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” President Obama puts the N.S.A. controversy in context by pointing out other historical instances of American spycraft. (04:26) “
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” President Obama announces sweeping, loophole-filled changes to American intelligence oversight. (04:31)”
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This Civic Literacy Test Will Show What You Know About U.S. Politics
” Take this Civic Literacy Test and see how you compare with your fellow citizens and our nation’s teachers! The average score for all 2,508 Americans taking the test was 49%; college educators scored 55%.”
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” Americans enter 2014 with a profoundly negative view of their government, expressing little hope that elected officials can or will solve the nation’s biggest problems, a new poll finds.
Half say America’s system of democracy needs either “a lot of changes” or a complete overhaul, according to the poll conducted by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Just 1 in 20 says it works well and needs no changes.
Americans, who have a reputation for optimism, have a sharply pessimistic take on their government after years of disappointment in Washington.”
” When it comes to the issues people cited as most important to them, 80 percent want the government to spend significant effort working on them. Yet 76 percent say they have little or no confidence the government will make real progress.
But asked generally about the role of government in society, the AP-NORC Center poll finds Americans divided on how active they want government to be. Half say “the less government the better.” However, almost as many (48 percent) say “there are more things that government should be doing.”
On the economy, an area historically driven by the private sector, the poll finds a clear public desire for active government. Fifty-seven percent of Americans say “we need a strong government to handle today’s complex economic problems.”
Even among those who say “the less government the better,” 31 percent feel the nation needs a strong government to handle those complex problems.”
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Jon Stewart Goes Off On Perhaps The Best Political Scandal Of All Time
” There are scandals, and there are SCANDALS. And the story of an EPA official who cheated the agency out of a million dollars with an incredibly elaborate hoax might very well be, in Jon Stewart‘s opinion, one of the most amazing and unbelievable political scandals of all time.”
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” What does Dan Pfeiffer know of this thing called “the private sector”? To say there is less private-sector experience in the Obama administration than in any other of the last century hardly begins to convey the particular pool of smarts on which this president has drawn. Nearly 60 percent of Eisenhower’s cabinet appointments had private-sector experience; Nixon, Reagan, and both Bushes scored well over 50; FDR and Truman smack on 50/50; in Obama’s cabinet, fewer than 10 percent have real-world business experience. None of Obamacare’s begetters have ever created anything — certainly not a dime of real wealth.
Instead, we have government by people who read Thomas L. Friedman and use words like “interconnectedness” and give commencement addresses where they rave about how our world is changing so fast — and assume that just being glibly au courant is a substitute for being able to do, make, build. There are lessons here beyond the abysmal failure of one misconceived government program, lessons about what our esteemed (if not terminally self-esteemed) elites value as “smart,” and about the perils of rule by a poseur technocracy. As for Obama, he’s not Jay-Z, nor even Justin Bieber: He can’t sing, or dance, or create a government bureaucracy that functions any more efficiently than a Soviet supermarket. He broke the lifelong rule that had served him so well — “Don’t just do something. Stand there” — and for the first time in his life did something, terribly. It will bear his name forever.”
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Kimmel’s Joke About Crazy Tin-Foil Hat People Has A Surprising Punchline
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” The market is fine for some things, people will say, but other activities are too important to be left to the market. Or too complicated. Or too fundamental to our democracy.
I say: Privatize everything.
To some of you, that will sound callous — but failure to privatize services, keeping them in government hands instead, is what impoverishes and kills people. Nothing compassionate about that.
Take organ donations.
Regulations forbid buying and selling organs, so the market cannot operate. Desperate patients must wait and hope someone gives out of sheer generosity, that someone dies at just the right time, and that hospital administrators bump their case to the top of the list.
Some things ought to be done by government: things like running courts, policing pollution, and protecting the border. But most everything else should be left to private actors.
Government offers guarantees on paper and promises in speeches. But government rarely delivers. Private companies did brilliant Internet work for President Obama’s election campaign. But when it came to his health insurance website, the president put government in charge. We saw the result.
Markets aren’t perfect, but they allow for a world where prudence is rewarded and sloth punished, a world in which more people take risks and innovate. That’s a world where people prosper.”
Read it all . It all boils down to accountability … With government there is none .
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” For the victims of governmental fraud, the only recourse is political, which is to say that it entails relying on the same government that perpetrated the fraud.
When it enacted ObamaCare, Congress relied on its constitutional authority to regulate interstate commerce. The Supreme Court held that Congress had exceeded that authority, but only with respect to one particular provision, the mandate that all individuals purchase medical insurance. There is little dispute that under more or less settled case law, Congress would be within its authority if it simply nationalized the insurance industry, or any other industry.
The regulation of commerce is a necessary and vital governmental function. Consumers and honest businesses need protection from unscrupulous market participants. That is nearly impossible when an industry is owned, or effectively controlled, by the government. To socialize an industry is to put it in a position to regulate itself. It legalizes fraud by recasting it as mere “political lies.” “
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NSA Spying: 4th Amendment Protection
” This resource and action page is not intended to explain WHY the NSA spying program is wrong. It assumes you’re already on board with that fact. This page exists to provide you the tools needed to begin resisting it.
Passage of the 4th Amendment Protection Act in your state, county, city and town will create obstacles to implementation that will help thwart the unconstitutional spying efforts of the federal government. State laws, local resolutions, and even campus legislation are all important pieces of the puzzle to resist and nullify NSA spying. (model legislation here).
The 4th Amendment Protection Act is an important first step to stopping NSA spying. You can be sure that this one bill (and no single piece of legislation) will stop the NSA on its own. Passage of this legislation will be a big piece of the puzzle to the overall resistance. Once your state completes this first step, there are more…aggressive…measures that will be implemented to push back.
Scroll down below the map to learn more.
While there is no silver bullet to stop the NSA, you have an option. Wait for the federal government to give up this power, or resist it in any way possible.
These steps are just the first step of what will likely be a multi-year campaign to resist, refuse to comply, and nullify the unconstitutional NSA programs.
Once these first steps are moving forward in a number of states, the next – more aggressive – levels of resistance can take place successfully.
In the end, Rosa Parks already proved it. Saying “No!” can change the world. “
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” Even when it comes to something as basic, and apparently as simple and straightforward, as the question of who shut down the federal government, there are diametrically opposite answers, depending on whether you talk to Democrats or to Republicans.
There is really nothing complicated about the facts. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted all the money required to keep all government activities going — except for ObamaCare.
This is not a matter of opinion. You can check the Congressional Record.
As for the House of Representatives’ right to grant or withhold money, that is not a matter of opinion either. You can check the Constitution of the United States. All spending bills must originate in the House of Representatives, which means that Congressmen there have a right to decide whether or not they want to spend money on a particular government activity.”
The ‘Low-Information Voter’ Knows Very Little About Why Government Is Shutting Down
” As a government shutdown begins, much of the public knows very little about the issues behind it: Obamacare and the future of the federal budget. An April Kaiser Family Foundation survey showed that 44% do not even realize that Obamacare is still the law. Kaiser’s June poll found that 33% say they have “heard nothing” about the controversial insurance exchanges that are a central element of the law, and 34% “only a little.”
Widespread political ignorance isn’t limited to spending and health care. It cuts across many other issues, and even the basic structure of government. For example, a 2006 Zogby survey found that only 42% of Americans can name the three branches of the federal government: executive, legislative and judicial.
It is easy to blame ignorance on stupidity or on the media. But basic information about most political issues is readily available in the media and online. It isn’t hard to find out what Obamacare insurance exchanges are. The problem is that most people don’t take the time and effort to do so. That is not because they are stupid, but because there is so little incentive to acquire political information. The probability that one vote will actually make a difference to the outcome of an election is infinitesimally small.
The problem of ignorance is exacerbated by the enormous size and scope of government. Government spending accounts for well over one third of GDP, and government also regulates nearly every aspects of life. Even if voters devoted far more time to following political issues, they would still be ignorant about most government policies.”
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Record Number Of Republicans Say The Federal Government Has Too Much Power
” Six in 10 Americans (60%) believe the federal government has too much power, one percentage point above the previous high recorded in September 2010. At least half of Americans since 2005 have said the government has too much power. Thirty-two percent now say the government has the right amount of power. Few say it has too little power.”
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Poll Conducted Before The DC Navy Yard Shootings Finds Declining Approval Of How Government Handles Gun Control
” Before the debate over tightening national gun-control laws was rekindled by the latest mass shootings, at the Washington Navy Yard and in Chicago’s South Side, a growing number of Americans were questioning the government’s stewardship of the right to bear arms, according to a poll by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research that concluded at the end of August.
Asked to size up how the government is doing on protecting a variety of rights and freedoms spelled out in the Bill of Rights and federal law, Americans saw slippage on almost all issues, most dramatically on the matter of gun rights, where the impression of decline turned up everywhere — among Republicans and Democrats, men and women, young and old, city dwellers and those in small towns.
Overall, 44 percent of Americans feel the federal government is doing a good job of safeguarding the right to keep and bear arms, down from 57 percent two years earlier. Of course, definitions of “good job” on gun rights diverge; not everyone wants the government to safeguard Second Amendment rights.”
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” Just 49 percent of Americans said they had a great deal or fair amount of confidence in the federal government to handle international problems, according to a Gallup poll released Friday. The previous low was 51 percent in 2007.
The public’s trust is even lower when it comes to domestic issues. Just 42 percent of Americans answered with a great deal or fair amount of confidence in the government to handle issues at home, one point below the previous low from 2011.
Democrats have far more confidence in the government than Republicans: 78 percent of Dems trust the government on international issues compared to just 35 percent of Republicans. “
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” Belatedly, I’ve come across the review by Jonathan Martin of Politico of the book Act of Congress: How America’s Essential Institution Works, and How It Doesn’t by Robert Kaiser, a 50-year reporter and editor at the Washington Post. What struck me was that both of these very knowledgeable Washington journalists seem very clear-eyed about the deficiencies of the legislative process, and yet their understanding doesn’t cause them to question the idea of having government manage every facet of our lives. Here are some excerpts from the review:
Congress is dominated by intellectual lightweights who are chiefly consumed by electioneering and largely irrelevant in a body where a handful of members and many more staff do the actual work of legislating. And the business of the institution barely gets done because of a pernicious convergence of big money and consuming partisanship.”
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” On the heels of media reports that the NSA has gained access to the servers of nine leading tech companies — enabling the spy agency to examine emails, video, photographs, and other digital communications — Google has issued a strongly worded statement denying that the company granted the government “direct access” to its servers. That statement goes so far as to say that the company hasn’t even heard of “a program called PRISM until yesterday.”
At first glance, Google’s statement is difficult to believe. Senior intelligence officials have confirmed the program’s existence, and Google’s logo is prominently listed on internal NSA documents describing participating companies. But Google may be engaging in a far more subtle public relations strategy than outright denial.
Google’s statement hinges on three key points: that it did not provide the government with “direct access” to its servers, that it did not set up a “back door” for the NSA, and that it provides “user data to governments only in accordance with the law.” “
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” At a fundraising event earlier this week in New York City, President Obama said this:
What’s blocking us right now is a sort of hyper-partisanship in Washington that I was, frankly, hoping to overcome in 2008. My thinking was when we beat them in 2012 that might break the fever, and it’s not quite broken yet.
As a consequence we get the kind of gridlock that makes people cynical about government. My intentions over the next 3 ½ years are to govern. … If there are folks who are more interested in winning elections than they are thinking about the next generation then I want to make sure there are consequences to that.
In this instance, the most hyper-partisan president in modern times is ascribing that trait to Congressional Republicans. What we’ve learned about Mr. Obama over the years is that he that while he is unusually inept at governing, he’s quite good at campaigning. He certainly enjoys it, having taken the concept of the Permanent Campaign beyond anything we’ve ever seen. It turns out it’s the only thing he does well—no human being in history has raised campaign cash quite like he has—and it’s all he seems interested in doing.
On some deep, subconscious level, though, Mr. Obama seems ashamed of the path he’s chosen. And so the president projects those traits he loathes in himself on to others. To give you a sense of how deep the malady runs, the president does more than merely project; he actually preaches against the very character flaws he himself cannot overcome.
I understand Mr. Obama has complained many times that there are checks on his power, but I prefer the wisdom of James Madison to the ambitions of Barack Obama.“
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If … You Might Live In A Nation Founded By Geniuses But Run By Idiots
” If you can get arrested for hunting or fishing without a license, but not for being in the country illegally — you might live in a nation founded by geniuses but run by idiots.
If you have to get your parents’ permission to go on a field trip or take an aspirin in school, but not to get an abortion — you might live in a nation founded by geniuses but run by idiots.
If you have to show identification to board an airplane, cash a check, buy liquor, or check out a library book, but not to vote who runs the government — you might live in a nation founded by geniuses but run by idiots.
If the government wants to ban stable, law-abiding citizens from owning gun magazines with more than ten rounds, but gives twenty F-16 fighter jets to the crazy new leaders in Egypt — you might live in a nation founded by geniuses but run by idiots.
If, in the nation’s largest city, you can buy two 16-ounce sodas, but not a 24-ounce soda because 24-ounces of a sugary drink might make you fat — you might live in a nation founded by geniuses but run by idiots.
If an 80-year-old woman or a three-year-old girl confined to a wheelchair can be strip-searched by the TSA but a woman in a hijab is only subject to having her neck and head searched — you might live in a nation founded by geniuses but run by idiots. .
If your government believes that the best way to eradicate trillions of dollars of debt is to spend trillions more — you might live in a nation founded by geniuses but run by idiots.
If a seven-year-old boy can be thrown out of school for saying his teacher is “cute,” but hosting a sexual exploration or diversity class in grade school is perfectly acceptable — you might live in a nation founded by geniuses but run by idiots.
If children are forcibly removed from parents who discipline them with spankings while children of addicts are left in filth- and drug-infested “homes” — you might live in a nation founded by geniuses but run by idiots.
If hard work and success are met with higher taxes and more government intrusion, while not working is rewarded with EBT cards, WIC checks, Medicaid, subsidized housing, and free cell phones — you might live in a nation founded by geniuses but run by idiots.
If the government’s plan for getting people back to work is to provide incentives for not working through 99 weeks of unemployment checks without any requirement to prove they sought but couldn’t find work — you might live in a nation founded by geniuses but run by idiots.
If you pay your mortgage faithfully, denying yourself the newest big screen TV while your neighbor buys iPhones, wall-sized plasma do-it-all TV’s and new cars, and the government forgives his debt when he defaults on his mortgage — you might live in a nation founded by geniuses but run by idiots.
If being stripped of the ability to defend yourself makes you more “safe” according to the government — you might live in a nation founded by geniuses but run by idiots.”
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Found on Facebook , uncredited … Anyone know the author ?
” On February 22, “Right Views” reported that a growing number of firearm companies have suspended the sale of guns to states, counties, cities and municipalities that restrict their citizens’ rights to own them.
In just two weeks, the number of companies participating in what has been named the “Firearms Equality Movement,” has more than tripled from 34 companies to 118.
The Police Loophole lists every company and links to the statements that each has released regarding their new policies.”
Some new additions …
RRC Firearms, LLC 2013-02-28 Bison Tactical 2013-02-28 Midwest PX LLC 2013-03-01 Vltor 2013-03-01 Magpul 2013-03-01 Allied Armory 2013-03-01 Wolfpit Tactical 2013-03-02 Aero Precision 2013-03-04
All of these companies deserve our thanks and patronage … need something ? Check these and the rest of the (120+) companies on the Police Loophole’s list first .
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” So we’re a couple days into the sequester; how is everyone holding out? You may seem fine now, but let’s not underestimate the devastating effects of having marginally smaller government. In fact, to keep order in this country, maybe we can all pick up some of the slack of our 2% smaller government.”
THINGS YOU CAN DO TO HELP REPLACE GOVERNMENT
* If anyone needs something from you, make him wait in a line.
Visit IMAO for the other seven recommendations and be sure to check out the additional suggestions in the comments section .
Eric Allie’s Furious Diaper
Newsmax
YouViewed/Editorial 