 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 Money Down the Drain Snitch on Your Neighbor The TIPS program Know Your Customer Obama's "snitch on your neighbor" program: The 2009 version. Incompetence and Absurd Application of the Law Uncle Sam loses stuff -- especially guns and laptop computers. Uncle Sam is afraid to say what he means The Steven Hatfill / Anthrax Investigation Threats to the Constitution The Bill of Rights is Taking a Beating Property Rights and Property Seizures ... including commentary about the Supreme Court's Kelo decision. Invasion of Privacy (includes numerous subtopics) The Government's Role as Overprotective Nanny ... including The Smoking Section ... and Governor Perry's Vaccination Mandate The use of Traffic Signals as Fundraisers ... as well as seat belt laws and speed traps. 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 Pork Barrel Politics Carnivore & Echelon Hate Crime Laws The Proposed National ID Card Featured articles: The Forced March to Mediocrity. The perverted, and yes, un-American, pieces of legislation oozing their way through the halls of Congress over the past few years have taken advantage of our "lack of duty" to govern ourselves. We now find ourselves in a predicament that we have been warned of countless times, over decades, generations, and centuries... no longer are Americans a self-governed citizenry, we are virtually dictated to by that which we are supposed to control. Happy Upside-down Day, America. The dream of limited government, personal freedom and liberty, rugged individualism, and self-sufficiency that our forefathers fought and died for is rapidly disappearing in 2009. It is once again a world turned upside down. Our federal government is turning into the very type of heavy-handed, unaccountable, and disrespectful government our forefathers despised, fought against, and warned us to avoid. Public service or self-service? In a free market, as Forbes magazine says, your reward is a function of how much you contribute to the economy, but in a regulated market it's how much you contribute to politicians. Sound familiar? It should, especially to Californians. In New York, it is the reason a taxi cab license is worth $600,000 (because of fares rigged by paid-off politicians). In California, the cost of a vast range of services gets skewed by high pay and benefits for public employees. APF and Hardin Constitution Violations. A Livingston state representative is questioning whether Hardin officials and American Police Force have violated the Montana constitution. Representative Robert Ebinger says he became aware of the situation after Cascade and Park County law enforcement officials came to him asking questions about APF. ... "No armed person or persons or body of men shall be brought into the state for the presentation of the peace or the suppression of domestic violence unless the application of the legislature or of the governor when the legislature cannot be convened," said Ebinger while reading the constitution word for word. California jail entrepreneur has checkered past. Michael Hilton showed up in Hardin, Mont., last week, presenting himself as an economic savior, the man who would take over the town's $27 million jail — empty since it was built as a development project in 2007 — and provide 200 new jobs in the process. He wore a military style uniform, and as a gesture to local law enforcement offered up the use of three Mercedes SUVs. Mystery 'Police' Force Has Small Montana City on Edge. When two brand new, shiny black Mercedes SUVs bearing a "Hardin Police Department" logo drove through the main thoroughfare of Hardin, Mont., last week, people took notice. "How many police forces have Mercedes?" said Charlene Warren, a local business owner who has lived in Hardin for more than half a century. "That threw up a red flag." Military helicopters land in Rolesville field. Three Chinook military helicopters set down in a Rolesville field Monday afternoon, witnesses said. People reported seeing the helicopters flying low and slow over Holly Springs, downtown Raleigh and elsewhere in Wake County. A viewer told WRAL News they came to rest off Rogers Road about half a mile from U.S. Highway 401. The Editor asks... Isn't that what Fort Hood is for? Why must this be done in a small town? The Tipping Point? We are living in a surreal age of $2 trillion annual deficits, in which we just casually talk about "more stimulus", "reforming health care", "fixing education", "cap-and-trade", while fighting two wars abroad — all the while "not raising taxes on 95% of Americans" — all predicated on the idea that "they" will always be willing and able to create new wealth and now hand over two-thirds and more of it to an ever-expanding government. High Court Curbs Power of Police to Search Cars. The Supreme Court ruled that police couldn't search the car of a person arrested unless the officer's safety was threatened or there was reason to think the car contained evidence of a crime, reviving a constitutional protection against unreasonable searches. The court effectively closed a loophole opened in a 1981 opinion that has been widely interpreted to allow police, without a warrant, to search cars — as well as bags or containers within them — when they arrest a driver or passenger. Congress killing us softly with laws and red tape. For the past 20 years, I have advised landowners, homebuilders and energy companies on the intricacies of the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Water Act. Both are complex statutes supplemented by dense volumes of regulations and administered by confusing agencies that have state and local counterparts applying state and local versions of the similar laws and rules. The costs of these regulatory regimes are enormous, but dimly, if at all, understood by the public. The highest-sounding rhetoric surrounds both laws, but, even as they accomplish important environmental goals, they also operate to batter tens of thousands of Americans every year. The Coming of the Fourth American Republic. The appropriations committees and their pork barrels are the most obvious example of rule by special interest, but not always the most important. Whole departments are dedicated to special interests — Labor, Education, Energy. Money is important, but regulation is every bit as useful, especially because regulations can shift property rights from third parties without going through the budget process. For example, environmentalists successfully combined a vaguely worded Endangered Species Act with control of the Fish and Wildlife Service to shift the costs of their no-development ethic onto random land-owners, regardless of costs, benefits, or fairness. Let's 'Restructure' Washington While We're at It. The federal government is a giant Rube Goldberg machine that not only wastes hundreds of billions of dollars each year but also burdens local governments and the private sector with legal requirements that no longer serve the public good. Congress should take its own advice and retool Washington. Demonizing America's 86th most proftable industry. When Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and a sidekick decided to intimidate CEOs in the health insurance industry, it wasn't just another instance of shabby politics, but an imperious, anti-democratic abuse of power, an attempt to put the fear of the almighty federal government in the hearts and minds of American citizens. Former Chicago Cops Admit to Invading Homes and Stealing. Four former members of a now-disbanded Chicago police unit have admitted they used to barge into people's homes and steal money. The Attorney General and the Black Panthers Holder Winks at Voter Intimidation. When Eric Holder became U.S. attorney general, he promised to administer the law in an objective, nonpolitical manner. So it's disappointing that the Justice Department had spent the last several months misinterpreting key voting rights laws for nakedly political reasons. Exhibit A: Justice's inexplicable dismissal of a civil lawsuit for voter intimidation against the New Black Panther Party. The Black Panthers weren't content to endorse Barack Obama. They sent their members to the polls last November to "patrol election sites." U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Demands Answers. The Obama Justice Department took the unusual action last month of dismissing a default judgment against the New Black Panther Party in connection with a case of voter intimidation on Election Day on November 4, 2008. Members of the NBPP were caught on film blocking access to the polls and physically and verbally intimidating voters, even going so far as to wield a nightstick in front of voters and poll watchers. The Justice Department's lawyers gathered evidence, obtained the affidavit of former civil rights advocate Bartle Bull, and filed a complaint. When the defendants did not respond and the court invited the Justice Department to file a default judgment, the case was inexplicably withdrawn. Why Did Justice Drop New Black Panthers' Case? Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) is waiting for an answer to his June 8 letter to Attorney General Holder. And he may wait a good while longer because the Justice Department doesn't want to explain its decision to dismiss its civil case — the worst case of voter intimidation in many years — and not pursue a criminal indictment. Flack Panthers. For some reason, the Justice Department is covering for the Black Panthers. For months, congressmen have asked the Justice Department a simple question: How could the department drop one of the worst voter-intimidation cases ever? The department's only explanation was revealed in its dismissal filing with the court; the case was dropped because the defendants, two members of the New Black Panthers, offered no defense. This is unsatisfactory grounds for such a serious civil rights abuse. Return of the Black Panther. Rarely does the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights vote unanimously on anything. A partisan divide has made the commission contentious in recent years. Yet the Department of Justice's decision to forfeit its voter-intimidation case against the New Black Panther Party and three individual defendants drew a 6-0 vote with one abstention by the commission. What unified the commission was outrage at the Justice Department for letting the Black Panthers off the hook. GOP, Holder battle over New Black Panthers. Key House Republicans are charging Attorney General Eric Holder of playing politics at the Justice Department. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) said Holder has ignored at least three letters sent over the past month from Republicans demanding to know why Justice dismissed charges of voter intimidation filed against two members of the "New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense". Panel blasts Panther case dismissal. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is demanding that the Justice Department explain why it recently dismissed a civil complaint against members of the New Black Panther Party who disrupted a Philadelphia polling place during last year's election, saying the department has offered only "weak justifications." 'Non-responsive' Justice Department pressed again on Panthers case. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights on Friday [8/7/2009] demanded for the second time that the Justice Department explain its dismissal of charges against members of the New Black Panther Party who disrupted a Philadelphia polling place during the November elections, saying a previous response was "largely non-responsive" and "paints the department in a poor light." Justice Dept. pressed to explain Panthers dropped charges. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is expected to approve Friday the sending of a second letter to the Justice Department, asking it to justify its decision in May to drop charges against members of the New Black Panther Party accused of intimidating voters at a Philadelphia polling place in the November election. Black Panther case expands. Even if the liberal media continue to ignore it, the Justice Department's dismissal of a voter-intimidation case against members of the New Black Panther Party is a full-blown scandal. Fortunately, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is pursuing justice even though the Department of Justice is not. Black Panther Case Draws Scrutiny. The inexplicable dismissal by the Obama Justice Department of the default judgment in a case of egregious voter intimidation at a Philadelphia polling place on Election Day 2008 has unleashed a torrent of questions about why the case was dropped against all but one defendant (the individual actually wielding a nightstick got off with a proverbial slap on the hand) and who made the decision to drop it. The Justice Department has stonewalled, claiming career attorneys made the call. Holder asked to quicken probe of Black Panther case. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights asked Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Wednesday [9/30/2009] to name a Justice Department official to oversee the production of what it called "our overdue information requests" for documents in the dismissal of a civil complaint against New Black Panther Party members accused of disrupting a polling place in the November elections. Panther injustice continues. The U.S. Civil Rights Commission is not backing off its showdown with the Justice Department about mishandling the voter-intimidation case involving agents of the New Black Panther Party. Nor should it. Yesterday [9/30/2009], the commission sent a letter to Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. demanding that Justice "fully cooperate," according to specific legal authority vested in the commission, with the commission's inquiry about why Justice dropped the case after it had already been won. Stop and Think. Really. Stop and think. What does your government actually do for you? ... In short, nothing tangible in the room is a "gift" from the government. Not one thing. (This is true even if you happen to work for the government and are situated in a government owned building. All of the work on the building was subcontracted. All of the items in the building were privately produced.) Many Of Today's Americans Love Government. Congressional efforts to create "affordable housing" have created today's financial calamity. Congress props up failed enterprises such as Amtrak and the U.S. Postal Service with huge cash subsidies, and subsidies in the forms of special tax treatment and monopoly rights. I can't think of anything that Congress does well yet we Americans call for them to take greater control over important areas of our lives. I don't think that stupidity, ignorance or insanity explains the love that many Americans hold for government; it's far more sinister and perhaps hopeless. I'll give a few examples to make my case. FBI Defends Disruptive Raids on Texas Data Centers. The FBI on Tuesday [4/7/2009] defended its raids on at least two data centers in Texas, in which agents carted out equipment and disrupted service to hundreds of businesses. The raids were part of an investigation prompted by complaints from AT&T and Verizon about unpaid bills allegedly owed by some data center customers, according to court records. One data center owner charges that the telecoms are using the FBI to collect debts that should be resolved in civil court. But on Tuesday, an FBI spokesman disputed that charge. Democrats: It's OK When We Politicize the Justice Department. The "politicization" of the Justice Department was one of many aspects of the Bush administration which the Obama administration was going to cure. But it appears that while the party of the administration has changed, we are seeing a level of political meddling at the Justice Department which the Bush administration never remotely approached. First, we had word that Eric Holder overruled the career attorney lawyers' research on the issue of voting rights for the District of Columbia. Now we learn that political appointees have overturned the work of career attorneys attempting to prevent voter intimidation by the New Black Panther Party. Who pressured Justice to drop case against voter intimidation in Philly? After screaming for 8 years about Bush "politicizing" the Justice Department, it appears that there is a clear cut case of interference in a legitimate prosecution of the New Black Panther Party for intimidating voters at a polling station in 2008 by Obama appointees. Charges Against 'New Black Panthers' Dropped by Obama Justice Dept.. Charges brought against three members of the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense under the Bush administration have been dropped by the Obama Justice Department, FOX News has learned. The charges stemmed from an incident at a Philadelphia polling place on Election Day 2008 when three members of the party were accused of trying to threaten voters and block poll and campaign workers by the threat of force — one even brandishing what prosecutors call a deadly weapon. Protecting Black Panthers. Imagine if Ku Klux Klan members had stood menacingly in military uniforms, with nightsticks, in front of a polling place. Add to it that they had hurled racial threats and insults at voters who tried to enter. Now suppose that the government, backed by a nationally televised video of the event, had won a court case against the Klansmen except for the perfunctory filing of a single, simple document — but that an incoming Republican administration had moved to voluntarily dismiss the already-won case. Surely that would have been front-page news, with a number of firings at the Justice Department. The flip side of this scenario is occurring right now. Civil Rights: Who are the "Cowards"? On taking office as Attorney General of the United States, Eric Holder stated that America is a nation of "cowards" when it comes to race and that he would commit the Department of Justice to making civil rights cases a top priority. President Obama himself promised to "reinvigorate federal civil rights enforcement," especially by prosecuting cases of voting discrimination against blacks. On May 15 Obama's Department of Justice quashed a civil rights case involving voter intimidation by blacks in Philadelphia on election day, 2008. The U.S. Department of Injustice. Let's examine the uproar over Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to protect hate-mongering thugs who harassed and bullied precinct workers and voters on Election Day in Philadelphia. Oh, wait. There's been no uproar. Let me tell you why. 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. Janet Reno's Show of Force. How would you respond to a 30 second warning at 5:00 AM? This is barely enough time to wake up and gather your wits in order to deal with a threatening, armed contingent wearing body armor and banging at the door. Was this just another way for the INS to paint the family as non-cooperative, giving them the excuse to use a battering ram to break their way in? Anita Dunn — Pots and Kettles. On April 16, 2000, viewers of CBS' 60 Minutes saw Dan Rather interviewing Elian Gonzalez' father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez. ... Here's what America didn't see: "Most of the questions Dan Rather was asking Elian's father during that 60 Minutes interview were being handed to him by Gregory Craig," recalls Pedro Porro, who served as Rather's in-studio translator during the taping of the famous interview. The Chicago Way is Piracy, Too. While they don't use grappling hooks to board merchant ships, the Chicago Way pirates do have their hooks in the merchants, nevertheless. The Chicago Way is a political system run by kleptocrats who demand tribute from merchants whenever the merchants want to do something. If they want to get a building permit or win a lucrative contract at O'Hare Airport, they must pay tribute. Your government in secret. Thom Rae wants to know why his town is spending $1 million to keep a second-run theater afloat. Kevin and Anne Barber want to know what happened to the principal who forced their 8th grader and his classmates to kneel painfully on a gym floor during a lecture on respect. Patricia and Joel Garza want to know why so many secrets surround the investigation into the crash that killed their grown son. They all want answers. The answer they all got was "no." Chicago City Hall routinely denies requests for public documents. The Daley administration routinely denies requests for documents that could shed light on how the mayor really runs the city. 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 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... How To Survive The Coming Martial Law In America. Some patriots in the government have already let it leak that local police organizations are aggressively recruiting US Marines still on active duty to leave the military and immediately become police officers... with little or no training. These Marines have been trained not to protect and serve but to kill quickly and efficiently. Let's face it, traditional armies are trained to dispatch enemies with vicious efficiency... and that's why local police have always been trained differently. Local police have traditionally been trained to protect and serve with respect for the rights of the citizens. But things have changed dramatically in this country. U.N. Troops Preparing for Martial Law In America — Who Is FEMA Really? Is it far fetched to imagine that these U.N. "peace keeping" forces would be used against American citizens? The 502nd, another unit from Fort Campbell Kentucky, is shown here arriving as peacekeepers in Somalia wearing their U.N. blue berets and insignia. Shortly thereafter this same unit the 502nd was in Arkansas practicing house to house searches and seizures in a joint U.N. training mission called "Agile Provider" in the Spring of 1994. Criminalizing everyone. "You don't need to know. You can't know." That's what Kathy Norris, a 60-year-old grandmother of eight, was told when she tried to ask court officials why, the day before, federal agents had subjected her home to a furious search. The agents who spent half a day ransacking Mrs. Norris' longtime home in Spring, Texas, answered no questions while they emptied file cabinets, pulled books off shelves, rifled through drawers and closets, and threw the contents on the floor. The six agents, wearing SWAT gear and carrying weapons, were with — get this — the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The raid on Mayor Cheye Calvo's house To paraphrase Ray Donovan, where do they go to get their dogs back? 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. Update: Time to rein in police SWAT teams. [Scroll down] Ah, but it's so much easier and so much more fun to barrel into someone's house with big guns and storm trooper uniforms. The proliferation of SWAT deployments in this country is stunning, up from 3,000 a year in the mid-1980s to more than 40,000 now, according to Peter Kraske, who studies the militarization of policing as a criminal-justice professor at Eastern Kentucky University. ... "Telling the people that these officers followed procedure and did nothing wrong sends a chilling message," [Cheye] Calvo says. "And then we wonder why people who live in high-crime areas don't trust the police. They treated us like animals. They were not there to protect and serve, they were there to search and destroy." Another update: SWAT Gone Wild in Maryland. Late last month, Berwyn Heights, Maryland Mayor Cheye Calvo took the unusual step of filing a civil rights lawsuit against the police department of his own county. The suit stems from a 2008 SWAT team raid on Calvo's house that resulted in the shooting deaths of his two black Labrador retrievers. In pushing back against the abuse he suffered at the hands of the Prince George's County police department, the mayor is helping expose a more widespread pattern of law enforcement carelessness and callousness throughout the state of Maryland. Cops Employing Robbers: [Ryan] Frederick's case is only one recent example of the inherent danger and disproportionate absurdity of using violent, forced-entry police tactics to serve nonviolent drug warrants. This raid on a man with no prior criminal record left a police officer dead, his wife widowed, and his children without a father, while effectively ruining Ryan Frederick's life. He's facing one count of capital murder for the shooting of [Detective Jarrod] Shivers, a felony drug distribution charge, and a charge of using a weapon during the commission of a drug crime. 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. 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. The War on Drugs is No Laughing Matter. Alcohol did not create Al Capone's gang violence in the hometown of our current president. Prohibition did. Marijuana does not create murderous drug cartels in Mexico. America's War on Drugs does. 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. 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. 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. |
