Well d’uh. Why wouldn’t the Department of Homeland Security want their Predator B drones–currently deployed on our northern and southern borders—to be able to ID individual groundlings and detect whether or not the two-legged targets are carrying firearms? Click here for proof, if proof be needed, that tin hat wearers need to buy a separate tin hat for their concealed carry gun.
Here’s the relevant bit of the spec sheet for companies looking to build Big Brother’s next-gen eye in the sky: “3.5.3.1.7 Shall (T) be capable of identifying a standing human being at night as likely armed or not (based on position of arms) at a slant range of one and a half times the specified Operating Altitude.” Your tax money ($59b per year) hard at work.
All part of the DHS mission: “Our duties are wide-ranging, but our goal is clear: a safer, more secure America, which is resilient against terrorism and other potential threats.” Note to the DHS: define “potential” and “threat.”
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Nikita Khrushchev:"We will bury you"
"Your grandchildren will live under communism."
“You Americans are so gullible.
No, you won’t accept To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. outright, but we’ll keep feeding you small doses of To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. until you’ll finally wake up and find you already have communism.
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We’ll so weaken your To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. until you’ll To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. like overripe fruit into our hands."
Posted by Jim Hoft on Sunday, March 3, 2013, 9:55 PM
This is getting a little creepy.
According to one estimate, since last year the Department of Homeland Security has stockpiled more than 1.6 billion bullets, mainly .40 caliber and 9mm. DHS also purchased 2,700 Mine Resistant Armor Protected Vehicles (MRAP).
The Department of Homeland Security (through the U.S. Army Forces Command) recently retrofitted 2,717 of these ‘Mine Resistant Protected’ vehicles for service on the streets of the United States.
Although I’ve seen and read several online blurbs about this vehicle of late, I decided to dig slightly deeper and discover more about the vehicle itself.
The new DHS sanctioned ‘Street Sweeper’ (my own slang due to the gun ports) is built by Navistar Defense (NavistarDefense.com), a division within the Navistar organization. Under the Navistar umbrella are several other companies including International Trucks, IC Bus (they make school buses), Monaco RV (recreational vehicles), WorkHorse (they make chassis), MaxxForce (diesel engines), and Navistar Financial (the money arm of the company).
DHS even released a video on their newly purchased MRAPs.
The MRAP featured in this video is was in Albuquerque, New Mexico for Law Enforcement Day which was held at a local area Target Store. This MRAP is stationed in El Paso, Texas at The Homeland Security Investigations Office. MRAP is a Mine Resistant Armor Protected Vehicle.
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Nikita Khrushchev:"We will bury you"
"Your grandchildren will live under communism."
“You Americans are so gullible.
No, you won’t accept To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. outright, but we’ll keep feeding you small doses of To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. until you’ll finally wake up and find you already have communism.
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. ."
We’ll so weaken your To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. until you’ll To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. like overripe fruit into our hands."
Existing Reset Line Available to Service Vehicles Returning from Deployment
LISLE, Ill., March 15, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — Navistar Defense, LLC received an award to conduct the installation work associated with its January order to upgrade 2,717 International® MaxxPro® Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles with a new vehicle chassis.
The $21 million contract from the U.S. Army Contracting Command is just one of Navistar’s many reset offerings aimed at revitalizing existing defense assets for future missions.
“We are focused on increasing the capabilities of our existing fleet with minimal impact to defense funding,” said Archie Massicotte, president, Navistar Defense. “The vehicle reset line we established for this installation work can also be utilized to restore older vehicles to like-new condition. Therefore, we are poised and ready to reset vehicles returning from deployment – either here at our facility or overseas.”
The installation contract retrofits vintage MaxxPro vehicles with a new rolling chassis. This chassis enhancement includes the addition of the DXM™ independent suspension, a MaxxForce® 9.3 engine, 570 amp alternator and driveline, while leaving a residual chassis with a beam axle that can be reused. The retrofits will be conducted in West Point, Miss., and work is expected to be completed by the end of May 2012.
“Keeping constricting budgets in mind, we continue to anticipate tomorrow’s needs and develop new solutions to use existing assets,” said Massicotte. “In addition to being ready for reset work, we already have options available that reuse the leftover chassis from this body-swap.”
Should the government be interested in reusing its remaining vehicle chassis, Navistar can add an armored cab to the chassis or return the vehicle to a commercial flatbed truck by adding a standard commercial cab for roughly a third of the cost of a new vehicle. Additional variants that can be produced on this building-block model include a recovery vehicle and a utility truck with an integrated capability for exportable power generation.
The company has fielded nearly 9,000 MaxxPro vehicles and continues to anticipate needed vehicle capabilities, enhancements, reset and reuse options for its entire fleet of 32,000 vehicles.
Navistar International Corporation (NYSE: NAV) is a holding company whose subsidiaries and affiliates produce International® brand commercial and military trucks, MaxxForce® brand diesel engines, IC Bus™ brand school and commercial buses, Monaco® RV brands of recreational vehicles, and Workhorse® brand chassis for motor homes and step vans. It also is a private-label designer and manufacturer of diesel engines for the pickup truck, van and SUV markets. The company also provides truck and diesel engine service parts. Another affiliate offers financing services. Additional information is available at www.Navistar.com/newsroom.
SOURCE Navistar Defense, LLC
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Nikita Khrushchev:"We will bury you"
"Your grandchildren will live under communism."
“You Americans are so gullible.
No, you won’t accept To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. outright, but we’ll keep feeding you small doses of To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. until you’ll finally wake up and find you already have communism.
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We’ll so weaken your To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. until you’ll To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. like overripe fruit into our hands."
Re: DHS new Terror Warning: "We are now focused on Americans taking up arms"
Government arms race kicks into high gear as DHS buys 2,700 armored vehicles for streets of America
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
(NaturalNews) When DHS purchased 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition to be used domestically, inside the USA, and I said this looks like a government agency preparing for war with the American people, I was told, "That's crazy. The government would never do that."
When DHS purchased 7,000 full-auto assault rifles to be used inside the United States, calling them "personal defense weapons" that could be used in urban warfare, I was once again told I was crazy for suggesting the government was arming up for war with the American people.
These vehicles, which people who don't know any better might call "light tanks," are specifically designed to resist mines and ambush attacks. They use bulletproof windows and are designed to withstand small arms fire, including smaller-caliber rifles such as .223 Remington.
The retrofit was completed in May, 2012, and these 2,700+ armored vehicles are now ready to deploy across the streets of America, reports Modern Survival Blog, the primary source for this story.
A domestic arms race
Importantly, none of these armaments -- billions of bullets, thousands of full-auto assault rifles and thousands of armored assault vehicles -- are being purchased by the Pentagon for use in wars overseas. Instead, these are being purchased by DHS for use inside the United States... on the streets of America.
This is a domestic department of the federal government that is clearly and unambiguously arming for war against the American people.
This war will also involve the use of armed military drones attacking American citizens, which is exactly why the Obama administration now claims the legal authority to assassinate Americans on U.S. soil using militarized drones.
This is at the same time the American people are arming up like never before as well. U.S. ammunition manufacturers are currently producing over one billion rounds per week. All that ammo is flying off the shelves, with virtually nothing remaining in stock anywhere.
Magazine manufacturers like ProMag Industries are backordered for over a year, and gun manufacturers are anywhere from 6 months to 18 months behind schedule, desperately trying to keep up with customer demand that continues to grow. I called Desert Tactical Arms today and confirmed their guns are running six months behind schedule. This is the company that makes the portable .338 Lapua and .50 BMG rifles favored by U.S. troops in activities such as so-called "hard target interdiction." (i.e. killing vehicles.)
As the government arms race continues to stockpile weapons and ammo in the hands of DHS, the American people are increasingly turning to large-caliber weapons for their own stockpiles. Just last week, I recently went shooting here in Texas where we had three .50 cal Barrett BMG rifles, plus two .338 Lapua magnum sniper rifles, all firing on some thick steel targets. The targets were decimated, and every single shooter in our group was able to put lead on target, even from long-range distances.
Holocaust deniers and DHS deniers
Of course, there are people who deny DHS is engaged in an arms race, just as there are Holocaust deniers who deny Hitler ever took guns away from the Jews (before committing mass murder). Those deniers either claim that these purchases are not happening (but they are), or that the government is only buying such large quantities "to save money."
This is a distraction, of course. You don't "save money" buying things you don't need. Clearly, someone at the top of DHS believes the government needs these armored vehicles and full-auto assault rifles deployed on the streets of America.
But the bigger question -- and this is the question the mainstream media refuses to even ask -- is WHY does DHS need:
Unless you're insane or a denier, the answer is clear: DHS is expecting a large-scale domestic conflict.
Why is DHS expecting a domestic war?
So then, the commonsense question becomes: Why is DHS expecting a domestic war?
I've asked this question of many of my contacts, and what I keep hearing is that an economic collapse is fast approaching, and DHS is likely going to use all this equipment to try to maintain government power during the chaos and riots that are sure to follow the economic collapse. This equipment will all be needed to "maintain order on the streets," I'm told.
But that's only one possible scenario. Another scenario involves the criminally-run government announcing a nationwide gun confiscation scheme (just as Sen. Feinstein says she wants), then attempting to defend itself against the inevitable civil war that will result. The most likely outcome here is that DHS will only be able to control the areas that have been forcibly disarmed such as Chicago and New York City. They will be utterly unable to hold rural territories where freedom-loving Americans have already decided to fight back against tyranny no matter what the cost.
Yet a third scenario could involve government anticipation of a nuclear attack from North Korea followed by a "Red Dawn" land invasion from China or Korea. And DHS is here to fight for freedom and defeat the communists. (And if you believe that, I have a bridge to sell ya... far more likely is that DHS wants to welcome in the communists!)
This domestic war machine was built by claiming it was for terrorists
Keep in mind that DHS was created by President Bush in response to the 9/11 terror attacks. In fact, since 2001, the U.S. federal government has built a domestic war infrastructure by claiming it was all being constructed to protect us from the terrorists.
Now, in 2013, the government has "flipped the script" on who the threat is. According to Janet Napolitano, head of DHS, the real threat to America is now returning veterans and gun owners. So the feds have this massive armament infrastructure and spy grid lockdown over the entire population, and it turns out it was all built not for terrorists but for YOU.
TSA has caught exactly zero terrorists trying to sneak through airport security.
The "war on terror" is and always has been a complete hoax. The purpose of the hoax was to provide a cover story for the building up of a massive domestic military force to be used against the American people when the time comes.
That's what we are really seeing with the purchase of ammo, automatic weapons and armored assault vehicles. This is why cable barriers are being erected on highways across the country. And this is why DHS has recently begun redacting the requested quantities from its public bid documents... in order to make sure the public can no longer learn how much it's stockpiling weapons and ammo.
But none of this is real, right?
Astonishingly, the vast majority of Americans remain completely unaware of any of this. For those mainstream sheeple, anything that doesn't appear on CNN must not be real.
So DHS really isn't buying 1.6 billion rounds of ammo, 7,000+ assault rifles, or 2,700+ armored mine-resistant assault vehicles. All of us who are reporting these purchases are "conspiracy theorists," we're all told, even though what we're reporting on is absolutely true.
Remember this: Former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs has now publicly admitted he was ordered by the White House to deny the existence of the U.S. militarized drone program even while the program existed and was known to be real. Denial has always been a key tactic for any government preparing to do something unethical or criminal.
But I've been told by some seemingly convincing people that none of this is real. It's all just a bad dream, you see, and soon you will wake up and find yourself in the land of the free, where there isn't poison in the crops and there isn't mercury in the vaccines. The President love you, and corporations are all ethical. Senators are humanitarians who put the good of the country ahead of their own selfish greed. The FDA stops censoring the truth about nutritional therapies and the USDA outlaws GMOs.
That's the delusional world that 90% of Americans believe they live in, and they even believe that as long as they just "believe" something, then reality doesn't even matter. Belief IS reality, according to the "Law of Attraction" followers, and if you just believe the government is good, then your belief will make it so.
That's a fascinating bit of self-hypnosis, because DHS doesn't care what you believe. It is stockpiling guns, ammo and armored vehicles for some very real reason. This isn't their imagination: it's hardware.
And hardware is rarely accumulated in such large quantities unless it is deemed necessary for some specific purpose. It seems that the American people -- delusional or otherwise -- may soon discover what purpose DHS has in mind.
Re: DHS new Terror Warning: "We are now focused on Americans taking up arms"
Here you go. Get off your asses and write to these fucks in Washington:
I am writing because I am concerned with the recent purchases of DHS of 2700 armored vehicles for deployment on US streets.
I want to know why the US Government has now purchased nearly 2 BILLION rounds of hollow point ammunition - which according to the Geneva Convention can not be used by the US Military - and instead is being stockpiled by the TSA and DHS.
Why does TSA NEED ammo ANYWAY?
Why is the United States Government, supposedly the government of the "freest country in the world" arming itself against its own people and attempting to PREVENT those same people from being armed themselves?
Are we fast becoming a fascist state? I'm no "conspiracy theorist". I'm a retired military man and I don't like this at all. I've voiced my opinion over and over, only to be completely ignored by the President, Vice President and others.
In my research I have found the following information. The US has purchased and is stockpiling materials that WOULD NOT NORMALLY be used for "fire arms practice" but for the blatant use against human targets:
• Over one million rounds of hollow-point .223 rifle ammo
• Over half a million rounds of non-hollow-point .223 rifle ammo
• 220,000 rounds of 12 gauge shotgun #7 ammo (target ammo)
• Over 200,000 rounds of 12 gauge shotgun #00 buckshot ammo (tactical anti-personnel ammo)
• 66,000 rounds of 12 gauge shotgun slugs (tactical anti-personnel, anti-vehicle rounds)
• Over two million rounds of hollow-point .357 Sig JPH (hollow-point) pistol ammo (anti-personnel)
• Over four million rounds of .40 S&W JPH (hollow-point) pistol ammo (anti-personnel)
• Over 60,000 rounds of .308 match grade anti-personnel sniper rounds (BTHP)
• Plus, hundreds of thousands of additional rounds of .38 special, .45 auto, 9mm, 7.62x39 (AK rifle) ammo, and others.
I demand a response on this from Congress and the President. I personally expect an answer from each office I'm addressing this letter too, including the White House and each of my Senators and other Representatives.
It is time for Congress and the President to stand up for our individual liberties and stop this downward spiral into Communism - before we the People take matters into our own hands.
Libertatem Prius!
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The International® MaxxPro is Navistar Defence’s Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle and incorporates the latest design in armoring technology. Extensively tested by the military and used in theater today, the MaxxPro features a V-shaped hull and other design features that greatly improve survivability. With so much protection, it’s the vehicle that every crew wants when they’re out in the field.
Vehicle Highlights
V-shaped hull to deflect IED blasts away from the vehicle
Vehicle can be fitted with add-on armor
Protection against direct fire and RPG rounds
Vehicle is powered by an International MaxxForce D9.3I6 diesel engine
The MaxxPro MRAP is built to withstand ballistic arms fire, mine blasts, IEDs, and other emerging threats. Its V-shaped hull helps deflect blasts out and away from the crew and its armoring can be customized to meet any mission requirement.
Libertatem Prius!
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Re: DHS new Terror Warning: "We are now focused on Americans taking up arms"
Dear Congressman Lamborn;
I've written you and the rest of the people we sent to DC probably a dozen or more times in recent months since the Sandy Hook murders.
But this letter is not just about my gun rights. It's about MY COUNTRY.
The two Senators are in the tank for gun control. I'm barely sure of your stance. I was an enlisted man in the Air Force, one of the top three in the rank structure. I'm not a lame brain, idiot, sheep or a conspiracy theorist. I ran communications shops and I worked for Reagan and Bush at the White House Communications Agency.
I'm a gun owner and I intend to remain a gun owner, or die in the process. Sir, this state is pressing us on local laws to remove our rights. And the attacks are also coming from DC.
This is a mulch-pronged attack on Americans' rights - and it is specifically because we have a Marxist in the White House, his Cabinet members are fascists and avowed Communists and our Congress is - as Speaker Boehner put it the other "sitting on their asses" while Obama destroys this country for his own personal agenda.
Something has got to be done to stop this guy. The Budget can't be balanced. The military is being gutted (and from what I can see and understand of this, we're still spending the same amount of money as LAST year even after these "cuts").
Why has the House not filed impeachment charges against Obama? Why are we allowing these Marxists to ruin our country?
I was once proud of this country, of my Father who fought in Korea. My son who fought in Iraq. Even myself - I was there for the attempted rescue of the Hostages in Ira and I've served in other parts of the world as well. No more. We have become a country full of sissies, of Leftist anti-American criminals. The Cabinet is full of them - and we are adding another with this so-called "CIA director" soon enough.
This "multifaceted" attack on our country is well planned and in a strategic sense is going to win unless people like yourself, me and the rest of the population stand up and STOP the attacks. The states will lose their gun rights, disarming Americans.
The TSA, DHS and who knows which other "government agencies" have armed themselves with nearly two billion rounds of ammunition - and don't tell this old retired military man "it's for practice". It's not. Hollow points are not for target practice and 2 billion rounds is enough to kill every American several times over. The DHS has "tanks" (Armored vehicles, MRAPs) - WHY? Another 2700 of them were purchased recently. WHY!?
Congress and the President are trying to disarm ME, why?
This is the last letter I plan to write. In Colorado, and almost every other state now, militias are forming... not a small number of people, thousands of people and they are organizing. Never since King George and the Revolutionary War have people in this country been so ANGRY with Congress, the President and the United States Government.
President Obama, I believe wants Americans to rise up so he can "smite" them and put them in their place. This has to stop before it goes further than the power of Congress, or even "We the People" to stop.
I respectfully request that you take the time out of your schedule to address this situation and to find a way to prevent what is most certainly coming before the end of this year.
The American people aren't sheep. They won't go quietly, they will rise up and they will fight and Obama already thinks he is Abraham Lincoln or something - and he is not. He won't go down in history as "a Great Man". He is going to go down in history as the man who destroyed the United States of America. It's time to consider impeachment of this fake American.
Sincerely,
Rick Donaldson
Colorado Springs, CO
Libertatem Prius!
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House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., believes that President Obama doesn’t necessarily have to announce that an American citizen suspected of terrorism has been killed in a drone strike.
“Maybe. It just depends,” Pelosi replied when The Huffington Post asked her if “the administration should acknowledge when it targets a U.S. citizen in a drone strike.” When Anwar al-Awlaki was killed in a drone strike, President Obama announced the killing within hours. “People just want to be protected,” Pelosi also said. “And I saw that when we were fighting them on surveillance, the domestic surveillance. People just want to be protected: ‘You go out there and do it. I’ll criticize you, but I want to be protected.’”
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, responded less blithely. “Anytime the government willfully executes a citizen, regardless of the circumstances, it is a very serious issue,” Lee, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a statement to The Washington Examiner. “As the body that oversees executive branch actions, at the very least, Congress should have a full accounting – even if it must sometimes be in a classified setting – of the specific considerations that went into the decision.”
The top House Democrat suggested that the disclosure issue “depends on the timing, because that’s right — it’s all about timing, imminence. What is it that could be in jeopardy if people know that happened at this time? I just don’t know.”
Lee also acknowledged the possibility of some situations that might call for secrecy, though he emphasized the need for congressional review. “Government should always err on the side of greater transparency and make details public where they can,” he said in his statement. “Where there are limited and serious national security concerns about releasing certain details, the appropriate committees in Congress should have the opportunity to perform oversight.”
Pelosi suggested that she would have the same position if President George W. Bush were still in office. “Those opposed are pretty critical, and other people are just listening to see what this is and why this is necessary, because we’re in a different world,” she told HuffPo.
Lee wants Obama to reveal the Justice Department legal analysis underpinning the drone program to the Judiciary Committee, rather than just the intelligence committees in both chambers of Congress.
“If you’re going to regard somebody as presenting an imminent threat of an attack on the U.S. simply because you have concluded that they are an ‘operational leader’ or they are involved in planning an attack in one way or another, you find yourself giving way to much discretion to the government,” he told The Examiner in an interview after NBC revealed the DOJ white paper on the drone program.
“We know that in some instances where the government has released its legal analysis, it gets it wrong,” Lee added.
March 5, 2013 | 4:09 pm | Modified: March 5, 2013 at 4:20 pm Leave a comment
Attorney General Eric Holder can imagine a scenario in which it would be constitutional to carry out a drone strike against and American on American soil, he wrote in a letter to Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.
“It is possible, I suppose, to imagine an extraordinary circumstance in which it would be necessary and appropriate under the Constitution and applicable laws of the United States for the President to authorize the military to use lethal force within the territory of the United States,” Holder replied in a letter yesterday to Paul’s question about whether Obama “has the power to authorize lethal force, such as a drone strike, against a U.S. citizen on U.S. soil, and without trial.”
Paul condemned the idea. “The U.S. Attorney General’s refusal to rule out the possibility of drone strikes on American citizens and on American soil is more than frightening – it is an affront the Constitutional due process rights of all Americans,” he said in a statement.
Holder noted that Paul’s question was “entirely hypothetical [and] unlikely to occur,” but cited the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks as the type of incidents that might provoke such a response.
“Were such an emergency to arise, I would examine the particular facts and circumstances before advising the President on the scope of his authority,” he concluded.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, an attorney and Judiciary Committee member, told The Washington Examiner last month that the drone policy so far outlined by the administration is too vague.
“That has the potential to swallow the rule,” Lee said after the drone program white paper was leaked. “If you’re going to regard somebody as presenting an imminent threat of an attack on the U.S. simply because you have concluded that they are an ‘operational leader’ or they are involved in planning an attack in one way or another, you find yourself giving way to much discretion to the government.”
Lee said that the White House should release the formal legal analysis underpinning the drone program. “We know that in some instances where the government has released its legal analysis, it gets it wrong,” he said.
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Nikita Khrushchev:"We will bury you"
"Your grandchildren will live under communism."
“You Americans are so gullible.
No, you won’t accept To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. outright, but we’ll keep feeding you small doses of To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. until you’ll finally wake up and find you already have communism.
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. ."
We’ll so weaken your To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. until you’ll To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. like overripe fruit into our hands."
This morning, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) told Glenn Beck’s radio team that he had some new information about the U.S. government’s drone program — information that some individuals might find troubling. Later in the day, TheBlaze obtained letters that were sent to the senator by Attorney General Eric Holder and President Barack Obama’s chief counter-terrorism adviser John Brennan.
It is select contents in Holder’s letter that citizens and political experts, alike, might find most problematic. After Paul sent an inquiry to learn more about the government’s drone program and to ask whether “the President has the power to authorize lethal force, such as a drone strike, against a U.S. citizen on U.S. soil, and without trial,” he received a response that is sure to be scrutinized.
The senator’s inquiry was certainly specific, however the government’s response was not so concise — or at least not pointed enough to put critics like Paul at ease.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., testifies before a state legislative committee on the legalization of growing hemp at the Capitol Annex in Frankfort, Ky., Monday, Feb. 11, 2013. Credit: AP
In a response dated March 4, 2013, Holder wrote that the U.S. government “has not carried out drone strikes in the United States and has no intention of doing so.” The attorney general went on to note that federal officials believe that in areas where there is “well-established law enforcement,” these officials serve as the preferred mode of handling terrorist threats; military options inside U.S. borders are, thus, “rejected.”
“We have a long history of using the criminal justice system to incapacitate individuals located in our country who pose a threat to the United States and its interests abroad,” the letter reads. “Hundreds of individuals have been arrested and convicted of terrorism-related offenses in our federal courts.”
While this would likely set at ease anyone worried about the potential use of drones on U.S. land, Holder doesn’t conclude there. It is the next section of the letter that is the most contentious, as it leaves the door open for potential action in the event of large-scale terror attacks or other monumental disturbances.
“The question you have posed is therefore entirely hypothetical, unlikely to occur, and one we hope no President will ever have to confront,” the letter continues. “It is possible, I suppose, to imagine an extraordinary circumstance in which it would be necessary and appropriate under the Constitution and applicable laws of the United States for the President to authorize the military to use lethal force within the territory of the United States.”
Holder said that the president could be faced with such a situation (“to authorize the military to use such force”) if the need to protect the nation arose during an attack similar to Pearl Harbor or 9/11.
“Were such an emergency to arise, I would examine the particular facts and circumstances before advising the President on the scope of his authority,” he concludes.
View the document, below:
Photo Credit: U.S. Government
In a separate letter dated March 5, 2013, Brennan responded to Paul’s request for the same information, taking a more conclusive stance — one that affirmed that the CIA would not have the power to conduct attacks on American soil.
In his note, Brennan wrote that the Justice Department would respond to legal questions surrounding the president’s authority, but he made it clear that the agency he has been nominated to lead does not have the authority to conduct these drone attacks (the Senate Intelligence Committee voted this afternoon to approve Brennan’s nomination).
“I can, however, state unequivocally that the agency I have been nominated to lead, the CIA, does not conduct lethal operations inside the United States — not does it have any authority to do so,” he wrote. “Thus, if I am fortunate enough to be confirmed as CIA Director, I would have no ‘power’ to authorize such operations.”
Read Brennan’s letter to Paul in its entirety, below:
Photo Credit: U.S. Government
In the past, Brennan has been a staunch defender of drone strikes, as highlighted earlier today by TheBlaze. While he noted that they are used only as a “last resort,” he also said during his confirmation hearing that he had no qualms with the administration’s decision to use the tactic against U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan. Both of these men, killed in Yemen in Sept. 2011, were U.S. citizens.
Paul appeared this afternoon on Sean Hannity’s radio show, where the congressman discussed the letters. The two spoke candidly about Holder’s and Brennan’s responses to his questions. He characterized the attorney general’s answer as a “maybe” when asked about whether drone strikes would be acceptable on U.S. land.
“In that letter, he refuses to rule out using drone stikes on Americans, on American soil,” Paul told Hannity. “The reason this is troubling is that we’re not talking about someone holding a weapon, we’re not taking about someone with a grenade launcher. Many of these drone strikes are against people who are walking and talking, sitting and eating or sleeping in their house.”
Rather than attacking citizens who are suspected of terrorism or terror ties, Paul said that Americans ”need to be charged with something and get our day in court.”
This is a breaking news story. Stay tuned for updates.
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Nikita Khrushchev:"We will bury you"
"Your grandchildren will live under communism."
“You Americans are so gullible.
No, you won’t accept To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. outright, but we’ll keep feeding you small doses of To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. until you’ll finally wake up and find you already have communism.
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We’ll so weaken your To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. until you’ll To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. like overripe fruit into our hands."
(CNSNews.com) - The impending sequester did not prevent the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) from acting in late February to seal a $50-million deal to purchase new uniforms for its agents--uniforms that will be partly manufactured in Mexico.
oon after this new investment in TSA uniforms, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano warned Americans that the lines are already lengthening at airports due to the sequester.
"We are already seeing the effect on the ports of entry, the big airports for example," Napolitano told Politico on Monday. "Some of them had very long lines this weekend."
"Look people, I don't mean to scare, I mean to inform," Napolitiano said."If you're traveling, get to the airport earlier than you otherwise would. There's only so much we can do with personnel and please don't yell at the customs officers, the TSA officers. They aren't responsible for sequester."
On Feb. 27, the agency announced that on Feb. 22 it had awarded a one-year contract to VF Imagewear, Inc., which owns the Lee brand and Wrangler Hero, to provide the uniforms. “This contract will address the requirements of the TSA, Office of Security Operations, TSA Uniform Program,” the award states.
The TSA employs 50,000 security officers, inspectors, air marshals and managers. That means that the uniform contract will pay the equivalent of $1,000 per TSA employee over the course of the year.
This is not the first time VF Imagewear has been commissioned to make TSA uniforms. The company secured a $98 million contract in 2010 that expired on Feb. 17, 2013.
The latest contract will run until Feb. 17, 2014, with a one-year optional transitional period. By next year, the DHS hopes to have TSA and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) secure their uniforms with a single combined contract.
TSA's new $50-million one-year uniform contract was announced just two days before the automatic, across-the-board spending cuts, known as the sequester, took effect. The cuts, according to CBO, amount to $44 billion in reduced spending in fiscal 2013.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. (AP Photo)
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has said the sequester will force furloughs at the TSA, and has warned of increased waiting times at airports.
The TSA provides uniforms to new employees, but requires its employees to buy their own replacements.
“You will be measured for your new uniforms at your first orientation session,” the fact sheet says. “TSA will provide your initial uniform issue consisting of 3 long sleeve shirts, 3 short sleeve shirts, 2 pairs of trousers, 2 ties, and one belt, sweater, socks, and jacket.”
The TSA says its officers are responsible for providing their own black leather shoes with non-slip soles to wear with their uniform. The TSA may authorize an annual uniform allowance for officers to assist with uniform replacement expenses but officers will be responsible for cleaning, maintaining, and replacing worn uniforms.
In a statement to CNSNews.com, the TSA said the uniforms will be "manufactured in the U.S. and Mexico."
Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the TSA is required to procure uniforms made in the United States. However, uniform products made in Mexico, Canada or Chile must also be considered due to the North American Free Trade Agreement and the U.S.-Chilean Free Trade Agreement.
"TSA's contract with VF Imagewear for TSO uniforms, which has some manufacturing facilities in Mexico, complies with the law," the TSA said.
Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) has called on the TSA to make its uniforms in America. According to Speier, VF Imagewear in the past has sewn the TSA uniforms in Mexico, representing roughly 40% of the total cost of producing the uniforms and 80% of the labor.
“Make it in America is a common sense policy,” Speier said in 2011. “When it comes to U.S. government contracts, we have a right to demand that taxpayer dollars are used to create American jobs, not foreign ones.”
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Nikita Khrushchev:"We will bury you"
"Your grandchildren will live under communism."
“You Americans are so gullible.
No, you won’t accept To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. outright, but we’ll keep feeding you small doses of To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. until you’ll finally wake up and find you already have communism.
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. ."
We’ll so weaken your To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. until you’ll To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. like overripe fruit into our hands."
I am a seeker of TRUTH sharing it with others. Sometimes truth frightens people which is not my intent. My intent is for everyone to claim their own power through knowledge! Everyone has untapped Energy within themselves and truth channeled into LOVE for each other and all things can change our world, we do have the Power on our side! We ARE the Power together and able to change it all through LOVE and LIGHT!
Let me explain the Tennessee State Guard first. 22 Governors got together last year and created State Militia/Guards that can not be federalized as the National Guards can be. They also did this due to the Federal government taking the equipment from the National Guards and sending it over to Iraq and Afghanistan. When the Governors have requested the equipment back for the state the Federal government has said "It is too expensive to bring back." The states have had to do without equipment for any emergencies of the individual states.
The governors decided they would form their own State Militias/Guards that can not be controlled by the federal government at any time and they are strictly under the State control along with all the equipment purchased.
The email with this information is from someone I have the utmost respect for.
Here is the contents of the email from the person who is part of the Tennessee State Militia and was at a meeting a couple of weeks ago after getting the following email from them today 3/4/13 regarding the above Armored DHS vehicles.
At our last "meeting" several weeks ago, we were advised by a High Ranking Official of the State Guard that they stopped vehicles of this type coming from KY into TN. The troops were wearing very distinct uniforms for the Dept. of Homeland Security that were not recognized and the men they stopped were Eastern European, probably Russian. Apparently, there is some type of FEMA/DHS camp somewhere in Kentucky?
After receiving the above email, we spoke on the phone, I wanted to find out more information about the Russian/Eastern European DHS troops that were handling the armored vehicles.
During our phone conversation. They told me that the uniforms were not typical DHS uniforms but they had Eagles on their sleeves and it was stressed these were different DHS uniforms than regular ones. The Russian/Eastern troops were not armed that were in the DHS uniforms and they were very polite to the State Militia. They were stopped from coming into Tennessee. This person told me that in Gatlinburg, Tennessee people are reporting being questioned and stopped by DHS that are Russian. I was also told that the high ranking official mentioned Kentucky FEMA camps.
I wrote about how I found out the Smoky Mountains are part of the UN last year, as most of our National Parks, including the Grand Canyon after I saw a plaque (took pictures of it) at Newfoundland Gap last year.
After speaking with this person, I have to wonder if Russian UN troops are now being placed around the Smoky Mountains.
I have researched and found what could be the Military installation that the armored vehicle came from pictured in the area of Kentucky, I saw them. It is The Bluegrass Army Chemicals installation of 14600 acres. That installation has 523 tons of Nerve Chemical weapons. It is also a possible FEMA camp. It has a very strange layout. All of that information is in the video.
Video about the Russian Troops, DHS vehicles, 22 State Guard/Militias, Kentucky Chemical Depot/FEMA camp?, UN Biospheres:
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Nikita Khrushchev:"We will bury you"
"Your grandchildren will live under communism."
“You Americans are so gullible.
No, you won’t accept To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. outright, but we’ll keep feeding you small doses of To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. until you’ll finally wake up and find you already have communism.
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. ."
We’ll so weaken your To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. until you’ll To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. like overripe fruit into our hands."
Re: DHS new Terror Warning: "We are now focused on Americans taking up arms"
I was listening to Levin last night.
He thinks that the "2 billion bullets" and "armored cars" for DHS is "normal" and "conspiracy theory".
Ordinarily I'd agree with him. However, the bullets are NOT for target practice, almost ALL of the actual contracting and calls for contracts were for "hollow point"... .223, 5.56, 10mm and some other stuff I saw.
NONE of that, is for target practice as Levin noted.
He also went on to say "Of course they buy armored cars to use, and of course they practice urban assault techniques" or words to that effect anyway.
Nonsense. We've NEVER EVER had military exercises in populated cities until recently. That is ALL NEW.
2700 armored vehicles is a hell of a lot of equipment.
There are 151 cities with an "International Airport". There are roughly 10 cities with 1 million or more population.
Those 10 cities are New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Antonio, San Diego, Dallas and San Jose.
below is a list of the top 20 cities I copied from someplace:
1. New York, New York (pop 8,213,839)
2. Los Angeles, California (pop 3,794,640)
3. Chicago, Illinois (pop 2,824,584)
4. Houston, Texas (pop 2,076,189)
5. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (pop 1,517,628)
6. Phoenix, Arizona (pop 1,476,331)
7. San Diego, California (pop 1,284,347)
8. San Antonio, Texas (pop 1,258,733)
9. Dallas, Texas (pop 1,246,185)
10. Detroit, Michigan (pop 921,147)
11. San Jose, California (pop 908,870)
12. Indianapolis, Indiana (pop 789,250)
13. Jacksonville, Florida (pop 786,938)
14. San Francisco, California (pop 777,660)
15. Columbus, Ohio (pop 738,782)
16. Austin, Texas (pop 708,293)
17. Memphis, Tennessee (pop 680,515)
18. Baltimore, Maryland (pop 640,064)
19. Charlotte, North Carolina (pop 634,059)
20. Fort Worth, Texas (pop 622,311)
Ok.... Let's ASSUME for a minute that we have those 20, PLUS 150 "major cities with international airports" (and yes, I KNOW some of them will be the same) but for the sake of argument, let's add them together to get
20 + 151 = 171
Ok, 171 MAJOR cities. Right? With me?
Now... 2700/171 = 15.7 vehicles per city.
1.6 BILLION bullets / 31900378 (the population of the 20 cities) = 50.156145485172620838536772197496
What I just did was figure out how many bullets per person of the total population of the top 20 cities versus the number of bullets. 50 bullets each, with 15 vehicles per city.
That's FIVE bullets PER PERSON for the entire US Population.
====================
according to some estimates about 45% of the population or 52 million of American households own 260 million guns.
let's give every probable gun owner say, 500 rounds per weapon. (I know many have much more and some have guns and 10 bullets)....
260,000,000 * 500 = 130,000,000,000 or 130 billion rounds....
I reckon that a better estimate might be 500 rounds PER PERSON.
So 52,000,000 * 500 = 26,000,000,000 or 26 billion rounds.
====================
We all know there are a LOT more guns than the above estimates since Obama started increasing the sales to Americans (I guess that's one thing we can thank him for huh?) and probably the number of guns is 50% higher now than what we see above. (Remember most of this is guessing on my part). If that's the case, MOST of them bought somewhere around 300-1000 rounds per new gun (I know at the gun shows I've visited in recent months the count is around 1000 new rounds per 1 new gun, that's pretty much standard what I saw people buying, some were buying more, some less, but the average according to one ammo group I spoke to say "about 1000 rds per gun")
Americans are gearing up and getting mad. They are angry, they can see what's in front of their face, conspiracy or NOT, they KNOW the TSA and DHS is buying out ammo as fast as it can snap it up. They are adding armored cars as quickly as they can, in mass quantities. Their training hasn't stopped regardless of Sequester. The government - those running it, are obviously Socialist and worst, advisers are KNOWN TERRORISTS (Bill Ayers for instance) who stated they would have to "do in" 25 million of the population.
Look it's a foregone conclusion that something bad is up, we're being duped - no, actively screwed over in our faces, and the rest of the world is collectively rubbing its hands together waiting for collapse. Russia is prepping their people for nuclear war, China is actively preparing to attack the USA. Islam is screaming for our destruction (as usual). The US is for all intents and purposes IGNORING all this and carrying on as if nothing is happening.
And they are trying to disarm you, me and the normal guy on the street out here.
So Levin... is, for once, wrong. This is NOT conspiracy theory.
Libertatem Prius!
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It is time for Americans to start thinking seriously about the possibility that their sons and daughters may be put in the untenable position going house-to-house, confiscating firearms and ammunition from their friends and family? What will they do?
(Are you sure? A military comprised primarily of sons, daughters, brothers and sisters of gun owning families.)
Will soldiers look closely if they are ordered to search American families’ homes? Will most intentionally not see the old double barrel shotgun in the closet of another soldier’s father or grandfather? Will they speak quietly to local veterans and relatives telling them where they might search next? Will enough refuse, making it impossible for those like Hagel, Kerry, Brennan and certain military brass to fully weaken America and her future? The veterans I know understand that the Second Amendment is in fact the keystone (Link dead: Recommended replacement link) of the Constitution and without it - all the others would be put in jeopardy (if not now, then surely in a disarmed future). The Founders certainly understood this, why can’t Obama and his friends?
Will a young soldier choose Obama and their personal career over the Constitution, over the freedom of their families and their families’ families, over the sacrifices of veterans in whose boots each soldier now walks; over the ability of their own wives, daughters and sons to defend themselves; and over the ability (in an increasingly dangerous world) of ordinary Americans to stand against tyranny? What choices will local Sheriffs, FBI agents, ATF agents, local police make? What do you think?
If you are on the ‘progressive’ left, what do you think? Are you sure? Really?
Let’s look at a few demographics that might cause you on the left to reassess your certainty.
In 2001, a survey was completed by Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) in North Carolina of the 50 states, DC and Territories asking people nationwide if there are any guns in their homes. The percentage of people having guns in their homes ranged from 59.7% in Wyoming to 3.8% in Washington, D.C. with an average in the 50 states (plus DC) of 37.6%. Even though this poll is somewhat dated, it’s sufficiently accurate for purpose of this article (if anything the percentage of gun owners in many states is rising now).
The military also tracks statistics regarding its forces. In 2010, the available pool of 18-24 years old enlistees was 29,004,915 and the number of actual recruits was 156,289 - just .005% (half of one percent). Additionally, they calculate the numbers of recruits coming from the various states in terms of the number available in relationship to the number of recruits actually provided. For example: The state pulling the most weight compared to the others was Florida (+2.30%) by providing 7.50% of military recruits even though they have available only 5.20% of the nation’s 18 to 24 year olds. (Note: comparing Florida’s recruiting numbers with its gun numbers is interesting because the gun percentage has been negatively effected, skewed downward, by the massive number of retirees in Florida with no guns.) The state puling the least weight compared to the others was - wait for it - New York. NY had 6.6% of the nations’ available 18 to 24 year olds but provided only 4.10% of the nation’s recruits for a net contribution of minus -2.5%. New York is not contributing its ‘fair share’.
The regional numbers gives us a sense who’s doing their fair share (in terms of slacking or pulling their weight) providing for the defense of the nation:
NORTHEAST REGION had 18.2% of the available pool of recruits but provided only 12.7% of recruits giving a contribution number of –5.5%.
NORTH CENTRAL REGION had 23.3% of the available pool of recruits but provided only 20.2% of recruits giving a contribution number of –2.1%.
SOUTH REGION had 35.8% of the available pool of recruits but provided only 43.4% of recruits giving a contribution number of +7.6%.
WEST REGION had 23.7% of the available pool of recruits but provided only 23.6% of recruits giving a contribution number of -.1%. (This group would have been a net positive contribution region but for the presence of California’s minus 1.6%.)
[22 of 50 states did not provide a percentage of actual recruits equal to or greater than their percentage of available 18 to 25 year olds]
Now let’s look at how the above numbers relate to the percentage of guns in homes in each state. The 22 states plus DC with a net negative contribution to the nation’s defense had an average of 31.26% of their households having guns. The 27 states having a net positive contribution to the nation’s defense had an average of 42.07% of households having guns.
The 10 states (plus DC) with the lowest percentage of guns in households had 33% of the national pool of available 18-24 year olds and only provided 25.02% of recruits. They had an average of 16.45% of households having guns. Slackers.
The 10 states with the highest percentage of guns in households had 9% of the national pool of available 18-24 year olds and provided 10.81% of the nations recruits. They had an average of 52% of their households having guns. Oorah!
Conclusions to be drawn from the above percentages are that states with the lowest number of households having guns are the biggest slackers when it comes to the nation’s defense and states with the highest percentage of guns in their households make the biggest contribution to the nation’s defense.
I’m not knocking the recruits from the above states that failed to provide their ‘fair share’ of recruits. I honor them, like I do all veterans. It’s not their fault where they live. But how much do you want to bet these recruits from slacker states overwhelming came from the families having guns in their households?
My brothers and I all have guns; we’ve had guns since we were very young. I used to take my shotgun to the middle school I attended and keep it in my locker so I could shoot a few squirrels after the school day. No big deal. I’m the youngest of four boys and every one of us joined the military because our father served in WWII (he was in General Patton’s3rd Army, fought in the Battle of the Bulge, was a guard at the Nuremberg War Trials). I can say without doubt it mattered a lot to me that my dad served; and I would suspect that that still matters to those who serve that some of their family members also served. When I served, most of the men and women in our P-3 squadron had family who had served before them. I think it is safe to assume that prior military service of family members is a common trait of today’s soldier (by their fruit you will recognize them).
Additionally, military families are much more likely to have guns in their households than civilian families; and thus it stands to reason, that families who have family members who have served are also more likely to have guns. (Guns are fun - whether for hunting, target shooting, competition events for men, women, boys and girls, gay, lesbian, LGBT, etc. – and guns are necessary for self-defense and unfortunately for keeping the politicians from slipping over the line into tyranny.)
Regretfully for today’s young people, (according to a 2009 Gallup Poll)“Veteran status is just slightly above 10% for men under age 35, rises slightly among men between 35 and 54, and then begins to rise sharply among men 55 years of age or older”. In 2009, only about 7% of men 18-24 years old and 2% of women the same age were either veterans or on active duty. Men 80-84 years old in 2009 (WWII service), 74% were veterans. This decline in reported veteran/active duty status correlates perfectly to the end of the draft in 1973 (Vietnam war ended in 1975). However, given that every man and woman currently serving are volunteers (about 1,350,000 in 2006), I would expect that most of these soldiers come from families with brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, or grandfathers who served; and as such, are from families who are more likely to have guns.
How about political party affiliation, the military and guns?
Gallup reported that 34% of veterans and those on active duty (2009) identified as Republicans, 29% identified as Democrats (coming from gun families I bet), and 33% as Independents. An interesting tidbit in the 2009 Gallup Poll, is that the number veterans of the WWII generation identifying as Republicans was only 2 percentage points greater than non-veterans identifying as Republicans, which indicates to me that almost everyone knew WHY they were fighting (both parties knew).
[From visiting military forums from time to time, I get a sense that the number of military identifying as Independents and Libertarians is growing.]
Regarding guns in homes and Party identification, the NYT (can’t believe I’m citing the NYT) had an interesting article this past December. The article broke down the likelihood of having guns in voters’ households by various factors such as Party, race, gender, region, population density, etc. based upon 2008 exit polling. Overall, in 2008, 42% of all voters had guns in their households. However, only 31% of Democrats had guns in their households in 2008 and that number has been decreasing for the past 40 years.
Republicans had a respectable 56% of their voter households having guns. So we have a military that consistently votes Republican, military families more likely than civilians to have guns, gun states provide more than their ‘fair share’ of military recruits and Republican families more likely to have guns. All good. (Unfortunately, the exit polling reflected in the article did not provide info for Independents, etc. It does cite a survey indicating about 30% of Independents, 50% of Republicans, and 22% of Democrats had guns in 2010.) Given the current Obama assault on the Second Amendment, I would expect that the number of Republican, Libertarian and Independent gun owners is increasing, sales certainly are.
[If we could only get Democrats to start enjoying gun activities more, maybe we could bridge the partisan divide.]
From the same poll, let’s look at race and guns in American households. The article indicates that 37% of white Democrat voters have guns in their households and 55% of white Republicans; 28% of Hispanic Democrats and 32% of Hispanic Republicans voters have guns in their households; 5% of Asian Democrats have guns in their households and 22% of Asian Republicans; and 17% of Black Democrat voters have guns in their households and 41% of Black Republicans have guns. Again Republicans (probably mostly conservatives and independents, as opposed to establishment GOP) of every ethnic group have a much greater likelihood of having guns in their homes. I would suggest a substantial majority of those from every ethnic group serving likely come from families that have guns in their households.
In 2010, the breakdown according to race and gender of the military’s Active Component Enlistment was basically 69.2% White (72% of male recruits are White, 57.9% of female recruits are White), 18.2% Black (15.8% of male recruits are Black, 27.9% of female recruits are Black), 15.7% Hispanic and 80.3% non-Hispanic (a bit confusing because numbers don’t add up – maybe some recruits are reporting multiple ethic backgrounds – like Sen. Elizabeth Warren saying she’s Native American when she’s not). Women make up 14% of today’s Active Component of Enlistment in the military (18-44 year olds).
So what does this mean? It means that the vast majority of military would have to disarm members of their own families, or their friends’ families if Obama gives the order to confiscate the firearms owned by law abiding Americans.
Would they? I don’t know. I hope not, given that their allegiance is supposedly to the Constitution and not Obama. I can’t believe that our military would go in lock step to implement such an order.
Would they sabotage Obama, Holder and Napolitano’s efforts? I don’t know. I think that’s possible, maybe ever probable.
I do hope that those in the military are seriously considering their options. Maybe they will follow the lead of Obama’s union buddies and organize a massive sit-down strike or a massive resignation based upon a reasonable belief that the order is unlawful and in violation of the Second Amendment of the Constitution. Who knows? Maybe a few in the JAG Corps are privately preparing (at least thinking though the procedures, arguments and process) a possible legal action challenging the lawfulness of such an order to the Federal Courts.
Don’t the Occupy Wall Street types realize that they too will have their guns taken? Don’t they realize the really rich they hate will probably always have access to guns? It could be a reason why some legislators are turning to the ideas of having expensive liability insurance for gun owners and high taxes on ammo. Poor and middle class people couldn’t afford to own or enjoy guns - leaving only government people, criminals and the well off having guns.
So what do I think gun owners might be thinking about these days?
We all need to do what we can! Gun people need to get to know and support their local sheriff, talk to those in the military, talk to veterans, find attorneys who will represent those who are arrested for refusing to turn over firearms, support lawsuits against new gun laws, get involved in your community, get organizations to set up shooting competitions in their town for young people, get your kids involved in shooting competitions, call elected officials, and work to get those with a gun control fetish thrown out of office. We can’t allow the nanny state progressives to succeed in painting gun ownership and sport as anything other than something everyone should want to take part in (except those with serious mental illness; and no, having a sad day every once in a while is not a mental illness).
I pray confiscation doesn’t happen, but people in both the military and civilian worlds need to be prepared for the worst and decide how they will manage to hold to their principles. It could be that if millions of Americans (civilian and military) are prepared to be arrested for their right to keep firearms (taking a page from Martin Luther King), the government’s efforts would fall apart. However, if our military does prove itself to be willing to confiscate law abiding American citizens guns, then maybe we don’t deserve our freedoms - and all the sacrifices of all veterans who have come and gone before will have been for naught.
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Nikita Khrushchev:"We will bury you"
"Your grandchildren will live under communism."
“You Americans are so gullible.
No, you won’t accept To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. outright, but we’ll keep feeding you small doses of To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. until you’ll finally wake up and find you already have communism.
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. ."
We’ll so weaken your To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. until you’ll To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. like overripe fruit into our hands."
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is calling for a federal crackdown on “conspiracy-minded antigovernment Patriot groups.” In a statement released today to coincide with the publication of the Spring issue of the SPLC newsletter Investigative Report, the Center warned of “an 813-percent rise since 2008″ of “conspiracy-minded antigovernment Patriot groups” and requested Attorney-General Eric Holder form an “interagency task force to assess the adequacy of federal resources devoted to the threat.”
“As in the period before the Oklahoma City bombing, we now are seeing ominous threats from those who believe that the government is poised to take their guns,” SPLC President Richard Cohen was quoted in the press release. Cohen is a member of the Department of Homeland Security’s Countering Violent Extremism Working Group.
A Google Maps map created by the SPLC to accompany their press release displays location and brand data for the 1,360 organizations the Center says exist. A sampling of locations:
Soldiers of the Nevada National Guard 92nd Civil Support Team take material samples during a 2005 ricin attack simulation in Sparks, Nevada.
The San Francisco Bay area hosts seven of what the SPLC termed “conspiracy-minded antigovernment Patriot groups,” including six chapters of the Nation of Islam and one chapter of the Christian Guardians,
Hawai’i was the only state to have no “conspiracy-minded antigovernment Patriot groups,” according to the SPLC map.
The SPLC says that “conspiracy-minded antigovernment Patriot groups” have plotted to spread ricin powder, attack federal government facilities, and murder judges.
Capping four years of explosive growth sparked by the election of America’s first black president and anger over the economy, the number of conspiracy-minded antigovernment “Patriot” groups reached an all-time high of 1,360 in 2012, while the number of hard-core hate groups remained above 1,000. As President Obama enters his second term with an agenda of gun control and immigration reform, the rage on the right is likely to intensify.
The furious reaction to the Obama administration’s gun control proposals is reminiscent of the anger that greeted the passage of the 1993 Brady Bill and the 1994 ban on assault weapons supported by another relatively liberal Democrat — Bill Clinton. The passage of those bills, along with what was seen by the right as the federal government’s violent suppression of political dissidents at Waco, Texas, and Ruby Ridge, Idaho, in the early 1990s, led to the first wave of the Patriot movement that burst into public consciousness with the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. The number of Patriot groups in that era peaked in 1996 at 858, more than 500 groups fewer than the number active in 2012.
For many, the election of America’s first black president symbolizes the country’s changing demographics, with the loss of its white majority predicted by 2043. (In 2011, for the first time, non-white births outnumbered the births of white children.) But the backlash to that trend predates Obama’s presidency by many years. Between 2000 and 2010, the number of hate groups rose from 602 to more than 1,000, where the count remains today. Now that comprehensive immigration reform is poised to legitimize and potentially accelerate the country’s demographic change, the backlash to that change may accelerate as well.
While the number of hate groups remained essentially unchanged last year — going from 1,018 in 2011 to 1,007 in 2012 — the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) count of 1,360 Patriot groups in 2012 was up about 7% from the 1,274 active in 2011. And that was only the latest growth spurt in the Patriot movement, which generally believes that the federal government is conspiring to take Americans’ guns and destroy their liberties as it paves the way for a global “one-world government.” From a mere 149 organizations in 2008, the number of Patriot groups shot up to 512 in 2009, jumped again to 824 in 2010, and then skyrocketed to 1,274 in 2011 before hitting their all-time high last year.
Now, in the wake of the mass murder of 26 children and adults at a Connecticut school and the Obama-led gun control efforts that followed, it seems likely that that growth will pick up speed once again.
The Hysteria Mounts
Even before the Dec. 14 shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School, gun and ammunition sales shot up in the wake of the re-election of the country’s first black president, the result of shrill conspiracy theories about Obama’s secret plans to confiscate Americans’ guns. When the killings actually did spark gun control efforts that clearly had not been in the Obama administration’s plans, the reaction on the political right was so harsh that it seemed to border on hysteria.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) proposed a law that would nullify any executive gun control actions by Obama, accusing the president of having a “king complex.” U.S. Rep. Trey Radel (R-Fla.) said the president could be impeached for those actions. State lawmakers in Arizona, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee proposed laws that sought to prevent federal gun control from applying to their states.
Richard Mack, a former Arizona sheriff who sued the Clinton administration over the Brady Bill’s imposition of background checks on gun buyers, claimed that of 200 sheriffs he’d met with, most “have said they would lay down their lives first rather than allow any more federal control.” Matt Barber of the anti-gay Liberty Counsel said he feared that the nation, which he described as already on the brink of civil unrest, was headed for “a second civil war.” “Freedom ends. Tyranny begins,” tweeted Fox News Radio host Todd Starnes. “Get ready,” TeaParty.org said. “Right now government gun grabbing plans are being covertly organized.”
“MARTIAL LAW IN THE UNITED STATES IS NOW A VERY REAL POSSIBILITY!” added the ConservativeDaily.com’s Tony Adkins, responding to Obama’s use of executive orders to further gun control with a doomsday prediction that could have come straight from the Patriot movement. “SUSPENSION OF THE U.S. CONSTITUTION IS A VERY REAL POSSIBILITY!” The Conservative Monster, a similar website, concluded that the president was conspiring with a variety of foreign enemies “to force Socialism on the American people.”
Even further to the right, the reaction was more intense yet (see also related story, p. 36). Chuck Baldwin, a Montana-based Patriot leader long associated with the Constitution Party, made the unusual claim that Christ had ordered his disciples to carry “their own personal arms” and vowed to refuse to register or surrender his firearms. The Oath Keepers, a conspiracy-oriented Patriot group of current and former military and law enforcement officials, issued a threat — “MESSAGE TO THE OATH BREAKERS AND TRAITORS: We will never disarm” — and added that gun control plans were “unconstitutional filth.” Judicial Watch founder Larry Klayman called the proposals “a declaration of war against the American people” and demanded “liberation” from the “evil clutches” of proponents.
The one sector of the radical right that shrank dramatically last year was the “nativist extremist” groups that go beyond advocating for immigration reduction and confront or physically harass suspected unauthorized immigrants. From a 2010 high of 319 groups, they fell over the following two years by about 90%, to 38 groups. The collapse was due to criminal scandals, internecine sniping within the movement, and the co-opting of their issue by state legislatures.
Progress and Backlashes
Even before serious talk of gun control began in Washington, the far right was already in something of a meltdown in the immediate aftermath of Obama’s re-election, which came to many who got their campaign news from right-wing sources as a jarring shock. Hundreds of thousands of Americans signed petitions seeking the secession of each of the 50 states. Right-wing outfits like TeaParty.org said a “Communist coup” was under way. The anti-gay Family Research Council charged Obama with “dismantling” the country.
Polling after the election showed how broad antipathy toward President Obama remained in a deeply polarized America. A Public Policy Poll survey found that 49% of all Republicans believed that ACORN — a community organizing group that went belly up in 2010 after attacks from the far right — had stolen the election from Mitt Romney. A quarter of GOP members in the same poll favored secession. A January 2013 poll from Fairleigh Dickinson University’s PublicMind project found that 36% of all Americans still don’t believe Obama is a citizen, despite the 2011 release of the president’s “long-form” birth certificate.
As they did in 2008 and 2009, groups on the radical right clearly benefited from that antipathy. “Since Obama’s first term, our numbers have doubled and now we’re headed to a second term, it’s going to triple,” one Virginia Klansman told WTVR-TV in Richmond. Daniel Miller, president of the secessionist Texas National Movement, said that his membership shot up 400% after Obama’s re-election. White News Now, a website run by white supremacist Jamie Kelso, said that it had had “an incredible year” in the run-up to the vote, reaching more people than ever.
To the surprise of many prognosticators, anti-black racism in America — not just that limited to the far right — actually rose over the four years of Obama’s first term, according to a 2012 Associated Press poll. The poll found 51% of Americans expressed explicitly anti-black attitudes, compared to 48% in 2008, while 56% showed implicitly anti-black attitudes, up from 49% four years earlier. Another AP poll, in 2011, found that 52% of non-Latino whites expressed explicitly anti-Latino attitudes, a figure that rose to 59% when measured by an implicit attitudes test.
“We have this false idea that there is uniformity in progress and that things change in one big step. That is not the way history has worked,” Jelani Cobb, a history professor and director of the Institute for African-American Studies at the University of Connecticut, told the Huffington Post with regard to the AP poll findings. “When we’ve seen progress, we’ve also seen backlash.”
Some broad social progress that did occur last year — the rapidly increasing acceptance of LGBT people and same-sex marriage — fueled just such a backlash among anti-gay religious groups that saw themselves beginning to lose the issue. (A December USA Today poll found that 53% of Americans now support same-sex marriage, up dramatically from 1996, when 27% supported such unions.)
The American Family Association issued predictions for the future that included the claims that conservative Christians will be treated like African Americans before the civil rights movement, that the state will take charge of children at birth, and that cities with names like St. Petersburg will be forced to change their names. Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality said the 2012 election of openly gay Tammy Baldwin to a Senate seat representing Wisconsin signaled that America is “falling apart.” The volume of these kinds of comments seemed higher than ever before.
Conspiracies and Terror
Another factor driving the expansion of the radical right over the last decade or so has been the mainstreaming of formerly marginal conspiracy theories. The latest and most dramatic example of that may be the completely baseless claim that Agenda 21 — a United Nations sustainability plan that was signed by President George H.W. Bush but has no mandatory provisions whatsoever — is part of a plan to impose socialism on America and strip away private property rights.
That claim has been pushed heavily by, among others, the John Birch Society, a conspiracist Patriot organization that was exiled from the conservative movement a half century ago after claiming President Dwight D. Eisenhower was a Communist agent (see story, p. 24)."Last year, the Republican National Committee passed a plank opposing Agenda 21 and describing it as a “destructive and insidious scheme” to impose “socialist/communist redistribution of wealth.” The state of Alabama passed a law barring any policies traceable to Agenda 21 without “due process.”
The radical right last year produced more than its fair share of political violence. Most dramatically, a neo-Nazi gunman stormed into a Sikh temple in Wisconsin, murdering six people before killing himself. In Georgia, meanwhile, officials arrested 10 people, most of them active-duty military, who were allegedly part of a plot to take over the Army’s Fort Stewart, among many other things. The group is accused of murdering two former members suspected of talking.
Then, this January, an Alabama high school student was arrested for allegedly plotting to attack his black and gay classmates and bomb his school. Former friends of the student said he and a group of up to 11 other students regularly shouted “white power” and gave stiff-arm Nazi salutes in the halls of their Seale, Ala., school but were ignored by school officials and security officers.
These were only the latest incidents of just over 100 domestic radical-right plots, conspiracies and racist rampages that the SPLC has counted since the Oklahoma City bombing left 168 men, women and children dead in 1995.
Now, it seems likely that the radical right’s growth will continue. In 2012, before Obama’s re-election and the Newtown, Conn., massacre, the rate of Patriot growth had slackened somewhat, although it remained significant. Anger over the idea of four more years under a black, Democratic president — and, even more explosively, the same kinds of gun control efforts that fueled the militia movement of the 1990s — seems already to be fomenting another Patriot spurt.
Even before the election last year, self-described Patriots sounded ready for action. “Our Federal Government is just a tool of International Socialism now, operating under UN Agendas not our American agenda,” the United States Patriots Union wrote last year in a letter “sent to ALL conservative state legislators, all states.” “This means that freedom and liberty must be defended by the states under their Constitutional Balance of Power, or we are headed to Civil War wherein the people will have no choice but to take matters into their own hands.”
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Nikita Khrushchev:"We will bury you"
"Your grandchildren will live under communism."
“You Americans are so gullible.
No, you won’t accept To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. outright, but we’ll keep feeding you small doses of To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. until you’ll finally wake up and find you already have communism.
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We’ll so weaken your To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. until you’ll To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. like overripe fruit into our hands."
Re: DHS new Terror Warning: "We are now focused on Americans taking up arms"
LOL @ The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is calling for a federal crackdown on “conspiracy-minded antigovernment Patriot groups.” In a statement released today to coincide with the publication of the Spring issue of the SPLC newsletter Investigative Report, the Center warned of “an 813-percent rise since 2008″ of “conspiracy-minded antigovernment Patriot groups” and requested Attorney-General Eric Holder form an “interagency task force to assess the adequacy of federal resources devoted to the threat.”
813%?
They are way the fuck off.... .WAY off.
And there's no bloody conspiracy there. It's SIMPLE and EASY.
The PEOPLE don't like the GOVERNMENT telling them what they can do. Period
Libertatem Prius!
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Re: DHS new Terror Warning: "We are now focused on Americans taking up arms"
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