Constitutional Guarantee

Does the Constitution state that the government would guarantee the people a job, a decent home, or a minimum standard of living?

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Patrick Henry – The Fire-Tongued Orator

Patrick Henry was born in Hanover County, Virginia in 1736, to John and Sarah Winston Henry. A symbol of America’s struggle for liberty and self-government, Patrick Henry was a lawyer, patriot, orator, and willing participant in virtually every aspect of the founding of America.

• Born May 29, 1736 in Hanover County, Virginia
• Protested British tyranny
• Symbol of American struggle for liberty
• Served in the Virginia House of Burgesses and the Continental Congress
• Five-term governor of Virginia
• Delivered the famous “Give me liberty or give me death!” speech. Listen to the speech.
• Died June 6, 1799 at Red Hill Plantation, Virginia

Early Years

John Henry educated young Patrick at home, including teaching him to read Latin, but Patrick studied law on his own. In 1760, he appeared in Williamsburg to take his attorney’s examination before Robert Carter Nicholas, Edmund Pendleton, John and Peyton Randolph, and George Wythe, and from that day forward, Patrick Henry’s story is inseparable from the stream of Virginia history.

Powerful words resonated

In 1763, arguing the famed Parson’s Cause in Hanover County, Patrick Henry proclaimed that a king who would veto a good and necessary law made by a locally elected representative body was not a father to his people but “a tyrant who forfeits the allegiance of his subjects.” Henry amplified his idea to the point of treason in defending his resolutions against the Stamp Act in the House of Burgesses May 30, 1765.

Carried away by the fervor of his own argument, the plainly dressed burgess from Louisa County exclaimed that “Caesar had his Brutus, Charles the First his Cromwell, and George the Third…” At this point, cries of treason rose from all sides, but with hardly a pause, Henry neatly “baffled the charge vociferated” and won the burgesses for his cause. Five of his resolutions approved, the new leader in Virginia politics saddled his lean horse and took the westward road out of Williamsburg. (After his departure, one of the resolutions was overturned.) Henceforth, Patrick Henry was a leader in every protest against British tyranny and in every movement for colonial rights.

Strong believer in citizens’ right to bear arms

In March 1775, Patrick Henry urged his fellow Virginians to arm in self-defense, closing his appeal (uttered at St. John’s Church in Richmond, where the legislature was meeting) with the immortal words: “I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death.”

Actions marked the beginning of revolution in Virginia

Henry’s call to arms was carried over the protests of more conservative patriots and was one of the causes of the order for Lord Dunmore, the royal governor, to remove some gunpowder from the Magazine. Henry, “a Quaker in religion but the very devil in politics,” mobilized the militia to force restitution of the powder. Since Henry’s action followed the British march on Concord by only a few hours, it is said to mark the beginning of the American Revolution in Virginia.

Served in public office for nearly 30 years

Henry served in the Virginia House of Burgesses; he was a member of the Virginia committee of Correspondence, a delegate to the Virginia Convention, and a delegate to the Virginia Constitution Ratification Convention. He played a prominent role in the May 6, 1776, convention and became the first governor of the commonwealth under its new constitution. Patrick Henry served five terms as governor of Virginia. He died in 1799 at his home on Red Hill Plantation.

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Why is Greenspan “Shocked”?

On October 23rd, in a financial witch hunt, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform questioned Allen Greenspan,  the former chairman of the federal reserve, on the current market crisis.

Greenspan is quoted as saying that he “found a flaw” in his professed ideology that the free-market is best left to regulate itself. And that he was “partially” wrong in his opposition to regulation in the derivatives market, expecting that institutions would protect shareholders and there investments. He then went on to advocate increased regulation in the securities market.

While it is disconcerting at the least to hear the former fed chairman make these sort of retractions on the decisions with which he has been supposedly “guiding” the fed with. It is even more troubling that individuals will read some of the results of this witch hunt and believe the tripe that is being spouted.

During the heyday of the asset/realestate boom in the US and around the world, few seemed to care or even be concerned at the looming potential economic disaster that was being nursed along. Only now after the infant has emerged as an adolescent rebel and is causing havoc around the globe is it on everyone’s mind.

Let’s take a quick step backward and look at this crisis that everyone in power is quickly jumping to point the blame for, and do some basic analysis. We could step further back in time to show these effects over the past many years, but for the sake of the readers time we will just jump back to 2000. On the heels of the dot com bomb, the federal reserve lowers it’s interest rate to an all time low, in an effort to marginalize the impact of this upset in the financial industry. Then not long after on September 11th 2001 an attack on the financial district of New York sent the US and world markets into an uproar, fearing long term financial impacts the fed again lowers its rate to an all time low, and then continues to keep the rate abnormally low for the next 5 years.

Along with the low interest rates, the credit liquidity that the fed makes available for banks was exceptionally easy for them to tap into. And to add to the market abnormalities the US government had created laws that in an effort to get everyone who wanted a home into a home, made it even easier to qualify for various mortgage programs. So with easy credit liquidity and legislation providing low lending requirements, supposed “Predatory Lenders” and conservative lenders alike had customers knocking down their doors to get a “piece of the action”. There were programs that required so little that they only wanted to know the borrowers credit score, and that they had sufficient funds to pay only 2 months on the mortgage, with only that information they could approve the applicant on a loan up to 1.5 million dollars.

With credit so easy to come by, people naturally looked to a traditional asset like real estate as a method by which to tap into the credit, and create income streams based solely on the leverage of their own and others credit worthiness. The only thing which fueled this boom, was the ease of credit acquisition. As people bought homes, the prices raised as they would in a normal/natural free market. This allowed them to again leverage credit to purchase another piece of real estate at the increased market value and continue the process.

To say that this was an error in the way that the free-market runs would be to discount the effects that these market controls had on what has happened to our economy. A person or business operating within a completely free market relies on market indicators to determine the choices that they will make. The free-market naturally seeks for a point of equilibrium where the supply matches the demand in the market. But when some of the key market factors are arbitrarily controlled or forced into certain positions that they wouldn’t naturally be in a free-market (ie: Credit Liquidity, Interest Rates, Legislation requirements on the market) then that sends the other market indicators into a flux that doesn’t make any rational sense. Individuals in the market will naturally make their decisions for their own self interest based on those indicators, which would be in the path of the greatest profit for the least expense. This decision lead most people to decide on taping their credit to increase their profitability, because the requirements were kept artificially low.

A totally free-market would have naturally increased the interest rate and the requirements for getting the loans, thus normalizing the market long before we reached this crisis state. The market would have not allowed for this or many other similar economic catastrophes which have occurred over the last 95 years. These have been the result of allowing our market to be arbitrarily controlled and managed by a group of private bankers who are seeking for their own gain at the expense of the rest of the US. This group has created and managed the fed over that time period, they passed the fed as a method to avoid the market instability that a “free-market” offered, but as a result we have experienced much more frequent and more devastating economic troubles since it’s inception than we ever did from the creation of the United States until the creation of the fed in 1913.

I would agree with Greenspan and say that his philosophy has been flawed, not in the case of the market being the best regulator of itself, but rather in the assertion that the Fed should maintain it’s arbitrary control on the market.

The demon that created this disaster is now being hailed as the white knight with the ability to manufacture the funds to bail out our banks and potentially the banks of other nations rather than being held accountable for it’s role in perpetrating this nefarious blunder on the US people. If we are going to call for additional regulation as a result of this catastrophe, let us regulate the architects rather than the subcontractors, and call for the US house of representatives to exercise their constitutional responsibility to justly oversee the actions of the Fed and call for greater oversight of its actions.

Article Links:

Reuters

Bloomberg

Frédéric Bastiat – A French Founding Father

Claude Frédéric Bastiat was born in 1801, in France. As he grew he experienced many of the hardships that come with Wars and Governement Economic intervention. Being an exporter by trade, he was able to see their effects first hand. Coming of age during the Napoleonic wars, and then living through another of France’s revolutions, he was seasoned with understanding of what an oppressive and overwhelming government can do to the people. He wrote many works and shared many speaches, seaking for a freeing of the economy and the people, rather than forcing them to live under monarchical or socialistic forces. He could be declared to be the Thomas Jefferson of France, well read, well written and easy to understand. We could all learn a great deal by reading some of his great although brief works like The Law.

“Try to imagine a regulation of labor imposed by force that is not a violation of liberty; a transfer of wealth imposed by force that is not a violation of property. If you cannot reconcile these contradictions, then you must conclude that the law cannot organize labor and industry without organizing injustice.” – from The Law

Deficit Vs. Debt

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Many people hear Congressmen or the President talk about the Federal Deficit or National Debt, but it can some times be confusing. What is the difference? How does that impact all of us? Let’s take a look.

Socialism’s Deadly Embrace

If you want to cook a frog, you cannot simply drop it into a pot of boiling water. If the water is too hot it will jump out to escape the pain. But if you place the frog in cool water, and then heat the water slowly, before the frog knows what is happening it has been boiled alive.

The only difference between the given scenarios is that the first was a very sudden change in temperature which the frog instantly recognized and resisted. The second was a very gradual change in which the water ultimately reached the same temperature as the first scenario, but because of the gradual heating the frog grew accustomed to the increased heat and was not alerted to its perilous state until it was to late.

The Boiling Pot – Totalitarianism

This example parallels the encroachment of totalitarianism in the United States. During the cold war there was a vicious example of totalitarianism in the world. The communist governments openly opposed our free-market economy and our close adherence to the principles of self-reliance and individual liberty. There was a general consensus in the US about communism; that it was an enemy of those principles.  And as such, we were easily excited to action whenever there was a communist threat (perceived or real) at home or abroad.

This closely parallels the first instance in the frog example. Today, if a communistic threat were identified, Americans would jump up in opposition. But the reality is we are not likely to be dropped into the turbulent, boiling waters of communism, and be stripped of our liberties in a single blow.

Slowly Warming

But what of the slowly warming frog? Since the advent of the Great Depression we have had the water of socialism slowly warming us and getting us accustomed to the feeling, it’s painful effects increasing over time. The steps taken by Washington during the Great Depression were allowed because of the economic pain that the nation was feeling, and have slowly intensified each decade through additional programs and subsidies. The arguments justifying socialistic encroachment are always aimed at “helping” those who are suffering, but the net result is always bondage and slavery. The pain that is supposed to be averted through socialistic legislation is only temporarily averted at best, and greatly intensified at worst.

These calculated steps have been increased over time until we have been been forced to swallow the late, great “Wall Street Bail-Out Bill”. Many people saw the evil serpent of socialism hiding inside this bill with all it’s many revisions, and urged their representatives to vote against it. But our representatives did not heed our call, instead they spurned the will of the American people and chose to give in to the hype and supposed “expert” council.  We were told that not bailing out wall street would lead to a total meltdown in the market similar to the Great Depression.

You Break It, We’ll Buy It

Now that We The People are the proud owners of this 700 billion dollar debt which Washington orchestrated, what should our reaction be? Will we call for our legislators to revoke the legislation, or will we simply throw up our hands believing there is nothing we can do about it? Will we continue to soak in the turbulently boiling waters of Socialism even longer, preparing us for the final death blow?

It is important to realize that Communists are simply Socialists in a hurry, they prefer bloody, violent transfers of power to give them totalitarian control.  Socialists, on the other hand, attempt to accomplish the same ends through incremental transfers of control to the government through legislative processes. With either route the end result is the same, the power to legally exercise arbitrary control and abuse over the citizens.

What Will It Take?

If we sit idly by and allow this process to continue the citizens of the United States will soon loose all of the freedoms they now enjoy.  This loss happens because we aren’t aware that our rights are being taken from us through continual socialistic abuses.  Many of us don’t realize we’re being boiled!

What must happen in order for you to choose to stand against this perversion of our constitutional principles?  Are you willing to work to restore this great Republic to its former strength and glory?

May we have the strength to break this deathly embrace before it makes a meal of the rest of our liberty.

Billions in Earmarks accompany the “Bail-Out” bill

Billions of dollars in earmarks have been added to the “Bail-Out” bill along with a few structural changes, in order to make it more “Palatable” to the US public. Some of them are the most outrageous items that I have ever seen, very much akin to the “Bridge to Nowhere” bill.

Among the Porky contents of this 451 page bill are:

• $2 million in tax breaks for Manufacturers of Wooden Arrows for Children.
• $100 million in tax breaks for Racetracks.
• $192 million in excise tax rebates for Rum producers in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
• $148 million in tax breaks for Wool Fabric manufacturers who use Imported Yarn.
• $49 million in tax breaks to the Plaintiffs in the Exxon Valdez Oil spill suit.
• $33 million in tax breaks for those who earned income in American Samoa.
• $478 million in tax breaks for Hollywood studios that keep their production here in the US.
• Increasing the FDIC coverage from $100k to $250k

just to name a few. Many said that they voted for the bill simply because the economy was in such a dire situation, and it required help, regardless of the earmarks that tag along with the actual bill.

Let us not decieve ourselves, this bill will just serve to bind us further than we have already found ourselves. So do we wait and stand idly by as our freedoms are continually eroded away, as in this case, through throwing us a bone. Or do we stand up and let our representitives know that they can keep their tainted goods, we don’t want them, we just want our liberty back.

Nuclear Proliferation and You

Nestled inbetween the frantic debate sessions surrounding the 700 Billion Dollar Wall Street Bail-Out bill, there was additional legislation that was making it’s way through the senate. Having already passed the House with an 298-117 vote last saturday, the senate was set to debate and then pass the culmination of over two years of talks between India and the United States.

The treaty that in the end passed the US Senate with a 86-13 vote, sends mixed signals to our allies and enemies around the world. This treaty allows for the selling and sharing with India much of our Nuclear Power Generation technology that is traditionally not permitted to be transported outside the US, unless it is going to a country with which we have a similar relationship.

This treaty will go a long way to helping India maintain and expand its technological marketplace which is placing an ever larger strain on the current power resources, that are having difficulty keeping up with the demand, seeing as demaind is growing at a rate of approximately 9%/year. This can be a major boon for them, as it provides some cheap energy sources for india to tap into while they develop more of their country.

So what does this mean for US business interests? While some of the nations largest banks are seeking to receive live preserving sustinance from the apparent nurse maid of the economy. Many other businesses are gearing up to profit from the multi-billion dollar deals that will be created as a result of this treaty being signed. Which could be a great boon for the average employee of a giant electronics firm like GE, but what did we comprimise to get it? Will the agreement, and the ultimate proliferation of Nuclear Weapons throughout India be the cause of greater conflicts between India and their Red Headed neighbor Pakistan? Will this be worth the price that we may ultimately pay for encouraging this action? I guess only time will tell.

Cleon Skousen – The Smiling Patriot

Devoting almost his entire life to the promotion of principles of good government. Cleon Skousen is on of the Premier Pyro’s. He has written dozens of books on the subject of good government, and the founders of our country. Cleon was a country boy, but serving by J Edgar Hoover’s side in the FBI and as a Chief of Police for several years gave him a great base to understand the serious threats that lay in our way.

His efforts along with many other Pyro’s ignited fires within the people of this nation and created a wellspring of love for this country that helped us pull together and avert the great storms that were upon us as a nation at the time Jimmy Carter’s presidency. We owe him a great debt for his great service and ability to see and expound on principles in government. he is indeed among the highest and brightest of men that have lived in our modern times.

Many of Cleon’s works can be found at skousen2000.com.

Ron Paul – Old Reliable

A modern day Statesman, Ron Paul has shared principles of good sound government far and wide. Early in the 2008 Presidential campaign, he was a very popular candidate and put up quite a fight against the average establishment foes.

Although his presidential race is over, he continues to share principles of liberty and good government as a congressman and through inspiring others to grab hold of the title of liberty and learn the truth.

He has started the Campaign for Liberty movement and has released many books including his latest “The Revolution, A Manifesto“, Three Cheers for Dr. Paul.

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