That's what you serfs do." Kind of like if you're a official pretend cop in Philadelphia, you can violate the laws you want to put other people in jail for.
Which reminds me of Amtrak and guns: a judge ordered them that, if airlines could safely transport firearms as baggage then a train damn well could so do it; and the bastards took a full year to 'study the problem and develop procedures'.
Showing posts with label Federal power grabs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Federal power grabs. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Friday, May 06, 2011
And just imagine how much fun this will be
when the same level of idiot has control of your health care.
Monday, March 07, 2011
Remember Touching Special Areas searching people at the train station?
Woops.
Amtrak Police Chief John O’Connor said he first thought a blog posting about the incident was a joke. When he discovered that the TSA’s VIPR team did at least some of what the blog said, he was livid. He ordered the VIPR teams off Amtrak property, at least until a firm agreement can be drawn up to prevent the TSA from taking actions that the chief said were illegal and clearly contrary to Amtrak policy.
“When I saw it, I didn’t believe it was real,” O’Connor said. When it developed that the posting on an anti-TSA blog was not a joke, “I hit the ceiling.”
Well, isn't that nice. Does TSA actually care?
O’Connor said the TSA VIPR teams have no right to do more than what Amtrak police do occasionally, which has produced few if any protests and which O’Connor said is clearly within the law and the Constitution. More than a thousand times, Amtrak teams (sometimes including VIPR) have performed security screenings at Amtrak stations. These screenings are only occasional and random, and inspect the bags of only about one in 10 passengers. There is no wanding of passengers and no sterile area. O’Connor said the TSA violated every one of these rules.
And he's surprised?
A posting in late February to the Transportation Security Administration’s blog, which serves as a public relations tool of the TSA, tried to explain why TSA agents took over the Amtrak station in Savannah. But O’Connor said the “facts” as posted on the TSA blog were incorrect. He said the blog indicated that Amtrak had approved of the operation, but it had not. He called the TSA’s posting on blog.tsa.gov “inaccurate and insensitive.” As of the time this story was filed, the same posting remained on the blog.
What? TSA lied? Again, is he surprised?
All this is bad enough. It gets even better:
The group involved is TSA’s VIPR operation, which deals with surface transportation. VIPR is short for “visible intermodal protection and response.” It turns out that VIPR has been far more active than imagined. Teams have searched bus passengers all over the country, have done similar things at train stations, and have even blocked traffic on bridges to search trucks and cars. That even included the busy Chesapeake Bay Bridge near Washington.
Napolitano's power-grab is really spreading; seems she wasn't just talking about searching people all over, she was getting it rolling. Can you imagine the idiocy of blocking a frigging bridge so you can search vehicles?
A: Unless you have some reason to think it's actually no-shit necessary to find something really bad, it's stupid.
B: If you think bad guys have, say, a bomb on a truck, you've just given them a bridge full of stalled vehicles to take down
And when does the head of TSA inform us that driving across a bridge or taking a bus is a privilege for which we give up our rights?
Amtrak Police Chief John O’Connor said he first thought a blog posting about the incident was a joke. When he discovered that the TSA’s VIPR team did at least some of what the blog said, he was livid. He ordered the VIPR teams off Amtrak property, at least until a firm agreement can be drawn up to prevent the TSA from taking actions that the chief said were illegal and clearly contrary to Amtrak policy.
“When I saw it, I didn’t believe it was real,” O’Connor said. When it developed that the posting on an anti-TSA blog was not a joke, “I hit the ceiling.”
Well, isn't that nice. Does TSA actually care?
O’Connor said the TSA VIPR teams have no right to do more than what Amtrak police do occasionally, which has produced few if any protests and which O’Connor said is clearly within the law and the Constitution. More than a thousand times, Amtrak teams (sometimes including VIPR) have performed security screenings at Amtrak stations. These screenings are only occasional and random, and inspect the bags of only about one in 10 passengers. There is no wanding of passengers and no sterile area. O’Connor said the TSA violated every one of these rules.
And he's surprised?
A posting in late February to the Transportation Security Administration’s blog, which serves as a public relations tool of the TSA, tried to explain why TSA agents took over the Amtrak station in Savannah. But O’Connor said the “facts” as posted on the TSA blog were incorrect. He said the blog indicated that Amtrak had approved of the operation, but it had not. He called the TSA’s posting on blog.tsa.gov “inaccurate and insensitive.” As of the time this story was filed, the same posting remained on the blog.
What? TSA lied? Again, is he surprised?
All this is bad enough. It gets even better:
The group involved is TSA’s VIPR operation, which deals with surface transportation. VIPR is short for “visible intermodal protection and response.” It turns out that VIPR has been far more active than imagined. Teams have searched bus passengers all over the country, have done similar things at train stations, and have even blocked traffic on bridges to search trucks and cars. That even included the busy Chesapeake Bay Bridge near Washington.
Napolitano's power-grab is really spreading; seems she wasn't just talking about searching people all over, she was getting it rolling. Can you imagine the idiocy of blocking a frigging bridge so you can search vehicles?
A: Unless you have some reason to think it's actually no-shit necessary to find something really bad, it's stupid.
B: If you think bad guys have, say, a bomb on a truck, you've just given them a bridge full of stalled vehicles to take down
And when does the head of TSA inform us that driving across a bridge or taking a bus is a privilege for which we give up our rights?
"The Real Reason the ATF Smuggled Guns (updated)
into Mexico" over at TTaG. He's got three possibles:
1. To catch the “big fish”: he doubts, and gives reasons why.
2. Empire building: again, doubts and the reasons why.
3. ATF Agents enabled smuggled guns to line their own pockets: likely, he thinks:
As in Watergate, the key to this scandal is to “follow the money.” Never mind the guns themselves—even though drug thugs used the to murder two federal agents. Who paid for the ATF-enabled smuggled guns? How much did they cost? How were the smugglers/informants paid, and how much were they paid? How much did the smugglers get for the guns and what happened to that money?
Occam’s Razor says that if you’re forced to choose between competing theories explaining a given event, the simplest explanation is the most likely to be true. I vote for door number three. The ATF didn’t “botch” Project Gunrunner or Operation Fast and Furious.
I reckon they started out setting up straw purchases, and then “forgot” to stop the guns before they crossed the border. They subverted the normal rules of a police sting—NEVER LOSE TRACK OF THE DRUGS/MONEY/GUNS—for cash money.
If I had to guess, #2 and #3 are the big ones, with #1 being the excuse. Reading this brought something into focus I'd wondered about, and that was just exactly what BATFE could expect to gain toward 'getting the bosses' with this: bosses don't deal in stuff like this, subordinates do. And all that nice noise about 'wanting to take down a cartel' doesn't wash, either. Unless as part of the empire-building action: ATF isn't supposed to be doing that, it's not their job. But if they get expanded(lots more agents and money and authority involved there) it could be. Being legally expanded would require real changes in their charter, etc., but if they decided to expand out without worrying about those niceties(counting on some of the Congressional cover that's helped them out before)...
With Mexico finally deciding to start asking questions about Gunwalker, things stand to get really messy, which is actually a good thing: it's going to take it getting monumentally nasty to actually get the truth out AND have any real possibility of those responsible being punished for their actions. At least any punishment more nasty than "You were a bad boy, go to your room; and your next pay raise will be delayed."
On the latter, couple of days ago Sipsey Street had a piece saying good things about John Dodson, the ATF agent who came out into the open to put a line from the compressor on that whistle; Vanderboegh is catching some crap for it. Well, bullshit. Dodson has said some things about the 'why' that I don't care for, and may well have done things in the past I'd not like; neither of which changes the fact that he's put his balls in the vise here and is hoping Grassley and a real investigation can keep the BATFE brass from closing it. And respect is owed to the other honest cops at ATF who've been trying to get something done but whose names we don't know; considering the reputation this agency has for screwing people over they're taking real risks, too, from the miserable excuses for lawmen running that agency
Update: ref the reason #3, I fear I wasn't thinking it through all the way; yes, there could well be some corrupt agents involved getting money, but as Vanderboegh points out this was set up and approved by DOJ and the bigshots in BATFE; while there's the possibility of someone spreading some money around to influence things I don't think it explains Gunwalker. I'll have to go with #2 combined with something else:
Gunrunner, I pointed out to him, predated the Obama administration. "Yes, but 'walking guns' didn't." I told him it seemed to me that given the dates on the documents that the meetings crafting this policy must have taken place sometime in mid-2009. "And who took power in January, 2009?" he replied.
...
...The ATF controlled the reporting of the statistics, the headlines were lurid and if the rest of us gunnies knew that you don't get automatic weapons, hand grenades and RPGs from gun shows and gun stores, most of the American people were too ignorant of the issue to care about the distinction. But the fact was, as the IG report and other sources concluded, the amount of weapons from those legitimate American sources did not meet the allegation. More importantly the statistics didn't meet the policy need. So, how to "fix" that? Project Gunwalker. If there weren't enough semi-auto "assault rifles" in Mexico, the ATF could fix that. And the murders would follow, justifying the policy change of cracking down on "assault rifles," gun shows and the like.
"So," I said, "you're saying that this was a deliberate attempt by policymakers at the highest levels of the Obama administration to subvert the Second Amendment and further diminish the free exercise of firearm rights of honest citizens?"
"You got it. Sucks, huh?" He laughed bitterly.
And, unfortunately, entirely possible.
1. To catch the “big fish”: he doubts, and gives reasons why.
2. Empire building: again, doubts and the reasons why.
3. ATF Agents enabled smuggled guns to line their own pockets: likely, he thinks:
As in Watergate, the key to this scandal is to “follow the money.” Never mind the guns themselves—even though drug thugs used the to murder two federal agents. Who paid for the ATF-enabled smuggled guns? How much did they cost? How were the smugglers/informants paid, and how much were they paid? How much did the smugglers get for the guns and what happened to that money?
Occam’s Razor says that if you’re forced to choose between competing theories explaining a given event, the simplest explanation is the most likely to be true. I vote for door number three. The ATF didn’t “botch” Project Gunrunner or Operation Fast and Furious.
I reckon they started out setting up straw purchases, and then “forgot” to stop the guns before they crossed the border. They subverted the normal rules of a police sting—NEVER LOSE TRACK OF THE DRUGS/MONEY/GUNS—for cash money.
If I had to guess, #2 and #3 are the big ones, with #1 being the excuse. Reading this brought something into focus I'd wondered about, and that was just exactly what BATFE could expect to gain toward 'getting the bosses' with this: bosses don't deal in stuff like this, subordinates do. And all that nice noise about 'wanting to take down a cartel' doesn't wash, either. Unless as part of the empire-building action: ATF isn't supposed to be doing that, it's not their job. But if they get expanded(lots more agents and money and authority involved there) it could be. Being legally expanded would require real changes in their charter, etc., but if they decided to expand out without worrying about those niceties(counting on some of the Congressional cover that's helped them out before)...
With Mexico finally deciding to start asking questions about Gunwalker, things stand to get really messy, which is actually a good thing: it's going to take it getting monumentally nasty to actually get the truth out AND have any real possibility of those responsible being punished for their actions. At least any punishment more nasty than "You were a bad boy, go to your room; and your next pay raise will be delayed."
On the latter, couple of days ago Sipsey Street had a piece saying good things about John Dodson, the ATF agent who came out into the open to put a line from the compressor on that whistle; Vanderboegh is catching some crap for it. Well, bullshit. Dodson has said some things about the 'why' that I don't care for, and may well have done things in the past I'd not like; neither of which changes the fact that he's put his balls in the vise here and is hoping Grassley and a real investigation can keep the BATFE brass from closing it. And respect is owed to the other honest cops at ATF who've been trying to get something done but whose names we don't know; considering the reputation this agency has for screwing people over they're taking real risks, too, from the miserable excuses for lawmen running that agency
Update: ref the reason #3, I fear I wasn't thinking it through all the way; yes, there could well be some corrupt agents involved getting money, but as Vanderboegh points out this was set up and approved by DOJ and the bigshots in BATFE; while there's the possibility of someone spreading some money around to influence things I don't think it explains Gunwalker. I'll have to go with #2 combined with something else:
Gunrunner, I pointed out to him, predated the Obama administration. "Yes, but 'walking guns' didn't." I told him it seemed to me that given the dates on the documents that the meetings crafting this policy must have taken place sometime in mid-2009. "And who took power in January, 2009?" he replied.
...
...The ATF controlled the reporting of the statistics, the headlines were lurid and if the rest of us gunnies knew that you don't get automatic weapons, hand grenades and RPGs from gun shows and gun stores, most of the American people were too ignorant of the issue to care about the distinction. But the fact was, as the IG report and other sources concluded, the amount of weapons from those legitimate American sources did not meet the allegation. More importantly the statistics didn't meet the policy need. So, how to "fix" that? Project Gunwalker. If there weren't enough semi-auto "assault rifles" in Mexico, the ATF could fix that. And the murders would follow, justifying the policy change of cracking down on "assault rifles," gun shows and the like.
"So," I said, "you're saying that this was a deliberate attempt by policymakers at the highest levels of the Obama administration to subvert the Second Amendment and further diminish the free exercise of firearm rights of honest citizens?"
"You got it. Sucks, huh?" He laughed bitterly.
And, unfortunately, entirely possible.
Sunday, March 06, 2011
Ah, those wonderful people at TSA: they want to irrardiate
people everywhere:
Newly uncovered documents show that as early as 2006, the Department of Homeland Security has been planning pilot programs to deploy mobile scanning units that can be set up at public events and in train stations, along with mobile x-ray vans capable of scanning pedestrians on city streets.
Isn't that a wonderful thought?
Ah, but they deny it. Kind of.
A TSA official responds in a statement that the “TSA has not tested the advanced imaging technology that is currently used at airports in mass transit environments and does not have plans to do so.”
I have to say, I'm an amateur at this but I could drive a truck through the loopholes in that statement: 'has not' doesn't mean isn't or won't, 'does not' leaves in 'can change our minds at any time'(or did). Etc.
Just imagine, they want to feel you up or dose you with possibly damaging radiation(have they YET released the safety studies on this crap?) before they'll allow you to get on a bus. Or train. Or subway. Or into the mall, or game, or anywhere else they can get away with it, all for 'public safety'.
Found at the Advice Goddess
Newly uncovered documents show that as early as 2006, the Department of Homeland Security has been planning pilot programs to deploy mobile scanning units that can be set up at public events and in train stations, along with mobile x-ray vans capable of scanning pedestrians on city streets.
Isn't that a wonderful thought?
Ah, but they deny it. Kind of.
A TSA official responds in a statement that the “TSA has not tested the advanced imaging technology that is currently used at airports in mass transit environments and does not have plans to do so.”
I have to say, I'm an amateur at this but I could drive a truck through the loopholes in that statement: 'has not' doesn't mean isn't or won't, 'does not' leaves in 'can change our minds at any time'(or did). Etc.
Just imagine, they want to feel you up or dose you with possibly damaging radiation(have they YET released the safety studies on this crap?) before they'll allow you to get on a bus. Or train. Or subway. Or into the mall, or game, or anywhere else they can get away with it, all for 'public safety'.
Found at the Advice Goddess
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