Does the government have the right to potentially risk the health of men, women and children who travel in the name of national security? Now that the body scanners have been deployed in many US airports, it is time to take a second look. We were told by the government that they were necessary to secure our safety after the attempt by the underwear bomber. Some have theorized that the scans can damage the DNA. Unfortunately, very little is known about the effects on the human body because no long term studies have been done. Therefore, it is hard to say with certainty that the benefits out weigh the risks.

Now that they have been deployed in many airports throughout the country, it is time to ask whether they are safe. Do the facts jibe with what we have been told?

1. The pictures can not be saved.

FACT: That turned out not to be true. The pictures can be saved and there have been instances of abuse.
In the UK where the scans are mandatory, children are not allowed to go through them because of the fear that the saved pictures can be hacked, and will therefore breach child pornography laws.

2. There are no health risks.

FACT: No one knows. Presumably even low dose radiation can have a harmful effect. Conservative estimates state that there will be one additional death for every 200 million people exposed to the body scanners. There will be even more people who develop cancer from the exposure. Although we are exposed to background radiation on a daily basis, it is not the same as placing our bodies in a field of focused radiation.

3. It will make us safer

FACT: The body scanner technology would not have been able to identify the underwear bomber because it cannot see powder, nor can it see anything placed in a body cavity. It can see liquids and ceramics and fine intimate detail of an individual, but it is no better at picking up metal objects than the metal detector.

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Conservative radio host William Kelly (Kelly Truth Squad AM 560 WIND) recently found himself on the receiving end of mainstream media hostility, as he tried aggressively to interview Rahm Emanuel during Chicago’s Columbus Day Parade.

Chicago Media Icon, Jay Levine of CBS 2, threatened to physically harm Kelly if he didn’t shut up and go away. Levine issued this threat in front of no less than 3 cameras.

Several days later, William Kelly pressed 2nd degree assault charges against Jay Levine.

Our cameras caught up with Levine, and all of the other people involved with this story, to document their reactions to the latest developments.

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From the Central Texas 9-12 Project. What have you done for liberty today?

Stay with me here: The Boxer campaign has acknowledged that the letter we posted earlier on Boxer campaign letterhead soliciting teachers to recruit student volunteers is authentic… but they weren’t really soliciting teachers to recruit student volunteers… but they are still sorry. Prepare to have your intelligence insulted by Boxer campaign manager Rose Kapolczynski:

Because some local social studies teachers encourage students to volunteer, Boxer campaign volunteer coordinators notified a handful of schools near the campaign headquarters that the campaign was accepting volunteers. The letter did not ask teachers to solicit students to work on the campaign or to use school facilities, supplies or equipment for political purposes. The sole intent of the letter was to provide interested students with information about a volunteer opportunity. However, the letter, which was written by a volunteer and reviewed by a junior staffer, was inappropriate and we apologize. The author of the letter has been counseled and campaign coordinators will no longer conduct outreach to public schools.”

I acknowledge there’s an amount of wordplay, an amount of posturing done in a campaign, particularly when we get down to the wire in a tight race, but the hubris in this response is overwhelming, if not impressive.  The aforementioned letter begins, “As you may know, Senator Boxer is facing her toughest race yet.  With only 19 days left until election day, it’s now or never.” Later on it’s suggested that teachers can award extra credit to students who work on the Boxer campaign. Yet, according to the Boxer crew…

The letter did not ask teachers to solicit students to work on the campaign or to use school facilities, supplies or equipment for political purposes…

If this is true, then why are they apologizing?  They’ve done nothing wrong after all!

But they have done something wrong: Those responsible for Boxer’s reelection bid asked teachers to pimp out their kids for her campaign, and got caught red handed.  Now they have the audacity to play semantics games in the press and pass the blame down the chain to “a junior staffer.”

Honestly, how dumb does Barbara Boxer think we are?

Here’s the letter again:

This week we have a special episode of Eyeblast Hits The Streets! We wanted to see what people were thinking about the upcoming midterm elections so we went to the nations capitol, Union Station specifically, and asked around. Here’s what we found:

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From The Hill:

Republicans are headed for a blowout election win that seems certain to seize more than enough seats to knock out the Democrats and take control of the House.

The Hill 2010 Midterm Election poll, surveying nearly 17,000 likely voters in 42 toss-up districts over four weeks, points to a massive Republican wave that, barring an extraordinary turnaround, will deliver crushing nationwide defeats for President Obama’s party.

The data suggest a GOP pickup that could easily top 50 seats (the party needs 39 for control of the House).

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A couple days ago we acquired a direct mailer allegedly from the Barbara Boxer campaign which encouraged Los Angeles teachers to offer their students extra credit if they volunteer for her campaign.  We have been unable to conclusively verify the letter’s authenticity, so until this point we had not posted it.  Apparently the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer’s Association has, because they’ve released a statement to the Los Angeles Unified School District and the Los Angeles County Board of Education imploring them to inform their teachers that any who recruit volunteers for the Boxer campaign would be illegally using taxpayers’ funds.   Letter first, HJTA statement after the jump:

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You can tell the Democrats are desperate this election cycle.

While facing a probable political tsunami in the U.S. House of Representatives and a possible tidal wave in the U.S. Senate, Democrat incumbents in both houses of Congress find themselves hampered by their own voting records.

Democrat incumbents are unwilling to boast about their accomplishments to voters who are angry with the hodgepodge Obamacare, runaway government spending, deceptive tax proposals, unemployment hovering around ten percent, record home foreclosures, and a socialist agenda that shocks even big government European nations.

So what’s a liberal-left candidate to do since bashing George W. Bush doesn’t appear to bear fruit anymore? Denigrate and defame their Republican opponents with tired old cliches and images of Swastikas, German soldiers and goose-stepping jackboots, that’s what they do. It’s almost expected that Democrats will invoke the tired old — and grossly fraudulent — image of “Nazi = conservative Republican.”

So imagine the surprise when a liberal Democrat running for reelection in North Carolina uses a photo of World War II German soldiers in a campaign advertisement designed to highlight his support for members of the American military.

fix combat –

State Rep. Tim Spear (D-2nd Dist., North Carolina) is probably fuming with his campaign team for promoting his support for military service members using an image of World War II German soldiers.

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Across the country, states like Nevada, Texas, Colorado, Missouri and Arizona have begun to report issues regarding possible voter fraud in their state. With claims of voter fraud continuing to come in, American Majority Action announced today it will launch a mobile application to help identify, report and track suspected incidents of voter fraud and intimidation.  This free, cutting edge system will enable voters for the first time to take action to help defend their right to vote.

By capitalizing on this Country’s greatest resource, its citizens, AMA plans to empower ordinary Americans with the tools to help protect our electoral system.

“Our right to vote is precious and must be protected,” states Drew Ryun, president of American Majority Action (AMA), a national issue advocacy group and sister organization to American Majority, the nation’s leading grassroots training organization. “This application uses mobile technology for the first time to give voters the power to defend democracy and help address the problems that all too often cast doubt on the credibility of our elections.”

With the eyes of the nation on the polls, the app, which launches today, could be what some activist circles are calling the “game-changer.” Voters can download the free application at http://VoterFraudApp.com. The platform is already available for iPhones, the Droid, and Blackberry. In addition, users can submit reports directly from the website and even track reports on an interactive map.

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From WFTV.com:

Daytona Beach City Commissioner Derrick Henry and his campaign manager, Genesis Robinson, were arrested Wednesday, charged with committing absentee ballot fraud during Henry’s 2010 re-election campaign, the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office said.

The arrest of Henry and Robinson comes a little more than two months after Volusia County Supervisor of Elections Ann McFall requested an investigation into irregularities in absentee ballot requests coming into her office. McFall brought her concerns to the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office in August, prompting the Sheriff’s Office and the State Attorney’s Office to immediately launch a joint investigation that ultimately led to the filing of a dozen felony charges against Henry and Robinson.

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The retrial of former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich has been delayed until April, which will put it after the February 22 mayoral election in which a certain White House former Chief of Staff will be running.

It’s almost certain that Blagojevich’s lawyers will seek to subpoena Rahm Emanuel or at the very least depose him over certain conversations involving the ”negotiations’ over the appointment to Barack Obama’s old senate seat, which the president was reportedly seeking for presidential adviser and long time Chicago crony Valerie Jarrett. Rahm was subpoenaed as a defense witnesses by the defense at Blago’s first trial, which ended in a hung jury, but he was never called.

Of course, by April both the midterms and the mayoral election will both be over, which ought to give a little relief to another prominent Democrat, Alexi Gianoullias whose family owned Broadway Bank was just closed by the Feds amid what can only be called massive ‘irregularities’. And who’s now running for the same senate seat in a hotly contested election.

The feds have Blagojevich’s ex-chief of staff John Harris on tape telling Blagojevich in November, 2008 right after the presidential election that “Alexi called me.” Harris told Blago that Giannoulias “wants to meet with me a few minutes this afternoon. He says it’s . . . I said what’s it about? He says the (Senate) seat, ‘but not for me, for someone else’.”

While Harris claims he never met with Giannoulias, who is a long time friend, fundraiser and supporter of Obama (and along with Obama, a mutual pal of convicted financier Tony Rezco) right after the phone call a meeting was set up between between Valerie Jarrett and Illinois labor leader and Blagojevich supporter and confidant Tom Balanoff, to discuss the vacant senate spot.

That could mean that Jarrett went to the White House afterwards – which would have meant getting Rahm Emanuel involved – and asked them to ‘bid’ for her if this is the way things went down.That could make for some interesting testimony if Emanuel is grilled by Blago’s lawyers this time around.Especially since the feds have Emanuel on tape in various conversations with Blagojevitch and Harris.

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Contrary to popular perception, the criminal group ACORN (Association for Community Organizations for Reform Now) is not quite a’moulderin’ in the grave, folks. Many might recall that Congress turned off the spigot of federal funds flowing into the coffers of the organization responsible for federal election law crimes all across the country. Many might all recall that ACORN itself eventually said it would shutter its operations.

But even with all that recent history, ACORN’s Project Vote is still in operation and one of its main directors is a woman under a cloud of criminal charges in the state of Nevada.

Project Vote is supposed to be separate from ACORN, at least on paper. But as Matthew Vadum writes, “Although legally separate entities, in practice the two are the same, as the congressional testimony of former ACORN/Project Vote employee Anita MonCrief can attest. They share office space, employees, and budgets. Project Vote continues to operate out of ACORN’s Washington, D.C., headquarters.”

Vadum also reports that the ramrod that heads up Project Vote is one Amy Busefink. Busefink is an ACORN employee under indictment for violating election laws in Nevada.

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Next week, thanks in no small part to your hard work and efforts, a great number of newly elected individuals will head to Washington and to statehouses across the country. At that point, the question they will ask themselves and their staffers is: what do we do now?

At the Heartland Institute, we’re committed to presenting ideas founded on a proper understanding of the role of constitutional government and the importance of liberty as the key to restoring American prosperity. So we’ve prepared a new book called The Patriot’s Toolbox.

It’s a 270-page book which gathers our Legislative Principles providing guidance on good public policy, including 80 principles for restoring our freedom and prosperity. Each chapter boils down to ten principles the most important facts and ideas, giving you the ability to become a more effective spokesperson for pro-consumer, pro-liberty reforms. We’ve already distributed free copies to 34,000 elected officials and candidates for public office, but requests for additional copies are pouring in — and we want to meet demand.

With that in mind, we’re happy to offer free copies to BigGovernment readers, activists, candidates, bloggers and allies.

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I sincerely hope followers of the Network Neutrality (NN) debate were wearing their seatbelts last week.  The pro-NN Media Marxists’ rapid lurch in position on the issue would otherwise have ensured full chiropractor employment for a pronounced period of time.

What led to this The-Ends-Justify-Any-Means-Necessary backflip is the Cablevision-Fox dustup over fees Cablevision pays Fox to retransmit the latter’s programming.  The two parties couldn’t reach an agreement, the contract elapsed and Fox pulled its channels from the Cablevision lineup.

Fox then went a step further, temporarily making some of its online content unavailable to Cablevision subscribers.

Let us be clear what happened here.  The Content Provider (Fox) had prevented the Internet Service Provider (Cablevision) from access to its online content.

And after all, it is Fox’s property.  They paid a LOT of money for its creation, development and deployment – they can do with it whatever they wish.  They can offer it to whomever, or not offer it to anyone at all.  If they want to withhold some or all of it from some or all people, that is their prerogative – especially when they are not being paid for it.

It is here that the pro-Net Neutrality crowd jumped the intellectual shark.  Well, again.  They asserted that Fox – by not giving away their property online – was in violation of the Media Marxists’ warped definition of NN.

And that Fox’s “violation” served as further “justification” for Federal Communications Commission (FCC)-mandated Net Neutrality – and the radical, extra-lawful Internet power grab they have been demanding the FCC make so as to commandeer the authority necessary to enact and enforce it.

(An investment-devastating move which the FCC may very well execute as soon as November 30^th.)

FCC Commissioner Michael Copps said in a statement:

For a broadcaster to pull programming from the Internet for a cable company’s subscribers, as apparently happened here, directly threatens the open Internet.

And Art Brodsky, Director of Communications for Public Knowledge, wrote:

Fox committed what should be considered one of the grossest violations of the open Internet committed by a U.S. company….

In this case, of course, it’s the content provider that was doing the blocking…. (B)ut it shouldn’t matter who is keeping consumers away from the lawful content….

If one values the open Internet, however, there should be rules against that sort of thing, whether the blocking is done by the ISP or by a content provider….

Yes, it would be nice if someone (like the FCC) could step in and tell Fox that it is unacceptable to block Internet content.

For years these Leftists have been vociferously insisting that the enemies of NN are the evil Internet Service Providers – who would allegedly block access to online fare.  And thusly Net Neutrality was required to stop them from so doing.

But by attempting to frame the Cablevision-Fox dispute in NN terms – by demanding that Fox give away its content to everyone – the pro-NN gaggle clearly demonstrates that this fight is not (just) about ACCESS to Internet content – it is about GOVERNMENT CONTROL of Internet content.

They seek to neutralize the Internet – by having the government control its content.

Of course, they have all along stridently asserted that Net Neutrality is not about this.

Right-wing media have falsely claimed that the net neutrality principle supported by the Obama administration is an attempt by the government to control Internet content. In fact, net neutrality does not mean government control of content on the Internet; rather, net neutrality ensures equal and open access for consumers and producers of content and applications…

But their demands of Fox clearly demonstrate that it is.

Yesterday, it was about access to content.  Today, it’s the government demanding content providers give away the products they produce.

Tomorrow, it will be the government demanding content providers pull from the Web the products they produce.  Shutting you up by insisting you shut it down.

After all, government control is government control.  Once they have it, they have it all the way.

How pathetically sad it is that the ACLU – the alleged champion of the First Amendment – has so readily sacrificed it on the altar of Leftist ideology.  And done so in such an intellectually vacuous fashion – the First Amendment protects us from GOVERNMENT censorship, not the actions of private companies or individuals.

To say that force feeding the nation Net Neutrality is a First Amendment imperative is both factually and morally bankrupt.

While falsely portraying it as a David versus Goliath event, the Institutional Left has been caught in an orchestrated effort to attack Charles Koch, while creating a public relations event around California’s ballot initiaitve, Prop 23. Koch openly supports the cause of Liberty and we know how much today’s left hates that. Not only that, sources have now confirmed that, while portraying itself as covering this story, a writer at the Huffington Post has actually conspired in the making of it. There is no room for credible journalism for such a practice.

Look for more on that at Big Journalism.

Charles Koch Challenged to Debate Prop. 23 by California Student Leader Joel Francis

Joel Francis, a Marine Corps veteran and senior at Cal State Los Angeles, has issued a debate challenge to Koch Industries’ billionaire CEO Charles Koch on his support for the disastrous Prop 23 attack on California’s climate and clean-energy progress.

This didn’t just happen because Francis is, allegedly, merely a student leader with a veteran’s cred. Francis and his effort are part of an effort by the so called California Student Sustainability Coalition. If you scroll to the bottom of their site and read the fine print, you’ll find this: “The California Student Sustainability Coalition is a project the Earth Island Institute.

To understand the actual viewpoint the Earth Island Institute represents, take a look at this press release from them after 9/11. These are the same people propping up Joel Francis today and paying the freight to push the effort. The record below demonstrates that.

U.S. Responds to Terrorist Attacks with Self-Righteous Arrogance

We need to correct the rightist spin of the Bush administration and media. This was not an “act of war.” This was an act of anger, desperation and indignation.

This was not an “attack on Freedom.” It was a politically targeted attack on the core structures of the U.S. military and the U.S.-dominated global financial structure.

This was not an “attack on all American people.” This was not the sort of flat-out terrorism that targets random innocents at a disco or a beach. The majority of the victims were, unfortunately, working for the Pentagon and various elements of multinational financial empires.

Below is just one press release from PR firm, Tiger Comm, being used to push the story out to the media and here is Serena Conner, of Tiger Comm.

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Today, in 1964, Ronald Reagan gave his “A Time for Choosing” Speech in support of Barry Goldwater. Impossible to state how much we love this man.

With lawsuits against Obamacare currently winding their way through the courts, there is no question the “law” will eventually arrive before the U.S. Supreme Court. In the meantime, however, a federal judge in Florida recently (and quite colorfully) questioned the constitutionality of Obamacare as he ruled that the state’s pending lawsuit can go to trial.

According to The Washington Times:

A federal court judge in Florida ruled…that key portions of a lawsuit challenging the Obama administration’s health care reform law can go forward, and accused the Justice Department of taking an “Alice-in-Wonderland” approach to its defense of the controversial “penalty” for people who don’t buy insurance.

Though it’s just a preliminary ruling, Senior U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson’s decision to let the case proceed is a victory for opponents of the law, since it means he will ultimately decide the merits of the challenge brought by 20 states.

Judge Vinson said the states can challenge the constitutionality of whether provisions in the law violate state sovereignty through expansion of the Medicaid program and if Congress exceeded its authority by forcing people to obtain health insurance or pay a penalty.

Judge Vinson’s “Alice in Wonderland” comparison relates specifically to some clever word-smithing on the part of Democrats when they rammed Obamacare through Congress.

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In today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by the one and only Michael Barone to discuss next week’s election. We’ll also touch on job losses from Obamacare.

We’re brought to you as always by BigGovernment.com and Stephen Clouse and Associates. You can subscribe to the podcast by following the links above, and if you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy the show.

Related Links:

Congressional Report: Obamacare Costs America Nearly 800,000 Jobs
Michael Barone: The Trouble With Big, Bossy Government
Michael Barone: Our Country, The Shaping of America
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