Pass it On! “American people need to wake up” – Glad to know I am not alone.

This op-ed was published in my local newspaper today by one of my fellow citizens here in Yorktown, VA.  I am so glad to know I am not alone in thinking that the American people need to wake up.

http://www.dailypress.com/news/opinion/dp-nws-oped-porter-0204-20120204,0,5084082.story

dailypress.com

American people need to wake up

By Gary Porter

February 4, 2012

Jonathan Turley’s Opinion piece (Jan. 29, “Why it’s no longer the Land of the Free”) focused on several nefarious features of 2001’s Patriot Act and the most recent National Defense Authorization Act. Assassination of U.S. citizens, warrantless wiretapping, indefinite detention of U.S. citizens, extraordinary rendition, etc., are certainly great examples of our loss of freedom as Americans. Does anyone seriously believe these will be only temporary features to deal with a temporary threat posed by Al Qaeda, and that once that threat has been neutralized, these Acts will be revoked? No, these suspensions of our liberty are here to stay, permanent fixtures of a land once free. Supporters of the Acts point to the apparent success they have had in defeating further attacks. OK, but at what cost to the Constitution?

Was it only lack of space that caused Turley to ignore the even greater, more sinister threat to our freedom posed by the various agencies in the executive branch of our federal government? Agencies such as the EPA, FDA, DOL, HHS, HUD, DOE, etc., put into operation by legislation passed by Congress that had no basis in the Constitution, operate as complete legislative, executive and judicial branches of government all rolled into one, managed by non-elected career bureaucrats with zero accountability to the American people. Aided and abetted by a Congress that unconstitutionally delegates to them broad, ill-defined powers, these agencies almost daily enact new laws (to get around their obvious legislative activity, they call them “rules”). They then go on to enforce those rules through one branch of their agency and adjudicate violations of or protests of those rules in yet another branch of the agency; thereby violating the cardinal principle the Framers tried to design into our government: separation of powers. In Federalist 47, James Madison warned: “the accumulation of all powers legislative, executive and judiciary in the same hands … may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.”

This relatively new idea of an “Administrative State” found root about 100 years ago in the term of progressive President Woodrow Wilson (who famously called the Constitution “political witchcraft”). The Progressives, convinced of their great enlightenment, strove to separate the administration of government from politics and the “confines” of the Constitution. This has led to our present condition where 75,000 pages of the Federal Register’s “rules” are added to the 200,000 pages of the US Code. In 400 B.C., the Greek orator Isocrates stated: “Where there is a multitude of specific laws, it is a sign that the state is badly governed.” Tasedus of Rome wrote in the 1st century A.D.: “Formerly we suffered from crimes. Now we suffer from laws.” How prescient these men were.

Yet the American people sit idly by — like “sheep,” as Judge Andrew Napolitano likes to say — more concerned about who is going to win the Super Bowl than they are about the “chipping away” of the tree of liberty going on around them. Like the frog boiled in the slowly heated pot, the American people will one day wake up to find it is too late — everything they “own,” the ground they walk on and the air they breathe will be regulated. And then it will take another American Revolution, maybe even a bloody one, to set the ship of state back on the Founder’s course.

PhD Ronald J. Pestritto has a great article, found on Heritage.org, entitled “The Birth of the Administrative State: Where It Came From and What It Means for Limited Government.” Everyone should read it.

As “Umerikan” Earl Pitts would say: “WAKE UP AMERICA!”

Gary Porter, a frequent letter writer, is a Yorktown resident.

Copyright © 2012, Newport News, Va., Daily Press

Please Post a Response: What Kind of Civilized People Boo the Golden Rule? SC RINOs Boo Ron Paul and the Golden Rule

I am amused and befuddled at the mainstream media reports of SC GOP primary debate audience members booing Dr. Ron Paul’s response where he raised the Golder Rule in discussing his viewpoints on U.S. foreign policy. Oddly, when he provide that reply, there was a cascading of boos coming from the audience.

Too his credit and in support of his principles, Dr. Paul continued to provide his answer.   As the boos subsided, he finished by essentially stating that the U.S. does not need another war and all its costs, but instead needs to end the current war.  To which there were then cheers and applauds from the audience.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltRTLNZmmfs  By the way, the subsequent cheering to the aforementioned odd boos was not reported.

I am left wondering – what kind of civilized, God fearing people boo the Golden Rule?  I would love for people reading this to post their best answer to that question:

What kind of civilized, God fearing people boo the Golden Rule?  Please reply!  Thanks.

SC GOP Primary Update: Ron Paul Still Being Snubbed By Media Outlets

Many of you likely already get updates from the Ron Paul campaign. But in case some of you do not, here is his most recent as of early Tuesday Morning, January 17, 2012.

Please do what you can to help restore Liberty in America by supporting Ron Paul’s run for President.

Dear Robert,

Despite finishing a strong third in Iowa and an incredible second in New Hampshire…

Despite earning more votes than Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, and Rick Perry in New Hampshire – COMBINED…

Despite surging past Rick Santorum in the polls in South Carolina…

Despite this clearly being a two-man race between me and Mitt Romney…

The establishment media is still trying to black out my campaign.

News organizations are exiling me to the far end of the debate stage.

They can’t stand the idea of me challenging our reckless foreign policy, the destruction of our currency by the Fed, and an out-of-control, almost $16 trillion debt that is choking the life out of our economy.

But no matter how much the establishment tries to silence me, my strong, consistent, clear, conservative message is resonating with Americans.

Conservatives are coalescing around my campaign because my opponents are all the same old chip off the Big Government block.

While Rick Santorum defends forcing workers under the thumb of Big Labor with his vote to kill a National Right to Work Act, and Mitt Romney defends indefinitely detaining American citizens, I am the only candidate offering a conservative alternative to the status quo.

My Plan to Restore America cuts $1 trillion from the budget in year one of my presidency, balances the budget in year three, and eliminates five cabinet departments.

That’s why it’s vital you make your most generous contribution to my South Carolina Money Bomb right away so I can go over the heads of the establishment pundits and take my message of liberty, free markets, and sound money directly to voters in South Carolina through hard-hitting tv ads, issue-based emails, and personal phone calls.

This voter contact program was the key to my incredible finishes in Iowa and New Hampshire, and I am confident that if my campaign can fully implement these programs in South Carolina, another historic finish is within my grasp.

Our Party cannot win in November unless we nominate a candidate who presents a clear contrast with Barack Obama.

Unlike Mitt Romney, I don’t have to explain away flip-flopping on every issue voters care about.

And unlike counterfeit conservatives Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich, I support the Right to Work, am 100% pro-Second Amendment, am 100% pro-life, and have consistently opposed the bailouts and socialized medicine.

So please, click here to make your most generous contribution toward my final push in South Carolina and help my campaign spread my winning message of liberty to the voters.

Thank you for all that you do to help me win this race and Restore America Now!

For Liberty,

Ron Paul