 Since when are automatic weapons required to settle such cases?  In 1949, this definition of "terrorism" could be found on page 1346 of Funk & Wagnall's Standard Dictionary of the English Language.  Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, 1970, page 911.  Black's Law Dictionary, 1991, page 1473. This page is written for the benefit of people who have absolute faith and trust in the government. Perhaps you know people who believe the government can do no wrong. People who believe that the government never lies. People who believe that every good and perfect thing comes from the federal government. One fellow I know comes to mind. When the government declares it illegal to inhale, he will be the first person in town to turn blue. And he will probably be the first person in town with a bar code on his forehead. He will take the government's side in any argument, because the government is his god. To him, and others like him, the situation shown in the photo above is perfectly normal. Here is some of the evidence that the federal government and some state governments have too much power and too little restraint. In fact, much of this web site is devoted to the never-ending task of spotlighting abusive government and bad ideas. Tyranny is defined as the cruel and oppressive government, and that is exactly what is described in some of the news items shown below. Subsections: The Road to Tyranny is All Downhill From Here Snitch on Your Neighbor The TIPS program Know Your Customer Incompetence and Absurd Application of the Law The Steven Hatfill / Anthrax Investigation Property Rights and Property Seizures ... including commentary about the Supreme Court's Kelo decision. The Bill of Rights is Taking a Beating Invasion of Privacy (includes numerous subtopics) The Government's Role as Overprotective Nanny ... including The Smoking Section ... and Governor Perry's Vaccination Mandate Money Down the Drain The use of Traffic Signals as Fundraisers Taxes and The IRS ... specifically, Cigarette taxes and The Proposed "Odometer Tax" The Americans with Disabilities Act The Endangered Species Act The USA Patriot Act Waco Waco II Ruby Ridge Other Items of Interest Additional pages on similarly irritating subjects: Zero-Tolerance The Invasion of the Food Police The War vs. Liberty and Freedom Gun Control Carnivore & Echelon Hate Crime Laws The Proposed National ID Card Featured articles: A young boy serves a life sentence. He's just a normal, average, typical 12-year-old boy. If the normal, average, typical 12-year-old boy has the world's longest-reigning dictator drop by every year for his birthday, that is. Elian Gonzalez was shipped into the waiting arms of Fidel Castro in 2000. The delivery man was Bill Clinton, who used a SWAT team armed with submachine guns to assure everyone's compliance. Update: Elian Gonzalez joins Cuba's youth Communists. The Cuban boy at the center of an international custody battle eight years ago has joined Cuba's Young Communist Union. Elian Gonzalez said he will never let down ex-President Fidel Castro and his brother Raul Castro, according to the Communist youth newspaper Juventud Rebelde. Elian Gonzalez back in news again. Here's a name I didn't think I'd hear again, but remember Elian Gonzalez, whose story transfixed our nation eight years ago in an international custody fight between the U.S. and Cuba? Now comes the news that the 14-year-old has joined Cuba's Young Communist Union, according to the Associated Press. The Lawless State: Sometimes the deepest changes in a political system sneak in almost unnoticed. So it has been in the United States, which has quietly shifted from being a decentralized federal republic to being a centralized democracy. … If the Founding Fathers could see us now, they'd surely ask, "How on earth did you get yourselves into this mess?" We've managed to do nearly everything the Constitution was designed to prevent us from doing. Colorado Governor Signs She-Male Restroom Bill. This bill makes all public accommodations — including public restrooms and locker rooms in the state — "gender free." This law now means that anyone who identifies as the opposite sex, can freely access public facilities formerly reserved for a single sex. Sexual predators can now enter women's restrooms and claim they have a sexual identity different from their birth sex. It makes it legal for drag queens, cross-dressers and anyone else with a serious Gender Identity Disorder to use opposite sex restrooms and locker rooms. But it goes further. It defines "public accommodations" as including malls, restaurants, schools, and small businesses. The Taxpayer Frog In the IRS Pot: In 1900 federal spending was $0.5 billion. In 2000 it was $1,789 billion. Those amounts translated to 2.5% of GDP in 1900 and 21% in 2000. Government spending at all levels in the U.S. was 36.5% of GDP in 2006. That 2.5% of GDP that could sustain the entire federal government in 1900 is not even enough to cover the Medicare program today. The Medicare program, by the way, did not exist in 1900; it was established in 1965. Nearly eight years in prison without a trial. Whatever happened to the right of an accused to have a speedy trial? Once a successful dentist in St. Louis County who treated many indigent patients, Charles Thomas Sell was accused of Medicaid fraud in 1997. Although he has never hurt anyone, and a federal court held that he poses no danger to those around him, prison officials frequently placed him in solitary confinement for periods that totaled nearly two years. Woman jailed for refusing court-required psych exam. An Iowa grandmother has been banished to jail, including a night in isolation, after refusing to give in to a judge's demand that she submit to a psychiatric exam and take psychotropic drugs if prescribed to mitigate her opposition to abortion, her husband has confirmed. Would Your Beliefs Brand You A 'Homegrown' Terrorist? H.R. 1955, titled the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007 allows the government to target Americans and actually calls "thought" crimes "homegrown terrorism". Part of the bill (Section 899A) employs extremely vague terminology ("violent radicalization") to describe the promoting of any belief system that the government considers "extremist". The Editor says... Under H.R. 1955 it is a crime to "intimidate or coerce the United States government, the civilian population of the United States, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives". Such a crime is depicted in the photo at the top of this page. 'Thought Crimes,' HR 1955 Passed. The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed HR 1955, titled the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007. It was passed with 404 votes in favor. ... This is a "Thought Crime" bill of the type so often discussed in an Orwellian context. It specifically targets the civilian population of the United States. It defines "Violent Radicalization" as promoting any belief system that the government considers to be extremist. "Homegrown Terrorism" and "Violent Radicalization" are defined as thought crimes. Since the bill does not provide a specific definition of extremist belief system, it will be whatever the government at any given time deems it to be. The Senate Could Vote on the "Thought Crimes" Bill Soon! It should be remembered that following the Oklahoma City Bombing, the Clinton administration blamed not just the indicted perpetrators, Timothy McVeigh, Terry Nichols and Michael Fortier, but also all those who had like McVeigh, Nichols and Fortier protested against the government's deadly actions at Waco and Ruby Ridge. Time magazine and other media organs joined the administration in charging that these "anti-government" protesters were actually "ideational co-conspirators" with the OKC bombers. Like President Clinton, President Bush now equates opposition to his policies, especially concerning the War in Iraq and the "War on Terror," as unpatriotic, or even treasonable. Bullies, Muggers, Sneak Thieves, and Con Men. The beginning of political wisdom is the realization that despite everything you've always been taught, the government is not really on your side; indeed, it is out to get you. Sometimes government functionaries and their private-sector supporters want simply to bully you, to dictate what you must do and what you must not do, regardless of whether anybody benefits from your compliance with these senseless, malicious directives. The drug laws are the best current example, among many others, of the government as bully. America's Injustice System Is Criminal. In the US the wrongful conviction rate is extremely high. One reason is that hardly any of the convicted have had a jury trial. No peers have heard the evidence against them and found them guilty. In the US criminal justice (sic) system, more than 95% of all felony cases are settled with a plea bargain. Armed and dangerous: Federal agencies expanding the use of firepower. During the late morning of January 14, 1997, 20 heavily armed federal agents and local sheriff's deputies descended from a military helicopter onto rocky Santa Cruz Island off the California coast. As snipers moved into position along the ridge tops to secure the perimeter of the attack area, other agents staged dynamic entries into the buildings — rousting 15-year-old Crystal Graybeel who was sleeping late in her cabin. The agency responsible for all this was not the BATF, nor the FBI, nor any other agency typically associated with such "dynamic entries." This raid was the work of the National Park Service. At a time when elected legislative bodies from city councils to Congress have been passing laws that restrict the rights of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms, federal agencies within the executive branch have been quietly authorizing dramatically increased numbers of armed personnel — often heavily armed with military-style assault weapons. Today, there are nearly 60,000 federal agents trained and authorized to enforce the over 3,000 criminal laws Congress has passed over the years, plus the hundreds of thousands of regulations which now carry criminal penalties. 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." The EPA's Swat Team: Hubert Vidrine, a manager at a refinery plant, was at work when FBI and EPA Criminal Division Agents stormed into his place of business using M-16s and police dogs. His alleged crime was storing waste covered by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) without obtaining a permit. Just wait, it gets better... Prince George's raid prompts call for probe. When the shooting stopped, two dogs lay dead. A mayor sat in his boxers, hands bound behind his back. His handcuffed mother-in-law was sprawled on the kitchen floor, lying beside the body of one of the family pets that police had killed before her eyes. … What police left behind was a house stained with blood and a trail of questions about their conduct. Police raid Maryland mayor's home and kill his dogs. Mayor Cheye Calvo got home from work, saw a package addressed to his wife on the front porch and brought it inside, putting it on a table. Suddenly, police with guns drawn kicked in the door and stormed in, shooting to death the couple's two dogs and seizing the unopened package. Mayor Cleared In Raid That Killed Dogs. A small-town mayor whose dogs were killed in a drug raid was cleared of any wrongdoing after police had been reluctant to rule out his involvement in drug smuggling or apologize for the violent incident. D.C. family wins suit over raid on home. A Capitol Hill family won a lawsuit against the D.C. government after their row house was raided in a search for evidence that their renovation plans violated the city's historic preservation laws. About a dozen police officers and D.C. Consumer and Regulatory Affairs inspectors searched the home of Laura Elkins and John Robbins four years ago, entering the bedrooms of their teenage children who were home sick from school, and searching through drawers, behind furniture and under carpets. Available in the airport gift shop. Big Brother endorses these playthings. Two years ago in this column, I lamented the fact that toy manufacturers were cashing in on society's headlong rush toward constant and ubiquitous surveillance. I highlighted a Lego construction set that included, as part of a police 18-wheeler, a surveillance and monitoring unit. I also noted a plastic "play set," manufactured and marketed by Playmobil, depicting a police officer wanding a civilian figure as pretend belongings go through a pretend X-ray machine. This trend toward "play" search and surveillance has continued, and now includes a functioning toy metal detector. The Gangster State: A recent incident in San Diego illustrates that there isn't nearly enough distance separating the federal government from the criminal underworld. According to the local NBC television affiliate, four gunmen disguised as federal agents conducting a drug raid "invaded a home near the San Ysidro border crossing…. Investigators say the gunmen were dressed as agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms." What is surprising is not that the criminals chose to disguise their home invasion as a federal raid, but rather that this sort of thing hasn't happened more often. Kathryn Johnston: A Year Later. When police forced their way into Johnston's home, she met them holding a rusty old revolver, fearing she was about to be robbed. The police opened fire, and killed her. Shortly after the shooting, the police alleged that they had paid an informant to buy drugs from Ms. Johnston's home. They said she fired at them first, and wounded two officers. And they alleged they found marijuana in her home. We now know that these were all lies. In fact, everything about the Kathryn Johnston murder was corrupt. Sometimes 'sorry' doesn't cut it. A SWAT team from the Milwaukee Police Department burst into Denise Berndsen's apartment and turned the place upside down looking for evidence of child porn. Oops. The man they were targeting had moved out five weeks earlier. Instead they roughed up Berndsen, who had returned home from back surgery that day, her 74-year-old father, and a man she had just started dating and who for a few terrifying minutes wondered what he got himself into. The Rise of a Judicial Dictatorship: The Warren Court launched a social, cultural and moral revolution and began openly to dictate to what had been a self-governing people. Under this dictatorship, radically secularist and egalitarian, America's public schools were as de-Christianized as thoroughly as in the Soviet Union. None Dare Call It Fascism. Fascism operates under the principle of "might makes right," through the exercise of raw, naked governmental police power. In America today, the increasingly rough-shod violation of constitutional rights by government agents in the name of "protecting the environment" or the "war on drugs" is an indication of how far we are proceeding in this direction. Editor's Note: The article above is excellent, and it is very timely even though it was originally published in July 1997, long before the "War on Terrorism". There is No War on Drugs! Why does the War on Some Drugs and Users continue despite the obvious failure of every tactic tried by prohibitionists? Could it be that the illegal drug trade engenders such massive untraceable black market profits and forms of social control that the Warriors really do not want the War to end? When one takes the endless tales of corruption, greed and lies on the part of so many Drug Warriors into consideration, it isn't such a stretch of the imagination. Powder and crack cocaine: Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments about a case in which the judge refused to impose the notoriously high sentence required for crack cocaine, Kimbrough v. U.S. While the case doesn't challenge the sentencing disparity directly, it calls attention to the statute that punishes crack cocaine with sentences 100 times greater than for powder cocaine, despite the fact that there is no difference in the chemical makeup of the two forms of cocaine. Drug Laws' Absence of Justice. You've probably read about the disparity in federal mandatory minimum sentences before. The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 mandated a five-year minimum sentence for possession of 5 grams of crack cocaine or 500 grams of powdered cocaine. Civil rights groups have attacked the 100-1 volume disparity on racial grounds. The U.S. Sentencing Commission found that more than 80 percent of crack offenders are black, while some 80 percent of powdered cocaine offenders are white. This could happen here, too ... Couple plan to sue RCMP over 911 reaction. A North Vancouver couple has complained to District of North Vancouver council and said they will sue the North Vancouver RCMP after officers responded to their hang-up 911 call by breaking down their door, making a forceful arrest and jailing them overnight when the couple refused to allow a house-search. ... North Vancouver resident Marget Lieder said that in the early evening of Oct. 25 she was having wine with her partner and a guest when she misdialed the emergency number, meaning to call 411 instead. … "I don't want my privacy to be invaded just because I misdial a number," she said. Incidentally, there could be at least 100 Ways to Mis-Dial 911. Pentagon wants new spying powers in the US. The Pentagon says it won't spy on "innocent" Americans, but critics say past record shows this is false. Monitoring Americans: There is a proper role for police in a free society. They are needed to protect lives and property, to respond in emergencies, and investigate crimes — and the NYPD and America's other local police departments have long served admirably and honorably in this role. But in a militarized society, one in which the police are no longer accountable to local civil authorities and become instead an instrument of a central government in Washington, the central government could be expected to abuse its newfound law-enforcement powers. Cheney won't tell how much he keeps secret. A standing executive order, strengthened by President Bush in 2003, requires all agencies and "any other entity within the executive branch" to provide an annual accounting of their classification of documents … but [Vice President] Cheney insists he is exempt. I guess the telephone is out of the question... Passport customers fume over parking fees. Getting a passport was already starting to get pricey for Mary Simpson. In March, she paid $97 for the passport application fee, plus another $60 to expedite it. She's expecting to fork over $80 in gas for the trip from San Antonio to find out in person the status of her application. Then, the parking sign declares "$10." City may banish TV dishes from view. The Boston City Council, citing a proliferation of satellite television dishes across the city, is considering banning the devices from the front of buildings. Saying that the dishes are potentially dangerous and increasingly hard to overlook in parts of the city where some buildings are festooned with them, councilors plan to consider a measure to confine the satellite television receivers to the back of buildings, out of public view. [Potentially dangerous? How?] The Runaway Train That Hit Scooter Libby. With the sentencing of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, [Patrick J.] Fitzgerald has apparently finished his work, which was, not to put too fine a point on it, to make a mountain out of a molehill. … [This investigation] would not have been conducted if, say, the Iraq war had ended with 300 deaths and the mission had really been accomplished. An unpopular war produced the popular cry for scalps and, in Libby's case, the additional demand that he express contrition — a vestigial Stalinist-era yearning for abasement. N.J. Governor's SUV Went 91 Mph Before Crash. The SUV carrying Gov. Jon S. Corzine was traveling about 91 mph moments before it crashed, Superintendent of State Police Col. Rick Fuentes said Tuesday [4/17/2007]. The governor was critically injured when the vehicle crashed into a guardrail on the Garden State Parkway just north of Atlantic City last week. He apparently was not wearing his seat belt as he rode in the front passenger's seat. [The car is going 91 mph, and he's not wearing a seat belt. Oh, but that's okay because he's the governor after all, and a state trooper was driving. Who's going to tell him to slow down?] Frustration over Corzine not buckling up. Last year, New Jersey law officers ticketed 271,182 people for not wearing seat belts. This year, one seat-belt violator stands out: Gov. Jon S. Corzine, who was critically injured in an automobile accident last week. … State police said Trooper Robert Rasinski, Corzine's driver, was wearing a seat belt and received minor injuries in the wreck, while Corzine aide Samantha Gordon was riding in the back seat without a seat belt and received minor injuries. Virginia Introduces $3550 Speeding Ticket. Virginia legislator introduces new speeding ticket tax that boosts penalties beyond $3550, driving business to his traffic law firm. Highway Robbery: One definition of injustice is grossly disproportionate punishment. You don't put people into prison for a year because they jaywalked. So what do we make of Virginia's new "civil remedial fines" that slam ordinary motorists with thousand-dollar fines (payable in "three easy installments") for relatively minor traffic violations? ... We all know of broad avenues that seem to drop for no apparent reason from 55 to 35 mph -- typically, with a motorcycle cop hiding behind a bush just beyond where the drop goes into force. It has always been unfair. Now, it's egregious. All the material about "Corporate Social Responsibility" has been moved here. 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. Ruled by scoundrels. The March 10 [2003] issue of Human Events carried a special report on the 10 most outrageous government programs. … The Legal Services Corp. headed the list, followed closely by the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform Act and the Davis-Bacon Act of 1931. Rounding out the list were: Americorps, Endangered Species Act, No Child Left Behind Act, Amtrak, Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) Standards, Title X Family Planning Act, and the provision of welfare payments to non-citizens and illegal aliens. FCC Compliance and the Station Engineer. Broadcasting may not be unique in this, but it certainly presents a severe case of a regulated industry. My view is that at least 13 layers of regulation burden broadcasting. The layers go by names like FCC, FAA, OSHA, BOCA, DOJ, Copyright Tribunal, Homeland Security, etc. Colleges Protest Call to Upgrade Online Systems. The federal government, vastly extending the reach of an 11-year-old law, is requiring hundreds of universities, online communications companies and cities to overhaul their Internet computer networks to make it easier for law enforcement authorities to monitor e-mail and other online communications. Excellent: Let's do some detective work. Today's White House proposes and Congress taxes and spends for anything they can muster a majority vote on. My investigative query is: Were the Founders and previous congressmen and presidents, who could not find constitutional authority for today's bread and circuses, just plain stupid and ignorant? Getting back our liberties: We all have a moral obligation to pay our share for constitutionally mandated functions of the federal government, but we have no such obligation to have Congress take the earnings of one American and give them to another American. Forcing one American to serve the purposes of another is one way slavery can be defined. City of Seattle may ban microwave popcorn. First, Washington State banned indoor public smoking. Now, the City of Seattle may ban employees from making microwave popcorn. No kidding. A memo from the Fleets and Facilities Department addressed to "Employees at Civic Center Buildings" says there has been several evacuations in recent years due smoke alarms being tripped by burning popcorn. Man risks five years jail time for using open WiFi connection. A Michigan man who was caught using a coffee shop's unsecured WiFi connection while sitting in the car park was fined $400 and ordered to do 40 hours community service. But he could have received a 5-year jail term, as the state law which covers this is part of a 1979 anti-hacking bill which makes this a felony. Job security: Americans have suffered decades of nutty decisions from the Supreme Court. At the present time our precious American values are on the line, as arrogant judges decide for the rest of us how we should live our lives. Now they purport to tell us how we can worship our God even though the Constitution clearly forbids their meddling. Investigate the CIA. Political correctness reigns in the U.S. government at every level, and the CIA is no exception. The result is an agency that is conducting a steady leak campaign against President Bush designed to discredit the Iraq war and undermine the war on terror. How someone else's meth habit leaves you with a runny nose: Under the Combat Meth Act, which Congress is expected to pass soon, you too can be treated like a criminal the next time you have nasal congestion, thereby doing your part to help achieve a drug-free society. Hoover wanted to put 12,000 in jail. A newly declassified document shows that J. Edgar Hoover, who headed the FBI from 1924 to 1972, had a plan to suspend habeas corpus and imprison about 12,000 Americans whom he suspected of disloyalty. Hoover sent his plan to the White House on July 7, 1950, 12 days after the Korean War began. It envisioned putting suspect Americans in military prisons. FBI Examines Pastor's Sermons On Culture. Nov. 23, 2004, started out like any other normal morning for Randy Steele, senior pastor at Southwest Christian Church in Mount Vernon, Ill., a town about 80 miles southeast of St. Louis. … The Pastor was questioned by the FBI over the way he talked about abortion from a biblical perspective. The Price of Incremental Lawlessness: Article X of the Bill of Rights prohibits the federal government from authority to regulate our lives in any areas other than what is specifically given the federal government by the Constitution. Where in the Constitution is the federal government given power to regulate education, medical care, social welfare, or the private ownership of guns? |
