Paranioa Strikes Deep...

I have always been slightly amused by paranoid people. Being a rational individual, I KNOW that most perceived threats and fears are illogical and therefore not worthy to be considered for further serious thought; unfortunately it has recently come to my attention that the paranoid fear of being watched MAY ACTUALLY BE JUSTIFIED (at least in Missouri)! Apparently the Missouri Information Analysis Center (MIAC) recently released a confidential strategic report that was distributed to State Troopers that dealt with the threat posed by the modern militia movement. The document reads like a standard threat assessment dealing with the history, training, organization, and general capabilities of modern militias. It becomes very interesting when it starts discussing identification of militia members. For instance the document singles out supporters of Bob Barr, Chuck Baldwin, and Ron Paul as potentially dangerous militia members. Additionally, if you display bumper stickers or cartoons that depict the “IRS, FBI, CIA, UN, Law Enforcement, and ‘The New World Order’” in a derogatory manner you just might be a dangerous militia member. If you happen to be a Christian and/or Pro-life and vocal about either of those things you risk being identified as a militia member as well.
There is some good news though; one of the State Trooper recipients of this report found it disturbing and turned it over to the media. In the last month the public backlash has been so great that the report has since been pulled, so I guess that’s a victory for free speech and privacy.
The bad news is that MIAC is still up and running and the people responsible for the report are most likely still analyzing data and profiling their fellow citizens. In other bad news MIAC is only one of many (estimates vary from 58 to the high 70’s) “Fusion Centers” around the United States. Fusion Centers? What are those?
AND NOW WE COME TO THE MEAT AND POTATOES OF THIS POST!! Fusion Centers are information nexus that allow information sharing between various levels and branches of government. They analyze information and intelligence from law enforcement agencies, “public safety agencies, such as fire, health, and transportation; and the private sector. Fusion centers bring all the relevant partners together to maximize the ability to prevent and respond to terrorism and criminal acts. By embracing this
concept, these entities will be able to effectively and efficiently safeguard our homeland and maximize anticrime efforts (emphasis added).” – Fusion Center Guidelines, U.S. Dept of Justice. I am completely in favor of defending our nation from enemies who would do us serious harm. However this concept of a centralized information clearing house that can conduct extraordinarily wide ranging intelligence gathering with limited oversight and apparently few restrictions on what they can and cannot do gives me great cause for concern. The case of MIAC, the Missouri fusion center, is an excellent example of the dangers posed by intelligence gathering on our own soil. They painted potential militia members with such broad strokes that Missouri State Troopers were effectively told to view anyone with political leanings to the right of a moderate democrat as an armed and dangerous commando. My writings on this site would most certainly put me on their radar if the policy had been allowed to stand.
Another item that really bothers me in the quote above is the phrase “anticrime efforts”. Serving in the military gave me some limited insight into what is required for pre-emptive measures such as anticrime efforts or antiterrorism efforts. Pre-emptive measures require intelligence gathering, more commonly called “spying”. These fusion centers are apparently required as part of their operations to conduct or at least analyze domestic surveillance. This is most certainly a breach of our right to the security of our persons and property as well as a gross invasion of privacy. It also flies in the face of the concept of innocent until proven guilty. The term “Police State” is tugging at the corner of my mind, however that just smacks of paranoia so I’ll hold off on that for a while....maybe.
I really wish I were making all of this up. Sadly, though, that does not appear to be the case. I have done a little research into this and the more I learn, the more disturbed I become. I will attempt to put some of the supporting documentation up on the website so you will be able to draw your own conclusions. I fear that The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave is becoming The Land of the Bound and the Home of the Fearful. Unjust entities and governments cannot exist where good men stay educated and involved. Educate yourself and get involved.

A Line in the Sand

I agree with The AnarchAngel on this point. The following is a portion of his blog from Monday, March 23rd, 2009:

"The United States House of Representatives recently passed a blatantly unconstitutional bill, placing confiscatory tax burdens on anyone making more than $250,000 and working for an institution that received more than 5 billion of TARP funds.The bill was in theory specifically addressed at the false outrage over retention bonuses paid to AIG executives; and is targeted only to their bonuses.
In theory.
Of course, this would be an unconstitutional bill of attainder, which wouldn't pass even the most cursory constitutional challenge; so it was re-written to be broader.Broader of course means more people would be affected, and congress would be given more power to steal more money.In fact, if you read into the implications of the bill; it could be used to levy a 90% tax on any income over $250,000, earned by any family making more than $250,000 per year, where either spouse is employed by an institution that received federal "bailout" funds.It appears that the Senate, and the Obama administration are cold on the bill and that it will not pass, or be signed into law if it did.
I do not earn that much money; nor do my wife and I earn that much together (though in the next few years it is entirely possible that we will).However, I have something important to say.If congress should pass any such bill, and the president sign any such law, I WILL NOT OBEY IT.I will not allow congress to tell me how much I can earn. I will not allow them to take my income because of the actions of others. If they attempt to make me do so by force, I will resist with force.I will most likely die in the process, which I regret; but at some point a line must be drawn. The constitution must be respected, or it is meaningless."


Ultimately, it is our responsibility as citizens of a free country to insure and guarantee our own liberty. A line must be drawn. A point must be set where we say, "We will retreat no farther. We will take no more. Here we will stand!" Each and every one of us must search our hearts and evaluate our priorities and determine where we will make our stand.

You can view The AnarchAngels full post at http://anarchangel.blogspot.com/.

Who's Afraid Liberty?

Freedom is only for responsible people. “Wait a minute!” you say, “I thought all men were created equal?” True enough, all men are created equal, but not all men are equally gifted, or equally competent, or are willing to man-up and claim ownership of their own destinies.
When I say that freedom is only for responsible people, I mean exactly that. People who are responsible take ownership of their own actions. They do not try and make excuses for poor behavior or poor performance on their part. They chart their course, make their decisions, and reap the consequences of their actions for good or ill. Responsible people are comfortable with the boundlessness of freedom and are confident in their ability to exercise it appropriately.
Irresponsible people fear freedom. They know that if given a large degree of liberty they will abuse it to their own detriment and possibly to the detriment of others. This fear of their own irresponsibility drives them to assume that all men are irresponsible and prone to excess and therefore all men’s freedoms should be constrained by government. Men like this crave security and loathe the uncertainty that true liberty offers. Men such as this hold that “experts” and “well-meaning politicians” should be entrusted with guaranteeing security at the expense of liberty because they are incapable of accepting the responsibility that freedom requires. Men like this are weak, sniveling cowards and I pity them because they will never know the true definition of success or accomplishment nor will they ever experience the satisfaction of being masters of their own destinies.
The logical inconsistency in the irresponsible man’s ideology is that he assumes with enough formal training and a healthy dose of good intentions another man can overcome his natural irresponsibility and fear and govern fairly and justly. Unfortunately this country is currently being run by irresponsible men who are fearful of other irresponsible men. Being fearful, they resort to fear to sway their constituents. How many times in the last 65 days have we heard “If we don’t take drastic measures the country will fail!”? Obama, Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi, Dick Durbin, ad nauseam: all of these people are guilty of fear mongering and none of these people are fit to operate in a free society, much less attempt to lead one. It is absolutely imperative that these people and others of their ilk be removed from positions of authority as quickly as possible! I have serious doubts whether this country can endure four years of their bumbling, socialist, power-grabbing policies.So how do we combat the irresponsible men? First, teach your children to be responsible and take ownership of their actions! Parents do their children a huge disservice by not teaching them that actions have consequences. Second, elect responsible, ethical, courageous men who can stand on their own two feet and take ownership of their words and actions. Third, eliminate welfare. If you don’t work, you deserve to starve! Hunger and self-preservation are excellent teachers of responsibility. Fourth, reform the civil court system so that the loser pays. This would go a very long way to eliminating frivolous lawsuits and all the freeloaders that like to jump on those band wagons. Fifth, eliminate union wage controls. In a union, collective bargaining means that all workers receive the same wage regardless of merit. This eliminates bonuses for excellence and penalties for laziness or incompetence. I could keep going, but getting these five items accomplished will keep the responsible men of this country busy for the foreseeable future.

Sanctioned Blackmail

Who owns your home?

If you thought that you own your home you, my friend, are sadly mistaken. In the first place, if your home is mortgaged a bank actually owns your home and you are slowy buying it from them. In addition to this, your mortgage was probably repackaged and sold to a third party, likely a third party that has recieved a government bailout/buy-out. This means that there is a high probability that the government owns a certain percentage of your mortgage and therefore a certain percentage of your home.
"But Veritas," you say, "I've paid off my mortgage. I really do own my home!"
NO YOU DON'T!!! Do you pay property taxes? If you pay property taxes you have implicitly agreed that the government owns your property and you pay them rent for it. I will go so far as to say that there is no private property in this country any longer. With the states use of eminant (sp?) domain and implementation of property taxes private ownership of land is a joke! This is a serious infraction of our personal liberty! I fully understand that the government needs money to function and the primary way for it to raise funding is through taxation, however that taxation should, as much as possible, respect the rights of the individual. The large scale, state sanctioned blackmail of property owners needs to be reigned in if we are to have any hope re-establishing personal liberty in this nation.
Which leads me to my second point. THE SUREST WAY TO REFORM THIS COUNTRY IS TO REFORM THE TAX CODE. At this point I am not entirely certain what a proper federal tax code should look like, however I do know some things that need to be included. First: abolish the income tax. Second: abolish capital gains taxes. Third: Cap the size of the budget at 10% of the GDP. Fourth: Never allow the federal govenment to operate at a deficit in times of peace. Fifth: Eliminate ALL forms of wealth redistribution (i.e.- Federal support of state welfare programs, corporate bailouts, government subsidies to favored products like ethanol or wind energy).
So, how can the process of reforming the tax code be started? I believe the easiest way to start this process is to discontinue witholding income taxes. Aside from being unconstitutional, witholding taxes on incomes keeps people ignorant of how much money the governemtn is confiscating from them. An additional problem with the current system is that the government often overcharges people and then keeps the money for a year without paying interest on it. The tax rebates then paid out to the overcharged persons tends to engender a sense of gratitude to the government for cutting them a check. If the witholdings system of taxation were revoked and people had to pay their taxes by writing a check on April 15th, the dissatisfaction and outright anger would be so great that our officials would be forced to change the tax code.
Mission: Call your congressman and tell them to abolish the policy of witholding in-come taxes!

Note: My word processing software ceased opperations and I lost my spell check. Please forgive my typos and other such mistakes.