FBI Abuse of Power

More proof that power corrupts.

California Assembly Bill 962 Signed Into Law by Governor Schwarzenegger

Grab your ankles Kalifornians! The Governator just put it to all law abiding gun owners and we're not going to get so much as a kiss. California Governor Schwarzenegger just signed Assembly Bill 962 into law, dealing another crippling blow to retailers, sportsmen, and anyone who wishes to legally protect themselves and their families from criminals who could care less if they obtain their ammunition legally. Thanks to Assembly Bill 962 you can now depend on spending quite a bit more for your ammunition. Like it wasn't already hard enough to get ammo, right? Assembly Bill 962 will require, among other things, that anyone selling ammunition take the fingerprints of their customers and keep them on record for the DOJ to review at any time.
As with most stupid gun control laws, this will do little if anything to lessen crime and will in fact deprive many Californians of the ability to protect themselves because they will not be able to afford ammunition as prices skyrocket in an economy where people can barely afford food. These citizens are often times the ones that have the greatest need to protect themselves, many living in high crime neighborhoods.
Here's a little newsflash from the land of unintended consequences: This law could actually lead to more deaths and injuries from accidental shootings/collateral damage as gun owners spend less time on the range familiarizing themselves with their firearm due to the outrageous price of ammunition. Even the best sharpshooter needs to spend time on the range to keep his or her skills honed and insure that their bullets reach only the intended target. Will someone please tell me why our government seems to have lost all common sense! I am beginning to think it is time to take my family and my taxes to a state where our rights matter!
So if you think there was a run on ammo when people started to realize that Obama might become president, get ready for California's ammunition to dry up completely. As Californians attempt to stock up before the law goes into effect the rest of the US can expect to be affected by another ammunition shortage. I guess if the gun control lobby can't make our guns illegal they will make it too expensive to use them. An unloaded gun is a very expensive paperweight.
There are two bright spots. The law does not go into effect until February 2011. There may be a legal grounds to strike down this law thanks to the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act of 1994, Section §41713. Preemption of authority over prices, routes, and service, which basically prohibits a state from enacting or enforcing a law that could effect prices, routes, and service of Common Carriers.

Links
California: Governor Takes Action on Two Anti-Gun Bills in Sacramento
California Assembly Bill 962 Hurts Small Businesses and Puts Law-Abiding Citizens at Risk
The Calguns Foundation

Use Cash for Clunkers Website and Your Computer Belongs to the Government

The Cash for Clunkers program may seem enticing but as the old saying goes, "here is no free lunch". If you try to log in to the Cash for Clunkers website you have to agree to the privacy policy, which of course no-one ever reads... After agreeing to the privacy policy a warning box pops up telling you that your computer will become property of the government and anything stored on your computer can be retrieved and shared, even with foreign entities.

Check out the video below to see how the government is tricking people into letting them irrevocable access EVERYTHING on their personal computers.

Whitehouse Wants You to Report Anyone Who Speaks Out Against Healthcare Reform

It's true. The government is requesting assistance from the public in quashing dissension from those evil right wing extremists (ie, anyone who disagrees)! Seriously. Check out this excerpt from the Whitehouse blog:

There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care. These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.

And just in case public response forces the removal of the statement from the Whitehouse blog here is a screenshot for posterity.

Scary isn't it? Check out this link at RedState regarding the legality of this. White House Actions Might Be Unlawful

Chips Embeded in Official IDs Are a Huge Privacy Risk

For anyone who doesn't know, which is most of us, an RFID Chip is a tiny chip that can be embedded in virtually anything, from products in the grocery store to your bus pass and even people. You've probably seen the credit card commercial with the marathon runner that zips into a convenience store and pays for his purchase by merely holding his credit card close to the machine instead of sliding it through the machine the old fashioned way. Really convenient right? Well it's convenient for identity thieves too.

When this technology first came and out it wasn't wide spread an identity thief needed to get pretty close to the target to scan the chip and retrieve the information on it. This is no longer the case. As the technology has grown more prolific so have the profits in creating the gadgets that scan for it. As an example consider the experiment published in an article on the Fox News Website "Chips in Official IDs Raise Privacy Fears" in which a gentleman named Chris Paget cruised around Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco, California scanning for the private information held on RFID tags of the crowds using a Matrics antenna and a Motorola reader that he bought on eBay for less than $250. In an hour he had 'skimmed' the private data from the new electronic U.S. passport cards of several individuals from as far away as 20 feet. Mr. Paget filmed his experiment and posted it to the Internet.



While the implementation of embedded RFID tags in government documents is not widespread yet there is a push from government officials to see it done quickly. Officials are touting safety and convenience of having you information easily accessible. Either they haven't bothered to think of the consequences or they just don't care because being able to track everything that you do fits there agenda. Thanks to the Real ID Act: h.r.00418 which was passed in 2005 without ANY debate, states must start issuing State IDs with and embedded RFID tag by 2017. The Real ID Act was pushed through by adding an amendment to a completely UNRELATED must pass bill to authorize funds for the Iraq war. This seems to be a common tactic in getting a controversial bill to pass that otherwise would not. In my humble opinion this practice is completely immoral and should be illegal, but I suppose that is the subject of another rant.

The Pass ID Act: S.1261 has recently been introduced before lawmakers which supposedly would repeal part of the Real ID Act as well as amend title II of the Homeland Security Act of 2002. However this bill does not protect citizens from identity theft or government abuses, in fact it may be a sneak attack to reinforce the Real ID Act. The Real ID Act needs to be repealed completely or by 2017 we will all be walking around with a tracking beacon in our pockets broadcasting our entire lives to anyone with the inclination to snoop, which includes alot of people and organizations. Just think of how much of your online activity is tracked by the government, retail websites, search engines, and marketing firms. Imagine how valuable a record of your real world travels, purchases, interests, and even health problems would be. To top off all this paranoia, it appears that two of the major backers of The Pass ID Act and previously the Real ID Act, the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators and the International Civil Aviation Organization, are INTERNATIONAL as in not USA organizations!

...and now for another paranoia inducing video

There may be other 'related' videos in the player above that may seem extremely paranoid. These videos are included by YouTube and do not necessarily reflect the views of this writer.

Eventually we will have one card (or pendant, wristband, or implant) that will contain all of our information and may even be used as currency. There are already pilot programs that allow users of already existing Real ID Cards to use them in lieu of their credit card. Now at the risk of sounding like a paranoid, end of the world, religious nut...

• Revelation 13:16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
• Revelation 13:17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

We all need to act RIGHT NOW to repeal the Real ID Act and put the brakes on The Pass Act before it is too late. Contact the Committee on Homeland Security members and tell them respectfully how you feel about your rights being crushed. Warn your friends and family about the risks to their freedom. Share this blog and others on this topic on the all the social networking and bookmarking sites. We must get the word out or everyone will just go happily about their day never knowing what they are lost while they were watching Lost or Dancing With the Stars. There will be a time when it is too late to turn back.

Aside from the above legislation we will never be completely free of RFID tags. RFID tags have many legitimate uses from inventory control to identifying lost pets. As mentioned above 'smart' passports and Real IDs are already in use. You will still need to take action to protect yourself from the common thief regardless of how you feel about the Real ID Act. There are several relatively inexpensive products on the market now that will shield your card/passport from being scanned such as the RFID Blocking Leather Passport Case and the Travelon RFID Blocking Billfold. Shoplifters have been blocking RFID for some time by using shopping bags lined with aluminum foil (don't get any ideas!). Here is an interesting artilcle on How to kill your RFID chip, of course when it comes to your passport you may not want to permanently destroy the chip rendering your passport void. Remember; tampering with a US passport is a federal offense. Of course any of the tags you find in items that you purchase are yours to do with as you wish.

For a partial list of companies that place RFID tags in their products check out Liz Michaels' website.

Group Banned From Oldest 4th of July Parade for Distributing the Constitution of the United States

It is a sad sign of the times when you can be discriminated against for being a patriot. Apparently the Bristol Parade Committee decided that they needed to permanently ban the Rhode Island Tea Party from the USA's oldest 4th of July parade in Bristol R.I. for distributing pocket sized copies of the United States Constitution. This dispute the fact that many of the other floats were allowed to distribute fliers to the crowd. The Bristol Parade Committee states that distributing of any materials is against the parade rules for safety reasons. Yet this flies in the face of reason since the rules were not applied to anyone but the Rhode Island Tea Party. To top it off the Pocket Constitutions were being handed out by Tea Party sympathizers not by the group that was part of the parade.



Update! The chairman of the Bristol Parade Committee, David Burns, has issued a formal apology to the Rhode Island Tea Party stating that the committee “would like to clear up any misunderstanding" and that "they are not banned from future parades.” Hooray!

What Rights Have Americans Already Lost?

Every time the government passes a new law to 'protect the public' we lose more rights. Have you ever wondered what we have already lost? While the video below is by no means exhaustive it is interesting. Go ahead and take a few minutes to watch. And you don't have to be a right wing conspiracy nut to know that our freedom is at risk.