Andrew Napolitano – Drug War Update
War on Drugs
Gibson Guitars has been raided twice because the government claims Gibson bought wood that was illegally logged in India and Madagascar.
When Bureaucrats Get Bored, They Raid
Political Rhetoric is no Substitute for Competence
“In the course of any given year, Congress votes on taxes, medical care, military spending, foreign aid, agriculture, labor, international trade, airlines, housing, insurance, courts, natural resources, and much more. There are professionals who have spent their entire adult lives specializing in just one of these fields. The idea that Congress can be competent in all these areas simultaneously is staggering. Yet, far from pulling back — as banks or other private enterprises must, if they don’t want to be ruined financially by operating beyond the range of their competence — Congress is constantly expanding further into more fields. Having spent years ruining the housing markets with their interference, leading to a housing meltdown that has taken the whole economy down with it, politicians have now moved on into micro-managing automobile companies and medical care. They are not going to stop unless they get stopped. And that is not going to happen until the voters recognize the fact that political rhetoric is no substitute for competence.” –economist Thomas Sowell
The Food Police Are Here
A Chicago public school is not allowing students to bring lunches from home because according to the principal “Nutrition wise, it is better for the children to eat at the school.”
We didn’t even get to the full implementation of the new “health care” law and already our children are being told what they can and cannot eat at school. This is a sign of things to come if people don’t start standing up against government overreach and supporting individual liberty.
The Most Perilous National Security Crisis Since 1860
From: The Patriot Post
The Most Perilous National Security Crisis Since 1860
· Thursday, April 7, 2011
A Time to Choose: Prosperity or Poverty
“To preserve independence…we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and Liberty, or profusion and servitude. … The fore horse of this frightful team is public debt. Taxation follow that, and in its turn wretchedness and oppression.” –Thomas Jefferson
In the news this week, Barack Hussein Obama announced his 2012 re-election bid.
Plus…
The Treasury Department quietly mentioned that last month the government spent 8.2 times its net revenue.
Plus…
The Continuing Resolution authorizing additional borrowing for federal spending, a source of much political pretentiousness, expires on Friday. If there is no renewed CR, the result will be a partial government shutdown (read: “debt accumulation slowdown”), with dire consequences such as the suspension of IRS audits. Of course, the shutdown showdown is just the opening salvo in a war over how to fund the remaining five months of FY2011, which ends on 30 September, and, moreover, government budgets for 2012 and beyond.
Plus…
The price of oil, amid the Middle East meltdown precipitated by Obama’s leadership vacuum, is on the fast track back to its record high of $147/barrel. Indeed, it may be headed to more than $2-300/barrel if the Saudi government is the next to fall. Despite what the Obama administration would have us believe, oil is the lifeblood of the U.S. and world economy, and we have a critical national interest in sustaining that supply. However, because of Leftist energy policies, we do not have energy hedges including domestic oil and nuclear power alternatives.
Plus…
Consequently, gold bullion — the world’s primary barometer of concern about inflation, national debt, securities and real estate price declines, fiat currency failures, and warfare and social unrest — hit a nominal record high of $1,457 per troy ounce.
However, the most significant news this week, in light of the aforementioned reports, is the big Beltway budget brawl between those who are advocating the right path to economic prosperity and Liberty, and those who would stay the course toward economic catastrophe and tyranny.
The raucous political rhetoric over the federal budget sounds much like the perennial hyperbole between Right and Left over the constitutional authority of the central government and its spending priorities. However, the outcome of the current debate is much more than a budget agreement for next year and the next decade: It will determine whether our nation will avert systemic economic collapse or collide with it head-on, plunging us into the most significant National Security Crisis since 1860, and condemning our posterity to the inevitable institution of socialism and the abject tyranny that accompanies it.
If a majority of our countrymen are not able to distinguish between the veracity of this grave assertion and political playbook hyperbole, the consequences for the next generation of Americans will be grim as the light of Liberty fades.
The danger of public debt was of great concern to our nation’s Founders.
As George Washington wrote, “No pecuniary consideration is more urgent, than the regular redemption and discharge of the public debt: on none can delay be more injurious, or an economy of time more valuable.” James Madison declared, “Having never been a proselyte to the doctrine, that public debts are public benefits … I consider them, on the contrary, as evils which ought to be removed as fast as honor and justice will permit.” Thomas Jefferson warned, “To preserve independence … we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and Liberty, or profusion and servitude. … The fore horse of this frightful team is public debt. Taxation follow that, and in its turn wretchedness and oppression.”
Regrettably, few today attach much reverence to the words of such men. Fewer still — especially those who lived through the last Great Depression — remain among us to attest in first person to its tragic consequences for our nation, for its people, and for our legacy of Liberty.
To paraphrase philosopher George Santayana, “Ignorance of historical tragedy begets its replication.”
Make no mistake: We are at a tipping point.
Fascist of the Month
Oregon State Representative Mitch Greenlick wants to ban the direct sale of cigarettes and cigars. He would like everyone to get a prescription first.
From Oregon Catalyst.com:
HB 2233 places the crime of possessing an illegal cigar at $6,000 and one year in jail. This is coming from the same State Representative who has been voting to release violent criminals early and at the same time wants to fill our jails with Oregonians who happen to have a grocery store product in the back pocket.
If you are a friend of liberty living in the great state of Oregon you can contact Rep. Greenlick and voice your opposition here:
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1433
District Phone: 503-297-2416
Capitol Address: 900 Court St NE, H-492, Salem, OR, 97301
District Office Address: 712 NW Spring Avenue, Portland, OR, 97229
Email: rep.mitchgreenlick@state.or.us
Website: http://www.leg.state.or.us/greenlick
Federal Government’s Duplicate Programs Make Dupes Out of Taxpayers
Why fund a wasteful government program once when you can fund it twice—or, for that matter, 82 times? According to a report on duplication and overlap in the federal government released by the Government Accountability Office today, the U.S. government has 82 distinct programs to improve teacher quality (which, judging from our schools, is clearly working quite well). Many of those programs “share similar goals,†according to the report, yet “there is no governmentwide strategy to minimize fragmentation, overlap, or duplication among these many programs.†Which probably helps explain how we got so many programs designed to do the same damn thing in the first place.
Teacher quality programs were just one area in which the GAO found significant duplication at the federal level. Indeed, the whole thing reads like a nightmare version of a Pete and Repeat joke. According to The Wall Street Journal’s summary of the report, the U.S. government has “15 different agencies overseeing food-safety laws, more than 20 separate programs to help the homeless, and 80 programs for economic development.†Eggs are given double scrutiny:
Apocalypse Now: Wisconsin vs. Big Labor
From Michelle Malkin
…Yes, the so-called progressives truly believe that bringing American union workers into the 21st century in line with the rest of the workforce is tantamount to dictatorship.
Yes, the so-called progressives truly believe that by walking off their jobs and out of their classrooms, they are “putting children first.”
If ever there were proof that public unions no longer work in the public interest, this is it. Big Labor dragoons workers into exclusive representation agreements, forces them to pay compulsory dues that fatten Democratic political coffers and then has the chutzpah to cast itself as an Egyptian-style “freedom” and “human rights” movement.
War in Wisconsin
From: Erick Erickson
There’s war in Wisconsin. Voters, disgusted with big spending Democrats and out of control unions, handled the whole state over to Republicans. Seizing the voter mandate, Republican Governor Scott Walker is intent on pushing through legislation to end the ability of public sector unions to have collective bargaining rights on behalf of public employees.
Democrat lawmakers in the State Senate have fled Wisconsin for Illinois to ensure there is no quorum in the Senate. While only 17 votes are needed, 20 of the 33 senators must be present for the body to conduct business.
Public sector union members have stormed the state capitol. Teachers have staged a ‘sick in’ putting their union privileges ahead of educating children — bolstering Gov. Walker’s point that union abuse needs to be reined in.
Naturally, Barack Obama has sided with the union goons. His Organizing for America is sending protestors to astroturf Wisconsin in favor of more bloat and corruption. This is as much about saving him politically in 2012 as it is actually defending unionization.
Democrats and unions are comparing what is happening to Wisconsin to the Alamo. It puts me in the unusual position of backing the Mexicans.
— Erick Erickson
Cato Responds to the State of the Union
January 26, 2011 (12:31)
A video response to the 2011 State of the Union
Doublespeak From Your Friendly First Lady
In the span of one minute Michelle Obama says that the health of children is “ultimately the responsibility of parents” then says that “we (read:the government) can’t leave it up to parents.”
This folds directly into the health care debate. If the government is responsible for paying for one’s health then the government has the right to tell a person what they can and cannot put into their bodies.
U.S. Government Seizes 82 Websites
From: EFF
Over the past few days, the U.S. Justice Department, the Department of Homeland Security and nine U.S. Attorneys’ Offices seized 82 domain names of websites they claim were engaged in the sale and distribution of counterfeit goods and illegal copyrighted works.
Setting aside the due process concerns inherent in seizing any website without notice or appropriate recourse for the owner, it appears that the “raid” has swept up several sites that are hardly in the business of willful copyright infringement.
…it’s hard to believe that this kind of action is the best use of the Department of Homeland Security’s resources.
TSA Logic
If you go through the scanner at the airport with nothing but a speedo, you will not be allowed to board, but if you are fully clothed you may board.
As a reminder to everyone here is the 4th Amendment to the Constitution:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.