QUIETLY, OBAMA BEGINS 'REGIONALIZING' AMERICA

Breitbart

Stanley Kurtz at National Review Online writes about San Francisco's new Plan Bay Area--a "regional" plan for San Francisco and the surrounding cities that is ostensibly aimed at making sure minorities can afford the local housing market, but which is actually aimed at forcing Americans to live in denser urban areas as part of state and federal initiatives aimed at slowing global warming by restraining suburban growth.

The background to Plan Bay Area, which is, Kurtz writes, essentially being imposed on local residents with help from the Obama administration, is an activist agenda from the 1990s aimed at redistributing the wealth of the suburbs into failing, Democrat-run cities. One of Barack Obama's community organizing mentors, Mike Kruglik, is involved in the effort, and Obama was once involved (together with Bill Ayers) in funding it.

Joel Kotkin has written about California's new planning regime before, accusing Democrats of waging "a hypocritical jihad against basic middle-class aspirations." But in the counter-cultural critique of Pete Seeger and Joan Baez, on which today's California leaders were nurtured, suburbs are little more than "ticky-tacky" vehicles of oppressive conformity and waste, those middle-class aspirations are precisely the problem.

That is the perspective Obama adopted early in his political journey, and it is reflected in the left's efforts to blame the failure of cities like Detroit on conservative policies. The left now wishes to export its failures: "The Obama administration is using traditional anti-discrimination language as a cover for a re-engineering the way we live. The real goal is to Manhattanize America, and force us out of our cars," Kurtz warns.

MUST see - BANNED! Jesse Ventura: Police State

YouTube
TruTv Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura, banned from television.



Former Wisconsin Governor Jesse Ventura documents evidence of concentration camps for US citizens, thousands of grave liners to contain bodies, and massive unconstitutional "Fusion Centers" that target political protestors without oversight.

Download this video while you still can.

Related:  Are DVRs and TIVOs Remotely Erasing Select Episodes of Jesse Ventura’s Conspiracy Theory?

Two-Tier 'Privileged Flyer' Program Advances in EU: Non-Approved Unable to Fly?

The Daily Bell
Staff Report

'Smart borders': enhancing mobility and security ... The EU is moving towards a more modern and efficient border management by using state-of-the-art technology. Today, the Commission proposed a 'smart border package' to speed-up, facilitate and reinforce border check procedures for foreigners travelling to the EU. The package consists of a Registered Traveller Programme (RTP) and an Entry/Exit System (EES) that will simplify life for frequent third country travellers at the Schengen external borders and enhance EU border security. – European Commission Press Release

Dominant Social Theme: "I'm from the EU and I'm here to help."

Free-Market Analysis: As we have mentioned numerous times, the ultimate goal of the current security regime seems to be to create a two-tier travel system in which some people – with government approved credentials – will be able to travel with relative ease while others will not.

We have in various articles catalogued US programs that allow one to be "pre-approved" and thus avoid the long lines of those who are yet, apparently, to be considered potential terrorists. Eventually, such system will turn into something more difficult, of course – as the emphasis shifts from the approved to the non-approved.

In other words, eventually those who are not approved to travel may have trouble taking advantage of modern travel conveniences such as planes, trains, buses and eventually automobiles.

This is the logical outcome of the kind of regulatory state that is now being constructed using the war on terror as a pretext. It is apparently a prelude to global (centralized) governance and must be instituted since most people don't want to live in a single world construct and therefore need to be herded – forcefully – in that direction. Travel restrictions are a useful tool.

If such a scenario is to be realized, it must be effective not just in the US but throughout the West and perhaps worldwide. Now in a press released, we are informed the EU is taking steps to harmonize its travel program with the US's and other powers.

For now, of course, it's pitched as a convenience. Here's a further excerpt from the press release:

"The use of new technologies will enable smoother and speedier border crossing for third country citizens who want to come to the EU. Our aim is to facilitate the access of foreign travellers to the EU. This will not only be in the interest of the travellers but also the European economy. It has been estimated that in 2011 alone foreign travellers made a €271 billion contribution to our economy. Modernising our systems will also lead to a higher level of security by preventing irregular border crossings and detecting those who overstay', said Cecilia Malmström, EU Commissioner for Home Affairs.

Regulation on an EU Registered Traveller Programme (RTP)

1. A Registered Traveller Programme (RTP) will allow frequent travellers from third countries to enter the EU using simplified border checks, subject to pre-screening and vetting. It is estimated that 5 million legitimate non EU-travellers per year will make use of this new program. The RTP will make use of automated border control systems (i.e. automated gates) at major border crossing points such as airports that make use of this modern technology. As a result, border checks of Registered Travellers would be much faster than nowadays.

2. Business travellers, workers on short term contracts, researchers and students, third country nationals with close family ties to EU citizens or living in regions bordering the EU are all likely to cross the borders several times a year. Making it as easy as possible for them to come to the EU would ensure that Europe remains an attractive destination and help boosting economic activity and job creation.

Regulation on an EU Entry/Exit system

1. An Entry/Exit System (EES) will record the time and place of entry and exit of third country nationals travelling to the EU. The system will calculate the length of the authorised short stay in an electronic way, replacing the current manual system, and issue an alert to national authorities when there is no exit record by the expiry time. In this way, the system will also be of assistance in addressing the issue of people overstaying their short term visa.

2. The current practice used by Member States when checking a third country national wanting to cross the EU's external borders is based mainly on the stamps in the travel document. This practice is time consuming, does not provide reliable data on border crossings does not allow detecting overstaying in a workable way and cannot efficiently cope with cases of loss or destruction of the travelling documents. Moreover, today's systems will not allow the EU Member States to deal with the ever increasing pressure of travellers accessing and exiting the EU whose number, at the air borders alone, is expected to increase by 80%, from 400 million in 2009 to 720 million in 2030.

If there is anything encouraging in this release it is the timeline. We are informed that implementation of this program is years away and may only be viable in 2017 or 2018. First there must be "Negotiations with the European Parliament and the Council" and adoptions of the legal texts.

Conclusion: Is a kind of cage being constructed? It might seem so ...

Systematic Population Reduction of the American People Has Begun

The Common Sense Show
by Dave Hodges

Most agree that the globalists must perpetrate a false flag event on an unprecedented scale in order to consolidated centralized power on the road to a tyrannical one world government.

What Form Will the Impending False Flag Take?

Are the globalists going to release pandemics and perpetrate a major health crisis? Are they going to start WWIII? Will they simulate an alien invasion using holographic technology in order to perpetrate a consolidation of power against the bogus threat in the spirit of Operation Blue Beam? Will they perpetuate a civil war in which they feel they can crush most patriot opposition at one time through gun confiscation, internet takeover and the introduction of extreme food shortages which will lead to massive food riots and internal strife?

Food As a Weapon

I believe we are witnessing the introduction of the latter strategy as a means to centrally and globally consolidate power. Gun ownership and the continuance of the free internet is also under attack. However, the gun and internet debates are merely agitators in support of the grand strategy because the centerpiece of this attack upon the American people will be the introduction of food shortages.

Market conditions, through an ever-increasing decline on the value of the dollar, is causing a spike in fuel prices. A spike in fuel prices makes it considerably more expensive to ship our 3,000 mile salads. Basic food staple prices have more than doubled in the past year. Retailers have responded with smaller packages in order to hide the dramatic increase in price and the beautiful thing for the globalists’ plans is that they merely have to sit back and let market conditions take over. As a result, we are witnessing the beginning of using food as a weapon against the American people. Couple this fact with the obvious agitation of using the attack on gun ownership and the free internet, you will soon see one pissed off nation ready to take to the streets and that is what TPTB want you to do. Even the most of ardent of sheeple will soon be anti-government and many will take to the streets in an attempt to reclaim what is being taken. And what parent will not fight when their young children are starving to death? Do not take to the streets. Read the following and act accordingly and you will soon drop any pretense of participating in a successful civil war against the globalists who have hijacked our government.

The National Defense Preparedness Act

The best predictor of future happenings is present behavior. In order to validate the logic of the fact that the globalists are going to use food as a weapon against the American and that assault is already underway, one has to look no further than The National Defense Preparedness Act. Obama issued this Executive Order for a reason. At the time he issued the EO, the content of the order made no sense within the context of contemporary events. However, if one looks at the aspect of a greatly devalued dollar, due to the decline in the value of the Petrodollar, and the resulting escalation of food prices, the EO now makes perfect sense.

Through the National Defense Preparedness Act, Obama is following in the footsteps of Hitler and Stalin and we should all be worried, very worried.

This enables the President, solely based upon his own authority, to declare peacetime martial law which is tantamount to the establishment of an indefinite dictatorship. Also, the intent behind the Obama EO must be considered within the context of the times that we presently live in. To that point, Eric Holder, on behalf of President Obama, is asserting the power to assassinate Americans, anytime, anywhere, for any reason or for no reason, whatsoever. Further, President Obama is asserting the power to kidnap and indefinitely imprison Americans without a trial under the NDAA. Finally, the Department of the Defense, operating under the ultimate authority of President Obama, is asserting the power to label legitimate protesting as an act of terrorism.

Hitler proclaimed that food could be used as a tool “…to discipline the masses” and he did not hesitate to use the control of food as a type of carrot and stick in which he would reward accomplishment and punish failure as well as to ferment preferential class distinctions in which his armed forces received the largest food ration cards. Skilled workers who were engaged in industries critical to the building of the German war machine, received food ration cards which were slightly less in value. And, finally, the prisoners and the Jews received the lowest valued Nazi food ration cards. Food ration cards were also utilized as incentives to increase industrial production and were also increased in value when productive Nazi workers would be promoted. Food ration cards were diminished in value for the failure to meet Nazi production goals. Hitler’s use of what psychologists refer to as classical conditioning techniques reduced the will of the German population to a pack of Pavlovian dogs who were conditioned to be totally dependent upon the government for their survival.

In the not so distant past, Somalia thug, Farah Aideed, systematically starved his people into submission as a brutal civil war raged in both Darfur and Rwanda where the Islamic regimes sought the annihilation of ‘infidels’ and the use of food was one of the primary weapons designed to force compliance. And of course, Pol Pot, Castro and Mao all used food deprivation to quarantine their political opposition and exact absolute allegiance to their respective dictatorial regimes.

Historical Precedent for the Use of Food As A Weapon Against the American People

Few people realize that the use of food by the U.S. government has been a matter of official U.S. governmental covert policy since 1974-1975.

In December, 1974, National Security Council directed by Henry Kissinger completed a classified study entitled, “National Security Study Memorandum 200: Implications of Worldwide Population Growth for U.S. Security and Overseas Interests.” The study was based upon the unproven claims that population growth in Lesser Developed Countries (LDC) constituted a serious risk to America’s national security.

In November 1975 President Ford, based upon the tenets of NSSM 200 outlined a classified plan to forcibly reduce population growth in LDC countries through birth control, war and famine. Ford’s new national security adviser, Brent Scowcroft, in conjunction with CIA Director, George H. W. Bush, were tasked with implementing the plan and the secretaries of state, treasury, defense, and agriculture assisted in the implementation of these insane genocidal plans.

NSSM 200 formally raised the question, “Would food be considered an instrument of national power? … Is the U.S. prepared to accept food rationing to help people who can’t/won’t control their population growth?” Kissinger has answered these questions when he stated that he was predicting a series of contrived famines, created by mandatory programs and this would make exclusive reliance on birth control programs unnecessary in this modern day application of eugenics in a scheme that would allow Henry to have his cake and eat it too in that the world would finally be rid of the “useless eaters!”

Third world population control, using food as one of the primary weapons, has long been a matter of official covert national policy and a portion of President Obama’s Executive Order (EO), National Defense Resources Preparedness is a continuation of that policy. Only now, the intended target are not the Least Developed Countries but instead, the American people are now being targeted.

If Americans Are Not A Target for Starvation, Then Explain the Following 

With the stroke of his pen, President Obama has total and absolute control over all food where his EO states:

e) “Food resources” means all commodities and products, (simple, mixed, or compound), or complements to such commodities or products, that are capable of being ingested by either human beings or animals, irrespective of other uses to which such commodities or products may be put, at all stages of processing from the raw commodity to the products thereof in vendible form for human or animal consumption. “Food resources” also means potable water packaged in commercially marketable containers, all starches, sugars, vegetable and animal or marine fats and oils, seed, cotton, hemp, and flax fiber, but does not mean any such material after it loses its identity as an agricultural commodity or agricultural product.

(f) “Food resource facilities” means plants, machinery, vehicles (including on farm), and other facilities required for the production, processing, distribution, and storage (including cold storage) of food resources, and for the domestic distribution of farm equipment and fertilizer…”

This unconstitutional EO is particularly disturbing in that it clearly states that the government has control over anything that is “capable of being ingested by either human beings or animals…” If you thought that you and Fido were going to get through coming food crisis by storing and consuming dog food, think again.

How will farmers maintain the nation’s food supply when all fertilizer, their farm equipment and all of their vehicles are under the control of this sociopathic President or the next power-hungry President?

The term “all food storage facilities” includes your refrigerator, your pantry and even the very food in your cabinets as well as what is on your kitchen table. In short, anywhere you keep food is now under the control of the government and can be redistributed and/or confiscated.

Have you recently been scratching your head in bewilderment as you watch on the news as the Amish have had their farms raided, raw milk producers have been jailed and the kids running lemonade stands have been shut down and ticketed? Now you know why these abuses are being perpetrated by the government in that it represents a mere conditioning process designed to get all U.S. citizens used to the idea that the government owns all food and food production. Welcome to The Hunger Games.

The most clever aspect of this EO is that no overt Hegelian Dialectic (i.e., false flag event) is needed as a pretense to seize food and imperil survivability. Section 201(b) of the Obama EO clearly states that this EO is enforceable under both emergency and non-emergency conditions.”

Even Ray Charles could see that Obama is setting the table to take his place among Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, Castro and Mao as another despot in the long line of tyrannical leaders who would grant themselves the authority to subjugate the masses by using food as a weapon. Americans desperately need to look at history in order to understand what happens every time the people of a government allows the government to control its food supplies and farms. The answer is that the effect is the same as when the people of a country allows its government to seize their guns, It always results in GENOCIDE, 100% of the time. It was with great forethought that the title of this article reads in part “…systematic population reduction…”

In hindsight, I have often wondered how prophetic was Obama’s campaign speech when he promised to fundamentally transform America? This was actually one campaign promise that Obama is trying to keep. NSSM 200 has come full circle, but in this case, it is specifically aimed at the American people. History show us that Socialists, Communists, Islamists and Marxists, use food and the production of food as a weapon against their own people in order to solidify power and control. Hitler himself said that using food as a weapon was “a beautiful instrument . . . for maneuvering and disciplining the masses.”

If Obama is not going to use food as a weapon, then explain why Obama has set himself up, or his successor, for using food as a weapon against the American people.

History Speaks and Americans Should Listen

The Enabling Act permitted the German cabinet to enact previously prohibited legislation, which included laws which clearly deviated from and profoundly altered the meaning of the German constitution. As with Obama’s unconstitutional actions, this was accomplished without the consent of the Reichstag. Within the parameters of the Enabling Act, the Nazis created “Special Courts” to punish political dissent in a strikingly similar manner identified in the Obama sponsored NDAA and its predecessor, The Military Commissions Act, as well as a number of declarations and proclamations referenced in the previous paragraphs. Also contained in the Enabling Act was a series of civil laws that barred special groups of people (e.g. Jews) from holding civil service positions as well as jobs in the legal, medical and teaching professions. I have written on the new fad term that the government is using to label legitimate political dissent and that term is sovereign citizen. Labeling a dissenter as a sovereign citizen allows the government to marginalize protestors and invoke the use of the NDAA as well as employ drone strikes against pockets of resistance. Seriously, do you really think that these legislatively provisions and draconian EO’s aren’t being enacted with a clear and specific intent?

Can We Effectively Respond?

Anything that can delay the mass implementation of these policies is a victory for the people against this tyrannical government. I believe that the globalists have invoked a very risky strategy. They may be able win a civil war from a military point of view. However, if the people refuse to give in and commence the globalist inspired civil war, their strategy is imperiled. The longer it takes to subjugate the American people by using food and political agitation as a tool to ferment conflict, the more of the enforcement apparatus of the globalists will find that they and their families will fall victims to the same plot just the same as the people from which they are tasked with confronting. Starvation could prove to a great unifier for the American people.

The first order of business is for the people, regardless of any future executive decrees, lies in the immediate need to become food self-sufficient. Begin to grow your food right now. Barb Peterson has a great prescription of how to garden indoors in cold weather climates. Also, begin to store food, right now. This includes storing water along with the chemicals to preserve it. In the upcoming days, you will need supplies that you have not accounted for. Therefore, you better reach across the fence and shake your neighbor’s hand. You will need each other. Your new found friendships includes educating your neighbors as to the perilous times that we have entered. You will not reach everyone, but collectively, with one mind and one spirit, we can reach enough of our fellow citizens to make a difference. Remember, our goal is not win an outright victory, it is to survive by delaying the effectiveness of the enforcement mechanisms of the globalists which will fragment and begin to disintegrate if their plans of domination do not stick to the timetable.

Begin to take articles like these and the hundreds of articles published every day and start circulating them to your email lists, like there is no tomorrow, because we do not have a lot of tomorrows unless we begin to prepare to survive. Remember, above all else,we do not have to win a military confrontation. Thanks to the former Viet Cong, we simply know that we only have to outlast the opposition. Reaching out to our neighbors is key. A newfound spirit of humanity is our best friend. History is indeed a good teacher.

Our new found spirit of brotherhood could prove to be our salvation. We need each other! Get to work NOW!

The 'Robocop' headset that lets police see through walls and identify suspects just by LOOKING at them

Daily Mail

A headset computer promises to give police officers and other emergency services Robocop-like abilities.

The Golden-i device, similar to the Glass project being developed by Google, offers the ability to see through walls thanks to infrared technology.

It is operated by voice commands and head movements and allows the wearer to access vital information without using their hands.

Golden-i has been developed by U.S. company Kopin Corporation, but software solutions tailored to police, firefighters and paramedics have been created by Nottinghamshire-based firm Ikanos Consulting.

It was shown off at the CES 2013 show in Las Vegas last month, although the firm says it is 'too early' to give a price.

It is set to be trialled this year, and could go on sale before Google's Glass project, which is a far more compact headset the search giant also plans to release this year. The Police Pro application provides real-time situational awareness in the field by allowing officers to record incidents for later analysis and view live video feeds from other Golden-i headsets.

The system can also identify suspects using facial recognition, receive alerts from motion sensors, scan licence plates instantly, monitor basic vital signs and call up floor plans and GPS coordinates.

The Firefighter Pro application allows firefighters to call up floor plans and GPS coordinates, see through walls using infrared technology, monitor crew and surroundings, navigate through unknown environments and provide on-site video streaming.

The Paramedic Pro application allows first responders and paramedics to share multiple video and data feeds over a private network, enabling critical information to be shared instantly across multiple devices, improving decision making and safety. They can also access medical records, stream live video, discuss options with associates and view maps or use GPS.

Office workers can also benefit from the technology with the Ikanos-created Lifeboard application. This system enables you to customise up to 6 different screens to meet personal working preferences and manage your day.

The Golden-i unit features an inertially stabilised 14-megapixel camera with optional infrared camera for thermal and night vision.

A 1080 HD detachable camera for recording or sending real-time video can also be added.

Selected Golden-i devices come pre-loaded with a set of core Gi-OS applications, including E-mail Center, Ask Ziggy, Web Browser and File Explorer. The Golden-i platform will continue to evolve as the developer community works together to build voice-controlled augmented reality applications for Golden-i. The Golden-i hardware and software developer kit is expected be released by the summer, while a consumer version is slated for later in the year.

DHS Watchdog OKs ‘Suspicionless’ Seizure of Electronic Devices Along Border

WIRED
By David Kravets

The Department of Homeland Security’s civil rights watchdog has concluded that travelers along the nation’s borders may have their electronics seized and the contents of those devices examined for any reason whatsoever — all in the name of national security.

The DHS, which secures the nation’s border, in 2009 announced that it would conduct a “Civil Liberties Impact Assessment” of its suspicionless search-and-seizure policy pertaining to electronic devices “within 120 days.” More than three years later, the DHS office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties published a two-page executive summary of its findings.

“We also conclude that imposing a requirement that officers have reasonable suspicion in order to conduct a border search of an electronic device would be operationally harmful without concomitant civil rights/civil liberties benefits,” the executive summary said.

The memo highlights the friction between today’s reality that electronic devices have become virtual extensions of ourselves housing everything from e-mail to instant-message chats to photos and our papers and effects — juxtaposed against the government’s stated quest for national security.

The President George W. Bush administration first announced the suspicionless, electronics search rules in 2008. The President Barack Obama administration followed up with virtually the same rules a year later. Between 2008 and 2010, 6,500 persons had their electronic devices searched along the U.S. border, according to DHS data.

According to legal precedent, the Fourth Amendment — the right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures — does not apply along the border. By the way, the government contends the Fourth-Amendment-Free Zone stretches 100 miles inland from the nation’s actual border.

Civil rights groups like the American Civil Liberties Union suggest that “reasonable suspicion” should be the rule, at a minimum, despite that being a lower standard than required by the Fourth Amendment.

“There should be a reasonable, articulate reason why the search of our electronic devices could lead to evidence of a crime,” Catherine Crump, an ACLU staff attorney, said in a telephone interview. “That’s a low threshold.”

The DHS watchdog’s conclusion isn’t surprising, as the DHS is taking that position in litigation in which the ACLU is challenging the suspicionless, electronic-device searches and seizures along the nation’s borders. But that conclusion nevertheless is alarming considering it came from the DHS civil rights watchdog, which maintains its mission is “promoting respect for civil rights and civil liberties.”

“This is a civil liberties watchdog office. If it is doing its job property, it is supposed to objectively evaluate. It has the power to recommend safeguards to safeguard Americans’ rights,” Crump said. “The office has not done that and the public has the right to know why.”

Toward that goal, the ACLU on Friday filed a Freedom of Information Act request demanding to see the full report that the executive summary discusses.

Meantime, a lawsuit the ACLU brought on the issue concerns a New York man whose laptop was seized along the Canadian border in 2010 and returned 11 days later after his attorney complained.

At an Amtrak inspection point, Pascal Abidor showed his U.S. passport to a federal agent. He was ordered to move to the cafe car, where they removed his laptop from his luggage and “ordered Mr. Abidor to enter his password,” according to the lawsuit.

Agents asked him about pictures they found on his laptop, which included Hamas and Hezbollah rallies. He explained that he was earning a doctoral degree at a Canadian university on the topic of the modern history of Shiites in Lebanon.

He was handcuffed and then jailed for three hours while the authorities looked through his computer while numerous agents questioned him, according to the suit, which is pending in New York federal court.

Thousands of military drones to be deployed over US mainland

World Socialist Website
by Tom Carter

A recent Department of Defense report to Congress as well as a number of media investigations have exposed government plans to deploy tens of thousands of drones over the US mainland in the coming years.

An investigative report published over the weekend by the Christian Science Monitor cited the government’s own estimates that “as many as 30,000 drones could be part of intelligence gathering and law enforcement here in the United States within the next ten years.”

Unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), commonly known as “drones,” are extremely sophisticated remotely-operated aircraft, developed and manufactured by the military-industrial complex in recent years at a cost of billions of dollars.

Drones vary in size from the four-pound RQ-11B Raven surveillance drone, which can be launched by hand, to the giant MQ-9 Reaper combat drone, manufactured by Northrup Grumman. The Reaper has a maximum take-off weight of 7,000 pounds, including up to 3,000 pounds of bombs, missiles and other armaments. The infamous MQ-1 Predator drone, armed with 100-pound Hellfire missiles, is the Obama administration’s favored weapon in its illegal assassination program. A Predator drone was used in the unprecedented assassination of a US citizen, Anwar al-Awlaki, in Yemen last September.

With a push of a button, thousands of pounds of high explosives can be dropped on anyone, anywhere in the world, with startling precision. Safe behind video screens at military bases within the US, military drone operators refer to their victims as “bug splats.” Thousands of innocent civilians have already been murdered in this way in Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

An April Department of Defense report, titled “Future Unmanned Aircraft Systems Training, Operations, and Sustainability,” reveals that a massive drone infrastructure is already being erected within the US, with billions of dollars being allocated, bases being erected, thousands of pilots and crews being trained, and inventories being stockpiled.

The report identifies 110 military bases that will serve as drone launch sites. The deadly Predator and Reaper drones will operate out of Creech Air Force Base (AFB) in Nevada, Holloman AFB and Cannon AFB in New Mexico, Fort Drum in New York, Grand Forks in North Dakota, Ellsworth AFB in South Dakota, Whiteman AFB in Missouri, and the Southern California Logistics Airport, among others.

The accompanying map, from an Air Force power-point presentation released this month, shows current and projected locations for drone bases within the US.

The Department of Defense report argues for lifting the current framework of restrictions on drone flights over the US on the grounds that it “does not provide the level of airspace access necessary to accomplish the wide range of DoD UAS missions at current and projected operational tempos (OPTEMPOs).”

The language of the report is revealing and ominous. “This constraint will only be exacerbated as combat operations shift from abroad and systems return to US locations,” the report states. It expressly refers to plans to “conduct continental United States (CONUS)-based missions.”

In January, Congress passed HR 658, which requires the Federal Aviation Administration to take steps to facilitate the integration of drones “into the national airspace system.” President Obama signed the bill on February 14 with no public discussion or comment. (See “Drones come to the US”)

Since Obama signed the bill, hundreds of drones have already begun flying over the US to spy on and monitor the population. A recent ABC News investigative report entitled “UAVs: Will Our Civil Liberties Be Droned Out?” outlined the possibility of drones buzzing overhead becoming “a fact of daily life.”

ABC News reported: “Drones can carry facial recognition cameras, license plate scanners, thermal imaging cameras, open WiFi sniffers, and other sensors. And they can be armed.”

“Among the most eager to fly domestic drones are America’s police departments,” the report stated. “In Texas, a Montgomery county sheriff’s office recently said it would deploy a drone bought with money from a Department of Homeland Security grant and was contemplating arming the drone with non-lethal weapons like tear gas, rubber bullets or Taser-style rounds.”

The ABC News report identified “political protests” as one of the activities that can be monitored by drones. In December, the American Civil Liberties Union published a detailed report on the dangers of a massive build-up of surveillance drones within the US, warning that “our privacy laws are not strong enough to ensure that the new technology will be used responsibly and consistently with democratic values.”

Jay Stanley, senior policy analyst at the ACLU, described last month a “nightmare scenario” of widespread drone spying leading “to an oppressive atmosphere where people learn to think twice about everything they do, knowing that it will be recorded, charted, scrutinized by increasingly intelligent computers, and possibly used to target them.”

According to a Los Angeles Times article in December of last year, the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) are already using Predator drones for operations within the US. Last week, a huge Global Hawk drone being operated by the US Navy for an unknown purpose crashed in Maryland.

The deployment of tens of thousands of surveillance drones over the mainland US takes on special significance in light of recent revelations that the Obama administration is secretly constructing “bottomless” databases to house information gathered about US citizens. (See “Obama administration expands illegal surveillance of Americans”)

The build-up of drone bases within the US is one component of preparations by the US government for a confrontation with its own population. Like everything else associated with the so-called “war on terror”—including torture, detention without trial, warrantless spying, assassinations, military tribunals, and expanded executive and intelligence powers—the use of drones for spying and assassination in the Middle East is a prelude to the development of systems that will ultimately be used against the American people in the event of social upheavals.

On “Terror Tuesdays” at the White House, President Obama helps draw up a list of opponents of US policy overseas who are to be illegally assassinated by drone-fired missiles. These “kill lists” have already included US citizens. With tens of thousands of drones flying overhead, and with the US mainland designated as a “battleground” in the never-ending and geographically unlimited “war on terror,” the US ruling class hopes one day soon to be able to eliminate its domestic opponents with similar ease.

McCarthy Bill Would Ban Common Self-Defense Magazines

Ammoland

On Tuesday, Jan. 18, Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.) introduced H.R. 308, the “Large Capacity Ammunition Feeding Device Act.” The bill would ban the manufacture and importation of new magazines that can hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition. Unlike the magazine ban that was in effect from 1994 to 2004, her new bill would also make it illegal for the tens of millions of Americans who already own these magazines to sell or otherwise transfer them, even through inheritance. In a letter to her colleagues, Rep. McCarthy claimed, “The only reason for the existence of these devices is to be able to shoot as many people as quickly as possible.”

Yet her bill would allow the continued acquisition and possession of these magazines by law enforcement officers, who carry firearms to defend themselves and the public. It would even allow these magazines to be transferred to law enforcement officers upon retirement, even though a retired officer’s right to use firearms for self-defense is the same as any other private citizen’s right.

With H.R. 308, Rep. McCarthy is pursuing the agenda of banning guns and magazines that she brought to Washington 14 years ago. In 2003, 2005 and 2007, Rep. McCarthy introduced bills that, like H.R. 308, would have banned magazines that hold more than 10 rounds. Those bills would also have banned all firearms that were subject to the federal “assault weapon” ban of 1994-2004 and all firearms made specifically to comply with the 1994 ban. They would also have banned all semi-automatic shotguns, commonly owned semi-automatic rifles that don’t use detachable magazines of any size, and other commonly owned firearms.

H.R. 308 would severely violate the fundamental, individual right to keep and bear arms for self-defense. The Supreme Court has ruled that the Second Amendment protects the fundamental, individual right to keep and bear arms for self-defense, especially arms that are commonly owned. Firearms designed to use magazines that hold more than 10 rounds are among the most commonly owned self-defense guns today.

If you own magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds, H.R. 308 would also put you at risk of prosecution. Because virtually no existing magazines bear any markings that show when they were made, H.R. 308 would require that magazines made after the ban be marked to distinguish them from pre-ban magazines. However, the bill’s “grandfather clause” for possession of pre-ban magazines would only create an affirmative defense — forcing defendants to prove that they possessed the magazines before the ban. This nearly impossible requirement is a major difference from the 1994 ban, which put the burden of proof on the government.

Obviously, despite the burdens it would put on honest Americans, Rep. McCarthy’s bill wouldn’t stop a criminal from obtaining magazines that hold more than 10 rounds. Tens of millions of Americans own countless tens of millions of magazines that hold more than 10 rounds; even Rep. McCarthy admits that confiscation of existing magazines would be impossible. Anything that common can be stolen or bought on the black market. And even if no magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds were available, a criminal could still use multiple smaller magazines, multiple firearms, more powerful handguns, or weapons other than firearms.

To read a more detailed fact sheet on H.R. 308, please click here.

Please be sure to contact your U.S. Representative and urge him or her to strongly oppose H.R. 308! You can call your U.S. Representative at (202) 225-3121.

About: Established in 1871, the National Rifle Association is America’s oldest civil rights and sportsmen’s group. Four million members strong, NRA continues its mission to uphold Second Amendment rights and to advocate enforcement of existing laws against violent offenders to reduce crime. The Association remains the nation’s leader in firearm education and training for law-abiding gun owners, law enforcement and the military. Visit: www.nra.org Ammoland

The TSA's mission creep is making the US a police state

OpEdNews

Ever since 2010, when the Transportation Security Administration started requiring that travelers in American airports submit to sexually intrusive gropings based on the apparent anti-terrorism principle that "If we can't feel your nipples, they must be a bomb", the agency's craven apologists have shouted down all constitutional or human rights objections with the mantra "If you don't like it, don't fly!"

This callous disregard for travelers' rights merely paraphrases the words of Homeland Security director Janet Napolitano, who shares, with the president, ultimate responsibility for all TSA travesties since 2009. In November 2010, with the groping policy only a few weeks old, Napolitano dismissed complaints by saying "people [who] want to travel by some other means" have that right. (In other words: if you don't like it, don't fly.)

But now TSA is invading travel by other means, too. No surprise, really: as soon as she established groping in airports, Napolitano expressed her desire to expand TSA jurisdiction over all forms of mass transit. In the past year, TSA's snakelike VIPR (Visual Intermodal Prevention and Response) teams have been slithering into more and more bus and train stations – and even running checkpoints on highways – never in response to actual threats, but apparently more in an attempt to live up to the inspirational motto displayed at the TSA's air marshal training center since the agency's inception: "Dominate. Intimidate. Control."

Anyone who rode the bus in Houston, Texas during the 2-10pm shift last Friday faced random bag checks and sweeps by both drug-sniffing dogs and bomb-sniffing dogs (the latter being only canines necessary if "preventing terrorism" were the actual intent of these raids), all courtesy of a joint effort between TSA VIPR nests and three different local and county-level police departments. The new Napolitano doctrine, then: "Show us your papers, show us everything you've got, justify yourself or you're not allowed to go about your everyday business."

Congresswoman Sheila Jackson-Lee praised these violations of her constituents' rights with an explanation asinine even by congressional standards:

"We're looking to make sure that the lady I saw walking with a cane … knows that Metro cares as much about her as we do about building the light rail."

See, if you don't support the random harassment of ordinary people riding the bus to work, you're a callous bastard who doesn't care about little old ladies.

No specific threats or reasons were cited for the raids, as the government no longer even pretends to need any. Vipers bite you just because they can. TSA spokesman Jim Fotenos confirmed this a few days before the Houston raids, when VIPR teams and local police did the same thing to travelers catching trains out of the Amtrak station in Alton, Illinois. Fotenos confirmed that "It was not in response to a specific threat," and bragged that VIPR teams conduct "thousands" of these operations each year.

Still, apologists can pretend that's all good, pretend constitutional and human rights somehow don't apply to mass transit, and twist their minds into the Mobius pretzel shapes necessary to find random searches of everyday travelers compatible with any notion that America is a free country. "Don't like the new rules for mass transit? Then drive."

Except even that doesn't work anymore. Earlier this month, the VIPRs came out again in Virginia and infested the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel, also known as the stretch of Interstate 64 connecting the cities of Hampton and Norfolk. Spokesmen admitted again that the exercise was a "routine sweep", not a response to any specific threat. Official news outlets admitted the checkpoint caused a delay (further exacerbated by a couple of accidents), but didn't say for how long. Local commenters at the Travel Underground forums reported delays of 90 minutes.

I grew up in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia. When I was a kid, my dad crossed the bridge-tunnel every day while commuting to work. When I was in university, I did the same thing. The old conventional wisdom said "Get to the airport at least two hours early, so TSA has time to violate your constitutional rights before boarding." What's the new conventional wisdom – "Leave for any destination at least 90 minutes early, so TSA can violate your rights en route"?

Airports, bus terminals, train stations, highways – what's left? If you don't like it, walk. And remember to be respectfully submissive to any TSA agents or police you encounter in your travels, especially now that the US supreme court has ruled mass strip-searches are acceptable for anyone arrested for even the most minor offence in America. If you're rude to any TSA agent or cops, you risk being arrested on some vague catch-all charge like "disorderly conduct". Even if the charges are later dropped, you'll still undergo the ritual humiliation of having to strip, squat, spread 'em and show your various orifices to be empty.

Can I call America a police state now, without being accused of hyperbole?