December 23, 2009

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AUSTIN — Gov. Rick Perry today sent a letter asking other governors to join him in ongoing efforts to assert the constitutional rights of states as guaranteed under the 10th Amendment with regard to the federal health care bill being forced through by Congress. He urged the governors to support and join efforts by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and several other state attorneys general to determine the constitutionality of a compromise in the pending federal health care legislation exempting the state of Nebraska from increased Medicaid costs resulting from the bill’s passage.

"As the chief executive officers of our individual sovereign states, we must stand up to this unprecedented intrusion in to our lives and the rights of our citizens. We must demonstrate resolve in the face of this infringement,” Gov. Perry wrote in the letter. “Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott is joining with several other state attorneys general to place this deal under proper scrutiny, to determine if such an exclusion is unconstitutional. His office, along with mine, will continue to explore all options available to us as we attempt to minimize the damages that can be caused to Texans by this ill-advised piece of legislation."

In Texas, this health care bill will cost up to $21 billion over the next 10 years, adding an estimated 2 million more people to our Medicaid rolls.

In his letter the governor emphasized that this bill will impose unprecedented intrusion in to the lives and the rights of citizens by mandating that every American purchase health care coverage or face penalties. Additionally, taxpayers in Texas and in most other states will pay even more to effectively subsidize expanded Medicaid for Nebraska and select states that caught additional sweeteners on issues like rural health care and Medicare Advantage for some seniors in a few states.

via Office of the Governor Rick Perry – Press Releases – Gov. Perry: States Must Stand Up to Unprecedented Federal Intrusion.

Great news for Christmas Thanks John Bush (www.tagtexas.org) and Dan Gonzales for keeping folks in the know!

____

John Bush ✆
to ronpaul-1100

show details 6:00 PM (1 hour ago)

Merry Christmas my fellow patriots. I have great news to report. Keep the prayers, thoughts, and vibes a comin!

From Dan Gonzalez, VP of CC2009.

“AWESOME NEWS….Michael Badnarik is awake and spunky. He asked
Lynne what happened to him and how long has he been out? Lynne
said it was Christmas and he asked what year.
He is very weak of course but he is improving very rapidly!

Thank you Lord for bringing Michael back to us.”

WE ARE CHANGE OKLAHOMA ACTIVISTS ARE ASSAULTED, ARRESTED AT PENN SQUARE MALL

* View

* What links here

Sat, 12/12/2009 – 04:07 by craigmotyka

(Andrew W. Griffin) OKLAHOMA CITY – Two members of We Are Change Oklahoma claim they were brutally assaulted by mall security guards and an officer of the Oklahoma City Police Department and ultimately arrested on Friday afternoon during a non-violent “street action” at Penn Square Mall.

Red Dirt Report and Oklahoma Watchdog were given exclusive information by Oklahoma City resident and WAC-OK founder and activist James Lane who was just released from the Oklahoma County Jail arrested on charges of assault and battery.

“Even though I was the victim of the brutal, unprovoked assault, and never touched a single officer, I was charged with assault and battery,” Lane told Red Dirt Report on Sunday evening

Lane along with fellow activist Brent Southard and a third activist decided to go to Penn Square Mall – owned by Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group – on the afternoon of “Black Friday,” the popular shopping day right after Thanksgiving.

Seeing Penn Square Mall as an optimal place to spread their information via “deception dollars,” which would be tossed from the second floor of the mall in the vicinity of the food court, they hoped to promote alternative media websites.

“There were eight of us initially,” Lane said of the protest which was designed to educate shoppers through the information on the fake money. “We (Lane and Southard) didn’t even throw the dollars.”

Gathering on the second floor, Lane was tasked with photographing the event while Southard held a bag of “deception dollars” and a third activist announced the action via his bullhorn. This got the attention of mall security who proceeded to first go after the bullhorn-toting third activist but then started going after Southard who held a bag which contained the “deception dollars.”

Lane said Southard fled the scene, exiting near the mall movie theater. It was outside that Southard was ultimately taken down by what Lane considered to be five unprofessional mall security guards.

Meanwhile, Lane said he is close behind his friend, videotaping the entire event as it unfolded. Right before Southard was taken down, he said he heard one guard yell at two other guards to “take ‘em down hard,” immediately prior to his arrest.

Lane said an OCPD officer arrived on foot to assist the guards. All the while, he is about 20 yards from Southard filming this. It is then that Lane said he was approached by three security guards who see him filming the scene. In what he considered to be a threatening manner, they inform Lane to “turn the video camera off.”

Lane said he informed a security guard named Rick Wisner that “the state of Oklahoma is a single consent state and that he can film anywhere and anyone he pleases.” Lane also informs Wisner that he is welcome to ask him to leave mall property but that if he touches him “it will be considered assault.”

This did not stop Wisner and three other security guards from allegedly attacking and assaulting Lane.

As Lane yells that he is being assaulted, he gets the attention of the OCPD officer, yelling to him that “these men are assaulting me.” Instead of intervening and stopping the attack by the guards, the officer allegedly then joins the attack, ordering him to “stop resisting.”

At this point, Lane said his face is pushed into a pile of wood chips on a grass berm, resulting in contusions on his forehead. The assaulting guards and officer allegedly punched Lane in the ribs and back, ordering him to stop resisting. The pressure on his back is so great that Lane said he could not breathe. As he struggles for breath, they allegedly threaten to mace him as well.

Telling one of the assailants to “give him some lung” (air), Lane is able to breathe again but is then handcuffed and arrested.

Sitting in the OCPD squad car, Lane and Southard endure two hours of “snide remarks and veiled threats,” allegedly calling the duo “terrorists” and “ACORN liberals.”

Lane said one of the mall security guards taunted Southard and allegedly said, “You’re going to jail for assault, not me.” Lane retorts that he will “see him in court.”

via WE ARE CHANGE OKLAHOMA ACTIVISTS ARE ASSAULTED, ARRESTED AT PENN SQUARE MALL | http://wearechangenewjersey.org.

Amazing speech, anyone catch his name?!?!

Local Saint Louis Blogger makes the Kansas City Pitch blog. Love the photo!

Cat

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The Joker and Claire McCaskill

By Casey Lyons in News, Out & About

Mon., Dec. 21 2009 @ 1:01PM

Pitch readers will remember this summer's vaguely racist Obama-as-Joker meme that showed up on tea-partier posters during the health-care debacle debate when U.S. pols returned to their home districts.

Today, our St. Louis sister paper, The Riverfront Times, linked to a poster depicting the same treatment for Sen. Claire "Bear" McCaskill.

clairethejokermccaskill.jpg

www.gatewaypundit.firstthings.com

​In a blog post at the time of the rallies, Pitch editor C.J. Janovy quoted an academic Washington Post article about the interpretation of Joker face on Obama that concluded:

Obama, like the Joker and like the racial stereotype of the blackman, carries within him an unknowable, volatile and dangerous marker of urban violence, which could erupt at any time. The charge of socialism is secondary to the basic message that Obama can't be trusted, not because he is a politician, but because he's black.

But McCaskill? Maybe her vote in favor of health care has angered amateur Photoshoppers into reviving an embarrassing, though iconic, meme.

Tags: Barack Obama, Claire McCaskill, health care reform, Riverfront Times, The Joker, The Pitch

via The Joker and Claire McCaskill – Kansas City News – Plog.

On the first night, Schaeffer Cox of Alaska called for the formation of a caucus within the larger group. The “People’s Action Caucus” would focus on the civic actions that the Congress would recommend to the people. Its mission statement was “Arming the People with recommendations for local action that are not contingent upon government cooperation so they can exercise their inherent right to be free.” The group tackled the issues of the following day: 2nd Amendment and the Money Clause. Cox split the group into two units and I quickly volunteered to work on the money sub-committee. I was chosen as the chair for the night. With the help of Jeanne Golrick (MA), J.D. Shultis (SD), Rick Humboldt (NH), and a few others, we were able to come out with a short, clear statement to offer the people a nudge in the right direction to escape from unwarranted monetary control over their lives. We wrote the statement short and without too much specificity, because it would have to be up to activists in the localities to do the real work. The next morning, our money civic action was quickly passed on the floor. I believe it set the tone for much of the work of the rest of the days because it became clear that small groups could focus on issues and turn out effective resolutions that might have otherwise used up several hours on the floor. Sub-committees were soon created to tackle each of the issues.

They gave us a cheap box lunch on the last Friday. Seated are 5 members of THARs – Total Hard Ass Radicals aka Liberty Kids.

Schaeffer Cox, John Bush (TX), and Catherine Bleish (MO) were youngsters in their twenties who were all extremely gifted and highly charismatic. They and I, along with Kevin Patrick (WV), Ryan McCain (LA), and a few others, soon formed our own little social group, the “Liberty Kids”. It was very interesting to see that factions formed, even in a body with so short a life-span and so focused in purpose. The Founding Fathers warned about factions, or parties, but we had quickly developed them. Most of our differences were not based on ideology, though. It was more a case of target audience saleability. The older, more traditional conservative delegates simply had different constituencies.

via Delegate Wm. H. Ramsey (NE) – Journal of Continental Congress 2009 « Reboot The Republic.

SOMETHING IN THE AIR

'Continental Congress' abolishes income tax

Citizens mobilize in spirit of '76 to help return U.S. to its roots

Posted: November 23, 2009

11:01 pm Eastern

© 2009 WorldNetDaily

'New Continental Congress' session in St. Charles, Ill.

Modeled after the assembly of colonial leaders that formed the original governing body of the U.S., a grass-roots organization has concluded a "new Continental Congress" it hopes will be a catalyst for citizen action that will help return the nation to its roots.

Meeting Nov. 11-21 in St. Charles, Ill., delegates from across the nation gathered to publicly debate the government's "abuses of the Constitution and to consider practical strategies which can bring about compliance with our Freedom documents, not only in our government at all levels, but in our individual lives."

The delegates produced Articles of Freedom which assert "the time has come to reassert our God-given natural rights and cast off tyranny."

"Let the facts reveal – the Federal Government of the United States of America, which was instituted to protect the rights of individual citizens, instead – threatens our life, liberty and property through usurpations of the Constitution; and emboldened by our own lack of responsibility and due diligence in these matters, has exceeded its mandate, and abandoned those founding principles which have made our nation exceptional," the document declares.

The organizers emphasized their "grass-roots proceedings" are not a Constitutional Convention, which the delegates strongly oppose, because it would "only serve to limit our unalienable rights."

The Congress passed a number of resolutions, including measures against the income tax – recognizing it as unconstitutional – and against federal gun-control legislation.

The president of the session was Michael Badnarik, the Libertarian Party's candidate for president in 2004. Dan Gonzales, the Constitution Party's Florida chairman, was the session's vice president.

Robert Schulz Sr., chairman of the We The People Foundation for Constitutional Education, was a chief organizer.

(Story continues below)

The organizers, who state they seek to "legally end certain violations of the federal Constitution," said their next step is to hold their state and federal elected officials accountable to the federal Constitution.

They say they have "exhausted their administrative and judicial remedies" and now wish to "exhaust their constitutional remedies, as guaranteed by the Declaration of Independence and the Accountability Clause of the First Amendment."

"When the People are up against unjust and uncivil government and laws and they are entitled to reform they will achieve it if they are pro-active, non-violent and have a mass-movement," they declare.

'New Continental Congress' delegates meeting in St. Charles, Ill.

Charging the government has violated the Constitution's tax, money, war, general welfare, privacy and other clauses, the organizers have posted petitions for redress regarding the war powers clauses, gun control laws, federal income tax, federal reserve, USA Patriot Act and illegal immigration and a North American Union.

The organizers emphasize the Constitution affords citizens much more than the right to merely send "complaints" to the government, which are usually ignored.

"The Right of Petition embodies the profound Right to enforce the Right to Petition by withdrawing support from the Government until Redress is secured," they state.

The Continental Congress 2009 sought to "take the process of holding Government accountable and restoring the Constitution to the next level by first creating a formal record of the vast violations of the Constitution and Individual Rights now suffered by the People."

The members debated and decided on a series of practical "Civic Actions" citizens can undertake to restore their liberty.

The assembly adopted, for example, formal "Remedial Instructions" to be served on federal and state officials, ordering them to cease and desist their official abuses and giving them formal notice as to the "Civic Actions" of peaceful resistance the people can carry out if their petitions are ignored.

The Income Tax Instruction to the United States Congress adopted by the assembly cites "irrefutable documentation" establishing that the 16th Amendment is void because it was not properly ratified and arguing any direct, unapportioned tax on the labor of any American is unconstitutional.

The resolution cites the U.S. Supreme Court holding that labor and its fruits are "the most sacred and inviolable" property of the citizens of the nation.

The tax resolution also calls for Congress to immediately stop imposition of the withholding of earnings from citizens' paychecks.

via ‘Continental Congress’ abolishes income tax.

You've been served, Ben Bernanke

By David Martin in Martin, News, Out & About, Picket Lines

Mon., Apr. 27 2009 @ 3:39PM

end fed.jpg

Ron Paul supporters, goldbugs and people wearing JFK T-shirts amassed on the lawn between Liberty Memorial and Union Station to protest the Federal Reserve Bank on Saturday.

End the Fed rallies took place in Kansas City and other cities where the Fed operates banks. The Kansas City protesters brought signs blasting various aspects of the U.S. financial system, including the government's $54 trillion deficit.

Working without the benefit of the media apparatus that promoted the tea-bag parties, the protesters hoped to muster support for Paul-sponsored legislation to audit and dismantle the Federal Reserve System. Congress created the system in 1913, after two earlier central banks lost their charters. "The first two were abolished because of corruption issues," Catherine Bleish, executive director of the Liberty Restoration Project, said on Saturday.

The JFK shirts recognized an executive order relating to the issuance of silver certificates the 35th president signed in 1963. The timing of the order has prompted conspiracy theorists to wonder if bankers afraid of losing their grip on power supplied arms to the second gunman on the grassy knoll.

via You’ve been served, Ben Bernanke – Kansas City News – Plog.

This is a really great blog and his most recent post (see below shows EXACTLY what vigilance can accomplish!

Major props!

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I’d like to take a moment to say thank you …

December 23rd, 2009 · No Comments

By Carlos Miller

Before I get back to the business of documenting incidents around the country (yes, I have been reading your emails), I need to thank certain people who have helped me along the way as I fought my legal battle.

Granted, the first legal battle is not complete because there is still a chance of it going back to trial. It’s up to the State Attorney’s Office to determine whether they want to continue spending tax dollars on refiling the resisting arrest without violence charge.

And I’ve already served my sentence, so I don’t see the point. But nothing surprises me down here, so I’m prepared for whatever they come up with.

All I know is that I won’t make the same mistakes I made during my first trial. And I won’t make those mistakes during my second trial of resisting arrest without violence.

Perhaps when I’m through, a clearer definition of resisting arrest without violence will be implemented into Florida case law. As it is now, it is unclear and illogical considering police are allowed to arrest people on this charge without an underlying charge to base it on.

via Photography is Not a Crime — It’s a First Amendment Right.

Your prayers are needed at this time for Michael Badnarik.

I just received word that the President of the 2009 Continental Congress and 2004 Presidential candidate for the Libertarian Party, Michael Badnarik had a Heart Attack this morning and in an unconscious state. His condition is serious.

His Mother, Elaine, reported to me that Michael was in Madison, Wisconsin attending a hearing regarding a raw milk case. After the hearing he got in a car to go to lunch with friends, He then slumped over. His friends attempted CPR and contacted the paramedics. They attempted to revive him 3 times with no success. Upon the 4th attempt his heart was revived yet with erratic behavior.

He was taken by helicopter to Gunderson Lutheran Hospital CCU in Lacrosse, WI. Please do no call or visit the hospital, only family is allowed.

He has been fitted with a temporary pacemaker and a balloon pump to ease stress on his heart.

I have no further details at this time. Please watch your email box for an update.

Michael is a true asset and leader in our movement who works tirelessly and selflessly for freedom. Please pray for Michael at this time.

In Freedom,

Gary Franchi
National Director
Restore the Republic

PS. Details and updates related to Sherry Jackson’s condition and treatment can be found at http://FreeSherry.com