(courtesy ammoland.com)

David Codrea writes [via ammoland.com]: “Homeland eyes special declaration to take charge of elections,” the Washington Examiner reported Tuesday. “Even before the FBI identified new cyberattacks on two separate state election boards, the Department of Homeland Security began considering declaring the election a ‘critical infrastructure,’ giving it the same control over security it has over Wall Street and the electric power grid.”

“There’s a vital national interest in our election process, so I do think we need to consider whether it should be considered by my department and others critical infrastructure,” Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson claimed. “There’s no one federal election system … There’s a national election for president, there are some 9,000 jurisdictions that participate, contribute to collecting votes, tallying votes and reporting votes.”

Centralized control? Strip power from states, counties and precincts, many of which require voters to identify themselves, a prerequisite the administration (i.e., Johnson’s boss) challenges as “disenfranchising” minorities?  What could go wrong?

What won’t Johnson’s Homeland operators be able to do, using “national security” as justification?

And aren’t the Democrats – at least the anti-gun ones seeking to eviscerate preemption (except when it comes to federal edicts) – the ones who then scream “Home rule” the loudest? That could be a problem, because Democrat apparatchik Johnson also views guns as a security threat requiring his enlightened national control as well.

“We have to face the fact that meaningful gun control has to be a part of homeland security,” he told “CBS This Morning” following the Orlando nightclub murders. “We need to do something to minimize the opportunity for terrorists to get a gun in this country.”

He was specifically talking about using secret “no fly” lists to deny a fundamental, Constitutionally-enumerated right. In other words, the guy who wants control over that right in the name of security thinks his job would be a lot easier without inconveniences like due process.

He wasn’t talking about who get into the country in the first place, you know, the ones who undergo “rigorous security screening.” As if that’s possible. As if reliable and comprehensive background records for Third World “refugees” even exist.

Keep in mind Johnson is also the guy who claims illegal aliens have “earned the right to be citizens,” another big Democrat campaign point, with “amnesty” being one of Hillary Clinton’s “first 100 days” pledges.

Yeah, right, put him in charge of election oversight. It’s not like there are irreconcilable differences over gun owner control and the “pathway to citizenship.” And it’s not like those are both hot button campaign issues. Right?

This isn’t to say there is no room for additional oversight, particularly with the reported foreign hacking threats. The concern here is putting a career Democrat operative in charge of things, particularly without defining what new powers he’ll assume and especially what independent oversight will be exercised over him.

Many questions haven’t even been thought of, let alone answered, including what level of classified control will be imposed, and what impact that will have on heretofore transparent processes. After seeing Congress effectively stonewalled over Fast and Furious gunwalking, why should we believe they’ll be any more effective or timely in stopping agenda-driven waste, abuse, corruption, fraud, and retaliation against whistleblowers?

Before turning everything over to an Obama functionary in the most important election many of us have ever faced — one that will determine the future of the republic in a way that will either enable or block its “fundamental transformation” — we might want to first determine the answer to the Roman poet Juvenal’s  most relevant of questions:

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

Who will guard the guards?

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40 COMMENTS

  1. Hmmm…mebbe those rumors of an Odumbo martial law/3rd term aren’t so far-fetched(near fetched )? Arm up POTG…

    • Jeh Johnson is either the most inept or corrupt civil servant since Hillary Clinton served as Secretary of State. Neither qualifies him to be in charge of our elections. Stinks to high heavens and has that unmistakable odor that accompanies the devious Obama regime.

  2. Gee, it seems like only days ago Trump was mocked by virtually every politician, pundit and ‘news’ reporter for claiming the election could be rigged. Since then the FBI has declared hacking of voting machines to be a national threat, voter databases have been breached and now the feds want complete election oversight to “ensure validity”.

    Apologies to Trump in 10, 9, 8, never.

    • You realize he is on pace to lose his ass, rigged election or not? “Rigged” is a poor excuse for not even trying to run a serious campaign. A poorer excuse for ‘winging’ his debate prep and policy knowledge.

      The revolution wasn’t televized;
      -Hillary rigs the primaries
      -Trump destroys the Republican Party
      -Johnson destroys the Libertarian Party
      -Homeland chills skepticism of the general election
      -Electronic balloting is rigged & blamed on Russian bogeymen if acknowledged (which it won’t be formally)

      • yeah that’s they almost all the polls are tightening within the margin of error. he’s gonna have his ass handed to him.

        • Trump is going to lose in epic scale. National polls are meaningless, electoral votes are what matter, and Hillary is predicted by every reputable polling outfit to be on her way to an electoral landslide. FiveThirtyEight has Hillary projected to win 316 electoral votes, to 221 for Trump.
          http://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2016-election-forecast/?ex_cid=rrpromo

          On the plus side for Trump, his odds of winning have increased in the last couple of weeks. There was a point where Hillary was projected to win 89 to 11. Trump now is predicted to have a 27% chance of winning — which, frankly, is astonishing, since he clearly doesn’t want to win. He’s not trying to win. It’s now September, and Trump hasn’t opened a single campaign office in Florida yet! He claimed he’d open 24 about a month ago, but not one of them is open yet.

        • ” . . .and Hillary is predicted by every reputable polling outfit to be on her way to an electoral landslide. . .”

          No she isn’t. After already spending well over 50mil on anti-Trump ads the best she can do is stay a weak 10 points ahead of him. And this was after an August filled with widely celebrated Trump campaign “errors”. Now the distance between Clinton and Trump is closing. Basically, what’s happening is that she’s having to run flat-out, spending huge amounts of campaign resources in order to stay, considering the margin of error, a few points ahead of Trump who, as yet, has spent virtually nothing. This is not the performance of a candidate on her way to a landslide. It is, instead, the performance of a weak candidate who’s running as hard and fast as she can but still can’t manage to pull distinctly head of Trump. That’s not winning. That’s running in place.

      • I would love to see Trump win the presidency, but if he just succeeds in destroying the Republican Party so that something rational can replace it, that will make it all worthwhile. For all those who think speaking words of magic will make any difference at all, go ahead and make a change in this election, I dare you. We need a conservative party which is grounded in reality, as the liberals are, not basking in dreamland.

    • If there were any honor in schools any more, they would teach about the Battle of Athens. I don’t think our rulers want anyone to know about that little tidbit of history. Nor the liberal elite, they like being able to manipulate the population without interference.

    • The result will be the same if they do. Except for more bloodshed. Nobody actually died at Athens, right?

  5. Meaningful gun control? Exactly how many people were on the terrorist watch list, acquired firearms by legal channels, then went on to use those firearms to kill an American?

    The correct answer is one – the 2009 Little Rock Recruiting Center shooting. If you count only those legal acquisitions that currently require a background check, that number is zero (the Little Rock shooter bought one gun at retail, to determine if he was being watched, but used guns from private sales in the shooting).

    So what exactly is meant by “meaningful” here? Because surely it has nothing to do with terrorists.

  6. Hey, Saddam had control over national elections in Iraq, the Kim’s have had control over national elections for decades and they are always elected by 99.9% of the citizenry, so why not give this a chance? Sounds like just the thing to bring us all together.

    • Precisely. That’s the way they do it in NK, right, and look how little problem they have with protests, and so forth! We should ask them to help us develop a system.

  7. “We need to do something to minimize the opportunity for terrorists to get a gun in this country.”

    How about you just worry about the “minimize the opportunity for terrorists to get…in this country”, and I’ll worry about the “a gun” part.

  8. There is rampant voter fraud. Probably enough to change the elections. Many districts in the last election posted over 100% participation and every district that did, voted D. Hmmm….Wonder how that is possible?

  9. So the Feebs want control because 9,000 different jurisdictions’ elections may be compromised but the Feeds’ one central location could not be? I call shanangans. The Feebs have already admitted they’re behind the curve on cyber security, the secretary of state’s personal (and illegal) email server has probably been hacked by a foreign government, every military exercise has to determine how it will effect “climate change” during the planning process, and these idiots thing that NINE THOUSAND election entities are safer under their purview in one easily corruptible site as opposed to thousands of autonomous sites. This is truly the legacy of Lincoln’s war on divisibility.

    • “Feeds’ one central location could not be?”

      Of course! Why would you ever doubt that? That “one central location” will be secured in Hillary’s basement and monitored by her foundation, what could go wrong?

    • Mather Byles said something along those lines, “Better thousands of elections entities miles apart than one election entity in one.”

  10. I have been saying for nearly 8 years now, Dumbo does not plan to leave office, ever. I will admit I was wrong when it actually happens, which would be January, not November. I can see Trump winning and a larger majority in Congress followed by a couple weeks with a declaration that Trump’s Russian pawns have hacked the election, shoot Trump on sight and I’ll remain here in the white house for another 10 years or so, just ’till we sort this out.

  12. Back in high school, we all laughed and mocked pre-WWII Germany and wondered with dripping derision how a supposedly modern country with an educated electorate could be so foolish as to commit obvious national suicide.

    The teacher’s answer was an unenlightening sigh and apologetic “Well, you have to understand the times……”

    Then, as now, I say bullshit. There’s nothing particular about the times. There, as here, it’s just lazy ass people who want something for nothing. They believe every silken obfuscation that falls out of a fascist’s face, abetted by hollow men who pretend it won’t get worse than it is and won’t affect them personally.

    America has grown ungovernable and our difference irreconcilable. Whether we call it a conscious uncoupling, or dissolving the political bands which have connected us with another, it’s time for change. The only solution is the dissolution of America, peacefully, legally, and constitutionally via convention.

      • Agreed, but how do we make it happen?

        And that’s not snark or anything. I seriously would like to see this but have no idea how we’d go about it.

        • As J-H said, constitutional convention. We got very close to triggering one over prohibition, within one state, as I recall. As I understand it, triggering a convention effectively cancels the constitution and all amendments, sets the stage to start over.

  13. Well of course the DHS and NSA need more power! Hopefully wielded by the executive branch! You don’t want these United States to be weak do you? sarc/off

  14. You may want to clarify which Johnson in the headline. There’s another prominent Johnson in the news these days.

  16. “We need to do something to minimize the opportunity for terrorists to get in this country.”

    Fixed that for ya. Tighten the border and enough Syrian imports already.

  18. I just sit back on my porch and watch all of this happening including the MSM just rolling over and wonder where it’s going to end.

    Oh, I am also cleaning firearms or loading magazines while I am sitting back and watching. “Busy hands are happy hands” you know

  19. Odd that he’s saying this. One would have to suspect he’ll be out of office in a few months. In any case, the efficient thing would be to decentralize and disconnect voting, not centralize it and connect it. If there are many points and they are not connected to the internet, then they will be hard for outsiders to crack.

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