So, maybe there aren’t obvious links in what follows. Just like “metadata”, however, when you start putting together small pieces of information, a large picture emerges.
From Investor’s Business Daily:
While Your Phone Calls Are Tracked & Stored – Obama’s Snooping Excludes Mosques
Homeland Insecurity: The White House assures that tracking our every phone call and keystroke is to stop terrorists, and yet it won’t snoop in mosques, where the terrorists are.
That’s right, the government’s sweeping surveillance of our most private communications excludes the jihad factories where homegrown terrorists are radicalized.
Since October 2011, mosques have been off-limits to FBI agents. No more surveillance or undercover string operations without high-level approval from a special oversight body at the Justice Department dubbed the Sensitive Operations Review Committee.
Who makes up this body, and how do they decide requests? Nobody knows; the names of the chairman, members and staff are kept secret.
We do know the panel was set up under pressure from Islamist groups who complained about FBI stings at mosques. Just months before the panel’s formation, the Council on American-Islamic Relations teamed up with the ACLU to sue the FBI for allegedly violating the civil rights of Muslims in Los Angeles by hiring an undercover agent to infiltrate and monitor mosques there.
Before mosques were excluded from the otherwise wide domestic spy net the administration has cast, the FBI launched dozens of successful sting operations against homegrown jihadists — inside mosques — and disrupted dozens of plots against the homeland.
[…]
How are you feeling about your metadata these days?
Apparently, only when you are silent can your information be protected.
And then there’s this.
Over at Politico I saw something which alarmed me.
Jeff Duncan questions IRS gun usage
Rep. Jeff Duncan wants to know why IRS law enforcement agents are training with AR-15 rifles.
As chairman of the House Homeland Security oversight subcommittee, Duncan (R-S.C.) toured a federal law enforcement facility in late May and noticed agents training with the semi-automatic weapons at a firing range. They identified themselves as IRS, he said.
“When I left there, it’s been bugging me for weeks now, why IRS agents are training with a semi-automatic rifle AR-15, which has stand-off capability,” Duncan told POLITICO. “Are Americans that much of a target that you need that kind of capability?”
While Duncan acknowledges that the IRS has an enforcement division, he questions if that level of firepower is appropriate when they could coordinate operations with other agencies, like the FBI, especially in a time of austerity.
“I think Americans raise eyebrows when you tell them that IRS agents are training with a type of weapon that has stand-off capability. It’s not like they’re carrying a sidearm and they knock on someone’s door and say, ‘You’re evading your taxes,’” Duncan said.
[…]
This gives new meaning to the IRS “targeting” conservative groups. And there is the whole “If you are conservative, shut up or we’ll get you!” aspect.
In the meantime, the religious freedom of some Americans is being purposely eroded by the Obama Administration. Don’t forget the HHS mandate. “Do you embrace the Catholic Faith? Keep your beliefs out of the public square and obey when we tell you to violate them.”
And while I am at it, I read a piece by Todd Starnes. Get this!
Obama ‘Strongly Objects’ to Religious Liberty Amendment
The Obama Administration “strongly objects” to a proposed amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act on Wednesday that would have protected the religious rights of soldiers – including evangelical Christian service members who are facing growing hostility towards their religion.
The amendment was authored by Rep. John Fleming, R-La. It would have “required the Armed Forces to accommodate ‘actions and speech’ reflecting the conscience, moral, principles or religious beliefs of the member.”
The Obama Administration said the amendment would have a “significant adverse effect on good order, discipline, morale, and mission accomplishment.”
“With its statement, the White House is now endorsing military reprimands of members who keep a Bible on their desk or express a religious belief,” Fleming told Fox News. “This administration is aggressively hostile towards religious beliefs that it deems to be politically incorrect.”
Fleming introduced the amendment after a series of high-profile incidents involving attacks on religious liberty within the military- including an Air Force officer who was told to remove a Bible from his desk because it might give the impression he was endorsing a religion.
He said there are other reports of Christian service members and chaplains being punished for their faith.
[…]
Boy oh Boy! Where can I sign up to be a military chaplain? These men need our prayers and our support. Use my link on the sidebar.
Good grief? What are we becoming?
Ironically, today is the anniversary of the 1963 SCOTUS decision Miranda v. Arizona!
Happy 50th Birthday Miranda Warning!
Do you still have the right to remain silent even when you haven’t committed a crime?
