"Your Papers, Please!"

Sadly we may not really be that far off from hearing something like this. Often much derided and maligned in American society was the way other nations treated their citizens in relations to identification. Now the time might be upon us, where we have to do the same.

Read full story here: "Your Paper, Please!"

Is It That Far Off?

Just ran across this and it made me wonder, how far are we from scenarios like this taking place?

Dangerous Legislation: Goodbye Due Process

"A new gun law being considered in Congress, if aligned with Department of Homeland Security memos labeling everyday Americans as potential “threats,” could potentially deny firearms to pro-lifers, gun-rights advocates, tax protesters, animal rights activists, and a host of others – any already on the expansive DHS watch list for potential “extremism.”

Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., has sponsored H.R. 2159...permits the attorney general to deny transfer of a firearm to any “known or suspected dangerous terrorist.” The bill requires only that the potential firearm transferee is “appropriately suspected”...

Gun rights advocates, however, object to the bill’s language, arguing that it enables the federal government to suspend a person’s Second Amendment rights without any trial or legal proof and only upon suspicion of being “dangerous.” [link]

This should scare the pants off anyone. Just imagine the government being allowed to curtail rights based on legislation that is based on loose interpretations. I am all for not letting known terrorist own weapons, the question needs to be asked though, if they are a known terrorist what are they doing running around free?

When you try to pass legislation based on fear you get..."The Patriot Act" (anything but), the massive "porkulus" bill, the bailout (can you say bankruptcy for 2 of the Big 3). These actions make no sense to start with, but start talking doom and gloom and straight to the presidents desk for the signature.

More Hoplophobia

Hoplophobia: A term coined by Jeff Cooper to describe someone who has an irrational fear of firearms.

"An apparent organized flexing of Second Amendment rights last weekend was a bit too Wild West for some local citizens and business owners.

Police and deputies responded to a number of complaints about citizens packing sidearms at restaurants, stores and other public areas.

None of the gun carriers was cited." [link]

Notice once again the gun-grabber use of the "Wild West" fallacy. It is interesting to note that several people were approached by the police in several different areas, and guess what? Not one of them was a criminal or doing anything against the law. Even more surprising was not one of these law abiding gun owners later that day turned criminal and hurt anyone with their firearm. A bit later in the article we get this wonderful bit of "wisdom":

"Stellingworth and Undersheriff Thomas Finco said that citizens who exercise the right to carry guns openly should realize it alarms the public and police."

You know what, it doesn't matter! It alarms gun owners when others try to infringe on our rights. It alarms Americans when we hear report after report of police officers acting like criminals (see all these reports by David Codrea). It alarms the public when we, as American citizens are labeled as potential terrorists (MIAC, DHS Report, Virginia Police Report).

Certain people need to understand those that support personal responsibility, the United States Constitution, freedom, and liberty, are rarely those that you need to be afraid of, or alarmed about. If you want to know who to be alarmed about try turning on the T.V. and see what Congress is up to, pick up a newspaper and see what your elected officials are doing. Leave those of us that mind our own business and live our lives as we see fit alone.

More Reports on the FBI and Domestic Spying

We have already looked at one case where the FBI were spying on law abiding citizens. Now we have another.

"Two FBI workers are accused of using surveillance equipment to spy on teenage girls as they undressed and tried on prom gowns at a charity event at a West Virginia mall.

The FBI employees have been charged with conspiracy and committing criminal invasion of privacy. They were working in an FBI satellite control room at the mall when they positioned a camera on temporary changing rooms and zoomed in for at least 90 minutes on girls dressing for the Cinderella Project fashion show, Marion County Prosecutor Pat Wilson said Monday." [link]

I wonder what these agents were looking for. Also wonder if any of these teenagers were underage. If so then we have a sex crime and will need to register these FBI agents into a centralized system...ran by the FBI. Hmmm, wonder how this will end up turning out?

Welcome to the United Socialist States of Amerika

"If you one of the estimated 750,000 Americans who attended one of about 600 TEA parties last week, you might have seen media cameras covering the event. Media cameras, however, were not the only cameras taking video at these events, something that has at least one current FBI agent concerned over the future of America...placed his concerns for true patriots of the U.S. over his own career when he confided that covert surveillance was “planned and performed” at each of the TEA parties that took place last Tuesday." [link]

Isn't that nice to know. Wonder when law abiding Americans who have the right to peaceably assemble, the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances, and the right to speak freely became the enemy? Could it be they became the enemy when those that have no love, or regard for this great nation or our Constitution came into power? And I am not just talking about Obama, Bush probably did more damage to the Constitution than Obama has done. But when will it end? When will the government that is supposed to be ran by the people, allow the people to do as they will so long as they do not infringe on the rights of others?

MIAC, But at the Federal Level!

"A newly unclassified Department of Homeland Security report warns against the possibility of violence by unnamed "right-wing extremists" concerned about illegal immigration, increasing federal power, restrictions on firearms, abortion and the loss of U.S. sovereignty and singles out returning war veterans as particular threats." [link]

How can anyone trust a government that does not even trust its own citizens? These "reports" are getting ridiculous. Let's get out our history books and look up the Gestapo, the KGB, the Red Scare and Joseph McCarthy, etc... Remember those that forget our history are doomed to repeat it.

Government Overseen Preventive Gunownership?

By now nearly everyone has heard of the plan to have all physicians, hospitals, clinics, etc... place all of their patients medical files into a central database so they can be "easily accessed by other providers". If we lived in a perfect world there would be no problem with this, it would allow quick access between doctors to a persons medical records, which could streamline a lot of processes. The main critics of this plan point out that the government itself would be the entity that would provide the "central hub" for all computerized medical records, thus allowing the government access to your own private medical records.

Now we have this coming up, "An influential government-appointed medical panel is urging doctors to routinely screen all American teens for depression -- a bold step that acknowledges that nearly 2 million teens are affected by this debilitating condition." [link]

What some of you may be aware of and some of you may not be aware of is the NICS Improvement Act of 2007 more commonly known as the Veterans Disarmament Act. What it does is allows for the barring of firearms ownership to anyone who is "adjudicated as a mental defective."... by a government psychologist or psychiatrist in the VA, Medicare, or the IDEA program. However, that would all change with the Veterans Disarmament Act, as it will CODIFY regulations that BATFE has issued." [link]

In other words the Law muddies the language quite a bit and leaves a lot to be interpreted. So it could be possible that all of these teenagers that may be screened for depression (a mental disorder), could later in life be barred from owning a firearm.

I know all of this is pure conjecture at this point, but would anything surprise you with the United States Government at this point. Look at all of the things that are going on and the liberties being taken from us now that our parents or grandparents would have laughed at 50 years ago. They would have said there is no way that will happen in America.

This From a "Constitutional Lawyer"?

"His [Obama's] announcement Monday of a new position on bailing out Detroit went beyond a desire to be sure tax dollars were not wasted in bailing out struggling companies. It put the Obama administration squarely in the position of adopting a so-called industrial policy, in which government officials, not business executives or the free market, decided what kinds of products a company would make and how it would chart its future." [link]

I am pretty sure there is nothing in the Constitution that grants this type of power to the president. Industry is not and should not be the business of government. The business of government is very strictly laid out in the U.S. Constitution. However it is rarely if ever adhered to except when the government can use it for its purposes.

Government Takeover of Private Businesses

In testimony before the House Financial Services committee that just adjourned, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner just had to defend his institutional takeover plan against charges of radicalism.

"Do you realize how radical your proposal is?" Rep. Donald Manzullo (R-Ill.) asked.

"It's not radical. . ." Geither began, before Manzullo interrupted him.

"You're talking about seizing private businesses and you don't consider that radical?" Manzullo replied, his voice rising.

Manzullo is trying to get Geithner to give details of the plan -- that's where Geithner got stung before -- but Geithner doesn't have them yet.

If the plan were not radical, Manzullo said to Geithner, "you would have answers to some of my questions, such as, what size business would be subject to this?" [link]

What an interesting conversation that was. Geithner has no answer for a representative that asked him about the administrations plan to seize private business if they see fit. At least some people are starting to get outraged finally. The government is going too far and they need to be sent a swift message.

Deception at Core of Obama Plans

"Forget the pork. Forget the waste. Forget the 8,570 earmarks in a bill supported by a president who poses as the scourge of earmarks. Forget the "$2 trillion dollars in savings" that "we have already identified," $1.6 trillion of which President Obama's budget director later admits is the "savings" of not continuing the surge in Iraq until 2019...Obama's radically transformative economic plan, a rhetorical sleight of hand so smoothly offered that few noticed... "it is only by understanding how we arrived at this moment that we'll be able to lift ourselves out of this predicament," Obama has come to redeem us with his far-seeing program of universal, heavily nationalized health care; a cap-and-trade tax on energy; and a major federalization of education...the list of causes of the collapse of the financial system does not include the absence of universal health care, let alone of computerized medical records. Nor the absence of an industry-killing cap-and-trade carbon levy. Nor the lack of college graduates." [link]

Read enough yet, starting to get the idea...that we are headed down a radical socialist agenda the likes of which it might nearly be impossible to pull out of without major consequences. And quite a few Americans are now starting to see this. For example upon taking office Mr. Obama had an approval rating of 80% give or take a few points. Let's look at some polls now:

President Obama Job Approval

Poll	Date	Sample	Approve	Disapprove	Spread
RCP Average	02/25 - 03/04	--	61.3	28.0	+33.3
FOX News	03/03 - 03/04	900 RV	63	26	+37
Diageo/Hotline	02/28 - 03/02	803 RV	67	27	+40
Quinnipiac	02/25 - 03/02	2573 RV	59	25	+34
Gallup	02/27 - 03/01	1551 A	63	25	+38
Cook/RT Strategies	02/27 - 03/01	880 RV	57	28	+29
Rasmussen Reports	02/27 - 03/01	1500 LV	60	39	+21
NBC News/Wall St. Jrnl	02/26 - 03/01	1007 A	60	26	+34

Hmmmm around a 20% drop in just six weeks...How about looking at the direction we are headed as a country:

Direction of Country

Poll	Date	Right Direction	Wrong Track	Spread
RCP Average	02/19 - 03/02	35.8	56.0	-20.2
Diageo/Hotline	02/28 - 03/02	32	55	-23
NBC News/Wall St. Jrnl	02/26 - 03/01	41	44	-3
Daily Kos/R2000	02/23 - 02/26	39	58	-19
ABC News/Wash Post	02/19 - 02/22	31	67	-36

Looks like a quite a few believe we are headed in the wrong direction as well. But do you think Mr. Obama will listen to the ones who are truly supposed to run the country, "WE THE PEOPLE"? Very doubtful. Instead you can almost guarantee he will continue to push his ultra-radical agenda to the detriment of the nation.
[source for polling data]

Powered by ScribeFire.

Worse Than the REAL ID?

"Privacy advocates are issuing warnings about a new radio chip plan that ultimately could provide electronic identification for every adult in the U.S. and allow agents to compile attendance lists at anti-government rallies simply by walking through the assembly..."So if EDLs are the new direction for secure licenses in all states, it just reinforces what many have been telling me that DHS wants to expand this program and turn it into a wireless national ID with a different name," he said. "We'll wake up one day and without a vote in Congress DHS will just pass a rule and say something like 'starting next month you will need an EDL to fly on a plane, or to buy a gun, or whatever." [link]

I just love waking up everyday and hearing the new idea to start restricting my freedom's and liberty's. Don't you? This is a scary, scary idea. These types of "innocuous" ideas are more frightening than outright bans on freedoms. For one if you package something right you can get a lot of people to agree with you on whatever it is. Liberty and freedom are rarely lost in one fell swoop, but in small bits and pieces over time where only a few people notice.

As Data Collecting Grows, Privacy Erodes

"We are typically told that personal information is anonymously tracked for one reason — usually something abstract like making search results more accurate, recommending book titles or speeding traffic through the toll booths on the thruways. But it is then quickly converted into something traceable to an individual, and potentially life-changing." [link]

Just one more thing for us freedom lovers to be very careful about, check that, not just us, but anyone. Personal information being tracked is one reason that identity theft is on the rise. How sure can you be that a third party is going to be truly concerned and secure with your personal information?