1. Search your home and not even tell you… by conducting secret “sneak and peek” searches of your home or office, without informing you that a warrant was issued.  (SECTION 213)
2. Collect information about what books you read, what you study, your purchases, your medical history and your personal finances … without probable cause.  (SECTION 215)
3. Label you a “terrorist” if you belong to an activist group … and the USA PATRIOT Act broadly expands the official definition of terrorism, so many domestic groups that engage in certain types of civil disobedience could very well find themselves labeled as terrorists.  (SECTIONS 411, 802)
4. Monitor your e-mails and watch what internet sites you visit … by monitoring Internet traffic and e-mail communications
   on any Internet service provider — *without* probable cause. (SECTION 216)
5. Take away your properly without even a notice or a hearing if the government merely says a person or organization has engaged in or is planning an act of “domestic terrorism.” The government could thus effectively bankrupt an organization with which it disagrees.  (SECTION 806)
6. Spy on innocent Americans by allowing a vast array of information on U.S. citizens to be collected and shared with the CIA (and other non-law enforcement officials) without proper judicial oversight or other safeguards.   (SECTIONS 203 AND 901)
7. Put immigrants in jail indefinitely.  The USA PATRIOT Act permits indefinite incarceration of immigrants and other non-citizens without the government having to show that they are, in fact, terrorists.  (SECTION 412)
8. Wiretap you under a warrant that doesn’t even have your name on it. Judges are required to approve a wiretap without even knowing who is to be wiretapped or where the wiretap is to be placed.  (SECTION 216)

Read more here and here.

Check it out below.

“It’s time to end the whole mess!”

When watching it one gets the impression he’s made these same arguments a few too many times. Judging from his demeanor he may be getting sick of replaying the same arguments and not have anyone really listen to him. Well, a few of us are listening, and agreeing.

Watch it below.

A piece by Glenn Greenwald over at Salon.com a few weeks ago points out many examples how so much of Obama’s talk of change was just that: talk.

“When it comes to uprooting (’changing’) the Bush/Cheney approach to terrorism and civil liberties — the issue which generated as much opposition to the last presidency as anything else — the Obama administration has proven rather conclusively that tiny and cosmetic adjustments are the most it is willing to do.

“They love announcing new policies that cast the appearance of change but which have no effect whatsoever on presidential powers.

“With great fanfare, they announced the closing of CIA black sites — at a time when none was operating.

“They trumpeted the President’s order that no interrogation tactics outside of the Army Field Manual could be used — at a time when approval for such tactics had been withdrawn.

“They repudiated the most extreme elements of the Bush/Addington/Yoo ‘inherent power’ theories — while maintaining alternative justifications to enable the same exact policies to proceed exactly as is.

“They flamboyantly touted the closing of Guantanamo — while aggressively defending the right to abduct people from around the world and then imprison them with no due process at Bagram.

“Their ‘changes’ exist solely in theory — which isn’t to say that they are all irrelevant, but it is to say that they change nothing in practice:  i.e., in reality.”

Then a week later, Greenwald posted an update, saying:

“Isn’t it so interesting how the phrase ‘Patriot Act’ was the symbol of everything Democrats claimed to find so heinous during the Bush years, but now that there’s a Democratic President, Senate and Congress, it’s absolutely certain that the Patriot Act will continue, and civil libertarians are reduced to hoping that there may be some tiny modifications to it, and even that’s highly unlikely?”

Indeed.

Quote of the Day: “Stare into the abyss and the abyss stares into you.” — Friedrich Nietzsche

* Waterboarding and sleep deprivation turned Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) into the C.I.A.’s best source on Al-Qaida.
* KSM then provided information that led to the arrest of Iyman Faris, an alleged Al-Qaida sleeper agent sent to the U.S. to plan attacks on New York landmarks such as the Brooklyn Bridge.

However, the New York Times (and many other sources) report that the men who interrogated KSM tell a different story…

* The C.I.A. officer who interrogated KSM, Deuce Martinez, said he used traditional interrogation methods, and not the infliction of pain and panic.
* And Ali Soufan, a former F.B.I. agent who oversaw the interrogation of another major terrorist, Abu Zubaydah, says that Mr. Zubaydah talked before he was subjected to waterboarding and other abuse, and that “using these alternative methods on other terrorists backfired on more than a few occasions.”

Whom should we believe — Mr. Cheney, or the agents who did the interrogations? The answer seems obvious. However, we believe there’s an even greater argument from principle to be made here. Even if torture were the most effective and reliable interrogation method possible, it would still be wrong to use it, both morally and practically.

* We must not become that which we claim to oppose.
* We must set an example for the world of how people should behave.
* And we must count all the costs and risks to which we subject ourselves when we violate our own most sacred values.

The whole world now knows that the supposed “land of the free and home of the brave” . . .

* Kidnaps people and sends them abroad to be tortured
* Holds people in captivity without due process
* Practices acts of torture for which it has prosecuted others
* Does not practice what it preaches

Our hypocrisy has undoubtedly recruited far more terrorist candidates than have ever been caught by using torture. The Cheney-Bush policy was, and is, self-defeating, even if it could really be demonstrated that torture occasionally results in useful information. Sadly . . .

Even though President Obama promised us change, we haven’t seen much in the way of meaningful change. The new policy of ”Indefinite Detentions” is actually worse than before.

We here at DownsizeDC.org want to see our country once again become “the land of free and the home of the brave.” Toward that end we’ve promoted our “I Am Not Afraid” campaign, through which we, as individuals, win our own personal war on terror instantly, simply by NOT giving the terrorists the fear they seek to provoke in us.

We are not afraid. How about you?

But for this lack of fear to have the most meaning we must also urge our supposed representatives to not be afraid on our behalf, and to reverse all policies that demonstrate fear. If you agree with our stance then we urge you to send an “I Am Not Afraid” message to Congress. Here’s what the message says…

“I am not afraid of terrorism, and I want you to stop being afraid on my behalf. Please start scaling back the official government war on terror. Please replace it with a smaller, more focused anti-terrorist police effort in keeping with the rule of law. Please stop overreacting. I understand that it will not be possible to stop all terrorist acts. I accept that. I am not afraid.”

Here are the personal comments I added to this message in the letter I just sent to my representatives: “I was promised change, but there has been no change. Please repeal all the un-constitutional elements of Bush’s war on terror, or I will start calling it the Bush-Obama war on terror instead.”

You can send your own personalized, I Am Not Afraid letter to Congress using DownsizeDC.org’s Educate the Powerful System.

Thank you for being a part of the growing Downsize DC Army. To see how fast your Army is growing, please check out the Keeping Score report below my signature.

Jim Babka
President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.

KEEPING SCORE REPORT

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Kathleen Wells: What are your thoughts on President Obama’s decision to release the torture memos?

Congressman Ron Paul: I think he is purely political. I think he has backed down on what he said. He was elected for change and it is the same old stuff and he is as much of a neo-con now as Bush was with this issue and other issues. The war has been expanded. He continues with not closing down Guantanamo. There is probably, for as most [sic] as we can tell, there is still secret rendition going on. We just moved some of this process overseas. We are not going to be aware of it in detail.

Kathleen Wells: You feel President Obama is a neo-con like Bush? You don’t see a distinction between the two administrations?

Congressman Ron Paul: The tone is different, but the policies don’t change. We are spreading the war. The war is expanding. We are not prosecuting those that committed torture. Guantanamo is not going to be closed down. So, no, I don’t see [a distinction between Bush and Obama].

He [Obama] increased the DOD [Department of Defense] budget. We surely could spend some of that money at home where people are really hurting. But we increased the DOD budget, I think, by 10-percent. I can’t see any significant change in foreign policy. The pretense in leaving Iraq was a mild pretense and I’m predicting that’s not going to happen. There are going to be troops in Iraq throughout this administration, I’m convinced.

That’s right people… It’s taken Barack Obama less than 6 months as President to prove beyond any doubt that the only change he represents is rhetorical. The honeymoon is over.

by Jake Towne, the Champion of the Constitution
Originally published on Friday, June 5, 2009 at http://www.nolanchart.com/article6510.html

On June 6, 1944, a flotilla of transports set out for the coast of Normandy. They would land at five beaches codenamed Sword, Juno, Omaha, Gold, and Utah. Some beachheads were established with minimum resistance. Some beachheads were established in blood and gore, like Omaha’s.  (photo)

In operational military code, the day was D-Day and the time was H-Hour. The only difference was that this was THE D-Day. My message, if you care to receive it, is that today is also D-Day, a D-Day of a different flavor.

Our overlords are operating on the economy until it collapses. They are debasing our money supply until it is worthless.

Someone, somewhere is receiving the tax money paid for the broken business of AIG and Government Motors. All we know is that the international central bankers are behind the whole charade. Our Congress still doesn’t even support auditing the central bank, the Federal Reserve, yet.

They are frittering away the very civil liberties that our veterans cherished so much and fought so hard to protect.  Many of our soldiers may still believe this today, but they have been misled.

Our enemies are not to be found in the racial and religious groups clashing in Iraq. Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with 9/11 or any other terrorist group. When we hurled our finest 150,000 troops at him, he had no air force, no navy, and pathetic shreds of an army. He had no weapons of mass destruction, although Pakistan, India, Russia, the USA, China, Israel and other obviously do.

Our real enemies are also not to be found in Afghanistan and Pakistan most (not all) of the forces arrayed against us are simply results of their violent tribal culture, which has known no peace for 30 years, combined with the “collateral damage” of innocents that we ourselves or our fickle tribal allies have caused. Did you know we did not send in military ground forces after bin Laden until five (5) months after the invasion began?

Did you know that the truth is, as Marine Major General and two-time Congressional Medal of Honor winner Smedley Butler once stated, that War is a Racket?

With our foreign policy of aggression and preemptive wars, we now risk far more damage to our wealth and our liberties than at any other time in our nation’s history, save during the scourge that was the Civil War and the Revolutionary War, where everything rode on the intelligence of brave patriots like George Washington, Thomas Paine, Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry, and Thomas Jefferson. (photo)

Liberty may once again teeter on a knife’s edge in the months and years to come. Whether we fall to socialism, poverty, and endless debt for our children is now up to US. The choice is OURS. My choice is to rally at the breach, defend freedom and protect the Constitution and to follow the Gray Champion and any other “citizens senior” who have not yet forgotten the true origins of our country.

If we do so, there is no doubt in my mind that in the years to come, our children will be very thankful they had heroes for their father and mothers. The ascent of man would resume its relentless upward march, and the benevolent forces of the free market will give each individual the chance to prosper by earning their true wealth. Through preserving individual liberties, promoting peace, and defending freedom, we will and can prosper.

Conceived in liberty, I will not let the Republic fall to the cowards who defile her without a bitter fight.  For me, my D-Day has already arrived.

You may decide for yourself whether my words ring true or as false and hollow as the “Change We Can Believe In” we were promised last fall. Believe it or not, the Establishment was actually murmuring “Chains We Can Believe In.”

In loving remembrance of those soldiers who have died and quite thankful the cowards have not yet stripped away my freedom of speech — I am,

Jake Towne, the Champion of the Constitution

Jake Towne is running for U.S. Congress in Pennsylvania’s 15th District in the 2010 election as a citizen unaffiliated with any political parties.  Jake also writes at www.LibertyMaven.com and www.CampaignForLiberty.com.  A master campaign presentation for internet viewing is available. [Reach the Author Here!]

PostScript – You can listen me describe the above in Part 2 of this interview with the anonymous author of the pamphlet “Common Sense Revisited” from Wednesday.  Topics covered in the interview include the FED, governomics, and gold.

PPS – You can also hear me try to describe this (and I badly butchered it!) in my first-ever political interview conducted on Sunday with fellow Nolan Chart columnist Gary Wood on his show March of Liberty.  I was a bit nervous my first time out!

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“Intelligence is quickness in seeing things as they are.” – George Santayana

Nolan Chart Facebook Group Page Created

Summary of Articles and Bibliography for Jake Towne, the Champion of the Constitution (5/9/2009)

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Re: Health Care – An Open Letter to Congressman Dent from Jake Towne

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The Pentagon has already quickly denied the report’s accuracy, but with the government refusing to release the photos to the public they are also denying themselves any ability to fully refute the claims made against them – assuming the claims are false. I simply don’t understand how the Obama administration can, on the one hand, attempt to downplay what is depicted in the photographs, and on the other think it too dangerous to release them to the public.

While the stated fear is consistently that releasing the photographs may “inflame anti-American opinion, and … put our troops in greater danger,” isn’t the fact that torture and prisoner abuse took place really what will inflame opinion? Covering up what happened – and ineffectively at that – simply raises more questions and keeps the issue at the forefront. While Obama rightly states the abuse to be unacceptable, without an open process – without proper transperency – it creates and fosters a culture where abuse could spring up under the protection of the government not wanting to reveal what is essentially embarassing to them.

Until the photos are fully released, the continued spectre of what they may be hiding will do noone any good – nor will the slow, inevitable drip by drip reveal of details from people who have seen them. On this one, I agree with Martin Garbus at the Huffington Post – releasing all of the photos now and coming clean is the only way to begin the process of truly moving forward. But not only that, it’s the only course which would actually save lives, not merely veil an embarassing truth.

This post will be a hodgepodge of random thoughts I’ve had over the past week (or so) that never made it into an “official” article.

The topic of torture has been in the news and I find it fascinating because there are so many levels of arguments to the debate. No one put it more succinctly than Shepard Smith on a recent episode of Freedom Watch. The main arguments can be highlighted with a series of questions:

1. Is enhanced interrogation truly torture?
2. Is torture against the law?
3. Does torture work?
4. Is torture morally wrong?

Here are the answers:

1. Yes
2. Yes
3. Not really, and it doesn’t really matter because…
4. Absolutely

I used to think everyone hounding me to “get on Twitter” was torture (wow, poor segue I know). Now that I’ve done so I wouldn’t say that I’m addicted necessarily, but I’ve certainly discovered a new world (in 140 characters or less or course). Most of our articles are automatically “tweeted” right when they are published. So feel free to follow me/us at @LibertyMaven and start using this social media tool to help spread the freedom message.

Speaking of Twitter (damn I’m good at these transitions), Rand Paul is on Twitter sending his followers updates about his potential Senate run. His father Ron is not. In fact it wouldn’t surprise me if someone were to ask Ron Paul if he twitters, he’d answer, “No I exercise daily and am in very good health.”

His organization, The Campaign For Liberty is on Twitter though. Check them out at @C4Liberty.

I hear that Freedom Watch may be on the verge of cracking the Fox News Channel lineup. Judge Andrew Napolitano is on Twitter. Check him out at @judgenap. One of his regular guests, Lew Rockwell, has also been known to tweet from time to time.

Yesterday morning I read the news about 4 people being arrested in a plot to bomb synagogues in New York. The arrested were apparently highly angry about the U.S. action in Afghanistan and wanted to conduct a bit of a jihad on their own. The reason I’m mentioning this is because of the idiotic comments from people like Mayor Bloomberg:

“This latest attempt to attack our freedoms shows that the homeland security threats against New York City are sadly all too real and underscores why we must remain vigilant in our efforts to prevent terrorism”

I’m certainly happy they caught these bastards. Perhaps they wouldn’t have dreamed of doing something earning that moniker if the U.S. actually focused our efforts targeting those who attacked us on 9/11. Instead, we invaded and are now occupying entire countries. No wonder these bastards became bastards. If China or Russia chose to invade and occupy Texas or Florida I’d imagine we’d be quite bastard-like ourselves.

Recently, Congress (lead by Democrats) voted to refuse funding for Obama to close Gitmo. A part of me wonders if this was the plan all along from the Obama administration. This way he doesn’t get fully blamed for not being able to close Gitmo by the end of the year. Or is this too conspiracy theory-ish?

I’ll end with a few of my own random thoughts. I tweeted these during the past couple weeks:

• What is more harmful to our Republic than the 2 party de-facto duopoly increasing State tyranny in the name of bipartisanship?

• Legalize, tax, and regulate prostitution? Sure, let’s turn something fun and exciting into a trip to the DMV. (actually a Mike Miller, @LibertarianMike re-tweet)

• A girl once told me that the term “states rights” is racist hate speech. Little did I know she’d be running the DHS one day.

• If I had a dollar for every year of the 96 years since the Fed was created I’d have an inflation-adjusted $4.57 now!

• Spreading democracy at gunpoint is an absurdity. Such attempts result in socialism, fascism, or elements of both

• Does being anti-Fed mean you are pro-anorexia? (some people didn’t get this, perhaps it’s too off the wall)

That’s all for this week. Enjoy your Memorial day weekend!

I can’t make any commentary better than the words Lew Rockwell used when he posted this:

Here he argues against intervention, mass murder, and financial disaster, and shows up one of the most sinister of Obama’s lying neocons, Richard Holbrooke. (from LewRockwell.com)

Watch the fun below.

Listen to the interview below in two parts, thanks to MinnesotaChris.

Part 2

Listen via youtube below in two parts. Thanks to Tim Peck for sending us the video links.