By Matt Hawes
The House is currently in the midst of a three hour debate over H Con. Res. 248, which would require President Obama to pull U.S. troops out of Afghanistan within 30 days of the resolution’s passage by Congress or no later than the end of 2010.
Update:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=422uTaGxY8o
Update #2: The bill failed 65-356. See the roll call.
By Matt Hawes
Via the UK’s Telegraph:
Those who do not wish to have their details on the £11 billion computer system are supposed to be able to opt out by informing health authorities.
But doctors have accused the Government of rushing the project through, meaning that patients have had their details uploaded to the database before they have had a chance to object….
At present 1.29 million people have had their details placed on the system. A further 8.9 million records are due to be added by June. By the end of next year, the NHS hopes to have more than 50 million uploaded.
The “summary” records contain basic medical information including illnesses, vaccination history, and could include medication patients have been given. Ages and addresses are also included….
I’m sure the British people received the exact same assurances from their government that their records and privacy would not be abused. Let’s keep this story handy to show to people as the health care debate continues to rage on in the U.S.
By Matt Holdridge
Robert Auerbach, a professor of public affairs at the University of Texas at Austin and author of the book “Deception and Abuse at the Fed” recently wrote an article on the Huffington Post outlining The Federal Open Market Committee at the Fed and their ability to destroy source records.
In the article:
Should the policymaking committee of the most powerful peacetime entity in the United States government be allowed to destroy their source records? The Federal Open Market Committee of the nation’s central bank, an intricate part of the United States government may be continuing to destroy its source records, a policy it began in 1995 with an unrecorded vote -no fingerprints – conducted by then Chairman Alan Greenspan.
…The FOMC controls the nation’s money supply, targets short term interest rates and since 1962 took it upon themselves to bypass the Congressional appropriations process and loan money to foreign governments. I have described [in Deception and Abuse at the Fed] how the FOMC mislead the Congress in 1962 when they began this activity…
Read the rest here.
By Matt Hawes
Seriously? Is there not one area left in which this adminstration is not willing to make people angry?
Via ESPN:
The Obama administration will accept no more public input for a federal strategy that could prohibit U.S. citizens from fishing some of the nation’s oceans, coastal areas, Great Lakes, and even inland waters….
And just take a guess on how plans are being made to implement this…
Consequently, unless anglers speak up and convince their Congressional representatives to stop this bureaucratic freight train, it appears that the task force will issue a final report for “marine spatial planning” by late March, with President Barack Obama then issuing an Executive Order to implement its recommendations – whatever they may be….
By Matt Hawes
Via The Wall Street Journal:
Under the potentially controversial plan still taking shape in the Senate, all legal U.S. workers, including citizens and immigrants, would be issued an ID card with embedded information, such as fingerprints, to tie the card to the worker….
By Matt Holdridge
From the Atlantic:
Why is the national security community treating the “Enemy Belligerent, Interrogation, Detention, and Prosecution Act of 2010,” introduced by Sens. John McCain and Joseph Lieberman on Thursday as a standard proposal, as a simple response to the administration’s choices in the aftermath of the Christmas Day bombing attempt? A close reading of the bill suggests it would allow the U.S. military to detain U.S. citizens without trial indefinitely in the U.S. based on suspected activity. Read the bill here, and then read the summarized points after the jump.
According to the summary, the bill sets out a comprehensive policy for the detention, interrogation and trial of suspected enemy belligerents who are believed to have engaged in hostilities against the United States by requiring these individuals to be held in military custody, interrogated for their intelligence value and not provided with a Miranda warning.
The post goes on.
There is no distinction between U.S. persons–visa holders or citizens–and non-U.S. persons.)
It would require these “belligerents” to be coded as “high-value detainee[s]” to be held in military custody and interrogated for their intelligence value by a High-Value Detainee Interrogation Team established by the president. (The H.I.G., of course, was established to bring a sophisticated interrogation capacity to the federal justice system.)
This begs the question, what is a “belligerent” and how loose will this definition become with time?
By Matt Hawes
Sounds like all the more reason to keep pushing.
The Huffington Post’s Ryan Grim reports:
Secretary Tim Geithner, Assistant Treasury Secretary Alan Krueger and Gene Sperling, a counselor to the secretary, held a briefing Monday with new media reporters and financial bloggers during which they discussed the Fed audit and other topics. Under the briefing’s ground rules, the officials could be paraphrased but not quoted, and the paraphrase could not be connected to a specific official….
That’s leadership!
Asked whether he supports the House-passed measure to open the Fed to an audit, which was cosponsored by Reps. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) and Ron Paul (R-Texas), a senior Treasury official said he is intensely opposed to it.
The official said the measure would undermine the independence of monetary policy and could restrict the ability of the Fed to act in times of crisis. He said that the GAO already has audit authority and that the chairman routinely testifies before Congress….
By Doug Bandow
It is commonly thought that liberal Democrats are defenders of civil liberties. But as advocates of big government, the Left is no principled defender of freedom. Barack Obama is the worst sort of status quo Big Government liberal–adopting George W. Bush’s wars and attacks on civil liberties as his own.
although they will try, it will be extremely difficult even for his most devoted loyalists to deny the fundamental cowardice of Barack Obama. Think about how many times this will have happened:
During the primary campaign, Obama unequivocally vowed to filibuster any FISA bill that contained telecom immunity, only to turn around — once the nomination was secure — and vote against a Democratic filibuster of such a bill, and then in favor of the underlying bill itself; in other words, he blatantly violated his own unequivocal vow in order to avoid being called Soft on Terror (but did so assuring his believing supporters that, once in office, he’d fix the surveilllance excesses he helped enact; don’t hold your breath waiting for that to happen). Then, last May, Obama announced that he would comply with two court decisions by releasing photographs of detainee abuses in the Pentagon’s custody, only to turn around two weeks later and completely reverse himself after Liz Cheney and friends accused him of Endangering the Troops and Helping Terrorists. If, in the face of “GOP demands” that Mohamed be denied a civilian trial, he again reverses himself — this time on the highest-profile civil liberties decision of his administration — he will unmistakably reveal himself, even to his most enamored admirers, as someone so utterly devoid not only of principle but also of resolve: you just blow on him a little and he falls down and shatters into little pieces.
Even just as a political matter, is there any better way to ensure that Americans will view him as weak than by abandoning one key decision after the next as a result of the slightest pressure? What kind of person could possibly admire a “leader” who does this?
There are few dedicated defenders of liberty in the political square these days. Barack Obama certainly is not one of them. In fact, we might as well talk about the Bush-Obama administration when it comes these issues.
Doug Bandow, American Conservative Defense Alliance
By tshoes4liberty
Last night, Ron Paul addressed a packed auditorium of nearly 1700 students at the Ohio State University.
The evening began with musical entertainment from Jordan Page, a guitarist who sang songs promoting peace and civil rights. Following the performance, Foxnews.com’s Andrew “Judge” Napolitano broadcast his show “Freedom Watch” live from the stage.
When Paul took the stage a little after 8, the crowd reached its loudest volume.
Dr. Paul frequently expresses his delight at speaking on college campuses.
“I enjoy going around the country and speaking to the students,” Paul said. He was positive about high numbers of students attending his events. “That delights me because of the burden placed on that generation.”
He ended the speech with words of hope for the future:
“There’s reason to be optimistic,” he said. “I go to the universities and see young people involved. Young people need to be involved in the revolution.”
Read the rest.
By Andrew Ward
For a window into the possible future of U.S. domestic policy, I make sure to “monitor” the flamboyantly Orwellian policies of the United Kingdom. Here’s the latest from British Brother:
All dogs are to be compulsorily microchipped so that their owners can be more easily traced under a crackdown on dangerous dogs to be unveiled today.
The idea, as home secretary Alan Johnson put it, is to ensure the public’s right to feel safe in their homes and on the street. Here is the proposal that will allegedly make Britains feel safer:
Under the scheme a microchip the size of a grain of rice is injected under the skin of the dog between its shoulder blades. The chip contains a unique code number, the dog’s name, age, breed and health as well as the owner’s name, address and phone number. When the chip is “read” by a handheld scanner the code number is revealed and the details can be checked on a national database.
Why don’t they just cut to the chase and try chipping the owners? Or better yet, chip everyone just in case they might have thoughts about owning a poodle.
Read the rest here.
By Matt Hawes
On Thursday, February 18, hundreds of freedom activists gathered at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel for “Liberty Forum 2010,” one of C4L’s featured events at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).
Speakers included C4L President John Tate, historian (and Forum emcee) Tom Woods, Judge Napolitano, and Congressman Ron Paul.
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=B15A9EB18FC3F13A
A Q&A followed the speeches and will be posted tomorrow (with video of other events following very soon).
Update:
By Doug Bandow
Will Congress listen to the people? According to Rasmussen Reports:
As President Obama and his congressional allies search for a way to pass their proposed health care plan, most voters remain opposed to the legislative effort.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 42% favor the plan while 53% are opposed. These figures include just 20% who Strongly Favor the plan and 41% who are Strongly Opposed.
Last week, support for the health care plan inched up to 44% following the president’s televised health care summit. However, that mild bounce has faded, and support is back to where it was for months. With the exception of last week’s results, overall support for the president’s health care plan has stayed in a very narrow range from 38% to 42% since Thanksgiving.
As has been the case for months, Democrats overwhelmingly favor the plan, and Republicans are overwhelmingly opposed. As for those not affiliated with either major party, 32% favor the plan, and 64% are opposed.
Doug Bandow, American Conservative Defense Alliance
By Doug Bandow
Who are the Ron Paul people, asks “Southern Avenger” Jack Hunter? They are the heart of the conservative movement!
then there are the so-called Ron Paul people. Paul’s CPAC speech was not simply an exercise in Democrat bashing. It was a lesson on how the GOP must finally deliver on the conservatism it has always promised. According to Paul, Republicans must finally show true fidelity to the Constitution. Paul asked the crowd to cast a critical eye upon the Right’s enthusiasm for wars that don’t make much sense and cost too much money and the party’s propensity for incurring massive debt. In short, Paul called for an end to big government – even the GOP form of it. Asks Pat Buchanan: “Who in the Republican Party today is calling for a Barry Goldwater-like rollback of federal power and federal programs? Except Ron Paul.” Answer: No one.
Often derided, the many young people who support Paul are the heart and soul of what has been dubbed the Ron Paul Revolution. And if their visible and vocal presence at CPAC was any indication, they are a force to be reckoned with.
I would expect Paul supporters to become even more visible and more vocal in the future. It will be impossible to silence a genuine movement driven by actual conservative passion, and not simply the two-party horse race the Republican establishment continues to mistake for principle.
In their ignorance, conservatives who boo Paul at CPAC or anywhere else are essentially dismissing the only force in contemporary American politics that is serious about smaller government. And despite the constant media spin and gnashing of teeth, Ron Paul and his people’s onward march is not representative of some sort of confusion within the conservative movement – but the only conservative movement.
Doug Bandow, American Conservative Defense Alliance
By Kevin Brett
Gordon Brown wants to expand the government-operated DNA database in the UK.
SkyNews Reports:
Brown notes that the DNA database has helped to effectively prosecute offending criminals. As with any technological development, such a tool can be used for good or for ill. The problem lies not in the use of the technology itself, but in the strong-armed monopoly of force wielding the power; aka the government.
A free-market based on voluntary endorsement and association would be most effective at regulating against unjustifiable usages of technology. Any breach of contract in such a circumstance would be much less devastating to the overall welfare of the populace, due to the dynamic nature of a competitive economy. A forceful monopoly offers no such refuge.
By Matt Holdridge
From the Philadelphia Daily News
IT WAS ELIOT NESS and the Untouchables, as played by the Keystone Kops.
More than a dozen armed State Police officers conducted simultaneous raids last week on three popular Philadelphia bars known for their wide beer selections. The cops confiscated hundreds of bottles of expensive ales and lagers, now in State Police custody at an undisclosed location.
The alleged offense: Although the bar owners had bought the beer legally from licensed Pennsylvania distributors and had paid all the necessary taxes, the police claimed that nobody had registered the precise names of the beers with the state Liquor Control Board – a process that requires the brewers or their importers to pay a $75 registration fee for each product they want to sell in Pennsylvania.
Ironically, one of the “unregistered” beers was called Pliny the Younger, which is named after ancient Rome’s arguably most famous public charge, or what we would likely call a bureaucrat.
By Doug Bandow
Great Britain continues to remind us what happens when the government rations care to save money. Reports the Times of London:
DAMNING reports on the state of the National Health Service, suppressed by the government, reveal how patients’ needs have been neglected.
They diagnose a blind pursuit of political and managerial targets as the root cause of a string of hospital scandals that have cost thousands of lives.
The harsh verdict on the state of the NHS, after a spending splurge under Labour between 2000 and 2008, raises worrying questions about the future quality of the health service as budgets are squeezed.
One report, based on the advice of almost 200 top managers and doctors, says hospitals ignored basic hygiene to cram in patients to meet waiting-time targets.
It says “several interviewees” cited the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells [NHS Trust in Kent where 269 deaths during 2005-6 were caused by infection with Clostridium difficile bacteria].
“Managers crowded in patients in order to meet waiting-time targets and, in the process, lost sight of the fundamental hygiene requirements for infection prevention,” the report stated.
Is that really what Americans want? If not, they had better make their views known in Congress before ObamaCare is crammed down their throats.
Doug Bandow, American Conservative Defense Alliance
By Matt Hawes
This Monday, March 8, Dr. Paul and Judge Napolitano will be coming to Columbus, Ohio for a live broadcast of Freedom Watch! Campaign for Liberty is joining YAL in sponsoring the event. Foxnews.com will be streaming the program, as well as Congressman Paul’s speech afterward.
The broadcast starts at 7 pm eastern at the Newport Music Hall, and it is free and open to the public.
Update: Watch live here.
By Doug Bandow
We erect statues to the famous–more often opponents of liberty, alas, when it comes to politicians. But the cause of liberty depends on all of us, irrespective of our position, wealth, and fame.
The New York Times highlights the death of one of the unsung heroes of liberty:
Henri Salmide, a former German naval officer who defied orders to blow up the French port of Bordeaux in 1944, died on Feb. 23. He was 90 and lived in Bordeaux.
His wife, Henriette, confirmed the death.
Born Heinz Stahlschmidt, Mr. Salmide was a junior officer serving in Bordeaux as a bomb-disposal expert when, in August 1944, he was instructed to destroy the city’s port facilities and docks, among France’s most extensive.
Initially following orders, he stockpiled thousands of pounds of ordnance in a German bunker and was to lay the explosives throughout the port. The Germans expected that about 3,500 people would die in the explosions.
But Petty Officer Stahlschmidt, nicknamed the “Little Frenchman” by the French dock workers who knew him, chose to disobey the orders and instead exploded the bunker itself, killing as many as 50 Nazi soldiers.
Henri Salmide could not stop World War II, or Nazi aggression, or the Holocaust. But he could save 3500 Frenchmen and reduce the needless destruction near the end of the most horrific war in human history. And when called upon to risk his career and even life, he made the right decision.
Such is the case for so many absolutely essentially, but largely unknown, soldiers for liberty throughout human history.
By dljholt
Dear Friends of Liberty,
Morgan Griffith claims he cannot substitute the language of SB501 with the language of HB69 saying “it is not germane”.
Don’t be fooled! It is germane if the Speaker says it is.
Both bills deal with the same Code of Virginia and are about firearms.
What else does he need for it to be germane?
Contact Speaker Bill Howell and Delegate Morgan Griffith NOW and tell them it is the will of the people that is at stake and we won’t settle for excuses to not do what’s right.
Senator Marsh has set up HB69 to die in his subcommittee which is against Senate rules. The bill deserves to be fully vetted and if the Senate won’t do it, it’s the obligation of the House to get the bill that they passed with a bi-partisan vote of 70 – 29 on the floor for a vote even if it means it has to be a concurrence vote.
Suggested script:
Dear Speaker Howell and Delegate Morgan,
As you know, Henry Marsh has decided to kill all gun bills in his subcommittee against senate rules. It has been determined that the only way to resurrect HB69, Virginia Firearms Freedom Act, is to offer it as a substitute to one of the senate bills in the House. The VA Campaign for Liberty had only two bills in the General Assembly (HB10, HB69). We will not let this bill go down without a fight and would greatly appreciate your assistance.
We have researched the bills and believe that SB501 is germane. SB501 and HB69 come from the exact same section of the Code 18.2-308 and deal with firearms. I understand that you believe this is not a germane bill. However, I also know this comes down to the ruling of the Speaker.
If I may be so bold, the infamous HB3202 Transportation bill of 2007 was an abomination of a bill that clearly violated the single object rule. It had everything in it from land use, VDOT reform, retroactive abuser fees, establishment of regional transportation authorities and more. It was determined that this bill was acceptable under the single object because it all fell under the umbrella of transportation. What we are dealing with here are two bills that deal with firearms out of the exact same section of the Virginia Code. This is not a stretch at all.
And, I may add, there was a previous ruling that repeal of One Gun a Month was NOT germane to a bill that, as I recall, exempted military personnel from, you guessed it, One Gun a Month.
It is time to use your authority and common-sense to expand liberty instead of hindering it, and limit government, rather than increase it.
Speaker Howell, we are very grateful that you co-sponsored this bill but that means little if you will not use your considerable clout and authority to pass it in the face of Senate machinations.
Delegate Griffith, you have expressed a willingness to offer an applicable substitute. This bill is very important to the VA Campaign for Liberty. We are looking to you to carry this bill over the victory line. It may help those of us who have come to view you as a Richmond operator to view you in a different light.
Sincerely,
(Your name)
Thank you for all of your support and all you do in defense of our freedoms.
Yours in liberty,
Donna Holt
By Phil Giraldi
The British media is reporting that the local councils in England have been installing microchips in the standardized garbage bins that people are required to use. The microchips can register how full the bin is and the long term intention is reportedly to punish people who are regarded as producing too much garbage. As always, the move is being promoted in a feel good way as an environmental measure to encourage people to recycle, which is already mandatory. The local councils will be able to set acceptable levels of garbage generation per capita and will be able to bill people who exceed their quotas. Britain is already the most surveilled country in the world with CCTV cameras on nearly every street corner and blanketing every major roadway but garbage monitoring might be regarded as a new low in the attempt by the nanny state to regulate every aspect of daily life. – Phil Giraldi, American Conservative Defense Alliance