I heard on the radio that the major federal medical and financial legislation enacted in 2010 will put 70% of the United States economy under control of the executive branch. The commentator asked the question: “At what point should the U.S. be considered a dictatorship?”
The question I ask is how can things have gotten to the point that the federal government has been able to take overarching control over medical and financial matters in a country generally considered by its residents to be the freest in the world?
On the short list of answers to that question is that the overwhelming percentage of adults in the U.S. attended a public or privately operated school where a central theme of the history and social studies curriculum is government in the U.S. is based on consent of the governed, and that elected legislators represent the will of the people. Students in those schools are systematically conditioned from their earliest years to believe in the electoral process, and to have a psychological allegiance to the idea of “representative” government. Emblematic of this conditioning process is routine recitation of the mantra called “The Pledge of Allegiance” that inculcates the mindset in a person to love government in the U.S. as their protector and benefactor.
TOWARD A POLICE REFORM MOVEMENT An Excerpt from the forthcoming book _Where We Stand_ By L. Neil Smith THE PROBLEM
When you see three police cars pulled over at the side of a city street to deal with a single miscreant bicycle rider, you realize that there are too many cops. When all the heroes on television carry badges and a government franchise, you know we're in real trouble as a culture.
Every day we hear of some act of brutality -- people beaten and kicked when they're unconscious, or "Tased" until they die -- carried out by federal, state, or local "law enforcement" (which is a terrible misnomer, since most of the laws enforced today are unconstitutional, and therefore unlawful in and of themselves) against individuals or groups whose only crime was exercising their unalienable individual, civil, Constitutional, and human rights. "Policemen" at every level of government have become, more than any mere military organization, the "standing army" that was hated and feared by America's Founding Fathers.
There are reasons for this, foremost among them a shocking failure on the part of those same Founding Fathers to provide for any kind of proper enforcement of the first ten amendments to the Constitution, commonly known as the Bill of Rights. The warning signs were already plain, many years before this century's "Reichstag Fire" -- the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 -- which gave the government all the excuse it needed to turn the entire country into a prison.
Today's freedom movement (Libertarians, Constitutionalists, "Tea Partiers", and a growing number of "progressives") is attempting to identify the causes of America's ills. As long as they are being addressed, there's no harm in ameliorating symptoms, as well. You may get a CAT-scan to see why you suffer migraines, but you also take an aspirin.
Accordingly, we suggest the following steps -- many of which libertarians have thought about for decades -- to begin dealing with the signs by which we understand that we're all living in a police state. Any one of these measures (or even all of them together), may be pursued by concerned individuals and organizations who find them interesting and worthwhile -- without regard to their political ideology -- as conventional legislation, constitutional or charter amendments, initiated referenda, or as a part of settlements in lawsuits.
Short term, what's important is to create as much discussion of these matters as possible, so the "authorities" among us will understand that, if they don't change their ways, their ways will be changed for them.
Fort Wayne Journal Gazette reported on July 25 that “there are 72 fusion centers around the nation, analyzing and disseminating data and information of all kinds. That is one for every state and others for large urban cities.”
What is a fusion center?
The answer depends on your perspective. If you work for the Department of Homeland Security, it is a federal, state, local, or regional data-coordination units, designed to improve the sharing of anti-terrorism and anti-crime data in order to make America safer. If you are privacy or civil-rights advocate, it is part of a powerful new domestic surveillance infrastructure that combines data from both the public and private sectors to track innocent people and so makes Americans less safe from their own government. In that respect, the fusion center is reminiscent of the East German stasi, which used tens of thousands of state police and hundreds of thousands of informers to monitor an estimated one-third of the population.
The history of fusion centers provides insight into which answer is correct.
Fusion centers began in 2003 under the administration of George W. Bush as a joint project between the departments of Justice and Homeland Security. The purpose (pdf) is to coordinate federal and local law enforcement by using the “800,000 plus law enforcement officers across the country” whose intimate awareness of their own communities makes them “best placed to function as the ‘eyes and ears’ of an extended national security community.” The fusion centers are hubs for the coordination. By April 2008 there were 58.
The growth has continued under the Obama administration. Indeed, Obama has also continued Bush’s concealment of domestic intelligence activity by threatening to veto legislation that authorizes broader congressional oversight or review of intelligence agencies by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). As a result of that threat, the GAO provision was removed from the Intelligence Authorization Act.
Due to secrecy, it is difficult to describe a typical fusion center. But if the Indiana Intelligence Fusion Center is typical, this is what one looks like.
Indiana’s center has essentially become an arm of Indiana law enforcement…. It has 31 full-time staffers and two part-time employees. Some … are state employees. Others are assigned to the center from other agencies, such as the FBI, Transportation Security Administration, and Marion County Sheriff’s Department. They are joined by workers from the Department of Correction, the Indiana National Guard, the Indiana State Police, the Department of Natural Resources and local campus police…. There are also private sector analysts on contract. Previously those analysts were from EG&G Technical Services of California. The most recent contract with EG&G called for payment of $1.1 million….
Fusion centers invite reports from public employees such as firemen, ambulance drivers, and sanitation workers as well as from the private sector such as hospitals and neighborhood watch groups. They often operate tip hotlines; this means a “suspect’s” name could be submitted by a disgruntled employee, a hostile neighbor, or an ex-spouse who seeks child custody.
What or who is targeted by this sweeping coordination of data?
To get an idea, let’s look at the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) program, which the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence said “should be a national model.” In June 2008 the departments of Justice and Homeland Security recommended expansion of the LAPD program to other cities.
In April 2008 the Wall Street Journal reported on a new LAPD policy that compelled officers to report “suspicious behaviors” to the local fusion center. LAPD Special Order #11, dated March 5, 2008, defined a list of 65 suspicious behaviors, including using binoculars, taking pictures or video footage “with no apparent esthetic value,” abandoning a vehicle, taking notes, and espousing extremist views. Local police were converted into domestic surveillance agents.
Voices of caution were present from the inception of fusion centers. Former U.S. Rep. Bob Barr stated
Using the resources of federal and state law enforcement to encourage the citizenry to submit to the government information on the political, social and even religious views of other people, is in itself outrageous. For the government to then data-base that information, disseminate it widely, and clearly imply that views with which it may disagree provides an appropriate basis on which to surveil citizens and collect information on them, is beyond the pale. It is also a poor and inefficient use of police resources.
Political Abuse
Violation of privacy rights, excessive secrecy, lack of congressional oversight, the inevitability of inaccurate and noncorrectable information, the lack of due process for the accused, the encouragement of racial/religious profiling, the creation of a “snitch” nation, the merging of the military with the private sector, the political abuse of dissidents – the objections scroll on. Specific abuses scroll on as well. They include:
Maryland: Fifty-three nonviolent political activists, including antiwar and anti-death penalty activists, were labeled as terrorists and actively surveilled for 14 months.
Minnesota: Eight anarchist protesters who planned to protest the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis were preemptively arrested and charged with terrorism. In Minnesota, a crime can become terrorism if it disrupts the conduct of government.
Texas: A leaked intelligence bulletin from the North Central Texas Fusion System asked police officers to report on Islamic and antiwar lobbying groups.
Missouri: Supporters of third party presidential candidates, pro-life activists, and conspiracy theorists were targeted as potential militia members.
Virginia (pdf): A terrorism threat assessment included certain universities as breeding grounds for terrorism, including historically black colleges.
Clearly, the elaborate infrastructure of fusion centers has spied on peaceful citizens. Those who believe the abuses are aberrations, rather than an inherent or intended function, may argue that increased transparency will bring accountability and solve the problem. But that belief is naive. At least four reasons indicate that a lack of transparency and accountability are built into the system — the absence of real congressional oversight being number one.
Second, the ACLU and others have filed numerous Freedom of Information Act requests. They have had to fight tooth-and-nail for any scrap of information.
Third, as the ACLU (pdf) notes, “[T]here appears to be an effort by the federal government to coerce states into exempting their fusion centers from state open government laws. For those living in Virginia, it’s already too late; the Virginia General Assembly passed a law in April 2008 exempting the state’s fusion center from the Freedom of Information Act. According to comments by the commander of the Virginia State Police Criminal Intelligence Division and the administrative head of the center, the federal government pressured Virginia into passing the law…. [T]here is a real danger fusion centers will become a ‘one-way mirror’ in which citizens are subject to ever-greater scrutiny by the authorities, even while the authorities are increasingly protected from scrutiny by the public.”
Fourth, much of the information used by fusion centers comes from private databases such as Accurate, Choice Point, Lexis-Nexus, Locate Plus, insurance claims, and credit reports. Moreover, the centers access millions of government files like the Federal Trade Commission ID theft reports and DMV records. Why is this important? The federal government has adopted various laws to prevent the maintenance of databases on average Americans, but if fusion centers access the other existing files, they would bypass those laws.
A massive database on peaceful citizens, a tip hotline that encourages turning in of neighbors, the casting of suspicion on daily activities, enlisting private workers as national surveillance agents — this is a police state in the making. And if its creation is invisible to most people, well, that is another characteristic of a police state. You are not a believer until it knocks on your door … in the middle of the night.
The leaked documents “raise serious questions about the reality of America’s policy toward Pakistan and Afghanistan,” said Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat. “Those policies are at a critical stage,” and the documents “make the calibrations needed to get the policy right more urgent.”
Oh, so that's the problem with the Afghanistan war. It's not calibrated properly. Tell me, Senator, how do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a miscalibration?
Yesterday I mentioned that we will no longer be quoting the Las Vegas Review-Journal, because of their abusive copyright enforcement. Indeed, we won't even link to them.
But it got me to thinking of Wendy's new problem. She spends hours each day reviewing news items for ifeminists.com. Sure, it's easy to remember not to quote one source, but what happens when the copyright trolls start suing for 70 different online newspapers? Post a list by her computer? The engineer in me says there has to be a better way.
And there is, because our browsers already have a way to block objectionable content: ad-blockers. Here's how to configure them to block the Review-Journal:
Opera 9.x: Click Tools > Advanced > Blocked Content. Click Add. Type "http://*.lvrj.com/*" in the box, press Enter, and click Close. Presto! The Review-Journal will not appear in your browser.
Firefox with AdBlock Plus: Click Tools > Adblock Plus Preferences. Click Add filter. Type "http://*.lvrj.com/*" in the box, press Enter, and click OK. Unfortunately this only filters the images and formatting from lvrj.com; the text remains in a plain HTML rendering. I'm still trying to find how to fix that (see update below), but at least it serves as a strong visual reminder.
Using the Hosts File: With a text editor, open the file /etc/hosts (Linux, Unix, OS X) or C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts (Windows). Add the following lines at the end: 127.0.0.1 lvrj.com 127.0.0.1 www.lvrj.com This will redirect requests for the LVRJ back to your own computer, with varying results, depending on how your computer is set up. But the important thing is that you won't see the LVRJ. The problem with this approach is that you can't quickly override it if you need to.
I don't know how to set up ad blocking for Internet Explorer or Safari, but the hosts file should work on any system. As the copyright trolls start litigating additional newspapers, simply add them to your block list.
Now if only someone would write a TrollBlock plugin for Firefox... Update: someone has: the BlockSite add-on.
"Patent trolls" were bad enough. Now there are "copyright trolls," and one in particular is suing anyone who has quoted content from the Las Vegas Review-Journal. One gun-rights website has shut down as a result.
On July 21st, The Armed Citizen received an indirect and informal notice of a lawsuit against this website and its owners, David Burnett and Clayton Cramer.
The suit, reportedly filed in US District Court on July 20th, alleges that The Armed Citizen and its owners “willfully copied” and infringed on original source content from the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
According to news reports, Righthaven LLC has filed lawsuits against no less than 80 other political websites and individual blogs for “infringement.”
Borrowing a page from patent trolls, the CEO of fledgling Las Vegas-based Righthaven has begun buying out the copyrights to newspaper content for the sole purpose of suing blogs and websites that re-post those articles without permission. And he says he’s making money.
...Now he’s talking expansion. The Review-Journal’s publisher, Stephens Media in Las Vegas, runs over 70 other newspapers in nine states, and Gibson says he already has an agreement to expand his practice to cover those properties.
...Gibson says he’s just getting started. Righthaven has other media clients that he won’t name until the lawsuits start rolling out, he says.
They're not acknowledging "fair use" as a defense, so limiting your quotes to 75 words or less won't prevent you from being sued. (It might help you win the lawsuit, but who wants the expense?) Therefore, we have removed from this site the one small quotation from the LVRJ, and we've pulled all LVRJ news links from ifeminists.com. And we have adopted a policy to never use any LVRJ content henceforth. If more of these "submarine" clients are revealed, we'll pull their content, too.
If you run a website or blog, I strongly advise you to do likewise.
An update on the Thoreauvian experiment-in-living being conducted by a good friend who is fed up with society and wants to see how far he can take "life in the woods".... (For an earlier report, click here.) Busy Times at the Backwoods of Hell
I realize that I have been negligent in my updating of the goings on here at BwoH, in part, and yes this is where I make excuses. The delay has been because I have not been in BwoH, for part of the time.. I left for familial obligations (perceived) and business opportunities (desperately needed). Two months in the flatlands resulted in slightly better than breaking even monetarily but very good “karma” and personal satisfaction. A mother thrilled at her new living room and kitchen, a friend saved from the threat of many lawsuits (built a beautiful fence), and another friend saved from her own attempts at home improvement. Grandparents saved from boredom, unfortunately through needless replacement of siding, but still I am glad for the time for they have been fortunate enough to outlive the averages and so we have spent the sort of time together that songs like “Cats in the Cradle” remind us is quite precious.
Tried to rescue some unwanted strawberries and elderberry plants.. strawberries just up and croaked because they just did not value their contribution to the life I am building I am sure. Elderberries died off immediately upon temporary transplanting while I finishied up work in the flatlands, but were recovering by the time I left. Good hearty survivalists! So I dug them up again, took them several hours by truck south and east.. and they died off again.. maybe.. they are putting up what I believe are more shoots, and so I remain hopeful that these are one of the ultimate plant survivalists! At the same time, having positively identified elderberries, which BTW are great for diabetes and other issues, I've found more than a few clumps of them in the BwoH!.. Still, the more the merrier!
And speaking of foraging, since I've been back I have stumbled across some wonderful Sumac berries which were used by natives/ first nations peoples for a version of “lemonade!” Wonderful stuff.. Blackberries are ripe.. need I say more? I found two Sassafrass trees, which for those who do not know are essential in root beer (the roots are the reason for “root” beer) and gumbo (the leaves are powdered to make file...) I've enjoyed a bumper crop of pin cherries which are small wild (original) cherries), along side daylillies (pods are like a cross between asparagus and radish... delightful!)
The garden is producing well as well. Chinese long beans are the star at the moment. You can pick 5-15 beans (depending on your appetite) as either a part of a meal, or as so often the case for me, most or all of a meal. You'd have to pick 5 times as many green beans to even come close to the lower end of that number of long beans, and the long beans taste better! Malabar spinach is taking over, so gets pulled like a weed, but also eaten daily. Squash is having problems this year, but I fear that this is because of the gardening practices of Rancher Bob and his wife, whose garden I am using/caretaking this year in place of my own (my site is not yet ready).. I hope that by going away from row gardening, to intensive but more natural gardening, I will be able to overcome some of the problems we are having.
Tomatoes are delicious, contrary to those store bought things.. the corn, though often containing a worm at the top, is delightful, and a true reminder of the delights of summer.. The raspberries produce more than I would ever have guessed, and have found a special place in my heart (or is that stomach) in the form of a 'condiment' on a peanut butter and raspberry sandwich.. They are okay on their own, but shine nova bright on the sandwich.. If you can take a kids food, PB&J to gourmet level, this is the way to do it!
Finally, I am still working towards the construction. Unfortunately I have to just pester the backhoe operator to try to get him here before I leave again. Once this small (with equipment) work is done, I can take on the build with gusto.. but one lesson is learned.. all of the rumors of the difficulty in getting work done in rural areas, are true in spades.. and my deck has been stacked with spades..
Still, a good life, great eats, and much still to come..
Breitbart’s Big Hollywood published an exclusive look at production on the set of Atlas Shrugged, the classic Ayn Rand novel that has skyrocketed to the top of bestseller lists on the back of support from conservative leaders like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh. Editor-in-Chief John Nolte reports that the state of the film is much more positive than initial reports made it seem, and broke the news that the novel is set to be split into a trilogy, rather than cramming all 1,200 pages into a two-hour feature...
I just stumbled across my laugh of the day. Mish linked to a web article "Writing For Readers — 5 writing styles for maximum impact", about blog writing style. Sounds interesting, I thought, so I clicked the link. And this is what I saw in my Opera browser:
From Cop Block (23/07): "Cop who committed murder gets 60 days in jail." The item opens,
A cop killed a woman while racing his car and speeding. This cop also drove faster than 90 mph at least 90 times in the month before McKay’s death and reached 118 mph twice on Interstate 595 and 114 mph once on A1A, where the speed limit is 30 mph. He got less of a sentence than Lindsay Lohan’s 90 day jail sentence for showing up late to court.
In 1776, the Declaration of Independence made it plain that in America, “Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, - That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive..., it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it,...” The consent theory stated by the Declaration is standard fare in American politics. The Declaration, however, failed to address a very important question: How do individuals express their disapproval of a political regime and/or withdraw their consent from a government that they deem “destructive?”
There are several methods that Americans have used to demonstrate their lack of consent. One way is to renounce allegiance to an existing political order. The colonists in North America seceded from the British empire by successfully waging the Revolutionary War. On the other hand, the eleven Confederate states removed themselves from the federal union from 1861-1865, before being forcibly reintegrated back into the United States. 1
A second way someone can express a lack of consent is to move to a different country. This is what several commentators have called “the exit option.” 2 History teaches that the last resort of the individual against tyranny is to escape from its jurisdiction. The Jews left Egypt; the Separatists fled England. History is replete with examples of people who “voted with their feet.”
A third way people express a lack of consent is by not voting. Although political pundits might not call it a withdrawal of consent, the fact is that millions upon millions of Americans show their displeasure with their government by not registering for and/or casting a ballot in political elections. Non-voting represents an exit from political society. It is a silent form of “social power” that speaks volumes. Choosing not to vote may be a form of apathy, but it is simultaneously an expression of “what I perceive is best for me.”
YouTube: WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH COPS! Police Push Disabled Woman To The Ground Then Walk Off! These are the people charged with maintaining public safety...
Will America’s Police Become Federales? by Wendy McElroy
Police unions across America are moving closer to being federalized. The Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act of 2009 was reintroduced in the Senate by Majority Leader Harry Reid on April 12, where it currently awaits debate. The act is part of a supplemental appropriations bill meant to fund military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. If passed, the act would place first responders (police, firemen, paramedics) under federal union regulations. Control would be removed from state and local authorities except in places with fewer than 5,000 people or with fewer than 25 full-time first responders.
In effect the act seeks to nullify important aspects of the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 which in turn reversed much of the pro-union Wagner Act of 1935. Taft-Hartley is currently the cornerstone of U.S. labor law and allows individual states to regulate their own public-sector worker relations.
Most of the attention paid to the act has focused on the disastrous budget consequences it would have for local authorities. Public-employee payments (wages, pensions, and health benefits) already consume a huge slice of the expenditures of cities and states; for many the burden is so heavy they are verging on bankruptcy. The San Francisco Chronicle (July 14) reported, “Oakland [Calif.] laid off 80 police officers Tuesday after negotiations between city officials and union leaders failed on one simple matter: job security. The police union demanded that the city guarantee that its officers would not be laid off for three years in exchange for giving up some pension benefits that would have eased the city’s budget problems. City leaders, however, said it would have been irresponsible of them to agree to protect police jobs for more than one year because the city’s budget problems are likely to worsen.”
The act would remove such flexibility from local authorities and instead impose the unfunded mandate of applying federal standards that would be determined by the Federal Labor Relations Authority. In disputes a labor relations czar would arbitrate the “hours, wages, and terms and conditions of employment.” Local governments would no longer be able to adjust pay scales and benefits according to their own budgets nor would local voters have any input.
Transparency and Accountability?
The act would also diminish police transparency and accountability because it would regulate disciplinary policies through which police and sheriff departments address alleged abuse and misconduct. The act would strengthen unions that have a long record of siding almost unconditionally with their members against such allegations. For example, in June a young black woman who had jaywalked was punched in the face by a Seattle policeman. The president of the local police union declared, “He [the Seattle officer] did nothing wrong. If anything, I think he maybe waited a little too long to engage in force.”
Equally, when local authorities attempt to correct police abuse, police unions are often the greatest barrier. The Syracuse Post Standard (July 6) reported, “Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner has taken courageous steps to rid the police department of misbehavior that sullies the image of every officer.” Nevertheless, she has come “under withering criticism from the police union for refusing to sign a commendation” for a detective whom a federal jury found guilty last year of using excessive force. On July 19 the Austin police union urged the city council not to accept a $750,000 settlement with the family of a man killed by an officer last year. In many cases, police unions also act to block public and media scrutiny of accused officers.
The act has already passed the House so its fate rests with the Senate. The D.C. watchdog periodical The Hill (July 19) reported, “Senate and House Democrats are headed for a clash this week over funding for U.S. troops….The Senate and House are squabbling over $22.8 billion House appropriators added to the supplemental bill…. Senate Democratic leaders doubt the House bill can pass their chamber with the extra spending ” Nevertheless, Harry Reid has made it clear he will push the legislation and is threatening to keep the Senate in session past in August 1 if necessary. Given how important the August recess is to upcoming election campaigns, a lot of legislation may well be rushed through.
The Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act moves in precisely the wrong direction. Local authorities should have more power to negotiate down the disastrous cost of public-employee unions; the police should become more accountable and transparent in cases of alleged abuse. Power should be decentralized not federalized.
RRND/FND 3rd quarter fundraiser
Update, 07/30/10: We’ve got ourselves a situation here, folks. Today is the second “zero dollar day” in a row, and the first time we’ve had two in a row during this fundraiser.
We’re stalled at $1,443.82 ($198 higher than the ChipIn meter shows due to contributions coming via other avenues), $639.18 short of our goal.
Do I [...]
