Filed under: 1984, 2-party system, 4th amendment, ACLU, amnesty, AT&T, Barack Obama, Big Brother, bush = obama, CIA, civil liberties, civil rights, Congress, DHS, domeestic terrorism, domestic terror, EFF, FBI, federal crimes, FOIA, George Bush, government bureaucrat, government control, government takeover, Homeland Security, immunity, left right paradigm, Military, neocons, Neolibs, NSA, obama, obama = bush, obama deception, orwell, Patriot Act, privacy rights, roving wiretaps, Russ Feingold, Senate, Sprint, Spy, Surveillance, telecoms, us constituion, US Constitution, verison, War On Terror, warrantless search, warrantless wiretap, White House
Dem-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee extends PATRIOT Act provisions
Capitol Hill Blue
October 9, 2009
Key US lawmakers passed legislation Thursday extending three key provisions of the PATRIOT Act, the sweeping intelligence bill enacted after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Backing a White House request, the Senate Judiciary Committee passed the measure 11 votes to 8 to extend until 2013 three clauses that would have expired by 31 December. The bill now heads to the full Senate for a vote.
The provisions include the “roving wiretap” clause, used to monitor mobile communications of individuals using multiple telephone lines, and the “lone-wolf” provision, which enables spying on individuals suspected of terrorist activity but with no obvious connection to extremist groups.
Lawmakers also extended the life of controversial section 215, known as the “library records provision” that allows government agencies to access individual’s library history.
The committee had earlier met in a closed-door meeting with members of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the intelligence community on ensuring their actions would not impede investigations already underway.
The senators also debated freeing up law enforcement actions that have been hampered by legislation and court rulings since the first program was launched by former president George W. Bush in the wake of 9/11, which enabled collecting sensitive information for years without a court order.
Republicans senators have remained critical of placing restrictions on the intelligence community, saying they should more of a free hand in the early stages of investigations.
But their Democratic counterparts have decried the fact that the provisions still do not in their view adequately respect the privacy of ordinary Americans.
Democratic Senator Russ Feingold said he feared handing a “blank check” to law enforcement agencies and criticized the Democrat-controlled committee for not passing safeguards that even Republicans supported during the Bush administration.
“Among the most significant problems is the failure to include an improved standard for Section 215 orders, even though a Republican controlled Judiciary Committee unanimously supported including the same standard in 2005,” he said in a media advisory.
“But what was most upsetting was the apparent willingness of too many members to defer completely to behind the scenes complaints from the FBI and the Justice Department, even though the administration has yet to take a public position on any of the improvements that I and other senators have proposed. … [While] I am left scratching my head trying to understand how a committee controlled by a wide Democratic margin could support the bill it approved today, I will continue to work with my colleagues to try to make improvements to this bill.”
Michael Macleod-Ball, acting director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Washington legislative office said the rights group was “disappointed” that further moves were not made to protect civil liberties.
“This truly was a missed opportunity for the Senate Judiciary Committee to right the wrongs of the PATRIOT Act,” he said.
“We urge the Senate to adopt amendments on the floor that will bring this bill in line with the Constitution.”
Filed under: 1984, 2-party system, 4th amendment, amnesty, AT&T, Barack Obama, Big Brother, bush = obama, CIA, civil liberties, civil rights, Congress, DHS, domeestic terrorism, domestic terror, EFF, federal crimes, FOIA, George Bush, government bureaucrat, government control, government takeover, Homeland Security, immunity, left right paradigm, Military, neocons, Neolibs, NSA, obama, obama = bush, obama deception, orwell, Patriot Act, privacy rights, roving wiretaps, Senate, Sprint, Spy, Surveillance, telecoms, us constituion, US Constitution, verison, War On Terror, warrantless search, warrantless wiretap
Telephone Companies Are An Arm Of Government Admits DOJ
Wired News
October 9, 2009
 AT&T was the first of many telcos sued for helping the NSA spy on Americans without warrants |
The Department of Justice has finally admitted it in court papers: the nation’s telecom companies are an arm of the government — at least when it comes to secret spying.
Fortunately, a judge says that relationship isn’t enough to squash a rights group’s open records request for communications between the nation’s telecoms and the feds.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation wanted to see what role telecom lobbying of Justice Department played when the government began its year-long, and ultimately successful, push to win retroactive immunity for AT&T and others being sued for unlawfully spying on American citizens.
The feds argued that the documents showing consultation over the controversial telecom immunity proposal weren’t subject to the Freedom of Information Act since they were protected as “intra-agency” records:
“The communications between the agencies and telecommunications companies regarding the immunity provisions of the proposed legislation have been regarded as intra-agency because the government and the companies have a common interest in the defense of the pending litigation and the communications regarding the immunity provisions concerned that common interest.”
U.S. District Court Judge Jeffery White disagreed and ruled on September 24 that the feds had to release the names of the telecom employees that contacted the Justice Department and the White House to lobby for a get-out-of-court-free card.
“Here, the telecommunications companies communicated with the government to ensure that Congress would pass legislation to grant them immunity from legal liability for their participation in the surveillance,” White wrote. “Those documents are not protected from disclosure because the companies communicated with the government agencies “with their own … interests in mind,” rather than the agency’s interests.”
The feds were supposed to make the documents available Friday, but in a motion late Thursday, the Obama administration is asking for a 30-day emergency stay (.pdf) so it can file a further appeal.
Filed under: 1984, 2-party system, 4th amendment, amnesty, AT&T, Barack Obama, Big Brother, bush = obama, CIA, civil liberties, civil rights, Congress, Detainees, DHS, domeestic terrorism, domestic terror, Extraordinary Rendition, federal crimes, FISA, forced detention, George Bush, Habeas Corpus, Homeland Security, HR 6166, left right paradigm, mandatory detention, Military, military commissions act, neocons, Neolibs, NSA, obama, obama = bush, obama deception, orwell, Patriot Act, preventative detention, quantanamo, rendition, roving wiretaps, Senate, Sprint, Spy, Surveillance, telecoms, Torture, US Constitution, verison, War On Terror, warrantless search, warrantless wiretap | Tags: obama = bush
Obama Pushes For Renewal of Warrantless Spying
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
September 16, 2009
President Barack Obama has once again betrayed his promise to restore liberties eviscerated by the Bush regime by pushing Congress to renew Patriot Act provisions that allow for warrantless spying on American citizens, even in cases where there is no link to terrorism whatsoever.
According to a Wired News report, the “Obama administration has told Congress it supports renewing three provisions of the Patriot Act due to expire at year’s end, measures making it easier for the government to spy within the United States.”
Obama’s support for the provisions should come as little surprise because he first voted for warrantless wiretapping of Americans in 2008 when he was an Illinois Senator, while also lending support for immunizing the nation’s telecommunications companies from lawsuits charging them with being complicit in the Bush administration’s wiretapping program.
One of the provisions Obama is pushing to renew is the so-called “lone wolf” provision, enacted in 2004, which allows for the electronic monitoring of an individual without the government having to prove that the case has any relation whatsoever to terrorism or a foreign power. This is in effect a carte blanche for the government to use every method at their disposal to spy on any American citizen they choose.
The “lone wolf” provision is opposed by the ACLU, whose legislative counsel Michelle Richardson told Wired, “The justification for FISA and these lower standards and letting it operate in secret was all about terrorist groups and foreign governments, that they posed a unique threat other than the normal criminal element. This lone wolf provision undercuts that justification.”
Another Patriot Act provision Obama wants Congress to renew gives the government access to business, library and medical records, with the authorities generally having to prove that the investigation is terrorism related. However, since according to Homeland Security guidelines the new breed of terrorist is classified as someone who supports a third party, puts a political bumper sticker on their car, is part of the alternative media, or merely someone who disagrees with the authorities’ official version of events on any given issue, the scope for the government to use this power against their political adversaries is wide open.
The third provision Obama is pushing to renew allows a FISA court to grant “roving wiretaps” without the government having to even identify their target. This is another carte blanche power that gives the state the power to monitor telephone calls, e mails and any other form of electronic communication.
Barack Obama swept into office on a mandate of “change” and a commitment to restore liberties that were eviscerated under the Bush regime. Despite promising to do so, he has failed completely to overturn Bush signing statements and executive orders that, according to Obama, “trampled on liberties.” Indeed, despite promising to end the use of signing statements, he has continued to use them.
Obama has failed to close Guantanamo Bay or any other CIA torture “black site” as he promised to do.
Obama has failed in his promise to “reject the Military Commissions Act” and instead has supported the use of military commissions.
Obama has continued to allow the rendition and torture of detainees, while protecting Bush administration officials who ordered torture from prosecution and blocking the release of evidence related to torture.
Obama has gone even further than the Bush administration in introducing “preventative detention” of detainees, ensuring people will never get a trial.
In restating his support for warrantless wiretapping of American citizens, Obama has once again proven that his promise of “change” was nothing more than a hollow and deceptive political platitude to ensure his election. Since he took office, Obama has betrayed almost every promise he made and effectively become nothing more than the third term of the Bush administration.
Filed under: 1984, AARP, abortion, americorps, amnesty, Barack Obama, Big Brother, Communism, Control Grid, Dictatorship, doctors, Empire, eugenicist, Eugenics, euthanasia, Fascism, Genocide, government bureaucrat, government committee, government control, government regulation, health and environment, health care, health choices commissioner, Healthcare, healthcare rationing, Hitler, hospital care, House, Illegal Immigration, Immigration, Income Tax, medicaid, medical care, medical industrial complex, mentally disabled, nanny state, national id, Nazi, nazi germany, Neolibs, New World Order, NWO, obama, obama care, obamacare, Oppression, orwell, patients, Population Control, private insurance, ration, rationing, Ron Paul, Senate, senior citizens, socialism, special needs, special needs children, Surveillance, tax, Taxpayers
What’s In Health-Care Reform Bill Will SHOCK You
The Real Revo
July 29, 2009
Great Leader and Chairman Obama wants to ram his gargantuan health care bill down our throats before anyone realizes what’s in it. What doesn’t he want us to see? Some examples, from a quick inventory by Family Security Matters:
Pg. 22 of the HC Bill mandates the Government will audit books of all employers that self insure.
Pg. 30 Sec 123 of HC bill – a Government committee will decide what treatments/benefits a person may receive.
Pg. 29 lines 4-16 in the HC bill – YOUR HEALTHCARE WILL BE RATIONED!
Pg. 42 of HC Bill – The Health Choices Commissioner will choose your health care benefits for you.
Pg. 50 Section 152 in HC bill – Health care will be provided to ALL non US citizens, illegal or otherwise.
Pg. 58 HC Bill – Government will have real-time access to individual’s finances and a National ID Health-card will be issued!
Pg. 59 HC Bill lines 21-24 – Government will have direct access to your bank accounts for election funds transfer.
Pg. 65 Sec 164 is a payoff subsidized plan for retirees and their families in Unions and community organizations (read: ACORN).
Pg. 72 Lines 8-14 – Government will create a health care exchange to bring private health care plans under Government control.
Pg. 91 Lines 4-7 HC Bill – Government mandates linguistic appropriate services. Example – Translation for illegal aliens.
Pg. 95 HC Bill Lines 8-18 – The Government will use groups, i.e. ACORN and Americorps, to sign up individuals for Government health care plan.
Pg. 85 Line 7 HC Bill – Specifics of Benefit Levels for Plans. AARP members – your Health care WILL be rationed.
Pg. 102 Lines 12-18 HC Bill – Medicaid Eligible Individuals will be automatically enrolled in Medicaid. No choice.
Pg. 124 lines 24-25 HC Bill – No company can sue Government on price fixing. No “judicial review” against Government Monopoly.
Pg. 127 Lines 1-16 HC Bill – Doctors/ AMA – The Government will tell YOU what you can earn.
Pg. 145 Line 15-17 HC Bill – An Employer MUST auto enroll employees into public option plan. NO CHOICE.
Pg. 126 Lines 22-25 HC Bill – Employers MUST pay for health care for part time employees AND their families.
Pg. 170 Lines 1-3 HC Bill – Any NON-RESIDENT Alien is exempt from individual taxes. (Americans will pay.)
Pg. 195 HC Bill – Officers and employees of the health care admin (the GOVERNMENT) will have access to ALL Americans’ finances and personal records.
Pg. 203 Line 14-15 HC Bill – “The tax imposed under this section shall not be treated as tax” Yes, it says that.
Pg. 239 Line 14-24 HC Bill – Government will reduce physician services for Medicaid. Elderly, very sick, low income, poor will be affected.
Pg. 241 Line 6-8 HC Bill – Doctors – doesn’t matter what specialty – will all be paid the same.
Pg. 253 Line 10-18 – Government sets value of Doctor’s time, professional judgment, etc. Literally, value of humans.
Pg. 265 Sec 1131 – Government mandates and controls productivity for private health care industries.
Pg. 317 L 13-20 – PROHIBITION on ownership/investment. Government tells Doctors what/how much they can own.
Pg. 317-318 lines 21-25,1-3 – PROHIBITION on expansion – Government will mandate hospitals cannot expand.
Pg. 354 Sec 1177 – Government will RESTRICT enrollment of Special needs people!
Pg. 425 Lines 4-12 – Government mandates Advance Care Planning Consultations. Think Senior Citizens end of life (euthanasia)
Pg. 425 Lines 22-25, 426 Lines 1-3 – Government provides approved list of end of life resources, guiding you in how to die.
Pg. 427 Lines 15-24 – Government mandates program for orders for end of life. The Government has a say in how your life ends! ( euthanasia )
Pg. 429 Lines 10-12 – “advanced care consultation” may include an ORDER for end of life plans. AN ORDER from the Government to end a life!
Pg. 430, SEC. 1233, Lines 11-15, ADVANCE CARE PLANNING CONSULTATION: The Government will decide what level of treatment you will have at end of life.
Pg. 472 Lines 14-17 – PAYMENT TO COMMUNITY-BASED ORGANIZATION. 1 monthly payment to a community-based organization. (Like ACORN?)
There’s plenty more provisions here (scroll down). Also check out the actual bill (HR 3200).
Uncovered Video: Obama Explains How His Health Care Plan Will Eliminate Private Insurance
Health Care Bill Will Fund State Vaccine Teams to Conduct ‘Interventions’
Obama-Care Will Deny Health Care To Elderly, Very Sick And Poor People
Obama Health Bill Allows Government Real-time Access to Bank Accounts
Ron Paul: The Immorality of Taxpayer Funded Abortion
Ron Paul: Healthcare Plan Based on Economic Fantasy
Americans are Victims of Undeclared War that Makes Universal Healthcare Unaffordable
UK: Patients forced to live in agony after NHS refuses to pay for painkilling injections
Filed under: amnesty, Barack Obama, Canada, EU, european union, Felipe Calderon, George Bush, global elite, global government, global union, Globalism, globalists, Illegal Immigration, Immigration, Mexico, michael chertoff, NAFTA, NAFTA Superhighway, NAU, New World Order, North American Union, obama, Propaganda, public relations, SPP, SPP Summit, Stephen Harper, us sovereignty | Tags: Christopher Sands, North American Competitiveness Council
Obama To Launch Propaganda Campaign For North American Union
Steve Watson
Infowars.net
July 23, 2009
A new report out of left leaning globalist think tank the Brookings Institute confirms an agenda to re-brand the long running effort to merge the US, Canada and Mexico into a Federal superstate akin to the European Union.
The report was highlighted by author Jerome Corsi, who points out that the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America has become much maligned owing to it’s quasi secretive advancement of a North American integration agenda.
“Two top Washington think-tanks have now formally suggested in writing that the Obama administration should rename the SPP as a public relations ploy to advance the North American integration agenda without drawing so much flak from those of us interested in preserving U.S. sovereignty,” Corsi writes in his Red Alert newsletter.
In the Brookings Institute report, titled “Toward a New Frontier: Improving the U.S.-Canadian Border”, Christopher Sands, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, where he specializes on North American economic integration, suggests the Obama administration should continue the agenda of the SPP, but under a new name.
“Despite evidence that NAFTA has been beneficial on balance to American business, workers, and consumers the argument remains vilified by many as an unwarranted move to embrace globalization.” Sands writes.
“President Obama recognized this on the campaign trail in 2008, when he called for the renegotiation of NAFTA’s provisions to correct flaws in the original agreement. As a result, the Obama administration will most likely rename the SPP.” Sands concludes.
The report also suggests focusing more on the integration of the US and Canada as a priority, before bringing Mexico into the equation.
Sands suggests the following three courses of action:
1. “President Obama should borrow from the lexicon of the European Union and announce that the United States will proceed in negotiations with its two neighbors ‘at two speeds,’ moving ahead more quickly where possible with its developed neighbor Canada, and allowing Mexico to proceed more slowly as necessary.”
2. “The Obama administration is likely to want to ‘press the reset button’ on the SPP, an unpopular though valuable initiative that has improved policy coordination between the United States and its neighbors.”
3. “The SPP must be re-branded to win any kind of consensus support. The Obama administration recognizes this, and could take a few tactical steps to make the SPP (or its eventual successor) work better and win broader support.”
Sands defines his vision of the re-branded SPP as an effort “to build a truly ‘new frontier’ on the northern border,” adding that “President Obama’s community organizing experience suits him well for the task ahead.”
Sands is deeply entrenched in the integration agenda, being a member of the Advisory Committee to the U.S. Section of The North American Competitiveness Council (NACC), organized by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to consult with U.S. government officials in negotiations under the SPP.
The NACC is essentially an elite advisory board comprised of 30 senior private sector representatives of North American corporations that were selected by the American, Canadian and Mexican governments at the June 2006 trilateral meeting in Cancun, Mexico.
Last year, one month prior to the SPP summit in April, documents were uncovered relating how the NACC was formed as part of a public relations overhaul to counter critics of the SPP.
The documents detailed how, through the NACC, corporate representatives were urged to “humanize” North American integration, promote NAFTA success stories to employees and unions and evolve the harmonization agenda “without fueling protectionism”.
The move was seemingly a response to the continued exposition of the integration agenda, which led to representatives within Congress petitioning the government on the secretiveness of the SPP and multiple states introducing resolutions calling on their federal representatives to halt work on the so called “North American Union”.
Earlier this week we revealed that president Obama is scheduled to attend this year’s SPP meeting in Mexico in August 9-10, slated as the “North American Leader’s Summit”.
“The key to understanding what is going on with the SPP under the Obama administration is the realization that globalists always proceed under a stealth agenda,” Jerome Corsi comments.
“Globalists typically mask their real plans to produce regional governments out of trade agreements by changing names and designing different structures when initial attempts to destroy nation-states are exposed and stalled by citizens who are still patriotic enough to cherish what remains left of their national sovereignty.”
Filed under: 2008 Election, 9/11, 9/11 Truth, amnesty, Amnesty Bill, Canada, CFR, Cindy McCain, CNN, Congress, Dick Cheney, Dissent, Donald Rumsfeld, False Flag, global elite, global government, Globalism, Henry Kissinger, House, i-69, Illegal Immigration, Immigration, imminent domain, inside job, jeb bush, John McCain, lou dobbs, Media, Mexico, NAFTA, NAFTA Superhighway, neocons, New World Order, North American Union, ohio, paul wolfowitz, PNAC, Protest, Ron Paul, Senate, SPP, State Sponsored Terrorism, Texas, Tom Tancredo, trans texas corridor, TTC, Uncategorized, us sovereignty, We Are Change
McCain questioned on North American Union, Amnesty Vote
McCain volunteers his wife for a topless beauty pageant
http://mparent7777-1.livejournal.com/1142933.html
Filed under: amnesty, Arizona, Border Patrol, DHS, drug smuggling, drug trafficking, Homeland Security, Illegal Immigration, Immigration, mexican army, Mexico, Military, war on drugs
Border Patrol Held At Gunpoint By Mexican Military
Washington Times
August 6, 2008
A U.S. Border Patrol agent was held at gunpoint Sunday night by members of the Mexican military who had crossed the border into Arizona, but the soldiers returned to Mexico without incident when backup agents responded to assist.
Agents assigned to the Border Patrol station at Ajo, Ariz., said the Mexican soldiers crossed the international border in an isolated area about 100 miles southwest of Tucson and pointed rifles at the agent, who was not identified.
It was unclear what the soldiers were doing in the United States, but U.S. law enforcement authorities have long said that current and former Mexican military personnel have been hired to protect drug and migrant smugglers.
“Unfortunately, this sort of behavior by Mexican military personnel has been going on for years,” union Local 2544 of the National Border Patrol Council (NBPC) said on its Web page. “They are never held accountable, and the United States government will undoubtedly brush this off as another case of ’Oh well, they didn’t know they were in the United States.’
“It is fortunate that this incident didn’t end in a very ugly gunfight,” said the local’s posting.
http://www.roguegovernment.com/news.php?id=10268
Border Agents Spread Unevenly On Border
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/..lt=AvumgrjP4nSvNDwQDhhe.uRH2ocA
Filed under: 1984, 2-party system, 2008 Election, 4th amendment, Afghanistan, Ahmadinejad, airstrikes, amnesty, army, Barack Obama, bill of rights, CIA, civil liberties, civil rights, Congress, Coup, Dictatorship, Empire, enemy combatant, False Flag, federal crime, FISA, flip flop, flip flopping, George Bush, Guantanamo, Habeas Corpus, Hillary Clinton, Iran, John McCain, left right paradigm, Military, military base, Military Industrial Complex, military strike, neocons, Neolibs, Nuke, obama, Pentagon, Police State, poll, Preemptive Strike, preemptive war, Saddam Hussein, Shock and Awe, Surveillance, Syria, Tehran, telco pac, telecoms, Torture, War On Terror, warrantless search, warrantless wiretap, WW3, ww4
The Lesson from Obama’s Cowardly Flip-Flop
Jacob G. Hornberger
FFF
July 10, 2008
Those who think that the election of Barack Obama will save the nation from its many foreign-policy/civil-liberties woes got smashed and dashed with a cold dose of reality. Flip-flopping in the finest political tradition, Obama voted in favor of President Bush’s wiretap/immunity bill, after promising to filibuster it before he secured the Democratic Party nomination.
Presumably, Obama’s thinking goes like this: “Now that I’ve secured the nomination of my party, liberals will vote for me regardless because they won’t want John McCain in power. So, I can now flip flop and taken different positions on foreign policy and civil liberties so that John McCain won’t be able to tell people that I’m soft on terrorism.”
Reminding people of what happened in 2002, when the Democrats unconstitutionally and cowardly delegated the power to declare war on Iraq to President Bush because of fear that the president would accuse them of being soft on Saddam Hussein, congressional Democrats voted to give Bush everything he wanted plus more in the wiretap/immunity bill, including civil immunity to private telecom companies for apparent felony offenses committed against their customers.
For an excellent analysis of the cowardly and craven cave-in by Obama and his fellow Democrats, see Glenn Greenwald’s blog and Jonathan Turley’s television interview, which is included in Greenwald’s June 9 blog. (Both Greenwald and Turley delivered terrific speeches at our recent conference “Restoring the Republic 2008: Foreign Policy and Civil Liberties.”)
Meanwhile, the president and his associates continue to threaten Iran with a military attack without even pretending that they’re going to first ask for a declaration of war from Congress, which the Constitution requires. Keep in mind that the Constitution is the law that we the people impose on the president and the Congress. That’s the law that the president feels that he can violate with impunity.
The fact is that Americans are living under a lawless regime, one in which the president feels that constitutional constraints are illegitimate during his “war on terrorism,” which he says will last indefinitely given that there are still so many terrorists and potential terrorists in the world. Never mind that the U.S. government’s own policies generate the terrorist threat against the United States, which is then used as the excuse for the president to operate in an omnipotent and extra-constitutional manner.
That’s what his signing statements, illegal wiretaps and other searches, enemy-combatant designations, torture and sex abuse camps, cancelation of habeas corpus, wars of aggression, indefinite detentions, and kangaroo military tribunals are all about — the power to ignore constitutional restraints — omnipotent power.
The battle over the wiretap/immunity bill demonstrates a critically important point, one that every lover of liberty must ultimately confront: It is not sufficient to fight every assault on civil liberties that comes down the pike. The infringements are endless. Even if one civil-liberties battle is won, there are always three more battles to wage.
Suppose, for example, that civil libertarians succeed in getting the Pentagon’s torture and sex abuse camp at Guantanamo Bay closed down. Would that end the torture and sex abuse? Of course not. They’ll simply start sending detainees to torture and sex abuse camps in Afghanistan or to friendly terrorist regimes, such as Syria (which they still claim they don’t talk to despite the fact that the CIA somehow or another made the arrangements with Syrian torturers to torture an innocent man on its behalf).
Thus, what every American who thirsts for the restoration of a normal, free society must recognize is that there is one — and only one — solution: the dismantling of America’s standing army, especially the military-industrial complex and the CIA, which are the center of the rot of the U.S. Empire. This is what should have been done when the Berlin Wall fell and it’s what should be done today.
That’s the root of the weed. That’s what needs to be pulled out of the ground. It’s not sufficient to simply continue trimming its branches.
That would mean the closing of every U.S. military base around the world — Europe, Asia, South America, and everywhere else. It would entail bringing all those troops home and discharging them into the private sector. It would entail closing the multitude of military bases all across the United States. It would entail the abolition of the CIA. It would include the repeal of the deadly and destructive war on drugs. It would entail the end of all foreign aid. It would mean the end of the U.S. government’s meddling in the affairs of other nations. It would entail the repeal of all the taxes that fund these people and their deadly, destructive, and nefarious operations.
Barack Obama’s cowardly flip flop should remind every American that the key to our future lies not in electing different people to public office. Instead, the key to our future lies in a shift in paradigms — from one of big government in foreign (and domestic) affairs to one of limited government in foreign (and domestic) affairs.
The time has come for the American people to do what Americans in 1787 were doing: reflecting upon the principles of liberty and limited government on which this nation should be based. The time has come to end the U.S. government’s role as the world’s policeman, intervener, interloper, aggressor, welfare provider, and sole remaining empire. The time has come for the American people to restore the principles of liberty and limited government that our ancestors bequeathed to us.
Mr. Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation.
Obama’s poll numbers plummet: Apparently betraying Americans does not pay
Newsweek
July 11, 2008
A month after emerging victorious from the bruising Democratic nominating contest, some of Barack Obama’s glow may be fading. In the latest NEWSWEEK Poll, the Illinois senator leads Republican nominee John McCain by just 3 percentage points, 44 percent to 41 percent. The statistical dead heat is a marked change from last month’s NEWSWEEK Poll, where Obama led McCain by 15 points, 51 percent to 36 percent.
Obama’s rapid drop comes at a strategically challenging moment for the Democratic candidate. Having vanquished Hillary Clinton in early June, Obama quickly went about repositioning himself for a general-election audience–an unpleasant task for any nominee emerging from the pander-heavy primary contests and particularly for a candidate who’d slogged through a vigorous primary challenge in most every contest from January until June. Obama’s reversal on FISA legislation, his support of faith-based initiatives and his decision to opt out of the campaign public-financing system left him open to charges he was a flip-flopper. In the new poll, 53 percent of voters (and 50 percent of former Hillary Clinton supporters) believe that Obama has changed his position on key issues in order to gain political advantage.
More seriously, some Obama supporters worry that the spectacle of their candidate eagerly embracing his old rival, Hillary Clinton, and traveling the country courting big donors at lavish fund-raisers, may have done lasting damage to his image as an arbiter of a new kind of politics. This is a major concern since Obama’s outsider credentials, have, in the past, played a large part in his appeal to moderate, swing voters. In the new poll, McCain leads Obama among independents 41 percent to 34 percent, with 25 percent favoring neither candidate. In June’s NEWSWEEK Poll, Obama bested McCain among independent voters, 48 percent to 36 percent.
http://hotair.com/archives/2008/07/14/thi..ager-begs-for-money/
Obama sees three straight months of declining donations
http://www.washingtonpost.com/../2008/07/10/AR2008071002813_pf.html
Filed under: 1984, 4th amendment, amnesty, Big Brother, bill of rights, Control Grid, DHS, endgame, florida, hackers, Homeland Security, ICE, Illegal Immigration, Immigration, Martial Law, Miami, MJTF, New World Order, operation endgame, Oppression, police brutality, Police State, Surveillance, US Constitution, warrantless search | Tags: Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Multi-Jurisdictional Gang Task Force
Hackers recover destroyed arrest footage
Reporter assaulted and arrested for filming MJTF (Multi-Jurisdictional Gang Task Force) and ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) randomly searching young black men.
Federaljack.com
May 26, 2008
A reporter for FEDERALJACK.COM was arrested at 3:15am in front of Royal Palm Hotel on Miami Beach during Urban (Hip Hop) Beach Week for obstructing an investigation. The charge was later changed to resisting arrest without violence, and the arrest was considered a Gang Activity and Fraud Activity related arrest according to the arrest affidavit.
Recent reports from the Miami Herald indicated that the ACLU and NAACP were keeping close watch on the police activity. Reporters from the FederalJack.com Tyranny Response Squad were dispatched to South Beach with video cameras, audio recorders, and flyers urging attendees to report police oppression to the ACLU hotline.
Upon approaching the Royal Palm Hotel, the reporters noticed dozens of agents from the Muti-Jurisdictional Gang Task Force conducting unwarranted searches of several young black men. The cameras started rolling. An officer approached the reporter and said “You’re really pissing me off with that fucking camera.”
He closed the camera to diffuse the situation, however the camera continued to record video and audio. Upon walking away, the reporter had his arm grabbed and bent back by an agent from the MJTF. He was choked and slammed on the pavement, while being interrogated with questions about his country of citizenship.
An unidentified member of the MJTF was heard by the reporter to remark, “Is that FederalJack.com?” Other remarks made by the agents involved threats of sodomy and related tortures.
The reporter spent a total of 16 hours in custody of the Miami-Dade County Corrections department. He was first brought in to the Miami Beach Police Department, and was held for approximately 3 hours.
While in the possession of police officials, the digital memory of the camera was erased.
He was then transfered to the downtown Justice Center and held for an additional 13 hours. At 10:10am the required $1000 bond was posted, and he was still held for over 8 additional hours. He was released at approximately 6:30 pm.
FederalJack.com is currently investigating legal defense options.
More detailed information, video, audio, photos, and arrest documents will be posted as they are made available.
If you have encountered any police brutality during the festivities at South Beach, please submit any stories, images, video, or documents to jack@federaljack.com.
http://www.canada.com/vancouversu..a69-490e-95ec-f66549612b0a
UK: Curfews could be imposed on teenagers
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art..ed-teenagers-cut-knife-crime.html
Pubs To Search Customers For Knives
http://www.independent.co.uk/new..mers-for-knives-866478.html
Amtrak expands random security sweeps
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2008-07-10-amtrak_N.htm
Filed under: 2-party system, 2008 Election, Alan Greenspan, Alex Jones, amnesty, Barack Obama, bilderberg, Bohemian Grove, Bush Sr., California, Child Abuse, child sex slavery, Colin Powell, David Rockefeller, franklin coverup, George Bush, global elite, global government, Globalism, Henry Kissinger, homosexual, homosexual prostitution, Illegal Immigration, Immigration, International Bankers, internationalists, jeff gannon, john decamp, John McCain, La Raza, left right paradigm, manhattan project, Mexico, neocons, Neolibs, New World Order, obama, paul bonacci, richard nixon, Ronald Reagan, san fransisco, scandal, secret meetings, Secret Societies, Sex Scandal, Tony Blair, trilateral commission, White House | Tags: effigy, human sacrifice, molech, moloch, owl
Bush, McCain & Obama To Visit Bohemian Grove?
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
July 11, 2008
Outgoing President George W. Bush and both of his presumptive replacements John McCain and Barack Obama are rumored to be in attendance at this year’s Bohemian Grove gathering, an annual get-together of the global elite staged inside a sprawling forest encampment which kicks off tonight and runs until July 27.
Bohemian Grove is a 136-year-old all-male encampment complete with restaurants, bars, stages and lodges, which caters to around 2,000 members of the global elite along with Californian hoi polloi on a yearly basis in July. The camp is set within a 2,700 acre secluded forest replete with giant redwood trees.
Former attendees include Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon, who both went on to become President, as well as regulars like Henry Kissinger, Alan Greenspan, David Rockefeller, Colin Powell, as well as George W. Bush and his father.
In 2000 radio host and film maker Alex Jones infiltrated the gathering and caught exclusive video footage of a bizarre mock human sacrifice ritual, known as “the cremation of care”, under a 40 foot stone owl that the members refer to as Molech.
Homosexual orgies are known to be part of the festivities enjoyed by the predominately “Christian conservative” leaders who go there. Former attendee Richard Nixon once referred to the Grove as, “the most faggy goddamned thing you could ever imagine.”
A reader who got a summer job working at the Grove in 2005, Chris Jones, told us that he was regularly propositioned for sex by the old men attending the encampment and asked if he “slept around” and wanted to have some fun.
Jones was later sentenced to three years in jail by California authorities for simply showing a tape of his visit to minors.
However, the media’s attitude to hundreds of powerbrokers attending an event at which the Manhattan Project was known to have been born, while frolicking around dressed up as women pissing up trees and having gay sex, has been sophomoric to say the least.
One such hit piece in the Sacramento News & Review, which ties the Grove as well as public organizations such as the Bilderberg Group and the Trilateral Commission with shape-shifting reptoid conspiracies, is useful for only one piece of information – the claim that Presidential hopeful John McCain may be attending this year’s gathering.
George W. Bush and his father give a lakeside talk at Bohemian Grove in this photo from the Grove’s annual yearbook.
In addition, according to an Arizona Daily Star report about a different subject, President Bush’s schedule for next week has not been released, meaning Bush, a regular attendee with his father to Bohemian Grove in past years, could be set to make a visit at some point to mark the last year of his presidency.
Tellingly, both McCain and Democratic candidate Barack Obama will be in California from Saturday to Tuesday, during which time both candidates are scheduled to speak at the National Council of La Raza, a racist Mexican separatist group that advocates a violent overthrow of the southwestern U.S. states.
Their schedule puts them in the perfect location to enjoy a night at the Grove this weekend.
Two years ago we were able to accurately surmise then British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s visit to the Grove, which coincided with a visit to San Francisco where he met with powerbrokers.
Thus far, there has only been one other mainstream report concerning the event, an article entitled Power brokers due at Bohemian Grove, appearing in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, a local paper that routinely covers the gathering.
“Critics, who until recent years mounted protests outside its gates, say the gatherings serve as strategy sessions for a New World Order operating outside democratic institutions,” states the article.
“Most critics raise the specter of national policy with global implications coming from behind the gates of an exclusive, closed-door gathering of largely conservative, wealthy white men.”
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/ar..e=Bohemian_Club_convenes_tonight
Bohemian Grove White Wash Piece
http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/Content?oid=690215
Power brokers due at Bohemian Grove
http://www.pressdemocrat.com..ers_due_at_Boho_Grove
Filed under: amnesty, California, CNN, crack, drug smuggling, drug trafficking, federal crime, gavin newsom, Honduras, ICE, Illegal Immigration, Immigration, lou dobbs, Neolibs, san fransisco, Taxpayers, war on drugs
San Fransisco’s Sanctuary Status for Illegal Alien Felons
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/..migrant_policy/UPI-84581214782811/
Filed under: 1984, 1st amendment, 2008 Election, 4th amendment, amnesty, benjamin franklin, Big Brother, Bloggers, civil liberties, civil rights, colorado, Congress, corporations, corporatism, Dennis Kucinich, Denver, Economy, Fascism, federal crime, FISA, Founding Fathers, free speech, George Bush, GOP, HR 6166, Impeach, internet, Iraq, John McCain, magna carta, military commissions act, military commissions act of 2006, nation building, Nazi, neocons, NSA, occupation, Oppression, Patriot Act, Police State, secret service, Surveillance, US Constitution, US Economy, veterans, War On Terror, warrantless search, warrantless wiretap, We Are Change, White House | Tags: HR 6340, phil gramm
61-year-old woman kicked out of McCain “public” townhall meeting
PNA
July 7, 2008
On orders from Senator John McCain’s security detail, Denver police escorted a 61-year-old woman away who was waiting in line to attend a so-called town hall meeting with McCain that was billed as open to the public.
Carol Kreck, who works as a librarian in Denver, held a homemade sign reading “McCain = Bush.” On orders from McCain’s security detail, police cited her for trespassing and escorted her to the sidewalk. She was told if she returned she would be arrested.
“And all I did was carry a sign that said McCain = Bush,” Kreck said. “And for everyone who voted for Bush, I don’t see why it’s offensive to say McCain = Bush.”
This episode by McCain’s Secret Service appears to be a rerun of McCain’s 2005 town hall in Denver with President Bush in which the Secret Service had three Denver citizens removed from an “open” event where McCain was campaigning with Pres. Bush for his plan to privatize social security.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=W_2YRxW34-4
McCain Gets Testy With Vet Over GI Bill
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzr3pdXqZ98
McCain Complains About Congress’s Vacation
http://www.theseminal.com/2..fter-he-has-missed-367-votes/
Filed under: 1984, amnesty, Big Brother, bill of rights, Britain, California, Camera Ban, Censorship, CFL, civil liberties, civil rights, Communism, Dictatorship, Empire, Europe, european union, Fascism, fascsim, Founding Fathers, george carlin, health and environment, humor, nanny state, New York, Oppression, police brutality, Police State, Racism, Raid, san fransisco, smoking ban, stasi, stasi tactics, Surveillance, United Kingdom, US Constitution, war on drugs | Tags: drew carey
Comedian Drew Carey on the Nanny State
Filed under: 1984, 2-party system, 2008 Election, 4th amendment, ACLU, amnesty, AT&T, Barack Obama, Big Brother, bill of rights, Blackwater, Bloggers, civil liberties, civil rights, Congress, corporations, corporatism, DHS, Fascism, federal crime, FISA, George Bush, Hillary Clinton, Homeland Security, Impeach, internet, John McCain, left right paradigm, MCI, Media, Military, neocons, Neolibs, NSA, obama, Oppression, Police State, Senate, Sprint, Surveillance, telco pac, US Constitution, verison, War On Terror, warrantless search, warrantless wiretap, White House | Tags: HR 6340
Obama Votes YES on FISA Spy-Bill, McCain Skips
The Nation
July 9, 2008
Hillary Clinton just voted “no” on cloture and final passage of the FISA bill expanding the government’s domestic spying powers and guaranteeing retroactive legal immunity for the telecom companies that assisted the spying program.
Barack Obama voted “yes.”
The New York Times calls the passage of the bill “one of Mr. Bush’s most hard-won legislative victories in a Democratic-led Congress where he has had little success of late. And it represented a stinging defeat for opponents on the left who had urged Democratic leaders to stand firm against the White House after a months-long impasse.”
Here’s the roll call.
Activist: Obama defense of FISA support a ’stiff arm’ to constitution
Raw Story
July 3, 2008
After more than a week of growing criticism of his support for a flawed surveillance bill, Barack Obama quietly responded late Thursday evening. He’s not likely to quell his growing cadre of critics.
In a blog response posted just before 5 p.m. headed into a three-day holiday weekend, Obama reiterated his support for an update to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act the Senate is expected to vote on Tuesday. (No mention of the blog post seems to have been distributed to Obama’s normal press list, either.)
Obama says he is against a provision in the bill to give legal immunity to telecommunications companies that facilitated the National Security Agency’s warrantless surveillance of Americans as authorized by President Bush. He vowed to support amendments that would strip immunity but would vote for the final bill regardless.
“It’s a stiff arm to the people that care about the Constitution,” said Mike Stark, a blogger and liberal activist who started a group on Obama’s social networking page to urge him to fix the FISA bill.
“It’s left a question in a lot of people’s mind about how committed he really is to change,” Stark told RAW STORY.
Responding to the 17,000 supporters who made the group the largest on my.barackobama.com, the Democratic candidate said he was glad to hear their concerns but reminded them that they really didn’t have any other choice in this election.
“I think it is worth pointing out that our agreement on the vast majority of issues that matter outweighs the differences we may have,” Obama wrote. “After all, the choice in this election could not be clearer.”
Justifying his support for the FISA bill, Obama cited a provision in the latest version that provides FISA is the “exclusive means” through which a president can authorize surveillance. Of course, the original FISA bill, passed in 1978, had the same qualification, and three federal judges have ruled that President Bush did not have inherent authority to conduct warrantless surveillance like he claimed to have had.
He also noted the fact that surveillance authorizations under the Protect America Act, a stopgap FISA update Obama opposed when it passed last year, would expire in August. Glenn Greenwald debunks this justification here.
If opponents of Bush’s warrantless wiretapping program can take any encouragement from Obama’s statement, it is that he does repeat earlier pledges to instruct his Attorney General to fully investigate just what Bush authorized, if he’s elected.
“Given the choice between voting for an improved yet imperfect bill, and losing important surveillance tools, I’ve chosen to support the current compromise,” he writes. “I do so with the firm intention — once I’m sworn in as President — to have my Attorney General conduct a comprehensive review of all our surveillance programs, and to make further recommendations on any steps needed to preserve civil liberties and to prevent executive branch abuse in the future.”
Stark allowed that electing Obama remained the larger goal for him, but said the disappointment many feel about his decision to support FISA could linger even if he were elected.
“Of course I’m going to vote for him in November,” he said. But “we’re keeping score, and there’s going to be a time when he needs us. … We have long memories.”
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/07/09/fisa/index.htmlOnline Movement Aims to Punish Democrats Who Support Bush Wiretap Bill
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/07/online-activist.html
Obama Losing Voters Over FISA Support
http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/08/07/10/1341207.shtml
Obama unequivocally says some constitutional rights must be suspended
http://www.huffingtonpost.co..sa-and-the-netroo_b_111116.html
Group urging FISA ’no’ vote is largest on Obama’s social site
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/..g_FISA_no_vote_largest_0703.html
Obama planning ’civilian national security force’ as powerful and well-funded as the US military
http://bulletin.aarp.org/states/il/a..plan_for_national_service.html
Obama: Blackwater Is Here To Stay
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/07/obama-blackwate.html
Filed under: 1984, 2-party system, 2008 Election, 4th amendment, ACLU, amnesty, AT&T, Barack Obama, Big Brother, bill of rights, civil liberties, civil rights, Congress, corporations, corporatism, DHS, Fascism, federal crime, FISA, George Bush, Hillary Clinton, Homeland Security, Impeach, John McCain, Keith Olbermann, left right paradigm, MCI, Media, MSNBC, neocons, Neolibs, NSA, obama, Oppression, Patrick Leahy, Police State, Russ Feingold, Senate, Sprint, Surveillance, telco pac, US Constitution, verison, War On Terror, warrantless search, warrantless wiretap | Tags: FISC, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, HR 6340, jonathan turley
4th Amendment Destroyed: FISA Spy-Bill Passes
ACLU Announces Legal Challenge To FISA Law To Follow President’s Signature
ACLU
July 9, 2008
Today, in a blatant assault upon civil liberties and the right to privacy, the Senate passed an unconstitutional domestic spying bill that violates the Fourth Amendment and eliminates any meaningful role for judicial oversight of government surveillance. The FISA Amendments Act of 2008 was approved by a vote of 69 to 28 and is expected to be signed into law by President Bush shortly. This bill essentially legalizes the president’s unlawful warrantless wiretapping program revealed in December 2005 by the New York Times.
“Once again, Congress blinked and succumbed to the president’s fear-mongering. With today’s vote, the government has been given a green light to expand its power to spy on Americans and run roughshod over the Constitution,” said Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union. “This legislation will give the government unfettered and unchecked access to innocent Americans’ international communications without a warrant. This is not only unconstitutional, but absolutely un-American.”
The FISA Amendments Act nearly eviscerates oversight of government surveillance by allowing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) to review only general procedures for spying rather than individual warrants. The FISC will not be told any specifics about who will actually be wiretapped, thereby undercutting any meaningful role for the court and violating the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable search and seizure.
The bill further trivializes court review by authorizing the government to continue a surveillance program even after the government’s general spying procedures are found insufficient or unconstitutional by the FISC. The government has the authority to wiretap through the entire appeals process, and then keep and use whatever information was gathered in the meantime. A provision touted as a major “concession” by proponents of the bill calls for investigations by the inspectors general of four agencies overseeing spying activities. But members of Congress who do not sit on the Judiciary or Intelligence committees will not be guaranteed access to the agencies’ reports.
The bill essentially grants absolute retroactive immunity to telecommunication companies that facilitated the president’s warrantless wiretapping program over the last seven years by ensuring the dismissal of court cases pending against those companies. The test for the companies’ right to immunity is not whether the government certifications they acted on were actually legal – only whether they were issued. Because it is public knowledge that certifications were issued, all of the pending cases will be summarily dismissed. This means Americans may never learn the truth about what the companies and the government did with our private communications.
“With one vote, Congress has strengthened the executive branch, weakened the judiciary and rendered itself irrelevant,” said Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. “This bill – soon to be law – is a constitutional nightmare. Americans should know that if this legislation is enacted and upheld, what they say on international phone calls or emails is no longer private. The government can listen in without having a specific reason to do so. Our rights as Americans have been curtailed and our privacy can no longer be assumed.”
In advance of the president’s signature, the ACLU announced its plan to challenge the new law in court.
“This fight is not over. We intend to challenge this bill as soon as President Bush signs it into law,” said Jameel Jaffer, Director of the ACLU National Security Project. “The bill allows the warrantless and dragnet surveillance of Americans’ international telephone and email communications. It plainly violates the Fourth Amendment.”
Constitutional expert Turley on FISA bill: ’The fix is in’
Raw Story
July 9, 2008
Obama: Yes, Hillary: No, McCain: Skipped
http://senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll..ongress=110&session=2&vote=00168
Bush wins passage of spy bill to protect telecoms
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSWAT00975320080709
Traitors In Senate Approve Surveillance Bill
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/2..Ar4mXNDa49uWmlkRl2iTP_hv24cA
Judge Walker ruled, effectively, that President George W. Bush is a felon
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2008/07/09/alharamain_lawsuit/
Report: Because of Bush obstinance, civil liberties board exists ‘in name only’
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Re..sh_obstinance_civil_0709.html
Domestic spying quietly goes on
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation/bal-te.fisa07jul07,0,2783557.story
As FISA nears toward vote, Feingold warns against immunity
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/As_F.._vote_Feingold_0708.html
Filed under: 1st amendment, amnesty, Dick Cheney, Dissent, Founding Fathers, free speech, George Bush, heckled, Illegal Immigration, Immigration, neocons, Protest, Uncategorized, US Constitution, virginia | Tags: thomas jefferson
Protesters Call Bush a Fascist During July 4th Event at the Home of Thomas Jefferson
Protesters made it hard to hear President Bush Friday as he welcomed new citizens and marked Independence Day at the home of Thomas Jefferson.
As is the tradition each Fourth of July, a naturalization ceremony was held at Monticello in Charlottesville, Va. This year, 76 immigrants from 30 different countries came to take the oath of citizenship.
But Bush repeatedly was interrupted as he welcomed the guests.
“That man is a fascist!” one protester yelled. Another swore at him.
The protesters later were removed from the ceremony by law enforcement officials.
“To my fellow citizens to be — we believe in free speech in the United States of America,” Bush said when the protesters started shouting.
To the din of more yelling, Bush discussed Jefferson’s legacy as he introduced the citizens.
“We honor Jefferson’s legacy by aiding the rise of liberty in lands that do not know the blessings of freedom, and on this Fourth of July we pay tribute to the brave men and women who wear the uniform of the United States of America,” he said.
“We also honor Jefferson’s legacy by welcoming newcomers to our land, and that is what we’re here to celebrate today.”
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/re..rticleid=1104453&srvc=rss
Filed under: amnesty, California, crack, drug smuggling, drug trafficking, Honduras, Illegal Immigration, Immigration, san fransisco, war on drugs
San Fransisco Protects Illegal Immigrant Crack Dealers
UPI
June 30, 2008
San Francisco juvenile probation officials are protecting Honduran youths caught dealing crack cocaine from possible deportation, federal officials say.
Citing the city’s sanctuary city status for illegal immigrants, probation officials have even given some offenders a city-paid flight home, The San Francisco Chronicle reported Sunday.
Rather than have young drug offenders deported, probation officials have recommended that Juvenile Court judges and commissioners approve city-paid flights home to Honduras for the offenders with the aim of reuniting them with their families.
Officials familiar with the case said the city is being investigated for systematically circumventing federal immigration law.
“Our job is to uphold the nation’s immigration laws,” said Greg Palmore, spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “Although San Francisco is a sanctuary city, it’s a problem whenever someone attempts to evade the law. … Our law does not allow us to turn a blind eye to any individual who has come into this country illegally.”
City officials say they are trying to balance their obligations under federal and state law with local court orders and San Francisco’s policies aimed at protecting the rights of the young immigrants, who they say are often victims of exploitation.
Filed under: ACLU, amnesty, Atzlan, California, Illegal Immigration, Immigration, LA, LAPD, Los Angeles, Mexico, war on drugs
LAPD won’t ask about immigration status
AP
June 26, 2008
A California judge blocked a lawsuit that sought to enlist Los Angeles police officers in weeding out illegal immigrants.
Superior Court Judge Rolf M. Treu on Wednesday rejected arguments that the city’s policy — under which most suspects are not asked about their immigration status — conflicted with federal and state law.
Los Angeles police work in communities with large numbers of illegal immigrants, and generally don’t inquire about immigration status because it could discourage undocumented people from helping officers and reporting crimes.
Police Chief William Bratton said the judge preserved “an essential crime-fighting tool for us.” Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said the ruling recognized that “turning local police into federal immigration agents would lead to fewer arrests, prosecutions and convictions.”
Under a 1979 order formally known as Special Order 40, LAPD officers do not ask about immigration status while interviewing victims, witnesses and suspects, and do not arrest people based on immigration status.
Officers alert immigration officials if a suspect is a gang member who has been previously deported, or if a suspect is arrested for a felony or multiple misdemeanors.
The lawsuit filed in April 2007 was brought on behalf of unidentified police officers who said they were afraid to speak out, but who depicted a revolving door legal system in which the same illegal immigrants are repeatedly arrested instead of deported.
The lawsuit sought to require officers to inform federal immigration officials when illegal immigrants are arrested on drug charges.
The judge referred to the national debate over immigration, but said he sought to “avoid considering the political aspects of the case and focus only on the legal ones.”
Paul Orfanedes, a lawyer for Harold P. Sturgeon, who brought the case, said the judge sidelined tens of thousands of law enforcers who could help immigration authorities.
Police “are being gagged. It’s don’t ask, don’t tell as regards to legal status,” Orfanedes said.
The ruling granted motions for summary judgment in favor of the Police Department and the American Civil Liberties Union, which intervened in the case.
Hector Villagra, an ACLU attorney, said the decision affirmed that the federal government, not local law enforcement, is responsible for carrying out immigration law.
By asking that Special Order 40 be thrown out, Villagra said, plaintiffs are “asking for carte blanche to engage in racial profiling,” he said.
Filed under: 2-party system, 2008 Election, amnesty, Amnesty Bill, Arizona, Border Patrol, CFR, code pink, DHS, George Bush, Globalism, heckled, Homeland Security, Illegal Immigration, Immigration, John McCain, left right paradigm, Mexico, neocons, Neolibs, Protest, Ted Kennedy, war on drugs
McCain Admits Supporting Illegal Immigration Bill
Code Pink Interrupts John McCain
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/..cord-to-woo-hispanics/
’McCain is mentally unstable and out of control’ : Arizona Republicans
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070305/blumenthal
McCain: It doesn’t matter that I don’t know cost of gas
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/McCain_It_doesnt_matter_that_I_0629.html
Fmr. Bush aide takes over McCain campaign
http://www.politico.com/blogs/jonathanmartin/0..oday_operation.html
Filed under: amnesty, Arizona, army, Atzlan, Border Patrol, cocaine, Credit Crisis, death squads, DEBT, DHS, Dollar, drug smuggling, drug trafficking, Economic Collapse, economic depression, Economy, George Bush, Great Depression, Greenback, heroin, Homeland Security, housing market, Illegal Immigration, Immigration, Inflation, los zetas, marine, mexican army, Mexico, Military, national guard, neocons, real estate, Texas, Troops, US Economy, war on drugs | Tags: tijuana
Mexican Army Carrying Out Assassinations In U.S.?
KFYI
June 26, 2008
The suspects may have been hired by drug cartels to perform home invasions and assassinations in the U.S.
Police reports show that three men arrested in a Phoenix home invasion and homicide Monday may have been active members of the Mexican Army.
While on the J.D. Hayworth show, Phoenix Law Enforcement Association President Mark Spencer said that the men involved were hired by drug cartels to perform home invasions and assassinations.
The Monday morning incident at 8329 W. Cypress St. resulted in the death of the homeowner. Between 50 and 100 rounds were fired at the house.
Spencer said a police officer told him that one of the men captured said they were completely prepared to ambush Phoenix police, but ran out of ammunition.
He added that all were all dressed in military tactical gear and were armed with AR-15 assault rifles. Three other men involved in the invasion escaped.
National Guard on U.S-Mexico border will end mid-July
LA Times
June 23, 2008
An upcoming deadline of July 15, when the remaining National Guard personnel on the U.S- Mexico border are due to be withdrawn, has raised fears that without them the increased drug violence in the border area could spill into the United States.
“When the Guard was posted along the frontier in 2006 to help the strapped Border Patrol, critics warned that sending soldiers would be an insult to Mexico and that innocents could get shot by troops trained for combat, not law enforcement.”
“Now those worries have given way to fears that without the Guard’s help, a bloody drug cartel war on the Mexican side will spill into the U.S. and overwhelm the Border Patrol.” Dallas Morning News
Meanwhile, conflict between Mexico’s drug cartels and law enforcement agencies continues. The Associated Press is reporting that Mexican soldiers captured at least 10 suspected members of a Tijuana-based drug cartel in a raid on a child’s baptism party in the border city.
Texas Real Estate Slump Lets Mexicans Take It Back
Bloomberg
June 25, 2008
A rising peso and an economy growing faster than the U.S. have given some Mexicans the buying power to take advantage of the housing slump in Texas, which became part of the U.S. under an 1848 treaty that ended a three-year war between the two countries.
The peso has gained 3.2 percent against the dollar since the beginning of the year. The economy, which rose 2.6 percent in the first quarter from a year ago, is expected to grow 2.6 percent this year, according to a central bank survey of 31 economists in May. The U.S. economy is forecast to grow 1.4 percent in 2008, according to a Bloomberg survey of 57 economists.
Marco Ramirez of McAllen, Texas, is among those trying to sell foreclosed Texas homes to Mexicans. Ramirez’s company, called Now! Co., has bought 32 Texas properties and has options on 88 more. His best prospects are Mexican buyers, especially in Monterrey, 150 miles from the Texas border, he said.
`Great Time to Buy’
“Many of these people have children who are studying in the U.S.,’’ Ramirez said. “They’ve been renting or leasing and now it’s a great time to buy.’’
Mexico is better known for providing the U.S. with cheap labor than investment. The U.S. is home to an estimated 12 million Mexican-born residents, about half of them living there illegally, according to the Pew Hispanic Center in Washington.
Sales of existing U.S. homes in April fell 18 percent to an annual pace of 4.89 million from 5.93 million a year ago as banks shied away from making new loans, according to the National Association of Realtors in Washington.
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewF..0806/INT20080625c.html
Bush Signs Citizenship Bill For Soldiers
http://www.baltimoresun.com/new..7jun27,0,3711849,print.story
Filed under: 1984, 2-party system, 2008 Election, 4th amendment, 9/11, 9/11 Truth, amnesty, AT&T, Barack Obama, barbara boxer, Big Brother, chris dodd, civil liberties, civil rights, False Flag, FISA, George Bush, Harry Reid, House, HR 6304, inside job, left right paradigm, Media, Nancy Pelosi, neocons, Neolibs, NSA, obama, Oppression, Police State, Propaganda, Ron Paul, Senate, steny hoyer, Surveillance, telco pac, US Constitution, War On Terror, warrantless search, warrantless wiretap, whistleblower | Tags: Frederick Boucher, Gregory Meeks, James Clyburn, MCI, orrin hatch, Protect America Act, Rahm Emanuel, Russ Feingold, Sprint, Verizon
Why Did 94 House Democrats Change Their Votes on FISA?
(A: Money)
Politico
June 25, 2008
In March, the House passed an amendment that rejected retroactive immunity for telecoms that assisted the NSA in illegal wiretapping. Most of us have wondered what happened to change the minds of 94 Democrats. What happened between June 20 and March 14 to change 94 Democratic hearts and minds?
The answer might well be simple: money. Could it be that simple?
MAPLight.org has published a breakdown of contributions received from Telco PACS by the 94 Dems who experienced the change of heart. [Maplight.org is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, nonpartisan organization based in Berkeley, California. Its search engine at MAPLight.org illuminates the connection between Money And Politics (MAP) via an unprecedented database of campaign contributions and legislative outcomes.’]
Here’s the bottom line:
Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint gave PAC contributions averaging:
$8,359 to each Democrat who changed their position to support immunity for Telcos (94 Dems)
$4,987 to each Democrat who remained opposed to immunity for Telcos (116 Dems)88 percent of the Dems who changed to supporting immunity (83 Dems
of the 94) received PAC contributions from Verizon, AT&T, or Sprint
during the last three years (Jan. 2005-Mar. 2008). ( MAPLight.org)
Of course the average amount received is a bit misleading. A few of the very prominent Dems who changed their votes took a lot more than $8000. According to this website,
Nancy Pelosi [CA], Speaker of the House, allegedly received $24,500.
Steny Hoyer [MD] allegedly received $29,000.
James Clyburn [SC] allegedly received $29,500.
Rahm Emanuel [IL] allegedly received $28,000.
Frederick Boucher [VA] allegedly received $27,500.
Gregory Meeks [NY] allegedly received $26,000.
You can see the complete list here.
I guess with campaign finance laws in the state they’re in, we can’t expect them to turn down free money. I would like to believe that there are other reasons why they supported the current incarnation of FISA. I wish I could think of some.
HR 6304 – A Bill To Abolish the 4th Amendment
Hatch compares FISA critics to those ‘who wear tin foil hats and think 9/11 was an inside job.’
Think Progress
June 26, 2008
Speaking today on the Senate floor in favor of the Foreign Service Intelligence Act legislation, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) compared critics of the bill — which include Sens. Harry Reid (D-NV), Chris Dodd (D-CT), and Barbara Boxer (D-CA), among others — to deluded conspiracy theorists. Hatch mocked the what he called “onerous oversight provisions” included in the bill, and said those who raise the specter of unchecked executive wiretapping power “feed the delusions of those who wear tin foil hats around their house and think that 9/11 was an inside job.”
Those “onerous” oversight provisions Hatch maligns? A ban on “reverse targeting” of Americans and a new requirement of probable cause for surveillance of Americans abroad.
UpdateLate this afternoon, the Senate voted 80-15 to invoke cloture on the FISA bill. Ian Welsh at FDL writes that this “was the real vote” and applauds the 15 senators who “voted for the Bill of Rights.”
http://mparent7777-1.livejournal.com/649045.html
Obama: Immunity not that important. Won’t support filibuster
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPljokDWERg
Whistleblower: Spy Bill Will Create Police State
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/06/att-whistleblow.html
Report: FISA vote may be delayed until July
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news..il-after-july-recess-2008-06-26.html
Obama Adviser On FISA: We’ll Trust The Inspector General To Prevent Surveillance Abuses
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/m.s.-b..-well-trust_b_108904.html
The Real FISA Vote Passes 80 to 15 With the Presidential Nominees Passing
http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/2..e-presidential-nominees-passing/
Ron Paul: The FISA bill clearly violates the Fourth Amendment
http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec2008/cr062008h.htm
Filed under: 1984, 2-party system, 2008 Election, 4th amendment, 9/11, ACLU, Al Gore, amnesty, AT&T, Barack Obama, benjamin franklin, Big Brother, civil liberties, civil rights, Dennis Kucinich, FISA, George Bush, Global Warming, House, John McCain, Keith Olbermann, left right paradigm, Media, Media Fear, NAFTA, Nancy Pelosi, Neocon, Neolibs, NSA, obama, Oppression, Patriot Act, Police State, Propaganda, Senate, Surveillance, US Constitution, War On Terror, warrantless search, warrantless wiretap | Tags: chris dodd, MCI, Protect America Act, Russ Feingold, Sprint, Verizon
Spy Bill Destroys 4th Amendment
AFP
June 20, 2008
In a late-term triumph for US President George W. Bush, the US House of Representatives on Friday approved spy-powers legislation that has drawn heavy fire on civil liberties grounds.
Lawmakers voted 293-129 for a bill that may shield telecommunications firms facing massive lawsuits over their work with Bush’s secret, six-year, warrantless wiretapping program, begun after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
The measure now goes to the Senate, where Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid has opposed granting retroactive immunity to companies that cooperated with a program thought to have skirted established surveillance laws.
During often bitter House floor debate, many Democrats broke with the measure, the fruit of months of talks among Senate and House leaders of both parties that ultimately gave in to key White House demands.
“It’s Christmas morning at the White House thanks to this vote,” said Caroline Fredrickson, a top official with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) which has fiercely opposed the legislation.
Earlier, Bush had used a hastily announced public statement at the White House to press lawmakers to approve new funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and pushed hard for House passage of the intelligence bill.
“It’s vital that our intelligence community has the ability to learn who the terrorists are talking to, what they are saying, and what they are planning,” Bush said in the two-minute statement.
The spending bill would provide 162 billion dollars for conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, fuelling both for months after Bush’s successor takes over in January, without attaching a withdrawal timetable sought by Iraq war opponents.
But the bitterest feuding was over the intelligence bill, which came amid a pitched political battle raging over Bush’s decision to secretly launch a warrantless wiretapping program believed to have skirted surveillance law.
Critics charge the secret program was illegal because it ran afoul of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)’s requirement of a court order to spy on US citizens inside the United States.
The White House says Bush, who brought the program under FISA oversight in January 2007, made proper use of wartime presidential powers under the US Constitution, and that the often-updated law was ill-suited to deal with modern telecommunications and the nature of the terrorist threat.
If passed, the new measure could short-circuit about 40 court challenges targeting major US telecommunications firms that cooperated with the program, which the US public learned about in a December 2005 New York Times article.
Feingold, Dodd planning filibuster of wiretap bill
Raw Story
June 24, 2008
In a last-ditch attempt to fix a surveillance bill critics say would essentially legalize President Bush’s warrantless wiretapping program, Sens. Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Chris Dodd (D-CT) have promised to filibuster the bill as long as it offers telecommunications companies retroactive immunity.
“This is a deeply flawed bill, which does nothing more than offer retroactive immunity by another name. We strongly urge our colleagues to reject this so-called ‘compromise’ legislation and oppose any efforts to consider this bill in its current form. We will oppose efforts to end debate on this bill as long as it provides retroactive immunity for the telecommunications companies that may have participated in the President’s warrantless wiretapping program, and as long as it fails to protect the privacy of law-abiding Americans,” the senators said in a joint statement Tuesday.
Read Full Article Here
Kucinich Slams FISA Bill
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hJ..Bdh9wDwD91DU8480
Constitutional expert: FISA bill ’is an evisceration of the Fourth Amendment’
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Turle.._is_evisceration_of_0619.html
Feingold: ‘Farce’ wiretap deal could be hiding ‘impeachable offense’
http://rawstory.com/news08/200..d-be-hiding-impeachable-offense/
Obama defends new FISA bill as ’compromise’
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Obama_defends_new_FISA_bill_as_0620.html
Filed under: 1984, 2-party system, 2008 Election, 4th amendment, Al Gore, amnesty, AT&T, Barack Obama, Big Brother, civil liberties, civil rights, FISA, George Bush, Global Warming, House, left right paradigm, NAFTA, Neocon, Neolibs, NSA, obama, Patriot Act, Police State, Senate, Surveillance, US Constitution, warrantless search, warrantless wiretap | Tags: MCI, Protect America Act, Sprint, Verizon
Obama Supports Giving Telecoms Amnesty for Illegal Wiretaps
Wired Blog
June 24, 2008
Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama supports the spy bill compromise passed by the House Friday, despite having opposed retroactive amnesty to telecoms that helped with the President’s secret, warrantless wiretapping.
The measure expands the government’s ability to install blanket wiretaps inside domestic communication infrastructure and frees the nation’s phone and internet companies from lawsuits accusing them of massive violations of their customers’ privacy. The Senate is expected to take up and pass the Bush-approved bill next week.
The bill is widely perceived as a victory for the White House, and was agreed to by Democrats out of a fear of being labeled soft on terrorism in the upcoming elections.
Obama’s campaign released the following statement late Friday:
Given the grave threats that we face, our national security agencies must have the capability to gather intelligence and track down terrorists before they strike, while respecting the rule of law and the privacy and civil liberties of the American people. There is also little doubt that the Bush Administration, with the cooperation of major telecommunications companies, has abused that authority and undermined the Constitution by intercepting the communications of innocent Americans without their knowledge or the required court orders.
That is why last year I opposed the so-called Protect America Act, which expanded the surveillance powers of the government without sufficient independent oversight to protect the privacy and civil liberties of innocent Americans. I have also opposed the granting of retroactive immunity to those who were allegedly complicit in acts of illegal spying in the past.
After months of negotiation, the House today passed a compromise that, while far from perfect, is a marked improvement over last year’s Protect America Act.
Under this compromise legislation, an important tool in the fight against terrorism will continue, but the President’s illegal program of warrantless surveillance will be over. It restores FISA and existing criminal wiretap statutes as the exclusive means to conduct surveillance – making it clear that the President cannot circumvent the law and disregard the civil liberties of the American people. It also firmly re-establishes basic judicial oversight over all domestic surveillance in the future. It does, however, grant retroactive immunity, and I will work in the Senate to remove this provision so that we can seek full accountability for past offenses. But this compromise guarantees a thorough review by the Inspectors General of our national security agencies to determine what took place in the past, and ensures that there will be accountability going forward. By demanding oversight and accountability, a grassroots movement of Americans has helped yield a bill that is far better than the Protect America Act.
It is not all that I would want. But given the legitimate threats we face, providing effective intelligence collection tools with appropriate safeguards is too important to delay. So I support the compromise, but do so with a firm pledge that as President, I will carefully monitor the program, review the report by the Inspectors General, and work with the Congress to take any additional steps I deem necessary to protect the lives – and the liberty – of the American people.
Politically, it would be hard for Obama to buck his party’s leadership on this issue, and voting against the bill could anger the intelligence community. The former he needs now and after the election (if he wins). The latter he’ll need to be able to rely on if he does win in the fall.
http://intelstrike.com/?p=271
Ingraham: Kim Jong Il Supports Obama
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Laura_I..Jong_Il_0623.html
Former vice president Gore backs Obama
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/itn/200806..sident-gore-backs-oba-41f21e0.html
Filed under: amnesty, Arizona, Atzlan, Border Patrol, brainwashing, California, Canada, colorado, Conditioning, DHS, Globalism, Homeland Security, Illegal Immigration, Immigration, job market, job outsourcing, La Raza, mexican flag, Mexican Trucks, Mexico, new mexico, ohio, Propaganda, Psyops, public relations, subliminal, subliminal messages, Texas, utah | Tags: la-z-boy, whirlpool
Absolut Promotes Mexico Take Over Of U.S.
LA Times
April 4, 2008
The latest advertising campaign in Mexico from Swedish vodka maker Absolut promises to push all the right buttons south of the U.S. border, but it could ruffle a few feathers in El Norte.
The billboard and press campaign, created by advertising agency Teran\TBWA and now running in Mexico, is a colorful map depicting what the Americas might look like in an “Absolut” — i.e., perfect — world.
The U.S.-Mexico border lies where it was before the Mexican-American war of 1848 when California, as we now know it, was Mexican territory and known as Alta California.
Following the war, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo saw the Mexican territories of Alta California and Santa Fé de Nuevo México ceded to the United States to become modern-day California, Texas, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado and Arizona. (Texas actually split from Mexico several years earlier to form a breakaway republic, and was voluntarily annexed by the United States in 1846.)
The campaign taps into the national pride of Mexicans, according to Favio Ucedo, creative director of leading Latino advertising agency Grupo Gallegos in the U.S.
Ucedo, who is from Argentina, said: “Mexicans talk about how the Americans stole their land, so this is their way of reclaiming it. It’s very relevant and the Mexicans will love the idea.”
But he said that were the campaign to run in the United States, it might fall flat.
“Many people aren’t going to understand it here. Americans in the East and the North or in the center of the county — I don’t know if they know much about the history.
“Probably Americans in Texas and California understand perfectly and I don’t know how they’d take it.”
Meanwhile, the campaign has been circulating on the blogs and generating strong responses from people north of the border.
“I find this ad deeply offensive, and needlessly divisive. I will now make a point of drinking other brands. And ’vodka and tonic’ is my drink,” said one visitor, called New Yorker, on MexicoReporter.com.
Reader Paul Green goes into a discussion on the blog Gateway Pundit of whether the U.S. territories ever belonged to Mexico in the first place, and the News12 Long island site invited people to boycott Absolut, with one user, called LivingSmall, writing: “If you drink Absolut vodka, you can voice your approval or disapproval of this advertising campaign with your purchases. I know I will be switching to Grey Goose or Stoli and will never have another bottle of Absolut in my house.
“Hey Absolut … that’s my form of social commentary.”
La-Z-Boy, Whirlpool Moving Jobs To Mexico
Chattanoogan
April 4, 2008
La-Z-Boy and Whirlpool are moving jobs to new plants in Mexico, bringing job losses to hundreds of workers in Dayton and Cleveland.
La-Z-Boy employees in Dayton were told today that the cutting and sewing operation is being moved to Mexico.
Kathy Liebmann, La-Z-Boy spokesperson, said the Dayton facility has over 2,000 employees, but she did not have a breakdown on those in cutting and sewing. A La-Z-Boy employee said it was around 750.
Ms. Liebmann said La-Z-Boy is closing a plant at Tremonton, Utah, but will keep its other plants open, including the one at Dayton. She said the 400 production jobs at the Utah plant will be spread over the other five plants.
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSN0447467120080405
DHS Waives Laws To Finish Border Fence
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20080402/a_border02.art.htm
Center For Inquiry Promotes Global Citizenship
http://www.centerforinquiry.net/newsroom/global_citizenship/
Vet Convicted For Tearing Down Mexico Flag
http://www.roguegovernment.com/news.php?id=8000
noworldsystem.com 