This episode is made possible in part by the new Nullification Movie. Now available for order at tenthamendmentcenter.com/movie

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According to BuffaloNews.com – Activists are pushing that city to be first in this U.S. to ban use of drones.

While the city has not been approached by the federal government or any other entity about purchasing drones, about 20 people showed up for a recent public hearing to encourage lawmakers to support a proactive ban.

Earlier this month, Occupy Buffalo and the WNY Peace Center proposed legislation to the Council prohibiting the use and purchase of unmanned aerial vehicles in Buffalo, arguing that they violate constitutional rights and pose imminent danger to the public.

Excerpts from the proposal state that “drones present an unreasonable and unacceptable threat to public safety in the air and to persons and property on the ground … due to limitations in drone vision, capability to avoid other aircraft and adequate control.”

Another part of the proposed legislation reads “armed drones and surveillance drones present an unreasonable and unacceptable threat to the rights of individual privacy, freedom of association and assembly, equal protection and judicial due process …”

Victoria Ross of the Peace Education Project noted that the drones in Buffalo most likely would be used primarily for surveillance, “which means warrants won’t be needed.”

The proposed legislation submitted to the Common Council asks that drones not be purchased, leased, borrowed, tested or used by any agency of the City of Buffalo.

From Bill Greene – author of the Constitutional Tender Act – Peter Schiff has opened a hard-money bank.

In other words, you can open accounts in any denomination you want, whether fiat currency OR gold bullion – whatever you’d like. You can even get a “gold debit card” that you can use anywhere in the world. It’s backed by actual gold, which converts to whatever currency you’re needing at the time you hit that ATM.

It’s the sort of thing that the Constitutional Tender Act calls for in banking. But there is one caveat: you can’t open an account at this bank if you’re a U.S. citizen. Get more information at www.europacbank.com

Tad DeHaven of the CATO institute reports that Mitt Romney is running from spending cuts.

According to the Associated Press, Mitt Romney supports postponing the sequestration cuts scheduled for January 2, 2013 by at least one year. The Republican presidential contender said Friday during a campaign trip to Las Vegas that the cuts would be “terrible,” particularly for the military.

Romney says he wants President Barack Obama and lawmakers to work together to put, in his words, “a year’s runway,” in place to give the next president time to reform the tax system and ensure the military’s needs are met.

In other words, says DeHaven, Romney’s position on sequestration is no different than the rest of the spendthrifts in Washington.

Lew Rockwell blogs that mainstream media is “Flocking to” the upcoming “Ron Paul Rally in Tampa.” According to Rockwell, 43 major organizations have already signed up, with 2–3 reporters each and a camera crew, when appropriate. They include Reuters, The Hill, the Boston Globe, HuffPo, BBC, Yahoo!, AP, WaPo, and many more.

In Michigan, the state Court of Appeals ruled that no Michigan municipality can use the federal Controlled Substances Act as an excuse to enact local ordinances that outlaw medical marijuana cannabis patients and caregivers from exercising their rights which currently exist under the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act. In other words – federal law cannot be a guide to local policies – only state law.

In Colorado, statistics show that the marijuana industry is growing even after heavy federal raids last year. As of the end of May, there were nearly 99,000 registered patients in the state. The number peaked in July 2011 at nearly 129,000, but then dropped to under 81,000 by November as the feds turned up the heat on dispensaries in the state. The number has been slowing climbing again since then.

Joe Wolverton Reports in the New American Magazine that the federal government now claims the power to Collect, Catalog, and Store All Private Information.

In March Attorney General Eric Holder, in cooperation with National Counterterrorism Center head Matthew Olsen and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, significantly accelerated this move toward abolishing privacy by approving a new list of guidelines for how long U.S. government agencies tasked with combating international and domestic “terrorism” may retain the data they collect and store. Basically, this information may be saved even if it contains no connection to criminal activity whatsoever.

According to the new regulations, the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) (headquartered at the Liberty Crossing complex in McLean, Virginia) can store and “continually assess” this information “for a period of up to five years.” Before the promulgation of these new guidelines, the NCTC was under instructions to destroy “promptly” (typically defined to mean within 180 days) this cache of material gathered from U.S. citizens if there was nothing related to terrorism found in it.

As even a cursory review of the guidelines reveals, the scope of relevant data is enormous. Records of where one travels, how one travels, whom one visits, and how one pays for the tickets are all now the property of the federal government’s intelligence complex.

Furthermore, the NCTC and its intelligence-gathering partners are permitted to “access and review datasets that are identified as including non-terrorism information in order to identity and obtain ‘terrorism information.” That means the Obama administration’s vast (and growing) domestic spying network may collect, catalog, and collate every last scrap of personal information about citizens and then sort through it to determine if it is indicative of any terrorist activity. This is precisely the opposite of the principle of the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against “unreasonable searches and seizures.” Under this new rubric, the government has deemed all searches and seizures reasonable unless they determine that they are not.

Tenther News