Gee, I wonder what it could be....

Merry Christmas everyone! ~:)

The Phantom

Rawesome Foods Update: Big Brother was watching!

My previous post about police over-reach reminded me of the Rawesome Foods raid by the Dept. of Agriculture SWAT team. So I Googled for a news update, and found this:

In court proceedings last Thursday, LA County prosecutor Kelly Sakir turned over 1,097 pages of "discovery" documents to the defendants' attorneys, revealing an utterly astonishing campaign of spying, surveillance, and entrapment that has targeted Rawesome Foods for at least the last two years.

NaturalNews has learned that at least three undercover operatives were hired by the LA County prosecutor's office to infiltrate Rawesome Foods and sign up as members while covertly filming their actions using hidden cameras in their purses. These cameras almost certainly captured video footage of other members at Rawesome Foods, meaning the government itself stands in violation of wiretapping laws that it often uses against innocent civilians who try to videotape traffic stops by local police.

NaturalNews has also learned that there are 42 discs of additional evidence which has been gathered by the LA County prosecutor — including interviews with the operatives, covert camera footage, documents and even video footage from a surveillance pole camera that LA County set up across the street to spy on Rawesome Foods.

NaturalNews makes the point that LA County has spent millions of dollars and countless hours of police time on a food club. Which is utterly insane, given the open warfare in the streets between rival drug gangs that also happens in LA County. Then there's the minor detail that LA County and the entire State of California are for all intents and purposes BANKRUPT and very close to defaulting on their bond payments.

One case, who cares right? But in -other- news we learn that all kinds of police departments all over the USA are getting Predator drones to use for surveillance as they see fit.

...Local police say they have used two unarmed Predators based at Grand Forks Air Force Base to fly at least two dozen surveillance flights since June. The FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration have used Predators for other domestic investigations, officials said.

"We don't use [drones] on every call out," said Bill Macki, head of the police SWAT team in Grand Forks. "If we have something in town like an apartment complex, we don't call them."

The drones belong to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which operates eight Predators on the country's northern and southwestern borders to search for illegal immigrants and smugglers. The previously unreported use of its drones to assist local, state and federal law enforcement has occurred without any public acknowledgment or debate.

Congress first authorized Customs and Border Protection to buy unarmed Predators in 2005. Officials in charge of the fleet cite broad authority to work with police from budget requests to Congress that cite "interior law enforcement support" as part of their mission.

As we know from Afghanistan, an "unarmed Predator" can be made into an armed one in the field by guys with wrenches. Because that's how the Predator got armed in the first place, some Air Force gearheads hacked one together to go whack some Taliban fighters who were hiding really well.

So unless I'm hopelessly paranoid, it won't be long before local police in Podunk North Carolina can call in air strikes on targets they chose. Now, I'm not saying that its completely impossible that Podunk SC coppers might need an air strike some day. 9/11 showed that to be wrong. What I'm saying is that given the equipment, some guy one of these days will want to find a reason to use it.

If you're rolling your eyes having read that, please look above at the multi-million dollar, sooooper high tech surveillance case assembled against the dreaded Milk Pirates of LA. Oh, and the dangerous criminals the Predator drone was used on in North Dakota in the3 LA Slimes story, were they terrorists? Murderers? Drug smugglers? Black market gun dealers?

Nope. Cattle rustlers. For real. They used a Predator B to catch frickin' cattle rustlers. Total value of stolen cattle, $6000.00.

A single neuron finally fires in Leftistan.

The Daily Beast, Lefty-retardoblog par excellence, has "discovered" something that Conservatives have been raging about since Clinton first got elected: Cops in America are seriously over-armed.

Nestled amid plains so flat the locals joke you can watch your dog run away for miles, Fargo treasures its placid lifestyle, seldom pierced by the mayhem and violence common in other urban communities. North Dakota's largest city has averaged fewer than two homicides a year since 2005, and there's not been a single international terrorism prosecution in the last decade.

But that hasn't stopped authorities in Fargo and its surrounding county from going on an $8 million buying spree to arm police officers with the sort of gear once reserved only for soldiers fighting foreign wars.

Every city squad car is equipped today with a military-style assault rifle, and officers can don Kevlar helmets able to withstand incoming fire from battlefield-grade ammunition. And for that epic confrontation—if it ever occurs—officers can now summon a new $256,643 armored truck, complete with a rotating turret. For now, though, the menacing truck is used mostly for training and appearances at the annual city picnic, where it's been parked near the children's bounce house.

Fargo North Dakota needs an armored car like the Department of Education needs a SWAT team. Which is to say, not even a little.
In fact, its much worse than simply a waste of money. Its an active danger to our free society.  If you give a bureaucrat a SWAT team, they will find a reason to use it. Or make one.
Local cops given an armored car will find or make a reason to use it too. Because who doesn't want to lead the charge up San Juan Hill with two blazing .50 cals on the roof of a freakin' tank?!
Now, Conservatives have been having a very long, very loud cow over this since the ATF started acquiring AV8 Bronco ground attack aircraft back in the 1990's under Clinton. As a principle, and under the Constitution of the USA (and English Common Law) the police are meant to keep the peace and enforce the law in cases where -individuals- act up. They are not supposed to be there to enforce the will of government on the general p[populace by armed force.

But that is what they are doing.  In Canada too, I might add.  Google ETF and see what you get. Its a commando squad.

The Daily Beast, being a bunch of freaking Leftist morons, has just now woken up to this. It has -finally- occurred to some young progressive that a police force in possession of serious arms can do things that they really shouldn't be able to do. Like round up the whole population of a small town and stick them in rail cars, just for example. Or maybe burn to death 80 women and children as has already happened in Waco Texas.  You take the serious up-arming of local state level and Federal cops together with the ongoing effort (by the Left!) to DIS-arm the rest of the population, you get North Korea or Cuba as the logical end point of that progression. There are no end of historical examples to demonstrate the point.

Smell that coffee, Beasty boys. Yum yum.

Today is a GOOD day! :)

Yes, a good day indeed.

Kim Jong Il, North Korea's mercurial and enigmatic longtime leader, has died of heart failure. He was 69.

I hope it hurt like shit.
In other news, AP is staffed by weirdos who just loooove sucking up to murderous dictator types even after they've assumed room temperature.
If you listen hard, you might hear the starving millions in North Korea cheering inside their heads.

The Phantom

How to read a Canadian newspaper.

There's an art to getting useful (or any) information out of a rag like the Ottawa Citizen.  Case in point, today's article entitled

DND looks to sell gear to free up funds

Yes friends, it looks like the Conservative Party is going to [gasp!] -sell- Army stuff!

The Defence Department is looking to get rid of or sell off equipment as it tries to save money and free up funds for the purchase of new gear, according to documents obtained by the Citizen.

Holy crap, that news! ... Well no, truth is they do that all the time. So what is the news?

Buried in the middle, we find this nugget:

The moves come as all federal departments try to contribute to the Conservative government's plan to reduce the deficit.

Various departments have announced that the jobs of thousands of public servants will be on the line. Some workers have already received notices they will be laid off.

They're going to FIRE federal employees? Wow! Now that is news! You have to go alllll the way to the very bottom to find out the point of the DND selling equipment:

Nearly 70 government departments and agencies have or will submit scenarios for a five per cent and 10 per cent cut to their budgets. The Conservative government is expected to unveil its reduction plans in the spring budget. It is relying on the savings to help it eliminate a $31-billion deficit by 2015-16 at the earliest.

Now, had this been a Liberal government the headline would have been "Liberals take bold steps to cut government fat". The relevant information would have been right at the top, and selling military equipment would not have been mentioned.

That's how you read a Canadian newspaper.

The Phantom

Gun control working well in Belgium today.

Some guy showed up at the mall today with pistols, what looks from the pictures to be a .308 rifle and several grenades. Thanks to his simply stunning incompetence there are only five deceased victims so far. 

Five people died and 123 were injured when a rogue gunman lobbed grenades and shot into crowds of shoppers at a Christmas market in Liege, Belgium.

The shoppers, many of them children, ran screaming for safety in the panic as the gunman, named as career criminal Nordine Amrani, 33, opened fire.

The dead included an 18-month old girl who lost her fight for survival in hospital this evening, the BBC reported . A 15-year-old boy, a 17-year-old girl, and a 75-year-old woman were confirmed as the other victims.

Police said tonight that the killer was a convicted sex attacker and drug dealer, who had recently been released from prison.

As is becoming a pattern with these atrocities in Europe, the shooter was basically given the run of the place by police until he got bored and shot himself. Or possibly blew himself to Hell with a grenade, they aren't quite sure yet. Because Belgian cops apparently can't tell a gunshot to the head from being blown to shit by a grenade.

Incidentally, the "funny" part of the story is the police statement:

The 33-year-old Amrani was well known to the police before he went on the rampage in the eastern Belgian city of Liege, opening fire on a square packed with children and Christmas shoppers, killing three people and wounding another 75.

He had previously been convicted for drug dealing and illegal arms possession, as well as for holding stolen goods and other crimes, said Daniele Reynders, the public prosecutor for Liege.

In September 2008 he was thrown behind bars for 58 months when police uncovered a weapons arsenal in his home.

They found 10 firearms and 9,500 gun parts along with 2,800 cannabis plants, but a prison official said Amrani was granted early release last year.

A weapons aficionado, he was said to be able to dismantle, repair and put together all sorts of weapons but was never linked to any terrorist act or network.

Ms Reynders said there had never been the slightest hint he was unhinged enough to mount the kind of deadly attack he launched in Liege.

"At no moment in any of the judicial proceedings against him was there a sign of a disturbance," she told a news conference.

Yeah, no disturbance, just a house full of illegal firearms and pot plants. He was a regular guy, y'know.
No word on whether or not he screamed "ALLAH ACKBAR!!!!" while throwing grenades into the crowd of mums, grandmas and little kids.

Remember friends, its DIY or dial 911 and die.

The Phantom

Flyin' Terror Granny update!

The previous border crossing story reminded me to go have a look at old Mrs. Zimmerman, last I heard the TSA was calling her a liar.

Five days after Long Island grandma Lenore Zimmerman claims she was strip searched at John F' Kennedy International Airport, the agency in charge of security offered her an apology. But, the Transportation Security Administration flatly denies she was strip searched.

"TSA contacted the passenger to apologize that she feels she had an unpleasant screening; however, TSA does not include strip searches in its protocols and a strip search did not occur in this case" said a spokesman for TSA.

Yer lyin' Lenore, you old bat. Shut up or next time you fall down the stairs after the strip search.

  Look what I found today!

In response to ongoing criticism for removing the back brace from an elderly woman who claims Transportation Security Agency (TSA) officers strip-searched her an airport, the TSA issued a "clarification" about their position on the incidents, claiming -- contrary to an earlier TSA statement -- that the woman's back brace was removed because the security personnel thought it was a "money belt."

"There was a bit of a miscommunication and our officers were told that the passenger was wearing a money belt," explains a TSA blogger. "Unlike medical braces and supports, money belts must be removed since they're not providing any type of medical benefit." Last week, the TSA blog reported that the woman "told the officers that she was wearing a back brace or support belt which required private screening."

In today's update, the TSA acknowledges that the security agents did not return the brace to the woman immediately upon realizing that it was not, in fact, a money belt. "Since the item had already been removed, our officers had it X-rayed and returned it to the passenger who was then clear to travel," the TSA says.

The TSA denied that any strip-search ever took place, adding that they "truly regret that these passengers feel they had a bad screening experience."

Yeah, it wasn't a "strip search", they just took all her clothes off until they got to her BACK BRACE. Which would be right next to her underwear, normally. Or part of it in some cases. Because TSA employs people so utterly brain dead (or perverted) that they can't tell the difference between a money belt and a back brace (or they pretend not to).

So friends, don't let your elderly relatives fly without a lawyer, a nurse and three armed Samurai.  And a big f-ing dog.

The Well Braced Phantom

How serious is the US about it's borders?

NOT VERY.

By the spring, kiosks could open up in Big Bend National Park allowing people from the tiny Mexican town of Boquillas del Carmen to scan their identity documents and talk to a customs officer in another location, at least 100 miles away.

The crossing, which would be the nation's first such port of entry with Mexico, has sparked opposition from some who see it as counterintuitive in these days of heightened border security. Supporters say the crossing would give the isolated Mexican town long-awaited access to U.S. commerce, improve conservation efforts and be an unlikely target for criminal operations.

Meanwhile, old ladies still getting sent through the naked picture machine at the airport or strip-searched if they refuse.

Somebody phone up the Republican National Committee and tell them they better get out there and kick their presidential candidates in the balls, baby. Republicans: The Party of Stupid.

The Phantom

CBS News amazing scoop, ATF involved in propaganda!

Amazing news, Fast and Furious was a propaganda scam!

Documents obtained by CBS News show that the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) discussed using their covert operation "Fast and Furious" to argue for controversial new rules about gun sales.

Wow, you can't slip anything past those news guys, eh? They're sharper than a bag o' wet hammers!

The Phantom

Time to point and laugh at the Fruitfly Guy.

I spotted this wail of anguish by Dr. David Suzuki at Borque Newswatch and had to post it.  Seems the good doctor is displeased. Seems that his limpet-like grip on the national media has been challenged by those dastardly upstarts, SUN TV [booooo, hissssss].

In one of those "revolving door" scenarios that the Greenpeace research highlights, Kory Teneycke left his position as Prime Minister Stephen Harper's communications director to join Sun TV before its launch. Several reporters who were considered for positions at the TV channel have said that Teneycke told them part of their job would be to go after me. Sun Media has also campaigned to have the David Suzuki Foundation's charitable status removed. Of course, one of Sun TV's major personalities, Ezra Levant, has strong ties to the Harper government. He also launched the "ethical oil" campaign, which was taken over by Alykhan Velshi, who was recently hired as Stephen Harper's planning director.

Yeah, those fascist bastards! This is nothing like what Suzuki and friends have been doing with the Liberal Party and the CBC for thirty years! Right? ... Right?

Alas poor Fruitfly, I knew him well.

The Phantom

Another potential terrorist gets what they deserve!

Shifty looking woman refuses to be scanned, gets strip searched! Booyah!

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."

Well, that's really the problem here isn't it? "Proper procedure" includes strip-searching frail old women for absolutely no reason at all. Oh wait, they had a reason!

When Zimmerman reached a security checkpoint, she asked if she could forgo the advanced image technology screening equipment, fearing it might interfere with her defibrillator.

She said she normally gets patted down. But this time, she says that two female agents escorted her to a private room and began to remove her clothes.

Because you know, it might actually frig up a defibrillator. They can be touchy sometimes, cell phones can frig them up too. Grandma doesn't want to DIE in the fucking NAKED PICTURE scanner, so her other choice is strip search by two ham fisted minimum wage Dyke Of The Year winners.

Thus, by inches, the United States of America has become a country where you can't put your old mum on an airplane and expect her to be ok.

I don't know how many incidents like this one its going to take before the people of the USA say they've had enough. Maybe they'll have to kill a few grannies first.
That will only be a matter of time. I'm sure the type of brain-dead, power-tripping @ssholes being hired by the TSA won't shrink from tazing old girls with pacemakers if they get unruly about the naked picture scanner. Pepper spray would kill an old broad like that too, or even a bit of rough handling. Broken shoulder from being grabbed and tugged? How about a nice hip fracture with added cerebral hemorrhage from being bounced off the wall?

Vote carefully. The life you save might be your mum's.

The Phantom

McDonald's update: Justice is served.

By an amazing fluke, the kid who served up a heaping helping of whup-ass on two counter jumpers at McD's is cleared of all charges.

The McDonald's cashier arrested for his supersized smackdown of two women who came around his counter to pick a fight has been cleared of all charges.

Rayon McIntosh, 31, was expected to be released from Rikers Friday night.

Prosecutors said a grand jury heard testimony for 11 days and voted to toss the case.

"We asked that Mr. McIntosh be released," Assistant District Attorney Jaime Hickey-Mendoza said.

What the assistant DA meant to say was that the cops found out McIntosh was an ex-con they threw the book at him. The Grand Jury sat there for 11 days being lectured to by all manner of authorities who tried to make this McIntosh guy look like Satan, then at the end of it all told cops, experts and lawyers to shove it up their asses. Clear case of self defense, the two women could have stabbed, shot or even beat him to death (because they could have grabbed that steel bar first, right?), he did the Right Thing.

The sad thing here is that the guy's been in the slammer ever since this thing happened, and all the evidence required to make this call is on the video.  He defended himself. He stopped hitting them when they stopped trying to get at him. That's all there is to it.  Anything else is Monday morning armchair quarterbacking, and that's just unacceptable in a free country.

Armchair quarterbacks are the enemy. Do not let them win.

The Phantom

Know thine enemy.

Here we have a case of a 7 year old boy charged with... wait for it... sexual harassment.  Its a doozy!

A 7-year-old boy is being investigated by his South Boston elementary school for possible sexual harassment after kicking another boy in the crotch.

The first grader's mother, Tasha Lynch, says she was shocked by the school's decision.

"He's 7 years old. He doesn't know anything about sexual harassment," she said.

Lynch's son, Mark Curran, said the boy that he kicked had been bullying him on the school bus ride home from Tynan Elementary last week.

"He just all of a sudden came up to him, choked him. He wanted to take his gloves, and my son said, 'I couldn't breathe, so I kicked him in the testicles,'" said his mother.

That sounds pretty open and shut, right?  Kid chokes your kid, your kid kicks him in the balls, that should be about it.
Nope.

Lynch described a phone call she received from the school explaining that the case will be treated like sexual harassment, due to what it considers inappropriate touching.

"'Your son kicked a little boy in the testicles. We call that sexual harassment,'" Lynch said the school told her.

Now, the thing here is that we all have to finally admit that a school official -cannot- be that stupid naturally. For my money, that decision right there has departed the bounds of incompetence and moved firmly into the realm of malice.
There is a strong social movement in North America that seeks to forbid self defense.  I'm going to call them "militant pacifists", just to make it as ridiculous as possible.

It is not enough for these people to eschew violence themselves. No, these nannies require that no one be allowed to defend themselves from attack using violence. To them, there is no circumstance in which it is right and proper to hit back. Ever. And irony above irony, their chosen method is to use the power of the State to FORCE compliance on everyone else.

This in this case we clearly have some nameless apparatchik using the school board rule book with shall we say excessive creativity, to advance their militant pacifist agenda. Knowing full well the particular rule they are quoting does not apply, naturally.  I'll go out on a limb here and predict that the apparatchik is a fat, ugly, middle aged woman of limited intelligence, with a fondness for cats. Probably has a unicorn on her desk somewhere too.

Branching out from gun control and knife/stick/jagged rock control to ban the use of hands and feet. We could live to see the martial arts banned altogether if these creatures are allowed to stay in the bureaucracy. They really won't rest until government has all physical and legal power, and we all bow the head and do what we're told.

Know thine enemy.

Positive sign in a sea of crisis.

Taking a break from our impending DOOOOOOM at the hands of whatever media boogyman they have on tap this week, I note this positive sign: Ownership of televisions declined a bit this year.

According to Nielsen's annual "Television Audience" report that was released this week, the number of households with a TV set will decline. The rising trend of TV ownership has been leveling off in recent years, and now the number has dropped from 115.9 million homes in 2011 to an estimated 114.7 million in 2012. As TV Barn pointed out, that's a 1 percent decline despite the number of households rising.

TURN OFF YOUR TV!!!

The Phantom