While the 70 or so Department of Homeland Security All Threat Fusion Centers across the U.S. surveil American citizens for terrorist threats, these domestic spy centers completely overlook the right-wing media and blogger threat as they gin up fear against President Obama and Democrats in congress to the level of armed insurrection.
Lately we have been hearing a lot of squawking and screeching emanating from the conservative right wing about a revolution.
This is rather perplexing given that we recently had an election in which the elected President won rather substantially. . .
. . .And despite all of the problems we face in these dire and stressful times the President's approval ratings remain in the 60's. Today it is at 67%. Today an ABC/Washington Post poll also reveals 65% trust President Obama to handle relations with Muslim nations.
So, what is the problem? Why is a revolution necessary now?
In an editorial in the The New York Times Charles Blow expressed his concern for conservative hate talk. Blow asserts conservative chatter and hate talk is far from harmless.
"Lately I've been consuming as much conservative media as possible (interspersed with shots of Pepto-Bismol) to get a better sense of the mind and mood of the right.
My read: They're apocalyptic. They feel isolated, angry, betrayed and besieged. And some of their "leaders" seem to be trying to mold them into militias." [reminiscent of the 1930's era German-American Bundist Movement fostered by Hitler's Nazi Germany]
Mr. Blow said he was initially amused by the twisted logic, garbled and veiled hate speech. After spending substantial time listening to conservative media, however, Mr. Blow changed his tune. He realized all is not harmless talk.
But, it's not all just harmless talk. For some, their disaffection has hardened into something more dark and dangerous. They're talking about a revolution.
Mr. Blow's article certainly gave me pause because I too had the tendency to dismiss the ravings of the right wing as just that. The events of this past week should certainly make us rethink some of our impressions of right wing hate talk.Read the rest of the story at burntorangereport.com.
KXAN AUSTIN - Voter ID day at the Capitol started out with a rally of pro-Voter ID supporters.
Hundreds, dressed in red, gathered on the South steps to push House members to make the same decision as the Senate: Approve SB 362, which would require voters bring a photo ID to the polls.
"I have to provide a valid photo ID and my social security number just to get a fishing license, and I have to provide neither in order to vote," said Voter ID supporter, Liz Tate. "That makes absolutely no sense to me."
Tate is part of SafeTexas , a group that has been at the forefront of pushing Voter ID legislation.
Members of SafeTexas joined opponents of the bill to publicly testify before the House Elections Committee Tuesday afternoon. Every seat in the hearing room was filled, as speakers prepared themselves for a long night.
"I plan to wait 24 hours if I have to in order to testify in favor of this bill," said Rusty Hicks, who waited almost that long to testify during the Senate debate on Voter ID
The first person to testify before the House committee spoke out against the bill. Randall Buck Wood, an attorney, said he has investigated voter fraud and found nothing this bill would solve.
"I've never found a person impersonating another voter," said Wood. "I've never found illegal immigrants trying to vote."
That comment was met with grumblings from some of the pro-Voter ID members of the audience who believe voter fraud is alive and well in Texas.
An All-Night Affair
Rep. Todd Smith, Chair of the Elections Committee, said he will give everyone who wants to testify a chance to do so. Each speakers gets three minutes and then a chance to answer questions posed by committee members. When the Senate Committee of the Whole had its hearing on the issue, the debate and testimony lasted almost 24 hours.
Smith does not expect the committee to vote on the bill this week. However, once it does approve the bill, SB 362 will then move to the House floor for debate.
Stipulations of the Bill
Under current law, to vote a regular ballot, voters are only required to present a voter registration certificate to a poll worker.
SB 362 would require all voters present a valid form of photo identification to the polls. If a person does not have a state ID or driver's license or other form of photo identification, they could be bring in two other forms of approved identification instead (utility bill, cable bill, etc).
The bill mandates the Secretary of State educate the public on the new voting law by posting a notice on the website and on the websites of local polling locations. The bill also mandates the Texas Department of Public Safety not charge people who want to obtain a state issued ID solely for the purpose of voting.
The newsletter used inflammatory internet rumors to call for law enforcement to report on legal lobbying and protest activities by Muslin and anti-war groups, prompting a response from the national office of the ACLU. The controversial PAB was written by Dr. Robert Johnson, the son of U.S. Congressman Sam Johnson and the prime contractor to the fusion center. [Sam Johnson (R) represents the 3rd Congressional District of Texas, which includes the southwestern portion of Collin County and the Northeastern corner of Dallas County.]
The PAB, stamped "For Official Use Only", is published weekly and is distributed to several hundred law enforcement and other first responder agencies in the North Texas region.
This week's edition, acknowledges what I've been hearing from several sources - which is that most of the recipients of the newsletter consider it a waste of time and toss it in the trash without reading it.
This latest PAB leads with a statement that, "In prioritizing our resources, we also understand that you must prioritize your limited time. Therefore, we will no longer be sending weekly bulletins. However, we will continue to send periodic updates, resources, information and analysis that we believe to be of value to you."
Collin County's fusion center, the NCTFS, is not the only fusion center under fire for distributing such spurious and inflammatory warnings to law enforcement agencies.
A newly leaked terrorism assessment from a fusion center in Virginia shows that police and feds are targeting "historically black colleges" as "radicalization nodes" for terrorists. RAW STORY has published the entirety of the 215 page report, available here in PDF format, From RAW STORY:
From page 17 of the report:
While most of these universities are considered urban, two are designated as a Historically Black Colleges and Universities, while Regent University is a private, evangelical Christian institution. While the majority of individuals associated with educational institutions do not engage in activities of interest to the VFC, it is important to note that University-based students groups are recognized as a radicalization node for almost every type of extremist group.
Though the report singles out "historically black colleges" early on, it also contains an extensive list of peaceful American and International activist groups from nearly all cross-sections of political engagement, placing them side-by-side with groups that have long been known for resorting to violence.
. . ."If we are to believe this exaggerated threat assessment, Virginia's learning and religious institutions must be hotbeds of terrorist activity,' said Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office, in an advisory. "This document and its authors have displayed a fundamental disregard for our constitutional rights of free expression and association. Unfortunately, it's not the first time we've seen such an indifference to these basic rights from local fusion centers. Congress must take the necessary steps to institute real and thorough oversight mechanisms at fusion centers before we reach a point where we are all considered potential suspects."
"There is an appalling lack of oversight at these fusion centers and they are becoming – as the ACLU has repeatedly warned – a breeding ground for overzealous police intelligence activities," said Michael German, ACLU Policy Counsel and former FBI Agent, in a release. "The Virginia threat assessment isn’t just disturbing for encouraging police to treat education and religious practices with suspicion, it's bad law enforcement. Lawmakers from all levels of government need to enact legislation to protect against these spying activities that threaten our democracy while doing nothing to improve security."
Recently, a Department of Homeland Security-funded fusion center in Missouri was accused of blatant disregard for the United States Constitution after one of its memos encouraged the surveillance of third party activists, Christians and supporters of Congressman Ron Paul, for their alleged potential status as illegal militia.
The Department of Homeland Security has paid out more than $327 million in funding to local authorities during fiscal years 2004 to 2008 to form 70 centers across the country. The federal government also provides start up personnel and technical support along with the funding. The 70 fusion centers around the U.S., including the one in Collin County gather, compile, store, interpret and then distribute to other government agencies huge amounts of information on the "activities" of local citizens.
Video: Texas Senator Kirk Watson's speech against the Photo Voter ID bill (SB362)
On April 6th-7th, the Texas House Committee on Elections will hear testimony on the Photo Voter ID bill, which already passed in the Texas Senate in March.
While proponents of Texas voter ID legislation argue that it's needed to combat voter fraud, there is no evidence that the type of fraud this legislation addresses has occurred at any point since records have been kept.
Republicans have been unable to provide any actual evidence on their claim that large groups of people knowingly and willingly give false information to establish voter eligibility, and knowingly and willingly vote illegally or participate in a conspiracy to encourage illegal voting by others.
County election officials said voter fraud was difficult to carry out in Texas because each applicant must submit a driver's license number or Social Security number, which is entered into a statewide electronic database and checked by the secretary of state's office. Applicants are sent a voting card and officially added to the rolls only if there are no discrepancies and the secretary of state's office approves the application.
...elections administrators said there's no proof that county officials are registering a significant number of non-citizens to vote. "I don't think we are, and I have no evidence that we have people over registered to vote," said Dallas County Elections Administrator Bruce Sherbet.
...Steve Raborn, elections administrator for Tarrant County, said a two-year investigation by his office of questionable voter registrations in 2004 and 2005 found only three non-citizens on the county voter rolls, and they were later removed.
A Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law study found that as many as 11 percent of citizens, mostly the elderly, poor and minority American citizens, do not have a current, government-issued photo ID. Voting rights advocates say that requiring photo identification threatens to disenfranchise many older Americans, a growing segment of the population in Collin County as retirees increasingly move to the county.
Senior citizens are less likely to have unexpired driver’s licenses or other government photo id and they are less likely to have their birth certificates, which are often needed to obtain a government photo ID.
This has proven to be the case in Arizona, Indiana and the other eight states that required government issued photo identification to vote in the 2008 election.
(actually, in Collin County this would turn out to benefit Democrats and suppress Republican votes since it would tend to reduce the vote from the solidly Republican block of retirees in the county.)
The Texas photo Voter ID bill is part the Republican agenda to keep Republicans in office by suppressing the vote of groups that tend to vote Democratic. In the 10 states that have already passed picture ID laws, voter participation is down about 3 percent. However, black and Hispanic voter participation is down more than 10 percent in those states. The success of Democratic voter registration drives among these Texas groups in 2008 threatens to tip the balance of power away from Republican candidates in future elections. As the tide of Democratic voters continues to grow across Texas, voter ID legislation would be an effective way for Republicans to hold back the tide.
Consequently, the use of baseless "voter fraud" allegations to promote voter photo ID legislation has become such an urgent priority for Republicans in the 2009 Texas legislative session that Republicans in the Texas Senate were compelled to change long standing Senate rules to just to bring the photo ID legislation to a vote.
Call Elections Committee Chairman Todd Smith and ask him why Republicans are making photo Voter ID the highest priority when there is no evidence of voter fraud, even after Republican Attorney General Greg Abbott's $1.4 million two year investigation attempting to locate voter fraud failed to identify anything more than 26 cases where people forgot to sign and address the absentee ballot envelope:
Contact Information:
Call Rep. Todd Smith, Chairman of House Committee on Elections, at his capitol phone number (512) 463-0522 or write him an email - link to email form - or do both!
