Gene Healy over at the CATO Institute talks about the usage of our national guard units, the use of the military as police, and the possibility of the Posse Comitatus Act being weakened, the longstanding federal statute that restricts the government’s ability to use the U.S. military as a police force.
During the election last November fourth, there were two members of the black panther party standing in the doorway to a polling place in Philadelphia and were intimidating voters and claiming they were the security. One of them had a club that he used in a threatening manner. Eventually the person with the club was ran off by police, but the other was allowed to stay. Charges were brought against these two men and they failed to show up for their court hearing, giving an automatic win to the justice department. Only now the charges have been dropped, without good cause. The Washington Times wrote a good article concerning the situation.
There is a good article over at CNN that does well to point out the errors of our fight against drugs and addiction by comparing it to our fight against cigarettes. While he is actually dead wrong about the laws that infringe on the rights of owners of bars and restaurants to choose whether or not to allow smoking at their establishments, he makes up for those shortcomings with some other great points in the article.
Back last year, I signed up for Obama’s campaign newsletter and email updates. Since then I have gotten a steady stream of emails that have at one point or another contradicted Obama’s promises to his supporters. I have also noticed that he has been using several issues, most recently health care reform, as a tool to get people to donate money so that he may pad his campaign coffers.
Its very simple, they take outlandish statements, or overemphasize something small to make it seem big, and use them to play on people’s emotions towards various issues. They ask that people help support this reform, or this bill going through congress, or some other measure, though don’t ask for people to call their representatives to ensure that something positive gets done, they only ask you for a small “insert amount here” donation to help advance the cause. Last I checked, it was just the politicians and lobbyists in DC that were involved in the pay to play scheme.
Here is the latest email from Team Obama that I thought I might share with you all.
Stephen –
You’ve probably seen the headlines: Opponents of change are doing everything they can to delay health insurance reform. As a Republican strategy memo concluded, “If we slow this sausage-making process down, we can defeat it.”
They’re betting that as time goes by, our energy will flag, our movement will weaken, and they’ll ultimately be able to block any change.
But they just don’t get it — thanks to the regular Americans who are reaching out in neighborhoods nationwide, our movement is expanding every day. In fact, over the weekend, we surpassed our big goal of 1 million people taking action for health insurance reform. And with your help, we’ll keep growing and prove that our opponents’ strategy of “delay, delay, delay” simply won’t work.
So I want to ask you for something unusual: Can you chip in $1 each day until we pass real health insurance reform? A huge response will show the insurance companies and their allies in Congress that their delay tactics will only make our movement stronger.
Here’s how it works: We’ll bill your credit card for 30 days’ worth of donations now and once a month until the President signs real health insurance reform into law.
The cost of inaction on health insurance reform is astounding. Every day, 14,000 more Americans lose their coverage. Premiums continue to rise at three times the rate of wages. And each day, more small businesses are forced to choose between covering their employees and keeping their doors open.
But that doesn’t stop our opponents from trying to bog down the process with legislative tricks. And at the same time, they’re attacking the President for “moving too fast,” even though Washington has been talking about the need for comprehensive health insurance reform since the days of Harry Truman!
What they don’t realize is that outside of Washington, our campaign keeps growing. We’ve reached our “million” milestone, but the stories behind that number are even more impressive: grassroots press conferences with small-business owners in Missouri, more than 1,200 people at an organizing meeting in Minnesota, huge events outside local Senate offices in Florida, and so much more.
That’s why our dollar-a-day campaign is so important: If the few senators and representatives who are opposing reform understand that dragging their heels makes us stronger every day — and that the grassroots pressure on them will increase — they’ll be far less willing to keep slowing down the process.
Another great article produced by the people over at the Mises Institute about the impact of paying with $2 bills. A great idea produced by the movement to counter disastrous government monetary policies.
Chances are, you’re a criminal, as Claire Wolf greatly explains in her article of Living the Outlaw Life: Freeing your inner outlaw. It’s a great read and I highly recommend it to everyone. Think you’re a law abiding citizen? You’re in for a surprise.
According an article published at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090401181217.htm, one of the main active components in marijuana, cannabinoids, has shown promising signs that it could lead us towards a new direction in the fight against cancer.
National Geographic
In South America, female phorid flies have developed a bizarre reproductive strategy: They hover over fire ants, then inject their eggs into the ants with a needle-like appendage.
The egg grows and the resulting larva generally migrates to the ant’s head. The larva lives there for weeks–slurping up the brain and turning the ant into a “zombie,” in some cases compelling the ant to march 55 yards (50 meters) away from its colony to avoid attack by other fire ants.
Finally, the baby fly decapitates its host and hatches, exiting through the ant’s head, as shown in the pictures in this gallery.
U.S. scientists regularly release several species of phorid flies to control alien fire ants, which have spread across the southern U.S. during the past half century and outcompeted many native ant species.
Now scientists have released a new species of phorid, Pseudacteon obtusus (not pictured), for the first time in the U.S., Texas A&M University announced May 11.
Released in southern Texas in 2008 and eastern Texas in April 2009, P. obtusus is the first phorid released in the U.S. that is known to attack ants as they forage. In theory, feeding ants are more vulnerable to attack than those hunkering down in hidden nests.
The flies—which don’t have a taste for native U.S. ants—also drive the frightened fire ants into their nests, freeing up more food for the indigenous ants.
It’s about “leveling the playing field for native ants. We’re trying to restore the balance,” said Rob Plowes, a research associate at the University of Texas.
The Oklahoma state trooper that pulled over an ambulance en route to the hospital with a patient on board shown in this video cussing, choking, and threatening the driver with arrest for failing to yield to the trooper, has been suspended for five days with no pay, and is required to undergo an anger assessment.
Just to clarify that last paragraph, the trooper got a slap on the hand for choking, cussing, and threatening someone and putting another person’s life in danger. He clearly should have been fired for his outrageous actions and is not fit to serve in law enforcement.
An ambulance headed towards the hospital with its lights on and a patient on board is the most important vehicle on the road. All other vehicles should be yielding to the ambulance, and if there is an officer that has a problem, they should follow the ambulance to the hospital and handle the business there.
Hack first heard about Jennifer Government at the water cooler. He was only there because the one on his floor was out; Legal was going to come down on Nature’s Springs like a ton of shit, you could bet on that. Hack was a Merchandise Distribution Officer. This meant when Nike made up a bunch of posters, or caps, or beach towels, Hack had to send them to the right place. Also, if someone called up complaining about missing posters, or caps, or beach towels, Hack had to take the call. It wasn’t as exciting as it used to be.
“It’s a calamity,” a man at the water cooler said. “Four days away from launch and Jennifer Government’s all over my ass.”
“Jee-sus,” his companion said. “That’s gotta suck.”
“It means we have to move fast.” He looked at Hack, who was filling his cup. “Hi there.”
Hack looked up. They were smiling at him as if he was an equal—but of course, Hack was on the wrong floor. They didn’t know he was just a Merc Officer. “Hi.”
“Haven’t seen you around before,” the calamity guy said. “You new?”
“No, I work in Merc.”
“Oh.” His nose wrinkled.
“Our cooler’s out,” Hack said. He turned away quickly.
“Hey, wait up,” the suit said. “You ever do any marketing work?” (more…)
Scott Janke, the town manager for Fort Myers Beach, Florida married his new wife Anabela last October, though that’s not her stage name. In the adult entertainment business, Anabela is a porn star that goes by the name of Jazella Moore. Upon learning of Janke’s marriage to a porn star, the Fort Myers Beach town council and mayor voted unanimously to remove Janke, though they admit that he had done nothing to warrant the firing.
According to Mayor Larry Kiker “We did everything we could not to judge. It’s not about him and her. It’s about the town.” Kiker acknowledged that Janke had violated no rules or laws and added that he had done a good job for the island town of about 6,500 people. But the mayor was concerned whether Janke could remain effective. “We had to decide what was in the best interest of the town. We have a lot of major projects in front of us, and we needed to make sure that we move forward.”
Councilman Tom Babcock, responding to residents’ questions, said at a council meeting Wednesday that Janke was fired because his wife’s profession brought an inaccurate image to the town. “When you become a public figure you are held to a different level of scrutiny and ethics,” Babcock said.
Janke will get a severance package worth six months salary, which comes to about $50,000, plus health benefits. He said it’s too early to think about what’s next in his career though, saying “A termination on a resume does not look good, no matter what the reason.”
Janke began working for Fort Myers Beach in March 2008. He has also worked for the City of Marathon in the Keys and had worked for various local governments throughout Alaska since 1989. Hopefully the future of his career hasn’t been ruined by the total disregard for his privacy and freedom by the mayor and council of Fort Myers Beach.
Sky News – Some computer repair shops are illegally accessing personal data on customers’ hard drives – and even trying to hack their bank accounts, a Sky News investigation has found.
In one case, passwords, log-in details and holiday photographs were all copied onto a portable memory stick by a technician. In other shops, customers were charged for non-existent work and simple faults were misdiagnosed. An investigator from the Trading Standards Institute said he was “shocked” by the findings. The investigation was carried out using surveillance software loaded onto a brand-new laptop. It operated without the user being aware that every event that took place on the computer was being logged.
All activity on the screen was captured in still images, and the identity of whoever was using the computer was recorded using the laptop’s built-in camera. Sky engineers then created a simple, easily diagnosable fault, by loosening the connection of the internal memory chip. This prevented Windows being able to load. To get things working again, the chip would simply need to be pushed back into position. The investigation targeted six different computer repair shops. All but one misdiagnosed or overcharged for the fault. The most serious offender was Revival Computers in Hammersmith, West London.
Shortly after identifying the real fault, an engineer called our undercover reporter to say the computer needed a new motherboard, which would cost $200. (more…)
Posted by William Grigg on July 22, 2009 11:09 AM LewRockwell.com
Once a criminal gang “wins so many recruits from the ranks of the demoralized that it acquires territory, establishes a base, captures cities and subdues peoples, it then openly arrogates to itself the title of kingdom, which is conferred on it in the eyes of the world, not by the renouncing of aggression but by the attainment of impunity,” wrote Augustine.
Simply put: Gangs and governments do exactly the same things, but the latter immunizes its agents from punishment. This explains why government enforcement agents — better known as police — so frequently engage in blatantly criminal behavior.
Whenever police commit criminal acts against innocent people, they do so in the serene confidence that their uncorroborated testimony about the incident will be accepted by judges, and most juries, as the truth.
The only exceptions would be those instances in which audio or video records of such episodes exist — which is why police have started to confiscate cell phones of witnesses and use wiretapping statutes against people who make audio recordings of police encounters. This fact was infuriatingly put on display last August in Philadelphia.
Last August 17, a Philadelphia woman named Agnes Lawless was riding in a blue Mazda with some friends when the vehicle was rear-ended by a car driven by Alberto Lopez, Jr., an on-duty police officer. Lopez left the scene and Lawless, along with her friends, stopped at a nearby Lukoil convenience store. (more…)
(CNN) — A fight over books depicting sex and homosexuality has riled up a small Wisconsin city, cost some library board members their positions and prompted a call for a public book burning.
The battle has stirred much of West Bend, a city of roughly 30,000 people about 35 miles north of Milwaukee. Residents have sparred for months on blogs, airwaves and at meetings, including one where a man told the city’s library director he should be tarred and feathered.
The row even spread to this year’s Fourth of July parade, which included a float featuring a washing machine and a sign that read “keep our library clean.”
“If you told me we would be going through a book challenge of this nature, I’d think, ‘Never in a million years,’ ” said Michael Tyree, director of the West Bend Community Memorial Library. (more…)
An Illinois agency has sued two sheriff’s deputies in Southern Illinois, alleging that they handcuffed, threatened and Tasered teenage foster children.
The suit, filed in federal court in East St. Louis by the Illinois Office of State Guardian on behalf of the children, says the deputies used excessive force and violated the children’s rights. The suit also names Jefferson County, Ill., Sheriff Roger Mulch, his department and the county.
According to the suit, Deputies David Bowers and Lonnie Lawler were sent to the Southern Thirty Adolescent Center near Mount Vernon on July 4, 2008, because of staff concerns about the behavior of three other children, ages 11 and 12. The center is an emergency shelter for children ages 11-18. Boys live there. Girls stay in foster homes but go to the center for day activities. (more…)