Liberty Sentry

Liberty Sentry will no longer be updated

2011-01-25T16:59:00.001-06:00

It is with little regret that I will be shutting down this blog. To be honest, I need to take a break from the day-to-day political grind, especially when it comes to the insanity that has consumed Washington, D.C. It has been said that all politics is local, and I plan on giving more coverage to local issues on my page at Examiner.com.

Blogging has been a convenient way to vent some steam, but I want it to be both edifying and fun. That is why I will be devoting more time to my other blogs, Lemon Harangue Pie and The Contemporary Calvinist.

Thanks for reading.

D.C. expanding public surveillance camera net

2011-01-20T21:57:00.000-06:00

(Washington Examiner) - Big Brother may already be watching you in the District, and he will soon have a lot more eyes trained in your direction.

The city's homeland security agency is planning to add thousands of security cameras from private businesses around the nation's capital and the Metro system to the thousands of electronic eyes that authorities are already monitoring 24/7.

(Full story)

Army suicides at Fort Hood hit record mark

2011-01-20T09:32:00.000-06:00

(MySanAntonio.com) - Sgt. 1st Class Gregory Eugene Giger was a “tall quiet Texan” even after his wife filed for divorce while he was in Iraq, his mom says.

Still, he was devastated.

“The only thing that I know is when she sued for divorce, she charged him with $2,000-a-month child support and insisted that he pay half of the house,” said Helen Giger, 71, of Chandler, east of Dallas. “And by the time she got through charging him with various things, he had very little money left over, not even hardly enough to pay for his rent.”

Authorities found Giger, 42, of Houston dead in his apartment near Fort Hood, hanging by necktie. He was one of at least 22 GIs from the post to commit suicide in 2010.

(Full story)

Man loses guns and gun license due to blog about Tucson shooting

2011-01-19T08:58:00.000-06:00

ARLINGTON, Mass. (CBS) - A blog threatening members of Congress in the wake of the Tucson, Arizona shooting has prompted Arlington police to temporarily suspend the firearms license of an Arlington man.

It was the headline "1 down and 534 to go" that caught the attention. "One" refers to Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head in the rampage, while 534 refers to the other members of the U.S. House and Senate.

Police are investigating the "suitability" of 39-year-old Travis Corcoran to have a firearms license.

(Full story)

Virginia teen detained in Kuwait sues U.S. over no-fly list

2011-01-19T08:45:00.000-06:00

(Washington Examiner) - A Northern Virginia teenager detained in Kuwait is suing the U.S. government, saying officials violated his rights by apparently placing him on the no-fly list without reason.

Gulet Mohamed, 19, claims in the suit that he was detained in Kuwait in December at the request of U.S. authorities. The lawsuit says Mohamed, an Alexandria resident, was beaten, tortured and interrogated by Kuwaiti authorities about his prior travels in Yemen and Somalia.

Mohamed was taken into custody in Kuwait when he tried to renew his visa at the Kuwait International Airport on Dec. 20. He claims in the suit that he was tortured for more than week, then taken to a deportation facility. When Mohamed tried to board a flight to the United States on Sunday, the lawsuit says, he was not allowed onto the plane.

(Full story)

Survey: U.S. doctors fear health care reform

2011-01-19T08:41:00.002-06:00

(Reuters) - Nearly two-thirds of U.S. doctors surveyed fear healthcare reform could worsen care for patients, by flooding their offices and hurting income, according to a Thomson Reuters survey released Tuesday.

The survey of more than 2,900 doctors found many predict the legislation will force them to work harder for less money.

"When asked about the quality of healthcare in the U.S. over the next five years, 65 percent of the doctors believed it would deteriorate with only 18 percent predicting it would improve," Thomson Reuters, parent company of Reuters, said in a statement.

(Full story)

Man to stand trial for defying TSA agents

2011-01-17T10:58:00.000-06:00

(KOB Eyewitness News 4) - A Seattle man’s trial in Albuquerque on charges of making trouble at an airport security checkpoint is getting attention from civil liberties groups all over the country.

Phil Mocek was arrested at the Albuquerque Sunport in November of 2009 after he refused to show I.D. to TSA officers at the security checkpoint. Police say Mocek became disruptive. They arrested him and charged him with disorderly conduct, refusing to obey an officer, criminal trespassing, and concealing his identity. After many delays, his trial in Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court was scheduled to begin this morning, but the judge ordered it postponed until January 20.

(Full story)

The U.S. protects its own terrorists

2011-01-16T08:38:00.000-06:00

A video you won't see in an armed forces recruiting office

2011-01-15T08:38:00.000-06:00

(via)

Feds threaten to sue states over union laws

2011-01-14T15:02:00.000-06:00

WASHINGTON (AP) - The National Labor Relations Board on Friday threatened to sue Arizona, South Carolina, South Dakota and Utah over constitutional amendments guaranteeing workers the right to a secret ballot in union elections.

The agency's acting general counsel, Lafe Solomon, said the amendments conflict with federal law, which gives employers the option of recognizing a union if a majority of workers sign cards that support unionizing.

(Full story)

9-year-old boy ruled a threat by U.S. immigration

2011-01-14T14:57:00.000-06:00

(The Telegraph) - Civil servants Kathy and Edward Francis planned to surprise their grandson Micah Strachan with the holiday of a lifetime to Florida in February.

They were only going to tell Micah about it when they took him to the airport on February 19 for the flight to the U.S.

They had already spent more than £1,500 on plane tickets and had been organising the trip for months.

But this week U.S. Embassy officials denied the schoolboy a visa to enter the U.S.

They said there was a risk he would not leave the U.S. at the end of his holiday and refused his application under Section 214 (b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

(Full story)

Obama's hypocritical memorial speech for Arizona shooting victims

2011-01-12T20:11:00.000-06:00

Right now, President Obama is speaking at a memorial service for those slain in the recent Arizona shootings. He is going on about how we should all work together, build a better America, teach our children well, blah, blah, blah.

Keep in mind that this is a man whose military endeavors have resulted in the deaths of thousands of Middle Eastern men, women, and children. This is a president who has claimed the right to assassinate any American citizen he considers to be dangerous. He continues to support the right of women to murder their unborn children. And yet his empty rhetoric is still able to pull people out of their seats with gratuitous standing ovations. There is something seriously wrong with this country.

Education board to vote on middle school drugs tests

2011-01-11T19:22:00.000-06:00

BELVIDERE, N.J. (CBS 2) - A proposal to conduct random drug tests of young students in one New Jersey town is raising some eyebrows.

Students at Belvidere Elementary School could be adding drug testing to their list of lessons when they move into middle school.

The Board of Education will vote Wednesday on a plan to randomly test sixth, seventh and eighth graders to see if they are under the influence of drugs. School administrators said they were confident the proposal would pass.

(Full story)

GOP congressman wants to ban 2nd Amendment around government officials

2011-01-11T11:09:00.000-06:00

(Huffington Post) - Rep. Peter King, a Republican from New York, is planning to introduce legislation that would make it illegal to bring a gun within 1,000 feet of a government official, according to a person familiar with the congressman's intentions.

King is chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. The proposed law follows the Saturday shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) and a federal judge that left six dead, including the judge, and 14 wounded.

(Full story)

U.S. orders Twitter to hand over WikiLeaks records

2011-01-08T15:08:00.002-06:00

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. court has ordered Twitter to hand over details of the accounts of WikiLeaks and several supporters as part of a criminal investigation into the release of hundreds of thousands of confidential documents.

The December 14 subpoena obtained by the Department of Justice and published by online magazine Salon.com on Friday said the records sought from the microblogging website were "relevant to an ongoing criminal investigation."

(Full story)

Botched drug raid ends in death of grandfather

2011-01-06T22:07:00.001-06:00

The latest casualty in the "war on drugs" is Eurie Stamps, a 68-year-old grandfather of 12. He was shot and killed yesterday in in Framingham, Massachusetts, during the execution of an early-morning search warrant. Two 20-year-old men were arrested on drug charges during the raid.

As usual, the official statement from the police department danced around the details: "During the service of the search warrant Mr. Eurie Stamps was tragically and fatally struck by a bullet which was discharged from a SWAT officer's rifle. Despite immediate intervention by tactical medics, he died at the scene." Why not just state what actually happened, that an innocent grandfather was gunned down in cold blood by a trigger-happy cop?

It seems to me responsible police surveillance would entail tracking a suspect and waiting until he or she was away from innocent bystanders before moving in for the arrest. But, then again, simply arresting the bad guy isn't the goal. These midnight, no-knock, Stasi-like raids are an effective and fearful show of force, and anyone getting in the way is considered collateral damage.

Billion-dollar spy center being built in Utah.

2011-01-06T14:13:00.000-06:00

CAMP WILLIAMS (Desert News) - Today's groundbreaking for a $1.5 billion National Security Agency data center is being billed as important in the short term for construction jobs and important in the long term for Utah's reputation as a technology center.

"This will bring 5,000 to 10,000 new jobs during its construction and development phase," Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said on Wednesday. "Once completed, it will support 100 to 200 permanent high-paid employees."

Officially named the Utah Data Center, the facility's role in aggregating and verifying dizzying volumes of data for the intelligence community has already earned it the nickname "Spy Center." Its really long moniker is the Community Comprehensive National Cyber-security Initiative Data Center — the first in the nation's intelligence community.

(Full story)

What it means to "regulate commerce"

2011-01-04T22:56:00.001-06:00

by P.A. Madison (The Federalist Blog) - The federal government for years has claimed expansive powers under the authority to regulate commerce, so much, that the most innocent private activity can now come under federal control simply because it can be viewed as having an influence on "interstate commerce" (such as the wheat in your bread having come from another State). In the 1960s, Congress claimed the authority to ban discrimination in employment, public accommodations and more through the power to regulate commerce under the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi issued a press release in September of 2009 that read, in part: "[T]he Constitution gives Congress broad power to regulate activities that have an effect on interstate commerce. Congress has used this authority to regulate many aspects of American life, from labor relations to education to health care to agricultural production. Since virtually every aspect of the heath care system has an effect on interstate commerce, the power of Congress to regulate health care is essentially unlimited."

Such an assertion ignores, as the evidence below will show, that the regulation of commerce by design deals solely with duties and imposts on the intercourse of trade between Nations or States, which in return had absolutely nothing to do with regulating internal industries, labor or transactions. As Thomas Jefferson put it: "To make a thing which may be bought and sold is not to prescribe regulations for buying and selling. Besides, if this were an exercise of the power of regulating commerce, it would be void, as extending as much to the internal commerce of every state, as to its external."

(Full article)

DEA, an unelected, non-legislative agency, bans 'fake pot' products

2011-01-03T15:54:00.000-06:00

WASHINGTON (USA Today) - The DEA used its emergency powers Wednesday to ban K2 and other "fake pot" products that mimic the effects of marijuana.

The action by the Drug Enforcement Administration makes it illegal to possess or sell the five chemicals used to make the products for at least one year. The agency and the Department of Health and Human Services will determine whether the chemicals should be permanently added to the federal list of controlled substances considered unsafe, highly abused and without medical use.

(Full story)

Pilot punished for video exposing the farce of "airport security"

2010-12-28T14:26:00.002-06:00

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KXTV News) - An airline pilot is being disciplined by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) for posting video on YouTube pointing out what he believes are serious flaws in airport security.

The 50-year-old pilot, who lives outside Sacramento, asked that neither he nor his airline be identified. He has worked for the airline for more than a decade and was deputized by the TSA to carry a gun in the cockpit.

He is also a helicopter test pilot in the Army Reserve and flew missions for the United Nations in Macedonia.

Three days after he posted a series of six video clips recorded with a cell phone camera at San Francisco International Airport, four federal air marshals and two sheriff's deputies arrived at his house to confiscate his federally-issued firearm. The pilot recorded that event as well and provided all the video to News10.

(Full story)

UPDATE: Chris Liu: I am the YouTube airline pilot

DEA transformed into a global intelligence organization

2010-12-27T11:52:00.000-06:00

WASHINGTON (NY Times) - The Drug Enforcement Administration has been transformed into a global intelligence organization with a reach that extends far beyond narcotics, and an eavesdropping operation so expansive it has to fend off foreign politicians who want to use it against their political enemies, according to secret diplomatic cables.

In far greater detail than previously seen, the cables, from the cache obtained by WikiLeaks and made available to some news organizations, offer glimpses of drug agents balancing diplomacy and law enforcement in places where it can be hard to tell the politicians from the traffickers, and where drug rings are themselves mini-states whose wealth and violence permit them to run roughshod over struggling governments.

(Full story)

Citing police abuse, Hispanics leaving Conn. town

2010-12-27T09:20:00.000-06:00

EAST HAVEN, Conn. (AP) - Santiago Malave has worked law enforcement jobs in Connecticut for more than four decades, but as a Puerto Rican, he says he cannot drive through his own town without worrying about police harassing him.

Malave, a probation officer who works in New Haven, says the racial abuse is so bad that he only crosses the town line into East Haven to go home. He and his wife are now preparing to sell their house and move, joining an exodus of Hispanics who say police have hassled them with traffic stops, false arrests and even jailhouse beatings.

(Full story)

Merry Christmas! Get used to airport pat-downs

2010-12-26T17:13:00.000-06:00

WASHINGTON (AP) - The use of full-body scanners and invasive pat-downs at airports around the U.S. will not change for the "foreseeable future," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said in an interview broadcast Sunday.

While saying that she is always looking to improve the security systems in place, Napolitano added that the new technology and the pat-downs were "objectively safer for our traveling public."

(Full story)

"Anti-terrorist" teams conduct random bag searches on trains and buses

2010-12-22T09:14:00.000-06:00

(Washington Post) - Metro anti-terrorism teams will immediately start random inspections of passengers' bags and packages to try to protect the rail and bus system from attack, transit officials said Thursday.

Police using explosives-screening equipment and bomb-sniffing dogs will pull aside for inspection about every third person carrying a bag, Metro Transit Police Chief Michael Taborn said. The searches might be conducted at one location at a time or at several places simultaneously. If people refuse, they will be barred from entering the rail station or boarding a bus with the item, Taborn said. The inspections will be conducted "indefinitely," he said.

(Full story)

Bush's "Christian" legacy in Iraq

2010-12-18T22:27:00.001-06:00

IRBIL, Iraq (AP) - They saw their brethren murdered during Mass and then were bombed in their homes as they mourned. Al-Qaida vowed to hunt them down. Now the Christian community of Iraq, almost as old as the religion itself, is sensing a clear message: It is time to leave.

Since the Oct. 31 bloodbath in their Baghdad church, Iraqi Christians have been fleeing Sunni Muslim extremists who view them as nonbelievers and agents of the West. At a time when Christians in various parts of the Muslim world are feeling pressured, Iraqi Christians are approaching their grimmest Christmas since the U.S.-led invasion of 2003 and wondering if they have any future in their native land.

They have suffered repeated violence and harassment since 2003, when the interreligious peace rigidly enforced by Saddam Hussein fell apart. But the attack on Our Lady of Salvation in which 68 people died appears to have been a tipping point that has driven many to flee northward to the Kurdish enclave while seeking asylum in the U.S. and elsewhere.

(Full story)

After outcry, feds back down; banks can display crosses

2010-12-18T22:16:00.000-06:00

PERKINS, Okla. (KOCO.com) - The small-town bank in Oklahoma will be able to restore its Christian signs and symbols after all, thanks in part to public outcry against the Federal Reserve.

The president of Payne County Bank, Lynn Kinder, said he spoke with the second in command at the Federal Reserve late Thursday evening. Both sides agreed to work out the issue.

(Full story)

Oklahoma bank "Scrooged" by the feds

2010-12-17T11:30:00.000-06:00

PERKINS, Okla. (KOCO.com) - A small-town bank in Oklahoma said the Federal Reserve won't let it keep religious signs and symbols on display.

Federal Reserve examiners come every four years to make sure banks are complying with a long list of regulations. The examiners came to Perkins last week. And the team from Kansas City deemed a Bible verse of the day, crosses on the teller's counter and buttons that say "Merry Christmas, God With Us." were inappropriate. The Bible verse of the day on the bank's Internet site also had to be taken down.

(Full story)

Obamacare rationing begins

2010-12-17T09:53:00.000-06:00

(BigGovernment.com) - The Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) announced yesterday that it would ration the late-stage cancer drug Avastin for breast cancer patients. (Ironically, the same day the EU announced it would not ration access to Avastin.) The reaction to the FDA's decision has been fierce.

(Full story)

U.S. tries to build conspiracy case against WikiLeaks

2010-12-15T22:11:00.000-06:00

WASHINGTON (NY Times) - Federal prosecutors, seeking to build a case against the WikiLeaks leader Julian Assange for his role in a huge dissemination of classified government documents, are looking for evidence of any collusion in his early contacts with an Army intelligence analyst suspected of leaking the information.

Justice Department officials are trying to find out whether Mr. Assange encouraged or even helped the analyst, Pfc. Bradley Manning, to extract classified military and State Department files from a government computer system. If he did so, they believe they could charge him as a conspirator in the leak, not just as a passive recipient of the documents who then published them.

(Full story)

How can any nation be expected to win a "war on terror"...

2010-12-15T13:36:00.000-06:00

...when the train station at military headquarters is shut down because of a blinking Christmas ornament?

iPhone snitch network launched

2010-12-14T08:29:00.000-06:00

(Infowars.com) - A new iPhone App with the misleading name "PatriotApp" attempts to draw on the power of the patriot movement, turning smartphone users into a gigantic snitch network.

You might think an app with such a patriotic name might have useful functions like a pocket constitution or quotes from our forefathers. But contrary to the services one might expect, this app allows users to report any "suspicious" behavior directly linking them with top government agencies.

(Full story)

Obama's health-care law ruled unconstitutional over insurance requirement

2010-12-13T22:41:00.000-06:00

(Bloomberg) - The Obama administration's requirement that most citizens maintain minimum health coverage as part of a broad overhaul of the industry is unconstitutional, a federal judge ruled, striking down the linchpin of the plan.

U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson in Richmond, Virginia, today said that the requirement in President Barack Obama's health-care legislation goes beyond Congress's powers to regulate interstate commerce. While severing the coverage mandate, which is set to become effective in 2014, Hudson didn't address other provisions such as expanding Medicaid.

(Full story)

Ron Paul on WikiLeaks

2010-12-09T22:43:00.002-06:00

Hypocrisy: U.S. to host World Press Freedom Day

2010-12-07T18:48:00.000-06:00

The United States, which has been condemning the release of documents by WikiLeaks, will be hosting World Press Freedom Day in 2011. From the State Department's press release:

The theme for next year's commemoration will be 21st Century Media: New Frontiers, New Barriers. The United States places technology and innovation at the forefront of its diplomatic and development efforts. New media has empowered citizens around the world to report on their circumstances, express opinions on world events, and exchange information in environments sometimes hostile to such exercises of individuals' right to freedom of expression. At the same time, we are concerned about the determination of some governments to censor and silence individuals, and to restrict the free flow of information. We mark events such as World Press Freedom Day in the context of our enduring commitment to support and expand press freedom and the free flow of information in this digital age.

Yeah, right.

Naturally, one expects this kind of hypocrisy from the government. But what has made the WikiLeaks controversy even worse is that the mainstream press is making Julian Assange the focus of the story rather than the secrets corrupt government officials sought to conceal from the rest of us. Whatever happened to pursuing the truth and keeping the people informed?

Senators unveil anti-WikiLeaks bill

2010-12-06T19:40:00.000-06:00

(The Hill) - Sens. John Ensign (R-Nev.), Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Scott Brown (R-Mass.) introduced a bill Thursday aimed at stopping WikiLeaks by making it illegal to publish the names of military or intelligence community informants.

Ensign accused WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and his "cronies" of hindering America's war efforts and creating a "hit list" for U.S. enemies by outing intelligence sources.

(Full story)

DoT exploring technology that would disable cell phones in cars

2010-12-06T10:08:00.000-06:00

(The Hill) - The Transportation Department is looking into technology to disable cell phones in vehicles, according to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

"There's a lot of technology out there that can disable phones and we're looking at that," LaHood said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."

"A number of those people came to our distracted driving meeting here in Washington and that's one way," he said.

LaHood seemed to suggest that this technology has a good chance of making its way into cars.

(Full story)

U.S. regulators propose requiring backup cameras in all new cars by 2014

2010-12-06T10:07:00.000-06:00

(Bloomberg) - U.S. auto-safety regulators proposed requiring backup cameras on all new vehicles by 2014 to prevent drivers from backing over pedestrians, a rule that may cost as much as $2.7 billion.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which published the proposed rule today, said an average of 292 people die each year from back-over accidents, which primarily kill children and the elderly. To equip a new-vehicle fleet of 16.6 million produced in a year would cost from $1.9 billion to $2.7 billion, the agency said in the proposal, calling the cost "substantial" and saying it might reduce back-over deaths and injuries by almost half.

(Full story)

Federal lawsuit alleges stop-and-frisk unfairly targets minorities

2010-12-06T10:02:00.000-06:00

(Philadelphia Inquirer) - In the debate over the [Philadelphia] police tactic known as stop-and-frisk, both sides agree there's nothing inherently wrong with officers stopping more black and Hispanic than white residents, at least in cities where violent crime is concentrated in minority neighborhoods.

The question is: At what point does stopping a disproportionate number of minorities cross the line into illegal, race-based policing?

When does a legitimate, proactive tactic become the wholesale harassment of communities?

Determining those limits has been one of the more controversial topics in big-city law enforcement - and a question that often has gone before the courts to be answered.

(Full story)

Sarah Palin thinks telling the truth is anti-American

2010-12-01T14:52:00.000-06:00

Sarah Palin, in a note posted on Facebook, calls WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange "an anti-American operative with blood on his hands." She asks, "Why was he not pursued with the same urgency we pursue al Qaeda and Taliban leaders?"

Palin, like every other neocon, would never even think of accusing the Pentagon of having blood on its hands. "We are at war," she writes. "American soldiers are in Afghanistan fighting to protect our freedoms." (What, our freedom to be ogled and molested at airports?) "They are serious about keeping America safe." (Safe from whom, Muslim bogeymen, or the traitors in Washington actively working to turn America into a police state?) "It would be great if they could count on their government being equally serious about that vital task." (But their government is responsible for putting them in harm's way in the first place.)

Tell me, Sarah, would you rather live in a country where the government is able to be scrutinized by the people, or in a country where the government operates in complete secrecy? Actually, I think you've already answered that question.

WikiLeaks founder offered asylum in Ecuador

2010-11-30T12:09:00.000-06:00

From the AP:

If WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange needs a home, Ecuador's deputy foreign minister says this Andean nation is happy to provide one. ...

... In contrast to the potential hostility from U.S. allies, leftist-run Ecuador provided Assange with an invitation Monday.

Deputy Foreign Minister Kintto Lucas said in audio posted online by the EcuadorInmediato news site that "we are open to giving him residence in Ecuador, without any kind of trouble and without any kind of conditions."

"We think it would be important not only to converse with him but to listen to him," Lucas added, saying Ecuador wanted to invite Assange to "freely expound" and see what it's like in "friendly countries."

He praised people like Assange "who are constantly investigating and trying to get light out of the dark corners of (state) information"

This isn't sitting too well with the state-worshiping neocon Neanderthals at Free Republic.

Give thanks to TSA agents?

2010-11-29T22:49:00.000-06:00

No. Robert Wenzel of EconomicPolicyJournal.com explains what we should give them.

Congressman wants WikiLeaks declared a terrorist organization

2010-11-29T09:38:00.000-06:00

WASHINGTON (AP/1010 WINS/WCBS 880) - Hundreds of thousands of State Department documents leaked Sunday revealed a hidden world of backstage international diplomacy, divulging candid comments from world leaders and detailing occasional U.S. pressure tactics aimed at hot spots in Afghanistan, Iran and North Korea.

The classified diplomatic cables released by online whistle-blower WikiLeaks and reported on by news organizations in the United States and Europe provided often unflattering assessments of foreign leaders, ranging from U.S. allies such as Germany and Italy to other nations like Libya, Iran and Afghanistan.

The cables also contained new revelations about long-simmering nuclear trouble spots, detailing U.S., Israeli and Arab world fears of Iran’s growing nuclear program, American concerns about Pakistan's atomic arsenal and U.S. discussions about a united Korean peninsula as a long-term solution to North Korean aggression.

Long Island Rep. Peter King told 1010 WINS the release of the information put "American lives at risk all over the world."

(Full story)

The FBI successfully thwarts its own terrorist plot

2010-11-28T16:13:00.000-06:00

by Glenn Greenwald - The FBI is obviously quite pleased with itself over its arrest of a 19-year-old Somali-American, Mohamed Osman Mohamud, who -- with months of encouragement, support and money from the FBI's own undercover agents -- allegedly attempted to detonate a bomb at a crowded Christmas event in Portland, Oregon. Media accounts are almost uniformly trumpeting this event exactly as the FBI describes it. Loyalists of both parties are doing the same, with Democratic Party commentators proclaiming that this proves how great and effective Democrats are at stopping The Evil Terrorists, while right-wing polemicists point to this arrest as yet more proof that those menacing Muslims sure are violent and dangerous.

What's missing from all of these celebrations is an iota of questioning or skepticism. All of the information about this episode -- all of it -- comes exclusively from an FBI affidavit filed in connection with a Criminal Complaint against Mohamud. As shocking and upsetting as this may be to some, FBI claims are sometimes one-sided, unreliable and even untrue, especially when such claims -- as here -- are uncorroborated and unexamined. That's why we have what we call "trials" before assuming guilt or even before believing that we know what happened: because the government doesn't always tell the complete truth, because they often skew reality, because things often look much different once the accused is permitted to present his own facts and subject the government's claims to scrutiny. The FBI affidavit -- as well as whatever its agents are whispering into the ears of reporters -- contains only those facts the FBI chose to include, but omits the ones it chose to exclude. And even the "facts" that are included are merely assertions at this point and thus may not be facts at all.

(Full article)

Perry backs sending U.S. troops into Mexico to quell drug violence

2010-11-28T10:26:00.000-06:00

AUSTIN (Dallas Morning News) - Gov. Rick Perry said Thursday he would support sending U.S. troops into Mexico to fight the drug war.

The Republican has long urged beefed-up security on the American side of the violence-plagued border, but he said stronger tactics are needed to defeat the drug cartels.

"You have a situation on the border where American citizens are being killed, and you didn't see that back when George Bush was the governor," Perry said in an interview with MSNBC.

Asked whether the U.S. should consider deploying troops inside Mexico, Perry said the federal government should consider all options "including the military."

(Full story)

A brief observation on terrorism at airports

2010-11-28T09:42:00.013-06:00

What terrorist in his right mind would bother trying to sneak a bomb through airport security? If the goal of the terrorist is to simply take out as many people as possible, why not simply detonate a bomb in the middle of a packed airport? The parking ramps, main entrances, ticket counters, and lines leading up to the security checkpoints are all unguarded and unscreened. I have yet to see a single government official or news reporter mention this. Why is that?

The reason is that all of the "security" measures being implemented at our nation's airports have more to do with creating a submissive citizenry than actually keeping people safe. And, of course, the use of porno scanners means loads of cash for Michael Chertoff and his friends.

Willie Nelson charged with pot possession in Texas

2010-11-28T09:29:00.000-06:00

SIERRA BLANCA, Texas (AP) - A U.S. Border Patrol spokesman says country singer Willie Nelson was charged with marijuana possession after 6 ounces was found aboard his tour bus in Texas.

Patrol spokesman Bill Brooks says the bus pulled into the Sierra Blanca, Texas, checkpoint about 9 a.m. Friday. Brooks says an officer smelled pot when a door was opened and a search turned up marijuana.

(Full story)

U.S. seizes sites linked to copyright infringement

2010-11-27T08:51:00.000-06:00

(Cnet) - The U.S. government has launched a major crackdown on online copyright infringement, seizing dozens of sites linked to illegal file sharing and counterfeit goods.

Torrent sites that link to illegal copies of music and movie files and sites that sell counterfeit goods were seized this week by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement division of the Department of Homeland Security. Visitors to such sites as Torrent-finder.com, 2009jerseys.com, and Dvdcollects.com found that their usual sites had been replaced by a message that said, "This domain name has been seized by ICE--Homeland Security Investigations, pursuant to a seizure warrant issued by a United States District Court."

(Full story)

Obama halts sermons during soup kitchen meals

2010-11-27T08:48:00.000-06:00

(AllGov) - Faith-based organizations that accept federal funding cannot proselytize while providing social programs to the needy, under a new executive order signed by President Barack Obama. The order changes the original initiative, adopted by President George W. Bush in December 2002, which allowed faith-based social programs to receive tax dollars.

President Obama's decree prevents soup kitchens run by churches from conducting sermons while feeding people, for example. The White House expects federal officials to monitor publicly-funded faith-based groups to ensure they comply with the new order.

(Full story)

Libertarians against the regime

2010-11-26T21:48:00.000-06:00

by Justin Raimondo - We should all give thanks, this Thanksgiving holiday, for the fact that we are not – yet – living under a dictatorship. Although if you're going through an airport on your way to celebrate the season, you are indeed living in a dictatorship, subject to search and the seizure of your personal effects, as well as being "porno-scanned" and felt up by some TSA Epsilon-Minus Semi-Moron.

No, we aren't yet living under a dictatorship, but I can't say I'm all that optimistic that we won't be come next Thanksgiving. The odds of another terrorist attack are quite good, and our ineffective means of preventing it are just a way of reassuring the public that all is "normal." But we are so far from normalcy, these days, that I despair of our ever returning to that lost world of innocence into which I was born. The America of my youth is gone forever, together with youth itself, and while this latter cannot be prevented, the loss of the former is a reversible tragedy – although it seems much less reversible than ever, sad to say.

That golden age – we didn't know it was golden at the time, of course – was an America in which the idea of being searched before getting on a plane was incomprehensible, impossible, the product of someone's dystopian imagination: today it is a reality. It was an America in which the idea that the government could read our communications, spy on our lawful activities, and declare anyone – even an American citizen – an "enemy combatant," and hold them indefinitely or even kill them, was utterly inconceivable, a paranoid's fever dream: today it is all too real.

(Full article)

TSA: Some gov't officials to skip airport security

2010-11-24T10:28:00.000-06:00

WASHINGTON (AP) - Cabinet secretaries, top congressional leaders and an exclusive group of senior U.S. officials are exempt from toughened new airport screening procedures when they fly commercially with government-approved federal security details.

Aviation security officials would not name those who can skip the controversial screening, but other officials said those VIPs range from top officials like Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and FBI Director Robert Mueller to congressional leaders like incoming House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, who avoided security before a recent flight from Washington's Reagan National Airport.

(Full story)

You know you've been at war for too long...

2010-11-24T09:47:00.000-06:00

...when your enemies have no idea why you're trying to kill them:

Few Afghans in Helmand and Kandahar provinces, Taliban strongholds where fighting remains fiercest, know why foreign troops are in Afghanistan, says the "Afghanistan Transition: Missing Variables" report to be released later on Friday.

The report by The International Council on Security and Development (ICOS) policy think-tank showed 92 percent of 1,000 Afghan men surveyed in Helmand and Kandahar know nothing of the hijacked airliner attacks on U.S. targets in 2001.

"The lack of awareness of why we are there contributes to the high levels of negativity toward the NATO military operations and made the job of the Taliban easier," ICOS President Norine MacDonald told Reuters from Washington.

"We need to explain to the Afghan people why we are here, and both convince them and show them that their future is better with us than the Taliban," MacDonald said.

And yet we Americans still can't figure out why so many people hate us.

Small cheesemaker defies FDA

2010-11-23T19:06:00.000-06:00

(NY Times) - To her devotees, Ms. Estrella is a homespun diva of local food. With her husband and six adopted children from Liberia, she makes tasty artisan cheeses from the milk of her 36 cows and 40 goats and sells it at farmers' markets.

Some even winds up on tables at fancy restaurants in Manhattan and Los Angeles.

But to the federal government, Ms. Estrella is a defiant businesswoman unable to keep dangerous bacteria out of her products. Last month, the Food and Drug Administration moved to shut down her business, Estrella Family Creamery, after tests found listeria in some of her cheese and she refused to agree to a broad recall of her products.

(Full story)

TSA crybabies

2010-11-23T08:27:00.000-06:00

TSA agents have run crying to their union because of the "abuse" they have suffered from passengers unhappy with the new sexual harassment policy in place at U.S. airports. The American Federation of Government Employees, the union representing TSA workers, published the following in a recent press release:

"AFGE agrees that strong security measures need to be in place and evolve as threats come anew, but the general public needs to know what the security procedures are and what their rights are as citizens," AFGE National President John Gage added. "TSA must do a better job explaining these measures to the flying public. This absence of information has resulted in a backlash against the character and professionalism of TSOs based on a few widely reported but largely ill-founded claims repeated over and over again by the media."

AFGE further called on TSA to provide an educational pamphlet to each passenger on the new procedures and what the passenger rights are.

"Like all Americans, TSOs deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. These men and women are the first line of defense against those who seek to harm this country," Gage said. "It is unacceptable for any passenger to verbally or physically assault any security officers, and TSA must act now — before the Thanksgiving rush — to ensure that TSOs are not being left to fend for themselves."

So, the perverts feeling up men, women, and children in public deserve "dignity and respect," and they are the "first line of defense" against terrorism? How anyone can take the TSA seriously is beyond me.

The right to travel pre-dates the TSA

2010-11-23T07:49:00.000-06:00

Writes Michael S. Rozeff on the LewRockwell.com blog:

According to a UCLA Law Review source dating from 1975 and written by Stewart Abercrombie Baker, Magna Carta (ch. 42, 1215) "guaranteed free passage into and out of the realm." "Blackstone's Commentaries proclaims a right to travel which includes 'the power of loco-motion, of changing situation, or removing one's person to whatsoever place one's own inclination may direct; without imprisonment or restraint, unless by due process of law.'" (volume 1, *134). "The right to travel was declared ‘natural and inherent' by the Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776″ (ch. 1, para. XV (1776)). Article IV of the Articles of Confederation protected "free ingress and regress to and from any other State…" The Constitution dropped that language and instead incorporated the right to travel under the privileges and immunities clause of article IV, section 2. "The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States." Baker writes: "The change was made not to disparage the right to travel, but because specific protection for the right would be redundant. Free travel was considered to be a necessary corollary to the 'more perfect Union' which the Constitution created." The Supreme Court has recognized this right in numerous cases.

I do not claim that the right to travel as interpreted by a Supreme Court of 2010 would allow the traveler unimpeded travel or prevent placing such a burden on the traveler that it would effectively foreclose travel by air. The Court would probably back the TSA and provide some sort of balancing test. I assert that such a test would be unconstitutional and would destroy the right to travel. I assert that the TSA's search procedures place a burden on the right to travel that destroys that right for millions of protesting Americans.

The TSA and other government agencies, however, are quick to remind us that traveling is merely a privilege.

Air Force launches massive, secret satellite

2010-11-22T09:20:00.002-06:00

(CBS) - A powerful Delta 4 rocket roared to life and climbed away from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Sunday evening on a high-priority mission to boost a National Reconnaissance Office spy satellite into orbit.

The payload is believed to be an electronic eavesdropping satellite with a huge collecting antenna. In a September address to the Air Force Association, NRO Director Bruce Carlson said the Delta 4 was carrying "the largest satellite in the world."

(Full story)

TSA chief John Pistole to put priority on rail, subways

2010-11-21T23:50:00.000-06:00

ARLINGTON, Va. (USA Today) - Protecting riders on mass-transit systems from terrorist attacks will be as high a priority as ensuring safe air travel, the new head of the Transportation Security Administration promises.

In his first interview since taking over the TSA, former FBI deputy director John Pistole told USA TODAY that some terrorists consider subway and rail cars an easier target than heavily secured planes. "Given the list of threats on subways and rails over the last six years going on seven years, we know that some terrorist groups see rail and subways as being more vulnerable because there's not the type of screening that you find in aviation," he said. "From my perspective, that is an equally important threat area."

(Full story)

TSA pat-down leaves traveler covered in urine

2010-11-21T09:35:00.000-06:00

(MSNBC) - A retired special education teacher on his way to a wedding in Orlando, Fla., said he was left humiliated, crying and covered with his own urine after an enhanced pat-down by TSA officers recently at Detroit Metropolitan Airport.

"I was absolutely humiliated, I couldn't even speak," said Thomas D. "Tom" Sawyer, 61, of Lansing, Mich.

Sawyer is a bladder cancer survivor who now wears a urostomy bag, which collects his urine from a stoma, or opening in his stomach. "I have to wear special clothes and in order to mount the bag I have to seal a wafer to my stomach and then attach the bag. If the seal is broken, urine can leak all over my body and clothes."

(Full story)

TSA thugs strip-search a young boy

2010-11-21T09:28:00.002-06:00

$11,000 fine, arrest possible for some who refuse airport scans and pat downs

2010-11-20T16:08:00.000-06:00

(Sun Sentinel) - If you don't want to pass through an airport scanner that allows security agents to see an image of your naked body or to undergo the alternative, a thorough manual search, you may have to find another way to travel this holiday season.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is warning that any would-be commercial airline passenger who enters an airport checkpoint and then refuses to undergo the method of inspection designated by TSA will not be allowed to fly and also will not be permitted to simply leave the airport.

That person will have to remain on the premises to be questioned by the TSA and possibly by local law enforcement. Anyone refusing faces fines up to $11,000 and possible arrest.

(Full story)

Unequal protection under the law

2010-11-20T09:56:00.002-06:00

On Thursday, the House ethics committee recommended that Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) be censured for failing to pay taxes on income he received from a vacation villa in the Dominican Republic. A slap on the wrist, and he gets to stay in office.

Contrast that with the case of Wesley Snipes. The actor was convicted in 2008 on three misdemeanor counts of willful failure to file his income tax returns. He has just been sentenced to three years in prison. That's three years of his life taken away for not turning in a form that in essence violates the Fifth Amendment's prohibition against self-incrimination.

There should be equal protection under the law, which means everyone, including Hollywood actors and 20-term congressmen, should be treated the same. But, as Orwell pointed out, some are considered more equal than others.

Seattle officer's kicking of suspect prompts call for federal civil-rights review

2010-11-19T09:46:00.000-06:00

(Seattle Times) - The American Civil Liberties Union of Washington said it will seek a federal civil-rights investigation of the Seattle Police Department, citing a newly released video of an officer kicking an African-American teen during an arrest, and other "unnecessarily violent confrontations" with minorities.

Executive Director Kathleen Taylor said Thursday the ACLU will send a request letter next week to the U.S. Justice Department, along with documentation of the incidents.

"These repeated incidents over the last 18 months, which have continued without forceful intervention by the Seattle Police Department, the mayor, or Seattle's other elected officials, leads the ACLU to call on the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate whether there is a pattern and practice of civil-rights violations by the Seattle Police Department in violation of the Constitution and federal law," the organization said in a written statement.

(Full story)

Man arrested for punching TSA screener in Indy

2010-11-18T15:36:00.000-06:00

(Indy Star) - A Connecticut man has been arrested after exchanging words and [allegedly] punching a TSA screener at a security checkpoint at Indianapolis International Airport.

According to a report from airport police, John A. Christina, 51, Simsbury, Conn., was charged with battery as a misdemeanor in connection with the incident about 2:50 p.m. Tuesday at the Concourse B checkpoint.

(Full story)

God Bless the TSA

2010-11-17T18:20:00.002-06:00

(To the tune of "God Bless the USA," by Lee Greenwood)

If tomorrow all my rights were gone,
I've had for all my life,
And I had to fly again
with my children and my wife.

I'd thank my lucky stars
to be in the USA,
'Cause the flag that stood for freedom
stands for something else today.

And I'm proud to be an American,
where I'm safe instead of free.
And I know the government has lied,
but they know what's best for me.

And I'd gladly strip down in front of you,
'cause there is no better way
To assure us all it's safe to fly,
God bless the TSA!

Taking off in Minnesota,
touching down in Tennessee,
It's only possible because of
heightened security.

Being patted down in Houston,
groped and scanned in L.A.
Well there's fear in every American heart,
and its time we stand and say...

That I'm proud to be an American,
where I'm safe instead of free.
And I know the government has lied,
but they know what's best for me.

And I'd gladly strip down in front of you,
'cause there is no better way
To assure us all it's safe to fly,
God bless the TSA!

And I'm proud to be an American,
where I'm safe instead of free.
And I know the government has lied,
but they know what's best for me.

And I'd gladly strip down in front of you,
'cause there is no better way
To assure us all it's safe to fly,
God bless the TSA!

Copyright © 2010 by Lee R. Shelton IV

Senator: FDA will ban alcoholic energy drinks

2010-11-17T10:15:00.000-06:00

(ABC) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will effectively ban the sale of beverages that combine caffeine and alcohol, including Four Loko and Joose, by ruling that caffeine is an unsafe food additive, according to Senator Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.).

In a press release, the Senator also announced that the Federal Trade Commission will notify manufacturers that they're potentially marketing the products illegally.

(Full story)

County settles with family of boy paralyzed by speeding police officer

2010-11-17T10:12:00.000-06:00

(Washington Examiner) - Montgomery County will pay $400,000 to the family of a Clarksburg boy who was paralyzed by an off-duty police officer driving more than 25 miles per hour over the speed limit.

With the boy never expected to walk again, the family is bracing for millions of dollars more in medical costs -- while the officer involved in the crash remains a member of the county's police force.

In April 2008, off-duty Officer Jason Cokinos struck 12-year-old Luis Jovel Jr. with his police cruiser as the boy crossed the street in front of his home on Stringtown Road. In a follow-up report, police determined that Cokinos was driving 56 miles per hour in a 30 mph zone and concluded that the boy would not have been hit if the officer were traveling at the speed limit.

(Full story)

New Jersey Senate stand up to the TSA

2010-11-17T08:46:00.002-06:00

House ethics panel convicts Rep. Rangel on 11 of 13 counts

2010-11-16T14:20:00.002-06:00

(The Hill) - Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), once one of the most powerful members of the House, was convicted Tuesday on 11 counts of violating House ethics rules and now faces punishment.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), the chairwoman of the adjudicatory subcommittee and the full House ethics committee, announced the decision late Tuesday morning following an abbreviated public trial and nearly six hours of deliberations.

(Full story)

TSA's new book for kids

2010-11-16T11:53:00.000-06:00

(via)

TSA to investigate body scan resister

2010-11-16T11:35:00.000-06:00

(Sign-on San Diego) - The Transportation Security Administration has opened an investigation targeting John Tyner, the Oceanside man who left Lindbergh Field under duress on Saturday morning after refusing to undertake a full body scan.

Tyner recorded the half-hour long encounter on his cell phone and later posted it to his personal blog, along with an extensive account of the incident. The blog went viral, attracting hundreds of thousands of readers and thousands of comments.

Michael J. Aguilar, chief of the TSA office in San Diego, called a news conference at the airport Monday afternoon to announce the probe. He said the investigation could lead to prosecution and civil penalties of up to $11,000.

(Full story)

New Jersey man jailed for being a responsible gun owner

2010-11-15T12:08:00.000-06:00

(Reason) - Sue Aitken called the police because she was worried about her son, Brian. She now lives with the guilt of knowing that her phone call is the reason Brian spent his 27th birthday in a New Jersey prison last month. If the state gets its way, he will be there for the next seven years.

Aitken was sentenced in August after he was convicted of felony possession of a handgun. Before his arrest, Aitken, an entrepreneur and owner of a media consulting business, had no criminal record, and it appears he made a good-faith effort to comply with New Jersey's stringent gun laws. Even the jurors who convicted him seem to have been looking for a reason to acquit him. But the judge gave them little choice. Aitken's best hope now is executive clemency. He is petitioning New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie for a reprieve this week.

(Full story)

Encounter with the TSA in San Diego (with audio)

2010-11-13T23:10:00.000-06:00

John writes:

A male agent (it was a female who had directed me to the backscatter machine in the first place), came and waited for me to get my bags and then directed me over to the far corner of the area for screening. After setting my things on a table, he turned to me and began to explain that he was going to do a "standard" pat down. (I thought to myself, "great, not one of those gropings like I've been reading about".) After he described the pat down, I realized that he intended to touch my groin. After he finished his description but before he started the pat down, I looked him straight in the eye and said, "if you touch my junk, I'll have you arrested." He, a bit taken aback, informed me that he would have to involve his supervisor because of my comment.

Full account here.

Are veterans owed our thanks?

2010-11-11T14:20:00.000-06:00

Upon enlistment, every member of the armed forces swears an oath to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic." Since our attention always seems to be focused on foreign threats, the majority of Americans are under the impression that those in the military are protecting our freedoms.

The fact remains, however, that most assaults on liberty occur right here in the U.S., thanks to the very people who are sending our soldiers to kill and die in countries that never once threatened us. One would think those risking their lives to keep their loved ones safe might show a little more interest in the enemies operating within our own government.

I realize today is Veterans Day, which means we are expected to forget all criticism and simply thank those who have made sacrifices on our behalf, but just because someone believes he is defending my freedom doesn't mean he is owed my thanks. A soldier may do many things that are considered brave and noble, but, when it comes down to it, freedom is not protected by good intentions.

Military used domestically in war on drugs

2010-11-11T09:12:00.000-06:00

TSA cuffs woman to chair, tears up her ticket

2010-11-11T08:48:00.000-06:00

Flight crews opting out of TSA porn scanners

2010-11-10T22:24:00.000-06:00

I'm politically incorrect

2010-11-10T12:29:00.000-06:00

by John Stossel - This week, I held a bake sale -- a racist bake sale. I stood in midtown Manhattan shouting, "Cupcakes for sale." My price list read:

Asians -- $1.50
Whites -- $1.00
Blacks/Latinos -- 50 cents

People stared. One yelled, "What is funny to you about people who are less privileged?" A black woman said, angrily, "It's very offensive, very demeaning!" One black man accused me of poisoning the cupcakes.

I understand why people got angry. What I did was hurtful to some. My bake sale mimicked what some conservative college students did at Bucknell University. The students wanted to satirize their school's affirmative action policy, which makes it easier for blacks and Hispanics to get admitted.

I think affirmative action is racism -- and therefore wrong. If a private school like Bucknell wants to have such policies to increase diversity, fine. But government-imposed affirmative action is offensive. Equality before the law means government should treat citizens equally.

(Full article)

Another unarmed man shot and killed by Oakland cops

2010-11-09T22:53:00.000-06:00

On New Year's Day in 2009, Oakland BART cop Johannes Mehserle shot and killed an unarmed man who was lying face-down on the ground. Mehserle received two years in prison, including time already served, for involuntary manslaughter. That slap-on-the-wrist sentence has apparently sent Oakland police the message that it is now open season on unarmed civilians...

Barack Obama: Protector of the Innocent

2010-11-08T21:12:00.000-06:00

President Obama, speaking in India, reminded his audience that "nothing ever justifies the slaughter of innocent men, women and children." Unless, of course, they are considered collateral damage in undeclared, preemptive wars.

Lancaster County man dies after being tasered

2010-11-07T15:58:00.000-06:00

LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. (WGAL) - A Lancaster County man died after being tased by police early Saturday morning.

State police said Robert Neill, Jr., died after he was tased twice and maced.

It happened around 4 a.m. Saturday at Neill's home on the 300 block of Marietta Avenue in the borough of Mount Joy.

Several police departments assisted including Mount Joy Borough Police Department, Susquehanna Regional Police Department and State Police from Ephrata.

(Full story)

GOP senator: Consider neutering Iran's 'ability to wage war'

2010-11-06T19:43:00.000-05:00

Halifax, Nova Scotia (CNN) - A leading Senate Republican voice on defense issues said Saturday the United States should consider neutering Iran's navy and air force if Tehran does not halt its nuclear program.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, speaking at the Halifax International Security Forum in Canada, told reporters that there will come a point where Iran's nuclear program will reach the state that a conventional limited air strike "won't take them out."

"We're probably even past that point," he said.

"Instead of a surgical strike on their nuclear infrastructure, I think we're to the point now that you have to really neuter the regime's ability to wage war against us and our allies. And that's a different military scenario. It's not a ground invasion but it certainly destroys the ability of the regime to strike back."

(Full story)

TSA agents molesting kids in public

2010-11-05T10:42:00.000-05:00

San Francisco law curbs McDonald's Happy Meal toys

2010-11-04T08:33:00.000-05:00

(Reuters) - San Francisco on Tuesday became the first major U.S. city to pass a law that cracks down on the popular practice of giving away free toys with unhealthy restaurant meals for children.

San Francisco's Board of Supervisors passed the law on a veto-proof 8-to-3 vote. It takes effect on December 1.

The law, like an ordinance passed earlier this year in nearby Santa Clara County, would require that restaurant kids' meals meet certain nutritional standards before they could be sold with toys.

(Full story)

"Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss"

2010-11-03T20:20:00.000-05:00

Why is it every election makes me think of this song?

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is now officially a legal authority

2010-11-02T10:24:00.000-05:00

(io9) - The wisdom of Spock has guided us all for years, but now it's enshrined in Texas law. Ruling on the limits of police power, the Texas Supreme Court quoted from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

Ruling in Robinson vs. Crown Cork Seal Company (PDF), Justice Don Willett writes:

Appropriately weighty principles guide our course. First, we recognize that police power draws from the credo that "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few." Second, while this maxim rings utilitarian and Dickensian (not to mention Vulcan), it is cabined by something contrarian and Texan: distrust of intrusive government and a belief that police power is justified only by urgency, not expediency.

(Full story)

Man arrested for wearing a mask on Halloween

2010-11-02T10:09:00.000-05:00

ZEBULON, N.C. (WXII News) - Zebulon police said a local man may have been wearing a mask on Halloween, but he was no trick-or-treater.

The News & Observer of Raleigh reports that 20-year-old Lawrence Marqueal Rogers was arrested Sunday for wearing a mask or hood in public. He's being held in the Wake County jail on a $7,500 bond.

(Full story)

Unemployment offices to add armed guards

2010-11-01T18:15:00.000-05:00

INDIANAPOLIS (Indy Channel) - Armed security guards will be on hand at 36 unemployment offices around Indiana in what state officials said is a step to improve safety and make branch security more consistent.

No specific incidents prompted the action, Department of Workforce Development spokesman Marc Lotter told 6News' Norman Cox.

Lotter said the agency is merely being cautious with the approach of an early-December deadline when thousands of Indiana residents could see their unemployment benefits end after exhausting the maximum 99 weeks provided through multiple federal extension periods.

(Full story)

Wyoming Rep.: Estate tax rise has some planning death before Dec. 31

2010-11-01T08:53:00.000-05:00

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (Casper Star-Tribune) - U.S. Rep. Cynthia Lummis says some of her Wyoming constituents are so worried about the reinstatement of federal estate taxes that they plan to discontinue dialysis and other life-extending medical treatments so they can die before Dec. 31.

Lummis, a Republican who holds her state's lone seat in the House, declined to name any of the people who have made the comments.

But she said many ranchers and farmers in the state would rather pass along their businesses -- "their life's work" -- to their children and grandchildren than see the federal government take a large chunk.

(Full story)

TSA to phase in new pat-down procedures at airports nationwide

2010-10-29T14:49:00.000-05:00

(CNN) - Airline passengers can expect to see as well as feel new pat-down procedures at U.S. airports over the coming weeks in an effort to provide another layer of security for travelers, the Transportation Security Administration said Thursday.

"Pat-downs are one important tool to help TSA detect hidden and dangerous items such as explosives," according to a TSA statement sent to CNN.

The TSA said passengers should continue to expect "an unpredictable mix of security layers that include explosives trace detection, advanced imaging technology, canine teams, among others."

But it's the hands-on procedures that have at least one traveler concerned that the TSA may be going too far.

(Full story)

Baltimore hands out first trans fat citation

2010-10-27T14:01:00.000-05:00

BALTIMORE (WBAL) - The Baltimore City Health Department issued its first environmental citation for repeat violations of the city's trans fat ban.

The Health Department issued Healthy Choice, a food facility in the 400 block of Lexington Street, a $100 fine on Thursday.

(Full story)

Wider role for CIA sought

2010-10-25T13:42:00.000-05:00

WASHINGTON (Wall Street Journal) - The U.S. is pushing to expand a secret CIA effort to help Pakistan target militants in their havens near the Afghan border, according to senior officials, as the White House seeks new ways to prod Islamabad into more aggressive action against groups allied with al Qaeda,

The push comes as relations between Washington and Islamabad have soured over U.S. impatience with the slow pace of Pakistani strikes against militants who routinely attack U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan. President Barack Obama has said he will begin to withdraw troops from Afghanistan in July, increasing the urgency to show progress in the nine-year war against the Taliban.

(Full story)

'Government Doesn't Suck' march planned

2010-10-25T13:36:00.000-05:00

(Washington Post) - Amid growing dissatisfaction with federal employees, a group of younger, web-savvy feds are planning to march on Saturday in defense of their coworkers on the sidelines of Jon Stewart's "Rally to Restore Sanity."

Organizers of the "Government Doesn't Suck March" (their choice of words, not ours) were inspired in part by last week's Washington Post poll that revealed widespread negative perceptions of federal workers.

"We hear it day in and day out: the government sucks, federal employees are lazy and their positions are redundant," said march organizer Steve Ressler, founder of GovLoop, a social networking Web site for public servants.

"It's time to turn the tables and remind the world that government employees just happen to be people -- people that don't suck," Ressler said in a message sent to The Federal Eye on Sunday announcing the march. Government workers "are a lot of cool cats" who work hard, listen to good music and watch Stewart's "The Daily Show," "but that's all after they've spent a whole day keeping the country running," he said.

(Full story)

Body scanners unveiled at JFK Airport; Homeland Security Sect. Janet Napolitano doesn't volunteer

2010-10-23T23:00:00.000-05:00

(NY Daily News) - Airline passengers might want to consider a trip to the gym before heading to the airport now that high-tech body scanners have been unveiled at Kennedy Airport.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano yesterday hailed them as an important breakthrough for airport security and the fight against terrorism.

Yet when it came to testing the devices - which produce chalky, naked X-ray images of passengers - she turned the floor over to some brave volunteers.

(Full story)

In case you're planning on flying this holiday season...

2010-10-23T22:56:00.001-05:00

You may want to know which airports are using the full-body porn scanners that store naked images of airline passengers. According to the TSA's own web site, there are 259 such machines located at 58 airports across the U.S.

Airports that currently have imaging technology:

Albuquerque International Sunport Airport
Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport
Boise Airport
Boston Logan International Airport
Bradley International Airport
Brownsville/South Padre Island International Airport
Buffalo Niagara International Airport
Bush Houston Intercontinental Airport
Charlotte Douglas International Airport
Chicago O'Hare International Airport
Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport
Cleveland International Airport
Corpus Christi International Airport
Denver International Airport
Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport
Detroit Metro Airport
El Paso International Airport
Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport
Fort Wayne International Airport
Fresno Air Terminal
Gerald R. Ford Grand Rapids International Airport
General Mitchell Milwaukee International Airport
Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport
Harlingen/Valley International Airport
Harrisburg International Airport
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport
Indianapolis International Airport
Jacksonville International Airport
Kansas City International Airport
Lambert/St. Louis International Airport
Laredo International Airport
Lihue Airport
Los Angeles International Airport
Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport
Los Angeles International Airport
McAllen Miller Airport
McCarran International Airport
Memphis International Airport
Miami International Airport
Mineta San José International Airport
Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport
Nashville International Airport
Oakland International Airport
Omaha Eppley Airfield Airport
Palm Beach International Airport
Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport
Pittsburgh International Airport
Port Columbus International Airport
Raleigh-Durham International Airport
Reno-Tahoe International Airport
Richmond International Airport
Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport
Salt Lake City International Airport
San Francisco International Airport
San Jose International Airprot
Spokane International Airport
T. F. Green International Airport
Tampa International Airport
Tulsa International Airport

Airports receiving imaging technology soon:

Chicago Midway International Airport
Dulles International Airport
Greater Rochester International Airport
Honolulu International Airport
Houston William P. Hobby Airport
John F. Kennedy International Airport
La Guardia International Airport
Orlando International Airport
Philadelphia International Airport
Saipan International Airport
San Antonio International Airport
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport

Government-sponsored "family planning"

2010-10-23T11:01:00.000-05:00

Military recruiters told to accept gay applicants

2010-10-19T16:35:00.000-05:00

WASHINGTON (AP) - A Pentagon spokeswoman says recruiters have been told that they must accept gay applicants, following a federal court decision striking down the ban on gays serving openly in the military.

Spokeswoman Cynthia Smith said Tuesday that top-level guidance has been issued to recruiting commands informing them that the military's "don't ask, don't tell" rule has been suspended for now. Recruiters also have been told to inform potential recruits that the moratorium could be reversed at any point.

(Full story)

Soldier ordered to delete videos of Fort Hood shooting

2010-10-16T08:21:00.000-05:00

(World) - A soldier who recorded the terror of last year's deadly shooting rampage at Fort Hood in Texas using his cell phone was ordered by an officer to delete both videos, a military court heard Friday.

Under cross examination, Pfc. Lance Aviles told an Article 32 hearing that his noncommissioned officer ordered him to destroy the two videos on Nov. 5, the same day Major Nidal Hasan unleashed a volley of bullets inside a processing center at the Texas Army post.

(Full story)

For cops, citizen videos bring increased scrutiny

2010-10-15T22:59:00.000-05:00

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (USA Today) - Diop Kamau's home in a leafy, gated community just north of town is not easy to find — for good reason.

For more than two decades, the 52-year-old former Hawthorne, Calif., police officer has made a living embarrassing cops with a video camera.

Stung by the rough treatment of his father during a 1987 traffic stop by another California department, Kamau turned to a second career recording police across the country in compromising — often abusive — encounters with the public.

(Full story)

Former Joint Chiefs chairman: Iraq war 'fiasco' due to Rumsfeld’s 'lies'

2010-10-15T22:49:00.000-05:00

(Raw Story) - The US had no reason to invade Iraq in 2003, and only did so because of "a series of lies" told to the American people by the Bush administration, says Gen. Hugh Shelton, who served for four years as the US's top military officer.

Shelton, who was the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1997 to 2001, makes the comment in Without Hesitation: The Odyssey of an American Warrior, a soon-to-be-published memoir reviewed at Foreign Policy by Thomas E. Ricks.

(Full story)

Hell hath no fury like a cop with a bruised ego

2010-10-15T13:36:00.000-05:00

A drunk girl trying to get home in Washington, D.C., wanted to board the metro, but a transit cop refused to let her on. She swore at the cop and turned to leave, so, naturally, he had no other choice but to give chase, wrestle her to the ground, pull up her skirt, molest her, and restrain her against her will. You see, she had committed the ultimate crime: she hurt the poor cop's feelings.

What you see in the following video is just what you would expect in a police state. Note how the costumed tax-feeder keeps shouting, "Stop resisting! Stop resisting!" That's what all cops are trained to do. It helps to reinforce the idea that resisting an unlawful arrest is no longer a common law right.

(View Discretion: Some harsh language)

(via)

Judge lets states' healthcare suit go forward

2010-10-14T17:54:00.000-05:00

(Reuters) - U.S. states can proceed with a lawsuit seeking to overturn President Barack Obama's landmark healthcare reform law, a Florida judge ruled on Thursday.

U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson had already indicated at a hearing last month that he could not uphold parts of a motion by the Justice Department to dismiss the lawsuit, led by Florida and 19 other states.

(Full story)