From techdirt.  For all the high-flying rhetoric over the necessity of drug dogs, they only seem to be good for giving a cop an excuse to search a car.  These dogs will “alert” whenever they receive a subtle command from the officer, so if a cop wants to search a car, he can covertly instruct the dog to pick up on something, even if nothing is there.  The dogs are basically useless in reliably sniffing out anything, and when lives are truly on the line, most people would rather use rats.

…the unarmed 12-year-old shot to death by a hair-trigger Cleveland cop.

Interesting story at Reason.  Through the barbaric practice of civil asset forfeiture, Federal agents took $107,000 from Lyndon McLellan, a convenience store owner for the non-crime of making “suspiciously small deposits” at his bank.  Well, he lawyered up and fought back, and eventually won back all his money.  Not only that, but now he will be reimbursed for legal expenses, as well as the interest that the stolen money could have earned had it not been seized.  Unsurprisingly, a federal prosecutor attempted to intimidate McLellan into not exposing the official criminality he had been subjected to, while offering to give back only half of the money taken.  While he did get his money back, take a moment to reflect on the deep-rooted evil that has taken hold to the point that a federal prosecutor, who knows that this man is innocent, would offer only half that man’s money back?

Abolishing selective service for both genders would be a step toward equality under liberty.  It would be the same logic applied to the gay marriage debate: rather than legislating State-sanctioned gay marriage, marriage should be removed entirely from the purview of government.  Rather than bringing more people under the wing of the bird of prey that’s holding us captive in the name of equality, we should be making a concerted effort to free ourselves.

Sheldon Richman on the implied slavery that is the draft.

Ha!  This seems to be a tacit admission that the “terror watch list” is meaningless security theater used by the Warfare State to sow fear, and also that the Department of Homeland Security probably has no hiring standards whatsoever.

The Clintons didn’t seem to care about black lives in the 90’s

Ryan McMaken exposes it.  Like Ron Paul has said, when one party wants war, and the other wants welfare, they’ll end up making a deal that results in more war and more welfare.

Unionized federal minions may get even more taxpayer-funded perks

Spy chief loses temper when senator calls him out on spying

“Jeb Bush, the un-candidate”

This is what an Empire’s budget looks like.  Note the ritual fearmongering over North Korea, China, Russia, and Iran to justify the Pentagon’s $583 billion slice.

Government lawyers think open records give the people too much power

There is no libertarian case for Bernie Sanders, obviously

More proof that the War on Terror is a war on your liberty.

That presidential candidates and policy-makers would even consider this is more evidence that the poison of Empire has reached the heart.