My View on Health Care

I have been living in Norway off and on for the past 3 and a half years.

I am against health care being controlled by the government. It's really a fundamental position rather than a practical one. I know that socialized medicine works fairly well. I also know, however, that true free-market health care would work at least as good, accept without as much cost.

I do not live in a country with free health care, and neither does anyone else. Nothing, absolutely nothing, is free. Norwegians pay an average income tax of 30%, a tax on the purchase of food of like 15%, a sales tax on non-food grocery items (like soap) at 25%. There are taxes on money you don't spend, there are taxes on inheritance, there are taxes on your social-security payments, there are taxes for owning a TV even if it's sitting in your house not being used, there is paying an average (depends on how many driving hours you end up needing) of 20,000 NOK ($3,365 USD) for a drivers license... I can't even name all the ways the government takes money from the Norwegian people because I've only been here for a few years and have no idea about what taxes on businesses are like accept that I know that the more you earn the higher income tax percentage you pay.

So the most obvious cost to near-"free" health care (as well as near-"free" education and all the welfare programs there are in Norway) are taxes, more than even people from my home state of Taxachusetts can imagine.

The less obvious, yet more important, cost to big government is freedom and choice. For instance: Because of the government near-monopoly on health care, if you want faster or better health care than the government can provide you basically have to be pretty well-off. Another example considering health care: Since the government is paying for it all, naturally the government gets to decide what sort of treatments you can get. This results in that many medicines and treatments that are commonplace in the US are either illegal or highly restricted in Norway.

There is a common over-the-counter cream in the States that I would always use under a band-aid if a got a cut. It protects against infection, relieves pain, and generally helps the cut heal faster and with a smaller chance of scarring. I can't remember the name of it now since it's been so long (I think it starts with an N), but I took a tube of it to a local pharmacist about 3 years ago to see if they sold it. He looked at the active ingredients and looked them up in his big book of medicine, and told me that one of them was available by prescription only, while the other was not yet approved for use in Norway. Meanwhile, the cream had been an over-the-counter drug in the USA for probably 10 years already. That is, I remember using it as a pre-teen. Another example of this sort of thing is that I have yet to use any cold medicine here that works as well as Nyquil.

But like I said, my objections are mostly ideological. Here's how the system works. All emergency care is 100% payed for by taxes. Any doctors appointments, psychologist appointments, medicine on the "blå resept" list, and approved medically necessary travel expenses get listed on a card you have called "Kvitteringskort for egenandeler" (Receipt-card for deductibles). Once you have spent more than 1,840 NOK ($309.57 USD) of your own money that is eligible to be put on the card, you send in the card in along with all your receipts. If everything is in order, they give you a "Frikort", which is a card you carry around with you that is valid until the end of the year which makes all the rest of your medical expenses for the rest of the year "free", or rather payed by the government via taxes.

Also, if you are pregnant you get the following for "free": 1 appointment with the doctor or jordmor (earth-mother, midwife which extra education in pregnancy and child-birth assistance) every 4 weeks, 1 ultrasound around week 18 of the pregnancy, and any extra care or ultrasounds that the doctor or jordmor deems necessary as a result of any complications. Our child isn't due 'till May, but I have heard stories from many that when the time comes they are reluctant to let you come to the hospital until you are 100% sure that the baby is coming. Then you get a minimum of 3 days at the hospital, longer if the baby is premature or something else complicates things. They are generally much more reluctant to give c-sections than in the States, but this varies slightly compared to where in the country you live. I do not know weather the government pays for abortions.

As for waiting lines for non-emergency care: they definitely exist. I had to wait 6 months for an appointment with a psychologist. This was not an anomaly, it was general policy written in the letter I received after my main doctor sent an appointment request on my behalf. I think they might have expedited it if I was feeling suicidal or something like that though. In a more serious case than mine though, I have a friend whose arm is permanently damaged because of waiting lines to get surgery. He used to be a waiter, but can no longer handle to load of bringing dishes to and from the kitchen.

Despite this, I must still admit that my problem with socialized medicine is much more ideological than practical. The Norwegian system does indeed work better for more people, in a practical sense, than the current U.S. system. However, I believe the U.S. system could be fixed via the use of more free-market principles. Any solution that allows for more personal freedom and responsibility is inherently better than a solution that puts power into the hands of the few.

Here are some things I believe would make the American system much better.

1. Allow the purchase of health insurance across state lines. This would automatically increase competition dramatically. Prices would go down while quality would go up, just like when competition increased in the car market or the computer market etc.
2. Make health insurance companies have to follow the law based on which State their headquarters are in. The State that has the best health care laws would get the most health insurance businesses. Based on that, other states could improve their own health care laws by copying the states which attract the most health insurance companies.
3. Doctors often give extra unnecessary tests for two reasons. The first reason is that they are afraid of getting sued. The second reason is because the health insurance covers it. I have read research that suggests doctors would be less willing to recommend unnecessary tests if they knew that their patient was paying out-of-pocket. Thus, if more people used health savings accounts, the cost of health care would decrease.
4. Make all legitimate health expenses tax-deductible, so people with lots of health problems would have a much lower tax burden.
5. Make the sale of all medical equipment and medicine completely tax-free. This would reduce the cost to hospitals, doctors etc. which would be eventually passed down to patients
6. Generally get rid of as many government programs as possible in order to get rid of as many taxes as possible. With less taxes to pay, the people would have more money to pay for their medical expenses and spend money in other ways that would create jobs for those who do not have them. The more money people have in their own pockets, the more money also they will give to charities which help the uninsured.
7. Either use force to kick out all illegal aliens, or give them all legal status. Their presence here as illegals, unable to by health insurance or demand higher wages, is a financial burden on emergency rooms everywhere.
8. Either end or dramatically change the Federal Reserve in order to prevent these financial bubbles and bursts which cause major economic havoc that in tern causes problems to being able to pay for medical care.

I am sure there in much more we could do to improve our country by reducing government power rather than increasing it. One place that I get much of my inspiration from is the Downsize DC Foundation. To check out some of their views on health care, click here. You can find more information on health care and other topics of interest by reading their blog archive by category or checking out their other campaigns.

I hope that isn't too much and you find it useful.

In Love and Liberty,

Christopher D. Osborn
Siggerud, Ski, Akershus, Norge

twitter.com/mvfipher
fipher.blogspot.com
battleforheaven.blogspot.com

NoStimulus.com petitions

Here's a message from NoStimulus.com which is of utmost importance if you want to the United States to have a chance at stopping the "stimulus" bill. It is followed by an email I sent to Congressman Bill Delahunt.

Dear Friend,

At 2PM tomorrow afternoon, your NoStimulus.com petitions (which at the moment number 395,047) will be officially presented to the United States Senate in an event at the Capitol. Later in the day, the Senate is expected to make the final vote on the Pelosi/Reid/Obama trillion dollar spending bill.

You're invited to join us for this presentation if you are in or near Washington. It will be held in Upper Senate Park at 2PM tomorrow. I'm sorry we couldn't give you more notice, but moving the vote up to tomorrow was a surprise move by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid to try to jam this disastrous bill through before folks can even read the bill.

If someone tells you this fight is over think about this for a moment. Last Friday, I stood at the Capitol with a band of AFP staff, interns and volunteers as we presented our petitions to Senator Jim DeMint -- our free market leader in the Senate. At that time, we had 69,487 petitions.

Tomorrow, we will present your more than 400,000 petitions and -- if you can help us make a final push by sending the site to your friends in next couple of hours – it can be more than 500,000 petitions to the Senate telling them to vote NO on this outrageous spending bill.

Here's the update on where the battle stands.

Senate and House negotiators are set to agree tonight on a $789 billion bill. Here's what we know about the deal:

• This conference report provides the least tax relief of any version yet, even cutting President Obama’s signature middle class tax cut from $500 per individual and $1000 per couple to $400 and $800. That takes money out the pockets of regular Americans to pay for more wasteful spending.

• This conference report gives away as "tax cuts" tens-of-billions of dollars to people WHO DO NOT PAY INCOME TAXES.

• This conference report, by all accounts, still funds the stealth imposition of health care rationing via so-called “Comparative Evaluation Research,” that would let bureaucrats decides whether people are too old or too sick to receive a treatment.

• The price tag is still astonishing. $789 billion might be less than the Senate’s $838 billion, but it’s massively more than the $300 billion this bill originally was proposed at, and still tops a trillion dollars when interest is included. There's still $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts, $600 million to buy cars for government workers, $88 million for ATV and bike trails and so much more waste. And, go to stimuluswatch.org to see the wish list of earmarks for cities and counties in your area. It will blow your mind.

With a likely Senate vote tomorrow, time is of the essence. These are the key action items that could lead to victory tomorrow:

1. Get at least 3 more people to sign the NoStimulus.com petition. If we have a huge final push we could reach an astonishing half-million signers -- or more -- before our presentation event tomorrow.

2. Make 1 last call to your senator. Many of you have done this and we're so thankful for your standing up. But, we have just 24 hours to make our final push. Call the Senate switchboard at 202-224-3121 or better yet go on-line and call your Senator's local offices. If you need talking points go to NoStimulus.com and we've got plenty.

3. Consider making a special financial contribution to Americans for Prosperity today. Help us continue to get the word out about the dangers of this no-stimulus bill to literally millions more Americans around the country. Your support will provide resources to ramp up our "No Stimulus" advertising and outreach on websites like the Drudge Report, FoxNews.com, Townhall.com and others for the final day of this fight so we can generate thousands upon thousands of phone calls into Senate offices. A gift of $10, $25, $50 - or any amount you could afford - would go a long way toward reaching even more people with our No Stimulus message and mobilizing them to make a difference alongside you and me to STOP the Pelosi/Reid/Obama boondoggle.

You're making a huge difference. Yesterday, “Americans for Prosperity” and “No Stimulus Petition” were the top two searches in the nation on Google, and your efforts to drive literally hundreds of thousands of people to our NoStimulus.com website was a featured story on the Yahoo! front page. Additionally, today you may have seen the number of petition signers ticking upward along the bottom line of the Fox News “ticker.” You have literally flooded Senate offices with your calls and most of Washington is now going to NoStimulus.com site to view the counter to find out how many folks have signed the petition.

I know the pundits are political prognosticators are saying it's over and the Pelosi\Reid\Obama trillion dollar bill is a done deal.

But, don't be discouraged. Instead, keep fighting. One petition signer from Wisconsin, Carla, sent me an email that says exactly why we should keep fighting. She wrote:

"Tim,

For a week I've been so frustrated over this terrible Stimulus bill. Then in the last day I've called both my senators and my congressman. I've signed the NoStimulus.com petition and then forwarded it to my entire email list. For the first time in my life I even called a local talk radio show to tell people why the bill is so bad.

And you something, I feel so much better because I'm doing all I can do."

Carla is right. We can just be frustrated over what these politicians are trying to do to our nation and our economic freedoms. Or, we can do "all we can do" for our nation.

Thanks and if you are in the area please join us tomorrow, 2PM, Upper Senate Park for the presentation of your petitions to the Senate!!

Sincerely,

Tim Phillips
President, Americans for Prosperity

Here's the bulk of the email I just sent:

Mr. Delahunt, I know you're a Democrat and really want to believe in our new presidents plan to recover our economy, but please listen to reason! The economic recovery plan about to go up for vote will not save our country. All it will do is put is more into debt. There are three ways the Federal Government can pay for the stimulus, and all of them are bad for our economy.

This is coming from a Conservative Libertarian from our dear Massachusetts 10th district. Specifically, the town of Tisbury. If you want to check my voting status before you read on, my name is Christopher David Osborn and my last U.S. address was zipcode 02568, the hamlet of Vineyard Haven in the town of Tisbury in the county of Dukes County.

The first, taxes, takes away money from the people who would otherwise save, spend, or invest it. In an economic crisis higher taxes (for anybody, including the big corporations nobody likes) should be unthinkable. The Revenue Act of 1932 was one of the major reasons the economic problems at the time deepened and lengthened into the Great Depression.

The second, government borrowing, is just as bad! It also takes money out of the private economy - the money that bond purchasers hand over to the government in exchange for bonds. The money people use to buy bonds could be much better served either investing in American businesses, buying American products, or saving in American banks to increase their value.
Also, if the funds are borrowed, we eventually have to pay it back, creating the same tax problems for the next generation - only worse because of interest. Excessive borrowing may also increase interests rates, furthering our credit problem.

The final way to pay for it, without a tax and without borrowing, is to have the Federal Reserve just print more money. This is perhaps the very worst option of all. We cannot just create money out of thin our without it coming back to byte us. Printing more money means the bills and coins we have in our wallets and savings account will be worth less and less. The devaluation of the dollar will eventually lead to us having push wheelbarrows of money to the grocery store just to buy a loaf of bread!
Inflation is the worst thing you could possibly cause! Do you know that the Germans tried to use inflation as a method of war? They attempted to print fraudulent pounds and ship them to the U.K. in order to collapse their economy.

Another reason for you not to pass the bill is for what the money is being spent on. I don't know what it is exactly, but I keep hearing that the massive amount of it is going to buy condoms or some other sex-related thing. One website talks of some kind of adult sex workshop.

There is also supposedly going to be spending by the Department of Agriculture on broadband Internet services in rural areas. First of all, the Ag department has no business dealing with broadband Internet access - my grandfather (the late Rodman F. Backus Jr., founder of Rod's Flowershop & Nursery and Rod's Landscaping on Martha's Vineyard) went to an Ag school and while he was a great and intelligent man he new nothing about computers. Second of all, that the heck is the government doing giving people free Internet?! Sure, it's a good business and educational resource, but do you realise how much of it is just used for porn? I am ashamed to admit this, but honestly, it was not too many years ago when I was one of those porn-addicted teenagers. If rural schools, libraries, and businesses are having problems getting Internet access that's one thing, but I don't want the general public being given free broadband access.

Please, read the bill. If you haven't had time to read the whole thing, demand to be given the time to read it. Once you read it, do not give in if you see anything that's unnecessary. You can do it! If you see something you think is inappropriate for the government to be spending money on, that shout it out and tell the others that you will be voting no unless it is taken out! Stand up for what you know is right and against what you know is wrong! Be the patriot I know you can be!

In Liberty,

Christopher D. Osborn
fipher.blogspot.com
http://www.downsizedc.org
battleforheaven.blogspot.com
http://www.upf.org

Here's hoping for a miracle for our country,

from Bergen, Hordaland, Norge,

Christopher D. Osborn

Are we turning Japanese?

A recent Downsizer Dispatch mentioned a New York Times article about how a 1980's housing bubbler burst in Japan cuase economic turmoil that lead to huge domestic government spending - just as is happen in the United States today. So what happened in Japan? It seems that the spending gave Japan a HUGE debt. The economy was lifted too, but not by all the spending on construction projects and the like. It was instead lifted by an expensive cleanup of their debt-ridden banking system and increased export to to the U.S. and China which did the trick.

So if we are to learn from the Japaniese example, we should not pass these infrastructure spending bills - they will do nothing but create debt, and increased taxes for the next generation, which is myself and my kids and grandkids. We should instead stop barrowing money, pay off all our debts, and pass laws that make in much easier and cheaper for Americans to make things and export them to other countries.

In Liberty from Bergen, Hordaland, Norge,

Christopher D. Osborn

Sourse:

Are We Turning Japanese? - DownsizeDC
Can We Learn from Japan? - Cafe Hayek
Japan's Big-Works Stimulus Lesson - NY Times

'How Pure A Partisan Shill Is Hewitt?

I just wanted to share this.

http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/2224950/38488146

It's just a note exlaiming and reminding everyone that thile the Democrats are being fiscally irrisponsible, the Republicans have not done any better whatsoever.  This is why I will never register as affiliated to a particular party.  No, not even the Libertarian party.

"The Politician Who Loves the Crisis" from D o w n s i z e r - D i s p a t c h

D o w n s i z e r - D i s p a t c h

---

Quote of the Day: "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste." - Rahm Emmanuel, Barack Obama's Chief of Staff

Subject: The politician who loves the crisis

Rahm Emmanuel loves the financial crisis. He sees it as an opportunity. His admission of this fact, which we've used as our quote of the day, is breathtaking. 

Mr. Emmanuel tried to moderate his enthusiasm for exploiting the crisis by claiming that his desire wasn't for big government, but for good government. But has Mr. Emmanuel ever acted as if good government was consistent with smaller government? We doubt it. 

Mr. Emmanuel isn't alone in seeing crisis as an opportunity to make government "gooder" by making it bigger. Donald Rumsfeld famously wanted to exploit the 9-11 attack by "roping in everything," including Iraq. And that is what they did.

One "crisis" event was used to create another crisis. Now it's happening again.

Consider what this means: What do the politicians think of you? They think you aren't wise enough to accept their grand plans for remaking the world, so you have to be scared into doing the right thing. Their grand plans require crisis to be implemented. This way of thinking also implies that only the politicians know what the right thing is.

Your plans and my plans, and all the individual plans of 300 million Americans, must be superseded by the plans of the politicians and their court intellectuals. But what's the likelihood that such a small group of people really knows how 300 million individuals should live -- how their affairs should be regulated and their money spent?

And what happens when they're wrong? If you and I make mistakes in our small plans for our own lives, the consequences effect only ourselves and maybe a few people around us. But when the politicians' grand plans go wrong, millions, perhaps everyone, is harmed in a grand way.

But isn't this very nearly the definition of a crisis -- something that harms everyone?

If politicians have the power to help everyone, then they also have the power to harm everyone. But what they can never have is enough knowledge to predict the full consequences of their grand, universal "do-gooder" plans.

Knowledge is decentralized. All of us have pieces of the puzzle. This is why small, decentralized plans tend to work, creating massive progress from the bottom-up. It's also why grand plans, from the top-down, blow-up.

Here at DownsizeDC.org we think we need to have a few, bottom-up plans of our own. We need to figure out how to stop the politicians from creating and exploiting crises. But, unlike the politicians, our plans must not be grand and universal. They should be humble and flexible, capable of being implemented in small increments.

We can't pretend to know, in advance, all the steps needed to curtail the politicians' power to create and exploit crises. No one one bill, by itself, will stop political opportunism and meddling. But we can know the rough dimensions of what our plan must achieve. Above all, we can be fairly certain of the need to make our ideas heard at the same volume as the grand claims of the crisis exploiters.

Some would attempt to accomplish this from the top-down, by finding a few large donors, and then buying lots of advertising with their donations. But large donors can change their minds or even pass on, and any plan based on them risks a large collapse at almost any moment -- kind of like the plans the politicians prefer. We take the opposite approach . . .

* We want to fund our plan from the bottom-up, with lots of small and average donations, especially monthly pledges.
* We'll then use our success in building this base of monthly pledgers to attract larger donors who will be the icing on the cake, rather than the cake itself.

It's working.

Our ability to attract a stable base of monthly pledgers is what earned us the support of the major donors who gave us the financial lever we needed to pre-fund all of our basic operations for all of 2009.

We're now in a position to spend nearly all the additional money we raise in 2009 to do outreach and recruitment. No other organization I'm aware of is in such a position. Think of what this means to you . . .

Nearly every additional dollar we raise will fund outreach that will recruit new people who will exert more pressure on Congress and fund still more outreach to recruit still more people. We're now at the point where we can create an ever growing spiral of outreach, education, recruitment, and direct pressure on Congress.

Already this month, we've added a couple of new pledgers and raised more than $1,200. This money is accumulating, and will soon amount to something that can accomplish something. Here's what we need to move forward EACH MONTH this year: 

* Just $6,000 a month (beyond reoccurring pledges)
* Just 20 new monthly pledgers each month -- less than one a day

This message is going out to more than 24,000 people. These targets seem quite doable.

We'll be presenting the first phase of our outreach plan to you in just a few weeks. We anticipate investing $50-60,000 throughout this year -- eight to ten times what we've spent on direct outreach in our four year history. Could you help make this happen by making . . . 

a) a generous one-time contribution or,
b) becoming a monthly pledger

The size and impact DC Downsizers can have is a matter of funds. The growth of the army depends on you.

Thank you,

Jim Babka
President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.        

P.S. This afternoon (Friday) Jim Babka is scheduled to be on Straight Talk w/ Jerry Hughes on the Accent Radio Network. Details are available in this October DownsizeDC.org blog post.

D o w n s i z e r - D i s p a t c h
is the official email list of DownsizeDC.org, Inc. & Downsize DC Foundation

CONTRIBUTE to the Electronic Lobbyist project

http://www.DownsizeDC.org is sponsored by DownsizeDC.org, Inc. -- a non-profit educational organization promoting the ideas of individual liberty, personal responsibility, free markets, and small government.

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Press Release for END THE FED in DC, Please Help Circulate

MEDIA ADVISORY
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 18, 2008
CONTACT:
Debbie Krueger not12submit@gmail.com
Jordan Page jordanpagemusic@gmail.com
Adam Kokesh adam.kokesh@gmail.com

Growing Movement Strikes at Fed in Washington, DC

National “END THE FED” day of protest calls for sound monetary policy and an end to bailouts

On November 22nd, commemorating the secretive conception of the Federal Reserve System, a growing movement of citizens concerned with this country's fiscal policies will gather in 39 cities nationwide at each Federal Reserve location to demand an end to the Fed, return to sound monetary policy, and an end to corporate bailouts. In Washington, DC, they will gather across the street from the Board of Governors of the Fed at 20th and Constitution at 1pm. Denied a permit to protest on Federal Reserve grounds by the Fed's Public Affairs Office on the basis that it is private property, the rally with a stage and amplification system will be held across the street with a permit granted by the Parks Department. National coordination is being provided by Aaron Russo's Restore the Republic (restoretherepublic.net) and more information can be found at endthefed.us.

Speakers will include Gary Franchi of Restore the Republic to discuss his organizational plans for furthering this issue and the duty of all patriotic Americans to get involved. Kevin Zeese, former US Senate candidate, current Executive Director of Break the Bailout, (breakthebailout.com) will talk about building a broad coalition to stop further “theft from the taxpayers.” Anthony Teolis, veteran of the First Gulf War, member of Veterans For Peace (veteransforpeace.org) will show how the Fed is the primary enabler of our destructive interventionist foreign policy. Rick Williams is a founder of BreakTheMatrix, (breakthematrix.com) and serves as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Basic Media, Inc. From the Center for Economic and Social Justice, (cesj.org) Norman G. Kurland, President of the Board of Directors, and former Congressman, the Hon. Rev. Walter E. Fauntroy will outline an alternative just economic system. Paul-Martin Foss, Legislative Assistant to Congressman Ron Paul, will explain pending legislation H.R. 2755 and what the movement can do to support it.

Organizer Debbie Krueger is a former Marine, and a mother of 5, living in Delaware. She was a real estate agent, when she witnessed the bottom dropping out of the housing markets across the country, and decided something needed to be done. Her research led her to the conclusion that the Federal Reserve System is at the heart of the crisis. “I am devoting my time to help shed light on the Federal Reserve, and to find solutions that will bring us back to financial policies that will benefit Americans the most."

Co-organizer and performer for the rally Jordan Page is a young poet, singer/songwriter, guitarist, political activist, and social commentator who has become an outspoken voice promoting freedom and liberty. The hyper-inflation of American currency, the funding of worldwide interventionist military policies, the unconstitutional income tax, the recent bailout, and the engineered economic depressions the Fed causes have all motivated Jordan's involvement in this most historic citizens' movement. “Please stand up for the Constitution on November 22nd and help us to support HR 2755 calling for the abolition of the Federal Reserve.”

Adam Kokesh will serve as master of ceremonies at the rally. He is from Santa Fe, NM and served in Fallujah, Iraq in 2004 and has been a vocal critic of the war since leaving the US Marines. He has continued to honor his oath to support and defend the Constitution by taking on those he sees as its domestic enemies, especially the Federal Reserve System. He has also advocated various forms of nonviolent resistance including not paying taxes. “As long as the Federal Reserver System has the power to create money from nothing, the individual income tax is nothing more than a means to oppress and enslave the American people. As with all forms of tyranny, Americans have a duty to resist this injustice.”

# # #

Seeking redress, M.V. Times Letter

Hey, gues what? I sent a letter to the editor of the Martha's Vineyard Times, the Cape Cod Times, and the Vineyard Gazette, and the M.V. Times published it. I don't know if the Cape Cod times published it... I'll have to find a copy, and the Gazette doesn't come out 'till tomorrow, so we'll see then.

For now, here's the text of the letter:

Seeking redress

To the Editor:

Monday, June 30, may be remembered in history as the day Americans began, in earnest, the moral and solemn process of holding their servant government accountable to the constitution, under threat of withdrawal of allegiance, support and tax money.

To secure this end, the people have begun to claim and exercise a little known, but unalienable, "Right of Redress," rather than depending upon the will of the majority as defined by precinct voters, those who cast votes on Capitol Hill, and those that vote from the inner sanctums of our courthouses.

Most do not know that this profound natural right, first articulated 800 years ago in the Magna Carta, is embodied and protected by the petition clause of the First Amendment, the same amendment which protects your voice in the defense of freedom. Very importantly, academic research since 1986 makes clear that the right to petition for redress is not a redundant statement of the right of speech. It is in fact, the individual exercise of popular sovereignty.

To be sure, the widespread exercise of this Right holds significant implications for our nation and is most worthy of your interest. Here's what some of the Founders, sitting as the first congress, had to say:

"If money is wanted by rulers who have in any manner oppressed the people, they may retain it until their grievances are redressed, and thus peaceably procure relief, without trusting to despised petitions or disturbing the public tranquility." - Journals of the Continental Congress, 1:105113

On June 30, approximately 1,200 American citizens will begin the process of exercising the right by formally serving a legal notice and demand for redress upon the president, the attorney general and every member of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, at their local district offices. This includes our own.

Demanding an official response within 40 days, the notice includes seven petitions for redress of grievances regarding substantial violations the constitution:

1. The Iraq invasion in violation of the war powers clauses.
2. The Federal Reserve System's violation of the money clauses.
3. The USA Patriot Act's violation of the privacy clauses.
4. The direct, unapportioned taxes on labor in violation of the tax clauses.
5. The federal gun control laws in violation of the Second Amendment.
6. The failure to enforce immigration laws in violation of the "faithfully execute" clause.
7. The construction, by stealth, of a "North American Union" without constitutional authority.

We the people cannot elect our way out of tyranny. Any assertion that by electing either Sen. John McCain or Sen. Barack Obama we can cure the ills that now plague America is simply naive or based on a lack of information regarding the corrupting forces that truly influence and control our government and political process.

Remember, when our president originally led us to war in Iraq, he did so with the majority support of not only Congress, but of the people. Credit or blame for whatever actions our government takes, whether it turns out to be for better or worse, cannot be laid upon just one man, administration, or congressional gathering. Whether through apathy, ignorance, vigilance, or brilliance, all our nation's citizenry have some responsibility for what our government does.

We urge you, the media, to learn about this profound right and to cover this event. Our republic faces a watershed moment no less historically compelling or newsworthy than the emergence of the civil rights movement. If liberty is to survive through peaceful means, you must embrace your ability to bring this critical information to your readers.

I know our local papers don't usually cover national news so much, but this really does have the potential to affect us all personally.

I also must admit that I am not as well versed in constitutional law as some, but in the past couple of years I do feel I have learned enough to support this cause and wish that others would do the same. If you wish you may visit www.givemeliberty.org/revolution for details about the plan to restore constitutional order.

I also recommend that every citizen take a closer look at our constitution than most of us do. Some of it is a tough read, but during a time when there is significant discussion about what it's all about and how important it is, I think it's a good thing for every one of us to take a good look at.

Christopher D. Osborn
Vineyard Haven

I look forward to seeing what people have to say about it in the comments section of the website. Martha's Vineyard, Cape Cod, and Massachusetts in general actually is a great haven for big government Democrats.

A Presidential Speach, the sort of wich we could really use today.

Address to the Nation on the Federal Budget and Deficit Reduction

April 24, 1985

My fellow Americans:

I must speak to you tonight about a serious problem that demands your immediate attention. I need your help.

Today the United States Senate began a rendezvous with history. The threads of our past, present, and future as a nation will soon converge on the single overriding question before that body: Can we at last, after decades of drift, neglect, and excess, put our fiscal house in order? Can we assure a strong and prosperous future for ourselves, our children, and their children by adopting a plan that will compel the Federal Government to end the dangerous addiction to deficit spending and finally live within its means?

Throughout our history, we Americans have been willing to meet great challenges and do what is right when our destiny demanded it. Just 4 years ago this week, I asked your support for our bipartisan recovery program. That was the program the spenders said wouldn't work, and they called it Reaganomics. You might remember April 1981: a time when our defenses were weak, inflation still in double digits, and economic growth almost dead from a government that taxed too much and spent even more than it taxed.

We knew it would take a great effort to turn that around. We knew that letting you keep more of your earnings to get our economy moving again would be resisted by the old guard in Washington. But we also knew the answer to a government that's too fat is to stop feeding its growth. We wanted America to rediscover opportunity. We asked for your help then, and you gave it to us.

You turned America around -- turned around her confidence, turned around her economy, turned around over a decade of one national nightmare after another. We're into our 29th straight month of economic growth, with inflation staying down and more of us working than ever before -- that's 8 million new jobs. Now that our program is working, you may have noticed they're not calling it Reaganomics anymore.

Once again, the United States is the flagship economy for the world. A new generation of entrepreneurs is coming up, pointing us toward a 21st century full of amazing change and vast new opportunities.

We must seize this historic moment to shape America's future -- to completely overhaul our tax code, changing it from a source of confusion and contempt to a model of fairness and simplicity, with strong, new incentives for even greater growth.

So many good things lie ahead for America. And yet all our progress, all the good we've accomplished so far, and all our dreams for the future could be wrecked if we do not overcome our one giant obstacle.

The simple truth is: No matter how hard you work, no matter how strong this economy grows, no matter how much more tax money comes to Washington, it won't amount to a hill of beans if government won't curb its endless appetite to spend. Overspending is the subject we must now address -- how budgets got so far out of balance and, yes, what together we can and must do to correct this.

You know, sometimes the big spenders in Congress talk as if all that money they spend just kind of magically appears on their doorstep, a gift from the Internal Revenue Service. They talk as if spending were all giving and no taking.

Well, there is no magic money machine. Every dollar the government spends comes out of your pockets. Every dollar the government gives to someone has to first be taken away from someone else. So, it's our moral duty to make sure that we can justify every one of your tax dollars, that we spend them wisely and carefully and, just as important, fairly.

Unfortunately, hardly anyone could honestly call Federal budgets wise, careful, or fair. Is it fair to ask one small business to help subsidize its competitors? Is it fair to ask workers in the private economy to pay for civil service pensions that are much more generous than the retirement benefits they receive? Is it fair to ask low-income families to help pay for the college education of children from families with incomes as high as $100,000 a year? Is it fair to ask taxpayers to help pay billions for export subsidies to a handful of America's biggest corporations?

Well, it isn't fair, and you know it. But that's the law of the land right now, just part of the legacy of 50 years of trying to do good things for all by treating your earnings like government property.

The time has come to decide what benefits we can properly expect from the Federal Government for ourselves, our neighbors, and those in need; and what government can take from us in taxes without making everyone worse off, including those who need our help. The one thing we cannot do is stay on the immoral, dead-end course of deficit spending.

...

If we want to continue trying to make these the best years of our lives, if we want to protect our retired and disabled, boost small business, create jobs, strengthen our farm economy, our exports, improve our cities, and help your families send your children to college, there is one sure-fire way to do it: We're all going to have to pitch in together. But if we refuse, if we go back to the old pattern of business as usual, then let there be no mistake: Business as usual will eventually destroy our prosperity and all the blessings it has given us.

My fellow citizens, you remember the words of young John Kennedy, words of challenge to America in 1961: ``Ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what you can do for your country.'' In those days Federal spending was only a fraction of what it is today. Since then government programs have grown to the point where they touch almost half the families in America.

Today his question is more relevant than before. All of us are being challenged again to ask what we can do for our country, challenged to work together -- 237 million strong -- to build a secure and lasting foundation for the American dream.

Even with all our cuts and reforms, our plan still provides $560 billion for nondefense programs next year -- the highest level in history. Congress has before it a budget that doesn't mortgage our future to higher taxes and expanding debt. It is a fair program; it is a balanced program; it will protect the neediest among us; it will stop the worst abuses of overspending; and it not only deserves your support, it must have your support to pass.

So, let me stress as strongly as I can, this shared effort we're asking you to make now will be our best assurance of avoiding painful hardship down the road.

We stand at a crossroads. The hour is late, the task is large, and the stakes are momentous. I ask you to join us in making your voices heard in the Senate this week and later in the House. Please tell your Senators and Representatives by phone, wire, or mailgram that our future hangs in the balance, that this is no time for partisanship, and that our future is too precious to permit this crucial effort to be picked apart piece by piece by the special interest groups. We've got to put the public interest first.

My fellow Americans, I hope history says of us that we were worthy of our past, worthy of our heritage. We can seize the moment; we can do our best for America to keep our future strong, secure, and free. Our children will thank us, and that's all the thanks we'll ever need.

Thank you, God bless you, and good night.

Note: The President spoke at 8 p.m. from the Oval Office at the White House. His address was broadcast live on nationwide radio and television.

- President Ronald Reagan, April 24th, 1985

Click here to read the whole speech.

Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 - June 5, 2004) was the 40th President of the United States (1981-1989) and the 33rd Governor of California (1967-1975).

For European FFWPU/HSA-UWC members: 33rd European CheonSong Condition

Also, a reminder to all FFWPU/HSA-UWC members. True Parents have given the blessing of inheritance to Hyung Jin Nim and Yeon Ah Nim in which they received copies of the Divine Principle, Cheon Seong Gyeong, and Pyungha Hoongyeong (The Peace Messages). We should unite with them and pray sincerely for their success, that they may equal, even surpass True Parents in their connection with God, their accomplishments on earth and in the spirit world, and in their ability to lead our movement.

I encourage all who can to

participate in this Cheon Sung condition, which I imagine is not just for Euorope, it's ju

st different for each region. However, perhaps even more importantly, I think we should all put in prayers for Hyung Jin Nim and Yeon Ah Nim. If they do not succeed, our movement as a whole will fall apart the same way Islam did, and Christianity before them, and Judaism before them.

I am very thankful to True Parents for naming an heir to the throne before they passed on to the spirit world to insure our unity. We should look to the Bahá’í Faith for inspiration, for the Bahá’ís have remained so very united through such terrible strife. Their home nation, Iran, still treats them as second class citizens, yet they are still able to stay united, strong, and close to God all over the world. I pray that we can do the same.

Ron Paul Announces Grand March on Washington D.C.

In a video released tonight Ron Paul states, “We are at this point where we have to do something major…We have to make a grand stand, we have to stand firm and see where are numbers are…”

I'll write more on it later, perhaps tonight.

read more | digg story

March 1st, 2008
10:45 PM

So, I guess I didn't get to writing more about it that night. Here's a campaign update video witch that digg story refers to.



In addition, I've found a few related links. The first is pretty much just a little news article from Restore The Republic titled WARNING: RON PAUL DC MARCH UPDATE. This first one I think is the most important for Paulites to read.

The second I found is a website called revolutionmarch.com which is a grassroots website to organize information pertaining to the march as well as the actual march.

From the website:

The purpose of our rally is to get many thousands of freedom loving people in one place so we can be heard. An event SO HUGE, that even the Main Stream Media can’t ignore it!

The last is a blogger blog, Revolution March, which seems to fulfill a similar purpose as revolutionmarch.com or even this very blog posting of mine. An interesting feature it has, which I haven't gotten a chance to check out, are two blogtalkradio recordings about the march. I have however registered an account so I can comment on them as soon as I listen to them.

For my final words on the whole subject, I want to urge people to not take this march as a stand for Ron Paul to be elected president, or to attack John McCain or any other politician. This march should be about the revolution as whole. This campaign may have shown there there is hope, that there are a lot more people reseptive to the message of true Liberty than Dr. Paul ever imagined. However, it has also show that we still have a lot of work to do. The primary focus of the campaign is no longer to get Dr. Paul into the White House, but to use th campaign as a vehicle to get the messege of Liberty to as many Americans as possible so we can really start to change this country around back closer to the way our founders might have imagined it.

Let's face it, even if we were able to pull off the miricle of getting Dr. Paul into the White House, he would hardly be able to make many of the changes we would hope without congressional support. We need to change not only the way the Republican Party thinks, but the way the whole country thinks. We need Paulites running for office in every branch of government, from city counsel to Senate.

Basically what I think we should be looking for as a result of this march and book bomb is either a much stronger and united Libertarian party or a changed Republican party, and through this, a stronger and better America. This revolution is not just about one great man, but a great idea for a great nation.

NAACP President: Ron Paul Is Not A Racist

Austin NAACP President Nelson Linder, who has known Ron Paul for 20 years, unequivocally dismissed charges that the Congressman was a racist in light of recent smear attempts, and said the reason for him being attacked was that he was a threat to the establishment.

I truly hope that this can be spread around so this rumor of Dr. Paul being a racists can be fully squashed. I don't agree with him 100% on all the issues, but I cannot imagine anyone who believes so strongly in individual liberty could possibly be at all racist. Racism and Libertarianism are completely counter to won another. If you read up on Libertarianism, I'm sure you will agree.

Click here for an article by Ron Paul about racism and the government's role in it.

read more | digg story

"Yet it is the Federal government more than anything else that divides us along race, class, religion, and gender lines.  The Federal government, through its taxes, restrictive regulations, corporate subsidies, racial set-asides, and welfare programs, plays far too large a role in determining who succeeds and who fails in our society." - Rep. Ron Paul, MD, December 24th, 2002

8 Appendiged Girl in Myanmar, assisted by South Korean defense min. Kim Jang-soo, discovers weight beinifts, nicotine vaccine, and new Earth via PK

Girl Born With 4 Arms, 4 Legs Has Successful Surgery

Myanmar Junta's Hold on Power Must End, UN Envoy Says (Update1)

North Korea Still a Threat, South Korean Tells Gates

Extra Weight May Have Health Benefits

Nicotine Vaccine May Help Smokers Quit

A Planetary System That Looks Familiar

Bush speaks to Musharraf

In other news, yesterday Bergen saw its first snow of the season. The tips of the mountains were white, and all way beautiful. Then, as the day warmed, is began to rain and hail, with a bit of snow/hail/rain mix at the end of the day as it got colder again. I feared that Bergain was going to be covered in a thick layer of ice the next day (today) but no, it warmed and we had rain, lots and lots of rain and hail. Once it was hailing so hard that I could hardly see out the windows (wich are out our slanted ceiling rather than the wall)! Now it's just raining and Lisa said there's supposed to be some kind of big storm comming either tonight or tomorrow, let's take a look..... can't seem to find much about, just an alert for stormy weather, no actual named storm.

If Iraq Falls

Not just as an American, but as a human being, I care a lot about what happens in Iraq. In fact, I care about Iraq just about as much as I care about Washington D.C. (my place of birth), Martha's Vineyard (the island off Massachusetts where I've lived the most of my life), or even Norway (where I currently reside with my wife and hopefully where I will some day start a family.) In fact, I care more about what happens in Iraq than if the Boston RedSox (Go Sox!) win the world series.

It is this that drove me to arrive at this interesting article by German writer and American foreign policy expert Josef Joffe on the subject. The Honorable president George Walker Bush of the United States of America recently gave a speech about how we have to have patience or else our withdrawal from Iraq will be like our withdrawal from Vietnam (very bloody and chaotic). The article, "If Iraq Falls," seems to be one of many responses to that speech. I like it, but you can decide for yourself. Here it is.

If Iraq Falls By JOSEF JOFFE August 27, 2007; Page A11

In contrast to President Bush's dark comparison between Iraq and the bloody aftermath of the Vietnam War last week, there is another, comforting version of the Vietnam analogy that's gained currency among policy makers and pundits. It goes something like this:

After that last helicopter took off from the U.S. embassy in Saigon 32 years ago, the nasty strategic consequences then predicted did not in fact materialize. The "dominoes" did not fall, the Russians and Chinese did not take over, and America remained No. 1 in Southeast Asia and in the world.

But alas, cut-and-run from Iraq will not have the same serendipitous aftermath, because Iraq is not at all like Vietnam.

Unlike Iraq, Vietnam was a peripheral arena of the Cold War. Strategic resources like oil were not at stake, and neither were bases (OK, Moscow obtained access to Da Nang and Cam Ranh Bay for a while). In the global hierarchy of power, Vietnam was a pawn, not a pillar, and the decisive battle lines at the time were drawn in Europe, not in Southeast Asia.

The Middle East, by contrast, was always the "elephant path of history," as Israel's fabled defense minister, Moshe Dayan, put it. Legions of conquerors have marched up and down the Levant, and from Alexander's Macedonia all the way to India. Other prominent visitors were Julius Caesar, Napoleon and the German Wehrmacht.

This is not just ancient history. Today, the Greater Middle East is a cauldron even Macbeth's witches would be terrified to touch. The world's worst political and religious pathologies combine with oil and gas, terrorism and nuclear ambitions.

In short, unlike yesterday's Vietnam, the Greater Middle East (including Turkey) is the central strategic arena of the 21st century, as Europe was in the 20th. This is where three continents -- Europe, Asia, and Africa -- are joined. So let's take a moment to think about what would happen once that last Blackhawk took off from Baghdad International.

Here is a short list. Iran advances to No. 1, completing its nuclear-arms program undeterred and unhindered. America's cowed Sunni allies -- Saudi-Arabia, Jordan, the oil-rich "Gulfies" -- are drawn into the Khomeinist orbit.

You might ask: Wouldn't they converge in a mighty anti-Tehran alliance instead? Think again. The local players have never managed to establish a regional balance of power; it was always outsiders -- first Britain, then the U.S. -- who chastened the malfeasants and blocked anti-Western intruders like Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia.

With the U.S. gone from Iraq, emboldened jihadi forces shift to Afghanistan and turn it again into a bastion of Terror International. Syria reclaims Lebanon, which it has always labeled as a part of "Great Syria." Hezbollah and Hamas, both funded and equipped by Tehran, resume their war against Israel. Russia, extruded from the Middle East by adroit Kissingerian diplomacy in the 1970s, rebuilds its anti-Western alliances. In Iraq, the war escalates, unleashing even more torrents of refugees and provoking outside intervention, if not partition.

Now, let's look beyond the region. The Europeans will be the first to revise their romantic notions of multipolarity, or world governance by committee. For worse than an overbearing, in-your-face America is a weakened and demoralized one. Shall Vladimir Putin's Russia acquire a controlling stake? This ruthlessly revisionist power wants revenge for its post-Gorbachev humiliation, not responsibility.

China with its fabulous riches? The Middle Kingdom is still happily counting its currency surpluses as it pretties up its act for the 2008 Olympics, but watch its next play if the U.S. quits the highest stakes game in Iraq. The message from Beijing might well read: "Move over America, the Western Pacific, as you call it, is our lake."

Europe? It is wealthy, populous and well-ordered. But strategic players those 27 member-states of the E.U. are not. They cannot pacify the Middle East, stop the Iranian bomb or keep Mr. Putin from wielding gas pipelines as tools of "persuasion." When the Europeans did wade into the fray, as in the Balkan wars of the 1990s, they let the U.S. Air Force go first.

Now to the upside. The U.S. may have spent piles of chips foolishly, but it is still the richest player at the global gaming table. In the Bush years, the U.S. may have squandered tons of political capital, but then the rest of the world is not exactly making up for the shortfall.

Nor has the U.S. become a "dispensable nation." That is the most remarkable truth in these trying times. Its enemies from al Qaeda to Iran -- and its rivals from Russia to China -- can disrupt and defy, but they cannot build and lead.

For all the damage to Washington's reputation, nothing of great import can be achieved without, let alone against, the U.S. Can Moscow and Beijing bring peace to Palestine? Or mend a global financial system battered by the subprime crisis? Where are the central banks of Russia and China?

The Bush presidency will soon be on the way out, but America is not. This truth has recently begun to sink in among the major Democratic contenders. Listen to Hillary Clinton, who would leave "residual forces" to fight terrorism. Or to Barack Obama, who would stay in Iraq with an as-yet-unspecified force. Even the most leftish of them all, John Edwards, would keep troops around to stop genocide in Iraq or to prevent violence from spilling over into the neighborhood. And no wonder, for it might be one of them who will have to deal with the bitter aftermath if the U.S. slinks out of Iraq.

These realists have it right. Withdrawal cannot serve America's interests on the day after tomorrow. Friends and foes will ask: If this superpower doesn't care about the world's central and most dangerous stage -- what will it care about?

America's allies will look for insurance elsewhere. And the others will muse: If the police won't stay in this most critical of neighborhoods, why not break a few windows, or just take over? The U.S. as "Gulliver Unbound" may have stumbled during its "unipolar" moment. But as giant with feet of clay, it will do worse: and so will the rest of the world.

Mr. Joffe is publisher-editor of Die Zeit, the German weekly and will be teaching foreign policy at Stanford University this fall. His latest book is "Überpower: The Imperial Temptation of America." (Norton, 2006).

If you want to discuss the article and related subjects further other than here, another good spot is at bones3dmb.com. Here's a direct link to the discussion thread where I've posted this article.