FISA court was set up to "oversee" the intelligence agencies snooping, wiretapping, email intercepting, and credit card record requests. It's secret, so secret that we don't know their decisions, their judge[s], or their rules. Over the years FISA has acted as a rubber stamp on the intelligence agencies requests to snoop on everybody. 99% of requests to snoop get approved.
Now we have NSA lawyers admitting to the FISA court that NSA has not complied with some secret rules about searching the national secret database of every phone call made in the country. It must have been pretty bad because the normally doormat FISA court expressed unhappiness about it. They didn't have the stones to hold anyone in contempt of court, or denounce them by name, all they did was whine about it. But for a rubber stamp court, expressing unhappiness with an intelligence service is VERY unusual. Must have been something really bad.
This blog posts about aviation, automobiles, electronics, programming, politics and such other subjects as catch my interest. The blog is based in northern New Hampshire, USA
Thursday, May 25, 2017
Wednesday, May 24, 2017
We need to get tougher on the terrorist[s] we take alive
The Boston Bombers struck four years ago. The younger Tsarnaev brother was taken alive. The lawyers spent two years, billing hours to the taxpayer, before convicting him in federal court. At least the judge had the stones to give him the death penalty. Another two years has gone by, and Tsarnaev has yet to be executed. I doubt that he ever will be.
We need to make sure our laws define acts of terrorism in which people get killed, as a capital crime eligible for the death penalty. We need to work hard on taking the terrorist[s] alive. Don't allow them to commit suicide by cop. We need to get them on trial within half a year, and we need a verdict and a sentence within another half a year. And we need to execute the death penalty promptly, within three months of sentencing.
Let's hope the Brits catch a terrorist or two alive after the Manchester atrocity.
We need to make sure our laws define acts of terrorism in which people get killed, as a capital crime eligible for the death penalty. We need to work hard on taking the terrorist[s] alive. Don't allow them to commit suicide by cop. We need to get them on trial within half a year, and we need a verdict and a sentence within another half a year. And we need to execute the death penalty promptly, within three months of sentencing.
Let's hope the Brits catch a terrorist or two alive after the Manchester atrocity.
Tuesday, May 23, 2017
Caution-Capable of firing with magazine removed
That's engraved on the slide of the new Smith & Wesson automatic pistol that graces the cover of American Rifleman. No kidding. We knew that like forever. You always open the chamber and make sure it is empty. I learned that when I was 12 years old at summer camp. And that was a long time ago. Back when summer camps taught riflery.
The safety Nazi's at work.
The safety Nazi's at work.
Tax cuts are always "for the rich"
Ask any Democrat. Every single tax cut is always derided as "tax cut for the rich".
Of course it depends upon what you call rich. We have so many special deals and deductions and rate cuts and earned income credits in the tax code, that half the population owes NO federal income tax. Needless to say, if you ain't paying taxes now, a tax cut ain't gonna help ya.
So any tax cut is only going to help the half the population that actually pays taxes. Which is the upper income half of the population. I guess, Democrats can call the upper income half of the population "Rich". In fact they do. I know a lot of people who are employed and making enough money to pay federal income tax, but they aren't rich. They are just getting by, just barely. They need a tax cut.
Of course it depends upon what you call rich. We have so many special deals and deductions and rate cuts and earned income credits in the tax code, that half the population owes NO federal income tax. Needless to say, if you ain't paying taxes now, a tax cut ain't gonna help ya.
So any tax cut is only going to help the half the population that actually pays taxes. Which is the upper income half of the population. I guess, Democrats can call the upper income half of the population "Rich". In fact they do. I know a lot of people who are employed and making enough money to pay federal income tax, but they aren't rich. They are just getting by, just barely. They need a tax cut.
Monday, May 22, 2017
Trump ought to stop that White House leak
Trump has a leaker in the White House. He leaked the "gave classified info to the Russians" story to the papers. Trump needs to find him, fire him, and revoke his security clearance. For that matter he still has a bunch of Obama political appointees still working thru out the government. Those guys detest Trump and are looking for ways to do him harm. Trump ought to lay off the lot, ASAP. Most of 'em will never be missed, it's the senior career GS types that actually make things happen, the upper level political appointees are there merely to attempt to give the executive some kind of handle on the bureaucracy. Obama appointees aren't going to do Trump any good.
A flower blooms in the Junkyard
Front page of Saturday's Wall St Journal had a picture of women voting in Iran. The women were all dressed identically, like wearing a uniform, in black from head to toe. Ugly squared. Standing next to one black clad woman was a little girl, say age 6 or so. She was wearing faded blue jeans, and a flowered long sleeved top and she looked so pretty, and she made all the grown women in hijabs looks so ugly. You gotta wonder about Iran where they force women to dress so ugly all the time.
Words of the Weasel Part 45
Weasels say "substance" when they mean drugs. As in "substance abuser" which sounds nicer than "drug addict". It would not be PC to offend the druggies...
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