Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

October 1, 2008

During the last week of September, the Federal Reserve disgorged roughly $700 billion into the global financial system. This came before Congress acted on legislation authorizing another $700 billion to buy up bad mortgage securities from banks and other lending institutions.

The measure before Congress was designed to provide Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson with almost unlimited power to rescue banks at his sole discretion. Paulson had already offered an illustration of the way such powers abet official corruption and cronyism.

Among the institutions bailed out by the Fed is the global insurance giant AIG, which received an $80 billion infusion from the Fed. Nearly half of that sum ended up in the coffers of the Goldman Sachs investment bank, which used to be run by Secretary Paulson. The credit line was personally endorsed by Paulson following a meeting with his successor, Goldman CEO Llloyd Blankfein.

Wedding such brazen corruption to unlimited power will quickly destroy our economy.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

September 30, 2008

At first glance, the novelty t-shirt seems to be a calculated insult to the Denver police.

Produced in commemoration of the recent Democratic National Convention in Denver, the shirt depicts a huge, snarling caricature of a club-wielding riot policeman rising ominously above the city skyline. The inscription reads: ?We get up early to BEAT the crowds ? 2008 DNC.?

Had this t-shirt been created and marketed by a group critical of the police, the local police union would publicly condemn it as an unjust smear of the men of the Thin Blue Line. But the police union can?t honestly make that complaint, since the t-shirt is its own creation. The union gave one to every member of the police department, and expects to sell at least 2,000 at ten dollars apiece.

There were incidents of unprovoked police brutality during the DNC. What does it say that the police saw this as a cause for celebration?

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

September 29, 2008

Whichever major party candidate wins the election this November, the First Amendment -- at least, what?s left of it ? will take a beating.

John McCain famously helped write a so-called campaign finance reform measure that radically restricts political speech in the critical period immediate before an election.

During the 2000 presidential campaign, McCain stated: ?If I could think of a way constitutionally, I would ban negative ads.?

For its part, attorneys for the Barrack Obama campaign have threatened the FCC license of television stations running critical ads, and unleashed a so-called ?truth squad? of Democratic officials ? including prosecutors and sheriffs ? to threaten TV stations running negative ads in Missouri.

During the past eight years, the office of the presidency ? which was already engorged with unconstitutional power ? has become a kind of elective dictatorship. Both McCain and Obama have displayed a disposition suitable to dictatorship.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

September 26, 2008

The ongoing collapse of our financial system was triggered by unsustainable levels of debt fueled by the Federal Reserve?s inflation of the money supply. So our rulers decided to repair this debt-burdened system by piling yet more debt on top of it.
This obviously isn?t going to work.

Our situation is incredibly dire, but it is not hopeless. We must compel the government to turn away from the disastrous course it has followed for decades.

Washington spends a trillion dollars a year on maintaining a global empire of military bases and deployments abroad. This must end, immediately.

Hundreds of billions are spent domestically on programs not authorized by the Constitution. This must stop, as well.

The Constitution dictates the use of gold and silver alone as legal tender. We?ve now learned the consequences of abandoning sound money, and why we have to restore our constitutional currency.

This crisis will be painful. But it may provide us with an opportunity to reclaim the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

September 23, 2008

As our nation is enveloped in an unprecedented economic crisis, it is vitally important to understand that we are not seeing the product of unfettered, unregulated capitalism.

This is not a result of the free market run amok; rather, it is the predictable consequence of corporate socialism.

In a genuinely free market, financial institutions would be free to fail. Those of us who had no part in their failure would be free from financial liability. None of this is true in our present system.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the failed mortgage bond giants at the heart of the global credit melt-down, are government-created entities. Prior to being nationalized just weeks ago, Fannie and Freddie benefited from implicit government guarantees and all kinds of special consideration by Congress.

Now Washington is preparing to nationalize the entire financial sector, moving us from corporate socialism ever closer to the classic Marxist variety.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

September 22, 2008

Those who presume to rule us insist that we have no choice but to accept the so-called mortgage bailout measure being finished by Congress.

The advertised price tag of that measure is $700 billion. But it would essentially turn the Secretary of the Treasury into an economic dictator, with unlimited power to spend any sum he desires, to seize financial institutions at whim, and to regiment the financial system as he sees fit.

The most shocking provision, however, is Section 8, which insists that the decisions and actions taken by the Secretary ?are non-reviewable and ? may not be reviewed by any court of law....?

The collapse of the debt bubble will be painful, but unavoidable. However, we can ? and must -- prevent the literal theft of our country and the imposition of an economic dictatorship.

Contact your Congressional representative today and order him to reject this unprecedented power grab.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

September 25, 2008

When an ordinary household cannot pay its debts, the bankruptcy laws dictate a lengthy, complicated, and demanding settlement process. The father and mother will be required to undergo credit counseling. It will take years to repair household credit.

Last week, Washington lavished hundreds of billions of dollars on corrupt, mismanaged financial institutions facing bankruptcy. No stringent requirements were imposed. The executives who had run up unimaginably large debts and driven their companies into ruin were permitted to keep their extravagant, eight-figure bonuses.

An individual or couple who defaults on a $200,000 mortgage can expect to be treated like deadbeats. A financial firm prepared to default on tens of billions of dollars in debt will benefit from federal intervention. And it is the taxpayers who have to bear the expense of bailing out the politically connected super-rich.

This is not free market capitalism. It is corporatism, and it must end if we are to reclaim the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

September 24, 2008

For years, Washington has depended on China?s central bank to prop up the dollar by buying Treasury notes. This is because America?s savings rate has been insufficient to finance government borrowing.

At some point, the Chinese government -- along with other foreign creditors ? will grow weary of accumulating depreciating dollars. They will start selling their Treasury notes, or simply stop buying them. The consequences for the dollar will be devastating.

Last week, the Federal Reserve generated hundreds of billions of dollars out of thin air. Over the weekend, Congress drafted a measure to pay $700 billion to bail out mortgage lenders, and raise the national debt to more than $11 trillion.

The Chinese central bank has also raised interest rates for the first time in six years. And China?s state-controlled media is giving broad hints that Beijing will soon stop subsidizing our government?s debt.

Our economic catastrophe has just begun to unfold.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

September 19, 2008

Shortly before the recent Republican Convention in St. Paul, the Republican Party paid the city a special $10 million insurance fee. This effectively indemnified the city against any lawsuits that could be filed by people abused by police or security personnel during convention week.

The convention itself was designated a ?National Special Security Event? by the Secret Service and Department of Homeland Security. The local police force was militarized and put under federal control. The feds recruited additional police from as far as Milwaukee, as well as hundreds of private security contractors.

As a result, some parts of St. Paul during the Republican convention resembled Baghdad under military occupation. Heavily armed police were deployed in military formations, chanting cadences and treating civilians ? press, protesters, and pedestrians alike ? as an enemy to be subdued.

Nominating conventions are rarely memorable events. The St. Paul Convention should be remembered as the coming-out party for the new Homeland Security State.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

September 18, 2008

A group of 130 college presidents and chancellors has published a statement calling for a reduction in the national drinking age from 21 to 18. They are concerned that the present policy offers an ironic incentive for binge drinking among teenagers newly free from parental supervision.

While not endorsing that conclusion, it should be pointed out that the federal government has no constitutional authority to establish a minimum drinking age.

The National Minimum Drinking Age Act is facially unconstitutional and enforced through bribery and extortion: Highway funds extracted from taxpayers nation-wide are lavished on state governments that comply, and withheld from those who do not.

A good case can be made that no government has the proper authority to regulate what individuals consume. Irresponsible behavior resulting in harm to others should be punished, of course. But teaching sobriety is a job for parents, family, and church, rather than the state.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.