Clipmarks | BartendingBear's Government collection

Concerns Surround Todd Palin For Being A "Shadow Governor"

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 05:00:22 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: Elect one, get two!

In the aftermath of the Walt Monegan firing, one question keeps surfacing over and over again; why does the governor's husband, Todd Palin appear to hold so much power?

The stories started last year when Representative Ralph Samuels told me about going into a meeting, he thought would be private, with Governor Sarah Palin. Much to his surprise, Todd Palin was there and proceeded to sit through the entire meeting.

Other lawmakers have shared similar stories and were shocked at how inappropriate Todd's presence was at meetings with the governor.

The most alarming indication of Todd Palin's reach into state government came just yesterday.

Last month, a group of Alaskans filed a freedom of information act for emails

The serious concern about these emails is that they were prohibited from being released to the public due to executive privilege, even though Todd Palin was copied on these same emails.

Todd Palin is not a member of the executive branch,

Todd Palin is a member of the general public.

This Is What A Police State Looks Like

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 04:52:08 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: Dissent is patriotic.

Clip Source: www.lewrockwell.com

In Denver, we're so afraid of unarmed civilians, we send 2 cops for each protestor.

Clip Source: www.denverpost.com

Police in riot gear surround protesters on 15th Street near Civic Center park in downtown Denver on Monday night. This is not America. This is what a police state looks like. You re worried about Beijing? This is repression, one activist shouted. (Jason Halley, Special to The Denver Post)

Is Palin's Youngest Son Really Her Grandson?

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 04:47:42 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: The public vetting has begun. Much more analysis at the source. If you can get past a desire to believe in the woman, there's a pretty good case made that the boy is her daughters. When co-workers can't see at seven months, and questions surrounding the birth are many, it really does demand consideration.

Clip Source: www.dailykos.com

I've known liars in my life.

If they're never called out on their twisting of truths and fabrications, they simply continue to make larger lies.

Sarah, I'm calling you a liar. And not even a good one. Trig Paxson Van Palin is not your son. He is your grandson. The sooner you come forward with this revelation to the public, the better.

Clip Source: www.adn.com

SEVEN MONTHS ALONG: Even her staff was unaware that the first family was expecting a fifth child.

The governor, a runner who's always been trim, simply doesn't look pregnant.

Clip Source: www.dailykos.com

Seven months into a pregnancy, and no one noticed.

Sarah's waistline never changed.

In a video posted in February (nearing five months of pregnancy at the time), Sarah is seen trim, and walking around all of Juneau, Alaska.

[Video]

Six months into pregnancy

three days later

seven months pregnant, three days after her official announcement:

Sarah Palin was not pregnant with child.

Her sixteen year-old daughter was.

Bristol out of school

five to eight months.

dated late 2007

Tags: palin, gop, mccain

Scholars Question Palin's Credentials

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 03:28:20 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: Seems reasonable to me that they would.

Clip Source: www.politico.com

John McCain was aiming to make history with his pick of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, and historians say he succeeded.

So unconventional was McCain’s choice that it left students of the presidency literally “stunned,” in the words of Joel Goldstein, a St. Louis University law professor and scholar of the vice presidency. “Being governor of a small state for less than two years is not consistent with the normal criteria for determining who’s of presidential caliber,” said Goldstein.

“I think she is the most inexperienced person on a major-party ticket in modern history,” said presidential historian Matthew Dallek.

“It would be one thing if she had only been governor for a year and a half, but prior to that she had not had major experience in public life,” Dallek said of Palin.

in choosing Palin as his running mate, McCain has reached back to a time when few actually seriously contended that the vice president should be demonstrably prepared to assume the presidency from Day One.

Govt. Agencies Muzzle Free-Speech At Law-Enforcement Conference

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 03:07:26 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: This is just wrong. Our liberties are being shred by the officials who supposedly represent us.

Clip Source: www.leap.cc

Retired police detective, Howard Wooldridge, representing Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) was ousted from the National Asian Peace Officers Association (NAPOA) Conference in Crystal City because he was representing a view contrary U.S. government policy.

LEAP is a 10,000-member organization of police, judges, prosecutors, DEA & FBI agents, and others who know ending drug prohibition will reduce death, disease, crime, and addiction, while saving billions of our tax dollars each year.

On Tuesday (8.26.2008) acting under pressure from unnamed federal officials, Reagan Fong, President of the NAPOA, insisted on the immediate removal of LEAP from the conference vendor roster. It appears that some of the event’s other exhibitors took exception to the LEAP message and put pressure on the event organizer to expel LEAP from the event. While the incident was civil

it represents a serious violation of Constitutional rights as cited within the First Amendment.

The Katrina Myth

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 06:21:21 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: "If it keeps on rainin, levees goin to break,
If it keeps on rainin, levees goin to break,
When the levee breaks Ill have no place to stay.
Mean old levee taught me to weep and moan,"

Led Zeppelin

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

[Video]

How To Handle A Roadblock - If You Aren't DUI

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 03:28:12 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: It’s important to note that in the DUI/DWI context, the right to counsel does not attach until "after" the decision on whether to submit to or refuse the blood or breath test.

Clip Source: www.motorists.org

When citizens are faced with roadblocks, they may politely refuse to answer any of the officer’s questions. To make this more easy to do, you can follow this script to assert your rights*:

I refuse to talk to you until I consult with my attorney. I also refuse to consent to any search of these premises or any other premises under my control, or in which I have a possessory, proprietary, or privacy interest, including my car, my body, or effects. I hereby demand to immediately be allowed the reasonable opportunity to obtain the advice of my attorney by telephone.

I desire to exercise all my rights guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of this state, to be free from your interference with my person or affairs.

If you attempt to question me, I want my lawyer present. I refuse to participate in any line-up or to perform any physical acts, or to speak or display my person or property at your direction, without first conferring with my lawyer.

Tags: rights

The Brilliance of Thomas Jefferson

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 05:53:25 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: He'd tear King George The Deciderer a new one, just as he did 200+ years ago.

Clip Source: quotes.liberty-tree.ca

"We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt.
We must make our election between economy and liberty
or profusion and servitude.
If we run into such debt, as that we must be taxed in our meat and
in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and
our amusements, for our calling and our creeds...
[we will] have no time to think,
no means of calling our miss-managers to account
but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves
to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow-sufferers...
And this is the tendency of all human governments.
A departure from principle in one instance
becomes a precedent for [another ]...
till the bulk of society is reduced to be mere automatons of misery...
And the fore-horse of this frightful team is public debt.
Taxation follows that, and in its train wretchedness and oppression."

Source:

Letter to Samuel Kercheval, Monticello, July 12, 1816

Tags: damn, straight!

Make Congress Read Their Bills Before Voting On Them

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 05:39:58 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: America was founded on the slogan, “No taxation without representation.” A similar slogan applies to this situation: “No LEGISLATION without representation.”

Clip Source: www.downsizedc.org

Help us pass the
“Read the Bills Act” (RTBA)

Part 1: What RTBA does and why

Most Congressmen are lawyers, and many others are businessmen. They know what “fiduciary responsibility” is. For Members of Congress, fiduciary responsibility means reading each word of every bill before they vote.

But Congress has not met this duty for a long time. Instead . . .

They carelessly pass mammoth bills that none of them have read. Sometimes printed copies aren't even available when they vote!

Often no one knows what these bills contain, or what they really do, or what they will really cost.

Additions and deletions are made at the last minute, in secrecy.

And votes are held with little debate or public notice.

We hold this truth to be self-evident, that those in Congress who vote on legislation they have not read, have not represented their constituents. They have misrepresented them.

To this end we have created the “Read the Bills Act (RTBA).” RTBA requires that . . .

Tags: does, common, sense, have, a, chance, ?

Does Ben Bernake Have A Part-Time Job?

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 03:10:43 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: You'd think the Chair of the Federal Reserve could make a go of it on his salary.

Clip Source: www.whitepages.com

Benjamin S Bernanke

work

1818 H St NW

Washington, DC 20433-0001

(202) 473-1000

Type: Land Line
Provider: Verizon
Location: Washington, DC
Due to number portability, some numbers have been transferred to a new service provider.

Job title: President

Company: World Bank

America: Freedom to Fascism - A Film by Aaron Russo

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 19:06:12 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: Do you file an IRS form 1040? Many very smart people say you really don't have to. The SCOTUS has ruled that there is no governing authority to do so. Juries have ruled in favor of those charged with not filing. This film by the late Aaron Russo (Wise Guy, Trading Places, The Rose) looks at the question very deeply with interviews on all sides.

Clip Source: video.google.com

[Video]

I Want My Country Back

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 06:37:50 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: "I love America, and I can't stand quietly by while the land of peace and liberty is being destroyed.

I love the America of the Constitution and limited government - not the America of the Patriot Act and the Orwellian Department of Homeland Security.

I love the America that Washington and Jefferson said should be far removed from all the age-old quarrels of Europe and Asia, while trading benevolently with people all over the world - not the America that has troops in a hundred countries while our own government prohibits us from peaceful trading with dozens of countries."

Clip Source: www.populistamerica.com

Thoughts on the American empire

Is it an empire?

Whenever I say that America has become an empire, someone is sure to say I'm being ridiculous.

But what do you call a government that has tried (usually successfully) to force "regime changes" in Panama, Grenada, South Vietnam, Cuba, Guatemala, Chile, Rhodesia, South Africa, Iraq (in 1963), the Philippines, Serbia, Afghanistan (twice), Iran and several other countries that don't immediately come to mind?

What do you call a government whose leader says everyone must play by his rules or risk being attacked?

World government

America rules the world - by force.

And that's ironic. Because for as long as I can remember, conservatives have been railing against the threat of world government.

But now we actually have a form of world government - a government run by George Bush and enforced by the American military - and most conservatives are all for it.

If you ask

foreigners, they make it clear that it's America's bullying foreign policy they detest.

Seven Paths To Sensible Privacy

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 05:37:37 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: "I am not only retired from all public employments, but I am retiring within myself, and shall be able to view the solitary walk and tread the paths of private life with heartfelt satisfaction."

—George Washington, letter to the Marquis de Lafayette, 1784

That is one view of privacy. Here is another:

"We must all watch one another."
—Rev. Robert Browne, guiding principles, 1582

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

Those two deeply rooted but antagonistic approaches to privacy have simmered together for centuries, but today converging forces in politics, technology, commerce and law have brought them to a boil. We offer seven policy recommendations that would help preserve Washington’s idyllic picture of private life without having to endure Browne’s nightmare.

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

1. Restore the role of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court in issuing warrants for wiretapping.

2. Deny the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s proposal to require all “telephone” capabilities of the Internet to be “wiretap-ready.”

3. End the secrecy surrounding the Cyber Initiative.

4. Grant people control over their own medical information.

6. Regulate the use of RFID tags.

7. Develop educational curricula about the risks to privacy in the online world.

Political Sway & Dick Cheney

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 22:04:04 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: Highly unusual for it to push into state regs, unless it benefits...Big Oil!

Clip Source: www.newsweek.com

A two-year-old letter by that pushed a controversial Alaska natural-gas pipeline bill is getting renewed scrutiny because of recently disclosed evidence in the Justice Department's corruption case against . In a conversation secretly tape-recorded by the FBI on June 25, 2006, Stevens discussed ways to get a pipeline bill through the Alaska Legislature with Bill Allen, an oil-services executive accused of providing the senator with about $250,000 in undisclosed financial benefits. According to a Justice motion, Stevens told Allen, "I'm gonna try to see if I can get some bigwigs from back here and say, 'Look … you gotta get this done'." Two days later, Cheney wrote a letter to the Alaska Legislature urging members to "promptly enact" a bill to build the pipeline.

The former executive director of Cheney's energy task force had gone to work as a lobbyist for British Petroleum, one of three firms slated to build the pipeline.

Pew Research Shows Churchies Want Out Of Politics

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 21:29:17 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: Can I get an "AMEN!"?

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

A slim majority of Americans, including more conservatives and Republicans than previously, want to keep religion out of politics, a survey released on Thursday found.

The survey by the Pew Research Center found that 52 percent of Americans thought that churches and other religious institutions should stay out of politics, an increase of eight percentage points since 2004, when the last U.S. presidential election was held.

Forty five percent in the survey of nearly 3,000 adults conducted earlier this month took an opposite view, saying churches should make their political views heard.

A huge shift came from voters who described themselves as conservative, with 50 percent saying churches should stay out of politics compared to 30 percent in 2004.

Among Republicans, 51 percent held this view, up from 37 percent in August of 2004.

Clipmarks | BartendingBear's Government collection

Concerns Surround Todd Palin For Being A "Shadow Governor"

This Is What A Police State Looks Like

Is Palin's Youngest Son Really Her Grandson?

Scholars Question Palin's Credentials

Govt. Agencies Muzzle Free-Speech At Law-Enforcement Conference

The Katrina Myth

How To Handle A Roadblock - If You Aren't DUI

The Brilliance of Thomas Jefferson

Make Congress Read Their Bills Before Voting On Them

Help us pass the “Read the Bills Act” (RTBA)

Part 1: What RTBA does and why

Does Ben Bernake Have A Part-Time Job?

Benjamin S Bernanke

America: Freedom to Fascism - A Film by Aaron Russo

I Want My Country Back

Seven Paths To Sensible Privacy

Political Sway & Dick Cheney

Pew Research Shows Churchies Want Out Of Politics

Help us pass the
“Read the Bills Act” (RTBA)