Some thoughts on Joe Stack from Global Guerillas:

Here are some quick notes on Joe Stack’s violence and the acts of others (there have been many recently).  I tend to view people like Joe Stack as canaries in the coal mine — people on the margins, mentally and situationally, that fatally explode at the early onset of severe societal and economic pressure.  Here’s what’s driving them:

    * Extreme frustration/hopelessness.  A great many people have seen little to no success in the US commercial sector despite a considerable effort, for decades.  For workers below the median wage this current environment is a depression — from the duration to the rate of the un/underemployment.  Any status gain they might have achieved before this occurred is now gone.
    * Few mitigating influences.  Most of the community and familial structures that historically buffered people in the US against economic failure have been ravaged.  Even functional families are now atomized. 
    * Rage and a loss of government legitimacy.  Time worn beliefs that have underpinned the American experiment, such as the idea of a level playing field, the correlation between hard work and success, and the underlying basic fairness of our system have been savaged by the government response to the financial crisis.  Frankly, the perception of many is that Wall Street’s pros are guilty of criminal fraud and even traitorous behavior (they damaged the security and future of the US for personal benefit).  Worse, they not only avoided punishment, they were rewarded for it.

Will we see more of this violence?  Most assuredly.  Further, as this economic failure matures, damaging ever greater numbers of people, we may see less violence against people and more economic violence (disruption) in an attempt to extract from society as great a cost as they possibly can.  A couple of hundred people, using the super-empowerment afforded by network disruption, could easily cause countless billions in economic damage.  A thousand people? 

On December 17th, 2009, President Obama issued an executive order that effectively exempted Interpol, the International Criminal Police Organization, from Constitutional limitations. The "property and assets" of Interpol are now "immune from search" and confiscation, and its archives "inviolable."

What does this mean? "This international law enforcement body now operates – now operates – on American soil beyond the reach of our own top law enforcement arm, the FBI, and is immune from Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) requests."

For an added and disturbing wrinkle, INTERPOL’s central operations office in the United States is within our own Justice Department offices. They are American law enforcement officers working under the aegis of INTERPOL within our own Justice Department. That they now operate with full diplomatic immunity and with "inviolable archives" from within our own buildings should send red flags soaring into the clouds.

One might respond to such a thing with phrases along the lines of "Holy Shit."

The linked article goes on to suggest that this is a precursor to returning the United States to the status of signatory to the International Criminal Court, probably with the purpose of allowing foreign governments to prosecute American citizens for war crimes. That’s a travesty in itself. It would subvert American sovereignty to a world government, which seems to be one of Barack Obama’s end-games. But the directly disturbing (if not terrifying) part is that the Justice Department is apparently operating side-by-side with these international bodies already, and has already figured out how to operate outside its Constitutional limits.

Some of us wonder if it’s possible that we’ll wake up one day and America-as-we-know-it will be gone. I think it’s more accurate to say it’s already gone. The framework for flipping the switch seems to be pretty much in place: a rubber-stamp Congress; international super-constitutional police forces; control of health care, industry, and financial systems; Marxist control by labor unions of the education system and the low-skilled work force; overextended military focused on wars overseas. A financial regulatory system that awards the wealthy and privileged at the expense of the lesser 99%.

I don’t know what there is that could stop it at this point.

"In the long run we can’t continue to spend as if deficits don’t have consequences, as if waste doesn’t matter, as if the hard earned tax dollars of the American people can be treated like monopoly money, that’s what we’ve seen time and time again, Washington has become more concerned about the next election than the next generation." – Barack Hussein Obama

You don’t like how spending money is political? You mean like how you need to get health care passed through the Senate by Christmas so that you can sign it in time for the State of the Union?

I mean, seriously, Barr, you’ve quadrupled the deficit in the last year. You’ve expanded TARP and demanded we pass a stimulus that didn’t do what you said it would. The fed had to create money out of nothing to pay for it, and you’re concerned about politicizing the budget? And this while you praise the Senate for using taxpayer money to buy the 60 votes you need to enact an illegal and immoral tyranny over the entire economy?

I don’t think so.

But I’m sure some toga-wearing objector wished he would have at least attempted a little passive-aggressive negotiation before Nero struck his match.

Here’s my latest letter to Senators Murray and Cantwell. I find it grossly incompetent that, by their own Democrat standards, they’ve been such relatively cheap whores when it comes to health care reform. Mary Landrieu got a nice chuck of change before she bent over for Harry. Nelson at least held out for some Astroglide.

Dear Senator,

I am one of the clear majority of Americans who oppose the health care reform bill currently proposed by the Senate. I still oppose it, but since it’s become clear that your Democrat party will pass this monstrosity one way or another, I would expect you to at least stand up for your neighbors and the citizens of your state by demanding that Washington receive the same or similar concessions that were granted to the states of Louisiana and Nebraska to buy their Senators’ votes.

Senator Landrieu of Louisiana proudly claimed that she’d secured $300 billion worth of federal funding for her state in order to secure her vote.

Senator Nelson of Nebraska has apparently secured full federal funding of Medicare for his state.

There may have been more concessions to other Senators, since the full text of the bill that you’ve committed to vote for hasn’t been seen or read by anybody outside of Majority Leader Reid’s office. But I fully expect you, as a Democrat Senator in good standing, to fight for the same kinds of "bonus" dollars for the citizens of the State of Washington that other, less influential Senators received.

Merry Christmas

Senator Murray’s Pigshit

A bill that includes more than $4.5 million in funding for a new waterfront market, new buses and a Wenatchee hospital passed the U.S. House Wednesday.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-WA, said Wednesday that she also expects the final version of the transportation and economic spending bill to pass the U.S. Senate before being sent to President Barack Obama for his signature.

The bill earmarks $1.4 million to help provide for the acquisition and renovation of the Pybus building on Worthen Street. The Pybus building will be home to the regional farmers market and the Wenatchee Food Bank and Distribution Center.

Nearly $2.5 million is included for Link Transit to purchase eight 40-foot, low-floor commuter buses and one 35-foot urban bus. A news release from Murray said the buses would allow Link to expand transit services to seven days per week and expand current operating hours.

Why should federal money (money that comes from people who definitely don’t live in Wenatchee, Washington) be spent on farmers’ markets and commuter buses in Wenatchee, Washington?

If farmers in Wenatchee want a market, shouldn’t farmers and the City of Wenatchee deal with that? Why should people in St. Louis or Miami or even Tacoma be on the hook for commuter buses in Wenatchee?