A Geek With Guns

Like any good dictator President Obama has been unhappy with the legislative process and therefore has decided to simply bypass it whenever it becomes inconvenient to his goals:

One Saturday last fall, President Obama interrupted a White House strategy meeting to raise an issue not on the agenda. He declared, aides recalled, that the administration needed to more aggressively use executive power to govern in the face of Congressional obstructionism.

“We had been attempting to highlight the inability of Congress to do anything,” recalled William M. Daley, who was the White House chief of staff at the time. “The president expressed frustration, saying we have got to scour everything and push the envelope in finding things we can do on our own.”

For Mr. Obama, that meeting was a turning point. As a senator and presidential candidate, he had criticized George W. Bush for flouting the role of Congress. And during his first two years in the White House, when Democrats controlled Congress, Mr. Obama largely worked through the legislative process to achieve his domestic policy goals.

[...]

Each time, Mr. Obama has emphasized the fact that he is bypassing lawmakers. When he announced a cut in refinancing fees for federally insured mortgages last month, for example, he said: “If Congress refuses to act, I’ve said that I’ll continue to do everything in my power to act without them.”

The real story here isn’t that Obama is using executive orders to bypass Congress, many presidents have done that. No, the real story is that Obama is actually blatantly stating that he’s using executive orders to bypass Congress. Traditionally a president issuing an executive order doesn’t brag about the fact that they hold dictatorial powers, that’s something that should be kept under the radar so the proles don’t get riled up that the political process isn’t what they were taught in college.

Apparently Obama has become so brazen that he might as well just come out of the dictatorial closet. He doesn’t need to keep up the charade of a republic anymore so why pretend he’s a president and not a king?

If the state loves one thing it’s scare mongering. Agents of the state realize regular individuals wouldn’t be willing to put up with many of the more draconian measures used to beat down the citizenry so they package them up as solutions to fight terrorists. Since the United States hasn’t suffered a terrorist attack in some time the state periodically tries to remind the citizenry that certain death is just around the corned and if we don’t comply with the state we won’t survive. That’s all this little stunt is, an attempt at fear mongering:

Nearly 40,000 Twin Cities residents will go to their mailboxes on Sunday, May 6, to find an unusual delivery: An empty pill bottle representing a powerful antibiotic that would be delivered in the event of a bioterrorism attack in Minnesota.

The exercise, dubbed “Operation Medicine Delivery,” has united the Minnesota Department of Health with the U.S. Postal Service to answer questions that have plagued public health officials since the terror attacks of 9/11. What if an airborne anthrax attack struck the Twin Cities? How would millions of Minnesotans get the medicine to survive?

More than 300 mail carriers will participate in the test, fanning out across four neighborhoods in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Robbinsdale and Golden Valley. They plan to reach 37,000 households in four ZIP codes: 55101, 55102, 55411 and 55422.

The overall goal of the exercise would be to deliver preventive doses of medication to most people within the first 48 hours of a bioterror attack, though much of that would happen through local medicine dispensing sites run by area public health organizations. During an actual bioterror crisis, the couriers would be alerted through an automated phone message.

Let me get this straight, in case of a biological attack on the Twin Cities medication will be delivered through standard mail delivery? So you will have to wait 48 hours (unless it’s a weekend, the Post Office doesn’t do Sundays and they don’t want to do Saturdays either) until you get medication necessary to save your life? That’s not even a solution. You know what a better idea would be? Getting the hell out of the Twin Cities if it comes under attack. Fortunately I live and work in the suburbs so if Minneapolis or St. Paul are attacked I’m on the outer edge already and therefore can make a rapid escape. Of course attacking the Twin Cities would be a complete waste of time since nobody else in the Union gives a crap about Minnesota.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is following in the footsteps of every government agency before it by continually expanding its power:

A new program in Houston will place undercover TSA agents and police officers on buses whose job it will be to perform bag searches, watch for “suspicious activity” and interrogate passengers in order to ‘curb crime and terrorism’.

Democratic Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee unveiled the program, labeled Bus Safe, during a press conference on Friday. According to a Metropolitan Transit Authority of Houston (METRO) press release, agencies involved in the scheme will, “ride buses, perform random bag checks, and conduct K-9 sweeps, as well as place uniformed and plainclothes officers at Transit Centers and rail platforms to detect, prevent and address latent criminal activity or behavior.”

If you still don’t believe the United States has become a police state you’re not paying attention. It seems you can use any mode of transportation without worrying about some government goon treating you like a potential criminal.

The hardest part about implementing a police state is getting the people to fully submit to it. Sure we see mindless submission to the state left and right but if the state inconveniences the populace too much the populace will eventually give the state a jolly old send off. What you really need to do is get people used to the police state while they’re still young, which is what Texas has been doing:

He is looking down on a courtroom full of teenagers and their parents who are facing “Class C” misdemeanour offences for skipping school.

At the truancy courts of Dallas in Texas, absence from class or repeated late arrivals are punishable with fines of up to $500 (£316).

“A Class C misdemeanour is the lowest level of all the criminal offences, it would be the equivalent of a traffic ticket or not abiding by a stop sign on the street,” says Judge Sholden, who can also hand out sanctions like essays and book reports in his sentence.

The use of the court system to correct student behaviour is a popular policy used in schools across Texas.

A recent study put the number of Class C tickets issued to young people at around 300,000 per year.

Using the judicial system to punish students for skipping class? If that doesn’t scream police state what does? But wait, there’s more:

“I ran into a mother recently whose daughter wrote her name on a school desk in highlighter and she was given a felony conviction for that.

Felony. Conviction. Because a girl wrote here name on her desk with a highlighter she is barred the right to own firearms and vote (unless Texas expunges juvenile convictions, including felonies, when a kid becomes and adult but that is becoming rare). Back in my day (now I’m sounding old) we were merely made to clean off the graffiti and sent on our way. Instead of ruining the life of a student for nothing more than easily washed off graffiti we simply had to correct our wrong, which is how it should be.

Of course this kind of school disciplinary system has two benefits to the state; it gets students used to the police state and raises money. If skipping class can net you a fine of $500, how much money do you think is brought in through fines in the Texas school system? I’m guessing it’s quite a bit. After all, fines exist for the sole purpose of raising money for the state.

I’m guessing this method of dealing with transgressions by school kids will spread beyond Texas, it’s just too authoritarian not to.

I often use the term serf as an example of how the state thinks of the people under it’s rule. It appears that my statement may be more literal than I thought:

The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012, or NDAA, signed into law by Hope/Change enthusiast Barack Obama on December 31, 2011, potentially ends right to due process and habeas corpus for US citizens. You can now be detained by military forces and imprisoned, without trial or charges, for as long as the government deems necessary.

The Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act of 2011, or Trespass Bill, signed into law by Barack Obama on March 9, 2012, “potentially makes peaceable protest anywhere in the U.S. a federal felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.” Nice. More specifically, peaceful protest within proximity to those protected by the Secret Service, including presidential candidates and the President, may be a federal felony now. So much for that First Amendment, huh? (Source.)

The Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act of 2011, or H.R. 1981, is the brainchild of SOPA author Rep. Lamar Smith. The bill, according to VentureBeat and others, “would alter U.S. code Chapter 18 section 2703 ‘Required Disclosure of Customer Communications or Records’ so that all Internet service providers would need to store your IP address for at least 12 months, along with any highly sensitive personal information such as credit card data.” Keep in mind, this would be used on ALL Americans who use the Internet, including you and I. Just in case, you know, we are harming children. Police state surveillance: it’s all for the kids!

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The National Defense Resources Preparedness Executive Order, or NDRP, was released by Barack Obama’s administration on March 16, 2012 — it received very little broadcast media attention. According to a columnist at The Washington Times, “It states that, in case of a war or national emergency, the federal government has the authority to take over almost every aspect of American society. Food, livestock, farming equipment, manufacturing, industry, energy, transportation, hospitals, health care facilities, water resources, defense and construction…

In short, the order gives Mr. Obama the ability to impose martial law. He now possesses the potential powers of a dictator. The order is a direct assault on individual liberties, private property rights and the rule of law. It is blatantly unconstitutional.”

The United States, land of the formerly free.

Even though the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) has a rather colorful history that demonstrated a need for oversight the goons at the state capitol have decided police oversight is unnecessary:

A state law enacted over the opposition of city leaders has significantly reduced the power of the Minneapolis panel that investigates police misconduct, throwing the city’s 22-year-old system of civilian police oversight into doubt.

The bill to prohibit the Minneapolis Civilian Review Authority (CRA) from issuing “findings of fact” was introduced at the request of the Minneapolis Police Federation, the politically influential police union, and won overwhelming bipartisan support in the Minnesota Senate and House. Despite appeals from Mayor R.T. Rybak’s office and City Council members, Gov. Mark Dayton signed the bill into law Thursday.

“I fully share the desire to assure the highest standards of police conduct,” Dayton said in a statement Friday. “However, serious concerns have been expressed about the Minneapolis Civilian Review Authority, prompting the city to begin its own review. This will be an opportunity to improve the authority’s procedures, so that it can better carry out its important responsibilities.”

Serious concerns have been expressed about the Minneapolis Civilian Review Authority? What kind of concerns? Did they stumble across another Gang Task Force-esque blunder and had to be shut up before it was brought to light?

I’m sure MPD will enjoy their new reign, free of any pesky oversight by mere civilians.

Evidence, probably cause, reasonable suspicion, and due process are all things that were thrown out the door when the war on drugs began. The fact police departments are allowed to keep and seized evidence in drug related confiscations has meant there has been a great dead of drug confiscations (shocking, I know). A woman in Moorhead, Minnesota has just learned this lesson the hard way:

For the struggling waitress with five children, the $12,000 left at the table in a to-go box must have seemed too good to be true.

Moorhead police decided it was just that.

Now, the waitress is suing in Clay County District Court, claiming the cash was given to her and police shouldn’t have seized it as drug money.

“The thing that’s sad about it is here’s somebody who truly needs this gift … and now the government is getting in the way of it,” said the woman’s attorney, Craig Richie of Fargo.

Moorhead police Lt. Tory Jacobson said he couldn’t discuss the matter.

“We certainly have an ongoing investigation with it, with suspicion of narcotics or the involvement of narcotics investigators,” he said.

[...]

“Even though I desperately needed the money as my husband and I have 5 children, I feel I did the right thing by calling Moorhead Police,” she states in the lawsuit.

The lesson to take away from this story is never report cash gifts received to the state, they’ll just take it from you. What’s even worse is the fact this behavior is entirely legal thanks to United States Code 881(a)(6):

(a) Subject property

The following shall be subject to forfeiture to the United States and no property right shall exist in them:

[...]

(6) All moneys, negotiable instruments, securities, or other things of value furnished or intended to be furnished by any person in exchange for a controlled substance or listed chemical in violation of this subchapter, all proceeds traceable to such an exchange, and all moneys, negotiable instruments, and securities used or intended to be used to facilitate any violation of this subchapter.

Oh, it gets better. The above law has also been upheld in court:

Bundling and concealment of large amounts of currency, combined with other suspicious circumstances, supports a connection between money and drug trafficking. A plausible, but unlikely explanation by a claimant fails to show that the currency was not substantially connected to a narcotics offense. Judgment of the district court reversed.

Federal law basically gives a police officer sole discretion in deciding whether or not money in your possession is intended to be used to facilitate a violation of drug laws. When a random police officer mades this determination your right of ownership over that money is revoked by the state and they get to take it. The ruling in United States v. $124,000 in U.S. Currency states a plausible explanation on behalf of the police officer’s victim fails to show the money wasn’t substantially connected to a narcotics offense, so you’re truly guilty until proven innocent.

The war on drugs managed to destroy what little property rights remained in this country. One is no longer a self-owner as the state can dicate what you may or may not put into your body and any ownership of property outside of your body is also entirely ignored. While drug manufacturers and dealers made insane amounts of money because of the war on drugs the bigger criminal organization, the state, makes far more.

You know what the United Kingdom (UK) doesn’t have enough of? Orwellian surveillance. Realizing this sever deficiency the governing body of the UK has moved to increase surveillance:

The government will be able to monitor the calls, emails, texts and website visits of everyone in the UK under new legislation set to be announced soon.

Internet firms will be required to give intelligence agency GCHQ access to communications on demand, in real time.

The Home Office says the move is key to tackling crime and terrorism, but civil liberties groups have criticised it.

When you redefine crime and terrorism to mean any anti-state advocacy this move makes sense. In the UK one can go to prison for merely owning a firearm and protesting is seen as a terrorist activity, so I’m not surprised the government is moving to monitor all individuals instead of those who are suspected of wrongdoing. After all everybody is a potential terrorist because everybody, at some point, criticizes the government.

If this doesn’t reek of corruption and demonstrate how false democracy really is nothing will. Congress is holding a hearing on the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) naked body scanners. At first they invited security expert, and major critic of the TSA, Bruce Schneier but later told him not to come:

On Friday, at the request of the TSA, I was removed from the witness list. The excuse was that I am involved in a lawsuit against the TSA, trying to get them to suspend their full-body scanner program. But it’s pretty clear that the TSA is afraid of public testimony on the topic, and especially of being challenged in front of Congress. They want to control the story, and it’s easier for them to do that if I’m not sitting next to them pointing out all the holes in their position. Unfortunately, the committee went along with them. (They tried to pull the same thing last year and it failed — video at the 10:50 mark.)

The claim that he was removed for his involvment in an ongoing lawsuit is nothing more than a convenient excuse. In all likelihood he was removed because Congress doesn’t want to hear any criticisms on the body scanners as they’re very useful for our trip down the road to fascism. There is too much money involved in the body scanners for them to ever go away, in fact they only thing we’re likely to see is an expansion of their use at locations beyond airports. Let’s also not forget the fact that the body scanners are worthless.

The New Jersey Department of Motherland Homeland Security has released a document that explains the signs of terrorism [PDF]. After reading this document I’ve come to realize that we all may be terrorists without even realizing it. Why? Because some of the signs of being a terrorist are:

Be alert to the indicators regarding actions, individual behaviors, personal interactions and social dynamics, vehicle characteristics and movements. Use your judgment in determining whether or not they are unusual or suspicious in your community or work environment. Be wary of people who depart quickly when seen or attempt to conceal something. Look for signs of nervousness in the people you come in contact with. Signs will become particularly evident in a person’s eyes, face, neck, and body movements. The following is a list of things to look for:

Eyes

• Glances: directions, duration, timing
• Wide open “flashbulb eyes”
• Cold penetrating stare
• Trance-like gaze

Face and Neck

• Exaggerated yawning when engaged in conversation
• Protruding or beating neck arteries
• Repetitive touching of face, tugging on or covering ears
• Increased breathing rate, panting
• Excessive fidgeting, clock watching, head turning

Body

• Pacing or jumpy
• Trembling
• Unusual perspiration
• Goose bumps
• Rigid posture with minimal body movements and arms close to sides

Basically everybody who has ever shown signs of nervousness is a potential terrorist. Another way to detect a terrorist is to look for common equipment used by their kind:

Individuals may be observed:

• Drawing or taking pictures in areas not normally of interest
• Taking notes or annotating maps
• Sitting in a parked vehicle

Some of the tools terrorists might use during surveillance include:

• Cameras- video, still, or panoramic
• Laptop computers or PDA’s (Personal Data Assistants)
• Diagrams or maps
• Binoculars or other vision-enhancing devices
• GPS (Global Positioning System) devices

Not only is every person who has ever been nervous a potential terrorist but so is every tourist. Russia Today has a list of potential terrorists that you should be on the lookout for.

Just in case this document gets thrown down the memory hole I’ve uploaded a copy here.