WASHINGTON: Last Friday Arizona Senator Jon Kyl spoke about his private meeting with President Obama. During this meeting he learned why Obama refuses to secure the border of the United States. Obama told Kyl:

The problem is if we secure the border, then you all won’t have any reason to support comprehensive immigration reform. Barack Hussein Obama

So on one hand Obama concedes that securing the border would solve the illegal immigration issue, and on the other he reveals that he is more interested in gaining votes than national security. Comprehensive immigration reform means instant citizenship for 20 million illegals who will thank Obama by voting Democratic. This is a disgusting misuse of power, where politics comes before the interests of the American people.

The NIP is grateful for Senator Kyl’s candor. He should consider himself lucky that he isn’t getting the McChrystal treatment and being fired for exposing the President’s perfidy.

NSW, AUSTRALIA: The state government of New South Wales is now using the same facial recognition technology as the Australian Passport Office. Australia has long led the way in terms of security, in their currency as well as passport identification.

Australian passports carry a microchip embedded in the center with a digital map of the holder’s face. Encrypted using PKI technology, the chip holds not only a digital map of the person’s face but also contains the name, gender, date of birth, nationality, passport number, and the passport expiry date. When surrendered to border officials upon entering the country the passport is scanned wirelessly and the citizen is identified.

The Australian government asserts that the citizen has nothing to fear regarding privacy:

Strict guidelines control how the department uses the information you supply with a passport application. The Privacy Act 1988 prohibits government officers from collecting, using or disclosing your information except in the performance of their duties. It obliges the department to take all reasonable steps to protect your information against loss, misuse, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

The data on the chip is PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) protected, guaranteeing that it was put there by an authorised issuing authority and has not subsequently been altered. The chip’s digital signature meets standards determined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a specialised agency of the United Nations.

Australian citizens can take cold comfort in their Privacy Act of 1988. Forbidden from using citizenry data “except in the performance of their duties,” government officials apparently now feel their duty extends to monitoring all citizens, everywhere and all the time.

Evidently NSW state officials, envious of the Passport Office, have gone them one better. They’ve decided to scan in all NSW driver’s licenses in order to build a massive database. Oops! Now the federal government wants in on the action. They want access to all the new state data to help them spy on their citizens nationwide. After all, they need to do their “duty” too: Read more…

Libertarian Rand Paul

JAMES SIMPSON: Cliff Kincaid of Accuracy in Media and America’s Survival has a post at News With Views about Rand Paul’s now infamous gaffes on the Rachel Maddow Show. In it he warns that some of Rand’s libertarian views could put him at odds with conservatives on a variety of issues and open him to criticism from all sides.

According to Kincaid, “The libertarian movement was the product of seminars held by the far-left Institute for Policy Studies back in the 1960s and 70s.” And while libertarians are good on fiscal matters, because they believe in limited government, their isolationist positions on national defense, if adopted, would provide opportunities for our enemies to flourish and grow in the vacuum created by our absence.

Furthermore their particular views of limited government lead them to support legalization of marijuana, gay marriage and other positions that are anathema to conservatives. In the case with Maddow, Paul was painted into a corner by his own libertarian philosophy, which implies that government should not be able to regulate how private parties decide to conduct business at all, even if it means allowing them to engage in discrimination.

Whoops. Paul has since tried to clarify his position on this, but that doesn’t matter to the left. They got what they wanted.

Now, the media has no problem with racists like the New Black Panther Party intimidating voters at the voting booth. They have no problem with these people being shielded by a sympathetic Attorney General who committed a shocking travesty by dismissing charges against the Black Panthers after they had already lost in court. They have no problem with black-only or women-only clubs. They have no problem with all forms of reverse discrimination.

This is academic because it harmonizes with the radical left’s agenda to divide and conquer America’s majority, which just happens coincidentally to be largely white, although their real targets are not whites per se, but rather traditional, conservative Americans of any color.

More…

REDSTATE.COM: Last Thursday RedState.com published Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan’s senior thesis, which was subsequently pulled due to White House pressure. Since Kagan has no judicial experience there is very little in the public domain to study in order to glean insight into how she would approach many of the issues likely to confront the court in upcoming cases. Press access to Elena Kagan herself has also been prohibited, the White House only allowing the press to view a video the White House staff produced. The video purports to be an interview but is just a PR piece put together to resemble what a real interview would look like.

Kagan’s Princeton thesis reveals that this nominee is one more Socialist that Obama is foisting upon the American people:

Through its own internal feuding, then, the Socialist Party exhausted itself forever and further reduced labor radicalism in New York to the position of marginality and insignificance from which it has never recovered. The story is a sad but also a chastening one for those who, more than half a century after socialism’s decline, still wish to change America. Radicals have often succumbed to the devastating bane of sectarianism; it is easier, after all, to fight one’s fellows than it is to battle an entrenched and powerful foe. Yet if the history of Local New York shows anything, it is that American radicals cannot afford to become their own worst enemies. In unity lies their only hope. Elena Kagan’s Princeton Thesis

“Sad but also chastening” in Kagan’s mind because the Socialist Party did not succeed in their quest “to change America” in the early 20th century. The “unity that lies their only hope” has finally arrived in the 21st century in the incarnation of the Obama administration. The “entrenched and powerful foe” Kagan mentions is you, if you are in favor of freedom and capitalism

Here we have one more academic radical Marxist who in addition to never working in the private sector has never had any judicial experience. Obama wants to pack the Supreme Court with this 50 year old whose Socialist agenda will impact court decisions for generations.

Freedom loving Americans need to spend substantial time calling the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee to block this nomination and never let it come to the Senate floor for a confirmation vote.

Editor’s Note: The quote above is Kagan’s summation of her thesis, and if you wish to read her entire thesis you can read it here.

Dr. Rand Paul, solid conservative and Right-to-Lifer

BOWLING GREEN, KY: Rand Paul substantially leads in the Kentucky race for the seat vacated by the distinguished Senator Jim Bunning. A survey released today by Survey USA has him in the lead by 16 points.

The NIP is saddened to lose such a dependable voice for conservatism and truth as Jim Bunning. This writer spent an hour with Senator Bunning in March and found him having an amazing command of facts and possessing unimpeachable integrity.

The race to fill his Senate seat is a closely watched race as there is a substantial difference between Rand Paul and Trey Grayson.

Rand Paul, son of Texas Republican Congressman and Presidential candidate Ron Paul. He has the endorsement of the Tea Party movement as well as Jim Demint and Jim Bunning. Jim Bunning was rated the 2nd most conservative Senator next to Jim Demint, and both endorsements are important.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has endorsed Trey Grayson. McConnell was instrumental in pressuring Jim Bunning to retire, and it should be no surprise that he has eschewed Rand Paul as “too conservative” for his taste. Kentuckians should remember that come time for McConnell’s reelection and send him packing.

Dr. James Dobson

Trey Grayson’s campaign, seeking Dr. James Dobson’s endorsement, lied to Dr. Dobson, painting Rand Paul as an abortion advocate. For that Grayson gets the attention of the NIP. We call on Kentuckians to reject Grayson’s bid. Don’t we have enough liars in Washingon already?

Listen to Dr. Dobson’s statement: 

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Will you let the Feds raid your 401(k)?

WASHINGTON: There is no end to the dishonesty and thievery in Congress. For some time now union pension plans have been projecting losses due to union management treating these accounts as slush funds, as if these accounts were their own personal piggy banks. Hey, how is that any different from every Federal administration that has raided the Social Security trust fund, leaving behind only a trail of IOUs?

Now these guys are teaming up and have their eyes set on your money. It is just plain not fair that you should have saved money to retire on in a 401(k), while the rest of the illegal immigrants, unemployed, etc. only have Social Security. What we need is some social justice. Of course Congress is exempted from Social Security as they have their own Cadillac plans, but where does that leave all their loyal voters who have depended on their handouts all these years? If Congress leaves them out in the cold, good-bye votes.

The problem is easily solved, they’ll just seize your 401(k) and use it to fund their handouts to their loyal voters.

In February, the White House released its “Annual Report on the Middle Class” containing new regulations favored by Big Labor including a bailout of critically underfunded union pension plans through “retirement security” options.

The radical solution most favored by Big Labor is the seizure of private 401(k) plans for government disbursement — which lets them off the hook for their collapsing retirement scheme.  And, of course, the Obama administration is eager to accommodate their buddies.

Vice President Joe Biden floated the idea, called “Guaranteed Retirement Accounts” (GRAs), in the February “Middle Class” report. Connie Hair, Human Events

This idea has been floated time and time again by the Democrats. Now that they own Congress and the White House some version of this is likely to happen. It’s time for hard working Americans to wake up and realize that they need to support limited government and throw these people out of office.

Puerto Rico Becoming our 51st Star?

WASHINGTON: Last Thursday was like any other recent Thursday in Washington, Congress was up to no good. In case you missed it the House voted in favor of HR 2499, a stealth resolution to help the Democrats cement their power in Congress. It purportedly gave Puerto Rico the right to petition for statehood, a right they already had. Puerto Ricans have exercised that right twice already. They have held two public referendums which both declined statehood.

HR 2499′s real purpose was to force statehood onto the territory in order to give 2 more Senate seats and 6 more House seats to the Democrats. Regular readers of the NIP are already well informed. Jim Simpson laid out the details in an excellent analysis in his column on Thursday. We understand that many of our Congressmen have trouble with reading comprehension, that’s why they don’t read the bills. With them in mind we put up Glenn Beck’s video tutorial on the subject. Apparently too many Congressmen still didn’t understand what is at stake because the bill passed on Thursday.

We of course expected the Democrats to vote in lockstep for this power grab, but we were surprised that it was the Republicans who put it over the top. Without support from 39 Republicans this bill was doomed. Read more…