Story rings wrong

Here is the section from the article

New Orleans' homeland security chief, Terry Ebbert, said looters were breaking into stores all over town and stealing guns. He said there are gangs of armed men moving around the city. At one point, officers stranded on the roof of a hotel were fired at by criminals on the street.

It sounds like the cops found a nice dry place and just huddled there. If the looters "on the street" can move around and haul loot then how is it the cops are "stranded"? They found themselves a nice spot to wait it out. To heck with the people they were sworn to protect.

I call bull on this story.

The super nanny force won one.

I was worried that the super nanny squad would win this one and they did.

Wilson, to her shame, caved in immediately, promising to drop Skoal from her act. And they once called them "rebels."

What happened to the southern tradition of fighting and resistance.

Somehow it is the small things like this that piss me off the most. I don't even use tobacco

You don't need a gun. The police will always be there to protect you.

NOT!

The battered Times-Picayune of New Orleans, which evacuated its downtown office this afternoon, posted a simple note to it staffers on its Web site late this afternoon: "We are working at the Houma Courier for a few days. If you have news, call 985-850-1182. We plan to set up a longer term newsroom in Baton Rouge. Call the Advocate to find out where we are."

Meanwhile, two staffers published a story on one of the Web site's blogs, reporting on the looting in the city -- joined in by cops and firemen who had been called to the scene.
..............
Some officers joined in taking whatever they could, including one New Orleans cop who loaded a shopping cart with a compact computer and a 27-inch flat screen television.

"Throughout the store and parking lot, looters pushed carts and loaded trucks and vans alongside officers. One man said police directed him to Wal-Mart from Robert's Grocery, where a similar scene was taking place. A crowd in the electronics section said one officer broke the glass DVD case so people wouldn't cut themselves.

"The police got all the best stuff. They're crookeder than us," one man said. Most officers, though, simply stood by powerless against the tide of law breakers.

"To serve and protect". Yeah right!

Stickers galore

Found a nice site, Libertystickers.com , with some very good liberty based bumper stickers.

Are you involved in terroristic activities?

Maybe so if the FBI says you are.

The FBI seems to be rather loose in it's definition in what defines terrorist activity and who's doing it.

The file was obtained through an ongoing nationwide ACLU effort seeking information on the FBI's use of Joint Terrorism Task Forces to engage in political surveillance.

"This document confirms our fears that federal and state counterterrorism officers have turned their attention to groups and individuals engaged in peaceful protest activities," said Ben Wizner, an ACLU staff attorney and counsel in a lawsuit seeking the release of additional FBI records. "When the FBI and local law enforcement identify affirmative action advocates as potential terrorists, every American has cause for concern."
..........
Among the groups mentioned are Direct Action, an anti-war group, and BAMN (By Any Means Necessary), a national organization dedicated to defending affirmative action, integration, and other gains of the civil rights movement of the 1960s. The FBI acknowledges in the report that the Michigan State Police has information that BAMN has been peaceful in the past.

"Labeling political advocacy as 'terrorist activity' is a threat to legitimate dissent which has never been considered a crime in this country," said Kary Moss, Executive Director of the ACLU of Michigan. "Spying on people who simply disagree with our government's policies is a tremendous waste of police resources."

With more and more supposed crimes being labeled terroristic in nature it is not a surprise to me that basic activism would end up on the list.

"The new FBI. Creating terrorists where none existed everyday"

Can we burn down the FCC now people?

The FCC has become not a regulatory agency but an agency that is used for soley political reasons, all in the name of safety.

They demand that all VOIP be made so they can listen in at will...for your own good.
They control the airwaves so no pirate radio station can practice free speech.....for your own good.
Now they want to shut down VOIP totally....for your own good.

Lets make a law that if any government official uses the phrase "for your own good", or a varient of it, we can hunt them down and kill them without any legal problems.

Screw the weather!

While Nashvillians ran in circles fearing the bad weather front coming through town my wife and I did the sensible thing. We canned 32 quarts of Salsa (8 gallons) last night.

55 pounds of tomatoes
20 pounds of yellow onions
7 pounds of jalapenos
3 pounds of sweet peppers
2 pounds of green peppers

I fear no weather.

Laughing at the stupid nature of government.

In London it seems that one of the greatest threats against it's people are religious hate speech. So lets ban it they said. No one laughed.

RELIGIOUS jokes will be told to hundreds of Christians today in an attempt to determine whether they would fall foul of the Government's religious hatred legislation.
In "The Laugh Judgment" competition, more than 4,000 people voted on 700 religious jokes sent in to the satirical Christian website ShipofFools. The ten funniest and ten most offensive will be performed today at the Greenbelt Christian arts festival at Cheltenham racecourse by the comic James Carey, a scriptwriter for radio comedy shows.
..........
The contest was started to highlight potential problems with the Government's new religious hatred legislation.

Religious leaders from churches across the denominational spectrum, as well as secularists and comics such as Rowan Atkinson, are united in opposition to the Racial and Religious Hatred Bill, which had its third reading in July.

The Bill, which will now go to the Lords, where it is expected to arouse strong opposition, recommends a maximum seven-year jail sentence for anyone convicted of intending to stir up religious hatred. More than 1,000 church leaders have petitioned Downing Street urging Tony Blair to abandon it.

Now they are going to laugh at the government.

So what was the winnings jokes from this contest?

THE WINNERS


WALKING across a bridge, I saw a man on the edge, about to jump. I ran over and said: "Stop. Don't do it."

"Why not?" he asked.

"Well, there's so much to live for!"

"Like what?"

"Are you religious?"

He said: "Yes."

I said: "Me too. Are you Christian or Buddhist?"

"Christian."

"Me, too. Are you Catholic or Protestant?"

"Protestant."

"Me, too. Are you Episcopalian or Baptist?"

"Baptist."

"Me, too. Are you Baptist Church of God or Church of the Lord?"

"Baptist Church of God."

"Me, too. Are you original Baptist Church of God, or Reformed Baptist Church of God?"

"Reformed Baptist Church of God."

"Me, too! Are you Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1879, or Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1915?"

He said: "Reformation of 1915."

I said: "Die, heretic scum," and pushed him off.
------------------
JESUS came upon a small crowd who had surrounded a young woman they believed to be an adulteress. They were preparing to stone her to death. Jesus said: "Whoever is without sin among you, let them cast the first stone."
An old lady at the back of the crowd picked up a huge rock and lobbed it at the young woman, scoring a direct hit on her head. The young lady collapsed dead.

Jesus looked over towards the old lady and said: "Do you know, mother, sometimes you really p*** me off."

The vilest speech must be protected, because if not, your's will not be either.

There are some politicians who are guided not by the polls, but by their consciences and unalterable principles. They are called “third-party candidates.”

Joseph Sobran

Religious quote

Many people do not like what the Bush administration is doing to the basic rights and freedoms in our country, yet do nothing.

Who can protest and does not, is an accomplice in the act. THE TALMUD

Project Safe Neighborhoods and its effect

Project Safe Neighborhoods on the surface looks like a feel good program funded with our taxes.

Project Safe Neighborhoods is a nationwide commitment to reduce gun crime in America by networking existing local programs that target gun crime and providing those programs with additional tools necessary to be successful. The Bush Administration has committed over $1 billion to this effort in its first four years. This funding is being used to hire new federal and state prosecutors, support investigators, provide training, distribute gun lock safety kits, deter juvenile gun crime, and develop and promote community outreach efforts as well as to support other gun violence reduction strategies.

Everyone would like gun violence to stop. That violence is used everyday to take our rights away. But people being people there will always violence, and the government will keep punishing all of us.

Now Project Safe Neighborhoods has a crap load of money to throw out and in the past they spent some on what I call very questionable items.

A federal-state program designed to get illegal firearms off Jackson streets could be operational by year's end, law enforcement officials say.

U.S. Attorney Dunn Lampton wants to start a gun interdiction unit through the Jackson Police Department. Officers would use vans equipped to test-fire guns taken at the scene of vehicle stops and crime scenes.

Laboratory technicians would analyze cartridge casings and projectiles to determine whether those weapons had been reported stolen and used in crimes. The test results would be entered into a database linked to a national gun database.

So PSN money will help check your firearm even if you have not been charged with, or even suspected of a crime.

Now the news is full of news of a new study out on gun violence in Louisville.

Louisville's University Hospital treated more than 700 people with gunshot wounds in 2003-04. The cost: More than $18 million.

And those numbers aren't shrinking: Officials say University Hospital is on pace to see 400 gunshot victims this year, at an estimated cost exceeding $10 million.

Gun violence "is a huge, huge public health problem," said Dr. William Smock, an emergency medicine specialist who directed a recent study that outlined those numbers.

Maybe on the surface this is a legitimate study to try to help stop gun violence. I just have to many worries about what the PSN and the Bush administration is doing to take this on face value.

41,000$ worth of justice
and a lesson well taught

When cops go overboard or are involved in something of a show of force they like to charge the crowds screaming "turn the cameras off". Some even arrest the holders of the cameras using the old "disobeying a lawful command" when they defend their arresting the person.

From Boing Boing I just learned the Pennsylvania state police just took a big hit for doing that same thing[PDF].

Last month a federal judge awarded $35,000 in compensatory and $6000 in punitive damages to a man state troopers arrested for video taping them.
Given the Utah rave case and the Oakland police stop reported today, this seems like an important decision because it makes it clear that citizens are free to video law enforcement in action.

The ruling finds violations of the plaintiff's first and fourth amendment rights. It states "The activities of the police, like those of other public officials, are subject to public scrutiny...Videotaping is a legitimate means of gathering information for public dissemination and can often provide cogent evidence, as it did in this case. In sum, there can be no doubt that the free speech clause of the Constitution protected Robinson as he videotaped the defendants on October 23, 2002....Moreover, to the extent that the troopers were restraining Robinson from making any future videotapes and from publicizing or publishing what he had filmed, the defendants' conduct clearly amounted to an unlawful prior restraint upon his protected speech....We find that defendants are liable under § 1983 for violating Robinson's Fourth Amendment right to be protected from an unlawful seizure..."

Sorry the tax payers will have to pay, but the police have to back off.

Anyone who has watched the Utah police raid of the rave will remember the police telling the cameraman to turn off the camera. Maybe they will think twice before doing it. Probably not.

BoingBoing also posted on police hassling other camera holding people(wielding a loaded camera?).

I admit I laughed.

Maybe it means I am a cruel bastard but somehow this did not depress me.

Three passengers threw a 24-year-old man out of a running train on December 26, 2004, after he protested against their smoking in the compartment.

Amaresh Panda, who was travelling from Delhi in the Purushottam Express, had asked the three to stop smoking as it inconvenienced the other passengers. When the train left Bokaro railway station in Jharkhand at night, the men pushed Amaresh out of the train, his family said.

I guess moving to the next car was not an option for Super Nanny, so they gave him an option he did not like.

Good line

In the article where it mentions witnesses to the shooting of the unarmed law abiding man in London one said this.

The witness says the shots were fired at intervals of three seconds and that she ran for her life fearing terrorists had opened fire on commuters.

She is right. Sometimes terrorists wear badges.

Beware the mighty nanny's

In another blow against chew the government has decided a song was a bad influence.

The state attorney general wants the country singer who made the song "Redneck Woman" a hit to stop "glamorizing" the use of smokeless tobacco at her concerts.

State officials said Gretchen Wilson can be seen on concert jumbo screens pulling a can of Skoal from her pocket while performing her new song, "Skoal Ring."

Whit kids getting knocked up, crime, and all the other ills of society the government has come out against a song.

What utter dipshits we have running our country.

A quote worthy of today's legal system

It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood. JAMES MADISON

GASeous fumes

The state of Hawaii has decided that gas companies are evil and should have their prices controlled.

Hawaii has become the first state in the nation to set limits on gasoline prices.

The state Public Utilities Commission is setting the wholesale price ceiling for gasoline in Honolulu at just under $2.16 a gallon.

With taxes, the wholesale price would be $2.74. If wholesalers charge that price and retailers keep their typical 12-cent markup, then the price of a gallon of regular unleaded in Honolulu could rise to $2.86 per gallon.

Is there a gas company out there that would have enough balls to stop shipping gas to Hawaii and teach them a lesson? A few weeks of mile long lines or signs that read "No Gas. Call the Governor" may get the government to rethink this third world policy.

"UN"believable

England is starting the process of expelling non English citizens who are breaking their laws and supporting terror. The UN says that's against the law.

A senior UN representative last night threatened to cite the British government for violation of human rights over its planned deportations of alleged terrorist sympathisers.

When are we going to pull our heads out of our collective arses and turn the UN building into a giant money making Casino?

Any nation, including ours, that feels they HAVE to do what the UN says should be removed from all maps as an independent nation.

A girl asks her boyfriend to come over Friday night and have dinner with her parents. Since this is such a big event, the girl announces to her boyfriend that after dinner, she would like to go out and make love for the first time.

Well, the boy is ecstatic, but he has never had sex before, so he takes a trip to the pharmacist to get some condoms. The pharmacist helps the boy for about an hour. He tells the boy everything there is to know about condoms and sex.

At the register, the pharmacist asks the boy how many condoms he'd like to buy, a 3-pack, 10-pack, or family pack. The boy insists on the family pack because he thinks he will be rather busy, it being his first time and all.

That night, the boy shows up at the girl's parents house and meets his girlfriend at the door. "Oh, I'm so excited for you to meet my parents, come on in!"

The boy goes inside and is taken to the dinner table where the girl's parents are seated. The boy quickly offers to say grace and bows his head.

A minute passes, and the boy is still deep in prayer, with his head down.

10 minutes pass, and still no movement from the boy.

Finally, after 20 minutes with his head down, the girlfriend leans over and whispers to the boyfriend, "I had no idea you were this religious."

The boy turns, and whispers back, "I had no idea your father was a pharmacist."

WTF is this people?

In North Carolina they are doing some wild stuff and I'm amazed election officials are not hanging from trees.

Although Democrats and Republicans make up the lion's share of North Carolina's registered voters, the Libertarians' certified status gave their candidates a key advantage. Unlike unaffiliated voters, who have to gather signatures to get on a ballot in a partisan election, members of certified parties simply need to pay a filing fee and submit paperwork.

To give their candidates that advantage again in the 2006 election, the party will have to collect 69,734 signatures across the state. In the mean time, Libertarian candidates in Winston-Salem and Charlotte municipal contests -- which unlike most city races are partisan elections -- will lose their spots on the ballot. And Libertarians throughout North Carolina will soon get notice in the mail that their party no longer is certified and that they have the option of staying unaffiliated or registering as a Democrat or a Republican.

Libertarians being kicked off of ballots and people being forced to register either Democrat or Republican or unaffiliated. I'll supply the rope people. Good hemp rope to make a statement.

How a politician stands on the Second Amendment tells you how he or she views you as an individual... as a trustworthy and productive citizen, or as part of an unruly crowd that needs to be lorded over, controlled, supervised, and taken care of. — Representative Suzanna Gratia Hupp (TX)

Thanks government.

The word has come down from the mountain. You own nothing.

The U.S. Government has the authority to prohibit the private possession of gold and silver coin and bullion by U.S. citizens during wartime, and, during wartime and declared emergencies, to freeze their ownership of shares of mining companies, the Treasury Department has told the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee.
But gold and silver owners aren't alone in such jeopardy. For the U.S. Government claims the authority in declared emergencies to seize or freeze just about everything else that might be considered a financial instrument.
............
Further, there is no requirement in the law that the targets of the government's interference must have some connection to the declared enemies of the United States, nor even some connection to foreign ownership. Anything that can be construed as a financial instrument, no matter how innocently it has been used, is subject to seizure under the Trading With the Enemy Act and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

I may start buying silver just to deliver a big "screw you Uncle Sam" to Washington.

Free expression and free speech zones are neither.

Never allow the government to control where you can speak. NEVER!

This year, however, Mr. Newman has also been protesting a new permit and lottery system to assign spaces on the Boardwalk. He calls it an affront to the unfettered expression, performances and art that have made this bohemian showcase one of the most popular tourist attractions in Southern California.
..........
It is the latest setback in the city's long struggle to impose some order on a place almost synonymous with chaos. The milelong Boardwalk - which is actually made of asphalt, not wood - can draw more than 150,000 people on a summer weekend, making it prime real estate for anyone with a message to tell or a knickknack to sell.
..........
Until last week, Los Angeles also banned commercial activity on the free-expression side, but had allowed an exception for goods "inextricably intertwined" with a "religious, political, philosophical or ideological" message, and for artists selling their own work.

What they call "chaos" I call free enterprise and speech.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble

If congress cannot limit the right of the people to peaceably assemble can states or counties? This question is asked because of the raid in Utah by masked thugs with guns police.

Collective punishment is an idea that our country has always considered vile and against our basic beliefs of liberty. You will be punished for your crimes, not for some one else's.

Jackbooted fascist thugs in full combat gear (allegedly local cops and SWAT teams, although they look like military troops to me) attacked a legal, insured, fully permitted rave called Verses in Utah County, Utah over the weekend.

An unlinked commentator on What Really Happened claimed that a "source inside the Utah government reports that this action was undertaken out of fear that the rave would be used to rally support for the protest against Bush's Utah visit."

Welcome to Amerikkka. If you think it can't happen here - news flash - it already is and has been for along time. It just wasn't happening to middle class white kids. This brutal attack was instigated to condition the people to police state repression and to give the fascists some intitial practice mauling peaceful civilian gatherings - based on the premise that they are about to start becoming a whole lot more common.

Now these people must be really bad right? How dare they get together and party without the governments permission.

For me this raid raises two painful issues.

The first one is the ability to gather freely. A basic right I felt protected by the constitution, but the constitution only says the congress cannot limit it. Nothing about executive, judicial or state. That's the problem here. The local sheriff's mouthpiece stated this.

Utah County mass gathering ordinance prohibits the gathering of two hundred and fifty or more persons without a permit, bond, and Utah County Commission approval.

Research was conducted and no mass gathering permit had been obtained for this incident. However, a health department permit had been obtained and EMS personnel were contracted to be on scene for first aide.

So the one permit they did not have was the one the constitution tried to protect. Permits to speak, to protest, to get together. Funny thing is I thought we had that right. Wait. We do. The government thugs stole it.

The great flushing sound you hear is our constitution going down the drain one law at a time.

The second painful issue for me is collective punishment and guilt.

From the same sheriff's statement this is said.

From several previous experiences with Rave parties of this size, a large amount of drug use and underage consumption of alcohol occur. In addition reports of sexual assaults, overdoses, firearm violations, vehicle burglaries, and numerous individuals drive from the party under the influence of alcohol and or drugs.

Utah County Sheriff's Office Detectives interviewed several females that had attended a prior rave party in the Utah county area in the past month that had been sexual assaulted. These females stated that the combination of drugs and alcohol made them fear for their safety due to the groping and sexual assaults that occurred during the Rave party. In the last year alone one near fatal shooting was investigated by Utah County Sheriff's Office at a similar party.

Since other people have done it WE KNOW you will also, so against the wall punks. So one of the basis of the raid was the crimes of others. Only problem is that even government permitted concerts underage drinking occurs. I know I did.

At 9 pm the Rave party began and by 10 pm Major Crimes observed numerous illegal activities. Which included illegal use of drugs, distribution of drugs, and underage consumption of alcohol.

We saw crimes occurring, so everyone against the wall punks. No one asked why they did not arrest the people commiting the individual crimes. They didn't because they wanted so desperately a reason to flex their collective police muscle and teach a lesson in power.

So here we have a case of collective guilt. Everyone is guilty. Everyone will be punished. Obey our commands or get your face smashed into the dirt.

The raves have become a symbol of lack of control for the state. They occur without permission, they occur without the government taking their protection money in the form of fees and taxes. They must be crushed, they will be crushed.

The police comment openly that they are misunderstood and should not be hated "We were only following orders".

Maybe I'm wrong on one thing I said. The constitution was flushed long ago. What I see floating are the laws of today.

ADDED NOTE:
Another heavy handed police breakup of a group with tazers abd dogs because they did not get the governments permission to gether.

I thought I would ask him.

The CBS news service online had an editorial article by Robert B. Reich. Only problem is that the numbers he used were wrong.

I posted Saturday on the issue and yesterday I thought I would see if he would reply to my post and his erroneous numbers. It would be only be fair to give him a chance to reply.

After some searching I emailed his university email address and his own private website email address plus one more that may be old. As of noon today I have not gotten a reply and in all honesty I do not think I will get one. But I can at least say I tried.

Higher and higher the number climbs

I am having a good laugh right now at the sad quality of the CBS News. Everytime I read about gun related deaths while on the job they seem to be going up and up.

CBS is the latest to throw some numbers out that have little to do with reality.

Listen to the evening news and you're likely to hear a grizzly story about a disaffected worker or estranged spouse or dissatisfied customer arriving at a workplace and going ballistic. It's all too common.

About 17 employees are murdered every week in American workplaces by someone with a gun, making gun-related killings the third-biggest safety hazard facing American workers -- right after vehicles and machines. In fact, gun-related homicide is the leading cause of death at the workplace for women.

"about 17" per week he said.

Lets see if it is correct. Now to err on the side of caution I will use only the number 16.5 to get these numbers. Don't want to be accused of inflating these would I?

16.5 dead
x52 weeks a year
equals 858

Damn. That's a lot of dead people. Only problem is it is made up. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics only gives the number of 487. Slightly smaller then the 858 number. The problem is that 487 is even a slightly misleading number when the data is examined.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution tried to use the 487 number in one of their anti-gun screeds but one of my commenters shot it down very fast.

But its accuracy is irrelevant. Notice the editorial's wording, "487 people were shot to death at work." That total apparently includes every police officer, cab driver, bank teller, pawnbroker and quicky-mart employee shot and killed "at work," whether the shooter was a fleeing criminal, disgruntled customer, armed robber -- or someone in a more relevant category like "angry employee" or "fed-up manager."

So the number CBS is giving out is bunko.

But I will say now that I am not surprised at all. Robert B. Reich, the editorial author, is best described as biased. I was surprised when I found what position he held.

As the nation's 22nd Secretary of Labor, Reich presided over the implementation of the Family and Medical Leave Act; led a national fight against sweatshops in the U.S. and illegal child labor around the world; headed the administration's successful effort to raise the minimum wage; secured worker's pensions, and launched job-training programs, one-stop career centers, and school-to-work initiatives. Under his leadership, the Department of Labor earned more than 30 awards for innovation and government reinvention. A 1996 poll of cabinet experts conducted by the Hearst newspapers rated him the most effective cabinet secretary during the Clinton administration.

I would think that a person who was in charge of the department of labor would have better numbers, or at least tell the truth.

Terror children and no due process for them or us.

What happened to the due process in America? You know the one. That old saying "innocent until proven guilty". A saying that can best be described as "no punishment until guilt".

Only problem is that now, in this country, we are punishing people without due process. Who(or is it whom?) are these criminals?

Sarah Zapolsky's 1-year-old son had better get used to being looked at as a possible terrorist every time his family gets on a plane.
That's because experts and officials say there's no way the toddler's name will be taken off the federal no-fly list - even after he and another tot made headlines for being stopped as potential terror threats.

so this young kid is being punished. Since there was no crime on his part then the saying is "guilty until you prove your innocence.

The problem is that the system is made so he cannot prove anything.

The best Zapolsky and her husband can hope for is a letter that tells airport screeners that the little boy is harmless, and that he's been added to a "cleared" list.

But, it turns out, that, too, will be impossible for the 1-year-old.

Before the federal agency will issue such a letter, the person on the list must fill out and have notarized an application that asks for things like height, weight and three forms of government ID.

I always considered the belief in due process no matter what your social level or class is one of the best examples of why this is a damn good country.

But look out there people. One of the barriers to abuse was that the FBI and other alphabet agencies had to get a judges permission to do things. Due process. Now they do not.

Previously the government needed at least a warrant and probable cause to access private records. The Fourth Amendment, Title III of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968, and case law provided that if the state wished to search you, it needed to show probable cause that a crime had been committed and to obtain a warrant from a neutral judge. Under FISA the 1978 act authorizing warrantless surveillance so long as the primary purpose was to obtain foreign intelligence information that was somewhat eroded, but there remained judicial oversight. And under FISA, records could be sought only "for purposes of conducting foreign intelligence" and the target "linked to foreign espionage" and an "agent of a foreign power." Now the FBI needs only to certify to a FISA judge(no need for evidence or probable cause) that the search protects against terrorism. The judge has no authority to reject this application. DOJ calls this "seeking a court order," but it's much closer to a rubber stamp. Also, now the target of a search needn't be a terror suspect herself, so long as the government's purpose is "an authorized investigation ... to protect against international terrorism."

I feel that out of everything lost in the last several years of this terror induced war on freedom due process was the greatest loss.

So we now live in a society of "guilty until proven innocent". Not a nice neighborhood to live in.

Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.... We've been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people. Well, if no one among us is capable of government himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else? All of us together, in and out of government, must bear the burden. The solutions we seek must be equitable, with no one group singled out to pay a higher price. — Ronald Reagan

New word for the day

I like to drop by Stupid Security and see the fanatic acts of the homeland security people as they fall all over themselves like Keystone cops.

Today they gave us a new word. While the word "interrogate" means to be questioned by authorities a derivative of that word has new meaning.

"interrorgate"
"to interrogate needlessly under the pretext of defending against terror".

all of those questions at the airport or even now the New York subway.

Heck!

The movie V for Vendetta has been moved from November of this year to March of next.

V for Vendetta, originally slated to open on Nov. 4, has been pushed back to next March, a Warner Brothers spokesperson told SCI FI Wire. In a statement, Warner said: "We have moved the release date of V For Vendetta to March 17, 2006, to accommodate the movie's post-production schedule."

The spokesperson, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, denied that the delay had anything to do with the movie's subject matter or the current political climate. V for Vendetta has come under scrutiny for the coincidence of its subject matter and the recent terrorist bombings in London.
.........
At Comic-Con International in San Diego last month, producer Joel Silver told SCI FI Wire that he was unconcerned about the film's themes and called it a controversial movie for controversial times. "I mean, it's a difficult time, but I think that it's a smart movie," Silver said in a news conference. "It's that horrible word: intellectual. I mean, you have to think about the movie. ... It isn't just a teen slasher movie."

I feel the situation in London has more to do to its being moved then anything.

WTF?

The ATF is going overboard here, if not into the realm of open harassment.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (BATFE), who seem to go out of their way to alienate gun owners with their heavy-handedness, behaved in a shameful manner this last weekend at the Showmasters' gun show in Richmond.

I had reports from members of police going to their houses while the member was waiting for their approval to purchase a gun at the show! The police asked the spouse and other family members questions about the purchases and filled in a survey! "Did you know your husband was going to a gun show today?" "Did you know your husband was going to buy a gun today?" and many other such questions.

If no one was home at the gun purchaser's house, the police went to the neighbors! "Did you know that your neighbor was buying a gun today? How do you feel about him doing so?"

It is easy in today's society to say "the state is not your friend", but are we far from the point when we can say truthfully "the state is the enemy"?

So damn wrong

There is something wrong with this. I think it is called THE 4TH AMENDMENT.

New Zealand

The ACT party of NZ has come out saying that the government should not stand in the way of the people's right to protect themselves. They not only are supporting this they have put out exactly how they want it to be done.

ACT would:
require the Attorney-General's leave for prosecution where defense against crime is an issue;

amend the Crimes Act, the Trespass Act and the Arms Act so that defense of self or others was a legal defense against an excessive use of force charge;

protect against open slather by not allowing that defense where the force used was disproportionate but with the onus on the prosecution to prove disproportionality;

require courts to take into account factors such as situations where people had to take law into their own hands and the encouragement to criminals when victims were convicted;

require courts award legal costs to victims who successfully raise the defense so they are not punished with costs; and

ensure that offenders and their families know their communities will be watching them by ending name suppression and other criminal record secrecy.

Of course the party in power replied to this with the V word.

Police Minister George Hawkins yesterday condemned the ACT Party for encouraging vigilante behaviour.
........
Mr Hawkins said Labour supported police in their work rather than encourage people to put themselves at risk.
........
"Political parties should be getting behind them rather than encouraging vigilantes to take the law into their own hands."

The only problem is that resistance to crime works, well at least here in the US.

One prime example of how people who resist crime and try to stop it are treated in NZ is shown here.

Justice spokesman Stephen Franks yesterday announced the party's self-defence policy, which emphasises that the law should ensure criminals are afraid, not their victims. Mr Franks presented a medal to Auckland man Michael Vaimauga, who was arrested for assault after he stopped a burglar breaking into a shop.

Mr Vaimauga went through five court hearings before being discharged without conviction and ordered to pay $150 to the Salvation Army. The would-be burglar has never been charged.

No charges against the criminal. That's what the government there calls justice.

Who owns the money?

Technically you do, but when you have to get their permission to use it, or use it according to their rules then you end up renting your money.

My BIL tours with some rather large groups. He either is stage manager or chief electrician for groups around the world. Right now he is out touring with Metallica and will be out another month minimum.

Traveling like that results in very unusual spending habits. He could be buying cloths in Europe one day and then food in Boston two days later. To protect himself he keeps most of his money in his savings account. He simply calls his accountant(MIL) and she dumps some in his checking/visa account as needed.

Until recently that is. She tried to transfer some money and was told in a letter that due to federal regulations she could not transfer anymore that month. The letter said federal regulations kept her limited to so many transfers a month and she had hit that number. The letter mentioned the regulation but did not specify it so I'm still not sure which one.

Now call me dumb but the money in your account is yours. But the war on (insert latest government fashionable war) makes it harder to use your own money. Otherwise terrorist and druggies could transfer money without the government getting their share.

I always thought people who muttered paranoid like dellusional comments about keeping their money in gold, silver, and cash were the kooks. I'm thinking I'm on the edge of kookhood.

I would propably not blogged on this if I had not read the war on whatever keeping evil terrorist puppet master from their money.

But it's for your own good people.

The law the law, damn the law.

New London is attempting to charge rent to the people involved in the Kelo case. I, and most thinking Americans, feel this is way over the top.

But since the City said they "owned" it then they should charge rent.

But can they? From state law.

Failure to install smoke detectors constitutes a material safety hazard and tenants are relieved of obligation to pay rent during period detectors not installed. 38 CS 67-69. Cited. Id., 683, 685.

Ooops! I hope the city installed them.

That's just one law I found in the first part. I could not find the city codes online but I'm sure there are other ways to shaft that thieving city.

HERE is the link to state law protecting the people from the Landlords, and now city.

"Our registration will never leads to seizure"

Words similar to that were spoken for years by politicians across Canada.

Well guess what one is now trying to do, "for your own good" of course.

Gun owners in Toronto may soon be prohibited from keeping their firearms at home even if they are properly licensed and registered, Mayor David Miller said yesterday.

"There's no reason to own a gun in Toronto -- collector or not. If you are a collector and you have a permit, the guns need to be stored in a way that they can't be stolen. And perhaps a centralized facility of some kind could accomplish that goal," Mr. Miller told the National Post. "The law requires gun owners to have proper storage, but obviously not everyone adheres to that."

If you're a good little boy or girl they will allow you to take it out and look at it in the third friday of every other month.

Step one register all guns
Step two seize said guns
Step three ban all guns
Step four ban other bothersome freedoms
Step five "Arbeit Macht Frei"

I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them but to inform their discretion. —THOMAS JEFFERSON

Will your new rifle be marked by a UN backed law?

I was looking for the Canadian view a recent subject that has come up so I went to CanadianGunNutz to see their response.

One thread stood out.

Letter from my MP about UN marking of guns

UN marking of firearms?!?! News to me.

The story is that ALL new firearms produced in Canada or imported will need special marks dictated by a OAS convention.

The Canadian Gun Nutz member wrote his member of parliament and the reply said this.

These requirements are being established in response to obligations in the Organization of American States' inter-American Convention against the illicit manufacturing of and trafficking of firearms, ammunition, explosives, and other related materials; and protocol against the illicit manufacturing of and trafficking in firearms, their parts and components and ammunition, supplementing the United Nations convention against transnational organized crime. Canada is a signatory on both these international rules.

Ammunition and parts?

The MP did say this and acted like it was a good thing.

I would like to assure you that the new firearms making regulations, when they come into force, will not apply to firearms lawfully registered in Canada.

Of course it will not apply. They already know of them and where they are.

It's all about control people.
IMAGE ONE
IMAGE TWO
The forum is restricted so you will need to register to read it.

Looking at it from the wrong side

Some American firearms are making it to Mexico and it is bothering people. The main reason is because it could take up to a year to get a firearm there.

Limited distribution in Mexico makes legal guns and ammunition more expensive than those smuggled in from the United States.

Ignacio Corona, a Mexican and Latin American Cultures professor at Ohio State University, said those and other gun laws put Mexico’s honest citizens at a disadvantage.

No! The laws that keep people from getting firearms to protect themselves leaves people at a disadvantage.

“All the weapons are in the hands of the bad guys,” he said.
But at the same time, Corona said it is difficult to predict how changes in Mexico’s gun laws would change the situation.

I could easily predict it would mean more weapons in the hands of the GOOD guys.

Definiton of the day

Puppets have hands up their backside.
Politicians have their heads up theirs.
Any questions?

Poor guy

Sexually harassed and likely not able to recover damages. I wish him luck.

Un'fucking'believable

Just read this

Those who believe in the adage "when it rains, it pours" might take the tale of the plaintiffs in Kelo v. New London as a cue to buy two of every animal and a load of wood from Home Depot. The U.S. Supreme Court recently found that the city's original seizure of private property was constitutional under the principal of eminent domain, and now New London is claiming that the affected homeowners were living on city land for the duration of the lawsuit and owe back rent. It's a new definition of chutzpah: Confiscate land and charge back rent for the years the owners fought confiscation.
In some cases, their debt could amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Moreover, the homeowners are being offered buyouts based on the market rate as it was in 2000.
...............
And there are more storms on the horizon. In June 2004, NLDC sent the seven affected residents a letter indicating that after the completion of the case, the city would expect to receive retroactive "use and occupancy" payments (also known as "rent") from the residents.

In the letter, lawyers argued that because the takeover took place in 2000, the residents had been living on city property for nearly five years, and would therefore owe rent for the duration of their stay at the close of the trial. Any money made from tenantssome residents' only form of incomewould also have to be paid to the city.

Sue the damn city because they did not have home owners insurance and supply proper maintenance as dictated by renters rights laws.

My advice on how to deal with the Kelo government is best described in images.



Have a nice day.

Quota! What quota?

Seems that the state police are involved in a small coverup and the press publicity is not to their liking.

Pennsylvania State Police documents show that not only is there a system of monetary reward and punishment for state troopers based upon numeric ticket goals, there is a clear effort to prevent anyone from ever speaking about it. The first rule of a ticket quota is: there is no ticket quota.

The primary reason for the denial is a 1981 Pennsylvania law banning the practice of "directly or indirectly" suggesting that an individual police officer should issue "a certain number of traffic citations."
..........
In public, however, it is standard practice for police to deny the existence of a quota, even to the point of using misleading words under oath. In a formal deposition in July 2004, the same Lt. Traister who directed a subordinate not to issue construction overtime testified, "I do not get involved in the operation or the assignment of overtime." When confronted with a copy of the above-mentioned memo, Traister responded, "I was merely passing along this assignment from the commanding officer."

Pennsylvania. The state where not only the politicians ignore the law, the police do also.

How can the police keep this so secret? Fear.

"You can't come forward and tell the truth or else they will get you," a state trooper explained. "The fact of the matter is they use intimidation. The guys don't want to come forward because they don't want to be next. They have families to feed."

This newspaper online not only mentions the memo's, they let you look at them and so you can make your own decision on the matter.

Free, free, or maybe not.

Somehow making the leash a bit longer does not make me feel free. The TSA has decided, just maybe if the boss likes the idea, that some of their rules are just damned dumb and will "allow" us some freedom.

The federal agency in charge of aviation security is considering major changes in how it screens airline passengers, including proposals that an official said would lift the ban on carrying razorblades and small knives as well as limit patdown searches.

The Transportation Security Administration will meet later this month to discuss the plan, which is designed to reduce checkpoint hassles for the nation's 2 million passengers. It comes after TSA's new head, Edmund S. "Kip" Hawley, called for a broad review in hopes of making airline screening more passenger-friendly.
...........
Any of the changes proposed by the staff, which also would allow scissors, ice picks and bows and arrows on flights, would require Hawley's approval, this official said, requesting anonymity because there has been no final decision.

Now the TSA has been a thorn in the side of many people in the country. The problem is that out of the people hassled by the TSA only a few have real power. We common folk lost ours years ago.

So how do they treat the people with power. SPECIAL RULES.

The Aug. 5 memo recommends reducing patdowns by giving screeners the discretion not to search those wearing tight-fitting clothes. It also suggests exempting several categories of passengers from screening, including federal judges, members of Congress, Cabinet members, state governors, high-ranking military officers and those with high-level security clearances.

You work for "The Man" you get special treatment.

I truly hate bringing into any political issue terms used in WW2. It denigrates the term and normally is used incorrectly. At first I wanted to give the list of ones that would not be searched the term Kapos, but that is not right. Kapos were normally just thugs. These people take our rights away with the swipe of a pen, not a club.

I think a better term to use for people like this would be collaborators.

It's my bomb and I'll cry if I want to.

Take one fake bomb, add an evacuation, throw in bomb squads and you end up with a soon to be sued and unemployeed contractor.

A training device mistakenly left by a Secret Service contractor at a Washington hotel was the "suspicious package" that prompted a building evacuation Sunday afternoon, law enforcement sources said.

The FBI and Secret Service sent teams of investigators to the Mayflower Hotel, a few blocks from the White House, after the package was found.
...........
It was only later -- when a Secret Service contractor realized what had happened and called authorities to report the training device -- that its source became clear, the law enforcement sources said.

It was not clear to these sources if the contractor was a guest at the hotel, was attending a meeting there or was there for another reason.

This is the people protecting our country. We are screwed.

GamesNFlix

I posted awhile back that I was looking for an online rental site for videos. The problem is to go with one of them would break a personal rule.

In life everyone makes some small rules for themselves. Some are simple like they will always call their wife if they will be late. Some are political such as never shopping at a store that has a no-concealed sign on their door.

Well this is the crux of my problem. I have a self rule that says I will never buy from a company that advertises by spam or pop-ups.

Sounds simple but I am at an impasse. I was going to sign up for a movies deal such as the ones Netflix or Blockbuster offers. Trouble is that to sign up for one of them I have to break my own rule.

That same week my wife mentioned that she had seen a billboard for one named GamesNFlix. So I decided to check them out.

Mid June I finally subscribe to their service. They had many of the same options that the others had, and games. How bad could they be I thought.

My opinion of them is best described in one word.

CRAP!!

In the movies categories it is nice that they have a wide selection. It is wide if you like scanning through page after page of anime of giant breasted girls in cheerleader outfits fighting robots on spaceships to simply find a movie you might like. I also was not happy that they did not have a foreign movie category. They did not have it because a basic search of certain classics from overseas shows they do not carry them.

Then the mailing part. I mail a movie back to their office in Kentucky you would think that 6 days is a bit much. I had two times that I had to message them to check to see if one I had mailed was returned. Within a few hours I always got credit. That means they had the movie, it might have already been mailed to someone else, but they had "forgotten" to remove it from my queue. Two times in a month this happened.

Then late July they mailed me a movie and I never got it. When I messaged them they said I had to wait ten days. So on day 11 I contacted them again to see if it had been returned by the post office. Again like the other two times they had it but had not removed it from my queue.

So in the last two months I have had 6 movies from them and one game at a cost that would have been cheaper at the local video store. Each time it was their system failing in keeping track of the movies at their site.

In the entire time I had movies in my queue there were only two or three times that the movie was listed as "available". Finding if the movie is available before I send it to my queue then having to remove it would have been nice. What was worse is movies they had in the categories that they did not even have. Always "on order" for some simply fills your queue.

Slow mail, no real inhouse movie tracking, and horrible selection. That's what I got and you likely will also.

So to everyone out there I would NOT recommend GamesNFlix.

Guns, guns, guns, and a hunting trip.

Welcome to this months post listing all of the firearms related contests I can pull together.

I will start with the tried and true Remington sweepstake. They have a nice Remington Model 870 Wingmaster 12/28 (#26927) SUGGESTED RETAIL $625



While the image is nice the technical detail say much more.

Guage 12
Chamber 3"
Magazine 4
Barrel 28"
Choke Rem Choke
Length 48 1/2
Weight 7 1/4
MSRP 645

So note that the MSRP in their catalog and the MSRP in the rules are slightly different. This contest is once per person and membership is required but they are spam friendly.

Next up is the Gallery of Guns sweepstakes. This month they are giving away a Model 70 Classic, Ultimate Shadow. Valued at $883 it also sports a Camo, Synthetic, Mossy Oak Break-up Dura-Touch stock.

Action: Bolt Action
Stock: Camo, Synthetic, Mossy Oak Break-up Dura-Touch
Receiver: Stainless Steel, Satin, Drilled & Tapped
Capacity: 3+1
Safety: 3-Position Safety
Sights: No Sights
Barrel Length: 22"
Overall Length: 41"
Weight: 6.5 lbs
Butt Plate: Black Energy Absorbing Recoil Pad
Add'l Features 1: Controlled Round Feed, Hinged Floor Plate
Add'l Features 2: Sling Swivel Studs, Rifling: 1-10

This contest is once per person. They are also spam friendly.

Guns magazine has a nice package this month.

This month we’re giving away a North American Arms Mini Revolver in .22LR. If you have CCW permit, the belt buckle holster is a nifty way to carry the diminutive little revolver and it looks somewhat artsy in the aluminum grips necessary for the buckle to work. Some might not like to carry this nifty little gun on a buckle and, if you’ve got big hands, shooting a tiny gun like this is troublesome. Don’t let that stop you from entering. We’re also giving away the neat little holster grip. It unfolds to create a useable grip for big hands and helps keep the gun from “printing” in a pocket during legal CCW. The factory installed rosewood grips are also included. You can’t win it you don’t enter, so send those postcards in pronto.

The technical information is nice.

Action type:
Single action revolver
Caliber: .22 LR
Capacity: 5
Barrel length: 11⁄8"
Overall length: 4"
Weight: 4.5 ounces
Finish: Stainless steel
Sights: Fixed
Grips: Aluminum (for use with Belt Buckle), Rosewood and an NAA Holster Grip
Total package value: $290

This is a postcard sweepstakes that is one per household so no cheating.

Up next is the first black powder firearm listed on my sweepstakes post. Shoot magazine has a nice replica derringer by Replica Arms co. values at $99.95 as the grand prize.



The monthly drawing is for a magazine subscription, but all the drawing are put into the final drawing for the grand prize in November.

Please note that you may come back and enter this survey only once per month. Each time you fill out the survey your name will be entered into that month's prize drawing, as well as our Grand Prize and 2nd Prize drawing to be held in November 2005. Multiple monthly entries (under the same name and e-mail address) will not be placed in the drawing, so please enter only once per month.

So good luck on this piece.

This sweepstakes is more then just a rifle. This contest offered by Savage Arms is for a rifle plus a hunting trip to use it on.

Register to win a new Savage American Classic and one hunt of your choice with Ron Coburn, Chairman and CEO of Savage, and Buck McNeely host of TV's The Outdoorsman. Entries received without valid AccuTrigger(tm) model serial number will not be eligible to win Build-Your-Own-Gun second prize. Only one (1) online entry per person, household, email or street address will be accepted. Use of multiple email addresses to enter is prohibited. Any additional entries will be void.

The rifle is a Savage 14/114 American Classic in the caliber of your choice. If you do have the serial number of an AccuTrigger and would like to share it with me please email me at the "write me" link on the right.

Here is the Savage Classic to enjoy until you win.



This contest is one per person/email/household. so with these limits try not to disqualify yourself.

Good luck.

An old faithful contest here is by Dillon press.

Enjoy your own copy of Dillon Precision's "The Blue Press." Just complete our catalog request form and we'll send you a copy with our next mailing. By requesting a copy you will automatically be registered to WIN a HP1 Electronic Hearing Protector!

Crimson trace is offering up a set of Lasergrips each month



It says you get to pick the specific model so I picked this Ruger to show how they look. Nice in my view. This model is valued at $229. Go here to see if they have one you would want to win.

This contest is one per household per month.

Now Bird Watchers Digest is having a contest with the prize being a nice Eagle Optics Spotting Scopes Triumph. Something we all need on the range. Valued at $99 at the Eagle website.



This contest is one per person so enter everyone in your family and win.

Shotgun shells are the main prize from Lightfield Slugs. They are running a multi-month contest like such. Every month one winner is picked and wins his, or her, choice of five boxes of shotgun slugs.



When September roles around the grand prize winner is picked and they will receive a lifetime supply of slugs. So drop by monthly and increase your chance of winning a crap load of slugs.

Good luck to all of you and as always. If you see a firearm related contest please email me or leave a link in the comments section.

No respect for their own laws.

In Pennsylvania the state legislature has given themselves a raise. Then ran into the night.

Public outrage over a hefty pay raise Pennsylvania lawmakers voted themselves a month ago - in the dead of night - has nagged them throughout their summer vacation and shows no signs of going away.

Not only did legislators increase their salaries 16 percent to 34 percent to at least $81,050 - more than any state except California - they crafted the package in secret without debate or public scrutiny, then left town.

Like thieves in the night the politicians showed their greed. Now since there is a law against what they did they simply worked their way around it.

Even more galling to Pennsylvanians, lawmakers found a way around a constitutional provision barring them from collecting any salary increase during the term in which it is approved. The pay raise bill - based on the authority of a court ruling nearly two decades old - lets lawmakers start collecting the raises 16 months early.

Well how about the people get together and start a petition to throw the law out.

Oops! That's not allowed either.

Unlike 24 other states, Pennsylvania does not allow voters to try to override the Legislature by petitioning for a statewide ballot.

The voice of the people will not be heard.

How are the politicians handling this.

In a show of party discipline, the Democratic leader in the Republican-controlled House ousted from committee posts more than a dozen Democrats who voted against the bill. In their place, he put only those who voted for it, entitling them to extra leadership pay.

Pennsylvania's chief justice, Ralph J. Cappy, dismissed as "knee-jerk" the negative reaction to the pay-raise plan, which he helped draw up. Taken to task over his remarks by the Philadelphia Daily News, Cappy allowed that he "probably used inappropriate words."

Just like Clinton and his blowjobs. Blame the media for the bad press.

To think that Gw45 thought he was moving to Freedom House.

The article links to a poll and ask this.

Are Pennsylvania taxpayers overreacting to the legislative pay raise?

The numbers say they are not.

Yes 3%
No 97%

Good luck during your next election poli-vermin.

QUOTES FOR THE DAY

A few small quotes I would like to bring to your attention.

Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God. — JOHN BRADSHAW

Are we at last brought to such humiliating and debasing degradation, that we cannot be trusted with arms for our defense? Where is the difference between having our arms in possession and under our direction, and having them under the management of Congress? If our defense be the real object of having those arms, in whose hands can they be trusted with more propriety, or equal safety to us, as in our own hands? — Patrick Henry, 3 J. Elliot, Debates in the Several State Conventions 45, 2d ed. Philadelphia, 1836

Now this next quote is problematic for me. While many idolize Lincoln for saving the Union I have some problems with the beginning of the federal state that we live under. With the constitution saying that the powers of the federal government are defined the state of this nation has gone to hell politically since the Civil War. Now the federal government pretty much has free range in deciding what its powers are and to hell with the states.

So with that in mind I give you a small quote from Lincoln. The father of our federal, anti-states right, government.

I believe that every individual is naturally entitled to do as he pleases with himself and the fruits of his labor, so far as it in no way interferes with any other men's rights. — ABRAHAM LINCOLN

They got to my wife.

"They" are the scum who leave comment spam scattered across the blog world like a venereal disease at a whore house.

Yesterday I noticed someone left a comment on her blog Harelipfrog. While it was not the much hated "Taxas hold-em" comment spam that many are suffering under, it was the runner veriety that asks you to "Buy this awesomely great stock" spam.

Doing the basic Google search I found the same spam scattered all over the world.

How dumb do you have to be to purchase stock from a spam lead?

One of those days. Woke up with a headache. The type that just sits in your temples and will not go away. The damn state legislatures are sitting on their collective asses jerking us around like a dog on a leash and asking us to thank them. Just a crappy day.

I'm going to open a bottle of Italian Merlot my sister gave me a last Christmas and watch the meteor showers tonight with my wife.

What's the damn delay people?

In 2001 on September 11th there was a horrific attack on our country. It took the legislature a short 43 days to pass the patriot act. A bill that is complex in it's abilities to remove basic rights.

In 2005 on June 21st the Supreme jerks court decided that our rights to property was less important then a Wal-Mart. Politicians stood in unison and declared that they would pass laws to protect our homes. In the resulting 51 days exactly one state, Alabama, has passed a bill protecting the property rights of their citizens.

Besides Alabama, legislation to ban or restrict the use of eminent domain for private development has been introduced in 16 states: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee and Texas.

Legislators have announced plans to introduce eminent-domain bills in seven more states: Alaska, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Ohio, South Dakota, South Carolina and Wisconsin, and lawmakers in Colorado, Georgia and Virginia plan to act on previously introduced bills.

I get the feeling we are being left at the alter here. They promise a lot but have no carry through. Maybe they are trying to wait us out. How hard is it to pass a law that almost all politicians have come out in support of and that most people support?

Have you called your Tennessee representative and asked why a bill has not been passed? Here are the needed links to contact your representative in the state government.
Tennessee House
Tennessee Senate
Do not email. Call them. Let their office hear your voice.

If you do not contact them now, then you have no right to complain when they come for your house later. It's that simple.

Coffee grinds, used tea bags, and revenge. Gloriously sweet revenge.

This is a story of how you should treat politicians. With the same disdain and contempt that they treat us.

In Portland the top people, supported by a judge of questionable worth, has regularly taken your trash without a warrant. One local paper decided to play the game by the authorities rules....The authorities were less then happy.

The question of whether your trash is private might seem academic. It's not. Your garbage can is like a trap door that opens on to your most intimate secrets; what you toss away is, in many ways, just as revealing as what you keep.

And your garbage can is just one of the many places where your privacy is being pilfered. In the wake of 9/11, the U.S. government has granted itself far-reaching new powers to spy on you, from email to bank statements to video cameras (see "Big Brother's in Your Trash Can," below).

After much debate, we resolved to turn the tables on three of our esteemed public officials. We embarked on an unauthorized sightseeing tour of their garbage, to make a point about how invasive a "garbage pull" really is--and to highlight the government's ongoing erosion of people's privacy.

We chose District Attorney Mike Schrunk because his office is the most vocal defender of the proposition that your garbage is up for grabs. We chose Police Chief Mark Kroeker because he runs the bureau. And we chose Mayor Vera Katz because, as police commissioner, she gives the chief his marching orders.

Is this a sign of the next war for our rights? The supreme court says that the right to private property is null and void, so we go after theirs. All legal of course. Local politicians say your trash is theirs so we go through their trash.

If enough politicians are treated like the rest of us then maybe, just maybe, they will think twice before shafting us.

So go read the entire story. The anger showed by the politicians is more humorous then any punchline of a Robin Williams joke.

The Willamette Week Online has a comment section and I can see nobody objecting to politicians being treated just like us.

You are bound to meet misfortune if you are unarmed because, among other reasons, people despise you....There is simply no comparison between a man who is armed and one who is not. It is unreasonable to expect that an armed man should obey one who is unarmed, or that an unarmed man should remain safe and secure when his servants are armed. In the latter case, there will be suspicion on the one hand and contempt on the other, making cooperation impossible. — Niccolo Machiavelli in "The Prince."

So many masters and so few slaves

This is a humorous followup to a story that made the world, for one brief moment, unite to laugh at Los Angeles California.

Remember the mirth we all enjoyed when LA committed to remove the terms masters and slaves from their computer equipment?

Los Angeles officials have asked that manufacturers, suppliers and contractors stop using the terms "master" and "slave" on computer equipment, saying such terms are unacceptable and offensive.

The request -- which has some suppliers furious and others busy re-labeling components -- came after an unidentified worker spotted a videotape machine carrying devices labeled "master" and "slave" and filed a discrimination complaint with the county's Office of Affirmative Action Compliance.

In the computer industry, "master" and "slave" are used to refer to primary and secondary hard disk drives. The terms are also used in other industries.

For some reason that story popped into my head today and I thought I would check something out.

I first went to the California state website and scrolled to the bottom of their contact us page. There my eyes saw the evil word.

If you have a technical question regarding the my.ca.gov site, you can use Technical Help, or e-mail the Webmaster.

Run in fear. It is the evil webmaster overlord. How many poor minorities work under his evil rule?

But they have a new enlightened governor so he must have removed the word from his website..Right?

Conditions of Use | Privacy Policy | E-mail Webmaster

Oh the humanity. Even Schwarzenegger's office seems to have their own Webmaster. Will the horror ever stop.

BUT WAIT!!!!!
The story was from LA. So has the evil webmaster been run out of that fine liberal city? What is at the bottom of their website?

|| Disclaimer || Privacy Policy || Weather || Website Statistics ||

Yipeee! Victory against the vile word. Freedom at last. Until I went to their privacy policy.

How to Contact Us

If you have any questions or concerns about this privacy policy, please send us an email at webmaster@ita.ci.la.ca.us.

It seems the fight against the evil masters will never end. Fight the power!

Note that I enjoy laughing and mocking the stupid nature of man and government. The actions of the city of LA is the reason our government is out of control. They are so busy complaining about the color of the house they do not notice that it is burning down.

Am I on a list?

I was reading an article about a Chicago cop who is the main suspect in setting off some fragmentation bombs near where he lived.

A 34-year-old Chicago Police officer from the Rogers Park District was one of the first cops on the scene after three loud booms startled residents near Howard Street beach on Nov. 29.

He later received an honorable mention for finding an explosive device on a retaining wall at 1311 W. Howard.

Now the officer is the main suspect in setting off the device, described as a bundle of three metal pipes filled with explosives, said a source familiar with the investigation. Yet he is still on the job, working on a lakefront bike patrol and armed with a gun -- something that's surprising to some police officials aware of the situation.

I am surprised that he still is on duty. While he is innocent until found guilty, the fact that he holds the position he does raises a lot of issues.

But the story of the bombs and cop is secondary to a small section in the article.

Investigators began focusing on the officer after realizing he was on an FBI list of people who had bought books on bomb-making, including The Advanced Anarchist Arsenal: Recipes for Improvised Incendiaries and Explosives and Improvised Land Mines: Their Employment and Destructive Capabilities, the source said.

Now this is the part that interested me. What list and how is it put together?

I ask that because of Banned book week last year. To thumb my nose at the controlling bastards of the world who like to decide for us what is appropriate I gave away a book from the banned book list.

The book I gave away was the Anarchist Cookbook. Now since I ordered it under my own name will that mean if there is a bombing in my town I will get "visited" by investigators?

There are hundreds of sites to get books like this from, so the fact that they have a list is worrisome indeed.

Are you on a list? Have you bought a book that may interest the authorities?

Technical question

I am looking into downloading a Bit Torrent program. I found the "official" site and have a few questions. Is it the best or are there other versians that are faster or user friendly for non computer geeks?

Some of the worst abuses of government force in recent years were precipitated by technical and victimless gun-law violations. For example, the BATF claimed that the Branch Davidians possessed machine guns without paying the required federal tax and filling in the proper registration forms. So a tax case worth less than $10,000 led to a 76-man helicopter, machine gun, and grenade assault on a home in which 2/3 of the occupants were women and children. — Dave Kopel and Dr. Michael S. Brown, Prohibition Fever, NationalReview.com

A small town in Tennessee

The story of the NRA supported boycott of ConocoPhillips is big news right now as it should be. I would like to take this chance to introduce you to some old news that has some bearing on the subject.

I live in Smyrna Tennessee and like all cities it is suffering the blight of franchise restaurants. One is Captain D's. While it is just another franchise like all the rest it has taught me a small lesson lately that I would like to share.


This Captain D's looks like all the rest on the main strip of any town out there. Another cookie cutter building from corporate hell.

The one thing that sets off this restaurant is this small bench and a small grey headstone set out in front. Unless you take the time to look at it you likely would miss it.

What is it? A memorial to something very bad that happened here.


Most places you eat at do not have headstones as decor, but this one does and there is a bloody story behind it.

In July 2000 the store was being closed up that night by the last workers on the night shift. There were three of them.

The problem is one of them supposedly owed 400$ to some shady characters. Those characters came that night armed to get their money. When they left there was no one left alive in the Smyrna Tennessee Captain D's.

I once wrote a small piece on the debate about the right to be armed while you worked.

As a Mormon I would never go into a persons house and demand that they not have coffee for breakfast because I am against it, or even to take the opposite extreme and demand they have fish for dinner Friday if I were Catholic. The simple fact is that they make the rules for their house, their business, and their life.

If you don't like it then leave. But do not get so self absorbed that you feel your rights wins over their rights. That's the basic beliefs that has pushed the gun grabbing community for to long. They believe their rights are more important then yours. A group of people I do not want to be related to in any way.

At first my argument is correct, but I did not carry it to its fullest extent. I should respect and follow the rules you set on your property and job site...up to the point that they do not endanger my life. At that point you need to understand that you do not have the right to put me in harms way for a paycheck.

So that July night in 2000 three people died. From the testimony of the killers two dies while on their knees. A sad place be when death comes a knocking.

"Then I heard two gunshots," Palmer said in the statement. "It sounded like firecrackers going off. I remember seeing two of the people in the back on their knees. This was before they were shot."

What rules does Captain D's have about firearms on the property? Not sure. I checked their doors and they do not have the anti-carry permit sign so that does not seem to be an issue, but as for the workers they likely would be fired in a heart beat if caught with a concealed firearm..

So here in Smyrna we have the names of three people etched into stone.



Who were they?

Scott Myers, 42, of Memphis was married and had three daughters. At the time he was killed, he was completing his Captain D's manager training at the Smyrna restaurant. His family remained in Memphis during the training. The family was last together in St. Louis, where Myers had temporarily been assigned for management training before going to Smyrna. He was found slain with Bryan Speight in a walk-in cooler inside the restaurant.

William Troy Snell, 18, of La Vergne was a senior at La Vergne High School. The teenager lived with his parents about five miles from where he was found slain in his purple Mazda Protege in a parking lot near Captain D's.

Bryan Speight, 29, of Nashville was an assistant manager at the restaurant and had one daughter. He was the youngest of two children born to Daphne Taylor of Gainesville, Fla. His body was found with that of Scott Myers in a walk-in cooler inside the restaurant.

I'm not going to write this and say they would have lived if one had a firearm. I do know that without one they ended up on their knees and dead.


So into this restaurant comes the fine citizens of Smyrna. Most would easily say that firearms should not be in the workplace. I wonder how many of them know that just feet from them unarmed people were gunned down? Would it change their minds. Do they even know what that stone headstone is there for? Probably not.

Etched in stone in here in Tennessee is the best reason to carry while at work. Three sons, two fathers, a husband, four orphans, and so much suffering. A damn good reason to carry at work.

Why do newspapers lie?

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution just put out an uncredited editorial against the NRA boycott of ConocoPhillips. Full of scare quotes and numbers. The only problem is that truth they leave out.

The National Rifle Association has called for a boycott of ConocoPhillips because the energy company has dared to insist on its right to keep its workers safe.

Like many other employers, ConocoPhillips bars its employees from bringing firearms onto the work site, even if the weapon is kept locked in the employee's car in the workplace parking lot. It's a wise move, given that 487 people were shot to death at work in 2003, the latest year for which numbers are available. Those gunfire fatalities accounted for more than three-quarters of all the homicides on work sites that year

Now I found this link at KeepandBearArms.com. The links are published each day early, and yet by 7:30AM as I write this the internet has already shown the truth, and it isn't in this article.

Whoa there- "487 people were shot to death at work in 2003" Were do these numbers come from????

I quick yahoo search of "Workplace shootings" bring this up as the second hit:
LINK EDITED TO MAKE IT SMALLER

It is a press release from www.handgunfree.org that states:
"Handgun-Free America has found that workplace shootings continue to be on the rise in America, according to early 2004 data. Data from the first half of 2004 show that there were 26 incidents of workplace shootings by the end of June, compared with 5 similar incidents in 2003."

The local library should start filing newspapers in the fiction section

And this one

From occupationalhazards.com
Workplace Shootings Responsible for 290 Deaths in Past Decade - 06/22/2004

A new report released by Handgun-Free America has found that in the last decade (1994-2003), there were 164 workplace shootings in America, with a total of 290 people killed and 161 wounded.

According to the report, from 2002 to 2003, the number of workplace shootings increased from 25 to 45 and the number of victims killed in workplace shootings increased from 33 to 69.

Gee it took 10 seconds to look that up. Why can't a newspaper.

So by 7:30 in the morning two people showed in just minutes of real research that the newspapers numbers do not hold water.

The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.' The right of the whole people, old and young, men, women and boys, and not militia only, to keep and bear arms of every description, and not such merely as are used by the militia, shall not be infringed, curtailed, or broken in upon, in the smallest degree; and all this for the important end to be attained: the rearing up and qualifying a well-regulated militia, so vitally necessary to the security of a free State. Our opinion is that any law, State or Federal, is repugnant to the Constitution, and void, which contravenes this right. [Nunn vs. State, 1 Ga. (1 Kel.) 243, at 251 (1846)]

I like this one.

Volunteer Tailgate Party

This edition is being hosted by Big Orange Michael here in Smyna. Since this is the first one after South Knox Bubba decided to shut down his blog just recently it starts with several posts from various bloggers that deal with the issues of him leaving and some just saying goodbye to him.

"People should not be afraid of their governments
Governments should be afraid of their people."
"V"

This is just one line in the trailer of the new movie V for Vendetta. Coming out November 4th there is already a lot of talk about it.

I know I'll be in line waiting.

News from the Brady group

With the news from London coming out they have expanded the things they want to have banned to include many mundane items

The NYPD officials said investigators believe the bombers used a peroxide-based explosive called HMDT, or hexamethylene triperoxide diamine. HMDT can be made using ordinary ingredients like hydrogen peroxide (hair bleach), citric acid (a common food preservative) and heat tablets (sometimes used by the military for cooking).

So if you have two out of the three items you will be placed on a watch list by the homeland defense agency as suspect.

(((Sarcasm off)))

If anything the bombers show that banning and regulating "evil stuff" is a feel good process that only effects people who follow the law. You want explosives you can get or create them easily. I'm almost sure that drugs are banned, but the ease that I could get them shows otherwise.

We are screwed.

In case of a biological attack the medicines that could keep you alive will be delivered by your postal carrier.

In the event of a flu pandemic or a bioterrorism attack, drugs in the future could arrive via door-to-door postal carriers or from the fire station down the street, Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said Tuesday.

Leavitt, in an interview with Associated Press reporters and editors, said it's clear the current system of delivering medicines is inadequate in case of a major emergency, and he suggested possible options for the future.

I'm still waiting for a movie that was mailed July 27th from the next state to get to me. The local PO tries to deliver a package one time then sends it back.

If we have to depend on the PO for our life's then we are screwed.