Washington state resident and Marine David Hedrick recently took to task Rep. Brian Baird (D-WA) for pushing nanny-state socialism on the free people of America.

At a town hall meeting Hedrick said

I also heard you say that you are going to let us keep our health insurance. Well thank you. It’s not your right to decide whether or not I keep my current plan or not that is MY decision.

No kidding! This comment strikes at the heart of what these socialists in Washington do not understand: this is a free country, and we are a free people!

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Stand up to unchecked federal power
East Valley Tribune
By Ernest Hancock
August 25, 2009

In 1994, I learned that holding a sign, "Legalize Freedom ... Register Libertarian," at a Janet Reno speaking event would get you arrested by Phoenix police. I was quickly released with no charges and returned to the event, but it was clear to me as a young man that we were on a very dark path.

One tool to illuminate this dark path was the filing of ballot initiatives that would inject into the political discourse some concepts, such as Second Amendment rights, otherwise ignored during election cycles. One of those 1994 initiatives was "unrestricted concealed carry of firearms," which evolved into Arizona's permit system. SAFE (Second Amendment is For Everyone) was the political action committee that was created in support of this initiative.

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Lawyer: FBI Paid Right-Wing Blogger Charged With Threats
Wired
By David Kravets
August 19, 2009

A notorious New Jersey hate blogger charged in June with threatening to kill judges and lawmakers was secretly an FBI “agent provocateur” paid to disseminate right-wing rhetoric, his attorney said Wednesday.

Hal Turner, the blogger and radio personality, remains jailed pending charges over his recent online rants, which prosecutors claim amounted to an invitation for someone to kill Connecticut lawmakers and Chicago federal appeals court judges.

But behind the scenes the reformed white supremacist was holding clandestine meetings with FBI agents who taught him how to spew hate “without crossing the line,” according to his lawyer, Michael Orozco.

“Almost everything was at the behest of the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” Orozco said in a 45-minute telephone interview from New Jersey. “Their job was to pick up information on the responses of what he was saying and see where that led them. It was an interesting dynamic on what he was being asked to do.”

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Trilateral Member Hormats nominated to State Department
The August Review
By Patrick Wood
July 30, 2009

On July 18, 2009, another Trilateral Commission member has been nominated to a strategic post in the Obama administration, bringing the total number of Obama's Trilateral appointees to twelve. 

Robert Hormats, vice-chairman of Goldman Sachs, has been nominated by President Obama to be an Undersecretary of State for Economic, Energy and Agriculture. His Senate confirmation is expected to proceed without incident. 

Hormats will join five other Trilateral Commission members in the Department of State: Kurt Campbell, James Steinberg, Richard Hass, Dennis Ross and Richard Holbrooke. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is not a member, but her husband, Bill Clinton, was.

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No wonder some children have no respect for the law!
Lawsuit:  Cops tasered 3 kids, threatened one with sodomy
Raw Story
By Daniel Tencer
July 20, 2009

A shelter for adolescents in southern Illinois is suing the local sheriff’s office for what it describes as an unprovoked attack by two police officers on four children, three of whom were tasered, and one of whom was threatened with sodomy by a sheriff’s deputy.

The Southern Thirty Adolescent Center near Mount Vernon, IL, filed the lawsuit on behalf of three children in its custody, who the lawsuit says were tasered by Jefferson County sheriff’s deputies who had been called to help subdue two misbehaving children, aged 11 and 12. Neither of those children were among those who were tasered during what one news service described as a police “rampage.”

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Eligibility arguments to get court hearing
World Net Daily
By Bob Unruh
July 13, 2009

In what ultimately could prove to be a turning point in the legal challenges to Barack Obama's eligibility to be president, a federal judge in California has planned a hearing on the merits of a federal court case raising those questions.

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Jefferson's fate may rest with jailed CEO
The Washington Times
By Ben Conery
June 14, 2009

Whether former Rep. William J. Jefferson, Louisiana Democrat, is found guilty of federal corruption charges will depend largely on whether a jury thinks an imprisoned businessman bribed the nine-term congressman or was simply paying legitimate consulting fees.

Vernon Jackson, former CEO of iGate, finished testifying Tuesday after five days on the stand during Mr. Jefferson's trial in U.S. District Court in Alexandria. Jackson is serving a seven-year prison sentence since he pleaded guilty in 2006 to bribery for giving Mr. Jefferson more than $400,000 in exchange for Mr. Jefferson promoting his company in Africa.

Lawyers for Mr. Jefferson, who faces bribery, money laundering and other charges stemming from a 16-count indictment, contend the money Mr. Jackson paid were legal consulting fees to ANJ, a company Mr. Jefferson started for his wife and daughters.

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Cyber Security Czar Front-Runner No Friend of Privacy
Wired
By Ryan Singel
June 22, 2009

Former Republican Congressman Tom Davis, reportedly President Barack Obama’s top candidate for cyber security czar, voted repeatedly to expand the government’s internet wiretapping powers, and helped author the now-troubled national identification law known as REAL ID.

Citing White House sources, Time magazine on Friday identified the the former head of the Government Reform Committee as the president’s number one candidate for the new position. Davis’ reputation as a tech-smart moderate who knows his way around D.C. makes him an attractive pick for the administration, the magazine reported.

But an examination of Davis’ record in Congress shows that he’s been on the wrong side of key privacy issues, including the controversial REAL ID Act, which aims to turn state driver’s licenses into a de facto national identification card linked by shared databases and strict federal authentication standards.

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One woman who KNOWS what the Second Amendment is ALL about!

Watch this testimony by Suzanna Gratia-Hupp, a former Texas State Representative who's parents were killed by a crazed gunman. as she talks about her rights, and the rights afforded ALL United States Citizens by the Constitution!

Watch here!

Navy Vet Honored, Foiled Israeli Attack
What’s the difference between murder and massacre?
Consortium News
By Ray McGovern
June 1, 2009

The answer is Terry Halbardier, whose bravery and ingenuity as a 23-year-old Navy seaman spelled the difference between the murder of 34 of the USS Liberty crew and the intended massacre of all 294.

The date was June 8, 1967; and for the families of the 34 murdered and for the Liberty’s survivors and their families, it is a “date which will live in infamy” — like the date of an earlier surprise attack on the U.S. Navy.

The infamy is two-fold: (1) the Liberty, a virtually defenseless intelligence collection platform prominently flying an American flag in international waters, came under deliberate attack by Israeli aircraft and three 60-ton Israeli torpedo boats off the coast of the Sinai on a cloudless June afternoon during the six-day Israeli-Arab war; and (2) President Lyndon Johnson called back carrier aircraft dispatched to defend the Liberty lest Israel be embarrassed — the start of an unconscionable cover-up, including top Navy brass, that persists to this day.

Given all they have been through, the Liberty survivors and other veterans – who joined Halbardier to celebrate his belated receipt of the Silver Star – can be forgiven for having doubted that this day would ever come.

In the award ceremony at the Visalia (California) office of Rep. Devin Nunes, the Republican congressman pinned the Silver Star next to the Purple Heart that Halbardier found in his home mailbox three years ago.

Nunes said, “The government has kept this quiet I think for too long, and I felt as my constituent he [Halbardier] needed to get recognized for the services he made to his country.”

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Sonia Sotomayor Nomination
Bias Case Looms Large for Nominee
The Washington Post
By Robert Barnes and Eli Saslow
May 31, 2009

Judge Sonia Sotomayor has heard thousands of cases and has issued as many rulings in her nearly two decades on the federal bench, but the early debate over her judicial philosophy in her Supreme Court confirmation battle comes down to one paragraph.

It is the 134-word summary order in Ricci v. DeStefano, which upheld the decision of New Haven, Conn., to throw out the promotion test it had given city firefighters when no African Americans and two Hispanics qualified for advancement.

The case is under review by the Supreme Court that Sotomayor would join. If the decision is reversed -- which, from the tone of oral arguments in April, seems a distinct possibility -- the high court's ruling will probably come at the end of June, just as the Senate and the nation begin to consider Sotomayor's qualifications.

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It’s increasingly evident that Obama should resign
The State Journal Register
By Ted Rall
May 29, 2009

MIAMI — We expected broken promises. But the gap between the soaring expectations that accompanied Barack Obama’s inauguration and his wretched performance is the broadest such chasm in recent historical memory. This guy makes Bill Clinton look like a paragon of integrity and follow-through.

From health care to torture to the economy to war, Obama has reneged on pledges real and implied. So timid and so owned is he that he trembles in fear of offending, of all things, the government of Turkey. Obama has officially reneged on his campaign promise to acknowledge the Armenian genocide. When a president doesn’t have the nerve to annoy the Turks, why does he bother to show up for work in the morning?

Obama is useless. Worse than that, he’s dangerous. Which is why, if he has any patriotism left after the thousands of meetings he has sat through with corporate contributors, blood-sucking lobbyists and corrupt politicians, he ought to step down now — before he drags us further into the abyss.

I refer here to Obama’s plan for “preventive detentions.” If a cop or other government official thinks you might want to commit a crime someday, you could be held in “prolonged detention.” Reports in U.S. state-controlled media imply that Obama’s shocking new policy would only apply to Islamic terrorists (or, in this case, wannabe Islamic terrorists, and also kinda-sorta-maybe-thinking-about-terrorism dudes). As if that made it OK.

In practice, Obama wants to let government goons snatch you, me and anyone else they deem annoying off the street.

Preventive detention is the classic defining characteristic of a military dictatorship.

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Protest at the Army Experience Center
Philadelphia Independent Media Center
By Rich Gardner
May 4, 2009

The Army opens up a hi-tech recruiting center in order to continue adventuring abroad. 

The Iraq Veterans Against the War, the Veterans for Peace and the Delaware Valley Veterans for America all joined forces to protest the Army Experience Center, the hands-on, multimedia exhibit designed to sell war to the young as a fun, bloodless, mess-free game. 

The average military recruiting facility is about 800-1200 square feet and it's pretty much an open office with some desks. The Army Experience Center is a 14,000 square foot mini-version of Disney world, with simulation rooms and a massive collection of all sizes of video screens connected to war video games. 

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Memo Says Pelosi Knew About Use of Harsh Tactics
The Washington Post
By Paul Kane
May 8, 2009

Intelligence officials released documents yesterday saying that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was briefed in September 2002 about the use of harsh interrogation tactics against al-Qaeda suspects, seeming to contradict her repeated statements that she was never told the techniques were actually being used.

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Buying Brand Obama
Common Dreams
By Chris Hedges
May 4, 2009

Barack Obama is a brand. And the Obama brand is designed to make us feel good about our government while corporate overlords loot the Treasury, our elected officials continue to have their palms greased by armies of corporate lobbyists, our corporate media diverts us with gossip and trivia and our imperial wars expand in the Middle East. Brand Obama is about being happy consumers. We are entertained. We feel hopeful. We like our president. We believe he is like us. But like all branded products spun out from the manipulative world of corporate advertising, we are being duped into doing and supporting a lot of things that are not in our interest.

What, for all our faith and hope, has the Obama brand given us? His administration has spent, lent or guaranteed $12.8 trillion in taxpayer dollars to Wall Street and insolvent banks in a doomed effort to reinflate the bubble economy, a tactic that at best forestalls catastrophe and will leave us broke in a time of profound crisis. Brand Obama has allocated nearly $1 trillion in defense-related spending and the continuation of our doomed imperial projects in Iraq, where military planners now estimate that 70,000 troops will remain for the next 15 to 20 years. Brand Obama has expanded the war in Afghanistan, including the use of drones sent on cross-border bombing runs into Pakistan that have doubled the number of civilians killed over the past three months. Brand Obama has refused to ease restrictions so workers can organize and will not consider single-payer, not-for-profit health care for all Americans. And Brand Obama will not prosecute the Bush administration for war crimes, including the use of torture, and has refused to dismantle Bush's secrecy laws or restore habeas corpus. 

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A MATTER OF INTEGRITY
Doug Rokke, Ph.D.
Major, retired, U.S. Army
Revised – March 19, 2009

'YOU ARE GOING TO WAR"-- those words echoed through my mind, bringing back memories of my Vietnam experiences, as I sat down in my physics research laboratory at the University of Illinois after receiving a telephone call from the Lieutenant Colonel I worked for in the Army Reserve during November 1990. I knew this would happen after Iraq invaded Kuwait during August 1990. I just did not know when my activation order would arrive. Anyway, on Thanksgiving Day 1990 I would be on my way to war again just as I did on Thanksgiving Day of 1969. Twenty-one years to the day after going to South East Asia (Vietnam War) for the 2nd time, I was going back to war for the third time. Significant events in my military career all revolve around Thanksgiving Day because I was released from active duty once more just in time for Thanksgiving Day 1995 after serving as the U.S. Army Depleted Uranium Project director from August 1994 through November 1995.

Today, I am a disabled and retired Army Reserve Medical Service Corps officer who specialized in nuclear medicine; and nuclear, biological, and chemical warfare operations (NBC); intelligence; medical operations; and emergency field medicine as a former enlisted combat medic. When Gulf War 1 started during August 1990, I was initially assigned to teach nuclear, biological, and chemical warfare (NBC) operations to 4th U.S. Army personnel. I was finally ordered to active duty and sent to Saudi Arabia with the order "to bring them home alive". That was quite a contrast from my duties during Vietnam as a Bomb Navigation Hard-Hat on B-52's when my job was to ensure weapons systems were optimized to kill. Astonishingly I had deployed to South East Asia on Thanksgiving Day 1969 and then again for Gulf War 1 on Thanksgiving Day 1990. I was sent to Saudi Arabia as the theater health physicist assigned to the 12th Preventive Medicine (P.M.) Command professional staff. The 12th P.M. was in charge of all Preventive Medicine within the combat theater. Basically we were the public health department. I also was assigned to three special operations teams: Bauer's Raiders, the Depleted Uranium Assessment team, and the Captured Equipment team.

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Gulf War Illness and the Health Of Gulf War Veterans
Scientific Findings and Recommendations
Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses

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Bombshell: Rep. Jane Harman Caught on Tape Agreeing to Lobby for Alleged AIPAC/Israel Spies?
Alternet Blogs
Posted By Jeremy Scahill
April 20, 2009

Harman was allegedly heard saying she'd 'waddle into' the AIPAC case in return for support for her bid to become chair of the Intelligence Committee.

This is a huge story: Representative Jane Harman, a hawkish, influential “Blue Dog” Democrat “was overheard on an NSA wiretap telling a suspected Israeli agent that she would lobby the Justice Department reduce espionage-related charges against two officials of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, the most powerful pro-Israel organization in Washington,” according to a report from CQ Politics:

Harman was recorded saying she would “waddle into” the AIPAC case “if you think it’ll make a difference,” according to two former senior national security officials familiar with the NSA transcript.

In exchange for Harman’s help, the sources said, the suspected Israeli agent pledged to help lobby Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., then-House minority leader, to appoint Harman chair of the Intelligence Committee after the 2006 elections, which the Democrats were heavily favored to win.

Seemingly wary of what she had just agreed to, according to an official who read the NSA transcript, Harman hung up after saying, “This conversation doesn’t exist.”

The case, known as the AIPAC espionage scandal centers around allegations that at least two AIPAC staff members passed sensitive US intelligence on Iran, provided by Pentagon official Lawrence Franklin, to Israel.

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