Blog Heap of Links for the day 7 July 2012

A tiny amendment buried in the federal transportation bill to be signed today by President Barack Obama will put operators of roll-your-own cigarette operations in Las Vegas and nationwide out of business at midnight. Robert Weissen, with his brothers and other partners, own nine Sin City Cigarette Factory locations in Southern Nevada, including six in Las Vegas, and one in Hawaii. He said when the bill is signed their only choice is to turn off their 20 RYO Filling Station machines and lay off more than 40 employees.

Within weeks of swearing his oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution, Obama began his campaign to amass his army of IRS agents, and he continued that campaign with his landmark ObamaCare legislation. Even while the right hand was vociferously professing that the individual mandate in his ObamaCare leviathan was not a tax, the left hand was building up the IRS by another 16,500 agents. But, the slight of hand came to a halt last week when the Supreme Court rejected the individual mandate as a gross violation of our Constitution under the Commerce Clause, then relabeled the same violation a tax and gave it a free pass. Thus, the Supreme Court has given the Federal government unrestrained power to force its citizens to do anything it capriciously commands under the guise of a tax, and Obama has gloriously found his way to circumvent the Constitution. His army is the IRS and his ammunition is money.

Frustrated with his military commanders for consistently offering only options that required significantly more troops, Obama finally crafted his own strategy, dictating a classified six-page "terms sheet" that sought to limit U.S. involvement, Woodward reports in "Obama's Wars," to be released on Monday. According to Woodward's meeting-by-meeting, memo-by-memo account of the 2009 Afghan strategy review, the president avoided talk of victory as he described his objectives. [Emphasis added]

Finally, two Columbus officers were seen slowly walking toward the scene of this violence. At this point, the black youths crossed the street to the opposite side of the officers and started randomly attacking more white people on the north side of Broad Street. I know; I was assaulted by five different youths. At this time, the police meandered to our side of the street. Some of us went to the officers and said, “Do something, innocent people are getting assaulted right here on Broad Street.” One officer replied, “We don’t have enough officers.” After seeing the dozens of officers near the riverfront, I went home feeling this officer’s answer was a poor one.

Astonishing letter reveals how Führer ordered Gestapo to leave his WW1 commander alone

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich., called the recent slew of national-security leaks “probably the most damaging” in this country’s history, warning that people’s lives are in danger and families have already had to be relocated as a result of the public speculation about highly classified operational activities. …first tangible signs of operational fallout from the explosive leaks to the media, which have so far sparked accusations that Obama administration officials released the information for political gain ahead of an election.

The FBI is investigating more than 100 Muslim soldiers and military contractors with the potential to carry out Fort Hood-style attacks. The administration has kept a lid on the growing threat. It's covering up the truth about an alarmingly widespread Islamist penetration of the military. The dangerous fifth column was discovered more than two years after Army Maj. Nidal Hasan opened fire on fellow soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas, killing 13 and wounding 29. The administration whitewashed the jihadist massacre as a run-of-the-mill case of "workplace violence." Now it's trying to postpone Hasan's trial until after the election to keep Islamic terrorism out of the headlines.

A new study funded by the Department of Homeland Security characterizes Americans who are “suspicious of centralized federal authority,” and “reverent of individual liberty” as “extreme right-wing” terrorists.

After seven years using the Wacom Cintiq 21ux, MAD Magazine cartoonist Tom Richmond upgrades to the Cintiq 24HD. If you’ve read any of Tom’s reviews, he’s very detailed oriented and provides a lot of information. This is his first review delivered as a video and it’s up to Tom’s usual review standards. If you’ve thought of going to the 24HD, this is a must watch.

Imagine a cheap, tiny, hovering aerial drone capable of being launched with the flick of a person’s wrist and able to provide manipulable 360-degree surveillance views. It’s real, it’s inspired by maple seeds [Video]

Madeleine L’Engle called them tesseracts. The Syfy channel calls them wormholes. Gamers call them portals. …according to a Science@NASA post: Hidden Portals in Earth’s Magnetic Field… they are real, sort of. A NASA-funded researcher has discovered them surrounding the Earth at distances from 10,000 to 30,000 miles. [VIDEO!]

In 1954, 23-year-old Jack Fletcher showed off his new home to the media. Reporters called it the "house of the future" because of all the unique features he had designed into it. The windows closed by themselves when sensors felt rain. Lights came on automatically when someone entered a room. The phone had a speed-dial feature. The lamps didn't need cords. Instead you just placed them over induction coils installed in the floor. And strangest of all, electromagnets caused pots and pans to float over the stove (which also used induction coils to heat the food).