Northern Illinois Campaign for Liberty

By Joseph Margulies

Days after the thwarted Christmas bombing, the Rasmussen Group took a poll. They asked whether the failed bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, should be tried in civilian or military court. Seventy-one percent said military.

They also asked whether he should be waterboarded to extract information about his connection to terrorism. In a sign of the times, 58 percent of respondents said yes, even though he had already confessed.

By themselves, the numbers are alarming but not surprising. Other recent polls have consistently shown substantial support for torture and considerable skepticism about the use of civilian courts to prosecute terror suspects. And this despite the empirical proof: after eight years, there is no evidence that information secured by torture could not have been secured by lawful means, and despite the hysteria, we have successfully prosecuted terrorists in civilian courts for many years with no complications.

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If you don’t know this about me already, you’ll know now. I have a habit of challenging everything that those around me take for granted as being right. Example, there was recently an uproar about the Gitmo prisoners being brought to Thomson IL, which I don’t think is more than 90 miles from where we live. Within only a couple days, many conservatives came out against it, including Rep. Manzullo. That’s fine, I understand the concern, especially since there is at least one, maybe more, nuclear plants in this area…it would make an ideal target for terrorists, if you’re going to go along with that story. But with the prospect of having terrorists as near neighbors, I’ve observed the common attitude towards them, and I couldn’t just agree with everyone, I had to do some research.

People around here at least, and I suspect around the country, think that the Gitmo detainees are somehow almost “sub-human.” The media certainly doesn’t do anything to correct this feeling. Have you noticed that there’s only one picture of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed used in most mainstream newspapers? And it is one of him looking nearly sub-human, his hair tangled and wild, and a “brutal” scowl on his face. Now, I am sure most people don’t even think about this, they just go along with whatever is the popular thought. I am here to say, that will not do. That is not enough. Let me explain.

As I learned from listening to a lecture on the history of natural rights, there are various schools of thought when it comes to where our rights come from. This isn’t a discussion about the origins of natural law, so I’ll spare you the complications. But I tend to align myself with the school of thought that teaches that there are some basic rights that are inherent in human beings, and when you deny people these rights, you are denying their humanity. There’s debate over what these rights are, but certainly it includes the right to life and liberty.

So here’s my point, in case you were getting worried I didn’t have one.

In my opinion, to deny these prisoners the right to life and liberty without due process of law and a fair trial is to deny their humanity.

From what I’ve learned about the Constitution, I’ve realized that the Constitution doesn’t give any rights, it only protects rights that already existed. Maybe some people have some sort of racial/cultural idea about rights, that one group of people have inherent rights and others don’t. But for myself, I believe that every single person on this planet has the right to life, liberty, and property, and that only by proving their guilt in an open and fair court can their rights be taken away.

I am not challenging the guilt of these terrorists, I am only saying that they deserve a speedy and public trial, not because I have a fondness for terrorists, but because of the principle behind it. Once we start saying that some people don’t have the right to a speedy and public trial, we’re on a dangerous road. Don’t forget that only last spring most of these readers were labelled ”right-wing terrorists” in a MIAC report. So if the “regular” terrorists don’t have a right to a speedy and public trial, it is only a short step to denying right-wing terrorists their basic rights, and pretty soon all American citizens are being tried in kangaroo courts, which reminds me of what happened in Europe during, oh, maybe around the 1930’s through the 1960’s…but I won’t name any names here.

So, there’s my take on it. I still don’t like the idea of the terrorists coming to reside in Thomson, but I don’t think we should send them to any penetentiary to sit for years on end, occasionally waterboarded and interrogated.  They should all go to court. If they’re guilty like everyone thinks, there should be enough evidence to prove it. If they’re not guilty, then shame on us for wanting to keep them detained for who know’s how long, just because we can.

You know our government well enough–give an inch and they take a mile. So we give them the inch and let them detain and torture these terrorists indefinitely, and then it might happen to us.

Author Unknown

This article from the Heritage Foundation dispels the myths about healthcare coverage becoming more affordable under the current administration’s plans.

Wow…the fair is all over now…
In some ways it was a long week, but in other ways, it went really quickly. I have gone through the pertinent materials from the fair,petitions, etc…and although our van is still full of all the stuff from the fair, I think I am able to report on the important information.
Firstly, thank you, everyone who came out and helped with the fair: Allison, my sister and booth decorator, Mr. and Mrs. Skinner, Bob Jones, Darren Johnson, Pastor Jim, Charles Marsden, Justin K., Russell Rauch, Orville Brettman, Audrey Nelson, Beth Kaeding, Ryan Gaba, Bob Schlereth, Adam & Myron Oakley, and of course, my parents who drove me out to the fair every day, and thanks to my dad for hanging around the fairgrounds for hours, even when it got boring. I appreciate all the help that we recieved for this event. I know some of you drove over an hour just to get here, and that you had late nights driving home, with work still having to be done in the morning, so I thank you for your sacrifice and willingness to help. When I first wanted to get a booth, I was a little daunted by the long hours that would have to be spent at the fair, but within a few days of Heather putting out a call for help out here, I got lots of volunteers, and that is really great. Hopefully from now on we will be a little more self-supporting and ideally Winnebago County will be able to handle events like this, but knowing that there are dedicated patriots who are willing to come so far to help us out is really great.
Okay…updates on the petitions. For S. 604, Audit the Fed, for Durbin, we got 206 signatures. For Audit the Fed for Burris, we got 157 signatures.
Durbin, Cap-and-Trade, 143 signatures
Burris, Cap-and-Trade, 145 signatures
Durbin, healthcare, 186
Burris, healthcare, 183
Petition to Nancy Pelosi about Audit the Fed, 83 
 
Overall, I think the week went really well. Like I was telling my dad, maybe we didn’t get as many signatures as we would have liked, or maybe it didn’t seem like we had much success, but we were getting publicity, and the more times people see “Campaign for Liberty” the more likely they will be to eventually join and become interested.

We might have convinced the lady in the booth next to us from Health and Human Services that maybe a government healthcare plan isn’t such a good idea. It took a few days, but she was interested, and we were willing to talk, and she eventually accepted some information about the healthcare plan. I know she was paying attention to us, so maybe she will think it through. I made friends with a number of people, we talked to one of the realtors about cap-and-trade, and got a guy from the booth across the aisle to come sign petitions. A number of our members spoke to the democrats, and I left materials at their table one morning, so maybe someone will read it. I try to be non-partisan.
 
Now, after organizing a rather large, weeklong operation like the county fair, a gun show or freedom rally will seem really easy.

Looking over our materials, I think we have enough to get us through another month, and then we’ll probably have to make an order. My thanks to Bob S. for his donation of literature and materials…I really appreciate it!
 
We have a number of events coming up in September, so I’ll give everyone dates for that, just so they are aware of what we’re hoping to do, and some of the recipients of this email live in this area, so hopefully they will be able to pitch in with this.
 
Sept. 12 is the Fall Fest in Roscoe. Actually, it might be Friday-Sunday, or Saturday and Sunday…I need to get the dates confirmed on that. But anyways, that weekend is a festival up in Roscoe, and I am told there are usually about 10,000 people who attend. And since one of our coordinators pastors the church right next to the festival…we can get a table for free on the church’s front lawn.
 
Sept. 19 is the C4L Freedom Rally and BBQ out at the Pecatonica River Forest Preserve. More details are on the Winnebago County page calendar.
 
Sept. 26-27 is a gun show out at the Pec. Fairgrounds. I am going to look into getting a booth at that. If so, I will need a couple people to cover Sunday. The show is from 8am to 4pm, and since I won’t be doing it on Sunday, if we can get a few volunteers for that, I’d appreciate it.
 
To the Winnebago County local coordinators who recieve this email, we need to plan a meeting next week to organize these events. I sent you possible dates last week, so please let me know what dates and times will work for all of you. 
 
So, I think with this being our first year, and not having much experience, it went well. Thankfully we didn’t get in trouble, I was little concerned about us not following the rules exactly, and then getting in trouble and giving the Campaign a bad name, so I tried to follow the rules and err on the side of caution.

My dad, however, being a police officer, thought it would be funny if he sent some of the other officers at the fair to my booth to say that it was illegal to have “Don’t Tread on Me” t-shirts for sale, or come up with something to tell me was illegal…and see what I did. Thankfully, he decided not to, otherwise those policemen would have gotten a nice long lecture from me on the 1st Amendment, inherent rights, etc…

I think overall, we learned some lessons from the booth. I think we need to have something besides just our banner to draw people in. They glance at our sign, but aren’t intrigued enough to pause. Half-way through the week we put a poster up say, “Come sign our petition against the proposed national healthcare plan,” and that really seemed to draw people. So if we can take advantage of the “hot-button” issue of the day and use that to bring people in, I think that would work well.

Also, Justin came up with a clever sign that seemed to work, “Come sign up and win a free country!” I didn’t work the booth after he made the sign, but apparently that helped to attract people. If we can grab their attention and give them something to wonder about or ask questions about, that is good.

But I feel that it was a success, if nothing else, it gave us experience, was a good opportunity for activating members, and was good publicity. My uncle came out and worked one evening, and then the next morning talked about the Campaign for Liberty booth on one of our local radio stations, so that was great.

Again, thanks to everyone who helped with the event!

I happened to be listening to NPR this morning, and heard an astounding speech from Obama on Saturday.

He said something like this, “You know, America has done this before. FDR heard the same thing when he introduced Social Security. They said it was socialist. They did. Verbatim.”

If this wasn’t my president, I’d laugh, it is so absurd. Obama says, Americans claimed Social Security was socialist [as if you couldn't tell by the name] and look, it is alright, isn’t it? Social Security isn’t socialist, right?

Yeah right.

Then he goes on to say how when FDR wanted Social Security, when Medicare was created and now when Obama just wants to fix our health care system, the debate boils down to hope vs. fear. Apparently those of us who don’t want his change are just backwoods nobodies who are too stuck in our ways to progress into a new age.

I confess, he is partly right. It is about hope and fear. I am desperately hopeful that this health care plan doesn’t go through, and fearful that it might.

I guess in this new and wonderful advanced age, liberty is no longer an option.

By Peter Orvetti

There was an ugly turn in the national debate over health care policy last week. Reasoned arguments were cast aside, and threats, name-calling, and coercion took center stage. Oh, and some of the critics of President Obama’s plan got out of hand too.

Aggression, intimidation, and physical violence of the sort seen at some of the so-called “town hall” meetings on health care have no place in public discourse. Such tactics are despicable, not to mention counterproductive. But those in the halls of power are employing subtler, though still insidious, tactics to suppress dissent.

“If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.” That’s the message posted last Tuesday, not by the Democratic National Committee, nor by Obama’s re-election campaign-in-utero Organizing for America, but on the official White House website by a government employee. Can you imagine if the last administration had posted something like that about the Iraq war?

In a letter to Obama, Sen. John Cornyn wrote, “I am not aware of any precedent for a President asking American citizens to report their fellow citizens to the White House for pure political speech that is deemed ‘fishy’ or otherwise inimical to the White House’s political interests. … I can only imagine the level of justifiable outrage had your predecessor asked Americans to forward emails critical of his policies to the White House. I suspect that you would have been leading the charge in condemning such a program-and I would have been at your side denouncing such heavy-handed government action.”

The White House website message called on readers to rat out “disinformation” about the President’s agenda — which legal analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano warns may be a violation of the Privacy Act of 1974. But a lot of the Democratic criticism of the opposition is not even about its message — it’s about the method of delivery. Sen. Barbara Boxer said on MSNBC, “This is just all organized. You in the media have to take a look at what’s going on here. This is all planned. It’s to hurt our president and it’s to change the Congress.”

Well, yes, some of the actions have been organized — just as demonstrations against the Iraq war have been organized, just as demonstrations against Vietnam and in favor of civil rights were organized. That’s called “the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” And yes, it is aimed at changing the direction of policy, or, failing that, to change the policy makers. Isn’t that the point of all activism in a free society?

While his partisans were making these complaints, Obama himself — with that hypocritical speed that only political types can withstand without getting whiplash — sent an email to supporters. The former community organizer wrote, “We’ve got to get out there. These canvasses, town halls and gatherings only make a difference if you turn up to knock on doors, share your views and show your support.”

Political journalist A.B. Stoddard said of the Obama Administration’s efforts, “They obviously feel that they have to fight back against these ‘mobs’. . . but this is democracy in action. There is nothing they can do. The more they complain about it at the White House level, I think the worse it becomes.”

The issue here is not whether or not an expanded government role in paying for health care is a good idea. You do not need to be an opponent of the President’s plan to be concerned by this orchestrated — dare I say, organized — effort to stifle and marginalize any criticism of the President’s views. It was bad when Bush did it, it was bad when Nixon did it, and it’s bad when Obama is doing it.

It does seem that one good thing has come of all this, however. The atmosphere at the “town hall” events has become so toxic that some members of Congress have cancelled the large, staged events in favor of actually scheduling one-on-one meetings with their bosses — their constituents — to discuss their concerns. That’s change we can believe in.

Copyright © 2009 Peter Orvetti

I guess “something fishy” is the modern equivelent of Patrick Henry’s “I smell a rat in Philedephia, and it tends towards monarchy” or however the quote goes. Anyways…don’t you just love it, the government wants to be so careful that the American people don’t recieve “wrong” information about this healthcare bill? I know that if we ever become naive and believe every story we hear, at least the government will be there to correct the misinformation…too bad they’re the ones telling all the stories.

If the whole “fishy” information reporting thing didn’t “smack” so much of Orwell and 1984, I’d actually laugh. I mean, if I weren’t me, and this wasn’t America, and I was just some invisible viewer watching a spectacle unfold, it might be amusing. I guess we can get a little humor out of it though. My whole point for this post (yes, there is a point, in case you’re wondering) is to say, let’s be creative with this spy business. This is what I’d like to do. I’d like to send a letter to the White House that goes like this:

After being carefully warned by the present administration that some of the information circling the internet is false, and after being directed to report any ‘fishy’ behaivor to the administration, I have decided it is my duty to share some troubling information about an employee who works for me. By law this employee is required to prove his citizenship, but this employee will not show me his birth certificate. This seems very fishy. If a person has an American birth certificate, it seems like they would be willing to reveal it. Of course, I am just an ordinary American, and can’t comprehend things like this. But what is also very fishy is that this man has been circulating some suspicious information about the current healthcare legislation. For example, this man has spread the idea that the current healthcare bill will provide competition in the market. However, H.R. 3200 states in Sec. 201, Pg 72, Lines 8-14  that  government is creating an HC Exchange to bring private plans under government control. This bill will also limit hospital readmission, as in page 297, line 17–page 298, line 14.
 This man is also spreading the idea that this government healthcare plan will not take any control away from the individual in the issue of their health. However, H.R. 3200 will “establish an annual limitation on cost sharing to ensure that “the cost-sharing incurred . . . with respect to an individual (or family) for a year does not exceed the applicable level specified–$5,000 for an individual and $10,000 for a family.” (29.4-29.16) And, “[Establish] a private-public advisory committee . . . of medical and other experts to be known as the Health Benefits Advisory Committee” to recommend what will be in the “covered benefits” and what are “essential, enhanced, and premium plans.” (30.13-30.18) It also appears that this man says our taxes will not be raised to cover the healthcare costs, but H.R. 3200 (page 203, lines 13-18) states, “The tax imposed under this section shall not be treated as tax imposed by this chapter for purposes of determining the amount of any credit under this chapter or for purposes of section 55.” To an ordinary citizen, I would believe this means that there will be a tax, as it says, “The tax imposed under this section…” which seems to contradict what this man is telling people.

I am just writing because I am concerned that this man may be working for me illegally, and that he is spreading rumors and falsehoods about this new healthcare plan. I care about the truth, and I don’t want misinformation spread across the country. I am asking you to take action and investigate this for me, as you have offered to do so for anyone who will share what they know about misinformers. To pursue the necessary legal action, and to correctly handle the situation, you will need this man’s name and address. His name? Barack Obama. His address? The White House. Hopefully you can find him and take action, or else America will. Thank you for your time, and willingness to tackle tough problems like these, and correct the rumors about H.R. 3200.

Yours Sincerely,

A Sincere American Patriot

So…you have permission to copy and/or edit this letter and send it off yourself. I want to see what I get back.