Free Republic

Ron Paul was right during the Des Moines Republican debate when he said that our going into Iraq had nothing to do with al-Qaeda. And Mitt Romney was wrong when he interrupted him. At the Republican debate in Des Moines, Iowa, on August 5, Congressman Ron Paul made clear that our going to war against Iraq had nothing to do with going after al-Qaeda, the terrorist group that attacked us on 9/11. "The neoconservatives promoted this war many, many years before it was started," Paul said during the debate. "It had nothing to do with al-Qaeda. There was no al-Qaeda...

... the conversation is far more revealing about Romney’s conservative political beliefs, something frequently called into question by his centrist turn as governor of Massachusetts. That’s because Romney’s argument with the Iowa talk-radio host starts with the two discussing their shared affinity for W. Cleon Skousen. “You and I share a common affection for the late Cleon Skousen,” the radio host says. The former governor agrees, affirming Skousen was his professor and when the radio host professes his fondness for Skousen’s book The Making of America, while he acknowledges he hasn’t read it, Mitt quickly says “That’s worth reading.” Who...

HUMAN EVENTS Interview with Congressman Ron Paul, Texas Posted: 08/07/2007 On the morning of Thursday, Aug. 2, 2007 Cong. Ron Paul (R-Tx), candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, was interviewed by the editors and staff of Human Events. The following is a transcript of that interview which has been edited for length. HUMAN EVENTS: Congressman, thank you very much for coming. You’re kind of a hero to a lot of our readers and you’ve had pretty good success, in terms of fundraising in the campaign and gaining some attention, but you seem to be mired -- at least, the latest...

Air pollution. Water pollution. Soil pollution. Noise pollution. Pesticides. Toxins. Chemical residues. Thankfully, we have the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to protect us against these dangers. Right?  Without the EPA regulators and federal legislation (Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, etc.), we’d be drowning in carcinogens, suffocating in smog, and suffering health- and life-threatening bombardment from innumerable sources. At least, it is probably fair to say, that is the perception of many Americans who are not old enough to have known (or who are too old to remember) LBEPA, life before EPA.  The EPA was created by an...

George Detweiler On July 11, shortly after submitting this article, Mr. George Detweiler unexpectedly passed away at his home in Twin Falls, Idaho. George was a great friend and patriot who, in addition to writing articles for THE NEW AMERICAN in defense of constitutional principles, was also very active in the John Birch Society, this magazine’s parent organization. He headed the society’s campaign in defense of the Constitution and served on the society’s Council and Executive Committee. A successful lawyer, he earned his J.D. at Georgetown University and served as assistant attorney general for the state of Idaho before...

Can Liberty Survive Big Government, Big Spending and Big Mud Slinging? Today's comment is by Bob Bauman, The Sovereign Society's Legal Counsel and author of many books and reports on the offshore world and personal liberty. Dear A-Letter Reader, Recently, our Chairman and a founder of The Sovereign Society, John Pugsley, waxed poetically on the sad state of freedom in America. As always, I enjoyed hearing his thoughts as he reflected on a theme that also concerns me: The cancerous growth of the American Empire.Reading afresh about the fundamental principles of America's Founding Fathers made me ponder how little, if...

Thankfully even the most heavily used bridges almost never collapse. Bridges near the ocean with salt water spray are particularly vulnerable to weaknesses caused by corrosion yet they too rarely collapse. In fact the handfull of bridges that have collapse are a result of earthquake, poor engineering (this reveals itself almost immediately after construction) or some other easily identifiable factor. We are now in the second day and no one yet has a clue why the bridge collapsed. This is extremely peculiar. The design was not exotic and the location of the bridge was not in any area prone to...

That Old-Time ReligionThe Ron Paul temptation.By John DerbyshireGo on, admit it: you have felt the Ron Paul temptation, haven’t you? And it’s not just the thrill of imagining another president named Ron, is it? Ron Paul believes a lot of what you believe, and what I believe. You don’t imagine he’s going to be the 44th POTUS, but you kind of hope he does well none the less.And why not? Look at those policy positions! Abolish the IRS and Federal Reserve; balance the budget; go back to the gold standard; pull out of the U.N. and NATO; end the War...

Yesterday I looked at the Ron Paul phenomenon as an expression of the anti-big government sentiments among some people in each of the major parties. Such voters have limited options among the other candidates this year. While the Paul supporters commenting vigorously disagreed, I also expressed the belief that Paul cannot win the Republican nomination. What if I am right? What will his supporters do? It is hard to see Paul supporters being loyal Republicans and backing their party’s winner–which should be a matter of concern for the Republicans. If I was a GOP leader I’d be questioning Paul’s loyalty...

On July 25, a Texas woman was forcibly removed by handlers of Fred Thompson — who is being groomed by Bush administration insiders to replace the president — for asking Thompson to explain his membership in the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) during a question and answer session at Houston's Hobby Airport. The woman pressed Thompson to justify the CFR's backing of the controversial North American Union plan set in motion by President Bush and the leaders of Mexico and Canada in March 2005. The CFR has been instrumental in laying the groundwork for the NAU and related initiatives such...

HOUSTON, Texas (CNN) – A woman screaming “you’re not a real conservative, sir” was removed by police from a welcoming reception for likely GOP presidential candidate Fred Thompson Wednesday morning. A second protester was also taken from the room. Houston police officers escorted the woman — as well as a man — from the hangar at Hobby Airport, where Thompson was shaking hands with a crowd of supporters. They were not arrested. The woman questioned Thompson as he talked to reporters. She asked him why he was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and noted that the organization...

A troll has been spotted on a number of blogs and forums, going by the name of Jim Robinson....

A feature piece in this coming Sunday's New York Times Magazine on Republican candidate for president, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, portrays his followers as including a wild mix of "wackos" on both ends of the political spectrum. Paul, a libertarian, has been gaining media and public attention of late. The cover line reads: "A Genuine Radical for President." The headline inside: "The Antiwar, Anti-Abortion, Anti-Drug-Enforcement-Administration, Anti-medicare Candidacy of Dr. Ron Paul." The article closes with the author, Christopher Caldwell, attending a Ron Paul Meetup in Pasadena. The co-host, Connie Ruffley of United Republicans of California, admits she once was...

NEW YORK A feature piece in this coming Sunday's New York Times Magazine on Republican candidate for president, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, portrays his followers as including a wild mix of "wackos" on both ends of the political spectrum. Paul, a libertarian, has been gaining media and public attention of late. The cover line reads: "A Genuine Radical for President." The headline inside: "The Antiwar, Anti-Abortion, Anti-Drug-Enforcement-Administration, Anti-medicare Candidacy of Dr. Ron Paul." The article closes with the author, Christopher Caldwell, attending a Ron Paul Meetup in Pasadena. The co-host, Connie Ruffley of United Republicans of California, admits she...

A Department of Homeland Security official admits his agency deceived Congress; Congressman says DHS "lied" about Border Patrol agents. Former Border Patrol agents Jose Compean and Ignacio Ramos and their families and supporters had hoped for a presidential pardon. They had hoped that these two law enforcement officers with distinguished records and young families would not be sent to prison on the word of a veteran drug smuggler, Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila, who stood to gain $5 million for giving false testimony against them. They had hoped that President Bush would issue a pardon for the two men to rectify one of...

UPDATE, July 19, 2006. The House is expected to vote on the U.S.-Oman Free Trade Agreement (FTA) very soon.   The Senate has already approved this trade pact by 60-34 in June. This could be another CAFTA-type cliff hanger in the House, so please contact your representative immediately via phone, fax, or email, in strong opposition to the U.S.-Oman FTA. Phone is preferable due to the shortness of time and the bigger impact. Help Preserve Jobs and National Security & Independence: Defeat the U.S.-Oman Free Trade Agreement What's it all mean?We have a golden opportunity to derail the NAFTA/CAFTA series of...

BACKGROUND INFORMATION ABOUT MY RESEARCH: FBI Data on Extreme Right http://ernie1241.googlepages.com/home

According to the wisdom of the day, the left is against the war in Iraq while the right supports the war. So why do The John Birch Society and its affiliated magazine THE NEW AMERICAN support the withdrawal of our troops from Iraq? Isn’t that the position of the hard left? In actuality, there are fundamental differences between the left and us regarding the question of war. Unlike the left, we do not believe any one man should ever be entrusted with the awesome power of deciding when to go to war. It makes no difference if the president is...

Who says time travel isn't possible? I got a bona fide '60s flashback last week when I attended a meeting of the John Birch Society. Remember them? Frankly, I was astonished to learn the Birch Society still exists. Shouldn't it have crumbled along with the Berlin Wall? For those too young to remember, the Birch Society was one of many groups fighting the global menace of communism. But of all the patriots standing foursquare against communism, the Birchers were always the ones in tin-foil hats. Or so it seemed. Bless their hearts, they were sort of the kooky cousins of...

The Iraq War is an unconstitutional, unjustifiable conflict devouring innocent lives and abetting the growth of an increasingly lawless leviathan state. It must be ended -- now. Twenty-one-year-old Matthew Holley, born in Idaho and raised in Chula Vista, California, was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq on November 15. A three-time AAU Karate champion and accomplished artist, Holley followed in his father's footsteps by enlisting in the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne. "It made me very proud that he actually wanted to be like his dad," recalled Holley's father, John, at the young soldier's December 2 funeral. Matthew got...

The ongoing coverup concerning the secret Able Danger operation provides further evidence that the "war on terror" is a farce. There was nothing in outward appearance to draw attention to the four-bedroom apartment at 54 Marienstrasse. Nonetheless, the attention of the intelligence services of Germany, the U.S., Israel, and other Middle Eastern and European countries had been drawn to the nondescript flat in Hamburg, Germany, as early as 1998. That was when Mohammed Atta signed the lease and he and Ramzi bin al Shibh moved in. Soon thereafter, it was identified by intelligence agencies as a target of interest. It...

Because of its location, Texas is integral to the creation of the FTAA and the eventual merger of North and South America under a single regional government like the EU. A little more than two years ago, political allies of Texas Governor Rick Perry quietly passed legislation creating the "Trans-Texas Corridor" (TTC). With the connivance of a largely silent press, the most expensive project in the state's history became law with scant public notice. It's bad enough that the TTC will cost at least $185 billion, much of it derived from new toll taxes imposed on existing free roads. It's...

The new U.S.-Asian pact on global warming has more to do with transferring technology to China than with saving the planet from greenhouse gases. On July 27, the Bush administration unveiled a new pact between the United States and several of the powerhouse nations of the Asian economy, including South Korea, China, Japan, India, and Australia. Representatives of the nations party to the pact were to hold their first official meeting in November, but that has now been pushed back to sometime after the beginning of the new year. The agreement, though, called the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and...

The new U.S.-Asian pact on global warming has more to do with transferring technology to China than with saving the planet from greenhouse gases. On July 27, the Bush administration unveiled a new pact between the United States and several of the powerhouse nations of the Asian economy, including South Korea, China, Japan, India, and Australia. Representatives of the nations party to the pact were to hold their first official meeting in November, but that has now been pushed back to sometime after the beginning of the new year. The agreement, though, called the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and...

Calif. Coalition for Immigration Reform October 2005 Mexico, United States, Canada One Nation, Under Socialism: Last March, President Bush met in Waco with Mexican President Vicente Fox and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin to announce the creation of a " Security and Prosperity Partnership " for North America (SPP). Building on the North American Free Trade Agreement, the SPP would deepen the economic, political, and security relationships between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada. Within weeks, literally hundreds of tri-national initiatives had been organized to begin the process of knitting the three nations together in a new "partnership" with a common...

There is no denying Christopher Hitchens’s skill as a public figure: he is seldom at a loss for words, sometimes entertaining, and occasionally even right. But he keeps getting important things wrong because, throughout his political wanderings, there persists a strange loyalty to an obscure bloodthirsty revolutionary and to the ideals of the Bolshevik Revolution. For Hitchens—now honored throughout the neoconservative Right—remains what he has been throughout his public life, a disciple of Leon Trotsky and a talented writer and polemicist—perhaps the most talented polemicist the Bolshevik tradition has produced in the West. Given Hitchens’s current role as a neocon...

...If liberals think that such flirtations with fanaticism had nothing to do with their 2004 defeat, they probably have nothing to learn from what conservatives did four decades earlier. But for the record: In the 1960s, just as conservatism was beginning to grow from a fringe tendency into what it has become — the nation's most potent persuasion — it was threatened by a boarding party of people not much, if any, loonier than Sheehan. The John Birch Society, whose catechism included the novel tenet that Dwight Eisenhower was an agent of the Kremlin, was not numerous — its membership...

A Republican president can often enact a more liberal agenda than a Democrat could because many Republicans in Congress are more loyal to party than to principle. Over the past few generations, congressional Democrats could customarily be relied upon to promote a liberal agenda while their Republican counterparts developed the reputation of being stalwart opponents of our nation's slide into big government and internationalism. The record shows, however, that during the past 50 years, congressional Republicans have exhibited such opposition only when....

Your influence is urgently needed to give Congress the backbone to resist dangerous trade agreements that would further threaten our national borders, our jobs, and our nation’s independence. As a first step, please read the sample letters opposing the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) at the link below, then send those letters (or your own version) to your congressman and two U.S. senators. Then send this message to others in your circle of influence so that they can do likewise. The CAFTA trade agreement is merely a steppingstone to the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), which...

CAFTA, the “Central American Free Trade Agreement” is being sold as a “free trade agreement” between the US and several nations in the Central American region. What is it and what does it matter to you? CAFTA is really not about “free trade.” “Free trade” is the bait. The hook, the catch, is regional government. Free trade is really unregulated, unimpeded trade. This is not what CAFTA is about. CAFTA will increase trade regulation between the US and Central America, not decrease it. Take a look at the hundreds of pages of regulations listed in the CAFTA charter. This is...

Mention "free trade" and one is likely to come up with such topics as NAFTA, the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), the World Trade Organization (WTO), and Fast Track Trade authority for the president. "Free trade" means an absence of any government intervention in business. This could include tariffs and other taxes, trade sanctions, import quotas, regulations, or subsidies. Each of these — including government subsidies — is equally anathema to a free trader because it detracts from the natural efficiency of the free market that produces wealth. Most Americans would...

Former FBI second-in-command Mark Felt, who recently stepped forward as Watergate's "Deep Throat," was a foe of both presidential corruption and domestic terrorism. It’s difficult to know if radio ranter Michael Savage seriously believes that 91-year-old former FBI second-in-command Mark Felt, freshly revealed as the Watergate whistleblower known as "Deep Throat," should be thrown in prison, along with his daughter Joan. During his June 1 program, Savage reasoned (if the word can be tortured into applying here) that since Joan Felt had long known her father’s secret, she had the duty to turn him in to the authorities for prosecution....

Vol. 17, No. 24 November 19, 2001 "Respectable" Terrorists by William Norman Grigg In the 1960s, the Soviets began building an international network of terrorists. Today, veterans of that network hold key positions of respect in government and academia. ‘‘Everything was absolutely ideal on the day I bombed the Pentagon. The sky was blue. The birds were singing. And the b*****ds were finally going to get what was coming to them." These words are not drawn from the diseased mind of Osama bin Laden or other surviving accomplices to the Black Tuesday attack. They are from Fugitive Days, the new...

May 29, 1995 Battling Terrorism With Tyranny by William F. Jasper 1968: Exploiting the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Senator Robert Kennedy, a media-led campaign provided irresistible pressure on Congress to pass President Lyndon Johnson's "Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act." Among other things, the massive bill banned the mail-order sale of handguns and established the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA), which began nationalizing law enforcement with federal grants to state and local governments. 1989: Paroled felon Patrick Purdy gunned down five children in a Stockton, California schoolyard, furnishing all the grist needed for the media to orchestrate...

"Congressman Reconquista": Immigration Reformers Not Welcome In GOP by William Norman Grigg May 7, 2005 According to Utah Congressman Chris Cannon, a shameless flack for the illegal immigrant lobby, those committed to protecting our borders cannot be true Republicans. During a May 4 Washington, D.C. forum sponsored by the Latino Coalition, Representative Chris Cannon (R-Utah), a congressional point man for the Bush administration’s illegal immigrant amnesty proposal, suggested that fellow Republican congressman Tom Tancredo of Colorado "ought to reconsider his membership in the Republican Party," reported the Rocky Mountain News. While Rep. Tancredo, like most politicians, has a lot to...

Thursday, April 28, 2005 THE NEW WORLD DISORDER Free-trade pact a threat to U.S. sovereignty? Activists hammers idea to expand NAFTA throughout Americas Posted: April 28, 2005 1:00 a.m. Eastern By Ron Strom © 2005 WorldNetDaily.com Opposition is fierce, at least online, to the creation of the Free Trade Area of the Americas, with detractors saying such an agreement between Western Hemisphere nations would mean an end to U.S. sovereignty. First proposed in 1994, the pact would enlarge NAFTA, the North America Free Trade Agreement, to include all of the nations of the Americas except Cuba. FTAA supporters say the...

Oklahoma City -- A Decade Laterby William F. JasperApril 18, 2005 Issue  Before 9/11 there was Oklahoma City. Before the name of Osama bin Laden entered public discourse there was Timothy McVeigh. McVeigh was executed on June 11, 2001 for his role in the April 19, 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building. (THE NEW AMERICAN'S extensive investigative effort has led the way in exposing the Oklahoma City Bombing cover-up.)Two days after the OKC bombing, President Clinton vowed: “Justice for these killers will be certain, swift and severe. We will find them, we will convict them, and we will...

I'm going to tell you a story that I've never told any reporter," stated Sean Treglia, a former program officer of the Pew Charitable Trusts, during a March 2004 conference at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California. "Now that I'm several months away from Pew and we have campaign finance reform, I can tell this story." Speaking to an audience of the initiated, Treglia described how the crusade for campaign finance reform was “an immense scam perpetrated on the American people by a cadre of left-wing foundations and disguised as a ‘mass movement,’” wrote New...

In early March, Felix Rodriguez was appointed president of Citgo, the largest subsidiary of Petroleos De Venezuela SA, Venezuela's state-owned oil corporation. Rodriguez, a left-wing “populist,” is a close ally of the country’s Marxist ruler, Hugo Chavez. Commented the March 17 Houston Chronicle: “The arrival of Rodriguez, whose style is more reminiscent of the boisterous Chavez than a typical top energy executive, puts a new face at the head of the huge Houston-based refining and marketing operation.” Rodriguez’s ascent “also coincided with the arrival of several new board members, including Bernard Mommer, a German-born Marxist and behind-the-scenes architect of Chavez’s...

Greenpeace Wages Redwar (The New American, Nov. 19, 1990) The targeted nations of the North Atlantic (In yellow...see original link for map) Because of the growing environmentalist fad of the last few years, much of the public has invested nearly blind faith in organizations claiming to play David to the Goliath of environmental exploitation. Among the leading beneficiaries of this public trust has been the international activist organization Greenpeace. The group began with a 1971 protest against US testing of nuclear weapons, which it followed up with an attempt to physically block French nuclear testing in 1972 by sailing a...

The drive for a Free Trade Area of the Americas was launched publicly at the 1994 Summit of the Americas in Miami. Proponents heralded the FTAA as a bold move to "foster economic progress, enhance domestic prosperity, and raise living standards" throughout the Western hemisphere. However, the real objective of the FTAA architects is so revolutionary that the proposal is shrouded in deception and misrepresentation. Even the term "free trade" in the name is a deception – a violation of truth in labeling. A deeper examination shows that the real objective of the FTAA’s internationalist sponsors is to consolidate power,...

CAFTA: Exporting American Jobs & Industryby William Norman Grigg The New American, April 18, 2005CAFTA, a forerunner of an "EU of the Americas," trades away American jobs in the name of rewarding Latin American "democracies." Allen Johnson, chief agricultural negotiator for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, was enjoying his vacation in late February when he received a panicky call from the White House. The mid-year meeting of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) was on the verge of delivering a stinging rebuke to the Bush administration by passing a resolution opposing the proposed Central...

Time to Go for the WTOby Kurt WilliamsenApril 4, 2005  As we have shown in the past, the World Trade Organization (WTO) is an entity that was created under the guise of promoting free trade internationally, but which in actuality is a group of foreign bureaucrats who regulate trade. (See "The WTO Trap" in the January 10 issue of THE NEW AMERICAN.) And the trade policies it regulates are intentionally vague so that member countries really only know what is allowable when one member country contests another country's trade policy and the bureaucrats at the WTO make a ruling....

Continuing a trend of caving in to international tribunals, President Bush issued an executive order on March 8 directing state courts to review dozens of death row cases involving Mexican nationals. The president’s order came in response to a ruling by the International Court of Justice, a UN tribunal more commonly known as the World Court, which claimed that the U.S. violated the rights of 51 Mexicans on death rows in eight states. The president’s order applies to 28 Mexican convicts in California prisons, 15 in Texas and others in Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Nevada, Ohio, and Oregon. Texas Attorney General...

The U.S. Congress has the most potent power to effect a repeal of Roe v. Wade under Article Three, section two of the U.S. Constitution. That section grants to the Supreme Court powers of "appellate jurisdiction" over most federal cases, "with such exceptions, and under such regulations as the Congress shall make." "Congress has power to control the entire jurisdiction of the lower federal courts and the appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court," University of Notre Dame Professor of Law Charles E. Rice explained to readers of THE NEW AMERICAN in 1989. "While Congress has not used this power since...

"The Council on Foreign Relations is a formidable place filled with formidable people -- former Cabinet secretaries and ambassadors, current CEOs and pundits of the media elite -- who've fired their reputations over the years in the foreign policy kiln," noted the February 26 Washington Post. "Even its headquarters -- at Park Avenue and 68th Street in Manhattan, in a mansion once owned by a Standard Oil director -- speaks of status, of power." “High officials leaving government go to the council to roost,” continues the report. “Those seeking the reverse trek use the council to launch government careers. Heads...

...Fallacy #10: No Mercy "Capital punishment is society’s final assertion that it will not forgive." (Martin Luther King) "It is a hell of a thing, killing a man. You take away all he’s got, and all he’s ever gonna have." (Clint Eastwood’s character in the movie Unforgiven) Correction: The person opposing the death penalty on these principles opposes it from worldly reasoning rather than spiritual reasoning. The above statement by Clint Eastwood’s character in the movie Unforgiven typifies this surprisingly common "religious" objection to capital punishment. The underlying assumption is that this world and this life is all that exists....

The recent Academy Award celebration of last year's movie fare has made transparently obvious the huge chasm between the cultural elitists and Middle America. The year 2004 is certain to go down as a defining point in the decades-long war for the heart, mind, and soul of America. The cultural elites who reign over the fields of entertainment, the arts, the news media, and academia are triumphantly celebrating our descent into a post-Christian, neopagan society. They are celebrating an ongoing revolution that threatens to transform a culture of life, light, virtue, and hope into a culture of death, darkness, degeneracy,...

Law Of the Sea TreatyWhy We Lose if LOST Wins By asserting UN authority over seven-tenths of the Earth’s surface, LOST would be the largest territorial conquest in history. In principle, the treaty would assert UN jurisdiction over U.S. territorial waters, and eventually over waterways within our country.It would create a huge bureaucratic entity called the “Enterprise” which would regulate and tax all commercial uses of the high seas. By taxing all efforts to develop the wealth of the seabed, the UN would be given a huge revenue stream, independent of national governments, to push its agenda for international socialism.The...

Liberty depends upon a strong foundation According to conventional wisdom, lawmakers should always abide by the will of the majority — as reflected by public opinion polls. Never mind that the polls are often designed to elicit a particular response, or that only a mere handful are polled, or that the public is grossly uninformed. Never mind that a government based on public opinion polls would make Congress superfluous. A nation of lawmakers does not need to elect congressmen to rubber-stamp its collective dictates; it needs only a bureaucracy to put those dictates into effect. At present the head of...