What’s wrong with states’ rights?

Audrey Pietrucha
Bennington Banner
June 19, 2010

First there were “Truthers” andthen “Birthers,” and now there are “Tenthers.” To be accurate, the “Tenthers” actually came first, since this newly coined term (which is supposed to denote a “fringe” position and is therefore derogatory) refers to those who believe the 10th Amendment to the Constitution actually means what it says, that powers not delegated to the federal government are reserved to the states.

By this definition, today’s “Tenthers” may consider themselves in good company since we can assume many, if not all, of the founders themselves agreed with this concept.

The history of the “Tenthers” dates back to 1789, when the Constitution was being considered for ratification throughout the former colonies. Though the enumerated powers listed in Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution seemed concise enough to limit federal power, Americans were still wary of government’s tendency to grow and liberty to yield.

This concern was a central theme at the state ratifying conventions and as a compromise the first ten amendments, known as the Bill of Rights, were added to the Constitution in 1791. Amendments IX and X briefly encapsulated the two-fold theory of the Constitution: that its purpose was to protect our natural rights, which are not granted by government but are inherent by virtue of our humanity; and, in keeping with this idea, the powers of the national government are limited by the Constitution to only those

enumerated therein.
Among the early "Tenthers" was Thomas Jefferson, who, while considering the constitutionality of a national bank in 1791, quoted the tenth amendment verbatim: "I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground that ‘all powers not delegated to the United States, by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states or to the people,'" Jefferson said, then declared prophetically: "To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specifically drawn around the powers of Congress, is to take possession of a boundless field of power, not longer susceptible of any definition."

This idea of limited federal authority is a cornerstone of federalism, a governing philosophy which James Madison, principle author of the Constitution, helped develop.

"The powers delegated to the federal government are few and defined," he said. "Those which are to remain in the state governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, [such] as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce. The powers reserved to the several states will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people."

The powers of the federal government today can hardly be called "few and defined." Far too much of our news and our lives seem to revolve around Washington, D.C. With nearly 2 million civilian employees the federal government is the nation's largest employer after the Postal Service, itself a semi-independent government agency.

Many federal agencies and departments -- Health and Human Services, Education, Housing -- do not even come close to being required under Constitutional authority. Most scholars trace this power grab to the 1930s and the Roosevelt administration, when the power of Congress to regulate interstate commerce was suddenly interpreted to mean Congress could regulate anything and everything. With this decision the Supreme Court essentially declared "No holds barred!"

But finally the states are starting to fight back against this encroachment on their rights to create a governing atmosphere in accordance with the will and the character of their residents. As of today more than 20 states have either introduced, passed or signed non-binding resolutions or binding legislation which basically warns the federal government to "cease and desist" from any and all activities outside the scope of its constitutionally delegated powers.

For the states' declarations of sovereignty to have any teeth, however, they must be willing to exercise the principle of nullification with regards to federal laws. Through nullification a state declares a federal law null and void within that state's boundaries. There are currently nullifications efforts underway against such diverse federal laws as those concerning Real ID, firearms, medical marijuana, health care and more.

Why is the reemergence of states' right an important step on the road toward restoring liberty? State governments, though still powerful, are in theory closer to and thus more responsive to their citizens. Also, allowing states to create varied and diverse societies within the larger society of the United States allows people to choose the one that best answers their desires and needs. In a society where choice is abundant, from the shelves of our local food stores to the multitude of apps for our iPhones, can we really tolerate a government that comes in only one size -- XXL?

Our Future In Chains: The For-Profit Debtors’ Prison System

Michael Edwards
Activist Post
June 18, 2010

History shows that terror and slavery have always had a close relationship with debt.

Debtors’ prisons have a sordid history that was thought to be best left behind in Medieval Europe and in Charles Dickens’ fictionalized accounts of the 19th-century hellholes of Victorian England. America was not to be outdone, debtors’ prisons were widespread in the United States as well, and stories of the conditions in New York’s debtors’ prisons could make one question if repayment of debts was really the purpose; violent criminals were much better clothed and fed. In fact, history shows that terror and slavery have always had a close relationship with debt, and it follows a path from the Romans right through to 17th century England, and into America from English common law. However, America chose to abolish her debtors’ prisons a full 36 years before England; first in New York in 1831, and by 1833 the rest of the America had followed.(1)

Now, debtors’ prisons seem to be making a comeback in America. A recent article in the Star Tribune in Minnesota titled, “In jail for being in debt,” exposes the growing number of citizens going to jail at the behest of banks and a welcoming judicial system. They write:

“It’s not a crime to owe money, and debtors’ prisons were abolished in the United States in the 19th century. But people are routinely being thrown in jail for failing to pay debts. In Minnesota, which has some of the most creditor-friendly laws in the country, the use of arrest warrants against debtors has jumped 60 percent over the past four years, with 845 cases in 2009, a Star Tribune analysis of state court data has found.”

In our modern era of debt servitude, a PR Push has been designed to reintroduce a serious discussion of debtors’ prisons as a sound solution. What goes beyond alarming is that the full-fledged return of debtors’ prisons might be seen as both appropriately terrifying, as well as a profitable investment opportunity and politically sound decision to be made by state governments struggling with their own looming bankruptcies, and a Federal government struggling politically with the concept of a jobless recovery that is not materializing.

A de facto debtors’ prison has already been largely accepted in the case of “deadbeat” parents when a failure to pay child support puts them in civil contempt of court. It is this civil contempt charge that is now beginning to take on an expanded definition to include those who owe for much smaller infractions. When a court order to pay a debt is issued and ignored, it then qualifies as a civil contempt of court. At that point, the judge becomes a literal dictator with the ability to imprison a person indefinitely for the violation. The Constitution explicitly prohibits incarceration for failure to pay debts, but it is the violation of a court order that gives judges free rein to impose draconian punishments. In this way, an end-run around the Constitution can become frighteningly commonplace.(2)

America already has a record-high ratio of people in prison, with no signs of the trend reversing as private corporations like Wackenhut Corporation, referred to as a “Free Market in Human Misery,” have long been enlisted to turn government directives into shareholder profit. One might even deign to call it blatant fascism in its purest form, as government legislation leads offenders directly into private company coffers. The prison-industrial complex has already capitalized on government actions like The War on Drugs. A prime example is how The California Correctional Peace Officers Association helped fuel the prison-building boom as a cozy relationship was established on Capitol Hill through influence peddling.(3)

Profiting from the suffering of the poor while bailouts and bonuses await the over-leveraged banksters, car companies, and state governments, sets up a prison-industrial complex with a class warfare component that is the domestic mirror of the military-industrial complex sent abroad. This domestic prison system seems to be the only industry left to build upon, and it is here that things become truly frightening. For the federally-owned prison system complex, Federal Prison Industries (UNICOR), more incarceration means a growing supply of cheap labor and a skewing of unemployment numbers, as these inmates are often doing jobs they couldn’t even find if they were job hunting on the outside. But it is the private prison system, with its web fully woven throughout the U.S. government, that stands to profit the most from the return of debtors’ admission.(4)

The largest private prison conglomerate in the U.S. is Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), which controls more than 47% of all private prison and jail beds nationwide and is able to produce a 13-15% return annually on new real estate investments. Wackenhut (now subsumed into G4S, the largest security company in the world) was of course started by an FBI agent, George Wackenhut, who is famous for developing millions of dossiers on America’s “potential subversives” in the sixties, and was exposed as being an integral player within the shadow CIA.(5)

These major security conglomerates are at the top of a growing pyramid of for-profit, international detention center operators that has Wall Street giants like Goldman Sachs simply fawning over the solid, long-term investment potential. Similar to war, when there is a profit to be made off of incarceration, only more incarceration can be expected to follow. The U.S. government certainly seems to be working hard to ensure that the numbers of poor continue to increase, as they are well aware that that programs designed to help the downtrodden are an abject failure every time. Furthermore, the massive government debts that must be repaid directly into the hands of the Federal Reserve-led banking cabal must lead us to an inescapable conclusion: More money is to be made from slavery in the United States, then from freedom.

FCC Moves to Regulate Internet

Matt Cover
CNS News
Friday, June 18th, 2010

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted on Thursday to begin the formal process of bringing the Internet under greater federal control – a move sought by both President Barack Obama and FCC Chairnman Julius Genachowski.

This step comes after the federal D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in April rebuked the FCC in its attempt to enforce a controversial regulatory doctrine called Net Neutrality, which would allow the government to prevent private Internet providers from deciding which applications to allow on their networks.

The court said that the FCC did not have the authority to prevent Comcast, specifically, from blocking certain peer-to-peer Web sites.

The FCC is now trying to reclassify the Internet to broaden its authority over the Web. Currently, the FCC only has “ancillary” authority, meaning it can regulate Internet access only in the process of regulating another service that it has direct authority over, such as television or cable.

The 3-2 party-line vote on Thursday at the FCC began the formal process of reclassifying the Internet as a telecommunications service instead of an information service – its current classification. This is necessary because, as an information service, the government has little power to regulate Internet networks.

Mexican-Flag Waving Lakers Fans Riot In L.A.

The Sun
Friday, June 18th, 2010

VIOLENT riots broke out in Los Angeles following the LA Lakers’ championship-clinching win over the Boston Celtics in the NBA finals.

The trouble began shortly after the Lakers claimed their 83-79 victory over their rivals last night at the Staples Centre in LA.

LAPD officers clashed with crowds in streets surrounding the stadium, with rowdy fans smashing windows, starting fires and attacking passing motorists.

At least one civilian was badly beaten and a police officer suffered a broken nose in street fights. A cyclist was also hit by a patrol car attending the crisis.

Police fired non-lethal rounds to disperse mobs of troublemakers, as a cab was set alight and two newspaper stands ripped apart.

Obama Plans To Sneak Through Carbon Tax By Stealth

Job killing, economy wrecking, middle class destroying consumption tax to be added in lame duck session after November elections

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Friday, June 18, 2010

President Obama is planning to sneak through his job-killing, economy wrecking carbon tax by stealth according to the Washington Post, by passing a weakened bill and then adding in cap and trade provisions after the heat is off following the November elections.

Described as the “lame duck climate strategy,” Obama is planning to secure enough votes in the Senate to pass a weakened energy bill and then drag out the conference long enough to ensure the stronger provisions contained in the original House version are added “after lawmakers have faced voters in November, thereby cushioning the vote’s political impact.”

“Several sources familiar with the administration’s thinking confirmed it has started pressing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to bring up a slimmed-down energy and climate bill next month. Such a measure would pass more easily than a comprehensive climate bill, and could still be negotiated with the broader bill the House passed a year ago,” reports the Washington Post.

Knowing that the “energy bill” represents nothing less than another massive plunder of the American taxpayer and is widely unpopular, Senators will only stab their constituents in the back and vote for the more nightmarish aspects of the legislation, including a tax on the very substance they exhale, after they have secured their seats in November.

As we highlighted last week, plans to impose a carbon tax on American citizens appeared to fade after Republican Senator Lindsey Graham shockingly reversed his views on climate change, telling a press conference that the science behind man-made global warming is in question and those pushing it are alarmists who have oversold the problem.

“The Senate is expected to try and push a watered down bill with the hope of moving towards a carbon tax later on,” we reported on June 10, which is exactly the approach now being adopted by Obama.

The elite are still desperate to impose a consumption tax on Americans as part of the move towards a “post-industrial revolution” and the kind of nightmare “green economy” that has left Spain with a 20 per cent unemployment rate. In a so-called green economy, over 2.2 jobs are lost for every “green job” created.

The EPA has been busy floating propaganda about how Obama’s cap and trade legislation would cost Americans an average of $79 to $146 per year. In reality, as we have documented, the stronger provisions of the bill would see around $2.9 trillion shaved off the economy by the year 2050 if enacted. The legislation would also reduce GDP by 6.9 percent – a figure comparable with the economic meltdown of 1929 and 1930.

A carbon tax would impact almost every aspect of Americans’ lives, from higher gas prices, to soaring utility bills, to exorbitant excesses related to the “energy efficiency” of their homes. It would be enforced by an army of environmental regulators and green police poking their noses into the private affairs of citizens.

The government has aggressively exploited the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico to manufacture an artificial urgency in an effort to speed the passage of cap and trade, an agenda firmly supported by the transnational oil corporations Obama is claiming to be reigning in. British Petroleum is one of the founding members of the cap and trade lobby, and has consistently “lobbied for tax hikes, greenhouse gas restraints, the stimulus bill, the Wall Street bailout, and subsidies for oil pipelines, solar panels, natural gas and biofuels.”

Yesterday, White House spokesman Ben LaBolt invoked the oil spill disaster to justify passage of the carbon tax bill.

“The tragedy in the gulf underscores the need to move quickly, and the president is committed to finding the votes for comprehensive energy legislation this year,” said LaBolt.

Obama himself even went to the extreme of comparing the oil spill to 9/11, proving that he is perfectly willing to exploit the horror of nearly 3,000 dead Americans in a completely unrelated event nine years ago to underhandedly push his political agenda.

$7-a-gallon gas?

BEN LIEBERMAN
NY Post
Friday, June 18, 2010

President Obama has a solution to the Gulf oil spill: $7-a-gallon gas.

That’s a Harvard University study’s estimate of the per-gallon price of the president’s global-warming agenda. And Obama made clear this week that this agenda is a part of his plan for addressing the Gulf mess.

So what does global-warming legislation have to do with the oil spill?

Good question, because such measures wouldn’t do a thing to clean up the oil or fix the problems that led to the leak.

The answer can be found in Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel’s now-famous words, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste — and what I mean by that is it’s an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before.”

That sure was true of global-warming policy, and especially the cap-and-trade bill. Many observers thought the measure, introduced last year in the House by Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Edward Markey (D-Mass.), was dead: The American people didn’t seem to think that the so-called global-warming crisis justified a price-hiking, job-killing, economy-crushing redesign of our energy supply amid a fragile recovery. Passing another major piece of legislation, one every bit as unpopular as ObamaCare, appeared unlikely in an election year

Ten Stories In The News That The BP Oil Spill Is Overshadowing

Corporate media does it’s best to keep you uninformed

Steve Watson
Prisonplanet.com
Friday, Jun 18th, 2010

The mainstream media is running a 24 hour news cycle focusing purely on the BP oil spill, a disaster, as we have shown, that is being intentionally hyped in order to sell cap and trade legislation and moves to nationalize big business.

In the wake of this, big important news stories are being overlooked. Here are just some of the stories, in no particular order, that you should be hearing on the nightly news, but of course, are not.

1. Israeli nuclear submarines positioned close to Iran:

Three German-built Israeli submarines equipped with nuclear cruise missiles are to be deployed in the Gulf near the Iranian coastline.

The first has been sent in response to Israeli fears that ballistic missiles developed by Iran, Syria and Hezbollah, a political and military organisation in Lebanon, could hit sites in Israel, including air bases and missile launchers.

The submarines of Flotilla 7 — Dolphin, Tekuma and Leviathan — have visited the Gulf before. But the decision has now been taken to ensure a permanent presence of at least one of the vessels.

2. Iran war propaganda:

US intelligence has shown Iran could launch an attack against Europe with “scores or hundreds” of missiles, prompting major changes to US missile defenses, Pentagon chief Robert Gates said on Thursday.

The anti-Iran rhetoric has amplified following the revelation that many Bilderberg members, including Zbigniew Brzezinski, are now in favor of U.S. air strikes on Iran and are “leaning towards war,”.

“Some of them in Europe are saying no we shouldn’t do it but most of them are in favor of American air strikes on Iran,” Bilderberg sluth Jim Tucker relayed from the recent meeting in Spain. “They’re tilting heavily towards green lighting a U.S. attack on Iran.”

3. The continuing economic slide:

The greatest bankster heist in history and the looming greatest depression rumbles on.

Gold has hit record highs as the dollar slumps and the Euro continues to face complete collapse. Unemployment figures in the U.S. are through the roof and U.S. consumer prices posted their largest fall in nearly 1-1/2 years in May.

Rumours in Europe persist regarding an impending bailout for spain, while Russia says it is ready to found a “new economic world order“.

4. FCC ready to restrict the Internet:

The federal government would have “absolute power” to shut down the Internet under the terms of a new US Senate bill being pushed by Joe Lieberman, legislation which would hand President Obama a figurative “kill switch” to seize control of the world wide web in response to a Homeland Security directive.

Lieberman has been pushing for government regulation of the Internet for years under the guise of cybersecurity, but this new bill goes even further in handing emergency powers over to the feds which could be used to silence free speech under the pretext of a national emergency.

5. Obama/Blagojevich story

As the Blagojevich trial continues and important details emerge, linking Obama to possible political corruption, Federal prosecutors are seeking a gag order to keep the ex-Governor and his lawyers from making public comments.

6. UN small arms treaty

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently announced that the Obama Administration would be working hand in glove with the U.N. to pass a new “Small Arms Treaty.”

Congressman Paul Broun warns that, “With willing one-world accomplices in Washington, D.C., gun-grabbers around the globe believe they have it made.” Broun characterizes the U.N.’s Small Arms Treaty as “nothing more than a massive, GLOBAL gun control scheme.”

The treaty would force national governments to acquiesce to a global gun registry, while strengthening licensing procedures so as to make it almost impossible for a citizen to legally purchase a gun. It would also ban the private sale of semi-automatic weapons and ultimately lead to the confiscation and destruction of all “unauthorized” firearms owned by citizens.

By encapsulating the gun grab within a treaty, the Obama administration could claim that no Senate approval is needed to authorize any such move against the right to bear arms – although whether a treaty trumps the Constitution is a very murky area of debate.

7. Mexicans riot in LA/Land given over to Mexico

Violent scenes following the LA Lakers’ championship-clinching win over the Boston Celtics in the NBA finals saw angry mobs smashing their way through the streets waving Mexican flags as they went.

Meanwhile, a massive stretch of Arizona has become effectively off limits to Americans, Prompting questions over whether the Obama administration is giving a major strip of the south-west back to Mexico.

8. Obama Plans To Sneak Through Carbon Tax By Stealth

President Obama is planning to sneak through his job-killing, economy wrecking carbon tax by stealth according to the Washington Post, by passing a weakened bill and then adding in cap and trade provisions after the heat is off following the November elections.

Described as the “lame duck climate strategy,” Obama is planning to secure enough votes in the Senate to pass a weakened energy bill and then drag out the conference long enough to ensure the stronger provisions contained in the original House version are added “after lawmakers have faced voters in November, thereby cushioning the vote’s political impact.”

9. Afghanistan Mineral Riches Story Is War Propaganda

News that the U.S. has suddenly discovered $1 trillion-worth of mineral deposits in Afghanistan, and descriptions of the bounty as a “game changer” by the corporate media, represent nothing more than crude war propaganda designed to reinvigorate public support for a failing and ever more pointless occupation.

The “newly discovered” riches have been known about since the 1970s and further revelations indicate that the Pentagon report cited by the New York Times as their source for the story did not even mention the untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan.

10. Free Speech Gag Bill Moving in House

H.R. 5175, The so-called DISCLOSE Act would severely limit the ability of political groups to communicate to their members and the general public.

Politico reports that , the NRA bargained for an exemption for itself and other large, established groups while trampling the rights of private citizens, new political groups, like Ron Paul’s Campaign for Liberty, and other small organizations.

As John Bresnahan reports, “The proposal would exempt organizations that have more than 1 million members, have been in existence for more than 10 years, have members in all 50 states and raise 15 percent or less of their funds from corporations… The NRA, with 4 million members, will not actively oppose the DISCLOSE Act, according to Democratic sources.

Mayor Admits NAFTA Super-highway Will Run Through Memphis

Jeni DiPrizio
MyEyeWitnessNews
June 17, 2010

Memphis Mayor, A C Wharton is back from Mexico. Wharton went to Mexico, to discuss trade opportunities south of the border. Wharton said as a result of the trip, he has appointed a team to look at how fostering the Mexico-Memphis relationship could create jobs. Wharton said he would like Memphis to be a one stop shop, where Mexican products come in, and get distributed across the United States.

Wharton said Mexican leaders were well versed on what is happening in the Bluff City. “They knew how many Mexicans lived in the area, how much spending power they had, they had studied us,” added Wharton.

Mexico is the United States second largest trade partner. Wharton said when the I-69 International Highway is built from Canada to Mexico it will run through Memphis. “This could become the breaking point. The brains of the I-69 connection, that’s why Memphis is a logical place,” said Wharton.

The Difference

J. Speer-Williams
Infowars.com
June 16, 2010

Neo-cons love war and torture, increased regulations, tyranny, and taxes; with our taxes going to the plutocrats of the private banking community. They support governmental destruction of our environment, under the pretense of protecting it. They, also, overtly support corporatism (fascism for oligarchs) and any other measures supported by the republican party that enrich the private International Monetary/Banking Cartel at the expense of the American people.

Neo-libs love war and torture, increased regulations, tyranny, and taxes; with our taxes going to the plutocrats of the private banking community. They support governmental destruction of our environment, under the pretense of protecting it. They, also, covertly support corporatism (socialism for oligarchs) and any other measures supported by the democratic party that enrich the private International Monetary/Banking Cartel at the expense of the American people.

What Obama Didn’t Say

Brian Wingfield
Forbes
June 16, 2010

In his first televised Oval Office speech, a Tuesday night message to the nation on the government’s response to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, President Obama said exactly what everyone expected.

He assured the country that his administration is in control of the cleanup and laid out a plan going forward. He had tough words for BP, which operated the rig that caused the spill, and vowed to make the company pay for the damage it has caused. He empathized with the people of the Gulf Coast and promised to revive their economies. He pledged to overhaul the agency that regulates offshore drilling, and seized upon the opportunity to talk up clean energy investment and legislation.

But what the president didn’t say is worth examining as well.

National Guard Training For Riot Control, Mass Detentions

Mac Slavo
SHTF Plan
June 16, 2010

In a previous story we noted that Reports Surfacing of Multi-State National Guard Mobilizations.

Further information made available after our report, much of which was published in the comment section by contributors who scoured the web for more information on the subject, suggests that the report was true and that national guard units had indeed been called up for training and possible deployment for domestic emergencies.

With the BP oil leak heating up (literally), there is a distinct possibility of noxious fumes and toxic hurricanes hitting our coasts over the coming months. Because there is minimal research on the subject available to the public, it is difficult to establish what is or is not a threat. Nonetheless, we advise those of our readers on or near the coast to remain aware of any developments regarding the possibility of emergencies or evacuations in their areas.

For those who may think we are overreacting to the possibility that the federal government would respond to an emergency, specifically mandatory evacuations on the gulf coast with the use of National Guard troops, we direct you to the article below, brought to our attention by Worldwide Wake Up Now and originally published at Public Intelligence.

A Suggested Survival List

Hurricane Katrina victims line up for food and water.

Chuck Baldwin
June 15, 2010

This column was initially released last December. Without a doubt, this has been one of my most requested columns. So, in response to the large number of readers who have asked me to re-release this column, I do so today. And in doing so, I have added some new material to the original column.

One does not have to be a prophet to know that we are on the precipice of some potentially catastrophic–or at the very least, challenging–days. In fact, most of us are already in challenging days, and some are already enduring catastrophic events. That is, if one would call being out of work, losing one’s home, facing life-threatening medical conditions without any prospect of medical insurance, several families being forced to live in one house due to homes being foreclosed, etc., catastrophic.

The potential for an escalation of cataclysmic events, however, is very real. Only a “blooming idiot” would call someone who attempts to prepare for “the day of adversity” a Chicken Little now. Anyone who does not see the storm clouds on the horizon isn’t paying attention.

For example, can one imagine what would happen if terrorists nuked a major American city or cities? (Once again, I encourage readers to go get the videos of the CBS TV series “Jericho” to get an idea of how quickly life, and even civilization, could change.) Imagine if there was another 9/11-type event. What would happen if some form of Zimbabwe-style inflation hit the US? What would happen if anything disrupted the distribution of Welfare checks, or food to local grocers? Imagine a Hurricane Katrina-style natural disaster in your town. I think people everywhere are beginning to awaken to just how vulnerable we all really are.

As a result, people from virtually every walk of life have recently been asking my thoughts on how they should prepare. Therefore, I will attempt to share with my readers some of the counsel I have given these folks.

First, a disclaimer. I am not an economist; I am not a survival expert; I am not a firearms expert; I am not an attorney; I am not a physician. In fact, I am not an expert in anything! For several years, however, I have tried to learn from others. I am an avid reader. My work has allowed me to travel extensively. I have had the privilege of sitting at the feet of–and learning from–many of America’s most learned, most trained, and most qualified “experts” in a variety of fields. What I write today, I have learned from others. I’ve formed my own opinions and priorities, of course, but everything I’m sharing has been said, or written about, before. But if I can share something in today’s column that will help someone be better prepared for the days to come, then my goal will have been achieved.

Location:

First, analyze your living conditions. Where do you live? Do you live in an urban or rural environment? Is it a big city or small town? Do you live in an apartment or condominium? How close are your neighbors? Do you even know your neighbors? Would you trust them if the electricity was off and they were hungry? Could you grow your own food, if you had to? How easily could you secure your home? If you live in a cold weather environment, how long could you stay warm without electricity? These are the kinds of questions you need to ask yourself now.

Over the past several decades, masses of people have migrated into large metropolitan areas. More people live in urban areas than at any time in American history. While this may be well and good for times of prosperity, it is an absolute nightmare in any kind of disaster. Does anyone remember what New Orleans looked like after Hurricane Katrina came through? Can anyone recall what happened in downtown Los Angeles during the 1992 riots? Needless to say, any inner-city environment could become a powder keg almost instantaneously, given the right (or wrong) circumstances. And the bigger the city, the bigger the potential problems.

If you live in the inner city, I suggest you consider moving to a more rural location. Obviously, now is a very good time to buy property (especially rural property), but the downside is, selling property is not as favorable. If you can afford it, now is a great time to buy a “safe house” outside the city. If you are fortunate enough to have family or some true friends nearby, you might want to put your heads–and some resources–together in preparation for serious upheaval. Obviously, a team of prepared people is much better than being alone.

If you must stay in your urban location, have some commonsense plans in hand in the event of a major disaster. Get to know your neighbors: find out whom you can trust and whom you can’t. Keep some extra gasoline on hand, in case you need to get in your car quickly and leave. Have several exit routes planned ahead of time, in case roads are blocked. Have a “bug-out” bag containing essential ingredients to live on for 3 or 4 days. If leaving is not an option, have a plan to secure your home as best you can. You’ll need to think about things such as food, water, medicine, warmth, self-defense, etc. But at this point, to do nothing is absolute lunacy!

Provisions:

During a major disaster, food will quickly disappear. Living for over 3 decades on the Gulf Coast, I can tell you with absolute certainty that whenever disaster strikes (usually an approaching hurricane, for us), food and provisions at the store sell completely out in a matter of a few hours. People panic, and within hours, you cannot find food, bottled water, ice, generators, batteries, candles, etc. In a matter of hours, every gas station in the area will be completely out of gas. Not days. Hours!

Furthermore, almost all disasters include a complete loss of electricity. The water supply is compromised. Bottled water becomes more valuable than bank accounts. Dehydration becomes a very real and present danger. I remember witnessing a man offer an ice vendor $100 for an extra bag of ice during Hurricane Ivan. My wife and I went 2 weeks (14 days) without electricity in the aftermath of that hurricane. Believe me, I got a taste of just how precious bottled water, ice, batteries, generators, fuel, etc., can become.

I suggest you have a supply of food and water to last at least 2 weeks. A month would be even better. Personally, I can live a long time on tuna fish or peanut butter. You can purchase MREs from a variety of sources, as well as “camp-style” packaged food from stores such as Academy Sports & Outdoors. Of course, bottled water is available everywhere during normal times. Stock up! Plus, I suggest you have some water purification tablets or a Katadyn water filter on hand. And, if you are able, prepare to grow your own food. Canning food is another very helpful hedge against deprivation. If your parents were like mine, this was standard operating procedure.

Get a generator. Keep a supply of fuel on hand. Stay stocked up on batteries, candles, portable lights, first aid supplies, and personal hygiene items–especially toilet paper. Trust me, during times of intense and prolonged disaster, toilet paper could become more valuable than money. I also suggest you never run out of lighters or matches. You never know when you’ll need to build a fire, and during a prolonged survival situation, fire could save your life. If you live in a cold weather climate, you probably already have some sort of wood stove or fireplace.

Obviously, you need to take stock of your clothing. Do you have clothes suitable for extended outdoor activity? What about boots? During a disaster, you would trade your best suit from Neiman Marcus for a good pair of boots. Do you have gloves? Insulated underwear? What about camouflage clothing? These could become essential outerwear in the right conditions. Plus, any “bug-out” bag will need to include spare clothing.

Communication and medical provisions are also a high priority in any kind of emergency. How will you communicate with your loved ones when the phones (including cell phones) go down? A preordained rally point (or safe house) might be something to think about. And what about medical supplies? Do you have enough to take care of routine (and not-so-routine) emergencies? What about your prescription drugs? How long could you function if you were cut off from your druggist for any length of time? Think about it now.

And one more suggestion, while we’re on this subject: the best resources in the world are of little use if one is physically incapable of making good use of them. In other words, GET IN SHAPE. During any kind of emergency situation, physical exertion and stamina become immensely important.

Commodities:

I suggest you have at least some cash on hand. Just about any and all disasters will result in banks being closed for extended periods of time. That also means credit card purchases being suspended. You need to have enough cash to be able to purchase essential goods (if they are even available) for an undetermined amount of time.

Of course, some survival gurus insist that during any cataclysmic climate, precious metals will become the only reliable currency. But when most of us are trying to feed our families and pay our bills, it is difficult to get excited about buying gold and silver. Obviously, I would never recommend that anyone jeopardize the present on the altar of the future. My parents made it through the Great Depression with canned goods and garden vegetables; gold and silver were certainly not a priority with them. On the other hand, a little gold and silver could go a long way in a prolonged emergency–if you can afford it without jeopardizing present needs.

In fact, in a disaster, what is considered a valuable commodity can change rather quickly, as the barter system takes a life of its own. What is valuable is determined by what you need and how badly you need it. In a prolonged disaster, simple things such as toilet paper, canned goods, ammunition, and clothing could become extremely valuable; while cars, video games, televisions, etc., could be reduced to junk status. In antiquity, wars were fought over things such as salt.

Speaking of cars, remember that during a prolonged “national emergency” that might involve some sort of nuclear attack or widespread civil unrest, an Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) might be employed; in which case, most every late model vehicle would be completely inoperable. Accordingly, if one can keep an older, pre-computer-age vehicle in good working order, he or she might be driving the only non-government vehicle capable of going anywhere.

Self-Defense:

Needless to say, during any kind of disaster, your safety and protection will be completely up to you. If you really think that the police are going to be able to protect you during an upheaval, you are living in a dreamworld.

In both the New Orleans and Los Angeles disasters, police protection was non-existent. Lawless gangs quickly took control of the streets, and people were left to either defend themselves or swiftly become the helpless prey of violent marauders. In fact, in New Orleans, some of the policemen actually abandoned their oaths to uphold the law and joined with the criminals, turning their weapons upon the public.

Face it, folks: in any kind of disaster, you must be able to defend yourself, or you and your family will be meat for these animals of society that will quickly descend without mercy upon the unprepared, unsuspecting souls around them. This requires that you be armed! It also requires that you be skilled enough to be able to efficiently use your arms.

Therefore, I strongly suggest that you purchase firearms sufficient to keep you and your family safe, and also that you practice sufficiently to know how to use them.

Now, when it comes to a discussion of which firearms are preferable for self-defense, the suggestions are as varied as the people who proffer them. These are my suggestions:

I believe every man (along with his wife and children of adequate age) should be proficient with the following weapons: a handgun in .38 caliber or above, a .22 rifle, a center-fire hunting rifle, a semi-automatic battle rifle, and a shotgun.

My personal preference for a self-defense handgun is either a .45 ACP 1911 (either Colt or Kimber) or a .40 S&W. In the .40 caliber, my favorite is a Glock 23. In the 1911, I like the Commander size configuration. I also like the Glock 21, 30, and 36 in .45 caliber. My wife prefers to carry a Smith & Wesson .38 caliber revolver in the snub-nose, J-frame configuration. But this is primarily due to the reduced weight of these weapons for carry purposes. If needed, she could make a good accounting of herself with a Glock 19 in 9mm. If you are someone who has never owned and seldom fired a handgun, I recommend you buy a Glock. They are as simple as revolvers to operate, reliable, and almost indestructible. Plus, they provide increased magazine capacity, and are safe. They are also very easy to disassemble and clean. Of course, in dangerous game territory, you will need the power of a .45 Long Colt, .44 Magnum, or even a .454 Casull. These calibers are not for the limp-wristed, but when one is facing a brown bear or mountain lion, it is what one will need to survive. Plus, when your life is on the line, you’ll never feel the recoil.

For a .22 rifle, I really like the Ruger 10/22. For a hunting rifle, my suggestion is either a .270 or .30-06 caliber bolt-action rifle. I prefer the Remington Model 700 BDL or Browning X-Bolt, but there are several fine weapons in this configuration and caliber by numerous manufacturers. In dangerous game territory, a Marlin .45-70 could be a lifesaver. For a battle rifle, I suggest an AR-15-style weapon (I prefer Bushmaster) in .223 caliber or a .308 Springfield M1A. For a shotgun, I suggest a 12-gauge pump. Here I prefer a Winchester Model 1300, which is not made anymore. So, you’ll probably have to choose between Mossberg and Remington. For ladies, however, a 20-gauge shotgun is probably a better choice, and at “bad breath” range (where a shotgun shines, anyway), it is just as lethal.

Whatever you choose, practice with it to the point that you are able to use it proficiently. And be sure you stock up on ammunition. A gun without ammo is reduced to being either an expensive club or a cumbersome paperweight.

Go to your local independent sporting goods store (I don’t recommend the large national chain stores to do your firearms shopping) and get to know your hometown firearms dealer. Most of these people are kind and helpful folks who will be more than happy to assist you in finding exactly what type of firearm is suitable for you and your family. If you live in the Pensacola, Florida, area, a visit with Rick Bankston at Buck and Bass on Pine Forest Road is highly recommended. He is a fine Christian gentleman and very knowledgeable in all things gun. His phone number is 850-944-5692. Give him a call.

Spiritual Power:

I firmly believe that man is created to have fellowship with his Creator-God. I really don’t know how people can face the uncertain future that we currently face without the spiritual knowledge, wisdom, comfort, and power that is made available through Jesus Christ. I believe the maxim is true: “Wise men still seek Him.” I strongly suggest that you seek to possess a personal relationship with God’s only begotten Son. In truth, spiritual preparation is far and away the most important preparation of all. Accordingly, be sure to pack a copy of God’s Word in your survival gear.

That we are facing challenging days is a certainty. Exactly what that means is yet to be determined. I trust that some of my suggestions will help you be better prepared for what lies before us. Plus, here is an excellent online Survival Blog chock-full of great suggestions and resources for all things survival. Check it out:

http://www.survivalblog.com/

I am sure that I have left out several items that others more qualified than me would include. I welcome their suggestions, as I am always desirous to learn from those who are wiser and more experienced. In the meantime, remember your Boy Scout motto: “Be Prepared.”

P.S. It’s almost time to print THE FREEDOM DOCUMENTS. To reserve (or pre-pay) your copies, go here:

http://chuckbaldwinlive.com/home/?p=279

Cop Punches 17 Year Old Girl in Face, Girl Charged with Assaulting Cop

Infowars.com
June 15, 2010

Obviously, the two girls in the video were resisting arrest. But the cop felt threatened by the teenage girl, so he popped her one in the face. The following is yet another example why cops want to outlaw cell phone videos. They just make them look bad.

Huge Number of Disaster Drills Held Throughout America

Holly Deyo
June 15, 2010

From terrorist attacks and hurricane evacuations to submarine base and nuclear power plant mishaps; bomb blasts, plane crashes, dirty bombs, hazmat spills, earthquakes, medical disasters and train derailments, America is on high alert. Over the past several weeks to the present, more than 35 major disaster drills are taking place throughout America. It makes one wonder what’s prompting all of these emergency exercises and planning venues. Was it confusion over Gov. Palin’s oft-quoted “drill, baby, drill?” No, it’s recognition that the Feds are leaving ordinary citizens to fend for themselves. States aren’t happy about this.

Proof? No one has been more vociferous than Gov. Jindal pleading, imploring for help for Louisiana. Obama’s ears appear to be stuffed with cotton for all the good it’s done. For weeks now, pleas for practical assistance have gone unanswered.

Countless Americans have offered ways to sop up and stop the flow of oil in the Gulf. Has ANYBODY gotten the President’s ear or BP’s for that matter? People with credentials, people with practical know-how and yes, ordinary American citizens blessed with common sense in finding solutions to extraordinary problems have ALL have been ignored. Yeah, well, maybe Kevin Costner is the exception who’s considered an expert in environmental problems. Why did he get a Congressional audience? Because he has a “name”.

Next, Arizona’s Governor Jan Brewer. Illegal aliens are making life unbearable for citizens who live there. Because the Southwest is off-radar of D.C movers and shakers, the President and policy-makers ignore this massive and growing disaster. Ditto for the Bush administration.

OBAMA USING OIL SPILL TO PUSH NIGHTMARE GREEN ECONOMY AGENDA

Comparisons to 9/11 represent attempt to scare American people into submission on climate legislation

Steve Watson
Infowars.net
Monday, Jun 14th, 2010

The Obama administration is using the crisis in the Mexican Gulf to sell it’s nightmare agenda for a so called “green economy”, a push for initiatives that have, according to its own government, led directly to catastrophic economic failure in Spain.

The White House has enacted a direct emailing campaign, calling for support to sell the American people on long sought global warming and Cap and Trade legislation.

The emails sent out en mass to those on the Obama campaign mailing list ask for a public lobbying effort to push for a cap and trade bill in the Senate to match legislation already passed in the House.

The email from Obama (see in full at the end of this article) reads:

The BP oil spill in the Gulf Coast is the worst environmental disaster of its kind in our nation’s history. I am returning to the region today to review our efforts and meet with families and business owners affected by the catastrophe.

We are working to hold BP accountable for the damage to the lands and the livelihoods of the Gulf Coast, and we are taking strong precautions to make certain a spill like this never happens again.

But our work will not end with this crisis. That’s one of the reasons why last week I invited lawmakers from both parties to join me at the White House to discuss what it will take to move forward on legislation to promote a new economy powered by green jobs, combat climate change, and end our dependence on foreign oil.

[...]Please stand with me today in backing clean energy. Adding your name will help Organizing for America create a powerful, public display of support for making this change happen.

The green push hasn’t ended there. In an interview published by Politico this weekend, Obama compared the BP oil spill with 9/11, noting:

“In the same way that our view of our vulnerabilities and our foreign policy was shaped profoundly by 9/11, I think this disaster is going to shape how we think about the environment and energy for many years to come.”

Just as George W. Bush’s Afghanistan invasion plan was sitting on the shelf before 9/11, Obama’s green economy bill has been laying in wait for almost two years now.


Obama’s stated intention to “Implement an economy-wide cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050″ has not gone away.

Recent exposure of the fraud behind the climate science driving the global warming movement had seemingly scuppered Obama’s chances of pushing through the legislation, which would see some $2.9 trillion shaved off the economy by the year 2050 if enacted. The legislation would also reduce GDP by 6.9 percent – a figure comparable with the economic meltdown of 1929 and 1930.

Now, however, in the wake of the BP disaster, and a tightly controlled public relations machine managing it, Obama has seen an opportunity to gain momentum, once more wheeling out his “clean energy” rhetoric:

“One of the biggest leadership challenges for me going forward is going to be to make sure that we draw the right lessons from this disaster.” Obama noted in the Politico interview, clearly intimating that one of the “right lessons” would include passing his radical climate change legislation.

On several separate occasions, over the past two years, Obama has referred to the “green economy” policies enacted by Spain as being the model for what he envisions for America.

It is precisely this kind of “green economy” that has left Spain with a 20 per cent unemployment rate, virtually bankrupt and in need of being bailed out by the rest of Europe.

A newly leaked internal document from Spain’s Zapatero administration outlines how Spain’s “green economy initiatives” have been a financial disaster.

In this so-called “green economy”, over 2.2 jobs are lost for every “green job” created.

“Today’s leaked document reveals that even the socialist Spanish government now acknowledges the ruinous effects of green economic policy,” reports Christopher Horner.

“Despite the soft-pedaling, the document reveals exactly why electricity rates “necessarily skyrocketed” in Spain, as did the public debt needed to underwrite the disaster. This internal assessment preceded the Zapatero administration’s recent acknowledgement that the “green economy” stunt must be abandoned, lest the experiment risk Spain becoming Greece.”

Obama admits in his mass email, “There will be transition costs and a time of adjustment.” This translates to gas and electricity prices going through the roof, huge new taxes and regulations on U.S. businesses, and the ushering in of an era of green policing where, in order to meet its stated goals, the U.S. government micro-manages citizens and enterprises to ensure they are being “eco-friendly”.

Without question, developing alternative energy methods and encouraging the use of solar and wind power for means of self-sufficiency and reducing dependency on oil and fossil fuels is a fantastic notion and should be widely supported. But this isn’t about helping the environment, it’s about exploiting people’s legitimate concern for the planet by diverting their attention and getting them to enthusiastically partake in their own enslavement while mandating their fellow citizens do the same.

Welcome to another dose of the “change you can believe in,” trillions more of taxpayer’s money thrown at a scam that has nothing to do with saving the environment and everything to do with raping the middle class and the poor while erecting a gargantuan police state system of informants and enforcement to carry out the elite’s new feudalist agenda.

============================================

The email from Obama in full:

Dear xxxxxxx,

The BP oil spill in the Gulf Coast is the worst environmental disaster of its kind in our nation’s history. I am returning to the region today to review our efforts and meet with families and business owners affected by the catastrophe.

We are working to hold BP accountable for the damage to the lands and the livelihoods of the Gulf Coast, and we are taking strong precautions to make certain a spill like this never happens again.

But our work will not end with this crisis. That’s one of the reasons why last week I invited lawmakers from both parties to join me at the White House to discuss what it will take to move forward on legislation to promote a new economy powered by green jobs, combat climate change, and end our dependence on foreign oil.

Today, we consume more than 20 percent of the world’s oil, but have less than two percent of the world’s oil reserves. Beyond the risks inherent in drilling four miles beneath the surface of the Earth, our dependence on oil means that we will continue to send billions of dollars of our hard-earned wealth to other countries every month — including many in dangerous and unstable regions.

In other words, our continued dependence on fossil fuels will jeopardize our national security. It will smother our planet. And it will continue to put our economy and our environment at risk. We cannot delay any longer, and that is why I am asking for your help.

Please stand with me today in backing clean energy. Adding your name will help Organizing for America create a powerful, public display of support for making this change happen.

The time has come, once and for all, for this nation to fully embrace a new future. That means continuing our unprecedented effort to make everything — from our homes and businesses to our cars and trucks — more energy-efficient. It means rolling back billions of dollars of tax breaks to oil companies so we can prioritize investments in clean energy research and development.

Many businesses support this agenda because shifting to clean energy creates opportunities for entrepreneurship. This is how we will reinvent our economy — and create new companies and new jobs all across the country.

There will be transition costs and a time of adjustment. But if we refuse to heed the warnings from the disaster in the Gulf — we will have missed our best chance to seize the clean-energy future we know America needs to thrive in the years and decades to come.

The House of Representatives has already passed a comprehensive energy and climate bill, and there is currently a plan in the Senate — a plan that was developed with ideas from Democrats and Republicans — that would achieve the same goal. But this is an issue that Washington has long ignored in favor of protecting the status quo.

So I’m asking for your help today to show that the American people are ready for a clean-energy future.

Please add your name to mine:

http://my.barackobama.com/CleanEnergy

Thank you,

President Barack Obama

Oil Disaster Will Be End of Life As We Know It

John Doty Jr
June 14, 2010



This is it. It’s over. Get ready for the most insane year of your life. 5 years. 10 years. One day you will look back at your life right now and think about how easy it was, how innocent. We are on the cusp of total collapse, right at the precipice.

If you’re like most people you probably have already decided that I am exaggerating without knowing why I am saying this. Well let me make it clear that I also wish I was exaggerating. I don’t sell survival equipment or gold. My job is not recession proof. I have a family. I didn’t wake up today and randomly decide to declare that this is the end of life as we know it. But I do research. I make calls and tune into radio, scouring the internet for news clips and analysis. I make a concerted effort to only quote trustworthy sources. The information that has emerged over the past few days confirms fears that this is actually an “Armageddon” event. I am being completely serious.

Check it: The oil, spewing out at 20,000 to 70,000 psi, and the sediment within it has eroded the very walls of the well itself in several areas. This means that this is now an uncontainable gusher that is literally spewing oil up from dozens of sites across the gulf floor. The massive oil pocket tapped under immense pressure is now spewing out into the seabed. Capping the well does nothing. The oil pocket is tapped, the pipe is eroded and the oil is now spewing up to the ocean floor with intense pressure. Plumes are being generated everywhere. They cannot stop this. Human technology cannot contain a liquid at that pressure, especially at that depth under the ocean. We simply do not have the technology or know-how to fix this. We don’t. The relief wells are essentially useless now because the original well cannot be plugged so oil will always flow out of it regardless of how many other wells they dig. They needed to get into the pipe, fill the old pipe with mud and cement and then divert the oil into the new well. But because the tapped oil pocket is sand blasting itself routes to the surface that grow each day in diameter due to the eroding walls and passageways, there is no “well” to fill. That is because whats left of the well is already dissolving. And each day that passes until they drill their so-called “relief wells” will only see the oil finding new routes through the escapes it has carved through erosion of the pipes and rock. Thad Allen, the head of the US Coast Guard, has said that the oil isn’t all flowing up the pipe anymore but is now “in communication” with the seabed and the surrounding soft rock formation. It is now blasting its own wells.

Ya, that’s bad, but that isn’t even the scary part. Hydrogen Sulfide, Benzene, Methylene Chloride, and other toxic gases are also spewing out along with the oil. In concentrations hundreds and thousands of times greater than what is considered safe for humans. Lethal levels. When the hurricanes come they will absorb this toxic seawater and drop it as rain. Literally toxic rain. Let me guess, toxic rain doesn’t scare you. The biggest threat is already actualized with the chemicals entering the atmosphere and being carried around by the wind.

“The media coverage of the BP oil disaster to date has focused largely on the threats to wildlife, but the latest evaluation of air monitoring data shows a serious threat to human health from airborne chemicals emitted by the ongoing deepwater gusher,” the Institute for Southern Studies blog reported on May 10.

Any one of these chemicals in these concentrations would be lethal. Mixed together it’s truly unthinkable.

The fragile US economy, in the midst of a feeble attempt at a jobless recovery, overstretched by war and out of control spending is not equipped to handle a disaster of this magnitude. No country in the world could. Remember how well they handled the Katrina thing? This makes Katrina look like a grade school fire drill. Well I wonder how well they will do this time as they prepare to evacuate entire cities and states. See this and this. Once the evacuations begin the markets will tank. Once people are forced to grasp what is happening around them the global economy will come to a screeching halt as it’s engine, the USA, sinks into the throes of the worst environmental disaster in the history of the world. This will cause a dollar confidence crisis. Enraged citizens will riot and loot with no hope of a decent life ahead of them. Martial law will be declared.

They have no way to stop this, only a theory that maybe a nuke would implode the oil pocket. Ya, we’re talking about nuking the earths crust under the ocean. Eventually the oil will make it’s way around the world as the entire oil deposit is unleashed into the ocean.

Are you buying the crap coming from BP? The bogus press releases and the downplayed assessments? They’ve been lying through their teeth, censoring the media and destroying evidence. If you trust them, you have some problems.

Obama Issues Executive Order Mandating “Lifestyle Behavior Modification”

Nanny State Liberation Front
June 13, 2010



Obama’s approximately 25-member “Advisory Group” will soon be present in every aspect of Americans’ lives.

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is fond of saying, “You don’t ever want a crisis to go to waste; it’s an opportunity to do important things that you would otherwise avoid.” Well, the Obama Administration certainly has not let the British Petroleum (BP) Deepwater Horizon oil rig crisis go to waste, using it as a smokescreen to silently assault and further diminish American citizens’ personal freedom.

While the nation has its eyes and ears focused on the blame game ping-pong match between President Obama and BP top brass, President Obama on Thursday, June 10, quietly announced a new Executive Order establishing the “National Prevention, Health Promotion, and Public Health Council.”

Claiming the “authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America,” President Obama has truly gone off the deep end this time in his most atrocious attempt to date to control every aspect of Americans’ lives.

According to Sec. 5. of the Executive Order that details the President’s “National Prevention and Health Promotion Strategy,” the Council will be charged with carrying out “lifestyle behavior modification” among American citizens that do not exhibit “healthy behavior.”

Chris Matthews Defends Domestic Terrorists While Smearing Americans As Dangerous Radicals

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Monday, June 14, 2010



Chris Matthews will this week smear millions of politically active Americans as dangerous and violent radicals when he hosts the MSNBC special, “The Rise of the New Right.” However, when terrorist bomber, leader of an organization that wanted to kill 25 million Americans, and the man who helped launch Barack Obama’s political career, Bill Ayers appeared on Matthews’ show, all he got was softball questions and platitudes.

As we reported last week, after obtaining a leaked transcript of the program which will air this Wednesday at 7pm ET from a concerned MSNBC staffer, it became clear that the show’s producers had gone back on their word to make a fair and balanced biography of the growing influence of the anti-big government movement, and in fact had resorted to exercising the same tired old cliches about how anyone who criticizes the federal government is a dangerous radical neo-nazi racist who probably wants to kill people.

MSNBC’s Matthews has made a habit out of portraying Tea Party members, second amendment activists and anyone who is concerned about the growth in government as part of a new frontier of violent extremism.

However, Matthews’ agenda-driven bias against conservative grass roots activists is exposed by a simple comparison of how the MSNBC host characterizes Tea Partiers as violent radicals with how he cosied up and made apologies for communist revolutionary and domestic terrorist Bill Ayers, leader of the Weather Underground and the man who helped plan bomb attacks in the 70’s against the Pentagon, the State Department and the Capitol Building.

According to former FBI agent Larry Grathwohl, who was assigned to infiltrate the Weather Underground’s Central Committee, the organization run by Ayers carried out the bombings in an attempt to cause the United States government to collapse and open the door for Cuban, North Vietnamese, Chinese and Russian troops to occupy the country. Grathwohl stated that Ayers and his group planned to deal with Americans who would try to resist this takeover by “establishing re-education centers in the south-west”. Asked what he would do with those who still refused to convert to communism, Ayers said that they would have to be “eliminated,” as in 25 million Americans would be killed in concentration camps.

Grathwohl points out that most of the people advocating this brutality had “graduate degrees from Columbia and other well known educational centers,” and relates the shock it was to listen to these people “figure out the logistics for the elimination of 25 million people – and they were dead serious”.

Watch the clip below.



The most disturbing aspect about Grathwohl’s description of what the Weather Underground planned to do is not the likelihood that they could have achieved such a goal, but that the man who expressed these intentions, Bill Ayers, went on to become an influential elitist with a prominent position inside the American educational hierarchy, and even more alarmingly that he was instrumental in launching the political career of Barack Obama, which we shall come to shortly.

So while Matthews savages anti-big government activists as representing a dangerous threat to America, he concurrently portrays Ayers, a domestic terrorist who bombed government buildings in an attempt to collapse America into a Communist tyranny and butcher 25 million dissenting citizens, as a reasonable, progressive and reformed individual.

Compare Ayers’ appearance on Matthews’ show, a man who helped plan bombings of the Pentagon, the State Department and the Capitol building, to that of Oath Keeper and Tea Party activist Sheriff Richard Mack, who has never bombed anything and has vehemently shunned violence of any kind. Contrast Matthews’ kid-glove treatment of terrorist bomber Ayers with that of Mack – Matthews constantly interrupts Mack and tries to demonize him as a radical extremist simply because he believes the Constitution isn’t being followed.

Matthews, despite the fact that he could have been killed by one of Ayers’ bombings when he was working as a cop on Capitol Hill, throws softball questions to Ayers throughout the interview and repeatedly seeks common ground with a man who once, according to Grathwohl, expressed his desire to incarcerate and kill Americans who refused to allow Chinese and Soviet troops to occupy the country as part of a communist invasion.

“I agitate my way, you agitate your way,” Matthews tells Ayers.

In a subsequent interview with Pat Buchanan, Matthews continued running defense for Ayers, misquoting him to hide the fact that Ayers told the New York Times in September 2001, ” “I don’t regret setting bombs” and “I feel we didn’t do enough”. When asked if he would “do it all again,” Ayers responded, “I don’t want to discount the possibility.”

So this is a man who not only planned and helped to execute bombings against government buildings, but decades later expressed no remorse, said that more bombings should have been carried out, and even hinted that he would consider carrying out acts of terror once again. Matthews defends Ayers while pointing fingers at grass roots Americans and saying that they represent a violent threat.

Contrast MSNBC’s approach to Ayers with the network’s treatment of critics of big government as a whole. Carlos Watson told his viewers that people who called Obama a socialist were racist radicals who in fact were using it as a secret code for the n-word. Dylan Ratigan said that Tea Party organizers wanted to “kill blacks and Jews,” an incendiary smear regurgitated in MSNBC’s upcoming hit piece. MSNBC’s David Shuster attempted to portray anger being expressed by the majority of Americans who opposed the health care bill as some kind of vicious and deadly mass assault, casting Democrat proponents of the legislation as poor victims of a bloodthirsty mob. In reality, while the corporate media and particularly MSNBC has repeatedly claimed that anti-big government activists are dangerous and intent on violence, the only violence dished out during public events has come from maniacal Obama supporters who are loathe to accept anyone exercising their free speech to criticize their dear leader.

Matthews’ cosying up to communist revolutionary Ayers is unsurprising given the fact that the MSNBC host once named communist ideologue Saul Alinsky as one of his heroes. Recall too that Matthews once let slip during a live broadcast that he analyzes politics from a Marxist perspective, stating “I’m Marxist when it comes to analysis”.



His authoritarian bent also came to the fore during a debate in which it was implied that anyone who is skeptical of, or expresses disdain toward, anything the government does is psychologically insane. This harks back to the former Soviet Union, psikhushkas — mental hospitals — which were used by the state as prisons in order to isolate political prisoners, discredit their ideas, and break them physically and mentally. The Soviet state began using mental hospitals to punish dissidents in 1939 under Stalin. The notion that distrust of government is a psychological illness, as Matthews and his guests promoted during this debate, is a hardcore communist statist principle that has only ever been historically applied by the most brutal dictatorships on the planet, and one that is currently employed by Kim Jong-Il’s North Korea.

Despite being an unrepentant domestic terrorist, Ayers has been rewarded by the establishment with an influential position as a professor at the University of Illinois in Chicago. Following his absorption into the ranks of the elite, Ayers was instrumental in helping to launch the political career of Barack H. Obama.

The notion that Ayers, the communist revolutionary and domestic terrorist, was a close friend and confidante of Obama, is not an invention of John McCain or Sarah Palin, it’s a manifestly provable fact. Indeed, as people who dismiss the Ayers-Obama link rightly point out, some of McCain’s top campaign contributors also worked closely with Ayers.

However, Obama’s intimate connection with Ayers does not merely stem from the fact that they jointly served on the same board of a Chicago education reform project in 1995, Barack Obama’s political career was launched from Bill Ayers’ own living room.

“In 1995, State Senator Alice Palmer introduced her chosen successor, Barack Obama, to a few of the district’s influential liberals at the home of two well known figures on the local left: William Ayers and Bernardine Dohr,” reported Politico’s Ben Smith.

Again, the corporate media attempted to downplay this controversy when it first appeared in 2008 as a neo-con talking point exaggerated by McCain and Palin. In reality, the fact that the man who wanted to kill millions of Americans who resisted a communist takeover of the country was instrumental in setting Obama on the path to become President was admitted by an Obama-supporting liberal who attended the meeting.

Maria Warren, a liberal activist who attended the infamous Ayers-Obama function, stated plainly that Ayers helped to kick-start Obama’s political career by ingratiating him with the Chicago political elite.

“When I first met Barack Obama, he was giving a standard, innocuous little talk in the living room of those two legends-in-their-own-minds, Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn. They were launching him–introducing him to the Hyde Park community as the best thing since sliced bread,” wrote Warren.

Imagine if someone like Rand Paul had launched his political career in the living room of a Ku Klux Klan leader who had bombed government buildings. He’d be shot down in an instant. And yet Barack Obama’s political career was launched with the help of domestic terrorist and, according to Larry Grathwohl, would-be mass murderer Bill Ayers, a man who can rely on people like Chris Matthews and the rest of the talking heads at MSNBC to downplay his violent past while claiming that Tea Partiers are the real threat.

The depth of Ayers’ relationship with Obama is revealed by the startling and voluminous indications that suggest Bill Ayers wrote the majority of Obama’s acclaimed 1995 memoir, “Dreams from My Father.” Writer Jack Cashill has summarized a barrage of evidence that shows the writing style of the book mimics almost entirely that of Ayers. Indeed, author Christopher Andersen subsequently published another book that came to the same conclusion as the argument advanced by Cashill – that the terrorist Ayers significantly contributed to the memoir, dispelling Obama’s claim that he and Ayers merely shared the same neighborhood.

In reality, the implications of Obama’s ties with Ayers, bearing in mind what measures Ayers advocated as part of a violent communist overthrow of the U.S. government, are truly frightening and go beyond the scope of this article. The fact that Ayers has been one of the most frequent visitors to the White House since Obama took residency in the Oval Office only adds to the alarming scope of this story.

What can be succinctly affirmed at this juncture is the fact that while MSNBC and Chris Matthews are busy smearing peaceful Americans as domestic terrorist and radical racists who are a threat to the government and indeed Obama himself, they are concurrently part of a deliberate effort to cover-up and run defense for Bill Ayers, a confirmed domestic terrorist who bombed government buildings before going on to become an influential figure in steering Obama’s path to the White House.

The sheer scale of the hypocrisy exemplified by this comparison renders Matthews’ and MSNBC’s “Rise of the New Right” hit piece a completely agenda-driven and biased smear which should be vehemently debunked on the basis of the network’s shocking efforts to assuage and pacify the outrage surrounding Bill Ayers’ terrorist past and his intimate ties with Barack Obama.