BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING . . . REALLY

Aerial covert surveillance of American citizens has started.  Who is conducting this covert surveillance?  The CIA? The NSA? Nope . . . the ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY.    It actually started almost ten years ago under the guise of looking for environmental violations by mid-Western cattle ranchers, but nobody knew about it until now.  According to the EPA, they fly over power plants and "other facilities" nationwide looking for EPA regulation violations.  Apparently, some regional EPA officials let it slip at a meeting with ranchers in West Point, Nebraska about three months ago.  Government planes are not used, so they can't be spotted by just looking at the type of aircraft.  The EPA says it leases small planes from which photographs are taken.

Ranchers complained to their Congressmen and in turn all five of Nebraska's Congressmen sent a letter to the EPA's administrator, LISA JACKSON, demanding to know on what basis of legal authority the EPA was conducting the flyovers and taking pictures of private property which included private homes (SOURCE).  According to one of the ARTICLES, there were three flyovers in Iowa in 2010, five in 2011, and one so far this year.  There were six flights last year and three so far this year in Nebraska.  And guess what? The EPA has two more flights planned for this year in each state in spite of the wishes of  members of Congress representing American citizens.  Obviously, the EPA has been allowed to gain too much power and needs to be reigned in.  

So, the next time you see one of these flying over . . .

. . . just smile and wave.  It may just be your friendly neigbhorhood EPA secret agent.

SWAT RAIDS HOME ABOUT A STUDENT LOAN

Here is another example of big government out of control.  This story was first reported by ABC affiliate NEWS 10 in Sacramento, California.  As if the government's raids on private food supplies were not enough, now the U. S. Department of Education is raiding homes over unpaid student loans.  Click  HERE to read the article.

 To get the "violent criminal's" account of what happened as related to News 10, click HERE.

After this went viral on the Internet, News 10 was finally able to get a little more information from the U. S. Department of SHUTZSTAFFEL, er, I mean, Education.  The U. S. Department of Education denied that it was due to a defaulted student loan.   Click HERE for the follow up report.

And HERE is the latest report later that same day.


Government way out of control? You betcha.

http://rtr.org/videos/2/22909

CHRISTIANS NOW HAVE NO FOURTH AMENDMENT RIGHTS . . .

. . . at least in Dearborn, Michigan.  Here is a well written post from the blog ANSWERING MUSLIMS.  For background on this, see my post, THE TRAMPLING OF FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS.  Here's the story:

Sharia Judge Michael J. Callahan Nullifies the Fourth Amendment Rights of Christians in Michigan

Michigan's war against the Constitutional rights of Christians has reached its peak.

In every state in this country, with one exception, a police officer cannot seize a person or her property without probable cause (a reasonable belief that a person has committed a crime).

Today, Judge Michael J. Callahan ruled that the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution does not apply to Christians in the state of Michigan. If a Christian visits Michigan, she may be detained, seized, arrested, and thrown in jail based on no evidence whatsoever.

At last year's Arab Festival in Dearborn, Corporal Brian Kapanowski approached Negeen Mayel and ordered her to turn off her video camera. Since Negeen hadn't been accused of committing any crime, she was under no legal obligation to obey his order (and, let's face it, he was only ordering her to stop filming so she wouldn't catch our unlawful arrests on tape). When Negeen didn't immediately turn off her camera, and instead asked why she was being questioned, Corporal Kapanowski grabbed her, seized her camera (which police then kept for more than three weeks), dragged her out of the tent, arrested her, threw her in jail, and charged her with two crimes.

Obviously, in any court that honors the Constitutional rights of citizens, Kapanowski would be in trouble. It turns out, however, that Dearborn courts have as much contempt for the Constitution as Dearborn police. Before the trial even began, Dearborn Judge Mark Somers ruled that Corporal Kapanowski had probable cause to arrest Negeen, even though she hadn't been accused of any criminal activity.

Do not miss the implications of this ruling. According to Judge Somers, in the City of Dearborn, police have probable cause to arrest Christians, even if the Christians haven't been accused of a crime. This means that any Dearborn police officer may arrest any Christian, simply because he feels like it.

Since we realized we weren't going to get justice in Dearborn, we were hopeful that the appeals court would have more respect for our fundamental rights as American citizens. Our hopes were dashed today when Judge Callahan ruled that police may indeed arrest a Christian who hasn't been accused of a crime.

Amazingly, people act like we're crazy when we say that Dearborn is being influenced by Sharia. But the facts speak for themselves. Christians are rapidly becoming second-class citizens in Michigan, and anyone who speaks up is quickly labeled an "Islamophobe." The saddest part of this is that non-Muslims are the ones who are doing the difficult work of destroying the Constitution. Mayor John O'Reilly, City Prosecutors William "Sharia Bill" DeBiasi and Debra Walling, Corporal Kapanowski, Sergeant Mrowka, Chief Haddad, Judge Somers, and now Judge Callahan are all trying desperately to undermine the U.S. Constitution.

And practically no one seems to care.

Many Dearborn residents are offended when people say that Sharia is taking hold in their city. But until the City of Dearborn starts showing some degree of respect for the rights of non-Muslims, until Christians are free to discuss their faith without being arrested, until the Fourth Amendment actually protects teenage girls from illegal search and seizure, the accusations are going to continue.

For a complete summary of the events in Dearborn, with video footage, click here.

(NOTE: I have referred to the "Constitutional rights of Christians." Since certain readers love to misrepresent and distort what I say, let me go ahead and state clearly that I do not believe, never have believed, and never will believe that only Christians should have Constitutional rights. All U.S. citizens, regardless of race or religion, are protected by the Constitution. Indeed, I would be just as opposed to police violating the civil rights of a Muslim or an atheist as I would a Christian. But in this case, it's the rights of Christians that are being violated, so that's the topic of the post.)

THAT PESKY FIRST AMENDMENT THING AGAIN!

Student Wins Free Speech Case in Federal Court

by Katie Walker : Aug 17, 2010 : American Life League
http://www.christiannewswire.com/news/9248014686.html

"We are so grateful to Tiffany for her courage in the face of injustice."

Washington, DC)—American Life League celebrated a free speech victory after a federal court entered a judgment this past Thursday that a California elementary school and three school officials violated the First, Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights of a sixth-grade student who participated in ALL's National Pro-Life T-Shirt Day (NPLTD) in 2008.

School officials barred Tiffany Amador from wearing her American Life League T-shirt at McSwain Union Elementary School in Merced, California. NPLTD (now a week-long event) was organized to increase awareness of the personhood of the child in the womb and the tragedy of abortion.

"So often, pro-life students learn that free speech is a constitutional right that, in practice at least, doesn't apply to them," said Judie Brown, president of American Life League. "For too long, pro-abortion demagogues have had a stranglehold on the country's educational institutions and have sought to stifle dissenting opinions—by force, if necessary, as seen in this case. We are so grateful to Tiffany for her courage in the face of injustice—both the bloody injustice of abortion and the tyrannical injustice of government institutions violating free speech rights."

The shirt featured the word "ABORTION" over a series of panels, two of which depicted pictures of a developing preborn child and the third filled in with black. The caption read, "Growing...growing...gone."

According to William J. Becker Jr. of the Becker Law Firm, representing Amador, the school claimed the images were "disruptive" because of their "graphic nature" but could not explain what made them so graphic that they would have caused any disruption, much less a substantial one, which the U.S. Supreme Court has held is a requirement for a school infringing upon a student's expressive rights.

In addition to claiming that her First Amendment right of expression was violated, Amador, who has since graduated from the eighth grade, alleged in the lawsuit that her Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure was violated when the school's secretary forcefully pulled her into the principal's office because of her shirt.

"Public school employees work for the government," Becker said. "Any time a school official uses physical force to suppress non-disruptive student expression; the government has gone way too far in enforcing its own political views."

Did you notice something? This elementary school girl was "forcefully pulled into the principal's office because of her shirt." So-called adults "forcefully pulling" a young girl who was not being physically disruptive. This shows just how angry the liberal left becomes when someone other than leftists express a viewpoint protected by the First Amendment. What's more, the U. S. Supreme Court had already ruled that a school could not infringe on a student's right to freedom of expression unless it caused a substantial disruption. The school violated many of Amador's rights, and I think they knew it at the time. School officials at the very least should have known anyway.

If you have children in school, and if at any time you believe the school is infringing on your child's Constitutional rights, then do some research and find out. Do not just take their word for it. Schools, just like any other governmental entity, oftentimes depend on the public's lack of knowledge to run roughshod over our rights guaranteed by the Constitution.

TRANSPARENCY? I'M HELPING THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION ON THIS ONE!

I was perusing blogs on my reader, and found an alarming, but not surprising, post on NOBAMANATION called OBAMA SEEKING POWER TO SEARCH LAPTOPS, MEDIA DEVICES, MEDIA ANYTIME THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT WANTS. This is about something the Obama administration is working on in secret called the ANTI-COUNTERFEITING TRADE AGREEMENT (ACTA). So, I started doing some research. A search of ABC News, CBS News, Fox News, CNN, and of course "America's #1 News Site", MSNBC, and not surprisingly, no results. I went digging a little further.

What I found was that the Obama Administration, the European Union, Jordan, Mexico, and other countries are working on a treaty that would allow the search of computer harddrives, Ipods, and other media devices supposedly just for suspected pirated content. These searches could be done without a warrant and without a reason. All of your personal information that you might have would be right there for the government to see. It gets better. ACTA's scope is very broad and far reaching. It also includes counterfeit physical goods, but also "internet distribution and information technology". According to an article on Canada.com entitled, COPYRIGHT DEAL COULD TOUGHEN RULES GOVERNING INFO ON IPODS, COMPUTERS, "The leaked ACTA document states officials should be given the 'authority to take action against infringers (i.e., authority to act WITHOUT complaint by rights holders).' "

According to the document, anyone found with "infringing content" on their device, which could include a cell telephone, would be subject to a fine and possibly having their ENTIRE DEVICE DESTROYED. That's right, over one bit of anything that was determined (determined how?) to be a copyright infringement, you could lose your computer, cell telephone, or Ipod. A bit excessive? You better believe it. Fourth Amendment? Totally gone on this one.

Not done yet though. It gets even better. According to this same article, ACTA proposes new sanctions on internet service providers. This treaty would force internet service providers to hand over PERSONAL INFORMATION pertaining to "claimed infringement" or "alleged infringers". In other words, your personal information would given over on merely an allegation of transmitting or sharing copyrighted material over the internet. The rights holder would no longer have the burden of proof in collecting any evidence whatsoever. It would be very easy to target dissenters including blogs that don't just swallow everything that comes out of Washington. Government control of the internet is something Rahm Emanuel has openly said he wants to see happen. First Amendment? Gone on this one too.

Now these negotiations did not start with the current administration. This started in October 2007 through the OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE. These negotiations have never been made public. The government only acknowledges that the United States is participating in the negotiations. Bits and pieces of the content and nature of this agreement have been leaked, but all requests for information have been denied here in the United States and Canada.

Even though this did not start this year, one of the campaign promises Obama made concerned transparency in government. He never qualified that statement as applying to some areas and not others. Since this is not a matter of national security, but supposedly a "trade agreement", why all the secrecy? Why is this particular "trade agreement" guarded so closely? Why isn't the news media all over this? When known terrorists' telephone conversations were monitored by the Bush administration, the liberal left including the news media went absolutely bananas. This was an infringement on the rights and liberties of law-abiding American citizens. THAT sure made a lot of sense. Watching known terrorists REALLY infringed on MY rights. Whatever. But, have you heard ANYTHING at all in the news about this? Not exactly 6:00 material, and absolutely NO ONE has called Obama out on this one in response to his major emphasis on and promise of transparency.

Since transparency seemed to be a problem on this issue, I, as a good American, decided to assist the President. Glad to be of service.