Dec 15, 2018

Truth and free speech are being taken away from us

fromForeignPolicyJournal: "Moreover, as the claim is that government was harmed by Wikileaks publishing the truth, Assange’s secret indictment sets the precedent that truth is harmful to government."

Indoctrination and Censorship

DEA spy cameras In vacuum cleaners: surveillance state

fromZeroHedge: The government website USASpending.gov reports that "the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) awarded a contract to an American defense company to build a vacuum cleaner for surveillance purposes."
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

The media incentives to align themselves with the state at the expense of truth

fromCaitlinJohnstone: Insightful explanation of the why the mainstream media becomes a statist propaganda tool. 

Media Bias on Parade

Walter E Williams: Acceptable racism

fromCreators: Muhammad Ali had it right when he said: "Hating people because of their color is wrong. And it doesn't matter which color does the hating. It's just plain wrong."
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

It’s in America’s best interests to stop overspending on our military

fromtheFederalist: We spend gobs of money on our military, so what do we get in return? A lot of foreign intervention that has little clear benefit to Americans.
Defense Versus The War Machine

Trump's cluelessness is his best defense against charges that he 'knowingly and willfully' violated law

fromCreators: If Trump did not recognize hush payments to his (alleged) former mistresses as illegal campaign contributions, he is not criminally culpable.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Nov 13, 2018

The real winner of the 2018 midterms: individual liberty

fromTheHill: The most important takeaway is that we will have a divided federal government, with the executive branch and Senate controlled by the Republicans and the House controlled by the Democrats.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Civil forfeiture is worse than its proponents proclaim

fromSaltLakeTribune: For the uninitiated, this is a law that allows the government to legally take possession of your property without even having to charge you with commission of a crime, let alone secure a conviction.
Police State America

Pot proponents claim victory, set sights on national legalization

fromNBCNews: "Marijuana has now been legalized for adult use in one out of every five states, so I think it's safe to say federal laws are in need of an update," he said.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

VIDEO: Tucker Carlson - Racism as a Political Tactic

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: From Tucker Carlson Tonight, a look at how racism has been reduced to virtually a meaningless political tactic. Christopher Harris.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery     Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Gov’t denies homeless people food by raiding charity, pouring bleach on food to destroy it

fromTheFreeThoughtProject: Earlier this month, the kind folks over at Free Hot Soup Kansas City hosted a picnic at their local park and invited hundreds of homeless people to partake in the food. 
Regulation Nation     The Government is Not Us

DEA and ICE 'are hiding secret cameras inside streetlights and traffic barrels across the country'

fromDailyMail: The US Drug Enforcement Administration and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agencies have hidden a number of covert surveillance cameras inside street lights, according to federal contracting documents.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

September 28, 2017

The campus free-speech crisis deepens

from National Review: Suspending or expelling students who shout-down speakers, disrupt campus events, or take over campus buildings is the single most important step that can be taken to end the free-speech crisis. Yet administrators will not act.
Indoctrination and Censorship

The secret slush funds of asset forfeiture

from Reason: Two investigations published this week reveal how police and prosecutors spend asset forfeiture funds outside the public eye.
Police State America

Patriots and protesters should take a knee for the Constitution

from Rutherford Institute: John Whitehead talks about patriotism and President Trump’s call for “respect for our Country, Flag and National Anthem.”
Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

Florida town booted food truck offering meals to hurricane survivors after nearby restaurant complained

from Reason: Does government exist to serve the people or represent well-connected cronies? You decide.
The Government is Not Us

Illegal immigration cost Americans a record $135 billion last year

from The Washington Examiner: John Whitehead talks about patriotism and President Trump’s call for “respect for our Country, Flag and National Anthem.”
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Jeff Sessions just made the chief of the DEA look like a pothead's hero

from Reason: Acting DEA Administrator Chuck Rosenberg reportedly resigned in part over the Justice Department's obstruction of marijuana research.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

September 15, 2017

230 years after the Constitution, we’re walking a dangerous road 

from The Rutherford Institute: A look at what it means to live under the Constitution today.
The Government is Not Us

🎬  Walter E Williams - What is a Right? 

from LibertyPen: There are many misconceptions about what constitutes a right. Professor Williams provides clarity.
Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

Court lets DEA keep evidence from warrantless search 

from TechDirt: The government's lawyers with robes conveniently decided that possible cause is just as good as probable cause. The state may do as it pleases. The Constitutional protections of the Fourth Amendment are now officially gutted.
The Government is Not Us

A case against the minimum wage 

from Forbes: The case AGAINST minimum wage is the case FOR economic liberty. Supporters focus only on the beneficiaries without regard to those shut out of the job market each time the entry bar is raised.
Regulation Nation

What does child porn smell like? DHS is training dogs to sniff it out 

from ReasonTV: This may not qualify as politically correct, but it is hard to contest this being filed under other nitwittery.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Permanent reauthorization of Section 702 of FISA 'borders on insanity' 

from The Caldwell County News: The This would be a final and permanent nail in the coffin for the Fourth Amendment.
Say goodbye to the notion of the "sovereign citizen".
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

A. Barton Hinkle: Coming Out of the Drug War Haze?

Cautious optimism may be appropriate. President Obama's recent speech on the opioid overdose epidemic offers a ray of hope that the country's approach to drugs might one day adopt what has been called the first rule of American business: When all else fails, try doing it right. Noting with considerable understatement that "treatment is    ... MORE

Obama Advocates Government Access To All Devices

by Jeff Mason.    No surprise that privacy invasion is the tyrant's choice. U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday made a passionate case for mobile devices to be built in such a way as to allow government to gain access to personal data if needed to prevent a terrorist attack or enforce tax laws. Speaking at the South by Southwest festival in Texas, Obama   ... MORE

Justin Gardner: A Federal Judge Just Shamed The DEA For Fabricating Sham Cases Trying To Justify War On Drugs

Entrapment, law enforcement's favorite tool.  Since the War on Drugs began in earnest under Nixon and Reagan, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) has ruined millions of lives for nonviolent, victimless behavior. The DEA’s drug crusade is not limited to the homeland either, as it also has sole responsibility for pursing international  ... MORE

Some Members Of Congress Want To Stop Squandering Tax Money On The DEA's Failed Marijuana Eradication Program

by Christopher Ingraham.    The Drug Enforcement Administration is not having a great year. The chief of the agency stepped down in April under a cloud of scandal. The acting administrator since then has courted ridicule for saying pot is "probably not" as dangerous as heroin, and more recently he provoked 100,000 petition-signers and seven       ... MORE

Federal Court Orders The DEA To Stop Harassing Medical Marijuana Providers And Instead Start Obeying The Law

Enforcement zealots must learn to obey the law. In a scathing decision, a federal court in California has ruled that the Drug Enforcement Administration's interpretation of a recent medical marijuana bill "defies language and logic," "tortures the plain meaning of the statute" and is "at odds with fundamental notions of the rule of law." The ruling     ... MORE

Nullification In Effect: Oregonians Defy Feds, Spend Millions On Marijuana In First Week Of Legal Sales

$3.5 million of sales on first day.        In the first week of limited marijuana sales in Oregon, dispensaries sold a staggering $11 million of weed – more than double the numbers from Colorado’s first week – proving state laws legalizing cannabis truly do nullify federal prohibition in practice. The Free Thought Project reported on the first week  ... MORE

Absence Of DEA Accountability Another Drug War Failure

A Las Vegas Review-Journal editorial.   Each year, the United States spends more than $51 billion on the war on drugs — a war we're clearly losing. The war has become so futile that the federal agency charged with leading the fight has undermined its own mission — and no one is being held accountable. A Justice Department review   .... MORE

Conservatives Do Not Understand The 4th Amendment Is A Protection From Big Government And That's A Big Problem!

by Mark J. Fitzgibbons.     Kelley Beaucar Vlahos at Fox News does a great job reporting on use of "administrative subpoenas" for warrantless searches of medical records. American Thinker reported on this story back on July 20 ("Feds Get the Power to Seize Medical Records on 'Fishing Expedition' Investigations with No Subpoena from a Judge") with   ... MORE

Feds Deploy Warrantless Database Fishing Expeditions

by Mark J. Fitzgibbons.   While focusing their resources and political energy on the NSA’s mass collection of metadata, privacy advocates have neglected the most dangerous institutionalized violations of the Fourth Amendment: administrative subpoenas. Now a United States District Court judge in Texas has ruled for the Drug Enforcement Agency        ... MORE

VIDEO: FBI Spy Planes Over America

Sterotyping At Its Worst: DEA Steals Cash From Innocent Black Man Who They Claim ‘Must Be A Drug Dealer’

by M. David and Reagan Ali. Some thieves carry badges. They found no drugs on him whatsoever. They never saw him selling drugs or committing a crime of any sort. But the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) claims that they are “certain” that 22-year-old Joseph Rivers is a “drug dealer.” What makes them so sure? When the young   ... MORE

Radley Balko: If The Government Decides To Destroy Your Property To Fight The Drug War, You're Just Out Of Luck

The drug war means never having to say you’re sorry.      A Houston-based federal judge ruled that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration does not owe the owner of a small Texas trucking company anything, not even the cost of repairing the bullet holes to a tractor-trailer truck that the agency used without his permission for a wild    ... MORE

Nick Sibilla: The DEA's Version Of Stop-and-Frisk

Seizing cash without warrants is legalized theft.  Federal drug agents may be racially profiling and unjustly seizing cash from travelers in the nation’s airports, bus stations and train stations. A new report released by the Office of the Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Justice examined the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)’s        ... MORE

DEA Warns Of Stoned Rabbits If Utah Approves Medical Pot

The new face of marijuana addiction.     Utah is considering a bill that would allow patients with certain debilitating conditions to be treated with edible forms of marijuana. If the bill passes, the state's wildlife may "cultivate a taste" for the plant, lose their fear of humans, and basically be high all the time. That's according to testimony    ... MORE

John W. Whitehead: Creepy, Calculating and Controlling

All of the ways Big Brother is watching you.    None of us are perfect. All of us bend the rules occasionally. Even before the age of overcriminalization, when the most upstanding citizen could be counted on to break at least three laws a day without knowing it, most of us have knowingly flouted the law from time to time. Today, however,    ... MORE

MIke Adams: President Obama Just Renewed the Drug War

Actions speak louder than words.  The Obama Administration has officially renewed the War on Drugs. The Fiscal Year 2016 budget plan released earlier this week, shows, despite the illusion of the puppet show in the nation’s capital working to reform failed drug policies, the master is hell bent on spending more money than ever to protect America  ... MORE