Keeping the peace questioned
Wolves keep killing while county sheriffs do nothing to stem threats to people and property
There isn’t a sign hanging over the sheriff’s office door that says, “We Keep the Peace”, but perhaps there ought to be. That would be a reminder that the first order of business for the sheriff is the task of keeping the peace in the county— something we take for granted so much that we may not see the proverbial forest for the trees because of the plain and simple language.
Those few words come right from state law, out of the Idaho Statutes under the title Counties &
County Law, under the chapter Sheriff—Duties of Sheriff—“The sheriff shall perform the following:”, and note here that this is the first item of business for the sheriff to do: “(1) Preserve the peace.” One cannot be any clearer and to the point than this.
However, it appears some sheriffs have a difficult time grasping the full import of what it means to preserve the peace, and seem to have a flip attitude of, “Sure, I keep the peace!”, likely not understanding the depth and breadth of what all that may encompass.
The simple definition of keeping the peace is that the good order and tranquility of the place is maintained, and nothing disturbs or breaches that peace. We are at home, we go to the store, we eat at a restaurant, we go to the rodeo, or the park, or to a show, we take a drive, we fish, we hunt…WE HUNT!
Now, there is a thought. We can go about living, and be about our business around the county, and we have an expectation of peace as we go about doing the things we do. We don’t expect to get mugged, run off the road, have property stolen, trespassers or unwanted guests, or anything disturbing the good order and tranquility of our surroundings. For the most part, most everyone I know likes that idea. Apparently the legislature thought enough to make that the #1 (top priority) for the sheriffs of the counties, and reason the law reads as it does.
But, wait a minute, given all the above, within our forests, and certainly within the jurisdiction of the counties and our sheriffs, we have wolves that have been placed in those forests that are downright dangerous, that are in fact breaching the peace, the good order and tranquility of the counties. What are the sheriffs doing about this?
You guessed it! Nothing that really counts for anything.
Yet these Grey Wolves from Canada— a non-native species to be exact— planted here in defiance of the good order and tranquility of the region and the counties, are now such a problem that they say it is an unprecedented environmental and societal disaster that has already cost untold millions of dollars, and the cost continues to soar.
Some say this was a conspiracy to take the whole business of introducing wolves here to an extreme in order to rob the people of the benefits and usefulness of the region. Those who believe this use the fact that so much money has been dumped into creating this calamity, that it has to have a powerful hidden agenda behind it. All this, they say, is reason the county governments should be looking at it all in terms of criminal prosecutions and investigations of the principal players involved—known and unknown.
There are those who say, “Well congress passed a law”, and we have no choice. That is not true according to those close to this matter. They say the sheriff has a duty to do what state law says, and bid defiance to whatever law congress has passed when it breaches the peace in the county. Under state law, they say, the sheriff can “call on any inhabitants of the county to aid him” in preserving the peace. That happens to be the fourth item down in the Idaho statute from the command that the sheriff is to “preserve the peace”. They say the sheriff does not have to go it alone on this, but that he can command the entire population of the county to stand right along with him in dealing with the problem!
They are also very clear in pointing out that calling out the people, the inhabitants of the county, is to call on the posse comitatus, Latin for “county force” or “power of the county” as it is defined in law. They say it is the sheriffs’ call in the various counties, impacted by the wolf disaster, and it is the duty of the sheriff to deal with the breach of peace that the wolf introduction has caused. These same people are quick to say that any sheriff who doesn’t have the guts to do his duty should step down and let someone else take command who will do their duty.
Those who are decidedly opposed to the wolves being here, like Ron Gillete who has headed the fight against wolves here in Idaho, are convinced that the sheriffs could put an end to the wolf problem, and soon. Not only could the sheriff command hunters to take to the field and kill the wolves, but that the county commissioners could declare a disaster, an emergency— economic as well as a natural disaster (as great game herds have been destroyed in such large numbers impacting tourism and employment) so that a state of emergency exists. At the same time, the county prosecutors should go after those who conspired to bring this destruction and menace to Idaho.
If the “county force” cannot kill the wolves by hunting them down with guns and traps, then the sheriff should order the use of any means necessary, including use of the poison bait, 1080” (sodium fluor acetate), the way it was done historically.
The collateral damage from poison, they say, cannot be hardly any worse than the destruction caused by these wolves which is ongoing. For Ron Gillette and others, the debate is over, “It is time to kill wolves and be done with the problem. There is only one way to manage wolves, and that is to get rid of them all, as it is impossible to manage Canadian wolves at any number and at any level. Idaho has the roughest terrain and topography of any of the lower forty-eight states, and management is simply impossible.
”Are we waiting until a lone hunter, camper, or, a child is killed by a wolf before we go do what should have been done a long time ago? What sheriff would want that as a legacy of his time in office? Plan on moving out of state, or perhaps out of the country if that should happen here—somebody might just lose it at that point—is speculation some are prone to offer to sheriffs who are doing nothing and making excuses why they can’t act.
County government is a powerful unit of government, and is closest to the people. It is where the rubber meets the road. Sheriffs are the key player in this matter. Many now believe it is time to “fix-bayonets” and charge into the battle, or face the very real prospect that this Idaho way of life here will be lost forever.
It is time the sheriffs assume the role of leader in their respective counties…and lead, and rally the county force to aid in whatever it takes to “preserve the peace.” ■
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GOP Ask About Backdoor Amnesty Memo
GOP Lawmakers Want Explanation of Draft Memo on Amnesty for Thousands
A group of Republican senators have written top immigration officials in the Obama administration asking them to reveal whether large-scale plans are under way to provide a so-called non-legislative version of amnesty.
The lawmakers cite an 11-page draft document written by staff to the director of the Citizenship and Immigration Service that says they are reviewing several executive orders and other mechanisms that effectively would serve as a substitute for comprehensive immigration reforms.
You can read the full memo here (courtesy of National Review), and thereby eliminate any risk of taking things out of context. Oddly enough, it has yet to be posted on WikiLeaks.
The objective would be to promote “family unity, foster economic growth … and reduce the threat of removal for certain individuals present in the United States without authorization.”
Among the suggestions, the document offers proposals for rewriting legal opinions to allow unaccompanied minors, victims of human trafficking or extreme hardship and others who’ve overstayed their visas to remain in the U.S.
Everyone is Aunt Zeituni now.
For instance, the four aides who wrote the document told Director Alejandro N. Mayorkas that general counsel at the CIS has reinterpreted legal opinions of the definition of “admission” for those entering under “temporary protected status” — in the face of war or environmental disaster — so that they can change their status to stay in the United States permanently.
And, of course, “environmental disaster” would include ‘global warming,’ which we now know will cause untold millions to ‘migrate’ to the US from parts south.
“Opening this pathway will help thousands of applicants obtain lawful permanent residence without having to leave the U.S.,” reads the memo, which was provided to Fox News by the office of Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa…
And by “thousands” they mean millions.
Grassley and several other Republicans wrote a letter to DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano on Monday asking for the number of deferrals and paroles granted in the past five years.
A second letter written last week to President Obama suggested that “the administration would be wise to abandon any plans for deferred action or parole for the illegal population. Such a move would further erode the American public’s confidence in the federal government and its commitment to securing the borders and enforcing the laws already on the books…
Hah! Good one.
Press Secretary Robert Gibbs on Friday [when asked about this memo] told Fox News that the White House doesn’t support amnesty. [See above.]
“And I think people that support comprehensive immigration reform don’t support amnesty either. What we need to do again is try to figure out how we’re going to secure our borders, deal with those that are here, but do it in a comprehensive way and do it at a federal level,” he said.
Some lies are so big it takes a government spokesman (and a compliant media) to tell them.
For the record, whenever anyone in the Obama administration mentions the word “comprehensive” you know it means trouble. So far we have started down the road to socialized medicine in the guise of “comprehensive” healthcare reform. We have moved towards a command economy under “comprehensive” financial reform.
Similarly, “comprehensive” immigration reform will ultimately mean amnesty for any and all illegals who want to live in the United States.
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Dozens arrested as Arizona appeals judge’s last-minute blocking of new immigration law
Arizona asked an appeals court Thursday to lift a judge’s order blocking most of the state’s immigration law as the city of Phoenix filled with protesters, including about 50 who were arrested for confronting officers in riot gear.
Republican Gov. Jan Brewer called U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton’s Wednesday’s decision halting the law “a bump in the road,” and the state appealed to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco on Thursday.
Outside the state Capitol, hundreds of protesters began marching at dawn, gathering in front of the federal courthouse where Bolton issued her ruling on Wednesday. They marched on to the office of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who has made a crackdown on illegal immigration one of his signature issues.
At least 32 demonstrators were arrested after blocking the entrance and beating on the large steel doors leading to the Maricopa County jail in downtown Phoenix. Sheriff’s deputies in riot gear opened doors and waded out into the crowd, hauling off those who didn’t move.
Dozens of others were arrested throughout the day, trying to cross a police line, entering closed-off areas or sitting in the street and refusing to leave. A photographer for the Arizona Republic and former state Sen. Alfredo Gutierrez, who ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2002, were among them.
Marchers chanted “Sheriff Joe, we are here, we will not live in fear,” and in the crowd was a drummer wearing a papier-mache Sheriff Joe head and dressed in prison garb.
Arpaio vowed to go ahead with a crime sweep targeting illegal immigrants. Phoenix police made most the early arrests, but other protests were planned later in front of a county jail.
“My deputies will arrest them and put them in pink underwear,” Arpaio said, referring to one of his odd methods of punishment for prisoners. “Count on it.”
Arizona is the nation’s epicenter of illegal immigration, with more than 400,000 undocumented residents. The state’s border with Mexico is awash with smugglers and drugs that funnel narcotics and immigrants throughout the U.S., and supporters of the new law say the influx of illegal migrants drains vast sums of money from hospitals, education and other services.
The ruling was anxiously awaited in the U.S. and beyond. About 100 protesters in Mexico City who had gathered at the U.S. Embassy broke into applause when they learned of the ruling via a laptop computer. Mariana Rivera, a 36-year-old from Zacatecas, Mexico, who is living in Phoenix on a work permit, said she heard about the ruling on a Spanish-language news program.
“I was waiting to hear because we’re all very worried about everything that’s happening,” said Rivera, who phoned friends and family with the news. “Even those with papers, we don’t go out at night at certain times there’s so much fear (of police). You can’t just sit back and relax.”
In New York City, about 300 immigrant advocates gathered Thursday near the federal courthouse in lower Manhattan.
New York City Councilman Jumaane Williams, a first-generation Caribbean-American, told the crowd: “We won a slight battle in Arizona, we’ve got to continue with the war.”
In Los Angeles, about 200 protesters invaded a busy intersection west of downtown Los Angeles.
Police shut down the intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and Highland Avenue and diverted traffic away after demonstrators moved into the street and sat down at about 10 a.m. Thursday.
The protesters chanted, “These are our streets” during the raucous demonstration. Police say there have been no arrests.
Bolton indicated the government has a good chance at succeeding in its argument that federal immigration law trumps state law. But the key sponsor of Arizona’s law, Republican Rep. Russell Pearce, said the judge was wrong and predicted the state would ultimately win the case.
In her temporary injunction, Bolton delayed the most contentious provisions of the law, including a section that required officers to check a person’s immigration status while enforcing other laws. She also barred enforcement of parts requiring immigrants to carry their papers and banned illegal immigrants from soliciting employment in public places _ a move aimed at day laborers that congregate in large numbers in parking lots across Arizona. The judge also blocked officers from making warrantless arrests of suspected illegal immigrants.
“Requiring Arizona law enforcement officials and agencies to determine the immigration status of every person who is arrested burdens lawfully present aliens because their liberty will be restricted while their status is checked,” said Bolton, a Clinton administration appointee who was assigned the seven lawsuits filed against Arizona over the law.
Other provisions that were less contentious were allowed to take effect Thursday, including a section that bars cities in Arizona from disregarding federal immigration laws.
Kris Kobach, the University of Missouri-Kansas City law professor who helped write the law and train Arizona police officers in immigration law, conceded the ruling weakens the force of Arizona’s efforts to crack down on illegal immigrants. He said it will likely be a year before a federal appeals court decides the case.
“It’s a temporary setback,” Kobach said. “The bottom line is that every lawyer in Judge Bolton’s court knows this is just the first pitch in a very long baseball game.”
Opponents of the law said the ruling sends a strong message to other states hoping to replicate the law. Lawmakers or candidates in as many as 18 states say they want to push similar measures when their legislative sessions start up again in 2011.
“Surely it’s going to make states pause and consider how they’re drafting legislation and how it fits in a constitutional framework,” Dennis Burke, the U.S. attorney for Arizona, told The Associated Press. “The proponents of this went into court saying there was no question that this was constitutional, and now you have a federal judge who’s said, ‘Hold on, there’s major issues with this bill.’”
But a lawmaker in Utah said the state will likely take up a similar law anyway.
“The ruling … should not be a reason for Utah to not move forward,” said Utah state Rep. Carl Wimmer, a Republican from Herriman City, who said he plans to co-sponsor a bill similar to Arizona’s next year and wasn’t surprised it was blocked. “For too long the states have cowered in the corner because of one ruling by one federal judge.”
___
Contributing to this report were Associated Press Writers Michelle Price, Paul Davenport and Jacques Billeaud in Phoenix, and Sara Kugler Frazier in New York.
Read more: http://www.newser.com/article/d9h8u7181/dozens-arrested-as-arizona-appeals-judges-last-minute-blocking-of-new-immigration-law.html#ixzz0v6aJYidE
Basic Facts on the CLEAR Act (H.R. 3534)
WASHINGTON, D.C., Jul 28 -
The CLEAR Act is being sold as a response to the Gulf oil spill crisis, yet the bill itself stretches far beyond addressing this tragedy to include page after page of provisions that are unrelated to the oil spill, will kill American jobs, and are premature by acting before Congress has the full facts from the numerous ongoing investigations into the Deepwater Horizon explosion and spill.
The Obama Moratorium on deepwater drilling has already cost tens of thousands of jobs and this bill will eliminate even more American energy jobs by making it harder and more expensive to produce American energy both onshore and offshore. The Gulf spill has already taken a terrible economic toll on the Gulf Coast and affected businesses across the country – and Congress shouldn’t enact laws that impose even further economic harm and lead to thousands of more lost jobs.
Reforms are clearly needed to make American offshore drilling the safest in the world, but this bill gets ahead of the facts in a rush to write new laws. The investigations need to be completed so that Congress can act intelligently. For example, the Deepwater Horizon rig’s blowout preventer that is supposed to be a fail-safe device to prevent any spill is still a mile under the ocean – it needs to be retrieved and examined. The focus must be on permanently stopping the leak, cleaning up the oil, assisting Gulf Coast communities, holding BP 100% accountable, and getting to the bottom of all that went wrong. To ensure it makes the right reforms, Congress must first know exactly what caused and contributed to this disaster.
With this bill, Democrats are exploiting the Gulf oil spill tragedy as a political opportunity to push through provisions that are unrelated to the spill response or reforms to offshore drilling. The latest version of the CLEAR Act:
- Imposes job-killing changes and higher taxes for onshore natural gas and oil production. It fundamentally changes leasing onshore by the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, which affects not just leasing for natural gas and oil, but also for renewable energy including wind and solar. Forest Service and BLM leasing are shoved into the three new agencies that are replacing the former Minerals Management Service (MMS).
- Creates over $30 billion in new mandatory spending for two programs that have nothing to do with the oil spill (the Land and Water Conservation Fund and the Historic Preservation Fund). In the version of the bill headed to the House floor, Democrats added brand new language that expressly allows this $30 billion to be earmarked by the Appropriations Committee.
- Raises taxes by over $22 billion in ten years – with the taxes eventually climbing to nearly $3 billion per year. This is a direct tax on natural gas and oil that will raise energy prices for American families and businesses, hurt domestic jobs, and increase our dependence on foreign oil. This tax only applies to U.S. oil and gas production on federal leases – giving an advantage to foreign oil and hurting American energy jobs.
- Requires the federal takeover of state authority to permit in state waters, which reverses sixty years of precedent. The mismanagement, corruption and oversight failures of the federal government are being used as justification to expand federal control by seizing management from the states.
- Allows 10% of all offshore revenues – an amount possibly as high as $500 million per year – to be spent on a new fund controlled by the Interior Secretary to issue ocean research grants (ORCA fund). There is no requirement that the fund is used for the Gulf region or anything related to oil spills or offshore drilling. These funds can be earmarked.
- Establishes “marine spatial planning” regulatory authority – which allows for ocean zoning that could lead to restrictions on fishing, energy production and even onshore activities such as farming. This vague new regulatory authority could cost fishing jobs, energy jobs, manufacturing jobs, farming jobs, and many more jobs that may impact waterways that drain into the ocean.
The bill includes unlimited spill liability for offshore operators, which could effectively eliminate independent producers from operating offshore if they cannot obtain insurance policies to cover their operations. According to an independent study from IHS Global Insight, “by 2020 an exclusion of the independents from the Gulf of Mexico would eliminate 300,000 jobs and result in a loss of $147 billion in federal, state, and local taxes from the Gulf region over 10 years.”
Democrat leaders also deleted a provision adopted without objection in the House Natural Resources Committee just two weeks ago to establish a bipartisan, independent commission to investigate the oil spill – a provision that has also passed a Senate Committee in a bipartisan vote
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FREE MAN DAVY JAMES
The news people say that Andy was crazy, say he was one of those militia guys that run around out in the woods with their buddies, the kind that blames their personal failures on the government. Andy hated government alright, but not for any failure on his own part. He hated it because one day he woke up and realized he was their slave.
The video of him gunning down a bunch of politicians and bankers at a town hall meeting in Boise hit the internet, and the TV news played the scene of the national bank burning over and over again and that same hatred spread. Within a week the whole country was burning. The war was on, and Andy McDay started it.
I didn’t know anything about it. I met Andy a couple of days after the town hall meeting. I was coming down Adam’s Grade with a load of fire wood in the back of my truck. It was around nine in the evening and the sun was starting to set. I enjoy that time of year because in two or three months it will get cold and the sun will go down before four in the afternoon on some days, so I make the most of it.
I got to the bottom of the grade and stopped at the corner of Tomtaha road. A man was standing there leaning against the stop sign. I didn’t think much of it. Out there, there’s always someone walking down the road. It’s pretty safe to offer them a ride. I do. I always carry a couple of guns with me, and anyway, he was half my size and I figured that if he gave me any trouble, I’d just throw his little ass out the window. So, I told him to hop in.
He climbed in. He had to put his feet on the toolbox lying on the floorboard. I didn’t apologize for the mess. Hell, it’s my truck.
“Broke down?” I said. He closed the door. “You got to slam it.”
“No, sir,” he said.
I noticed right off that he didn’t have a backpack or anything. I turned the corner and left the truck in first gear so I didn’t have to use the brakes so much.
“Out for a walk?” I said.
He just smiled. It was kind of a dumb question. I mean, who goes out for a walk and then takes up the offer for a ride?
We coasted down the road for a while. The sound of the engine popping in the exhaust pipe got me to thinking that I needed to give the truck a tune-up. I was past thinking about that and in the middle of thinking about how I needed to take a look at the irrigation pump when I got home when he finally said something.
“Does the radio work?” he said.
“Yep,” I said. We coasted a little more and then he told me to turn it on.
I had been in the mountains for three days, and after a fella’s been up there long enough, he isn’t real keen on hearing a bunch of noise, but I reached over and turned it on for him.
We coasted a little more then he reached over and started trying to find another station, which I didn’t care for much. Hell, it’s my truck, and anyway, KORT is the only station you can get. I told him so.
“I’m trying to get the news,” he said.
“What for?” I said.
“There’s something I need to keep track of,” he said.
I thought that was odd. There he was, out in the middle of nowhere, no backpack, no gun, no nothing, and he tells me that there’s some sort of news he needs to keep track of.
“I never pay attention to it myself,” I said.
“You should,” he said.
Now, that just plain pissed me off. There he was sitting in my truck telling me what I should do. “What the hell for?” I said.
“Because the more you know, the freer you are,” he said.
I laughed at that. “You need to spend some time in the woods. That’s freedom. I go all the time.”
He looked straight at me and smiled one of those smiles as if to say he knew more about me than I knew. I hate that.
“You think so?” he said.
“Hell, yes,” I said. He just looked ahead and didn’t say anything. That pissed me off. “What are you saying, friend?”
I was just about to rip him a new one when all of a sudden, he leaned out the window and banged on the side of my truck. “Look at that!” he said.
Up ahead, there was a pipe jutting out of the side of a hill with water gushing out of it. I usually stopped there on my way down from the mountains. The farmer that owns the place found a spring and punched a pipe through to it so people going by could have something to drink. The water was cold and clean.
“Do you see that?” he said, like he was showing me some sort of spectacle I had never seen before. He banged on the side of my truck. “Pull over.”
Now, I’m not the sort of fella who likes being told what to do, especially when the person doing the telling is riding in my truck by invitation, but I pulled over and set the brake, then he jumped out.
He ran over to the pipe and stuck his hand in the water. He laughed and took a drink. He closed his eyes and stood there for a minute. I tell you, it was nice to see. When a person lives in a place long enough, the magic kind of goes out of it. He takes things for granted, and when I saw him washing his head in that water and heard him laugh, it made me feel good to see someone appreciate it again.
He climbed back in the truck and slammed the door. “That may be the best drink of water I’ve ever had,” he said.
I released the brake and we coasted down the hill.
I started thinking about him saying I wasn’t free again, and he must have seen it, because out of nowhere, he started asking questions.
“Nice load of fire wood,” he said.
“Yep. I go out this time of year and stock up for the winter,” I said.
“You got a permit for it?” he said.
He didn’t look like a forest service guy to me, so I thought maybe he was the kind who ratted on a person. I reached up in the visor and pulled mine out. “Right here,” I said. He didn’t even look at it.
“I noticed you have tags on your license plates,” he said.
“Of course,” I said.
He nodded his head like people do when they’re thinking something about you they don’t want to say out loud.
“Got a license?” he said.
By god, I wasn’t reaching for my wallet so he could see my license. “Yes,” I said.
He just sat there with his knees tucked up by his chest and didn’t say anything after that, which was fine with me.
By the time we got to the bottom of the road it was dark. The lights from the saw mill reflected off the river and the steam clouds from its boilers drifted up in the air like ghosts. I wondered how my buddy Frank was getting along with the new shift supervisor. No one cared much for him. He was a real by-the-book sort of guy. I was glad I was day shift.
I coasted through the stop sign to keep my momentum up, turned onto the bridge, and drove over the tracks into Kamiah. Tammy was standing outside the Pit Stop gas station smoking a cigarette and I honked at her. “That’s Tammy,” I said.
“Shhh,” he said. The ten o’clock news was on and he leaned over closer to the radio like he could hear it better if he did.
“Is there some place you want me to drop you off,” I said.
He held up his hand. “Listen,” he said.
The man on the radio was saying that the authorities thought that the same guy who gunned down a bunch of politicians and bankers was the same guy who set a bank on fire. It was the first I had heard of it.
“Some nut on the loose,” I said. “Now you know why I don’t listen to it. There’s always something like that happening in the big cities.”
“Shush.”
That pissed me off.
When the news was over, he leaned back and closed his eyes.
“Where can I drop you off?” I said.
“Well, it’s late and I need a place to stay for the night. I’ll just stretch out on your couch and take off in the morning,” he said.
I didn’t like that idea. “No,” I said.
“I don’t have anywhere else to go,” he said.
I thought about it. It was late, and there wasn’t much of a chance of him catching a ride to wherever he was going, and he didn’t have anything, so, I decided to let him stay for the night.
“My name’s Davy James,” I said.
We pulled up to my house and went inside. The first thing he did was go straight to the refrigerator and got himself a beer. He twisted the top off and guzzled it down, then went back to the refrigerator and made himself a bologna sandwich and inhaled that. Then, he flopped down on the couch. “Get me a pillow and a blanket, he said.
I had just about had it with his attitude and should have said something, but it was late and I was dog tired, so I figured it was best just to get the damn pillows for him and go to bed.
He kicked off his shoes and stretched out on the couch. “I’ll be gone in the morning,” he said.
Sure enough, the next morning when I got up, he was gone. The blanket was on the floor, the beer bottle was on the counter along with the bologna, bread, cheese and mayonnaise, the knife he used to spread the mayonnaise with was still in the sink, unwashed. I was glad he was gone and told myself I wasn’t giving out free rides to anybody, anymore.
I got the coffee and a filter out of the cabinet above the coffee maker and that’s when I noticed the letter laying on the counter. I thought the guy had left me a thank you note, but then I read it.
Davy James,
You’re not a free man, you’re a slave. Don’t feel bad, though. You’re just too stupid to know it. Most people are. Yesterday, when you gave me a ride, I asked if you had a permit for the wood. You pulled the permit down and showed it to me. I saw that you had tags on your plates and I asked if you had a driver’s license and you told me you did, like it was any of my damn business. I banged on the side of your truck and you didn’t even say anything. I banged on it again and told you to pull over, and you did. I told you to be quiet so I could hear the radio and you shut up. I told you I was going to sleep in your house and you let me. I told you to get me a pillow and you did. I controlled your life from the second you picked me up—AND YOU LET ME!–a perfect stranger.
You’re not a free man, Davy James. You’re a slave. Strangers, from Washington D.C., from Boise, from the side of the road tell you what to do, and you do it. They take your money out of your paycheck before you even see it, they force you to buy permission from them to get the wood that will keep you from freezing to death in the winter, they make you pay them so you can drive down the road to get where you need to go. Hell, I walked into your own house and without so much as asking, ate your food and drank your beer and left nothing but a mess and you didn’t even know my name.
I’m going to tell you to do one last thing, and I know you’ll do it. Turn the T.V. on and watch the news.
Andrew McDay
That really pissed me off. He took advantage of my kindness and generosity and abused it. I stomped into the living room, grabbed the remote, and switched the TV on. There was Andy’s picture, as big as life. The news reporter said he was the one who shot the politicians and burned down the bank.
I jumped across the room to the phone. I was going to turn him in. He was a crazy killer. And I let him in my house. A person can’t go around killing and burning. Sure, it was politicians and bankers he killed, and nobody cares about them, but you can’t just go around killing them.
I was just about to dial 911, but it suddenly got as clear as if I had just opened my eyes and rolled out of bed for the first time in my life. I kicked the blanket he left on the floor out of the way and sank down on the couch. I put my head in my hands. I hated what I knew.
I was a slave.
Obama takes Illinois Mistakes Nationwide
by Phyllis Schlafley
“Unsustainable” is a scary word that recently entered political discourse, coming authoritatively from Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Director Douglas Elmendorf. Unsustainability is the operative moniker for Barack Obama’s massive deficit spending, which Elmendorf said “cannot be solved through minor tinkering.”
The CBO predicts an increase in our public debt from $7.5 trillion at the end of 2009 to $20.3 trillion at the end of 2020 if Obama’s fiscal 2011 budget is implemented. As a percentage of gross domestic product, the debt will rise from 53 percent to 90 percent.
Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND) sharpened the focus by asking the CBO Director: “What’s going to be necessary [is] either a 25 percent increase in taxes or a 20 percent reduction in spending, or some combination thereof. Is that correct?” Elmendorf replied “yes.”
Americans are beginning to wonder if Greece is the picture of America’s future. But we need look no further than the place where Obama and his team were trained in community organizing and bully tactics to redistribute the wealth: Illinois.
Illinois was the stomping ground for years for Obama, his top advisers Rahm Emanuel, Valerie Jarrett and David Axelrod, and his appointees such as Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. After they promoted themselves to Washington to run the country, other Obama associates who didn’t make the cut continued to run Illinois into the ground as the Illinois unemployment rate jumped from less than 5 percent to nearly 11 percent.
For years, we thought California was the most fiscally irresponsible of all 50 states, but Illinois has now taken the lead. A lengthy news article in the New York Times was headlined: “Illinois Stops Paying Its Bills, but Can’t Stop Digging Hole.”
Under years of Democratic leadership, Illinois has refused to honor its obligations, cut its spending, or trim its shockingly large deficit, which at $12 billion per year approaches nearly half its annual budget. As a result, Illinois’ credit rating has been downgraded and it pays a massive amount in interest on its loans.
That’s like a family making $50,000 but spending $75,000 each year. Obviously, it won’t take long before such a family would lose everything it has.
The big-majority Democratic state legislature, defying Illinois’ balanced-budget law, has been passing deficit budgets for years. The new definition of a liberal is no longer tax-and-spend; it’s borrow-and-spend.
It’s no surprise that unemployment keep increasing, and the reason why the rate isn’t higher than we are told is that the government has stopped counting people who have given up looking for a job. Employers are not hiring because taxes and regulations are expected to rise.
Starting January 1, 28 million middle Americans will be socked with a massive Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) which Republicans had eliminated. That’s a “gotcha” which penalizes taxpayers in ways they never expect, adding big tax penalties based on an “alternative” way of calculating taxes due.
Upper-income Americans will see a big jump in their marginal tax rates. Their accountants are already telling them that the more they work, the less additional money they will take home, so they may be already slowing down, canceling investments, or retiring to draw Social Security.
Hardworking parents who are saving for their children’s future will be hit by the reinstatement of the massive “death tax” on January 1. They may wonder why they work hard and save if their money will go to Uncle Sam and to people who choose not to work.
Marriage penalties will hit couples hard, both in the income tax law and in Obamacare. Obama’s financial favoritism toward unmarried women, his second biggest voting bloc, has become common knowledge.
Those who choose to control their own health care through Health Savings Accounts will be slapped with new taxes. That’s just one more way to promote Obama’s goal of moving all health care to government control.
Employers are not hiring because they know they will soon be paying not only higher taxes but also more health care costs or penalties. Depreciation allowances for investment in equipment will be lowered from $250,000 to $25,000, which means businesses will do less investing.
Our ability to compete in the marketplace, of course, depends on our advanced research and development. New taxes will hit R&D hard, which means more slowdowns and more outsourcing overseas.
The expiration of the Republican tax cuts will impose the largest tax hikes in history, affecting all taxpayers. The nearly 50 percent who pay no taxes will also be hurt by more loss of jobs.
There is only one antidote for these depressing prognostications. On November 2, American voters will have the chance to choose real change from Obama’s failed Illinois borrow-and-spend policies by electing Republicans who commit to extend the expiring tax cuts.
What’s New in the Gun Industry
by Alex Ouligian
The S&W SD Series
This past May, Smith & Wesson introduced a new pistol series called “Self Defense” (SD), which includes the new SD9 and SD40 firearms. They are both semi-automatic and are priced at $530. Check out new SD series here.
The Henry Repeating Arms Golden Boy “Military Service” Tribute Edition
Building on the praise of their original Golden Boy rifle, Henry has created a special edition that celebrates the distinguished service of our men and women in uniform. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of each of these rifles will be donated to The American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Wounded Warrior Project and the Fisher House for military families. It can be found here.
The M-223 Riflescopes for AR Rifles
Nikon has incorporated the latest sight technologies in its M-223 line; Nikon dubs it “The New M-223 with Ballistically Matched Technology.” Here it is.
The Taurus 24/7 G2
This pistol possesses “contoured thumb rests, a new trigger safety, and balanced spring pressure for extraordinary fast shooting.” Sign me up! The Taurus 24/7 G2 can be found here.
2010 Kimber Pistols and Rifles
Kimber has a line-up of specialized .45s and two new rifles, the Model 84L Classic and the Model 8400 Patrol. The showroom can be found here.
22LR Side Cocking Mini Pistol with Scope Mount & 5″ Threaded Barrel (MPA22SST-A)
This new semi-automatic gun is the newest version of the MAC handgun. The sights are good and the trigger is encased in a polymer tube to minimize trigger slap. Check it out here.
Bushmaster .308 Optics Ready Carbine
The new Bushmaster .308 O.R.C. is specifically designed to add third party optics. The 16-inch barrel is lined with chrome to improve performance and maintenance. It can be found here.
Bushmaster MOE M4-Type Carbine
Bushmaster calls it the “#1 AR-Style Rifle in America.” It has a collapsible stock, a pistol grip, and a polymer hand guard. Included are a MBUS rear flip sight and PMAG. Find it here.
Bushmaster A-TACS M4-Type Carbine
This one is camouflaged and features an A2 “Birdcage” type suppressor. It is a gas operated semi-automatic and has a magazine capacity of 30 rounds. It can be found here.
Sanctuary Cities: Dangerous & Deadly
by Connie Hair
The patchwork array of sanctuary cities around the country is leaving dangerous criminal illegal aliens on America’s streets.
Local municipalities in these sanctuary cities prevent their officials from reporting illegals—even those with criminal records—to Immigrations and Customs enforcement (ICE), and it is costing American lives.
Sanctuary cities are against the law. In fact they violate two federal statutes.
“The case against sanctuary cities is very straightforward,” Kris Kobach, principal author of the Arizona SB 1070 enforcement law told HUMAN EVENTS in an exclusive interview. “There are two laws that Congress passed in 1996 that expressly forbid sanctuary cities and they are found at Title 8 Section 1373 and Title 8 Section 1644 of the U.S. Code. Those statutes say in plain English that a city may not have a policy that prohibits its officers from communicating with the federal government about a person’s immigration status.”
There are numerous cities around the country that are clearly and flagrantly violating those terms of federal law. The Obama Justice Department doesn’t see these deadly sanctuary cities as a threat to public safety. They instead choose to spend taxpayer dollars suing Arizona for enforcing federal statutes.
“There is a big difference between a state or locality saying they are not going to use their resources to enforce a federal law, as so-called sanctuary cities have done, and a state passing its own immigration policy that actively interferes with federal law,” Tracy Schmaler, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Eric Holder, told The Washington Times.
Yet Kobach, a law professor and immigration law specialist holding degrees from Harvard, Oxford and Yale, said it’s the sanctuary cities that are illegal, not the Arizona law.
Kobach said the Justice Department is hard-pressed to find an argument to try the Arizona enforcement law in court.
“The federal government makes a very tenuous argument in its briefs that the reason it’s going after Arizona is that it wants to see the uniform application of federal immigration law across the country,” Kobach said. “The irony is that the Obama Administration is turning a blind eye to sanctuary cities which actually impair the uniform application of the law.”
Kobach points out the Arizona law will remove sanctuary cities in the state to achieve the very uniformity of federal law enforcement sought in the lawsuit.
“Arizona is not creating a new immigration regime. Arizona is merely insuring that federal immigration laws are actually enforced across the state. One critical provision of the Arizona statute actually removes sanctuary cities within Arizona which would bring about the more uniform application of the law that the Obama Administration claims it’s interested in seeking,” Kobach said.
San Francisco is one such deadly sanctuary city. In May of 2008, Anthony Bologna, a 48-year-old man driving home from a family outing, was murdered—along with two of his sons—by an El Salvadoran MS-13 gang member.
“Edwin Ramos was an illegal alien gang member of Mara Salvatrucha-13 who had been arrested by the San Francisco police on three occasions but because of the City of San Francisco’s sanctuary policy he was released on each time and no phone call was ever made to ICE,” said Kobach, who serves as legal counsel to surviving family members. “A few months after the third release, Edwin Ramos murdered Anthony, Michael and Matthew Bologna as they were sitting in their family car on the way back from a picnic after church. This was such an absolutely horrific murder that would not have happened if the San Francisco Police Department had picked up the phone and called ICE on one of those three occasions.”
“Many of the San Francisco Police Department officers would have loved to do so,” Kobach added. “They know that the sanctuary policy tied their hands but as a result of San Francisco’s sanctuary policy Anthony, Michael and Matthew are no longer with us.”
Kobach says ignoring the sanctuary cities shows the Obama Administration has misplaced priorities when it comes to public safety.
“San Francisco’s not the only place where sanctuary cities have resulted in the murder of somebody when that murder could have been stopped had the sanctuary city policy had been removed. This is happening all across the country and you have people in Washington, D.C., specifically in the Obama Justice Department and in the White House who are turning a blind eye to the carnage on our streets that is caused by sanctuary cities,” Kobach said.
“They would rather go after Arizona with taxpayer dollars when Arizona is simply trying to help the federal government enforce federal law. The sort of help that Arizona is providing is well established and fully sustained in the judicial precedence of the U.S. Courts of Appeals,” Kobach added.
Philosophy of Liberty
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