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From crisis to crushing of liberties, happens just that fast

May 12, 2010

Reprinted with permission of the Author.

You may have read about the Sheridan Police and how they harassed me and my family, you may also know that I would not comply with their request for identification since they performed an illegal stop. This isn’t my just my opinion, the basis in which a police officer cannot detain, search and seize just because a person is armed has been upheld by the courts time and again.

From the Tenth Circuit Court ruling by Judge BRUCE D. BLACK in a recent case in New Mexico:
“relying on well-defined Supreme Court precedent, the Tenth Circuit and its sister courts have consistently held that officers may not seize or search an individual without a specific, legitimate reason. . . . The applicable law was equally clear in this case. Nothing…prohibited openly carrying a firearm…summary judgment is granted with regard to his Fourth Amendment and…constitutional claims”

You are about to see how some individuals are challenged by the police at greater extremes, the following is from U.S. District 7 in Wisconsin. Jesus Gonzalez a U.S. Citizen that was abused by the same ones that are sworn to uphold the constitution, he was not only arrested for merely having a gun, according to court documents the police retained his property for 10 months before returning it and that was only after a court order.

But please realize this is how “law enforcement” joins the fight against your liberties. And yes it happens even though everyone involved took an oath to uphold the constitution.

From my own personal experience:
When the Town of Pine Bluffs Wyoming took a stance that the open carrying of firearms would be regulated by the local police, the town attorney Alex Davison told me “that he spoke with the Judge (wouldn’t you like that luxury?) and there had not been a similar case and he as the town attorney felt comfortable with an arrest and trying such a case in court”.

The Pine Bluffs town attorney was willing to usurp constitutional rights by using the courts, even though state law preempted their municipal power. Of course Mr. Davison finally saw the light and later relented.

Back to Mr. Gonzalez, he resides where concealed carry permits are not issued, in Wisconsin statute dictates the only way you may carry a firearm is fully exposed or what is called open carry.

The police officers ignored the fact that Gonzales had done nothing illegal, detained him and arrested him, seized his property including his social security card. Remember Mr. Gonzalez was forced to get a court order to get his own SSN card back.

Besides performing an illegal arrest, search and seizure, the police denied Gonzalez a right of refusal to disclose his SSN, in violation of Section 7(a) of the Privacy Act, even threatened him with jail if he failed to provide it.

But why would the police want to seize and keep a social security card of Mr. Gonzalez a Hispanic U.S. Citizen? I can’t help thinking that the police had intensions of flexing their authority in his face.

Second time’s a charm isn’t it?
About a year later the police arrested Mr. Gonzalez a second time and again pushing the envelope retained his firearm, magazine and ammunition, against his will and without a warrant and without what was needed the most, “PROBABLE CAUSE”.

So here is where I am going with this:
I contend that enacting legislation for example, under the guise of protecting us from illegal immigration with the possibility of “redefining probable cause” in the courts is dangerous stuff. Knee jerk responses to monumental issues could mean that unintended consequences will be at the forefront.

Also think about this, we are in a time where using a tactic of “pushing the federal government to fix the problem” will only weaken the tenth amendment fight on other issues. Wyoming should only enact legislation in which we take the bull by the horns, asking nothing of the federal government and at the same time hold up constitutional protections.

Remember from the last Line in the Sand article:
Wyoming Constitution 97-1-007 – Absolute, arbitrary power over the lives, liberty and property of freemen exists nowhere in a republic, not even in the largest majority.

Drafting laws at the state level that are concurrent with federal immigration law or simply using existing laws to enforce illegal immigration, would be most prudent.

As far as the Feds – “they really don’t want to fix the problem” or “maybe they just want more control over U.S. Citizens”. To draw the same conclusion, you must first understand how the game is played, it is all about politics and politics is all about, here it comes…wait for it  – “WHO RULES WHOM”.

While many neglect to see the danger of changing the rules in the middle of the game, it will be the very people that support such actions that will later find, they too are caught in the snare.
Since early gun control was racist by nature and was originally enacted to control the gun ownership of Blacks, to ignore this political incrementalism now could bring us full circle.

Also by allowing our elected officials to use incrementalism against our liberties, then we will surely lose. In my opinion, when we see issues like immigration and terrorism being politicized, the first thing that comes to mind is this -“Caveat Emptor” or “Let the buyer beware”.

Want proof?
Under the threat of the “war on terror” under the Bush Administration, Attorney General Ashcroft rallied for full control over what were supposed to be rights that were protected by the constitution.
If you remember the Left made an issue about this abusive control put in place by President Bush.

Fast forward to the present time and now the Left is silent when Obama and his appointees support the Bush policies including the Patriot Act. Even more alarming, Eric Holder has stated that he wants to change the Miranda rules, this means that once again your own constitutionally protected rights are now in danger under the guise of terrorism.

How can this be, the Left now agrees with policy put in place by Bush and now they are even willing to grab more power by changing the Miranda.

Please understand I never supported this kind of policy coming from Bush and now only mention it to shine a light on the this – Both the Left and Right are guilty of using and creating crisis for political gain and with such action comes legislation that will crush your liberties.

Like I said – Let the buyer beware, in this case no matter which side is selling the goods.

Suggested reading:
Constitutional Chaos – by Judge Andrew P. Napolitano

Anthony Bouchard is a staunch supporter of the Bill of Rights and limited government – he is also the Director of WyGO – Wyoming Gun Owners Association, Wyoming’s Only No-Compromise Gun-Rights Organization.

WyGO / Wyoming Gun Owners

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Posted in Editorial, Opinion, Education, Gun Control, Law, News, Non Compos Mentis, Politics, Wordpress Political Blogs | Comments Off on From crisis to crushing of liberties, happens just that fast

Epic Fail obama: Week in review

May 11, 2010

This may become a regular feature as the administration digs itself further and further into the dust bag of history. It is such a great thing that said bags can be emptied from time to time, and then we can go on about our business.

“So now, I gather, our only strategy is to hope the terrorists’ bombs keep fizzling. There’s no other line of defense. In the case of the Times Square car bomber, the Department of Homeland Security failed, the Immigration and Naturalization Service failed, the CIA failed and the TSA failed. (However, the Department of Alert T-Shirt Vendors came through with flying colors, as it always does.) Only the New York Police Department, a New York street vendor and Shahzad’s Rube Goldberg bomb (I do hope he’s not offended by how Jewish that sounds — Obama can apologize) prevented a major explosion in Times Square. Even after the NYPD de-wired the smoking car bomb, produced enough information to identify the bomb-maker, and handed it all to federal law enforcement authorities tied up in a bow, the federal government’s crack ‘no-fly’ list failed to stop Shahzad from boarding a plane to Dubai. To be fair, at Emirates Airlines, being on a ‘no-fly’ list makes you eligible for pre-boarding. Perhaps the Department of Homeland Security should consider creating a ‘Really, REALLY No-Fly’ list.” –columnist Ann Coulter

“There has been one high-profile violent incident perpetrated by a right-winger since Obama took office: the May 31, 2009 shooting of abortionist George Tiller. There have been a bevy of high-profile violent incidents by registered Democrats or liberals: the suicide airplane attack by Joseph Stack of Austin, Texas, against the IRS; the liberal who bit off the finger of an ObamaCare opponent in Thousand Oaks, Calif.; the murderous rampage by Obama-lover Amy Bishop at the University of Alabama; the beating of black man Kenneth Gladney by Service Employee International Union thugs in St. Louis; the Earth Liberation Front’s destruction of KRKO-AM’s radio towers in Seattle. None of these incidents by non-Muslim Americans were designed to create mass casualties among random Americans or members of the American military. All of the radical Muslim attacks were. Using rudimentary reasoning skills, it wouldn’t take long to hit on the hypothesis that perhaps the Times Square attempted bombing was linked to a radical Muslim. But we live in a country where rudimentary reasoning skills have been banned if they offend politically correct sensibilities. So our politicians suggest that tea partiers were behind the attempted bombing (that suggestion, not coincidentally, fits with President Obama’s attempts to label his domestic political opponents terrorists). They suggest that it could have been anybody — anybody! — behind the propane, gas and gunpowder. Meanwhile, they don’t place radical Muslim terrorists on no-fly lists. Only when the proof is indisputable do they finally confirm what everybody with half a brain suspected all along — and then they hope to get lucky.” –columnist Ben Shapiro

“Greece has cultural problems that contribute to its economic implosion. But there are similarities to the U.S. as well — and because we have elected Democrats, they are growing. By the end of 2011, Greece’s debt will be 150 percent of its GDP. According to a March report by the Congressional Budget Office, President Obama’s 2011 budget will generate nearly $10 trillion in cumulative budget deficits over the next 10 years — $1.2 trillion more than the administration projected — which will increase our debt to GDP ratio to 90 percent by 2020. One in three Greeks works for the government. Government employees enjoy higher wages, more munificent benefits, and earlier retirements than private sector employees. … Public sector unions are growing in the U.S. More than 50 percent of all union members are now public employees who have negotiated sweet deals with local, state, and federal governments. As economic historian John Steele Gordon points out, ‘Federal workers now earn, in wages and benefits, about twice what their private-sector equivalents get paid. State workers often have Cadillac health plans and retirement benefits far above the private sector average: 80 percent of public-sector workers have pension benefits, only 50 percent in the private sector. Many can retire at age 50.’ While private employers were shedding jobs during the recession, state and local governments hired 110,000 new workers. Obama’s new spending will result in a 14.5 percent increase in the number of federal employees in just two years. … And in a corrupt feedback loop that may not be so very different after all from the Greek practice, public employee unions give generously to Democratic candidates, both in cash contributions and by manning phone banks, getting out the vote, and so on. It’s no coincidence that the states with the most powerful public sector unions — New Jersey, California, and New York — are facing the most severe budget crises. Greece is in flames, but if you look around, you can smell the smoke here as well.” –columnist Mona Charen

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Posted in Economics, Editorial, Opinion, Education, Law, News, Politics, Wordpress Political Blogs | 3 Comments »

Elene Kagan: The “short” unknown

May 10, 2010

Elena Kagan reportedly is the impostor in chiefs choice for the Supreme Court. So far, little really is known about the lady. What is known, is that she spent a lot of time in academia. Ivy league schools, and all that.

Considering the anti liberty leftist big government teachings and social activism that has been rampant at such places for so long? I for one am not all that sure that those things are in fact positives. The crotch card is also being played again, and I see that as a negative. Not the fact that she is female but the fact that it is even being touted.

What is the lady’s position on the Bill of Rights? The Constitution? Individual liberty verses Government power? Is she a constructionist or does she believe that a piece of paper breathes? Is she an obama boot licker or can she think for herself, and act on that rather than take marching orders?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Related links:

ONE

Two

Three

Then, after all is said and done? Could there be a queen bee conflict on the Court between her, and the “Wise Latina?”

Then later in the day there is THIS go figure!

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Posted in Editorial, Opinion, Education, Gun Control, Immigration, Law, News, Politics, Wordpress Political Blogs | 8 Comments »

Spelling Treason: Lautenberg, King, Bloomberg

May 9, 2010

Since September 11, 2001, it’s been clear that terrorists who hate America will exploit our weaknesses in order to destroy us. This week, Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.), Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) and New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg exploited Americans’ fear of terrorism to push their latest anti-gun proposal, and in doing so showed that they’re willing to destroy other parts of the Constitution, to choke its Second Amendment.

On Tuesday, as chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, Lieberman held a hearing to give Lautenberg and King the opportunity to promote their bills S.1317 and H.R.2159, to prohibit the possession of firearms by people on the FBI’s “terrorist watchlist,” and Lautenberg’s S. 2820, to maintain records of approved instant background check transactions for a minimum of 180 days. The watchlist bills further propose that a person seeking relief in court  from these new restrictions would be prevented from examining and challenging “evidence” against him, and that the judge deciding whether the person had been watchlisted for good reason be limited to summaries and redacted versions of such “evidence.”

Joining Lautenberg, King and Bloomberg to speak in favor of these patently anti-American and unconstitutional bills was Bloomberg’s police commissioner, Ray Kelly.

Claims made by the bills’ supporters during the hearing bordered on the frivolous. Lautenberg cited the failed attempt last Saturday to set off a homemade gasoline-propane bomb in an SUV near NYC’s Times Square — even though his watchlist bill would only regulate firearms and commercially made explosives. Lautenberg then brought up an even more irrelevant incident, the 2008 attack by a terrorist group in Mumbai, India, saying “That’s why we need to change the law” in the United States. A “fanatic” in his own right when it comes to gun control, Lautenberg continued, “Nothing in our laws keeps fanatics on the terror watchlist from purchasing guns and explosives.”

Lautenberg was lying, of course, and Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) called him on it. Knowing that the Government Accountability Office has reported that about 95 percent of people on the watchlist are neither American citizens nor legal residents of the United States, Sen. Graham pointed out “there are 400,000 people on the watchlist.” He then asked, “what percentage of them are American citizens?”

Lautenberg and his allies sat silently, dumbfounded, for what seemed an eternity, until Kelly, dutifully taking the punch so his boss wouldn’t have to, sputtered that he was unable to come up with a figure. Since it was obvious that the anti-gunners didn’t get the point, Sen. Graham clarified it for them: “The law prohibits the purchase of a gun unless you’re an American citizen or a legal resident alien.”

Lautenberg tried to justify his bill by saying “From 2004 to February of this year, terrorists tried to buy guns and explosives 1,228 times. In 91 percent of those cases, they were given the OK to buy the guns.” The claim was misleading, in that the 1,228 checks were accounted for by about 650 individuals, according to the GAO. But Sen. Graham seized upon a more important flaw in the statistic when he asked how many of these “terrorists” were dangerous enough to have been brought up on terrorism charges. On this point too, the Lautenberg team had no response. That led Sen. Graham to question whether the watchlisted gun buyers were as dangerous as the Lautenberg team want people to believe.

King falsely claimed that his bill was justified by last year’s Ft. Hood murders, “where individuals [sic] suspected of terrorist activity legally obtained weapons that were used to kill innocent Americans.” The truth is, the one person (not multiple individuals) accused of the Ft. Hood crime was not “suspected of terrorist activity.” Months before the accused killer bought his gun, the FBI had completed an investigation of him, concluding that despite some suspicious e-mails between the accused and an anti-American Islamist overseas, he was not a terrorist threat. At the bottom line, even if everything that Lautenberg, King and Bloomberg are proposing had already been federal law, it would not have affected the Ft. Hood crime one whit.

Speaking against the proposed legislation during the hearing was Aaron Titus of the Liberty Coalition.  “Senate Bill 1317 goes too far,” he said. “The bill should be titled, ‘The Gun Owners Are Probably All Terrorists Act,’ because it strips citizens of their constitutional right to [keep and] bear arms without any meaningful due process. And Senate Bill 2820 should be called, ‘The National Firearm Registry Act’ because it creates a national firearms registry. . . . a massive database of names and detailed personal information of each law-abiding citizen who purchases a gun.”

Titus’ point laid Lautenberg’s, King’s and Bloomberg’s intention bare. While S. 2820 would allow the FBI to retain NICS records on all NICS transactions, 99.999 percent of the people documented in those records would not be persons on the watchlist. “The bill disingenuously purports to target terrorists,” Titus said, “but in fact only one ten-thousandth of one percent of these records will belong to people on watch lists. Every year, only 200 new watch-list records will be created. But the system will generate more than 14 million new records on law-abiding citizens. Once collected, there’s no limit on what the information may be used for, and no legal requirement to ever delete it.”

Later, Sen. Graham summed up the reason that should motivate every American — regardless of personal feelings about individual gun ownership — to oppose the Lautenberg and King bills. “I think you’re going too far here,” he said. “There’s a huge difference between losing your gun rights based upon a felony charge that was proven by a court of law and appealed, and is a conviction on the books, and being on some list that is, at best, suspect.”  NRA members in South Carolina and around the nation owe Sen. Graham their thanks for getting to the heart of the issue.

SOURCE

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Posted in Editorial, Opinion, Education, Gun Control, Hoplophobia, Law, News, Politics, Uncategorized, Wordpress Political Blogs | 3 Comments »

Democrats Push for National ID

May 9, 2010

At least since 9/11, the Democrats have, if anything, been even worse than the Republicans in their push for a national ID. I recall the Bush administration, very early on, dismissing this totalitarian idea, although Bush soon enough signed the Real ID Act into law, with the support of hawkish and anti-immigration conservatives. But the establishment left is also a major threat on this front, and Democrats traditionally get a pass on civil liberties issues, whereas under Republicans there is more populist criticism of surveillance, police powers and the like.

Consider the Orwellian program being proposed by the Democratic leadership as part of “immigration reform.” Alexander Bolton writes:

Democratic leaders have proposed requiring every worker in the nation to carry a national identification card with biometric information, such as a fingerprint, within the next six years, according to a draft of the measure. The proposal is one of the biggest differences between the newest immigration reform proposal and legislation crafted by late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). The national ID program would be titled the Believe System, an acronym for Biometric Enrollment, Locally stored Information and Electronic Verification of Employment. It would require all workers across the nation to carry a card with a digital encryption key that would have to match work authorization databases.

Whereas the Kennedy/McCain bill was bad enough, containing both positive elements and nasty ones, this new monstrosity would force leviathan’s way even further into every employment relationship. And this actually speaks to the false dichotomy between civil and economic liberties. Both incorrectly bifurcated forms of freedom are rooted in the same set of property rights, first and foremost in one’s own person and, by extension, in the tangible property one acquires justly through homesteading, gifts and honest market transactions. If Big Brother tries to comprehensively regulate immigration, he can smash economic freedom of association. And if the state has the power to oversee our economic lives, our personal freedom will always suffer in the process.

Full Story

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Posted in Economics, Editorial, Opinion, Education, Law, News, Politics, Stupid is as Stupid Does, Wordpress Political Blogs | 5 Comments »

Red journalism: Newsweek

May 9, 2010

The Washington Post is divesting itself of another Leftmedia financial hemorrhage, Newsweek Magazine. The Post’s magazine division lost $29.3 million in 2009 after a $16.1 million loss in 2008. Newsweek editor Jon Meacham, who fancies himself a political moderate, has lorded over the papers decline during the last four years with Leftist cover stories, including many like the 2006 headline proclaiming “We’re losing…” in Iraq, and hit pieces in support of terrorists at Gitmo, which undermine our effort to combat Jihadistan, and embolden our enemies at great peril to our uniformed Patriots in theaters of warfare.

According to Meacham, who is trying to find private investors to keep his magazine afloat, “I believe this is an important American institution. I just do. Maybe that’s quixotic, maybe that’s outdated, but it’s what I believe.” “Quixotic”? Perhaps idiotic.

Under Meacham, who was considered something of a “golden boy” when he took the reigns of Newsweek, the magazine has digressed into a yellow journalism rag, some might even say “red journalism.” Meacham’s sycophantic support for Obama certainly accounts for some of the magazine’s woes. Newsweek has lost employees at the same rate as its advertising decline, and its paid print circulation guarantee is down from 2.6 million to 1.5 million. But there is one employee who hasn’t lost his job, and if the remaining 400 employees want to keep their jobs, he should go.

And then there was this;

At the White House Correspondent’s Dinner last week, Barack Obama may have outdone himself in the tasteless joke department when he warned the Jonas Brothers about coming near his young daughters. “Sasha and Malia are huge fans, but boys, don’t get any ideas,” Obama deadpanned. “Two words for you: predator drones. You will never see it coming. You think I’m joking?”

Predator drones, which have been very useful is taking down insurgents, have also killed numerous civilians, adding to the anti-American sentiment in Pakistan. Imagine if George W. Bush, who was demonized by the media for eight years, made a joke about such a weapon. At least some liberal journalists owned up to that fact. “Let’s be honest, fellow progressives,” tweeted the Philadelphia Daily News’ Will Brunch, “we’d be all over Bush if he made the same ‘predator drone’ joke Obama told.” Indeed they would.

Source

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Posted in Economics, Editorial, Opinion, Education, News, Non Compos Mentis, Politics, Wordpress Political Blogs | 3 Comments »

More on man made Global Climate Change: yeah right…

May 9, 2010

Yvo de Boer, the UN’s lame-duck climate change bigwig, recently held a three-day conference in Koenigswinter, Germany. The meeting, loftily known as the “The Petersberg Dialogue” (which sounds like the title of a Robert Ludlum novel), was arranged to repair the breakdown in trust that occurred at Nopenhagen last December.

The next major UN climate change conference is set for December of this year in Cancun, Mexico, which, unlike frozen Copenhagen, shouldn’t suffer snow or bring record cold temperatures. While Copenhagen was hyped in the media for months beforehand, de Boar isn’t holding out any hopes for a binding treaty in Cancun. Instead, he hopes it will lead to a “functioning architecture,” which is liberalese for establishing a platform of wealth redistribution on an international scale.

De Boer is confident that a treaty will be signed before 2012, but he was careful to state that “even that will not be the definitive answer to the climate change challenge.” Of course, the only definitive answer, according to envirofascists, would involve bankrupting economies and limiting each couple to one child because, by the very fact of our existence, humans are endangering the planet.

In the meantime, the Leftmedia continues to wage its scare campaign on the rest of us. This week, the Leftmedia headlined “Melting Icebergs Cause Sea Level Rise,” which was taken from a press release issued by the University of Leeds. The article continues with the usual fear-inspiring “facts,” giving just enough data to sway some of those on the fence. Of course, as blogger Anthony Watts pointed out, at the rate the scientists claim the ice is melting, a dubious guess in and of itself, we can expect the sea level to rise one inch every 526 years.

SOURCE

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Posted in Editorial, Opinion, Education, News, Non Compos Mentis, Politics, Stupid is as Stupid Does, Wordpress Political Blogs | Comments Off on More on man made Global Climate Change: yeah right…

Wishful thinking: Times Square Bomber and the left

May 9, 2010

When the first description of the Times Square would-be bomber Faisal Shahzad was released to the media, it raised the hopes of many. No, fellow Patriots, we’re not speaking of normal American hopes such as a quick capture of the would-be mass murderer. Unfortunately, what some were hoping was that this “middle-aged white guy” would be a right-wing Tea Party nut.

Fox News’ resident lefty Bob Beckel pontificated that he thought it might be a “right-wing militiaman” and Geraldo Rivera salivated over the white male suspect that was initially reported. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg suggested it might be “somebody home-grown, maybe a mentally deranged person or somebody with a political agenda that doesn’t like the health care bill or something.” MSNBC’s Contessa Brewer couldn’t help but allude to the Hutaree Militia in Michigan while lamenting, “I get frustrated and there was part of me that was hoping this was not going to be anybody with ties to any kind of Islamic country.” One could almost taste the blood in the water as the frenzied Leftmedia homed in on the “real” right-wing threat they just knew had finally been revealed.

Unfortunately for them, however, this latest attempt at a “man-caused disaster” on American soil wasn’t perpetrated by a homegrown militiaman, nor by a member of the Tea Party, nor by an anti-ObamaCare zealot. Despite all the dashed “hopes” of the Left, this guy was just another Muslim jihadist. Worse is the news that Shahzad is a naturalized Pakistani-American with apparent Taliban and al-Qa’ida training. Furthermore, he drew inspiration from Anwar al-Awlaki, the same radical Yemeni-American cleric that inspired Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan. The only good news, despite irresponsible media efforts to correct the mistake, was that this nitwit must have flunked Bombing 101.

In the face of the evidence, even the administration came around. Homeland Security Chief Janet Napolitano informed the nation in the hours after the bombing attempt, “We’re treating it as if it could be a potential terrorist attack.” Nothing gets by her.

“I worked in homeland security. I’m from intelligence, and I’ll tell you, one of the largest threats to our internal security — I mean terrorism has an Islamic face — but it really comes from racial supremacist groups. Its the kind of thing we keep a threat assessment on record [for].” —Rep. Andre Carson (D-IN) on the Tea Party

SOURCE

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Posted in Editorial, Opinion, Education, Immigration, Law, Military Science, News, Politics, War, Warfare, Wordpress Political Blogs | 3 Comments »

The Office of Financial Research: epic fail obama

May 9, 2010

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who didn’t see fit to pay his own income taxes, may soon have the authority to watch over your financial transactions, thanks to a new federal agency that would be created in the Democrats’ financial overhaul bill. The Office of Financial Research, straight out of a George Orwell novel, would serve as a central repository of transaction records generated at private financial companies. Geithner, along with an unspecified number of bureaucrats that he hires, will have unlimited access for “statistical analysis and research” of the nation’s financial institutions — supposedly for the purpose of spotting systemic problems that will allow them to act before another meltdown.

This agency is the latest in the series of unconstitutional power grabs that Democrats have grown accustomed to since Barack Obama became president. It violates American citizens’ Fourth Amendment guarantee of security in their “persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures” and its imprecise language leaves plenty of room for expanding the agency’s activities without congressional approval. The type of information access that Democrats seek would not have enabled them to prevent the financial meltdown of 2008, but it would allow bureaucrats who work for this agency the opportunity to share their privileged information with the private sector one year after leaving the agency. So, ironically, the Office of Financial Research simply presents our bloated government even more opportunity for further corruption and mismanagement of the economy.

In other financial “reform” news, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT), the architect of the legislation, has agreed to drop the $50 billion bailout fund in an effort to get Republicans onboard. While Dodd is making concessions, though, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is making accusations, claiming that Republicans are stalling because “they are having difficulty determining how they’re going to continue making love to Wall Street” if the bill passes. You’re a class act, Harry.

SOURCE

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Posted in Economics, Editorial, Opinion, Education, Law, News, Politics, Wordpress Political Blogs | 7 Comments »

Volunteers Needed for Endangered Species Study‏

May 9, 2010

SALIDA, Colo. – The Division of Wildlife is looking for volunteers interested in searching for boreal toads in Colorado’s high country.

Training for interested volunteers begins on Thursday, May 13 at 5:30 p.m. at the DOW office in Salida.

“We need folks willing to hike into some of our high mountain lakes and ponds to determine which locations might have boreal toads,” said Tina Jackson of the DOW.

Boreal toads are small amphibians that were once common throughout the Southern Rocky Mountains.  Their population has steadily declined over the past two decades and now they are considered an endangered species in Colorado and New Mexico, as well as a protected species in Wyoming.

Boreal toads live at elevations between 7,000 – 12,000 feet above sea level.  Due to the short summer season in the high country, volunteers are needed to assist researchers gather data from as many locations as possible.

Volunteers are trained over two sessions.   The first session, May 13, is indoors.  It teaches how to identify boreal toads, or their tadpoles, and where to look.

The second session talks place Saturday, May 22 when Jackson will lead a field trip to a location where boreal toads are known to exist and provide hands-on training on how to identify the species and collect data.

Boreal toads are not the only amphibian to start disappearing.  Amphibians around the globe are experiencing alarming declines. Of the over three thousand amphibian species in the Americas, 39 percent are threatened with extinction.

Researchers believe the declines are related to infection by a fungus.  The fungus invades the thin, permeable skin of amphibians and appears to kill them by interrupting their ability to absorb oxygen through their skin.  The fungus is not dangerous to humans, but deadly to amphibians.

For more information about becoming a volunteer, contact: Raquel Stotler, DOW Area Wildlife Conservation Biologist in Salida at 719-530-5526, (raquel.stotler@state.co.us); or Jena Sanchez, DOW Volunteer Coordinator in Colorado Springs at 719-227-5204, (jena.sanchez@state.co.us).

For more information about Division of Wildlife go to: http://wildlife.state.co.us.

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Posted in Education, Hunting Fishing and the Great Outdoors, News, Uncategorized | Comments Off on Volunteers Needed for Endangered Species Study‏

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