January, 2021, Part, 3, Political Class Insanity: Government Sanctioned Racism From Biden, Big Tech Tries to Squash Freedom Of Speech, Big Tech Vets Infest Biden Administration And Karma Punches Ted Wheeler

It is the beginning of another month which means it is time again to review the latest political class insanity from the American political class. Each month it takes us multiple posts to cover the wasteful spending, incompetent government organizations and employees, government programs that usually make a problem worse than resolving it, inane and idiotic politician comments, etc.

To review past posts on this insanity and idiocy, just click on the first few posts in each month listed to the right of this page. After reviewing just a handful of these insanity posts we think you will agree that we are currently being served by the worst set of American politicians ever to hold office in our entire history.

1) Ted Wheeler is the mayor of Portland, Oregon. For about a year or so he has coddled, kowtowed, ignored, and tolerated Antifa as its members ran rampant through his city night after night of law breaking behavior. His passivity has endangered peaceful citizens’ lives, businesses, and the future of the city as residents and businesses leave to get away from the violence and criminality. He was even forced to flee from his own apartment when these people showed up at his home.

Well, as I have always believed, there is always karma in life as a recent article on the Conservative and Free website pointed out karma belief relative to the good mayor:

• Apparently the mayor was recently eating at an outside restaurant one evening.
• For no reason, an Antifa thug came upon him and decided to punch the mayor for no reason, landing a punch on his shoulder.
• On top of the attack, one of the accompanying Antifa members told the mayor, “You are going to be made to feel like the scum you are. F*ck you, f*ck you, shame on you."
• According to the article: “The Mayor’s office stated that On Wednesday evening, during a non-work-related dinner with a friend in a designated outdoor area, Mayor Wheeler was confronted by a group of people. The Mayor had been seated for about five minutes when a group of people began shouting obscenities at the Mayor from the outside of the tent.”
• The mob eventually forced themselves into the restaurant where the mayor was punched.

Another failure, as we have discussed so many times, where the local political class cannot carry out a basic, basic function of government: protecting the safety of its citizens and businesses. Wheeler has failed so dramatically that he cannot even protect himself from violence.

2) One of the most important human rights in society and country is freedom of speech. Everyone should be able to talk about their views as long as it does not advocate violence in any form on another human being. In this country, we have this right protected by the First Amendment.

Unfortunately, that right is under attack by so-called Big Tech, Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc. The Bill Of Rights protects our freedom of speech from government and political class violating it. But Big Tech has gotten so big that they are now on the verge of stifling free speech, adult conversation of issues, and acting like the great tyrants of the past, Hitler. Stalin, etc. 

Over the past couple of weeks, these companies have taken serious, distressing and massive actions to shut down and censor anyone who does not have the same liberal/Democratic opinions of them, for example:

• Ron Paul is a former Congressman who was likely the most Libertarian member of Congress ever, a strong advocate for the rights laid out in the Constitution and Bill of Rights.
• He is an older gentleman so from a physical perspective he is a threat to no one.
• For no apparent reason, his Twitter account was temporarily suspended for “repeatedly going against our community standards.”
• According to Mr. Paul: "With no explanation other than "repeatedly going against our community standards" @Facebook has blocked me from managing my page. Never have we received notice of violating community standards in the past, and nowhere is the offending post identified.The only thing we posted to Facebook today was my weekly "Texas Straight Talk" column, which I have published every week since 1976."
• The article that probably got him censored by Facebook was a discussion of tech company censorship.

So there you have it, Stalin and Hitler style. Dare to criticize the big tech companies and they will stifle your right to have an opinion. And no liberal and Democratic politician has stepped up to object to this suppression of free thought and opinion.

3) But maybe this tech censorship initiative should not surprise us since according to a January 10, 2021 article by Chuck Ross of the Washington Times:

• At least 14 current or former high ranking employees from five different major technology companies will be serving in Biden’s Presidential administration.
• Maybe not coincidentally, it is these five companies, Apple, Google, Amazon, Twitter and Facebook that have launched their own censorship efforts to quiet and squash the opinions and free speech rights of non-liberal citizens.
• The top government lobbyist for Apple, Cynthia Hogan, was a chief advisor to the Biden transition team.
• A former Twitter executive will be Biden’s chief spokesperson for the National Security Council.
• Jessica Hertz, who was a director for Facebook’s regulatory team, will serve as White House staff director. 
• Emily Horne, former head of global policy communications for Twitter, will be the director of press and spokesperson for the National Security Council.
• David Recordon, a former developer for Facebook, will be the director of technology for the Office of Management and Administration. Austin Lin, a former program manager at Facebook, will serve as Recordon’s deputy.
• Jeff Zients, a former Facebook board member who served in the Obama administration, is Biden’s Covid-19 czar.

I could go on and on about others but you get the idea. The very type of people that either worked for or probably support the censorship efforts from these tech companies will be serving you and I in the Biden administration. Which means it is highly unlikely that Biden will properly respond to the growing censorship of American citizens by these tech companies who, it is my opinion, are not doing it out of a higher sense of consciousness but to preserve what is obviously their lucrative business monopolies.

When a competitor arises that immediately has a negative impact on their money printing machines, such as Parler, an alternative to Twitter and Facebook, these companies act in unison to shut down this potential monopoly upsetting company. These companies are willing to stifle free speech in this country, something that is vitally needed to address the many issues we are all facing, in order to keep themselves rich and powerful beyond any regular American’s wildest dreams.

4) One thing that irritates me to no end is the insistence by Democrats and liberals in this country that anyone or any action that they disagree with has racism at its core. This insistence that just about anything that rubs them the wrong way is racist minimizes the real racism in this country: if everything is racist then nothing is racist. 

And at the same time, the refuse to recognize the many times when they are actually racist themselves, as Joe Biden recently illustrated:

• According to a Daily Wire article by Ryan Saavedra on January 11, 2021, Joe Biden wants to get economic relief to American small businesses.
• Sounds like a good idea on the surface, small businesses in this country have certainly suffered as a result of the pandemic.
• But then you find out that his program will be intentionally racist in nature, since according to Biden: “Our focus will be on small businesses on Main Street that aren’t wealthy and well-connected, that are facing real economic hardships through not fault of their own. Our priority will be Black, Latino, Asian, and Native American owned small businesses, women-owned businesses, and finally having equal access to resources needed to reopen and rebuild.”
• So, small business owners who happen to be white males need not apply.
• So, Biden is not even in office yet and his racist past, as we have pointed out previously, is already underway.
• You cannot single out a group of Americans because of their skin color, exclude them from a government program, and claim you are not a racist.

It is my understanding such behavior is against Federal law which means someone is probably and correctly going to sue him out of the gate for this racism against white business owners.

The good news is that, according to the article, his racism was met with heavy criticism. The bad news is that very few liberals criticized his racism even though they usually have a long history of complaining but faux racism but now ignore this real racism:

• “White need not apply. Unbelievable. Would you want to also just round them up while you are at it.” - Obianuju Ekeocha
• “Asians have the highest median household incomes of any racial group in America, and it’s not even close — $87K vs $65K for whites, the next highest group. Why should they get preferential treatment? Identity politics is garbage.” - Alliance Imitative Executive Director Noah Pollak
• “Can we please just help Americans without further dividing us into competing subgroups?” - Ricochet Editor-in-chief Jon Gabriel
• “This is actual institutional racism.” - Ricochet Editor-in-chief Jon Gabriel
• “Discrimination based on race and sex of white men remains unlawful under federal law.” - Attorney Marina Medvin
• “Are you implying minorities and women unlikely to own large businesses? That’s racist.” - Political commentator Wu Lebao
• “Asians are doing economically far better than whites. One of the many flaws of the ideological ‘POC’ / ‘white’ model.” - Writer Rav Arora 
• “If you’re wondering what systemic racial discrimination actually looks like, the Harris Administration is about to give you a tutorial.” - Daily Wire columnist Matt Walsh

But nowhere in the reaction were the typical race baiters like Pelosi, liberal Hollywood types, liberal media people, etc. I guess racism in their minds only exists when it serves their political purposes.

There you have it, your next batch of political class insanity: the racism of Joe Biden, the tyranny, monopoly, and censorship from big tech, big tech’s infiltration of the political class, and a liberal mayor suffers the same pain that he has inflicted on his constituents.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

https://www.amazon.com/Love-My-Country-Loathe-Government/dp/1604942789/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=love+my+country%2C+loathe+my+government&qid=1607716020&sr=8-1

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

http://www.reason.com

http://www.cato.org

http://www.bankruptingamerica.org

http://www.conventionofstates.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

 

 

Political Class Insanity Special Edition Part 2: Syrian Madness, McCain Plays Video Games, Obama Fails To Plan, and Other Insults

Today is the second in a special series of posts we are doing on the political class insanity about Syria. Most informed Americans know that President Obama is itching to send U.S. military resources into action to teach the Syrian government a lesson for allegedly using poison gas on some of its citizens. As we discussed yesterday in detail, the reason for his desire is that he issued an idle threat to the government of Syria about a year ago, his now infamous “red line” ultimatum, i.e. if Syria poison gassed its own people that would be bad and incur Obama’s wrath.

The problem with issuing this ultimatum, as we discussed yesterday, is that the President never took the time or effort to establish a plan to operationalize his threat. Now, he is standing in front of the world with egg on his face with no plan and no strategy, trying to convince the world that our military should be drawn into a vicious civil war in a Middle East country. 

Yesterday’s post with more details on how he got us into this pretty untenable position can be accessed at:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2013/09/political-class-insanity-special.html

Today and over the next few days we will continue to review why this is such a stupid idea, sending us into war in Syria, how idiotic some of our politicians have acted with regard to this crisis, how Obama’s desire to shoot missiles makes no sense, and what others in the world are saying about this problem and why military action is NOT the answer.

1) This issue is probably one of the biggest foreign relations problems that this nation has had to face in many years. Military personnel are being put at risk. Taxpayer dollars are being diverted to go to war. Congressional members are in heated debate with each other and members of the administration on the issues.

And Senator John McCain, one of the Senate’s biggest proponents of going to war in Syria, was recently caught on film by Washington Post reporter Melina Mara….playing online poker on his smartphone the middle of the Senate hearings on whether or not to attack Syria. One of the biggest issues of our time and he thinks it is fine to play a video game while lives are at stake.

And to add insult to injury, once the Post pictures were made public, McCain actually made light of the incident by Tweeting, "Scandal! Caught playing iPhone game at 3+ hour Senate hearing - worst of all I lost!" Talk about disgraceful, talk about condescending, this is pathetic. 

Lives hang in the balance he gets sarcastic after getting caught being distracted by such an important Senate debate and eventual decisions. These are the types of people that are leading the country today, the types of people that do not even have enough attention span to engage in a life and death matter.

2) The Heritage Foundation did a nice job with a recent posting where it laid out five questions that the administration needs to answer or clarify because the current status of information does not make sense:

- On August 31, 2013 and September 1, 2013, the President repeatedly stated that any U.S. military operation against Syria would be “narrow and limited” and would not involve troops on the ground. But when the administration put together a draft Congressional resolution that outlined how we would attack Syria, the resolution stated that the purpose of the U.S. military action is to “prevent or deter the use or proliferation” of weapons of mass destruction or to “protect the United States and its allies and partners against the threat posed by such weapons.” This is a very broad objective, it is not narrow and limited.

Narrow and limited military strikes are very unlikely to destroy Syria’s chemical weapons stocks or delivery capacity since the Syrian government has now had more than a week, or a year, to move and protect those chemical weapons and other military hardware. So what is it, narrow and limited or wipe out the Syrian chemical weapons capability. You cannot have both, and given the warning we have given the Syrian government of our attack intentions, Obama will likely get neither.

- But U.S. military strikes are not the only entanglement that Obama wants to create for us in Syria. The administration reportedly intends to do “more for the Syrian rebels,” including providing arms. 

But given that the Syrian rebels are fighting beside Islamist extremists, some of whom have ties to al-Qaeda, how does the administration plan to arm the “good” rebels but not the “bad” rebels. So far, that little snafu has not been ironed out. If it does not get done properly, we could be providing military hardware to the very people that blew up the World Trade Center and hit the Pentagon on 9-11.

- The Administration assesses “with high confidence that the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons on a small scale against the opposition multiple times in the last year, including in the Damascus suburbs.” However, these earlier attacks did not result in a military response from the U.S. Thus, why now and why because of just the latest alleged gas attack?  Arbitrary enforcement of a “red line” or any ultimatum is not a convincing argument.

- The President stated in late August that the Syrians’ behavior regarding the potential gassing of its own citizens was national security threat to the U.S. But he never said what that threat was except in the broadest and vaguest terms possible, as if we should just take his word for it. 

He also stated that we need to militarily attack to discourage other fiends around the world from getting into the chemical warfare game. But it is highly doubtful that a “narrow and limited” attack over a period of a couple of days is 1) going to make us more secure and 2) is going to discourage any madman from getting into chemical weapons if the only world answers to such a move is a few cruise missiles.

- The final Heritage point is one we covered yesterday. With the exception of France, Obama has not built any kind of allied, United Nations, or international coalition partnership to help us out in this self created crisis. He is trying to lead the charge up the hill while those he would like to have allies are staying back in their fox holes, not seeing this charade as worthwhile or likely to do any good.

Heritage tied these serious shortcomings of the administration’s thought processes very nicely and accurately: “The Obama Administration’s Syria policy has been disturbingly ad hoc and reactive. The Administration has not clearly explained why it must act at this time when earlier incidents did not require action, how its proposed actions will achieve its stated objectives, and what its plans are if the military strikes do not succeed in achieving those objectives. Answers to these and other questions are vital if Congress is to take its responsibilities seriously.”

Given that a high ranking Senator like John McCain would rather play video games than take this potential war situation seriously, I am not sure that Congress is ready, willing, and able to take the situation seriously. Also, based on these five issues, it is quite apparent the administration has not been ready, willing, and able to do their homework to properly address and resolve the issues of military intervention.

3) Ron Paul, former U.S. Congressman and Presidential candidate, recently had three insightful observations/warnings about this crisis that Obama’s careless red line threat has caused:

• “We are not really positive who set off the gas. The group that is most likely to benefit from that is Al-Qaida. They ignite some gas; some people die and blame it on Assad.”
• “Assad, I don’t think, is an idiot. I don’t think he would do this on purpose in order for the whole world to come down on him.”
• “What if there is an accident and 100 Russians get killed by our bombs? Who knows? Some type of unintended consequences. Wars always expand because of unintended consequences. They always provide short-term war. Just think of all the promises over in Iraq: short term; not much money; it’s over; we’ll get that oil. And don’t believe it.” 

Another view from a politician that has always been leery, and correct, about getting involved in other people’s business. What if we do kill some Russian citizens that are working for the Russian government in Syria? What if we end up with a stray missile that lands in the center of a residential area and which would likely kill far more Syrians than died in the alleged gas attack? What if Assad is actually a rationale tyrant who knew he was winning the civil war and would be crazy to get involved in such an attack? 

So many questions and so few answers on such an important issue.

4) Speaking of killing civilians, this issue has always bothered me. Best estimates say that over 100,000 Syrians have died as a result of the civil war. This war has been going on for years. These people died from gun shots, mortar rounds, artillery rounds, torture, etc. Why is it so important to inject ourselves into this civil war now? If the 400 or 1,400 people (various estimates) had not been killed by poison gas but by artillery shells, would we not be having this discussion and issue? 

Are Obama, Kerry, McCain and others  saying it is okay to kill someone with a mortar round but we need to get involved when it is allegedly poison gas? Unnecessary death is unnecessary death. If the administration and others had been this concerned about any civilian deaths than maybe they should have addressed the issue years ago before 100,000 people died.

Okay, heavy duty stuff and we are still not done reviewing all of the issues and opinions and ramifications of going to war, again, in the Middle East, a foreign policy strategy that has NEVER worked out well. More to follow tomorrow. In the meantime, if you agree that this insanity must stop, I urge you to call your Congressional representatives now before they decide military action, limited and useless as it is, has any merit at all.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now:http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w 

Liberty's Death By A Thousand Cuts, Part 2: "We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them."

Yesterday, we talked about the farewell speech that Congressman Ron Paul gave in front of Congress last year. Congressman Paul has been one of the few Washington politicians who appreciated, respected, and tried to preserve the tenets of freedom and liberty that have made this country great. Unfortunately, he was in a small minority that tried to protect the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

Our discussion yesterday focused on the many small ways that freedom has been eroding in this country over the years, almost totally at the hands of the political class, death of freedom by a thousand cuts:

• Debt is growing exponentially.
• The accompanying household tax burden grows every year.
• Government politicians and bureaucrats control more and more of our lives including our retirement income via Social Security, our retirement medical care via Medicare, and our pre-retirement medical care via Obama Care.
• This Presidential administration sees no problems with killing American citizens without due process of law, both overseas and domestically.
• This Presidential administration sees no problems with holding anyone in captivity without due process for indefinite amounts of time.
• This Presidential administration sees no problems with spying and tracking citizens without any justifiable reasons.
• This Presidential administration continues to execute and lose the war on drugs, destroying Fourth Amendment rights and freedom of choice in the process.

These and other affronts to liberty were discussed yesterday using Congressman’s Paul speech as the basis. Today, we will examine some other concepts of freedom and hope he provided as an outline on how to retrieve the freedom we have allowed the political class to take away:

“No one claims it’s permissible to go into one’s neighbor’s house and tell them how to behave, what they can eat, smoke and drink, how to spend their money. Yet rarely is it asked why it is morally acceptable that a stranger with a badge and a gun can do the same thing in the name of law and order. Any resistance is met with brute force, fines, taxes, arrests and even imprisonment. This is done more frequently every day without a proper search warrant.”

“Government in a free society should have no authority to meddle in social activities or the economic transactions of individuals.”

“Nor should government meddle in the affairs of other nations. All things peaceful, even controversial, should be permitted.”

“Achieving legislative power and political influence should not be our goal. Most of the change, if it is to come, will not come from the politician, but rather from individuals, family, friends, intellectual leaders, and our religious institutions. The solution can only come from rejecting the use of coercion, compulsion, government commands, and aggressive force to mold social and economic behavior.”

“The idealism of nonaggression and rejecting all offensive use of force should be tried. What I am talking about is a system of government guided by the moral principles of peace and tolerance.”

“A society that boos or ridicules the Golden Rule is not a moral society. All great religions endorse the Golden Rule. The same moral standards that individuals are required to follow should apply to all government officials. They cannot be exempt.”

“To achieve liberty and peace, two powerful human emotions have to be overcome. Number one is envy, which leads to hate and class warfare. Number two is intolerance, which leads to bigoted and judgmental policies. These emotions must be replaced with a much better understanding of love, compassion, tolerance, and free market economics.”

“The best chance of achieving peace and prosperity, for the maximum number of people worldwide, is to pursue the cause of liberty. If you find this to be a worthwhile message, spread it throughout the land.”

Fabulous words for anyone to follow if they desire to live in a free society. Unfortunately, these words cannot be applied to most of the American political class:

• When a California Congresswoman openly wished that American citizens that did not agree with her political views should go to hell, she was not living up to the Golden Rule or showing any kind of compassion or tolerance.
• When politicians blame the rich, the successful, and the high producers in our society, they are not reducing envy, they are fueling it.
• When government entities buy billions of rounds of ammunition and over 2,700 armor tank vehicles they are reinforcing their ability to use brute force, coercion, aggression, and compulsion to mold social and economic behavior.
• When government continues to execute a lost war on drugs or tries to dictate the size of your soda container these are nothing more than other ways to aggressively behavior, not recognizing the right of a free people to do what they want as long as they do it peacefully and non-aggressively.
• When the Patriot Act, NDAA, spying on citizens, and indefinite detention is viewed as major achievements of the political class, the opposing concepts of peace, nonaggression, privacy, and freedom have been relegated to the history bin.
• When politicians “energize their base” by demeaning, slandering, and belittling those in our society that have a legitimate contrary view to those politicians, they are spreading the cancer of intolerance, not enhancing the art of debate and the ideal respect.

You get the idea. We have allowed the political class to divide and conquer us, going a long way in destroying our democracy in the process. As Congressman Paul points out, to reverse this trend we cannot rely on the same politicians to restore the ideals of liberty and freedom. That victory has to come from ourselves, our families, our friends, and others outside the realm of politics, or as Einstein once said: “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” Or the same politicians.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

http://www.reason.com/
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w 

Liberty's Death By A Thousand Cuts - Ron Paul's Warning, Part 1: The Root Causes

Let’s take a step back from gun control lunacy and Obama Care idiocy and talk about something more basic today and tomorrow: freedom. The following thoughts are from the last speech given in Congress by long time Texas Congressman Ron Paul.

Congressman Paul has been one of the very people in the Washington political class who has sincerely worried about the erosion of liberty and freedom in this country. This loss of freedom was usually at the hands of overreaching, overbearing, and over politicized politicians and their usually ineffective, wasteful, and dangerous policies and legislation.

Many smart people throughout history have correctly observed that freedom is seldom lost by a sudden outburst of tyranny. It is usually lost over time, bit by bit, kind of like death by a thousand cuts. You do not notice how much freedom has eroded away until it is too late to stop the erosion.

Congressman Paul’s points do a great job of pointing out how that slow erosion, how those tiny cuts have dramatically reduced our freedom in this country without most of us noticing. It is a good starting point to determine if this path of slow tyranny is a good path for America or if there is truly a need to change the path back to our heritage of liberty as outlined in the Constitution. Is it a continued road of ignorance or back to the enlightened road of free will, free expression, and freedom from the shackles of politicians and government.

The first part of his speech goes down a checklist of freedom reducing acts from just the past few years:

"[Still] our liberties are restricted and government operates outside the rule of law.. Here are a few examples:

- Debt is growing exponentially.

- The Patriot Act and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act legislation passed without much debate, have resulted in a steady erosion of our Fourth Amendment rights.

- Tragically, our government engages in a pre-emptive wear, otherwise known as aggression, with no complaints from the American people.

- The drone warfare we are pursuing worldwide is destined to end badly for us the hatred builds for innocent lives lost and the international laws flouted.

- It’s now the law of the land that the military can arrest American citizens, hold them indefinitely, without charges or a trial.

- Rampant hostility toward free trade is supported by a large number in Washington.

- Sanctions are used to punish countries that don’t follow our orders.

- Bailouts and guarantees for all kinds of misbehavior are routine.”

To these gross impositions on freedom, the root causes of our liberty loss, we should add a few more causes:

- You are not living in a free country when all forms of government confiscate, on average, over 30% of an American household’s income every year.

- You are not living in a free country when about 500 people in Washington, people you have never met, can force you to purchase a product or service of their choosing, as witnessed by the health insurance mandate demanded in Obama Care.

- You are not living in a free country when the central government controls your elder years medical care (via Medicare).

- You are not living in a free country when the central government controls a large portion of your retirement income (via Social Security).

- You are not living in a free country when the central government controls a large portion of your pre-retirement medical care (via Obama Care).

- You are not living in a free country if your ability to go to college, via student loans, is dependent on the actions and whims of Federal government politicians.

- You are not living in a free country if your ability to get a home mortgage, via Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is dependent on the actions and whims of Federal government politicians.

- You are not living in a free country if the Federal government’s executive branch can independently and arbitrarily designate any American for assassination and then actually commit that assassination without due process of law (e.g. Anwar al-Awlaki).

- You are not living in a free country when a President can seize control of all forms of communications when he alone decides it is in the national interest (Executive Order - Assignment of National Security and Emergency Preparedness Communications Functions)

- You are not living in a free country when the Federal government can collect and store every electronic communication any citizen makes (e.g. email, text messages) in massive data storage centers (e.g. Bluffdale, Utah) without due process, a warrant, or privacy protection.

- You are not living in a free country when the Federal government executive branch thinks it can affix a GPS tracking device to any citizen’s car without a warrant (see U.S. Vs. Jones decision).

- You are not living in a free country when crony capitalism wastes billions of taxpayer dollars every year without any redeeming societal benefits (e.g. Solyndra, Fisker, Telsa).

- You are not living in a free country if the executive branch can circumvent Constitutionally mandated government appointment reviews via a "czar" politburo.

When taken in total, the above actions by the American political class have shot us a long way down the road to tyranny. In light of these actions, the Congressman’s speech addresses some very serious questions to all Americans:

“Why are sick people [Americans] who use medical marijuana put in prison?

Why are Americans not allowed to use gold and silver as legal tender as mandated by the Constitution?

Why is the Transportation Security Administration permitted to abuse the rights of any American traveling by air?

Why haven’t we given up on the drug war since it’s an obvious failure and violates the people’s rights? Has nobody noticed that the authorities can’t even keep drugs out of our prisons? How can making our entire society a prison solve the problem?

Why do we sacrifice so much getting needlessly involved in border disputes and civil strife around the world and ignore the root cause of the most deadly border in the world - the one between Mexico and the U.S.?

Why does changing the party in power never change policy? Could it be that the views of both parties are essentially the same?

Why is there so little concern for the executive order that gives the President authority to establish a “kill list” including American citizens, of those targeted for assassination?

Why is patriotism thought to be loyalty to the government and the politicians who run it, rather than loyalty to the principles of liberty and support for the people? Real patriotism is a willingness to challenge the government when it’s wrong.”

Thought provoking questions that every American needs to ask themselves if liberty and freedom in this country have any chance of surviving. We are well on our way to a thousand cuts and once we get beyond that magic number, the ability to restore our freedom and liberty will become next to impossible. Those forces that do not care about these Constitutional concepts, the American political class, will be too entrenched to give back the freedom they took away from us.

Congressman Paul’s insights and questions should be our wake up call. These should be the starting points and road map of taking back our country from the those who use our country for their own political gain, personal enrichment, and selfish ego satisfaction.

Today, we laid out the root causes of our problem, the erosion of liberty. Tomorrow, we will review the back half of the Congressman’s speech which lays out the types of behavior that is needed to stop the bleeding before it is too late.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

http://www.reason.com/
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w