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Facebook Talk: Meritocracy vs. Socialism

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woman-obama-phoneIt’s been an interesting day. Last night, just before bed I was cruising blogs and came across a reposted article about how much more difficult it is to work your way through college these days, if no other reason than that college is so much more expensive now than in the past. There was also an assertion that greedy baby boomers (especially the wealthy) don’t subsidize education as it was done in the past. Based on the comments already left by two other respondents (names changed) to the posting, I wrote:

@Amy . Who gets to decide what’s fair?

@Carol . I’m not retired. I probably will never retire. My choice. And, I agree with your comments about the Boomers. After 40 years of Democratic control of the House, voted in by the Boomers, I couldn’t wait for the Republicans to take over. What a joke they have turned out to be.

All of it goes to show why the Founding Fathers had no intention of having but a very few (enumerated) items controlled by the federal government. People make mistakes. Generations of people make generational mistakes and the governments of those people are nothing more than a reflection of those voters. That being said, like minded people should be able to gather together in one state or another and live the way they choose. Californians should not set the agenda for residents of Colorado. Floridians should not have an influence, let alone a vote, on how people should live in Washington State. If you don’t like the mindset of your neighbors, then move to a place that caters to people who think as you think. Therefore, the federal government should not be so big, so bloated and so powerful that they are able to socially engineer us into being, doing and having the exact same thing no matter where you live in the country. That plan has never worked anywhere in the history of the world! And, it’s been tried countless times.

So yeah, I get a little cranky when I hear about anyone whining about what somebody else got and how they didn’t get theirs. If you don’t like what you’re getting from those who control your taxes, your educational opportunities, your jobs, your health care, your environment, your fuel/energy prices and everything else in your life, then DUMP ALL FEDERAL PROGRAMS, SPENDING AND CONTROL beyond the very few things enumerated in the Constitution and start gathering as like minded people in one corner of the country or the other under a state, county and municipal system that reflects the mindset of you and those with whom you have chosen to associate. But don’t keep voting for the same idiots or their protégés who do nothing more than perpetuate the “status quo”.

By the way, if you are not willing to do any of the above until someone else does it for you or until someone else funds it or until someone else, through federal support, guarantees food, housing, health care, day care, transportation or a job with a guaranteed salary that you can’t get fired from for lack of performance, then you should probably move to some other country where those things are guaranteed. Clearly you lack the American Spirit of self reliance, hard work, courage, risk, reward, pioneering and problem solving.

A friend of mine has an answering machine message that says, ” If you’re part of the problem, hang up and don’t call back. If you’re part of the solution, leave a message.”  That seems like an appropriate sign off here.

Carols responded: “Amen to states rights”

Amy responded (unedited) :

“America definitely wasn’t founded on self reliance, courage, risk, and reward etc.. Lets not forget all of the slaves, natives, women and immigrants who were treated like shit (irish, jews, italians, japanese, chinese, etc) who actually did the leg work. America was built on their blood sweat and tears and our forefathers just reaped the benefit because they were aristocratic christian land owning white males… History is a hell of an indicator of present behavior in politicians. There are so many other factors at play in determining the haves and have nots in this country and most of isn’t because of meritocracy thats a myth and an illusion.  See the glass ceiling and the 20% rule etc etc”

My first thought was, “Boy oh boy is the country in big trouble”. However, my immediate quip was, “Where did you go to school?”, followed by:

“You, making a list of the atrocities, injustices and bigotries of the past and trying to pass that off as a fair representation of the history of this country is like me making a list of all of yesterdays driving infractions and concluding that ALL drivers broke the law yesterday. Though undoubtedly every driving law on the books was broken yesterday, the vast majority of drivers didn’t break any law. In fact, not even all those who did violate traffic law yesterday, break the law everyday. Drill down a little further and you will discover that not even all of those caught speeding (for example), would be found guilty of such in court, for the simple reason that some of the speeding took place under the extraordinary circumstances of an emergency. It’s called the greater good defense and considered a justifiable action.

Despite what you’re being taught in our schools these days, this is a great country with great opportunity for ANYONE who is willing to pay the price. Granted, it is becoming more and more difficult due to more and more taxation and regulation. But far more injurious to your future than that, is what you apparently believe about the past. Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t, or that it’s too late or that you’re not the right kind, color, gender or creed to make your dreams come true. Those who want you to believe such things are trying to convince you of something that will disadvantage you, usually for their own benefit. Don’t let them. Don’t believe for a minute that the prosperity of your future will be derived from the redistribution of someone else’s accumulation. Politicians who want you to give them the power to take from others so that they can give to you will eventually take it all for themselves and leave you with even less than you had before. Even a cursory review of history with the slightest degree intellectual integrity will evidence that.

One more thing; I’m tempted to encourage you look at the glass of history as half full instead of half empty. But that would be dishonest. The truth is that compared to today, the glass of history is 94% full. It is accurate to say that there were indeed injustices of all kinds back in the day. But by any “fair” observation, there was more good than bad, more good actors than bad actors in nearly every case. But remember also that there were different standards. It could be said that their glasses held a quart, our glasses hold a liter. If you pour 100% of their quart into our liter it will only fill our container up to 94% full. In other words, we have different standards today than did our ancestors. Even their best would fall short by todays expectations. The real question is, what is our capacity? How close are we coming to completely filling our glass of achievement given our greater opportunities and capacity? Don’t let anyone make the false comparison of historical vs. present day (using a different standard) and convince you that you got shorted and now somebody owes you. Self reliance and faith in God is what made this country great, not government/institutional reliance. Don’t trust anyone who tells you different.”

 

Dependence Day – The Return of King George

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With the level of the federal deficit approaching $17,000,000,000 (trillions), the interest on which costs Americans the first $1,300,000,000 (billion) they make every day, and the recent explosion of federal power over the citizens and the states as handed to U.S. socialists by the Supreme Court and the prolific pen of the Executive Order, the independence from government rule and tyranny sought by our Founders is all but neutralized. We and our children are indebted and imprisoned by design of a leftist attack on our country, and an Orwellian federal government spies on patriotic citizens and treats them like enemies while Islamic terrorists are welcomed into the White House.

A polarization has occurred in the nation—as the left has chipped away at personal liberty and individual sovereignty over the past several decades, those who cherish freedom have finally begun to become more vocal in their resistance. But is it too little, too late?

The left has made tremendous inroads in their quest to replace King George with its own elitist panels, commissions and czars, and within the past year its inches of ground winning have become feet.

. . . even an overtaxed economy like ours has rendered our own 99% the 1% of the world.

In the name of laborer parity and elevating the ethnically or socially disadvantaged, the socialists and communists of the past century have robbed the people of the world of their birthright, established by the labor and sacrifice of their 18th and19th Century Forbearers. In the name of pretended “fairness” leftist forces have lowered the wealth and opportunities of everyone rather than elevate the status of the less fortunate.

Look at any country where socialism and liberalism have penetrated the veil of liberty. Not one of them has improved the quality of life of their working people.

Where do we find the bottom half of earners in America? With all of the talk of the 1% and the 99% in this country, and the mindless chants of brain-dead occupiers in the streets, even an overtaxed economy like ours has rendered our own 99% the 1% of the world. Nearly all of our poor live in good housing, have clean water and food aplenty (many suffer from obesity), a computer of some kind, and cell phones and cable television. They live better than the wealthy of many of the earth’s nations.

Additionally, the tremendous generosity and military might of Americans has been the salvation of billions of people around the world, whose leftist economies have left them with nothing but squalor, want and exposure to dictators and war lords (usually leftists).

big_brother_watchingWe hear of the Tea Party these days, and the name is spoken with disdain by over half of the country, and almost all of the mainstream media. Does any of them actually recall where the term originated? Do they remember how an oppressive monarch imposed taxes that were hard to bear and intruded into the personal liberties of a hardworking people, and that those people finally decided that they would take no more and rose up in rebellion, starting with throwing British tea into the harbor?

No, sadly enough, most young adults these days are the products of a dumbing-down campaign launched by the left and its educational arm, the National Education Association. They have mush for brains and their education consists of nothing more than pop culture and global warming propaganda.

We have nearly come full circle. We have hundreds of millions dependent on government and its handouts, a White House dedicated to the overthrow of the Constitution, and a Supreme Court that has decreed that the people are to be taxed even for services they DO NOT purchase at the government’s command.

King George is back, liberty has been strangled to near enslavement, and this time it will take more than a few muskets to rid us of the burgeoning oppression. America has not seen such dark times since the Civil War. I say the Civil War, because in all other wars the enemy was external. If we fail to immediately change our course, we will be irretrievably carried back under the oppression of dictatorship. We invite all liberty loving Americans to join the revolution, and to regain our independence from oppressive, centralized government.

PUBLIUS

Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood Leader Arrested

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Muslim_Leader_ArrestedEgyptian security officials said Thursday that they have arrested the Muslim Brotherhood’s leader, after the military ousted Brotherhood-aligned President Mohammed Morsi and replaced him with the supreme justice of the Constitutional Court.

The officials said Mohammed Badie was arrested Wednesday night in a resort village in Marsa Matrouh, a Mediterranean coastal city west of Cairo not far from the Libyan border. He had been staying in a villa owned by a businessman with Brotherhood links.

The officials spoke Thursday on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.

He was flown to Cairo on a military helicopter, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

The prosecutor’s office, a day after the overthrow, ordered Badie’s arrest, and his deputy Khairat el-Shater, sources told Reuters. The two were reportedly wanted for inciting the killing of protesters in front of the Brotherhood’s headquarters in Cairo’s southern neighborhood called Mokattam, the AFP reported.

“This is the first time in the history of the Brotherhood that it is the people and not the regime that are acting against the movement”- Ibrahim al-Hudaibi, a prominent former member of the group

Al Ahram, a major state newspaper, reported that eight protesters were killed while attacking the headquarters, The New York Times reported.

Publicly, the Brotherhood urged members to avoid violence during the most recent upheaval.

In addition to the two high-ranking leaders, Al-Ahram reported that arrest warrants were issued for 300 other members of the Brotherhood, Reuters reported.

Badie and el-Shater were widely believed by the opposition to be the real power in Egypt during Morsi’s tenure. As of Wednesday night, Badie was last known to be holed up at a tourist resort on the Mediterranean coast near the Libyan border, with security forces surrounding the building.

The leader of the Brotherhood’s political arm — Freedom and Justice Party — and another of Badie’s deputies have been detained.

The arrests and warrants against Brotherhood leaders signal a crackdown by the military against Islamists who have dominated the political scene in Egypt since the ouster in 2011 of autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

Embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told a state-run newspaper that Morsi’s fall means the end of “political Islam.”

The Brotherhood’s television station, Misr 25, has been taken off the air along with several TV networks run by Islamists. Morsi’s critics have long accused the stations of sowing divisions among Egyptians and inciting against secularists, liberals, Christians and Shiite Muslims with their hard-line rhetoric.

Adi Mansour, Egypt’s interim leader, made overtures to the Brotherhood in his inauguration.

“The Muslim Brotherhood are part of this people and are invited to participate in building the nation as nobody will be excluded, and if they respond to the invitation, they will be welcomed,” he said, according to Reuters.

Still, Morsi’s ouster is seen by many as a blow to the Brotherhood’s push for influence in North Africa just two years after the fall of Mubarak. The Wall Street Journal reports that the change of tides may push some Islamists to take a pass on democracy and turn to violence.

The Brotherhood has hemorrhaged support. Under Brotherhood rule, crime has spiked, the economy has tanked and the country’s politics have grown dangerously polarized, the Journal’s report said. The popular swell of discontent with the Brotherhood and the movement’s governing shortcomings has been acknowledged even by the movement’s most defiant leaders.

“This is the first time in the history of the Brotherhood that it is the people and not the regime that are acting against the movement,” said Ibrahim al-Hudaibi, a prominent former member of the group, told the paper.

Morsi was ousted in what was described by the presidential palace as a “complete military coup.” The White House has not labeled Morsi ouster a coup. Doing so would have U.S. aid implications.

Ahmed Aref, a spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood party, told Reuters both Morsi and an aide were being held but he didn’t know their location. A security official said they were at a military intelligence facility, Reuters reported.

Morsi said on his presidential Facebook page that the military’s action “presents a military coup and it is unacceptable.”

At least 14 people were killed in clashes between Morsi’s supporters and opponents following the announcement, Reuters said, citing the state news agency MENA. Egyptian troops, including commandos in full combat gear, were deployed across much of Cairo, including at key facilities, on bridges over the Nile River and at major intersections

Eight of the dead were reported to be in the northern city of Marsa Matrouh, with three killed and at least 50 wounded in Alexandria. Another three were killed in the southern city of Minya.

A U.S. official said nonessential diplomats and embassy families had been ordered to leave Egypt amid the unrest. The State Department issued a warning urging U.S. citizens in the country to leave.

FoxNews.com / The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Obama Delays ObamaCare Until After Elections

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obama_irsPresident Obama’s decision to push back key provisions of his signature healthcare law amid growing concerns it isn’t ready for prime time could take a key issue away from Republicans in next year’s midterm elections.

The announcement Tuesday night that the mandate for many small businesses to provide health insurance to employees will be delayed by one year was hailed by business leaders and seemed to acknowledge Republican claims the plan would hurt – or at least confuse – business. But it also likely undercuts Republican plans to make ObamaCare the centerpiece of their midterm elections strategy.

Democrats are defending 21 Senate seats to the Republicans’ 14. The GOP had already started to excoriate Senate Democrats who had voted for the health law in 2009. And the House has voted more than 35 times since taking control of the chamber in 2011 to repeal or at least defund all or parts of ObamaCare, most recently in May.

“The president’s health care law is already raising costs and costing jobs,” House Speaker John Boehner said. “This announcement means even the Obama administration knows the ‘train wreck’ will only get worse. … And it underscores the need to repeal the law and replace it with effective, patient-centered reforms.”

The announcement was made late Tuesday by the Treasury Department, at the beginning of the holiday week while Congress was on recess. It came amid reports that the administration is running into roadblocks as it prepares to implement ObamaCare.

The change in the employer mandate also is arguably the most significant concession the administration has made to date to critics of the plan.

“We have heard concerns about the complexity of the requirements and the need for more time to implement them effectively,” Treasury Assistant Secretary Mark Mazur said in a blog post. “We have listened to your feedback and we are taking action.”

Randy Johnson, senior vice president of Labor, Immigration, and Employee Benefits at the Chamber of Commerce, told Fox News the administration’s decision shows it has “finally recognized the obvious.”

“Employers need more time and clarification of the rules of the road before implementing the employer mandate,” he said. “We will continue to work to alleviate this and other problems with ObamaCare.”

Neil Trautwein, a vice president of the National Retail Federation, said: “We commend the administration’s wise move.”

He also said the change “will provide employers and businesses more time to update their health care coverage without threat of arbitrary punishment.”

But the delay could also undermine the law’s main goal of covering the nearly 50 million Americans without health insurance. Already, Republican resistance in the states will deny access to a planned Medicaid expansion — at least for next year — to millions of low-income people.

Under the health law, companies with 50 or more workers must provide affordable coverage to their full-time employees or risk a series of escalating tax penalties if just one worker ends up getting government-subsidized insurance. Originally, that requirement was supposed to take effect Jan. 1. It will now be delayed to 2015.

Most medium-sized and large businesses already offer health insurance and the requirement was expected to have the biggest consequences for major chain hotels, restaurants and retail stores that employ many low-wage workers. Some had threatened to cut workers’ hours, and others said they were putting off hiring.

Business groups complained since the law passed that the provision was too complicated. For instance, the law created a new definition of full-time workers, those putting in 30 hours or more. It also included two separate requirements, one to provide coverage and another that coverage be deemed “affordable” under the law. Violations of either one exposed employers to fines. But such complaints until now seemed to be going unheeded.

There is no coverage mandate — or penalty — for smaller businesses. Also, for businesses of any size, there is no penalty if their workers are poor enough to be eligible for Medicaid.

The delay in the employer requirement does not affect the law’s requirement that individuals carry health insurance starting next year or face fines. That so-called individual mandate was challenged all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled last year that the individual requirement was constitutional, since the penalty would be collected by the Internal Revenue Service and amounted to a tax.

Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., a critic of the law, seized on the delay as a “clear admission” that the law is “unaffordable, unworkable and unpopular,” but conceded delaying implementation could help Democrats.

“It’s also a cynical political ploy to delay the coming train wreck associated with ObamaCare until after the 2014 elections,” he said.

FoxNews.com

GOP Using Obama’s ‘War on Coal’ to Tarnish Dems Ahead of Elections

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coal_warFoes of President Obama’s alleged “war on coal” climate plan are hoping to use the combustible issue to tarnish Democrats in the next round of elections.

The political backlash started almost immediately after the president announced last week he’s ordering the EPA to draft new rules to limit emissions at coal-fired power plants.

In Virginia, it didn’t take long for Republican gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli to label the plan the “Obama-Biden-McAuliffe war on coal,” in his race for governor against former Democratic Party chairman Terry McAuliffe.

The Cuccinelli campaign launched a coal-themed online ad blitz last week, as both candidates charge into the November 2013 election.

Other politicos already are looking down the calendar to 2014 and beyond.

On the national level, the risk for Democrats is inherent in the fact that the road to the White House in 2016 goes through several swing states that are also top 10 coal-producing states — namely, Pennsylvania and Ohio. Republicans, and groups representing the coal industry, could make life difficult for any candidate who gets too close to regulations deemed harmful to the coal industry.

Obama tried to get on offense over the weekend, saying in his radio address that voters should demand Congress get behind a climate plan.

“Remind everyone who represents you … that sheltering future generations against the ravages of climate change is a prerequisite for your vote,” Obama said.

The White House put out a detailed infographic on rising temperatures and the cost of natural disasters, which his plan supposedly would curb.

And Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz reportedly said Sunday that the government is not waging a “war on coal.”

According to Reuters, Moniz said Obama “expects fossil fuels, and coal specifically, to remain a significant contributor for some time.” He said the administration wants to encourage higher efficiency plants.

But those in the industry say the administration is moving too fast, and should give time to develop clean-coal technology that’s already in existence.

Luke Popovich, spokesman for the National Mining Association, told FoxNews.com his group was not launching any paid advertising on the issue at this point, but is in “constant contact” with governors and lawmakers in the states most affected by coal generation and use.

Popovich did not describe the plan as a “war on coal,” saying his group is “trying to find solutions here.”

“We hope that is not the case. It certainly would not make any sense given a lingering recession for most Americans,” he said.

He said the NMA wants to carve out a “separate and distinct standard” for clean-coal technologies, and will weigh-in during the EPA’s regulatory comment period.

According to Politico, the EPA has already sent a draft regulation on emissions for future power plants to the White House. The other draft rule, the more sweeping measure for existing plants, is still in process.

Democrats in coal country were visibly hesitant to get behind Obama’s plan. Some were outright hostile.

West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, in an interview last week with Fox News, called the president’s plan a “war on America.”

“It’s just ridiculous. … I should not have to be sitting here as a U.S. senator, fighting my own president and fighting my own government,” he told Fox News. “I will continue to reach out, but I need a partner here. I don’t need an adversary.”

Manchin’s colleague, Democratic Sen. Jay Rockefeller, was more reserved, saying the president needs to provide more information about how miners would be affected.

But any Democrat who remained silent on the issue was faced with the threat of Republican taunting.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee last week accused Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes — who on Monday announced she would challenge Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell for his Senate seat — of embracing Obama’s “radical agenda.”

“Over the past two days, Grimes’ silence makes clear that Kentuckians simply can’t count on her to stand up against her own party to protect them,” the NRSC said in a statement.

Democrats have two major political risks to weigh in considering whether to get behind the new climate agenda. First is the thousands of jobs at stake in the coal industry. According to the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), EPA regulations have played a role in the closure of nearly 290 coal plants so far this year. Second is electricity rates.

In Ohio, Republican Sen. Rob Portman framed the issue in those terms, calling the Obama plan an “effort to raise electricity prices in Ohio.”

“President Obama’s EPA overreach has already cost jobs in Ohio. At least eight coal-fired power plants in Ohio are set to close due in large part to regulatory mandates put in place by the EPA,” he said in a statement, noting more than 80 percent of electricity in the state comes from coal generation and claiming the new rules could raise those costs.

“Coal’s part of the reason that we enjoy the level of economic prosperity we do in the nation today,” Kevin Crutchfield, CEO of coal company Alpha Natural Resources, told Fox News.

FoxNews.com

Edward Snowden Seeking Asylum in Russia

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edward.snowdenFollowing a week of hide-and-seek in the international “transit zone” of the Moscow airport, NSA leaker Edward Snowden is reported to be seeking political asylum in Russia.

The Russian government had been distancing itself from Snowden over the past week, as has the government of Ecuador, locations where Snowden had reportedly been trying to relocate.

WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange has claimed to be assisting Snowden find a more permanent “home” to ride out the spying charges filed against him by the US Department of Justice.

Whether Snowden is a hero whistle-blower or a traitor is much in the eye of the beholder at this point, with only a small portion of the leaked information having come to light. Indeed, candidate Barack Obama praised government whistle-blowers:

Often the best source of information about waste, fraud, and abuse in government is an existing government employee committed to public integrity and willing to speak out . . . [I] will strengthen whistle-blower laws to protect federal workers who expose waste, fraud, and abuse of authority in government. Barack Obama

Of course, it is Barack Obama whose government has been fingered by the former NSA spy as being the most abusive wielder of power through intrusive spying on citizens and foreign governments in the history of the US.

PUBLIUS

Euro Allies Fume Over NSA Claim

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Allegations of NSA bugging stir tension with European allies

obama_nsaEmerging allegations that America’s National Security Agency bugged and hacked European Union offices stoked tension Sunday between U.S. and European officials, with German prosecutors announcing they are probing the claims.

The allegations were carried in a report by the German magazine Der Spiegel. They are the latest claims to surface regarding NSA surveillance activity, as on-the-lam leaker Edward Snowden feeds a series of sensitive documents to the media. Der Spiegel did not specifically say how it obtained the information.

European Parliament President Martin Schulz, in response, demanded a clarification from the NSA about the alleged program.

“I am deeply worried and shocked about the allegations of U.S. authorities spying on EU offices,” Schulz said in a statement, according to The Wall Street Journal. “If the allegations prove to be true, it would be an extremely serious matter which will have a severe impact on EU-U.S. relations.”

German federal prosecutors also said they are looking into the reports. The Federal Prosecutors’ Office said in a statement Sunday that it was probing the claims so as to “achieve a reliable factual basis” before considering whether a formal investigation was warranted.

It also said private citizens were likely to file criminal complaints on the matter.

A representative with the NSA referred questions on the matter to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which has not yet commented on the report.

But Michael Hayden, the former director of both the NSA and CIA, said Sunday that European officials should look in the mirror before criticizing the U.S.

“Any European who wants to go out and rend their garments with regard to international espionage should look first and find out what their own governments are doing,” he said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

Hayden noted he’s been out of the agency for years and said he didn’t know the accuracy of the Der Spiegel report, nor could he confirm or deny it if he did.

But he said “the United States does conduct espionage,” and that the Fourth Amendment right to privacy “is not an international treaty.”

Der Spiegel reported that the NSA appears to have installed bugs in an EU building in Washington, D.C., as well as infiltrated their computer network. According to the report, this let U.S. officials monitor discussions and emails.

U.S. officials have warned that the string of NSA leaks are damaging to national security.

Snowden is believed to still be at the Moscow airport. Russian officials so far have refused to expel him to the U.S., claiming he is in a transit zone and not technically in their hands.

Meanwhile, Vice President Biden on Friday called Ecuador’s president to urge the country to reject a request by Snowden for asylum in that country.

FoxNews.com / The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Charges Dismissed Against Student Who Refused to Remove NRA Shirt

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NRAThe West Virginia eighth-grader arrested after refusing a teacher’s demand he remove a National Rifle Association T-shirt he wore to school won’t face criminal charges after all.

Jared Marcum, 14, was charged with obstruction following the April 18 incident after police who were called to Logan Middle School school said he refused to stop talking. The case generated national headlines, as Marcum’s family and attorney, Ben White, claimed the demand that he remove the NRA shirt violated his right to freedom of speech. On Thursday, Logan County Circuit Judge Eric O’Briant signed an order dismissing the charge.

“It should have come sooner but it’s done and we don’t have to have that concern anymore about him having a criminal record.”- Allen Lardieri, Jared Marcum’s father

Marcum’s mother, Tanya Lardieri, told WOWK that she was overcome with emotion after signing a dismissal order relating to the charge. The boy’s father, Allen Lardieri, said the couple is just glad Eric’s legal troubles are behind him.

“It should have come sooner but it’s done and we don’t have to have that concern anymore about him having a criminal record,” Allen Lardieri told WOWK. “I’m just glad that it’s over. His mother is glad it’s over.”

After he was charged, Marcum faced up to a year in jail and a $500 fine. Although the charge related to the boy’s behavior after the incident began, White said the school’s unreasonable demand that he take off the shirt caused the situation to get out of control.

“We at this point believe that Jared acted as mature as a 14-year-old child can act with the pressure that was put on him,” White told The Associated Press.

The school’s dress code gives wide enforcement discretion to educators.

“If in the judgment of the administration, a student is dressed inappropriately, the student will be required to change clothes or cover up inappropriate clothing before returning to classes,” the code reads.

After Marcum was arrested, students throughout Logan County wore similar NRA shirts in a show of solidarity. And on Monday, the boy was summoned back to court as prosecutors sought to have a gag order imposed on him and his family. They claimed Jared and his father talking to the press about the case was not in the boy’s interest, a rationale his own attorney rejected.

“We were here because the prosecution filed a motion for a gag order,” White said on Monday. “My opinion is because, seemingly, they want to take it out of the court of public opinion.”

But on Thursday, after reviewing statements from the arresting officer and the school’s principal, White said he and a prosecutor agreed that creating a criminal record for Marcum wasn’t a good idea.

“I didn’t think it would go this far because, honestly, I don’t see a problem with [the shirt],” Jared Marcum told WOWK in April. “There shouldn’t be a problem with this.”

FoxNews.com / The Associated Press contributed to this report.

IRS Official Waived Fifth

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House panel finds IRS official waived Fifth Amendment right, can be forced to testify in targeting probe

Lerner_IRS_FifthA House Republican-led committee approved a resolution Friday declaring that high-ranking IRS official Lois Lerner waived her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination by delivering a statement before the committee in May.

Lerner used to oversee the IRS division that targeted groups for additional scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status. At a May 22 hearing, she invoked her right not to answer lawmakers’ questions after declaring in an opening statement that she had done nothing wrong.

Members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee voted along party lines Friday morning, with 22 Republicans saying she waived the Fifth and 17 Democrats arguing she did not. Lerner remains under subpoena, and the committee believes it could bring the long-time IRS official back and compel her to testify.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the committee, said at the opening of Friday’s meeting that “I believe Lois Lerner waived her Fifth Amendment privileges.”

“She did so when she delivered an opening statement,” Issa said.

Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., reiterated Issa’s argument, delivering a fiery speech about Lerner’s attempt to protect herself under the Fifth.

Gowdy said Lerner made nine separate assertions, with the advice of counsel, and then authenticated a document.

“That’s not how the Fifth Amendment works,” Gowdy said. “You’re not allowed to just say your side of the story … She could have sat there and said nothing.”

Democrats, meanwhile, like Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., challenged Gowdy’s argument, calling attempts to block Lerner’s invoking of the Fifth Amendment “an egregious abuse of power that tramples the Constitution and serves no valid legislative purpose.”

Connolly said that “the majority has brought us to a point where we risk allowing this committee to be transformed into a Star Chamber proceeding that establishes future Legislative Branch precedent where any chairman — whether a Democrat or a Republican — is free to compel an American invoking their constitutional right against self-incrimination to physically appear before the Committee for no other reason than to be pilloried, delayed, embarrassed, and burdened into unknowingly, unintentionally, and ironically, forfeiting the very sacred constitutional right that is intended to protect every American against forced self-incrimination by the government.”

“You may make a small-term political gain,” Connolly warned Republicans, but “at a long-term political cost.”

The committee is scheduled to vote Friday on whether Lerner waived her Fifth Amendment right not to answer questions by making an opening statement.

Legal scholars have differed in their views on the committee’s case against Lerner, who the IRS has placed on administrative leave.

Lerner’s lawyer, William Taylor, said he disagreed with the committee’s claim.

“There was nothing voluntary about her statement,” he said in a statement. “She had informed (the) committee that she would invoke and requested to be excused and (the) committee ordered her to appear and invoke her rights in public.

“It went so far as to serve a subpoena on her to assure that she would be compelled to attend, unlike other witnesses who appeared voluntarily.  In any event, protesting your innocence and invoking the right not to answer questions, which is what she did, is not a waiver.”

FoxNews.com / Fox News’ Chad Pergram, Cristina Corbin and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Another Senior IRS Official Pleads the Fifth Before Congress

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irs_pleads_5thFor the second time in as many months, a senior IRS manager on Wednesday invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self incrimination, fueling perceptions of an agency in  crisis.

Greg Roseman, a Deputy IRS Director, spearheaded the awarding of the IRS’s  largest contract in history to a company owned by a close friend of his, an action that is prohibited under government contracting regulations.

The company is Strong Castle, Inc., owned by Braulio Castillo. Castillo won several contracts totaling almost $500 million for IRS IT services in part on the basis of his friendship  with Roseman and by qualifying for two minority programs that allow disadvantaged applicants a better chance of winning lucrative government contracts.

Castillo qualified for one minority set-aside program by setting up his business in a disadvantaged area of northeast Washington D.C. The Small Business Administration program requires applicants to hire from within the economically disadvantaged community, but a House Oversight Committee report found that Castillo manipulated that requirement by hiring students from Catholic University. The school’s campus lies within the designated boundary, but its students are, on balance, far from disadvantaged.

He won entrance into another minority set-aside program run by the Veterans Administration that gives disabled vets certain advantages in federal contracting. His disability? An ankle twisted during football at the US Military Academy Prep School 27 years ago.

That prompted  a sarcastic reaction at Wednesday’s House Oversight Committee hearing from a double amputee, Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq war vet. “I’m so glad that you would be willing to play football in prep school again to protect this great country. Shame on you, Mr. Castillo, shame on you,” she said.

As evidence of their close friendship, the committee published text messages between  Roseman and Castillo. The two men apparently found kinship in using homophobic slurs. One exchange reads, “Paging Dr. Faggot.”  The response reads, “Queerbait. How come u haven’t called back? Ain’t got all day. Lol.”

Roseman is still employed by the IRS. That fact prompted a testy exchange between Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., and Beth Tucker, the IRS’s Deputy Commissioner for Operations Support.

“Can you issue a statement by five o’clock today as to how someone who used this language in their official capacity as a government employee is still employed and drawing a paycheck?” Gowdy asked. “We are having discussions with our general counsel,” Tucker responded.

On Friday, there will be more IRS focus on the Hill. The committee will vote whether it believes Lois Lerner waived her Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination when she invoked that right, then abruptly proclaimed her innocence. It was a maneuver that some on the panel say amounted to waiving the right.

Obama Welcomes Islamic Scholar With Terrorist Ties Into White House

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Bin_BayyahA Muslim scholar whose group supports Hamas, who has urged the U.N. to criminalize blasphemy and who is the deputy of an Egyptian cleric banned from the U.S. over his radical statements was able to secure a visit at the White House earlier this month.

A report from The Investigative Project on Terrorism uncovered a statement on the website of Sheikh Abdullah Bin Bayyah claiming he met June 13 with Obama administration officials in Washington.

Bin Bayyah is vice president of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, a group founded by Egyptian cleric Yusuf Qaradawi — a Muslim Brotherhood leader who has called for the death of Jews and Americans and himself is banned from visiting the U.S.

While Bin Bayyah secured a visit, he and his group also have a history of questionable positions, IPT reports.

A 2009 fatwa from the group barred “all forms of normalization” with Israel. Bin Bayyah also got behind a campaign to pressure the U.N. to pass a resolution criminalizing blasphemy. IPT also found Bin Bayyah was vice president at the organization when they issued a 2004 fatwa saying that resisting U.S. troops in Iraq is a “duty” for Muslims — effectively allowing the killing of Americans.

On his website, as first reported by IPT, Bin Bayyah said the Obama administration requested the meeting.

He quoted National Security Council official Gayle Smith as saying: “We asked for this meeting to learn from you and we need to be looking for new mechanisms to communicate with you and the Association of Muslim Scholars.”

The post reportedly claimed he had met with Smith; Rashad Hussain, U.S. envoy to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation; and the national security adviser, among others.

According to the IPT report, the reference to meeting with the national security adviser was later deleted.

IPT reported that Bin Bayyah was lobbying the White House to do more to help the Syrian opposition.

FoxNews.com

Supreme Court Sides with Gay Marriage

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gay_domaIn a big day for gay-rights advocates, the Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down a federal provision denying benefits to legally married gay couples and issued a separate ruling that paves the way for same-sex marriages to resume in California.

Cheers erupted on the steps of the high court, as the rulings were handed down. The latter decision did not speak to the constitutionality of gay marriage bans in California, or in the country as a whole. The court avoided a broad ruling, and rather, determined that the defenders of California’s Proposition 8 ban on gay marriage did not have the standing to appeal lower court rulings against the ban.

As a result, California is likely to allow same-sex marriages to resume in a matter of weeks.

The more sweeping decision came in relation to the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which the court said was unconstitutional and effectively gutted by ruling against a provision that denied benefits to legally married gay couples.

The 5-4 ruling — a major victory for gay-rights advocates — means those same-sex couples would be eligible for federal benefits.

Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the majority opinion.

“DOMA divests married same-sex couples of the duties and responsibilities that are an essential part of married life and that they in most cases would be honored to accept were DOMA not in force,” he wrote.

Kennedy wrote that the law “places same-sex couples in an unstable position of being in a second-tier marriage.”

The ruling prompted tension among the divided court. Multiple dissenting opinions were filed. Justice Antonin Scalia, reading from his dissent, said the components of the majority’s ruling are “wrong.”

“The error in both springs from the same diseased root: an exalted notion of the role of this Court in American democratic society,” he said.

Social conservatives were similarly disappointed.

“They are rejecting the truth. It’s a sad day,” said Frank Page, president of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee. “Christians have to live in the world in which we live. We will adapt and adjust to the realities of the law change. At the same time we will continue to preach, declare, and live the truth that our God does not get involved in swing votes and cultural change when there is a biblical principle at stake.”

But David Boies, attorney for the plaintiffs in the Prop 8 case, hailed both rulings as a step toward “true equality.” He said that while the California case was not ruled on the merits, the DOMA ruling demonstrates that when the issue of gay marriage returns to the high court, “marriage equality will be the law throughout this land.”

The provision in question defined marriage as between a man and woman and in doing so prevented married gay couples from receiving a range of tax, health and retirement benefits that are generally available to married people.

Same-sex marriage has been adopted by 12 states and the District of Columbia. Another 18,000 couples were married in California during a brief period when same-sex unions were legal there.

“Under DOMA, same-sex married couples have their lives burdened, by reason of government decree, in visible and public ways,” Kennedy said.

“DOMA’s principal effect is to identify a subset of state-sanctioned marriages and make them unequal,” he said.

He was joined by the court’s four liberal justices.

Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas dissented.

Scalia said the court should not have decided the case.

FoxNews.com / The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Did FBI Probe Result in Fiery Crash?

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Michael_HastingsMere hours before the fiery car crash that took his life, journalist Michael Hastings sent an email to friends and colleagues urging them to get legal counsel if they were approached by federal authorities.

“Hey [redacted] the Feds are interviewing my ‘close friends and associates,'” read the message dated June 17 at 12:56 p.m. from Hastings to editors at the website BuzzFeed, where he worked.

“Perhaps if the authorities arrive ‘BuzzFeed GQ’, er HQ, may be wise to immediately request legal counsel before any conversations or interviews about our news-gathering practices or related journalism issues.”

Hastings added that he was onto a big story and that he would, “need to go off the radat [radar] for a bit,” according to KTLA in Los Angeles.

Fifteen hours later, in the early morning of June 18, Hastings was driving a Mercedes C250 at a high speed when he lost control in Los Angeles’ Hancock Park neighborhood, causing the car to fishtail and crash into a palm tree. The impact caused the car to burst into flames, trapping the 33-year-old inside.

Conspiracy theories surrounding Hastings’ death began to circulate almost immediately.

On Twitter and several sites across the web, speculation was rampant that the death of Hastings — whose 2010 article for Rolling Stone led to the resignation of U.S. Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, then head of the U.S. operation in Afghanistan — was no accident.

Also Friday, WikiLeaks released two messages on Twitter that added fuel to the fire.

“Michael Hastings’ death has a very serious non-public complication. We will have more details later,” said the first. Two hours later, WikiLeaks tweeted more specific information.

“Michael Hastings contacted WikiLeaks lawyer Jennifer Robinson just a few hours before he died, saying that the FBI was investigating him,” the second message read.

It was speculated by others that Hastings was working on a story about Drone Surveillance in the U.S.

LAPD officials said on Friday that no foul play was suspected in the fatal accident, although that did little to quell theories about his death.

Investigators are trying to determine whether there was a mechanical problem with the car, according to the Los Angeles Times. The car burst into flames after hitting a tree in the one-car accident at 4:20 a.m. Law enforcement sources said the car was believed to have been traveling at a high rate of speed.

FoxNews.com

Supreme Court Strikes Down Key Part of Voting Rights Act

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Supreme-CourtIn a major ruling, the Supreme Court on Tuesday voided a provision of the Voting Rights Act that determines which state and local governments have to seek federal permission to change their voting laws.

The 1960s-era provision largely singled out states and districts in the South — those with a history of discrimination — for special screening by the federal government over changes to their laws. But the court ruled 5-4 that the formula determining which states are affected is unconstitutional, and said Congress could try to draft a new provision.

The justices said that the law Congress most recently renewed in 2006 relies on 40-year-old data that does not reflect racial progress and changes in U.S. society.

“In 2006, the Act was reauthorized for an additional 25 years, but the coverage formula was not changed. Coverage still turned on whether a jurisdiction had a voting test in the 1960s or1970s, and had low voter registration or turnout at that time,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote.

He clarified that the provision requiring advance approval of voting law changes — known as Section 5 — was not being struck down. Rather, the court found that the provision pertaining to the formula, known as Section 4, was unconstitutional. The decision, though, challenges the overall practice of federal screening unless and until Congress addresses the formula.

The decision means that a host of state and local laws that have not received Justice Department approval or have not yet been submitted will be able to take effect. Prominent among those are voter identification laws in Alabama and Mississippi.

Going forward, the outcome alters the calculus of passing election-related legislation in the affected states and local jurisdictions. The threat of an objection from Washington has hung over election-related proposals for nearly a half century. At least until Congress acts, that deterrent now is gone.

Roberts argued that these states and the conditions in them have “changed dramatically” over the years.

“The tests and devices that blocked ballot access have been forbidden nationwide for over 40 years. Yet the Act has not eased (Section 5’s) restrictions or narrowed the scope of (Section 4’s) coverage formula along the way. Instead those extraordinary and unprecedented features have been reauthorized as if nothing has changed, and they have grown even stronger,” he wrote.

The decision comes five months after President Obama, the nation’s first black chief executive, started his second term in the White House, re-elected by a diverse coalition of voters.

The high court is in the midst of a broad re-examination of the ongoing necessity of laws and programs aimed at giving racial minorities access to major areas of American life from which they once were systematically excluded. The justices issued a modest ruling Monday that preserved affirmative action in higher education and will take on cases dealing with anti-discrimination sections of a federal housing law and another affirmative action case from Michigan next term.

The court warned of problems with the voting rights law in a similar case heard in 2009. The justices averted a major constitutional ruling at that time, but Congress did nothing to address the issues the court raised. The law’s opponents, sensing its vulnerability, filed several new lawsuits.

The latest decision came in a challenge to the advance approval, or preclearance, requirement, which was brought by Shelby County, Ala., a Birmingham suburb.

The lawsuit acknowledged that the measure’s strong medicine was appropriate and necessary to counteract decades of state-sponsored discrimination in voting, despite the Fifteenth Amendment’s guarantee of the vote for black Americans.

But it asked whether there was any end in sight for a provision that intrudes on states’ rights to conduct elections, an issue the court’s conservative justices also explored at the argument in February. It was considered an emergency response when first enacted in 1965.

The county noted that the 25-year extension approved in 2006 would keep some places under Washington’s oversight until 2031 and seemed not to account for changes that include the elimination of racial disparity in voter registration and turnout or the existence of allegations of race-based discrimination in voting in areas of the country that are not subject to the provision.

The Obama administration and civil rights groups said there is a continuing need for it and pointed to the Justice Department’s efforts to block voter ID laws in South Carolina and Texas last year, as well as a redistricting plan in Texas that a federal court found discriminated against the state’s large and growing Hispanic population.

Advance approval was put into the law to give federal officials a potent tool to defeat persistent efforts to keep blacks from voting.

The provision was a huge success because it shifted the legal burden and required governments that were covered to demonstrate that their proposed changes would not discriminate. Congress periodically has renewed it over the years. The most recent extension was overwhelmingly approved by a Republican-led Congress and signed by President George W. Bush.

The requirement currently applies to the states of Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia. It also covers certain counties in California, Florida, New York, North Carolina and South Dakota, and some local jurisdictions in Michigan. Coverage has been triggered by past discrimination not only against blacks, but also against American Indians, Asian-Americans, Alaska Natives and Hispanics.

Towns in New Hampshire that had been covered by the law were freed from the advance approval requirement in March. Supporters of the provision pointed to the ability to bail out of the prior approval provision to argue that the law was flexible enough to accommodate change and that the court should leave the Voting Rights Act intact.

On Monday, the Justice Department announced an agreement that would allow Hanover County, Va., to bail out.

FoxNews.com / The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Google Claims First Amendment Right To Release NSA Data Demands

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NSA-GoogleFor the past two weeks, Google has been petitioning the government to allow it to publish the exact number of data requests it receives from the NSA. There’s not been a lot of progress made on that front, but now Google is pulling out the big guns in attempt to force transparency.

In a recent filing, obtained by The Washington Post, before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, Google argues the gag order that prevents it from publishing the number of data requests it receives is unconstitutional. In particular, Google says that such gag orders violate its First Amendment rights:

“Google seeks a declaratory judgment that Google has a right under the First Amendment to publish, and that no applicable law or regulation prohibits Google from publishing, two aggregate unclassified numbers: (1) the total number of FISA requests it receives, if any; and (2) the total number of users or accounts encompassed within such requests.”

Now, why is this so difficult? What’s wrong with publishing nothing but numbers? Well, it may seem kind of silly to you, but the government argues that even publishing the exact number of data requests it sends would put the nation in danger. Google isn’t asking to publish any specific requests nor it it asking to reveal inner workings of its relationship with the NSA. Google is only asking to publish some numbers, and that has thus far proven to be incredibly difficult.

In the last week, we’ve seen the government slightly budge on the issue. Facebook, Apple and Yahoo all published statements that listed a ballpark figure of data requests it receives from local, state and federal governments. Google was presumably allowed to publish the same figure, but it refrained because “lumping national security requests together with criminal requests … would be a backward step for our users.”

Google took that stance because it already publishes the amount of national security letters it receives from the government. Well, it can publish ballpark figures that say it received between 0 and 999 requests for user data in 2012. It’s not exactly helpful and lumping those figures in with criminal requests would make the numbers even more opaque.

The core argument here is that publishing these wide ranging numbers doesn’t do the public or Google any good. Sure, Google could say it receives anywhere between 9,000 to 12,000 data requests per year, but we wouldn’t know if those requests were from local law enforcement or the NSA. In turn, that unknown factor would only serve to increase consumer distrust for Google and drive them away to competitors.

What makes this all the more silly is that Google isn’t even asking to publish the exact number of data requests. As per the filing, here’s what Google would like to publish:

“Google’s publication would disclose numbers as part of the regular Transparency Report publication cycle for National Security Letters, which covers data over calendar year time periods. There would be two new categories to cover requests made under FISA: (a) total requests received and (b) total users/accounts at issue. Each of these entries will be reported at a range, rather than an actual number. That range would be the same as used by Google in its reporting of NSLs currently, in increments of one thousand, starting with zero. As with the NSL reporting, Google would have a Frequently Asked Questions section that would describe the statutory FISA authorities themselves.”

That doesn’t sound bad at all. The government already lets Google publish a ballpark figure for national security letters, so why not this? What’s the problem with making the federal government more transparent? Doing so would benefit not only the Obama administration’s declining reputation, but it would also immensely help Silicon Valley as well.

As was argued last week, tech companies have just as much to lose from the government keeping quiet as we do. Publishing opaque data request numbers may initially look good for the likes of Facebook and Apple, but Google is taking the higher ground here. It’s fighting to publish these numbers to advance the public debate over the NSA “in a thoughtful and democratic manner.” Lord knows the issue of NSA spying powers needs that right now.

By Zach Walton – Writer for WebProNews

Do you think Google should be allowed to publish data request numbers? Would it adversely impact national security?

google_cia_nsa

Technology Makes Possible the Surveillance State

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obama-big-brotherTechnology is making your every move — perhaps even those movements you make in the bathroom — ready for broadcast. The question is, are you ready for it?

Following the revelations about some of what the U.S. National Security Agency has been up to — secretly collecting millions of phone records and innumerable personal online searches and e-mails — government officials have been scrambling to reassure the public that the amount of information it is collecting is negligible, even trivial, and doesn’t impinge on personal freedom. However, the technology itself argues against the idea that what’s being collected about you is harmless.

Consider that phone numbers with time and location information can be easily combined with Web searches (for “anti-depressants,” say) and text message information to form a picture of where you are and what you’re doing. No one needs to listen to the content of a call if they know everything else about you, like the fact that you’ve messaged a therapist several times this week, belong to a gun club, and gave money to a Tea Party candidate.

Furthermore, the government’s Prism program looks positively mundane when you consider the other possible sources of information available through secret government surveillance. It is technically possible to monitor nearly every U.S. citizen — through automated scanning software programs — seven days a week, 24 hours a day.

Video cameras monitor you walking down the sidewalk. Toll tags and on-board connected car systems monitor you behind the wheel, even relaying rabbit starts, severe braking, and excessive speed. Security systems at work oversee cubicles, and employers monitor computer habits with hidden software that tracks keystrokes. At home, smart TVs with streaming services collect information about what you’re watching. Some sets and gaming consoles even include cameras that can tell who is in the room sitting on the couch.

big_brother_watchingWorse, our addiction to smartphones means we’re beaming our location, purchases, banking information, and personal relationships over networks that can be easily tapped — by government officials or by malware from hackers. Indeed, a computer program known as Flame that security experts say was created for espionage purposes has the demonstrated ability to secretly turn on a device’s microphone and record a conversation.

And then there’s Google Glass.

The much anticipated eyewear isn’t even available to the public yet, but when it is people won’t have to hold up a phone to take a picture, they’ll be able to record video in the blink of an eye. At a recent shareholder meeting, Google CEO Larry Page told attendees not to be terrified that people might use Glass in a public bathroom, just as we shouldn’t worry about people using smartphones in the bathroom.

I think there are some choice words folks would have for people who use Google Glass in the bathroom. (Try explaining to the friendly police officer that you were just reading FoxNews.com on the eyepiece, honest.)

The problem, of course, is the surreptitious nature of the technology and the secret monitoring it enables. It means that information — information you might think is innocuous — can be used against you without your knowledge. (Never mind embarrassing videos showing your lack of hygiene in the bathroom.) You may never know why you were rejected for a job or your kid didn’t get into a particular school.

Hypothetically speaking, you might be pulled over on the highway in the middle of the night by an officer who claims you were dallying in the passing lane. Unbeknownst to you, the real reason was that your plate was flagged by a license plate reader (LPR) camera, which was relying on an algorithm that detected that an individual who made phone calls to Eastern Europe and conducted Web searches for gun clubs is associated with that plate number.

The police officer lets you go on your way, but the next week, late at night, the same thing happens. And then the week after that, and, well, you get the picture.

So even if you never do anything wrong, never jaywalk or get a parking ticket, the information collected could be used against you, and you would be none the wiser. Catching terrorists is a laudable aim of such technological surveillance, and you might trust the Obama administration that such surveillance will never be misused. But what about the next administration?

Should people associated with the Tea Party get extra scrutiny from the IRS? Should people who are against gun control be monitored by state police? Should anti-war activists have their search history scrutinized by the NSA?

There are technological ways to limit the intrusion of such technology and prevent it from diminishing our privacy and freedoms, but it requires extra work. Programmers can limit the scope and fine tune communications monitoring software, and government officials could submit to more oversight by courts that are not secret.

But in a society where most of us are scrutinized on camera already — with the bathroom soon to come — it may be too late to put the digital genie back in the bottle.

Egyptian Pres. Morsi Appoints Member of Al Qaeda that Massacred European Tourists in Luxor

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AdelLast year Egyptian President Morsi freed one of the monsters behind the Luxor Massacre. Now he has appointed another member of The Islamic Group, Adel Mohammed al-Khayat as the Governor of Luxor.

Egypt’s tourism minister resigned a day after President Mohamed Morsi appointed the new governor to Luxor province.

Hesham Zazou said on Wednesday he “couldn’t continue in the role of tourism minister” after the appointment of Adel al-Khayat.

Following are witness accounts of the day that Adel Mohammed al-Khayat and his Islamic terrorist comrades murdered 58 tourists.

“As they ran past a Japanese tourist, she said, one of the men fired into the woman’s face from a range of about 15 inches.” The gunmen “took all the young women, the girls, and disappeared with them. I don’t know where they went with the women, but they hurt them. We could hear screams of pain,” Dousse said.

Among the horrors, the marauders cut off the ears and noses of several of their victims. A note praising Islam was found inside one disemboweled body.

The foreign dead included 31 Swiss, 10 Japanese, five Germans, four Britons, one child (a Bulgarian), a Colombian and a French citizen. The Japanese victims were four newlywed couples and an elderly couple on their second honeymoon.

Witnesses told how the terrorists methodically executed the European tourists. Some were forced to kneel before being shot, while others were stabbed to death.

Little Shaunnah, her mum and gran, all from Ripponden, West Yorks, died alongside fellow Brits George Wigham, 69, and wife Ivy, 71, of Swanley, Kent, and Londoner Sylvia Wilder, 26.

Shaunnah_Turner

Shaunnah Turner, 5 Years Old, Murdered by Muslim terrorists at Luxor

Shaunnah Turner’ father, ’ Richard, spoke of his murdered daughter  after the horror: “In a crowd she would shine. She was really beautiful. She had an impish charm that could win anybody over.”

A member of the movement whose gunmen killed 58 foreigners at a temple in Luxor in 1997 was sworn in by Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi on Monday as governor of the vital tourist region.

Adel Mohammed al-Khayat, who now represents the Building and Development Party, the political wing of the al-Gamaa al-Islamiya movement.

‘No to the terrorist governor!’ read a placard at a demonstration by dozens of tourism workers who protested outside the governor’s office in Luxor.

Khayat, then in his mid-40s, was a leader of al-Gamaa al-Islamiya in another province when, on Nov. 17, 1997, six young men from the group shot their way into the Temple of Hatshepsut in Luxor’s Valley of the Queens.

The attack was part of a broader campaign by the group, at that time linked to al Qaeda, to cripple tourism revenues for the government of then-president Hosni Mubarak. Of the 62 people killed in the next hour, 58 were foreign tourists, more than half of them Swiss and the rest Japanese, British, German and Colombian.

The gunmen, reported to have trained at al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan, committed suicide.

PUBLIUS

Zimmerman Judge Prohibits Prosecution Audio Experts

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ZimmermanThe judge in the murder trial of George Zimmerman said Saturday that prosecution audio experts who point to Trayvon Martin as screaming on a 911 calls moments before he was killed won’t be allowed to testify at trial.

Judge Debra Nelson’s written ruling was released Saturday. She had heard argument during a multiday hearing on whether to allow testimony from two prosecution experts. One expert ruled out Zimmerman as the screamer and another said it was Martin.  A defense expert argued there was not enough audio to determine who the screams are coming from. Zimmerman’s attorneys also argued that the state experts’ analysis is flawed.

The screams are crucial pieces of evidence because they could determine who the aggressor was in the confrontation. Martin’s family contends it was the teen screaming, while Zimmerman’s father has said it was his son.

Opening statements are set for Monday in the second-degree murder trial for the former neighborhood watch volunteer who says he fired on the unarmed black teenager in self-defense last year. Zimmerman is pleading not guilty.

Audio experts from both sides testified at different times since the admissibility hearing started last month. Voice experts were hired by lawyers and news organizations to analyze the calls, which were made during the confrontation between the two. The experts arrived at mixed conclusions.

In deciding whether to admit the voice-recognition technology used by prosecution audio expert Tom Owen, Nelson had to determine whether it is too novel or whether it has been accepted by the scientific community at-large.

“There is no evidence to establish that their scientific techniques have been tested and found reliable,” the judge said in her ruling.

Owen was hired by the Orlando Sentinel last year to compare a voice sample of Zimmerman with screams for help captured on 911 calls made by neighbors. He said Zimmerman’s voice doesn’t match the screams. He only compared Zimmerman’s voice to the 911 calls because he didn’t have a voice sample for Martin at the time.

“The screams don’t match at all,” Owen testified during the hearing. “That’s what tells me the screams aren’t George Zimmerman.”

Owen also testified that remarks Zimmerman made in a conversation with a police dispatcher aren’t a racial slur. He testified Zimmerman said, “These f—— punks.”

Expert Alan Reich testified in a report for prosecutors that the screams on the 911 tapes were from Martin and the defense does not want him to testify at trial.

Reich’s analysis also picked up words that other experts couldn’t find. They include the words, “This shall be” from Zimmerman and “I’m begging you” from Martin.

In contrast, a British audio expert testified for the defense that it would be extremely difficult to analyze voices by comparing screaming to a normal voice.

“I’ve never come across a case in my 13 years where anybody’s tried to compare screaming to a normal voice,” said audio expert Peter French.

A second audio expert for the defense, George Doddington, also criticized prosecution experts who said Friday that screams and pleas on a 911 recording likely belonged to Martin.

“It’s all ridiculous,” Doddington said.

Nelson issued a ruling Friday allowing prosecutors to argue in opening statements that Zimmerman profiled Martin based on factors such as age or clothing before he shot the unarmed black teenager, but they cannot say he was profiled based on race.

Defense attorneys had asked the judge to prohibit prosecutors from using a series of words in opening statements that they deemed inflammatory. Those words included “profiled,” “vigilante,” “wannabe cop,” and that Zimmerman had confronted Martin. Zimmerman identifies as Hispanic.

The judge said all of those statements may be used, provided that race is not discussed if the issue of profiling is brought up.

Prosecutor John Guy had argued that there were a number of ways someone could be profiled other than race.

“That is not a racially charged term unless it’s made so, and we don’t intend to make it a racially charged term,” Guy said. “There are a number of avenues someone can be profiled in any one way or combination. We don’t intend to say he was solely profiled because of race.”

Defense attorney Mark O’Mara said he was concerned using the word “profiled” would “infect” the jury with a racial component that shouldn’t be there.

“I want to be very, very cautious,” O’Mara said.

Six female jurors were chosen Thursday for the second-degree murder trial of Zimmerman, a former neighborhood watch volunteer who says he fired on Martin in self-defense last year in a gated community in Sanford. Zimmerman is pleading not guilty.

Prosecutors have said Zimmerman, 29, profiled 17-year-old Martin as he walked back through the central Florida community from a convenience store on a rainy night in February 2012 wearing a dark hooded shirt.

Race and ethnicity have played a prominent role in the case and even clouded jury selection. While the court did not release the racial makeup of the jury, the panel appeared to reporters covering the selection process to be made up of five white women and a sixth who may be Hispanic.

On Feb. 26, 2012, Zimmerman spotted Martin, whom he did not recognize, walking in the gated townhome community in Sanford where Zimmerman lived and the fiancee of Martin’s father also resided. There had been a rash of recent break-ins at the Retreat, and Zimmerman was wary of strangers walking through the complex.

The two eventually got into a struggle and Zimmerman shot Martin in the chest with his 9mm handgun. He was charged 44 days after the shooting, only after a special prosecutor was appointed to review the case and after protests.

Martin’s shooting death and the initial decision not to charge Zimmerman led to public outrage and demonstrations around the nation, with civil rights leaders and others accusing Sanford police of failing to thoroughly investigate the shooting.

The six jurors were culled from a pool of 40 candidates who made it into a second round of jury questioning. Two men and two women also were picked as alternate jurors.

FoxNews.com / The Associated Press contributed to this report.

EPA Drops Study Linking Pollution to Fracking

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epa-logoCHEYENNE, Wyo. –  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday it is dropping its longstanding plan to have independent scientists review its finding that hydraulic fracturing may be linked to groundwater pollution in central Wyoming.

The EPA is standing by its findings, but state officials will lead further investigation into the pollution in the Pavillion area. The area has been a focus of the debate over whether fracking can pollute groundwater ever since the EPA’s initial report came out in late 2011.

“We stand behind our work and the data, but EPA recognizes the state’s commitment to further investigation,” said agency spokesman Tom Reynolds in Washington, D.C. The EPA will let state officials carry on the investigation with the federal agency’s support, he said.

Wyoming officials have been skeptical about the theory that fracking played a role in the pollution at Pavillion, but Reynolds expressed confidence the state could lead the work from here. He described the shift as the best way to ensure Pavillion-area residents have a clean source of drinking water.

Even so, industry officials who have been doubtful about the EPA findings all along praised the change as confirmation of their view that the science wasn’t sound.

“EPA has to do a better job, because another fatally flawed water study could have a big impact on how the nation develops its massive energy resources,” Erik Milito, director of upstream and industry operations for the American Petroleum Institute, said in a release.

Richard Garrett, energy and legislative advocate with the Wyoming Outdoor Council in Lander, said he believes Thursday’s announcement shows the EPA is finding it more difficult than originally expected to come to grips with the full environmental effect of fracking. He noted that the EPA is pushing back other work aimed at gauging the how energy production may pollute groundwater.

“It’s not surprising to me that they’re kind of taking a secondary role in rural Pavillion,” Garrett said. “It looks to me like it might be a resource issue. That goes to the federal budget I suppose, and EPA administration.”

Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, boosts the productivity of oil and gas wells by pumping pressurized water mixed with sand and chemicals into well holes to crack open fissures in the ground.

Environmentalists have voiced concern about fracking causing groundwater pollution for years, but the practice has significantly boosted oil and gas production in regions such as the Bakken Shale in North Dakota and the Marcellus Shale underlying Eastern states.

The EPA’s 2011 report marked the first time the agency publicly linked fracking and groundwater contamination, causing a stir on both sides of the issue.

The federal agency began seeking nominations last year for experts to serve as peer reviewers for its draft report, and it has extended public comment periods on the report three times since it came out. Each extension delayed the peer-review plans.

EPA officials insisted Thursday that the agency is not giving up on its Pavillion research and reserves the right to pick up the investigation in the future and open it to peer review. The EPA also has been examining the relationship between fracking and groundwater in different areas of the country and is proceeding with that study.

The Northern Arapaho Tribe on the Wind River Indian Reservation surrounding the Pavillion area has been seeking to maintain a role in the Pavillion research since taking part in new sampling last year. A tribal official said, however, that the EPA hasn’t worked closely with the tribe lately.

“They have a legal duty to consult with the tribe and that didn’t happen as part of their dialogue with the governor,” Ronald Oldman, co-chairman of the tribe’s business council, said in a statement.

The new research led by Wyoming officials would be funded at least in part by a $1.5 million grant from Encana Corp.’s U.S. oil and gas subsidiary, which owns the Pavillion gas field. The state will issue a final report in late 2014, Gov. Matt Mead’s office said in a news release.

Mead said Wyoming will focus on making sure the few dozen affected residents of the rural, farming and ranching country a few miles outside Pavillion, population 230, have a clean source of drinking water. The state has been providing water cisterns to 20 people in the area.

“It is in everyone’s best interest — particularly the citizens who live outside of Pavillion — that Wyoming and the EPA reach an unbiased, scientifically supportable conclusion,” Mead said in a news release. “I commend EPA and Encana for working with me to chart a positive course for the investigation.”

The study will assess the need for any further action to protect drinking water sources, according to the release.

The Encana funding will pay to examine 14 domestic water wells in the Pavillion field for water quality and palatability concerns.

Local residents have complained for more than seven years that their water began to reek of chemicals since fracking occurred in their neighborhood. However, EPA efforts to find potential pathways from deeper areas where gas is extracted to shallower areas tapped by domestic water wells have been inconclusive, the news release said.

“We’re pleased that EPA has agreed to discontinue the investigation,” Encana spokesman Doug Hock said. “We applaud the fact that further efforts in Pavilion will focus on a few specific complaints about perceived changes in domestic water well quality.”

Associated Press

Connecticut Gun Maker Moving to South Carolina

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ptr-industries-rifleA Connecticut gun manufacturer is moving to South Carolina after Connecticut lawmakers passed stricter gun-control laws in the aftermath of the fatal Sandy Hook School shootings.

PTR Industries will make the formal announcement next week at a ribbon-cutting to be attended by South Carolina Republican Gov. Nikki Haley, according to The Sun News of Myrtle Beach.

The company is going to Horry County, which includes Myrtle Beach, and has already approved a resolution setting out the terms of the company’s move.

County Council Chairman Mark Lazarus says he’s excited about the development.

Josh Fiorini, PTR’s chief executive officer, says the plant will employ 140 people, many of whom will relocate from Connecticut. The move will take place over three years.

The company said it had been contacted by 41 states and selected South Carolina from six finalists.

Associated Press

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