...In others news a bloated beached whale was spotted wearing George Soro's escort

FreeBeacon.com

A secretive network of left-wing billionaires and their political operatives descended on the luxurious Biltmore Hotel in Miami over the weekend to discuss strategy for the coming elections.

The location of the conference had been kept a closely guarded secret by the members and guests of Democracy Alliance (DA), a collection of ultra-wealthy liberal donors formed in 2005, and is reported here in a Washington Free Beacon exclusive.

Attendees roamed the grounds at the 150-acre tropical resort on their way to cocktail gatherings, salsa dance lessons, and workshops such as “Occupy the Voting Booth” and “The 1 Percent Rule.” Local police guarded entrances as members attended a “partners only” meeting in the hotel’s Country Club Courtyard.

“Name badges must be worn at all times,” attendees were informed.

A Free Beacon reporter who tried to attend the conference after-party was intercepted by Alexandra Visher, the DA’s vice president of partner engagement and communications.

“These are individuals of considerable means” who often support policies that run contrary to their own interests, Visher said, as she escorted the reporter out of the party.

Earlier, the Free Beacon reporter was approached by a plain-clothes police officer who said taking pictures of the conference-goers was prohibited. The reporter was not taking pictures at the time.

Asked for an explanation, the officer said, “I can’t talk about it.”

The conference was attended by the biggest names in liberal politics, including billionaire financier George Soros, who has already pledged at least $2 million to pro-Democratic groups this cycle.

The actual amount Soros has contributed may be much higher, according to experts.

Contrary to Visher’s claim, in the past Soros has boasted that he “made many millions” off of similar political philanthropy, “which had at first looked like a fruitless venture.”

Andy Stern, the former president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and frequent White House visitor, lounged by the Biltmore’s “lagoon sized pool.”

DA board member and Soros spokesman Michael Vachon swam laps.

Ari Rabin-Havt, executive vice president of Media Matters for America (MMFA), was overheard speaking to colleagues about his plans for a new MMFA fellowship, and bragging about a phone call he had received from Stephanie Cutter, deputy campaign manager for the Obama re-election team.

Soros publicly contributed $1 million to MMFA in 2010, after years of speculation that he was the group’s primary secret donor.

The Center for American Progress (CAP), a liberal think tank with deep ties to the Obama administration, was also heavily represented. CAP president Neera Tanden joined former Rep. Tom Perriello (D., Va.), president and CEO of the CAP Action Fund, and Van Jones, a senior fellow and former White House green jobs adviser, among others.

Jones did not respond to the Free Beacon’s requests for comment.

The Center for American Progress has been at the forefront of a coordinated campaign to discredit and demonize conservative donors and to demand transparency in political giving.

However, CAP does not disclose its donors, nor does it mention its participation in the Democracy Alliance on its website. Soros pledged an initial $3 million to the organization in 2003.

Perriello was overheard in between sessions talking to other attendees about President Barack Obama’s electoral prospects in Virginia.

“There’s going to be an insane amount of money on the other side, and we’ve seen what that can do in a Congressional [election]” he said, noting that a “gender gap” had opened up in Northern Virginia that may be “very helpful.”

Perriello, who represented Virginia’s Fifth Congressional District from 2009-2011, lost decisively to Republican Robert Hurt in the 2010 election.

When it comes to “insane amounts of money,” however, the Biltmore is hard to beat. Shiny black Maseratis, McLarens, and Jaguars fill the parking lots; exotic finches flutter about the lobby; and the hotel’s luxury spa offers “Antioxidant Foam Wraps” and “Moroccan Oil Scalp Massages” for a rate equivalent to $3 per minute (gratuity not included).

Inside the rooms, which cost as much as $3,000 per night, guests are invited to enjoy $8 bottles of Evian. The accompanying literature features advertisements for private Swiss banks such as E. Gutzwiller & Cie.

Controversial former Rep. Alan Grayson (D., Fla.), who nicknamed his most recent opponent and current congressman Daniel Webster (R., Fla.) “Taliban Dan,” cracked jokes in the elevators.

DA board members such as Steve Phillips, Donald Sussman, and Kelly Craighead, each with connections to major left-leaning political organizations, were less recognizable, but perhaps of equal or greater import.

Phillips, who serves as secretary for the DA, oversees a number of political action committees such as PAC+, which focuses on Latino voters, and PowerPAC.org, a “statewide social justice organization working with community organizations and activists to build political power in California.”

Sussman, a hedge-fund manager who invests in Chinese companies, is married to Rep. Chellie Pingree (D., Maine) and currently serves on the board of CAP.

Another prominent hedge fund manager, Thomas E. Steyer of Farallon Capital Management, also sits on CAP’s board.

Craighead is the DA’s president and managing director. She formerly worked as a “strategic consultant” to liberal groups like MMFA.

Other notable attendees include Cynthia Ryan, a principal at the investment firm Schooner Capital, who has bundled between $200,000 and $500,000 for Obama’s reelection campaign.

The SEIU’s Larry McNeil, identified as a long-time “Saul Alinski organizer” [sic] in one online biography, was there with his wife Anne Bartley, currently a trustee of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and a top contributor to the EMILY’s List Women Vote! PAC.

Sandor Straus, a prominent investment manager who has given at least $115,000 to Democratic candidates and liberal organizations this cycle, and Al Yates, the former Colorado State University president who played a pivotal role in the DA’s formation, were also in attendance.

DA founder emeritus Rob Stein has described the group as a “political investment bank” whose mission is to “balance the market place of ideas and political activism with center-left ideas, messages, and organizing strategy.” Members are required to pay annual dues starting at $30,000 and contribute at least $170,000 per year to recommended groups.

The timing of the conference was significant as the organization is said to be experiencing dissent within its ranks.

“There is heavy debate over whether to fund organizations closely aligned with the Democratic Party or those that operating outside it and pressuring it to move in a more progressive direction,” the Huffington Post’s Ryan Grim recently reported.

The resignation of billionaire insurance magnate Peter Lewis, the chairman of Progressive Insurance and one of the group’s founding members, was one sign of trouble for the organization.

The DA also caused a stir when it decided to stop funding a number of groups that operated outside the explicitly partisan realm of the Democratic Party, such as Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and Third Way, a center-left think thank.

However, at least one Third Way board member, Tim Sweeney of the Denver-based Gill Foundation, was spotted at the conference in Miami.

Groups such as Media Matters and the Center for American Progress, both of which maintain extensive ties to the Obama administration, have retained their favored status within the DA.

Other liberal grassroots organizations that have not been ostracized by the DA include America Votes, the Campaign for Community Change, and Act Blue, a PAC that bills itself as “the online clearinghouse for Democratic Action.”

It is not clear whether any senior administration officials or campaign representatives spoke at the conference.

However, both Vice President Joe Biden and Bill Burton, chairman of the Obama-aligned Priorities USA Super PAC, have addressed secret Democracy Alliance summits in the past.

DA chairman and Big Taco baron Rob McKay, who also sits on the board of Priorities USA, hosted a $35,800-a-head fundraiser for Obama earlier this year.

Visher, the DA spokesperson, told the Free Beacon that the group’s members should be allowed to meet and advance their agenda in private.

She cited the New York Times’ Nicholas Confessore as a reporter whose work was appropriately respectful of the network’s privacy.

Confessore reported last week that the DA was planning to “convene near Miami,” but did not provide additional details such as the exact location of the event or notable invitees.

When contacted by the Free Beacon regarding his reasoning for not reporting such information, Confessore referred us to Eileen Murphy, the Times’ vice president of corporate communications.

“You are getting into a level of detail regarding our reporting and editing process here that we do not typically discuss publicly,” Murphy said in an email. “Sorry I won’t be able to be of much assistance.”

ABC

Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich announced Wednesday he has decided against running for Congress in Washington state, where activists had urged him to launch a campaign. In a statement, Kucinich signaled the end of his 16-year congressional career:

Because of my love of public service, I have given a great deal of time and much thought to the advice and encouragement I have received from so many people of good will in Washington State. I certainly want to continue to be of service to our country and to the working men and women who have built it.

After careful consideration and discussions with Elizabeth and my closest friends, I have decided that, at this time, I can best serve from outside the Congress. My commitments to peace, to workers’ rights and to social and economic justice are constant and are not dependent upon holding an office.

When the outspoken anti-war lawmaker discovered over a year ago that redistricting would pit him against fellow Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur, Kucinich began openly eyeing a Washington state U.S. House bid, saying voters there were asking him to relocate.

But after losing to Kaptur in his home state primary in March, Kucinich now confirms that he will not pursue a congressional bid there or anywhere else.

In his statement Wednesday, Kucinich emphasized the “encouragement” he received in Washington state, but locally there was also much vocal criticism of his flirtation with a possible run.

He was publicly  lambasted there as a “carpetbagger” and openly criticized by state Democratic officials.

“Dennis Kucinich has to decide what his legacy is going to be. Will he be remembered as a principled member of Congress or the narcissist who lost two Congressional races in two states the same year?” Democratic state party chairman Dwight Pelz told the Seattle Times last month.

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BOO!

IJ Review

It has now come out that Edward Klein’s new unauthorized biography of President Obama, “The Amateur,” alleges that Obama was a source of discontentment within the Kennedy family.

Recall that Caroline Kennedy was a very prominent supporter of Barack Obama in his 2008 campaign, going so far as to write in the New York Times, “I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspire them. But for the first time, I believe I have found the man who could be that president – not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans.”

Klein’s alleges those sentiments have changed dramatically since 2008.

Via The Blaze:

“There had always been tensions at Kennedy family gatherings — fist fights and overturned tables were not unheard of — and this event was no exception,” Klein writes in an advanced copy obtained by The Blaze. That “event” was a meeting in 2009, which featured a who’s who in the Kennedy family, including Ted. The family figurehead, a family source tells Klein, tried to propose a toast to Obama twice, and Caroline joined in. But not everyone was happy about it: the night included a finger-pointing argument between Bobby and Ted, and Bobby even got so angry he broke his fluted glass after squeezing it too hard.”

Why is this important now? Klein claims that Caroline has undergone a transformation, and now strongly dislikes Obama. Caroline has allegedly been snubbed by the Obamas several times, bordering on insulting on occasion.

According to a family member who spoke with Klein;

“Through these [spies that the Kennedy family has in the Obama administration] and other people, Caroline heard back that there was a lot of nasty shit being said about the Kennedys by the president and Michelle,” the family member continued. “There were catty remarks about how badly the Kennedy women dressed, and how their houses were shabby and threadbare. Caroline got the impression that most of this negativity was coming from Michelle, who didn’t want the Kennedys to be part of the administration for fear that they would have too much influence over the president.”

The same family member goes on to say that Caroline is “a liberal with a capital L” and was extremely unhappy “when Obama didn’t raise taxes to balance the budget.”

Caroline also was outraged at comparisons between her mother, Jackie, and Michelle Obama. The source from within the family told Klein that “Caroline had a word for such comparisons; she called them ‘odious.’ She really got annoyed….Now she says things about Obama like, ‘I can’t stand to hear his voice any more. He’s a liar and worse.”

Klein’s source told the author that Caroline was frustrated “that as a loyal Democrat, she has nowhere to go, no one else to possibly support except Obama,” while the Obamas know “she has nowhere else to go, so they see no point in being nice to her.”

Klein’s controversial book, ‘The Amateur,’ has been released today (May 15, 2012.)

Let your friends know about the allegations by clicking SHARE below.

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The monopoly privileges don’t stop at the doorstep of government. There are many other organizations that have secured such privileges. The most egregious of these is the central bank of a nation. In the United States of America, this would be equivalent to the Federal Reserve System. This is quite possibly the most abusive central bank ever. It curried favor with the political elite of this nation way back in the early part of the last century and has since worked to draw all the real wealth of the nation to its owners and undermine the stability of the economy and the nation as it slowly sacrifices the very currency it was entrusted to protect.

So, the question becomes, what can be done to hold these institutions accountable? Obviously, “voting the bums out” has not worked. They count the votes and control the electoral process. No wonder they don’t seem to listen to their constituents. Obviously, giving the banks more power and influence over the economy has not worked. They regulate their competition out of business and bail their selves out with money created from nothing. It is up to us to hold these entities accountable. It is up to us to stop relying on the politicians. They aren’t going to do what’s right, they are going to do what benefits their selves, their families and their friends. It is time we started relying on ourselves.

How can we regain self reliance? I believe there are more ways to do that than one can shake the proverbial stick at. I’m not certain which ways will work and which ways won’t, or which ways will work for you and which ways won’t, but there are certain things that can be tried. First off, the monopoly needs to be broken. As long as there is a monopoly, those working for the monopoly know they don’t have to work that hard to provide good costumer service. They know you have no choice. So, it becomes a matter of having more options to choose from.

Allowing for alternative currencies is one way to hold banks accountable. Of course that takes state cooperation. Legal tender laws would have to be repealed. Personally, I think that legal tender laws should be repealed. As a business, I shouldn’t be forced to take some piece of paper in exchange for a product or service if I didn’t want to take that particular piece of paper, but if I don’t take FRNs (Federal Reserve Notes) in this nation I can be arrested.

The point is, I doubt very much that legal tender laws are going to be repealed anytime soon unless there’s a quantum shift in the way people view such laws. Even then, it will be very difficult to get the politicians to do the right thing, especially if they are getting money and power from the very institutions that need to be reigned in. In order to create the quantum shift, regular, everyday people are going to have to get involved. Those who can need to start setting up alternative currency systems and others are going to have to start using such systems.

Once the political and banking classes are left out of the loop, they suddenly sit up and start to take notice. The strange thing is, it really doesn’t take much for them to notice. Take the example of the Liberty Dollar. Even though the total amount of liberty dollars confiscated by the government was mere millions, it’s growing popularity was enough of a threat to the Federal Reserve monopoly that they felt they needed to put an end to it and send a message to anyone who would try to use precious metals as an alternative to their money. They certainly don’t want a growing, thriving underground economy going on when they’re not getting a piece of it.

I’m not an advocate of the gold standard, or even a silver or copper standard. I’m not an advocate of government issued paper money either, but any of those things would be better than what we have. At least if the government issued interest free money we wouldn’t have a national debt to pay off. At least if we had some sort of standard based on an actual commodity rather than debt we’d have some kind of check on uncontrolled borrowing and run away inflation. The problem with all those systems is that they all maintain a monopoly on currency creation. When there is such a monopoly someone will always learn to play the system, so to speak, they will always find a way to manipulate the system to their benefit and the detriment of most everyone else. There will always be people who will be able to use such monopolies to their own benefit and will remain unaccountable because of their monopoly power.

Another obstacle to holding the banksters accountable is the practice of fractional reserve banking. This practice allows those with the money to create debt that is ten times more, and higher, than the amount of money actually available. It ensures that debt will never be paid off. Think about indebtedness for a second. Is it not akin to slavery? Does it not give people a certain leverage over you? As we have seen recently, the banksters have used it to threaten us with economic ruin if they did not get bailed out and paid off. They are completely unaccountable for their mistakes.

Fractional reserve banking is fraudulent, in my opinion, and obviously so. Threats of economic ruin are little different than threats from the mafia to a small businessman that refuses to pay his protection money. These folks should be held accountable for their fraudulent and extortionist practices. The problem is, the courts are another government monopoly and the government is owned by the banksters and their corporate companions. They are not going to hold themselves accountable. They are not going to prosecute themselves. The best we’ll get is a “oops, my bad. Too bad, so sad” and they walk away with all the wealth, power and influence.

Holding government officials and agents accountable might be even more difficult than holding the central bankers accountable. They are granted the privilege of something called immunity. Even though for many it’s supposed to be limited immunity in many cases the sky is the limit. For instance, a law enforcement officer who does something wrong might have his department sued successfully, but he won’t have to pay one dime to his victim(s) from his pocket. Instead, the tax payers he’s supposed to serve are left holding the bag. It’s that kind of unaccountability that angers people.

While it might be a little more difficult to break up the monopoly of “legitimate” force the government enjoys than it would be to allow competition in currency, we can at least demand the repeal of immunity laws. No government official or agent of the state should be allowed immunity to wrong doing. I would personally like to see citizen courts set up which adhere to common law and present legal cases vigorously by both defense and prosecution even if the government official or agent refuses to take part. Sometimes, just exposure and shining the light on corruption is enough to shame these people into changing their behavior for the better.

Holding these people and institutions accountable is not going to be an easy endeavor. They have spent decades erecting the systems that protect them. They are not going to give up their power and privilege easily. They have no problem using force and will even resort to murder and assassination if they feel their privileges are threatened, let alone if they think they might end up in prison. It is important to first remove the aura of legitimacy that they emit. Fortunately, this seems to be happening. The obvious injustice and abuse of the bailouts may have been a step too far. People are learning and accepting the corruption. People are standing up and saying no more. Moving forward, the collapse of the facade of legitimacy the privileged elite has built might come sooner and faster than one would imagine so long as we continue to work toward this goal.

My archives can be found at my website szandorblestman.com. Please visit there to read more and support me by making a donation.

The wait is finally over. I am overjoyed to announce that, after 16 years, “The Legacy of the Tareks; book 2 of The Black Blade Trilogy,” has finally been released as an ebook. Get yours today! It is also available at Sony, Kobo, and Diesel. For those of you who have not yet read “The Colors of Elberia; book 1 of The Black Blade trilogy” it is still available at smashwords, Sony and Diesel. Here is a list of my works by Matthew Wayne at different web retailers for your convenience. “The Edge of Sanity” at smashwords, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Sony, and Diesel. “The Ouijiers” at smashwords, Barnes and Noble, Kobo and Diesel. Here are links to my book “The Blessings of Freedom, Creating Prosperity in the 21st Century” serialized version: Chapter 1. Chapter 2 and chapters 3 and 4. I thank you for your support.

Haaretz

Iceland’s parliament voted on Tuesday in favor of recognizing the Palestinian Territories as an independent state, the first Western European country to do so according Iceland’s foreign minister. The measure passed symbolically on the United Nation’s annual day of solidarity with the Palestinian people.

The vote paves the way for formal recognition by the small north Atlantic island, which led the way in recognizing the independence of the three Baltic states after the collapse of the former Soviet Union in 1991.

“Iceland is the first Western European country to take this step,” Foreign Minister Ossur Skarphedinsson told Icelandic state broadcaster RUV. “I now have the formal authority to declare our recognition of Palestine.”

Palestinian UN observer Riyad Mansour read a message from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas at UN headquarters on the occasion of the day of solidarity with the Palestinian people. He reaffirmed the Palestinian’s bid for UN membership, saying it should complement peace negotiations, provided that Israel is prepared to negotiate on the basis of the 1967 borders.

Abbas said the Palestinians are not seeking “to delegitimize Israel” by applying to join the UN “but to delegitimize its settlement activities and the seizure of our occupied lands.” He added that sanctions imposed on them by Israel because the Palestinians won membership in UNESCO are “unjust” and that Israel has no right to withhold their customs and tax revenues.

The Icelandic parliament resolution allowing for the recognition of a Palestinian state within the pre-Six Day War borders of 1967 was decided by 38 votes in the 63-seat.

“At the same time, parliament urges Israelis and Palestinians to seek a peace agreement on the basis of international law and UN resolutions, which include the mutual recognition of the state of Israel and the state of Palestine,” said the resolution, proposed by the Icelandic foreign minister.

It also called on all sides to cease any violence and recalled the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes.

Iceland’s recognition, however, is expected to amount to a little more than symbolic step as the Palestinian Authority strives to get United Nations recognition. Its quest for a seat at the international body has so far failed.

ALSO:

WASHINGTON – Just days after President Barack Obama came out in support of same sex marriage, several gay rights organizations in the nation’s capital were evacuated after a bomb threat.

Four locations were threatened, the Metropolitan Police Department Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit headquarters, the Human Rights Campaign headquarters, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce.

Police evacuated and searched the buildings before the all-clear was given.

A police spokesperson says one of the threats came through the Los Angeles Police Department.

The LAPD issued the following statement:

“Earlier this am our LAPD 911 dispatch got call from a caller who says he was going to blow up LGBT bldg in DC. They got call about 8am PST. We imediately got in contact with MPD to advise of the threat. We also started an investigation into the threat. It looks like the call came from local (LA) pay phone. As of 1230 PDT no additional evidence was found to validate the threat. The investigation is ongoing. We will continue to coordinate with MPD. LGBT authorities were also notified by MPD, and they’ve taken measures to ensure the safety of their employees.”

It is not known at this time how the other threats were made.

Great metaphor for the global economy... Limp and impotent

NBC

The NBC Investigative Unit has raised questions about two grants totaling nearly $1.5 million dollars distributed to the University of California San Francisco. The money was part of the federal stimulus program and went to studies into the erectile dysfunction of overweight middle aged men and the accurate reporting of someone’s sexual history.

This is part of our ongoing series of investigations by the NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit into who got federal stimulus dollars, and why some projects did not break ground more than two years after receiving the grant.

The Investigative Unit looked closely at the federal government’s decision to spend nearly $1.5 million dollars of taxpayer money, money that came here to California. Grant number 1R01HD056950-01A2 was among the thousands of grants funded, receiving $1.2 million dollars. This grant studied how to improve the accuracy of how people responded to questions about their sexual history.

“If you honestly report on your sexual activity and number of partners?” Scott Amey with asked with a sigh. “That’s a good one.”

Amey is the general council for  POGO, the Project on Government Oversight, a Washington D.C. nonpartisan non-profit government watchdog group. During our interview with an NBC crew he tried to explain why the government used that many tax dollars to improve self reports about high risk sexual behavior.

“I don’t think most tax payers would think that would be a justified spending of stimulus money to conduct a sex study over fixing bridges and roads that are crumbling every day,” Amey added.

NBC Bay Area talked to the University of California San Francisco, the institution that received the grant. “Does it make you wonder a little bit, stimulus money for a study like this?” Kovaleski asked Jeff Sheehy, who works at the UCSF Aids Research Center. “No it doesn’t,” he answered. “Because to my mind we save money if we get better health outcomes.”

According to the grant, a good portion of the study will “Improve the accuracy of responses to questions,” specifically questions about a person’s sexual behavior. “Playing devil’s advocate,” Kovaleski said to Sheehy, “Do taxpayers need to spend $1.2 million dollars to figure this out?”"The judgment wasn’t one that I was asked,” Sheehy replied.

The NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit discovered that for $1.2 million dollars, taxpayers funded a study that included 200 videotaped interviews at $6000 per interview. Kovaleski asked Sheehy to justify the spending. “I think the average person is going to look at $1.2 million dollars to interview 200 people and say Wow!” Sheehy defended the study. “I understand people could look at it and have issues but this is research,” he said.

Kovaleski then asked about jobs. “How many jobs did this $1.26 million dollars create?” “Well I can’t really say,” Sheehy said. “There were eleven researchers hired on the job, two consultants. Well I can’t say. This has not been evaluated for job creation.”

The number Sheehy quoted during an interview with NBC Bay Area did not match information on recovery.gov, the government’s website for stimulus funds. According to the site, the grant produced 0.85 jobs. “It does make you scratch your head and wonder,” Amey said, “Wait a second taxpayer dollars went to a sex study that barely funded less than one person.”

Amey was also left questioning another UCSF grant. When asked by an NBC reporter about a study into erectile dysfunction involving overweight middle aged men he replied, “Oh boy.”

The grant totaled more than a quarter million dollars. Although UCSF was willing to discuss our questions about the sexual history grant, the University declined to provide an expert to talk with the NBC Investigative Unit about the erectile dysfunction grant. In a written statement provided they said in part, “Obesity related health issues currently cost $147 Billion per year in direct medical costs in the United States….. Health providers therefore continue to search for incentives to encourage people to live a healthier lifestyle, to benefit both indviduals and society…. Preliminary analysis indicates that is is feasible to enroll men in this type of research, they successfully lose the expected weight over a 12-week period, and they see an improvement in ED symptoms.” You can read the entire statement by clicking here.

Click here to see the high risk sexual behavior grant

Click here to see the erectile dysfunction grant

If you have any other examples of questionable stimulus spending, we want to know. Call us at 1-888-996-TIPS (8477) or email theunit@nbcbayarea.com

How far will you let this go?

LOS ANGELES (CBS) — Surveillance aircraft used by the U.S. military overseas could soon be coming to the skies above Los Angeles County.

KNX 1070′s Charles Feldman reports the Federal Aviation Administration is making it easier for local law enforcement agencies to fly unmanned drones.

The FAA has streamlined the process that would allow agencies to fly smaller, unarmed versions of the drones that hunt down terrorists in places such as Pakistan and Afghanistan.

While the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has not yet applied for an application to fly drones over our skies, its Homeland Security chief Bob Osborne said drones could be in the department’s future — with some caveats.

“We have so much congestion in the skies that I would anticipate that there would be some pretty rigid safety standards,” said Osborne.

Drones are typically used over locations where helicopters and fixed wing aircraft are unable to fly, which Osborne said could have a myriad of applications here in the Southland.

“Mountain rescue, where you have a car over the side that’s a thousand feet down the cliff, oftentimes our aircraft can’t fly that low,” he said. “It would be wonderful to know what’s down there before we send a rescue crew.”

Federal officials already utilize drones to patrol a 1,200-mile wide swath of land east of San Diego near the southeast California border.

But the recent expansion of drones and other unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) above American cities has raised privacy concerns among some who believe the technology could be used for surveillance on U.S. citizens without their knowledge.

President Obama set a deadline in February for the FAA to draft legislation by May 14 that would determine how it will regulate the use of lightweight drones by police and other public safety agencies.

... From Cradle to Grave?

By Alex Thomas
theintelhub.com
May 15, 2012

A series of documents released through a Freedom of Information Act submitted by the Electronic Freedom Foundation shows that homeland security plans to collect data from children, possibly younger than 14.

The documents appear to show the DHS planning to line up with existing regulations put out by the DOJ which already call for the collection of all arrested citizens over age 14.

An article published by the EFF after they received the documents, details the plans and the slippery slope we now find ourselves in.

The proposal appears to be working its way through DHS in the wake of regulations from the Department of Justice that require all federal agencies—including DHS and its components such as ICE—to collect DNA from individuals arrested for federal crimes as well as “from non-United States persons who are detained under the authority of the United States,” whether or not they have been involved in criminal activity.

While the law specifically exempts a few classes of “aliens,” the documents we received show DHS may start DNA collection from anyone it fingerprints.  Currently, that’s any child over 14 who’s detained, but we also found records that show ICE could lower that age even more.

DHS estimates that as many as 1 million people who are subject to administrative detention or arrest annually could now be subject to DNA collection.  But it’s important to note that many of these people are not involved in criminal activity.

Collecting DNA from anyone detained by the government for any number of non-criminal reasons—especially juveniles—seems to be yet another step on the slippery slope to collecting DNA from everyone in the United States, no matter their status.

Shifting through the documents, it soon became clear that homeland security may actually already be carrying out DNA collection of American children under a pilot program that was scheduled to start in 2010.

When the DOJ expanded its DNA collection regulations in 2009, it specifically required agencies to collect DNA from all populations they fingerprint.

DHS regulations allow the agency to collect biometrics from aliens coming into the US who are 14 and older, so DHS can currently collect DNA from kids this age as well. However, the agency may also be considering collecting biometrics from kids younger than 14.

A slide presentation from March 2011, titled “Working Group on Expanding the Biometric Age Range” notes that some DHS programs are already collecting biometrics from kids younger than 14 and proposes expanding the age range for more DHS entities (including ICE).

Because of the DOJ regulations, this would mean that DHS could collect DNA even from very young kids.

These collection practices seem to be another form of the police state takeover currently headed up by DHS, with plans to fully takeover and control the American people in the very near future.

As the EFF noted in their article, DHS is far from the only agency collecting DNA, essentially the entire U.S. government is collecting our DNA at startling levels that in the past would be considered a conspiracy theory.

Read MORE

Can't we all just get along?

National Review

When two white newspaper reporters for the Virginian-Pilot were driving through Norfolk, and were set upon and beaten by a mob of young blacks — beaten so badly that they had to take a week off from work — that might sound like news that should have been reported, at least by their own newspaper. But it wasn’t.

The O’Reilly Factor on Fox News Channel was the first major television program to report this incident. Yet this story is not just a Norfolk story, either in what happened or in how the media and the authorities have tried to sweep it under the rug.

Similar episodes of unprovoked violence by young black gangs against white people chosen at random on beaches, in shopping malls, or in other public places have occurred in Philadelphia, New York, Denver, Chicago, Cleveland, Washington, Los Angeles, and other places across the country. Both the authorities and the media tend to try to sweep these episodes under the rug.

In Milwaukee, for example, an attack on whites at a public park a few years ago left many of the victims battered to the ground and bloody. But when the police arrived on the scene, it became clear that the authorities wanted to keep this quiet.

One 22-year-old woman, who had been robbed of her cell phone and debit card, and had blood streaming down her face, said, “About 20 of us stayed to give statements and make sure everyone was accounted for. The police wouldn’t listen to us, they wouldn’t take our names or statements. They told us to leave. It was completely infuriating.”

The police chief seemed determined to head off any suggestion that this was a racially motivated attack by saying that crime is color-blind. Officials elsewhere have said similar things.

A wave of such attacks in Chicago were reported, but not the race of the attackers or victims. Media outlets that do not report the race of people committing crimes nevertheless report racial disparities in imprisonment and write heated editorials blaming the criminal-justice system.

What the authorities and the media seem determined to suppress is that the hoodlum elements in many ghettoes launch coordinated attacks on whites in public places. If there is anything worse than a one-sided race war, it is a two-sided race war, especially when one of the races outnumbers the other several times over.

It may be understandable that some people want to head off such a catastrophe, either by not reporting the attacks in this race war, or by not identifying the race of those attacking, or by insisting that the attacks were not racially motivated — even when the attackers themselves voice anti-white invective as they laugh at their bleeding victims.

Trying to keep the lid on is understandable. But a lot of pressure can build up under that lid. If and when that pressure leads to an explosion of white backlash, things could be a lot worse than if the truth had come out earlier, and steps taken by both black and white leaders to deal with the hoodlums and with those who inflame them.

These latter would include not only race hustlers like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson but also lesser-known people in the media, in educational institutions, and elsewhere who hype grievances and make all the problems of blacks the fault of whites. Some of these people may think that they are doing blacks a favor. But it is no favor to anyone who lags behind to turn their energies from the task of improving and advancing themselves to the task of lashing out at others.

These others extend beyond whites. Asian-American schoolchildren in New York and Philadelphiahave for years been beaten up by their black classmates. But people in the mainstream media who go ballistic if some kid says something unkind on the Internet about a homosexual classmate nevertheless hear no evil, see no evil, and speak no evil when Asian-American youngsters are victims of violence.

Those who automatically say that the social pathology of the ghetto is due to poverty, discrimination, and the like cannot explain why such pathology was far less prevalent in the 1950s, when poverty and discrimination were worse. But there were not nearly as many grievance mongers and race hustlers then.

— Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. © 2012 Creators Syndicate, Inc.