November 21, 2009

Hoppe and Raico on Class Analysis

Here, Charles, is a brilliant talk by Hans-Hermann Hoppe on Austrian and Marxist class analysis, in 1988. Listen.

Here also, at that same Mises Institute conference, is another brilliant talk, this one by Ralph Raico, on the classical-liberal roots of Marxist class analysis. Listen.

The Fed and the Power Elite

Lew is precisely on-target emphasizing the importance of libertarian class analysis (or power elite analysis) when examining the Fed and the catastrophic debacle it has created.  This is exactly the course of action I urged last Thursday evening in a panel interview program with Sandra Crosnoe, Ryan Underwood, and Bobby Kessler on RepublicMedia.TV concerning Sunday’s nationwide series of End the Fed rallies in cities across the country.   It is a theme I have repeatedly stressed in my articles at LRC.   Knowledge is power.  Empower yourself by learning about libertarian class analysis and how it impacts specifically upon the Federal Reserve and the parasitical elites which benefit from this leviathan within our midst.  Begin with Murray N. Rothbard’s amazing audio presentation on the Fed and the Power Elite. Then examine four crucial ground-breaking articles on this subject:  “Libertarian Class Analysis” by Sheldon Richman, and three seminal studies by Rothbard:  “The Anatomy of the State,” “Wall Street, Banks, and American Foreign Policy,” and “The Origins of the Federal Reserve.” Matt Taibbi’s LRC archived articles on Goldman Sachs are also exemplary models of this type of analysis.

NPR on Ron Paul and the Fed

They even have a poll, which the Paulians are winning, of course. (Thanks to Rob Esposito)

An Unprecedented Defeat for the Federal Reserve

Writes Ryan Grim:

In an unprecedented defeat for the Federal Reserve, an amendment to audit the multi-trillion dollar institution was approved by the House Finance Committee with an overwhelming and bipartisan 43-26 vote on Thursday afternoon despite harried last-minute lobbying from top Fed officials and the surprise opposition of Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who had previously been a supporter.

The measure, cosponsored by Reps. Ron Paul (R-Texas) and Alan Grayson (D-Fla.), authorizes the Government Accountability Office to conduct a wide-ranging audit of the Fed’s opaque deals with foreign central banks and major U.S. financial institutions. The Fed has never had a real audit in its history and little is known of what it does with the trillions of dollars at its disposal.

Read the rest.

An Unexpected Endorsement of the Hitlerian “Terror Tribunals”

“The decision to try the 9/11 defendants in a civilian court opens up the likelihood that the defendant’s right to what is called `discovery’ will require providing the defense team with intelligence that will surely make its way back to terrorist allies,” insisted one of the contributors to the November 20 installment of The Hill newspaper’s “The Big Question” feature. “These trials should be held in military courts where no such rights exist. Their crimes were acts of war (didn’t we go to war as a result?), not the acts of ordinary criminals.”

That slurry of pre-digested Red State Fascist soundbites was regurgitated by John F. McManus, president of the John Birch Society and Publisher of The New American magazine. The JBS and TNA have previously taken the position that the undeclared wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are constitutionally illegitimate and morally unsupportable, and that the terror tribunals are an abomination. As president of the JBS, Mr. McManus is the official arbiter of the organization’s ideology.

Ironically, on the same day McManus embraced the Fox “News”/neo-con/war-bot view of the impending KSM trial, The New American published a typically incisive and witty essay by LRC contributor Becky Aker in which she condemned the Hitlerian terror tribunals.

Greenspan-Volcker vs. Ron Paul

Good for Ron for stirring these two establishment mullahs to oppose him. But forget their official arguments, which are always a smokescreen in the state-bankster world. Remember that  Greenspan was a J.P. Morgan (i.e., Rockefeller) economist before he ascended to the Fed. Now he works for hedge funds and big banks in NYC. Volcker was vice chairman of Rockefeller’s Chase Manhattan Bank before his apotheosis. Now he runs the J. Rothschild  investment bank on Wall Street. Power-elite analysis is what we need. As Murray Rothbard always said, look to where high state officials come from, and where they go after their terms in office. This is criticized as comspiracy-theorizing, since men like Greenspan and Volcker are guided only by their view of the common good. Hah! Who lines their pockets, and what are their goals? That is what we always want to know for actual political science, let alone Fed analysis.

Audit the Fed Vote Tally

Just for your record, here is the list of representatives who voted on the Paul-Grayson amendment and how they voted. If you are someone who votes, you might want to remember this if one of the “nays” is your representative.

Read the rest of this entry »

New EU Head Blatantly Admits the Goal of One World Government

At 2:02 in this video, he declares:

“The climate conference in Copenhagen is another step towards the global management of our planet.”

November 20, 2009

The DC Establishment Suffers a Major Defeat

Writes Glenn Greenwald:

Something quite amazing happened yesterday in Congress:  the House Finance Committee — in a truly bipartisan and even trans-ideological vote — defied the banking industry, the Federal Reserve, the Democratic leadership, and mainstream Beltway opinion in order to pass an amendment, sponsored by GOP Rep. Ron Paul and Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson, mandating a genuine and probing audit of the Fed.

Read the rest.

The Recession Creeps Across the Land

Watch this animation of unemployment rates going up since January 2007. By the time you get to the end with all the black counties, counties with 10% or greater unemployment according to official (understated) figures, it is pretty hard to see those green shoots.

[Thanks Daring Fireball]

Carl Levin (D-Pentagon)

The federal senator from Michigan warns us that he and the rest of the gang of thieves will have to loot our incomes even more thoroughly, so as to keep murdering Muslims in Afghanistan. After all, the war department spends $1 million per year per private on the merchants of death in the war. Can’t hamper that process. (Via Drudge)

Thurs.Winners

The three best-read were: Mark Thornton on Lou Dobbs; Marc Faber on the biggest bust, then war, by Ryan Huang; and John Rubino loves Charles Goyette’s book.

Update on Mourning Joe Scarborough

On his website, he describes his fundraising for John McDonogh High School in New Orleans as “raising awareness for volunteerism!”

So, an institution founded on a threat to jail the parents if they fail to enroll their children is a model of voluntarism.

John McDonogh High has an interesting history. From Wikipedia:
Read the rest of this entry »

Mises Is ‘Fairly Obscure’?

Writes a friend:

Here is a fascinating vignette from Reason TV: Whole Foods entrepreneur John Mackey seems to surprise Welch when he tries to explain why he sells products his customers want to buy, even though he doesn’t personally like such products. More important, when asked to list his libertarian influences, he includes Smith, Mill, Hayek, and Mises.

Gillespie interrupts and says, “How did you come across Mises? Because he’s, even today, among a lot of libertarians, he’s fairly obscure. Do you remember how you kind of stumbled across him?

Mackey: “In a lot of ways I think he’s the one that had the biggest impact on me. I loved his work. I just thought he was brilliant when I read him.”

Mackey then says his “awakening” came from reading a lot of libertarian books “voraciously.” He singles out Socialism and Human Action as excellent, and credits Mises for explaining how markets work. He goes on:

Read the rest of this entry »

A Victim of World War I

She is 26-years-old, and lost a leg from a bomb in that horrific holocaust known as the Great War, when the West tried collectively to commit suicide. The suffering of war continues long after peace is declared — in this case, 90 years later. Is there any doubt that the barbarism of modern war must be opposed as vociferously as any other evil? People are still dying from Clinton’s wars, and Bush’s victims will continue to mount for decades. Obama is killing people who haven’t even been born yet. War is the greatest enemy to the pro-life ethic.

Private School Students Learn About Martial Law

Shortly before 8:00 Tuesday morning, a concerned parent visited the elementary school at West-Mont Christian Academy in North Coventry, Pennsylvania. After checking in at the desk, the teacher was escorted to the lobby to wait for his child’s kindergarten teacher.

At some point, the parent made the “mistake” of walking upstairs to look at some of the student-produced artwork. Eventually the teacher arrived and had a “fruitful” discussion with the parent, who left.

Unfortunately, the teacher who had been the parent’s original escort panicked when the visitor couldn’t be found. The administration was notified,  and at around 8:30 a.m. the children were herded into the gym, and lockdown protocols went into effect.

“Police called in the Chesmont Emergency Response Team [ERT], who were training Tuesday in the township, to assist in clearing the building,” reported the Chester County, PA Daily Local. It’s not clear whether the ERT — a paramilitary police unit equipped with Pentagon-issued toys — arrived in their nifty “Peacekeeper” armored vehicle.

Read the rest of this entry »

Lou Dobbs Is Antiwar Now!?

Maybe this is why he was dropped from the prolefeed box.

Check out his petition to Bring The Troops Home Now!

Joe Scarborough Needs to Read His Rothbard

This morning, Joe Scarborough helped to raise $125,000 to help repair a leaky roof in a government school indoctrination center in New Orleans.

As I explain in my book, it’s basic Austrian economics that governments tend to ignore capital expenses in favor of income. Joe, if you want to know where the roof money went, look at the salaries, benefits, pension funds, unions dues, and the huge amount of cash that goes from the taxpayers’ pockets to the teachers to the unions to the liberal Democratic politicians.

Read the rest of this entry »

Schiff on the Socialist Shafting by the Senate

[Thanks to Christopher Kalabus]

November 19, 2009

America’s Sexiest Slug

I must not be representative of the typical American woman. ‘Cuz I just don’t get it. When Hollywood molded men into girly men to make them “attractive” and “sexy,” I must’ve missed the orientation session (or the magic pill). The decrepit Johnny Depp was once again voted the “Sexiest Man Alive” (is he wearing eye shadow??) by the magazine that caters to the two-minute attention span. Johnny Depp always looks like he just crawled out of a drainage ditch after a three-week-long “save the moss” campaign. Yet the Hollywood press continues to worship this caricature of Dumpster Boy. Someone bring me my beer goggles, and quick.

Secrecy and the Federal Reserve

Ron Paul’s Audit the Fed bill makes the pages of the Financial Times, and the article even discusses Paul’s ultimate goal of ending the Fed.

The draft legislation instructs the GAO to conduct a thorough audit within a year of the law passing. Mr Paul and his supporters want to examine every line of the Fed’s balance sheet.

If this bill gets through without being hacked to pieces, I’m applying for a Senior Auditor position at the GAO .

Congratulations to Charles Goyette

His new book, The Dollar Meltdown: Surviving the Impending Currency Crisis with Gold, Oil, and Other Unconventional Investments, will debut on Sunday at #10 on the NY Times bestseller list at #10.

A Small Blow Against the State à la ‘Wonderbug’

Writes Toby J. Clarkson, Sr.:

There was a Saturday morning t.v. show when I was a kid in the late 70’s called Wonderbug about the adventures of 3 teenagers and an anthropomorphic beat-up, old dune-buggy named SCHLEP that would transform into the Wonderful Wonderbug, a magical supercar that would come to the rescue for the show’s protagonists whenever they got into trouble.  In any given episode, as one of the show’s signature shticks, the female lead, Susan, would come up with an idea to solve whatever dilemma they were facing, and said idea would be summarily rejected by the other two male leads; however, in the very next breath, the “brainy” male lead, Barry, would suggest as his own the very same idea that Susan had just come up with immediate and enthusiastic approval from the other male lead, C.C.—this all to the chagrin of Susan.

Well…

Several months ago, we were having what you might imagine was a typical, “What’s the world coming to?/Woe is me!/We’ve got to take our country back!/What’s become of ‘traditional values’” type of conversation in my conservative Lutheran church’s Sunday-School class regarding Governor Lynch’s having signed into law the legislation legalizing same-sex marriage here in New Hampshire.  After several minutes of this line of discussion, my wife and I piped in with the heretofore unconsidered thought that instead of seeking to overturn this one particular piece of legislation, we ought to instead question at the outset whether the state should have a role at any level in the religious institution of marriage and that perhaps we should instead see governmental licensing of marriage of any kind as an inherently bad idea. (These types of arguments can be compelling to Lutherans especially considering Martin Luther’s Doctrine of the Two Kingdoms.)

Encouragingly enough, this line of thought seemed to spur on further discussion in several small groups after the class; in particular, I had a conversation with the chairman of the church’s Board of Elders who had been particularly adamant in the early part of the class with the “We ought to kick the bums outta office and get that law overturned” kind of thinking and had certainly never questioned the underlying assumptions of the state’s role in having to give its approval to a couple wishing to be married.  He never fully signed off on my ideas (E.g., he still defended the notion of having to get state permission and pay the state a fee to get married based on one of the state’s alleged grounds of preventing the spread of venereal diseases. “And what a success that’s been!” I pointed out to him. He laughed—as saying that lame notion out loud immediately made it sound as absurd as it is), but I could see his wheels turning.

Read the rest of this entry »

Paul-Grayson Amendment Wins!

Congratulations to Ron Paul! His amendment, coauthored by Alan Grayson, to audit the Fed was just passed 43-26, kicking out the evil Mel Watt version, in the financial services committee. Still to come, the vote on the whole bill, and much can happen, but this is great news. Bernanke and friends must be crying in their beer.

(Thanks to Marc Gallagher)

Butler Shaffer on ‘Freedom Watch’

Glenn Greenwald vs. the Weekly Standard

Of course, Glenn leaves Bill Kristol’s pressed sawdust in, well, sawdust. He also strengthens my resolve never to use “terrorist” in a Bush-Obama sense. After all, what are “terrorists” except wagers of guerrilla, i.e., non-state, war? Sometimes, guerrillas engage in just war and use just tactics, sometimes they do neither, and sometimes it’s one or the other. Just like states, though imperial states almost never use just tactics, nor engage in just war, however much they may yammer about terrorism, a word that only blinds the moral sense. X is branded a terrorist? Well, then he can be tortured, jailed indefinitely without trial and in secret, and even executed in secret—if the security organs think it useful. Now it’s blue-state fascism, but it marches on, as I said almost five years ago.

Does the Texas Constitution Get Marriage Right?

Writes Eric Peddicord:

A Democrat AG wannabe is up in arms because she finally figured out that the text of a 4-year-old approved amendment:

“This state or a political subdivision of this state may not create or recognize any legal status identical or similar to marriage.”

can legitimately be read as including marriage itself. She’s absolutely appalled at the possibility that people might decide for themselves who to marry without the state of Texas approving those decisions and forcing that approval on others at gunpoint. Also entertaining is the current Republican AG’s response: “The Texas Constitution . . . is entirely constitutional.”

RE: Companies That Unions Hate

Lew—apropos the Unions’ 2010 Sweatshop Hall of Shame, I “wonder” why they didn’t include the Union-owned General Motors on their list—considering it has a sweatshop in Communist China?

Can’t Stop Your Child from Crying?

No problem.  Just call a government cop and ask him to electrocute her.

Suspicious Swine Flu Numbers (But the Statists Are Gearing Up for the Next Big One)

As the college campuses began to populate, stories began to emerge about the high rate of swine flu among students. However, a little known fact was that most places were not actually testing for swine flu. Any student presenting with flu-like symptoms was presumed to have H1N1 because seasonal flu does not usually hit until much later in the fall.

When I heard this, I was suspicious of whether there really was an outbreak of swine flu on campus, but there was just no data one way or the other. Now there is: the world-renowned Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia routinely tests patients for rhinovirus (the common cold) and H1N1. They found that most of their patients with flu-like symptoms had a cold, not swine flu.

But, there’s more… Read the rest of this entry »

Companies That Unions Hate

How dare  these firms provide jobs for hardworking poor people in the Third World, and good prices for their customers here, promoting the international division of labor and international peace, rather than go out of business with lazy, protectionist, nationalist unionoids in Uncle Samland? I pledge in the coming year to patronize all members of the “2010 Sweatshop Hall of Shame”: Abercrombie and Fitch, Gymboree, Hanes, Ikea, Kohl’s, LL Bean, Pier 1 Imports, Propper International, and Walmart.

Wed. Winners

The three best-read were: How to buy a used handgun, by Chuck Hawks; Peter Schiff on the need for free-market colleges; and Gary North on hoarding money.

The Future of Higher Ed

Cops vs. students protesting a 32% tuition increase at UCLA—in a recession!

(Thanks to Travis Holte)

Wholly Owned Subsidaries of the Fed

The “prominent economists” who vociferously oppose Ron Paul’s drive for more transparency by the Fed are all, in one way or another, on its payroll. (Thanks to Stephen Fairfax)

UPDATE from Mike Pannone:

Hmm, I recall Barney Frank chastising Tom Woods about Tom’s language within his testimony on HR 1207 when Tom referred to, and I’m paraphrasing, other economists that were “bought and paid for”.

See this youtube at 7:03.

Maybe Barney should have a look at the HufPo article you linked to.

Open Carry in the Bay Area

Writes Michael V: “A co-worker of mine out here in the Bay Area is getting some coverage. The one thing that blows me away was that they didn’t edit out his comment that the ‘police have no duty or legal requirement’ to protect us.”

Commie Thought Police

Don’t miss Dave Nathan on the smear of Tom Woods, Charles Goyette, and Thomas Naylor by one of Arianna’s commissars. Not that the left’s enforcement of the state moral code is any different from neocons or “libertarians.”

Ethiopia’s Abe Lincoln

I’m currently teaching an undergraduate course on “Capitalism and Its Critics,” and one student paper assignment is to describe specifically what kind of governmental coercion and force was used in the name of creating a socialist society in any one country discussed in The Black Book of Communism.  (The students had just finished reading The Road to Serfdom by F.A. Hayek).  Here’s one paragraph from one of the student papers that reminded me of  the legacy of Dishonest Abe:

“More death and destruction came about from the Mengistu regime [in Ethiopia] after he declared total war against the Eritrean secessionists.  ‘The total death estimate of 80,000 civilians and military personnel for 1979-80 includes victims of the massive air raids that were used as reprisals, but does not include those who must have died as a result of the government’s subsequent disruption of the traditional way of life.’”

November 18, 2009

If You Thought Getting into Harvard Was Tough…

Those “progressive” Brits are at it again. First they come into your home, then they follow you to your school.

BIG BROTHER QUIZ FOR NEW SCHOOL PARENTS: OFFICIALS LAUNCH 83-POINT PROBE INTO FAMILIES’ LIVES

Parents of five-year-olds starting school have been sent an 83-point questionnaire that probes personal details of their lives. It asks whether their children tell lies or bully others, and if they steal at home or from shops. Parents are questioned over whether they have friends, if they can speak freely with others in their family and how well they did at school themselves.

The form also delves into family routines, questioning whether they eat takeaways and if the children drink water with their meals. Thousands of families in Lincolnshire were sent the forms as part of trials of a ‘Healthy Child Programme’ being developed in Whitehall. The Department of Health wants all families in England and Wales to fill in similar forms.

[Thanks to Travis Holte]

Someone Has Way Too Much Time on His Hands

[Thanks to Mick Curran]

Bill O’Reilly: “I Don’t Care About the Constitution”

And the sun rises in the east, there are 26 letters in the alphabet, and Lew Rockwell runs lewrockwell.com.

By the way, did you catch that “class” act O’Reilly referring to Napolitano as a “pinhead” at 1:56? Don’t you always get the feeling when you watch an O’Reilly tirade/interview that you are watching a schoolyard bully? (Okay. That’s not fair. If there are any schoolyard bullies reading this, I apologize.)

[Thanks to Rolf Lindgren]

‘Hillsdale College Is Getting into the Public School Business’

Or so says the college newspaper.

Military Incognito

David: I have long been amused at the sight of soldiers parading around in airports, office buildings, grocery stores, shopping malls, etc., in their jungle camouflage attire. I have even seen top generals in such costumes on C-SPAN speaking at press clubs. I suspect the image they are trying to promote is one that suggests “I just got in from the jungle, where I was engaged in a deadly fire-fight with the dreaded Mongolooshian hordes.”

What clothing makeup do the Navy and Air Force people wear? During World War II, Navy pilots had the bottoms of their planes painted a mixture of light blue and white (to match the sky) and the tops a dark blue (to match the ocean). Perhaps their clothing colors could be adapted to these same patterns.

It’s just all part of the costuming for “war as entertainment” about which I wrote an article a few years ago. They don’t refer to battle zones as “theaters” for no reason!

It’s Self-Protection Week

The hot author this week on LRC is Boston T. Party. His best selling-book is One Nation, Under Surveillance — Privacy from the Watchful Eye. Also in demand: his You and the Police as well as, of course, his Boston’s Gun Bible. Also popular, the 2009 Silver American Eagle Coin and the Smith and Wesson Black HRT Boot Knife with sheaf (for concealed carry). Then there is that survival item with 1001 uses: 550 lb. test Paracord.

Sarah Bugs the Neocons

How encouraging today to see, in the neocon Wall Street Journal, a hit piece on Sarah Palin’s new book by neocon Thomas Franks. How dare Palin answer her critics point by point, says a representative of that victimological pressed-sawdust, never short of a keen or a whine to justify the empire. Worse—better sit down for this one—she criticizes the New Deal, which Franks compares to the ultimate anti-nationalist blasphemy: “The respect she shows history, though, is the kind of respect you show the flag when you soak it in kerosene and touch a match to it. ‘[W]e tried growing government to save the economy back in the 1930s, and it didn’t work then either,’ Ms. Palin writes. It is a modest assertion, though, compared to the astonishing finding Ms. Palin reveals in the next sentence: ‘Massive government spending programs and protectionist economic policies actually helped turn a recession into the Great Depression.’” Sarah has a long way to go, but bugging Thomas Franks is a good start. (Thanks to Jim Van Pelt.)

UPDATE from Skip Oliva:

I’m not sure if it’s neocons that Mrs. Palin bugs so much as the crumbling remnants of the press establishment. Witness the ongoing Andrew Sullivan meltdown. I can’t think of another context where a “prominent” writer would be permitted to repeatedly print false and defamatory material about a woman — and her infant child — without any consequences. Still, if Palin’s presence forces such meltdowns, that alone constitutes a great public service.

Again: NEVER Call the Police for “Help”

“When he came to my house, he was alive,” says East Grand Rapids, Michigan resident Stephen Bolick of his son, Matthew. “When he came out, he was dead.”

Matthew, an emotionally troubled 30-year-old, died after being lethally “protected and served” by the local police. During what appeared to be a breakdown of some kind on November 16, Matthew injured himself by crashing through a ground-floor picture window. Desperate for help, Stephen called the police, telling them “I need help getting this kid to a hospital.”

According to the official account, after two “veteran” officers showed up, Matthew — who stood 5′6″ tall and weighed all of 135 pounds –  “assaulted” one of them. The officer responded by shooting Matthew with a Taser. Several additional Taser charges later, Matthew was dead. His was the second Taser-related death to take place at the hands of East Rapids Police since the department received their new torture toys last January.

“The initial 911 call was for help, not an arrest and certainly not for the use of Tasers,” laments Matthew’s bereaved father.

The loss of a child of any age is easily the worst thing that can ever happen to a parent. May God comfort Stephen Bolick and the rest of Matthew’s family — and may He give the rest of us the wisdom to understand that it is never a good idea to seek “help” from armed State agents clothed with the supposed authority to kill and trained to see the rest of us as the enemy.

Palin’s Paradox

James, you’re right — what an irony that, in her new book, she complains about the McCain staff, but appears to have swallowed everything they spoon-fed her.

Phyllis Schlafly, the most astute observer in the pro-family movement, had it right — as always. Although she praised Palin – “She’s likable, like Hillary isn’t” – she saw the fatal flaw when Palin cancelled her meeting with pro-lifers at the GOP convention and met all day behind locked doors with AIPAC instead. The fix was in.

A few years ago, Schlafly urged pro-family conservatives to consider themselves a “third force,” unbound from any fatal attachment to the GOP. This has come to pass, as we watch the percentage of voters willing to identify themselves as Republicans dwindle to about 20%, even as the percentage of the population that identifies itself as pro-life has risen to as much as fifty percent.

Read the rest of this entry »

More Green Will Cost You More Green

FINES FOR TOO-TALL GRASS COULD RISE TO $1,000 A DAY IN JUPITER [Florida]

An overgrown lawn could cost a homeowner $1,000 a day.

A plan to quadruple the penalty from the current maximum of $250 per day for a first violation is scheduled for consideration at Tuesday night’s town council meeting. A repeat violation by the same person would be boosted to $5,000 a day maximum from $500 per day. If the code enforcement board finds that the violation is irreversible — the unapproved removal of an historic tree, for example — the violator would face a maximum fine of $15,000. The current maximum penalty is $5,000.

“That’s outrageous,” said Stefan Harzen, a member of the property owners association for the Woodland Estates neighborhood. Increasing the fines will not result in prettier neighborhoods, he said. “This is an easy way for the town to get more money,” Harzen said. [No! Really??]

Well, so much for The Greening of America.

Palin Drinks the Neocon Kool-Aid

Just the other day, I wrote (paraphrasing) on my blog that, if Sarah Palin came out against the global empire and war, she could waltz into the White House in 2012.

Forgetaboutit!

She drank the Kool-Aid on Rush yesterday:

RUSH: You mentioned earlier you wanted to talk about national security, that you hoped it came up. Well, here it is: What do we face? What are our threats, and are we prepared, or not?

Read the rest of this entry »

The Latest Fascist Fashion “Statement”

CAMO[UFLAGE] TAILORED FOR TORONTO, MONTREAL, AND VANCOUVER

Future Canadian soldiers could be wearing new uniforms designed to provide camouflage on the streets of our largest cities. The Defence Department will know by March what designs might work for what is being called a Canadian Urban Environment Pattern. Those designs are to be based on the “unique requirements” of the urban settings of Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto, according to an outline of the project being co-ordinated by scientists at Defence Research and Development Canada in Suffield, Alta.

However, Eric Graves, the editor of Soldier Systems Daily, a U.S. website that reports on the uniform and equipment industry, questioned whether it made sense to have camouflage based on the landscape of Canadian cities. Various studies indicate the world’s population in developing nations is becoming more focused in urban areas and military officers often talk about future warfare being in those areas. “It makes zero sense for the Canadian military to produce an urban pattern based on their own cities unless they plan on fighting there,” Graves noted.

What I want to know is: Exactly who are Canadian soldiers trying to camouflage themselves from?

[Thanks to Travis Holte]

Crooked Cops Shooting Fish in a Barrel

Here’s an article in the Detroit News (Part 1) that investigates how police departments in the metro Detroit area use property seizures to cover their costs and line their pockets. Generally, the victims are poor people with few resources and no power to fight the system. And the thieves aren’t shy about bragging that the courts have long supported their endeavors. From the article:

“Local law enforcement agencies are raising millions of dollars by seizing private property suspected in crimes, but often without charges being filed — and sometimes even when authorities admit no offense was committed.

The money raised by confiscating goods in Metro Detroit soared more than 50 percent to at least $20.62 million from 2003 to 2007, according to a Detroit News analysis of records from 58 law enforcement agencies. In some communities, amounts raised went from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands — and, in one case, into the millions.

Here are a few worthwhile quotes from the story, straight from the lips of the plunderers:

- “Police departments right now are looking for ways to generate revenue, and forfeiture is a way to offset the costs of doing business,” said Sgt. Dave Schreiner, who runs Canton Township’s forfeiture unit, which raised $343,699 in 2008. “You’ll find that departments are doing more forfeitures than they used to because they’ve got to — they’re running out of money and they’ve got to find it somewhere.”

“Forfeitures are a way to help supplement your budgetary issues.” — Trenton Chief William Lilienthal

“Revenue was not a primary concern, he said, “but it is nice when we’re able to purchase things we need from arrests.” — Romulus Police Chief Michael St. Andre

Here is Part 2 of the Detroit News story.

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