Tag: Law and Disorder

Congressman Going to Probe Wikileaks

An no those aren’t my words. Either way congressman King of New York is a little upset that Wikileaks posted 500,000 intercepted pager messages obtained during 9/11. He’s so upset that he’s launched an investigation into Wikileaks. From his lips to our ears:

“It does raise security issues, and we will look into it in Washington,” King (R-Seaford), the ranking Republican on the House Committee on Homeland Security, said Friday.

Correct me if I’m wrong but in a open and transparent government such as our is supposed to be shouldn’t this information have been provided by the government freely? I’m going to go ahead and write my standard disclaimer that I don’t believe there is any grand conspiracy behind the 9/11 attacks. What I do believe is the government has used that event to shit all over our civil rights and allow themselves to play the “classified” card on everything.

But I think I have an idea how those messages were intercepted:

“All pager traffic is non-encrypted,” said Phil Lieberman, president of Lieberman Software Corp. of Los Angeles. “The fact that people are intercepting the traffic is not surprising.”

Poor security, it’s always biting people in the ass. By you might want to pay Lieberman since he found your hole.

Don’t Blame the Tiahrt Amendment

One of the memes going around the gun control crowd right now is that the Ford Hood killings would have been prevented if the Tiahrt Amendment wasn’t in place. Sebastian over at Snowflakes in Hell tells us why that’s not true. From his post:

What Tiahrt does is prevent ATF from spending any funds to share the entire trace database with third parties not related to a bonafide criminal investigation. It also makes the trace database undiscoverable in a civil action, and inadmissible in a civil suit. Both ATF and the Fraternal Order of Police support this measure, something MAIG won’t tell you. It does not require that NICS records be destroyed. The requirement that NICS records be destroyed is not a funding matter, but is found in the United State Code, Title 18, Section 922(t):

So the reason NICS records for cleared individuals are destroyed is because of the Brady Act not the Tiahrt Amendment. Deal with it and find a new meme.

Not So Great Britain Strikes Again

Man I hate Britain’s government. Seriously if anybody reading this blog is a Brit do yourselves a favor and start a revolt. Days of our Trailers provides another example of the stupidity of Britain’s gun control laws.

This story involves one Paul Clarke. He is a 27 year old former soldier who thought he was doing the right thing. For doing the right thing he was found guilty of a crime and now faces up to five years in prison. What was his crime? Possession of a gun. Sounds simple enough doesn’t it? Well it’s not that simple. From the story:

Paul Clarke, 27, was found guilty of possessing a firearm at Guildford Crown Court on Tuesday – after finding the gun and handing it personally to police officers on March 20 this year.

Yes he found a shotgun. Believing it was his duty to dispose of it he personally took it to the police. Here is a thumbnail list of events:

he court heard how Mr Clarke was on the balcony of his home in Nailsworth Crescent, Merstham, when he spotted a black bin liner at the bottom of his garden.

In his statement, he said: “I took it indoors and inside found a shorn-off shotgun and two cartridges.

“I didn’t know what to do, so the next morning I rang the Chief Superintendent, Adrian Harper, and asked if I could pop in and see him.

“At the police station, I took the gun out of the bag and placed it on the table so it was pointing towards the wall.”

Mr Clarke was then arrested immediately for possession of a firearm at Reigate police station, and taken to the cells.

So Mr. Clarke found a shotgun. He didn’t try to illegally keep it. Instead he does what he thinks is the responsible thing and turns it in. He didn’t threaten anybody with it, he didn’t use it, he took it and went to straight to the police to turn it in. What the Hell was he supposed to do? Call the police and wait for them to pick it up? Oh wait they would be able to nail him anyways since the shotgun was in a liner and he had to remove it to see what it was. Oh damn catch 22.

If you live in Britain and you find a gun remember you’ll get the same punishment whether you turn it into the police or keep it. The only difference is if you keep you the police may never find it and therefore you won’t face jail time. Man that’s encouraging.

Finally I leave you with this golden quote from the story:

The intention of anybody possessing a firearm is irrelevant.

We don’t need common sense we have laws!

Internet Censorship on the Move Again

Those hounding for American ISPs to censor the Internet have a new scheme up their selves. This time, surprisingly, it has nothing to do with “protecting the children.” The new bill titled the Investor Protection Act has been introduced by Representative Paul Kanjorski, a dumbass from Pennsylvania.

The bill would require ISPs to block sites hosting financial scams. Let me rephrase that, the bill would require ISPs to block all electronic material related to financial scams. This of course sounds like a good thing right? Wrong.

This is what I call the negotiating with terrorists maneuver. As a country we have an official stance to never negotiate with terrorists. It’s a good policy because if you negotiate with terrorists you open the floodgates to other terrorists attacking you in the hopes of negotiating something out of you. If you legally require ISPs to filter any single thing it opens the floodgates to legally force them to filter other materials using the last bill as precedence. Gun control laws often get passed now because way back when somebody decided bills restricting constitutional rights were OK in one situation.

As it sits right now ISPs are not forced to filter any traffic. If you get scammed that’s your fault. But alas don’t be stupid and you won’t get scammed, just like real life. On the other hand if you do something illegal your ISP will cooperate with law enforcement to take you down. The system right now works and keeps the Internet an open medium here in the United States. We need to shoot this bill down less we start dealing with other filtering bills.

California Screwing Its Citizens Again

Do you live in that People’s Republic of California? Well you have my sympathies in that case since you’re getting beating up by your government again. Stating yesterday California will be withholding an additional 10% of citizens’ paychecks. Oh but get this, it’s not a tax. Yes it’s mandatory and yes the state is taking it from your paycheck before you even get it, but it’s not income tax. You’ll get it back someday, scout’s honor.

As a citizen of the United States of America let me extend a welcome invitation to all subjects of California to uproot yourselves and come to the U.S. It’s actually rather nice here.

For Those of You in Support of S. 1317

I’ve made some quips about the unconstitutional S. 1317, known as the Denying Firearms and Explosives to Dangerous Terrorists Act of 2009, before. If passed the bill would say anybody on the FBI’s secret terrorist watch list would become a prohibited person. This means you could be denied your right to bear arms because your name appears on a list nobody can read. To add insult to injury nobody is allowed to know the criteria for placing names on that said list.

Well for those of you who still support the idea take a look at this story. According to numbers released by the FBI 1,600 names are submitted to be added to the secret list EVERY DAY. The list already has 400,000 names of “suspected terrorists” and it ever growing. That’s a potential of 1,600 people every day losing their right to bear arms based on suspicion alone. So much for being innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

The New Guy Sounds a Lot Like the Old Guy

Wow more change from the administration that’s been promising it since their campaign. In a move to reverse the Bush administration’s unconstitutional warrentless wire tapping law the Obama administration is repealing the law.

Oh wait sorry that’s only in the magical land of make believe. Since Mr. Rogers is dead we can’t go there anymore and hence we have to deal with reality. The new administration is sounding incredibly like the old one time and time again. Now Attorney General Eric Holder is saying the San Francisco lawsuit against warrantless wiretapping needs to be stopped in the name of national security. And with logic like this how can we argue:

In making the argument, the Obama administration agreed with the Bush administration’s position on the case but insists it came to the decision differently. A civil liberties group criticized the move Friday as a retreat from promises President Barack Obama made as a candidate.

Wait Obama isn’t keeping promises he made? By God he must be a, wait for it, politician. Holy crap it’s almost like you can’t trust these guys. I’m just waiting for Obama’s supporters who were against Bush on these very topics to justify what the current administration is doing. After all it’s OK, they came to the conclusion differently.

More British Tyranny

Oh Britain when will you ever learn. My friend sent me this article via old school e-mail (Yup no Twitter here). Well the British police decided to rip open and confiscate the contents of over 6,000 safety deposit boxes in a mad rush to find drugs and *GASP* guns.

I’m not going to spend time analyzing this as most of you are probably capable but I’m going to pull out some choice quotes:

A semi-automatic Glock 9mm, the weapon of choice for British gangsters, was lodged in Box 1653 at the Hampstead depository, rented by 44-year-old Gavin Leon, who was jailed for five years last March.

Wow I’m actually impressed, British gangsters have much better taste then those in the United States. Here gangsters usually haul around Hi-Points and Jennings as their gun of choice. I’m glad to see not every country’s criminals have the same lack of taste and sophistication. Next up:

However, by talking to scores of box-holders, none of whom have spoken before, Live has uncovered a different version of Operation Rize, one that shows how the vast majority of those caught up in the raids were innocent. They have had their lives turned upside down over the past 17 months. Many have struggled to recoup their money and possessions, been forced into legal trench warfare with police lawyers and told they must prove how they came by the contents of their boxes.

That’s right the police went in, stole the contents of every safety deposit box, and it’s the burden of those who were stolen from to prove they own what was in those boxes. That must have been one fucking general warrant. I’m guessing the description of the person was something along the lines of, “Human being between 3′ and 7′ tall weighing between 50 to 700 pounds. Skin may be white, black, red, yellow, or indigo.” And the description of the evidence must have read, “Any item in the possession of the suspect or being held in a place rented or leased by the suspect.” Seriously what the fuck? But that’s not all:

Mark Richardson, a former military intelligence officer and now a forensic accountant, who has been employed by several box-holders to explain their wealth, told us: ‘We had to get one family’s diamonds carbon-dated at great expense to demonstrate to the police that they had been cut in the Thirties, which tallied with their story of fleeing Germany before World War II.’

Yup guilty until proven innocent. “What’s that? Oh you say this diamond that we found in YOUR safety deposit box is in fact YOUR’S? Prove it.” I would assume that having an expensive item in a safety deposit box under your name would qualify as proof enough, just a thought. What else do we have? Well this:

Lawyer Sara Teasdale, of City practice Roiter Zucker, whose client had kept more than £900,000 in his box at the vaults in Edgware as cash flow for his business leasing black cabs, said: ‘The police are “deep-pocketing” – hauling people through a protracted legal process that they know is so costly that most will roll over.’

Not surprising. I’m sure the police get to keep anything that isn’t claimed, hence there is a conflict of interest there. The police are supposed to uphold the law but will try to fuck over people they stole from to keep the goods.

Anyways you get the idea. If you have heart pressure problems I’d advise not reading the article. The same goes if you have an allergic reaction to fascism.