Tonight on The Independents: Governmental Breakdown, With Glenn Reynolds, Mike 'Heckuva Job' Brown, NSA Whistleblower William Binney, Thad McCotter, and Critics of the V.A., CIA, and Post Office!
Friday is theme-show night for The Independents (Fox Business Network, 9 p.m. ET, 6 p.m. PT, with re-airs three and five hours later), so tonight's is on the target-rich subject of "Governmental Breakdown." It's one of the best shows we've ever produced, so you should watch it, probably on your television.
The program kicks off with Glenn "Instapundit" Reynolds explaining what the Centers for Disease Control's mission creep can tell us not just about the Ebola response, but to the nature of government in general, from 9/11 to the Secret Service and beyond. "CIA SpyGirl" Emily Brandwin talks about the perils of having a Cold War-era spy agency drag itself into the asymmetrical 21st century. Former GOP congressman and longshot presidential candidate Thaddeus McCotter breaks down how the governing breakdown in Congress is worrisome even for those of us who don't want the bastidges to get things done.
There have been few governmental foul-ups in this dreary young century more infuriatingly inept than those in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. So yes, we have former Federal Emergency Management Agency head Michael Brown on to talk about how FEMA went bad, what it's like being the scapegoat, and whether the original sin in disaster-relief is federalizing the stuff in the first place.
Reason readers (and viewers) know all about O.G. NSA whistleblower William Binney; Fox Business Network viewers will also get a taste of the man who was punished for warning his superiors that the agency was shredding the Constitution. Speaking of punished whistleblowers, have you heard of the V.A.'s Scott Davis? Well, you will tonight, including detail of how the White House itself allegedly intervened to punish bad news at the source. And we all know the Post Office sucks, but what happens when you try to compete with the monopoly? Outbox co-founder Evan Baehr will explain how a great idea got snuffed.
This is such a good show, it hurts my feelings. I dare you not only to watch it, but encourage your frenemies to do the same. It really is that swell.
Follow The Independents on Facebook at facebook.com/IndependentsFBN, follow on Twitter @ independentsFBN, and click on this page for more video of past segments.
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Every time someone mentions mission creep in the context of government bureaucracy, I can’t help picturing them as the Zerg…
We must use the siege tanks of liberty to blast the creep colonies of govt.
“De-LIGHT-ed to, sir!”
“Stop touching me!”
Wait, wrong game…
Actually, No.
This is such a good show, it hurts my feelings.
🙁
Behold the gospel according to St Treehugger:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5NiTN0chj0
Bonus: video claims planet is “designed”- I thought only wackdoodle Christians believed such things.
“Can continue into the future, and go on…“
Making predictions is really hard. Especially about the future.
Herb Stein begs to differ!
Animism is not limited to religion.
I just noticed that in Captain Planet, Linka is the only Planeteer said to come from a country (USSR) instead of a continent. I believe after 1991 they changed it to “from eastern Europe.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpXM9bj-WPU
I always wanted to motorboat Linka. Her accent is sexy.
Speaking of the nature of our Government I wonder if our constitution is not flawed in the most basic way possible.
It lays out the structure of the government and functions of its various parts intermingled with various limits to its power. Then as an afterthought it has the bill of rights.
What if the Constitution were written the other way about? What if it layed out all of the rights of individuals, listed all of the things that may not be done to persons etc., i.e. established a zone where government may not tread and then just sort of vaguely layed out the architecture of a government, leaving the details of that structure to each generation?
I will have to think about this more.
What if we just added an addendum, or a new ammendment that gave individual citizens the right to murder members of the government who broke the law?
It seems to me that the only reason this doesn’t happen all the time is because it isn’t laid out in black and white. Revolution is what built this country. Revolution is a right. It is the liberty in “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”.
If we’d written it down and made it the law of the land, we’d never’ve let things go as far as we have.
Our government has grown unchecked like a cancer because of mission creep. Vague wording about the mission of government is what allowed this to happen. That and no strict definition of what personal liberty is.
The (d)evolution of norms and values is what allowed this to happen.
Constitutions are pieces of paper; they do not enforce themselves.
They are too vague to mean much of anything. They have been essentially ignored.
Thus your first point….constitutions are just pieces of paper.
The commerce clause is not vague at all, and yet has been twisted to mean whatever 5 black robed lawyers can be convinced that it means.
And then you have clauses like this:
which are completely ignored.
Eh, I like what Harry Browne said about laws: they can be changed, ignored, broken, and repealed. They’re not very good protectors.
The constitutions of the USSR and other communist countries protected freedom of speech, press, etc. On paper, they had due process, the presumption of innocence, & freedom to dissent.
What they lacked was an armed populace.
I cannot more enthusiastically second this comment.
I would only add that they needed an armed populace that actually, ya know, believed in freedom — at least a little bit.
I cannot more enthusiastically second this comment.
I can’t believe that more posters missed this.
Well done, Gozer, well done.
… Hobbit
Agreed. I shitcan that idea. I will clean guns tomorrow.
I’m going to a gun show tomorrow. Perhaps I will find a cheap Mosyn Nagant.
You’ve found an expensive one?
I saw one at Cabela’s in Fort Worth for $170 a while back. I don’t know what the going rate it.
*is
They used to go for $80.
I got mine for $90, but that was several years ago.
The guy claimed it was an ex-sniper 91/30. I didn’t believe him at the time, but after some research I think the Soviets might have turned it back into a regular 91/30 from the sniper version. There are filled in holes in the bolt track for a scope mount.
What they lacked was an armed populace.
In other words, the FINAL (and most unfortunate to have to use) check on tyranny.
federal judge Alex Kozinski in his dissent to the Ninth Circuit’s denial of review in Silveira v. Lockyer:
“The Second Amendment is a doomsday provision, one designed for those exceptionally rare circumstances where all other rights have failed?where the government refuses to stand for reelection and silences those who protest; where courts have lost the courage to oppose, or can find no one to enforce their decrees. However improbable these contingencies may seem today, facing them unprepared is a mistake a free people get to make only once.”
One of my favorite contemporary jurists, too bad I don’t see either party nominating him to SCOTUS ever.
Don’t give up hope, Bo! When President Rand Paul and Vice President Justin Amash confer with Speaker of the House Thomas Massie about who would make a good choice, I’m sure Kozinski will be right at the top of the list.
Also, Thomas Sowell will be Treasury Secretary and Scott Walker will be Secretary of Labor. That way we can build a dam across the river of prog tears and finally have an endless source of renewable energy.
You are my Person of the Week for that comment. But I’m still trying to start the Scott Walker 2016 bandwagon.
I say this as a life long Wisconsin resident, and a long time Walker supporter, especially since his terms as Milwaukee County Exec. Walker needs to win this next election as Governor to finally put the Progressives in their place, and continue to grow the state’s economy. 2020 is the earliest that he has a viable chance, IMO.
Dead thread, I know, but I work weird hours.
What if it layed out all of the rights of individuals, listed all of the things that may not be done to persons etc
I believe it covered the necessary basis. It is written in a way that it “grants” power to the general government. This is to say that the gov’t may only act in areas in which it has been granted power. Yes, the BoR came as an afterthought at the behest of TJ. However, that does not take away from the fact that all powers in the fedgov Constitution and that of the States are “granted” to them. I believe the problem is that it may not be concise and direct enough. This may be why many believe that something like the Commerce Clause has been taken to have such a broad meaning. Well, that and people fail to define the terms in the document as they would have been at the time of it’s writing.
Two fundamental problems with the Constitution, which are really only clear in hindsight.
1. Almost all of the limits placed on the general government are implicit. Clearly, the thinking was that by only listing the powers granted to Congress, etc., that usurpation would be obvious to the States’ respective legislatures, and the people, and dealt with accordingly. This actually worked not too badly until April 6, 1861, when #16 granted himself the authority to provoke and wage war on civilians, after which the States became subordinate provinces in an empire ruled by D.C. – an arrangement which continues to this day.
2. There is no State-level mechanism to trigger a wholesale dissolution of the federal government… something like the election that can be called in the British Parliament via a vote of no confidence.
I’ve a suggestion along both those lines…
http://bit.ly/1p6qQml
The Separation of Powers, and 3 equal branches was a fundamental flaw in the constitution that can’t be fixed.
Landon Donovan’s last appearance for the United States on now.
O good. It looks like that kickstarter for WWIII hit its goal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuDuu662jlI
“One’s bigger!”
I laughed!
I dare you not only to watch it, but encourage your frenemies to do the same.
My “frenemies” are progs. Consequently, they are about as open-minded as a rock.
Progs: So open minded, their brains fell out!
Last Sunday, I went to Baptist Sunday school because they said an apologist was going to give a talk on why god exists. The gist of it was there are 3 possibilities for a godless universe: either it is an illusion, or it created itself, or it always existed. If the universe is an illusion, then there must be something real that experiences the illusion. So the illusion explanation is out. The universe can’t create itself out of nothing because from nothing, nothing comes. And it can’t be eternal either because an infinite number of things would have to happen before the present arrived. So the best explanation left is that the universe had a first cause and god is the best bill for that.
Since this was a forum, I asked that if the universe needs a cause, doesn’t god need one? Either you needed an uncreated god or an uncreated universe. Of the two, the uncreated universe makes more sense, since I know the universe is real.
By the way, the apologist is a member of a Christian motorcycle club called Golgotha Advocates. Christian motorcycle gangs- now I’ve seen everything.
But I did learn something new from him- it turns out the way fish get into lakes that didn’t have fish to start with is that their eggs get carried there by ducks. I always wondered about that.
“I asked that if the universe needs a cause, doesn’t god need one? ”
What did he say in response?
God doesn’t need a creator because that’s part of the definition of god. Or something to that effect.
“If I just define this word however I want to, you can never prove me wrong!”
“If we assume god’s existence, he doesn’t need a cause.”
Interesting, thanks.
The universe can’t create itself out of nothing because from nothing, nothing comes
Only based on our current understanding of said universe. In other words, what we ‘think’ we know.
I know the universe is real.
What if we are all in something like ‘The Matrix’?
Even if what we experience is an illusion, there must be something real that experiences the illusion. A dream is false, but the brain that has it is real.
“What if we are all in something like ‘The Matrix’?”
Descartes’ evil genius argument.
Then the universe still exists, it just isn’t what we think it is.
Yeah, I had to resolve that myself a few years back. You can either be rational in every area of your life or you can be a Christian and be rational in most areas of your life.
I don’t think anyone can be rational in every area of life. Not even Spock.
Yeah, that was part of how I arrived at my conclusion: everyone is a-rational (rather than irrational) somewhere in their life.
I keep coming back to watch this almost every night, expecting something…
I don’t know what.
Spock was half human.
And it can’t be eternal either because an infinite number of things would have to happen before the present arrived.
Dammit, there go my plans for the afterlife! 8-(
On second thought, though, that’s not spent in “the universe”! 😎
*** carries on ***
Ever notice that all these philosophical flounderings take the form of human thought…stories. We think of everything as a story, having a birth, life, a death. A plot with a beginning, a middle, and an end.
There is simply no reason that some explanation for the existence of the universe must follow that formula. There is no reason that life must have a reason, a meaning.
“Of the two, the uncreated universe makes more sense, since I know the universe is real.”
(I know I’m late to this, don’t care)
Except that the definition of the universe is basically “all of the things we empirically know, which all have traceable beginnings and ends” You’re really altering the definition of the universe if you decide that on some unmeasurable level it’s eternal, while being made up of transient things. Actually, you’ve effectively reinvented God.
“White men make up 31% of the population, yet they hold 65% of elected offices in the United States. According to data released Wednesday by the Reflective Democracy Campaign, which built a database of over 42,000 elected officials, America’s leaders do not look very much like their constituents. Whites, men and white men dominate elected offices. Women and people of color are massively underrepresented.”
http://thinkprogress.org/justi…..-of-color/
I’m sure ThinkProgress would be instantly happy if a wave of female & “people of color” conservatives and libertarians were elected.
Fun fact: 4 of the 20 LP US Senate Candidates are women this year
It looks like the Democrat Party has 7 out of 23, the GOP has 4 out of 28 (I’m not sure the DSCC site I looked at for the first number listed all their candidates).
They don’t seem particularly excited about Ted Cruz, Sarah Palin, Nikki Haley, Bobby Jindal, or Alan West, do they? For that matter, I’m pretty sure progressives would be ecstatic if the only black person on the Supreme Court resigned tomorrow, regardless of who replaced him.
Ted Cruz, Sarah Palin, Nikki Haley, Bobby Jindal, or Alan West
Way to leave out everyone’s (or maybe just my) favorite, Justin Amash.
I always forget Amash is Palestinian. Regardless, I’m sure progs ignore his Arabic ancestry because it fucks with the narrative.
I also left out Rand Paul, despite the fact that he is an Aqua Buddhist and is therefore a member of a historically marginalized religion. I mean, some people don’t even acknowledge they exist.
Mia Love, Gary Franks, Alberto Gonzalez (not elected, but the Dems filibustered him out of a SCOTUS seat).
In fairness, no one is excited by Bobby Jindal.
Incidentally, why is ‘people of color’ not racist but ‘colored people’ is racist?
I have yet to hear a satisfactory answer to this question, besides ‘because progressives declare it to be so.’
It might have something to do with the later’s association with times when civil rights were seen as poor.
NAAPOC
That is true, but it is still only based in semantics. Both phrasings convey the same idea.
This is why white people are psyched all the time.
Huh. It sounds like the majority of the population wants white men to be in charge.
Not exactly shocking, but I bet they wouldn’t get behind my idea of selecting the House from a lottery of registered voters rather than an election, despite the fact that it would address the demographic representation issues.
Liberal site comments on suspension of Georgia’s RB for Taking Money for Autographs
“The University of Georgia, the Southeastern Conference, and the NCAA make huge amounts of money off of athletes like Gurley. In 2013, for instance, UGA’s athletic department generated nearly $100 million in revenues. The University of Georgia team shop sells jerseys featuring the running back’s number. The SEC’s broadcast deals with CBS and ESPN are worth more than $3 billion over a decade. Georgia pays its head coach, Mark Richt, $3.2 million per season and its athletic director, Greg McGarity, $525,000 per year. Corporate entities attached to college football, from TV networks like ESPN to apparel giants like Nike to corporate sponsors, all make huge amounts of money from the business. The memorabilia dealer who paid Gurley for his signature (then apparently reported him for it) is free to profit from selling the items.Everyone involved in the business of major college athletics is allowed to make money ? except the athletes, who are limited by inane NCAA bylaws to the aid schools give them.”
http://thinkprogress.org/sport…..signature/
Just some reasonable “regulations” by a gov’t that “cares” for them.
How can anyone be against that?
My buddy at work is a fundy Christian. Sometimes I stir the pot. I sent him this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bar3GOzDNzg
He said he had to stop watching halfway through.
This is motherfucking hilarious. Is it by the same people who did the George Washington video?
The animation looks the same.
Yep. Brad Neeley. One of the many obscure comedians who is 10x funnier than Sarah Silverman.
“He said he had to stop watching halfway through.”
Yeaaaaah…..They tend to sputter and flounder a lot when you ask them about Lott’s daughters being thrown to the rape mob. I imagine he turned it off to keep his head from exploding.
The livestream is choppy.
Who’s drinking? For reasons I’m not going into I can’t drink tonight, so I hope someone out there can make up for my abstention.
Just finised my 3rd Alaska Amber. Probably will go dry for the rest of the weekend.
When I travel, I visit the local booze shops to see what what the locals can get that I can’t get.
In Amsterdam, I stopped by The Beer King. I looked through their USA section. They can get lots of beer that I can’t get, including Alaska Brewing.
I thought about buying some Alaska Brewing beer to bring back into the US, but I decided against. I used my luggage space to bring back Zundert and some other Dutch brews.
I like Piraat, Gulden Draak, St Bernadus, and Chimay Blue.
I could really go for a Piraat.
They’re all Belgian, and good.
Red wine, first at an after-work happy hour/networking event, and now at home.
Prediction: Things about stuff.
Prediction: Nothing
Kennedy’s voice sounds kinda trippy thanks to the livestream chop.
Observation: Kennedy in black.
Yowzah!
Those aren’t dream-catchers, are they pop-art scrap metal?
Error 404- self-awareness not found:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flC6j6OnWt8
“Compromise” means giving me everything I want!
Apathy FTW!
Remember when?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLsKt4O4Yw8
Join Oliver North for Whore Stories – Tales from the Secret Service!
Kennedy just mentioned cocktail parties.
Kennedy is right. It is suspicious this woman working for the government during 9/11.
And she’s cute too. Doubly suspicious.
YOU’VE BEEN COMPROMISED.
My eyes keep me in trouble.
I’d prefer a “magic” phone book, from which we choose, at random, people to fill all positions in the legislative & executive body of the federal government.
Who’s up for a climate justice PSA/music video?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBTZOg6l6cA
“Climate change is having a real impact on people and communities around the world.”
cite?
“We must do something about it”
Let me guess….doing something is giving money.
I quit right there.
Ha, she said ‘flaccid poll’
May I interject? They do not want to “fix” the institution. The institution works just fine for them.
Until it collapses. Then it’s ‘wha happened’?
Well, it’s not there fault! It was all FOR TEH CHILDRUNS!
Does Obama, it should be asked, realize he is not transformational?
I don’t think he knows he’s no longer running for office.
Oh, he’s transformational all right. Just not in a positive sense.
Will Brownie do a heckuva job? We’ll find out soon.
Does this episode even have a party panel?
Does it ever?
Kennedy will speak for < i The Independents.
How did Batman get roped into shilling for so-called equal pay?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szZsKdJYR-A
The reorganization made it so FEMA could know longer do its single job of write checks?
THIS^^
FEMA was scapegoated for the failing of the local and state reactions to the levee breach
Don’t “this” someone who doesn’t even know how to use the word “know” correctly!
FEMA “swift and nimble” before it became part of DHS? Hmmm… I’m skeptical.
“Under your watch.”
All politics is federal!
So the Social Security Administration is now using cats for propaganda:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S81z6X2fEdQ
I’d be happy if we stopped calling a cat. 2 a “Superstorm”.
…in reference to ‘Sandy’.
Sandy wasn’t even a cat. 1 when it hit NYC. That’s why they coined the term “Superstorm.”
STOP HIDING BEHIND POSSE COMITATUS, FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.
Yeah, Kennedy, he hasn’t heard that joke before.
If you have nothing to hide, you don’t even need a 4th Amendment!
This poor bastard is compared to Edward Snowden everywhere he goes now, I bet.
Wait, did Kennedy restrain herself from interrupting?
Me: Ask me what’s the most important thing about hosting a show.
Kennedy: What’s the most impor-
Me: TIMING!
There you go.
Step out of line.
Fuck.
Look, an advertisement for New York’s “ten years no taxes” scam. Sure, it’ll be different this time. New York’s really sorry about that beating the other night.
“Free thinkers”
I just realized there are subliminal messages in that hemp flag in the < i The Independents graphic.
Do the right thing? Not every black man is Spike Lee, Kennedy.
You do realize the only way America will get fixed is for it to collapse and rebuild from scratch.
You know who else loved logistics?
Carl von Clausewitz?
UPS?
Sam Walton, the Progressive Hitler?
Hitler was the Progressive Hitler.
But how would his mirror goatee work?
The same way a reverse mohawk works.
That woman in the Carbonite commercial came home to find her husband chopping vegetables to make dinner and thought to herself, “Am I a lesbian?”
What about your passion for wearing a tie on national television? Nothing there?
I’m picturing the postmaster general scene from Seinfeld.
Keith Olbermann & some twat from the SPLC?! Be still, my heart!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxRbaKqeOaI
That’s not just some twat, it’s Mark Potok of Montgomery, King of the Twats.
Wow.
The post office is run by brain dead muppets.
Please don’t say you’re surprised.
Sun. East. Rises.
I tried to work for the Post Office one summer as a temp mail carrier. I didn’t get hired because the central office thought I was applying to an office in another town with a similar name. They said they would sort it out eventually. After a week of waiting, I got another job. Never heard from them again.
Talk about your cutoffs.
AH! Lou Dobbs.
Is it just me or has the Washington Post gotten vastly better since Jeff Bezos took over? They’ve really been nailing Republicans and Democrats for political corruption over the last several weeks.
It seems like they break major political stories at a pace I haven’t seen from them in my lifetime and they gave Balko and Volokh space at a major news website.
Also, I simply adore this story about Virginia corruption. The Republicans almost certainly bribed a Democrat to leave office so they could take over the state legislature, Governor McAuliffe threw a fit about this horrid corruption, and then it turned out that McAuliffe himself was trying to bribe the guy to stay in the legislature but just got outbid.
Anyone else watching the 9pm/12pm edition?
I’m probably the only one watching the stream and it still blows.
Over the mountains we go dude.
http://www.Ano-Web.tk