posted by The Vidiot @ 10:40 PM Permalink
I'm posting his whole comment from his letters page because the page gets updated everyday and well, it's just too good to disappear:
I am putting the emphasis on Climategate because it goes right to the heart of the Hydra. Before us stands exposed the greatest government conspiracy of modern time, and clear proof that the corporate media was totally complicit in the deceptions. People HAVE to get angry at this. If they don't; if the people just turn back to their TV sets and decide paying another $5000 year in higher prices and taxes is preferable to standing up for their rights, then this nation is truly lost and the American people will have to repeat the experience of the Germans when Hitler fell before they admit to themselves just how wrong badly they were used and abused by the government they trusted. CLIMATEGATE is the biggest story of the century, even eclipsing Saddam's Nookular Bombs. If you arenot in a rage over what has been going on, there is something wrong with you. Look how obvious the campaign of lies is! Now, what else is the government and media lying to you about? Everything? Maybe. How do you know they are not? How can you know that theentire illusion of what you think the world is isn't just a contrived propaganda illusion to keep you docile and obedient?
There is no more important story right now. CLIMATEGATE is more more about the climate than Watergate was about water. It's just a handful for a conspiracy that reaches to the highest levels of US and world government. If CRU is the Pentagon of climate research, then the leaked emails are the Pentagon Papers.
As for the rant ...
Folks, I have heard Climategate described as the greatest science scandal of all time. It is that and much more. It is also the greatest political scandal of all time because the agenda was not scientific but political; to trick the entire world into accepting the yoke of global government and global taxation.
In other words Climategate (and Swine-11 and the financial crash) were created to enslave the entire human race. It is a monstrous conspiracy that involved the US Government, corrupted scientists, and the corporate media, all led by the United Nations' IPCC.
As such, I disagree with those who say that Climategate is a scan, or a fraud, or even treason. It is so very much more than that. Climategate is a crime against the entire planet. It is a crime against humanity. It is the greatest crime in history and its conspirators deserve the greatest punishment in history.
In standing up to be counted with the global warming fraudsters, Obama's Climate Czar, who owes her position and paycheck to the manufactured fraud of human-caused global warming, has proven to America that this government is an enemy of the people, willing to sell us all into global bondage for the sake of power and thirty pieces of silver.
Climate Czar Carol Browner is not an elected official. She is a proven liar because she supports a proven hoax that evinces a design to reduce all humans under an absolute global despotism and taxation from which there will be no recourse and no escape. I do not recognize her authority over me, and certainly have no respect for her absence of scientific awareness in this matter.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. -- The Declaration of Independence
A Maricopa County Sheriff's detention officer has been ordered to apologize to a public defender for taking a document from files on her desk during a sentencing in Superior Court.
Judge Gary Donahoe said Officer Adam Stoddard must issue his apology at a news conference on the north plaza of the Central Court Building on or before Nov. 30 or face jail for contempt of court.
Stoddard was pictured on courtroom video Oct. 19 taking a piece of paper from the courtroom desk of Public Defense Joanne Cuccia. [...] Sheriff Joe Arpaio said Wednesday [...] "Superior Court judges do not order my officers to hold press conferences," Arpaio said in a statement. "I decide who holds press conferences and when they are held regarding this Sheriff's Office."
I've excerpted this article not to cherry pick quotes but to fall in the guidelines of copyright protection. The whole article is much more damning.
The defense counsel, the prosecutor and ALL cops are officers of the court. To have a sheriff's deputy steal defense records, copy them and send them to the government's side is not only theft it's against federal law and a violation of the Constitution.
The cop is lucky he was only found in civil contempt. He should go down! (By 'down' I meant to the corner and apologize.) Personally, I think the Feds should prosecute him & Sheriff Joe et al for Federal crimes, (no way that the County Atty will prosecute the theft that was involved), because they think that cops run the gov't.
[...] Video footage shows Stoddard glancing at the documents during a sentencing hearing for Antonio Solis Lozano, 26. He's then shown removing the handwritten notes and having them copied.
INAL, but as I understand it there is no recourse when a judge sentences you for civil contempt. Criminal contempt, yes, civil, no.
Justice might be served if Arpaio & Lozano were sentenced to live in tents and made to wear pink panties.
Gosh, I bet they'd never flout the law again! Like Bull Connor never did.[/sarcasm]
Sheriff Joe has got to go. He's not just a criminal, he runs a criminal enterprise.
Mother of mercy, can this be the end of RICO?*
*Under RICO, a person who is a member of an enterprise that has committed any two of 35 crimes—27 federal crimes and 8 state crimes—within a 10-year period can be charged with racketeering. Those found guilty of racketeering can be fined up to $250,000 and/or sentenced to 20 years in prison per racketeering count. In addition, the racketeer must forfeit all ill-gotten gains and interest in any business gained through a pattern of "racketeering activity." RICO also permits a private individual harmed by the actions of such an enterprise to file a civil suit; if successful, the individual can collect treble damages.
When the U.S. Attorney decides to indict someone under RICO, he or she has the option of seeking a pre-trial restraining order or injunction to temporarily seize a defendant's assets and prevent the transfer of potentially forfeitable property, as well as require the defendant to put up a performance bond.
posted by Bill Arnett @ 5:33 PM Permalink
…when she says Tiger Woods, a private citizen with every single constitutional right still extant, should "just come clean" with the media and this whole vehicle accident matter would just "go away."
SHE'S F-ING CRAZY AND/OR A STUPID B*TCH! Tiger is, apparently, in full accord with Florida law, it is a personal matter, and with the vicious, baseless, idiotic media speculation, in which Montessori, or Contessa, or Princess, or whatever she calls herself has herself recklessly engaged; she knows damn well that if Tiger said anything more than he has already all she would do is continue to hammer, hammer, hammer poor Tiger and family for weeks (apparently not being intelligent enough to find real stories instead of approaching the boundary of slander like the fool, IMO, that she has shown herself to be.)
The rash of absolutely crass speculation (it was really a gunfight and Tiger's wife managed to nine iron him in the head, run the car off the road, and flee for her life before that monster, Tiger, could ritually kill her with the voodoo "hats for bats" that Serrano from the movie Major League had passed on to him) would be 24/7 tirade against that law-abiding citizen with an eye toward besmirching his character until it ruined his life.
And, IMO, this stupid b*tch Contessa is helping already, brining in shyster attorneys who make idiotic statements like, "Well, if he has nothing to hide he should just go turn himself in to the Sheriff and explain everything."
Advice for which they would probably face sanctions, and a severe loss of business, from any prospective or already being represented client to whom they gave the same advice (Ah…well…you, Guido the Death Dealer Man, say you didn't do it so just go into court and tell everyone, especially the jury, exactly what happened, evidence be damned!)
What a fargin' arsehole Contessa and other persons of her ilk (MSM) truly are.
TARGET: Good, Responsible Customers Whom Have Never Paid Late, Gone Over Limit, Paid Less Than Double the Min. Amt. Due, Never Done…
posted by Bill Arnett @ 12:50 AM Permalink
…anything but be a responsible consumer assiduously safeguarding his good credit standing.
I refer to a well-known department store, which shall remain nameless. For expediency's sake I'll use their initials: TARGET, TARGET, TARGET, TARGET, TARGET, TARGET, TARGET, TARGET, TARGET, TARGET, TARGET, TARGET, TARGET, TARGET, TARGET, TARGET, TARGET, TARGET, TARGET, TARGET, TARGET, TARGET, TARGET, TARGET, TARGET, TARGET, TARGET, TARGET, TARGET.
My beloved and responsible college student son, Jesse, applied for and received one of Target's Red Cards, a paper credit card lookalike, and, after paying the exorbitant price everyone was charging for LCD big screens in '06, he paid in full within three or four months.
He then, without further solicitation on his part was given a TARGET VISA, TARGET VISA, TARGET VISA, TARGET VISA, TARGET VISA with a much higher limit, which he used to buy various game and computer hardware (sorry for the highly technical jargon here) "hookin' up stuff," as well as a 46" Sony Bravia for ole Pops here. ALL,of course, paid off earlier than TARGET VISA thought they would be.
Again, and still, he continued making far above minimum payment well before the due date when he received in the mail a couple of weeks ago a notice that his credit limit was being reduced by a grand because a check of the "credit bureaus" revealed he owned no real estate, something which TARGET, TARGET, TARGET had been apprised of when the initial card had been applied for.
Yesterday comes a notice titled "REDcard Account Notice" telling him:
"The following is a summary of changes that are being made to the terms of your TARGET VISA CREDIT CARD ACCOUNT AGREEMENT [caps added Bill] You have the right to opt out of these changes.…
As of the first day of your billing cycle that begins in January 2010, the changes…described below will apply to all existing balances…and to any new transactions…
APR for Purchases 23.24%- This APR APR for Cash Advances [of which Jesse has NEVER availed himself. Bill] 27.24%- This APR will vary with the market based on the Prime Rate.[…they continue…]
Opting out of these charges
If you don't wish to accept these charges [you broke down pukes whom we plan to hit with usurious interest charges despite our constitution speaking directly to, and forbidding, usury…editorial license will be freely taken unless TARGET or VISA choose to opt out in the next 30 seconds, of making us pay usurious interest rates your bought and paid for congress and senate allow you to charge despite the clear language of the Constitution. Bill], you may opt out by contacting us at the address or telephone number provided. If you opt out, your account will be closed and you vill…uh… will continue to make payments on any existing balance under the current terms [or ve vill enslave your children, beat your wives, rape your pets -or the other vay around, who can stop us? The citizens? HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA,HA, HA, HAHA, HA, HAHA, HA, HAHA, HA, HA…WHEW! Zat broughten ze tears to mine eyes! I kill myself with being all powerful UND so phucking phunny, too!…] The deadline to opt out is the last [day of your pitiful life! O-o-o-0 I krack myself up!] day of your billing period ending in January […so you phucking idiots can go on your last Christmas spree BWAHAHAHAHA!] Please see the message on your enclosed billing statement for the opt-out deadline.
It took Jesse about five minutes of intense thought while on walkabout through our living room so he could grab the phone and immediately cancel his card.
The usury trainee was shocked, especially when Jesse told her to look back on his account history for even ONE late payment, overcharge, payment less than well over, mostly two or three times, the amount due, and challenged her forcefully to name a single flaw in how he has handled his affairs with great care and attention to detail.
She could not, of course, so she made a generous offer to leave Jesse's card at the usurious interest he had already been paying.
THIS is why our economy is in the toilet. Good people get phucked over while multi-multi-billionaires who believe themselves gods above mere mortals, and that have PROVEN DRAMATICALLY they cannot handle their affairs without dragging down hundreds of thousands, if not millions or billions of good people, getting all the tax dollars paid by my wife and millions of our citizens struggling to live every month on a sum of money less than that paid for a manicure by one of those fargin' arsholes (as a 100% disabled vet my money in tax-free-I paid my taxes by almost dying for having served America while the fat cats got the endless deferments of the supreme cowards they are).
But that's just my opinion. I could be wrong [in ten trillion years].
posted by The Sailor @ 2:46 PM Permalink
I read the news today, oh boy. It's just SSDD; the wrongwingers are upset with Obama, people killed their families on the holiday, and houses burned down, (Hey, they got footage!)
Breaking Terror Update! Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four of his friends are going to stand trial! It's taken about six and a half years for this to happen, during which they were all presumably kept waiting in the parlor of a sumptuous mansion along with the Colonel, the Countess, the jewel thief, the butler and the maid while a brilliant but eccentric sleuth attempted to discern the identity of the true culprit through the use of the deductive method, the thorough examination of evidence, and simulated drowning.
Everybody else has to stay in Special Torture Jail forever on accounta they have all come down with Schrodinger's Guilt. If they stay in the box they might be guilty, but if we open the box they might not be.
And now, since you've been wondering about the post title, here is the bestest ever version of Bohemian Rhapsody:
posted by The Vidiot @ 10:40 AM Permalink
Seems that New Zealand's climate study group is ALSO being examined:
The New Zealand Government’s chief climate advisory unit NIWA is under fire for allegedly massaging raw climate data to show a global warming trend that wasn’t there.
Like in my previous thread below, it's not that I don't believe something is going on with the environment, it's just how it's being used to manipulate the public. If all this research has been massaged to provide a basis for an agenda, then that's a problem.
There is real climate change but maybe it's due to something other than CO2. But unfortunately Co2 is what the science has latched on to. The fact that they're massaging data, trying to deny FOIA requests, and manipulating the peer review process only makes it harder for any real action to be accepted by the general public.
They were trying to do the right thing, trying to make a case to clean up the environment, but did it all wrong. And now, we've got a messy planet with no plan the people will accept because once again, the public has been lied to. Also, think about it, if you're trying to repair the planet, and you need to make a plan, creating a plan around the wrong issue is just ineffective as not doing anything at all!
posted by The Vidiot @ 9:09 PM PermalinkBumped and added to by The Sailor after The Vidiot's post.And an addendum by The Vidiot after that!
You may or may not be aware of the fact that somebody hacked into the Hadley Climatic Research Centre in the UK and posted their emails and several PDFs on the internet (pertinent links here, here and here.) Anyway, some of the emails seem damning, or not, depending on your POV. If you don't believe in global warming, emails like...
I've just completed Mike's Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie from 1981 onwards) amd from 1961 for Keith's to hide the decline. Mike's series got the annual land and marine values while the other two got April-Sept for NH land N of 20N. The latter two are real for 1999, while the estimate for 1999 for NH combined is +0.44C wrt 61-90. The Global estimate for 1999 with data through Oct is +0.35C cf. 0.57 for 1998.
...could certainly seem damning. But, if you believe global warming, you're more likely to dismiss that email as being out of context or using language common to programmers who use words like 'trick' to describe elegant programming language.
I've done some research in my time (cancer research) and here's what happens:
You have a theory. You've run some preliminary experiments that might hold it up, but you need funding. So, you get funding from someone or something that most likely wants to support whatever your theory is. So, you take this money, and it's usually a lot and the money that supports you, your family, your employees and your institution, and you really begin to feel obligated to prove your theory right, whether it is or it isn't. You'll toss out a piece of bad data here (and call it an artifact), or you'll do a little mathematical thing to force the data to comply there and before your know it, your whole career is built upon a very weak foundation that needs to be supported and manipulated at every turn.
I've seen it happen. Hell, I've been instructed to DO it. (I don't need to hear from ethical researchers. I know there are many out there. But they don't have a lot of money or fame now do they, which means they don't get heard.)
So, that's what I think has happened with global warming science. It's shaky at best. It was shaky when I was studying it in grad school back in the early 90s. I know guys who worked at NASA GISS and said things like "Those models are silly. Flip on the lights, stave off the ice age because it's coming." But so much money has been thrown at the problem, and too many weak characters have entered the fray, that it's become a huge runaway train with just too much momentum.
Is there global warming or climate change? Sure, there's always climate change whether or not man has been around. ALL of the planets in the solar system are undergoing some sort of climate change and people aren't there to screw things up (yet). Is our planet's particular change in climate attributable to man? I haven't a clue. If it is, you can be damned sure that it's not caused by individuals. It's caused by corporations. Yet, in every single climate change regime ever formed, the focus is on taxing and controlling the general population, NOT the corporations.
And yes, I know that cap and trade tries to place limitations on corporations, but in the end, the bankers will be the ones who profit, and the corporations will just slap it on their balance sheets and manage it all with their profit motive. It will be completely ineffectual. Meanwhile, we'll be charged for every mile we drive, we'll not be able to sell our homes without the government regulated energy upgrades and the price of a plane ticket will become unaffordable for most.
How is that fair? It's not.
Addendum by The Sailor: The Vidiot and I have discussed global warming/climate change on back channels, but we've never stated our diametrically opposed views for our readers.
So here's a great opportunity for folks to understand how people can disagree, vehemently, and still have a civil discourse while explaining our differing viewpoints.
It's not global warming, it's climate change, and all peer reviewed science says that humans have caused/accelerated it. I don't see a profit motive in all of these experts confirming it. And just because it's colder or warmer for your area doesn't matter, that's weather, not climate.
We both work/worked in research science. Frankly, Vid's has been at a level that surpasses mine. Quite a bit of my experience has been with differing corporations asking research groups to do their work for them. Every time I hear how much money companies spend on R&D I wonder why they can't do it for themselves.
Here's why: If a corporation pays for the research they get to suppress it if they don't like the outcome. They can even cherry pick results, and suppress the data that disagrees.
The data is bought and paid for, they own it. What I disagree with Vid on is the scientists who did the work would fake their results just to get more funding.
I have never worked with any scientist or support person that would do that.
It's science, by definition it's repeatable, and if you get caught faking you can't work again in your chosen field. All of those years, all of that work has gone for nothing.
Occasionally that does happen, but THEY GET CAUGHT! (See Cold Fusion.)
The climate change work has been mostly funded in this country by our Gov't. And while the previous administration did their best to appoint political people in top jobs that denied science facts (See Evolution) they failed because science doesn't care. The science exists or it doesn't.
Here's where hubris comes into play. Most every scientist in the world in your field wants to prove you wrong if they disagree with you. But if they can't they grudgingly support your conclusions.
These things, like the speed of light, the earth rotates around the sun, we're not the center of the galaxy, evolution ... are facts.
I'm not a climatologist, but climatologists around the world agree, climate change is being accelerated by humans.
And the profit motive is completely on the other side, e.g. clean coal.
JMHO.
Addendum by The Vidiot:
In the comments, I explained that I'm not one of those 'climate change deniers.' The human race is definitely a part of some of the environmental degradation that is going on now right here on Earth, just not as much as the global warming crowd would have you believe. I think there's a solar component to climate change that is barely considered in any of the discussions, and it's taking its toll on all the planets in our solar system. To disregard solar input is just bad science. Additionally, it's just not all humans that are causing the problems, it's particular groups of humans that are doing it.
Cui Bono? Who benefits from either proving or disproving global warming?
For the climate deniers, energy companies are funding what they want to fund, and if you're into anthropogenic global warming (AGW), well, you'll fund those folks. Both sides will benefit from whatever it is their 'experts' publish and you're right, those who pay can suppress what they want to suppress. And more than likely, researchers aren't being unethical, but you cannot argue that researchers have a vested interest in proving their theories and some researchers will do whatever it takes to pull in a lot of the almighty dollar. You know as well as I do the pressure that is on many researchers when it comes time to renew their funding. Just because you agree with AGW doesn't mean those guys are more ethical or moral when it comes to their research.
Also, most folks overlook the fact that there's a profit motive for AGW as well. There's cap and trade which Matt Taibbi wrote about. He said that Goldman Sachs is poised to profit from the upcoming carbon credit bubble. LOTS of money will be made by the bankers and businesses on the inside before it all comes crashing down and the rest of us will be holding the bag once again. Not only that, look at all the taxes they can pile on people if AGW is considered fact. They can tax us for the amount of miles we drive. They can tax us if we don't upgrade our homes with the allotted technologies. They can tax us for the food we buy that's not local. And they can tax us with all sorts of things I can't even think of because my coffee hasn't kicked in yet. The State can rake in all sorts of tax dollars if AGW is "supported by the research." Oh, there's definitely a profit motive for AGW, just like there is for climate deniers.
The problem I have, again as I stated in my comments, with the whole global warming debate is that the folks less likely to cause the bulk of the pollution are going to be the ones most likely to end up paying for it.
I don't want to have to pay the State all sorts of my hard-earned cash because the State enabled corporate greed to the point that the environment has been completely destroyed. Where's the corporate punishment? I mean, if Teen Vidiot messes something up, whether it's intentional or not, he suffers for it. Either we take his Wii away or whatever it is he's done will bite him in the ass. Either way, he will suffer the consequences. But corporations don't suffer any consequences. It's like if Teen Vidiot punches some kid in the face and the kid who got punched ends up expelled from school. Even if the kid was taunting Teen Vidiot, Teen Vidiot was the aggressor.
So, whatever the State chooses to do with regards to AGW, it's the little guy who will get hit and then suffer the consequences, not the big corporate bullies who caused the problem. Sure, the little guy was dumb enough to buy into the corporation's lies -- purchasing, needing, wanting and supporting the corporation -- but it's the corporation that is at fault, not the little guy.
Bottom line, a la George Lakoff, the issue needs to be framed in a more correct way. Instead of calling it anthropogenic global warming, which has a human component as part of its definition, it should more rightly be called corporation-induced atmospheric destruction or even profit-based environmental calamity. Either of these terms more aptly describe what is occurring AND they both firmly place the blame on the guilty parties.
Update to my Addendum: Dan D (in the comments below) has possible other name for it all that also reframes it, but isn't as mean and nasty as mine and might even be more correct: oxygen depletion travesty.
Of course, you know me, I'd probably agree to calling it oxygen depletion travesty iff "corporation-induced" or "profit-based" preceded it.
posted by The Vidiot @ 4:16 PM Permalink
I don't normally blog from work, but I'm taking a break from setting up WAY too many biz cards to post this because it's awesome.
When their bosses were for the war, they were for the war, and they battered any candidate who was “weak on foreign policy.” When the political winds shifted four years later and the consensus inside the Beltway suddenly was that Iraq had been a hideous mistake, the campaign-trail reporters mysteriously started sounding like Sixties peaceniks on the plane and they hammered Hillary for refusing to admit her error on the Iraq vote (none of these pundits had to admit their mistake on the same question, but whatever), clearing the way for Obama.
posted by The Vidiot @ 8:37 AM Permalink
Last night, an 18-year-old kid was shot by police in Queens.
At some point during the night, this story -- which is still up on Google news but not for long -- had these paragraphs:
According to an autopsy completed late Sunday, Vasconcellos had three gunshot wounds in the middle of his back, five in his right side and three on his left side, Borakove said. Five police bullets were recovered during the autopsy, she said.
Vasconcellos and two others were spotted leaving a city park in Queens at about 11:30 p.m. Saturday by four officers in an unmarked car. Vasconcellos ran and was pursued by three officers. He then turned and pointed a 9mm semiautomatic pistol at them, Browne said.
"They ordered him to drop the gun, and he did not comply. Three officers fired a total of 14 shots," Browne said.
Vasconcellos, who was also carrying a boxcutter, did not fire his gun. He was pronounced dead at Jamaica Hospital.
And then, a few hours later, those paragraphs became this one paragraph on one of the more mainstream newsites.
Police shot and killed the teenager late Saturday after they say he pointed a gun at officers and refused orders to drop it. The suspect did not fire his weapon.
And there was no indication that the AP article had been 'updated.' Obviously, the AP went through and scrubbed the story, and the sites that update most often got the new copy. I'm sure Google's version will be scrubbed very soon.
The only reason to scrub this story is if the NYPD is worried about causing yet another race riot because of a shooting like they did for Sean Bell in 2008 and Amadou Diallo in 1999.
Also, as Mike Rivero over at whatreallyhappened.com pointed out, it's entirely possible that, having realized they had just murdered a kid who was carrying little more than a box cutter, the cops planted a gun on him. It's not unheard of. And scrubbing the story would be the easiest way to cleanse the public's mind about the shooting.
Yesterday, the House Oversight and Government Reform committee held a hearing on the implementation of the Recovery Act, also known as the stimulus. Republican members invited former GOP Majority Leader Dick Armey, who now leads the corporate front group FreedomWorks, to testify as their expert witness. [...]
VAN HOLLEN: Let me ask you think. You keep saying ‘if there were,’ did you read the Economic Recovery bill?
ARMEY: No I didn’t. I had no reason to read it, I wasn’t voting on it.
Ironically, as part of an effort to obstruct and derail the bill, Armey launched an online petition called “ReadTheStimulus.org.”
This is the best republicans can do? They bring in an expert who hasn't read the bill!
It just goes to show that the best thing republicans have to offer is willful ignorance.
America is hungry and getting hungrier, with 49 million people - 17 million of them children - last year unable to consistently get enough food to eat, according to a report released yesterday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
These figures represent 14.6 percent of all households, a 3.5-percentage-point jump over 2007, and they are the largest recorded since the agency began measuring hunger in 1995.
Of those 49 million, 12 million adults and 5.2 million children reported experiencing the country's most severe hunger, possibly going days without eating. Among the children, nearly half a million in the developmentally critical years under age 6 were going hungry. That's three times the number in 2006.
The study documented both "low food security," which describes people unable to consistently get enough to eat, and "very low food security," in which people reported being hungry various times over the year but were unable to eat because there wasn't enough money for food.
I'm just going to bypass any argument about adults going hungry, because we all know they just brought in on themselves, all those white collar people who now go on welfare are just lazy.[/snark] [Editor's Note: I felt compelled to add the 'snark' tag because things are just so damn crazy that The Onion articles can't even begin to approach reality as seen thru GOP whiteout goggles.]
So I'll cry out the constant republican theme, What About The Children! Seriously, why does any child in America, or the rest of the world, go hungry?
There is no excuse, we have the food, we have the means of distribution, what we lack is adults in charge to make this happen.
[...] [Jan Pruitt, president and chief executive officer of the North Texas Food Bank] we're seeing a lot more professional people now."
Outreach workers who help people sign up for food stamps recently met a man who lost his job when Hewlett-Packard acquired EDS.
"He was an engineer – he made $100,000 a year ago," Pruitt said. "But he lost his job, his house and his savings, and now he's on food stamps." [...] "And Texas does lead the nation in the number of food-insecure children," Pruitt said.
"Every fifth child in Texas is in a food-insecure household," she said. "Every fourth child in Dallas County lives in poverty. And every third child in the city of Dallas lives in poverty."
I really don't have anything else to say, the facts speak for themselves.
Getting chiseled out of already laughably low wages is rough, but at least they didn't have the misfortune to be employed by Paradou owner Vadim Ponorovsky, who's earned some notoriety today for an incredibly nasty email he sent to staffers at his Meatpacking district restaurant. His gloriously profane and hateful missive, which makes Hunter S. Thompson's letters seem like Get Well Soon cards, is published below in its entirety:
P.S. I worked for a boss like him, only it was a she and she was a terror. She enjoyed firing people. She'd sneak up on them (because she wore house slippers at the office) at 4:45 pm and say, "Oh, by the way, you're fired" while tossing their severance papers at them.
posted by The Vidiot @ 7:36 AM Permalink
Like I didn't see this coming. Opposition to Ron Paul's Audit the Fed bill is using so-called "prominent economists" to show that auditing the Fed is a bad idea. And who are these "prominent eonomists?"
But far from a broad cross-section, the "prominent economists" lobbying on behalf of the Watt bill are in fact deeply involved with the Federal Reserve. Seven of the eight are either currently on the Fed's payroll or have been in the past.
Remember, back in the day of old-stream media, when they would report on the opposition, but never dig any deeper to find out who was actually funding it? You know, back before the internets?
posted by The Vidiot @ 7:28 AM Permalink
I love the twisted language credit card companies give their bought-and-paid-for cronies to justify anything having to do with them:
"The reason we allowed a gap period between the passage of the legislation and the imposition of the regulations or the statutory requirements was because the industry came to me and said, you know senator, we're going to need some time to administer, to change how we provide these kinds of benefits to people. So would you give us a little window here to operate?" Dodd said.
The company needs time to adjust their services to NOT screw their customers? Really? How about you just DON'T SCREW YOUR CUSTOMERS?! How freakin' hard is that?
posted by The Vidiot @ 7:16 AM PermalinkWTF?! They want to tax the American taxpayer extra to pay for the war?
"Regardless of whether one favors the war or not, if it is to be fought, it ought to be paid for," the lawmakers, all prominent Democratic allies of Obama, said in a joint statement on the "Share The Sacrifice Act of 2010."
So, then, I have to ask: Instead of levying a new tax, why not just end the war?
With such a simple solution available, you KNOW that proposing this tax is bullshit. They are proposing the tax so that people's knickers get all twisted and the talking heads start blabbering, giving Obama the opportunity to act like the hero and say "no" to the tax. See, they create the problem, then they solve the problem and the whole time the real issue, the validity of the war itself, never gets discussed. Additionally, with all the blabbering about this tax, they'll be able to sneak in a whole bunch of other taxes that the people won't even notice or know about.
It's not that they're clever, they just know how to do this crap.
An Ozark police officer used a stun gun on a 10-year-old girl Thursday, an action the child's father has publicly spoken against.
Officer Dustin Bradshaw used a stun gun to subdue the girl, whose mother had called police in response to her daughter misbehaving at the woman's residence, according to an Ozark police report. [...] Bradshaw said the child's mother attempted to place the girl in the shower to get her ready for bed.
"I witnessed (the child) screaming, kicking and resisting every time her mother tried to touch her," Bradshaw stated. "Her mother told me to Tase her if I needed to."
Bradshaw said he and the mother carried the child to the shower, but the child refused to cooperate.
Bradshaw said after realizing there would not be a "peaceful resolution," he moved the child to the living room and told her he was going to place her under arrest, according to the report.
"She was jerking her arms away from me violently while I was trying to cuff her and thrashing about wildly," Bradshaw stated. "While she was violently kicking and verbally combative, (she) struck me with her legs and feet in the groin."
Bradshaw said because he had difficulty placing handcuffs on the girl, he administered a brief drive stun to the child's back with his stun gun, the report states.
"She immediately stopped resisting and was placed into handcuffs," Bradshaw stated. "She would not [ED: could not, FIFY cop] walk on her own and I had to carry her to my police car."
OMG, where to start? The Mom is a bad parent and should have custody taken away from her. No responsible person calls the cops on a 10 year old for having a tantrum. And especially not for encouraging a cop to taze their child.
The cop should go to jail for child abuse. This a$$hole managed to carry her into the shower and into a squad car (given, she was incapacitated by 50 thousand volts in the latter instance), yet he can't subdue a 10 year old girl without a potentially lethal weapon?
The police chief needs to be fired and never have another job in a supervisory position, and be sued personally. Who the hell sticks up for a cop that does this?
Addendum: Ozark police argued that had the officer grabbed the girl, he could have hurt her. "If you grab somebody, you can slip an arm out of joint," the police chief added. "They can slip from you and fall on the ground."
Yeah, like adults who are Tazed don't have spastic contractions of their muscles, dislocate their joints, and/or die. TASERs are less lethal than hand guns, not less than lethal.
What a brave and fierce thin blue line we have to protect us from ... 10 year old girls.
Let this be a lesson to you kids; the monster isn't under your bed, he's not in your closet, he's your Mom and Officer Friendly. And if you don't take your shower you'll be Tazed and sent to Juvie.
The Catholic Archdiocese of Washington said Wednesday that it will be unable to continue the social service programs it runs for the District if the city doesn't change a proposed same-sex marriage law, a threat that could affect tens of thousands of people the church helps with adoption, homelessness and health care.
Under the bill, headed for a D.C. Council vote next month, religious organizations would not be required to perform or make space available for same-sex weddings. But they would have to obey city laws prohibiting discrimination against gay men and lesbians. [...] City leaders said the church is not the dominant provider of any particular social service, but the church pointed out that it supplements funding for city programs with $10 million from its own coffers. [...] From 2006 through 2008, Catania said, Catholic Charities received about $8.2 million in city contracts, as well as several hundred thousand dollars' worth this year through his committee.
With the Catholic Church, the Mormon Church and evangelicals churches advocating political actions I think they abrogated any right to the 1st Amendment when they crossed the line between church and state.
Personally, I never understood why religions get a break in taxes. Now pardon me while I go shear my flock for tax exempt dollars.
[...] A press release issued by Republican North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr explained his reasoning [...] "Currently, when the Department of Veterans' Affairs (VA) appoints a fiduciary to assist a veteran with managing their financial affairs, VA also deems the veteran mentally incompetent and reports him or her to the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS)," Burr's release wrote. "The Veterans Second Amendment Protection Act would require a judicial body to deem a veteran, surviving spouse, or child as a danger to himself or others before being listed in NICS, which would prohibit the veteran from being able to purchase certain firearms.
*************
Camp Lejeune whistle-blower fired A psychiatrist who tried to prevent Fort Hood-style violence among Marines about to "lose it" instead loses his job
Last April, two Marines at Camp Lejeune predicted to a psychiatrist that some Marine back from war was going to "lose it." Concerned, the psychiatrist asked what that meant. One of the Marines responded, "One of these guys is liable to come back with a loaded weapon and open fire." [...] Upon returning home, troops suffering mental health problems were getting dumped into an overwhelmed healthcare system that responded ineptly to their crises, the men reported, and they also faced harassment from Marine Corps superiors ignorant of the severity of their problems and disdainful of those who sought psychiatric help.
[...] “God doesn’t like ugly,” one political appointee told Paul Sullivan, an analyst in the VA’s Veterans Benefits Administration, in a clumsy attempt to reduce the cost of caring for psychologically traumatized veterans. “You need to make the numbers lower.” [...] Sullivan was working as an analyst at the Veterans Benefits Administration in Washington in early 2005 when he was called to a meeting with a top political appointee at the VA, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy Michael McLendon. McLendon, an intensely focused man in a neatly pressed suit, kept a Bible on his desk at the office. Sullivan explained to McLendon and the other attendees that the rise in benefits claims the VA was noticing was caused partly by Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who were suffering from PTSD. “That’s too many,” McLendon said, then hit his hand on the table. “They are too young” to be filing claims, and they are doing it “too soon.” He hit the table again. The claims, he said, are “costing us too much money,” and if the veterans “believed in God and country . . . they would not come home with PTSD.”
So this moron threatens to take his ball and go home if the other 99 senators don't pass his amendments. (Senate - n. definition: A dysfunctional political body that is elected by the people and controlled by lobbyists and obstructed by one f**king moron.)
I'd like to say I'm outraged, but the truth is that nothing these people do or say anymore shocks me. The lies, the hypocrisy, the hate mongering have become SOP for the GOP.
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." - Albert Einstein
A ruling that allowed a prisoner to sue former Bush administration attorney John Yoo for devising the legal theories that justified his alleged torture threatens to "open the floodgates to politically motivated lawsuits" against government officials, Yoo's lawyers say. [...] Yoo, a UC Berkeley law professor, was a Justice Department lawyer from 2001 to 2003 and wrote a series of memos on interrogation, detention and presidential powers.
The best known was a 2002 document that said that rough treatment of captives amounted to torture only if it caused the same level of pain as "organ failure, impairment of bodily function or even death." The memo also said the president may have the power to authorize torture of enemy combatants.
Another Yoo memo said that U.S. military forces could use any means necessary to seize and hold terror suspects in the United States.
The article didn't go quite far enough about Yoo's position. Yoo held that Americans can be arrested & tortured by our government.
Personally? I think justice would be served if Yoo should be abducted, tortured and confess to his crimes against the Constitution ... or maybe just disbarred and lose his tenure.
The early results are finally making it online as the preview of a graphic novel, which spills out into the trailhead of at least one Alternate Reality Game, and also comprises the back story of the coming videogame series. This is a big big universe - a giant war for the future of humanity, of course - with maybe one overall timeline but many different pathways through the material. So people might follow my characters through a series of graphic novels, and learn something about them that they can then use in the games, or an artifact they find in the game might help them decode something in the comics. And even the ARG that people are beginning to play right now - through which they are "finding the others," and forging coalitions with other gamers in their own parts of the world to solve certain challenges - is a set-up for the bigger game, where these larger groups will be responsible for various aspects of the coming war.
The object of the game right now is for the players to build the "Darknet," an alternative network through which a global resistance can operate, and people can begin to piece together why NASA scientists are being rounded up and what the hell happened over the skies in Los Angeles.
But I got in and set up a user name.... and then what? I'm just baffled. I can't figure out where folks are getting their clues, how their deciphering their clues, or even, frankly, what the hell they're talking about.
So, apparently, in the event of an alien invasion, I'll be useless to the resistance.
Question (asked sincerely): Is it better to be a one term president of color, the first of our history…
posted by Bill Arnett @ 11:56 AM Permalink
…or is it better to cling to the job by his fingernails, continuing to break the laws against the commission of war crimes, give all the taxpayer's money to support the über-rich billionaires unable to handle all that money, but whom remain without a care in the world knowing that the corporations, banks, and monster financial outlets are now officially "too big to fail," just to get reelected?
Having made history already, is it necessary for Obama to continue the mistakes of the old, white, upperclass that has phucked up America, shamed us before the world, and brought upon us forever the title of torturers?
Well, we have our answer. While we still have no healthcare for all Americans, the joblessness situation growing worse by the day, more troops dying or suffering horrific wounds daily, Obama has decreed that another 40,000 troops will be sent to the hell of Afghanistan to suffer a war that cannot be won in a land that has never been conquered.
Are we at least getting "our cut" of the 90% of the world's heroin grown and packaged there? NO ONE can move that much product without the support of one or more governments.
Obama, the world's biggest waste of time and even greater failure than GWB, whose mistakes and illegalities Obama had a chance to begin reformation and instead chose to join the old,white, upperclass that has always run the world and always will.
"We's got a nation of sick and po' people that need our help, sirs. May I freshen your martini, massa?"
posted by The Vidiot @ 9:53 AM Permalink
Since the idiots in Congress said they "had" to strip abortion financing out of the healthcare bill because otherwise, it wouldn't have passed, a TPM reader suggested this:
What would happen if a few female members of the House put in (or merely proposed) an amendment to the health care bill which stated that men would be barred BY LAW from purchasing health insurance which covered Viagra, all hair-growth medications or procedures or transplants, etc.?
As of Nov. 9, that’s how many American casualties there were in Iraq and Afghanistan since Oct. 7, 2001, when the Afghan war officially began. That includes a tire-screeching 75,134 dead, wounded-in-action, and medically evacuated due to illness, disease, or injury in Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), and 14,323 and counting in Afghanistan, or Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF).
Tomorrow, on Veterans Day, please keep in mind all the casualties we DON'T hear on the news.
In a landmark ruling, an Italian judge on Wednesday convicted a base chief for the Central Intelligence Agency and 22 other Americans, almost all C.I.A. operatives, of kidnapping a Muslim cleric from the streets of Milan in 2003. [...] In June, Il Giornale, a newspaper owned by the brother of Mr. Berlusconi, published an interview that it said it had conducted via Skype with Mr. Lady, the former C.I.A. base chief in Milan, whose whereabouts are unknown. In the interview, he said of Abu Omar’s abduction: “Of course it was an illegal operation. But that’s our job. We’re at war against terrorism.” [...] Both Mr. Castelli and Mr. Lady have retired from the C.I.A., according to former agency officials.
Most of the top C.I.A. officers said to have planned the Abu Omar rendition have left the agency, with the exception of Stephen R. Kappes, who at the time was the assistant director of the C.I.A.’s clandestine branch.
Sabrina deSousa Says U.S. "Betrayed" Her and Others Found Guilty in Kidnapping of Muslim Cleric in Italy
One of the 23 Americans convicted today by an Italian court says the United States "broke the law" in the CIA kidnapping of a Muslim cleric Abu Omar in Milan in 2003.
"And we are paying for the mistakes right now, whoever authorized and approved this," said former CIA officer Sabrina deSousa in an interview to be broadcast tonight on ABC's World News with Charles Gibson.
DeSousa says the U.S. "abandoned and betrayed" her and the others who were put on trial for the kidnapping. She was sentenced in absentia to five years in prison. [...] "Everything I did was approved back in Washington," she said. [...] Representative Pete Hoekstra (R-MI), a member of the House Intelligence Committee told ABC News that the trial was a disaster for CIA officers like DeSousa on the frontline.
"I think these people have been put out there. They've been hung out to dry. They're taking the fall potentially for a decision that was made by their superiors in our agencies. It's the wrong place to go." [...] "He was the wrong guy," said Baer. "It was not worth putting the reputation of the United Sates on the line going after somebody like this."
Ah yes, The Nuremberg Defense, 'we vas only following orders.' It didn't work then and it shouldn't work now.
Yo Pete, you're right in one way, the decision was made in WH & CIA Headquarters, but that just means they should all stand trial for war crimes. As I recall the Nuremberg Trials, the minions got jail time. The puppet masters got death.
They broke US, Italian and International laws. They did it willingly. and they knew at the time they were breaking the laws.
In US criminal courts I believe that's called premeditation.
posted by Bill Arnett @ 12:18 PM Permalink
…what a shame, a crooked game, to have sent so many of our fine soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines to a nasty and totally useless death in both Iraq, where American authorities attempted a genocide to steal its oil resources, and Afghanistan, the only war of the two with any semblance of a reason and need to retaliate for the deaths of the 3,000 deaths America suffered at the hands of Saudi Arabians and Osama bin Laden.
We chose not to respond with an attack against the perpetrators of the attack on 9-11 as we dared not attack the main suppliers of American's oil and gasoline from fear that they would further retaliate against us by stopping the flow of the fluids upon which this country runs; besides, it's bad form to kill a son of long partnership between the bush and bin Laden families in the Carlylse Croup, a group raking in billions and billions of dollars during the "war on terra" started by the biggest, slimiest worm of a president this nation ever had the misfortune to suffer.
Had to help ole Daddy make some billions and assassinate the man who offered to leave Iraq with the paltry some of one billion dollars, to a place where he and his family would be safely ensconced in a country without extradition, but no, the Great Insane Leader GWB just HAD to exercise brute force, depleting our military to a mere shadow of its former self, bankrupting America, and playing the "Decider" war president that decided war against two countries simultaneously was the only answer.
GWB left our country in a shambles, broke our financial system with his "off the book" war making, and is single-handedly responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans, hundreds of thousands of innocent Afghanis and Iraqis, and forced one of the largest refugee flights in the world's recent history. Quite an accomplishment for a cheerleader making "C" grades isn't it?
It used to be that such men were called tyrants, despots, and they were relentlessly hunted down and slaughtered by the populaces they sought to dominate and rule.
Now they call w a former president, fete him, build edifices, and open libraries that for the most secretive president in American history should rightfully contain nothing but bare shelves instead of the obligatory pictures of w with one head of state or another, most of whom's faces will be frozen in polite but garish smiles as they are forced to follow the diplomatic protocol ordaining such scenes.
Eight years now we have been in two wars while being incapable of winning even one. Everyday our soldiers suffer horrific mental and physical abuse, brain damage from bombs, just now being discovered, along with the well known symptoms of PTSD.
And all the while our entire nation grows sicker, mentally and physically, for the lack of mercy and care, jobs, and prosperity, all that is shown to us all by our elected "leaders" is only their concern from day one is to gather enough money so that they may be reelected again and again and again.
And I will no longer defend or speak of any good deeds of President Obama, for as far as I can see our country's situation grows more dire by the day.
The political showmanship playing itself out over health care is nothing but more of the ole political showmanship that allows the sanctimonious bastards to pretend to care while they don't really give a sh*t and in reality will pass nothing, as both they and we know it.
The generals of the "military industrial complex" of which Dwight Eisenhower warned us have indeed taken over and no president, even Obama, much less a weak-willed bastard like Bush, can overcome their siren's song to war, death, destruction, and the killing of anyone necessary, enemy or ally, to achieve their aims.
I haven't written for awhile, so to any regular readers I may have, I extend my heartfelt apologies, but in that "heartfelt" zone, for some time now, I have only felt the pain I lack adequate words to express. I feel the endless pain of our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines and all their loved ones at home.
I hurt, deeply inside, as I watch the slow motion ride to oblivion I see our country sliding down ever faster, gaining momentum everyday through these political farces, the obscenity of unnecessary wars being fought that do nothing but further enrich the drug warlords supported by the Afghanistan government and the oil barons of our creation, supported and defended at a horrible cost to American and Americans.
Our citizens pay all the costs while politicians enrich themselves daily at our expense. I weep for my country, the one I no longer recognize, the land of my birth and the one for which I gladly would have, and almost did, give my life to defend.
The America in which I grew up no longer exists. My America is dead, killed by its so-called "leaders."
And those, sadly, are my thoughts this Veteran's Day. I do not believ in "god" or "gods", but I do pray that if there is some entity out there in the universe that can protect our troops that they please do so.
Dissatisfaction with capitalism is widespread around the globe 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall that heralded the demise of European communism, a poll released Monday showed.
You might think that the world might have a chance to change. However, the article points out that:
In only the United States (25 percent) and Pakistan (21 percent), did more than one in five people agree that capitalism works well in its current form, the poll conducted for BBC World said.
showing that the world's most supposedly educated population is the most thoroughly brainwashed.
It makes sense that it's the United States that has the most true believers. Between what we're brainwashed to believe from the youngest age to what our brains are fed via our media, how our reality is created vs. the rest of the world's, it's no surprise that no matter how obviously controlled the society is, no matter how obvious it is that the divide between the haves and have-nots has gotten greater, no matter how obvious it is that the poor far outnumber the rich, that the middle class is just taking hit after hit after hit, no matter how much what is seen contradicts what is experienced, Americans still can't shake their belief in the almighty system of capitalism.
It doesn't bode well for a world-wide revolution. It's hard to get behind a revolution that will shake down the social order when that couch is just so comfy and those chips are just so tasty.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney told the FBI in 2004 he had no idea who leaked to the news media that Valerie Plame, wife of a Bush administration critic, worked for the CIA. [...] In the FBI interview, the vice president's memory of key events appeared hazy. [...] Cheney's occasional denials that he talked about Plame to various people at the White House are among the few things in the lengthy interview with the FBI that Cheney appeared certain about.
Federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald famously declared in the Valerie Plame affair that "there is a cloud over the vice president." Last week's release of an FBI interview summary of Dick Cheney's answers in the criminal investigation underscores why Fitzgerald felt that way.
On 72 occasions, according to the 28-page FBI summary, Cheney equivocated to the FBI during his lengthy May 2004 interview, saying he could not be certain in his answers to questions about matters large and small in the Plame controversy. [...] When Libby discovered Cheney's reference to Plame and the CIA in his notes — notes that Libby knew he would soon have to turn over to the FBI — the chief of staff went to the vice president, probably in late September or early October 2003.
Sharing the information with Cheney was in itself an unusual step at the outset of a criminal investigation in which potential White House witnesses were being ordered by their superiors not to talk to each other about the Plame matter.
"It turns out that I have a note that I had heard about" Plame's CIA identity "from you," Libby says he told the vice president.
And what did Cheney say in response? Fitzgerald asked Libby in front of a federal grand jury six months later.
"He didn't say much," Libby replied. "You know, he said something about 'From me?' something like that, and tilted his head, something he does commonly, and that was that."
Cheney's version of the conversation, as related in the FBI interview summary?
Cheney "cannot recall Scooter Libby telling him how he first heard of Valerie Wilson. It is possible Libby may have learned about Valerie Wilson's employment from the vice president ... but the vice president has no specific recollection of such a conversation."
Lying is a sin. Lying to the FBI is a felony. Outing a covert CIA agent is treason.
US President Barack Obama on Thursday told a gathering of US tribal leaders in Washington that he was committed to giving Native Americans an equal chance at the "American dream."
It's that 'American dream' that devastated the native peoples of this land. Maybe some Native Americans want to pursue capitalism and the 'American way' and fine if they do. But those that don't should be allowed to not pursue it in peace. They should have as much of their lands returned to them as his humanly possible and we should just get the hell out of their way.
Proof that Obama isn't serious is the fact that Leonard Peltier is still in jail.
An official announcement by the Obama administration disclosing the reality of extraterrestrial life is imminent. For several months, senior administration officials have been quietly deliberating behind closed doors how much to disclose to the world about extraterrestrial life. Dissatisfaction among powerful institutions such as the U.S. Navy over the decades-long secrecy policy has given a boost to efforts to disclose the reality of extraterrestrial life and technology.
Honestly, I watched "V" and it wasn't half bad. Peppered with propaganda like"24", but not bad. It's also extremely dumbed down. There was a point where the cop woman was looking at a picture of a guy that was supposed to be a V underground operative and rather than trust the audience would remember that he was a suspect in her investigation, they flashed back to her looking at his picture earlier. I find stuff like that REALLY annoying.
I know, I know. There's the Vidiot going all disclosure and alien on us again, but really, I'm just using it as escapism. Bloomberg bought a third term here in New York and it's just too depressing to realize that I live in city riddled with morons.
1.(sometimes capital letters 'V' and 'S' with no space) a style of writing or saying something using emotion and/or logic and snark, esp. in order to elucidate the obvious while pretending to be objective.
2. anything written by The Vidiot, The Sailor, Mr. Vidiot and anyone else they allow to post on the blog “vidiotspeak”
[Origin: loosely based on new + speak, coined by George Orwell in his novel, 1984 (1949)]
And for godsakes, stay away from FOX, MSNBC, CNN, ABC, CBS, and NBC.
It's ALL CRAP!!!
Watch the BBC news or ITN news instead.
"POSSE COMITATUS ACT" (18 USC 1385)
A Reconstruction Era criminal law proscribing use of Army (later, Air Force) to "execute the laws" except where expressly authorized by Constitution or Congress. Limit on use of military for civilian law enforcement also applies to Navy by regulation. Dec '81 additional laws were enacted (codified 10 USC 371-78) clarifying permissible military assistance to civilian law enforcement agencies--including the Coast Guard--especially in combating drug smuggling into the United States. Posse Comitatus clarifications emphasize supportive and technical assistance (e.g., use of facilities, vessels, aircraft, intelligence, tech aid, surveillance, etc.) while generally prohibiting direct participation of DoD personnel in law enforcement (e.g., search, seizure, and arrests). For example, Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachments (LEDETS) serve aboard Navy vessels and perform the actual boardings of interdicted suspect drug smuggling vessels and, if needed, arrest their crews). Positive results have been realized especially from Navy ship/aircraft involvement.
