Archive for the 'Obama Administration' Category

Reuters:

The United States is reviving a law enforcement group to investigate those it designates as domestic terrorists, the Department of Justice announced Tuesday.

Following hate-motivated shootings such as the one at a Jewish Community Center in Kansas City, Missouri in April, federal prosecutors have pressed the need to coordinate intelligence about such criminals on a national level, Justice Department officials said.

The Department of Justice will reconstitute a task force that was originally formed after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing but dissolved after the Sept. 11, 2001 hijacked plane attacks as law enforcement agencies focused on threats from militants abroad.

On Tuesday, Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement that the United States remains concerned about threats from Islamic extremists, but the group will focus on other motives for attacks within U.S. borders.

Events like the April 2013 bombing of the Boston Marathon, in which the attackers appeared to be influenced by extremists abroad, would not fall under the jurisdiction of the group, named the Domestic Terrorism Executive Committee.

“We must also concern ourselves with the continued danger we face from individuals within our own borders who may be motivated by a variety of other causes from anti-government animus to racial prejudice,” Holder said.

The official statement is here.  As usual with Holder, there is disinformation being purveyed.  See for instance this LA Times article:

Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder, Jr. on Monday announced the creation of a task force within the Justice Department to combat an “escalating danger” from “homegrown” terrorists within the United States.

The Justice Department, in a news release accompanying Holder’s weekly video address, cited a Congressional Research Service report last year that said domestic terrorists were responsible for more than two dozen incidents in the U.S. since 9/11.

Holder, in the video, cited the Boston Marathon bombings last year and shootings at Fort Hood in 2009 and 2014 as examples of “the danger we face from these homegrown threats.”

The use of the phrase “domestic terrorists” and Chechen brothers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev is a misdirect.  Another source, The Guardian, has a report agreeing with the first one.

The group will coordinate cases that involve Americans who may be spurred to violence for political or prejudicial reasons.

It will include representatives of the FBI, the National Security Division of the Justice Department and the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee, which includes representatives of federal prosecutors.

Then Attorney General Janet Reno first established such a task force following the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, but it was dismantled after the September 11, 2001 hijacked-plane attacks as the agencies turned their attention toward threats from abroad.

US Attorney General Eric Holder signed a memorandum last month reconstituting the group and will announce the details on Tuesday, one official said.

Events like the April 2013 bombing of the Boston Marathon, in which the attackers appeared to be influenced by extremist groups abroad, would not fall under the committee’s jurisdiction.

Islamists, terrorists, and international threats aren’t the focus of this group.  You get one guess as to Holder’s target.  Post guesses in the comments.

From David Codrea, there is this.

The 8 News NOW I-Team has learned that FBI agents have started an investigation into the events surrounding a potentially deadly showdown one month ago surrounding rancher Cliven Bundy.

It is one thing for Cliven Bundy and his supporters to square off against an assortment of Bureau of Land Management employees. It is quite another when the FBI enters the picture, and that is exactly what has happened.

The I-Team has confirmed that FBI agents have launched a formal investigation into alleged death threats, intimidation and possible weapons violations that culminated with a dangerous showdown on April 12, and the first people to be interviewed by FBI agents are Metro Police, starting with Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillispie.

Federal employees suspended their roundup of Cliven Bundy’s cattle, following a confrontation outside the BLM compound near Bunkerville. At the urging of Metro Police, Bundy’s cattle were released, but BLM’s new director announced the matter wasn’t over and would be resolved, one way or another. 

Last week, the I-Team talked with Metro officers who intervened to protect the lives of federal employees from the 400 or so Bundy supporters and armed militia members. Officers told the I-Team they feared for their lives that day because of the assembled firepower, and because many in the crowd had pointed weapons at officers, taunted them, told them they should be ready to die.

I don’t know about the details at the last of the report I cited, but it’s important that this issue be gotten right.  My readers know my views.  I believe that the federal government has two legitimate functions: (1) the common defense, and (2) building (only) the necessary roads and bridges to enable interstate commerce.  Beyond this, everything is unconstitutional and not approved by the wise founders.

But there is an audience who doesn’t think like me.  If the FBI is successful, some men may stand before a “jury of peers” for pointing weapons at BLM agents.  Since many juries are nothing more than a collection of imbeciles pooling their ignorance, discussions of the constitutional provisions or lack thereof for what the BLM did is a bridge too far.  Lives are at stake, and thus a simple and compelling argument needs to be pressed.

Fortunately, there is such an argument.  First of all, all men regardless of station in life are justified in self defense, and moreover, are duty bound to preserve life to the best of their ability.  This is a moral obligation on par with the most basic and important of God’s expectations for man.

There is also an equally simple and compelling legal argument for pointing weapons at BLM agents.  The irony is that it was given to us by the Supreme Court of the U.S., that other collection of imbeciles in Washington.  In Tennessee vesus Garner, we learned that even the Supreme Court believes that certain uses of firearms by LEOs is immoral.  Guns can only be used by law enforcement officers for the exact same reason that they may be used by civilians, i.e., for self defense.

This doesn’t mean that LEOs across America actually abide by Tennessee v. Garner, or that courts uphold the constitution.  But it does mean that right is on our side.  It is the BLM who came in pointing weapons at men, women and children.  If they are going to do this, it is not an unreasonable thing to expect that overwatch and security would point weapons back at the perpetrators to ensure their own safety.

There are those who may say that Cliven Bundy was a criminal, and some jurors might be in that very pool.  I disagree, but that’s not the point.  The men, women and children who were there were engaged in peaceful protests, and nothing more.  The objection rings hollow.

When the conversations get complicated, when the lawyers cite regulation until the faces of jurors are confused, when the media is perplexed or going along with the administration talking points, and when perhaps even your own folk become disillisioned and confused, we need to keep pressing this simple, compelling, morally upstanding position.  Weapons were pointed at BLM agents because the men there had to protect the lives of the people under their charge.  God approves, and even the stolid Supreme Court has recognized this fundamental right.

No backing up, no surrender, no losing focus on the point.  Say it again and again, indefatigable as it were, and without rest for your opponents.  The legal defense doesn’t need to be any more complicated than that.  We (and the lawyers defending these men) just need to be disciplined enough to pull it off.

Fox News:

The director of the Federal Air Marshal Service is resigning after being investigated for his role in an alleged operation to acquire guns for officials’ personal use, FoxNews.com has learned.

Director Robert Bray’s home was raided in December in connection with the ongoing probe. Law enforcement and congressional sources told FoxNews.com that Bray’s recently announced resignation, which is effective in June, is directly related to the investigation.

Bray allegedly is among several officials who were obtaining weapons through this operation.

The Department of Homeland Security inspector general probe — which also is believed to involve the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — stems from whistleblower accusations involving federal Air Marshal supervisor Danny Poulos.

He is accused of using the agency’s federal firearms license and his relationship with gun manufacturer Sig Sauer to obtain discounted and free guns. He then provided them to high-up agency officials for their personal use, according to whistleblower documents obtained by FoxNews.com and interviews with multiple officials with knowledge of the ongoing probe.

Let’s see: avoiding form 4473 for his friends (check), using influence and power for personal gain using tax dollars (check), potential bribery to obtain government contracts (check), cronyism and corruption (check).

Because laws are for little people.

Just another crook in a position of power.  Are there any honest, hard working people in the Obama administration … anywhere?

Michael Rubin: “If Jimmy Carter and Dennis Rodman could somehow have a child together, it would be Obama.”

Fort Worth NBC:

Some drivers along a busy Fort Worth street on Friday were stopped at a police roadblock and directed into a parking lot, where they were asked by federal contractors for samples of their breath, saliva and even blood.

It was part of a government research study aimed at determining the number of drunken or drug-impaired drivers.

“It just doesn’t seem right that you can be forced off the road when you’re not doing anything wrong,” said Kim Cope, who said she was on her lunch break when she was forced to pull over at the roadblock on Beach Street in North Fort Worth.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which is spending $7.9 million on the survey over three years, said participation was “100 percent voluntary” and anonymous.

But Cope said it didn’t feel voluntary to her — despite signs saying it was.

“I gestured to the guy in front that I just wanted to go straight, but he wouldn’t let me and forced me into a parking spot,” she said.

Once parked, she couldn’t believe what she was asked next.

“They were asking for cheek swabs,” she said. “They would give $10 for that. Also, if you let them take your blood, they would pay you $50 for that.”

At the very least, she said, they wanted to test her breath for alcohol.

She said she felt trapped.

“I finally did the Breathalyzer test just because I thought that would be the easiest way to leave,” she said, adding she received no money.

Fort Worth police earlier said they could not immediately find any record of officer involvement but police spokesman Sgt. Kelly Peel said Tuesday that the department’s Traffic Division coordinated with the NHTSA on the use of off-duty officers after the agency asked for help with the survey.

“We are reviewing the actions of all police personnel involved to ensure that FWPD policies and procedures were followed,” he said. “We apologize if any of our drivers and citizens were offended or inconvenienced by the NHTSA National Roadside Survey.”

NBC DFW confirmed that the survey was done by a government contractor, the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, which is based in Calverton, Md.

A company spokeswoman referred questions to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

An agency spokeswoman sent an email confirming the government is conducting the surveys in 30 cities across the country in an effort to reduce impaired-driving accidents.

She did not respond to another email from NBC DFW asking specific questions about the program..

But a Fort Worth attorney who is an expert in civil liberties law questioned whether such stops are constitutional.

“You can’t just be pulled over randomly or for no reason,” said attorney Frank Colosi.

He also noted the fine print on a form given to drivers informs them their breath was tested by “passive alcohol sensor readings before the consent process has been completed.”

“They’re essentially lying to you when they say it’s completely voluntary, because they’re testing you at that moment,” Colosi said.

This is clearly a violation of the Texas Constitution, Article 1, Section 9.  The Governor of Texas should immediately have the perpetrators of this crime arrested and imprisoned, make prosecutors available for the crafting of felony charges, and make it clear to all such federal employees that if they do not cease and desist in said activities there is a place in the state penitentiary for them among the general population.  So where is the Governor of Texas on this?

UPDATE: David Codrea weighs in.

“What’s this “100 percent voluntary”?  What right did you have to pull people over and detain them in the first damn place?

And if someone doesn’t pull over, or indignantly asks you that if he does, will you use that as “probable cause” to escalate the “continuum of force,” up to and including murdering him for resisting being taken hostage, and chalking it all up to “established department protocols” because you wanted to “make it home at the end of your shift” — as if everybody else doesn’t, too?”

Rachel Alexander writing for Townhall issues a warning.

… the NRA stepped in and got some of the worst language revised last December. Senate amendment 3276, Sec. 2716, part c. prohibits the creation of a firearms database and stops doctors from disclosing or collecting information relating to a patient’s firearms. Ironically, this provision was probably the only positive result of most members of Congress not bothering to read the bill before voting on it.

However, the provision does not go as far as prohibiting doctors from asking their patients if there are any firearms in their home. In January, Obama issued 23 executive actions and orders regarding firearms. Order 16 stressed that Obamacare does not prohibit doctors from asking patients about their firearms, and the fact sheet includes, “Clarify that no federal law prevents health care providers from warning law enforcement authorities about threats of violence.” What constitutes a “threat of violence” could be very arbitrary. This puts doctors in a difficult position by suggesting they act as pseudo-law enforcement agents. It is damaging to doctor-patient privilege. If doctors have a patient with PTSD or mental illness, and they fail to ask the patient about their firearms, or report them to law enforcement, they could be on the hook later. It encourages them to err on the side of snooping into their patients’ guns. This is especially troubling considered the definition of mental illness keeps expanding.

In Guns And The Mentally Ill: A Professional Assessment, I noted yet again that the mental health profession couldn’t possibly sustain the load of predicting violent behavior and that mental health maladies have no particular association with propensity to violence.

Yet mental health continues to be the whipping boy du jour of the gun control fanatics, which led my commenter and former member of the military Will to comment:

I absolutely regret seeking care from the VA for PTSD for just this reason.

I’m so sorry.  I am so very sorry to the members of the military who have seen combat, earned the combat action ribbon (or Army equivalent), or who have sought care for PTSD.

For those who thought we had their backs, I’m so sorry that the country let you down by sending you to fight in a war with obscene rules of engagement that caused you danger, sent you to fight without enough troops, and now places you at risk upon return to lose your right to own weapons.

America will answer for its sins one day in time, and then in eternity.

I and some of my family (including grandchildren) rode the Virginia Creeper trail this weekend.  We have done this many times.  Within a couple of miles of the start there is this sign.

Folks, this restroom is a hole in the ground.  Literally, that’s all.  It requires someone to monitor the level of waste on a periodic basis (I would guess once per month) and call out a private contractor to empty it when it’s full.  There has never been any toilet paper in the restroom.

This is me pointing at the sign.

I’m wearing a Marmot rain parka, hauling a three-day ruck bought at the MCX at Camp Lejeune, and carrying a S&W M&P Cerakote flat dark earth .40 with Viking Tactics sights.  I am showing disapprobation towards the federal Leviathan.

Pat Buchanan:

… separatist and secessionist movements are cropping up here in the United States.

While many red state Americans are moving away from blue state America, seeking kindred souls among whom to live, those who love where they live but not those who rule them are seeking to secede.

[ … ]

The issues driving secession in Maryland are gun control, high taxes, energy policy, homosexual marriage and immigration.

[ … ]

The Montpelier Manifesto of the Second Vermont Republic concludes:

“Citizens, lend your names to this manifesto and join in the honorable task of rejecting the immoral, corrupt, decaying, dying, failing American Empire and seeking its rapid and peaceful dissolution before it takes us all down with it.”

This sort of intemperate language may be found in Thomas Jefferson’s indictment of George III. If America does not get its fiscal house in order, and another Great Recession hits or our elites dragoon us into another imperial war, we will likely hear more of such talk.

It is of course what I’ve recommended.  One can hope and pray … and other things.

Things have been going from bad to worse as the Obama adminstration advances its agenda, but totalitarians will be what they are, and in the end they aren’t interested in liberty, and they aren’t content with the status quo.  Matt weighs in at WRSA.

Will Obama Stop the Music This November?

The current “shutdown” of 17% of the federal government has primed America for chaos with constant left-wing rhetoric and news media reports couched in apocalyptic terms such as crisis, brink, catastrophe, hostage, arsonist and terrorist. But a catastrophe is useful to a would-be tyrant only as long as it can be blamed on a hated enemy. In 1933 Hitler’s agents burned the Reichstag, not just to sow fear and confusion, but primarily in order to charge his Communist enemies with treason as an excuse to obliterate them. The German “mainstream media” dutifully parroted the Nazi Party line, without investigating the true source of the arson.

A similar pattern of scapegoating has been followed in the United States throughout the term of President Obama. For example, leading Democrats and their shills in the mainstream media have long been salivating at the prospect of a “Tea Party” conservative going on a violent rampage. We saw this in Tucson immediately after the Gabby Giffords shooting, after the Aurora, Colorado, theater attack, and after the recent Washington Navy Yard shooting, when Democrats and their media allies rushed to blame “Tea Party terrorists” in early reports based upon zero evidence. As far as we know, all of these attacks were carried out by deranged individuals following the orders of inner demons, but still the left hopes for a violent response by right-wing “bitter clingers,” so named by President Obama himself during a private fund raiser.

The current “government shutdown” seems to be designed to provoke a violent right-wing reaction. War memorials have been barricaded, even iconic national parks such as those at Valley Forge, Yellowstone, and Mount Rushmore have been closed to the American public that purportedly owns them and undoubtedly funds them. At Yellowstone, senior citizens and foreign tourists have been rousted from paid private hotel rooms by armed federal agents and forcibly bused out of the park. Around the closed Mount Rushmore National Park, cones have been set along public highways to prevent tourists even from stopping to take photographs. Meanwhile, a demonstration on the otherwise “closed” National Mall by illegal aliens demanding amnesty was welcomed by the Obama administration with open arms.

In my opinion, the intention of these selected park closures is not only to inflict psychological pain upon the administration’s perceived “enemies” but also to provoke a violent response by fed-up constitutional conservatives. Thus far, none has risen to the bait; so what will the regime do next? I believe that President Obama may be planning to up the ante by orders of magnitude. How might this happen? The “government shutdown” over the continuing resolution bill has turned on the Democrats’ demand for a “clean” CR, but the real battle will come next week when the national debt limit is reached.

What will happen if President Obama and the Democrats in Congress demand a “clean” debt extension, with no upper limits and no attached conditions, just as they have demanded a “clean CR” to fund current government operations?

Great question Matt.  Read the rest at WRSA.  I have a few rather pedestrian observations to make about federal government control over lands, and then some more global observations on Matt’s thoughts and Obama.

First, I’ve never been a fan or advocate of federal control or ownership of land in the U.S.  You can thank collectivist Teddy Roosevelt for that one.  In fact, they are the largest land owner in America, as well as the largest employer in America.  I have vowed never again to go into Pisgah National Forest territory.  I won’t be told by lawyers inside the beltway (who write the code of federal regulations) whether I can build a fire ring and fire, or whether I can take by dog along.

But what’s even more poignant since this National Park shutdown is that not only have federal employees stayed on the job, they have done so in order to piss in the face of law abiding citizens who pay their salary.  They have surpassed overbearing and elitist.  They have shown themselves to be like the creepy old man who stares at little children too much.  It tells you that something isn’t quite right.  And if you’re a federal employee and this is uncomfortable to you, I’m not sorry.  A hit dog always yelps.  You work for a creepy man and enforce creepy rules, and most of you (I’m trying to be gracious here) are just creepy people.

Now to the more global observations.  Yes, I agree with Matt.  Obama is doing these things intentionally.  He doesn’t fear disaster – he welcomes it.  Instability will only be the catalyst for saying that we need “stability operations.”  Emergency will be his pretext for “emergency powers.”  He is a divider, and he is gaming out of Saul Alinsky’s play book.  Catastrophy plays into his hands.

Until … he can no longer control what happens.  Saul Alinsky didn’t prepare Obama for that eventuality.  Not all of the American people are a paper tiger, although many will go along to get along.  Free bread and circuses will pacify many (or most), but there is a thread that runs through history that Obama has not considered.  That thread will seek liberty at the cost of everything.  Obama seeks control at the cost of everything, including his reputation, the reputations of his people, and the very soul of America.  He will soon meet up with others who are willing to invest everything.

But even before that Obama cannot control events.  The evil witchcraft of Keynesian economics superimposed over a massive entitlement state will soon come to an end because it cannot be sustained.  It doesn’t matter who the chairman of the Fed is, it doesn’t matter what policy decisions are made, and it doesn’t matter what the markets are doing.  We owe too much, our money is worthless and the entitlement state too large to repair.  It will not continue.

No amount of collectivist control can prevent the hives from splitting apart at the seams (I have a planned piece on developments in twenty first century counterinsurgency theory coming soon that will help explain this pregnant comment).  Obama thinks he is in control, but the “King’s heart is in the hands of The Lord,” even when he is an evil king.  It isn’t given to us to be fearful or trepid.  There are larger things going on, and while we aren’t in control, our reactions both mold us and define us.

There is too much “inside baseball” analysis going around, like this piece at the WSJ by James Taranto.  It’s simplier than it has been made out to be.  The GOP is benefiting from the money flowing in from opposition to Obamacare.  They want to keep that money rolling in.  They think there may actually be a chance to turn back the tide of Obamacare, but only if they let it fully implement and let the public see just how bad it really is.  That will also help the GOP to fill in seats in the House and Senate.  In other words, just like the Democrats, the GOP is taking a scorched earth policy.

But the problem is that Obamacare is going full steam ahead.  My daughter is in medical care, and the implications of Obamacare are catastrophic and disasterous.  I simply do not have the time or space to outline the horror awaiting us, nor would I keep my readers for that long.  Ted Cruz knows that, which is why he is trying to turn it back now, even if only in stages.  In short, he has a soul.  He is more concerned about America than he is his own career.  See Red State for a good writeup.  Professor Jacobson makes the point that we shouldn’t be confused by the parliamentrary tactics.  It’s a necessary part of the game that Cruz is playing.  The bottom line is that most of the Senate doesn’t care about you – but you already knew that.

The others in the Senate (with the exception of Mike Lee) are without scruples.  Harry Reid says that Cruz isn’t doing a real filibuster.  Okay.  Reid doesn’t have a real soul either, and would sell out his own mother to the Nazis in order to keep his place in the Congressional lunch room.  Turning briefly to NRO, Murdock observes that “defeatist Republicans such as Karl Rove, whose massive 2012 campaign spending was only 1.3 percent effective, are rooting against courageous senators Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, Rand Paul, and Marco Rubio who are trying to defund Obamacare right now. A sad caucus of RINOs, moderates, and invertebrates wants to postpone this fight and oppose Obamacare . . . maybe . . . later. Their slogan? Tomorrow is another day, so perhaps we could stop Obamacare then.”

Okay, but he is going easy on Rove.  David Codrea is on target when he calls Rove a wretched cancerous lump.  As for me, the GOP is full of worthless suckholes.  They are dead to me.  Perhaps the best part of the Cruz speech is that the vermin scatter (including the balance of the GOP), and show themselves to be the animals they are.  In case you had any doubts, dear reader, you shouldn’t now.