Malachi Smith's List: STATE & LOCAL-USA

• “Martial Law” Declared in Arkansas Town
• Steve Watson
   Infowars.net
   Monday, August 11, 2008
• Areas of a town in Arkansas have been placed under a 24-hour, non-stop curfew described by the mayor as "almost akin to martial law".
• The lockdown, issued after a spate of robberies, home invasions and shootings, applies to everyone in Helena-West Helena, no matter what age or what time of day it is.
• Mayor James Valley has indicated that the curfew could be extended indefinitely.
• Residents have described the lockdown as "like being in jail" and critics have slammed it as unconstitutional given that it effectively suspends the fourth amendment.
• The ACLU of Arkansas has sent Mayor Valley a letter outlining these concerns:
• "Imposing house arrest and suspending the Fourth Amendment for law-abiding people is only going to cause more problems for this city," said ACLU of Arkansas staff attorney Holly Dickson. "They need to work with the community to get this resolved instead of treating all of their citizens like criminals."
• Such "domestic surges" with police imposing a martial law-style clampdown are now seemingly becoming standard procedure.
• There are countless examples in recent months and years of curfews and lockdowns going into place in areas all across the country.

  • Practice makes perfect...for the authorities, I guess
• Only two months ago Trinidad, a "troubled" community in northeast D.C., was subject to police checkpoints after a series of shootings.
• Earlier this year curfews for minors were introduced in Chicago.
• Back in April we reported on the fact that federal law enforcement agencies co-opted sheriffs offices as well state and local police forces in three states for a vast round up operation that one sheriff’s deputy described as "martial law training".
• The "anti-crime and anti-terrorism initiatives" involving officers from more than 50 federal, state and local agencies was dubbed "Operation Sudden Impact".
• Earlier this month presumptive Republican nominee John McCain told the National Urban League that military-style invasions modeled on the surge in Iraq should be adopted to control inner city crime in the U.S.:
• John McCain tells the National Urban League that military-style invasions modeled on the surge in Iraq should be adopted to control inner city crime in the U.S.
• McCain: And some of those tactics — you mention the war in Iraq — are like that we use in the military.
• You go into neighborhoods, you clamp down, you provide a secure environment for the people that live there, and you make sure that the known criminals are kept under control. And you provide them with a stable environment and then they cooperate with law enforcement, etc, etc.
• 96 Responses to ““Martial Law” Declared in Arkansas Town”
• Fox Mulder Says: 
     August 12th, 2008 at 5:07 pm   

  Let’s build our own holding pens for these bastards and when they try to put the citizens in a camp, we turn it around and throw their worthless asses in there instead.
• Big_Mike Says: 
     August 12th, 2008 at 5:03 pm   

  Using crime as a basis for martial law and a 24/7 curfew is dangerous because anyone leaving their homes is automatically a criminal, subject to arrest or death.
• We’re all criminals in this country. Everyone has broken the speed limit, jaywalked, dropped a piece of litter… Like the cops say: Everyone is guilty of something, we just need time to find out what it is. Heck, even the justice system is in on it. There is no more “declared innocent”, today you are declared “Not Guilty of This Specific Crime”…
• Mike R Says: 
     August 12th, 2008 at 4:47 pm   

  I live in Helena-West Helena not by choice, but because of a personal situation I’m in for those of you who haven’t read my previous posts I am the person who sent this story to Paul Watson and I am grateful for infowars choosing to report this story because it is unique form other civil violations that have occurred across the country
• what we have here is an executive order issued by a mayor that probits people of ALL AGES at ALL TIMES to not go out of their homes even within their own property along with many other disgusting tactics and in recent developments today the mayor is trying to extend this to cover large sections within the twin cities.
• Through my research I have not found another example of a case where a mayor has ordered what is essentially martial law for this reason with these orders for this amount of time. I am aware of the types of cases that Steve has reported above, but if anyone has any information of a case similar to this please post it here to my attention.
• Now the other things that I would like for people to know having read a couple of peoples posts, is that ALEX IS NOT FEAR MONGERING FOR PROFIT. As far as I know I am the only person on this thread born and raised here and that is currently living here.
• What is being reported on the news across the country and globe is as usual not the full story. Things happening here are far more sinister and as usual there are dark powers working behind the scenes trying to accomplish an agenda.
• The other thing I would like to get across is that yes it is true that this is one of the very poorest counties in the country and yes the large majority of the people here are dumber than a tree stump, but there are people involved here that are not criminals and they are being treated worse here than any draconian law ridden country that I have ever seen and I’ve been to a lot.
• For now I will not say more until my findings have been verified to be 100% accurate.
• So for those of you out there that go along with this sort of thing I remind you that the first phrase of the Declaration of Independence “All men are created equal” is arguably the best-known phrase in any of America’s political documents, as the idea it expresses is generally considered the foundation of American government. This includes the single crackhead mother with 7 kids and the rich farmer with 10,000 acres!
• This is a terrible time for me on a personal level and now to see this happening to the place I was raised. The streets I played on as a young boy turn into this hellish nightmare that you call propaganda from Alex Jones makes me physically ill.

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• Obstruction of Justice: The Mena Connection
• Two teenagers stumble upon a major drug smuggling operation. The boys are brutally murdered and their bodies placed on railroad tracks to give the appearance of a train accident. Soon, crime scene eyewitnesses vanish and investigations are shut down. The grieving parents are stunned. Corruption involving high level officials from Arkansas to Washington is documented in this incredible true life story.
• Why were numerous county, state and federal government investigations blocked?
• Why was a thirty month federal-grand-jury investigation abruptly shut down.
• Why did the FBI tell one boy’s grieving parents, “You should accept the fact that a crime has not been committed?”
• This story of murder, drugs, corruption, and cover-ups, involves high ranking government officials, reaching up to the most powerful office in the world.
• It shows that interference from sinister political allies continues to protect these criminals from prosecution.

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• First Gustav Evacuees Begin Arriving In Tyler
• By COSHANDRA DILLARD
  Staff Writer
• Tyler will be a hub for several thousand Hurricane Gustav evacuees as city officials enact its emergency response plan, and so far, it seems as though early relief efforts have been fluid. 
  
• 

   

  Staff Photo By Coshandra Dillard

   

   

  This small group of evacuees was on the first bus that made it to Tyler’s reception center at Faulkner Park, off of U.S. Highway 69. Evacuees wore special identification armbands, which were scanned and collected into a database to help keep track of which shelter they would go to.
• “We are fully prepared to respond to the emergency situation,” Mayor Bass said. “We have activated our emergency operations center as well as our reception center.”
• Medical personnel were also available to check each evacuee’s medical status before getting back on the bus and heading to a shelter.
• The city’s reception center is located at Faulkner Park off of U.S. Highway 69, just north of Loop 49.
• A team of police, fire and medical officials are in place to greet and process evacuees, whether they come in official buses or in cars.

  • Any "Blackwater" goons on hand?
  Add Sticky Note
• By 5 p.m. Saturday, the first four buses carrying about 155 people arrived in Tyler and headed directly to a shelter, Tyler Fire Department Captain Jeff Akin said.
• Meanwhile at the reception center, about 12 people — a family of four and a group of eight — were the first to check in with officials before heading to a local shelter.
• City officials said since the reception center will process thousands of people, they are implementing a system that will move people to shelters smoothly.
  
  “We are really streamlining this process,” said Susan Guthrie, city of Tyler communications director.
• Guthrie said evacuees coming in their own cars are asked to go directly to the reception center so they may keep up with the number of people they are receiving and to avoid having an overflow at some shelters.
• Before leaving Beaumont, evacuees have already been entered into an intricate computer system that will keep track of them once they make it to Tyler.
• “They already have a bracelet with a barcode,” Captain Akin said. “They will walk through the scanner and it automatically loads into the computers. We have a list of where they need to go.”

  • Ominous...For future use to even be able to travel to visit Granny?
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• This system ensures that families can locate each other when coming to East Texas, Akin said.
• “With Hurricane Katrina, we had no system. Families were calling wanting to know where family members were and we had no way of finding out. This way, we have a better way of tracking where people are going.”
• With the signing of the declaration and activation of the emergency management plan, Mayor Bass said the city will now be eligible to request reimbursement from federal funds for providing shelter and relief to evacuees.

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• When Protest Is Terrorism
• RNC 8 Charged as Terrorists Under State   Patriot Act
• By Bruce Nestor
  
• 04/09/08 "ICH"   -- - Ramsey County Charges RNC 8 Under State Patriot Act,   Alleges Acts of Terrorism
• In what appears to be the first use of criminal charges under   the 2002 Minnesota version of the Federal Patriot Act, Ramsey   County Prosecutors have formally charged 8 alleged leaders of   the RNC Welcoming Committee with Conspiracy to Riot in   Furtherance of Terrorism.
• Monica Bicking, Eryn Trimmer, Luce   Guillen Givins, Erik Oseland, Nathanael Secor, Robert Czernik,   Garrett Fitzgerald, and Max Spector, face up to 7 1/2 years in   prison under the terrorism enhancement charge which allows for a   50% increase in the maximum penalty.

  • Political prisoners: the USA has now joined Russia, China and the various and sundry small-time tin-pot dictators of left and right, in prosecuting its own citizens for activities that are/were perfectly legal under the old American Constitution prior to the rigged performance of 9-11.
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• Affidavits released by law enforcement which were filed in   support of the search warrants used in raids over the weekend,   and used to support probable cause for the arrest warrants, are   based on paid, confidential informants who infiltrated the RNCWC   on behalf of law enforcement.

  • Beware of the "plants": they are usually the most vocal, sometimes the most violent and seemingly the most "patriotic" when it comes to citizens' rights. The intent is to provoke you into some "illegal" remarks or actions.
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• They allege that members of the   group sought to kidnap delegates to the RNC, assault police   officers with firebombs and explosives, and sabotage airports in   St. Paul.
• Evidence released to date does not corroborate these   allegations with physical evidence or provide any other evidence   for these allegations than the claims of the informants.

  • The message is clear: if you decide to participate in American politics today..you can only participate in activities of the two major, officially "recognized" and state sanctioned parties...the Republican and/or Democrats. You may only participate in either of the two's official policies and procedures. Any independent third parties, actions, suggestions, meetings, publications or participation is now "illegal" in the United States..no matter how benign and can and will get you railroaded (or renditioned) off to one of the local-domestic holding areas until you can be transported to a Federal camp. Welcome to the NWO..American style.
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• Based   on past abuses of such informants by law enforcement, the   National Lawyers Guild is concerned that such police informants   have incentives to lie and exaggerate threats of violence and to   also act as provacateurs in raising and urging support for acts   of violence.
• “These charges are an effort to equate publicly stated plans to   blockade traffic and disrupt the RNC as being the same as acts   of terrorism. This both trivializes real violence and attempts   to place the stated political views of the Defendants on trial,”   said Bruce Nestor, President of the Minnesota Chapter of the   National Lawyers Guild.
• “The charges represent an abuse of the   criminal justice system and seek to intimidate any person   organizing large scale public demonstrations potentially   involving civil disobedience, he said.”
• The criminal complaints filed by the Ramsey County Attorney do   not allege that any of the defendants personally have engaged in   any act of violence or damage to property.
• The complaints list   all of alleged violations of law during the last few days of the   RNC — other than violations of human rights carried out by law   enforcement — and seeks to hold the 8 defendants responsible for   acts committed by other individuals.
• None of the defendants have   any prior criminal history involving acts of violence.
• Searches   conducted in connection with the raids failed to turn up any   physical evidence to support the allegations of organized   attacks on law enforcement. Although claiming probable cause to   believe that gunpowder, acids, and assembled incendiary devices   would be found, no such items were seized by police.
• As a   result, police sought to claim that the seizure of common   household items such as glass bottles, charcoal lighter, nails,   a rusty machete, and two hatchets, supported the allegations of   the confidential informants.
• “Police found what they claim was a   single plastic shield, a rusty machete, and two hatchets used in   Minnesota to split wood. This doesn’t amount to evidence of an   organized insurrection, particularly when over 3,500 police are   present in the Twin Cities, armed with assault rifles,   concussion grenades, chemical weapons and full riot gear,” said   Nestor.
• In addition, the National Lawyers Guild has previously   pointed out how law enforcement has fabricated evidence such as   the claims that urine was seized which demonstrators intended to   throw at police.
• The last time such charges were brought under Minnesota law was   in 1918, when Matt Moilen and others organizing labor unions for   the Industrial Workers of the World on the Iron Range were   charged with “criminal syndicalism.”
• The convictions, based on   allegations that workers had advocated or taught acts of   violence, including acts only damaging to property, were upheld   by the Minnesota Supreme Court. In the light of history, these   convictions are widely seen as unjust and a product of political   trials.
• The National Lawyers Guild condemns the charges filed in   this case against the above 8 defendants and urges the Ramsey   County Attorney to drop all charges of conspiracy in this   matter.

• Bruce Nestor, President Minnesota Chapter of National Lawyers   Guild
    3547 Cedar Avenue South
    Minneapolis, MN 55407

   

   

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• Coinciding with 9/11, U.S. Law Enforcement Officers Learn Counterterrorism Strategies From Israeli Counterparts
• Coinciding with the seventh anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a group of U.S. law enforcement professionals is in Israel, where they are learning advanced counterterrorism strategies from their Israeli counterparts.
• New York, NY, September 10, 2008 …
• The delegation of more than a dozen chiefs of police from major cities across the United States is visiting Israel as part of weeklong mission organized by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).
• The program brings the U.S. law enforcement officers into contact with Israeli law enforcement and security officers and terrorism experts to learn about Israel's strategies to prevent terror attacks.
• They see firsthand how Israeli emergency officials and responders prepare for terrorist attacks in a nation that can never let down its guard.
• "There is a lot to learn from Israel's approach to countering terrorism, and we believe that it is a wonderful opportunity for police chiefs from the United States to understand how Israel stands up to the threat everyday," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director.
• "The lesson of 9/11 is that we can never let down our guard, and that police and others in the law enforcement community must have the tools of the trade and the knowledge of what strategies are available out there to help deter the threat of terrorism."
• On September 10, the U.S. police chiefs observed a training exercise involving an Israeli police counterterrorism SWAT Team in Holon, near Tel Aviv. 
• They also have gained exposure to innovative techniques Israel has developed to maintain the safety of its citizens, including surveillance of malls and city streets and security procedures at airports and border crossings. 
• The officers have been briefed by the bomb squad and security service; viewed border crossings along the Palestinian-Israeli border; toured the West Bank city of Hebron, a flashpoint of religious and ethnic conflict; and visited sites of past suicide bombings.
• ADL has trained thousands of law enforcement professionals about hate crimes, extremism and domestic and international terrorism at conferences and seminars throughout the U.S.
• Also, a number of top Israeli National Police commanders have traveled to the U.S. during the past years to share their expertise as part of ADL's training program.

• The following cities have representatives on the ADL's Nation Counter-Terrorism Seminar in Israel: Bethesda, MD; Durham, NC; Green Bay, WI; Lexington, KY; Madison, WI; Mesa, AZ; Miami, FL; Mobile, AL;  Omaha, NE; Philadelphia, PA; Salt Lake City, UT; Scottsdale, AZ; Tucker, GA; and Virginia Beach, VA.

   

  The police chiefs are scheduled return to the U.S. on September 15.

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• Stormtroopin’
• by   William Norman Grigg

• In the early   morning hours there's a din in the air; mayhem's on the loose. Stormtroopers   comin', and you better be prepared. Got no time to choose....

   

  Comin' up   that street, jackboots steppin' high. Got to make a stand. Looking   in your windows and listen to your phone. Keep a gun in your hand....

   

  Two hundred   down, and it's comin' 'round again. Got no second choice. Where's   the justice and where's that law. Raise your healthy voice.... Get   ready. Stormtroopers   comin'....

   

   

   

  ~   Ted Nugent
• The recently   concluded Republican National Convention in St. Paul served as the   grand coming-out party for the Homeland Security State.
• Its enforcers,   fully panoplied in the military regalia that is rapidly becoming   standard police attire, could be seen either strutting through the   streets hungry to conduct a beat-down or marching to military cadences.
• Armored vehicles prowled the streets, while military helicopters   rattled overhead.
• Several journalists, including Amy   Goodman and two associates from the independent Democracy Now!   media enterprise, were arrested and assaulted by police while   covering protest marches.
• As in Baghdad,   homes in the Twin Cities were subjected to "pre-emptive" military   raids on the eve of the Republican Convention.
• Large sections   of Minneapolis/St. Paul, a placid Midwestern American community,   were made to resemble Baghdad under military occupation.
• Beginning the night   of Friday, August 29, multi-jurisdictional paramilitary police units   armed with automatic weapons stormed residences where left-wing   activists were billeted in anticipation of protest demonstrations.
• More   than one hundred people were handcuffed and questioned during   those raids, many of them forced to lie face-down on the ground   while officers searched for evidence of various purported plots   to disrupt and "terrorize" the convention.
• According to Glenn   Greenwald, a civil libertarian commentator who was on-site immediately   after the raids, at least some of the police who conducted the raids   couldn't resist tormenting helpless detainees with jocular talk   about summary executions.

  • And who are the "terrorists?"
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• In total more   than 800 people were arrested during convention-related demonstrations.   The most significant of those arrests involved eight people detained   during the pre-convention raids who were eventually   charged with "conspiracy to riot in furtherance of terrorism"   under Minnesota's version of the PATRIOT (sic) Act.
• Where mere "conspiracy   to riot" is a misdemeanor, re-classifying it as an act of terrorism   leaves   the defendants facing the prospect of seven years in prison.
• This is the   first time American citizens have been accused, in a civilian court,   of committing a crime "in furtherance" of terrorism. It will not   be the last.

  • Yes and on the heels of the first misnomer "Patriot Act", concerns were expressed this fraudalent and unconstitutional act would be turned on and used against American citizens; to which the liars in the Administration and the emasculated Congress assured us.."Oh, no..no..it won't>"
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• Some elements   of the protest "community" that materialized in St. Paul were incontestably   seeking a confrontation with the police as a form of ideological   street theater.

   

  While some   consider this approach to be useless at best, it's not that different   in principle from tactics perfected by Samuel Adams and like-minded   patriots of our founding period.
• Other street   activists in the Twin Cities expressed their contempt for the criminal   violence of the State by deliberately impeding peaceful commerce   and destroying private property, which is neither useful nor justified.

  • Shooting themselves in their own feet
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• But it is the   prosecution of the eight "terrorist" suspects, and the   long-term surveillance project involving the RNC Welcoming Committee   (RNCWC), that will have the most important tangible consequences.   The methods of infiltration, surveillance, and apprehension used   against those activists will provide a model for future crackdowns   against any organized dissent.
• Accounts of   the arrests in the corporatist press retailed prosecution claims   that the activists planned a campaign of mayhem and violence that   would have included attacks on public transportation and attempts   to kidnap Republican delegates.
• The "evidence"   seized during the raids consists of unremarkable construction materials   – cans of paint, rope, roofing nails – that could be used   in various disruptive ways. The search   warrant application also permitted police to confiscate "computer   systems" and "media in whatever form," in order to obtain detailed   information about the activities of the RNCWC, which is described   as an "organized criminal enterprise."
• That document   also claims that "possession of the property above described constitutes   a crime."
• Thus someone who owned a computer or a single can of paint   could be arrested, indicted, and perhaps convicted of terrorism   charges in absence of a single documented criminal act if   the prosecution can supply a convincing narrative.
• And in this   case, as with so many others, the job of supply the appropriate   narrative has been given to "confidential   informants," two of whom (along with an "undercover investigator")   are cited copiously in the warrant application and the criminal   complaint.
• The "corroboration" offered for the most lurid and disturbing   charges – those dealing with actual violence and property destruction   – consists entirely of the accounts provided by paid informants.
• "Of the stuff   that was seized by the police, about ninety percent is just common   household items that we're told were going to be used for criminal   acts," commented Bruce Nestor, a defense attorney for the detainees,   in a telephone interview with Pro   Libertate
• "In fact, there is nothing here that in itself   constitutes evidence of a crime or a plot to commit a crime. [The   prosecution] wants us to view these items in light of the story   being told by the paid informants, and the presumed political beliefs   of the detainees."

  • "....political beliefs" of the detainees? Isn't arresting and prosecution of someone for their "political beliefs" also against the law in the USA?
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• Police who   conducted the pre-convention raids claim to have found 37 "caltrops"   – spikes that are scattered on a motorway to disable cars during   a police pursuit. What was actually found was not a supply of standard-issue   caltrops, but roofing nails that had supposedly been "weaponized."
• "To be fair,   roofing nails could be used as caltrops, but they could also   be used as roofing nails," Nestor pointed out when I asked him about   that reported discovery. "Some police experts insist that these   particular roofing nails had been   modified or bundled together in some way that suggests the intention   to use them to disrupt traffic.
• But this is suggestive, once again,   largely because of the stories told by the informants. Otherwise   you've got common roofing nails" – possession of which is evidence   only of a plot to repair one's roof.
• Similar considerations   apply in evaluating the claim that police discovered "weaponized   urine" (no, I'm not kidding) during the pre-convention   raids.

  • Weaponized WHAT????!!
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• What the police, citing breathless reports from their confidential   informants, triumphantly described as an attempt to create a very   crude bio-chem anti-personnel weapon was described by activists   as a rudimentary chamber pot.
• Given the frequency   with which well-publicized "international terrorist plots" prove   to be media spectacles choreographed by the FBI through paid informant/provocateurs,   it's reasonable to suspect that the case against RNCWC activists   may involve a domestic application of the same approach.
• Former   CIA analyst Ray McGovern, who was present in St. Paul to speak   to peace activists at a St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church, believes   that "what violence there was [during protests] bore the earmarks   of provocation by the likes of Sheriff Fletcher and his Homeland   Security, FBI, and – according to one well-sourced report – Blackwater   buddies."
• McGovern describes   one instance in which "a man who looked like a protester – dark   clothes, backpack, a bit disheveled" – was identified as one of   the police officers who had carried out the Friday night raid against   the RNCWC.

  • Police provocateurs
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• "The young protesters asked the man, and two associates,   to leave [the protest], at which point the three hustled into a   nearby unmarked sedan," writes McGovern. "The license plate, observed   by a Pioneer Press reporter, traced back to the detective   unit of the Hennepin County Sheriff's office...."
• It's worth   remembering that the same time-honored tactic was on display during   the August 2007 Security and Prosperity Partnership summit in Montebello,   Quebec almost exactly a year earlier.
• In an incident captured on   video, a group of ineptly disguised police infiltrators, armed with   rocks and reeking of foul intentions, were caught   trying to infiltrate and radicalize a peaceful protest march.
• While McGovern   may be right about the involvement of agents provocateurs, there's   reason to believe at least some of those caught up in the pre-convention   sweep harbored criminal designs.
• One of the   seven activists arrested during a "pre-emptive" sweep, a young man   burdened with the theatrically villainous name Max Jackob Specktor,   was found to possess several sets of black clothing, goggles, helmets,   several implements that a vandal would find very useful (a bolt   cutter, a pry bar, spring loaded "punches," and metal pipe of various   sizes), and documents suggestive of something other than innocent   intentions.
• Obviously,   if the prosecution can prove that Specktor was planning to participate   in a riot, he should be convicted of that charge and be given the   appropriate penalty. If he has proven co-conspirators, they should   likewise receive a suitable punishment.
• The ominous novelty of this   case resides in the effort to punish the familiar misdemeanor offense   of "conspiracy to riot" as a form of domestic terrorism, and to   incriminate others who appear to have committed no offense at all   as part of a widespread terrorist plot.
• The prosecution   depicts Specktor as part of the "black bloc," a radical element   within the larger anarchist community that carries out "direct action"   in the form of assaults on property confrontations with the police.
• It's likely   that a trial would place Specktor at the center of a series of concentric   circles intended to implicate others – beginning with his immediate   co-defendants, and working out to those identified as belonging   to "affinity groups" – as part of a large domestic terrorist conspiracy.
• It will certainly provide   a template to be used whenever any appendage of the Homeland Security   Leviathan wants to suppress organized dissent and prosecute it as   a criminal act "in furtherance of terrorism."

  • Police state by any definition
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• If that approach   is followed, this one case could metastasize into a public works   project for prosecutors across the country.
• In March 2007,   the RNC in St. Paul was designated a National Security Special Event   (NSSE). Shortly thereafter, the Ramsey County Sheriff's Department   began hiring and deploying infiltrators. According to Sheriff Bob   Fletcher, his department, working through the local Joint Terrorism   Task Force, was involved in a nation-wide effort to track down and   keep suspected protesters under surveillance.
• The lead agency   for Ramsey County in this undertaking was Fletcher's Special Investigations   Unit, under the direction of former US Secret Service Special Agent   Tony Samec (who is one of four affiants listed in the warrant application).
• The application observes that Samec, who most likely was temporarily   seconded to the Sheriff's department, "has been involved in numerous   NSSEs throughout the United States."

  • Ain't he something? Just a little ankle length black leather coated Gestpo/Spetznaz
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• It was the chief local federal subcontractor   for the crack-down on dissent during the RNC. But it was also being   investigated by the FBI for corruption.
• Ramsey County's   Special Investigations Unit has an interesting relationship with   the federal government.
• And in one of those bits   of historical symmetry one would find implausible in a novel, those   two developments intersected in the days immediately prior to the   RNC.
• On August 27,   just two days before the pre-emptive raids on RNC protesters,   two close associates of Sheriff Fletcher on the SIU were found guilty   of theft and civil rights violations. Officer Timothy Rehak   and Mark Naylon were convicted of stealing $6,000 during an FBI   "integrity check," a sting operation intended to ferret out corrupt   police officers.
• Rehak is a   former St. Paul police officer who had a troubled history before   Fletcher asked him to join the SIU.
• Naylon, significantly,   has never been a police officer, despite the fact that he   commanded considerable clout on the force.

  • Just what "is" he then?
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• He was Fletcher's   chief PR spokesman. Before that he was the best man at Fletcher's   second wedding. He operated a private security firm that employed   off-duty deputies to serve as bouncers at a nightclub owned by a   man named Mike Ogren, who was convicted of an illegal gambling operation   in 2003.
• Despite the   fact that he had no training or authority, Naylon was permitted   to carry a sidearm, make arrests, and otherwise behave as if he   were a duly deputized member of Fletcher's department.
• On occasion,   when a member of Fletcher's department needed to cite a "confidential   informant" to obtain a warrant, Naylon would play that role as well   – perjuring himself by providing the exact "testimony" an officer   needed to secure permission for a search or an arrest.
• The SIU first   came under FBI scrutiny more   than five years ago. A July 2003 raid on a bar discovered an   unlicensed gambling operation. The bar's owner claimed that the   proceeds were helping to underwrite Fletcher's re-election effort.   That charge was recanted, but it stirred up an FBI inquiry that   prompted the sting operation against Rehak and Naylon and led to   their eventual conviction.
• During his   four terms as Sheriff, Fletcher has radically expanded the size   and budget of his force, and strong-armed the county commission   (by way of litigation and a cynical PR campaign) to build a new   $61 million jail. He also developed a reputation for cronyism (demonstrated   by his treatment of Naylor), empire-building, and what former St.   Paul Mayor George Latimer calls "conspiratorial" thinking. Most   importantly, he eagerly queued up for every dime of federal largesse   he could find.
• To put the   matter tidily, Robert Fletcher – ambitious, power-fixated, and compromised   – was an ideal local subcontractor for the Homeland Security State.

  • Fascists recruiting fascists
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• Former FBI   Special Agent Coleen Rowley, who exposed   the Bureau's ineptitude in investigating the 9-11 plot (or,   perhaps, its passive complicity in abetting it), resides near St.   Paul.
• In a letter   written to FBI Director Robert Mueller three weeks before the attack   on Iraq, Rowley warned that the "`pre-emptive strike' rationale   being applied to situations abroad could migrate back home, fostering   a more permissive attitude on the part of law enforcement officers   in this country."
• During   his visit to the Twin Cities, Ray   McGovern asked Rowley if the spectacle unfolding in St. Paul   offered an awful vindication of her concerns. Referring to the pre-emptive   raids and the military occupation of the streets illustrate how   once the Feds take control of matters, "all the rules go up in smoke"   and "otherwise wonderful community police officers [will] turn on   their own peaceful citizens...."
• To employ   the argot of Star Wars fans, Rowley believes that St. Paul demonstrated   how quickly "local" police personnel are transformed into stormtroopers   when the Feds activate Order   66.
• In fact, as   Glenn   Greenwald pointed out, the apparatus on display in St. Paul   was a federally controlled local militia, rather than a local police   agency in any sense of the expression.

  • Brown Shirts?
  Add Sticky Note
• However one   addresses the nuance of the proposition, this much seems clear:   The Homeland Security Death Star is now fully   operational.

• September   15, 2008

   

  William   Norman Grigg [send him mail]   writes the Pro Libertate   blog.

66 more annotations...

• Thursday, September 25, 2008
• Missouri Sheriffs & Top Prosecutors Form Obama "Truth Squads" & Threaten Libel Charges Against Obama Critics
• More Hope and Change for Missouri...
• St. Louis and Missouri Democrat sheriffs and top prosecutors are planning to go after anyone who makes false statements against Obama during his campaign. This is so one sided I can't even begin to describe how wrong this agenda is.
• It's one thing if they want to keep the campaign fair for both sides, but they clearly only want to enforce the issue for the Obama Camp.
  
  KMOV has a video report on the Obama "Truth Squads".
• 
  St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce and St. Louis County Circuit Attorney Bob McCulloch are threatening to bring libel charges against those who speak out falsely against Barack Obama.
• KMOV aired a story last night, that stated that St. Louis County Circuit Attorney Bob McCulloch and St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce, both Obama supporters, are threatening to bring criminal libel charges against anyone who levels what turns out to be false criticisms of their chosen candidate for President.

  • So obviously, these "public servants" represent and serve in office only those whom they align with politically? If you are not a supporter of their political party and candidates, do not expect any justice or equality before the law? Okay...now, as if it wasn't obvious before, we are seeing what Obama is preparing to bring to the nation as a whole.
  Add Sticky Note
• St. Louis C of CC Blog has more on the Obama Truth Squads.
  Hat Tip Kat
• ** Here you go Truth Squad... Sue me first!
  Barack Obama Attacked White People!
• From his audio-book dreams of my father, Barack Obama was moved to tears when he heard his racist anti-American pastor blame whitey for all of the world's pain and ills.
  In fact, he was so moved by this filth that he included the story in his book Dreams of My Father.
• Here Barack Obama lashes out at the white man's greed:
  (34 seconds)
• Audio was taken from a Hugh Hewitt Show.
• In Obama's own words:
  
  

  "It is this world, a world where cruise ships throw away more food in a day than most residents of Port-au-Prince see in a year, where white folks' greed runs a world in need, apartheid in one hemisphere, apathy in another hemisphere... That's the world! On which hope sits!"

  "White folk's greed runs a world in need"...
  Sue me!
• UPDATE: Glenn Reynolds has a thuggery roundup.
• 122 Comments:
• bg said... 

    

   

  ++
  
  good grief, this is way beyond the pale.. The One & his M(arxist) S(upport) M(achine) have made more false statements than CAIR has intimidators.
• Kohath said... 

    

   

  Libel is a civil matter. Are you saying MO has a criminal libel law?
  
  If so, you guys need to get that repealed.
• IOpian said... 

    

   

  Why do I get the feeling that in a generation or two there may be documentary makers that will be saying the words "and we thought it could never happen here."
• These people are supposed to be beyond political judgment. This is almost unbelievable.
• IOpian said... 

    

   

  Man I can't let this go after watching the video. Isn't this a clear conspiracy to deny citizens their civil rights? This needs to be bounced off the FBI. The Constitution does not stipulate that free speak has to be the truth
• Anonymous said... 

    

   

  This is how liberty is lost.
  
  Obama's is America's Hugo Chavez.
• Ronald Coleman said... 

    

   

  Why would they sue if you didn't commit libel?
  
  You have to actually say something libelous. False assertion purporting to be factual. (And damaging, etc.) The issue here is whether they have any damned business suing you.
  
  I'll go first.
  
  BARACK OBAMA SHORT-SHEETED MY SISTER'S BED IN SUMMER CAMP!
  
  BARACK OBAMA DOESN'T KNOW HOW TO TIE HIS SHOES!
  
  BARACK OBAMA MOVES HIS LIPS WHEN HE READS!
  
  BARACK OBAMA COLLECTS USED PLAYPENS!
  
  and finally
  
  I AM BARACK OBAMA!
  
  That should do it!
• Buck O'Fama said... 

    

   

  Well, the article said they're "threating to bring criminal libel charges against anyone who levels what turns out to be false criticisms of their chosen candidate for President." I doubt most of the criticsm levelled against Comrade Empty are false. This is just another attempt by Obama trolls to intimidate opponents. Disgusting.
• IOpian said... 

    

   

  I just sent an email to the Kansas City FBI field office expressing my view on this matter.
• KCtheKat said... 

    

   

  Thanks for posting this one GP. It's pretty scary to think the law will go after critics of one candidate without saying they'll do the same for the other. Even Obama himself can't truly define his religion. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oyb1n3hTQLg
  , But if you say he isn't Christian in Missouri you could face a lawsuit sponsored by the state.
  
  I wonder if Bob and Jennifer have any brown shirts in their closets, because that's the only part of the puzzle that's missing.
• bg said... 

    

   

  ++
  
  well, Obama had better be prepared to tell the
  truth in defense of so called lies against him..
  
  bottom line: what an ingenious way to
  get "THE ONE" to answer a question!!
• MarkJ said... 

    

   

  These idiots must be Civil War buffs, because they're obviously bound and determined to start another one in Missouri.
  
  They should remember what happened in the Show-Me State between 1861-1865. If they did, they wouldn't be so enthusiastic about forming their "Truth Squads."
  
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushwhacker
• Anonymous said... 

    

   

  "Truth Squads" is that the new name for "Gestapo"?

  • Yes..in America today, it is
  Add Sticky Note
• quotecritter said... 

    

   

  My My that sounds like someone is close to skirting the offense of violation of civil rights under the color of law!
• Anonymous said... 

    

   

  It's not so much the "free-speech" argument here, it's the abuse of office by state officials for partisan political purpose

  • This is exactly what it is
  Add Sticky Note
• Anonymous said... 

    

   

  Yayy 1st Amendment! Anybody gets arrested for that I can see a nice fat settlement in their favor in a very short time...
• RLL said... 

    

   

  Barack Obama is a Leninist.
  
  Wait, that's true, let's try something else.
  
  Obama talks a big story about change without an explanation about how.
  
  This is hard.
  
  Obama is a gun grabber.
  
  Obama is a product of the Chicago political machine.
  
  That ought to piss off St. Louis politicians that can only dream of wielding corruption like the Daley organization.
  
  Obama is a black elitist that believes his cult of personality will survive. He's also a liar.
  
  
  Jennifer Joyce and Bob McCulloch; you two are embarrassments to the State of Missouri. By the way, what's the murder count in The City of St. Louis this year? Maybe you should turn your attention to crime, not performing civil rights violations.
• Z said... 

    

   

  COOL! Imagine how RICH we could all be if WE launch a class action suit about all the awful accusations leveled on Sarah Palin!?
• Nahanni said... 

    

   

  Nice to see that St. Louis has a bunch of Demonazi thugs as in the highest law enforcement positions.
  
  It is time to file a class action lawsuit against the city of St. Louis for infringing on their citizens constitutional rights. Bankrupt the city, bankrupt and disbar these lawyers and fire the sherriff.
  
  If this kind of shite is not nipped in the bud these Demonazi's will get what they want-a civil war. One which they will lose along with their lives.
• Well, it always begins with "truth squads". What's next? Thought police? Huge parades down Pensylvania Avenue for the Great Führer Barrack? Re-education camps?
  
  It seems I have to chose a different country to flee to. Ok, what's left... New Zealand. Hmm, might as well flee to North Korea. Can't be worse than The One Is Watching You.
• iconoclast said... 

    

   

  Lawyers for Obama sounds like the clearinghouse for these shysters who wish to conduct lawfare. This stinks of Obama's Chicago brownshirt tactics.
• bobby b said... 

    

   

  "Are you saying MO has a criminal libel law?"
  
  I think they're saying that State prosecutors and State armed police are making public statements to the effect that they will use their State-granted power specifically in furtherance of the election campaign of Barrack Obama, against people who, in the prosecutors' and polices' minds (such as they may be) utter political speech which they think is "false."
  
• tweedburst said... 

    

   

  The left made preparations for this back when they began making outrageous accusations against anyone opposing them, i.e., "The election was STOLEN!", "Swiftboat LIES!" and so on. The more heinous and extreme the alleged sins against them the better.
  
  They now use the fiction of unspeakable crimes committed against them by their opponents to give themselves unlimited license to attack their enemies in anyway they can think of no matter how immoral, unethical or illegal their attacks may be.
  
  Pretty much the Alinsky playbook, no
• Joshua said... 

    

   

  Ed,
  
  Obama threatened TV stations and requested investigations of 527s by FCC.
  
  They're just following his lead of intimidation. He is a lawyer afterall. To think they are acting entirely on their own without Obama camp discussions om their regions and knowledge of Obama camps Bullying of TV stations is naive.
• These neo-fascist are following their false messiah's lead.
• Joshua said... 

    

   

  
  More Whackos, Commies, Domestic Terrorist, Marxist, Socialist for OBama...
• iconoclast said... 

    

   

  "tainted with myopic nationalism."
  
  Any connection with reality inside of your head?
  
  to quote the very Rev. Wright, one of the mentors of Barak Hussein:
  
  “We are deeply involved in the importing of drugs, the exporting of guns and the training of professional killers. … We believe in white supremacy and black inferiority and believe it more than we believe in God. … We conducted radiation experiments on our own people. … We care nothing about human life if the ends justify the means.
  And … And … And! God! Has got! To be sick! Of this sh*t!”
  
  It is useful for all voters to see the kind of man that an Obama worshipper defends.And the kind of pastor that Obama would listen to--and donate thousands of dollars to--for 20 years.
  
  People should consider what kind of man would listen week in and week out to ravings like this and not see anything wrong with it. Is that someone we want as POTUS?
• Anonymous said... 

    

   

  http://www.co.st-louis.mo.us/pa/
  
  This is the link to McCulloch.
  I left some choice comments about "his candidate" and told him to sue me.
• Batman said... 

    

   

  Fast Barky, Ladies and Gentlemen, stepped way over the line with this Second Amendment stuff, and by getting Obamabots to "get in the face" of their opponents, and then sink to the level of the recent lies on McCain/Immigration/Limbaugh - well, permit me to say it:
  
  "Fast Barky Obamamessiah
  is Now Officially UnAmerican"
• Anonymous said... 

    

   

  This is why I'm not voting for Obama Bin Laden as president. He's employed the tactics of Hitler with his brown-shirt squad, strong arming anyone who doesn't agree with him. And the fact is he has LESS experience than even Palin. Of course, the mainstream media will never say that. They are spoon feeding you Obama daily. Oh yeah, Jennifer Joyce & Bob McCulloch can "kiss mine" as well.
• STLmom said... 

    

   

  This is really going to blow up in their collective faces. Odumbo is assaulting the First Amendment and I sincerely hope that these two morons in the Crime Capitol of Missouri have their heads handed to them by the courts. They both should be impeached simply for suggesting this crap. Dipshits. Brownshirts.Nazis.
• Anonymous said... 

    

   

  The big problem is that if a suit is brought, the person accused has to spend money to defend himself/herself against the charges. You can be totally one hundred percent innocent and go bankrupt. Therefore you keep quiet. It's a true community organizer/ward healer/alinsky rules for radicals move.....this Obama movement is even more pervasive and insidious than first thought
•  DADvocate said... 

    

   

  Just think what Obama will do to your personal freedoms if elected. Very scary.
• Anonymous said... 

    

   

  The news report says these two attys are going to seek charges for criminal libel, not ethics violations. Missouri has no criminal libel statutes. Both should be reported to the Missouri State Bar for lying and/or misleading the public and using their position to intimidate people. www.firstamendmentcenter.org/analysis.aspx?id=17263
• j said... 

    

   

  Or are you suggesting that the McCain camp and supporters operate outside of the law? Break Missouri laws. Is that what you're promoting?
  
  No, we are stating that Obama and his ilk are using state action to falsely threaten criminal prosecution against ads that they couldn't ever prove libel against in either a criminal court (no criminal libel statute) or in a civil court.
  
  Now, go take off your Brownshirts, obama supporters.
•  Joshua said... 

    

   

  Shelley,
  
  Some "Anonymous" troll shows up that we do not know, with racist remarks, then you magically appear.
  
  Hmmmmm.... that truly is great timeing for your post.
  
  The only racist is Obama. He sit in a church of hatred for more than 20 years. A false church that spewed forth hatred of whites, of America and anti-Israel. A false church that awarded nutjobs like Louis Farrakhan awards. A known anti-semite, Jew hater, and racist that meets with thugs like Libyan leader Khadafi.
  
  Honestly, you Obamatron trolls are to predictable.
  
  We detest racism in all forms. The "Anonymous" troll does not represent us or this blog.
  
  If you are appalled at racist, anti-semitism, vent your anger towards Obama, his pastor Jeremiah Wright, his crazed lunatic supporter Louis Farrakhan of Nation of Islam.
  
  Funny how you look past 20 years of Obama sitting in such hatred.
  
  Why Shelley? IF you refuse to condemn Obama's actions, you're nothing but a hypocritical zombie.
  
  Do you condemn Barack Obama's racist comment in his book? Do you condemn him for sitting in a racist church for more than 20 years?
• Nyctalus Lasiopterus said... 

    

   

  The world has gone stark raving mad over a lying, evil empty suit.
  
  Now I know how people felt over Hitlers rise to power.
• juandos said... 

    

   

  According to the First Amenmendment Center, Missouri No statute for criminal libel laws...
  
  The Missouri Bar has a handbook out: Chapter 1 covers DEFAMATION (Libel and Slander)...
  
  It seems like there are a lot of hoops the plaintiff has to jump through before getting any satisfaction...
  
  It seems like these elected officials are setting themselves up for potential prosecution if they use taxpayer dollars to persue partisan political goals...
• eaglewingz08 said... 

    

   

  I'm a bit baffled, criminal libel has been expunged from the law for centuries, and this is not seditious libel which is also on the brink of extinction in the US. Libel is a civil matter and the standard for invoking it upon behalf of public officials or figures is the constitutional actual malice standard which is nearly impossible to prove. Further, public officials who target others to suppress their First Amendment rights may wind up with a Title 42 USC section 1983 civil rights violations lawsuit. I know that Missouri has fallen down to a blue state status, but didn't think their officials became koolaid drinkers and tinfoil hat wearers.
  Sad decline of the Show Me state.
• Anonymous said... 

    

   

  Don't like it? File an official attorney ethics complaint at:
  
  http://www.mochiefcounsel.org/index.htm
  
  Here's the complaint form and instructions:
  
  http://www.mochiefcounsel.org/howto.htm
• juandos said... 

    

   

  Hey eaglewingz08 your comment: "I'm a bit baffled, criminal libel has been expunged from the law for centuries"...
  
  Well you might want to take a look at this from the First Amendment Center and see if the comment you posted might be at odds with what they have assuming their info is correct: Criminal-libel statutes, state by state
  
  Compiled by Bill Kenworthy
  and Beth Chesterman
  First Amendment Center Online
• j said... 

    

   

  juandos: What eaglewingz08 said is more or less correct. Criminal libel is a dinosaur and contrary to public policy. Most attys are surprised to find it still on the books in some states. It's just a matter of time before the USSC revisits the issue and declares it unconstitutional.
  
  This is a link to an article posted on the same website:
  http://tinyurl.com/3ux6s6
  
  I can't believe how dumb these Missouri attys are. Unethical, too.
• vdavisson said... 

    

   

  Mission of the Circuit Attorney's Office: To pursue justice for all citizens within the highest standards of ethical behavior and professionalism.
  
  Reach the Circuit Attorney at:
  1114 Market St.
  4th Floor
  Mel Carnahan Building
  St. Louis, MO 63101
  Telephone: (314) 622-4941
  Facsimile: (314) 622-3369
• STLmom said... 

    

   

  Rush is talking about this now, Jim. He brings up a good point: what are these 2 dimbulbs going to do about the ads that are playing on TV now that are full of outright lies about McCain.
•  10ksnooker said... 

    

   

  Where is the news here? The Democrats used to have a permanent group that did this, they called it the KKK, otherwise known as the terror wing of the Democrat party.
  
  As a kid, I remember the KKK used to walk the neighborhood, making sure everyone was going to vote 'the right way'.
• Anonymous said... 

    

   

  The dogs of war are starting to howl.
  
  You will see another civil war in the US in your lifetime.
• BenDover said... 

    

   

  Wait a minute. This is the legal counsel for St. Louis, right?
  
  I thought libel was a tort, not a "crime".
  
  It's a civil matter. How can she prosecute someone for a civil issue between two unrelated parties?
• Kristian said... 

    

   

  This is an attempt at a direct subversion of the Bill of Rights. It doesn't matter what you say...even if it's a direct Obama quote... you'll still be intimidated by these Stalinists. So here's one for 'em: Obama is a lying socialist hack. If you idiots have got the marbles, come get me. In the mean time, pound sand!
• Elaine said... 

    

   

  Obama is a sock monkey!
  
  Sue me.
• Anonymous said... 

    

   

  Gee, I hope the citizens of St. Louis can afford all those law suits !!
• Anonymous said... 

    

   

  As we can see this is just a sample of this NEW WORLD ORDER we will be living in if BARRACK HUSSEIN OBAMA gets elected.Harassed if you disagree with him,sued if you say anything against him,Attacked if you openly defy him.Does this not remind you all of HITLER?
• bg said... 

    

   

  ++
  
  tweedburst @ 10:49 PM
  
  re: [Pretty much the Alinsky playbook, no?]
  
  not to mention that special segment
  of Mo's "religion of peace" followers..
• bg said... 

    

   

  ++
  
  Anon @ 11:30 AM
  
  re: [Does this not remind you all of HITLER? ]
  
  oh yes, and for quite some time now..
  
  The president wishes to turn every citizen into a soldier
  
  ["citizens in uniform"]
  
  hmmm, isn't that (more or less) the Obamaster's plan??
• excerpt:
  
  [The armed forces, therefore, according to the decree issued by Chávez last July 22nd, in the practice will be responsible for enforcing by means of arms the failed socialist constitutional reform. To that end, in order to dilute the country into its militia-like organization, will "prepare and organize the people for integral defense." In addition, it will "forge alliances or coalitions with the armed forces of foreign countries." The ongoing military revolution will have not borders. At the end, there is one single purpose -retired military officer Chávez Frías will boast his five-sun insignia appropriate for his new rank of commander in chief, awarded by himself, and not by the grace of God.]
  
  OBAMA'S NON-CITIZEN MILITARY DREAM
• Obama's 'Civilian Security Force'
  
  [Advocates of limited government are concerned about comments by Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) regarding his national service plans and views on the "burden of global citizenship."]
• Senator Obama, Citizen of the World
  
  excerpt:
  
  [European socialists and Middle Eastern Muslims are wildly enthusiastic about Senator Obama, because he styles himself a citizen of the world who, like all liberal-progressive-socialists, aims for world government.
  
  American liberal- progressive- socialism, in the person of Senator Obama, is a carbon copy of European socialism, and Islamic jihadists recognize that socialism offers no opposition to their ruthless jihad to enslave the entire world.
  
  For historical perspective, let's look to one of France's leading socialist theoreticians, the late Jean- François Revel. As I wrote at the time of M. Revel's death in May, 2006:
  
  Jean- François Revel, who died last week at the age of 82, was that exceedingly rare person: a French intellectual who didn't despise the United States, an intellectual who understood the cancerous prognosis of liberalism.
  
  Revel's 1983 "How Democracies Perish" described liberalism's debilitating effect on confronting the threat of domination by the Soviet Union. His observations apply equally today in our long-term struggle against Islamic jihad.]
  
  RTWT!!
• Michelle's Boot Camps For Radicals
  
  excerpt:
  
  [Barack Obama was a founding member of the board of Public Allies in 1992, resigning before his wife became executive director of the Chicago chapter of Public Allies in 1993. Obama plans to use the nonprofit group, which he features on his campaign Web site, as the model for a national service corps. He calls his Orwellian program, "Universal Voluntary Public Service."
  
  Big Brother had nothing on the Obamas. They plan to herd American youth into government-funded reeducation camps where they'll be brainwashed into thinking America is a racist, oppressive place in need of "social change."
  
  The pitch Public Allies makes on its Web site doesn't seem all that radical. It promises to place young adults (18-30) in paid one-year "community leadership" positions with nonprofit or government agencies. They'll also be required to attend weekly training workshops and three retreats.
  
  In exchange, they'll get a monthly stipend of up to $1,800, plus paid health and child care. They also get a post-service education award of $4,725 that can be used to pay off past student loans or fund future education.
  
  But its real mission is to radicalize American youth and use them to bring about "social change" through threats, pressure, tension and confrontation — the tactics used by the father of community organizing, Saul "The Red" Alinsky.]
• Anonymous said... 

    

   

  I think that Joyce and McCullough better come out post haste and straighten this out.
  
  It sure appears to me that they are doing partisan activities on government time.
  
  "Civil rights violations under the color of law" I like that.
  
  As private citizens, they may or may not be allowed to openly support Obama. I don't know because I'm not a lawyer, but other government employees are forbidden from doing so or even appearing to do so.
  
  I'd think law enforcement officials would be even more careful about doing something like this.
• It certainly appears to me that they did join the OBAMA truth squad and intend to speak out (prosecute?) people who make ads or statements that they think lie about him. Not McCain. They were standing in front of Obama's office, after all.
  
  It would have seemed wiser to sit in their own offices and state to everyone that as prosecutors they will, of course, enforce MO ethics laws FAIRLY and in a NON-PARTISAN way. But that's not what they did and it sure doesn't look good for them.
  
  I think I voted for Joyce. That's sure a disappointment to me. I don't think she'll ever get my vote again.
  
  Can't Catherine Hanaway do something about this?
  
  How about challenging John Mills to do a story about what Hanaway thinks about the possible laws that Joyce and McCullough MIGHT have broken?
  
  What they did sure seems UNETHICAL to me. At the very least.
•  Larry Sinclair said... 

    

   

  Does this mean I now have a St. Louis MO warrant for my arrest? Why don't they jut answer the questions already?
• Anonymous said... 

    

   

  I find everything about this empty-suited clown Barack Obama to be offensive. You couldn't pay me to vote for that moron. What the hell is he trying to do to my country???? We cannot let this crap stand.
• BeckyW said... 

    

   

  The idea of censoring free speech by threatening lawsuit is illegal. Obama is a public figure and is therefore exempt from any protection provided by Slander and Libel law. Simply put; you have the right to say whatever you will
• Anonymous said... 

    

   

  professor D: Thanks for the info. It's pretty clear that they ARE signing on to this activity. They're standing in front of Obama's headquarters. The video has them talking about the effort, implying that they're taking part in it. Joyce even uses Obama's favorite word. The one he uses anytime somebody makes a valid criticism of him. That would be "distraction," as in, voters don't need to be distracted by "misleading" ads.
  
  Now, they did not actually say anything about prosecutions. (I don't remember them saying it, anyway.)
  
  The reporter mentioned MO ethics laws. My guess is he's talking about laws concerning campaign ads, who's allowed to run them, and when. But I'm not sure.
  
  Does the Secretary of State have jurisdiction over those "ethics laws?" I don't think that city and county prosecutors, sheriffs, and other law enforcement officials would prosecute campaign laws or ethics laws, for that matter.
  
  It seems like they might have stepped across the line on "ethics" themselves. Looks like partisan politicking to me.
• The reporter said they'll be "reminding" people that Obama is a Christian and that he's not going to raise taxes on people making less than $250,000 a year.
  
  They might have a problem proving that either of those statements is true.
  
  It's a problem when somebody goes on national TV and says that his opponent isn't making an issue of "my Muslim faith." Another problem: Contemporaneous documents stating that he was Muslim, at least when he went to school in Indonesia. He left TUCC. It's debatable whether or not that's a Christian church. The Vatican doesn't think so. And there's no evidence that I've seen that he was ever baptized into that church or any other Christian church.
  
  Technically, HE'S not going to raise taxes on anybody. The President doesn't raise taxes. He doesn't have the power to.
  
  But a dictator can do whatever the heck he wants.
• Anonymous said... 

    

   

  Do we need ANY more reasons not to vote for Comrade Obama? This guy should not even be a "community organizer" much less a president. Do we need any more proof that this guy is a danger to this country?
• Jessie Hamby said... 

    

   

  Obama is a TRAITOR to this country! Sue me! I dare you! You want some, come get some!
• See a revolt keep this up.
  Paul Rekward
• Anonymous said... 

    

   

  Obama talks as if he is an oppressed black man himself!! GAG,GAG!!!
• j said... 

    

   

  Show me where this is legal anywhere in the USA including MoSoury.
  
  Stay out of Kansas.
• Anonymous said... 

    

   

  Anyway, what value is there in the freedom to tell a lie? That's a freedom we can do without. As long as you're not lying, it won't be a problem. Even if you don't like this, it is really pretty minor, I think most of you are really over-reacting. This is just to prevent a repeat of the swift boat thing.
  
  Bruce: Bite me. What value is there in repressing political speech? Who determines what is or is not a lie? You? The obama supporting attys? No, thanks! And for the record, what you Brownshirts are trying to do is use the threat of criminal prosecution to chill political speech. And it is a big thing. Unfettered political speech is a cornerstone of our democracy. How unAmerican can you get!
  
  Otherwise you will get people spamming your blog with lies about Obama, and you could be held liable for those.
  
  What a crock! And it is a lie. I guess that give me the right to sue you.
• DeniseP said... 

    

   

  How dare these people think that they can use my tax dollars to sue my fellow Missourians for exercising their RIGHT to free speech. Every one of these so called public servants should be removed from any position of authority and banned from severving in any position of authority for life. These are the ones who would have us believe that Obama is our savior, when in my opinion he would be the worst mistake American voters could make.Threats such as this would be just the begining of the end for rights, freedom, and all the things our constitution has gauranteed for us. It is about time people faced the fact that our silences have brought us to the brink of losing what few rights we still have left. Barrack Obama is incapable of making the kind of decisions this country needs, although I must admit he does have an excellent attendance record,since he votes "present" so often. SO SUE ME!!!!!
• Anonymous said... 

    

   

  It's my opinion, that Obama has brought his Chicago style politics into this campaign. He's already told his supporters to, "get in their face".
  With his shady friends, and his attachment to ACORN, he most certainly will win this election, as ACORN has already signed up illegal voters.
  Last year, a town in Tx. had 854 votes from illegal aliens!
  His campaign reminds me of the way the mafia persuaded others!
• Anonymous said... 

    

   

  I wonder where their Gulags are located? Are they in Missouri? Are they in Illinois? Are they overseas where political dissidents (I guess like me pretty soon) are flown in secret OIA (Obama Intelligence Agency) aircraft with tacit overflight rights with Obama approving foreign governments like Russia, Libya, Kenya, Syria, Iran, North Korea, et al.
• Mehere500 said... 

    

   

  Can you say NAZI/GESTAPO.
  The police & prosecutors who support this should be fired.
  
  Get your guns while you still can!!
  
  P.S. obama is a COMMIE MUSLIM
• Jack Thompson said... 

    

   

  This is insane. I am a lawyer who has litigated these issues for 20 years, and I am more than happy to file a lawsuit today to shut down this Obama fascism express train.
  
  Jack Thompson, Attorney, Miami
  305-666-4366
  amendmentone@comcast.net

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• Lawmaker Warns Of “Forced Servitude” Under Obama

• New Hampshire state representative Dan Itse leading charge for states’ rights

   

  
• Paul Joseph Watson
   Prison Planet.com
   Tuesday, February 24, 2009
• New Hampshire state representative Dan Itse, who is one of many lawmakers leading the charge to assert state sovereignty against federal encroachment, has warned that the Obama administration seeks to institute “involuntary servitude”.
• Appearing on Fox News to discuss the states’ rights movement, Itse told hosts Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade, “This is about drawing a line in the sand and saying we’ve tolerated usurpations for so long but we’re not going to tolerate you violating the constitution, we’re going to hold you accountable.”
• Asked if his warning about involuntary servitude under Obama meant young people being forced to attend community service, Itse responded, “Exactly, I mean, if you are required to do a job against your will with a pay scale not set by you or not agreed to by you, that’s involuntary servitude.”
• Despite denials that Obama plans to institute a mandatory program of national service, his original change.gov website stated that Americans would be “required” to complete “50 hours of community service in middle school and high school and 100 hours of community service in college every year”. The text was only later changed to state that Americans would be “encouraged” to undertake such programs.
• In addition, Obama’s Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, publicly stated his intention to help create “universal civil defense training” in 2006.
• Such fears were also stoked when Obama himself said that a “national civilian security force,” that is “just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded” as the U.S. military was required.

• 

   

  Itse cited the No Child Left Behind program as an example of the federal government encroaching on states’ rights.
• “They dangle a dollar in front of us and we chase it like the donkey with a carrot on a stick but ultimately they are infringing upon our domestic policies in the states, manipulating our domestic policies and we need to stand up and say that’s not your job, that’s our job,” said Itse, adding that if enough states stood up to Washington then they would have to pay attention.
• In response to increasing federal encroachment, a growing number of states have passed and proposed resolutions to assert the Tenth Amendment and the Bill of Rights of the Constitution.
• Washington, New Hampshire, Arizona, Montana, Michigan, Missouri, Oklahoma, California, and Georgia have all introduced bills and resolutions declaring sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment.
• Colorado, Hawaii, Pennsylvania, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Alaska, Kansas, Alabama, Nevada, Maine, and Illinois are considering such measures.
• “This is about enforcing the constitution which states to the government, you’re not the boss of us, we’re the boss of you,” concluded the lawmaker.
• Watch the clip courtesy of Raw Story below.

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• U.S.   GRAVEDIGGERS TO BE FULLY EMPLOYED: SURPRISED?

• By   Greg Evensen

   

  September   19, 2009

   

  NewsWithViews.com
• As   most of you are already aware, I broke a story seven months ago in which   I described a discussion I had with a friend in the health care profession   at a major mid-western hospital.
• This person told me about the delivery   of stainless steel wrist band type bracelets that carried the hardware   for uploading, tracking and broadcasting uniquely personal encoded information.
• These bands were to be used in the event of massive inoculations or   other disaster events in which large numbers of people would be vaccinated   and then tracked.
• I also stated that plans for roadblock enforcement   of these issued bands was a component of emergency planning already   on the federal and state police shelves, for use when those state or   federal agencies called for blockades on the movement of people.
• I further   mentioned that the “bracelets” would be encoded on the spot   with tools similar to those used by UPS when packages are delivered   and scanned by the driver.
• I would not release my source for fear of severe retaliation being waged   against this individual for obvious reasons.
• On September 15th, we were   contacted by a friend who said check out the Boston Globe article that   has validated every shred of information that I gave earlier this year.
• The company that is at the forefront of supplying the City of Boston’s   Health Services Department with this very device is EMSystems of Milwaukee,   Wi.
• Each   one of you are the final arbitrators for the ultimate destiny you will   inherit, here and in the next life. Use this information wisely and   prepare for what is inevitable given the direction our nation has been   forced into taking.
• I   am extremely grateful to my precious wife Liz, who dug in and processed   the information that revealed this Boston event and EMSystems.
• People control efforts through banking, taxes, firearms possession,   food, pharmaceuticals, health care, licensing at every phase of life   and business, education, military service, and multi level policing   agencies, are all so programmed and fatal to individual liberties, that   no one alive can deny their reality and the scope of their reach.
• Having been raised during the summer months on a farm in central Illinois,   I rode an open combine with my grandfather while he harvested tons of   seed raised from non-hybrid strains that enriched our cattle and went   to market.
• Today, we are DYING quicker, with the results of hybrid seeds   that if they were human would make Frankenstein look tame.
• It is a giant   gene war with crop seeds that has no bearing on whether or not it is   nutritious, but whether it is profitable. (Cue the gravediggers)
• The same is true with the pharmaceutical companies that labor very moment   to shoot drugs or pills into our systems to maintain and “manage”   disease rather than cure them, because one shot that cures and costs   $1000, is nothing compared to tens of thousands over a lifetime by sentencing   many to a needle and ultimately death because of a doctor’s maintaining   diabetes or other debilitating ailments. (Cue the gravediggers, again)
• The militarization or weaponized version of the Spanish flu that was   extracted from an Alaskan native’s bones who perished during the   1918 pandemic, may be at the center of the next pandemic—or its   “cure” depending upon your point of view.
• Personally, I   simply do not trust anything the government tells me concerning any   issue you care to bring up.
• I base that on their string of lies and   deceit dating back 175 years.
• Almost from the very inception of our   “Republic” it has been about power and money. Nothing more,   nothing less.
• Those who rose to power were allowed to do so, by anointed   elites both in our nation and Europe. Nothing has changed.
• We are simply seeing the final act played out as most of us bury our   heads and promote this insidious and lethal combination of communistic   worshipping simpletons, and a government all too willing to use these   idiots.
• They are too far gone on the government gravy train to know   or to ask any questions at all.
• Those of us (and thank GOD for patriots)   who act as human shields for the keyboard warriors who whine and complain   but add nothing to the effort to defeat this express train to hell are   weary from years of battle.
• When the camps begin filling and the roads   are mostly empty, the truth of what we have all been saying will cut   to the marrow like a razor. (Cue the gravedigger, yet again)
• If you have   done that, you are light years ahead of the ACORN crowd who are betting   their miserable and corrupted lives on ACORN’S former legal representative   Barack Obama.
• I   have advised tens of thousands to have a plan and prepare.
• They and the computerized voting machines that handed   this illegitimately elected usurper a national election are enemies   of the Republic. They are the ones who need to be in the internment   camps by the millions.
• If you do not have a plan and are not prepared, then you are already   a casualty. Hear that mournful music—it’s the gravedigger   and he’s moving your way.
• I have also advised people to think defensively and strategically.
• I   continue to do that, but the time is coming when that will shift to   other strategies that Jefferson admonished us about using when dealing   with tyranny.
• That day is just ahead dear friends. I believe there is   no way now to avoid it. It almost MUST come, for the evil that surrounds   us cannot be destroyed any other way. In a perfect world we could talk   it out. We could reason and reach a moral and logical agreement.
• Logic,   morality, truth, common sense and accountability all went down with   the Republic.
• Vicious evil and its legions must be eliminated. The time   for debate is over.
• The legacy to our children and grandchildren will   be utter defeat and evil upon this world unseen since the days of Noah,   or a bitter struggle that will stamp out this cancer on our nation,   and stand at the doorstep of a new Republic. (The gravedigger is waiting   for our response).
• Although our “Castle Defense” DVD covers much of the opening   information you need to know, it is geared for the novice and those   without any plan or idea how to create one.
• Our second and final DVD,   “Castle Doctrine II” is a compilation of a two day in-field   “on your bellies in the bush” planning session held at our   wooded home in Michigan.
• It will be ready soon and can be purchased   alone or as part of a set with the original Castle Doctrine exclusively   at our website, www.theheartlandusa.com.
• If you cannot get to a national seminar somewhere, then this is available   to help you.
• DVD’s of the August 6-8 gathering in Summersville,   W.V. where I emceed a stellar gathering of patriot speakers are available   at our site as well. You MUST have this historic event in your video   library.
• If I had a very short list of the most essential items to offer you,   then this common sense effort might help. It is basic, but a point to   start from.
• 1.   Do not be immunized. Resist if you have to.
    2. Begin buying “original” (real) foods   from reputable growers.
    3. Use meat products from the same sources.
    4. Familiarize yourself with “home remedies”   and stock those items
    5. Buy only the gold and silver necessary to barter   your mortgage, etc.
    6. Stock food, food, food and ammunition. They will   be invaluable.
    7. Create home church and Bible studies along with   prayer groups.
    8. Start moving off the grid and plan how you will   live without power.
    9. Stockpile quantities of gas, kerosene, diesel, water   and candles.
    10. Create your plan of defense and protection for   your home and area.
    11. Sharp-shoot practice with your weapons and prepare   to use them.
    12. Re-locate to a more rural area near resources and   a clean water source.
• I   intend to do everything in my power to see that our family’s cemetery   plot remains unfilled for many years. The gravedigger is not welcome   here.
• Dedicate   every available moment from now until this great struggle is over toward   planning for your survival and your availability to help remedy this   nation’s horrible situation.
• Together, I believe we can do this.   Easy? No. Necessary? What is the alternative?
• When there is nothing   left to lose, then
    you will have your answer. I have mine.
• I just told the gravedigger   to go to hell, and take a bunch of these Obama lunatics with him.
• © 2009 Greg Evensen - All   Rights Reserved

• Greg   Evensen is an award winning former Kansas State Trooper and Kansas Marshal.   He speaks across the nation for Patriot groups and is available to come   to your area as well. Call 906-367-0505 or e-mail him at greg@theheartlandusa.com.  
   
    Download the exciting “Power Pad” from Greg’s web-site,   www.theheartlandusa.com.   Web-cam e-mail is available at “Power Pad” as well. This is   a FREE download. If the internet goes dark, this massive program will   keep your children home-schooled. There are full copies of the Bible and   many other features designed for your use. Join the tens of thousands   who have already placed the “Power Pad” on their desktop.   It is essential to do this and it’s FREE!! God bless you, each one!

   

  Website: TheHeartLandUSA

   

  E-Mail:   greg@theheartlandusa.com

48 more annotations...

• Scenes From a Crackdown
• Police overkill at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh
• Radley Balko | October 5, 2009
• Having lived in the Washington, D.C. area for the better part of  the last 10 years, I've attended my share of protests, though,  again as a resident of the Beltway, I've spent far more time  trying to avoid them and the traffic nightmares they spawn.
• Among  the various classes of protesters—pro-lifers, environmentalists,  anti-war activists, and now Tea Partiers—the most destructive are  easily the anti-globalization/anarchist protesters.
• So when  police clashed with anti-globalization protesters last weekend in  Pittsburgh, one could assume that most altercations represented  justified police responses to overzealous protesters.
• But a number of disturbing images, videos, and witness accounts  have come out of Pittsburgh, as well as from similar high-stakes  political events in recent years, that reveal the disquieting  ease with which authorities are willing to crush dissent—and at  the very sorts of events where the right to dissent is the entire  purpose of protecting free speech.
• That is, events where  influential policymakers meet to make high-level decisions with  far-reaching consequences.

• On the Friday afternoon before the G20 kicked into high gear, a  student at the University of Pittsburgh sent me this photo, which  he says he snapped on his way back from class. 

   

  
• It depicts a University of Pittsburgh police officer directing  traffic at a roadblock. What's troubling is what he's wearing:  camouflage military fatigues.
• It's difficult to understand why a  police officer working for an urban police department would need  to wear camouflage, especially while patrolling an economic  summit.
• He's a civilian police officer, dressed like a soldier.
• The symbolism is clear, and it affects the attitudes of the both  the cops wearing the clothes and the people they're policing.
• He wasn't alone. A number of police departments from across the  country came to Pittsburgh to help police the summit, and nearly  all were dressed in paramilitary garb.
• In one widely-circulated video from the  summit, several police officers dressed entirely in camouflage  emerge from an unmarked car, apprehend a young backpack-toting  protester, stuff him into the car, and then drive off.
• It evoked  the sort of "disappearance" one might envision in a Latin  American junta or Soviet Block country.
• Matt Drudge linked to the  video, describing the officers in it as members of the military.  They weren't, though it's certainly easy  to understand how someone might make that mistake.
• Another video shows a police unit with what seems to be a  handcuffed protester. Officers surround the protester and prop  him up, at which point another officer snaps what appears to be a  trophy photo. (YouTube has since removed the  video, citing a terms of use violation.)
• Other Twitter feeds  and uploaded photos and videos claim police fired tear gas  canisters into dorm rooms, used sound cannons, and fired bean  bags and rubber bullets.
• One man was arrested for   posting the locations of riot police on Twitter.
• Emily Tanner, a grad student at the University of Pittsburgh who  describes herself as a "capitalist" and who doesn't agree with  the general philosophy of the anti-globalization protesters, has  been covering the fallout on  her blog.
• The most egregious police actions seemed to take  place on Friday September 25, when police began ordering students who  were in public spaces to disperse, despite the fact that they had  broken no laws. Those who moved too slowly, even from public  spaces on their own campus or in front of their dorms, were  arrested.
• Lucy Steigerwald, a libertarian student at Chatham University  (and daughter of Reason contributor Bill Steigerwald),  describes the scene via email: "I'm truly disappointed in my  city's reaction to Friday night....hundreds of riot cops  attack[ed] Pittsburgh's biggest, most jockish, mainstream  college. And people still have no sympathy for peaceful  protesters or curious college students on their campus.  They just feel comfortable and confident that people who have the  right to use force on other people are always in the right when  they do so. It's pretty scary and disappointing that they're so  trusting with people's right to assembly being at the whim of the  government.
• A University  of Pittsburgh spokesman said the tactic was to break up  crowds that "had the potential of disrupting normal activities,  traffic flow, egress and the like...Much of the arrests last  night had to do with failure to disperse when ordered."
• Note that  a group of people needn't have actually broken any laws, only  possessed the "potential" to do so, at which point not moving  quickly enough for the liking of the police on the scene could  result in an arrest.
• That standard is essentially a license for  the police to arrest anyone, anywhere in the city at any time,  regardless of whether those under arrest have actually done  anything wrong.
• Pennsylvania ACLU Legal Director Vic Walczak said the problem is  that police didn't attempt to manage the protests, they simply  suppressed them.
• In the process, they rounded up not only  innocent protesters, but innocent students who had nothing to do  with the protests.
• "The reason it's bizarre is it seemed to focus  almost exclusively on peaceful demonstrators," Walczak said on September 26.
• "Police  can't indiscriminately arrest people. On [Friday] night they  didn't even have the excuse of property damage going on or any  illegal activity. It's really inexplicable."
• It certainly can't be easy to both keep order and protect civil  liberties at these sorts of events. But that doesn't mean police  and city officials shouldn't be expected to try.
• A few unruly  protesters (and there was very little property damage at the G20  summit) doesn't give the police license to crack down on every  young person in the general vicinity, nor should it give the city  free rein to suppress all dissent.
• The leaders of the world's 20 largest economies and the press  covering them came to Pittsburgh last weekend. It's unfortunate  that the images that emerged were not of a society that values  free expression and constitutional rights, but one that at big  events gives its police the sort of power to impose order  normally seen in authoritarian states.
• In all, 190 people were  arrested, including at least two journalists. One, a reporter  from the left-leaning IndyMedia, says her camera was returned  broken, with her footage of the protests and police reaction  deleted.
• Unfortunately, the projection of overwhelming force at such  events is becoming more common.
• At last year's Republican  National Convention in Minneapolis, police conducted peremptory raids on the homes of  protesters before the convention.
• Journalists who inquired about  the legitimacy of the raids and arrests made during the  convention were also arrested.
• In all, 672  people were arrested, including at least 39 journalists.
• The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported in February that 442 of  the 672 who were arrested had their charges either dropped or  dismissed.
• These are precisely the kinds of events where free speech and the  freedom to protest is in most need of protection.  Instead, the more high-profile the event, the more influential  the players, and the more high-stakes the decision being made,  the more determined police and political officials seem to be in  making sure dissent is kept as far away from the decision makers  as possible. Or silenced entirely.
• Radley Balko is a  senior editor at Reason magazine.

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• Mystery 'Police' Force Has Small Montana City on Edge
• Thursday, October 08, 2009    
• By Katie Landan
• When two brand new, shiny black Mercedes SUVs bearing a "Hardin Police Department" logo drove through the main thoroughfare of Hardin, Mont., last week, people took notice.
• “How many police forces have Mercedes?” said Charlene Warren, a local business owner who has lived in Hardin for more than half a century. “That threw up a red flag.”
• And speaking of flags, it did not go unnoticed that the emblem on the sides of the SUVs bore a strong resemblance to the Serbian national flag.
• Furthermore, those "police department" cars were rolling through Hardin, a small southeastern Montana town of 3,600 that just happens not to have a police department.
• The luxury vehicles that rolled through town belonged to the American Police Force (APF), a California-based security firm that is drafting a contract that will give it control over a $27 million medium-security prison that was built in Hardin more than two years ago, but has never held any prisoners.
• But that contract is now on hold as the Montana State Attorney General’s Office investigates APF and the Big Horn County Sheriff's Department enters preliminary talks about incorporating a real police department in Hardin so a similar episode doesn’t occur in the future.
• At first, Hardin residents were pleased that APF was planning to turn their empty prison into a training facility.
• Hardin has a double-digit unemployment rate and is desperate for revitalization, and the area was left high and dry last spring when the federal government decided not to use the facility to harbor Guantanamo Bay detainees. Opening the prison would mean jobs.
• But since the SUV incident, APF's reputability is under scrutiny.
• “We have covered this story for years now, and for the last month, it’s been one twist and turn from the other” Nick Lough, a reporter at KULR-8 in Billings, Mont., told FOXNews.com.
• The latest twist: The owner of APF, Michael Hilton, is a convicted felon, including two convictions in grand theft cases, and an alleged con-artist who, according to some sources, utilizes more than 20 aliases.
• “That is big controversy, is the unknown,” said Warren. “There are too many lies.”
• Michael Cohen, a former Secret Service agent named as the would-be operator of the prison, served 14 months in prison for stealing $2,800 from the agency after his conviction in 2004.
• Cohen told the Associated Press he spoke with Hilton about the position but was not offered the job.

• Hardin's Two Rivers Authority Board — an economic development agency — was contacted by APF about a month ago to draft a contract that would hand over control of the prison. But now the board's Web site prominently displays the following words:

         

  We welcome anyone to visit our town!
   

         

  There are no commandos in the streets.
• There is no fence or gate being built around Hardin. People are free to come and go as they please. APF is not running our town or our police force.
• Residents and concerned citizens now are voicing their opinions on street corners, at town hall meetings and in the blogosphere. They are demanding to know who APF’s parent company is, what the company plans to do in their town and, finally, what on earth those two Mercedes were doing roaming their streets.
• Bob van der Valk, contributing writer for the Terry Tribune and editor of the travel website Montanawithkids.com, doesn't think the people of Hardin will let the APF get the contract to run the prison.
• "I think the people found out that what occurred was an under-the-table deal that shouldn't have happened," he told FOXNews.com.
• He said he hopes the facility will be turned into a high school to combat school overpopulation in the community.
• The company's public relations director, Becky Shay, formerly a reporter for the Billings Gazette, also refused to comment.
• FOXNews.com contacted Hilton’s office at APF, but he declined to comment.
• According to one report, Shay fears for her own safety and recently hired her own security team.
• Residents, bloggers and the media are said to be filling her inbox with their grievances, and there are reports that she has received death threats.
• “They just can’t give us any answers,” Warren told FOXNews.com. “People are afraid. This is a good little town, we got a nice people here, and I wouldn’t want to see some dishonest person, like this American Police Force, do any harm to our town.”
• “They found us real vulnerable right now," Warren says, "and they are just taking advantage of a good thing.”

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• Arizona Sheriff Vows to Enforce Immigration Law Whether ‘Feds’ Like It or Not
• Friday, October 09, 2009
            By   Penny Starr, Senior Staff Writer
• Calling himself “the poster boy” for those who support the enforcement of federal immigration laws, Sheriff Joe Arpaio said he will continue to arrest individuals who are in the country illegally, even if Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) does not renew the 287(g) agreement that the Maricopa County (Ariz.) Sheriff’s Office has operated under for the past two years.
• 
  Approximately 200 convicted illegal immigrants handcuffed together arrive at their new part of the jail as they are moved into a separate area of Tent City, by orders of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, for incarceration until their sentences are served and they are deported to their home countries Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2009, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
• “We’ve been doing it for two years and have been very successful, but I guess they don’t like to enforce illegal immigration laws,” Arpaio told CNSNews.com.
• “[It] doesn’t make any difference. I’m still going to continue my programs, regardless of what the feds like or don’t like.”
• Under that agreement, authorized in the 287(g) section of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, more than 100 officers and deputies with the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office were trained and certified by ICE to enforce federal immigration laws in 2007.
• Arpaio claims that ICE is renewing the part of the agreement that allows his personnel to check the immigration status of those booked into the county jail, but will not renew the portion that authorizes officers to make arrests based on immigration status.
• “When we come across illegal aliens, we arrest them,” Arpaio said. “That’s the part they don’t like, and that’s the one they took away.”
• But an ICE spokesman told CNSNews.com that the 90-day window for state and local law enforcement agencies to review and sign new “standardized” agreements is Oct. 14 and that no decision will be made on those agreements until each has been reviewed by John Morton, assistant secretary of ICE.
• “As Sheriff Arpaio knows, no decisions have been made on his 287(g) agreement,” Vincent Picard told CNSNews.com. “ICE is committed to smart and effective immigration enforcement, and we will review all of the new 287(g )Agreements at the conclusion of the 90 days.”
• According to ICE officials, its Office of Professional Responsibility is also conducting audits of law enforcement agencies, including one done in July on the Maricopa County agency, a copy of which was obtained by CNSNews.com.
• ICE spokesman Richard Rocha told CNSNews.com that the agency doesn’t routinely release audits but that “several agencies have been audited” to date.
• “It’s part of the general review process,” Rocha said. “It’s part of our office’s effort to make sure programs are working as effectively as possible and to identify any challenges that need to be addressed.”
• Rocha was unable to say what agencies or exactly how many have been audited by his office.
• Arpaio’s outspoken manner and the “crime suppression sweeps” his office has conducted in Maricopa County have been characterized by critics as racial profiling, and the Department of Justice launched an investigation into those charges earlier this year.

  • But the U.S. Justice Dept, headed up by ferret face Holder, would not/will not investigate the intimidating tactics of Black Panther thugs taking positions in front of polling places during a national election.
  Add Sticky Note
• The ICE audit of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Department (MCSD), however, is generally positive, including the following remarks included in the executive summary of the report:
    
   --   “Since February of 2007, the MCSO 287(g) program has processed more than 15,000 illegal aliens, saving ICE considerable resources.”
   
   --   “The communications and working relationship between the OI (Office of Investigations), DRO (Office of Detention and Removal Operations) and MCSD (Maricopa County Sheriff’s Department) are excellent.”
• The summary said that most of the officers operating under the 287(g) program were assigned to either the Human Smuggling Unit (HSU), the Community Action Team (CAT) or the jail operations unit. It said the HSU and the jail operations were not mentioned in the current Memorandum of Agreement or MOA.
• “The CAT Unit is a catchall term used for all 287(g) deputies, mainly patrol officers, who are not assigned to the HSU or to the jail component,” the summary states.
• “The CAT 287(g) patrol deputies rarely use their authority; most CAT officers rely on the jail officers to determine if someone who has been arrested for state violations may be an illegal alien.
• If the LEA encounter does not result in an arrest on State charges, the CAT 287(g) officers normally release the individual without attempting to determine if the subject may be an illegal alien.”
• Arpaio claims that more than 30,000 individuals have been identified as illegal aliens since his department signed on with ICE in 2007.
• He also claims that even without the 287(g), federal law allows state and local law enforcement agencies to enforce immigration laws if probable cause exists.
• Kris Kobach, former counsel to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft and a professor of law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, told CNSNews.com that there is a federal statute that addresses immigration law and local law enforcement.
• “Federal law does expressly authorize state and local police to make immigration arrests of previously deported felons who return to the United States and are in the country unlawfully,” Kobach said.
• “That federal statute is found at 8 U.S.C. 1252c.
• In addition, as the U.S. Department of Justice officially recognized in 2002, state and local police possess the inherent authority to arrest illegal aliens and detain them briefly in order to transfer them to federal custody,” Kobach added. 
• “Those are two forms of arrest authority that Sheriff Arpaio possesses, apart from Section 287(g) authority,” Kobach said.
• Arpaio said that the law usually isn’t enforced, but he would like to change that.
    
   “You know what?” Arpaio said. “I’m going to start enforcing that law.”

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• Attorney General Drops Investigation Into APF
• Sarah Gravlee
   kulr8
   Wednesday, Oct 14th, 2009
• Montana’s Attorney General dropped his investigation in to California-based security company American Police Force Tuesday.
• A statement released by Montana’s Attorney General Steve Bullock said the goal was to guarantee that, “No Montanans were taken advantage of or conned by this company.”
• Since Michael Hilton and APF ended plans to do business in the state, Bullock’s office decided to suspend its inquiry.
• Officials asked APF to release documents about their funding, current contracts and corporate backing. APF did not provide these documents.
• Spokeswoman Becky Shay said the company faxed the AG a one-page letter saying APF did no business in Montana other than to negotiate the jail contract, which they discontinued.
• Bullock’s statement concludes, “Mr. Hilton’s failure to answer these simple questions about his company speaks volumes about his company’s legitimacy.”
• 63 Responses to “Attorney General Drops Investigation Into APF”
• JDroz Says: 
     October 14th, 2009 at 4:34 am   

  This looks like a Hush-Hush order dripped on down from positions of power…
   Keep the fires burning on this Hilton character. His scm needs to be in the pen.

• REX-84 Reply:
  October 14th, 2009 at 5:08 am

  Who does this guy think he is? There obviously more going on here than we are seeing. Looks like a web of smoke and mirrors and BULLSHIT.

   

  Thank god it got stopped, this guy seems like a scary character.

   

  http://www.rex-84.info

• logical Reply:
  October 14th, 2009 at 7:04 am

  Stalin said the main purpose of propaganda was not to change people’s minds, but to create societal “norms”. Then anyone who thinks or says anything outside these “norms” will appear to be “fringe” and “crazy” to the masses who will then ridicule them back inside societal boundaries, or turn them in to the “authorities” for re-education.

   

  This is a perfect example of this in modern practice, in America, in 2009.

• kebcreation Reply:
  October 14th, 2009 at 7:21 am

  If that was a regular Joe six pack he woulda been strung up. Just like the 911 investigation let’s slip it under the rug and maybe it will go away. This speaks volumes of who is behind this that even the Attorney General can’t touch it. A scam that keeps on giving.

• ReturnFire Reply:
  October 14th, 2009 at 8:01 am

  It finally went ‘too’ high.
   Time for everyone to shut up.

• minus the freedom Reply:
  October 14th, 2009 at 5:18 am

  The government was counting on this guy strutting around and nobody saying anything. They were wrong.
• Publius Says: 
     October 14th, 2009 at 5:02 am   

  The mass media is now trying to spin this whole affair into an attack on “Internet conspiracy theorists”, which include I suppose people as obviously uneducated as myself….

   

  I’d like to point out this whole affair reflects the utter lack of faith everyday folks have in the probity of Establishment media organs.

   

  Also amazing is how folks who define “conspiracy theorists” in derogatory terms actually think by so doing they are one of the elite, or in crowd. But they are instead useful idiots blogging themselves deeper into ignorance.

• BeTrueSeekTruth Reply:
  October 14th, 2009 at 5:26 am

  Good points. The phrase conspiracy and conspiracy theorists have been coopted by the elite as a shorthand for “if you use your intellect, logic, and reason, to determine if our enemy’s point is valid you will be ostracized from our group forever”. This is done by first creating an unease in the subject, and then offering them a panacea that makes them feel safe again. In accepting, first the feeling of unease and in turn the panacea, the subject regresses to a childlike state where they once again turn over to their parent or another figure of autrhority, their right and ability to make their own decisions. Their right of self determination. This is perfectly normal in a baby but perfectly dangerous in an adult.

• Alastair Carnegie Reply:
  October 14th, 2009 at 2:48 pm

  “Hidden Agenda Investigators”….NOT…. ‘Conspiracy Theorists’.

• jody fouse Reply:
  October 14th, 2009 at 3:34 pm

  here here brother and i like to call us conspiracy factist’s since we have shit tons of facts to back us up nowadays

• doc killdare Reply:
  October 14th, 2009 at 7:55 am

  the FBI? are you kidding me they most likely know exactly who these guys are and what they plan to do but are in league with them. as this is where the money is. every great empire at the time of its fall uses mercs to fight its wars and police its own…check out the history books, start with Rome since they were the epitome of western civilization.
• Colonel X Says: 
     October 14th, 2009 at 5:31 am   

  Hilton is a low level front man for bigger fish.
   This has “gone away” but look for it to come back in a different version and a different location.
   It was a trial balloon to see what would happen.
   This is the way Oh Bama works, through trial balloons.
• Nailer45 Says: 
     October 14th, 2009 at 5:42 am   

  sounds like the Montana AG was paid off to drop the investigation. More corruption more lost souls to the NWO .

   

  I am saddened at time like this as I lost faith in the system long ago as the justice system has become the Injustice system and lady liberty has become bound and gagged , our rights being deleted .

   

  The corruption runs deep .
• Matzo Man Says: 
     October 14th, 2009 at 5:47 am   

  “Hilton, a career criminal who is still wanted by authorities in Wyoming for his part in multiple cases of fraud,…”

   

  Why didn’t they arrest him and extradite him to Wyoming? Why weren’t the drivers of these fake police cars arrested for impersonating police officers? The authorities did not do their jobs. Why?
   If you or I did that you know sure as cows moo we would be arrested immediately.
• Giggleberk Says: 
     October 14th, 2009 at 6:24 am   

  Attorney General Drops Investigation Into APF? Mostly like TOLD to stop the investigation or bought off or both. Hey, if this isn’t a signal or warning sign folks? This only encourages EVERYONE to see how this system is ran. What’s funny? The more these bastards try to isolate themselves and hush it up, the more people wake up and notice how the game is run.
• The Transmogrifer Says: 
     October 14th, 2009 at 6:42 am   

  Imagine for a moment that you and your buddies tried to take over Hardin, then imagine the consequences of such vigilante action: Waco and Ruby Ridge all over again.

   

  Hilton and APC are being protected on high.

   

  The USA Inc. can’t afford to approve the deplorable conditions in military installations here and abroad but they can build state-of-the-art prisons for “GITMO” residents. Does anyone out there believe any of the subterfuge associated with this story?

   

  Law abiding Americans can’t be allowed to have firearms to protect themselves against well funded private/foreign military like APF. Now that is news worthy!
• 3-D Danny Says: 
     October 14th, 2009 at 6:45 am   

  where did the money for the police cars and other stuff come from?
   looks like the Judge got a night time visitor with a message.
   They are not fooling me I may be crazy but I’m not stupid!
• BeTrueSeekTruth Says: 
     October 14th, 2009 at 7:06 am   

  No conspiracy or collusion to see here folks. Just get your damn death shots and move along now or you will be tased.
• Patriotgal Says: 
     October 14th, 2009 at 7:15 am   

  HAHAHA HA!!!! I told you!!!! When you are “connected”, or an “insider”, you act with impunity.
   “No Montanan’s were taken advantage of”, huh??? How about the citizens of Hardin??
   Were any of them molested, arrested, detained, questioned, abused, threatened, ect., by t
   a bunch of Eurotrash masquerading as POLICE?????????????????????????????????????
   What about “IMPERSONATING A POLICE OFFICER”???????? Last time I checked, that was a felony.
   This is ridiculous. This is intolerable. If that miserable so-callled “attorney-general” won’t do his job, fire his ass, get someone who will. Put so much pressure on those buggers’ that SOMEONE has to go to jail.
   WE CAN STILL APPLY POLITICAL PRESSURE, ring their phones off the hooks. Flood their emails. Cram their voice mails. Jam their faxes. Tell the state rep’s., something HAS to happen, or ALL laws mean nothing.
   How am I supposed to know if that man in a “police” uniform, driving a “police” car is a REAL cop????? I CAN’T!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If I can’t tell who is legitimate authority, then I won’t recognize any, but my own, and my god’s.
   Sic Semper Tyrannis!
• Larry McElhinney Says: 
     October 14th, 2009 at 8:39 am   

  Time to investigate the Attorney General.

28 more annotations...

• Ariz. sheriff launches immigration sweep
• By JACQUES BILLEAUD (AP) – 20 hours ago
• SURPRISE, Ariz. — An Arizona sheriff known for cracking down on people who are in the country illegally launched a crime and immigration sweep in northwestern metro Phoenix on Friday, a half day after officials in Washington limited his powers to make federal immigration arrests.
• Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, whose sweeps have led to allegations of racial profiling, said the rebuff from Washington won't stop him. He said he can still arrest immigrants under a state smuggling law and a federal law that gives all local police agencies more limited power to detain suspected illegal immigrants.
• "It doesn't bother me, because we are going to do the same thing," said Arpaio, whose deputies had arrested 16 people by Friday evening on unspecified charges.
• "I am the elected sheriff. I don't take orders from the federal government."
• The officers were participating in a federal program that grants a limited number of local police departments special powers to make immigration arrests and speed up deportation.
• U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement stripped Arpaio of his power to let 100 deputies make federal immigration arrests, but renewed another agreement that allows 60 jails officers to determine the immigration status of people in jail.
• The sheriff's sweeps in some heavily Latino areas of metro Phoenix have drawn criticism that Arpaio's deputies racially profile people.
• Arpaio said people pulled over in the sweeps were approached because deputies had probable cause to believe they had committed crimes and that it was only afterward that deputies found many of them were illegal immigrants.
• The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating Arpaio's office over allegations of discrimination and unconstitutional searches and seizures.

  • But the DOJ sons'bitches won't investigate cudgel wielding thugs of the "New Black Panthers" lodged in front of polling places on election day.
  Add Sticky Note
• "He is doing this to thumb his nose at the Obama administration," said Lydia Guzman, president of the Hispanic civil rights group Somos America.
• The sweeps have discouraged some Hispanics who have witnessed or been victims of crime to refuse to call Arpaio's deputies, for fear of mistreatment, Guzman said.
• Observers who are part of Guzman's group fanned out across the area of the sweeps with video cameras to record exchanges between deputies and motorists.
• Arpaio said volunteers will use cameras owned by his agency to video-record deputies so viewers can see for themselves that they weren't doing anything wrong.
• Arpaio responded angrily to a question during a news conference about the costs of the cameras, saying they were paid through seizures in drug cases. "Dope peddlers bought the cameras," Arpaio said.
• A dozen anti-Arpaio protesters yelled throughout the news conference. At one point, they chanted: "Order equals K-K-K — here's what Arpaio has to say."
• Kris Kobach, a law professor at the University of Missouri at Kansas City and an advocate of expanding local immigration efforts, said Arpaio's office — like every other local police agency — can detain people suspected of immigration violations for a day or two until federal authorities come to pick them up.
• In the past, Arpaio could have held such immigrants for longer than two days and conducted investigations of smuggling rings, Kobach said.
• "It's really a slight narrowing, but it's not much," said Kobach, who worked as an immigration law adviser to then-U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft from 2001-2003.
• Dan Pochoda, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing people who filed a lawsuit over the sweeps, said Arpaio still can't pull over motorists solely because they are suspected of being illegal immigrants.
• "He can't do it under the terms he is claiming. He has indicated that he can stop people without the suspicion, based on what they look like, what they sound like," Pochoda said.
• Arpaio said the Bush administration had no complaints about his use of the special federal powers, but all that has changed with the Obama administration.
• "What's changed?" Arpaio asked. "Politics has changed, because they don't like us going on the streets to catch illegals."
• This round of sweep, Arpaio's 12th, is set to end late Saturday.

23 more annotations...

• WOLVES   IN SHEEP’S CLOTHING?
• By   Kelleigh Nelson
    October 17, 2009
    NewsWithViews.com
• In the   late 70s and early 80s, many grassroots Americans found out about the   movement for a new Constitutional Convention (con-con).
• By 1986, 32 of   the 34 states needed for a new constitutional convention had passed calls   for a convention.
• The reason used for this call for a con-con was for   a balanced budget amendment. Sounds great doesn’t it?
• However, it   was a ruse used by those who want to radically change our constitution   and basically destroy the founding fathers’ document.
• Many of the   states and most of the legislators that called for a con-con did so without   any public oversight or knowledge, basically because it was a good sounding   conservative idea to require a balanced budget amendment.
• Seven   to ten of the 32 states have succeeded in recalling their calls for a   con-con, including Alabama, Louisiana and Florida.
• The opportunity to   change the constitution exists in Article V, which says the constitution   can be changed in two ways, either by two-thirds of both houses of Congress   sending an amendment to the states and three-quarters of the states ratifying   it, (which is how we have ratified every amendment since the Bill of Rights).
• The other way is to have two-thirds of the states, that is, 34 states   petitioning Congress for a Constitutional Convention. When the latter   is used, the entire document is taken down and re-examined.
• The   proponents of a con-con under the guise of a balanced budget amendment   still believe that if they get another two states who call for a balanced   budget amendment that they can open a convention, despite the states that   have recalled their calls.
• Con-con supporter James Dale Davidson of the   National Taxpayers’ Union even stated that he didn’t care   if the con-con couldn’t be limited to the Balanced Budget.
• As well,   Henry Hazlitt (renowned conservative) was the NTU’s economic advisor   wrote a book in 1974 entitled, “A New Constitution Now.” The   book is extremely alarming because in the book he says, “an amendment   could be proposed that would strike out everything after ‘We the   people,’ “ and that of course includes the Bill of Rights.
• Former   Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Warren Burger (no friend of conservatives)   vigorously opposed convening a constitutional convention.
• He wrote in   1988, “I have also repeatedly given my opinion that there is no   effective way to limit or muzzle the actions of a Constitutional Convention.   The Convention could make its own rules and set its own agenda. Congress   might try to limit the Convention to one amendment or to one issue, but   there is no way to assure that the Convention would obey. After a Convention   is convened, it will be too late to stop the Convention if we don’t   like the agenda. The meeting in 1787 ignored the limit placed by the Confederation   Congress ‘for the sole and express purpose.’ “
• We also   have a warning directly from the “Father of the Constitution,”   James Madison when the states of New York and Virginia formally petitioned   Congress in 1788 to call for a con-con to propose amendments to the Constitution,   which had only been completed a year before.
• Madison wrote this letter,   “If a General Convention were to take place for the avowed and sole   purpose of revising the Constitution, it would naturally consider itself   as having a greater latitude than the congress…It would consequently   give greater agitation to the public mind; an election into it would be   courted by the most violent partisans on both sides…[and] would   no doubt contain individuals of insidious views, who, under the mask of   seeking alterations popular in some parts…might have the dangerous   opportunity of sapping the very foundations of the fabric…
• I too   tremble at the thought of a Constitutional Convention and unfortunately   a new threat is on the horizon and comes from sources one would least   expect.
• Judge Andrew Napolitano is often a guest on the Fox Network Glenn   Beck Show.
• My first inkling that Judge Napolitano was pro-Constitutional   Convention, was at the end of the Glenn Beck show on May 1st, 2009 when   Glenn’s audience were tea party attendees from across the nation.
• At the end of this program, Judge Napolitano stated that we needed a Constitutional   Convention to eliminate the 16th amendment (income taxes).
• On April   23, 2009, the Wall Street Journal published an op-ed piece by Professor   Randy Barnett.
• Barnett is a law professor at Georgetown University, “The   Case for a Federalism Amendment: How the Tea Partiers can make Washington   Pay Attention.”
• Judge Napolitano has had Professor Barnett on his   program several times to discuss the “necessity” for a Constitutional   Convention.
• At this   point, one must remember that Fox News Channel is owned by Rupert Murdoch,   who in May of 2007 also purchased Dow Jones who also owns The Wall Street   Journal.
• As well, on May 8, 2006, the Financial Times reported that Murdoch   would be hosting a fundraiser for Senator Hillary Clinton’s Senate   reelection campaign.
• Murdoch also owns the New York Post and was asked   in a 2008 interview with Walt Mossberg if he had anything to do with the   New York Post’s endorsement of Barack Obama. Without hesitating,   Murdoch replied, “Yeah. He is a rock star. It’s fantastic.   I love what he is saying about education……”
• On April   27th, Barnett also appeared as a guest on Michael Patrick Leahy’s   show on PajamasTV.
• Michael Patrick Leahy is the co-founder of TCOT (Top   Conservatives on Twitter) and through his heavy participation in the Tax   Day Party Website as well as being an important organizer of the Tax Day   Tea Parties, supports Barnett’s Constitutional Convention project   to the hilt.
• Professor   Barnett has made several appearances on the Glenn Beck TV show in the   last several months where he has promoted his con-con project with little   or NO contradiction from Beck.
• How can constitutionalist attorney and   judge, Andrew Napolitano vigorously support Barnett’s con-con project?
• Once again they are using various conservative techniques to draw in the   grassroots who are uneducated as to the dangers of a con-con.
• Judge Napolitano   well knows that we don’t need a Constitutional Convention to get   rid of the 16th amendment. The 18th amendment prohibition of liquor was   repealed in the 21st amendment without a Constitutional
• So,   we have Judge Napolitano, Professor Barnett, and the push for the tea   parties, organized by Michael Patrick Leahy all appearing on the Fox News   Network owned by Rupert Murdoch.
• Unfortunately, Glenn Beck has never made   his anti con-con position known on TV. However, he’s expressed strong   opposition in his “Notes From Glenn” at the bottom of an article   on www.glennbeck.com,   “How to Curtail the Federal Beast,” by Judge Napolitano, dated   May 15, 2009.
• Barnett and Napolitano continue their strong pitches for   a con-con on Beck’s show, despite Beck’s written opposition.
• Glenn Beck has championed so many wonderful exposes’, we need to   let him know the devastation of a con-con and his strong opposition to   one should be aired on TV and radio!
• Waiting   in the wings is the New States Constitution the New World Order needs   and wants in order to succeed with the fulfillment of their plans.
• The   Ford and Rockefeller tax-free foundations along with others paid 25 million   to draw up this new constitution beginning in 1964 at the Center for Democratic   Institutions.
• This model constitution took 10 years to write, and is in   its 35th draft, drawing on the efforts of over 100 people.
• In 1974 an   essentially final version was quietly published in a book entitled, “The   Emerging Constitution,” by Rexford G. Tugwell (Harper & Row)   the man who directed the formulation of the new constitution.
• My prayer   is that the grassroots folks who appreciate all that Fox News does to   expose graft, corruption and communists in this administration, will become   aware that a call for a Constitutional Convention is the total death Nell   for America.
• There is no easy way to retake our beloved constitutional   government and get it under control. The key as Jefferson advised in 1820   is the creation of an informed electorate.
• Freedom loving constitutionalists   must rally around our Constitution and continue to take a stand for liberty   and freedom.
• A copy   of the NEW STATES CONSTITUTION may   be found here.

• Kelleigh Nelson has been researching the Christian   right and their connections to the left, the new age, and cults since   1975. Formerly an executive producer for three different national radio   talk show hosts, she was adept at finding and scheduling a variety of   wonderful guests for her radio hosts. She and her husband live in Knoxville,   TN, and she has owned her own wholesale commercial bakery since 1990.   Prior to moving to Tennessee, Kelleigh was marketing communications and   advertising manager for a fortune 100 company in Ohio. Born and raised   in Chicago, Illinois, she was a Goldwater girl with high school classmate,   Hillary Rodham, in Park Ridge, Illinois. Kelleigh is well acquainted with   Chicago politics and was working in downtown Chicago during the 1968 Democratic   convention riots.

   

  E-Mail: proverbs133@bellsouth.net

44 more annotations...

• Troop use After Ala. Shootings Illegal
• October 20, 2009

  Associated Press
• SAMSON, Ala. -- An Army investigation found that Soldiers should not have been sent to man traffic stops in a small Alabama town after 11 people were killed in March during a shooting spree.
• An Army report released to The Associated Press on Monday in response to a Freedom of Information Act request said the decision to dispatch military police to Samson from nearby Fort Rucker broke the law. But an Army spokesman said no charges have been filed following the Aug. 10 report.
• "As a result of the findings of the report, the Army took administrative action against at least one person," Lt. Col. Christopher Garver said.
• The action was less than a transfer or discharge but Garver would not elaborate.
• The report from the Department of Army Inspector General found the use of military personnel in Samson violated the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits federal troops from performing law enforcement actions.
• The names of those involved were redacted from the report.
• The officer who made the decision to send the Soldiers thought he had the authority based on his experience with responses to Hurricanes Katrina and Andrew, the report said.

  • Jumped the damn gun, didn't you, Sparky? Not time yet..cool your heels.
  Add Sticky Note
• According to the report, the officer's "intent was to be a good Army neighbor and help local civilian authorities facing a difficult, unique tragedy affecting the local community. There were no apparent adverse collateral effects to the support provided."

  • Suuurrree..That's all it was..
  Add Sticky Note
• The Army has said 22 military police and an officer were sent after Michael McLendon, 28, shot nine people to death in Samson and killed a 10th in neighboring Coffee County. The March 10 spree ended when McLendon killed himself.
• The Soldiers arrived in the hours after the shootings, which stretched the town's tiny police force and county officers to the limit with several different crime scenes.
• The report said troops were dispatched after the Geneva County Sheriff's Office and Samson Police requested assistance from Fort Rucker to relieve law enforcement at traffic check points around the crime scene area.
• The mission in Samson lasted about five hours. The military also guarded bodies at a makeshift morgue.
• ©   Copyright 2009 Associated Press.  All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

13 more annotations...

• Criminalizing Poverty For Profit: Local Government's New Debtors Prisons 
• (October 20, 2009)
• Local government is desperate for new funding but doesn't dare tap the wealthy. So they're busily criminalizing poverty and filling new Debtor's prisons.
• Correspondent Jeff Ray sent in this story Milking the Poor: One Family's Fall Into Homelessness (The Atlantic) which is representative of the trend in local government to criminalize poverty for its own enrichment.
• Here's the deal. Local government has grown fat in a decade of gargantuan capital gains and real rising real estate taxes. Employees pulling down over $100,000 each are legion, as are public retirees pulling down over $100,000 a year in pension payments.
• Local government has added 15% more employees even as population grew by a meager 3%. (The numbers may vary in your area but the percentages won't.)
• Now the seven fat years are over and local government is not liking the seven lean  years.
• Now that housing has plummeted, so have the tax rolls; capital gains have dried up and even sales tax revenues are crashing. Despite the usual bleatings of hope, the chances of tax revenues recovering are slightly lower than the proverbial snowball's chance of remaining frozen in Heck.
• Foreclosures: 'Worst three months of all time' Despite signs of broader economic recovery, number of foreclosure filings hit  a record high in the third quarter - a sign the plague is still spreading.
• More Pain for State's Taxpayers, Cities: CALPERS losses $50B. In order for the State amd local governments of California to meet their future pension  obligations (paid by CALPERS, the massive public pension fund), they need to kick in hundreds of millions of dollars more in coming years, even as their revenues are falling.
• Meanwhile, a perfect storm is gutting public pension funds.
• The conclusion that the medical and pension benefits which were promised in the fat years are no  longer payable is anathema to public unions and managerial staff alike, and so the machinery of local government has geared up to stripmine the citizens like a giant trawler stripmines the sea:
• parking tickets have been jacked up to $60 or more, traffic violations are in the hundreds of dollars, speed traps abound, and as noted in the top story, fees for "crimes" like driving without auto insurance now cost more than the insurance itself.
• And gosh forbid if you don't pay on time--the penalties double the original fine and then go up from there.
• Is there anything more pernicious, malicious and immoral that this criminalization  of poverty to engorge the coffers of local government?
• If John Q. Citizen defaults on his credit card, he might have to endure harrassing phone calls from bill collectors. But worst case, he can unplug his phone or cancel that number and get another phone number. Fortunately, the bank cannot have him imprisoned (yet).
• But local government isn't quite as kind and gentle as the bankers. Mess with their revenues (i.e. don't pay the hefty fines they levy) and they'll haul your carcass into court and then into jail (can't make bail? Too bad. You're a full-blown criminal now.)
• Exactly what is the difference between racking up $1,000 in fines off an innocuous violation and being imprisoned for lack of payment and a 19th century-era Debtors prison?
• Isn't this part of the reason why the Parisian mobs tore down the Bastille?
• Does this make any sense at all, arresting people who can't pay their nonsensically stupendous fines and penalties just so government employees don't have to take a cut in pay and benefits?
• When did a ticket go from $50 to $300 and up? And why? Does anyone think the cost leaped up "for the public good"?
• Is getting nailed for a ticket you can't pay really a deterrent  to being too poor to keep your auto insurance current?
• Now that John Q. Citizen is in jail because he was nabbed driving without insurance and a big fat fine is outstanding,  aren't the taxpayers throwing away $50,000 to $100,000 a year to process his  tortured journey through the Kafkaesque court and jail system with those other  "dangerous criminals"?
• Let's follow this all the way to the end.
• Hey, the war-on-drugs/prison/gulag pays very well, thank you, and filling cells with Mr. Citizen is just grist for the mill.
• Now when Mr. Citizen is released (darn it, we can't get blood from a turnip!), his car has been impounded and he owes the towing yard $1,000 which he doesn't have. So he no longer has a car to get to work, or even drive to an interview.
• OK, so maybe he was irresponsible in not setting aside enough money for the car insurance. Is that now a criminal offense?
• Is this the best use of police officers, judges, jails and the "justice" system? Is anyone being deterred by the ruthless criminalization of poverty? Please make the case for that, local politicos and bureaucrats.
• Great work, local government. You've not only stolen the citizen's last few dollars, you've also deprived him of his employment opportunities and livelihood.
• Here's a thought: you need more tax revenue? Then make the case to the citizens  at the ballot box to pay more.
• Prove you're not squandering the tax money you're already getting by the boatload. Show us how you're going to spend our money as carefully as we do.
• If you really want to stripmine somebody's cash assets, why not start with your local Wal-Mart? I can guarantee you they won't leave town when you enact a new ordinance  taxing all retail establishments of 50,000 square feet or more.
• Or impose a tax on all homes worth more than triple the median price in your zip code.
• You want to nail somebody with higher taxes? Then go after the top 5% who still have assets. Don't trawl the streets for the folks who can least afford your rapacious imposition of authority.
• Bankers aren't the only rapacious greedheads in this nation.
• Look no farther than city hall, the county building and the State capitol. Just hope it isn't you who runs low on cash and gets nailed with that $395 ticket which soon morphs into $695 and an arrest warrant.
• You can't blame local government avarice on Washington or the bankers. All this greed is homegrown, local and entirely unnecessary.
• As it stands now, 10% or maybe even 20%  of the citizenry will soon have outstanding arrest warrants for what amounts to local government Debtors Prison.
• Come November 2010, we can only pray that the citizenry "takes care of business" at the ballot box, and all the incumbent politicos who approved this evil criminalization of poverty  get tossed out en masse, regardless of party affiliation.

37 more annotations...

• Sunday, October 04, 2009

   

    

   The Hardin Saga: Waiting for the Punchline 

   

   

   
• A lovely town, a nasty predicament: Thanks to the less-than-visionary "leadership" of its municipal government, the friendly residents of the beautiful town of Hardin, Montana are burdened with $27 million in debt for a huge, empty prison and a business deal with a shadowy mercenary group fronted by a convicted felon.
• Hardin, Montana -- In his memoir Against All Hope, former Cuban political prisoner Armando Valladares tells the story of a Cuban ruler who built a huge prison, a structure several times larger than necessary to incarcerate the island's criminal population.
• When he was chastised by an adviser for spending a considerable sum on a prison too big to use, the dictator smiled and replied: Don't worry, someday a ruler will come along who will fill it up.
  
  
  The "someone" predicted by that ruler was Fidel Castro.
• Just inside the city limits of Hardin, Montana (pop. 3,500), next to an IGA grocery store and not far from a sugar plant, there sits a huge, empty "jail" -- actually, a small prison -- that cost $27 million to construct.
• Driven to desperation as its construction bonds went into default, the city government, acting through its economic development arm, the Two Rivers Authority (TRA), offered last March to accept prisoners from the Gitmo detention camp.
• 
  
  Who's going to fill it up? The empty Two Rivers Detention Facility in Hardin, which became a minor tourist attraction last week.
• That offer piqued the interest of some yet-unnamed people in California, who chartered a security pseudo-firm calling itself the American Police Force (APF).
• The figurehead of that ersatz mercenary outfit is a diminutive Montenegrin Serb known by several aliases, most recently "Captain" Michael Hilton.
• Although he originally claimed to have extensive military experience in Iraq and Afghanistan, "Captain" Hilton -- a convicted felon and veteran scam artist -- eventually admitted that he had no military experience; this means he's a "captain" in roughly the same sense that Captain Crunch is worthy of the honorific.
• Last summer Hardin's TRA reportedly entered into an agreement with APF to operate the jail for a fee of $2.6 million annually. TRA also promised to spend even larger sums to expand the detention center; they also announced plans to build an international training center for law enforcement and military personnel, as well as to construct housing for the personnel who would soon supposedly besiege the economically depressed town.
• The company also promised to provide a bounty of other civic assets, including a homeless shelter -- despite the fact that Hardin is a small town with no homeless population.
• While discussions over management of the jail (more aptly called a prison) were going on, a second and possibly related process was nearing its conclusion.
• 
  Two views of "Captain" Hilton: Here he poses as head of the APF...
  
  (Billings Gazette photo)
• Since 1976, Hardin has had a contract with the Big Horn County Sheriff's Office (which is headquartered in the town) to provide law enforcement coverage.
• In recent years, the sheriff's office has complained that the city government wasn't providing sufficient resources to provide services for Hardin while simultaneously covering a very large territory.
• Accordingly, the city and sheriff's office have been negotiating a "deconsolidation" agreement, under which the contract with the sheriff's office would be terminated, and Hardin would provide its own police force.
• 
  ... and here's the "Captain" in a 2003 booking photo taken by the Huntington Beach Police Department.
  
  (Via the Billings Gazette.)
• Just as the "deconsolidation" negotiations were nearly finished, "Captain" Hilton and another APF personality styling himself "Sergeant" Martin came rolling into town in two black Mercedes SUVs sporting magnetic decals advertising themselves as the "City of Hardin Police Department."
• This naturally led to speculation, both locally and -- via the internet -- nationally and beyond, that the APF, a mercenary outfit led by an odd little man with a thick Slavic accent, was taking over law enforcement in Hardin.
• In an interview with Pro Libertate, Big Horn County Undersheriff Rondell Davis -- a candid and thoroughly professional young man who arrived in Hardin about a year and a half ago -- pointed out that the APF had violated both the Montana State Code and state constitution by depicting themselves as Hardin's new police force.
• Davis described the convergence of APF's arrival and the soon-to-be-completed deconsolidation talks as a "coincidence." "If Hardin wants to set up its own police force, and can find the resources to fund it," he said, "that's fine." The APF, however, obviously wasn't suitable for the job.
• "If this outfit had been legitimate, the first thing they did when they came to town would have been to have a town meeting to introduce themselves, explain who they were and what they were going to do, and take questions," Davis observed.
• Instead, the group -- which, as far as anybody knows, includes only "Captain" Hilton and "Sergeant" Martin -- emitted a dense fog of extravagant promises while being cryptic and disingenuous in dealing with questions about its parent company, activities, personnel, assets, and qualifications, if any.
• Interestingly, Undersheriff Davis described Hardin as a town with little-to-no violent crime. The most persistent problem, he pointed out, was dealing with people who have a bit too much to drink -- an assessment validated by a quick glance at the arrest reports published in the town's weekly newspaper, the Big Horn County News.
• 
  
  A welcome Throwback: He's a young man, but Big Horn County Undersheriff Rondell Davis is a candid, personable, low-key peace officer of the Old School. On the desk in front of him, incidentally, could be found materials provided to him by the Oath Keepers.
• When he spoke with Pro Libertate, Davis was preparing for a Friday night during which he would provide backup for the single deputy assigned to patrol the entire county.
• During a long walk late that evening in which I explored the length and breadth of the town, I saw nothing to indicate that there was a crime problem of any kind in Hardin.
• The only sign of potential trouble I encountered was a small knot of visibly drunken young people -- several Indian youth from the local Crow Reservation in the company of a few local non-Indians -- outside a local convenience store. The "ringleader" of the group, a tall kid who appeared to be about 22 years old, reacted to the arrival of a stranger by offering me a friendly fist-bump.
• 
  What's up with this? Your correspondent at the entrance of the much-discussed Two Rivers Detention Facility.
• During that nocturnal excursion, as well as a second one undertaken the following morning, I also failed to find any evidence that Hardin was being turned into a garrison state.
• Contrary to reports given wide cyber-circulation, there was no portcullis being constructed at either end of the town.
• Armed commandos said to be patrolling the streets failed to materialize. Nor was there any indication that people were being disarmed by foreign troops, or rounded up for incarceration and compelled injections of the legitimately dreadful H1N1 vaccine.
• As was the case with many others, the situation in Hardin came to my attention by way of an anonymous e-mail account that portrayed the town as an open-air prison quite similar to the totalitarian community described in Out of the Gray Zone, the terrific recent novel written by the estimable team of Claire Wolfe and Aaron Zelman.
• My reaction, which I shared with those who listen to my weekday radio broadcast, was to suggest that there might be a nucleus of disturbing truth inside the accretions of alarmist speculation and apocalyptic embellishment. That much is certainly true, as I'll discuss anon.
• I want to emphasize that some of the speculation was, up to a point, entirely justified, given the grandiose claims made by the APF and the clinically demented credulity of the Hardin municipal government:
• Where did people get the idea that the group calling itself the "American Police Force" was going to be patrolling the mean street(s) of Hardin?
  
  
  This idea came directly from the mouth of "Captain" Hilton himself.
• As quoted in the September 17 Big Horn County News, Hilton (we'll use that surname for the sake of convenience) boasted of his group's purported manpower, assets, and experience in providing security for cruise ships, airliners, and convoys in Iraq and Afghanistan.
• Hilton then asserted that the group could draw on the services of "contractors" from around the world to provide Hardin with a security force. "Hardin will be the safest place in the United States to live, and in six months the best place to live," Hilton insisted.
• If I may be forgiven for employing the cliche, Hilton was carrying coals to Newcastle: Hardin already is an exceptionally safe place to live, in large measure because that town, like most others in Montana, is populated by people who own and know how to use firearms.
• Of particular interest in this connection is the fact that Hilton's proposal to use APF as a city police force was repeated at face value, and with considerable enthusiasm, by Jim Eshleman, a reporter and photographer for the Big Horn County News, in a September 24 column assailing APF's local critics and defending the organization's compulsive secrecy.
• "Having spoken with a representative from the American Police Force I was told on a number of occasions that Hardin will be the safest town in the United States and in six months will be the best place to live in the United States," regurgitated Eshleman.
• Besides, who could complain about turning over control of the town to a secretive, unaccountable paramilitary group as long as their checks clear?
• "As far as I'm concerned, if a little secrecy means good, high-paying jobs and an economic boost to the city, then I say go for it," insisted Eshleman.
• "There is no reason to do anything that might put the project into jeopardy.... [I]n spite of the secrecy, it's in the best interests of the community that we partner with the American Police Force and work together for the economic good of not only Hardin, but of Big Horn County and the Crow Reservation."
  
  Charming.
• If Hardin were faced with the prospect of conquest by a sentient race of alien space ants, Eshleman would likely publish a column welcoming the town's new insect overlords and reminding them that, as a trusted local media personality, he could be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground sugar caves.
• Given that Hilton's claim was given wide circulation, and prominently endorsed by a local representative of the "respectable" media, it isn't surprising that rumors began to proliferate that Hardin was either preparing to give APF the run of the town, or that APF had already dispatched battle-hardened paramilitary operators to police the streets.
• How did the notion arise that the APF had brought foreign troops to Hardin?
• Again, the fons et origo of this rumor was none other than the illustrious "Captain" Hilton.
• "APF is going to be bringing in high-level military and police to train," claimed Hilton, as reported in the September 24 Big Horn County News. "Twenty-five percent from America and seventy-five percent international top military leaders from around the world."
• Also noteworthy was Hilton's bogus boast that APF had been "running international detention facilities since it was incorporated in 1984."
• This statement, though entirely false, probably contributed to speculation about foreign prison guards being imported to staff the Two Rivers Detention Facility. And that speculation was fortified by Hilton's claim that the cost of maintaining the military/police training facility would be paid either by "the international community ... or the U.S. government."
• How on earth did people come to the conclusion that Hardin residents would be rounded up and compelled to undergo flu vaccinations?
• An October 1 Associated Press report quoted Hilton as promising to "dispatch security to patrol Hardin's streets" and also that he had offered "free health care to city residents out of the jail's clinic." This seems to be the acorn that grew into a mighty oak of misinformation regarding round-ups of recalcitrant residents for compelled injections.
• It's worth remembering that all of these claims were made at a time when the Hardin city government was talking about creating its own police force -- and the APF rolled into town advertising itself as the "City of Hardin Police Department." Add a large dose of impenetrable secrecy, stir lightly, and the result is a casserole of rumors and innuendo lightly seasoned with fact.
• When Pro Libertate visited Hardin municipal offices on October 2, we were told by a very nice woman working as a cashier at the utilities office that the City Council were in "meetings." If those meetings took place, they occurred somewhere other than City Hall, which was locked down tight at 3:28 PM on a Friday afternoon.
• The Hardin city government fled the scene once media attention was focused on its deal with the Goniff Michael Hilton.
• Mayor Ron Adams was nowhere to be found. Greg Smith, executive director of the TRA, and his wife, mayoral candidate Kerri Smith, had likewise disappeared.
  
• "Captain" Hilton headed back to California on October 1, promising to return a few days later to preside over a "job fair."
• Becky Shay, the former Billings Gazette reporter hired as a spokesperson for APF, likewise left town.
• The only people connected in any way to the APF or the prison with whom I was able to speak were two people hired to clean the facility. When I spoke with them just outside the prison's front gate they seemed eager to be finished with the job and anxious regarding the question of whether their check would clear.
• During a press conference in Billings, after deflecting several questions and making the robustly implausible claim that APF "welcomed" a fraud investigation by the Montana Attorney General, Shay broke down in tears claiming that she feared that her life was imperiled -- not by the felon running the fraudulent company she was hired to front, but by that company's critics.
• On Saturday morning (October 3), the Gazette reported that Allied Defense Systems, an authentic military contractor that had supposedly agreed to provide uniforms for APF prison guards, announced that it had sent a letter to Hilton threatening a lawsuit over the use of the company's name.
  
• Maziar Mafi, the Santa Ana attorney who acted as "legal affairs director" for APF, was suspending his involvement with the group. This he did despite the fact that Michael Hilton generously conferred on Mafi the rank of "captain" in the APF, which appears to consist entirely of two "captains" and a "sergeant."
• Mafi's sudden disenchantment with the group may have something to do with the fact that APF had missed the first payment on the black SUVs it had used to make its grand entrance into Hardin. Mafi was the one who had co-signed the loan to buy the vehicles.
• Becky Shay, who has already suffered a great deal in exchange for a promised $60,000 annual salary, an APF-provided black Mercedes SUV, and a new, APF-provided home, most likely will receive a visit from a repo man in the near future.
• With Hilton's scam falling apart as quickly as a Ritz cracker in hydrogen peroxide, it's likely that Hardin's taxpayers will end up being fed some substantial portion of the $27 million in rotten bonds issued to pay for the construction of the Two Rivers prison. But somebody will end up owning that huge, empty prison.
• First, who provided the money behind Hilton's little con game? Second, what was Hilton or his sponsor going to get out of conning the Hardin city government?
• This brings me to a couple of important questions that have yet to be answered.
• The point of a con, of course, is to get something, rather than to give something.
• Hilton promised a great deal, but unless he received as-yet undisclosed cash payments or other blandishments from the TRA, it's difficult to see how he would profit from his deception.
• This wouldn't be the case, however, if he was working on behalf of somebody with an interest other than financial enrichment.
• There remains a possibility that somebody acting with malign intentions wanted to acquire that prison -- and it's also possible that the same individual or group could run a more competent version of this scam in some other economically depressed town that turns to incarceration as a new source of revenue.
• "We're just a big joke," complained a sad-eyed but sweet middle-aged waitress the morning of our departure from Hardin. No, it's your municipal government that's made itself look ludicrous, I insisted.
• The chief unanswered question is this: If the APF affair is a joke, then what's the punchline? Who is going to fill up Hardin's empty prison?
• For additional coverage of the Hardin controversy, go here for my first radio program on the subject, and here for my live report from Hardin. And watch for a video report that will be available soon.
• (My sincere thanks to my good friend Scott Watson for his invaluable help on this story.)

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• State launches boycott of 'unconstitutional' federal laws
• Urges 49 others to join in combating government's 'abuse of authority'
• Posted: October 21, 2009
  11:50 pm Eastern
  
   

  By Chelsea Schilling
   <!--- copywrite only show on NON commentary pages as per joseph meeting 8/23/06 ------>   <!-- copyright --> © 2009 WorldNetDaily 
• Tennessee is urging 49 other states to come together and create a "joint working group between the states" to combat unconstitutional federal legislation and assert state rights.
• According to the Tenth Amendment Center, the resolution created a committee to form a joint working group between the states to enumerate the abuses of authority by the federal government and seek repeal of imposed mandates.

  • Sounds eerily like the committee that came together to produce the Declaration of Independence
  Add Sticky Note
• Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen signed HJR 108, the State Sovereignty Resolution on June 23.
• State Rep. Susan Lynn recently wrote a letter to the other 49 state legislatures, inviting them to join the group and warning that the role of the federal government has been "blurred, bent and breached."
• "The national government has become a complex system of programs whose purposes lie outside of the responsibilities of the enumerated powers and of securing our natural rights; programs that benefit some while others must pay," Lynn wrote.
• "Today, the federal government seeks to control the salaries of those employed by private business, to change the provisions of private of contracts, to nationalize banks, insurers and auto manufacturers, and to dictate to every person in the land what his or her medical choices will be."
• She continued, "Forcing property from employers to provide healthcare, legislating what individuals are and are not entitled to, and using the labor of some so that others can receive money that they did not earn goes far beyond securing natural rights, and the enumerated powers in the Constitution."
• Lynn said that the people created the federal government to be their agent only for certain enumerated purposes.
• "The Tenth Amendment defines the total scope of federal power as being that which has been delegated by the people to the federal government, and also that which is absolutely necessary to advancing those powers specifically enumerated in the Constitution of the United States," she wrote. "The rest is to be handled by the state governments, or locally, by the people themselves."
• She noted that the Constitution does not include a congressional power to override state laws, nor does it give the judicial branch unlimited jurisdiction over all matters. Attempts to include such provisions in the Constitution were rejected by the Founding Fathers.
• "With this in mind," she wrote, "any federal attempt to legislate beyond the Constitutional limits of Congress' authority is a usurpation of state sovereignty – and unconstitutional. Governments and political leaders are best held accountable to the will of the people when government is local. The people of a state know what is best for them; authorities, potentially thousands of miles away, governing their lives is opposed to the very notion of freedom."
• In one example of Tennessee's battle against federal government policies, federal gun regulators wrote to gun dealers around Tennessee in July, dropping the hammer on a state law that exempts weapons made, sold and used inside the state from interstate regulations.
• The letter was distributed to holders of Federal Firearms Licenses.

• In it, Carson W. Carroll, the assistant director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, told dealers the Tennessee Firearms Freedom Act, adopted this year, "purports to exempt personal firearms, firearms accessories, and ammunition manufactured in the state, and which remain in the state, from most federal firearms laws and regulations."  

  The exemption is not right, the federal agency letter contends.  
• More recently, the state of Montana filed a lawsuit against U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder seeking a court order that the federal government stay out of the way of Montana's management of its own firearms.
• As WND reported, the action was filed by the Second Amendment Foundation and the Montana Shooting Sports Association in U.S. District Court in Missoula, Mont., to validate the principles and terms of the Montana Firearms Freedom Act, which took effect Oct. 3.
• The law provides guns and ammo made, sold and used in Montana would not require any federal forms; silencers made and sold in Montana would be fully legal and not registered; and there would be no firearm registration, serial numbers, criminal records check, waiting periods or paperwork required.
• The idea is spreading quickly. Similar plans have been introduced in many other states.
• Montana's plan is called "An Act exempting from federal regulation under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution of the United States a firearm, a firearm accessory, or ammunition manufactured and retained in Montana."
• The law cites the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that guarantees to the states and their people all powers not granted to the federal government elsewhere in the Constitution and reserves to the state and people of Montana certain powers as they were understood at the time it was admitted to statehood in 1889.
• "The guaranty of those powers is a matter of contract between the state and people of Montana and the United States as of the time that the compact with the United States was agreed upon and adopted by Montana and the United States in 1889," the law states.
• The lead attorney for the plaintiffs' litigation team is Quentin Rhodes of the Missoula firm of Sullivan, Tabaracci & Rhoades, PC. The team includes other attorneys working in Montana, New York, Florida, Arizona and Washington.
• "We're happy to join this lawsuit," said Alan Gottlieb, founder of the SAF, "because we believe this issue should be decided by the courts.
• "We feel very strongly that the federal government has gone way too far in attempting to regulate a lot of activity that occurs only in-state," added MSSA President Gary Marbut.
• "The Montana Legislature and governor agreed with us by enacting the MFFA. We welcome the support of many other states that are stepping up to the plate with their own firearms freedom acts."

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• "Don't Talk to the Police" by Professor James Duane
• James Duane explains why innocent people should never talk to the police.

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