Friends of Liberty

WHAT WOULD JEFFERSON DO?

By Roderick T. Beaman
May 13, 2008

In The Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson wrote, “...Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed...” The American War for Independence had just begun a little more 14 ½ months before he wrote that.

That excerpt is telling and each word and phrase should be contemplated. It’s obvious that Jefferson wants the reader to know that the action of that Congress was not a rash one, arrived at in the heat of the moment. No, the colonies had endured a host of abuses and could endure them no longer.

Jefferson also, tellingly, observes that people tend to bear the indignities that are heaped upon them. It is an observation of human behavior that rings true today from that great hall in Philadelphia down our history to us today. It is obvious that the abuses of our American government and our state capitals far outstrip any were being heaped upon us by King George III.

One of the reasons for the colonists’ consternation was that he had imposed taxes without their consent. Patrick Henry had thundered, in a phrase that has rung through the centuries since, “Taxation without representation is tyranny.” The most recent imposition had just raised the total tax burden on the colonies to an intolerable estimated three percent of the gross domestic product of the colonies! Can you imagine?

Jefferson then states that “...when a long train of abuses and usurpations, (continue)...to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.” With this paragraph, he leaves no doubt that citizens must, not just may but MUST, throw off the offending government.

The context of the time should be recalled when considering Jefferson’s rhetoric. A war for secession had begun fifteen months earlier and the outcome was far from assured. It would continue until the defeat of Cornwallis at Yorktown in October, 1781. In total, the hostilities lasted 6 1/2 years and even then the peace treaty wouldn’t be finalized for another eight years.

Although the Continental Armies had held their own at Bunker Hill and Moore’s Creek, the British were not just folding their tents and going home. America was a crown jewel in an empire that would eventually encircle the globe, giving rise to the saying that the sun never sets on British soil. A victory by the American forces at Charleston, South Carolina on June 28 may not have even been known by those delegates to that Second Continental Congress in July of 1776. The British would score some impressive victories before that ultimate defeat.

There can be no doubt that Thomas Jefferson and the delegates understood that they were justifying their decision to leave the governance of The British Crown. There can also be no doubt that Jefferson believed and the others probably did as well that all human beings were compelled to overthrow any similar offending government that might arise for all eternity. Further, there can be no doubt that they considered the possibility that such an offending government would arise here. This is the only possible conclusion...

Ron Paul's forces quietly plot GOP convention revolt against McCain

by Andrew Malcolm
Los Angeles Times
May 12, 2008

Virtually all the nation's political attention in recent weeks has focused on the compelling state-by-state presidential nomination struggle between two Democrats and the potential for party-splitting strife over there.

But in the meantime, Rep. Ron Paul and his libertarian-minded GOP backers are collecting delegates at the local level and planning a revolt against Sen. John McCain at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul in September.

Paul's presidential candidacy has been correctly dismissed all along in terms of winning the nomination. He was even excluded as irrelevant by Fox News from a nationally-televised GOP debate in New Hampshire.

But what's been largely overlooked is Paul's candidacy as a reflection of a powerful lingering dissatisfaction with the Arizona senator among the party's most conservative conservatives. As anticipated a month ago in The Ticket, that situation could be exacerbated by today's expected announcement from former Republican Rep. Bob Barr of Georgia for the Libertarian Party's presidential nod, a slot held by Paul in 1988.

Nevermind Ralph Nader, Republican and Democratic parties both face....

...potentially damaging internal splits that could cripple their chances for victory in a narrow vote on Nov. 4.

Just take a look at recent Republican primary results, largely overlooked because McCain locked up the necessary 1,191 delegates long ago. In Indiana, McCain got 77% of the recent Republican primary vote, Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney, who've each long ago quit and endorsed McCain, still got 10% and 5% respectively, while Paul took 8%.

On the same May 6 in North Carolina, McCain received less than three-quarters of Republican votes (74%), while Huckabee got 12%, Paul 7% and Alan Keyes and No Preference took a total of 7%.

Pennsylvania was even slightly worse for the GOP's presumptive nominee, who got only 73% to a combined 27% for Paul (16%) and Huckabee (11%)...

Bush Business Donors Shunning McCain for Democratic Candidates

By Jonathan D. Salant

May 9 (Bloomberg) -- Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, is struggling to attract money from some of the same industries that helped bankroll President George W. Bush's record-setting fundraising.

Employees from the securities, construction, pharmaceutical and energy industries, who accounted for about a tenth of Bush's money in 2004, are turned off by his record and giving more to his Democratic rivals, Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

``A significant percentage of your base Republican support, whether financial or otherwise, are not fans of McCain because of various things he's done or said or sponsored,'' said Republican consultant Eddie Mahe, who is supporting the Arizona senator. ``Many of them don't see Mr. McCain as being a lot better'' than the Democrats.

Obama and Clinton each raised close to $11 million from the four industries through the end of March, compared with $6 million for McCain. In 2004, Bush raised three times more money from those sources than Senator John Kerry, the Democratic nominee that year.

The political action committee of the American Road and Transportation Builders, the Washington-based trade group for such companies as Caterpillar Inc., contributed the maximum $5,000 to Bush's presidential campaign in both 2000 and 2004. McCain has gotten nothing....

Write in Ron Paul or vote for Bob Barr or Chuck Baldwin

Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy warned America
about the Military Industrial Complex and Secret Societies

Why You Need to Meet the REAL John McCain

by Gary Franchi
Thursday, 01 May 2008
(A message from Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt, Sr. Policy Advisor, U.S. Dept. of Education during the Reagan Administration) As a delegate to our state convention this coming weekend we have a solemn obligation to know the truth about the man who has been anointed the “presumptive nominee” of our party. Our job is not to be a rubber stamp for anyone else’s agenda, no matter how “nobly” the cause is presented. The Republican establishment in Maine is counting on us not having the documented information on this sheet. It is counting on our willingness to be told what to think in the same way that the mainstream media has been telling us what to think throughout this entire election cycle. We are expected to suspend any other concerns we may have in the name of “party unity.” The truth is that a patriot who loves his country makes it an ultimate priority to be well-educated about the decisions he or she must make. Unless we have come to understand how dominated by the leftist military-industrial complex America’s major media has become, and done some research, we are not prepared to do our duty at the convention. This letter, supported by many delegates to the Republican Convention, is literally about saving the party and the nation from a maniacal neoconservative war monger, who supports a United States presence in Iraq for 100 years, and who is not really even a Republican! “War hero” image is a media creation not supported by the facts McCain graduated 894th of the 899 cadets in his class at the Naval Academy. Google it. Why would we want someone who was a failure and took his responsibilities so flippantly as our commander-in-chief? McCain was an irresponsible pilot who crashed 6 planes, and started a major fire on an aircraft carrier through negligent action. Why would we want someone this reckless in the most-important office on the planet? McCain collaborated with the enemy, was given “soft” treatment because his father was an admiral, and is known as “Songbird McCain” by those who were imprisoned with him. (http://vietnamveteransagainstmccain.com) He is the MIA/POW family’s worst enemy for his constant attempts to belittle their concerns and stifle their inquiries while serving in the Senate. McCain ditched his ill wife to marry an heiress when he returned from Vietnam. Is this the type of morality we Republicans condone? Is this type of heinous lack of loyalty we want in a President? He also has a track record of shocking verbal abuse, including screaming profanities against his Senate Republican colleagues. Senator Thad Cochran, MS, says “The thought of his being President sends a cold chill down my spine.” Other Senators relate times when McCain screamed four-letter obscenities right in their faces in the Senate cloak room, like Dick Shelby, Rick Santorum or Jim Imhofe. “The man is unhinged,” one senator said. “He is frighteningly unfit to be commander-in-chief.” The truth is, John McCain is not even a Republican. He is a phony stalking horse who is a liberal in disguise. He not only can’t win this fall because he is so out of step with the majority of Americans and with the principled stands of Republicanism, but if we support this person for our nominee, he will likely destroy our party. Consider: He was intimately involved in the “Keating 5” Savings & Loan scandal. He has been endorsed by the liberal/leftist New York Times. He is a big advocate of the extreme “green” global warming scare, and the economically horrific “solutions” being proposed by people like Al Gore. He has promoted illegal amnesty for millions of illegal aliens. His McCain-Feingold Bill has destroyed much of the rights of people to take part in the political process the way they see fit. This bill remains un-Constitutional and a major affront to the First Amendment protections on the right of free speech. He is a big-time gun grabber who is an extreme advocate of restrictions on 2nd Amendment rights. He opposes repeal of Roe v. Wade, and opposes a Constitutional amendment to protect all life. He is no fiscal conservative, and he supports raising taxes on Social Security benefits. He continues his aggressive support for the Iraq War, which costs the U.S. taxpayer $12 billion a month, even though only 34% of Americans support the war. (According to Paul Craig Roberts, Asst. Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan Administration, and vocal opponent of the Iraq War: 4,538 Americans have died in the war, 29,780 have been wounded, 300,000 soldiers are suffering from major depression, and 320,000 received brain injuries, all as a result of this unconstitutional and immoral war.)...

Congressman Sonny Bono Murdered: Says ex-FBI Special Agent-in-Charge

Will the Right Sit McCain Race Out?

by Patrick J. Buchanan
April 28, 2008

If John McCain wins the presidency, his comeback—after the bankrupt debacle his campaign had become in the summer of 2007 with his backing of the amnesty bill—will be the stuff of legend.

And as nominee, he is entitled to conduct his own campaign and be cut slack by a party whose brand name is now Enron.

That said, McCain seems to have decided to win by love-bombing the Big Media and putting miles between himself and the base.

Consider his "Forgotten Places" tour of last week.

It began in Selma, Ala., where McCain went to Edmund Pettis Bridge to hail John Lewis and the marchers night-sticked and hosed down by the Alabama State Troopers on the Montgomery march for voting rights.

Now that was a seminal movement in the fight for civil rights.

But this is not 1965. Today, John Lewis is a big dog in the "No-Whites-Need-Apply!" Black Caucus. The Rev. Jeremiah Wright is sermonizing White America. The Rev. Al Sharpton is trying to shut down the Big Apple. And the fight for equal rights is being led by Ward Connerly.

With no help from McCain, Connerly is trying to put on five state ballots a Civil Rights Initiative that declares white men are also equal and not to be denied their civil rights because of the color of their skin.

And where does McCain stand?

From Selma, McCain went to the Gee's Bend Quilters Collective, where black ladies make the famous blankets. The stop could not but call to mind the hundreds of thousands of textile and apparel jobs in the Carolinas and Georgia lost after NAFTA and Most-Favored Nation for China, both of which McCain enthusiastically supported.

McCain's next stop was Inez, Ky., where LBJ declared war on poverty. But LBJ's war was a politically motivated scheme to shift wealth and power to government, which led to a pathological dependency among America's poor, his own abdication and Ronald Reagan's 1980 campaign against Big Government that ushered in the Conservative Decade...

John McCain is Bitter and He Clings to Menacing & Assaulting People

by Delaware Watch Blog
April 21, 2008

Increasingly, Senator John McMad, the presumptive GOP candidate for President, is being exposed as a pathologically angry person unfit to be in the Senate much less serve as President of the United States. Therefore, any poll results now showing McCain running neck and neck with Obama and Clinton can be dismissed as irrelevant. The media has yet to turn their attention with any serious and prolonged scrutiny to Sen. McNasty’s record of menacing and assaultive behavior. Besides, they have been diverted weightier issues of presidential qualifications and suitability like Barack Obama’s lapel pins (or lack thereof) and his use of words like “bitter” and “cling.”

But when they do eventually discover a thriving market of Americans sensibly concerned about the prospect of a pathologically angry man becoming the President, they will have no end of evidence and witnesses, some within the ranks of the GOP. At a minimum the frightening quality of the TV commercials about McCain this Autumn could easily rival the Willie Horton ads George H.W. Bush ran against Gov. Michael Dukakis. They will probably be more frightening because in this case Willie Horton will be the GOP candidate for President himself, John McCain. The commercials will perform an important public service.

Let’s examine some of the trends in John McCain’s non-official rap sheet.

John McCain Intimidates and Demeans Women

As I have written before, I fully expect female supporters of Hillary Clinton to support Barack Obama after he captures the nomination for the Democratic Party. I cannot imagine how anyone with a conscience could possibly support a misogynistic verbal batterer like John McCain.

It is already known:

He once publicly referred to his wife as a “trollop” and a “cunt”

He said Chelsea Clinton was ugly because Janet Reno was her father (a trifecta of insult implicitly trading on the right-wing libel that Hillary Clinton is a lesbian)

He intimidated a female reporter on his campaign airplane when asked about his account of being asked to serve as Sen. John Kerry’s running mate in 2004

But there is more just revealed thanks to the Washington Post:

In 1994, McCain tried to stop a primary challenge to the state's Republican governor, J. Fife Symington III, by telephoning his opponent, Barbara Barrett, the well-heeled spouse of a telecommunications executive, and warning of unspecified "consequences" should she reject his advice to drop out of the race. Barrett stayed in. At that year's state Republican convention, McCain confronted Sandra Dowling, the Maricopa County school superintendent and, according to witnesses, angrily accused her of helping to persuade Barrett to enter the race.
"You better get [Barrett] out or I'll destroy you," a witness claims that McCain shouted at her. Dowling responded that if McCain couldn't respect her right to support whomever she chose, that he "should get the hell out of the Senate." McCain shouted an obscenity at her, and Dowling howled one back.

But John McCain is a war hero. We shouldn’t let his verbal battery of women dissuade us about his manliness and bravery.

John McCain Holds Grudges and Seeks Revenge

McCain strategist and co-author of five McCain books, Mark Salter, rationalizes McCain’s galloping fury:

"If he feels a challenge to his integrity, then he'll say something," Salter said. "If he thinks you betrayed him . . . he'll tell you, he'll be angry. . . . But he's also exceedingly forgiving."

The ruffian forgives the victim. How comforting. How co-dependent and enabling of Salter to say so.

But it seems that John McCain doesn’t always forgive immediately. In fact he can hold grudges for years, ones that fester and impel him to pounce and seek revenge at opportune moments:

During the early 1990s, McCain telephoned the office of Tom Freestone, a governmental official little known outside Arizona's Maricopa County. McCain had an unusual request. He wanted Freestone, then chairman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, to reject a job applicant named Karen S. Johnson, whose last governmental position had been in the office of a former Arizona governor and who had just interviewed for a position as an aide in Freestone's office.

A few years earlier, he had an angry exchange with her while she was the secretary for Republican Arizona Gov. Evan Meacham, who was impeached and forced out of office for campaign finance violations.

This wasn't an isolated incident. It appears to be part of a pattern:

During roughly the same period, McCain requested the firing of an aide to Arizona's senior U.S. senator, Dennis DeConcini, according to two top figures in DeConcini's office.

The aide, a veterans affairs expert named Judy Leiby, first ran into problems with McCain in the late '80s, when she sought to correct what she regarded as a McCain misstatement about DeConcini's record on a veterans issue. She was attending a Phoenix meeting between McCain and some veterans when she rebutted a McCain assertion that DeConcini, a Democrat, favored a bill that included a cut of some veterans benefits. "That is incorrect," Leiby said, detailing the specifics of DeConcini's position as McCain listened stonily.

Sometime afterward, McCain called DeConcini and asked that he dismiss Leiby, insisting to the senator that his aide had become a toxic, partisan figure.

It shouldn’t be overlooked that both Johnson and Leiby are women.

Women can be the subjects of McCain’s grudges revenge and so can the young:

[In 1982] Arizona Republican Party held its Election Night celebration for all its candidates at a Phoenix hotel, where the triumphant basked in the cheers of their supporters and delivered victory statements on television.

After McCain finished his speech, he returned to a suite in the hotel, sat down in front of a TV and viewed a replay of his remarks, angry to discover that the speaking platform had not been erected high enough for television cameras to capture all of his face -- he seemed to have been cut off somewhere between his nose and mouth.

A platform that had been adequate for taller candidates had not taken into account the needs of the 5-foot-9 McCain, who left the suite and went looking for a man in his early 20s named Robert Wexler, the head of Arizona's Young Republicans, which had helped make arrangements for the evening's celebration. Confronting Wexler in a hotel ballroom, McCain exploded, according to witnesses who included Jon Hinz, then executive director of the Arizona Republican Party. McCain jabbed an index finger in Wexler's chest.

"I told you we needed a stage," he screamed, according to Hinz. "You incompetent little [expletive]. When I tell you to do something, you do it."

But when, as a toddler, John McCain wasn’t holding his breath and fainting “during moments of fury,” later, as he grew older, he moved around to various military bases because his father was an admiral in the Navy collecting stars. It gave him a “chip on [his] shoulder,” he recalled recently.

Therefore, he’s entitled to menace people now because childhood trauma is always seen as a valid explanation by Republicans for anti-social behavior.

No One is Spared John McCain’s Wrath

The list of victims on John McCain’s unofficial rap sheet is impressive for it admits no class or partisan distinctions. He is an equal opportunity thug. His victims include:

Sen. Charles Grassley
Sen. Bob Smith
Sen. John Cornyn
Sen. Richard Shelby
Sen. Thad Cochran
Sen. Ted Kennedy
Rep. Robert Torricelli
Navy Secretary John Dalton
Sen. Pete Domenici
Sen. Strom Thurmond
Rep. Rick Renzi

It’s a chore keeping up with all of them, so I’ve probably overlooked other victims and as with most serial abusers, there are probably more victims we will never hear about...

Seeking Past Volunteers!: Be All That You Can Be! Etc.

Could Bob Barr�s Run as Libertarian Doom McCain?

by NewsMax.com
April 20, 2008

Former Republican Rep. Bob Barr is seen as the Libertarian Party’s most likely presidential candidate — and he could wind up torpedoing John McCain’s White House hopes.

“Given the recent fundraising prowess of a kindred spirit — Ron Paul's campaign for the Republican nomination siphoned up $35 million, mostly off the Internet — libertarians are feeling their oats,” political analyst George F. Will writes in Newsweek.

“Come November, Barr conceivably could be to John McCain what Ralph Nader was to Al Gore in 2000 — ruinous.”

Nader was a weak third-party candidate and won only 2,882,955 popular votes nationwide, but 97,488 of them were in Florida — where, because of Nader, George W. Bush won by 537 votes, Will notes.

Shane Cory, the Libertarian Party's executive director, “thinks his party is upwardly mobile,” Will writes.

“In 2004, its presidential candidate received just 397,265 votes, a mere .32 percent of the national popular vote…

“But in no state was the Libertarian vote larger than the winning candidate's margin of victory. This year, however, Cory thinks the party can far surpass its best national performance — 921,299 votes in 1980.”

Cory and Barr say the party almost certainly will be on the ballot in at least 48 states.

Republican consultant Craig Shirley recently wrote: “This Libertarian thing may be bigger than anyone is foreseeing right now.”

Barr left the GOP in 2006 over what he called bloated spending and civil liberties intrusions by the Bush administration.

A former U.S. attorney in Atlanta, Barr served eight years as a Republican congressman from Georgia before losing his seat in 2002 after a redistricting...