Air Force Document: Drones Can Be Used To Spy On Americans


“Incidental” surveillance data can be held for 90 days
Steve Watson
Infowars.com
May 11, 2012

A newly discovered Air Force intelligence brief states that should fleets of unmanned drones accidentally capture surveillance footage of Americans, the data can be stored and analyzed by the Pentagon for up to 90 days.
The instruction, dated April 23, admits that the Air Force cannot legally conduct “nonconsensual surveillance” on Americans, but also states that should the drones”incidentally” capture data while conducting other missions, military intelligence has the right to study it to determine whether the subjects are legitimate targets of domestic surveillance.
“Collected imagery may incidentally include US persons or private property without consent,” the instruction states.
The Air Force can take advantage of “a period not to exceed 90 days” to use the data to assess “whether that information may be collected under the provisions of Procedure 2, DoD 5240.1-R and permanently retained under the provisions of Procedure 3, DoD 5240.1-R.” it continues.
The Pentagon directives cited authorize limited domestic spying in certain scenarios such as natural disasters, environmental cases, and monitoring activity around military bases.
Should the drones capture data on Americans, the Air Force says that it should determine whether they are, among other things, “persons or organizations reasonably believed to be engaged or about to engage, in international terrorist or international narcotics activities.”

JPMorgan CEO Dimon Admits 'Egg on Face' After $2 Billion Trading Loss

Money News
Jamie Dimon
May 11, 2012


JPMorgan Chase & Co, the biggest U.S. bank by assets, said it suffered a trading loss of at least $2 billion from a failed hedging strategy, a shock disclosure that hit financial stocks and the reputation of the bank and its CEO, Jamie Dimon.


For a bank viewed as a strong risk manager that went through the financial crisis without reporting a loss, the errors are embarrassing, especially given Dimon's public criticism of the so-called Volcker rule to ban proprietary trading by big banks.

"This puts egg on our face," Dimon said, apologizing on a hastily called conference call with stock analysts. He conceded the losses were linked to a Wall Street Journal report last month about a trader, nicknamed the 'London Whale,' who, the report said, amassed an outsized position which hedge funds bet against.

JPMorgan said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that since end-March, its Chief Investment Office has had significant mark-to-market losses in its synthetic credit portfolio — these typically include derivatives in a way intended to mimic the performance of securities. While other gains partially offset the trading loss, the bank estimates the business unit with the portfolio will post a loss of $800 million in the current quarter, excluding private equity results and litigation expenses. The bank previously forecast the unit would make a profit of about $200 million.

"It could cost us as much as $1 billion or more," in addition to the loss estimated so far, Dimon said. "It is risky and it will be for a couple quarters."

Read the entire article

NDAA 2013 Passes out of Committee; Indefinite Detention Provisions Remain Intact

The New American
May 11, 2012
Photo: Congressman Howard "Buck" McKeon (in dark blue striped shirt) touring the Guantanamo Bay detention facility



As opposition to the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 continues to grow, along comes the 2013 version, which promises to perpetuate the attack on liberty begun by its predecessor.
In the pre-dawn hours on Thursday, by a vote of 56-5, the House Armed Services Committee passed a slate of changes to the NDAA for the next fiscal year. Committee Chairman Howard P. "Buck" McKeon (R-Calif.) released a statement announcing the goals of the bill’s latest mark-up:
I am proud of the bi-partisan way the Committee has worked together to build this bill. It rebuilds a force strained by ten years of war while restoring both fiscal and strategic sanity to the defense budget. It keeps faith with our troops and their families while keeping America ready to face the threats of the future.
In his statement, Representative McKeon declares that “every American must have his day in court." Further, he “reaffirms the fundamental right to Habeas Corpus of any person detained in the United States pursuant to the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force.”
Section 1033 of the mark-up version passed by the committee is offered as the codification of that protection. Here is the current text of that updated provision:
This section would state that nothing in the Authorization for Use of Military Force (Public Law 107-40) or the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 (Public Law 112-81) shall be construed to deny the availability of the writ of habeas corpus in a court ordained or established by or under Article III of the Constitution for any person who is detained in the United States pursuant to the Authorization for Use of Military Force (Public Law 107-40).
The double-speak contained in that paragraph is impressive even for a Capitol Hill lawyer.
Read it very closely: The new bill does nothing to prevent the indefinite detention of Americans under the 2013 NDAA; furthermore, it only reiterates that habeas corpus is a right in courts established under Article III of the Constitution. That such a right exists in the courts of the United States has never been the issue. The concern of millions of Americans from every band in the political spectrum is that Americans detained as “belligerents” under the terms of the NDAA will not be tried in Article III courts, but will be subject to military tribunals such as the one currently considering the case of the so-called “Gitmo Five.” There is not a single syllable of the 2013 NDAA that passed out of the House Armed Service Committee on Thursday that will guarantee Americans will be tried in a constitutional court and not a military commission.
Curiously, furthermore, McKeon’s mark-up ties the fundamental right of habeas corpus not to the Constitution (or the nearly 900 years of Anglo-American law), but to the Authorization for the Use of Military Force where the protection of that right is severely diminished. Such sleight of hand should not go unnoticed, particularly when it is performed by one who flies under the “Republican” banner.
On the subject of partisanship, it is almost axiomatic that Republicans and Democrats do not agree and that “reaching across the aisle” is an unattainable goal. While such conflict is not only anticipated but is encouraged in the government established by the Constitution, the frighteningly indefinite detention provisions of the NDAA seem to be an area where bipartisanship is becoming more common.
Prior to the Armed Services Committee’s hammering out of the new NDAA, Representative Adam Smith (D-Wash.), the ranking member of that committee, announced that he will propose an amendment to the 2013 NDAA that would explicitly forbid the indefinite detention within the United States and repeal the provision of law from this year’s version that permits the transfer of some suspected of terrorism into the custody of the military.
Currently, the Smith Amendment (officially styled the “Due Process and Military Detention Amendments Act”) has 60 sponsors from both major political parties. Given the noble aim of the Smith proposal, all constitutionalists should be de facto co-sponsors of the bill, as well.
The purpose of the measure, as set forth in the text, is:
To amend the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 to provide for the trial of covered persons detained in the United States pursuant to the Authorization for Use of Military Force and to repeal the requirement for military custody.
Smith’s bill accomplishes this goal in two steps: First, it repeals the infamous Section 1022 of the 2012 NDAA. Section 1022 is the provision that empowers the President to order the military to take custody of certain “covered persons” (those branded by the President as threats to national security); next, the Due Process and Military Detention Amendments Act would revise Section 1021 of the existing act (the section authorizing the indefinite detention of American citizens classified as “belligerents”) by amending the current language to read:
Disposition of Covered Persons Detained in the United States — In the case of a covered person who is detained in the United States pursuant to the Authorization for Use of Military Force, disposition under the law of war shall only mean the transfer of the person for trial and proceedings by a court established under Article III of the Constitution of the United States or by an appropriate State court. Such trial and proceedings shall have all the due process as provided for under the Constitution of the United States.
While the broad strokes of the NDAA are by now likely familiar to readers, a brief overview is in order.
Most of what is contained in the over-500-page 2012 version of the NDAA is inimical to liberty. For example, under the provisions of the aforementioned Section 1021, the President is afforded the absolute power to arrest and detain citizens of the United States without their being informed of any criminal charges, without a trial on the merits of those charges, and without a scintilla of the due process safeguards protected by the Constitution of the United States.
In order to execute this immense power, the NDAA unlawfully grants the President the absolute and unquestionable authority to deploy the armed forces of the United States to apprehend and to indefinitely detain those suspected of threatening the security of the “homeland.” In the language of this legislation, these people are called “covered persons.”
Regardless of promises to the contrary, the language of the NDAA places every citizen of the United States within the universe of potential “covered persons.” Any American could one day find himself or herself branded a “belligerent” and thus subject to the complete confiscation of his or her constitutional civil liberties and nearly never-ending incarceration in a military prison.
The NDAA for Fiscal Year 2013 will now soon come before the full body of the House of Representatives for a vote. No doubt the deliberations will feature speeches decrying the revocation of habeas corpus and the legalization of the indefinite detention of Americans in military prisons based on nothing more than presidential suspicion.
So as to prevent these denouncements from being nothing more than sound and fury signifying nothing, Americans must be actively engaged in the fight to prevent such precedents from being set. We must remember that these deviations from the strait and narrow constitutional path have placed our Republic on a trajectory toward tyranny. 

Constitutional Convention Hearing in the OhioHouse on May 15th!

SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS!!!
Mark Matheny
May 11, 2012
News Alert


“We oppose a Con Con because the subject matter cannot be controlled and we have no guarantee that we can win state ratification fights if changes to the Constitution are offered. We fear, instead that in today’s climate of radical socialism and American ignorance about the Constitution that this is the worst possible time in our nation’s history to start to mess with the greatest governing document of all time. We will continue to oppose any and all attempts to do that, no matter how noble the reason for the call. Our intention is to protect the Constitution.”
           – Tom DeWeese, American Policy Center


According to a recent email I received, there will be a "Con-Con" hearing on May 15th. the mail reads:


Dear Friends: The House Con-Con bill (HJR3) will come up for proponent and opponent testimony and possible vote again at the State Government and Elections Committee Hearing this coming Tuesday, May 15, 2012 at 1:30pm in Statehouse Room 116.  This is the third hearing and a vote very well may happen this time. The bill is being promoted by restoringfreedom.org and they have flown in State legislators to speak on behalf of the legislation.  Attached is the agenda.
WAYS YOU CAN TAKE ACTION: 1.) Testify at the committee hearing:  If you would like to testify before the committee hearing in opposition to this resolution, you can show up early and fill out a testimony form.  
If you want to submit written testimony along with your verbal testimony, you will need to either bring 50 copies or email it in advance to Chairman Ron Maag’s legislative aid: Samantha Cotton at Samantha.Cotten@ohr.state.oh.us.  Please do not send her anything other than the written statement you will be using in your testimony. You can get a wealth of information for ideas on what to say in your testimony using the Dangers and Resources pages at stoptheconcon.com.  2.) Call the committee members: and request that they vote no at the upcoming vote.  Attached is the text of the legislation as well as the contact information for the members of the committee.

Along with the email were PDFs of the Committee notice:

Click to enlarge



Here's how to take action:
Click to enlarge


Go to stoptheconcon.com  to educate yourself on the dangers of a constitutional convention, then contact your representative at http://tinyurl.com/OhioActionConCon .

How to bankrupt a generation of young Americans in four steps – young Americans living at home surges by 50 percent from 2005.

MyBudget360
May 11, 2012



The viable pathway for success for many young Americans seems to have gotten very narrow in the last decade.  The opportunities for many young workers have become mired with an economy that is largely in a deep recession with limited quality positions.  Many are saddled with debt and taking on employment positions that may not even utilize the very expensive college education some have taken on.  Education is important but doing it intelligently has become tougher since we are living in a student loan bubble.  Many young Americans have been forced to move back home to live with mom and dad because of the shoddy economy even if they have a job.  Each point of data suggests that we will have a less affluent generation coming forward yet this is the generation that is largely going to shoulder the burden of unsupportable government debt?  The bill is largely coming due but many younger Americans are already starting with a negative net worth.
Step 1 – Access to higher education saddled with massive student loan debt.
The outsourcing of many blue collar jobs is not a new thing.  What is new however is that for the viable white collar jobs a college degree is nearly mandatory.  Yet many are being lured into student loan debt by subpar institutions and are finding themselves in unmanageable debt:
student loans
Source:  Zero Hedge
This isn’t exactly a chart you want to be seeing especially when incomes have gone stagnant for younger Americans.  The issue as well is that most of this debt is being saddled on the backs of recent graduates:
student loan balance by age
This is not a good alignment.  High student debt and fewer job prospects.  In other words, the higher costs are not being reflected on a return on investment (ROI).  You have young Americans entering a very weak economy with massive levels of debt.  This leads us to the employment side of the equation.

Agenda 21 : The Globalist Plan for Enslavement

You Tube
May 11, 2012







What is agenda 21? What is Smart Growth? What is sustainable development? This video provides a description of Agenda 21/sustainable development and how it affects your property rights. 

While it is important to be good stewards of our planet, the sustainable development movement has been co-opted by an aggressive agenda to rewild America (The Wildlands Project) and reduce automobile usage and unnecessary travel by gradually shifting people into high density urban areas supported by mixed use dwellings (Smart Growth.) 

Often the planning process to meet these objectives confiscates private property rights through imminent domain or conservation easements. The outcome is not a safer planet, but rather, an unrecognizable nation most would strongly oppose. When advanced community by community, most do not realize the bigger picture. 

Please share this video with your friends and get the word out that our American Freedoms are being threatened!


Some Resources:

http://www.freedomadvocates.org/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Stop-UN-Agenda-21-Stop-ICLEI/284021125057

http://www.jbs.org/issues-pages/stop-agenda-21

http://smashabanana.blogspot.com/

SHERIFF JOE DEMANDS OBAMA DRAFT REGISTRATION

World Net Daily
May 11, 2012





Providing proof that Sheriff Joe Arpaio intends to continue his investigation of President Obama’s eligiblity, his Cold Case Posse has pressed the director of the Selective Service System not to destroy any microfilm records that may yet exist of Obama’s 1980 draft registration form.
In an emergency letter Wednesday to Selective Service System Director Lawrence Romo, Mike Zullo, the lead investigator in the Cold Case Posse, asked for reassurance that the microfilm records still exist.
“We would like to be assured of the disposition of the microfilm reel or reels containing President Obama’s Selective Service registration form,” Zullo wrote. “Please indicate whether or not you have possession of the microfilm reel or reels containing President Obama’s records or access to them.”
The concerns were raised after Arpaio’s office received official confirmation from the Selective Service System that Obama’s paper draft registration records have been destroyed after being microfilmed.
In addition, an article published Monday by the Washington Times “Communities” social journalism section reported new Selective Service privacy rules might allow existing microfilm records to be destroyed as well.
Zullo expressed concern the microfilm records of Obama’s draft registration form might already have been destroyed.

The Real Reason for O-Bomb-Ya’s Flipflop on Gay Marriage


Thomas DiLorenzo 
LRC Blog
May 10, 2012
The network news reported this morning that the Obama campaign received over $1 million in new donations in the first 90 minutes after announcing the president’s “support” for gay marriage. It’s all win-win for the prez. He doesn’t have to actually do anything to promote gay marriage and thereby incur the wrath (and lose the votes) of those who are opposed to it, especially a majority of the African-American community. At the same time he can collect millions from easily-duped, naive, and affluent gay people.
Taking their cue from the Lincoln propagandists of generations past, the “mainstream media’ will now bloviate on about how much Obama has “grown in office.” They said this about Lincoln and the issue of race, but of course we now know that up to his dying day Lincoln was plotting to deport all the black people, especially the soon-to-be-freed slaves, out of the country. (See the book, Colonization after Emancipation by Phillip Magness and Sebastian Page).

Farage: We Face The Prospect Of Mass Civil Unrest In Europe


UKIP leader warns of re-emergence of National Socialism
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
Thursday, May 10, 2012
MEP Nigel Farage gave a rousing speech in the European Parliament yesterday during which he warned that the actions of the EU were setting the stage for the re-emergence of National Socialism and that the continent faced the prospect of mass civil unrest.
Comparing the eurozone crisis to the failure of Communism, Farage said the EU was a titanic which has hit an iceberg.
“It is a European Union of economic failure, of mass unemployment, of low growth; but worst of all it’s an EU with the economic prison of the Euro. This now poses huge dangers to the continent,” he stated.
“We face the prospect of mass civil unrest, possibly even revolution in some countries that have been driven to total and utter desperation.”
Read the entire article 

DHS Signs in BMV Call for Reporting "Suspicious Activity"

SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS!!!
Mark Matheny
May 10, 2012

While going to the BMV yesterday, I got to see signs from the DHS calling for Americans to report "suspicous" activity while waiting on their new drivers license, or new plates perhaps.

This BMV is located on Broad Street, Columbus Ohio, and also happens to be where a Fusion Center is located. The Fusion Center is called SAIC ( Strategic Analysis Information Center). According to publicsafety.ohio.gov, SAIC
serves as a secure central fusion process for the collection, filtering, analysis anddissemination of terrorism-related information. The SAIC integrates existing local, state, federal,public and private sectors. 
The resulting analysis is distributed not from the point of view of anyone agency, but from a neutral homeland security perspective.

SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS!!! News Photo
The theme on the upper portion of the poster is that of the 19 supposed hijackers of the false flag operation carried out on 9/ 11/ 2001.

The real purpose behind these posters and programs such as "See Something-Say something" is to instill fear and paranoia among Americans, and to deter them from becoming active against the corruption in government.

UNPRECEDENTED: TOP DOJ OFFICIALS WERE OBAMA BUNDLERS WITH WALL STREET TIES

Breitbart
May 9, 2012



Four of the top officials at the Department of Justice were all big money fundraisers for President Obama’s 2008 campaign with strong ties to Wall Street—the very entity the Obama Administration has said must be criminally prosecuted for bringing about the biggest financial crisis in U.S. history.

  • Attorney General Eric Holder: formerly of Covington & Burling law firm, in 2008 Holder himself represented big banks such as UBS and MBNA Bank. Holder was Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign co-chairman and raised $50,000 for the president’s campaign.
  • Associate Attorney General Thomas Perrelli: a managing partner at Jenner and Block law firm, whose clients include Merrill Lynch, Perrelli stepped down from his number-three position at DOJ in March. A former member of Obama’s National Campaign Finance Committee, Perrelli bundled$500,000 in campaign contributions.
  • Deputy Associate Attorney General Karol Mason: Karol Mason of Alston & Bird previously chaired the firm’s public finance group. She also bundled $500,000 for Obama. Holder awarded her a “Distinguished Service Award” for her work at the Department of Justice. Now, after almost three years at the Department of Justice, she has returned to Alston & Bird to work on their real estate finance and capital markets group.
  • Associate Attorney General Tony West: West was a partner at Morrison and Foerster law firm, whose clients include MF Global, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, and Bank of America. West was also co-chairman of Obama’s campaign and, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, “was instrumental in helping the candidate raise an estimated $65 million in California.” Formerly the head of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, West is now number three at the DOJ and bundled$500,000 for the president’s campaign.  
Despite Holder and Obama’s “get tough” rhetoric against Wall Street, to date, there has not been a single criminal charge filed by the federal government against any top executive of the elite financial institutions. 

CORONER'S OFFICE SPEAKS ON BREITBART MYSTERY


Addressing speculation on forensic technician who dropped dead


World Net Daily
May 9, 2012

Andrew Breitbart
Law-enforcement officials in California are now speaking out on the mysterious death of one of their own forensic technicians who died the day autopsy results were released for conservative powerhouse Andrew Breitbart.

Michael Cormier, a respected forensic attendant for the Los Angeles County Coroner, died under suspicious circumstances at his North Hollywood home April 20, the same day Breitbart’s cause of death was finally made public.
It’s been reported arsenic poisoning is being investigated as a possibility, but toxicology results are still three to four weeks away.
Today, Det. Rich Wheeler, a homicide supervisor with the Los Angeles Police Department, told WND that Cormier had no connection whatsoever to the investigation into Breitbart’s death.
“No. As far as I know, none,” Wheeler said.
His comment is confirmed by Ed Winter, assistant chief of operations and Cormier’s colleague at the coroner’s office.
“Mr. Cormier was not the attendant on Mr. Breitbart’s case, nor did he do any of the handling nor any of the investigation,” Winter told WND.
Winter says the chief medical examiner at the coroner’s office has put a security hold on the Cormier case, so he’s not at liberty to discuss specifics.
“It allows for law enforcement to complete our investigation, and so that nothing gets out until we make our determination,” he explained, noting holds are often used in officer-involved shootings, an in-custody death and high-profile cases.
“There’s been a lot of speculation in connection with the Breitbart case,” he admitted.
Winter says after he directly told one news agency – which he refused to name – that Cormier was “absolutely” not connected to the Breitbart case, that news agency actually reported the opposite, that he was involved.
“As soon as they did that, I had like 20 different agencies call up [to confirm that],” Winter said. “I spent half the day doing disclaimers [to stress], ‘No, I didn’t say that!’ Sometimes [the media] need to make a big sensational issue.”
Michael Cormier
Winter described Cormier, 61, as “a good guy,” who was one of 17 forensic techs employed by the office.
“He was a forensic attendant, he would assist the doctors in autopsies,” he explained.
Winter says the coroner’s office has 25 full-time pathologists and 37 consultant doctors.
“If we have to bring in a specialist, such as an anesthesiologist or cardiologist, we’d maybe bring in a consultant to validate what our findings are,” he said.
On April 20, the same day Cormier died, the coroner’s office released its findings into the death of Breitbart, stating the 43-year-old conservative media giant died of natural causes, listing cause of death as heart failure.