Tag: 1984 was a Warning not a Blueprint

If You Don’t Like the Law Just Reinterpret It

Oh look yet another instance of a government department not liking the power granted to it and thus have reinterpreted a law to give themselves more power:

The letter says federal officials have reinterpreted the civil-rights laws that require school principals to curb physical bullying, as well as racist and sexist speech, that take place within school boundaries. Under the new interpretation, principals and their schools are legally liable if they fail to curb “harassment” of students, even if it takes place outside the school, on Facebook or in private conversation among a few youths.

Now civil action can be taken against school principals if they fail to stop physical attacks and monitor the actions of every student even when they’re not at school:

Education Department officials are threatening school principals with lawsuits if they fail to monitor and curb students’ lunchtime chat and evening Facebook time for expressing ideas and words that are deemed by Washington special-interest groups to be harassment of some students.

Freedom of speech has been dead in public schools since… well since I was going to one. Will the Education Department soon require two way viewers in every home to monitor students just in case they’re “bullying” somebody online?

Not only do rulings like this destroy the concept of free speech but they also cause students to depend on outside help for everything. If somebody is bullying a student that student should have the right to fight back. Instead they are told to basically shut up and take it and after they’ve gotten their ass kicked they’re suppose to go talk to somebody in “authority.” Strangely enough the school is a government entity and acts as such because when a student reports a bully nothing is likely to happen. OK maybe the bully will get detention for a couple of days but they certainly aren’t going to learn a lesson.

Now that I’m thinking about it public schools works very much like the rest of our society. We’re told to depend on the state for protection and the state fails to offer protection. If somebody does something wrong they’re isolated for others for a short period of time with no other form of punishment. Should one of us defend ourselves we potentially get into trouble. Fuck, now I see where the victim mentality comes from in our society.

Here’s the thing if you’re a student at a school and somebody wants to beat the shit out of you fight back. Self-defense is a natural right afforded all human beings. If the bully is larger balance out the disparity of force with a good old threat-based weapon (for instance smashing somebody in the fact with a text book does some good damage). Nobody needs to submit to the violence of another regardless of what is taught in schools.

I’ll also say if you are cause true psychological trauma by things posted about you online man the fuck up. Words are words and can only cause the amount of harm you allow them. When somebody says something hurtful to you then it’s time for a witty comeback. I usually challenge a person’s cognitive capabilities myself and try to do so using old English but there are many means of doing this. Either way words can’t hurt you. If somebody is spreading lies or slander about you then it’s time to look into civil action. But asking the school officials for help isn’t going to accomplish anything because they’re in the interesting position of being unable to discipline unruly children while being tasked with disciplining unruly children.

Illegal Drone Usage

The United States government certainly has balls. Not only are they willing to violate the rights of American citizens but they’re also willing to violate the airspace of other nations:

The US has been sending unarmed drones over Mexico since February to gather intelligence on major drug cartels, the New York Times reports.

Yeah we’ll just fly some drones around Mexico since they probably can’t detect them or shoot them down. Now that I think about it we probably asked the Mexican government for permissions:

The missions had been kept secret because of Mexican legal restraints and sensitivities over sovereignty.

Or not. It’s OK though because now the Mexican government knows and they’re probably pissed as Hell…

US President Barack Obama and his Mexican counterpart, Felipe Calderon, formally agreed to continue the surveillance flights during talks in Washington on 3 March, which included a frank exchange of grievances, Mexican and US officials said.

Or not. Honestly if I were the ruler of a country and my neighbor started violating my airspace I’d be pissed regardless of the intentions. Hell if I had the capabilities I would track and shoot down the drones claiming they were foreign military assets violating my country’s airspace.

I guess we shouldn’t expect a government willing to violate the rights of its own citizens to respect the rights of other countries.

Minnesota Senators, Stomping on Your Rights Since the Election

I went through the roll call for the bill to extend the expiring provisions of the PATRIOT Act. Guess what I found? Both of our senators, Franken and Klobuchar, voted in favor of extending the provisions.

Anybody want to join me is starting up a recall election? Neither of these pricks should be in office if they’re willing to shit all over our rights like this.

You know who didn’t vote for it? Rand Paul. Just sayin’ (he’s looking good and hopefully continues on this path).

House Voted to Extend PATRIOT Act Spying on Citizens Powers

No surprise here but the House voted to piss all over our rights yet again by extending the “surveillance powers” of the PATRIOT Act:

In a 275-144 vote, the chamber voted to extend until December provisions on wiretaps, access to business records and surveillance of terror suspects.

I’m sure it was only a coincidence that Janet Napolitano claimed that the United States currently faces it’s largest threat from terrorist attack EVAR!!!!OMGTHINKOFTHECHILDREN.

Seriously every so-called representative that voted for this should be instantly recalled by their states and brought up on charges of treason. The legislators in Washington are supposed to uphold the Constitution not use it a toilet paper to wipe their collective asses.

Renewal of PATRIOT Act Provisions Fails in House Vote

Although nobody was paying attention anyways I thought I’d let you know that the attempt to fast-track renewals of certain provisions of the PATRIOT Act failed in a House vote last evening. If this were a landslide vote I’d have had a bit more confidence in our “representatives” but it narrowly failed to achieve the 290 votes by a mere 13.

The three clauses that are up for renewal are first the provision that allows the FBI to perform warrantless wiretaps, second the provision that allows the government access to any desired records on your person, and third the provision that allows the FBI to place people under surveillance who have no known ties to terrorist organizations.

This doesn’t mean the PATRIOT Act is dead. In fact the White House would prefer to have the three provisions extended until 2013:

The White House on Tuesday said in a statement that it “does not object” to extending the three Patriot Act provisions until December 2011 although it “would strongly prefer” an extension until December 2013, noting that the longer timeline “provides the necessary certainty and predictability” that law enforcement agencies require while at the same time ensuring congressional oversight by maintaining a sunset.

Hope and change ladies and gentlemen. The House and Senate both have competing bills for renewing these provisions of the PATRIOT Act. In face one of our all time favorite “representatives,” Feinstien, is on the case to rape your rights:

In addition to the House legislation, the Senate is considering three competing timelines, including proposals that would permanently extend the three provisions or extend them through 2013. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), both of whom have introduced competing proposals, said Monday that committee members continue to work toward an agreement but declined to speculate as to the end result.

Surprised? I didn’t think so.

Oh, I’m Sure

Remember when Obama said the first thing he would do when he got into office would be to close down Gitmo? Funny thing, it’s still operating although nobody in America seems to care anymore. Well it seems on of the prisoners there had himself an accident:

An Afghan inmate at the US prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has collapsed and died after exercising, according to US military officials.

It was of course due to mysterious circumstances. But what’s more interesting is the following paragraph:

Awal Gul, 48, was accused of being a Taliban commander and part of the al-Qaeda network. He had been held without charges since October 2002.

Think about that. He’s been held for over eight years without so much as being charged with a crime. Eight years in prison without any charges or trials. I don’t care if you support the War on Terror, you have to believe that this kind of treatment of people is unacceptable. If we really believed this man was part of al-Qaeda he should have been charged as such. If we lack the evidence to charge this man he should have been released. I don’t think I’m making any unreasonable demands here, just treat so-called prisoners of war as prisoners.

What kind of message does this send out to the world? “Oh hey we love freedom, but only for people inside of our borders the rest of you can all take flying fucks at rolling doughnuts.” Our country is supposedly a “bastion of democracy and freedom.” Maybe we should start acting like it.

Shocker of the Day, FBI Intelligence Violations

Prepared to be shocked because the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has uncovered proof that the Federal Bureau of Intelligence (FBI) is violating laws in their pursuit of made-up bogeymen:

EFF has uncovered widespread violations stemming from FBI intelligence investigations from 2001 – 2008. In a report released today, EFF documents alarming trends in the Bureau’s intelligence investigation practices, suggesting that FBI intelligence investigations have compromised the civil liberties of American citizens far more frequently, and to a greater extent, than was previously assumed.

It’s OK though since they’re violating your rights to fight the terrorists. Also nobody is going to hear nor care about this so the FBI will likely not even get a slap on the wrist. Hell they’ll probably get a pat on the back for a job well done. Your government at work ladies and gentlemen.

Internet Kill Switch

I’m sure you’ve heard that Egypt has basically killed Internet access in a pointless attempt to censor those rightly angry with their dictator government. Many people are decrying this and rightfully so but many of these people are also making statements proclaiming how glad they are that such a situation couldn’t happen here. These people are stating that only fascists and dictators would do such things.

So, which on is our government? Personally I’d say closer to fascists since we don’t really have a single dictator in power at the moment. Either way our government has been pushing for legislation to create some form of “Internet kill switch” for some time now. They want to have the legal authority to shutdown the Internet in “times of emergency.”

This can happen here and our overlords representatives are trying to make it a possibility. If you don’t want to see the Egypt style kill switch here you need to complain to your so-called representatives now before they decide to pass it in some lame duck session.

Data Retention Moving in Subcommitee

With all the problems facing this country including unwinable resource consuming wars, a fiat currency that’s quickly devaluing, and an economy in shambles it’s good to know our government isn’t too busy to find a little time to stomp all over our rights. The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security held a hearing on creating legislation that would require ISPs to retain information on websites that customers have visited.

The usual bullshit was used as excused by our “representatives” to mandate ISPs retain all customer data dealing with interactions with anything online. Of course the people arguing that we need such violations of privacy don’t understand that retention of so much data will cost ISPs a small fortune in equipment to gather and store said information. But hey destroying businesses is what government does best… which is probably why they can’t figure out how to fix the unemployment rate.

I did find it rather cute that during the hearing Jason Weinstein called on the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) specifically for a guide they wrote back in 2008 titled Best Practices for Online Service Providers.

This will be an issue to watch in the upcoming months.

I Am TJIC

I’m sure everybody reading this already knows who TJIC is. If not he’s a blogger who has the unfortunate combination of living in Massachusetts and being against the government. Because of this unfortunate combination he lost is second amendment right because he exercised his first amendment right:

A blog threatening members of Congress in the wake of the Tucson, Arizona shooting has prompted Arlington police to temporarily suspend the firearms license of an Arlington man.

It was the headline “1 down and 534 to go” that caught the attention. “One” refers to Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head in the rampage, while 534 refers to the other members of the U.S. House and Senate.

Was the post distasteful? Yes. Was the post inflammatory? Yes. Was the post overall in poor taste? Yes again. Was the post protected speech under the first amendment? Yes. That last yes makes every other yes irrelevant.

Likewise TJIC didn’t threaten anybody. No specific names are mentioned just a general clause that states he doesn’t like politicians. This would be akin to tossing the writers of Mars Attacks! in prison because their movie depicted both congress and the President being killed by the martians. Now I badmouth politicians all the time and have made many remarks about horrible things we should do to them but it’s talk, speech, and satire (mostly).

But this event demonstrates the fact that we are not free people in this country. Sure some of us are more free than others depending on where you live but ultimately we’re all peasants at the mercy of our rulers in government. They seem willing to leave us mostly alone so long as we don’t criticize them while they make our lives even more restricted each day and steal more and more of our money. The second we cross them though, the second we criticize an illegal war, the second we speak against them we’re given labels such as terrorist, communist, and of course unpatriotic. Our rulers in government has passed laws that allow them to use their monopoly on the use of force to arrest, torture, and even murder people with these arbitrary labels.

So yes I will join this meme going around the gun blogs and say I to am TJIC. I am a man who disagrees with the government and has openly stated as such. If our government would respect the very laws put into place to keep them in line this entire post would be unnecessary. But this post is necessary because we are not free people and our government doesn’t respect the restrictions that were put into place during the founding of this country.