Saturday, June 8, 2013

Swedish Princess Madeleine Marries

Princess Madeleine of Sweden married American financier Christopher O'Neill, on Saturday.

The wedding took place in the Royal Chapel in Stockholm, and their vows were followed by a twenty-one cannon salute.

After the ceremony, they were taken by the Parade Barouche, the official wedding carriage of Sweden, to a boat which took them to Drottningholm Palace, for their reception.

Their nearly five hundred guests included royalty and financiers from around the world.

Madeleine is the youngest of King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia's children, and is fourth in line to the throne.

She lives in New York City where she works for the World Childhood Foundation, founded by her mother.

25 Killed in Benghazi Clashes

At least twenty-five people were killed and more than fifty injured in clashes that erupted in Benghazi, Libya, on Saturday.

Protesters demanding that all militias lay down their arms attacked a base belonging to the Libya Shield brigade.

Fighting, between the two groups, lasted for hours.

The Libya Shield brigade is allied with the Libyan government, but the people of Benghazi do not want militias present, no matter who they are allied with.

3 Americans and 1 Italian Killed in Afghanistan

Three Americans were killed and three injured in Paktika province, Afghanistan, on Saturday.

Two of them were soldiers, while the third was a civilian contractor.

A man in Afghan military uniform walked up to them and opened fire.

Other American soldiers returned fire, killing the shooter.

In a separate incident, an Italian soldier was killed and three were wounded in Farah province.

An insurgent threw a grenade at the vehicle they were traveling in.

Chinese Bus Fire was Domestic Terrorism

Chinese officials have confirmed that Friday's bus fire was an act of domestic terrorism.

Forty-seven people were killed and thirty-four injured in the fire, which raced through the bus during rush our in Xiamen.

According to authorities, it was set by fifty-nine year old Chen Shuizong, who died in the fire.

He was angry at the government over not getting social security benefits and left a suicide note, in his apartment.

Friday, June 7, 2013

8 Colorado Counties Looking at Secession

Counties working towards secession marked in red
Eight Colorado counties have been the legal tasks required to work their way to forming their own state. Kit Carson, Logan, Morgan, Phillips, Sedgwick, Washington, Weld, and Yuma counties say they are tired of the "hypocrisy coming out of Denver".

Weld County Commissioners Sean Conway and Douglas Rademacher are leading the effort, of the mostly rural counties. They and others point out their anger with laws that have been passed, over recent months. The great majority of residents are unhappy over various new laws, including gun laws, which fifty-five of the state's sixty-four counties are suing over.

However, on Wednesday, Governor Hickenlooper signed Senate Bill 252 that is extremely devastating to the economies of rural areas, as it requires them to spend twenty percent of their budget on renewable energy. For many that was the last straw.

Conway says that he and his constituents are tired of being ignored, by the rest of the state. Some have called it a "war on rural Colorado." According to Rademacher, counties in Nebraska and Kansas have expressed interest in joining them. If not allowed to form a new state they may try and switch from Colorado to Wyoming.

For the counties to form a new state, the population of each state would have to vote in approval. A goal which the counties are working on seeing happening this November. If a county's residents approve leaving the state the Colorado state legislature, Governor, and US Congress would all have to then approve it. Out of seventy-five attempts, only five have been successful, in US history. Vermont successfully left New York, Kentucky left Virginia, Tennessee left North Carolina, Maine left Massachusetts, and West Virginia left Virginia.

Both Conway and Rademacher doubt that the state or Governor will allow them to leave. However they still plan on getting the issue that far. If nothing else they want to draw attention to their cause against what they see as unConstitutional actions, on the parts of the state government and Governor's office.

3 Killed in Kentucky Medical Helicopter Crash

Three people were killed in helicopter crash in eastern Kentucky, late Thursday night.

The medical helicopter was returning to base when it suddenly went down.

All three of the crew were killed in the crash.

Authorities are thankful that it missed crashing into nearby homes.

Officials with the FAA and NTSB are investigating the cause of the crash.

7 Georgian Soldiers Killed in Afghanistan

Seven soldiers from Georgia were killed Thursday night, in Afghanistan.

A suicide bomber detonated a truck full of explosives outside of a Georgian military base in Nawzad.

The Taliban quickly claimed responsibility for the attack.

Thirty Georgians have now died in Afghanistan since they arrived in 2004.

Georgia has the largest contingent of non NATO soldiers, present in the conflict.

They sent their soldiers to join NATO forces, as a show of their desire to join the alliance.

42 Killed in Chinese Bus Fire

Forty-two people were killed and thirty-three injured when a bus caught fire in Xiamen, China, on Friday.

The bus was traveling on an elevated road, during rush hour, making it very difficult for emergency workers to get to.

Authorities are investigating the cause of the fire, unsure if it was an act of terror or an accident.

Survivors reported smelling gasoline, before the fire broke out.

Scandalpalooza -- Tyranny Rising?

With the continuing stream of scandals coming out of the current administration of the federal executive branch, some citizens are starting to put things together. It is no longer a two plus two equation but a startling calculus problem with a growing number of variables and constants.

But here is a simple one even a third grader should be able to figure out.

Natural Rights and infringements on liberty are inversely proportionate. As violations of personal privacy and property rise, respect of natural rights falls. That means that the more infringements on the constitutional rights that protect those natural rights occur the closer our enjoyment of those natural rights approach zero.

As natural rights approach zero, so do civil liberties. As those both approach zero, government power increases towards infinity. When government power exceeds a certain level, you reach a state of tyranny.

So, that begs the question, how much intervention, control, and invasion does it take? Does it need to be absolute? Absolute power is absolute corruption. It is an overload of laws and regulations to the point where those in power are no longer held accountable to their own laws. Yet they can arbitrarily enforce random laws on any who oppose them, or attempt to hold them accountable.

So let's move from abstracts to the real world.

You have Eric Holder and the ATF buying guns from law abiding gun dealers and selling them to enemies of the state: drug cartels, sex slavers, and terrorist facilitators. This was called "Operation Fast and Furious".

Next, you have Obamacare passed, granting the IRS some authority over your health care. It is a tax. The IRS is the bureaucracy in charge of administrating (and punishing violations of) tax law.

Then you have Eric Holder and his DoJ breaking the 1st Amendment and looking at private emails and phone calls from reporters, most notably, reporters with The Associated Press. Without blinking, you can also see some amount of violation of the 4th Amendment occurring here as well.

While we have the IRS in the cross hairs, we find they are granting favoritism to left wing groups such as labor unions but targeting non-profit organizations that appear to display conservative ideals. They go so far as to ask very intrusive questions of these organizations during their audits. Many of these questions have nothing to do with the work some of these organizations actually perform.

Meanwhile, the IRS agents party it up at several conferences, at taxpayer expense. They even spend an exorbitant amount on parody videos and videos to teach them how to dance. Why did they need to learn to dance? It was somehow necessary for a future conference, at taxpayer expense.

 Yet, this is who the socialists want in charge of administrating your health care. Keep that in mind.

Recently, we found that the administration expanded the scope it employed the Patriot Act. They started collecting information on US Citizens who had contact with foreign/international terrorist associates. Then they expanded to collecting meta data on all Americans, to include those whose activity is solely domestic. The NSA, which is part of the Department of Defense, was used. Intelligence Oversight laws were potentially violated. Blanket warrants were issues, which violate the 4th Amendment of the US Constitution.

The latest bit of news regarding this collection, called Operation Prism or the Prism Project, extended beyond just metadata from phone calls. It included text messages and emails of average US citizens. This was done without specific warrants naming specific individuals. In violation of Posse Comitatus, the Department of Defense was used against US citizens on US soil.

This is what has happened and is happening.

Now let's look at where this could lead, if not halted. We are a nation of laws. We have a supreme law in this country that limits the government. It is called the US Constitution. It's being ignored.

The PPACA ("Obamacare") is being implemented, bit by bit. The government is requiring medical professionals to ask questions about firearm ownership, political views, and other items that have nothing to do with health care. This information is being databased.

The PPACA also dictates that medical records be maintained digitally, and made available to all health care personnel, to include the CDC and the US Department of Health and Human Services. All of this is despite the HIPPA laws that forbid the sharing of medical information without patient consent.

That means your health records will be available to all federal government agencies. Remember the IRS is in charge of administrating the tax related information and disbursement of health care funds. In fact, you are required to give your health and medical insurance information to the IRS when filing your taxes.

So, now the IRS will have access to your health records. Think about that. The Sheriff of Nottingham and Prince John will have access to your medical records.

These were the guys who leaked confidential tax and financial information to liberal leaning Political Action Committees. Does anybody doubt that, in the next election, that medical records will be on public display? It is not a stretch to expect, in the 2016 election cycle, some campaign ad about a pro-life conservative having undergone a vasectomy. It will be made a "big deal" despite the fact it will be nobody's business.

Are you scared yet?

Private property, to include intellectual property, is being infringed upon. Natural rights are, daily, being infringed upon. Those liberties we hold most sacred are being trampled. The support of and respect for individual natural and constitutional rights from our federal government are approaching zero. The tyranny quotient is growing. If not abated, it will soon cross the threshold. 

Maybe, just maybe, you should be.





P-G Matuszak's editorial originally appears at Mental Aikido. Copyright 2013 by P-G Matuszak, reprinted with permission, courtesy of Mental Aikido. P-G Matuszak also writes for the Franklin Center's Watchdog Wire, covering Texas, National, and International news.

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Series of Suspicious Fires in Denver Continues

Denver fire officials have two more fires to add to their growing list of suspicious incidents.

Two fires occurred, during the early morning hours of Thursday, and both have been labeled as suspicious.

One of the fires destroyed a vacant home, while the other burnt a telephone pole to the ground.

Over the last few weeks, a series of suspicious fires have occurred in the metro area.

Most of them have been in Denver and involved dumpsters being sent on fire.

Investigators believe that Thursday's fires were arson as well, and are trying to determine if there is any link to the previous incidents.