SPLC intel report casts wide net for ‘extremists’
A politically-skewed activist organization has warned law enforcement officials nationwide of the threat posed by the so-called “Patriot movement.” The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)’s Fall, 2009, issue of the “Intelligence Report” expands those designated as extremists, with alarmist language artificially combining a disparate group. The report said, “Militiamen, white supremacists, anti-Semites, nativists, tax protesters and a range of other activists of the radical right are cross-pollinating and may even be coalescing.” On the SPLC website, one report claims, “anti-government rhetoric spills into the Mainstream,” listing conservative celebrities like Sean Hannity and Red State’s Erick Erickson as purveyors of “white-hot antigovernment rhetoric.” Where did SPLC get the data for that assumption? None other than the leftwingers at Media Matters, where bloggers dismiss every major study on media bias and claim the media favors the right.
Tax protesters and white supremacists have united? Whites and minorities alike who are upset with out-of-control government spending would be shocked to find out that they are “coalescing” with the Ku Klux Klan.
As to the “range of other activists,” the report primarily focuses its ire on the Oath Keepers, an association of military members, veterans, law enforcement officers, and firefighters who reaffirm the oath they took to support and defend the Constitution. If the Constitution is the basis of our government, how does swearing an oath to the Constitution and pledging not to follow unconstitutional orders make one “anti-government?”
The article goes on to paint the patriotic movement as a fearful group of militia members, racists, and terrorists – who even reap “illegal fortunes.”
The article also states that “there has been a remarkable rash of domestic terrorist incidents since Obama’s election.” What does the SPLC consider to be “domestic terrorist incidents,” town hall protests? Predictably, the SPLC article joins Democrat politicians and members of the media in portraying opposition to the president’s agenda as racist.
In: Society · Tagged with: Constitution, free speech, Minuteman Project, Oath Keepers, Southern Poverty Law Center, Tea Party
This Ain’t America No More Officer?
This police officer’s outrageous attack on free speech was caught on camera by a town hall protestor in Reston, Virginia.
“This used to be America!” says the protestor.
Police officer: “It ain’t no more, okay?”
Where’s Nancy Pelosi, champion of disruptors on this one? This is going to get ugly…
In: Politics · Tagged with: Constitution, free speech, town hall protests
DOT Removes Cash for Clunkers Disclaimer
The Federal government’s “Cash-for-clunkers” program provides assistance to consumers wishing to trade in their older vehicle for a newer, more fuel-efficient vehicle. But the program’s website contained language in a security warning that stated by agreeing to the terms, the user’s computer and all of its files would become government property.
Last Friday, Fox News commentator Glenn Beck brought attention to the disclaimer on the Cars.gov dealer support page, which originally stated: “When logged on to the CARS system, your computer is considered a Federal computer system and is the property of the U.S. Government. Any or all uses of this system and all files on this system may be intercepted, monitored, recorded, copied, audited, inspected, and disclosed to authorized CARS, Dot, and law enforcement personnel, as well as authorized officials of other agencies, both domestic and foreign.”
On Monday, The Department of Transportation announced that it had removed the warning and that the department was “working to revise the language.” The warning was posted on the dealer support page of the website, which does not directly affect the consumer.
“They can continue to track you basically forever,” Fox News anchor and former Assistant District Attorney Kimberly Guilfoyle told Beck during an interview. “Once they’ve tapped into your system, and the government of course has like malware systems and tracking cookies – they can tap in any time they want.”
Guilfoyle added that it is “absolutely legal.”
However, Kristin Oehmke, a former lawyer and current legal analyst and advocate for the Bazelon Center of Mental Health Law says that the disclaimer is in fact unconstitutional as it violates the Fourth Amendment rights of those who didn’t agree to the terms, which guards against unreasonable searches and seizures.
“These dealers by signing up for the website in order to get their money are in fact waiving their rights by agreeing to the terms of the contract,” Oehmke stated in an interview. “But anyone sharing that computer – i.e. the spouse, children, or anyone else – did not agree to such terms and therefore are – or should be – protected under Constitutional rights.”
Oehmke added that “You can not give up your Constitutional rights except in a court of law. But in this case the Federal government seems to have taken away that right.”
The disclaimer has been removed, but whether or not the government’s practice has ended, or if information already obtained is to be destroyed, remains to be seen.
Although the Obama administration is withholding sales data to account for the first $1 billion of taxpayer dollars spent on the program, the Senate voted Thursday night to add an additional $2 billion in funding. After figuring in expenses such as an $18 million website and the creation of numerous government agencies to run the program, it is estimated that the actual cost for each cash for clunkers rebate will be around $6,000.
Originally published at the International Analyst Network
In: Politics · Tagged with: Cash for Clunkers, Constitution, Glenn Beck, Obama administration
Is the ‘era of big government’ over?
This is a transcript of the Unto the Breach program. Click here for the audio.
13 years ago, President Bill Clinton said that “the era of big government is over.” But is it? Now president-elect Barack Obama trying to bill big government as the solution. And his trillion-dollar stimulus is VERY big government.
Maybe Obama should read the 2004 UCLA study that said FDR’s policies actually prolonged the Great Depression by seven years. Big government was just as much of a problem then as it is now and will be under Obama.
How easy the big-government types in Washington and the media drive by the fact that it was big government “solutions” that brought us into the economic downturn to begin with. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain, right?
In: Economics, Politics · Tagged with: Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Constitution, FDR, Great Depression, stimulus, Supreme Court
Obama’s Stimulus Package
This is a transcript of the Unto the Breach program. Click here for the audio.
Edwardsville, a little town in Alabama with 194 people has requested over $375 million worth of proposals to Barack Obama’s quote-unquote stimulus package. That’s just shy of $2 million per resident, but Americans can breathe a sigh of relief as the town’s representative, E.D. Phillips says that the projects will affect 80,000 area residents. Edwardsville also wants your money to replace their street lights with solar powered lights. The price tag? $3.5 million dollars. How many street lights can a town of 194 need that it costs $3.5 million?
Tom Schatz, the president of Citizens Against Government Waste replied: “This really exemplifies the problem. Why are we buying light bulbs for a local community? If a municipality wants to save money, [it can] go out and buy the light bulbs. There is no reason the federal government should buy them.”
Add another $50 million to install their water pipes beneath the roads to transfer heat. Then Edwardsville wants a $32 million dollar museum and information dissemination center for renewable energy. How many families will plan their vacation to go to the “renewable energy museum and information dissemination center” in the middle of nowhere? Impressive, but it falls short of the $55 million mob museum in Las Vegas. (more…)
In: Politics · Tagged with: Barack Obama, Constitution, fraud waste and abuse, natural-born citizen, stimulus, Supreme Court
Usurper? -or- Does the Constitution Still Matter?
The advertisement that Fox, CNN, and MSNBC wouldn’t air.
In: Media, Politics · Tagged with: Barack Obama, Constitution, media bias, natural-born citizen
Support H.R. 1359
For society to function properly, it must live by laws. We citizens have laws we must follow, and our government has laws they must follow as well – the Constitution.
In March, Congressman John Shadegg from Arizona, along with 28 Republican cosponsors, introduced the Enumerated Powers Act (H.R. 1359). The Enumerated Powers Act states that Congress must cite the article, section, and clause of our Constitution that grants them the authority to pass any legislation. Mr. Shadegg has introduced this bill to every congress since the 104th in 1995. Each time, the House votes to send the bill to committee, where it dies.
Why does it repeatedly fail? Perhaps Congress wants to keep operating beyond the limited powers that the Constitution grants them. Our government has expanded well beyond its boundaries set by our founding fathers over 200 years ago. As long as the public is unaware of the breach, which costs American taxpayers big time, Congress will get a free pass. This bill would stem the tide of our bloated government.
Perhaps House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was serious when she declared that the 110th Congress would be the “most open and ethical Congress in history.” Based on the actions of the Democratic leadership however, that is not likely. We Americans must unite in our support of H.R. 1359. Without our help, the Enumerated Powers Act is sure to fail again. It is time that Congress started playing by the rules.
In: Politics · Tagged with: Constitution, Enumerated Powers Act
