In this troubling interview with the excecutive director of Life Legal Defense Foundation, attorney Dana Cody describes the hostile efforts of the FBI against pro-life Christians in the United States.
She suggests that the feds view “pro-life Christians [as] the focus of evil in the modern world.”
Ms. Cody talks about cases involving federal interrogations of pro-lifers that originated solely from Internet activities, reflecting that such activists were being tracked by the FBI online.
She said that the interrogations are increasingly becoming “like the SS showing up at your door.” She advises that anytime the feds approach you, you must “videotape, videotape, videotape.”
Ms. Cody believes that the feds are “going after people that are exposing them.”
She concludes that this federal law enforcement action is “threatening the very structure of the nation and people need to wake up.”
Here’s the interview:
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-04-07 02:45:352013-04-07 02:45:35Feds: Pro-life Christians are the Focus of Evil in the Modern World (+video)
Narrating a new MSNBC “Lean Forward” spot, the Tulane professor laments that we in America “haven’t had a very collective notion that these are our children.” “[W]e have to break through our kind of private idea that kids belong to their parents or kids belong to their families, and recognize that kids belong to their communities,” Harris-Perry argued.
“Once it’s everybody’s responsibility and not just the households, then we start making better investments.” By “investments,” of course, Harris-Perry means things like spending “as much in public education as we should have.”
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
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
As reported on Wednesday, public resources have been used by the state government in Juneau to impede the First Amendment rights of pro-life protesters. You can read that story and see that video HERE.
In response to that story, Governor Parnell released a statement that he was “surprised to learn that a Department of Administration employee had been directed to park a State vehicle in front of peacefully assembled demonstrators outside the capitol.” The Governor stated that he had “given direction to the Department to ensure this does not happen in the future unless public safety is at risk or the rule of law violated.” You can read his full statement HERE.
Despite the Governor’s statement, things took a turn for the worse the next day. During this second day of pro-life protests, state vehicles were again brought in to block the protesters’ signs. According to observers, not only did the Capitol Chief of Security and Assistant Chief of Security forcibly take a sign from a protester and move it across the street, their actions took a more ominous turn.
As you will see in the following video, the Assistant Chief of Security forcibly moved a protester from where he was standing, apparently knocking him down and hurting him in the process. The Assistant Chief of Security then forcibly took the camera from one of the protesters and shut it off:
What follows is a narrative of events that Restoring Liberty received from one of the eye-witnesses:
April 2nd 2013
In the afternoon of Tuesday, April 2nd, during a peaceful protest staged by volunteers with CBR Alaska, it was observed that the State of Alaska was using state resources for personal interest by blocking the protest with Department of Administration trucks. The trucks were parked across the street from the capital building, in the “active loading and unloading zone” and in the road congesting traffic, obviously in answer to a command to block the protesters. There were witnesses at the protest who heard the commands being given to the drivers of the trucks. When one of the drivers left his truck there, he looked at the protesters and said “Just doing what I was told, sorry”. The trucks were left in place for at least an hour and a half. Someone observing the situation, Ted Deats, went into the capital and told Senator John Coghill’s office about what was being done. After Senator Coghill’s office called Commissioner Becky Holtberg, the vehicles were removed. Later that day, when we were sitting in our rental van, the same Department of Administration truck drove by, and the driver gestured at us that he was keeping his eye on us.
April 3rd 2013
A few minutes after 11am my wife and I returned to our rental van from the breakfast break during CBR Alaska’s protest in front of the capitol building in Juneau. We noticed that there were two blue vans parked in the No Parking (active loading and unloading) zone across the street from the capital building immediately in front of where the protest signs were being held. At 11:30AM our group redeployed our peaceful protest. When we began to take pictures of the license plates of the vans parked in the no parking zone, idol bureaucrats, who had been standing on the steps of the capital watching us, immediately walked across the street and drove one of the empty vans off.
About 30 minutes later the van came back empty, as before. At this time there was a man, Ted Deats, who was not part of our protest, but who had walked up and was conversing with us and taking pictures. Mr. Deats had realized from the day before what was going on and stood in the “no parking zone”. The driver of the van got out and told him to move. Mr. Deats refused and said he was taking a picture. The driver once again commanded Mr. Deats to move and when his command was again refused, he went into the capital in anger.
At this time, one of the protest participants, Sid Heidersdorf, had taken two of the signs across the street and was standing on the sidewalk on the corner of the street in front of the capital. Two men, Mel Personett (Chief of Security) and Steve Daigle (Assistant Chief of Security), came out of the capital and abruptly grabbed the signs that Mr. Heidersdorf was holding and brought them across the street. Their explanation was that the other side of the street was capital property and could not be used for protesting. They then returned to the capital. Several minutes later, Mr. Personett came back outside and began to explain that one of his men had “jumped the gun” regarding the removal of the signs. He said that it was fine to protest on both sides of the street.
Within a few minutes the driver came out again and started menacing Mr. Deats with the van. He revved the engine and moved to within a few inches of Mr. Deats. The driver told us that he needed to park there to “unload papers and do government work”, however the van was empty. With Mr. Deats still refusing to move, the driver got out and said he was calling the police. Several moments later, Steve Daigle accompanied the driver of the van outside and they once again began menacing Mr. Deats. After some exchange, Steve Daigle physically pushed Mr. Deats out of the way and ended up pulling him to the ground and knocking his knee against the curb. As a witness to the events that had been and were occurring, Haylee Kurka, took video of the above series of events. As she videoed the exchange, Mr. Daigle reached out and grabbed the phone out of her hand and turned off the recorder. He then shoved the phone back at her. At this point, Mr. Deats was seated on the ground, and the driver got out of the seat and started calling him derogatory names.
Juneau police arrived several minutes later and began questioning those who were involved. Most of the exchange is in the video. The officer told Mr. Deats that it was unacceptable to stand in the way and block the loading zone, but also that steps should be taken to explain to the acceptable authorities what had happened. As the officer talked to the protesters, they watched as the driver and other men loaded very small things into the van, attempting to validate their claim that they needed to be in the loading and unloading zone.
Once the police left, things went on as they had been, until the protesters left a short while later to keep a previous commitment. The many pictures and videos were given to Senator Dyson’s office as evidence of what had happened.
First lady Michelle Obama mistakenly called herself a “busy single mother” in an interview on Thursday with Burlington, Vt. CBS affiliate WCAX, before quickly catching herself and identifying instead as a “busy working mom.”
Discussing the struggle many parents face in balancing work and home life, the first lady reached for an empathetic tone, beginning, “Believe me, as a busy single mother…or, I shouldn’t say ‘single’ – as a busy mother…”
Despite appeals to the University of Chicago to stop the destruction of Ronald Reagan’s childhood home, the university went forward with its demolition yesterday.
Why? The university-land owner wants to build a parking lot.
Here’s a short video of what happened:
As we noted last month, it’s hard to even believe that Reagan served in most of our lifetimes. In this video, he comes to us now as an obscure figure out of the not-so-distant past.
His simple and straightforward faith in God, and in America, was winsome and poignant.
One cannot help but be struck by the stark contrast to the current occupant of the White House, 21st Century America, and of the vanguard of the GOP.
Ronald Reagan spoke deeply to the American soul.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-04-05 03:27:552013-04-05 03:27:55Video: University of Chicago Ignores Protests, Destroys Ronald Reagan's Childhood Home
At a gun rights forum in Denver, US Representative Diana DeGette, who apparently doesn’t know the difference between gun magazines and bullets [see a clip of that astonishing statement HERE], belittled an elderly citizen who asked how he could defend himself with new gun control restrictions.
Representative Diana DeGette callously responded, “The good news for you, you live in Denver. The Denver PD would be there within minutes. You’d probably be dead anyway.”
See it here:
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-04-04 03:29:492013-04-04 03:29:49Video: US Representative Mocks Senior Citizen Who Asks How He Can Defend Himself if His Guns Are Taken
When asked about the possible involvement of the Aryan Brotherhood in the killings, the Republican governor said it is too early to speculate about who was behind the killings, but added that it also wouldn’t be wise to overlook any angle.
We know the drug cartels are very, very active in our country now. It goes back … to the whole issue of border security and the failure of the federal government . . .
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-04-04 02:57:372013-04-04 02:57:37Gov. Perry Says Mexican Drug Cartels Active in Texas, Possibly Responsible for DA's Murders (+video)
Democratic Rep. Diana DeGette has been the lead sponsor on a federal ban on high-capacity ammunition magazines in two Congresses, saying it’s one of her top priorities.
But Tuesday at a Denver Post forum on the gun control debate, the senior congresswoman from Denver appeared to not understand how guns work. [She also mocked a senior citizen. See that video HERE]
Asked how a ban on magazines holding more than 15 rounds would be effective in reducing gun violence, DeGette said:
“I will tell you these are ammunition, they’re bullets, so the people who have those now they’re going to shoot them, so if you ban them in the future, the number of these high capacity magazines is going to decrease dramatically over time because the bullets will have been shot and there won’t be any more available.”
What she didn’t appear to understand is that a magazine can be reloaded with more bullets. According to the Shooter’s Log, only early on were magazines for AR-15s designed to be disposable, but the military changed that and now magazines are used several times. In handguns, a magazine is designed to be reused hundreds of times.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-04-04 02:44:052013-04-04 02:44:05Video: 'Pretty Stupid' Lead Sponsor of House Gun Legislation Has No Idea How They Work