She was joking!

h/t Google News

Via WCTI12 News

CARY - North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue's press secretary said her boss was joking to make a point about gridlock when the Democrat suggested congressional elections be suspended for two years.
Perdue told a Rotary Club in Cary on Tuesday that people on Capitol Hill need to do a better job working together.The News & Observer of Raleigh reported she went on to say: "I think we ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years and just tell them we won't hold it against them - whatever decisions they make - to just let them help this country recover." Perdue spokeswoman Chris Mackey said Perdue was using hyperbole while responding to an audience question to highlight politicians who are more focused on winning elections, rather than serving the people.

Funny that. It's a common excuse used when offensive comments are made.
Would love to see a vid of her statement. Bet she wasn't smiling.

Personally, I've got no problem with suspending elections.
With just a few provisos ...
We shut Congress down for the time span that elections are suspended.
Same with Federal Executive and Judicial branches.
Also suspended are all tax collections.
Suspend all Federal police activities.
Suspend all Federal military operations.
Ditto the Federal Reserve Bank.

I think we'd actually be making progress.
What would happen if the electorate saw their lives improving almost immediately?

Smart (Big Brother) Grid Technology

h/t Old NFO

How many times have ya heard a politician, extolling their bright visions of the future, mention "smart grid technology"?



Have they mentioned how we need it? For better allocation of precious resources?
Did the said pol mention how a "smart grid" tracks your use of juice?
Did they happen to mention that a "smart grid" also allows controlled distribution or rationing of this resource?

Lets say its a hot July afternoon. Your air conditioner has been running full time since 9am. Every home in your neighborhood has been doing the same. Suddenly, at 2pm, the power goes out. Used to be, a power outtage of this sort, indicated an equipment failure somewhere in the distribution network. This is no longer the case. With "smart grid", this is just as likely a decision to ration your power. No more soup for you! Maybe in two hours. Maybe four. We'll see how we feel. You've stressed our system and we're shutting you down for a bit. For everyones good.

Hope you saved that computer work before we threw the switch! Heh!

Smart Grid; The Devil is in the Details

Smart Grids; Adam Smith or Orwell?

h/t Coyote

Quick link-lovage... for fütbŏll Sunday.




Remember; If you see sumthin' ... Say sumthin'

Public Service Announcement

h/t Claire @ Living Freedom

Must hear Public Service Announcement

Attack! Attack! Attack! Watch?

When this meme hit the blogoshpere, I had to check it out. Like other thangs of this nature, I also had to sign up. For the same reason I occasionally listen to some hypocritical drug-abusing syndicated radio talk show hosts. Y'know ... that Sun Tzu admonishment ... "Know your opponent"

Get the "right thinking" facts

First thing I notice ... I'm suddenly getting emails from barackobama.com
The amusing part? They begin with the salutation "Friend-". Isn't that the translation from Russian of "Comrade-"? In this day and age of auto-insertion auto-merging data fields ... they address me as "Friend"?

Knowing that the site is merely a vortex of political spin, I was curious when I saw the link for gun control gossip.

So many attacks! Wheres the love?

So i click through. The issue they wanna address? The attack they're fightin'?
Dateline May 2010

The Global Small Arms Treaty. They name John Bolton (Bush era UN apparatchik) and others as attackers. Their counterargument? Their defense? Barack only wants "common-sense" gun controls.

Nevermind the musty old smell of this whole red herring. They've got much hotter, more germane, treasonous stories to address ignore stonewall.
They be stone tone deaf.

Lean Forward ...

Lawrence O'Donnel on America and Immigration.
Part of MSNBC's new ad campaign.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Yeah.
The O'Donnell reads the copy emphatically. Gotta know yer history he sez. I agree.
Ask these guys about that "immigration" subject.

Militant Americans; Aboriginal

Manifest Destiny or Evil White Men Extirpating Aboriginals, take your pick. It's hard enough to suss out what really happened irregardless of the political spin.

These days, I reflect back on a snippet of Black Elk Speaks, a book containing narratives of some of the famous medicine man's "visions". In one such vision, he describes how the white man will overrun his homeland. In some of the final scenes of this vision, he speaks of the "end of the time of the white man" and the resurgence of his native people.  I then consider how this might happen. How  whiteys Crackers Caucasian Americans might disappear. How a hard-scrabble, poverty-stricken, almost forgotten people with an ethnic heritage of survival might retake the landscape.

But mebbe I'm leanin' fo'ward too much. MSNBC's new campaign is slick. Lean Forward. Heh. I guess "Spinning Left" tested poorly.

Hoosier "Only Ones" acting like ATF

 h/t Chicago Trib
Never mind the County Coroner that stole money from a Childrens Fund. There's a special place in Hell for him.
Lets look at the Sheriffs. Wish I could count on the MSM to get the details right.
WGN TV has vid of Lake County IN prosecutor saying that these here boys were sellin' the upper receivers from select fire arms (not in online edited version!). I'm no expert. I thought the lower receivers and trigger groups were what made them, y'know, select fire, LE only. Anyways ... 74 guns.

In a separate, six-count indictment, three officers in the Lake County Sheriff’s Department were charged with illegally buying dozens of machine guns and laser sights through the department using forged documents, then reselling the weapons at auctions from 2008 to 2010. The three, Sgt. Joseph Kumstar and officers Ed Kabella and Ron Slusser have agreed to guilty pleas with the U.S attorney and resigned from the department this week.

R.D. Slusser

Ronald D. Slusser, 47, a SWAT officer and firearms instructor,
Faces up to 20 years in prison
Owes the IRS $198,818

Whoa Dude! Almost 200 thou to the IRS? Hows that happen?

E. Kabella

Edward Kabella, 42, a patrolman
Faces up to 5 years in prison
Owes the IRS $22,613

J. Kumstar

Joseph Kumstar, 40, a former deputy chief
Faces up to 5 years in prison
Owes the IRS $22,116

 I'd be rippin' on the Hoosier State and the state of their law enforcement community.
Excepting I be livin' in ILL. We got plenty of our own crooks 'n robbers.

Stingray your Fourth Amendment Rights

The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution;

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

WSJ carries a story today of some new tech that "helps" Law Enforcement sidestep the above impediment to their mission.

Introducing the Stingray.

Harris Corporation

Really no biggie. Uses your cellphone to track your location.

Apparently the wicket gets sticky only in regards to the "pen warrant" and lack of data retained for review. At least this is getting reviewed by the Supremes. Any money that the SCOTUS finds no problem with it?

Add the above tech with a covert entry search warrant, layered with other ENHANCED SURVEILLANCE PROCEDURES to confirm for yourself that "privacy" is a quaint outdated concept in America.
Regarding that nasty Fourth Amendment ... the problem is words like "unreasonable". When your mission is total control of a citizenry, there's almost nothing that falls into the category of "unreasonable"

Land of the Free

Saw this awhile back.
VolkStudio brought it back to the front burner.
Worth the watch


"Land of the Free" from John Jensen on Vimeo.

Civic Literacy Quiz

h/t Sean Linnae

In order to be an informed, involved and irrecusable citizen, versus a compliant consumer, consider taking this pop quiz ... The Civic Literacy Exam

 The average score for all 2,508 Americans taking the following test was 49%; college educators scored 55%. Can you do better? 50% range seems pitiful to me.

I only got 4 wrong. Yay me!

HuffPo bemoans increased swat-ification of PoPo

Thanks to Radley Balko at Huffington Post Crime

Nice article titled "Ten years after 9/11, Police Departments are Increasingly Militarized".
Actually connects the dots of Federal incentives for disbursements of military equipment to be used on the citizenry. Read the whole thang.

Special props for restating these factoids;

• Trend began 30 years ago.
• War on Drugs rationalization for militarization
• 9/11 put already established trend into hyperdrive
• All the above contribute to the continued erosion of constitutionally protected rights

Story points to a rabbit-hole entrance ... coming soon (if not already there) to your neighborhood,

brought to you by Lenco Armored Vehicles

Grants available, msrp $200,000-$300,000

30 years in bizness! 

How tacti-cool will you look dismount'n from a frikken running board?!

I'd flesh this out a bit more ... however Lenco Corp. wont allow unregistered users to even look at their picture gallery. They really don't want just anyone to have access to their site, only .mil and .gov need apply. Wonder why?

Extra points: FBI webpage explains hot new prank (2008): SWATTING
Extra points: Swattin' around Chicago, August 2011

QotD

Thanks to Robb at Sharp as a Marble.

I fear my government more than I do any goat humping terrorist

PBS does "Fast and Furious"

Not sure how this one slipped past me.
PBS takes on F&F?
Yesterday's update led me to their version of events. They link up to a FFL holder in Phoenix who feels betrayed by the BATF in what they label as "now-infamous ATF sting gone horribly wrong".

Mr. Andre Howard feels betrayed by his BATF overlords.

Of course, it may take more than just a collection of facts to suss the truth.
PBS can't seem to make the dots connect. Perhaps under a Republican administration they'll figure out that it WAS the goal of Fast and Furious to create a documentable "Iron River" to fit the meme they wanted to sell. A truly "wag the dog" operation.

Truth? Disinformation? Spin?

Lastly ... Mebbe they need help ...

Mr Codrea? Sipsey?

In Memorium

Heartfelt condolences for all Americans. Especially those families with loved ones lost to the attack.
To the bigger picture ... Midwest Chick says it well.

No need to be unemployed

Dave @ Underground Carpenter got me to thinking with this post.

He mentions in passing that he's currently in a state of employment interruptus.
No need to fret. There's actually no shortage of opportunities available.

I realized that with some "right-thinking", and "new-speaking", the possibilities are indeed limitless.
To help out the homeless sitting at the local library, or merely the paycheckless, here's the short list I offered to Dave. For those unfamiliar with "newspeak" I've provided old-think translations.

Political Activist …. rioter
Re-Distribution Specialist … looter
Unfunded Personal Shopper … shoplifter
Freelance Charitable Contribution Endowment Manager … panhandler
Migratory Temporary Labor Professional … hobo
Philosopher … bum
Unfortunately i don’t have the hair for:
Facilitator for Dissemination of Obfuscation and Untruths … politician

Welcome to the new economy folks!

Hoosier Gunrunnin'?

The War on Guns: Mainstream media ignores Indiana ‘Gunwalker’ story

T-shirt anyone?

Hoosier Gunwalker? by art254711
Make customized tshirts at zazzle

PsyOps Disinformation

 The Gunwalker scandal has yet to really reach critical mass.
Ask  around.
You might be surprised at the responses you get. The furrowed brow as people try to suss what it is ... many think that maybe they've heard something ... but have trouble connecting with the story.


I'd like to concentrate on the disinfo campaign.
Rinos and Rats features a comprehensive timeline.
Early in the timeline ...

In short, there is now ample proof that one of the first things the new Obama administration did upon taking office was to broadcast DISINFORMATION that they absolutely knew was false to attempt to pass new gun control laws. The story does not end there. It appears that the administration may have reacted to the exposure of their lie by trying to make it come true.

This is like 24 months ago ... internet time translation, eons and eons before; a previous epoch.

Time Magazine / World; Aug. 10 2009 
Obama's Mexico Mission: Keep Guns in El Norte

This traffic of heavy weaponry from American gun stores to Mexican drug cartels will once again feature in talks ... Obama has said — more unequivocally than any previous President — that the U.S. has a responsibility to stop American guns getting into the hands of the mobsters

 Except if the .gov is doing it. To create a crisis, leveraging for necessary "right-thinking" reforms.

 
Time Magazine; Mar. 25 2009
Obama's Other War; Fighting Mexico's Druglords

Border sheriffs like Wiles (who says it's no coincidence the plan was crafted in part by Napolitano, a former border governor) are particularly gratified to see Washington sending 100 Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) agents to help intercept the deluge of assault rifles, automatic pistols and grenades moving south.

Ummm ... grenades? Gotta ax ... Where do I legally buy 'em? Gun show? Gun shop? Military base?

Automatic pistols? Rare item that. Maybe they meant semi-automatic. Ever heard of the modifier semi-? I know ... confusing.

Guns from Arizona Going to Mexican Drug Cartels
Feb. 02 2011  features MAIG/Bloomberg 90% report

Mayors Against Illegal Guns
Links to GAO (Sept. 2010) report on Firearms Trafficking;
out-take ...

Available evidence indicates a large proportion of the firearms fueling Mexican drug violence originated in the United States, including a growing number of increasingly lethal weapons. While it is impossible to know how many firearms are illegally trafficked into Mexico in a given year, around 87 percent of firearms seized by Mexican authorities and traced over the past 5 years originated in the United States, according to data from ATF

 The origin of the 90% fact-oid that lacked the "truthiness" necessary?

MAIG again; Aug. 2009

MAIG recommendations; page 1 of 4

See also; 

• Sipsey Street Irregulars
• Gun Rights Examiner

Just remember; the info stream is polluted.

It's enough to make one a skeptic.

Cocoa Puff Cuckoo implicated in bizaare behavior

from HuffPo and  The Indy Channel

Tam thinks maybe it was the evil weed.*

Maybe it was. Maybe it was laced with PCP.


But according to the perp apprehended it was the Cocoa Puffs.

"Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs"

Which leads me to the conclusion, that maybe, just maybe, "teh crazy" don't need no steenkin' reason.
Although ... to be thorough, I'd check to see if said perp had a history of contact with the mental health industry as well as prescriptions for psychoactive serotonin reuptake inhibitors.

* In the comments to her original post ... Tam and I are in complete agreement. The eebil intoxicant found in evidence, prolly just took the "baseline craziness" inherent, and kicked it up to "a whole 'nover level".

Happy un-Labor Day

Via WRSA from The Economic Collapse

Was reminded that it was the Pullman Strike and it's political reconciliation that's giving you today off.

Via Wiki; The strike was broken up by United States Marshals and some 12,000 United States Army troops, commanded by Nelson Miles, sent in by President Grover Cleveland on the premise that the strike interfered with the delivery of U.S. Mail, violated the Sherman Antitrust Act and represented a threat to public safety. The arrival of the military and subsequent deaths of workers led to further outbreaks of violence.

Pullman Palace Car Company created a "company town".  Unintended consequences from the economic depression of 1893, wage restructuring, and failed union negotiations, led to a strike, factory lockout, and eventually "urban upheaval".

via; openlibrary

Railroads were the shizzle in 1890's. Rail was "high speed". Shaky railroad financing which set off a series of bank failures, contributed to the 1893 depression.  Railroads were also instrumental in the transformation of corporate law.

All these lil dots of history are just backtracks from the posts that spurred the title above.
From the Economic Collapse ... Celebrating the Lack of Jobs ...

This middle class is being pummeled out of existence, and most Americans don't even understand what is happening. rtwt

 Which leads back to one of my own personal conundrums. What is "middle class"? Like "terrorist", it's one of those ubiquitous phrases that defies definition. Everyone I know shoehorns themselves into the "middle class". It's either a very broad economic yardstick ... from under $20k to over 200k annually, or an equally broad "state of mind".

Sue the Banks

h/t Chicago Tribune

Hmmm. Thank Ja the "Too Big to Fail" gang has had Billions of taxpayer dollars pumped into their legal defense funds.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The agency that oversees mortgage markets is preparing to file suit against more than a dozen big banks, accusing them of misrepresenting the quality of mortgages they packaged and sold during the housing bubble, The New York Times reported on Thursday.

I predict reddened, stinging, Armani-clad wrists across boardrooms everywhere.

Former regulator William Black had an accurate assessment of systemic fraud in this interview by Bill Moyers.
Way back in 2009.
At 28 minutes the vid is longish. It's worth every second of your time.



William Black also wrote this Dead Tree indictment of the banking cartel ...

Do YOU trust your bank? Why?

"Federal Family"?

h/t The War on Guns

Okaaay. Sure.
Why'd this image pop into mind?

Fedderal Family?

Makes me feel all warm 'n fuzzy alright.
Don't think they really want us to think of 'em as family.
How DO YOU treat family members that are living far beyond their means?
That threaten you? That take part of every paycheck?
Tell ya what though ... I had forgot that the Addams family had a family motto.

"sic gorgiamus allos subjectatos nunc"
we gladly feast on those who would subdue us' 

That seems oddly apropos 

The "Lone Wolf" meme

This one's gonna grow. Rather, grow mo' bigger, i should say.
Heard it today.

One of Illinois' few un-incarcerated governors, and member of the 911 commission, Big Jim Thompson was on the 50,000 watt blower (brought to ya by Dr. Gautam Gupta) today, giving statesman like interview.

Former IL Chief Executive Jim Thompson

Interview overview; major gaps remain in the government's ability to prevent
and respond to a terrorist strike.
Money Quote; "Here's the really tough one, but it's an increasing danger. and that is not so much ... uh uhh ... al qaeda folks coming in and doing sleeper cells and then striking as they did on 9/11, but what we call the uh, uh, radicalization of Americans, or people who are lawfully in the country ... you look at that Army guy down at Fort Hood, who managed to kill 13 servicemen before he was subdued. Uhh ... Folks today can ... because of their facilities on the internet become radical and do damage in the country, now not a nationwide thing like 9/11 smaller acts of terrorism ... and there's no way to really predict who's going to do that anymore than you can predict when a bank robbery is taking place, alright? And so the increasing danger is from young radicals in America, either citizens or lawful residents, who become addicted to what they see and hear over the internet, or in the mosque, or in the madras, and then go off and try and do something, like that Times Square bomber"
Host: The Lone Wolf Fear!
Da Guv: Yeah!

The Lone Wolf. The enemy of the shepherd. The enemy of the sheep.

The Ft. Hood Jihadist? He was on report and quite open about his radicalization.
Institutional incompetence and inertia allowed that bloodbath.
The Times Square bomber? Wasn't he stopped by a cabbie and a beat cop?
So much for yer "global security system"
I'm not saying that the Lone Wack-a-Doodle isn't a concern.
Less of a concern for me personally than the systemic stripping of civil rights in the name of "security" or "safety".
Less of a concern than living in a police state.
Less of a concern than inept, mendacious "leaders"
Less of a concern than being told the internet is dangerous and addictive.

Oh yeah ... the "no way ... you can predict when a bank robbery is taking place," ...
That's being played with now.

• Predicting Crime (without Pre-Cogs)
• LAPD Predicting Crime
• Predicting Future Crimes in Philly

Philip K. Dick appears to have been more of a seer than fiction scribbler