Dilemma: What To Do When Your Own Government Violates The Constitution.

The document in question was an 86-page opinion the FISA court had issued on October 3, 2011.

In it the FISA court states that the action requested by the NSA was unconstitutional. The FISA court was of the opinion this information needed to be disseminated to the public.

The Justice Department was due to file a court motion in June in its effort to keep secret an 86-page court opinion that determined that the government had violated the spirit of federal surveillance laws and engaged in unconstitutional spying.

So in a nutshell, we have the NSA committing an unconstitutional action.  We have the secret Federal court which incidentally only hears the NSA’s side of the argument, decide such action was NOT under the scope of the law, and was actually unconstitutional.  The court felt the public should know about this Constitutional violation, apparently because even they were shocked at its danger for democracy.

The Justice Department then filed suit to block the dissemination of knowledge to the American people, that the secret FISA court had determined that the NSA was going over and beyond its powers invested by the Fourth Amendment, and that it is therefore acting unconstitutionally.

So when our government does something unconstitutional and covers it up… what do we do?

Ironically, in East Germany, we have more privacy rights today than in the United States of America.

Where did we go wrong?  It’s all Patrick Leahy’s fault.  He got soft after standing up to the Joker in The Dark Knight and so now he isn’t standing up for Americans. Guess he figured he’s done his share.

Amnesty Is Needed To Move Forward With Gun Control

In the bi-partisan Senate(sic) negotiations broke down today on figuring out how to accomplish background checks for hand held weapons…. By an overwhelming majority, Americans support the notion that every gun be registered to a single owner, and if a crime occurs, that owner can be charged with a conspiracy to that crime, provided he had not reported that weapon stolen….

A reader has brought up the major fear all gun owners have on getting their guns registered.  They hide behind the Constitutionality that registering guns with the Government, is the first step to confiscation.   This is not their real reason.

Their guns are illegal.  Not to them, But at some point in the past, they bought a gun in a shady private deal that did not require a background check, and the possibility lurks that their weapon they’ve had for years, probably in all fairness, was actually the stolen property of another gun owner….and with a registry, that fact will be found out.!!!

As soon as a registry goes into effect, computers will begin matching the numbers….

And, it is not these law abiding gun owner’s fault.  They performed their transactions legally, and the seller of the weapon probably in good faith, performed the transaction legally…. But with the ability to trace weapons, a gun registered in 2013 can be  found to have been stolen in 1989…..

Obviously this is a real fear.  I think all of us would feel the same.  I know I would.  Likewise, for us to move forward in taking effective action to prevent future tragedies like Newtown, we need to solve this issue.

The reality is that these once-stolen guns, are now in new homes, and those new owners are law abiding citizens… Without a registering of firearms, this criminality, possession of stolen merchandise, would never have been determined…

So by declaring no one will be prosecuted for having stolen merchandise, would go a long way to make sure fixing one injustice, does not create another…

We need amnesty against any legal action taken to retrieve ownership of a long lost gun. In most cases a statue of limitations would be long in effect, but we need a blanket Federal amnesty protection given priority over state an local laws on criminal prosecution….

We need this amnesty because we need universal background checks.

That accountability is key to holding criminals responsible..  As we go forward into the future, we will  need that clear accountability to control which guns confiscated from criminal belong to law abiding citizens who can then get return of their stolen possession, and which guns confiscated can lead us to more criminals who are using the current holes in our system to funnel guns to 7-11 and convenience store robbers….

We need oversight and accountability to accomplish this….

And putting law abiding citizens at risk for crimes of the past of which they were unaware,  gets in our way of doing what an overwhelming number of Americans want….  closing the ability of criminals to get possession of guns…..

I think tacking amnesty for gun owners covering any issues a gun registry may illuminate,  needs to be in any gun legislation bill put forward….  It is no different from granting immunity, which across this nation prosecutors do every single day……..

So let’s get it done.

Senator Patrick Leahy D-Vt Writes SOPA Because He Feels He Is Not Getting Enough Royalities For His Performance In “The Dark Knight”.

Watch it here, before the internet goes black completely………

So we have to suffer because he didn’t get as much as he thought he should?

More on Libertarians

Steve of Delaware Libertarian has been busy and is a little slow to respond tonight, so I thought i would help him out a little and at least get discussion started among those of mental worth, on how the Libertarian movement can capitalize on the demise of Republican Party philosophy…

There has to be a cause out there that resonates with voters…

Currently any support for the Republicans, means support for the practices that destroyed our economy.. When a Republican gets up, such as at a tea baggin’, and starts his “blah, blah, blah”, most of us roll our eyes knowing that following the course of “blah, blah, blah”, has ruined many of America’s banks, has put 10% of America out of work, and has given us a level of debt undreamed of during the Clinton years…..

They are losers and simply suck wind…

But the idea that we should rid ourselves of many laws, sort of the core belief that Libertarians seem to follow, does not bode well when the liberalization of regulatory rules and agencies, is what in fact, led to our financial meltdown…

We need more laws; not less one would surmise…

Democrats seem to have all the wind behind them at the moment… They “appear” to be right on everything….

But there is something that Libertarians can capitalize upon and define the message, and in doing so, start feeding a little life into themselves with dried tubers…

Again I’ll borrow from Steve to show him, and others, they way……

It is also indicative of the fact that the problem in our society today is not which party is in power, but the reach of government power itself. We are rapidly discovering that many of the same tactics so abhorred by liberals and progressives during the Bush administration [surveillance, warrantless wire-tapping, political profiling] are suddenly legitimate tools to be employed against their political enemies.

The opposition party, whether a reborn Republican, or Libertarian, or any other misname one can construe, must run against power itself……

They will then find their following… They must be intent upon gaining office, to roll back the power with which they found themselves entrusted…

They must first develop a method, and then market it, on how to grant power back to the people.

For which ever party can follow through the fastest, will become the opposition party.

Who Is This?

This is a guessing game. It’s supposed to be fun. You do the guessing. I’ll reveal the answer at some point in the future. Bottom line, I am interested in how this plays out. (To keep answers out of moderation, no links please.) You may use the categories above for some helpful hints, but knowing me, don’t expect to find the answer that easily.) 🙂

1) Foreign policy/defense: I want American imperialism rolled back and American interventionism halted, as the same time we begin to pull free from the military/industrial complex by slashing the budgets for defense and homeland security to reasonable levels.

2) Civil libertarian issues: I want to see gay marriage legalized; drugs decriminalized; Real ID abolished; the Patriot Act gutted; and immigrants viewed as human beings. I want intrusive government the hell out of my life.

3) Fiscal sanity: I want a government that stops growing and taking an ever-expanding bite out of my paycheck; I want to see wasteful programs cut, and to have Congress faced with the same sort of imperative the Delaware General Assembly had to face this year: balancing the budget.

Some Silly Stuff…

Borrowed this from Politico.

Those of you watching the State of the Union. Happen to notice the drama that occurred on entry?

You probably say who strode in with Obama, the guy who had just made waves with his endorsement.

But did you notice who walked in with Hillary?

Joe.

She is articulate, but is she “clean“?

Addendum: Just to show that reporters occasionally have humor too.

From Politico:

One little Kennedy-Obama joke – A bunch of us old reporters spotted Kennedy this afternoon, after his Obama endorsement, and started giving him gruff. “Hey senator, were you on TV today?” “Hey senator, did you make any news today?” “Hey senator, what you been up to?” Kennedy laughed, but it got funnier when Sen. Patrick Leahy came by. Leahy has also endorsed Obama, but it didn’t get major airtime like Kennedy. So we started ribbing Leahy about that. “Hey senator, did Vermont public television cover your endorsement of Obama?” “Hey Sen. Leahy, have you endorsed yet?” You gotta love it.