Wednesday, January 30, 2013

A series of unconstitutional events




     I know I have touched on the topic of The Patriot Act in another post, but I wanted to tell you the series of legislation that strips away rights of privacy and being secure in your personal effects. Some think that this series of these unconstitutional bills started back in 1978 under then President Jimmy Carter, but it started a long time before that. In 1798 the alien act and the sedition act were introduced and passed by both the house and senate. These two acts are most normally combined in speech as the Alien and Sedition Act of 1798. The next piece of this puzzle is FISA or the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Signed under Jimmy Carter and extended every year since. In 2001 America was the victim of either one of the most heinous acts of terrorism known to our country or the greatest hoax know to world history, only you can make that distinction. In a very swift knee jerk reaction, the congress and then President George W. Bush passed what is now known as the Patriot Act. The following years we were subject to the National Defense Authorization Act or NDAA. This is largely an appropriations bill to spend trillions of dollars in wars, but sections 1021 and 1022 were the proposals for the military and Government officials to indefinitely detain any American citizen on mere accusations, and I will go into detail on that in a bit.   With the addition of verbiage in 2013 NDAA the ability to detain “American Citizens” was put into question, some legislators found that the ability to detain Citizens was needed and wanted to combat the new wording. In response to that The Enemy Expatriation Act or EEA was drafted and proposed. What I will do know is give some detail of each of these Acts or Bills and explain in the end how they together can be and are being used to stifle your First and Fourth Amendment protected rights.
     In 1798, just a few short years since the formation and creation of the United States of America through the drafting of our constitution, the Alien and Sedition Acts were penned and passed.
The Sedition Act was drafted and approved to help the federal government curb outspoken dissent against our elected officials.
 SECTION I. Punishes combinations against United States government.
1.       Definition of offense: Unlawfully to combine or conspire together to oppose any measure of the government of the United States
SECTION II. Punishes seditious writings.
    1. Definition of offense: To write, print, utter or publish, or cause it to be done, or assist in it, any false, scandalous, and malicious writing against the government of the United States, or either House of Congress, or the President, with intent to defame, or bring either into contempt or disrepute, or to excite against either the hatred of the people of the United States, or to stir up sedition, or to excite unlawful combinations against the government, or to resist it, or to aid or encourage hostile designs of foreign nations.
The Alien Act went a bit further and gave the President supreme power to determine who would be a direct threat to the safety and security to the United States. This law applied only to Aliens, but since these were the days of constant daily arrivals of new people into our country essentially this law applied to everyone who came in after this law passed.
 SECTION I. Confers power on the President to order aliens to depart.
    1. What aliens.
Such as the President shall judge dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States, or shall have reasonable grounds to suspect of treasonable or secret machinations against the government.
2. How proceeded against.
By the President's order to depart, served by the marshal or other person. But the President may grant a license to remain on proof by the alien, that he is not dangerous; and may require bond and security of such person.
3. Consequences of disobedience.
Imprisonment, on conviction, not exceeding three years, and perpetual disability to become a citizen.
SECTION II. Confers on the President power to remove aliens.
    1. What aliens.
Such as are above described, who are 
            1. In prison, in pursuance of this Act.
            2. Dangerous, and proper to be speedily removed.
  2. Consequences of returning without President's permission.
Imprisonment, on conviction, as long as the President thinks the public safety requires it.

     In 1978 FISA was introduced in an effort to intercept information from all people, citizen or not, criminal or not. Their reach was far but it was in the best sense regulated. They at the time had the ability to intercept all telephone traffic, intercept all fax information; they could divert your mail from the postmaster to any Federal Law Enforcement agency, they could seize your refuse and rifle through it at will. You were now a suspect of a crime you never even thought of. The reach was nationwide and had no foreign relations to it. Now you may say that it is the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, but if you read the last line of the bill it states that this act shall not be used outside of the United States border. The Act was amended in 2001 by the USA PATRIOT Act, primarily to include terrorism on behalf of groups that are not specifically backed by a foreign government. It allowed surveillance, without court order, within the United States for up to one year unless the "surveillance will acquire the contents of any communication to which a United States person is a party". If a United States person is involved, judicial authorization was required within 72 hours after surveillance begins. The Act came into public prominence in December 2005 following publication by the New York Times of an article that described a program of warrant-less domestic wiretapping ordered by the Bush administration and carried out by the National Security Agency since 2002; a subsequent Bloomberg article suggested that this may have already begun by June 2000.
      The Original Patriot Act was written in response to the attacks of September 11th 2001. The title of the act is a ten letter backronym (USA PATRIOT) that stands for Uniting (and) Strengthening America (by) Providing Appropriate Tools Required (to) Intercept (and) Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001. Opponents of the law have criticized its authorization of indefinite detentions of immigrants; searches through which law enforcement officers search a home or business without the owner’s or the occupant’s permission or knowledge; the expanded use of National Security Letters, which allows the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to search telephone, e-mail, and financial records without a court order, and the expanded access of law enforcement agencies to business records, including library and financial records. Since its passage, several legal challenges have been brought against the act, and Federal courts have ruled that a number of provisions are unconstitutional. In July 2005, the U.S. Senate passed a re-authorization bill with substantial changes to several sections of the act, while the House re-authorization bill kept most of the act's original language. The two bills were then reconciled in a conference committee that was criticized by Senators from both the Republican and Democratic parties for ignoring civil liberty concerns
     NDAA or National Defense Authorization Act is a very complicated piece of legislation and worth the time spent to read it. It is largely an appropriations bill for expanding our hefty military industrial complex. In this bill is the setting aside of billions of dollars that we do not have, it gives the military the OK to sell our unmanned drone aircraft to South Korea to spy on North Korea, they got the ability to sell an entire squadron of F-16 aircraft to Egypt. Sections 1021 and 1022 of the NDAA are two of the most controversial sections in this bill and rightfully so. These two sections enable the government to essentially seize any citizen under the mere accusation of ties to terrorism and or threats to the safety or security of the nation. What does that mean for you, it means the Witch Hunts are back! It means that if you offend the right person and they complain about it you can be arrested under statutes within the NDAA and held indefinitely without trial or charges filed. Two well-known cases are the case against Bradley Manning who is being held on accusations on trying to pass information of wrong doings by our United States military in war zones in the Middle East. The other story was of Brandon Raub from Virginia, he was arrested in his home by the local authorities along with FBI agents. This was done on the premise that he was posting harmful material on his personal Facebook page. Here is the story from Huff Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/21/brandon-j-raub-marine-detained_n_1817484.html
     The EEA was first drafted by Senators Joe Lieberman and Scott Brown along with Representatives Charlie Dent and Jason Altmire. This bill would allow the United States government to strip away any legal citizen or Natural Born Citizen of the citizenship. In early 2012, the proposal was compared to the recently passed National Defense Authorization Act, and some writers have suggested that the two laws could be used together to take away citizens' civil liberties. If passed, the bill would add to the circumstances under which US citizenship can be lost. Now that Senator Lieberman is no longer serving you would think this idea would have died out but it has been adopted by his successor and also the other framers. This is a bill that would literally make it easy for the state to classify you as an enemy and strip away your legally obtained or natural born citizenship away from you. Being a person without a country you can be detained by any federal law enforcement agency and held against your will, you can be subject to any act the government wants to inflict upon you.
     Now you can see how all these acts, and these are just the basics, tied together have made it not only easy and possible but also acceptable for the state to label anyone an enemy based on outspoken dissent or even subdued accusations. They have ensured there is no way to fight for your freedom, they have stripped away your right to express your disapproval of your government, they have stripped away your right to a trial by jury, knowing the charges you are faced with or even your right to a fair and speedy trail. These are just the basics needed for the state to return to the atrocities of Nazi controlled Germany. 
These are some other acts of legislation that are enacted and in place

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Murder in all degrees



     The argument goes that Americans as a whole are violent murderous people, and to that end we are. But what causes our violent actions? Why are there more and more mass killings, single homicides, malicious attacks and a general disregard of human life? As we sit and watch the news media’s coverage of school shootings and mall shootings, as we open our city’s and town’s newspaper we see story after story of murders and attacks on individuals, retribution killings, brutal attacks and bullying in our schools, hospitals, parks, workplaces and homes, what does it all mean and how do we stop it. Why when we see an attack by individuals on others do we have feelings of hate and anger but yet we are taught that the soldier of our military is immune from these feelings because he or she is there to do a job and it is for the safety of all others. In my mind murder is murder regardless the presence of a uniform or suit or whatever else the victim or perpetrator is wearing.
          
     I had a conversation with a person a while back where I told them that I feel that the US government had committed murder against Osama Bin Laden and that those responsible should be brought to justice. A murder is a murder regardless of uniform or contract with government agencies. In my mind the murder of just one individual regardless of his or her crime should not be committed unless in the case of self-defense. And if you are wondering, no I do not believe the murder of Bin Laden was in self-defense, it was a cold blooded taking of a human life by another human being.
    
     The attacks on The Branch Davidians In 1993, Ruby Ridge in 1992, to the countless wars, operations and downright murder of innocents perpetrated by our US government, we have as a country been led to believe that we are the greatest nation on earth, yet I disagree. As a nation we perpetrate some of the worst crimes against humanity and animals on earth, we indoctrinate the youth using a pledge of allegiance to a flag soaked in the blood of billions of innocent lives, we disgrace the meaning of the word peace by using the burden of peace as a token to advance our wars, we have in the time since we won our independence found a new dependency, it is the blood of others. How can a country’s leader call on its citizens to behave in a manner that the leader does not portray? How can that leader call on the police of this country to disarm its population in an effort to reduce crimes that they themselves commit, how can the people of this country stand to be slaves to tyranny once again. The violence problem does not come from the ability to protect oneself from harm, whoever is perpetrating it. The violence comes from watching what the so called leaders do and mimicking them to a T.
     
     The violence in this country is an area of great concern and needed relief, but what can we do about the actions if the mindset of society is construed to believe that the actions of individuals are far worse than those of its own government. What follows is a post I had made to my personal Facebook wall…. “Were their children not worth as much as those in CT? Were they not just as innocent as those in CT? How can you be outraged at CT but allow the carnage of wars, both on foreign soil and our own. How can you take the grounds that some people, humans, are worth more than others? Do you want to know what's wrong with society, do you want to know why kids go to schools and kill innocent people, and do you want to know why people kill other people? Because of people like those who believe the children who died in Waco in 1993 were not equal with those that died at Oklahoma City in 1995, and those who died in CT were above those killed in Pakistan the same year. It is society’s perception of value of life that has bred individuals to massacre others, to destroy the sanctity of life in so many ways; it is a government who kills indiscriminately in the blasphemous name of homeland security and preservation of peace. It is the citizens who allow this type of behavior and encourage it year after year. Do you really want to place blame where it belongs, just look into the mirror and recite your pledge of allegiance, take your blood soaked flag and wave it high and proud, it is because of you that the tears of mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, friends and families flow forever onward until the destruction of this rock we call earth.”  This doesn’t provoke feelings of mistrust with a lot of people, it doesn’t call to their attention the fact that so many murders have been committed by the government, the same government that call for its citizens to disarm and to refrain from the violence it is committing on a far smaller scale.
    
      For the sake of this country and of humanity as a whole I hope that we can learn lessons from past transgressions of violence and can in time resort to a more peaceful approach to handling with disputes. I hope that in time more and more people see the fallacy in killing one another; I hope that we can become one unified species and can contribute to this world something great.
 #LiveFree

Monday, January 7, 2013

Who Watches The Watchmen?



I was having a debate with a friend of mine the other day and we got into the issue of refusal to obey state and federal legislation at the point of a gun. He argued that if the state was there to serve a state function it was in the right, my argument was that if the state was there for a state function within the restrictions and confines of constitutional law and order there should be no problem, but that when the force used against myself is in conflict with those constitutional principles I would in all cases refuse, and by force if necessary. The argument went further into the act of arming yourself against the officer or law enforcement agencies. As I see it if an officer has a weapon pointed at me he is threatening my life and liberty, number one gun safety rule DO NOT POINT YOUR GUN AT ANYTHING YOU DO NOT INTEND TO SHOOT. If said officer is not relating this threat as a protection of his life, and has been proven his reason for being there is in violation of law or constitutional principle, the course of action for myself is to remove the threat as to not be threatened any longer.
The act or even the thought of having to protect yourself or others from the law enforcers who are supposed to protect and serve their community is hard to comprehend for others. My thought process on this is that as a human being we have the ability, thought, decision, and duty to protect one’s life and liberty from all threats, regardless of their official capacity. The sheepish nature of the mass of people would inhibit them from protecting themselves from the tyrannical governments of the past and the one emerging in the not so far future. The natural instinct to protect themselves has been subsided by fear of their government, the fear of being ostracized by their peers and the fear of retribution and destruction by those who they call their government. Their arrogance that the state or federal law enforcers would be and are there for their protection, their misunderstanding of the purpose of law enforcers at the local and state levels and the way they will bow down in most cases to federal law is a hard fact and it should be dealt with soon. The more people that know and the faster we can distribute the information to those people the better off the whole of our society would be.
Now you may say to yourself that this concept is a bit too far and that the premise which I base my decisions on has never or will never happen. That assessment would be wrong, the fact is that police do abuse their power and assert their power unnecessarily; unjustified force advancement is a far too common problem with our current police forces all over this nation. The way in which the majority of officers act is disgraceful to their position and is a clear indicator of which way our society will proceed in the future. The ever encroaching police state of this country will leave no room for the in-betweens, the undecided, the fence sitters. You will have to either bow down to the force applied from the federal or state governments, even if they are in violation to the constitution or a violation of human rights and rule of law or you will have to become the enemy of the state, a thorn in the side of law enforcers. You will have to become the shield for your family and friends and you may have to protect those same with force applied. I never discourage the right to bear arms and in this case all that I can say is that in times of great despair and greater threats to life, property and liberty, force of arms has shown to be the only true blockade to the advancement of tyranny.
Live Free
Check out these videos and news stories for a better understanding that police are not your protectors.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ9w1HHRMQw
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24Yl904di34
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKrHn2UKasY
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGiDbcUmjtY
 http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/07/18/48482.htm
 http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2003/05/264075.shtml
 http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2003/05/264075.shtml

Saturday, January 5, 2013

I wanted to Share this from READTHEBOOKLIST.COM with all of you.



Capitalism and Socialism. The two most influential ideas in history. What are they? Where did they come from? Who discovered and wrote them concisely? All of these questions are now answered at READTHEBOOKLIST.com. Finally, a bookseller dedicated to the most important set of authors in history. In the case of these two ideas, there are the authors listed on our PRIMARY LIST and none else. The other authors you may have heard of, read through, or want to read, learned their ideas from these PRIMARY LIST authors. Whether the other authors will admit it or not, they did. Every fundamental, influential and foundational idea ever written about Capitalism and Socialism was discovered by the authors we present on our Primary List.
The ideas of liberty, freedom, capitalism, and individualism are simple once you fully understand. I have read thousands of books to fully understand the whole of those ideas and this is the cliff-notes version of the whole and in read order. I am a Randian and a Von Misian, a Rothbardian, Jeffersonian etc. I am all of them and we recommend that you read all of everyone but at the very least both sides of the list. If you miss pieces of the whole because he said she said this or that was crap you will never fully understand.
If you read the book ranks section: http://www.readthebooklist.com/book-ranks you will see why we ranked them the way we did. As it says, we invite you to rank them too. It is not scientific, it is meant to be fun and cool. We are making an easy landing place for you and your friends to come in and do your research and learn about liberty, freedom, capitalism, and individualism. We have lumped socialism, statism, progressivism, communism, fascism, and collectivism together calling it socialism. Then we lumped liberty, freedom, capitalism, and individualism together under capitalism. We did this to make it simple and because their have only been 2 political ideas in history, freedom and slavery or life vs death.
This list is meant for very busy people who want to know the gist of everything and it does that. We have been working on this for over 30 years. Everyone including Ron Paul and Walter Block are totally stoked on this list and have recommended the same books. If you read the entire booklist you will understand why we ranked the way we did.
The freedom movement has been fragmented for many years. In regard the ARI and Yaron Brook he and the objectivists refuse to read all of Rothbard for the same reason Rothbardians refuse to read Rand. I have worked on those guys for years just to get them reading von Mises.
The problem is everyone is siloed. Stuck in their one discipline, or their one book or one author and refuse to seriously study others because someone they respect disagrees with them! That is why I started this site to bring the fragmented freedom movement back together. The only thing that separates us is misunderstanding.
The objectivists are the authorities on philosophy they got it down. The austrians have economics down! But both make mistakes. The austrians with philosophy that leads to false conclusions. The objectivists with economic detail and the history of economics like Rothbard's books lays out in regard to the FED and the many national bank caused recessions/depressions (Panics)! Both talk a slightly different language so they fight over semantics. They don't understand each other, and don’t want to.
If you look at what Ayn Rand said and forget what is coming out of the ARI you will see that her foreign policy is almost identical to someone like Ron Paul. And Ron Paul has made some mistakes in regard to her and her philosophy because he has not read and understood Rand fully.
If you read the list you will get all of this. Like you have heard before it is about the ideas not the people. Full understanding is the future of the freedom movement. It starts with RTBL. So start reading and live!
Have fun,
Ty

Friday, January 4, 2013

What’s wrong with conservatism?




Someone recently asked me how I feel about the conservatives in Washington. I had to look at them in despair and bewilderment; I didn’t realize we actually had conservatives there. The recent fiscal cliff debacle and the previous outrageous  appropriations bills and spending bills, social programs bills and other heavily inflated legislation that has come through has been most often pushed by those so called conservatives. I had to explain that the ones that your radio and television set say are the conservatives are most often than not the same ones who push big spending and high taxes. I had to ask him who in particular he believed was a conservative, he gave me too names and I shuddered, Paul Ryan and Marco Rubio! This guy is certifiably crazy, he honestly believes that these too individuals are actually conserving anything at all.
Paul Ryan has been one of the foremost frontrunners for the Republican Party both before and after this election cycle, claiming himself as a fiscal conservative. But is he really what he claims. The short answer is no, but some folks need reassuring facts presented to them in plain English. So here it goes… http://votesmart.org/candidate/key-votes/26344/paul-ryan#.UOeB2XfQup4 .  In all fairness this will take some reading to get an understanding of why this guy has the conservative streak of a crack head with 50 dollars in his pocket.
Senator Marco Rubio republican from Florida is by far the most deceiving member of Florida’s representation. The fact that this man has retained his place as a mainstream conservative choice bewilders me and most of the people I talk to. But is he what he and the mainstream media say he is, read on folks, this will give you the rundown of the past legislation and appropriation bills that has had the approval of Rubio. http://votesmart.org/candidate/key-votes/1601/marco-rubio#.UOd_FnfQup4. 
So you ask the question, what’s wrong with conservatism?  Nothing would be wrong with it, it is what we need but we don’t have conservatism; we have a deplorable example of representation and an imperial outlook on the world, we have a very low regard to being fiscally responsible, we have a country who if were a household would be in severe debt, had its home and vehicles repossessed and a stack of past due bills higher than the now extinct world trade center buildings stacked end to end to end(yes there were three buildings that fell), if the American government does not reverse its course and find a true sense of conservatism I feel we will all be doomed to repeat the horrors of the Great Depression and the Wiemar Republic depression.  
What can we as citizens do to ensure a more responsible future and a resurgence of real conservatism, some will say we need to pressure our politicians to perform their sworn duty and to represent them at all costs. Some will say we need to enter politics and turn the tide on the socioeconomic devastation being perpetuated and condoned by those in Washington. I like both options, we need better representatives and senators to be true to the meaning of conservatives and the people need to hold those people to their actions. There has to be some kind of change in the system, we cannot maintain this course, we cannot afford any more of this. We are on the perilous edge of the real cliff. That same cliff that has destroyed Greece, Spain and countless other countries and was the ruination of the Roman and Greek empires of old. The future belongs to us; we need to own up to it. Live Free my friends, I feel soon they will even try to take that from you by force.