Tag: Politics

Things are Looking Worse for Eric Holder

Things keep getting worse and worse for Attorney General Eric Holder. The entire Fast and Furious situation has been threatening to topple his career and his only saving grace has been his ability to play dumb. Now that a large series of e-mails have been released it looks like Eric Holder’s sham defense of claiming to know nothing is at an end:

Late Friday night, the Justice Department released a series of e-mails related to Operation Fast and Furious that indicate officials at the agency, including Attorney General Eric Holder, were alerted within hours of the death of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry, and that Holder’s aide was told guns found at the scene were linked to the gun trafficking scheme.

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The timing of this document dump fits a pattern, because Holder is scheduled to testify before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on Thursday. NPR posts some critical documents here. Among them is an e-mail exchange between then-U.S. Attorney for Arizona Dennis Burke and Holder aide Monty Wilkinson.

While I’m hoping this will be an interesting thing to watch I fear these e-mails will also be swept under the rug like so much of Fast and Furious has been. The simple fact that Holder has continued to maintain his job demonstrates how corrupt Washington really is. Were you or I involved in an operation that smuggled American arms into Mexico to arm the drug cartels we’d be in prison so fast our heads would spin. The rules are entirely different when the government does the smuggling though.

Obama is the Touch of Death for Companies

Sua Eccellenza Barack Obama, Capo del Governo, Duce del Fascismo e Fondatore dell’Impero has some very powerful abilities. He can just mention a company during his State of the Union address causing them to instantly go bankrupt:

Andrew Restuccia of The Hill is reporting that Ener1, a battery company that President Obama referenced in his State of The Union Speech on Tuesday as an example of successful energy investments, has just filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy.

That’s just two days after the speech.

I believe it’s obvious for all to see that Obama’s words are the touch of death for any company. First Solyndra and now Ener1, I wonder what that next company Obama will point to as a successful investment only to see it go into bankruptcy shortly afterwards. Does this power extent to government agencies? If so I have a list of government agencies for Obama to mention.

Jailbreaking to Become a Criminal Act Again

All legislation creates new crimes where none existed before. Some of these new crimes are absolutely moronic such as the ones created by the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA), which made it illegal to circumvent copyright protection. A couple of years ago the Copyright Office made an exemption to the DMCA for jailbreaking devices but the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is warning us that the exemption is about to expire:

The Problem – Smartphones, tablets, and video game consoles are powerful computers with lots of untapped potential. Yet many of these devices are set up to run only software that’s been approved by the manufacturer. Modifying a device to run independent software – known as jailbreaking – is important to programmers, enthusiasts, and users. But jailbreaking creates legal uncertainty. Some device manufacturers claim that jailbreaking violates Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which carries stiff penalties.

The Solution – EFF is asking the U.S. Copyright Office to declare that jailbreaking does not violate the DMCA, and we need your help. In 2010, the Copyright Office said jailbreaking smartphones doesn’t violate the DMCA. This year, we’re asking them to renew that exemption (otherwise it will expire) and expand it to cover tablets. We’re also asking for a new exemption to allow jailbreaking of video game consoles.

Personally I don’t give a shit what Apple or any other company things; if I purchase a device it is mine and I will do with it as I damn well please. On the other hand it would be nice not having the threat of prison looming over my head because I decided to modify my device.

Making Everybody a Felon

I’ve spoken out against the restriction that disallows felons from owning firearms many times. My reasoning is simple, most felonies aren’t even violent crimes so why should simply being found guilty of a felony be criteria for losing a supposed right?

By prohibiting all felons from owning firearms the state has created an effective means of enacting backdoor gun control. If the state can’t get the laws it wants passed it can just turn everything into a felony and disarm the populace that way. Perhaps this is the thought process being used by New York as they try to make cheating on SATs a felony:

New York would make felonies out of cheating on the SAT college entrance test under a bill released Tuesday as part of a legislative investigation into a scandal in an affluent New York City suburb.

The measure proposed by Sen. Kenneth LaValle of Suffolk County would create new felonies of facilitation of education testing fraud and of scheming to defraud educational testing and create a misdemeanor of forgery of a test. The felonies would apply to a test taker who impersonates someone else for pay.

The police state is best able to control those who are criminals and if you make everybody a criminal, well, you get the picture.

Newt Gingrich Will Ensure We Win the War

I’m sure you’ve heard about Newt Gingrich’s promise to have colonies established on the moon by 2020 if he’s elected president:

Newt Gingrich is promising to establish a permanent base on the moon by 2020 if he’s elected president.

Many people are just writing this off as kooky but they don’t understand the need. Newt wants to ensure we have what is necessary to fight the moon Nazis:

Newt Gingrich is the only candidate that will protect you and me from the return of the Third Reich.

The State of The Union

Last night Obama gave the State of The Union address. I didn’t watch it because I have better things to do than listen to some asshole lie to me for an hour. Come to think of it Obama took an hour to cover the state the union is currently in while I can summarize it in a single sentence.

The economy is in the tank, we’re at war with a good deal of the world, we’re going to be at war with more nations soon, this country is turning into more of a police state as we speak, and the government can indefinitely detain your ass whenever it damn well pleases without charges.

Supreme Court Puts the Kibosh on Warrantless GPS Tracking

The Supreme Court finally ruled on whether or not government agencies can use GPS tracking devices to track suspects without first getting a warrant. According to a unanimous ruling they can’t:

The Supreme Court on Monday unanimously restricted the police’s ability to use a GPS device to track criminal suspects in a first test of how privacy rights will be protected in the digital age.

The court rejected the government’s view that long-term surveillance of a suspect by GPS tracking is no different than traditional, low-tech forms of monitoring. But its decision was nuanced and incremental, leaving open the larger questions of how government may use the information generated by modern technology for surveillance purposes.

This ruling is one of those few speed bumps being encountered by the government as it speeds down the road to tyranny and I’m glad for it. Anybody with a couple of brain cells to rub together would be able to determine attaching a GPS tracking device to a suspect’s car without so much as a warrant is a complete violation of the Fourth Amendment.

The complete Supreme Court writeup can be found here [PDF].

SOAP and PROTECT-IP are Bought and Paid For

We all know our “representatives” are bought and paid for but this fact is rarely shown openly. In a rather odd twist in the recent Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act (PROTECT-IP) drama the Motion Picture Association of American (MPAA) and openly threatened to cut off campaign contributions to “representatives” who don’t support the two erroneous pieces of legislation:

Consumer group Public Knowledge on Friday accused the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and its head, former Sen. Chris Dodd, of trying to intimidate lawmakers into supporting a pair of controversial anti-piracy bills.

In recent days, Dodd and other top Hollywood figures have threatened to cut off campaign donations to politicians who do not support their effort to crackdown on online copyright infringement.

“Those who count on quote ‘Hollywood’ for support need to understand that this industry is watching very carefully who’s going to stand up for them when their job is at stake. Don’t ask me to write a check for you when you think your job is at risk and then don’t pay any attention to me when my job is at stake,” Dodd said on Fox News on Thursday.

Our “representatives” don’t represent us, they represent those who pay them. When lobbyist groups want a piece of legislation passed all they need to do is threaten to cut off the money flow and presto, you have a large based of politicians ready to stand behind the cause. It’s too bad the average citizen can’t afford lobbyists.