The American Freedom Network

Abuse of Law

This headline,”Growing Number of Prosecutions for Videotaping the Police“, should concern liberty loving Americans.  Executed most frequently as “wiretapping” crimes it is abused by police and state attorneys to prevent free citizens from being able to watch and report on those vested with enormous authority.  Protecting individual citizens’ privacy I’m all for.  Those paid by the citizens, vested with the power of life, death and taking liberty should be subject to every form of monitoring that doesn’t directly expose an investigation.

What do you think?
For Freedom!

Posted in Crime, News | 1 Comment »

Welcome to Sherwood!

The Sheriff of Nottingham would appear to have nothing on the municipal government of Dearborn Heights, Michigan.  There, the police have doubled the number of tickers written over the previous year’s total.  Unless one assumes that asphalt  lawlessness is on the rise, or that traffic flow doubled in an area just outside Detroit that’s losing population, one might do well to shave with Occam’s Razor, and conclude that the police are writing more tickets per motorist.  Now the City is being sued over allegations that not only are the police under a ticket-writing quota system that amounts to “an unconstitutional commercial enterprise,” but that one over-agressive officer even followed a man into his home, gun drawn, to issue a citation for not coming to a full halt at a stop sign.  Like the Sheriff of Nottingham’s victims, these unfortunate motorists get a haircut in court, but then their insurance rates rise.  This is another example of a revenue-starved local government using the police as milkmen for the cash cows behind the wheel.

To avoid becoming one of the victims of this type of scam, a citizen need not go to the lengths of Robin Hood.  One ought to be active in local politics, and even if 99% of the tickets are given to non -residents, one should let city council know that this is unacceptable, and that if they won’t stop it, their replacements will.  One can, as a non-resident, let businesses in the city in question know that you’ll no longer shop there, and why.  (The local chamber of commerce might be worth contacting, too, especially if you have organized with other victims beforehand, as there is weight in numbers.)  At the more extreme end, those who can afford to do so might consider seeking legal advice about a lawsuit.  Even in defeat, the damage done to a city like Dearborn Heights by a suit like this could make their victory a Pyrrhic one.  Therein may the surest path to lasting justice.

Posted in Activism, Crime, Government, Law, News, Politics | Comments Off

“Entertain conjecture of a time…”

…..As Shakespeare asked his viewers to transport themselves back, with him and his fellow actors, to the heroic days of Henry V, so now I ask you to remember July 4, 1776 and to consider how much the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence changed our world.  (Ponder, too, how much our world looks like theirs did when they chose to commit ‘lives, fortunes and sacred honor’ to the chance of revolution.  As they defied the world’s greatest nation to be free, we ought to work to retain, restore and pass on those freedoms to those who come after us, even if those who came before haven’t always done their duty to us by doing so for us.)

[Thanks to the archives.gov for the following:]

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776. The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within. He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands. He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers. He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance. He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures. He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power. He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation: For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States: For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world: For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury: For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies: For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments: For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation. He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands. He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions. In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends. We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor. The 56 signatures on the Declaration appear in the positions indicated: Column 1 Georgia: Button Gwinnett Lyman Hall George Walton Column 2 North Carolina: William Hooper Joseph Hewes John Penn South Carolina: Edward Rutledge Thomas Heyward, Jr. Thomas Lynch, Jr. Arthur Middleton Column 3 Massachusetts: John Hancock Maryland: Samuel Chase William Paca Thomas Stone Charles Carroll of Carrollton Virginia: George Wythe Richard Henry Lee Thomas Jefferson Benjamin Harrison Thomas Nelson, Jr. Francis Lightfoot Lee Carter Braxton Column 4 Pennsylvania: Robert Morris Benjamin Rush Benjamin Franklin John Morton George Clymer James Smith George Taylor James Wilson George Ross Delaware: Caesar Rodney George Read Thomas McKean Column 5 New York: William Floyd Philip Livingston Francis Lewis Lewis Morris New Jersey: Richard Stockton John Witherspoon Francis Hopkinson John Hart Abraham Clark Column 6 New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett William Whipple Massachusetts: Samuel Adams John Adams Robert Treat Paine Elbridge Gerry Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins William Ellery Connecticut: Roger Sherman Samuel Huntington William Williams Oliver Wolcott New Hampshire: Matthew Thornton

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Eminent Domain Abuse in Michigan

Despite Michigan’s having enacted legislation to prohibit state and local government from seizing land in order to give it to a private owner for ‘economic development’ under the auspicies of the ‘eminent domain’ clause in the United States Constitution, abuse of the power to take continues.  Grand Valley State University threatens a neighbor with eminent domain action unless they sell a building the owners bought years ago, and which they plan to renovate as an apartment/office building, unless they sell.  Offering a ‘deal’ and a threat together reminds one all too easily of the Godfather’s famous words:  ”I’m gonna make you an offer you can’t refuse.”  It should be obvious that the owner negotiates at a disadvantage when the ‘sale’ is a foregone conclusion.

It should also be obvious that Grand valley state University could look for a different location.  They choose to make their convenience the sole item of interest in deciding where to locate their new Seidman College of Business.  Even if this power grab is legal, it is not moral, and GVSU show itself to be a bully and a bad neighbor.  (How ironic, at a time when Wall Street bankers run amok, working hand-inhand with their former colleagues in government to shaft us, at a time when calls for a return to old-fashioned ethics in public life echo throughout the land, that a ‘College of Business’ would find a new home by working hand-in-hand with government to shaft a neighbor.  One wonders if this lesson will be lost on the faculty and students who matriculate there.)

Perhaps a university with a previously good reputation will listen to reason and relent.  As I pointed out when I wrote them, there are plenty of empty buildings and willing owners, so why not be a good neighbor?  Here’s what I wrote:

Posted in Activism, Constitution, Government, Law, News | 3 Comments »

Modernized Parable

Thanks to SSG for sending this along…

The ANT AND THE GRASSHOPPER
This one is a little different …Two Different Versions …
Two Different Morals

OLD VERSION

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.
Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed.

The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.

MORAL OF THE OLD STORY:
Be responsible for yourself!

MODERN VERSION

The ant works hard in the withering heat and the rain all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should beallowed to be warm and well fed while he is cold and starving.

CBS, NBC , PBS, CNN,and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.America is stunned by the sharp contrast.
How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?
Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper and everybody cries when they sing, ‘It’s Not Easy Being Green…’

ACORN stages a demonstration in front of the ant’s house where the news stations film the group singing, “We shall overcome.”

Then Rev. Jeremiah Wright has the group kneel down to pray for the grasshopper’s sake.
President Obama condemns the ant and blames President Bush, President Reagan, Christopher Columbus, and the Pope for the grasshopper’s plight.

Nancy Pelosi & Harry Reid exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper,and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share.
Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity and Anti-Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer.

The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and,having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Government Green Czar and given to the grasshopper.

The story ends as we see the grasshopper and his free-loading friends finishing up the last bits of the ant’s food while the government house he is in, which, as you recall, just happens to be the ant’s old house,crumbles around them because the grasshopper doesn’t maintain it.

The ant has disappeared in the snow, never to be seen again.

The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident, and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the ramshackle, once prosperous and peaceful, neighborhood.
The entire Nation collapses bringing the rest of the free world with it.

MORAL OF THE STORY:
Be careful how you vote in 2010.

Posted in Culture, Economics | Comments Off

Gen. McCrystal Has To Go

The recent flap over Gen. Stanley McCrystal’s Rolling Stone profile will remind many of the Truman-MacArthur confrontation during the Korean War.  Then, as now, as always, the civilian Commander-in-Chief has to be supreme.  In or out of government, no real leader can tolerate subordinates disrespecting the, their team or their policies.  Grant that Gen. McCrystal’s criticisms are valid; grant that the Administration is mismanaging the war; grant that he may have forgotten more about war than Team Obama collectively knows, and one still arrives at the same conclusion as if none of the foregoing was true.  Insubordination, especially in wartime, cannot be tolerated.  The Army does not lack for talented and experienced generals; America can better survive the loss of Gen. McCrystal’s services than it can have its’ President, be he ever so wrong-headed, compromised by a display of disunion and and weakness.  It is best for all involved if the good General enjoys the retirement that his heretofore exemplary service has earned him – the sooner, the better.

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The New Robber Barons

Many of learned about the ‘robber barons’ of medieval times, who would waylay travelers passing by their castles for taxes, tribute or plunder [the differences are in the eyes of the beholder] before letting them go on their way.  The term resurfaced again in our 19th century, as a reference to the industrialists who sought, and sometimes achieved, monopoly or syndicate control over certain industries.  Although the appellation was of their enemies’ choosing, it reflected an ability to abuse power to exact above [free] market prices for their goods and services from all who did business with them.

Today, as we descend into another dark age, the robber barons return.  Unlike their 19th century namesakes, one cannot escape these latter-day ‘Robin Hoods,’ if, unlike the hero of Merry England, he’s actually the Sheriff of Nottingham, or, say, Saginaw County, Michigan. The good Sheriff there seized flashy cars from drug dealers and then uses them, marked as seized property, for law enforcement.  If the cars were forfeited ,after due process of law, as punishment for a crime, that would be one thing:  What is implied here is that it was seized through a heinous process known as ‘civil forfeiture,’ whereby the executive Branch, a.k.a. law enforcement, also becomes the de facto Judicial Branch, sitting in judgement, taking without trial or conviction from the accused, because they deem them guilty.  [Note:  Your property can be seized, and does not have to be returned, even if no charges are ever filed.]  This in no way is meant to defend drug dealers, pimps, or others engaged in criminal activity; it is meant to protest the flagrant violation of core Anglo-American judicial principles.  We are innocent unless proven guilty, beyond a reasonable doubt, in a court of law, before a jury of our peers.  Our goods can not be seized unless a warrant has been issued by a judge describing what is to be seized, and then only upon presentation to the judge in question of evidence of probable cause of a criminal act having been committed.  This is American Government 101.  It is also [or should be] Government 101 to know, per Ex Parte Milligan, that the Constitution is always in force, everywhere in america, for as long as the courts are in session – i.e., unless invasion or insurrection close them by force.  This is not the case, and has not been, except within the territory controlled by the Confederate States of America during the Civil War.  Therefore, civil forfeiture is clearly unAmerican, regardless of the intentions of those who practice it.  (And isn’t it nice to have all that seized property and ‘drug money’ that you don’t have to ask the legislature or the voters for, the times being what they are?)

If you aren’t concerned about the fate of actual or alleged drug dealers becoming yours, perhaps you should be concerned about another form of literal highway robbery:  Ohio’s Supreme Court decided that an officer’s judgement that you are speeding is sufficient to convict, without the need for other proof – radar, in other words.  Now it stands to reason that an experienced state trooper can estimate a car’s speed, and if a motorist is going 100 miles an hour, most of us would know that he was speeding, too.  To issue a ticket, carrying a fine, with implications for higher insurance premiums, is another mater, especially if the infraction is another thing. If a trooper’s word, without check, balance, or recourse, is sufficient to ticket, it invites abuse.  Cash-strapped police departments should not have to face this temptation.  [Accepting GPS data might be a valid way for courts to provide balance here, but not everyone has GPS in their car, so this would be an imperfect countermeasure.]

Virginia has gotten into the act, too.  They hunt motorists with admitted revenue-raising operations like ‘Operation, Air, Land and Speed.’ 15 miles over the speed limit now equals ‘reckless driving,’ and carries a $2,500 fine.  [Your insurance company will doubtless add to your financial woes, once they find out.]  California has ‘Sobriety Checkpoints‘ that serve as revenue-generators.  A 1990 Rhenquist Court decision [MichiganDept. of  State Polics v. Sitz] held that being stopped for no reason whatsoever, except that you happen to be on a road where a ‘sobriety checkpoint’ is operating, is not ‘unreasonable search and seizure.’  Bunk.  it’s un-American on it’s face!

What can be done to combat this rash of governmental knavery?  Educate yourself.  Support elected officials who expose abuses like these and propose solutions. One such politician is Michigan State Representative Rick Jones, an ex-Eaton County Sheriff, who introduced legislation to outlaw ‘speed traps,’ by requiring municipalities to adhere to state guidance in setting speed limits.  The bills would make local governments comply with 1985 legislation, and would help police officers avoid being used as unwilling tax collectors.  [Many officers would rather not write 'gotcha' tickets; they got into law enforcement to do better and nobler things.]

a little public pressure can go a long way.  the bills, which have not yet become law, have caused Lansing’s municipal government [Mayor, Virg Bernero is, incidentally, a candidate for Governor] to back off on his speed traps.  A small victory in a large war for our liberties, but an example and an encouragement, nonetheless.

Posted in Activism, Cars, Constitution, Courts, Crime, Government, Law, News, Politics | Comments Off

20 Minutes of Sense

Dr. Walter Williams interviews Kentucky Senate candidate Rand Paul. The lefties just hate to hear about constitutional government and fiscal responsibility. No goodies for the sheople is just so mean.

Posted in Economics, Elections, Media Reviews, Politics, Reviews | 2 Comments »

Interesting Point – What do YOU think?

Dr. Thomas Sowell makes (again!) a hugely valid observation point in his “Random Thoughts” this week.

“After North Korea torpedoed a South Korean ship, killing 46 sailors, was there even one-tenth the outrage that is ringing out loudly around the world because of 9 deaths that resulted from Israeli commandoes intercepting a ship heading for the Gaza strip?”

Why do people choose to hate a democracy fighting for survival but yawn over the acts of a heinous ruler of a prison state?

Do tell us.  We DARE YOU to participate.

Posted in Internet Reviews, World Affairs | 1 Comment »

Encouraging National Suicide

Palestinian apologists just don’t get it.  The Nation calls the Israeli blockade of Gaza “inexcusable”.  They bemoan the plight of the people in Gaza due to the Israeli opposition to the ruling Hamas terrorists.  Those people ELECTED the Hamas terrorists.  As the Obamessiah’s legions are fond of saying, elections have consequences.

Of course, to The Nation, supporters of Israel and evangelical Christians are uniformly “right wing”.

The Nation claims the media “twist and distort” the real situation in Palestinian/Israeli relations.  Of course The Nation also makes reference to “the Freedom Flotilla” and “the humanitarian” flotilla.  A flotilla who’s denizens attacked paint gun armed Israeli soldiers with Iron pipes and knives.  A flotilla populated with Al-Qaeda “commandos”.  A flotilla that refused inspection for weapons.

The Nation fails to mention the rocket attacks emanating from Gaza.  A Gaza demanded by Palestinians in exchange for “peace”, granted by Israel.  The “peace” turned out to be rocket and terrorist attacks from Gaza into Israel targeting innocent civilians.  Hamas is a terrorist organization who’s stated goals are the destruction of Israel and its people.

What is the real information about the incident and what’s the true state of affairs in Gaza?

Let’s hear from some of you Palestinian apologists.

Posted in International, Islam, Israel, Middle East, News | 2 Comments »