The Act also made it a felony punishable by death without benefit of clergy for "any persons unlawfully, riotously and tumultuously assembled together" to cause (or begin to cause) serious damage to places of religious worship, houses, barns, and stables.
h/t Instapundit
...When Nixon tried to sic the IRS on a few powerful political enemies, the IRS told him to take a hike. When Obamas courtiers tried to sic the IRS on thousands of ordinary American citizens, the agency went along, and very enthusiastically. This is a scale of depravity hitherto unknown to the tax authorities of the United States, and for that reason alone they should be disarmed and disbanded and rebuilt from scratch with far more circumscribed powers.
...It may be that the strange synchronicity between the president and the permanent bureaucracy is mere happenstance and not, as it might sound to the casual ear, the sinister merging of party and state. Either way, they need to be pried apart. When the state has the capability to know everything except the difference between right and wrong, it wont end well.
#1
Why not the "All-Seeing State" after all you can not say you were not warned, it is on the money.
The all seeing eye.
Posted by: Au Auric ||
06/09/2013 15:43 Comments ||
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#2
"All seeing State" > Globalist, "Borderless", + Jobless, that is.
1990's "America must be Restrained + Controlled", correct - how can Amerika unilaterally go to war iff all of its major industries + resources for same are de facto controlled by the Govt-controlled Companies + MNCS of other Nations???
When Amerika is being led by a foreign POTUS = Leader(s), as well as also being being permanently suborned or entrenched under [anti/non-US?]OWG Global Fed "Unions" + H-I-G-H-E-R???
The Honorable George W. Bush
Former President
Crawford, Texas
Dear George,
I use George instead of president because, well, Michelle tells me that it is confusing for me as the president to call another person president. I think you understand this a lot better than Bill that you can only have one president at a time.
Also, I am sending this letter to Crawford instead of Dallas because I read recently you were mountain biking at your ranch (that reminds me I need to start looking into where I am going to live after I am done here, and I promise I won't be moving to Texas because who knows when that will turn blue).
For starters, I wanted to say it was great seeing you at your presidential library opening. What a great event, and please tell your dad hi for me. He is a great guy, and I love that your mom said the country doesn't need any more Bushes. I think that will be true about Obamas, especially after this last couple of weeks. I feel like you must have felt before you left office.
And now for the purpose of this letter (I know you are rolling your eyes and saying, "just get to the point," but you know me: I can be a little long-winded at times): I wanted to say I am sorry.
I am sorry that, as a United States senator and presidential candidate, I was critical of you about so many things I now, myself, am doing.
I am sorry about saying Guantanamo would be closed immediately and it was a blight on America. It is still wide open for business.
I am sorry for criticizing you and your administration for intrusions on American's privacy and invasions into personal liberties. My NSA took what you did and put it on steroids.
I am sorry for criticizing the way you waged the war on terror. I have personally approved a number of drone strikes and actually have said it is OK to kill an American on foreign soil without due process. I know you are probably saying, "Aren't you the expert on the Constitution?" but, as you know, being president is hard work.
And, by the way, between you and me, I know your vice president was probably upset my administration got Osama Bin Laden (I get the sense he might have some anger issues and I sure wish he would have kept quiet like you have), but it was really thanks to you and my continuation of your national security policies.
I am sorry for all my overheated rhetoric about your administration not being transparent and saying my administration would be the most transparent in history and most open to the media. Boy, was I off on that one, and certain reporters at the Associated Press and Fox News don't seem to understand why we might put them under secret scrutiny.
Well, George, that is probably all you have time for, and I hope you accept my apology. You can take heart that, even though I am a Democrat, I decided to keep going nearly all your vision and plans on national security and even take it to all-new levels.
One day, I hope someone can follow a path as president that doesn't constantly use the ends to justify the means, but that is going to take a leader strong enough to be more compassionate and follow the principles of your and my buddy JC. Can you believe his "love your enemies" line??? With our luck, it will probably be a woman who finally does that as president.
Take care, and hope you will stay quiet until I leave office because Bill never stops talking.
Sincerely,
Barack Obama
P.S. You will be happy to know The New York Times is now attacking me for all the same stuff I attacked you on. Crazy."
#2
There will be a great outcry from the gummit, name calling, gnashing of teeth and calls for extradition. Heads will roll at Booze Allen and every contractor at No Such Agency will undergo Full Scope Polygraphs. My prediction....nothing will happen through the legal process. This young fellow has them by the BALLS! The next few days and weeks will be quite interesting as the gummit determines how to handle this potential information grenade. I do fear for this young fellow's life. Reporting on criminal activity does NOT make one a criminal.
#4
Besoeker, he fled to Hong Kong, a wholly owned subsidiary of Red China, to get away.
Which suggests to me:
We're gonna get fucked hard by a bunch of communists. Either the ones up in Washington or the ones in Beijing. Probably both.
At the moment the Beijing Gang has an advantage in that they don't really believe in neoconfucian crap nor in Real Communism. They pay lip service at the weekly mass and they're done for the week.
They pattern their country after medieval Venice and they whip our ass at mercantilism like a rented drum.
#5
What do you suppose Champ and the Chinese leader are working out? Ostensibly, the meeting was about intellectual property and cybertheft. Interesting times we live in.
#7
Yes, I've listened to both Congressman Pete King and the self aggrandizing, beltway talking-head LTC Tony Shaffer, who was upset Snowden didn't come to him first and attempted to subtly defame Snowden's military service. Within 4 minutes, the tail-sniffing Shaffer had already throw down his Able Danger connection. Shaffer and King are certain Snowden is a malcontent with an axe to grind which will result in the death of thousands [my exaggeration].
I agree, two wrongs don't make a right but our gummit has created this monster. I believe this fellow to be a legitimate whistleblower, not a defector. We'll see where it takes us.
Ms Glick lays out the case of just how bad the next 42 months could be.
From TFA:
With the Benghazi scandal hounding him, the Syrian civil war and, for the past week, the anti-government protests in Turkey all exposing his incompetence on a daily basis, these Israeli leaders take heart, no doubt in the belief that Obama's freedom to attack us has vastly diminished.
Although this interpretation of events is attractive, and on its face seems reasonable, it is wrong.
And it would be a devastating mistake for Israeli leaders to believe it.
Since he entered office, Obama has responded to every defeat by doubling down and radicalizing.
When in 2009 public sentiment against his plan to nationalize the US healthcare industry was so high that Republican Scott Brown was elected senator from Massachusetts for the sole purpose of blocking Obamacare's passage in the US Senate, Obama did not accept the public's verdict.
Instead he used a technicality to ram the hated legislation through without giving Brown and the Senate the chance to vote it down.
#1
This is a man who is most dangerous when attacked. And this is a man who is absolutely committed to his ideological agenda. We had better be ready, because if we are not, we won't know what has hit us.
#4
When Kerry was here last month he unveiled a stunning plan to bring $4 billion in investment funds to the PA. If his plan actually pans out, its champions claim it will increase the PA's GDP by a mind-numbing 50 percent in three years and drop Palestinian unemployment from 21 to 8 percent.
How about two things to ponder: 1. Come clean to the American people regarding scandals and lies to cover up the scandals and 2. Build up the U.S. economy and forget about trying to butter up our enemies. A strong U.S. makes for a better and more prosperous world. The concept is something like: "A good tide raises all ships."
#5
#4
... and just look how well throwing our taxpayer dollars into "investing" in our own economy.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/09/2013 12:50 Comments ||
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#6
If his plan actually pans out, its champions claim it will increase the PA's GDP by a mind-numbing 50 percent in three years and drop Palestinian unemployment from 21 to 8 percent.
No. The $4 billion will make 4 Palestinian leaders very wealthy.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
06/09/2013 13:27 Comments ||
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#7
So, Frozen Al, just like a smaller scale version of what the 'Stimulus' did here.
[Dawn] A FORTNIGHT or so ago, the New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... ran a long front-page piece on Pakistain Railways (PR) by its Pakistain bureau chief, Declan Walsh. That was yesterday's Burg...
Declan, a good friend and probably the best-informed foreign correspondent to have covered Pakistain, based his story on a train journey from Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. to Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... . Full of humour, sympathy, colour and detail, the account is more of a metaphor for Pakistain than a straightforward travel piece.
As somebody who has watched the downward trajectory of our national rail system for a number of years, I read Declan's account with great interest and concern. I began my civil service career in the late '60s with PR's finance department. At that time, the track from Lahore to Khanewal had been electrified and the Karachi circular train was about to be launched.
That no further electrification was undertaken, and the Karachi circular railway ran only briefly, is a sad comment on the system as well as on national priorities. Another fact to reflect on is that since independence, we have failed to add a single mile to the rail network.
Within the splendid red-brick railway headquarters' building in Lahore, one could not imagine then that the organization was at the beginning of its death spiral. Senior officers lived in large colonial houses in Mayo Gardens, with its tree-lined roads and its own electricity supply. As I rose up the ladder, I was allotted the biggest house I have ever lived in, before or since. One could swim, play tennis or golf virtually free of cost at the subsidised clubs run by the organization for its officers.
In its heyday, PR had a virtual monopoly on bulk transport and passenger traffic. I recall countless train journeys in air-conditioned comfort, with trains generally running on time, and the system working reasonably efficiently. Pretty much like the rest of the country, in fact.
It all started to go downhill under the later years of Ayub Khan when the truck lobby from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... province (then the NWFP) prevailed in persuading the government to divert resources to the road sector, and the railway's monopoly on bulk goods transport was challenged. As bureaucrats used to having businessmen beg and bribe them to make wagons available, PR's commercial officers were unable to provide the kind of flexibility the new environment demanded.
The economics of train transport is such that passenger services are usually subsidised by goods traffic. As PR's share of bulk cargo fell, passenger services began to suffer. In real terms, government investment in engines, track and wagons declined. So, too, did PR's finances. From being a profitable organization, the system is now barely surviving on subsidies.
Other countries also support their railways for a variety of reasons. They remain the most economical mode of transport, as well as the most environmentally friendly. La Belle France, for example, maintains one of the world's most efficient systems and subsidises it through national and regional budgets. India runs the world's biggest and most profitable rail network.
Apart from its systemic problems, PR has also suffered from the corruption and inefficiency endemic in our state enterprises. In my days with the railways, I noticed that even the homes of many junior officers seemed to be far more lavishly furnished and equipped than mine was. And overstaffing was chronic.
In a sense, PR's agony has been replicated across other state-owned enterprises. As long as they enjoy a monopoly, they thrive, with the consumer paying for their inefficiency and corruption. As soon as they face competition and begin bleeding red ink, the burden shifts to the taxpayer.
In a sense, PR's agony has been replicated across other state-owned enterprises. As long as they enjoy a monopoly, they thrive, with the consumer paying for their inefficiency and corruption. As soon as they face competition and begin bleeding red ink, the burden shifts to the taxpayer.
Thus, Pakistain Steel, the country's biggest industrial enterprise, did very well behind high tariff barriers. But as soon as our international commitments to free trade forced duties of imported steel down, it entered a nosedive from which it has never recovered.
As its finance director, I recall the constant sense of crisis that hung over this enterprise as we struggled to keep it going. There were long negotiations with the banks and the finance ministry for a lifeline. After I left, a series of bailouts have kept this white elephant alive. Sadly, privatisation was thwarted by the Supreme Court, and since then, billions more in handouts have been pumped in; no talk of accountability here.
The national airline, too, is in freefall. Again, its golden era was before foreign carriers were allowed to compete for traffic. Over the years, successive governments have forced their appointed CEOs to recruit party supporters. As a result, the aircraft-to-staff ratio in PIA is one of the most lopsided in the industry.
The problem this government will face is that all the three organizations mentioned here need such huge infusions of capital that privatisation is the only option available. But in all three, the unions have a stranglehold, and will make life difficult for any new owners. Downsizing is a tricky policy, and Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... will have his hands full of the political fallout. In any case, it will be interesting to see if our higher judiciary will block the sale of these loss-making enterprises, as it did with Pakistain Steel.
Tailpiece: Barely two days before the May 11 elections, Declan Walsh's visa was cancelled for unknown reasons. Considering his deep knowledge and affection for Pakistain, as reflected by nine years of reporting, this ill-considered decision is something the new government should reverse immediately.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/09/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
HT: Victory Girls blog.
We get it, Joe Citizen. You want your privacy. You want to be able to talk on the internet without everyone and their mother at the InsertAlphabetAgencyHere looking at it. You're mad about the NSA snooping. You aren't advocating a violent overthrow of the government. You're not running a domestic terrorism group (well, there are those new DHS criteria...). You're not even sending around emails about what a dismal failure President Obama's administration is (THIS hour, anyway). You just want to be able to chat with friends, conduct your financial business, and argue with your spouse without Big Daddy Gummint all up in your biz. Believe it or not, that's your right. Harry "Who Cares" Reid may blow it off and say the government's been "doing that stuff for years," but we've got a news flash for Harry: just because you've been doing it a while doesn't make it any more okay. Ask Ted Bundy...oh, wait.
Victory Girls gets it--partly because we value our privacy too. So, because we are all about free speech here--and private speech, too, now that I think about it--here's a list of ways you can circumvent the government privacy leeches. Granted, this list isn't all-inclusive, and let's face it, I'm not an uber-geek. I do, however, read a lot of uber-geek stuff, and so I'm pretty confident with the list I'm about to show you. Keep in mind that you will need to change some of your habits if you decide you really want to keep your personal stuff private. Most people are too lazy...but if you're not, here's the list from the guys over at Wired, as well as a few other nooks and crannies I find things in:
- For internet browsing, use Tor. It comes with a full bundle that you can use on any kind of Windows from XP to 8, Mac, or Linux if that's your flavor. I won't bore my political readers with the long explanation of why Tor keeps your internet browsing private, but if you want to read all about it you can check out the Wikipedia entry, or just go to the website.
- For email, use Hushmail. It's free, it's secure, and if you're done using that email, no worries. You can either delete it, or stop signing into it. It'll be gone in 2 weeks, along with all those fan emails you sent to Justin Bieber. See? You do want privacy. And more Kit Lange at Legal Insurrection lists these as well, about word for word. I'm not getting into who was first...
#4
He used terminology quite germane to the discipline. I doubt the government will go after him [openly] for fear he has constructed a trip wire, a release of very specific information or TTP's. Interestingly, he was a contractor, who would have been subject to Full Scope Polygraphs in the positions he has held.
#2
The core of the Left does not believe in capitalism, democracy or the rule law, unless the "law" is whatever they say. They hate the Constitution.
They are not good people. They are not well-meaning. They are not the loyal opposition. They hate and resent you, and they will do whatever it takes to sieze and hold power over you. They are the enemy, and they are playing for keeps.
#3
In all the years since D-Day 1945, there are only three now four occasions when the sitting President of the United States of America failed to go to the D-Day Monument that honors the soldiers killed during the Invasion.
#5
I think I prefer the approach of the current POTUS to that of Slick Willie, with his publicity flunky knocking over the flag so that BC can come along and straighten it up and shed a tear for the camera.
#11
#10 Above - agree completely. My brother and I made a bet. He said someone (in the administration) will go to jail over the IRS scandal. I said no way. Dinner at Ruth Chris in January 2017!
Posted by: Bangkok Billy ||
06/09/2013 17:55 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Dawn] A FORTNIGHT or so ago, the 
...the creepy-looking former dictator of Pakistain. Zia was an Islamic nutball who imposed his nutballery on the rest of the country with the enthusiastic assistance of the nation's religious parties, which are populated by other nutballs. He was appointed Chief of Army Staff in 1976 by Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, whom he hanged when he seized power. His time in office was a period of repression, with hundreds of thousands of political rivals, minorities, and journalists executed or tortured, including senior general officers convicted in coup-d'état plots, who would normally be above the law. As part of his alliance with the religious parties, his government helped run the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan, providing safe havens, American equipiment, Saudi money, and Pak handlers to selected mujaheddin. Zia died along with several of his top generals and admirals and the then United States Ambassador to Pakistain Arnold Lewis Raphel when he was assassinated in a suspicious air crash near Bahawalpur in 1988...
Nawaz Sharif
