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Immigration - Page 1 Democracy - Page 1 Lessons in Government - Page 0 The Economy - Page 1 Links to Newest Issues on Columnists Sites Main pages: Columnists with current articles: http://www.humanevents.com/search.php?author_name=Thomas+Sowell http://townhall.com/Columnists/MichelleMalkin/ http://www.humanevents.com/search.php?author_name=Ann+Coulter http://www.humanevents.com/search.php?author_name=Walter+E.+Williams http://www.humanevents.com/search.php?author_name=Star+Parker http://www.humanevents.com/search.php?author_name=Larry+Elder http://www.humanevents.com/search.php?author_name=Chuck+Norris http://www.humanevents.com/search.php?author_name=Ben+Shapiro http://www.townhall.com/Columnists/MikeSAdams/ http://townhall.com/Columnists/ArmstrongWilliams/ Michael Reagan, the eldest son of Ronald Reagan: http://townhall.com/Columnists/LaShawnBarber/ articles by Chuck Baldwin: http://www.newswithviews.com/baldwin/baldwina.htm http://www.humanevents.com/search.php?author_name=Patrick+J.+Buchanan http://www.humanevents.com/search.php?author_name=David+Limbaugh http://www.humanevents.com/search.php?author_name=Newt+Gingrich http://townhall.com/columnists/AustinHill/ The Freedom Force International is a network of men and women from all parts of the world who are concerned over loss of personal liberty and expansion of government power. They are not mere complainers. They have a plan to do something about it. They also share a common belief in The Creed of Freedom, which is a statement of principles that guide them in their mission to build a better world. WorldNet Daily: Today's Conservative, Republican, Political Opinion Today's Conservative, Republican, Political Opinion: http://townhall.com/columnists/ http://www.campaignforliberty.com/about.php http://www.conservativeusa.org/ http://www.uniteordie.org/forum/index.php http://www.freerepublic.com/home.htm http://www.patriotpost.us/info/about/index.php http://www.thenewamerican.com/ http://www.healthtruthrevealed.com/ http://www.breakthematrix.com/ The Founder's Please consider joining and telling others about this: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.printable&pageId=107263 http://thefoundersalliance.ning.com/ Ron Paul: Government Is a Failure http://www.infowars.com/ron-paul-government-is-a-failure/ Union Thugs Beat Patriot at http://www.infowars.com/union-thugs-beat-patriot-at-obamacare-town-hall-in-st-louis/ Subject: Please start an intensive campaign to inform conservative Americans how to take Please consider writing a column on NWV and start an intensive campaign to inform conservative Americans how to take Another aspect that conservatives need to do is to develop email lists of conservatives and encourage them to reach out to others and encourage them to participate in making America a better place to live; right now, Obama and his minions are sending me several emails a day asking me to report on anything my family, friends or neighbors might have said, any comments on blogs or websites, conservative news articles or emails, etc. -- even what people's congressmen and senators have responded when Obots call them and parrot canned messages that Obama supplies them etc. -- that go against his vision for Amerika. Emails from the Republican Party are virtually non-existent. Ron Paul's Campaign for Freedom does a pretty good job of contacting those people who have signed up for his email, but nowhere close to Obama's in-your-face numerous emails and phone calls. We don't need to be annoying, but neither do we want to ignore how the nature of the beast has changed, now that Chicago-style, underhanded, manipulative "community organizing" techniques are being employed. Obama has also enlisted other agencies, including SEIU and SPLC, any voter registered as Democrat and anyone who has entered a comment or signed up for email from the Whitehouse website. Conservatives obviously need to do a better job of organizing or they don't stand a chance of ever recovering If we emailed people with alerts and links to preformed messages, asked for their zip codes and automatically determined and faxed their congressmen and senators (i.e., automate it so as to make it easier for them to quickly take a minute out of their otherwise "busy" schedule to do something important), perhaps more of them would get involved and we'd be able to reverse what has happened. Conservatives need equivalent, albeit legal (unlike that of ACORN) community activism that seeks out conservatives in nursing homes, wheelchairs, etc. and drives them in vans to elections, teaches them how to use a public computer in the library to contact their representatives, how to sign up for and receive email alerts, etc. Is there anything that you might be able to do to help reach some of these people who have been trying hard to convince themselves not to get involved because it won't make any difference anyhow? It absolutely amazes me that in the last several weeks I can't find a single person who voted for Obama. Do you think people are finally realizing they made a mistake -- or they all apathetically sat home instead of voting, trying to convince themselves "What's the use of voting; it won't make any difference anyhow"? Obots didn't stay home; 94% of them VOTED, not just talked about it with their friends, and look what happened! Next time, conservatives need to get out and VOTE! It does make a difference, as we now see in no uncertain terms! Also, we need to get ACTIVE now: write/fax/email/call your senators and congressmen and constantly let them know when they do something right and when they do something wrong: liberals are doing this, and the majority of what the senators hear is the liberal side of things. An easy way to do this for FREE is to sign up for Action Alerts that have preformed faxes (you can select different messages with one click) that you can automatically send to any or all of your senators, congressman and the White House (you can choose to whom it's sent, and it automatically finds the correct ones based upon your zip code -- what could be easier?) Now you have no excuse not to get involved in TAKING AMERICA BACK! Remember the two steps: 1) Get ACTIVE now. Sign up for as many of the free following sites as possible, and they will email you a notification when Congress is trying to do something to you, along with a link that you can click and quickly and easily tell Congress what you think (you can select various messages, edit them or enter your own): http://www.numbersusa.com/actionbuffet http://capwiz.com/atr/officials/congress/?district=07&lvl=C&azip=00000&state=WA http://www.campaignforliberty.com/ http://www.votervoice.net/Core.aspx?AID=972&APP=GAC& Note: a few congressmen and senators don’t accept email from 3rd party mailers, such as those above. In that instance, here are some links to the contact pages on the senators’ and congressmen’s websites. You can copy the preformed messages from the canned sites above and then go to your senators' and representative's contact pages and paste the message in, altering it if need be, the email them, and all very quickly, easily and FREE, and feel good about doing what you can (on a regular basis) to help reclaim the America that our founding fathers fought and died to give us: Contact your Congressperson in the U_S_ House of Representatives: https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml Contact your Senators in the U_S_ Senate: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm Another Site for Contacting Congress (links to both senators and congressmen for your state): http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ 2) VOTE Register to Vote: https://ssl.capwiz.com/congressorg/e4/nvra/ See: Frosty Wooldridge -- Moving Butt Sitters off Their Tail Feathers http://www.newswithviews.com/Wooldridge/frosty93.htm Also see: http://www.newswithviews.com/Wooldridge/frostyA.htm Joseph Farah, editor of WorldNet Daily (www.wnd.com) and Whistleblower Magazine, started the movement to take or It's a great book, but conservative people are still apathetic and not participating in government and now we're seeing the results. Unfortunately, most people do not ever read a book again after they get out of school; please make it a point to READ and stay informed; that's an important part of the Plan to Retake America! Some other good books are: "Black Belt Patriotism: How to Reawaken http://www.amazon.com/Black-Belt-Patriotism-Reawaken-America/dp/1596985585 "The Revolution: A Manifesto" by Ron Paul (http://www.amazon.com/Revolution-Manifesto-Ron-Paul/dp/0446537519 ) "
Also, if you really want to change America, here are two organizations that you can join that will keep steadily working to change our country beyond just this upcoming election: http://www.campaignforliberty.com/ http://www.freedom-force.org/ Totalitarianism is on the rise everywhere because advocates of big government have taken leadership control of the power centers within every society. Power centers are organizations and social groupings – such as political parties, labor unions, church groups, media centers, and professional societies – that hold political power based on their claim to represent their members and on their ability to lead public opinion. It has taken many years for them to achieve this dominance over society, but they have succeeded. It does no good to complain or to theorize about what should be done. As long as advocates of big government hold the power, nothing will change. WE MUST NOT BE LIKE CATS In this respect, too many people are like cats. They are preoccupied with the details of their loss of security, freedom, and privacy, and they flutter like wing-clipped pigeons, complaining about this and that without knowing why these things are happening. By contrast, members of Freedom Force focus on the cause and work to eliminate it. The degeneration of civilization is not the result of blind forces of history operating beyond comprehension or control. It is planned and caused by a small but well defined group of people who believe this decline is necessary for what they fondly call The New World Order but which we recognize as high-tech feudalism in which mankind will be condemned to live in perpetual subservience to elitist rulers. The identities of these elitists are known. They have names. They belong to organizations. They meet together to create strategies and they work jointly to implement them. They dominate the power centers of society. We will not escape their plans by looking only at what they are doing. We must focus on them and remove them from their present positions of power. Any other plan of action is doomed to failure. That, however, is not enough. If we focus solely on the identities and personalities of those who are promoting the decline of liberty, we will be stumped by the fact that, even if we should succeed in removing them from their positions of influence, there are many more just like them waiting to step into their places. In the final analysis, it’s not the names and identities or political party affiliations of these individuals that matters as much as what they believe, what ideology they hold. Their ideology has a name. It’s called collectivism, a concept that government is master and people must obey. It’s to no avail to remove one collectivist from power only to replace him with another one – which has been the pattern for all too many years. It is time to stop acting like cats, stop being forever fascinated by the personalities and deeds of our leaders. We must be more like dogs and focus on the ideology of our leaders, because that is the cause of their deeds. The solution is simple. It is to take back control of the power centers of society, one-by-one, just the way they were captured in the first place. Replace the collectivists with people who have no personal agendas except to defend freedom. This will unleash the vast human potential for prosperity and happiness that can be realized only in the absence of government oppression. However, to reach that goal, it will be necessary for those who cherish freedom to do more than complain and far more than just casting a vote every few years. They must reach for power. That is the reason for the motto of Freedom Force: Impotentes defendere libertatem non possunt, which is Latin for “Those without power cannot defend freedom.” The Freedom Force strategy can be summarized as: Don't fight city hall when you can BE city hall. The mission of members of Freedom Force is to shape public policy within their respective countries in favor of personal and global freedom. The method is threefold: (1) dissemination of ideological and issue-related information, (2) instruction in how to become influential within community and national organizations, and (3) instruction in how to lawfully and constitutionally convert that influence into public policy. Members seek to become change agents so they truly can make a difference in the world. Freedom Force is a global brotherhood of the most enlightened and dedicated people in the world. We are building an international network of leaders who, in spite of differences in nationality and culture, are in solidarity with the principles expressed in The Creed of Freedom. We now have members in sixty countries, and the number continues to grow. (See flags below.) Nothing like this has happened before in history. It is a powerful force that cannot be stopped. Welcome to the Brotherhood of Freedom. Freedom Force came into existence at a meeting on December 12, 2002, in the Dominican Republic where G. Edward Griffin was a speaker at an off-shore investment conference. After the conference, he invited anyone who was interested to attend a private presentation of what he thought would be needed to regain control of our lives and our freedom. About thirty people attended; and, after the presentation, just about everyone enrolled on the spot, including citizens from three countries. Freedom Force International was born. Although we suddenly had dues-paying members, we were far from being an organization. We had no staff, no facilities, no operational procedures, no bylaws, no accounting system, no means of communicating with members, no web site, no checking account, no code of conduct, no money (except about $200 in donations), and not the foggiest idea of how to proceed. The next two years were spent primarily getting all of those things in order. We weren’t ready for expansion until about 2005 when our web site finally began to take shape. This gave us global outreach and made it possible for people of like mind anywhere in the world to find us simply by surfing the Internet. Slowly but surely, our membership began to climb; and we added increasing numbers of flags representing countries where members resided. We believe strongly that a successful movement for liberty in today’s world must be international in scope, and it was gratifying to see that aspect of our strategy become a reality right from the beginning. We have a long way to go before we can fulfill the grand vision shared by our founding members in 2002, but we also have come a long way since then. Although the size of our membership is the only secret we have, we now count them in the thousands – and the number is growing constantly. More important than numbers, however, is the quality of our membership and the leadership they provide. The most prominent among them are featured in the Freedom Force Hall of Honor (featured elsewhere on this page), but that is just the tip of the iceberg. All of our members are influential within their communities and are helping to create a leadership network that will counter and eventually defeat the collectivists who now dominate the power centers of society. A Wasted Vote When asked why they will not vote for a third party candidate, many people will respond by saying something like, "He cannot win." Or, "I don't want to waste my vote." It is true: America has not elected a third party candidate since 1860. Does that automatically mean, however, that every vote cast for one of the two major party candidates is not a wasted vote? I don't think so. In the first place, a wasted vote is a vote for someone you know does not represent your own beliefs and principles. A wasted vote is a vote for someone you know will not lead the country in the way it should go. A wasted vote is a vote for the "lesser of two evils." Or, in the case of John McCain and Barack Obama, what we have is a choice between the "evil of two lessers." Albert Einstein is credited with saying that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different result. For years now, Republicans and Democrats have been leading the country in the same basic direction: toward bigger and bigger government; more and more socialism, globalism, corporatism, and foreign interventionism; and the dismantling of constitutional liberties. Yet, voters continue to think that they are voting for "change" when they vote for a Republican or Democrat. This is truly insane! Take a look at the recent $700 billion Wall Street bailout: both John McCain and Barack Obama endorsed and lobbied for it. Both McCain and Obama will continue to bail out these international banksters on the backs of the American taxpayers. Both McCain and Obama support giving illegal aliens amnesty and a path to citizenship. In the debate this past Tuesday night, both McCain and Obama expressed support for sending U.S. forces around the world for "peacekeeping" purposes. They also expressed support for sending combat forces against foreign countries even if those countries do not pose a threat to the United States. Neither Obama nor McCain will do anything to stem the tide of a burgeoning police state or a mushrooming New World Order. Both Obama and McCain support NAFTA and similar "free trade" deals. Neither candidate will do anything to rid America of the Federal Reserve, or work to eliminate the personal income tax, or disband the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Both Obama and McCain support the United Nations. So, pray tell, how is a vote for either McCain or Obama not a wasted vote? But, back to the "he cannot win" argument: to vote for John McCain is to vote for a man who cannot win. Yes, I am saying it here and now: John McCain cannot win this election. The handwriting is on the wall. The Fat Lady is singing. It is all over. Finished. John McCain cannot win. With only three weeks before the election, Barack Obama is pulling away. McCain has already pulled his campaign out of Michigan. In other key battleground states, McCain is slipping fast. He was ahead in Missouri; now it is a toss-up or leaning to Obama. A couple of weeks ago, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida were all leaning towards McCain, or at least toss-up states. Now, they are all leaning to Obama. Even the longtime GOP bellwether state of Indiana is moving toward Obama. In addition, new voter registrations are at an all-time high, and few of them are registering as Republicans. In fact, the Republican Party now claims only around 25% of the electorate, and Independents are increasingly leaning toward Obama. Ladies and gentlemen, Barack Obama is headed for an electoral landslide victory over John McCain. John McCain can no more beat Barack Obama than Bob Dole could beat Bill Clinton. I ask, therefore, Are not conservatives and Christians who vote for John McCain guilty of the same thing that they accuse people who vote for third party candidates of doing? Are they not voting for someone who cannot win? Indeed, they are. In fact, conservatives and Christians who vote for John McCain are not only voting for a man who cannot win, they are voting for a man who does not share their own beliefs and principles. If this is not insanity, nothing is! So, why not (for once in your life, perhaps) cast a vote purely for principle! Vote for someone who is truly pro-life. Someone who would quickly secure our nation's borders, and end the invasion of our country by illegal aliens. Someone who would, on his first day in office, release Border Patrol agents Ramos and Compean and fire U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton. Someone who would immediately, upon assuming office, begin leading the charge to dismantle the Federal Reserve, overturn the 16th Amendment, expunge the IRS, and return America to sound money principles. Someone who would get the US out of the UN. Someone who would stop spending billions and trillions of dollars for foreign aid. Someone who would prosecute the Wall Street bankers who defrauded the American people out of billions of dollars. Someone who would work to repeal NAFTA, CAFTA, GATT, the WTO, and stop the NAFTA superhighway. Someone who would say a resounding "No" to the New World Order. Someone who would stop using our brave men and women in uniform as global cops for the United Nations. Someone who would stop America's global adventurism and interventionism. Someone who would steadfastly support and defend the right of the people to keep and bear arms. "Who is this person?" you ask. Go here to find out: http://www.baldwin08.com/ As John Quincy Adams said, "Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost." --- WHY BALDWIN/CASTLE AND THE CONSTITUTION PARTY? America needs the leadership of the Constitution Party. We pledge to: · Stop the undeclared wars which are daily costing American lives and billions of tax dollars; Close the borders now - no more excuses. BALDWIN for PRESIDENT Chuck Baldwin was born in La Porte, Indiana on May 3, 1952. He has been married for 35 years to the former Miss Connie Kay Cole. They have three cherished and wonderful children, all three are married with families of their own. He attended La Porte High School in Indiana; Midwestern Baptist College in Pontiac, Michigan; and Liberty Bible Institute in Lynchburg, Virginia. He has Bachelor and Masters Degrees in Theology, and has received two honorary Doctorate Degrees. Chuck is a founder and minister at the Crossroad Baptist Church in Pensacola, Florida; a radio talk show host; accomplished author; and a newspaper/internet columnist. He has been officially recognized by the Escambia County Florida Sheriff’s Department as an Honorary Deputy Sheriff, has received the “National Medal of Patriotism” award from the American Police Hall of Fame, and is a volunteer chaplain at the State Prison in Century, Florida. CASTLE for VICE-PRESIDENT Darrell is a graduate of East Tennessee State University with a B.A. in History and Political Science. He received a J.D. degree from Memphis State University Law School (University of Memphis). He is an attorney in private practice. The Castle Law Firm specializes in Bankruptcy and Personal Injury. Darrell served as a 1st Lt. in the U.S. Marine Corps and is a veteran of the Vietnam War. Darrell has served in many capacities within his Church including Chairman of the Deacons. In 1998, he and wife Joan founded Mia’s Children Foundation, Inc. (www.miaschildren.org), a Christian mission in Bucharest, Romania which ministers to homeless gypsy children. VOTE CONSTITUTION PARTY “Article I, section 8 of the United States Constitution grants Congress the power to coin money and regulate its value, thus the Constitution gives Congress control over the U.S. monetary system. With the passage of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, Congress unconstitutionally transferred control of the U.S. monetary system to a consortium of twelve private banks collectively known as the Federal Reserve System or “The Fed”. This system allows The Fed to print money or create it on a computer screen and exchange it for government debt instruments. This means that a group of private banks are authorized to create money out of nothing, and lend it to the government with interest that has to be repaid by the American people through the income tax. The Fed then controls the supply of money, expanding or contracting the supply at will, thus creating constant boom-bust cycles of inflation followed by contraction. The swings in the economic cycle can be gentle or violent depending on whether The Fed is competent or whether it has some other agenda. In order to affect any real economic reform we must restore the money of the Constitution. When we do, all other necessary reforms will be possible. The money of the Constitution, or a sound money system, means money based on something or tied to the value of something. The Constitution contemplates that the “something” that money should be based on is gold and silver. If our money supply were tied to a standard of gold and silver, then our government would have to spend within its means or borrow only “real money”. Those loans would be redeemable in gold or silver. This would prevent devaluation of the currency, i.e. inflation, because the government’s ability to create new money at its discretion would be limited. The Fed’s control of the money supply of the American people should be ended immediately and control returned to Congress as the Constitution requires. Congress could then act in place of The Fed on it’s way to returning us to a system of sound money.” www.baldwin08.com Are You Worried about the economic future of our nation? Are you worried about what lies ahead for you and your family? You Should Be! America needs to change direction now! In 2008, vote as if your world depends upon it, because it does! Summary of Chuck Baldwin's (Constitution Party) positions on things: http://baldwin08.com/IssuesList.cfm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Baldwin (Wikipedia article on Chuck) http://baldwin08.com/Get-Stuff!.cfm(signs, position summary handouts, bumper stickers) Constitution Party presidential candidate argues that the $700 billion bailout is bad for taxpayers: http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/baldwin_bailout_09_27_08.html Article by Chuck Baldwin -- No Amnesty For Wall Street: http://www.newswithviews.com/baldwin/baldwin471.htm Other articles by Chuck Baldwin: http://www.newswithviews.com/baldwin/baldwina.htm NewsBusters_org Exposing Liberal Media Bias For freedom, security and peace in Israel and the Middle East - The Israel Project Michael Savage Voters Choose to Perpetuate the Superhero Presidency There is no other office on earth that can captivate us like the presidency of the United States. The 2008 candidates have given us an entire season of debates so we know the fine points of the differences between them. While the average civics teacher will tell you that Americans do not appreciate their national political heritage nearly enough, it is all too clear that the typical American is not only captivated with the presidency during election season, but has lifted the president to the stature of mythical hero. It is this awe for the presidency that has allowed presidents from Washington to Bush to exercise powers never allowed to them under the Constitution. Many of the abuses of the power of the presidency are derived from the president's role as commander-in-chief, a position that was designed to accommodate Washington, a military general. It is the combination of president and commander- chief that, in the minds of many Americans, lifts the holder of the office to archetypal or mythical status. The president of the United States has far more power than any office in the history of humanity, powers reminiscent of those of the Greek superhero Hercules or the Sumerian king Gilgamesh. The current president claims the right to detain, torture and kill anyone on earth and to initiate wars and occupations in any nation of his choice without approval from any people or country. The president claims the right to levy taxes at will, seize anything, prohibit anything, mandate anything, spy on anyone, and require all jurisdictions to bend to his will. Although his power to alter reality is limited by the economic realities of the country, the holocaustic power of the modern presidency extends to the nuclear weapons within his reach. It doesn't matter who the president is. The end result of the presidency is almost always the loss of many lives through war. Even the best presidents violated the Bill of Rights, instituted regressive taxation, engaged in detrimental foreign diplomacy, and increased intrusive police powers. The worst presidents rank among the greatest political criminals in the annals of history. Yet most Americans hold fast to their heroic image. It's just a matter of which would-be tyrant in swashbuckler's clothing should get the job. Could the power of the president be retrenched? Ron Paul's failed presidential bid showed us that a politician can facilitate big steps toward liberty only to the extent that he is supported by public opinion. As he has acknowledged, it is only a classical liberal culture, not great individuals standing alone, that makes a society free. This classical liberal culture would be one composed of grown up individuals who have achieved freedom in the classical existential manner, by accepting total responsibility for themselves. This kind of individual is his own superhero. So, ironically, even the president does not have the power to bring down the modern presidency, whose powers are of epic proportion and greater than any single human who might occupy that office. Presidential power is a reflection of the collective national political climate, as well as the collective national consciousness that worships presidential supremacy. Even now, in a time when presidential approval ratings are close to all time lows, no one wants to give it up. Consider the current lot of candidates, McCain, Obama, and Clinton. All say they stand for change, yet all three want to uphold the infrastructure of the imperial presidency. Each is tied to the Council on Foreign Relations, committed to the North American Union and the New World Order. These are modern day epic characters whose agenda's are no different in proportion than the great Herculean feats. Each candidate wants to greatly expand the presidency in one way or another. Each represents an archetype. All are master politicians adept at telling us what we want to hear. And their campaigns give us what we long for most in a president -- someone to make us feel warm and fuzzy about being Americans. Modern politicians get votes not so much based on their political stances, but on how they make people feel about America. When Americans like the president, they also tend to think more highly of the presidency. They want more from their government, and are less bothered when it commits great wrongs. But this all encompassing pride in the presidency is what has allowed it to become the nations' master and a giant menace to the rest of the world. It is unfortunate that Americans project onto the presidency the responsibility for providing them with cultural identity, patriotism, and self-respect. These are characteristics the truly free individual is able to provide for himself. In his article Our Enemy, The Presidency, Anthony Gregory views the presidency as too powerful, inherently corrupting, and inhumanely destructive. In his view, "The presidency as it supposedly should be, under the Constitution, is a relatively humble office overseeing the executive branch, one of the three composing a radically restrained government with very limited enumerated powers. Today, the presidency overshadows the other branches, the states, and all Constitutional and statutory limits on its power." How did it get to the point that 300 million people, and to a great extent the rest of the world, have to live under the rule of one all-powerful official? Is it our wish to remain in a childlike state relying on a figure endowed with epic powers to take care of us? Is it for this that we are willing to sacrifice our freedom as individuals? Ron Paul's campaign was the closest in modern electoral history to being a campaign against the omnipotent presidency itself. His message to us was to grow up and take responsibility for our own lives and freedom, healing ourselves of the need for the mighty superhero to take care of us. But we have chosen instead, as Gregory puts it "to love and celebrate the presidency, looking to it as savior, moral guardian for the nation, stabilizer of the economy, provider of goods and necessities, protector against evil and liberator of the world." We have chosen to remain in the state of childhood, reveling in the adventures of our superheros. Source: Join Ron Paul's Campaign for Liberty Remember Ron Paul, the candidate who annoyed reporters, the left and the right by trying to talk about the real issues facing Americans during the presidential contender's debate? Although he gets very little media coverage aside from ridicule, he is still around and trying to get Americans to wake up to the threat to their liberty presented by the forces behind globalization. His latest initiative is the Campaign for Liberty, which kicked off at the Rally for the Republic in Minneapolis from August 31st. The Campaign is the largest organization for peace, freedom, the Constitution, and sound money in American history. It launched in grand fashion with lots of special guests, celebrities and media attention. The mission of the Campaign for Liberty as stated is to promote and defend the great American principles of individual liberty, constitutional government, sound money, free markets, and noninterventionist foreign policy, by means of education and political activity. The following is the statement of principles for the Campaign for Liberty. This statement eloquently reflects what Ron Paul tried to tell us during the debates but was not allowed to by the main stream media: Americans inherit from their ancestors a glorious tradition of freedom and resistance to oppression. Our country has long been admired by the rest of the world for her great example of liberty and prosperity -- - a light shining in the darkness of tyranny. But many Americans today are frustrated. The political choices they are offered give them no real choice at all. For all their talk of "change", neither major political party as presently constituted challenges the status quo in any serious way. Neither treats the Constitution with anything but contempt. Neither offers any kind of change in monetary policy. Neither wants to make the reductions in government that our crushing debt burden demands. Neither talks about bringing American troops home not just from Iraq but from around the world. Our country is going bankrupt, and none of these sensible proposals are even on the table. The destructive bipartisan consensus has suffocated American political life for many years. Anyone who tries to ask fundamental questions instead of cosmetic ones is ridiculed or ignored. The U.S. Constitution is at the heart of what the Campaign for Liberty stands for, since the very least we can demand of our government is fidelity to its own governing document. Claims that our Constitution was meant to be a "living document" that judges may interpret as they please are fraudulent, incompatible with republican government, and without foundation in the constitutional text or the thinking of the framers. Thomas Jefferson spoke of binding our rulers down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution, and we are proud to follow in his distinguished lineage. With our Founding Fathers, we also believe in a noninterventionist foreign policy. Inspired by the old Robert Taft wing of the Republican Party, we are convinced that the American people cannot remain free and prosperous with 700 military bases around the world, troops in 130 countries, and a steady diet of war propaganda. Our military overstretch is undermining our national defense and bankrupting our country. We believe that the free market, reviled by people who do not understand it, is the most just and human economic system and the greatest engine of prosperity the world has ever known. We believe with Ludwig von Mises, Henry Hazlitt, and F.A. Hayek that central banking distorts economic decision making and misleads entrepreneurs into making unsound investments. Hayek won the Nobel Prize for showing how central banks' interference with interest rates sets the stage for economic downturns. And the central bank's ability to create money out of thin air transfers wealth from the most vulnerable to those with political pull, since it is the latter who receive the new money before the price increases it brings in its wake have yet occurred. For economic and moral reasons, therefore, we join the great twentieth-century economists in opposing the Federal Reserve System, which has reduced the value of the dollar by 95 percent since it began in 1913. We oppose the dehumanizing assumption that all issues that divide us must be settled at the federal level and forced on every American community, whether by activist judges, a power-hungry executive, or a meddling Congress. We believe in the humane alternative of local self-government, as called for in our Constitution. We oppose the transfer for American sovereignty to supranational organizations in which the American people possess no elected representatives. Such compromises of our country's independence run counter to the principles of the American Revolution, which was fought on behalf of self-government and local control. Most of these organizations have a terrible track record even on their own terms: how much poverty have the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund actually alleviated, for example? The peoples of the world can interact with each other just fine in the absence of bureaucratic intermediaries that undermine their sovereignty. We believe that freedom is an indivisible whole, and that it includes not only economic liberty but civil liberties and privacy rights as well, all of which are historic rights that our civilization has cherished from time immemorial. Our stances on other issues can be deduced from these general principles. Our country is ailing. This is the bad news. The good news is that the remedy is so simple and attractive: a return to the principles our Founders taught us. Respect for the Constitution, the rule of law, individual liberty, sound money, and a noninterventionist foreign policy constitute the foundation of the Campaign for Liberty. Reference: A Vote for Your Beliefs May Be a Vote Against Your Freedom It looks like about 66% of Americans will be happy when January 20, 2009 rolls around and a new president is inaugurated. And you will be happier still if the new president is the one you voted for. You know, the one who promised to support the things you believe in. After all, that's the criteria that should be important when deciding who to vote for. Or is it? You've been told that as an educated voter you should study the issues, decide where you stand on them, and vote for the candidate who most closely stands where you stand on these issues. If you believe that gays and minorities have certain collective rights, you vote Democratic. If you believe that Christians have certain collective rights, you vote Republican. If you believe in the rights of women to choose their reproductive destinies, you vote Democratic. If you believe in the rights of the unborn, you vote Republican. If you believe in spending on healthcare for everyone, you vote Democratic. If you believe in preemptive war and defense spending, you vote Republican. It's all fairly simple when the people asking the debate questions decide what the issues should be, ask their questions, and give you a chance to align your beliefs with a particular candidate based on his answers. There is only one thing wrong with this approach. Voting your beliefs may ensure that if your candidate follows through with his campaign commitments and promises, he may be creating a future in which your beliefs do not matter anymore, because you may have lost your freedom to hold those beliefs. Freedom and the Constitution Most of us hated history class, or slept through it, and it was in history class that we were supposed to learn about the Constitution. So some review may be in order. Let's start by looking at the last sentence of Article 2, Section 1. It's what the presidential winner will swear to when he or she is inaugurated in January: "I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." Keep this oath in mind as we explore other aspects of the Constitution. Popular belief to the contrary, the Constitution does not grant you freedom or rights as a citizen of America. Your freedom was granted to you by your Creator, or by natural law. If you had been born in a place where no government existed, you would indeed be free, but your freedom would not be protected against the freedoms of another person. It was this concept that our forefathers had in mind when they wrote the Constitution. It wasn't to give us freedom, which would imply that we weren't free until the government bestowed freedom upon us. It was to create a government that not only allowed a person to retain his natural state of freedom as long as it did not interfere with the freedom of another person, but in turn protected his freedom against the interference of another person's exercising of his freedom. The role of government under the Constitution is clear. The government established by the Constitution was created solely for the purpose of protecting the freedom with which we are all born. The people who created the Constitution pledged their "lives, fortunes, and sacred honor" to gain this freedom from an oppressive government. It was critical to them to assure that no such government could ever exist in the US. Although these were mere men, they had learned first hand and understood how much freedom costs and how valuable it is. They wanted to ensure that their hard fought battles did not go to waste. When a prosperous ancestor creates a trust with specific rules for the family he leaves behind, he ensures that if the rules are followed, the wealth he accumulated will be preserved for generations. But as time goes by the heirs have less and less appreciation for the sacrifice of the person who created the wealth for them, and they take what they have for granted and may squander it all by not following the rules. We are doing the same thing when we ignore the rules of the trust fund of freedom our forefathers have left for us. Freedom is the Underpinning That Allows You to Have Beliefs It is this freedom that has been entrusted to you by the ancestors of your country that allows you as an individual to believe what you choose to believe, and to freely express your beliefs so long as you do not interfere with another individual's rights to do the same. The founding fathers were also intelligent enough to know that times and situations change. This is why the Constitution included instructions on how to change it should the times demand it. This is the process of amending the Constitution, or adding amendments. But this is a process that while simple, is not easy. And that is by design. Our forefathers knew from their own experiences that the greatest threat to freedom was the government itself. That is why the power of the government is so limited under the Constitution. The forefathers realized that any law passed, regardless of the greatness of the intentions, has the potential to damage or limit the freedom of the individual, since the enforcement of that law would require some sacrifice of the people in money or personal liberty. And they also knew that some idea or belief would become so compelling that enough citizens would decide to allow the government to enforce it as law. This is where free speech is so important. Free speech allows a way for these ideas or beliefs to come forth and be born. If the people discuss it and enough people agree, a Constitutional amendment can result. It is the power of the people to allow the government to make such changes to the Constitution as amendments. It is clearly stated in the Constitution that the government itself has no power to change or amend the Constitution. Each time the government takes it upon itself to do something about an idea or belief in order to solve some perceived problem, the power of the government grows, and the power of the individual shrinks. Many Americans don't realize the importance of the Constitution. As a result, the government has gained incredible power by creating laws to solve problems or enforce beliefs when they had absolutely no right to do so under the Constitution. The Timelessness of the Constitution There are many people who would like to continue influencing the government to violate the Constitution and add amendments to support their beliefs. These people are quite adept at trying to make you think that the Constitution has grown mold on it and should be thrown out or replaced. What many Americans have not taken the time to think about is that the Constitution is not a stale archaic document that has outlasted its usefulness. The Constitution is the ultimate contract between we the people and our government. We the people dictated the terms. Every time the government goes ahead and does what it wants to do, that it isn't allowed to do under the Constitution, it violates that contract. When who you vote for is based on your beliefs instead of being based on selecting the candidate most capable of doing the job they swear to do, you are saying in essence that it is okay with you that the government violates its contract with the people as long as it is violating it to promote what you believe in. If it is okay for the government to violate its contract with the people to promote the beliefs you hold, what happens when government leaders change (as they always do), and the new group holds beliefs that are contrary to yours? Will it be okay with you then for the leaders of this new regime to violate its contract with the people to promote its own beliefs? Maybe it will be okay with you if your candidate loses. Then you can blame the party that voted on their beliefs for ruining the country. If you are a Republican, you can blame the Democrats if their universal healthcare scheme bankrupts the country and reduces the quality of care available. If you are a Democrat, you can blame the Republicans if their war drags on and on, bankrupts the country and results in continued loss of lives. The thing about both of these results of voting for beliefs is that there is nothing in the Constitution that allows them to do this to begin with. But you won't know that if you haven't read the Constitution. Of course, neither party wants you to realize what's going on, because if you did understand, when the out-of-power party regained power, it wouldn't be able to violate this contract themselves. And this is why the people asking the questions at the debates focus on the beliefs of the candidates, so you will continue to vote your beliefs rather than voting based on the only thing that should really matter: the person with the best ability to do the job they are being sworn to do, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. Reference:
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