Category: Corruption Corner

Annihilating Third Parties

Following in the footsteps of Arizona, the government of Ohio is taking measure to eliminate the threat of third parties:

It’s in this environment that the Ohio State Senate has passed this bill which would essentially eliminate all third party candidates from ballots. In the bill, only candidates from parties which earned 3% or more of the vote in a presidential election would be placed on the ballot; all other candidates would be write-in options. Newly qualifying parties must also submit petitions with at least 55,809 valid signatures.

The bill would, in many ways, solidify the placement of the Democrat and Republican parties at the center of American politics. Voters must look up and remember the names – something which should be simple but many people simply vote party line, and this will create a discrepancy amongst parties – and write-in candidates must apply to be counted. Write-in votes are also counted much more slowly than others, if at all, meaning they will not be discussed in the initial analysis of election results.

Welcome to the reason third parties will never be allowed to gain prominence in American politics. The two ruling parties (which, for all intents and purposes, are one ruling party) already hold power. Because they already hold power they get to make the rules. When you get to make the rules you get to eliminate potential competition by erecting barriers to entry into your marketplace. If a third party in Ohio ever gets close to 3% of a presidential vote the required percentage will be raised to 5% or 10%. The percentage goal post will continue to be moved to ensure third parties remain in their place.

You can’t fix the political system through the political system.

Speeding Tickets are for Little People

It must be nice being a member of the privileged political class. You get to set your own hours, give yourself a raise whenever you want, take other people’s money by decree, and be immune from the very laws your cohorts created. Legislators in Washington are enjoying the freedom of immunity from speeding tickets:

A spokesman for WSP says Washington lawmakers are constitutionally protected from receiving noncriminal traffic tickets during a legislative session, as well as 15 days before. A spokeswoman says The Tacoma Police Department abides by a similar policy.

State Patrol spokesman Bob Calkins says the privilege not only applies to moving violations near the state Capitol in Olympia, but potentially anywhere in the state.

The logic? Detaining lawmakers on the road — even for the time it takes to issue them a speeding ticket — may delay them from getting to the Capitol to vote.

Being able to arrive at the marble building in time to say “yea” or “nay” to a decree written by one of my buddies is absolutely critical to the safety of the state. At least I assume as much since we, the little people, are constantly bombarded with propaganda that speeding is super dangerous and is responsible for killing billions of people every year (I may have exaggerated slightly). Either passing legislation is more important than the lives of fellow drivers or the propaganda regarding the dangers of speeding is complete bullshit. Either way, the lawmakers once again enjoy special privileges that us little people don’t.

No Honor Amongst Thieves

They say there’s no honor amongst thieves. It’s not surprising then to see that the biggest thief of data, the National Security Agency (NSA), has been acting less than honorable:

Staff working at America’s National Security Agency – the eavesdropping unit that was revealed to have spied on millions of people – have used the technology to spy on their lovers.

The employees even had a code name for the practice – “Love-int” – meaning the gathering of intelligence on their partners.

With all the recent news about impending war with Syria, coverage of the NSA’s misdeeds has dwindled a bit. But we’re still learning about the extent of the NSA’s operations. At this point we should assume that the NSA is spying on everybody and anybody who is in a relationship with an employee of the NSA should really consider whether or not they can trust that person.

More Lies from the DoJ and FBI

Are you ready for another shocker? As it turns out the Department of Justice (DoJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) lied about their efforts to crackdown on mortgage fraud:

The Justice Department and FBI have quietly acknowledged they grossly overstated the scope of a mortgage fraud crackdown, which the administration heralded with much fanfare a few weeks before last year’s presidential election.

According to a memo circulated by the FBI and a correction posted online by the Justice Department, the number of defendants, the number of victims and the size of the losses are, in reality, a fraction of what officials claimed last October.

Lying during an election? How could that have happened?! This rather obvious admittance by the DoJ and FBI really kicks those who believe the state is necessary to administer justice in the face. The state, just like any other human organization, is motivated by self-interest. During an election year the number of lies told by the state often increases because those in power wish to remain in power. Election years are when every ill society is facing suddenly shows notable improvements. Unemployment often takes a dip, discussions of reducing the debt become “serious”, and enforcement against crimes that actually have victims is increased. After the election is over we learn that none of those supposed improvements were real.

How can we trust organizations that commit fraud, which is what the DoJ and FBI did, to crackdown on organizations that commit fraud? Quis custodiet ipsos custodes (who will guard the guards themselves or, if you prefer, who watches the watchmen)? Granting the state a monopoly on law enforcement also grants it a carte blanch to commit all the crimes it wants. If you are the only one tasked with law enforcement then you can break the law with impunity.

In the end, the statists’ claim that the state is necessary to uphold law and order is shot down every time the state commits crimes itself. Between its propensity to commit acts of theft, kidnapping, murder, and fraud the state is the largest criminal organization on the planet.

Lavabit Shutdown and Silent Circle Shutters Its E-Mail Service

Lavabit, the e-mail host that gained recent popularity by being the go to host for Edward Snowden, has been forced to shutdown. By the looks of it the order to shutdown came from the glorious defender of freedom known as the United States government:

My Fellow Users,

I have been forced to make a difficult decision: to become complicit in crimes against the American people or walk away from nearly ten years of hard work by shutting down Lavabit. After significant soul searching, I have decided to suspend operations. I wish that I could legally share with you the events that led to my decision. I cannot. I feel you deserve to know what’s going on–the first amendment is supposed to guarantee me the freedom to speak out in situations like this. Unfortunately, Congress has passed laws that say otherwise. As things currently stand, I cannot share my experiences over the last six weeks, even though I have twice made the appropriate requests.

What’s going to happen now? We’ve already started preparing the paperwork needed to continue to fight for the Constitution in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. A favorable decision would allow me resurrect Lavabit as an American company.

This experience has taught me one very important lesson: without congressional action or a strong judicial precedent, I would _strongly_ recommend against anyone trusting their private data to a company with physical ties to the United States.

Sincerely,
Ladar Levison
Owner and Operator, Lavabit LLC

Defending the constitution is expensive! Help us by donating to the Lavabit Legal Defense Fund here.

Since Mr. Levison wrote that he’s unable, for legal reasons, to discuss why he’s being forced to shutdown it’s likely that he either received a national security letter or the National Security Agency (NSA) demanded he created a backdoor in his service less he be harassed with legal charges for cause harm to national security.

As a preemptive move to avoid suffering the same fate, Silent Circle, another organization that attempts to provide means of secure communications, has shuttered its e-mail service:

However, we have reconsidered this position. We’ve been thinking about this for some time, whether it was a good idea at all. Yesterday, another secure email provider, Lavabit, shut down their system less they “be complicit in crimes against the American people.” We see the writing on the wall, and we have decided that it is best for us to shut down Silent Mail. We have not received subpoenas, warrants, security letters, or anything else by any government, and this is why we are acting now.

We’ve been debating this for weeks, and had changes planned starting next Monday. We’d considered phasing the service out, continuing service for existing customers, and a variety of other things up until today. It is always better to be safe than sorry, and with your safety we decided that in this case the worst decision is no decision.

Shutting down their e-mail service before receiving a national security letter or being coerced into installing a backdoor for the NSA is a smart move. At least Silent Circle is able to publicly discuss their reason for doing so, unlike Lavabit.

These shutdowns go to show how far this police state of a country has gone. An organization can’t even provide secure e-mail hosting without becoming a target of the state’s aggression. I can only hope Mr. Levison and the people at Silent Circle moves their operations to a country that respects a man’s privacy, such as Iceland, so they can continue offering services their customers want.

American Freedom

I really do enjoy the people who continue to say that United States isn’t a police state. You have to admire somebody who can perform such blatant acts of cognitive dissonance without instantly suffering from a mental breakdown. After all, nothing says not a police state like having a quarter of your population arrested:

We’ve heard a lot of talk lately about mass incarceration, the stop-and-frisk policies in New York, reforming the drug laws, and mandatory minimum sentencing. There’s also been discussion about over-criminalization — that we have too many laws, too broadly enforced — from groups as ideologically diverse as the Heritage Foundation, the ACLU, the Cato Institute, and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

But here’s a related statistic that’s pretty mind blowing in and of itself: According to the FBI, in 2011 there were 3991.1 arrests for every 100,000 people living in America. That means over the course of a single year, one in 25 Americans was arrested.

While that statistic doesn’t tell the whole story, as each arrest of the same person is counted separately in the raw numbers, it does tell a frightening one nonetheless. The fact that there have been, on average, 399.1 arrests for every 100,000 people is insane. If such a statistic doesn’t prove that this country has too many laws on the books I don’t know what can.

Bradley Manning Facing Over a Century in a Cage for Doing the Right Thing

The who trial of Bradly Manning finally concluded yesterday. Manning was acquitted of the most severe charge, aiding the enemy, but was found guilty of 19 other charges:

FORT MEADE, Md. — Bradley Manning, the Army intelligence analyst who laid bare America’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan by covertly transmitting a massive trove of sensitive government documents to WikiLeaks, has been convicted on 19 of 21 charges, including 6 counts of espionage. He was found not guilty of aiding the enemy, the most serious and controversial charge laid against him.

[…]

Manning now faces up to 136 years in prison on his convictions.

Over a century in a cage for revealing the war crimes? The message being sent by the state is quite clear. While the state can intercept and listen to our phone calls, collect and read our e-mails, keep records of our purchases, and otherwise collect intelligence on us without our knowledge the agreement isn’t reciprocal. Or, to put it more succinctly:


Image courtesy of the Punk Rock Libertarians Facebook page.

The state wants to maintain tabs on every person but will throw anybody who attempts to maintain tabs on it into a cage for the rest of their miserable life. Charges of cowardice were aimed at Edward Snowden when he fled the country but Manning’s trial demonstrates that Snowden did the smart thing. Staying in the United States after revealing its misdeeds is a recipe for disaster.

The Tyrant of New York City Continues His Power Trip

Michael Bloomberg is famous in the gun rights community due to his zealous advocacy of gun control. As his reign in New York City continues Bloomberg’s insanity is becoming more obvious to people outside of the gun rights community. A bill was recently introduce in New York City that was supposed to curtail the New York Police Department’s (NYPD) practice of stopping people and frisking them (I’m sure it’s only coincidental that a vast majority of the individuals stopped by NYPD are people whose skin color is anything darker than off-white). Bloomberg didn’t like the idea because it got in the way of his power trip so he put the kibosh on it:

Two politically charged New York City bills to rein in the NYPD’s use of controversial stop-and-frisk tactics were vetoed Tuesday by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

He slammed both bills — one to create an NYPD inspector general and another to allow people to sue over racial profiling by cops — as a boon to criminals and terrorists.

The “dangerous and irresponsible” measures “would make New Yorkers less safe,” he wrote in his veto message.

There is some good news though:

The bills appear to have enough support in the City Council to override the mayor’s vetoes, but Bloomberg has mounted a blitz to block the racial-profiling bill, which passed with 34 votes — exactly the number needed to override a veto.

Although I wouldn’t put it past Bloomberg to arrange for one of his opponents in the City Council to have an “accident.” The man is obviously insane and as his reign comes to an end (he can’t run for mayor of New York City again unless the city’s term limit laws are changed) he’s becoming more and more unstable.

Even Journalists Must Bow to the State

How many times have you been told that the United States offers the most press freedom and journalist protections in the world? It’s bullshit, of course. If the press was really free journalists would be able to maintain the anonymity of their sources because the right of free speech should also include the right to keep quiet. Here in Soviet America a journalist only has the right to remain silent when the state says so:

WASHINGTON — In a major ruling about press freedoms, a divided federal appeals court on Friday ruled that James Risen, an author and reporter for The New York Times, must testify in the criminal trial of a former Central Intelligence Agency official charged with providing him with classified information.
National Twitter Logo.

In a 118-page set of opinions, two members of a three-judge panel for the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, Va. — the court whose decisions cover the Pentagon and the C.I.A. — ruled that the First Amendment provides no protection to reporters who receive unauthorized leaks from being forced to testify against the alleged sources who leaked to them.

If you’re a journalist who is pushing the state’s agenda you can be reasonably assured that your rights will be protected. If you’re a journalist who isn’t towing the company line you can be reasonably assured that your rights will be violated.

Rules are for Thee, Not for Me

Here’s another entry into the rules are for thee, not for me. The governor of Iowa was clocked at 84 miles per hour. If you were I were to exceed the arbitrarily created speed limit in such a fashion we would face a very large fine and possibly have our automobile confiscated. Things turn out a little differently when you’re a high ranking member of the political elite:

Special Agent in Charge Larry Hedlund observed the SUV of Governor Terry Branstad going nearly 90 MPH on the highway. He was in a state owned vehicle, but called for an on-duty officer to pursue. Another officer clocked the SUV at 84 MPH, but didn’t pull them over once he saw that another trooper was driving.

Hedlund complained to superiors about the incident and how it could have endangered public safety. Soon after, Hedlund was put on paid leave for an alleged rules violation, that being the use of a state-owned vehicle while off duty.

Hedlund was just fired after a two and a half month investigation this week. He was part of the Iowa police for 25 years. Hedlund says that the firing definitely had nothing to do with the alleged rules violation and was absolutely about calling for a pursuit of the Governor.

For those of you working for the state’s enforcement arm let this be a lesson; if you even think about crossing your masters you will be put down. It would also be wise for those of us in the serf class to ignore the wrongdoings of our manor lords because reporting their shenanigans will likely result in us being kidnapped and held in a cage.

Remember, all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.