The Threat Of Martial Law Is Real

By Dave Lindorff
READ IT HERE

The Slippery Slope of Nanny State Politics

by Jeffrey A. Singer
Future of Freedom Foundation
READ IT HERE

Socialism or Fascism?

It's the 1930s all over again, says Lew Rockwell. Except for Ron Paul.
LewRockwell.com
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‘Doctor No, the Three Musketeers and the Seven Dwarfs’

Analysis of GOP Candidates Shows

Only One Makes Grade For Those Asking WWJD?*

(*What Would Jefferson Do?)

Lancaster, PA (July 24, 2007) An article published by the Constitution Party this past week titled “Dr. No, the Three Musketeers and the Seven Dwarfs” has rank and file Republicans nodding in agreement at the assessment that only one candidate gets a passing grade for adherence to constitutionally-sound politics even among the so-called “conservative” candidates.

The widely circulated analysis scrutinizes the voting records of all 11 Republican presidential contenders. Physician turned Congressman Ron Paul,(R-TX) dubbed ‘Doctor No’ for consistently voting against un-constitutional programs, higher taxes and big-government spending, appears to be the only clear choice for those who’d advocate a return to constitutionally-based government.

The article says of Congressman Ron Paul: “He alone in the entire GOP lineup is the only one who voted against the war in Iraq. On every single issue he is a pure, unadulterated, founders-woulda-loved him conservative. In the words of former Treasury Secretary William Simon, Dr. Paul is the ‘one exception to the Gang of 535’ on Capitol Hill. So many men, so few true Constitutionalists.”

The Three Musketeers, Tancredo, Hunter and Gilmore have solid positions on some issues but none make the ‘constitutionally-correct’ grade”, the article points out.

Giuliani, McCain and Romney- so far to the left constitutional conservatives couldn’t possibly consider voting for them- are included among The Seven Dwarfs, along with Huckabee, Brownback, Thompson and Gingrich.

Pollster John Zogby commented: “47% of Republicans are… very dissatisfied. Only 21% percent of Democrats feel this way. So it’s looking … like the Democrats are pleased with their candidates.”

Constitution Party National Committee Chairman Jim Clymer added: “And the Republicans are not. Is it any wonder? The politics of the so-called ‘front-runners’ Giuliani, McCain and Romney have so disheartened the GOP faithful that many are vowing to either sit out the election or go with a third party candidate.”

Five Ways Bush's Era of Repression Has Stolen Your Liberties Since 9/11

by Matthew Rothschild
Alternet.org
READ IT HERE

IS THERE REALLY AN IMMINENT TERROR ATTACK?

Carl F. Worden
wolfeyes@hisurfer.net

Is there really an imminent terror attack on U.S. soil by foreign or recruited operatives? The answer is a maybe, and slightly on the unlikely side.

As you know, the Southern Oregon Militia issued a warning of probable terrorist attacks on July 4, 2007. This was based on compelling chatter detected and information we received from our 123 members currently serving in Iraq on private security detail. Yes, the SOM has members privately operating in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The SOM doesn’t pay as much mind to rhetoric as we do to actions, particularly those actions or rather, inactions, of our government.

On the one hand, we have a government that has made air travel a nightmare by its strict security measures, while at the same time leaving both our northern and southern borders relatively unprotected since the attacks of 9/11/2001. To us, that’s a dog & pony show to make it look like there’s a threat, when none actually exists.

What is the difference between planting a bomb on an airliner that kills 300 people, from planting five pounds of C-4 in a crowded movie theater that kills 300 people? None, right? How about the same number of Americans slaughtered in a crowded nightclub? None.

In terms of terror-effect, a terrorist attack on a packed nightclub in Peoria, Illinois or Palo Alto, California would disrupt the American way of life far more than blowing up an airliner packed with wealthy Americans headed for holiday in Europe. A terror attack involving a school bus packed with children in Small Town USA would have greater effect, and it would be easy to pull off successfully for the simple reason security at school bus yards is so flimsy, if existent at all.

Terrorists attack soft targets where the opportunity to escape and attack again somewhere else later is highest, because they have relatively few human resources and cannot sustain substantial losses. When 9/11 was pulled off, only 19 hijackers were lost in comparison to around 3,000 Americans, but that was before the airline targets were hardened. If there was a follow-up plan, it would have happened, but we do strongly suspect the flight that crashed soon after 9/11 in Queens, NY was another terror attack, similar to the failed attack by Richard Reid with his shoe bomb on the flight from Europe. After that, it has been relatively quiet here.

Al Qaeda & Company have had six relatively carefree years to smuggle in operatives and ordinance over our porous borders, yet we’ve seen no attacks that could easily have been carried out had they wanted to, so up to now we have to conclude these terrorists have chosen not to carry out further attacks on U.S. soil. There is no other logical conclusion.

The premise that “stepped-up” security has prevented such attacks is laughable on its face, claiming a foothold in the minds of only the most uninformed and gullible. If 3,000 illegal immigrants are coming across our border every day, many carrying contraband like several hundred pounds of Marijuana and other drugs, the opportunity has been there all along for terrorists to do the same, but with weapons and explosives on their backs.

That is why we take a very dim view of the current “intelligence” alluded to by this administration that terrorists are only now trying to get into this country to do harm. Why now? And what has this administration done to halt illegal immigration over our borders? Did they set up fences and towers and spotlights with orders to shoot to kill any invaders? No. What they have done is given orders to prosecute any Border Patrol agents who might take their jobs too seriously. What does that tell you?

If information about an impending terror attack on US soil comes from anyone associated with or connected to the current administration in Washington DC, we find it highly suspect. If we Americans cannot independently verify the “intelligence”, does it not fall under the same cloud of suspicion borne by one blatant lie after another from the same source that insisted Iraq had Weapons of Mass Destruction?

It most assuredly does.

HE HAS CROWD APPEAL

Libertarian presidential candidate Ron Paul is reaching across many lines
By Michael J. Mishak
Las Vegas Sun
READ IT HERE

Time for Another Revolution

Frank Chodorov on what is to be done.
LewRockwell.com
READ IT HERE

HAPPY DEPENDENCE DAY

by Chuck Muth

Cook-outs, fireworks, parades. For all too many Americans, that's what Independence Day is all about. Oh, excuse me. The 4th of July. Don't want to be caught promoting actual "independence" on a government-sanctioned holiday.

Still, for those who today celebrate the Declaration of Independence - NOT the Declaration of July 4th - it's important to reflect not only on the epic battle for freedom our Founders fought and won on our behalf, but the slow erosion of those freedoms ever since, an erosion fully anticipated by the Founders.

Thomas Jefferson, you'll recall, warned us that "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance." In other words, if we don't keep our eyes open and stay on guard constantly, we could well end up losing the freedoms way too many of us now take for granted.

And Ben Franklin famously replied, when asked what type of government the Founders had established for us at the Constitutional Convention of 1787, "A Republic, if you can keep it." The key words, of course, are "if you can keep it." Franklin, too, realized that eternal vigilance and hard work would be necessary to keep a government of the people, by the people and for the people.

So how goes our eternal vigilance these days? Not so hot.

Columnist Steven Greenhut of the Orange County Register reminds us that the government established by our Founders isn't quite the same government we have today. As you grill up those burgers and oooh-and-ahhh the fireworks tonight, you'd do well to consider the Founders' historical warnings and Greenhut's modern-day observations. Eternal vigilance demands it, lest we lose our Republic. From Greenhut's column this past Sunday...

"Clearly, by comparison with most countries, Americans do pretty well. There's no Gestapo, dictator or prison camps for dissidents. There's talk of building a wall at the border, but to keep people from coming in, not to keep them from getting out. Still, I think Americans would benefit from thinking more closely about the state of our liberty. Every few years, I write a column that updates the erosion of our freedoms. It mostly deals with simple, everyday stuff, but it's rather telling. Here is my latest installment:

"If I want to build a new house, I need to petition any number of government agencies and commissions, and can build only what they allow. Those agencies decide not only if my project conforms to some basic, easily understood rules, but whether it conforms to their own preferences regarding style, color, historical influences, size, number of stories, and so forth. If I ever want to add on or improve that house, I must wait until a government inspector approves it. If I am a developer, and want to build a larger number of properties on a site, I must fight for years to get approvals - and usually the final project will bear little resemblance in style or design to my original vision.

"If I want to start a new business, I not only will have to pay a large portion of any earnings to the government, but I must first get all the necessary approvals from myriad governments. I must pay my employees a minimum rate determined by the government. They may only work the number of hours set by the government. If it's a restaurant or business that serves the public, I must get a conditional-use permit - a long list of conditions that micromanage exactly how I run the place, from the hours to the number of tables, based on the whims of the commissioners who must approve the business.

"The government can, at any time, take my home or business and give it to someone else if officials, for any reason, prefer the new use to my use. The government can, at its discretion, steal all the value from my property by declaring it a wetland or by finding on it some 'endangered' rodent or other species. No compensation need be paid as long as I still have any use of the land.

"The government's officers can launch a 'no-knock' raid of my home (if they get a tip about, say, a drug deal) and can shoot and kill me if they say that they viewed me as a threat. Abusive federal agents or local police officers can, by law in California, keep all their disciplinary records secret. Those same agents can arrest me and throw me in jail for decades for possessing those 'drugs' that the government determines to be illegal. Meanwhile, the government maintains files on all my personal and financial data and will use them to assure that I pay the amount of taxes the government determines that I must pay.

"If I refuse to pay the full amount, I will become a ward of one of the biggest growth industries in the country: the government-run prison system. I am free to pay about half of all my earnings to the government, which will use those taxes to erect a multitude of offices and pay its workers salaries and benefits that are far more than most of us will ever earn. The government's 'child protective services' workers are free to take anyone's children away from them based on their discretion. Parents are then forced into a totally secret court system, in which they must prove their innocence rather than having the government being forced to prove guilt.

"We are all free to travel where we choose after government agencies search, poke and prod us. We can drive on government roads, pay government tolls, fly out of government-owned airports and pay for government-issued bond debt. We are free to pay for the government schools, which teach our children what the government wants them to learn.

"The government can seize our personal property and not give it back even if we are cleared of any crime, and even place us in permanent detention, without any hope of legal representation, if the government determines that we are an enemy combatant. The government can bomb any government it chooses, based on any shoddy pretext (i.e., weapons of mass destruction). We are free to speak and write as we choose as long as the government doesn't decide that we broke campaign-finance laws or engaged in 'hate speech.'

"The 18th century German poet Johann Goethe said: 'None are so hopelessly enslaved as those who falsely believe they are free.' Am I off-base to wonder whether we are careening down that road?"

As Yogi Berra might say, if Jefferson and Franklin were alive today they'd be rolling in their graves.