Category Archives: The State

The Killing Burden Of The Big Man

Barack Obama, Homeland Security, Terrorism, The State

US citizen or not: The distinction is immaterial. The US government has no right to kill people in all corners of the world, based on secret evidence and secretive laws and procedures. Yet, once again, to a relatively unexercised press, the Obama administration is considering whether to kill or not to kill abroad.

“Weighing” is how this administration’s deadly deliberation is being termed.

The Big Man is thinking of approving “a lethal strike against a U.S. citizen who is accused of being part of the al-Qaeda terrorist network overseas and involved in ongoing plotting against American targets, U.S. officials said.”

Oh, the burdens of Obama “Bigmanism” (To go by the dictionary, and “within the context of political science, big man, big man syndrome, or bigmanism refers to corrupt and autocratic rule of countries by a single person.”)

Unfortunately, the ACLU also appears to cleave to the citizen-vs.-non-citizen distinction:

“The targeted killing of an American being considered right now shows the inherent danger of a killing program based on vague and shifting legal standards, which has made it disturbingly easy for the government to operate outside the law,” said Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU’s National Security Project. “This new report comes as the administration continues to fight against even basic transparency about the thousands of people who have died in this lethal program, let alone accountability for the wrongful killings of U.S. citizens.”

The Good, The Bad And The Banana Republic

Barack Obama, Democrats, Government, Taxation, The State

Befitting the banana republic he is fashioning, President Camacho “thinks” (and even John Stewart disagrees) that there is not a “smidgen” of corruption in the fact that Catherine Engelbrecht was visited fifteen times by four federal agencies “in a span of two years after her [conservative] group applied for tax-exempt status with the IRS in 2010.”

Reports Breitbart:

Engelbrecht’s business had never been visited by the federal government before:

The FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) began a series of inquiries about her and her group; the BATF (Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms) began demanding to see her family’s firearms in surprise audits of her and her husband’s small gun dealership – which had done less than $200 in sales; OSHA (Occupational Safety Hazards Administration) began a surprise audit of their small family manufacturing business; and the EPA-affiliated TCEQ (Texas Commission on Environment Quality) did a surprise visit and audit due to “a complaint being called in.”

Of course, these agencies can be used in legally permissible ways to harass and sabotage any of us.

The vision of everything that’s good about America, Engelbrecht has also endured a personal assault from Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings, the embodiment of all that is rotten about this country.

Just imagine: As a taxpayer, Catherine Engelbrecht pays Cummings’ way. Using her money, this bit of drek has embarks on a public campaign to smear her name and that of her organization.

The Son Of Sam Promises ‘Morning In America’

Barack Obama, Propaganda, Socialism, The State

I promised “Zero Coverage of O’s ‘Stalinesque Extravaganza,’” but you knew I’d renege.

Barack Obama began his hour-long bullshit session by conjuring a Norman-Rockwell scene of an America that is no longer. Farms, churches, close-knit communities; hard-working traditional, nuclear families awakening to … “Morning in America.” An America that progressives such as himself killed off a long time ago.

Then he ran with one lie after another. The US was poised for an economic Renaissance, even though about ninety million Americans are no longer in the workforce, our kids are, on average, dumber than kids in the rest of the developed world, and we’re divided as never before.

It would appear that “our deficits” too have been “cut by more than half,” even as we carry $17 trillion in national debt and a lot more than that in unfunded liabilities.

But it’s all good.

* As he did five times before, BHO vowed to make DC work once and for all, for this was what he promised those who sent him to the Capital.
* More empty eighth-grade level waffle about the promise of America—“opportunity for all – the notion that if you work hard and take responsibility, you can get ahead,” all the while increasing distribution and expanding entitlement programs.
* More “strengthen-the-middle-class” promises were issued while fucking the bourgeoisie over with Obamacare.
* Finally an assertion based on … science (yeah, right), contrary to the rest of the president’s lies: The First Lady is credited with helping to “bring down childhood obesity rates for the first time in thirty years.” I guess they tested Michelle’s hypothesis.

Oh, and what would the president’s slushy speech be without mention of the “son of a single mom” who became “president of the greatest nation on Earth.”

The Sweet Sounds of Secession

Constitution, Homosexuality, Law, States' Rights, The State

Contra broadcaster Mark Levin, the healthiest and most intuitive response to deep-seated unhappiness—political or personal—is not to hold a constitutional convention, but to leave; to exit the abusive relationship.

In Utah, it was U.S. District Judge Robert Shelby who did the honors of striking down “Utah’s voter-approved law defining marriage as between a man and a woman.”

In response, a “constitutional attorney” named Joe Wolverton spoke stirringly about secession:

The federal government does hundreds of things every day that are not in the “contract,” so states have the right to rescind it, he said.

“We are absolutely within our right to secede from a political union that no longer answers to the demands of liberty and justice,” he said.

Wolverton also went after elected officials who he says have betrayed the country.

“Have we elected traitors? Yes we have, absolutely. Both parties continue to grow the federal government and burden the states and the people.”

Mark Levin has trashed secession but looks to the states for salvation:

To reclaim the republic, Levin and his listeners look to the states and their role in the amendment process, as stipulated in Article V of the Constitution. Never mind that the states, contrary to the mistaken predictions and hopes of the Constitution makers, have never initiated a constitutional amendment; and never mind that even in the event that the states demand a constitutional convention, there is no mechanism to compel Congress to act.

The great constitutional scholar James McClellan was no “neo-confederate.” Yet even an ardent defender of the Constitution as McClellan conceded that, sadly, “the Framers relied on the good faith of Congress for the observance of the requirement” and that “there was no way to force Congress to act.” (“Liberty, Order, And Justice: An Introduction to the Constitutional Principles of American Government,” p. 310.)

Levin and his listeners are deluded if they think that from the “free” states—all four of them (New Hampshire, Colorado, South Dakota and Alaska)—will come our salvation. The legislatures of two-thirds of the states have to unite to call on Congress to hold a national Constitutional convention for the purpose of amending the dead-letter Constitution.

Incidentally, as a libertarian, I want to keep the state out of marriage altogether. “In furtherance of liberty, Uncle Sam’s purview must be curtailed, not expanded. On this score, let our gay friends and family members lead the way. Let them solemnize their commitment in contract and through church, synagogue and mosque (that will be the day!).”