Senate Anti-Leaks Bill Threatens the Rights of the Press and the Public

BY JENNIFER LYNCH AND TREVOR TIMM

The US Senate is currently debating a dangerous bill that, if passed, would have broad consequences for press freedom and the public's right to know. EFF asks senators to stand up for government transparency and the First Amendment and vote it down.

The bill's provisions, buried in the annual Intelligence Authorization Act, are intended to stop leaks of classified information to reporters--a premise worrying in itself--but it is written so sloppily it will also severely impair government transparency and prevent the media from reporting on national security issues.

The problems with this bill are extensive and severe. As the New York Times pointed out in an unusually forceful editorial last Friday, it has been "drafted in secret without public hearings" and bars most government employees from giving press background briefings, even if the information is unclassified--vital for media organizations when reporting on complex issues. Another provision prohibits officials from writing op-eds or appearing on television, again, even if the information is unclassified--a clear prohibition on protected speech.

Classification expert Steven Aftergood documented several specific problems with the bill's broad definitions, most notably that the bill doesn't differentiate between properly and improperly classified information. Even the Freedom of Information Act, which carries a broad exception for classified information. insists it must be "properly classified."

This is especially troubling given that the government's secrecy system has ballooned to absurd proportions, to the point where virtually every government action in the national security or foreign policy realm has been stamped classified, many times improperly. Information is regularly classified to hide embarrassing details, government waste, corruption, and even serious constitutional violations. The former head of the U.S. classification process, J. William Leonard, recently called the system "dysfunctional" because it "clearly lacks the ability to differentiate between trivial information and that which can truly damage our nation's well-being." The bill's definition is virtually an invitation for government officials to further use secrecy to hide their conduct.

And if classification were used to hide such wrongdoing, "there is no exception carved out for whistle-blowers or other news media contacts that advance the public's awareness," as the New York Times reported. At the same time, Congress, its staff, and other high level officials are exempt from many of the bill's provisions.

The Obama administration has already been far too aggressive in prosecuting whistleblowers--its charged more leakers than all other administrations combined--and the latest, wide ranging FBI investigation into new leaks is "casting a distinct chill over press coverage of national security issues as agencies decline routine interview requests and refuse to provide background briefings" as the New York Times reported on its front page last Thursday. The new anti-leaks bill has the potential to permanently alter the way news media can interact with government officials. ??As the New York Times editorial board said in its criticism Friday, this won't just chill the press, but potentially "undermine democracy by denying Americans access to information essential to national debate on critical issues like the extent of government spying powers and the use of torture."

Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this bill is the fact that it has been proposed at all. As Steven Aftergood notes, "there is something incongruous, if not outrageous, about the whole effort by Congress to induce stricter secrecy in the executive branch, which already has every institutional incentive to restrict public disclosure of intelligence information." Aftergood reminds us that, in the past, leaks led to investigations into the programs exposed and to "substantive" Congressional oversight. In stark contrast, the response to leaks in the years since September 11, 2001--by both Congress and the Executive--has been to prosecue whisteblowers--and even reporters--and to ensure even more information is kept secret from the American public.

Take, for example, the national debate on the use of classified drone strikes in overseas military operations.? As the New Yorker's Steve Coll wrote, the new book by Newsweek reporter Daniel Klaidman on President Obama's use of classified drone strikes discusses "the first instance in American history of a sitting President speaking of his intent to kill a particular U.S. citizen without that citizen having been charged formally with a crime or convicted at trial." Similarly, when the New York Times reported on U.S. cyberattacks against Iran--another target of recent leak investigations--the Times said the decision to engage in offensive cyberattacks was so consequential and unprecedented, that it is comparable to "the first use of atomic weapons in the 1940s."?

These are just two instances of decisions by the President which -- whether you agree with them or not-- should be debated and scrutinized in both the halls of Congress and the public sphere. Yet because they are hidden behind giant walls of secrecy, there is no oversight or accountability, and the public has no say in decision as to whether the country should be engaging in them at all.

Late Friday, Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee Dianne Feinstein said the committee would "reconsider" some of the proposals after receiving a firestorm of criticism last week. She should go farther and strike them entirely--they have no place in a democracy that values government transparency and prides itself on press freedom and justice under the law.

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Man Sentenced to 30 Days for Catching Rain Water on Own Property Enters Jail

By Kendra Alleyne

Gary Harrington, the Oregon man convicted of collecting rainwater and snow runoff on his rural property surrendered Wednesday morning to begin serving his 30-day, jail sentence in Medford, Ore.

?I?m sacrificing my liberty so we can stand up as a country and stand for our liberty,? Harrington told a small crowd of people gathered outside of the Jackson County (Ore.) Jail.

Several people held signs that showed support for Harrington as he was taken inside the jail.

Harrington was found guilty two weeks ago of breaking a 1925 law for having, what state water managers called ?three illegal reservoirs? on his property. He was convicted of nine misdemeanors, sentenced to 30 days in jail and fined over $1500 for collecting rainwater and snow runoff on his property.

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Is America the World's Largest Sponsor of Terrorism?

by WashingtonsBlog

American Officials Admit that the U.S. Is a Huge Sponsor of Terrorism

The director of the National Security Agency under Ronald Reagan ? Lt. General William Odom -?noted:

Because the United States itself has a long record of supporting terrorists and using terrorist tactics, the slogans of today?s war on terrorism merely makes the United States look hypocritical to the rest of the world.

Odom also said:

By any measure the US has long used terrorism. In '78-79 the Senate was trying to pass a law against international terrorism -- in every version they produced, the lawyers said the US would be in violation.

(audio here).

The Washington Post reported in 2010:

The United States has long been an exporter of terrorism, according to a secret CIA analysis released Wednesday by the Web site WikiLeaks.

The head and special agent in charge of the FBI?s Los Angeles office said that most terror attacks are committed by our CIA and FBI.

Wikipedia notes:

Chomsky and Herman observed that terror was concentrated in the U.S. sphere of influence in the Third World, and documented terror carried out by U.S. client states in Latin America. They observed that of ten Latin American countries that had death squads, all were U.S. client states.

***

They concluded that the global rise in state terror was a result of U.S. foreign policy.

***

In 1991, a book edited by Alexander L. George [the Graham H. Stuart Professor of Political Science Emeritus at Stanford University] also argued that other Western powers sponsored terror in Third World countries. It concluded that the U.S. and its allies were the main supporters of terrorism throughout the world.

Some in the American military have intentionally tried? to ?out-terrorize the terrorists?.

As Truthout notes:

Both [specialists Ethan McCord and Josh Stieber] say they saw their mission as a plan to "out-terrorize the terrorists," in order to make the general populace more afraid of the Americans than they were of insurgent groups.

In the interview with [Scott] Horton, Horton pressed Stieber:

"...a fellow veteran of yours from the same battalion has said that you guys had a standard operating procedure, SOP, that said -- and I guess this is a reaction to some EFP attacks on y'all's Humvees and stuff that killed some guys -- that from now on if a roadside bomb goes off, IED goes off, everyone who survives the attack get out and fire in all directions at anybody who happens to be nearby ... that this was actually an order from above. Is that correct? Can you, you know, verify that?

Stieber answered:

"Yeah, it was an order that came from Kauzlarich himself, and it had the philosophy that, you know, as Finkel does describe in the book, that we were under pretty constant threat, and what he leaves out is the response to that threat. But the philosophy was that if each time one of these roadside bombs went off where you don't know who set it "? the way we were told to respond was to open fire on anyone in the area, with the philosophy that that would intimidate them, to be proactive in stopping people from making these bombs..."

Terrorism is defined as:

The use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, especially for political purposes.

So McCord and Stieber are correct: this constitutes terrorism by American forces in Iraq.

The U.S. has been supporting Al Qaeda and other terrorists in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Libya, Syria and Iran.

(The U.S. has also directly inserted itself into a sectarian war between the two main Islamic sects, backing the Sunnis and attacking the Shiites. See this, this and this.? Because Saudi Arabia is the seat of the most radical sect of Islam ? Wahhabism- the U.S. unquestioning support of the Saudis? is indirectly supporting terrorism.)

Torture ? which the U.S. has liberally used? during the last 10 years ? has long been recognized as a form of terrorism.

Wikipedia notes:

Worldwide, 74% of countries that used torture on an administrative basis were U.S. client states, receiving military and other support to retain power.

Of course, some would say that the American policy of assassination ? especially using drone strikes on people whose identity isn?t even known ? is a form of terrorism. And see this and this.

Particularly when the U.S. is using the justifiably-vilified Al Qaeda tactic of killing people attending funerals of those killed ? and targeting people attempting to rescue people who have been injured by ? our previous strikes.

Some Specific Examples ? The CIA admits that it hired Iranians in the 1950's to pose as Communists and stage bombings in Iran in order to turn the country against its democratically-elected prime minister.

The former Italian Prime Minister, an Italian judge, and the former head of Italian counterintelligence admit that NATO, with the help of the Pentagon and CIA, carried out terror bombings in Italy and other European countries in the 1950s and blamed the communists, in order to rally people's support for their governments in Europe in their fight against communism.

As one participant in this formerly-secret program stated: ?You had to attack civilians, people, women, children, innocent people, unknown people far removed from any political game. The reason was quite simple. They were supposed to force these people, the Italian public, to turn to the state to ask for greater security? (and see this)(Italy and other European countries subject to the terror campaign had joined NATO before the bombings occurred).

As admitted by the U.S. government, recently declassified documents show that in the 1960's, the American Joint Chiefs of Staff signed off on a plan to blow up AMERICAN airplanes (using an elaborate plan involving the switching of airplanes), and also to commit terrorist acts on American soil, and then to blame it on the Cubans in order to justify an invasion of Cuba. See the following ABC news report; the official documents; and watch this interview with the former Washington Investigative Producer for ABC?s World News Tonight with Peter Jennings.

Nine months earlier, a false flag attack was discussed in order to justify an invasion of the Dominican Republic. Specifically, according to official State Department records, Under Secretary of State Chester Bowles wrote on June 3, 1961:

The Vice President [Lyndon Johnson], [Attorney General] Bob Kennedy, Secretary [of Defense Robert] McNamara, Dick Goodwin [who was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs], [head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff] General Lemnitzer, Wyn Coerr, and Ted Achilles were here. Bob McNamara and Lemnitzer stated that under the terms of the contingency paper, they were required to be prepared to move into the island on short order if required to do so, and this, in their opinion, called for substantially more troops that we had in the area. After some discussion we considered two more aircraft carriers, some destroyers, and 12,000 marines should be moved into a position some one hundred miles off the Dominican Republic shore?

The tone of the meeting was deeply disturbing. Bob Kennedy was clearly looking for an excuse to move in on the island. At one point he suggested, apparently seriously, that we might have to blow up the Consulate to provide the rationale.

His general approach, vigorously supported by Dick Goodwin, was that this was a bad government, that there was a strong chance that it might team up with Castro, and that it should be destroyed?with an excuse if possible, without one if necessary.

Rather to my surprise, Bob McNamara seemed to support this view ?

The entire spirit of this meeting was profoundly distressing and worrisome, and I left at 8:00 p.m. with a feeling that this spirit which I had seen demonstrated on this occasion and others at the White House by those so close to the President constitutes a further danger of half-cocked action by people with almost no foreign policy experience, who are interested in action for action?s sake, and the devil take the highmost ?

[At a subsequent meeting], Bob McNamara went along with their general view that our problem was not to prepare against an overt act by the Dominican Republic but rather to find an excuse for going into the country and upsetting it.

Department of Justice lawyer John Yoo suggested in 2005 that the US should go on the offensive against al-Qaeda, having "our intelligence agencies create a false terrorist organization. It could have its own websites, recruitment centers, training camps, and fundraising operations. It could launch fake terrorist operations and claim credit for real terrorist strikes, helping to sow confusion within al-Qaeda's ranks, causing operatives to doubt others' identities and to question the validity of communications."

As Chris Floyd and many others have noted, this plan has gone live.

United Press International reported in June 2005:

U.S. intelligence officers are reporting that some of the insurgents in Iraq are using recent-model Beretta 92 pistols, but the pistols seem to have had their serial numbers erased. The numbers do not appear to have been physically removed; the pistols seem to have come off a production line without any serial numbers. Analysts suggest the lack of serial numbers indicates that the weapons were intended for intelligence operations or terrorist cells with substantial government backing. Analysts speculate that these guns are probably from either Mossad or the CIA. Analysts speculate that agent provocateurs may be using the untraceable weapons even as U.S. authorities use insurgent attacks against civilians as evidence of the illegitimacy of the resistance.

There is substantial additional evidence of hanky panky in Iraq.

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Caught On Tape: Officer Sucker Punches Inmate In Face, Files Report Claiming 'Self Defense'

Chris | InformationLiberation

40-year-old Rico Palomino, a 12 year veteran corrections officer at the Cook County Jail in Illinois, claimed in his incident report an inmate "turned around abruptly" and grabbed his shirt, for which he had no choice but to act in self defense by striking the inmate with his open palm to "create a safe distance between himself and the detainee," reports NBC Chicago. The trouble is, the incident was caught on tape, and rather than show the officer was responding to being grabbed suddenly, it shows the cop casually walking up to an inmate and suddenly sucker punching him viciously in the face leaving him bleeding profusely from the mouth.

Here's how the incident went down:

Prosecutors said Palomino was working at a desk when an inmate walked by, asking Palomino where officers kept inventoried property because he wanted to get a phone number.

As the inmate continued to walk down a hallway, Palomino followed and told him to return to the lockup area.

"If you don't get back over here, I'm going to f--- you up," prosecutors alleged in a proffer.

A surveillance camera from the hallway recorded Palomino, eight inches taller and 100 pounds heavier than the inmate, striking the detainee, causing him to fall to the floor.

Prosecutors said the inmate was left bleeding from the mouth and required stitches.

The corrections officer is now being charged with a Class 3 felony, he is potentially facing 2-5 years in prison and up to a $25,000 fine. You have to wonder what the punishment would be if the shoe was on the other foot, not to mention if the officer's lies were simply accepted as fact.
_
Chris runs the website InformationLiberation.com, you can read more of his writings here. Follow infolib on twitter here.

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Yeah real tough guy! He's upset because he's 40 years old and only makes $8 an hour. Should me mad at himself for being so dumb! I have seen it all to often. I have not always been a good guy and have spent many years locked up, 5 years for a crime I did not commit. The CO that punched this kid will run into the right one someday and he will be taught a very valuable lesson. I t's sad but true that these things happen in the system. I have seen CO s get chopped up for less. [Post deleted: Please no quasi-threatening comments] Union man - the union will protect him, that's why they are there scum i would love too meat this guy on the street and see how bad ass he is . too bad the victim didnt have AIDS and spit the blood into the cops eyes and open mouth

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Video: 'Routine' Traffic Stop Gets Arkansas Cop Shot & Killed

Chris | InformationLiberation

An Arkansas cop engaged in a "routine" traffic stop apparently pulled over the wrong car which he "suspected" may have been uninsured. One of the men in the car pulled out a gun when the cop came to open his door and shot the cop point blank. The shooter in the video has been sentenced to be executed.

The video was only just released by the Arkansas police supposedly because the chief wanted his officers to "learn" from the incident. While being a police officer is not even in the top 10 most dangerous jobs and cops are most likely to die in traffic accidents, it's still completely idiotic the amount of danger police put themselves in to enforce ridiculous non-crimes. If the police chief really cares about officer safety, he should call for the end of the war on drugs and the repeal of all victimless crime laws.

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The only reason this video is making the rounds online is because the fuckers who want to ban guns outright are sensationalizing this statistically meaningless incident.

If you were smart, Chris, you would already know this and not post this shit.

More police officers commit suicide than are killed in the line of duty each year.

Sad but true................Found the right one I guess invasive checkpoints? routines stops? over zealous arrest happy pigs? Sucks majorly, but Im thinking he wasn't legal to carry in any way, so another law would make no difference.

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The "We're at War with the Muslims" Crowd

by Jacob G. Hornberger

Have you noticed that the ?we?re at war with the Muslims? crowd has been noticeably silent in the wake of the murders at the Sikh temple in Wisconsin and the arson of the Islamic mosque in Missouri? Well, they?re smart to keep their mouths shut. Hopefully, this segment of American society is increasingly being marginalized, and rightfully so.

Ever since 9/11, there have been a group of American extremists who have claimed that Muslims are waging war on the United States and that the CIA and U.S. troops are just defending us in this war. According to this group, since Muslims have embarked on a worldwide quest to conquer the Western world, the U.S. invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan were simply defensive measures to defend ourselves against the Islamic war of conquest against the West.

During the past 10 years, I have periodically received emails reciting this nonsense to me. I have responded by advising the writers that they would be wise to refrain from engaging in this war by killing Muslims here in the United States. I have told them that if they go out and start shooting Muslims, they will be arrested by the police, indicted for murder, convicted, and sentenced to jail or receive the death penalty.

I have told them that when they say to the judge, ?Oh, you can?t do this to me because we are at war. The Muslims are trying to conquer us. In war it is entirely legitimate to kill the enemy. That?s all I was doing?killing Muslims during wartime to defend my country,? the judge might consider an insanity defense but more likely he will simply tell them how utterly inane their position is before imposing sentence for a murder conviction.

Why do some people hew to this inane position? Because it enables them to avoid confronting what is one of the most frightening things that could ever happen to them: to face that their very own government ? the U.S. government ? their daddy ? has done and is doing bad things to people overseas, in this case Muslims, some of whom have decided to defend themselves and their countries by either attacking U.S. invading or occupying troops or committing terrorist attacks, either abroad or here in the United States.

In other words, acts of terrorism against the United States by Muslims are not part of some worldwide Islamic conspiracy to conquer the Western world. Instead, the anger and hatred that drives such acts of terrorism are rooted in the horrible things the U.S. government has done and is doing to people in the Middle East. People get angry when their family and friends are killed, starved, humiliated, shamed, tortured, and abused, and some of them finally say, ?Enough is enough. I?m going to retaliate with violence.?

What are those bad things? They include foreign aid to brutal Middle East dictatorships, unconditional foreign aid to the Israeli government, the brutal sanctions on Iraq that killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children, the brutal sanctions on Iran that are impoverishing the Iranian people, the support of Saddam Hussein, the Persian Gulf War, which killed an untold number of Iraqis, the stationing of U.S. troops on Islamic holy lands, the illegal no-fly zones over Iraq, which killed Iraqi children and others, the invasion and occupation of Iraq over bogus WMDs, which killed, maimed, or exiled hundreds of thousands of more Iraqis, the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, which has killed brides, grooms, children, seniors, and many others, and regime change operations that install brutal pro-U.S. dictatorships into power.

How could victims of these acts not get angry over such things? Wouldn?t Americans get angry if a foreign regime were to do these things to Americans? The fact that most of the victims have been Muslims doesn?t mean that the Muslims have embarked on a worldwide quest to conquer the Western world. It simply means that because the victims have overwhelmingly been Muslim, the anger and rage and thirst for retaliation will naturally arise within this set of victims. That is, if the victims were, say, Catholics, acts of violent retaliation would not mean that Catholics had embarked on a quest for worldwide conquest.

What?s the solution to all this anti-American anger and rage among foreigners, especially in the Middle East? For the U.S. Empire to exit the world stage, especially the Middle East. No more sanctions, embargoes, support of dictatorships, support of the Israeli government, foreign aid, invasions, occupations, no-fly zones, foreign military bases, torture, foreign prisons, and the like. Once that happens, the anti-American anger and rage will begin to dissipate.

Unfortunately, the U.S. government has decided to shift the focus of its military empire from the Middle East to Asia and Latin America rather than simply dismantle the empire and bring all the troops home. The Pentagon and the CIA are now shifting their focus to China and Latin America, claiming that China and Latin American drug dealers will constitute the new official threat to ?national security? in the years ahead.

Prepare yourself: The ?we?re at war with the Muslims? crowd will soon begin exclaiming, ?The communists and drug dealers are coming to get us. They have embarked on a quest to conquer the West.?

In other words, they will replace the Muslims as America?s new official enemy. Anything to avoid confronting the reality that it is the U.S. Empire that is the reason that so many people around the world hate the U.S. government.

One of the most amusing aspects of the ?we?re at war with the Muslims? crowd is their refusal to criticize the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Why is that amusing? Because the U.S. government?s invasions and occupations of those countries have succeeded in installing two official Islamic states. Just go look at their official constitutions and you?ll see what I mean. Yet, the ?we?re at war with the Muslims? crowd never calls on the U.S. Empire to bomb the regimes in those two countries. Instead, the crowd continues to exhort us to support the troops in their attempt to preserve these two official Muslim regimes. Maybe the crowd doesn?t realize that the Muslims might be using Iraq and Afghanistan as the foundation for their supposed quest to conquer the world.

It?s a good thing that the ?we?re at war with the Muslims? crowd are keeping their mouths shut in the wake of the attacks on the Sikhs in Wisconsin and the Muslims in Missouri. The last thing we need is more senseless killing.
_
Jacob Hornberger is founder and president of the Future of Freedom Foundation.

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Monsanto Awarded ONE BILLION Dollars Due To Patent Infringement For A Product That Was Never On The Market

by Mike Masnick

We've had plenty of stories over the years of Monsanto's incredibly aggressive stance when it comes to its "Roundup Ready" patents. The company has now been awarded $1 billion from Dupont for infringing on one of these patents. Now, here's a case where we're talking about competing companies, so perhaps no big deal, right? Except there's one tidbit here that makes this interesting: Dupont never brought the product in question to market. So the "damages" to Monsanto would seem to be minimal... except in a court of law apparently. According to Patently-O:

The damages theory was interesting. Since the accused product was not yet on the market, Monsanto did not seek any lost profit. Rather, Monsanto demanded a reasonable royalty for the research-use made by the defendants. Monsanto argued that the use of Monsanto's invention in DuPont's labs and Pioneer's test fields gave those companies an "improper head start" in making the GM seeds. The judge and jury agreed ? if those companies wanted to build upon the invention then they should have first obtained a license. In the pharmaceutical world, 35 U.S.C. ? 271(e) offers a research exemption for this type of activity. However, that exception does not apply here because of the low level of regulation over genetically modified food-products. The patent is set to expire in 2014. The patentee's right-to-exclusive-research supported by this case means that the 2014 date offers a starting-date for follow-on competitive research. Any actual products building directly upon the patented invention will arrive on the market sometime later.

Got that? Normally, companies can build on top of others' products as patents are set to expire, so they're ready to launch once the patent has expired. But, in this case, even trying to build new offerings in a lab for use later is apparently an insane billion dollar issue. Even worse, it means that any real competition, which will create more market-reasonable prices, gets significantly delayed as no one can prepare for when the patent expires.

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Witness: Someone let gunman inside Colorado movie theater [Video]

Via CNN:

AURORA, CO -- A man who was at the Colorado movie theater where a dozen people were killed this morning, says he saw the gunman.

He says he thinks someone deliberately let the gunman inside once the movie started.

Here's what he told TV station KCNC this morning live on their newscast.

"As I was sitting down to get my seat, I noticed that a person came up to the front row, the front right, sat down, and as credits were going, it looked like he got a phone call. He went out toward the emergency exit doorway, which I thought was unusual to take a phone call. And it seemed like he probably pried it open, or probably did not let it latch all the way. As soon as the movie started, somebody came in, all black, gas mask, armor, and threw a gas can into the audience, and it went off, and then there were gunshots that took place."

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I think, based on the way he had his apartment wired, he wasn't planning on returning to it. Since he didn't kill himself, and was wearing bulletproof gear, he apparently wasn't planning on dying at the scene. It seems to me that he was planning to escape to somewhere.

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Foie Gras Goes Underground at California 'Duckeasies'

By Alison Vekshin and James Nash

On July 15, about a dozen people walked into a cozy San Francisco restaurant with a window sign reading ?private event? to savor foie gras, California?s newest forbidden fruit.

They paid $100 apiece for ?a 10-course tasting of quasi- legal goodness,? according to the online notice for the ?Duckeasy? event. Each received an e-mail with the address only hours before the first sandwich of Wonder bread, grape jelly and foie gras mousse was served.

"I want to support the people who believe in foie and who will defy the rules," Jolanda Nuestro, 48, a homemaker, said at the communal table before a toast broke out: "To foie!"

"To being force-fed foie!" another guest added.

Two weeks after California's ban on selling and producing the fatty duck liver, chefs are hosting clandestine events, offering it as a free side dish or selling it to regulars without listing it on the menu.

In an unscientific survey, four of eight restaurants visited in the two weeks since the ban offered foie gras. Four that had it on their menus before the ban refused to serve it when asked.

David Rieken, 49, a personal assistant from San Francisco who discovered the Duckeasy dinner through a friend, said he was drawn in part because of its secretive nature.

"I would be lying if I said there wasn't a certain exclusivity that is cool and a defiance against a law that we think is rooted in double standards," Rieken said while sipping a glass of French red wine before dinner.

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Viva la resistance? Supporting cruelty is hardly revolutionary. It's dime a dozen, wherever you turn. I thought resistance was about trying to create a better world. The freedom to be cruel is not worth fighting for. Certainly not worth supporting. Jailing people for non-crimes is what's cruel. it is a crime, the people chose to make it a law. and there's no jail time involved. "The people" (the government) also chose to make slavery a law, that doesn't make right. Try not paying their "fines" (ransom) and see where you end up.

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Tax Collectors Drive 'Brilliant Inventor' To Kill Himself

A BRILLIANT engineer with severe depression took his life on the day of his eviction over a council tax debt of ?1,500, plus costs of ?70,000.

Peter Williams, 63, stood in front of a train in February after he had been pursued relentlessly by lawyers over the debt for 16 years.

The council refused to drop the case despite efforts by Mr Williams?s MP, doctor and friends to stop it ?because of his poor mental health.

[...]His suicide note said he could not face losing his home, stating: ?I have had enough and cannot stand any more of the mental turmoil.?

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From Patriots to Expatriates

by Brian LaSorsa

Immigrants in the early 20th century celebrated US citizenship. The threat of illness, death, and separation from their wives and children failed to deter these Europeans who fled their home countries for the promise of a better future.

To them, the United States was a safe, free haven distant from the brutal tyrants and collectivist academics across the Atlantic. My ancestors knew that Ellis Island was the beginning of everything they'd ever wanted. Angelo LaSorsa put one foot on the ground and realized immediately that he had, as H. L. Mencken was to put it, "won a small precarious territory from the great mob of his inferiors." And he flourished. He saw New York as innocent ground, not yet soiled by the likes of Wilson and the latter Roosevelt.

Unfortunately the Statue of Liberty's invitation--its call for "your tired, your poor, your huddled masses"--transformed into a national pastime. The tired remained in bed. The poor stayed in poverty. The huddled masses continued huddling. And the country deteriorated. The population forgot its past. It began to believe that this newfound freedom was merely an idle state to be enjoyed instead of something to be vigilantly defended.

"Nothing is so frustrating as being grouped together with a bunch of bumbling fools who insist you're all brethren."

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FDA Spied On Emails To Try To Silence Critics

by Mike Masnick

We've discussed how the government often seems much more focused on silencing leaks of information, rather than recognizing that those leaks are often highlighting serious misconduct. The latest example involves the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), who apparently started trying to find the source of a leak, but in the end started collecting thousands of emails to try to stifle all sorts of criticism of the FDA, as revealed by the NY Times over the weekend.

What began as a narrow investigation into the possible leaking of confidential agency information by five scientists quickly grew in mid-2010 into a much broader campaign to counter outside critics of the agency?s medical review process, according to the cache of more than 80,000 pages of computer documents generated by the surveillance effort.

Moving to quell what one memorandum called the ?collaboration? of the F.D.A.?s opponents, the surveillance operation identified 21 agency employees, Congressional officials, outside medical researchers and journalists thought to be working together to put out negative and ?defamatory? information about the agency.

The details show that the FDA installed key logger software on the computers of their own scientists, tracked the personal emails they wrote to others, and tracked documents they copied to key drives. Now, you can make a reasonable argument that since these were work laptops, the FDA has every right to track the usage, but it seems pretty clear that the FDA went really far here, and it wasn't just about stopping leaks, but about trying to stifle criticism and whistleblowing.

In fact, much of the evidence suggests that this absolutely was an attempt to blow the whistle on faulty review procedures by the FDA, that resulted in the approval of medical imaging devices that weren't actually safe. And, apparently, the complaints by the whistleblowers were convincing enough that there's now a Congressional investigation into "a substantial and specific danger to public safety" from this activity.

If the FDA were functioning as it was supposed to, it would have seen these complaints as a reason to investigate its own activities. Instead, in the supposed attempt to "stop leaks," the FDA used this info to try to squelch the attempt to have its own practices investigated.

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10 Days in the Police Academy, 14 Years on Disability

by Tim Lynch

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

Barnes is one of two officers collecting disability because of injuries sustained while still in the police academy.

The other, Michael Terrano, injured a knee 17 years ago, underwent surgery, then refused to return to work and was fired.

Despite that, he is getting disability checks that so far have totaled more than $560,000.

Terrano is also in business. He recently was part of a company hoping to sell medical marijuana in Arizona.

Of all the Chicago cops on disability leave, Barnes spent the least amount of time on the job ? those 10 days in the police academy, which he entered six months before his father retired from the police department.

Despite not making it through two weeks at the academy, Barnes stands to collect a total of at least $1.2 million from the city?s police pension fund.

He can keep collecting his annual disability payment ? which now stands at $46,343 and which will increase as the salary for an entry-level patrolman goes up ? until he reaches mandatory retirement at age 63. Then, he can retire with a full police pension ? based on all of his years as a disabled officer.

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How Our "Local" Police Became a Standing Army of Occupation: Will Grigg Interviewed by Scott Horton

by William Grigg

With every day providing new ? and infuriating ? examples of indefensible criminal violence by law enforcement officers, many Americans are beginning to perceive their local police as a army of occupation, rather than a group of sworn peace officers committed to the defense of individual liberty and property rights.

Is that perception accurate? Has police violence escalated in recent years ? or is there something innately wrong with government police agencies?

In a brief but comprehensive interview with radio host Scott Horton, Republic magazine managing editor William N. Grigg examines the history of the paramilitary organizations called ?police departments,? discusses the problematic aspects of America?s British-derived law enforcement apparatus, and reviews some of the reasons why formerly civilian police agencies have become militarized.

The interview touches on the recent SWAT raid against a teenage girl and her grandmother in Evansville, Indiana, which was staged in response to anonymous on-line comments critical of the local police. The program also deals with the striking similarities between contemporary militarized law enforcement and the mafia ? such as the quasi-official code of silence that protects corrupt and abusive police officers, and dictates retaliation against conscientious officers who insist on putting the truth ahead of tribal loyalty. (Some of those comparisons reflect better on the Mob, unfortunately.)

Listen to the interview here.

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Minneapolis SWAT team leader faces first-degree assault charge (Video released)

Minneapolis police Sgt. David Clifford, a SWAT team leader once lauded by the United Nations for the "highest level of dedication and professionalism," was charged with first-degree assault Tuesday in an off-duty incident last month that left a Ramsey man temporarily on life support.

Brian Vander Lee, who had two brain surgeries after the alleged assault at Tanners Station in Andover on June 16, has been recovering at home since undergoing a third surgery, on July 4. The latest operation became necessary after an earlier incision erupted, leading to an infection, Anoka County prosecutor Blair Buccicone said on Tuesday.

Clifford, 47, who has been a member of the Minneapolis Police Department since 1993, was originally charged with third-degree assault, a felony. Asked why the charges were upgraded, Buccicone said: "If there hadn't been medical intervention, Brian Vander Lee likely would have died."

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City of Seattle loses case to keep police dash-cam videos secret

Seattle taxpayers are now stuck with a big bill after the city lost a lawsuit. The city filed suit against an attorney who is trying to obtain Seattle police dash-cam videos.

Attorney James Egan said he?s been vindicated.

?I?m relieved the nightmare is over,? he said.

[...]?I asked for 36 videos as a citizen. They said no. I asked again to the police chief directly and they turned around and hauled me into court,? said Egan.

Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes brought the suit against Egan, and on Thursday a King County Superior Court Judge threw it out. The ruling called the suit against Egan ?procedurally improper and potentially unnecessary.?

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pigs gone wild , militarized pigs on steroids . anybody trust these white pig in bred bastards , good luck in court ..shoot back and survive and hold on to that camera for its day in Court ..

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Markets Tell the Truth

by Douglas French

People can't get enough of predictions. There is that basic human desire to know the future and capitalize on it. People especially like hearing predictions that confirm their view of the world. Hearing prognostications that match up with your own makes you feel smart. And in turn, you view the predictor as smart for confirming your bias.

The big question: are we headed for deflation, inflation, hyperinflation, stagnation, stagflation or Obamanation?

As in past years, doom and gloom was the predication coin of the realm at FreedomFest 2012. Using Austrian economics as a framework, TraderView proprietor Ty Andros told those attending the "Where Do We Go From Here? All-Star Prediction Panel" that the next leg down in the global financial crisis has begun.

Bert Dohmen is equally bearish. However, an obnoxious Donald Luskin was quick and insistent that Dohmen and Andros were wrong a year ago and continue to be mistaken. Luskin, a frequent guest on tout TV, is more hopeful for the markets and insists that Congress must be pragmatic and raise the debt ceiling to avoid creating another financial crisis.

Enabling a government that is borrowing and spending its way to oblivion will provide for smooth market sailing, according to the argumentative Luskin. Save the fiscal budgeting for a later date,. he says.

Rounding out the panel was the noneconomist and Agora Vancouver favorite, Rick Rule, the world-class resource investor who describes himself most positively as a "credit analyst," and at other times, a "shylock" or "pawn broker." Rule credits reading Benjamin Graham and David Dodd's Security Analysis for saving him from going to law school.

The founder of Sprott Global made only one prediction, and that is that markets will be very volatile. He sees the potential for "a true psychotic break" in the markets, like 2008. This is a situation he relishes. A market gully washer inspires Rule like a trip to the Ann Taylor outlet excites my wife. Rule loves buying stocks on sale.

Rule contends that nothing has changed since 2008. None of the market dislocations have been addressed. Market turbulence is dead ahead. But the crisis will bring opportunity. Investors must be contrarians, or they will be victims as citizens and lumpen investors get what they deserve "good and hard," Rule said, paraphrasing H.L. Mencken.

While governments meddle and distort, "markets always work," says Rule. And the opportunity in resource markets is that millions of people around the world are enjoying a higher standard of living. As these people climb out from under the thumb of oppressive governments, their living standards rise ? not to buy iPads, but to buy stuff requiring natural resources.

So while demand for metals, energy and food worldwide is (and will continue to be) on the rise, the last two decades have seen an underinvestment in natural resources. The hard-nosed pawnbroker Rule sees this as an opportunity.

However, Rule often cautions that the majority of companies in the exploration and natural resource spaces are worthless. As prolific as the Fed's Ben Bernanke is at creating currency, the free market is even more efficient, says Rule. Resource companies in Vancouver take every opportunity to issue additional shares. Most of the shares have no real worth.

Environmentalists, politicians and drivers may rail at the big oil companies for high prices and increasing the carbon footprint, but the majority of energy production comes from sovereign oil producers. Saudi Aramco, Pemex and the rest of the government oil producers have been using profits to fund government social programs, instead of investing in exploration. Peak Oil or no Peak Oil, this means that long term, production will fall, while demand will increase.

In the short term, Rule says there's a "three-way dumb presidents contest" ongoing between President Obama, Benjamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that could cause a closure of the Strait of Hormuz. This could send oil prices soaring.

Rule loves uranium because the Fukushima disaster has made uranium and uranium stocks "cheap, cheap, cheap." The Chinese are still building nuclear plants, and Japan must have uranium. He sees "light at the end of the tunnel" for natural gas prices, but thinks LNG will be cut in half.

The resource market has been brutal for investors. The stock prices of companies that have secured natural resource deposits are unloved and may get more so, setting up what Rule thinks will be the "best resources M&A [mergers and acquisitions] market ever." That is, unless that cataclysmic market break occurs.

The Sprott Global founder doesn't earn his living making predictions, but instead by making good investments for his clients and himself. Resource markets "are as bad as they've ever been," says Rule, "and for me, that's as good as it gets."

Rule is prohibited from offering investment ideas to conference attendees by SEC ("Swindler Encouragement Committee") rules. But he does provide "conflicts of interest." He listed nearly a dozen companies that he was increasing his "conflicts" in. Count that as yet another workaround to the problem of government regulations.
_
Douglas E. French is senior editor of the Laissez Faire Club. He received his master's degree under the direction of Murray N. Rothbard at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, after many years in the business of banking. He is the author of two books, Early Speculative Bubbles and Increases in the Supply of Money, the first major empirical study of the relationship between early bubbles and the money supply, and Walk Away, a monograph assessing the philosophy and morality of strategic default. He is founder and editor of LibertyWatch magazine. Write him.

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The Noose Continues to Tighten But No Government Lasts Forever

By Carl Watner

Voluntaryists have a unique outlook on government. They view the State as an invasive institution. It imposes a coercive monopoly over defense services and collects its revenues via compulsory taxation. Theodore Lowi, a professor of political science at Cornell University in the early 1980s, authored a book, INCOMPLETE CONQUEST (1981), in which he observed:

Every action and every agency of contemporary government must contribute to the fulfillment of its fundamental purpose, which is to maintain conquest. Conquest manifests itself in various forms of control, but in all those forms it is the common factor tying together in one system the behavior of courts and cops, sanitation workers and senators, bureaucrats and technocrats, generals and attorney generals, pressure groups and presidents. [p. 13]

Two of the most basic "forms of control" exercised by any government are that of demanding enrollment in its armed forces, and in collecting taxes based on one's income and/or accumulated wealth. Perhaps conscription is the State's most direct control over your life, but its ability to tax ultimately destroys the principle of private ownership. Everything you think you "own" is really held subject to its pleasure. It is as though you are a slave and your master allows you to retain certain perks.

In my article, "The Chickens Come Home to Roost - The Master Plan for 'Tightening the Noose'" (Issue 48, February 1991), I referred to the late Fred Rowe, who wrote an article for his House of Onyx publication entitled "The IRS Electronic Monster." Rowe set forth his predictions about the future state of economic freedoms in these United States. He described what he called an IRS "master plan" under which the United States government would push toward the creation of a cashless society. Electronic money would take the place of banknotes, and all financial transactions would be recorded via computers, which in turn would be connected to those of the IRS. The tax bureaucracy would then take this information and render every citizen and resident of the United States a tax return. Withholding on all income from your labor, and on all major financial transactions, such as the sale of real estate and investments, would enable the government to collect taxes on a mostly "pay-as-you-go" basis. Such computer transparency would also make it very difficult for tax resisters to escape the government's clutching hand.

Whether or not such a conspiratorial master plan was ever hatched by government bureaucrats, the unceasing efforts of government to take control of its citizens' property have continued unabated. Some of the steps in this never-ending battle for conquest and control have been:

...requirements that most people born in the United States have government-issued birth certificates;
...passage of the 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution authorizing Congress to tax income;
...requirements that a government social security number be used in conjunction with all large financial transactions and in filing tax returns;
...reporting all domestic cash transactions of $ 3,000 or more to the U.S. Treasury
...attempting to require that payments to individuals of $ 600 or more be reported via 1099 Forms to the Internal Revenue Service;
...requirements to report to the U.S. Treasury and/or U.S. Customs movements of more than $ 10,000 cash and certain other negotiable instruments to and from the U.S.
...requirement that applicants provide a social security number on passport applications, and upon refusal being fined $ 500 by the Internal Revenue Service;
...requirements to report the existence of foreign-held bank accounts and foreign-held assets;
...requirement that anyone renouncing their U.S. citizenship for reasons of avoiding U.S. taxes be liable for U.S. taxes for the 10 years following their renunciation;
...requirement that all employers within the United States verify the eligibility of prospective hires, who, of course, must have a government social security number; [see "Countdown to Extinction," THE VOLUNTARYIST No. 68, June 1994, page 3 for further information]

Now the government is working out some new regulations that affect both our property and our bodies. The Obama care health care legislation mandates that most people in the United States purchase health insurance or pay a penalty. Its constitutionality has been argued before the Supreme Court. Increasingly, doctors are no longer able to abide by the Hippocratic Oath because third-party payers (mostly the government through Medicare and Medicaid, but also insurance companies) make health decisions for their patients. It is no longer between the doctor and patient to determine what is the best treatment. The decision is up to the party paying for that treatment. Furthermore, physicians have been ordered "to adopt electronic health records or face economic sanctions from Medicare." The Federal Commission for the Coordination of Comparative Effectiveness Research will determine the "most-cost effective way of allocating a fixed amount of resources among" the U.S. population. [See "Notable & Quotable," THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, March 17-18, 2012, p. A13]

The government is also tightening the regulations surrounding the ownership of foreign bank accounts and the reporting of assets held abroad. For all practical purposes there has never been any financial or banking privacy in the United States. Currently the governments of the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom have joined together in cooperation to intensify their efforts to combat international tax evasion. On March 10, 2010, the United States enacted the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). This legislation introduced reporting requirements for foreign financial institutions (FFIs). Many banks headquartered abroad are required to identify U.S. account holders, report certain information to the IRS about their accounts, and assess a 30% withholding tax on certain payments of U.S. source income to recalcitrant account holders or non-participating FFIs that are unwilling to provide the necessary information. In short, great pressure is being brought to bear on banks that are not subject to U.S. jurisdiction to subjugate them to IRS regulations. Some foreign banks, particularly those in Switzerland, have decided to terminate their account relationships with U.S. citizens so as to avoid these entanglements with U.S. law.

All this is reminiscent of what Nazi Germany did to its citizens in the years before World War II. Consider these National Socialist laws:

The decisive sign that the Nazis had turned their sights on the assets of Germans abroad was the law against economic sabotage enacted in December 1936. In part this was aimed at enticing Germans to repatriate their foreign nest-eggs: those prepared to admit they had assets abroad could keep a third of them after they handed over the remaining two-thirds to the Reichsbank, ... 'Any German national who knowingly and having as a motive acts against the law in transferring assets abroad or keeps them abroad and thereby damages the German economy is punished with death'."[Nicholas Faith, SAFETY IN NUMBERS: THE MYSTERIOUS WORLD OF SWISS BANKING, New York: The Viking Press, 1982, pp. 83-84]

[P]ursuant to the Decree on the Registration of the Property of the Jews of April 26, 1938, all Jews were required to value all their assets (foreign and domestic) and register them if their value was in excess of RM 5,000. ["Expropriation (Aryanization) of Jewish Property," General, edwardvictor.com Holocaust/expropriation]

As reported in THE WALL STREET JOURNAL on April 6, 2012 [p. A9], "hiding money in [tax] havens isn't as easy as it used to be." The U.S. Congress has "passed laws imposing draconian penalties on people hiding foreign financial assets." How do the following U.S. government regulations compare to those of Nazi Germany?

A person who holds a foreign financial account may have a reporting obligation even though the account produces no taxable income. ... The FBAR (Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts) is not filed with the filer's federal income tax return. [From IRS.gov: Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) page on the internet]

The principal purpose for collecting the information [required by Department of the Treasury Form TD F 90-22.1 - "Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts"] is to assure maintenance of reports where such reports or records have a high degree of usefulness in criminal, tax, or regulatory investigations or proceedings. ... Disclosure of this information is mandatory. Civil and criminal penalties, including in certain circumstances a fine of not more than $ 500,000 and imprisonment of not more than five years, are provided for failure to file a report, supply information, and for filing a false or fraudulent report. Disclosure of the Social Security number is mandatory. [From TD F 90-22.1, 2nd paragraph of the "Privacy Act and Paperwork Reduction Act Note."]

The Internal Revenue Service also has other reporting requirements to be found in Part III (Foreign Accounts and Trusts) of Schedule B, Form 1040, as well as on Form 8938, Statement of Specified Foreign Financial Assets. A Bloomberg.com news report of August 3, 2011 demonstrates that the IRS means business. Robert E. Greely, who "pleaded guilty to filing a false U.S. tax return that concealed more than $ 13 million in two Swiss" bank accounts, "agreed to pay a civil penalty of $ 6.8 million for failing to file a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Account form." ["Former UBS Client Greely Admits to Hiding More than $ 13 Million From IRS by David Voreacos; citing U.S. v. Greely, 11-cr-374, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco)]

Why exactly are such assets of concern to the federal government, and why is the "failure to report" foreign assets a crime if it is not illegal to own them? The answer is to be found in the invasive nature of government. Governments demand obedience to their rules and regulations, whatever they may be. Governments also have an insatiable appetite for tax revenues. And furthermore, many governments have a record of confiscating the known assets of their citizens. Although the United States government has never required surrender of assets held abroad, it did confiscate all gold coins and gold bullion in 1933, and outlawed the ownership of gold by American citizens regardless of where it was located. But why would a citizen break the laws of the United States? An American might have several reasons. A person might be a conscientious objector against taxation. A citizen might think that foreign assets would be safe from seizure by the American government because they are outside its domestic jurisdiction. The citizen might also think that having assets abroad would provide a nest egg in case of the need to live abroad. Having foreign assets might provide a means to escape from government agents. During the Nazi era, how many German dissidents or German Jews would have been grateful to have had money outside of Germany, and how much easier would it have then been to leave Germany and escape the Gestapo?

There have been numerous books and articles comparing Nazi Germany and the United States of America. Leonard Peikoff''s 1982 book, THE OMINOUS PARALLELS, was subtitled "the end of freedom in America." Naomi Wolf's more recent publication, THE END OF AMERICA (2007) highlighted "the ten key steps that would-be despots take" when they assume control of a country. These include many that have already occurred in the Untied States:

...invoking the threat of internal and/or external dangers;
...establishing secret prisons where torture takes place;
...building paramilitary forces;
...creating a surveillance apparatus aimed at ordinary citizens;
...infiltrating citizen groups and organizations in an effort to disrupt their activities;
...arbitrarily arresting and detaining citizens and aliens;
...targeting key individuals who criticize the government and destroying their reputations;
...censoring and restricting the press;
...disparaging criticism of the government as "espionage" and dissent as "treason;"
...subverting the rule of law by ignoring constitutional provisions and due process.

No one can foretell how far these trends will affect the future, but they seem to reflect Carroll Quigley's 1966 prediction: Man's "freedom and choice will be controlled within very narrow alternatives by the fact that he will be numbered from birth and followed, as a number, through his educational training, his required military or other public service, his tax contributions, his health and medical requirements, and his final retirement and death benefits." [p. 866] That is the tragic part of the prediction in his book's title, TRAGEDY AND HOPE.

The hopeful part is reflected in what we can observe from history. No government lasts forever. The Nazi 1000 Year Reich was gone in less than two decades. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics lasted less than 100 years. In western Europe, after the Roman empire disappeared, Quigley observes that by 900 A.D. there was clearly a period "when there was no empire, no state, and no public authority ... . The state disappeared, yet society continued. ... It was discovered that man can live without a state; ... . It was discovered that economic life, religious life, law, and private property can all exist and function effectively without a state." [p. 83] Every generation faces natural and political challenges. Despite the tightening of the political noose, our own times are not unique. Some problems are more daunting than others, but life goes on. As Robert LeFevre used to say, the free man will find a way to be free.
_
Carl Watner is an American author and historian of libertarian studies. He has written articles for Reason magazine, The Libertarian Forum, and The Journal of Libertarian Studies. Visit his website, Voluntaryist.com.

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Ohio Police Claim 17-Yr-Old Pot Dealing High School Student A Drug "Kingpin"

Chris | InformationLiberation

First off, if what police claim in this case is true, this young man is a brilliant entrepreneur who should be celebrated. Second, if police consider finding a high school student who amassed a measly $6,000 in cash a drug "kingpin," they're a complete laughingstock joke.

Via ABC News: Ohio High School Kingpin Arrested in Major Drug Bust:

Ohio police have arrested an alleged drug kingpin, a 17-year-old accused of running a multimillion dollar ring that distributed high-grade marijuana through two school districts and netted $20,000 a month.

When cops raided the boy's bedroom at his parents' home, they found over $6,000 in cash, prosecutors said.

Authorities have not released the student's name, because he was a 16-year-old minor at the time he committed the alleged drug deals. Warren County Prosecutor David Fornshell said the boy will be tried as juvenile.

Cops first became aware of a high-grade hydroponic strain of marijuana being sold for $350-$400 an ounce in the Mason school district near Cincinnati last year. An undercover agent began making buys at Mason High School, where the teenager was a student, and uncovered a dealing operation headed by the arrested student.

"The undercover officer uncovered six students or former students working for that individual and trafficking drugs in two school districts," Fornshell told ABC News.

"The group supplied an overwhelming amount of marijuana in the Mason and King school districts," Fornshell said.

The story goes on to detail how the student narced on his suppliers, six other adults were arrested and police allegedly found three grow houses where 600 plants were seized "with an estimated street value of $3 million."

Such "street value estimates" are always comically overinflated, regardless what we know for sure is the price of pot in the area is going to be higher as a result of this bust and that will create even more incentive for others to traffic in the harmless plant.
_
Chris runs the website InformationLiberation.com, you can read more of his writings here. Follow infolib on twitter here.

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"...the boy will be tried as [a] juvenile". Of course. One law for some, a different law for others. Is that what they call "equal protection"? this kid couldn't be a drug kingpin in a free nation where the law doesn't control what a man ingests. the police and the lawmakers they encourage made these laws that, made this kid rich. ,,,and there's many more like him. The only way to keep pot out of the hands of kids is to legalize or decriminalize it.

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