All posts by principledpolicy

General, Executive Usurpation, Events, Private Property, Commentary

Real ID and PASS ID

This entry is part 15 of 28 in the series Freedom 21 Conference

f21-banner-4Pennsylvania state Representative Sam Rohrer addressed the conference attendees on the Real ID Act, a federal law that is all but dead in the water as many states have rejected the implementation of this federal proposal to coordinate private citizen information databases under the Department of Homeland Security.

Rohrer went on to discuss the successor program to Real ID, Senate Bill 1261,the Providing Aditional Security to the States Act (PASS ID), which is by and large a rehashing of Real ID with some significant expansions of data sharing.  It was given hearings before the Senate Homeland Security Committee on July 15th.

PASS ID carries on the philosophy of the Obama administration to create “preventive detention” systems to assist law enforcement  and terrorism fighting, but extends the idea of who is a potential criminal to virtually all citizens.  This philosophy is supported by “intelligence-led policing”, the view that the more that is known by law enforcement about a person then the greater opportunity to prevent a crime before it occurs.  This idea brings to mind the storyline of the movie “Minority Report” but we can’t suspend our disbelief for this piece of legislation.

PASS ID is supposed to correct the “problems” with Real ID that led states to reject it, but it incorporates much of the previous law’s DNA, such as RFID chip assignment via drivers’ licenses, biometric ID requirements, and other features.  In essence, PASS ID will bring the US into a global biometric ID system with all US citizens required to be enrolled in order to travel or carry on official business.  The National Conference of State Legislatures and the National Governors Association have both come out in support of PASS ID.

Rohrer listed some major problems with PASS ID, including its violation of both the 9th and 10th Amendments to the Constitution, its requirement for mandatory facial image capture, its massive shift of power and control to the Department of Homeland Security, and the requirement that after the 6th year from the passage of the act all non-complying licenses will not be allowed to be recognized by any state.

For those who have the idea “I’ve done nothing wrong, so I have nothing to fear”, the Electronic Privacy Information Center has detailed numerous concerns, including the problems of how this data collection and retention lead to significant privacy concerns, how the use of facial recognition technology can allow tracking of people in real time (even non-criminals), and how the technology built by companies such as 3VR can even build watch lists and send reports on individuals to those with access to the databases, and the technology’s claim that with long range cameras an individual’s face can be identified up to 6 blocks from the location of the camera.

As if this isn’t problematic enough, the NLETS program, to network over 30,000 agencies worldwide to share the data collected from the facial recognition information collected through biometric drivers’ licenses, is lurking in the background.  The connection of NLETS to Interpol creates a portal for international surveillance of individuals, regardless of suspicion of criminal or terroristic activity.

Rohrer closed by requesting citizens to become educated about this issue and then continually contact your elected officials at the federal, state and local levels to oppose the radical erosion of privacy and freedom rights of law-abiding American citizens.

General

Southern Poverty Law Center and MIAC

This entry is part 13 of 28 in the series Freedom 21 Conference

f21-banner-4Former Constitution Party presidential candidate and pastor Chuck Baldwin address the conference attendees regarding the recent attempts to “identify” those individuals and groups that are “extremists”, focusing on the situation that occurred in the state of Missouri earlier this year.

A report was issued by the Missouri Information Analysis Center (MIAC) regarding identifying those individuals and groups who could be considered potential domestic terrorism suspects, and Baldwin was specifically named in the report, along with a handful of other third party political types.  Baldwin has spelled out a detailed analysis of the issue here.

Baldwin points out that the MIAC did not get the template for creating this report from the state of Missouri, or from the federal government, but from the Southern Poverty Law Center, a non-profit that Baldwin stated is dedicated to undermining organizations that support Christian principles, mainly by targeting them as “hate groups”.

Baldwin urged pastors and activists to continue to fight for liberty, as a number of states are being influenced by groups such as SPLC, and other states have versions of the MIAC report that created the furor in Missouri.  More will be said on this issue in the upcoming post.

General

Codex Alimentarius

This entry is part 11 of 28 in the series Freedom 21 Conference

f21-banner-4The title sounds foreboding, doesn’t it? It should. Codex Alimentarius is Latin for “food codes”, and it is a massive global effort to “harmonize and standardize food regulations, both domestic and international.” Attorney Scott Tips, of the National Health Federation, presented on the issues surrounding this initiative, and how it can have severe negative impacts on the health and longevity of the populace. One of the key areas targeted for severe restrictions under this program is natural health care products.

Under the Codex standards being developed, alternative therapies for significant diseases would be banned, even though many “mainstream” treatment modalities are signficantly more health-threatening than natural health care preparations.  As a matter of fact, looking at the data, the “conventional” approach to health care has resulted in over 800,000 deaths at the hands of medical professionals, 100,000 deaths by pharmaceuticals, and 5,000 deaths by food issues.  By comparison, natural products have been implicated in only 10 deaths, over the last 23 years!

Codex Alimentarius is a template for coordinating action between governments, utilizing treaties and executive agreements to tie countries into the centralized control mechanism.  The Codex Alimentarius Commission has been in existance since being created by the United Nations in 1962, and has grown into a massive bureaucratic structure with 27 committees and numerous working groups creating these standards, meeting in either Rome or Geneva each year to ascertain progress on the coordination goals, which ultimately will centralize control over all food production and distribution (or redistribution) on the planet.

Tips ceded that the Codex is a noble concept, as it is supposed to be developed to eliminate trade barriers and protect the health of consumers, but it has been “captured” and the actual process has been twisted to become an anti-natural product, anti-free market, pro-drug, slow to change leviathan whose decisions are based on junk science, and will ultimately lead to negative consequences for the health and welfare of the populace.


General, Events, Commentary

The Feds are stealing your health care choices–and have been for over 70 years!

This entry is part 9 of 28 in the series Freedom 21 Conference

f21-banner-4Dr. Jeff Marrongelle, a Doctor of Chiropractic and an certified clinicial nutritionist and a researcher on the effects of electromagnetic fields on human physiology, opened the day with a discussion of the history of the creation and radical expansion of the powers of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and how that regulatory entity has been impacting our health care choices for over 70 years.

The FDA was created as an entity to prevent interstate commerce of adulterated foods and drugs in 1930.  The advent of the Roosevelt administration and their radical expansion of federal power with numerous acts such as the National Industrial Recovery Act and the Judicial Reorganization Act of 1937 broke down the wall of separation of powers and gave sweeping legislative and judicial authority to executive branch regulatory agencies, including the FDA.

A crisis is usually used to consolidate power, and the FDA’s expansion of control over the American populace was generated the same way.  The 1938 Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, which created safety standard testing, was passed as a result of a problem with a sulfa drug creation problem that resulted in 107 deaths among children.  This act also set the standard that if a drug is proven safe at standard doses, then it was approved.  This approval usually took about 60 days.  The act also swept in those preparations that were already considered “safe”, including homeopathy, grandfathering them, but also including them under the statutory definition of a “drug”.

Over time, the control over “drugs’ was expanded with the Kefauver-Harris Act of 1962, which expanded the required testing beyond showing “safety” to including “efficacy” as the standard for approval.  This increased the time to get a new drug approved from 60 days to 6 months or more, and drove the cost up to over $138 million for the industry (which today is in the range of $1.6 billion dollars).   It also limited competition in the industry significantly, which also drove up the final costs of these drugs.

Today, the FDA is by and large a self-contained regulatory giant.  It creates its own rules, regulations and edits with little to no legislative oversight or control.  One study recognized that 25 cents of every dollar spent in the United States is on products over which the FDA has regulatory control over, and the FDA continues to try to expand its power by attempting to regulate vitamins and minerals as “drugs”.  They have complete control over all medical and food advertising (remember the recent edict that Cheerios had to be regulated because of making “health claims”), even to the point of being able to disallow claims that are already proven and truthful.

The most concerning issue with the unfettered power of this regulatory agency is that their governing philosophy is not “should we approve this” but “how can we get this approved”, which has led the FDA bureaucracy and directorate to approve drugs for consumer use even over the objections of their own scientists and safety officers, leading to numerous adverse health effects and deaths among the populace at large (remember the Vioxx debacle?)

The FDA’s hubris is exampled by the 1990 Nutrition Labeling and Education Act, which Congress passed that allowed food and supplement claims to be made as to their effects on disease without having the approval of FDA as a “drug”.  Between 1990-1999, the FDA routinely ignored this statute and pursued regulatory action against many making such claims.  The worst instance of this was the 1991-1993 debacle over the FDA’s refusal to allow information to be published on the beneficial effects of folic acid consumption by pregnant women on preventing Neural Tube birth defects.  Over 2500 cases of this defect could have been prevented in babies if not for the FDA’s insistence on keeping this information from the general public “for their own good”.

Marrongelle summed up his presentation by noting that there are created “artificial crises” to expand the powers of these regulatory agencies, and gave some data.  The total number of deaths from both avian and swine flus from 2003-present is 431 people, according to the World Health Organization.  Conversely, the number of deaths in the same period from iatrogenic causes is 786,936, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association.  This data is indicative of the idea that the cure may actually be worse than the disease, and the FDA may be causing more harm to the public than preventing such harms.

Public Policy Radar, Private Property, Commentary, Public Policy Principles News, General, Education, Events

Freedom 21–Day Two

This entry is part 8 of 28 in the series Freedom 21 Conference

f21-banner-4Today is a busy day at the conference.  It is health care and health freedom day, and the afternoon sessions are on the ever-expanding push for electronic monitoring of all of our lives and activities.  Stay with us as we bring you notes and thoughts from Freedom21–Day Two.

Events, Commentary, Education

The Revolution is Here

This entry is part 6 of 28 in the series Freedom 21 Conference

f21-banner-4Professor Alan Quist, professor of political science at Bethany Lutheran College in Minnesota, presented an update of some significant changes happening in educational policies, many in the last three weeks, which may have a more significant long-term impact on the American way of life than even the health care debate or the cap and trade fight currently underway.

Quist notes that there is a worldwide revolution taking place, and it is centered in the effort to undermine the unique position of America and the way in which our country’s foundation was built by our founders, specifically our principles of national sovereignty and of the acknowledgment of a universal moral code .  As the US was the only major country founded on ideas rather than on personalities or on power concentrations, it makes America, according to Quist, the only real bastion of freedom in the world.  It is that distinction that makes the US the target of every globalist UN initiative undertaken, which he documented with UN publications which say as much.

Quist is concerned that we must win the war of ideas in order to retain our freedoms that we have because of the unique way our country has been structured.  That war is being fought most fiercely on the battlefield of education, and we are losing the war.  The current education modality in effect in American schools is that of “consciousness transformation”, which is the application of the principles of Marxist theorist Antonio Gramsci upon our education system.

The Obama administration issued a press release on July 24th of this year, which may be the first salvo in the final battle over our educational system.  The “Race to the Top” may be a race over the edge of the cliff into the total surrender of any last shreds of local control over education not just to the federal government, but to the United Nations through UNESCO.  The call for “internationally benchmarked standards” and “national standards” (read federal curriculum control)  to be coordinated by the already created National Assessment Governing Board will be delivered to local districts who line up to get the “stimulus” linked to the program, in essence buying total federal control over the development and delivery of curriculum.  This will allow the Obama administration to get local schools to teach what they want them to teach.  Now enter UNESCO.

The UN, through UNESCO, is planning a full scale tranformation of education and in fact has already written the international curriculum benchmarks (standards) which the Obama administration notes they are wanting to drive American education standards toward.  In order to ensure universal coverage, the Obama administration through the NAG Board, will require successful passage of this “nationally standardized test” before any student can be eligible for college (at least no colleges that have ever taken one penny of federal money).  That means that the vast majority of private school and home educated students will have to take this UNESCO-driven and aligned testing to be able to go any farther in their formal educational pursuits.  In order to help this train down the track, the National Governor’s Association has issued a call for “voluntary national standards” to be adopted by this administration.

It makes one want to go back and look very closely at the recently-passed and enacted House Bill 1, Ohio’s budget bill, which made some significant changes to our education policies in Ohio.  Could the revolution have already come to Ohio?  We’ll have to get educated on what is happening around us and see.

Taxation, Education, Public Policy Radar, Private Property, Commentary, Public Policy Principles News, Economics

Fiat Money and the Sustainable Action Plan

This entry is part 4 of 28 in the series Freedom 21 Conference

f21-banner-4

Freedom21 speaker Michael Shaw of Freedom Advocates spoke to the nearly 300 people in attendance on Thursday afternoon on why the current American monetary system of fractional reserve banking (often called fiat money) is being managed to drive America away from our national sovereignty and into a global form of governance.

The attack is from a plan by international groups coordinated by the United Nations known as Agenda 21. This document is driving an agenda to take away private property rights, remove individual, unalienable rights from people for “global (human) rights”, and ultimately, in the name of the environment, reduce the “burden” of human population on the planet’s ecosystem. Using the UN’s own documentation, Shaw points out that all rights would be subject to the will of the United Nations. Goodbye unalienable rights (life, liberty, property).

Shaw also discussed that the concept of “sustainable development” is the rallying focus for this radical shift in our country’s way of life.

Three areas in which this transformation is centered include land control by government (illustrated by a document graphic of the “Wildlands” UN initiative, which would put over 50% of the land area of the United States off limits to human development or habitation), the transformation of the educational system to created “global citizens”, and what Shaw referred to as the Three E’s: Equity (the idea of social justice as replacing the rule of law, and American justice system being subjugated by international law); Economy (the destruction of free enterprise and the implementation of government-private “partnerships” replacing private ownership of business and industry); and Environment (sustainable development plan, which drives all of the rest of the transformational efforts).

The American monetary system, with its inherent instability generated by the use of fractional reserve banking, has provided an artificial prop to explode the economy, and a current turnaround in the economy is allowing for a concentration of power by a totalitarian-leaning political elite. Shaw warns against trying to quickly abandon this system in favor of an honest-money (100% reserve) system, due to the significant upheaval that can occur. He also cautions against totally embracing a gold-based system, asking the question “who controls or has a quorum on the current gold reserves?”, which is a legitimate concern, and may be jumping out of the frying pan into the fire, allowing large governmental players to continue to exercise control over the economy.

Shaw discussed some ideas on how to transistion the current system to an honest-money system without totally destabilizing the dollar in the process. Freedom Advocates provides materials to help people understand the issue.

The last part of his presentation involved exposing the agenda of the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI). This is the organization to push Agenda 21 initiatives to the local governmental level to complete the control mechanism over property rights.

There is more to understand than we have space to discuss here, but a visit to Freedom Advocates, or ordering the video of this conference from Freedom21 is a good place to expand your informational horizon on this issues.

Economics, Taxation, Education, Public Policy Radar, Private Property, Commentary, Public Policy Principles News

The Growing American Tyranny and how to stop it

This entry is part 2 of 28 in the series Freedom 21 Conference

f21-banner-4This is the theme of the Freedom21 conference. Conference host Tom DeWeese of the American Policy Center and Amanda Teegarden of Operation Information opened the event with a welcome and a short discussion of why, in our era of nationalized industry, environmental radicalism, and the ever-growing loss of Constitutional freedoms, it is more important than ever to understand and learn how to “connect-the-dots” between all of the seemingly unconnected efforts of the progressive left.

Whether it be education, environmentalism, our financial security, invasive governmental programs, or property rights, each issue has roots in a larger program to eradicate American sovereignty and our way of life. The speakers at this conference each have decades of experience in their subject areas, and thankfully, some wins under their belts against the creeping totalitarian zeitgeist.

Our vice-chairman and I will be bringing you speaker by speaker summaries of their information for your education and action.

Commentary, Public Policy Principles News, Economics, Taxation, Education, Public Policy Radar, Private Property

Live from Freedom 21 National Conference

This entry is part 1 of 28 in the series Freedom 21 Conference

f21-banner-4The Institute for Principled Policy is pleased to be a co-sponsor of the 10th annual Freedom 21 national conference, being held this year in Oklahoma City, OK. We have a front row (exhibitor) seat to all of the conference, and will be blogging on all of the very important information that will be shared during the next three days.

I want to give you a flavor of what to expect as we report this event. This is from the Freedom 21 agenda: “The people who attend this conference share a common desire to advance the principles of freedom–to all people–for all time. We work through our various organizations, through coalitions, and through cooperative campaigns, such as Freedom21, to better coordinate our efforts to prevail over those people who continue to promote, and advance policies that empower government to ignore the principles of freedom, in pursuit of an unachievable social and environmental utopia.

Freedom cannot be sustained in the presence of “sustainable development.” The two concepts are mutually exclusive. Sustainable development can exist only when people are controlled by government; freedom can exist only when government is controlled by the people.

We hope this conference will provide the knowledge, information, and inspiration for each of us to be more effective in our efforts to advance the principles of freedom—in all that we do.”

The conference is for folks to connect the dots and figure out just what is wrong in our country, and what to do to make it right again. Stay tuned…it’s going to be a rollercoaster ride!

Public Policy Radar, Gambling, Commentary, Public Policy Principles News, Economics, Biblical Worldview

From A Facebook Thread on the Ohio Gambling Crisis

GamblingPublished by permission of Mark Stevenson

It has been so long since I have posted something here, but Ohio is at a critical juncture. For years, we have fought efforts to legalize gambling. It appears as if today we may finally fail. Governor Strickland, who has previously held a position against gambling, has now bent to the gambling interests. In fact, the governor has been working on a state budgetary crisis and has been working with the legislature to balance the budget. Well known fact: governor wants to be re-elected in 2010 and does not want to tax citizens. Therefore, this is his only answer for state revenue to increase, allow slot machines in for the very first time!

My friends, if you are an Ohioan, please call your state senator and tell him or her today to vote NO on the state budget, since it allows a provision for the governor to write an Executive Order to allow slots into Ohio. In fact, tell both your state senator and House Member to vote NO. Some will listen!

I already spoke with my state senator’s office and the response was that the senator felt like he had no choice other than to let the governor have his way. I told him that was bologna and the senator absolutely has a choice to go against the governor. I don’t care what agencies cease to get funding for the day! Stand for principle, or be a big coward and incur the wrath of the conservatives in Ohio. Have some guts and stand like a man, for crying out loud! Pulezzze!!!!

Below is an alert that was sent out on Sunday. Pay attention as this unfolds!

Pastor Mark
Life Comes At You Fast!!!

Legislative Alert – Vote Expected Monday

To all:

Governor Strickland is expected to sign an executive order on Monday (today) to authorize the state lottery to use casino style slot machines (VLT’s) at Ohio’s racetrack locations – a casino scheme previously rejected by Ohio voters. He has convinced the Democratic leadership in the House and the Republican leadership in the Senate to cooperate by changing state laws on gambling in the budget bill.

Elected legislators in BOTH the Ohio House and Ohio Senate need to hear from their constituents by this morning.

Background:

The Ohio Constitution was am ended on May 8, 1973 to permissively grant the Ohio General Assembly the authority to authorize a state agency to conduct lotteries and award lottery prizes based on a common understanding of the lottery game as one which utilizes the sale of tickets as the means of play.

Ohio citizens in 1973 did not amend the Ohio Constitution to give a state agency OR any governor the power to authorize casinos.

Facts:

* Casino games have been rejected by Ohio voters four times since the Lottery’s inception, including twice in the past three years.

* Putting VLT’s at Ohio’s existing racetracks was rejected by voters in 82 out of 88 counties.

* Less that one year ago almost 3.4 million Ohioans refused to accept an expansion of gambling.

* In the counties which host 5 of the 7 racetracks, voters flatly rejected the placement of video lottery terminals at these facilities near their homes and neighborhoods.

* Governor Strickland ESTIMATES that VLT revenues will generate $933 million, but Ohioans would have to LOSE more than twice that amount for the state to get its share. This means an estimated $2 BILLION would be sucked out of the consumer economy. (Once the money is lost in a slot machine, you can’t get it back to spend it on clothing, food, appliances, cars, or other consumer products. Ohio’s economy cannot afford it in the middle of this recession!)

Other points to consider:

* To override the vote of the people shows a significant disrespect for the “consent of the governed” which is foundational to our system of government.

* To balance a multibillion dollar budget on what Ohioans would choose to lose at a slot machine is extremely irresponsible.

Action:

Please contact your state senator and state representative IMMEDIATELY (today). Ask him/her to vote NO on the budget. Any support of this budget will be considered a support for bringing in casinos which have specifically been rejected by the majority of Ohio voters.

The final vote on the budget could take place by Monday afternoon.

Find your legislator at http://www.principledpolicy.com/?page_id=4

Please CALL today (leave a voicemail; if voicemail is full – call back in the morning). Emails will not be as effective this time.

Please take the time to read the blog on the “rule of law” at http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.aproundtable.org

Respectfully submitted,
Melanie Elsey