Saturday, June 16, 2012

El Presidente'

This past week our glorious dictator, I mean President, announced his decision to relax rules for deportation of young illegal immigrants. Not even one year ago Obama admitted, on the Latino television network  Univision, that he did not have the authority to make such decisions saying, "It’s beyond his power to suspend deportations for anyone because there are laws on the books that he’d be breaking by doing that". Obama is not using Executive Powers but taking action through the Department of Homeland Security, basically side stepping the very congress he admits in his televised interview he doesn't have the power to do as President.  

When asking why would he do such a thing we only have to look at his track  record of ignoring the law, his illegal Presidential appointments while congress was technically still is session (using guideline previously established by the Democrats) , his decision to ignore and not enforce the "Defense of Marriage Act", and now altering the immigration laws to suite his own agenda.

I don't think many people would admit that helping people brought to this country without their consent isn't a good thing, hey how about that 13th Amendment, but there is a process and it's for a reason. Obama's actions are only a temporary fix, where as a congressionally arrived at answer would be permanent. I'm not sure as a young illegal immigrant I'd want to register my address and status into a system that "could" in the future use that info to find and deport me.

Marco Rubio, a republican and possible Romney running mate, has a book coming out next week and has been actively working with members of congress to come up with a permanent plan much like the one Obama unveiled and is reportedly very close to having the bi partisan support needed to make it law. Obliviously Obama is seeking to steal a bit of Rubio's thunder within the Latino community and appear to be the primary supporter of the Latino population. Obama also has made "The do nothing Congress" one of the focal points of his political attacks .
The biggest problem with the decision made by Obama is his apparent lack of respect for the rule of law and the dangerous precedents it sets for him and those that will come after him. Our system of government has 3 branches and a system of checks and balances for a reason. With these latest decisions made by the Obama white house we just have to wonder how far is he willing to go and at what point do "We the People" go from calling him Mr. President to El Presidente'

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Where is your warrant?

Law enforcement officers all over the state of Indiana are upset by a law signed  by Gov. Mitch Daniels in March. The new law allows for citizens to use deadly force against public servants they believe are illegally entering their home.

The supreme court in Indiana had previously ruled, in a domestic violence case, that the defendant did not have the right to resist law enforcement officers he believed had entered his home illegally.  The court ruled "no right to reasonably resist unlawful entry by police officers" which many argued gave the police the legalized right to commit unjustified entries in violation of the 4th amendment, and its guarantees against illegal search and seizure. Of course the NRA supported and lobbied for the new law while organizations like the Fraternal Order of Police were dead set against it believing it will lead to someone getting away with killing a cop doing his job.

The news coming from various other states about the TSA stopping folks for random checks on their highways and other public locations, and wondering if such searches would eventually lead to private homes, had left me wondering just what would I do when the TSA came a knocking. The decision to give citizens the right to defend their homes has to make a few in power squirm and hopefully other states will see this as a solution to the growing sense that we are slowly loosing the freedoms guaranteed to us in our Constitution. All I can say to the TSA or any other government agency coming to private homes in Indiana is, "Where is your warrant"?  


Monday, June 11, 2012

IT's not REALLY about smoking

As of April 1, 2012, according to the American Nonsmokers' Rights Foundation, 79.8% of the U.S. population lives under a ban on smoking in "workplaces, and/or restaurants, and/or bars, by either a state, commonwealth, or local law," though only 48.2% live under a ban covering all workplaces and restaurants and bars. Everyone from the AMA to most of main stream media promotes the idea that "Because cigarette smoking is bad for you it should be regulated or outlawed", people by the millions have jumped on the band wagon. I ask the question, "Are smoking bans as much a health issue as they are a personal rights issue"?

Once we give ourselves the mental OK to feel comfortable with banning "something" for being unhealthy what is there to stop "everything" that's deemed unhealthy from being banned? It's easy for someone to say, "Heck I don't smoke so why should I care if they ban smoking"?  The issue won't be obvious to you until they do ban something you like to consume, then suddenly you'll care, but the "We can ban anything that's not healthy" genie will already  be out of the bottle.

 Once they have banned enough things in this world that we can consume that are deemed "unhealthy" what is there to stop them from taking the next leap to things that we do that can be deemed as dangerous or "unhealthy", and frankly who gets to make these decisions for me and everyone else?

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Freedom isn't "Free"

In these times of worldwide turmoil, and many countries in a state of "revolt", let's ask ourselves two questions. How are other countries dealing with their dissenters and even more importantly how would THIS country deal with the very same situation?

First let's look at the situation in Syria. It gained independence in April 1946, as a parliamentary republic. The post-independence period was tumultuous, and a large number of military coup attempts shook the country in the period 1949–1971. Between 1958 and 1961, Syria entered a brief union with Egypt that was terminated by a military coup in Syria. Syria was under Emergency Law from 1963 to 2011, effectively suspending most constitutional protections for citizens, and its system of government is considered to be non-democratic. Bashar al-Assad  been president since 2000 and was preceded by his father Hafez al-Assad who was in office from 1971. Presently the Syrian government has been accused of using a campaign of violence that includes such actions as attacking opposition forces with tanks, bombings, and mass killings, along with imprisoning its own citizens for aiding and hiding the rebels.

We look at Russia, Boris Yeltsin was elected the President of Russia in June 1991, in the first direct presidential election in Russian history. On 31 December 1999 President Yeltsin resigned, handing the post to the recently appointed Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, who then won the 2000 presidential election. Putin suppressed the Chechen insurgency, although sporadic violence still occurs throughout the Northern Caucasus, some observers have argued that Russia's efforts to suppress insurgency in the North Caucasus have been the most violent in Europe in recent years in terms of ongoing military and civilian casualties and human rights abuses. Through what is considered a series of rigged elections he has managed to remain in office to this day. This past week Putin signed into law steep fines for protesting the government that are as much as 150 times the previous fines and add up to a typical middle class person's yearly income.  It is reported that Syria receives 75% of all its military equipment and weapons from Russia it's no wonder the Syrian government is taking its approach to revolt straight from the Russian playbook.

Egypt has been in a state of turmoil ever since 2011. Egypt has been officially named a "Republic" since 18 June 1953. However, it has been under Emergency Law continually since 1967. Between 1981 and 2011, Egypt was ruled autocratically by Mohamed Hosni Mubarak, who came to power after the assassination of President Mohammed Anwar El-Sadat. Prime Minister Ahmed Shafik was sworn in as Prime Minister on 29 January 2011, following the resignation of Ahmed Nazif. Since President Mubarak's resignation during the 2011 revolution, Egypt's de facto government has been the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, chaired by Mohamed Hussein Tantawi. Protesters again filled the streets in Cairo to reclaim a revolt they say has been hijacked after Hosni Mubarak was jailed for life and his top security officials freed in a sign they say his old guard is still in charge. Many fear radical Muslim groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood will gain control and invoke harsh and socially restrictive Sharia Laws.

Americans have been bombarded on all sides of news of other governments using extreme military action to squelch civil unrest and revolt all over the world. When asked the question what is OUR government willing to do in America to hold onto its growing power ? As at least a hint we could look at the actions taken in Waco Texas on February 28th 1993 against the Branch Davidian compound.  Acting on a tip from a UPS driver that they had been receiving weapons and other military supplies the US ATF,  FBI,  and various Texas law enforcement officers, carried out a full scale siege and assault on a compound known to contain as many as 75 people. Because the Davidians were heavily armed, the FBI's arms included .50 caliber (12.7 mm) rifles and armored vehicles (CEVs). The assault took place on April 19, 1993. Combat Engineering tanks used booms to puncture holes in the walls of buildings of the compound so they could pump in CS gas ("tear gas") and try to flush out the Davidians without harming them. The stated plan called for increasing amounts of gas to be pumped in over two days to increase pressure. Officially, no armed assault was to be made, and loudspeakers were used to tell the Davidians that there would be no armed assault and to ask them not to fire on the vehicles. When several Davidians allegedly opened fire, the FBI's response was to increase the amount of gas being used.

FBI also delivered 40-millimetre (1.6 in) CS grenade fire from grenade launchers; very early in the morning, the FBI fired two military M651 rounds at the Davidian construction site. About mid-morning the FBI began to run low on 40mm Ferret CS rounds and asked Texas Ranger Captain David Byrnes for tear gas rounds; the tear gas rounds procured from Company "F" in Waco turned out to be unusable pyrotechnic rounds and were returned to the Company "F" office after the fire. 40mm munitions recovered by the Texas Rangers at Waco included dozens of plastic Ferret Model SGA-400 Liquid CS rounds, two metal M651E1 military pyrotechnic teargas rounds, two metal NICO Pyrotechnic Sound & Flash grenades and parachute illumination flares.

 After more than six hours no Davidians had left the building, sheltering instead in a cinder block room within the building or using gas masks. The FBI claim that CEVs were used to punch large holes in the building to provide exits for those inside. At around noon, three fires broke out almost simultaneously in different parts of the building. The government maintains the fires were deliberately started by Davidians.  Davidian survivors maintain the fires were accidentally or deliberately started by the tank assault. As the fire spread, Davidians were prevented from escaping; others refused to leave and eventually became trapped. In all, only nine people left the building during the fire. 75 people died that day in the fire including 25 children under the age of 15 and two pregnant women.

I'm not saying the Branch Davidians were all innocent, certainly the 25 children that died were, I'm simply pointing out our government's willingness to use ANY and all means to achieve its ends. Even if those means include the very tactics our government criticizes other governments around the world for using as well.  All this happened in a post TSA era, before 911, before the Oklahoma bombing, before the Department of Homeland Security, and before the NDAA. Internet reports of the TSA branching out in authority are NOW performing random searches on our highways and even public events. Our skies are filled with over 15,000  drones with another 15,000 to be added by 2015 all for our "protection". We find out daily that our internet activities have been, and will be, monitored  as well as ALL phone calls, text messages, and emails. I'll close with one last thought. We have all seen the famous photo of the lone man standing off with a few tanks in Tianiamen Square China, but what most don't realize is that that photo has been severely cropped. What you see is a line of 5 tanks, which is in its self is amazingly brave, but what you don't see is that the reality is there is a line of over 60 tanks behind those! Brave citizens all over the world have had to face some harsh realities and freedom isn't "Free"