Government Terrorism During Prohibition

Deborah Blum at Slate.com has the story:

Frustrated that people continued to consume so much alcohol even after it was banned, federal officials had decided to try a different kind of enforcement. They ordered the poisoning of industrial alcohols manufactured in the United States, products regularly stolen by bootleggers and resold as drinkable spirits. The idea was to scare people into giving up illicit drinking. Instead, by the time Prohibition ended in 1933, the federal poisoning program, by some estimates, had killed at least 10,000 people.

Although mostly forgotten today, the "chemist's war of Prohibition" remains one of the strangest and most deadly decisions in American law-enforcement history. As one of its most outspoken opponents, Charles Norris, the chief medical examiner of New York City during the 1920s, liked to say, it was "our national experiment in extermination."

Read the full article here.

A Brief Thought on "Enemy Combatants"

I don't know about you, but I just don't feel comfortable with a government that imprisons and tortures individuals without due process thinking it can tell me who my enemies are.

Uncle Sam and Fond Thanksgiving Memories

Thanksgiving. It is one of my favorite times of year, a time to get together with loved ones and offer thanks to God for the blessings we have received.

This year will be no different. Friends and family will show up at the door bringing a dish of some sort to share in the traditional Thanksgiving meal. Among those we will be entertaining this year is our Uncle Sam, not because he was invited, but because it's tradition. He always shows up. Not just on Thanksgiving, but every other holiday as well. In fact, he seldom ever leaves.

At times I find myself wondering why we came to dislike him so. We used to actually enjoy his company.

(Read the full article here.)

Washington Elitism

Obama Picks Up Where Bush Left Off

If you thought Bush's detention of suspected terrorists made a mockery of the rule of law, you ain't seen nothin' yet:

All Obama groupies knew as well as anyone that this is exactly the kind of thing that would happen. It was evident when they were willing to look the other way even when their "savior" showed his true colors by supporting Bush's presidential snooping powers.

They never gave a damn about freedom or the Constitution, but they knew that if their guy won, they would be the ones calling the shots. The lust for power is a potent aphrodisiac, which explains why they went along with the whole charade of "change."

How Conspiracy Theories Get Started

A top U.N. scientist is saying that the current swine flu virus causing all this panic "possesses certain transmission 'vectors' that suggest that the new flu strain has been genetically-manufactured as a military biological warfare weapon." Just another conspiracy nut, right? Well, even the most outlandish theories have some basis in fact.

Earlier this year it was learned that Baxter International Inc., which has developed a flu vaccine, was responsible for releasing live flu viruses. From the Toronton Sun:

The company that released contaminated flu virus material from a plant in Austria confirmed Friday that the experimental product contained live H5N1 avian flu viruses. ...

... The contaminated product, a mix of H3N2 seasonal flu viruses and unlabelled H5N1 viruses, was supplied to an Austrian research company. The Austrian firm, Avir Green Hills Biotechnology, then sent portions of it to sub-contractors in the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Germany.

Was this a simple mistake?

Then came the story of vials containing a "potentially lethal pathogen" that went missing from a U.S. military lab in Fort Detrick, Maryland. This is the same lab, by the way, to which the deadly 2001 anthrax mailings were traced.

Without drawing any conclusions here, one can certainly see how rumors and conspiracy theories get started.

The D.C. Reality Tour

Take a brief "Truth in Government" tour of our nation's capital, courtesy of the Ludwig von Mises Institute. See buildings, monuments, and memorials like you're never seen them before.

Obama's Version of Transparency

Barack Obama said he wanted his presidency to be more transparent, and now we know that means we only get to know what he wants us to know. No surprise there.

Consider this story from PC World:

The Office of U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), part of President Barack Obama's office, has denied a company's request for information about a secretive anticounterfeiting trade agreement being negotiated, citing national security concerns.

The USTR this week denied a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from Knowledge Ecology International, an intellectual-property research and advocacy group, even though Obama, in one of his first presidential memos, directed that agencies be more forthcoming with information requested by the public.

The USTR under Obama seems to be taking the same position about the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) as it did under former President George Bush, that the treaty documents are not open to the public. One of Obama's campaign promises was to make government more open and responsive to the public.

The USTR, in a letter to Knowledge Ecology International's director James Love, said information in ACTA, an anticounterfeiting and antipiracy pact being negotiated among the U.S. and several other nations, is "properly classified in the interest of national security."

Just another example of the sweeping "change" Obama has brought to Washington.

What a Monopoly Looks Like

A monopoly typically cannot occur simply because free market forces enable a particular company to flourish, as the FTC has implied in the Whole Foods case. A true monopoly involves a company that requires government interference on its behalf -- like Monsanto.

Propaganda Progression

This film from the 1940s now seems a bit prophetic:

Contrast that with the propaganda put out today by Washington bureaucrats and their willing accomplices in the mainstream media:

Obama and Lincoln Not a Good Combination

As Lew Rockwell notes, not all lefties are on board the Obama change train. He quotes author Kirkpatrick Sale, who wrote the following:

Let's just hold it a bit on this Lincoln thing. If Barack Obama wants to lead the nation as Lincoln did, we're in for a lot of trouble.

The man whose Bible he took the oath on, whose memory he regularly invokes, presided over the creation of what can only be called a nascent fascist government led by a party of industrial capitalism that ran roughshod over constitution and custom, encouraged a form of bloody warfare that defied all civilized practice to date, and was the cause of untold misery, violence, and destruction for the next half-century or more. He was the ultimate creator of an empire that, thanks to military might in service to corporate interests, spread across the American continent, not just north to south but eventually coast to coast, and would ultimately go on to impose itself worldwide.

Frankly, I think Sale is sugar-coating Lincoln's legacy just a bit.

Bush Behind Bars!

From the Dallas Morning News:

Just like his father, President George W. Bush will return to Texas when he leaves office.

And just like his father, he wants a gate to be installed along a public street to limit access to his neighborhood.

Dallas City Manager Mary Suhm confirmed Monday that the younger Bush is seeking to have a gate placed somewhere along the entrance to streets leading to his future Preston Hollow address.

The plan, which requires approval by the Dallas City Council, isn't expected to encounter much opposition at City Hall, and the Bushes' neighbors seem to be on board.

So far, several options to limit access to the Bushes' new street have been discussed. But a final decision on exactly where to place the gate hasn't been recommended, Suhm said.

Federal money would pay for the gate, not the city, she said. It's unclear how residents would use the gate to get to their homes.

So, it seems this treasonous war criminal will end up behind bars at taxpayer expense after all. I suppose there's a silver lining in there somewhere.

Congress Gets a Raise

Well, what do you know? Members of Congress are getting a pay raise:

A crumbling economy, more than 2 million constituents who have lost their jobs this year, and congressional demands of CEOs to work for free did not convince lawmakers to freeze their own pay.

Instead, they will get a $4,700 pay increase, amounting to an additional $2.5 million that taxpayers will spend on congressional salaries, and watchdog groups are not happy about it.

Running other people's lives is hard work, so I guess they deserve it.

He's Right for Once

President Bush says, "I didn't compromise my soul to be a popular guy."

He's right. He compromised his soul to be a powerful guy.

The Real Reason Blagojevich Was Arrested

I have no doubt that Governor Rod Blagojevich of Illinois is as crooked as they come. He is a politician, after all. But if he was supposedly being investigated by the FBI for years, why did they wait until now to indict him? Perhaps it had something to do with his opposition to Bank of America. Take a look:

Blagojevich made this announcement on December 8. He was promptly indicted on December 9. And as one might expect, not a peep from the mainstream media.

There were similar circumstances surrounding the downfall of New York Governor Eliot Spitzer. A federal investigation into suspicious money transfers led to the discovery of Spitzer's involvement with a high-class prostitution ring. But this was not made public until after he wrote this in a Washington Post op-ed piece:

When history tells the story of the subprime lending crisis and recounts its devastating effects on the lives of so many innocent homeowners, the Bush administration will not be judged favorably. The tale is still unfolding, but when the dust settles, it will be judged as a willing accomplice to the lenders who went to any lengths in their quest for profits. So willing, in fact, that it used the power of the federal government in an unprecedented assault on state legislatures, as well as on state attorneys general and anyone else on the side of consumers.

Another coincidence?

Personally, I would love to see more corrupt state and local politicians investigated and brought down, but that isn't the job of the federal government. I just think we Americans need to pay more attention. You can bet that the feds have something on just about every high-profile politician, but as long as they play ball they don't have to worry about being exposed. It's only when they dare to step out of line that they will feel the wrath of the most corrupt organization in the "free" world.

FDR's Day of Infamy

Srdja Trifkovic, in his latest essay, gives a timeline of one of the most infamous conspiracies in American History. He concludes:

The late Murray Rothbard is said to have often argued that, far from being evidence of a "paranoid" strain in the American mind, belief in conspiracies as a factor in American history was usually not taken far enough. The truth behind most conspiracies, he alleged, was far more heinous and diabolical than even the most diehard conspiracy theorist suspected. The events leading up to the Day of Infamy in 1941 prove him right, no less than those preceding U.S. wars against Mexico, the Confederacy, Spain (1898), Serbia (1999), or Iraq (2003). In all of those cases diplomacy did not "fail" because it was not used to avert war, but to make certain its coming.

Government for Sale

From the Chicago Tribune:

Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his chief of staff, John Harris, were arrested by FBI agents on federal corruption charges Tuesday morning.

Blagojevich and Harris were arrested simultaneously at their homes at about 6:15 a.m., according to Frank Bochte of the FBI. Both were transported to FBI headquarters in Chicago.

In one charge related to the appointment of a senator to replace Barack Obama, prosecutors allege that Blagojevich sought appointment for himself as secretary of Health and Human Services in the new Obama administration, or a lucrative job with a union, in exchange for appointing a union-preferred candidate.

Another charge alleges Blagojevich and Harris conspired to demand the firing of Chicago Tribune editorial board members responsible for editorials critical of him in exchange for state help with the sale of Wrigley Field, the Chicago Cubs baseball stadium owned by Tribune Co.

Just politics as usual in the Windy City.

Crime DOES Pay...if You're the Government

Government officials don't have to be responsible with money because it isn't theirs to begin with, and when they find themselves a little short on cash, they simply raise taxes or impose fines. In Rhode Island, for example, the state wants to start taxing drivers based on the mileage put on their vehicles. In addition to paying for roads and bridges (things that should already be receiving adequate funding), the money will be used to prop up the outdated and financially strapped public transit system.

In Gwinnett County, Georgia, a move is on to force residents to take part in a mandatory recycling program. Did I say "mandatory"? I meant to say that it's voluntary -- as long as residents are ready to shell out $500 each time they choose not to participate.

These kinds of regulations might be enough to give some people the crazy idea that they can vote with their feet and just pick up and move to a community that actually celebrates freedom. No such luck. This is America, after all. Where state or local governments fail to stick it to law-abiding citizens, the federal government is there to pick up the slack. Farmers are finding this out thanks to a proposal by the Environmental Protection Agency that would require certain farms with dairy cows, beef cattle, or hogs to pay an annual fee because of their livestock's greenhouse emissions. No, they're not kidding.

These types of regulations are always implemented under the auspices of providing for the "common good." But in reality they are nothing more than fund-raising schemes that end up making criminals out of otherwise law-abiding citizens.

When you and I are in a financial pinch, we are forced to reassess how much we spend and make the necessary adjustments. We don't have the luxury to go out and rob our neighbors -- except, of course, for those lazy compassionate types who try to "spread the wealth" through the ballot box.

The state, however, can do whatever it wants to pad its pockets. It's why police forces are maintained. If you believe otherwise, then just haven't been paying attention.

Change? What Change?

Chuck Baldwin talks about the kind of "change" we can expect from the new administration. (Hint: Those who really thought Obama would change things are going to be disappointed.)

The Case for Bigger Government

In an interview with Lew Rockwell, Dr. Mark Thornton explains that we need more representation in Washnington by increasing the number of representatives in the House to match population growth. He argues that this would make our elected officials more accessible and more accountable.

I have to agree. 435 individuals cannot possibly faithfully represent 300 million people.

More on this at Thirty-Thousand.org.