Tuesday - March 31, 2015
RFRA: When Bad Law Gets Worse
Why is there a Wookie living on Endor? It don’t make sense! You must acquit!!
(a) In General: Government shall not substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion even if the burden results from a rule of general applicability, except as provided in subsection (b).
(b) Exception: Government may substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion only if it demonstrates that application of the burden to the person--
(1) is in furtherance of a compelling governmental interest; and
(2) is the least restrictive means of furthering that compelling governmental interest.
(c) Judicial Relief: A person whose religious exercise has been burdened in violation of this section may assert that violation as a claim or defense in a judicial proceeding and obtain appropriate relief against a government. Standing to assert a claim or defense under this section shall be governed by the general rules of standing under article III of the Constitution.
There has been an awful lot of noise online and on the news over the past few days over this RFRA thing. Such notable legal jurists as Miley Cyrus and some has-been 80s band called Wilco are having a major Social Justice Warrior hissy fit because Indiana has just signed it’s own RFRA law that is worded nearly identically, but more verbosely, to the federal version. The audacity! This means that not only will homosexuals be denied groom on groom wedding cakes, they’ll be hunted down like dogs in the streets of JesusLand and put to the torch by those evil Christofascists.
Huh??
WTF?
So I did a little digging, and came up with the federal law. And read it. And read it again. And then shook my head, wiped my eyes, cleaned my glasses and read it again. What on earth are they talking about? So it was time to do some research. And that’s where I’ve been the past two days.
At this point, I think I have a slight understanding of what’s going on. The whole thing is crap.
And then I had a small epiphany when I realized this week’s media dust storm is remarkably similar to the Left’s reaction to what happened when Clinton passed the Assault Weapons Ban*. A knee jerk reaction feel-good law was passed to protect a very tiny special interest group. But laws are for everyone, so now a much-vilified group of people (aka regular Americans) are using this law to protect themselves against the unrelenting abuse laid on them by Universal Gay Incorporated, and the unhinged lunatic Left can’t stand it. They are hoist on their own petards and screaming about having a bad case of shrapnel ass. Gee, too bad, huh?
Once upon a time, long long ago in a galaxy far away, there was a situation ... Employment Division v. Smith, otherwise known as the Smith case ...
Employment Division, Department of Human Resources of Oregon vs. Smith, 494 U.S. 872 (1990), is a United States Supreme Court case that determined that the state could deny unemployment benefits to a person fired for violating a state prohibition on the use of peyote, even though the use of the drug was part of a religious ritual. Although states have the power to accommodate otherwise illegal acts done in pursuit of religious beliefs, they are not required to do so.
The majority opinion was delivered by Justice Scalia. The First Amendment forbids government from prohibiting the “free exercise” of religion. This means, of course, that government may not regulate beliefs as such, either by compelling certain beliefs or forbidding them. Religious belief frequently entails the performance of physical acts—assembling for worship, consumption of bread and wine, abstaining from certain foods or behaviors. Government could no more ban the performance of these physical acts when engaged in for religious reasons than it could ban the religious beliefs that compel those actions in the first place. “It would doubtless be unconstitutional, for example, to ban the casting of statues that are to be used for worship purposes or to prohibit bowing down before a golden calf.”
But Oregon’s ban on the possession of peyote is not a law specifically aimed at a physical act engaged in for a religious reason. Rather, it is a law that applies to everyone who might possess peyote, for whatever reason—a “neutral law of general applicability,” in the Court’s phrasing. The Court characterized Smith’s and Black’s argument as an attempt to use their religious motivation to use peyote in order to place themselves beyond the reach of Oregon’s neutral, generally applicable ban on the possession of peyote.
Well that makes sense, doesn’t it? The right of my fist to swing around ends just off the end of your nose. I’m just moving, but if I hit you it’s assault.
The problem lay in the solution. The plaintiffs were advised to seek relief through the legislature. And they did. And the Legislature foolishly played the Special Interest card (via Chuck Schumer [D]), and came up with that junk law quoted above. What it means, is that if you claim “religious belief” you get a pass from the law. Seriously.
This didn’t last. Perhaps without pointing out that there is no constitutional prohibition against stupid, a SCOTUS challenge to the new law soon had Justice Scalia opining that, as a federal statute, this fiasco was limited to federal purview. In other words, he was trying to do some damage control.
Thus it was left to the several States to duplicate the law if they so chose. And I guess some of them did at first. And at first I guess at first a few Native Americans were thus allowed to trip their brains out, like Timothy Leary in a tie-dye painted interstellar teepee, grooving with the Gitche Manitou in an evergreen-clad phase space. Fine. No harm, no foul, and there were only a few of those guys anyway.
Fast Forward 20 years to our present era of Super Citizens, where those of preferred pigmentation have far more rights than you do, but even they must grovel at the feet of the atypically aroused, aka the Gay Mafia. To hell with playing the Race Card and trumping your hand. Playing the Gay Card trumps your hand, his hand, her hand, and the entire deck. Heck, it trumps the Bicycle Playing Card factory. Gone are the happy days of we’re here, we’re queer, get used to it tolerance. Now we have instant total submission, and the Gay Card is so big it needs to be towed around by a billboard truck. Dropping that card can smash entire school systems and businesses. Bakery Burning has even become a Social Justice Warrior hobby, with public stoning and a trip to Camp Ayers for anyone in that industry unwilling to use icing to paint scenes of perversity on their cakes and pies.
Until now.
What a surprise. It turns out that the RFRA laws actually do allow businesses to refuse such activities because it goes against their own religious beliefs. It probably works for Hobby Lobby and the kind of health insurance they provide their workers. Laws are for everyone. That’s one of our core beliefs. And now the Left is pitching a fit like (almost*) never before.
Fuck em. With a dirty burning stick.
RFRA laws are wrong. Period. They all need to be thrown out. Federal and State. No religion gets you an out from any other law. Ever. Period. And every business ought to have the right to refuse service whenever they want. The time of “cards” needs to end.
You don’t think so? Great. I’m starting up the NJ Highway Church of Azteca. It is my new combination faith that
A) It is my religious duty to raid my neighbors, steal their children, sell them to the priests and cut their hearts out on the altar as a sacrifice to appease my god CoaxialCoatiMundi; and
B) It is my religious right to commute on the highways at 120mph regardless of weather or traffic load (my religion is growing; I already have half the state believing in Tenet B) as a means of being close to my god. And I mean close; if I don’t make it past that school bus full of screaming children, I’ll be face to face with my god just like that!
PS - I’m moving in right next door to you. Laws against kidnapping, slavery, murder, speeding, and reckless driving don’t apply to me. Because Religion. You aren’t allowed to defend yourself, and I can sue your pants off if you even look at me in an “uncomfortable” way.
* The AWB was a useless, complex mess. Another stupid law from the Clinton era. The idea was to disarm law abiding Americans by making “military style” semi-automatic rifles illegal by vilifying them as “Assault Weapons” if they had a Chinese take-out menu of physical features. Aside from a list of guns banned by name for being especially evil, any other gun could be banned if it had two features from Column A and/or one feature from Column B. It completely ignored the fact that, up to that time, almost none of these weapons had been used to commit “Gun Crimes”. The firearms makers were supposed to just up and die from fear of this overwhelming potent legislation. Instead, they followed the letter of the law, and ground off the bayonet lugs, and pinned on the flash suppressors instead of screwing them on. Then they went right back to selling guns, only at a much higher price, because virtuous Americans could read the writing on the wall and suddenly wanted these previously less popular weapons like never before. To this day the lunatic left is pissed off that “they broke the law!!!” by adhering to the very letter of it. And to this day the GOP members (at least) of the Legislature know that voting for stupid gun control laws is a guaranteed way to lose the next election. Witness what just happened the other week, when the ATF pulled a sneaky and tried to ban the tens of millions of rounds of 5.56mm military surplus “M855” ammunition (the very “death hose bullets” used by those “Assault Weapons") by “careless” omission. Obama’s token flunky head of the ATF lost his job, and nearly the entire (R) Legislature signed a strongly worded letter to the ATF that said, in effect, “back the fuck off”.
Posted by Drew458
on 03/31/2015 at 12:56 PM
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Government •
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Permalink • Monday - March 30, 2015
Msileading Headline of the Morning
CBS: Arizona Lawmaker: Church Attendance Should Be Mandatory
Text from the story:
PHOENIX (CBS Las Vegas)– A Republican lawmaker is raising eyebrows after proposing church attendance should be made mandatory.
Arizona State Sen. Sylvia Allen made the comments during a committee meeting with lawmakers. The meeting was concerning a gun bill and concealed weapons permits, as reported by KPHO.
“I believe what’s happening to our country is that there’s a moral erosion of the soul of America,” Allen said.
Allen said more people may feel the need to carry weapons if a “moral rebirth” doesn’t occur in America.
“It’s the soul that is corrupt. How we get back to a moral rebirth I don’t know. Since we are slowly eroding religion at every opportunity that we have. Probably we should be debating a bill requiring every American to attend a church of their choice on Sunday to see if we can get back to having a moral rebirth,” she told the committee, as reported by KPHO.
“But since that would not be allowed and we would not even be debating that, I’m going to vote yes that people who are responsible who have a CCW permit don’t have to worry about their guns as they’re out and about and doing business in whatever building they’re in except ones that where they aren’t allowed,” Allen went on to say.
Democratic Sen. Steve Farley attended the meeting and posted Allen’s comments on social media. Farley also mentioned that Allen’s idea goes against the Constitution.
“Even if you believe that would stem the moral decay, I think the Constitution makes it very clear that our country is founded on the pillar of separation of church and state,” Farley said.
Please tell me how you get to “Church attendance should be mandatory” from “ since that would not be allowed and we would not even be debating that” and “Probably we should be debating a bill”? The Senator was clearly speaking hypothetically, and immediately denied her own hypothesis.
Get a friggin clue, morons.
Oh, and my guess as to the reason she shot it down is that public outcry would be deafening. Such a bill would not be at all unconstitutional. Democrat Senator Farley is misinformed.
The first line of the First Amendment reads “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” This is known as the Establishment Clause. It applies to Congress, ie the federal government. Period. What it means is that there shall be no national religion. Period. It does not apply AT ALL to the States, who are completely within their powers to decide if they wish to have an Official Religion or not. In fact, more than one of the early state constitutions mention Protestantism in exactly this manner, and at least one, Massachusetts, also required regular church attendance. With fines for non-compliance. And they collected those fines until some point in the 1830s or 1840s IIRC.
Farley’s “pillar” is in fact completely wrong. Completely, utterly wrong in the modern sense [ see the nuance coming? ] that any contact between church and government (state and local included) is some kind of poisonous anathema. We have SCOTUS Justice (Alabama Democrat) Hugo Black to thank for this twisted view; FDR’s sycophant flunky, high school drop out, and racist Klansman. Because the Klan hated more than just blacks and gays. They hated Catholics and Jews too.
Ok ... this should get a lively debate going! Have at it!
Posted by Drew458
on 03/30/2015 at 08:55 AM
Filed Under: • Government • Media-Bias • Religion •
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Permalink • Saturday - March 28, 2015
which way does it go again?
Was it “The Power of Truth” or “The Truth of Power”??
Google is the dominant search engine on the internet. Without question. Absolute domination.
Businesses can grow or die based on how they come up in a Google search.
More than 9 out of 10 people never go past the first page of search results, and I’d bet half of that 9 don’t even go halfway down the page. That’s why businesses exist to “seed” your business to the internet so that it ranks higher in Google’s databases, and thus comes out higher in the search pile. The blog email gets ads for this every single day.
Google is not at all political. Didn’t we see some firings there a year back, a bit of backstabbing to get rid of an executive or two who supported some legal political initiative that passed years ago, but is antithetical today? Oh, wait, sorry that was Mozilla, aka Firefox. Nothing to do with Google. Google must be pure as freshly fallen snow, I’m sure, and not involved politically a bit. Right?
Wrong. Guess again.
Guess which company was the second largest employee contributor to Obama’s campaigns? Guess who lent technical staff and leadership to those campaigns?
Guess who could make billions off of Net Neutrality and has been pushing hard for it?
Yep, you got it in one, both times.
Guess who has the ability, or damn close to it already in this dumbed down lazy age, to “determine” what truth is for a huge piece of the global population, simply by diddling their search results weighing algorithms?
Because if you don’t see it, it isn’t there. And if it isn’t there, it isn’t true. As the kids say “video or it ain’t real”.
All the more reason to use DogPile, or any of the other search engines. Even Yahoo. Except that none of them are even half as good as Google, usually. Truth has become a popularity contest.
Read an interesting essay on the whole thing, with a big lean towards the Obama Regime’s connections, right here.
… Still, all of this is easily forgiven compared to what’s coming next: politically filtered information.
Google says that in the future, its determinations about what is true and what is untrue will play a role in how search-engine rankings are configured.
Google has the power to bump an article it doesn’t like off the table and under the rug. Even moving information off the first page of search results would effectively neutralize it: According to a 2013 study, 91.5 percent of Google search users click through on a first-page result.
To put it mildly, your idea of whether Fox News or MSNBC is a more reliable purveyor of “truth” might differ substantially from your neighbor’s.
Google’s idea of ranking results based on truth is an excellent one that it should implement just as soon as it comes up with an absolutely, unbiased and objective system of determining truth.
I’m sure of it. Cough, cough, hack, snerch, ach, hem, cough cough.
You know, just a few years ago this would have been the grandest tinfoil hat theory of all time. Now, not so much. The only tinfoil is in the GoogleBlindfold™ they want you to wear most of the time.
PS - have you wiped your browsing history today?
Posted by Drew458
on 03/28/2015 at 09:53 PM
Filed Under: • Government • Corruption and Greed • Politics •
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Permalink • Tuesday - March 17, 2015
Digital Doofus
I’ve got a digital response to Net Neutrality ... from 5 digits, choose 1. The one in the middle.
Posted by Drew458
on 03/17/2015 at 12:46 PM
Filed Under: • Computers and Cyberspace • Government •
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Permalink • Friday - November 14, 2014
a national food policy?
Shades of Stalin!
How we produce and consume food has a bigger impact on Americans’ well-being than any other human activity. The food industry is the largest sector of our economy; food touches everything from our health to the environment, climate change, economic inequality and the federal budget. Yet we have no food policy — no plan or agreed-upon principles — for managing American agriculture or the food system as a whole.
That must change.
I’d have to disagree. Why we allow people who think like this to continue drawing breath? THAT must change. Leave us alone!
If you like what ObamaCare is doing for health insurance, you will love what a federal program to control what we eat does for food, as it takes into account “the environment, climate change, economic inequality” et cetera ad nauseam.
A federal stranglehold on how food is produced, distributed, and consumed will allegedly guarantee the following:
● All Americans have access to healthful food;
● Farm policies are designed to support our public health and environmental objectives;
● Our food supply is free of toxic bacteria, chemicals and drugs;
● Production and marketing of our food are done transparently;
● The food industry pays a fair wage to those it employs;
● Food marketing sets children up for healthful lives by instilling in them a habit of eating real food;
● Animals are treated with compassion and attention to their well-being;
● The food system’s carbon footprint is reduced, and the amount of carbon sequestered on farmland is increased;
● The food system is sufficiently resilient to withstand the effects of climate change.
In this time of illegal immigration I think first we have to define ‘All Americans’. And what is this ‘our public health and evironmental objectives’? Define ‘toxic’? I don’t see people keeling over dead-right-there (DRT) from bad stuff in the food. As for the production of our food, it is already transparent. Anybody can take a tour of a slaughter house or processing center. I just bought 1/4 of a cow. 170# of various cuts, hamburger, tongue, liver, etc. I’ve taken two tours of the farm. I’ve been behind the scenes at the local butcher’s. I’ve been to pig farms, chicken farms. It’s already transparent. All you have to do is request a tour and go. As for the marketing? By definition that’s transparent. You see it on TV, you hear it on radio.
Food industry already pays a fair wage.
“…a habit of eating real food.” I’m certain I’ve never eaten imaginary food. Last time I saw that trick was in the movie ‘Hook’.
Animals are already treated with compassion.
Carbon footprint? I still can’t get anyone to show me a ‘carbon footprint.’
Climate has always changed. The ‘food system’ — whatever that means — has always survived.
This has been tried before, and it worked wonderfully, according to Walter Duranty of the New York Times. Joseph Stalin used it suppress resistance to collectivization in the Ukraine. This was called the Holodomor.
Only those with a vested interest in the status quo would argue against creating public policies with these goals.
If you like going to the supermarket and seeing the shelves covered in food that you want to eat at a price you can afford, you have a vested interest in the status quo. If you want to stand in line for a bowl of gluten-free government gruel, don’t bother putting up any resistance to endlessly encroaching liberalism.
National Food Policy worked for Stalin.
Liberal Masterminds Demand National Food Policy
Posted by Christopher
on 11/14/2014 at 04:49 PM
Filed Under: • Big Brother • Commies • Daily Life • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Economics • FREEDOM • Government • Insanity • Jack Booted Thugs • Nanny State • Oppression •
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Permalink • Monday - October 27, 2014
that is no law; that’s tyranny
Sorry, I’m tired of this uncooperative computer.
Here, follow the link.
The IRS has perverted a law used to stop drug runners, and is using it to steal your money. And there isn’t shit-all you can do about it. They aren’t even charging you with a crime.
Due process? What’s that?
See you in court. Good luck getting even some of it back.
I’m too tired to describe how mad this makes me. So I’m going to bed. Where I’ll probably dream very violent disturbing dreams. I so hate the news. And the “government”. We are surrounded by thugs, and they no longer even attempt to hide.
When the (#$% is the damn revolution??
Posted by Drew458
on 10/27/2014 at 10:04 PM
Filed Under: • Crime • Government •
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Permalink • Wednesday - October 22, 2014
A wee bit late
Finally, Ferguson Facts ?
It’s only October 22nd. The Michael Brown shooting was back on August 9th. Granted, investigations take time. But when you’re dealing with an explosive situation you learn how to expedite. And how to present information. For the public good, of course.
Most of this information should have been made public within 72 hours of the event. Not nearly 72 days. There was no reason for Ferguson to burn.
Michael Brown’s official autopsy report does not seem to support the narrative that he had his hands up and was running away when he was shot dead by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, according to experts who spoke to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
...
Brown’s wounds seem to support that — according to the autopsy, he was shot in the hand at a very close range. A forensic pathologist told the Post-Dispatch that “if he has his hand near the gun when it goes off, he’s going for the officer’s gun.”
The report also seems to suggest that Brown was facing Wilson when Wilson fired the fatal shots, not running away as some witnesses have said.
From the Post-Dispatch:
The wound to the top of Brown’s head would indicate he was falling forward or in a lunging position toward the shooter; the shot was instantly fatal.
A sixth shot that hit the forearm traveled from the back of the arm to the inner arm, which means Brown’s palms could not have been facing Wilson, as some witnesses have said, [forensic pathologist Judy] Melinek said. That trajectory shows Brown probably was not taking a standard surrender position with arms above the shoulders and palms out when he was hit, she said.
The experts who spoke to the Post-Dispatch were not involved in conducting the autopsy.
Brown’s family commissioned a private autopsy in August. The official autopsy report mostly matches the findings of the private autopsy, according to the Post-Dispatch. They list the same number and location of wounds. The forensic pathologist who conducted the private autopsy, however, said that none of
Brown’s wounds seemed to be from shots fired at close range.
Yeah, IIRC, there was some remark about “medium range”, unless I’m confusing that with Trayvon Martin’s autopsy report. I’m honestly not sure, but I do remember reacting to that “medium range” remark with incredulity.
Source: Darren Wilson says Michael Brown kept charging at him
Brown’s blood reportedly found inside police car
Police Officer Darren Wilson told investigators that in a struggle for his pistol inside a police SUV, Michael Brown pressed the barrel of Wilson’s gun against the officer’s hip, according to a source with knowledge of his statements.
Wilson tried to prevent Brown from reaching the trigger, the source said, and when he thought he had control he fired. But Brown’s hand was blocking the mechanism.
When Wilson got two shots off, Brown was hit in the hand and ran. Wilson fired again when Brown turned back and charged at him, Wilson told investigators.
The white officer’s shooting of the unarmed black 18-year-old triggered protests, riots and a national debate over race and policing.
In the most detailed account of Wilson’s version of the Aug. 9 event to be made public, the source described how the encounter started, Brown’s refusal to stop charging at Wilson and the injuries suffered by both men.
The St. Louis medical examiner, Dr. Michael Graham, who is not part of the official investigation, reviewed the autopsy report for the newspaper. He said Tuesday that it “does support that there was a significant altercation at the car.”
Graham said the examination indicated a shot traveled from the tip of Brown’s right thumb toward his wrist. The official report notes an absence of stippling, powder burns around a wound that indicate a shot fired at relatively short range.
But Graham said, “Sometimes when it’s really close, such as within an inch or so, there is no stipple, just smoke.”The report on a supplemental microscopic exam of tissue from the thumb wound showed foreign matter “consistent with products that are discharged from the barrel of a firearm.”
Dr. Judy Melinek, a forensic pathologist in San Francisco, said the autopsy “supports the fact that this guy is reaching for the gun, if he has gunpowder particulate material in the wound.” She added, “If he has his hand near the gun when it goes off, he’s going for the officer’s gun.”
There you are. We just got a reminder of how the world works, because physics doesn’t lie. When you fire a gun, nearly all the gunpowder inside gets burned up, but it all comes out the barrel behind the bullet in a white hot ball of plasma. And along come little bits of the explosive used in the primer, along with microscopic bits of metal where the bullet rubbed against the barrel, and even micro-droplets of lubricant from the firearm itself. And they go flying forward in an expanding cone, at first actually faster than the bullet itself (although it slows down extremely fast). And everyone who watches one of those CSI shows knows that this stuff is what they call GSR. Gun shot residue. Right. Know it, love it.
But the thing about an expanding cone is that it’s expanding; it doesn’t start out any larger than the bore of the gun. So you get a big thin circle of the stuff on the target at a certain distance, none at all on the target at a longer distance, and a smaller, denser circle of the stuff at a shorter distance. Just like the pattern made by a shotgun. But when there’s no GSR around the wound, it’s always a good idea to look in the wound. And if the wound channel is internally crusted with residue, and the wound channel is partially cauterized, it means the firing distance wasn’t yards. It wasn’t feet. It might not have been inches; it was nearly muzzle pressed to flesh. Or flesh pressed to muzzle. And that’s what we’ve got here. ( good thing this PD doesn’t issue 1911s, isn’t it? * )
And the city officials ought to have had the picture of the blood soaked police car, and the information about the GSR crusted wound channel, out to the public in a matter of hours. Not days later, and certainly not months. They had the story from officer Wilson within minutes, and you know it. So they knew to look in the car for blood, and they knew to look on the body for really short distance gun shots. Get your ducks in a row, fools.
Maybe cities with areas of ... unrest ... ought to put together an UTT for situations like this. Yeah, my sarcasm: an Uncle Tom Team. The We’re Watching You Crew. You get a teacher, a preacher, a business owner, an alert senior citizen, and two younger people in their late 20s. All of them college educated, and all of them black. And they serve as community liaisons, not working for the po-po or Da Man, but watching him, while at the same time being up on the podium telling people to keep a lid on it, to bring in any videos, to not touch but to call in any evidence they might see, etc. And you give them a bit of basic training, so that they understand GSR and stippling, so that they understand blood typing and identification, etc. A weekend of training would be enough. And then they observe. And videotape. So when the results do come out, they can say “I saw this, I watched the test, I saw the results. It’s real.”
And the WWUC ( the dub-double you see ) would do their community a great service: not only would they be respected watchdogs on the officials, they’d also help keep the rumors from working overtime and generating mayhem.
Of course, one problem here might be being able to find such a group who actually don’t want things to go up in flames.
Posted by Drew458
on 10/22/2014 at 12:03 PM
Filed Under: • Crime • Government • Racism and race relations •
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Permalink • Wednesday - October 01, 2014
Lady, You’re Fired
Julia Pierson, the first female director of the Secret Service, resigned her post Wednesday after a fence jumper gained access to the White House on Sept. 19 and a subsequent congressional inquiry uncovered other security lapses.
Homeland Security Director Jeh Johnson announced the resignation in a statement. He also announced that the DHS would take over an internal inquiry of the Secret Service and that he would appoint of a new panel to review security at the White House.
Joseph Clancy, formerly a special agent in charge of the Presidential Protective Division of the Secret Service, was named Interim Director, Johnson said in his statement.
Calls for Pierson to leave her post grew after a poor performance during her testimony on Capitol Hill and another bombshell revelation that the an armed contractor was allowed to get into an elevator with the president during a recent trip to the Centers for Disease Control.
Even some high ranking Democrats had turned against Pierson, who has been in the job for fewer than two years. In an interview on Wednesday Rep. Elijah Cummings, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, where the hearing took place, said he thinks Pierson: who he referred to as “this lady” “has to go.” Cummings reiterated this stance in an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “I want her to go if she cannot restore trust in the agency and if she cannot get the culture back in order,” he said.
Secret Service director testimony omits elevator incident with Obama
And Chuck Schumer, the third ranking Democrat in the Senate announced he would call for Pierson’s resignation on Wednesday as well, though that was later canceled.
Republicans had also called for Pierson to step down.
Golly, if all it takes to get fired is to have somebody jump a fence, why do we still have any employees in the Border Patrol?
(notice how CNN “forgets” to say how the armed contractor was a felon ...
An agency official confirmed the incident to CNN in which a security contractor operating an elevator at the CDC was carrying a gun in the presence of Obama and his Secret Service detail. The contractor was taking pictures of the President and otherwise behaving in an unprofessional manner, the official said. When the security worker was confronted about his behavior, it was revealed that he was armed.
...
“I believe the President’s security was unnecessarily compromised,” Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, told CNN. “A convict with a gun in an elevator with the President put his life in danger. The Director should have informed the President, yet she testified she did not. Did she lie to Congress or fail to inform the President?”
... oh, no worries, it’s Ok because he was black. Not that his being armed, even on the job, was legal anywhere, much less in DC)
Right, so now we need another token to run this agency. Let’s a transgender Native Alaskan this time, how about it?
Posted by Drew458
on 10/01/2014 at 03:28 PM
Filed Under: • Government • Obama, The One •
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Permalink • Saturday - September 20, 2014
The Musical???
Horry clap, these losers can waste more money on special interest crap and BS faster than you can think of it.
The curtain has come down on Climate Change: The Musical and reviews of the taxpayer-funded play about global warming are downright icy.
The play, which is actually entitled “The Great Immensity,” and was produced by Brooklyn-based theater company The Civilians, Inc. with a $700,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, ended its run early amid a storm of criticism from reviewers and lawmakers alike. It opened a year late, reached just five percent of its anticipated audience and likely fell short of its ambitious goal of informing a new generation about the perceived dangers of man-caused climate change.
According to a plot description on the theater company’s website, “The Great Immensity” focuses on a woman named Phyllis as she tries to track down a friend who disappeared while filming an assignment for a nature show on a tropical island. During her search, she also uncovers a devious plot surrounding an international climate summit in Auckland, New Zealand.
The description touts the play as “a thrilling and timely production” with “a highly theatrical look into one of the most vital questions of our time: How can we change ourselves and our society in time to solve the enormous environmental challenges that confront us?”
Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, chairman of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, said the dramatic debacle was a waste of public money.
“There is no doubt that the Great Immensity was a great mistake,” Smith told FoxNews.com. “The NSF used taxpayer dollars to underwrite political advocacy dressed up as a musical. And the project clearly failed to achieve any of its objectives.”
Posted by Drew458
on 09/20/2014 at 09:10 PM
Filed Under: • Climate-Weather • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Government •
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Permalink • Friday - September 05, 2014
Would You Believe?
Classic Don Adams, as Agent 86 in the old Get Smart sitcom ...
Smart: At the moment, seven Coast Guard cutters are converging on us. Would you believe it?
Mr Big: I find that hard to believe.
Smart: Hmmm . . . Would you believe six?
Mr Big: I don’t think so.
Smart: How about two cops in a rowboat?
A hacker broke into part of the HealthCare.gov insurance enrollment website in July and uploaded malicious software, according to federal officials.
Investigators found no evidence that consumers’ personal data was taken in the breach, federal officials said. The hacker appears only to have accessed a server used to test code for HealthCare.gov. The Department of Health and Human Services discovered the attack last week.
An HHS official said the attack appears to mark the first successful intrusion into the website, where millions of Americans bought insurance starting last year under the Affordable Care Act. It raised concerns among federal officials because of how easily the intruder gained access and how much damage could have occurred.
“Our review indicates that the server did not contain consumer personal information; data was not transmitted outside the agency, and the website was not specifically targeted,” the Department of Health and Human Services said in a written statement. “We have taken measures to further strengthen security.”
“Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
- The White Queen, Through The Looking Glass
Posted by Drew458
on 09/05/2014 at 10:27 AM
Filed Under: • Government • Health-Medicine •
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Permalink • Tuesday - August 26, 2014
They Are All Liars
At the very core of things, this is what really saddens me about our government today.
They are completely dishonest.
They are congenital liars. All of them. From the top to the bottom.
Each department lies to the other departments. Each branch treats the other with utter contempt.
And all of them lie to us, the people who put them in office and pay their salaries. Hell, that’s the first thing they learn, how to fool the people.
And what really makes me sad? Is that we put up with it.
Perhaps because so many of us are liars as well.
TSA lies to the press about flying illegals with no legitimate paperwork. Then they fess up when Congress comes calling. Reprehensible, but par for the course.
The TSA scandal first erupted when Border Patrol agents came forward and alerted the public that the TSA was allowing illegal aliens to fly on domestic commercial airliners with only a Notice to Appear form, a document often based solely on the word of the illegal alien as to who they are and where they are from. The agents went to the NBPC with their information and the council then spoke out publicly.
This reporter broke the news on Breitbart Texas and almost immediately the head TSA spokesman used social media to claim that both this reporter and the Border Patrol agents were lying about the report.
Ultimately, a Texas congressman wrote the TSA about the matter and the TSA acknowledged in an official letter that they were in fact allowing illegal immigrants to fly with the easily replicated forms.
IRS wiped Lerner’s PDA, which had copies of those missing emails. Months into the investigation, months after those emails were subpenaed.
The IRS filing in federal Judge Emmet Sullivan’s court reveals shocking new information. The IRS destroyed Lerner’s Blackberry AFTER it knew her computer had crashed and after a Congressional inquiry was well underway. As an IRS official declared under the penalty of perjury, the destroyed Blackberry would have contained the same emails (both sent and received) as Lois Lerner’s hard drive.
Of course they did. Because fuck you Congress.
IRS: har har, we had the emails on backup all along. But no, you STILL can’t have them, because we’re too lazy to go and look at the tapes.
“A Department of Justice attorney told a Judicial Watch attorney on Friday that it turns out the federal government backs up all computer records in case something terrible happens in Washington,” Fitton said.
“So everything we’ve been hearing about scratched hard drives, missing emails of Lois Lerner, other IRS officials, other officials in the Obama administration… it’s all been a pack of malarky,” he said. “They could get these records but they don’t want to.”
“There’s no such thing as Lois Lerner’s missing emails,” he added. “It’s all been a big lie. They’ve been lying to the courts, the American people, and to Congress.”
Of course they’re there. Because fuck you Congress.
It’s like they’re nasty little children just begging for a beating. And when they don’t get one, well screw you, let’s do it 10 times harder.
I guess this is the new “Jayson Blair” school of government employment. And those senile old fart sniffers in Congress? Ha, if they’re so fucking stupid that they don’t know how a PDA or a computer network works, things which everybody (under 35) understands, then screw them. Look how long they’ve bought our computer crap so far, and not made a single arrest, seizure, or contempt charge. Morons! Bloated old saggy-balled liver spotted gas bags. It’s a wonder those old mummies have lived so long. Go on, defy them. Totally impotent! It’s so easy it’s hardly even funny anymore. They’re completely irrelevant. After all, our young(-ish), cool, pResident defies them all the time. Look at the shit he pulls, and not one of them Senators or Congressmen has the nutz to call him on it. Not once! And the press? Blow. Job. So they deserve it.
Posted by Drew458
on 08/26/2014 at 11:03 PM
Filed Under: • Government •
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Permalink • Wednesday - August 13, 2014
You Are Citizen Zero
Not, not the primal AIDS or Ebola patient.
You. You, the voter. The citizen. The emailer, phone caller, letter writer, soap box speaker, blogger, political opinion holder. You, the person your elected “representatives” are supposed to represent. Which means, do your bidding. Or at least work in your behalf.
Man, you are one sumbdhit sucker. Lew. Zer.
A startling new political science study concludes that corporate interests and mega wealthy individuals control U.S. policy to such a degree that “the preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy.”
The startling study, titled “Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens,” is slated to appear in an upcoming issue of Perspectives on Politics and was authored by Princeton University Professor Martin Gilens and Northwestern University Professor Benjamin Page. An early draft can be found here.
Noted American University Historian Allan J. Lichtman, who highlighted the piece in a Tuesday article published in The Hill, calls Gilens and Page’s research “shattering” and says their scholarship “should be a loud wake-up call to the vast majority of Americans who are bypassed by their government.”
The statistical research looked at public attitudes on nearly 1,800 policy issues and determined that government almost always ignores the opinions of average citizens and adopts the policy preferences of monied business interests when shaping the contours of U.S. laws.
But I’m telling you about a news story that tells you what you’ve already known for years. You’re just a tax paying dupe. Government is for those who can afford it. Period. Probably always has been.
Of course, if businesses were not taxed, then they’d have no legitimate leg to stand on to claim the right of payola to ensure representation. And if a simple law existed that said nobody could contribute more than $1000 per year to political candidates, parties, or causes combined, then that would give us a vastly lowered and leveled playing field. I’m sure there are other ways of achieving the same ends, but the rich sure seem to get what they want. Always.
And you get to pay the bill. Always.
More here ; thanks to Doc Jeff for this link.
Posted by Drew458
on 08/13/2014 at 03:04 PM
Filed Under: • Government • Corruption and Greed •
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Permalink • Tuesday - July 22, 2014
Gee, Who DIDN’T See This Coming
For the past six months, welfare beneficiaries in Colorado have repeatedly withdrawn their cash benefits at marijuana retailers and dispensaries, according to a new analysis by National Review Online. Such apparent abuses have caught the eye of Colorado’s executive and legislative powers alike, and the state has launched an effort to curb them.
At least 259 times in the first six months of legalized recreational marijuana in Colorado, beneficiaries used their electronic-benefit transfer (EBT) cards to access public assistance at weed retailers and dispensaries, withdrawing a total of $23,608.53 in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) cash, NRO’s examination found.
In 2012, the latest fiscal year available, Colorado used $124 million in TANF money from the federal government, according to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. Withdrawals at marijuana establishments represented only a tiny fraction of the more than 500,000 total EBT transactions that have occurred since recreational weed became legal in Colorado on January 1. And it’s impossible to determine how much of that welfare money actually was used to buy pot, given that cash benefits are fungible and some of these establishments also sell groceries.
Nevertheless, welfare withdrawals at weed stores are coming under increasing scrutiny, and Colorado’s legislators and bureaucrats are beginning an effort to restrict abuses.
On July 11, the Colorado State Board of Human Services passed an emergency rule, effective immediately, restricting the use of TANF funds at marijuana shops, bars, liquor stores, gambling establishments, and other potentially inappropriate venues.
Gee, no kidding. Duh.
If you set the welfare system up so that people can get cash, then some of them will use that cash for luxury items, entertainment, and recreational drugs. We saw this with the post-Katrina emergency cash cards used to buy lap dances, we’ve seen it for years with every bodega in the country, and we’ve seen it for ages to a lesser extent with the “sub currencies” of cases of Pepsi soda in the Appalachian areas and the liquid Tide detergent in the urban areas. Give people money and they will spend it on what they feel like. Give them credit to acquire what can be exchanged for money, and they’ll do that as well.
There are no surprises here. And making some kind of effort to keep the EBT machines away from the stoner shops is a waste of money. Do you think these folks can’t walk half a block down the street from the grocery store? Give me a break. If you want a screw-proof system, then make the cards usable for an issue package. By which I mean, given the universal computerization and government access to everything, that your EBT card is good for a monthly allocation of 6 2lb packages of hamburger, 4 4 roll packages of toilet paper, 12 1lb loaves of whole wheat bread, 1 1.25lb chuck steak, 5 13oz boxes of regular Cheerios, 8 gallons of whole milk in either quarts, halves, or gallons, etc. Pretty much it becomes a shopping list, and everyone on it has to eat the same foods. It’s your issue, your distribution. No money comes out, and you can’t buy enough of any one item to be able to use it as trade stock for anything else. Any other way of doing it, and somebody is going to figure out how to play the system, to get their lap dances and their bong hits. So do it right. Or shut up.
Posted by Drew458
on 07/22/2014 at 09:00 AM
Filed Under: • Government • Corruption and Greed • No Shit, Sherlock •
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Permalink • Wednesday - July 16, 2014
What, Another Lie From Our Leaders?
A new intelligence assessment concludes that misperceptions about U.S. immigration policy – and not Central American violence – are fueling the surge of thousands of children illegally crossing the Mexican border.
The 10-page July 7 report was issued by the El Paso Intelligence Center (EPIC), which according to the Justice Department website is led by the DEA and incorporates Homeland Security. Its focus is on the collection and distribution of tactical intelligence, information which can immediately be acted on by law enforcement.
“Of the 230 migrants interviewed, 219 cited the primary reason for migrating to the United States was the perception of U.S. immigration laws granting free passes or permisos to UAC (unaccompanied children) and adult females OTMs (other than Mexicans) traveling with minors,” the report said.
Well, knock me over with a feather. How about that, they fed us another whopper. And here was me, searching the internet for news reports about all the revolutions, ethnic cleansings, slave labor, rape gangs, widespread starvation, apocalyptic disease outbreaks, and even climate change in Central America for weeks now, and not finding much of anything at all. And it turns out to be another story, just like that dingdong video that caused the Benghazi attacks.
“Most transparent administration ever”. Yeah, we’re telling you a bald faced lie, and we’re sticking to it no matter what actual truth you can find. And you can’t do anything about it. Not the kind of transparency we were looking for.
The intelligence assessment, which is unclassified but not meant to go beyond law enforcement, also cited data from the United Nations office on Drugs and Crime Statistics saying despite an explosion in the number of illegal minors, crime data for Central America actually showed a dip in violence.
Do I have to restate the obvious? Somebody at the very top of our government made a decision, and put the word out. The coyotes didn’t think this up on their own. Not a chance of that. It’s official government policy, regardless of whether it’s written down anywhere or officially approved by Congress. Somebody has a cellphone and a pen, and that’s that.
Misperceptions my big toe. Damn our media. Even when the “rebel” side exposes another massive lie, they still don’t have the guts to call a rose a rose, or by any other name. And it don’t smell sweet one bit.
Posted by Drew458
on 07/16/2014 at 10:31 AM
Filed Under: • Government • Illegal-Aliens and Immigration • Latin-America • No Shit, Sherlock • Obama, The One •
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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:
It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.
- Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
- Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
- Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
- Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere
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Oh, and here's some kind of visitor flag counter thingy. Hey, all the cool blogs have one, so I should too. The Visitors Online thingy up at the top doesn't count anything, but it looks neat. It had better, since I paid actual money for it.
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