Free Republic

Near the start of this year Ron Paul (R-Texas) introduced H.R. 1207, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009. The bill was referred to the House Committee on Financial Services. As of this writing, H.R. 1207 has 282 cosponsors. A Senate equivalent, S.604, the Federal Reserve Sunshine Act of 2009, has been introduced by Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). It has 23 cosponsors. Both bills have received a tremendous groundswell of grass-roots support. Much of the support is coming from ordinary people who have become aware of the fact that the Federal Reserve has created trillions of dollars literally out of nothing...

President of the John Birch Society, John. F. McManus gives a damning presentation in 1996 on the real Newt Gingrich, who at the time was Speaker of Congress. Here's an excerpt: 'In addition to Gingrich's disdain for the constitution he has managed to acquire a reputation as a brash, unfeeling and arrogant know it all. His negative rating among the American peoeple is higher than Bill Clinton's. Democratic candidates from coast to coast are looking forward to tying their Republican opponents to the controversy surrounding the Speaker, controversy that has been created by the speaker himself. A very astute observer...

With President Obama expected tomorrow for the North American Leaders' Summit in Guadalajara, Mexico, a coalition of American legislators and activists took a message to the Mexican media, denouncing economic partnerships that would undermine national sovereignty and blasting Obama's failure to keep his promises on transparency and the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Howard Phillips, chairman of The Conservative Caucus and head of the Coalition to Block the North American Union, spoke to Mexican print, television and radio media about the summit, which was known in previous years as the North American Security and Prosperity Partnership, or...

In 1958 Robert Welch, founder of the John Birch Society, made some startling predictions against American Liberty. He believed there was a group of insiders intent on “the surrender of American sovereignty piece by piece and step by step to various international organizations of which the United Nations is the outstanding but far from the only example.” He laid out his predictions in 10 points and repeated them in a 1974 conference: 1. Greatly expanded government spending for every conceivable means of getting rid of ever larger sums of American money as wastefully as possible.

Understanding how the Constitution was based on the Declaration of Independence provides the knowledge needed to defend our God-given rights. Would any reasonably prudent businessman sign a proposed contract involving a large-scale venture to be conducted over many years, if the other party admitted that most of the contract's terms were undefined, that some terms were so vague as to be undefinable, and that in the future he intended to interpret all of the contract's provisions in whatever matter might suit his own purposes at that time? Obviously not. Yet this is precisely the theory of "the living Constitution" that...

President-elect Barack Obama's "Blueprint for Change" calls for "affordable, accessible health care for all." After a quote from a speech he gave in Iowa City explaining that we have an "obligation" to "turn the page on the failed politics of yesterday's health care debates," he outlines his plans "at a glance." According to the brief summary, 45.5 million people aren't covered, costs have doubled over the last eight years, and not enough money is spent on preventative care. The legislation Obama plans to sign into law by the end of his first term would somehow reduce the cost of healthcare...

The Bailout and the Constitution | Print | E-mail Written by Patrick Krey Friday, 14 November 2008 00:52 The $700 billion bank bailout plan will use taxpayer money to purchase troubled assets. How does this stack up against the limited federal powers granted by the Constitution? It is sadly ironic that one of the first things new law students get is a pocket Constitution because, over the next three years, they learn that modern federal laws have nearly nothing to do with what is specifically enumerated in that document. This unconstitutional trend continues with the recent record-setting bailout, which is...

The Bailout and the Constitution | Print | E-mail Written by Patrick Krey Friday, 14 November 2008 00:52 The $700 billion bank bailout plan will use taxpayer money to purchase troubled assets. How does this stack up against the limited federal powers granted by the Constitution? It is sadly ironic that one of the first things new law students get is a pocket Constitution because, over the next three years, they learn that modern federal laws have nearly nothing to do with what is specifically enumerated in that document. This unconstitutional trend continues with the recent record-setting bailout, which is...

Madison - Former Republican presidential candidate U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas will keynote Saturday's session of the 50th anniversary of the Appleton-based John Birch Society. Paul will be one of three speakers at the 8 p.m. Saturday event at the Best Western Bridgewood Resort Hotel in Neenah, according to spokesman Bill Hahn. Also speaking at that event will be Hilliard Welch, son of Society founder Robert Welch, and Society chief executive Arthur Thompson. A physician and an icon among some conservatives, Paul calls himself "America's No. 1 defender of liberty." He did not win any Republican presidential primaries, however....

In a picture supplied by Sarah Palin's family to the Associated Press, Palin appears with some rather odd reading matter: The magazine of the ultraconservative John Birch Society. The picture, dating to 1995, when Palin was a member of the Wasilla City Council, ran beside a profile of Palin in Saturday's New York Times. The magazine, The New American, is sitting on top of her calendar on her desk, unopened....

It has been 25 years since Korean Airlines Flight 007, carrying 269 passengers and crew, including Congressman Larry McDonald of Georgia, was fired on by a Soviet fighter jet off the coast of Siberia. At the time, McDonald was chairman of the John Birch Society (a subsidiary of which publishes THE NEW AMERICAN). Although several speakers eulogized McDonald at a Washington, D.C., memorial service 10 days following the September 1, 1983 attack, the words most remembered by both this magazine’s editor, Gary Benoit, and this writer were delivered by the late Senator Jesse Helms, who passed away on July 4....

A homeowner suddenly confronted by a knife-wielding intruder reaches desperately for a handgun with which to defend himself. But the firearm lies disassembled and unloaded in a drawer, useless. Before the homeowner can reassemble and load his pistol, and confront his attacker, the assailant strikes, and strikes again — with fatal results. The real cause of the homeowner’s death in this scenario? That he had the misfortune to reside in the District of Columbia. For besides banning most semiautomatic pistols (the type of firearm that most knowledgeable Americans prefer for personal self-defense), the District requires that all registered handguns possessed...

In response to the housing crisis, the American Housing Rescue and Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008 (H.R. 3221) passed in the House (272-152) on July 23 and in the Senate (72-13) on July 26. This legislation added another new agency to the goliath federal bureaucracy, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), to oversee and regulate three Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs): Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Bank System. The new FHFA is required to consult the Federal Reserve before issuing any regulations, orders, or guidelines concerning GSEs through 2009. Thus the Federal Reserve’s power has been enhanced...

A modern society such as that in the United States requires personal transportation — cargo trucks, planes, and cars — to make a market economy work. Any serious effort to move our country to mass transportation, such as trains and buses, for everyone and everything all the time — or even most of the time — would destroy not only our economy, but the American way of life. To provide our personal transportation for the foreseeable future, the United States needs oil or an oil substitute. Electric vehicles, the proposed solution by many for America’s transportation problems, have serious drawbacks...

One day in December of 2005, Colleen Nestler came to Santa Fe County District Court in New Mexico with a bizarre seven-page typed statement and requested a domestic-abuse restraining order against late-night TV host David Letterman. She stated, under oath, that Letterman seriously abused her by causing her bankruptcy, mental cruelty, and sleep deprivation since 1994. Nestler also alleged that he sent her secret signals “in code words” through his television program for many years and that he “responded to my thoughts of love” by expressing that he wanted to marry her. Judge Daniel Sanchez issued a restraining order against...

Its name somewhat anachronistically means "assembly of old men." George Washington famously -- and, it must now be admitted, with excessive optimism -- characterized it as an institutional saucer intended to cool legislation passed in the intemperate heat of the moment. Its members demand, with entirely unwarranted self-approval, to be called, collectively, the World's Greatest Deliberative Body. Sober observers understand it to be the most corrupt legislative assembly in human history. To those characterizations of the United States Senate we must now add another, perhaps the final one: Gravedigger of the republic. With the Senate's passage of the Fannie Mae/Freddie...

In June 2000 global-warming prophesier Ross Gelbspan lamented, “Over the last seven years, the fossil-fuel lobby has mounted an extremely effective campaign of disinformation to persuade the public and policymakers that the issue of atmospheric warming is still stuck in the limbo of scientific uncertainty. That campaign for the longest time targeted the science. It then misrepresented the economics. And most recently it attacked the diplomatic foundations of the climate convention. And it has been extraordinarily successful in creating a relentless drumbeat of doubt in the public mind.” A lot has changed since then. In the past seven years, forecasters...

On March 13 the Oklahoma House passed House Joint Resolution 1089, sponsored by Rep. Charles Key and Sen. Randy Brogdon, “claiming sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over certain powers,” by an overwhelming vote of 92 to 3. Opponents of the measure in the Senate managed to keep it from being debated and voted on before this year’s legislative session ended. The rest of the nation took little notice of the Oklahoma House’s affirmation of the Tenth Amendment at the time. However, suddenly in mid-June news of the vote on HJR1089 went viral. Google...

The Netherlands was for centuries one of Europe’s wealthiest economies. During the 17th century, the country arguably had freest economy of that era, and it is one of the birthplaces of the modern free-market system. That legacy was not abandoned until the 1960s, but there are now encouraging signs that the Netherlands has begun returning to its roots, though admittedly the still-socialistic country has a long way to go. Such is the case with its universal healthcare system, where the latest reforms are occurring.

A nuclear power plant is arguably the most extraordinary product of engineering and scientific know-how in the history of mankind. Once every 18 months or so, a truckload of metal is delivered to the nuclear plant. The metal is uranium, which has been processed to increase the proportion of the isotope known as Uranium-235. This fuel for the power plant is not dangerous and can be held in one’s hands without risk. Only a few decades ago, its primary use was to impart an orange color to ceramics such as Fiestaware.

In 1943, when Germany had virtually no sources of petroleum to fuel its Luftwaffe, U-boats, and Tiger tanks, its scientists (arguably among the best in the world at that time) didn’t turn to solar and wind power. Evil does not equate to naïveté. Hitler’s technical advisers turned to another energy source to keep their Wehrmacht running steadily for several years without petroleum. They used the Fischer-Tropsch process to convert coal into diesel fuel and employed the Bergius hydrogenation (or liquefaction) process to convert coal into aviation gasoline and high-quality truck and automobile gasoline.

Coal in Your Car’s Tank by Ed Hiserodt In 1943, when Germany had virtually no sources of petroleum to fuel its Luftwaffe, U-boats, and Tiger tanks, its scientists (arguably among the best in the world at that time) didn’t turn to solar and wind power. Evil does not equate to naïveté. Hitler’s technical advisers turned to another energy source to keep their Wehrmacht running steadily for several years without petroleum. They used the Fischer-Tropsch process to convert coal into diesel fuel and employed the Bergius hydrogenation (or liquefaction) process to convert coal into aviation gasoline and high-quality truck and automobile...

MONTGOMERY The state Senate may have been locked down for most of the year, but it did find time to endorse a widely discredited urban legend spread by the John Birch Society. The upper chamber passed a joint resolution April 10 sponsored by state Sen. Rusty Glover, R-Semmes, claiming that Canada, Mexico and the United States are moving toward a "North American Union" and working on construction of a "NAFTA Superhighway" to link the countries and report edly destroy their sovereignty. "It's about retaining independence," said John McManus, the president of the John Birch Society, in a phone interview Mon...

In recent weeks the thundering Ron Paul freight train has kind of derailed. Even though Paul announced that he was ending his campaign on March 8, his supporters are apparently convinced that he's still a viable candidate, despite his repeated public statements that they should move on and try to do some good working within the GOP. Nonetheless, many of them are pushing for a final surge and a surprise (and entirely delusional) victory at the GOP convention this summer. Admittedly, Paul is still making a lot of speeches and pushing his agenda, so maybe that's contributing to their confusion,...

Several Oklahoma legislators are concerned that individuals and organizations are quietly working on plans to create a privately-operated tollway in Oklahoma. Many referred to Spain-based Cintra, which has been involved in the development of a proposed Trans-Texas Corridor. Cintra also took over the operation of the Indiana East-West Toll Road from the Indiana Department of Transportation in 2006. Oklahoma State Sen. Randy Brogdon and state representatives Eric Proctor, Richard Morrisette, Scott Inman and Charles Key all expressed concern that efforts to open up Oklahoma to a privately operated tollway system were being kept out of the view of the general...

Instead of worrying about climate change, we should be worrying about economic change, because government imposed prices, i.e., taxes and tariffs on carbon are going to make everything even more expensive. Naturally, it will be Americans who will bear the brung of the increased expenses. ARTICLE SYNOPSIS: Inflation of the money supply is making everything more expensive and carbon taxes and tariffs are going to make matters worse. COMMENTARY: The Federal Reserve has been dumping cash into the economy just as fast as possible, and more is on the way. On March 28, the central bank announced that it would...

In the early months of l962, there was restiveness in certain political quarters of the Right. The concern was primarily the growing strength of the Soviet Union, and the reiteration by its leaders of their designs on the free world. Some of the actors keenly concerned felt that Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona was a natural leader in the days ahead. But it seemed inconceivable that an anti-establishment gadfly like Goldwater could be nominated as the spokesman-head of a political party. And it was embarrassing that the only political organization in town that dared suggest this radical proposal—the GOP’s nominating...

In a message to supporters sent just before 11 p.m. Friday night, Representative Ron Paul, a long-shot G.O.P. candidate from Texas, basically conceded that he’s not going to win the party’s nomination. That said, he’s scaling back his campaign — but not entirely. He said: With Romney gone, the chances of a brokered convention are nearly zero. But that does not affect my determination to fight on, in every caucus and primary remaining, and at the convention for our ideas, with just as many delegates as I can get. But with so many primaries and caucuses now over, we do...

“China will be the world’s next great nation,” declared investment and commodities guru Jim Rogers in his 2004 bestseller, Hot Commodities. The 20th century, he noted, “was the American century. The twenty-first will belong to China.” Rogers went on: Here’s how important I think China will be: My daughter, who was born in 2003, is learning Chinese. Her Chinese nanny speaks only Mandarin to her, and I suspect that she might learn Chinese before she learns English. In her lifetime, Chinese will be the most important language in the world, next to English. If you are young and ambitious,...

Apparently, America's greatest patriot was on Loonwaffle/Trooferville's favorite radio show today with the King Nutbar himself, although I'm not sure if anyone grabbed audio. If you want to listen to the rebroadcast stream, go here. I don't feel like it. Have fun.

More than 600 people came out Tuesday afternoon for a rally held by presidential hopeful Ron Paul. Paul, the Texas representative who's gaining attention for his online and grassroots support, spoke to the crowd about ending the war in Iraq, limiting government regulation and gaining economic stability. "We don't need to sacrifice," Paul said, drawing applause from the audience. "What we need is freedom to make our own decisions."

State field director predicts second, even first in Iowa It seems like when we're young, we like to break a few rules.  Staying out a little too late, sneaking a drink before that official legal age, or backing a candidate who's outside the established mold (YEEEEEAH!) Several of those dynamics were on display Saturday at Olive Court, a notoriously wild tailgate spot three blocks from Iowa City's Kinnick Stadium.  It was here, just a year ago, that John Kerry was infamously photographed with a beer bong.  And into the anarchy marched the Ron Paul revolution. Ron Paul wasn't imbibing...

The ardent supporters of Rep. Ron Paul, the iconoclastic Texas libertarian whose campaign for the presidency is threatening to upend the battle for the Republican nomination, got word yesterday of a new source of outrage and motivation: reports of a federal raid on a company that was selling thousands of coins marked with the craggy visage of their hero. Federal agents on Thursday raided the Evansville, Ind., headquarters of the National Organization for the Repeal of the Federal Reserve Act and Internal Revenue Code (Norfed), an organization of "sound money" advocates that for the past decade has been selling a...

Ron Paul Political Report Volume I Number 1 Page 3 In Congress today, unquestlonlng support for Israel is true bipartisan foreign policy. Conservative Senator Jesse Helms (R-Nc) was once a critic of aid to Israel. In 1983, the Israell lobby set out to forge an alliance between the evangelical right and Jews and knew Helms would be the best place to start. As a result, in 1984 Israeli PACs and associated wealthy buslnessmen helped bankroll Helms' reelection. campaign. Once Helms was back in office, he was flown to Israel. At the Wailing wall, Helms described the revelatlon that God wanted...

Rep. Ron Paul, the maverick Texas Republican who is running as an anti-war libertarian in the Republican primary, has come charging out of nowhere to become the leading fundraiser in the brief history of the Internet. Yesterday, his campaign reported a one-day take around $3.8 million, with an average donation of $98. In one respect, Paul deserves his success. He is a far more articulate and coherent critic of administration policy in Iraq than any candidate on the Democratic side, speaking as he does the frank and plain language of the isolationist. “The fundamental question remains,” he said in 2004,...

On the heels of a St. Anselm College poll showing Ron Paul in fourth place with 7 percent in New Hampshire, the candidate is starting to spend some of those millions he’s raised with radio ads and an upcoming TV ad. But Paul is also stepping up efforts in direct mail. The campaign put together a 12-page biographical pamphlet being mailed out in New Hampshire. The New Hampshire Presidential Watch blog reports, “The mailing comes at the same time that Ron Paul will spend $1 million on five New Hampshire television commercials.” Paul has also spent $430,000 on a new...

Just so ya know, credit for finding the Alex Jones payment from Ron Paul, if youÂ’re here from Hot Air or CaptainÂ’s Quarters, goes to one of my anti-Paul/anti-troofer friends at digg, COINTELPROAgent (a facetious name to bait the troofers, if thatÂ’s not obvious). YouÂ’d be surprised how much information you can find out (i.e. FEC violations, among other things) just by reading the nonsense the Paultards spew over there. IÂ’m on a mission to clean up the internets, if you havenÂ’t noticed. IÂ’m reeeeally sick of the RP spammers. If Ron Paul is going to get a spot at...

The Senate is once again trying to pass the much-opposed DREAM Act of 2007. Earlier this year [0] the DREAM Act (a scaled-down approach to amnesty) was added to the defense authorization bill (H.R. 1585) for Fiscal 2008 as an amendment but never reached a floor vote. Eventually the DREAM Act was pulled from the bill, but supporters of the act warned that they would try and introduce it again. That time has now come! The DREAM Act will likely be offered as an amendment to the Labor, Health and Human Services Appropriations bill (H.R. 3043) and could be up...

In the spin room after the Republican debate on Tuesday evening in Dearborn, Mich., a reporter from the Arab-American News asked Ron Paul what he thought of the term "Islamic fascism." "It's a false term to make people think we're fighting Hitler," Paul responded. "It's war propaganda designed to generate fear so that the war has to be spread." Now, when Paul asserts that the war in Iraq is a mistake that is bankrupting America, he's making a serious argument which current polls suggest a majority of Americans agree with -- though not most Republicans. When he says 9/11 was...

Road plans in Texas have conspiracy theorists in an uproar I am driving along a mostly empty road in rural Fayette County, Texas, about an hour east of Austin, looking for the NAFTA superhighway -- the one that Stephen Harper, George W. Bush and Felipe Calderón mocked as a conspiracy theory when they were asked about it at their trilateral meeting in Montebello, Que., in August. Critics, who say that behind the leaders' denials lurks a larger, nefarious plan to unite North America, fear that such a roadway will eventually be a four-football-stadium-wide artery connecting Mexico, the U.S. and Canada,...

Republican Presidential candidate Congressman Ron Paul is making a name for himself by emerging as an antiwar republican in the 2008 race for the White House. While those of us who oppose the mindless war in Iraq welcome all voices of opposition, there are some troubling questions arising about Mr. Paul. Paul has been consistent in his opposition to the war, but he hasn’t been very vocal or visible about that opposition. Most Americans knew nothing about Mr. Paul before this election season or had no idea that such an animal as an antiwar republican even existed. Where was he...

...[The building of the Trans-Texas Corridor] is all too sinister for Jerome Corsi, the Vietnam War veteran who helped lead the Swift Boat charge against John Kerry. Corsi has knitted disparate strands of each of these separate road projects to help convince fellow xenophobes such as Pat Buchanan, Phyllis Schlafly, Lou Dobbs and the John Birch Society that the corridor is the first leg of a secret federal project called the NAFTA Superhighway, a four-football-field wide monstrosity that would run from Mexico's Yucatan to Canada's Yukon... Yet even Texas Rep. Ron Paul, a libertarian Republican candidate for president, has fallen...

More than 1,000 people gathered Saturday at the Union Pacific Depot in Salt Lake City to rally behind U.S. Rep. Ron Paul in his bid for the Republican presidential nomination. Paul, an obstetrician from Texas, was impressed with the turnout. "Wow. If they only knew you existed over in Washington, they'd change things over there," he said as he greeted the cheering crowd. Paul spoke fervently of his support of smaller government, including the abolition of agencies, such as the Internal Revenue Service, and of his support for strictly following the Constitution. He also spoke out against the war in...

<p>Congressman Ron Paul spoke at the memorial service for Aaron Russo Friday morning in West Hollywood, California.</p> <p>Mr. Russo had a long and accomplished career in the entertainment industry and was a leading advocate in the freedom movement. He was one of the first public figures to endorse Dr. Paul for president in January of this year.</p>

"Part II???! Where's Part I?", you ask? I'm working on it, at the same time I'm working on part III, IV, and more. From the debate last night: MR. WALLACE: Congressman Paul -- (interrupted by cheers, applause) -- Congressman Paul, your position on the war is pretty simple: Get out. What about, though, trying to minimize the bloodbath that would certainly occur if we pull out in a hurry? What about protecting the thousands of Iraqis who have staked their lives in backing the U.S.? And would you leave troops in the region to take out any al Qaeda...

As the vote tallies were announced at the Texas Republican straw poll Saturday, at least one supporter of Rep. Ron Paul of Lake Jackson couldn't contain his frustration. "Fix!" he yelled from the back of the ballroom at the Fort Worth Convention Center. "There's no way." The congressman put a great deal of effort into the event in his home state, even paying to bus in supporters. They seemed to be the largest force in town. So it was a disappointment to those supporters when he came in third. Some were convinced that Dr. Paul won. "The results are totally...

AUSTIN — The Texas Department of Transportation, which complains about chronic underfunding, has launched a multimillion-dollar campaign that promotes the divisive Trans-Texas Corridor plan and toll roads. The campaign is anticipated to cost $7 million to $9 million, according to a memo titled "Keep Texas Moving: Tolling and Trans-Texas Corridor Outreach" sent to transportation officials by Coby Chase, director of the agency's government and public affairs division. Such use of state highway-fund dollars is drawing questions, but the department says it's an important effort to educate and engage Texans. "It's a waste of money," said Rep. Warren Chisum, chairman of...

Chuck Emblen of Des Moines was surprised to find a Ron Paul bumper sticker inside the mail slot of the U.S. Postal Service mailbox outside the Dahl's store on Merle Hay Road. "At the least, it's inappropriate," he said in an e-mail that included a photo of the errant sticker. We checked with the U.S. Postal Service's Des Moines office and spokeswoman Jeanie McReynolds sent someone right out to check. "If it's there, it will be torn down, because it's not supposed to be there," she said. "We certainly don't advertise for any political candidate. We are a government agency,...

This e-wire / report ultimately makes two points: 1. The voting process at the Iowa Straw Poll was a fraud, wrapped in lies. (Whenever those running any kind of an election use police power to hide all the ballots from the people, and then announce results (?) when supposedly (?) only they have seen the ballots – those people are frauds, are acting like Stalin-esque tyrants, and their organization is a fraud. That award goes in our current drama to the Iowa GOP leadership, namely Ted Sporer, Chuck Laudner, Mary Tiffany, Craig Robinson, and Chairman Ray Hoffman. What they did...