The Liberty Lamp: Libertarian News & Editorials

The Liberty Dollar Newsletter has another installment of the issues arising from the pissed off US Treasury Department. Not only have they made these deceptive and inaccurate claims about the ALD, but now, magically, NORFED's bank is trying to bail out on their very responsible client, claiming that it is "too much of a risk". Below is the latest commentary from Bernard, plus what you can do about it.

Liberty Dollar Faces Extinction

The Liberty Dollar is now under attack from…our bank. On Monday, November 20, the Evansville office received a certified letter from our bank, Old National Bank, which said: “Please be advised that if you do not close the Account within 15 days of the date of this letter (11.16.06), Old National Bank will exercise its right to close the Account.”

Had we bounced checks? Nope, not a one. Were we a difficult customer? Definitely not. Had we done anything to warrant the bank to close our account? No, but obviously something upset the banking powers to be. The VP for Bank Security, who ordered the letter, told us that they had investigated our business and said that the “nature of our business” was too risky for them. Of course the bank’s action is clearly the result of someone calling the bank and telling them to close our account. Probably the same person who told the US Mint to issue their warning. The same person who told CBS Lies (not worthy of “News”) to do their dirty work. The same person who urged the Washington Post to write their propaganda to kill the Liberty Dollar idea. The same morally corrupt person who might even be reading this Newsletter.

The Liberty Dollar is clearly under siege. Quite simply, without a bank account and merchant card services, it is all but impossible to do business in this day and age. We face the real possibility that the Liberty Dollar could die... and put all the ideals it stands for at risk! A very sobering thought I dare say.

Does this alarm you? I hope! It should alarm you that the government can single out a business without any past criminal history, indictment, or even criminal intent and instruct its bank to close its account! As you can note in Article #3 below, the US Mint does acknowledge that the gold and silver paper certificates are 100% legal. So if one form of the Liberty Dollar currency is legal, what’s wrong with the gold and silver that backs it up? I hope this latest bank development signals you that we need to find a much broader base of support for the Liberty Dollar. It should alarm you enough to take action. I am urging you to contact your newspaper, the organizations you respect, publications you subscribe to, and any public forums to investigate and report on the Liberty Dollar. We need to develop more awareness about the Liberty Dollar, and we need to do it very quickly. Up to this point the silence from our side regarding the government’s attack on the Liberty Dollar has been deafening. That needs to be corrected.

The Libertarian Party, as everyone knows, has not done as well as we may have hoped. There are a number of reasons for it, and as most of this readership is already familiar, I won't go into the details. It's old hat. What is new, however, is Mainstreamlibertarian.com. Though this is a completely "neolibertarian" project, that may not embody all of the principle that the Libertarian Action Network demands, it is a very informative resource for learning about the successed and failures of important LP and RLC candidates and campaigns. Be sure to bookmark this resource. It is seeminly in early development, but it looks good so far, and can only imporove with time.

The friendly folks at the We The People Foundation have had a 100-man V costume protest on Washington, DC as promised. Here's an excerpt:

Knowledge About Our Cause Is Spreading

It is too soon to know the full extent of the public’s information and awareness about the DC event. Here is what we know so far.

We received an email from a reporter who works for Brazil’s newspaper website http://www.estadao.com.br.
He is writing an article and wanted us to answer a few of his questions.

We received an email from the Director of the movie, “V for Vendetta.” He was aware of our events and said he wanted to send a few words of encouragement and was happy that “V” had made it into the popular vernacular. He closed with the words, “Fight The Power.”

An article will appear in Monday’s issue of “TaxNotes,” which is America’s leading tax news and research magazine.

We received word from a man who stated that while he was passing through an airport Tuesday, he saw television images on CNN of the “Vs” across from the White House.

If anyone learns of additional media coverage, please let us know.

Coming: 1,000 “Vs” in DC

Plans are now underway for a GiveMeLiberty 2007 Conference. Most likely it will take place in DC on a Thursday, Friday and Saturday. On one of those days we hope to assemble 1,000 “V” demonstrators on the street in support of our Right to Petition the Government for Redress of constitutional torts, including our Right to a Response and our Right of Enforcement if Government does not respond to our proper, constitutionally based Petitions for Redress.

Next time, one thousand. Perhaps one of LAN's contingents will show up.

On Monday, November 6, 2006, “V” visited security check points at the White House, the main Treasury, IRS and Justice Department Buildings and the Capitol. “V’s” purpose was to deliver the People’s Petitions for Redress of Grievances relating to the Government’s violations of the war powers, tax, privacy and money clauses of the Constitution, and to inform key Government officials that at least 100 more “Vs” would be at their doorstep on November 14th expecting a response to the Petitions.

At the White House about a dozen Secret Service agents appeared on foot, bicycles and car to meet “V.” While virtuously assuring the security of the state, they were curious about the image of “V” and asked many questions. Most, when asked if they had seen the movie “V for Vendetta”, smiled their approval.

When an agent asked if “V” would remove his mask for identification purposes, “V” explained that would defeat the very purpose of the mask, which was to give expression to the fact that the nation was becoming a police state, that too many people were becoming afraid to be identified as dissenters or protestors, and that this was not in the long term interest of a free people. The agents accepted the veracity of “V’s” message and refrained from veering “V” from his vanguard visit as the vox populi.

This event will be followed by another demonstration with about 100 people, and if that does not provide the American people with the answers to the legality of recent wars, the income tax, etc, an even larger one may take shape. Viva la Verdad!

GET UP, STAND UP!

D o w n s i z e r - D i s p a t c h

In today's message, we have an action item from our partners at Free Talk Live; a growing nationally-syndicated radio show that runs Downsize DC ads and brings me on their show once per month.

But first, we want to use this Friday message to squeeze in some important items.

To start with, Congress is expected back Tuesday for a "lame-duck session." With the change in the parties in power, we at DownsizeDC.org believe the public faces tremendous danger from this lame-duck session.

The Congress must pass 10 appropriations bills.

The Republicans have one last chance to do things only majorities can do.

Democrats are looking past this session with only concerns about setting up their first 100 days will go. They want nothing to happen that will damage those honeymoon days.

This is a recipe for trouble.

The real concern is that we may not get "clean bills." These bills may turn into Christmas trees, with gifts all over and around the tree for various interests.

One particular area concerns us -- NSA warrantless surveillance both domestically and on Americans overseas. Hopefully you remember that we were successful in our pre-election objective in delaying this vote until after the election. Now, our new objective is to stop it from coming to a vote until after the new Congress is seated. If we can do this, we have probably defeated the bill.

If Congress just can't seem to pass the Specter-Cheney compromise on warrantless surveillance, then one part of that bill may be stripped out and secretly inserted in one of these appropriation bills. The part in question is an immunity provision sought by the telecom industry for everyone, both private sector and government employees, who may have provided private information without the proper warrants or national security letters.

As it stands now, it is likely that there are people who have violated the law. The President has all but admitted this. The extent of these violations is unknown, but the American people have a right to know. If retroactive immunity is provided, we the people may lose all leverage to encourage testimony that sheds light on what happened. In fact, we might not find out what happened for decades.

We need clean bills right now. Long term, we need the Read the Bills Act.

This is going to be a tough nine days before Thanksgiving. We need all hands on deck. We need you. Please be ready to gear-up and fight on Monday.

Our second point today... you may have noticed of late that we haven't sent as many messages as we usually do. I have been traveling and have just returned. There are lots of interesting things happening behind the scenes.

I can't get into details just yet because I don't know what will become of this, but during my trip I was engaged in discussions with two different entities about outside projects -- side work for me. What's important about both of these projects to DC Downsizers is that should these things come to pass, they will open up brand new doors of outreach for Downsize DC. One of these opportunities, in particular, could be a big deal for Downsize DC. But I am excited and hopeful about both, and we will keep you posted.

Below my signature is a message from Ian Bernard of Free Talk Live. I encourage you to read his message closely and take action today.

Thank you for being a DC Downsizer,

Jim Babka
President
Downsize DC Foundation
& DownsizeDC.org, Inc.

*****

If Ron Helwig can join the revolution, then so can you. All you have to do is believe, as Helwig does, that the government has gone way too far in regulating your personal life, taxing your income and invading your privacy. And, of course, you have to move to New Hampshire.

That's exactly what the affable computer programmer from Minnesota did this year. He's a new member of the Free State Project, a group of like-minded libertarians from around the U.S. whose goal is to come together in the tiny New England state in sufficient numbers to create a libertarian showroom for the rest of the country.

The Free State idea was the brainchild five years ago of Jason Sorens, then a grad student in political science at Yale. Card-carrying libertarians make up just under 1% of voters around the country, a number that has made them achingly irrelevant in national politics. Sorens argued in online forums and later at political events that if 20,000 libertarians would move to the same small state, they would no longer be in the electoral wilderness. They could finally make a difference and show the rest of America what real liberty looks like--the kind where you don't have to wear seat belts or register your guns and nobody passes laws about what the neighbors can do in their bedroom.