I just about laughed out loud when I saw the newscaster say with a menacingly serious and straight face (ad lib here of course) “…they had enough ammonium nitrate for FOUR bombs of the size that blew up the Oklahoma City Federal Building….”

We all know how truthfully and honestly the OKC investigatation went, and then, how it was used by the govt. CLinton got to bash the entire right-wing as enemies of the state in one fell swoop–every one from the flatulent one, Rush Limbaugh, all the way to the libertarians and John Birchers and patrios and anyone silly enough to question CLinton. Then, the “moderates” and conservatives, in turn, got to pass their sweeping anti-terror legislation.

Golly isn’t funny how just about EVERYONE in the government on all sides of the issues GOT EXACTLY WHAT THEY WANTED after the bombing?

I bet everyone on earth a dollar that there was an inside “informant” who entrapped them all.

Akbar: The state will always take advantage of a crisis whether they had anyhting to do with it or not. Government’s structure, mainly its monopoly and ability to tax guarantee that it is so. For example, Taking guns in New Orleans which was hit by nature and NPR’s thing today about US/Canadian border security based on this obvious set-up.

OKC though, yeah, the state made that happen. Them and Andreas Strassmeir’s handler Morris Dees.

“War is the health of the State.”

Actually, any type of crisis, real or imagined, is the health of the State. I just saw on digg that some cops saw some “homemade” cds in a guy’s car and used it as an excuse to violate his 4th amendment rights and search his car and confiscate his discs as they MUST be illegally copied music and are in plain view, giving the officer probable cause. (turns out it looks like the judge threw it out fortunately but that doesn’t mean similar things won’t happen in the future)

I always thought the whole “probable cause” thing was wonky anyway. The 4th amendment doesn’t say the government can violate your person, house, papers or effects if they feel they have probable cause. It says “NO WARRANT SHALL ISSUE, but upon probable cause…” So they still need a warrant even if they feel they have probable cause, and for that matter, they can get a warrant only IF they have probable cause. But hey, gotta save the kids from smoking weed and listening to bootleg discs. Oh yeah, and while we’re at it, we gotta save white people from illegal immigrants that might be hiding in their trunks, so just go ahead and pop your trunk, Sir, and if there’s nothing amiss you’ll be on your way.

Well, as I pointed out in response to that post, Badnarik’s (or whoever’s) statement didn’t seem to be about keeping “illegal” immigrants out; it was about making them stop at checkpoints so some bureaucrat can determine whether they’re criminals or terrorists. His point seemed to be that everyone else should be allowed in freely.

But that does present several obvious problems:

1) Who pays for these checkpoints and this screening? (We do. We are forced to at gunpoint. Not very libertarian.)(*)
2) How do we determine who the “bad guys” are? A list similar to that used by the FAA? That doesn’t work at all, it just keeps people with similar names or the same name (sometimes because the alleged “bad guy” uses the name as an alias) from getting through, thereby punishing innocent people. Also not very libertarian.
3) What prevents the REAL bad guys from just ignoring these checkpoints and coming into the country the same way “illegals” are now — in the middle of the desert or smuggled in in some manner? NOTHING. The only people that will suffer are those who want to be law abiding and stop at the checkpoints.
4) Wouldn’t it be better in a free country to just let people come and go freely and end our military adventurism around the world so nobody would have any reason to want to sneak in horrible weapons to kill us?

(*) I heard on another podcast that there could be such immigration stations along the border but they could be 100% sponsored by business, therefore they’d cost the taxpayers nothing directly. Hmmm, some large businesses that hire lots of immigrants might actually go for that, like Wal-Mart or whatever. They could even have employment applications and bussing set up. “Welcome to America, you start in the stockroom tomorrow at 8am.”

Note that I’m not advocating this, it was just a take on it that I found interesting.