Author: Campaign For Liberty Blog

By Tim Shoemaker

Yesterday, WikiLeaks released a video called “Collateral Murder” that shows two Apache helicopters firing upon Iraqis gathering in a street in Sadr City in 2007.  Among those killed were two Reuters employees, whose cameras were allegedly mistaken for RPGs by the military personnel in the choppers. 

Glenn Greenwald wrote about it yesterday, along with another incident by the US military regarding a similar matter in Afghanistan.  Writes Greenwald:

The video is truly gruesome and difficult even for the most hardened person to watch, but it should be viewed by everyone with responsibility for what the U.S. has done in Iraq and Afghanistan (i.e., every American citizen).

These are the sort of events that occur during drawn out military occupations.  We must be sure to place the blame for these incidents on the right people.  It would be easy to watch this video and blame the troops.  Instead, we must recognize that our troops are being put into these life or death scenarios where they must make split second decisions to kill or be killed because of policy decisions emanating from politicians in Washington, D.C.  Americans need to stand up and hold their elected officials accountable for keeping us in these endless engagements, otherwise you can expect more of these type of incidents to continue.

H/T to YAL’s Brian Beyer and Matt Cockerill.

By Jesse Benton

Courts have ruled against so-called “net neutrality,” keeping the governements hands off the internet, at least for the time being.

A federal appeals court has ruled that the Federal Communications Commission lacks the authority to require broadband providers to give equal treatment to all Internet traffic flowing over their networks.

Tuesday’s ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia is a big victory for Comcast Corp., the nation’s largest cable company. It had challenged the FCC’s authority to impose so called “net neutrality” obligations.

It marks a serious setback for the FCC, which needs authority to regulate the Internet in order to push ahead with key parts of its massive national broadband plan.

 

Read the rest here.

By Matt Hawes

Via The Washington Post:

The United States is seeking the maximum civil penalty of $16.375 million against Toyota for failing to notify safety regulators of its “sticky pedal” defect for at least four months, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced Monday….

Read the rest.

Of course, now that the government owns GM, nothing about this looks suspicious.

By Jesse Benton

In the final matchup of the Houston Chronicle’s March Madness poll. Vote here to make sure Dr. Paul crushes his opposition.

By Jesse Benton

Just got the word that Dr. Paul will be on MSNBC with Dylan Ratigan at 4:05 pm ET today. They will be discussing how to stand up to the establishment.

Update:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZLobTqlhes

By Phil Giraldi

A new bit of Senatorial mischief was initiated a month ago by the redoubtable duo John McCain and Joe Lieberman.  It is called the “Enemy Belligerent Interrogation, Detention and Prosecution Act of 2010.” The proposed law appears to have bipartisan support though it is not clear if it has enough votes to pass in the full Senate and the position of the Obama Administration regarding it has not been declared, though the president has not been shy about expanding presidential authority up until now. 

The act would make it possible for the US military to seize and imprison anyone anywhere in the world, including American citizens, on suspicion of involvement in terrorism.  This includes “material support” which is not otherwise defined and could prove to be extremely elastic.  The imprisonment would be under the authority of the president as commander in chief. McCain and Lieberman’s bill defines the detainees as “unprivileged enemy belligerents,” which is apparently what the Obama justice department prefers rather than the Bush and Cheney designation “unlawful enemy combatants.”  The bill’s language identifies and includes not only actual terrorists but also individuals of “potential intelligence value” and other categories “as the president considers appropriate.” Part of the bill, “Detention Without Trial of Unprivileged Enemy Belligerents,” authorizes suspects to “be detained without criminal charges and without trial for the duration of hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners.” As proponents of the bill support a “long war” against so-called Islamofascism, that could mean effectively forever.

The McCain-Lieberman bill would create a new category of prisoner for whom there will be no charges, no trial, and no civilian judicial review.  It would be a de facto suspension of the US Bill of Rights.

By Tim Shoemaker

The New York Times reported today that over the weekend, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai stepped up his anti-Western rhetoric in a speech to roughly 60 members of Parliament, mostly his supporters.  According to one member Mr. Karzai said, “If you and the international community pressure me more, I swear that I am going to join the Taliban.” 

Last Thursday, Karzai publicly accused the West and the United Nations of perpetrating fraud against him in the recent Presidential elections.  The outcome of the election resulted in Karzai securing another 5-year term.

The US and Nato propping up an unstable regime, in an unstable, war-torn, impoverished, tribal region will never result in a “secure”, centralized, pro-western state as the Western powers would like to see. Nation-building is foolishness in and of itself and attempting it in a country such as Afghanistan is madness.

Almost a decade after the war began we are no closer to seeing “democracy” emerge in Afghanistan.  There are fewer than 100 al-Qaeda in the country and the “Taliban” that exists there today is not even the same group that was around in 2001.  How many more lives must be sacrificed to save face on an impossible mission?

By Doug Bandow

We don’t want Iran to build nuclear weapons.  Understandable.  But America has made it very likely that Tehran will build nuclear weapons.  Notes Robert Parry:

Also, there is very little chance that these sanctions would stop the production of the bomb, or even slow it down. From the point of view of the ayatollahs, this effort is the prime imperative of national defense – only a country with nuclear arms is immune from American attack. Faced with the repeated threats by American spokesmen to overthrow their regime, no Iranian government could act differently. The more so since during the last century, the Americans and the British have repeatedly done exactly that. Iranian denials are perfunctory. According to all reports, even the most extreme Iranian opponents of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad support the acquisition of the bomb and would rally behind him if attacked.

In today’s world, countries end up in one of two categories.  They bomb other nations.  Or they get bombed.  Possession of nuclear weapons is the most effective way to get into the first category.  With the U.S. apparently prepared to wage war against any country for any reason, anyone on America’s “evil” list has an overriding incentive to better arm itself.

Yet another unintended consequence of an interventionist foreign policy.

Doug Bandow, American Conservative Defense Alliance

By Anthony Gregory

The corporatist aspect of it anyway, the propping up of the insurance industry — which is why that industry was behind Obama and Pelosi’s socialist scheme — has long been a pro-big business, Republican proposal. Romneycare, “free-market” thinktanks, and the health insurance lobby all supported versions of Obamacare. See Jon Walker at firedoglake.

However, progressives and left-liberals need to acknowledge another side to this: This was always inevitable. More government intervention in a mixed economy is always corporatist, always moving us toward fascism, not a socialist dream. This is because the socialist dream is itself an illusion. In all economic systems, there are private interests and some who profit more than others. Full-blown communism is the worst possible system, as far as the common man is concerned, but thank goodness it’s not really attainable — however, the more a state tries to force it, the more civilization itself is destroyed from in the inside out (see Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot et al.). Meanwhile, anything short of total socialism is quasi-fascist, as some connected private interests benefit at the expense of the victimized taxpayers and subjects of the regime.

The free market is the only economic system known to man that respects the rights of the individual and can provide the masses with ever increasing opportunity and material wealth and access to the basic needs, as well as to an expanding array of luxury items. While Obamacare is indeed a corporatist scam, rather than a pure public-sector boon for the common man, the latter is an impossibility. All big-government operations in America — the Progressive era, the New Deal, the Great Society, Compassionate Conservatiam and Obamanomics — are corporatist. 

By Matt Hawes

On Friday, May 14, Ron Paul will return to Iowa to kick off our Iowa Regional Conference and Forum on the Future of Conservatism in America!

Dr. Paul will appear along with other special guests as part of our free and open to the public Freedom Celebration on the night of the 14th.

We will be holding the Conference at the Embassy Suites on the River in downtown Des Moines, Iowa, and a special room rate is available for a limited time to all Conference attendees.

Our open to the public Forum on the Future of Conservatism will take center stage on Saturday, May 15, with grassroots training also taking place on Saturday and concluding on Sunday, May 16.

The Forum will feature several guest speakers who will examine conservatism from historical, constitutional, and moral perspectives and explain why the limited government ideas that created our country and turned this experiment in liberty into the greatest nation the world has ever seen can restore and revitalize our optimism for the future.

Tickets to our grassroots training sessions are set at their lowest price ever – only $59!  A Saturday lunch with special guest Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, is included in the ticket price.

Spend time with fellow liberty-minded activists, learn about history and current events from a freedom perspective you won’t hear from the mainstream media, build your local organizations, and get ready to take back your neighborhood for liberty with top-notch training from seasoned experts.  Become a Sponsor of our Conference to earn special discounts and benefits available only to Sponsors.

Visit our Iowa Conference event page to obtain tickets and find out more about our discounted hotel rate.

See you in Des Moines!

By Matt Hawes

If you’re going to be in the New Orleans area next week, come join us at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference (SRLC)!

Congressman Paul will be addressing the Conference on Saturday, April 10, and the event also shares the weekend with the French Quarter Festival, where you can enjoy over 150 musical performances, as well as the cuisine and culture of the Big Easy.

For more information and to obtain tickets, click here.

When CPAC ended, there was no doubt that our movement, our enthusiasm for the principles of liberty, and our dedication to reclaiming our country are stronger than ever.  Help us keep the momentum for our message going by joining us at SRLC next week!

By Matt Hawes

Via The Daily Caller:

The addition to existing law of five words, and a comma, may cause a world of hurt to state governments.

Tucked away on page 466 of President Obama’s 2,704-page health-care bill is a provision that changes the definition of “medical assistance,” the term describing what states are required to provide to Medicaid recipients.

States have in the past been required to provide payment for services to physicians. Now, under the new definition, states will be liable for ensuring provision of “the care and services themselves.”

In other words, states are legally on the hook not only to ensure that Medicaid recipients are paid for, but that they’re seen by a doctor….

Read the rest.

By Matt Hawes

Dr. Paul is one of the nominees for Time’s 2010 “100 Most Influential,” and you can vote for him here.

By Doug Bandow

Democracy is working in Iraq.  If democracy includes arresting your opponents.

Reports the Washington Post:

In a sign of hardening sectarian divisions, the secular, largely Sunni-backed bloc that won the most seats in Iraq’s recent parliamentary elections says its victorious candidates are being subjected to a campaign of detention and intimidation by the government of Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Maliki’s State of Law coalition lost by two seats to Ayad Allawi’s Iraqiya bloc; the prime minister has been contesting the results of the March 7 vote, saying they are fraudulent. State of Law has appealed the outcome in Iraq’s courts and now, Allawi’s bloc says, Maliki is using state security forces in a bid to gain enough seats to emerge the winner.

This week, at least two winning Iraqiya candidates in the capital were told they are wanted, bloc officials and the candidates said. Two others are on the run in the mixed Sunni-Shiite province of Diyala, and another was detained before the elections.

Sunni Arabs see the win by Allawi, a secular Shiite, as their own. Many Iraqis and analysts worry that Sunnis will feel cheated if Allawi loses his lead before the new parliament is certified, a development that could spark retaliatory violence just as U.S. troops are drawing down to a mandated 50,000 by summer’s end.

One security forces commander confirmed that orders to carry out such detentions must have approval from the highest level of government and said he worries that he is being used for political ends. The commander, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to speak freely, said he was told last week to arrest a winning candidate from Allawi’s list on charges of terrorism — charges he said he knew were unfair.

“I’m in a situation that no one would envy,” he said. “I’m wondering why didn’t they arrest him and try to detain him before.”

For this tens of thousands of Americans have been killed, maimed, or injured.

By Tim Shoemaker

Newsmax recently sat down for an interview with Judge Andrew Napolitano.  Check out their accompanying article here.

By Tim Shoemaker

Not that it will come as a surprise to anyone, but yesterday the FDA approved VeriChip to be marketed for medical purposes.  Applied Digital Solutions has created an implantable computer chip to “speed vital information about a patient’s medical history to doctors and hospitals.”  It is simultaneously being heralded as a medical milestone by some and an invasion of privacy by others.  Just think of it as an invisible barcode to release information when passed over by specialized scanners.  Click here to read the article.

This ought to go nicely with your biometric workers card…

By Matt Hawes

From The New York Times:

WASHINGTON – A federal judge ruled Wednesday that the National Security Agency‘s program of surveillance without warrants was illegal, rejecting the Obama administration’s effort to keep shrouded in secrecy one of the most disputed counterterrorism policies of former President George W. Bush….

The ruling by Judge Walker, the chief judge of the Federal District Court in San Francisco, rejected the Justice Department’s claim – first asserted by the Bush administration and continued under President Obama – that the charity’s lawsuit should be dismissed without a ruling on the merits because allowing it to go forward could reveal state secrets….

Read the rest.

By Matt Hawes

Congressman Paul has made it to the Final Four in the Houston Chronicle’s poll of Texas’ most effective legislator. Voting for this round runs through Saturday night.

Vote here!

(Due to the page’s setup, clicking the link may bring up a page that looks like you’ve already voted. Just refresh the site.)

By Matt Hawes

No surprise there.

From The Christian Science Monitor:

That’s because the biggest change is in who administers student loans. Instead of private banks issuing loans guaranteed by the government, the government will now become the originator of the loan.

“That’s very important for students, but it isn’t going to be very visible for them,” says Sandy Baum, an independent policy analyst for the College Board, a New York-based nonprofit that tracks and promotes college attendance….

But financially, the bottom line will look the same for students – for now.

Eventually, students with federal loans will qualify for better repayment terms. Part of the legislation signed today also improves repayment terms first enacted last summer. Loan payments will be capped at 10 percent of a student’s disposable income (it’s currently 15 percent) and any debt remaining after 20 years will be forgiven (the current threshold is 25). For public servants – including teachers, nurses, or members of the armed forces – that cap is 10 years.

But, those repayment terms are only applicable for loans signed after July 1, 2014, and will not be retroactive, nor do they apply to private loans….

Read the rest.

By Matt Hawes

Via The New York Times:

The plan calls for exploration in areas from Delaware to off the coastline of central Florida, while keeping the East Coast from New Jersey northward closed to oil and gas development. But actual drilling would only take place after detailed study of the regions, which could take years.

The entire West Coast, from the Canadian to Mexican borders, would be off-limits….

As for drilling off the coast of his home state, Moran said he is encouraged that the military will be “granted a seat at the table and veto power” and said that even under the most optimistic scenario, no well will be sunk for at least another eight years….

Read the rest.