Earlier this week, the Denver office of the FBI sent out flyers to various Army/Navy surplus shops in Colorado to warn them of - and I quote - "Potential Indicators of Terrorist Activities Related to Military Surplus Stores". It was a very helpful document, with boldly lettered column headers and clearly bulleted examples to help the proprietor perform his duty as a citizen.
In case you were wondering, the section entitled What Should I Consider Suspicious? included such "suspicious" flags as people who: demand identity "privacy" (seriously - the word was in quotes); insist on paying with cash; make comments that are violent or appear to condone violence; make anti-US comments; make bulk purchases of items such as MREs and weatherproof matches. The What Should I Do? section included recommendations to require valid ID from all new customers, record all purchases, "talk to customers, ask questions and listen to and observe their responses" (in some circles, that's called "soft interrogation skills") and make note of suspicious statements, persons and vehicles. Of course, it also included a stern and bolded warning to not be a hero! Just call the authorities. They're looking out for you.
Oh, yeah. On the veeerrrrry bottom of the page, in teeeeeny-tiny italicized font, there was a blurb about how such purchases could just be a perfectly legitimate exercise of citizens' Constitutional rights. You know - to keep the kooks happy. Lovely.
Okay, now I'm going to drop the sarcastic wiseass routine (for a minute or two, anyway) and vent a little. On the face of things, I get it. People can do a lot of innocent and legal things while preparing to do something not-so-innocent and legal. Look at Timothy McVeigh. But planting the mental suggestion that paying in cash, not thinking you should produce ID to buy freeze-dried food and/or camping matches and/or asking aloud, "Has our government lost its collective freaking mind?!? Somebody needs to get his or her ass kicked for this!" makes one a potential terrorist is offensive, divisive and just plain horseshit, especially given that FEMA itself has been running a years-long "preparedness" campaign. Check out their "ready.gov" website on which they recommend that citizens stock up on items such as... um... a "three-day supply of non-perishable food" and "matches in a waterproof container".
Apparently, someone should report FEMA to the FBI....
Of course, this shouldn't come as any surprise. This is just one more bit of asinine buffoonery which would be comical except for the fact that it costs us all money and underscores the contempt for which our own government holds its citizens, our Constitution and, frankly, common sense.
After Rick Santelli's February 2009 on-air rant in which he called for a modern day tea party to protest out of control government spending, grassroots protests started popping up around the nation. In keeping with the historical taxation theme, many symbols and accoutrements of Colonial American began to surface and the Gadsden flag, which first entered American history in 1775 as adornments of the then-new Naval Marines, became a common standard. It is now the de facto symbol of the Tea Party movement, which - contrary to most distortions by most every media outlet - is comprised of average Americans looking for the government to do less for them and intrude less upon them.
Obviously, this line of thinking is dangerous. And so, in April 2009 (coincidentally, precisely when I attended my first Tea Party rally in Loveland, CO), the Department of Homeland Security released a report on "rightwing extremist activity," warning law enforcement to be on the lookout for white-power militia resurgence and violence. They then tacked on an adjustment to the definition - "rightwing extremism in the United States", it seems, did not just include "racist or hate groups, but also groups that reject federal authority in favor of state or local authority." Wanna guess what appeared in the list of potential "militia symbols"? Yeah. The Gadsden flag. Apparently being a tea party member and/or critical of the government (especially if you were a returning veteran, according to the report) puts you on the same level as the KKK or Aryan Nation in the eyes of the tools at the taxpayer-funded DHS.
Now, somewhere between Janet Napolitano making "extremists" out of people who don't want to be bled dry for wasteful spending and the FBI turning campers, hunters and people taking FEMA's advice into "potential terrorists", we had the ATF's "Operation Fast and Furious/Project Gunrunner" fiasco.
For months, our media had been lamenting how "America's loose gun laws" were to blame for Mexico's violence (which makes about as much sense as blaming crack addiction on Bic lighters) and the Left was again calling for gun control. The problem was, gun control legislation had been a losing proposition and more Americans were realizing that, with forty-nine states allowing concealed carry (thirty-eight of them being "shall issue", meaning you don't need to convince some functionary that you "need" it) and no streets awash with blood from the Old West shootouts the Democrats repeatedly vowed would occur, the old arguments were mostly bullshit. Still, squawked the press, "ninety percent of guns seized in Mexico came from American gun stores"
Again, bullshit. It turned out that "ninety percent" of guns seized by Mexico and turned over to the ATF for tracing had "U.S. origins". Funny, that phrase. The actual number worked out to somewhere around sixteen percent and, unsurprisingly to the American shooting community, it turns out that the grenades, rocket launchers and fully-automatic weapons were coming from deserters from the Mexican military (armed to a large percentage with ordnance provided by the U.S. State Department), seized military and police armories and, frankly, battlefield pickups rather than "Joe's Guns" on the Texas border.
An interesting and tin-foily side note: President Obama assured gun control groups that he was working on things "under the radar". I can't help but wonder....
Anyway, Fast & Furious was exposed when Border Patrol agent Brian Terry was murdered by border smugglers using "F&F" firearms. I'm just now beginning to hear about this in the media but calls for answers have been going on since at least January. The short version is that ATF-Phoenix had been telling border state FFLs, against their objections, to sell to known straw purchasers working for the Mexican drug cartels and even approving federally-mandated background checks for the sales. There was no "sting". There was no physical surveillance. They just told the dealers, "Shut up and sell them the guns."
When the outcry over Agent Terry's death prompted Congressional questioning, the response was contemptuous stonewalling (you should see some of the arrogant response to Congress from the ATF higher-ups). The FFLs themselves came forward with emails they'd sent to the DoJ, essentially asking, "Seriously?!? You want us to let these scumbags walk out with AK47s?!?" Agents came forward, testifying that they were also told to simply shut up and let it happen. Congressional hearings were - and are being - held. Pressure was applied. The story broke. The details came out including, just this week, that over a thousand of those "walked" guns were sent to U.S. cities, where almost sixty of them have turned up at domestic crime scenes, mostly in Arizona. And the result was... the ATF imposed a new regulatory rule, requiring border state FFLs to report sales of two or more semi-automatic rifles of caliber .22 or larger. Because, according to Deputy AG James Cole, ""Federal, state and foreign law enforcement agencies have determined that certain types of semi-automatic rifles... are highly sought after by dangerous drug trafficking organizations and frequently recovered at violent crime scenes near the Southwest Border."
In other words, the ATF imposed further regulation of American citizens based on a crisis they deliberately and actively created at the expense of American lives.
During testimony, our nation's Attorney General, Eric Holder, testified that he'd only heard of the operation "for the past few weeks". Funny, since the fucking DoJ's own website contains a transcript of Eric Holder's speech in Mexico, bragging about Operation Gunrunner by name and talking about expanding the project - in 2009. I recall reading some Yahoo story about a baseball player Roger Clemens facing perjury charges for lying about "performance enhancing drugs" during Congressional hearings. And yet, somehow, AG Holder gets a walk (if you'll pardon the sports pun).
Sigh. It's also since come out that the State Department was funneling arms to Los Zetas gang members and that ATF Tampa was running a similar "Gunrunner" operation, walking guns to MS-13 in Honduras (if you're unfamiliar with them, Google them - a real fun bunch).
So, just out of curiosity, are you a little shocked? A little outraged? Better not exercise your First Amendment rights about it in an Army/Navy store - you might appear "suspicious".
And it doesn't get much better, really. Last year, the EPA added "farm dust" to particulates it can monitor and regulate. Twenty-one senators have written to the regulatory agency to object to the absurdity and yet the ruling stands. Arizona tried to sue them but appears to have lost the case, though their argument included the fact that there's only one monitoring site that registered "exceedances" and four of them at that. Said site, by the way, "sits just south of the Salt River in an industrial area near Broadway Road and 43rd Avenue… the setting - a dry river bed, a landfill, a sand and gravel operation, a row of industrial machinery lots - almost guarantees high (dust) pollution readings…" And guess what? The location of the monitor is solely controlled by the EPA.
Further, today's headlines advised me that the DHS will halt deportation proceedings on a case-by-case basis against illegal immigrants who meet certain criteria such as attending school, having family in the military or are primarily responsible for other family members’ care....The chief beneficiaries of the new guidance are likely to be illegal immigrant students who would have been eligible for legal status under the Dream Act, which stalled in Congress last year."
So, in other words, legislation that was rejected by our supposed representatives is getting jammed into place through regulatory action. Again. Like gun control to address non-existent problems. Like environmental standards that are killing family farms and small business. Like official flyers casting suspicion on fellow citizens without justification.
Yeah.
Drop me a line if you want me to pick up some matches or MREs for you. You can pay me back in cash.
- Keith
No comments:
Post a Comment