So.... Where are all the Fiscal Conservatives?

As I watch as the United States financial system decays into something resembling a modern day great depression, I have to wonder loudly to myself... "Where are all the fiscal conservatives?" Now, let me preface this post by saying that I am by no means an economics expert, nor do I have any formal training in creating, maintaining or saving capitalist markets. However, what I do have is a keen sense of right and wrong, principles that do not waiver in the face of adversity, and a rudimentary understanding of human tendencies.

Ok, disclaimer out of the way.

I wonder from time to time if this is what adult life is all about; watching the people around you and society at large make decisions that you disagree with and trying to come up with some way for you to personally cope with the consequences of those decisions.

I think most Americans have a vague understanding of the plight of the financial situation of this country right now, but for historical value (and perspective resolution) I will lay out what I have noticed in the past few weeks.

Ok, first there was Bear-Stearns, which was ready to fold earlier this year before the government bailed them out, then allowed Chase to buy up the dirt cheap stock and absorb the remainder of their company; leaving the taxpayer responsible for the mismanagement and benefitting Chase with a cheap aquisition.

Then it was quiet before the shitstorm hit.

For several months we didn't hear too too much, but in August, it all hit the fan. Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac (whom I believe were somehow affiliated with the government to begin with), appeared to be in big trouble. To my understanding, the government absorbed 80% of the companies in exchange for a loan from the federal government in the value of billions. Then there was Lieman brothers, Meryl Lynch, then AIG, then etc...

My problem with all of this is multi-faceted.

First of all, I have a problem that we are here to begin with. All of this was set into motion by coporate greed, government ambivilence (and accomplice), and finally population gullibility and greed. Back in 2001, GW Bush and his accomplices in Congress removed all of the protections against this exact circumstance happening. Laws and regulations that have been on the books since the great depression regarding lending and the housing market were repealed en masse. Now, although I do believe that there are sinister motivations within our own government, I don't think that the desire of doing any of this was to create our current situation, but I do believe that it was all of greed and cronyism, which is just as bad.

Second of all, I have a problem with how we are progressing through all of this. And it doesn't just apply to this, but to a lot of challenges we are currently facing. The world is on notice... The United States of America is willing to mortgage it's values if times are tough. We are weak, we are pathetic and it doesn't take much to make us weak and pathetic. If you would have asked any capitalist a year ago if we should be providing welfare to people (or companies) that are not doing well, they would have thought you were ridiculous. We are making it policy to take taxpayer money from individuals and give them to companies. To make matters worse, we get absolutely no return on our investment, because that money is just gone. We pay for their mistakes, but they get to keep their profits when they make it.... what gives?

As I mentioned before though, this isn't the only thing that Americans are willing to mortgage their souls over. Since September 11th, I have heard an alarming number of people cry for genocide, nuclear war, torture, and illegal detainment. This is America, we do not kill people indiscriminately. We are better than that. We are not Germany, we are not China, we are not Russia, and we are not Sudan. We are supposed to respect individual sovereignty as well as national sovereignty. I guess when your president doesn't know what the word sovereignty means, this is the result you get. Honestly, I don't think he has a grade-school level understanding of the document we call the constitution that he shits on regularly, so I guess he shares that with most Americans. We need to decide what we believe in America, because right now it doesn't look like much... besides an invisible man in the sky and our government of course.

Finally, I feel that due to the complex nature of all of this, the American people are being bilked out of their hard-earned money by big corporations and their own government simply because those entities know that people are either too stupid or too lazy to figure out exactly how they are getting fucked.

I believe in the Bill of Rights. I believe in rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness (no matter how you find that happiness, as long as your happiness doesn't reasonably infringe on anyone else's happiness). I believe in the good of the American people, because no matter how ignorant or stupid we may be regarding the world around us, we are generally good, hard-working and friendly people that all deserve respect and individual sovereignty. I believe in an unobtrusive government which does not play favorites and maintains consistancy in policy. (If you are going to have a welfare society where you are bailing out Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac, you also have to bail out Lieman brothers, the small business owner that took a risk and failed, and even the single mother that is about to lose her house because she lost her job).

I'm not asking for much, just a little consistancy. The double-standards are enough to make you throw up.

What I CAN tell you for 100% sure is that there are going to be a lot of people that lose a lot of money in all of this, but the overwhelming majority of them are not going to the be the fabled upper 1%... they're going to be people like you and I. We are going to pay for their mistakes. There other thing I can tell you is that there are going to be some people that MAKE a lot of money off of this.. .and they will be the 1%ers.

A redistribution of wealth... reverse communism if you will. Reverse communism doesn't sound menacing enough though.... how about "Fuck you, you insignificant little American citizen -Love, Your Government"

And THIS is Why We Have "Legislation from the Bench"

When congress passes laws that are unconstitutional (see: Military Commissions Act and the newly passed FISA bill), it is the duty of the court to strike it down as unconstitutional.

I have to say... it is a damn shame that the last safeguard to protect the constitution, the courts, has to be used to often. It is a FACT that officially the 4th and 5th amendments of the bill of rights now cease to exist in this country.

Thanks to the Military Commissions Act, which states that prisoners may be detained without charges, tried without knowing their charges and convicted by a secret court, we no longer have the protection of due process in this country.

Thanks to the new FISA bill that has passed, we no longer have protections against unreasonable search and seizure as specified for in the 4th amendment. The FISA bill also has the added bonus of giving retroactive immunity (yes, this IS unprecedented) to the phone companies that have spied on YOU without a warrant for the past 8 years; simply because the sitting president asked them to. Not because they went to court and proved that you were probably breaking the law, but beacuse of your political ideals or what you do in your free time.

Mark my words, these abhorrations will be overturned in time, but the question is, how long are we going to allow our friends and countrymen to have their LIVES ruined by this bloated and overreaching government.

I want you to think about that for a second, the ramifications of having your life ruined. That means that everything you know is gone. You have no job, you can't see your family every day (if you can see them at all), and you have no future except sitting in a cell, and having the helpless situation of being tried for something that has not even been divulged to you, and the evidence (which you won't get to see either) was obtained through a secret wiretap that was never authorized by the courts.

We are a prison society. We have a higher incarceration rate than anywhere else in the world (see an earlier post for more details on that), and this is undoubtedly going to make it worse.

Things are going to get a whole lot worse before they get better. How many amendments of the bill of rights are we going to allow to be nullified before we stand up and say "that's enough"?

Status of the Bill of Rights

Amendment 1 -

Freedom of Speech (On life support)
Freedom of Religion (OK)
Freedom of Press (corrupt)
Freedom of Assembly (Curtailed)
Freedom to Petition the government (OK)

Amendment 2 - Right to Bear Arms (Alive and well*)

Amendment 3 - Quartering of Troops (Antiquated and irrelevant)

Amendment 4 - Protection Against Unreasonable Search and Seizure (Dead**)

Amendment 5 -

Protection from Double Jeopardy (OK)
Protection from Self Incrimination (Alive and Well***)
Assurance of Due Process (Dead)
Eminant Domain (Perverted and Abused by the corrupt US government)

Amendment 6 - Right to a Speedy and Public Trial (Dead)

Amendment 7 - Right to trial by jury in civil matters (OK)

Amendment 8 -

Protection Against Excessive Bail (Broken)
Protection Against Cruel and Unusual Punishment (Dead****)

Amendment 9 - Rights Retained By the People (Dead*****)

Amendment 10 - Rights Retained By the States (Dead - and has been for a long time)


* - Although there was a recent victory for the second amendment with the overturning of the DC handgun ban, I would argue that the intent of the 2nd amendment is to protect the populace from an overreaching government. Until the people have no restrictions on privately held weapnory (including nuclear weapons), this is an impossibility.

** - See FISA bill

*** - But Abused by the rich and powerful

**** - See: Military Commissions Act - The definition of torture is left to the discretion of the president

***** - While not formally null, the rights retained by the people is largely gone. Most Americans could not even tell you what the ninth amendment IS, and the ones that can, most likely don't know what it means. Basically, what it means is that whatever is not specifically prohibited by law, is therefore legal (see: abortion).


So that is my Bill of Rights overview. As you can see, our rights specifically granted to us are going away, one by one; And you can forget about the ones that are retained by the people.

George Carlin

Rest in peace.

I cannot convey the grief that I have for the single greatest person of inspiration in my life. I believe that comedy is the best way to handle life. Comedy allows smiles to be formed from the worst scenarios. No one was better than George at taking the inane or mundane details and hypocrisies of everyday life and turning them on their heads for all to view, question and laugh at. George is the reason why I majored in Sociology. George is the reason that I view the world in the way that I do.

In his comedy, behind the slew of abrasiveness and cynicism existed a true understanding and appreciation of the world around him. He made no bones about the things that annoyed him, and in a rare deviation from the norm, instead of rejecting those things, he embraced them, analyzed them in an effort to make every little thing better.

While I realize that the last thing that George would want is some fan gushing over his works during his postmortem, but it's more than that. His works reflected an attitude that will never be seen again; A unique perspective on how things are, how they should be, and how they should be appreciated.

Everyone will take something else from George's commentary on society, but to me it was the most life-shaping perspective that I have run into in my first 25 years on this planet.

Kevin James, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity Represent Everything that is Wrong with the Republican Party

Let's be clear. According to the Republican platform, I agree with much of their ideology. However, it has become apparent to me that many of the more publicized voices that speak on the behalf of the party have ceased thinking completely and now only speak in 3 second sound bites that are vague and misleading propaganda to support some agenda that I believe they don't even fully understand themselves. They have turned into a party, not of thinkers or doers, but of repeaters. They seem to believe that if you repeat the same bullshit often enough, you can make any statement into a fact, regardless of how egregious it is.

Which brings me to my example for today. Here we have Kevin James, former assistant US Attorney turned radio talk show host. To me, it is scary that someone who talks in such vague and WRONG language was that high up on the food chain. Of course, I don't hear anything about him now that he is a radio show host, so he might not have the ears of many people (hopefully). God knows thought that there are enough empty headed people in this country that would grab ahold of something like this and take it to be gospel.

http://scotchandpolitics.com/2008/5/16/comedy-friday-kevin-james-on-hardball

Honestly, this is the first time I have ever watched Chris Matthews but I am impressed. He handled himself very well, did not shout James down (like some other people) or completely ignore what he was saying. He addressed what he said, exposed the lie, and put his feet to the fire. We need more exposure in this country of empty-headed talking heads that are just marching to the beat of whatever drum they are told to march to without thinking about who is giving the order and what the order actually is.

Dangerous stuff people. You want to talk about Hitler!? ...don't get me started.

BigBrother Belichick

I must admit, when the "Spygate" (worst name ever) scandal broke, I didn't think it was that big of a deal. To me, it seemed as though it was naturally a good strategy decision to try to decipher the opposing teams signals to gain a competitive advantage.

However, at the time I did not realize that there are rules specifically prohibiting this activity of taping the opposition.

Basically, if Belichick would have hired an idiot savant to watch the signals and decipher them without recording them, it seems to me that he would have been fine.

At the time however, I had no idea of the scope of these violations. Today, someone within the Patriots organization is turning over 8 different tapes dating back to 2000 of the opposing teams' defensive signals, including the Cleveland Browns.

To me, this is a extremely serious violation, because you know 2 things damn well.

1) If they were doing this in 2000 and they were doing this in 2007, it is a safe assumption that this behavior did not cease between those two points.

2) If they were cheating against the 2000 Cleveland Browns, they were cheating against absolutely everybody because no one should have had to cheat against the Browns.

Of course, like everything else, the actions are made real by the consequences and in this case, the consequences were quite beneficial for the New England Patriots. The Patriots went to 4 Super Bowls between the 2000 and 2007 seasons, winning 3 of them. It is also during this time that Tom Brady established himself as "one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time". Well, excuse me for saying this, but if I knew where the defense was going to be running and what the coverage was going to be before I snapped the ball, I could probably do a pretty decent job as well.

Now, I hate the Patriots. I make no bones about it. However, even a team that I don't like (the Pittsburgh Steelers for example), I can appreciate and give respect to for a job well done. In the case of the Patriots and Tom Brady, they will receive no such respect from me. They are cheaters, they knew they were cheating, and absolutely everything that they did between 2000 and 2008 is up for questioning at this point. It's a shame that their legacy is tainted, but much like a criminal that gets caught breaking the law, the taint is justified.

Tasers

I write this post with an extremely heavy heart today. Yesterday, in the late afternoon one of my fellow Miami graduates was killed by a police officer. What makes this even more depressing is that it happened in the seemingly impenetrable "Miami bubble" that is Oxford.

Let me be clear, I do not blame the officer, as he could not have possibly known that his taser would end up killing Kevin, but therein lies the problem.

Tasers are lethal weapons that are being handed out to officers all over the country and their training teaches them to use it as a replacement for lethal force. The problem is of course, is that this is a situation where the implementation varies greatly from the optimal use. If you give police a lethal weapon and tell them that it is not lethal, they will ultimately use it for things like submission and crowd control. By not acknowledging this, we are sentencing our friends, our family and ourselves to a death by electrocution in the middle of a dirty street with no judge or jury.

In the end, this is OUR fault. We are directly responsible for Kevin's death because we made "don't tase me bro!" a funny internet meme. We don't address the hundreds of deaths that have occurred just in the last year as a result of police-induced tasering. HUNDREDS. In a situation where one is too many, hundreds is overwhelming. One is unacceptable. It's time to speak up.

Usually I don't post when I'm mad, but I feel that it is important for all viewers of the 24-hour entertainment networks to compare and contrast the following videos.

Video #1

Video #2

Let me tell you something. If you can watch those videos and still watch Bill O'Reilly and put any stock into anything that comes from his program you are a fucking cockroach. You are either too dumb to see the blatant trickery and manipulation that he performs on his audience, or you are compliant with his intent which is to bastardize the truth, assassinate the character of noble and well-intentioned men, and display his lies for people to accept as truth. I have to say, I am very disgusted this morning after watching those videos.

A Brief Announcement

Let me be clear...

If you believe that we should be waging a war against Islam you are a racist; but that is not all. If you believe that Muslims should be singled out, harassed, barred from immigrating to this country, locked up without due process, or bombed indiscriminately in a foreign country because they "may" be a terrorist; Then you sir, would have been exactly the type of person that would have joined the Nazi army in Germany and ushered millions of Jews to their death.

It is an exact parallel.

The times have not changed people. There are basic rules that apply to prevent horrible atrocities from happening. They are being ignored in this country right now by many people.

Many people argue that Muslim charities should get no government subsidies for social aid because they fear that the money will get funneled to terrorists (I don't think any religious organization should get government handouts, but this is beside the point). Fine but realize that one would be just as correct to state that the Catholic church (one of the most subsidized and charitable) should not receive any of that money because they sexually abuse children.

It's time to reign ourselves in people, and look at the whole picture.

As an aside, I absolutely HATE the fact that I have to defend Muslims because I believe that their religion is bullshit, their dogma is bullshit and some of their actions are completely reprehensible but the all-out attack on them by the populace means that SOMEONE who can see what is actually going on must say something and bring some perspective back to the situation.

Please Restore the Integrity of Justice

According to the Huffington Post (a partisan blog), Obama has said, upon being asked that he will dispatch his attorney general to look into the possibility of criminal acts perpetuated by the Bush administration.

THANK GOD.

It should be no shock that I believe that this is of the utmost importance. Many people argue that the government can't do anything correct. They may be right, but if we can't hold our elected leaders accountable for their actions, as they have not for the past 8 years, then we have NOTHING. It is important to note that Obama has said that he will be sure to tread lightly in this area so as to not go on a partisan witch-hunt and destroy the possibility of uniting people to accomplish the common goal of making this country better.

You can see the full article here

What a Surprise.... The Average Citizen Did Not Benefit from the Good Economy of Last 6 Years

This is what I have been saying all along... the average American has been being told "but, but... the economy is doing so well!" Well, now we see the bullshit for what it is. We KNOW that the Bushes are elitists that funnel money to their elite friends but for some reason America has had collective amnesia for the past 7 years.

For Many, a Boom That Wasn’t

By DAVID LEONHARDT

Published: April 9, 2008

How has the United States economy gotten to this point?

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Stagnating Wages

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It’s not just the apparent recession. Recessions happen. If you tried to build an economy immune to the human emotions that produce boom and bust, you would end up with something that looked like East Germany.

The bigger problem is that the now-finished boom was, for most Americans, nothing of the sort. In 2000, at the end of the previous economic expansion, the median American family made about $61,000, according to the Census Bureau’s inflation-adjusted numbers. In 2007, in what looks to have been the final year of the most recent expansion, the median family, amazingly, seems to have made less — about $60,500.

This has never happened before, at least not for as long as the government has been keeping records. In every other expansion since World War II, the buying power of most American families grew while the economy did. You can think of this as the most basic test of an economy’s health: does it produce ever-rising living standards for its citizens?

In the second half of the 20th century, the United States passed the test in a way that arguably no other country ever has. It became, as the cliché goes, the richest country on earth. Now, though, most families aren’t getting any richer.

“We have had expansions before where the bottom end didn’t do well,” said Lawrence F. Katz, a Harvard economist who studies the job market. “But we’ve never had an expansion in which the middle of income distribution had no wage growth.”

More than anything else — more than even the war in Iraq — the stagnation of the great American middle-class machine explains the glum national mood today. As part of a poll that will be released Wednesday, the Pew Research Center asked people how they had done over the last five years. During that time, remember, the overall economy grew every year, often at a good pace.

Yet most respondents said they had either been stuck in place or fallen backward. Pew says this is the most downbeat short-term assessment of personal progress in almost a half century of polling.

The causes of the wage slowdown have been building for a long time. They have relatively little to do with President Bush or any other individual politician (though it is true that the Bush administration has shown scant interest in addressing the problem).

The slowdown began in the 1970s, with an oil shock that raised the cost of everyday living. The technological revolution and the rise of global trade followed, reducing the bargaining power of a large section of the work force. In recent years, the cost of health care has aggravated the problem, by taking a huge bite out of most workers’ paychecks.

Real median family income more than doubled from the late 1940s to the late ’70s. It has risen less than 25 percent in the three decades since. Statistics like these are now so familiar as to be almost numbing. But the larger point is still crucial: the modern American economy distributes the fruits of its growth to a relatively narrow slice of the population. We don’t need another decade of evidence to feel confident about that conclusion.

Anxiety about the income slowdown has flared at various times over the past three decades. It seemed to crescendo in the first half of the 1990s, when voters first threw George H. W. Bush out of office, then, two years later, did the same to the Democratic leaders of Congress. Pat Buchanan went around preaching a kind of pitchfork populism during the 1996 New Hampshire Republican primary — and he won it.

Then came a technology bubble that made everything seem better, for a time. Record-low oil prices in the 1990s helped, too. So did the recent housing bubble, allowing families to supplement their incomes by taking equity out of their homes.

Now, though, we appear to be out of bubbles. It’s hard to see how the economy will get back on track without some fundamental changes. This, I think, can fairly be considered the No. 1 economic project awaiting the next president.

Fortunately, there is an obvious model waiting to be dusted off. The income gains of the postwar period didn’t just happen. They were the product of a deliberate program to build up the middle class, through the Interstate highway system, the G. I. Bill and other measures.

It’s easy enough to imagine a new version of that program, with job-creating investments in biomedical research, alternative energy, roads, railroads and education. On the campaign trail, Hillary Clinton, John McCain and Barack Obama all mention ideas like these.

But there is still a lack of strategic seriousness to the discussion, as Bruce Katz of the Brookings Institution notes. After all, the United States spends a lot of money on education already but has still lost its standing as the country with the highest college graduation rate in the world. (South Korea and a couple of other countries have passed us, while Japan, Britain and Canada are close behind.)

The same goes for public works. Spending on physical infrastructure is at a 20-year high as a share of gross domestic product, but too much of the money is spent on the inefficient pet programs championed by individual members of Congress. Pork barrel spending does not add up to a national economic strategy.

Health care and taxes will have to be part of the discussion, too. Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel of the National Institutes of Health pointed out to me that a serious effort to curtail wasteful medical spending would directly help workers. It would spare them from paying the insurance premiums and taxes that now cover that care.

The tax code, meanwhile, has become far more favorable to high-income workers at the same time that they — and they alone — have received large pretax raises. That doesn’t make much sense, does it?

It’s a pretty big to-do list. But it’s a pretty big problem. Since the economy now seems to be in recession, and since recessions inevitably bring their own pay cuts, my guess is that the problem will look even bigger by the time the next president takes office.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/09/business/09leonhardt.html?em&ex=1207972800&en=f760f6639c979460&ei=5087%0A

Being Grown Up Isn't Half as Fun as Growing Up

True, or no?

Personally, it is often said by older people that when you're a kid, you don't know how good you have it, and maybe that is true. But, isn't it one of the horrible things about being a kid that you don't have any perspective and you think that every new days' events are all-important?

I can see in my own life a shift from those daily events to worldly events. It's the same page, just a different book and in reality, none of it really matters all that much. Sure, we fight for our civil rights because we care about our own rights to live our lives in peace without being harassed by representatives of the government, but really, how many of us take advantage of those rights that we are afforded?

We go through life, working ourselves into the grave and watching the days go by as though they don't mean anything. Then at the end of that day we look back at what we have accomplished and realize that none of it really means anything. On top of that, we look at the world around us and realize that everything is gradually breaking down. This takes me back to my original idea.

Of course we long for the days when we were kids for 2 reasons. One, we have no idea what is going on from a macro-standpoint. The things that we are consumed with revolve primarily around us and our personal relationships. Two, by acknowledging that everything is breaking down, then we must extrapolate that things actually WERE better back then.

Happiness, like Denis Leary said, is just a moment. Enjoy the ones that you have and hope that at the end of the day that you have more good ones than bad ones. Try to live your life in a way that pleases you and doesn't infringe on the pleasure of others (unless you're delivering said pleasure).

So here is my purge of frustration so I don't have to deal with it anymore.

1) Bush (and company) is a dick and a criminal. He deserves to be brought up on charges and convicted of treason among other things.

2) We are headed for hard times, so buy a helmet.

3) The cohort of individuals that are coming up behind me are dumber, more superficial and more oblivious than the ones that were in my cohort. I assume that this is part of the breaking down of all things.

4) You have to fill your life with interesting things, or it will be uninteresting. No one is going to do this for you.

5) Don't be nostalgic about the old days, because they weren't as great as you remember them to be. Enjoy every second that you have for what it is. Every second that goes by is another chance to turn things around.

I Hope This is an Unfunny April Fool's

In today’s LA Times, Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) sheds light on the staggering number of sexual assaults within the military, stating, “Women serving in the U.S. military are more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire in Iraq,” and calls on Congress and the military to do more to protect servicewomen:

At the heart of this crisis is an apparent inability or unwillingness to prosecute rapists in the ranks. According to DOD statistics, only 181 out of 2,212 subjects investigated for sexual assault in 2007, including 1,259 reports of rape, were referred to courts-martial, the equivalent of a criminal prosecution in the military. Another 218 were handled via nonpunitive administrative action or discharge, and 201 subjects were disciplined through “nonjudicial punishment,” which means they may have been confined to quarters, assigned extra duty or received a similar slap on the wrist. In nearly half of the cases investigated, the chain of command took no action; more than a third of the time, that was because of “insufficient evidence.” […]

The absence of rigorous prosecution perpetuates a culture tolerant of sexual assault — an attitude that says “boys will be boys.”

A Department of Defense report released this month found 2,688 reports of sexual assault in the military in FY2007. According to Harman, the number of reported military rapes jumped 73 percent from 2004 to 2006.

http://alternet.org/blogs/peek/80918/

If this report is true, then it would seem that the brainless deification of the American military has sunk to an unfortunately all too familiar low. Mind you, I am not generalizing the soldiers, but I am talking about the infrastructure of the organization, which is designed to remove all humanity and, in many cases accountability for any wrongdoing whatsoever.

To Those of You Who Assured Me that the Patriot Act was for Terrorism

Time for you to learn a lesson about unchecked power given to government by a population held ransom by fear...

Patriot Act used in drug case; lawyer riled

BY TIM POTTER

The Wichita Eagle

The lawyer for a man accused of being a major cocaine supplier for the Wichita Crips gang contends that a secret search of the man's house under the Patriot Act was illegal.

In a recent motion to suppress any evidence from the search, defense lawyer Charles O'Hara argued that the Patriot Act was meant for "serious matters involving national security," not drug cases like the one involving his client, Tyrone Andrews.

"I thought that this Patriot Act was something passed to protect us all from these terrorist acts, and it would be used very judiciously," O'Hara said Monday. "This doesn't seem to be one where these secret searches would be used."

Jim Cross, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Wichita, said the office "believes the evidence in this case was legally obtained."

"I think our legal arguments are clearly stated in the documents we have filed," Cross said. He said he couldn't comment further because the case is before a federal court.

A federal grand jury indictment released Dec. 21 accused Andrews, a 38-year-old aircraft plant worker, and seven other Wichita men of 48 counts of drug-related crimes including trafficking and conspiracy. The government seeks a forfeiture of $300,000 from Andrews.

In an affidavit filed in July seeking the search warrant, a federal agent said a secret search was necessary to protect evidence and to prevent suspects from fleeing or from intimidating witnesses.

The affidavit alleged the Crips gang has been involved in cocaine, crack cocaine and marijuana distribution in Wichita for "at least the past 15 years."

"Tyrone Andrews has been supplying various individuals in the gang with cocaine for many years, and is considered to be a major supplier of cocaine to the Crips..." the affidavit alleges.

The affidavit alleges that Andrews lived at one home but used a house on South Ridgewood as a drug "stash" house.

As part of the investigation, agents wanted to check the house to see whether electronic recording devices could be installed, the affidavit said.

Normally, investigators leave a copy of a search warrant and a receipt for items taken once a house is searched. But in the Andrews case, investigators obtained clearance to secretly search the house, which they did July 17, and not notify him until 90 days afterward, O'Hara said.

In the affidavit, the ATF agent contended that earlier disclosure to Andrews could "seriously jeopardize the investigation."

Another court document says that officers secretly entered the house and saw drug trafficking materials.

O'Hara said: "I don't know that I've seen a warrant like this before."

http://www.kansas.com/213/story/351592.html

Someone is in Your Bank Account, Stealilng Your Money

The American government. They might as well be. The shocking thing is not that it is happening, because everyone knows that the dollar is declining. Rather, the shocking thing is how long this has been happening without attention. I have long had the suspicion that the economy was being propped up in some kind of artificial way, but not having an economics degree myself, it made it extremely difficult to hypothesize about how it was happening. Of course, I could postulate that the increased consumerism created and encouraged by the American government after 9/11 has been doing it all, but that isn't it; It's only part. We are buying more shit that we don't need than ever, and none of us are immune to it. This, of course eventually manifests itself in stories about people that claim to have nothing and not able to pay their bills while sitting next to a big-screen TV. And the problem is that they may very well be telling the truth. This credit crunch goes all the way to the bottom, and before the end of this economic situation my prediction is that MILLIONS, yes, millions will be without a home; Tens of millions will be without a job and almost everybody will have their life savings and investments wiped out at the hand of the direct and indirect actions of this administration we have had for the past 8 years.

http://www.financialsense.com/fsu/editorials/2007/0416.html

View the above link and see the evidence for how we are being robbed and the economy is, and has been being falsely propped up like some "Weekend at Bernie's" sequel.

A Challenge: Unplug

To those of you that believe that we are doing good things in the middle east with our dalliances in Iraq, I have one challenge for you. What I am asking you to do will not harm you nor will it unfairly change your viewpoints. Rather, my hypothesis is that your long since departed independent viewpoint will return to you with new poignancy.

I challenge all of you, regardless of political affiliation to unplug from the propaganda that the media bombards you with just for one month. 30 days. No 24-hour news channels, no newspapers, no political blogs, no nightly news, no political entertainment (see: Daily Show, etc), no political books. My belief is that upon doing this, you will gain objectivity that has been lost in the past decade of bombardment from an entire culture that is filled with biased sources.

You don't need to hear the opinions of talking heads in order for you to figure out the world around you, believe me. I promise that it won't be that painful, and you will be surprised at how large of a difference it can make in just your critical thinking skills.

Conservatives complain about the "liberal media" and liberals complain about the "Neo-con governmental propaganda delivery machine". The truth is somewhere in the middle. They will all say anything to increase ratings and they will all say whatever the powers that be tell them to say.

So do yourself a favor for the month of April. Unplug from the bullshit, enjoy the improving weather and tell me after 30 days that you want to go back to the talking heads.

Capitalism; Good for What Ails Ya, or Useful When Convenient?

In general I consider my viewpoints to be largely in line with the Libertarian ideology of a hands-off government and free market that regulates itself through the miracle of supply and demand. In this regard, I find common ground with most republicans who term themselves as fiscal conservatives (in theory). However, I cannot help but notice that the same people that tout a free market as being the be-all end-all are the first people that are rushing to bail out big corporations when they fuck up and make a poor investment or have shoddy business practices.

Of course, I'm referring to the FED's involvement in the latest debacle with the recent collapse (might as well call a spade a spade) of Bear-Stearns. This is nothing new either. There is a long string of corporate welfare that has existed out of "necessity". Well, this leaves me to question to basic hypocrisy of embracing a system as the best system on earth, but when it is abused and inevitably reaches a breaking point, cutting all ties from that system and selectively providing socialist handouts of billions of dollars to major companies and the individuals that own and operate those companies. I will not bore you, the reader, with example after example of corporate welfare that exists in this country, but you don't have to look too far to witness this phenomenon. (for those of you that have no idea what I'm talking about see: airline companies and farmers)

More and more in this country I am struggling to find any consistency. I cannot find any in the political rhetoric that is espoused as though it is news in just about every media publication. I cannot find any in the standards to which we hold our political figures (see: Spitzer/Cheney prostitute debacles). I cannot find any consistency in the basic rights guaranteed in our constitution. We seem to forget that those rights are constantly under attack. Not (just) by Islamic extremists or maniacal elected officials, but from all sides. The greatest tragedy is that we are doing this to ourselves, and without something monumental happening to turn the tide, we WILL (mark my words) erode ourselves into the next Russia (see: economy not worth a shit, loss of freedoms, paranoid and aggressive foreign policy and largely irrelevant on the world stage)

Reactions

I think a lot about how we, as people react to things. There are two primary ways that someone can react to a given situation, they can react with reason or they can react with emotion. Quite often these two blend together in an appropriate way. Someone who responds to every situation with reason can be seen as heartless or without empathy, but at least the negative effects of their reaction end there. People who react with pure emotion OFTEN make the wrong decisions, often leading to their own demise.

When the World Trade Center was attacked, everyone had some sort of emotion that rocked them. Some cried for blood and some just cried, but everyone was touched in some way. Unfortunately, we are now here 6 1/2 years later and we have no reconciled the fact that our emotional responses were taken advantage of in the days after September 11th. We were pandered to and manipulated into believing that Iraq was a threat to us in order to fulfill the objective of war with Iraq (which WAS conceived and planned BEFORE 9/11 oddly enough). We have not yet made a reasonable decision with how to move forward on September 12th 2001, so how can we possibly hope to come up with a plan on how to move forward on March 12th 2008?

After Lincoln was assassinated, the union did not say "Our freedom is under attack, and because these are unique times, we must sacrifice some of our freedoms and values to fight this brutal enemy". They did not reinstate slavery, nor did they panic and start patting everyone down before they entered a theatre to make sure they didn't have a gun. They mourned their loss and moved on with life as best they knew how, without mortgaging their values and civil rights.

After King was assassinated, the civil rights movement did not strike back against all white people, massing a propaganda campaign to demonize white people. They kept their goal in mind and mourned their loss, and tried to fulfill the goals that they had set out to accomplish without deterrence.

America's goal is freedom. First and foremost, freedom for the people. Our freedoms are leaving, many have already left. Sure, it may not be a big deal for you to not take a bottle of water on the plane with you. You may be used to having to purchase new razors when you land at your destination. You may be used to planning ahead and making a special trip to the store to get a certain size of shampoo and toothpaste and a certain size of bag to put it in before flying.

You aren't yet used to needing a passport to cross the border into Canada, but you will soon. You aren't yet used to seeing (young) homeless veterans in the streets, the same veterans that the powers that be claim to be "supporting", but you will soon because they are being left with nothing; Well, nothing except a slew of mental illness as a result of their time in Iraq.

If we hope to move past where we are, we only have two options. We must make peace with ourselves for what happened on that day, or we must forget about it. And I don't think many people will be forgetting about it.

Rise up America, it's time to take your country back.

Court Deems Homeschooling a Criminal Offense

Originally posted at http://www.lewrockwell.com.

The Pacific Justice Institute in Sacramento sent along a statement about a disturbing California Court of Appeal decision finding that parents have no right to homeschool their children. Parents who do not send their kids to the school deemed appropriate by the state may face criminal charges and fines. Remember when former Superintendent of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin tried to criminalize homeschooling? Here we go again. It’s ironic, given how badly the government miseducates students, that officials are so determined to criminalize this basic freedom. This really shouldn’t shock anyone who realizes the degree to which government at all levels runs our lives.

Here’s the PJI statement:

Home Schooling Found Unlawful by California Court of Appeal

Los Angeles – In a stunning decision affecting thousands of families in California, the California Court of Appeal has issued an opinion finding no legal right to home school. “Parents who fail to [comply with school enrollment laws] may be subject to a criminal complaint against them, found guilty of an infraction, and subject to imposition of fines or an order to complete a parent education and counseling program,” wrote Justice H. Walter Croskey whose opinion was joined by the other two members of the appellate panel.

The opinion was issued February 28, 2008, in a case titled In re Rachel L, which reversed a Superior Court Judge, Stephen Marpet, who found that “parents have a constitutional right to school their children in their own home.” The parents of Rachel L. enrolled her in Sunland Christian School, a private home schooling program. In his opinion, Croskey, 75, described what he called the “ruse of enrolling [children] in a private school and then letting them stay home and be taught by a non-credentialed parent.”

Despite this statement by the Court, it should be noted that Sunland Christian School has been in full compliance with the requirements of the law for more than twenty years. “We’ve never been given an opportunity to represent our case in the Court of Appeal,” said Terry Neven, the president of the school. “Consequently, we are excited that PJI will represent us before the California Supreme Court so that the rights of home schooling families are preserved,” he stated further. In a section titled “Consequences of Parental Denial of a Legal Education,” the Court said that “parents are subject to being ordered to enroll their children in an appropriate school or education program and provide proof of enrollment to the court, and willful failure to comply with such an order may be punished by a fine for civil contempt.” “The scope of this decision by the appellate court is breathtaking. It not only attacks traditional home schooling, but also calls into question home schooling through charter schools and teaching children at home via independent study through public and private schools,” stated Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute “If not reversed, the parents of the more than 166,000 students currently receiving an education at home will be subject to criminal sanctions,” he continued.

To me, this is just absolutely ludicrous. Not only is the state trying to rip parental discretion away (no matter how bad or good it may be), it is trying to force the youth of America into their indoctrination centers termed public schools. Now, don't let me be misunderstood, this isn't some "liberal conspiracy" as some (see: Ann Coulter) may (see: WILL) call it. This is simply overreaching but probably well-intentioned public servants believing that they know what is best for you and yours.

I'll tell you what, the founding fathers gave us some basic instructions to go by, anything more than that, you can go fuck yourself with your mandates. Of course, I say this as someone who went to public school and has no intention of home schooling his own children. The option should be there though. You can bet your ass that if I wanted to home school my kid, I would and I would force the inevitable custody case in front of the supreme court.

... Of course, it'd work better if the court (and justice dept) wasn't politicized. *sigh*

Reality Check

Poll: 93% of Muslims Worldwide Condemn 9/11 Attacks - 0% Approve of Attacks on Religious Grounds

Jon Ponder | Feb. 27, 2008

This poll from Gallup is based on a huge worldwide sample:

One of the largest-ever opinion polls conducted in the Islamic world found that seven percent of Muslims condoned the Sep 11, 2001, attacks on the US, but none of them gave religious justification for their beliefs, according to the figures released Tuesday.

The Gallup organisation’s poll of some 50,000 people in over 35 predominantly Muslim countries found that what motivated those considered “politically radicalised” was their fear of occupation by the West and the US, though most even admired and hoped for democratic principles.

“Politics, not piety, differentiate moderates from radicals” in the Islamic world, said Dalia Mogahed, executive director of the Gallup Center for Muslim studies. “Terrorism sympathisers don’t hate our freedom, they want our freedom.”

The overwhelming majority of Muslims - 93 percent - condemned the Sep 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington, and most said the biggest obstacle to better relations with the West was the latter’s lack of respect for Islam.

I think that the numbers pretty much speak for themselves here. I believe that maybe it's time for a new Confederacy. Those in this country that decide that they should fight against Islam tooth and nail can do so, while the rest of us will sovereignly decline participation and let the circle of hate continue unabated without our interference. Of course, I say all of this in jest, but my point I'm sure is well taken.

There is no great war to fight, there is only a terrible war to avoid.

You Are Not a Special Flower

.... You are the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world.

People today seem to be bamboozled into believing that they are somehow special. I'm not sure where it has come from but everyone seems to believe that we are seeing extraordinary events in "times like these" and that somehow this moment in time is different than anything the planet has ever experienced.

It's not.

The world really is just the same play being acted out with different actors over and over again. The systemic reason for why we don't learn from our past, I'm not really sure of, but I can tell you that the answer includes ignorance of the masses, manipulation of the masses by the few and precipitated apathy of the masses.

Literally, we are able to do anything that we want to do. Men far more intelligent than I set up a system to ensure that we are able to do so. However, we don't take advantage of it. We allow our own egos and manipulative leaders to lead us to believe that due to extenuating circumstances we must postpone our greatness. This is bullshit. It's time to stop making excuses and it's time to stop allowing appointed leaders dictate our quality of life and overall life experience.

Take your life back.

There is a point in there somewhere, I hope you can find it.