The Modern day "Liberty Tree" is being chopped down

In 1765 the British government imposed the” Stamp Act” on the American colonies. All legal documents, permits, contracts, newspapers, pamphlets, and playing cards in the American colonies were required to carry a tax stamp. Because the Act applied to papers, newspapers, advertisements, and other publications, it was viewed by the colonists as a means of censorship, or a "knowledge tax," on the rights of the colonists to write, read and speak freely.

In the summer of 1765 the citizens of Boston began demonstrating against the Stamp Act. Then in August of that year, a group of men calling themselves the “Sons of Liberty” gathered in Boston common under a large elm tree near Hanover Square to protest the hated Stamp Act. The Sons of Liberty concluded their protest by hanging two tax collectors in effigy from the tree. The tree became known as the "Liberty Tree." The tree was often decorated with banners and lanterns. People would post their grievances anonymously on it. Assemblies were regularly held under its branches to express their views and vent emotions. A flagstaff was raised within the Liberty Tree's branches and when a yellow flag was raised, the Sons of Liberty were to meet.

When the news of the Boston Liberty Tree spread throughout the colonies, local patriots in each of the 13 colonies formed local chapters of the Sons of Liberty and identified a large tree or erected a pole to be used as their meeting place. In those times, holding an unauthorized assembly was dangerous and against the King’s law and carried threats of imprisonment or even death. The casual appearance of a group of people chatting beneath a tree was much safer.

In the years leading up to the Revolutionary War, the British made the Liberty Tree an object of ridicule. British soldiers tarred and feathered a man named Thomas Ditson, and forced him to march in front of the tree. During the siege of Boston, about the last day of August 1775, a party of Colonial British Loyalists led by Job Williams defiantly cut the tree down in an act of spite, knowing what it represented to the colonists, and used the tree for firewood. This act only further enraged the colonists. As resistance to the British grew, flags bearing a representation of the Liberty Tree were flown to symbolize the unwavering spirit of liberty. These flags were later a common sight during the battles of the American Revolution.

When the Revolutionary War was won and the Founding Fathers set out to establish the Law of the new nation, they envisioned that the rights of the citizens to have the freedom of speech and of the press were the very foundation of this country that when they created the Constitution, they put those rights and freedoms as the very first one in the Bill of Rights.

Fast forward to the present day…We have taken the fact that the freedom of speech and of the press for granted for over 220 years. We believed that there was nothing that could threaten those liberties. In the era of the internet, Liberty Trees is no longer a necessity. Websites in the virtual world have taken the place of where the people can go to post their grievances anonymously and assemble to express their views and vent emotions. Just like my "blawg" site you are reading now...

This fundamental right is being threatened not from a foreign country, but from within our own government. A US Senate committee has approved a wide-ranging cyber-security bill that some have suggested would give the US president the authority to shut down parts of the Internet for up to 4 months. Its called the “Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act” The bill creates and gives the new “National Center for Cyber-security and Communications” "significant authority" over critical infrastructure, but doesn't define what critical infrastructure is covered. Without a definition of critical infrastructure, it includes elements of the Internet that Americans rely on every day to engage in free speech and to access information. This is the very definition of tyranny…controlling the people's means of communication. Regulating their right to free speech and press. This legislation and ones like it must be stopped if this country is to survive intact for future generations to live in freedom as the Founding Fathers intended.

"And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms....The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants" (Thomas Jefferson)

http://www.prisonplanet.com/obama-can-shut-down-internet-for-4-months-under-new-emergency-powers.html

Illegal Immigration and Constitutional Supremacy…two separate arguments.

Our Federal government has turned a corner; they have just become the enemy of the states and citizens of the United States of America. The Department of Justice has announced that it will sue Arizona over SB 1070, the newly passed law that MIRRORS federal immigration law! It simply gives local authorities the lawful ability to ascertain citizenship. This lawsuit is not about “law” this is about politics and this administration’s immigration agenda of amnesty-for-votes, nothing more. Obama’s supporters are expecting some quid-pro-quo and this charade at tax-payer’s expense is just to appease the Hispanic masses that are opposed ANY immigration law that doesn’t provide for open borders and easy citizenship. The federal government would rather demonize a state law for upholding Federal law than do it themselves and portrait the illegal invaders as victims of an “unjust law”.

The federal government has become the “anti-government” of a common sense minded society. They are doing the exact opposite from what common sense tells you they should be doing and that is supporting Arizona, giving Gov. Brewer the troops she asked for and closing the border! This is the direct consequence of having the 1960’s counter revolution radicals who are now “the man” in the position of national leadership and hard working, common sense people are now considered the “extremists and radicals”.

Numerous cities and municipalities in California have started boycotting Arizona in response to the new law. They are over $29 billion in the red as a big result of illegal invaders sucking their social programs dry. San Francisco and San Diego are what is known as “sanctuary cities” where illegal invaders can live without fear that they will get deported. The moronic irony of all that is, that California Penal Code 834(b) is basically the same as Arizona’s SB 1070, except that their law expressly prohibits “sanctuary cities”! Talk about calling the kettle black! So my question is…why isn’t this administration targeting ALL the states that have similar state immigration laws? Answer; because it’s not about law…well, you know the rest.

Read for yourself:
California Penal Code Part 2, Title 3, Chapter 5 Section 834(b)

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=pen&group=00001-01000&file=833-851.90

The government claims that the Constitution’s Supremacy Law is the reason that they are suing. But by just reading the US Constitution, you can see that this argument isn’t viable because the Constitution says that the States cannot make any laws that are CONTRARY to federal law. Arizona law is not contrary to federal law…it mirrors it. Just as most states have in their state constitutions that the citizens have the right to bear arms as it states in the US Constitution’s second amendment.

Article 6 - Debts, Supremacy, Oaths
“This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.” (emphasis added)

The government also argues that it is the responsibility of the federal government to regulate immigration. This is constitutionally correct. However, SB 1070 has absolutely no provision to grant citizenship…only to turn over apprehended illegal invaders to the Government for disposition. That’s it.

Article 1, section 8 Powers of Congress
“To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States:” (emphasis added)

Also, it is my opinion that Arizona does not constitutionally require permission to deploy the Arizona National Guard to the border according to the US Constitution…

Article 1, section 10 Powers Prohibited of States
“No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, lay any duty of Tonnage, keep Troops, or Ships of War in time of Peace, enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State, or with a foreign Power, or engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.” (Emphasis added)

Do not be fooled by what this administration or the media is saying. They are spinning the truth to fit their agenda as stated above. Arizona is being INVADED and is at war! The drug cartels and the undocumented aliens are ravaging the border towns at the cost of hundreds of millions of dollars and in both Mexican and American lives. Not to mention the fact that there have been Pakistani and other Middle Eastern foreigners apprehended coming across the border into Arizona. The Mexican drug cartels have recently said they are going to start using snipers to shoot police and border guards from across the border. If this isn’t an invasion and war by definition, I don’t know what is!

We have an ass-backward administration. They are complete amateurs at just about everything that they do and are bankrupting and ruing this great country from within for us and our future generations.

The question that MUST be seriously asked: How do we stop this insanity? Answer…what does your heart and gut tell you must be done?

Wondered why the borders are not secure yet?

Have you been angered at why this administration hasn’t secured the border yet? Well, get ready for your head to explode (watch the video)…On June 18, 2010, Arizona Republican Senator Jon Kyl told the audience at a North Tempe Tea Party town hall meeting that during a private, one-on-one meeting with President Obama in the Oval Office, the President told him, regarding securing the southern border with Mexico, “The problem is, . . . if we secure the border, then you all won’t have any reason to support comprehensive immigration reform. In other words, they’re holding it hostage. They don’t want to secure the border unless and until it is combined with comprehensive immigration reform.”

There you have it…the Obama administration is literally using American and Mexican lives down on the border in a quid-pro-quo disturbing game in his Chicago style thugocrisy. This president doesn’t care one bit about what is right and good for America! He only cares about getting his democratic socialist agenda passed even if the vast majority of Americans are opposed to it. This evil political mind-set is the epitome of why voting this November and in 2012 against these vile, big government,nanny state radicals is VITAL for the very survival of the United States of America.

Everything is not as it seems...or should be

Sometime during the last half-century, America – the most magnificent and prosperous nation in the world – was stolen.

Just 50 years ago, in the 1950s, America was a great place. It was a decent place. Children got good educations in the public schools. Even blue-collar fathers brought home middle-class incomes, so moms could stay home with the kids. Television shows reflected sound, moral, traditional values.

Where did it all go? How did that America become the sleazy, decadent place we live in today – so different that those who grew up prior to the '60s feel like it's a foreign country? Did it just happen?

NO! It didn't just happen. In fact, a deliberate agenda was followed to steal our culture and leave a new and very different one in its place. The story of how and why is one of the most important parts of our nation's history – and it is a story almost no one knows. The people behind it wanted it that way.

Today in the age of Obama, millions of Americans are "waking up" to this stealth infiltration and subversion of their beloved country and are appalled at what they see: Not only is their government in the hands of the leftist radicals, but virtually all of our nation's major institutions – from the public education system to our colleges and universities, from the news media to the entertainment industry, from the unions to our major philanthropic foundations, even many of our churches – have also been captivated by this same destructive ideology all in the progressive name of “social justice”.

Here's the hard and disturbing truth, the same 'isms' that we fought to contain overseas – whether you call it Marxism, socialism, or progressivism – has been slowly infiltrating and subverting America for decades. The final piece of the puzzle – the federal government – fell into leftists' radical hands like a ripe piece of fruit in November 2008.

Obama’s agenda can be defined in two words ... redistributive rights. Once he achieves this... he gains control of all in all ways he foresees doing.

The redistributive change begins with the banks.
Take the big banks ... bolster them in any way you must ….then methodically begin closing the lesser banks. Keep a few around to use for your purposes… telling them who to makes loans to and under what conditions.

Bail out as many companies as you can then take full control of them .. using the bailout money as your reason… destroying the economy as the people have built it … then offer money to those whom have been destroyed .. money to use to retrain them in lines of work approved by the state government. .. which in turn has become beholden to the federal government for money taken in return for doing its bidding.

Redistributive wealth means one thing and one thing only... complete and total government control.

That is Obama’s agenda … and there is not one of us who can use the excuse any more that we do not know … for he has said it and he is doing all he can now to achieve it.
Did people get the government they deserve ? Did we deserve this one as it was voted in by people who had been put to sleep … by a blind trust that came from our sense of security in our freedom as we went on with our busy day to day lives … or perhaps through a lack of attention on what was going on around us brought on by an overdose of mind numbing ”entertainment”?

Our tax code is a prime example of redistribution of wealth. My wife and I paid over $19,000 in federal taxes and still owed over $1900. However, I prepared a friend of the family’s sister’s income taxes for her. She is a single mother of two who only paid $700 in federal taxes and got back…$6500! You tell me, isn’t there something wrong with this picture?

If enough people are still asleep then this government stays in power after November of this year... then we will surely deserve all that comes with it… and that will not be good by any measure of common sense.

Wake up … America … and stay awake! Be vigilant for the wolf is at the door...

Usurpation eradicated by Nullification

Our Constitution which is the supreme law of the land, created a federal government of strictly limited, enumerated powers when it was ratified by the people’s delegates in their respective state conventions. These states were not created by the Constitution, because they already existed.

If there is a term that I wish would become a household word to be used again by every American in their daily political discussions, it would be the word “usurpation”.
Usurpation is the unauthorized, unlawful exercise of power. Whenever a person, department or branch of the government (federal, state, or local) usurps, they assume un-delegated powers and are therefore acting outside the law.

As part of this new constitutional contract between the people of the several states, their respective state governments and the federal government, the people of each state (as opposed to one American people as a whole), delegated a few, carefully chosen and defined powers to the new federal government. They did so with the understanding that these powers could be revoked if necessary. Furthermore, all the other powers which they did not loan to the federal government, they either retained for themselves or delegated back to their state governments.

Whenever the people who make up the federal government, either as individuals, as departments or as branches, exercise power not expressly delegated to them as specified in the Constitution, they are usurping the authority of either the states or the people. Why? Because as the 10th Amendment makes it clear:
“All 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.”

George Washington warned against the dangers of usurpation:
“If in the opinion of the People the distribution or modification of the Constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the Constitution designates. But let there be no change by usurpation; for though this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed.”

“Nullification” is a state’s decision to render a particular federal law that it deems unconstitutional void and inoperative, or non-effective, within the boundaries of that state. It is a process which can unfold in a variety of ways. It may involve formal legislation, or it may not. I could include court battles, but not necessarily. Interposition by state and local officials, such as your state’s Attorney General or elected county sheriff might be required, but not always.

I’m very encouraged by what I call the “Great American Awakening” in the fact that there have been recent state laws that have been passed that use the nullification process in support of the Second Amendment. These laws are known as the Firearms Freedom Acts (FFA).

The law declares that firearms manufactured in the state, and which remain in the state, are exempt from United States federal firearms regulations, provided that these items are clearly stamped "Made in Montana" or what ever state it was made in, on a central metallic part. So far, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Idaho, Utah, Tennessee and my favorite, Arizona have all passed the FFA. 19 other states have introduced FFA legislation and 4 more states say that they intend to.

This administration is usurping power that it does not rightfully wield in order to take more and more of your freedoms away. Just voting them out in November 2010 & 2012 isn’t enough. Each and every state must fully acknowledge that it is they who wield the real power, not the federal government. Until that time comes to pass, we are all living under despot rule without ever really knowing it. But I guarantee that our Founding Fathers would have realized it by now. It’s time to once again be “We the People” not “We the Sheeple”.