NH bill regarding intrastate commerce of firearms and ammunition
Via NH Examiner (January 1, 2010).
The text of NH bill HB 1285 can be found here.
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Bruce Poliquin: supports mandatory background checks for all gun sales?
According to the folks on AMG, this video clip shows Poliquin answering in the affirmative when asked if he supports mandatory background checks for gun sales in Maine.
Further down the AMG thread, Mr. Poliquin attempts to revise/clarify/extend his previous remarks, suggesting that he supports existing gun laws, but does not favor any new laws.
I posed a question asking if he would support a law similar to those being pushed elsewhere that exempt guns manufactured and sold within a single state from all federal gun laws.
Secret Banking Cabal Emerges From AIG Shadows
Via Cryptogon (January 29, 2010):
The idea of secret banking cabals that control the country and global economy are a given among conspiracy theorists who stockpile ammo, bottled water and peanut butter. After this week’s congressional hearing into the bailout of American International Group Inc., you have to wonder if those folks are crazy after all.
Wednesday’s hearing described a secretive group deploying billions of dollars to favored banks, operating with little oversight by the public or elected officials.
We’re talking about the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, whose role as the most influential part of the federal-reserve system — apart from the matter of AIG’s bailout — deserves further congressional scrutiny.
The New York Fed is in the hot seat for its decision in November 2008 to buy out, for about $30 billion, insurance contracts AIG sold on toxic debt securities to banks, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Merrill Lynch & Co., Societe Generale and Deutsche Bank AG, among others. That decision, critics say, amounted to a back-door bailout for the banks, which received 100 cents on the dollar for contracts that would have been worth far less had AIG been allowed to fail.
Article originally appearing on Bloomberg.
Ailing Pro-Life Advocate Holds Vigil in the Cold
Via Maine Family Policy Council:
Michaud, whose single-minded mission is to “end child killing,” happened to be at the local Wal-Mart last November. A little girl came running over to him. “She came up to me in the grocery department,” Michaud recalled, “and she said, ‘my mom wants to say something to you.’ The mother said, ‘never stop, because you saved my granddaughter.’
“Now I can never stop. There is no greater joy, there is nothing I can do that can bring greater joy. Nothing, nothing, nothing. I’m going to be an emotional wreck because of that.”
Michaud, 49, spoke from the Blessed Sacrament Chapel, where he had been praying. Beginning on Feb. 14, he will spend four hours a day, five days a week in the chilling morning cold outside Family Planning Association Maine on Gabriel Drive in Augusta, for the “40 Days for Life” campaign that coincides with Lent.
It was there, last autumn, when Michaud made this great encounter. The grandmother he saw later at Wal-Mart and her daughter were there for an abortion. That’s when he and God saved the life of a little girl who is now six months old.
I eagerly await the day when the pro-life movement finds the courage to boldly speak out on behalf of Iraqi and Afghani children whose innocent lives have been aborted by the US military.
Court Rules That Mass Surveillance of Americans is Immune From Judicial Review- EFF planning appeal
Electronic Frontier Foundation Press Release (January 23, 2010):
A federal judge has dismissed Jewel v. NSA, a case from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) on behalf of AT&T customers challenging the National Security Agency’s mass surveillance of millions of ordinary Americans’ phone calls and emails.
“We’re deeply disappointed in the judge’s ruling,” said EFF Legal Director Cindy Cohn. “This ruling robs innocent telecom customers of their privacy rights without due process of law. Setting limits on Executive power is one of the most important elements of America’s system of government, and judicial oversight is a critical part of that.”
In the ruling, issued late Thursday, U.S. District Court Chief Judge Vaughn Walker held that the privacy harm to millions of Americans from the illegal spying dragnet was not a “particularized injury” but instead a “generalized grievance” because almost everyone in the United States has a phone and Internet service.
“The alarming upshot of the court’s decision is that so long as the government spies on all Americans, the courts have no power to review or halt such mass surveillance even when it is flatly illegal and unconstitutional,” said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston. “With new revelations of illegal spying being reported practically every other week — just this week, we learned that the FBI has been unlawfully obtaining Americans’ phone records using Post-It notes rather than proper legal process — the need for judicial oversight when it comes to government surveillance has never been clearer.”
Jewel v. NSA is aimed at ending the NSA’s dragnet surveillance of millions of ordinary Americans and holding accountable the government officials who illegally authorized it. Evidence in the case includes undisputed documents provided by former AT&T telecommunications technician Mark Klein showing AT&T has routed copies of Internet traffic to a secret room in San Francisco controlled by the NSA. That same evidence is central to Hepting v. AT&T, a class-action lawsuit that’s currently under appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.
War Criminals: Arrest Warrants Requested
Via Pravda (January 25, 2010):
International arrest warrants have been requested for George W. Bush, Richard (Dick) Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, George Tenet, Condoleeza Rice and Alberto Gonzales at the International Criminal Court, The Hague, Netherlands.
Professor of Law Francis A. Boyle of the University of Illinois College of Law in Champain, United States of America, has issued a Complaint with the Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court against the above-mentioned for their practice of “extraordinary rendition” (forced disappearance of persons and subsequent torture) in Iraq and for criminal policy which constitutes Crimes against Humanity in violation of the Rome Statute which set up the ICC.
As such, the Accused (mentioned above) are deemed responsible for the commission of crimes within the territories of many States signatories of the Rome Statute, in violation of Rome Statute Articles 5 (1)(b), 7 (1)(a), 7 (1)(e), 7 (1)(g), 7(1)(h), 7(1)8i) and 7(1)(k). Despite the fact that the USA is not a signatory State, the ICC has the jurisdiction to prosecute under Article 12 (2)(a) of the Rome Statute.
This Article stipulates that the Court may exercise its jurisdiction if one or more States in which the conduct in question occurred has accepted the jurisdiction of the Court. Furthermore, the forced disappearance of persons and torture in deemed by the Rome Statute as a Crime against Humanity, one which is still ongoing.
The Exercise of Jurisdiction may be activated under Article 13, with respect to a crime committed under Article 5 if the Prosecutor has initiated an investigation. Professor Boyle, in his issue of complaint, respectfully requested that such an investigation be initiated.
The issue of complaint states “about 100 human beings have been subjected to enforced disappearances and subsequent torture by the Accused”, adds that some of them could still be alive today, and that an investigation could save these lives. Regarding those whose enforced disappearances led to their deaths, the Complaint requests a process of explanation and clarification for what would be a murder investigation.
British pols turning on one another
Via UK Daily Mail (January 22, 2010):
Jack Straw denounced Tony Blair’s slavish backing for President Bush over the Iraq War yesterday and revealed a deep split on whether regime change to topple Saddam Hussein was legal.
The former Foreign Secretary told the Iraq Inquiry that, unlike Mr Blair, he would not have written cosy letters to the U.S. President promising that Britain would ‘be there’ when America went to war.
In an explosive day of evidence, Mr Straw said the dodgy Downing Street dossier was an ‘error’ that has ‘haunted us ever since’.
Dear Officer
A letter written to an American police officer. Please share with the men and women of your local PD, county sheriff’s office and state troopers alike. Many of these men are good, honest American patriots, and they will play an important role in the coming collision between the forces of tyranny and the American people who will resist when left with no other alternative.
A 2-page version of the letter in PDF format can be downloaded here for distribution.
New DEA agent in Maine champions drug war teamwork
Via PPH (January 25, 2010).
The “War on Drugs” is a prime example where the state legislature could exercise authority under the 10th amendment to the US Constitution.
The Guantánamo “Suicides”: A Camp Delta sergeant blows the whistle
Via Harper’s Magazine (January 18, 2010):
Furthermore, new evidence now emerging may entangle Obama’s young administration with crimes that occurred during the George W. Bush presidency, evidence that suggests the current administration failed to investigate seriously—and may even have continued—a cover-up of the possible homicides of three prisoners at Guantánamo in 2006.
Automatic license plate recognition drawing criticism
Via WCSH (January 18, 2010):
Some Maine privacy advocates are criticizing a new surveillance system used by South Portland police that automatically reads license plates.
The Portland Press Herald says South Portland is apparently Maine’s first community to use automated license plate recognition to target traffic scofflaws, people wanted on warrants and other offenders.
Cameras on a cruiser takes pictures of license plans and runs the numbers through the database of the National Crime Information Center.
South Portland police Lt. Frank Clark says the technology can be used to detect stolen vehicles and help find missing people.
Shenna Bellows of the Maine Civil Liberties Union says the surveillance system undermines the fundamental right to be left alone.
Bill addresses ATVs on Maine private land
Via WCSH (January 19, 2010):
All-terrain vehicle use on private land is on the agenda in a Maine legislative committee this week.
On Tuesday, the Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Committee takes up a bill that would allow wardens to stop ATVs operated on privately owned property without a reasonable and articulable suspicion to believe a violation of the law has occurred.
That’s a change from the present law, which says a law enforcement officer must have a reasonable suspicion of a violation whether the ATV is on public or private land.
Rep. Ralph Sarty, a Denmark Republican, says he wants to change the law because that extra measure of enforcement is needed to foster good relations between private landowners and ATV users.
Some important information regarding the subject can be found in 2 recent Maine Supreme Court rulings. State v McKeen, and State v Bromiley.
Scarborough Sports Axed From School Budget
Via WMTW (January 13, 2010):
I definitely like the idea of less money being dished out from Augusta to fund local schools. Cities and towns can and should decide for themselves what sports and other “extracurricular” activities they value and wish to pay for. Students who are forced to do their own fundraising for these activities learn a valuable lesson that they would not otherwise get about the cost and benefit of their recreation. And hopefully, tight school budgets will be reworked to put the focus back on core educational areas of math, science and language skills.
Maine state budget cuts are trickling down to local school athletic programs.
The programs’ booster club members brainstormed options Tuesday night in an effort to save the programs, but it appears the fate for some teams doesn’t look good.
Cuts to coach’s stipends and expenses means a number of Scarborough sports teams will not be playing this spring.
3 Maine men sentenced in Huntsville military bribery scheme
Via AL.com (January 15, 2010):
A Maine defense contractor who bribed officials at the Army’s Space and Missile Defense Command in Huntsville, Ala., has been sentenced to eight years in prison.
Sixty-five-year-old Maurice “Moe” Subilia Jr. of Kennebunkport was described by prosecutors as one of the masterminds of the scheme. His brother and his son-in-law received lesser sentences of two and three years on Friday.
They pleaded guilty to charges including conspiracy, money laundering and bribery.
Subilia had faced up to 40 years in prison. But attorney Toby Dilworth sought a penalty similar to the five-year sentence given to the government official accused of proposing the scheme. Dilworth says Subilia has cooperated and given up virtually everything he owns. He also suffers from heart problems and had a coronary bypass in October.
Strategist switches sides on casino issue
Via WCSH (January 16, 2010):
It’s too bad the issue of casinos comes down to the morality of gambling, the potential change in crime rate or the hypothetical benefit to local employment. Why does it have to be more complicated than simply saying people should be free to open a casino and other people should be free to gamble as they see fit?
As the latest effort to put a casino in Western Maine takes shape, an interesting rivalry is materializing. Two former architects of the campaigns that defeated proposals in Sanford and Biddeford have parted ways and will be managing the message for opposing sides.
Dennis Bailey of Savvy Communications will continue fighting gambling in Maine as the spokesperson for Casinos No! But his former business partner, Mark Robinson, is now working for the proponents.
Robinson says he was persuaded that casinos can bring jobs and economic boosts to Maine… without the downsides he so vigorously warned of when he worked with Bailey. For example, a flyer Robinson designed that used a stock photo of a homeless man.
“I think the Hollywood Slots experience has shown people it hasn’t come true,” says Robinson. “There aren’t homeless people lying all over the streets in Bangor.”
Dennis Bailey remains unconvinced. “There is no evidence that Bangor is any better off than communities in Maine without casinos. They promised jobs and economic development, and said crime would go down. but unemployment is up, businesses have closed, crime has increased more than any other city in Maine.”
Mark Robinson says he will be paid $60,000 from now through the November vote.