Section 1.?(1)?A person who enters onto a farm or other
11 property where legitimate agriculture operations are being
12 conducted without the written consent of the owner, or an
13 authorized representative of the owner, commits a felony of the
14 first degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083,
15 or s. 775.084, Florida Statutes.

It takes someone of amazing gullibility – or the recipient of generous agriculture industry donations – to believe this sort of thing won’t nicely dovetail into further restrictions on public photography.

The Florida Tribune has more information.  Senator Norman can be reached at norman.jim.web@flsenate.gov

Our own letter to him follows:

Subject: Common Sense requested

Regarding SB 1246:

A first degree felony for photographing a farm, are you kidding me?  This is pandering, sir, plain and simple.

I’m sure you’re familiar with the term “slippery slope.”  Restrictions on farm photography lead to restrictions elsewhere and soon recording the actions of police – and politicians – is also prohibited by law.  And that is most definitely not something we’re going to allow.

Please remember you have a responsibility to your entire district, not just the ones who contribute the most to your campaigns.

Click here to view the embedded video.

We’ve reached the point in this cycle of humanity to where if you aren’t part of Groupthink, you are to be eliminated.

I, for one, do NOT welcome our liberal hate-mongering, racist overlords.

(Note from Wyoh: Others are displeased as well.)

(Another note from Wyoh:  They’re already apologizing for it.  TFB, I say.  You people are toast.)

This is all we need. Gun carrying soldiers on nicotine fits.

BTW :FDR smoked Cigarettes
Churchill smoked cigars (and drank like a man)
Hitler was a tee totaling anti-smoking vegetarian
I know who’s company I’d rather be in

The Pentagon really has to understand that young men (and old soldiers) who are on the sharp end really don’t care about years down the road…they just want to get through the next patrol.

NannyState, you are again over-reaching.

Subject:  Veto SB 2600

Apparently emboldened by the mass thievery going on at the national level, I see our Florida legislature has taken the policies of our Dear Leader to heart and started grabbing for cash with both greedy little hands.  I am referring, of course, to SB 2600 in which $6 million dollars from the Division of Licensing Concealed Weapons and Firearm Trust Fund has been raided in a move that would make Vikings, Mongols and Tuskens quite proud.  

I am the kind of voter who insists on research, and ordinarily I would quadruple-check anything disseminated by the NRA, however, I am most irritatingly required to rely on the their report of this misappropriation due to the myfloridahouse.gov website’s pitiful coding, which prompts me to download the ASP file that should instead be displaying the full text of the bill.  

I sincerely hope this isn’t by design.  That’s the sort of thing that could cause people to start filing lawsuits.

As a Citizen of this country, as a CCW holder in the state of Florida, I urge you to put an end to this foolishness.  Line-item veto this misappropriation, line-item veto the threat to our state’s education budget if their trust fund theft is circumvented, and shine the light of publicity on the cockroaches that conceived the entire scheme.  Prove to us that you’re different, that you’re not the typical politician, that you deserve your Governorship and a future Senate seat.

But you see, that last one is the kicker.  It seems a new amendment was added to the bill that will raise the cigarette tax.  This would make possession of tax free smokes by anyone who wasn’t a Seminole or on Seminole land a first-class misdemeanor punishable by a minimum $1,000 fine.  I’d really like to be first one arrested for that.

First off, this bill is a violation of the Florida Constitution because it does not treat all of the people who live in the state equally under the law.  It is a violation on the Federal level as well because it could be interpreted as an infringement of commerce for the Seminole tribe, which violates a TREATY WITH A SOVEREIGN NATION! Yet oddly enough, it seems to be sailing through committee anyway.  Lessons learned from the Federal Government, perhaps?

One other thing, since Wyoh is a card carrying member of a different tribe, one that also has the right to sell tax-free, I would really like for some pissant DA to try to prove that any smokes in question belonged to me rather than her.

The next question I have about this is how enforceable is this, really? Are they going to drive around like old timey revenooers and if they see anyone smoking, stop them and demand to see the tax stamp?  Is that not an unreasonable search?  Or are they going to post a cop full time outside the rez with a high powered telescope to see who is coming out of the Seminole smoke shops, which would, in effect, be espionage on a foreign nation by a state, not the feds.  I’m pretty sure that constitutes a violation of federal law.  Or even better, do ‘random traffic stops’ on the roads leading off of Seminole property, again impinging upon the Seminole’s abilty to carry out commerce as well as again being a violation of the Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution.

Come on, hirelings, stop this nonsense.  You elected civil servants of the State Senate are blatantly trying to overstep your power and you know it.  The only possible reason I can see for you to even propose this amendment is the hope that the entire law will be found unconstitutional and you can then go to Fed and say “gee we tried, but the courts threw it out; now give us more money.”

All done?  OK, then.

That post pretty much just boils down to one thing:  civil authorities all over our country have chosen to take an adversarial position against us, the citizens they are purportedly sworn to serve and protect.  Again, I have to stress that this creeping reach is not bounded by party, class, or political bent. It is however an outgrowth of our naturally lackadaisical feeling that our government wouldn’t do anything deliberately to hurt us, the citizenry.

But then I read about this.  Go ahead. I’ll wait. (Yes, that is five different links.)

So it seems that this guy, Jeff Pataky, who runs this blog is the unfortunate recipient of an attempt to ‘unperson’ him.  At least his ability to be a presence on the WWW.  Is this simply a local PD trying to get a jump on the proposed Cyber Security Act?  Nope.  What it seems to be instead is a vindicitive local PD tired of getting its dirty laundry aired out in public taking steps to stop it from happening. Again. A quote from Mr. Pataky that may shed some light on the purpose of the raid on his home…

We have heard internally from our police sources that they purposefully did this to stop me,” Pataky said. “They took my cable modem and wireless router. Anyone worth their salt knows nothing is stored in the cable modem.”

Yes, the police dept not only took his computer, his backups, opened a wall safe and took backups of his backups, and handcuffed his girlfriend for three hours, they also took his modem.  A blatent slap in the face with only one possible message “Stop blogging about us!”  And yes, Pataky has sources both inside the active duty rolls and who are retired from the Phoenix PD who give him tips about all manner of crap that the department is perpetrating.  One of his sources was also raided. And plans are apparently in the works to raid the homes of other cops who have provided tips for his blog.

The 41-year-old software engineer said they also confiscated numerous personal files and documents relating to a pending lawsuit he has against the department alleging harassment – which he says makes it obvious the raid was an act of retaliation.”

The site claims that most of their material comes from good cops, active and retired, who are blowing the whistle on the department.  Apparently the police agree.

“Police apparently believe one of the tipsters is an officer named David Barnes, who fell out of favor with the department in 2007 when he was a detective and went public with claims of mismanaged evidence at the city crime lab.

Police also raided Barnes’ home and according to Pataky’s inside sources, plan to raid the homes of more cops.”

Now, if the cops are alleging petty theft as the reason for raiding Pataky’s home, what do these other cops have to do with that?

I understand that there are always at least two sides to every story, and I have yet to hear the side of the PD, but the information already out there in the aether doesn’t look very good for the Phoenix PD.  I can hardly wait to see how this one falls out.