Category: Corruption Corner

TSA Decides No Independent Study of X-Ray Scanner Safety is Needed

Remember some time back when the Transportation Sexual Assaulters Security Administration (TSA) promised to have an independent safety study performed on the x-ray body scanners? Neither does the TSA:

Earlier this month, a ProPublica/PBS NewsHour investigation found that the TSA had glossed over research that the X-ray scanners could lead to a small number of cancer cases. The scanners emit low levels of ionizing radiation, which has been shown to damage DNA. In addition, several safety reviewers who initially advised the government on the scanners said they had concerns about the machines being used, as they are today, on millions of airline passengers.

[…]

But at a Senate hearing of a different committee last week, Pistole said he had since received a draft report on the machines by the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general, or IG, that might render the independent study unnecessary.

In other words the government has put their foot down and x-ray scanners are staying regardless of the fact that they may cause cancer. Is there a conflict of interest in having the government perform the review of its own machines? Most certainly. Does the government give two shits about your health? Not at all. Therefore the first question is irrelevant in their eyes.

I contacted a representative of the TSA about this issue and he replied by saying, “HA HA HA HA HA HA! Shut up slave and get in the scanner.” Now that I think about it the man may not have been with the TSA, but he was a registered sex offender which is basically the same thing.

The bottom line is this: the government wants you used to the idea of constant warrantless surveillance. These scanners give them that by ensuring everybody who flies is searched without reason. Even now the TSA is performing warrantless searches in other venues such as truck weigh stations without so much as probably cause. If you think that is the final extent of the TSA’s power you are sorely mistaken, they will continue to expand their influence and I wouldn’t be surprised if we eventually see interstate checkpoints staffed by TSA agents. A populace under constant surveillance is much easier to control than one able to go about their business that remains unknown the the government.

No question exists in my mind about whether or not these scanners are going or staying. Were research presented by a well-known and respected institute that proved, with no uncertainty, that these scanners cause cancer we will still not be rid of them. Shortly after such research was released the government would likely release their own counter-research that said the chances of getting cancer from one of these machines is lower than the chances of somebody getting onto a plan with a weapon without the scanners and therefore, for the greater good, these scanners must remain.

As I said before we’re not traveling down the road to fascism, we’ve already reached our destination.

Cronyism in Action

You scratch my back:

Solyndra, the now-shuttered California company, had been a poster child of President Obama’s initiative to invest in clean energies and received the administration’s first energy loan of $535 million. But a year ago, in October 2010, the solar panel manufacturer was quickly running out of money and had warned the Energy Department it would need emergency cash to avoid having to shut down.

And I’ll scratch yours:

But in an Oct. 30, 2010, e-mail, advisers to Solyndra’s primary investor, Argonaut Equity, explain that the Energy Department had strongly urged the company to put off the layoff announcement until Nov. 3. The midterm elections were held Nov. 2, and led to Republicans taking control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Corruption is unavoidable when the government bribes individuals and businesses with money stolen from the public.

Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle was a Work of Fiction

There are several sacred cows when it comes to government regulatory bodies and one of those fat grass eating bastards is the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Whenever you mention a desire to eliminate various government regulatory bodies people get very upset when you bring up one of the sacred cows because they feel that agency is absolutely necessary for the wellbeing of the nation. In the case of the FDA supporters will often cite a novel by Upton Sinclair called The Jungle as definitive proof that we need the FDA in order to have safe food to eat. The Jungle is a novel about the supposedly inhuman conditions found in the Chicago slaughterhouses of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. Unfortunately for those who cite the work it was a completely fictitious, sensationalized, and outrageous piece of literature:

The Jungle was, first and foremost, a novel. It was intended to be a polemic—a diatribe, if you will—and not a well-researched and dispassionate documentary. Sinclair relied heavily on both his own imagination and on the hearsay of others. He did not even pretend to have actually witnessed the horrendous conditions he ascribed to Chicago packinghouses, nor to have verified them, nor to have derived them from any official records.

When you argument contains no verifiable evidence you’re not off to a good start. The biggest flaw with using The Jungle as a citation for the support of government food regulation is the fact nothing state in the book is verifiable. In fact evidence to the contrary exists:

Though his novelized and sensational accusations prompted later congressional investigations of the industry, the investigators themselves expressed skepticism of Sinclair’s integrity and credibility as a source of information.

[…]

Most Americans would be surprised to know that government meat inspection did not begin in 1906. The inspectors Holbrook refers to as being mentioned in Sinclair’s book were among hundreds employed by federal, state, and local governments for more than a decade. Indeed, Congressman E. D. Crumpacker of Indiana noted in testimony before the House Agriculture Committee in June 1906 that not even one of those officials “ever registered any complaint or (gave) any public information with respect to the manner of the slaughtering or preparation of meat or food products.”5

To Crumpacker and other contemporary skeptics, “Either the Government officials in Chicago (were) woefully derelict in their duty, or the situation over there (had been) outrageously over-stated to the country.”6 If the packing plants were as bad as alleged in The Jungle, surely the government inspectors who never said so must be judged as guilty of neglect as the packers were of abuse.

Some two million visitors came to tour the stockyards and packinghouses of Chicago every year. Thousands of people worked in both. Why is it that it took a novel written by an anti-capitalist ideologue who spent but a few weeks there to unveil the real conditions to the American public?

The entire novel was hyperbole. If conditions in the Chicago packing plats was even remotely as bad as The Jungle described there would have been outrage by visitors and at least one complaint filed by the hundreds of government meat inspectors already overseeing the situation. You can’t cover up such barbarism when millions of visitors come to the scene of the crimes. Likewise the legislation passed in the wake of The Jungle wasn’t passed due to the novel but so everybody citing the novel would shut the hell up:

When the sensational accusations of The Jungle became worldwide news, foreign purchases of American meat were cut in half and the meatpackers looked for new regulations to give their markets a calming sense of security. The only congressional hearings on what ultimately became the Meat Inspection Act of 1906 were held by Congressman James Wadsworth’s Agriculture Committee between June 6 and 11. A careful reading of the deliberations of the Wadsworth committee and the subsequent floor debate leads inexorably to one conclusion: Knowing that a new law would allay public fears fanned by The Jungle, bring smaller competitors under regulation, and put a newly-laundered government stamp of approval on their products, the major meat packers strongly endorsed the proposed act and only quibbled over who should pay for it.

[…]

To his credit, Upton Sinclair actually opposed the law because he saw it for what it really was—a boon for the big meat packers.10 Far from a crusading and objective truth-seeker, Sinclair was a fool and a sucker who ended up being used by the very industry he hated.

At least the bastard didn’t get what he wanted (which happens to everybody who appeals to the government to enact some piece of legislation by the way). Still the Meat Inspection Act of 1906 was passed on fraudulent grounds which is the important thing to take away from this post. Anytime you hear somebody cite The Jungle as a reason for government regulation duly inform that idiot about the truth nature of that novel; it was purely fiction and therefore not a valid source for augmentative purposes.

Big Brother in Our Street Lights

I’m getting rather sick of all the new devices coming out that help our government spy on us. The number of new devices and laws being presented the help government agents listen in on our conversations and watch our ever move is mind-boggling. Not satisfied with the current state of eavesdropping technologies now even street lights are being converted from their benevolent use of providing light to a more sinister purpose:

They are being used for entertainment and safety. but some critics say this is nothing more than the watchful eye of big brother keeping track of your every moment.

[…]

When you step come into view of the street light, there is a camera that spots you, and the person on the other side sees you by white specs on a black screen. The camera senses that somebody is there, and if wants, it can even take your picture.

The system is also capable of recording conversations making critics cry invasion of privacy.

While this is being touted as a great thing by the manufacturer I must say what they think is great I think is despicable:

He said this project “demonstrates how business and government can work together for economic, environmental and social benefits.”

I get a sick feeling in my stomach every time I hear a business tycoon say they can or have demonstrated how business and government can work together. There is a term used to describe a social and economic system where business and government hop into bed together, and that term is fascism. No good comes from a tyrannical government working hand-in-hand with private businesses and let’s be honest, the only thing faster than light is the speed our government is driving down tyranny road.

While I have no expectation of privacy when I’m out and about I do expect my supposed Constitutional protections against government snooping to apply at all times.

It’s Only Counterfeiting When We Do It

Six suckers here in Minnesota decided they were going to wedge in on the government’s business and print up money. Unfortunately for them the government gets upset when others try to move in on its business:

Albert Lea resident Heather Ann Cameron, 34, pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday to one count of counterfeiting U.S. currency. She entered her plea before U.S. District Court Judge Ann D. Montgomery.

In her plea agreement, Cameron admitted that from December 2010 through June 2011, she chemically washed $5 bills and reprinted them as $100 bills. She admitted she intended to defraud businesses by passing the bills and then receiving actual money and goods in return for them.

Her husband, Travis Allen Cameron, 31, of Albert Lea pleaded guilty Monday to the same count, admitting that he produced altered bills, which were sold for about 50 cents on the dollar.

Obviously they didn’t understand that only the government is allowed to counterfeit in this country. When they crank up the printing press it’s called stimulus but when a private individual does it it’s called counterfeiting. Either way the result is inflation but the damage caused by a handful of individuals increasing the “value” of pieces of paper by printing higher values is minuscule compared to the rampant damage to purchasing power caused by the United States government prints off trillions of dollars.

Each defendant in this case face up to 20 years in prison. If they get 20 years for counterfeiting tens of thousands of dollars then the goons in the Federal Reserve and Treasury should be getting life without the possibility of parole.

Don’t Celebrate our Leaving Iraq Yet

The Obamessiah announced that we are finally leaving Iraq after ten years of occupation. It seems awfully convenient that this happened so close to election season but as Ron Paul points out leaving now was only logical:

First and foremost, any form of withdrawal that is happening is not simply because the administration realized it was the right thing to do. This is not the fulfillment of a campaign promise, or because suddenly the training of their police and military is complete and Iraq is now safe and secure, but because of disagreements with the new government over a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA). The current agreement was set up by the previous administration to expire at the end of 2011. Apparently the Iraqis refused to allow continued immunity from prosecution for our forces for any crimes our soldiers might commit on Iraqi soil. Can you imagine having foreign soldiers here, with immunity from our laws and Constitution, with access to your neighborhood?

Basically we’re leaving because the Iraqis have decided to prosecute our troops for crimes they commit while in Iraq. Even with this fact considered though I don’t think we can really claim to be leaving Iraq:

Some 39,000 American troops will supposedly be headed home by the end of the year. However, the US embassy in Iraq, which is the largest and most expensive in the world, is not being abandoned. Upwards of 17,000 military personnel and private security contractors will remain in Iraq to guard diplomatic personnel, continue training Iraqi forces, maintain “situational awareness” and other functions. This is still a significant American footprint in the country. And considering that a private security contractor costs the US taxpayer about three times as much as a soldier, we’re not going to see any real cost savings. Sadly, these contractors are covered under diplomatic immunity, meaning the Iraqi people will not get the accountability that they were hoping for.

Our embassy there is the largest one in the world. Why we need such a massive complex for diplomatic ties is beyond me but it certainly makes one hell of a good military base if it can store 17,000 military personnel. It’s almost as if we wanted to leave a giant staging area in the country in case we needed to invade Iran a neighboring country.

While our “leaders” claim we’re leaving Iraq remember it’s still going to be a giant money sinkhole with plenty of American military personnel needing housing, food, and water.

The EFF Looks at the Three Most Dangerous Provisions of the PATRIOT Act

To celebrate 10 years of tyranny under the USA PATRIOT Act the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has posted an article that looks into the three most dangerous provisions of this blatant power grab of legislation:

1. SECTION 215 – “ANY TANGIBLE THING”

Under this provision, the FBI can obtain secret court orders for business records and other “tangible things” so long as the FBI says that the records are sought “for an authorized investigation . . . to protect against international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities.” The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court must issue the order if the FBI so certifies, even when there are no facts to back it up. These “things” can include basically anything—driver’s license records, hotel records, car-rental records, apartment-leasing records, credit card records, books, documents, Internet history, and more. Adding insult to injury, Section 215 orders come with a “gag ” prohibiting the recipient from telling anyone, ever, that they received one.

It’s always nice when the federal government can go on a fishing expedition without even having so much as factual evidence to back up their accusation. The most egregious part of Section 215 though is that those who are targeted with the order to provide evidence are forbidden from ever telling anybody.

2. NATIONAL SECURITY LETTERS

Among the most used — and outright frightening — provisions in the PATRIOT Act are those that enhanced so-called National Security Letters (NSLs). The FBI can issue NSLs itself, without a court order, and demand a variety of records, from phone records to bank account information to Internet activity. As with 215 orders, recipients are gagged from revealing the orders to anyone.

This is another piece of the PATRIOT Act that allows the federal government to obtain personal information and gag the information provider. When the federal government wants information about you they can issue a National Security Letter, have the information provided to them, and prevent the provider from informing you that the information was handed over. For instance if the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) want any e-mail messages received by or sent from to your GMail account Google would have to provide them but would be prohibited from informing you that government agents demanded the data.

3. SNEAK AND PEEK WARRANTS

Section 213 of the PATRIOT Act normalized “sneak-and-peek” warrants. These allow law enforcement to raid a suspect’s house without notifying the recipient of the seizure for months. These orders usually don’t authorize the government to actually seize any property — but that won’t stop them from poking around your computers. Again, sneak-and-peek warrants could be used for any investigation, even if the crime was only a misdemeanor.

This provision is the reason all of my data is encrypted at all times. The drives in my computer and the external backup drives are all entirely encrypted. Data can’t be retrieved from or written to my drives without the decryption keys (technically an agent could wipe my drive, reinstall the operating system, and include key-logging software but all my data would be missing which would raise some serious red flags). I advise everybody to use disk encryption technology on their systems.

There you have it, a nice overview of three provisions of the PATRIOT Act that shit all over our supposedly Constitutionally guaranteed rights of protection.

I Christen Emperor Obama

Well it appears Obama’s illusions of grandeur are continuing. He’s once again come and basically said, “I don’t give a fuck what Congress and the people want, we’re doing things my way!” Apparently it’s time to get the President a crown and change his title to emperor because those spineless fucks in Congress aren’t doing anything to reel in his rampant threats and abuses of executive orders:

President Barack Obama told an audience in Nevada on Monday that he will be regularly announcing “executive actions” his administration will take to “heal the economy” without the “dysfunctional” Congress.

“I’m here to say to all of you and to say to the people of Nevada and the people of Las Vegas, we can’t wait for an increasingly dysfunctional Congress to do its job. Where they won’t act, I will,” Obama said.

Just like you acted in Libya by sending our military over without even consulting Congress? Here’s the kicker Obama, you’re plans to “fix” the economy have failed and you’re latest plan is nothing more than a continuation of your previous plans. Pumping more money into a system already overstuffed with money isn’t going to improve the situation, it’s going to cause continued destruction.

Congress won’t do anything though because that would require taking responsibility. When Obama does something and fucks up Congress laughs and points their fingers claiming they knew the outcome all along. If you knew the outcome and said nothing then you don’t get to claim moral superiority, especially when stopping bad presidential ideas is your fucking job. Things won’t change though because taking responsibility would mean taking blame when something goes wrong and Congress is made up almost entirely of cowards who would rather see their opponent fail than our country succeed.

Soviet Inspired Checkpoints Around the Corner

You know what this country needs? Another program that seems inspired by good old Mother Russia. Since we already have a Soviet approved central bank, public indoctrination education system, and rampant imperialism why not move on to establishing checkpoints:

If you thought the “Transportation Security Administration” would limit itself to conducting unconstitutional searches at airports, think again. The agency intends to assert jurisdiction over our nation’s highways, waterways, and railroads as well. TSA launched a new campaign of random checkpoints on Tennessee highways last week, complete with a sinister military-style acronym–VIP(E)R—as a name for the program.

As with TSA’s random searches at airports, these roadside searches are not based on any actual suspicion of criminal activity or any factual evidence of wrongdoing whatsoever by those detained. They are, in effect, completely random. So first we are told by the U.S. Supreme Court that American citizens have no 4th amendment protections at border crossings, even when standing on U.S. soil. Now TSA takes the next logical step and simply detains and searches U.S. citizens at wholly internal checkpoints.

Remember that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was originally restricted to airports, but now they’re moving into truck and bus stops. This is classic government agency creep; these agencies are generally started with a narrow mandate in mind and expand their powers to cover more and more previously mundane and well-running activities. If left unchecked, I wouldn’t be surprised if the TSA started doing random checkpoints when you try to travel from one state to another. I can see myself running into a random checkpoint on Interstate 90 when I cross from Minnesota into Wisconsin.

We aren’t on the road anymore to tyranny, we’ve reached the destination. Let’s go through the checklist shall we?

Attempts by the government to generate a strong sense of nationalism? Check.

A marriage between corporations and the state? Check.

An ever increasing authoritarian state? Check.

Government controlled checkpoints that hassle innocent travelers? Check.

Congratulations everybody, we’ve reached fascism!

Dayton Wants to Give Money to the Needy Millionaires

It’s a good thing Mark Dayton was voted in as the governor. If we would have had a Republican governor he would have ensures the rich would benefit from taxpayer money while the poor received nothing, but the Democrats always ensure that won’t happen… wait a minute, this doesn’t fit the narrative:

Convinced the Minnesota Vikings could leave the state if they don’t get a new stadium, Gov. Mark Dayton is determined to keep them here.

On Wednesday, he convened a series of rapid-fire, closed-door meetings with Ramsey County officials, team owners and even a group that wants to build a downtown Minneapolis casino that could help pay for the new stadium.

“The ball’s in our court,” Dayton said after the meetings, vowing to prepare his own stadium proposal by Nov. 7.

His recommendations will include such details as where the new stadium should be, who should run it and how the state should pay for its $300 million share. Dayton and his top staffers and commissioners have been racing to see what could work and what won’t in a final stadium deal.

Huh, it’s almost as if both parties act exactly the same and ensure their big millionaire buddies are treated right with taxpayer money. Perhaps there’s corruption afoot? Could it be?

Seriously why the fuck should taxpayers have to foot any part of the Viking stadium bill? They haven’t even done anything to warrant keeping them in the state. I don’t follow sports at all but even I know the Vikings suck ass. If they want to go I say let them go, hell let’s kick them out for being whiny bitches who are demanding the people of this state give them more than millions of dollars every year in merchandise and ticket sales. When we toss them out let’s send Mark Dayton with them, we don’t need a prick raising taxes during an economic recession to further enrich millionaires. This quote is also golden:

The Vikings owner emerged from the closed-door meeting with Dayton and briskly walked away from reporters. Wilf answered just one question: Are you happy with the progress?

So Dayton is having closed door meetings with the owner of the Vikings but won’t stand around and take a few questions from us mere peasants? At the very least you would think the people of Minnesota would get a chance to vote on the matter.