The Defense Department came under fire Thursday for a U.S. Army Reserve presentation that classified Catholics and Evangelical Protestants as “extremist” religious groups alongside al Qaeda and the Ku Klux Klan.
The presentation detailed a number of extremist threats within the U.S. military, including white supremacist groups, street gangs, and religious sects.
The presentation identified seventeen religious organizations in a slide titled “religious extremism.” They include al Qaeda, Hamas, the Filipino separatist group Abu Sayyaf, and the Ku Klux Klan, which the slide identifies as a Christian organization.
“Religious extremism is not limited to any single religion, ethnic group, or region of the world,” the slide explains, in language that closely resembles the text of a Wikipedia page on “extremism.”
While outfits such as al Qaeda and the KKK are explicitly violent, the presentation also lists Catholicism and evangelical Protestantism as extremist groups.
These are trying times. Never in the history of this country have we been so weakened and polarized by what many view as deliberate government policy. Now anti-gunners in the U.S. Congress, the Obama administration, and legislatures across the country are seeking to exploit the Newtown tragedy to promote their “gun control” agenda that envisions federal, universal background checks on gun purchases, and that could lead to gun registration and confiscation.
At the same time, the increasing militarization of law enforcement, most visibly demonstrated by the growing use of massive, SWAT-type raids on businesses and individuals, sometimes with federal involvement or authorization, is heightening concerns that this country is moving toward a police state.
Mountain Pure SWAT Raid: The Movie
Mountain Pure Water, LLC is headquartered on Interstate 30 just outside the town of Little Rock, Arkansas. The company manufactures and distributes beverage containers, spring water, fruit drinks, and teas. In January 2012, about 50 federal agents, led by Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Inspector General (OIG) Special Agent Cynthia Roberts and IRS Special Agent Bobbi Spradlin, swooped in, guns drawn. Without explanation they shut down plant operations, herded employees into the cafeteria, and confined them to the room for hours. They could not so much as use the bathroom without police escort. Cell phones were confiscated and all Internet and company phones were disabled.
Plant Manager Court Stacks was at his desk when police burst through his office door, guns drawn and pointed at him—a thoroughly unprofessional violation of basic firearms discipline in this circumstance, and the cause of numerous accidental SWAT killings.
According to Mountain Pure CEO John Stacks, the search warrant was related to questions about an SBA loan he secured through the Federal Emergency Management Agency to recover tornado losses to his home, warehouse, and associated equipment. Mr. Stacks says the SBA apparently doesn’t believe that assets listed as damaged in the storm were actually damaged.
The search warrant was extremely vague and some agents’ actions may have been illegal, according to company attorney, Timothy Dudley. Comptroller Jerry Miller was taken to a private room and interrogated for over three hours by SBA Special Agent Cynthia Roberts, the raid leader. He requested an attorney and was told “That ain’t gonna happen.” According to Miller, the SBA unilaterally changed the terms of Stacks’ loan. He says he asked Roberts what gave the SBA authority to do that, and she responded, “We’re the federal government, we can do what we want, when we want, and there is nothing you can do about it.” Miller said during the raid Roberts “strutted around the place like she was Napoleon.”
Stacks said the company has had three IRS audits in the past three years, including one following the raid, with no problems. The SBA has still not filed any charges, continues to stonewall about the raid’s purpose, and refuses to release most of the property seized during the raid.
Quality Assurance Director Katy Depriest, who doubles as the company crisis manager, described agents’ “Gestapo tactics.” She added that they confiscated CDs of college course work and educational materials for a class she had been taking that resulted in her flunking the course. Those materials have not yet been returned.
Attempts were made to contact Ms. Roberts for this article, but she is no longer employed by the SBA. Questions were directed to the Little Rock, Arkansas U.S. Attorney’s office. The USA’s public affairs officer had no comment; however they have convened a grand jury to evaluate the case.
Because law enforcement refused repeated requests to respond for this article, we have only Mountain Pure’s side of the story, but they make a compelling case:
•Many company employees were willing to discuss this raid on the record.
•Mountain Pure and several employees have sued Special Agents Roberts and Spradlin.
•Mr. Stacks commissioned a video about the raid, reproduced here.
The video includes testimony from Henry Juszkiewicz, CEO of famed Gibson Guitar Corp., which suffered two such raids, and another raid target, Duncan Outdoors Inc. The video does not attempt to establish anyone’s guilt or innocence, but rather highlights law enforcement’s heavy-handed tactics in executing SWAT-style search warrants against legitimate businesses. Gibson has settled with the Justice Department in a case fraught with legal ambiguities, while Duncan has been indicted for violations of currency transaction reporting requirements.
Mr. Stacks claims he has gotten calls from many companies that have suffered similar raids, but they are afraid to speak out. Here are a few examples that have made national news:
•FDA officials, U.S. Marshals, and the Pennsylvania State Police raided an Amish farm in 2011 for selling raw milk.
•A Department of Education SWAT team raided a man’s home, “dragged him out in his boxer shorts, threw him to the ground and handcuffed him” in front of his three young children. They were looking for evidence of his estranged wife’s financial aid fraud.
•66 year-old George Norris spent two years in jail following a USFWS raid that nailed him for filing incorrect forms on imported orchids.
•A Fairfax, Virginia optometrist being served a warrant for illegal gambling was killed by a SWAT team member whose firearm accidentally discharged. He answered the door in his bathrobe, unarmed and unaware that he was even under investigation.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-04-06 03:14:382013-04-06 03:14:38Police Militarization, Abuses of Power, and the Road to Impeachment
Stung by election defeats and continual ground lost to encroaching socialism, the Republican Party in Alaska and elsewhere is going through its largest internal values inventory in a generation. In this process two disparate groups have come roaring to the surface revealing a wider chasm than ever. A civil war has erupted.
At the 2012 State Republican Convention the state delegates broke with party machinist tradition and elected Russ Millette as the chair of the Alaskan Republican Party and Debbie Brown as the vice-chair. The election represented a tremendous values shift toward the grass roots constitutional liberty wing of our party which Russ Millette represents.
The chagrined State Executive Committee (SEC) subsequently decided to undo the election results and purge the newly elected officers from office by filing spurious charges against them. On January 31st- Just two hours before he was scheduled to take office – Russ Millette was charged for failure to raise money for the Republican Party and removed as the chair elect. Debbie Brown then advanced to party chair. Now the same charge of failure to raise money has been leveled against her. Despite the fact the Chair Debbie Brown rescinded the April 8th SEC meeting, they plan to meet in Anchorage on April 8th at 5:30pm in order to purge her, retake the chairmanship, and protect their appointed positions.
I can’t tell you how disturbing this precedent is. When they nullified Russ Millette’s election to keep their leadership cabal in power indefinitely they didn’t just sin against our Republic. They committed THE sin against our Republic. The respect of succession of political power by popular vote is the very foundation our entire system of self-governance is built on.
Russ Millette is planning to vigorously appeal his removal from office at the next scheduled State Central Committee (SCC) meeting in Homer on May 25th. If chair Debbie Brown is purged prior to then, then the new chair can refuse to hear Millette’s appeal and the coup will be complete.
Millette is also raising legal funds from grass roots Republicans so he can file a fiduciary harm lawsuit against certain party members to force an audit of the ARP finances as required by party rules, and to get to the bottom of alleged financial mismanagement such as when APR funds were transferred out of the bank account in a scorched earth policy back in January. If you would like to support Russ’s legal campaign to force honesty and transparency in the ARP finances, you can donate electronically via his website and designate it for his legal fund. George Washington once said, “Truth will ultimately prevail where there are pains taken to bring it to light.”
The Republican Party is in a war for its very spirit. Will a small cabal of political machinists continue to run the party for personal interest while continuing to lose ground to the conquering socialists like the corrupt Chiang Kai-shek did before Mao Zedong? Or will the party be returned back to its grass roots supporters? Your action or inaction will be the deciding factor for the future of unborn millions. Grass roots Republicans have a once in a generation chance to let light shine out of the darkness. The Republican Party must once again wield the torch of freedom that guided the footsteps of our Founding Fathers.
Please vote, get involved in your local political districts, and give money to Russ Millettes’s legal fund to give transparency to party finances. Plato once said, “The penalty good men pay for not being interested in politics is to be governed by men worse than themselves.” The eyes of the world are on America and the Republican Party because, “The cause of America is, in a great measure, the cause of all mankind.”- Thomas Paine
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-04-06 03:04:532013-04-06 03:04:53The Civil War for the Soul of the Alaska Republican Party
The nation’s economy added 88,000 jobs in March, a figure far below expectations that is likely to trigger new doubts about the strength of the economy.
While the unemployment rate fell to 7.6 percent, that reflected 496,000 workers leaving the workforce, not a strengthening labor market. The 63.3 percent labor participation rate is the lowest since 1979.
Analysts had expected job gains near 200,000 in March. The report released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics is likely to renew a debate in Washington about the direction of the economy. Republicans seized on the numbers to criticize President Obama, with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (Va.) quoting a former Obama economic adviser to describe the figures as a “punch to the gut.”
“Today’s jobs report is disappointing,” Cantor said in a statement. “Our economy is not creating enough jobs, and too many working men and women are still in the unemployment line.
“For months, we’ve heard plenty of excuses from the White House and Congressional Democrats for why unemployment remains high. It’s time to stop making excuses and start working together on common sense solutions to address our lingering unemployment problem, and the stagnant economy,” Cantor said.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-04-06 03:02:562013-04-06 03:02:56Economy Slips, Percentage of Working Americans Lowest Since 1979
An attempt by Colorado lawmakers to ban welfare recipients from withdrawing their benefits at ATMs located inside strip clubs was killed by Democrats Thursday night, even though the state House’s third-ranking Democratic legislator supported the measure.
Democratic Rep. Dan Pabon lent his support to the Republican-led proposal, offered as an amendment during a debate on the state budget Thursday night, because it would hew to a similar federal rule, according to the Denver Post. Pabon introduced a bill on the issue two years ago, but it didn’t clear the state Senate.
State welfare recipients receive their benefits on debit cards that can be used for purchases just like credit cards or to withdraw cash from ATMs. Current rules already prohibit them from withdrawing money at ATMs located in liquor stores, casinos, bingo parlors and gun stores, but the strip club loophole has never been closed.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-04-06 03:01:502013-04-06 03:01:50Democrats Defeat Efforts to Prohibit Welfare Debit Card Use at Strip Club ATM's
Roman Catholic, Jesuit-affiliated Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington has refused to recognize the Knights of Columbus as an official student group because — wait for it — the Knights of Columbus is a Catholic organization.
Gonzaga administrators notified the students who had sought the school’s official seal of approval last month, reports The Cardinal Newman Society’s Catholic Education Daily.
“The Knights of Columbus, by their very nature, is a men’s organization in which only Catholics may participate via membership,” reads a letter written by Sue Weitz, vice president for student life. “These criteria are inconsistent with the policy and practice of student organization recognition at Gonzaga University.”
Right here seems like a sufficiently good place to observe that Gonzaga is under the umbrella of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) — a men’s organization in which only Catholic men may participate via membership.
Anyway, Weitz’s letter went on to explain that she feels “strongly” about Gonzaga’s “commitment to non-discrimination and inclusivity” and is troubled by the fact that “all members of a student Knights of Columbus group must be Catholic.”
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00kathleenhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngkathleen2013-04-06 03:01:052013-04-06 03:01:05Catholic University Won't Allow Catholic Students to Form Catholic Group
In the continuing trial of ‘House of Horrors’ abortionist Kermit Gosnell, one of his former employees, now incarcerated, testified that “it would rain fetuses. Fetuses and blood all over the place.”
Steven Massof’s chilling testimony continued, “I felt like a firemen in hell. I couldn’t put out all the fires.”
Massof spoke eerily in slow and deliberate manner, almost over-articulating his words. That, along with his “scuzzy” appearance made him appear creepy and –at least to this observer–somewhat revolting. He seemed to take an odd sarcastic glee in relating the illegal activities and filthy conditions under which he worked for approximately nine years.
Massof, who went to a medical school in Granada but never completed residency, was allegedly used by abortionist Gosnell to assist in the murder of babies born in failed abortions.
He also testified that the clinic performed forced abortions and identified women, such as Elizabeth Hampton (right), who would “hold down the women” who were not cooperating during the killings.
As part of a plea deal, the former employee previously pled guilty to three counts of third degree murder and dozens of federal drug charges.
As we reported previously, Massof’s former employer, Kermit Gosnell, is charged with eight murders. Witnesses have testified that Gosnell, or his employees, cut the necks of numerous late term babies delivered after abortions [warning: graphic photo of one of Gosnell’s alleged victims HERE]. Gosnell’s attorneys are claiming racism.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-04-06 03:00:332013-04-06 03:00:33This Week's House of Horrors Trial Testimony: 'It Would Rain Fetuses. Fetuses and Blood All Over the Place'
A shocking figure from a hearing on a bill in Florida should capture the attention of people across the country: hundreds of babies are born alive following botched abortions every year.
Most of the attention that has been focused on a controversial statement by a Planned Parenthood lobbyist has centered on the abortion business’ opposition to a bill to require appropriate medical care for any baby who survive an abortion. But the state representative who sponsored the bill told members of the Florida committee that held a hearing on it a shocking number.
See earlier article on Planned Parenthood’s lobbyist’s argument for the right to murder newborns from failed abortions HERE.
Florida Rep. Cary Pigman, an emergency medicine physician and the sponsor of the Florida “born-alive” bill, says national data reveal that hundreds of babies die after failed abortions. His response to a question (beginning at about 2:30 in the below video) provides additional information on the situation.
“We do have some sense in that with perinatal infant mortality data it is recorded,” Rep. Pigman told legislators on the panel. “In 2010, there were 24,586 perinatal deaths in the United States. Perinatal defines as being from the 22nd week of gestation to seven days post delivery.”
“Those are all coded by international classification,” he noted. Regarding babies who die after a botched abortion: “As of 2010, 1,270 infants were reported in that category — and I emphasize reported,” Pigman explained.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00kathleenhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngkathleen2013-04-06 02:58:432013-04-06 02:58:43Video: 1,270 Babies Born Alive in Failed Abortions in US, then Face Planned Parenthood Infanticide
By Jack Losh. Crackpot Kim Jong-un’s regime today issued a chilling threat to British diplomats warning them to get out of Pyongyang.
Alarmingly the North Korean government said it would not be able to guarantee the safety of embassies from April 10. Russian diplomats have also been advised to evacuate. Today the Foreign Office added that it is “considering next steps” after the threat.
It is still unclear why next Wednesday has been set as a deadline – but it is sure to spark fears despot Kim Jong-un will launch an attack after that date. This week South Korean workers employed in factories in the North were also told to leave by April 10.
The dramatic development came as North Korea moved a second missile to its east coast in a further threat to Japan, South Korea and US Pacific bases.
The rogue state has already transported a Musudan missile with a range of 1,800 miles (3,000km) to the same area. Read more from this story HERE.
Castro to North Korea: Do not start a war
By Spencer Amaral. Former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro warned North Korea against war on Friday, and said that it is primarily the United States’ responsibility to prevent a conflict from breaking out.
Castro wrote the advice in a column — his first in nine months — for Cuban state media. He spoke as an ally, from one communist regime to another, in the wake of North Korea’s mounting threats of direct war with South Korea and the U.S.
Describing the current tensions in the Korean Peninsula as one of the “gravest risks” of nuclear holocaust since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, Castro urged North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to back away from the brink of war, and consider the harmful repercussions his actions might have on both Koreas and the world. Read more from this story HERE.
Embassy Staff Face Difficult Decision After North Korea Asks Them to Leave
By Jethro Mullen. Barbara Starr and Laura Smith-Spark. Foreign diplomatic missions in North Korea face an ominous decision after Pyongyang said Friday it could not guarantee the safety of embassies and international organizations in the event of armed conflict.
Tensions on the Korean peninsula remain in a heightened state amid new reports that North Korea has prepared missiles for launch, while South Korea has deployed naval destroyers to its coasts.
The British Foreign Office said North Korea told British officials that it would not be able to guarantee the safety of diplomats in the capital if fighting breaks out.
Several diplomatic missions said the North Koreans held a meeting Friday for ambassadors in which they asked whether anyone needed assistance in evacuating their personnel.
“We are consulting international partners about these developments,” the British Foreign Office said in a written statement. “No decisions have been taken, and we have no immediate plans to withdraw our embassy.” Read more from this story HERE.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-04-06 02:55:142013-04-06 02:55:14North Korea Tells Brit Diplomats to Get Out — then Sets Chilling April 10 Deadline
A sweeping anti-abortion bill is headed to Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback.
The House gave final approval Friday to the measure, which blocks tax breaks for abortion providers and outlaws abortions performed solely because of the baby’s sex.
The measure also declares that life begins “at fertilization,” language that abortion opponents call a statement of principle and not an outright ban on abortion, though the bill’s opponents are skeptical.
In the continuing trial of ‘House of Horrors’ abortionist Kermit Gosnell, one of his former employees, now incarcerated, testified that “it would rain fetuses. Fetuses and blood all over the place.”
