Liberty and Accessibility

Monday, April 30, 2007

14 days without a response from Myspace.

Sunday, April 29, 2007

13 days without a response from Myspace.

Saturday, April 28, 2007

12 days without a response from Myspace.

Friday, April 27, 2007

Ron Paul President Man

A song has been written about Ron Paul. Listen to it at

http://www.rmisp.net/presidentman.mp3
.

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11 days without a response from Myspace.

Children's Holocaust Illinois & USA Incorporated

We received this "heads up" from Ed Brown last night. Reno talked to
the mother - who lives in the Chicago area - last night and blogged
this story over at Ed's Myspace.com page.
-- My baby Eifrat has not been seen or had contact with any one who
loves her in a year! You kept her away from my view as her loving
mother for more than two years. Now she is exhibiting damage beyond
belief. You did not receive her damaged. All she "suffered from" was
"ADD" (as you claimed) and her pathetic treatment in State run public
education -- but in four years you have not even cared if she is
healthy or learning at all! How much school have you given her? Look at
how much school has she lost in your care? And what kind of education
have you provided her? -- Look at the letter that someone else (your
Juanita) had to fabricate for her and helped her to sign! She cannot
even write her name well and she is 11 already! Why is she not doing
better in your thousands of Federal, State, Public treasuries' funded
dollars per month care and education in your "wonderful" Child
Protective Illinois State care???!!!
We know why! That flood of public money goes into your and your
loveless colaborators pockets and you don't care! -- You don't love my
children! -- You don't love anyones' children! -- You only love the
Title IV, Social Security, Illinois taxpayer and deceptively solicited
community cash that Eifrat and Ariela, and all the other stolen
children of Illinois you have taken, sold or locked away, bring to you
and your greed and hate filled system of child molesting, child
beating, child drugging, sick minded, graft and profit extorting
monsters associates you deceive the public to hide, shield and gag me
to protect! You are pathetic examples of child protection services
agents! You are a mockery of those very words! My damaged daughters are
the proof!" Once you read the whole story you'll understand why the
mother wrote this letter. That is, if you can manage to read the whole
thing without getting upset. Read the story at

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&friendID=152568743&MyToken=4b9dbef7-8649-403b-a531-231015674d2dML
.

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Thursday, April 26, 2007

10 days without a response from Myspace.

Paul Supporters At McCain Rally

Watch the Youtube video at http://youtube.com/watch?v=8GP_TxOI3Ig
.

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Don't let Congress stifle its critics

Don't let Congress stifle its critics

Congress claims its about to pass a lobbying reform bill. Not so. The bill they've crafted for this purpose leaves the special interests exempt from further regulation, and instead imposes burdens on the kind of small grassroots organizations that have been most critical of Congressional corruption. Congress wants to stifle its critics while making the public think it has regulated the special interests.

I've used the Congressional Contact System at DownsizeDC.org, Inc. to instruct my representatives to oppose this fraudulent legislation. I urge you to do the same by clicking here.

Come to DownsizeDC.org to learn more:
http://action.downsizedc.org/wyc.php?cid=61

David Clarence Talked To The Deputy Federal Marshal

There was a rumor that there could have been a raid last night David's
call to the Marshal's office may have stopped this from happening.
Listen to the blog below:
http://www.rmisp.net/raid.mp3
.

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open letter from Edward Brown to US martial

Dear Mr. Monier,
You have stated in the news paper, that the Browns are a public safety
problem. Due to allege threats against federal personnel.
I Edward Lewis family Brown, have never threatened anyone in my life.
It is unlawful to threaten, however, I have warned everyone and anyone
that has ever threatened me; that if they attempt to do so or will do
so, I will follow the letter of the law (note criminal law, LETHAL
FORCE DOCTRINE), that I will use equal or greater force as the law
dictates in order to protect myself, my property, my family, my
community, my county, my state and my nation at any cost.
If you feel that following the letter of the law would endanger public
safety, then perhaps you should review your U.S. Marshals rules of
engagement and consider who actually is conducting the danger to public safety.
It seems ever increasing that the many law enforcement agencies are
creating the dehumanizing hazards to public safety. We will always
remember that all government personnel are either law enforcement
agents or revenue gathers. Their primary function is currently to
protect their own positions, (jobs), for their own personal enrichment,
that is why we always hear them say, "I'm just doing my job." It
saddens me that you do not seem to understand the the higher law of man
and god and elect instead to enter the snake pit.
Read more at

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&friendID=152568743&MyToken=f9fa3e87-11f6-41bd-9568-de6d54f77a7eML
.

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Wednesday, April 25, 2007

9 days without a response from Myspace.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

8 days without a response from Myspace.

Ron Paul interviewed on Lou Dobbs

Ron Paul was interviewed briefly on Lou Dobbs yesterday, April 23rd.
Watch the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJD3vmfxdJY
.

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Monday, April 23, 2007

7 days without a response from Myspace.

Sunday, April 22, 2007

6 days without a response from Myspace.

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Yes! You Can Fight City Hall… and Win!

Shutting down tyranny with the ABC's of Due Process
"No man's life liberty or property is safe while the legislature is in
session." Mark Twain
By Bill Price
Our elected and bureaucratic officials have refined scamming into an
art. But, all scams feed off of the public's ignorance. A few years ago
a friend of mine received a barking dog citation from a township
ordinance officer. $80 was being demanded for the offence. Apparently a
complaining neighbor, who my friend just happened to be in a protracted
property dispute with, began phoning complaints into the township
office. Mark, the dog's owner, asked me if I knew of anything he could
do about being fined for the alleged offence. Well, it just so happened
that a couple of years earlier I was arrested as a result of a
misidentification. Naturally I pleaded not guilty, but my county
sheriff's department and the prosecutor were only interested in having
someone pay the associated $500 fine for the alleged offence. They
refused to drop the charges. Two months later, the very night before my
jury selection, I got a call from the County prosecutor's office
informing me that they had just issued a Writ of Nolo Prosequi
(unwilling to prosecute). The County's attempt to "administer" justice
finally ran out of steam. Due Process was my salvation. The 7th
Amendment in our Bill of Rights guarantees a jury trial to anyone
accused of an offence over $20. Since having gained a little on the job
training regarding due process I was able to discuss the typical
omissions in City Hall's ordinance scams with my friend. Mark's dog
barking dilemma and his township's intention to administer a dose of
"justice" illustrates how low our officials will go. Let's take it from
the beginning.
Number one, when it comes to the law there are only two governmental
bodies that we citizens must concern ourselves with. One of them is in
Washington D.C and the other is in the state capitol where our
respective state legislatures convene. Counties, cities, villages and
townships cannot make law. These little political subdivisions have no
elected legislators. Thank God! Mark twain was not joking when he
quipped about the governmental fleecing of his fellow citizens.
The first thing that one must know in order to defeat ordinance scams
perpetrated under "color of law", like dog barking, seatbelt, garage
sale, junk car, etc., etc., is that your due process can and will
protect you. Local ordinances must actually be in compliance with a
State law that prohibits the alleged illegal activity. More and more,
an ignorant public are seen as walking opportunities by money hungry
officials. City councils and county boards etc. can easily violate a
citizen's rights when passing/enacting ordinances that have money
and/or jail time remedies. Even though federal and state lawmakers are
no strangers when it comes to fleecing their citizens, you will find
that local officials have made a virtual industry out of "ordinance
enforcement". Local governments have grown exponentially as a direct
result of the dollars now pouring in. Mark's citation as the owner of a
barking dog will serve to illustrate how the ordinance scams work.
I asked Mark if his citation cited, by reference, a State law. Guess
what? There was no state law named on his citation. It was therefore
totally void. Mark then notified his township that he was not accepting
responsibility for the alleged wrong doing and demanded the first step
in his due process, a pretrial hearing. At the pretrial hearing just
prior to his court appearance, Mark pointed out to the prosecutor that
his citation lacked a reference to a state law. The Prosecutor then
slyly "dropped" the charge.
Another friend of mine was cited for parking in a handicap parking
spot. The Livonia prosecutor's office sent him a threatening letter,
stating that he now owed $130.00, and would not be able to renew his
driver's license. A bench warrant would be issued for his arrest if he
did not pay up immediately. My friend checked his citation to see if it
cited by reference a Michigan Compiled Law (MCL). He brought the
citation into work and we could see that an MCL was listed on the
citation. So we looked it up (findlaw.com) to see what it said and all
appeared to be in order. There was a problem however. The state law
quoted on his citation referred to yet another state law. When we
looked up that law we found that specific stipulations limited the
action that could be taken. Only public property or private properties
designated for public use were counted as offences according to this
law. The handicap parking citation was left on the windshield of my
friend's vehicle, while he temporarily parked in order to take
groceries up to his 3rd floor apartment. When he returned a few minutes
later to move his car he had found the citation, left there by the
Livonia police. After talking it over, we came to the obvious
conclusion. His alleged law breaking did not occur on public property
or private property designated for public use. For example, could a
non-tenant park in his complex area while taking a walk to a nearby
park, or go shopping at the mall? Of course not! Parking was provided
for tenants and their guests only. Those handicapped spots were
designed by the complex owner as a voluntary reminder to his tenants
and their guests to not use them for permanent parking places. No State
law prohibited the momentary use of those handicapped parking places.
And, no law was violated. My friend sent the prosecutor a letter
stating that he was innocent and intended to plead not guilty to the
alleged wrongdoing. He stated that the law was being misapplied. He
also demanded a pretrial hearing, as part of his guaranteed
constitutional due process rights.
Ladies and gentlemen, our accusers must provide probable cause. The
cities threat to fine my friend and forcibly take his liberty can only
be done upon probable cause. A judge or magistrate judge can sign an
arrest warrant only upon the presentment of probable cause, sworn to by
someone with actual first hand knowledge of the alleged violation. So,
how is it legally possible to issue an arrest warrant when no probable
cause existed?
One of the tricks used by unscrupulous officials is to threaten an
arrest warrant or claim that one already exists, like they did with me
in my case of "misidentification". When I demanded it (a copy of the
arrest warrant), under the Freedom of Information Act, they simply
refused by claiming that it was a court document that they had no
access to. There never was an actual arrest warrant…a common trick
employed by the growing number of over-zealous prosecutors. When we
insist on our due process by demanding our pre-trial hearing, justice
begins to work in our favor. Anyone charged with an offense that makes
a demand on their money or liberty is entitled to a pre-trial hearing.
The problem grows hugely for our officials when a jury comes into the
picture. So, don't be afraid to demand your pre-trial hearing…it cannot
be denied. You can ask the prosecutor questions. What state law was
violated? Demand a copy of the law they intend on using to prosecute
you with. If the prosecutor refuses your demand, motion for a dismissal
based the prosecution's denial of your due process (information
necessary to make a defense). Remember to take a prepared list of your
demands at your pre-trial hearing including the items mentioned above.
Also take a witness. They cannot deny you witnesses, and if they should
try, demand the state law that they are using as their authority to
deny your demand. There is no state law that denies such and an
ordinance has no power unless it is adopted from a state law. So don't
fall for their tricks.
There are adoption procedures for political subdivisions to follow. The
purpose of these procedures is to give local ordinances actual force of
law. Without satisfying those adoption procedures local ordinances have
no actual force of law. Illegal ordinance enforcements are common and
executed under color of law. These are common because people do not
know the ABC's of their due process guarantees. Enforcement actions
without the authority of a state law are criminal by nature. Commonly
practiced violations by local officials all over the country reveal a
plague of pilfering through the "administration" of our "due process".
The prosecutors knew in the above cited cases that the alleged
"violations" did not violate state law, but "color of law". This has
been good enough for 99.9% of "we the sheeple". If these officials
really didn't know, then things are even scarier yet. The Ingham County
Sheriff and Prosecutor knew within hours of my arrest that I was not
the person they were looking for. Mark was being threatened with an
increasing fine for a dog barking violation that had absolutely no
basis in law, and no law was violated by the man using the handicapped
parking spot while transferring his groceries to his apartment.
Violations like the ones described are routinely committed by law
enforcement officers, ordinance agents, prosecutors and other
officials, are felony crimes. These crimes have names, like extortion,
operating under "color of law", fraud, and conspiracy to mention just a
few. Officials are being granted immunity in order to protect the
ordinance industry.
Remember our "officials" take an oath of office to defend the
Constitution and uphold the laws of the United States. Presently, the
men in black have found it beneficial to enable our accusers, by
issuing dismissals to valid complaints against these perpetrators under
the guise of immunity. Tyranny is here to stay in good old USA unless
enough good men do something, like using their guaranteed due process
rights. The next time you are charged with a violation, demand your
pre-trial hearing. If the prosecutor refuses to provide your demand for
a copy of the state law and the sworn oath statement (probable cause)
that is being used as evidence of an alleged wrongdoing, demand a jury
trial and a discovery order from the judge after your pre-hearing. The
discovery order compels the prosecutor to provide the material you have
demanded for your defense.
Finally, if you don't believe me concerning the corruption in City
Hall, I suggest you read Judge Anthony Napolitano's tremendous book
Constitutional Chaos. The picture I have painted here will seem
relatively rosy by comparison.
Here is a brief formula for stopping tyranny:
Check your citation for a reference to the State law allegedly violated.
The political subdivision citing you must provide a copy of the State
law they intend to prosecute with. So be polite, but don't take no for
an answer. They are required to keep these ordinances for public
inspection and can only ask for a small fee to reproduce them, e.g. 10
or 20 cents a page.
Demand a dismissal if a State Law is not referenced in the ordinance.
Ordinances by political subdivisions only have force when
citing/referencing a state law and the purpose for such law.
Review the State adoption procedures.
Your political subdivision is actually violating your constitutional
rights if it makes any demands on your property or liberty without
following the procedures enacted by the State. In Michigan townships
for example those procedures are in Act 246 of 1945, Chapter 41, 181-85
(findlaw.com).
After being cited for an offense that you believe you are not guilty
of, notify the clerk that you are not accepting responsibility
(pleading not guilty)
Demand your pre-trial hearing, a necessary first step in your due process.
Find a trusted friend or two to accompany you as a witness Prepare a
statement with a list of your demands.
Demand, number one, a copy of the State law you violated.
Demand, number two, a copy of the oath statement made (probable cause).
This statement must provide a summary describing the violation you
allegedly committed, and be sworn to (signed) by someone with firsthand
knowledge of the wrongdoing. You will be able to cross examine that
person under oath at trial.
If the prosecutor refuses to drop the charge at pre-trial demand a jury
trial. The 7th Amendment guarantees a jury trial remedy for any offense
of $20 or more. You will be taken before the judge, at that time notify
the judge you require a discovery order to obtain the documentation
necessary for your defense. This order will allow you to compel your
accusers (police, ordinance official's prosecutors etc.) to provide the
documentation they claim to have in order to gain a conviction against you.
If any of these steps is denied, you should demand a dismissal based on
the denial of your constitutionally guaranteed due process rights.
I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice, its free speech. This
stuff should have been taught to all of us in high school.
Bill Price

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5 days without a response from Myspace.

No, we shouldn't bring back the draft

by According to the article at

http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2007/04/military_groundforces_draft_070417w/
, there was testimony to the senate Armed Services Committee that
simply increasing the size of the army won't resolve personnel
problems. It was suggested that the way to solve these problems is to
bring back the draft. There was testimony that the quality of people
serving in the army is getting lower. Bringing back the draft would
solve that problem how? If you were serving in the military, would you
rather be in a unit with people who believe in what they are doing or
people who are just there so they won't go to jail? The real answer is
for the United States to stop being the world's police. Besides our
unnecessary war in Iraq, the United States has military troops in
countries all over the world. Why do we have troops in Thailand?

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Friday, April 20, 2007

4 days without a response from Myspace.

Thursday, April 19, 2007

3 days without a response from Myspace.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

2 days without a response from Myspace.

Federal deficit causes Congressional pay cut

Federal deficit causes Congressional pay cut

Please join me in pressuring Congress to pass H.R. 500, the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2007. This bill, if passed into law, would require Congress to suffer a pay cut for every year in which the federal government runs a deficit. You can send a message in support of this bill to your representatives at the following link:

http://action.downsizedc.org/wyc.php?cid=64

Come to DownsizeDC.org to learn more:
http://action.downsizedc.org/wyc.php?cid=64

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

1 days without a response from Myspace.

Myspace.com discriminates against the blind

The popular social web site www.myspace.com discriminates against the
blind. A few days ago, I tried to create an account on

www.myspace.com.

The problem was that in order for somebody to create
an account, they have to enter numbers or letters that they see on an
image. The purpose of these images is to keep computer programs called
bots from automatically creating accounts. The problem is that these
images can't be read by screen readers. I filled out the form to
contact Myspace so they could help me create an account and I haven't
received a response. I will be putting a response meter on this site
to show how many days they go without responding.

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Monday, April 16, 2007

Virginia Tech killings

> D o w n s i z e r - D i s p a t c h

> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Please share with concerned friends . . .

> Subject: Virginia Tech killings

> Did laws prohibiting gun possession, or carrying guns onto school
> campuses, prevent what happened at Virginia Tech today?

> Obviously not. The killer ignored any such laws.

> Did gun prohibition laws perhaps prevent someone at Virginia Tech from
> stopping the killer before his death toll rose so high? Perhaps so.

> Law abiding citizens tend to obey the gun prohibition laws. Criminals do not.

> We are not calling for any action on this issue. We are not
> politicians, who, in moments of crisis, want to pose as saviors.
> Instead, we just want to encourage people to stop and think.

> We also want to express our condolences to the family members and
> friends of the promising young people whose lives were taken in this
> criminal act.

> You can share your comments
> <http://www.downsizedc.org/blog/2007/apr/16/virginia_tech_killings> on
> this event at our blog.

> Thank you for being a DC Downsizer.

> Jim Babka
> President
> &
> Perry Willis
> Communications Director


> D o w n s i z e r - D i s p a t c h
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Sunday, April 15, 2007

Usually, when Libertarians run for office, there is not much focus on
them on TV stations and newspapers, but with Ron Paul, it seems to be
different. A couple months ago, he was interviewed on the Fox news
channel. A couple weeks ago, he was interviewed on one of the HBO
shows. There has just been an article published about him in the Des
Moin Register. Why is this? I'm not sure, but perhaps one reason is
that he is not actually running as a "third party" candidate. Instead,
he is trying to get the nomination of the republican party. Read
the Des Moin register article at

http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070414/OPINION01/704140310/1035/OPINION
.

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Saturday, April 14, 2007

Texas Lawyers Fought the IRS and Won

The $1.34 million check was the result of a settlement between the
Browns and the government in Alan Brown, et al. v. United States, a
Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) suit the couple filed three years ago in
the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas.
The couple filed the civil suit after they were caught up in a
complicated tax prosecution in which Alan Brown, a well-known criminal
defense attorney with Brown & Norton, and Jean Brown, a family law
solo, allege they were targeted by overzealous Internal Revenue Service
agents, which led to the Browns being indicted in 2003 by a federal
grand jury in Austin, Texas, for allegedly filing false personal tax
returns between 1994 and 1997.
Read more at http://www.triallogs.com/index.php/content/view/167/9/
.

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Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Do you believe the United States Federal Income Tax is a fair and just system of taxation?

Vote at http://getonyoursoapbox.com/trade-poll
.

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Monday, April 09, 2007

keep up the good work Ron Paul supporters.

Keep up the good work guys. Within the course of a couple days, Ron
Paul's rating on vote.com has risen from 3% to 5%.

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Move over Michael Moore: Meet Aaron Russo

This documentary America: Freedom to Fascism by Aaron Russo is a must
see. A real eye-opener in many ways.
We at Kos think we're on top of everything in the political arena, or
so I thought. But there are some very un-American things that continue
to dupe us and in VERY big ways.
For instance, Did you know that there is no LAW that says we have to
pay income tax?
Civil disobedience NOW seems to be the only way to stop this insidious
reality that has been in the works since 1913.
Many of us have at least recognized the wrongs around us. Many of us
have diaried about bits and pieces of some of thes happenings, but this
America: Freedom to Fascism by Aaron Russo puts it all together. Read
more at http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/3/20/8276/78439
.

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Saturday, April 07, 2007

Vote for Ron Paul at vote.com

There is a presidential pole at http://www.vote.com
. Go there and vote for Ron Paul. Every little bit of publicity helps.

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Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Cindy Sheehan reffuses to pay income tax

An anti-war protester named Cindy Sheehan has said that she will no
longer pay the income tax. If she follows through with this, I say Go
Cindy! The federal government is out of control. They waste money on
unnecessary wars and military bases in over 100 countries. Military
operations aren't the only thing the federal government wastes money
on. You have an entire agency called the DEA who tries to fight the
"war on drugs." In reality what it does is causes violent crime because
of the black market for the "illegal" drugs. Then you have the IRS who
bullies families like mine who have had to hire people to help take
care of sick people in those families. The only way these government
Bureaucrats can be controled is if their income is cut off. This means
not paying taxes to the federal government. Emagine if millions of
people followed her lead. Eventually, the federal government would run
out of money. What we would have is a revolution without firing a
single gun shot! Are you in? Read some interesting commentary at

http://www.kxma.com/getARticle.asp?ArticleId=105503
.

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Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Hornberger addressing pro-war faction in Libertarian party

Read Message
From:
Brian B.
To:
General Discussion - open to all
Subject:
[Talk] Hornberger addressing pro-war faction in Libertarian party
One of our subscribers in LVOF, Dan Skinner, posted this to the group.
I think it extremely relevant given our recent discussions.
Brian Bustamante
<< http://www.fff.org/comment/com0702d.asp
The Critical Dilemma Facing Pro-War Libertarians
by Jacob G. Hornberger
The 9/11 attacks exposed a major fault line in the libertarian
movement. On one side of the divide were those libertarians who
contended that the 9/11 attacks were a direct consequence of U.S.
foreign policy — specifically the bad things that the federal
government had done to people overseas, especially in the Middle East.
Therefore, those libertarians argued, the only real long-term solution
to terrorism against the United States lay in reining in the federal
government's actions overseas, by such actions as bringing home U.S.
troops stationed overseas, dismantling the military-industrial complex,
abolishing the CIA, discontinuing foreign aid, ending U.S. invasions
and occupations, and prohibiting federal meddling in the affairs of
other nations.
On the other side of the divide were those libertarians who immediately
after the 9/11 attacks aligned themselves with conservatives. Viewing
the attacks as an act of war, they favored giving the president full
authority to wage the "global war on terror." This was no time to
analyze or discuss U.S. foreign policy, these libertarians said. This
was the time to hike military spending, take off the gloves, and
unleash the CIA and the U.S. military to fight an enemy — terrorism —
that arguably was more dangerous than the communist threat that America
faced during the Cold War.
Today, pro-war libertarians are faced with what is possibly the
greatest moral and philosophical dilemma of their lives.
No one can deny that we now live in a country in which the president,
on his own initiative, has the omnipotent power to send the nation into
war against any country on earth, especially given that the war on
terror extends all over the globe. The president, the CIA, and the
military have the power to take any suspected terrorist — foreigner or
American — into custody and torture, abuse, and execute him without due
process of law and trial by jury. The president and the NSA have the
power to wiretap telephones and monitor emails without a judicially
issued warrant. The president, the CIA, and the military have the power
to send missiles into cars and drop bombs into buildings anywhere in
the world, including right here in the United States, in their attempt
to win the war on terror. Indeed, the president wields the power to
ignore any constitutional or legislative restraints on his power as a
"wartime" commander in chief.
The critical importance of civil liberties has traditionally been a
blind spot for conservatives. Focusing their attention almost
exclusively on economic liberties — such as the minimum-wage law,
economic regulations, and excessive taxation — they have traditionally
denigrated the importance of civil liberties. Their long, brutal war on
drugs, for example, has always been accompanied by their mocking of
constitutional safeguards pertaining to search and seizure, protection
from self-incrimination, and right to counsel. For conservatives, the
protections of the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Eight Amendments are
nothing more than "constitutional technicalities."
Thus, when the president and the Pentagon established their detention
facility in Cuba for the precise purpose of avoiding the constraints of
the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, conservatives applauded. The
last thing the government needed, conservatives felt, was a bunch of
fierce criminal-defense attorneys fighting to defend "the terrorists."
The post–9/11 conservative mindset was that the only good terrorist was
a tortured or dead terrorist. Never mind that the president, the CIA,
and the Pentagon, rather than a federal jury before an independent
federal judge, now wielded the omnipotent power to decide who was a
terrorist and, therefore, subject to being arbitrarily tortured,
abused, and killed. And never mind that countless innocent people were
being caught up in the sweep.
The reason that conservatives have long bashed such liberal groups as
the ACLU, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International is not simply
because as liberals they hold socialist economic views or because such
groups were viewed by conservatives as subversive organizations. (After
all, conservatives also hold socialist economic views.) Conservative
antipathy toward such groups has also been based on the latter's ardent
support of civil liberties. It's not a coincidence that, ever since
9/11, it has mostly been liberal groups, not conservative ones, that
have been fighting against the torture and murder of prisoners and
detainees at Bagram, Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and the secret overseas
prison camps operated by the CIA. Conservatives have long been known
for using libertarian rhetoric in economics, while, at the same time,
embracing statism in practice (just as liberals have been famous for
their civilliberties rhetoric while embracing statism in economic
rights and gun rights). Everyone is familiar with the standard
conservative mantra of "free enterprise, private property, and limited
government" that conservative organizations have on their stationery,
websites, and promotional brochures. But we're also familiar with their
support of public (i.e., government) schooling, Social Security,
Medicare, Medicaid, income taxation, the drug war, regulations, and
many other governmental programs that violate the principles of "free
enterprise, private property, and limited government."
The fact is that long ago conservatives threw in the towel with respect
to achieving a society based on truly free-market, limited-government
principles. For decades, they have committed their lives to big
government and to figuring out how to take control of big government.
Thus, today their "free-market" proposals and policy prescriptions are
limited to reform — Social Security reform, health-care reform,
drug-war reform, and so forth. Reform, reform, reform. That is what
passes for "freedom" in the conservative movement. While that
contradiction within conservatism has never bothered conservatives, it
has never escaped the attention of libertarians, especially those
libertarians who were conservatives before they became libertarians.
Libertarians have long understood that conservatives have been holding
contradictory philosophies within themselves — the philosophy of
libertarianism, as reflected in their rhetoric, and the philosophy of
statism, as reflected in their support of socialist and interventionist
programs.
Over the years, conservatives have often mocked libertarians over the
fact that the general public hasn't embraced the libertarian
philosophy, What conservatives could not deny, however, was that at
least libertarians hewed to a consistent philosophy — one that did not
cause the libertarian to war against himself through a commitment to
contradictory principles. Genuinely believing in a free society — a
society based on free markets, private property, and limited government
— libertarians have always favored the repeal, not the reform, of such
socialist and interventionist programs as public (i.e., government)
schooling, Medicare, Medicaid, income taxation, the drug war, and
economic regulations.
Equally important, despite the fact that the libertarian philosophy has
still not captured the support of the American people, libertarians
have never abandoned their commitment to the free-market,
limited-government paradigm for the sake of "credibility" or
"respectability" or to achieve political power, as conservatives have.
For libertarians, what has always mattered most are principle and integrity.
Yet libertarians who hold conservative views on foreign policy are now
faced with what may well be the greatest moral and philosophical
dilemma of their lives. By hewing to a conservative foreign policy and
a libertarian domestic policy, they themselves are now holding
contradictory philosophies. Even worse, these two contradictory ideas
cannot coexist in the long run because a conservative foreign policy is
a growing cancer that is destroying freedom at home. How can any of the
powers now wielded by the president, the CIA, and the military be
reconciled with the principles of a free society, especially from a
libertarian standpoint? If a government has the power to arbitrarily
take anyone into custody and torture and kill him, how can the
citizenry in that society truly be considered free? Even if there is
freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, the
freedom to vote, and even the freedom to own guns, all such freedoms
are meaningless if the government has the power to arrest, torture, and
execute anyone it wants.
Recall the movie Braveheart, which depicted the period in English
history when the English king and his minions possessed and exercised
the right to rape a newlywed bride on her wedding night. Can anyone
imagine the woman's husband exclaiming, as his wife was carted away,
"At least we can peacefully protest the king's actions without being
thrown into jail"? (In fact, even the right of habeas corpus would be
ineffective in such a case because the judge at the habeas corpus
hearing would hold that under the law the government has the "right" to
rape the bride and, therefore, he would deny habeas corpus relief.
Thus, the core problem would remain — that government officials would
possess the power to rape.)
Or imagine a suspected terrorist being stretched on the rack or
subjected to waterboarding, screaming, "I have the right to criticize
the government" under principles of freedom of speech (or even "I have
the right to call my lawyer!"). His torturers would respond, "Well of
course you do. But we have 'rights' too — including the right to
arrest, torture, abuse, and kill you without judicial interference."
Thus, again, the problem lies in the fact that government possesses the
power to arbitrarily arrest and torture people.
That's what 9/11 accomplished. It exposed the horrible reality of what
an imperial, interventionist foreign policy has brought to our nation
and the American people. We not only live in a nation whose government
has troops in more than 100 foreign countries, that is occupying
Afghanistan and Iraq, that is threatening new wars against Iran and
North Korea, and that claims the authority to drop bombs on any country
on earth. We also live in a country in which omnipotent power over the
citizenry by the president, the CIA, and the military is part and
parcel of that foreign policy.
After all, despite the manifest evidence of kidnapping, torture, and
murder of prisoners and detainees at the hands of CIA agents, how many
CIA agents have been brought to account by either the Justice
Department or the Congress? (None.) How many have been arrested and
charged for such crimes? (None.) How many have been indicted? (None.)
The only potential criminal prosecution of CIA agents is coming from
foreign countries, such as Italy and Germany, where prosecutors are
seeking criminal indictments against CIA agents for kidnapping and
conspiring to torture in those countries. When it comes to the CIA,
unfortunately all too many people get scared, turn away, and remain
silent. That's what omnipotent government tends to do to people. How
can a nation whose government has an untold number of secret agents,
operating with secret budgets, following secret orders, and wielding
the authority to kidnap, torture, and murder with impunity even
remotely be reconciled with the principles of a free society,
especially from a libertarian standpoint?
Some may think that there really isn't any cause for concern because
most of the suspected terrorists that U.S. officials are incarcerating,
torturing, and killing are foreigners, not Americans. After all,
they've arrested, incarcerated, and denied right to counsel, due
process, and jury trials to only two Americans — Yaser Hamdi and Jose
Padilla. What's the big deal? For one thing, freedom is not defined by
the extent to which a wrongful power is being exercised by government
but rather by whether the wrongful power is possessed and able to be
exercised. Second, U.S. officials reserve the power to subject all
Americans to the same treatment to which all other suspected terrorists
have been subjected. Third, to think that the exercise of such power
will be limited to "only" one or two Americans reflects naiveté in the
extreme. The fact is that the feds could have easily treated Hamdi and
Padilla to the same abuse and torture accorded to suspects at
Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, Bagram, or the CIA's secret torture facilities.
Or they could have transported them to Syria, Egypt, Jordan, or any
other friendly brutal regime for torture, as they did to an innocent
Canadian citizen falsely accused of being a terrorist. It was only
political considerations that inhibited U.S. officials from subjecting
American terror suspects to the full panoply of mistreatment to which
they have subjected foreign terror suspects.
But let there be one or two more major terrorist attacks in the United
States, and all bets are off: Americans will inevitably witness the
full power of Leviathan unleashed. And if that day comes, all too many
Americans will realize that the time for protest was long before it
became too dangerous to protest. Some libertarians may be harking back
to what may seem to them to have been the halcyon days of pre–9/11,
when it seemed possible to favor a conservative foreign policy
(euphemistically described as a "strong national defense") while
favoring libertarianism (i.e., limited government) in domestic policy.
That wasn't reality — that was just fanciful thinking in a make-believe
world. It was like saying, "I favor lightning but I'm firmly against thunder."
The 9/11 attacks simply exposed what has been going on for many decades
and continues to occur at an ever-increasing pace — the movement of our
nation away from its founding principles of a republic and in the
direction of empire, militarism, and intervention. Equally important,
the reality is that such federal programs as the "war on terror," the
invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq, and the impending
attack on Iran, along with the omnipotent powers that the president,
the CIA, the NSA, and the Pentagon now wield against the American
people, are inherent, integral, inescapable parts of that foreign
policy. If one embraces the policy, he embraces the consequences of the policy.
Let's also not forget another essential part of an imperial,
militarist, interventionist foreign policy: out-of-control federal
spending, which in turn brings rising inflation and taxation. How can
those things be reconciled with libertarian economic principles?
Finally, as U.S. officials often remind us, the war on terror is
perpetual, especially because an interventionist foreign policy
guarantees an infinite supply of terrorists. That means that
libertarians who favor such a foreign policy are, at the same time,
surrendering any hope of ever achieving libertarianism. The only way to
achieve the free society in our lifetime is through a consistent
commitment to libertarianism, not only in domestic affairs but also in
foreign affairs.
Thus, libertarians who embrace the conservative view on foreign policy
have one of the most important decisions of their lives confronting
them. By hewing to two contradictory philosophies, circumstances have
now placed them in a moral and philosophical quandary. Will they
continue hewing to a conservative foreign policy, thereby giving up all
hope of a free society at home? Or will they choose to maintain their
commitment to libertarianism here in America, which means rejecting a
conservative foreign policy? Or will they simply act as if no choice at
all now confronts them?
The stakes are obviously enormous. As Ludwig von Mises put it,
No one can find a safe way out for himself if society is sweeping
towards destruction. Therefore everyone, in his own interests, must
thrust himself vigorously into the intellectual battle. None can stand
aside with unconcern; the interests of everyone hang on the result.
Jacob Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom
Foundation. This article was originally published in February 2007.
_______________________________________________

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Monday, April 02, 2007

Do you want a racist for President in 2008?

If you would like a racist to be elected President in 2008, then Newt
Gingridge is starting to look like the candidate to support. In a
speech, he said that English should be the national language in
America. He said that English is the "language of prosperity" and that
spanish is the "language of the ghetto." For some sanity, you should
consider Ron Paul. He truely supports small government and freedom for
everybody, not just corporations. For more information visit the
following sites
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Paul#Political_affiliations_and_support
http://www.ronpaul.org
http://www.dailypaul.com/
.

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Sunday, April 01, 2007

Nancy Pelosi has no respect for American Troops

Evidently, house speeker Nancy Pelosi has no respect for troops who
have faught in the Iraq war. Tina Richards is a mother who's sun has
served in Iraq for two tours. As a result, he has a brain injury.
Even with this brain injury, he almost had to serve for a third tour.
His mother, Tina Richards has been trying to get an appointment to see
Nancy Pelosi. Even though Nancy Pelosi is supposed to be against the
war, she is ignoring Tina Richards. Why is this? Hello! Tina
Richards' sun has served in the United States military. The least
those skummy politicians can do is give some respect to him and his
family. Call Nancy Pelosi and ask why she is ignoring her constituents
at 202-225-0100 or 202-225-4965.

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