GOP Push to Force ISPs to Track User History Approved by House

What happened to the presumption of innocence? We the people are guilty until proven innocent, anymore. Since the Patriot Act shredded the Bill of Rights, and the Military Commissions Act of 2006 did away with due process and habeas corpus, there is very little, if anything, safeguarding our individual freedom against arbitrary and lawless state action.

Now, once again, under the guise of protection and security, our government, in particular, the GOP, in order to empower themselves, will target and violate the rights of law abiding American citizens, by not only  tracking our every move, but also collecting that information and creating an easily accessible database.

A last-minute rewrite of the bill expands the information that commercial Internet providers are required to store to include customers' names, addresses, phone numbers, credit card numbers, bank account numbers, and temporarily-assigned IP addresses, some committee members suggested. By a 7-16 vote, the panel rejected an amendment that would have clarified that only IP addresses must be stored.

It represents "a data bank of every digital act by every American" that would "let us find out where every single American visited Web sites," said Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California, who led Democratic opposition to the bill.

Of course, the bill is mislabeled: Protecting the Children from Pornographers Act of 2011 in order to ensure its passage.

Read more...

Harvesting Profits and Power Despite the Human Toll.

In Roman society, just before the birth of Christ, lived the richest Roman of Julius Caeser's day. His name was Marcus Licinus Crassus; his passion for wealth rivaling even that of modern day banksters. How did he amass his millions? Well, to quote Plutarch, "he got [his riches] by fire and rapine, making his advantage of the public calamities."

You see, there was no such thing as a fire department in the Rome of Crassus' day. Once a fire started, it could level a whole neighborhood. So, Crassus took it upon himself to organize a fire brigade. Once the call of fire was heard, his men would rush to the blaze; however, once they arrived, the stood idly by while Crassus haggled with the frantic owners. If the owners agreed to sell cheaply enough, he ordered his men to stop the blaze. If the owners wanted a better price, he and his fire fighters left.

That's just one of the many calamity-induced schemes Crassus created, making him the wealthiest, and one of the most, if not, thee most powerful men in Rome.

Fast forward to present day, and Crassus looks like Mother Theresa in comparison to the greedy corporate bastards in power. Well, at least Crassus didn't start the fires (as far as we know). The same can't be said for those who think they rule the world in 2011. That's right...some say the Army Corp of Engineers flooded the land to drive down prices. Remember, because the floods were man made, insurance companies are refusing to insure these people, or they're claiming June 1, as the start date; therefore, anyone who bought flood insurance after May 1, 2011, are not covered.

Some river bottom property owners say they received a letter from the Army Corps of Engineers' Kansas City district office asking them if they want to sell their land.

KMBC's Micheal Mahoney reported that the letter is angering some of the people who received it because some of them are fighting for their land from a flood they believe the Corps caused.

The letter reads: "The Corps is currently seeking willing sellers." It is part of a 15-year-old corps plan to buy up river property or obtain easements.

That's not all. Ann Barnhardt of Barnhardt Capital Management, Inc. reports that George Soros, through Ospraie, is buying up farmland, too.

1. File this one under “Now It All Makes Sense”. A Missouri farming and ranching contact just got off a conference call wherein he was informed that the federal government is sending out letters to all of the flooded out farmers in the Missouri River flood plain and bottoms notifying them that the Army Corps of Engineers will offer to BUY THEIR LAND.

Intentionally flood massive acreage of highly productive farmland. Destroy people’s communities and homes. Catch them while they are desperate and afraid and then swoop in and buy the ground cheap. Those evil sons of bitches.

2. Speaking of evil sons of bitches, George Soros appears to be “investing” in farmland through the same puppet company that he used to get into the grain elevator and fertilizer business.  The company is called Ospraie Capital Management and is buying up farmland in a joint venture with Teays River Investments as a partner.

Okay. Here’s the connection. This Ospraie outfit was a hedge fund specializing in commodities that was started and run by some cocky child who didn’t know how to trade bear markets and got his butt kicked into next week in the grain market of 2008. He also lost a fortune trying to trade RARE EARTH METALS. In fact, it was so bad that he had to shut his fund down because he had promised his investors that he would give them all of their investment money back if the fund lost more than 30% in one year.

But it appears that Soros swooped in and saved the day because this Ospraie is the “co-investor” with Soros that bought the remnants of ConAgra’s trading operation and renamed it . . . Gavilon. In the industry, it is widely acknowledged that Ospraie IS Soros.

As you probably remember, Gavilon just recently bought both DeBruce Grain out of Kansas City and the biggest grain elevator company in the Pacific Northwest, thus making Soros (who is the money behind Gavilon through both his own Soros Fund Management AND his de facto control of Ospraie) the third-largest grain company in the U.S. with 280 million bushels of storage capacity, behind only Archer Daniels Midland (542 million bushels storage capacity) and Cargill (344 million bushels storage capacity).

Bottom line: . Please also note that the hotlink citation above is dated June 26, 2009. My contact says this has been going on for two years – and also remember what I told you about farmland prices inflating wildly, especially in Illinois. I have personally confirmed farmland in Illinois selling for $13,000 per acre within the last month, whereas that same kind of ground in Illinois was going for $5500 per acre the day Obama was inaugurated.

Links:
Ospraie launches JV Agricultural Fund.

Rogers & Soros: Farmland “One of the Best Investments of Our Time”

Betting the Farm

Read more...

GOP Wants to Declare WW III "Until the Termination of Hostilities"

Assuming that the following is real, and not a "red herring" serving to distract us from something like...oh, I don't know, the treasury tapping pension funds to help fund government...

Only three weeks after the Navy Seals, supposedly, shot Osama Bin Laden in the face, and, it appears an official declaration of endless war may be in the works.  Rep. Howard McKeon (R-Calif.), the chairman of the Armed Services Committee inserted  language - so broad and vague that it could essentially be used to justify anything -  into the 2012 National Defense Authorization Bill.  It authorizes the president to declare a state of permanent war (against all nations, organizations, and persons, both domestically and abroad), with no congressional approval required. It's to come up for a vote before congress soon. President Obama  did not request the sweeping powers, as it believes it already has all the authority it needs to wage the terror war.

This "sleeper provision" hidden deep in the text of defense bill could become "the single biggest hand-over of unchecked war authority from Congress to the executive branch in modern American history."  It fails to define enemies or borders, fails to define "hostilities", fails to define “belligerents,” who could be detained without trial until the end of time, and would grant the president – and every president that follows – sweeping new power to make war almost anywhere they suspect terrorists may reside - including, right here in the United States, against American citizens -  regardless of whether there has been any harm to U.S. citizens, or any attack on the United States, or any imminent threat of an attack.  Moreover, the bill requires that all arrests related to terrorism be treated as military arrests, thus circumventing the constitution.

The "sleeper provision" can be found on p. 134 of the H.R. 1540—FY12 NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION BILL

Congress affirms that:

(1) the United States is engaged in an armed conflict with al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and associated forces and that those entities continue to pose a threat to the United States and its citizens, both domestically and abroad;

(2) the President has the authority to use all necessary and appropriate force during the current armed conflict with al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and associated forces pursuant to the Authorization for Use of Military Force (Public Law 107–40; 50 U.S.C. 1541 note);

(3) the current armed conflict includes nations, organization, and persons who—

(A) are part of, or are substantially supporting, al‐Qaeda, the Taliban, or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners; or

(B) have engaged in hostilities or have directly supported hostilities in aid of a nation, organization, or person described in subparagraph (A); and

(4) the President’s authority pursuant to the Authorization for Use of Military Force (Public Law 107–40; 50 U.S.C. 1541 note) includes the authority to detain belligerents, including persons described in paragraph (3), until the termination of hostilities.

The establishment media outlets (Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, etc.) are spinning the proposed language as harmless.  However, in a nation where activist equals terrorist, the ambiguity and wording of the bill is anything but harmless.
Links:


House Democrats Protest GOP's plan for permanent war against terror. - Nearly three dozen House Democrats are calling on Republicans to withdraw a section of the 2012 defense authorization bill that they say would effectively declare a state of permanent war against unnamed Taliban and al Qaeda operatives.

Read more...

President Obama: Man of the People? Captive of the Ruling Elite? Political Genius? Or All Three?

After President Bush tripled the size of federal government, shredded the Constitution, our civil liberties, our global reputation, and millions of lives, worldwide, Americans finally had enough.

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Barack Obama, almost a messiah-like figure, emerged on the scene, and surprisingly, without too much trouble from the GOP, won the election. It seemed too good to be true.

On the one hand, the wars continue, the secrecy continues, the lies continue, the torture continues, Wall Street continues to triumph, the rich continue to get richer... and now President Obama gave into the GOP's blatant terror tactics and agreed to extend the Bush-era tax cuts for two more years. Why? In order to prevent the GOP from forcing a tax increase on all income levels and to keep them from preventing the extension of jobless benefits. So, even though the deal still has to be approved by the House and Senate, President Obama gave into the little terrorists despite the fact that 60% of Americans do not want tax cuts extended for those making over $250,000 per year.

However, on the other hand, what if President Obama decided to fight the GOP?  More than likely, he would not have won the concessions from the GOP that are extraordinarily important to the people suffering right now.

As part of the deal, expiring unemployment benefits for millions of Americans will be extended for 13 months. Just as importantly, there is now a real prospect that the Senate will act on repeal of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy and ratification of the START treaty before this month's lame duck session ends.
[...]
There's also a longer term calculation at work. Note that the deal also includes a reduction in the Social Security payroll tax and an expansion of the earned income tax credit and the college tuition tax credit. This is on top of the extension in unemployment benefits. These measures have one thing in common: They are stimulative in nature. (So, for that matter, is the fact that middle class Americans won't face a tax hike -- something that would have happened had Obama balked at the deal and played a long-term game of chicken with the GOP).

Below Senator Al Franken gives a great speech.  During the speech he said that the IRS published a study analyzing the tax returns of the wealthiest 400 Americans. As their "income rose an average of $81 million -- in a single year", they paid an average effective tax rate of little over 16%.

Read more...