Defense Secretary re-affirms Obama administration’s unconstitutional stance.

Following controversy over his assertion that seeking “international permission” from the UN to launch wars trumps the authority of Congress, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta re-affirmed this premise during recent testimony in which he again stated that Congress would play second fiddle to the international community.

Asked by Congressman Walter Jones, who has launched a resolution re-affirming the limits to Presidential power by making the launching of war without Congressional approval an impeachable offense, whether President Obama would seek authorization from Congress before attacking Iran or Syria, Panetta stopped short of answering in the affirmative.

“We will clearly work with Congress if it comes to the issue of the use of force,” said Panetta, backing away from comments made in March when he told a Senate Armed Services Committee, “Our goal would be to seek international permission. And we would come to the Congress and inform you and determine how best to approach this, whether or not we would want to get permission from the Congress.”

However, Panetta later told Congressman Randy Forbes during the House Armed Services Committee meeting, “The commander in chief has the authority to take action that involves the vital interests of this country,” adding that the President would have to “take steps” to get Congressional approval under the War Powers Act.

“Would the approval be required before you could take military action against Syria?” asked Forbes.

“The President could in fact deploy forces if he had to if our vital interests were at stake,” said Panetta.

“So you get the support of Congress after you began military operations?” asked Forbes.

“In that particular situation, yes,” said Panetta, re-affirming that Congressional authorization would not be needed.

CONTINUED at Prison Planet.

Now three people have won Iowa during this primary season. Last night, Ron Paul’s delegate finagling strategy paid off as he guaranteed himself at least half of the delegates in Iowa and Minnesota.

Apologists here for Obama’s use of executive orders point out the other recent presidents who’ve also overreached their use of executive orders. This makes the abuses more important, not less, as this has been an on-going deviation from the Constitutional limits of the president since at least FDR in the 30s. An executive branch run wild makes the abuses of kings and dictators almost inevitable. That is why it must be reined in; that’s why the framers constructed limited powers in their document. On the otherhand, there’s clear evidence that all of Obama & co.’s study of the Constitution must have been focuses on tactics to skirt its limitations.

Speculation that the location of the Bilderberg Group’s annual meeting would be chosen to coincide with this year’s U.S. presidential election appears to have been accurate with the likelihood that Bilderberg will hold their confab in Chantilly, Virginia from May 31st to June 3rd.

An Exclusive interview, Alex Jones speaks with Sen. Rand Paul on NDAA, TSA undercover on Houston busses, Obama’s overall neglect of the Constitution, his possible impeachment and much more. This is a must see video.

A coalition of advocacy groups has begun a week of intensive protests against the latest attack on the free and open internet, The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA). The draconian legislation would force companies to ignore existing privacy laws and share information with the federal government.

One moment it’s a chilly afternoon. But as I learned, in the very next moment, and without warning, your chest and neck feel like they’ve gotten a blast of unbearable steam heat.

That’s because of an imposing device the U.S. military calls the Active Denial System. It’s an energy weapon, commonly known as the “Pain Ray,” that turns electricity into millimeter wave radio frequency. And heat. Lots of heat.

The military wants it to burn suspicious people who might pose a threat to a base. Yet the Active Denial System has never fired a millimeter wave in anger, despite 15 years in development. On a crisp Friday afternoon, however, the military wants the Active Denial System to burn a different target. Me.

A field-grade officer on a grassy, calm field on the Marine base here beckons me to stand between four cones, on a spray-painted orange X. I am advised to jump sideways when the heat becomes unbearable. Whatever, I think, this isn’t really going to burn me.

Especially because I can’t see the Pain Ray, even though it’s mounted on two big, goofy looking trucks. One model is a tricked-out green Humvee topped with a huge, flat backboard and a gun barrel; the other is much bigger, mounted on an eight-wheeled flatbed truck. Their handlers call the smaller one Ralph and the bigger one Pete. But since Ralph and Pete are seven football fields away – far beyond the reach of every other non-lethal weapon – they don’t seem threatening.

This turns out to be pure journalistic arrogance.

CONTINUED at Gizmodo.

As current drive time radio host on KYSR in Los Angeles and former MTV VJ Kennedy explains it, early reactions to her political leanings were pretty consistent. “Your name is Kennedy, and you’re a Republican, and you’re on MTV? What?!”

At Reason Weekend 2012, Reason Foundation’s annual donor event, Kennedy sat down with Reason’s Nick Gillespie to discuss her transformation from Dan Quayle fetishist to hardcore libertarian, a Republican tattoo, and her recent fight with HBO’s Bill Maher over atheism.

About 28 minutes. Filmed by Joshua Swain and Anthony Fisher. Edited by Meredith Bragg.

Dr Jerome Corsi reports on the leak of 1,000 pages of HSBC internal records including customer account ledgers for dozens of companies through which the global banking giant apparently was laundering money each month.