June, 2013 Political Class Insanity, Part 4: Another ATF Screw Up, Democratic Adultery, Government Spying, And More

Okay, I think this will be the last post on this month’s political class insanity. It has been a bumpy ride as we learned that the ATF has had its storage facility robbed of a quarter ton of explosives, how John McCain would rather work on ESPN issues than real national issues, how the French political class are trying to tax some of its citizens at a tax rate over 100% of their earnings, and various other political class acts of lunacy, waste, and idiocy.

Today should end the insanity for another month or so. Today, we will start out with some insanity courtesy of Reason magazine. Reason is a fabulous monthly magazine that is dedicated to preserving freedom and liberty in this country. In their pursuit of that goal, they come across a lot of political class insanity that is summarized at the beginning of each of their issues. The following insanity comes from their June, 2013 issue:

1) Earlier this year. the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a challenge the Federal government’s ability to put a U.S. citizen under warrantless surveillance, a law suit against a 2008 amendment to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act or FISA. That amendment allows the Federal government to intercept communications between someone inside the country and someone outside of the country.

The unbelievable reason why the lawsuit was rejected was apparently not because of the heinous act of the government spying on citizens but the fact that the plaintiffs could not prove they had been spied on and thus, had no standing to challenge the law. They could not prove they had been spied on since the government will not reveal who they are spying on!

According to the ACLU in 2012: “The Justice Department claims the plaintiffs should not be able to sue without first showing they have been actually been monitored under the program - but it also argues that the government should not be required to disclose if plaintiffs have been monitored.”

Well, the political class and the Federal government certainly tied this one up in a neat knot, along with the Supreme Court. We can spy on anyone we want and you cannot sue us because we do not have to tell you that we spied on you. Insanity and a definite threat to freedom from a growing and arrogant Federal bureaucracy.

2) Two posts ago we reviewed how the ATF had lost a quarter ton of explosives when robbers broke into the ATF’s supposedly secure bunker in Montana and made off with the explosives. Apparently, the ATF incompetence is not restricted to Montana, according to Reason magazine:

• In 2012, the ATF opened up a dummy retail store in Milwaukee which sold designer clothes, jewelry, and drug paraphernalia.
• The ATF agents hoped to use the store front to buy drugs and weapons from felons and make the appropriate busts.
• According to the primary local newspaper, the sting operation did not result in any major busts of drug dealers or criminal gangs.
• However, merchandise worth $35,000 was stolen from the store despite the fact that ATF agents ran the operation.
• Included in the stolen property was an actual machine gun, a fully automatic M-14 rifle, and an assortment of other guns.
• Although the store operation was shut down, the agents forgot to remove documents on site that contained the names and contact information of undercover agents in the field.
• The agents caused $15,000 in property damage the building that has yet to be paid.
• And worse of all, they ticked off the people living in the surrounding neighborhood who were unaware that criminals and other shady characters were coming into their neighborhood as a result of what turned out to be a useless and dangerous government sting operation gone bad.

The most insane piece of the escapade is that an ATF spokesman insisted that the store operation had made Milwaukee safer. If the ATF thinks that losing a machine gun and other weapons is a safety success despite no major arrests, they must think losing a quarter ton of explosives in Montana was a booming (so to speak) success also.

3) Anne Arundel County in Maryland recently lived through a little local political class insanity itself. Apparent, county executive John Leopold resigned his post after being found guilty of misconduct. No surprise there, just another politician found lacking in integrity.

What was surprising was that after he left office, his replacement discovered more than 500 secret security cameras that had been set up in county office buildings. The 500 cameras were monitored by a single person, a contract employee who reported directly to Leopold, the county executive who was forced to resign.

All of which raises a whole set of interesting questions:

• How was the former county executive able to fund the purchase, installation, and operationalizing for over 500 cameras? Does not look like the county has a good audit process in place.
• What was he looking for and what did he find as a result of the 500 cameras?
• Does he have to tell anyone that he secretly taped them or does he have the same power as the Justice Department who thinks they do not have to tell anyone they secretly monitored them?

Insanity at the local government level.

4) Many times we have reported on how powerful politicians somehow are always able to get sweetheart deals for their friends and relatives, always at the expense of the American taxpayer. Nancy Pelosi’s brother-in-law’s company got a sweetheart deal from the Federal Department of Energy. Senator Diane Feinstein’s husband got in on the ground floor of California’s effort to build a high speed rail line.

Now along comes a Politico article from May 24, 2013. According to the article, as chairman of the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, Buck McKeon has major influence over the Pentagon’s annual spending plan, making him and his committee very powerful entities within the defense industry. No problem so far.

However, the article goes on to point out that a California lobbying company run by the Congressman’s brother and nephews has landed five lobbying clients, according to current filed disclosure forms. Each client lists “defense” as an issue area. A little conflict of interest? Why shouldn’t the Congress have to be removed from this committee and go work on a government area that has nothing to do with defense since his close relatives are heavily involved in the defense industry. The appearance of conflict of interest is just as bad as actual conflict of interest.

But would make Congressman McKeon any different from the dozens, if not hundreds, of recent members of Congress who have made it a point to financially help out friends and relatives, as witnessed by the August 16, 2012 post we wrote last year, based on an investigative report by the Washington Post:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-slime-sleaze-immorality-and_16.html

Disgraceful.

5) A recent special Congressional election in South Carolina resulted in former South Carolina Republican Governor Mark Sanford being elected to fill the vacant House seat. For those of you that do not recall or never knew, Mr. Sanford was caught in an adultery affair while governor, bringing disgrace to himself and his office.

However, he has made a political comeback from this affair with his election to the House Of Representatives, a fact that must have really ticked off Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz who ranted recently about Sanford in an MSNBC interview:

The Republican Party continues to be the party of extremists, it doesn’t send a strong message to women in this country that the Republican party understands that they have gone way off the issues that are important to women when they election a candidate like Mark Sanford after his track record.

I could not agree with her rant more. Lying, adultery, and lack of integrity (not to mention lack of self control) should not qualities we would want in any politician. Including Democrats. You see, Ms. Wassermann-Schultz did not remember the ugly track record of lying and adultery that has been a hallmark of DEMOCRATIC politicians over the past few years:

1. Democratic President Bill Clinton: serial adulterer and liar.
2. Democratic New Jersey Governor Jim MacGreevey: adulterer and liar.
3. Democratic New York Governor Eliot Spitzer: adulterer and liar.
4. Democratic Senator John Edwards: adulterer and liar, with the added bonus of cheating on his wife while she battled cancer.
5. Democratic Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick: Text messaging sex scandal
6. Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner: Twitter sex scandal and liar.
7. Democratic New York Governor David Peterson: adultery.
8. Democratic Congressman David Wu, D: about two years ago he announced his resignation form Congress following allegations he engaged in "aggressive and unwanted sexual behavior" with a young woman. (CBS News, July 26, 2011.)

Going further back in time in the history of Democratic hanky-panky in their hall of shame:

1. Democratic Congressman Gary Condit: adulterer and liar, actions that may or may not have resulted in the death of the young woman involved with Congressman, Chandry Levy.
2. Democratic Senator Gary Hart: adultery affair with Donna Rice.
3. Democratic President John Kennedy: serial adulterer and liar.
4. Democratic Congressman Wilbur Mills: adultery affair with stripper, Fannie Foxx

So Ms. Wasserman-Schultz, I could not agree with you more but it is mostly because of this list of shameful Democratic politicians and the track record of their abuse of woman and their own wives.

That will do it for this month’s political class insanity. I need to go wash off the slime and disgust that the American political class continues to generate and spew on the country and its citizens every month. As always after reviewing their insanity, Step 39 from “Love My Country, Loathe My Government” becomes ever more attractive. Step 39 would impose term limits on all Federal politicians so that they would be “one and done.”

Given the disgraceful behavior of our current set of politicians, how much worse could it get if we just replaced all of the incumbents with new faces with new ideas?

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

http://www.reason.com/
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w