Tuesday, March 26, 2013
NYC Mayor Bloomberg: Government has right to ‘infringe on your freedom’
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on Sunday: Sometimes government does know best. And in those cases, Americans should just cede their rights.
“I do think there are certain times we should infringe on your freedom,” Mr. Bloomberg said, during an appearance on NBC. He made the statement during discussion of his soda ban — just shot down by the courts — and insistence that his fight to control sugary drink portion sizes in the city would go forth.
“We think the judge was just clearly wrong on this,” he said, on NBC. “Our Department of Health has the legal ability to do this. … [They’re] not banning anything.”
‘Monsanto Protection Act’ slips silently through US Congress
The US House of Representatives quietly passed a last-minute addition to the Agricultural Appropriations Bill for 2013 last week - including a provision protecting genetically modified seeds from litigation in the face of health risks.
The rider, which is officially known as the Farmer Assurance Provision, has been derided by opponents of biotech lobbying as the “Monsanto Protection Act,” as it would strip federal courts of the authority to immediately halt the planting and sale of genetically modified (GMO) seed crop regardless of any consumer health concerns.
The provision, also decried as a “biotech rider,” should have gone through the Agricultural or Judiciary Committees for review. Instead, no hearings were held, and the piece was evidently unknown to most Democrats (who hold the majority in the Senate) prior to its approval as part of HR 993, the short-term funding bill that was approved to avoid a federal government shutdown.
Senator John Tester (D-MT) proved to be the lone dissenter to the so-called Monsanto Protection Act, though his proposed amendment to strip the rider from the bill was never put to a vote.
Monday, March 25, 2013
‘We’re going to have more visibility and less privacy’: Mayor Bloomberg admits soon NYPD surveillance cameras will be on nearly every corner and in the air
Big Brother is watching. Now get used to it!
Envisioning a future where privacy is a thing of the past, Mayor Bloomberg said Friday it will soon be impossible to escape the watchful eyes of surveillance cameras and even drones in the city.
He acknowledged privacy concerns, but said “you can’t keep the tides from coming in.”
“You wait, in five years, the technology is getting better, they’ll be cameras everyplace . . . whether you like it or not,” Bloomberg said.
The security measures have drawn scorn from some civil libertarians — but Bloomberg scoffed at privacy concerns on his Friday morning program on WOR-AM.
“The argument against using automation is just this craziness that ‘Oh, it’s Big Brother,’” Bloomberg said. “Get used to it!”
The New York Civil Liberties Union has documented nearly 2,400 surveillance cameras fixed on public spaces in Manhattan alone. Many are operated by the police, others by poroperty owners.
In Lower Manhattan, an initiative developed after 9/11 known as the “Ring of Steel” integrates the NYPD’s cameras with those of banks and other institutions.
Tarrant lawmaker seeks to create Texas Bullion Depository
Call it the Rick Perry gold rush: The governor wants to bring the state’s gold reserves back from a New York vault to Texas.
And he may have legislative support to do it. Freshman Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, R-Southlake, is carrying a bill that would establish the Texas Bullion Depository, a secure state-based bank to house $1 billion worth of gold bars owned by the University of Texas Investment Management Co., or UTIMCO, and stored by the Federal Reserve.
The idea isn’t entirely new. Some Republicans worked on a gold bill last session that was never filed. And gold-standard-backing Ron Paul, the former Lake Jackson congressman, has raised repeated concerns about the safety of states’ gold supplies.
“If you think gold is a hedge, or a protection, you always want it as close to the individual and the entity as possible,” Paul told The Texas Tribune on Thursday. “Texas is better served if it knows exactly where the gold is rather than depending on the security of the Federal Reserve.”
Bringing Texas’ gold home has gained traction this session because of Perry’s vocal support. On conservative radio host Glenn Beck’s show Tuesday, the governor said Texas is “in the process” — the legislative process, he later clarified — of “bringing gold that belongs to the state of Texas back into the state.”
He argued that the state is at least as capable as the Federal Reserve of safeguarding Texas’ “physical gold.”
Will Colt Bolt? Gun Maker Says Gun Control Will Make Them Leave Connecticut
Colt’s Manufacturing contributes $1.7 billion a year to the Connecticut economy, and has been a good taxpayer for 175 years. Now, though, Colt’s not feeling the love. Because it has manufactured an iconic American gun for over a century – the “Peacemaker” – Connecticut is trying to make it the scapegoat for the fact that a legally drugged-up, fatherless, insane boy went on a shooting rampage in Newtown, Connecticut.
Colt’s President and CEO Dennis Veilleux told FoxNews that the gun-grabbing hysteria that’s taken over Connecticut following the Sandy Hook tragedy has left his company feeling that it’s in a hostile environment. Even though it had among the strictest gun control laws in the country, none of which would have stopped Lanza’s killing spree, Connecticut is gearing up for a second bite of the gun control apple. The legislature is going to vote on bills to create an assault weapons ban, a gun offender register, ammunitions restrictions, and a ban on bulk handgun purchases – none of which would have slowed Lanza down.
Veilleux told Fox News that these proposed bills, and the atmosphere in which they arise, is creating a hostile environment for Colt’s and its nearly 700 employees:
At some point, if you can’t sell your products … then you can’t run your business. You need customers to buy your products to stay in business.