Libertarian Vegan

As everyone knows, April 15th is income tax day.  There have always been protests before, but never like this.  Over 2,000 cities all across the United States have “Tea Party” protests scheduled to take place tomorrow. To understand what that looks like, check out this map of the protests .

The movement gained momentum with the “Rant heard ’round the world” by Rick Santelli.  The basic idea is that, with an $11 trillion debt that grows every second and a federal government who seems to think there is an unlimited amount of money to spend, the people are already taxed enough and the ridiculous spending needs to end.

There is no way to spend yourself out of debt, just as there is no way for the federal government to spend itself out of debt.  Countries holding our debt are worried we will never be able to pay it back and will stop giving us credit, meanwhile the Federal Reserve continues to print money, making each dollar worth less and less.  Something has to give, and it seems that it is up to the people to stop the nonsense.

Check out the Official Tax Day TEA Party website for information and to find a protest close to you.

Sunshine Review also has a good deal of information related to the protests.

Are there really Americans out there that think they aren’t taxed enough?

In a move that even one ups the Department of Justice under Bush, Obama’s DOJ is arguing that under the PATRIOT Act, the federal government immune from suit for any illegal surveillance of Americans.

The case concerns Jewel v. NSA, litigation from the Electronic Frontier Foundation against the National Security Administration for warrantless wiretapping of countless Americans.  In the EFF’s blog, they say Obama’s DOJ makes two disturbing arguments in their attempt to dismiss the case.

First, the DOJ the favored argument of Bush - the state secrets privilege requires the court to dismiss the case with no further action.  Allowing the case to go on, they say, “would cause exceptionally grave harm to national security.”  Yet as a candidate, Obama argued passionately against this same abuse under Bush.

Secondly, Obama’s DOJ argued the U.S. government is completely immune from suit for any illegal spying, that they can never be sued for breaking federal privacy laws.

Bush’s DOJ argued the U.S. had “sovereign immunity” from suit for violation the FISA Act, but Obama’s DOJ has gone on to say they are also immune from the Wiretap Act and the Stored Communications Act as well.  For those keeping track, that would make the United States government immune from suit for any violations under all three key federal surveillance laws.

Is this the change all of you Obama fans voted for?  Personally, I happen to prefer a government that adheres to its own laws.  Silly, I know.

Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation - In Warrantless Wiretapping Case, Obama DOJ’s New Arguments Are Worse Than Bush’s April 7, 2009

The city of Whiteville, Tennessee planned to run a seatbelt checkpoint on April 4 which was to be “in conjunction with a Homeland Security training exercise by the 251st Military Police in Bolivar who recently returned from Iraq.”

After receving a number of calls, Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen canceled the operation.  Local radio station NewsTalk 101.5 FM interviewed Rep. Johnny Shaw, who represents the area where the check was to take place.  Shaw said the Governor “didn’t need another headache” and that “bad idea in the first place.”

In the first place, seat belt laws for adults are nonsense and just create another justification for treating citizens like children.  I always wear my seatbelt as I feel it has been pretty well established that they do save lives, not because of any law.  If you want people to act like adults, you need to treat them that way, but that is not what they want.

Regardless, what would you think if you pulled up to a checkpoint in your town and saw uniformed military police and DHS?   Under the Posse Comitatus Act, it is illegal for the military to be involved in domestic police operations.  End of story.

Bulletin Times - (See Pg. 2)

Source: Prison Planet - Infowars Story on Illegal Tennessee Checkpoint Prompts Action by Governor April 3, 2009

In what appears to be a victory for those who actually support liberty in action as well as word, the Missouri Information Analysis Center completely retracted their report that said supporters of Ron Paul and other third party candidates were potential domestic terrorists.

Initially the state offered an official apology to Paul, Bob Barr and Chuck Baldwin, but now they done what they should have initially.

In an email to supporters, John Tate, President of Ron Paul’s Campaign for Liberty , wrote:

Faced with an overwhelming public outcry, Missouri officials quickly started backpedaling, removing references to Ron Paul and Campaign for Liberty.

Then, just hours before Dr. Paul’s plane touched down in St. Louis to lead our Celebration of Freedom rally Friday night, the Missouri Highway Patrol officially retracted the entire offending document.

The Missouri Highway Patrol will be performing an investigation into the origin of the report.  Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder has even called for the suspension of the Director of Public Safety until those responsible have been identified.

Well, very good.  We shall have to see what comes of this.  Surely this is not the only report out there to make such claims, just one that happened to make it to the public.

Postmaster General John Potter appeared before a House subcommittee this past week to ask Congress for money.  Without it, he said, the United States Postal Service will run out of money before the year is out.

“We are facing losses of historic proportion,” Potter declared. “Our situation is critical.”

Last year the USPS was $2.8 billion in debt, and the first quarter of this fiscal year (October - December) showed a $384 million loss.

Subcommittee chairman Stephen F. Lynch, (D-Mass) said, “With the Postal Service facing budget shortfalls the subcommittee will consider a number of options to restore financial stability and examine ways for the Postal Service to continue to operate without cutting services.”

The fact of the matter is, the USPS is a real monopoly.  Unlike Microsoft and others that trust-busters have gone after in the past, a real monopoly can only exist when it is enforced by law, which is the case with the Post Office.

Congress outlawed private mail delivery in cities in 1825, and gave the USPS a monopoly on first-class letters and third-class items such as magazines, catalogs, and junk mail.  Some 184 years later, it still has monopoly status.  Private carries such as UPS and FedEx have shown the benefits of competition while the USPS has continually raised postage rates since 1958.

Yet here it is, begging for a taxpayer-funded bailout, when it should really have its monopoly status revoked.  True monopolies are inefficient, bad for consumers, and bad for freedom.

In 1844 Lysander Spooner proceeded to set up the American Letter Mail Company, going into direct competition with the USPS.  He argued that the Constitution said Congress could “carry the mail” but not prevent others from doing so.  He delivered letters between Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore for five cents.  Meanwhile, the USPS charged 18 3/4 cents between Boston and New York.

His was the first private interstate post office, (and it was rather successful), which brought great anger from Congress.  Threatened with jail, Spooner gave up the business, but clearly showed up the Post Office and Congress.

Let the Spooner’s of the country compete.  Anyone who has had to wait in line at the Post Office knows there has to be a better way.

Sources: Cybercast News Service - Postal Service Asks Congress for Bailout March 25, 2009

Wired - Stop the U.S. Mail! February 2005

Athol Daily News - Stamp-ing Around May 4, 1977

A February 20 report from the Missouri Information Analysis Center entitled “The Modern Militia Movement” purports to be a document meant to help law enforcement identify militia members/domestic terrorists.

Just what are some of the signs to watch out for?

“Political Paraphernalia: Militia members most commonly associate with 3rd party political groups.  It is not uncommon for militia members to display Constitutional Party, Campaign for Liberty, or Libertarian material.  These members are usually supporters of former Presidential Candidate: Ron Paul, Chuck Baldwin, and Bob Barr.”

You can see the full report HERE.

The three former presidential candidates have sent a letter to Missouri officials protesting the report.

Last Friday Congressman Dennis Kucinich sent a letter to House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Charrman Edolphus Towns requesting an immediate investigation into allegations that the Bush/Cheney White House ran an “executive assassination ring.”

The allegations of such a ring were made by investigative reporter Seymore Hersh while speaking to an audience at the University of Minnesota.  Hersh informed the audience about the Joint Special Operations Command, which he said is, “An executive assassination ring essentially.”

In his letter Kucinich writes:

Mr. Hersh made the allegation before an audience at the University of Minnesota on Tuesday, March 10, 2009. He stated, ‘Under President Bush’s authority, they’ve been going into countries, not talking to the ambassador or the CIA station chief, and finding people on a list and executing them and leaving… It is a special wing of our special operations community that is set up independently. They do not report to anybody, except in the Bush-Cheney days, they reported directly to the Cheney office. . .Congress has no oversight of it.’

If true, these operations violate longstanding U.S. policy regarding covert actions and illegally bypass Congressional oversight…

Hersh is within a year or more of releasing a book that is said to include evidence of this allegation. However, we cannot wait a year or more to establish the truth.

Most reports have framed the story to indicate that the Joint Special Operations Command was a product of the Bush/Cheney White House, but it has been around for decades.

According to Global Security.org :

JSOC was established in 1980 and is located at Pope Air Force Base, North Carolina and at nearby Fort Bragg, NC. JSOC is a joint headquarters designed to study special operations requirements and techniques; ensure interoperability and equipment standardization; plan and conduct joint special operations exercises and training; and develop joint special operations tactics.

Although JSOC’s stated purpose is to provide a unified command structure for conducting joint special operations and exercises, it is widely reported that JSOC is actually the command responsible for conducting US counter-terrorism (CT) operations. JSOC is reported to command the US military’s Special Missions Units (SMUs). These SMUs are tasked with conducting CT operations, strike operations, reconnaissance in denied areas, and special intelligence missions.

Later, the site goes on to say, “In January 2005 a small group of commandos deployed to support security at the Presidential inauguration. Theye were deployed under a secret counterterrorism program named Power Geyser.”

Hmmm…secret commando teams operating within the U.S.? I think that would be enough to warrant a congressional investigation, and yet….

Sources: Congressman Dennis J.Kucinich - Kucinich Requests Investigation into “Executive Assassination Ring” March 16, 2009

Propaganda Matrix - Cheney “Assassination Unit” Still Active Under Obama, Including Domestically March 14, 2009

This past week USA Today reported the U.S. Terrorist watch list reached 1 million entries, a 32% increase since 2007.  The figures were released by the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence after requests from the newspaper.

Officials point out that the one million entries do not represent 1 million people, but rather about 400,000.  The list often uses multiple entries for an individual for various name spellings and other information.

However, that one million entries remains after the terrorist center removed some 33,000 entries from the list last year, and it is unclear how many individuals that included.

To find yourself on the list you have to be nominated by an agent of the FBI, NSA or other federal agency.  The nomination moves to the FBI’s Terrorist Review and Examination Unit and, if considered a potential or known terrorist, your name is sent on to the Terrorist Screening Center and the watch list.  But what is a potential terrorist?  The feds have never specified.

So who has been found to be on the list?  Some notables include:

* U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy

* Rep. John Lewis (D-GA)

* A number of the 9/11 hijackers years after they were dead

* Nelson Mandela, Nobel Peace Prize winner and international symbol of freedom

According to the Department of Homeland Security, in the past two years, 51,000 people have filed for redress, claiming they were wrongly included on the list.  The majority of these were not actually found on the list, but were misidentified, having similar names to those on the list.

Since 2005, 830 redress requests have found the individual on the list and 150 (18%) of those were ultimately removed.

Can such a huge list, which has clearly made huge mistakes in the past and most likely continues to today, really be an effective tool?   Before 9/11 there were less than 20 names on the list, and now there are 400,000.

Sources: USA Today - Terrorist watch list hits 1 million March 11, 2009.

How stuff works - How to Land on the Government Watch List

In America we have a magical belief in the power of “private property.”  In fact, private property was one of the key beliefs of the Founding Fathers.    Tom West, author of Vindicating the Founders writes, “…the Founders regarded the protection of private property rights as a necessary means for the poor to escape the kind of subjugation by the wealthy that they had experienced in Old Europe.” 

Without a doubt, the transfer of power from the Monach to the people was revolutionary, and private property played a very important role.  And yet, while we hold up this ideal, is there really such a thing as “private property” in this country?

If I truly own a piece of property, I would be able to do absolutely anything I wanted with it, as long as I do not use it to hurt the person or property of another.  That would be actual private property.  But just a cursory look at the local, state, and federal laws shows there is no such thing as private property.  If you have to pay property taxes, aren’t you really just renting the property from the government?

The first plank of The Communist Manifesto reads:

Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes. 

Also important are eminent domain laws, which essentially say the government can take your property if it is done to improve the common good of the community.  Traditionally, eminent domain (which means “supreme lordship”) has been used for large public works projects, such as highways and railroads, but it is being used more and more as an excuse to take private property for any reason.

This week John Stossel profiles Susette Kelo of New London, Connecticut.  She fell in love with the little pink house she bought in 1997 and its neighborhood.  A few years later, the city decided they wanted her property for private developers, telling Kelo she’d be “fairly compensated.” She didn’t want to sell, but she wasn’t given a choice.

New London hired lawyer Wesley Horton to defend the redevelopment plan (how ironic that Kelo’s taxdollars would be used to pay for a lawyer to fight against her interests….).  After refusing to move, Kelo and her neighbors found notices on their doors saying their property had been condemned.  Kelo’s protest went all the way to the Supreme Court in February 2005, when she lost by one vote.

Her attorney Dana Berliner declared, “I think that was when I started screaming.  The Kelo decision opened the door for eminent domain abuse all across the country.”

Indeed:

*In Brooklyn, NY developers are trying to use eminent domain to seize apartments and businesses to build a huge sports complex.

*In Hurst, TX the city condemned over 100 houses to clear the way for a shopping mall.

* Piscataway, NJ took away a family farm because the town said it wanted to preserve open spaces.

Ten years after New London began demolition of “blighted” properties, it still has nothing to show for it.  Jeff Benedict, who wrote a book on the ordeal called “Little Pink House,” explained, “It’s just a a 90-acre pile of dirt,” “Over $100 million in taxpayer money has been spent there, and what do you have to show for it? Dirt and weeds.”

Sources: ABC News -John Stossel on Eminent Domain Run Amok March 3, 2009

Lew Rockwell.com - A Layman’s Look at the Communist Manifesto (If you haven’t read the 10 planks of the manifesto lately, check them out, and compare them with the US of today)