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From USA Today on August 7, 2014 - On Nov. 1, 2013, when TSA Officer Gerardo Hernandez was shot by a lone gunmen at Los Angeles International Airport and lay bleeding on the ground for more than half an hour and later died, Biles says that "a team of FAMs [federal air marshals] was less than 100 yards from the shooter yet failed to respond or engage the threat." Despite the fact that air marshals typically carry a Sig Sauer P229 and have high shooting skills, trained as they are to fire in the close confines of an aircraft cabin, Biles claims their inaction was "mostly due to a mentality and unwritten policy that exists at the FAMS by upper management that tells air marshals not to get involved." Still think the United States exists to keep you safe? My Channels: Facebook Twitter Patreon

Step 1: Send financial aid, advisers, weapons, and support to Middle Eastern or North African dictator...

By NASSER al-AWLAKI The New York Times SANA, Yemen — I LEARNED that my 16-year-old grandson, Abdulrahman — a United States citizen — had been killed by an American drone strike from news reports the morning after he died. The missile killed him, his teenage cousin and at least five other civilians on Oct. 14, 2011, while the boys were eating dinner at an open-air restaurant in southern Yemen. I visited the site later, once I was able to bear the pain of seeing where he sat in his final moments. Local residents told me his body was blown to pieces. They showed me the grave where they buried his remains. I stood over it, asking why my grandchild was dead. Nearly two years later, I still have no answers. The United States government has refused to explain why Abdulrahman was killed. It was not until May of this year that the Obama administration, in a supposed effort to be more transparent, publicly acknowledged what the world already knew — that it was responsible for his death....

Alana Goodman, the author of the Washington Free Beacon's hit piece against Rand Paul earlier this week ( my thoughts on it here ), favorably quoted a radical racist and terrorist leader in a 2008 article for the Massachusetts Daily Collegian. The piece, entitled "Bye George W. Bush, it's been Israel," was a letter of gushing praise for the outgoing Republican president. With the USA's own interests thrown in as an afterthought, Goodman clearly assesses George W. Bush's presidency as a glowing success for one reason: "In the past 60 years, no U.S. president has been a better friend to Israel. And for a country so desperately in need of friends, his assistance has been invaluable." Goodman's single most important criterion for the success of a US presidency is... how good it is for a single other country, not for the US. Not for the entire world. But the strangest part of a very strange article was near the end, where Goodman favorabl...

" If two criminals can bring an entire city to its knees like this with the help of the state, then terrorism truly is a winning strategy." -Anthony Gregory On his Facebook Wall, Gregory made the above statement in a lengthy and absolutely spot-on analysis of the police response to the Boston Marathon bombing. Over at The Independent Institute, he shared his concerns in greater depth in " What Is The Threshold for Martial Law? " Yesterday, Students for Liberty's blog carried a guest submission critical of Gregory's perspective on the issue entitled, " Civil Libertarians Overreact to Boston Police ." Highlights from the critique: 'Civil libertarians need to avoid the knee jerk reaction to police action. They should see it as their obligation to make sure society does not forget individual liberty in times of crisis, but looking critically at police action is not the same thing as looking constructively at police action. ... Wha...

And is she involved in Washington-led operations to arm Syrian rebel groups that include radical Islamic Jihadists, even members of Al Qaeda? Bruce Majors does some deep digging into this story at The Insomniac Libertarian. Check it out .

Capitol Switchboard: (202) 224-3121 Phone Script [Be polite, friendly, and passionate]: Capitol Operator: How may I direct your call? Patriot: Hi, I'm calling regarding CISPA. Could I please get Senator [Your Senator's Name]'s office? ( Probably Underpaid ) Intern: Hello. How can I help you? Patriot: [Say quickly, clearly, and with conviction] Hi! I'm calling about CISPA. I'm a resident of [City] and a [Occupation]. I just want to urge the Senator to vote "No" when CISPA reaches the Senate in order to protect the 1st and 4th Amendments of the Constitution, to protect the freedom of American citizens, and to send a clear message to the terrorists of the world that we will not let terror change our form of government and the liberties we enjoy. Thank you!

What? Bomb sniffing dogs at a major public event in a big city with so many people? Is it inconceivable that there would have been security at a big event because... there's often security at big events? If there was a bomb explosion at an airport, would the conspiracy-obsessed among us point out that the TSA was there when it happened, and say that it stinks of a false flag attack because of this, as they have been doing with the Boston Marathon bombing? Silly. The sad part is the real story with this observation isn't that it's evidence of an inside job. It's that it's evidence of police incompetence. The state can't keep you safe. At least it can't guarantee your safety. You can spend yourself into poverty to pay for the security state; you can give up your last liberty for some security; you can panic yourself into a state of paralyzed terror of living in a world where you just might die sooner than you'd hoped; and in the end, you just might...

Jesse Walker has some words of wisdom for us at Reason. These ideas are relevant in the aftermath of any terrible tragedy as it becomes a media spectacle: 'As soon as those two explosions tore through the Boston Marathon yesterday, dubious rumors and other false reports started surfacing in the press and in social media. So here's three tips for following stories like this one—lessons to keep in mind not just as events in Boston unfold, but the next time something this terrible happens...' Read the rest at Reason.

Justin Raimondo reports at AntiWar.com : It sickens me to write this, to report on the latest manifestation of the hate that has enveloped my country and spread out across the world like a giant oil spill, but the death of Shaima Alawadi, a 32-year-old Iraqi woman and mother of five, is a moral obscenity – a crime for which the War Party must take responsibility. On Wednesday, in the quiet San Diego suburb of El Cajon, California, the teenage daughter of Shaima Alawadi returned home to find her mother drowning in a pool of blood. There were signs of forced entry at the back of the house. Someone had broken in and beaten her mother nearly to death with a tire iron. Next to her body was a note: “Go back to your own country, you terrorist.” A similar note had been found tacked to the family’s door a few weeks earlier, but Shaima had dismissed it as a kid’s prank. This kind of hate is nothing new for San Diego. In 2010, a plan to build a mosque in nearby Temecula resulted in a s...

Talk about guts! I’ll be keeping my eye out to see if Jonathan Corbett ends up on the no-fly list sometime soon. The American engineer and blogger (his blog is TSA Out of Our Pants! ) released a video on YouTube last week entitled “ How To Get Anything Through TSA Nude Body Scanners .” In it, he exposes a critical flaw in the TSA’s $1 billion fleet of controversial “nude body scanners” as they are called by their critics (note that I’ll be calling them “nude body scanners” throughout the rest of this post). Read the rest of my article at The Silver Underground . Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

Earlier this month, Eric Holder essentially crowned Barack Obama King, granting him the power to kill his subjects in secret without due process. His legal reasoning was not only specious-- the entire debate centered on the 5th Amendment due process clause misses another part of the Constitution that explicitly deals with citizens who wage war against the United States... Read all about it in my latest article at The Independent Voter Network . Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

While this may be a little incestuous, as Davi Barker is one of my own colleagues, another blogger here at The Silver Underground , I just have to take the lead on Rebel of the Week for this week and award it to Davi and his friend Theresa for how they handled the TSA during their recent trip through an airport security checkpoint. Davi doesn’t know I’m doing this and will be surprised when he reads this on the blog. I just had to after reading his account of what happened in his Monday blog post entitled, “ TSA Today: Davi’s First Opt Out .” As I read it I couldn’t help but nod vigorously and even vocally exclaim my enthusiastic approval for what they did– but more importantly how they did it. If you haven’t read Davi’s story , you absolutely should ! Davi’s friend Theresa opted out of the body scanner and for the pat down. As Davi explains, the purpose of this is to hold up the line, inconvenience the TSA, and make a cumbersome process even more cumbersome. Maybe if enough of us ...

Here's Rand Paul on Freedom Watch with Judge Andrew Napolitano discussing his encounter with the police state TSA. Listen to the Judge's opening quip-- I laughed out loud: Meanwhile the TSA released footage of Sen. Rand Paul at Nashville International Airport. Rand Paul showed no visible signs of being “irate” as Nashville International Airport police asserted in an incident report, according to newly released video of a run-in with airport security: A security video of U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, at a Nashville International Airport checkpoint doesn’t show him being “irate,” as police asserted. The Kentucky Republican ran afoul of a millimeter-wave screening machine Tuesday morning that went off as he tried to enter the airport terminal. Airport officials asked him to undergo a pat-down, but he refused. An incident report describes the police response as being to “a passenger being irate.” But videos released by the Metro Airport Authority late Wednesday show P...

Even while campaigning, Ron Paul is working hard as a legislator to fight for our rights, from rushing to Washington from South Carolina to vote against a debt ceiling hike, to introducing a bill this week that would undo the outrageous provisions of the NDAA that allow the president and military to arrest and detain U.S. citizens on U.S. soil and hold them indefinitely without charges. The New American reports : Texas Congressman and GOP presidential contender Ron Paul is continuing his battle for liberty even as he is focused on his fight for the White House. This week, he introduced legislation to overturn the dangerous provisions found within the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Rep. Paul spoke on the House floor, specifically against Section 1021 of the NDAA, which includes language which permits the government to detain anyone who “substantially supported al Qaeda, the Taliban, or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United State...

In the video below, Professor of Law Jonathan Turley speaks to BBC on the National Defense Authorization Act of 2011 (NDAA), which allows for the indefinite military detention of US citizens without charge or trial in violation of the right to a jury trial guaranteed by the Constitution. Professor Turley addresses Obama's NDAA "signing statement" which seeks to downplay this broad new claim of authority, and the entire context of government encroachment on American rights since 9/11. He points out Obama's recent claim of presidential authority to order any American citizen assassinated without charge or trial when deemed suspected of terrorism, and the veil of secrecy which surrounds government proceedings for deciding who is and who is not a "terrorist." Hat tip: Daily Paul Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

“I walk with a walker — I really look like a terrorist,” she said sarcastically. “I’m tiny. I weigh 110 pounds, 107 without clothes, and I was strip-searched.” Last week, Lenore Zimmerman, an 85-year-old, Long Island grandmother was on her way to catch a flight when the TSA decided to make things hard for her. A true rebel, she requested to forgo the full body scanners which she worried could interfere with her defibrillator. That’s when the TSA whisked the 4-foot-11 grandmother away in her wheelchair to a private room and began removing her clothes. Standard TSA procedure in the case of a passenger who refuses a body scan is to administer a freedom fondle pat down. This practice has been controversial in itself, especially after the Department of Homeland Security issued enhanced pat down procedures that allow TSA screeners to be far more aggressive and intrusive with their hands when patting down passengers. But to take it a step further and strip search an 85-year-ol...

As far as I'm concerned, this is a sexual assault. They'd be leading me out of the airport in handcuffs if they tried something like this with my grandmother or great grandmother. From The New York Daily News : An 85-year-old Long Island grandmother says she plans to sue the TSA after a humiliating strip search on Tuesday by agents at JFK Airport. Lenore Zimmerman, who lives in Long Beach, says she was on her way to a 1 p.m. flight to Fort Lauderdale when security whisked her to a private room and took off her clothes. “I walk with a walker — I really look like a terrorist,” she said sarcastically. “I’m tiny. I weigh 110 pounds, 107 without clothes, and I was strip-searched.” TSA spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said a review of closed circuit TV footage from the airport shows “proper procedures were followed.” But Zimmerman, whose hunched back puts her at 4-foot-11, said her ordeal began after her son, Bruce, drove her to the JetBlue terminal for the Florida flight. She ...

Scumbag bin Laden, a meme whose time has come: "LOL. And then the Senate crumples up their Constitution like this!" -Scumbag bin Laden (...and I'm not too happy with the Senate either.) Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

"This week the Senate has been debating S. 1867, The National Defense Authorization Act, co-sponsored by John McCain and Carl Levin. Defenders of the legislation claim it is a codification of ten years of counter-terrorism policy in the United States. Detractors claim the legislation would allow the military to arrest and indefinitely detain anyone suspected of terrorism, including an American citizen. "According to a Washington Post editorial written by the co-sponsors, the legislation does not expand “the authority under which detainees can be held under custody.” National Review’s Andrew McCarthy claims S. 1867 “does not change existing laws in any meaningful way.” But fellow supporter Lindsey Graham claimed the bill would allow indefinite detention “American citizen or not” because the bill will “basically say in law for the first time that the homeland is part of the battlefield. . . . "Shall we just abolish civil courts? If the objective is to get a conviction...