PoliticalAction.com Blog

It’s the Patriot Act déjà vu. Extended last December until February 28, the day of Patriot Act provisions reauthorization reckoning is upon us.

Given the present direction in the political wind, members of Congress would rather not have to debate and vote on a long-term reauthorization of the Patriot Act before the November elections. So the plan is to shift that responsibility on to others after those pesky midterm elections and use the short-term reauthorization route all over again.

Unfortunately, the following dangerous provisions will be extended by this move: (1) the Records provision gives federal investigators access to all business, hospital and library records to search for “any tangible thing” of a terrorist suspect, sometimes labeled a “sneak and peek” method, if there is a court order provided by a special federal court; (2) the Roving Wiretaps provision authorizes government tracking capabilities in the form of wiretapping without a name or specific target as a focus; and (3) the Lone Wolf provision allows the use of secret surveillance for spying on non-Americans if they are suspected of terrorist activities not tied to any specific organization.

The national security letters provision is not set to expire, so the FBI can continue to obtain private financial and communication records of Americans, a most extraordinary search procedure and clearly an abuse of the Fourth Amendment.

No matter how the Patriot Act reauthorization is presented, whether as a standalone bill, or buried in any one of a number of bills, it is imperative that all senators and representatives are urged to oppose the reauthorization of any aspects of, or amendments to, the Patriot Act.

Wouldn’t it be great to know that your representatives in Washington voted “No” on the continued or expanded use of the provisions of the Patriot Act mentioned above, helping to preserve the freedom and liberty given to us by our Founding Fathers? And wouldn’t it be even better to know that because you sent a message to your representatives, they are getting the hang of a truly representational form of government while also using the Constitution as their guide?

Click here to send your message of opposition to reauthorization of these unconstitutional provisions of the Patriot Act.

Thanks for participating,

Your friends at The John Birch Society,

From the Congressional Budget Office Director

This morning the Obama Administration released a description of its health care proposal, and CBO has already received several requests to provide a cost estimate for that proposal. We had not previously received the proposal, and we have just begun the process of reviewing it?a process that will take some time, given the complexity of the issues involved. Although the proposal reflects many elements that were included in the health care bills passed by the House and the Senate last year, it modifies many of those elements and also includes new ones. Moreover, preparing a cost estimate requires very detailed specifications of numerous provisions, and the materials that were released this morning do not provide sufficient detail on all of the provisions. Therefore, CBO cannot provide a cost estimate for the proposal without additional detail, and, even if such detail were provided, analyzing the proposal would be a time-consuming process that could not be completed this week.

Ron Paul on CNBC’s Squwak Box Part 1 – Feb 22

Run, Ron, Run!

Part 1

Part 2

Schiff for Senate

Dear Supporter,

One year ago today President Obama signed the “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009,” popularly known as the Stimulus Act, into law. The President and Democrats in Congress promised that this economic stimulus program would create jobs and strengthen the U.S. economy. But a year later we still haven’t seen the results.

Obama insists that the stimulus is working, but we just haven’t seen proof of that in the economic data. But we have seen signs that the stimulus money is being spent… that is, large green highway signs proclaiming that funding for whatever construction project has you sitting in traffic was secured by the federal stimulus package.

The stimulus package was an egregious waste of our tax dollars, and now Democrats in Congress want to pass another jobs bill! I can only imagine how much of our tax dollars will be wasted in this bill, and that, my friend, is why I’m running for the U.S. Senate.

It’s time to get our country’s fiscal house in order, and I’m ready to lead the charge. Our government cannot borrow and spend our way to economic prosperity. The past year has been challenging for all of us. We’ve had to tighten our purse strings, and it’s time for Washington to do the same.

I’m turning to you as one of my strongest supporters, because I need your financial assistance to get my message of fiscal responsibility out to voters. Will you follow this link and make a contribution of $25, $50, $100, $250 or more today? Your immediate contribution will bring me closer to Washington where I’ll fight for the conservative economic principles that have brought Americans prosperity for so many generations.

Government is the least efficient and most expensive means of job creation. In fact, we’re paying $160,000 for each job created. Can you believe it? Just imagine all the jobs that were destroyed or that never were created because $160,000 that otherwise would have been invested by the private sector was spent by the government instead. In addition, Americans continue to lose jobs everyday despite the Obama Administration’s failed efforts. We cannot afford to waste another several hundred billion dollars on a job killing “jobs bill” with our national debt nearly $12.4 trillion and Congress’ recent decision to raise the debt ceiling by another $1.9 trillion. It’s time to force Washington to play a limited role in governing, but we can only do that by electing leaders who will absolutely fight for fiscally conservative values.

As Senator, I will make sure that the government is spending your tax dollars wisely. I will not vote for a bill that funds frivolous projects like highway signs promoting the stimulus bill – New York alone has spent a million dollars on these signs – and I will not support another government bailout of a business, a bank, or an entire industry.

I need your immediate support to get to Washington to fight for our shared values. That’s why I hope I can count on you to follow this link today and make the most generous contribution you can to my campaign.

Thank you in advance for your support. Please stay tuned for updates from the campaign trail.

Sincerely,

Peter Schiff
Republican US Senate Candidate

P.S. Today is the anniversary of President Obama and his fellow Democrats’ failed economic stimulus plan. Instead of allowing the Democrats to pass a jobs bill that will cost hundreds of billions more of our tax dollars, we must act to elect leaders who will fight for economic responsibility and fiscal conservative principles. That’s why I’m running for the U.S. Senate and I hope I can count on you to follow this link and make a generous contribution to support my campaign. Thank you.

Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania (LPPA)
3915 Union Deposit Road #223
Harrisburg, PA 17109
www.lppa.org

For Immediate Release: February 17, 2010

Contact: Doug Leard (Media Relations) at Media-Relations@lppa.org or
Michael Robertson (Chair) at 1-800-R-RIGHTS / chair@lppa.org

Harrisburg – If our state government in Harrisburg were a household, its kitchen and its budget wouldn’t pass home economics. The cafeteria in Pennsylvania’s Capitol, the Capitol Cafe, failed a Department of Agriculture inspection. According to the Pennsylvania Independent (www.paindependent.com), the cafe was sited for “13 violations including the presence of rodents, improper storage of food, and contamination during food preparation, storage and display.” The café had already been closed in December due to a series of violations.

The Capitol Cafe is just the tip of the iceberg lettuce when it comes to
the woes of Harrisburg politicians. In his annual budget address, Governor Rendell warned of the approaching “fiscal tsunami” facing Pennsylvania.

Rendell indicated that in fiscal year 2011-12, Pennsylvania will lose $2.3
billion that is currently coming from federal tax dollars. In fiscal year
2012 – 13, Pennsylvania faces a $5.6 billion shortfall in public employee
pension plan liabilities. Meanwhile, General Fund revenues for the 2009-10 fiscal year are $374 million below estimate.

“How can we trust politicians in the Capitol to effectively manage an
impending crisis when they can’t run their day-to-day household? asked LPPA Media Relations Chair, S. Douglas Leard. “Now they’re talking about taking even more money from our households to pay for theirs. All this points to the need for new leadership in Harrisburg who can run the state household as well as Pennsylvanians run theirs.”

According to the Commonwealth Foundation, since 2003 when Governor Rendell took office, “Pennsylvania’s burden of state and local taxes has increased from the 17th heaviest in the nation to the 11th. State spending has increased by $3600 per family of four (in inflation-adjusted dollars). State debt has increased by $18 billion to a whopping $41 billion – a 78 percent increase – or $5,600 per family of four.”

“If Pennsylvanians are interested in getting our Commonwealth cleaned up, I encourage them to enlist the aid of the Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania.” remarked LPPA Chair Michael Robertson. “The Libertarian Party is dedicated to focusing on the rights of the individual and responsible, limited government. We need this focus if we are to get our legislative houses in order.”

The Libertarian Party is the third largest political party in Pennsylvania
and the United States . More than 200,000 people across the country are registered Libertarians, and Libertarians serve in hundreds of elected offices. Please visit www.LP.org or www.LPPA.org for more information.

How to Defeat the Patriot Act

February 9, 2010

Taking away our freedoms is not Patriotic. In fact, there is nothing more un-American.

The badly misnamed Patriot Act is not the Act of Patriots. It is the act of petty tyrants seeking more and more power and control over our country.

Now, ever so quietly, the Obama administration is working with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to sneak reauthorization of the Patriot Act through without creating a stir among liberty-minded Americans.

Well, I’m for making a stir. A BIG STIR.

How about you?

We’ve all heard the defenses. How the Patriot Act was needed to combat terrorism. How it would not be used against U.S. citizens.

How it would not be abused.

These lies have all been clearly exposed. For eight years, the American people have ignored the wisdom of our founding fathers and traded freedom for security – and as predicted, we are losing both as a result.

And now, Congress and the White House are set to reauthorize the so-called Patriot Act.

They have until the end of this month to act. Even talk about a window-dressing reform bill has stopped. The Mainstream Media, fixated on Obama and tea party rallies, doesn’t say a word about it.

Frankly, you and I know the Patriot Act should be scrapped, or at least massively re-written to block federal snoops from casting fishing nets over the lives, histories and data of hard-working Americans.

Unless you and I act today, however, this won’t happen. . .

. . . and the Patriot Act will be reauthorized for another five years or more without hardly a peep or a dissent.

The weak link for the snoop-state insiders remains the U.S. Senate — where one Big Government boondoggle after another has been bottled up or defeated.

But my contacts in the Senate say there’s not hardly a peep of opposition to the Patriot Act being heard right now. They say they are willing to fight — some even admit privately it was a mistake supporting it the first time when President Bush demanded it in the midst of the outrage following the 9/11 attacks.

But no one will take this on unless there is a shout of opposition from the American people.

That’s why I urge you to let Senator Bob Casey and Senator Arlen Specter hear from you today. Please click here to sign our Liberty Petition, demanding your senators allow the Patriot Act to expire.

If we do not stop this reauthorization, we’ll see a whole lot more of what we’ve gotten over the last eight years:

*** Federal and State law enforcement on fishing expeditions, searching telephone, email, medical, financial, and other records looking for a needle in a haystack – and abridging the freedom of law abiding citizens everywhere.

*** Warrantless searches and roving wiretaps, paying telephone providers for access to TRILLIONS of phone records and ignoring Fourth Amendment protections.

*** Broad powers for the Treasury Department and Immigrations Department to rewrite regulations, access records, and conduct proceedings in secret.

*** Holding American citizens in violation of their constitutional rights simply because someone in the government has declared them an enemy combatant.

*** Vast amounts of electronic data on virtually every American swept up by insider arrangements and purchases from phone companies, airlines and other businesses afraid to say no to a government request.
As you well know, this isn’t some conspiracy theory. This is happening all around us.

And you and I can help put a stop to it today.

One of the most egregious abuses of the Constitution, using the Patriot Act as its basis, is so-called National Security letters, used commonly by the FBI.

It has been estimated that the FBI has used these NSLs – which allow access to records WITHOUT any court or search warrant – at least 50,000 times since 2001.

Just one example, noted in BusinessWeek in 2005, showed that the FBI had issued tens of thousands of NSLs and had obtained one million financial, credit, employment, and health records from the customers of targeted Las Vegas businesses. Selected businesses included casinos, storage warehouses and car rental agencies.

And that’s just one case.

Our federal government is out of control, and every day we see it attempting to abridge more of our constitutional rights.

We know they’d take away our Second Amendment rights in a heartbeat if they could, and we must also remain vigilant to this threat.

They’re spending us and our children into poverty, with crushing trillion dollar deficits.

And they’re allowing the out of control Fed to ruin the dollar and push forward toward the collapse of our currency and way of life.

All of these are vital fights.

But none are more critical at the moment than taking back our freedoms from the statists and power-hungry federal thugs who use the Patriot Act to dig into every aspect of American lives under the false pretense of making us safer.

We cannot be a free nation and have this un-American law on the books.

Liberty-minded Americans from the left and the right are outraged. But outrage alone won’t be enough. Every single one of us must take action today.

Campaign for Liberty has a three point plan to get as many senators as possible to vote against the Patriot Act:

** Your Petitions, and hundreds of thousands like them, will be delivered to the Senate, showing the tidal wave of opposition to the Patriot Act. You can sign by clicking HERE.

** Editorials and Op-Eds across the country to help swing the tide of public opinion to oppose this dangerous abuse of power.

** TV and Radio Ads in targeted states. As you may recall, our program has helped keep Socialized medicine from becoming a reality.
Public pressure works. Think of the agenda items that are stalled in Congress in no small part due to pressure from outraged citizens. Socialized Medicine. Big Labor’s Card Check. Gun grabbing bills. You name it; we’re beating it back.

The time is now to turn our attention to stopping the Patriot Act in its tracks.

The issue already became hot enough that the Senate could only muster a 60 day extension of the bill because of the threat of a Senate filibuster back in December. But now the politicians think all is clear. There is silence on this issue.

Well, I think it’s time for them to hear us loud and clear.

Remember, the statists need 60 votes to overcome a filibuster. We can and must win this fight.

Please join us and help Campaign for Liberty win this fight by signing your Petition and by making a contribution today.

In Liberty,

John Tate
President

P.S.: If you and I don’t take the lead, I’m certain the Patriot Act will be renewed, and we will continue to have our freedom and our private information taken away by our government.

You and I need to shine a bright spotlight on what Congress hopes will be a quiet fight.

Please help Campaign for Liberty wage this fight today by signing your Liberty Petition and by making a contribution to Campaign for Liberty if you can.

Campaign for Liberty

Texas Straight Talk – A Weekly Column
Rep. Ron Paul (R) – TX 14

Last week, the House approved another increase in the national debt ceiling. This means the government can borrow $1.9 trillion more to stay afloat and avoid default. It has been little more than a year since the last debt limit increase, and graphs showing the debt limit over time show a steep, almost vertical trend. It is not likely to be very long before this new ceiling is met and the government is back on the brink between default and borrowing us further into oblivion. Congressional leaders and the administration acknowledge that the debt limit will need to be increased again next year. They are crossing their fingers that the forecasts are correct and they will not need another increase sooner, even before the 2010 midterm elections.

Continually increasing the debt is one of the logical outcomes of Keynesianism, since more government spending is always their answer. It is claimed that government must not stop spending when the economy is so fragile. Government must act. Yet, when times are good, government also increases in size and scope, because we can afford it, it is claimed. There is never a good time to rein in government spending according to Keynesian economists and the proponents of big government.

Free market Austrian economists on the other hand know that times are bad because of the size and scope of government. The economy is fragile because of the overwhelming stranglehold of bureaucracy and taxation of Washington. Any jobs Washington might create through these endless spending programs are paid for through more taxation and debt put on the productive sectors of the economy. Just as insidious is the hidden tax of inflation caused by the Fed and its ever-expanding credit bubble. When the Fed steps in with its solutions, it only devalues the dollars in everyone’s pocket while encouraging more reckless waste on Wall Street. All of this leads to a worsening economy, not an improved one.

And so the downward spiral continues. The worse things get, the more politicians want to spend. The more they spend, the heavier the debt load becomes and the more we have to spend just to maintain our interest payments. As our debt load becomes unsustainable, the alarm of our creditors increases. It is becoming so serious that our credit rating, as a nation, could be downgraded. If this happens, interest on the national debt will increase even more, leading to even higher taxes on Americans and inevitably, price inflation.

Still, Washington is full of talk of more regulation, more taxation and more spending. The Senate is still struggling to pass a massive regulatory increase on the financial sector, even as the stock market suffers more shockwaves. Pay-as-you-go rules give the appearance of fiscal responsibility, but in truth these rules are only used as a justification to raise taxes. Spending programs like healthcare reform, increased military spending, and a recent doubling of destructive foreign aid are viewed by Washington as necessary and reasonable, instead of foolishness we absolutely cannot afford.

The people understand this, which is why there is so much anger directed at politicians. Washington needs to change its thinking and adopt some common sense priorities. The Constitution gives some excellent limitations that would get us back on the right path if we would simply abide by them. The framers of the Constitution understood that only the ingenuity of the American people, free from government interference, could get us through hard times, yet Washington seems bent only on prolonging the agony.

WASHINGTON, DC – President Barack Obama today announced that the Federal Government will reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution by 28 percent by 2020. Reducing and reporting GHG pollution, as called for in Executive Order 13514 on Federal Sustainability, will ensure that the Federal Government leads by example in building the clean energy economy. Actions taken under this Executive Order will spur clean energy investments that create new private-sector jobs, drive long-term savings, build local market capacity, and foster innovation and entrepreneurship in clean energy industries.

As the single largest energy consumer in the U.S. economy, the Federal
Government spent more than $24.5 billion on electricity and fuel in 2008
alone. Achieving the Federal GHG pollution reduction target will reduce
Federal energy use by the equivalent of 646 trillion BTUs, equal to 205
million barrels of oil, and taking 17 million cars off the road for one
year. This is also equivalent to a cumulative total of $8 to $11 billion
in avoided energy costs through 2020.

“As the largest energy consumer in the United States, we have a
responsibility to American citizens to reduce our energy use and become more efficient,” said President Obama. “Our goal is to lower costs, reduce pollution, and shift Federal energy expenses away from oil and towards local, clean energy.”

Federal Departments and Agencies will achieve greenhouse gas pollution
reductions by measuring their current energy and fuel use, becoming more energy efficient and shifting to clean energy sources like solar, wind and geothermal. Examples of agency actions that are underway are available on the White House Council on Environmental Quality website and can be found at www.whitehouse.gov/ceq.

On October 5, 2009, President Obama signed Executive Order 13514 on Federal Sustainability, setting measureable environmental performance goals for Federal Agencies. Each Federal Agency was required to submit a 2020 GHG pollution reduction target from its estimated 2008 baseline to the White House Council on Environmental Quality and to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget by January 4, 2010. The Federal target announced today is the aggregate of 35 Federal Agency self-reported targets.

Greenhouse gas emissions serve as a useful metric to measure the
effectiveness of agency energy and fuel efficiency efforts as well as
renewable energy investments. Agencies are already taking actions that will contribute towards achieving their targets, such as installing solar arrays at military installations, tapping landfills for renewable energy, putting energy management systems in Federal buildings, and replacing older vehicles with more fuel efficient hybrid models.

As a next step, the Office of Management and Budget will validate and score each agency’s sustainability plan, assuring a long-term return on
investment to the American taxpayer. To ensure accountability, annual
progress will be measured and reported online to the public.

Patrick Henry Sellers is running for US Congress to represent Pennsylvania’s 6th Congressional District (southeast). Pat can win the GOP primary race and I’ll explain why. First, let me tell you that Pat is the right person for the job. He’s our kind of guy and I know what I’m talking about here. Thomas E. Woods, Jr. agrees and has endorsed him. Please read Pat’s PLATFORM.

Pat was an indefatigable Ron Paul supporter. He started one of the earliest Ron Paul meetups, #314 in June 2007 in Chester County, the heart of the Congressional District. His crew was very active. I worked closely with him as Ron’s former Pennsylvania Field Director during Ron’s Presidential campaign.

JOIN US to become one of Pat’s supporters. We need volunteers at both the local and national level. Give us your feedback. Please also kindly DONATE generously to Pat’s campaign. I did so and I decided to join his campaign team as well. His team is all volunteer.

The Opposition – RINO #1
Despite Americans’ overwhelming opposition, incumbent Congressman Jim Gerlach broke Republican ranks to vote for the Bailout. His record is a disaster: he also voted for Cash for Clunkers, the Hate Crime bill, its sexual orientation amendment, warrantless searches and other federal overreaching and destruction of liberty. He has angered many conservative rank and file. Gerlach tried to run for Governor but he raised insufficient funds, so he now wants to hold onto his Congressional seat. He just can’t stop bailing out. Apart from his record, Gerlach has three other problems: cash, a rich RINO #2 opponent — and Patrick Henry Sellers.

Law prohibits Gerlach from transferring his Gubernatorial campaign funds to his Congressional campaign. His Congressional account had only $35,000 in Sept. 2009. Right now, he’s busy collecting commitments and pledges from people who already donated to his expired campaign. NRCC funding may well be unlikely for two reasons: they are low on cash and Gerlach’s last general election was tight.

The Opposition – RINO #2
RINO Steve Welch has admitted voting for Joe Sestak (D-PA) in 2006 and for Obama in the 2008 primary. He also donated to Sestak’s campaign. He doesn’t realize it yet, but that probably makes him toast. Welch has low name recognition and will, in his substantially self-funded race, target Gerlach.

The upshot is that Gerlach and Welch are damaged-goods candidates with political bulls-eyes on their foreheads.

Pat Sellers is the only conservative in the race. Pat will campaign on the economy with the subtexts of salvaging national finances while improving business competitiveness and national security by dramatically reducing the scope and scale of government. That includes sound money, phasing out the income tax and the Fed, and reverting to a common sense non-interventionist foreign policy that entails bringing our troops home and ceasing the squandering of military assets. In a nutshell, peace, freedom and prosperity. You’ve heard that expression previously from a certain doctor.

Please mark the inauguration of Pat’s campaign fundraising with a Donation. We will soon be calling people in the freedom movement in the 6th District and throughout Pennsylvania for donations, and we need and respectfully request intellectual and financial support of the movement at the national level as well. We’re going to do this. Pat will add to Ron’s voice.

The Revolution continues. Spread the message. Patrick Henry Sellers is running.

Yours very truly,

William E. Faust
Sellers for US Congress

Texas Straight Talk – A weekly column
Rep. Ron Paul (R) – TX 14

Last week politicians in Washington made a few things clear about how they really feel about the state of the union. First, they are beginning to hear the growing discontent with the size and scope of government and the broken promises that keep piling up. Certain events in Massachusetts recently made that statement loud, clear and unavoidable. In the face of those events, the powers that be made the determination that some populist rhetoric was in order, and the idea of a spending freeze in Washington was proposed, albeit with several caveats. These caveats to the proposed spending freeze ensure that we are not at any real risk of actually doing anything about spending.

First of all is timing. It wouldn’t go into effect until 2011, which allows plenty of time to increase spending levels quite a bit before they are frozen. If the administration really understood and cared about our spending problems they would not freeze spending a year from now, but cut spending immediately and significantly. But, spending cuts almost never happen in Washington, and they are not likely now or a year from now – if the politicians have anything to say about it.

The second caveat is the huge areas of the budget that are shielded from this freeze. The entire State Department budget is exempt, as are all entitlements, all military industrial spending and almost all foreign aid. Fully 7/8 of federal spending is excluded from this freeze, and some areas to be frozen were actually set to decrease, which means a freeze actually guarantees a higher level of spending.

Especially insulting is the idea that in spite of our own fiscal problems at home, taxpayer dollars will continue to be sent overseas in the form of foreign aid where it often does more harm than good. When need is demonstrated to Americans and they can afford it, they can be counted on for a tremendous outpouring of private, voluntary charity to worthy aid organizations, as we recently saw in Haiti. By contrast, government-to-government aid is taken from the poor by force and too often enriches the corrupt. It is counterproductive and wasteful. But the idea of eliminating, freezing, or reducing foreign aid is not up for serious debate any time soon.

The third caveat is what is included in the freeze that would make it politically impossible to pass Congress, for example air traffic controllers salaries, education, farm subsidies and national parks.

I do not necessarily want a cut in spending in this country – I just want to change who does the spending. The spending should be done by the people who earn the money, if they choose, and on what they choose, without any government interference. That is what makes the economy work. Politicians should stick to the very limited roles given them by the constitution instead of allocating such a sizeable portion of our capital and intervening through regulations and tax policy. But because politicians have disregarded the constitution, and the people have no idea what rule they will break next, there is already a very real spending freeze underway in this economy, by the people. If government would stick only to what it was authorized to do, and leave the rest to the people, most of these problems would resolve themselves.