Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

May 30, 2011

How fortunate we are as Americans not to live in a country in which silent dancing at a public shrine can be treated as a form of criminal blasphemy. In despotisms like Iran and Saudi Arabia we can expect to see heavily armed police body-slamming, choking, and otherwise brutalizing peaceful protesters whose only purported crime is to be seen in public silently swaying to music only they can hear.

Surely, this kind of thing could only happen in a benighted realm ruled by Sharia law ? a medieval theocracy governed by withered little tyrants perversely determined to wring the joy out of life, and make lesser people submit to their holy will.

Wait a second ? what I just described didn?t happen in Tehran or Riyadh, or the capital city of any other Islamic country. It happened last Saturday at the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C. After a federal court upheld a Park Service ban on dancing at the memorial, a flash mob gathered to stage a silent dance protest.
The crackdown by the Park Police displayed the propensity for overkill for which the Regime ruling us has become notorious.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

May 27, 2011

Like every other commandment, the directive ?Thou Shalt Not Steal? applies unconditionally to everybody ? including those who presume to exercise political power.

Stealing occurs every time the government takes money illegally ? and this includes all foreign aid, which is not authorized by the Constitution. Yet some supporters of Israel act as if the Eighth Commandment simply doesn?t apply to money stolen from Americans and given illegally to the government of that country.

In a recent television interview, Florida Republican Congressman Dan Webster declared, ?I love giving money to Israel?. Do I like foreign aid? Sometimes, but not every time? [E]very place I go, they bring up the issue [of] foreign aid?. [Y]ou can?t get rid of all foreign aid. Why? Because [you can?t] take away the money from Israel? That?s something we can?t do.?

Webster ? who campaigned as a strict constitutionalist and champion of austerity -- is free to donate his own money to that country and encourage others to do likewise. Using government power to do so, however, is a violation of his constitutional oath and of a commandment issued by the Creator whose Name Webster invoked in swearing that oath.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

May 26, 2011

After Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu?s address to a joint session of Congress, several conservative media commentators complained that Vice President Biden didn?t applaud with the same vigor displayed by most in attendance.

No, seriously. This was treated as a controversy by many of the Obama administration?s right-leaning critics.

This brings to mind the fact that the Soviet Politburo was required to render at least ten minutes of applause at the end of each speech by Stalin in order to display their devotion to the Dear Leader. Being the first to stop applauding could result in a quick one-way trip to the basement dungeon at the KGB?s Lubyanka Square headquarters.

Such dictated devotion to any ruler is deadly. In this case at least some elements of the American Right are promoting a leader cult involving a foreign head of government. It wouldn?t be surprising to see some conservatives displaying bumper stickers reading: ?Benjamin Netanyahu is MY President.? There is already a bumper sticker declaring that ?Real Americans defend Israel.?

Real Americans defend the Constitution ? not any regime, or any ruler ? whether foreign or domestic.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

May 25, 2011

Despite ? or perhaps because of ? the fact that Herman Cain, former CEO of the Godfather?s Pizza chain, has never held elective office, his presidential bid has been embraced by a large segment of the Tea Party movement.

Cain?s business experience is his most appealing asset. His chief liability is his background as a banking official: During the 1990s, he was Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. The most well-informed Tea Party activists understand that the Federal Reserve ? the official counterfeiting arm of the Regime ? is pure, unfiltered evil.

In an interview with radio personality Glenn Beck, Cain said he was ?proud of the work? he did with the Fed under Alan Greenspan, insisting that during that period the ?Federal Reserve didn?t do any of the stuff that this Federal Reserve is doing.? [W]e didn?t have this $14 trillion debt to deal with??

In fact, Greenspan was the chief architect of the disastrous inflationary bubble that burst in 2007, setting the stage for the Fed?s current hyperinflationary policies. Current Fed Commissar Ben Bernanke is simply carrying on the legacy of his predecessor ? Herman Cain?s former boss, Alan Greenspan.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

May 24, 2011

In generations past, a father who sent his teenage girl to the prom may have been worried that her date would take advantage of her on the way home. Today, parents should be more concerned about the prospect of their daughters being molested by adult strangers on the way to the dance.

Two prom-bound sisters from Santa Fe, New Mexico were groped by school security officers outside the ballroom. After they filed a lawsuit, a federal judge issued an injunction requiring that a ?certified TSA screener? supervise hands-on searches of students attending the prom at a separate Santa Fe High School. The Transportation Security Administration, which presides over the ritual humiliation of innocent passengers at airports, is notorious for hiring and retaining people of dubious character, including sex offenders.

As it turned out, the students had to settle for being molested under the supervision of officers from the State Highway Patrol.

Annette Fuentes, author of a new book entitled Lockdown High, points out that government schools ?have come to resemble places of detention more than places of learning.? How can any rational person dispute that assessment?

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

May 23, 2011

The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution specifies that to be valid, a search warrant must offer a specific description of ?the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.? This provision was inspired by the widespread use of so-called ?Writs of Assistance? by British occupation forces ? open-ended warrants permitting searches of any premises the soldiers wanted to invade.

Jose Guerena, the 26-year-old Iraq war veteran gunned down in his own home by a Tucson SWAT team on May 5, was not a criminal suspect. According to police union attorney Michael Storie, the search warrant issued for the raid ?was not directed at any particular person, and Guerena?s home was not mentioned, but it was targeting whoever might be inside the residence??

This means that the search warrant was not constitutionally valid ? and the SWAT raid was legally indistinguishable from a home invasion robbery carried out by any other armed gang.

The death of Jose Guerena is one of many similar tragedies that have accumulated in recent years. But the murder of a Marine veteran in his own home may generate justified outrage and help reverse the militarization of the police.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

May 20, 2011

In January 1986, a 9-year-old girl in Detroit was raped in her bed. Prompted by her mother, the child identified a man named Karl Vinson as the predator.

Vinson, in the company of his wife, had babysat the girl a few years earlier. After their marriage fell apart, Vinson?s alienated wife suggested to the victim?s mother that her soon-to-be ex-husband should be considered as a suspect.

Solely on the basis of the victim?s dubious testimony, Vinson was convicted and sentenced to 10-50 years in prison.

Two years ago, genetic testing determined conclusively that the DNA residue on the victim?s sheets could not have been left by Vinson. That means his innocence is a scientifically established fact. Yet ? the Wayne County DA insists that ?Science does not trump the testimony of individuals. Circuit Judge Vera Massey Jones, who sentenced Vinson, actually improvised a new theory of the case to justify refusing the innocent man a new trial.

Thanks to the Supreme Court, corrupt prosecutors enjoy blanket civil immunity when they knowingly imprison innocent people. There are many words that could accurately describe this system, but ?justice? isn?t on that list.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

May 19, 2011

A recent state Supreme Court decision in Indiana disposed of constitutional and statutory protections running back to the Magna Carta by holding that citizens have no right to resist unlawful invasions of their home and property by police. On the same day, the U.S. Supreme Court announced that police now have permission to invade homes without warrants if they claim that doing so is necessary in order to prevent destruction of evidence.

?Sneak and peek? raids by police ? searches conducted without the knowledge or consent of the targeted citizen ? are becoming commonplace.

Barack Obama has embraced and expanded his predecessor?s claim that the president has the authority to order the summary execution of a U.S. citizen designated an ?unlawful enemy combatant.? He has also involved the U.S. government in an open-ended, aggressive war in Libya without so much as involving Congress in that decision ? let alone obtaining the constitutionally mandatory declaration of war.

For years, Americans have lived under a system of soft totalitarianism. That despotism is beginning to harden as the government presuming to rule us overtly repudiates the few remaining restraints on its power.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

May 18, 2011

Since Congress passed the UN Participation Act in December 1945, the U.S. Government has effectively operated under a standing declaration of war. Every president since Harry Truman has claimed the supposed authority to employ military force anywhere in the world in order to carry out our purported international obligations.

Occasionally, Congress has pretended to exercise its vestigial constitutional authority by ratifying presidential decisions to go to war. This isn?t a legitimate exercise, of course, but as the Obama administration recently noted ? in defending its unconstitutional war in Libya ? Congressional abdication of its war-making role has effectively ratified the transfer of that power to the executive branch.

Well, why not make it official? This appears to be the intent behind section 1034 of the current National Defense Authorization Act. This provision is described by critics as ?a large-scale and practically irrevocable delegation of war power from the Congress to the President? that would be used to wage perpetual war everywhere on the face of the earth.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

May 17, 2011

Narcotics officers in Lexington, Kentucky set up a ?controlled buy? of crack cocaine in an impoverished neighborhood. Uniformed police pursuing the suspect went to the wrong door.

After detecting the aroma of marijuana from the apartment, the officers demanded entry. Hearing sounds from inside, the officers kicked in the door, eventually finding a small amount of narcotics.
The Kentucky Supreme Court ruled that the officers didn?t have probable cause to justify a warrantless search. In a decision announced May 16, the U.S. Supreme Court , overturned that ruling upholding the actions of the police.

?How `secure? do our homes remain if police, armed with no warrant, can pound on doors at will and, on hearing sounds indicative of things moving, forcibly enter and search for evidence of unlawful activity?? replied Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in her dissenting opinion. ?The court today arms the police with a way routinely to dishonor the Fourth Amendment?s warrant requirement in drug cases.

In lieu of presenting their evidence to a neutral magistrate, police officers may now knock, listen, then break the door down, never mind that they had ample time to obtain a warrant.?

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