Sunday, June 30, 2013

If you live in the United States, you are already far too late [finem respice]

Guest post by finem respice

If you live in the United States it may finally be dawning on you that you have something of a problem in the government to which you are now a Subject. In fact, the details of the [NSA Snooping|Verizon Metadata|IRS Political Targeting|Bankruptcy Preference|Fast and Furious|State Department Coverup|Libyan Ambassador|George Takei Facebook Ghostwriting] scandal are meaningless. You are already far too late. It will get worse before it gets better, it may never get better again, and, frankly, finem respice has not a shred of sympathy for your plight or that of your countrymen/women. In fact, given the manner you have quashed the opportunity- almost unique in the history of the species- created by an impossibly rare coexistence of liberty, private property, free markets, the rise of scientific method, and freedom of expression (to name just a few) there is more than a passing argument to be made that your society has squandered one of the greatest intellectual and individualistic fortunes in history.

Moreover, less charitable commentators may one day look upon what you have vainly and arrogantly loosed upon the world and wonder if the word "criminal" might not actually be excessive. To the extent humanity was headed towards something approaching a post-scarcity society finem respice would not wonder if you have collectively set that project back decades, or even centuries.

You see, for generations now you have collectively built and nurtured a massive, living, metabolizing creature. From the inanimate, intellectual detritus of "progressivism" and your unending and increasingly all-consuming narcissism you have kneaded it into a shapeless husk, pouring in rank mud like "Save the Planet," "Global Warming," "The American Dream of Home Ownership," "The War on Drugs", "Mothers Against Drunk Driving", "The War On Terror", "Speculators", "Too Big To Fail", "The 1%", and of course the essence and spark of its life, "…if it saves just one child." In conjunction with (but far more so than the other buckets of intellectual mud) "…if it saves just one child" has created the Golem of Government.

It was useful once, certainly, but it has since grown larger and more unwieldy as you slumbered. It is more potent than you now, and now it wields its own momentum with a self-directed animus of its own design, winding to and fro, unpredictable and twister-like, a destructive force that, despite what you thought, is not magically contained by the frontiers of the United States. Its power is extraterritorial and carves a wide swath across and through international law, international relations, international taxation, "force projection," and grips a stranglehold on the global financial system, which it greedily claims as its own and uses as hostage to bend the laws of other states to its will.

With almost Tolkienesque malice it seeks to see all, hear all, and know all- and owing to complacency that runs the gamut from your blithe acquiescence to your active participation, increasingly looks close to meeting its total information omniscience goal. Yet, the Golem is possessed of no craft, no subtlety, no art. Its sensory organs inform crude appendages that know how to do nothing but squeeze, smash, stomp, kidnap, and explode the targets of its interest without apology or feeling. Moreover, the Golem has no sense of proportion, happily imposing costs of $10 billion on the developed world to collect less than one tenth of that in revenue for itself, raining fire from the sky upon any collection of persons it feels might maybe contain a couple troublemakers. It thinks nothing of shutting down the 20th largest city within its borders (at a cost of many billions of dollars) to hunt down a single sleep-deprived, starving, wounded, and suicidal criminal. Likewise, it laughs to spend hundreds of thousands in time and expenses to ransack those of its Subjects' entities with operating budgets of $20,000, $15,000, or even less, or to ruin a mid-sized enterprise with a displeasing political orientation over vague foreign regulations on the exportation of wood.

Liz Mair Rips the Republican Establishment: It's Chock Full of Frauds

The Republican establishment is woefully directionless and confused. On Twitter, Republican communications consultant Liz Mair slammed the party's unprincipled leadership, especially the nincompoops Reince Preibus and John Boehner.




Larwyn's Linx: Keep Calm and Read Animal Farm

Send us tips! Bloggers: install a Larwyn's Linx widget. Get real-time news, 24/7, at BadBlue.

Nation

Keep Calm and Read Animal Farm: MOTUS
We might as well put the Constitution out of its misery: Mark Steyn
Perverse Incentives and Perverse Decisions: James Simpson

The Pit at the End of the Rainbow: George Neumayr
How the NSA Collects your Internet Data in Four Charts: ZH
Is Obama Collecting Data on Gun Owners?: Patterico

Third Party? Palin warns GOP: Abandon us, we’ll abandon you: Scoop
Did Senators Really Tell Biden They're Afraid of Cruz and Rand Paul?: NB
California Marriage Case: It’s Not Over Yet: Elizabeth Slattery

Economy

So Much for Patient Privacy: Koch's Tour
USDA Tells Magician to Write Disaster Plan for His Rabbit: Bob McCarty
White House recruits librarians to promote ObamaCare: Fox News

Red – and I do mean red – herrings of the Left: Larry Sand, EAG
Paul Ryan Leading House for 'Amnesty' Deal: NewsMax
Coal-state Dems chisel away at Obama climate plan: Fox

Scandal Central

Benghazi: The Truth Behind the Smokescreen.: Bret Baier, Fox News
Hostage Crisis: The Blind Sheikh, Benghazi and Smoking Guns: Shoebat
Secret-court judges upset at portrayal of ‘collaboration’ with government: WaPo

Climate & Energy

Shocker: "Global Warming: Scientists' Best Predictions May Be Wrong": Ace
Wind power kills birds. Birds that Greenies are supposedly FOND of.: Moe Lane
Tropical depression strengthening in Pacific off Mexico: USA Today

Media

Washington Post Airbrushes Racist Trayvon-Related Headline: Ed Driscoll
Zimmerman Prosecution Has a Huge Problem: George Zimmerman re-enactment video with the police : Gretawire
The @Paula_Deen backlash: When is enough enough?: Sister Toldjah

Alec Baldwin's anger management problems: he's gotten away with bad behavior way too long: EBL
Nwe Guardian "Scoop" Sourced to Jew-Hating Conspiracy Theorist Wayne Madsen: American Power
Judge Jeanine Pirro slams the IRS for more employees pleading the 5th: Scoop

Rush Limbaugh: ‘Wait Until the Republican Party Hears About This’: Blaze
EXCLUSIVE: Capital One’s New Slogan, “What’s In Your Closet?”: Jim Hoft
Tracy Martin, Trayvon's father, scrutinized over suspicious activity: Joseph Cotto

World

Obama Readies US Marines to Assist in Egypt… But Wouldn’t Send US Marines to Benghazi: Jim Hoft
U.S. prison warden: Muslim prayers led to Muslim gangs: Creeping
Mandela's passing and the looming threat of a race war against South Africa's whites: Daily Mail

The Mood of 1980: Victor Davis Hanson
England is no longer a free country: Datechguy
“You Can’t Say That in Austria”: Gates of Vienna

Sci-Tech

How a total n00b mined $700 in bitcoins: Ars Technica
Encryption Has Foiled Wiretaps for First Time Ever, Feds Say: Wired
University of Michigan activates antimatter 'gun,' cartoon supervillains twirl moustaches anew: Engadget

Cornucopia

Are You Real? Do You Lead From Your Heart?: Jeff Carter
Cheaper Than Dirt Have Lost Their Minds!: GunWire
6 brothers fought in World War II: Navy Times

Image: AP: Thousands of protesters gather in Tahrir Square to rally against Egypt's Morsi
Sponsored by: Call Paul Ryan's office now at (202) 225-3031 and tell him NO AMNESTY

QOTD: "Whatever you may think of the English Defence League (I'm not a fan, myself), yesterday's arrest of its leaders Tommy Robinson and Kevin Carroll was another example of inexcusable overreach by the Metropolitan Police - and not simply because of the implications around stopping two men walking down the street, but because of how much it's going to cost you and I in the long run.

From what I can tell of the video of the incident, this will be an easy legal encounter for the EDL leaders, who will no doubt report the wrongful arrest to the Independent Police Complaints Commission and may well be able to drag the Met through the courts too.

But think about the costs involved in deploying the officers in the first place, the cars, the filming, the pre-briefings, the post-briefings, the paperwork and the presumptive legal battle. That's an awful lot of wonga to drop to stop two thugs walking past an East London Mosque. And in any case, shouldn't the burden of non-violence (is it a burden?) be on the side of those who would claim to be offended by the EDL presence?

I know they say that freedom isn't free. It looks like tyranny costs a pretty penny too." --Raheem Kassam

Saturday, June 29, 2013

3 Reasons to Oppose the Senate's Amnesty Bill

I don't know this Jim Bridenstine fellow, but so far I like the cut of his jib.


You can follow Rep. Bridenstine on Twitter at @RepJBridenstine.


Along with Dred Scott and Korematsu, the Supreme Court's DOMA decision will live in infamy

Guest post by Liberty Counsel

Washington, DC—The 5-4 opinion by the Supreme Court on the Federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) raises serious questions about the legitimacy of the Court’s authority. History has proven that the Court does not always issue legitimate opinions.

In Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. 393 (1857), Chief Justice Roger Taney wrote for the majority that while some states had granted citizenship to blacks, the U.S. Constitution did not recognize citizenship of blacks. Taney wrote that blacks were “regarded as beings of inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations; and so far inferior, that they had no rights that the white man was bound to respect; and that the negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his own benefit.”

Thus, according to the Court, Scott had no standing to file the suit. As might be expected, this decision created further rift between the North and the South in the days leading up to the Civil War. The Fourteenth Amendment later put the nail in the coffin of the Dred Scott decision. This decision was illegitimate and is repudiated today.

In Buck v. Bell, 274 U.S. 200 (1927), Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, writing for the Court, described Charlottesville, Virginia, native Carrie Buck, whom he described as an “imbecile,” as the “probable potential parent of socially inadequate offspring, likewise afflicted,” and he went on to say that “her welfare and that of society will be promoted by her sterilization.”

His infamous words still cause one to shudder when he wrote, “Three generations of imbeciles are enough.” The Buck v. Bell case approved forced sterilization to prevent “feebleminded and socially inadequate” people from having children. This horrible decision set the stage for more than sixty thousand sterilizations in the United States and was cited favorably at the Nuremberg trials in defense of Nazi sterilization experiments. Incredibly, this decision has never been overturned. Even so, this decision was illegitimate and is repudiated today.

In Korematsu v. U.S., 324 U.S. 885 (1945), the Court upheld Executive Order 9066, which ordered Japanese Americans to be herded into internment camps during World War II.

Citizenship had no value to the Japanese.

All persons of Japanese decent were placed in custody, despite the constitutional guarantee of the Fifth Amendment. This decision, too, is illegitimate.

Justice O’Connor, writing in Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Penn. v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833, 864-869 (1992), candidly acknowledged:

As Americans of each succeeding generation are rightly told, the Court cannot buy support for its decisions by spending money and, except to a minor degree, it cannot independently coerce obedience to its decrees. The Court’s power lies, rather, in its legitimacy, a product of substance and perception that shows itself in the people’s acceptance of the Judiciary as fit to determine what the Nation’s law means and to declare what it demands. . . .

The Court must take care to speak and act in ways that allow people to accept its decisions on the terms the Court claims for them, as grounded truly in principle, not as compromises with social and political pressures having, as such, no bearing on the principled choices that the Court is obliged to make. Thus, the Court’s legitimacy depends on making legally principled decisions under circumstances in which their principled character is sufficiently plausible to be accepted by the Nation.

The 5-4 decision by the Supreme Court in the Federal Defense of Marriage Act case has caused millions of Americans to lose confidence in the Court. The decision is as far removed from the Constitution and the Court’s prior precedent as the east is from the west.

Led by Justice Kennedy, the majority of the Justices have cut the tether that once connected them to the Constitution. This decision does not even pretend to be governed by the Constitution or Court precedent. Although the Court used the words “equal protection,” the Court never engaged in an equal protection analysis. Not once did the Court identify the right sought by the petitioners. Not once did the Court ask whether the claimed right was protected, either by an enumerated provision of the Constitution or deeply rooted in history and necessary to ordered liberty. Not once did the Court seek to determine the level of judicial scrutiny the case should receive.

In short, this opinion represents the personal views of five Justices and it finds no support in the Constitution or reason. As history has shown us, such decisions delegitimize the Court. On top of this flawed opinion, the majority demeaned the Court and weakened its authority by labeling as hateful those who believe that marriage is the union of one man and one woman.

Marriage predates religion and all civil authorities. It is ontologically a union of a man and a woman and is part of the natural created order. Such irresponsible language by the Court undermines its legitimacy in the eyes of the people. The Court does not have unlimited authority. This decision presumed too much of the people’s blind acceptance of its authority. Just like a corporate act cannot be ultra vires (beyond its authority), the people may determine that this decision is beyond the authority of this Court. If that happens, the Court will lose its authority.



Hat tip: BadBlue News.

The 10 most dangerous play things of all time

Guest post by Paige Ferrari


VERY BAD SANTA: We made our list, checked it twice, crammed it with naughty, and left out the nice


Several years ago, Target recalled 10 of its Kool Toyz-brand play sets, citing hazards like "lead paint," "sharp points," and "puncture wound potential." The toys, which included plastic aircraft carriers, dinosaurs, and tanks, all appeared harmless enough. But according to the killjoys at the Consumer Product Safety Commission, children—at least those prone to eating plastic objects as big as their head—were at serious risk. A week later, Mattel recalled 4.4 million Polly Pocket dolls and accessories because kids were swallowing the toy's magnets. The Associated Press reported, "If more than one magnet is swallowed, they can attach to each other and cause intestinal perforation, infection or blockage." Three children required surgery.

In 2006 alone, some eight million units of toys were recalled in the U.S., according to W.A.T.C.H., a toy-safety advocacy group. But Kool Toys and Polly Pockets are kids' stuff compared to the hazardous baubles of yesteryear. In the spirit of the holidays, we present the 10 most dangerous toys of all time, those treasured playthings that drew blood, chewed digits, took out eyes, and, in one case, actually irradiated. To keep things interesting, we excluded BB guns, slingshots, throwing stars, and anything else actually intended to inflict harm. Below, our toy box from hell.

1. Lawn Darts


DEATH FROM ABOVE - Respect the Jart or it will destroy you

Removable parts? Suffocation risk? Lead paint? Pussy hazards compared to the granddaddy of them all. Lawn Darts, or "Jarts," as they were marketed, would never fly in our current ultra-paranoid, safety-helmeted, Dr. Phil toy culture. Lawn darts were massive weighted spears. You threw them. They stuck where they landed. If they happened to land in your skull, well, then you should have moved. During their brief (and generally awesome) reign in 1980s suburbia, Jarts racked up 6,700 injuries and four deaths.

STOP TOSS MEASURES: The lawn dart was put on the permanent no-fly list in 1988

The best part about Jarts was that they eliminated all speculation from true outdoor fun. (Is this dangerous? Hell yes, now chuck it!) And they were equal opportunity: All it took to play lawn darts was a sweaty grip. For good measure, it was also nice to have a small sibling around to stand on the other side of the house and tell you how your throw looked (and by how much you cleared the chimney).

The actual rules of lawn darts, as laid out by the manufacturer, were never important. No one is known to have used Jarts for their intended purpose. It shouldn't be surprising, then, that an accident involving a wayward spear and the semi-permeable head of a seven-year-old resulted in the toys' being banned from the market in 1988. Sadly, today's underage boys will never know the primal excitement of a summer's evening spent impaling friends before suppertime.

2. Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Lab


FISSION BUDDY - Fallout shelter not included

Honey, why is your face glowing?

Larwyn's Linx: What would tyranny look like in America? Look around.

Send us tips! Bloggers: install a Larwyn's Linx widget. Get real-time news, 24/7, at BadBlue.

Nation

What would tyranny look like in America? Look around.: Daniel Horowitz
GOP Rep: Obamacare building database on every American: Breitbart
Senators Ask if NSA Collected Gun Data: WFB

Guess Who’s Welcome in the White House?: Jonathan S. Tobin
South Africa: Protesters Rip “Arrogant, Selfish, Oppressive” Obama: WZ
Think Gubmint spying is bad now? You ain’t seen nuthin’ yet : Flopping Aces

The Sandbagging of America: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton
Coulda been Obama's son brings people together: Twitchy
Here Come the Trayvon Martin Riots!: AWD

Economy

The bill with the surprise inside: The IRS is now your doctor, sort of: Watchdog
Nearly 1/5th Of Congress Getting Both Pension And Salary: Doug Mataconis
FHA Swamped by Defaults: Losses Up to $115 Billion: Mish

Barack Obama’s $100M African vacation is now a family affair: Naked DC
Taxing People Out of 2nd Amendment Rights: Sara Noble
22% Think Obamacare Will Make Things Better, 42% Say Worse: Mish

Scandal Central

Another White House play date with Muslim jihad: Michelle Malkin
Communist Party Will Work With Democrats (and RINOs) to Fight Conservatives in 2014: Trevor Loudon
US Park Police Loses 1,400 firearms, including machine guns: PJM

Climate & Energy

Is Carbon Dioxide Guilty and Global Warming Settled Science?: Dr. Ileana Johnson Paugh
In Pursuit of False Climate Idols, Paul Krugman Wants the Poor to Suffer and Die: Jeffrey Dorman
Obama: Make climate change a must for your vote: Josh Lederman

Media

20 Signs America is in Decline: John Hawkins
Bret Baier: Have Talked To A Few Survivors, More Shoes To Drop In Benghazi Case: WZ
Historic: iOTW

Covert Agenda: US Didn't Become Pro-Gay Overnight: Paul Strand, CBN
Sarah Palin hopes Rubio’s phone call from Obama ‘was worth 30 pieces of silver’: Twitchy
NJ: Police nab scumbag home invader: Daily Mail

Zimmerman trial blockbuster — Eyewitness says Trayvon on top punching Mixed Martial Arts style: LI
ABC, CBS & NBC Too Excited by Wendy Davis to Realize They're Losing Abortion Debate: Geoffrey Dickens
Alec Baldwin Shuts Down His Toxic Little Twitter Feed After Violent, Homophobic Meltdown: Bryan Preston

Liberal Admits (Justified) Desire For Control Of Our Lives: Political Outcast
I Dare Liberals to be Outraged at This Parody of The New Yorker's Gay Marriage Cover...: The Looking Spoon
Historical Flashback: Chicago Women’s Protective Association Urges Women Carry Arms: Tammy Bruce

World

Crystal Meth Floods U.S. Border Crossing: Breitbart
Obama's War of Ideas: Caroline Glick
Retired US general may have leaked Stuxnet cyberattack details': Jon Swaine, Telegraph

Notes on the Turkish Troubles: America’s muted response is both confusing and disheartening.: Claire Berlinski
“It goes without saying”: the Further Rhetoric of Terrorist Apologia: Sad Red Earth
If Only Our Foreign Enemies Were Republicans: Hanson

Return of the Yellow Star: Steve Apfel, The Commentator
Congressman Steve Stockman Says Senate Amnesty Bill Is Unconstitutional: RWN
The world hates Obama’s America more than Bush’s: Time Magazine

Sci-Tech

Voyager I, At The Edge Of The Solar System, Finds The Unexpected: Doug Mataconis
New Breed of Banking Malware Hijacks Text Messages: Penny Crosman, American Banker
The Chilling State of Cyber Affairs (US DoD Report): Infosec Island

Cornucopia

Shapey Dave Pilot: Blur Brain
Ad Campaign Uses Powerful Photographs to Explain that Facebook Likes Don’t Help: DL Cade, PetaPixel
Why many NBA draft picks will go broke: Matthew Heimer, MarketWatch

Image: Here is Wall Street NYC, as it looked in 1883
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Support the Senate Conservatives Fund

QOTD: "Obama is a man of ideas. And he has surrounded himself with men and women who share his ideas. For Obama and his advisers, what matters are not the facts, but the theoretical assumptions - the ideas - that determine their policies. If they like an idea, if they find it ideologically attractive, then they base their policies on it. Consequences and observable reality are no match for their ideas. To serve their ideas, reality can be deliberately distorted. Facts can be ignored, or denied." --Caroline Glick

Friday, June 28, 2013

Discovery of Endangered Slug Halts Inspector General From Dismantling EPA "Man-Caves"

Washington, DC (Spackle News Network) - Citing discovery of an endangered slug, EPA auditors halted efforts to dismantle numerous "man caves" found hidden in agency facilities nationwide.

Last month EPA's inspector general reported it had found secret rooms filled with televisions, couches, video-game consoles, and other leisure gear. “The warehouse contained multiple unauthorized and hidden personal spaces created by and for the workers that included televisions, refrigerators, radios, microwaves, chairs and couches,” the IG report said. “These spaces contained personal items, including photos, pin ups, calendars, clothing, books, magazines and videos.”

After a series of more thorough searches, however, EPA auditors also discovered a species of endangered slug living in the facilities. EPA administrators quickly filed restraining orders with the courts to prevent auditors from dismantling the man-caves.

"If we can only save one slug," said EPA Chief Gina McCarthy, "it will have been worth it. The so-called man-caves, while representing a waste of millions of taxpayer dollars, really pale in comparison to the life of the 'Windsor Slug'."

Yesterday President Obama indicated his intent to sign an executive order redirecting $1 billion to fund a study of the unique mating habits of the species. All operations at the facilities have been halted to prepare for the study.


Hat tip: Flyboys.

ROVE AND BOEHNER JUST SOILED THEMSELVES: Sarah Palin Issues Ultimatum to Feckless GOP Establishment

Sarah Palin, along with millions of Americans who have been ignored, insulted and disenfranchised by their "representatives" in Washington, has had just about enough.

Please take a look at the [accompanying] article ... to understand how the amnesty bill the Senate passed yesterday is a sad betrayal of working class Americans of every ethnicity who will see their wages lowered and their upward mobility lowered too. And yet we still do not have a secured border. This Senate-approved amnesty bill rewards lawbreakers and won’t solve any problems – as the CBO report notes that millions of more illegal immigrants will continue to flood the U.S. in coming years.


Great job, GOP establishment. You’ve just abandoned the Reagan Democrats with this amnesty bill, and we needed them to “enlarge that tent” of which you so often speak. It’s depressing to consider that the House of Representatives is threatening to pass some version of this nonsensical bill in the coming weeks.

Once again, I’ll point out the obvious to you: it was the loss of working class voters in swing states that cost us the 2012 election, not the Hispanic vote. Legal immigrants respect the rule of law and can see how self-centered a politician must be to fill this amnesty bill with favors, earmarks, and crony capitalists’ pork, and call it good. You disrespect Hispanics with your assumption that they desire ignoring the rule of law.

Folks like me are barely hanging on to our enlistment papers in any political party – and it’s precisely because flip-flopping political actions like amnesty force us to ask how much more bull from both the elephants in the Republican Party and the jackasses in the Democrat Party we have to swallow before these political machines totally abandon the average commonsense hardworking American. Now we turn to watch the House. If they bless this new “bi-partisan” hyper-partisan devastating plan for amnesty, we’ll know that both private political parties have finally turned their backs on us.

It will then be time to show our parties’ hierarchies what we think of being members of either one of these out-of-touch, arrogant, and dysfunctional political machines.

Palin is channeling the anger and rage felt deeply by millions of Americans -- citizens of every race, color, creed and religion -- who are at wit's end. They are disgusted with a massive, unelected leviathan of a federal government that keeps creating new programs when its existing ones are bankrupt. They are disgusted with thousand-page laws that get passed in the dead of night, without being read, without debate, and without any public scrutiny. They are disgusted with representatives of both parties who act more like a nomenklatura -- a ruling class -- than representatives in a republican form of government.

The country is nearing a breaking point. Palin knows it. You and I know it. Millions know it.

What the Republican leadership does next could well set the stage for a political sea change.


Hat tips: The Right Scoop> and BadBlue Uncensored News.

Dartmouth Expert: Snowden Incident Could Happen in Health Care

One of the central tenets of Obamacare was a full-court press to electronify (it's a technical term) the private health care records of each and every American. This digitization effort occurred under the guise of cost savings, but recent incidents involving the IRS and Edward Snowden make clear that government has an insatiable appetite for data. After all, data translates into power and leverage over the individual.

At Health Care IT News, Diana Manos explores Snowden's impact on EMR (Electronic Medical Records).

Deborah Peel, MD, founder of Patient Privacy Rights, says there are many parallels between the Snowden controversy and the U.S. healthcare system... "Corporations and their employees that steal or sell Americans' health data for 'research' or 'public health' uses or for 'data analytics' without patients' consent or knowledge are rewarded with millions in profits; they don't have to flee the country to avoid jail or charges of espionage," she said.

"The NSA justifies its actions using the war on terror," Peel added. "The Department of Health and Human Services claims its actions are justified to lower healthcare costs. These are obviously very different agencies collecting different kinds of very sensitive personal information, but both set up hidden, extremely intrusive surveillance systems that violate privacy rights and destroy trust in government."

"The benefits of technology can be reaped in all sectors of our economy without the harms if we restore/update our laws to assure privacy of personally identifiable information in electronic systems. Our ethics, principles, and fundamental rights should be applied to the uses of technology," Peel says.

David Kotz, associate dean of faculty for the sciences and professor of computer science at Dartmouth College, says the Snowden incident could also happen in healthcare... "It's certainly conceivable that a technically savvy person, intent on snooping into individual health records, leaking them to unauthorized groups, or mining them for medical identity theft (a growing problem), might seek employment in an organization that provides healthcare (such as a major hospital) or in an organization that supports healthcare (such as billing-support agency or an insurance provider) simply to get 'insider' access to those records and then mis-use that access for nefarious purposes..."

Frankly, I'd worry about the threat of an authoritarian government misusing the data more than an insider or other malicious private actor.

Under Obama, the IRS, the EPA, HHS, the DOJ, and scores of other departments, offices and agencies of the unelected fourth branch of government -- the massive administrative state -- have been caught targeting the political opposition.

It is a certainty that our private health care records will be exposed to unscrupulous parties and used to punish Obama's political opponents.

Which is why, for starters, we should only support candidates who will defund the IRS and institute a flat tax or the Fair Tax. Nuke the budget of the IRS: it's the only way to be sure.


Hat tip: BadBlue Tech News Portal.

Larwyn's Linx: Time To “Document” House Members on Illegal Immigration

Send us tips! Bloggers: install a Larwyn's Linx widget. Get real-time news, 24/7, at BadBlue.

Nation

Time To “Document” House Members on Illegal Immigration: Daniel Horowitz
Meet the Obamacare Hub, your data ready to be used against you : WyBlog
Vote Tally from US Senate: Mexico 68, USA 32!: John Lillpop

Tax ID numbers combine for multiple IRS refunds: Watchdog
Drug-filled Mexican planes arrive nightly on southern border: Susan Ferrechio
Alinsky in Austin: ACahnman

Sen. Mike Lee: We've Been Misled About What Was in The Bill: CNS
Boehner: I'll Require Majority of GOP Caucus For Conference Bill: Ace
CA Sheriff Strips Forest Service Of State-Law Enforcement Power: Laura Cole

Economy

Ted Cruz smacks ObamaCare tax on hiring American citizens: John Hayward
Magpul To Leave Colorado In Grand Style: Dana Loesch
Terror Prof Bill Ayers and Obama's Federal Curriculum: Mary Grabar (2012)

Scandal Central

IRS auditor reaffirms that conservatives, not liberals, were targeted: Times
Like Benghazi?: Liberal Logic 101
Charged Filed Against MF Corzine: Breitbart

Climate & Energy

“‘Power of ridicule’ – New weapon against climate deniers: Protein Wisdom
UK Birdwatchers Stunned As Rarely Recorded Species Killed By Wind Turbine : Blazing Cat Fur
Former EPA general counsel Martella discusses Obama climate announcement: EETV

Report: The Power of Obama’s EPA Has Skyrocketed: Michael Bastasch
Coal Day in Hell: Hopenchange Cartoons
GM to Invest $691 Million in Mexico: Wynton Hall

Media

Anthony Kennedy: I am greater than all, and I stand atop US history as its God and Savior. Bow.: Protein Wisdom
DEVASTATING: Hugh Hewitt exposes Hoeven and the Corker-Hoeven amendment as a complete fraud : Scoop
DOMA: So You're Partying? Don't.: Karl Denninger

TIME TO DESTROY THE CREEPY-ASS CRACKA CALLED POLITICAL CORRECTNESS!: AWD
A Vision of the Vision of the Anointed: Ed Driscoll
MSNBC: Justice Thomas ‘a symbolic Jew... [inviting] Hitler to commit holocaust and genocide’: David Freddoso

Sarah Palin: Rubio & Ayotte Should Face Primaries For Lying About Amnesty: John Hawkins
Fish Gotta Swim, Birds Gotta Fly, Alec Baldwin Gotta Publicly Meltdown Once Again: Ed Driscoll
Thank Goodness: Mayor Bloomberg Helping End the Sparkler Menace: Dave Blount

World

The disturbing pattern: Obama rids America's military of yet another top general: Andrew Malcolm
Bumbling White House Touts Kenyan Voter ID Cards While Obstructing Voter ID in US: JWF
Israeli Leftist Sees the Abyss; Pees in His Pants: Ari Shavit

Look What Egyptians Are Saying About Obama’s Awesome Ambassador To Egypt: Nice Deb
Obama Demotes Snowden From Evil Chinese Spy To “29-Year-Old Hacker”: Tammy Bruce
The science is settled: It's "workplace violence" when Muslim shrieking "Allah Akbar" murders pregnant women: Navy Times

The Face of Cowardly Submission: Theresa May: Robert Stacy McCain
The Caliphate on the Horizon: Dr. Reuven Berko
Birthers Swarm Obama In Africa, “Welcome Home, Mr. President”: WZ

Sci-Tech

Is The Cable Internet Business Doomed?: Karl Denninger
Facebook leaks are a lot leakier than Facebook is letting on: Lisa Vaas, Sophos
Foxconn unveils smartwatch that can be connected wirelessly to an iPhone: TNW

Cornucopia

Hillary Clinton Converts to Islam to Run for President: Cube
You’ve Got Your assignments, I’ll be in Africa.: MOTUS
Oh My Gosh, This Might Be The Most Beautiful Pistol I Have Ever Seen: Steve Johnson, TFB

Image: Hillary Clinton Converts to Islam to Run for President
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QOTD: "If the family collapses, it will take a welfare state to take care of the women and children, and a police state to handle the boys." --George Gilder

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Bloomberg Weighs in on Respecting the Rights of the People

And by Bloomberg, I mean the crackpot mayor, not the news service.

And Mayor Bloomberg would like to lecture us on respecting people's rights, to wit:


Let me clarify: Bloomberg urges respect for certain classes of people, unless those people are drinking 20-ounce sodas, consuming salt, eating fast food, taking prescription painkillers, or using styrofoam cups.

In which case New York City's pint-sized, would-be dictator will put his foot down... on you.


Hat tip: Ashley.

The Life of Julia, Legalized Illegal Alien Edition

Courtesy of CIS, enjoy a story of your tax dollars and legislators at work... against you.

Hugh Hewitt Shreds John Hoeven: "If I were La Raza, I could make sure this fence never gets built"

I'm guessing that Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) regrets agreeing to discuss the Corker-Hoeven Amendment -- the faux border security measure passed by the Senate -- with Hugh Hewitt. Hewitt, an expert attorney with a strong legislative and Constitutional background, quickly determined that the border security aspects of Corker-Hoeven are just as enforceable as, well, our current immigration laws.

And read to the end, because I've included Hewitt's interview with Ted Cruz in which he truly gets to the bottom -- and I do mean bottom -- of this abysmal cluster of a miserable bill.

HH: Now Senator... I just wanted to be up front about it. I do not like your amendment at all, because I think it guts the border fence.

JH: No, we actually require a total of 700 miles of border fence, and also 20,000 more border patrol agents, $4.5 billion technology plan on the border that includes sensors, radars, drones, helicopters, planes... in addition to a national, mandatory national E-verify and electronic entry/exit systems at airports and seaports.

HH: But Senator, I want to stay focused just on the fence, if you don’t mind, in our few minutes.

JH: Okay, all right. Yeah.

HH: At Section 5b, it says the Southern Border Fencing Strategy, not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this act, the secretary of Homeland Security shall establish a strategy to be known as the Southern Border Fencing Strategy, to identify where 700 miles of fencing, including double layer fencing, infrastructure and technology, including ports of entry, should be deployed along the southern border.

First question, of those 700 miles, how many miles must be double layered?

Gee, you'll never guess who got a photo op at James Gandolfini's funeral

Don't get caught between Chris Christie and a camera, because you could get pancaked into something resembling flesh-colored aluminum foil.

James Gandolfini's friends, loved ones and collaborators celebrated him Thursday as a teddy bear of a man who hugged a little too hard, an actor who committed so intensely to scenes that he once broke a refrigerator, and a man's man whose boyishness made him great.

New York's stately Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine was filled with a who's who of New York and New Jersey luminaries including Gov. Chris Christie, "Sopranos" creator David Chase and Gandolfini's co-stars on the HBO mob drama. Edie Falco, Michael Imperioli, Jamie-Lynn Sigler and Steve Buscemi were among them. Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes also attended.

Chase, as well as Gandolfini's wife and friends, spoke in remembrance of the actor, who died of a heart attack last week at 51. He recalled shooting a scene in which Gandolfini slammed a fridge so hard it broke -- and then complained about the dark places he had to go for the role of mob boss Tony Soprano...

Chase says he remembered telling Gandolfini: "Did it say anywhere in the script, 'Tony destroys a refrigerator? You destroyed the refigerator."

Later he addressed Gandolfini, as if reading him a letter: "Sometimes you tried too hard. That refrigerator was one example."

Rest In Peace, Tony Soprano.


Hat tip: BadBlue Fame - Celebrity News.

Passage of the Amnesty Bill Will Spell the End of Our Republic

Guest post by James Simpson

On Monday, June 24, 2013, the U.S. Senate passed a cloture motion (which ends debate) on the Schumer-Corker-Hoeven Amendment to the Gang of Eight's horrifying illegal alien amnesty bill - mislabeled "immigration reform."

The true purpose of this amnesty proposal is to capture future votes for the Democratic Party. Those who do not acknowledge that blatantly obvious fact either suffer from some debilitating mental illness or are working for the other side.

On rare occasions, even the Left admit the objective. Eliseo Medina, the honorary Chair of the Democratic Socialists of America, and International Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), said in 2008:

...If we reform the immigration laws, it puts 12 million people on the path to citizenship and eventually voters. Can you imagine if we have ...even two out of three, if we get 8 million new voters... we will create a governing coalition for the long term, not just for an election cycle.

The "governing coalition for the long term" refers of course to the "permanent progressive majority" Democrats have fantasized about for decades.

The number of illegals in this country is repeatedly cited as 11 million. This is almost certainly an underestimate. In reality the number is 20 to 30 million or more, according to a 2007 study in Social Contract. Bear Stearns estimated about 20 million in 2005. When amnesty passed in 1986, official estimates were 1.2 million illegals. There were actually 2.7 million - more than double. Within ten years, INS estimated the illegal population had grown to 10 million. It is delusional to believe the number has only increased by another 1 million in the 17 years since. Furthermore, when amnesty passes, the newly-legal aliens will invite their relatives to come, further inflating that number through chain migration.

Herein lies the real reason Democrats are slavering for this amnesty bill to pass and are tickling themselves pink that there are Republicans stupid and gullible, (or corrupt) enough to help them realize their dream. And make no mistake, an increase of 30 million in the Democrat Party voter base will guarantee Democrat majorities in the U.S. House, Senate and Presidency for the foreseeable future.

Despite the impossibly bizarre belief by some Republicans that amnesty will make illegals "like us," a high level Congressional source recently acknowledged to me that passage of this bill will spell the end of our Republic and that we literally have only weeks to stop it. Despite House Speaker John Boehner's somewhat ambiguous assurances, this bill is likely to get a vote in the House.

Larwyn's Linx: After Amnesty Debacle, Rubio Takes To Senate Floor To Claim He's Still A Conservative

Send us tips! Bloggers: install a Larwyn's Linx widget. Get real-time news, 24/7, at BadBlue.

Nation

Rubio Takes To Senate Floor To Claim He's Still A Conservative: Ace
Ted Cruz will block all State Dept. nominees until Obama nominates IG: Twitchy
State Dept. Yanks Anti-Terror Ad When CAIR Cries Racism: Stephen Kruiser

USSR Then, USA Today: Shifra
With SCOTUS VRA ruling, expect more mischief from DOJ: Adams
TX: Pro-Infanticide Fanatics Disrupt Vote Banning Late-Term Abortions: JWF

No one knows what Congress does anymore: NakedDC
McCain: Fischer Made ‘False Statements’ About Border Security: Roll Call
Zimmerman Trial Day 3: Andrew Branca

Economy

Amnesty Bill Rewards Businesses For Hiring Illegals Over Citizens: RWN
Food Stamp Trafficking: Who’s in on the Act?: Kate Rogers
What is Behind the Dip in Precious Metals Prices?: James Wesley Rawles

Governor Scott Walker Continues Reign of Terror: Ace
Man With Giant Carbon Footprint Squees Man With Biggest CFP In World: RWN
DOJ Cuts Off Funds For Youth Programs That Mention God: RWN

Scandal Central

IRS Agents keep taking the Fifth.: Moe Lane
Sexual Anarchy: Progress, Perversion and the ‘Emerging Awareness’ Doctrine: Robert Stacy McCain
The Constitutional Right to Drive Drunk While Brown and Illegal: John Lillpop

Climate & Energy

'Carbon Pollution' and Wealth Redistribution: Benjamin Zycher
Smoking Gun: The direct link between Agenda 21 and local planners!: Tom Deweese
Matt Ridley: Fossil Fuels are Greening the Planet: Elephant

Media

Sarah Palin Slams Obama Tool David Plouffe on Twitter: American Power
Palin Throws Down Gauntlet on Primary Challenges to Rubio, Ayotte: Breitbart
Jim Rogers: “This Is Too Insane–And I’m Afraid We’re All Going To Suffer For The Rest Of This Decade”: BMT

‘Gay Marriage’ and Religious Freedom Are Not Compatible: Erick Erickson
NYT Scrubs Obama Adviser's 'War on Coal' Quote From Report on Obama Climate Speech: Tom Blumer
Watchdog Wire - A Grand Experiment in Citizen Journalism: Watchdog Wire

World

Amb. Stevens' Diary: Last Page Reads "Never-Ending Security Threats..." Then Goes Ominously Blank: Ace
Mexico: Securing Border Violates Human Rights: JW
The Taliban is playing Obama: Marc A. Thiessen

Britain Surrenders: JihadWatch
British Ban Now International Incident: Atlas
New Digging Seen at North Korea Nuclear Test Site: Rachel Oswald

Sci-Tech

How Twitter Is Changing TV As We Know It: Megan Rose Dickey
Researcher Nets $20K for Finding Serious Facebook Flaw: Jeremy Kirk, CIO
Samsung launches 55-inch 'flawless' curved OLED TV in Korea: Richard Lawler, Engadget

Cornucopia

A Little FYI To Everyone Who Thinks "Progress" On Marriage Was Made Today: The Looking Spoon
The New Motto/Flag In A Post-Orwellian Society: 90 Miles From Tyranny
How big border enforcement-promise bills have played out in the past: CIS

Image: @Slublog via Ace
Sponsored by: Take action against the Gang of 8 Bill: CALL NOW 888-995-8349.

QOTD: "But to defend traditional marriage is not to condemn, demean, or humiliate those who would prefer other arrangements, any more than to defend the Constitution of the United States is to con- demn, demean, or humiliate other constitutions. To hurl such accusations so casually demeans this institution. In the majority's judgment, any resistance to its holding is beyond the pale of reasoned disagreement. To question its high-handed invalidation of a presumptively valid statute is to act (the majority is sure) with the purpose to "dis- parage," "injure," "degrade," "demean," and "humiliate" our fellow human beings, our fellow citizens, who are homo- sexual. All that, simply for supporting an Act that did no more than codify an aspect of marriage that had been unquestioned in our society for most of its existence— indeed, had been unquestioned in virtually all societies for virtually all of human history. It is one thing for a society to elect change; it is another for a court of law to impose change by adjudging those who oppose it hostes humani generis, enemies of the human race." --Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

NOT SEN. MITCH McCONNELL: The Obama Administration's Fascist Attacks on Free Speech

Guest post by Not Sen. Mitch McConnell [R-KY]


The First Amendment is under attack. It is under a full-bore assault by Marxist, Progressive, foreign, and Democrat front groups, and this assault is coordinated directly by the White House. In fact, we have seen hard proof that this White House is more totalitarian, more fascistic, and more authoritarian in its behavior than any in American history.

An internal Media Matters memo from January 2010, and this group is linked directly to the mainstream media, to the Democrat Party and to the White House, revealed that news personalities and other executives at Fox News would be personally attacked -- up to and including intimidation techniques and veiled threats of violence.

We have seen a coordinated effort by the Obama administration, whether it be the FEC, the FCC, HHS, the SEC and the IRS, to target political dissent and free speech in ways that more resemble Chavez' Venezuela or Hitler's Germany than America.

When asked directly by Congress about targeting groups for their political affiliation, managers at the IRS lied to Congress repeatedly. We have identified literally hundreds of cases of the IRS targeting conservative groups to suppress their political activities -- and the IRS has prevaricated, obfuscated and resilitated (that's not a word, but it rhymed) discovery into their actions.

But this issue isn't about the IRS or any single agency. It's endemic to an administration built on a cult of personality and led by a charismatic ideologue who fashions himself as some sort of imperial president. His personal logo, like a swastika, is emblazoned on all of his propaganda material. His political action wing has assembled a massive database on Americans, according to the ethically challenged Democrat Maxine Waters, that would probably shock the average NSA analyst.

We had an inkling this was coming: when the President wagged his finger at the Supreme Court for its Citizens United decision in 2010, it was emblematic of a man who thinks like a dictator. There's a reason Obama, Schumer and the rest of the Marxist Left were so angry with the Citizens United decision: because it broke the media companies' monopoly on free speech.

Any corporation and organization should be absolutely free to participate in political speech, not just the companies that own newspaper and television stations. Why would companies that own news organizations get to own political speech?

Citizens United wasn't controversial in the least. It simply broke the Marxist Left's monopoly on political speech. That's why Obama and his ilk were so upset.

The reasons that donor lists to political groups remain utterly private are to prevent authoritarians from using the instrumentalities of government to target them. The FEC has protected the donor lists of the Socialist Worker’s Party since 1979. And the Supreme Court told the State of Alabama's racist Democrats it couldn’t force the NAACP to disclose the names and addresses of its members back in the 1950s.

No, we have an administration so laced with ideologues that it is willing to shred the Bill of Rights. They took an oath to uphold that which they despise and ignore.

And that is why tonight I, Not Mitch McConnell -- Not the Senate Minority Leader -- am announcing the following:

• I will organize filibusters of every bill more than the number of pages of the U.S. Constitution and which is not available for public review and comment -- unmodified -- for 30 days.

• No bill, nor any nominee, will be permitted to proceed through the Senate until we have full disclosure of all documents sought by the Benghazi, Fast and Furious, and IRS investigative committees in the House of Representatives.

• There will be no Amnesty for illegal aliens and no "comprehensive immigration reform" permitted until Democrats agree to secure the border. Period.

Why would Republicans cooperate with fascist bullies? The only way to beat a bully is to fight back. And the only way to beat a fascist is to wage total political war.

From this day forward, and until we receive satisfaction on the points listed above, I declare total political war on Obama, his administration and the Democrat Party.

When they renounce fascism, I'll welcome them with open arms. Until then, they can expect a rain of political ruin the likes of which have never before been seen in Washington. As the dumbest vice president in American history might say, "Gird your loins."


Note: This speech is based upon a real speech by Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell. In fact, this is a speech he would give if he happened to be a true statesman and conservative, which he is not.