FBI goes full-Stasi: “Setting up ‘Responsibility Communities’ in NJ to stop terrorism”

Nothing to see here, this is all fine folks, Just move along. 

FedGov is now openly programming thought monitoring and neighbor-snitching.  And, better yet, we also see once again that the mental health industry is merely one tentacle of state power.  (Dr. Szaz where are you?).  Same for your clergy  it seems.

JERSEY CITY, N.J. (CBSNewYork) — The Federal Bureau of Investigation is setting up shared responsibility committees in New Jersey to help stop home-grown terrorism.WCBS 880’s Mike Smeltz reported this partnership between communities and the FBI looks to use identification and mental health counseling as tools to those who might head down a path of extremism. The committees would include community leaders, clergy members and mental health professionals whose goal would be to identify those who might support terrorist activities and stopping it before ideas turn into plans.This would be someone who’s expressed support for a terrorist group, either in a community meeting or online.The Record reported that some in the Muslim community in New Jersey are worried that this program will effectively turn community members into government informants.The FBI said this initiative is about heading off extremism before law enforcement gets involved.  Source: FBI Setting Up Responsibility Communities In NJ To Stop Terrorism

Got 3%?

 

NJ gun control law success story: 2 dead in Newark, official blames “too many guns”

NEWARK, N.J. … two people have been fatally shot in Newark.  It happened around 9:30 p.m. Saturday in the 300 block of Clinton Place.  Newark Public Safety Director Anthony F. Ambrose blames the deaths on “the availability of too many guns.” He called the slayings of the two people, identified only as one male and one female, as “senseless” and “tragic.”

No arrests had been made in the early hours of the investigation, which is still active and ongoing. Authorities said more information will be released as it becomes available.

Source: Deadly Newark Shooting

Documents Uncover NYPD’s Vast License Plate Reader Database

Supporters of license plate readers are fond of saying that unless you’re a criminal, you needn’t fear the invasive technology. But those who adhere to that argument should consider just a few examples from around the country:

• A police officer in Washington D.C. pleaded guilty to extortion after looking up the plates of cars near a gay bar and blackmailing the car’s owners.
• The DEA contemplated using license plate readers to monitor people who were at a gun show. Since the devices can’t distinguish between those who are selling illegal guns and those who aren’t, a person’s presence at the gun show would have landed them in a DEA database.
• A SWAT team in Kansas raided a man’s house where his wife, 7-year-old daughter, and 13-year-old son lived based in part on the mass monitoring of cars parked at a gardening store. The man was held at gunpoint for two hours while cops combed through his home. The police were looking for a marijuana growing operation. They did not find that or any other evidence of criminal activity in the man’s house.

With these stories firmly in mind, the New York Civil Liberties Union’s latest license plate reader discovery is all the more chilling.

MD: (Former) Police officer gets 5 years for holding gun to man’s head

UPPER MARLBORO, Md. (AP) — A former police officer who held a gun to a man’s head over alleged illegal parking was sentenced to five years in prison Friday. Officer Santiago was convicted by a judge of two counts of assault, a handgun offense and misconduct in office.Last month, Prince George’s County Police released cellphone video of the incident showing Santiago holding a gun to a man’s head and ordering him to get back inside a car.

Prosecutors say Santiago had accused the man of parking illegally when he had not.No one was injured in the May 2014 incident in Bowie, a Maryland suburb of Washington. Prosecutors say William Cunningham was in a car with his cousin when Santiago repeatedly asked the men what they were doing and insisted that they were illegally parked, which prosecutors said was not true.  The cellphone video shows Santiago holding a gun to a man’s head and ordering him to get back inside a car… Santiago did not speak at his hearing. He was suspended without pay when he was indicted in March. Police spokeswoman Julie Parker says Santiago was fired last month. Source: KXAN.com

White Women Are Getting Fed Up

ReactionaryThought

I have been very busy and unable to write much, so I apologize for the copy pasta.

Having said that, this video really ought to be seen and spread. YkwTube has it hidden behind a “log in to prove your age wall” (i.e. to keep track of who watches it), but it’s worth seeing.

Originally posted by da GBFM lzzzzzzzlzlz (TM) as a comment at Chateau Heartiste.

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National Youth Front: A voice for the white race. Finally.

http://www.NYF.us click the pic

NYS Escaped Prisoners Making Horse’s Ass of Searchers

A bigger threat than ISIS: DHS intelligence report warns of domestic right-wing terror threat | CNN (barf alert)

Achtung! Papers serf!! The dog has signaled that you have illicit thoughts in your trunk!!

Washington (CNN)   They’re carrying out sporadic terror attacks on police, have threatened attacks on government buildings and reject government authority.

A new intelligence assessment, circulated by the Department of Homeland Security earlier this month and reviewed by CNN, focuses on the domestic terror threat from right-wing sovereign citizen extremists, and comes as the Obama administration holds a White House conference to focus efforts to fight violent extremism.

Some federal and local law enforcement groups view the domestic terror threat from sovereign citizen groups as equal to — and in some cases greater than — the threat from foreign Islamic terror groups, such as ISIS, that garner more public attention.​

The DHS report, produced in coordination with the FBI, counts 24 violent sovereign citizen-related attacks around the U.S. since 2010…. blah blah blah

There were 24 attacks by the dangerous right-wingers in the US in the last 4 years?  There were 24 violent attacks on black folks by other black folks in Camden NJ last fricken week!

Go here for the rest of the nauseating, fascistic fear-mongering, thought control and  propaganda if you so choose.  I myself will be cleaning guns and shopping for lengths of gas pipe.

5 Things You Need To Know About Roadblocks | NMA

Q. Are roadblocks legal?

A. The US Supreme Court has found roadblocks to be legal for a variety of purposes, the most prominent being so-called “sobriety check points.” There is a longer history of roadblock approvals related to checking vehicles near or at national border crossings…

via 5 Things You Need To Know About Roadblocks.

Drivers Get Screwed Over Constantly in America | VICE

In order to legally operate a motor vehicle on public roads in America today, citizens must abide an astonishing array of affronts to even the most basic concepts of civil liberty. Heavy-handed and infuriatingly arbitrary traffic patrols, mass collection of their locational data, grossly exorbitant fees and fines, statutorily unavoidable “checkpoints,” the ever-present threat of (age/gender/racial) profiling, relinquishment of due process rights—the list goes on, and on, and on. According to John Bowman of the National Motorists Association, one of the few organized efforts to lobby single-mindedly on behalf of preserving roadway liberties, conditions appear to be worsening at an accelerating pace. “Based on the reports we see here,” he told me, “and we do monitor this stuff pretty carefully, I would say the general erosion of motorists’ privacy rights has escalated over the past few years.”

via Drivers Get Screwed Over Constantly in America | VICE United States.

Widespread US Police Surveillance Is Happening In Total Secrecy

72 Types Of Americans That Are Considered “Potential Terrorists” In Official Government Documents | ActivistPost

Courtesy of Michael Snyder at Activist Post, consider the following…

“Below is a list of 72 types of Americans that are considered to be “extremists” and “potential terrorists” in official U.S. government documents. To see the original source document for each point, just click on the link. As you can see, this list covers most of the country…

1. Those that talk about “individual liberties”

2. Those that advocate for states’ rights

3. Those that want “to make the world a better place”

4. “The colonists who sought to free themselves from British rule”

5. Those that are interested in “defeating the Communists”

6. Those that believe “that the interests of one’s own nation are separate from the interests of other nations or the common interest of all nations”

7. Anyone that holds a “political ideology that considers the state to be unnecessary, harmful,or undesirable”

8. Anyone that possesses an “intolerance toward other religions”

9. Those that “take action to fight against the exploitation of the environment and/or animals”

10. “Anti-Gay”

11. “Anti-Immigrant”

12. “Anti-Muslim”

13. “The Patriot Movement”

14. “Opposition to equal rights for gays and lesbians”

15. Members of the Family Research Council

Separation | Ol’ Remus & The Woodpile Report for 2/26/13

DC has always been distant from the people. Apart from the IRS and the draft, they were “the other” we read about in the papers, running gangsters and spies to ground, getting the interstate built, fighting wars and generally looking out for the Little Guy. We believed they were the Big Picture People doing things on the largest scale on behalf of all who worked hard, lived responsibly and stayed right with the law. DC was the captain and crew of our mighty ship, alert and sure, cutting cleanly through heavy seas and turgid morass alike, while their grateful passengers shuddered at the hardship and horrors beyond the delights of the endless buffet on the promenade deck.

Supreme Court Maintains Spotty Civil-Liberties Record | Reason.com

click to go to Reason.com

The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decisions regarding police powers were mixed, thus offering a reminder to civil libertarians that they cannot depend upon the high court to protect the public from unwarranted government intrusions.

“The U.S. Supreme Court handed police one victory and one loss on Tuesday,” reported National Public Radio. “In one decision, the justices limited the power of police to detain people who are away from their homes when police conduct a search. And in a second case, the justices ruled that drug-sniffing dogs don’t have to get every sniff right in order for a search to be valid.”

This Dog Can Send You to Jail | Reason.com

“… He asked me would I mind if he searched my vehicle, and I said, ‘Well, yes, I would mind if you searched my vehicle.’ ”

But thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court, the deputy did not have to take no for an answer. In the 2005 case Illinois v. Caballes, the Court declared that “the use of a well-trained narcotics-detection dog…during a lawful traffic stop generally does not implicate legitimate privacy interests.” So the deputy was free to walk his dog around Burns’ truck. “He got out with this dog and went around the car, two or three times,” Burns says. “He came back and said the dog had ‘passively alerted’ on my vehicle.”  via This Dog Can Send You to Jail – Reason.com.

Here’s how to avoid “consensual” police encounters | Slate

click the pic to go to Slate

The crux of avoiding a consensual encounter is noncooperation—refusal to answer questions and to consent to police requests. As noted above, this requires a fair degree of self-confidence and a willingness to flout the conventions of common discourse which, of course, this is not. Nevertheless, it is the sine qua non of consensual encounter avoidance. “Can we see your driver’s license?” “No!” “What are you doing here?” “I am not answering,” or less politely, “None of your business.”

Saying “no” once may not be enough. Some courts have held that continued badgering after a first refusal causes the encounter to cross the line to a seizure, but others have permitted repeated questioning and requests for consent to search without concluding that a seizure had taken place. A reasonable person would thus be well-advised to say “no” repeatedly, and to reject any attempt by the officer to accompany her if she tries to leave. Some courts have found it significant that the refusals were delivered in a shout or scream, or that the individual ran from police in an attempt to get away. The cases thus not only encourage flatly rebuffing the officer’s inquiries, but also encourage doing so in the rudest, most confrontational, and most obnoxious manner.

via Stop-and-frisk Florida: Here’s how to avoid “consensual” police encounters..

Feinstein to Introduce Updated Assault Weapons Bill in New Congress |Volokh Conspiracy

… So reports a press release from last week; note these details:

A Justice Department study found the Assault Weapons Ban was responsible for a 6.7 percent decline in total gun murders. However, since the 2004 expiration of the bill, assault weapons have been used in at least 459 incidents, resulting in 385 deaths and 455 injuries.

Three thoughts:

1. The study that Sen. Feinstein is apparently referring to did seem to find that states in which an assault weapon ban was first introduced (but that lacked certain other confounding factors) “were 6.7 percent below the projection” of what the gun murder rate would be without the assault weapons ban. But in the very next sentence, the study says, “Random, year-to-year fluctuations could not be ruled out as an explanation of the 6.7-percent drop,” and later says, “The public safety benefits of the 1994 ban have not yet been demonstrated.”

Your Cellphone Is Spying on You: How the surveillance state co-opted personal technology | Reason.com

…There are 331 million cellphone subscriptions—about 20 million more than there are residents—in the United States. Nearly 90 percent of adult Americans carry at least one phone. The phones communicate via a nationwide network of nearly 300,000 cell towers and 600,000 micro sites, which perform the same function as towers. When they are turned on, they ping these nodes once every seven seconds or so, registering their locations, usually within a radius of 150 feet. By 2018 new Federal Communications Commission regulations will require that cellphone location information be even more precise: within 50 feet. Newer cellphones also are equipped with GPS technology, which uses satellites to locate the user more precisely than tower signals can. Cellphone companies retain location data for at least a year. AT&T has information going all the way back to 2008.

Civilian Disarmament: Prelude to Tyranny | William Norman Grigg and “Innocents Betrayed: the History of Gun Coltrol”

and then see here as well

Project censored top 10: The expanding police state tops the annual list of stories underreported by the mainstream media | Boulder Weekly

Project censored: The expanding police state tops the annual list of stories under-reported by the mainstream media, By Yael Chanoff – Thursday, October 11,2012

People who get their information exclusively from mainstream media sources may be surprised at the lack of enthusiasm on the left for President Barack Obama in this crucial election. But that’s probably because they weren’t exposed to the full online furor sparked by Obama’s continuation of his predecessor’s overreaching approach to national security, such as signing the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act, which allows the indefinite detention of those accused of supporting terrorism, even U.S. citizens.

We’ll never know how this year’s election would be different if the corporate media adequately covered the NDAA’s indefinite detention clause and many other recent attacks on civil liberties. What we can do is spread the word and support independent media sources that do cover these stories. That’s where Project Censored comes in.

Going, Going…Gone

thebigpicturereport ™

BPR Quote of the Day:

“Men fight for liberty and win it with hard knocks. Their children, brought up easy, let it slip away again, poor fools. And their grand-children are once more slaves.”

D. H. Lawrence

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Senate Panel: Homeland Security Data Centers Mainly Terrorize Citizens | DailyTech

Report finds that while the centers may lead to civil liberties violations, they don’t do much to catch terrorists

In a new 146-page report released by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation, a bipartisan panel of senators calls into question the U.S. Department of Homeland Security‘s (DHS) claims that so-called “Fusion” data centers have successfully been employed to stop terrorists.

Court Upholds Domestic Drone Use in Arrest of American Citizen | USN&WR

A judge denied a request to dismiss charges Wednesday against Rodney Brossart, a man arrested last year after a 16-hour standoff with police at his Lakota, N.D., ranch. Brossart’s lawyer argued that law enforcement’s “warrantless use of [an] unmanned military-like surveillance aircraft” and “outrageous governmental conduct” warranted dismissal of the case …

…District Judge Joel Medd wrote that “there was no improper use of an unmanned aerial vehicle” and that the drone “appears to have had no bearing on these charges being contested here,” according to the documents… Court records state that last June, six cows wandered onto Brossart’s 3,000 acre farm, about 60 miles west of Grand Forks. Brossart allegedly refused to return the cows, which led to a long, armed standoff with the Grand Forks police department. At some point during the standoff, Homeland Security, through an agreement with local police, offered up the use of an unmanned predator drone, which “was used for surveillance,” according to the court documents… via US News and World Report.

The Hutaree Case: Next Time, They’ll Just Send In The Drones | Pro Libertate

Next time the Regime identifies a group of people as “domestic terrorists,” the result might be summary execution, or imprisonment in military custody, rather than a trial. This is one very plausible result of the dismissal of “seditious conspiracy” charges against members of Michigan’s Hutaree militia.  Thanks to the legal environment created by the NDAA, the Feds won’t have to run the risk involved in submitting the next “domestic terrorism” case to the scrutiny of a court… via Pro Libertate

Cato report describes cases of self-defense with guns | Madison.com

The Cato Institute is singing the praises of gun ownership.  The conservative think tank has released a report, “Tough Targets: When Criminals Face Armed Resistance from Citizens,” that makes the case that law-abiding, gun-toting citizens routinely thwart criminal acts. “The vast majority of gun owners are ethical and competent,” say the authors. “That means tens of thousands of crimes are prevented each year by ordinary citizens with guns.”

Homeland Security: You’re All ‘Militia Extremists’ Now | PJMedia

A recently published “lexicon” distributed to thousands of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) targets citizens concerned about their Second Amendment rights and the steady encroachment of the federal government, categorizing such as “militia extremists.”

The “lexicon,” marked Unclassified/For Official Use Only (FOUO), is dated November 10, 2011, and was sent out by email to law enforcement and homeland security agencies on November 14 by LaJuan E. Washington of the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis.

We have exclusively posted the DHS “lexicon” here... via PJ Media

Why you need an offshore email account | SovereignMan.com

Below I provide a links to a few offshore email providers whose servers are located overseas. With a properly configured account, you can switch to an offshore provider and still keep your existing email address:

• Neobox- http://www.neomailbox.com (Netherlands)
• e-mail.ph- http://www.e-mail.ph (Philippines)
• HongKong Mail- http://www.mymailhk.com (Hong Kong)
• mBox- http://www.mbox.com.sg (Singapore)
• Green- http://www.mails.ch (Switzerland)
• Swiss Mail- http://www.swissmail.org (Switzerland)

Remember, using these providers decreases the likelihood of your email account being confiscated or deactivated by your home government– offshore email hosting does not guarantee privacy or security unless you use encryption schemes …”  via Why you need an offshore email account

President Obama’s Anti-Gun Agenda Shows No Sign Of Stopping | Fox News

President Obama keeps pushing for gun control.

“I just want you to know that we are working on [gun control].  We have to go through a few processes, but under the radar,” President Obama told Sarah Brady, the former president of the Brady Campaign, this past spring.

His push as been quiet but relentless.

Just this past week Obama signaled that he was going to just ignore two new parts of the 2012 Omnibus Spending bill. Although he signed the spending bill into law, he simultaneously issued a so-called “signing statement,” a note that presidents have started attaching to legislation stating how they interpret the law they are signing or whether they believe part of it is unconstitutional.

via President Obama’s Anti-Gun Agenda Shows No Sign Of Stopping | Fox News.

We’ve Crossed the Rubicon | Whiskey & Gunpowder

Do you suppose cows have any idea what’s coming as they’re marched down the chute? Or do they stare with bovine indifference at the tail and hind quarters in front of them, until they’re suddenly — and very briefly — startled by the man with the nail gun?

Perhaps Americans will — likewise too late — ask themselves what happened in the very near future. Perhaps just after the midnight knock comes and they are taken away into the night.  It is not an exaggeration.

Go here re NDAA via We’ve Crossed the Rubicon at Wiskey & Gunpowder

The Many Benefits of 9/11 | LewRockwell.com

“… Stop and consider how the United States has benefited from 9/11. Think of all the subsequent drastic actions that have occurred since the attack. For the relatively small price of only 3,000 souls, the US has aggressively dealt with issues effecting all totalitarian empires: controlling not only the world, but clamping down on its own people…”  via The Many Benefits of 9/11 by John Brennan, Lew Rockwell.com.

From the ” Hey Citizens and Constitution, Screw You” Desk — White House Says No Veto Of Defense Bill | Salon.com

” The White House on Wednesday abandoned its threat that President Barack Obama would veto a defense bill over provisions on how to handle suspected terrorists as Congress raced to finish the legislation.

Press secretary Jay Carney said last-minute changes that Obama and his national security team sought produced legislation that “does not challenge the president’s ability to collect intelligence, incapacitate dangerous terrorists and protect the American people.”

Based on the modifications, “the president’s senior advisers will not recommend a veto,” the White House said….

via White House Says No Veto Of Defense Bill – Salon.com.

10 Ridiculous Things That Make You a Terror Suspect | ActivistPost

“…So, what makes you a terror suspect in America? Here are 10 ridiculous things that make you a terrorist according to “officials” running the U.S. government:

1. Tea Party Activists
2. Occupy Activists
3. Storing 7 Days of Food
4. Missing fingers
5. Buying flashlights
6. Paying cash at hotels
7. Texting Privately in a Public Place
8. Ron Paul stickers
9. Belief in conspiracies (like this one?)
10. Owning precious metals and, for the bonus round,
11. Owning guns and ammo.“
12. go here: 10 Ridiculous Things That Make You a Terror Suspect

Liberty vs White House Plan For Homegrown Extremism | Modern Survival Blog

“… The White House has unveiled a new strategy Strategic Implementation Plan “to fight homegrown terrorism”, named, the “Strategic Implementation Plan for Empowering Local Partners to Prevent Violent Extremism in the United States”.“The plan outlines enhanced coordination between ‘local partners’ including schools and community groups, and federal law enforcement, and seeks to empower communities by teaching local officials to recognize violent extremism…”

via Liberty vs White House Plan For Homegrown Extremism – Modern Survival Blog – surviving uncertain times.

The National Defense Authorization Act is the Greatest Threat to Civil Liberties Americans Face | Forbes

” If Obama does one thing for the remainder of his presidency let it be a veto of the National Defense Authorization Act – a law recently passed by the Senate which would place domestic terror investigations and interrogations into the hands of the military and which would open the door for trial-free, indefinite detention of anyone, including American citizens, so long as the government calls them terrorists…”

via The National Defense Authorization Act is the Greatest Threat to Civil Liberties Americans Face – Forbes.

Conservatives Drop Their Love for the Constitution | Reason Magazine

Terrorists, conservatives say, hate us for our freedom, so they must be stopped—even if that means sacrificing our freedom in the process.

go here: Conservatives Drop Their Love for the Constitution – Reason Magazine.

The Pentagon Is Offering Free Military Hardware To Every Police Department In The US | Business Insider

“… We produce so much military equipment that inventories of military robots, M-16 assault rifles, helicopters, armored vehicles, and grenade launchers eventually start to pile up and it turns out a lot of these weapons are going straight to American police forces to be used against US citizens.

Benjamin Carlson at The Daily reports on a little known endeavor called the “1033 Program” that gave more than $500 million of military gear to U.S. police forces in 2011 alone.

1033 was passed by Congress in 1997 to help law-enforcement fight terrorism and drugs, but despite a 40-year low in violent crime, police are snapping up hardware like never before. While this year’s staggering take topped the charts, next year’s orders are up 400 percent over the same period.

This upswing coincides with an increasingly military-like style of law enforcement most recently seen in the Occupy Wall Street crackdowns….”

via The Pentagon Is Offering Free Military Hardware To Every Police Department In The US.

The entire United States is now a war zone: S.1867 passes the Senate with massive support | Activist Post

Madison Ruppert, Contributing Writer | Activist Post

“This is one of the most tragic events I have written about since establishing End the Lie over eight months ago: the horrendous bill that would turn all of America into a battlefield and subject American citizens to indefinite military detention without charge or trial has passed the Senate.

To make matters even worse, only seven of our so-called representatives voted against the bill, proving once and for all if anyone had any doubt remaining that our government does not work for us in any way, shape, or form.S.1867, or the National Defense Authorization Act NDAA for the fiscal year of 2012, passed with a resounding 93-7 vote....”

[Please thank your Senators for this advance of the police state and loss of your Constitutionally- enshrouded God-given rights]  via Activist Post: The entire United States is now a war zone: S.1867 passes the Senate with massive support.

And, see here: Do Not Be Deceived: S. 1867 is the Most Dangerous Bill Since the Patriot Act via IntelHub

Why We Should Fear Bathtubs More Than Terrorists | Reason Magazine

…The federal government has spent over $80 billion on aviation security in the past 10 years. Yet “your chance of dying in a bathtub is about one in a million, and from terrorism is about one in 3.5 million,” says Ohio State political scientist John Mueller.

Mueller and his co-author Mark G. Stewart argue in their new book, “Terror, Security, and Money: Balancing the Risks, Benefits, and Costs of Homeland Security ,” that cost-benefit analysis needs to be applied to security expenditures. The authors calculate for current spending levels to be cost-effective, the U.S. government would “have to prevent four Time Square-type attacks every single day.”  So why are we spending so much for so little added safety?..

via Why We Should Fear Bathtubs More Than Terrorists-Authors John Mueller and Mark G. Stewart on Security Spending – Hit & Run : Reason Magazine.

Americans Are Now Living In A Society That Rivals Orwells 1984 | Militant Libertarian

The question is, will Americans ever reclaim their sense of dignity and freedom or – like the Party members in Orwell’s Oceania – will they learn to love their servitude?  via Militant Libertarian » Americans Are Now Living In A Society That Rivals Orwells 1984.

Top 3 Things to Do in Every Police Encounter | Truth is Treason

Dealing with police in the U.S. can be a touchy situation, no matter who you are, where you’re going, or what you’re up to. That’s why three law enforcement experts attending the 2011 Drug Policy Alliance conference in Los Angeles decided to stage a panel discussion about what people can do to prevent police encounters from becoming seriously detrimental to one’s life.While the conversation was wide-ranging and covered a lengthy variety of topics, there were several main points they all made that can help every single person to deal with police in a manner that limits the potential for arrest or violence.

• 3. Be cool and be aware
• 2. Keep quiet and assert your rights
• 1. Never consent to searches

4 Reasons to Repeal the Patriot Act | Liberty Maven

The Patriot Act should never have been passed. Ten years later, it should be repealed for at least four reasons…

First, the Patriot Act attacks the First Amendment…

* Americans can be investigated for what they read and write, and what websites they’ve visited

* The Feds can “gag” my bank, my librarian, and my Internet Service Provider, preventing them from telling me if I’m under investigation

Second, it undermines the Fourth Amendment…

* The Feds do not even have to show “reasonable suspicion,” let alone “probable cause,” to gain access to my records

* Because I can be investigated without my knowledge, I have no means to challenge illegitimate searches

Third, there is little reason to believe terror acts have been prevented by the Patriot Act…

* If the law was used to foil terrorist plots, the Administration would boast about such instances

* Instead, foiled terrorist plots are frequently sting operations using undercover operatives and informants

Fourth, there is reason to doubt whether protecting the people from terrorism was ever the Patriot Act’s real purpose…

* Expanded wiretap and search authority are used in ordinary domestic criminal investigations, not just in terror cases

* The Executive branch has a “secret” interpretation of the Patriot Act that is inconsistent with a plain reading of it

* Meanwhile, the FBI continues to collect data collection through National Security Letters — some 40-50 thousand are issued per year (http://tinyurl.com/3varjc9)

How is it permissible for the Executive to have “secret” interpretations of the law? What is the Executive doing with the information it secretly collects about us, without our knowledge? Shouldn’t citizens of a Republic be ASHAMED of this behavior by their “government?”

The Patriot Act attacks our freedom, our values, and our way of life — the very things its supporters claim it protects. It promotes secrecy and prevents accountability in our federal government. It has fostered a Big Brother culture throughout Washington DC that led to similarly egregious legislation like REAL ID and the FISA Amendments Act.

Put an end to this dangerous trend. Stand up and speak out on behalf of the Bill of Rights and against the Surveillance State. Introduce legislation to repeal the Patriot Act.

via Four Reasons to Repeal the Patriot Act :: Liberty Maven.

Ten Years After the Patriot Act, a Look at Three of the Most Dangerous Provisions Affecting Ordinary Americans | Electronic Frontier Foundation

Ten Years After the Patriot Act, a Look at Three of the Most Dangerous Provisions Affecting Ordinary Americans | Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Ten years ago today, in the name of protecting national security and guarding against terrorism, President George W. Bush signed into law some of the most sweeping changes to search and surveillance law in modern American history. Unfortunately known as the USA PATRIOT Act, many of its provisions incorporate decidedly unpatriotic principles barred by the First and Fourth Amendments of the Constitution. Provisions of the PATRIOT Act have been used to target innocent Americans and are widely used in investigations that have nothing to do with national security.

Much of the PATRIOT Act was a wish list of changes to surveillance law that Congress had previously rejected because of civil liberties concerns. When reintroduced as the PATRIOT Act after September 11th, those changes — and others — passed with only limited congressional debate.

Just what sort of powers does the PATRIOT Act grant law enforcement when it comes to surveillance and sidestepping due process? Here are three provisions of the PATRIOT Act that were sold to the American public as necessary anti-terrorism measures, but are now used in ways that infringe on ordinary citizens’ rights:

1. SECTION 215 – “ANY TANGIBLE THING”…

Has Our Government Become Tyrannical? | Modern Survival Blog

via Has Our Government Become Tyrannical? – Modern Survival Blog – surviving uncertain times. October 24, 2011 at 12:06 pm (PT)

” Has-our-government-become-tyrannical?

Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776), the third President of the United States (1801–1809), and and founder of the University of Virginia, once said the following… “The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.” “When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.”

Let’s have a quick look at ‘tyranny’.

Tyranny: arbitrary or unrestrained exercise of power; despotic abuse of authority; oppressive or unjustly severe government on the part of any ruler.

Oppressive: difficult to bear; burdensome; exercising power arbitrarily and often unjustly; tyrannical; weighing heavily on the senses or spirit

Tyrannical government: despotic and oppressive tyrannical – characteristic of an absolute ruler or absolute rule; having absolute sovereignty; an authoritarian regime; autocratic government; despotic rulers

It could be said that unless restrained, all governments devolve to tyranny. A democracy needs informed citizens if it is to thrive, or ultimately even survive.

When Adolf Hitler was building up the Nazi movement in the 1920s, leading up to his taking power in the 1930s, he deliberately sought to activate people who did not normally pay much attention to politics. Such people were a valuable addition to his political base, since they were particularly susceptible to Hitler’s rhetoric and had far less basis for questioning his assumptions or his conclusions.

“Useful idiots” was the term supposedly coined by Lenin to describe similarly unthinking supporters of his dictatorship in the Soviet Union.

Perhaps it is easier to slip into tyrannical rule of government during hard economic times or frightening and uncertain times, when a largely uniformed populace can be more easily ‘led’ and controlled, and are more desperate and willing to accept ‘measures’ in hopes of solutions to their problems.

It is fairly plain to see (if you look) some of the liberties that have been trampled upon of late by government or government agencies.

Super-computers that are profiling you by…

Listening to your phone calls in search for ‘key words’.

Reading your emails in search of ‘key words’.

Monitoring and profiling your internet activity.

Logging the products and foods that you purchase, and where you get them.

Logging and monitoring the groups that you associate with.

Monitoring your travel movements for patterns.

You may say to yourself that some of the monitoring is purely for market research and advertising purposes, but, make no mistake about it, if the data is available, it will be gathered into gov’t databases in the name of Homeland Security. Whether you like it or not, you ARE being profiled.

Government agents that are, will, or could…

Search your body / property at airports if the agent is TSA.

Search your body / property at NFL games if the agent is Homeland Security.

Search your vehicle if you look ‘suspicious’ on an Interstate road if the agent is TSA.

On a whim, declare an American citizen an “enemy combatant”, and:

Detain without charge, in secret.

Deny legal representation.

Deny the right to question his detention.

Be shipped to a foreign country for interrogation, in secret.

Be tortured, in secret.

Be tried by a military tribunal, in secret.

NOT be granted access to the secret evidence against him.

Convicted based on that secret evidence.

On top of all that, ‘the system’ is rigged to put you oppressively in debt, and to make you a slave to that debt. Our politicians are in cohort with and beholden to the Banksters and BigCorp who have built this ‘system’. Our politicians rarely, actually, represent us, at least in the true definition of representation.

So, the question is, does the government fear the people? Or do the people fear the government? The answer will reveal whether we are already under tyrannical control….