A Government Big Enough To Give You Everything You Want, Is Strong Enough To Take Everything You Have - Thomas Jefferson

For lack of a better way of putting this, you have got to be kidding me!
It's bad enough that we have people out of work, and in many cases directly attributable to the current administrations policies. Now we a Federal Government that is offering bonouses (bribes) to individual states for signing up the most Food Stamp recipients.

It seems more and more the assumed role of the Federal Government is to make all of us 100% dependent on Government, for 100% of our needs. As Thomas Jefferson said, "A Government Big Enough To Give You Everything You Want, Is Strong Enough To Take Everything You Have."

State Gets $5Mil Bonus For Food Stamp Sign Up

In its quest to promote taxpayer-funded entitlement programs, the Obama Administration has actually rewarded one state with a $5 million bonus for its efficiency in adding food-stamp recipients to already bulging rolls.


It’s part of the administration’s campaign to eradicate “food insecure households” by improving access and increasing participation in the government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Incidentally, the program was recently changed to SNAP to eliminate the stigma that comes with a name like food stamps. Just a few months ago the federal agency that administers the program, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), launched a multi-million-dollar initiative to recruit more food-stamp participants even though the number of recipients has skyrocketed in the last few years.

This week Oregon officials bragged that the USDA has given the state $5 million in “performance bonuses” for ensuring that people eligible for food benefits receive them and for its “swift processing of applications.” The money comes on the heels of a separate $1.5 million award from the feds for making “accurate payments of food stamp benefits to clients.” So welfare recipients are clients? .

It marks the fifth consecutive year that Oregon has been “recognized” by the federal government for “exceptional administration” of the entitlement program, according to the announcement posted on the state’s Department of Human Services web site. The state official who runs SNAP assures that her staff will “continue working very hard to exceed expectations” so that Oregonians can “put healthy foods on their table quickly.”

Could this be why the number of food-stamp beneficiaries in Oregon has increased dramatically in the last few years? Since 2008 the state has seen a 60% boost in the number of food-stamp recipients, which means that more than 780,000 people (one out of five Oregonians) get groceries compliments of Uncle Sam.

As if this weren’t bad enough, the feds are also giving the state a two-year grant to test an “innovative approach” to the food-stamp “client eligibility review process.” This will make it even easier for people to get food stamps because it grants state officials a waiver that allows them to grant the benefit without interviewing the candidate.

The Federal Reserve Wants To Monitor All Who Oppose Them In Real Time

If you believe Ben Bernanke and his merry band of money printers don’t care about what you think, then consider the latest product development proposal from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. According to RFP (Request for Proposal) 6994, the Fed intends to build a real-time monitoring solution capable of mining and aggregating data across social networks like Facebook and Twitter, alternative news web sites and blogs, video sharing web sites, and mainstream media outlets.

Not only do they care about what you think, they want to know exactly who you are, what language you speak, who you’re talking to, where you’re getting your information, who you are sharing it with, and what your sentiment and emotional state is in reference to that specific moment.

According to portions of the RFP, the Fed intends to collect, aggregate and analyze data, as well as to us this information to direct their own actions and responses. By identifying “crisis” points with the new listening platform, the Fed will be able to specifically target information being put out by news web sites and even individual users (in forums or comments) and then respond to that information in kind by either contacting “key bloggers” and “influencers,” or simply ramping up their public relations machine to either discredit the message, or simply rewrite the message through the spread of news releases to major internet distribution channels and heavily trafficked social networks.

The Federal Reserve’s Criteria for its Sentiment Analysis And Social Media Monitoring Solution are described, in part, below:

Description: Federal Reserve Bank of New York (“FRBNY”) is extending to suppliers an invitation to participate in anSentiment Analysis And Social Media Monitoring Solution RFP bid process. The intent is to establish a fair andequitable partnership with a market leader who will who gather data from various social media outlets and news sources and provide applicable reporting to FRBNY. This Request for Proposal (“RFP”) was created in an effort tosupport FRBNY’s Social Media Listening Platforms initiative.
…
I. Introduction

Social media platforms are changing the way organizations are communicating to the public Conversations are happening all the time and everywhere.

There is need for the Communications Group to be timely and proactively aware of the reactions and opinions expressed by the general public as it relates to the Federal Reserve and its actions on a variety of subjects.

II. Social Listening Platforms

Social media listening platforms are solutions that gather data from various social media outlets and news sources. They monitor billions of conversations and generate text analytics based on predefined criteria. They can also determine the sentiment of a speaker or writer with respect to some topic or document.

The information gathered can guide the organizations public relations group in assessing the effectiveness of communication strategies.

Here are some of the services it can offer:

■Track reach and spread of your messages and press releases

■Handle crisis situations

■Continuously monitor conversations

■Identify and reach out to key bloggers and influencers

■Spot emerging trends, discussions themes and topics

A. Geographic scope of social media sites

The solution must support content coming from different countries and geographical regions. It should also support multiple languages.

B. Content and Data Type:

The solution must be able to gather data from the primary social media platforms –Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Forums and YouTube. It should also be able to aggregate data from various media outlets such as: CNN, WSJ, Factiva etc.

C. Reports and Metrics

The solution must provide real-time monitoring of relevant conversations. It should provide sentiment analysis (positive, negative or neutral) around key conversational topics.

It must be able to provide summaries or high level overviews of a specific set of topics. It should have a configurable dashboard that can easily be accessed by internal analysts or management. The dashboard must support customization by user or group access.

The solution should provide an alerting mechanism that automatically sends out reports or notifications based a predefined trigger.

D. FRBNY Technology Integration

The solution must be able to integrate with existing FRBNY technologies such as: Google Search appliance, Lotus notes suite and web trends.It must have support for single sign on or windows integrated authentication.

Sourced Via Zero Hedge and Scribd

What’s important to note is that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York does not intend to build a completely new platform. Their intention is to establish a relationship with an existing market leader – likely one of the information mining and gathering platforms already in existence, such as a large search engine – with whom they can then integrate their systems.

The key point is that the technology for what the Federal Reserve is looking for already exists and it’s being used not just by private entities, but government as well, as we pointed out in Americans, Everything You Do Is Monitored. The National Security Agency (NSA), which at one time was responsible for foreign communications monitoring, is expanding its duties to domestic monitoring of all electronic communications in America and is in the process of building a one million squarefo

Author: Mac Slavo
Date: September 26th, 2011
Website: www.SHTFplan.com
Copyright Information: Copyright SHTFplan and Mac Slavo. This content may be freely reproduced in full or in part in digital form with full attribution to the author and a link to www.shtfplan.com. Please contact us for permission to reproduce this content in other media formats.

Still think Big Brother, or in this case Big Sis, isn't watching you?

If you're the owner of a fairly new General Motors product, you may want to take a close look at the most recent OnStar terms and conditions. As it turns out, the company has altered the parameters under which it can legally collect GPS data on your vehicle.


Originally, the terms and conditions stated that OnStar could only collect information on your vehicle's location during a theft recovery or in the midst of sending emergency services your way. That has apparently changed. Now, OnStar says that it has the right to collect and sell personal, yet supposedly anonymous information on your vehicle, including speed, location, seat belt usage and other information.

Who would be interested in that data, you ask? Law enforcement agencies, for starters, as well as insurance companies. Perhaps the most startling news to come out of the latest OnStar terms and conditions is the fact that the company can continue to collect the information even after you disconnect the service. If you want the info to be cut off all together, you'll have to specifically shut down the vehicle's data connection. If that sounds scary, you should check out a full breakdown of the new policies here.

Read Zach Bowman's full article here

Liberals complain about lack of infrastructure.

Well, maybe they ought to worry about something else.
h/t - doug ross

San Fransico Cops Miss Suspect And Shoot Two Bystanders

According to KCBS and Bay City News Service, two bystanders were hit by gunfire after an officer-involved shooting in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood early this morning.

According to police, at 2:06 a.m., officers located a wanted person in the 400 block of Broadway. The suspect ran away from police and produced a weapon, they said.

Officers then fired at the suspect, who was not hit. However, two bystanders were hit by the gunfire. They were taken to a hospital to be treated for their injuries that are not believed to be life-threatening, according to police.

The suspect, who was not wounded, was taken into custody. The suspect’s weapon was recovered, police said.

Police did not have information available about how many officers were involved in the shooting or how many rounds were fired. Read More Here

You know, the last time the bay area cops were quick to shoot at someone, they shot a man in the back, whose only offense was resisting arrest.  Oh, did I mention that suspect was killed? How about that he was unarmed? How about the fact that the officer that shot him is still on the job? Or that there was a huge public protest at the same BART station? Or that when a second protest was planned, BART had all of the cellular phone service shut down in the area to thwart protestors?

Man, it's great to live in a free country where our right to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated!
I sure am glad we don't live in some sort of 1984 Police State.

Bitter Patriot Endorses Ron Paul For President, I Mean, Why Not?

Obama openly admits that he would like to be a dictator

Obama is already working well outside of his Constitutional authority in many areas.  We have some 42 "Czars" running a bureacracy outside of Congress, we have 6 or 7 "military actions" (Wars) going on without Congressional approval, the new UnConsititutional 12 person "Super Congress" to propose all spending bills, enough Executive Orders to wall paper the Library of Congress and now the president has finally come out and admitted that he wishes he didn't have a Congress.

Facing growing opposition to his economic proposals and dimming prospects that Congress will pass other parts of his agenda, President Obama told a Hispanic group in Washington Wednesday that when it comes to the issue of immigration, "I'd like to work my way around Congress."

"As I mentioned when I was at La Raza a few weeks back, I wish I had a magic wand and could make this all happen on my own," Obama told a meeting of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. "There are times where -- until Nancy Pelosi is speaker again -- I'd like to work my way around Congress."

What have we become?

Check points in order to travel?

The "Blue Glove of  Love" and the high tech "Cube of Submission"

Are we safer? Have your individual Liberties been infringed?

Do you Care? 

9/11 - Ten years later.

Don't get me wrong.   I say a prayer, daily,  for all of those that lost their lives 10 years ago.  Their lives were ripped from them and their loved ones through no fault of their own, and for that I mourn, and you should too.
9/11/2001 was a day just like any other for me, up early, a 60 mile drive to where I needed to be that morning. At the time, I was working in an industry that required me to travel to wherever my customers were that day.  So, on that beautiful, blue skied, crisp, cool, Fall, Tuesday morning, I drove from Savannah, GA over to Hilton Head, SC to meet with my customer. I was running a little late and called the customer to say so, he seemed a little preoccupied on the phone. He told me that a plane crash had happened in New York City, and the news was a little strange, but to come ahead for the meeting.
I tuned in to listen to the news on the radio. Indeed a plane had hit one of the World Trade Center towers and it was believed to be a commuter plane or maybe even a small private plane. Odd, but not life changing.
Over the course of the next few hours, all of our lives would change.  The news of the second plane hitting the WTC, seemed to confirm what we all feared, it was in fact a Terror Attack.
My first thought was about the tens of thousands of people that worked in those buildings.  I have been in the WTC a few times and I knew that on a typical Tuesday morning there could have been as many as 25,000 people in either building. Thank God that it was really early in the day, and there weren't anywhere near that many people at work yet.
The official story of 9/11 is well documented and told every day by thousands of people.  I don't buy it.
In the entire history of steel framed buildings, only 3 have ever been destroyed by fire, and all on the same day. WTC buildings 1, 2 and 7 on 9/11/2001. That's a huge coincidence, don't you think?
A typical office with all of it's paper, wood, polyester carpets, furniture, etc... burns at approx 1400 degrees F.  Jet fuel is basically Kerosene. Jet A, JP4, JP5, etc... are all kerosene refined to various degrees of purity.  Under the best of conditions, kerosene burns at atmospheric pressure with typically available oxygen at somewhere within a few degrees of 500 degrees F.
Steel melts at a temperature of 2600 degrees F. There is no way in hell that a kerosene fire would melt steel and cause what looks like a free fall demolition of a steel framed building, even with the addition of the office supplies, furniture, carpet, etc...
I am certain to be labeled a kook, a freak, a hater of Liberty, a Muslim sympathizer, you name it. But, I cannot in good conscience not seek the TRUTH. Just look at the evidence with an open mind and make your own decision. The following links provide some information. Do your own research.

http://wtc7.net/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7_World_Trade_Center
http://911research.wtc7.net/
http://www.911truth.org/

I don't want to attempt to tell you what to believe, but I want you to seek the truth.  Since 9-11-2001 the United States of America has been complicit in the deaths of nearly 1.7 million people in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, Libya, Syrian and perhaps a few other countries, as a result of the official story.
Seek the Truth.

Is this what they mean by leadership?

I guess it's leading us down a deep dark hole.

New York Judge Doesn't Understand The 2nd Amendment

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (CN) - Five Westchester residents and the Second Amendment Foundation cannot relax a law forcing citizens to demonstrate proper cause before they pack heat on public streets, a federal judge ruled.


New York courts have interpreted "proper cause" as having a "special need for self-protection" as compared to the general population.

"I hold that the state has an important government interest in promoting public safety and preventing crime," U.S. District Judge Cathy Seibel wrote in an order dismissing a class action challenging the regulation.

Alan Kachalsky, Christina Nikolov, Eric Detmer, Johnnie Nance and Anna Marcucci-Nance say their applications for full-carry permits were rejected, even though they had all been trained in firearms and had spotless criminal records.

Kachalsky claimed he had proper cause because "we live in a world where sporadic random violence might at any moment place one in a position where one needs to defend oneself or possibly others," court documents say.

Judge Susan Cacace, his licensing officer, found that this explanation did not distinguish him from anybody else seeking a permit.

Nikolov said she deserved a license because she passed three firearms safety courses with the National Rifle Association, showed a "calm demeanor" as a pilot and flight instructor, and had a higher likelihood of being the victim of violence as a transgender woman.

Rejecting her request, Judge Jeffrey A. Cohen explained that a specific threat of violence against her was "conspicuously absent" from her application.

Nance and Marcucci-Nance cited no special needs for full-carry permits, Judge Robert K. Holdman found.

Detmer thought he satisfied the proper cause requirement as a federal law enforcement officer with the U.S. Coast Guard, but Judge Albert Lorenzo said his application contained "no justification" for a full-carry permit.

Gaining the support of the Second Amendment Foundation, the five applicants filed a federal class action lawsuit against Westchester County and the four judges serving as licensing officers in late 2010.

On Friday, Judge Seibel agreed that the plaintiffs had standing to pursue the case, but she granted summary judgment to the defendants sua sponte on the grounds that the state had the duty to protect public safety.

In a footnote, she noted that the state attorneys argued in affidavits that gun crimes are linked to general availability, and citizens with concealed handguns can endanger cops stopping them.

An affidavit also said that the "majority of criminal homicides and other serious crimes are committed by individuals who have not been convicted of a felony and would receive permits to carry concealed weapons without the 'proper cause' requirement."

Data from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives showed that 227 firearms were recovered during the first half of 2009 in Westchester, more than double those recovered in nearby Orange County and several times more than those recovered in Dutchess, Rockland, Sullivan and Putnam.

The report also cited 132 weapon offenses in the Westchester region.

Judge Seibel entered the 60-page opinion on Friday, preceding a particularly bloody Labor Day weekend in which 48 people were shot in New York City. Mayor Mike Bloomberg called for stricter gun-control laws Tuesday.
By ADAM KLASFELD Courthouse News Service

Please Define Leadership For Me One More Time

Currently, 15% of of coal fired power plants are on the chopping block, not by law but by bureaucratic fiat.

This is the same bureaucracy that brought us Cash for Clunkers, which removed  millions of perfectly good cars off used market, destroyed the wealth of their owners and put people into debt.

The same bureaucracy that ran guns into the hands of Mexican drug gangs, incidentally used to kill US Law Enforcement personnel, ultimately to be used in gutting the 2nd Amendment.

The same bureaucracy that allowed Monsanto to corner the seed market with GMO crops and under penalty of law disallow farmers to keep any of their harvest for seed.

The same bureaucracy that sends SWAT teams out to intimidate Amish farmers, Guitar manufacturers, Raw Food Stores, and little girls selling lemonade.

CIA shifts focus to killing targets - The Washington Post

CIA shifts focus to killing targets - The Washington Post

So, exactly how many illegal, undeclared, unconstitutional, kinetic military actions are we involved in now?