Half of new jobs last month came from McD's hiring blitz

Sounds to me like a huge, orchestrated public relations stunt. A conspiracy to lead average Americans to believe that things really aren't that bad.

Let's really think about this for a minute. Not only did this one-time hiring blitz account for half the new jobs created last month, but it did little to offset the increase in the official unemployment rate which rose to 9.1%. So these "added jobs" are still a net loss.

Add to this the fact that we are talking about minimum wage part-time jobs. Hardly the sort of job that someone can live on. Nevertheless, only 1 in 20 people who applied got the job.

Here is a link to the article of how the latest numbers are being translated:


http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/half-last-months-jobs-came-single-employer-mcdonalds_573220.html

Here are two previous in-house articles on the McDonald's hiring blitz:

After 'feel-good' hiring blitz in US, McDonald's to replace workers with touch-screens

Get a job you f@@kin' bum!

All around the world (same song)

Little difference between public school and prison

Certainly felt like prison when I was still in school, decafes ago now. And things have gotten a lot worse since then...

18 Signs That Life In U.S. Public Schools Is Now Essentially Equivalent To Life In U.S. Prisons


In the United States today, our public schools are not very good at educating our students, but they sure are great training grounds for learning how to live in a Big Brother police state control grid. Sadly, life in many U.S. public schools is now essentially equivalent to life in U.S. prisons. Most parents don't realize this, but our students have very few rights when they are in school. Our public school students are being watched, tracked, recorded, searched and controlled like never before. Back when I was in high school, it was unheard of for a police officer to come to school, but today our public school students are being handcuffed and arrested in staggering numbers. When I was young we would joke that going to school was like going to prison, but today that is actually true.


The following are 18 signs that life in our public schools is now very similar to life in our prisons....


#1 Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has announced that school officials can search the cell phones and laptops of public school students if there are "reasonable grounds for suspecting that the search will turn up evidence that the student has violated or is violating either the law or the rules of the school."


#2 It came out in court that one school district in Pennsylvania secretly recorded more than 66,000 images of students using webcams that were embedded in school-issued laptops that the students were using at home.


#3 If you can believe it, a "certified TSA official" was recently brought in to oversee student searches at the Santa Fe High School prom.


#4 A few years ago a class of 3rd grade students at one Kentucky elementary school were searched by a group of teachers after 5 dollars went missing. During the search the students were actually required to remove their shoes and their socks.


#5 At one public school in the Chicago area, children have been banned from bringing their lunches from home. Yes, you read that correctly. Students at that particular school are absolutely prohibited from bringing lunches from home. Instead, it is mandatory that they eat the food that the school cafeteria serves.


#6 The U.S. Department of Agriculture is spending huge amounts of money to install surveillance cameras in the cafeterias of public schools so that government control freaks can closely monitor what our children are eating.


#7 A teenager in suburban Dallas was recently forced to take on a part-time job after being ticketed for using bad language in one high school classroom. The original ticket was for $340, but additional fees have raised the total bill to $637.


#8 It is not just high school kids that are being ticketed by police. In Texas the crackdown extends all the way down to elementary school students. In fact, it has been reported that Texas police gave "1,000 tickets" to elementary school kids over a recent six year period.


#9 A few months ago, a 17 year-old honor student in North Carolina named Ashley Smithwick accidentally took her father's lunch with her to school. It contained a small paring knife which he would use to slice up apples. So what happened to this standout student when the school discovered this? The school suspended her for the rest of the year and the police charged her with a misdemeanor.


#10 A little over a year ago, a 6 year old girl in Florida was handcuffed and sent to a mental facility after throwing temper tantrums at her elementary school.


#11 In early 2010, a 12 year old girl in New York was arrested by police and marched out of her school in handcuffs just because she doodled on her desk. "I love my friends Abby and Faith" was what she reportedly wrote on her desk.


#12 There are actually some public schools in the United States that are so paranoid that they have actually installed cameras in student bathrooms.


#13 Down in Florida, students have actually been arrested by police for bringing a plastic butter knife to school, for throwing an eraser, and for drawing a picture of a gun.


#14 The Florida State Department of Juvenile Justice has announced that it will begin using analysis software to predict crime by young delinquents and will place "potential offenders" in specific prevention and education programs.


#15 A group of high school students made national headlines a while back when they revealed that they were ordered by a security guard to stop singing the national anthem during a visit to the Lincoln Memorial.


#16 In some U.S. schools, armed cops accompanied by police dogs actually conduct surprise raids with their guns drawn. In this video, you can actually see police officers aiming their guns at school children as the students are lined up facing the wall.


#17 Back in 2009, one 8 year old boy in Massachusetts was sent home from school and was forced to undergo a psychological evaluation because he drew a picture of Jesus on the cross.


#18 This year, 13 parents in Duncan, South Carolina were actually arrested for cheering during a high school graduation.


For many more signs that life in U.S. public schools is now essentially equivalent to life in U.S. prisons check out the short video posted below....

Be sure to visit the link to the original article, where each item listed above is linked to the actual report:

http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/18-signs-that-life-in-u-s-public-schools-is-now-essentially-equivalent-to-life-in-u-s-prisons

The Fresh Air Fund

We aren't exactly a free promo site here, and there's always someone looking for a donation, but this seems like a really good cause and yet one that is pretty simple at the same time. Better yet, you don't have to just hand over a few bucks and hope it gets to where it needs to go. You can actually give hands on help if you prefer.

Help some city kids get out to the country this Summer. Check out the vid and read a little about the Fresh-Air Fund below.

Since 1877, The Fresh Air Fund, a not-for-profit agency, has provided free summer experiences in the country to more than 1.7 million New York City children from disadvantaged communities. Each year, thousands of children visit volunteer host families in 13 states and Canada through the Friendly Town Program or attend Fresh Air Fund camps.

You can read more at this link:

Fact Sheet pdf file

Visit their home-page at this link:

http://www.freshair.org/

Playing for Change - Gimme Shelter

'Pre-crime' detector being secretly field-tested in northeast US

Terrorist 'pre-crime' detector field tested in United States

Screening system aims to pinpoint passengers with malicious intentions.


Planning a sojourn in the northeastern United States? You could soon be taking part in a novel security programme that can supposedly 'sense' whether you are planning to commit a crime.


Future Attribute Screening Technology (FAST), a US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) programme designed to spot people who are intending to commit a terrorist act, has in the past few months completed its first round of field tests at an undisclosed location in the northeast, Nature has learned.


Like a lie detector, FAST measures a variety of physiological indicators, ranging from heart rate to the steadiness of a person's gaze, to judge a subject's state of mind. But there are major differences from the polygraph. FAST relies on non-contact sensors, so it can measure indicators as someone walks through a corridor at an airport, and it does not depend on active questioning of the subject.


The tactic has drawn comparisons with the science-fiction concept of 'pre-crime', popularized by the film Minority Report, in which security services can detect someone's intention to commit a crime. Unlike the system in the film, FAST does not rely on a trio of human mutants who can see the future. But the programme has attracted copious criticism from researchers who question the science behind it.

Read more at link:

http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110527/full/news.2011.323.html

Church fined $4,000 for 'excessive tree pruning'

No bullshit. This is not The Onion and this is not satire. This is an actual news piece...

Every two to three years, Eddie Sales trims and prunes the crape myrtles at his church, Albemarle Road Presbyterian Church.


But this year, the city of Charlotte cited the church for improperly pruning its trees.


"We always keep our trees trimmed back because you don't want to worry about them hanging down in the way," said Sales, a church member.


The church was fined $100 per branch cut for excessive pruning, bringing the violation to $4,000.

Full article at link:

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/05/28/2333197/church-fined-for-improper-tree.html

Pledge of Allegiance (video)

Deputy kills wife, shoots Virginia trooper

An off-duty county sheriff's deputy killed his ex-wife and shot a state trooper before he was wounded during a bloody Memorial Day rampage in Roanoke, Virginia.


The chaos began when Jonathan Agee shot his former wife Jennifer at a Sheetz convenience store parking lot, WSLS 10 reported.

More at link:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2011/05/30/2011-05-30_one_dead_two_injured_after_virginia_sheriffs_deputy_goes_on_bloody_rampage.html

Man kills surgeon who saved his life

This is a pretty bizarre story. Why would a man want to murder the surgeon who saved his life with a double organ transplant? Also strange, is that the man who shot and killed the dotor before turning the gun on himself, had been reported missing from the Bronx NY since 2009.

Patient shoots dead the top surgeon who saved his life with double organ transplant


A top surgeon has been shot dead by a disgruntled patient whose life he had saved with a double organ transplant.


Dr Dmitriy Nikitin, 41, was gunned down as he walked to his car after finishing his shift at a hospital in Orlando, Florida, where he worked as a leading multiple organ transplant surgeon.


The attacker, Nelson Flecha, spoke briefly to Dr Nikitin before pulling out a gun and shooting him several times.


The 52-year-old transplant recipient then walked to another parking level and turned the gun on himself.


The murder-suicide last Thursday was caught on CCTV cameras in the parking garage at the Florida Hospital in Orlando.


Police said Flecha had laid in wait to ambush the surgeon as he left the hospital.

Read full article at link:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1392772/Patient-shoots-dead-surgeon-saved-life-double-organ-transplant.html

Women divorcing men because of video games

Video games being blamed for divorce as men 'prefer World of Warcraft to their wives'


This has soared from five per cent a year ago, the study by Divorce Online found.


In particular, disgruntled wives blamed World of Warcraft, which allows gamers to create their own fantasy character for mythical adventures, and Call Of Duty, where gamers battle in various war zones.


The games have faced heavy criticism in the past for their addictive properties, with some claiming that World of Warcraft is more addictive than cocaine.

More at link:


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1392561/World-Warcraft-video-games-blamed-divorce-men-prefer-wives.html

Having a bad day?

Police shoot young teen, charge friend with murder for the death

The insanity knows no bounds.

A 16-year-old boy has been charged with murder after a Chicago police officer fatally shot his 15-year-old friend Wednesday on the South Side.


Brandon Ross and his friend Tatioun Williams allegedly robbed a man at gunpoint in the 7000 block of South Cregier Avenue Wednesday evening, and were confronted by police officers a short time later, the Chicago Tribune reports.


When the officers told the teens to stop, Williams, who was holding the gun, allegedly turned in the officer's direction, Fox Chicago reports. Fearing for her life, the officer shot the 15-year-old, killing him.


"They could have taken him to jail, they could have done anything but taken his life," Williams' mother told the Tribune Thursday.


Under state law, police can charge someone with murder when an accomplice is killed during the commission of a crime. Even though Ross didn't pull the trigger, he was charged as an adult with murder and armed robbery. He was ordered held on $900,000 bail Friday.


The teens allegedly took a wallet and iPod from a 27-year-old man before the shooting.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/27/brandon-ross-charged-with_n_868289.html

Where in the Constitution does it say that we can or should be held accountable for the actions of another? Even if the alleged offense is true, it was the police, and the police alone who chose to shoot and kill that boy. Maybe it was justified, probably not. But regardless, this ongoing precedent of holding people accountable for the actions of another is revolting. By this premise, all of the innocent people who died on the 9/11 flights would be guilty of terrorism. Where does it end?!

Tests show Arctic reindeer 'see in UV'

Arctic reindeer can see beyond the "visible" light spectrum into the ultra-violet region, according to new research by an international team.


They say tests on reindeer showed that the animal does respond to UV stimuli, unlike humans.


The ability might enable them to pick out food and predators in the "UV-rich" Arctic atmosphere, and to retain visibility in low light.


Details are published in the The Journal of Experimental Biology.

More at link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13529152?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+C2C-InTheNews+%28Feed+-+Coast+to+Coast+-+In+the+News%29

Happy Memorial Day

No matter what one's politics may be, no matter how much I may abhor the direction our country has taken, there is one quote that still rings true in my head today...

"...Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die..."

...because intentions are as important as actions. So to those who gave their lives for we, their countrymen, with honor in their hearts, I do honor thee this Memorial Day.

The Charge of the Light Brigade

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

1.

Half a league, half a league,

Half a league onward,

All in the valley of Death

Rode the six hundred.

"Forward, the Light Brigade!

"Charge for the guns!" he said:

Into the valley of Death

Rode the six hundred.

2.

"Forward, the Light Brigade!"

Was there a man dismay'd?

Not tho' the soldier knew

Someone had blunder'd:

Theirs not to make reply,

Theirs not to reason why,

Theirs but to do and die:

Into the valley of Death

Rode the six hundred.

3.

Cannon to right of them,

Cannon to left of them,

Cannon in front of them

Volley'd and thunder'd;

Storm'd at with shot and shell,

Boldly they rode and well,

Into the jaws of Death,

Into the mouth of Hell

Rode the six hundred.

4.

Flash'd all their sabres bare,

Flash'd as they turn'd in air,

Sabring the gunners there,

Charging an army, while

All the world wonder'd:

Plunged in the battery-smoke

Right thro' the line they broke;

Cossack and Russian

Reel'd from the sabre stroke

Shatter'd and sunder'd.

Then they rode back, but not

Not the six hundred.

5.

Cannon to right of them,

Cannon to left of them,

Cannon behind them

Volley'd and thunder'd;

Storm'd at with shot and shell,

While horse and hero fell,

They that had fought so well

Came thro' the jaws of Death

Back from the mouth of Hell,

All that was left of them,

Left of six hundred.

6.

When can their glory fade?

O the wild charge they made!

All the world wondered.

Honor the charge they made,

Honor the Light Brigade,

Noble six hundred.

State secrets in a police state

"The right of freely examining public characters and measures, and of communication among the people thereon...has ever been justly deemed the only effectual guardian of every other right" ~James Madison

"There is no liberty, if the power of judging be not separated from the legislative and executive powers." ~Alexander Hamilton

The following is a fantastic piece that I have copied here as an easy point of reference for ongoing discussion. However, please, please, by all means visit the original source where the piece was originally published. I have not included any of the wealth of supporting materiel provided in the inline hotlinks within the original article at the original source. This really is a small treasure trove of information that I hope folks really bother to take the time to look into.

The following article can be found in its original and complete format at the following link:


http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2011/05/weve-gone-from-nation-of-laws-to-nation.html





We've Gone from a Nation of Laws to a Nation of Powerful Men Making Laws in Secret

Preface: Some defendants are no longer allowed to see the "secret evidence" which the government is using against them. See this and this.


The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that judges can throw out cases because they don't like or believe the plaintiff ... even before anyone has had the chance to conduct discovery to prove their case. In other words, judges' secret biases can be the basis for denying people their day in court, without even having to examine the facts. Judges are also becoming directly involved in politics with the other branches of government.


Claims of national security are being used to keep the shenanigans of the biggest banks and corporations secret, and to crush dissent.


But this essay focuses on something else: the fact that the laws themselves are now being kept secret.




America is supposed to be a nation of laws which apply to everyone equally, regardless of wealth or power.


Founded on the Constitution and based upon the separation of powers, we escaped from the British monarchy - a "nation of men" where the law is whatever the king says it is.


However, many laws are now "secret" - known only to a handful of people, and oftentimes hidden even from the part of our government which is supposed to make laws in the first place: Congress.


The Patriot Act


Congress just re-authorized the Patriot Act for another 4 years.


However, Senator Wyden notes that the government is using a secret interpretation of the Patriot Act different from what Congress and the public believe. Senator Wyden's press release yesterday states:


Speaking on the floor of the U.S Senate during the truncated debate on the reauthorization of the PATRIOT ACT for another four years, U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) – a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence -- warned his colleagues that a vote to extend the bill without amendments that would ban any Administration’s ability to keep internal interpretations of the Patriot Act classified will eventually cause public outrage.


Known as Secret Law, the official interpretation of the Patriot Act could dramatically differ from what the public believes the law allows. This could create severe violations of the Constitutional and Civil Rights of American Citizens.


***


I have served on the Senate Intelligence Committee for ten years, and I don’t take a backseat to anybody when it comes to the importance of protecting genuinely sensitive sources and collection methods. But the law itself should never be secret – voters have a need and a right to know what the law says, and what their government thinks the text of the law means, so that they can decide whether the law is appropriately written and ratify or reject decisions that their elected officials make on their behalf.


As TechDirt points out:


It's not just the public that's having the wool pulled over their eyes. Wyden and [Senator] Udall are pointing out that the very members of Congress, who are voting to extend these provisions, do not know how the feds are interpreting them:


As members of the Senate Intelligence Committee we have been provided with the executive branch's classified interpretation of those provisions and can tell you that we believe there is a significant discrepancy between what most people - including many Members of Congress - think the Patriot Act allows the government to do and what government officials secretly believe the Patriot Act allows them to do.


***


By far the most important interpretation of what the law means is the official interpretation used by the U.S. government and this interpretation is - stunningly -classified.


What does this mean? It means that Congress and the public are prevented from having an informed, open debate on the Patriot Act because the official meaning of the law itself is secret. Most members of Congress have not even seen the secret legal interpretations that the executive branch is currently relying on and do not have any staff who are cleared to read them. Even if these members come down to the Intelligence Committee and read these interpretations themselves, they cannot openly debate them on the floor without violating classification rules.


Here's Wyden's speech on the Senate floor.


The Surveillance State and Unauthorized Wars


Former constitutional lawyer Glenn Greenwald noted last week:


The government's increased ability to learn more and more about the private activities of its citizens is accompanied -- as always -- by an ever-increasing wall of secrecy it erects around its own actions. Thus, on the very same day that we have an extension of the Patriot Act and a proposal to increase the government's Internet snooping powers, we have this:


The Justice Department should publicly release its legal opinion that allows the FBI to obtain telephone records of international calls made from the U.S. without any formal legal process, a watchdog group asserts.
***


The decision not to release the memo is noteworthy... By turning down the foundation's request for a copy, the department is ensuring that its legal arguments in support of the FBI's controversial and discredited efforts to obtain telephone records will be kept secret.


What's extraordinary about the Obama DOJ's refusal to release this document is that it does not reveal the eavesdropping activities of the Government but only its legal rationale for why it is ostensibly permitted to engage in those activities. The Bush DOJ's refusal to release its legal memos authorizing its surveillance and torture policies was unquestionably one of the acts that provoked the greatest outrage among Democratic lawyers and transparency advocates (see, for instance, Dawn Johnsen's scathing condemnation of the Bush administration for its refusal to release OLC legal reasoning: "reliance on 'secret law' threatens the effective functioning of American democracy" and "the withholding from Congress and the public of legal interpretations by the Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) upsets the system of checks and balances between the executive and legislative branches of government."


The way a republic is supposed to function is that there is transparency for those who wield public power and privacy for private citizens. The National Security State has reversed that dynamic completely, so that the Government (comprised of the consortium of public agencies and their private-sector "partners") knows virtually everything about what citizens do, but citizens know virtually nothing about what they do (which is why WikiLeaks specifically and whistleblowers generally, as one of the very few remaining instruments for subverting that wall of secrecy, are so threatening to them). Fortified by always-growing secrecy weapons, everything they do is secret -- including even the "laws" they secretly invent to authorize their actions -- while everything you do is open to inspection, surveillance and monitoring.


This dynamic threatens to entrench irreversible, absolute power for reasons that aren't difficult to understand. Knowledge is power, as the cliché teaches. When powerful factions can gather unlimited information about citizens, they can threaten, punish, and ultimately deter any meaningful form of dissent ...


Conversely, allowing government officials to shield their own conduct from transparency and (with the radical Bush/Obama version of the "State Secrets privilege") even judicial review ensures that National Security State officials (public and private) can do whatever they want without any detection and (therefore) without limit or accountability. That is what the Surveillance State, at its core, is designed to achieve: the destruction of privacy for individual citizens and an impenetrable wall of secrecy for those with unlimited surveillance power. And as these three events just from the last 24 hours demonstrate, this system -- with fully bipartisan support --- is expanding more rapidly than ever.


***


So patently illegal is Obama's war in Libya as of today that media reports are now coming quite close to saying so directly; see, for instance, this unusually clear CNN article today from Dana Bash. As a result, reporters today bombarded the White House with questions about the war's legality, and here is what happened, as reported by ABC News' Jake Tapper:


Talk about "secret law." You're not even allowed to know the White House's rationale (if it exists) for why this war is legal. It simply decrees that it is, and you'll have to comfort yourself with that. That's how confident they are in their power to operate behind their wall of secrecy: they don't even bother any longer with a pretense of the most minimal transparency.


Secret Memos


Secret laws are not a brand new problem.


As I've previously noted:


Scott Horton - a professor at Columbia Law School and writer for Harper's - says of the Bush administration memos authorizing torture, spying, indefinite detention without charge, the use of the military within the U.S. and the suspension of free speech and press rights:


We may not have realized it at the time, but in the period from late 2001-January 19, 2009, this country was a dictatorship. The constitutional rights we learned about in high school civics were suspended. That was thanks to secret memos crafted deep inside the Justice Department that effectively trashed the Constitution. What we know now is likely the least of it.


Yale law professor Jack Balkin agrees, writing that the memos promoted "reasoning which sought, in secret, to justify a theory of Presidential dictatorship." Constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley says that the memos are the "very definition of tyranny". And former White House counsel John Dean says "Reading these memos, you've gotta almost conclude we had an unconstitutional dictator."


State of Emergency Cuts the Constitutional Government Out of the Picture
As I wrote in February:


The United States has been in a declared state of emergency from September 2001, to the present. Specifically, on September 11, 2001, the government declared a state of emergency. That declared state of emergency was formally put in writing on 9/14/2001:


A national emergency exists by reason of the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center, New York, New York, and the Pentagon, and the continuing and immediate threat of further attacks on the United States.


NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, I hereby declare that the national emergency has existed since September 11, 2001 . . . .


That declared state of emergency has continued in full force and effect from 9/11 to the present. President Bush kept it in place, and President Obama has also.


***


On September 10, 2010, President Obama declared:


Section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act, 50 U.S.C. 1622(d), provides for the automatic termination of a national emergency unless, prior to the anniversary date of its declaration, the President publishes in the Federal Register and transmits to the Congress a notice stating that the emergency is to continue in effect beyond the anniversary date. Consistent with this provision, I have sent to the Federal Register the enclosed notice, stating that the emergency declared with respect to the terrorist attacks on the United States of September 11, 2001, is to continue in effect for an additional year.


The terrorist threat that led to the declaration on September 14, 2001, of a national emergency continues. For this reason, I have determined that it is necessary to continue in effect after September 14, 2010, the national emergency with respect to the terrorist threat.


The Washington Times wrote on September 18, 2001:


Simply by proclaiming a national emergency on Friday, President Bush activated some 500 dormant legal provisions, including those allowing him to impose censorship and martial law.


***


Continuity of Government ("COG") measures were implemented on 9/11. For example, according to the 9/11 Commission Report, at page 38:


At 9:59, an Air Force lieutenant colonel working in the White House Military Office joined the conference and stated he had just talked to Deputy National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley. The White House requested (1) the implementation of continuity of government measures, (2) fighter escorts for Air Force One, and (3) a fighter combat air patrol over Washington, D.C.


***


The Washington Post reported in March 2002 that "the shadow government has evolved into an indefinite precaution." The same article goes on to state:


Assessment of terrorist risks persuaded the White House to remake the program as a permanent feature of 'the new reality, based on what the threat looks like,' a senior decisionmaker said.


As CBS pointed out, virtually none of the Congressional leadership knew that the COG had been implemented or was still in existence as of March 2002:


Key congressional leaders say they didn’t know President Bush had established a “shadow government,” moving dozens of senior civilian managers to secret underground locations outside Washington to ensure that the federal government could survive a devastating terrorist attack on the nation's capital, The Washington Post says in its Saturday editions.


Senate Majority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) told the Post he had not been informed by the White House about the role, location or even the existence of the shadow government that the administration began to deploy the morning of the Sept. 11 hijackings.


An aide to House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) said he was also unaware of the administration's move.


Among Congress's GOP leadership, aides to House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (Ill.), second in line to succeed the president if he became incapacitated, and to Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott (Miss.) said they were not sure whether they knew.


Aides to Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W. Va.) said he had not been told. As Senate president pro tempore, he is in line to become president after the House speaker.


Similarly, the above-cited CNN article states:


Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-South Dakota, said Friday he can't say much about the plan.


"We have not been informed at all about the role of the shadow government or its whereabouts or what particular responsibilities they have and when they would kick in, but we look forward to work with the administration to get additional information on that."


Indeed, the White House has specifically refused to share information about Continuity of Government plans with the Homeland Security Committee of the U.S. Congress, even though that Committee has proper security clearance to hear the full details of all COG plans.


Specifically, in the summer 2007, Congressman Peter DeFazio, on the Homeland Security Committee (and so with proper security access to be briefed on COG issues), inquired about continuity of government plans, and was refused access. Indeed, DeFazio told Congress that the entire Homeland Security Committee of the U.S. Congress has been denied access to the plans by the White House (video; or here is the transcript). The Homeland Security Committee has full clearance to view all information about COG plans. DeFazio concluded: "Maybe the people who think there’s a conspiracy out there are right”.


As University of California Berkeley Professor Emeritus Peter Dale Scott warned:


If members of the Homeland Security Committee cannot enforce their right to read secret plans of the Executive Branch, then the systems of checks and balances established by the U.S. Constitution would seem to be failing.


To put it another way, if the White House is successful in frustrating DeFazio, then Continuity of Government planning has arguably already superseded the Constitution as a higher authority.


Indeed, continuity of government plans are specifically defined to do the following:


***


Those within the new government would know what was going on. But those in the “old government” – that is, the one created by the framers of the Constitution – would not necessarily know the details of what was happening


Normal laws and legal processes might largely be suspended, or superseded by secretive judicial forums


The media might be ordered by strict laws – punishable by treason – to only promote stories authorized by the new government


See this, this and this.


***


In 2007, President Bush issued Presidential Directive NSPD-51, which purported to change Continuity of Government plans. NSPD51 is odd because:


NSPD51 was passed without Congressional input


Even the New York Times wrote in an editorial:


Beyond cases of actual insurrection, the President may now use military troops as a domestic police force in response to a natural disaster, a disease outbreak, terrorist attack, or to any ‘other condition.’ Changes of this magnitude should be made only after a thorough public airing. But these new Presidential powers were slipped into the law without hearings or public debate.


So continuity of government laws were enacted without public or even Congressional knowledge, and neither the public or even Congress members on the Homeland Security Committee - let alone Congress as a whole - are being informed of whether they are still in effect and, if so, what laws govern.


Postscript: As I've repeatedly noted, economics, politics and law are inseparable and intertwined. As Aristotle pointed out thousands of years ago, "The only stable state is the one in which all men are equal before the law." Without the rule of law, the state crumbles, and the government bonds and other investments crumble with it.


As I wrote last year:


What's the hole that is swallowing up the economy? The failure to follow the rule of law.


The rule of law is what provides trust in our economy, which is essential for a stable economy.


The rule of law is the basis for our social contract. Indeed, it is the basis for our submission to the power of the state.


We are supposed to be a nation of laws, not of men. That's what humanity has fought for ever since we forced the king to sign the Magna Carta.
Indeed, lawlessness - the failure to enforce the rule of law - is dragging the world economy down into the abyss.

79 Senators vote to trash the Constitution

If you haven’t received the memo yet, let me update you on your status as it pertains to the Constitution and your civil liberties; you have neither. 79 Senators who snickered as they swore an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States, voted to render you guilty in advance, with no chance of proving your innocence. The unlawful data mining and collection, the compilation of dossiers on virtually every person in the US, the unwarranted wire-tapping, the rifling through personal records of all kinds for no other reason than to collect information to be used at a later date if the government decides to prosecute you for whatever reasons, was extended.


The Patriot Acts were sold to the public as part of the war of terror perpetrated by the Bush administration after the false flag attacks of 9/11. A “War of Terror” is being perpetrated by our own government against its own people and is blessed by both Democrat and Republican alike. “We the people” are the terrorists the government fears. The Constitution be damned.


Nothing in the Patriot acts is remotely connected to fighting terrorism from foreign invaders. It is a precisely targeted bill which amounted to a massive assault on liberty and freedom right here at home.


We had more than 1500 laws already on the books (never invoked) to fight terrorism prior to this Act, and even these could not stop an attack; what makes anyone think or believe the Patriot Acts could perform such a feat? If you think this Act could prevent terrorism, try waving a copy at a TSA agent and see if he (or, she) runs away in fear.


Had the intent of the Patriot Act actually been to fight terrorism, the federal government would have had to turn its efforts inward and waged “war” on itself.


The Patriot Acts are the systematic criminalization of American citizens. Terrorists, and terrorism are only mentioned when the assaults on Constitutional rights and civil liberties were so egregious, so blatantly obvious that the veiled threat of another attack, if we objected, was ever present.


No true terrorist gives a rat’s behind what laws we pass; if they did, they wouldn’t be terrorists. Nothing in the Patriot Acts will stop terrorism especially when it emanates from within.


These Acts will however:

• Stop YOU from traveling unmolested by government agents.
• Will also violate your right to privacy and to be,
• Secure from illegal search and seizure
• Makes legal (not lawful) warrantless searches
• Allows unwarranted data mining of any and all information on you, including:
• Any comments, beliefs, political opinions, social positions, religious beliefs, political party affiliation, and any other belief system or political view not approved by government.
• These Acts are the foundation of the police state being systematically assembled and implemented by Homeland Security

They aren’t looking for terrorists…..they are looking for you.

Read the full article at link:


http://www.activistpost.com/2011/05/79-senators-vote-to-trash-constitution.html