Will Grigg's Liberty Minute

October 24, 2007

In April 2003, State Department official Hillary Mann received a detailed four-page fax from the Iranian government. The document, recounts the current issue of Vanity Fair magazine, contained ?a detailed proposal for peace in the Middle East, approved at the highest levels in Tehran.?

The Iranians offered to recognize Israel, cut off all support for the terrorist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, banish or imprison all international terrorists residing in Iran, and to end its nuclear program. The messaged urged Washington to re-open formal diplomatic channels that have been closed for decades.

The Bush administration refused even to acknowledge the overture from Tehran. Former National Security Council official Flint Leverett protested that the rejection would mean ?an Iran that has nuclear weapons and no dialogue with the United States.?

Our Founders understood that the purpose of diplomacy is to protect our independence and security through means other that war. In contrast, the Bush administration seems to believe that creating pretexts for war is the highest form of diplomacy.

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

Will Grigg's Liberty Minute

Representative Ron Paul of Texas, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, has introduced a bill entitled the ?American Freedom Agenda Act.?

That measure would overturn many of the unconstitutional policies recently enacted by the Bush administration.

The Freedom Agenda Act would repeal the Military Commissions Act of 2006, which destroyed the indispensable habeas corpus guarantee; that's the provision forbidding the imprisonment of individuals without trial. It would also reinstate the ban on torture, abolish warrantless surveillance, and forbid the presidential designation of US citizens as ?enemy combatants? unprotected by Due Process guarantees.

?This legislation seeks to restore the checks and balances enshrined in the Constitution by our Founding Fathers to prevent abuse of Americans by their government,? explains Representative Paul.

Every American who cherishes our Constitution must demand that his Congressman support and co-sponsor the Freedom Agenda Act. Even if it fails to pass, the measure will help us to distinguish those in Congress who respect the Constitution from those who support a presidential dictatorship.

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

Will Grigg's Liberty Minute

October 12, 2007

In 1974, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger worked out an arrangement in which Saudi Arabia, the largest oil producer in the OPEC cartel, would agree to sell its oil exclusively for dollars and purchase US Treasury bonds as a way of propping up the greenback. In exchange, the Saudis would receive military assistance from Washington.

The dollar ? a fiat currency not backed by precious metals ? has remained the world's reserve currency in large measure because of this arrangement. In effect, the dollar has been backed by OPEC oil.

This arrangement may soon unravel. The Saudi Arabian central bank has indicated that it is losing confidence in the dollar. Other energy-rich Gulf states ? such as Kuwait and Qatar ? have quietly started to abandon the dollar as well. Iran, the fourth-largest oil producer, no longer accepts payment in dollars.
Washington has placed our nation's economic future in the hands of foreign powers that do not wish us well.

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

Will Grigg's Liberty Minute

October 11, 2007

Since 1988, the country commonly known as Burma has been ruled by a military dictatorship that has savagely suppressed any organized effort to create a parliamentary form of government.

In early October, the country's Buddhist monks joined in protests calling for political reforms. This prompted a bloody crackdown by the military government. Troops were deployed in the streets; the nation's media links to the outside world were cut; many were killed, and many more were brutally detained.

International condemnation was immediate and impassioned. On behalf of President Bush, White House press secretary Dana Perino lent her voice to the chorus of condemnation, taking special note of
?reports about ... innocent people being thrown into detention, where they could be held for years without any representation or charges....?

Ironically, it was almost exactly a year ago that President Bush signed a measure gutting the habeas corpus guarantee and creating a Burma-style system of indefinite detention without representation or appeal.

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

Will Grigg's Liberty Minute

October 10, 2007

On October 5, Virginia's Fort Hunt hosted a reunion of about two dozen veterans of a top-secret World War II project to interrogate captured Nazi officers.

According to a Washington Post account, ?many of [these] proud men lamented the chasm between the way they conducted interrogations during the war and harsh measures used today in questioning terrorism suspects.?

In fact, many of the means now used ? sensory deprivation, sleep deprivation, and various forms of physical abuse ? were used by the Nazi Gestapo. And the Nazi regime used the same euphemism employed by the Bush administration to describe this officially sanctioned torture -- ?enhanced interrogation techniques.?

Of his methods in dealing with the Nazis, 87-year-old George Frenkel recalled: ?I never laid hands on anyone. We extracted information in a battle of wits. I'm proud to say I never compromised my humanity.?

By institutionalizing torture, the Bush administration has nullified the moral victory won by Frenkel and his colleagues.

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

Will Grigg's Liberty Minute

October 9, 2007

The Sunday Times of London recently reported that the Bush administration is ?paving the way for a smooth transition? to a Democratic administration headed by Hillary Clinton.

If Hillary Clinton is our next president ? and may God spare us such a fate! -- it will mean that either a Bush or a Clinton will control the executive branch for nearly a quarter century.

How can this happen? One answer was offered by Georgetown University historian Carroll Quigley, a mentor of Bill Clinton, in his 1966 book Tragedy and Hope.

"The argument that the two parties should represent opposed ideals and policies, one, perhaps of the Right and the other of the Left, is a foolish idea. Instead, the two parties should be almost identical, so that the American people can ?throw the rascals out? at any election without leading to any profound or extensive shifts in policy."

It's obvious that Quigley's vision of a bipartisan ruling oligarchy has come true.

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

Will Grigg's Liberty Minute

October 8, 2007

For many years, Ronald ?Bo? Ward operated a barber shop in Clarksville, Tennessee. He took a paternal interest in the soldiers at nearby Fort Campbell, often giving them haircuts for free.

Bo incurred debts by expanding his shop. He could get a debt consolidation loan on his home if it was re-zoned as a commercial property. When he put in a request to the City Council in September, Bo explained that if the loan didn't go through, ?I lose my home, I lose my shop, I lose everything I got.?

During an October 4 meeting, the City Council turned down the request. Distraught, Bo declared: ?Y'all have put me under,? then drew a gun and killed himself.

Bo had asked to make more profitable use of his own property, only to learn that, because of the socialist practice of municipal planning and zoning, he didn't really own that property ? including the life ruined by the local zoning bureaucracy.

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

Will Grigg's Liberty Minute

October 5, 2007

A year ago, the State of Michigan enacted a law stipulating that individuals can properly use deadly force to defend themselves or others when confronted by an assailant threatening imminent death, bodily harm, or sexual assault.

The law explicitly states that people in such circumstances have no duty to retreat, and that this right can be exercised ?anywhere [a citizen] has a legal right to be.?

That right exists whether or not it is recognized in positive law, and juries outside of Michigan should protect that right where necessary. Since the Michigan law was enacted, several citizens have repelled armed attacks by carjackers.

Would the Michigan law provide legal protection to a citizen who shoots a law enforcement officer threatening the illegal use of lethal force? If not, it's of very limited use. Cases of that sort are becoming increasingly common, and defense against abusive agents of the State was the chief purpose of the Second Amendment.

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

Will Grigg's Liberty Minute

October 4, 2007

Entering a courthouse in Manhattan last August, Dr. Nick Turse was startled when a security guard told him: ?You could be shot for carrying that in here. You could be shot.?

The ominous item was a digital audio recorder retrieved from Turse's backpack. As the guard observed: ?Some people here don't want to be recorded.?

Turse was arrested during the 2004 Republican National Convention for conducting a silent, peaceful anti-war protest. He sued the City for false arrest, and was visiting the courthouse to discuss a settlement offer.

Insisting on treating him like a criminal, prosecutors produced a thick file of Turse's writings. They assailed him with ?vague threats to tie me down with depositions, tax me with fees, and maybe, somehow, send me to jail...?

Holding his ground in the face of such threats, the activist got the prosecutor to relent. Turse even manged to extract an apology ? although he wasn't able to record it, because his recorder had been confiscated.

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

Will Grigg's Liberty Minute

October 3, 2007

Former Texas prosecutor Robert Guest urges people to stop consenting to police searches of their vehicles. A police officer who asks to search your car, he warns, ?is telling you that he wants to arrest you. He just has not found or planted a reason to arrest you yet.?

This is particularly true of sobriety checkpoints. Remember, Guest warns, that ?police ask you to perform field sobriety tests so they can arrest and convict you, not because they want to help you.?

Ohio resident Jerry Seabrook can attest to the truth of that warning. Last June he was given a ticket ? dismissed after considerable legal expenses -- for driving under the influence despite a Breathalyzer test showing his blood alcohol was well below the legal limit. His mistake was to admit to the officer that he had a couple of drinks several hours earlier.

Our duty to obey the law doesn't require that we trust the police.

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