Tag Archives: politics

We Can’t Have Freedom Without The Rule Of Law

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I know I have been ragging on the police a lot here lately and it has been taking a toll on me. Reading and writing about people who’s lives have been severely harmed at the hand of police such as Ramarley Graham and his family, have left me depressed and angry about the misdeeds done in the name of law enforcement by a few errant policemen. It is very likely that I do not have all the facts and maybe I am wrong in my assessment, but anytime a person looses their life as a result of this war or drugs it bothers me. For a man to die over a dime bag of marijuana is a horrible tragedy, and I can find no justification for it. But I also love this country and I want the Constitution to continue to be the guiding principle in the way our country is run. I want the freedoms and rights that we have to endure and be passed on to future generations. That freedom and those rights cannot be preserved without the rule of law. Law enforcement is just as crucial to preserving our Constitution and freedom as a standing army. Without it our society would descend into chaos and the strongest, the richest or the boldest would reign supreme and the weak would be at their mercy. Rape, robbery, murder would be rampant and we would all live in fear. The brave men and women in law enforcement have a very thankless job. Countless times every day, they put their lives on the line to preserve the rule of law and fulfill their vow to serve and protect. For that we owe them a debt of gratitude that they may never see. Most of their encounters with the public are not on good terms. They see people on some of the worst days of their lives and often their intervention is unwelcome and sometimes violent. No one wants a traffic citation and no one wants to be arrested and people’s reactions are sometimes hard to predict. Police never know what will happen on the next encounter with the public so they must remain vigilant, ready to make split second decisions concerning life and death, not only their own, but the public as well. I am grateful for those who stand in harm’s way, and risk their lives to enrich mine. At times I tend to lose sight of that and I will forever believe the war on drugs is the wrong approach to a social and medical problem. I will forever believe that paramilitary raids on people’s homes over marijuana is a bad idea. I will forever believe that marijuana should be treated the same as alcohol, but the job of the police is not to judge which laws are good or bad, but to enforce the laws passes by our elected officials. There are many people in law enforcement who want an end to the war on drugs and have become outspoken critics of it. Law Enforcement Against Prohibition is an organization of just such people. Judges, attorneys, and policemen from all across the country have united to oppose the war on drugs. They actively lobby Congress and give testimony in public venues to educate people about the failures and fallacies in the war on drugs and that gives me hope for a better future. The vast majority of men and women in law enforcement are good honest people who believe in the rule of law and hold themselves to a very high standard, but that is not news worthy, so the media focuses on the mistakes and misdeeds of the few. God Bless those who choose to serve this country and preserve our way of life. My beef is with Congress and the President, not with law enforcement.

Randy Johnson

Whats Wrong With Paramilitary Raids

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The war on drugs has led this nation to a point where citizens should have a real fear of encounters with police. All too often innocent people are shot in their own homes in a violent raid at the hands of paramilitary police looking for drugs. All too often these raids are at the wrong address. The police typically enter the home in the wee hours of the morning when people are asleep. When startled awake by police, breaking down your door and yelling, while storming through your house with flash bang grenades, assault weapons and lights, the victims of these invasions are in real danger. For one thing the police are likely scared and are looking for anything that may be perceived as a threat and ready to respond with deadly force to make sure they are not harmed. But people do not always react the way you would expect them to, especially when startled, scared, and half awake. Many people have firearms in their homes for self-defense, others may have a bat or a golf club and we all have the right to defend our homes. But anything in your hand, like a phone, or just having your hands where the police cannot see them is likely to cause them to panic and start shooting. The justification for this type of raid seems to be that the suspect may try to destroy evidence. In my line of thinking, if they have enough evidence for a paramilitary raid on someone’s home, then why are they worried about further evidence? This type of raid puts the whole family at risk. Typically the family dog is shot, the family is herded into one room in their underwear and held at gunpoint while the house is torn apart. Sometimes family members, even children are shot by mistake.  Wouldn’t it be safer to arrest the person at work or in a traffic stop, and then go search their house without the violence of a home invasion that endangers everyone involved. More and more we are treated as though we were the enemy of America instead of citizens. I think it is a pretty heavy hand in fighting a war against people who rarely ever fight back. In fact, I can’t remember a violent protest against marijuana prohibition, ever. The only violence I have seen would be from the crime syndicates who supply the drugs because our government won’t allow a legal source. Most of that violence is infighting between drug gangs that are fighting for turf to protect their market or settle disputes. All the other violence in the war on drugs is directed towards the users at the hand of law enforcement. It’s a very one-sided war, where drug users are not even allowed to own guns or ammunition by Federal Law. A right I might add, that was stripped from them without trial, representation or justification over a decade after the government declared war on them.

Police are almost never held accountable for mistakes in these raids. Accidental shootings are said to be justified if the police say they perceived a threat, even when they get the wrong house. Police have lost respect for our privacy and our rights against illegal searches and the Supreme Court has ruled that dogs may authorize searches. Some people have tried fighting back, by video taping the police’s actions as evidence of abuse, but this often brings wrath from law enforcement. People are arrested and phones or cameras are confiscated even though the Supreme Court has ruled that police can have no expectation of privacy in public law enforcement and video taping of police is legal. Congress seems to support these paramilitary raids by making military equipment and weapons available to local police either free or heavily discounted and offering grants for police departments to train for and conduct these raids. The Cato Institute tracks these raids and even has an interactive map highlighting errors made by law enforcement where innocent people are targeted by these raids and where needless deaths and injuries have occurred.

No Knock Raid preformed by Lindy (caution graphic images)

It all seems to swing on the premise that we as a society must eliminate drug use. Is it really that important to have the illusion of a drug free society that no one actually wants anyway? We all use drugs in one form or another. Anyone who claims otherwise in just not being honest. We use drugs to feel better. Most of the drugs we take are not curative, but only designed to alleviate some symptom and anyone who still believes alcohol is not a drug is delusional. We take drugs as a social catalyst, to relax, to correct sexual dysfunction, for restless legs, depression, pain relief, weight loss, to stay awake and for energy just to name a few reasons. It’s almost impossible to turn on a television without seeing an ad for some drug or a law firm wanting to represent people to sue a drug manufacturer for some unwanted side effect of a drug. Just because people use a drug, doesn’t mean they are sick or criminal, any more than you would consider that for those who use alcohol. We’re just people trying to get through life the best way we know how. What is so horrible about using marijuana that would justify a war against us?

Randy Johnson

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323848804578608040780519904.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEFTTopStories

http://reason.com/archives/2013/07/03/commit-any-felonies-lately

http://reason.com/blog/2012/08/27/shot-four-times-by-undercover-deputy-and

http://reason.com/blog/2012/12/17/attorney-leaks-dash-cam-video-of-police

http://reason.com/blog/2012/01/06/one-cop-dead-five-injured-in-would-be-ro

http://www.wmctv.com/story/20568356/mpd-officer

http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/police-militarization-an-interview-with-radley-balko

http://reason.com/blog/2013/03/04/the-dhss-latest-toy-we-have-gunports-so

http://www.courthousenews.com/2013/03/05/55432.htm

http://reason.com/blog/2013/05/16/45-million-settlement-for-family-of-unar

http://www.timesdispatch.com/opinion/our-opinion/columnists-blogs/bart-hinkle/hinkle-commit-any-felonies-lately/article_58344fc1-7d4f-584a-8d16-36a1b1f2cdc0.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/questions-arise-after-a-19-year-old-suspect-is-killed-in-frederick-raid/2013/06/14/de47aa2a-b809-11e2-92f3-f291801936b8_story.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/autopsy-report-gives-details-in-death-of-man-with-down-syndrome-at-md-theater/2013/03/27/43848e64-971a-11e2-b68f-dc5c4b47e519_story.html

http://reason.com/blog/2013/06/14/constitutionally-illiterate-michael-bloo

http://reason.com/blog/2013/07/11/cops-shoot-man-in-bed-shooting-ruled-jus

There Are Traitors Among Us

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With the news of Edward Snowden releasing classified information about NSA surveillance of Americans to the press, I am reminded that we have traitors among us. Edward Snowden was a contractor, working closely with the NSA in the direct role of surveillance of Americans by listening to phone calls, reading texts, email and observing web searches in search of terrorist activity. He fled to Hong Kong and exposed what he says is an unconstitutional breach of the Fourth Amendment of our Constitution by our government. He has been called a traitor by Dick Chaney and Nancy Pelosi but the claims he has made are really not new.

From The Guardian

Edward Snowden said “I, sitting at my desk, certainly had the authorities to wiretap anyone, from you, or your accountant, to a federal judge, to even the President if I had a personal email.”

Glenn Greenwald follow up: When you say “someone at NSA still has the content of your communications” – what do you mean? Do you mean they have a record of it, or the actual content?

Both. If I target for example an email address, for example under FAA 702, and that email address sent something to you, Joe America, the analyst gets it. All of it. IPs, raw data, content, headers, attachments, everything. And it gets saved for a very long time – and can be extended further with waivers rather than warrants.

User avatar for Anthony De Rosa

1) Define in as much detail as you can what “direct access” means.

2) Can analysts listen to content of domestic calls without a warrant?

2) NSA likes to use “domestic” as a weasel word here for a number of reasons. The reality is that due to the FISA Amendments Act and its section 702 authorities, Americans’ communications are collected and viewed on a daily basis on the certification of an analyst rather than a warrant. They excuse this as “incidental” collection, but at the end of the day, someone at NSA still has the content of your communications. Even in the event of “warranted” intercept, it’s important to understand the intelligence community doesn’t always deal with what you would consider a “real” warrant like a Police department would have to, the “warrant” is more of a templated form they fill out and send to a reliable judge with a rubber stamp.

http://reason.com/blog/2013/06/17/nsa-leaker-edward-snowden-the-us-governm

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/17/edward-snowden-nsa-files-whistleblower?commentpage=1

In an article at Reason magazine by Brian Doherty titled “5 Alarming Things We Should Have Already Known About the NSA, Surveillance, and Privacy Before Ed Snowden” Brian sheds light on (1) Three whistle blowers that have been prosecuted for leaking classified information about NSA surveillance on Americans (2) The governments use of Telcom companies like Google and Yahoo who had been given immunity from prosecution and law suits because of their cooperation with the NSA (3) Anyone who writes about and repeats what Edward Snowden has revealed about the NSA is a criminal under federal statute. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/798 (4) As early as 2008 anyone paying attention would know that communication privacy in America had become a joke with the NSA having a room at a huge ATT data center in California where data was funneled through NSA equipment where they captured everything. (5) The Fourth Amendment had already been gutted by the Supreme Court when it ruled that business data or data stored by a third-party was available for government scrutiny. http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-11/how-rand-paul-can-take-on-the-nsa.html

http://reason.com/archives/2013/06/18/5-alarming-things-we-should-have-already

It is clear that several if not all members of Congress and the President knew and were complicit in the NSA surveillance of Americans. This is a direct violation of our Fourth Amendment rights as guaranteed in the Constitution. According to the Oath of Office for Congress, they are required to support and defend the Constitution of The United States. I’m pretty sure that includes the Forth Amendment. If members of Congress refuse to honor their oath of office and are complicit in its circumvention, doesn’t that make them traitors as well?

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.

Randy Johnson

Marijuana Makes People Thinner

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A new study released my the American Journal of Medicine reports that those who use marijuana are thinner than those who do not. No explanation was cited although marijuana users have a 16% lower fasting insulin level and a higher caloric intake. Some how, one of the compounds or a combination of them improve metabolism in users of marijuana. Dr. Stuart Weiss, a professor and endocrinologist at the NYU School Of Medicine said that certain compounds from marijuana could be isolated and put into a pill to eliminate the toxic nature of marijuana. Already marijuana is one of the least toxic substances people consume so I assume they want to eliminate the high (my favorite part)  and the smoking part of the marijuana experience. I guess they are unfamiliar with cannabis edibles and vaporizers. Once again, our governments steadfast view that marijuana has no medicinal value, has come up short.

Randy Johnson

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2013/05/16/study-smoking-marijuana-could-make-you-thinner/

http://www.amjmed.com/article/S0002-9343(13)00313-6/fulltext

http://www.amjmed.com/article/S0002-9343(13)00200-3/fulltext

LEAP Urges The Justice Department to Honor the Will of Voters

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In a blog at the Law Enforcement Against Prohibition web site, http://www.leap.cc/, 73 judges, police officers, prosecutors, and federal officers signed a letter sent to Attorney General Eric Holder November 20th, urging him and the Justice Department to honor the will of the voters in Colorado and Washington.

The words of Executive director Neill Franklin say it best when considering the failure of the war against marijuana.

“We seem to be at a turning point in how our society deals with marijuana,” said
Neill Franklin, executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, the
group that authored the letter. “The war on marijuana has funded the expansion
of drug cartels, it has destroyed community-police relations and it has fostered
teenage use by creating an unregulated market where anyone has easy access.
Prohibition has failed. Pretty much everyone knows it, especially those of us
who dedicated our lives to enforcing it. The election results show that the
people are ready to try something different. The opportunity clearly exists for
President Obama and Attorney General Holder to do the right thing and respect
the will of the voters.”

The letter sent to Eric Holder can be read at; http://copssaylegalize.blogspot.com/2012/11/law-enforcement-leaders-ask-department.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+LawEnforcementAgainstProhibition+%28Law+Enforcement+Against+Prohibition%29

Please contact your representatives in Washington and let them know you also want an end to marijuana prohibition.

http://house.gov/

http://www.senate.gov/

http://www.whitehouse.gov/

Randy Johnson

itsmycountrytoo.org

We Have Lost a Great Statesman

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As we live our lives as Americans it is worth reflecting on where we came from. Our country started with boundless hope for a better tomorrow and a vast supply of new land and freedom to make our lives into whatever we might choose. We were led by great statesmen such as Ben Franklin, George Washington,Thomas Jefferson and Samuel Adams whose lives were devoted to the principles that all men are created equal and that freedom comes from God and not the will of men. Statesmen who gave us the Constitution as a guide to maintain our freedom and preserve our prosperity.

We have had several bumps in the road to where we are today, some we should be proud of, and others that should bring us shame and a change in our future direction.  Our government has been on the wrong side of many decisions in foreign and domestic affairs.The way our country was stolen from the Native Americans is deplorable as well as the enslavement of African-Americans. As a nation we have formed alliances with and supported the likes of Saddam Hussein, Manuel Noriega and Osama Bin Laden only to find later that the enemy of our enemy is not necessarily our friend. Instead of being a beacon for freedom and democracy we have used our military and wealth to try to buy or force compliance of our will on foreign powers. This intrusion into foreign governments is seen as arrogance by the rest of the world and causes hatred and mistrust of Americans. Only when America promotes freedom and democracy by being a shining beacon of fairness and tolerance for diversity will the rest of the world respond favorably. Consider how you would feel having foreign troops on United States soil in any capacity of authority. Would you not feel as though you were at war or at least resentful? We have no right to push our agenda on any other country. Our military should only be used in defense of our nation or nations in alliance with us, never as a tool to promote our agenda.

This country began with vast untapped riches of timber, iron, oil and agricultural land. With entrepreneurial freedom and the right to own property came a boom of growth and innovation. We quickly became the envy of the rest of the world as a monetary superpower and products made in America were sought throughout the world. Now we have become a nation of consumers of foreign products with an unpayable debt to foreign powers and an economy on the verge of collapse. We have so many regulations governing everything from how much water we can use to flush our toilets to what light bulbs are acceptable it is almost impossible for small business and consumers to comply and only partially enforceable due to the complexity and sheer number of rules and regulations that are currently part of our legal system. We have so many laws our government admits they are uncountable, yet thousands more pages of law are passed every year, and most limit our freedom or restrict business in some way or give special interest an advantage over another party. While it is right and good for government to protect us from fraud and promote an even playing field among business, it is wrong for government to favor one business over another. Interference and regulation drive the cost up for consumers and stifle innovation. Free enterprise can and will solve most economic problems in society if left to self regulate. The better mousetrap will prevail and the consumer will choose the best product at the best price and if a product or service cannot compete it would be replaced with a better more effective product or service. Companies would change with the needs of consumers or be replace with companies more in line with current needs or wants.

Our country was started on the principle that hard work and innovation were the essence of success. The principle that education builds a better society and furthers innovation. People in this country are our greatest asset, but only when they accept responsibility for their own successes and failures. It is not the job of government to take care of those capable of caring for themselves and arguable those that can’t. Before the social welfare systems of today local charities and churches accepted that role and were quite successful. While I would not care to draw a line as to how much social welfare we should maintain as a society, it is worth noting that a large percentage of Americans are not vested in how the government spends its tax revenue. We have a progressive tax structure that heaps the lions share of government expenses onto the wealthiest of Americans and lets the poorest have no income taxes and some even have a negative income tax where they receive more of a refund than they paid. As long as we have people voting on how our government spends tax money that do not pay into the system, we will have uncontrolled spending by our leaders in Washington. The progressive tax also contributes to the idea that those who pay more should have more influence on our representatives. Those representatives who would vote to limit government spending are quickly voted out as being against the poor, yet the money currently spent by our government on social programs is unsustainable. Representatives who do not lend an ear to the wealthiest in society quickly lose funding for relection.This has led us to a fiscal cliff and little hope to survive the economic future with any resemblance to our present prosperity and the entire burden of debt placed on the shoulders of the youngest Americans.

Ron Paul was a visionary who saw these problems in society and tried to fix them. He was an outspoken opponent of government excess and a tireless champion of freedom and the Constitution of the United States. These are the things that led to his popularity as a public servant and to the growing number of people who support smaller government and more freedom. Congressman Paul you are a great statesman and will be surely missed. It is my hope and prayer that you have inspired more people to become statesmen and to further your love for freedom and prosperity in America. Thank you and God bless you Ron Paul for your service to America and Americans.

Congressman Paul’s farewell to Congress speech can be read at :

http://paul.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2025&Itemid=60

Or watched at:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/28/ron-paul-democratic-party_n_2206788.html

Randy Johnson

itsmycontrytoo.org

Barney Frank’s Proposal to End Marijuana Prohibition

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I was just reading a bill proposed to the House of Representatives by Congressman Barney Frank. The Bill H.R 2306 is titled “Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2011” and can be read at http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/112/hr2306. The bill if passed would remove marijuana and its derivatives from the Controlled Substance Act, legalizing the sale, distribution and manufacture of marijuana from a federal standpoint as long as state and local laws are not violated. If state or local laws are violated a federal penalty of not more than a year in prison and or a fine under Title 18 of the United States Code may apply. The Bill, H.R.2306 would do nothing to change the requirements for federally mandated drug testing in the workplace and would serve to reinforce state and local prohibitions against marijuana, but would at least allow people to vote with their feet if they lived in a community that was very anti-marijuana. While the bill is not all we could hope for, the passage of this bill would be a large step in the right direction. The bill is still in committee and is given only a 3% chance of being passed but this is an excellent chance to call or write to your Congressmen and Senators and even the President and let them know you want the war against marijuana and the people who use it to end now. Also keep in mind we only have one Presidential candidate that would like to see marijuana legalized and that man is Gary Johnson. I believe Gary Johnson is a man who would take a stand for freedom and responsible government. Check out his website and compare his platform to that of Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.

http://www.garyjohnson2012.com/

http://www.barackobama.com/

http://www.mittromney.com/

The bill has 20 cosponsors, mostly Democrats with two Republican cosponsors, Congresswoman Dana Rohrabacher of California and Congressman Ron Paul of Texas. Other sponsors include Congressmen and Congresswomen, Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee, Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, Rep.Barbara Lee of California, Rep. Jerod Polis of Colorado, Rep. Elanor Norton of Washington DC, Rep. James McDermott of Washington, Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, Rep. Charles Rangel of New York, Rep. Fortney Stark of California, Rep. Michael Honda of California, Rep. Raul Gijalva of Arizona, Rep. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, Rep. Michael Capuano of Massachusetts, Rep. Sam Farr of Califonia, Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, Rep. James Moran of Virginia, Rep Jamis Schakowsky of Illinois and Rep. Chellie Pingree of Maine.

If any of these people are your Representatives this would be a good time to call or write and thank them for supporting your freedom. If they are not it might be a good time to look up your Representative and tell them of your displeasure. Their contact information can be found at http://house.gov/.

We can win this war if we stand united.

Randy Johnson

itsmycountrytoo.org