Category: Wall of Fame Assholes

The Federal Government Striking Against Independent Farms Yet Again

The federal government hates independent farms. I understand this because large agricultural companies spend a lot of money lobbying for laws that hinder their smaller competitors. First the federal government attempted to make a rule that would require anybody driving farm equipment to obtain a commercial drivers license then they attempted to prohibit anybody under the age of 16 from working on a farm that wasn’t owned by their parents and now they’re trying to prohibit anybody under the age of 18 from doing many standard farm chores:

The Department of Labor is poised to put the finishing touches on a rule that would apply child-labor laws to children working on family farms, prohibiting them from performing a list of jobs on their own families’ land.

Under the rules, children under 18 could no longer work “in the storing, marketing and transporting of farm product raw materials.”

“Prohibited places of employment,” a Department press release read, “would include country grain elevators, grain bins, silos, feed lots, stockyards, livestock exchanges and livestock auctions.”

The new regulations, first proposed August 31 by Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, would also revoke the government’s approval of safety training and certification taught by independent groups like 4-H and FFA, replacing them instead with a 90-hour federal government training course.

As a former member of Future Farmers of American (FFA) (it got me out of school several days a year) I would just like to state that I’d much rather have that organization do safety training than the federal government. FFA, at least when I was in it, was a well run organization that did some damn good work. The last thing I want is an organization that has been attempting to shut down independent farmers be the sole entity that deals with safety training certification.

Sadly with the power large agriculture corporations hold there is almost no hope for independent farms to continue legitimately. If you’re an independent farmer let me just say it’s probably time for you to acquaint yourself with agorism, because that will be the only way for you to continue farming.

When do We Issue the Crown

Like any good dictator President Obama has been unhappy with the legislative process and therefore has decided to simply bypass it whenever it becomes inconvenient to his goals:

One Saturday last fall, President Obama interrupted a White House strategy meeting to raise an issue not on the agenda. He declared, aides recalled, that the administration needed to more aggressively use executive power to govern in the face of Congressional obstructionism.

“We had been attempting to highlight the inability of Congress to do anything,” recalled William M. Daley, who was the White House chief of staff at the time. “The president expressed frustration, saying we have got to scour everything and push the envelope in finding things we can do on our own.”

For Mr. Obama, that meeting was a turning point. As a senator and presidential candidate, he had criticized George W. Bush for flouting the role of Congress. And during his first two years in the White House, when Democrats controlled Congress, Mr. Obama largely worked through the legislative process to achieve his domestic policy goals.

[…]

Each time, Mr. Obama has emphasized the fact that he is bypassing lawmakers. When he announced a cut in refinancing fees for federally insured mortgages last month, for example, he said: “If Congress refuses to act, I’ve said that I’ll continue to do everything in my power to act without them.”

The real story here isn’t that Obama is using executive orders to bypass Congress, many presidents have done that. No, the real story is that Obama is actually blatantly stating that he’s using executive orders to bypass Congress. Traditionally a president issuing an executive order doesn’t brag about the fact that they hold dictatorial powers, that’s something that should be kept under the radar so the proles don’t get riled up that the political process isn’t what they were taught in college.

Apparently Obama has become so brazen that he might as well just come out of the dictatorial closet. He doesn’t need to keep up the charade of a republic anymore so why pretend he’s a president and not a king?

Better Advocacy Through Vandalism

Let’s say you’re an advocate of a hypocritical organization that claims to want to save the children in Joseph Kony’s army by bombing the living shit out of the children in Joseph Kony’s army. You want to pressure the United States, United Nations, and everybody else into invading Uganda even though Kony hasn’t been in Uganda in over six years. What would be the best way to get your message out that also mirrors your ideological hypocrisy? Vandalize a well-known landmark of course:

The sculpture that signifies Minneapolis now bears the name of an African warlord whose reputation has recently gone viral.

The Walker Art Center’s “Spoonbridge and Cherry” sculpture, created by Claes Oldenburg, bore the word Kony as of Sunday evening.

The graffiti is an apparent reference Joseph Kony, the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).

For those of you who haven’t been following this story the whole Kony 2012 campaign is nothing more than a propaganda machine trying to get Americans behind yet another war in a country 90% of the population probably couldn’t point out on a map if their lives depended on it. Perhaps I’m just being cynical, after all the United States only likes to invade countries that have resources for us to grab and it’s not like Uganda has oil or anything:

The refinery is a key element of the strategy to maximise revenue from Uganda’s newfound oil resources; 2.5bn barrels have been confirmed along the Albertine rift in western Uganda, and the oil sector is expected to generate more than $2bn annually – equivalent to 70% of the country’s current GDP – once commercial production begins in three to five years.

Never mind.

Blackwater, or Whatever They Call Themselves Today, are Up to No Good Once Again

When the United States “left” Iraq we apparently forgot to take our Blackwater Xe Academi mercenaries with us. What happens when you leave a bunch of unaccountable crusaders behind in an Islamic country? Shit like this:

Stumbled upon this video that allegedly shows Blackwater contractors going wild in Iraq. Here is the original video description posted with this: “Videos posted by Harper’s Magazine show the private contractor formerly known as Blackwater in Iraq running over a woman with a car, smashing into Iraqis’ cars to move them out of the way and firing a rifle into traffic. The behavior by Blackwater seen in the videos adds even more fuel to evidence that the company “encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life.”

With top notch employees like that it’s not wonder many Iraqis hate our guts to this day.

Another Major Media Source Caught Fabricating Evidence

Hot on the heels of MSNBC being forced to issue an apology for fabricating evidence showing Zimmerman as a racist, CNN is now backpedaling:

Recently, CNN enhanced audio of George Zimmerman — the man who shot Trayvon Martin — to try and determine if he did, in fact, use a racial slur while calling police on the night of the shooting. Back then, it sounded like Zimmerman might have used the phrase “fu**ing coons,” and his critics have cited it as evidence of a racially-motivated attack. But now CNN has enhanced the audio again, and the reporter is casting doubts that the term was used.

“It certainly sounds like that word to me,” Gary Tuckman said when the audio was first enhanced. But after the latest enhancement, he’s not so sure:

“Now it does sound less like that racial slur. … From listening in this room, and this is a state-of-the-art room, it doesn’t sound like that slur anymore. It sounds like … we‘re hearing the swear word at first and then the word ’cold.’ And the reason some say that would be relevant, is because it was unseasonably cold in Florida that night and raining.”

Shows like CSI would have you believe one can easily and accurately enhance any audio or visual data to get data that isn’t stored in the source material. How many times have we seen the TV cops take a low definition video and “enhance” it to the point of crystal clarity? The real world is an asshole and doesn’t abide by precedents set by Hollywood so the whole idea of “enhancing” audio or visual data and getting reliable data from it is foolhardy.

Sadly the damage to Zimmerman’s name is done. Stating outrage over an apparently race driven crime is fun because it makes one’s self feel righteous, but later admitting you were suckered into the media’s cheap attempt to boost ratings isn’t.

The Damage is Done

Last week it was revealed that MSNBC edited the audio of the Zimmerman 911 call to make him appear racist. After being caught MSNBC has decided to let everybody know that they’re super sorry about the whole thing:

NBC has completed its investigation into the mishandling of the police dispatcher’s conversation with George Zimmerman in the Trayvon Martin case. And the process ends with a finding of error, plus an apology. Here is the statement just issued by the network:

During our investigation it became evident that there was an error made in the production process that we deeply regret. We will be taking the necessary steps to prevent this from happening in the future and apologize to our viewers.

That apology addresses the “Today” show’s failure to abridge accurately the conversation between Zimmerman and the dispatcher in this high-profile case.

You know why they’re sorry? Because they were caught trying to boost ratings by fabricating evidence of racial motivation on behalf of Zimmerman. They did get what they wanted, ratings, and it only came at the cost of Zimmerman’s character.

Unfortunately the damage is done. A majority of the people in the United States who are aware of this case have labeled Zimmerman a racist due to the evidence fabricated by MSNBC. As is usual for these cases the accusation of racism was reported numerous times but the apology and admittence of slander will be made one time, at 06:00, on a Saturday or during some other seldom viewed time slot. Racism is similar to pedophilia in the way one is forever guilty of it if they’re merely accused. I would also like to point out that this isn’t the first time a major media outlet has lied about a story, yet that point will be lost when the next major story breaks and everybody begins talking about it.

Divide and Conquer

Divide and conquer is one of the most successful strategies in existence. Fighting a single large unified force is hard, fighting several small factions who are fighting amongst themselves is relatively easy. So it comes as no surprise to me that advocates for banning gay marriage are trying to divide their opposition:

An internal memorandum from one of the country’s leading organizations against same-sex marriage outlined a plan to help its cause by exploiting unease among blacks over the issue.

The undated memo was one of several documents unsealed by a federal judge on Monday in a case in Maine, where the group, the National Organization for Marriage, helped finance a successful ballot initiative in 2009 overturning the state’s legalization of same-sex marriage.

“The strategic goal of the project is to drive a wedge between gays and blacks — two key Democratic constituencies,” the memo says, describing an initiative called the “Not a Civil Right Project.”

The complete text of the document is a pretty interesting read but the methodology described under “Not a Civil Right Project” is downright damning:

THE STRATEGIC GOAL OF THIS PROJECT IS TO DRIVE A WEDGE BETWEEN GAYS AND BLACKS — TWO KEY DEMOCRATIC CONSTITUENCIES. FIND, EQUIP, ENERGIZE AND CONNECT AFRICAN AMERICAN SPOKESPEOPLE FOR MARRIAGE; DEVELOP A MEDIA CAMPAIGN AROUND THEIR OBJECTIONS TO GAY MARRIAGE AS A CIVIL RIGHT; PROVOKE THE GAY MARRIAGE BASE INTO RESPONDING BY DENOUNCING THESE SPOKESMEN AND WOMEN AS BIGOTS. NO POLITICIAN WANTS TO TAKE UP AND PUSH AN ISSUE THAT SPLITS THE BASED OF THE PARTY. FANNING THE HOSTILITY RAISED IN THE WAKE OF PROP 8 IS KEY TO RAISING THE COSTS OF PUSHING GAY MARRIAGE TO ITS ADVOCATES AND PERSUADING THE MOVEMENT’S ALLIES THAT ADVOCATES ARE UNACCEPTABLY OVERREACHING ON THIS ISSUE. CONSIDER PUSHING A MARRIAGE AMENDMENT IN WASHINGTON D.C.; FIND ATTRACTIVE YOUNG BLACK DEMOCRATS TO CHALLENGE WHITE GAY MARRIAGE ADVOCATES ELECTORALLY.

What we have is a rare black and white demonstration of political divide and conquer strategy. Usually political advocacy groups try to wrap their strategies in fuzzy sounding words in an attempt to make their strategy appear benevolent. They will usually cite several studies showing the dangers of allowing their opposition to win and use that as justification for whatever strategy gets concocted. It’s exceedingly rare to see a political advocacy group come out and just state what they plan to do.

What I find funny is not just the strategy of dividing blacks and gays but also the statement that they desire to find attractive young black democrats. Ugly black democrats need no apply, people won’t listen to them as closely. Reading through this document I believe the National Organization for Marriage v. Walter F. Mckee is going to be a very interesting case indeed. What other blatantly stated strategies has the National Organization for Marriage come up with?

In the end I still find it hilarious that people are battling over legalizing gay marriage instead of demanding the state get out of marriage entirely.

On a side note, because incriminating memos have a habit of falling down the memory hole I’ve uploaded a local copy of the document here [PDF].

Self-Righteous Hypocrisy in Action

A marketing group,Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH), decided to try something new that stood to benefit homeless individuals, paying those individuals to carry around a 4G hotspot during South by Southwest. Instead of being commended on their rather innovative idea that benefitted all involved a bunch of self-righteous assholes decided to get offended:

A division of Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH) equipped 13 homeless people with 4G mifi devices in Austin, Texas.

It suggested the public pay $2 (£1.30) for 15 minutes’ access to the net.

Comments posted to the BBH’s site accused the project of being “unseemly” and “wrong”.

Members of Twitter asked “what has this world come to?” and accused the project of being a “gimmick”.

[…]

It invited comments on the idea. Early respondents seemed impressed – but later posters mocked the idea.

“My homeless hotspot keeps wandering out of range,” wrote one before going onto add “by literally labelling the person as a ‘hotspot’, you are priming an affluent, iPad-toting public to think of that person as a commodity”.

Another added: “Helping hipsters check their email is not charitable, in fact it’s potentially dangerous and detrimental to the situation the people on the street are facing.”

According to this story, the homeless individuals were being paid $50.00 a day. BBH entered into a mutually beneficial transaction with 13 homeless individual and people are upset about that. These self-righteous pricks are criticizing BBH for paying homeless individuals to provide a service while offering no help themselves. The sheer hypocrisy of these people is astounding, they rally against mutually beneficial arrangements claiming they’re dehumanizing but aren’t offering to pay these homeless individuals $50.00 a day. On top of the $50.00 a day the homeless individuals also had the opportunity of receiving more money from those using their hotspots, I’m sure people had little issue with giving a donation to use the hotspot.

This is what’s wrong with the world (well one of a billion things). People have put a higher value on self-image than voluntary association. When they see somebody entering a voluntary agreement they will jump up and scream that the agreement is dehumanizing or exploitative. “How dare this company exploit these homeless people by paying them money for a service!” they scream. When you ask them what they’re doing to help the homeless they can only give you unproductive responses like “raising awareness” and “stopping exploitation of the homeless.” Are they giving the homeless money? No. Are they offering their spare bedroom to a homeless person? No. Are they even trying to help homeless individuals get a job? No. They’re cutting off opportunities for the homeless and thus making their situations worse.

On top of that these bleeding heart pricks are also exploiting the homeless individuals for their own agendas. They point to the homeless and say, “Hark, a homeless person! His situation is an outrage! We must steal from the rich to provide for this homeless man!” This self-righteous hypocrisy is disgusting. They exploit homeless individuals and they claim the moral high ground. I don’t give a shit what some self-righteous hypocrite things, the opinion is as worthless to me as water is to a drowning man.

The State’s Citizen Hit List

Attorney General Eric “Arm the Mexican Drug Cartels to Make an Excuse for Gun Control” Holder has finally let us mere peasants in on the criteria used by the United States government to decide when it will kill its own citizens:

Much has been made of the distinction between our federal civilian courts and revised military commissions. The reality is that both incorporate fundamental due process and other protections that are essential to the effective administration of justice – and we should not deprive ourselves of any tool in our fight against al Qaeda.

[…]

I have faith in the framework and promise of our military commissions, which is why I’ve sent several cases to the reformed commissions for prosecution. There is, quite simply, no inherent contradiction between using military commissions in appropriate cases while still prosecuting other terrorists in civilian courts. Without question, there are differences between these systems that must be – and will continue to be – weighed carefully. Such decisions about how to prosecute suspected terrorists are core Executive Branch functions. In each case, prosecutors and counterterrorism professionals across the government conduct an intensive review of case-specific facts designed to determine which avenue of prosecution to pursue.

Several practical considerations affect the choice of forum.

First of all, the commissions only have jurisdiction to prosecute individuals who are a part of al Qaeda, have engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners, or who have purposefully and materially supported such hostilities. This means that there may be members of certain terrorist groups who fall outside the jurisdiction of military commissions because, for example, they lack ties to al Qaeda and their conduct does not otherwise make them subject to prosecution in this forum. Additionally, by statute, military commissions cannot be used to try U.S. citizens.

Second, our civilian courts cover a much broader set of offenses than the military commissions, which can only prosecute specified offenses, including violations of the laws of war and other offenses traditionally triable by military commission. This means federal prosecutors have a wider range of tools that can be used to incapacitate suspected terrorists. Those charges, and the sentences they carry upon successful conviction, can provide important incentives to reach plea agreements and convince defendants to cooperate with federal authorities.

Third, there is the issue of international cooperation. A number of countries have indicated that they will not cooperate with the United States in certain counterterrorism efforts — for instance, in providing evidence or extraditing suspects – if we intend to use that cooperation in pursuit of a military commission prosecution. Although the use of military commissions in the United States can be traced back to the early days of our nation, in their present form they are less familiar to the international community than our time-tested criminal justice system and Article III courts. However, it is my hope that, with time and experience, the reformed commissions will attain similar respect in the eyes of the world.

Basically whenever a military commission decides that you’re a member of Al Qaeda and it is otherwise inconvenient to deal with you that commission can order your executed. Reading through the speech I’m convinced that Holder gets off on his power to kill American people, the speech is him basically masturbating to how awesome he believes the state to be. What a power hungry prick.

I wonder why this justification will start being applied to other supposed terrorists? Perhaps the state will justify murdering sovereign individuals. Who knows? The state isn’t accountable to anybody and that’s what the founders of this country warned us about. It’s too bad we didn’t listen to them.