The power of III

Summum ius summa iniuria--More law, less justice
--Cicero.

20 April 2012

My Propertea



;-)
via Daniel Hannan at The Telegraph blogs.

Ron Paul at Cornell University, 4/19/2012

Seeds planted. Will bear fruit in the future. Hope springs eternal...4400 attended at my alma mater.


Virginia passes nullification of NDAA, becomes law

Today, the Virginia legislature once again approved House Bill 1160 (HB1160), what many refer to as the NDAA Nullification Act. The support was overwhelming, again. In the House today the vote was 89-7 and the Senate concurred a few hours later, 36-1.


The bill “Prevents any agency, political subdivision, employee, or member of the military of Virginia from assisting an agency of the armed forces of the United States in the conduct of the investigation, prosecution, or detention of a United States citizen in violation of the United States Constitution, Constitution of Virginia, or any Virginia law or regulation.”


According to an inside report, bill sponsor Delegate Bob Marshall spoke twice in support of the bill on the House floor today. Delegate Barbara Comstock (a long-time Patriot Act supporter) invoked Michael Chertoff and others as high government officials opposing HB 1160. Basically, she said state legislators have no business questioning the federal government.


Marshall responded with citations to a CRS report demonstrating the vagueness of the law, and its effort to circumvent the Treason Clause. He also noted that state legislators are to be watchdogs against the Federal Government.


In the Senate today, Senator Dick Black (R-Loudoun) and Senator Chap Petersen (D-Fairfax) spoke in favor before the final vote.


THE FULL STORY


HB1160 originally passed the Virginia house in February by a vote of 96-4. It went to the Senate where opponents tried to hold it over until next year, effectively killing it. The vote was a tie- and failed. In two short days, thousands of grassroots activists contacted their Senators to support the bill and the next vote, taken quickly, was a different story – 39-1.


With minor amendments, the bill needed to go back to the House for approval. A number of parliamentary maneuvers were used to stall and kill the bill. Various votes to delay (“pass by”) actual approval were held. Eventually, the House rejected the Senate amendments and the bill was sent back to the Senate for another consideration.


Again, the grassroots got on board – and activists from groups across the political spectrum called and emailed their Senators to move the bill forward. The Senate, after a few days of jousting, “receded” from their original amendment by a vote of 37-1 in March, effectively passing the original House bill from the previous month.


HB1160 then went off to the Governor’s desk. Inside sources had been telling us at the Tenth Amendment Center that Governor Bob McDonnell did not want to sign this bill. Vetoing would certainly keep him in a good place with the establishment who supports NDAA detentions, but would also be a slap in the face of a huge portion of his own state’s population, considering the massive outpouring of support from the people there.


McDonnell had until mid April to sign or veto the bill. On the very last day, after some strong behind-the-scenes work by supporters and sponsors, the Governor announced that he recommended some minor amendments – and he would support that version of HB1160.


The bill’s sponsor, Bob Marshall, released the following statement:


Over the past few weeks, Governor McDonnell has heard from a number of Virginians regarding House Bill 1160, sponsored by Delegate Bob Marshall. During the consideration of this legislation and since its passage, he has expressed both the shared concern that Virginia does not participate in the unconstitutional detention of U.S. citizens and the desire that this legislation does not impact legitimate law enforcement activities.


Preserving public safety is the foremost priority of any government. Every day, state and local law enforcement personnel work together and work with the federal government to keep Virginians safe by fighting crime, responding to emergencies, and combating terrorism. The governor believes we must encourage and promote these collaborative efforts while ensuring that core constitutional principles enjoyed by all U.S. citizens are respected. He believes these standards are expected by all Virginians and want to take appropriate steps to reaffirm that position. In the governor’s view, this legislation now accomplishes that goal.


Since the legislation’s passage, staff has worked with the patron to come up with amendments that will achieve the goal of not supporting unconstitutional detentions while preserving the ability of law enforcement and our state defense forces to carry out their responsibilities. The amendments Governor McDonnell sent down achieve those goals, and Delegate Marshall has expressed his support for them. The governor hopes the General Assembly will support them, as well.


The bill is now expected to be promptly signed by Governor McDonnell.


May the other states now follow the lead taken today by Virginia.


UPDATE – according to sponsor Bob Marshall, because the legislature passed the bill as recommended by the Governor, a signature is not required. HB1160 becomes law on July 1st.

SIC SEMPER TYRANIS, BABY.


LINK to the Tenth Amendment Center Blog.

Sgt Gary Stein vs. the slave mentality

In the initial stages of nearly every recorded tyranny, the saucer eyed dumbstruck masses exhibit astonishing and masterful skill when denying reality. 


 The facts behind their dire circumstances and of their antagonistic government become a source of cynical psychological gameplay rather than a source of legitimate concern. Their desperate need to maintain their normalcy bias creates a memory and observation vacuum in which all that runs counter to their false assumptions and preconceptions disappears forever. It is as if they truly cannot see the color of the sky, or the boot on their face. The concrete world of truth becomes a dream, an illusion that can be heeded or completely ignored depending on one’s mood. For them, life is a constant struggle of dissociation, where the tangible is NOT welcome…


This is the problem that we in the Liberty Movement deal with most often in our writings and films. Our confrontation with willful ignorance has been epic, even by far reaching historical standards. The gains in social awareness have been substantial, and yet the obstacles are incredible. Unprecedented. As an activist trend, we have an almost obsessive drive to draw back the curtain so that the public has at least the opportunity to see what is on the other side. Unfortunately, there is another danger that must be taken into account…


It is one thing to bear witness to the rejection of truth in our time and the oblivious attitudes of many towards the growth of totalitarianism. Eventually, though, a second phase in the development of oligarchy arises. I am speaking of the point at which tyranny becomes so blatant that the skeptics have to acknowledge its existence, but after doing so, they choose to rationalize it as necessary. Yes, there are many in this world that will laugh at the prospect of the Orwellian nightmare only to happily embrace it when it arrives in full color.


I was recently looking into the divisive issue of U.S. Marine Sgt. Gary Stein, whose position has come under threat due to his criticisms of Barack Obama and his founding of the ‘Armed Forces Tea Party Facebook Page’. What I discovered was a large number of Americans in support of Stein’s right to speak as a citizen (even under Marine regulations) against the unconstitutional actions of any president or presidential candidate. I also discovered a considerable number who wanted to see the soldier dishonorably discharged, or even set upon a noose as punishment.


read the rest of the article by Brandon Smith of alt-market.com:

Jury Nullification charges dismissed against Heicklen in NY Federal Court

Associated Press Story:

NY judge tosses out jury nullification charges

By LARRY NEUMEISTER
Associated Press
-
From that article, quoting:


NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge threw out charges Thursday against a man who urged jurors in multiple East Coast cities from Florida to New Hampshire to sometimes disregard the law and vote their conscience.


U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood in Manhattan tossed the case against Julian Heicklen, saying the First Amendment protects speech concerning judicial proceedings as long as the speech doesn’t prevent fair and impartial justice. She noted that the essence of the First Amendment is that falsehoods are better exposed through discussion than through suppression.


Heicklen, a retired chemistry professor, was arrested and charged with a misdemeanor for repeatedly handing out pamphlets to people outside a lower Manhattan courthouse near the World Trade Center site between October 2009 and May 2010, urging a practice known in legal circles as jury nullification.


Assistant U.S. Attorney Rebecca Mermelstein had reminded Wood during oral arguments last month that Heicklin also has regularly distributed pamphlets in front of federal courthouses in Philadelphia, Boston, Tampa, Fla., Alexandria, Va., Concord, N.H., Springfield, Mass., Hartford, Conn., and Albany and White Plains in New York state. She called him a “significant threat” to the integrity of the judicial system.


Wood wrote that Heicklen did not violate the law by handing out pamphlets discussing the role of juries in society and urging jurors to follow their consciences regardless of instructions on the law. She said the law would be violated only if Heicklen tried to influence the action or decision of a juror on a specific case pending before that juror.

A letter from Julian Heicklen himself:


Hi Tyranny Fighters:
            Today, I was notified by Sabrina Shroff, my federal defender stand-by counsel and by Ben Weiser, the federal court reporter for the New York Times that the jury tampering case against me in the U. S. District Court in Manhattan, NY Has been dismissed.  This means that the jury has the right, actually the duty, to judge the law as well as the facts.  I have not yet seen either the dismissal order nor the court opinion.
            This is a great victory for the country and will keep me out of federal  prison.  However all the federal judges in the United States should be removed from office and tried for perjury with the intent to obstruct justice, since they all instruct the jury that it must uphold the law as they give it.  This is a double lie.  If the jury decides to uphold the law, it must be the law in the written statute.  If the judge does not provide the jury with the written statute, the jury MUST find the defendant not guilty, because of reasonable doubt. 


            On Monday, April 23, 2012, I will be distributing jury nullification literature on the plaza in front of the U. S. Federal Courthouse at 500 Pearl Street, Manhattan, NY 10007, from 12:00 noon to 1:00 pm.  You all are invited to join me.  At 1:30 pm there will be a victory luncheon for everyone who wishes to attend at their own expense at one of the best Chinese restaurants in near-by China Town.  Please send me your suggestion for which restaurant you prefer.
     The luncheon will to thank Sabrina Shroff and Steven Statsinger, my federal defender stand-by counsels, for their invaluable work to bring the case to a successful solution.  I hope to see as many of you as possible at either the distribution or the luncheon, or both.  If you plan to attend the luncheon, let me know, so that I can notify the restaurant of how many of us there will be.
           One small step for a shabby old man, but a giant leap for justice and our country.  On to Orlando on Tuesday, May 8, 2012.


          Yours in freedom and justice—Julian


Heicklen is doing our labor, and we owe him a debt of gratitude. Vintage video:




First Amendment appropriately upheld. 
FIJA.org.

Originally via Oathkeepers.org

19 April 2012

Why did McVeigh bomb the Murrah building in Oklahoma City?

This subject, now history, seems more and more relevant today.


From a September 2001 Vanity Fair article by Gore Vidal (the whole article is well worth reading): 


Finally, McVeigh sent me three pages of longhand notes dated April 4, 2001, a few weeks before he was first scheduled to die. It is addressed to “C.J.”(?), whose initials he has struck out.

I explain herein why I bombed the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. I explain this not for publicity, nor seeking to win an argument of right or wrong, I explain so that the record is clear as to my thinking and motivations in bombing a government installation.


I chose to bomb a Federal Building because such an action served more purposes than other options. Foremost, the bombing was a retaliatory strike: a counter-attack, for the cumulative raids (and subsequent violence and damage) that federal agents had participated in over the preceding years (including, but not limited to, Waco). From the formation of such units as the FBI’s “Hostage Rescue” and other assault teams amongst federal agencies during the 80s, culminating in the Waco incident, federal actions grew increasingly militaristic and violent, to the point where at Waco, our government—like the Chinese—was deploying tanks against its own citizens.


… For all intents and purposes, federal agents had become “soldiers” (using military training, tactics, techniques, equipment, language, dress, organization and mindset) and they were escalating their behavior. Therefore, this bombing was also meant as a pre-emptive (or pro-active) strike against those forces and their command and control centers within the federal building. When an aggressor force continually launches attacks from a particular base of operations, it is sound military strategy to take the fight to the enemy. Additionally, borrowing a page from U.S. foreign policy, I decided to send a message to a government that was becoming increasingly hostile, by bombing a government building and the government employees within that building who represent that government. Bombing the Murrah Federal Building was morally and strategically equivalent to the U.S. hitting a government building in Serbia, Iraq, or other nations. Based on observations of the policies of my own government, I viewed this action as an acceptable option. From this perspective what occurred in Oklahoma City was no different than what Americans rain on the heads of others all the time, and, subsequently, my mindset was and is one of clinical detachment. (The bombing of the Murrah Building was not personal no more than when Air Force, Army, Navy or Marine personnel bomb or launch cruise missiles against (foreign) government installations and their personnel.)


I hope this clarification amply addresses your question.


Sincerely, T.M., USP Terre Haute (In.)

In the end, McVeigh, already condemned to death, decided to take full credit for the bombing. Was he being a good professional soldier, covering up for others? Or did he, perhaps, now see himself in a historic role with his own private Harper’s Ferry, and though his ashes molder in the grave, his spirit is marching on? We may know—one day.

Deo Vindice

From Texas SCV on Facebook

Deo Vindici by Rickey Pittman:


I am a Southerner...
I won't apologize
I won't be reconstructed.
I will not surrender
My identity, my heritage.
I believe in the Constitution,
In States' Rights,
That the government should be the
Servant, not the Master of the people.
I believe in the right to bear arms,
The right to be left alone.


I am a Southerner...
The Spirit of my Confederate ancestor
Boils in my blood.
He fought
Not for what he thought was right,
But for what was right.
Not for slavery,
But to resist tyranny, Machiavellian laws,
Oppressive taxation, invasion of his land,
For the right to be left alone.


I am a Southerner.
A rebel,
Seldom Politically Correct,
At times belligerent.
I don't like Lincoln, Grant, Sherman,
Or modern neocon politicians like them.


I like hunting and fishing, Leonard Skynyrd,
The Bonnie Blue and Dixie.
I still believe in chivalry and civility.


I am a face in the Southern collage of
Gentlemen and Scholars, belles and writers,
Soldiers and sharecroppers, Cajuns and Creoles,
Tejanos and Islenos, Celts and Germans,
Gullah and Geechi, freedmen and slaves,
We are ALL the South.


The South...my home, my beautiful home,
My culture, my destiny, my heart.
I am a Southerner.


DEO VINDICI.

How to preserve your weath through stealth...anecdote from Soviet days

Keep this story in mind, which was told to me yesterday.


During the height of the Soviet Empire a physicist was planning to escape the USSR. He was cleared to travel, but, of course, he was not allowed to take with him any wealth he had.


The man cleared the Soviet checkpoint with one piece of luggage and a couple of suits thrown in. And, oh yeah, he managed to take all his wealth with him.


How did he do it?


Before he left, he sold off all his assets and bought platinum with the funds. He stretched the platinum into wire and made coat hangers out of the wire. He threw his suits over the "hangers" and cleared the checkpoint without incident.




via economicpolicyjournal

Quote of the (other) Day

Happy Enslavement Day


Posted by Thomas DiLorenzo on April 17, 2012 06:32 AM


Today is "tax day," the first of which in American history was the work of — you guessed it — Dishonest Abe in 1862. It was The Great Railroad Lobbyist/Protectionist/Inflationist/Corporate Welfare Statist/Warmonger president who gave us the first "progressive" income tax.


Lincoln's chief tax collector, David A. Wells (head of the U.S. Revenue Commission) expressed the basic theme of governmental plunder through income taxation (which was not permitted by the Constitution at the time) when he said: "Wherever you find an article, a product, a trade, a profession, or a source of income, tax it!"


from LewRockwell.com on tax day.