In Germany they first came for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me -
and by that time no one was left to speak up.
Pastor Martin Niemöller
Then they came for the private barter currency maker from Indiana...
and
the "people's" presidential candidate made principled speeches about money.
Now that Dr. Paul occupies center stage on the world's emerging pathway to political and economic liberation, why won't he at least speak up for widely known and respected immediate victims of wanton government aggression? I mean in particular the federal raid and confiscation operation on the Liberty Dollar (LD) organization conducted November 14, 2007. The only link I've seen is this video posted November 11/21/07 in which Ron more or less disclaims any connection or personal interest in the Liberty Dollar (despite the fact LD has produced hundreds of beautiful Ron Paul commemorative coins); Dr. Paul then fails to express outrage at the unconstitutional assault on a government-despised American civilian going about his legal business —uttering something banal to the effect "if you engage in civil disobedience, you have to be prepared to accept the consequences."
What civil disobedience?
Neither the proprietor of Liberty Dollar, Bernard von NotHaus, nor any of his officers have yet to be charged with a crime, let alone convicted of one! On the basis of a defective search warrant, a dozen FBI and treasury gangsters simply barged in and confiscated all the LD's material assets: the dies, the coins, the currency, computers, file cabinets, everything. Dr. Paul knows this attack is a violation of the law, the fundamental law. Read the Bill of Rights. I particularly direct his attention to the 4th and 5th amendments, esp. "no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law."
Further, the entire body of English Common Law as sanctioned in the Constitution rests on the presumption of innocence, and that the accused shall not be deprived of life, liberty, or property unless convicted by a jury of his peers in a court of law. The burden of proving a crime lies on the prosecution, on the state, and until or unless that burden is discharged the accused has the absolute right to the continued peaceful enjoyment of his property.
Ron Paul professes not to be aware of what happened to the LD company in Indiana and its mint assets in Idaho; baloney stuff!
Plus, he acts as if the egregious violations by the government of Constitutional and common law in this case are not obvious to any casual observer, certainly a libertarian one. Again, bullshit! In past columns about Dr. Paul[2] and in New Pilgrim Chronicles, I have also suggested that with regard to prosecution of White House officials for treason and war crimes, Representative Paul (R, TX) seems to be "mostly hat and no cotton."
He never even so much as took a public role in generating articles of impeachment!
Why?
Perhaps Paul's failure to act on impeachment and this apparent abandonment of courageous Liberty Dollar enterprisers can be justified by political expediency? I don't think so. Politically, you go a lot further a lot faster through good old-fashioned, all-American civil disobedience; after all, what was the American War for Independence but a continuation of massive civil disobedience against the Crown and its corporate franchises? Do the puppet masters of Washington, New York, and London have something on Dr. Paul? Surely as "Dr. No," voting against every bill expanding power for Democrats as well as Republicans, he knows there's no point in getting on anyone's good side. [1]
Well, all right, I have that off my chest.
I don't wish to be presumptuous or to imply that Ron Paul hasn't acted with uncommon courage and intelligence on so many issues. He has; he makes the other candidates pale to insignificance on that score. So at least in the political and economic context where most Americans live, he remains a breath of fresh air and hope for a better tomorrow.
The world will slow down in a couple of years and we'll cast our eyes back to the 2008 election. We'll see that whether or not Dr. Ron Paul wins the Republican nomination (and, perhaps, then goes on to win the general election for president), it will be a banner year for the Popular
Front for the Liberation of America.[3] And, of course, a banner year for the popular behind that friends of liberty finally may have been stirred to get off of.
For the long-range goal of world liberation (freedom from the pathocracy, from the corpocracy, from the Cartel), a good showing for Dr. Paul means victory. Personally, I think a good showing for Ron may even be better for us than a literal electoral victory at this point: kind of the same argument I make about learning the truth of 9/11. The truth applied too precipitously can cause a general panic; better to raise ourselves from the depths slowly so we don't get the bends.
Or not. Shock therapy has its good points, too.
Send the ultimate message to the Imperial Death Star:
Vote for Ron Paul!
For those not yet familiar with the Good Doctor, here's the deal:
In economics, Ron Paul and a lot of other well known political figures, authors, Constitutionalists, and economists are united in support of a sound financial system that does not support the war machine or the welfare machine. The Paulists will repeal the Federal Reserve Act and decentralize the control of money... thus taking the hen house away from the foxes of select international bankers and their corporate insiders. They will also end the income tax.
Further, they will transition economic functions usurped by the state back to the people—to individuals and nonprivileged businesses. Accordingly, government would become quite small and substantially more efficient at doing what it actually should be doing: protecting the citizenry from violations of individual rights by any government foreign or domestic... or by any criminal act of fraud or aggression. This means we all get to live our lives as we choose: exercise our own drug preferences, our retirement, education of our children, education of ourselves, health care, you name it. If the power is not specified in the US Constitution, the government does not have the power—aka the 10th Amendment. Really simple.
Man, those Founders sure knew what they were doing.
In fact, one can argue a Ron Paul—or any substantially libertarian administration—will be distinguished by wholesale enforcement of the Bill of Rights. After all, the BOR is a restriction placed on central government action, not on the free nonaggressive activities of people. The 9th Amendment touches all the bases by telling us just because the parties to the signing of the Constitution didn't specify a right doesn't mean you don't have it:
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
Regarding politics in general, Ron Paul stands for thoroughgoing respect for civil liberties—with the one glaring, even outrageous, contradiction in his acquiescence to individual state governments that would deny reproductive choice to women. Most liberal libertarians, myself included, consider his position on abortion a serious flaw. The only other significant limitation concerns his apparent lack of awareness or concern regarding environmental science that demonstrates serious anthropogenic harm to the ecosystem.
But where Ron Paul will shine like a beacon is foreign policy. He was a noninterventionist before noninterventionism was cool. Which doesn't mean he's opposed to the military or to national defense; in fact he's the most popular candidate of all of the presidential candidates among military personnel. He certainly won't put our soldiers in harm's way to secure profits for oil companies, arms manufacturers, or major construction/energy-services corporations... unlike some we know.
It will be so incredibly pleasant to finally be done with the bogus war on terror, the Orwellian media mind control, the extraordinary renditions, Guantanamo Bay, the torture, the whole literal criminal enterprise that has become the government of the United States, especially as its military power has been inflicted on innocents abroad. Further, a Ron Paul administration will open up the floodgates of truth on the 911 attacks and be friendly to a thorough citizens' investigation with subpoena power. It will take decades to clean up the mess these wretched American imperialists (Neoconservatives), these pseudo-Republicans, have caused: the lives crushed, the environmental catastrophes (e.g. depleted uranium poisoning) created, the massive debt incurred.
We have an opportunity to start down the road to real recovery with a strong showing for Dr. Paul. Yes, it's going to be rocky, but peace and liberty are inevitable. And, Dr. Paul, Ron, now is the time, with the spotlight on you, to man up and show your basic guts: make hugely visible and unmistakable a) your desire for impeachment, b) your wish for the liberation of real money and for the liberation of actual real flesh-and-blood people—like Bernard von NotHaus—who provide it, and c) your support for the flesh-and-blood victims of state aggression —oppressed for taxes, drugs, whatever—that they be released from their chains and compensated for their suffering by the treasonous official personnel—legislators, judges, cops, prosecutors—who have effected it. Now that's a Ron Paul Revolution!
Death to the Empire! Long live the Republic!
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[1] Note: I have to retract much of this original column; Ron has recently (December 13) proposed a free market currency act (whose name escapes me at the moment) in Congress in which he explicitly attacks the "prosecutorial abuse" of the Liberty Dollar taking.
[3] Popular Front for the Liberation of America: As yet not founded—just an idea I'm throwing out there—and if anyone forms such a group I'm sure it will promptly be labeled a terrorist front by Homeland Stupidity.
