Allison Bricker

It may not be televised but its participants will indeed be educated.

THE REGION, INDIANA – The desire which compels me to write and speak in strong opposition towards the oppressive expansion of the American government, whether under Democrats or Republicans, owes its genesis to the firm imploration by my mom that education does not end upon graduation, and instead must be a continual process throughout the course of one’s life. As it is often said, knowledge is power.

The illuminated truth, motivated by my infatuation with the founding of this Republic, came to me through the worn and sometimes crumbling pages of books, not the endless memorization and standardized testing advocated in government schools.

Unencumbered by whitewashed lesson plans and the sometimes-evident pro-statist bias of my teachers and administrators, the ability for me to sit and soak up the words of those dusty essays, journals, letters, and notes is in my opinion, one of humanity’s greatest accomplishments, id est. the Gutenberg Press.

The proliferation of movable-type in the colonies spurred forth the “Challenge of Ideas”, giving rise to the radical Questioning of the absurd notion that rule over mankind came from divinely appointed kings, queens or parliamentary superiority, the “central planners” of their day. Further, its unique place in our history whereby it aided the distribution of both Thomas Paine’s Common Sense and the Declaration of Independence, cements a fondness in my soul for both it and the enlightened distribution of information.

Unfortunately, the business of news, information, and debate had become increasingly consolidated during the course of the last 100 years. As government intervened into the market via absurd licensure schemes under the guise of promoting “fairness”, “public” ownership of the airwaves et cetera, its endless volumes of regulations succeeded only in raising barriers to entry and creating media oligarchies to the benefit of the state. Government sanctioned soap-boxes have proved mightily their efficient processing and packaging of news and information into simplified talking points, but at what cost?

The result of this corporate protectionist media racket; is to have given rise to the sound bite intellect, thereby imbuing legions of collectives charged with half the facts and all the passionate rhetoric once reserved for a Finney tent revival.

Yet we see throughout history that humanity’s yearning for information is as perpetual as a sunrise. Undiscouraged by the darkness, she eternally dawns over the horizon pushing back the shadows and nefarious K-Street deals that go bump in the night, providing her warmth and illumination to the dual pillars known as the trees of Liberty and Knowledge, which to the utter dismay of the D.C. pull-peddlers shan’t be felled.

Indeed the central authority’s arrogance will lead to its own most necessary undoing. Nevertheless fellow readers, windows do not remain in perpetuum. However, our patient suffering at the hands of the old-media spoon-feeders has in large part been relieved via the propagation of citizen journalists and institutions dedicated to the pursuit of Reason and human Liberty.

How many amongst us gave pause just a decade prior to entertain a contrary view on economics outside the Keynesian philosophy, which dominates the airwaves and halls of academia? Further, what is the rise in percentage of Americans who now know that the FEDERAL RESERVE is a private for-profit bank who charges interest to the government in exchange for loans collateralized by our and our posterity’s wages as opposed to just five years previous?

Whereby even just a decade past many swam in a sea of noise almost exclusively dominated by the 24-hour cable news cycle, perhaps unaware of what questions to even ask, let alone where to look, our present station finds us on the familiar yet long undisturbed grounds of our forbearers.

Americans today are questioning the answers like no time in recent memory. The floodgates of knowledge have burst open providing us the gift of distributed learning via wonderful institutions such as the Mises Foundation, which has its entire catalog available for the taking on iTunes university, free of charge. We the People are gathering under varied banners unified solely by dissatisfaction of government intrusion into all spheres of our lives.

The airwaves are humming with talks of finding Constitutional solutions to the present Crisis, such as the symposium being held by Mike Church in Washington tomorrow to discuss the possibility of a remedy at the hands of an Article V convention.

It makes me smile to know that despite the Central Authority’s best efforts to squeeze out dissent, the tighter they grasp, the more we awaken.

Long Live Liberty and let us raise a glass in celebration of the coming Second Age of Reason.

Allison Bricker

Essay No. 2

- A Response to My Friend Republicae from “Essays of the Revolution” and fellow member of the DailyPaul.

From my analysis, based upon multiple perspectives of historical research and subsequently merged harmoniously along with principal philosophies from the ‘Age of Enlightenment’ the Republic is not dormant; but was toppled long before the birth of the “lost” or 13th Generation. However make no mistake; the weight is borne with full impact by the 13th and all herein. As such, if we are to realign ourselves within the natural state of human liberty, it shall, as it always has, require a firm conviction by all who profess to favor Liberty to set about righting the glorious path which for so long has been allowed to drift astray.

Therefore, for the purposes of illustration and exchange let me offer a simplified time line of our history from which to begin:

Whilst it is doubtful the beginning of the simplified timeline would cause undue consternation to most, the justification for the transfer from Republic to Populist Democracy through to the present oligarchy will indeed make court historians of the state take umbrage at such an assertion. Therefore, let me make it plain, the timeline results from analysis that with passage of the “Trifecta” in 1913, the Central Authority, i.e. Washington D.C. was unchained from its Federalist restraints of carefully contrived Checks and Balances in its entirety, thus rendering the Republic as nothing more than an impotent sentimentality. Peering further in to the lecherous year of 1913 forebears witness to the key points of the dismantling, which leads us through to the present state of our disheveled Union:

• 16th Amendment (Collateralization of Americans and posterity, Feb. 3, 1913)
• 17th Amendment (Effectively removes states from any role/check on Federal Authority Apr. 8, 1913)
• FEDERAL RESERVE Act (Monopolization of monetary policy into hands of private bankers – Dec. 23, 1913)

All were principal in absolving the ship of state from its Constitutional moorings thereby allowing the Republic to begin listing in the kneejerk speculative inclinations of populist democracy, and thus resulting in a massive growth of central government. As history will illuminate, “democracy”, like the chaos of anarchy, is always a transitional period which results in the creation of a vacuum granting the means for miscreants and tyrants to further centralize power.

Further, with the end of Bretton Woods in 1971 and thus with the transition complete, the Central Banker Oligarchs gained total unchecked power over the nation; let the derivative financial schemes and nationalist neo-patriotism commence.

In conclusion, it is my view that if there is to be a restoration of the Republic in our lifetime we must accomplish the following for a peaceful transition:

1. End the 3rd Central Bank of the United States, i.e. FEDERAL RESERVE.
2. Repudiate Odious Debt created by FEDERAL RESERVE.
3. Repeal Income tax.
4. Restore State Check on the Central Authority’s power and simultaneously reintroduce the people to their representation amongst the several states by repealing the Direct Election of Senators.

May we see the Torch of Liberty Burn all the Brighter.

Your Friend in Liberty,

Allison Bricker

Allison Bricker

The “Change We Can Believe In” sure keeps looking like more of the same.

EDITORIAL – In the aftermath of the September 11th Attacks, the United States Congress hurriedly passed, without reading, and the President signed, the three hundred and forty-two page behemoth known as the USA PATRIOT ACT. Thereby legislatively gutting any remnant of our inherent right to privacy as outlined in the fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Politicians, such as Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) sought to calm the fears of civil libertarians by attaching a ‘sunset’ clause so as to require the act’s repeal unless extended by the congress.

Provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act first came up for review in 2005, a time in which the great color-guide of terror still readily flashed across television screens helping to keep the specter of terrorism at the forefront of the American psyche. Thus with the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq entering their fourth and second years respectively, coupled with the security provided by term-limits, the 43rd Executive, George W. Bush, upped the paranoia level with forecasts of bad ‘gut’ feelings and propagandized news headlines in order to further secure the central authority’s new “legalized” tools of tyranny.

At the conclusion of the tireless fear mongering, the USA PATRIOT Act’s sunset portion was extended until December of this year. Thus, with the act set to expire yet again, Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, who originally sought to counter worries over the act, opted to author S. 1629 the “USA PATRIOT Act Sunset Extension Act of 2009”, thereby pushing any hope of legitimate legislative relief out past 2013, conveniently also just beyond the 44th Executive, Barrack Obama’s reelection bid.

In addition, it is possible that the Congress may opt to deflect additional criticisms in whole by resorting to one of the most tired political maneuvers on the hill, renaming the PATRIOT Act entirely. One proposed alternative; “The JUSTICE Act”, extending even further a truly demented sense of irony embraced exclusively by the plutocratic oligarchs who delight in seemingly sex-like gratification by exerting control over the lives of others.

S. 1629 seeks to extend some of the most controversial of the act’s powers, among which are domestic warrantless wiretapping in conjunction with ‘National Security Letters’. The latter provides the ability to snoop through an individual’s home, bank, medical, and/or telephone records, ergo LIFE, without probable cause, notice, or permission. Once again, like ‘political manna from heaven’ old-media evening news headlines flash and proclaim the latest terrorist arrests, coincidentally providing a national pedestal for police-state plutocrats of ‘either’ party to claim a necessity in curtailing Constitutional restraints on the federal government in favor of catching vaguely defined ‘evildoers’.

More so, the reality of the matter is that with all the ballyhoo of “needing” these essential “tools” in order to win the ‘War on Terror’, the USA PATRIOT ACT has yielded few legitimate results. To the contrary, the powers granted to the Central Authority’s varied intelligence/police apparatuses have largely resulted in repeated and continued abuses of power.

Of the several hundred “sneak and peak” warrants executed under power decreed from the USA PATRIOT Act, only three were related at all to terrorism. The majority were used in investigations of illegal narcotics, to which, Assistant Attorney General David Kris, flippantly replied during testimony:

“I guess it’s not surprising to me that it applies in drug cases.”

David Kris
Assistant Attorney General
Department of Justice

Fellow readers, it is very alarming indeed that a piece of legislation sold and hence foisted upon us out of necessity in ‘combating terrorism’ elicits no surprise in its misapplication and utter violation of inherent liberties. Are we to now believe that the “War on Drugs” and “War on Terror” are one in the same; liberty be damned across the board?

This is just the latest example of the audacious and contemptuous behavior displayed by the wretches who clutch the reins of power. A power, which as expected and as we were warned, has like a cancer, spread throughout the seats of our government, and the American Republic.

Moreover, for those whom profess to cherish liberty, it must surely incite nausea to realize that many who were apprehended and branded as “persons of interest” or “terrorists” were quietly let go after the Central Authority failed to find any evidence of criminal activity; terrorism, drugs, or otherwise. Nevertheless, lives and reputations ruined wholly by mere suspicion/retribution by the state, i.e. Terrorism Theater.

It should also be noted that some of the innocent and unfortunate souls who fell victim to these wanton abuses of power were released with far less fanfare than the fist pumping “chicken-hawk”, tough on terror machismo displayed upon their capture. The ruined reputations viewed merely as “collateral damage” by a Central Authority who used the fallacious arrests like pawns in a chess match solely as a means to retain their pornographic lust of power over the common person.

It is most aptly apparent, that the representatives who inhabit the halls of our American government have failed to listen to our repeated injuries endured under such a repugnant “Act”. Let fall on deaf ear, our disdain over banker and auto manufacturer bailouts, continued torture through “Executive Order” vis-à-vis Rendition, and health care.

Instead, the banker beholden plutocrats attempt to label ‘We the People’ and our dissent as “un-American”, “Nazi”, “racist”. Let it be known that they shall disregard Liberty’s demands to repeal in its entirety, the USA PATRIOT Act at their own peril.

It may yet take actual Patriots to show these tyrants how to Act appropriately.

#DToM

Related Material(s)
	USA PATRIOT ACT, 2001 H.R. 3162 / P.L. 107-56 (PDF 377Kb) S.1692 – USA PATRIOT Act Sunset Extension Act of 2009 (PDF 239Kb)

Allison Bricker

Hearing Begins at 8:00 a.m. Central Time

RAYBURN HOUSE OFFICE BUILDING, DISTRICT of COLUMBIA – The House Financial Services Committee, Chairman Barney Frank presiding is hearing testimony regarding Representative Ron Paul of Texas’ bill, House Resolution 1207, “The FEDERAL RESERVE Transparency Act of 2009″

H.R. 1207 seeks to remove a key prohibition preventing the Government Accountability Office (GAO) from conducting a full comprehensive audit regarding the FEDERAL RESERVE’s international transactions with other central banks and foreign governments.

The FEDERAL RESERVE is a private central bank created in 1913 to oversee and manage the nation’s monetary policy. The American Republic has witnessed two previous central banking institutions in its history, both of which were abolished after wrecking havoc on the economy due to the inherent flaws of central economic planning.

H.R. 1207 currently enjoys a majority in the House of Representatives via co-sponsorship by 293 other House members. The companion bill in the Senate is S. 604

Allison Bricker

Rogue police officers have metastasized the once noble profession of peace officer into the cancerous front line of tyranny. This most pressing problem calls no region home as incidents of their repugnant brutality continue to escalate from coast-to-coast.¹ Shamefully, the issue of police brutality was largely ignored for decades when seemingly confined to the African-American community, as blacks were routinely stereotyped as drug-dealing gang-members. However, thanks to tireless efforts of grassroots groups and the advent of video-sharing sites, the problem has obviously reached critical mass and illustrates once again why stereotypes fail repeatedly to produce accurate descriptors of politically convenient “people groups”.

Fortunately, organizations such as “Oath Keepers” are seeking to reclaim their profession from their jackbooted counterparts.² Founded by Stewart Rhodes, a former U.S. Army paratrooper, the group’s mission statement is:

…a non-partisan association of currently serving military, veterans, peace officers, and firefighters who will fulfill the oath we swore to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, so help us God.

Oath Keepers
About Us

The linchpin to members of “Oath Keepers” is the public Declaration of Orders members will not obey. Unfortunately, and in spite of the excellent yet difficult work of organizations such as “Oath Keepers”, a seemingly never-ending stream of egregious deplorable actions by the cancerous rogues in law-enforcement are finding their ways to the headlines and video sharing sites throughout the burgeoning new-media. Incidents such as the harassment of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr and Cambridge police officer James Crowley³ acutely illustrate that it is less about race and more about the insidious belief system of “police-supremacy”. Whereby regardless of the law or an individual’s inherent liberties, rogue-police continually exhibit a severely demented “god complex” and feel their ego threatened even when the rogue officer is obviously in the wrong.

Additionally, citizens are no longer safe from rogue police thuggery when exercising their inalienable right to cover and report on actions of the state in their role as “citizen journalist”. The rogue officers routinely and illegally confiscate camera’s of citizen journalists⁴, erasing footage or attempting massive detainment of citizens who may or may not have recorded footage of their jackboot tactics via camera phones.

With the proliferation of the State’s surveillance apparatus, government’s agents of tyranny expect to pry into every facet of our lives will shielding their own treasonous actions against the people. Laughably, their wholly incorrect belief that we shall cower like sheep and obey their unlawful orders to cease filming their abhorrent actions as if ‘We the People’ are the ones guilty, must continue to be challenged at each and every opportunity.

Perhaps one of the most extreme examples of “rogue police gone wild” is the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) New Year’s Day execution of Oscar Grant. Mr. Grant⁵ was the victim of a fight which BART police were called to investigate. Several Bystanders quickly began recording the deteriorating situation on their cellular phones, never considering that their phones would record the execution of an unarmed subdued citizen. Tragically, the video shows how two rogue officers restrained Mr. Grant shoving his face into the Fruitvale station platform. Rogue Officer Johannes Mehserle then rises to his feet, draws his firearm, and fatally shoots Mr. Grant once in the back.

Most unfortunately however, as the hour-long video illustrates below, there is no shortage of rogue police activity. Moreover, search engines return pages of results of rogue cops tazering the elderly⁶, the injured⁷, the young⁸, and the mentally disabled⁹.

These actions must no longer be tolerated; we must demand the cancer of rogue officers be excised from the ranks of law-enforcement thereby restoring it to the honorable profession of peace officer, existing solely to serve the community. The sick masochistic inclinations of the rogue jackboots that violate basic inherent rights must be held to account, lest we allow their influence to further infect this Republic.

Source(s): ¹ USA Today “Police Brutality Cases on the Rise Since 9/11″ published 12/18/2007 by Kevin Johnson • ²Oath Keepers Website • ³Boston Globe, Boston.com “Harvard professor Gates arrested at Cambridge home” published 07/20/2009 by: Tracy Jan, Globe Staff • ⁴Motohome Diaries “Jone’s County Sheriff’s Department Falsely Arrest MHD Crew” published 05/15/2009 by Pete Eyer • ⁵ KTVU Channel 2 news, originally broadcast January 5, 2009 • ⁶NBC Affiliate KXAN Austin, Texas “Elderly Woman Shocked with Taser” Published : Tuesday, 09 Jun 2009, by: Shannon Wolfson • ⁷ Boiling Frogs 101 “The Largest gang in America” • ⁸ CBS Affiliate WCCO Minneapolis, Minnesota “Cops Use Taser on Boy, 15, at High School” published 02/08/2008 by (AP) • ⁹CBS Affiliate WKRG Mobile, Alabama “Deaf Man’s Family Disappointed” Published: Wed, August 12, 2009 filed by: Tiffany Craig

Allison Bricker

This past January, Mr. Gary Franchi of Restore the Republic and Freedom TV, inquired if I might be interested in becoming a regular columnist for Republic Magazine. My excited, albeit tongue-tied reply to him was emphatically yes-yes-yes. It struck me as a welcome opportunity to help spread the message of liberty and the Constitution in a medium more palatable to those still not sold on the notion that the internet is as revolutionary to the modern dissemination of information as the Gutenberg Press was in its day.

Thus with the would-be liberty movement demographic in mind and having written three separate articles, (two due out in June with the third coming in July), it seemed time to begin spreading the word in our little corner of the Republic; Lake County, Indiana, affectionately referred to as “da Region”

For the uninitiated, Lake County was once home to Jean Shepherd, the author and main protagonist of “A Christmas Story” as well as birthplace of “The Jackson Five”. However, these days all that remain are the hollowed out rusting skeletons of the once great steel mills. Miles upon endless miles of strip malls conjoined with fast food restaurants all nestled in between the crumbling downtowns of cities like Hammond, East Chicago, and Gary.

In contrast to the industrial and manufacturing carcass, politically speaking Lake County is as it has been for the last one-hundred years. Control of the county in large part cedes itself to the behemoth labor unions that in turn ensure the most corrupt ingrained political machine this side of Chicago city limits retains its power. The once proud labor pool still begrudgingly votes year after year for “Democrats” hoping that some how, some way, the Democrat Party will live up to its unofficial billing as “the party for the little guy”.

Much of the country came to know the embarrassment that is Lake County Politics, when on the evening of the 2008 Indiana Primary Election, the H2 Hummer driving, poverty-pimp Mayor of Gary, Rudy Clay squared off live on CNN against the “Dapper Dan” slicked hair, good-ole boy Mayor of Hammond, Thomas McDermott, regarding the obscenely late election returns.

As a consequence of the aforementioned, the bulk of the population has become so zealously cynical to politics as usual, that it in turn makes for a receptive audience. This at least in my opinion makes an ideal location to spread the message of Liberty and severely restricted Constitutional government. Let us be candidly plain, a great reshuffling is indeed on the horizon. Whether liberty beats back the stranglehold of ever-encroaching tyranny is as of yet undecided, but this merely indicates to me that we must reaffirm our duty and dedication as protectors of this; the greatest experiment in human liberty the world has ever known.

As so eloquently written in a quote attributed to Mr. Samuel Adams:

With the sentiment of Mr. Adams in mind, it occurred to me that perhaps I might do my part in setting these “brush fires” by contacting small businesses in the area to see if they would be interested in carrying “Republic Magazine” on their newsstands. Thus, upon their arrival, I loaded up our little car, quickly stopped off at Dunkin’ Donuts for my beverage of choice regardless of weather: coffee, and began my enjoyable/educational trek up, down, and across Lake County, Indiana.

As suspected, the smoke shops, natural heath stores, the firearms dealer whom we just purchased a shotgun from a few months back, as well as several mom and pop convenience stores all agreed to take the magazines on consignment. By the time it came to stop soliciting business and instead switch to free distributive promotion by handing out copies to doctor’s offices and some of the small town taverns, my spiel in support of Liberty and the Constitution verbalized itself effortlessly.

However, I was immediately dumbstruck when not once, twice, but three times in response to me expounding that the magazine is “Pro-Liberty” and “Pro-Constitution” the business owner immediately, tersely, and without pause responded, “Yeah, but I am a Democrat”.

The obvious question, which then springs to mind is, so does that mean you are “anti-Liberty” and “anti-Constituion”? However, not wishing to sidetrack myself from the task at hand, I simply thanked them for their time and continued on my way. It struck me as odd, having grown up in a Democrat household, that the reaction to the words Constitution and liberty would be “Yeah, but I’m a Democrat.”

My mother considered herself a Democrat. She was an avid fan of John F. Kennedy, a hippie who thought the drug war was ludicrous, and someone who helped define the original definition of the word liberal to me as one who has an open mind. At one time up until just after President Clinton was elected, I even considered myself a Democrat. We certainly were not rich; our family was that typical Lake County, blue-collar working-class family, i.e. the Democrat Party Poster family.

Indeed, our family continues to have some extraordinary friends who still call themselves Democrats. Yet none has flummoxed me with such a guttural knee jerk reaction to the word liberty or Constitution. The difference at least in my mind; all of our Democrat friends belong to the “Boomer” generation, not “Generation Me” or “Gen X”. Thus, the reaction elicited by these “neo-liberals” is the unfortunate symptom of a deeper more engrained polarization from that which my parent’s generation grew up.

In the end, my experience advocating the virtues of liberty, illuminated two keen points. Overall, the message of liberty continues to receive a wider and growing audience, and that as the purposeful polarization of the left/right paradigm continues, their minions will most likely, as ironic as it may seem, join in support of a common enemy: Those of us who seek to rebind the hands of government back unto Constitutional restrictions.

Whether it is regarding foreign policy and the doctrine of preemptive war or the fascist corporatization of our economy, it is clear that the Constitution is seen solely as an obstruction to the tyrant’s utopian fairytale.

Joseph Marohl

In high school and college, I felt loyalty to my schools’ teams only when I personally knew one or more of the players. I’m amazed when, at about this time of year, I see friends and acquaintances around these parts, decades out of school, get apoplectic about NC State, Duke, or UNC basketball. With some people, I’d be risking bodily harm even to voice this concern to their faces.

It’s basically all in fun, I know that, a way to vent, to aerobicize one’s loyalties and group identifications. To some extent, I wish I could join in on the fun. Really, I do. But another part of me remains not just disinterested but distrustful—as if, as Noam Chomsky suggested, such sideline enthusiasm for team sports is just indoctrination in the herd mentality, group-think brainwashing, and conditioning to respond favorably to jingoism.

I might go a little further—and say such concerns can be distractions from the business of a democratic republic. As the Roman satirist Juvenal so famously put it—with heaps of irony: “Now that no one buys our votes, the public has long since cast off its cares; the people that once bestowed commands, consul-ships, legions and all else, now meddles no more and longs eagerly for just two things—Bread and Games!” (Satire 10, trans. G.G. Ramsay, 1918)

Or, to modernize, Doritos® and NCAA®!

Arguments about ideas, especially ideas that strike me as important and about which I’m curious—such as religion, culture, the state of the world, or politics—are very worthwhile. I thrive on reasonably heated (but mostly reasonable) discussions.

Another thing (but related): I’m not a good partisan. I’m really just not much of a joiner at all—sometimes just clicking a “send” icon to rally with Moveon.org is more than I’m prepared to commit to. I’m sorry if this offends—and I assure you I’m anything but wishy-washy—and I abhor unthinking relativism and the “paralysis of analysis.”

Still, I do not have a mindset compelled to bend every new found fact to a pre-existing ideology. I try not to be a knee-jerk liberal or a knee-jerk anything. I do not feel bound to bottom lines, constitutions, creeds, manifestos, or scriptures. I haven’t decided yet whether this deficiency makes me more or less a person of integrity.

In breaking his ties to an anarchist organization, William Morris, the Victorian artist and socialist, wrote, “Men absorbed in a movement are apt to surround themselves with a kind of artificial atmosphere which distorts the proportions of things outside, and prevents them from seeing what is really going on.”

I stopped being a “true believer” of any sort by age 29. Though I am registered to vote as a member of the Democratic Party and happily voted for Obama last November, my mind is more dialectic than partisan, so I’m more a small-letter politico—democrat, republican, anarchist, radical, socialist, libertarian—which is to say “not actually a politico at all.”

I like to challenge (rather than to confirm) my ideals, principally by taking frequent long, hard looks at reality and seeking challenging input from knowledgeable people with varying values, interests, and affiliations.

It’s good to resist whatever conditioning one’s had to take sides automatically, without checking each position by the facts, without mulling the facts over. No doubt it makes life more difficult and sometimes more lonely not knowing what colors to wear, to have to wait to see who plays the better game before deciding whom to cheer. And sometimes I take shortcuts, but always with a sense of bad faith and guilt. (And, by the way, letting distrust corrode into cynicism is the worst kind of shortcut.)

Distrust of certainty, cant, and jingoism is healthy. Can you really respect anyone whose whole philosophy, whose whole politics, whose whole values, fit on an 11×3-inch bumper sticker?

Russell Means

(Original Video Blog) As we all sit awestruck in front of the television, the computer, or the newspaper, Mr. Means offers us a solution to the current Global calamity. In his own beautifully articulated words, Mr. Means, explains both how the World got into this mess and how we can move back towards sanity and wholeness. We must, as he says, return to Matriarchy, a balance, respectful way of life where we celebrate our differences, rather than stifle, or even, destroy them.

Allison Bricker

NOTE: This is the first part in a 4 part series. Your questions and commentary are both welcomed and appreciated.

• Part 1 – How to Save the Republic
• Part 2 – Abolish the Income Tax
• Part 3 – Repeal the Direct Election of Senators
• Part 4 – Similarities Between the Great Depression and Our Current Crisis

Albert Einstein once quipped that the definition of ‘insanity’ is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. This then begs the question; why do so many of our fellow citizens think government intervention into our economy will stave off the coming economic depression? We need only look back to the last group of supreme central planners, ergo Herbert Hoover and Franklin Delano Roosevelt & Company to see that government intervention/interference is both the root cause and sustaining force of large economic recessions and depressions.¹

It is imperative that we look to the not so distant past, educate ourselves to the actual history, and begin a candid discussion of the facts with our friends, neighbors, and fellow citizens. If we fail or refuse this effort, it is my analysis that the consequences which will reveal themselves in short, will be more disastrous than those of the 1930′s. However, where some predict and hope for the fracturing of our union, I see opportunity, regardless of the pending collapse or fracturing. It is my fervent belief that there are many amongst us who will not stand idly by and watch the greatest experiment in human liberty perish from this Earth.

While it most certainly will be an uphill battle, success in our endeavor will secure the blessing of debt free liberty to ourselves and our posterity. Furthermore, the path to reclaiming our Republic from the jaws of the central planners is illuminated before us; if we only take the time to look upon the lessons of history. It is my estimation that three crucial steps are needed in order to right the course of the Republic back onto its Constitutional governance and towards the path of a “more perfect Union”.

The first among these three steps is to seek the complete abolition of the 3rd Central Bank of the United States, better known as the FEDERAL RESERVE. Moreover, we must seek an amendment to our federal Constitution which prohibits the establishment of any future central banking schemes and requires the federal government only produce sound money backed either by silver, gold, or platinum; produced solely by the United States Department of the Treasury.

It is important to note that the three steps will not happen in rapid succession, as it would be naive to entertain such a notion. Instead, with each corrective action we will gain both time as well as more stability in which to continue the restoration of the Republic. It is inevitable that this deleveraging and short run into the FEDERAL RESERVE NOTE Dollar will cease. The FEDERAL RESERVE whether it knows it or not has sealed its fate, a “poison pill” due to its ability to print an endless supply of FEDERAL RESERVE NOTES. There is a reason that every “fiat” currency throughout history has collapsed onto itself.² Thus, it is my analysis that by the Spring of 2009, hyper-inflation will begin to set in and this will allow for the movement to abolish the FEDERAL RESERVE to begin in earnest.

In addition to abolishing the FEDERAL RESERVE and preventing a subsequent reincarnation, we will also examine why we need to repeal the 16th amendment, Income Tax, and the 17th Amendment, The Direct Election of Senators, steps two and three respectively. Finally, this series of posts will conclude with an examination of the parallels of government interference during the Great Depression, and our current economic crisis.

It is my hope that readers of this post will ask questions via the comment section, on their blogs, forums, etcetera. Through an honest and open dialog whereby the free exchange of ideas can take place, we just as those who came before us will see our Republic safely to the other side of this crisis.

Long Live the American Republic!

Source(s): ¹FDR’s Folly – How Roosevelt and His New Deal Prolonged the Great Depression • ² The Financial Organization of Society, by Harold Glenn Moulton-1925, pg93, University of Chicago Press

Allison Bricker

Preface: During my innumerable hours spent reading about our Founding Fathers, it was specifically commented by noted historian, Doris Kearns Goodwin, that the Founders felt the real power of the Declaration of Independence emanated not from the opening thesis on the inherent rights for all of humanity, but the long list of injuries contained within the second portion of the document; which they felt as the intellectual justifications for separation. Thus while many are familiar with the “When in the Course of Human Events” and “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness” lines from the opening of the “Declaration of Independence”, few except the major nerds such as myself, have read over the Founding Father’s precisely articulated reasoning for declaring independence from Great Britain.

As such, it occurred to me a few years prior to try and make a video contrasting the reasons stated on July 4th, 1776, with the tumult of our own times. After somewhat gaining the skill set needed to produce a video using today’s video-editing software, my quest in contrast began this past Independence Day whilst conflicted and saddened over the state of our Republic. Unfortunately, the project languished with me suffering a creative block. However, with the publishing of our article reporting on an Army Brigade being activated stateside for their mission of being a “domestic on-call response team”,the aforementioned creative block quickly vanished.

During the past 6 days I immersed myself wholly into completing this project to the detriment of my posting amongst several other areas. Fortunately my fellow contributors more than covered my butt with their eloquent commentary and reporting. I would just like to say thank you both to my partner for putting up with my indulgence and our contributors, I truly appreciate all you do for “The Smoking Argus”.

In closing, my little project finished processing this morning at 5:56 am. I hope you like my first attempt at a video editorial and look forward to any and all feed back. – Alli