Hawaii Liberty Chronicles

O come, O come, Emmanuel

O come, O come, Emmanuel and ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lowly exile here
Until the Son of God appear
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, O come, Thou Lord of might,
Who to Thy tribes, on Sinai’s height,
In ancient times did’st give the Law,
In cloud, and majesty and awe.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan’s tyranny
From depths of Hell Thy people save
And give them victory o’er the grave
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Day-Spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Key of David, come,
And open wide our heavenly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

This revolution will be one of decentralization and some form of operational secession. I don’t think states are actually going to break away from the union. I believe that the governors and mayors are not going to bother to get Federal grants, because the money is either not available or won’t buy anything. When we get to that stage, we will be prepared for a new period of liberty. That day is coming. The government has shot his wad, and the Federal Reserve, in shooting whatever wad it has left, is going to debase the currency.

~ Gary North, from “Digits and Revolution”

John Carroll

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Media Contacts:

Barbara Hester – PR Coordinator  (808) 384-5907

Gayle Gardner – Campaign Chairman (808) 595-7127

Alice Paet-Ah Sing - Campaign Director (808) 542-2902

John Carroll – Candidate (808) 526-9111 (808) 545-3800 fax

Gubernatorial Candidate, John Carroll, Former State Senator and Former Chair of the Republican Party of Hawai‘i, announced today that he and Honolulu attorney Christopher Dias have filed a precedent setting law suit.  The suit requests for injunctive relief from the United States Government, relief from the provisions of the Jones Act, which created shipping restrictions that adversely apply to only one State in the Union; the island State of Hawai`i.  Carroll stated that the restrictions are excessively expensive for Hawai`i’s people and are in violation of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments as well as the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

Carroll stated that he had originally intended to instruct his Attorney General to file a class action on behalf of the people of the State of Hawai`i when he took office as Governor.  He now states he sees no reason to delay.  Carroll believes in getting things done.  Carroll explained,  “One of the purposes of enacting the Jones Act was to ensure that the United States of America would be well equipped with a maritime fleet that could compete in a worldwide economy.  Unfortunately, it created unconstitutional restrictions on commerce between the State of Hawai`i and worldwide shippers as well as on interstate commerce.”

Since Hawai`i is separated from the continental United States by 2,300 miles of ocean and, of course, has no highways, railroads or pipelines from the continental United States, Hawai`i is dependent on ocean shipping for at least 90 percent of every commodity used and consumed in the state.

The Impact of the Jones Act on the People of Hawai‘i

The Jones Act requires that for a ship to operate in interstate commerce, (between states), it must be built in America, owned by Americans, 75 percent manned by an American crew, and maintained and flagged in the United States.  The net effect of the enforcement of the Jones Act on the State of Hawai‘i’s population has been wide-ranging.

Examples:  The expense of agricultural production became prohibitive, not only because of the inbound shipping cost of fertilizers, herbicides, and farm implements but also due to the outbound shipping costs for our locally grown fruits, livestock and ornamental plants.  Hawai‘i cattle ranchers are faced with an intolerable situation.  They often have to transport their cattle, from Kawaihae to Vancouver B.C. on a Canadian owned Corral Lines to remain profitable.  The cattle must then be trucked (often for 500 miles)  into the U.S. to be fattened and sold.  To go direct, some are flown on Boeing 747 aircraft.

There has emerged a monopolistic control of shipping in and out of the State of Hawai‘i, eliminating the cost reduction benefits of competition.  As will be shown at trial, the cost of everything from automobiles to paper towels is significantly higher because of the enforcement of the Jones Act provisions.

By comparison, the tiny islands of Singapore and Hong Kong, which do not have similar trade restrictions and with less than 1/20^th the land mass of Hawai’i, enjoy a Gross Domestic Product in excess of two billion (2,000,000,000.00) U.S. dollars per year. That is 40 times greater than Hawai`i’s GDP of fifty million (50,000,000.00) U.S. dollars per year when government spending and tourism are excluded. This is an absurdity for Hawai‘i’s economic viability.

The Fundamental Purposes of the Commerce Clause

The fundamental purposes of the Commerce Clause of the US Constitution are, among others, “…to assure the unrestricted flow of commerce throughout the several states,” 282 NE2d 336,  “…to assure to the commercial enterprises in every state substantial equality to access to a free national market,” 517 P2d 691.  Further, the “…power granted is a positive power to legislate concerning transactions which, reaching across state boundaries, affect the people of more states than one, and to govern affairs which the individual states,with their limited territorial jurisdictions, are not fully capable of governing.” 322 US 533.  Clearly, the Jones Act and its provisions are in direct violation of the spirit of the Commerce Clause.

By Jeffrey Bingam Mead

It was the first Fourth of July since the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The name ‘Liberty House’ is well known to Hawaii’s old-timers and kama’ainas, a department store whose very name evoked one of America’s most cherished values. Those who opened up their editions of the Honolulu Advertiser on July 4, 1942 would have seen these words on Page 5:

“America: Resting securely upon the inalienable rights of man -upon the age-enduring foundations of Justice, Honor, Liberty, and Order; Cherishing ideals that inspire unselfish devotion to the common welfare of mankind; Fostering a spirit of self-reliant industry that seeks the just rewards of worthy achievement and usefulness; Progressing so swiftly that yesterday’s vision is overtaken by today’s realities; Aroused anew to meet the challenge defined by George Washington –that ‘the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican form of government may be entrusted to the hands of the American people.’”

In the same edition the Wing Sing Wo Company, Ltd., on North Hotel Street in Honolulu contributed both space and patriotic sentiments with these words, with our World War II soldiers in heart and mind:

“Keep the Flag Flying!” the ad declared. “We can, we will, we must.” –President Roosevelt
“Never before in all our glorious history was our flag in such dire peril. Nor was there ever a time when the Stars and Stripes flew so proudly over so many battle front in all the far corners of the world…more than ever, it is a symbol to millions of people in lands that tremble under the tread of the oppressor’s heel that freedom is still worth fighting for…worth dying for…worth paying for. True, all of us cannot take up arms in defense of the freedom for which “Old Glory” stands, but we can all rally around the Flag to help to buy the guns, tanks and planes our fighting men must have to win. We can all buy War Bonds and Stamps to the limit of our powers…one dime out of every dollar invested in War Bonds for freedom, for Victory!”

“Independence Day, 1942!” proclaimed another advertisement. “The spirits of Paul Revere –of Nathan Hale- of Washington and Lincoln- are marching with our farflung forces on this day, backing up the boys who are back of the guns. Their ideals are still our ideals –in the beginning we dedicated this country to a free people –throughout the years we have maintained it so- today, we are again battling to uphold our original conception. And we shall –in the end as in the beginning the United States will ever be a ‘land of the free and the home of the brave!’”

J.W. Howe was once quoted as saying, “Blessed is he who takes comfort in seed time and harvest, setting the warfare of life to the Hymn of the Seasons.” In a time in a young century when life for many seems overtaken by the “warfare of life,” its many stresses and worries Americans can find strength, virtue and even delight in pausing for just a day to celebrate on July 4, 2009 the 233rd birthday of the United States of America. Despite those worries there is much to applaud and consecrate.

Today’s national birthday marks yet again a tradition of commemorating the actualization of a set of concepts and values not confined to any one continent, nationality, race, ethnicity or group anywhere. Our Independence Day marks a milestone in humanity’s progress, providing an opportunity to recall what the Declaration of Independence was intended to do. Jefferson, the primary author of the Declaration, referred to this as “an expression of the American mind, and to give that expression the proper tone and spirit called for by the occasion.”

Our Declaration of Independence is a story whose supreme power and authority has been told, and retold throughout the centuries. It is a story that provides Americans and freedom-loving peoples everywhere a voyage into our collective past with a vision of a future that is ours to behold. Can we afford to forget the names of George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and scores of American revolutionaries who took up arms and resolve to defend freedom, liberty and thus change the course of history? Can we afford to forget such a hallowed mission for a nationality invented by its citizens “with a firm reliance upon the protection of Divine Providence” that culminated in the dream of a modern republic?

Our celebrations this day offers more than just the extravaganzas aroused and cultivated by fireworks along our island shores, bell-ringing from church steeples and at the Arizona Memorial, and cookouts under trees and in backyards among friends and families. The glorious traditions of America are deep in our hearts. Those traditions also bring responsibilities, burdens and duties –and a sacred trust recorded in a history all our own. For those things we pause, give thanks, and celebrate.

The William C. Nye was an American ship berthed in the placid waters of Honolulu’s harbor in early 1845. A lone sailor beheld the ship’s flag of the United States of America and composed a poem I have found particularly heartfelt and inspirational. I share it with you because I hope in the course of those screaming and colorful firework displays and barbeques –and in the course of current worries and cares- that you will pause and quietly ponder the immortal words this unknown sailor penned 164 years ago. Did he have us in mind? I’d like to think so.

I hope it stirs your heart as it does mine. Read it aloud, smile and say ‘God Bless America’:

The flag of our nation waves proudly on high,
Our magnificent streamers are sweeping the sky
And the proud bird of freedom now soaring afar,
Is illuminated by the radiance of liberty’s star.

On the bright azure vault in rich beauty above,
O’er our land it is floating, the land that we love,
O’er that land that our fathers long fought to secure,
Where the real fires of freedom burn brilliant and pure.

As that banner unfurled proudly kisses the skies,
So the nation in grandeur was destined to rise,
Till at length on the summit of glory we rest,
A vast nation of nobles, a world at the west.

By the strong bond of freedom, united we stand,
With our glory unsullied, immortal and grand.
While our name and our banner will ever convey,
To the realms of the earth our omnipotent sway.

But that sway is not despotic, our just laws are those,
Made for freemen’s protection from insolent foes;
Made to shelter the weak from the strong arm of spoil,
And secure to the laborer the fruit of his toil.

We do not wish for conquest, we strive not to gain
By our arms, or our gold, either island or main,
But we ardently hope that our “liberty tree,”
Long shall wave its broad boughs o’er the sons of the free.

From the masts of our barks as they roam o’er the waves,
From the hills that look down on our forefather’s graves,
From the temples of freedom that proudly aspire,
Like our own monarch bird, though far prouder and higher.

Now our stripes and our stars to the breezes are flung,
Though the bowstrings of war by our land are unstrung;
And ourselves, while our grandeur gleams proudly and far,
Rest secure in our homes, ‘neath our own natal star.

May this banner, now kissed by the breezes of heaven,
Float long o’er those shores, (by no despot e’re riven,)
Be the “signa” of freedom, and tyranny’s fall,
While united we stand, till divided we fall.

Jeffrey Bingam Mead is the Founder and President of the History Education Council of Hawaii.

Aloha Hawaii Liberty lovers:

This Saturday is our nation’s 233rd year since declaring independence from the crown’s tyranny. In the middle of your activities, I encourage you to make some time this weekend to read or re-read the Declaration of Independence. Maybe a gem of insight about courage or justice will speak to you as happens whenever I read it.

http://www.ushistory.org/Declaration/document/index.htm

Right now the Hawaii Campaign For Liberty’s legislative focus is putting pressure on Senator’s Inouye and Akaka to co-sponsor S604, the Senate companion to HR1207- Ron Paul’s Audit the Fed resolution that at last count has 245 co-sponsors.

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:S.604:

The best way to keep current, network and receive training is through the official Campaign For Liberty website.

http://www.campaignforliberty.com/usa/HI/

Once you’ve joined the Campaign For Liberty in Hawaii, be sure to CHECK BACK OFTEN, log in and check your messages, and return to the state page (as well as your district and county pages)–the site is a social networking site for liberty lovers, and will be the best way for us to share information with you–but YOU’VE got to sign in so that you can read it.

Please mark your calendars for our next C4L BBQ/Meeting on Sunday, August 2 @ the Moana Pacific. A detailed invitation will be posted soon.

On a final note, the results we want to see in our civil polity are always in conflict with our impatience, but history teaches us hope.

“What is true of the individual will be tomorrow true of the whole nation if individuals will but refuse to lose heart and hope.” -Mohandas Ghandi.

Dan Douglass

Kauai’s, “Ron Paul Hawaii Walker” and  “Ron Paul Rider” turned “Liberty Rider”, Michael Maresco on Fox’s Freedom Watch with Judge Andrew Napolitano.

Related:

http://www.hawaiilibertychronicles.com/?p=630

The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government — lest it come to dominate our lives and interests.

~ Patrick Henry

It seems to me that the nature of the ultimate revolution with which we are now faced is precisely this: That we are in process of developing a whole series of techniques which will enable the controlling oligarchy who have always existed and presumably will always exist to get people to love their servitude.

~ Aldous Huxley (1962, Speech at Berkley)

A non-violent revolution is not a program of seizure of power. It is a program of transformation of relationships, ending in a peaceful transfer of power.

~ Mohandas Ghandi, Non-violence in Peace and War (1948)

… we have bought into the soul-killing logic of the welfare state: somebody else is doing it for me.  I don’t need to give of myself, since a few scribbles on a tax form fulfill my responsibility toward my fellow man.  Do our responsibilities as human beings really extend no farther than this?

~ Ron Paul, The Revolution: A Manifesto (p.85)

Great main stream national media coverage on MSNBC.com of former Hawaii residents Will and Brooke Buchanan’s Walk for Liberty.

Prior HLC coverage:

http://www.hawaiilibertychronicles.com/?p=1755

http://www.hawaiilibertychronicles.com/?p=1418

By IOUSA The Movie

By now, you may have heard about our acclaimed documentary I.O.U.S.A., a film that boldly examines the rapidly growing national debt and its consequences for the United States and its citizens. The film has been a huge hit, getting rave reviews from Roger Ebert and others.

Now, we proudly release a 30-minute condensed version of I.O.U.S.A. designed specifically for watching and sharing on the web - for free.

So if you haven’t had a chance to see the movie yet, watch the condensed I.O.U.S.A. today. If you’ve already seen it in a theater, check out the abbreviated version for a refresher. Then, tell your friends, your family, your Facebook friends and your Twitter followers about the staggering amount of money - $53 trillion - in financial obligations owed by the federal government to foreign investors and to every single American in the form of pensions, health benefits, Social Security and Medicare.

Then, visit http://www.IOUSAtheMovie.com and join us in our Fiscal Wake-Up Movement. Together, we can make American fiscal responsibility a reality.

The Peter G. Peterson Foundation has teamed up with mtvU to create InDebtEd, a new campaign for college students that raises awareness about the dangers of personal and government debt and promotes action to help stop the fiscal crisis in the United States.

Applicants 18-28 years old, individually or in teams, must come up with a creative, original idea for a video game that addresses the nation’s fiscal crisis, with a $10,000 prize at stake.

To get more information, or to apply to the contest, go to http://indebted.mtvu.com/the-challenge. And if you’re not between the ages of 18-28, forward the site to a friend who is!

A revolution is coming — a revolution which will be peaceful if we are wise enough; compassionate if we care enough; successful if we are fortunate enough — But a revolution which is coming whether we will it or not. We can affect its character; we cannot alter its inevitability.

~ Robert Kennedy, US Senate Speech (9 May 1966)

When one gets in bed with government, one must expect the diseases it spreads.

~ Congressman Ron Paul M.D.

We’ve previously covered former Hawaii residents, Will & Brooke Buchanan, on their amazing freedom trek from Oregon to New York.  Here is their latest video piece as they approach their final destination of New Hampshire.

http://willbuchanan.com/blog/

http://walkforliberty.com/

By Reason.tv

Gisele Bundchen wears him on the runway, Johnny Depp wears him around his neck, and Benicio Del Toro becomes him in the new, highly acclaimed, two-part epic film from Steven Soderbergh, Che. Ernesto “Che” Guevara, the revolutionary who helped found communist Cuba, is the celebrity that celebrities adore. And be it Madonna, Rage Against the Machine, or Jay-Z, musicians really dig Che.

It’s something that baffles Cuban jazz legend Paquito D’Rivera. “Che hated artists, so how is it possible that artists still today support the image of Che Guevara?” Turns out the rebellious icon that emblazons countless T-shirts actually enforced aesthetic and political conformity. D’Rivera explains that Che and other Cuban authorities sought to ban rock and roll and jazz.

“Che was an inspiration for me,” D’Rivera tells reason.tv. “I thought I have to get out of this island as soon as I can, because I am in the wrong place at the wrong time!” D’Rivera did escape Cuba, and so far he’s won nine Grammy awards playing the kind of music Che tried to silence. But D’Rivera says Che’s crimes didn’t end with censorship. “He ordered the execution of many people with no trial.” Che served as Castro’s chief executioner, presiding over the infamous La Cabana prison. D’Rivera says Che’s policy of killing innocents earned him the nickname—the Butcher of La Cabana.

“We’re rightly horrified by fascist murderers like Adolph Hitler,” says reason.tv’s Nick Gillespie. “Why aren’t we also horrified by communist killers?” Certainly, Che’s body count isn’t anywhere near Hitler’s. But what about someone Che idolized, someone whom he might have liked to wear on his chest?

“Che, Castro, all the communist regimes idolized only one thing that Mao personifies—violence.” Kai Chen grew up in China under the reign of Mao Zedong. Although he won gold medals for China’s national basketball team, Chen’s was far from the celebrity life of an NBA star. Says Chen, “You have no right to talk, and you have no right to think.”

The punishment for questioning Mao’s authority was often death. The Black Book of Communism estimates that Mao is responsible for the deaths of 65 million people—a figure that dwarfs even Hitler’s body count. “Mao is a murderer,” says Chen. “The biggest mass murderer in human history.”

And yet, like Che, Mao’s image is becoming an increasingly popular way to move merchandise. You can buy Mao t-shirts, mugs, caps—you name it. Near Chen’s Los Angeles home there’s even a restaurant called Mao’s Kitchen. “Can you imagine a restaurant called Hitler’s Kitchen?” asks Gillespie.

Neither D’Rivera nor Chen understands why communist killers are considered Chic, but each finds his own way to have the last laugh on these anti-capitalist icons.

“Killer Chic” is written and produced by Ted Balaker. Director of Photography is Alex Manning.

Closing music, “Che Guevara T-Shirt Wearer,” courtesy of The Clap. Listen to the whole song here.

By Jimmy Kuroiwa

Leon Siu in his position on the “Hawaii Ceded Lands Case Rejoinder” initiates his position from the time of the Kingdom overthrow on January 17, 1893 and calls the overthrow an usurpation.

I present to him recorded Hawaiian historical data that leads anyone following the progression of events from 1874 through 1893, of some nineteen years, as the culmination of events that leads to the overthrow on January 17, 1893. The overthrow was inevitable and the overthrow of the Kingdom was supported by the citizens of Hawaii, including Native Hawaiians.

The overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom begins in 1874:

• February 12, 1874: The legislative assembly elects Kalakaua king following death of Lunalilo on February 3, 1874. A riot by Native Hawaiians opposed the election of Kalakaua and supporters of Queen Emma, wife of Liholiho, preferred the election of Queen Emma. At the request of Kalakaua, the U.S. Minister ordered troops to be provided for peace from U.S.S. Tuscarora and U.S.S. Portsmouth. Peace was secured with U.S. troops. Kalakaua initial request were for troops from H.M.S. Tenedos where they landed after peace was secured. British Capt. Bay who was not available to receive Kalakaua’s request, in few months was relieved of command and retired.

King Kalakaua (Kingdom of Hawaii Monarch, 1874-1891), Cabinet and Staff on the steps of Iolani Palace in Honolulu, HI.

• April 30, 1874: The new government bldg (Aliiolani Hale) opened for public inspection with the opening of the first legislative session to be held in new building.

The Government Building or Aliiolani Hale in Honolulu, HI.

• September 9, 1876: The Reciprocity Treaty was ratified and officially put into effect. It identified numerous products from Hawaii that would be allowed into the United States free of duty. Article IV was included to ensure that Hawaii would not seek favor from another power.

• June 30, 1887: Conflicts between business and the Monarchy caused the adoption of a new Constitution to reduce powers of Monarchy and change the right to vote. This creates conflicts between Liliuokalani and Kalakaua for he was condemned for signing the constitution of 1887. Liliuokalani charged Kalakaua of cowardice. A conspiracy by R.W. Wilcox, C.B. Wilson, Sam Nowlien demanded that King Kalakaua abdicate the throne in favor of sister Liliuokalani.

• April, 1889: Liliuokalani planned an insurrection by the League that was headed by R.W. Wilcox who formed the Rifle Club preparing for another revolution following the revolution of 1887.

Robert Wilcox

• July 30, 1889: R.W. Wilcox and 150 armed men occupy the Palace and attempts to have Kalakaua proclaim that the 1864 constitution was to replace the 1887 constitution. Supporters of Kalakaua take up arms against insurgents. Volunteer riflemen turned out to support the Government (Missionary Party). A legation was on hotel premises where Mr. Merrill, the U.S. Minister requested a body of marines to be landed for a day. A duel between the insurgents and volunteers begins with artillery and rifle fire, by evening the fighting ends and the insurgents surrender.

• June 17, 1890: Conservative appointments J.A. Cummins, C.N. Spencer, Godfrey Brown, and A.P. Peterson (Royalists) by Kalakaua were made to his cabinet.

• January 29, 1891 Liliuokalani becomes queen (1891-1893) Kalakaua dies on 20 Jan 1891 while in San Francisco. Liliuokalani appoints C.B. Wilson as marshal of the Kingdom. C.B. Wilson begins a Kingdom scandal by openly supporting opium smuggling.

Queen Liliuokalani, Kingdom of Hawaii Monarch (1891-1893).

• March 1892: An abortive revolution was led by the Ashford brothers and Robert W. Wilcox of the Liberal Party. The objective was to establish a Republic and then educate the people for future annexation to United States.

• August 30, 1892: The first introduction of the lottery bill that was supported by Mr. C.B. Wilson, the appointed Kingdom marshal, and the bill was tabled due to strong opposition by the legislature.

• September 1892: Liliuokalani and legislature are deadlocked on control because of differences on the opium and lottery bills. Three separate cabinets in succession were voted out by the legislature because they believed the cabinets were in sympathy with C.B Wilson, the Kingdom’s Marshal.

• 1892: The annexationists feared that if Liliuokalani died and Kaiulani (whose Father was Archibald Cleghorn, governor of Oahu, a Scotsman), would bring a strong English influence into the palace. Wodehouse, the English minister, his son had married a half white sister of Kaiulani and several other sons held important political jobs.

• 1892: Liliuokalani yields and appoints a conservative cabinet of G.N. Wilcox, P.C. Jones, Mark Robinson, and Cecil Brown.

• January 9, 1893: Liliuokalani dismisses the G.N. Wilcox cabinet and Liliuokalani receives strong opposition from the legislature relating to the lottery and opium bills, and to a new Constitution. Liliuokalani appoints a new cabinet with John Colburn, W. Cornwell, Sam Parker, and Arthur Peterson under intense public indignation.

• January 12, 1893: The lottery and opium license bills approved by the legislative body. The new cabinet was voted out, the lottery and opium bills approved after neighbor island legislative members, who opposed the bills, returned home.

• January 13, 1893: Liliuokalani announced the presentation of the new constitution and schedules a public announcement of the new constitution for January 14, 1893.

• January 14, 1893: Queen Liliuokalani proposes to promulgate a new constitution that would give her powers of virtually absolute monarch. She would take control of legislative, judicial as well as executive branch of government.

• January 16, 1893: Marines and sailors from USS Boston come ashore to protect American property. The marines were sent to U.S. Embassy and the sailors to Arion Hall (Old Downtown Post Office).

USS Boston servicemen on duty at Arlington Hotel in Honolulu, HI (January 1893).

• January 17, 1893: The Committee of Safety occupies Aliiolani Hale and Mr. Cooper reads the proclamation abrogating the monarchy and establishes the provisional government. Dole requests that Capt. Wiltse recognize new government. Minister Stevens then recognizes the new Provisional Government. Liliuokalani surrenders to United States and surrenders is under protest.

For most of us who are citizens of the State of Hawaii and the United States of America, the truth and history are most important.

I do not believe there is any fraud being perpetrated in the history of Hawaii and in particular in regards to the overthrow of the Monarchy on January 17, 1893.

Images from State of Hawaii Archives.

Will and Brooke Buchanan were active in the Hawaii Ron Paul campaign last year.  They both caucused to be delegates and participated in several campaign events.  They moved from Laie to the mainland earlier this year to fulfill their vision of walking across the nation for liberty.  You can track their adventure on The Walk For Liberty.  So far they’ve walked from Hamlet, Oregon to western New York.  Their final destination is New Hampshire, where they plan to reside.  Here’s their latest video installment they’ve posted on Youtube.

Associated Press

MANILA, Philippines — A gunman on a motorcycle killed a hard-hitting Filipino radio commentator Monday in the seventh deadly attack on reporters in the Philippines this year, police said.

The gunman sped away after firing several shots at Arecio Padrigao, a commentator at Radio Natin, in front of Bukindon State University in southern Gingoog city, said police Chief Superintendent Teodorico Capuyan.

He said police were investigating.

Padrigao regularly criticized corruption in his radio show broadcast in Misamis Oriental province, about 480 miles southeast of Manila, police official Catalino Rodriguez told ABS-CBN television.

Attacks on reporters exposing graft and wrongdoing are frequent in the Philippines. At least six others were killed this year, according to the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists has criticized the government for moving too slowly to solve the cases. On the other hand, officials complain that witnesses are often reluctant to come forward for fear of retribution.

The latest killing brings to more than 60 the number of reporters gunned down since 2001, making the Philippines one of the world’s most dangerous places for journalists.

By Alan D. Price, Ph.D.

This was written originally as a comment/response to Kenli Schoolland’s “Freedom in Education” article that was re-released on 11/08/08.  This is the third of three parts.

We need to reduce the size of government’s encroachment on our most fundamental liberties and to think creatively together how to create neighborhoods and communities that are self protective, self sustaining and fundamentally self creating. The basic responsibility of our constitutional government is to ensure a social environment that protects the liberties of all of its citizens. It can best do this by supporting communities in recreating themselves, as happened in Chicago recently when the citizens became totally fed up with the impotence of the police and the city government to protect their young sons and daughters from gang killings, and they organized to create their own protective, community systems.

No better example of individual and community responsibility can be found than that of one of my psychotherapy clients who suffers from bipolar disorder. She is the mother of eight children, who, when they were small, raised them as a single parent in a two bedroom, one bath apartment in a gang and drug infested housing complex. Despite her own illness, which has been ameliorated by appropriate medication, she could not stand idly by and watch the violence and disrespect for rights that went on daily at the local high school and the inadequacy of the security force in preventing such assaults. Thus, she volunteered her time daily at the school and came to be respected as Auntie Lynn, a strong, one-person, Hawaiian agent for order amidst disorder. She brought more peace to the campus than any administrative or teaching staff or security guard, or even police officer. Later, she would become a team mom for athletic events at the school.

The federal government has no constitutional basis for meddling in education. There is no constitutional provision for a Department of Education. The failure of government control of education is nowhere more evident than in the “No Child Left Behind” program, more appropriately known as the “All Children Left Behind Program,” viz., left behind the eight ball in not having the requisite skills to live as fulfilled individuals and creative members of society.

So, the pressing question is: Should prospective parents be required to demonstrate basic qualifications that are acceptable to the broad spectrum of their community? We have to be licensed to do virtually everything in modern society. But, this most important function is ignored. Of course, the related question is: How do we provide insurance that children will receive caregiving and not caretaking while preserving fundamental, individual liberties? We seem to have accomplished a workable solution in the case of driving an automobile. Can we rise to the occasion and do this with regard to the most valuable resource in our world? Will we allow all children the opportunity to be or will we continue to bend them not to be themselves and to be destructive elements leading to our eventual demise as a free society?

Our Declaration of Independence affirms our rights as human beings to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” These are said to be “inalienable rights” or natural rights that we possess by virtue of being human beings. Are such rights affirmed for our children? And, if not, how can we ever expect them to uphold these rights for others? Individuals who have been bent and broken as children have no business being parents, at least until they can demonstrate that they have salvaged their innate humanity. How are we going to deal with this crucial issue? By what process will we intervene wisely? Our Republic will succeed or fail depending on how we address the “assumed right” of parenthood. And, address it we must, but with sensitivity, and even perhaps reverence, for the right of self-determination for all concerned.

By Alan D. Price, Ph.D.

This was written originally as a comment/response to Kenli Schoolland’s “Freedom in Education” article that was re-released on 11/08/08.  This is the second of three parts.

Kenli Schoolland implies in her essay, “free” education is never free. We all pay for it in one way or another, either by parting with our money or by parting with our souls and our self respect. What is forever missing in the controversy regarding private versus public education is the fact that the underpinning of education is not to be found in the institutions and their edifices, be they public or private. It is to be found in the family or in the caregivers who raise children from infancy.

The classical, Roman poet, Virgil, famously said, “As the twig is bent, the tree inclines.” Nothing could be truer. The compelling question is, however: Do we seek to bend children to our wishes or to nourish them to grow according to their own innate predilections and potentials? Parents and caregivers must be adequately prepared to nourish children and thus to foster their growth into responsible human beings and citizens. So, often the so-called “foster homes” into which children are placed do nothing to foster such growth. In many cases, they serve only to bend or to break the child further. Such foster homes and the great majority of parental homes engage in caretaking, not caregiving.

The most pressing question facing modern society is: How do we create true educational opportunity beginning at birth and continue allowing it to unfold throughout life? In other words: How do we insure that those charged with the most important function in society, viz., parenting, are adequately prepared to perform this quintessential calling that underlies a free and productive society? How do we encourage our future citizens to use their innately given potentials to interact effectively and constructively with their society?

There has been much concern of late for the lack of respect accorded to the U.S. Constitution by our governmental officials and the citizenry at large. We also have a corresponding lack of respect for our children’s “constitutions.” Here in Hawaii we recently voted on whether or not to hold a Constitutional Convention. The voters rejected the measure. Will we alsocontinue to reject holding a “Children’s Constitutional Convention” in which we establish fundamental principles that will provide the bedrock of a free society? This society is in danger, as many have recently noted. (See, Naomi Wolf’s “The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot”.) Signs of the encroachment of fascism, i.e., corporate control of the state, have become increasingly evident in recent years. The arrest of recreational cyclists at the 2008 Republic National Convention for “unlawful assembly” and the brutal abuse of duly certified members of the press corps and their producers by anonymous, paramilitary police in body armor and visors is only the most visible tip of the iceberg which can bring down America the Titanic.

How do we create the early educational experience in young citizens that will enable them to see the world for what it is and not for what they want it to be or for what their caretakers want them to see? Ask yourself: How do we keep citizens who are unprepared to operate an automobile safely from using cars as lethal weapons? We require them to demonstrate knowledge of driving principles and laws as well as the capability to be in charge of a complicated mechanical system. A child is a far more complicated system than any automobile. And, as our crime rates, our propensity for violence, and our support for preemptive warfare clearly demonstrate, they are far more lethal. Parents and foster parents must be adequately qualified to be in charge of such a potentially lethal system. The overarching question is how, as a deeply troubled society, do we go about making changes that will ensure that parents and caregivers are able to foster the growth of free citizens and not bend them to their destructive wishes, often to the breaking point. Every day in my office, I see broken adults who are the victims of destructive control and abuse by individuals who should never have been given responsibility for raising children. Oh, our government child protective agencies step in and take control of abused children, but often the cure is worse than the illness. This is frequently the case when government presumes to control the most basic aspects of human, social life.

To be continued…

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By Garry P. Smith

Most Hawaii Republicans knew we would do poorly in the 2008 elections. Many were hopeful that we would at least keep the incumbents and maybe pick up one more seat. Many more, myself included, had called on Chair Willes Lee soon after he became party chair to make changes to the party brand to prepare for the elections. Our calls were not only unanswered but rebuffed by an arrogant Lee who chanted over and over again “get good candidates, raise money and win”. Not only was this a naïve strategic move it proved disastrous for our party.

If all it took was for Lee to get his good candidates who had sufficient money to win there was none better than Quentin Kawananakoa. He had previously been the minority leader in the House, had started a run for U.S. Congress (he quit over medical issues), former Hawaii GOP Chair Sam Aiona was his campaign manager and Quentin personally had all the money it would take to win a House Seat. He lost miserably by over 2,500 votes to a first time Democrat candidate who had no prior name recognition.

Lee opined in interviews with the Star Bulletin Nov. 6, just two days after the elections, to say that “we need to run more and better candidates”. He still doesn’t get it, it’s not the candidates who caused this loss, it’s the party leadership. Both the Chair and the minority leadership in the State House of Representatives who are to blame. It’s an insult to all Republican Party candidates who did choose to run and spent hundreds of hours campaigning; only to lose because the Republican Party didn’t do its part through party building, party branding and party organizing to show voters that we had something different to offer.

Despite Lee’s additional excuse of blaming the Obama wave, less people in Hawaii actually voted in 2008 than in 2004 when Bush ran successfully for re-election against Kerry. This wasn’t a matter of being overrun at the polls by a surge of new Obama voters, this was a problem of failing to persuade the same people who voted incumbents like Trimble and Meyer into office four years ago. Even TV commentators on election night had to remark that a few hundred votes could have been swayed or encouraged to show up to protect incumbents Meyer and Trimble, let alone put challenger Tom Berg over the top, if Lingle, Aiona and the party run by Willes Lee had really made and effort and done things right going into the 2008 season.

During the 2008 legislative session, Republicans continued to believe that the best course of action was to “go along to get along”. House Minority Leader Finnegan even went so far as to write an editorial letter praising her Democrat colleagues for proposing to fix the way grants were being handed out, even though the chair of the committee had exposed himself politically by receiving tens of thousands of campaign contributions from charities and groups hoping to receive funding. Rep. Michael Magaoay, the chair of that committee, did not even receive a slap on the wrist by the majority party and easily won re-election over a strong Republican opponent three days ago. Minority Leader Finnegan seems to have been rewarded by the Democrats by not even having a challenger to contend with, perhaps in exchange for not asking for an investigation into pay-for-play campaign contributions. I guess going along to get along does pay off.

The November 6th Honolulu Star-Bulletin editorial “GOP needs to lure more moderates to it’s almost empty tent” calls for the Hawaii GOP to become more like Hawaii Democrats if it hopes to get more Republicans elected. Since when does the Star Bulletin or for that matter the Honolulu Advertiser want Republicans to get elected? The Honolulu Advertiser did not endorse one non-incumbent Republican for election. If the Hawaii GOP becomes ideologically any closer to the Hawaii Democrats then it might be better to just change party affiliation for the remaining 8 elected officials and form a Democrat faction within their party. Sen. Mike Gabbard and Rep. Karen Awana beat the rush already and, although elected as Republicans, astutely saw what was happening to the Republican Party when they jumped ship as newly-registered Democrats in 2007 in order to make sure they weren’t defeated just because of their party affiliation.

The basic reason for Tuesday’s election turndown of Hawaii Republicans is that voters have no idea what the difference is between the two parties in Hawaii. There is good reason for them to be confused; there is hardly any real difference on the issues of importance to the people. The Republican Party convention refused to oppose the so-called Akaka Bill and also would not take a stand either way on the controversial Rail Project. At least with the Democrat Party, they took a stand on both these issues . . . both of which I disagree with, but at least I knew where they stood.

As a candidate for Honolulu City Council in 2008 and a long time Republican, I didn’t expect any financial support from the Republican Party, since the City Council is technically non-partisan. I must say that I wasn’t disappointed. I did not receive one email, one phone call or even an offer of support from Chair Lee. The party’s website listed candidates only after pictures of Party elite at the various Republican social functions. To find out just who the candidates were, you had to click on a link at the bottom of the ‘links’ page that just showed names and addresses not even pictures or the bios that were in the general election guide. Are candidates really a priority for the Hawaii GOP? Nah, just a burden to much more important, self-serving party activities. Sure, I lost like all the other Republicans who ran against incumbents but I got more votes than any of the other new candidates. Hmm, maybe it was the missing (R) next to my name that enabled me to do so well.

The biggest loser to the abysmal situation of the Republican Party is of course Lt. Gov. Duke Aiona, who has already been campaigning for the 2010 Governor race. When Aiona runs against a well funded Mayor Mufi Hannemann for Governor, Mufi will have a well-oiled Democrat Party machine that will provide not only the manpower needed for a major race but also party organization, majority of elected officials and a brand loyalty that has created an almost cult following. As Mufi said during the 2008 Primary, “you are just delaying the inevitable”. Gov. Lingle knew she would be up against more than Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono in 2002, so she became Chair of the Republican Party in 1999, revamped it, rebranded the Hawaii Republican persona and not only won election herself but also carried along the most Republicans in 20 years. Lt. Gov. Aiona, who should have been the most vocal and persistent ‘agent of change’ this year for a Republican Party on life support, was strangely absent and will pay the penalty in 2010 for allowing the plug to be pulled and the party die while he watched.

Is it too late for the Hawaii Republican Party to come back from the dead? Maybe, but certainly unless drastic changes are made that shows the voters that “yes, we can” or “we are the party of change” we will not only continue to be irrelevant but also an enigma of itself. The best immediate hope for the party is for Chair Lee to demonstrate whatever integrity he still has and immediately resign as party Chair. Don’t worry, he will be quickly rewarded with a high-paying state job just as each of the previous chairs under Lingle have received for similarly fine showings.

Poipu, Kauai resident Mike Maresco has garnered significant attention for prior political action and is currently campaigning for North Carolina Congressional candidate BJ Lawson.

Here is a video piece he most recently helped produce (with his own ukulele playing… very nice).

Part 1

Part 2

By Thomas E. Woods

These remarks were delivered at the Rally for the Republic, Target Center, Minneapolis, on September 2.

About fifteen years ago a conservative columnist wrote that Americans are faced with a choice between the Stupid Party and the Evil Party. And that once in a while the two parties get together and do something that’s both stupid and evil, and that’s called bipartisanship.

If anything, that view was too optimistic. On so many issues that matter, we may as well have a one-party system.

Some people on the Left are finally discovering to their chagrin that the so-called change Barack Obama would make to American foreign policy is just cosmetic. What did they expect? His foreign-policy panel, a who’s-who of the establishment, includes Madeleine Albright, the former Secretary of State who said “the price has been worth it” when asked on 60 Minutes what she thought of the fact that the Bush/Clinton sanctions on Iraq had led to half a million dead children.

So that’s the “change” candidate. Well, how very refreshing.

On taxes, the Democrat favors a top income tax rate of 39.5 percent, and the Republican favors a top rate of 35 percent. Well, ain’t democracy grand! We get to debate a whole four and a half percentage points.

Forget about spending. The Democrat spends his time devising new ways to throw away money we don’t have. Who knows what additional billions the Republican nominee’s foreign-policy bellicosity will saddle us with. But he pledges to balance the budget without a tax increase by 2013, while also strengthening the dollar and closing the $70 trillion entitlement shortfall. And we’re expected to believe this.

Been there, done that.

And by the way, if I may be forgiven for stating the obvious, you are not a fiscal conservative – or any other kind of conservative, for that matter – if you think it’s a-okay to stay in Iraq for one hundred years.

The subject I’ve been asked to address here, though, is yet another one that finds the two major candidates – let’s call them McBama – in agreement: namely, money and the Federal Reserve System.

Since the Fed was established in 1913 the dollar has lost 95 percent of its value. The Fed has given us more financial bubbles than we can count. When it inflates the money supply it lowers the value of the dollars in Americans’ pockets and hurts society’s most vulnerable. It redistributes wealth from the middle class and the poor to the politically well connected, by means of what economists call distribution or Cantillon effects.

What’s more, F.A. Hayek won the Nobel Prize in economics for showing how central banks like the Fed create the boom-bust business cycle in our economy. When the central bank manipulates interest rates, it causes massive discoordination. The interest rate is supposed to coordinate production across time, but it can do so only when it reflects an aggregate of voluntary choices, not the whim of the Fed chairman. Entrepreneurs are misled into making investments that make no sense in light of current resource availability. The Fed’s intervention starts the economy on an artificial boom that ends in an inevitable bust.

More and more financial analysts are coming to accept Hayek’s view, known as the Austrian theory of the business cycle, because it corresponds so closely to what’s happening all around us. In the 1920s, when so-called mainstream economists were foolishly assuring us that permanent prosperity had arrived, economists of what’s known as the Austrian School of economic thought, to which Ron Paul also belongs, stood alone in predicting the Great Depression.

Yet in spite of all this, we’ve had no serious discussion of the Federal Reserve System for nearly 100 years. It has been fantastically successful in depoliticizing itself. No politician even mentions it. And although he is too genuinely humble to acknowledge it, one man is responsible for finally blasting open this forbidden question: Ron Paul.

Look at how members of Congress treat the Fed chairman when he appears before them. He gets asked only the most inane, sycophantic questions. Members of the Banking Committee, decked out in their “I Heart Bernanke” T-shirts, wave incense before him.

Ron Paul, on the other hand, looks him in the eye and says, “You are stealing from the poor!”

The economic and historical arguments against sound money (that is, money that government can’t just print up at will) are surprisingly weak – really just a string of fallacies. For now I refer you all to the education page at CampaignForLiberty.com for plenty of resources in defense of sound money.

But Joseph Schumpeter, one of the great economists of the twentieth century, said that even if you accepted all the bogus economic arguments against gold, it still made perfect sense to favor it. Why? Because it is the only system compatible with freedom.

If “fiscal responsibility” is your issue, you’ll never get anywhere as long as the government can create out of thin air all the money it wants. If the federal government is an addict, then the Federal Reserve System is its enabler.

Or suppose you’re concerned about war and what Ron Paul calls our government’s “bull-in-a-china-shop foreign policy.” (By the way, that’s a concern shared by the genuine Left – people like Kirkpatrick Sale and Gore Vidal – and the genuine Right, by which I mean traditional conservatives like Russell Kirk and Robert Taft, not today’s neoconservative death cult.) Well, you, too, should care about the Fed, since the central bank is the lifeblood of the empire. If you want to stop the war machine, you’ll have to go after the money machine.

How did Lyndon Johnson get away with his war spending in Vietnam? By a deliberate policy of concealing the cost through inflation – a cost the American people bore only later, in the stagflation of the 1970s. Just the cost overruns on two Pentagon projects added up to more than the combined GDPs of North and South Vietnam. By silently looting the American population, the government was able to get away with much more spending than would otherwise have been possible.

Then there’s the disastrous war in Iraq, the propaganda for which was fed to us by America’s Pravda, the New York Times. How has that war been funded? By borrowing from foreigners, and creating new money out of thin air.

As for our current economic mess, McBama agree with the president, who summed up his own business cycle theory in these words: “Wall Street got drunk.” Their solution? For starters, hundreds of billions of dollars in bailouts to the alleged drunkards. Bailouts and scapegoating – anything other than pointing the finger where it belongs – are all McBama can think to do. To hear them speak, you’d never know the Fed’s mad money creation spree and its resulting economic distortions had even occurred.

And no, the free market doesn’t cause housing bubbles and mortgage crises. The federal government has been pushing unsound loans on banks for years, both through legislation and by a Federal Reserve policy of flooding the economy with cheap credit. This new money went overwhelmingly into the housing market, the result being the housing bubble that is now bursting. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are Government Supported Enterprises (GSEs) that get special tax and regulatory breaks, and that everyone knows will be bailed out if it should come to that. So there’s nothing to stop them from buying up risky mortgages from banks. And banks in turn are more likely to make risky loans in the first place if they know Fannie and Freddie will be happy to buy them up.

This crazy system is a layer cake of moral hazard, not the free market. But as usual, the free market is being blamed for the stupidity and recklessness of the blockheads who rule us.

Every four years we’re subjected to a pair of empty suits whose only real argument is over exactly how and through what channels they plan to squander Americans’ wealth. It’s enough to make the non-comatose segment of the population despair. What can we do?

For starters, you can do what Ron Paul does, which is to start your day by reading LewRockwell.com. You can go to amconmag.com and read and subscribe to The American Conservative magazine.

But above all, today we have a special suggestion. If you’re tired of having to choose between two wings of the same bird of prey, then help us change America: go to CampaignForLiberty.com and join Ron Paul’s Campaign for Liberty!

H.L. Mencken put it this way: “The most dangerous man, to any government, is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane and intolerable, and so, if he is romantic, he tries to change it.”

Publishers Weekly says Dr. Paul “gives new life to old debates.” But you know what? Without him, we wouldn’t be having these debates in the first place.

Ron Paul reminds us that our future is not cast in stone, and that if we as a people so choose, we do not have to live in the kind of America the two major parties have in store for us.

Thanks to all of you for the sacrifices you’ve made on behalf of this great American cause – and above all, thank you, Ron Paul.

Thomas E. Woods, Jr. [http://www.thomasewoods.com/]is senior fellow in American history at the Ludwig von Mises Institute. He is co-editor (with Murray Polner) of We Who Dared to Say No to War: American Antiwar Writing from 1812 to Now and co-author, most recently, of Who Killed the Constitution? The Fate of American Liberty from World War I to George W. Bush. His other books include Sacred Then and Sacred Now: The Return of the Old Latin Mass, 33 Questions About American History You’re Not Supposed to Ask. How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization (get a free chapter here), The Church and the Market: A Catholic Defense of the Free Economy (first-place winner in the 2006 Templeton Enterprise Awards), and the New York Times bestseller The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History.

By Geoffrey Pike

We just had a $700 billion bailout bill that was signed into law and done in defiance of the American people at large. This money is on top of many more billions that have already been spent bailing out Wall Street. We have a runaway government and we will likely experience economic depression or very high inflation, or possibly both, in the near future. Yet, I am smiling about the whole thing.

It is hard times for many people and I certainly sympathize with them. Our own government is raping us and it is a shame that we have to go through this. But there is certainly a lot to be positive about. Last year, Ron Paul triggered a small but significant revolution in this country. Although the results were somewhat disappointing, we can’t ignore that he received 1.2 million votes and seemed to awaken many people.

Perhaps I am smiling because the Austro-libertarians have been vindicated with this whole mess. Ron Paul has been warning people for years about the Federal Reserve and the distortions in the market. Anyone paying attention can see that he knew what he was talking about. We should not feel that we can’t point out that the Austro-libertarians were warning of this years ago.

Perhaps a bigger reason for my smile is being vindicated amongst other libertarians. Now many other libertarians will not see it this way at this time. I often get down on the future prospects for liberty and how seemingly irrational many people are. But it often amazes me just how negative other libertarians are about the future. Many libertarians think of the general population as the “dumb masses.” Sometimes it’s hard to disagree, but I have had a sense over the years that people, and the American people in particular, are more rational than many of us give them credit for.

This last week, Americans awoke from a deep sleep. Or maybe they were already awake, but we didn’t know it yet. Congress got flooded with calls opposing the bailout. One Congressman said that the calls to his office were running 50–50; 50% no and 50% hell no. Although the majority of Americans still don’t understand inflation and the boom/bust cycle very well, they instinctively understood that Americans were being ripped off with this bailout and that the government officials were simply rewarding their friends on Wall Street who had failed. Even as far as rising prices, many more Americans are realizing that the cause is monetary inflation, although we probably don’t have a majority that understand this yet.

We have a lot to be positive about. Now you may think that is crazy because Congress still passed the bailout bill, despite strong opposition from constituents. Now don’t expect all of these people to be voted out of office next month who voted “yes” on the bill, but this cannot go on forever. First of all, the empire is coming crashing down. Even if this weren’t the case, it won’t matter over time. Americans are becoming far more well informed than in the past. The internet allows us to communicate to each other quickly and effectively and expose many of the lies of the politicians. When a large number of Americans finally withdraw their consent, the government will no longer function as it does. It will come crashing down, much like the Soviet empire did.

Americans are realizing in large numbers that the government is not their friend. With Congress defying the will of the people, it made people angrier. It basically shows the whole system as a sham and that we don’t have representative government.

It has also been fun watching the news the last few weeks. I heard one commentator after another saying that they have to pass this bill, despite strong opposition by the people. Some were more direct than others in saying that “the people just don’t understand.” But this time, the people understood all too clearly. No matter which way it was spun, the people understood that their own government was taking advantage of them. And on top of that, it exposed the elitist and out-of-touch mentality in the mainstream media (both Republican and Democrat).

It has all been fun to watch. Speaking of fun, if you really want to have a good time next weekend, get together a big group of friends and line up outside a bank in your neighborhood. Call the local news station. You can cause a bank run and expose how fragile our fraudulent banking system is. Okay, I’m really just kidding about this. In fact, it is probably illegal, so don’t even consider it.

Libertarians can take advantage of this time in history. It could be a tipping point. For once, we have a large majority of the people on our side. Let’s continue to expose the Federal Reserve and the government as a whole as the corrupt and evil organizations that they are. People may be more open to radical libertarian ideas now more than ever.

Let’s continue the revolution that Ron Paul triggered last year and let’s also have some fun doing it. I continue to see hope for the future as the American empire is quickly crashing down.