Provide for the Common Defense

[carbonelle.livejournal.com]

It began with a gag order on the Chief of Staffs and their vice chief of staff: in order to advise Sec. Gates on U.S. military needs for the next budget they were not allowed to even talk to their own staffs of expert advisors.

It ended with the first administration in modern history to refuse to publish the five-year defense program

There's a lot more but I'll give you just one gem from Sec. Gates Very Special Budget:

The cancellation of the Combat Search and Rescue Helicopter--CSAR--for the Air Force 30 days before the winner was to be announced is seemingly based on Gates saying that a single service requirement was not necessary as we had lots of helicopters to do this mission. Unfortunately, the clique of sycophants around the secretary did not realize that we have tried this before in "real" combat, and it has always failed.

True, combat search and rescue is a time critical, high intensity, high risk mission area that demands pilot and aircrew core competencies, focused training, specific equipage and an assigned service responsible to the overall joint team for the organizing, training and equipping of this mission area. In short, as the previous Air Force Chief of Staff (General Buzz Moseley) has stated, "this is an ethical and moral imperative to pick our people up...all our people...across the full joint spectrum of operations. If we are going to send them out to fight...we must have the capability to recover them in distress."

Since 2001, our CSAR crews have rescued over 3,000 people. The United States Air Force CSAR forces are Joint Forces working for the Joint Force Air Component Commander

TARP it, ladies and gentlemen: we're doing the military equivalent of putting our fingers in our ears and singing "la-la-la-la-la-I-can't-hear-you" to Iran and North Korea. Never mind the hamstringing our national guard and regular air defense SAR abilities when the next Katrina or Bangladesh tsunami hits.

RPA

Cap and Trade

[x-1013-x.livejournal.com]

If this 'crap and tax' passes, be certain, we will all suffer greatly. My husband works in the energy business. I know how these things work. This will force companies and jobs out of our country, and for what? Bogus claims of "saving the environment"? Forget it! Ellis Wyatt is lighting his torch. I'm moving to Galt's Gulch, anyone know where it is?

GOP Turncoats on Cap and Tax

[maidenjedi]

 

Via Michelle Malkin:

 

Bono Mack

Castle

Kirk

Lance

LoBiondo

McHugh

Reichert

Smith (NJ)

 

GOP Not Voting: Flake, Sullivan

 

Full roll call vote here.

Like a Live Coal in the Sea

[carbonelle.livejournal.com]

Just when you're sure the whole world is going to hell in a handbasket, you read something like this:

"Dear Israeli Brothers and Sisters," writes Iranian dissident Arash Irandoost, "Iran needs your help more than ever now. And we will be eternally grateful. Please help opposition television and radio stations which are blocked and being jammed by the Islamic Republic (Nokia and Siemens) resume broadcast to Iran. There is a total media blackout and Iranians inside Iran for the most part are not aware of their brave brothers and sisters fighting and losing their lives daily. And the unjust treatment and brutal massacre of the brave Iranians in the hands of the mullah's paid terrorist Hamas and Hizbullah gangs are not seen by the majority of the Iranians. Please help in any way you can to allow these stations resume broadcasting to Iran.

"And, please remember that we will remember, as you have remembered Cyrus the Great's treatment of you in your time of need," Irandoost concludes, signing his blogged call for help "Your Iranian Brothers and Sisters!"
--excerpted from Aretz Sheva

"But all the wickedness in the world that man may do or think is no more to the mercy of God than a live coal dropped in the sea." --William Langford.

Bless you, ohinternets for sharing this one!

Justice department seeking asset forfeiture

[lucy-chronicles.livejournal.com]

out for a few days, digging out and find this in my updates from the Sovereign Society. Ignore the last line which could be interpreted as a cue to contact them for advice 'sell' and focus on the main point = more/another tact for gov takeover of private property.

this will be x-posted. for those of youo who are interested, look at my blog a few days back in the past month for early research i've been conducting on tax havens, 'Galt's gulch' if you will, from various online sites and books. my trip to Panama is due by this fall before leaving for/after Singapore again.
--------------------------------
Editor’s Corner:
The Justice Department's Plan to
Maximize Asset Forfeiture

By Mark Nestmann

I've written many times in this blog on the abominable practice of "civil forfeiture," a legal procedure in which prosecutors can seize your property without accusing you—much less convicting you—of any crime.

The civil forfeiture racket raises billions of dollars for federal, state, and local governments. Most of the time, the seizing agency gets to keep the money it confiscates, creating a bounty hunter mentality throughout the law enforcement system.

But that's not enough, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The DOJ is now implementing its first-ever National Asset Forfeiture Strategic Plan, with the goal of ensuring that prosecutors recover every last dollar of potentially forfeitable assets. That's a big job, because more than 300 federal laws authorize civil and/or criminal asset forfeiture. Not to mention tens of thousands of state, local, and county asset forfeiture laws and ordinances.

According to former assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher:

"Today, there is legal authority to forfeit the proceeds of virtually all serious offenses including terrorism, drug trafficking, organized crime, child pornography, alien smuggling, human trafficking, white collar crime, and money laundering. The National Asset Forfeiture Strategic Plan seeks to develop and implement policies and procedures to ensure that asset forfeiture is an integral part of every investigation and prosecution."

( Read more )