fishermen.

Beware the Cyberscare.  The same people who brought you the global warming and Y2K scares have dreamed up a scheme to assert greater federal control over the Internet in the name of cybersecurity.  According to Reuters news agency, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, intends to pass legislation on the subject authored by Sen. Joe Lieberman, Connecticut independent, and Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV, West Virginia Democrat.  The forthcoming effort will trade the freedom of an important communications medium for the illusion of safety.

The Fifty Years' War.  This war has been fought over what defines American freedom.  Are Americans freer when they can pursue their dreams without government interference?  Or are they freer when the government ensures that all their needs are provided for?

The Bank of Central Planning.  The prospect of another big-government program is disheartening to all those who believe the federal government has grown far beyond its originally intended scope of authority.  Fear that the massive growth of the federal government will stifle technological innovation, harm the economy, and limit individual freedom is well-founded.  Every society that has relied on central planning has suffered with a stagnant economy, limited mobility, and a low standard of living.

If You Are Not a Leftist, Why Are You Voting Democrat?  The Democratic president and Democratic Party have expanded the American government to an unprecedented extent.  Moreover, they have done so in unprecedented ways:  Never before has such extensive society-changing legislation been passed without a single vote of the other political party; and unprecedentedly vast powers have been given to "czars" and their new federal agencies — with no congressional oversight.

Keen Graphs of the Obvious.  Government has grown by obscene amounts since William McKinley was president.  In 1900, federal, state, and local governments combined spent under 5% of Gross Domestic Product.  Today they spend 40% of GDP or more and account for half of all health care spending.  The federal government alone spends more than 20% of GDP, owns 29% of all land, and controls virtually all ocean activity, including oil drilling, for miles offshore.  This puts us square into the mix of European welfare states in terms of government spending and debt.

FBI agents seek the right to tap texts, emails and websites.  US intelligence services would be allowed to tap text messages, emails and networking websites under new powers being considered by Barack Obama's administration.

The Green Agenda.  In keeping with President Obama's promise to slow the rise of the oceans and heal the planet, the Energy Department has set new efficiency standards for 26 appliances and household products.  The list ranges from microwaves, to washing machines and dryers, to residential water heaters and dishwashers.  The department reportedly claims the new standards will save consumers from $250 billion to $300 billion on their energy costs through 2030.  But that's what Democrats always say about their green schemes:  "We're doing this to clean up the Earth, and we're going to save you money while we do it."  Don't believe it.

Your Insane U.S. Energy Department.  In mid-September, Cathy Zoi, an Assistant Secretary of Energy, said that the U.S. Department of Energy has a "mandate" to issue regulations about what household appliances should be available to Americans in the future. ... The DOE intends to "set efficiency standards for energy-consuming products."  These will include commercial clothes washers, small electric motors, water heaters, direct heating equipment and pool heaters, among the countless products consumers use on a daily basis.

Predatory Governance.  The American federal government increasingly resembles a redistribution racket that is run by operatives who call themselves public servants.  Many of us have been blind to this because we have been brainwashed by the decades of government propaganda dispensed through the public school system, universities, and the media.  But the behavior of the political class has recently become so brazen and outrageous that scales are falling from people's eyes everywhere.

We, the ruled.  We are not being governed.  We are not being led.  We are being ruled.  Ruled like subjects in a medieval kingdom.  Oh, we have more freedom than our medieval ancestors; we can usually say whatever we want, whenever we want to.  But that's where our influence seems to end.  Just consider a series of recent issues that have arisen and how our "leaders" have told us, in effect, to take our opinions elsewhere.

Random Pat-Downs Turn PATCO Into Police State.  Commuters who ride PATCO trains between southern New Jersey and Philadelphia should expect random searches of their clothing, pockets, bags and vehicles on their morning trip to work.  Twelve Transportation Security Administration screeners, armed with an explosive-sniffing K-9, checked 663 commuter bags randomly selected from the morning rush at the Lindenwold station Tuesday [9/7/2010]. ... "We can conduct any kind of search we want," said [Delaware River Port Authority Police Chief David] McClintock.

Seventy percent of Americans know they've been conned.  [Scroll down]  The 70 percent is appalled by the placebo economics practiced by the president and the Congress over the past two years, shocked by its profligacy with the wealth of the republic, and sickened by the looting of the next generation's opportunities.  The 70 percent did not want Obamacare, but it has been thrust upon them.  The 70 percent did not want federal judges to declare "game over" in the complex discussion of what marriage is and means.

Abridging Too Far.  Philadelphia is charging bloggers $300 for a "privilege" license.  In the city where the Declaration of Independence was adopted and the Constitution signed, a right has become a privilege.  The scheme went virtually unreported until the Philadelphia City Paper ran a story last week noting that the city requires privilege licenses for any business engaged in what local tax attorney Michael Mandale terms "activity for profit."

Next Year's Congress:  Deem and Don't Pass Go?  The very process the Democrats used to pass legislation could be denied Republicans to amend that same legislation next year, even if Republicans regain the House and Senate in November.

Eminent domain, by any other name ... still stinks.  Imagine you come home from work one day to a notice on your front door that you have 45 days to demolish your house, or the city will do it for you.  Oh, and you're paying for it.  This is happening right now in Montgomery, Ala., and here is how it works:  The city decides it doesn't like your property for one reason or another, so it declares it a "public nuisance."

Destroying Jobs at 2.5 Gallons per Minute.  In 1992, the Department of Energy managed to promulgate a regulation requiring that showerheads use no more than 2.5 gallons per minute as an effort to save... water.  This is a substance that's in such short supply that 75% of the planet is covered with it. ... For eighteen years, this regulation was interpreted one way — the limitation was per nozzle, so people desiring a more vigorous shower could simply install a couple more showerheads, or a multi-nozzle shower system.  A specialty arose in the marketplace:  the creative design of elegant and invigorating shower systems.

EPA's Gun Control.  The U.S. Supreme Court says Americans have an individual right to keep and bear arms.  The EPA says the bullets for those guns may be banned as an environmental hazard.

More about gun control and the EPA.

Court strikes down mall talk rules.  A California appeals court struck down a mall's rules banning strangers from talking about subjects other than the mall while inside the facility. ... The mall's rules, which were previously upheld by Placer Superior Court Judge Larry Gaddis, allow for conversations between two strangers on non-mall related topics only if an application is submitted 4 days in advance and approved by officials.
[Emphasis added.]

The Tyranny of Google.  In an astonishing interview with The Wall Street Journal, Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google, has outlined what he believes will be the future of web searches.  His vision is nothing less than the etiolation of free will by, and the surrender of individual autonomy to, the all-knowing, all-seeing priestly class at Google.

America's Slipping Grasp on Self-Governance.  A disregard for the law and the people's will is not confined to the judiciary.  From the bank and auto bailouts, to the stimulus bill and health care overhaul, the elected branches of the federal government have sneeringly answered petitions for fiscal sense with one of the most unreasonable bevies of laws ever passed.  The court decisions in Arizona and California and irresponsible federal legislation are more than maddening news stories.  These events lend stark perspective to America's slipping grasp on the right to self-governance.

Justice Department's Civil Rights Division is out of control.  [Scroll down]  It isn't just the South Carolina prisons in the crosshairs of the Civil Rights Division.  It is mortgage lenders and insurance companies.  It is movie theaters and flat-broke counties that don't print ballots in foreign languages.  It's also Amazon.com, which tried to sell a talking Kindle reader, but Justice said it couldn't because the button to make the Kindle talk didn't have Braille.  Never mind that books neither talk nor have Braille buttons telling them to talk.  The business community would be wise to wake up and recognize the immense power the Civil Rights Division exerts over the private sector.

What Really Happened to Erik Scott?  An accomplished young man is killed by police outside a Vegas Costco, and bystander accounts starkly contrast with official reports.

The Prophet of the Ruling Class.  So now the EPA has been petitioned to ban the use of lead in bullets and fishing weights.  For hundreds of years, human beings have used lead for those purposes, and life on earth has not exactly come to an end.  Now we are told that the lead used in hunting and fishing is harming animals and fish, and it must stop.  The scary thing is that one individual, EPA Director Lisa Jackson, has the power to impose such a ban.

Has the Time Come to Replace the Federal Government?  After Clinton appointed Judge Susan Bolton ruled Wednesday that — for all intents and purposes — Arizona does not have the right to protect itself or its citizens from invading drug cartels and the illegal foreign hordes that are bleeding it dry of its resources, it should have become apparent to even the dimmest that We-the-People no longer exist.  We are now living under a tyranny developed, directed, implemented and enforced by the Marxists in power.

Rep. Pete Stark doesn't believe there are constitutional limits on federal government.  What is Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., thinking?  Following the publication of a video in which the congressman derides his own constituents for their concerns over border security (suggesting that they probably "kill people"), Stark spoke at a town hall in which he noted that there are few limitations on the federal government.

Stark Raving.  The federal government, according to Democratic Rep. Pete Stark, can do anything it wants.  If there are indeed no checks on the state's power, as the congressman claims, then the state is a tyrant.

We the Serfs.  The Constitution of the United States of America under President Barak Obama is being transformed from a nation of "We the People" to "We the Serfs." ... Under this administration, we have seen government takeover of large companies, the implementation of a pay czar to determine compensation in private companies, a health care insurance mandate where you will be forced to purchase insurance or have the IRS withholding your refund or garnishing your wages, cap-and-trade legislation, and the EPA regulation of carbon, which will determine where we can set our thermostats in our own homes.

Convicted:  Woman 'disobeyed' illegal order.  An appeal is challenging a Christian activist's conviction for failing to obey a police officer's order to shut down her camera while she was filming fellow Christian missionaries at last year's Dearborn Arab Festival because the command apparently wasn't legal.  According to the Thomas More Law Center, whose attorneys have filed the appeal with the Circuit Court for Wayne County, Mich., the city ordinances in Dearborn require that if a police officer wants his orders followed he or she has to be acting "in the lawful performance of his duty."

Growing Number of Prosecutions for Videotaping the Police.  That Anthony Graber broke the law in early March is indisputable.  He raced his Honda motorcycle down Interstate 95 in Maryland at 80 mph, popping a wheelie, roaring past cars and swerving across traffic lanes.  But it wasn't his daredevil stunt that has the 25-year-old staff sergeant for the Maryland Air National Guard facing the possibility of 16 years in prison.  For that, he was issued a speeding ticket.  It was the video that Graber posted on YouTube one week later — taken with his helmet camera — of a plainclothes state trooper cutting him off and drawing a gun during the traffic stop near Baltimore.

Update:
Motorcyclist wins taping case against state police.  A Harford County Circuit Court judge ruled this afternoon [9/28/2010] that a motorcyclist who was arrested for videotaping his traffic stop by a Maryland State Trooper was within his rights to record the confrontation.  Judge Emory A Plitt Jr. tossed all the charges filed against Anthony Graber, leaving only speeding and other traffic violations, and most likely sparing him a trial that had been scheduled for Oct. 12.

The War on Cameras.  As citizens increase their scrutiny of law enforcement officials through technologies such as cell phones, miniature cameras, and devices that wirelessly connect to video-sharing sites such as YouTube and LiveLeak, the cops are increasingly fighting back with force and even jail time — and not just in Illinois.  Police across the country are using decades-old wiretapping statutes that did not anticipate iPhones or Droids, combined with broadly written laws against obstructing or interfering with law enforcement, to arrest people who point microphones or video cameras at them.

Bloggericide: Ohio Officials Charge Blogger With Campaign Violations.  Well, folks, this is bound to happen more and more as time rolls onward in this New Media world of ours.  A blogger is in trouble with local Ohio officials who are trying to shut him down using a badly applied campaign finance law all because he has been critical of county officials on his blog.  That's right, a county board is trying to silence the free political speech of a local Ohio blogger because he is critical of them.

Body language police.  Every middle-schooler knows that rolling your eyes at the wrong person can get you grounded.  In Elmhurst, it can get you thrown out of a public meeting.  Deprived of the opportunity to speak to a City Council committee about its plan to hire a $30,000 state lobbyist, Darlene Heslop apparently could not contain herself.  She sighed and rolled her eyes — and was promptly ejected from the June 14 meeting.

This is another step toward 24-hour ownership of your children:
Education secretary calls for 12-hour school days, longer school year.  If Education Secretary Arne Duncan has his way, kids would be spending a lot more time at school — and a three-month summer would be a thing of the past.  Duncan joked with attendees at a luncheon at the National Press Club Tuesday [7/27/2010] in Washington that he would like schools to stay open 13 months out of the year.  Then he told the audience of over 100 that he seriously supports longer school hours.

The most important story in American history, you'll never hear on network TV.  On April 7th of this year Obama authored the Presidential Assassination Program.  It allows for American citizens to be targeted for killing far away from any battlefield.  So be clear, we are not talking about enemy combatants like the so called American Taliban.  No, what we are talking about here is targeting Americans off the battlefield, who in the opinion of the President alone, that is an unchecked accusation by the Executive branch can call for the assassination of an American citizen that the President deems to be a terrorist.

Beware if you make an FOIA request of Homeland Security.  Over the past year, the Department [of Homeland Security] has tried to protect itself from annoying and unwanted requests for information that they were legally required to provide through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), according to a report by AP. ... Most disturbingly, the requesters themselves became targets of government investigation.

I'm from the Government, and I'm Here for Your BMI.  While the Stimulus Bill requires that the government have access to your Electronic Health Record (EHR) by 2014, it only vaguely defines what the government will do with this information.  Herein lies the danger.  Vaguely defined power in new laws always leads to broad interpretation of power by the government.

Cherry-Picked Constitutionality.  A federal judge ruled that only a state gets to define what "marriage" is in that state, and the federal government can't overrule it. ... At least two things about that line of reasoning are very bothersome, regardless of your opinion of gay marriage.  First, it was not quite the "state" of Massachusetts that redefined marriage in this instance; four justices on its supreme court did.  The state legislature did not redefine marriage.  There was no popular vote to redefine it.  The governor never signed legislation to redefine it.  Four justices on the state supreme court did this.  And now we have a federal judge ruling that the federal government must honor that decision of state judges.  At this point, we have a total of five people redefining marriage as a legal institution for the remaining 310 million of us.

Bill Approved by House Gives Feds Power to Subpoena Any Record from Any Financial Institution.  The final version of President Barack Obama's financial regulatory bill, hammered out in negotations between House and Senate Democrats, contains a provision that grants the federal government the power to subpoena any financial information it wants from any financial institution without showing probable cause that a crime has been committed.

Eric Holder and Federalist 45.  [Scroll down]  Why are the attorney general and the president pursuing this suit?  To show the world that Big Government is even bigger than you may have supposed.  In their view, Washington runs your life.  Washington tells you whether you can enforce the law.  Washington tells you what sort of health care you can have.  Washington tells you how much money you can make.  Washington is the machine:  you are but a cog.  According to Washington, that is.  What would James Madison have thought?

Future of the News.  It's a frightening thought:  government takeover of the media.  But having tightened their grip on health care, financial services, and energy, it's only logical that the Democrats should turn their attention to the media.  Discussions underway at the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission point toward a dangerous new effort to regulate what Americans read and hear.  The takeover under discussion would apply across the board to print media, radio and television, and the internet.  The result of proposed regulations would be nothing less than an end to free speech in America.

The government goes after the victim rather than the perpetrators.
Elderly man facing serious charges for shooting at thieves.  Legal analyst Dan Recht said he believes the Jefferson County District Attorney is "seriously overcharging" a Wheat Ridge homeowner, accused of attempted first degree murder for shooting at two thieves.  82-year-old Robert Wallace said he fired two shots at two men when they tried to run him over while stealing his flatbed trailer.  Wallace now faces twelve felony counts, including four counts of attempted first degree murder, for what he described as an act of defending his property and his life.

Stolen Trailers.  Say you're 82 years old.  Say that you see two people a third of your age with criminal records stealing your trailer.  Say that you run out to stop them and they almost run you over.  You fire two shots.  The thieves are let go, and you find yourself facing life in prison.  It's not a hypothetical scenario.

Racial, Gender Quotas in the Financial Bill?  [Scroll down]  I was searching the bill for a provision about derivatives.  What did I find [was] Section 342, which declares that race and gender employment ratios, if not quotas, must be observed by private financial institutions that do business with the government.  In a major power grab, the new law inserts race and gender quotas into America's financial industry.

Another Marylander Arrested for Recording the Police.  The city of Annapolis, Maryland recently received a Homeland Security grant for 20 new surveillance cameras in the downtown area.  The city of Baltimore already has nearly 500.  According to the watchdog site PhotoEnforced, the state of Maryland has at least 375 red light cameras and 80 speed cameras.  Your government is watching you, Marylanders.  But don't think for a second that it's going to tolerate you watching back.

America's Road to Serfdom.  Thanks to the attention from Glenn Beck, a recent top seller on Amazon.com is Austria's Friedrich Hayek's The Road to Serfdom.  The book was written in 1944 to fight the drift from individual freedom and free-market competition to a growing dependence on economies controlled by central planning authorities. ... Hayek's book remains a wakeup call to apathetic citizens who take for granted that the improvements achieved through democracy, individual freedom and capitalism have been "acquired once and for all."  Hayek knew what history confirms; freedom must be earned and reearned in every generation.

Obama's Straws And Our Tired Back.  Some of the more naïve who voted for Obama were taken back by his sudden rush to take over insurance companies, banks, student loans, and the auto industry. ... But then soon, others wondered how a truther and racial demagogue like Van Jones or a Mao aficionado like Anita Dunn ever got into the White House.

And the Voice of the Liar is Heard in our Land.  The [Obamacare] bill will break states.  It will break companies.  It will put a boot down on the head of the American economy.  Which is exactly its goal.  The Obama Administration is not interested in economic prosperity, it is interested in a government takeover.  People who can make their own way and pay their own bills, are poor candidates for a nanny state.  No, the people have to be robbed, browbeaten, left helpless, and only then will they agree to have the chains put around their necks.  Or least stop fighting against them as hard.

Obama's Assaults on Liberty Proceed Unabated.  The socialized medicine nightmare is already beginning.  Many of us warned that Obamacare would serve as an all-purpose justification for government intervention in every aspect of our lives.  Have we become so far removed from our founding principles that we don't grasp the perniciousness of such government encroachments into our private lives and personal liberties?  You must read the executive order*.  Then you'll understand that the council and "Advisory Group" it establishes will not be merely advisory.  The provisions of this "order" underscore the disturbing extent to which Obama and his band of authoritarians intend to control our lives.

Residents get 6 votes each in suburban NY election.  [Arthur] Furano cast multiple votes on the instructions of a federal judge and the U.S. Department of Justice as part of a new election system crafted to help boost Hispanic representation.

The Editor says...
Why stop at six votes?  Why not give a dozen votes to everyone who is not (for example) a white male?  How about allowing ten votes per Democrat, and one vote per Republican?  All in the interest of fairness, of course.

Goodbye to One Man, One Vote.  If you thought that "one man, one vote" reflected the full flowering of representative democracy, think again.  In the village of Port Chester, N.Y., just a few towns north of my locality in Westchester County, there is a new system.  It's "one (minority) man, six votes" — brought to us courtesy of the U.S. Department of Injustice and a lunkhead of a federal judge named Stephen Robinson.

How Is Rigging Elections Fair to Immigrants?  A Nebraska town wants renters to prove they are in the country legally, and Port Chester, N.Y., was forced to swallow a goofy voting scheme that makes sense only if the aim is to erase the distinction between legal and illegal immigrants.  Under the plan, imposed by a federal judge in response to a 2006 Justice Department civil-rights suit, each voter in the board of trustees election got six votes.  A voter could give all six votes to one candidate, or divide them among several.

Vote system that elected NY Hispanic could expand.  The court-ordered election that allowed residents of one New York town to flip the lever six times for one candidate — and produced a Hispanic winner — could expand to other towns where minorities complain their voices aren't being heard.

More about judicial activism.

America's House of Cards:  The Cloward-Piven strategy, the bible for liberal progressives, teaches that to undermine the system one need only do one thing:  Overwhelm the system.  The radicals who occupy the White House, students of Alinsky, are all-too-familiar with the methods that will bring this country to its knees and allow for a remake or "transformation" to an ideal society that will finally be acceptable to their brethren.  Using each and every "crisis" to add another control disguised as government benevolence, the Obama administration is packing regulation upon regulation on the American people.

Cap-And-Traitors.  The Senate just claimed the title of the world's most delusional body by refusing to strip unelected EPA bureaucrats of the power to regulate carbon dioxide as a pollutant.  This was the day freedom died.

Expert:  Photos erased from phone.  The attorney representing businessman James Adkins yesterday said an off-island expert has determined all photographs on Adkins' camera phone were completely erased, either through damage or by a master reset of the device.  Adkins has sued the police department for $3 million in federal court, alleging his civil rights were violated after Guam police arrested him for taking photos of an accident from inside his car on a public road.  They detained him and confiscated his phone.

Census workers can enter your apartment in your absence.  Thousands of census workers, including many temporary employees, are fanning out across America to gather information on the citizenry. ... What many Americans don't realize, is that census workers — from the head of the Bureau and the Secretary of Commerce (its parent agency) down to the lowliest and newest Census employee — are empowered under federal law to actually demand access to any apartment or any other type of home or room that is rented out, in order to count persons in the abode and for "the collection of statistics."

The Spike that broke the people's back.  Governments, Thomas Jefferson wrote so eloquently in our Declaration of Independence, derive "their just powers from the consent of the governed."  This founding idea serves as the most fundamental precept of American governance.  Yet, today it is regularly exiled from our politics.  The latest case is now playing out in North Platte, Nebraska, where city officials seek to scuttle a citizen initiative that residents petitioned onto next Tuesday's ballot.  A Lincoln County district judge offers a powerful assist by ordering that the votes on the measure cannot even be counted or reported.

Bloggers Beware — They're Coming After You!.  Just when you thought it was safe to start expressing your right to free speech, Democrats in Congress are gearing up for a vote on a new piece of legislation to blatantly undermine the First Amendment.  Known as the DISCLOSE Act (HR 5175), this bill — written by the head of the Democrats' congressional campaign committee — is their response to the recent Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.

Chesapeake principal won't let mom pick up daughter.  The mother scheduled a Wednesday morning doctor's appointment for her daughter.  Come Wednesday morning [5/19/2010], the fourth-grader was taking a Standards of Learning exam.  The mother came to pick up her daughter.  The principal said no.

Bill Would Require Government to Track Body Mass of American Children.  A bill introduced this month in Congress would put the federal and state governments in the business of tracking how fat, or skinny, American children are.  States receiving federal grants provided for in the bill would be required to annually track the Body Mass Index of all children ages 2 through 18.

A Legislative Trojan Horse.  The basis of the EPA's regulatory efforts is the agency's finding that carbon dioxide is a "pollutant" that supposedly "endangers" us by causing global warming.  Once the EPA made this unprecedented and unsupported endangerment finding under the Clean Air Act, it put the enormous regulatory machinery of the federal government in gear to generate rules regulating CO2, rules that will damage every aspect of the U.S. economy.  Thankfully, substantive legal challenges to the endangerment finding and the rules the EPA is generating have been filed.

More about the EPA.
And incidentally, carbon dioxide is not a pollutant.

The next 2,000-page bill.  Big Brother wants to watch you more closely.  Especially how you spend your money.  His latest snooping plan comes from provisions in the banking bill being debated in the Senate.  The bill is being pushed by Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.

Dodd's Bank Bill:  Worse Than ObamaCare.  There are many bad things contained in Chris Dodd's Restoring American Financial Stability Act," ... But the most destructive portions of the bill — the one that would in my judgment go beyond even Obamacare in making the American free enterprise system unrecognizable — has been little discussed even by critics of this bill.  To put it bluntly but absolutely accurately, this bill sets up a mechanism for the Treasury Secretary, the Federal Reserve, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to nationalize virtually any business they deem to be a threat to American "financial stability."

Feds Tell Old Folks They Can't Pray Before Meals.  Big Brother says elderly visitors to federally funded meals at a Georgia senior citizen's center aren't allowed to pray to that absurd, dangerous Christian God of theirs.  Obama's Big Brother government contends that since it has paid for their meals the government has the right to slam its iron boot heel down on the necks of those seasoned citizens that dare to engage in such an apostasy toward the state.

Update:
Prayers Answered:  Seniors Can Pray Before Meals at Georgia Center.  The Georgia senior center that barred its elderly citizens from praying before meals has changed its policy after inquiries from Fox News and other news organizations.

Guilty no matter the intent.  In May of 2004, federal agents in a black sport utility vehicle ran Krister Evertson off the road, piled out of their vehicle in full SWAT gear, trained an automatic weapon at his head, and arrested him.  Evertson's crime?  He failed to put a federally mandated sticker on a UPS package.  A jury acquitted Evertson of the charges, but the feds later charged Evertson for "abandoning" hazardous material.  Evertson is an award-winning scientist working on fuel-cell technology, and the chemicals were both properly stored and necessary for his work.  Nonetheless, he spent 21 months in federal prison.

Does new bill propose 'federal takeover of water?'.  Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) and the Congressional Western Caucus have joined in opposition to legislation introduced by Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minn.) that seeks to provide the federal government with jurisdictional authority over all water across the entire United States.

And Just A Closing Thought.  You may not realize it, but our country, the United States, is rapidly becoming nothing less than a giant economic support system for government.  We are so very close to the point where Americans will no longer exist to pursue and fulfill their own potentials.  We will exist for one purpose ... to support government and those who depend on government.

Preparations for Reparations.  When the government decides what kind of light bulbs one can buy, what size toilet tank one can install, or how much salt can be added to one's food, then there is no limit to the depth and detail of government intrusion into one's life.  When every aspect of existence is decided or dictated by another, that is not freedom.  That is slavery.

Big Brother loves 'financial reform'.  The next time you make a withdrawal from an automated teller machine, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner might be watching over your shoulder.  Boosted by the sweeping, 1,400-page financial regulatory proposal currently making its way through the Senate, Mr. Geithner would have unprecedented, real-time access to a wealth of personal and corporate financial data — all in the name of protecting the public.

Reid:  'Someone' Should Offer Amendment to Financial Reform Bill.  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) says he wishes "someone" would offer an amendment to the financial regulatory bill to prevent the federal government from probing Americans' private financial records.  A provision in the bill would allow a new Treasury Department agency to demand "any data or information" from any financial firm and use a subpoena to get that information if necessary.

New recycling bins with tracking chips coming to Alexandria.  Alexandria residents soon will have to pay for larger home recycling bins featuring built-in monitoring devices.  The City Council added a mandatory $9 charge to its residents' annual waste collection fee.  That cash — roughly $180,000 collected from 19,000 residents — will pay for new larger recycling carts equipped with computer microchips, which will allow the city to keep tabs on its bins and track resident participation in the city's recycling program.

Do they have to put RFID chips in everything?

'Sedition' Is Constitutional.  For the past year, the Obama administration, unable to win arguments based on facts and merit, has been moving to criminalize the political opposition in an effort to artificially control the debate.  First, the DHS published reports classifying conservative viewpoints as terroristic.  Then hate crimes legislation was introduced to squash religious speech regarding sexual deviancy.  And finally, Regulatory Czar Cass Sunstein claimed the power to ban "falsehoods," an infraction Sunstein in his infinite nonpartisan wisdom would define and determine.  And now, the ultimate political A-bomb has been introduced into the public discourse:  the charge of sedition.

Just who do they think they own?  I have for some time been looking for a model to describe the relationship that currently exists between the people and the federal government.  At different times, I have labeled it as feudalism, serfdom or slavery.  None of them is quite right, and yet they all hint at the problem — the American people, who ostensibly still pride themselves on freedom have long since been co-opted as nothing more than a labor force by their masters in Washington.

Troubled Waters.  Rep. James Oberstar wants to rewrite the Clean Water Act.  If the Minnesota Democrat gets his way, the federal government will have even greater authority to take private property.  This isn't Oberstar's first attempt.  In 2007 he also tried to rewrite the water bill.  He and others weren't happy with Supreme Court rulings that defined the limits Washington has over bodies of water that have no nexus to navigable waters.  They want full federal control over all waters.

Big Government Crushes Christians.  Massive spending means massive government — a system that reaches into virtually every corner of our lives.  From house loans to student loans to light bulbs to toilets and even to the cars we buy and drive, we feel the government's direct hand.  Corporate executives worry about "pay czars," doctors worry about government-set prices for their services, and we all wonder if the Internal Revenue Service will be monitoring our health insurance choices.  Massive government means government control, the strings attached to money, to participation and even to expression as the government goes beyond the original purpose of its multitude of programs and attempts to alter social outcomes, favor certain viewpoints and — most ominously — suppress others.

Congress Becomes Madison's "Overbearing Majority".  The purpose of this bill is — as Pelosi put it — to "kick through this door" to prepare the way for even further "reform."  But what does this metaphor even suggest?  Who kicks through doors, anyway?  It is ordinarily the police — or even the secret police.  Not a constitutional legislative body of the United States of America.  Pelosi's phrase was profoundly aggressive, although perhaps she used it without complete consciousness of what she might be conveying.  But it was no accident.  This is an extraordinary way for a speaker of the House to talk, congruent with the Democratic Party's newly combative attitude towards the wishes of the American people.

DOE's Search and Seizure.  The feds are coming to inspect your home if you want to sell it, according to regulations buried in cap-and-trade legislation and standards decreed by the Secretary of Energy.  But there are numerous legal difficulties inherent in DOE "inspections."  Here are a few:  First, the regulations purportedly require homeowners to submit to a warrantless search of their property.

Federal judge rules Day of Prayer unconstitutional.  A federal judge in Wisconsin ruled the National Day of Prayer unconstitutional Thursday [4/15/2010], saying the day amounts to a call for religious action.

Obama's new tax on... Rainwater!?  Would President Obama's Environmental Protection Agency really force Americans to pay a tax on "rainwater runoff" from homes and small businesses?  You bet they would.  In fact, the EPA, under radical environmentalist Lisa Jackson, is proposing regulations to do just that.

Obama will now have his private army.  Of course, SEC. 430, Establishing a Ready Reserve Corps, lists in detail the commissioned Regular Corps and Ready Reserve Corps that will be trained up, fired up, lined up and controlled by Obama himself.  Naturally the purpose for this army is to stand by in case they are needed at short notice for a national health emergency or emergency response missions. ... In the history of our country, have we ever had such a massive, national health emergency that we needed a militia/military reserve ready to pepper the country and control things?

Using the FBI against the tea party:
Turning COINTELPRO on the tea party?  How comfortable are you with the idea of agents posing as activists to elicit anti-government tirades?  How comfortable would you be if the Bush administration had done the same thing with Code Pink in an effort to get a anti-war activist to threaten a Senator who voted in favor of invading Iraq?

Democrats continue campaign against individual liberty.  It's an absurdity that the federal government has the right to make Americans buy health insurance, but what's worse is the ha, ha, ha of the left that free people making their own decisions about the way they live is selfishness or shibboleth.  Heed that shrug of the shoulders — especially in the context of nanny-state interventions quietly disposing of all kinds of small freedoms all about us — and you have a taste of what's to come if the Democratic darlings of the left stay in power in the elections this year and in 2012.

Meet Your Lords and Masters.  There was a time in this country when the government of the United States followed the Constitution and had greatly limited powers.  Today, the Constitution is largely ignored and our Congress can do almost anything it wants — and it does just that.  Your Congress now essentially controls large parts of the automaking industry, banking industry, and it has put itself in charge of student loans.  It has taken over health care.  It takes tax dollars from your state and then tells you under what conditions it will allow your state to have its money back.  It's in charge of your retirement.  It even picks the lightbulbs you're allowed to have in your house.

Gun Nuts at 30,000 Feet?  [Scroll down]  After the flight landed, the marshals nailed another terrorist suspect — Robert "Bob" Rajcoomar.  He was handcuffed and taken into custody because, as TSA spokesman David Steigman later explained, Rajcoomar, "to the best of our knowledge, had been observing too closely." ... When the plane landed, Rajcoomar recalled, "One of these marshals came down to me and said, 'Head down, hands over your head!'  They pushed my head down, told me to bend down."  Rajcoomar said one of the marshals told him, "We didn't like the way you looked" and "We didn't like the way you looked at us."  Some air marshals apparently think of themselves as minor-league deities whom no mortal should be permitted to directly observe.

There Oughta Be a Law.  Bleary-eyed, I crawl out of bed, shuffle into the bathroom, and flip on the lights, but the bulb is out.  I remind myself to get to Home Depot and stockpile a few cases of good, old-fashioned incandescent bulbs while I still can.  After my morning business, I flush an extra time, since 1.6 gallons just doesn't seem to do the trick.  But at least we're saving water, huh?  Hop in the shower, where the water trickles out at an EPA-limited 2.5 gallons per minute.  I think I'll stay in here for an extra ten minutes or so.

Election Theft Underway in Wisconsin.  The far left has taken over the Democratic Party, and is aggressive changing the rules so as to entrench itself in power, regardless of the will of the people.  The same Alinskyite mentality that rammed through ObamaCare.  Rules are what you make the other guy live up to.  Now, with the same anti-transparency approach used on ObamaCare, Wisconsin Democrats plan to close down scrutiny while they tailor election practices to benefit themselves.  Chicago rules ruthlessness coupled to a far left structural agenda.

Love, Fear, and Tyranny.  We the people must remove the tyrants and preserve the Constitution.  But we must take care.  We find ourselves taunted by holier-than-thou Democrats and soulless media puppets.  "Violent right-wing extremism" would be the perfect excuse for banning the voice of liberty from the airwaves with an emergency "fairness doctrine."  So what can freedom-loving, traditional Americans do?

Without the Consent of the Governed.  Now that Obama & Co. have found the legislative mechanisms to subvert the Law of the Land on the federal health care grab, they intend to rush forward with the passage of "financial reform" — "energy reform" — and "Immigration reform" — none of which are any type of "reform." ... They plan to advance their anti-American agenda no matter how many stand opposed, and in such a manner that it can never be reversed.

Pelosi sends chill.  Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) offered a most disturbing promise to PBS's Jim Lehrer on Wednesday [3/24/2010], proudly announcing that the methods employed and nearly employed to force ObamaCare on the American people (formerly the most free people on the planet) would, from this day forward, serve as her "model for future reforms."  Chilling words, indeed.

Congress and the incredible shrinking Constitution.  The House of Representatives [voted] on the SENATE health-care bill, which is illegal.  The Constitution mandates that "all Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives, but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills."  What happened in this case is that the Senate took an unrelated bill that originated in the House, amended it by completely removing the previous provisions and then substituting 2,400 pages of bureaucracy-creating, money-stealing, rights-restricting health-care reform.  This is a blatant end run around the Constitution, and means that Congress can do anything it wants.

Forbes:  Is a Chavez-Style Media Crackdown Coming to America?  "Many of [Hugo] Chavez's most ardent supporters here in the U.S. come out of the 'media reform' movement, which believes that our corporate media has been thoroughly co-opted by capitalists bent on destroying the benevolent leadership of the likes of Chavez.  They think that our capitalist-plagued media world is in dire need of reform."  So ominously wrote Steve Forbes Wednesday [3/24/2010] in an article guaranteed to make right-thinking Americans from coast to coast wonder what's next in the Left's plans to control the press.

Obama Considers 'Zoning the Oceans'.  In requiring industries to disclose financial risks related to global warming and assessing national security concerns from rising sea levels, the administration has made an end run around Congress to ensure climate change is part of the national agenda.  One of the more insidious endeavors to implement climate change regulations without congressional action has been the administration's recent effort to regulate the oceans.  With very little fanfare, President Barack Obama quietly issued a memorandum last summer establishing an Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force charged with developing recommendations for a national policy for oceans and coasts and the Great Lakes.

The coming of an American Reichstag?  While published reports confirm that Capitol Police have been contacted and are addressing security concerns of lawmakers and the incidents of vandalism, the involvement of federal agencies has not been publicly disclosed, nor will it likely be on any official level.  The reason, according to this source, is that high-level discussions between top lawmakers and agency heads are "exploring the application of the Patriot Act against any right-wing individual or group that poses a danger to government operations."

No Limits on Federal Power?  Every power the federal government has through the commerce clause is one the state has never had.  If everything that affects interstate commerce (which, by today's standards, is every imaginable activity) can be federally regulated, then the states never had any power.  If the states have no exclusive regulatory power, then they are simply temporary custodians of federal power until the federal government chooses to retake that power.  That states have no exclusive power is an absurd conclusion.  But it is not easy to see now because the federal government "discovers" one power at a time.  But if all activities affect interstate commerce, then what other conclusion is there?

'Commerce Clause' Totalitarians.  Make no mistake:  Congress is telling Americans that we are required to engage in commerce, whether we like or not — simply because we exist.  And the fundamental question Americans should be pondering as a result, is this:  if Congress can force you to engage in a particular activity against your will, if they can literally eliminate the freedom to choose not to engage in commerce, what is it they can't regulate?  Answer:  absolutely nothing — and that is the essence of tyranny.

Stop kicking in our doors, Madame Speaker.  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi used an unexpected analogy Monday [3/15/2010] during a conference call with liberal bloggers to discuss Obamacare, saying "once we kick through this door, there'll be more legislation to follow."  At least four things need to be said about Pelosi's braggadocio.

Their Real Agenda:  Today's Democrats aren't interested in constitutional or traditional limitations on government.  They want to remake American life based on their notions of what's ideal, and they are more than willing to force leftward change on an ostensibly free people.  While this has been clear for some time, it still rocks us a bit when they acknowledge such plans out loud.  The loudest came Monday when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told a group of bloggers that turning the Democratic Party leaders' health care overhaul into law would embolden them to drive America away from its roots of liberty and independence.  "Kick open that door, and there will be other legislation to follow," she said.  "We'll take the country in a new direction."

Yet Another Government Takeover:  Student Loan Edition.  [Scroll down]  Since 1965, the Federal Family Education Loan Program has helped tens of millions of students and parents by providing low-cost, federally guaranteed loans. ... Yet right now, the Majority in Congress and the President want to make it more difficult to pay for college by putting the government between you and the money you need to pay for higher education.  The Administration wants to end FFELP in favor of a 100 percent Direct Loan program.  Under this approach, the federal government will become the sole originator and collector of student loans, forcing the roughly 4,000 schools who have chosen FFELP to the government-run alternative.

ObamaCare is Tyranny, Not Legislation.  What we're seeing in Washington, D.C. is not "politics as usual" with the arm twisting and "horse trading" that is typical in getting a bill passed; instead, it is ideological warfare.  What Obama, Reid and Pelosi are doing is not legislating; it is an act of tyranny — overturning all the rules and principles of government in a representative democracy. ... Apparently Obama, Reid and Pelosi aren't worried about losing control of Congress in 2010 or even the presidency in 2012, because their higher goal is to irrevocably institutionalize their ideology.

Why Obama, Pelosi, and Reid Won't Quit Pushing Health Care Reform:  Obama, Pelosi, and Reid are decidedly pale reds, or as was said in an earlier generation, "pinkos."  But all three have grand ambitions, make no mistake, to achieve through imposition the social — or should it be said, socialist — democracy that lies with deadening weight across the width and breadth of Western Europe.  These three Democratic leaders are working within our system of government to fundamentally alter government's relationship to the people.  If these three succeed, the American experiment in liberty will effectively end.

The Healthcare Bill Would Be Obama's 'Enabling Act'.  Why are Barack Obama and other Democrat leaders so intent on passing a government takeover of healthcare now…Now…NOW?  They must know that costs will rise and the quality of care will fall, right?  They must know that Obamacare would destroy the economy, right?  Of course they do.  But, they also know that the federal government would tighten its grip on the nation.

We, The People EPA.  It's been a pattern of this administration that if the American people are adamantly opposed to it, ram it through anyway.  So it's been with the health care overhaul, offshore drilling restrictions and now the Environmental Protection Agency threatening to become the uber-regulator of the air we breathe.  The New York Times says in a Saturday [3/13/2010] editorial regarding that last item that if Congress fails to enact cap-and-trade legislation such as Waxman-Markey or Kerry-Boxer, the EPA should jam it down our throats.

Serfs They Want Us To Be And Serfs We Will Become!  That's right.  It's over.  Their guns are bigger.  They control all the money.  They control the energy.  They control the land.  They control the food and they control the water.  Soon they will control our health care, down to the last detail on our electronic health care records being stored in a giant computer in Washington DC, from which they can determine if we are worthy of receiving health care.  The older we get, the less worthy we become.

Should It Be Illegal to Be a Jew in Massachusetts?  New legislation now being proposed in the Massachusetts state legislature to ban circumcision of any male children, including Jewish children, comes very close to saying, "Yes, it should be a crime."  Circumcision of infant males has been a requirement of Jewish faith and identity since the time of Abraham.  Meanwhile, just a year ago this week, two very powerful state legislators in Connecticut proposed a bill that would have had the government take over the finances of the Catholic Church.  (It took a rally drawing thousands of folks to the state capitol to persuade them to withdraw the measure.)

Consent of the governed — and the lack thereof.  According to a recent Rasmussen Poll, only 21 percent of American voters believe that the federal government enjoys the consent of the governed.  On the other hand, Rasmussen notes, a full 63 percent of the "political class" believe that the government enjoys the consent of the governed. ... The remainder, presumably, are comfortable being tyrants.  These numbers should raise deep worries about the future of our republic.

What's so smart about 'smart meters?'  Maybe it's just me, but there is something unsettling about having a smart meter tracking my power consumption.  Will there come a day when excessive power usage will be treated as a crime?  Who will determine what is excessive?

The Editor says...
The so-called "smart power grid" is one of several "great ideas" that may not be so great after all.

Obama and the Government Employees:  [Scroll down]  Meanwhile, Big Brother, like many big brothers, has become a bully.  The Internal Revenue Service is on a hiring binge to crack down on taxpayers; fees on candy, plastic bags, iPod downloads, sugar, and many other things that make life fun are going up and up; our tax rates are inflating; and studies show that there has even been an explosion in parking tickets and fines for every picayune sort of "violation" that the bureaucrats can dream up in all their spare time — phantom taxes, they have been called.  The leviathan must be fed.

The Nanny State Nightmare with Judicial Teeth.  A bill before Congress would grant extraordinary power to activist judges to implement an agenda that usurps the power of parents.

The Content of Obama's Character.  [Scroll down slowly]  Another disquieting note is the overarching theme of Obama's first year of governance:  the determination to govern against the preamble of the Declaration of Independence, which states that government gains its just powers from the consent of the governed.  The American people do not consent to the $787-billion stimulus.  They do not consent to the cap-and-trade bill.  They do not consent to the federalization of health care.

Obama to California 'Water, Its Not a Right its a Privilege'.  On the list of insane public policy moves we have come to expect from the current administration, Cap and Tax, Obamacare and Union Card Check, a fourth has garnered relatively little attention, although the implications for all Americans may be among the most far-reaching.  The recurring theme is centralized control.

Privacy.  In a hearing at the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, in an effort to overturn a lower court ruling, the Administration argued that a cell phone user has no expectation of privacy therefore the government can subpoena any and all cell phone records at any time for virtually any reason without the need for search warrant issued by a judge. ... Is the real motive to spy on US citizens?  On the surface it certainly appears so.

EPA's plan to set water-quality standards in Florida, a national first.  In a move cheered by environmental groups, the federal government on Friday [1/15/2010] proposed stringent limits on "nutrient" pollution allowed to foul Florida's waterways.  The ruling — which will cost industries and governments more than a billion dollars to comply — marks the first time the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has intervened to set a state's water-quality standards.

More information (none of it favorable) about the EPA.

The Taser's Edge.  The late Sam Francis once wrote about something he called "anarcho-tyranny."  Simply put, it's the growing tendency of the government to harshly treat ordinary citizens over even the most minor infractions while at the same time treating violent predators — real criminals — with disinterest and often minimal punishment relative to their deeds.  The growing use of "shock therapy" — tasers — on motorists who've committed minor traffic infractions such as failing to wear a seat belt or who grumble under their breath while being issued speeding tickets is Exhibit A.

Housing as Busing.  With a Westchester decision, the feds decree that neighborhoods must seek minority residents.

Ray Stevens:  Music Icon Takes On Obamacare.  Ray has been working steadily since 1958 and has won every music award you can imagine.  But he's not concerned about his status; he's worried about the future of his country.  "It's not about health care it's not about cap and trade... it's about control.  These people are socialists and Marxist and they want control and they want to be the elite ruling class and that's not what America is and America needs to wake up, and I think we are, finally, and kick the bums out," he told me.

The impudent tyranny of Harry Reid.  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada is proving once again the maxim that darkness hates the light.  Buried in his massive amendment to the Senate version of Obamacare is Reid's anti-democratic poison pill designed to prevent any future Congress from repealing the central feature of this monstrous legislation.

Making criminals out of all Americans.  There are now more than 4,000 federal crimes, spread out through some 27,000 pages of the U.S. Code.  Some years ago, analysts at the Congressional Research Service tried to count the number of separate offenses on the books, and gave up, lacking the resources to get the job done.  If teams of legal researchers can't make sense of the federal criminal code, obviously, ordinary citizens don't stand a chance.

Democracy Under Arrest.  Universal jurisdiction originated centuries ago to deal with hostes humani generis ("the enemies of all mankind") such as pirates or slavers, who were not under any state's control but legitimately concerned them all.  It has grown explosively in recent years, as self-styled human-rights advocates have pushed to criminalize national actions that they find offensive.

The airport is a police state.
Military Blogger Michael Yon Detained, Handcuffed by TSA in Seattle Airport.  [Scroll down slowly]  Yon described the TSA officials as noticeably frustrated by his refusal to answer their questions:  "I always assume everything is being recorded.  I was trying to be professional."  Yon continued, "They said I wasn't under arrest, but I'm handcuffed.  In any other country, that qualifies as an arrest." ... "TSA people are out of control," he said.  "They are not doing their jobs, they are harassing people, creating animosity.  They ask you 'what time is your connective flight?' and they bully you until you miss the flight."

Interpol, In Your Midst.  None of us can object to a police force, or an army, because humankind is too adept at being stupid and wicked.  But, when a police force or army are used against the people they are meant to protect, they become agents of the wicked who wish to control us.

Why Does Interpol Need Immunity from American Law?  You just can't make up how brazen this crowd is.  One week ago, President Obama quietly signed an executive order that makes an international police force immune from the restraints of American law. ... That is, Interpol's property and assets are no longer subject to search and confiscation, and its archives are now considered inviolable.  This international police force (whose U.S. headquarters is in the Justice Department in Washington) will be unrestrained by the U.S. Constitution and American law while it operates in the United States and affects both Americans and American interests outside the United States.

Executive Order Amended Immunizing INTERPOL In America — Is The ICC Next?  [Scroll down]  For an added and disturbing wrinkle, INTERPOL's central operations office in the United States is within our own Justice Department offices.  They are American law enforcement officers working under the aegis of INTERPOL within our own Justice Department.  That they now operate with full diplomatic immunity and with "inviolable archives" from within our own buildings should send red flags soaring into the clouds. ... American sovereignty hangs in the balance if these actions are not prevented through public outcry and political pressure.

Interpol — From the Inside.  Well, Interpol has certainly started a tidal wave!  My inbox has been crammed with comments, from hostile to accepting, from ignorant to a pretence of knowledge.  I had one, indirectly, from someone who worked in Interpol Europe.  Also, many gun-owners tell me they would shoot it out with anyone who wants to arrest them for having guns.  I can only warn against a Waco conclusion if that happened.

Ron Paul's Hour of Power.  The decades-long campaign of Ron Paul to have the Government Accountability Office do a full audit of the Federal Reserve now has 313 sponsors in the House.  Sometimes perseverance does pay off. ... What opponents of Paul's audit are thus saying is that elected legislators must be kept out of the temple where the great decisions about the economy are made, that these decisions must rest with bankers and economists answerable, as is the Supreme Court, to themselves and no one else.

High Court Considers Whether Feds Can Make Everyone a Criminal.  The problem with government is that it tends to expand, including expanding its ability to throw people in jail.  Fortunately, the Constitution provides a check on this power.  Often these days, "due process" is used as a catchall to advance any number of legal theories, most of them liberal.  But one correct doctrine from the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment is that a statute can be "void for vagueness."

The ObamaCare Leviathan.  As the Democrats inexorably slog toward the finish line, lugging and wrenching their malformed health care bill, the most passionate debate has been on contentious issues like abortion, the public option, and Medicare cuts.  Yet the overriding danger of the Senate bill and its House counterpart is the massive government bureaucracies that will emerge as the legislation takes effect.

Another Federal Bludgeon.  Buried in the House financial reform is a provision that would muscle up the FTC and radically expand its mission.  Pushed by liberal barons Henry Waxman and Barney Frank, the language would empower the FTC to impose civil penalties on companies that are first-time offenders and make it easier for the agency to concoct new rules. ... Imaginative lawmakers will have all sorts of ideas for how to use the new powers.

Global Warming as a Political Tool.  As part of the enduring statist desire to penetrate ever deeper into every nook and cranny of our lives, Greens have wanted to find a way for the government to regulate CO2, a natural byproduct of fire and breathing, for decades.  Now they can.  That is why the White House will use [Lisa] Jackson as a Medusa's head, to petrify cap-and-trade opponents with the prospect of something even worse:  the effective seizing of the means of production.

More about the Environmental Protection Agency.

When government slippery slope goes vertical.  Libertarians often warn about the slippery slope of government intervention:  Let the government run the schools, and it may end up teaching your children values that offend you.  Let the government have new powers to fight terrorism, and it may use those extraordinary powers in the pursuit of ordinary crimes.  Let the federal government give the states money for highways, and it may eventually use its money to impose its own rules on the states.

"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold
  is for people of good conscience to remain silent."

— Thomas Jefferson          

This is an original compilation, Copyright © 2013 by Andrew K. Dart

The U.S. House of Presumptuous Meddlers.  As an American, I am embarrassed that the U.S. House of Representatives has 220 members who actually believe the government can successfully centrally plan the medical and insurance industries.  I'm embarrassed that my representatives think that government can subsidize the consumption of medical care without increasing the budget deficit or interfering with free choice.

Justice Dept. Asked For News Site's Visitor Lists.  In a case that raises questions about online journalism and privacy rights, the U.S. Department of Justice sent a formal request to an independent news site ordering it to provide details of all reader visits on a certain day.  The grand jury subpoena also required the Philadelphia-based Indymedia.us Web site "not to disclose the existence of this request" unless authorized by the Justice Department, a gag order that presents an unusual quandary for any news organization.

Ministry of Truth, Obama-style.  President Obama has been agitating for the authority to criminalize political opponents since he took office.  First there was the raft of DHS reports profiling conservatives as terrorists.  Then came the push for a new fairness doctrine, subsequently refined to be achieved in diversity regulations to be imposed on local radio stations.  Following these attacks on free speech was the much debated hate crimes legislation, considered by many to be a back-door path to silencing critics of the administration.  But, while dangerous to free speech, none of these draconian policies could do as much damage as new regulatory czar Cass Sunstein's shocking proposal to ban "falsehoods" — a term left up to the Obama administration to define.  If Sunstein succeeds, free speech will be truly dead in America.

Can Obama and Congress Order You to Buy Broccoli?  Can President Barack Obama and Congress enact legislation that orders Americans to buy broccoli?  If so, where did they get that authority?  What provision in the Constitution empowers the federal government to order an individual to buy a product he does not want?  This is not a question about nutrition.  It is not a question about whether broccoli is good for you or about the relative merits of broccoli versus other foods.  It is a question about the constitutional limits on the power of the federal government.  It is a question about freedom.

Where does the Constitution Authorize Congress to Order Americans to Buy Health Insurance?  [Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick] Leahy, whose committee is responsible for vetting Supreme Court nominees, was asked by CNSNews.com where in the Constitution Congress is specifically granted the authority to require that every American purchase health insurance.  Leahy answered by saying that "nobody questions" Congress' authority for such an action.

Pelosi:  'Are You Serious?' When Asked About Constitutional Authority.  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) did not explain where Congress gets the authority to force Americans to buy health insurance, when asked by CNSNews.com, and dismissed the query with the response, "Are you serious?  Are you serious?"

Constitutionality of health overhaul questioned.  On top of all the other obstacles facing President Obama in his quest to pass health reform is this one:  Does the U.S. Constitution allow the government to require uninsured Americans to buy medical insurance or impose a tax penalty if they refuse?

California Assembly Expunges Santa Barbara Drilling Vote.  The California State Assembly is refusing to provide the names of assemblymen who voted to ban oil recovery off the coast of Santa Barbara.  Twenty-eight members supported the ban, but their votes cannot be found in the official state database.  Assembly leaders expunged the votes in order to spare lawmakers running for re-election an official record of their controversial decision.

The Editor says...
How can we have a representative government if the legislators conduct secret ballots?

Tribe's secrecy should concern community.  [Scroll down]  Tribal officers are fully empowered to make felony arrests of anyone in the county, to lodge those suspects in the Isabella County Jail, and to pursue criminal charges under Michigan law.  And, as it now stands, they have the ability to do so in secrecy.

The Editor says...
Secret police and tyranny go hand in hand.

Wabash Valley woman didn't realize second cold medicine purchase violated drug laws.  When Sally Harpold bought cold medicine for her family back in March, she never dreamed that four months later she would end up in handcuffs.  Now, Harpold is trying to clear her name of criminal charges, and she is speaking out in hopes that a law will change so others won't endure the same embarrassment she still is facing.

Buy too much cold medicine, go to jail.  [Sally] Harpold is a grandmother of triplets who bought one box of Zyrtec-D cold medicine for her husband at a Rockville pharmacy.  Less than seven days later, she bought a box of Mucinex-D cold medicine for her adult daughter at a Clinton pharmacy, thereby purchasing 3.6 grams total of pseudoephedrine in a week's time.

Every Drop of Water in America.  Some in the federal government want to exert control over ... every drop of water in America.  It is an attack on private property and it is emblematic of the real agenda of environmentalists.  It is Communism.  The American Land Rights Association recently issued a notice.  "Having been slapped down by the U.S. Supreme Court's two recent decisions that the words 'navigable waters' in the Clean Water Act limited federal agencies to regulation of navigable waters only, Democrats and liberal Republicans in Congress are striking back."

State of 'emergency'?  We're living in it.  Wednesday [9/23/2009], the Legislature approved Ted Kennedy's deathbed wish to repeal his 2004 nondeathbed wish to take away a (Republican) governor's power to appoint an interim senator.  See, now that the governor is a Democrat, the law is an "abomination."  The vote to change Teddy's law for Teddy was 24-16 in the Senate, 95-57 in the House.  That's not two-thirds.  But pay no attention to that pesky Constitution.  We'll just have the governor decide it's an "emergency."

Declaration Of Orders We Will Not Obey.  Oath Keepers is a non-partisan association of currently serving military, reserves, National Guard, peace officers, fire-fighters, and veterans who swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic ... and meant it.

A Destructive Toy Story Made in Washington.  Last Thursday, the House Energy and Commerce Committee finally held a hearing on the highly controversial Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, the children's-product-safety law that took effect on Feb. 10.  Chairman Henry Waxman (D., Calif.) allowed a single witness:  Inez Tenenbaum, the newly installed chair of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), who, like himself, is a strong advocate of the law.  Not one of the thousands of craftspeople, retailers and small manufacturers the law has sent reeling was permitted to testify.

New Government Policy Imposes Strict Standards on Garage Sales Nationwide.  Americans who slap $1 pricetags on their used possessions at garage sales or bazaar events risk being slapped with fines of up to $15 million, thanks to a new government campaign.  The "Resale Round-up," launched by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, enforces new limits on lead in children's products and makes it illegal to sell any items that don't meet those limits or have been recalled for any other reason.

Not Going Down Without a Fight.  [Scroll down]  Well, then, came along another government obstacle.  A law passed in 2008, called CPSIA, takes away my right to hand-create many things for children without third-party laboratory testing. ... I have purchased crafting items all my life.  I know who these people are.  Their cloth, their beads, their talent is American.  Toys, dresses, books, and such items are not meant for eating, and that is how these poisons are transferred.  We all want our children to be safe, but why punish those that have played by the rules and have their lives and blood invested in this?

Starting today, it is illegal not to recycle plastic bottles.  Starting today [10/1/2009], that old soda bottle and empty milk jug are no longer just garbage.  They must be recycled.  A new state law is taking effect that prohibits all plastic bottles from being disposed of in landfills.  Supporters of the law say it will boost North Carolina's burgeoning recycling industry, which has an unmet demand for old bottles that can be converted into new goods.

Oath Keepers organizer sees need to sound an alarm.  A vociferous group of Americans is warning that the country is not just headed in the wrong direction — but over a cliff.  They are mainstream media commentators, like Fox News' Glenn Beck.  They are religious leaders, like "Bible Answer Man" Hank Hanegraaff, who told radio listeners last month that "socialism and fascism" were "slipping quietly through the back door."  And they are everyday people like Rand Cardwell.

Sweet And Sour.  Government can't be allowed to use its taxation powers for an illegitimate purpose like directing the behavior of the populace. ... We've already let the government criminalize tobacco, fossil fuels and trans fat.  Will we now let Washington add sugar to its index of forbidden substances?

Home-schooler ordered to attend public school.  A New Hampshire court ordered a home-schooled Christian girl to attend a public school this week after a judge criticized the "rigidity" of her mother's religious views and said the 10-year-old needed to consider other worldviews as she matures.  Ever since the judge's ruling came out in July, the case has aroused the interest of home-schooling groups nationwide, who have asked why a court has the power to decide whether someone's religious views are too extreme.

The Editor says...
This is an issue far greater than home schooling.  No judge has the authority to rule on the merits of any person's religious values or beliefs.

Pay Czar Collects Firms' Proposals.  For years, the question of what constitutes fair and appropriate compensation for top business executives has been debated by legislators, corporate directors and activist shareholders.  Now, for the first time, a government voice will have a real say in what that pay should be.

Health Care Reform Is About Control, Not Health.  Liberals have always been fixated on controlling people. In America, they accomplish this through taxation, regulation, and unrelenting appeals to our leftist-dominated court system.  And when these avenues prove unsuccessful, liberals don't give up, they simply look for a covert means to reach their original goal.  ObamaCare is just such a covert means.

The Pay Czar's Power Grab:  Pay czar Kenneth Feinberg's official government title is "Special Master for Compensation." ... Asked by Reuters whether his powers include reaching back and revoking bonuses awarded to financial industry executives before his office was created earlier this year, Feinberg asserted broad and binding authorities — including the ability to "claw back" money already paid out. ... House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank has yapped all year long about extending pay curbs to all financial institutions and perhaps to all U.S. companies.

Did someone mention Obama's so-called czars?

School prayer charges stir protests.  Students, teachers and local pastors are protesting over a court case involving a northern Florida school principal and an athletic director who are facing criminal charges and up to six months in jail over their offer of a mealtime prayer.

This Can't Be the Same Country I Grew Up In.  [Scroll down]  I mean, we've got czars now.  Czars like John Holdren, who has proposed forcing abortions and putting sterilants in the drinking water to control population.  The latest is the nominee for regulatory czar, a Harvard Law professor named Cass Sunstein, who is a friend of Obama's and embraces the ever-so-popular "senior death discount" that calculates the lives of younger people as having a greater value than those of the elderly.  And he also believes in giving legal rights for livestock, wildlife and pets so they can file lawsuits.  Human rights for livestock?  This is not the America I grew up in.

Why the Founding Fathers Were "Birthers":  [Scroll down slowly]  There are TWO reasons why the "birther" movement is EXPLODING instead of going away, despite daily attacks and name calling from the lamestream press.  The Constitution, including Article II Section I either stands or it doesn't.  The people are watching the utter hourly destruction of their nation in Washington DC and they need a peaceful way to end that destruction legally, before things become violent.  The flaw in the left's plan to change the Unites States into a secular socialist One World Order is they have foolishly underestimated the desire for freedom and liberty in the hearts and minds of most Americans.

Health bill proposal for 'home visitation' sparks Big Brother fears.  A proposal for a government program that would send nurses into the homes of low-income women to counsel them about their pregnancies and parenting skills failed to gain support in Congress this year, but has been revived in the health care legislation.  The language, buried deep in the 1,000-plus-page House health care reform bill, has bipartisan support, though it never had enough backing to pass the House or Senate on its own.

Obama DOJ Threatened Oklahoma Over English-Only Vote.  The Obama administration believes that an inability to speak English is a civil right.  It is even more distressing that the administration, legally speaking, may be right.  In April President Obama's Department of Justice threatened to cut off federal funding to Oklahoma if that state's voters approve a state constitutional amendment making English Oklahoma's official language, Sen. James Inhofe (R-Oklahoma) revealed.

The Editor says...
The State of Oklahoma has a choice:  Take a handout from the federal government, or live in freedom.  Where did the federal government get the money it threatens to withhold?  The federal government has no money of its own — it is entirely parasitic.  Does anyone really believe that the U.S. government will cut off the State of Oklahoma from all federal funds while withholding taxes from Oklahomans' paychecks?  I say, call their bluff!

Senate Bill Would Fine People More Than $1,000 for Refusing Health Care Coverage.  Americans who refuse to buy affordable medical coverage could be hit with fines of more than $1,000 under a health care overhaul bill unveiled Thursday by key Senate Democrats looking to fulfill President Obama's top domestic priority.  The Congressional Budget Office estimated the fines will raise around $36 billion over 10 years.

U.S. Government Is After Your Pocket Knives, Second Amendment Group Warns.  Second Amendment supporters are warning Americans about what they call an "unwarranted knife grab by Customs agents."  On May 21, the Customs and Border Protection Agency proposed revoking earlier rulings that said "assisted opening knives" — including pocket knives — are not switchblades.  The proposed new rule would expand the definition of "switchblade" to include knives that are opened with one hand as well as old-fashioned slip-joint knives, even the type of folding knives that Boy Scouts typically carry.

Bid to expand knife ban doesn't cut it with critics.  Hunters, whittlers and Boy Scouts, beware — your knives may soon be on the government's chopping block.  The Obama administration wants to expand the 50-year-old ban on importing "switchblades" to include folding knives that can be opened with one hand, stirring fears the government may on the path to outlawing most pocket knives.

Health Care Bill Will Fund State Vaccine Teams to Conduct 'Interventions' in Private Homes.  There is a knock at the front door.  Peeking through the window, a mother sees a man and a woman, both in uniform.  They are agents of health-care reform.  "Excuse me, ma'am," says the man.  "Our records show that your eleven-year-old daughter has not been immunized for genital warts."  "And your four-year-old still needs the chicken-pox vaccine," says the woman.

No HAPI Ending.  The respect the federal government has for the American electorate, at least the amount it shows, has reached a new low.  The Healthy Americans Private Insurance plan, which incidentally goes by the acronym "HAPI," is the new plan the federal government has devised to force us to pay more in taxes and take a handout whether we want it or not. ... To put it bluntly, the federal government is saying we must enroll our family members and ourselves in a health insurance plan... or else.

Cap-and-Tax:  Government vs. America.  There is still time to stop the legislative monstrosity known as the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill before the Senate approves it.  But for that to happen, Americans must learn how bad it is. ... The American Issues Project has exposed Section 204 of the bill, called the "Building Energy Performance Labeling Program," which gives the federal government unprecedented authority over your home.  AIP says the section mandates that new homes be 30 percent more energy-efficient than the current building code on the very day the law is signed.  The requirement increases to 50 percent by 2014 and continues to increase until 2030.

Climate bill gives huge powers to government.  In less than a year, we have witnessed a government takeover of banks and lending institutions, a presidential firing of an executive at a major corporation — General Motors — and the toppling of established U.S. bankruptcy laws to the benefit of the president's political allies.  But this breathtaking claim of power may pale in comparison to the impact Americans will feel from enactment of the so-called American Clean Energy and Security Law, which has been passed by the Democratic-controlled House.

Green nonsense.  Waxman-Markey contains unpleasant surprises for Americans, including a provision which could prevent homeowners from selling their homes if they aren't retrofitted to meet federal "green" guidelines.  But the House passed the 1,400-page bill before its members had an opportunity to read it, much less ponder its implications.  Let's pray the Senate is more responsible.

Rep. Hastings' Amendment a "Disturbing Piece of Legislation"?  Approximately two weeks ago, the House of Representatives passed an amendment, introduced by Congressman Alcee Hastings, that would prohibit people affiliated with hate groups from joining the military.  The amendment is one of dozens tacked on to the National Defense Authorization Act for 2010 — the bill that OKs money to be spent on the armed forces.  The full bill passed the House and the companion bill was read aloud today [7/7/2009] in the Senate.

Alcee Hastings Paves the Way for Concentration Camps.  In the near future, voicing opposition to the radical left agenda being rammed down our country's throat could land you in a concentration camp.  Now's a good time to start resisting what liberals are doing to this country, because it won't be getting any easier.

Political opposition is not a hate crime.  Legislation quietly making its way through Congress would give the White House power to categorize political opponents as hate groups and even send Americans to detention centers on abandoned military bases. ... Section 2(b)4 allows the Secretary of Homeland Security to use the camps "to meet other appropriate needs" — none of which are specified.  This is the kind of blank check that Congress should never, ever sign. ... It's not paranoid to be extremely wary of legislation that would give two unelected government officials power to legally declare someone a "domestic terrorist" and send them to a government-run camp.  After all, the federal government has done exactly this sort of thing before.

233 Years Later, a New Independence Push.  President Obama and Speaker Pelosi have an ambitious agenda that, if implemented, would make Americans more dependent on their government than ever before — certainly more than our Founding Fathers would have envisioned.  From socialized medicine, ownership of car companies and large monetary infusions into failing private sector entities to federal control of our nation's energy and education sectors, the U.S. government is rapidly become increasingly powerful and increasingly intrusive.

Say NO to a Constitutional Convention.  What if Barack Obama, Harry Reid, and Nancy Pelosi had the opportunity to re-write the United States Constitution?  What if the hordes of big-government liberals had the opportunity to write the Supreme Law of Land?  What would this document include?  I can guarantee that it will include provisions that make America look like Socialized Europe on a fast track to collectivism and statism.  If Conservatives join in the fight for a Constitutional Convention, we will be handing over the keys to the kingdom.

We the People Need a Tyranny Czar.  America's system of checks and balances, designed to safeguard against tyranny, is in shambles.  Thus, our tyrannical president, committed to replacing free and private enterprise with government run socialism, is able to do so, virtually at will.  That same tyrannical president is able to downgrade national defense, drive the nation to the cusp of financial ruin, and trash the best health care system in the world in favor of a government run HMO, again virtually unchallenged.

The regulation of essential elements of life.  The EPA is now considering designating CO2 a dangerous pollutant.  The regulation of essential elements of life by our government scares me.  It should scare us all.  I am devastated by the notion that our own government founded on freedom would regulate and control the most fundamental aspects of life on earth. ... We generally have too much water where we don't need it and too little where we do.  Are you planning to regulate water also? ... Carbon dioxide is just as essential to life as water and oxygen.  Carbon dioxide is no more a pollutant than oxygen or water.

We've heard this Washington song before.  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made history Wednesday [6/17/2009] by barring Republicans from offering any amendments to spending legislation.  This has never been done before in the entire history of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Man, 81, charged for clearing pothole for repair.  An Ohio man said he chipped away loose material to prepare a pothole for repair and thought he was helping the city, not breaking the law.  An undercover police officer spotted 81-year-old James Stacy in the street near Stacy's home with a pickax and a broom last week.

Video Shows Philly Officer Bullying Woman.  When Agnes Lawless and three friends were inside a Lukoil convenience store in the Northeast at 3 a.m. last August, they'd all but forgotten the fender-bender in which they'd been involved moments earlier.  There was little damage, and the other driver had left the scene, near Northeast Philadelphia Airport.  What they didn't know was that they'd been rear-ended by the son of a police officer who was on duty, and dad was about to get involved.

Couple: County Trying To Stop Home Bible Studies.  A local pastor and his wife claim they were interrogated by a San Diego County official, who then threatened them with escalating fines they continued to hold bible studies in their home, 10News reported.

Land Grab, Air Grab, Water Grab — S 787.  The CWA (Clean Water Act) regulates point source pollution discharges into "waters of the United States."  The United States Supreme Court has interpreted the phrase "waters of the United States" to exclude isolated waters, such as ponds, intermittent streams, and wetlands which do not have a "significant nexus" to a navigable waterway.  These bodies of water are not regulated by the CWA.  S 787 would change the CWA to significantly broaden the scope of the bill.

Judicial 'Activism' Isn't the Issue.  The growing dispute between conservatives and liberals over the Supreme Court nomination of Sonia Sotomayor obscures a more troubling point of agreement:  The government should almost always win.  Many conservatives who think of themselves as proponents of limited government would be surprised to discover that conservative judges begin their constitutional analyses in almost every context by placing a thumb firmly on the government side of the scale.

What's my pay, Mr. Czar?  The financial community clearly needed to revise compensation systems to shift incentives for executives, managers, traders and others from one-year to longer term.  And just as clearly, it needed to curtail salaries and golden parachutes that bore no realistic connection to executive value-added.  But that's not government's role.  Entertainers and athletes make too much, too.  But that's not the government's business, either.

Obama Butters Them Up In Cairo.  At one point, Obama fretted over the rise of new power that, to the horror of civilized people, exudes an obsessed and twisted view of "sexuality" and "mindless violence."  Islamo-fascism?  No, the Internet.  The guy is confronting one of the most evil and relentless mindsets in the history of man and he finds room in his big address to whine about the Internet — by far a greater tool for freedom than anything else.

'Job-Creating' Ordinance Makes Negligence of 'Green' Audit Criminal.  The government is continuing to encroach on freedoms more and more in the name of climate change.  Case in point:  An ordinance that went into effect June 1 stating if you sell your home in Austin, Texas and you fail to get a clean energy "green" audit, you will likely face criminal charges.  According to an ordinance passed by the Austin City Council in November 2008, any home 10 years or older will require an "Energy Conservation Audit.

The state despotic.  Would it even be possible to hold the American revolution today?  The Boston Tea Party?  Imagine if George III had been able to sit in his palace across the ocean, look at the security-camera footage, press a button, and freeze the bank accounts of everyone there.  Oh, well, we won't be needing another revolt, will we?  But the consequence of funding the metastasization of government through the confiscation of the fruits of the citizen's labor is the remorseless shriveling of liberty.

Pelosi appeals for China's help on climate change.  U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged Beijing on Thursday [5/25/2009] to cooperate on climate change, calling a safe environment a basic human right. ... "We have so much room for improvement," she said.  "Every aspect of our lives must be subjected to an inventory ... of how we are taking responsibility."

Don't call it 'socialism'!  The government effectively owns General Motors and controls Chrysler, and the president is deciding what kind of cars they can make.  Uncle Sam owns majority stakes in American International Group, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and controls large chunks of the banking industry.  Also, President Obama wants government to take over the business of student loans.  And he's pushing for nationalized health care.  Meanwhile, his Environmental Protection Agency has ruled that it reserves the right to regulate any economic activity that has a "carbon footprint."  Just last week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said climate change requires that "every aspect of our lives must be subjected to an inventory."  Rep. Barney Frank, chair of the Financial Services Committee, has his eye on regulating executive pay.

You'll Love Diversity — Or Else.  Racial and ethnic diversity is the key to happiness, success in the global marketplace and, not least, an interesting life.  So we are told in a batch of new "fair housing" radio ads that are the sort of treacly propaganda that cause sober drivers to run off the road.  Presented as a celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Fair Housing Act, the ads were produced by the National Fair Housing Alliance, a private, nonprofit group whose stated purpose is to make sure the act is properly implemented.  The act bans housing discrimination and imposes stiff penalties for those who get caught.

Democracy and Majority Rule.  Democracy and majority rule give an aura of legitimacy to acts that would otherwise be deemed tyranny.  Think about it.  How many decisions in our day-to-day lives would we like to be made through majority rule or the democratic process? ... What about whether you drive a Chevrolet or a Ford, or whether your Easter dinner is turkey or ham?  Were such decisions made in the political arena, most of us would deem it tyranny.  Why isn't it also tyranny for the democratic process to mandate what type of light bulbs we use, how many gallons of water to flush toilets or whether money should be taken out of our paycheck for retirement?

Step Away From the Vehicle.  In August 1999 police saw Rodney Gant pull into the driveway of his Tucson home and arrested him for driving with a suspended license.  After handcuffing Gant and locking him in a cruiser, Officer Todd Griffith searched his car, finding a bag of cocaine in the pocket of a jacket on the backseat.  When he was asked at an evidentiary hearing why he searched the car, Griffith replied, "Because the law says we can do it."  Not anymore.

Tennessee Speeders Could Get Fingerprinted.  Motorists stopped for traffic violations in Tennessee could be fingerprinted if state lawmakers approve a bill pending in the legislature.  Currently, when drivers are cited during traffic stops, police officers ask for the driver's signature on the ticket, but the proposed bill would allow police departments to eliminate signatures and collect fingerprints.

FCC's Warrantless Household Searches Alarm Experts.  You may not know it, but if you have a wireless router, a cordless phone, remote car-door opener, baby monitor or cellphone in your house, the FCC claims the right to enter your home without a warrant at any time of the day or night in order to inspect it.  That's the upshot of the rules the agency has followed for years to monitor licensed television and radio stations, and to crack down on pirate radio broadcasters.  And the commission maintains the same policy applies to any licensed or unlicensed radio-frequency device.

Brown calls 1996 anti-affirmative action law unconstitutional.  Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown has told the California Supreme Court that Proposition 209, the anti-affirmative action measure passed by voters in 1996, violates the U.S. Constitution.  The state attorney general's stance marks the second time in six months that he has determined that ballot measures approved by California voters were unconstitutional.

Iowa, A Great Place To Be From.  The state in which I was born and raised has become the latest judicial laboratory for deviant social policy.  In a unanimous vote last week, the Iowa Supreme Court created the "right" to same-sex marriage.  As is always the case, the voters had no direct say in the matter.  Their state senators and representatives had acted responsibly on the matter several years ago by defining marriage as what it is — a union of one man and one woman.  But that no longer matters in America, where we now live not in a representative republic but rather under a left-wing judicial oligarchy.

Anything that isn't mandatory is now prohibited.
Hundreds of laws kick in Monday.  In California, driving with people in the trunk will be illegal.  In Alabama, landlords will have to provide livable conditions for tenants.  Illinois agencies will have to provide people to answer phones, not just automated messages.  These are among the hundreds of laws that will take effect Monday [1/1/2007].  Each New Year's Day, a flurry of legal experiments begin that shape Americans' lives.  The U.S. government spends twice as much money as state and local governments combined, but state government has the greatest effect on Americans' everyday lives — how they drive, how they get married and divorced, how they hunt and fish, and how they buy cigarettes and beer.

Some strings attached.  Last month, Congress enacted the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, popularly called "the stimulus plan."  It gives billions of dollars to the states, but the gift has strings attached.  One of its unique provisions changes state constitutions!  That provision is unconstitutional, and its defect raises problems about the whole enterprise.  The aphorism, he who pays the piper calls the tune, is one that Congress understands quite well.  If the state accepts funds, it also accepts a host of restrictions.

Hayward begins ticketing for smoking in public.  Lighted cigarettes meant lightened purses and wallets for smokers who were caught puffing in public this week, as the city began enforcement of a smoking ban that technically went into effect last summer.  The law, passed by the City Council last May, mandates a $50 fine for smoking on sidewalks, streets and other public places, including a 20-foot no smoking zone around outdoor patio areas of restaurants and bars, as well as parks, sports fields, playgrounds and municipal parking lots.  That zone also applies to windows, doors and ventilation ducts.

Out West, Catching Raindrops Can Make You an Outlaw.  Every raincloud that passes over her eastern Colorado ranch tempts state Rep. Marsha Looper to break the law.  A long, hard drought has settled across the land, and on those rare occasions when the sky opens, Ms. Looper longs to set out some rain barrels to collect the bounty for future use.  She'd like to use the rain to grow hothouse tomatoes.  But she refrains.  "I don't want to get thrown in jail," she explains.

Taking a bite out of crime...
Pennsylvania Pie Fight:  State Cracks Down on Baked Goods.  On the first Friday of Lent, an elderly female parishioner of St. Cecilia Catholic Church began unwrapping pies at the church.  That's when the trouble started.  A state inspector, there for an annual checkup on the church's kitchen, spied the desserts.  After it was determined that the pies were home-baked, the inspector decreed they couldn't be sold.

Good Ideas.  Thomas Jefferson advised, "Whensoever the General (federal) Government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force."  That bit of Jeffersonian advice is dangerous.  While Congress does not have constitutional authority for most of what it does, it does have police and military power to inflict great pain and punishment for disobedience.

How To Peacefully Subdue a Monster!  It took 232 years for the American government to turn into a monster, but a monster it is.  It is a vicious, mostly mindless monster with a thousand tentacles that reach into every portion of our lives and the tentacles grow back if you cut one off.  It is a monster that once was controlled by rules, but it has grown so powerful, it now re-writes the rules to serve itself.  It is a monster with a ferocious appetite, an appetite for your money.

Every American Is Now a Criminal!  You think you are a law abiding citizen, don't you?  Think again!  You have been, you are now, and you will continue to break the law for the rest of your life, because there are too many laws, with millions more laws to follow.  Many of these laws are totally unconstitutional but have never been challenged in the courts.  Sometimes you break the law without any knowledge of it, even though ignorance of the law is not an excuse, if you are caught.  But worse, millions are breaking the law because they are convinced the laws are illegal, or just plain stupid.  With more people intentionally breaking the law, eventually the rule of law breaks down, as does our Republic.  The examples of stupid laws would fill volumes.  Examples of conflicting laws would fill even more volumes.

How Free Are We Really?  There is neither such thing as a people with complete freedom nor one completely bereft of it; it's a matter of degree.  While many realize this, few understand that there is a barometer with which liberty can be measured:  The number of laws in existence.  By definition, a law is the removal of a freedom, as it dictates that there is something you cannot or must do. ... Every year our nation enacts more and more laws but hardly ever rescinds any, which means every year we become progressively less free.  I call this "creeping totalitarianism."

Ignorance reigns supreme.  With limited thinking abilities and knowledge of our heritage, we Americans set ourselves up as easy prey for charlatans, hustlers and quacks.  If we don't know the constitutional limits placed on Congress and the White House, politicians can do just about anything they wish to control our lives, from deciding what kind of light bulbs we can use to whether the government can take over our health care system or bailout failing businesses.  We just think Congress can do anything upon which they can get a majority vote.

Farmers beware:  Big Brother may be watching.  Eastern Shore soybean farmer Steve VanKesteren learned that the hard way when he was charged with taking two red-tailed hawks, a violation of the federal Migratory Bird Act.  The evidence against him was a video recording showing him dispatching the birds with an ax.  Game wardens had put a hidden camera in a tree, pointed at VanKesteren's soybean fields, after receiving a complaint about protected birds getting caught in predator traps.

The Editor asks...
Where are all those people who were so upset about domestic surveillance a few years ago?

Prohibition's Second Act:  Last week saw the 75th anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition.  In Washington, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) — a group of former cops and drug-war veterans who have soured on America's war on drugs — gathered to celebrate the anniversary, and to argue for an end to America's current prohibition on marijuana and more serious drugs.  Essentially, they believe that the war on drugs creates criminals.

This War is Not the Answer.  I believe it is long past time to end the War on Drugs.  That's not because I approve of drug use or have any desire to encourage it.  But this particular war has already gone on longer than the ones in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq, put together, with no end in sight and far less to show for it.

Controversial measure would require DNA sampling at arrest.  Suspects arrested in cases as minor as shoplifting would have to give a DNA sample before they are even charged with a crime if a controversial proposal is approved by the Legislature.  State criminal defense groups and the American Civil Liberties Union say the House bill is unconstitutional.  It would mandate that police or jail staff collect DNA from all adults and juveniles arrested on suspicion of a felony or gross misdemeanor.

Toy-gun sales ban advances to House.  A bill aimed at reducing the risk of children getting shot by police cleared a state House of Representatives committee Thursday [3/26/2009] but some questioned whether it would do anything.  House Bill 2160 by Rep. Fred Allen, D-Little Rock, would ban the sale of certain toy guns.

Where have you gone, Sheriff Taylor?  [Scroll down]  Not long ago I reported on an even more absurd case, in Shreveport, Louisiana.  There, the police chief cooked up this hare-brained idea of holding gas station employees and owners criminally liable in cases where drivers drive away without paying.  I can almost hear your incredulity. ... Well, you see, the chief got the town council to require station attendants to make their customers pre-pay.  If they don't, and the driver drives off without paying, then the attendant is also a criminal!  This sort of regulation of everyday life is all too common.  The basic idea is to scribble out a criminal code to make it easy for law enforcement.

In Australia, don't take pictures of the police.
Mobile phone seizure an 'abuse of police powers'.  A man detained and threatened with arrest under the Terrorism Act for filming police on his mobile phone says police abused their powers.  Nick Holmes a Court ... said police forcibly took his BlackBerry phone and threatened him with arrest both under the Australian Anti-Terrorism Act and for allegedly disobeying a police directive.

Legislative Preoccupation with Licensing Needs Repair.  While many Texas families rightfully fear violent criminals and child predators, no police alert has yet gone out for an interior decorator on the loose.  Yet, as the Legislature continues to produce solutions in search of problems, a pending bill would criminalize thousands of interior decorators.  This legislation is part of a raft of bills that would license new occupations ranging from interior designers to auto mechanics, forcing those who do not qualify to choose between committing a crime and earning a living.

Do You Have a License to Move that Chair?  In 22 states, including Arkansas, it is illegal to call yourself an interior designer without going through an arduous and expensive certification process.  In Nevada, it's illegal to do interior design without a license.  That's right, advising someone about drapes could land you in the hoosegow.  Like many states, Arkansas has an Interior Design Board.  The sole purpose of this board is to register interior designers.

Exposing the Connecticut and Oklahoma Interior Design Cartels.  The attempted cartelization of the interior design industry by industry insiders represents one of the most flagrant affronts to economic liberty IJ [the Institute for Justice] has ever encountered, and we are making the most of it.

Red tape snarls interior designers.  Susan Roberts can design you a gorgeous living room or a charming kitchen, but don't call her an "interior designer" — she could be fined $500 and spend a year in jail.

Horse Teeth Floaters' Constitutional Lawsuit Will Proceed.  Unlike human teeth, horses' teeth grow throughout their lives.  This causes sharp points to develop along their molars that must be filed down (or "floated") periodically, which levels the teeth and helps ensure that the horse can eat properly.  Historically, this practice has been provided by non-veterinarian specialists called "floaters," just as horses' hooves are taken care of by non-veterinarian farriers.

Our way lost.  Liberty is the result of much sacrifice, suffering, and labor.  It often has to be defended with bloodshed.  It is that precious.  Yet we quietly sit by and let government continually encroach upon our liberties without so much as a whimper.  Higher taxes strangle our personal freedom.  The Fairness Doctrine threatens to replace viable media content with a government-mandated mix of information.  Local city councils condemn private property "for the public good" while all they really want is to increase the tax revenue they receive off said property.

King Bloomberg.  When Mayor Bloomberg deployed his vast personal and political power to overturn the term limits law, he began to demystify the public relations image he had purchased at considerable expense.  It was only then that New Yorkers began to recognize the danger of making Gotham's wealthiest man its chief executive.  That recognition is the reason his approval rating slipped by nine points in the latest Marist poll.  The public chose a mayor; they didn't expect an elected monarch.

Next Up for Nationalization:  the Internet.  Following the nationalization of investment banks, Fannie and Freddie, consumer banks, and private insurance companies, taxpayers are likely asking:  What's left for the federal government to nationalize?  How about the Internet?  Network neutrality, or net neutrality, is the beneficent-sounding name for sweeping new government regulatory power that would prohibit Internet service providers from innovating in their own networks.

The Emerging Surveillance State:  The new FISA bill allows the federal government to compel many more types of companies and individuals to grant the government access to our communications without a warrant.  The provisions in the legislation designed to protect Americans from warrantless surveillance are full of loopholes and ambiguities.  There is no blanket prohibition against listening in on all American citizens without a warrant.  We have been told that this power to listen in on communications is legal and only targets terrorists.  But if what these companies are being compelled to do is legal, why is it necessary to grant them immunity?  If what they did in the past was legal and proper, why is it necessary to grant them retroactive immunity?

Tyranny In the Name of Progress:
California court bans religious objections to same-sex pregnancies.  Once again, judges in California have taken sides in the culture wars.  On Monday [8/18/2008], in North Coast Women's Care v. Benitez, the Golden State's highest court ruled that doctors may not rely on their religious principles to refuse in-vitro fertilization for same-sex couples.  The decision runs roughshod over the First Amendment's free-exercise clause, seeking to supplant Judeo-Christian principles with the state-imposed religion of secularism.  This is a false choice under the federal Constitution, which makes room for both.

Servile Nation.  The janitor who cleans up a shopping mall in exchange for a paycheck is to be disdained as someone seeking his own economic benefit, while an AmeriCorps "volunteer" who cleans up a public park in exchange for money extorted from taxpayers at gunpoint is to be celebrated as the embodiment of the Common Good.  Yes, they both perform the same function, but only the labor of the latter has been consecrated through the exercise of government coercion.

Police in Thought Pursuit.  Denuded of euphemisms and code words, the Act aims to identify and stigmatize persons and groups who hold thoughts the government decrees correlate with homegrown terrorism, for example, opposition to the Patriot Act or the suspension of the Great Writ of habeas corpus.  The Act will inexorably culminate in a government listing of homegrown terrorists or terrorist organizations without due process; a complementary listing of books, videos, or ideas that ostensibly further "violent radicalization;" and a blacklisting of persons who have intersected with either list.  Political discourse will be chilled and needed challenges to conventional wisdom will flag.  There are no better examples of sinister congressional folly.

Suddenly, Denver is 'like a police state'.  They're calling it "Gitmo on the Platte."  With riot police on every downtown corner, security helicopters whomping overhead, news that police had secretly converted a northeast Denver warehouse into a detention centre enraged protesters and civil libertarians here yesterday who hoped for a different message with Barack Obama's Democrats in town.

ABC Reporter Arrested in Denver Taking Pictures of Senators, Big Donors.  Police in Denver arrested an ABC News producer today as he and a camera crew were attempting to take pictures on a public sidewalk of Democratic Senators and VIP donors leaving a private meeting at the Brown's Palace Hotel.  Police on the scene refused to tell ABC lawyers the charges against the producer, Asa Eslocker, who works with the ABC News investigative unit.

ABC Reporter's Attorneys Want All Charges Dropped.  Lawyers for an ABC reporter and civil rights groups are demanding that Denver police drop all charges against a reporter who was arrested yesterday [8/27/2008] while trying to shoot video on a public sidewalk outside the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver.

A D.C. police state.  There is a neighborhood adjacent to Capitol Hill in Washington that is under siege.  But the police can't turn things around on their own.  On any given day, residents and visitors to the Trinidad area of Northeast are forced to traverse unfamiliar streets because D.C. police have barricaded the neighborhood as an anti-crime tactic — and when law enforcers accomplish that they are intent and in effect creating a police state in the nation's capital.

Nation's Capital Implements Measures Violating Rights & Property.  In order to curb the crime in the Trinidad neighborhood of Northeast, Washington, DC, police established "Neighborhood Safety Zones" where checkpoints were set up blocking access.  It's bad enough if law enforcement just about literally points a gun at the head of everyone coming into the neighborhood compelling motorists to permit officers to ransack through vehicles regardless of whether or not anything suspicious is going on.  However, things have gone beyond the limits of conscience when American citizens that have neither been convicted nor accused of a crime are then forbidden from proceeding down a free public street.

Update:
Appeals court rejects DC police checkpoints.  A federal appeals court said Friday [7/10/2009] that police checkpoints in a crime-plagued Washington neighborhood are unconstitutional and ordered a lower court to reconsider its refusal to block the program.

The Court defers to plain language.  Adrian Fenty, the mayor of Washington, said he would direct the D.C. cops to figure out a way around the [Supreme Court's] decision [upholding the Second Amendment]. … And why shouldn't he be cheerful about the actual effect of the decision?  Once the cops have a computerized list of gun owners, they can draw up a map showing where each of those owners lives.  Bureaucrats like maps with a lot of little colored pins.  This makes Big Brother's oversight easier.

When I Was a Boy, America Was a Better Place.  When I was a boy, America was a freer society than it is today.  If Americans had been told the extent and number of laws that would govern their speech and behavior within one generation, they would have been certain that they were being told about some dictatorship, not the Land of the Free.

45 days in jail for selling bacon-wrapped hot dogs.  "Bacon is a potentially hazardous food," says Terrence Powell of the LA County Health Department.  Continue selling bacon dogs without county-approved equipment and you risk fines and jail time.  Palacios knows all about that.  She spent 45 days in the slammer for selling bacon dogs, and with the lost time from work, fines, and attorney's fees, she fears she might lose the house that bacon dogs helped buy.

Abuse of Power in Texas:  The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, a misnamed bureaucracy if ever there was one, has demanded the children seized by the state and placed in foster care be immunized immediately against the wishes of their mothers, who fear negative effects.  Ahh, but those mothers are no longer mothers, explains Patrick Crimmins, spokesman for the department.  "We're the legal parents of the children, and we would like for them to be immunized," he said.

Boston police jump the gun with "Safe Homes".  The police department in that Massachusetts city has just launched an initiative that exhibits a cynical disregard for the rights of the citizenry, even as it cleverly cloaks the program in language pretending to protect the people toward whom it is directed.  I refer to the "Safe Homes Initiative," with its slick brochures and smooth rhetoric.

FBI compiling big database of physical traits.  The FBI has embarked on a $1 billion effort to build the world's largest computer database of peoples' physical characteristics, a project that would give the government unprecedented abilities to identify individuals in the United States and abroad.  Digital images of faces, fingerprints and palm patterns already are flowing into FBI systems….

Who Will Control Your Thermostat?  In California, we have 236 pages of state-mandated standards for building energy efficiency, known as Title 24. … What should be controversial in the proposed revisions to Title 24 is the requirement for what is called a "programmable communicating thermostat" or PCT.  Every new home and every change to existing homes' central heating and air conditioning systems will required to be fitted with a PCT beginning next year following the issuance of the revision.  Each PCT will be fitted with a "non-removable " FM receiver that will allow the power authorities to increase your air conditioning temperature setpoint or decrease your heater temperature setpoint to any value they chose.  During "price events" those changes are limited to ±4°F. and you would be able to manually override the changes.  During "emergency events" the new setpoints can be whatever the power authority desires and you would not be able to alter them.  In other words, the temperature of your home will no longer be yours to control.

The Editor says...
I can think of a couple of ways to defeat that FM receiver without touching it.  And I'm sure it will only be a matter of time before some hacker figures out how to shut off (or turn on) every air conditioner in town.

California Seeks Thermostat Control.  Next year in California, state regulators are likely to have the emergency power to control individual thermostats, sending temperatures up or down through a radio-controlled device that will be required in new or substantially modified houses and buildings to manage electricity shortages.

The Editor continues...
Scroll down to the end of the article to see a quote from Nicole Tam, a spokeswoman for PG&E, who claims that the thermostat control signals are hacker-proof because they "are encrypted and encoded".  What a relief!  We all know that no encryption scheme has ever been cracked by hackers.

California Proposes Taking Control of Thermostats.  The California Energy Commission has proposed requiring thermostats that allow the government to control the temperature of homes and businesses in case of high energy prices or shortages, a measure that some critics are calling "draconian."

Update:
Public Outrage Throttles California Plan to Control Home Thermostats.  Powered by a wave of public outrage that transcended party lines, California citizens have forced regulators at the California Energy Commission to abandon plans to control thermostat settings in private homes.  The Energy Commission had attempted to slip the thermostat provision into Title 24, a 236-page set of rules covering energy efficiency mandates on building construction.

Hillary's plan for economic ruin:  [Scroll down] This supposed deficiency of governmental intervention gets no support from a glance at the Federal Register, which includes tens of thousands of pages of new, old and proposed rules.  Nor does it help the thesis to note the cost of implementation, $1.1 trillion annually, according to the Small Business Administration.  All of this may seem as nothing to Clinton, but some fret that these endless, frequently obnoxious and sometimes pointless rules impose thousands of dollars on an average family each year, steal liberty from individuals and inflict mayhem as they goosestep their way across the business landscape.

The Taxpayer Frog In the IRS Pot:  There were few enough federal regulations in 1900 that the government did not do anything special to keep track of them.  That changed in the middle of the New Deal.  The Federal Register, the master list of federal regulations, came into existence in 1936.  In that year it had 2,620 pages of regulations.  The next year it had 3,450.  In the year 2000, it had 83,294 pages.

Magnum, P.C.?  New Texas Law Limits Computer Repair To Licensed Private Investigators Under the new law enacted in 2007, Texas has put computer repair shops on notice that they had better watch their backs any time they work on a computer.  If a computer repair technician without a government-issued private investigator's license takes any actions that the government deems to be an "investigation," he may be subject to criminal penalties of up to one year in jail and a $4,000 fine, as well as civil penalties of up to $10,000.  The definition of "investigation" is very broad and encompasses many common computer repair tasks.

Stores reward hybrid drivers with choice parking spaces.  Wheelchair users and others with limited mobility have long had access to prime parking spaces.  Then expectant mothers got their own special spots.  Now some stores are setting aside coveted parking close to the door for fuel-efficient hybrids.

The Editor says...
How about "black only" parking spots?  That would be cheaper than reparations.  No, I'm not kidding.  Big Brother keeps making subtle changes in order to assist the needy or reward certain types of behavior.  Reserved parking places for certain disadvantaged minorities — and now hybrid car owners — is just an example.  The tax code is full of these little incentives.  But by putting these restrictions in place, in many cases the government is engaging in exactly the sort of discrimination it pretends to oppose.

Cigarette surveillance program begins today.  Starting today [9/27/2007], state Department of Revenue agents will begin stopping Tennessee motorists spotted buying large quantities of cigarettes in border states, then charging them with a crime and, in some cases, seizing their cars.  Critics say the new "cigarette surveillance program" amounts to the use of "police state" tactics and wrongfully interferes with interstate commerce.

Have Gun, Won't Travel.  The Gun-Free School Zones Act … made it a federal crime punishable by five years in prison to possess a gun within 1,000 feet of a school. … According to an analysis by gun control scholar Alan Korwin, the gun-free zones created by the statute cover so much of Phoenix and Cleveland that they are impossible for people traveling in those cities to avoid. The upshot, he says, is that "virtually all public travel with firearms is now a violation of law."

The Editor says...
Don't tell me that effect was just an "unintended consequence" of the law.  And don't tell me the 1000-foot radius will never be increased.

Pro-Gun Liberals?  The entire government machine is based on force or the threat of violence.  If I don't pay my property taxes, the government sends out a bunch of guys with guns to kick me out of my house.  If I don't claim all of my income on my "voluntary" federal income tax return, then you send out the guys with guns to put me in jail for tax evasion.

Behavior Worth Medicating?  Twelve adults gathered in a small, closed courtroom to decide how many powerful, anti-psychotic drugs that the child, who is currently in the custody of the state, would be required to take. … The verdict:  the little guy would be forced to take anti-psychotic drugs Risperdal, Concerta, and Seroquel, plus the stimulant Clonidine and the anti-anxiety drug Klonopin.  This outcome begs the question of whether a six-year-old child, let alone children as young as three, can be diagnosed as psychotic.  And, whether children should be drugged by potions so powerful that most of them are not approved by the FDA for use in children.

FDA Takes Tyranny to the Heartland.  In this age of almighty government, nearly every blade of grass is regulated, oftentimes heavy-handedly, as Michigan farmer Richard Hebron found out when the Michigan Department of Agriculture (MDA), on Oct. 13, 2006, carried out a highly orchestrated sting operation against him for transporting unpasteurized, unprocessed milk of the highest quality to enthusiastic consumers.  That day, his wife also was served a warrant in the dragnet.

When Your Only Tool is Coercion, Every Problem Looks Like Too Much Freedom.  There is a famous saying that when the only tool you have is a hammer every problem look like a nail.  For politicians, bureaucrats, and many activists when the only tool they have is coercion the cause of every problem looks like too much freedom.  And make no mistake; if you are committed to accomplishing your social goals by using government power, then, by definition, your only tool is the hammer of coercion.  As George Washington pointed out in his second inaugural address:  "Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force."  And when people choose to use government to accomplish their goals they are choosing to use force, not reason and certainly not eloquence.

A Gift from Divided Government.  The [Federal Elections Commission] from its very formation was a blatant grab at power by those who detest individual liberty and fundamental freedoms.  Taken to its logical extensions, the FEC is an outright repeal of the First Amendment's right to free speech.  When all political communication is regulated by politically appointed hacks, when only favored entities are allowed to engage in political action, when some people are severely limited in what they can say or do while others are given a free hand to do as they please, freedom ceases to exist.

The census has grown beyond its bounds.  While the Patriot Act and National Security Agency wiretapping have received enormous attention and criticism from the mainstream media, another federal agency has been quietly gathering far more personal information about U.S. residents than those laws ever can.  And this unreported project affects thousands more people.  Our inquisitive federal government has been demanding that selected U.S. residents answer 73 nosy questions.  They are threatened with a fine of $5,000 for failure to respond.

Data Disseminated by Federal Agencies Can't Be Challenged, Court Rules.  The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on March 6 ruled the Salt Institute, a nonprofit association of salt producers that provides public information on behalf of its members, lacked standing to bring a lawsuit challenging government-disseminated misinformation about alleged health risks of salt.  Because it is difficult to imagine a plaintiff who would suffer greater harm from erroneous data about the adverse health effects of salt than the Salt Institute itself, the decision raises grave questions about the public accountability of government agencies.

Chicken farmers protest homeland security rules over propane tanks.  Are chicken coops the next battleground in the war on terror?  Poultry growers are protesting proposed regulations from the Department of Homeland Security that would label propane gas a "chemical of interest" and require anybody with 7,500 pounds or more of the fuel to register with the agency.  At that amount, poultry farmers who use propane to heat chicken houses would have to fill out the forms.

UK Police Can Now Demand Encryption Keys.  Under a new law that went into effect this month, it is now a crime to refuse to turn a decryption key over to the police. … "The Home Office has steadfastly proclaimed that the law is aimed at catching terrorists, pedophiles, and hardened criminals — all parties which the UK government contents are rather adept at using encryption to cover up their activities."  We heard the same thing from FBI Director Louis Freeh in 1993.  I called them "The Four Horsemen of the Information Apocalypse" — terrorists, drug dealers, kidnappers, and child pornographers — and they have been used to justify all sorts of new police powers.

Car Payment Late?  Big Brother Won't Let the Engine Start.  Rashida Redd punched in a six-digit code in her Pontiac Grand Prix and got a new lease on life. … The device, the size of a cigarette pack and mounted under the dashboard, flashes green if she has made a car payment on time.  If she misses her $94 weekly payment, it won't let her car start.

[Obviously, if a loan company can do that today, it won't be long before such a device is standard equipment.  This would enable the state to put the brakes, so to speak, on people with unpaid traffic tickets or tollway charges.]

1984 sticks its camel nose under the Catholic cafeteria's door.  Big Brother dishes up mealtime regulations for students — but how did "sexual orientation" get on the menu?  A poster in a Catholic School cafeteria states that discrimination based on sexual orientation is prohibited.  Literally "cafeteria Catholics."

U.S. Supreme Court destroys the right to private property.  The U.S. Supreme Court [has] ruled in Kelo v. City of New London that local governments can seize private property for private development even when that property is not "put into use for the general public."

Property Rights Devastated by Supreme Court Ruling.  Any government 'purpose' means homes get bulldozed.

More opinions about this terrible Supreme Court decision can be found here.

"Robed Masters" Usurping Control of U.S. Government, Says Bauer.  Phyllis Hamilton is a federal district court judge in San Francisco — but Gary Bauer says she must believe herself to be a "higher authority" than the elected officials in Congress and the president himself.  How else, he wonders, could the Clinton appointee justify striking down a ban on partial-birth abortion that was passed by both houses of Congress and signed by President Bush?

Study:  Distraction Behind Most Car Crashes.  Those sleep-deprived, multitasking drivers — clutching cell phones, fiddling with their radios or applying lipstick — apparently are involved in an awful lot of crashes.  Distracted drivers were involved in nearly eight out of 10 collisions or near-crashes, says a study released Thursday [4/20/2006] by the government.

The Editor says...
Obviously this "study" was published to generate popular demand for a new law against driving while distracted.  It won't fix the problem, but it will give the cops another excuse to search your car for drugs and weapons.  When an objectionable commercial comes on the radio, am I supposed to pull over and stop before changing the station?

This brings up another point:  Have you seen the inside of a police car lately?  Besides the lights and sirens and multi-channel two-way radios, they have computer terminals through which they receive almost all their instructions from the dispatcher.  (Not to mention car-to-car text messages about where they're going to eat lunch.)  Some have GPS maps that show the location of other police cars as well as their own.  The cops are in no position to judge others as distracted drivers.

Statistics disprove the "study" cited above.
Cellphones and Distracted Drivers:  Cellphones have gone from a rare luxury to ubiquitous in the last ten years.  Yet over the same time period, automobile accidents have declined steadily:  from 1994 to 2004 the fatality rate per 100 million miles has gone from 1.73 to 1.44, and the injury rate from 139 to 94.  For cars (which are the most common vehicles) the numbers for fatal crashes went from 2.07 to 1.57, injury crashes from 191 to 123, and property-only crashes from 351 to 260 over the same period.

Consent Decrees:  The Other Judicial Activism.  This loss of self-rule has come in the form of mandates passed by Congress over the last three decades which drastically impact our state and local governments. ... From 1970 to 1999 Congress passed 67 such mandates, the majority of them unfunded.  These mandates created a profusion of new rights in our country covering everything from rights for prison inmates to accessibility rights for people with disabilities to the right of everyone to breathe clean air.

A Truth Obama Won't Tell:  This episode … proves the impossibility of talking sense on the subject of illicit drugs during a political campaign.  That course of action would mean admitting the inadmissible:  that the prohibition of cannabis has been cruel, wasteful and fraudulent.  Cruel because it leads to the arrest of nearly 700,000 people a year for mere possession of a substance that is comparatively benign.  Wasteful because it expends billions of dollars in police, court and correctional resources that could be deployed against dangerous predators.  Fraudulent because it hasn't solved anything:  According to the federal government, nearly 100 million Americans have tried the stuff.

City may ban little baggies.  Tiny plastic bags used to sell small quantities of heroin, crack cocaine, marijuana and other drugs would be banned in Chicago, under a crackdown advanced Tuesday by a City Council committee.  Ald. Robert Fioretti (2nd) persuaded the Health Committee to ban possession of "self-sealing plastic bags under two inches in either height or width," after picking up 15 of the bags on a recent Sunday afternoon stroll through a West Side park.

The Editor says...
Why not also ban larger baggies, paper envelopes, shoeboxes, glove compartments, and any other storage device that might possibly hold drugs?  It is obvious (to me) that the war on drugs isn't really about the drugs -- it is about control.

Repeal the Bradley Amendment.  When our supposedly compassionate federal government pokes its nose into areas that, under our principle of federalism, should be none of its business, the result is often unintended consequences, gross injustices, and of course massive costs.

Roy Moore, the Imperial Congress, and the Rule of Law.  Only such a person as Roy Moore could be expected to possess the courage and steadfastness sufficient to tackle the difficult issues threatening to cripple America and eradicate its future.  Win or lose, he is showing the nation what needs to be done if it is to have any hope of restoration.

US-VISIT:  Documents obtained by EPIC under the Freedom of Information Act from the Department of Homeland Security show that US-VISIT has resulted in many cases of mistaken identity.  Commercial aircrew members, vacationers, and businesspersons have all been delayed by the gaffes.  The problems caused unnecessary delays in the visitors' travels and resulted in the improper flagging of crewmembers by government watch lists.

EPIC's US-VISIT page:  US-VISIT includes the interfacing and integration of over twenty existing systems.  Among the systems used by US-VISIT are:  the Arrival Departure Information System, Advance Passenger Information System, Computer Linked Application Information Management System 3, Interagency Border Inspection System, Automated Biometric Identification System, Student Exchange Visitor Information System, and Consular Consolidated Database.  Some of these data systems contain more personal information than US-VISIT needs to operate.  Some of them also contain information about United States citizens and lawful permanent residents, not just foreign nationals subject to the US-VISIT program.

Chutzpah 1, Citizens 0.  With all the whining and carping about the balance of power between this branch of government and that, why is there nary a peep about the most fundamental of constitutional balances, that between the government and the people?

The highest security in inauguration history.  Sharpshooters will be deployed on roofs, while bomb-sniffing dogs will work the streets.  Electronic sensors will be used to detect chemical or biological weapons.  Anti-abortion protesters have been warned to leave their crosses at home.  Parade performers will have security escorts to the bathroom, and they've been ordered not to look directly at President Bush or make any sudden movements while passing the reviewing stand.

Apochryphal, yet believable:
Will Your Safe Deposit Box Be Seized During The Next Emergency?  What you can do now to protect your valuables.

Forget Spy vs. Spy — This is Cops vs. Cops.  The demonstrators arrived angry, departed furious.  The police had herded them into pens.  Stopped them from handing out fliers.  Threatened them with arrest for standing on public sidewalks.  Made notes on which politicians they cheered and which ones they razzed.  Meanwhile, officers from a special unit videotaped their faces, evoking for one demonstrator the unblinking eye of George Orwell's "1984."

Orwell Today  compares the world George Orwell described in "1984" with the world we are living in today.

Are we having fun yet?.  I've lived under dictator Francisco Franco in Spain when the Guardia Civil routinely stood on street corners with automatic weapons … But I've never experienced anything like American security in the land of the free.  It was chillingly ironic listening to President George W. Bush talk about liberty, a word he used about 15 times in his inaugural address – and our mission to help others liberate themselves – while we were being frisked, filmed and watched by snipers.

A Man's Home is Uncle Sam's Castle.  Possession may be nine-tenths of the law, but not when the law wants your possessions. … This is why principle matters, folks.  Not too many complained when the EEOC sued business after business for alleged discrimination, or when the nanny state foisted mandate after mandate upon them.  But one thing leads to another.  Compromise the principle of private property rights and you've created a slippery slope, one of whose steeper drop-offs is called eminent domain, and at whose terminus can be found the netherworld of tyranny.

Reno's Raid on the Rule of Law.  Janet Reno's illegal seizure of Elian Gonzalez – in essence, a hit-and-run raid on the rule of law – threatens the liberty and safety of every American.

Elián's Odyssey.  In the story of a small Cuban boy is reflected the ordeal of our age – the struggle of truth and liberty versus lies and tyranny.

In Some States, Wine Shipment Is a Felony.  Interstate wine shipments using a common carrier, from a winery to an adult consumer 21 years or older, are prohibited in 24 states.

Judge's jailing of 20 in cell phone flap upheld.  A Niagara Falls City Court judge who jailed 20 defendants after a cell phone or wristwatch alarm went off in his court last year was acting within his judicial authority, a federal district judge has ruled.

What's in the Secret VEIL Test Results?  I wrote last week about how the analog hole bill would mandate use of the secret VEIL technology.  Because the law would require compliance with the VEIL specification, that spec would effectively be part of the law.  Call me old-fashioned, but I think there's something wrong when Congress is considering a secret bill that would impose a secret law.  We're talking about television here, not national security.

The War on Pot:  As the nation's "drug czar," John Walters is supposed to be saving us from the ravages of hard drugs like heroin and cocaine.  At least that was the original sales pitch for the "war on drugs" in the 1980s.  But the war has evolved into largely a fight against marijuana, which no one has ever claimed is a hard drug.  Walters is nonetheless committed, Ahab-like, to arresting every marijuana smoker in the country whom law enforcement can lay its hands on.

The left's vision:  Santa Monica, California, has decreed a fine of $2,500 a day for not cutting your hedges!  Has someone discovered some terrible health hazard or other danger from hedges that are too high?  Not at all.  The politicians who run Santa Monica have simply decided that people should not be able to build a high wall of hedges around themselves.

Misdemeanor Mistakes and Felony Forgetfulness.  It was a cool, clear October day in Washington, D.C., when the closing bell rang and twelve-year-old Ansche Hedgepeth ran out the door of Alice Deal Junior High School.  She stopped at a fast-food restaurant for an order of hot French fries and then headed for home.  Ansche took the escalator down into the Tenleytown/American University Metrorail station to catch her train.  In the station, she ate a single French fry.  Moments later, the junior high student was in handcuffs and headed for jail.

Update:
Court Dismisses Case of Girl Arrested for Eating French Fries in DC Metro.  While chastising metro officials for creating such a "foolish" operating procedure as the one mandating arrest for juveniles found eating, drinking or smoking in a metro station, District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan dismissed the case of a 12-year-old girl who was arrested for eating a French fry on the Washington, D.C. Metro.  Judge Sullivan stated that once probable cause of a violation had been established by Metro police, Hedgepeth had "no fundamental right to freedom from physical restraint."  Rutherford Institute attorneys intend to appeal the district court's ruling to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

License Plate "Guns" and Privacy:  New Haven police have a new law enforcement tool:  a license-plate scanner.  Similar to a radar gun, it reads the license plates of moving or parked cars and links with remote police databases, immediately providing information about the car and owner.  Right now the police check if there are any taxes owed on the car, if the car or license plate is stolen, and if the car is unregistered or uninsured.  A car that comes up positive is towed.

Overthrowing the Constitution and Subverting Representative Democracy.  Too many judges can no longer be counted on to reach rational and reasonable decisions based on the law.  Instead, too many judges now regularly issue decisions based on the absurd and the fanciful.  To make matters worse, these same judges impose their political views on the rest of us through anti-democratic and politically unaccountable means and then they tell us the Constitution made them do it.

The open secret — who runs the show?  The legislative staffs at the federal level as well as in the states have far more power than it is polite to talk about.  Usually, politicians fear bringing the subject up.  They don't want us to realize how much they rely upon their professional staffs to keep cranking out their never-ending batches of half-baked legislation.  They only bring it up when they have to:  when a goofy provision just seems too goofy even for Congress.  Or when their careers are threatened with term limits.

Criminalizing Dissent:  The FBI's Project Megiddo, which warns against millennial terrorism, paints constitutionalists, devout Christians, hate groups, and militias with the same broad strokes.

The Lady in Red Tape:  Judy Hooper loves doughnuts.  That's one of the reasons she opened a bakery in Evanston, Illinois.  It's a small shop, bringing in about $50,000 in profits annually.  That's not enough to make her rich, but the challenge of running a small business and her talent for baking keep this 35-year-old Chicago native busy.  Ask Hooper about OSHA, however, and her face glazes over with disdain.  A 1994 inspection of her 30-person bakery by OSHA officials left Hooper with $13,000 in frivolous fines.  Her infractions included a failure to warn employees of the hazards of household dishwashing liquid.  To recoup the cost of the fines, she would have to sell 260,000 doughnuts, or 10,400 cakes, or 1,040,000 cookies.

Federal Regulations Back to Near-Record Levels.  Federal government regulators issued 4,148 new rules in the 71,269-page Federal Register in 2003, 19 fewer than they did in 2002.  The cost of those rules appears nowhere in the federal budget.  According to the Federal Register, the five most active rule-producing agencies — the Departments of Treasury, Transportation, Homeland Security, and Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency — account for 46 percent of the rules under consideration.

Ten Thousand Commandments 2011.  Thanks to the bailouts and other amplified spending, CBO projects a FY 2011 deficit of a previously unthinkable $1.48 trillion, greater than FY 2010's actual deficit of $1.294 trillion.  With the unveiling of the 2012 budget, President Obama projects an even larger FY 2011 deficit than CBO does:  $1.645 trillion.  This figure will be the largest deficit since World War II, at 11 percent of the entire U.S. economy.

Time to stop the flood of federal regulation.  According to the Competitive Enterprise Institute's just-updated annual snapshot of federal regulations — "Ten Thousand Commandments" — the federal government spent $49.1 billion to enforce regulations in 2008, costing businesses $1.17 trillion to comply.  In other words, businesses are being forced to allocate vast sums of money and time to comply with the federal government's bewilderingly complex rules and mandates.

10,000 Commandments (2010 edition).  Precise regulatory costs can never be fully known, because, unlike taxes, they are unbudgeted and often indirect.  But scattered government and private data exist on scores of regulations and on the agencies that issue them, as well as on regulatory costs and benefits.  Some of that information can be compiled to make the regulatory state somewhat more comprehensible.

Earlier issues of "10,000 Commandments":
[1996] [1999] [2001] [2002] [2003] [2004] [2005] [2006] [2007] [2008] [2009]

"If men will not be governed by the Ten Commandments, they shall be governed by the ten thousand commandments."

— G.K. Chesterton [1] [2]          

The Universal National Service Act of 2003:  New draft legislation will take your daughters as well as your sons.

Automatic registration for the draft:  The Texas DPS is going to automatically register 18 to 26 year old males with the US Selective Service (military draft) when they apply for or renew a Texas driver's license.

The Editor says...
This raises some important questions.  How many state agencies use their leverage to gather information for federal agencies?  And what other agencies will begin using this technique?

Draft Registration for 15-year-olds?  "There may be no 'plans' for a national military draft, but that hasn't kept Louisiana from registering teenagers too young to serve in case conditions change," reported the Town Talk of Alexandria, Louisiana, on November 13.  Local resident Larry Chevalier "was alarmed when his 16-year-old son Nathan had to register with the Selective Service System in order to get a driver's license."

The Action is in the Reaction.  The terrorist leaders and their sponsors are providing the pretext for the U.S. government to institute police-state measures.

What Can Be Done:  The answer to terrorism lies not in granting Gestapo-like police powers to the federal government but in restoring legitimate internal security measures.

Supreme Court Urged to Rule Against Sentencing Guidelines.  The Washington Legal Foundation (WLF) filed a brief with the United States Supreme Court urging it to affirm a pair of lower court rulings that held that the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines are unconstitutional under the Sixth Amendment's guarantee to a right to trial.  If the Court agrees with WLF, as many legal observers believe it will, Congress will likely revamp the controversial guidelines which have mandated draconian sentences even for minor regulatory offenses.

Suspending Habeas Corpus:  The Bush administration claims the power to detain "enemy combatants" indefinitely without trial, a suspension of the Habeas Corpus guarantee on which our justice system is founded.

The Gangster State:  In a free society, the police protect citizens, but in a police state, they protect government from its citizens.  This police state mindset is now more deeply entrenched under Bush than Clinton.

Victims of Over-Zealous Police Officers:  No one disputes the fact that seat belts save lives.  Most states, therefore, have buckle-up laws that make it a misdemeanor to drive with being properly belted.  However, in Texas, the Transportation Code not only permits a police officer to stop a driver for the non-use of seat belts, it also permits the officer to arrest the driver for violating that law.  Gail Atwater was one of those unfortunate Texans.

Running From the Police — Is It Sufficient For A Stop?  In a 5-4 decision decided in January, the United States Supreme Court effectively dished up more power onto the plates of law enforcement officers, giving them the authority to detain a person who flees at the mere sight of a policeman.

Drug War Crimes:  The Consequences of Prohibition.  Jeffrey A. Miron, Professor of Economics at Boston University contends that the war on drugs has been more effective in fostering corruption among public officials than in reducing drug consumption.

Criminalizing business:  If you create enough laws, everyone will be a criminal.

Criminalizing business:  part II.  A recent column in the San Francisco Chronicle vividly illustrates the anti-business mindset of many Californians.  It dealt with the fact that Wal-Mart lost a referendum to allow the retailer to put a store in Inglewood, California.  According to the Chronicle columnist, Wal-Mart was "trying to bully its way into another targeted community."  Putting an issue to a vote is called "bullying" when business does it, and the community where it wants to locate is called a "target."

Ruled by scoundrels:  The more federal control over education, the worse it becomes.  The Endangered Species Act has attacked and trivialized private property rights.  CAFE standards, by forcing auto companies to produce lighter, and hence less safe cars, have cost thousands of highway fatalities, and it goes on and on.

Parting company is an option:  Every single bit of evidence shows that states have a right to secede.  There's absolutely nothing in the Constitution that prohibits secession.  What stops secession is the brute force of a mighty federal government, as witnessed by the costly War of 1861.

Flower power:  Free the florists!  Last year Sandy Meadows, who supervises the floral department at an Albertson's supermarket in Baton Rouge, was filling in at another Albertson's store that had lost its florist when she was visited by an inspector from the Louisiana Horticulture Commission.  He told her she'd have to throw out the seven arrangements she had produced that morning if she wanted to avoid a $250 citation for practicing floristry without a license.

The Right to Work:  The people of Louisiana must sleep soundly knowing that their state protects them from ... unlicensed florists.  That's right.  In Louisiana, you can't sell flower arrangements unless you have permission from the government.  How do you get permission? You must pass a test that is graded by a board of florists who already have licenses.

Roy Moore, Chief Justice No More.  Many side issues have divided the Christian community on this case, so we must remember that the true enemy here is the judicial tyranny that is forcing a secular religion on our public life and discourse.  That is the battle we need to focus on.

Bill would allow FBI to collect DNA from anyone arrested.  The law, if enacted, would be the greatest single expansion of the federal government's power to collect and use DNA since the FBI's national database was created in 1992.

The danger of DNA:  It isn't foolproof forensics.  Although best known for clearing the wrongfully convicted, DNA evidence has linked innocent people to crimes.  In the lab, it can be contaminated or mislabeled; samples can be switched.  In the courtroom, its significance has been overstated by lawyers or misunderstood by jurors.

Liberate Drug Dogs and end modern prohibition.  The Matheson case points out the lack of credibility of drug dogs and their employers.  Drug dogs are often used as ruses to violate the constitutional rights of humans.  Drug dogs are like humans in that they must be taught to approach peaceful people and search them, so that they can be arrested, handcuffed and imprisoned for decades under modern prohibition.  That is not an easy trick to teach a dog.  It's easier to teach humans.

Godfather government, meet yer maker.  Making new homes "affordable" by putting a gun to home builders' heads is criminal.

Shattered Dreams:  100 Stories of Government Abuse.  This publication highlights how regulations that are poorly written and/or inflexibly enforced can overwhelm, intimidate, bankrupt or otherwise harm average Americans.  It features situations related to the Americans with Disabilities Act, building codes, INS, IRS, the Endangered Species Act, OSHA, Indian Affairs, zoning, property rights issues, etc.

Shattered Dreams:  100 Stories of Government Abuse.  Download the entire book in PDF format.  (518 k-bytes and well worth it.)

The People Versus LaLa Wang:  Wang is the founder of MLX.com, an interactive portal site that allows customers to access a real-time database of real estate listings.  In her years as a real estate broker, Wang never faced a single consumer complaint.  But her perfect record and satisfied customer base did nothing to dissuade the New York Department of State from trying to shut down her business.

Taxing Times in California:  The Depths to which his California has Fallen.  Stories of taxpayer abuse at the hands of the IRS were once so common as to be cliché, but Gil Hyatt recently discovered that California's state taxing authorities can be even nastier.

Arrested for catching a mouse?  A California law requires a trapping license in order to kill mice.  The Animal Protection Institute of Sacramento pushed the bill, which mandates anyone who takes furbearing mammals or non-game animals must purchase a trapping license by passing a complex test and paying a fee of $78.50, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Four Myths About Muslims:  Day after day the "war on terror" brings more misinformation, disinformation and propaganda.  Most security measures are either window dressings for public consumption or usurpations of civil liberties by power-hungry elements within the bowels of bureaucracy.

Upload a File, Go to Prison.  Two congressmen introduce a bill to criminalize the uploading of copyright works to peer-to-peer networks.  The penalty:  five years in prison and $250,000 in fines.  Critics say the law goes too far.

Commerce clause abuse:  The original purpose of the Commerce Clause was primarily a means to eliminate trade barriers among the states.  They didn't intend for the Commerce Clause to govern so much of our lives.

Dependent on D.C.:  The Supreme Court's 1942 decision in Wickard vs. Filburn gave Congress the power to regulate anything.  In that case, the Court remarkably held that the interstate commerce clause could be used to regulate an individual farmer's wheat production for his family's consumption.

A Grand Façade:  How the Grand Jury Was Captured by Government.  Some over-reaching prosecutors have been able to pervert the grand jury, whose original purpose was to check prosecutorial power, into an inquisitorial bulldozer that enhances the power of government and now runs roughshod over the constitutional rights of citizens.

Why they no longer treat us with respect:  Once the kind of folks who think of themselves as "the government" have had a couple of generations to get used to their monopoly on armed force and coercion, they quickly tire of pretending to act as our "servants."

How a mantra ate justice:  The Wenatchee witch hunt gained its opportunity from a liberal mantra that three out of four children are subjected to sex abuse by a parent, close relative or child-care provider.  This mantra spawned federal legislation, Child Protective Services (an unaccountable agency with broad powers), an industry of child advocates and therapists with financial incentives to find sex abuse in Johnny's football bruises, and special prosecutorial units that need cases.  These mechanisms for the miscarriage of justice are in place in every city and town in the United States.

The Expanding Federal Police Power:  Nothing in the Constitution gives the federal government authority over ordinary crimes.  In America, crime fighting is the responsibility of state and local government.  But despite the lack of constitutional authorization, federal policymakers continually try to involve themselves in crime fighting. [PDF]

CALEA:  These Are Not Your Father's Wiretaps.  Privacy advocates fear that the FBI's need to monitor Internet Age technologies, such as voice over IP, will give it far too sweeping powers.

Vanishing Liberties:  Where's the Press?  On March 18 [2003], the Associated Press reported that at John Carroll University, in a Cleveland suburb, Justice Antonin Scalia said that "most of the rights you enjoy go way beyond what the Constitution requires" because "the Constitution just sets minimums."  Accordingly, in wartime, Scalia emphasized, "the protections will be ratcheted down to the constitutional minimum."

Former Watergate "Plumber" Attacks Government Regulations:  At one time, people could rake the leaves and burn them in a barrel, ride a bicycle without a helmet, drive a car without a seatbelt and walk down the street holding a shotgun.

Due Process Vanishes in Thin Air.  The aviation list, intended to catch terrorists before they board planes, has persistently and widely snagged innocent American travelers, according to government documents obtained by the Electronic Privacy Information Center through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.

Another crackdown on homeschoolers?  California legislation sparked concerns parents could face child-abuse charges.

Social Services Investigations:  The Removal of Children From The Home.  Parents in the United States are subject to increasing government involvement in their lives as they seek to properly raise their children.  Administrative agencies of the government, which are created by statute to carry out broad directives such as maintaining the health and welfare of minor children, are given more and more discretion in performing those duties.  [PDF]

Pull CNN's Plug.  It's fundamentally wrong for our public airport authorities to force a trapped general audience to watch and hear a constant stream of lies and propaganda.

Why the Pentagon Wants to Spy on Your Shopping:  Did you realize the Pentagon will soon know about every gun, book, magazine, Twinkie, condom and everything else you buy?  The reason for the massive database:  to seek "patterns indicative of terrorist activity," defense officials said [recently].

FEMA appears to be up to something.  Their mission is evidently more important than just mopping up after a hurricane.

Just try to get close to one of the FEMA regional headquarters buildings and you'll see what I mean.  People who have seen it have told me that the FEMA office in Denton, Texas, has security measures in place that you would expect to see only at Fort Knox.  Shortwave antennas are all around it, there are several no-nonsense guards on duty, and almost all of the facility is deep underground.

FEMA drags feet, leaves schools hit by Hurricane Sandy without materials or cash.  Nearly six months after Hurricane Sandy, federal disaster workers have only visited 25 of 50 city schools that were badly damaged.  Some of them are still trying to replace everything from computers to instruments as they await money from FEMA and the city covers some of the costs.

The Revolt Against FEMA.  Some New Jersey hurricane victims are complaining that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is doing more harm than Superstorm Sandy did when it hit over four months ago and washed away their homes and businesses.  "FEMA has caused more damage to the shore than Sandy did," said George Kasimos, a flood victim from Toms River, N.J.

Feds' Sandy fiasco.  The feds weren't ready to handle even the most basic needs of their own workers as Hurricane Sandy walloped the region last fall, records obtained by The [New York] Post reveal.  Government officials requested emergency-communication equipment as the storm bore down — but never got it, the records show.  They were left to talk to one another and Washington, DC, over personal cellphones after their government-issued equipment — satellite phones and all — failed.

The Trouble With Being Dependent on the Government Is That The Government Isn't Dependable.  In the aftermath of the Sandy storm surge, dozens of residents are still living after a month, without heat, hot water, or electricity in condemned structures flooded by both sea water and sewer water in the Gerritsen Beach community of Brooklyn.  Their request to FEMA for temporary housing after Hurricane Sandy was denied.  Jameson Wells, executive assistant to the director of GB Cares Sandy Relief, a volunteer relief organization, said "We need structures and housing.  It is truly desperate."  FEMA has said they did not have appropriate trailers.  "They told us they were unavailable because they are unheated and not insulated."

Sandy, Katrina and the Phonies.  Despite the obvious contrast between Katrina and Sandy, one thing remains curiously similar:  the slow and painful response from authorities who have a responsibility for the welfare of their constituents.  The responsibility doesn't run deep for the overarching goal is to make an impression.  Leave an imprint on the public mind for the next election.

FEMA buys disaster trailers from firm despite chronic flaws.  Federal officials have bought thousands of temporary housing trailers in recent years despite repeated warnings from government and private industry inspectors that hundreds of the units were shoddily built, The Washington Examiner has learned.

Flailing FEMA.  Dozens of residents are still living without heat, hot water, or electricity in condemned structures flooded by both sea and sewer water in the Gerritsen Beach community of Brooklyn after a request to FEMA for temporary housing after Hurricane Sandy was denied.  "We need structures and housing.  It is truly desperate," said Jameson Wells, executive assistant to the director of GB Cares Sandy Relief, a volunteer relief organization.  FEMA has said they did not have appropriate trailers.  "They told us they were unavailable because they are unheated and not insulated," Wells said.

FEMA rental assistance checks come as surprise to some Shore residents hit by Sandy.  Many Jersey Shore residents who applied for federal disaster assistance were surprised when they recently received a check for $2,820 with little explanation, according to a report on APP.com.

Angry New Yorkers say Obama pledge to cut red tape ignored by FEMA.  Storm-ravaged New Yorkers say President Obama's promise to cut red tape and get them aid in the aftermath of Sandy has proven to be hot air.  Angry citizens vented at FEMA officials at a town hall meeting held by the disaster relief agency Thursday [11/29/2012], with tempers boiling over.

Why Kafka Would Like FEMA.  Yesterday I spoke to, let's see, eight, maybe nine different FEMA agents.  Each one was there to help.  Each was polite, sympathetic.  Oodles of sympathy.  Almost all had a form for me to fill out, a web site to visit.  Each of the long, long line of people who came to see these agents went away with forms to fill out, web sites to visit.

New Yorkers hit hard by Hurricane Sandy denied aid by FEMA bureaucracy.  Washed out by Hurricane Sandy, a growing number of New Yorkers are finding themselves facing a second challenge — the FEMA shuffle.  More than 230,000 New York storm victims have applied for housing help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the feds have approved $664 million.  But untold numbers haven't been so lucky, rejected by FEMA for a host of reasons that range from the ridiculous to the confounding.

How Obama's FEMA Criminally Botched the Hurricane Recovery Effort.  Obama's win came in part because the media and a Springsteen-loving governor portrayed him as dedicated to relief for those hit by Hurricane Sandy.  The reality however is that Obama made some routine photo op stops.  FEMA, along with the Red Cross, failed abysmally at Hurricane Sandy relief efforts, and that story wasn't told before the election because the people in a position to tell it had no power and the media wanted Obama to win.  Afterward the story is slowly trickling out.

Life without FEMA?  If there were no FEMA, would people just sit around in the rubble for the rest of their lives?  Or would they do something, learn from their experience, and take precautions to minimize damage in the future?  To think people would not or could not do these things unless enlightened politicians were there to help them is to misconstrue the nature of government.

FEMA — Too Big to Succeed.  Created in 1979, FEMA was originally intended to help citizens in the event of a nuclear attack.  In 1988, the Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act clarified that federal emergency declarations — and the FEMA money accompanying such requests — should be based on a finding that events are "of such severity and magnitude that effective response is beyond the capabilities of the state and affected local governments."  Since then, Congress has never given specific guidance for what qualifies as a federal emergency.

Bitter cold inside a disaster shelter.  [Scroll down]  Welcome to the part of the disaster where people start falling through the cracks.  No media is allowed inside the fenced complex, which houses operations for JCP&L's army of workers from out of the area.  The FEMA website indicated on Monday [11/5/2012] that there had been a shelter for first responders, utility and construction workers to take a break, although the compound now contains a full-time shelter operated by the state Department of Human Services.

Forgotten by FEMA: Volunteers step up in storm-ravaged NYC borough.  Victims of an unforgiving one-two punch from superstorm Sandy and a nor'easter that both hit New York's Staten Island say FEMA has forgotten them. [...] "FEMA packed up everything yesterday and left the area," said MaryLou Wong, whose home in the Midland Beach neighborhood was destroyed.  "They haven't come back."

A post-election warning to liberals and conservatives alike.  To those liberals suffering in New York and New Jersey who voted for President Obama and Mayor Bloomberg, enjoy the Hurricane Sandy recovery effort.  We get the government we deserve and what we have now are angry citizens whose cries for help are not being returned, regardless of what a pre-election President promised.

Staten Island FEMA Disaster Center Shuts Doors 'Due to Weather'.  FEMA disaster recovery centers in Hurricane Sandy-ravaged sections of the city that were supposed to provide assistance to hurricane victims went MIA Wednesday morning [11/7/2012], posting signs saying that they were closed due to the approaching Nor'easter.

Fakakta FEMA.  "It's been the worst nightmare possible," said Vinny Accetta, a Staten Island resident from the flooded Midland Beach area.  He, his wife, Devon, and their toddler twins are staying with relatives seven miles from their home.  Eight days after Hurricane Sandy, Accetta is still waiting for FEMA to come and assess the damage to his home.  After the hurricane, he was given a case number by FEMA.  Now he waits in the cold.  "FEMA came to my block and a few neighbors were assessed," he said.  "I asked the worker if he could check my home and he replied, 'You're not on my list.'"

Bringing down Bastrop's burned trees with bureaucracy.  Josh Van Buren of Taylor's Tree Service is listening to two contractors explain the bureaucracy involved with felling a tree burned in September's wildfires.  The charred 70-foot pine in the public right of way has been designated a risk and must come down.  But Van Buren, with a chain saw in hand, can't just cut the tree down.  Because the Federal Emergency Management Agency requires it, there are photographs to take, GPS information to record and paperwork to fill out.

FEMA faces House heat for taking over flood insurance policies.  Flood insurance policy providers now face a new competitor:  the federal government.  The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) took control of about 800,000 flood insurance policies State Farm decided to dump last year.  Unlike other Obama administration bailouts, FEMA did not legally have the choice to either take over those policies or force State Farm to sell them to competitors, according to House Financial Services Committee spokesman Jeff Emerson.

Region 5 Center, Denton, TX:  An article from May, 1961 about the hardened underground facility in Denton, one of several built around the country.  The building in Denton was originally part of a "continuity of government" plan in the event of an all-out nuclear war.

Apparently there are many people who think that FEMA is a sinister, secretive, very costly, and dangerously powerful agency.

Where's FEMA?  The actual name of FEMA is the Federal Emergency Management Agency.  It is an agency within the Department of Homeland Security the head of which is Secretary Janet Napolitano.  If ever there was a Federal Emergency in need of Management, the Gulf of Mexico oil spill sponsored by BP would be it, and you might think that FEMA would be involved.

Perhaps you've already heard about the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Five Reasons Why FEMA Should Stay at DHS.  The FEMA Independence Act of 2009 is currently in the U.S. House of Representatives.  This bill would move the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) out of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and elevate the agency to cabinet-level status.

The Editor says...
Why make FEMA a cabinet-level agency?  So FEMA could be under the direct control of the executive branch, not the Congress.  FEMA is dangerous enough already without the ability to hide behind executive privilege.

FEMA says it can't show return on $29 billion in spending.  Federal Emergency Management Agency deputy administrator Timothy Manning told a congressional panel today [10/27/2009] that his organization had spent $5 million during the last 18 months reviewing how it spent $29 billion since 2002, but still doesn't know what it got for the money.

FEMA is using the FOIA to dig itself into a deeper hole.  If there were an award for the least popular federal agency, the Federal Emergency Management Agency would probably be a near-unanimous choice, thanks to the barrage of negative media it received during the Hurricane Katrina debacle.

A Flood of Federal Disasters.  News flash:  It often snows in Syracuse.  And it rains.  Even floods, sometimes.  Another news flash:  these are not federal disasters.  Or, at least, they shouldn't be.  But these days, far too many things are labeled as federal disasters — often weeks or even months later.

Why Are Internment Camps Being Built?  The Internet is abuzz with news about the construction of internment camps all across America. ... For starters, all anyone need do to begin a serious investigation of the subject of internment camps is Google the phrase "FEMA Camps."  There is more than enough evidence in that search engine alone to keep one busy with some in-depth private investigation of the subject for quite a while.

FEMA camps:  Not just for April fools anymore.  There have been a lot of stories over the years and even photos of detention facilities and special train cars for transporting dissidents.  We have generally avoided them because, even if true, they only revealed the government's "endgame strategies" and we were not yet in the endgame.  But things are different now.

The National Guard wants Internment/Resettlement Specialists.  The skills you'll learn as a Internment/Resettlement Specialist will help prepare you for a future with federal, state, county or city law enforcement agencies.  You might also be able to pursue a career as a security guard with industrial firms, airports or other businesses and institutions.

FEMA camps fully staffed & ready to go.  The Rex 84 Program was established on the reasoning that if a "mass exodus" of illegal aliens crossed the Mexican/US border, they would be quickly rounded up and detained in detention centers by FEMA.  Rex 84 allowed many military bases to be closed down and to be turned into prisons.  Operation Cable Splicer and Garden Plot are the two sub programs which will be implemented once the Rex 84 program is initiated for its proper purpose. Garden Plot is the program to control the population.  Cable Splicer is the program for an orderly takeover of the state and local governments by the federal government.  FEMA is the executive arm of the coming police state and thus will head up all operations.

The Editor says...
With all the discussion of "FEMA concentration camps" on the internet, nobody ever talks about the exact locations of these alleged places.  Before I get agitated about this issue, I want the latitude and longitude of the places, so I can see them on "Google maps" — or at least see that the satellite pictures are all suspiciously fuzzy at those places.  After hearing about these camps for so long, from so many sources, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that they truly exist — but I want to see pictures.

A disastrous history.  Jimmy Carter in 1979 tried to make sense of disaster relief by establishing FEMA via executive order.  He stated that the new structure would "permit more rational decisions of the relative costs and benefits of alternative approaches to disasters."  Carter was wrong:  Presidents kept reacting politically, and local and state officials kept passing the buck and asking for bucks.

The Secret National Cops.  U.S. Rep. Helen Chenoweth, R-Idaho, questions the use of "traditional tools" as they were wielded in her own bailiwick. Chenoweth, whose congressional district includes Clearwater County, blasted the FEMA agents for behaving "like a bull in a china shop."  "I understand that FEMA has an important responsibility to ensure that federal funds are handled consistent with law, but … FEMA has proceeded against a local government and private citizens in a threatening manner," she wrote to Attorney General Janet Reno.  "It is exactly this type of unnecessary, heavy-handed show of force that feeds the distrust of the federal government."

FEMA's Plan for Mass Destruction Attacks:  Of Course It's True.  Let me state for the record that FEMA is moving ahead with plans to create temporary cities that could handle millions of Americans after mass destruction attacks on U.S. cities.  Though the agency has denied the program to some of our readers and has made misleading claims about NewsMax's original story to members of the press, the basic facts of the story remain unchallenged.

The FEMA raid at Orofino, Idaho.  At 7 a.m. on July 18th, two employees at the [Clearwater County, Idaho] flood control center were startled by a group of men in dark attire and bullet-proof vests and sidearms.  According to various accounts, the frightened employees, thinking they were under assault by a gang of thugs, locked the door and called the sheriff, Nick Albers.  Nancy Butler, a reporter for the weekly Clearwater Tribune, told Sarah Foster of the Internet newspaper World Net Daily that the behavior of the FEMA agents was "totally uncalled for."  "They didn't just come over and knock on the door — they came running over the hill at the back of the building and crawling through the sagebrush.  The whole scenario just floored me."

Federal Emergency Management Agency:  Some people have referred to it as the "secret government" of the United States.  It is not an elected body, it does not involve itself in public disclosures, and it even has a quasi-secret budget in the billions of dollars.  This government organization has more power than the President of the United States or the Congress, it has the power to suspend laws, move entire populations, arrest and detain citizens without a warrant and hold them without trial, it can seize property, food supplies, transportation systems, and can suspend the Constitution.  Not only is it the most powerful entity in the United States, but it was not even created under Constitutional law by the Congress.  It was a product of a Presidential Executive Order.  A Presidential Executive Order, whether Constitutional or not, becomes law simply by its publication in the Federal Registry.

(Same article as above from an alternate source:  FEMA - The Secret Government.)

The Disaster Agency.  Most Americans had never even heard of this obscure government agency before syndicated columnist Jack Anderson reported in October 1984 that FEMA had prepared bizarre "standby legislation" that would, in the event of a national crisis, "suspend the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, effectively eliminate private property, abolish free enterprise, and generally clamp Americans in a totalitarian vise."  In any self-respecting banana republic, such a document might be called a blueprint for a coup d'etat.  FEMA called it "national security" planning.

COG stands for surprising assault on democracy.  An elite group of former Clinton advisers and former public officials from both major political parties gathered recently at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C., to announce their proposal to convert the House of Representatives from an elected body to an appointed body in the event of a national emergency.

FEMA Concentration and Internment Camps:  There over 600 prison camps in the United States, all fully operational and ready to receive prisoners.  They are all staffed and even surrounded by full-time guards, but they are all empty.  These camps are to be operated by FEMA should Martial Law need to be implemented in the United States.

Lists of FEMA radio frequencies:  [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]

Mount Weather and Underground Bases.  Mount Weather is the self-sustaining underground command center for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).  The facility is the operational center — the hub — of approximately 100 other Federal Relocation Centers, most of which are concentrated in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina.  Together this network of underground facilities constitutes the backbone of America's "Continuity of Government" program.

Shadow Government Is at Work in Secret.  Deployed civilians are not permitted to take their families, and under penalty of prosecution they may not tell anyone where they are going or why.  "They're on a 'business trip,' that's all," said one official involved in the effort.  The two sites of the shadow government make use of local geological features to render them highly secure.  They are well stocked with food, water, medicine and other consumable supplies, and are capable of generating their own power.

Site R is secure, but it's not undisclosed.  Site R, with its six-stories of underground offices, subterranean water reservoir, and banks of mysterious antennas, dishes and massive, steel doors, has been a designated backup command center since it was hewn out of the mountain in 1951.

Disaster aid boondoggle  Hurricane Frances made landfall more than 100 miles north of Miami-Dade County earlier this year.  But that didn't stop thousands of residents there from getting nearly $28 million in federal disaster aid.  Top winds reached only 47 mph in Miami-Dade County during the Labor Day weekend storm, so damages were limited to some fallen power lines and uprooted trees, according to FEMA and other disaster-relief officials.  Yet residents used their relief checks to buy more than 5,000 televisions allegedly destroyed by Frances, as well as 1,440 air conditioners, 1,360 twin beds, 1,311 washers and dryers, and 831 dining sets.

Not taking no for an answer, Houston mayor seizes old warehouse.  The owner declined Wednesday [9/7/2005] to lease or rent the building as offices for FEMA, so Mayor Bill White commandeered the building.

The Editor says...
This is a clear violation of the Fourth Amendment, since Houston is hundreds of miles away from the area damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

FEMA versus Wal-Mart:  Many people who think that government is the answer to our problems do not bother to check out the evidence.  But it can be eye-opening to compare how private businesses responded to hurricane Katrina and how local, state and national governments responded.

FEMA Strikes Again!  Although the effort was trumpeted in the media as an example of grassroots ingenuity in the face of disaster, local officials with the Federal Emergency Management Agency have nixed an attempt by Houston activists to set up a low-power radio station at the Astrodome that would have broadcast Hurricane Katrina relief information for evacuees.

The Editor says...
FEMA's excuses for this action are numerous and each is transparently false.  The micro-power broadcasting issue is all about control.  The government can't afford to allow even one watt of unlicensed broadcasting, because it would open a door that could never be closed again.  The FCC has been fighting this battle for decades.

Hundreds of millions paid to people untouched by disasters.  The federal government's mishandling of the Hurricane Katrina catastrophe is only the latest bungling in a national disaster response system that for years has been fraught with waste and fraud.  A South Florida Sun-Sentinel investigation has found that the Federal Emergency Management Agency in five years poured at least $330 million into communities that were spared the devastating effects of fires, hurricanes, floods and tornadoes.

FEMA Should Be Shut Down.  What if there was no such thing as FEMA?  I asked myself that question after reading about the Federal Emergency Management Agency's bungled efforts to serve the poor and suffering in the area formerly known as New Orleans. … FEMA's boorish behavior underscores it real purpose, which is always to spend its budget and get good press doing it, because such activities will reflect well on the public sector.

Katrina victims required to use Microsoft Internet Explorer.  It's clear to me that they've engineered a web system that is:  (a) Extraordinarily over-engineered to work under only one browser, and (b) Nonfunctional under that browser.  This, I conclude, is simply another example of FEMA incompetence.

The Secret National Cops:  Who are federal inspectors general, and why are they pointing guns at us?  U.S. Rep. Helen Chenoweth, R-Idaho, questions the use of "traditional tools" as they were wielded in her own bailiwick.  Chenoweth, whose congressional district includes Clearwater County, blasted the FEMA agents for behaving "like a bull in a china shop."  "I understand that FEMA has an important responsibility to ensure that federal funds are handled consistent with law, but … FEMA has proceeded against a local government and private citizens in a threatening manner," she wrote to Attorney General Janet Reno.  "It is exactly this type of unnecessary, heavy-handed show of force that feeds the distrust of the federal government."

FEMA guilty of religious discrimination?  The Alliance Defense Fund is concerned about Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) refusing to help churches in the aftermath of disasters.  Paragould, Arkansas, was recently declared a disaster area after being hit by a severe ice storm.  Erik Stanley, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), says a local church assisted FEMA officials in their relief efforts, but FEMA did not return the favor.

Two more dots connected!
FEMA Paid ACORN For Firefighting.  FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, figures in many paranoid fantasies about government control.  Popular fiction often depicts it as a shadowy agency whose sinister operatives are planning to manufacture a crisis that will give them unlimited power and funding. ... In reality, FEMA occupies itself with harmless and benevolent activities, such as funding ACORN.

FEMA grant denied because of 'insufficient damage'.  Jefferson County resident Jonathan Stewart said he laughed in shock after the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) claimed the house his family lost in the deadly April 27 twister was 'not unsafe to live in'.  The devastating reality is the house is now a concrete slab surrounded by rubble.

FEMA Short On Money.  I am quite sorry that people in the path of Irene suffered damage, but they CHOSE to live where they knew a hurricane (or tropical storm or a flood) could come.  So I must ask, "Why is it the rest of the country's responsibility to make them whole again?

Update:
FEMA finds $114 million.  [Scroll down]  Then, suddenly, FEMA told Senate Democrats that all of their previous warnings were overblown.  The agency was able to recover $40 billion from ongoing long-term projects, and instead of being broke, they actually had $114 million in the bank, just enough to get them into the next fiscal year.  Which is convenient, because that allows them access to all of next year's budgeted disaster relief spending.  Since there is now no need for unbudgeted disaster relief spending this year, there is now no need for spending offsets.  DOE's green energy loan program lives to see another day.  How convenient.

What is the deal with those FEMA/DHS AM backup transmitters?  Back last February, it was reported that FEMA/Department of Homeland Security was mysteriously constructing prepackaged AM transmitter buildings at various PEP (Primary Entry Point) transmitter sites across the country as something call "Primary Entry Point Expansion."  These buildings contain a 5 KW Nautel AM transmitter, EAS gear, satellite equipment (the exact equipment list is undisclosed) and a backup generator all in a shielded (Faraday Cage), prefabricated building placed inside of a fenced in compound at the station's transmitter site.  The buildings are being put in place, but not connected to anything in the outside world.

Five Reasons Why FEMA Should Stay at DHS.  The FEMA Independence Act of 2009 is currently in the U.S. House of Representatives.  This bill would move the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) out of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and elevate the agency to cabinet-level status.

The Editor says...
Why make FEMA a cabinet-level agency?  So FEMA could be under the direct control of the executive branch, not the Congress.  FEMA is dangerous enough already without the ability to hide behind executive privilege.

Video:  Camp FEMA — The Obama Youth Army!

New Nationwide FEMA Camps Should Raise Eyebrows.  In a nutshell, there seems to be a solicitation of bids occurring for the staffing of FEMA camps within 72 hours of implementation by an order from either Homeland Security or the president.  This situation begs to be investigated, with special consideration paid to the motives of the present administration. ... Perimeter fencing or barricades is required to be six feet high, enclosing the camp, with all traffic in or out to be recorded on a daily log and with security restricting all traffic and access.  The contractor shall also provide fencing and barricades around areas which are "off limits" to occupants.

Prepaing for martial law.  As watchmen begin to expose the people, companies and even lawmakers behind this money and power grab, they could be considered dangers to the "security" of the United States, or engaging in "belligerent acts."  So too could the people who will protest in anger about the bank holidays, the overnight evaporation of their retirement accounts, and even the fire sale of national assets to manage the unmanageable and unsustainable debt.  Their anger must be controlled in the name of national security.  To be certain, their warnings will not be heard nor will protests be allowed from a detention facility.  You know, the facilities that don't exist?

Party lines are meaningless when the common objective is the revolutionary overtaking of America.
The planned re-election of Obama, revolutionary style.  [Scroll down]  According to my source, there is talk among the highest levels of the uppermost echelon of the Department of Homeland Security, which he describes as effectively under the control of Barack Hussein Obama.  During this call, he said that the DHS is actively preparing for massive social unrest inside the United States.  He then corrected himself, stating that "a civil war" is the more appropriate term.  Certain elements of the government are not only expecting and preparing for it, they are actually facilitating it," stated my source.  "The DHS takes their marching orders from the Obama administration, from Obama himself, but mostly from his un-appointed czars.  And Jarrett, especially Valerie Jarrett.  Don't think for a minute that the administration is doing anything to stabilize events in the U.S.  They are revolutionaries, and revolutionaries thrive on chaos," he added.

The latest from "DHS Insider".  And the preparations are these: DHS is prepositioning assets in strategic areas near urban centers all across the country.  Storage depots.  Armories.  And even detainment facilities, known as FEMA camps.  FEMA does not even know that the facilities are earmarked for detainment by executive orders, at least not in the traditional sense they were intended.  By the way, people drive by some of these armories everyday without even giving them a second look.

There is a lot more to be learned from FEMA's handling of Hurricane Katrina.

Not paranoid?  You're not paying attention then.  Experience tells us that freedoms once lost are difficult to regain and that government policies once in place take on lives of their own.  If ever there were a time for a pre-emptive strike, this is it.  Best to say "Hell no" before it's no longer permissible to protest.

An Ominous New Era:  Regulation by Litigation.  Regulating industries is a slow and cumbersome process, frustrating for officials because it often fails to achieve the results they want.  So the Environmental Protection Agency has come up with a new strategy, one that turns the Constitution on its head and gives unelected regulators the power of the sovereign.  It's called regulation-by-litigation, and a lot of industries had better watch out.

Homeschoolers get a knock on the door from police:  A public school superintendent [in Illinois] has sent police in squad cars to the houses of homeschooling families to deliver his demand that they appear for a "pre-trial hearing" to prove they are in compliance with the law.

Children flee homeschool cop:  When the doorbell rings at the Channell residence in Spring Valley, Ill., 10-year-old Aaron and 11-year-old Christopher run for cover.  The homeschooled boys have been on edge, says their father Roger, since a truant officer came to the family's front door Oct. 3 and warned, "I could have your children taken away."

Be Careful What You Write:  On September 1, 2002, I wrote a column critical of the way screening is carried out at U.S. airports ("A U.S. Police State").  Since that time I have been on ten flights.  On every one of those ten flights I have been "selected" for "random" searches by the same airline screeners I criticized.  Surely this was a coincidence!

Combating federal tyranny:  No one has a moral obligation to obey unconstitutional laws.  That's not to say there isn't a compelling case for obedience to unconstitutional laws:  the brutal force of the federal government to coerce obedience.

Making Citizens the Enemy:  Seasoned travelers have concluded that the real purpose of U.S. airport "security" is to establish a precedent for unreasonable and warrantless searches.  By making citizens the enemy, the suspension of civil liberties that is imposed on air travelers can be extended to pedestrians, motorists, and people in their homes and hotel rooms.  Terrorists can endanger some of us, but the war on terror endangers us all.  How much more can the Constitution be diminished before it is completely replaced by arbitrary government power?

Threats to the Rule of Law in America:  Where there's rule of law, human initiative flourishes.  Rule of law refers to freedom of contract and enforcement of contracts, protection of private property, stability of laws, a requirement that all persons, private individuals and government officials are subject to the same laws, and most importantly, limitation of the authority of government.

Another example of boiled frogs:  Viewcrime:  [In Great Britain,] TV dealers are required by law to collect the names and addresses of people who buy televisions.  This info then goes into a giant database.  Let me be perfectly clear.  This is mandatory.  This is about watching television.

FBI Spy Plane Circling Bloomington, Indiana:  The FBI said that the plane is being used in monitoring people who might have terrorist connections. Earlier, when aviation officials disclosed that the aircraft was conducting surveillance, the FBI had denied any link to the plane.

Does FDA Regulation Violate the Constitution?  From the orange juice we drink to begin our day, to the lunch we eat at a restaurant, to the wine we consume in the evening, the federal Food and Drug Administration regulates what nutritional and health information food and drug manufacturers can share with us. When Ocean Spray's Web site recently provided information and links to health research regarding juice consumption, the FDA threatened to seize the company's inventory, because the agency had not approved the "health claims."

States Refuse to Kowtow to Sovereignty-Destroying Globalist Court:  [Officials in] Oklahoma said Monday [2/10/2003] it would proceed with plans to execute a Mexican national despite claims by the World Court that it cannot.  Texas has already said it would ignore the globalist court's death stays for Mexicans on its death row.  The World Court at The Hague last week "ordered" the states not to execute three Mexicans — two in Texas, one in Oklahoma — until it resolved a suit filed by Mexico.

The Back Room Deal to Destroy America:  A group of U.S. Senators have conspired to destroy local zoning throughout the United States of America.  The "Community Character Act" authorizes the use of federal money so that un-elected environmentalists can advance their extreme-left political agenda.

Virginia County Aims to Ban Lights on Private Property:  In Loudoun County, VA, the local government is considering a proposal to ban the use of outdoor lights at night.  This is not a joke.  Soon, homeowners and small businesses in Loudoun County may have to turn off their lights, or face penalties.  No more Christmas lights.  No more security lights to ward off would-be attackers and thieves.  No more lights alerting customers that an establishment is "open."

The Editor says...
There is obviously more to this story than they're saying, but it is still worth reading.

Bill would give governors absolute power:  Could state governors order the collection of all data and records on citizens, ban firearms, take control of private property and quarantine entire cities?  The answer is yes — if governors and state legislatures adopted a new "model" bill currently under consideration.

Trust in government?  Americans need to understand that government is, has been and always will be the gravest threat to freedom we face.

American Contempt for the Rule of Law:  Most Americans have no inkling of what rule of law means.  We think it means obedience to whatever laws Congress enacts and the president signs.  That's a tragedy.

Citizens Tethered to a Democratic Leash Called Tyranny:  Democracy gives an aura of legitimacy to acts that would otherwise be deemed tyranny.

Forest Service orders removal of poles flying American flag.  The Forest Service has told California vacationers to remove poles flying the U.S. flag from property the service has leased to them.

Feds Seek "Dictatorial Powers" on Health Care:  The federal government is pushing your state legislature to give your governor and health officials sweeping powers that threaten your freedoms.  The so-called Model Emergency Health Powers Act would let the government do everything from seizing private property to forcing vaccinations.

Crackdown on Jaywalking Shows We Have Too Many Laws.  If they remember freer times, or if the state propaganda has been efficient enough, people forget laws are not pious wishes.  If the jaywalker does not stop when the cop accosts him, he will be forced to.  If he resists, he will be beaten down.  If he is really threatening, he will be shot.  The same will happen to one who does not pay the fine and resists the bailiff.  Legal coercion is an advantage when applied to murder, rape and theft but becomes a mark of tyranny when it deals with peaceful behaviour or minor incivilities.

Leftist Lawmakers Want Feds to Oversee Local Development — and Your Life:  While the nation's attention is focused on the war on terrorism, S. 975, the Community Character Act, seeks to implement a Clinton executive order that the leftist establishment could use to dictate what you can own, what you can drive, the kind of home in which you can live — a mammoth intrusiveness into your life.

County Criminalizes Smoking at Home:  A suburb of Washington, D.C., has adopted one of the toughest smoking rules in the country, bringing anti-tobacco laws into people's homes.  Under the terms of an ordinance approved Tuesday [11/20/2001] by the Montgomery County (Md.) Council, people smoking in their own homes could be fined as much as $750, if cigarette smoke bothers their neighbors.

Bill Would Put Tobacco Under FDA Control.  In what appears to be the best chance since public health groups started pushing for it in the 1970s, Congress is poised to regulate tobacco, a product linked to 1,200 deaths each day but sold largely unfettered for centuries.

Hillary's Nuke Safety Scheme Would Evacuate 20 Million:  Clinton is pushing for an expansion of the evacuation zone from the present 10 miles to 50 miles, putting New York City, 30 miles away, and its 8 million residents within the zone.  This would require the evacuation of all 20 million people in that zone in the event of an emergency at Indian Point.

The Arrogance of Bureaucratic Power:  People who went through depression and war do not understand how bureaucrats could deny their children, grandchildren, and even great grandchildren the ability to live where they were born and to put food on the table.

America's Criminal Class:  The Congress of the United States:  A five-part series on the collection of rogues, scoundrels and crooks who occupy the House and Senate.

Part five in the series:  A long tradition of corruption and ambivalence:  "You have reached a special place in life and in American history," Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi told a recent class of freshmen Senators and Congressman.  "Treat it with respect."  But too many members of both the House and Senate treat their "special place in life and in American history" as a license to steal, living large at taxpayer expense, ignoring laws that apply to ordinary Americans and betraying the trust of the public that put them there.

Absolute Power: The Legacy of Corruption in the Clinton-Reno Justice Department  by David Limbaugh

Rethinking Romans 13:  Pastor Greg A. Dixon chides Christians to combat corrupt government.  In recent years, Christians have interpreted Romans 13 as a command for unlimited submission to government by God.  Many have allowed government to become god without even knowing.

Federal Propaganda for Kids:  The federal government is cranking out propaganda and it has nothing to do with the war on terrorism.  It has everything to do with indoctrinating your kids.  Federal agencies are using taxpayer-funded Web sites to bypass parents and instill their tech-savvy children with heavy doses of big government activism.

CPS Harasses Family Whose House Burns Down:  The social worker refused to explain the allegations to the parents, and insisted that she needed to interview the children separately with no other party present.

The Editor says...
The Home School Legal Defense Association runs into abuses of power all the time.  Here is a state-by-state roundup of their recent experiences.

Dependent on D.C.:  The Rise of Federal Control over the Lives of Ordinary Americans  by Charlotte Twight.  Manipulation of the rules of a game can determine the outcome.  It's true of sports and it's true of government.  In an important new contribution to the study of American government, economist and historian Charlotte Twight applies this insight to document both the history of government's growth and the techniques by which politicians and bureaucrats have manipulated the rules of the game to increase their powers and make them more difficult to roll back.  In the process, politicians make Americans dependent on government, and more like passive supplicants than active citizens.  Twight explains in clear language how Americans have been robbed of their independence.

Documentary film:  911:  The Road to Tyranny:  The government needed a crisis to convince the people to willingly give up their liberty in exchange for safety.  911 the Road to Tyranny documents the ruthless history of governments orchestrating terrorist attacks against their own people to scare them into total submission.

Review of A Nation of Sheep:  Dependent on D.C.  Rule of law means there's governance by known general rules, equality before the law, certainty of the law, a permanent legal framework and independent judicial review of administrative decisions.  These specifications of the rule of law have been emasculated.  No one can possibly know the thousands of pages of rules published by the IRS, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of pages of laws applicable to health care, banking, education, pensions, agriculture, ad infinitum.

"The shift from personal autonomy to dependence on government is perhaps the defining characteristic of modern American politics.  In the span of barely one lifetime, a nation grounded in ideals of individual liberty has been transformed into one in which federal decisions control even such personal matters as what health care we buy -- a nation now so bound up in detailed laws and regulation that no one can know what all the rules are, let alone comply with them."

– Charlotte Twight  

Financial disaster awaits in "reform" bill.  Anytime Congress passes a 2,300-page law that creates more than 500 new regulations and sets up a new, complicated bureaucracy, we should be nervous. ... Its Democratic supporters claim it was necessary to prevent another economic meltdown like the one we suffered in 2008.  But no one knows whether it will do any such thing.

Obama's Latest Monstrosity.  The 2,315 page Dodd-Frank financial regulation bill that President Obama will sign today [7/21/2010] should not be called "financial reform."  Instead the bill, which passed the Senate 60-39 last week when Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown joined Maine Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins to grant cloture, should be called what for what it is:  pages and pages of massively costly, counterproductive and possibly unconstitutional mandates on nearly every type of business except for those government-sponsored enterprises at the root of the crisis.

Fight Over Consumer Agency Looms as Overhaul Is Signed.  President Barack Obama on Wednesday [7/21/2010] signed into law the most sweeping financial overhaul since the Depression, putting the country on a course toward a more muscular regulatory framework.  But one provision that barely survived will have the most direct bearing on millions of ordinary people's lives:  a new agency meant to protect consumers from abusive financial products, called the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection.

Obama's Failing Presidency.  I wouldn't wade through the 2600 pages of the financial reform bill at gunpoint, but I don't have to.  All I need to do is look at the title page featuring the names of the chief sponsors, Dodd and Frank.  The Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Act.  This is the equivalent of the Capone-O'Bannion crime-control bill.  If any politicians are up to their necks in the chicanery that led to the latest crash, it's that pair.  Frank's most recent paramour held a high position at Fannie Mae, while Dodd was snagging payoffs right and left.  In a just world they'd be in custody, not sponsoring bills.

SEC Says New Financial Regulation Law Exempts it From Public Disclosure.  So much for transparency.  Under a little-noticed provision of the recently passed financial-reform legislation, the Securities and Exchange Commission no longer has to comply with virtually all requests for information releases from the public, including those filed under the Freedom of Information Act.

The Precarious First Amendment.  The DISCLOSE Act — a nefarious attempt to do through the backdoor that which the Supreme Court barred by the front door, namely government regulation of First Amendment?protected speech — is dead for now.  It is a lesson in how precarious is our attachment to basic constitutional values.

Only in Washington Is This Transparency.  The Senate Democrats' "DISCLOSE" Act — "DISCLOSE" stands for "Democracy Is Strengthened by Casting Light on Spending in Elections" — represents perhaps the baldest, if failed, power grab attempted this year.  But you wouldn't guess it reading news stories on the bill.  As The New York Times reported, "The Senate on Tuesday refused to take up a bill that would require more disclosure of the role of corporations, unions and other special interests in bankrolling political advertisements, after Democrats failed to persuade even one Republican to support it."

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