But, We’re just supposed to trust this Government? Please.

Your Big Government at work again:

The National Security Agency has broken privacy rules or overstepped its legal authority thousands of times each year since Congress granted the agency broad new powers in 2008, according to an internal audit and other top-secret documents.

Most of the infractions involve unauthorized surveillance of Americans or foreign intelligence targets in the United States, both of which are restricted by statute and executive order. They range from significant violations of law to typographical errors that resulted in unintended interception of U.S. e-mails and telephone calls.

The documents, provided earlier this summer to The Washington Post by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, include a level of detail and analysis that is not routinely shared with Congress or the special court that oversees surveillance. In one of the documents, agency personnel are instructed to remove details and substitute more generic language in reports to the Justice Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

via NSA broke privacy rules thousands of times per year, audit finds – The Washington Post.

But, people like me who believe that big Government is bad government are called crazy, racists, and all sorts of other names. 🙄

You see, unlike the Neocons; of which I am not a part of, nor will I ever be — who only distrust the Government, when a neo-liberal Democrat is in office, but when a Neoconservative is running the show, everything is fine. I distrust the Government no matter WHO is in charge, that is because I happen to know the damned thing is corrupt, from the bottom to the top.

Also too, because I, like Pat Buchanan, happen to know that there is not much different between both beltway parties anymore. Both love Big Government, both love Globalism, and Both love stomping on the United States Constitution. Something they’ve done for years.

Related: Marc Tracy / The New Republic: New Snowden Docs Show We Don’t Even Know What We Don’t Know

Others: Politicoprotein wisdomHillicon ValleyWashington MonthlyLe·gal In·sur·rec· tion,Taylor MarshSalonHullabalooThe SwitchThe FixRIA NovostiCNNCrooks and Liars,FiredoglakeBalkinizationGuardianHit & RunThe HillTechdirtThe Daily Banter,americanthinker.commsnbc.comHot AirThe WeekWashington WireThe Daily CallerWJLA-TV,Scared MonkeysBBCRight Wing NewsThe VergeWeasel ZippersPrairie WeatherGigaOM,MashableAlan Colmes’ LiberalandLittle Green FootballsBalloon JuiceSimple JusticeMediaite,WFPLemptywheelPost PoliticsThe Volokh Conspiracy and Philly.comFiredoglakeDaily KosNo More Mister Nice BlogemptywheelThe DishPat Dollard and The Right Scoop

 

Video: Most Transparent Administration Ever?

This comes via Ed Morrissey, who posted in the HotAir.com’s echo chamber “Green Room.”:

Now, allow me to say a few things as an independent political blogger and voter.  This video above is so true. The right, of course, knows it; as they made it. However, the left knows it too and it is killing them. Of course, there will be the Obama loyalists who will defend him until the very last day. However, the grassroots left, they know that they were lied to, taken advantage of and basically screwed over by the party establishment.

Now, I have been hearing figures on the left saying that the Democrats will get behind Hillary. I have one thing to say about that little mistake: Good luck with that one! Hillary is basically damaged goods. The Benghazi scandal, regardless of how much of  it is Republican and Conservative propaganda and how much of it is true; Hillary’s name is on it and whomever runs against her will use that to their advantage — both in the general election and in the Democratic Party primary. That’s right folks, if a Democrat wants to slay Hillary’s machine, all they need to do is play the clip of her saying, “What does it matter?” over and over and over — she will lose and I mean lose big.

The ironic part is, that the Democrats have no one to blame, and I mean, no one — except themselves.  The Democrats chose skin color and affirmative action over true political experience. The Democrats because of their wish to control and expand the size of Government; elected twice, one of the members of the corrupt Chicago political machine — which is about as, or even more corrupt than the Texas political machine, of which President George W. Bush ex parte.

Let this be a lesson to all Americans; left, right and center — that the solution to corrupt, big government statism is not more corruption and big government statism. The lesson is also this; never choose personality or skin color over experience and never choose a candidate that represents that same very things that the last President represented, but with a different party label. Anyone that believes that there is any difference between the Republican and Democratic Parties anyone, is a fool. Both are corrupt, both are for big Government and both are controlled by lobbyists.

The question is this; can we change this? At one point, I believed we could. But, as of late, I am quite skeptical. I believe America has been lulled back to sleep and the downfall is coming. I dread the day; but all we can do, those of us who are awake, is pray for the best and prepare for the worst.

Prepare yourselves — Physically, Spiritually and mentally. Because, it is coming.

 

No, Sorry, Dick (head) Cheney, I do NOT trust you or your idiotic successor in the White House!

Ol’ Dick (head) Cheney says that we ought to just trust the Government.

The Video: (Via Think Progress)

Okay here is the little small problem with trusting Dick Cheney and his boss George W. Bush, they lied, as in like 935 times in a row, during their Presidency and Vice Presidency.

Prove it, you say? Sure.

Via The Center for Public Integrity, which is as follows:

The Center for Public Integrity was founded in 1989 by Charles Lewis. We are one of the country’s oldest and largest nonpartisan, nonprofit investigative news organizations. Our mission: To enhance democracy by revealing abuses of power, corruption and betrayal of trust by powerful public and private institutions, using the tools of investigative journalism.

Anyhow, here is why I don’t trust Neocons, nor do I trust Democratic Party liberals or Neo-leftists:

President Bush, for example, made 232 false statements about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and another 28 false statements about Iraq’s links to Al Qaeda. Secretary of State Powell had the second-highest total in the two-year period, with 244 false statements about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and 10 about Iraq’s links to Al Qaeda. Rumsfeld and Fleischer each made 109 false statements, followed by Wolfowitz (with 85), Rice (with 56), Cheney (with 48), and McClellan (with 14).

The massive database at the heart of this project juxtaposes what President Bush and these seven top officials were saying for public consumption against what was known, or should have been known, on a day-to-day basis. This fully searchable database includes the public statements, drawn from both primary sources (such as official transcripts) and secondary sources (chiefly major news organizations) over the two years beginning on September 11, 2001. It also interlaces relevant information from more than 25 government reports, books, articles, speeches, and interviews.

Consider, for example, these false public statements made in the run-up to war:

  • On August 26, 2002, in an address to the national convention of the Veteran of Foreign Wars, Cheney flatly declared: “Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us.” In fact, former CIA Director George Tenet later recalled, Cheney’s assertions went well beyond his agency’s assessments at the time. Another CIA official, referring to the same speech, told journalist Ron Suskind, “Our reaction was, ‘Where is he getting this stuff from?’ “
  • In the closing days of September 2002, with a congressional vote fast approaching on authorizing the use of military force in Iraq, Bush told the nation in his weekly radio address: “The Iraqi regime possesses biological and chemical weapons, is rebuilding the facilities to make more and, according to the British government, could launch a biological or chemical attack in as little as 45 minutes after the order is given. . . . This regime is seeking a nuclear bomb, and with fissile material could build one within a year.” A few days later, similar findings were also included in a much-hurried National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction — an analysis that hadn’t been done in years, as the intelligence community had deemed it unnecessary and the White House hadn’t requested it.
  • In July 2002, Rumsfeld had a one-word answer for reporters who asked whether Iraq had relationships with Al Qaeda terrorists: “Sure.” In fact, an assessment issued that same month by the Defense Intelligence Agency (and confirmed weeks later by CIA Director Tenet) found an absence of “compelling evidence demonstrating direct cooperation between the government of Iraq and Al Qaeda.” What’s more, an earlier DIA assessment said that “the nature of the regime’s relationship with  Al Qaeda is unclear.”
  • On May 29, 2003, in an interview with Polish TV, President Bush declared: “We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories.” But as journalist Bob Woodward reported in State of Denial, days earlier a team of civilian experts dispatched to examine the two mobile labs found in Iraq had concluded in a field report that the labs were not for biological weapons. The team’s final report, completed the following month, concluded that the labs had probably been used to manufacture hydrogen for weather balloons.
  • On January 28, 2003, in his annual State of the Union address, Bush asserted: “The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa. Our intelligence sources tell us that he has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear weapons production.” Two weeks earlier, an analyst with the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research sent an email to colleagues in the intelligence community laying out why he believed the uranium-purchase agreement “probably is a hoax.”
  • On February 5, 2003, in an address to the United Nations Security Council, Powell said: “What we’re giving you are facts and conclusions based on solid intelligence. I will cite some examples, and these are from human sources.” As it turned out, however, two of the main human sources to which Powell referred had provided false information. One was an Iraqi con artist, code-named “Curveball,” whom American intelligence officials were dubious about and in fact had never even spoken to. The other was an Al Qaeda detainee, Ibn al-Sheikh al-Libi, who had reportedly been sent to Eqypt by the CIA and tortured and who later recanted the information he had provided. Libi told the CIA in January 2004 that he had “decided he would fabricate any information interrogators wanted in order to gain better treatment and avoid being handed over to [a foreign government].”

The false statements dramatically increased in August 2002, with congressional consideration of a war resolution, then escalated through the mid-term elections and spiked even higher from January 2003 to the eve of the invasion.

It was during those critical weeks in early 2003 that the president delivered his State of the Union address and Powell delivered his memorable U.N. presentation. 

In addition to their patently false pronouncements, Bush and these seven top officials also made hundreds of other statements in the two years after 9/11 in which they implied that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction or links to Al Qaeda. Other administration higher-ups, joined by Pentagon officials and Republican leaders in Congress, also routinely sounded false war alarms in the Washington echo chamber.

The cumulative effect of these false statements — amplified by thousands of news stories and broadcasts — was massive, with the media coverage creating an almost impenetrable din for several critical months in the run-up to war. Some journalists — indeed, even some entire news organizations — have since acknowledged that their coverage during those prewar months was far too deferential and uncritical. These mea culpas notwithstanding, much of the wall-to-wall media coverage provided additional, “independent” validation of the Bush administration’s false statements about Iraq.

The “ground truth” of the Iraq war itself eventually forced the president to backpedal, albeit grudgingly. In a 2004 appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press, for example, Bush acknowledged that no weapons of mass destruction had been found in Iraq. And on December 18, 2005, with his approval ratings on the decline, Bush told the nation in a Sunday-night address from the Oval Office: “It is true that Saddam Hussein had a history of pursuing and using weapons of mass destruction. It is true that he systematically concealed those programs, and blocked the work of U.N. weapons inspectors. It is true that many nations believed that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. But much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong. As your president, I am responsible for the decision to go into Iraq. Yet it was right to remove Saddam Hussein from power.”

Bush stopped short, however, of admitting error or poor judgment; instead, his administration repeatedly attributed the stark disparity between its prewar public statements and the actual “ground truth” regarding the threat posed by Iraq to poor intelligence from a Who’s Who of domestic agencies.

On the other hand, a growing number of critics, including a parade of former government officials, have publicly — and in some cases vociferously — accused the president and his inner circle of ignoring or distorting the available intelligence. In the end, these critics say, it was the calculated drumbeat of false information and public pronouncements that ultimately misled the American people and this nation’s allies on their way to war.

Bush and the top officials of his administration have so far largely avoided the harsh, sustained glare of formal scrutiny about their personal responsibility for the litany of repeated, false statements in the run-up to the war in Iraq. There has been no congressional investigation, for example, into what exactly was going on inside the Bush White House in that period. Congressional oversight has focused almost entirely on the quality of the U.S. government’s pre-war intelligence — not the judgment, public statements, or public accountability of its highest officials. And, of course, only four of the officials — Powell, Rice, Rumsfeld, and Wolfowitz — have testified before Congress about Iraq.

Short of such review, this project provides a heretofore unavailable framework for examining how the U.S. war in Iraq came to pass. Clearly, it calls into question the repeated assertions of Bush administration officials that they were the unwitting victims of bad intelligence.

Above all, the 935 false statements painstakingly presented here finally help to answer two all-too-familiar questions as they apply to Bush and his top advisers: What did they know, and when did they know it?

A video:

The real sick and sad part is this; the same people that are having a hissy fit on the right about this program existing under Obama, are the same ones who were perfectly fine with it existing under Bush. In other words, they trusted the program under Bush. like idiots. My question to that crowd is this; why do  you not trust Obama? Because he is black or because he is a Democratic Party liberal?

Anyone and I mean anyone, who puts their trust in this Government of ours, based upon partisanship is nothing more than a darned fool in my opinion. Both of these political parties are two sides of the same coin and that is corruption and big Government socialism. Both parties promote it, both parties contribute to it. Government hand outs are Government hand outs; whether it be in the forum of welfare or Government subsidies. It is big Government statist and it flies in the face of our Constitution and in the face of what this great Nation was founded upon.

Others: Prairie Weather

QOTD: Obama loses the NYT

WOW….just Wow… 😯

Within hours of the disclosure that the federal authorities routinely collect data on phone calls Americans make, regardless of whether they have any bearing on a counterterrorism investigation, the Obama administration issued the same platitude it has offered every time President Obama has been caught overreaching in the use of his powers: Terrorists are a real menace and you should just trust us to deal with them because we have internal mechanisms (that we are not going to tell you about) to make sure we do not violate your rights.

Those reassurances have never been persuasive — whether on secret warrants to scoop up a news agency’s phone records or secret orders to kill an American suspected of terrorism — especially coming from a president who once promised transparency and accountability.

The administration has now lost all credibility on this issue. Mr. Obama is proving the truism that the executive will use any power it is given and very likely abuse it. That is one reason we have long argued that the Patriot Act, enacted in the heat of fear after the 9/11 attacks by members of Congress who mostly had not even read it, was reckless in its assignment of unnecessary and overbroad surveillance powers.

Poop, meet fan.

Others: Alan Colmes’ LiberalandPoliticoBuzzFeedYahoo! NewsWashington PostHit & RunThe Monkey CageWashington WireThe World’s Greatest …The Daily CallerLaw Blog,VentureBeatBusiness InsiderMediaiteThe PJ TatlerWashington Free BeaconHot AirWeasel ZippersThe Huffington PostSalonComPostThe WeekGuardianNO QUARTER USA NETFirst ReadMashableAmerican SpectatorNew Republicmsnbc.comWashington MonthlyDaily Kos,The Atlantic WireFiredoglakeTechCrunchThe Maddow Blog and Library of Law & Liberty – Via Memeorandum

The US continues spying on phones under Obama

There are a ton of opinions on this subject and we’ll get to those in a moment.

But first the story:

The National Security Agency is currently collecting the telephone records of millions of US customers of Verizon, one of America’s largest telecoms providers, under a top secret court order issued in April.

The order, a copy of which has been obtained by the Guardian, requires Verizon on an “ongoing, daily basis” to give the NSA information on all telephone calls in its systems, both within the US and between the US and other countries.

The document shows for the first time that under the Obama administration the communication records of millions of US citizens are being collected indiscriminately and in bulk – regardless of whether they are suspected of any wrongdoing.

The secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (Fisa) granted the order to the FBI on April 25, giving the government unlimited authority to obtain the data for a specified three-month period ending on July 19.

Under the terms of the blanket order, the numbers of both parties on a call are handed over, as is location data, call duration, unique identifiers, and the time and duration of all calls. The contents of the conversation itself are not covered.

via NSA collecting phone records of millions of Verizon customers daily | World news | The Guardian.

But, there is a big difference this time:

Under the Bush administration, officials in security agencies had disclosed to reporters the large-scale collection of call records data by the NSA, but this is the first time significant and top-secret documents have revealed the continuation of the practice on a massive scale under President Obama.

The unlimited nature of the records being handed over to the NSA is extremely unusual. Fisa court orders typically direct the production of records pertaining to a specific named target who is suspected of being an agent of a terrorist group or foreign state, or a finite set of individually named targets.

Which sounds about right for the Democrats, because they are perfectly fine with Government of a massive scale.

Now there are two very important opinions on this subject that I want you to see. They are same political slant; however, the opinions are very different. Please go check out Michelle Malkin’s take and Ed Morrissey’s take on this subject. While I agree on Michelle Malkin’s assessment, I really do not agree with her narrative at all. If you are smart and read her a good deal, you will know what I am talking about.

Now there is one thing that Ed Morrissey wrote that I, as an Independent, and someone who believes that the war on terror is a very real thing and that we should at least try to keep America safe, without trampling on our constitutional rights. I believe this to be very true and  very profound statement coming from someone like Mr. Morrissey:

Hypocrisy is an unfortunately ubiquitous condition in politics, but in the case of NSA seizing Verizon’s phone records, it’s particularly widespread.  Some of the people expressing outrage for the Obama administration’s efforts at data mining had a different attitude toward it when Bush was in office.  Conversely, we’ll see some people defending Obama who considered Bush evil incarnate for the same thing.

Either way, we’re left with the situation of having the federal government seizing private records without any meaningful civil due process that engages the citizens affected, whether that includes actual wiretaps or just cataloguing our calls and movements.  Perhaps this will move this issue out of the partisan sphere and into a common ground in which we can all work to define exactly how far we’re willing to go in trading privacy for security.  In order to get there, we’d all better recognize the hypocrisy that has abounded on this issue for far too long, and start thinking about higher principles than party affiliation when it comes to national security and constitutional protections.

Now that last part that I underlined, is something I wholeheartedly agree with. When the story broke about Bush and Co. came about the wiretaps, I remember Keith Olbermann doing a special comment on it and I admired him for standing up. Now, where’s Keith? Where are the liberals who thought that this was much too intrusive? Where are they now? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

My hat tip goes to Glenn Greenwald for putting principles over partisanship and getting this story to the masses. Glenn has been about the only liberal who has stood up and pointed out that Obama Administration has continued the policies of the George W. Bush Administration and in some cases; like this one here — has expanded them to an alarming degree. Yes, this is overreach and it is alarming and I do hope the Congress does something about it.

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UPDATED – It’s official: The Obama Administration is in deep trouble and I am done defending them

My friends, I was very, very wrong and for that, I am terribly sorry. 🙁

I said that I believed that the entire Benghazi, Libya debacle was over-hyped by the Republicans; and I still believe that, to a point.

However, there are many things that have come up since then, which I simply cannot defend.

They are:

  1. The IRS targeting Jewish groups.  – I mean, honestly, what the hell were the IRS and Obama’s people thinking when they let this one happen?
  2. IRS targeting Conservative groups in Washington and Elsewhere. — Did they not know that this would be exposed?
  3. DOJ going after the AP – This is borderline Watergate, so says a watergate player. — Again, what the hell were these people thinking?

My friends, the “Giving the benefit of the doubt” of the President and his Administration by this writer and blogger are over. There is no doubt in my mind that the Obama administration; much like the Administration of George W. Bush, became consumed with a lust for power and abused and exploited the office of President of the United States and the instruments of Governmental office for political purposes.

I leave you with two videos:

Update: Better clip via The American Spectator:

The Democrats have screwed themselves out of ever winning an election; for like oh, maybe the next 2 major election cycles. This is the sad part, Obama and his Administration promised Americans that he would be a clean break from the policies and practices of President George W. Bush and his Administration and sadly, it turns out that Obama and his Administration are just as bad; if not even worse.   As I wrote before, it is sad ending to a Presidency that offered so much to give; but ended up delivering little or nothing at all, in the realm of change.

It is going to be a long, hot, nasty, political summer for America, Americans, Black Liberal Americans and for Washington D.C.. I just hope that cool heads prevail. But, I really do fear the worst in yet to come.

Blogger Round Up #1: (viaYahoo! NewsJustOneMinuteMichelle MalkinNew York TimesSunlight Foundation BlogBBCWall Street JournalRight Turnwaysandmeans.house.govHot AirThe WeekThe Daily CallerThe HillDaily KosFirst ReadThe Maddow BlogPostPartisanThe FixWhite House DossierThe Other McCainBetsy’s PageDa Tech Guy On DaRadio BlogScared Monkeys,msnbc.comObsidian WingsWeasel ZippersJammie Wearing FoolsTwitchyNational Review,The Lonely ConservativePower LineConservatives4Palin and CBS DC

Blogger Round Up #2: (viaYahoo! NewsWashington MonthlyBuzzFeedThe WeekAssociated PressHit & Run,News DeskFox NewsOpen Channelmsnbc.comemptywheelGuardianWorldViewsPatterico’s PontificationsThe Huffington PostNo More Mister Nice BlogUSA TodayThe HillWeekly StandardPoynterThe Daily CallerThe Volokh ConspiracyErik WempleThinkProgressRight Wing NewsTaylor MarshScared MonkeysAddicting Infoamericanthinker.comCNN,CANNONFIREThe BLTPJ MediaNO QUARTER USA NETThe Moderate VoiceThe Hinterland GazetteNationalJournal.comHot AirWashington Free BeaconWashington ExaminerWired,PoliticoWeasel ZippersGawkerTHE DEFINITIVE SOURCEHullabalooEd DriscollThe Verge,The Gateway PunditSPJ NewsThe PJ TatlerNational ReviewNational Republican …Philly.com,Mother JonesLe·gal In·sur·rec· tionSister ToldjahOutside the BeltwayWonketteTalkLeft andLawfaremore at Mediagazer »

Update #1: Franklin Graham says they were targeted. Those rat bastards have no shame at all. 😡

 Update #2:  Obama Admin’s IRS targeted reporter who gave hard interview.

Update #3: I am just going to say this and get it off my chest:

IMPEACH THE FUCKER AND GET IT OVER WITH!

Roundup #3: The Gateway PunditSister ToldjahWeasel ZippersWashington Free BeaconRule of LawBuzzFeedViralReadJammie Wearing Fools,The PJ TatlerVodkaPundit and Hot Air

The Public School System is going to hell in a hand-basket, as always.

I have no words for this one folks, not one:

Video:

The Story:

Parents of children attending a Red Hook, New York, middle school are outraged after a recent anti-bullying presentation at Linden Avenue Middle School.

The workshop for 13 and 14-year-old girls focused on homosexuality and gender identity. They were also taught words such as “pansexual” and “genderqueer.”

Parents say their daughters were told to ask one another for a kiss and they say two girls were told to stand in front of the class and pretend they were lesbians on a date.

“She told me, ‘Mom we all get teased and picked on enough. Now I’m going to be called a lesbian because I had to ask another girl if I could kiss her,'” parent, Mandy Coon, told reporters.

Coon says parents were given no warning about the presentation and there was no opportunity to opt-out. Both the school principal and the district superintendent are defending the workshops and advising they will schedule more.

“The school is overstepping its bounds in not notifying parents first and giving us the choice,” another parent said. “I thought it was very inappropriate. That kind of instruction is best left up to the parents.”

“I was absolutely furious — really furious,” a parent who asked to remain anonymous told reporter Todd Starnes, “These are just kids. I’m dumbfounded that they found this class was appropriate.”

Superintendent Paul Finch told The Poughkeepsie Journal the presentation was “focused on improving culture, relationships, communication and self-perceptions.”

“We may require more notification to parents in the future,” Finch said

via Girls Told to Ask for Lesbian Kiss at School – US – CBN News – Christian News 24-7 – CBN.com.

One simply word comes to mind: Unbelievable. One word folks: Home-School. I did it, and so should every parent today. Because the public school system has just become too evil to send your children to it anymore.

Others: The Gateway Pundit, The PJ Tatler, Weasel Zippers and The Jawa Report

Oh yeah, it’s a nightmare alright

I have one thing to say about this below — Welcome to my world.

The Story:

Close your eyes and picture the scariest thing you can think of. Maybe it’s a giant spider or a giant Stay Puft marshmallow man or something that’s not even giant at all. Well, whatever it is, I guarantee it’s not nearly as scary as the real scariest thing in the world. That’s long-term unemployment.

There are two labor markets nowadays. There’s the market for people who have been out of work for less than six months, and the market for people who have been out of work longer. The former is working pretty normally, and the latter is horribly dysfunctional. That was the conclusion of recent research I highlighted a few months ago by Rand Ghayad, a visiting scholar at the Boston Fed and a PhD candidate in economics at Northeastern University, and William Dickens, a professor of economics at Northeastern University, that looked at Beveridge curves for different ages, industries, and education levels to see who the recovery is leaving behind.

via The Terrifying Reality of Long-Term Unemployment – Matthew O’Brien – The Atlantic.

I have been unemployed for 8 solid years. Now, some of that, is my fault. I got into some of that HERE, when I wrote about my job hunting.  But, some of it; is simply the bad economy here in Michigan and as of 2008; the entire Country.

One part that I quibble with on this piece, is this here:

It’s time for the government to start hiring the long-term unemployed. Or, at the least, start giving employers tax incentives to hire the long-term unemployed. The worst possible outcome for all of us is if the long-term unemployed become unemployable. That would permanently reduce our productive capacity.

We can do better, and we need to start doing so now. We can’t afford long-term thinking in either the short or the long-term.

Okay, let me break this down here:

  1. Our Government is broke. They hardly can afford the people that they have now! They are having to cut hours and staff to stay afloat. So, that is out. 
  2. As for the tax incentives; I just do not think that incentives would even remotely work. What the employers would do, is hire the people; declare it on their taxes and then turn around and let the people or fire them for silly reasons.

What will work is a strongly worded piece of legislation that would make it illegal for employers to discriminate against those, who have been unemployed longer than six months and make damned sure the law is enforced to the hilt. With fines and loss of business license being the penalties for the infraction.

Let me clear here; I am not in favor of big Government statism at all; however, there are times, when, because of the actions of crony capitalists, Government has to take action to protect the American people, namely long-term unemployed Americans, like me — from being discriminated against, for the simple crime of not being able to find a job.  My reasons for not being able to get a job in the field that I trained in are explained here.  Yes, I whacked a pole, trying to make a turn out of a parking lot; that was in 2003. I should have been able to find work with a trucking company locally or at least regionally. I have not, why? Because no one locally or regionally is hiring, outside a big company around here, which is notorious for screwing its employees.

Again, I agree with what this man is saying is this article; I simply just do not believe his solutions are the right ones.

Is the United States Government killing well-known gun advocates?

Normally, I do not put much stock into such things. But this story here from Natural News makes my hair stand on end.

Reading stuff like that, makes me wish I had a nice house on about a 100 acres of land in Northern Michigan, fully stocked with guns, ammo and food.

Again, I am not into scaring anyone; but this stuff is even giving me the creeps now. 😯

Oh Boy….

Yikes:

ATF UPDATE: Jones pick as ATF chief is in deeper trouble. “Earlier this week, Donald Oswald, a former Minneapolis FBI director and self-described Democrat, wrote to alert the Senate Judiciary Committee to Jones’ ‘atrocious professional reputation within the federal law enforcement community.’ . . . The newest flashpoint involves operation ‘Fearless Distributing,’ a Milwaukee sting operation in which the ATF set up a phony storefront targeting gun traffickers. A recent Milwaukee Journal Sentinel investigation found what it called a string of mistakes, including a military-style machine gun that ended up on the streets, and a robbery of the agency store that netted $35,000 in merchandise.”

This agency doesn’t seem to be ready for primetime.

via Instapundit » Blog Archive » ATF UPDATE: Jones pick as ATF chief is in deeper trouble. “Earlier this week, Donald Oswald, a for….

Reason I say, “Oh Boy….” for is this: I have heard from sources that are of the Alex Jones credibility that the ATF basically is an agency unto itself. I have also heard that they do not take too kindly to insults of this sort. So, if I were Glenn Reynolds, I would be real careful about making jokes at the expense of the ATF.  As some of you know, I am also an Amateur Radio Operator, or Ham for sort. Well, once back in the late 1990’s, when I was a part of the BBS scene; I heard of a guy, who made a posting on a land-line bulletin board, basically mocking the ATF, saying something along these lines. Well, a week later the ATF was at his doorstep. They ended up busting the guy on an illegally modified AR-15. modified for automatic fire. The person ended up doing 15 years for that little stunt.

Now to be honest, I did not give that story much credibility; so, I used some of my contacts in the local and state governments around here, via Amateur Radio,  to check on this story and sure enough it was true. As to what, if anything, prompted the raid, they could not tell me. But, the facts was, someone got a hard-on for a poster on Bulletin Board and it went downhill from there.

So, to Glenn and everyone else; I simply say this: Be careful. All it takes is some irate FBI or ATF agent to get a hard-on for you and you are done my friend. The Government does not need a reason to raid your house anymore. All they have to do is think you are doing something illegal and they can come in, with a no-knock raid and take everything you own; even if you did nothing wrong and getting your stuff back is like a nice day in hell.

Again, I would like to think that nothing would come of what Glenn wrote; but if I were in his shoes and I had a big traffic blog like his, there would be no way in Hades that I would ever write anything of that sort on my blog. There are too many agencies out there data mining, and there are too many agencies with people snooping; especially at the Pentagon.

In short: Watch it and be safe….and smart.