Ginny's Bloggity-Blog

Originally published at Twixel.net. You can comment here or there.

Challenge to Secret Wiretaps Is Dismissed - New York Times
A divided federal appeals court yesterday dismissed a case challenging the National Security Agency’s program to wiretap without warrants the international communications of some Americans, reversing a trial judge’s order that the program be shut down.
The majority in a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, in Cincinnati, ruled on a narrow ground, saying the plaintiffs, including lawyers and journalists, could not show injury direct and concrete enough to allow them to have standing to sue.

Because it may be impossible for any plaintiff to demonstrate injury from the highly classified wiretapping program, the effect of the ruling was to insulate it from judicial scrutiny. Thus, the program’s secrecy is proving to be its best legal protection.

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So this is just wonderful. The Executive Branch can now wiretap without warrants with impunity. Even when King George II is gone.
Forget the Constitution - the ruling that it was illegal was reversed on appeal because the plaintiffs can’t show harm. ???? It violates the Constitution - why should the burden of showing harm be an issue. Especially when all the evidence of harm is “secret” and can’t be used. Nice.

Originally published at Twixel.net. You can comment here or there.

Less Than 0.01% Of Homeland Security Cases Are Terrorism Related
Records obtained from the immigration courts under the Freedom of Information Act show that only 0.0015 percent of the total number of cases filed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security were terrorism related, despite the fact that the Bush administration has repeatedly asserted that it is the primary focus of the DHS.
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So now I need to find out who this TRAC group is that did the report.

Originally published at Twixel.net. You can comment here or there.

From DHS Alabama anti-government page

(edit: They removed the page. Here is a Google Cache version)

First of all they, the DHS Alabama site (and the DHS Pennsylvania site), use the Gadsen flag on a page representing Domestic Terrorism. Unbelievable.

Now - who is a terrorists?

Some bullet points (straight from the site)

Gun Control = Enslavement

Constitution has been subverted

The U.S. has lost its sovereignty

” In general, these terrorists claim that the U.S. government is infringing on their individual rights, and/or that the government’s policies are criminal and immoral. Such groups may hold that the current government is violating the basic principles laid out by the U.S. Constitution and that a new world order is attempting to enslave humanity.”

“Anarchists groups are the 21st Century’s version of left wing or communist groups of the last. Anarchists believe that any government or organization that has power over others, no matter how good, will eventually become corrupt and abusive. So far, without major causes to incite mass public opinion (such as civil rights and the Vietnam war were in the 1960’s), and without a national organization or coalition of organizations, these groups have focused on specific limited issues.
Most of these groups operate around larger urban areas and colleges/universities.
A diverse mix of organizations, many target hate groups for often violent counter-protests. Some are focused on issues such as World Trade, International Debt, and military involvement in foreign cultures. Meetings of the World Trade Organization or the International Monetary Fund are guaranteed to attract protests.
The theme is always the same. Big is bad. Rich are using the poor to stay rich. Our government in particular is using its power immorally.”
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Looks like they are covering all the bases. Painting with a very broad brush. Generally speaking, if you disagree with “the government”, you just might be a domestic terrorist.

Here are some great quotes from some famous domestic terrorists:

“I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom ofthe people by the gradual and silent encroachments of those in power,than by violent and sudden usurpations.” - James Madison

“Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.” - William Pitt, 1783

“Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.” - George Washington

“It will be found an unjust and unwise jealousy to deprive a man of his natural liberty upon the supposition he may abuse it.” - George Washington

“Over grown military establishments are under any form of government inauspicious to liberty, and are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty.” - George Washington

“The marvel of all history is the patience with which men and women submit to burdens unnecessarily laid upon them by their governments.” - George Washington

“The time is near at hand which must determine whether Americans are to be free men or slaves.” - George Washington

“Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.” - Dr. Benjamin Franklin, 1759

“The history of liberty is a history of the limitation of governmental power, not the increase of it.” - Woodrow Wilson

“The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedients.” - Edmund Burke

“The oppressed should rebel, and they will continue to rebel and raise disturbance until their civil rights are fully restored to them and all partial distinctions, exclusions and incapacitations are removed.” - Thomas Jefferson, 1776.

“Convinced that the people are the only safe depositories of their own liberty, and that they are not safe unless enlightened to a certain degree, I have looked on our present state of liberty as a short-lived possession unless the mass of the people could be informed to a certain degree.” - Thomas Jefferson to Littleton Waller Tazewell, 1805.

“A bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular; and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inferences.” - Thomas Jefferson (writing to James Madison), 1787.

“My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.” - Thomas Jefferson.

“Of liberty I would say that, in the whole plenitude of its extent, it is unobstructed action according to our will. But rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add ‘within the limits of the law,’ because law is often but the tyrant’s will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual.” - Thomas Jefferson to Isaac H. Tiffany, 1819.

“Most codes extend their definitions of treason to acts not really against one’s country. They do not distinguish between acts against the government, and acts against the oppressions of the government. The latter are virtues, yet have furnished more victims to the executioner than the former, because real treasons are rare; oppressions frequent. The unsuccessful strugglers against tyranny have been the chief martyrs of treason laws in all countries.” - Thomas Jefferson: Report on Spanish Convention, 1792.

“They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” - Benjamin Franklin

“The trade of governing has always been monopolized by the most ignorant and the most rascally individuals of mankind.” - Thomas Paine

“No man is good enough to govern another man without that other’s consent.” - Abraham Lincoln

“You need only reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the struggle for independence.” - Charles A. Beard (1874-1948), U.S. historian

Originally published at Twixel.net. You can comment here or there.

VOA News - Top US Court Declines to Hear Guantanamo Prisoners’ Appeal
The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear the appeal of Guantanamo prisoners who want the right to challenge their detention in U.S. federal courts.
In a divided vote, with six justices supporting the decision and three justices dissenting, the court said it would not rule on the constitutionality of a tough anti-terrorism law that denies prisoners the ability to have a federal judge review their detention.
Congress enacted the law last October, after the Supreme Court struck down the previous military tribunal system for the detainees created by President Bush after the September 11, 2001, attacks. After that ruling, President Bush sought new powers to detain and try prisoners under anti-terrorism laws.
There are currently about 395 detainees being held at the Guantanamo detention center on a U.S. naval base in Cuba. Some prisoners have been held for more than five years and most have not been formally charged.
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Oh my God! I actually held out hope that the SCOTUS would do their job. I’m severely disappointed. What a bunch of cowards.