Free Republic

Armed federal agents at the Cliven Bundy ranch in Nevada, April 2014. (Natural News)In 2008, Barack Obama announced his plan to build a massive “civilian national security force” here in America. It would be just as well funded as the US military.

For the first time in six years, the Justice Department is taking inventory of the guns owned by the various federal agencies and will report that number, as well as the number of agents who "carry guns and have the authority to make arrests."

Those federal bureaucrats who can’t be fired want to be able to defend themselves from angry taxpayers.  Or something.  AWR Hawkins reports for Breitbart: A May 7th solicitation by the U.S. Department of Agriculture seeks "the commercial acquisition of submachine guns [in] .40 Cal. S&W." According to the solicitation, the Dept. of Agriculture wants the guns to have an "ambidextrous safety, semiautomatic or 2 round [bursts] trigger group, Tritium night sights front and rear, rails for attachment of flashlight (front under fore group) and scope (top rear), stock collapsible or folding," and a "30 rd. capacity" magazine. They also want...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Office of Inspector General, located in Washington, DC, pursuant to the authority of FAR Part 13, has a requirement for the commerical acquisition of submachine guns, .40 Cal. S&W, ambidextrous safety, semi-automatic or 2 shot burts trigger group, Tritium night sights for front and rear, rails for attachment of flashlight (front under fore grip) and scope (top rear), stock-collapsilbe or folding, magazine - 30 rd. capacity, sling, light weight, and oversized trigger guard for gloved operation.

We are witnessing the criminalization of America, where any one of us may find our front doors broken down and a SWAT team in camouflage standing in our living rooms. It is also why we may find ourselves under arrest for some innocent action that no reasonable person would think is illegal, like helping an injured bird, getting lost on a snowmobile on federal land, or shipping lobsters in plastic instead of cardboard boxes. And as absolutely absurd as these examples sound, they have all led to federal investigations of private citizens. The militarization of agencies and the criminalization of...

Firearms Solicitation Number: USDAOIGWEA-5-7-14 Agency: Department of Agriculture Office: Office of the Inspector General Location: Procurement Branch Solicitation Number: - - - - - Notice Type: USDAOIGWEA-5-7-14 - - - Sources Sought Synopsis: Added: May 07, 2014 2:03 pm The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Office of Inspector General, located in Washington, DC, pursuant to the authority of FAR Part 13, has a requirement for the commerical acquisition of submachine guns, .40 Cal. S&W, ambidextrous safety, semi-automatic or 2 shot burts trigger group, Tritium night sights for front and rear, rails for attachment of flashlight (front under fore grip) and scope...

Does the Environmental Protection Agency really need armed agents? Outside of law enforcement, federal agencies now employ over 25,000 people as armed agents. They are more than guards. They’ve become like private armies that can push around private citizens. Over 70 non-military federal agencies now have their own armed agents. You expect armed agents with the FBI, the U.S. Marshal Service and the Border Patrol. But the EPA? The Fish & Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, even the Social Security Administration and the National Institutes of Health? Even the Department of Education and the Department of Housing and Urban...

The post-New Deal administrative state is unconstitutional, and its validation by the legal system amounts to nothing less than a bloodless constitutional revolution.... [....] The constitutional separation of powers is a means to safeguard the liberty of the people. In Madison’s famous words, “the accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” The destruction of this principle of separation of powers is perhaps the crowning jewel of the modern administrative revolution. Administrative agencies routinely...

Rep. Chris Stewart of Utah, concerned about the armed agents that surrounded Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy’s property, introduced a bill to cut funding for any “paramilitary units” that work for the Bureau of Land Management, the Internal Revenue Service and other federal regulatory agencies. “There are lots of people who are really concerned when the BLM shows up with its own SWAT team,” he said on the House floor on Tuesday, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. “They’re regulatory agencies. They’re not paramilitary units, and I think that concerns a lot of us.”

As foreclosures began to mount across the country three years ago, a group of state bank regulators suspected that some borrowers might be losing their homes unnecessarily. So the state officials asked the biggest national banks for details about their foreclosure operations. When two banks - J.P. Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo - declined to cooperate, the state officials asked the banks' federal regulator for help, according to a letter they sent. But the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which oversees national banks, denied the states' request, saying the firms should answer only to inquiries from federal officials....

Here is a video report about First Lady Michelle Obama embarking on a "listening tour" of Federal Agencies, like the Department of Education, and Housing and Urban Development. It would seem this First Lady wants to be more of a "Senior Presidential Adviser," or even a "co-President." I know virtually every First Lady is a "presidential adviser" of sorts, with great influence on the President. But Michelle Obama is being very out front in a policy way, and is going to open herself up to being treated like Presidential Advisers get treated when it comes to scrutiny. This approach would...

Posted on Wed, May. 18, 2005 A Morel Caught In Red Tape MIKE HENDRICKS To remind us why some people call it mindless bureaucracy, here’s a little story about mushrooms. You’ve heard of morels, right? Joe Bryson and other vendors at City Market have been selling those springtime delicacies for years and no one has ever gotten sick from them — or so say people at the Kansas City Health Department. Still, this might have been the market’s last mushroom season. The Health Department has suddenly discovered a rule in the Kansas City Food Code. “They tell us,” Bryson told...

Twelve years ago, the White House and Congress made an agreement with the pharmaceutical industry that seemed eminently reasonable at the time. The industry would supply substantial sums - reaching $200 million a year at latest count - to help the Food and Drug Administration hire more reviewers to speed the approval process for new drugs that might otherwise be held up solely by administrative logjams. The quid pro quo was that the government had to meet tight deadlines for reviewing drugs and had to keep steady its own financing for new-drug reviews, adjusted for inflation. That seemed a reasonable...