Sunday, February 05, 2006

A Suspect Report

Intelligence officers who eavesdropped on thousands of Americans in overseas calls under authority from President Bush have dismissed nearly all of them as potential suspects after hearing nothing pertinent to a terrorist threat, according to accounts from current and former government officials and private-sector sources with knowledge of the technologies in use.
But...but...but "The Partnership" tells us suspects aren't innocent...

Michael Gawenda: LIAR

Congress has failed to renew the 1994 legislation that banned assault weapons, even though George Bush, during the 2004 presidential election campaign, said he supported the law. As a result, it's now OK to buy an AK-47 or an Uzi machine-gun, if that turns you on.--Michael Gawenda
Michael, you are a liar. Expiration of the '94 semiauto ban did nothing to change federal law regarding machine gun possession. You are parroting an intentional deception, you fraud:
"The semi-automatic weapons' menacing looks, coupled with the public's confusion over fully automatic machine guns versus semi-automatic assault weapons – anything that looks like a machine gun is assumed to be a machine gun – can only increase that chance of public support for restrictions on these weapons."Josh Sugarmann, Violence Policy Center
More agenda-driven subversion from "The Partnership".

[Thanks to Dan Gifford]


UPDATE: Nicki tears the liar to shreds.

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Words Have Meaning...

TIME Exclusive: Attorney General will tell Senators that wiretaps target suspects, not innocents
Everybody got that, right?

What was it Inspector Clouseau said?
I suspect everyone and I suspect no one.
What else should we expect from "The Partnership"?

The Newest Deterrent to Bank Robberies

A bank in DuPage County is asking its customers to remove hats, hoods and sunglasses when entering their banks, as a deterrent for would-be robbers. Officials with West Suburban Bank, based in Lombard, say this is just one action to deter robberies, in response to last year’s record-breaking 238 bank robberies in the metropolitan area.

Hat and sunglass control.

It's so brilliantly simple, it's elegant. Why hasn't anyone thought of this before?

UPDATE: FreedomSight is making a sign.

[Thanks to HZ]

Chris Hansen: NBC's Undercover Cop

Speaking of journalism, Dateline NBC, the same folks who brought us the rigged exploding crash test, has crossed another line.

"Dateline's ongoing hidden camera investigation into computer sex predators--grown men, trolling the Web for sex with minors. This time, police are making arrests..." the MSNBC subhead for "To Catch a Predator III" announces.

Good. Damned perverts deserve to be crucified. If it was my kids, I'd gut 'em like a trout.

Which is hardly the point. By partnering with law enforcement to engineer arrests, "correspondent" (why not "undercover deputy"?) Chris Hansen has shed the role of journalist and taken on that of police investigator. A key function of a free press--although you wouldn't know it from the preponderance of "gun control" and other state-worshipping editorials--is to act as a watchdog against abuse of power, not as a guard dog alerting civil authority to misdeeds.

And it's not like NBC affiliates haven't partnered with such authority before.

If the ratings are good--and the "cause" is certainly one that elicits public interest and sympathy--why not expand the concept to other crimes?

How about if they have the cops waiting while they host a gambling sting, or entrap Johns with prostitutes, or--I know--set up a drug bust. I mean, nobody likes those crackheads, right?

No? Still too many in the "conservative gun owner" camp who think these wretches get what they deserve?

Good, because if ratings reward the concept, advertising revenues will grow. Once the networks--and why not newspapers, too?--see how profitable it is to partner with police, there's no limit to how far this can be exploited.

What does it take to elevate the threat level so it even appears on our radar as a concern? Do we need to have our ox gored by the police/reporter alliance?

What if the promo read:

"Dateline's ongoing hidden camera investigation into Second Amendment fanatics who purchase firearms in defiance of sensible gun laws. This time, police are making arrests...."

It's not the same thing? It doesn't need to be. Once we establish that the proper role of journalists is to facilitate arrests for lawbreaking, we will have lost a key independent check and balance over authority. A partnership of private journalists with the state is a hybrid that needs to be exposed for what it is: fascist propaganda.

No matter how "good" the cause.

Or we can not care, watch the shows with voyeuristic fascination, tell ourselves that the end justifies the means...

Maybe in a few years, we'll get to see Geraldo or some clone actually slap the cuffs on the perp, hand him over to a cop, look into the camera and end the show with an authoritative "Book him!"

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No Pulitzer for Nicki

Nicki is all over the latest pack of lies masked as science being promulgated by the rights grabbers.

She's bringing us the story we'll never see in the establishment press. Remember that the next time they sneer at bloggers and treat themselves to an awards dinner.

Goose, Meet Gander

Mayor Daley on Monday embraced a radical plan to require every licensed Chicago business open more than 12 hours a day to install indoor and outdoor cameras...
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In an unusual case, an Evanston woman has been charged with felony eavesdropping charges after she secretly tape recorded a police stop.

[Thanks to HZ]