I told you so!

Some people think I'm a little over-the-top in my distrust and dislike of Das Überwachenden.  And yet the things I predict regarding seemingly innocent moves by various organs of government are proved accurate again and again.  The latest? A seemingly innocent article detailing Frederick County's move to quietly issue new recycling bins with built-in RFID.

If you think for one minute that the RFID data won't be used to persuade coerce people to recycle, you're out of your mind. Government only knows how to do two things: (1) get bigger, and (2) use force. Be on the lookout for a County-wide campaign in the very near future "urging" us to be more diligent in recycling. This will be followed later on by a campaign to assess fines against those who don't recycle.

Oh how right I was!

Beware the green police. They don't carry guns and there's no police academy to train them, but if you don't recycle your trash properly, they can walk up your driveway and give you a $100 ticket.

They know what's in your trash, they know what you eat, they know how often you bring your recycles to the curb -- and they may be coming to your town soon. That is, if they're not already there.

In a growing number of cities across the U.S., local governments are placing computer chips in recycling bins to collect data on refuse disposal, and then fining residents who don't participate in recycling efforts and forcing others into educational programs meant to instill respect for the environment.

Did I not tell you? DID I NOT TELL YOU?!?!?

Beware those who try to sell you altruism.  Because if you're not buying, they'll be back -- with bayonets. 

Vulture Droppings: Obamacare begins

Vulture Droppings is a semi-regular feature of this blog. It's a kind of "Random Thoughts" post in which I try to quickly summarize a particularly large event or series of events. Think of it being sort of like what a vulture leaves behind after devouring a horse. You don't get the whole horse, just highly processed leftovers.

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As modern politics dictates, bad news is always released just prior to the weekend.  This is done to assure that most of the sheeple aren't paying attention.  I mean, it's not like the sycophantic lickspittles of Big Media (the BM for short) are going to go out of their way to embarrass their lord and savior.  They'll report the bad news.  They just won't make much noise in the process of said reportage.

As one would expect, this was the treatment given to the sudden torrent of details regarding Obamacare that spewed out on Friday.  The Drudge Report was the source for these links.  What?  You expected maybe CBS news?  HAHAHAHAHA!

This edition of Vulture Droppings will address those details.

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With one breath, with one flow
You will know Synchronicity

The first detail of note is a dramatic change of semantics regarding the requirement for every American to have health insurance.

When Congress required most Americans to obtain health insurance or pay a penalty, Democrats denied that they were creating a new tax. But in court, the Obama administration and its allies now defend the requirement as an exercise of the government’s “power to lay and collect taxes.”

And that power, they say, is even more sweeping than the federal power to regulate interstate commerce.

Administration officials say the tax argument is a linchpin of their legal case in defense of the health care overhaul and its individual mandate, now being challenged in court by more than 20 states and several private organizations.

It's not a tax...until it's challenged...and THEN it's a tax.  Give credit where credit is due.  This is shear genius.  They rammed through the legislation all the while claiming it wasn't a tax (which would have increased opposition to it) but will defend its patently unconstitutional dictates by claiming it IS a tax, which takes a major bite out of the States' challenges to its unconstitutionality.  Can you say "evil genius"?

Don't be surprised as more of these changes in semantics start to creep out, not just in response to challenges, but also as regards policy.  We won't appreciate fully the enslaving power of this POS until much, much later.

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Many miles away something crawls from the slime at the bottom of a dark Scottish lake

The next item deals with physician choice, something we were assured that the Obamacare legislation would not change.

As the Obama administration begins to enact the new national health care law, the country’s biggest insurers are promoting affordable plans with reduced premiums that require participants to use a narrower selection of doctors or hospitals.

The plans, being tested in places like San Diego, New York and Chicago, are likely to appeal especially to small businesses that already provide insurance to their employees, but are concerned about the ever-spiraling cost of coverage.

But large employers, as well, are starting to show some interest, and insurers and consultants expect that, over time, businesses of all sizes will gravitate toward these plans in an effort to cut costs.

The tradeoff, they say, is that more Americans will be asked to pay higher prices for the privilege of choosing or keeping their own doctors if they are outside the new networks. That could come as a surprise to many who remember the repeated assurances from President Obama and other officials that consumers would retain a variety of health-care choices.

We're shocked -- SHOCKED -- to find out that our choice of providers would be impacted by Obamacare. SHOCKED! [/sarcasm]

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Many miles away something crawls to the surface of a dark Scottish lake

Next comes news that Taxachusetts is finding that employers are *shock* looking out for their own interests and dumping the responsibility for health care on the state.

The relentlessly rising cost of health insurance is prompting some small Massachusetts companies to drop coverage for their workers and encourage them to sign up for state-subsidized care instead, a trend that, some analysts say, could eventually weigh heavily on the state’s already-stressed budget.

If this is a surprise to anyone, they're an idiot.  Because, as night follows day, employers are going to dump their health insurance responsibilities on the State as a matter of self-preservation.  This is, not surprisingly to those of us who truly understand what der Staat is, exactly what the administration wants to happen!  There'll be single-payer health care on the British/Canadian model before you know it, administration "promises" to the contrary notwithstanding.

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Many miles away there's a shadow on the door of a cottage on the shore of a dark Scottish lake

Now for the money shot - the taxman cometh!

If it seems as if the tax code was conceived by graphic artist M.C. Escher, wait until you meet the new and not improved Internal Revenue Service created by ObamaCare. What, you're not already on a first-name basis with your local IRS agent?

National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson, who operates inside the IRS, highlighted the agency's new mission in her annual report to Congress last week. Look out below. She notes that the IRS is already "greatly taxed"—pun intended?—"by the additional role it is playing in delivering social benefits and programs to the American public," like tax credits for first-time homebuyers or purchasing electric cars. Yet with ObamaCare, the agency is now responsible for "the most extensive social benefit program the IRS has been asked to implement in recent history." And without "sufficient funding" it won't be able to discharge these new duties.

That wouldn't be tragic, given that those new duties include audits to determine who has the insurance "as required by law" and collecting penalties from Americans who don't. Companies that don't sponsor health plans will also be punished. This crackdown will "involve nearly every division and function of the IRS," Ms. Olson reports.

Well, well. Republicans argued during the health debate that the IRS would have to hire hundreds of new agents and staff to enforce ObamaCare. They were brushed off by Democrats and the press corps as if they believed the President was born on the moon. The IRS says it hasn't figured out how much extra money and manpower it will need but admits that both numbers are greater than zero.

Big Brother just got "bigger". "Do you haff the required insurance, Herr Vulture? Vee haff vays of finding out!"

If you think Das Überwachenden has its nose in your business now, just wait.  It'll only get worse.

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So what does it all mean?  It means that we've barely scratched the surface of the real impact of Obamacare.  The enslaving nature of this POS has yet to be fully revealed.  When it is, don't come crying to me.  I fully understood what it was really about from day one.

* Section captions from Synchronicity I and Synchronicity II by The Police.  What it is that's crawling from the bottom of that lake, I'll leave to the imagination of the reader.

Big Brother - curbside waste edition

Hat tip to xfloggingkylex.

On its surface, this article doesn't really stir the blood or rile the spirit.  I mean, it's simply touting the technology used to keep recycling bins...you know, the ones the County REQUIRES us to have...from being stolen.  Right?

After spending millions on new recycling carts, Frederick County is not going to let them disappear.

The county has radio frequency identification tags on each recycling cart. The electronic tags are scanned by trucks each time recycling containers are emptied.

If the Frederick County Office of Recycling is notified that a recycling cart has been stolen or is missing, staff are able to look it up and see where and when it was last used.

In some cases, they have found the cart somewhere else in the county and returned it to the original address, said Dawn Adams, recycling program manager.

"It was nice to see the system working like that," Adams said.

Nice, right? The County is being proactive in assuring that these bins don't get stolen.

But about halfway into the article, the tone changes.

The recycling office also hopes to use the tags to measure recycling participation rates. The tags will show how frequently residents use their carts and will provide targeted information on which areas of the county set out their carts the most and least.

Uh oh. I don't like where this is going.

The only information recorded is whether a container has been set out.

It does have an individual address associated with the cart number.

Ah! Money shot!

If you think for one minute that the RFID data won't be used to persuade coerce people to recycle, you're out of your mind.  Government only knows how to do two things: (1) get bigger, and (2) use force.  Be on the lookout for a County-wide campaign in the very near future "urging" us to be more diligent in recycling.  This will be followed later on by a campaign to assess fines against those who don't recycle.

Because in order to accomplish Objective 1 (get bigger) money is needed.  And our "betters" are finding more and unique ways to bleed us dry every day.

The trouble with elephants

I approach this post with a little bit of hesitation.  I don't want to look like I'm picking on a fellow blogger and singling him out as being...how do I say this delicately?...easily duped.  But the posts of this blogger go a long way towards proving a point I've been trying to drum home for some time now.  Please indulge me a little on this one.

The blog to which I refer is called Elephants in the Blue Grass.  Now, I'm sure Mr. "Grass" is a nice enough fellow.  But he needs to cut down on his Kool-Aid intake.

Mr. "Grass" has a real issue with Rand Paul, Ron Paul's son and candidate for the Senate from Kentucky.  I am aware that "Grass" is touting another candidate for Senate, Trey Grayson, who I'm sure is a swell fellow.  And far be it from me to get my panties in a wad because an individual supports a candidate other than the one I would favor.  But I can tell when someone has gone beyond hyping their candidate and "downing" the opponent to a nasty place from which they can only produce hyperventilated girly smear.  You know, the stuff we usually get from Team Donkey.  Thank I'm kidding?  How would YOU characterize his calling Mr. Paul "part of the blame America first crowd."

Mr. "Grass" is quite unhappy with the desire on the part of Mr. Paul (and his dad, I might add) to scale back the mission of the US military to that of....wait for it...defending the nation.  You know, abandoning the Bush doctrine of War Without End.  This causes Mr. "Grass" to lapse into fainting spells. 

He's also just a wee bit butt hurt that Mr. Paul has vowed to vote to repeal the Patriot Act.  Personally, I can think of nothing more patriotic than repeal of the Patriot Act.  But I'm more concerned with personal liberties than in creating an All-Powerful Staat in the image of the Team Elephant Pax Americana pipe dream.

I hate to pick on the guy.  I really do.  He's done nothing to wrong me.  But his wrong-headed jihad against Paul is just baffling.  Rand Paul sounds to me like exactly the kind of guy the Tea Party folks are trying to get elected.  But Mr. "Grass" and the Team Elephant elites are fighting him tooth and nail.

And therein lies my point - the point I've been hammering on like a jackhammer on steroids most of this year.  If you're a person who believes in the principles of the Constitution as written by the Founders, a person who wants to live in the nation they envisioned, you need to leave the Republican party.  Team Elephant is not your friend.  Team Elephant does NOT represent small government, personal liberty, and fiscal responsibility.  They represent intrusive Überwachenden-style snooping, War Without End, and spending til the cows come home...just spending on different stuff than the Donkeys want to spend money on.

A party that thinks Romney-Palin would be a swell ticket for the Presidency is a party in need of euthanasia.  And those who put their faith in such a party need to get used to the idea of serfdom.

Das Überwachenden in the news

It's been a while since I had a good story about Das Überwachenden. They've been fairly quiet lately. Or perhaps it might be more accurate to say that they've been less visible. Das Überwachenden never sleep.

So what are our Big Brother wannabees up to now? As one of Il Duce's henchmen said some months ago, "Never let a good crisis go to waste." Toyota is having bigtime problems with their vehicles. Not quite a crisis, but good enough for Uncle.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration chief David Strickland told a congressional hearing on Thursday that the regulator is considering whether to make "black boxes" mandatory for all new vehicles.

The devices can capture data on speed, braking effort and other details which can be vital in reconstructing accidents.

They can capture speed? They can capture speed?!?!?!?!? Oh God no!

As the chagrined recipient of well over 30 speeding tickets in almost 37 years of driving, the LAST THING I want is Uncle Sam or Aunt Maryland keeping tabs on how fast I drive. They implement these black boxes and I might as well turn in my license.

Okay, all joking aside, I'm never surprised at the lengths government will go to in order to spy on its own people. Any flimsy excuse will do.

"Land of the free, home of the brave"? I think not.

How to offend folks on both sides of an issue

Audi has accomplished something I had previously thought impossible -- they've managed to offend people on both sides of the "green" issue. If you watched the Super Bowl, I'm sure you saw the ad. It was, not to understate the obvious, epic in its effect on people, regardless of political persuasion.

The Left hates it, yet nonetheless has tried to spin it as positive in that it targets "urban and suburban professional males in Audi’s target market", as opposed to the "teabaggers" targeted by the rest of the advertisers. The telling quote was this one.

The ad only makes sense if it’s aimed at people who acknowledge the moral authority of the green police—people who may find those obligations tiresome and constraining on occasion, who only fitfully meet them, who may be annoyed by sticklers and naggers, but who recognize that living more sustainably is in fact the moral thing to do. This basically describes every guy I know.

He obviously doesn't know me, a suburban professional male who USED TO BE in Audi's target market. Until the commercial, that is.

The Right sees the add as tomorrow's reality if we don't stand up to the forces of political correctness. Jonah Goldberg put it this way.

[T]he moral of the story is that we should welcome our new green overlords and, if we know what's good for us, surrender to the New Green Order.

Funny, but that's kind of the take overall around my house when we watched the commercial live.

The casa Vulture is a place where libertarianism is the de facto political belief system, from papa Vulture on down to Baby Vulture (if one can call an almost 21-year-old "baby"). Oldest son stated emphatically, "Well, I'll never buy an Audi."

And, in truth, who would? Why would anyone who believes in the freedoms espoused by the Founders EVER dignify such a dehumanized portrait of what we should be? Is that what Audi sees as the future, the US as a nation of sheeple who meekly submit to Das Überwachenden constantly in your business?

Bad move, Audi. Bad move indeed.

What's a busy Vulture to do?

There are days when I have literally nothing to write about. Days when absolutely nothing is happening in the wide world of asshattery. Today I'm encountering a different sort of problem -- I've got more topics in the bin than I've got time to write.

Rather than attempt to tackle one at the expense of others, or tackle all at once in a "Vulture Droppings" post, I'm going to simply post a "Coming Attractions" list. If there's any one topic of interest to you and yours, let me know in the comments and I'll kick it up in priority.

Coming Attractions

1. The Great Society legacy of "peace" - the growing trend towards violence on the part of the Left towards those who don't agree with them. Tip of the beak to Mark for calling my attention to this lovely story.
2. The advent of "Generation Jones". No longer must MY generation be lumped in the those 60's maggots. Tip of the beak to WatchingSociety for that tidbit and for links to these sources.
3. Fear mongering as a campaign tactic. This topic stems from the steady stream of panic being shoveled on blather radio, but both Left and Right are guilty of this. Examples will be provided.
4. The advent of the Carbon Police in England. Just what we need: more Überwachenden.
5. An email is circulating that makes the case for Obama being the Antichrist. I slice, dice, and ridicule said email. Hilarity ensues.
6. An actual, honest-to-God unbiased site for information on the presidential and congressional elections. Targeted for women, CitizenJanePolitics.com is an excellent source for information regardless of your sex. Tip of the beak to xfloggingkylex for passing this information to me.
7. More wacky environmental news. Always fun. Always enlightening. News on the subject of man-made global warming is especially fun this week in light of the near-record low temperatures we're seeing right now.
8. And finally, I'm running in the Susan Komen Race for the Cure 5k tomorrow. It's my first competitive race...and I expected to finish towards the end of the pack. But it's a good cause (to raise funds for breast cancer research), and I'm really looking forward to it.
   

Whew! I'm gonna be a busy bird!

Das Überwachenden update

You know, in all of the hubbub and confusion surrounding the elections and the economic meltdown, there hasn't been a lot of news about our friends, Das Überwachenden (German for "the watchers"...but because it's German, it sounds so much darker and foreboding, so I use it as my term of choice for any and all government snooping). Well, I believe it's time for an update.

Fox News, an ardent fan of every form of Überwachendenism, enthusiastically brings us this little tidbit.

Baggage searches are SOOOOOO early-21st century. Homeland Security is now testing the next generation of security screening — a body scanner that can read your mind.

Most preventive screening looks for explosives or metals that pose a threat. But a new system called MALINTENT turns the old school approach on its head. This Orwellian-sounding machine detects the person — not the device — set to wreak havoc and terror.

MALINTENT, the brainchild of the cutting-edge Human Factors division in Homeland Security's directorate for Science and Technology, searches your body for non-verbal cues that predict whether you mean harm to your fellow passengers.

It has a series of sensors and imagers that read your body temperature, heart rate and respiration for unconscious tells invisible to the naked eye — signals terrorists and criminals may display in advance of an attack.

But this is no polygraph test. Subjects do not get hooked up or strapped down for a careful reading; those sensors do all the work without any actual physical contact. It's like an X-ray for bad intentions.

Ooh! How exciting! Big Brother gets a little closer every day.

Is it just me, or did the preceding excerpt strike you as just a WEE bit too happy-slappy, especially given the subject matter? I mean, I know Fox News is the flag-waving standard bearer for King George the Dim, but c'mon!

Speaking of the Dear Leader, it seems his naughty little regime has been up to no good.

Despite pledges by President George W. Bush and American intelligence officials to the contrary, hundreds of US citizens overseas have been eavesdropped on as they called friends and family back home, according to two former military intercept operators who worked at the giant National Security Agency (NSA) center in Fort Gordon, Georgia.

The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), called the allegations "extremely disturbing" and said the committee has begun its own examination.

"We have requested all relevant information from the Bush Administration," Rockefeller said Thursday. "The Committee will take whatever action is necessary."

"These were just really everyday, average, ordinary Americans who happened to be in the Middle East, in our area of intercept and happened to be making these phone calls on satellite phones," said Adrienne Kinne, a 31-year old US Army Reserves Arab linguist assigned to a special military program at the NSA's Back Hall at Fort Gordon from November 2001 to 2003.

Kinne described the contents of the calls as "personal, private things with Americans who are not in any way, shape or form associated with anything to do with terrorism."

But King George! You promised!

Keep that in mind as King George shovels up bushels of "government involvement [in the financial industry] will be limited and temporary".

Vulture Droppings - the VP Debate, the bailout

Vulture droppings is a semi-regular feature of this blog. It's a kind of "Random Thoughts" post in which I try to quickly summarize a particularly large event or series of events. Think of it being sort of like what a vulture leaves behind after devouring a horse. You don't get the whole horse, just highly processed leftovers.

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I watched about half of the VP debate live before I had to leave the room, lest my head explode. We don't have debates in this country anymore. We have staged kabuki dances where a moderator serves up questions requiring hard answers to which the trained political artisans respond with the poliverbiage equivalent of "yo mama!", directed at their opponent. There were glimpses of answers, policy statements, really. But it was mostly "Your guy supports wife beating and legalized prostitution"-style ad hominem attacks.

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Senator Hairplugs is the quintessential slick politician, foot-in-mouth-disease notwithstanding. His answers were glib, tailored for a centrist audience, and delivered without a glitch. He definitely told the Big Lie of the night with this knee-slapper:

Do I support granting same-sex benefits? Absolutely positively. Look, in an Obama-Biden administration, there will be absolutely no distinction from a constitutional standpoint or a legal standpoint between a same-sex and a heterosexual couple.

The fact of the matter is that under the Constitution we should be granted -- same-sex couples should be able to have visitation rights in the hospitals, joint ownership of property, life insurance policies, et cetera. That's only fair.

It's what the Constitution calls for.

It's what the Constitution calls for. Can you show me exactly where in said Constitution it says that? Or did you get that from Neil Kinnock, too? This is what passes for a Constitutional scholar in today's America. Sad, isn't it?

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Governor Palin was better than I expected...and I expected her to be good. That said, she also disappointed. She alternated between folksy brilliance and "Oh my God where's the duct tape so when my head explodes I'll still have a brain" recitations from the One World Elitists Handbook.

She blamed Wall Street greed for the financial crisis while failing to mention that it was the policies of the Clinton administration, which effectively held a gun to the head of lenders to force them to make more loans to people with no hope of ever replaying them (in the name of eliminating "red-lining"), that created the environment in which said crisis would occur.

I sincerely hope she was just following the McCommie campaign talking points when she called for more government involvement in the financial sector and more government action on Global Warming. She spoke as if she's a true believer in Big GW, facts be damned.

She did get off the best slam of the night, at least in the opinion of this formerly-West Coast-dwelling bird.

It's a nonsensical position that we are in when we have domestic supplies of energy all over this great land. And East Coast politicians who don't allow energy-producing states like Alaska to produce these, to tap into them, and instead we're relying on foreign countries to produce for us.

Preach it, girl!

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So who won the debate. Don't ask me...I didn't have the stomach to sit through it. However, the fact that the BM (Big Media) spin machine wasn't dancing all over Sarah Palin like a downed piñata indicates to me that she won. Good on her! She remains the only factor keeping McCommie in the race, the efforts of the BM notwithstanding.

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More on the Sarah Palin front. Pre-debate, one of the BM news organs, in previewing the debate, said that the debate would happen on the first day since Palin was named as the VP nominee that her approval rating among women was less than 50%. No mention, of course, of the role that the BM played in said sagging approval rating. Disingenuous bastards.

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Now, on to the "there's a financial crisis, let's protect our friends!" bailout bill.

Tax breaks for wooden arrow manufacturers. Tax breaks for Hollywood(?!?!?!?!). Tax breaks for rum producers in Puerto Rico. Money for the very scumbag greedy bastards who created the effing crisis in the first place. Because, in the logic of Washington, all of this makes perfect sense.

Oh, and let's not forget additional powers for Das Überwachenden (courtesy of CNet):

The bailout bill also gives the Internal Revenue Service new authority to conduct undercover operations. It would immunize the IRS from a passel of federal laws, including permitting IRS agents to run businesses for an extended sting operation, to open their own personal bank accounts with U.S. tax dollars, and so on. (Think IRS agents posing as accountants or tax preparers and saying, "I'm not sure if that deduction is entirely legal, but it'll save you $1,000. Want to take it?")

So, where's the help for the little guy, the small businessman who can't get a line of credit because of the FUBAR banking system? HAHAHAHAHA!!!! You didn't REALLY expect anything like THAT to be in there, did you? As I've said before, these elitists don't give a rodent's hindquarters about you and I. As the ship sinks, they'll vote more and more money to themselves and their friends.

I originally thought that we were headed towards 1929 (Black Tuesday). Now I think we're headed towards 1989 (the collapse of the Soviet Union), or worse: 1789 (Bastille Day).

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Last note on the "my friends and me" bailout. King George the Dim signed the bill before the ink was even dry on the document. Would you expect any less from that traitorous bastard?

Big Brother? Fugedaboutit!

One of the things that made Stalin's little workers' paradise such as swell place to live (/sarcasm) was never knowing who might be watching you. Anyone -- your best friend, your wife, your children -- might report you to the NKVD (the People's Comissariat for Internal Affairs) for any action that might be deemed a "crime" against государство (Russian for "der Staat"). Everyone was encouraged to spy and report on everyone else. It was your patriotic duty.

Fast forward to the 21st century. Stalin and the Soviet Union are dead and gone...but the totalitarian mindset lives on in New York City.

New Yorkers can soon take a bite out of city crime by uploading video or photo evidence directly to the New York Police Department, in a move welcomed on Thursday by civil rights groups.

"We're putting that technology in place to enable us to do that," said Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, adding that the service will be available soon.

"It's a fact of life," Kelly said. "Everybody has a camera in their telephones. When people can record an event taking place that helps us during an investigation, it's helpful."

Soon citizen sleuths can transmit evidence of criminal activity directly to the police and 911...

Of course, the Fascists are selling it as a way for citizens to "stop crime", even "including evidence of police misconduct".

Let's call a spade a spade, shall we?

This is nothing by a thinly veiled attempt to get the citizenry used to ratting out their fellow man. It's 21st century Stalinism, right here in that glorious People's Republic, the USSA.

The sheeple love it.

Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union said, "I think...it's appropriate for the police department to invite video reports of wrong doing both by ordinary people and police officers...

Of course you do. Moron.

As more and more laws are passed that seem designed to make a criminal of everyone rather than protect the common good, this sort of "spies among us" mentality will be a most useful tool to the elite in keeping the disgruntled in line.

Parsons is arrested for thoughtcrime because of his little daughter. She listens at the keyhole, hears him saying, "down with Big Brother" in his sleep and runs to get a patrol. Parsons is actually proud of her for this; he was completely unconscious and unaware of doing anything of the kind, and thinks that it is terrible that he could have unknowingly harbored these evil thoughts. He says that when he goes up against the tribunal he plans to thank them for saving him before it was too late.

From 1984 by George Orwell

On the side of the angels

Not in a million, billion years would I have ever imagined that I'd be politically aligned on an issue -- ANY issue -- with Russ Feingold and Pat Leahy. These guys are two of the biggest socialists in the Senate. Senator Feingold and RINO John McCommie put together the execrable Campaign Finance anti-free speech bill. Senator Leahy never met an entitlement he thought went too far.

But this time, Feingold and Leahy are on the side of the angels.

Two U.S. senators called on U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to back off its assertion that it can search laptops and other electronic devices owned by U.S. citizens returning to the country without the need for reasonable suspicion of a crime or probable cause.

Senators Russell Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat, and Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, both urged CBP to reconsider its policy that apparently has lead to frequent searches of laptops, digital cameras and handheld devices at borders.

"If you asked [U.S. residents] whether the government has a right to open their laptops, read their documents and e-mails, look at their photographs, and examine the Web sites they have visited, all without any suspicion of wrongdoing, I think those same Americans would say that the government has absolutely no right to do that," said Feingold, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Property Rights. "And if you asked him whether that actually happens, they would say, 'not in the United States of America.'"

By the way, the policy cited by the Senators was implemented at the behest of a REPUBLICAN administration. Seems to me that the Liberals are doing a better job of protecting our freedoms than the so-called Conservatives, who only seem to be in the business of conserving power for themselves.

Senators Feingold and Leahy, well done lads! I'm glad SOMEBODY in Washington still cares about our rights and freedoms.

Hallelujah! The 2nd Amendment upheld!!!

Who would have imagined it? In a day and age when our freedoms are encroached on a daily basis, a 5-4 Supreme Court decision not only struck down the odious DC weapons ban, but also affirmed that the Second Amendment applies to individual citizens!!!

Individual Americans have a right to own guns, the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday for the first time in the country's history, striking down a strict gun control law in the U.S. capital.

The landmark 5-4 ruling marked the first time in nearly 70 years the high court has addressed the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. It rejected the argument the right to keep and bear arms was tied to service in a state militia.

A better wording of that last line would be: "It rejected the specious and unfounded argument...".

Just when I feel like there's no hope, that Der Staat and Das Überwachenden cannot be stopped, a ray of the sunshine of Freedom suddenly appears. By affirming that the Second Amendment applies to individual citizens, the Court has opened the door for the repeal of the majority of the over 20,000 gun control laws currently on the books nationwide.

Of course, I'm just cynical enough to believe this to be a temporary setback for the fascist elites. They'll find another way to make us vulnerable and anxious so that we clamber for their protective, Statist, hand of "protection".

Nevertheless, it's a great day for those of us on the side of Freedom.

Das Überwachenden/Der Staat grow bolder

Tip of the beak to "rabo karabekian" over at Pro Libertate.

It seems our friends in the Senate have passed a bill requiring that the DNA of every newborn child in America be retrieved and warehoused for...well, we can't be sure what for, can we?

The Newborn Genetic Screening bill was passed by the Senate last December. The bill violates the U.S. Constitution and the Nuremberg Code, writes Twila Brase, president of the Citizen’s Council on Health Care (CCHC). “The DNA taken at birth from every citizen is essentially owned by the government, and every citizen becomes a potential subject of government-sponsored genetic research,” she states. “It does not require consent and there are no requirements to inform parents about the warehousing of their child’s DNA for the purpose of genetic research..."

As usual, there's one lonely voice standing in opposition to Das Überwachenden.

The federal government lacks the Constitutional authority as well as the competence to develop a newborn screening program, states Rep. Ron Paul, M.D. (R-TX).

And ya'll wondered why I was so ga-ga over the guy in supporting his presidential run!

Both civil libertarians and the medical profession are trying to get President Traitor to veto this patently unconstitutional POS, but, if I were a betting man, I'd put my money on old Chimpy signing the bill as soon as it clears the House. The violation of the people's liberties matters not one wit to old Chimpy. Not. One. Wit.

But what I find especially irksome in all of this is (1) this bill was passed by the Senate in December, and (2) I'm only finding out about this in APRIL. Where has the media been? For heaven's sakes, people! Get your noses out of Brittney's ass and pay attention to the things that really matter!

More Überwachenden

Das Überwachenden has been BUSY lately. Here are two stories you might have missed if you blinked.

This first story surprised me not at all.

Intelligence centers run by states across the country have access to personal information about millions of Americans, including unlisted cellphone numbers, insurance claims, driver's license photographs and credit reports, according to a document obtained by The Washington Post.

Uh huh. All of that stuff that was implemented after 9-11 that was supposed to protect us? HA HA HA HA!!!!! To protect us! That's SO rich!

The centers have been criticized for being secretive, but authorities said that this is largely for security reasons. Activists want to know more about their activities, the kinds of information they collect and how the information is being used.

Don't hold your breath.

This story describes how the military gets around limits on its ability to gather intelligence on US nationals.

The military is using the FBI to skirt legal restrictions on domestic surveillance to obtain private records of Americans' Internet service providers, financial institutions and telephone companies, the ACLU said Tuesday.

It's really quite enlightening. There's always a rational, an excuse. It's only DoD employees, after all. Yeah...and what if YOU were a DoD employee? How would YOU feel about that?

Liberty doesn't mean freedom when the country is free of external threats. Liberty means freedom EVEN WHEN there are pressing external threats. That's what it is so odious when those who are pledged to protect our liberties engage in these kinds of activities. They've completely lost their compass. They've become that which our founding fathers sought to protect us against.

"They hate us for our freedoms" -- still more fascism

As I said in a post yesterday, it's been a busy week for the fascists among us. Today I've got three more little tales of fascists at work.

There are essentially three types of fascism in vogue today. The first category represents laws or bureaucratic regulations which serve to restrict our freedoms and further empower the government. Much of the environmental legislation passed in the past 40 years falls into this category, as well as all of the gun control laws. The second category can be described as petty bullying by the nanny state; laws or rules restricting what you can eat, where you can smoke, how much water your toilet can flush, etc. The last category consists of laws and regulations that give the government the power to keep tabs on the citizenry in ways that the Founding Fathers would have found completely unacceptable. I call these the Überwachenden Enablers. The government LOVES these laws because they can trample on the Fourth Amendment at will and wipe their asses with the Constitution -- all in the name of stopping crime and fighting terrorism.

The first two of today's tales fall into category two.

Honor student suspended for buying candy at school
This one really had me shaking my head in wonder. It seems the school board had outlawed the sale of candy on school property as part of a "wellness policy". ** Vulture gags uncontrollably ** The student in question was busted for purchasing "contraband" candy from another student. Sound familiar? It should: this is the very type of underground economy created under Prohibition in the 20's with alcohol and carried out since perhaps the late 50's with illegal drugs. Go ahead, nannies. Make things you don't like illegal - and watch the underground economy grow.

Anyway, they threw the book at this poor kid.

Michael Sheridan was stripped of his title as class vice president, barred from attending an honors student dinner and suspended for a day...

Are you catching this? To say the punishment was overkill is to do an injustice to the concept of overkill. Needless to say, saner heads prevailed, and the youngster was restored to his position as class vice president. Good grief!

Proposed law requiring would require eating establishments to have "enough toilet paper" in their restrooms (WARNING: bad puns follow)
What a load! Do you believe this crap? What's amusing is the murkiness of the proposed bill. Nowhere in it does the asshat state legislator specify how much is "enough". I'm sure enforcement would be a pain in the ass. This type of nuisance regulation needs to be wiped out. It's a stain on our legal system.

Okay, enough of THAT. This last item falls into the category of Überwachenden Enabler.

Big Brother checking up on financial records

Each year, federal agents peek at the financial transactions of millions of Americans — without their knowledge.

The same type of information that raised suspicions about New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer is reviewed every day by authorities to find traces of money laundering, check fraud, identity theft or any crime that may involve a financial institution.

As concerns about fraud and terrorist financing grow, an increasing number of suspicious deposits, withdrawals and money transfers are being reported by banks and others to the federal government. Banks and credit unions as well as currency dealers and stores that cash checks reported a record 17.6 million transactions to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network in 2006, according to a report from the network, a bureau of the U.S. Treasury Department.

"I don't think Americans understand that their financial transactions are being reported and routinely examined," said Barry Steinhardt of the American Civil Liberties Union.

As I stated in the intro to this post, this is the stuff that government just LOVES, because they can ram it through without too much outcry from the sheeple by invoking the specter of crime and terrorism. I can see Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, et al, all spinning in their graves. What ever happened to "probable cause"? What ever happened to "innocent until proven guilty"? It saddens me to see what we've become and where we're heading.

Perfect storm brewing?

Two seemingly unrelated news items appeared as links at WorldNetDaily.com the other day. The first dealt with the new, much ballyhooed, extensively reported-upon North American Army. What? You didn't hear about it? No kidding! That's because the news media was too busy chasing after Lindsay Lohan's slutty ass to be bothered with something that affects the lives and liberties of Americans.

In a ceremony that received virtually no attention in the American media, the United States and Canada signed a military agreement Feb. 14 allowing the armed forces from one nation to support the armed forces of the other nation during a domestic civil emergency, even one that does not involve a cross-border crisis. (emphasis mine)

Isn't that special? So......let me get this straight. We can call in the Canucks any time we want to quash a "domestic civil emergency"? And we can do this even if Canada isn't "threatened" by said "emergency"? O-k-a-y.

It couldn't get any better than THAT, could it? Read this -- and try to keep your head from exploding.

The agreement, defined as a Civil Assistance Plan, was not submitted to Congress for approval, nor did Congress pass any law or treaty specifically authorizing this military agreement to combine the operations of the armed forces of the United States and Canada in the event of a wide range of domestic civil disturbances ranging from violent storms, to health epidemics, to civil riots or terrorist attacks. (emphasis mine)

Okay, you're telling me that this "plan" was carried out without so much as a peep from our elected representatives? And doesn't this agreement fall into the category of a treaty, which, if I remember my 12th grade Civics, HAS TO BE RATIFIED BY THE SENATE? Once again, the Constitution is toilet paper to our elitist leaders.

And just what might this little "Army of North America" be used for? Maybe to keep uppity states like Montana in line.

Montana officials are warning that if the Supreme Court rules in the D.C. gun ban case that the right to keep and bear arms protects only state-run militias like the National Guard, then the federal government will have breached Montana's statehood contract.
...

The dispute goes back more than a century. Back in 1889, the settlers of the Montana territory struck a deal with the federal government: They agreed to join the union, and the government agreed that individuals had the right to bear arms.

That has worked fine for the past 118 years, but the Supreme Court is expected next month to hear oral argument in District of Columbia v. Heller, the appeal of a federal court decision striking down the District's gun-ownership ban on Second Amendment grounds.

You may recall that just last month (as reported by me here) Traitor-in-Chief Bush's administration filed an Amicus brief for this case ON BEHALF of Federal gun control. In other words, Bush is thumbing his nose at us all, particularly Montanans.

But Montana can't secede! After all, didn't the tyrant Abe Lincoln see to that once and for all? There'd have to be military action against Montana, in the Lincoln tradition. But surely the American military would NEVER attack Montana now, not with prima facie evidence that they are in the right here. The Canadians..........who knows? It would certainly qualify as a "domestic crisis", would it not?

I'm just sayin'............

The anti-Big Brother device

xfloggingkylex sent me this little tidbit (please excuse the poor Google translation from German).

Infrared light against surveillance cameras

The URA / FILOART developed device promises to the citizens a more reliable protection against security measures of the state (and other Überwachenden). IR.ASC offers the safety and security therefore to the asymmetry of power between the individual and Überwachenden.

That word Überwachenden came up twice, untranslated, so I went out to an English-German dictionary online to see what it meant...and I can see why it didn't translate. It's meaning is entirely dependent on context. The gist of it is control, policing, surveillance, shadowing. Sound like Big Brother to you? Das Überwachenden. It sounds ominous. I like it.

Anyway (back from my ADD moment), the gist of the article is that these German brainiacs have devised an IR headset that essentially masks the wearer from the ubiquitous closed-circuit police cameras that are cropping up everywhere, particularly in Europe.

While I appreciate the spirit of those evading the ever-present gaze of Big Brother, I think a preferable solution is the old "hide in plain sight" method. But it is cool to see that there are people out there who are NOT on board with government intrusion into every aspect of our lives, always in the name of "security", or "for the children", but always bringing less freedom and more burden to the individual.