USA TODAY – America’s ruling class has been experiencing more pushback than usual lately. It just might be a harbinger of things to come.

First, in response to widespread protests last week, the Department of Homeland Security canceled plans to build a nationwide license plate database. Many local police departments already use license-plate readers that track every car as it passes traffic signals or pole-mounted cameras. Specially equipped police cars even track cars parked on the street or even in driveways.

The DHS put out a bid request for a system that would have gone national, letting the federal government track millions of people’s comings and goings just as it tracks data about every phone call we make. But the proposal was suddenly withdrawn last week, with the unconvincing explanation that it was all a mistake. I’m inclined to agree with TechDirt’s Tim Cushing, who wrote: “The most plausible explanation is that someone up top at the DHS or ICE suddenly realized that publicly calling for bids on a nationwide surveillance system while nationwide surveillance systems are being hotly debated was … a horrible idea.” (more…)

Caracas (AFP) – President Nicolas Maduro said Saturday that remarks by US Secretary of State John Kerry on the unrest in Venezuela gave violent groups a “green light” to carry out attacks. In a tweet, Maduro also slammed the remarks made by Kerry late Friday as “arrogant” and “insolent.”

“John Kerry threatens Venezuela with more violence, with his statements gives the green light to violent groups to attack our people,” Maduro wrote.

The top US diplomat on Friday condemned Venezuela’s “unacceptable” use of force against anti-government protesters, and declined to respond to a call from Caracas for bilateral talks. (more…)

If The Feb 21 agreement is not upheld….  Prepare for our war Kharkiv comrades….  the girly man in America will do nothing…

#BREAKING Ukraine's Yanukovych blocked from taking plane to Russia: parliament speaker

— AFP News Agency (@AFP) February 22, 2014

(Via XX Committee)  Things are moving very fast in Ukraine today. President Yanukovych, after the bloodbath this week on the streets of Kyiv, has been thrown out of office by the parliament. The country is in turmoil, and in the east, centered on Kharkiv, the Moscow-backed Ukrainian Front, that I informed you of three weeks ago, is arming the population and preparing for civil war.

And now the Russian Foreign Ministry has made its position clear in a new press release on its website – the new government in Kyiv is illegitimate and it’s the West’s fault.

This is a remarkably rough diplomatic message.

It cannot be construed as anything less than a threat to an independent Ukraine.

The full text follows …  (more…)

Bumped and Updated @2:00pm (USA/EST) Massive protests today in Caracus, Merida and all around Venezuela.

Protesta indescriptible en Caracas. pic.twitter.com/qHyBV8Dcwm

— CastoOcando.com (@cocando) February 22, 2014

Protesters fill the streets of Merida, #Venezuela. pic.twitter.com/SSuJgNjR6W via @machixblue

— Jim Roberts (@nycjim) February 22, 2014

RT @mrgarciafrank #BreakingNews More than 1 million people manifest in Caracas Venezuela against dictatorship Maduro http://t.co/pAwEGlljzi

— SaloumehZ (@SaloumehZ) February 22, 2014

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(Via Weasel Zippers) Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez has been arrested by the Venezuelan National Guard.  Supporters flooded into the street in front of the van to stop his arrest.  For their part, the Maduro government has said that things in the streets of Venezuela this afternoon are calm and orderly.

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Somewhere Moonbat Sean Penn is sobbing with dramatic tears…..

VENEZUELA –  “I want to get out of here. I want to leave this country as soon as possible and never come back.”

The text from my friend Luis surprised me. A lawyer by training, he got his masters in urban planning from an elite Manhattan university, and had returned to Venezuela full of hope. He was hired by a local NGO working on poverty abatement issues. But now, he’s fed up.

“Nothing works. There are lines to buy everything. Prices have gone through the roof. You can’t go out at night for fear of getting shot. If you want to get married, finding a place to live is impossible. The country has become unlivable.” (more…)

David Simon, a former police beat reporter in Baltimore, MD and creator of the popular television series, “The Wire” implies that Libertarians in America are “greedy” and decries Libertarianism as a “juvenile” idea that he “just can’t get past….”  

Clearly upset that Fabian ideology is not taking root in the 20-somethings community, while the Libertarian movement is growing as an identified political affiliation in the cohort,  he gave a speech in Australia in November, 2013 at the “Dangerous Ideas” conference declaring “Libertarianism in my country is now being taken seriously as an intelligent mode of political thought… it’s astonishing to me… ” (around the 8:00 – 10:00 mark) and then goes on a screed to deliberately disparage and attempt to dismiss the Libertarian school of thought – including the assertion that Libertarians are “anti-government” (as Moyers chuckles along in agreement…)  Fraidy cat!

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The latest in the series is available on YouTube today, and at BillWhittle.Com

On January 30, The Blaze posted this book review of Business Tides: The Newsweek Era of Henry Hazlitt entitled, The 1948 editorial that could be the GOP response to every Obama State of the Union Address.  An Excerpt:

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