CONSEQUENCES

Homeless camps are starting to fill up with employed people.

They couldn't keep up with the their mortgage payments so they lost their homes. This story is repeating all over America.

LUNCHBOX 03-19-08

The Tasty Cube Party News Team brings you Lunchbox, news like you've never seen it before! Featuring Conservative Canine Pundit Phoebe, "Foreign" Correspondent Irene Taniguchi, Cat Calendar, Galactus, and Daniel Day Lewis!

WHISTLEBLOWER EXPOSES INSIDER TRADING PROGRAM AT JP MORGAN

A confidential memo obtained by Wikileaks shows that not only has the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission created an insider trading loophole big enough to drive a truck through, but that Wall Street is taking full advantage of it, establishing 'how-to' programs and even client service divisions to help well-heeled clients circumvent insider trading regulations.

FARMER 'KILLED BY ISRAELI TROOPS'

Palestinian officials say Israeli troops have shot dead a Palestinian civilian in the central part of the Gaza Strip.

GILAD ATZMON - THE RIGHT TO SELF-DETERMINATION - A FAKE EXERCISE IN UNIVERSALISM

The right to self-determination is a luxurious approach at conservation of power reserved for the rich, strong and privileged. Since Zionists hold the reigns on international political power through their influence in important positions as well as the military might to maintain their ‘right to self-determination’, any current political debate on the legitimacy of this concept would lead inevitably to a dismissal of what we have come to accept as the Palestinian right of self-determination. Yet, instead of demanding this right, which is currently impractical, we should fight for the Palestinian and Arab right to rebel against the Jewish State and against global Zionist imperialism.

HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN OCCUPIED PALESTINE

John Dugard is The UN Human Rights Council's Special Rapporteur on Palestine and a rare public official. In January 2008, he assessed the situation in Occupied Palestine (OPT). It was detailed, inclusive and honest. This article discusses his findings in-depth.

LEBANON IN THE CROSS-HAIRS OF A VOLCANO

"Everyone feels there is a war coming," said Salman Ismael, a 22-year-old university student. "Especially after the killing of (Hezbollah commander) Imad Mughniyeh and what is happening in Gaza. And now U.S. ships come to the waters of Lebanon. Israel wants to improve her army in the Middle East after its defeat in 2006, she wants the Arabs to be scared of her."

OVER 200 ARRESTED IN NATIONWIDE PROTESTS ON 5-YEAR MARK OF IRAQ WAR

More than 200 people were arrested nationwide Wednesday in dozens of protests marking the fifth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. In San Francisco, at least 140 protesters were jailed, many of them in front of the offices of Democratic Senator Diane Feinstein. In Washington, 32 people were arrested after they tried to block an entrance to the IRS.

WHAT WE ARE UP AGAINST: PROFOUND IGNORANCE

BILL O'REILLY DESTROYED BY KEITH OLBERMANN

17 SIGNS THAT YOU ARE BEING WIRETAPPED

Keep an eye out for these subtle clues to avoid becoming a victim of information theft.

MONTREAL, THE NEXT TERROR TARGET?

BUSH OKS SUPPLYING ARMS TO KOSOVO

In a memo to the State Department made public by the White House, Bush said: "I hereby find that the furnishing of defense articles and defense services to Kosovo will strengthen the security of the United States and promote world peace."

3 INVESTMENT BANKS TAP NEW FED LOANS

NEW YORK - Three of the nation's largest investment banks said they have borrowed from a program created this week by the Federal Reserve to stimulate lending amid concern that Wall Street faced a cash shortage.

FRENCH STATE BODY UPHOLDS DECISION ON GM CROP BAN

PARIS (Reuters) - France's top legal authority on Wednesday upheld a government decision to ban commercial use of the only genetically modified (GM) crop grown in the country by rejecting an emergency injunction filed by the pro-GM camp.

NH HOUSE OKS BILL LIMITING RFID TRACKING DEVICES

HB 686 bans the implantation of RFID (radio frequency identification ) chips in humans and requires a notification label on any product that contains them. It also bars the state from using the devices in drivers licenses, license plates and E-ZPass transponders.

STATES HAND OVER THE DNA OF NEWBORNS TO DHS

Unknown to most new parents, or those who became parents in the last ten or so years, DNA of newborns has been harvested, tested, stored and experimented with by all 50 states. And all 50 states are now routinely providing these results to the Homeland Security Department.

VENEZUELA'S STATE-RUN OIL COMPANY BEGINS DEMANDING PAYMENT IN EUROS

CARACAS, Venezuela: Venezuela's state-run oil firm is starting to demand payment in euros — a measure aimed at protecting revenues from a weakening U.S. dollar, Venezuela's oil minister said Tuesday.

COMCAST CAMERAS TO START WATCHING YOU?

At the Digital Living Room conference today, Gerard Kunkel, Comcast’s senior VP of user experience, told me the cable company is experimenting with different camera technologies built into devices so it can know who’s in your living room.

CLINTON RECORDS CONTRADICT HER TOUTED EXPERIENCE

The records say that on the day U.S. cruise missiles hit Serbia the former First Lady was touring Egyptian ruins and on the day Bill launched attacks against al Qaeda training camps in the Middle East, his wife was vacationing at Martha’s Vineyard.

Clinton’s First Lady records also document that she was a huge advocate of an international trade pact between the U.S., Mexico and Canada that she has repeatedly criticized during her presidential campaign. She held at least five meetings in the early 1990s aimed at helping to win congressional approval of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which was implemented in 1994.

MEXICO ORGANIZING MAY DAY MARCHES IN U.S.

Led by Mexico’s government, illegal immigrants across the nation are planning disruptive May Day marches demanding that the U.S. government halt immigration raids and that Congress pass laws to legalize them.

Hundreds of thousands of rowdy illegal aliens flooded the streets of major cities last year demanding amnesty and other rights, while threatening to shut down streets and launch economic boycotts. They burned U.S. flags and wielded racist, anti-American signs as they chanted for “derechos” (rights) in Spanish.

WINTER SOLDIER MARCHES AGAIN

By Amy Goodman

Jon Michael Turner, who fought with the 3rd Battalion, 8th Marines, tore his medals off his chest. He said: “On April 18, 2006, I had my first confirmed kill. This man was innocent. I don’t know his name. I called him ‘the fat man.’ He was walking back to his house, and I shot him in front of his friend and his father. The first round didn’t kill him, after I had hit him up here in his neck area. And afterward he started screaming and looked right into my eyes. So I looked at my friend, who I was on post with, and I said, ‘Well, I can’t let that happen.’ So I took another shot and took him out. He was then carried away by the rest of his family. It took seven people to carry his body away.

THE WAR THAT STARTED WITH LIES, AND CONTINUES WITH LIE AFTER LIE AFTER LIE

It has been a war of lies from the start. All governments lie in wartime but American and British propaganda in Iraq over the past five years has been more untruthful than in any conflict since the First World War.

PENN: “END IS NEAR” FOR FOX PUNDITS

“I almost wish Jerry Falwell were alive to see this. Almost,” Penn shouted to the crowd. After dropping some names of conservatives who are still with us - “Bill O’Reilly, who is too stupid to talk about,” and “Sean Hannity, the butt boy of Rupert Murdoch,” Penn said, “We know something more. We know their end is near.”

TPM ON MCCAIN MYOPIA

Joshua Micah Marshall of Talking Points Memo argues that McCain’s foreign policy shortsightedness makes him unfit to command. It’s not just Iraq, Marshall says, but a pattern of looking at the world simplistically.

THE FOLKS WHO BROUGHT YOU IRAQ

“Well, that’s history. That’s the past. That’s talking about what happened before. What we should be talking about is what we’re going to do now.”

The man who spoke these words is Sen. John McCain, and the subject was the Iraq war and its origins in official falsehood, strategic error and wishful thinking. Expect to hear him repeat those same dismissive phrases again and again as the presidential campaign unfolds.

Understandably, the presumptive Republican nominee prefers to avoid examining how our finest young people and vast amounts of our national treasure came to be squandered in the Middle Eastern desert, since he was among the war’s most excited advocates.

BILL MAHER ON MCCAIN: “NOT TOUGHER. DUMBER.”

“We are one terrorist attack away from John McCain…rising in the polls by ten points, because people think, ‘oh, yeah, he is tougher.’ He is not tougher about the war — he’s dumber about the war. He’s dumb about the war because he thinks by keeping troops in the heart of the Muslim world that’s going to help the war on terror. That’s exactly what started the war on terror. That’s why bin Laden was so angry at the us because we had troops in Saudi Arabia. We pulled them out after 9/11, by the way. Of course, we go right back in and plant them in the heart of the Muslim world and build Pizza Huts. That is why young Muslim men want to come here and blow themselves up and kill us. It is not about what happens in Iraq; we need to get out of Iraq — not build bases there.”

THE VIDEO CHINA DOESN’T WANT THE WORLD TO SEE

This footage of the rioting in Tibet is raw and harrowing. It’s also, for the most part, not being seen in China where authorities have blocked access to YouTube.com, which has many videos on Tibet.

OOPS! HE DID IT AGAIN: MCCAIN CONFUSES IRAN/AL QAEDA LINK IN SPEECH MARKING 5TH ANNIVERSARY OF IRAQI INVASION

For the third time in two days, the Arizona Republican has pushed the definitively false statement that the terrorist group Al-Qaeda was getting assistance from Iran, even though he was publicly ridiculed for the same false assertion on Tuesday.

PENTAGON'S MIND-READING COMPUTERS REPLICATE

"Augmented Cognition," the Darpa program to build computer interfaces that adapt to their users' brains, has officially run its course. But efforts to build mind-reading PCs continue throughout the military establishment.

An Impeachment Ad Congress Will Read!

Make your contribution through Paypal.com to this email address: DemocracyforOregon@gmail.com for credit charge or bank account transfers. To give by check, make it payable to Democracy for Oregon at 6428 SE 15th Ave, Portland, OR 97202.

VERMONT VETS RISK ALL FOR THE TRUTH

“I can’t go back in time and take back what I’ve done… At one point I was a monster, and I created hate and destruction amongst many people. I am sorry for doing so and I will never turn back into the monster I

once was.” These were the closing remarks of Jon Turner, former Marine returned from Iraq, testifying in early March with three other former members of the armed forces, to students at the University of Vermont.

FIVE YEARS OF SUICIDE BOMBINGS IN IRAQ

Khaled looked at me with a broad smile. He was almost laughing. At one point, when I told him that he should abandon all thoughts of being a suicide bomber -- that he could influence more people in this world by becoming a journalist -- he put his head back and shot me a grin, world-weary for a man in his teens. "You have your mission," he said. "And I have mine." His sisters looked at him in awe. He was their hero, their amanuensis and their teacher, their representative and their soon-to-be-martyred brother.

5 YEARS IN IRAQ - WHERE THINGS STAND

WHY PENNSYLVANIA SHOULD NOT VOTE FOR HILLARY CLINTON

She is constantly trying to claim that her mere "nexus of power" in the White House is actually experience. Experience by osmosis? Actually, in all of the areas where we want experience (national security, defense, the economy, etc.) she played no role. She did not attend the President's daily intelligence brief, did not attend or participate in National Security and Defense briefings and decisions, and did not attend or participate in economic discussions or cabinet meetings. Other than her failed national health care attempt, she was just another First Lady, playing the role of a traditional First Lady. Nothing more.

JOBLESS BENEFIT ROLLS HIT 3-1/2 YEAR HIGH

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of U.S. workers filing initial claims for unemployment aid climbed 22,000 last week, while the overall number on the benefit rolls hit a 3-1/2 year high a week earlier, the government said on Thursday.

HUNDREDS OF JOURNALISTS FORCED INTO EXILE IN FIVE YEARS SINCE START OF US-LED INVASION OF IRAQ

The first-ever detailed report on the plight of Iraqi journalists who have been forced into exile was released by Reporters Without Borders today, the eve of the fifth anniversary of the start of the US-led invasion of Iraq. Most of these journalists fled to Jordan or Syria after receiving threats or surviving murder attempts.

RON PAUL ON THE 10TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE WAR ON IRAQ

The occupation of Iraq began five years ago today, but few realize that the march to war began ten years ago under Bill Clinton, when regime change became official U.S. policy. In 1998, I took to the House floor in protest of the Iraqi Liberation Act to warn that, ‘I see this legislation as essentially being a declaration of virtual war. It is giving the President tremendous powers to pursue war efforts against a sovereign Nation.’ My warnings were largely dismissed at the time, but five years later, we were bombing Iraq.

RON PAUL, WAITING TO BE WOOED, DEFIES CONCESSION TO JOHN MCCAIN

He won more than 800,000 primary votes, more than far more famous, one-time, surefire front-runners Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson. He raised nearly $33 million, nearly three times the funds assembled by what's-his-name from Arkansas. And he's got a list of some 400,000 would-be Republican voters.

So Ron Paul's waiting to hear from the certain GOP nominee, Sen. John McCain, who's not calling Paul, according to a spokesman, because the Texas congressman has yet to inform the party's primary winner that he's giving up his presidential campaign.

ZDN Exclusive -- JIM ROGERS DISCUSSES THE DOLLAR, BERNAKE, ECONOMY, CHINA

click the link to watch the video -- ZDN

ARE SOLDIERS IN IRAQ HIRED MURDERERS?

It took me about 3 months in country to realize that the Vietnamese held the moral high ground and that I was nothing but a hired murderer (at very low pay). Now I am a repentant murderer. The important question for the American people is who hired me and is it possible to hire someone to murder for you and not be culpable.

WEDNESDAY: 2 US SOLDIERS, 32 IRAQIS KILLED; 45 IRAQIS WOUNDED

As President Bush marked the five anniversary of the invasion of Iraq with a speech, at least 32 Iraqis were killed and another 45 were wounded in the latest violence. Two American soldiers were also killed.

MEDIA DECLARES "VICTORY" FOR GUN RIGHTS AS SECOND AMENDMENT IS SYSTEMATICALLY DESTROYED

Comments made by justices in an ongoing landmark case, which seeks to address the very meaning of the second amendment, have been heralded as a "victory" for the individual right to bear arms, but in reality the second amendment is being completely eroded altogether.

FASCISM IS OVER ... IF WE WANT IT

its happened repeatedly throughout history whenever people have been willing to stand up. The Ukranian people stood up to tyranny and won. The East German people stood up to tyranny and won. The people of the Philippines, Serbia, Czechoslovakia, Indonesia and other countries around the world have won against tyranny whenever ordinary people have poured into the streets in massive numbers and demanded freedom.

CIA RENDITION FLIGHTS RESUME

CIA aircraft named by a European Union report as participating in the US 'extraordinary rendition' program have been seen landing in two countries over the last week, raising fresh concerns that the program is not over, as the US contends.

AMERICAN REFUGEES ARE FLOODING INTO CANADA

In September of 2007, the city of Windsor, which borders the United States, officially asked for financial assistance from Ottawa to deal with American refugees flooding into Canada. This is proving to be the tip of the iceberg, and only the first wave of economic refugees that have been created in the United States.

DAN ABRAMS FACT CHECKS GEORGE BUSH

On the fifth anniversary of the Iraq Invasion Dan Abrams fact checks George Bush’s latest statements on the conflict

BAGHDAD'S KILLING FIELDS

In the second of Ghaith Abdul-Ahad's series of three films he visits Baghdad's killings fields on the edge of Sadr City. The scene of thousands of sectarian murders over the last three years, it is a desolate and evil place: "Only the killers and the killed ever come here" says Abdul-Ahad. Here in the thousands of unmarked graves lie the victims of the Shia militia gangs.

JOURNEY TO BAGHDAD

On the fifth anniversary of the US/British-led invasion of Iraq, the Guardian's award-winning foreign correspondent Ghaith Abdul-Ahad has teamed up with ITV News to bring us a series of extraordinary films for the ITV News and guardian.co.uk. In these unprecedented films he, as an Iraqi, goes where foreign journalists can no longer go - to the heart of Baghdad's most dangerous sectarian zones. He uncovers Iraq's own killing fields where only the "killers and the killed" can visit; and he reveals the desperate truth of the trafficked children of Iraq.

ANOTHER DRUG RAID NIGHTMARE

It’s 8 p.m. You work an early shift and need to be out the door before sunrise, so you’re already in bed. Your nerves are a bit frazzled, because earlier in the week someone broke into your home. Oddly, they didn’t take anything; they just rifled through your belongings.

But the violation weighs on your mind. At about the time you drift off, you’re awakened by fierce barking from your two large dogs. You hear someone crashing into your front door, as if he’s trying to separate it from its hinges. You grab the gun you keep for home defense and leave your room to investigate.

THE FED IS JUST AN EXTENSION OF THE BANKING ESTABLISHMENT

“These psychotic, 400-point rallies in the Dow do not augur renewed confidence. They are being driven almost entirely by short-covering, and even the otherwise clueless news anchors are starting to dismiss them as meaningless. One of these days, moments after the last surviving bear’s short position has been liquidated, stocks are going to fall so steeply that even the Plunge Protection Team will call for back-up. Then, the financial collapse that so many have been expecting will unfold in just a few days, with enough power to leave the global economy in ruins for a generation.”

'TODAY, I WEEP FOR MY COUNTRY': THE SPEECH GIVEN BY SEN. ROBERT BYRD ON THE SENATE FLOOR ON MARCH 19, 2003, JUST PRIOR TO THE U.S. INVASION OF IRAQ -- AND JOHN MCCAIN'S RESPONSE

But, today I weep for my country. I have watched the events of recent months with a heavy, heavy heart. No more is the image of America one of strong, yet benevolent peacekeeper. The image of America has changed. Around the globe, our friends mistrust us, our word is disputed, our intentions are questioned.

KAREN KWIATKOWSKI: THE SOLDIER WHO SPOKE OUT

Though a lifelong conservative, Kwiatkowski found herself appalled as the radical wing of the Bush administration, including her superiors in the Pentagon planning department, bulldozed internal dissent, overlooked its own intelligence and relentlessly pushed for confrontation with Iraq.

IRAQ WAR: A COLOSSAL FAILURE

About 4,000 American troops have died since our baseless invasion of Iraq, and the Department of Veterans Affairs is overwhelmed by the sheer volume and dire condition of wounded soldiers who manage to return alive.

Conservative estimates hold that nearly 80,000 Iraqi civilians have died, but a study published in 2006, which included those who have died of disease and other issues related to the war, indicated that 650,000 Iraqis had perished. About 2 million of the country's population has been internally displaced while 2.5 million have left Iraq.

"CEMETERY" FOR 3900 SIEGE VICTIMS IN THE GAZA STRIP

The siege of the Gaza Strip has lasted for more than 9 months now, and a new kind of target has become the “victims” of the siege...the 3900 factories and workshops that have been closed and / or completely destroyed by Israel.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ISRAEL: COMPANY IS COMING AND THEY ARE CARRYING UN FLAGS!

[Israel Palestine] As candidate McCain pandered to militants and fundamentalists during his trip to Jerusalem, giving firm "support for Israel's military response" [1] in Gaza, he ignored B'Tselem/the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in Occupied Palestine Report which affirms:

As of "27 February to the afternoon of 3 March, 106 Palestinians were killed in the Gaza Strip. Contrary to the Chief of Staff's contention that ninety percent were armed, at least fifty-four of the dead (twenty-five of them minors) did not take part in the hostilities. In addition, at least forty-six minors were wounded… including the killing of four children and wounding of two others while they played soccer in the street, east of the Jabalya refugee camp on 28 February. B'Tselem's investigation indicates that Qassam rockets may have been fired earlier about 100 meters from where the children were. However, no armed Palestinians were killed or injured in the incident." [2]

US-UK-AUSTRALIAN IRAQI HOLOCAUST AND IRAQI GENOCIDE

On the 5th anniversary of the illegal, war criminal, Australian, UK and US invasion of Iraq we see an ongoing Iraqi Holocaust and Iraqi Genocide - post-invasion non-violent and violent excess deaths 1.7-2.2 million, post-invasion under-5 infant deaths 0.6 million, and 4.5 million refugees out of a current population of about 28 million i.e. about one quarter of Iraqis DEAD or HOMELESS.

TODAY IS MARCH 19TH, STEP AWAY FROM THE MACHINE

Today is March 19th. We celebrate five years of bloody war and torture based on lies. These lies came from Michael Ledeen and various neo-con insurgents like Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Pearle, Douglas Feith and Dick Cheney, operating in the United States government at various agencies. Well… the Afghan war began on October 7th, 2001 and that was also based on a lie so actually we have had around 6.5 years of bloody war and torture.

"THE FUTURE OF FOOD"

ZEITGEIST ADDENDUM — TO BE RELEASED OCTOBER 2008

"Zeitgeist was created in the hope that it will inspire people to start looking at the world from a more critical perspective, and to relay the understanding that very often things are not what the population at large think they are. The true understanding of events, both historical and modern, are crucial to the development, awareness and spirituality of the human condition."

THE RIGHT TO BARE ARMS

The Founding Fathers used the word militia, it meant something different to them than what it means to us now. What is the militia? You’ve got to understand what the militia is in order to understand the wording of the 2nd amendment. In May of 1792, five months after the adoption of the 2nd Amendment, the Militia Act was passed. That act distinguished between the enrolled militia and the organized militia. Before the passing- of that act, there was only the enrolled militia, which was the body of all able-bodied men between the ages of 17 and 44, inclusively, and it is that militia to which the 2nd Amendment refers. It couldn’t refer to the organized militia because it didn’t exist yet.

The 2nd Amendment was to ensure that this body of citizens is armed and that’s why the Founding Fathers thought to place it in the Bill of Rights. Legally, both militias still exist.

17 and 44,that’s just the ages of the body of men constituting the militia. The amendment says the people can both keep and bear arms. It’s usually been construed to mean all the people. If one cares to read The Militia Act, it explains what the militia meant to the Founding Fathers. It also shows that the 2nd Amendment came before Federal law created the organized militia and provide evidence that what they referred to as the enrolled militia—the body of citizens—were allowed to arm themselves.

Because all that happened 200 years ago, the meaning of Militia means something else today. It means the military and that’s where the confusion come in. The law hasn’t changed even if we decide the word means something new to us, you can’t use the new definition to change the intent of the Amendment. It’s not just my opinion, The Supreme Court has ruled that the words in the Constitution mean what the Founding Fathers said they meant, and we can’t go changing or amending the Constitution by giving new meanings or new shades of meaning to the words. And, if you think about it, it makes sense; otherwise, our rights really mean nothing. Congress or any other governing body can deny you the right to free speech, freedom of religion, a trial by jury, or whatever else it wanted just by claiming the words now have a new meaning. An oppressive government could change the Constitution without ever having to go through the bothersome ritual of submitting it to us, the people, for our approval. And, in the end, the Constitution and, in particular, the Bill of Rights are there for our protection, not for the benefit of the government or those who run it.

Even if they are right and the 2nd Amendment refers only to the National Guard, the state police, or some other uniformed military or police organization we’d still have the right to keep and bear arms. We don’t need the 2nd Amendment. Because the Founding Fathers believed we had that right. They spoke about it and wrote about it and that’s enough. Don’t think so? Can you find anything in the 2nd Amendment, or any other part of the Constitution, that says the individual can’t have arms? And do you also understand that the Bill of Rights is not the source of our rights. It’s not even a complete list of our rights.

We do not get our rights from the Bill of Rights. I’m saying this because the Founding Fathers did not believe we got our rights from the Bill of Rights. Nor did they believe they came about as a result of being American, Christian, of European decent, or white. They believed everyone had these rights even if they lived in Europe, China, or the moon. They called them Natural Rights. Where these rights were not allowed, they believed they still existed but were denied.

It’s a question as to whether or not our rights exist apart from government. Let me ask you this, In a country where children have no civil rights, do they still have a right not to be molested? Do women in countries where they have a second-citizen status have the right not to be abused by their husbands, even if the government won’t protect them? Is it too much of a stretch for you to understand that the Founding Fathers believed everyone has the right to free speech, freedom of religion, the right to fair trials?

Take it a step further. If the government passed a law tomorrow that said we didn’t have the right to free speech, or the right to free worship, or freedom of the press, would those rights no longer exist, or would they be simply denied? If the Constitution is amended depriving us of our rights, do those rights cease to exist? According to the guys who set up this country, is yes, we would still have those rights. We’re just being denied them. Rights are something that come with being human. The Founders never believed we got them from the government. If and when the United States goes away, the rights will still be there.

Then why have a Bill of Rights? You’re not the first person to ask that. Men like Alexander Hamilton asked it. He and many others thought having a Bill of rights was dangerous. They were afraid that the existence of a Bill of Rights as a part of our Constitution implied that the government not only had the right to change them, but that any rights not listed there were fair game for the government to deny. And, as a matter of fact, that’s exactly what has happened. The government seems to have set itself up to be an interpreter of our rights; it acts as if it is also the source of our rights, and whatever rights weren’t mentioned in the Bill of Rights, the government has seen fit to declare exist only at its discretion.

Then how do we know what our rights are in court? Have you ever read the Bill of Rights? Specifically, have you ever read the 9th and 10th Amendments? It’s important to understand what they say and know why they are written the way they are because they tie in with how the Founding Fathers viewed our rights and how they expected us to view them. They were put there to quell the fears of men like Hamilton who were afraid that any rights not mentioned in the Bill of Rights would be usurped by the government.

The 9th says:

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

“This means that any rights not mentioned in the Bill of Rights are not to be denied to the people.

The 10th says:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

So any powers not specifically given to the Federal government are not powers it can usurp. It’s enough to show the Founding Fathers thought we had a right for it to fall under the protection of the 9th or 10th Amendment. This means that the Founders didn’t even have to specify we have the right to free speech, religion, jury trials, or anything else. To understand what they felt our rights were, all you had to do was show what they said our rights are. Any rights in the first eight Amendments are just redundant with what the Founding Fathers considered Natural Rights.

Then why do we have a Bill of Rights? Because even though Hamilton and others feared having one, most of the Founding Fathers were sure that without one the government would eventually take all of our rights. There are actually rights not mentioned in the Constitution that we’ve been denied? The Founding Fathers felt we had a right to unrestricted travel. So, now we have driver’s licenses, automobile registrations, and passports. They also felt we had property rights, so Civil Forfeiture or Civil Seizure laws, now exercised by the Feds and the states, are actually illegal under both the 9th and 10th Amendment. And if the Congress or even the Supreme Court decides the 2nd Amendment only refers to formal military organizations, we still have the right to keep and bear arms, because the Founding Fathers considered it a natural right. And if you don’t believe it, read what the Founding Fathers said in their papers, their letters, and their debates in both Congress and the state legislatures.

Here’s one quote from the Founders:

To suppose arms in the hands of citizens, to be used at individual discretion, except in private self-defense, or by partial orders of towns, countries or districts of a state, is to demolish every constitution, and lay the laws prostrate, so that liberty can be enjoyed by no man; it is a dissolution of the government. The fundamental law of the militia is, that it be created, directed and commanded by the laws, and ever for the support of the laws. That was said by John Adams in A Defense Of The Constitution.

Here’s another one:

The Constitution shall never be construed to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms.

That was said by Samuel Adams, John Adams’ second or third cousin, during Massachusetts’ U.S. Constitution ratification convention in 1788

If you really want to hear what they had to say, here are a few by Jefferson:

No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.

“He wrote this as part of the proposed Virginia Constitution, in 1776

Here’s one more. It’s Jefferson quoting Cesare Beccaria—a Milanese criminologist whom he admired who was also his contemporary— in On Crimes and Punishment:

Laws that forbid the carrying of arms...disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes...Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.

I think it’s pretty clear that Jefferson felt we had the right to keep and bear arms for both personal protection and as a safeguard against tyranny.

Here’s one by Thomas Paine that comes from his

Thoughts On Defensive War written in 1775:

Arms discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property. Horrid mischief would ensue were the law-abiding deprived of the use of them.

Here’s one of my favorites:

To disarm the people; that it was the best and most effectual way to enslave them.

That was by George Mason when the Constitution was being debated.

Who, was George Mason? He’s the most underrated and unsung of all the Founding Fathers. Jefferson drew on him when composing the Declaration of Independence; his doctrine of inalienable rights was not only the basis for the Virginia Bill of Rights in 1776, but other states used them as the models for their own Bill of Rights, and James Madison drew upon them freely while composing the Bill of Rights for the United States.

He suffered bad health and had all kinds of family problems, so he never attained any office outside of Virginia—other than his membership to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. But he was the most vocal of the Founders on individual rights, and the other Founding Fathers recognized him as a force to be reckoned with. Without him, I can guarantee you that the United States would not be as free as it is now.

Even though a Southerner, Mason recognized the evils of slavery and the fact that slaves were entitled to the same rights as the rest of humanity. He also feared the Constitution because it didn’t do a better job of limiting the powers of the Federal government. He believed local government should be strong and the Federal government kept weak. He firmly believed in the power, the rights, and the integrity of the individual.

Here’s a quote by Elbridge Gerry, a representative to Congress from Massachusetts during the debates over the Bill of Rights. He’s also the man for whom gerrymandering is named because, as governor of Massachusetts, he tried to rig districts to favor his party. In this quote he was specifically referring to what we now call the 2nd Amendment:

What, Sir, is the use of a militia? It is to prevent the establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty...Whenever Governments mean to invade the rights and liberties of the people, they always attempt to destroy the militia, in order to raise an army upon their ruins.

That should also give you insight as to how the Founders defined the militia and why they thought it was important. One more, It’s kind of a long one, but it’s by James Madison, the guy who wrote the Constitution and actually put together the Bill of Rights.

The highest number to which a standing army can be carried in any country does not exceed one hundredth part of the souls, or one twenty-fifth part of the number able to bear arms. This portion would not yield, in the United States, an army of more than twenty-five or thirty thousand men. To these would be opposed a militia amounting to near half a million citizens with arms in their hands, officered by men chosen from among themselves, fighting for their common liberties and united and conducted by governments possessing their affections and confidence. It may well be doubted whether a militia thus circumstanced could ever be conquered by such a proportion of regular troops. Besides the advantage of being armed, it forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of.

The governments of Europe are afraid to trust the people with arms. If they did, the people would surely shake off the yoke of tyranny, as America did. Let us not insult the free and gallant citizens of America with the suspicion that they would be less able to defend the rights of which they would be in actual possession than the debased subjects of arbitrary power would be to rescue theirs from the hands of their oppressors.

I kind of like that one. I’ve got more, but I think that’s enough. I think you can see how the Founding Fathers felt about the right of individuals to have weapons. In fact, this whole debate over the right to arms is a recent one. In the last century, Americans would have been as amazed to find their right to have weapons a subject of debate as they would to have found their right to free speech or religion debated. There was no question to them, or to the Founders, that the right to keep and bear arms was one of the most fundamental— perhaps the most fundamental— of all civil rights.

A COMPANY PROMISES THE DEEPEST DATA MINING YET

Amid debate over how much data companies like Google and Yahoo should gather about people who surf the Web, one new company is drawing attention — and controversy — by boasting that it will collect the most complete information of all.

The company, called Phorm, has created a tool that can track every single online action of a given consumer, based on data from that person’s Internet service provider. The trick for Phorm is to gain access to that data, and it is trying to negotiate deals with telephone and cable companies, like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast, that provide broadband service to millions.

SATELLITE PHOTO US EMBASSY BAGHDAD 26 FEB 2008

click headline for image -- ZDN

MAY 2, 2001: HIJACKER ALGHAMDI IS NOT STOPPED FROM ENTERING US DESPITE PRAISING BIN LADEN TO CUSTOMS OFFICIALS AND CUSTOMS INVESTIGATION

9/11 Hijackers Majed Moqed and Ahmed Alghamdi arrive in Washington, DC, on the same flight from London. Alghamdi tells the immigration inspector that Osama bin Laden is a good Muslim and that the media distorts facts about him, but is nevertheless allowed into the country. This incident will not be mentioned in the main 9/11 Commission Report or the Commission’s Terrorist Travel Monograph, but is mentioned in an FBI timeline of hijacker movements that the 9/11 Commission will frequently use as a source.

SUMMER 1999: PERSIAN GULF SHEIKHS REPORTEDLY GIVE BIN LADEN $50 MILLION IN SINGLE BANK TRANSFER

In the summer of 1999, it is reported that a high-powered US delegation from the National Security Council, State Department, and other agencies is visiting the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain to investigate reports that $50 million has been given to Osama bin Laden. Apparently the money mostly comes from rich Saudis and is sent through the Dubai Islamic Bank in a single bank transfer.

SHORTLY AFTER AUGUST 21, 1997: ADDRESS BOOK LINKS AL-QAEDA FIGURE TO SAUDI BILLIONAIRE BANKER AND SAAR NETWORK

The address book of Wadih El-Hage, bin Laden’s former personal secretary, is seized in a US intelligence raid in Nairobi, Kenya (see Shortly After August 21, 1997). One of the contacts in the book is billionaire Salah al-Rajhi. He and his brother Sulaiman al-Rajhi cofounded the Al-Rajhi Banking & Investment Corp., which will have an estimated $28 billion in assets in 2006.