Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

December 29, 2011

For decades, the Council on Foreign Relations (or CFR) has been the self-appointed custodian of the bipartisan foreign policy ?consensus.? Minuscule in numbers yet immense in influence, the CFR has served as an incubator for multiple disasters that have resulted in war, oppression, and misery for millions of people worldwide ? and an institutional architect of America?s decline.

Seeking to keep that record intact, the CFR has offered an unambiguous endorsement of aggressive war against Iran.

?The truth is that a military strike intended to destroy Iran?s nuclear program, if managed carefully, could spare the region and the world a very real threat and dramatically improve the long-term national security of the United States,? declares the January/February issue of the CFR?s flagship journal Foreign Affairs in a piece bearing the title ?Time to Attack Iran.? The CFR insists that a bombing raid can be carried out with surgical precision and lightning efficiency, decapitating a potential nuclear threat with few significant after-effects.

As Washington and Tel Aviv openly discuss scenarios for bombing Iran, the Iranian military is preparing contingency plans to shut down oil shipments through the Straits of Hormuz. This will not end well ? and given the track record of the CFR?s policy initiatives, why should we expect it to?

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

December 28, 2011

An Englishman, a Frenchman, and a native of Soviet Russia were condemned to death and granted one last wish. The Englishman requested a pipe; the Frenchman, a bottle of wine. The Russian told his captor: ?I want my neighbor Ivan?s horse to die.?

Mark Grapin, who lives in Virginia?s Fairfax County, has a neighbor like that. When the Army specialist returned from Iraq a couple of years ago, he built a sturdy and elaborate tree house for his two young sons as a gift before being deployed again. Grapin consulted the local building code office and was told that he didn?t need a permit. However, a single anonymous complaint to the County Planning and Zoning Commission resulted in an order to tear down the tree house.

Grapin filed an appeal with the local planning soviet, and then took his case to the media. After an eight-month struggle that cost a considerable amount of money, Grapin was able to extract permission to maintain the tree house ? which is on his own property ? for five years.

Many terms are suitable to describe a society in which property rights are nullified on the basis of a single anonymous complaint. The word ?free? isn?t on that list.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

December 27, 2011

The National Defense Authorization Act includes a provision mandating the military arrest and indefinite detention of anyone, including U.S. citizens, who is designated a terrorist suspect or enemy combatant. That measure also permits the rendition of detainees ? including, once again, American citizens ? to foreign countries for interrogation and torture.

Investigative reporter Alexander Cockburn [pronounced ?CO-burn?] points out that a lawsuit making its way through the courts may result in an expansive new grant of immunity to civilian prison guards, including contractors employed by privately owned prisons. The plaintiffs are 72 Iraqis had been illegally held and tortured at Abu Ghraib prison. The abuses inflicted on them included rape, being forced to watch others ? including relatives ? being raped, beatings, mock executions, and other forms of torture. Much of this was done by private contractors employed by the U.S. military and the CIA. None of the victims was ever charged with a crime.

The corporate defendants have claimed absolute immunity under the doctrine of ?military preemption,? despite the fact that the personnel were private contractors, rather than soldiers. Because the victims were designated ?enemy aliens,? from this perspective, all of their rights are subject to ?military pre-emption.?

The same may soon be true of American citizens considered potential troublemakers under the new military regime.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

December 26, 2011

Newt Gingrich has said that if elected president, he would order the arrest of federal judges who refuse to appear before Congress to explain rulings he considers objectionable. A despicable bully named Kenneth Post, who afflicts Michigan?s Ottawa County as a district judge, appears perversely determined to make a case for Gingrich?s bad idea.

On December 2, Post jailed attorney Scott G. Millard for the supposed offense of advising his client, a 20-year-old facing a charge of minor in possession of alcohol, not to answer self-incriminating questions. Post ? who doesn?t deserve the respected title of ?judge? ? interrupted Millard no fewer than a dozen times. His manner was alternately abrasive and dismissive; he was insulting, sarcastic, patronizing, and openly contemptuous of the Constitution.

Millard?s composure never faltered in the face of the abuse. He displayed respect that Post did not deserve or reciprocate. Post ordered a Bailiff to take Millard to jail, then had the officer bring the attorney back to the courtroom so he could have an opportunity to grovel. To his credit, Millard said he would represent his clients ?according to the law.? It was for this supposed offense that the attorney was sent to jail.

If rouge judges are going to be arrested, we should start with Kenneth Post.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

December 23, 2011

Cleveland resident Joyce Christie was understandably concerned when her 62-year-old husband, Nick, who suffered from emotional problems, suddenly took off to visit his brother in Ft. Myers, Florida. Nick had recently been prescribed Lexapro, a potent anti-depressant, and when he arrived at his brother?s house his behavior became dangerously erratic.

Joyce called the Lee County Sheriff?s Department to ask them to find Nick and get him the help he needed. Deputies soon arrested the retired boilermaker on trespassing charges. While in the County Jail over the next 43 hours, Nick was repeatedly shackled in a restraint chair, hooded, and attacked with military-grade pepper spray. The chemical assault was so intense that it left other inmates gagging on the fumes. Nick, who suffered from respiratory and heart disease, pleaded with deputies to remove the spit mask because he couldn?t breathe. One inmate described how Nick turned ?purple and almost blue? as he suffocated.

When medical personnel arrived to check on Nick, they were overwhelmed by the pepper spray residue. The victim died of heart failure two days after his arrest. The death was ruled a homicide ? but the State Attorney?s office insists that there is no evidence of criminal wrongdoing on the part of the deputies who tortured Nick Christie to death.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

December 22, 2011

Last November Lt. Frank Gordo, a "resource officer" employed by California's Stockton Unified School District, arrested a five-year-old child named Michael Davis, who had been summoned to the principal's office. Gordo was supposed to intimidate the child into behaving himself. After Gordo laid hands on Michael, the youngster batted the officer?s hands away and reportedly kicked him in the shin ? which is entirely appropriate behavior for a child being pawed by an armed and threatening stranger.

Instead of behaving like an adult and de-escalating the situation, Gordo hog-tied the child by zip-tying his hands and feet, and hauled him away.

Michael?s mother Thelma Gray, a special ed teacher in the district, is preparing to file a lawsuit against the officials responsible for this outrage. Lt. Gordo, most likely on the advice from his union, has made a preemptive strike.

Last week the Stockton Unified School District informed Gray that it had "received a written complaint against you alleging unlawful discrimination. The complaint was filed by District employee Frank Gordo" ? whose tender feelings were injured by the public criticism he received for attacking and kidnapping Gray's five-year-old son at gunpoint.

Such is the heroic stuff of which police officers are made.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

December 20, 2011

According to Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, although the war in Iraq never received the unqualified support of the American public, ?We all recognize the tremendous price that has been paid in lives, in blood?. I think the price has been worth it, to establish a stable government in a very important region of the world.?

Panetta?s assessment, and his choice of words, is strongly reminiscent of comments made in 1996 by then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright during a 60 Minutes interview with CBS correspondent Leslie Stahl. Describing the impact of the 1991 war on Iraq, and the subsequent sanctions applied to that country, Stahl asked: ?We have heard that a half million children have died. I mean, that's more children than died in Hiroshima?. [I]is the price worth it??

Albright replied:  ?I think this is a very hard choice, but the price--we think the price is worth it.?

Since 1991, millions of Iraqis have been killed. Millions more were driven into exile. More than a trillion dollars have been spent. Thousands of American lives have been lost. All of this is a bargain to the people who swaddle their megalomaniacal designs in the language of humanitarianism.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

December 16, 2011

Detroit resident Maryanne Godboldo, whose handicapped teenage daughter was seized from her home at gunpoint by child ?protection? bureaucrats last March, keeps winning in court ? but the vindictive bureaucracy won?t leave her alone.

The Detroit News reports:

?Two judges in different Wayne County courtrooms sided ? with a mother who resisted police forcing their way into her home last March to take her teenage daughter during a dispute with a Child Protective Services worker over medications.

A Family Court judge [on December 13] ? dismissed jurisdiction that had for nine months come between now 14-year-old Arianna Godboldo and her family.

Earlier Monday, a Wayne County Circuit judge refused to reinstate criminal charges ? that alleged the mother ? illegally resisted and assaulted police by allegedly firing a shot at them.?

In August, Detroit District Court Judge Ronald Giles acknowledged that Godboldo was morally and legally entitled to use deadly force in an attempt to prevent the illegal abduction of Arianna.

Undeterred, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy is preparing another appeal, and Assistant Michigan Attorney General Deborah Carley is continuing efforts to remove Godboldo?s daughter.

The child-snatchers apparently won?t relent until they find some way to destroy Godboldo?s family.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

December 12, 2011

Two years ago, John Bujak, at the time chief prosecutor for Idaho?s Canyon County, ?instructed? police to ?target? people who are observed texting while driving, despite the fact that the state legislature had voted down a measure banning that behavior. A year later, despite the fact that the state legislature had not yet enacted the necessary legislation Bujak declared that he would prosecute juveniles found in possession of a product commonly called ?Spice? ? a form of incense sometimes called synthetic marijuana.

Referring to Bujak?s actions in September 2010, this commentator pointed out that the Idaho State Code makes a criminal of any public officer who ?arrests any person or detains him against his will? without lawful authority.  I also noted that John Bujak, under the terms of a bizarre service contract, profited from misdemeanor prosecutions and should be removed for official corruption.

As it happens, Bujak resigned a couple of weeks later. On December 13 of this year, Bujak was arrested and charged with embezzling more than $236,000 from canyon County through that corrupt contract.

Bujak?s zealousness to imprison others was just one facet of his contempt for the law. This made him a perfectly suitable specimen of the prosecutorial profession.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

December 14, 2011

Sheriff Dwayne Price of Kentucky?s Johnson County recently made an interesting recruiting pitch. In an interview broadcast on a local news program, Sheriff Price offered to pay $100 to any local citizen willing either to buy drugs, or to sell them to their friends, neighbors, and interested strangers.

?Basically, what we need from the public to help combat [drug dealing] is we need some informants,? the Sheriff explained. ?Without community involvement, there is no way we can combat these drugs. We have to have community involvement.?

In addition to offering cash rewards for tips that lead to drug arrests, Price is looking to recruit undercover operatives, who will join a huge and ever-growing pool of paid government snitches.

Drug use is evil and self-destructive. A society honeycombed by government informants is much worse. An increasing reliance on state informants is a reliable symptom of tyranny. Imperial Rome, like imperial America, was lousy with informants who collaborated with corrupt, malicious prosecutors. Informants also played an indispensable role in modern totalitarian states.

The Declaration of Independence explicitly recognizes that governments destructive to individual liberty should be altered or abolished outright. Any government that pays its subjects to inform on each other certainly meets that description.

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