Just Desserts

I don't have anything to add to that. Thank you Mr. Poe. hehe

Australian Airport Staff Smuggling Drugs and Guns

Australian Airport Staff Smuggled Drugs, Guns for Crime Syndicates

A new federal parliamentary inquiry, into the adequacy of aviation and maritime security measures to combat serious and organized crime, has been told less than 1 percent of air cargo is physically examined and catering trucks are never searched.

But hey, don't you feel safer that you're put through highly personal pat downs, shoe x-rays, and naked scans? After all, YOU can't be trusted.

And a quick question for those who say "I don't care if a TSA Agent sees me naked, I have nothing to hide!" - Do you feel the same way about some sweaty, low-life male TSA Agent seeing naked scans of your teenage daughter?

Citibank to Institute Rule to Prevent Cash Withdrawls - Your Money is no Longer Your Money

Citi Warns of Withdrawal Gate

Seen on a recent Citibank (C) statement: "Effective April 1, 2010, we reserve the right to require (7) days advance notice before permitting a withdrawal from all checking accounts. While we do not currently exercise this right and have not exercised it in the past, we are required by law to notify you of this change."

This applies only to Texas at this time, but may be a concerning development in the Organized Criminals', I mean Banks' behavior with regard to Checking Accounts.

As Karl Denninger wrote yesterday on The Market Ticker:

Huh?

Folks, the formal name for a checking account is a demand account. It is called a demand account for the very reason that you have a right to all your money, on demand.

Now maybe there's some new law that applies only in Texas, or maybe there isn't. Who knows - or cares.

The fact of the matter is that any bank that reserves the right (whether they claim through some external cause or not) to throw up a gate on a demand account is no longer marketing demand accounts.

My checking account is such a demand account and I'll be damned if I'll have my checking money anywhere that doesn't fit that description.

In my opinion, you shouldn't either.

So who's money is it really? You earned it, you have entrusted an institution to hold on to it for you, and give it to you when you need it to purchase food, pay your mortgage, etc. IN RETURN, they are now saying that because they are holding it for you, they get to say WHEN you get to take it out?

Fine, they say that they have not exercised this rule (yet) and just want to put the rule in, but is that a rule you're really ready to live with? Are we really considered to be as children that can not be trusted with what we have earned??? If you're the Federal Government, of course your answer to that is "yes".

As mentioned in the article on StockWidget, it may be a tool they want to implement to prevent a bank run by people concerned about their money. But again, is it YOUR money or THEIRS?

The only proper response to this is to remove your money from Citibank. Period. Whether you're in Texas or not, you have to admit if they're willing to do this in one state, others will soon follow.

There is only one way to protest this action:
Nullify this rule by ensuring they don't have any money they can hold on to for seven days.

General Aviation Security After the Austin Crash

It's asinine reporting and a total lack of common sense like this that drives me nuts:

Texas Plane Crash Exposes Gaps in Air Security

GEORGETOWN, Texas — After 9/11, cockpit doors were sealed, air marshals were added and airport searches became more aggressive, all to make sure an airliner could never again be used as a weapon. Yet little has been done to guard against attacks with smaller planes.

That point was driven home with chilling force on Thursday when a Texas man with a grudge against the IRS crashed his single-engine plane into an office building in a fiery suicide attack. One person inside the building was also killed.

"It's a big gap," said R. William Johnstone, an aviation security consultant and former staff member of the commission that investigated the Sept. 11 attacks. "It wouldn't take much, even a minor incident involving two simultaneously attacking planes, to inflict enough damage to set off alarm bells and do some serious harm to the economy and national psyche."

What a moron. Joe Stack owned the airplane, the hanger, and was a licensed pilot. What are you going to do, put a Soviet Style Political Officer in each and every private airplane that flies so that they can hold a gun to the pilot's head and ensure correct behavior? What possible rules, short of the typical knee-jerk BAN IT response can you possibly implement to keep someone from crashing a 2 or 4 seater aircraft into anything?

Frankly, they're lucky he didn't decide to just shoot the place up. He probably would have done far greater damage to the IRS personnel in the building by grabbing a shotgun and going on a rampage. While two people dead and a handful injured isn't a good thing, a nice gun rampage could have resulted in scores dead and scores more wounded.

Ultimately, you can not stop people from killing other people. No law, no rule, no regulation is going to prevent it. What you can do is maybe address the issues that are at the core of these actions - an out of control Government populated with power hungry little egomaniacs that love nothing more than to ruin people's lives. These idiots in Government think that we're milk cows to be squeezed until we run dry, and then they run around waving their hands when one of the cows decides it has had enough and stomps a few heads in to show its displeasure.

Cause and effect. Squeeze tighter, take ever more power out of the hands of citizens, and you'll get more citizens that will decide that they have nothing else left to lose and take actions that will be highly detrimental to the nearest sets of Government thugs and, unfortunately, any innocent people that are unlucky enough to be nearby at the wrong time.

[Sarcasm]
To the total idiots at the FAA and DHS - you want to "really" stop this from EVER happening again? Ban all forms of aviation except for large Commercial Airlines.

It's for the children.
[/Sarcasm]

Man Bulldozes Home to Spite Bank - Moscow, ID

It just warms the cockles to see folks finally waking up and fighting back doesn't it?

From the article at WLWT:

Hoskins said he's been in a struggle with RiverHills Bank over his Clermont County home for nearly a decade, a struggle that was coming to an end as the bank began foreclosure proceedings on his $350,000 home.

"When I see I owe $160,000 on a home valued at $350,000, and someone decides they want to take it – no, I wasn't going to stand for that, so I took it down," Hoskins said.

...

"The average homeowner that can't afford an attorney or can fight as long as we have, they don't stand a chance," he said.

Hoskins said he'd gotten a $170,000 offer from someone to pay off the house, but the bank refused, saying they could get more from selling it in foreclosure.

So, he went and got a bulldozer, and took care of the problem. He bloody well bulldozed his home, and he says he's considering doing the same to the business the bank is going after as well.


Even better, check out the Poll on the left side of the page....


Oops, 77% of almost 10,000 people say "Good for Him". That's not a good sign for the jackasses in power now is it? Even more interesting, 22% is approximately the number of people that currently believe that the Government is acting with Consent of the Governed. Uh oh.

From the link above:

The founding document of the United States, the Declaration of Independence, states that governments derive “their just powers from the consent of the governed.” Today, however, just 21% of voters nationwide believe that the federal government enjoys the consent of the governed.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 61% disagree and say the government does not have the necessary consent. Eighteen percent (18%) of voters are not sure.

However, 63% of the Political Class think the government has the consent of the governed, but only six percent (6%) of those with Mainstream views agree.

Seventy-one percent (71%) of all voters now view the federal government as a special interest group, and 70% believe that the government and big business typically work together in ways that hurt consumers and investors.

That helps explain why 75% of voters are angry at the policies of the federal government, and 63% say it would be better for the country if most members of Congress are defeated this November. Just 27% believe their own representative in Congress is the best person for the job.

LISTEN UP FRAUDSTERS (formerly known as Congress, Banks and Wall Street), WE'RE MAD AS HELL AND WE'RE NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANY MORE!

People know when they're getting screwed. They know more and more each day how it feels to be powerless as the "protected class" takes what they want from the people's hard earned savings.

And the people's response?



CAN YOU HEAR US NOW???

h/t to Keep it Simple Blog

A Bridge Too Far...Plane Crash Today in Austin

Texas Small Plane Crash Might Be Intentional Act, Officials Say

A pilot furious with the Internal Revenue Service crashed his small plane into an office building in Austin, Texas, that houses federal tax employees, setting off a raging fire.

Officials are investigating whether the pilot, identified by authorities as Joseph Andrew Stack, a 53-year-old software engineer who lived in Texas, crashed the plane intentionally. Stack was confirmed dead.

An Internal Revenue Service office is located inside the building.

Just how furious? Karl Denninger at The Market Ticker took a very short time to come up with the following, copied off of Joe Stack's web site, EmbeddedArt.com (now taken offline by the Host at the request of the FBI):

I know I’m hardly the first one to decide I have had all I can stand. It has always been a myth that people have stopped dying for their freedom in this country, and it isn’t limited to the blacks, and poor immigrants. I know there have been countless before me and there are sure to be as many after. But I also know that by not adding my body to the count, I insure nothing will change. I choose to not keep looking over my shoulder at “big brother” while he strips my carcass, I choose not to ignore what is going on all around me, I choose not to pretend that business as usual won’t continue; I have just had enough.

I can only hope that the numbers quickly get too big to be white washed and ignored that the American zombies wake up and revolt; it will take nothing less. I would only hope that by striking a nerve that stimulates the inevitable double standard, knee-jerk government reaction that results in more stupid draconian restrictions people wake up and begin to see the pompous political thugs and their mindless minions for what they are. Sadly, though I spent my entire life trying to believe it wasn’t so, but violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer. The cruel joke is that the really big chunks of shit at the top have known this all along and have been laughing, at and using this awareness against, fools like me all along.

I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different. I am finally ready to stop this insanity. Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let’s try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well.

Karl has some very salient remarks on his blog post. I hope you'll take a moment to read over there as well. You can read Karl's post here: This Is How It Begins (Wanton Violence)

For now, this is an isolated event. I do not believe, however, that it is a feeling that is unique to Mr. Stack. Many of us are watching 30 or more percent of our hard won earnings being handed off to Wall Street Crooks, Politicians, foreign nations, and those lazy bastards down the street that do nothing but smoke pot and play Playstation on their big screen TV whilest collecting their welfare checks.

The anger is rising, but our leaders care nothing for us. After all, they don't need those of us that work hard and produce to keep them in office, they just need more of our money with which to pay off their constituencies.

How far will it go before something really breaks loose?? Will this be an isolated event or will more people decide enough is enough?

Update: The Statesman has what appears to be the more complete text of the letter at this link.