Tag: Your Government Doesn’t Love You

Illinois Police Stealing Money

Illinois has appeared twice on this site today, how unfortunate for them. First Mayor Daley of Chicago is whining that his beloved database of peasants who are armed isn’t ready. Now I learned via Dvorak Uncensored that the Aurora Police Department are refusing to comply with a judge’s order to return $190,040 of money they stole:

Though neither Jose nor Jesus Martinez is charged with a crime, authorities are seeking forfeiture of $190,040 found in Jesus’ truck when he was stopped by an Aurora police officer on Oct. 18.

A Kane County judge ordered the money returned, but the city has refused.

The police followed the “logic” that anybody who has a large quantity of cash on hand is a drug-dealer and thus the money can be forcefully stolen by the state. What’s most interesting is a judge ordered the police to return the stolen money but they are refusing. I think this is a little outside of their authority. Then again I don’t understand where they received the authority to steal money from private citizens with no evidence or charges of any wrong doings.

These officers should be arrested themselves for armed robbery (they were armed when they stole the money so might as well do the same to them as they would do to any of us).

Chicago Gun Database Isn’t Ready

Somebody call the whambulance because Mayor Daley is sad that the Chicago gun registry database isn’t online yet:

“It is annoying” that the registry isn’t yet in place, Daley said when asked about the topic after the City Council meeting.

“They should have it by now,” he said. “I’ll find out why they didn’t do that.”

The mayor said he doesn’t know why the database isn’t available to police and firefighters yet, but said it shouldn’t have taken this long.

Yes it’s frustrating that Daley’s hard on for a police state isn’t being fulfilled yet. How much money do you think Chicago spent to create this database? How much money do you think they spent enforcing their unconstitutional gun restrictions? How many lives have been lost in Chicago because possession of a means of self-defense can only be obtained by those with means (it costs money to get a gun permit in Chicago)?

Oh and this line from Daley is golden:

“Maybe it’s bureaucracy. I would ask the superintendent,” he said.

You’d know all about bureaucracy now wouldn’t you? I’m curious about this database, is it required to be online before the city will issue handgun permits? If that’s the case I wouldn’t be surprised if this “delay” is a purposeful attempt at preventing the peasants of Chicago from having a means to acquire handguns. Of course if this database isn’t required to be online in order for the peasants to get handgun permits then it could very well just be incompetence (or a means for the police department to beg for more money by claiming the delays are due to a tight budget).

Either way the denizens of Chicago can rest easy knowing Mayor Daley is on the case. What case that is I’m not really sure though.

America Making Terrorists

If the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) creates a terrorist can they really claim they stopped stopped him? Apparently they think so:

A man has been charged with attempted murder and attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction for allegedly plotting to blow up a military recruitment centre near Baltimore with a car bomb.

OK that sounds like they stopped somebody right? Wait there is more:

The bomb was also a fake supplied by agents as part of a sting operation.

This is the second guy who has attempted to “bomb” something with a “bomb” given to them by the FBI. Also it should be noted both of these guys were recruited by FBI agents working to get their arrest numbers up under cover.

It’s also interesting that the FBI manufactured terrorist is being charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. The last time I heard a regular bomb was an explosive and a nuclear bomb was a weapon of mass destruction. This classification falls under the fact a regular bomb takes out part of a building while a nuclear weapon takes out an entire fucking region of the planet. Concept of scale apparently escapes the FBI though.

Inconsistency of the FBI

This is a very interesting article by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). It seems the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) arbitrarily attempts to cover up their illegal activities when complying with Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.

The EFF obtained two copies of two documents from the FBI via the FOIA. What’s interesting in both cases is either copy of the same document had parts redacted but the parts that were redacted between copies were different:

The report discusses the FBI’s improper collection of bank and credit card records. In Version 1, all important information about the violation (including that it relates to financial records) was withheld. Version 2 reveals most of the details and shows the extent of the FBI’s violation. In this matter, the FBI, as part of an ongoing investigation into international terrorism, sought hotel and financial records on a subject. Although the agent responsible had no legal authority to obtain the financial records, he or she purposefully styled a request to a financial institution as a National Security Letter (NSL) to hide this fact, essentially lying to obtain the bank and credit card information.

What’s even more interesting is the fact this isn’t the first time such behavior has been noticed:

This certainly isn’t the first time we’ve seen evidence that an arm of the Justice Department has withheld more than it is entitled to under FOIA. We found this in the FBI’s response of one of our earlier FOIA requests and reported on it here. More recently, the New York Times reported on the Justice Department’s attempts to keep from the public eye evidence of its embarrassing role in the US government’s “collaboration with [Nazi] persecutors.”

Even with claims of a more transparent government (remember that Obama promise?) it seems the amount of transparency differs day to day. This behavior, like so much of the behavior of our government, is disgusting to say the last. Thankfully it appears the EFF is going to be bringing this to court:

Federal agencies should not be able to hide their missteps behind white blocks. We plan to bring this to the court’s attention in our lawsuit challenging the FBI and other agencies’ improper withholding of reports submitted to the Intelligence Oversight Board.

Of course I question how much will be accomplished by asking the government to punish itself for its own misgivings.

I Think It’s Time for a Denial of Service Attack

How’s this for creepy shit? Walmart is sucking the cock of teaming up with the Department of Homeland Security to place video displays in stores with Janet Napolitanio telling people if they see something say something. That’s right when you go to your local Walmart you’ll soon be indoctrinated by Homeland Security propaganda advising you to do something that doesn’t actually help secure anything.

Being a troublemaker and an overall anti-authoritarian man I have a proposal. I think it’s time for a denial of service attack against this new Homeland Security measure. The concept is simple. To quote Bruce Schneier, “if you ask amateurs to act as front-line security personnel, you shouldn’t be surprised when you get amateur security.” If you try to get everyday Joes to report potential terrorism you’re going to get a ton of false positives. These false positives need to be investigated by the local police departments as a cover their ass measure. If the number of calls in areas where this Homeland Security bullshit is being implemented increases dramatically it’ll become an expensive failure.

Thus the proposal is simple, if your local Walmart (or any other store) implement these monitors start calling the police about every stupid little thing you see. Every person with a camera, speaking in a foreign language, looking nervous in any way, looking suspicious in anyways, tying their shoes funny, or wearing clothing that is of a color you don’t generally like gets reported to the police. Hell I’d say report yourself as well but the police won’t actually waste any effort investigating an obviously fake call (thus you want to keep your reports semi-believable but obviously amateur). Eventually the cost of investigating all these reports will grow high enough that the local police will want to videos removed.

I did find this last line interesting:

The program has already partnered with the Mall of America, the American Hotel & Lodging Association, Amtrak, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, sports and general aviation industries, and other organizations across the country, DHS said.

The Mall of America is right in my backyard (on the other end of the Twin Cities). I’ll have to actually go there sometime and see if these videos are playing and if they are start making some phone calls. Lord knows I’m still pissed that the Mall of America thinks they can ban firearms on the premises even though they are a landlord (who legally can’t ban in the state of Minnesota).

The Science is In

File this under another reason to be against the war on drugs and government policy involving things we can and can not put into out bodies. The United Kingdom got a little irked when they told a group of scientists to do some research into various drugs. Unfortunately for the government the research didn’t give the results they wanted so now they’re making a new proposal that would remove the requirement for scientific advice when doing drug classifications:

The proposals will be of concern to the many doctors and scientists who have criticised the government’s treatment of scientific evidence in the wake of the sacking, last year, of ACMD chairman David Nutt. The then home secretary, Alan Johnson, removed Nutt from the post after the scientist criticised politicians for distorting research evidence and claiming alcohol and tobacco were more harmful than some illegal drugs, including LSD, ecstasy and cannabis.

And I love this wording:

“Removing the requirement on the home secretary to appoint to the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs at least one person with experience in six specific areas will allow us greater flexibility in the expertise we are able to draw on.

In other words it will allow the government the flexibility to classify things however the fuck they please.

I just want to emphasis the main point in this post, the United Kingdom government didn’t like the results of scientific research so they are moving to abolish the requirement of scientific input on drug classification.

Priorities

The Minnesota Vikings are whining that they want a new stadium or they may search for a new home. Caving to sports teams is like caving to terrorists, if you do it once they all expect you to do it again. Needless to say since Minnesota caved to pay part of the Twin’s new stadium with tax money the Vikings want the same:

There have been discussions about raising liquor taxes or possibly using “racino” money to help finance the project. Bennett has even suggested going to the old blackout days and charging people a small fee to get the game on TV, but he’s been told that can’t happen.

Oh, did I mention Minnesota is facing a $6.2 billion deficit? Priorities… we have them.

Close the Washington Monument

I think Bruce Schneier just posted one of the best article’s he’s ever tossed up on his blog. The post calls for closing the Washington Monument:

Securing the Washington Monument from terrorism has turned out to be a surprisingly difficult job. The concrete fence around the building protects it from attacking vehicles, but there’s no visually appealing way to house the airport-level security mechanisms the National Park Service has decided are a must for visitors. It is considering several options, but I think we should close the monument entirely. Let it stand, empty and inaccessible, as a monument to our fears.

I think he’s dead on here. Let’s just shut down the Washington Monument and let is stand as a testament to the fact we let the terrorists win by being allowed to be terrorized in the first place. We’ve tossed away so many of our rights and liberties in the false promise of security from terrorism that there is no doubt that the 9/11 attacks were a complete success.

Our politicians will claim that America refuses to be terrorized while at the same time justifying out of control legislation such as the PATRIOT Act and actions such as allowing TSA agents to sexually molest American citizens. But the actions of our politicians are done by preying on our fear of the terrorists meaning we have been terrorized. We let fear guide our willingness to turn over power to others who promised protection from that which we feared. This is how tyranny starts ladies and gentlemen, but surrendering our rights and liberties to those who claim to offer solutions to our perceived problems.

I Like This Judge

Some poor schmuck is being sent through the legal wringer because it made a side business of modifying Xbox 360 systems. Well the judge in the case isn’t too happy with the government agents who are bring the case out and went on a 30 minute rant against the actions of the government in this case. Here’s my favorite part:

Among the judge’s host of complaints against the government was his alarm that prosecutors would put on two witnesses who may have broken the law.

One is Entertainment Software Association investigator Tony Rosario, who secretly video-recorded defendant Matthew Crippen allegedly performing the Xbox mod in Crippen’s Los Angeles suburban house. The defense argues that making the recording violates California privacy law. The other witness is Microsoft security employee Ken McGrail, who analyzed the two consoles Crippen allegedly altered. McGrail admitted that he himself had modded Xboxes in college.

“Maybe two of the four government witnesses committed crimes,” the judge said from the bench. “I think it is relevant and the jury is going to hear about it –- both crimes.”

The government had fought to keep the witness conduct a secret from the jury.

So the actions of two witnesses may have been criminal and the government wanted to conceal that from the jury. Are they any people remaining who question my distaste of the government?

What I find most interesting is the fact this case exists at all. I understand the actions of the man being prosecuted were in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act but frankly that piece of legislation itself is unlawful. If I purchase a piece of hardware and want to pay somebody to modify it that’s my business, not the governments. My Xbox 360 is mine, I own it. Microsoft succeeded all rights to it upon my legal purchase of the device.

This is where many people will point out the license agreement that appears on the screen when you first power on the Xbox. Guess what? I never agreed to that before purchase and have no recourse should I disagree with the license. Would it be OK if I tossed in a license agreement to a car I sold that only became visible after somebody had purchased the car? “Oh hey I see you’re starting this car for the first time, just an FYI but doing so you agree to give me all the money in your bank account. K THANX BAI!”

Wikileaks

I haven’t spoke up about my opinion on the recent Wikileaks fiasco. Frankly I don’t know what to think here. I’m all for the information being released because a government that keeps secrets from it’s citizens is a government that is up to something bad.

What I find most interesting is the recent movements against Wikileaks. Some people are calling for Assange to be charged with treason which is moronic because he’s not an American citizen (so note to Sarah Palin, Wikileaks itself committed no treasonous act). Others are clamoring for him to be charged with Espionage under the Espionage Act of 1917. I find this rather interesting for the following reason:

(a) of this section in time of war shall be punished by death or by imprisonment for not more than thirty years; and

(b) whoever, in time of war, with intent that the same shall be communicated to the enemy, shall collect, record, publish or communicate, or attempt to elicit any information with respect to the movement, numbers, description, condition, or disposition of any of the armed forces, ships, aircraft, or war materials of the United States, or with respect to the plans or conduct, or supposed plans or conduct of any naval of military operations, or with respect to any works or measures undertaken for or connected with, or intended for the fortification of any place, or any other information relating to the public defence, which might be useful to the enemy, shall be punished by death or by imprisonment for not more than thirty years.

Emphasis mine. Under our Constitution the only way the United States can be at war is if Congress declares it. Congress has declared no war since World War II so can Assange really be lawfully charged under the Espionage Act? I’m not stating either way but I find it a most interesting observation.

Strangely enough you’ll notice many stories about people calling for the head of Assange. Do you want to know a little secret? Assange isn’t Wikileaks, he’s just their figurehead. Nabbing Assange will not shut down Wikileaks as there are far more people behind the scenes doing the real work of keeping the site up.

I’d also point out the fact that any potential damage has already been done. You can’t erase information from the Internet, especially a heavily mirrored site such as Wikileaks. Shutting down the main Wikileaks servers, high jacking the domain name, or any other such nonsense will accomplish absolutely nothing. The base technologies of the Internet were designed as a decentralized method of communication that would be difficult to take down should the Russian decide to let nukes fly. It’s incredibly resilient and does not lend itself well to censorship.

The United States government should realized the damage is done and there is nothing they can do to take the information back. They need to realize the only method of correcting this problem is to stop conducting backroom deals that would be embarrassing if they should ever come to light.