Political Class Dismissed

My latest from THE NEW AMERICAN:

If you needed another example of public officials woefully unaware of restraints on government power, look no further than the city of Chicago. The Austin Weekly News reported on April 28th that State Representative LaShawn Ford (D) is calling for the deployment of National Guard units on the streets of the Windy City to deal with escalating gang violence. Ford wants the military to augment the 13,400 strong Chicago Police Force, which is already the second largest in the nation. CLICK HERE FOR MORE…….

My latest cover article for THE NEW AMERICAN is online.

State vs. Federal: The Nullification Movement

Are we going to be free men or are we going to be slaves to the federal government of the United States?” retired state trooper and current State Delegate Charles W. Carrico, Sr. asked of the 1,000-strong rally gathered on the steps of the Virginia state capitol in January. While the like-minded crowd reacted with enthusiasm, such a rhetorical question might strike the average American as overdramatic. Are U.S. citizens really becoming “slaves to the federal government”? Click here for more…

And for those wanting a quick explanation of nullification, check out my sidebar from the same issue.

Nullification in a Nutshell

The “Principles of 98,” as they came to be known, are rarely discussed in modern history lectures even though these are integral to understanding how our federal Constitution was intended to function. These are the principles of state interposition or nullification that assert that if the federal government fails to check itself through one of its three branches, then it would be up to the states to rein in the feds. Click here for more…

Here’s a great interview from the Daily Bell with James Jaeger, the award winning director of Original Intent (which makes a great Christmas gift!).

Daily Bell: Is the freedom movement being co-opted by the “conservative” movement?

Jaeger: They are trying, but I don’t think the American people are going to bite. More and more middle class Americans realize that the Democrats and Republicans are BOTH heavily influenced by the CFR-infested Globalist Agenda, and it was this Agenda that shut down their domestic manufacturing base and has relegated them to unemployment lines and Walmart check-out lines. I predict at some point they will defect and “go indi” enmasse. They will realize that, unless the Sarah Palin’s of the world are talking about FIAT money, shutting down the Fed, and abolishing the IRS — they are FAKES. Sarah Palin does NOT talk about any of this like Ron Paul does, nor do any of the other DemGOP fakes. Fake “conservatives” showed their colors on the way they treated Ron Paul last year. There’s no way patriotic Americans can forget how FOX News and Sean Hannity snubbed them when their own polls showed that Ron Paul won three (3) distinct times. The so-called conservatives are thus traitors to their country because most of them supported “free” trade and NAFTA, globalization and the corporate fascists that have invaded Congress. Also, have any of them read or applied Robert Zubrin’s book, ENERGY VICTORY. Of course not. The Republican party therefore deserves to die. Same thing with the cultural Marxist-infested Democratic party. Both of these parties are traitors to the U.S. Republic envisioned by the Framers.

My latest book review from THE NEW AMERICAN.

For far too long, those who oppose big-government solutions to racism have been slandered as racists. (Sadly, such attacks are similar to the claims that people who oppose civil-rights-violating national security measures like the Patriot Act are terrorist sympathizers.) Such slander, while entirely inaccurate, is effective in silencing any dissent on the subject of race and government.

So when it comes to the average history books that deal with the controversial subject of race in America, readers are typically led to believe that the only voices interested in combating government-sponsored racism were liberals or progressives and their even bigger government solutions. Not so, says Jonathan Bean, Research Fellow at the Independent Institute and professor of history at Southern Illinois University. In Race & Liberty in America: The Essential Reader, Bean argues that it was classical liberals who were at the forefront of fighting for equal rights for America’s oppressed minorities, and he backs it up by featuring some very compelling writings and speeches from prominent historical figures. Click here for more…

By Ed Crane

Which brings us to the war in Afghanistan. The neocons are predictably enthused about the prospect of a prolonged U.S. occupation there. A dozen or so of them recently sent a letter to President Obama urging him to up the ante. Astonishingly, the president who was elected as the antiwar left’s protest candidate appears poised to take the neocons’ advice and commit tens of thousands more troops to a conflict in which immediate U.S. interests are unclear at best.

Meanwhile, Obama’s domestic agenda is in shambles. Americans are outraged at the prospect of trillion-dollar deficits, auto bailouts and the subsidies to irresponsible bankers. And they don’t want socialized medicine.

The “tea parties” and town hall meetings are essentially libertarian. There is no conservative policy agenda — only a demand that the government stop trying to run our lives.

Republicans should take this opportunity to return to their traditional noninterventionist roots and throw their neoconservative wing under the bus. The Republicans have a chance at this moment to reclaim the mantle of the party of nonintervention — in your healthcare, in your wallet and in the affairs of other nations. Click here for more…

My latest book review for THE NEW AMERICAN.

A Look at the Heritage Guide to the U.S. Constitution

The Federalist Society has compiled a “Conservative & Libertarian Legal Scholarship: Annotated Bibliography” to collect what they deem to be the best legal analysis of every aspect of American law. Their recommended reading for constitutional law contains the following advice: “The Heritage Foundation has published a comprehensive Guide to the Constitution.… The Guide is so useful and concise a resource for understanding conservative and libertarian constitutional thinking that we have cited relevant pages throughout this section, in addition to other articles.”

Now keep in mind that this is the same Federalist Society that also advises young conservative and libertarian enthusiasts in their “Conservative & Libertarian Pre-Law Reading List” that “Neoconservative thinkers are an important intellectual force…. The godfather of the neocons is Irving Kristol. Policy Review recently published an excellent tribute to him, ‘Battler for the Republic,’ and some of his best work is collected in ‘Reflections of a Neoconservative: Looking Back, Looking Ahead.’”

This praise for neocons is featured on the same page with suggestions to look into the research of libertarian institutions such as the Foundation for Economic Education and the Ludwig Von Mises Institute. Talk about mixed signals! Referring to neocons and libertarians of the Austrian School as equally valid is akin to telling one that Thomas Jefferson’s The Declaration of Independence and Karl Marx’s The Communist Manifesto are equally important sources on political theory. So such high praise from the libertarian leaning but also neoconservative admiring Federalist Society that reaches so many young and developing minds on the Right, on such an important topic as the Constitution, deserves a thoroughly scrutinizing review. Click here for more…

The John Birch Society has consistently stood up for the Constitution and opposed political leaders of BOTH parties on issues of war, torture, and police state “national security” tactics. JBS was against the Iraq War, the Patriot Act and any use of torture.

And how do liberals react? They constantly attack them and treat them like pariahs. To me, JBS’s record speaks for itself. And all the attempted, but ineffective, smears reveal the true nature of the attackers. Most of them are simple political sycophants more interested in kissing up to their beloved political party than ever standing for principle.

Richard Mack, former sheriff of Graham County, Arizona, is not afraid to ruffle some feathers in order to halt what he considers violations of the U.S. Constitution.

In 1993, Congress passed the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (commonly referred to as the Brady Bill), which was signed into law by President Bill Clinton and went into effect on February 28, 1994. A provision of the Brady Bill compelled state and local law-enforcement officials to perform mandatory background checks. Mack, then a Graham County sheriff, was outraged. In response, Mack gained distinction by being the first sheriff in the nation to file a lawsuit against the Brady Bill. The lawsuit made it all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled that the provision was indeed unconstitutional as a violation of the Tenth Amendment principles of federalism. Click here for more…

He has turned against the Neocons and they can’t stand it.

I am deleting this thread. I know it was meant in good fun but it got of control. Editor.

For the federal debt ceiling that is…

The Ever Increasing Debt Ceiling

Sadly, Geithner’s entire argument is that the only thing preventing the U.S. from meeting its obligations is a statutory limit arbitrarily set by Congress. If only things were that simple. There is much more involved in maintaining the solvency of the U.S., and very little of that has to do with the debt ceiling. The so-called debt ceiling was enacted when Congress passed the Second Liberty Bond act in 1917. It has since been raised repeatedly to accommodate Washington’s profligate spending. Constitutionalists hear such things and ask themselves “what does the Constitution have to say?” More…

The mindless militarism of the GOP and its bobble-headed followers. Nothing helped elect Obama more than the neocons and the big-government “conservatism” of Dubya. It appears the Republicans have learned nothing as they still try to out-hawk the already hawkish Barack. The pro-war, pro-torture GOP will continue to be treated like pariahs by the voters & rightfully so. Too bad the alternative is pro-war, pro-torture Dems who are just more deceptive and disingenuous about it.

From THE NEW AMERICAN:

Obama’s Wars Trigger New Activists

The election of Barack Obama to the Presidency has highlighted the foreign policy double standard that the activists on the left end of the political spectrum have exhibited, or should one say not exhibited, towards the President’s war-centric foreign policy.

Obama is following the McCain plan for Iraq, doubling the U.S. forces in Afghanistan in addition to sharply increasing the number of private contractors operating in that region and bombing Pakistan on a regular basis. Yet, all of these actions, which in prior years would have been decried by those who consider themselves liberals/progressives, have seemingly fallen off the radar of the left-wing grassroots activists. Click here for more…

Republicans continue to talk out of both sides of their mouth when it comes to the Constitution. Between the pro-torture, pro-war neocon “constitutionalists” at The Heritage Foundation & The Federalist Society* (John Yoo, I’m looking in your direction) to Sen. Thune’s attempted blatant violations of federalism, one doesn’t have to look far for examples of hypocrisy. When it comes to their pet issues, they like to twist our founding document to fit what they want which makes them no different from the “living, breathing” crowd on the left.

The great Kevin R.C. Gutzman has their number. (Read his entire essay! He exposes them for the fraudulent shysters that they are.)

In short, then, Republicans generally do not stand for principled adherence to originalism, which once was called “the Constitution.” Across a range of questions, they mirror their Democratic opponents in advocating judicial legislation of their preferred legislative outcomes.

*Not all people associated with both organizations fit the pro-war, pro-torture definition (I’m still a member of The Federalist Society), but the higher ups are definitely too chummy with neocons & the GOP to be trusted. Take everything from them with a grain of constitutionalist salt.

No limited government populist movement will be effective until the majority of the people involved reject the levinhannitylimbaughboortz right-wing talk radio consensus on endless occupations and nation building (you know, the same thing Obama is doing right now).

Here’s Jack Hunter highlighting the confused message of pro-war/anti-tax talker Levin.

Like the first Tea Party events, the 4th of July protesters primary criticism was government spending, and yet they were circulating flyers written by a man who thought spending three trillion dollars on Iraq was not only a good idea, but would be enthusiastic about doing it again in Iran or elsewhere. I wondered what the protesters holding “Don’t Tread on Me” flags and screaming “liberty” at the tea party think the Founding Fathers would have thought of Levin’s support for preemptive war, torture, and government surveillance. According to “the great one,” the Founders would have been enthusiastically for each. Levin’s warnings about the dangers of “utopianism” in foreign policy are almost laughable, when you consider his closest radio comrade Sean Hannity, still praises Bush for “liberating” Iraqis.

I reviewed Judge Andrew Napolitano’s Dred Scott’s Revenge for THE NEW AMERICAN. Did I like it? Check out the review!

Judge Andrew P. Napolitano is the host of the Fox News online show Freedom Watch (which might soon be televised) and also is a co-host of the Fox News Radio show Brian and the Judge. Napolitano has a diverse group of followers made up of traditional conservatives, libertarians, and constitutionalists.

Even though Napolitano has been working as a legal analyst for Fox News since 1998, he hasn’t been afraid to challenge the establishment status quo. He has articulately and passionately criticized practically all of the unconstitutional innovations of the “War on Terror,” which have been embraced by the “conservative” mainstream media. His principled positions have drawn the ire of members of the establishment right but earned him the admiration and respect of his faithful fans. Click here for the full review…

I recently had the honor of appearing on AntiWar Radio with Scott Horton in my role with the Tenth Amendment Center.  Here’s the overview:

Michael Boldin of the 10th Amendment Center discusses how the doctrine of enumerated powers has become quaint, how the Constitution provides persuasive talking points for a strictly limited government for those otherwise undisposed, why activist priorities should be on limiting federal power as it is the most expansive and potentially destructive and how the states are, in some cases, resisting federal laws and asserting their own.